Relatively Normal Secrets
by C.W. Allen
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GENRE: Middle Grade Mystery Adventure
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BLURB:
Like most siblings, Tuesday and Zed don't always get along. Unlike most
siblings, their arguments are over things like whether their parents are
hiding a life of crime, or are simply the weirdest adults on the planet. When
they decide to go on the hunt for some solid evidence, things get weirder than
ever: two thugs with shape-shifting swords show up, their dog shows off some
tricks she definitely didn't learn in obedience school, and even their
treehouse turns out to be more than meets the eye.
Their escape leaves Zed and Tuesday stranded in a land where robots and holograms live alongside quaint medieval villagers and soldiers on horseback. Soldiers who insist their father is a disgraced fugitive, and their dog a legendary monster.If they ever want to see their parents again, they'll have to learn to work together. After all, they've got a mysterious code to break, secrets to unlock, bandits and soldiers to outwit, and a rowdy dog whose antics are getting more outrageous by the minute. Even if they manage to evade the eerie secret police and uncover enough clues to figure out what's really going on, they're not sure they're going to like the truth.Zed and Tuesday will have to decide who to trust and what really matters, or they'll never get back to normal (whatever that is.) Because when it comes to normal, everything is relative.
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EXCERPT
At lunch, her father was the headlining topic of conversation. Perhaps, everyone
joked, he was some kind of secret agent—if anyone found out what he really did
all day, he'd have to erase their memories or have them deported to Jupiter.
Tuesday made a hasty decision: better to ride the wave of laughter, than drown
in it. This was ridiculous, of course!
Of course it was.
Tuesday heaved her backpack onto the lunch table and made a production of
searching for a missing paper until the cafeteria’s collective attention bounded
on to a new distraction. She retrieved last week’s History assignment and tried
to look intensely interested in reviewing it, staring through the page with
unfocused eyes while zoning out to the satisfying snapping sound her carrot
sticks made, the pitch falling rhythmically as her teeth chopped each one
shorter and shorter.
The newly-hatched suspicions about her parents’ routines burrowed in with the
rest of the doubts nesting in her brain. It wasn’t just the way they sidestepped
any mention of their lives before they had children. It wasn’t just their odd
taste in names. It was just—oh, everything.
Her last name should have been different, for one thing; Tuesday was sure of it.
Her father wouldn’t say what it might have been, but anything else would have
been fine with her, really. Anything that wouldn’t make her a walking punchline.
If her parents hadn’t been so weird, her mother would have taken her father’s
last name when they got married, like normal people. Then Tuesday could have
inherited his name, instead of just his face.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
C.W. Allen is a Nebraskan by birth, a Texan by experience, a Hoosier by
marriage, and a Utahn by geography. She knew she wanted to be a writer the
moment she read The Westing Game at age twelve, but took a few detours along the
way as a veterinary nurse, an appliance repair secretary, and a homeschool
parent.
She recently settled in the high desert of rural Utah with her husband, their
three children, and a noisy flock of orphaned ideas. Someday she will create
literary homes for all of them. (The ideas, not her family.)
Relatively Normal Secrets (Cinnabar Moth Publishing, Fall 2021) is her debut
novel. She writes fantasy novels for tweens, picture books for children, and
short stories and poems for former children. Her work will appear in numerous
anthologies in 2021. She is also a frequent guest presenter at writing
conferences and club meetings, which helps her procrastinate knuckling down to
any actual writing.
Buy Links:
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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION
C. W. Allen will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner
via rafflecopter during the tour.
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome!
Deletetuesday and zed sound like my kids and i think they would enjoy this!
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds amazing. My niece is going to love it and I have a feeling I will too .
ReplyDelete