The Excerpt Tour Grand Finale
Where the Prologue and first NINE CHAPTERS were revealed!
Dead Dreams
by Emma Right
250 Pages
Eighteen-year-old Brie O’Mara has so much going for her: a loving family in the sidelines, an heiress for a roommate, and dreams that might just come true. Big dreams--of going to acting school, finishing college and making a name for herself. She is about to be the envy of everyone she knew. What more could she hope for? Except her dreams are about to lead her down the road to nightmares. Nightmares that could turn into a deadly reality.
Dead Dreams, Book 1, a young adult psychological thriller and mystery
Each Stop Revealed another section of Dead Dreams.
"I thought of my most favorite girl in the world: Lilly. At least Lilly’d have my dog, Holly, to remember me by."
“Crazy driver. Brie, I just don’t know about this business of you staying alone here like this.” She walked back to her white Mercedes, leaned in the open window, and brought out a casserole dish piled high with something green. Make that several shades of green.
I followed her, admittedly winded.“Seriously, Mom. It’s just one of those things. Mad drivers could happen anywhere I live.”
She gave me no end of grief as to what a bad idea it was for me to live alone like this even though she knew I was going to get a roommate.
“Mom, stop worrying,” I said.
“You’re asking me to stop being your mother, I hope you realize this.”
10/31: My Devotional Thoughts - Excerpt #2
I gulped down my hot chocolate. “Why all the secrecy? I hope your parents will at least know your address.” I said as I wrapped up the interview. I could understand not wanting parents breathing down her neck, but as long as they didn’t insist on posting a guard at the door, what was the harm of them knowing where she lived?
Sarah glanced about the room as if afraid the neighbors might have their ears pinned to the walls, listening.
She leaned forward and, her face expressionless, said softly, “My parents are dead.”
11/1: Mel’s Shelves - Excerpt #3
Having deceased parents at such a young age could have explained Sarah’s odd behavior. I sat up straight, and the hair at the back of my neck prickled, without my knowing exactly why. “I’m sorry.” I felt the blood draining from my face. Perhaps it was the thought of losing one’s parents that shocked me.
11/3: Giveaway Breaking News for Indonesia - Excerpt #4
Mother called that night to find out who I’d settled on for a new roommate. I never mentioned I’d only had one viable candidate, and I didn’t specify details, either— just that I’d found someone not on drugs. “Nor on pot.” Mother was specific about using the word “pot,” just in case some junkie, or worse, Libertarian, didn’t consider pot a type of drug.
“How can you decide so quickly to take her in?” Mother seemed disturbed and spoke with a shrill voice, as was her practice when she felt thus. “Did you even run a credit check?”
11/4: The Bookish Fairy - Excerpt #5
“Do you live in there?” the lady officer, Sergeant. Charlene Twist, asked. She pointed to the entrance to my apartment building.
I nodded. “What’s up?”
“Do you know a Mrs. Marcia Mott?”
11/5: My Love for Reading Keeps Growing - Excerpt #6
“Mr. Mott said his mother thought she saw someone prowling a couple of days back and that gave her a scare. We don’t know how this is related to her present condition, but we need to ask neighbors if they saw anything suspicious.”
“Prowling? Where?”
11/6: Tressa’s Wishful Endings - Excerpt #7
That evening, Sarah came home with a patch on her arm. I thought she looked pale.
“What happened?” I asked, pointing at the tape on the inside of her arm.
11/7: Nocturnal Predators Reviews - Excerpt #8
“No. Mrs. Mott thought she saw prowlers. They just want to see if I saw anything out of the ordinary.”
“Just keep me out of it, whatever it is.” She slunk to her bedroom, but before she slammed the door, I hollered after her.
11/8: The Pensive Chronicler - Excerpt #9
So, Sarah stayed a loner, refusing my attempts to include her when I asked her out for ice cream with my co-workers one rare afternoon.
“Brie, wake up,” Sarah whispered as she shook my arm vigorously.
Who is she afraid of waking with all that whispering? I was the only one in the bedroom. I glanced at my bedside clock. The green light of the digital claimed it was three ten. Or, I should say, already three ten, since I always dragged myself out of bed at four thirty to brace myself for Stay Fit.
Then, even in the dimness, I noticed her eyes were glistening. “What’s wrong?” Was she ill after all?
“Shhh! They could still be here.”
11/12: The (Mis)Adventures of a Twenty-Something Year Old Girl - Excerpt #12
My mind lingered on the patch on her arm. Was she really who she said she was? I began to doubt that the bank book was even legitimate. It was just as well that she paid everything in cash. And Todd, her brother…how was he involved? What was he? Some hit man?
11/13: Buried Under Books - Excerpt #13
“There’s a safety catch. See?” Sarah pointed to the Glock.
No, I didn’t see. Big consolation, that safety catch. “I don’t trust safety catches. Or guns.” Or you, I wanted to say.
“Pete Salazar?”
“The guy at Stay Fit.”
“Ah, the guy who hangs onto your every word.”
“He does not.”
“I saw him gawk at you the day I was there."
“Sure you’re going to be okay tonight? I could camp out in your living room.” He barked a short laugh, but his eyes spoke a concern I’d never seen before. Sarah could be right. He might have liked me more than I cared to admit.
Assuming Mrs. Mott had spotted the burglar that evening, had he been checking to see if I were the girl to rob? But, it was dark, and no way could he have identified either of us from the window.
Still, something bugged me, though I couldn’t pinpoint what it was.
“See here?” He tweezed out a thin, dark brown hair, short and straight, and showed it to me. “Sarah’s?”
I shook my head. “She’s dark red, and curly. And, as you can see….” I twirled my straight mousey brown tresses in front of my face. “I’m too light to be its owner, either.”
11/19: Colorimetry - Excerpt #13
How had the burglar, a total stranger, known I always cracked that window a tiny gap every night? Or, would he have pried it open if it had been closed? The window had been ajar when Sarah and I had checked the place to see how he’d gotten in. My need to keep the air circulating had been a cause of contention between us since the day she moved in, and now I was filled with remorse for my pigheadedness.
Want to read all the excerpts revealed at each tour stop?
READ THEM NOW!!
Emma Right is a happy wife and homeschool mother of five living in the Pacific West Coast. Besides running a busy home, and looking after too many pets, she also enjoys reading aloud to her children and often has her nose in a book. Right was a copywriter for a major advertising agency during her B.C. years. B.C.meaning “Before Children,” which may as well have been in the B.C.era, as she always says. Please feel free to contact Emma. She’s always happy to hear from her readers.
Tour-Wide Giveaway:
October 29 - December 3
Paperback Copy of Dead Dreams (US Only)
5 eCopies of Dead Dreams (Int'l)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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