Running Over Rainbows

Running Over Rainbows

The Twilight of Magic Saga Book One

by Bil and Bon Franks

Genre: Young Adult Historical Fiction

Releasing: January 2013

Editor: Nancy Bell

Line Editor: Nicole Zoltack

Cover Designer: Marion Sipe

Words: 49146

ISBN: 978-1-77127-206-3

Price: $5.50

 Back Cover:

Can a rebellious fifteen-year-old girl and her sixty-something strict aunt learn from each other--and grow to love each other in the process? The headstrong Caylith would be dumbstruck by the very idea; and her great-aunt Marrie, who years ago scrubbed emotion from her heart, would reject the notion out of hand.

Caylith is Marrie’s guest for six months trying to learn about manners, money, and proper marriage, all the while she is festering to be free of the linen-storage room where her aunt keeps her busy counting supper towels. Caylith hates being kept “imprisoned” in a large Roman manor, while her elderly aunt is outdoors where the spirited teenager longs to be.

The mischievous redhead cannot be held captive for too long and soon discovers two of her aunt’s long-held secrets.

On Christmas Eve, Aunt Marrie schedules a formal dinner for Caylith to show off her newly taught life skills, but Caylith is nowhere to be found. Has she run off to chase a unicorn . . . or will she manage to save the day, despite still being slightly untamed by her well-meaning aunt?

Excerpt

We were outside one morning, but not to play. Marrie left us half an hour ago with instructions to launder a pile of bed linens and then, after they had been wrung dry, to hang them in the back yard.

A long line, almost fifty feet long, was strung from one side of the house in a diagonal line to a stand of slender pines at the edge of the yard. The line was just short enough we could throw the clean, wet linens over it, and they would hang in the middle without touching the ground. We were tall enough to be able to fasten them with clothes-pegs fashioned from small, stout twigs.

“I wonder, Brindie…”

Together we were throwing a linen up over the line. My friend seized it before my off-hand throw could cause the end of the cloth to fall in the dirt. She carefully began to spread and pull at it until it was stretched out on the line, and we began to pin it with pegs.

“Why does Auntie Marrie leave us alone for so many hours these days? Is she tired of teaching us or…?”

Brindl was carefully smoothing out the wrinkles as she spoke. “Pea, your aunt is trying to run a very large household and a full expanse of farmland and orchards too. I think she is doing a very good job.”

From the moment I sank to my knees in the forum, crying my heart out at the prospect of my lost basket and coin pouch, I had vowed to change. I would make Auntie Marrie proud—or if I did not elicit pride, I planned to astonish her with my controlled behavior and my new docile attitude. Yet now, when I heard Brindl almost doting over the dried-up old apple, it rankled.

“Well, I think she has found a swain.” I said it defiantly, making it up on the spot. “I suspect she slinks away each day to a—a lover’s trista.” I knew the word from—was it Ovid? One of the old Roman poets had spoken of a secret hiding place for lovers, and the word always fired my imagination.

 About the Authors:

Bil Franks was born near Boston, Massachusetts. He studied at the University of Texas (Austin, TX). Bil is a USAF retiree who has learned the finer points of small arms, martial arts, military history and Fantasy literature. He has loaned his extensive knowledge of these fields to the work at hand and most especially to the adventures that follow, in the next three books of The Twilight of Magic saga.

Bon Franks hails from a small Nevada town. She earned a BA (English) and MA (Comparative Literature) from the University of Southern California. Bon’s interests include language and literature--especially the junction of the two. Her other interests in herbology, mythology, and folklore are revealed also in The Twilight of Magic saga, the three books that follow Running Over Rainbows.

Bil and Bon now live in a small town in central Texas with several rowdy cats.

Authors' Other Works:

Hidden By the Rose [Twilight of Magic Saga 2]

Children of the Dust [Twilight of Magic Saga 3]

Where Wild Ponies Ran [Twilight of Magic Saga 4]

Customer Reviews:

I just finished this delightful book and can't wait to read the next one. I loved the way the story was written from both the POV of the indomitable aunt and her untamed niece. It gives meaning to the words to not judge a book by its cover.rnrnThank you Bil and Bon Franks for an entertaining morning with a very good book.rnrnLeona

Just finished reading this book last night. It's amazing a husband and wife team can write so well together. I was amazed at their knowledge of how people lived in Roman times and felt like I had stepped back in time. My very favourite part of the story was the little white pony named Alba who completely won my heart. The only disappointment was that she was a real unicorn.

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