Coming soon from Lucy Pepperdine...

ANIMA MEA
L, my soul

A paranormal romance.

Maxine finds herself snatched out of life by a tragic accident and away from her loved ones.

Miffed to say the least, once she gets over her initial shock, she soon settles into her new home in the afterlife township she comes to know as Evermore, making new friends and training for a new job.

When she discovers an innate and unexpected talent, she loses no time in using and abusing it to watch over and take care of her family, especially her beloved husband, Robert, now forced to muddle through his life as best he can without her.

She put up a hand, like a child at the back of the class seeking the attention of the teacher. 'Excuse my ignorance,' she said, 'but...what is a portal?'
Smith looked at her as if she had grown another head. 'You are joking, aren't you?'
'No,' she said, flatly, and felt the familiar prickling of him digging around in her mind again. 'Hey! Stop that!'
He withdrew. 'Sorry. Just checking you weren't having me on.'
'I'm not, and you could just talk to me. So, what is it?'
He sat back in his chair. 'A portal is, to put it simply, an inter-dimensional gateway allowing passage between this, the ethereal, and the corporeal plains.'
'In English please.'
'It's what we use to move between here and the living world.'
'So how does that work, then?'
He waved a dismissive hand. 'It's a long and complicated process, very technical. You wouldn't understand.'
'Oh, really? If it helps, I have a degree in fabric technology, with honours...isn't that in your file?'
'Erm...' He flicked through the paperwork. 'Yes...yes it is. Sorry about that.'
'So...?'
'In a nutshell, the portal field rearranges you...on a molecular level, it tears you apart and allows you to pass through from this side to that, wherever you need to go, and then puts you back together again.'
'I think I saw something like that on TV once. It looked simple enough.'
'Don't you find the prospect of being disassembled and reassembled, atom by atom, terrifying?'
She grimaced. 'I can see how there could be some scope for concern, yes. Have you ever used it?'
Smith smiled wryly. 'Just the once.'
'You look okay, on the outside, at least. Did anything untoward happen to you?'
He chuckled embarrassedly. 'Yes. I wet myself.'

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