Solomon’s Bell
The Genie Chronicles Book 2
By
Michelle Lowery Combs
66,000
words * Young Adult Fantasy / Historical Fantasy /
Paranormal Mystery
Author
Bio:
Michelle
Lowery Combs is an award-winning writer and book blogger living in rural
Alabama with her husband, one cat and too many children to count. She
spends her spare time commanding armies of basketball and soccer munchkins for
the Parks & Recreation departments of two cities. When not in the presence
of throngs of toddlers, tweens and teens, Michelle can be found neglecting her
roots and dreaming up the next best seller. She is a member of the Alabama
Writers’ Conclave, Jacksonville State University’s Writers’ Club and her local
Aspiring Authors group. Check Michelle out at her website MichelleLoweryCombs.com
Social Media Links:
Author: https://twitter.com/miclowery77
Publisher: https://twitter.com/WorldWeaver_wwp
Blurb:
To save her family, Ginn uses her
newfound genie powers to transport herself and her friends to 16th century
Prague. Only one thing there remains the same as at home: she can't let anyone know what she really is.
The Emperor of Prague and those closest
to him are obsessed with magic. In pursuit of it, they’ve waged war on the
citizens of their city. In the citizens' defense, someone has brought to life a
golem, a dangerous being with connections to an artifact capable of summoning
and commanding an entire army of genies. Can Ginn escape the notice of the
Emperor as she attempts to discover a way to defeat Prague’s golem in time to
save her family from a similar creature?
Solomon's
Bell is the sequel to Heir to the Lamp and the second book of the Genie Chronicles series.
Buy
Links:
World Weaver Press: http://www.worldweaverpress.com/store/p115/Solomon%27s_Bell_%28Genie_Chronicles%2C_Book_2%29.html
Excerpt:
Haley
Hardy blinks up at me, her big blue eyes made larger with surprise. Haley’s the
newbie: a tiny ten-year-old my family has been fostering for the last few
months. Mom and Dad want to adopt Haley, but she hasn’t decided on Charles and
Molly Lawson and their chaotic brood of six children yet.
“What’s
up, Haley?” I ask, trying to sound as though I don’t know she’s seen me appear
from out of nowhere. I turn my back to her, retrieve the lamp from the ground,
and stuff it into my pack.
“Sixty-four
percent of people believe the Loch Ness monster really exists,” Haley says in
her high voice. “Of course, you’d have to use a point zero one significance
level to test that claim; the survey I saw was online.”
Half the
time I have no idea what Haley is talking about. She’s insanely smart—a genius
even. I can practically feel my IQ plummet whenever I try to have a
conversation with her.
“Um,
really?” I ask, trying to imagine where this is going. Haley half turns toward
the open door of the small barn as if she’s about to leave. I sigh with relief,
but Haley seems to think better of it and turns to face me again.
“Did you
know that there’s an ongoing project to have collected evidence validated by
science and the Sasquatch officially recognized as a species?”
What? “Haley, where do you come
up with this stuff?” I sink onto the wooden bench behind me, peering into the
bright eyes of the strangest kid I’ve ever met.
“I like to
read,” she says, looking away. Between her right thumb and first two thin
fingers, Haley rolls the fat glass marble she carries with her at all times.
Mom says it’s a kind of security object, like how some kids develop attachments
to stuffed toys or blankets from their babyhood. Mom also says the rest of us
kids shouldn’t make a huge deal about it. Haley’s been in six foster homes in
five years, and Mom figures the marble could be a keepsake from her life before
all that, though Haley hasn’t said as much. She’s so intense sometimes; I don’t
think anyone knows what to make of her. Mom says some of the other foster
families exploited Haley; she’s been on a major talk show and even won
twenty-five thousand dollars for one of her foster families on some game show
before they abandoned her on the steps of the Children’s Methodist Home on
their way to Las Vegas. Watching her with her marble, seeing how slowly she
works the ball of glass flecked with every color of the rainbow, I can tell I’ve
hurt her feelings.
“Reading’s
cool,” I say, hoping to reassure her. Sure, I thought about divorcing my
parents when I found out we were taking in another kid, even when in the
beginning the arrangement was supposed to be only temporary, but I kind of like
the little brainiac. Mostly because of the way she’s able to keep Eli and
Jasper in line. The Twosome are crazy about our new foster sister. Part of me
is starting to wonder if Haley’s stats on Bigfoot could have anything to do
with the boys’ obsession with B-grade horror movies.
“I’d be
satisfied with being half as smart as you, Haley. I’m having the worst time in
algebra.”
“Mr.
Lawson is teaching me trigonometry,” Haley says brightening. “Algebra was a
breeze.” My parents are homeschooling Haley; they say it’s for the best. She’d
be at least a junior at my high school otherwise. I can imagine all four and a
half feet of her struggling on tip-toe to reach a locker—that is if her
statistics about the Loch Ness Monster didn’t get her stuffed into it. “I’m happy
to tutor you,” she tells me.
“Thanks.
I’ll keep that in mind.”
I stand
and watch Haley eye the backpack on my shoulder. She looks from my face to the
pack a few times. I think she’s about to say something about what she’s seen or
thinks she’s seen with the lamp when Jasper bursts through the barn door.
“Hay-wee!”
he exclaims. “We need wou, quick! I fink we found a chupacabwa!”
“It’s
highly unlikely that a goat sucker or el chupacabra would be found this
far north of Latin America, Jasper,” Haley says. She corrects my seven-year-old
brother even as she allows him to tug her excitedly from the barn.
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