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Masquerade Party Guests
The main characters from Released are invited to a masquerade party. What are their costumes?
Liberty Cutter (Librarian) = Little Bo Peep (see excerpt)
Chronus Manchester (Headmaster, Old English Sheepdog/ shifter) = No costume. “Two personas are enough for any dog-shifter.”
Sybilla Dinzelbacher (book-burning werewolf) = “I usually go as my werewolf self but sexy vampire would be my choice for a fancy party.”
Released
(The Shapeshifters’ Library Book 1)
Welcome to the Shipsfeather, Ohio, where an ancient race of dog-shifters struggle, under an ordinary public library, to save the knowledge of the world from book-burning werewolves.
For years a curse has imprisoned the dog-shifters in the basement of the Shipsfeather Library–where they have made the best of things with a gym, a spa, a Starbarks, and, of course, their wildly successful internet company, Zoogle–but now, thanks to librarian Liberty Cutter and her zany staff, they may actually have a chance to break free. If only they can convince Liberty to believe in magic…
Excerpt from Released
Liberty gasped. “I’m a princess.”
“No. You’re only Little Bo Peep,” Bliss told her as she thrust a six-foot crooked staff into her hand. “Halloween is more than funny costumes, you know.”
“It’s chocolate.”
Bliss didn’t laugh. “Halloween reminds us of transformation. Some of us call this celebration Samhain. October 31st is the festival before Winter Solstice on December 21. It’s a harvest ritual to gather the earth’s bounty before the long night of winter. A time filled with mystery and magic when the veil between worlds is thin.”
“Is that Pagan? The library can’t have religious celebrations.”
Bliss’s usually animated face lost expression. “People fear that which is hidden.”
Every once in a while the children’s librarian became very arcane and slipped into a trace state. It never lasted long and Liberty always found it a fascinating time to ask Bliss questions. “Do you actually believe in magic?”
“True magic requires a commitment to ethical living and the common good. Evil is the opposite.”
“What about funny costumes?” Liberty stroked her dress’s laced bodice.
“As humans, our clothing can express our wildness.”
“Should we fear spirits or magical beings?”
Bliss stared over Liberty’s shoulder into the mirror. “Some fear the dead. Being fearful raises our adrenalin. Yet things out there do want to harm us. We must help our friends. For that is how we will all survive.” Bliss’s eyes glazed and she swayed. “As we sometimes masquerade, our friends always live with two selves. If you align your consciousness with other realms and creatures, you can become more that you imagine.” Bliss suddenly opened her eyes and blinked. “Sorry about that trance. I hate it when that happens at work. Now let’s go.”
As the Fairy Princess led Little Bo Peep up the library stairs, she commanded, “Stand up straight. Walk like a princess.”
“Easy for you to say,” Liberty grumbled, smelling the aroma of penny candy and warming pumpkins. “I feel half dressed.” But she raised her head and placed her hand to her chest to shield it from the cool air.
“By Shakti, there’s no cleavage showing. You’re innocent Bo Peep.” Rearranging curls, she led Liberty out of the stairwell onto the library floor. “But, you do look like a princess.”
Liberty grinned. She raised her head and walked towards the circulation desk.
Taxi, talked to the pages, Rebecca, Carrie, and Emma, dressed as their literary characters. A white sheet wrapped his body revealed a t-shirt that read, “Non semper ea sunt Quae Videntur” and in smaller print, “Things are not always what they seem.”
Bliss called, “I knew you’d wear a toga…to show off your legs.”
Taxi stepped from behind the desk to reveal bare legs and sandals.
Carrie said, “He agreed to come to a high school Latin club meeting. Those girls will love his outfit even if he reads Plato.”
Taxi pirouetted, nodding his head to reveal a laurel wreath nestled in his red curls.
“You look very authentic.”
“As do you, Ms. Peep. All you need is a sheep.” He gestured to the bronze sheepdog near the new book display.
She pretended to hit him with her staff.
Bliss giggled. “Halloween costumes do bring out the inner child. I’ll have to lose the hoops to fit into my office, though I won’t be doing much sitting with three storyhours and two class visits.” Bliss’s voice changed to high pitched cheerful. “And here come the first children.”
A teacher in an apple costume led twenty tots in the door, each one a miniature fairy tale character. On the way past, a Little Boy Blue asked, “Bo Peep, where are your sheeps?”
Julianna stood at the top of the stairs in a slinky black dress. Straight black hair brushed her bare white shoulders as she floated across the floor, carrying a red satin-lined cape too elegant to be a costume shop rental.
Taxi’s face reddened between his freckles. “Uh, thanks. You make a beautiful vampire.”
Cecil limped in, dressed as The Wolfman, a rubber mask covering half his face. He bounced along trying for a half-man half-wolf lope and achieved an awkward skip. The staff, costumed as literary characters, took turns handing out cookies and apples. The catalogers dressed as famous literary cats. Constantina became Puss in Boots and Gertrude wore the familiar high striped hat of The Cat in the Hat. The reference librarians chose characters from Dickens.
By five o’clock Taxi locked up and the staff shared pizza and Halloween cupcakes. At seven Taxi re-opened the doors. Liberty watched the meeting room fill. Cecil dimmed the lights and began the first film. As requested, the colorized version of The Shaggy Dog led off the evening. As the old Disney film began, the town’s cinema aficionados in the front row guffawed but soon were as enthralled as the children.
Liberty felt a movement and Gregory stood in the shadows inches from her side. He smiled and placed his arm around her shoulders and whispered, “It’s my favorite movie, too.”
“You weren’t part of the cast, were you?” she teased.
Cecil turned. “Shush.”
She whispered again, “Were you?”
Gregory bent and kissed her cheek, “Let’s watch the movie,” and led her to seats in the last row.
As planned, when the younger children left, Cecil showed his werewolf movie montage. He turned off the lights. Werewolf genre movies had never been Liberty’s favorite, but from the crowd’s “oos” and “ahs” it was clear everyone appreciated Cecil’s work and the artful cuts between old movies downplayed the scariness.
Gregory watched Hollywood wolves shifting into human bodies and back again and whispered, “It’s not like that.”
Something brushed her leg. She looked down as a Bichon Frise and a Cocker Spaniel crept down the side aisle and lay against the wall. She leaned toward Gregory. “Should they be here?”
“I couldn’t forbid them. They feel especially locked in on Halloween. Werewolves have taken over this holiday.”
Purchase Links: Amazon and Barnes and Noble
Contest
Contest Winner: Congratulations, Tracey!
To enter this contest you must be 18 or over.
To enter for the chance to win a pdf, epub or Kindle eformat of Released, post a comment here. Please include your email. If you would like to enter and prefer not to post your email here, send an email to katehill@sprintmail.com and say you commented and would like to be entered in Amber Polo’s contest. On October 28, 2012 at 11pm EST a winner will be chosen at random from the comments here on the blog. The winner’s first name only will be posted on this blog. Thank you and good luck!
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Amazing excerpt. I enjoyed it a lot.
debby236 at hotmail dot com
Good excerpt, have a great Autumn and Halloween…
Oh Kate,
Stay safe. Thanks for sharing my excerpt.
Amber
What a great excerpt, can’t wait to read more of this story.
skpetal at hotmail dot com
Enjoyed that snippet… I do not believe I have read anything by Amber Polo before… I need to change that! Thanks for sharing!
greenshamrock AT cox DOT net
Wow! I am hooked. I am adding this to my must have list.
Thanks,
booklover0226 at gmail dot com
It’s free today (Halloween) and tomorrow for Kindle! Read it before Book 2 is released.