Tricksters - Silent Fiction

Name: Samantha Joyce

Genre: NA Contemporary Romance

Title: Silent Fiction

Word Count: 66,000


Hero: Echo (Maya Lopez). She’s deaf, like my heroine, Elise, but isn’t hindered by her disability or her nightmarish past. Elise would envy her athletic ability and stealth, since she’s more prone to stumbling on nothing or hitting her head on protruding objects.



Pitch: Deaf and scarred, Elise finds solace as a secret best-selling author. When her anonymity’s threatened, she hires a woman to impersonate her. But Elise’s deception could cost the one man who sees beneath her scars.



250: If the Queen booked a gig at Fernbrooke’s only theater to do a lyrical jazz routine with a unicorn, I might’ve had an easier time finding parking than I did that night.

I dashed down Main Street, stumbling over my own feet as I texted Jin I’d be there soon. Conveniently, I left out the part where I’d sat in the driveway for twenty minutes, covered in sweat, and visualizing either a mob scene or an empty building. Neither possibility stopped the hum vibrating through my skin or made it easier to start the car. That took a few deep breaths, and the knowledge Jin would show up and drag me there anyway.

The screen lit up with Jin’s reply—mostly expletives in all caps—and I glanced at the time.

11:55.

I had five minutes.

Picking up speed, I shoved the phone into my jeans. Perspiration beaded my neck and snaked down my back as I pressed against the thick August air. I swerved around the crumbling town library, then skidded to a halt.

Hundreds of people lined the wall of the mini mall. They wound in front of the darkened stores and around another corner. The front of the line wasn’t in sight. My fingers instinctively traced the scar that ran from my temple to my jaw as I surveyed the crowd. Many donned horned hats or fur stoles. A boy wielding a foamy mug of beer saw me and grinned.

Yeah, there was no freaking way I was doing this.