The Bitter Taste

By Leanne Fitzpatrick

Life in the village is dull. Every day the same thing, right up until Tepil goes fishing. That simple act is the catalyst to tragedy, and is enough to push Yau away from her friends and her people. It opens the way a god to manifest anew and a dark power to take up residence in Yau’s soul- a power that will only grow stronger with time.

Mermaids and zombies come to blows when Yau promises herself that her brother will be brought back from the depths, and the people of her village will learn what it is to scorn one of their own.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Leanne Fitzpatrick
• Release date: Dec 9, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310689802

Leanne Fitzpatrick

Leanne was born in a small village in the middle of nowhere, UK. She was a pleasant enough child- as children go. Very little snot. Still, she was somewhat awkward. Her mother taught her to read around the age of three. After that she was the bane of every librarian in the local area. Years later she would get her high school headmaster into trouble when he allowed her to check out ten books at once. The limit was three. She considers her defining moment was when, at the tender age of eighteen she submitted her first book to Colin Smythe - The same man that signed her hero, Sir Terry Pratchett. Upon request of a full manuscript and without any sense of shame she sent over 300,000 words of unedited garbage. Looking back, she cringes at what the poor folk at that agency thought when the postman lugged an over-stuffed shoe box through the door at them. Still, she received the shoe box back with a very generous letter and found that even though the second bloody word on the front page was misspelled, they had tried to wade through it for a few chapters and had even written helpful notes. To this day that manuscript is hidden away in shame, but it taught her a valuable lesson. Editing is your friend. It is your goddamn best friend. She is also very grateful to the poor souls that tried to make sense of a gawky teenager's brain. (She is truly sorry). Now, over a decade later, Leanne is still a writer, and also an artist and graphic designer. She works as a complementary therapist and when the mood takes her, she does a bit of knitting or crochet. She lives slightly less in the middle of nowhere with three cats and an ever expanding aloe vera forest. She's not very good at being social.

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The Bitter Taste

Leanne Fitzpatrick

Published by Leanne Fitzpatrick at Smashwords

Copyright © Leanne Fitzpatrick 2015

Visit my website at www.leannefitzpatrick.co.uk

Smashwords Edition v1.0

This book is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and events are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events or locales are entirely coincidental.

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The Bitter Taste

No light showed from under the door when Yau woke to the careful noises of someone trying to make no sound at all. She rolled away from the wall and peered into the darkness.

Tepil? she whispered, what are you doing?

Shh, go back to sleep sister. I am going to the lagoon to fish. This is the best time- the dawn is a while off and the fish are drowsy.

Yau pushed herself up and lit a tapered candle. Soft, orange light pooled around her, accentuating the shadows.

Is that wise? she asked as she watched her brother kneel at their altar and make his sacrifice. It is already the season for sea maidens- they will be violent during their laying.

Do not worry little sister. I am not so foolish to go alone or leave the shore. Amoxtl joins me.

I don’t like it, Yau said. "The gods