In Her Own Time
The Bean Books, #2
by Christine Potter
Romance/Time
Travel/Suspense
63K,
Evernight Teen Publishing
Summer 1970: Bean Donohue’s sixteen, she’s
finally got a good band together, and she’s crazy in love with her artist
boyfriend Zak.
She’s also about to get the coolest summer job ever, and her
impossible mom’s conveniently out of town.
So why does she keep
ending up in 1953…or 1779?
And who's that guy with the black ponytail and
the Kent State t-shirt?
He knows way too much about her. Should Zak
be worried—or should Bean?
14+ due to
sexuality and adult situations
Excerpt:
Bean found herself alone, just outside the
house. The air was sharp. Tall trees that had just been in full summer leaf
were suddenly bare, and smaller than they’d been seconds before. Bean tried to peer
back in through the kitchen window, but the lights were off, and she couldn't
see anything. She stood in her side yard, sometime in the past. It was
happening again…
And It was enough of a shock
that she didn’t even know how she felt. She’d been glowing from the night
before with Zak, happy to have had Sam pound on her door with music and
laughter. Bean stuck her hands in the pockets of her thin blue cotton robe, and
looked up. The sky looked like early afternoon: pale sunlight behind a thin,
high layer of clouds. In front of her house, underneath the living room windows
stood three overgrown barberry bushes. Bean had never seen them before. The
ground was hard and cold, and she was barefoot.
Alrighty, then. Damn
it. Lately, Bean had been perfectly fine with life in 1970. What
year is this supposed to be? She had no idea.
Zak said love is always why this happens, she thought.
But then she felt the happiness beginning to leak out of her. If Zak were
right, why had she slipped backwards just now? She had a whole June weekend to
spend with him, feeling nothing but love…and now, this.
It made no sense. All she could do was watch, deal, and try to keep warm.
It really was pretty chilly. She tried jogging
in place to warm up, which helped a bit. Her toes were soon numb, though.
After a few minutes, a black car with big, round bumpers pulled into the
driveway and clattered to a halt. There was the rasp of an emergency brake
being set. And Bean’s father—very
young, and too thin for his thick, grey winter coat—got out of the driver’s side. Bean put a hand
over her mouth, and watched as he ran urgently around to the passenger’s door. He yanked it
open.
“Can you make it?” Bean’s dad called into the
car.
“Of course I can
make it,” said her mother’s voice. A high-heeled
shoe and a nylon stocking-covered leg emerged. Then came the rest of Bean’s
mom, wearing a brown tweed overcoat and a floppy green beret. She walked a bit
unsteadily, clutching a bundle of white blankets wrapped around a baby, which
began to wail.
“Sh-sh. Sh-sh-sh,” said Julia as she wobbled up
the walk. She stopped when she got to the front door.
“You wouldn’t happen to have remembered the
house keys, would you, Tom?” she called. Tom patted down three pockets in his
coat before something jingled. He rushed a key into the lock. Then he looked
back at the car. Both its front doors now stood wide open, and he sprinted back down the
walk toward them. Bean sucked in her breath hard, taking it all in. Was that
her days-old self,crying, inside the house? Sixteen-year-old Bean felt a little
weepy, too. It’s 1953, then, she thought. Just after my actual
birthday. Wow…
The wind blew and she shivered.
And then there was a hand on her
arm.
Book 1 in The Bean Books series
is now available:
Time Runs Away With Her
About the Author:
Christine Potter lives in a small town not far
from the setting of Time Runs Away With
Her, near the mighty Hudson River, in a very old (1740) house with two
ghosts. According to a local ghost
investigator, they are harmless, “just very old spirits who don’t want to
leave.” She doesn’t want them to.
Christine’s house contains two pipe organs (her
husband is a choir director/organist), two spoiled tom cats, and too many
books. She’s also a poet, and the author
of two collections of verse, Zero Degrees
at First Light, and Sheltering in
Place. Christine taught English and Creative Writing for years in the
Clarkstown Schools. She DJ’s free form
rock and roll weekly on Area24radio.com, and plays guitar, dulcimer, and tower
chimes.
Twitter: @chrispygal
* * *
Giveaway:
The
author will be giving away 1 book copy per day
chosen from
comments left at the tour stops.
