Here's the first page or so from Gamble's Run.  Interested?  It's due out in July, 2018, from the good people at Hellbound Books.www.hellboundbookspublishing.com

     

     Garrett Webb awoke with a start, his heart pounding.  He wiped away the thin sheen of sweat that covered his forehead as he struggled to regain full awareness.  The nightmare that had been tormenting him vanished in a dark puff of dream smoke, leaving him with nothing more than a fading impression of being slowly smothered. 

     The only light came from the glowing red numbers of small clock perched on the nightstand beside his queen sized bed.  He barely had time to see that it was 4:05 a.m. before they winked out.  An instant later, his bed lurched sideways and slammed into the wall.  His left shoulder struck the wall at an awkward angle, causing him to cry out in both pain and shock.  Instinctively he reached out for the woman sleeping next to him.        

     “Mel?  MEL!”  An instant later, his wife Melody cried out as she too was brutally dragged back into consciousness.  Her arm flailed out, slapping him hard on his stomach.  He was shirtless and her fingernails scraped along his ribs, leaving four thin bloody scratches.  The bed lurched again.   

     “MOLLY,” she screamed.  Of course her first thought was for their ten month old daughter.  On cue, Molly started crying.  Husband and wife struggled to get out of bed, but suddenly the floor tilted.  The bed slid along the wall, away from Molly's bedroom, and stopped under the window that overlooked the lake just outside their petite home.  The lake had dried up during the long drought that gripped central Florida and all that was left was a hard, cracked bed.     

          “MOLLY,” screamed Melody again.  The house answered them with another groan and suddenly the window shattered.  Shards of glass pummeled them.  If they had been looking up, they would have been blinded.  As it was, they sustained dozens of painful, shallow cuts.

    “Garrett!  What’s happening?”  Garrett opened his mouth to say that he had no idea, but suddenly a wall of dirt followed the glass.  He covered his eyes and mouth and rolled sideways as the dirt piled onto the bed.  Melody screamed again.  She scrambled off the bed and fell to the floor.  Then she began to crawl toward the bedroom door. 

     “MEL!  WAIT!” 

     “MOLLY!”  Melody’s only thought now was for her daughter.  In the next bedroom, Molly’s cries became screams.  The tiny wood frame house shook as dirt continued to pour through the bedroom window.