SJ13: CROW'S REST

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
Word Count: 70,000 words

Avery wants to evict the creature who has taken residence in her boyfriend's body, but preventing the corbin from fulfilling his mission will plunge the world into another Dark Age.

Mom woke me as we hit the outskirts of Crow's Rest. "Brace yourself, Avery Girl." She said this every time we visited Uncle Tam’s, and it still gave me a shiver.

July air streamed through the car window, coating my tongue with heat and iron-rich dust. Nearly there. . . As we took that last curve on the approach, tree branches arched over the road, blocking our view until there it stood.

A castle, its ruddy bricks warmed by the afternoon light. Looming over the Gold-Rush-era town at its feet, the Wilson School of Industry reformed bad boys for nearly a century before the state abandoned it to vandals and ghost hunters.

The usual mass of turkey vultures and ravens soared above, sinisterizing the turrets even more. Makes my shutter finger drool, if that’s even possible.

"The Castle's so solid," I said to my mom. “Like it grew here, with the oaks and granite."

"Is that the start of one of your poems?" Mom teased. "Material for your next show?"

"Maybe," I said, with a quirk of a smile as the Castle receded in the side mirror.

My first gallery show was last spring, pairing my pics with three-line, atmospheric poems. It got a write-up in the local paper and some flattering attention, but in spite of spending my savings on frames and mats, I sold a grand total of one photo. To a tourist who said she was buying it because the Stellar's jay was the same blue as her recliner.