Spooktacular Giveaway Hop - October 15-31 - win books!

Hi, I'm excited to be involved in the SPOOKTACULAR Giveaway Hop, hosted by I am a Reader, Not a Writer (www.iamareader.com). The hop is running from October 15-21, and there are so many blogs involved that you could gather an awesome armful of books!

 I'm giving away paperback copies of my fantasy novel The Sea Inside to 2 winners, 
and an ebook copy of Kiwi and the Living Nightmare to 10 runners-up :) 
Fellow author Greta Burroughs is giving away ebook copies of Gerald and the Wee People and  
House on Bo-Kay Lane to 2 winners. Good luck!

Winners' Prizes

The Sea Inside (paperback) by Vickie Johnstone

Book 1 in the Cerulean Songs series

"A young woman is struggling to adjust to life after a spinal cord injury when she is given a gift by a mysterious older woman. Rather than merely help Jayne adjust to her new reality, this gifts offers the potential of a completely alternate existence. Jayne finds her true love only to be dealt another cruel blow by fate. In her journey to get back her new life she must face the biggest hurdles any of us can – our own fears and doubts.  
The Sea Inside is a young adult fantasy adventure that, like the Kiwi series, takes the reader on a visit to a fantastic realm." (Review, Amazon) 
Amazon author page

Gerald and the Wee People (ebook) by Greta Burroughs

Book 1 in the Wee People series

 
Amazon book link

Amazon author page
 “A charming fantasy story, difficult to put down, and the pages and action quickly fly by.”
(Review, Amazon)

Gerald and his best friend, Vernon, literally fall into a new world when responding to a plea for help. A few years earlier, the boys discovered an unusual clearing in the woods where only Gerald had the ability to watch the daily activities taking place in a miniature village. When creatures attack it, Gerald becomes concerned about the little inhabitants he has become attached to. Inside the village, the boys face many dangers in trying to help the villagers fight the misshapen ones and fulfil a prophecy. An action-packed fantasy adventure that will keep you spellbound until the last page.

House on Bo-Kay Lane (ebook) by Greta Burroughs 
Book 2 in the Wee People series

Amazon book link
“Entertaining, imaginative, well written and lots of fun.” (Review, Amazon) 

 Gerald and Vernon believe their time with the wee people came to an end after they returned to their home world, but they have second thoughts when strange things start to happen at an abandoned house in their neighbourhood. When ghostly images of familiar faces from the wee people village are seen in the windows and echoes of voices from the past haunt the boys’ dreams, an undeniable curiosity draws them to investigate the mysterious haunted house. A special mirror and the telepathic skills of their former friends inevitably draw them back into the world of the wee people. 

Runners-up Prize

Kiwi and the Living Nightmare (ebook)
Book 3 in the Kiwi Series

Amazon book link
"Living Nightmare has just the right amount of scary bits along with humour to make it a very enjoyable read for kids of all ages." (Review, Amazon) 

 Amy, James and Kiwi embark on their spookiest adventure yet – on Halloween. What begins with an eerie dream about a three-legged cat will take the budding detectives on a quest to find an old house in the middle of the woods, meeting some perky squirrels along the way. Little do they know that there awaits an angry, restless ghost that will do anything to stop them leaving. Meanwhile, Inspector Furrball and Siam discover the human world, and that Ames and Jimster are not what they seem. 

For a chance to win, just do the Rafflecopter. Good luck! 
Click on the links below the Rafflecopter to hop to the other blogs offering fantastic prizes :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Flash fiction 14: Forever in time #2minutesgo

Well, yesterday it was Friday and write with JD Mader over at his website, Unemployed Imagination - www.jdmader.com/2015/06/2-minutes-go. The idea is to write for 2 minutes - some people write longer - and you just go for it, without looking back and editing. Have a great weekend! :)

Forever in time

How they loved to dance. Shocking in the raw splendor of it. Bereft of shame. Watched, idolised even. Nothing punctured the air encircling them as they stepped, drifting, innocent as children on the air. You could not spy their feet; they shifted so quickly, hungry for the beat carrying them, passionate for the music to never end. It would not – forever it would wind, the notes crushing the bodies to one another, in vain trying to penetrate the flesh, to be one, as one, only one. Yet they were fated to be two, lost in time, woven together as the seconds spun. Around. In the end only a flicker remained on unraveling film before the dying light lost them to the silent screen.

copyright Vickie Johnstone, October 9, 2015

 

#NationalPoetryDay - These twisted paths we tread

A poem for National Poetry Day...

These twisted paths we tread

She slides between these walls
one foot, two feet, a hand and two
this is the space in which she lives
breathes, empties all that she is

she knows, where the eye seeks to spy
through circles drilled into the walls
the hidden, they watch, scratching idly
starving for love, the thing she lost

the ones she forgot were left behind
they hide now like ghosts in the leaves
rustling they leap upon the breeze
echoes of the past haunting mirrors

the scribe knows, he laughs sometimes
knowing all the things he does
it only makes him fail, too self-absorbed
to comprehend what she really is

the ghosts they circle inside these walls
pushing their fingers through the paper
seeking to caress the curls of her hair
twisting, she knows they linger

inside, watching where the beetle runs
trailing all his miniscule unlived lives
between the pages of a book unseen
she lived it, breathed it, all that ripples

thus she dances here alone, casting
rainbow dust upon the bleakest grey
the steel that rusts in crusts of red
rosebud offerings to the elements

laughter so raw covers an ache so deep
like a monster it yearns to spring
inside, where the waiting ends
inside, where the spiral grows

there’s a twist in the passage that eels
a malevolent darkness screams
opening the chasm that yawns awake
stealing tomorrow for its own sake

it twists, but nothing can touch her,
lost as she is in the echoes of her past.


copyright Vickie Johnstone