Signing at the Javits Center

Well, I am home! I'll be back to my usual postings soon, but I decided to share a few photos from the signing at Book Expo America at the Javits Center in New York City on May 30th.

Book Expo America 2014

I am honored to be a Featured Author at Book Expo America 2014 at the Javits Center in New York City. Because my first fantasy novel, The Kriterion Saga:The World Between was a Finalist in the Religious Fiction Category at the 2013 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, I will be signing books on May 30th between 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. for Headline Books. This all happens in the Author Autographing Area at Table #14, so if you happen to be in the vicinity, stop by and say hello. From 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., I will available at the Headline Books Booth #2368.

I am doing an interview and online chat session with Shindig.com at some point during the day on the 30th and as soon as I know the time, I will give you an update. This is an exciting venue and will give readers the opportunity to ask questions and interact with me.

I just thought I'd let you know that I'll be taking a short break from posting (except for updates) until after I return from this trip. In the meantime, I'll be busy hauling lobster pots and gearing up to go to New York City, so I doubt my poems would be up to par anyway.

God bless you all and I'll see you when I get back!

Goodreads Giveaway Winners

Congratulations to :
Audrey of Kenai, Alaska
Colleen of Aurora, IL
Barbara of Suitland, MD
Meg of Newton, UT

You have each won a free copy of Through Emerald Eyes in the latest Goodreads Giveaway. Your books are in the mail, so keep a look-out for their arrival. Happy reading!

The Release of Through Emerald Eyes

The day I've been waiting for is here at last! Through Emerald Eyes is now released to the public and is available for purchase at Amazon.com in both paperback and kindle edition. It is available at Barnes and Noble, too. 

I thoroughly enjoyed creating this story (I think it's a real page turner) which is the third installment in the series. I've learned that spinning the tale is the easy part of the journey, but the editing is often a rough and rocky stretch of road. It can be tedious and full of dangerous pitfalls. I think the worst hole to fall into is called second guessing. 

I hope you will buy this book and it is my prayer that it may help you in some spiritual way on your own life journey. If it does nothing more than entertain you, I've achieved my goal.

Goodreads Giveaway Winners

I am pleased to announce the four winners of my Goodreads Giveaway!
They are :
Alexandra Maybach of Leesburg, VA
Julie Benge of Thomasville, NC
Amelia Pollock of Yakima, WA
Manda Aechavala of Melbourne, FL

I hope you enjoy your free copy of my latest fantasy novel: Through Emerald Eyes. They will be shipped out today.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Be sure to enter my Goodreads Book Giveaway for a chance to win a free pre-release copy of my latest fantasy novel: Through Emerald Eyes (The Kriterion Saga #3). To enter: Click on the link on the giveaway badge in the sidebar right here on Mainely Mug Ups. It will take you directly to the giveaway. Remember: You won't win, if you don't enter.

Through Emerald Eyes Availability

The release date for Through Emerald Eyes has been set for February 18, 2014. I will have copies available soon to sell locally. If you aren't from my area (or if you are and just don't want to wait) and would like to obtain a copy to give as a Christmas gift for the special reader in your life or even as a treat for yourself, click on the link below to order, as of right now, directly from the publisher. 
http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=9781628541205

Mainely Mug Ups Christmas Giveaway

Click on the link below and it will take you to my Facebook page. Be sure to 'Like' the page and enter for a chance to win a copy of my first fantasy novel: The Kriterion Saga: The World Between. This book was a Finalist in the 2013 Next Generation Indie Book Awards in the Religious Fiction Category.

https://www.facebook.com/staples.mainelymugups?v=app_190076381016644&app_data=%7B%22from%22%3A%22page_wall%22%7D

Progress Update on Through Emerald Eyes

The digital proof for Through Emerald Eyes arrived today and a physical copy is on the way. I have a November 20th deadline for final edits and then my work is complete at last. I am pleased with the cover front and back. The interior design looks great and keeps the same theme. It flows well and looks excellent. It's getting close now! I am excited!!

Edits Completed

I’ve finished and sent off the edits for Through Emerald Eyes managing to beat the deadline by a day. I wonder if you can hear my sigh of relief from where you sit. The next steps are layout and cover design. Let’s hope they get it right so that when I receive the proof there’ll be no huge problems. I still hold out a thin ray of hope for books on the market before Christmas.

Thanks for your patience during the editing phase. I posted a poem last night because I was so ready to get back to writing. I hope you found the time to give it a read, if not it’s called: The Discard. It was difficult to stay away from the blog for ten long days. I may cut the number of posts to around three a week in order to get back to a project I’ve had in the works for quite some time. In fact, I’ve made a 60,000+ word investment in it so far. It’s a departure from fantasy and I’m excited about it. I’ll keep you up to speed as it progresses. There are several ideas floating around in my head for another installment of The Kriterion Saga, too. When you create a world, you can find lots to do there.

Enjoy your Sunday and savor each and every minute! God bless you all!

 

 

 

 

 

Through Emerald Eyes: Edits Begin

At long last the manuscript for book three (Through Emerald Eyes) in The Kriterion Saga series has arrived. It’s only two months late. That’s the bad news. The good news is that they love it and it appears that with a couple of minor fixes it will be ready to go. I must go through the process of reading and re-reading the manuscript several times to make sure everything is the best it can be. My deadline, by the way, is September 15^th, so that means I need to work quickly and give it all I’ve got and maybe a little bit more between now and then. Needless to say, I must suspend my blog posts until I finish this tedious, but all-important phase of the book. I want Through Emerald Eyes to be something worthy of you, the reader. In the words of the editor, 'The fantasy freaks will love this one and want more.' I sincerely hope she is right, but let’s take it a step at a time! God bless you and if all goes well, I should be back here at Mainely Mug Ups soon. Wish me luck!

Readers Favorite Five Star Rating

Reviewed by Kim Anisi for Readers' Favorite

If you have ever dreamed about stepping into another world through a magical gate in our world, then “The World Between: The Kriterion Saga” by Belva Rae Staples might be the right book for you. The book cleverly tells one story within a story. The boy Georgie often visits an older lady who tells him stories. One day, she starts a longer story about a boy called Alex who is a very bad character. No sane reader will find him likeable. After some very bad deeds in the normal world, he finds his way into a world called Kriterion and this is just what he needs: a whole new world just for his taking! After all, Alex thinks that the kind king of the other world is quite a weak and soft character. However, he did not expect a dog from the past and someone else to turn up in the world and work against his dark goals.

“The World Between: The Kriterion Saga” by Belva Rae Staples is a fantasy novel which has some very clear messages and even though one of the main characters is such a mean person, you simply have to keep reading because you hope that he would soon be found out, that people would finally look through his lies and deceptions. Sometimes you are worried that the book might not have a good end, at other times you wonder whether a good end in this book could be really good anyway because... but I should not give too much away – you need to read it yourselves! This book is a lovely tale for all ages even though it is mainly aimed at younger readers and speaks to them in a way that wants to encourage them to be good and not evil. However, everyone needs to hear that message every now and then, so I'd recommend the book to anyone who enjoys fantasy with a bit of fairy tale mixed in.

Thank you, Kim Anisi of Readers' Favorite for this review and five star rating for The Kriterion Saga:The World Between!!

Promotional Copy for View

I just got off the phone with the girl in charge of production and she liked the promotional copy I submitted, as well as the title (Through Emerald Eyes), so it looks like full steam ahead. The next step for me begins at the end of June. That's when I'll start editing and I have two to three weeks to complete that phase. July is going to be hectic!

Here's what the back cover blurb will look like minus the author photo, etc.:

 “Nothing is by chance, my friend.”

As George O’Dell read, these words seemed to jump off the page, so he paused for a moment to think. His friendship with childhood mentor, Miss MacAlpin, couldn’t be attributed to luck. Since her death, he was sure the relationship came from some great unseen design. It was other relationships in his life that he questioned. Over the summer, he’d lost his first love, Audrey and his former best friend, Cliff, was killed in a car crash. His was still reeling emotionally and his faith wavered. It didn’t help that his friend’s mother wrongly blamed him.

After Miss MacAlpin left her estate to George, it became his duty to get her manuscripts published and from his first glance at this one, he knew it was another wild adventure. After the rebellion and subsequent war in Kriterion caused by her brother, Alex, the kingdom needed healing. No one understood that better than the governor of Minorea, Cole. He started by visiting the mines there, but what he saw shook him to the core. Strange creatures were stripping the mines of treasure. He knew something or someone sinister was behind it because the creatures weren’t intelligent enough to act on their own. Cole must seek the help of a cadre of characters possessing extraordinary supernatural powers. An old man, purported to be a wizard and his mysterious granddaughter see the culprit responsible, Through Emerald Eyes, but will their powers be outmatched by evil forces?

 

Award winning author, Belva Rae Staples, is from Swan’s Island, Maine, where she goes lobster fishing with her husband, Joe, aboard their 36’ boat, The Fifth Day.

 

Production Begins Now

Production is now officially underway on volume three in The Kriterion Saga Series. The tentative title for this one is: Through Emerald Eyes. This marks the beginning of an exciting, but intense few months for me. I have lots of decisions to make and editing to do (several rounds of it). The first decision regards the back cover material, so I'll be thinking about and working on that for the next several days along with hauling traps and everything else I need to do. Needless to say, I won't be posting any new work on Mainely Mug Ups, until I complete this first important task.

I'll be back with something fresh, as soon as possible, so please be patient and bear with me. As always, thanks for your continued love and support and if you are a praying person, pray that I'll make good solid choices for this book. It's my greatest desire to produce a quality reading experience for book buyers. You deserve the best!

2013 Next Generation Indie Book Award

I received a finalist award from Next Generation Indie Book Awards in the Religious Fiction Category for my first fantasy novel entitled, The Kriterion Saga: The World Between on May 29, 2013. It was an honor and will give my book much more recognition and exposure. The gala event took place in New York City at the prestigious Harvard Club. It was pretty swanky for a bait bag stuffer like me, but as it turns out, I enjoyed it. It was wonderful to meet so many other authors, literary agents, and judges. The Awards Chairperson, Catherine Goulet was a gracious lady from a small town background. I didn’t think it was possible, but her hometown in Vancouver, Canada is even smaller in population than Swan’s Island. Her town has a grand total of twenty-four houses. In spite of growing up in such a small place, she’s done some amazing things such as creating this awards program six years ago. Next Generation is to book awards what Sundance is to the film industry, so winning this award is a bigger deal than I’d initially imagined. In her speech she revealed that this year there were far more entrants than prior years and that this year’s crop of books were the best quality they’ve seen since the inception of the program. The judges had a tough time determining winners which means I had plenty of stiff competition.

Our trip was exciting and began with taking in the Broadway show: Wicked. I’m a huge Wizard of Oz fan and liked the back story this production provides. It gives insight into the reason why the witch became ‘wicked’ and also shows the relationship between the good witch Glinda and the wicked witch. The music was great and it was incredibly funny. I loved it, but my poor husband, Joe didn’t because he couldn’t understand what the actors were saying and didn’t know what was going on. We left during the intermission. I didn’t think it was fair to subject him to any more of it since he was sound asleep almost every time I looked over in his direction. He was wide awake on the ride back to our hotel, though, because we had a cabby who must have taken driving lessons from Captain James T. Kirk. He drove the cab like it was the starship Enterprise. That wild ride was more fun than winning the award, actually, and we got back to the hotel unscathed and in record time.

The next day we took in some of the sights on a bus tour. We had a great time, but it was taking far too long. Since we had a very limited amount of time to spend, we got off and walked to the Empire State Building. It was a little hazy, so the visibility was not as good as it is on a clear day, but it was still a spectacular, panoramic view from the top. By the time we finished that, I was getting concerned that we might not get back in time to get ready for the reason for the trip, so we hoofed it back to the hotel as fast as we could walk. We did make it to the event with time to spare, but it was a little stressful. We’ve determined that we need to go back to New York and stay for a week at some point. We left early the next morning and arrived back in Bangor around noon. It was definitely a crazy, hectic, whirlwind trip, but worth every minute.

 

 

 

 

 

Next Generation Indie Book Awards

Earlier this evening I received this e-mail stating that my first fantasy novel The Kriterion Saga: The World Between has been selected as a Finalist in the Religious Fiction category of the 2013 Next Generation Indie Book Awards.  I am both honored and excited!

Hello,

I am writing with great news! Your book has been named a Finalist in the Religious Fiction category of the 2013 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Congratulations!

To acknowledge this achievement we will be sending you a Finalist Certificate by email prior to the end of May, which you can print and display as you wish. We will also be mailing you a Finalist medal in June. If you are attending the awards reception, your medal will be presented to you then.

Your achievement will be published at www.IndieBookAwards.com along with the other Finalists and Winners in the next few weeks. Also, we will be sending out a press release within the next month or so announcing the Grand Prize Winners and advising media and others where they can see a complete list of Winners and Finalists.

Additionally, your book will be listed as a Finalist in the 2013 Next Generation Indie Book Awards catalog which will be distributed at Book Expo America (“BEA”) in New York later this month to thousands of attendees including book buyers, library representatives, media, industry professionals, and others. Our intention is to promote the Winners and Finalists to as many people as possible.

At the bottom of this email is a complete list of the 2013 Winner and Finalists (in alphabetical order) in this category. Please review the spelling of the title of your book, the author(s), the publisher and ISBN to make sure that we have your information 100% accurate.

If there are any changes to be made, please make sure to let us know by return email sent by no later than Thursday May 9th, at noon Mountain time, because our designer will be working on finalizing the marketing materials that afternoon so that we can have everything printed and shipped on time to make it to Book Expo America.

Also, because your book was named a Finalist, you will have the opportunity to order "Finalist" gold award stickers at http://www.indiebookawards.com/orderstickers.php Additional Finalist Certificates, that are personalized and printed on linen paper and embossed with a gold seal, can be ordered at http://www.indiebookawards.com/ordercertificates.php and you also have the opportunity to order additional Finalist medals at http://www.indiebookawards.com/ordermedals.php. Please note that we have a limited supply of additional medals for sale. Also, please be advised that the processing of these orders does take approximately three weeks or longer because they are being processed through our offices in Canada so they will not be delivered in time for BEA.

If you entered your book in additional categories, you will be receiving separate emails from us only if your book placed as a Finalist or Winner in any of those categories. Also, if your book placed in a category different from one in which it was entered, it's because the judges felt the book fit better in that category. If you are wondering if you might have missed any communications from us, please feel free to check out the complete list of 2013 Winners and Finalists by clicking on the link “Click here to view a list of 2013 Winners and Finalists” on the home page at www.IndieBookAwards.com after May 31^st.

All Finalists and Winners are invited to attend an awards reception at the Harvard Club of New York City from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday May 29th (during BEA). If you will be in New York during that time and would like to attend this event, you must register in advance at: http://indiebookawards.com/receptionguests.php. There will be a refundable charge upon registration.

To find out more details, please read the information provided on the registration page. Please note that the capacity for this event is limited to 125 people and it is first come, first served. Once we reach capacity, there will be no further registrations taken. If you plan on attending the awards reception, please make sure to register ASAP so that you are not disappointed.

Once again congratulations from all of us at Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group and the Next Generation Indie Book Awards.

Catherine Goulet

Awards Chairperson

www.IndieBookAwards.com

Shelley Anderson

President and Awards Coordinator

www.IndieBookAwards.com

To receive regular updates about the status of this year's book awards program, please go to our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/NextGenerationIndieBookAwards and "Like" our Facebook page and check back from time to time.

RELIGIOUS FICTION

WINNER ($100 PRIZE): TIE

Methuselah's Pillar, by W. G. Griffiths (Headline Books, Inc.) (ISBN 978-0938467410)

Secret Blood, by Don Stansberry (Headline Books, Inc.) (ISBN 978-0938467472)

FINALISTS:

Blood in the Ground, by Robert Paul Blumenstein (Quantum Spirit Press) (ISBN 978-1457508806)

Q Awakening, by G.M Lawrence (Variance LLC) (ISBN 978-1935142539)

The Kriterion Saga: The World Between, by Belva Rae Staples (Tate Publishing and Enterprises) (ISBN 978-1617779633)

The Will Changers: Dark Forces Rising, by Chad Wilkinson & M.S Rogers (Westbow Press) (ISBN 978-1449774066)

 

Book Title Choice

I forgot to reveal the polling results.  While I did not get a huge response, the overwhelming choice for the title of my next fantasy novel was: Through Emerald Eyes.

Thank you to those who took the time and thought to participate in this opinion poll. I like your choice, but can't guarantee the publisher will agree. I will keep you updated. Production will not begin until May, so we have quite a while to wait!

Cast Your Vote

Dear Readers,

I am asking for your help in selecting the title for my upcoming novel which is the third in The Kriterion Saga series. I am conducting a poll here at Mainely Mug Ups and would appreciate your input, so please cast your vote by 1/31/13. Simply click on the first item on the sidebar to make your selection. I promise to let everyone know the results. Thank you in advance.

Sincerely,

Belva Rae Staples

A Letter to My Readers

Dear Friends,

I hope you've had as wonderful a Christmas as I have and that you'll enjoy a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year. I want to take a moment to thank each and every one of you for your friendship and support over this past year. Your kind comments about my work mean more to me than you will ever know.

For the immediate future I am forced to reduce the number of posts at Mainely Mug Ups because I desperately need to go back to work on my third book in order to see it available on the market in time for next Christmas. Please bear with me on this. I want to turn out something of quality that is worthy of my readers. The timing is of the utmost importance on this particular book. When and if you buy a copy, you will see why. I will still try to do one or two posts a week until I finish this project. After completion, I'll go back to posting on an almost daily basis. God bless you and thanks for understanding my situation.

Sincerely,
Belva Rae Staples

The Kriterion Saga: The World Between Chapter One

I have decided to share chapter one of The Kriterion Saga: The World Between with you free of charge. Enjoy!

To obtain your own copy visit:
www.amazon.com/author/belvaraestaples

Miss MacAlpin Begins the Saga


Many years ago, when I was just a boy of eight or nine—
I can’t remember which—I met a delightful elderly lady
who changed my life forever. I seemed drawn to her by some
strange magnetic force. It was more than just her pleasant charm
and her kindly smile. I think I saw something in those deep, blue
eyes that spoke to my soul. She had the kind of eyes that have the
twinkle of youth even though she was quite old. You could see
from those shining eyes that she never forgot what it was to be a
child and I imagine that she had had a childhood well spent. In
my mind, I can picture her lying in a field of daisies looking up at
the clouds and not only seeing shapes of animals and other things
in them, but creating elaborate stories about each thing she saw.
She saw something in me, too, that no one else ever did. She
saw a boy with a vivid imagination and a great curiosity about life.
She caused my imagination to grow to exponential proportions
and for that I shall be forever thankful. Yes, Miss MacAlpin and
I became the best of friends and I spent many long afternoons
in her company. My mother didn’t seem to mind my prolonged
absences. She said that she could get a lot more done without me
constantly underfoot to slow her down with all my stories and
infernal questions.

Miss MacAlpin always referred to me as Georgie O’Dell.
Never in her long life did she ever call me George or even
Georgie, and I would never ever presume to call her anything
other than Miss MacAlpin. I had far too much respect for that
great lady to resort to calling her by her first name. In fact, I never
knew her first name until a decade later.
One day, during one of our storytelling sessions, she revealed
to me something of her ancestry. She told me that she was a
descendant of the very first king of Scotland. That was a faraway
land where she said strange things happen so often that the
strange seems almost commonplace. She had a disdain for people
who always pooh-poohed everything they couldn’t explain.
She said that just because we haven’t seen a place or a creature
certainly does not mean that the place or creature does not exist.
She always said, “Unless we have proof positive that it doesn’t
exist, I firmly choose to believe that it does.” I agreed with
her wholeheartedly.
She proceeded to tell me a saga that she said would seem odd and
a little scary, but she said that she just had to tell someone the
story because she did not think that she possessed the talent it
would require to write the tale herself, and she was worried that
it would become lost forever. She had no children or grandchildren
of her own to pass it along to, so she told me that since she
loved me like her own, she would entrust the tale to me with one
condition: I must give my solemn promise that I would commit
the story to paper and share it with the world when I became a
man. She knew it deserved to be read by children and parents
alike. She said that it was too important to be lost and she hoped
it would serve as a warning.

Since I am now a grown man and have decided it is time to
pursue a career in writing, I am going to begin by keeping my
promise. While it is my plan to write as many books as possible,
I know in my heart that I must begin with this story. It would be
selfish and wrong of me to do otherwise, so I will try my best to
relate the saga exactly as it was told to me.
We were sitting in our comfortable chairs in her parlor, when
she began the tale. She seemed to be trying not to make a big
deal out of it at first, so with little fanfare Miss MacAlpin began.
Long, long ago, in a time shortly after the dawn of creation God
also created another land more beautiful than our own. It was
a land only visible to those true believers whose vision had not
been marred by the poison of doubt. He called this land Kriterion
and filled it with inhabitants much like us. In fact, they are so
similar to us that you can scarcely tell the difference at all. They
do seem to be a taller, more statuesque race with skin that is
creamy in color or sometimes when of royal lineage, their skin
is golden. The nobility in Kriterion have something else that
sets them apart from humans and the rest of the population living
there. Their blood is a golden color instead of the usual red.
Those that become royalty at death also have golden blood, but
the rest do not. Our real differences, though, lie in matters of
the heart and spirit. Kriterionites seem to have a clearer sense of
right and wrong than humans have, a more sensitive conscience,
and a deeper gratitude for the gifts and the world they have been
given. That doesn’t mean that every Kriterionite is good, mind
you. Some are bad. The Creator endowed them with something
called free will just like He did humans, but it seems like most of
them tend to choose good over evil most of the time.

For centuries, people believing in the existence of Kriterion
or (“true believers,” as they are called there) have longed to venture
across the boundary between the visible and invisible to gain
access to the wonders of this land. Good humans have never posed
a problem in any way to Kriterionites. The trips they make are
rare, though, and are becoming rarer as fewer and fewer of them
choose to truly believe in the place. It seems like they are losing
something precious. I think they are losing the ability to believe
in anything they can’t concretely prove true and real. Unless they
can see, taste, hear or touch something with their senses, they
deny its existence. Kriterionites think this is sad and dangerous.
The problem with human true believers is that they are not all
of the good variety. Some true believers are evil to the core. Some
of them seem to be trying to not only venture over the boundary
between the visible and invisible to gain access to Kriterion, but
to be trying to subjugate those living there. They have brought
destruction, shame, and sadness to humans in their own world
and still they hunger to cause trouble in yet another.
At this point in the story, Miss MacAlpin paused for a minute
or more and then looked me in the eye gravely and said, “I think
I had better warn you before we continue, Georgie O’Dell, that
this will not be one of my usual stories of elves, fairies or trolls.”
She certainly had my full and undivided attention.
I sat up straighter in my chair and then leaned slightly forward
in preparation for just what she might say next. I had never in my short life seen her with such a solemn expression on her face.
She continued, “What is contained in this story is rather
painful to talk about really and if I didn’t think the story was
important, I wouldn’t tell you about it at all. I think after knowing you for some time now, though, you can handle it. If you’d rather I didn’t continue, tell me and we can forget the whole thing. I think we should just take a little break now and have our hot, spiced cider and doughnuts while you think all this over.”
I tried to assure Miss MacAlpin that I would rather she
continue on with the story now and skip the refreshments for
that day.
She simply said, “We had better take our break as usual and
fortify ourselves against what will prove to be a very long afternoon.
Come and help me in the kitchen, Georgie O’Dell.”
I trailed along behind her to the kitchen and all the while the
suspense was killing me. I thought, “She is certainly on a dramatic roll today.” I got out her special silver tray that she always preferred to use for our afternoon refreshments, while she started to heat the cider. She always put cloves in and other spices, but the best part was the aromatic cinnamon sticks. Her kitchen was a place of wonders to me as a boy. She made the best treats around. She turned on the oven to heat up the doughnuts, while I arranged them on the pan. She knew just how long to heat them up so that they had a nice, crispy outside while keeping the inside soft. I think she must have been what some people would call a perfectionist because she always insisted on doing everything properly. She also believed in never rushing anything because she said it was offensive to God if one didn’t take care to fully enjoy each minute of the day He has given us. That day was no exception.
I could see that she didn’t plan to hurry and for once it was
driving me nearly insane. Finally, we had everything ready and
headed back to the sitting room, where I deposited the tray on
the little square table she had put there for that purpose. We ate our delicious snack and talked about all sorts of other silly things until we had finished. Then I marched back to the kitchen with the tray and put it on her countertop next to the sink.
When I had reseated myself in the sitting room she said,
“Have you formed your decision?”
I tried to sound as calm as possible when I made my reply, but
I was so excited that my voice broke and came out with a squeak.

“Yes, I have,” I said. “I would like very much for you to continue the story. I think that you are right about me being able to handle it. After all, I’m quite a bit older than I was when you first met me.”
“Well then, I shall by all means continue, but if anything at all
makes you uncomfortable, let me know and I will stop. I certainly
do not wish to be the cause of a little boy’s nightmares,” she said.
With all that out of the way, she finally decided the time was
right to pick up where she left off. She was without question the
best storyteller I have ever seen or heard. 


Don't forget to enter my Goodreads Giveaway! You could be the lucky winner or a free copy of this great book!  

www.amazon.com/author/belvaraestaples