The Accidental Siren

Genre: YA Fantasy, Coming of Age

Purchase: Amazon/Lulu/Smashwords/Barnsnoble/Kindle/Nook/iBookstore/epub Lulu

Synopsis of The Accidental Siren

Mara Lynn is the most beautiful girl in the world. James Parker is the ordinary boy who discovers her power.

The year is 1994. James, a pudgy twelve-year-old, responds to an ad for a used camcorder at a mysterious suburban home. Before he can knock on the door, he notices boys–a dozen at least–frozen amongst the trees behind the house. Their faces are blank. One boy presses “record” on a walkman and holds it above his head… and then James hears it, the voice of a little girl. Sweet; high like a songbird without the shrill. It was a church song. It came from inside the house.

James doesn’t know it yet, but the girl he’s about to meet is a modern-day siren.

The Accidental Siren depicts the joys and consequences of young love as Mara and James meet, shoot a movie, fend off bullies, and explore the potential of infinite beauty.

Excerpt from The Accidental Siren

I was certain that I did the right thing by trading the camera, but with
the overwhelming guilt of maybe–possibly–noticing a sliver of a girl’s
upper leg, how could I explain the truth to my father and expect to look
him in the eyes? In our house, the word “naked” meant twin boys streaking
through the kitchen after shower time. The word “girl” meant long hair,
dangly earrings, and curlycue penmanship. But combining the words created a
phrase that could turn a simple conversation about bullies, cameras, and
“doing the right thing” into something awkward and naughty; a conversation,
perhaps, I wasn’t ready for.

I wasn’t ready because girls still left cooties on my juice-box straw.
Girls were know-it-alls and brown-nosers and tattle-tales. Girls were
scared of bugs–especially bugs with wings–and they screamed like sissies
whenever a beetle clung to their skirts.

But I was beginning to realize that girls play beneath a mysterious shroud
of whispered secrets, of notebooks brimming with rainbow hieroglyphics, of
exchanged glances between mothers and friends who knew something that I
didn’t. Words like “love,” “menstrual,” “change,” “going out,” “Ryan Ryan
Ryan,” or “bra;” hushed ramblings of exclusive “learning experiences”
between Livy and our mother or Livy and her friends; words from
conversations so exclusive that I was asked to leave the room; words I
deciphered in bits and pieces with an ear glued to my sister’s bedroom door.

Apparently, girls were different... special... delicate... but nobody would
tell me why. To a flubbery sixth-grade boy who didn’t know his penis from a
pogo-stick, girls were like poems: weird, incomprehensible and boring, but
those “in the know” assured me that they were beautiful.

“What’s so beautiful about girls?” I would implore.

And the secret society of adults would reply with a smirk and wink as if I
was merely a boy who couldn’t possibly have the mental maturity to
comprehend such grown-up concepts as love and bleeding vaginas; “You’ll
understand someday, James.”

The Accidental Siren is FREE until October 16th on Smashwords HERE Download and Leave a review on Amazon for EXTRA points

*The Accidental Siren* is one of four books in the “Blank Canvas Series.” They’re all very different books, but all related thematically. The other books are *Lighthouse Nights*, *The Brandywine Prophet*, and *The Day I Wore Purple*. The first three are all available on Smashwords and Amazon.

Tour starts September 25 The author is having a contest -

2* custom designed v-neck t-shirts from Bare Tree Apparel (
http://www.thebaretree.com/)
2* pairs of Mara Lynn's purple earrings from jewelry designer Allison
Perkins (pictures coming soon!)
2* signed and numbered paperbacks of The Accidental Siren
1 Skype date with the author. One-on-one video, audio, or text chat with
Jake
4 paperbacks of The Accidental Siren

All above winners will also receive an mp3 CD with music that inspired all four of Jake VanderArk's books, as well as the music he listens to as he writes.

2 ebooks of Lighthouse Nights (
http://jakevanderark.com/novels/lighthouse-nights/)
2 ebooks of The Brandywine Prophet (
http://jakevanderark.com/novels/the-brandywine-prophet/)

Fill the form out below to enter for a chance to win

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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