Promo: Dark Night of the Soul By E.M. Havens

Dark Night of the Soul
By E.M. Havens
FANTASY
Date to be Published: 7/1/2013

Amazon

Blurb:

What comes after life? Jayden Schroeder is about to find out. At the end of the road of despair, she ends it all and finds out that living might not have been so bad. Thrust into a strange and disparate world, Jayden joins a team of warriors from all places and time. Together they battle demons to save the souls of the living, all the while on the run from the end of all things - The Judgment.

Will she fight for a second chance to spare those she loves? Or surrender?

Dark Night of the Soul is a fantastical journey, both literally and figuratively for Jayden’s soul. Action adventure, fantasy, romance, and dark humor twist together to create an afterlife tale that will keep you thinking long after the final chapter.

Excerpt:

Marshal started counting down from thirty and moved to my side. He wouldn't let me use my gun in this battle since he was convinced I'd kill one of them. So he needed to protect me. Instead, Baldric loaned me a dinky little sword that he seldom used.

My stomach tightened, and my legs felt a little shaky as Marsh reached ten. The battle was imminent. I wasn't too nervous as Baldric assured me hardly anyone was ever killed in the skirmishes, except for the demons. That didn't comfort me a bit when the countdown hit zero, and the grotesque creatures I'd seen the day before began darting in and out of the trees around us.

My heart pounded in my chest, and I stepped into Marsh's back. I balled my fists into his shirt and hid my face. That may have kept them from my sight, but I couldn't block out their cries. Where yesterday their language had been indecipherable, today I understood every word.

SLUT
WHORE
JUST LIKE YOUR MOTHER
FILTHY
UNWORTHY
DIE
UNLOVABLE

All this and more echoed around me through the woods.

I felt Marsh's back tense beneath his shirt, and he began firing shots.

"Get off!" he yelled. "Stay behind me, not on me!"

I let go and watched the chaos about me from inside the protective circle our party formed around the statue. Prince sent blue bolts from his hands melting the demons into puddles. Neala spun and jabbed at the creatures with her staff. The beasts exploded in white light at the contact. Shin and Baldric held their positions and hacked at the horde as it overtook them. Chunks of black and red demon meat flew in morbid comedy.

A winged demon cleared the warriors and landed on the statue.

WHORE! It shrieked and attacked the marble girl. The stone began to chip and flake under its clawing and biting. Green venom spewed from its fangs. Then its head exploded as Marsh's bullet struck home.

"I - I can't." I couldn't watch and listen any more. It was too much. Marsh looked over his shoulder at me.

"Shit, Jayden. Don't do it."

"Marsh!" Shin yelled, and he turned back around to save the statue from three demons that had broken the line.

I don't know how he knew what I intended to do, but I did it anyway. I ran. I had to get away from this insanity.

I turned from the battle and flew into the trees. Dead leaves and sticks crunched under my churning feet. The sounds of gunfire and demon screeches faded, replaced by my heavy breathing and pounding heart.

I think I would have run forever if something hadn't hit me from behind and knocked me down. My chin and palms burned where they scraped the ground and I spat out dirt. I tried to scramble to my feet only to be knocked down again and flipped to my back. A grinning demon stood over me. Fear held me in place.

It was a lanky, lithe one, probably taller than me. It swayed on skinny legs wrapped in sagging black skin covered in weeping boils.

WHORE

It rasped and smiled a sickening grin. Green venom dripped from his fangs to my camo.

FILTHY
DIE

It pounced on me, mouth unhinging like a snake, going for my throat. I threw up my arm to block the attack. His fangs sunk through my clothes and into my flesh.

Guest Post:

Identifying Problems in Your Writing

I adore alliteration. I just can't contain myself. It simply slips unseen into my story. My writing is wrought with the woeful words. My critiquers cringe at my crazy combinations that begin with the same sounds. Reviewers rant about the rampant rhymes.

My love of literature kindled in kindergarten when I was awakened to the world of rhyme. I'm sure it started there, my accursed alliteration affinity. It just feels fluid the way the words wrap and wind around each other. But it's far more than the feel. Alliteration can make a slithering snack hiss, or a bumbling bumblebee buzz. Don't get me started on cacophonous cackling of crows.

As you should always avoid alliteration, how would one work on this? Simple, select someone you trust to take your work under their wing. As they peruse your alliteration prone prose, they can pin-point the places the problem persists. It won't be easy, exorcising the errors. At first you'll be frustrated with your friend for finding the faults. But soon you'll start to savor the solutions they submit. Just remember to reciprocate reviews if they also write. There's nothing crueler than cranky critics.

Reading your work aloud is another approach. Annunciate adequately to assure the alliterations are apparent. It might seem silly, but this procedure can punctuate many problem places in your prose.

So while you read my work, if you find abnormal amounts of alliteration, please forgive my fickle fingers. They typically type my thoughts without timidity. Hopefully, the little headaches are helpful and not harmful to my work. You be the judge. I just hope you enjoy!

About the Author:

E.M. Havens

Who is E.M. Havens? I’m a lot of things. The word that seems to define me most at the moment is mom. It can be all consuming. Not only am I a mom of three (one of them is a teenager…pity me), but I also home-school (pity me more). I share this awesome responsibility with the love of my life, best friend, and soul-mate husband.

Add to that, the twenty-five chickens, twelve turkeys, ten guineas, nine pigs, three barn cats, two Great Pyrenees guardian dogs, a Chihuahua, a house cat, and a goose, it makes for one crazy, full, and certainly entertaining life.

Somewhere in there I find the time to write. I started out young writing poems, then moved on to songs. I actually have a Bachelor in Music with a secondary in Science because I can’t stand English. Yes, the writer hates English. I like to read the story for the experience of reading the story, not to nitpick each letter and comma. But I digress.

I eventually found blogging and really enjoyed sharing my life that way. When an unfortunate turn of events separated me from my music equipment, I decided to use my overactive imagination, my love of reading, and my new found hobby, prose writing, to release some of my creative energy. I wrote my first novel and loved the experience. Fate War: Alliance is actually the second novel I wrote and the first to be published. Now I’m working on my third and several sequels to Fate War!

So that’s pretty much me, sitting in the Arbuckle Mountains of Oklahoma, reading, writing, collecting eggs from the coop, and being a schoolmarm. It’s a pretty great life.

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