Save $$ on this month's featured book!

 

This month's featured book in the Visitor's Guide to Neighborlee is ON SALE all month on the YeOldeDragonBooks.com website.

Go over to the storefront and save $$ on the print, ebook or audiobook version.

And remember to check back on April 10 for the quiz, to earn points toward free Neighborlee books. All you have to do is listen to Chapter 1 of LIVING PROOF (that no good deed goes unpunished) either on the Ye Olde Dragon's Library podcast page on the YeOldeDragonBooks.com website, or on your favorite podcasting app, then answer the questions, and presto! Points toward free books.

Excerpt: LIVING PROOF (that no good deed goes unpunished), Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 4

 

Felicity's dogs were going nuts, or rather, more nuts than usual, when we pulled into the driveway an hour later. (For those joining the confession late in the game, Felicity lived in my three-car garage, which had been turned into an apartment, and had a bunch of dogs. We're talking rescued strays. Big, drooly, smelly mutts. Felicity was a dog person, part of her semi-pseudo-superhero talent, along with uncontrollable EM bursts.) Between the usual letdown after a performance high and the knots of hunger in my stomach from the smell of that heavenly pizza, I wasn't in the sweetest mood. The big fence around my property kept the dogs relatively contained, but it didn't keep them quiet. When they were noisy, it meant someone had tried to break into my property.

Too bad security was often noisy. No lights were coming on in the houses around us, up and down the street. Translation: those dogs had been yammering and throwing themselves at the fence long enough for everyone to go back to whatever they had been doing before the alarm went off. Which meant, oh joy, the cops would show up any time now.

"Save a slice for Gordon," I warned Pete.

He slid out of the back seat and headed for the ramp to the kitchen door, holding the pizza boxes with all the care such treasure deserved. It was more important to get the food inside and keep it hot in this weather, than it was to get me and my wheelchair inside, after all.

The dog clamor meant Felicity hadn't come home yet. Big surprise. As soon as Harry swung my wheelchair out of the back of the Jeep and unfolded it, they shut up. For all their noise and smell, those dogs were smart. They knew I was the boss. It was my house, and they knew who was the alpha when Felicity wasn't there. Too bad my brothers hadn't learned that lesson yet.

I got to the top of the ramp and paused to use the towel hanging by the door to wipe the ice-melt grit off my wheels before going inside. The big black-and-white truck belonging to Neighborlee PD pulled up before I could go in. The dogs yapped once, then slunk around the side of the house to their kennels. They understood what police were for.

"Hey, Lanie." Gordon unfolded himself from the cab. There was a reason why the PD kept the truck they'd confiscated from some idiots who thought they'd set up a meth lab on the outskirts of Neighborlee. Gordon didn't fit into regular issue vehicles. In fact, he made this heavy-duty machine look a little delicate when he stood beside it. And over it. One of these days, I knew I had to ask him who made his uniforms. Had to be special order.

Firsty Freebie Day!

 

The April Freebie Firsty is JAX. A short story from the AFV Defender series, taking place after HERE THERE WERE DRAGONS.

 Only a Talent can establish communication with the Castitaran dragons, known as numenjax. But when the communication short-circuits Confri and knocks her out cold, she thinks her part in the project is over. Until the numenjax come up with a much more creative plan!

 Use these links to claim your free short story – only good through Wednesday, April 2:

 Ebook: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/wojxtz6lc0

Audiobook:  https://dl.bookfunnel.com/rr5gf10iuv

 

Excerpt: VIRTUALLY LONDON, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 3

 Doni slipped her little hand into mine as we sat around the white wrought iron café table in the main room of Divine's. We sipped pineapple sherbet floats while I talked about my dreams. Angela didn't react. Her expression didn't change, except maybe that funny little smile, indicating she knew more than anyone else about what was going on... Well, it didn't quite fade, but it wasn't as strong as usual. She didn't ask me any questions, just focused her big blue eyes on me and listened until I ran out of words. Angela had a way of listening that made me think she heard more than anyone said. It would have been a relief not to say some of the things I had experienced in my nightmares, just picture them in my mind and have them go directly to hers.

I finished my story. We sat sipping in comfortable silence, for a few more minutes. I felt a lot better, like some pressure had been removed. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that having told Angela, I had fulfilled a responsibility I didn't know I had.

That made sense, I realized. Angela and Divine's Emporium were there in Neighborlee to protect it, or us, or maybe... Well, to be honest, sometimes I was sure there were things in our town that had to be contained in our town. So maybe Divine's protected the world from Neighborlee, instead of just the special people, the oddness, being hidden from the world? By telling Angela about my dream, I was helping her to guard us, or guard something else?

"Guardians," Angela murmured. Her little superior smile edged toward a smirk when I flinched at her word, coming so soon on the heels of my thoughts.

Yeah, I could definitely believe Angela read minds.

"Bethany, would you and Doni go upstairs and get one of my moonlight journals from the chest in my bedroom?" Angela reached inside the neck of her dress and drew out a thin silver chain with a long, crystalline skeleton key hanging from it, and handed chain and key to Bethany.

As the two of them held hands and hurried out of the room, heading for the stairs, Angela's smile faded entirely.

"It's real, isn't it?" I whispered. "The things in my dreams." I swallowed hard. "And you don't want Doni to hear what you're going to tell me about fighting it."

"Right, and yet not entirely." Angela took hold of my hand. "My dear Athena... How I wish you weren't so perceptive, that you hadn't inherited your grandfather's gifts and the responsibilities that come with them. And yet I know, from long years of experience, we are born to duties and burdens. We destroy our souls if we refuse them." She took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, all the while gazing into my eyes. "First, I sent them away because there are things I don't want Bethany to hear. I made a promise to her mother to protect her from the very things you must face because you are Ford Longfellow’s granddaughter. Until Doni starts dreaming too … why worry her?”

"Why don't you want Bethany to know?"

"Her bloodline has done enough already for Neighborlee. Her mother was another foundling, just like your grandfather, like Lanie Zephyr and her friends."

"Her mom?" I shivered, the cold coming from deep inside, as I remembered when Bethany's mother died. We were only nine. Sometimes being young helped to make the heavy sadness fade, but other times it just made the impact worse, and last longer.

Then I knew. I understood. Fragments of those sad, confusing days bobbed up to the surface of my memories.

"There was that weird storm. Mrs. Miller... She didn't die of a heart attack, did she?" I whispered.

Angela gripped my hand tighter and shook her head.

Six years ago, there were strange buzzing sensations in the ground for a day or two. Other people didn't seem to notice the electrical tingles in the soil, but Granddad let me curl up on the couch with him, where we both kept our feet off the ground. That day, Bethany and I were at soccer practice with Miss Lanie. Mrs. Miller had left the diner on an errand before lunch and didn't come back. A freak storm had struck, sending people diving for cover, driving rain horizontally. When it cleared up, she was found collapsed in an alley between two stores on the Mall, drenched, cold and dead.

Part of me wanted to yank my hand free of Angela's and run away. If I tried, she probably wouldn't hold onto me, keep me there. Not with her hand, anyway.

"Where are the dreams coming from? There's someone--no, something trying to come up, come out, break through a wall." I shook my head and pressed my free hand against my forehead. "I remember hearing things. You and Miss Lanie and Granddad talking. Mrs. Miller stopped something." For a second, it was like I couldn’t catch my breath. “Something that tried to happen before.” 

"Yes, our enemy tries periodically to shatter the barriers we hold up to protect the world. Stephanie was part of that defense. Neighborlee has many guardians, each of us picking up clues, warning signs, in different ways.”

Excerpt: VIRTUALLY LONDON, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 3

 

Like I said, I had nightmares. Those really nebulous, misty, disjointed nightmares where I knew I was being chased. I had to keep moving, because if I slowed down or looked behind myself, whatever it was would catch me. Plus, the nightmares weren't letting me go. As soon as I fell asleep again, I was right back to the point in the dream where I had managed to yank myself awake.

"What's bothering you?" Bethany asked, one morning after some wake-me-up-six-times-during-the-night nightmares.

That was the great thing about having Bethany for my closest friend. We could tell when things were wrong with each other, or when one of us had an incredible secret. I lost count of the times, growing up, when one of us would be thinking about the other, wanting to talk, and the other one would call, or come by the house. Angela encouraged our friendship and said we were good for each other. As we got older, I grew more sure that she somehow helped our link or whatever-it-was grow stronger.

So when Bethany asked me, before I even finished sitting down next to her in homeroom, I tapped my ear, then my wristwatch, our signal for "tell you later--when the mundanes aren't listening."

We went outside at lunch and walked around the high school instead of sitting in our favorite spot under the trees next to the agriculture class's experimental garden plot. It was the only way we could guarantee someone wouldn't eavesdrop. When I finished describing the nightmares, the solid sense of threat but no other details, Bethany didn’t even pause before telling me what was only common sense.

"You need to talk to Angela. Have you told your folks?"

"I would have, but you know how crazy it is in the mornings at our house."

Bethany just rolled her eyes and grinned. She had slept over enough times to know that no matter what time of the year, whether it was the weekend or weekday, Longfellows couldn't seem to get our acts together in the morning. We were always rushing around and snatching up things, hurtling out the door and coming back a few times. Usually we raced out the door half-dressed, running late for work or shopping or appointments or school or wherever we had to be that morning.

Honestly, I wanted to talk to Gram and Granddad about my dreams before anyone else. They would listen and understand. They weren't the kind of grownups who listened to psychology books that contradicted what their children knew was going on. I planned on going to them that night, probably after dinner, when all our day's craziness had calmed down.

Going to Angela, however... That might be a better first step.

So we went right after school, Doni and Bethany and me.

Newest release: ENCHANTING THE PRINCE, Enchanted Castle Archives Book 3

 

Go to Ye Olde Dragon Books to get your copy, in ebook or audiobook, and get a free short story in the Enchanted Castle Archives too!

https://yeoldedragonbooks.com/want-to-be-enchanted/

What's it about?

Zair was thirteen when he was kidnapped and trained to be a Shadow -- to stand in for Crown Prince Anwir in dangerous situations. Magicians broke the rules of magic when they wove illusion spells around him, so he would walk and talk and sound and look like Anwir, The two boys were meant to be friends, companions, perhaps the only true friend either one would ever have.

Magic in the kingdom of Dorwain was broken, the old ways purged, forgotten, or warped. The magicians made mistakes. Some fatal. However, when they used the dust of a shattered magic mirror as the base of their spells, that proved to be Zair's only hope for survival and escape.

Despite the destruction of her physical body, Viza the magic mirror was alive in her dust. Zair could hear her, proving the strength of his sleeping, inborn magic. She became his friend and teacher. Together, they sought a way to escape. The magic awakening in Zair proved he had royal blood, with a claim to the throne. That made him a threat to the current king. He needed to break the growing web of spells that imprisoned him, and reclaim his own face before time ran out.

 

Excerpt: VIRTUALLY LONDON, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 3

 That summer, I spent a lot of time with Doni. Not just because I realized early what a smart, quietly fun kid she was. And not because I felt sorry for her. Bethany left town. It wasn't any fun working at Miller’s Diner without her. We had always asked for the night shift because first, the tips were better with the evening menu and second, we liked to have our mornings free. We liked sleeping in. Exploring what new treasures had arrived at Divine's Emporium. Or just sitting somewhere quiet in the park and reading or daydreaming about our futures.

Well, Bethany's future not only arrived, it snatched her up and dragged her off to Hollywood. So I was pretty much alone. Yeah, I had friends, but nobody I really liked to hang with, day in and day out. I kept my night job at the diner, because I was still saving for my dream computer.

Mornings were for Doni and me. She was quite happy to spend her afternoons and evenings hanging with Gram and Granddad, talking about books, working in Gram's garden, making a place for herself. Roots.

She needed those roots when the Hallidays fought back.

They got pretty offensive because they had to get defensive. Mr. Carr went after them with everything he could think of, to protect Doni from them in the future. We would have preferred to let sleeping dogs lie, meaning doing everything possible to avoid reminding the Hallidays we existed and Doni was with us. However, the smart thing was to look for landmines now. We had been dealing with the Grandstones for generations, here in Neighborlee. So we knew to anticipate the Hallidays pulling the same kind of dirty tricks, and worse, once they learned just how rich Doni would be when she reached twenty-one.

For example, the Grandstones had bought up a bunch of old buildings, intending to get rich off urban renewal. Kurt Hanson worked for a garage they bought. He quit when that jerk-face Reggie Grandstone marched into the garage and boasted that he was now Kurt’s boss. A year later, when Kurt sold a security alarm system he had been working on at the garage, the Grandstones claimed that anything invented by their employees was automatically their property. Even when they didn't sign any agreement regarding intellectual property and work-for-hire.

The Grandstones sued, and lost. Kurt had proof he had been inventing and tinkering with the system for years before that tiny window of time between them buying the garage and when he quit. So he didn’t "invent" the system while he was still working for the garage. Mr. Carr got involved, and proved the single paycheck Kurt received after the Grandstones bought the garage came from the previous garage owner. Technically he never worked for them. They outsmarted themselves, making the former owner pay for any accounts payable generated before they took over.