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    Gertrude's Broken Wand
    Gertrude's Broken Wand
    Gertrude's Broken Wand
    Ebook95 pages1 hour

    Gertrude's Broken Wand

    By Jason Thibeault

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    About this ebook

    On an otherwise normal 4th grade school field trip, Rebecca gets separated from her classmates while trying to find the bathroom. But when she slips in the dark and falls down a hole, she ends up in the land of here, an enchanted kingdom that is suffering from a powerful curse...everyday is Halloween. But it’s not costumed trick-or-treaters that roam the land nor is it candy they want. Ghosts, ghouls, werewolves, skeletons and a host of other baddies, eager for a taste of warm flesh, have turned the once beautiful land into a spooky landscape. Unfortunately, Rebecca’s problems have only just begun for when she landed in here she also landed on Gertrude, the kingdom’s witch, breaking her wand and the one chance to lift the curse. Now Rebecca must get Gertrude’s wand fixed, avoid getting eaten (or worse), and find a way home all before the sun sets. Because here needs a real name or it, and everything inside, will cease to exist forever.

    If your kids love Goosebumps, the Wayside Schools, and Dragon Slayer Academy, they are sure to love Marmalade: Gertrude’s Broken Wand

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDime Novel Books
    Release dateMar 21, 2012
    Gertrude's Broken Wand
    Author

    Jason Thibeault

    Jason Thibeault received his undergraduate B.A. degree in English/Creative Writing from the University of California, Irvine. After unsuccessfully publishing his first novel, Ordinary Magic, he obtained his M.A. in English/Creative Writing from California State University, Northridge where he wrote most of a second novel, founded a literary magazine, taught creative writing, and realized the difficulties of raising a growing family on an academic salary.In 1998, Jason turned to his second passion, technology. Since then he has been working in the Internet space as a serial entrepreneur. Having raised over $15m in venture funding, he has launched several successful web-services and continues to work with venture capitalists and entrepreneurs.Leveraging his startup experience, Jason founded Dime Novel Publishing in 2010 to bring back serialized storylines for young readers embracing e-readers and tablets. In 2011, after 30 issues of serialized content, Dime Novel Publishing revamped its publishing model to focus more on serialized books rather than issue-based storylines. Gertrude's Broken Wand, the initial book of the Marmalade series, was the first to be published under the new model and included paperback, hardcover, and electronic versions.Jason is currently the author of several Dime Novel Publishing storylines including Barty the Kid, Jake: Vampire Hunter, Marmalade, Dem0n, and The Fantastic Adventures of Boyd Stone. Dime Novel Publishing distributes its works through a variety of electronic and print channels.Jason currently lives in Chandler, AZ with his wife, four kids, and dog. You can follow him on his blog at http://blog.jasonthibeault.com and on twitter as well @jnthibeault.Learn more about Jason at http://jasonthibeault.brandyourself.com/

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      Book preview

      Gertrude's Broken Wand - Jason Thibeault

      Jason Thibeault

      Dime Novel Publishing

      Chandler, AZ

      www.dimenovelpublishing.com

      Gertrude’s Broken Wand: Marmalade Book 1

      ISBN: 978-1-935893-27-1

      By Jason Thibeault

      © 2011 Dime Novel Publishing, LLC. Published by Dime Novel Publishing, LLC. Printed in the United States of America.

      Cover design: Josh Carpenter

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, either living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

      All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

      Prologue

      Gertrude took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and pointed her wand at the ground.

      Farzyah! She said.

      She waited a second and then opened one eye, peering out across her long nose at the unchanged landscape around her.

      She gritted her teeth.

      Palash! She said, this time pointing the wand at a tree.

      Nothing happened again.

      Gripple! She yelled, feeling her anger boiling.

      Calm down, she thought. Getting angry isn’t going to help. Need to focus…

      She took another deep breath and steadied herself.

      But her mind was blank. She couldn’t think of any more names.

      The dark forest around her groaned in response, as if it too was frustrated by her efforts. It wasn’t the first time that she had stood underneath the leafless branches of the haunted forest with her wand, trying to come up with a name for the land in which they lived. Just like the witch before her and the witch before her and as long back as Gertrude cared to imagine.

      She wondered if this was where it all started—when the land turned to a perpetual Halloween. It was a curse that had ruined travel, destroyed the countryside, and brought dark creatures into their lives.

      Gertrude looked around, wondering where they were lurking.

      Ghosts. Ghouls. Zombies.

      And worse.

      She looked back at the castle that was shrouded in a perpetual gloom from the clouds above.

      A rustling in the trees caught her attention and out of the corner of her eye she saw something moving. A zombie. The shambling corpse wandered aimlessly.

      Ugh, zombies, she said. Freak me out.

      With a quick snap of her wand and a few muttered words, the zombie’s head popped off and the corpse fell to the ground.

      Gertrude smiled slyly.

      But the appearance of the zombie just punctuated the fact that time was running out.

      No one had been able to give the land a name.

      Gertrude slid the wand back into her braided gold rope belt and remembered the dream she had for the past two weeks—a wide open field, lush green grass, leafy trees…and someone falling on top of her, breaking her wand.

      At first, she had been mortified by the dream, dreading the idea of asking Turkley to fix her wand again. The old goat hated her and had sworn never to fix her wand again especially not after what happened last time.

      But as the weeks wore on, the same dream waking her every night, she began to look at the brighter side:

      If someone breaks my wand, she had thought, perhaps I can get them to fix it and they can be the kingdom’s witch!

      She smiled even now thinking about when she had come up with her plan. Although it was a short-lived smile as she thought about her trip just that morning to the royal library to read the prophecy again. The scroll had been very clear—if the land wasn’t named by sunset tonight, everything would disappear forever.

      The castle.

      The spooky trees.

      The zombies.

      Even her.

      And although she didn’t want to disappear (she was okay with the zombies going), she’d come to realize that she’d rather have her last day spent as not-a-witch than waste anymore time trying to give the stupid land a name.

      When it apparently doesn’t like any of my suggestions, she mumbled.

      She looked back at the castle and then at the path that led in the direction she thought the clearing from her dream was.

      With her wand in her belt, certain she could take care of any of the other haunted forest’s cursed inhabitants, she headed off to put her plan in motion.

      She kicked the trunk of a huge tree as she walked by and the land shook once as if in reply.

      Gertrude, though, just kept right on walking.

      Chapter 1

      Rebecca looked down at her oatmeal and stuck out her tongue.

      She hated oatmeal.

      The cinnamon her mom swirled in it had begun to melt making it look like a gooey bowel of poo...

      Rebecca, eat your breakfast! Her mom yelled.

      She was dressed in her best I'm-Rebecca's-Mom-and-Helping-out-in-the-Class-Outfit—blue jeans and her Navarrete Night Hawks red t-shirt. Her blond hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail and she wore a thin black headband. Rebecca understood why some people called her a Barbie doll.

      Rebecca pushed away from the kitchen table a little and looked down.

      Exactly the same, she thought, even down to my white Nikes.

      She rolled her eyes and resumed her grimace at the oatmeal bowl.

      We don't have time for this young lady, her mom said,

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