The Beached Ones tour banner

This is my post during the blog tour for The Beached Ones by Colleen M. Story.

“A suspenseful ghost story that takes the reader on an existential tightrope walk to an emotionally charged ending.” ~Lance Thompson, Ghostwriter and Script Doctor

This blog tour is organized by Lola’s Blog Tours and the tour runs from 17 till 30 October. You can see the tour schedule here.

The Beached Ones book cover

The Beached Ones
By Colleen M. Story
Genre: Supernatural Thriller/ Ghost Story/ Paranormal
Age category: Adult
Release Date: 28 June, 2022

Blurb:
He came back, determined to keep his promise.

Daniel and his younger brother grew up in an abusive home. Daniel escaped. Now an established stunt rider, he intends to go back to rescue his brother. But then one jump goes horribly wrong . . .

He recovers to find himself in Iowa, unscathed, yet his life has drastically changed. His best friend won’t answer his calls. Even his girlfriend is hiding something. Increasingly terrified, he clings to the one thing he knows: He must pick up his brother in San Francisco. In five days.

From the isolating fields of Iowa to the crowded streets of San Francisco, Daniel must fight his way through a fog of disjointed memories and supernatural encounters to face the truth and pay a debt he didn’t know he owed.

Links:
Goodreads
Bookbub
Amazon
Audible
B&N
Kobo
Google Play
Apple
Indiebound

Book Trailer
You can watch the book trailer for The Beached Ones here on Youtube

The Beached Ones graphic


Excerpt

His recovery on the shore was short-lived. Just as he started to get up on his hands and knees, the sand collapsed under- neath him, tilting him over onto his side. Feeling his hip and shoulder start to sink, he rolled onto his back to see stars dragging streaks of light behind them, the night sky spinning like a Ferris wheel. He was dizzy from fatigue, he thought, but the sensation intensified, the beach wide and then narrow, the night twisting as if wringing itself out. He remembered suffering a fever as a child, when everything appeared distorted and smaller than it should have been, rooms shrinking in size even while he seemed to grow, except this time it was the coastline and the lighthouse and the city lights expanding and elongating until they were nothing but colored ribbons. Around and around it all went, the vertigo so overpowering he closed his eyes. Gradually, the sensation eased and the world stopped moving, leaving him feeling as if he’d come to the end of an amusement park ride.

His childhood home materialized around him, a ragged trailer house on the outskirts of Butte. He sat crouched low by the living room window. Raindrops spattered the glass, the sky covered in dense gray clouds. Outside, donning a homemade headdress fashioned from a leather belt and taped-on crow feathers, Tony stood in the steady downpour, having taken up a post in the middle of the muddy front yard, if you could call the square of dirt between their trailer and the gravel road beyond a yard. Daniel peered through the part of the window that wasn’t covered with brown spray paint. His little brother raised skinny white arms to the sky and started to run in circles. His feet pummeled the ground, shooting out muddy splashes of slop that fell back to stain his jeans. After five times around, he changed to a football shuffle, side to side with his arms pumping in front of him. Rain bombed his feathers and soaked through his black hair. Ten minutes later, he stood like a soldier, sent God a drenched salute, and ran back inside. Dropping the headdress on the TV tray by the door, he stepped out of his mud-covered sneakers and ran across the room to join Daniel. “Did it work? Did the rain stop?”

The memory faded, giving way to the sensation of hard stone poking into his cheek. He was outdoors again, one side of his body warmed by the sun, the other pressed against a mound of dirt that quivered underneath him. A train whistle moaned. Wheels clacked in a steady rhythm, coming, coming, and then a ding-ringing of bells. Under his fingers, a steel track vibrated. The whistle sounded again, louder this time, bombarding his ears and forcing his eyelids back. The steel monster was no more than fifty feet away. Scrambling to his hands and knees, he glanced with horror at the tracks where his fingers had lain. A gust of wind blasted his face as the engine barreled by, the whistle dropping in pitch with a mournful farewell. Daniel grabbed his cap and stumbled backward, down the incline and away from the tracks. In his rush he lost his balance and fell, rolling twice before coming to rest on level ground.


The Beached Ones tour banner

About the Author

Colleen M. Story is a novelist, freelance writer, writing coach, and speaker with over 20 years in the creative writing industry. Her latest novel, The Beached Ones, was released with CamCat Books on July 26, 2022. Her previous novel, Loreena’s Gift, was a Foreword Reviews’ INDIES Book of the Year Awards winner, among others.

Colleen has written three books to help writers succeed. Your Writing Matters was a bronze medal winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards (2022). Writer Get Noticed! was a gold-medal winner in the Reader’s Favorite Book Awards and a first-place winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards (2019). Overwhelmed Writer Rescue was named Book by Book Publicity’s Best Writing/Publishing Book in 2018.

A lifelong musician, Colleen plays the French horn in her local symphony and pit orchestras. When not writing, she’s reading, practicing yoga, listening to music, exploring the beautiful Northwest, and making up more challenging games for her smart German Shepherd to play.

You can find free chapters of her books on her author website (colleenmstory.com) and writing website (writingandwellness.com) or connect with her on Twitter (@colleen_m_story), LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Author links

Author website
Writing website
LinkedIn
Twitter
Instagram
Bookbub
Amazon
Youtube

The Beached Ones square tour banner
Lola's Blog Tours graphic

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.