Title: Sheltered
Author: Debra Chapoton
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Living together unsupervised, five troubled teens confront demonic forces and are compelled to deal with their problems in distinctly different ways. Paranormal meets psycho meets Goth in this story of a supernatural haunting and budding love.
High school junior, Ben, hacks into his step-father's real estate holdings and provides rooms in an old two-story house to various outcasts: the schizophrenic kid, the angry Goth girl, and the homeless girl who worships him. When Megan needs a place to live she comes to the rooming house with a different set of problems and the ability to confuse and attract Ben.
One by one strange and mysterious occurrences stretch the teens’ beliefs in the supernatural. How they deal with demons, real and imagined, has tragic as well as redeeming consequences.
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Debra's Bio:
Debra Chapoton has taught kids of all ages in her main
career as a teacher. She has a BA in Spanish and a Master of Arts degree in
Teaching English. She started writing in 2002 and was surprised to find out
that the characters quickly take over the action and dialogue in the stories.
Her first YA
novel, Edge of Escape, was self-published and then discovered by
Piper Verlag Publishing and translated into German. Stalking and obsession get a sympathetic twist in this story of
physical and psychological survival.
Her second
YA novel, Sheltered, detours into a different genre as she writes about five
teens who confront supernatural forces. Two boys and three girls all harbor
secrets which make some of them susceptible to demon possession. Embracing all
things supernatural might protect them, but are they ready for the consequences?
Chapoton has
also written eleven chapter books for middle grade kids and a non-fiction work
for adults, Crossing the Scriptures.
When she’s
not writing Chapoton enjoys the quiet of the full log home she designed and
built with her husband. They live in the middle of 62 acres of beautiful woods
in northern Michigan.
Excerpt from Sheltered:
Prologue
Next Wednesday
Emily knew the precise moment
that Ben returned, she felt him in her scars. She watched him carry some things
to the house, heard the door close; she smiled when she heard him call out that
Santa was here. He did that once before, in early December, insisting that she
accept the gift he held out, not wanting her to wait until Christmas to use the
mittens he knew she needed.
She went toward her door now,
wondered what he had brought, and then heard Megan’s voice below. Oh no, he
probably brought something for her. She scuttled back to her nest by the window
and stared outside, was still staring fifteen minutes later when she saw them
walk down the street, Ben shouldering a shovel, his other hand knotted with
Megan’s.
She touched the skin on her
arms, lightly at first, making it tingle. The image of Ben with Megan
multiplied across her mind in broken mirrors, a repugnant picture that
reflected her own self-loathing. She scratched at her scabs, felt the pricks of
pain force away the ticklish sensations. She closed her eyes.
When she opened them she saw a
figure standing at her door.
“Who–?” she started, but the
figment waned to less than a shadow. Still, though, there was something at her
door.
She rose slowly and held her
hand out.
Its face was more womanly now,
friendly, motherly. Yes, she knew this face. Its pearly white skin so shocking
against the ruby lips, the stringy hair a match to her own. Her mother.
She stretched her fingers
toward the face. The hallucination faded then sharpened. The eyes began to
blaze. She drew her hands back to her own face. What’s wrong with me? The delusion grieved Emily; all around her fluttered
a longing.
And a deadly fear.
Amber ArgyleAmber Argyle grew up with three brothers on a cattle ranch in the Rocky Mountains. She spent hours riding horses, roaming the mountains, and playing in her family’s creepy barn. This environment fueled her imagination for writing high fantasy.
