She Writes With Love

“And what the dead had no speech for, when living, they can tell you, being dead: the communication of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.”

-T. S. Eliot

We are now just one week away from release day for So Fell the Sparrow! I’m so excited to share this story with all of you, and I hope these last several weeks of ghostly shenanigans here on my blog have been as fun for you to read as they were for me to post.

I’ve shown you Jackie, the medium’s, story, and taken you inside the ghost hunting team Great American Paranormal with Ian and Alex. Today, I want to introduce you to the book’s lead protagonist, Grace, the skeptic.

I had an idea in my head of the kind of woman Grace would be long before I started writing the story. She’d be educated, hard-nosed, sarcastic and cynical. She’d only believe half of what she saw and none of what she heard. The concept of life after death and ghosts would be laughable to her, so much so that it would take some really terrifying experiences to convince her she had it all wrong. Luckily (or maybe unluckily?), The Sparrow House has plenty of spooks in store for her.

So, keeping that in mind, here is the final sneak peek of So Fell the Sparrow! 

Her dreams horrified her.

Grace saw the things Jackie claimed to see, and more. Faceless men and women forcing their way through the walls, shadows scuttling over the floor like giant spiders, hands reaching up for her from under the bed.

Everywhere she looked, some part of the house was attacking her. Claiming her like a possession to be taken, not embraced. Forced, not welcomed. It was a beast hell bent on swallowing her whole, and she had no chance of escape. No hope of survival.

Her imagination went wild, riding on the fear and the stress of having strange people barge their way into her life. People she was forced to trust with her property, her time, her wellbeing. Her options had only narrowed in scope the longer she stayed in The Sparrow House. The longer she let the house grab a hold of her and tighten its stranglehold grip.

She tossed and turned in her bed, the nightmares extraordinarily vivid. The shadow of a man stood in the corner of her room, black as night and just as sinister. He, it, rocked side to side in an eerily threatening motion, as if preparing for the instant to strike.

The instant to kill.

Grace bolted awake, her eyes flying open. Tears tracked hot lines down her cheeks. She clutched at her throat, choking back the scream that strangled her. Her eyes shot to the corner of the room and saw nothing. Relief flooded through her, loosening her tightened muscles and soothing her aching heart. She had been so afraid…

With a heavy, cleansing sigh, she fell back against her pillows and tried desperately to relax and forget the nightmares. They had been so real. If there was any ounce of truth to Jackie’s claims, then it was amazing the woman wasn’t mad. Or maybe she was, and she just had a great way of concealing it.

Because Grace knew that if she had to walk around every day witnessing those things, she would rather die than live another second. It was too horrible to bear.

After a few minutes of trying to fall back asleep and finding it pointless, Grace shoved aside the twisted blankets and sheets and got out of bed. There was milk in the fridge and she knew it would help calm her. It was an insomnia remedy her father had always sworn by.

As she got to her feet, she noticed that the window was open. Like before, there was a sparrow perched on the sill, watching her.

She froze, her eyes on the bird as it angled its head, its beady eyes shining in the moonlight. It continued to stare at her silently, almost like some sentient guardian come to protect her. When she made an attempt to move toward it, the bird flew off into the night.

Unsure what was happening or why, Grace shut the window and latched it again, then rubbed her eyes. Once she could rationalize as her own forgetfulness. But twice?

She didn’t want to give the event more meaning than it deserved, so she pushed it to the back of her mind.

That’s all for this week! Join me back here next Thursday for release day where I’ll be hosting a raffle with some awesome prizes including a signed print copy of the book and handmade bookmarks!

And don’t forget, you can Pre-Order So Fell the Sparrow on Amazon at a 25% off discount up until release day!

Until next week, over and out!