It feels strange and wonderful to say welcome to the world to my debut novel! I’ve already been sent some pictures of it out in the wild, and it’s everything I’ve imagined and not at all like I thought it would be to see people reading (and enjoying) it.
In honor of the release, here’s a little teaser from the opening…
Chapter 1 If my mother could see me now, she’d kill me. A mere glimpse and presto, instant death to one Aria Fitzhugh.
She’d totally ignore the fact that loads of people would pay money to be in my shoes—minus the impending Death by Mom, I mean. To be honest, if I wasn’t literally in my shoes, I’d pay too. Because my shoes (and the rest of me) are currently on an oceanfront roof terrace in the blazing California sunshine, face to face with Calyx Reed.
Yes, that Calyx Reed, still a rock legend ten years after Remember Wednesday broke up. Even now, their song “Questions without Answers” remains the prom song to end all prom songs. To end all proms, more like.
He doesn’t look like a rock star hitting his mid-thirties—or a recluse. He’s tidy and put-together in faded blue jeans and a black t-shirt as he tilts over the terrace’s glass barrier. His feet are bare, and the wind streams back reddish waves of hair that reach his ears instead of down his back like in his heyday.
That makes him the opposite of me, all airplane-rumpled clothes and sweating in the LA heat, curls in a riot. The last person you’d expect him to do a YouTube Throwback Thursday interview with. Or any interview, for that matter. After all, when Remember Wednesday imploded at their height, he went poof. Vanished. Gone. Not a peep for the last ten years.
So yeah, my being invited here is definitely a coup, to say nothing of letting me maybe, finally crack 50K subscribers. Giddiness fizzes in my stomach, and I pat my pocket to double-check for my extra memory card. Then I look up and freeze.
I might be itching to get started, but Calyx Reed looks anything but. He faces the ocean with his eyes closed, his back to me and the whole country. Like none of us exist.
Despite the heat, I shiver, like someone’s walked over my grave—or his.
Thank you to everyone who helped me on this fun, unimaginable journey–and everyone just joining now. Welcome and enjoy!
Lea Bailey - Writer 