SKUNKS AND BATS AND NARCOLEPTIC CATS, OH MY!
As if being struck by lightning wasn’t bad enough. I spent a month in a coma. Of course that was when I was a teenager. It left me with some pretty unusual abilities. For instance, I can find just about anything or anyone. Oh, and I can see ghosts, too!
I pick up extra cash working with the local P.D. I’m their go-to girl when they have someone they need to find. Despite all of this, my life is pretty boring — that is until the very hot Detective Nick Cavanaugh came into my life. Boy did we get off on the wrong foot. I was asked to pair up with Detective Cavanaugh to look for three missing children. Did I mention that he doesn’t believe in my superpowers?
When we discover the children have been kidnapped, the search takes us up into the mountains and old mining towns. With time running out and my abilities going wonky, Cavanaugh is ready to drop me from the case. Pffft! As if that will stop me!
–Andromeda Spencer
Targeted Age Group:: 18+
What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
Parts of this story started bouncing around in my head. I wrote out a few scenes not sure where it was going. After I saw the cat, that I loosely based Pollini the Narcoleptic Cat on, it seemed as though everything just flowed after that. When I finished, I had ideas for at least four more books involving these characters. That’s when I decided to do this as a series.
How Did You Come up With Your Characters?
I honestly couldn’t tell you how I came up with these characters. It was as if they wrote themselves. I saw a commercial of a cat doing a Garfield-type face plant that gave me the idea for Pollini, the Narcoleptic Cat. After that, the book just seem to write itself.
Book Sample
We managed to make it back to the dimly lit tunnel exit. I let go of Cavanaugh’s shirt when I saw the light and hurried ahead of him. I stopped, leaning over with my hands on my knees trying to catch my breath. Cavanaugh led the way to the boarded up entrance and I followed close on his heels. I still had the heebie-jeebies from those nasty, furry little bodies hitting us and I still felt as though I had things crawling on me. I ran my right hand through my hair and down my left side. Switching the shard into my right hand, I did the same with the right side of my body. Satisfied, I put the shard back into my left hand. I was crowded behind Cavanaugh, waiting for my turn to step into the light. I felt a little tickle on the front of my tee shirt. I had already run my hands over myself so I looked down at my chest instead of doing it again.
Sitting on my tee shirt, right between my breasts, was a small bat. He had his little feet hooked into the material of my tee and his wings tucked into his sides as we stared each other in the eyes. His pig-like nostrils flared at me and his pink tongue flicked out and licked his upper lip. The scream that I let loose was so high and so loud, I’m surprised it didn’t shatter the crystal in my hand. I shoved Cavanaugh through the opening of the mine with a strength I didn’t know I had. He stumbled out and tripped over the lumber that had fallen at the bottom of the entrance. I ran past him, leaping over his fallen body, beating my hand against my chest to try to dislodge the bat. I reached a patch of sunshine and tried to rip off my jacket.
In my panicked and delusional brain, I thought that if I could just expose his little black and brown body to the sunlight, he’d disintegrate like the vampires you see in the movies. The only thing the sunlight did was make him tuck his furry face into my tee shirt and slowly crawl up to my neck. I screamed again. My jacket was stuck on my left hand because I couldn’t release the shard. I began to brush at the bat, trying to get him off me.
Dancing around the clearing of the mine, I flung my left arm around smacking Cavanaugh upside his head with my jacket. He got to his feet and had been trying to get a hold of me to help me with the bat. However, he was laughing so hard that he could barely stand straight.
“Get it off! Get it off!” I screamed beating at my chest.
He ducked as I swung my jacket again at him.
“Stand still, damn it,” he laughed as he tried to grab my arms.
I screamed again as the little bat continued to climb up to my neck. I did not want that thing in my hair. Cavanaugh, having no luck getting me to stand still long enough for him to remove the bat, knocked me to the ground and straddled my hips. He put his knee on my jacket so I couldn’t move my left arm and held my right wrist, while he tried to pluck the little furry bat off my chest without getting bit.
And still he laughed.
It was a good thing he had a hold of my free hand, because I wanted nothing more than to punch his lights out.
“Hold still, Tink,” he said.
The bat was fighting to stay attached and had all four sets of claws hooked into my shirt. I was definitely throwing out this shirt when I got home. I don’t think you can wash out bat cooties. Cavanaugh finally managed to get the bat off me. He held the little bat up between us.
“Poor little guy,” he sympathized. “All he wanted was a soft warm spot to hide and look what happened.”
He tossed the little creature up into the air and it took flight back into the mine. Cavanaugh held his spot straddled over me for another minute before standing and hauling me up with him. He chuckled when he got a good look at me. My jacket was still stuck at the end of my hand. My hair was sticking up in all directions and my tee shirt was stretched out of shape and hanging off one shoulder. I gave him a shot with my fist in the chest and glared at him for laughing at me.
“Ow!” he complained. “You’re an ornery little thing when you’re riled up, aren’t you.”
“I so hate you right now,” I seethed and I tried to pull my jacket back up my arm. He tried to help me but I was too mad to accept his assistance. I smacked at his hands as he held my arm and tried to work my sleeve back up. He gave up with a grin and let me do it myself.
About the Author:
Theresa Parker was born in Fresno California. She still lives in the Central San Joaquin Valley with her husband and sons.
Theresa is an avid reader and whenever she finished reading a book, she would imagine new characters and insert them into the existing story. She loves anything crafty and going to the local Indian Casinos with her husband.
Her greatest passion is writing, however you can usually tempt her to stop for brief periods by showing her cute animal photos and shiny crystals and gemstones.
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