Pimpage for a Friend: Kerry Schafer

Hi all!  I know you might have been expecting a typical Teaser Tuesday, but for the second week in a row, the gals and I decided to mix it up a little and try something different.  The idea is to use the day when we would have otherwise posted a teaser from our own work to pimp for some other writer's work.

Today, I'd like to do a little promotion for a friend of mine - Kerry Shafer - whose debut novel Between hit the shelves last week.  I haven't read it yet*, but it sounds amazing.

From the Amazon listing:

Vivian Maylor can’t sleep. Maybe it’s because she just broke up with her boyfriend and moved to a new town, or it could be the stress of her new job at the hospital. But perhaps it’s because her dreams have started to bleed through into her waking hours.

All of her life Vivian has rejected her mother’s insane ramblings about Dreamworlds for concrete science and fact, until an emergency room patient ranting about dragons spontaneously combusts before her eyes—forcing Viv to consider the idea that her visions of mythical beasts might be real.

And when a chance encounter leads her to a man she knows only from her dreams, Vivian finds herself falling into a world that seems strange and familiar all at once—a world where the line between dream and reality is hard to determine, and hard to control…

I first 'met' Kerry via the Word Whores, but you can find Kerry all over the web now at Twitter, Facebook, her blog,  and when you google her, you find numerous articles about her awesomeness.  She's a pretty incredible person.  Not to mention a pretty incredible writer.  And if you don't believe me, she so graciously allowed me to post a taste of Between today:

Her sneakers made sucking noises on the linoleum, all the way down the hall to bay five—squeak, squeak. She definitely needed to rethink her footwear. Outside the drawn curtain she paused, a cold finger of apprehension running the length of her spine. Dizziness rocked her as reality collided with dream. She stood still, listening to the rapid thudding of her own heart, until she was able to pull herself together, knock, and enter.

Arden Douglas, sixteen, location of parents unknown, resident of the small town of Krebston. Also a nameless player in one of Vivian’s dreams. This much she remembered, along with a general sense of cold dread. But the details floated around the edge of her brain, elusive as mist when she tried to capture them.

He lay unmoving on the exam table, shirtless and barefoot, his faded jeans torn and grass-stained at both knees. Chest, right arm, and face were reddened, as if from a long day at the beach, and beginning to blister. A blood pressure cuff on his left arm automatically tightened and released, one hundred over sixty. A little low, nothing to worry about. Pulse at one hundred. O2 sats good at ninety-eight percent.

But something was off; there was a subtle wrongness in the air that set her skin to crawling.

“What happened?” She gloved and masked, then squeaked over to examine the damage. First-degree burn; a couple of areas maybe second. It was going to hurt like hell but should heal up okay. No scars for the kid to worry about.

He spoke through a jaw clenched around pain. “I already told the nurse. She thinks I’m fucking crazy.”

“So tell me again.”

Tell me you got too close to a fire—a campfire, a grease fire, a blowtorch. Got dunked in a cauldron of boiling water. Something explainable. Not— 

“Dragon.”

She shivered, but kept her tone light. “A dragon? In Krebston? Now there’s one I haven’t heard. Open your mouth. Say ah.”

His brown eyes were opaque, almost black, the pupils dilated with pain and fear.

“Ahhhh. Like I said. Nobody believes me.” Airway clear, no signs of inflammation or swelling. 

“Okay. So you saw a dragon—”

“I’m telling you, it was a dragon. Breathing fire.” He sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the gurney. “You know, fuck this shit. I’m leaving. You all think I’m crazy—”

Vivian put a gloved hand on his shoulder, gently pressed him back. “Look, I’m sorry. It’s not a tale you hear every

day. Lie down, and tell me. Please.”

So, if you've got a little money laying in your book budget for a new and exciting author, give Kerry a try.  I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

And just because I'm feeling generous, one lucky commenter will win a copy of Between - either ebook or hardcopy, winner's choice.  Comment between now and Sunday the 10th - one chance per person.  Winners to be announced in my regularly scheduled Monday post on the 11th.  (Unless I forget and then someone out there has to poke me with a stick.)  Available in the U.S. and Canada only (because I'm not that generous).

*I started Between last night and inhaled the first few chapters.