Children
of Mariposa, Book
One
Kim
Wells
Genre: Urban Fantasy/Magic Realism
Publisher: Daydreams Dandelions
Publications
Date of Publication: December 24, 2014
ASIN: B00O9DCRDC
Number of pages: 293 pages
Word Count: 106,993
Cover Artist: Lawrence Mann
Book Description:
What if the best night of your life
was also your last?
On the eve of a much-anticipated
proposal, Meg is happier than she could have ever imagined. The future she sees
for herself on that magical night is bright, one that’s full of love and
laughter and dreams finally realized.
That is, until one random act of
violence changes everything…
Consumed by fate and forces she
can’t comprehend, Meg finds herself at the center of a spectral conflict that
transcends life and death.
Her very soul is up for grabs in
this war, and what’s worse… she’s not the only one.
Now, she’s fighting not just for
the love she lost, but the daughter she would have called her own. She must
fight the battle of her life, for the sake of her friends and family, and find
out for herself if love can indeed be stronger than death.
Intertwined
with true-ghost stories, some heart-warming, some heart-breaking, this
love-note to San Antonio combines history, myth, and vivid description.
This
is the full story of Meg & Amelinda's quest-journey, what author Laura
Metzger calls "A beautifully written story with compelling characters that
reach between the universe of the living and the dead to embrace their mutual
destiny" and author Elena E. Giorgi calls "A beautiful tale of love
and redemption."
Book Trailer: https://youtu.be/u8wWa70P7ck
Excerpt
Meg: Vanilla and
Lavender
On the day I died,
I was wearing a great outfit. This is important to know because it turns out
that your default look for eternity as a ghost is what you’re wearing when you
die. I mean, seriously. Who knew? If I’d have known that, I wouldn’t have
risked any days in mediocre clothes. In that respect, I was lucky I was on a
date when I was killed, but of course, if I hadn’t been on a date, on that
date, maybe things would have turned out differently.
Why I have to go
through eternity with that butt is beyond me. I tended to prefer jeans and a comfortable
cotton shirt, paired with flat old- fashioned Converse tennis shoes as my daily
outfit, but I could clean up pretty nice when I had to.
Meg: Vanilla and
Lavender
On the day I died,
I was wearing a great outfit. This is important to know because it turns out
that your default look for eternity as a ghost is what you’re wearing when you
die. I mean, seriously. Who knew? If I’d have known that, I wouldn’t have
risked any days in mediocre clothes. In that respect, I was lucky I was on a
date when I was killed, but of course, if I hadn’t been on a date, on that
date, maybe things would have turned out differently.
Not everyone gets
to be a ghost. In fact, some people disappear immediately, and I don’t know
what happens. But they just wink right out of existence, only out of their
bodies for a few seconds. Maybe it has something to do with intent, or their
last actions, or their own belief systems. I hope the good people go somewhere
good, no matter what they did in the last moments of life, that there is a way
for them to make up for those Big Mistakes.
Some people,
people who haven’t Figured Things Out, people like me, linger for a while. We
hang around those we love and sometimes try to influence their choices, trying
to keep loved ones from making Big Mistakes.
My grandmother had
been my ghost–I was not surprised when it came right down to it. Back when I
was alive, I used to smell her perfume in the apartment we shared, vanilla and
lavender. I could never figure out what actual perfume brand she wore to get
that scent, and believe me, I tried. I loved it and wanted that for my
signature perfume. I haunted the local drugstores, especially the old ones, and
vintage stores, looking for an old- fashioned perfume that featured those
fragrance notes, but never found anything that smelled even remotely like hers.
I guess it was
just her individual magic that combined the scents that way. It seemed to
linger in our apartment, long after she had been gone. Especially at certain
important moments. I wouldn’t know those moments were important ‘til later, but
looking back, it’s obvious.
I’m getting ahead
of myself, moving way too fast for normal people. First, you probably want to
know more about me, right? You can’t just start in the middle of the story; you
have to work up to these big deals. I made it 23 years on the planet before
checking out. I guess you’d say I was pretty, although I was never very stylish
or together. I thought that would come with maturity, but I never got to find
that out. When I died, I had shoulder length wavy copper colored hair, cut in a
bob that was always tickling my chin and sometimes made me want to cut it all
off. I certainly never had the patience to grow it all out. It was “in between”
hair, lack of decision hair. My eyes were basic gray, nothing exciting,
although I desperately wanted the “limpid blue” or “decisive green” eyes of a
romance heroine. A light plague of freckles scattered across the bridge of my
nose showed my Irish- Scottish mutt background, and I had fair redhead’s skin
that burned, rather than tanned, which kept me indoors most of the time or
slathered in sunscreen. 5’8’, skinny without being too skinny. I did have my
family’s big butt, which we will not discuss.
Why I have to go
through eternity with that butt is beyond me. I tended to prefer jeans and a comfortable
cotton shirt, paired with flat old- fashioned Converse tennis shoes as my daily
outfit, but I could clean up pretty nice when I had to.
Author Bio
She has a Ph.D. in Literature, with
specialties in American Lit, Women Writers, Feminism, Sci-Fi/Fantasy & Film
Studies but please don't hold any of that against her. She teaches academic
writing and how to read literature at a university in her hometown and tries to
convince college students that it really is cool to like poetry.
She lives in the South, has twin
children (one girl, one boy) and a husband who is the model for all her best
romantic heroes. She also has two cats-- one black and sassy, one stripey and
fat, and also kinda sassy.
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