THE THIRTEENTH by G.L. Twynham - Showcase and Excerpt

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Title: The Thirteenth

Author: G.L. Twynham

Series: The Thirteenth Series

Genre: YA Sci-Fi Fantasy

Publisher: Self Published

Release Date: November 9 2009

Editions/Formats Available In:  Kindle/Print/Audio Book

Blurb/Synopsis:

Imagine starting at the end and finishing back at the beginning.  This is the story of a teenage girl called Valerie Saunders who is about to be thrown through time and space. Being bestowed with abilities beyond her wildest nightmares, she discovers that she not only has to deal with turning eighteen, her first job and an unwanted tattoo, but also magical powers and intense urges to fall in love. She envisaged she would spend her life blending into the scenery, not blowing it up!

Val has a calling, but which side is dialling her number? 

How did you choose your genre or did it choose you?

We need to go right back to my youth for this. First Sci-fi infection was Star Wars at the age of five. That’s one that stayed with me for life. I actually watched Star Wars: A New Hope today. But my main influence was Flash Gordon – the 1936 black and white episodes with Buster Crabb. It would be aired every Saturday morning and always ended on a cliff hanger which would leave me wondering what had happened to Flash for a whole seven days.

Them my father kindly introduced me to the audio of War of The Worlds and the Flash Gordon Movie made in 1981. I grew up with the original Wonder Woman, Spiderman and Hulk TV series. I would watch anything slightly out of this world. So when it came to writing my book it was the one thing I wanted – something that in all that amazing mixture was missing – A British Female Superhero.

So to answer the question, my life chose Sci-fi for me and I’m very grateful it did.

 Born in Wellingborough in 1972, Georgia was brought up with her two older brothers in a sleepy Leicestershire village until at the age of fifteen, her parents decided to move abroad, taking her with them. A new country and a new language helped her come out of her shell and for eleven years, she lived and worked on the beautiful island of Menorca.

Georgia wrote short stories and poetry from an early age but her real passion for writing didn’t truly emerge until she was 31. Writing for her own web site and articles for magazines helped to support her and her daughter. After meeting her now fiancé, she was given the encouragement and opportunity to write full-time and the rest is history. 

Chapter 1

The Tattoo

A young woman stood alone looking up at the night sky, a cool breeze effortlessly caressing her slim frame as darkness closed around her. At long last it would be her turn to be part of something that had been her destiny since birth.

She moved on, passing the pond; she caught her reflection in the water and smiled. The time had arrived; the moon had reached the tops of the trees. On this particular evening, the shadows of the dense woods, mixed with the bruised sky made the adventure that lay ahead seem all the more exciting.

As she left the village behind and made her way into the woodland, her body filled with anticipation. She began to run.

Knowing instinctively where to go, she weaved like a needle in and out of the undergrowth, dodging the trees as if they were merely smoke trails rising in front of her.

She was moving swiftly when an unfamiliar sound suddenly stopped her dead in her tracks. A strange crackling in the air made every hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Something was very wrong. She span around, trying to find where it was coming from, but soon realized it was everywhere. Then, as suddenly as it had started, it stopped.

She had cautiously started to move forward again, when the silence was shattered once more by another wave of sound. In the confusion, her foot caught under a loose tree root, causing her to fall awkwardly into a pile of leaves. Before she had time to stand up, she heard violent screams coming from the distance. These weren’t joyful cries; the cries of pleasure and happiness she had been expecting. These turned her blood cold and left her paralyzed where she lay on the wet forest floor, her heart pounding.

After a few seconds, she gathered enough courage to slowly lift herself up and move forward again. She was suddenly very frightened, aware of the risk she was taking just by being there. She darted to an old oak tree, hiding for a moment in the shelter of its huge trunk.

Cautiously, she edged around it. Everything was quiet again so she leant the top half of her body out, to see if it was safe. In that split second a ball of light came towards her, travelling at amazing speed and growing as it came, until it seemed to be the size of a mountain.

When it hit her, its power engulfed her whole body and she was instantly lifted off the ground. She screamed helplessly as it raised her into the treetops.

Her ears filled with a piercing noise, like nothing she had ever heard before. Her whole body felt like it was burning up, yet still she kept rising and rising, until she was high above the trees.

Then the light and noise stopped as quickly and as it had started. Her upward flight came to a violent halt, and she began to fall. As she tumbled through the trees, the thick branches scratched aggressively at her clothes and face. The ground came towards her at terrifying speed. The scream that was struggling to escape her was silenced when she hit the ground with tremendous force. Her body filled with pain, the taste of warm blood filled her mouth, and she slipped into unconsciousness.

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Author Links

Website:    www.thethirteenth.co.uk

Facebook:    https://www.facebook.com/TheThirteenthSeries  

Twitter:    https://twitter.com/GLTwynham

Blog:    http://gltwynhamthethirteenth.blogspot.co.uk/

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