What's under Atticus Everheart and Draco Dracul's beds?

What’s Under the Bed…

We’re entering the bedroom of three school-aged boys, so a mask and a pair of gloves are a good idea.

Atticus Everheart shares a room with his two older brothers. So it’s not a big surprise that several of the lost socks under Atticus’s bed are two times too big for him. There’s also an empty potato chip bag, a soda can, a pair of red boxers (another article of his brother’s clothing), Legos, a magnifying glass, the fingerprint brush from his brother’s detective bag, his skateboard, and the backpack he never leaves home without. Atticus knows about the last two items. There’s also a family of dust bunnies that have been hiding from the vacuum for at least a year now.

A few blocks away, on Tepes Lane, you’ll find Dracul manor and Drago Dracul. Under his bed are empty blood bags, candy wrappers, rubber spiders, a comb, and a bow tie. There’s also a copy of Thirteen Ways to Blend in with Humans, a must-have book according to his grandfather. There is also the glow-bat stuffed animal his mom gave him when he was three and afraid of the dark (Drago will deny ever being scared of such things), and the mouse Drago believes he compelled to leave the manor. The mouse rather likes having the glow-bat there to keep him company.

What would we find under your bed? (Mine has a few dust bunnies—they’re not related to the ones under Atticus’s bed.)

What readers are saying!

"It's the perfect Halloween read as it presents creepy elements without being scary or dreary. I loved the characters and the mystery." - The Real Word to Sam

Atticus is a cute kid and the other supporting characters were interesting and funny. I could totally picture this as a movie!" - Goodreads Reviewer

Sometimes it takes an ordinary ten-year-old to save the day.

Book Blurb:

Nothing frightens Atticus Everheart more than monsters, thanks to his older brothers, who often threaten to feed him to the beastly creatures.

Fearing that’s what they will do if he doesn’t replace the book he accidentally ruined, he takes a job tutoring a boy in his neighborhood.

Although nervous about the job, Atticus soon discovers there’s a lot more in store for him than teaching. Never in a trillion years would he have imagined he’d be hiding from monsters, working with ghosts, or searching for werewolves and witches. He’s not brave, and he has no plans to change.

Until he’s forced to.

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Friends to the End bonus Scene

Hi, Lovely Readers!

The birthday of my middle-grade action/advaenture Friends to the End is this month, and I thought it would be fun to re-share a bonus scene written from Morgan's POV. This scene shares with you what she found related to Grimace Grove Cemetery and Wayward Lane. 

Happy reading!

FRIENDS TO THE END

by C.L. Colyer

Bonus scene from Morgan’s POV

 

Morgan grabbed a can of soda and headed to her dad’s study to use his laptop. If her brothers wouldn’t tell her more about the vanishing house, she’d search the internet. She sat in the big leather chair, pulled her auburn curls into a low ponytail, and typed ‘vanishing house + Wayward Lane’ into the browser. The top result led to a real estate company, but others caught her eye. She clicked on one of them. A post from a popular ghost-hunting TV show filled the screen. The opening hiss of the soda can pierced the silence in the study. Morgan took a sip before leaning forward to read the article.
 

What Lurks in the Dark on Wayward Lane?

 

About an hour outside of Chicago, tucked between the homes along Wayward Lane, is Grimace Grove Cemetery, one of Illinois’s most haunted graveyards. Visit one day and you may see white lights floating between the tombstones, while on another, hazy human-like figures standing by the fence. Listen closely and you may hear the whispers of people long dead. But the strange phenomenon doesn’t stop at the graveyard. Visitors to the area have reported other bizarre sightings, none of which can be explained by experts. Who and what might be the cause of these unexplained events? We took a closer look at the town's sordid past and recorded it below—you be the judge. 
 
The gangsters who visited the town for rest and relaxation during prohibition were known to cause trouble—illegal trouble. Is the shadowy cigar-smoking man who has been spotted in the middle of the street one of the former gangsters? Witnesses describe him as a stout guy, wearing a suit and a bowler hat like the ones worn back in the 1920s. A woman even claims he called her the “bee’s knees” as his spectral form blinked in and out of view. Is he the ghost of Franky—on the lam—Hood? You tell me.
 
Equally as disturbing as the ghost of a gangster are the reports of a phantom Model A roadster that barrels past oncoming traffic, leaving in its wake the roar of men’s laughter and machine gunfire. My money is on these men being more of the mobsters who used to frequent the neighborhood. 

 

Reports of a young woman dressed in fringe and pearls, dancing the Charleston in the middle of the road are common. Drivers who stopped to tell her to get off the road swear that she vanished into thin air when they rolled down their windows. Eyewitnesses later matched her image to photos of Mary Porter, a nineteen-year-old flapper who died in a car accident on that exact stretch of the road in April 1923. She had been on her way home from a popular speakeasy, where she worked as a flapper.
 
But perhaps the most intriguing of the legends surrounding Wayward Lane is that of the disappearing house. This ghost hunter hasn’t found proof that the house, which is often described as an old Victorian-styled home with a long front porch, ever existed on the physical plain. But locals insist this home, known for having housed a venerated Civil War hero, burned down in the 1870s and that it, along with his wife, refuse to let go.

 
The mystery surrounding the house and its occupants may never be solved. Are the locals correct in saying that this house is occupied by the ghost of its last resident? Did her unwavering belief that her husband would return from the war and her determination to be there when he did trap her and the house in a time loop? Romantic? Yes. True? I’ll let you be the judge.

 
No wonder Morgan’s brothers refused to talk about the house and why her parents had forbidden her to search for it. Clearly, they believed the stories––maybe even thought she’d be kidnapped or swept away by the ghosts that lived there. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. Adults can be so gullible sometimes.
 
She clicked back to the search results. The next blog post had similar information about Wayward Lane and Grimace Grove Cemetery. A chill went through her. It also confirmed what her brothers had warned her happened to anyone inside of the house when it vanished: 
 

Rumors of people disappearing along with the house date back to the Civil War, when a soldier was last spotted entering that home and was never seen again. Others are believed to have met the same grim fate when they went to investigate decades later.  

 
Every article, post, and newsletter Morgan read had a slightly different version of the legend, but the result was always the same. Wayward Lane was haunted. Decade after decade, dozens of people had witnessed things they couldn’t explain. Morgan let out a low whistle. Ghosts existed, and she lived within biking distance of the second most haunted location in Illinois.

She couldn't wait to tell Zach the exciting news.

📚 📚 📚

2021 Best Middle-Grade Finalist – N.N. Light Book Awards

 

“A compelling, gripping nail-biting page-turner. You’ll be on the edge of your seat waiting...dreading?... what happens next. I know you won’t be able to put the book down (I couldn’t).” ~ Allan Woodrow, bestselling author of over 30 books for children

 

“Friends to the End is a wonderful middle-grade paranormal mystery from start to finish ~ N.N. Light Book Heaven

Read FRIENDS TO THE END today

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The inspiration behind Grimace Grove Cemetery is loosely based on stories surrounding White Cemetery that I had heard as a teenager. Friends to the End is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of my imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales are entirely coincidental. 

 

Peek between the pages of Salted Caramel Bliss with a Wedding Kiss

Cozy summer romance anyone? Curl up with my small town romance, Salted Caramel Bliss with a Wedding Kiss, and you might just find yourself swooning over the ice cream man.

Peek between the pages...

The man who had broken my heart on my twenty- third birthday walked out of the backroom. Eight years was a long time. My heart had since healed. Or so I had thought. Seeing him again ripped open old wounds. And darn it if he didn’t look as attractive now as he did then. It would have been easier to run into him again if he were fat, bald, and ugly. But he was just as handsome as before—all tall and sinewy. He still wore his black hair shaved close to his head, and I recognized his Hawaiian shirt as one I’d bought.

After the long road trip, I had to be a sight and not a knock ’em dead one. I almost twitched my nose, ready to cast a spell to smooth my hair and add a little color to my cheeks, but stopped. With my luck, magic would decide the enchantment was for personal gain and turn me into a hag. I ran a hand over my head instead.

“A customer thinks your ice cream is delicious. What else?” Karly said.

“Thank you.” Roman threw a friendly grin my way. His mouth fell open. “Peyton?”

Since vanishing in a puff of green smoke wasn’t an option—partially because it would expose magic and partly because I wasn’t even sure that was possible—I returned his smile. I wouldn’t let him see me rattled.

“Do you two know each other?” Karly asked.

“Ah...yeah.” Roman’s jaw muscle twitched the way it always did when he was flustered. I bet he wished he could vanish in a puff of smoke too.

Title: Salted Caramel Bliss with a Wedding Kiss

Series: One Scoop or Two (each book is standalone)
Author: Cherie Colyer
Cover artist: RJ Morris
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Genres: Contemporary Paranormal Romance
Heat rating: PG13 Spicy

Book Blurb:
Roman Briggs built a life for himself in Siren’s Cove. He restored the Sugar Cones Ice Cream Parlor and turned it into a popular stop along the boardwalk. He has everything he needs until a certain blue-eyed woman wanders back into his life.

Seer and witch Peyton Woods isn’t sure why her latest visions feature a man and boy she’s never met. Determined to find out, she casts a spell that leads her to a small beach town in Maine and, to her utter surprise, the man who broke her heart eight years earlier.

Peyton's left with one question. Why didn't her magic show her him?

Grab you copy today!

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Add to your TBR on Goodreads ~ Bookbub

🍦🍦🍦🍦🍦

Peek Between the Pages of Isaac & the Prince of Fae

Isaac and the Prince of Fae starts before Embrace and before Isaac meets Madison Riley, the heroine in the series. It chronicles an important week in Isaac’s past. The hunt for the legendary sea creature and the events that followed are briefly mentioned in Hold Tight. These events shaped Isaac in a major way and are the reason he preaches control and the use of positive emotions to fuel magic.

Happy reading!


Peek between the pages...

”Breathe!” I screamed as I administered CPR to my friend James. Our boat bobbed like a forgotten inner tube off the Massachusetts coast, making it difficult for me to keep the chest compressions even. The frantic screams coming from nearby boats faded. I wiped rain from my eyes and blew into James’ mouth.

“Try a locator spell to find Serpie,” he had said a few minutes earlier. “Use sonar the way whales and dolphins do.”

Only, I hadn’t been focused. Hadn’t taken the time to draw upon positive emotions to fuel my powers before casting the spell. Magic had exploded out of me, resulting in waves that swelled to heights of five feet. I panicked, cast another spell hoping to counter the first, and inadvertently conjured a storm that darkened the skies and roiled the waters to rival Hurricane Katrina. James was thrown over‐ board. Thankfully, I had been able to scoop him out of the water with a rescue pole.

Son of a bitch! He can’t die. Not like this.

I breathed into his mouth. Waited a second. Went back to chest compressions, our conversation from the day before streaming in my mind.

“Come on, Isaac,” James had said, begging me to go with him on his insane hunt for the infamous sea serpent believed to haunt Gloucester Harbor. “With your magic, my knowl‐ edge of the area, and my uncle’s boat, we’ll be the ones to find old Serpie. We’ll prove to the world she exists. It’ll be fun.”

This was anything but.

The boat pitched, slamming me backward into the star‐ board side. Anger at the weather, at myself for causing it, and at James for not waking the hell up gripped me. I threw my hands up and screamed in frustration. “Enough already!”

For the third time, uncensored magic exploded out of me. Threads of power pierced the sky, traveling through the clouds like wildfire. Blood-orange and purple streaks devoured the gray cover, leaving behind a blue palette so pale it was almost void of color. The water calmed. The scent of burnt steel caught in my throat. My powers had never smelled this vile, but I’d never used fear and fury to fuel them, until now.

About the Book

Isaac and the Prince of Fae

Genre: YA Fantasy, Adventure

Book length: Novella

Blurb:
Isaac knows the importance of fueling his magical powers with positive emotions. It’s been the simplest of rules to follow until now.

When Heather, a fellow witch, begs Isaac to help her reverse a spell that brought a vindictive faerie into the human realm, Isaac has no choice but to assist. He’s sure there’s a peaceful compromise to her prince of a problem. Only Heather hasn’t been entirely truthful about why this dangerous faerie refuses to leave. He’s even more powerful than Isaac. That is, if Isaac doesn’t tap into dark magic. When the faerie threatens to harm the people Isaac cares about, he abandons civility. He’ll burn down the faerie realm to protect his loved ones—if the faerie doesn’t kill him first.

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Peek between the pages of Damned When I Didn't

Imagine waking up one day and finding out you’re a succubus. A female demon who feeds on human intimacy. And you’re a virgin. That’s the nightmare that Avery Williams faces in my YA paranormal romance, Damned When I Didn’t, a unique coming of age story about family, friendship, and living with the consequences of one’s choices.

Peek between the pages...

     It wasn’t the things I remembered that scared the crap out of me. It was the things I didn’t.

     Take that night, for instance. I knew I’d been at the same party as my fifteen-year-old sister. She’d been laughing at something her friend had said. Caleb Higgins, the guy I’d been crushing on senior year, had come over to talk to me. I remembered feeling panicked at some point during the party and hearing my friends’ heart-stopping screams. But my strongest memory—the one that haunts me even now as I run my hand over the smooth skin on my stomach—was of the sharp pain that had pierced my body just below my rib cage. I’d thought I’d died. Thought I’d glimpsed the Bright Light. But soon after, I wasn’t sure of anything. Like how I’d ended up at the hospital. There was no mistaking that’s where I was. I recognized the curved wooden reception desk in the waiting room from the time my sister had broken her arm.

     I stood near the closed double doors leading into the emergency room, wearing dirty jeans, baby-blue flip-flops, and a too-thin, pale-rose tank top, freezing my butt off. Why were hospitals always so cold? Seriously, there were sick people there. A little heat might have done them wonders.

     A disbelieving giggle bubbled up my throat. The temperature in the waiting room was the least of my worries.

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I’m delighted with the feedback I’ve received.

Winner Best Paranormal Romance 2021

"Damned When I Didn’t is such a fun paranormal romance, I loved every minute of it. ... If you’re looking for a paranormal romance with a fresh take and snarky dialogue, pick up Damned When I Didn’t. Highly recommend!" - N.N. Light Book Heaven

"This novel serves up a unique story that brings many different characters together in a breathtaking read." - InD'Tale Magazine

"Damned If I Didn't is the perfect mix of romance, drama, and friendship. You won't be disappointed!" - Goodreads Reviewer

Damned When I Didn’t is a YA novel that will make you laugh, cry, and swoon. It’s a story of love, friendship, and self-discovery that will keep you on the edge or your seat. If you’re looking for a fresh and fun paranormal romance, you won’t regret giving it a try. You can find it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or your favorite online bookstore. And if you do read it, please let me know what your think. I’d love to hear from you!

Grab a copy!