In less than two weeks we will be releasing Waiting for a Song, Naomi's Story, a prequel to Mariam Kobras's award-winning Stone Trilogy. Today, we'd like to share an excerpt from the book just to whet your appetite and leave you wanting more. . .
It was as if she’d opened an entrance to a secret realm, as if she’d found a small, hidden door somewhere in a dark corner of her closet and, like Alice in Wonderland, had slipped through it before she knew what was happening.
There she was, a confused, overwhelmed child,
while all around her the words danced, spilling down mossy hills, tumbling over
stones like a frothy brook, coiled around the wind and dancing among the
flowers in a meadow.
As soon as her pen touched the paper the
sentences and phrases flowed out of her as if she’d never done anything else in
her whole life.
Songs, there were
songs, so many of them, as if every moment had one of its own, each one held
secretly and she alone possessed the key to set them free. Everything was a
song: the tinkling of the ice cream van, the spill of the great fountain in the
lake, the drone of the planes swooping in to land at the airport. The birds in
the trees, the voice of a child, her mother calling her for dinner—everything went
into the red journal.
They were stories: she could see them
everywhere. Open-mouthed, astonished, she watched life pass by below her
window, and it seemed to her that everyone carried their own bubble of stories
on their shoulders, visible only to her.
Some were bright and shiny, some colorful as a
rainbow, and some gray and heavy, bowing their wearers down with their load.
Lucia caught her staring at a woman in an
expensive convertible driving past as they left the house one day and asked
Naomi if she was all right. Was she running a fever, or had she eaten something
that hadn’t agreed with her?
No, Naomi said, shaking her head. She was still
staring at that woman, at the way she had coiled her golden hair at the back of
her head to look like an intricate knot of braids, and how her neck seemed so
fragile and elegant under that mass of hair. There’d been a big, white poodle
on the seat beside her, a well-groomed and exalted dog staring back at the
people on the sidewalk, his tongue lolling in laughter, his collar sparkling
with what seemed suspiciously like real diamonds.
“I’m fine,” Naomi said, “really, fine.”
She could hardly wait to get back to her book
and pen, and to share her thoughts and impressions with the creamy paper.
© 2014 Mariam Kobras
Can't wait to read more? You still have time to Preorder the book CLICK HERE!
You won't want to miss Mariam as she tweets the whole first chapter on Launch Day, June 3rd; or as she sets out on her Virtual Book Tour & Giveaway the same day. HINT: The prize that one lucky reader will win is mentioned in the excerpt above!
Until then, this small glimpse of what the book holds within will have to do . . .
