Monday, January 17, 2011

Excerpt: Dead People by Edie Ramer




It's going to be a busy week at Fiction for Dessert!

Each day this week I will be featuring a novel and author with excerpts or interviews or a little of both! I think it's going to be very fun and you are going to find out about many new and emerging authors.

Today's excerpt is Dead People (Book One in the Haunted Hearts series) by Edie Ramer and I have to admit, this one is on my TBR list.

THE DESCRIPTION:

When Cassie Taylor talks, ghosts listen. She wants to heal their souls so they can leave earth. Brooding songwriter Luke Rivers wants to give his recently found daughter a normal home, but he discovers his new house in small town Wisconsin is haunted by a ghost with an attitude. His ghost whisperer has an attitude too—even before someone tries to kill her.

He wants conventional. She wants acceptance. No wonder she thinks men are hard and dead people are easy.

What reviewers are saying:

“Edie Ramer has done it again. She as created such a wonderful new world that enthralls and entertains. This book is filled with laughter, heartbreak, mystery, cranky ghosts, and most importantly, love. The depth of which Ramer is able to put into her characters is fantastic. It doesn’t get much better than this.” – A 5 Star review by Aimee at Coffee Table Press

Are you ready for that excerpt? The scene below takes place after Cassie and Luke have talked and she’s driving away from his haunted house. Her best friend Joe, a ghost from the 1960s, is in the car with Cassie. Joe will be the hero of Book Two in the Haunted Heart series . . .

“Turn down this job,” Joe said. “I’m getting a bad feeling.”

“Since when did you admit to getting feelings?” Rain drummed against the roof of the car and Cassie set the front defogger on high. Cool air rushed up at her face as she navigated the snaking driveway. A crack of thunder made her jerk, and a flash of lightning lit up the driveway in time for her to avoid a pothole.

“Since seeing the way Luke Rivers looked at you.”

“He didn’t like me, he made that clear.” Cassie reached the end of the driveway and she felt a sense of lightness at leaving the old house, as if she’d been holding her breath and finally sucked in pure oxygen.

“Maybe he didn’t like you, but he looked at you.”

And I looked back, Cassie thought, steering the car onto the highway. One of the perks of being alive. Checking out good looking men and eating chocolate.

“So? A rat can look at a queen.”

“You’re smiling. You liked it.”

“Don’t interrogate me.” Cassie glanced at her sulking passenger.

“I’m not only a cop, I’m a man too.”

You were a man, she thought, facing the road again, because she didn’t want her obituary to read “Killed while driving stupidly in the rain.” Nor did she want Joe to read her expression. A bullet to his heart had stolen his life, not his ego.

Headlights sped toward them on the other side of the highway. Their car was catching up to a semi, the red rear lights flickering through the barrage of rain, the upper reflectors barely visible.

“Forget Luke Rivers,” she said. “He’s not important.”

“It’s you that’s important,” Joe said.

A glow kindled n Cassie’s chest. “In this case, it’s the dead person that’s important.”

“I wonder what Rivers will say when you tell him the reason she’s sticking around on earth.”

“He won’t believe me. He doesn’t believe I talk to dead people. I could see it in his face.”

“He doesn’t want to believe. There’s a difference.”

“He’s ready to pay on the off chance that he’s wrong. As long as his check cashes, that’s okay with me.” But despite her words, the glow inside her flickered out, leaving a hollow coldness.

The truck slowed and she eased her foot from the gas pedal to avoid a backsplash of filthy water. The car’s headlights caught a sign on the side of the road, “Welcome to Bliss.” She made a face. More like “Welcome to Misery.”

“Thata girl,” Joe said. “You’ve got pluck.”

She passed a McDonald’s and pulled into the Home Away From Home motel. Chickens had pluck, she thought. And look how they ended up.

Chicken McNuggets.

“I’ll tell him tomorrow.” Then she’d sit back and watch the feathers fly.


________

Edie Ramer lives in southeastern Wisconsin with her husband, two dogs, and Belle the cat. She started writing in the 1990's, selling short stories in the mystery genre to National magazines and two Women Sleuth books. In addition to non-fiction articles, she wrote verses for greeting cards, and she possesses a drawer filled with cards for any occasion. Visit her website Edie Ramer.



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See you tomorrow!

7 comments:

Linda S. Prather said...

Love the dialogue here, and the characters. Every excerpt I read on this forces me to push it further up my TBR list--darn you!
Great excerpt.

L.C. Evans said...

I've been following this one on Sample Sunday. It's on my to buy list and I'm planning to move it up to the top. I love Edie's writing and the characters.

Edie Ramer said...

Linda, thanks! I wish I could put more excerpts up in my hero's POV, but he's a former rocker and uses the F word when he's perturbed--but not in front of his daughter!

Edie Ramer said...

L.C., thanks!

Edie Ramer said...

Karen, thanks so much for putting up my excerpt. And I'm thrilled at you for being #9 on Kindle's bestseller list in Mystery/Women Sleuths.
And your awesome PW review. Yay!!!!

Joleene Naylor said...

I am really looking forward to reading this book! Excellent excerpt!

Markee Anderson said...

I love this part:

One of the perks of being alive. Checking out good looking men and eating chocolate.

One word...YUM! I totally agree! HAHAHA! (now don't tell my husband) HAHAHAH!