About the Author:
Lisette
Brodey was born and raised in Pennsylvania. After high school, she moved to New
York City where she attended Pace University and studied drama. After ten years
in New York, several of them working in the radio industry, she moved to Los
Angeles, where she held various positions at Paramount Studios in Hollywood and
CBS Studio Center in Studio City, CA.
Back on the East Coast, she worked for many years as a freelance writer,
specializing in PR and the entertainment industry. In 2010, she returned
permanently to the Los Angeles area.
Her first-published book, CROOKED MOON (General Fiction) was published in both
the trade paperback and Kindle editions in 2008. Her first-written,
second-published book, SQUALOR, NEW MEXICO (Young Adult/General Fiction) was
published in the Kindle and trade paperback versions in 2009.
Her third novel, MOLLY HACKER IS TOO PICKY!, a romantic comedy, was published
December 1, 2011. The author blogged as her character, Molly Hacker, for over a
year. All blogs can be found at www.mollyhacker.com.
In January 2013, the author edited and published a book of her mother's poetry
(written 50 years earlier) called MY WAY TO ANYWHERE by Jean Lisette Brodey.
Lisette's fourth novel, MYSTICAL HIGH, is the first book in her YA Paranormal
Desert Series trilogy.
Mystical High
by Lisette
Brodey
Publisher: Saberlee
Books
Word Count: approx.
72,700
Genre: YA Paranormal
Content Warning: Mild sexual content and non-gratuitous
profanity
Recommended Age: 14+
Synopsis: In
Mystekal, a small, dying town in the Southern California desert, only 75
students attend the old, sometimes creepy high school dubbed “Mystical High,”
where strange things have been known to happen. Jessie Dalworth and Jinxsy
Patterson are juniors and lifelong best friends. At home, Jessie deals with the
pain of an absentee mother who has abandoned the family for the lure of
Hollywood; Jinxsy contends with a 17th “birthday present” she never wanted or
expected.
Meanwhile, at school, the unexplained activity begins to
escalate when Jinxsy keeps seeing a long-haired guy in the hallway checking her
out. Jessie can’t see him, but her younger brother, River, can.
Then, in English class, a stapler mysteriously flies off
teacher Eve Carrow’s desk, hitting a student in the face who has just mouthed
off to her. The beloved teacher is in the unenviable position of having her
brute of a father as principal, so she hates sending any student to his office.
As Principal Ernest Carrow begins to terrorize Eve and others more openly,
something or someone unseen decides that it’s payback time.
School is getting stranger, and Jinxsy and Jessie are faced
with mind-boggling changes in their home lives that complicate everything. When
a string of shocking events expose explosive secrets, decades-long mysteries
are finally revealed.
Excerpt from Mystical High by Lisette Brodey:
Eve Carrow, Mystekal High’s English
teacher, glanced at the giant wall clock as Jessie and Jinxsy slipped into
their seats seconds before the bell.
“Welcome, you two. I wasn’t sure you
were going to join us today. I like to be fashionably late at parties
sometimes, but school is a different story.”
The old bell sounded loudly.
Jessie opened her notebook, grabbed To Kill A Mockingbird, the current class
book, from her backpack, and sat upright in her chair. “See? We’re on time.
Ready to go.”
“Yes, you are.”
Jinxsy, still fumbling through her
backpack, looked at her friend, then at her teacher. “Jess had a mishap with
her locker. Cut her finger.”
From the back of the room, Taylor
cackled. “Yeah, it took her ten minutes for Her Vampiress to suck a few drops
of blood and ten more minutes for the Jinx to calm her down.”
Jessie turned abruptly in her chair.
“You are so exaggerating, Taylor. Keep out of my business.”
“Your boring business.” Taylor ran her fingers through her blond and
purple hair. “No wonder you don’t have a boyfriend when the biggest part of
your day is a little boo boo on your finger. Waaaaaaaah!”
Eve, though usually of the sweetest
demeanor, slammed a book down on her desk. “Taylor Dennison. Stop. Now.
Everyone else, face front.” As she looked around the room, her angry look
softened. “Okay, who wants to begin our discussion about Boo Radley?”
Sophia Chavez raised her hand. “I
will.”
“Thank you, Sophia. Please go on.”
“Well, I know the kids made up a lot
of stories about him, but it’s only natural, you know? I mean, he never came
out of the house. There were creepy rumors, like how he stabbed his dad in the
leg with scissors. If I heard that about someone, I would be thinking the same
way that Scout, Jem, and Dill did.”
Eve nodded her head in agreement.
“It’s very easy to assume all kinds of things when we don’t know the truth.”
“So why is that, Ms. Carrow?”
“Well, Sophia, I think it’s because as
human beings, we like answers. If an answer can be looked up or found out, most
of us will choose that route. But when the answer to a question isn’t readily
available, we tend to make things up, to satisfy our inquiring brains. It’s not
a good thing to do, but human beings engage in this practice quite liberally.
What do you think of my assessment?”
Jessie, with little animation on her
face, responded to her teacher’s question. “I think you’re right.”
Taylor yelled from the back of the
room. “Why? Because people talk crap about your hermit crab aunt?”
Jessie turned and glared at Taylor.
She bit her lip so hard it almost bled. She knew that if she responded, the
words would be ugly ones she wouldn’t want to be heard saying.
Eve was furious. “Taylor, that was
positively uncalled for. And just plain cruel. I’m being extraordinarily
generous by not sending you to the principal’s office. But one more outburst
and I won’t hesitate.”
Silence fell over the room. The
principal of Mystekal High was Eve’s father, Ernest Carrow. He had been the
principal since Eve herself was a student. The only person who seemed to
tolerate him at all was his secretary, and he seemed to like children as much
as picnic goers like ants.
Carrow was the wealthiest man in
Mystekal and owned a large percentage of the real estate, both commercial and
residential. He didn’t need the salary he earned as Mystekal High’s principal,
but he liked to control people, and being in charge of everyone at the school
helped him to do just that.
Even though she couldn’t stand sending
students to her father’s office, Eve hated making empty threats even more. She
despised him, and sending a student for discipline meant that she had to deal
with her father as well. She would have to endure a lecture about how she
wasn’t able to control her class or how she had failed to mete out proper
discipline. Eve pretended not to hear Taylor’s last remark and prayed she would
not step over the line again. At least for the remainder of class.
“Would you all please take out your
class assignment for this week? We’re going to share.”
Cade Swift raised his hand.
“Yes, Cade?”
“Do you mean the paper you asked us to
write on who we thought Boo Radley really was? The one where you wanted us to
write a description of how we saw his life inside that house?”
“The one and only.”
Cade bit his lip. “Uh, would you mind
calling on me last?”
“Since when are you shy?”
“I’m not. But after what you said to
Sophia I’m thinking maybe I need to rewrite my paper.”
Taylor’s boyfriend, Santino Vega,
laughed. “Dude, don’t you mean write
it. Period.”
Cade, the dark-haired boy known for
his smiling eyes was quick to respond. “No, Vega, I mean rewrite it.”
Eve Carrow was intrigued. “Why do you
want to rewrite it, Cade?”
Cade looked embarrassed and responded
more softly than usual. “Um, I think maybe I was too judgmental. Just want to
do it over.”
Jessie looked admiringly at Cade, then
at her best friend. Jinxsy knew Jessie had a crush on him but had been denying
it. Jessie’s glance confirmed that she was ready to admit it. But whether or
not she was ready to seek out Cade’s affections was an entirely different
story.
Eve Carrow smiled. “Actually, Cade.
I’d like you to read your paper as you wrote it and then tell us how you’d like
to change it.”
“Oh, man. Do I have to?”
The class giggled and Jessie’s eyes
grew wide with anticipation.
“As your teacher, I would truly
appreciate it.”
“Read it, dude. Then tell everyone how
you’ve gone soft on Radley.”
Eve looked sternly at the class
loudmouth. “Mr. Vega, I can only surmise by your comments that you would prefer
to lead the class into this exercise. By all means, why don’t you go first?”
Santino looked angry. “Listen, Ms.
Carrow. I think it was really a stupid assignment. I mean, Harper Lee already
wrote the character. There’s no point in us rewriting the dude. Sorry, didn’t
do it and I’m not gonna do it. Any questions?”
As Santino’s words fell on the shocked
class and the disrespected teacher, a gust of desert wind rushed through the
open window, blew a small stapler off Eve Carrow’s desk, and sent it flying
through the air before it landed sharply on Santino’s mouth.
“What the —?” Santino wiped the blood
from his mouth.
As the class focused on the freak
accident, Eve looked out the window and noticed that it was a very still day.
The sagebrush was not moving. There was not even the faintest trace of wind.
Giveaway Details:
There is a tour wide giveaway. Prizes include the following:
- $10 Amazon Gift Card (INT)
- Print copy of Squalor, New Mexico (US Only)
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