Chicks Writing Rocking YA: Sliding Beneath the Surface by Doug Dillon

Sliding Beneath the Surface (The St. Augustine Trilogy, Book 1)
Author: Doug Dillon
Release Date: August 24, 2011
Genre: YA Paranormal

Hello St. Augustine Fans! Let’s not forget the YA Paranormal Fans! For five days, the Kindle version will be available FOR FREE on Amazon—a special promotion, September 4th - 8th. Help spread the word and tell everyone you know! Click here to get your copy today — Sliding Beneath the Surface.

The Spirit of St. Augustine

Have you ever been to St. Augustine, Florida, America’s oldest city? To me, it’s a magical place, just bubbling with the spirits of bygone days. This is especially true at Christmas when the historical district is ablaze with tiny white lights. The Nights of Lights, they call the time from December through January.

It isn’t just the beautiful old buildings, some from the time of the Spanish, that has captured my soul. No, it’s also the ghostly presences arising out of that past that seem to tap you on shoulder, a few even of Native American origins from thousands of years ago.

Oh, yes! Ghost stories abound in this ancient location, as do the ghost tours. By day and by night, guides will walk with you, transport you by tram or hearse, and even take you aboard a sailing ship while telling their tales.

As a former history teacher and writer well experienced in the paranormal, you can see how St. Augustine might hold some appeal for me. But it’s much more than that if you want to know the truth. Seems at times as if that old city is using me to channel its innermost essence. Can I explain what I mean by that exactly? No, not really. Words are often a poor substitute for a felt sense.

What I can tell you is this. I’ve spent weeks on end in St. Augustine, haunting its ancient streets and buildings, doing endless research in the city’s historical society and talking with people—even homeless folks. And the more I do this, the more I know I made the right choice in selecting St. Augustine as the central location for my young adult, paranormal/historical series that I’ve titled, The St. Augustine Trilogy.

In the process, what I also know is that there are no coincidences. My connection to this old city and writing about it in the trilogy was definitely meant to be. What was also meant to be is the linkage now being established between St. Augustine and readers of my series. This includes the wonderful relationship I have established with Julia Hendrix, my friend and assistant who hails from Tulsa, Oklahoma. I live just north of Orlando.

You see, as I continue to study the paranormal in general, I increasingly perceive reality as endless layers within layers. And when I’m in St. Augustine, it’s as if the city hold a lens up to me so I can look deeper into the nature of existence and the connectivity my work holds for readers. That’s why on the cover of Book I of the trilogy, Sliding Beneath the Surface, I show a picture of an exquisite Chinese puzzle ball with all those multiple layers carved beneath its surface.

What an incredible journey I’m having. Thank you so much for being part of it.
— Doug Dillon

SYNOPSIS
In old St. Augustine, Florida, fifteen-year-old Jeff Golden’s recurring dream of being stabbed in the chest and bleeding all over his bed is driving him crazy. It’s causing him to lose sleep and giving him severe headaches. When his psychically gifted friend Carla and an ornery Native American shaman named Lobo try to help, Jeff is inundated with terrifying paranormal experiences.

Reaching out of Florida’s distant past, something increasingly entangles Jeff in tentacles of danger that threaten his sanity and eventually his life. But the harder he tries to understand, the deeper he gets. When comprehension finally dawns though, time has almost run out. Lobo does his best to prepare Jeff for what he must face in order to survive but it may be too little and too late.

It’s at this point that both Jeff and Carla find themselves swept headlong into an alternative reality from which they may never return. If they don’t quickly and fully adapt to this situation, all hope is lost. From Lobo they know how it might be possible to change what is happening but the question is, can they? Repeatedly, Lobo has told both teens, “You create your own reality whether in this world or in another.” If acted upon properly, that advice just might save their lives and end suffering on an even wider scale.

AUTHOR BIO
A former award winning educator, Doug writes about things paranormal and historical. His interest in the paranormal comes from personal experiences as detailed in the nonfiction adult book he and wife wrote titled, An Explosion of Being: An American Family's Journey into the Psychic. Out of those events and extensive historical research, he then created Sliding Beneath the Surface for young adults, Book I of the St. Augustine Trilogy. Doug set his trilogy in the oldest and most haunted city in the United States, St. Augustine, Florida. Books II and III of the trilogy are on the way.