Sample Chapters
OLLIE & the KID
COMMOTION
in the OCEAN
BOOK #1 in the SHAPE-SHIFTER Series
A really cool book about two kids who don’t really know each other but learn each other’s secrets while going on amazing and scary adventures while trying to stop a sinister stranger who sneaked into town with an awful plan to destroy the ocean along with all its inhabitants, like whales and octopuses, and it will take all the kid’s magic powers along with Ollie’s braveness, and a whole bunch of dogs to save everything!
Whew!
Chapter 1 – SCARECROW IN THE SAND
A young boy sits alone on the beach. It’s hard to tell in the darkness how old he is—maybe ten or eleven? He’s kind of skinny with long black hair tucked under a red baseball cap. Crouched, holding his knees tight against his body, he wishes he’d remembered to bring a warmer shirt and long pants. But tonight he was in a hurry and forgot.
He stares out at the ocean as if he’s looking for something. Or listening for something. But tonight, except for the waves, the only sounds he hears are the squawks of gulls fighting over discarded food scraps on the beach.
And that radio playing crackly music on a channel not tuned in quite right.
“Hey, kid,” says a voice from behind him.
Startled, he spins around.
Even though it’s getting dark, he can see it’s a girl about his age with her hands on her hips. She’s wearing a colorful, but faded dress. On her feet are sandals made of rubber from old truck tires.
On her head she wears a big, floppy straw hat that hides most of her face. Lit by the moon, she looks like a raggedy scarecrow that somebody stuck in the sand.
“Who said you could sit here?” she demands. “This is my beach.”
“I suppose this is your ocean too?” the boy tosses back.
“Maybe. Probably is,” she replies with a smug little laugh.
The boy is starting to feel a bit uneasy. Who is this bossy scarecrow, anyhow?
“What’s your name, kid?”
The boy doesn’t answer.
“Didn’t you hear me?” she repeats. “I said, what’s your name?”
“I heard you,” he finally replies.
“So what is it, then? I don’t let just anybody sit here on my beach.”
“I don’t have a name. You can call me Kid. Everyone else does.”
Chapter 7 – OUT ON THE OCEAN
Uncle Corky pushes the rowboat into a shallow spot on the beach, throws in the oars and attaches a long rope to the front cleat of the boat. He hands life vests to both Ollie and the Kid. “Here, put these on. I want to make sure they fit.”
After the vests are good and snug, he gives the horizon one last scan. “Looks like there’s a small storm cloud a couple of miles out but it’s moving away from shore, so you should be OK. But keep an eye on it and head back immediately if it starts coming your way.”
The kids nod and jump in the boat, the Kid on the front bench and Ollie in the back. Uncle Corky gently pushes it out into deeper water and hands the Kid the long rope tied to the cleat on the front while Ollie grabs the oars.
“Now remember, pay attention to weather and waves,” Corky says. “And get back here pronto if you see anything building.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” Ollie says, and snaps a salute.
“I’ll row first and you can be my lookout. If we’re
lucky, we might run into a school of porpoises or
maybe even spot some whales or sea turtles,” she
tells the Kid with the confidence of a ship’s captain.
“I bet we will,” says the Kid. He winks, but Ollie doesn’t notice.
Ollie rows with strong strokes. The Kid keeps his eyes
on the horizon. Soon they’re out about fifty yards from shore. The Guppy glides quickly through the smooth
water as they scan the surface for anything interesting.
“Look!” Ollie suddenly yells and stops rowing. “There’s a big green sea turtle floating on the surface over there. They’re very shy but we can watch it from a distance.”
The Kid stands and moves to the very front of the boat. He stares at the turtle and it almost seems like the turtle is staring back at him. All of a sudden, the turtle starts to swim over to the front of the boat. The Kid kneels down and reaches his hand out to gently touch the top of its head.
“Be careful, Kid,” Olie whispers, watching in amazement. “They can bite.”
“She won’t bite me,” the Kid replies softly. “You want to touch her? I’ll tell her you’re my friend.”
“Yeah, right. Like you actually know each other.”
But Ollie can’t resist the opportunity to get this close to a sea turtle, even though she wonders how the Kid can be so sure it won’t swim away. Or worse, bite her. She carefully moves to the front of the boat.
“Ollie, reach out your hand slowly and pet her on the head,” the Kid says. “She promises not to bite you.”
“What? Well, she better not.”
Ollie is a bit nervous but she reaches out and gently places her fingers on the turtle’s head. “Wow!” she exclaims. “Her skin isn’t slimy like I thought it would be. And she
almost seems to be smiling, like she likes being petted.”
“She does,” says the Kid.
Ollie gives him a look. “And how is it you know so much about sea turtles?”
But the Kid just smiles.
The kids are so absorbed with the sea turtle they don’t notice that the sky has turned from bright blue to dark gray. That little black storm cloud Uncle Corky had warned them about is now much bigger and moving swiftly toward them. The light breeze has turned into a strong wind and the waves are getting bigger—much bigger.
Sample Chapters
OLLIE & the KID
The WEREHOUND
from BLACK BUZZARD BASINBOOK #2 in the SHAPE-SHIFTER Series
Ollie has never been on an airplane before, but now she’s flying alone to visit her cousins Piper and Lukas, who live on a ranch in the desert. Ollie loves adventure and she’s hoping there will lots of new ones—she has no idea what she’s in for!
When Ollie arrives at her cousins’ ranch she discovers that a vicious beast has been attacking cattle on near-by ranches. Along with help from her cousins—and The Kid—Ollie must try to stop the attacks and eliminate the beast.
Chapter 2 – TAKING OFF
Ollie has never, ever, been on an airplane before. Sure, she’s seen them buzz above Playa Mariposa, the seaside village in Mexico where she lives. And when she was younger, maybe three or four, she’d see them gliding way up in the sky and imagine they were noisy, silver birds. She wondered where they slept at night. Did they make nests in trees like other birds? Did they lay eggs?
Ollie has always had a great imagination. And of course, she’s also very smart and has learned all about airplanes and other science stuff from her mom, who home-schools her. Ollie’s mom owns a restaurant called the Hola Beach Grill and the two of them live above it on
the second floor.
Miss Rosa, the Hola Beach Grill’s cook, has taught Ollie all about cooking. She often gets to go with Miss Rosa to the market on Saturdays to buy fresh vegetables, fruit and fish. (Did you know that Ollie once held a whole octopus in her hands?)
Ollie’s father was a fisherman. Every morning, he’d go down to the beach, push his boat off from shore, and head out into the ocean to fish. But one day a fierce storm came up and he was never seen again. Ollie loved him very much and she sometimes feels like there’s a hole in her heart from the loss.
As brave as she is, this’ll be Ollie’s first real airplane ride. (To tell the truth, she’s a bit nervous.) She’s going to visit her cousins, Lukas and Piper, who live way up north on a ranch in the desert. It’ll be a long flight, and she’s brought a couple of books to keep her mind off the take-off and other scary stuff.
Ollie hasn’t seen Lukas or Piper—her closest friends call her “P” like in pea—since they came to Playa Mariposa for a visit a couple years ago. It was fun for Ollie to take charge and show them all the cool things around her ocean village, like colorful sea glass they found on the beach, big green turtles that floated out on the water
and twisty pieces of driftwood they pretended were mythical creatures.
Ollie loves adventures and hopes that she and her cousins can go on new ones in the desert. She’s read up on what the desert is all about. She knows it’ll be sunny and hot during the day and much cooler at night. There’ll be lots of sand, but not like her ocean beach sand. In fact, there will be no ocean at all.
Ollie’s Uncle Corky, who runs the village marina, is giving her a ride to the little airport nearby. Ollie and her uncle are super close; he’s been almost like a father to her since her dad went missing.
Corky’s old red truck chugs down the highway out of town through other little villages and long stretches of jungle road. Ollie looks out the window and sees seagulls and other birds circling high up in the air. She can’t believe that in a short while she’ll look down on them from the airplane window!
“Almost there, Ollie,” says Uncle Corky. “You’re lucky to be able to take this trip on the airplane all by yourself. I mean … there’ll be other passengers of course.”
“And a pilot to fly the plane, I hope,” Ollie jokes. She’s doing her best to show her uncle how brave she is. Little does she know just how brave she’ll need to be.
Chapter 10 – THE BEAST
It’s midnight at Black Buzzard Basin, thirty miles outside of town. It looks like someone has painted the entire desert black. The sky is black. The bleak, crusty landscape is black. Everything’s black except the glow from a small campfire visible way off in the distance.
A mangy, hound-like creature sits hunched next to the campfire’s flickering embers. His wild eyes glow red against the campfire. He snorts, opens his huge mouth, and curls back his lips to expose a mouthful of teeth and fangs. Then he spits a stream of greenish drool into the fire and lets out a bloodcurdling howl.