Finding My Escape
Author
Fran Veal
Author Bio
Fran Veal fell in love with stories when her fourth grade teacher, Peggy Greer read stories like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory every afternoon after lunch. Her first attempt at writing stories was in the fifth grade when she began writing and drawing a cartoon for her friends. The drawing, to be honest, was terrible, but the stories must have been pretty decent because a friend recently informed her she’d kept some of them because “she always knew Fran would be a writer someday. Fran graduated to writing romance in ninth grade, which was more interesting and, no, there were no pictures (much to the readers’ relief).
It wasn’t until Fran had a teen daughter of her own that she actually began writing again. Finding My Escape was her debut novel. The sequel, Finding My Way Back was released in August 2013. The third installment Finding My Way Home will be released in 2014
Fran currently resides in the beautiful city of Murfreesboro, TN with her husband of twenty-seven years, fifteen year old daughter, and one extremely snarky cat.
Description
My life was shattered when I walked in on to find my parents being murdered. He almost got me, too. The killer, I mean. The police say it was a home invasion, but I don’t believe it.
I was numb when I first moved in with Aunt Laura (she’s a writer like my creator). I know she was worried about me because at first, I couldn’t remember anything. And then one night it all came back. In my sleep. I just wish the nightmares would stop. The same thing every night, reliving it. Tripping over something…my dad’s body. Hearing my mother scream. I can’t take this anymore!
So I run. I run to forget. I run to get away.
One day when I was running, I met Josh and my heart flipped. There’s just one problem, Josh lives in another world. Literally. A world I access in my sleep. A perfect world, where you can manipulate your surroundings and fly from the tops of mountains without getting hurt. And no, I’m not dreaming, although that’s what I thought at first.
Then there’s Matt, my best friend. He would do absolutely anything for me, including dumping a UNC co-ed to come live with me and Aunt Laura so I don’t have to start at a strange school by myself my Senior year. He just showed up one day when I was running. In fact, I almost knocked him flat when he snuck up on me. He’s helping me try to figure out what got my parents killed.
So by day, I have Matt, my friend and protector and at night I have Josh. Except that world isn’t so perfect either, it turns out. Everything gets sort of twisted up, especially the time I thought I saw Josh at my school. I think I may be going crazy. And I’m pretty sure Matt is starting to fall for me.
I miss my parents so much I walk around feeling like someone has punched me in the gut.
I was right. It wasn’t a home invasion. And now the killer is after me.
Book excerpt
I tried to put it all out of my mind and just run. I was so hurt, I didn’t pay much attention to which paths I was taking, and I wasn’t even sure exactly which path I was on at the moment. The woods behind Aunt Laura’s house were full of trails that crisscrossed in every direction. I shivered when I realized I didn’t know where I was. The locals were full of stories about hikers getting lost in the Smokey Mountains.
I usually carried my cell phone, but I’d been too upset to remember it when I ran out the door. I looked around, but nothing about the canopy of trees above me or the trail markers seemed one bit familiar. I turned back down the path, but when it forked, I had no idea which trail to take. My nerves felt like they were strung as tight as a tennis racket.
I felt a hand touch my shoulder.
My self-defense course kicked in automatically.
I shoved my elbow into some ribs.
Stomped back on a foot.
Whipped around to kick.
And tripped over a stump.
“Hey, what’d you do that for?” said a muffled male voice
I looked up in terror, but what I saw had me giggling. In fact I laughed so hard, I was crying. There stood Matt, all 6 foot 2, 190 pounds of him, wiping his bloody face with one hand and holding his side with the other.
“Jeez, girl, what is with you?” Matt pulled off his shirt and held it up to his bleeding nose.
“Not that I’m not glad to see you, but what in the heck are you doing here?”
“I was worried about you, so I jumped in my car this morning and headed over. Ashville’s only a couple of hundred miles from here, you know.”
“No, I mean here. In the woods. On a trail I don’t even recognize.” I looked around, trying to get my bearings.
“Oh, that. Well, your aunt said you’d gone for a run so I used my amazing tracking skills, courtesy of the Boy Scouts, thank you very much, and found you.”
“Uh huh, seriously.” I rolled my eyes at Matt. Honestly, sometimes he was impossible.
“Okay, so I headed down the main trails, remembered your tendency to always go left when you come to a fork, and here I am!” Matt finished with a smug grin.
Then it registered. Matt had driven all the way from Ashville because he was worried about me. I was so touched and relieved that I burst into tears and lunged, wrapping him in a bear hug that nearly knocked us both over.
“Matt,” I said, “I’ve never been so glad to see you, and…” Tears came to my eyes, and I couldn’t finish.
“And what?” he asked impatiently. Matt wasn’t always up for what he considered “girlie” emotion.
“You gave up your date with the UNC coed for me.” And I smiled…
