Forthcoming from Solstice Shadows Publishing on February 4,
2014
Fairy, Texas
Fairy, Texas. A small town like any
other.
Laney Harris didn't want to live there. When her mother remarried and moved them to a town where a date meant hanging out at the Sonic, Laney figured that "boring" would have a whole new meaning. A new stepsister who despised her and a high school where she was the only topic of gossip were bad enough. But when she met the school counselor (and his terminal bad breath), she grew suspicious. Especially since he had wings that only she could see. And then there were Josh and Mason, two gorgeous glimmering-eyed classmates whose interest in her might not be for the reasons she hoped. Not to mention that dead guy she nearly tripped over in gym class.
She was right. Boring took on an entirely new dimension in Fairy, Texas.
Laney Harris didn't want to live there. When her mother remarried and moved them to a town where a date meant hanging out at the Sonic, Laney figured that "boring" would have a whole new meaning. A new stepsister who despised her and a high school where she was the only topic of gossip were bad enough. But when she met the school counselor (and his terminal bad breath), she grew suspicious. Especially since he had wings that only she could see. And then there were Josh and Mason, two gorgeous glimmering-eyed classmates whose interest in her might not be for the reasons she hoped. Not to mention that dead guy she nearly tripped over in gym class.
She was right. Boring took on an entirely new dimension in Fairy, Texas.
_____________________________________________
Excerpt 1:
Fairy High could have fit into one wing of my old school. The
three-story, red brick building looked like it had been around for at least a
century—it actually had carvings over two of the doorways that read “Men’s
Entrance” and “Women’s Entrance.” I was glad to see that none of the kids paid
any attention to those instructions.
“Counselor’s
office,” I muttered to myself. At least I wasn’t starting in the middle of a
term—though given the fact that there were fewer than 500 students in the
entire high school, I didn’t think I was going to be able to go unnoticed, even
in the general bustle of the first day back from summer vacation.
I walked through
the door marked “Men’s Entrance,” just be contrary, and faced a long hallway
lined with heavy wooden doors. The spaces in between the doors were filled with
lockers and marble staircases with ornate hand-rails flanked each end of the
long hallway. Students poured in behind me, calling out greetings to each other
and jostling me off to the side while I tried to get my bearings. None of the
doors obviously led to a main office; I was going to have to walk the entire
length of the hallway. And people were already starting to stare and whisper.
God. I hated
being the new kid.
I took a deep
breath and stepped forward. I made it halfway down the hall without seeing
anything informative—all the doors had numbers over them and many of them had
name plaques, but neither of those things did me any good since I didn’t know
the name or office number for the counselor. I was almost getting desperate
enough to ask Kayla, but of course she was nowhere to be seen.
I turned back
from scanning the halls for her and caught sight of the first adult I’d
seen—and almost screamed. As it was, I gasped loudly enough for a guy walking
past me to do a double take. The man standing in the open doorway was tall,
over six feet, and way skinny—so emaciated that it looked like you ought to be
able to see his ribs through his shirt, if his shirt didn’t hang so loosely on
him. He had white hair that stuck out in tufts, thin lips, a sharp nose, and
pale blue eyes that narrowed as he watched the kids walk past—and all the kids
gave him a wide berth without even seeming to notice that they did so. He stood
in an empty circle while students streamed around him in the crowded hallway.
But none of that
was what made me almost scream.
For a moment,
just as I’d turned toward him, I could have sworn that I’d seen the shadow of
two huge, black, leathery wings stretched out behind him.
_____________________________________________
Excerpt 2:
“Okay, girls,”
Coach Spencer yelled above the chatter around me. “We’re going to get warmed up
for this year with a little run around the outer track.” She gestured toward a
field off to the right of the building. I could see a dirt track wending its
way along the edge, disappearing into a copse of stubby trees and scrub brush
at the far end. “Four laps,” Spencer added. A general groan went up, and I was
glad that the discussion at lunch had distracted me from eating too much. Late
August in Texas is hot.
“Well?” the coach
said. “Get going!”
We started off at
a trot toward the field, many of the girls around me still complaining. For a
moment, I considered hanging back with the crowd, but Andrew had told me that
Spencer coached the girls’ track team. I wanted to impress her. So I stretched
my legs out as I hit the track and settled in to a long stride, my breathing
still easy.
The afternoon sun
beat down on my head. I watched the small grove grow closer, anxious for some
shade. By the time I hit the bend in the track that led into the thicket, I was
yards ahead of the rest of the runners—so when I rounded the curve and tripped
over the body, I was all alone.
It didn’t take
long for everyone else to catch up, but it seemed like an eternity as I
scrambled back, crab-like. It took a moment for my brain to translate the
messages my eyes were sending it—the images coalesced slowly, like one of those
magic pictures with the 3D images inside.
He had been
stretched out spread-eagle across the trail, head and feet half-concealed in
the brush on either side. Blood pooled around him, sticky and half-dried at the
edges. His shirt had been ripped open and a slash opened him from his throat to
his stomach.
As the other
girls rounded the bend, I realized that the high, keening noise in the
background was the sound of my own screaming. As soon as I realized it, I
stopped, but several of my classmates picked up where I left off.
My hands and
knees were coated with blood where I had landed; my skin was tacky with it. I
crawled over to the nearest bush and vomited.
Coach Spencer
shoved her way through the girls and stuttered to a stop, her hand to her
mouth. “Oh, God,” she said. “It’s Cody Murphy.”
_____________________________________________
Excerpt 3:
I was partnered with
Mason Collier, the infamous football-playing, cute, but possibly black-magicky
friend-of-Bartlef I’d heard about at lunch. I looked around and saw a guy
waving at me from across the room. He was looking at me kind of like he was
hungry and maybe I was breakfast. It worried me.
Still, at least I hadn’t been paired up with Kayla. It could have
been much worse.
“Okay,” Carlson said. “Go ahead and meet with your partner and
plan your strategy.”
Mason and I stood up at the same time and walked toward each
other. I was so busy making sure I didn’t trip over any desks that I didn’t see
Kayla headed toward me until she was right in front of me. And then she leaned
in close to my face and hissed at me. “Don’t get too cozy. He’s way out of your
league.”
I rolled my eyes and moved around her without responding. Three
days. Three days I’d been in Fairy, and already I had an enemy. And I lived in
her house. My life kept getting better and better.
Mason and I met in the middle of the room. Kayla and her friends
huddled nearby, watching us.
“Hey,” Mason said.
“Hey.” Nice, neutral word,
hey. Can mean almost anything. Or nothing.
“So,” he said, “where do you want to start?”
He was asking me? Where I wanted to start was away from here,
where there weren’t any dead boys to trip over.
So much for that option.
_____________________________________________
About the Author
Margo Bond Collins is the author of a
number of novels, including Waking Up
Dead, Fairy, Texas, and Legally Undead (forthcoming in 2014).
She lives in Texas with her husband, their daughter, and several spoiled pets.
She teaches college-level English courses online, though writing fiction is her
first love. She enjoys reading urban fantasy and paranormal fiction of any
genre and spends most of her free time daydreaming about vampires, ghosts,
zombies, werewolves, and other monsters.
_____________________________________________
Connect with Margo
Be sure to add Fairy, Texas to your Goodreads bookshelves: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19502285-fairy-texas
Giveaway
My review
Review of ‘Fairy,Texas’
To be honest this is not a genre that I
would have chosen to read being YA and mystical. However, I am very glad that I
was offered the chance to review this book.
The writing style just flows and the plot
keeps the page turning. There are some wonderful characters in the form of
Laney, who is feisty, funny and experiencing many of the problems that
teenagers face the world over, especially when faced with relocating to a new
town and a step -father and step -sister to contend with. The problems of the
alternative universe such as a counselor with wings and pupils with glowing eyes
I found harder to believe but this is probably only because it’s outside my
preferred genre.
If you are looking for a role model with
normal insecurities yet set in another plane then you will love this novel.
4/5
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