Thursday, November 21, 2013

Selkie's Song Excerpt Tour

Blurb:
They call her Selkie. Muireann O'Malley often felt she was born of the sea but refuses to let sentimentality stand in the way of her crusade to protect the shore she has wandered since a small child. A patch of West Clare, Ireland, and a derelict building are all that stand between the cliffs she loves and the callous grip of progress.


Tynan Sloane should be content with success, but a dream beckons. O'Fallon's Pub in historic downtown Boston is for sale and Tynan wants to make it his. An unexpected inheritance of land in the west of Ireland could provide the financing he needs. He doesn't expect his quick trip to sell the land to rekindle youthful passion.


Fifteen years ago, they had an adolescent crush. Now disparate ambition and a legend as old as Ireland herself stand between them. Will love and myth collide to bring them together or tear them apart?



Exclusive Excerpt:
An indistinct hum, a change in the smell of the air, a darkening of the clouds—he wasn’t sure which came first, but the hum became a rumble and the rumble a roar so violent he instinctively pulled Muireann to the corner of the old house where the walls were most sturdy.


“What’s happening?” she shouted, but her voice was sucked into a vacuum where it couldn’t escape. Ty’s arms felt like they were being pulled from his shoulders and he was catapulted back with a violent crush of wind that circled, pulsed, and snarled as though hell itself had risen to engulf them.


Stones tumbled from the top of the walls and he shielded Muireann with his body. He snugged them back into the shallow fireplace where the masonry was most substantial.


A whitethorn branch, big as his arm, split from the tree and whipped past. Ballinacurragh’s keepsakes scattered like the fragile dreams they represented. Muireann started to push Ty away. “I’ve got to save
those. Let me go.”


His grasp tightened. “You’re not going anywhere. We might be safe here…not out there,” he shouted.


Then the fabric of the firmament ripped with a sound that chilled his core. Like the earth had given up its soul to the devil, a tearing scream split the atmosphere with such dissonance he was sure the planets had plummeted into the sea.


A cry pierced the air. Though Ty knew it was only a manifestation of the wind, it sounded like a woman’s voice, as though the earth were being torn from heaven’s womb.


He had heard the tales of the bean sí, the wailing fairy woman who came for the souls of the dead. He hadn’t given the stories credence, until now.


He knew by the change in Muireann’s stance, she had heard it too. She looked up at him, eyes wide with fear.


Like a wounded beast, the sound retreated.



Clare will be awarding a print (US only) or digital copies (international) of the first two books in the series, Butterfly and Angel's Share to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. So the more you comment, the better your chances of winning.


October 28: Unabridged Andra
November 6: Bea's Book Nook
November 12: Andi's Book Reviews
November 13: Punya Reviews...
November 14: Book2Buzz
November 15: London's Scribbles
November 22: Deal Sharing Aunt



Author Bio and Links:
A word about the author...


Clare Austin submitted her first manuscript to a publisher at the age of eight years. She wishes she still had that rejection letter.


Many years and not a few stories later, with characters knocking at the inside of her cranium and begging to be released, Clare’s romantic comedy, Butterfly, was published. There followed a suspenseful sequel, Angel’s Share, and Hot Flash, a women’s fiction/romance for mature women and the men who love them.


Clare lives in the beautiful Rocky Mountains and enjoys her horses, playing her violin, and traveling to Ireland every summer.


Twitter: clareaustin@authorclare

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