You won’t be able to put it down…the best psychological drama of 2012, this story has never been told!

You won’t be able to put it down…the best psychological drama of 2012, this story has never been told!

AN EXCERPT from my forthcoming novel “Remains to Be Seen”

THE NEXT DAY WAS RAIN-SOAKED and smelled of thick sweet caramel, warm coconut and ginger. A nearby bakery fanned its daily offerings. A lapis lazuli sky was blanketed by gunmetal gray clouds as it wept crocodile tears across the parched Los Angeles landscape.

When Ivy was a child and she overheard adults talking about their break-ups, in her young feeble-formed mind, she imagined it in the most literal of essences. She once heard her mother speaking of her break up with an emotionally unavailable man.

She said they broke up on 69th Street. Ivy visualized her mother and that man breaking into countless fragments, like a spilled box of jigsaw pieces. And she imagined them shattered in broken shards, being blown down the pavement of 69th Street.

For some reason, on the drive home from Marcel’s apartment that next morning, all Ivy could think about was her mother and that faceless man in broken pieces, perhaps some aspects of them still stuck in cracks and crevices of the sidewalk, mistaken as grit.

She couldn’t get the image of Marcel having his seizure out of her mind. It left a burning sensation in the center of her chest. An incessant flame torched her lungs, chest, and even the back door of her tongue. 

Witnessing someone you cared about experiencing a seizure was one of those things that scribed itself indelibly on the canvas of your mind. It was gut-wrenching. Graphic and out-of-body, it was the stuff that post traumatic stress syndrome was made of.

Copyright Brandi L. Bates 2012, All Rights Reserved.

About that ocean life…

BRANDI L. BATES: About this author


Born in 1979, she was born and raised in Los Angeles, California and educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, University of Southern California, Spelman College, Meredith College, and The Master’s College and Seminary. 

This earthy Los Angeles native is a self proclaimed avid reader and cheerleader of the Talented Tenth and is also known for her fiery intellect and infectious sense of humor. Some of her stories treat reality with a magical realism, sometimes demonstrating an altered reality. Yet, they are always satisfying, stimulating, and thought provoking. 

Bestselling Author of Amid the Cacophony of Cries, Ruminations, Lunar Eclipse, Mood Swings, and The Head Mistress, Brandi L. Bates is known for her sexy, fast-paced, edgy style of writing. She gracefully spices up the intimacy and mood with juicy blow by blow details, while weaving a thrilling whodunit filled with brevity, taut atmosphere, and strong psychological suspense. She has been described as a master of suspense, plotting, and vivid characterization by her contemporaries. Her stories have glowing reviews in most literary circles. Best known for her novels that could broadly be described as suspense thrillers, Bates also frequently incorporates poetic elements of erotica, horror, mystery, science fiction, and satire. 

Many of Bates’ novels feature sympathetic portrayals of characters who suffer from some mental or emotional abnormality and a desperate struggle for survival that leads to a final confrontation where one never knows where they’ll be taken. Her stories are unpredictable and jarring. Nominated for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, Bates is considered one of the pre-eminent writers of twenty-first century African-American literature.

Lunar Eclipse

Lunar Eclipse

MOOD SWINGS

MOOD SWINGS

LIVE. LOVE. WRITE.

LIVE. LOVE. WRITE.