*Visit All Things Urban Fantasy today for her Deadly Destination tour of Shari Kohler’s The Great White North from Darby & a chance to win NIGHT FALLS ON THE WICKED**
Today we have beautiful San Francisco for the final Deadly Destinations location. Our tour guide for today’s Deadly Destinations is Gretchen McNeil’s Bridget Liu, from her debut release POSSESS (will be available on August 23rd from HarperCollins/Balzer & Bray). Thanks to HarperCollins/Balzer & Bray, one of you who comment on this post will win a copy of the book! See details below.
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San Francisco, According to Bridget Liu, Exorcist
People say San Francisco is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Sure, I guess. Kinda hard to see it when you’ve lived there all your life. Like me.
And I mean literally hard to see. Because of the fog.
Most people think of sun-bathed hills with cable cars rushing up and down, a beautiful bay dotted with sailboats in the distance. Yeah. Not so much. My side of the city, also known as the Sunset District (so much irony, considering you usually can’t SEE the sun set…) is blanketed with thick, damp fog about three hundred days a year.
You think I’m joking. I’m not.
The fog has a mind of its own. It has a presence, like it’s always watching you, touching you, adhering to you. That’s my house – as cookie-cutter as they get in this row house neighborhood – but most afternoons when the fog rolls in you can’t even see it from across the street. Crazy.
I have to say, though, the fog is fitting. This place is… not quite right. Take this house, for example. Mrs. Long lives there. It looks vaguely like my own, but something evil lurks within those walls. Something dark and twisted that rolled into the city with the fog and sticks to that house like a damp film. I can feel it when I walk by. Makes we want to take a bath in antibacterial gel or something.
This place is also evil, but more in the “high school sucks” kind of vein. St. Michael’s Prep, bane of my existence. Catholic School is like Institutionalized Purgatory. I can’t think of any place I’d less rather be on a daily basis, especially since my dad was killed. Everyone’s always looking at me like I’ve grown a second head. “Oh, there’s Bridget. Her dad was viciously killed by a maniac.”
Oh yeah, it’s awesome.
My mom would be so pissed if she heard me say that. Oops. This is what I get for having a parent who teaches at a Catholic school. Why couldn’t she let me go to public school like I asked? Yeah, no. So I’m stuck at St. Michael’s.
This is the Church of St. Michael, attached to the school, where all sorts of horrors take place, not least of which are the St. Michael’s Show Choir rehearsals for which I’m forced to play as second accompanist. Our newest debacle is entitled “Hip Hop-lelujah” which I’m pretty sure is heinous enough to raise the dead. Especially in that church. I see things in there sometimes. And hear things. That shouldn’t be there. So. Not. Good.
Still, home is home, you know? I couldn’t picture myself leaving San Francisco, especially now that they kind of need me here. I guess we’re stuck with each other, this city and me. And I guess if San Francisco can put up with me, I can try to do the same.
Vade retro satana.
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About Gretchen:
Gretchen McNeil is an opera singer, writer and clown. Her YA horror/paranormal POSSESS debut with Balzer + Bray for HarperCollins, August 23, 2011. Her second novel, TEN – YA horror/suspense about ten teens trapped on a remote island with a serial killer – is tentatively scheduled for a Fall 2012 release. Gretchen is a former coloratura soprano, the voice of Mary on G4′s Code Monkeys and she currently sings with the LA-based circus troupe Cirque Berzerk. Gretchen is also a founding member of the vlog group YARebels where she can be seen as “Monday.”
You can visit Gretchen around the web here: Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook
Want to read more from Gretchen McNeil?
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This giveaway is provided by HarperCollins/Balzer & Bray
Two winners will each receive a copy of Possess by Gretchen McNeil
Available on August 23, 2011 from HarperCollins/Balzer & Bray
About the Book:
Fifteen-year-old Bridget Liu just wants to be left alone: by her mom, by the cute son of a local police sergeant, and by the eerie voices she can suddenly and inexplicably hear. Unfortunately for Bridget, it turns out the voices are demons – and Bridget has the rare ability to banish them back to whatever hell they came from.
Terrified to tell people about her new power, Bridget confides in a local priest who enlists her help in increasingly dangerous cases of demonic possession. But just as she is starting to come to terms with her new power, Bridget receives a startling message from one of the demons. Now Bridget must unlock the secret to the demons’ plan before someone close to her winds up dead – or worse, the human vessel of a demon king.
Pre-Order from
GIVEAWAY GUIDELINES:
1. Leave a comment for Gretchen.
2. +3 entries for becoming a follower of this blog and Dark Faerie Tales on Twitter and Facebook.
3. +3 entries for tweeting about this contest, blogging about it, linking via your sidebar etc…(please tell me where!).
4. Giveaway is open to U.S. only/No P.O. Boxes.
5. Please include your email address in your comment.
6. All Deadly Destinations winners will be announced on August 7th.
7. The winner will be picked with the help of Random.org.
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It sounds like your life has been as fun as the things you write about.
on 
on