Title: History Mysteries
Authors: Mary Martinez, Marcus, Zackary, Anthony
Genre: Middle Grade – Paranormal
Book Blurb:
Zeke Adams has mixed feelings about visiting his nana for the summer. On the one hand, he’ll get to see her and his two younger cousins, Nick and Bart, but then they’ll be stuck all summer in the small coastal town of Cliffdale, California—a place they all believe will be boring.
When the boys arrive, they ask Nana if they can ride their skateboards around town. Nana agrees as long as they stay away from the house next door. She explains that fifty years ago the owner, Albert Smith, arrived out of nowhere and bought the house, then disappeared just as mysteriously.
Despite Nana’s instructions to stay away from the house, Bart convinces his cousins it’s haunted, and they can’t resist exploring. They are determined to use their special gifts to discover what happened to Albert Smith… and while they are busy discovering, they find they have a lot in common with the people in Cliffdale.
Excerpt
Zechariah Adams stood at the window and watched the taillights of his parents’ car disappear around the corner. He stepped back and turned into the room. His two cousins were bored and currently sprawled in the two overstuffed chairs that flanked the sofa. Before he had a chance to say anything his nana stepped into the room. She planted her hands on her hips, and grinned.
“Finally. You’re parents are gone. I thought they’d never leave for their cruise.”
She waved a finger under Zeke’s nose and mimicked his mom to a tee. “Did you bring your toothbrush?”
She turned to Nickolas, his younger cousin by two years. “Did you pack your underwear?”
Then she laughed and leaned placing herself nose to nose with Bart, Zeke’s junior by three years. “And what about you? Your mom must have packed for you, she had no last minute questions.”
She straightened and engulfed them all in her gaze. “So boys, what are we going to do while they’re on vacation? Shall we find some trouble?”
Zeke, Sadie Adams’ oldest grandson, grinned back at his nana. It was going to be totally rad to spend the summer hanging out with his cousins. The school year had seemed to take forever. It wasn’t often he saw his cousins. Every other Christmas their families visited Nana’s for the holiday. That was the only time they were together. Until now.
“Trouble, Nana?” Zeke asked. But he knew she only joked.
“The summer wouldn’t be fun without a little trouble.” She turned to Nick. “What do you think, Nickolas? And you, Young Bart, are you two up for a little fun?”
His cousins looked at him, each other, then turned to their nana. “You bet.” Their voices chorused.
Yes, they were going to have an excellent time.
It was time to define trouble. This was seriously going to be interesting.
“What can we start with, Nana? What’s something to do around here?”
“You’d like to leave me so soon? You just got here.” Nana’s words had a trace of humor in them. Zeke couldn’t tell if she were really sad, or just joking.
But he knew as much as he loved his nana, he didn’t want to sit around all day in the living room.
Again, his nana grinned, proving she wasn’t sad. “You boys want to explore?”
“Check out the town?” Nick asked.
“Yeah, can I ride my ripstik?” Bart asked at the same time.
Nana turned to Bart with a small frown. “I have no idea what that is.”
“It’s a two-wheel skateboard,” Bart giggled.
“How do you ride with only two wheels?” She asked.
“The board rotates and you have to turn left and right,” Zeke explained.
Nick looked as if he were about to giggle, but his cousin was the quiet one. Nana looked more confused by Zeke’s explanation. She didn’t say anything more, but finally answered his first question.
“Boys, there’s lots to do around here, especially if you use your imagination.” She wiggled her eyebrows like this was some kind of magical idea.
“I don’t like to use imagination,” Bart said.
Really? Imagination, Zeke’s parents were always saying stuff like you’ll go far if you use your imagination. Whatever. He just wanted to go imagine all over town. What happened to all the talk about trouble? Maybe to Nana imagination was trouble? If that were so, he could do a little imagination.
Bart shuffled one foot to the other looking as bored as Zeke was beginning to feel. If Zeke hadn’t grown out of that stage, he probably would have done some shuffling of his own.
“Can we just go out and play then?” Zeke went to stand by his cousin.
“Nana, can we hike around the cliffs?” Nick rolled to his feet then joined the others.
Wow, a whole sentence, Zeke stared at his cousin, Nick usually didn’t talk much. He must really be interested in hiking round.
“I can see you fellows are anxious to explore your summer home.” The problem with nanas, they always had to tell you junk you didn’t need to know. Like don’t do this or that, they knew you would do it anyway. All that trouble talk was a smoke screen. “Cliffdale is a lot safer than your own hometowns. You can explore and have fun…”
“Let’s rock, come on guys.” Zeke, followed by his cousins, started for the door, not needing any further encouragement.
“One minute, boys.” Nana followed them. “There are a few rules.”
Oh man, Zeke groaned, along with his two cousins.
“Rules?” Bart rolled his eyes.
“Yes, rules. You know, those things that keep you safe? Your parents would never speak to me again if something happened to any of you.” She tilted her head to look down her nose, then pointed a finger at each one in turn. “The cliffs can be dangerous, and the ocean is rough most of the time. Unless I’m with you, both are off limits. There’s skate board ramps between the school and the park. Our town has the same things any other small community has, like a pizza place. Here’s a couple bucks. And…” Nana gave them her look and leaned into the boys. “…You need to tell me where you are so I don’t worry.”
“Sweet.” Zeke grabbed the knob and swung open the door. “Grab your boards. Let’s go.”
“Hold up, one more thing.” Oh boy, here it comes, what not to do. She pointed east. “There’s a house on the hill across the way. No one has lived there for almost fifty years. Some people say it’s haunted. Personally, I don’t believe in ghosts. But it is old and falling down. It’s not safe, so it’s also off limits.”
A haunted house? That sounded awesome. Did she actually think they could resist a looksee?
“Okay, you can trust us.” Zeke continued out the door. “Let’s go.”
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If you could dress up as anything or anyone this Halloween, what or who would it be and why?
Celtic Faerie because it’s magical and fantasy at the same time.
Explain why your featured book is a treat to read:
I wrote it with my three grandsons, Marcus, Zackary and Anthony.
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Open internationally
Runs October 1 – 31
Drawing will be held on November 1.
Author Biography:
Mary lives in Magna, a little town west of Salt Lake City, Utah. Together with her husband, she has six grown children, and six wonderful grandsons and five beautiful granddaughters. She loves to spend time with family and friends--she includes good books as friends!
Mary and her husband love to travel, especially to the Caribbean for relaxing, and Italy for the wine. And most recently she discovered she was Irish and Scottish, of course they had to visit Ireland and Scotland. Mary fell in love with both, but the green hills of Ireland felt like home. With the experience from the exotic places she has visited, she is able to fill her books with colorful descriptions of cities, painting a colorful backdrop for her characters. One of her favorite US destinations is New York/Brooklyn, where her beloved Beckett's live. When she visits, she can wander their neighborhoods, favorite parks, and visit their favorite pub, Putnum's.
They are avid concert ‘Ho’s’! Yes, they pretty much want to do them all. They love outdoor amphitheaters the best and attend as many during the warmer months as possible.
Mary writes mostly romantic suspense, romance, women's fiction, and she has just begun to dabble in young adult mystery. During her writing career she has been a conference coordinator, workshop presenter, and chapter president for the Utah Chapter of RWA. In 2007 she was presented with the Utah RWA service award in acknowledgment and appreciation for outstanding service. Mary has also participated in numerous library panels on writing and co-presented a workshop on writing a series at the League of Utah Writers conference.
Mary also writes as ML Foxx. This is her first jaunt into Fantasy and Sci-Fi, she loves it. It gives her freedom of choice. In her ML persona she also loves to go to the movies and you got it… Watch the Avengers, Dead Pool, among others. Something her hubby doesn't really enjoy but humors her fantasy side. You’ll see more books soon…
Mary and her husband are also enthusiastic college football fans. They have season tickets to the UTES, University of Utah Football and they tailgate every game. They love tailgating so much, that they were married at a tailgating in 1999.
GO UTES!
Social Media Links:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/marylmartinez @marylmartinez
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