Read an excerpt from Screamcatcher: Web World by Christy J Breedlove

Screamcatcher: Web World by Christy J Breedlove

2020 Young Adult Bronze Medal Winner in the Reader’s Favorite international Book Awards Contest.

When seventeen-year-old Jory Pike cannot shake the hellish nightmares of her parent’s deaths, she turns to an old family heirloom, a dream catcher. Even though she’s half blood Chippewa, Jory thinks old Indian lore is so yesterday, but she’s willing to give it a try. However, the dream catcher has had its fill of nightmares from an ancient and violent past. After a sleepover party, and during one of Jory’s most horrific dream episodes, the dream catcher implodes, sucking Jory and her three friends into its own world of trapped nightmares. They’re in an alternate universe—locked inside of an insane web world. How can they find the center of the web, where all good things are allowed to pass?

Excerpt

“It is said that Iktomi, the great trickster and searcher of wisdom, appeared to an old spiritual leader in the form of a spider. Iktomi, the spider, picked up the elder’s willow hoop, which had feathers, horsehair and beads on it and began to spin a web. He spoke to the elder about the cycles of life and the many forces–some good and some bad—and how it was important to listen to the clean, good forces and to avoid the darker ones that could hurt and lead you astray.” 

            “The big spider was the teacher, then?” asked Choice. 

            Jory rolled her eyes, having heard the legend before. 

            Albert’s eyes became slits. “Yes. When Iktomi finished the web, he returned it to the elder and said ‘The web is a perfect circle with a hole in the middle. All of the bad forces, visions and dreams enter onto the web where they are trapped and held. All of the good forces find their way into the center and slip through, to travel down the feather and bead path, arriving upon the sleeper. If you believe in the Great Spirit, the web will filter your visions and give you pleasant dreams. The bad ones will never pass.’” 

            “But, Grandfather, said Jory, “the dream catcher was used for babies and small children to comfort them. They were used above cradleboards.” 

            Albert seemed not to have heard her words, having focused on Choice. “And when the sun rose the next morning it would wash all of the bad spirits from the catcher, cleansing it for another sleep cycle. It was always made to fall apart and wither after years of use so that it would never be filled up with the dark things.” 

            “Damn,” said Choice. “What’s it made of? Little sticks and strings?” 

            “They were made for adults too,” said Albert, looking at Jory. “The hoop is made from the twigs of the red willow, formed and dried. It is woven with the thread from the stalk of the stinging nettle. The very old ones have sinew for web. The beads are a decoration, and only one gemstone is used to show that there is only one creator in the web of life. Long ago, the government of this country outlawed the use of real eagle feathers, so most are made from feathers of other birds.” 

Amazon Page:  https://www.amazon.com/Chris-Harold-Stevenson/e/B001K8UUBK

Christy’s Website:  https://christysyoungadultfabuliers.com/

Blog:  http://guerrillawarfareforwriters.blogspot.com/

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I’m Chris Stevenson, using the pen name Christy J. Breedlove for my YA 
fiction. I hail from Sylvania, Alabama. My early writing 
accomplishment were multiple hits within a few years: In my first year 
of writing back in 1987, I wrote three SF short stories that were 
accepted by major slick magazines which qualified me for the Science 
Fiction Writers of America, and at the same time achieved a Finalist 
award in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest. This 
recognition garnered me a top gun SF agent at the time, Richard Curtis 
Associates. My first novel went to John Badham (Director) and the 
Producers, the Cohen Brothers. It was an extreme honor to be 
considered. The writer who beat me out of contention for a feature 
movie (as well as the book), was Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park. My 
book was called Dinothon.

A year after that I published two best-selling non-fiction books and 
landed on radio, TV, in every library in the U.S. and in hundreds of 
newspapers. B. Dalton and Walden Books carried my titles in all of 
their commercial outlets.

I have been trying to maintain that lightning in a bottle ever since. 
My YA dystopian novel, The Girl They Sold to the Moon won the grand 
prize in a publisher’s YA novel writing contest, went to a small 
auction and got tagged for a film option. My latest release, 
Screamcatcher: Web World, just currently won Best YA title of 2019. I 
received a 5-Star and badge in the Readers’ Favorite Review 
Competition, and took the bronze medal in the Reader’s Favorite 
International Awards Contest for 2020. I have 17 titles appearing on 
Amazon, the vast majority of them in the adult category.