Author Bio
Carlyle is an South African award winning author, with a flair for mixing genres and adding loads of drama to every story she creates. For now she is happy to take over the world and convert non Sci-fi believers.
Her goal as an author is to touch people's lives, and help others love their differences and one another by delivering strong messages of faith, love and hope within every outrageous world she writes about.
"I love to swim, fight for the trees, and am a food lover who is driven by my passion for life. I dream that one day my stories will change the lives of countless teenagers and have them obsess over the world literacy can offer them instead of worrying about fitting in. Never sacrifice who you are, it’s in the dark times that the light comes to life."
Carlyle used writing as a healing tool and that is why she started her very own writers support event - SAIR bookfestival.
"To be a helping hand for those who strive to become full times writers, editors, bloggers, readers and cover artists - it’s a crazy world out there you don’t have to go it alone!"
Author's Links
Book Cover
Title: Evanescent
Author: Carlyle Labuschagne
Series: A Broken Novel
Publisher: Fire Quill Publishing
Release Date: 19th May 2015
ISBN: 9780992244637
Synopsis (Back blurb)
Her fall has just begun. Only his touch can save her from the shift that could destroy it all. Within my blood runs a thing our kind calls the Shadowing Disease. It shadows over, and bends everything to its will. When the first blood- shift came, it tore through flesh and blood, threatening to bend me, break bone, shatter my mind and entrap my heart with its honeyed, seductive poison. It came with vicious intent, moving my thoughts and altering me forever. The shift has caused a rift within me. No one was safe when it entrapped me in its claws of foul lust. But I have the only antidote against the evil that becomes me - his touch alone has the power to release the spurs of sweet darkness that clung on for dear life. I knew what I had to do; the desperation pulled my mind with the deep determination of a hungry predator. By the time the revelation raised me from the dark dungeon of my bounds - it might have been too late.
Excerpt
My makers would say I was created for revenge. I say, I was born to prove them wrong. I defied the Council and its Keepers. Fought back against the dark magic of our enemies, but
I am afraid it had come at a cost. Inflicted with the dark disease, I was lost in every possible way; and they were wrong – death does not bring you your true purpose. After death, I am more misplaced than ever, but only because I am immune to guidance. I relive my darkest moments over and over again, just to remind myself of who I am.
I am the destined one. The haltered. For me, there is no love and no release, only destruction; but I am on a path to be free of its burden. I do love and I will have it, absorb it and never, ever, let all its enchanting affections go. In order to be with love, there is only one path to lead me there; through this war. But nothing and no one knows what awaits on the other side, or what lies have been afflicted upon us about the after. Remorse is an infection I no longer want. I had made apocalyptic mistakes, and will probably keep on faltering forward. It has become my only direction in a reality where there is none. To him, there is no him, if there is no me. He is bound to me, and I hated it more than I will ever confess. His cross to bear is me, and to be that – to be this – is a curse I must fight.
When the first true blood-shift came, it tore through flesh and parted blood, threatening to bend me, break bone, shatter my mind and entrap my heart to become its will. It comes with vicious intent, moving my thoughts and touching me with a cutting effect from the inside. It has many ways of bleeding out, and when it releases, there is nothing I can do to stop it. No one is safe when it entraps me in its claws of foul lust. Corrupt, damnable, depraved, destructive, hideous, demonic; your kind would call it many things. I have a weapon against the profane that becomes me – his touch alone has the power to release the talons of a sweet darkness that clings on for dear life. It has one trigger – my guilt. I can change it if only I can take the leap, surrender myself utterly. I am ready with all of me, for all of him.
I know what I have to do, the desperation of it pulls my mind with the unfathomable determination of a ravenous predator. I let it sink in hard and true. I feel the swell of the fight fill me with a bitter sweetness, and with a glorious soothing pain that tears my mind from the disease which transforms me. My loss has become my fight as I watch it all wither away. But, I will never stop fighting. I am my own destiny; my destiny is to be with him. And the Truth-seekers of this prophecy will not take it lightly.
Everything else becomes Evanescent.
~ Ava.
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Bonus Excerpt
The alien landscape before me is much like that of a desert I once saw in pictures located in my father’s secret collection of ‘Earth’ books. I could never have imagined something so barren. Despite the vastly strange moonscape, there is a beautiful glow from the stars above, drowning everything in a golden hue. It doesn’t look real; it looks as though I could just reach up, pluck the stars from the black glossy sky and capture the brilliance in the palm of my hand. The atmosphere is so thin, everything feels magnified. Dunes upon dunes of sand shimmer with such vividness it’s like staring at churning waves rising to their apex…readying themselves to crash upon the vacant shore. And as I walk, the shuffling sound of my gravity boots sifting through the silky grains of sand becomes rhythmic, echoing in the cosmic emptiness around me. At times it’s soothing, almost hypnotic, putting me in a trance-like state, making this journey a bit more bearable. Sometimes…I see things that aren’t there; shadows moving in the darkness. Figures emerging just beyond the next rise of the next dune. I draw my blade, yet as I get closer they simply float away on windless air. I get the feeling something dark is churning beneath the sand as I make my way deeper into the belly of this stark, foreign world.
My gravity suit sticks to my skin as I move quickly, adding to my agitation. My throat is so dry it feels like it’s imploding, punishing me for the abuse I have inflicted on my body.
If only she had listened, I had never expected to stay this long. We were only meant to scout here…not infiltrate. Unluckily my kind can’t die from hunger or thirst, our bodies find a way to adapt. And although I’m sure that uniqueness comes at a cost, it is one I am not sure I can afford during the perils of this war.
Retrieving the others is my soul mission. And the thought of seeing her again is what keeps me pushing forward. But as her Guide in this prophecy, I can’t help but feel tormented by the bitter taste of failure. In a desolate place like this it’s hard not to feel alone, difficult to push back the negative notions. But thoughts of her lift my mood. It never bothered me that I was defying my destiny. I thought there would be a way to be with her and save her at the same time. I had thought love’s glory would give me wings, and for a moment we were flying together in the heat of the light. Perhaps I flew to close to the sun. Perhaps it had been too soon.
…I have burnt our wings, and all I can see now is the fire that will destroy us all.
Thank you Tina for your post, in sharing this day with me and your readers!
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