EXTRACTS FROM THE WITCH’S SHADOW – 10

Tags

books, childrens books, enjoy reading, good read, James McKenna, young adults

The Witch’s Shadow, the 2^nd in the Mind Traveller series, is available now from Amazon.  To give you a flavour of Rosie’s adventures into Mind Space here is the final extract from Chapter 2.

Extract from Chapter 2 

                “I’m only a Grade 4 Angel trying for Grade 3.  But if she leapt into parallel time she’s in Mind Space and Mind Space is dangerous. If you want the truth you’ll need to find it yourself.”  She shrugged.  “Sorry about that, but at least I can get a little assistance.”  From amongst the arrows in her sheath she produced a small, silver trumpet and leaning from the window blew a long, shrill note that carried far up the building.  Gradually the sound faded, replaced by the flutter of wings, the noise growing in volume as if a swirling flock of birds flew in formation.  When Rosie looked out, dozens of White Angels swooped and soared in double ranks, each ready with bow and arrow.

“The SAS, Special Angel Service.  Our barracks are just above.”  She took Rosie’s hand and stepped up onto the windowsill.

Rosie came beside her and looked at the portal of light giving entrance back into her own world, far, far below.  “I’m not sure about this,” she said and swallowed hard.

“In this world you either do or you do not.  Me and me mates will fight a rear-guard action.  You just fly like your life depends on it, because it does.”  She nodded and leapt into space, dragging Rosie behind.  For seconds both flew side by side, then Elissa drew her sword and swept overhead.

Rosie deltered her arms, the wind buffeting her face and hair, tearing at her clothes as she swallow dived towards the light.  At first she heard only her own scream, then a loud, sucking noise as billowing dark shadows emerged from the surrounding void.  All at once the angels were shouting and white arrows darted through the air, embedding into the undulating shapes of scrowlers who threw long, sucking tentacles to snatch at their victims.  She heard Elissa slashing with her sword and then the shouts of her comrades as they became locked in combat.  Next moment something gooey wrapped around Rosie’s waist and yanked her off course.

“Elissa,” Rosie yelled, unable to stop herself being lifted towards a gaping mouth.  Powerless she hammered her fists against the tentacle whose suckers pulled at her clothes.  From under the shadow appeared a face, a hideous crone with glaring eyes and twisted nose.  For seconds Rosie stared at the monster, the air shaken by its vicious howl, then like the guardian angel she was, Elissa flashed by swinging her sword to cut the tentacle in half.

“Scramble girl, go, go, go.”

Rosie ripped the remaining coil from her body, throwing it aside as she returned to her dive.  The light now rushed towards her and glancing back over her shoulder, she saw two more scrowlers descending, yellow eyes fixed on her, their bodies spreading like undulating blankets, their tentacles reaching towards her.  For seconds she saw Elissa dart between them, cutting with her sword, then her friend disappeared as Rosie hurtled into the light portal and the passage to her own world.  She heard the scrowlers crash against the entrance, their body mass too big to follow.

“Elissa,” she shouted and then thumped on to the dormitory floor to look up at the underside of her mattress.  “Elissa,” she whispered.

“You all right?” Paula asked from the bed beside Rosie’s.

“Yeah, sure.”  Rosie stood and rubbed a bruised arm.  “Had a bad dream, that’s all.”

“I’ll say.  You were shouting your head off.”  The girl turned over and snuggled down.

Rosie calmed her breath and slipped off her trainers before sliding under her own duvet.  For minutes she lay in darkness, listening intently.  In her mind she whispered Elissa’s name, calling her over and over, but Elissa did not answer.

My Amazon Author’s Page is at http://tinyurl.com/c9ultl3

EXTRACTS FROM THE WITCH’S SHADOW – 9

Tags

books, childrens books, enjoy reading, good read, James McKenna, young adults

The Witch’s Shadow, the 2^nd in the Mind Traveller series, is available now from Amazon.  To give you a flavour of Rosie’s adventures into Mind Space here is another extract from Chapter 2.

Extracts will continue every Wednesday and Saturday.

Extract from Chapter 2

“I’m confused.  How can I read my mother’s diaries when they’re at home in Haston Manor?  My Uncle Hugo forbade me to read them till I’m eighteen.  Though I admit, I have sneaked a couple of views.”  She looked down at the ground.  “And used my iPad to photograph lots of pages.  Especially the last diary so I could find out what happened.  Except I didn’t read too much because, well…”   She shrugged her shoulders.  “I don’t like to deceive Uncle Hugo.”  She looked to Elissa who stroked her in angelic understanding.

“Then you have them, your mother’s last diaries.  So if you want to help save your world from the Dark Angels, if you want to finish your mother’s mission regarding the White Dove, I suggest you get reading soon as possible.”  One arm produced a huge cake which the head began to eat.  “But don’t forget your main mission to find Livinia and release Tiago.  We didn’t spend weeks influencing your uncle by using subliminal hypnosis over the internet for nothing.  There is a reason why you must visit Southwold in Suffolk.  And it’s not to play on the pier or write your school essay on Southwold’s history.”

“You influenced me to pick that subject, how?” Rosie asked.

“Subliminal psychotic induction, particularly via the Web, is a modern and useful influence over the unaware,” the head said and munched another bite of cake.

“That’s secret hypnosis, that’s sneaky.”

“I’m a sneaky sort of person.  But it’s covered by the Manual.  Of course, the SAS will give you what help they can.”  He screwed up his face.  “Except out of Mind Space in the parallel worlds, that help is limited.  Fortunately the same applies to Gizeda and the Dark Angels.  I do know this, a fragment of the White Dove is also in the vicinity of Southwold.  Your mother hid it there, her diaries will tell you.  Just don’t take it through Mind Space, it’s far too dangerous.  Enemies of the Light are everywhere.  Now off you go, there is no time to lose.”

“On my own!”  Rosie looked up at the head.  “Why me?  There must be others Mind Travellers”

“Not that many and they’re all busy.  In your sector you’re the only one available.  For goodness sake, we’re in the middle of a war.  Besides, Elissa is always around.  The good are never far away.  So, get on with it.”

“Elissa can’t be everywhere.  Give us a chance.”

The head huffed breath and rolled its eyes.  “OK, OK, I’ll let you have Sid.”

“Sid?  Who’s Sid?”

“Who’s Sid, everyone knows Seagull Sid,” the head exclaimed and disappeared.  The bulbous green body sank into the hole like a deflating balloon, leaving a globule of gunge the size of a tennis ball.

Her mind in turmoil, Rosie turned to Elissa and raised both hands.  “I don’t even know where to start,” she said to the angel, “and where’s this Sid?”

“Here,” said the ball of gunge which looked like pooh.

“Yuck.  And what are you meant to be?”

“Well thank you very much,” the gunge said.  “I’ll have you know I’m Seagull Sid and can mould myself into anything.  But I’m best at seagulls, hence the name.”  With that the ball popped and vanished.

“This is typical of them that make the rules,” Elissa said.  “They ask the impossible, give you what looks like pooh, then clear off.  So,” she put her hands on her hips, “OK, let’s get the dove sorted, then we can concentrate on our main mission.  Your iPad with copies of your mother’s diaries.  You got it?”  She reached out her hand.

“No.  It’s at school, by my bed.  I didn’t think I’d need an iPad in Mind Space.”

“Humans, humans.”  Elissa shook her head.  “I just hope Gizeda hasn’t sent one of her creppins to steal it.  Creppins might be stupid but they have full mobility in the parallel worlds.”  She crossed to a window and peered cautiously out.

“What about the scrowler creatures?” Rosie asked.

“Well, they’re a law until themselves.  Where Gizeda can’t go, they can.  Problem is, they know you’re here and they’ll be waiting.  See that glimmer down there?” She pointed to a faint light far below in the mist of clouds.  “That’s a portal to your world, not your standard time lift, just a direct escape tube.  That’s your quickest way out of here and home.”

“It’s a long way off.”

“True, but we’re way above floor zero.  If we can pick up speed we can hopefully outrun them.”

“Hopefully,” Rosie said and squeezed the angel’s hand.  “You got to tell me, Elissa.  If I can place leap from parallel worlds and through time, could my mother have done that when her plane crashed?  Is she alive somewhere?”

My Amazon Author’s Page is at http://tinyurl.com/c9ultl3

EXTRACTS FROM THE WITCH’S SHADOW – 7

Tags

books, childrens books, enjoy reading, good read, James McKenna

The Witch’s Shadow, the 2^nd in the Mind Traveller series, is available now from Amazon.  To give you a flavour of Rosie’s adventures into Mind Space here is another extract from Chapter 2.

Extracts will continue every Wednesday and Saturday.

Extract from Chapter 2 

Rosie shot through misty wisps of vapour which in turn led to a circular open space.  At the centre of this void, golden clouds clustered as if forming a rock foundation beneath a building that stretched upwards to a gleaming silver pinnacle.  At the base, black craggy metal formed the lower walls, the surface pitted with glowing portholes, the light given by flickering flames which silhouetted a heaving mass of Dark Angels.  As the tower rose, the metal changed to stone.  At first a flat, grey surface which stretched bleak and empty until at halfway, arched windows and white balconies began to appear, growing in number towards the pinnacle.

“Is this it?”  Rosie shouted.

“The Ministry of Procedures and the Library of Shadows, the place where everything in your world and all the parallel worlds is organised by them inside.  Except they keep mucking it up.  Down there,” Elissa pointed to the black metal base, “that’s where Hisdrillo and the Dark Angels, Gizeda included, hatch their wicked plans.  Centre, the Time Co-ordinator, Grubalot and the Procedures Committee make Mind Space Rules and Regulations, including Health and Safety.  Above are the White Angels and Special Angel Service, the SAS.  While at the very top,” she pointed to the silver pinnacle, “that’s where the Holy Bunch hangs out.  A right snooty lot.  Just because they’ve made Grade 1 Plus and been mentioned in despatches for exceptional behaviour, they think they know it all.  But they ain’t done half what the SAS have done.”  She poked a single finger upwards the same moment a dark shape passed over them, hovered, then stopped.

Elissa squealed, grabbed Rosie’s hand and pulled her onwards.

“What’s that?”  Rosie glanced up as they passed beneath.  Two yellow eyes looked down at her.

“One of Gizeda’s scrowlers.  She ain’t a Grade 1 Dark Angel for nothing.”

“But what does it want?”

“You.  Shift it, girl.  Can’t have this ending before it’s started.  If it eats you I’ll never get my Guardian Angel Grade 3.”

“Eat me.”  Rosie shot forward beside her friend, hearing the scrowler hiss as it dropped, spreading like a net ready to engulf them both.

Both girls screeched, hands held tight as they slipped beneath its grasp and through an arched window into the tower.  A second later the creature wrapped itself over the opening as the girls flattened themselves against the central stone column of a spiral staircase winding overhead.

One yellow, red shot eye stared through the window, while the creature sent a tentacle creeping over the floor towards them.

“Run,” Elissa yelled, dragging Rosie behind her up the steps.  At the next landing they found a large ‘O’ painted on the wall with a minus sign to the left and a plus to the right.  “Half way between good and evil,” Elissa shouted, “and not safe.”

As if to confirm her words, the creature fluttered up the outside wall to spy on them again.

Rosie needed no prompting and immediately started up the next flight, one step ahead of Elissa.  On landing number one the angel slumped back against the wall, sword in hand.  Rosie lent beside her, listening to the creature clawing in frustration, seemingly unable to climb the outer wall.

Elissa stood straight and sheathed her sword.  “Safe for now,” she said.  “The Dark Angels, their creppins and demons are all classified as negative, so can’t rise beyond floor zero.  Only the White Angels can do that, ’cos we’re good, therefore positive.”

“What about me?” Rosie asked.

“You’re OK ’cos you’re with me.  In this building, them that make the rules balance everything.  Come on, time to meet Grubalot.”  She started up the next spiralling flight.

“So negative is evil and positive is good,” Rosie said as she followed.

“Kind of.”  Elissa looked over her shoulder.  “Hisdrillo and the Dark Angels want chaos and war.  Alternatively, the White Angels want peace and tranquillity.    Until recently, Prince Tiago and the Cloud Riders guarded your sector.  The scrowlers were kept at bay.  But now that Hisdrillo has Tiago trapped in the Valley of Stone, Gizeda has her monsters everywhere, eating anyone they can grab.”

“So what am I meant to do?” Rosie asked, slightly out of breath as they reached the tenth floor.

“Sort it of course.”

“Why me? And how?”

“Ask Grubalot.  He’s the one who makes the rules.”

They stopped before a large chamber where a circle of lights surrounded a hole in the floor.  Bookshelves lined the walls from floor to ceiling, stretching upwards into a grey haze.

“What a lot of books.”  Rosie looked to where shadows flickered from one shelf to another.

“Never been allowed on this floor before,” Elissa said, standing on the threshold.  “It’s the Library of Shadows where them that make the rules hang out.  You got the Mind Traveller Manual, Health and Safety plus the Time Co-ordinator Regulations.  You’ll need to read them all to understand. ”

Rosie entered through the doorway, Elissa behind her.

“I’ll never read that lot.  No one could,” Rosie said.

“No one has, that’s why no one understands.”

Both jumped when the hole suddenly filled with a green sludge that bubbled upwards into an elongated balloon, the skin growing thicker from pulsing spurts, two of which formed into arms and hands.

Slowly retreating, both clung to each other.

“What is that?” Rosie asked, watching the slime descend into a big, fat, round jelly like body.

“I think it’s Grubalot,” Elissa answered.  “If not, we’re in trouble.”

My Amazon Author’s Page is at http://tinyurl.com/c9ultl3

EXTRACTS FROM THE WITCH’S SHADOW – 6

Tags

books, childrens books, enjoy reading, good read, James McKenna

The Witch’s Shadow, the 2^nd in the Mind Traveller series, is available now from Amazon.  To give you a flavour of Rosie’s adventures into Mind Space here is an extract from chapter 2.

Extracts will continue every Wednesday and Saturday.

Extract from Chapter 2

The Ministry of Procedures

Beneath the bedcovers Rosie held trainers to the tee-shirt she wore over grey flannel pyjamas.  About her neck hung the time locket and on her wrist a Mind Traveller’s charm bracelet, both inherited from her mother.

In the darkened dormitory she waited for Miss Swinton’s routine visit, knowing three roommates read books by torchlight beneath their quilts.  Chimes from the bell tower of St Monica’s chapel struck 10.30 and beyond the curtains, clouds closed over the moon to hide the last of its silver glow.

Rosie had no idea what Elissa intended and no idea where they were going.  To save the world seemed a little exaggerated.  No matter how determined, fifteen-year-old schoolgirls didn’t save the world without a lot of help.  Once more fear crept across her mind, only held at bay by a sense of duty and determination.

 “Are you still awake?” Elissa whispered into Rosie’s thoughts.

“Awake and ready.  Let’s not mess about.  I’m on school holiday tomorrow and you said immediate action,” Rosie whispered in return, then fell silent when footsteps sounded from the corridor.  Eyes tight shut, she heard the door open and Miss Swinton’s voice.

“Torches out, no more reading.  Come on girls, early start tomorrow.”

The teacher re-closed the door and Rosie heard the other girls shuffle bedclothes while putting their books and torches away.

“You sure this is safe?” Rosie spoke into her thoughts again.

“In Mind Space, nothing is safe.  You ready?”

Beneath the sheets Rosie slipped her trainers on and fastened the Velcro straps.

“What do I think of?” she asked.

“A great tower of a building called the Ministry of Procedures, a sort of cross between a spaceship and a castle high in the clouds.  That’s where the Time Co-ordinator has his Library of Shadows.  Also where them that make the rules live in a thing called Grubalot.”

“Thing?”

“You’ll see. So, let’s do it.”

She tried to visualise what Elissa had described, the sky and clouds were fine but a castle like a spaceship proved more difficult.  Eyes shut, she felt a jolt and the next instant the bottom of her bed opened, dropping her into a grey shaft of light which spiralled out into white and golden clouds.  Tumbling as she fell, Rosie heard Elissa’s voice shouting over the rush of air.

“Stabilise, stabilise.  Spread your arms and fly.”

Rosie did as instructed, remembering the lessons she had been taught during her first adventure into Mind Space, where she had first joined the White Angels to become a Warrior of the Light, enabling her to do battle against the Dark Angels.  Slowly she stopped turning, the wind tearing at her face, hair and body, her arms spread like wings, her legs and feet like a tail.  Then suddenly she swooped to the left and upwards.  She could fly, she could fly.

“Elissa,” she screamed.  “I’m back, I’m back.”

“Good on you, girl.”  Elissa flew alongside, her fist clenched in victory. “So fly to that cloud formation ahead.  Inside is the Ministry of Procedures where Grubalot is waiting.

My Amazon Author’s Page is at http://tinyurl.com/c9ultl3

EXTRACTS FROM THE WITCH’S SHADOW – 5

Tags

books, childrens books, enjoy reading, good read, James McKenna

The Witch’s Shadow, the 2^nd in the Mind Traveller series, is available now from Amazon.  To give you a flavour of Rosie’s adventures into Mind Space here is an extract from the opening  chapter.

Extracts will continue every Wednesday and Saturday.

 Extract from Chapter 1

Even as Elissa spoke, the flap of angry wings entered the cellar with the fury of a trapped crow.  A presence layered in black feathers materialised beyond the steamer trunks, its breath harsh and rasping as it turned towards them.

“Gizeda,” Elissa whispered and scrambled something from her pocket.

Metamorphosing from Dark Angel to her earthly form, Gizeda the witch crouched on her four arms and four legs, revealing the shadow of a grotesque spider, her wrinkled and scabby face turning this way and that until her eyes found Rosie.

“What do we do?” Rosie squeaked and backed away.

“Return to real time, like now,” Elissa yelled.

The witch darted forward, reaching her scaly arms for Rosie’s neck the same moment Elissa threw liquid from a small bottle.  The resulting scream resounded through the cellar as smoke and fumes fizzled through Gizeda’s garments sending her into a frantic flurry of arms and legs.

“Go, go,” Elissa yelled.

Rosie shut her eyes to concentrate on the last act of her race, on the stride which carried her to mid hurdle.  She saw the finishing line, the cheering girls.  Next instant she bowled over on the grass track, twisting instantly back to her feet, but too late to be first.

“What happened?” Miss Swinton, her housemistress asked at the finish.  “You were winning.”

“Don’t know, just tripped.”

“And jewellery is forbidden,” the teacher said, pointing to the time locket.  “One hundred lines by six tonight.”

“My lucky charm,” Rosie said, touching the necklace.

“You need speed not luck and rules are rules.”

After writing her lines, Rosie handed them in, then showered and changed into a tracksuit.  With no sign of Elissa since the race and with this new information about place leaping, only one question burned into her mind

If a Mind Traveller could place leap without wearing a time locket, had her mother and father done the same?  Doing aerobatics in a two-seater aircraft was crazy, but then her father had always been crazy.  No bodies were found, so maybe as a Mind Traveller Mum had shifted herself and Dad to Mind Space.  Maybe them that make the rules would know?  Whatever new mission they gave her, she had to find the truth.

My Amazon Author’s Page is at http://tinyurl.com/c9ultl3

EXTRACTS FROM THE WITCH’S SHADOW – 4

Tags

books, childrens books, enjoy reading, good read, James McKenna

The Witch’s Shadow, the 2^nd in the Mind Traveller series, is available now from Amazon.  To give you a flavour of Rosie’s adventures into Mind Space here is another extract from the opening chapter.

Extracts will continue every Wednesday and Saturday.

Extract from Chapter 1

“Did we throw him?” she yelled into space.

“The creppin, no problem,” Elissa shouted back.  “Just watch out for Gizeda the witch.  The creppin will report to her, she won’t like this.  Neither will Health and Safety.”

“What are we going to do?”  No answer came as Rosie found herself skidding over the cellar floor of her uncle’s manor house, bashing into a line of cabin trunks left from a time when the Haston family explored the world in steamships.

“Ouch.”  Rosie rubbed her knees and pushed herself up.  “Hey, Elissa, I did it, I did it.   I leapt from one place to another.”

“No time to mess, get your time locket.”  Elissa materialised beside her.  Around the same age as Rosie, Elissa stood with her wings neatly folded, her short blonde hair a bob of curls.  Dressed in white leggings and top under a silver breastplate, she carried a short broadsword at her waist, plus a bow and quiver of arrows on her shoulder, her whole presence casting an ethereal glow into the dark cellar.  Normally Rosie figured Elissa quite cute in an angelic, boyish sort of way, but with grazed knees and immediate danger this was no time for pleasantries.

“I thought you couldn’t materialise in real time,” Rosie said, hurrying down the line of cabin trunks in search of her mother’s old wicker school case.

“This may look like real time to you, but it’s not.  You left real time in midstride over a hurdle.  You’re still there, locked in transition between parallel zones, zones split between time, thought and resulting action.  Or more simply, the infinity of Mind Space.  I thought you were reading up on quantum mechanics?”

“Does that mean the dark side is here?”

“Gizeda the witch, her creppins, her scrowlers, the lot.  So move your backside, girl, because this angel don’t want to end as a spider in hell.”

“Why a spider?”

“Because that’s what Gizeda’s bite will turn you into.  Then as a spider you will be doomed to follow her and do whatever she demands.  She maybe conceited and stupid but she makes up for it with pure nastiness.  Her genetic makeup is from a species of venomous spiders.  Her bite is lethal.”

“That’s scary,” Rosie said as she found the basket.  “I have no key.”

Elissa produced a hairpin from her curls and in seconds the case stood open.

“A White Angel who can pick locks?”

“I’m Special Angel Service, SAS, not one of the Holy Bunch.”

Rosie grabbed up the pouch containing the locket inherited from her mother and shook the contents into her hand.  For a moment, light from Elissa’s ethereal glow reflected from the silver chain and pendant while a mild electric current circled Rosie’s palm, reminding her of the extraordinary power held within, power which allowed her to mind travel.  The same moment a door slammed in the house above and a draught flurried dust over the cellar floor.

“My uncle,” Rosie squeaked and quickly fastened the locket around her neck.

“He’s out, we’re in time past so I was able to check.  But something else just arrived and believe me, we don’t want to find out what.”

My Amazon Author’s Page is at http://tinyurl.com/c9ultl3

EXTRACTS FROM THE WITCH’S SHADOW – 3

Tags

books, childrens books, enjoy reading, good read, James McKenna

The Witch’s Shadow, the 2^nd in the Mind Traveller series, is available now from Amazon.  To give you a flavour of Rosie’s adventures into Mind Space here is another extract from the opening chapter.

Extracts will continue every Wednesday and Saturday.

 Extract from Chapter 1

“You know, you hear these things.  I can only guess.  You’re a Mind Traveller, you inherited your mother’s ability and time locket.  The only way to find out is to do it … ’course, if you don’t want to save the world and find another segment from the White Dove of Peace.”

Rosie heard Elissa huff breath and imagined her angelic but wicked little smile.  “The White Dove,” Rosie repeated, knowing it was yet another duty to fulfil, another quest left unfinished by her mother.  “OK, but only for my mother.  I have to know, I have to know if they escaped.”

“Before the last hurdle, when your mind and body are at full stretch, I want you to focus all thoughts on the cellar of Haston Manor.  The darkness, cobwebs, spiders and grime.  Don’t worry about light, I’ll provide that.”

“What about the key to my mother’s case?  I don’t have it.”

“No problem, in the SAS you learn a few tricks.”

“You fit, Rosie?” one of her team mates called.

“Sure, just trying some inner meditation, it helps me focus.”

“Oh, I thought you were talking to yourself.”

“That too.  I’m told mad people run faster.”

Amidst encouraging cheers Rosie trotted over the grass towards the start line, unsure of what she faced.  Everyone was shouting, cheering.  A corridor opened between supporters of the different houses, teachers, parents, families of day pupils.  Rosie allowed the noise to pump her adrenaline and determination, trying to ignore the sadness that her own parents were never there.  But then no one cheered from the grave; they were dead.  Or were they?  If her mother could transport herself from one place and time to another, then why not from a crashing aeroplane?  Maybe she had not been an orphan for eight years, maybe.  Only one way to find out.

“You sure this will work in front of all these people?” Rosie spoke in her thoughts and received Elissa’s reply in the same way, her angelic outline no longer visible.

“You’re going into a time vacuum.  No one watching will realise you even left.”

“They will if I don’t come back.”

“Trust me.”

Crouched in the start position, Rosie listened to the babble of spectators die away.  Head up she looked to the eight hurdles spread over three hundred metres.  Muscles tensed, mind centred, she raised her hips.  “I go on the last hurdle, OK?” she whispered.  Then she saw him.  A small, long coated figure with a domed hat pulled down to his eyebrows and over the tops of his ears.

“Creppin,” she yelled, the same instant a starting pistol cracked the air with a single shot.  Tensed muscles sent Rosie leaping forwards amidst an explosive volume of cheering.  Without time for fear, sounds became a blur of noise as her mind centred on the first jump which flashed beneath her.  The fleeting contact of feet on track sped her ever onwards in a pounding of blood and breath through body and mind.  Every thirty metres she lifted her legs to fly effortlessly over a hurdle.

Creppin, creppin.  She could not shout, could not even think.  Elissa’s warning had materialised.  The dark side had arrived.  And they wouldn’t do that unless they considered her a threat.  Duty to the White Angels now became paramount.  The countryside, other competitors, spectators and sounds all fused into a single tunnel of Mind Space as hurdle after hurdle passed beneath her.  Central to her vision appeared the stone mass of Haston Manor, then the darkness of its cellars where her mother’s old school basket lay containing the time locket and diaries.  All hovered as if held at the end of a tunnel above the final hurdle, the scene expanding larger and larger with each forward pace.  She sensed the rhythmic pounding of her body slow to a single pulse.  The moment she lifted her legs to leap the vision before her transformed into a kaleidoscope of spinning colours.  No longer running she flew over clouds of rolling space dust.  Before her, crackled lighting spread cobweb fingers and lit the approaching shape of Haston Manor, its Norman tower and Gothic chimneys stained with the wear of time.

My Amazon Author’s Page is at http://tinyurl.com/c9ultl3

EXTRACTS FROM THE WITCH’S SHADOW – 2

Tags

books, childrens books, enjoy reading, good read, James McKenna

The Witch’s Shadow, the 2^nd in the Mind Traveller series, is available now from Amazon.  To give you a flavour of Rosie’s adventures into Mind Space here is an extract from the opening  chapter.

Extracts will continue every Wednesday and Saturday.

Extract from Chapter 1

Good Angels, Bad Angels

Rosie stood.  “I don’t want to get involved, I’m going on holiday,” she said, while knowing duty must now overcome fear.  “Aren’t their other Mind Travellers?”

“Not in your sector, that’s why you’re central to their plan.  That’s why in anticipation of developments they got your uncle to rent Larkins Cottage.”

Rosie leapt in the air and came down flat-footed with fists clenched.  “For goodness sake, who are they?”

“I told you, them that make the rules, consequently resulting in cause and effect.  They subconsciously influenced your uncle to book the cottage by using subliminal hypnosis over the internet.  Poor old dear thought it was all his own idea.  Humans.”  She raised barely visible arms and shook her head.

“OK, I admit it.  I don’t think I’m capable and I’m scared.  Look what happened last time, near disaster.”

“Rosie, I’ve seen you in action.  Scared or not you’ll do it.  Besides, this time there will be no boys, and you’ll have me, Grade 4, Special Angel Service.”

“Impossible.  One, I don’t have my time locket, it’s in the cellar of Haston Manor and two, I’m about to compete in the three hundred metres hurdle.”  She began running on the spot, her eyes averted to the distance.  “I can’t just walk off.”

“So you don’t want to know about mind and body relocation?  How you could pick up your locket and be back in a nanosecond?  Even if people are staring at you, no one will realise.  Remember, a nanosecond in real time is hours in Mind Space.”

“So there’s your answer, I don’t know how to relocate,” Rosie said, teeth clenched.

“Your mother did, but then she read her philosophy and quantum mechanics.  Hasn’t Uncle Hugo taught you anything?”

Rosie placed her hands on her hips, her eyes questioning, realising the possibility of being verbally manoeuvred into a corner.  “I think, therefore I am, and everything I see and experience only happens through the interpretations of my thoughts.  Without my mind, the universe I see cannot exist.”

“So,” Elissa said, her voice hinting triumph.  “In your universe where are the cellars of Haston Manor right now?”

“In my memory, in my mind.”

“Precisely, same as all the events happening around you.  They only happen by the experience of your mind, a mind that exists in the flow of time future into time past.  So being a Mind Traveller you can be in past, present and future simultaneously.”

“Exactly,” Rosie emphasized, seeing a way to turn the tables.  “So, how do I leave time present when theoretically I’m also in two other places?”

“Oh I see, being clever are we?”  Elissa flapped her wings.  “So tell me, if there are three of you in three dimensions, where does Haston Manor exist?”

“In my memory of course, in my Mind Space.”

“Excellent, because that’s how you’re able to bodily relocate; through your mind.  It’s simple, if mind and body are in future, present and past simultaneously, all you need to do is mentally disengage from this location in time present and relocate to Haston Manor in time past.  You then carry out what is necessary before re-engaging your mind with your physical body waiting in the dimension of time future, that way you flow into time present and back where you started.  Simple.”

“Simple,” Rosie repeated, her mouth open.

“Just read the Mind Traveller’s Manual.  If quantum mechanics can have a photon in two locations at the same instant, why can’t thought be in two places while still engaging with the body?  It’s what mind travel is all about.”

“Is it?”

“So let’s try it.”  Elissa put out her hands in encouragement.

“How do you know all this?”

“Because I’m doing my course for White Angel SAS Grade 3.  That means I attend lectures by the Time Co-ordinator and reading up in the Library of Shadows.”

Rosie swung her arms in agitation.  “You’re worse than Uncle Hugo.  Look, I’m going to concentrate everything on this race.  I can’t back out, my team is relying on me, and that’s final.”

“Centred, focussed, great, because to place leap concentration is paramount.  Your mother knew that.  I’m told she was brilliant, used to place leap just for the fun of it.”

Rosie sensed her fear start to curl and evaporate.  “Who told you that?  I’ve never heard that before.”  She took a step towards the apparition.  “If she could place leap, what about from a crashing aeroplane?”

My Amazon Author’s Page is at http://tinyurl.com/c9ultl3

EXTRACTS FROM THE WITCH’S SHADOW – 1

Tags

books, childrens books, enjoy reading, good read, James McKenna

The Witch’s Shadow, the 2^nd in the Mind Traveller series, is available now from Amazon.  To give you a flavour of Rosie’s adventures into Mind Space here is an extract from the opening  chapter.

Go to my Amazon Author’s Page http://tinyurl.com/c9ultl3

CHAPTER 1

Good Angels, Bad Angels

“Immediate action.  They want you and they want you now.”  A soft yet urgent voice sounded unexpectedly from above.

Rosie paused on the point of press-up number twenty.  Warm afternoon air on her cheeks became agitated in a flurry of beating wings, as if some feathered presence hovered before landing.  From the school running track shouts of encouragement pushed on competitors.  Rosie straightened her arms and tried to stay centred on the forthcoming race.

“Who are they?” she asked, distinguishing the vague outline of Elissa, her guardian angel under a dappled light cast through trees.

“Them that make the rules.  Your world is in danger of attack by scrowlers, demons hatched up by Hisdrillo, Prince of the Dark Angels.  Come with me, we got big problems.”

Rosie huffed and jerked her legs to a kneeling position then swung from side to side, stretching her back.  Ten metres away her team mates let out another yell along with parents and pupils of St Monica’s Boarding School for Girls.  All were in carnival mood and gave no sense of impending doom, yet Rosie already sensed fear.

Going with Elissa meant entering Mind Space and the parallel world in the parallel universes, places full of horrible creatures, danger and the unexpected.  To cover her fear she tried to bluff.

“Elissa, the world looks perfectly normal to me,” she said in near silent whisper.  “I’m on the verge of half-term, of going to the seaside, Southwold, Suffolk with my dear Uncle Hugo.  I’m fifteen going on sixteen and I’m looking to have fun. The world’s OK.”

Elissa flapped her wings, the sunlight forming a halo over her translucent outline, until something unseen cast a passing shadow.

“What was that?” Rosie said.

“Creatures from the other side, a gremlin or creppin sent by one of the Dark Angels.  My guess, Gizeda the Witch.  Beware Rosie, they’re watching us.”

 

Go to my Amazon Author’s Page http://tinyurl.com/c9ultl3

EXTRACTS FROM THE MIND TRAVELLER – 8

Tags

books, childrens books, enjoy reading, good read, James McKenna

The Mind Traveller series book 2, The Witch’s Shadow, will be published on Amazon and Kindle tomorrow, 4^th June.  To give you a taste, here is the final extract from Chapter 2 of The Mind Traveller.

Extract from CHAPTER 2 

She didn’t want to answer.  Instead she stood and gave Uncle Hugo a hug, one question churning on her lips.  The one question she could never ask without betraying the letter.  Why had her mother written it?  She must have known something was going to happen.  “I’m off to the woods.  Maybe I can meet a ground spirit by the old oak.”

“As you wish.”

She watched him sag a little and she scraped a foot on the path, her thumbs hooked in her pockets.  “But I’m intrigued by inner space and time dilation.  Sometime, will you explain them to me?  I’ll do my summer essay on quantum mechanics.  That’ll make my teachers sit up.”

He smiled then.  “Certainly, my little contessa.  Then maybe we can put ground spirits to rest.  Quantum mechanics is far more outrageous.”

Siggy at her feet, Rosie left the vegetable garden and entered the meadow beyond.  A dozen cows munched lazily beneath the warm sun and with arms stretched she flipped two cartwheels then looked up at the clear blue sky, up to where the huge raven circled on silent wings.

“I don’t like you,” she whispered to herself, watching it descend across the meadow in a long downward glide.   Siggy pressed against her ankles.  “It’s heading for the old oak.  If only you were big enough you could see it off,” she said to the cat, at the same time catching sight of a stunted figure scurrying through the field close to where the raven passed.  “And now a trespasser trampling the corn.”  She looked down at Siggy and found him with arched back, his tail rigid.  “We need to challenge this fellow, only an ignoramus would walk on a growing crop.”  She put her fists on her hips as Siggy drew back.  “Look super cat, no one puts a hand on Rosie Barcelos, OK.”  She cartwheeled, sprang into a backward somersault then leapt to deliver a double drop kick.  “I do kick-boxing at school, year champion.”  Siggy looked unimpressed.  “All right, I’ll be careful.  But we’re on a mission, so let’s go,” she said, stepping out.

Siggy stayed close as she reached the shadows of Haston Manor woods, a wide band of trees bordering the perimeter of the walled estate.  Movement caught her eye.  Something flitted like a dark shadow, then was gone.  She moved closer to investigate.  At the same time a loud, frantic flapping of wings sounded from the tree behind, as if monster birds fought over a perch.  Rosie turned but she couldn’t see any birds and no wind stirred the leaves.  She shivered and watched a single black feather float to the ground, long, curved and shiny.  Out of nowhere and so unreal it drew her closer, until curiosity made her reach to pick it up.

“Don’t touch.”  The girl’s voice came sharp and sudden across her mind.  Siggy shied away.

“You hear that?” she said to him, edging round the feather.  “Flower child or what?  Someone shouted at me.”  But Siggy stood, hackles raised, fur standing rigid while he stared at a figure lurking in the trees twenty metres away.

Rosie stepped back and balled her fists.  The guy was short and bullish with a square face, grey rubbery skin, yellow eyes and pointed ears; more goblin than person.  He beckoned her.

“Now, that is definitely a weirdo,” she said to Siggy as she retreated another step.  Not taking her eyes from the trespasser, she realised she was alone in the woods with the high tower of Haston Manor a long way off.

“Come to us, Rosie.”  A gravelly voice entered her thoughts and again the creature beckoned.

“So maybe we exercise caution here.”   She glanced to the cat.  “Better let Mr Cranshaw the estate manager sort this one.  Trespasser or bogeyman, he doesn’t look nice.”

In reply Siggy squealed and streaked off towards the Manor.  Rosie turned, glancing back to see if the thing followed, but it had vanished as mysteriously as it had appeared.  Voices in the cellar of the old house were one thing, voices and spooky men in the woods were too real.  She quickened her pace home.

Go to The Witch’s Shadow page on Amazon http://tinyurl.com/ozebkwn