Promotion Event [Excerpt] Kiss Me, Curse Me by Kate Shay

Kiss Me, Curse Me

by Kate Shay

Release date: March 6, 2013

Genre:  Paranormal/Historical Fiction

Age Group:  Young Adult

Event organized by: AToMR Tours

Book Description:

This is a story of a kiss--a simple kiss. . . and a boy. . . and a girl.

It's the Great Depression, but you would barely know it in Dam Town. The building of the great Carnee Dam has brought money, men, and mischief into an otherwise seemingly quiet desert community.

Ahanu is an outcast, born into a culture that despises him. He is Native American, of the land, a free spirit. If he wasn't in love with a girl that was already taken, maybe he could spend his days in the forest just as he pleases, but life isn't that simple.

Coreen is on a path to nowhere, dating the typical boy, and doing as her father always asks, or that's how it appears. On one moonlit night, her fate becomes entwined in an old curse unlocked by the boy of her dreams--true love--Ahanu.

This curse is old and it will have its way, it will do its damage.

“The wolf came one clear, hot night like this one,” Doc said somberly. “He stood back in the grass, hiding, but I saw him there, powerful and present. I wish I’d said something.
“Anyway, I got a call from a young clueless lad, whose sister had fallen ill suddenly from something—we didn’t know what at the time. She had a fever and she’d moan occasionally, mumble something about the moon, and she would fade in and out. On her third night, as I sat there with her, I heard his call. The spirit called out, and she died right there and then. He took her spirit away with him, though we knew it was really gone before. We could feel that she was absent and her mumblings were just his echoes or messages. He’s been awakened again by something.”
“I can’t hear this.” Ahanu put his hands over his ears.
“You need to hear it. This is your history, your people, your wolf.”
“My wolf . . . what are talking about? You’re crazy,” said Ahanu. “This is the first time I’ve seen him.”
“Yes, and he’ll come again. He’ll take and take till it stops.”
“Till what stops?” Betty was fascinated by now and had lost sight of her musings.
“Many died that summer, mysteriously, all random, all ages. You think this is just a fluke? It’s not. It never stopped till we stopped. The church, you see, was encroaching on the natives. We all thought we lived in peace and harmony with the natives, but we didn’t. They didn’t want our God, and we didn’t want theirs.”
“I thought you were an atheist,” said Betty.
“Shhhhh. I was. Not this week.”
Ahanu scrunched his face in confusion.
“You see, I bet it’s the dam, all those strange folks in town, all this bad energy here. He’s back. The old curse. That’s it, till it stops. Till he gets his fill.”

Kate Shay was born in Scotland under a full moon amongst the misty moors. Her homeland calls to her still, but now she basks in the Seattle rains and visits the Isle only in her dreams.

She took creative writing in college for two years and has been writing for the last five years. She keeps a diary with her sad and romantic poems for when she's in the mood: usually it's after watching The English Patient--her favorite all-time movie.

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