I had to share the amazing cover of Vashti Quiroz-Vega’s new book. And the Kirkus review. Don’t miss it!
♦ ♦ “The Fall of Lilith is a compelling narrative that provides background on several well-known, supernatural figures. Though obviously religious in nature, Quiroz-Vega’s book strays far from tra…
Source: BOOK COVER REVEAL | The Fall of Lilith (Fantasy Angels Series) | The Writer Next Door|Vashti Q
Azrael, the angel is my YA series ‘Angelic Business’ is interviewed in N.N.Light’s wonderful blog. Come and meet him! And remember, book 3 is out next week!
Hi all:
Tomorrow, the 15th of July, the second book in my YA trilogy, Angelic Business, ‘Shapes of Greg’ will be published.
Just last week, author and friend Hans Hirschi posted this amazing review of the whole trilogy. I have to thank him for his kindness and I’m pleased to see it made such an impact on him. Here is the link. Don’t miss it.
http://www.hirschi.se/blog/angelic-business-trilogy/
I shared the video last week, but putting it at the end of the post I think most people missed it. If you didn’t, I’m sorry, there it is again:
I leave you a longer sample, when Pink meets and old acquaintance, although she doesn’t quite realise it at first:
On Friday, I thought I saw a guy I’d never seen before standing opposite my house. When I came out he started walking towards me, I thought, but Seth went by driving his car and offered me a lift. I accepted. When I saw the same guy waiting at a distance when Sylvia, Lorna and I came out of school, I didn’t know what to think. I thought he’d disappear while we were at the library. And I didn’t see him when we came out or on the way to the bus stop. But as soon as the bus left, I saw him standing on the pavement on the other side of the road.
I was getting a bit freaked out by that guy. I hadn’t told Lorna and Sylvia because what could they do anyway? Sylvia would start talking about stalking, as usual, and Lorna would wonder if he might be relationship material. Or to be fair no, not, actually. He was tall, skinny, pale, Goth-like looking, dressed to not impress…No, not what Lorna would consider relationship material. And he must have been in his mid-twenties at least. Why was he following us? Or rather, why was he following me?
I don’t think I scare easy, but I started walking faster. It was getting dark and I still had a bit of a way to go before getting home, and although the neighbourhood was safe…He also accelerated. “Don’t panic. Don’t panic!” I kept telling myself. It didn’t quite work. I was seconds from running when the said guy called out:
“Pink…Pink!”
OK, now that was weird. How on earth did he know my name?
“Pink….” I had now stopped walking. He caught up with me. “It’s me.” I looked at him. Me…
“Who are you exactly?”
“I still like Lindt truffles.”
“G?”
He smiled and nodded.
“I thought you’d been called back…home? I didn’t realise they were just going to give you another body.”
He shrugged.
“Neither did I. No, they have given me another mission.”
“I see. Here again?”
He blushed, extremely noticeable as he was now so pale.
“Not exactly.”
“Where then?”
“Dallas.”
“What? That’s quite far. Are you off today, or is your charge around here, or what?”
“Off? We don’t get time off.”
“You have a rubbish contract then.”
He laughed and shrugged.
“Not so bad as contracts go with my boss,” he added. Now it was my turn to smile.
“So what are you doing here?”
“I wanted to see how you were.”
Don’t you all go… “Oh, that’s sweet,” because we’re talking about a demon here.
“I’m fine. Thanks.”
“Good. Is Dashiell taking good care of you?”
“You could ask him. I’ve never been clear about what your lot are trying to achieve following me around. You’ve given me so many versions of the story…And Dashiell…he is more strictly business than you were.”
He sighed. His new body gave him a more vulnerable appearance.
“I miss being connected to you.”
Now he was taking things too far.
“If you remember the said connection was severed a long time ago. I should be going. It’s getting late.”
“I’ll walk you home.”
It was a very weird sensation to have G walking next to me, but looking nothing like he used to. Weird.
“How are Lorna and Sylvia?”
“Fine. Well, sort of. Lorna has decided it’s time she finds her perfect man, and Sylvia went all out to try to design a computer programme to help with that. And it produced a profile and even a digital portrait kind-of-thing. And it looks a bit like Dashiell, so now Lorna thinks he might be her perfect man. And he hasn’t helped much.”
“What has he done?”
I told G about his idea of a cover to keep in touch with me by getting us all to work on his project.
“They shouldn’t have taken me off the case,” he complained.
“Oh, I’m sure she’ll be all right. Lorna is a tough cookie.”
“And Sylvia?”
“I’m not so sure about Sylvia. She’s acting quite out of character these days. She told us she might have met somebody but won’t talk about it in any detail. And she seems preoccupied. I think there’s something going on, but for some reason she does not want to talk about it. I’m a bit concerned, although she’s usually very down-to-earth.”
He rubbed his chin that in his current body was quite prominent.
“I’ll see if I can find something out.”
“I’m sure you must be busy with your mission, whatever that is. I don’t want you to get into trouble with your boss for not doing your job and messing up with humans.”
He shrugged his shoulders.
“My “boss” as you keep saying, likes trouble. It’s what he thrives on. He can always find an advantageous angle in anything that at first sight seems to have gone wrong.”
“Very entrepreneurial. He sounds like a spin doctor.”
“You can say that again!”
I smiled and looked at him closely. Yes, it felt very wrong, because although of course, the voice wasn’t his either, and even the accent was very different —a Southern drawl the previous G didn’t have —to me he sounded like himself. Or maybe it was my brain playing tricks on me.
“Is your mission not keeping you very busy then? I assume I’m not allowed to know.”
He cringed. I’d touched a raw nerve.
“It is a bore. I’m supposed to be babysitting this young boy, he’s 7 or 8, because one of our analysts has come up with the suggestion that he has the potential to become a very dangerous guy in the future, some deadly and crazed leader of masses, or a supervillain, or master criminal…Something like that. To tell you the truth, so far he’s a very boring young child, not even particularly bad or naughty. Maybe Sylvia should come and work for us. Her programmes might be more useful than our research methods. Going through stories, legends, ancient books, looking at the stars… Hocus-pocus if you ask me.”
I had to laugh.
“I wouldn’t have taken you for a sceptic, after all that passion about the prophecy I’m involved in.”
“Well, one can’t take chances. And it is a very well-known and accepted prophecy, not some paint-by-numbers style of analysis.”
I looked at him trying to get to the truth.
“But it doesn’t matter anyway, because it’s not really about me. Isn’t that right?”
“Of course.”
Did he blush? He seemed to, but I wasn’t sure how much the host-body would show a demon’s emotions. Did they really have emotions? I did not believe him. I wondered if I would ever believe him again.
“Of course I trust your discretion with regards to the mission.”
“I have no details anyway. And I can’t see myself going to kill the young boy just in case.”
“You’d be surprised what some people might do.”
“Not really,” I thought. Instead I decided to try a different line of conversation. I was also curious.
“What name do you go by now?” I asked him.
“Peter Pratt.” I don’t know what I must have looked like, because he added: “Hey, it wasn’t my choice.”
“I can’t get used to how you look now.”
He looked at himself.
“Again, not my choice. Although I guess humans don’t choose how they look either, other than very rich people with plastic surgery and things, but even with that there are limits.”
I nodded.
“I know you’ve told me it’s not like in the stories and paintings and all that, but what do you really look like? Not when you take up a human body but as…”
“We don’t have horns, or a tail and pitch-fork and we aren’t red. We don’t have a physical appearance as you’d understand it. We are spiritual energy. A bit like the glowing light performance that Azrael puts on. Although in their case it’s that kind of bright light. In ours…it’s a darkness, a bit like a black hole. It’s not really a black hole but it’s that void, an absence of light, I imagine if I had to explain it.”
We were both quiet. We were very close to my street. He stopped walking.
“I’d better go now. Take care. And don’t tell Dashiell. This is not an official visit and he might not appreciate my coming here.”
“Bye.”
He squeezed my right hand in both of his and then left. It had been a very strange visit. And it would not be the last.
Before I forget, I’ll better leave you the links to the book, just in case:
Amazon:
Apple:
Kobo:
Nook:
And as I know you enjoy them, I thought I’d leave you a song with Angels. Probably the most popular song with angels of recent years:
Thanks for reading and watching, and you know, if you have enjoyed it, like, comment, share and of course, if you fancy it, CLICK!
Hi all:
Yes! Today is really the day! Angelic Business 1. Pink Matters should be alive and kicking in Amazon and a few other places.
To celebrate… yes, I’d like to have a party or something, but I have the other two books to get ready too, so not much time. But still, I thought we should celebrate somehow.
First, I’d given you a bit of the conversation between Pink and G before, in a chapter called ‘Liar, liar’, for good reason, but I thought I’d give you a bit more:
“OK. You know the angel thing?” I said.
“You mean the thing you’ve never believed despite all evidence I’ve showed you? What about it?”
“Somebody told me it’s not exactly true.”
“You’ve told somebody? After I had to make your friends forget all about it and then…I thought we had a deal.”
“Calm down. I didn’t tell anybody. Somebody came to me. We were coming out of Lorna’s house yesterday and this guy…”
“You stop to talk to somebody you’ve never met before?” he asked, serious.
“I couldn’t do much else. He performed your favourite trick. The time-out thing. You know what I mean. Everybody stopped but me and him. He told me…”
“Azrael…” G had stopped pacing but instead of looking at me he was looking at the floor.
“Yep. That’s him. So you know him.”
“We’re a relatively small community.”
“Anyway, he told me…you’re not really an angel. Or not any longer. You’re a fallen angel. Or, to put it in another way, a demon. You’ve ever so slightly misrepresented yourself. If that’s true that is.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Same difference.”
“Come on, now. You rebelled against God following Lucifer that as far as I understand was his favourite. If one is to believe the stories…You lost and were cast down to hell.”
G looked up now, directly into my eyes.
“Well, God likes these casting outs. After all, if we’re to believe the story of Adam and Eve, humans have also been cast out.”
“Lucifer had something to do with it…If we do believe the stories, that is..…” For some unknown reason to me I wanted to laugh. Instead of feeling angry I was starting to think it was all rather funny. And it probably was, from an observer’s point of view, but that was exactly how I felt. As if all of that had nothing whatsoever to do with me. As if I was watching it all from a distance. I couldn’t help myself. “Does that mean your boss is a snake?”
“What?…” G looked genuinely surprised, but finally caught on. “Oh, the Bible is just a fiction, maybe faction is a better word…or an interpretation of facts. If he wanted to attract a woman, a snake isn’t necessarily the best option.”
“No. Maybe a nice pair of shoes or a handbag.”
“Or Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp,” G added also getting into the same slightly jokey mood.
We both laughed. If nothing else, G seemed lighter, more humorous and less ponderous than Azrael.
“So, does that change anything?” G asked.
“I don’t know. For one it makes you not very trustworthy. And I don’t mean because you’re a demon, that might not help, but because you’re a liar.”
“I just don’t think one should put too much stock on that kind of stuff. I see myself more as an anti-hero. Or a morally ambiguous hero. Maybe.”
And a few couple of songs with angels on them…
Here, Erasure ‘Send Me an Angel’ (This is the funniest, I was thinking of Eurythmics and I wrote Erasure, and hop, they have a song with angels too that I didn’t remember. I think angels are at play here…)
Eurythmics ‘There Must Be an Angel’ (This is a super video!)
Antonio Machín. ‘Angelitos Negros’ (Antonio Machín was a singer from Cuba who lived and sang in Spain for many years and was very popular when I was a child. This song, that is one of his most famous, it’s called ‘Little Black Angels’ and in it, he basically is asking a painter why he never paints black angels when everybody knows they also go to heaven. He has a very personal style but it’s a wonderful song).
Here are the links to the book, before I forget:
Amazon:
Apple:
Kobo:
Nook:
Thanks so much for reading and you know… like, comment, share and if you fancy it, CLICK!
Thanks so much to MsM for daring to review the first in my ‘Angelic Business’ series ‘Pink Matters’. And then still had the energy to interview me! You’re a star!
The first book in Olga Núñez‘ AngelicBusiness trilogy is available now for pre-order on Amazon. I was given an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. Pink Matters is a lighthearted look at what happens when an angel and a demon (fallen angel) each vie for manipulative control of a 17-year-old girl named Pink. Well, O.K., her real name is Petra because her father was into archaeology, but she prefers Pink and everyone, including her teachers, call her that. Pink and her two best friends, Lorna and Sylvia, are fairly ordinary, average girls who happen to be excellent students and therefore are not part of the “in” crowd, made up of cheer leaders and other gorgeous girls, and football players and other sports heroes. But the most popular member of the “in” crowd is Seth, who happens to live next door to Pink, is gorgeous, but…
View original post 1,158 more words
Hi all:
I thought at first about doing an extra post to let you know I’ve managed the mammoth task of uploading the 6 books (3 in English and 3 in Spanish) or Angelic Business everywhere and then do a standard post, but some of my brain seemed to die in the process, so I thought I’d do an official post, share the covers of the other two books with you, thank you all who’re taking part in the tour, and hope it might be temporary…
So, now officially:
The three books in the Angelic Business collection are now available for pre-order at the special price of $0.99 each. It’s a bargain price and they’ll go up shortly after publication.
Here, a video:
Link:
Embed:
Don’t worry. My writing is slightly better than my video-creating skills, but as I’d been taking all those pictures of angels, I thought I might as well.
Angelic Business 1. Pink Matters
You are Pink, not the prettiest girl, but smart and with plenty of resources. What do you do when your best male friend offers to have sex with you, because he thinks you’re a lost cause? You plot your revenge with your two best female friends, of course!
It seems you’re in luck when a new and mysterious student appears. And, to top it all, he seems interested in you too. He could take part in the plan. But then, he seems to have a plan of his own… He insists he’s not just an ordinary boy. And what seemed so easy to begin with, gets more and more complicated when Heaven and Hell come knocking at Pink’s door.
Pink Matters is the story of Pink, a 17 year old girl, good student, articulate and smart. What she has never been the centre of attention or made the top ten of the most popular and attractive girls at school. When two guys, both claiming to be angels, insist that she is, indeed, ‘special’, fight for her attention and help and tell her she is the key to the future of the universe, she can’t help but ask: Why me?
And a snippet:
“Who are you?” Lorna asked. Before she could say anything else, she froze as if paralysed. And the same happened to Sylvia.
“Oh no, not again” I said.
“Hi Pink. I’m Azrael. I’m…”
“Let me guess…You’re an angel.”
I could say he smiled but it was more like a white light radiating from between his lips. His voice also seemed slightly “otherworldly”. He was nothing like G. Flesh and blood didn’t seem to be his priority.
“Yes. I am.”
“O…K….And…to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit? If you are going to make an announcement of some sort…I could have done with some notice.”
The light now seemed to radiate from his whole “body” if that was what it was. Somehow his show was much more believable than G’s. And scarier.
“It’s not an announcement as such. But you should know…G…”
“Yes?”
“I know he told you he’s an angel.”
I looked at him. Maybe he was different to G but he could be as annoying as him. And interfering.
“Yes. I also “know” things…In my case it is because “I” am an angel. He has not been truthful about his identity.”
Pink Matters is currently available for pre-order and will be published on the 26th of June 2015 (Amazon time). So, if you’re reading this post after the 26th of June, you’re in luck and can get the book straight away! (I’m also publishing it in other platforms although as their processing speed is different the dates might vary. Do check there or in my website, that I regularly update).
Amazon:
It’s also available in:
Apple:
Kobo:
Nook:
In case you’re intrigued, I leave you the cover (reveal!), snippet and links to the other two books:
Angelic Business 2. Shapes of Greg
What more could happen after the death and resurrection of your mother? What could Heaven and Hell toss at Pink to top that? Well, to start with, she gets a new hellish babysitter, who is seriously hot. And although everybody likes him, he only has eyes for her. When she learns what the price was for the ‘miracle’ of saving her mother, she realises that she must be careful, as Hell doesn’t lose gracefully.
One of her friends wants to find the perfect man, the other one gets into a relationship she refuses to talk about, there’s a demon who doesn’t know when to give up and an angel who seems to have his own agenda. What on Earth, Hell or Heaven is going on?
Snippet:
“So… Have you come to just be sitting there like a lemon? What has been happening since we last talked?”
“Well… things…”
This was getting a bit silly. I hadn’t called him. Surely if he had come there must have been something he wanted to tell me, ask me, or whatever. Was he going through a crisis, or what? It wasn’t as if he’d ever had any problems talking to me before. OK, a lot of what he’d told me was lies, but it was still talking. Maybe if I distracted him with something else…
“As I saw you out there, I was wondering… Do you really need to do that?”
“What? Do you mean, “hover”, as you put it? No, I guess not. It’s a good way of attracting someone’s attention, I find.”
“Well, yes, I guess, but I didn’t mean that. I meant, just waiting out there. Is it like with vampires? Do you have to be invited before you can come in?”
G looked at me with an expression I’d never seen before. I wasn’t sure if it was disbelief, disappointment, or sheer disdain.
“Vampires? Are we like vampires? Vampires don’t exist. We can’t be like them. Just silly stories. You’re an intelligent girl. How can you believe in such stupidity?”
“I don’t believe in it. But I didn’t think demons existed. I’m not sure I had much of an opinion on angels before. And look at you!”
“So now you think all that paranormal rubbish is true? Werewolves, fairies, ghosts…”
“Witches…” I added.
“Now, witches are a slightly different matter. Lucifer has always had followers.”
Shapes of Greg is available for pre-order and will be published on the 15th of July.
Links:
Amazon:
Apple:
Kobo:
Nook:
And last, but not least:
Angelic Business 3. Pink, Angel or Demon?
OK, OK, OK. Pink gets it. She’s the Elected, whether she likes it or no. Heaven and Hell are closing in, and their envois are closer home than ever. So close she can’t ignore them. And she’ll do everything but.
However long she has, she’s determined to make it count. She’ll sort her friends out, she’ll help her family and, she’ll live a bit. And then, she’ll take charge. Because no one will say that Pink went down without a fight. However big and bad the enemy.
Gender benders, romances, old loves that come to fruition, new challenges, divine interventions, tears, laughter and magic. All of that and more. Because, if you‘re gonna go, you might as well go with a bang.
Snippet:
He looked at me so fixed that I felt as if he was reaching inside of me.
“No. I don’t have a girlfriend. I’ve never found somebody I felt that close to…until now.”
And then he leaned towards me and kissed me. And although I didn’t hear bells ringing and saw no fireworks, it was amazing. It was crazy, it was messed up, wrong, he wasn’t my type. For crying out loud! He wasn’t even a human being! But still, I didn’t want it to end. And we might still have been there now if it wasn’t because Jackson started coughing behind us, evidently to alert us to his presence.
***
“Will you kill me?”
“I already told you…”
“No, this time it’s me who’s asking. Will you kill me? I don’t want you to try and be nice or not upset me. I just need to know. I think I deserve to know. If, as you say, you care for me. I won’t be upset, I won’t go mad. Of course I won’t like it if you tell me you will, but I’ll cope. I just need to know the cards I’m playing with. To plan my game.”
She closed her eyes for a few seconds. Then she opened them and stared right into mine.
Pink, Angel or Demon? is available for pre-order and will be published on the 30th July.
Link:
Apple:
Kobo:
Nook:
Thanks so much for your support and for reading, and you know, like, share, comment and CLICK! Oh, and I love reblogs!
Hi all:
My blogger friend Teagan Geneviene alerted me to the Sexy Saturday blog hop a while back, and although I joined the Facebook group and I’ve been following with interest I hadn’t got myself organised enough to post. But when I saw the sign-up list and the mention of kisses, I thought maybe I could share a few sentences of my WIP, the third book on my series Angelic Business (Angelic Business 3: Pink, Angel or Demon?)
This is my entry:
And then he leaned towards me and kissed me. And although I didn’t hear bells ringing and saw no fireworks, it was amazing. It was crazy, it was messed up, wrong, he wasn’t my type. For crying out loud! He wasn’t even a human being! But still, I didn’t want it to end. And we might still have been there now if it wasn’t because Jackson started coughing behind us, evidently to alert us to his presence.
Here I share the rules so you can see if you might want to join in future weeks:
1 ~ Sign up on the Linky list below for Saturday, March 7, 2015. The signup begins Sunday, March 1 at 12:01 am and ends Friday, March 6 at 11:59 pm.
2 ~ Post 7 paragraphs or 7 sentences or 7 words ONLY. The choice is yours. It can be from a WIP or something you already have published. Your post should be live by 9 am US Pacific Time on Saturday. Put those lucky 7s to work for you! NOTE: This is a blog hop and you need a blog to participate. If you are unsure of how your post should look, look back on past weeks to see what others have done. Minions comment and read your post. Trust us, they let us know if it doesn’t conform. This includes when your post is too long or two short or if you recycle an old post. Please stay within the guidelines as described.
3 ~ We’ve included the link where you can get the Linky code or just link back to My Sexy Saturday at www.mysexysaturday.blogspot.com. Remember you must link back to us for participation if you do not show the Linky list. There are minions who check for this weekly. Authors ~ an email will be required to sign up for the blog hop.
4 ~ We are open to both published and unpublished authors. We also welcome your works-in-progress.
5 ~ Promote as much as you can. Our Twitter handle is @MySexySaturday. You can join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/MySexySaturday/ and it is open to both readers and writers. Use #MySexySaturday, #Saturday7 or #MSS82 for this week’s #hashtags on both Twitter and Facebook so we can track our progress and readers can find us on both venues. We try to promote each and every author in the hop with a minimum of a tweet or two during the week as well as on other social media. We are run by volunteers and do our best to promote all authors who sign up. Use #MSSAuthors to get even more traction during the week as we watch for our authors and share or retweet their information.
Now, the linky link:
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Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…
Thanks to Sexy Saturday for this blog hop, thanks to everybody for reading, and don’t forget to like, share, comment and of course CLICK!
Hi all:
I’m sure I’ve told you I’m back in the UK (although I don’t know how long for, my life is in flux at the moment), and it seems Christmas is coming. I know I’ve told you many times I’m terrible at taking pictures, but I’m not sure you believe me yet, so I thought…I’d show you.
I was in Sheffield last week and I saw a Christmas pudding on wheels. Hey, photo opportunity!
As you can see everybody decided it was the time to walk by the pudding/van. I thought I’d wait a bit…And this happened!
And I’m sure I was wearing glasses!
In Penistone itself (where I live) there is the tradition of having an arts & craft fair inside of St. John’s Church (parts of the church go back to Norman times, as does the town, that is listed in the Doomsday [or Domesday] Book), showcasing an art group called Hens Teeth. I always try and see what original gifts I can find there.
I thought I’d take a picture inside of the church to show you, but again…
Yes, a bit blurry. This time maybe it was because I wasn’t wearing the glasses. I did buy a few things. Here, the knitted angel…
I’m not a very Christmassy person but you know I’m writing a series about angels…
And as I was walking around, I thought I’d let you know that the local cinema, The Penistone Paramount (I’d mentioned it before. It’s one of the loves of my life) celebrates its 100th anniversary and they’ve painted it to celebrate.
As you know I’ve told you (only a few times) that I was taking part in NaNoWriMo. The idea is to write a novel of at least 50000 words (the draft of a novel) in a month. And guess what! I won! (The draft ended up being over 60000 and I had a bit of time spare).
I’d love to share some of what I wrote, but it was book 3 of my Angelic Business series (that for the time being I’m calling Pink, Angel or Demon?) but I thought it would be difficult not to give too much of the other books away or to follow it without knowing much about the other two. Instead, as I had shared chapter 1 of the first one, I thought I’d share Chapter 2. I hope that’s OK.
As you’ll remember, the novel is called (if I don’t change my mind) Pink Matters.
I wasn’t much of a dreamer or a romantic…All right, sure, I like romantic stories and one can’t help but dream, but I didn’t really believe in them or put any stock or faith in any of those things ever happening to me. I didn’t expect the perfect guy to just turn up, snatch me and take me to paradise. (For one I was pretty convinced that we would not have the same opinion on what paradise might consist of.) Even in fairy tales such things only happened to princesses and the like. Normal, run of the mill girls like me were hardly the protagonists of those kind of stories. Of course feminism and an increase in social and diversity awareness had broadened the subject and modern stories were a bit more “equal” and “fair”. But if I had to put my hand in my heart I still preferred the old-fashioned ones.
Due to my realistic (rather than pessimistic) view of life, I was not expecting the perfect candidate to my pretend boyfriend to just turn up. If this had been one of those stories, not only would he have turned up and be perfect, but he’d have fallen in love with me and eventually I’d have realised that the pretence had become reality. I know, you’ve also read that story. And watched the movie. So have I. Still…
A new boy did come to school. He wasn’t handsome in any typical way, but he had “something”. Dark hair, grey eyes, tall, strong features…Not standard pretty/cute boy (Zac Effron style), but rather the brooding, attractive in a no-nonsense kind of way guy (maybe Robert Pattinson, although I don’t really like him that much, but hey, I can see why many others do). And he had a lot of style. Leather jacket, always dressed in black, and seemed surrounded by a slight air of mystery…possibly even menace and danger.
As usual the popular girls took the initiative to try and get as much information as possible from him. They tried their best, including batting their eyelashes, unbuttoning the top of their uniforms, laughing at his non-jokes…But he seemed tight-lipped and resistive.
Lorna, Sylvia and I overheard Chloe (the head cheerleader, you know the type, blonde, tall, blue eyes, toned and well proportioned…) talking to her best friend Zoe (similar type but dark haired) after spending some time with the stranger:
“What do you think it’s up with him? He’ll only answer in monosyllabic. And he says his name is “G”. “G”? What kind of a name is “G”?”
“Don’t get upset…He’s probably gay.”
“I need to know. I’ll ask Scott to talk to him after training this afternoon. Blokes sometimes can be shy with girls they don’t know.”
Chloe had been going out with Scott for a few months, whilst Zoe was dating Chris. I doubted this G guy was particularly shy though. He had a very intense gaze and a knowing smile. Sylvia said:
“I think he’s looking at us.”
Our first reaction in those cases always was to look around us because guys didn’t look at us. But there wasn’t anybody else around. Yes, he seemed to be looking at us.
“I think you’re right” Lorna said.
“I wonder why” I added.
The three of us worked at the library for a while. By the time we left, football practice had finished. We were all intrigued about G, but none of the popular girls were around and it seemed unlikely we’d get any information that day. I accompanied Sylvia and Lorna to the bus stop and walked home. When I was halfway, Seth came by in his old and battered car. His father had promised him a new one if he did well and got into a good college, so he’d been working fairly hard for his usual standard.
“Hey Pink! Come over! I’ll give you a ride.”
I climbed on by his side. He had been playing very loud music but lowered the volume.
“How was practice?”
“Same old, same old. If coach doesn’t get some new ideas we’re never going to beat anybody this year.”
“I thought you’d said you had a strong team.” I didn’t really pay much attention to his football patter, but every so often something stuck.
“Yeah, but we could do with a couple more guys…maybe a strong defence…a kicker…”
“Well, it’s unlikely you’ll get new players this late in the season, isn’t it?”
“Tony thought that new guy…G he goes by, might be a player, although he doesn’t seem strong enough to be a defence but…you never know what talents people might hide, but no. He told the coach he’s not interested in football. It seems he likes to run…and, you won’t believe this “gymnastics”! Isn’t it the weirdest thing?”
I’d always liked gymnastics…Not to practice…I could work hard but had neither style nor much sense of equilibrium, but I loved to watch gymnastics. One of the few sports I had any time for.
“What’s wrong with gymnastics? You need to be pretty fit and strong…”
“Sure, a bit girly though, don’t you think? Scott was telling me Chloe had been trying to talk to him… “talk”, you know? You know what I mean…”
“Flirt and show him her bra, you mean…”
He laughed and made a claw-like gesture.
“Grhhhhhh! Bitchy, bitchy! You’re too serious. But I guess that’s what I mean…And he’d just ignored her. Well, not ignored her, but just answered yes or no…There must be something wrong with him if Chloe can’t get him going.”
“Maybe he likes a different type of girl…”
“Really? What bloke doesn’t like Chloe? One might not like her as a person, but she’s a babe. Who do you think would be more his type then? You, maybe?” And he laughed. And kept laughing…My determination to get my own back grew stronger than before.
As soon as he dropped me home and I got to my room I went online with Lorna and Sylvia. They were both at Lorna’s house. I told them what I’d found out.
“Honest, Pink, Seth is an absolute idiot!” Lorna growled. “Maybe you should just send him to hell.”
“He wouldn’t understand what it was all about and I wouldn’t get much satisfaction from it. No, I’m more determined than before to carry on with the plan.”
“It would serve him right if you went out with that G guy” Sylvia said.
“Yes, I was thinking the same, but he’s such an unknown quantity. Nobody seems to know anything at all about him, not even where he’s come from. He might be a nasty piece of work for all we know. And also, I doubt that he’s interested.”
“Well, the few bits of info we have about him are encouraging” Lorna summarised. “He doesn’t like football, so he’s unlikely to hang out with Seth and his bunch. He likes gymnastics and you like that sport, so you should have something to talk about. And he seems impervious to the charms of Chloe and her band of pretty girls…”
“And don’t forget he was looking at us” Sylvia added.
“I’m not sure about what that means. He might think we’re weird or something…We’ll have to see what happens in the next few days and if anything at all develops…” I said.
“It would be quite a thing if you managed to go out with him…he’s completely new in the market and not from these areas…as objective and fresh a guy as you’ll ever find around here.” Lorna said.
“We’ll see.”
For the next week or so G was the centre of attention although he didn’t seem to return the interest and appeared to be trying to become invisible most of the time. However he had a way of appearing wherever Lorna, Sylvia and I were, even when he wasn’t attending the same class.
“I’m telling you he’s looking at us!” Sylvia said for the millionth time.
“Yes, but which one of us is he looking at?” Lorna asked.
I was a bit bored having the same conversation at least once every day, when not several times a day. This time we’d just come out of the library and he was on the pavement on the other side of the street, leaning on the wall, seemingly looking at us.
“Who knows?” Sylvia replied once more.
I’d had enough. It wasn’t really that difficult.
“If you really want to know it’s quite simple. OK, Sylvia, come with me. Lorna, you stay there.”
I grabbed Sylvia’s arm and dragged her with me to the window of the shop at the corner of the street. No, G wasn’t looking at Lorna; his gaze had followed us.
“Now, you stay here.”
I left Sylvia by the shop and I crossed to the side of the street where G was standing. Now there was no possible doubt. Difficult as it might have been to believe, he was looking at me. Both Sylvia and Lorna joined me, very excited, but trying to keep their voices low (although I didn’t think they were succeeding). At least I could be grateful because they were not jumping up and down. We weren’t particularly bouncy girls.
“Oh my God! He’s definitely looking at you.!” Sylvia said, trying not to squeal.
“Yes, yes, he is. That’s it. He’s the guy for your plan!” Lorna concluded.
“What are you going to do?” Sylvia asked.
“Get out of here first.”
This time we went to my house and chatted for ages. Sylvia and Lorna suggested all kind of hare-brained schemes and plans to get G’s attention. Or “channel” his attention, as it seemed that for unknown reasons I already had his attention. All their suggestions involved a fair amount of flirting and taking up roles that I didn’t feel particularly familiar with, like the damsel in distress or the adoring fan. I wasn’t sure what strategy I’d try, but, yes, it seemed worth trying to get him to go out with me. And I was quite curious about him and his interest in me. What was that all about?
How to go about it was another question. Not my area of expertise, boys, you see? Although I was determined, assignments, studying, and similar pressing matters put it all on hold and pushed it to the back of my mind. I kept putting it off, trying to find a good moment to act, and ignoring Sylvia and Lorna’s “advice” (pressure, to be honest).
One Saturday about a month after G’s appearance, Lorna, Sylvia and I had arranged to meet at the Atlantis (the local independent bookstore). I was a bit early and went in to have a look at the second hand books. I was looking at a beautiful illustrated copy of The Great Gatsby when somebody touched my shoulder. I turned around, and there he was, G.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
OK, neither one of us was going to win a contest for originality or get recorded in a book compiling famous conversation opening lines.
“I’ve been wondering when I’d have a chance to catch you by yourself. You always seem to be with your friends…Lorna and Sylvia, isn’t it?”
“Yes. We…we’d noticed you were looking at us.”
“You mean at you. Interesting way of scientifically testing it. Although I expected after that you might follow through and approach me, but you didn’t” he said.
“Well, I didn’t know what it meant, but we were just wondering and I was bored of speculation…I wasn’t expecting you were looking at me.”
“Were you hoping I was looking at you at least?”
“No.”
Don’t say I didn’t warn you. I’ve already told you I’m not good with boys and I can’t flirt to save my life, so there.
“Oh, all right.”
“I don’t mean…Sorry, I’m no good at these things…”
“What things?”
“You know, flirting and all that…Relationships with guys aren’t my strong point.”
“I wouldn’t worry too much about that…Let’s start again. Hi Pink, I’m G. I assume Pink isn’t your real name. What’s your real name?”
“Petra”.
“Where does the name come from?”
“I’ve always liked Pink. And I don’t like my real name, so…”
“No, I meant your real name.”
“My father was an amateur archaeologist when he was younger and he really liked Petra.”
“I guess it could have been worse.”
“Like what Abu Simbel or the hanging gardens of Babylon?”
He laughed. Short but full-hearted laughter. Then he smiled. He had the weirdest and more mysterious smile I’d seen, all inclusive (men and women). Imagine the Mona Lisa, but in young man. Knowing, complicit and secretive all at the same time…
“And you? What does G stand for?”
At that moment Lorna and Sylvia turned up and stopped on their tracks when they saw me talking to G.
“We’ll carry on with the conversation at some other point. Maybe in a couple of days during Lake Day. By the little church on the North shore. After lunch.”
“Why are you so sure it will be in a couple of days?”
“I know things…”
He left. Lake Day was a St Mary’s School Tradition. The Headmistress, Mrs Langston, studied at Mount Holyoke and loved their Mountain Day, particularly the idea that suddenly, with no notice, the whole school would take to the buses and go on an excursion and have a day out. As there were no mountains or even hills deserving of the name close to St Mary’s, but there was Lake Swallow, she instituted Lake Day instead. The exact date when it would take place was a well-guarded secret, surrounded by speculation, so I had no idea how G would know, if he was right, when it would be.
Sylvia and Lorna interrogated me for ages about my encounter with G, but I had little to tell them.
“Do you think he really knows when Lake Day will be?” Sylvia asked.
“He seemed very confident, but how could he know? He hasn’t been here for two minutes and doesn’t know the teaching staff…as far as we know. Why should they tell him?”
“Maybe his family are very rich and they’ve made an important donation…” Lorna suggested.
“I’m sure if anybody had made a huge donation we’d had heard about it, it would have been published in the local newspaper and advertised everywhere. And I’m sure any donors would have more important things they’d want to know than when is the next Lake Day” I said. We shouldn’t get carried away with our theories, because otherwise G would end up not only being James Dean, but also Rockefeller. His reference to the little church was correct, but that only meant he must have visited the lake at some point and it was a fairly popular spot in that area. Nothing terribly mysterious about that.
Eventually I managed to get the girls off the subject of G onto other matters. Although I have to admit I waited with curiosity to see if he was right and Lake Day would really be in two days’ time. That was not the only reason for my curiosity, of course. I also wanted to see what he’d tell me next time we met. He’d appeared very determined, but I had no idea what his goals or intentions might be.
If I was pretending to be cool I’d say that two days later I had already forgotten G’s predictions and went to school with no expectations whatsoever. The truth is that I was quite excited that day, and Sylvia and Lorna hadn’t stopped talking about that in the intervening period. So when after 5 minutes or so of the first class the bells rang and Lake Day was announced we all got really agitated.
“But he’s not here!” Sylvia said. “He should have been in class with us, but he wasn’t.”
“Oh well, I guess if he really knew there wasn’t going to be a class he must have found something else better to do than come on an excursion” I said, pretending not to care.
“But he arranged to meet you!” Lorna said.
“I’ll survive”.
Still, I could not resist and left Sylvia and Lorna after lunch and walked around the shore of the lake to the little church. And there he was. G was all dressed in black, as usual, wearing a black leather jacket, standing by the side of what looked to me like a rather large motorbike for his age. Triumph? Black, shiny, impressive is as good as I can do to describe it. Motorbikes are again not one of my specialist subjects.
“Wow! Is that yours?”
“Yes.”
“Nice! A little bit Hells Angels, isn’t it?”
His reply was an even weirder smile than usual. What on earth was up with him?
“So, you were right. About Lake Day, I mean. How did you know?”
“I told you I know things…”
“OK. So you’re being mysterious…fine. You asked me about my name, the other day, but never replied about yours. What does G stand for?”
“Nothing…I just…decided to leave my old lifestyle behind and take up a new name. I go now by G.”
“Like Ali?”
“Very funny. I’ve heard it before.”
“At least it’s not the G point. And yes, I’m sure you’ve heard that one too.”
“It could be G force.”
“Yes…but it’s not a religious thing, like Malcolm X?”
“No. Nothing at all to do with religion.”
Not sure why, but I didn’t believe him, and he seemed to have become quite tense when I mentioned religion, but it was probably too soon to go probing. It was slightly bizarre as guys these days didn’t seem to be bothered about religion one way or another and it would be unlikely that its mere mention would have any effect…Maybe that had something to do with his reference to his old lifestyle. Maybe he had been in a sect or something…Or maybe I should stop making things up. He was just being discreet and not offering much personal information about himself, but that was fair enough. We’d known each other for all of five minutes, but these days everybody friended everybody and published intimate details of their lives at the drop of a hat, so his attitude was quite old-fashioned, although I found it refreshing. When people went around advertising the last little detail about themselves that could only mean that there was nothing worth knowing about them. Still, I couldn’t help but keep asking questions, even if less intimate.
“Why do you always wear black?”
“I got tired of white.”
His smile again. He was quite puzzling. I had no idea what he was talking about, but somehow I felt I wouldn’t get much further with that line of questioning.
“Can we talk now or do you have any more questions before we can proceed?” he asked me, still smiling.
“Just one more. Why me? You aren’t from here and I assume you don’t know anybody local” I looked at him and he shook his head in the negative “so, why me? It can’t be my looks, that’s for sure. Not a great beauty. Run of the mill.” I wasn’t being modest. I am not very tall, brown short hair and brown eyes (little green), plump…
“That was part of the attraction” smile again.
“Girls like Chloe have tried and talk to you with no results, and as far as I’ve been told they’re irresistible to guys your age.”
“That’s an unfair generalisation. Not all of us have the same taste.”
“Really? Are you weird then? Are you attracted to people who aren’t attractive?”
“Oh, no, I’m not going to fall for that. I’m not as stupid as your friend Seth. I know you’re angry at him because of the way he patronises you and treats you as if you were a charity case, worse than something at the bottom of his shoe. I didn’t say you weren’t attractive. You said that.”
Now he’d gone too far. Right or not, that was no way of talking about a friend of mine. And, how on Earth would he presume to know how I felt?
“Listen, Mr G or whatever your name is, leave my friends out of this. I don’t know who you think you are or what you think you know, but that does not give you right to make comments and criticise people I know and like. Have a nice life.”
I turned around and started walking as fast as I could back to the rest of the group. This had been a mistake. Go out with him! Not in a thousand years.
He must have run because he was again by my side.
“Don’t get mad. Come on, I know you’d been thinking about getting your own back on the type of comments he makes about you by going out with a suitable candidate. And I know you and your friends had been thinking about me for the role.”
I must have looked really shocked because he added:
“Don’t worry, your friends haven’t told me and nobody else knows about it.”
“And if I ask you how you know you’re going to tell me that you know things…”
He nodded and smiled.
“You’re so full of it…I don’t really care how you know or even what you know. You can keep all your knowledge and your secrets to yourself. Life is too short for this, if you ask me. I’m sure you can find another equally non-attractive girl for whatever you were thinking about. Good luck with it.”
No bloke was worth putting up with all that in my opinion. He could stuff it. I set off even faster than before. And I had no intention of stopping or being stopped.
This time he came after me motorised and skidded on the gravel to a stop a few metres in front of me.
“I’m volunteering to play the part with Seth. I’m happy to be your official date. I know you don’t really want a relationship. That’s fine with me. I don’t want one either. I feel like you that too much time is invested in relationships with the opposite sex at our age. But I also understand that you find Seth’s attitude annoying and you’re right. Plenty of guys would be happy to be your boyfriends if you really wanted one.”
“Now flattery…Don’t we learn quickly?” I replied trying to be ironic.
“Come on, Pink. I’m not from here. As you’ve said some of the girls that are rated as the prettiest and most desirable by all guys have approached me with no success. You’d score a big hit if you managed where they’d failed. And I’m not high maintenance. I’ll play my part in public well. You don’t need to worry.”
“Why are you so insistent? What’s in it for you?”
“Oh, don’t worry. I have no dark designs. I’ve already told you that I’m not interested in relationships…any kind of relationships…”
When somebody says don’t worry twice in a row, one should definitely worry. I had no ready reply and I just looked at him. I don’t know what my expression must have been like, because he blushed and quickly added:
“I know Chloe and Zoe and all those girls were wondering…But they’re just too convinced they’re irresistible. I’m not gay. I just have other priorities at this point in time. But that will remain between you and me. Everybody else will believe we’re an item. We’ll be convincing.”
I didn’t say anything. Was he gay, was he straight, or was he just not-interested? Did I really care about any of that? Yes, he was right. If I turned up at school hanging of his arm and officially his girlfriend people would stop and pay attention. And Seth’s opinion of me would receive a well-deserved shake. But what did he want in return? Why was he so reluctant to tell me?
“That’s all very well and good, and don’t worry, I’m not interested in your sexuality. You can keep that to yourself. You were right about my attitude towards relationships. But you still haven’t told me what made you approach me in the first place. And don’t tell me you’re just a Good Samaritan helping girls in need. What’s this all about?”
He gave me one of his fixed stares, no smile this time. After what felt like hours he finally said:
“I think we might be able to work together.”
“Work? Do you mean classwork? An assignment?”
“Not exactly.”
Thank you all for reading, and you know what to do, like, comment, share and…you can still CLICK the link to the post with the first chapter or click elsewhere in the page (links to books, other blogs….)!
Just Olga 