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FEW ARE CHOSEN won the Bookie Award for best YA short of 2012! It’s a GBLT, multicultural, paranormal YA short story (m/m). Available from all your fave e-tailers. More about the Bookie win, below.

TAGLINE: Sparks fly between virgin teenage demon hunters when the Chosen One turns out to be… the Chosen Two?

SUMMARY

Apprentice warrior Blake St. Blake is the Chosen One, raised by an ancient order to defend the world against evil. Well, maybe not the whole world, but at least his neighborhood in downtown Detroit.  When a dreaded reflux demon is sighted in a local cemetery, Blake is sent off to his very first battle, armed with his sword, his super-senses, his black leather duster, and a few well-rehearsed one-liners.

But another Chosen One gets in Blake’s way—an apprentice wizard named Shadow. While the boys argue about who’s the more chosen of the two, the demon escapes.

Blake wants to be angry, but it turns out he and Shadow have a lot in common. Besides, Shadow’s pretty cute, and Blake can’t help but think that the wizard’s skills (and hands and lips and other bits) might make the perfect complement to his. Blake and Shadow are brave enough to challenge the reflux demon in a second battle, but will they have the courage to tell each other how they feel?

EXCERPT:

The demon swiveled its head in my direction. “Oh, you again. You’re the apprentissse warrior, right? Not the junior sssorssserer?”

“Yes, I’m the warrior. See. The. Sword.” I thrust it a bit further forward. The beast nodded, failing to quake with terror, or even to look particularly impressed. I tightened my grip on my weapon and shouted, “I command thee to return to Hell and trouble this fair land no more!”

“Fffair land? Thisss isss downtown Detroit. I’m not ssseein’ a lot of fffair around here. And hey, I’m ssstanding right here. There’sss no need to ssshout.

I opened my mouth to command it again to leave, but it cut me off.

“Lisssten, boy. I’ve got sssome errandsss to run and I’m not going home until I get what I came fffor.”

“And what, pray tell, are these tokens which you seek?”

“Tokensss, what? I’m gonna get a cassse of Bud, and then sssome grossseriesss. And maybe a fffatted calfff. There’sss a butcher over on Missshigan that hasss really good beefff.” Its shoulders raised in what may have been a demonic shrug. “D’you know where there’sss a Wal-Mart around here?”

I refused to answer; refused to be tricked. The foul beast was trying to humanize itself so I would be less inclined to kill it. Well, that wasn’t going to work. It was way too fugly to get to me.

“If you will not return to Hell immediately, then you leave me no choice. I must slay you. I mean, thee.” My cheeks heated and I cursed myself for screwing up the wording. My first demon and I was getting it all wrong. I could hear Hadley’s voice in my head telling me to just breathe and take it easy. Okay. I drew in a deep, calming breath, only to start coughing. God, this thing needed a Tic Tac. Luckily I could do that thing now that allowed me to turn my sense of smell way, way down.

Relax, I ordered myself. It’s not like anyone’s recording your performance. Not like when we taped my practice sessions for critiquing later.

I raised my foot to take a step forward, but froze when I heard the reflux horking up acid, sounding exactly like one of the older members of our Order in the mornings. I threw myself backward, intending to land lightly yards away, poised for my next attack. Instead, I smacked painfully into a tree. My head struck bark, but at least I wasn’t where the demon’s acid landed, sizzling the ground where I’d just been.

I dashed to the right, finding cover among the shadows. The demon advanced, its putrid fire-breath illuminating the night. It was a lot like Shadow’s glowing staff from last week, only stinkier, and I coughed, my eyes watering in the nasty fumes. Too bad Shadow wasn’t here; I could handle the reflux on my own, of course, but his glow stick and ability to paralyze would have been handy. Plus things were always more fun with a friend.

I could really have used a friend right about now.

Continued…

REVIEWS:

4.5 Stars I also really liked this author’s take on what it means to be the Chosen One. I thought their battle with the demon was hysterically funny, which was not a surprise for me, since this author’s humor so far always worked for me. I really liked how excitement and poking fun were mixed with awkward, but so adorable first teenage romance. Highly recommended. ~Sirius, on Jessewave

4.5 Stars This story was so adorable. I absolutely loved it, and to be honest, I laughed my ass off. I haven’t ever read anything by this author, but I certainly will be reading more of her work in the future. I found the characters very charming and sweet, and I thought it was cool how she made the story contemporary and included a lot of pop culture humor. ~Jeff Erno, on Top 2 Bottom Reviews

“Oh my gosh, this was a total riot. Totally fit my geeky fangirl side.” ~Jayhjay, on Goodreads

My rating for this is an A! Storm Grant is an author known for nicely blending humor and romance and in her upcoming release Few Are Chosen that blend continues to be perfect. This may be a short story but it’s long on entertaining characters, witty dialogue, humor, and fast-paced action. From start to finish the reader is drawn in and on the edge of their seat to see if our heroes succeed. Ms. Grant has created a fast-paced and deeply satisfying story. The dialogue is witty and humorous and kept my eyes glued to the page so as not to miss a single moment. Blake and Shadow are a dynamic duo that drew me to them and I’m sure you’ll feel the same. I hope this is just the beginning of their relationship and implore Ms. Grant to return to this world as I’ll definitely be waiting with bated breath to read more about these young superheroes. ~Jody, The Scarf Princess on the Words of Wisdom review site

My Bookie Award: Defying Genres and Genders . . . for the Win!

FEW ARE CHOSEN is a humorous, young adult, multi-cultural, GBLT, paranormal, character study with a strong romantic subplot. All in less than 15,000 words!

Sound like a eclectic genre mash-up? It is! But it works. Works so well that it just won “Best YA Short Story of 2012” in the prestigious Bookie Awards. (The Bookies are “the first industry awards nominated and voted for by readers and bloggers alone!”) Each year they’re presented at the Authors After Dark convention attended by several hundred authors, readers, bloggers and industry professionals.

I’m honored and privileged that readers liked my book enough to nominate it. I’m blown away that it won! I love that a GBLT title took first place in a non-gender-specific category.