Dangerous DestinyAugust 27, 2014

Free!  FREE!  Fah-REE!

DANGEROUS DESTINY, the e-short prequel to my YA paranormal NIGHT SKY series (co-written with my amazing daughter Melanie!) is available today and it’s FREE!

This e-short-story’s only gonna be free for a limited time (a few weeks or so), so download it now before it reverts back to its $2.99 price.

The story itself is about 60 pages long, but there’s a hefty excerpt from NIGHT SKY (which comes out in e-book and hardcover from Sourcebooks Fire and in audio from Blackstone Audio — more about that in a sec), as well as a fun Q&A with Melanie and me, in which we discuss mother-daughter writing collaborations, among other things!

So if you’ve been on the fence about reading NIGHT SKY, our first Brockmann-Squared YA novel, this free (FREE!) prequel short, DANGEROUS DESTINY, will give you a taste and introduce you to our sixteen-year-old first person main character Skylar Reid and her best friend Calvin.  (And we hope you will like them as much as we do!)

Here’s the blurb from DANGEROUS DESTINY:

In this pulse-pounding prequel to the Night Sky series by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Suzanne Brockmann and her daughter Melanie Brockmann, Skylar has her first brush with Destiny. She’s about to meet a boy who will change her life—and a girl who wants to end it.

I know her.

Know her from inside the dreams. Inside those terrible, murderous, bloody dreams. I’ve heard her-screaming, her voice mixing in an awful chorus with all those other girls. Little girls. 

Please, God. 

That’s what one of the little girls keeps saying, in the dream that is not just a dream. Please, God. 

But I know better. There’s no escaping this fate. This is destiny.

I must kill Skylar…

Skylar Reid is the new girl at school. Her mom just moved them to Florida—aka The Land of the Living Dead, where the average age of her new neighbors was seventy-five—to start over. Skylar is not a fan of the change or her total lack of friends. Until she meets Calvin, a funny, sarcastic boy who doesn’t let being in a wheelchair stop him from verbally shredding their preppy classmates. Skylar’s just about to decide her new school’s not a total loss when an odd girl wearing an oversized trench coat in the murderous Southern heat declares, “You’re one of us.” And then tries to kill her…

************

This short story was a challenge to write, because the action takes place several months before the start of NIGHT SKY.  NIGHT SKY is a “stranger in a strange land” type book, where Sky comes to learn that not only does she live in a world where some people have super-powers, but that she’s one of those special super-power people.

But Sky doesn’t find that out until quite few pages in to Night Sky.  So when the publisher approached Melanie and me with the idea of writing a 0.5 story (a prequel), while we liked the idea of a “How Skylar Met Her BFF Calvin” storyline, we had to figure out how to keep Sky in the dark about her weird world, while cluing readers in to the fact that our YA series was paranormal.

In other words, if we wrote “Skylar Meets Cal in the High School Courtyard,” we were afraid it would feel very much like a contemporary YA.

So how do authors write a short story that’s clearly paranormal, while leaving their first-person main character in the dark about those very paranormal elements?

Welp, you’ll have to read DANGEROUS DESTINY to find out just what we did.  (Have I mentioned that it’s currently free?!)

Audiobook listeners take note: Melanie Brockmann narrated the audio version of both NIGHT SKY and DANGEROUS DESTINY — both will be available from Blackstone Audio on October 7, 2014.  (I can’t wait to hear my co-author’s interpretation!)

But back to today and the whole FREE thing…

DANGEROUS DESTINY is now available FREE in Kindle format from Amazon (for a limited time) at http://amzn.to/YgJ6Rh

And it’s FREE in Kobo format (for a limited time!) at http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/dangerous-destiny

It’s FREE for UK readers in the Kindle format (for a limited time!) at Amazon.UK:  http://amzn.to/1uELoXF

It’s FREE from Barnes & Noble in Nook format (for a limited time!) at http://bit.ly/1nZmcD3

It’s free in iBooks (for a limited time!) at https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/dangerous-destiny/id912504069?mt=11&ls=1

And as I find more places where DANGEROUS DESTINY is available in additional formats, I’ll post links on my Facebook page and website!

If right about now, you’re going, “What exactly is YA?”  YA stands for Young Adult.  YA’s target audience is anyone from from age 10 to 100 who enjoys the particularly emotion-fraught journeys of teenage characters.  I know that many of you know readers who are too young to enjoy my adult romance novels… Finally, here’s an opportunity to hand them a Brockmann story!  (We don’t drop the f-bomb TOO many times, I promise!)

Here’re some nice things reviewers are saying about Night Sky:

RT BookClub says: “One of the most intriguing YA books this year. There’s supernatural happenings, action and some of the wittiest dialogue in a YA book to date.”

“I have been a Suzanne Brockmann fan for years, and I am delighted to say that I am now a fan of Team Brockmann!  NIGHT SKY is full of adventure, humor, and just the right amount of Brockmann wit and humor.  I love this book!” – P.C. Cast, New York Times bestselling co-author of The House of Night series.

“Original and exciting, NIGHT SKY propels readers into a dangerous future. Loved it.” — Melissa Marr, New York Times bestselling author of Made for You and the Wicked Lovely series

“This book is so good!  Action-packed, mysterious, charming and witty.  Sky is a girl you want to be and Milo is a guy you want to date.  Who knew nice guys were so sexy?  I’m ready for more!” — Gena Showalter, New York Times bestselling author of Alice in Zombieland

And from Kirkus’s starred review of NIGHT SKY:  “With a little something for everyone and a hip sense of humor, dialogue, and teen angst, this is a gripping page-turner from first to last. Particularly nice is the full integration of wheelchair-bound Calvin, who is far more than his disability. The start of something that can only be described as “greater-than.”

Find out more about NIGHT SKY on my website at https://suzannebrockmann.com/upcoming/night-sky/  (Or download DANGEROUS DESTINY for free (!!!!), meet Skylar and Calvin in a short story prequel, check out the fun Q&A with Mel and me, and read an excerpt from the first NIGHT SKY novel (due out in e-book, hardcover and audio on October 7, 2014).

Oh, hey, and if you enjoy DANGEROUS DESTINY, please help us out by posting reviews at your favorite on-line bookseller or site, and spread the word among YA readers!

Okay, gang.  That’s it for now.

As always, thank you for your support!

To sign up for my email newsletter, visit my website at https://suzannebrockmann.com/about/news-from-suz/

Love,
Suz Brockmann

  • DANGEROUS DESTINY, the Night Sky Series Prequel, in all e-formats from Sourcebooks Fire available now for FREE (coming in audio from Blackstone, read by Melanie Brockmann, 10/7/2014)
  • DO OR DIE, in paperback and ebook from Ballantine books, and in audio from Blackstone (read by Patrick Lawlor and Melanie Ewbank), 9/30/2014
  • NIGHT SKY, YA paranormal co-written with Melanie Brockmann, Sourcebooks Fire, 10/7/2014
  • HEADED FOR TROUBLE, still available in paperback, ebook, and audio.
  • THE PERFECT WEDDING, now streaming on Netflix and Hulu! Available on DVD from Wolfe Release, Amazon, and BN.com