Will they solve the cryptic written puzzle and find
their way back to the present before it’s too late to save themselves, the
destruction of the woods, and their cottage?
The Jigsaw Puzzle (excerpt)
“I know what we’ll do.” Amy suddenly ran
into her room, startling him out of his thoughts. “I found an old jigsaw in the
attic one day and I haven’t tried it yet. Let’s take it downstairs and we could
start it now.”
Hardly pausing
to see if Daniel agreed, Amy led the way down to the living room as though
expecting him to follow. So, he did. He didn’t really care what they did today.
Anything would do to stop him picturing his mother and father driving away
without him.
He didn’t even
want to think about them flying across the Atlantic to America with the
kinds of trouble these days, or accidents. No,
don’t think of that. At least Amy kept him amused in her bossy way, taking
charge. He used to like jigsaws and hadn’t done one for years. In fact, he
loved any kind of puzzle, especially anything in code. It was a change from
playing computer games, though his friend back at school, Paul, would never
believe Daniel put together a jigsaw.
Once seated at
the big table in the corner, they opened the jigsaw box, standing the picture
lid against the fruit bowl so they could see it clearly. Hundreds of small
pieces lay in the box. Daniel picked one up, surprised to find the pieces made
of thin wood instead of cardboard. It appeared very old and cut a bit
differently from more modern jigsaws.
Some of the
curved edges had no cut-out bit to attach to another piece. He reckoned they
probably shaped against another curve to join up. Other pieces looked more like the
kind he knew with notches or spaces to connect to each other.
Daniel stared
at the picture on the lid. “Huh, a house and garden. Why can’t it be something
interesting like wild cats or birds?”
Amy shrugged,
not bothering to answer. She might be bossy, Daniel thought, but at least she
didn’t chatter all the time like the girls at school.
Then he stared
at the picture more closely, noticing something strange about it. The house did
look a bit familiar. But the old-fashioned crisscross windows had tiny panes of
glass which he’d never seen before. A strange doorknocker shaped like an old
face hung on the door, and the garden bloomed with lots of colourful flowers and
plants. A stone sundial stood at the bottom of the garden, casting a shadow
across its surface. Daniel’s stomach flipped. The house in his dream!
BIO
A freelance writer for many years, Rosemary Gemmell’s
short stories and articles are published in UK magazines, in the US, and Online
and she has won a few short story prizes over the years. Her first historical novel,
Dangerous Deceit, was published by
Champagne Books in Canada in May 2011 (as Romy), and Victorian novella, Mischief at Mulberry Manor, was
published on kindle in December 2012.
First tween novel, Summer
of the Eagles, was published by MuseItUp Publishing in Canada in March 2012
(as Ros) and The Jigsaw Puzzle is now
released in April 2013. She describes herself as a butterfly writer, as she
writes in so many different genres and different styles. Rosemary is a member
of the Society of Authors, the Scottish Association of Writers and the Romantic
Novelists’ Association.
Available from MuseItUp: http://tinyurl.com/d2so3x9
and
Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Jigsaw-Puzzle-ebook/dp/B00CB4RGLO/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_4_1YKB
Website:
www.rosemarygemmell.com
Blogs:
(children’s) http://rosgemmell.blogspot.com
and (main): http://ros-readingandwriting.blogspot.com
3 comments:
Many thanks for featuring me here, Lindsay!
What a wonderful excerpt and write-up. I'm hooked and I couldn't be further from a Tween. I've always loved those mystery/suspense books that I loved as a child (Witch of Blackbird Pond, The Secret Garden, the Narnia books). Thank you for sharing. If you have a spare minute, visit my blog at www.dianeweidenbenner.com
Thank you very much for such a lovely comment, Diane!
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