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Friday, April 06, 2012

PAF: Story by Theresa Meyers + giveaway!

Paranormal April Fools

Our guest today is the talented Theresa Meyers, author of the steampunk series the Legend Chronicles and other delightful reads. She's here to share a story of a real-life prank from her childhood.

Don't forget to stick around for the giveaway -- we have a copy of THE SLAYER for one lucky reader!

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The Prank That Changed My World

There are times when pranks are silly. Time when pranks are fun. But sometimes, not often, a prank changes your entire world.

That happened to me.

My mother was a fanciful and artistic sort. She always used to read aloud to us as children. One night, when I was six or seven, she read the shoemaker and the elves to us. I listened intently as they talked about all the work that needed to be done, and how they diligently helped the shoemaker, who rewarded them with little shoes and clothes of their own once he discovered them. I was utterly fascinated.

My mother closed the cover of the book and as she put it away on my bookshelf, looked around my room. “You know you’ll have to clean your room tomorrow.”

I nodded solemnly. If there was one thing I truly detested doing, it was cleaning my room.

Suddenly her brows went up and she put her finger to her lips making the universal “shh” motion then pointed at my window as she crept back on tiptoe toward my bed. “Do you hear that?”

I sat up and strained to hear. Little tiny voices were giggling and talking right outside my bedroom window! “It sounds like elves!” she whispered. And she was so excited that I got excited.

The little elves were chattering about the story and how fun it was to help people. “Do you think they’ll clean my room tonight?” I asked my mother.

tiny clothes“They might.”

“Where did they come from?”

“Maybe they live out in the big tree stump in the back yard. Elves like tree stumps. We’d better turn out your lights and get you to sleep before they go away.”

I snuggled down into my bed and she shut out the light. I think I may have squinted between my eyelids, hoping to get a glance at them before I drifted off but never saw anything.

The next morning I woke to a perfectly clean room. Everything was spotless. It had worked! We had room-cleaning elves! I ran to tell my mother and she was so thrilled. “Well you know, now we have to make them something as a thank you, just like the cobbler did.”

We spent the afternoon making cookies and hand-sewing little clothes and looking for a thimble from the sewing box that we could put cream into for the elves. I set it all out on the big stump in the backyard and the next day it was all gone.

For years I thought those elves were real. It wasn’t until I was in my 20’s that I discovered my mother had hid a tape recorder beneath my bedroom window and recorded her own falsetto voice after a big long stretch of silence on the tape so it would strategically start playing after she’d read me the story.

That one prank turned me into a believer of the unknown, of realizing that paranormal, is really just a different level of awareness in many cases. So can a prank change your world? Absolutely.

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Here's the scoop on THE SLAYER, Theresa's brand new release:

Theresa Meyers The SlayerBrothers Winchester, Remington, and Colt know the legends—they were trained from childhood to destroy demon predators, wielding the latest steam-powered gadgetry. It's a devil of a job. But sometimes your fate chooses you...

Chasing Trouble

Winn Jackson isn't interested in hunting nightmares across the Wild West—even if it's the family business. Unlike his rakehell brothers, Winn believes in rules. As sheriff of Bodie, California, he only shoots actual law breakers. That's what he's doing when he rescues the Contessa Drossenburg, Alexandra Porter, a lady with all the elegance of the Old World—grace, beauty and class. And then he sees her fangs.

Alexandra isn't just some bloodsucking damsel in distress, though. She's on a mission to save her people—and she's dead certain that Winn's family legacy is the only way. Luckily, aside from grace and class, she also has a stubborn streak a mile wide. So like it or not, Winn is going to come back with her to the mountains of Transylvania, and while he's at it, change his opinions about vampires, demon-hunting, and who exactly deserves shooting. And if she has her way, he's going to do his darnedest to save the world. . .

Read an excerpt (scroll down)

Pre-order: Amazon | Book Depository

Click on the cover to learn more about the first book, THE HUNTER:

Theresa Meyers The Hunter

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giveaway

Kensington is graciously offering one (1) copy of THE SLAYER to a lucky reader!

To enter the giveaway, fill out the Rafflecopter form below.

US only

Ends Sunday, April 15, 2012
(like all of our Paranormal April Fools’ giveaways)


a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Theresa Meyers

Theresa Meyers is the author of The Legend Chronicles, a wild west steampunk trilogy that debuted to great reviews with THE HUNTER. Publishers Weekly praised it in a starred review, saying "Meyers’s steampunk western packs a sizzling demonic romance into a fast-paced quest through tiny frontier towns…a well-crafted, eminently enjoyable story that will leave readers wanting more time with the Jackson brothers." THE SLAYER, Book II in The Legend Chronicles, comes out in April 2012.

Website | Facebook | Twitter

 

Jenn

Born and raised in the Toronto area, Jenn moved to St. John's, Newfoundland, eight years ago for school. She's still in school (thankfully on another degree!), now trapped in her dissertation. When she's not dissertating, which happens more often than it should, Jenn spends her time reading, watching movies, playing volleyball, travelling, and enjoying the local music scene. Her latest addictions: yoga and Almond Crunch cereal.

29 People left their mark' :

  1. I can't recall an instance where they tricked me. They aren't the type even for April 1. If they did, it probably was to treat me to something.

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  2. My parents have never tricked me, but I would try to trick my brother often. I would cover his bedroom door with news paper so that when he would open it, he would get a wall of paper.

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  3. My parents did not do April Fools It was my brothers - I have three of them
    audie(at)wickerness(dot)com

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  4. What a wonderful story of the authors mother and what brought her to where she is in her beliefs today! Truly moving....
    My parents always made sounds for Santa on Christmas Eve... sparking us kids to go to bed even earlier than usual... And I remember Santa came to check on us to make sure we were asleep - and I could hear his footsteps and I would hide under the covers to make sure he didn't see me awake.
    Wonderful memories!
    Erin
    loveeria@gmail.com

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  5. thanks for the giveaway

    kmichellec87(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  6. Indeed my parents have tricked me - as a child I had a favorite shirt that I loved to wear when I was at my mothers. One morning I could not find it and asked her where it was. She did not know. As she was driving my sister and I to school she went past the school. She told us that were going to work at a soup kitchen for a bit to help out. Then we drove by our local soup kitchen. She then said we were going up our grandparents at the airport. But when we parked she pulled out suitcases from the trunk. She wouldn't tell us where we were going, even when we got onto the plane. She ended up taking us to Disneyland (it was one of the promises she had always made to herself that she would take us there - the doctors had given her 3 months to live from cancer). But guess were my red shirt was? In the suitcase :)

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  7. Oh yeah. When I was little my brother and sister and I always begged our parents to take us out to lunch after church on Sunday. So one day my Dad told us we were going to the "White" restaurante (our last name). We all got REALLY excited... until we pulled up into our driveway and my Dad started laughing hysterically...

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  8. LOL... my parents were wonderful but not very fanciful. The only prank I can remember my mom playing was actually on my brother. We were driving home from the store and we were a few blocks from home when she suddenly stopped the car. She told us that we ran out of gas and asked my brother to run home and call our dad. He took off and my mom restarted the car and we sailed past him. He was sooo mad ;)

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  9. Not that I can recall. If they did I don't remember. Interesting question.

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  10. I don't think they ever have.

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  11. My parents never played any tricks since I had three older sisters and two nearby older male cousins to do that to me. Being the youngest of the bunch, I was always a target.

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  12. I don't recall my parents ever tricking me, but my mother left me behind at the beach one day and had to send my brother back to get me. :D

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  13. What a charming prank! I would have loved it as a kid --- I adored fairies and elves. Thank you for sharing your story with us.

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  14. What a lovely blog post, and I do wonder if this prank did not backfire on your mother. Did you have to clean your room by yourself, or did you expect the elves / your mother to do it for you? As they had once before.

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  15. I don't remember them ever pranking me. Thanks for the giveaway.

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  16. As I said in the comments, my Mom and Dad tricked me. They made me believe in Santa and the Easter Bunny longer then my friends believed. lol
    But I think that's wonderful what your Mother did Theresa. :)
    Carol L
    Lucky4750 (at) aol (dot) com

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  17. my parents never played a prank like this to me

    what a sweet story, love it

    Thank you for hosting this giveaway

    Louis
    pumuckler {at} gmail {dot} com

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  18. Not that I can remember, thank goodness.

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  19. No, I can't remember ever being tricked by them. Thanks for the giveaway!

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  20. No, they didn't, but if it had involved getting my roomed cleaned while I slept I wish they had!

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  21. No my parents never tricked me. Thanks for the giveaway. Tore923@aol.com

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  22. No, they haven't.

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  23. That is an awesome story! My parents never tricked me.

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  24. Yes. And I still dont think it was fair.

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  25. Not that I can recall. My parents weren't pranksters/tricksters.

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  26. My parents weren't tricksters. My daughter, on the other hand had better watch out :) Great excerpt! Thanks for the chance. I just picked up the first book, I can't wait to read it. I also can't wait to meet you in NOLA in August!!

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  27. I can't remember ever being tricked by my parents.

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