Publication date: May 8th, 2021
Synopsis:
Books whisper to Beatrix Alba. But they aren't the reason she has never fit in. Bullied at home and school, she keeps a secret--a power of violence and darkness.
When the spell that keeps her hidden fails, she's catapulted into the Zweeshen, a realm where all tales live, and her dream of meeting her favorite characters comes true. But wishes are tricky, and behind its wonder and whimsy, the Zweeshen is under attack. A character is burning bookworlds in pursuit of a weapon to rule both stories and storytellers. To succeed, he needs a riddle in Beatrix's possession.
Now he's hurting her down.
Joining forces with William, a cursed conjurer, Beatrix must face an enemy who knows her every weakness in a realm where witches play with time, Egyptian gods roam, and Regency heroines lead covert operations. And with her darkness as the only weapon, she may have to sacrifice everything to save a world that rejects her.
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Excerpt
Dancing with William was effortless, a mixture of walking and floating, and something about the moment made all the pieces fall into place.
Under the light of a million candles and fake amber suns, Beatrix's story blood woke up.
I'm a taelimn.
This time the meaning sank into her soul. Somewhere deep, a thread of paper, a drop of ink stirred. Her heart leapt and dared to dream, because in a story anything was possible, and because for the first time, she felt happy to be who she was. She shivered, amazed and humbled by the sense of belonging, of connectedness with everything. She saw herself, a speck staring at the whole galaxy, and at the same time powerful, the atom that precipitates the reaction to create the stars themselves.
A taelimn.
The words grew out with meaning, expanding like a hot air balloon. Now she was bigger than her own body. She grew as large as the ballroom, breathed with it, beat together with it, turning in sync with every other couple, becoming at once their voices and their feet, the music and the light.
"Forshaltness." William's accent made the sounds whoosh. "There's one thread. That's what you're feeling. We all do. Occasions like the ball, this many taelimns together, compound it. We're the same, all part of the tapestry. All stories are connected."
The question almost tumbled out, but she didn't need to ask. Beatrix knew how. "Stories inspire readers. Readers become writers."
"And writers inspire more writers. Take one out, a single story, a single writer, or a single reader, and the whole piece unravels."
A new waltz began, and Beatrix noticed Paul glancing in her direction. But she didn't want to stop dancing with William yet. Without thinking, her hand rose to touch his mask. Black velvet covered half of his face.
"What's your monster?"....
Alicia has a weak spot for happy endings and transformative journeys. She spent her teenage years in Argentina and Europe, speaks several languages and loves to travel.
An eclectic reader, she grew up on a diet ranging from Lucy M. Montgomery and Jane Austen to Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Raymond Chandler, Hermann Hesse, Jorge Luis Borges, and many classics. She's never been cured of reading a bit of everything and is as likely to geek out about Mr. Darcy as Dr. Who.
She is a history and astronomy aficionado, who walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain, completed her Masters in the Netherlands and worked for Google in Ireland. She decided to become a writer at six but took a full, winding road here. Along the way, she learned if there's one thing that cuts across cultures, one unifying thread that pulls everyone together, it's a good story.
A big-city girl, she now lives in the Midwest, where she occasionally picks apples and pretends witches exist.
