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Superpowers suck much? Null City on #ExcerptWeek by @barbtaub

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As part of Excerpt Week, here are some brief excerpts from my Null City series

Superpowers suck. If you just want to live a normal life, Null City is only a Metro ride away. After one day there, imps become baristas, and hellhounds become poodles. Demons settle down, become parents, join the PTA, and worry about their taxes.

 

Hope flares each morning in the tiny flash of a second before Lette touches that first thing. And destroys it. Her online journal spans a decade, beginning with the day a thirteen-year-old inherits an extreme form of the family “gift.” Every day whatever she touches converts into something new: bunnies, bubbles, bombs, and everything in between. Lette’s search for a cure leads her to Stefan, whose fairy-tale looks hide a monstrous legacy, and to Rag, an arrogant, crabby ex-angel with boundary issues. The three face an army led by a monster who feeds on children’s fear. But it’s their own inner demons they must defeat first.

Hope flares each morning in the tiny flash of a second before Lette touches that first thing. And destroys it.
Her online journal spans a decade, beginning with the day a thirteen-year-old inherits an extreme form of the family “gift.” Every day whatever she touches converts into something new: bunnies, bubbles, bombs, and everything in between.
Lette’s search for a cure leads her to Stefan, whose fairy-tale looks hide a monstrous legacy, and to Rag, an arrogant, crabby ex-angel with boundary issues. The three face an army led by a monster who feeds on children’s fear. But it’s their own inner demons they must defeat first.

EXCERPT: DON’T TOUCH by Barb Taub

Click here for preview, reviews, and purchase links from Amazon

  • Text from S_Krampus: (5:02PM, Oct 20, 2012): dEr R., My nAm iz Stefan & I’ve Bin snt by yor Aunt Roulette 2 rescue U.
  • Text from Lette: I don’t need rescuing. Go away.

 •●• 

Use Your Words : LiveJournal, October 27, 2012 by LetteS [—Lette’s Birth Date Calculator: 22 years, 9.3 months]

Over the past week, the texts from Stefan, the guy with the rescue complex, have gotten more frequent and less grammatical. Except for the occasional “Go away!”, I’ve been trying to ignore him.

My touch was more random than ever this past week, turning things into needles, polka dots, chicken pot pie, okra, CDs of German art lieder songs, or velvet paintings of the queens of England. Actually, I have to admit, the pot pies were pretty good. And the polka dots and queen pictures perked up my bedroom. Even the needles didn’t take up that much space. But the okra and art lieder were just wrong.

The texts from Stefan have tapered off at last, and today it’s time for another Saturday visit from Mom and Dad. Wait, there’s a text.

R U there? cn I come ^ 2 c u?

What—I’m the only one on the planet who knows how to type whole words? I have to go throw down the ladder for Mom.

 •●• 

  • Text from Lette (2:13PM, Oct 27, 2012): OMG Mom. A man just tried to climb into my cabin. I pushed him back off the porch, and he fell to the ground.
  • Text from Mom  Is he blond?
  • Text from Lette: Yes
  • Text from Mom: That’s not a man.
  • Text from Mom: Well, actually, it is, but it’s the one your great-aunt Roulette sent. I texted him your address. You should probably let him in.
  • Text from Lette: Um…he might be dead.
  • Text from Mom: LETTE!
  • Text from Lette: Nope. He’s groaning. I guess I’ll have to go down there and help him. But Mom—what were you thinking? It could kill him if I touch him.
  • Text from Mom: Well, I’m guessing he knows that now. Let me know how he’s doing.

 •●• 

  • Text from Mom (3:19PM, Oct 27, 2012): Is he dead?
  • Text from Lette: Not yet. He has a cut and a lump on his head. I put frozen peas on it.
  • Text from Mom: What’s your touch today?
  • Text from Lette: Frogs. I only made a little one though, and I think George ate it.
  • Text from Mom: Be careful. Turning him into a frog would just be too big a cliché.
  • Text from Lette: Bye Mom.

EXCERPT: Payback is a Witch is a novella from Tales From Null City by Barb Taub

Click here for preview, reviews, and buy link from Amazon.

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