I am so excited that TO DREAM IS TO DIE by Sarah Lampkin is available now and that I get
to share the news!
If you haven’t yet heard about this wonderful book by
Author Sarah Lampkin, be sure to check out all the details below.
This blitz also includes a giveaway for a $10 Amazon
Gift Card, Book Charm Necklace, Hoodie & signed paperback, US Only,
courtesy of Sarah and Rockstar Book Tours. So if you’d like a chance to win,
enter in the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post.
Author: Sarah Lampkin
Pub. Date: January 8, 2019
Publisher: The Parliament House
Formats: Paperback, eBook
Pages: 296
Eighteen-year-old Brenna Whit is
entering college as a freshman and starting to meet new people, but she hides a
dark secret. Because of an accident that happened three years ago, her spirit
wanders the Fade whenever she falls asleep. It's something she wants to keep
hidden from the world, but when she sees someone watching her in spirit form,
she fears the secret's out. With new friends, possibly new enemies, school, and
a new crush, Brenna has too much to worry about for just her freshman year of
college.
Excerpt:
PART
1
FIRST
SEMESTER
1
THE ACCIDENT HAPPENED three
years ago and afterwards… life was never the same. In school I had been a
social butterfly; now I was a social outcast. A few people still made an effort
to talk to me, but most stayed away. They knew better; they knew something had
changed the day I died. Everyone could feel it—and it frightened them. I
couldn’t blame them. It scared me too.
The day I died was the day I
stopped dreaming. Everything seemed to bother me before: social dramas, dating,
my sister stealing my books, but it didn’t matter as much anymore. The day I
died was the day I started to live with the dead.
I like to think I was a
modern-day zombie with some vampire qualities. During the day, I was your
typical human girl: average height, average looks, chestnut hair, and brown
eyes. The girl next door on every street. Average, yet seeping with sarcasm. A
personality trait my mother did not enjoy. Then at night, I would sleep and
wake to find myself somewhere else—on the spiritual plane, or the Fade,
whatever it was called – walking amongst the dead. And just like the living,
the spirits ignored me as well. An oddity to be feared and pushed aside on any
plane of existence. I guess people are all the same, no matter what plane of
existence, no matter the time, and no matter the day.
And today was the “first day
of the rest of my life,” the day I move into college. Yes, I sensed the irony.
It might have even been the fresh start I was hoping for, as long as my sarcasm
didn’t rear its ugly head. Chances were slim. If I were lucky, my roommate wouldn’t
be crazy, or notice just how nuts I was.
“Brenna, give me a couple
more boxes,” my dad grunted, swiping a hand through his short graying hair.
“Why does this building have to have so many damn stairs?”
“It’s not like I chose to
live on the fourth floor of the dorm—and we could have taken the elevator, you
know…” I blew my shaggy side-swept bangs out of my eyes as I hoisted a heavy
box onto my shoulder; I should have taken mom up on that haircut….
“And wait for 30 minutes
each trip? No thank you. Your mother is going to be enough of a basket case as
it is. Helen! The door, please?” he yelled.
My mom quickly opened the
door revealing a room—my room—already crammed with junk. Luckily for us, my
roommate hadn’t arrived yet, so stuffing the room with boxes wasn’t that big of
a deal. Since that was the last of everything in the car, I began the long
process of unpacking and staked out the bed on the right-hand side of the room.
First come, first serve, right?
A little over an hour later
– with my parents’ help – all of my clothes were put away and my TV was hooked
up. When Dad let out a telltale sigh, I knew he was ready to leave.
“Mom, you and dad head on
home, I can finish all of this.” I told them.
A flicker of worry crossed
her face. “It’s your first time living away from home. Are you sure you’re
going to be all right?”
“I’ll be fine, Mom, besides,
you’re only two hours away,” I reassured her.
Dad came up beside her and
nodded. “She’ll do great. I’m sure Nephesburg College will suit her just fine.
It’s a small school —what could happen in this sleepy little town?”
“Famous last words, hon.”
Mom flashed me a smile and rolled her eyes in an attempt to hide the emotions
so plainly written across her face.
Dad shook his head and
pulled out a small wad of bills. “Just so you’ll have some spare cash—don’t
spend it all on booze.”
I rolled my eyes and opened
my mouth to remind Dad that he knew me better than that, but before I could, a
short and very tan girl walked in.
“Are you Brenna?” She asked
as she pulled her sunglasses off.
“Yeah, I guess you’re
Erica?” I understood right away we wouldn’t be spending that much time
together. She was dressed in what one might call conspicuously top label
clothing and had that “California air” about her. The black, tightly curled
hair and spray-tanned skin sealed the deal. She smacked her glossy pink lips
together and surveyed the room with excitement in her baby blue eyes.
“Oh my God, how exciting is
this? I’ve finally met my roommate and I finally get to move out of my house!
Yes! Yes, I am Erica Belmont!” She bounced up and down at the end of her
proclamation. My dad’s eyebrows climbed further into his hairline than I
thought was possible.
As if on cue, a tall blonde
woman walked in behind her. “Erica, you are far too loud. I could hear you all
the way down the hall.” Erica just rolled her eyes and bounced out of the room.
While my mother chatted with the woman—who introduced herself as Erica’s
mother—my dad and I exchanged looks. His eyes, wide with exasperation, spoke
more volumes than the textbooks piled up beside the bed. This year was going to
be interesting.
After a few minutes of
eavesdropping on their conversation, I learned that Erica was, unsurprisingly,
easily excitable and, as I had already guessed, originally from California.
She’d already met a lot of people on campus and knew where to go to hang out
with some other kids, which excited my mom. I knew she wanted me to meet new
people so that college wouldn’t be a high school repeat. Chances were low.
Suddenly everyone was gone,
leaving us—the two new college students—alone to get to know each other. It
seemed as though Erica wanted me to know everything about her, and not the
other way around. I just pretended to listen while I finished unpacking. I was
pretty sure I saw her breathe only six times during her entire thirty-minute
information regurgitation. I learned that when her dad and grandfather died years
ago in an accident, she and her mother inherited a ton of money that allowed
them to move to a larger home in California and live what Erica called a
comfortable life, which probably involved Ferraris and trips to Europe every
once in a while. Big surprise there. Apparently, she wanted freedom from all of
that – her mom always caught her when she snuck out to the clubs back home –
and here in Virginia is where she thought she could find that. She went out to
clubs all the time, but she wanted to party without having to worry about
getting caught. At least she had her priorities straight. I think I heard
Patrick Henry rolling in his grave.
While Erica had barely made
a dent in her unpacking, I had gotten everything out and completely set up. My
bed was made, clothes put away, desk set up, and the TV was all ready for
watching with my PlayStation 3 attached. I turned the TV on low as to not seem
rude to Erica, but I was tired of her chattering. I considered the possibility
that she was actually a robot, programmed to keep talking until the nearest
person smashed her to bits with a baseball bat. Testing my theory seemed a
service to both science and mankind as a whole. But that was my cynicism
talking.
“Brenna! Did you hear me? I
asked if you could help me and unpack a little bit!” Erica yelled, interrupting
my thoughts of a Nobel Prize, finally aware that I was ignoring her by now.
Damn, and I was doing so well.
“Yeah, sure.”
“Thanks. Anyway, where are
you from? Is your family rich? I saw your dad hand you some money.” She asked
while carefully reapplying her lip-gloss. In a swift motion, I used the
scissors to rip the packing tape on the box closest to me.
“I’m from Richmond—it’s
about two hours away. We aren’t rich, but we are well off, I guess. I mean, I
haven’t heard anything about money problems...” Glancing into the box revealed
too many thongs in colors that should not have existed in the visible spectrum.
I quickly shoved the box in Erica’s direction.
She looked genuinely
disappointed. “Oh, well that’s cool, I guess.” She didn’t seem to know what
else to say, which was fine with me. Sadly, the blessed silence didn’t last
long. A calamitous assault at the door was followed by a frenzy of loud and
energetic girls filling the room.
“Erica!”
“How was the trip?”
A bleach blonde girl with a
nose stud squealed as she gave Erica a hug. “Want to go to dinner in the dining
hall? It’ll be our first college meal!”
Erica didn’t hesitate to
accept. “I’ll go with you guys, sure! It was a boring flight! My God, I didn’t
even get a window seat. I’m so glad I’m finally here.” As she was rushing out
she stopped and looked back at me. “Brenna, did you want to come?”
Although the idea of being
social was probably a good one, I knew being social with them would only bring
out my sarcastic bitchiness. I was pretty sure that wasn’t the best way to get
to know my roommate. “No, I need to finish some things up here. Thanks though.”
I really had nothing to do,
and Erica knew that well. Her blue eyes hardened a touch as she closed the door
behind her. Finally, the room was quiet and I was alone.
I surfed through the local
channels before finally giving up and deciding to go for a walk instead.
Grabbing my iPhone, I locked the door and headed out of the tall brick dorm
building. Even though it was already beginning to darken, there were still some
freshmen moving around. I recognized a few from my summer orientation group. As
I suspected, they steered clear of me. During orientation, I had tried to be
pleasant, tried hard to be nice to a lot of them, attempting to at least make
one friend. But something about me made them politely smile and nod before
walking away. I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair before continuing my
trek around campus.
Leaving home was supposed to
be exciting. A fresh start and all that crap—I was a freshman! I should have
been excited and optimistic and completely naive. But I wasn’t—I had seen too
much in the last three years to pretend to be excited about change. Change
meant adjusting, it meant not fitting in with a new crowd just like the old. It
didn’t matter. Soon night would come and I could ignore everything again.
By the time night finally
descended, my feet had already taken me around half of the campus. As I walked,
a small copse of trees caught my attention. It was only a short distance from
my dorm building, so I decided to explore a little before darkness overcame
all, leaving nothing but the Fade. Because of the accident—what it did, and
what it meant— things were… different. If anyone paid attention to me, they
would have noticed some kind of odd behavior: reading a post-it note in a
pitch-black room, catching a falling cup, holding a hot pan a little longer
than normally possible; the sorts of everyday wonders that would normally be
dismissed as cheap parlor tricks. If only it were that.
Being lost among the trees,
away from all the people, I wanted to feel relaxed; at ease. But there was
something off about these woods. The hairs on the back of my neck were standing
on end, sensing something I couldn’t see. I walked farther into the woods,
attempting to find the source of the sensation. Within earshot, a group of kids
laughed as they smoked whatever it was that they had. I moved on, paying them
no mind. If they noticed me as well, they chose to ignore it. A silent deal.
As I made my way from the
group, through fallen timber and mossy ground, I found a tree standing amidst
the green that seemed too large for such a small wooded area. I sat down
against it and found I could barely see the heart of the campus from here. I
curled up against the base of the gnarly old oak and sighed. To be here and
away from home was a strange transition to make. Although many people were
attached to their family and home, it was a little different for me. I now
lived with a stranger—a damn annoying stranger—and I couldn’t do whatever I
wanted to do at night anymore. I tried applying for a single room, but I had to
have a medical reason to be by myself. My condition would have been difficult
to describe, let alone prove. I doubt a doctor would have written the note:
“Becomes ghost at night, will haunt dorm room. Might scare off other humans.”
I crouched and examined the
small clearing for a while. What had pulled me into the area was still unclear
to me. But when I stood up, I finally felt it—there was a reason I had come to
this part of the woods, and it was now very clear. What I sensed wasn’t
something I could look at in my current state. I’d have to return to
investigate without my body.
Despite the urge to fall
asleep right there in the woods, I began to make my way back to the dorm
building. The group that had been smoking earlier was gone, leaving the campus
practically abandoned. It was oddly quiet and I liked it—though I suspected
this was a rare peace.
When I returned, I stopped
at the door. Putting my ear up against it, I tried to make out if Erica was
back. As soon as I was sure I didn’t hear anything, I went inside and looked at
what she had done. At some point she had returned, but only to change her
clothes. Boxes and suitcases were thrown all over the dorm room, with pieces of
clothing hanging out from everything. Some of her clothes were even resting on
my bed.
After I managed to navigate
the minefield of Erica’s boxes and threw her clothing back to her side of the
room, I jumped onto my bed. As soon as I rolled over to find the TV remote, a
knock sounded on the door.
“Erica, you in there?” The
masculine voice made me roll my eyes. Erica had only been here one day and she
already had a boy to mess around with. This was going to be a long year.
I carefully jumped from my
bed and made my way across the room to open the door a crack. “She’s not here.”
I said briskly, hoping that would be enough to make him leave.
A man with shaggy black hair
and hazel eyes stood at the door, I had to glace up to see his startled
expression. “Oh, do you know where she is?”
“Nope. When I got back, she
wasn’t here.” Please just leave.
“Do you mind if I wait a
little bit to see if she shows up?”
I could tell he was stalling
for time. This was a problem that was not going away.
“Why don’t you just call
her?” I snarled. I knew I was being harsh, but for some reason his presence
made me uncomfortable and annoyed.
He shrugged, “I don’t have
her number... She hasn’t given it to me yet. Come on, I’ll stay on her side and
you won’t notice that I’m here. I’ll only stay for thirty minutes and if she
doesn’t show up by then, I’ll leave.” He grinned in what I was sure he
considered a charming manner, revealing a row of perfectly white teeth. His
disheveled hair flopped into his eyes, which he quickly flicked to the side as
he waited for my response.
“Fine, whatever. Do what you
want.” I opened the door wider and stalked back to my bed. I noticed he shut
the door before going to sit on Erica’s computer chair. That made me
uncomfortable.
“So, who are you?” He
playfully glanced at me while swiveling the chair back and forth as I attempted
to go back to watching TV.
“Brenna.”
He didn’t need to know
anything. I knew I was being rude, but I didn’t care. He could get laid on his
own time. It was pointless to just sit in the room like a lost puppy. I crossed
my arms and tried to focus my attention back onto the television.
“Where are you from,
Brenna?”
“That you don’t need to
know. You can stay here and wait for Erica, but I’m going to watch TV and you
should too.” Rude, and definitely not the best way to make friends like my
mother was hoping I would, but he had invaded my space, though it was partially
my fault for letting him wait for her. Probably not the smartest thing to do.
“You sure don’t play nice,
do you? I’m just trying to make conversation.” He snapped in annoyance as he
shifted in his chair to face me.
“I don’t want to make
conversation, I’m tired and I just want to watch TV.” I flicked the volume up a
few more bars to prove my point.
All he did was grunt back,
but he finally turned his attention to the TV set. I didn’t look at him until
it was time for him to leave. Erica never showed up, which was no surprise to
me. When I looked over at him for the first time, he locked eyes with me for a
moment and nodded before getting up to leave. After the door slammed shut
behind him, I grabbed my pajamas and shower gear before making my way into the
hall bathroom.
After a lukewarm shower, I
walked back into the room to find Erica passed out on my bed. Of course. Where
else? Looking over at the clock on my desk, I noticed it was already midnight,
and she reeked of alcohol and smoke. She sure as hell wouldn’t be sleeping on
my bed smelling like that. I went through her boxes to find some sheets and a
comforter. Feeling rushed, I made her bed, and threw a few more blankets on it
just to get them off the floor.
“Erica, come on. Time to
move to your own bed before you puke all over mine,” I poked her until she
started to move.
She mumbled something I
couldn’t make out and rolled over. Obviously, she was going to be difficult
about it. Good thing I was strong and she was only 5’3”. I lifted her up with a
bit of a struggle and heaved her onto my shoulder. As carefully as I could, I
shuffled over to Erica’s side of the room and laid her onto her bed, nearly
hitting the wall as she flopped down. She lifted her head and the look on her
face was that of surprise. Slight recollection seemed to hit her when she realized
she was in her own bed. Mumbling something, Erica shifted farther into the bed
on her own, and pulled the sheets over her head.
I grabbed a trashcan and put
it near her head. “If you feel sick, throw up in here. It’s right beside your
bed. I’m going to sleep.” I thought she tried to say thanks, but I couldn’t
hear anything besides more muffled grunts.
It was no surprise that she
had already gone partying, according to pop culture, kids who first moved to
college would start to party almost immediately. At least, that’s what I heard.
Actually, all levels of college students tended to start right away. It
reminded me of my early high school days when I enjoyed partying as well. The
memories left a poor taste in my mouth.
Lying down, I settled my
body for the usual routine, the same thing I had undergone every night for the
last three years. Slowly, I drifted to sleep, and then my eyes opened to stare
down at my sleeping body. I felt no pain. I felt nothing. My clothes were no
longer there and I stood, watching my chest rise and fall, naked.
Ever since that accident
years ago, this had taken the place of sleep. My body rested while my spirit
left to live in the Fade. It was cool…at first, but now it was just annoying.
At least I had learned how to make some sort of clothing mentally so I didn’t
have to wander around the spiritual plane as naked as the day I was born.
Unfortunately, the only things I could materialize were jeans and a crop top. I
still needed to practice.
I looked over and saw that
Erica had thrown up a little bit. Thankfully, she aimed well, it must have been
when I was falling asleep. I didn’t exactly have a lot of awareness in the
moment between worlds—I was still working on that part. Even though everything
seemed to be exactly the same, it really wasn’t. On the spiritual plane, the
world was brighter, and louder. All of my senses were heightened, and the room
looked as though a light had been turned on.
I had seen my fair share of
spirits, but most didn’t like me very much. When they figured out I was
actually alive, they became angry and didn’t find it fair. Some of the nastier
ones perceived my presence as a kind of trespassing. They’d attempt to become
my personal poltergeist, but they always got bored of it eventually. It became
an easy arrangement. Just like with the living; if you ignore me, I’ll ignore
you and we can all live peacefully. Even the spirits that lived in my house
back in Richmond wouldn’t talk to me, though I had been trying for a while.
Thankfully, while outside of
my body, I couldn’t smell anything on the physical plane. That was the one
sense that seemed to dull. Which meant I couldn’t smell Erica’s vomit. So,
before Erica decided to wake up again, I left.
I explored the dorm building
for a while, curious as to what the other students were doing. Some were
partying, but they kept the music low—probably paranoid security would discover
all the underage drinking—others were already asleep, reading, or playing video
games. Most were socializing; not many seemed to seek solitude like I did.
Finally, I floated from the
building to make my way back to the woods. Coming to the clearing, I descended,
and approached the large tree from earlier. Looking at it in this form, I could
clearly see what had attracted me here.
From what I could tell,
there were three planes of existence: The mortal plane–where all living things
lived–and the Fade where spirits dwelled, among other things. But the third was
something I had never seen. I only knew it existed from the doors. Found mostly
on trees, there were doorways to another plane of existence I had no access to.
They contained beings that I only saw when I was a spirit. I called them
“fairies” and “demons” because I couldn’t think of a better description. Names
based off appearances, I know, but I didn’t know the actual names for what they
were.
Although they were
undetectable by anyone on the mortal plane, there were legends about them
throughout history. From those, and my own experience, I understood the doors
operated on a sort of cycle. They would only open during certain nights,
allowing them free reign of the Fade. But once the night was over, they would
return to their realm. When it was a full moon, the demons came through the
doorways. Though not the prettiest things to look at, the demons tended to
enjoy messing with humans. Not necessarily hurting anyone, but just hovering
around them, causing mood shifts occasionally. They would move items around,
trip people up, follow them, and on occasion throw acorns at people and
animals. That was their favorite mischievous activity. The demons were
basically small, disfigured pranksters.
There have been many studies
on humanity and the effects of the full moon that make them go crazy or believe
they are a werewolf or some other such nonsense. It had nothing to do with the
full moon, just with the demons being allowed to escape. When the night of the
full moon ended, they returned to their domain, leaving behind whatever mess they
had created.
During the time of first and
third quarter, and new moon, the fairies were given leave to roam from their
own doorways. I hated them. Unlike the demons, their energy was hostile. A few
times I had seen them torture any spirit they came across, or even whisper into
the ears of humans, causing them to react violently. It wasn’t often that I
would run across a fairy, but I preferred it that way. Though beautiful, they
were little shits.
There was no doubt about
this tree. It was a demon gateway. The door appeared old, as if it had been
there for centuries with the worn wood and small cracks. Because the doorways
were on trees, I had found a few at home, but whenever I traveled to populated
areas, they became harder to find. Once I had discovered a doorway in the wood
frame of a friend’s home. Fairy doors, however, were much more difficult to
locate. To this day, I hadn’t seen one. I had only seen the beautiful little
monsters flying around.
The last full moon was a
week ago, meaning the door was closed as expected. My theory was that the
doorways were somehow connected, but again, I hadn’t seen a fairy door to be
sure. If I were right, there should have been one somewhere nearby.
But this door was
different—there were small characters etched around its entirety. Something I
had never seen before. The closer I got to the doorway, the stranger things
became. Incoherent voices entered my head. It sounded as if they were trying to
scream, but didn’t have the strength. I had never heard these voices before.
They wept desperately with disjointed words and screams. I moved closer and
raised my hand to touch a particularly interesting marking when a clear voice
stopped me cold.
“I wouldn’t do that, honey.”
Whirling around, an older
woman stood behind me. Judging from her clothing, I figured she had been dead
for a while. She looked kindly down at me through ethereal spectacles as she
absently smoothed the folds of her long skirt.
“Why not? It’s only a
doorway...” I said, raising my chin, causing my hair to fall and frame my face.
I was sure my eyes were snapping with defiance – I didn’t take kindly to being
told what to do, especially on the spiritual plane. This was supposed to be the
one place I didn’t have to listen to anyone telling me what to do.
She shook her head, causing
her ridiculously out of fashion hat to shift a little. “You are correct, my
dear girl, but this one is different from its brothers that you have previously
encountered. Watchers and Dreamers have been busy distorting these doorways. Arrogant
fools.” She gestured with one elegantly gloved hand towards the script I had
attempted to touch moments before.
“I thought humans knew
nothing about the Fade doors —and what the hell is a Watcher? Or a Dreamer?” I
uncrossed my arms, curious now. These so-called Watchers or Dreamers could
present great danger to me if I were discovered. Yet another complication to my
situation. Great.
The laugh she let out sent
shivers up my spine. “Oh, you are quite the spunky one, aren’t you? If you’re
going to abandon your body so carelessly, you should learn more about the world
you wander through. Do not assume your limited scope of experience gives you
all the answers you seek. Your lot is quite the arrogant bunch these days.”
Despite her harsh tone, a smile crinkled the corners of her lips.
“How do you know I’m not
dead?”
“So you do prove capable of
asking smart questions. Look at my body’s faint white glow—do you see it? This
means I have died of old age, nice and neatly in my bed. A clean death, and an
expected one. You have no such glow, which means you haven’t yet died—at least
not permanently. Only a few know what these auras are for, or can see them
right away. You aren’t the first to come around these woods and possess that
ability. Dreamers are usually cut from the same cloth. But you are different
from your predecessor, though, in what way, I’m not sure.”
“What predecessor? What…What
are you talking about? What is going on?” She was dancing around my questions,
choosing not to answer them. It was beginning to piss me off.
Instead, she merely walked
backwards and gradually vanished from my sight, smiling all the while. She
raised one gloved hand in a wave before she was gone.
“Well, that was rude. Would
it really have been that hard to answer my damn questions?” I murmured to
myself. This was what happened every time I spoke with a spirit. They would
talk for barely a minute before walking away. I could never keep their interest
for longer than that.
Returning to the door, I was
curious to see what these symbols—these seals—were and how they worked. They
were new to me even after more than three years in the Fade. Perhaps it was
only a certain kind of human that could see them. If that were true, I should
have come across something about these seals in my research, but I couldn’t
recall anything like them in any of it. My eyes drifted back to the symbol I
had nearly touched before. Whatever the reason, this seal gave me a rotten
feeling in my gut. If those demons couldn’t get out, and hadn’t been able to
get out for a while, I assumed they were pissed off about being cooped up for
so long. I know I would be.
Looking up, the moon had
moved pretty far in the sky, so I decided it was time to head back. Life would
have been much easier if I were able to go wherever I wanted like the other
spirits did. Since I was still connected to my body, I could only go a certain
distance before feeling its pull.
It looked like I wasn’t the
only one who had wanted to return to the woods on this particular night. A
different group of students had gathered together at the front of the woods,
probably to smoke pot, barely hidden from any passing campus security. One of
them turned, and walked through me, and I jolted in surprise. Sometimes it was
interesting to phase through anything on the mortal plane, but crossing through
humans was always more trouble than it was worth. Headaches aside, you received
an uncomfortable rush, a splash of their emotions, and that was even more
jarring than being a half-ghost.
I followed the stranger, who
was in a chipper mood, and there were a few more guys with a couple of girls in
tow as well. Some were still smoking while others were just laughing in the
midst of their conversation. None of them seemed to notice or feel a change in
the air, which meant my body was waking up, and my spirit was fading away. The
old spirit had called me a Dreamer. There was something more to what she was
saying, but I still wasn’t sure what it was.
As I felt myself being taken
back, something stirred deep inside me. Something—or someone—was watching me.
Thinking it was the same elder woman from before, my gaze searched the woods
behind and the students in front of me. Sitting next to a few of the others, he
was there. The guy who had barged into my room to wait for Erica. He was
staring right at me and he was smiling.
About Sarah:
A native of Richmond,
Virginia, Sarah Lampkin is a 2015 graduate from Lynchburg College with a
master’s degree in English. Since graduation, Sarah moved to Northern Virginia
to work in the IT field as a Technical Writer while continuing her research for
her graduate school thesis. When she isn’t work, Sarah continues her Celtic
mythology research and Gaelic studies, while working on the Dead Dreamer
series.
Although she currently lives
in Northern Virginia, Sarah frequently travels back home to Richmond to visit
family, friends, and her godchildren. During the winter months, she is in
Richmond more frequently to spend time in the woods hunting and contemplating
the meaning of life. She doesn’t always succeed in both endeavors, but the
music of nature is worth it for peace of mind.
In her free time, she likes
to play RPG video games, and rock climbing. To make sure she can make the most
out of her day, she wakes up at 4am every morning to work on her fitness, so in
the evening she has time to continue writing. Her passion for writing has been
around since high school where she wrote her first short story. It continued as
she worked towards her bachelor’s degree, and that is where the Dead Dreamer
series began. Although only self- published via online, Sarah’s dream is to
write for a living and continue to create fictional worlds where her mind can
reside.
Her work mainly focuses on
Celtic themes, mixed with elements from the spiritual world. And her characters
always have a flair of attitude and sarcasm because writing damsels in distress
is something she just can’t do.
READ THE CHILD DREAMER
PREQUEL HERE
Giveaway Details:
1 winner will receive a $10 amazon gift card to
giveaway and a Dead Dreamer charm necklace, US only.
1 winner will receive a signed
finished copy of TO DREAM IS TO DIE (when available) and a Dead Dreamer Hoodie,
US only.
I liked the excerpt.
ReplyDelete