The Secret Club: To save his friends and prevent a war, Damon must start a new club—a Secret Club.

The Secret Club: YA Sci/fi

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BLURB: The Secret Club

Damon couldn’t wait to start the eighth grade: being in the top grade of the district school, getting to be a crossing guard, and seeing old friends. But at the new school, eighth grade is the lowest grade, there are no crossing guards, and old friends move on.

Worse, Damon’s power to control darkness keeps turning itself on and off. Even worse, two former members of The Power Club start a new club—without him.

But things at the new school aren’t what they seem. A menacing shapechanger and a friendly werewolf complicate matters as Damon learns of a plot to send his friends away for good and start a war with “ords.” Will his new club—The Secret Club—be enough to prevent a war?

EXCERPT: The Secret Club

Damon stared at the mansion before him. Mansion?It stood two stories tall and seemed impossibly wide—easily twice the width of Damon’s own home. Four white pillars supported the overhang of the front porch, which held court above a circular drive. A cobblestone path snaked through an immaculate lawn. Damon’s own lawn never looked so good, not even when his dad was home to take care of it.

Damon studied the address scrawled on a scrap of paper. The last digit could be either a 3 or an 8. That’s it. Damon must have the wrong address. He looked around, wondering where 5203 could be.

“Psst!” someone called from nearby.

Banking the edge of the circular drive was a large, dark wood fence with planks that jutted into the sky like swords. Behind a partially open door, Sami beckoned him.

Eddie lives here? No way.

As he jogged to the door, he saw someone behind the fence whisper in Sami’s ear. Sami shut the door.

“What’s the password?” she said through a space in the planks.

Confused, Damon said, “We don’t have a password.”

“If we’re going to have a secret club, we must have a password!”

Damon searched his memory. Did Sami or Eddie say anything about a password when they’d had lunch the day before or even today? Damon certainly hadn’t. “Um, power,” he guessed.

“Bzzt!” Sami pretended to make the sound of a buzzer. “You only get two more guesses!”

Was this a joke, or was it some ritual of Eddie’s to gain admittance into his back yard? What if he couldn’t guess the password and they went ahead and started the club without him? “Uh, club!” he shouted with confidence.

“Bzzt! One more wrong answer and a trap door will open and you’ll fall into the moat!”

Damon jumped back, even though he now knew it was a joke. Sami laughed and so did the other person behind the gate. A girl’s laugh.

Sami thrust the gate open. “Oh, Damon, you take yourself so seriously. Now get in here!”

Damon could take a joke as much as anyone, even though the reason for their meeting was deadly serious. He half grinned as he passed through the gate, where he saw the other girl. About his age, with dark hair cut into a bob—at least it looked like a bob. She was covered from head to toe in a Mexican-style blanket with alternating colors of red, yellow and orange. Her skin was impossibly smooth, and obsidian eyes sat atop a teardrop-shaped face that smiled politely, almost humbly at him. She seemed as if she was hiding from something, and, for a moment, Damon thought it was him.

Sami made the introductions. “Damon Neumeyer, this is Kierra Santorro.”

Damon offered his hand. Kierra seemed reluctant to take it, but she thrust out a hand from her blanket, did a quick shake of Damon’s hand, and then retracted.

“So, what’s your power?” Damon asked, trying to ease the tension.

Kierra glanced at the sky. “You’ll find out soon enough.” Her voice was warm, and Damon didn’t feel she was being rude even though her words suggested otherwise.

“Hey, guys!” Eddie called from somewhere far off. “Over here, by the pool!”

Damon turned to Sami. “Pool? Must be some kind of kiddie pool, right?” Maybe Eddie had a kid sister or brother.

Sami grinned and for probably the first time in her life said nothing. She continued to wear that grin as she marched past Damon, who followed her and Kierra as they rounded the side of the house into the back yard. A large palm tree overlooked the largest pool he had ever seen. It was set in concrete, like the pools on TV, with a silver railing and steps leading down on one end. At the opposite end perched a diving board. A diving board?Damon had always imagined what it would be like to dive off of a high diving board. This one was barely a few feet off the surface of the pool, but it would suffice. Damon felt an overwhelming desire to run up to the board, bounce off of it, and dive into the crystal-clear water.

“Look alive!” a nonhuman voice growled. Damon glanced up as something brown and hairy leaped at him. Two paws struck him in the chest and pushed him. As he fell, he rolled. It was Eddie. It had to be Eddie, but what was he doing? What Eddie had said earlier nagged at the back of Damon’s mind. Doc Stone was afraid he couldn’t control his power in full werewolf mode.

Damon rolled up to a crouching position and came face to face with the werewolf. It was much different than he remembered. The Eddie he had encountered a few years ago looked almost cuddly with neatly trimmed fur and a small snout and fangs. Hunched before him was a mature wolf with large ears, snout, and fangs twice the size of any Damon had ever seen. The fur appeared wild, as if it had never been trimmed.

“E-Eddie?”

Damon’s query was met with a roar.

Instinctively, Damon exhaled. The dark space came almost at once, covering him and the werewolf. In black and white, Damon could see the beast’s momentary confusion.Damon had to make his way to the house. Maybe Eddie’s parents would be home and they would know what to do. But before he could make a move, the werewolf sniffed and then looked in Damon’s direction.

“I smell you,” the nonhuman voice growled.

The werewolf leaned forward, pounced, and landed on top of Damon. The giant maw opened, and a long tongue protruded and licked Damon in the face.

“Welcome to my home, D!” The nonhuman voice growled and then laughed. Eddie reared up and howled. Eddie had already started to revert to human form when he extended a hand to help Damon up. Damon accepted the hand, not sure what else to do. He was relieved that his new friend wasn’t going to eat him, but he was also angry to be the victim of another practical joke. Almost reluctantly, he inhaled to make the dark space go away.

Sami and Kierra stood a few feet away.

“What did I miss? What did I miss?” Sami demanded.

“You should’ve seen him!” Eddie roared. He was now mostly human again, and his voice was that of a 15-year-old boy with only a hint of a growl. “D was scared out of his mind!”

“I was not,” Damon said, even though he was.

“So, that’s what you can do, Damon?” Kierra asked. “Create darkness?”

Damon nodded.

She nodded back, as if the information would somehow prove useful to her.

“I hope you don’t mind, D,” Eddie said. He was now mostly human except for long hairs shedding off his torso and back. For the first time, Damon noticed he was wearing sweat pants and nothing else. He hadn’t noticed if the werewolf was wearing sweatpants, but he must have been, or Eddie would be naked. “This is the first time I’ve been able to invite friends over since they opened up the Forbidden Neighborhood, and I wanted to have fun!”

“No, I don’t mind,” Damon said, though he did. “So, are we going to get this meeting started?”

Website URL: www.powerclubheroes.com

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LINKS

Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084VB1DBW

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-secret-club-greg-gildersleeve/1136466686?ean=2940162857822

Apple:  https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-secret-cllub/id1499310867?mt=11&app=itunes

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-secret-cllub

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Greg_Gildersleeve_The_Secret_Club?id=Aa7QDwAAQBAJ

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