I finally worked up the courage to read a passage at our writers guild’s open mic night … and it got canceled. 😦 SO, this week I bring you six sentences from the excerpt of Surrender that I was going to read.

Here’s the synopsis of the book:

Nothing’s been the same for Dylanie since she and her family visited a Civil War site and the place came alive with cannon fire. Problem was, no one could hear it but 10-year-old Dylanie.

Six years later, her dad’s moved out, her mom’s come out of the closet and Dylan’s got a spot on Paranormal Teen, a reality TV show filming at historic Oakleigh Mansion. She’ll spend a weekend with two other psychic teens learning how to control her abilities.

None of them realized how much their emotional baggage would put them at the mercy of Oakleigh’s resident spirits, or that they’d find themselves pawns in a 150-year-old mystery. Each must decide what’s right or wrong, and which secrets are worth keeping. A wrong choice could be fatal.

This exchange takes place between an adult psychic who is mentoring the three teens and Jake, a 17-year-old empath:

“If I don’t put up, like, a barrier, I can’t stop the emotions.”

“Tell me about your diagnosis.”

“Which one?”  It’s still a kick to the nuts to talk about this. You want to break a kid? Take him to doctor after doctor, each one talking like he’s not in the room, each one telling his parents a variation of Your kid’s fucked up.”