Updates: Chapter Two, Book of the Month Nomination & New Cover Photos

June 8th Update: My Facebook Author Page went over 400 likes tonight! Thank you for the support, everyone! Your kindness encourages the future in the best way an author can hope for.

Just a reminder: I am going on vacation, and I will be back Wednesday, June 12th. Until then, check out my new cover photos on my Facebook pages, help me by voting for my novel in the “Book of the Month” nomination from Goodreads, and check out chapter two from Minutes Before Sunset.

Book of the Month Nomination:

Minutes Before Sunset has been nominated for “Book of the Month” for July on Goodreads. If you click the link, you can vote too by seconding Christie (message 19) or any of the others who’ve voted for me. I’d really appreciate the support!

Special thanks goes to voters and supporters: Christie, Raymond, Amber, Silver Wolf, Greg Kelly, Kristy Feltenberger Gillespie, Stephanie, Nadine, and Vickie Kayuk! I really appreciate the votes! They really help, and I appreciate all the support I can get.

Goodreads: 4.55 average rating, 11 ratings, 7 reviews, added by 34 people, 23 to-reads.

New Cover Photos: 

As many of you know, I have three Facebook pages, which include the latest updates of Shannon A. Thompson, Minutes Before Sunset, and November Snow. As of yesterday, I’ve updated the cover photos of Shannon A. Thompson and Minutes Before Sunset to represent that specific page more directly. They’re below, but feel free to click the links and “like” the pages!

Shannon A. Thompson Facebook Cover Photo

I chose this collage, because it includes my three publications, and I thought it represented my history and future. I love being able to share my works, and I cannot wait to continue to do so.

Minutes Before Sunset Facebook Cover Photo

Before I had an “Available Now” photo, but it’s been one month, and I thought the cover needed a change–something directly about the novel while hinting as to what the book was about. If you’ve seen the November Snow page, then you may recognize this format: I used the cover with the most popular quote from Goodreads.

Because I’ll be gone for one week, I thought I’d leave a sneak peek into chapter two of Minutes Before Sunset. Feel free to read it below. However, I want to clarify that the novel has indentions on paragraphs and such, but WordPress won’t allow me to add them. You don’t even have to open a PDF file! 

Chapter Two: Eric:

I was raised with three simple rules:

1. Fight defensively and offensively.
2. Under no circumstances is it safe to reveal your identity. (Unless it’s Urte, Pierce, Camille, or anyone else the elders deemed an exception.)
3. Win.

The last rule is my favorite, because of the dishonesty. Win didn’t mean win. It meant murder. It meant I had to kill the second descendant, the power of the Light, and I had no choice. I would get blood on my hands.

I brushed my hand along the shivering trees as my gaze darted around the darkening forest. I rarely had time to leave our underground shelter and use my powers, and I didn’t feel like wasting my night chasing Camille around in the dark.

I threw my senses out around me. The forest reeked of evergreen and pine. I could feel every prickly leaf and see every shadow. From stump to stump, I searched the darkness for Camille’s body heat. No one could avoid my radar.

Bingo. I grinned as I locked onto a girl by the river. I sprinted through the thicket, pushing past scraping branches and leafless oak trees. As I neared the forest’s opening, my body sunk into the shadows, and my skin tingled as it morphed into the chilly air. It was the greatest feeling—other than flying, of course—and I relished in the moment. The blackness of night flowed with me as I floated along the trees, the leaves, or snow. I was enveloped in silk.

I only solidified when I reached the forest’s edge. Just as I thought, a girl stood on the river’s guardrail, but she wasn’t Camille.

She didn’t have Camille’s white hair or mischievous dark eyes. In fact, this girl didn’t even look Camille’s age. She was my age, and she had the dark hair, pale eyes, and the pale skin complexion that our sect had.

She was undoubtedly a shade, but I didn’t know her.

My fingers gripped my jacket as I moved backwards, trying to conceal myself in the darkness, but the girl spun around and stared at me. She was perfectly still when her purple eyes met mine. She didn’t budge. Instead, she pointed at me, and the dark magnetically trailed her fingertips.

“Who—” She stepped off of the railing, and her eyes widened. “Who are you?”

I put my hands in front of me and stepped out of the forest. This must be one of Camille’s illusion jokes.

“Who are you?” she asked, backing up against the river’s guardrail.

I didn’t respond. Instead, I flew through the shadows and reappeared in front of her. My body heat escaped me, and she froze, completely petrified by my closeness. I laid my hand on her cheek, expecting her to disappear like any of Camille’s illusions, but she didn’t. She was real, and we were centimeters apart, teetering over the edge of the river.

She didn’t move. I had the ability to hypnotize any shade, but I hadn’t used any power. She was shaking—shivering—beneath my touch, and her heartbeat thundered her energy through my veins.

How odd. She was powerful, yet fear suffocated every bit of her being.

“Shoman!”

A shout split the air, and I sensed a body rushing through the forest. Camille was coming for me. “Where are you?”

Reflexively, I released the girl and turned to the forest, waiting for Camille to appear. Over here, I said, sending her a telepathic message. Immediately, she appeared in a beam of light.

Her dark eyes were ablaze as she picked sticks and dried leaves from her glittering hair. “What the hell, Shoman? At least tell me where you are going if you want to be alone.”

“I was with—” I closed my mouth as I waved my hand towards the nameless girl, but the ground where she once stood was empty. Nothing. No marks or anything signifying her leave. She was gone.

Impossible. No shade had ever been able to stay off my radar, yet I hadn’t felt her leave. It was as if she had never been there.

“With who?” Camille asked, trudging up to me.

“Shh,” I held up my hand and threw my senses out.

Camille tensed, and her black eyes darted around. “What are you looking for?”

“Be quiet,” I said, spinning in tight circles. My senses were useless. Nothing was there. Not even a bat or a plane. I was being blocked.

I grabbed my guard’s boney shoulders. “Camille, who else was out here tonight?”

“No one. Everyone is at the Naming,” she said, rolling her eyes. “If you haven’t forgotten, you’re supposed to be there.”

“I don’t care,” I said, ignoring the ceremony of the last harvest. It was hard to forget. A thick layer of frost coated the dying grass, and I knew that the first layer had fallen yesterday morning. As the first descendant, I always went, but my father hadn’t in years, and I was beginning to forget the point.

Camille touched my arm. “Is something wrong, Shoman?” she asked, widening her eyes. “Was someone here?”

“No,” I lied, patting her palm. “Let’s go,” I said. I dissolved into a shadow.

…

Minutes Before Sunset is available as an ebook and paperback on Amazon (4.5 Stars from 15 reviews), Barnes & Noble (4 stars from 5 reviews), Smashwords, Kobo, Apple, Sony, and more. 

I hope everyone has a great week! I’ll try to send pictures from my vacation. If I don’t expect some on June 12th.

~SAT