A Little Taste of Midnight

As many of you already know, my latest novel, 100,000 Midnights was released in June by Musa Publishing. It's available as an e-book for Kindle or Nook or directly from the Musa site. I've had some very nice comments about the book, received a great review a few weeks ago, and I'm glad to report that people who have read it seem to have enjoyed it.

For those of you who haven't checked it out yet, I'm placing a short excerpt here today.

“You’re alone,” she said in a soft voice

“Yes.”

She sat down without invitation, taking the opposite side of the booth. She smiled slightly as she sat. The waitress placed another glass of water on the table in front of my guest. She asked if I wanted more coffee, but my cup was still three quarters full and fairly warm.

I was startled by the situation I had found myself in, but knew I should speak.

“I’m Eric.”

“My name is Siobhan,” she said. The name was uncommon, but I had heard it before.

“Siobhan,” I repeated. “An old Irish name. It’s not heard much now, at least in the U.S.”

“Aye, ‘tis so,” she said with a smirk, faking an Irish accent. Perhaps she wasn’t faking it, but resurrecting it. No, that couldn’t be. She was certainly no older than me. How could she have had the time to grow an accent and then lose it for long enough for it to need to be resurrected?

“Are you from Ireland?” I asked.

“I was…once,” she said, “but I left there a very long time ago.”

“You speak older than you are…” I started to say, not sure if I was making sense.

“No,” she corrected me, “I’m older than I look. Much older.”

“How much older?”

“Before we get into that,” Siobhan said, smiling. “What is it that brought you here to this little place tonight, alone and so quiet here in this booth?”

“I come here when I want to feel the past,” I said.

“So,” Siobhan responded, her Irish accent put back in her pocket and her American one again at the forefront. “You like the past; you prefer it to the present year.”

I was amazed that she seemed to understand. She hadn’t tilted her head in a gesture to imply that I was weird, as most people would have done if I’d expressed myself like that.

“Do you think we’ve both found ourselves here coincidentally?” she asked.

“What else could it be?” I asked , unsure of where she was trying to lead me with her words.

She trembled a bit.

“Look to your left,” she said.

I did as she suggested, turning my head and glancing into the mirrors on the wall. I saw what I expected to see: my own face reflected back at me. The image seemed normal for about a second. Then it hit me. Siobhan’s face wasn’t there! Her hands weren’t there! I saw her clothing and it moved as if it was full of her body, but I could not see any of her! I turned back to her. She was there, looking just as she had looked before.

I reined in my shock and stared at her for a minute before I remembered how to speak. “What is this?” I said as clearly as I could. “A trick or a joke?”

Siobhan laid it all on the line. “It’s no trick, silly. I’m a vampire.”


If you've enjoyed the excerpt, if it makes you want to read more, the book can be purchased at the following links:

At the Musa site:   http://musapublishing.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=11&products_id=307

At Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/100-000-Midnights-ebook/dp/B008DQTYN2/ref=sr_1_16?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1340452148&sr=1-16&keywords=aaron+smith

At Barnes & Noble:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/100000-midnights-aaron-smith/1111747841?ean=2940014724234&itm=1&usri=100%2c000+midnights


Those of you who have read the book, I hope you'll be happy to know that I recently finished the sequel.