Damselfly (Damselfly #1)
Release Date: 11/11/13
Summary from Goodreads:
In 2065,
the Lilliput Project created Lina - the first six-inch-tall winged girl - as
the solution to a worldwide energy and food crisis. Isolated in a compound
amidst the forests of Denmark, Lina has grown up aware of only one purpose:
learn how to survive in a world filled with hawks, bumblebees, and loneliness.
However, on the eve of her sixteenth birthday, she discovers that she’s not the
only teenager her size. Six 'Toms' were created shortly after Lina, and now her
creators need to prove to the world that tiny people are the next logical step
in human evolution. In other words, they need to prove that reproduction is
possible.
Um. No thanks. Lina's already fallen in love with a boy she met online named Jack. Only he has no idea that thumbelina1847 could literally fit inside his heart.
When her creators threaten to hurt Jack unless she chooses a husband from among the ‘Toms’, Lina agrees to star in a reality TV series. Once the episodes begin to air, the secret of her size is out. Cut off from any contact with the outside world, Lina assumes Jack is no longer interested. After all, what guy would want to date a girl he can’t even kiss?
Slowly, very slowly, she befriends the six young men who see her as their only ticket to happiness. Perhaps she can make just one guy’s dream of love and companionship come true. But her creators have a few more twists in store for her that she never thought possible.
She’s not the only one playing to the cameras.
Um. No thanks. Lina's already fallen in love with a boy she met online named Jack. Only he has no idea that thumbelina1847 could literally fit inside his heart.
When her creators threaten to hurt Jack unless she chooses a husband from among the ‘Toms’, Lina agrees to star in a reality TV series. Once the episodes begin to air, the secret of her size is out. Cut off from any contact with the outside world, Lina assumes Jack is no longer interested. After all, what guy would want to date a girl he can’t even kiss?
Slowly, very slowly, she befriends the six young men who see her as their only ticket to happiness. Perhaps she can make just one guy’s dream of love and companionship come true. But her creators have a few more twists in store for her that she never thought possible.
She’s not the only one playing to the cameras.
Excerpt:
When
I was a little girl, about five or six years old, Mr. Coxworth gave
me several pop-up children’s books. He propped them up on the
kitchen counter in his house, and I would play in the paper castles
and oceans. I’d never heard the stories my “forts” belonged to,
so I made up my own instead.
Cinderella’s
castle became the home of my “real parents,” who would come and
rescue me someday and break the curse keeping me so tiny. We would
ride away in a gilded carriage, and I would never have to return to
Lilliput ever again.
Hansel
and Gretel became my brother and sister. Together we would bury the
evil witch in candy and then live in her gingerbread house forever.
In my reimagining, Hansel was my protective older brother and Gretel
much younger, the baby of the family. And I was smack in the middle.
Normal. And I didn’t have to go to school or have tutors or learn
old, dead languages.
The
Snow Queen looked so very much like Dr. Christiansen in the
illustrations that I imagined they were one and the same. Hansel and
Gretel would come and spring me from her icy castle, and we would
escape to our gingerbread house on the next page.
As
I grew out of the pop-up books, I began to write my own stories in a
little notebook. I called them my “True Tales,” and they were my
dreams for what my life would have been if I’d been born under
different circumstances. Tales of my first day at school, getting a
poor grade in English, first crush, first kiss…
When
I met Jack, I stopped writing them.
Today
I write a new one. Not on paper. Not for anyone to find. I write it
on my soul.
The
heat of the morning sun and the man lying next to me draw me from
slumber. Light wraps around his bare arm, setting the tiny hairs
aglow, then comes to rest on the sheet as a perfect triangle of
white.
The
man is Jack, but he’s a few years older now, as am I. We have both
grown into our faces and wear them with confidence. We know the
landscape of the other’s body better than our own.
Still,
I hesitate to touch him. The featherweight blanket of quiet has
settled upon us. I watch him sleeping, but staring and even touching
is an intrusion into his space, a violation of his trust. And his
trust is my most priceless treasure. I have fought to keep it with
sweat and tears.
Somehow,
now, we are nearly the same size. I’m not sure how it happened. I
don’t know how he forgave me for lying to him or what he said when
he discovered the truth. I don’t know why he loves me, why he
stays.
But
he does. And I do. I always will.
I
seal up my story within myself. I seal up my body, heart, and soul so
they will remain safe. I seal myself inside of my bedcovers to block
it all out.
About the Author
I'm a visual effects artist for film and television by day,
and at night I don my author cape and pen stories for the YA crowd. I love a
good fairy tale, especially if there's a creepy twist, so that's what I write.
I met my husband in the World of Warcraft and we live in Los Angeles with our cat. We spend our time playing video games, reading, hiking, sweeping up cat hair, and cursing the terrible traffic.
I have a bachelor's degree in Religion and Philosophy from Hillsdale College, and some of my past jobs have included: swimming lessons teacher, lifeguard, furniture salesperson, barista, and loan officer. I was especially terrible at the loan officer bit and that's what prompted me to make a major change and go off to Canada to get a diploma in 3D Animation and Visual Effects. After that, I moved to Los Angeles by myself and roomed with two crazy sisters I found on Craigslist. But that's another tale.
I met my husband in the World of Warcraft and we live in Los Angeles with our cat. We spend our time playing video games, reading, hiking, sweeping up cat hair, and cursing the terrible traffic.
I have a bachelor's degree in Religion and Philosophy from Hillsdale College, and some of my past jobs have included: swimming lessons teacher, lifeguard, furniture salesperson, barista, and loan officer. I was especially terrible at the loan officer bit and that's what prompted me to make a major change and go off to Canada to get a diploma in 3D Animation and Visual Effects. After that, I moved to Los Angeles by myself and roomed with two crazy sisters I found on Craigslist. But that's another tale.
Author Links:
***GIVEAWAY***
1-$50 Amazon Gift Card (INT)
1-Damselfly Necklace (US only)
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