Hereafter
Afterlife
Book One
Terri
Bruce
Genre:
Paranormal/Contemporary Fantasy
Publisher:
Mictlan Press
Date
of Publication: January 20, 2014
ISBN:
978-0-9913036-0-1
ISBN:
978-0-9913036-1-8
Number
of pages: 369
Word
Count: 111,000
Cover
Artist: Shelby Robinson
Book
Description:
Thirty-six-year-old
Irene Dunphy didn't plan on dying any time soon, but that’s exactly
what happens when she makes the mistake of getting behind the wheel
after a night bar-hopping with friends. She finds herself stranded on
earth as a ghost, where the food has no taste, the alcohol doesn’t
get you drunk, and the sex...well, let’s just say “don’t
bother.” To make matters worse, the only person who can see
her—courtesy of a book he found in his school library—is a
fourteen-year-old boy genius obsessed with the afterlife.
Unfortunately,
what waits in the Great Beyond isn’t much better. Stuck between the
boring life of a ghost in this world and the terrifying prospect of
three-headed hell hounds, final judgment, and eternal torment in the
next, Irene sets out to find a third option—preferably one that
involves not being dead anymore. Can she wipe the slate clean and get
a second chance before it’s too late?
Excerpt:
“Come.”
Samyel gestured, indicating that they should follow him. “We must
go.”
“Go?
Go where?”
“Away.
Inside. Or they will see.”
“Who
will see what?”
The
dark glasses revealed nothing as he stood impassively for a moment.
“Everyone.”
Samyel
was attracting a lot of attention. The crowd moving around them was
giving him a wide berth, and he was the focus of a lot of strange
looks, which just confirmed that he wasn’t dead—people could see
him. Irene knew that it looked like a seven-foot tall man in a trench
coat and dark glasses was talking to himself in the middle of the
sidewalk. It wouldn’t be long before the cops came to investigate.
Irene
gestured for Samyel to lead the way. “Fine. Let’s go.”
Irene
heard another choke of protest and glanced at Jonah. There was a
silent exchange of mouthed words, pantomimed gestures, and angry,
exaggerated looks.
“Don’t
be crazy,” Jonah hissed. “You can’t go with him!”
“You’re
the one that always wants to stop and talk to every weirdo we meet,”
she countered. “And what do you mean ‘you’? We’re both
going.”
“Uh
uh,” Jonah said. “This is your idea. If you get murdered, I’m
not saving you.”
With
an exasperated look, she motioned for Jonah to follow and set out
after Samyel, who was nearly out of sight. Jonah reluctantly
followed. Irene gave him a wry look as they trailed, side by side, a
few feet behind Samyel. “You know, at some point, we’re going to
have to talk about your propensity for picking fights with people
bigger than yourself.”
“What’s
propensity?”
“A
really bad habit that you should stop.”
Jonah’s
expression turned unreadable for a long moment, as if he was debating
with himself, and then he looked away, stuffing his hands in his
pockets and bowing his head to stare at the sidewalk as they went.
“I’ve
changed the password, by the way, so you can’t do that again,” he
said darkly.
She
grabbed his arm, pulling him to a halt. “Jonah, listen to me. It’s
not that I don’t appreciate you trying to protect me. I do. Even
when it’s annoying and misplaced, like with Ernest. You’re the
bravest, sweetest guy I’ve ever met, but I’m dead. You’re not.
I’m already probably going to Hell for dragging you along on this
adventure. Don’t add being the cause of your death to my list of
crimes, okay?”
The
tips of his ears had turned pink and his head was down, shoulders
hunched. Then, to her surprise, he suddenly looked at her, his eyes
inquiring as he searched her face. She didn’t know what he was
looking for, but he was gazing at her so earnestly that she blushed.
About
the Author:
Terri
Bruce has been making up adventure stories for as long as she can
remember and won her first writing award when she was twelve. Like
Anne Shirley, she prefers to make people cry rather than laugh, but
is happy if she can do either. She produces fantasy and adventure
stories from a haunted house in New England where she lives with her
husband and three cats. Her second novel, Thereafter (Afterlife #2),
will be released May 1, 2014.
Website/Blog:
Goodreads:
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/authorterribruce
Twitter:
@_TerriBruce
Help
celebrate the re-release of HEREAFTER back into the wild at the
Online Release Party January 21st from
12:00 pm EST (noon) to 12:00 am EST (midnight). Join Terri and over a
dozen special guest authors—including Alma Alexander (“The
Secrets of Jin-Shei”) , Gail Z. Martin (“Chronicles of the
Necromancer”), Barbara Ann Wright (“The Pyramid Waltz”), and
Jennifer Allis Provost (“Copper Girl”)—for games, giveaways,
and other shenanigans.
So
please stop on by and bring your friends—the more
merrier! https://www.facebook.com/events/1411503999089050/
Jan 20 Blitz Hereafter by Terri Bruce
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Coffee Addicted Writer
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fundinmental
Thank you so much for helping me celebrate the re-release of HEREAFTER today!!!
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