Guest Blog, Devin O’Branagan and her new novel Threshold

I want to welcome my good friend Devin on her blog tour to promote her new novel Threshold. It’s a stunning paranormal thriller and you’ll want to check it out 🙂

A Novel’s Near-Death Experience

Twenty years ago, after my first two novels were published by Simon & Schuster’s Pocket Books, I wrote a paranormal thriller titled Threshold about a young boy who drowns, has a near-death experience, and returns with a mission. My literary agent dismissed it by saying that the market would not support an adult novel with a child protagonist, and she refused to represent it. Disheartened, I stashed the manuscript in my basement, forgot about it, and went on to publish five other novels. Then recently, one of my writing colleagues inquired about my unpublished manuscripts and asked to read them. Her feedback? Threshold was the best novel I had ever written and I needed to get it out as soon as possible. After its own near-death experience, Threshold was finally released on November 1.

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Cole Dillon drowns in Deer Lake shortly before his thirteenth birthday. Elijah Thunderbird, a Native American shaman, travels between the worlds to bring Cole back from death. Unfortunately, Cole isn’t supposed to survive, and with the natural order disrupted, dark spirits follow them home.

During Cole’s near-death experience, he is assigned an important mission that involves saving the lives of many other children. However, when he is revived, he can’t remember the details and undertakes a challenging quest of discovery.

Meanwhile, the dark spirits begin to manifest in the lives of the local town residents, bringing hatred and death. When shamanic visions reveal that many young lives are indeed in imminent danger, Elijah has to help Cole find the courage to do what is required of him before it is too late.

As Elijah tries to help Cole, he struggles with his own personal demons, and both men—one young, one old—must decide how much they are willing to sacrifice in order to save others.

Threshold is a moving paranormal thriller about courage, faith, and the transformative power of love.

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I’m going to die, Cole thought with more amazement than fear. He wondered what came next.

His discomfort passed, and the ringing in his ears stopped. He felt detached and distant to himself, then casually floated away from his body, up toward the sky. While he rose, he thought about his life. It hadn’t been too bad, all things considered, but he suddenly wished he had been nicer to Dawn Bearpaw and not ridiculed her for her handicap.

The light from the sun grew brighter, and it felt warm and comforting. He looked up into it and was surprised to see a vaguely familiar figure floating toward him. When they drew closer to each other Cole felt the power this being commanded, and a sense of awe filled him. For some reason, he remembered a character from Star Trek.

“Are you Q?” Cole asked.

The entity smiled and extended a welcoming hand. “Let’s fly together through the wormhole,” its mind said to Cole’s.

“Cool,” Cole responded.

“There’s a mission I want you to do that may save the lives of many other children, but it’s your choice. There is always the issue of free will to consider.”

That was right before the sky split in half, and they were catapulted into the starry abyss beyond.

Copyright © 2011 by Devin O’Branagan

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Threshold is available in both print and eBook formats.

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Bestselling author Devin O’Branagan writes paranormal thrillers, young adult urban fantasy, paranormal chick lit, comic chick lit, canine chick lit, and a humor column for TAILS Magazine. Devin is a member of the Dog Writers Association of America, and she uses her writing projects to support animal rescue. Visit her website at www.DevinWrites.com to read book excerpts, find links to purchase her novels, watch book trailer videos, and join her writers’ forum!

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