Reads to Reels With Angela :): Book Blitz: Obscura Burning

Obscura Burning by Suzanne Van Rooyen

Published December 7th 2012 by Etopia Press

The world's going to end in fire…and it's all Kyle's fault.

Kyle Wolfe's world is about to crash and burn. Just weeks away from graduation, a fire kills Kyle's two best friends and leaves him permanently scarred. A fire that Kyle accidentally set the night he cheated on his boyfriend Danny with their female friend, Shira. That same day, a strange new planet, Obscura, appears in the sky. And suddenly Kyle's friends aren't all that dead anymore.

Each time Kyle goes to sleep, he awakens to two different realities. In one, his boyfriend Danny is still alive, but Shira is dead. In the other, it's Shira who's alive...and now they're friends with benefits. Shifting between realities is slowly killing him, and he's not the only one dying. The world is dying with him. He's pretty sure Obscura has something to do with it, but with his parents' marriage imploding and realities shifting each time he closes his eyes, Kyle has problems enough without being the one in charge of saving the world...

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Excerpt:

Closing my eyes, I imagine New Mexico burning, can almost smell it, the pungent pine,

fireball mesquite, and smoldering cacti. I should be worried about the damage the UV’s

doing to my scars, but after tonight, none of that will matter.

Just when you think it can’t possibly get any hotter or the mercury will explode, the

temperature rises just a few more degrees. Today, Coyote’s Luck lies in a simmering

mirage, hotter than any hell imaginable.

The crush of mesquite huddling between the tombstones offers little respite from the sun.

Sticking to the dappled shade, I thread my way toward Danny’s grave. I’m not alone.

She looks like a ghost with the white sundress fanning around her legs, her long black

hair teased by the warm breeze. For a moment, I think it’s one of the ch’iindi made flesh,

until she turns at the sound of my step.

Gabriela, her face a teary-eyed frown. She folds her arms and returns her gaze to the

grave. When did she get so thin? She was always so voluptuous, a shorter, less saggy

version of her mother. Now she looks more like a sixteen-year-old kid, barely there in

layers of cotton.

We stand in silence, both just staring at the grave. The rosaries dangle over the stone, tied

in knots around the stems of already dead flowers. There’s a white and blue beaded one,

the one that was attached to Danny’s bed, the one he’d kiss at night before going to sleep.

“I miss him so much,” Gabriela says eventually.

“So do I.”

“I blame you, you know.” She casts me a sidelong glance.

“Maybe you should.”

She nods and sniffs and fingers one of the blooms turned brown by the heat.

“Dead, all of it.” She tears the petals from the stalk. “Little Maria, now Daniel.” She turns

her dark eyes on me, searching for something I wish I could give her.

“This is killing my parents. Daniel was their only son. They’ll never have more children.

Once, I had a brother. Now I’m alone. Sister to dead siblings.”

That’s the most Gabriela’s ever said, to me at least. I’m stunned into uncomfortable

silence. There’s nothing I can say that’ll make it right. But tonight, maybe there’ll be

something I can do.

“I wish I could make it right.” My words sound so pathetic.

She harrumphs and digs her sandaled toe into the dirt. “Nothing can make Daniel dying

right.”

“I’m sorry.” There is nothing else I can say without trying to explain the whole confusing

story and Gabriela’s not the type to believe in rifts in reality.

“Tell Daniel you’re sorry. He’s the one who died because of you.” She takes a deliberate

step away from me, crosses herself, offering prayers in Spanish to the ether.

“I loved him, you know.” Maybe I am to blame, but she makes it sound like I don’t give a

crap that he’s dead.

“Obviously not enough.”

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AUTHOR BIO:
Suzanne van Rooyen is a freelance writer and author from South Africa. She currently lives in Finland and finds the cold, dark forests nothing if not inspiring.

Suzanne is the author of the cyberpunk novel Dragon’s Teeth (Divertir), the YA science fiction novel Obscura Burning (Etopia) and has had several short stories published by Golden Visions Magazine, Space and Time and Niteblade. Niteblade nominated her short story Where dreams are grown for the Pushcart Prize. Her non-fiction articles on travel, music and other topics can be found scattered throughout the Internet.

Although she has a Master’s degree in music, Suzanne prefers conjuring strange worlds and creating quirky characters. When not writing you can find her teaching dance to ninth graders or playing in the snow with her shiba inu.

Suzanne is represented by Jordy Albert of the Booker Albert Agency.

Author Links:

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