⭐PUYB Virtual Book Club⭐

PUYB Author Talks: ⭐A Bookish Conversation with 'Jury Duty is Murder' Kate Damon⭐ #interview

When Kate Damon is not writing, she and her husband enjoy RVing, spending time with family and friends, raising Monarch butterflies, and playing a wicked game of bridge.

Writing as Margaret Brownley, she has published more than 40 novels and is a New York Times bestselling author. Known for her memorable characters and humor, she is a two-time Romance Writers of America Rita finalist.

Not counting the book she wrote in sixth grade, and the puzzle of the missing socks, this is her first mystery.

Website ➜http://margaret-brownley.com/

Twitter ➜https://www.x.com/katejuryduty

Facebook ➜https://www.facebook.com/MargaretBrownleyAuthor/ and https://www.facebook.com/p/Kate-Damon-61565155275435/

Instagram ➜https://www.instagram.com/katedamonbooks

BookBub➜https://www.bookbub.com/authors/kate-damon

Goodreads ➜ https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4072660.Kate_Damon and https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/163681.Margaret_Brownley

Before you started writing your book, what kind of research did you do to prepare yourself to write it?

I normally write romance novels under the name of Margaret Brownley, so when I started jotting down ideas for the book, I thought it was going to be another romance. For that reason, I didn’t think any research was needed. However, when the story took an unexpected turn and became a mystery, things changed in that regard. For example, one of characters—CeeCee—is a pole dancer, and I knew nothing about that.

Did you pursue publishers or did you opt to self-pub?

I queried the publishers of my romance novels, but none were interested in having me change genres. For that reason, I put the book aside for a while. But then someone suggested I try The Wild Rose Press. I was so delighted when they chose to publish it.

How did you choose your cover?

My publisher asked me for cover ideas, which was a bit of a challenge. I’m used to having an embracing couple on my books, but I knew that wouldn’t do. I considered showing a jury, but since the book takes place after the trial, I knew that wouldn’t work. I finally settled on the gavel, and Lady of Justice. Some mysteries have really dark covers. Since my book is filled with humor, I specifically asked that the cover not be dark.

What’s your opinion on giving your book away to sell other copies of your book?

This is a complex issue. Offering free copies of books can potentially stimulate interest and boost sales for subsequent titles in an author's series. However, the effectiveness of this strategy may be limited. The market is saturated with free books, which diminishes their impact compared to previous years. Today, I mostly just give away books to bloggers who graciously host me or agree to write a review.

What are some of the most important things you believe an author should do before their book is released?

It’s important to draw up a marketing plan. I try to come up with ways to build reader anticipation before the book comes out. For example, you can do a cover reveal and post a countdown. It also helps to get some early reviews and post them on social media. Also, if you’re new to publishing, I would suggest you join a writer’s group, preferably in your genre. I found writer groups to be a big help in keeping me informed about promotional opportunities, writing contests and so much more.

What are some of the most important things you believe an author should do after their book is released?

Keep promoting. I try to do at least one thing a day to promote my book. Almost every organization is open to speakers, so it’s a good idea to contact as many as you can. Also, check out local book clubs.

What would you like to say to your readers and fans about your book?

I just want to thank my readers for supporting me through the years. In regards to my book, Jury Duty is Murder, I’m delighted to say that it has received many positive reviews. Kirkus Reviews describes it as "a clever and entertaining whodunit that blends suspense, humor, and heart". The book has also been praised for its unique mix of courtroom drama and post-trial mystery, as well as its subtle romance elements. So whether you’ve read my previous books or not, I hope you give this one a try.

Inside the Book

Title: Jury Duty is Murder

Author: Kate Damon

Publisher: Wild Rose Press

Genre: Cozy Mystery

A young civilization is turning the corner into the future, but first they must face a terrible enemy from their deepest past – THE VORM.

The main characters are a young man named Harl’ut and his lifelong companion Vispushin – who is a perIanth, a kind of telepathic pegasus. Join them on this epic adventure as they lead a group of young warriors into the heart of the Vorm Hive.

Book One: Battle In The Sky is the first of five books which comprise the opening series of this epic tale. Here, Harl’ut and Vispushin and The Princess Bryn’lynn, engage in desperate battle over the southern plain with savage Vorm warriors. You will be uplifted by the passionate and thrilling conclusion of the first installment of this fantasy adventure.

In Book Two: Descent Into The Abyss, Harl’ut recovers from his harrowing adventure from Book One: Battle In The Sky. He walks through the streets of The Ocean City, visits the Sculpture Garden and his friend, Elá, the bard, and engages in exciting training games with warrior/mentor, Calanctus. Then the story takes you down the throat of the vast volcano, Pla’than’taa, once worshipped as a god, where Harl’ut enacts a deadly initiation ritual, confronts the barbaric past of his people and battles a terrifying monster.

Pick up your copies at https://kaufmantales.com/

⭐Pump Up Your Book Virtual Book Tour Kick Off⭐Like Driftwood on the Salish Sea by Richard Levine #Romance

Title: LIKE DRIFTWOOD ON THE SALISH SEA

Author: Richard Levine

Pages: 396

Format: Paperback, Kindle

When they met in the fourth grade, it was love at first sight for Mitchell Brody and Jessica Ramirez. He was the freckle-faced kid who stood up for her honor when he silenced the class bully who’d been teasing her because of her accent. She was the new kid whose family moved to San Juan Island, Washington, from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and whom Mitch had thought was the most beautiful girl in the world.

She was his salvation from a strict upbringing. He was her knight in shining armor who had always looked out for her. Through the many years of porch-swinging, cotton-candied summer nights, autumn harvest festivals, and hand-in-hand walks planning for the ideal life together, they were inseparable…until 9/11, when the real world interrupted their Rockwell-esque small town life, and Mitch had joined the Marine Corps.

This is not just the story of a wounded warrior finally coming home to search for the love, and the world he abandoned twenty years before. It is also the story of a man who is seeking forgiveness and a way to ease the pain caused by every bad decision he’d ever made. It’s the story of a woman who, with strength and determination, rose up from the ashes of a shattered dream; but who never gave up hope that her one true love would return to her. As she once told an old friend: “Even before we met all those years ago, we were destined to be together in this life, and we will be together again, because even today we’re connected in a way that’s very special, and he needs to know about it before one of us leaves this earth.”

Like Driftwood on the Salish Sea is available at Amazon.

Book Excerpt

Jess gently and methodically caressed the fly rod and sent her hand-tied lure through the air with confidence and grace. Back and forth it sailed with effortless rhythm, as if it were a weightless feather being carried on a breeze. It was as if she had been a world-renowned conductor leading a philharmonic as the gentle sounds of woodwinds and strings flowed through her ear buds, no different than the crystal-clear water of the river as it flowed over a path that for time immemorial had been orchestrated by all that had come before it. Over the years she had mastered the art, not so much for the sport of teasing a steelhead or a rainbow trout onto the end of her line, but rather from the repetition of returning to the same little spot on the Clearwater, her favorite refuge. This was the very place where Mitch had introduced her to the melodic seduction of his most private collection of music. It was a playlist he had long guarded, a playlist that betrayed the commanding presence of his large muscular frame, his athletic prowess, and the simple way he had always looked at life.
Having first brought Jess to this place a month after the September 11th attacks, Mitch had arranged the weekend getaway after he had been presented with a no- win dare from his father to be as patriotic as Alex. When she’d learned of his enlistment, it had caught her off- guard. When he’d said basic training was twenty-four hundred miles away at Parris Island, she’d been speechless. But when he’d told her he was leaving in less than ten days, she’d struggled to catch her breath. As far as she had been concerned, South Carolina might as well have been another planet somewhere far beyond the stars that blanketed the black velvet nights of this pristine wilderness.
She had been overcome with emotion during that trip to the Clearwater River in Idaho. The crispness of the morning mountain air, mixed with the sounds of the crackling campfire and the rushing water just a few feet from their tent, had been a confluence of ingredients no master chef could have ever conceived. Jess had enjoyed every second of the experience until the sting of the news he was leaving was more numbing than the water itself. And while they both lost interest in the river’s offerings, the hours spent on the drive home were filled with tears, promises of fidelity, never-ending love, and a long life together tending to the small farm of their dreams. It was a dream they had carefully crafted during long secluded walks when even the innocent world of San Juan Island disappeared, and time seemed as if it would stop long enough for all the pieces to float seamlessly into place. Again, she drew back and set the custom-tied fly to flight and followed its arc before it kissed the water’s surface. In her mind, the only thing that ever landed more softly or with equal intent was the brush of Mitch’s lips across the back of her neck on those long summer evenings when counting fireflies had sparked dreams of the perfect life together.
Over the years, the river had become the special place where Jess could escape the pressures of the successful life she had carefully carved. Just being there enabled her to decompress, and to relive the weekend where she had surrendered to her long-suppressed desires, seducing the love of her life while simultaneously absolving him of any responsibility for having complied, albeit with little resistance. During their high school years there had been plenty of times he had taken her just short of that point of no return. And while his conscience would inevitably get the better of him, she had always hoped he would have forgotten that he was a gentleman. What she hadn’t realized at the time, was that their dreams and those promises would never come to fruition. What she could never let go of, however, was her need to make the yearly return to this place to resurrect that moment, as if continuing to do so would somehow or in some way ease her pain by keeping the possibility of that unfulfilled fantasy alive.
As she cast her line once more, she looked past the riverbank toward her tent, hoping as always that she could be transported back to the time when Mitch emerges from the warmth of their sleeping bag to watch how prolific she had become at his favorite recreational pastime. And just as she fell a little deeper into the warmth of his smile and his embrace, just as she placed her head against the memory of his chest and felt his heart beating strong and fast, she was abruptly pulled back to reality when her rod jerked with equal intensity, nearly being pulled from her hands just as the line snapped.

– Excerpted from Driftwood on the Salish Sea by Richard Levine, KDP, 2025. Reprinted with permission.

About the Author

Richard I Levine is a native New Yorker raised in the shadows of Yankee Stadium. After dabbling in several occupations and a one-year coast-to-coast wanderlust trip, This one-time auxiliary police officer, volunteer fireman, bartender, and store manager returned to school to become a chiropractor.

A twenty-five-year cancer survivor, he’s a strong advocate for the natural healing arts. In 2006 he wrote, produced, and was on-air personality of The Dr. Rich Levine Show on Seattle’s KKNW 1150AM and after a twenty-five-year chiropractic practice in Bellevue, Washington, he closed up shop at the end of 2016 and moved to Oahu to pursue a dream of acting and being on Hawaii 5-O.

While briefly working as a ghostwriter/community liaison for a Honolulu City Councilmember, a Hawaii State Senator, and volunteering as an advisory board member of USVETS Barbers Point, he appeared as a background actor in over twenty-seven 5-Os, Magnum P.I.s, NCIS-Hawaii, and several Hallmark movies. In 2020, he had a co-star role in the third season episode of Magnum PI called “Easy Money.”

While he no longer lives in Hawaii, he says he will always cherish and be grateful for those seven years and all the wonderful people he’s met. His 5th novel, To Catch the Setting Sun, was inspired by his time in Hawaii.

Like Driftwood on the Salish Sea is Levine’s first foray into the romance genre.

Website & Social Media:

Website ➜ http://www.docrichlevine.com

X ➜ https://www.twitter.com/Your_In8_Power

Facebook ➜ https://www.facebook.com/RichardLevineAuthor/

Instagram ➜ https://www.instagram.com/rilevinedc

⭐Pump Up Your Book Virtual Book Tour Kick Off⭐Knot of Souls by Christine Amsden #UrbanFantasy

Two souls trapped in one body must work together to solve multiple murders before it’s too late – before they can no longer tell where one of them ends and the other begins…

Title: KNOT OF SOULS

Author: Christine Amsden

Pages: 384

Format: Paperback, Free on Kindle Unlimited

Genre: Contemporary Fantasy/Paranormal

Two souls, one body …

When Joy wakes up in an alley, she knows three things: she was brutally murdered, she has somehow come back to life … and she is not alone. She’s been possessed by an inhuman presence, a being that has taken over her dying body. That being is powerful, in pain, and on the run from entities more dangerous than he is.

Shade, a Fae prince on the run, didn’t mean to share the body he jumped into. Desperate and afraid, accused of a murder he didn’t commit, he only sought a place to hide—but if he leaves Joy now, he faces discovery and a fate worse than death.

Forced to work together to solve multiple murders, including her own, Joy and Shade discover hidden strengths and an unlikely friendship. Yet as their souls become increasingly intertwined, they realize their true danger might come from each other … and if they don’t find a way to untangle the knot their souls have become, then even the truth won’t set them free.

Knot of Souls is a stand-alone buddy love fantasy that forces two very different beings to work together … and come out stronger on the other side.

Knot of Souls is available at Amazon.

Book Excerpt

Joy

The first thing I realized, after I died, was that my body could walk and talk and no longer needed my help for any of it. I was in there, able to look through my eyes and hear through my ears, but even the simple task of aiming my gaze had slipped outside my control. I was a passenger inside my own mind, an observer along for the ride.

Kristen had been right, I thought numbly as I struggled to make sense of my new reality. Had it only been lunchtime today when she’d told me I’d never get ahead if I didn’t learn to assert myself? “Take control of your life,” she’d said, “or others will take it for you.”

She couldn’t have been thinking of anything quite so literal. Whatever was happening to me, it wasn’t because I’d failed to advocate for a promotion at work or refused to ask out a coworker.

Right?

My body reached my car and slid behind the wheel. A rattled thought—not my own—cursed as it tried to understand how the contraption worked. How much can cars have changed in only a century? Visions accompanied the thoughts, memories—again not my own—of a classic car, gleaming black and elegant, its top down, my bobbed hair whipping around my face as I laughed with glee, a white-faced young man at my side gripping the door, begging me to slow down. I did not.

Which brings me to the second thing I realized, after I died: I was no longer alone inside my own mind.

Whoever was in there didn’t seem to have noticed me yet. Fine. I slid into the smallest corner of my brain I could find, ignoring the intruder as they struggled to figure out how to work an automatic transmission. Maybe they’d get frustrated and give up and go find someone else’s body to possess.

Holy shit! I’ve been possessed by the ghost of someone who died in like 1930.

But why?

I tried to remember what had happened, but the images danced just out of reach. I recalled that the night had been unseasonably cold for October, the chill biting through my inadequate jacket as I hurried to my car, parked in a garage two blocks away from the shelter where I’d been volunteering. Hugging my arms around my torso for warmth, I took a shortcut through an alley and …

There was a noise. I’d startled, my heart pounding in my throat, already on edge because of the argument.

Wait. Back up. There’d been an argument. That seemed significant, but my scattered thoughts couldn’t piece it together as yet, not when a bodily intruder fumbled at the gearshift of my two-month-old Hyundai Accent with only fifty-eight “low monthly payments” left to go.

Low is such a relative word.

– Excerpted from Knot of Souls by Christine Amsden, Christine Amsden, 2025. Reprinted with permission.

About the Author

Christine Amsden is the author of nine award-winning fantasy and science fiction novels, including the Cassie Scot Series.

Speculative fiction is fun, magical, and imaginative but Christine believes great speculative fiction is about real people defining themselves through extraordinary situations. She writes primarily about people, and it is in this way that she strives to make science fiction and fantasy meaningful for everyone.

In addition to writing, Christine is a freelance editor and political activist. Disability advocacy is of particular interest to her; she has a rare genetic eye condition called Stargardt Macular Degeneration and has been legally blind since the age of eighteen. In her free time, she enjoys role playing, board games, and a good cup of tea. She lives in the Kansas City area with her husband and two kids.

Author Links

Website ➜https://christineamsden.com/wordpress/

X ➜ http://www.x.com/christineamsden

Facebook ➜https://www.facebook.com/pages/Christine-Amsden-Author-Page/127673027288664?ref=hl

Christine Amsden is giving away 2 epub sets of the 4-book Cassie Scot series (gifted through BookFunnel! This includes Cassie Scot: ParaNormal Detective, Secrets and Lies, Mind Games and Stolen Dreams

Terms & Conditions:

By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.
Two winners will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive one set of the 4-book Cassie Scot series each (four books total).
This giveaway starts July 1 and ends September 26.
Winner will be contacted via email on September 26.
Winner has 48 hours to reply.

ENTER TO WIN!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

PUYB Author Talks: ⭐A Bookish Conversation with 'Tales of the Ocean City' Christopher Kaufman⭐ #interview

Christopher Kaufman is an author, composer, presenter, illustrative artist and performer. He started imaginative fantasy books with illustrative art at the age of nine. During high school years he found music and attended The New Orleans Center for The Creative Arts and went on to major in music composition in college. He finished his schooling – earning his DMA in music composition at Cornell University where he studied with Pulitzer Prize Winning composers who prize his abilities as a composer.

Christopher is the type of person who needs imaginative fantasy scenarios to get to sleep. Therefore, he emerged from Cornell, not only with his degrees in music, but with the full event structure for his classic epic fantasy series Tales Of The Ocean City in his mind.

He began writing the story down in the early 2000’s, but it did not really come to life until he developed his home music ‘laboratory’ and started creating the music and text at the same time. Thus books one and two of TOC came about simultaneously as both graphically illustrated pages and effulgent audio albums filled with cinematic epic symphonic music.

They exist now as physical books and audio albums (that go together) and the new Video Book version. He performs live tours with the music pouring through speakers, live narration and the colorful pages streaming on screen – a true immersive multi-media experience.

He also maintains his career as a composer for the concert stage with a full body of work, from solo works thru orchestral. He specializes as well in ‘environmental works’ which feature soundscapes crafted from hundreds of natural sounds, live musicians (from soloists, chamber groups and to full orchestra), videos filled with both natural and artistic images and readings from the works of John Muir and others.

Kaufman’s books feature full-page graphic illustration and go-with audio albums filled with epic cinematic music, narration and sound design. All available, with generous discount packages, at kaufmantales.com (epubs and the new Video Book version available there!).

His author page is talesoftheoceancity.com.

His you-tube channel is SOUNDARTUS.

Visit him at Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/talesoftheoceancity.

Christopher believes in the transformative power of imagination.

“Live with imagination!”

Before you started writing your book, what kind of research did you do to prepare yourself to write it?

I spent years developing myself as a creative artist. Although they exist fine on their own, most of my books include effulgent audio albums filled with cinematic/symphonic music, narration and sound design. So, one may consider the years attaining my Doctorate in Music Composition (Cornell) as part of the prep work for creating Tales Of The Ocean City.

My storytelling, however, pre-dates my life as a composer - as I started writing stories when I was five…and with colorful illustrations when I was nine…and during all of those years in music conservatories my stories never left me. I am the type of person who requires adventurous imaginative scenarios to get to sleep. Therefore, I emerged from my schooling phase with my degrees in music and the vast event structure for Tales Of The Ocean City…through book eight, which I am completing even now.

I can also share that I started putting TOC into words in the early 2000’s, but it wasn’t until I developed my home studio for music and began creating the text, narration and music simultaneously, that I truly found my voice as a storyteller.

Did you pursue publishers or did you opt to self-pub?

I began self-publishing from the outset. It is part of process - to see and hold the book, see how the illustrations have come out and then make adjustments.

If self-published, did you hire someone to format the ebook version for you or did you do it yourself? Can you tell us what that was like?

I have a program called Book Creator where I make my ePub versions. They are fixed-layout because the pages of my books are individual works of illustrative art - falling somewhere between graphic novels and regular books. I use vellum for kindle versions.
If self-published, how did you determine the price?
I have tried various price-points and believe I have landed on the correct ones. On my store-site kaufmantales.com - I am able to offer significant discounts and combinations of audio albums and epubs and the like.

How did you choose your cover?

I originally created my own covers, but later found a brilliant young artist who hails from Australia to do my covers for me. My early ones were intriguing and well wrought, but they didn’t scream ‘Fantasy Stories’ at first sight. Now they do.

What’s your opinion on giving your book away to sell other copies of your book?

I have yet to form an opinion on this.

What are some of the most important things you believe an author should do before their book is released?

Have as advanced an event structure as possible, then be free with new ideas as you write. Develop your back stories, etc. My process is different than most, as part of it included years of life as a composer and presenter…and growing different branches of my storytelling before taking Tales Of The Ocean City to the place it is now.

What are some of the most important things you believe an author should do after their book is released?

Tales Of The Ocean City is an ongoing series, so, for me, it is to continue writing and developing the story and letting it grow and take take new paths. Then, of course, it is to promote in every way you can - whether via live reading performances or blog tours and podcasts.

What would you like to say to your readers and fans about your book?

Tales Of The Ocean City tells the tale of a young civilization turning the corner into the future. The city as a whole must do this by facing a terrible enemy from the deepest past, The Vorm - with whom they co-evolved in ages past on their ancestral isle. The main characters are young Harl’ut and his lifelong companion, Vispushin - who is a perianth (a kind of telepathic pegasus). They are very close, like family. They speak to each other mind-to-mind. Harl’ut too must face the past. At the end of book two he undergoes an initiation adventure where he descends into the volcanic mountain, Pla’than’taa - from the belly of which The Ocean City was delved. There, he interacts with personifications of past god-like figures and battles a terrific monster. He then leads a cadre of young warriors into the Vorm Hive on a vital mission.

My work as a composer has informed my storytelling. In musical harmony you have chords with great tension that resolve (cadence) into more consonant ones. In TOC there are situations of conflict that resolve, such as the visceral battle scene of book one that ends with a heightened and inspiring resolution. Music has given me a strong sense of pacing. I know when to write short, direct sentences to move the action (of which there are tons) at a terrific pace, and when to take time and paint a glorious picture.

I believe in the transforming power of imagination. This is a theme that runs throughout all of my creative projects. I hope that the experience of my stories helps people see, hear and live with imagination more fully - this is the cure for all that ails us.

I would like to acknowledge the writers that have informed my work and imaginative life and to whom I am eternally grateful; Tolkien, Lovecraft, McCaffrey, Dunsany, Lewis and my favorite, Lloyd Alexander - who spoke about writing for adults for many years and enjoying it, yet, when he started writing for young people, the emotions became deeper and more powerful, not less so.

This may be why my Tales Of The Ocean City appeals, not only to YA audiences, but to Adult Fantasy Lovers as well.

Thanks for tagging along! Live with Imagination!

See you in the places Beyond The Fields We Know, to paraphrase Dunsany.

Inside the Book

Title: Tales of the Ocean City: Battle in the Sky (Book 1)

Tales of the Ocean City: Descent Into the Abyss (Book 2)

Author: Christopher Kaufman

Publisher: Three Dashes Publications

Genre: Classic Epic Fantasy

A young civilization is turning the corner into the future, but first they must face a terrible enemy from their deepest past – THE VORM.

Pick up your copies at https://kaufmantales.com/

⭐Pump Up Your Book Virtual Book Tour Kick Off⭐Find My Daughter by Jennifer Chase #CrimeThriller

Cold Case Detective Katie Scott promises a mother's dying wish to find her missing daughter…

Author: Jennifer Chase

Pages: 384

Format: Paperback, Kindle, Audiobook, Free on Kindle Unlimited

Genre: Crime Thriller

She hears footsteps approaching, then the clunk of a heavy lock. Her body is numb in the cold but she stands, determined to fight. A blinding light overpowers her, and the world goes black…

When Detective Katie Scott finds a woman dying in the car garage, blood pooling around her, she reaches her just in time to hear her utter the words: find my daughter.

Katie doesn’t waste a second gathering her team and pulling the case file for the missing child, Anna Braxton, a teen with sparkling blue-eyes and an even brighter future. Staring at the blank investigation board, Katie won’t rest until she fulfills Anna’s mother’s dying wish.

Searching the Braxton’s impeccable family home, Katie finds Anna’s journal, filled with teenage secrets. Buried among the pages, she thinks she finds a lead—a strange man reached out to Anna, just days before she went missing…

But the case takes a terrifying turn when Anna’s best friend also vanishes. Hours later, a girl’s body is found in the embers of a house fire, her yellow satin dress devastatingly beautiful amongst the ashes. Is it Anna, her best friend, or another girl?

One thing is certain: a monster has the closeknit community of Pine Valley in a chokehold, and Katie must get one step ahead of the killer before any more precious young lives are taken. But at what cost?

Find My Daughter is available at Amazon.

Book Excerpt

PROLOGUE

Darkness shrouded the old cellar, causing a continuous chill to trickle down her spine. The dirt floor felt cold against her bare feet and her hands were dry as she rubbed them together. She could smell the musty remnants of what had been stored there in the past and the earthiness of being underground. The four walls seemed to be old stone or brick and they crumbled beneath her fingernails as she tried to claw her way out—but to no avail. Her exhaustion ultimately took over and she sat still, alone with her overwhelming fears. She had been left isolated and abandoned—in the pitch-black.

She hadn’t heard the man in hours, or maybe it was days—she wasn’t sure. In her bones, she knew this time he wasn’t coming back. The plastic-bottled water and peanut butter sandwiches were almost gone; her mouth was constantly dry. Her memory seemed to play tricks on her. How long had it been since she’d gone to the casting call for young aspiring models? She hadn’t told anyone where she was going, not her mom or even her best friend. She’d wanted to wait until she got the job to tell them the great news. It had been exciting; she dreamed of being a model and actress.

Her hands touched the dress she had been given to model—a yellow silk sheath wrap that made her feel beautiful, grown-up, as if she was finally someone who mattered.

She didn’t know how many times she had crawled up the wooden stairs to the small opening into the cellar, checking to see if he had left it open. But it was always the same—bolted shut. She had memorized each stair, which ones were sturdy, which were creaky and unstable. There were nine steps in total.

As hard as she tried, she couldn’t remember how she got there or what the house looked like. Even if she had a cell phone, she wouldn’t have been able to describe where she was—or even what town she was in. She felt a million miles away from home.

But she wasn’t giving up. Though weakened from lack of proper food, she dropped to her knees once again and crawled slowly toward the stairs. Her knees were bruised and scraped from the dozens of times she had attempted to escape—hoping that each time would be successful and she would be free.

As she paused at the first stair, feeling the familiar outlines in the darkness, she used her hands to steady her ascent; each time a stair ahead. Her knee pressed against the first stair, then the second, and the third. The creaks and groans were a disturbing symphony that reminded her of her situation: she was a prisoner in an empty basement and no one was coming back for her.

She stopped halfway to the top; her breathing quickening; feeling lightheaded. Her stomach grumbled. Her hope dwindled. Each time she’d gathered the strength to go up the stairs, it had turned out to be disheartening. She was never going to be free again. How stupid and selfish she had been, thinking she would become a model. She wondered if any of the other girls ended up like this. Or was she the only one whose fate was sealed?

Looking up toward the opening, she thought she heard footsteps. Yes, she had heard something. They were faint, but steady. He was coming. She froze. Her knees and hands were almost numb—her fingers hurt. Should she go back down or keep going?

What did she have to lose?

The footsteps were getting closer. They sounded like a pair of work boots hitting old hardwood floors. There was a strange echo to the movement, which was now above her. She could hear the creaks of the uneven planks; a mismatched harmony.

The distinct jingle of keys, then the rattle of a heavy lock.

She was going to stand her ground and push past the man to make her escape. It was all she had.

She could barely breathe.

The heavy creak of hinges.

Her body numb. She tried to stand up, ready to fight.

The doorway opened a crack at first, then wider, and finally pushed all the way open.

The blinding light overpowered her. Trying to escape it, she fell backward, flailing her arms in an attempt to catch her balance. She couldn’t focus on anything. She felt every step hit her back and ribs as she tumbled down to the dirt basement. Her head struck the floor. She lost her breath and closed her eyes.

– Excerpted from Find My Daughter by Jennifer Chase, Bookouture, 2025. Reprinted with permission.

About the Author

Jennifer Chase is a multi award-winning and USA Today Best Selling crime fiction author, as well as a consulting criminologist. Jennifer holds a bachelor degree in police forensics and a master’s degree in criminology & criminal justice. These academic pursuits developed out of her curiosity about the criminal mind as well as from her own experience with a violent psychopath, providing Jennifer with deep personal investment in every story she tells. In addition, she holds certifications in serial crime and criminal profiling.

Website & Social Media:

Website ➜ https://authorjenniferchase.com/

X ➜ https://x.com/jchasenovelist

Facebook ➜ https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJenniferChase

Instagram ➜ https://www.instagram.com/jenchaseauthor/

Goodreads ➜ www.goodreads.com/author/show/2780337.Jennifer_Chase