Against the Game Excerpt

 
His eyes stayed locked on whatever was back there. “Lacey, I need you to do something for me. Very slowly start walking towards me. No sudden movements and don’t turn around.”

She knew there was something terrible and dangerous behind her. Her first thought was a snake. A full body shiver threatened, and she fought to stay still, terrified of feeling fangs at any minute.

She gulped hard and took a step forward, then another. Nothing struck her from behind. Eric’s eyes never wavered, and that terrified her more than anything. What had him so scared that he wouldn’t take his eyes off it?

After one more step, she was almost to him. Unable to resist any longer, she turned…

…and screamed.

It wasn’t a snake. It was something much, much worse. The first thing she noticed were eyes—huge, multiple, shiny, black eyes. It had hair all over its body and many pairs of legs. It was enormous in size, taller than she or Eric.

Holy…mother…of…God. What was that thing?

She didn’t even realize she was moving, walking backwards, until she bumped into Eric’s hard body behind her. He never once looked away from the creature while he guided her behind him, putting himself between her and it.

“Wh- What is that?” Lacey stammered.

“I think it’s a spider,” he said softly.

They both spoke low as if afraid any sound might make the creature move. In unison, they began moving backwards together, Lacey clinging onto him. Somewhere between fear and panic, she let her heels fall off her feet so she was ready if she needed to run like a mad woman.

Suddenly, the creature reared up on its back legs, showing off two huge fangs, and sprang at them.

Eric and Lacey turned and ran. He was faster. It didn’t take long for her to fall behind. Neither of them dared to look at the spider. Lacey was terrified it would pounce on her at any second. She imagined she felt the hairs of the spider touching her back, right on her heels.

Suddenly, Eric did look back. “Lacey, come on. You’ve got to move faster!”

If she could have, she would have yelled at him to shut up in that moment, but she couldn’t spare the oxygen. Couldn’t he see that she was going as fast as she could go?

He slowed just enough to let her catch up, gripped her hand, and forced her onward. He made her go even faster than before, and she pushed ahead with everything she had. God help them both if she tripped, she thought.

The tunnel continued on and on, but they reached a point where other tunnels merged off to the left and right. What, at first, seemed like one long tunnel, now turned into a maze of intersecting passages.

Eric never turned them, and Lacey had to wonder if he feared them getting lost.

They ran and ran and ran. Her lungs burned, but no amount of discomfort would make her stop. That thing was right behind them.

Then, on her next step, Lacey knew before she started falling that she’d messed up. Her foot turned just enough to trip her, and she went tumbling, arms flailing out of control, landing into Eric. He immediately tripped, and they both went to the ground.

Then, the spider was there.

You are a bad person.

You will fail.

No one likes you.

We all have that crazy mantra in our head, that voice we hear that is our own. Maybe you hear the sentences above or maybe something totally different. Sometimes it is our own words, other times they are things people have said about us.

My son is getting to that age where he really pays attention to what everyone thinks of him. He is situationally shy and insecure at times when he never has seemed so before. I often ask him, “What are you thinking about yourself?”

I know my own inner voice can get negative sometimes, especially on those days when I’m tired or not feeling my best. The problem is that our thoughts and perceptions control how we live our lives. Our thoughts control who we are. We can never be too careful what we are thinking.

So, ask yourself, “Are my thoughts positive or negative?”

They need to be positive. If they aren’t, here’s the thing to do. Tell them to shut up!

Yeah, you might be saying? Just tell myself to shut up? Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.

You are in control of your life. If a negative thought slips through, open that mouth and speak a positive one out loud. We aren’t victims. We can make the choice of who we are and what we are going to do.

Let’s take control. Today, I choose to really enjoy being me. I like who I am. How about you?

If not, here’s some ideas I thought might help us all make 2013 a really great year.

1. Keep a gratitude journal and write down all the blessings you have in your life every day.

2. Try something new before the end of the month. It doesn’t have to be extravagant, maybe it’s just a new hairstyle. Just make sure it’s something you can feel excited about.

3. Get a new attitude. Every time you catch yourself thinking negatively, write down that negative thought, then write down an equally positive one. Purposely replace that negative thought with the positive one every time you catch yourself thinking it.

4. Find ways to help others. It will make you feel great!

5. Believe in a higher source than yourself. There’s a plan for your life. Great things may happen at any moment. Be prepared. Watch for the blessings that come your way.

Happy New Year, friends! It’s going to be a great one. I do plan it so…

I really wish there was one writing tip that would make us all instant successes as writers, but…there’s not. In my opinion, the most important advice anyone can ever give is to keep writing.

Yes, it’s important to build an audience and promote yourself and all that good stuff. But, at the end of the day, what really matters is the quality of the writing. Do you want to succeed? Then, keep writing. Practice. Gain experience. Write, write, write!

The biggest secret to success is to write something so good readers can’t put it down!

So, in a nutshell, there you go. First book didn’t get published? Throw it aside. Write another one. Second book didn’t get published? Throw it aside, write another, and another, and another. Keep at it! Eventually, the hard work will pay off. Isn’t that the way of things in the universe?

So, happy writing!

2)  “The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.”

3)  “Your task is not to seek love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

4)  “Good judgement comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgement.”

5)  “Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain.”

Answers:

1)  Henry Longfellow

2)  Charles Dubois

3)  Rumi

4)  Rita Mae Brown

5)  William Faulkner

Did everyone guess the correct answers? Thanks so much for all that participated. I really enjoyed this one!

Now, do you want to know who won?

Friends, say congratulations to Lucia for winning a print copy of Accelerating Circumstances!

There were also many, many drawings of free pdfs. I hope everyone enjoyed the contest. Come back often!

Would you like to win a signed copy of my latest release, Accelerating Circumstances?

Okay, here’s all you have to do. Each chapter of Accelerating Circumstances opens with a quote to hint at some of the meaning of the story ahead. I’ve picked out five of those quotes below. All you have to do is find out who said each quote and send it to me in an email to destinybooze@gmail.com. So, what do you think? Is that simple enough? Does it sound fun?

 
1)  “We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.”

2)  “The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.”

3)  “Your task is not to seek love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

4)  “Good judgement comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgement.”

5)  “Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain.”

 
Okay, so who said each quote? You can do this guys! One print book will be mailed out to one lucky winner. Of course, if you visit my blog much, you will know I never have just one winner. The results will be announced on Monday. Good luck!

FYI friends: All email addresses used to send answers will be kept strictly confidential and used for no other purposes than this contest. I do have a newsletter I send out. If you would like to sign up, send a separate email to the address above with NEWSLETTER in the subject line. Thanks so much!

Also, there are many blogs involved in all the fun. Go visit some more and win loads of good stuff!

A full list of participating blogs: http://www.ajourneyofbooks.com/

A few chosen off that list you might want to go to now:

http://kmnbooks.blogspot.com/

http://www.knittingandsundries.com/

http://thinksincere.blogspot.com/

http://themaidenscourt.blogspot.com/

http://vanessa-morgan.blogspot.com/

 
Thanks for stopping by, friends!

I think it is so easy for the day to get started on the wrong foot first thing in the morning. If you’re like me, you wake up tired and wanting to go back to sleep. I have to drag myself to the shower and the kitchen for a cup of coffee.

But, really, what I should do is set my mind before I even get out of bed. I could start the day by thinking of all the many blessings in my life. Or, better yet, I could make a list of all the people I could help before the day is over in every way possible. I can give a compliment to each of my coworkers. I can slip a love note in my husband’s lunch. I could plan a special surprise for a friend. How exciting would it be to think that I could change someone’s life today? That sure would get the blood flowing.

 I think if we choose to have a great day, to have a productive day, to have the kind of day that will give us a goodnight’s sleep…then that’s what will happen.

So tomorrow morning, let’s all make the decision first thing in the morning to have a great day. Deal?

Last Summer, I gave away free books every Friday. I had so much fun that I decided to get back into the giving spirit this Summer. To make it just a little more interesting, the picks will be completely random. It could be any day at any time for as many people as I decide. You like that? It’s going to be super fun!

To enter for a chance to win, all you have to do is ”like” my facebook page. Fans will be randomly selected from my page. It’s that simple and that fun. Good luck! Drawings will being tomorrow!

https://www.facebook.com/consulatecareers#!/pages/Destiny-Booze/152893818389

Make your dreams come true. Be persistent. Don’t stop. Do this for yourself, because you want it more than anything, and because you deserve it!

I’ve been writing for a long time, but my first book wasn’t published until 2009. I have four books under my belt. In the publishing industry, I’m just a baby, a new author. And, I’m still striving hard to truly break out and become that “overnight success.” Sadly, I can’t say I’ve ever had that one person that has ever truly pushed me in my writing, but that’s okay. I’ve still had myself.

It’s kind of like when you go on a diet. You run into those that try to sabotage your efforts, even if they don’t mean to. With writing, some of the closest people to me never say anything about what I do. There are others that make off-handed comments like what I might do “one day,” as if they are just trying to make me feel better, but don’t honestly believe that I’m succeeding at what I do. There are also those that think everything I read is the best thing they’ve ever read, which I appreciate them saying, but is overexaggerated and doesn’t ring true enough to believe. Then, there are those that are overly critical and find something wrong with everything I write.

All in all – all of my friends – all of my family – everyone that means the world to me, they just don’t understand. Maybe they just don’t want me to get my hopes up, then be disappointed if I don’t succeed. But, sorry, there’s no turning back now. I wish they really did believe I am a success at what I do. Most of them have the best of intentions. I still love them more than anything. But, if I want what it takes to make it in this industry, I’m going to have to do it alone and do it for myself.

Don’t get me wrong. You will find a lot of help along the way. Thank God for that. I’ve learned so much from other writers. There’s also those times when I feel particuarly down and I’ll run into a reader on the street who loved my latest release. There’s no feeling like that in the world!

No one truly makes it alone out here, but there’s only one person that can make this happen for you, and that’s you. So, the question really is: do you want it badly enough?

“I am so thankful to Destiny for her to have given me a free PDF copy of THE CURSE OF THE MIND. I dove into reading it without reading any synopsis for the book or any reviews, etc. so I was not quite sure what to expect.

I was delightfully drawn into a world of great characters. Action was predominate so I was not bored in the slightest. Each character in this fantastic novel has “great character” WITHIN each and every one of them. Each character also possesses their own charm and skills to behold which draw them tightly together for the common good to do their job and to protect society. A moderate amount of romance exists between the two main characters — just enough to keep the reader wondering if two people are meant for each other during the fast-paced suspense plot of intrigue. But certainly NOT enough to turn off any reader not looking for romance.

The storyline was unique and creative and I felt like I was a part of the team of Private Investigators in this novel who are trying to track down an evil maniac. A GREAT team! This novel kept me interested and intrigued all the time by the action and wondering how in the world the team could track down a killer as elusive as smoke. Too elusive. Therefore, it would seem the only answer as to why they couldn’t find the villain was because he was one of the PI team of investigators trying to find him. Was there an infiltrator? Not one single other alternative made sense. The author used this advantage to keep the reader interested with every turn of the page. Suspense at its best!

When I finally found out who the “perp” was I was, at first, disillusioned. But then I remembered how one of my favorite stories had a similar (yet very different at the same time) villain and it changed my mind from disillusionment to — great idea! Without revealing any spoilers, I would have never ever guessed who the villain ended up being.

THE CURSE OF THE MIND was definitely a fast-paced psychological thriller, a page-turner and a super source of excitement and emotion for the reader — from start to finish. I definitely hope to read more from this inspiring newer author!“