BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT Excerpt: Alice, through the Wormhole

This excerpt comes from our Alice-in-Wonderland inspired anthology, BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT and is written by popular YA author Charlotte Bennardo. 

Alice, through the Wormhole

It was seedy, even for a bar; dim enough to hide the dirt, smoky enough to blur faces, and loud enough not to overhear the illicit trading. Drinks were overpriced and watered down, but for making deals that were best kept secret, this place was golden.

The scariest aspect was the clientele. Murderers, slave traffickers, drug dealers, and mercenaries – all in a mix of worse scum. Keeping one hand on her blaster was a justifiable precaution. It also let anyone who looked her way know she wouldn’t go without a fight.

An Oryctolagian, a species resembling a white rabbit once popular on the now-dead Earth but here as big as a human, hopped past, his gravity boots clunking heavily on the stone floor. She had no use for the creatures. Sneaks, thieves, and liars, they fit in with these bottom-feeders. The only good Oryctolagian was a stuffed one – on the dinner table.

Alice rolled the grimy glass between her hands. No way would she drink it. Everyone knew that consuming anything in this place carried a certain risk. One never knew what might happen. Bartenders could be bought off to slip something in that would knock you out, alter your appearance – or kill you. But to not buy anything would insult both the bartender and the mysterious owner who’d appear by hologram to remind you that you hadn’t purchased a beverage or worse, a dish, from this fine establishment. It was safer – and cheaper – to order the swill. As always, before she left, she’d “accidentally” spill it onto the table sticky with previously slopped libations and leave a generous tip to cover the housekeeping expense. 

She looked at her chronometer again. 

Her dealer was late.

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Author Charlotte Bennardo of BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT

When author Charlotte Bennardo submitted her short story ALICE THROUGH THE WORMHOLE to Leap's BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT anthology call, we got a bit starry-eyed. Not only is Char a great writer with a number of popular novels under her belt (SIRENZ, BLONDE OPS, and SIRENZ BACK IN FASHION) and with more in the works, she's also a delightfully friendly person.

But, as editors of an anthology, we can't afford to fangirl. Business is business, and strong stories are strong stories. And that's all we were willing to accept for our homage to Lewis Carroll's ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. When marking a 150th anniversary celebration editors tend to get picky.

And Char's story was what we hoped for!

Are you a fan of science fiction? Or someone who truly appreciates a fine tea? You'll want to turn to ALICE THROUGH THE WORMHOLE first.

Want to know more? Here's a snippet of Char's story and her title page!

Char is always looking for a character to mess with. She loves to write young, new adult, and middle grade fiction, although she has written poetry and non-fiction articles.

Check out her blog at: Author on the Loose

Find out where she'll be signing books and presenting on writing topics at her What's Up page.

Are you ready to LEAP down the rabbit hole? We are! April 14th's coming up soon and we have a Goodreads giveaway, a Facebook event, and a Twitter party (watch #Beware) before that happens. Lot's going on, but that's okay because...

"We're all mad here."