Many Thanks to Those Celebrating BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT!

Here at Leap we're saying a big, BIG thank you to everyone who is making our kickoff of our Alice-in-Wonderland inspired anthology, 

                  BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT, 
                                                                                                                         
                                                                                                                               a success!

Thanks goes to the following people:

• Laurie J. Edwards for having the original idea of an Alice-In-Wonderland inspired anthology for Leap;
• Everyone spreading the word about our call for submissions;
• All the writers who submitted their short stories to the anthology, whether they were selected, or not; 
• Gaetano Pezzillo for creating a stunning book cover (and an animated book cover);
• The staff that read the submissions first (Heather Elia, Shannon Delany, Judith Graves);
• Heather Elia for creating the document that kept all the subs organized through the entire process (what an awesome intern!);
• Kelly Hashway for editing and copy editing;
• Judith Graves for creating our cool book trailer;
• The rejected authors who proceeded with grace, spreading good will about the book (if you aren't in the publishing world you might not realize how appreciated that level of professionalism is);
• Shannon Delany for doing the interior illustrations;
• Ali Cross for formatting (and reformatting);
• The interns (old and new) and others who spread word about the book through Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Tumblr--and all things social media;
• The printers and staff who spent time with Shannon on the phone when she called them (multiple times) to make sure things were going well;
• The 13 amazing authors (Charlotte Bennardo, C. Lee McKenzie, David Turnbull, Christine Norris, Jackie Horsfall, Medeia Sharif, Laura Lascarso, Tom Luke, Jessica Bayliss, Crstal Schubert, Holly Odell, Jennifer Moore, and Liam Hogan)who met all their deadlines, approached Shannon's and Judith's every request with a positive attitude, and participated in a Twitter party, and a Facebook party. We hope their careers only grow (and that we get the right opportunity so we may work with them all again).
• Marketing Directors Jennifer Murgia and April Hamrick;
• The bloggers helping with our book blitz;
• The other authors of Team Leap who have been jumping in, supporting the anthology, and spreading the word--team players are the best!
• The readers. Of course the readers! Without the readers we wouldn't be publishing books...for readers.

If you haven't gotten your copy of BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT yet, please hop on over to Amazon, or Smashwords, or iTunes and order yours now. 

Some Visual Highlights from Our BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT Anthology's Book Birthday

Some of the many visual highlights from today's book birthday for 

BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT...

Thank you all for helping make the launch of the new Leap's first anthology!

BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT Excerpt: Broken Tethers

The following is an excerpt from author Holly Odell's short story found in BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT.

Broken Tethers

Black crows punctuated the damp April morning with bleak conversation. Long-neglected hedges and comically unkempt shrubbery guarded the perimeter of a vast, overgrown property. A young woman fought her way through the snarled branches and emerged from a particularly slovenly-looking clump of bushes. Her appearance suggested she had already endured a gauntlet of physical indignities, of which this was the culmination.

“Come on, Alice.” She perked up. “Urban exploration is a dirty business. I should’ve thought about how messy this was actually going to be, though.” Next time she’d bring a towel, and...she looked down at her clothes...maybe a plastic jumpsuit, on second thought.

Wiping her muddy hands down the front of her jacket, she shifted attention to the object of her efforts.
At last she had a clear view of the mansion. Alice gasped. Abandoned for decades, it had slumped into an exquisite state of disrepair. “What a spectacular wreck.”

Things of beauty succumbing to the ravages of time and nature sent her heart leaping into her throat. Was it the catharsis of tragedy, the ache of nostalgia for a bygone age that thrilled her so much? Or the fact that she wasn’t supposed to be here? D, all of the above.

She forgave herself a mischievous chuckle at the thought of her phone ringing in the medicine cabinet where she “accidentally” left it. Why was the concept of voluntary solitude so difficult for some people to grasp? Certain places practically clobbered you over the head, demanding to be designated as tether-free zones. Nothing can rip the cheesecloth from the lens of a Tolkien-esque
 excursion faster than a techno ringtone or someone handing you their soda so they can pee in the bushes while badgering you about how late it’s getting. A badass adventuress can only tolerate so much pestering; she was entitled to a little harmless payback.

Her eyes roamed across the decaying exterior as she strode through the long grass to the top of the hill. After rummaging for a moment she produced a small digital camera from her pocket and took a picture of thick, tangled vines embracing the chimney, which lurched as if recoiling from the side of the house. She relished a delicious gothic shiver before resuming her assessment of the formidable structure.


Ready to go adventuring with Holly's Alice? You can order on Amazon right now!

Beware the Little White Rabbit Excerpt: Alice and Her Shadow

Author Tom Luke created an Alice and a world that combine horror and a touch of humor. The excerpt below is from his short story in BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT.

Alice and Her Shadow

It is not a moonless night, nor is the moon full. It is not a half moon, which can be argued is more symbolic than either. It is not even a crescent, which can be meaningful enough for the magical practitioner on a budget. It is a waxing gibbous. Bulging. Grotesque. And hanging too low in the sky like the misshapen eye of a cosmic horror that has taken an unusual interest in humanity.

Your name is Alice. Your last name is uninteresting and will soon be irrelevant. Your name is Alice, and you are walking home. It is too dark for your mother’s purposes, and she worries about you being out too late, but Katherine’s house is less than fifteen minutes away, and down two hills. No one waiting to ambush a defenseless teenage girl is going to bother walking up two hills, you told your mother.

You still believe this, but you’ve since developed other concerns.

None of the streetlamps are working and your shadow is beginning to worry you.

You are particularly worried that it may not belong to
you.

It is stretched out in front of you and you don’t remember it looking like that.

Your mother has told you that you’re going through a late growth spurt, which is apparently why you keep walking into doorframes.

This might, might, account for the fact that your shadow’s limbs are unnaturally long and moving in ways you don’t recognize.

It does not account for your shadow’s head.

Your shadow’s head is freakishly large, weirdly distended, and there are two bumps emerging from the top of it.

You try not to speculate about the bumps.

You move your arm. Your shadow moves its arm, maybe a fraction of a second later.

You shiver and fold your arms in front of yourself. Maybe it’s just the way you moved, but your shadow seems to swell.

You stop. The sound of your footsteps seems to continue a little longer than it should. When you start to walk again, the noise echoes a little more...





Ready to leap into the world of Luke's Alice?

Amazon, iTunes, and Smashwords are taking pre-orders now for the ebook and paperback links will follow soon!

BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT EXCERPT: The Watchmaker's Ball

Christine Norris took history and connected it with fantasy to craft another intriguing steampunk read for BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT. The following excerpt is from her contribution to this Alice-in-Wonderland inspired anthology.

The Watchmaker's Ball

“Stand straight, Alice. Slouching isn’t proper for a lady.”

“I’m not a lady,” Alice grumbled. She didn’t know how her posture could be less than poker-straight, considering the amount of muscle that had gone into lacing her corset. She dragged her feet as she followed her mother and older sister across Fairmount Park, through the crowds, and toward her doom.

“Alice Elizabeth Purcell, I won’t talk to you again. Keep

up.”

Alice tried not to roll her eyes and trudged on. Ever since her older sister, Katharine, had talked to that boy at the bookshop, she had been begging their mother to take them to the Centennial Exposition. So here Alice was, on her way to an afternoon of torture and utter despair.

The Women’s Pavilion.

Alice had come along hoping she would get to glimpse the amazing machines on display in the Machinery Hall, but they were on the other side of the fairgrounds. She had begged her mother to let her go see it, but her mother had forbidden it.

“It’s not proper for a young lady of your station to be looking at dirty machines.”


Ready to discover more and find out if Christine's Alice will do what's proper or not? Amazon and Smashwords are taking pre-orders already! Links for the paperback will be available soon!

BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT Excerpt: White is a Human Construct

Laura Lascarso's short story takes readers into a Wonderland and adds a dash of darkness to BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT. The following is an excerpt from that story.

White is a Human Construct

The October sky was as crisp as a red apple. The morning light sliced through the overgrown yard, causing every shape and shadow to stand out in high contrast, including the white rabbit.

At first Alice thought it was a stuffed animal propped up inside a ramshackle hutch with a piece of roofing nailed to the top and hardware cloth stapled across the front. But as Alice approached, she saw that it was, in fact, alive. Its whiskers twitched, its mouth moved as if nibbling a blade of grass, and one ear fell forward rather sloppily.

“Curious and curiouser,” Alice whispered and glanced toward the house. Mrs. Miller had passed away months ago and the house had been vacant ever since, or so Alice had thought. The weeds grew to the tops of her navy kneesocks and tickled the backs of her legs as she hurried past the rabbit and onto Bradford Hills Preparatory School.

At school Alice kept her head down in the hallways and her nose in a book in class. The rumor mill still churned out stories about Alice’s stepfather, Congressman Shipley, each one more outrageous than the last. The circumstances of a high-profile politician leaving their small town so suddenly, and in the midst of a campaign for re-election, proved too mysterious for anyone to let fade away.

“I heard her mother caught him with another woman.”

“I heard it was Alice who caught him, and it was her mother’s sister.”

Alice didn’t elaborate upon or deny the stories, for as terrible as they were, their speculations were much safer than the truth.





Ready to learn the truth behind Laura's Alice? iTunes, Smashwords and Amazon are taking orders now!

BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT Excerpt: Mustang Alice

The following is an excerpt from Medeia Sharif's short story for BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT, our Alice-in-Wonderland inspired anthology releasing April 14th. 

Mustang Alice 

“Come on, Alice, stop daydreaming. Out, girl. Let’s get us some snacks and be back on the road.”

Alice looked at the speaker, Maizie, the most aggressive girl in their group. Maizie had long, curly strawberry blond hair and fierce freckles. She also wore a frown. She didn’t care too much for Alice.

“Ugh, don’t blame me if you’re hungry and need to pee hours later,” Maizie said. “Loser,” came out under her breath.

Alice frowned. Folding a corner of a page from a book she was reading, she closed it and looked out the window. The group of fifty classmates and four chaperones was headed to Orlando for a fun weekend stay. Alice wasn’t looking forward to getting there. She wasn’t interested in water rides or roller coasters. She was happy being a homebody, studying hours a night. That’s how she ended up on this field trip. Their school was rewarding students for top grades. Alice had never wanted to sign the field trip form, but her mother smiled, thinking it would be a good idea for her to go.

“You never go out much,” her mother had said. “Something’s missing in your life. You need to go out more often.” She’d even hand delivered the field trip form to the main office to ensure that they received it on her daughter’s behalf.

Alice cracked open the window. Sitting next to Maizie had been no easy task. The first hour, Maizie had been asleep. Many of them had been, since they’d arrived at the school to board the bus at six that morning to get to Orlando before noon. Then the second hour, Maizie had been nasty, giving her snide looks and making remarks about Alice’s mousy hair, pale skin, and nose in a book.

It was a cold February day, with one of those rare cold fronts that descends on Florida. People wore sweaters and jackets. A line formed outside both restrooms, people hugging themselves and even shivering. The bus driver also got off the bus to go to the restroom. They were somewhere in Central Florida. The thrum of cars driving over the speed limit caused vibrations at the service plaza in the middle of the highway.

A yard from the bus, a driver of a shiny black Mustang parked next to a fuel pump. A middle-aged man with a paunch stepped out. He pulled his jeans up, but didn’t manage to yank them across his middle. The belt slid down and settled underneath his stomach. He wiped his nose with a finger, adjusted his sunglasses, and walked inside.

Alice admired the car, her eyes scouring back and forth the onyx length of it. On the dashboard was a stuffed white rabbit, which didn’t match the man who exited the car. Her eyes narrowed on it, because it looked familiar. It reminded Alice of her own stuffed white rabbit from childhood. She carried it back and forth between her parents’ homes when she stayed with her mother on weekdays and her father on weekends. She took it with her to elementary school. Then in the third grade, during recess, someone stole it. A boy with a wicked smirk and mad eyes knocked her to the ground and grabbed it. She cried and complained to a teacher, but no one did anything and she never saw the rabbit again.

Ready to take a ride with Medeia's Alice? iTunes, Amazon and Smashwords are taking orders now!