The Experiment Continues

With Book 3 due to be published in ebook on... we'll say March 23. I could load it up as early as this weekend, but experiences has proven that when I think I'm done, I need to give it two more proofreads, so I'm going with the 23.

And here's my first blurb attempt. I hate this part.

Erin Shaw’s high school years were brutally interrupted by tragic events completely out of her control. But it’s time to move on and, for Erin, experiencing senior year and all that goes with it is part of moving on. Between volleyball and keeping up her grades, she's more than focused. Then she’s college bound where she can escape the smells and sounds of the ocean along with the memories of what is never going to be.

The one thing Erin isn’t interested in is a boy. She’s been down that road and it ended in heartbreak. But when Erin bumps into Michael Bray, the local basketball hero--who’s one part geek and one part jock--it's all she can do to resist his understated charm. Their budding friendship quickly spirals into something deeper and after one kiss on a moonlit beach, Erin rediscovers something she thought she lost forever—hope.

But if Erin has learned one truth, it’s not to get too comfortable because everything can change in an instant. And one instant is all it takes for her past to come crashing back into her life with an all-consuming force. Faced with an uncertain future, Erin must make an impossible choice between remaining true to a vow she once made, or trusting the young woman she’s become and remaining true to herself.

Mmm... not crazy about the first paragraph. I'll be tweaking this some more.

And a little teaser.

Chapter One

He knew something more existed beyond this watery landscape; it shimmered at the edge of a need he couldn’t place.

A scent.

A name he longed to recall but memory denied.

He remembered a face. A pair of haunting brown eyes. A smile that lit his dark world.

He hadn’t always been as he was now, a hulking shadow swimming in the Deep. So many days—a measurement of time he reminded himself—had passed, and as they did, his former self, his human self, grew more insistent. More impatient.

He was more than this.

And then there was the voice. Her. The Deep.

A voice he couldn’t deny. That voice consoled him.

You belong here.

The Deep whispered under his skin and fired his blood, fueling his very existence. He would have died without her.

She beckoned him, luring him with her Song back into the depths where all was peaceful. Where he was invincible.

His former self rebelled against that voice. He had to see. He had to know. He turned his mind away from the voice and the place she called him to.

His head pounded in time with the thumping in his chest as if something were about to happen. He was close to breaking free. From what, he didn’t know. All he knew was more lay beyond the surface. The one place the voice didn’t want him to go. Forbid him to go.

The surface. The surface hurt. The surface was too bright. Too loud. Too heavy. The light had a name. He knew it. Why couldn’t he remember?

His arms wavered in front of him, his long fingers encased in silky webs that ribboned in the current. Hands he barely recognized as his own. His only thought looking at them was that she would be afraid of these hands. But not only his hands. Him. She would be afraid of him. Yet he was compelled to let that light touch him.

Just once.

Ignoring the hurt, he climbed until the weight of the water left him. Until gradually the light dispelled the dark that trapped him and he emerged in a world bright and blinding. His mouth opened and his body responded on instinct, sucking in air as though for the first time. The air burned his chest. A tremor ran over his body in an attempt to reject this place. His body didn’t want this. Mere seconds and it already craved the Deep. Only his mind kept him here, hovering between two worlds.

No, it was her face that kept him here.

Blue sky. A scattering of clouds. The sun. The light was called the sun. When it touched his skin, he absorbed its warmth. How had he forgotten this place? His eyes closed and he saw her. He remembered.

Erin. Her name was Erin.