My new release MEET ME IN MAINE(Book One of The Blue Harbor Series) brings murder, mystery, and romance to a seaside town.
Sit back, put up your feet, and let me bring mystery and romance to your lives.
Linda is lost at a carnival. A carnival of her nightmares. A clown is leering at her. The knife-thrower is throwing knives At her but keeps missing. She runs into a tent. Mirrors surround her, Distorting her reflection. She runs farther into the darkness, Crashing through a mirror, Finally landing in a pitch black room. The floor begins to spin… She tries to grab hold of the walls. They are wet and shiny. But there’s no way out.
TRAPPED IN A NIGHTMARE I’m trapped in a nightmare. Clowns are chasing me. The knife-thrower swings at me with his shiny blades. Where should I run? There’s a colorful tent! This must be a carnival. Oh no! This tent is full of mirrors, reflecting back at me distorted images of myself. Someone just pushed me! I’m falling through a mirror—down a long tunnel with hands reaching for me. I’ve landed in the basement of End House! I can never escape this house-- even in my dreams.
Linda is lost at a carnival.
A carnival of her nightmares.
A clown is leering at her.
The knife-thrower throws
his knives at her, but luckily,
keeps missing.
She runs into a tent.
Mirrors surround her,
playing with distortions
of her own reflection.
She runs farther into the tent.
She crashes through a mirror
and lands in a dark room.
The floor begins to spin…
Read what happens next in
THE DEAD GAME by Susanne Leist
Linda found herself at a carnival. What is real or a nightmare?
Chapter 40
That night Linda found
herself caught in a nightmare that she couldn’t escape from, even when
she willed herself to open her eyes. She was afraid that it wasn’t a
nightmare, but a sinister game that had gone wrong. She didn’t know how she’d gotten herself into it or how she was ever going to get out.
The nightmare had begun
with Linda passing through the magical door at the diner—but it wasn’t
the diner anymore; it was a remote house that she’d never seen before.
The house was dark and dreary like End House, but it wasn’t End House.
She heard the sounds of
waves crashing against the house. She couldn’t believe that she was a
prisoner in another house by the ocean. She didn’t know where she was or
what day it was. She didn’t even remember how she’d gotten here. She
just remembered following the little girl through the door: she’d been
curious to see what was on the other side.
On the other side of the door, Linda found herself at the same
carnival that the little girl from the village had visited, except this
carnival was much louder and the people were leering at her, trying to
force her into their tents. The fat man was waving his pudgy arms at her
as he got closer and closer. A clown came at her with his balloons and
howled at her. A man began throwing his knives in her direction, but
luckily, kept missing. She ran away and ran behind the tents to the
colorful booths of the carnival.
She chose the Fun House.
She stepped into a room full of mirrors that made her multiple
reflections appear distorted and unreal. She couldn’t figure out why
she’d run into the Fun House if in every horror movie the victims were
always portrayed as being terrorized there. She hoped this wasn’t
another game of The Dead. She was determined to locate an exit, but
found only mirrors and more mirrors; they made her dizzy. Her distorted
reflections stared back at her—as if they were distinct entities, united
against her, instead of her own creations.
She ran until she crashed
head-first through a mirror, into a dark place with no beginning or end.
The whole experience felt unreal to her—as if she were lost in a
different dimension. Behind this mirror, she encountered a man with a
white mask and empty holes for eyes, laughing at her. When he touched
her arm, she realized that he was real and not just a reflection.
I was looking through pictures online to find one
that would cheer me up on such a dreary day.
Look what I found!
An elephant with its baby made to look like a circus.
A circus can be fun with balloons and lights.
Don’t forget the elephants and tigers.
A circus can also be scary.
There are clowns and men throwing knives.
That’s it!
My mind has drifted to the creepy again.
I guess that’s why my book contains a scene
in a circus, where someone is being chased by
clowns and knife-throwers.
The character doesn’t know if she’s in a nightmare or actually
running for her life through a maze of mirrors.
You can’t teach an animal new tricks—in this case me.
A circus will always be a frightful place for me, and my
dark thoughts will always lead me there.
