Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Taunt: A Twisted Wolf Tale
    Taunt: A Twisted Wolf Tale
    Taunt: A Twisted Wolf Tale
    Ebook73 pages1 hour

    Taunt: A Twisted Wolf Tale

    By Juli Valenti

    5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    There’s no place like home.

    When a tornado plagues the state of Arkansas, picking up Emmy’s house and dropping it into a world she’s never seen before, she thinks things couldn’t get any worse. Except, she was wrong. Especially when it killed the good witch and she’s named a murderer.

    In order to get home, and to escape the wrath of the enraged town-folk, Emmy must maneuver the Wicked Woods, along with her pet wolf, Laurent, to prove she, herself, is not a Wicked Witch. In the woods lurk nightmares of her own creation, and, when doubt begins to set in, she realizes things are not always as they seem.

    Follow the story of Emmy and Laurent in this modern day twist on The Wizard of Oz.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJuli Valenti
    Release dateAug 24, 2016
    ISBN9781533760753
    Taunt: A Twisted Wolf Tale
    Author

    Juli Valenti

    Juli Valenti grew up in a small town in Arkansas, known for Wal-mart, which is no longer small but is still known for the grocery store. Lucky for her, she didn’t retain an accent, despite her overuse of ya’ll when talking.  She currently resides in sunny Florida with her husband and two young boys. If her world wasn’t crazy enough, she also works a full time day job, as well as owns her own editing company (Juli’s Elite Editing).

    Read more from Juli Valenti

    Related to Taunt

    Related ebooks

    General Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      100-WORD-STORY COMPETITION Winners

      Aug 16, 2022

      We’ve been delighted by the huge response to our 100-word-story competition. The entries have flooded in thick and fast during the past few months, but while we’ve enjoyed reading every story, only a few can come out on top! You, our readers, voted t

      5 min read

    • Article

      Intelligent Creatures

      Jul 6, 2023

      Intelligent Creatures
      19 min read

    • Article

      Lingering EFFECTS

      Jun 2, 2022

      Lingering EFFECTS
      7 min read

    • Article

      Spider Girl

      Feb 1, 2024

      Like part of a web, my identity is tethered to my family, in which I am one of three girls—to this day, our mom still lovingly addresses us in a single unit as “Girls.” The post Spider Girl appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Eternal Adventure

      Jun 29, 2021

      The Eternal Adventure
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Symposium on Childhood

      Sep 1, 2021

      A Symposium on Childhood
      25 min read

    • Article

      Dark Tales

      Dec 2, 2021

      Dark Tales
      6 min read

    • Article

      Red Kite Grey Shadow

      Nov 3, 2022

      Red Kite Grey Shadow
      6 min read

    • Article

      Nothing To Fear

      Jan 26, 2021

      Nothing To Fear
      8 min read

    • Article

      A Kind of Deep Companionship: The Millions Interviews Jo Ann Beard

      Jun 3, 2021

      When you’re slogging through your day, imagining what else is to come, and you remember that the minute all else is done you can sink down into your book like warm water, and be absorbed while you’re absorbing, is priceless, as they say in capitalism

      6 min read

    • Article

      Cricket League

      Sep 1, 2022

      First prize 10 and under Tang Li, age 9 Palmetto Bay, FL My name is Anisa. I was in Hawaii on vacation. I enjoyed sipping refreshing drinks, overlooking the turquoise ocean, and dancing with others, before I overheard that the priceless Fire Ring wa

      10 min read

    • Article

      WINNERS APRIL 2021 STORY CONTEST A New Beginning

      Sep 1, 2021

      Tyler Rich, age 10 Grand Junction, CO The cage door opened. As I gazed into the forest, the memories came rushing back. Fire. Everywhere. Amber spirals licking at my fur, scorching my pelt. No escape. Hands. Then, darkness. I shrank farther back into

      8 min read

    • Article

      Cricket League

      Jan 1, 2020

      Ivy Lugbill, age 8 Indianapolis, IN I was so excited! My dad and I were going camping! After we packed all our stuff, my dad said, “Hop in!” I grabbed the paper towel roll binoculars I had been making and jumped into the car. It was a really . . . re

      7 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Jul 1, 2023

      Jester-necked pile of ideasfattening by the cutting board.I have known the summer wall,it says slowly. The hillside facessouth into the valley.Dew on the tomato plants.Anything that grows, swarms,bunches itself against a stayand cannot stay. The vine

      4 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems by Phillip B. Williams

      Dec 15, 2017

      The masters are yet dead. Wanting to be human,I tried to rewrite The Waste Land. The canon’s reachcasts ruinous light. The masters’ pens breachthis page where, above, my own hand spectates. Babylonrisen, exorcism in reverse, whose nature upended now?

      6 min read

    • Article

      Table Talk

      Jun 1, 2023

      Table Talk
      11 min read

    • Article

      Named After the Animal

      Oct 13, 2020

      Named After the Animal
      18 min read

    • Article

      Noctuary

      Sep 2, 2021

      Noctuary
      11 min read

    • Article

      Animal Angels

      Apr 27, 2020

      Animal Angels
      3 min read

    • Article

      Sweet Fantasy

      Nov 20, 2021

      Sweet Fantasy
      8 min read

    • Article

      John Jeremiah Sullivan

      Mar 9, 2021

      John Jeremiah Sullivan
      27 min read

    • Article

      Devotional

      Sep 1, 2021

      Devotional
      11 min read

    • Article

      Averted Vision

      Sep 1, 2022

      Averted Vision
      25 min read

    • Article

      All This Blood and Love

      Nov 22, 2017

      All This Blood and Love
      6 min read

    • Article

      What The Magpie Says

      Oct 16, 2022

      What The Magpie Says
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Trouble Gene

      Jul 1, 2020

      One clear thing about trouble—it can set you back to zero, a personal cone of silence. And reading, writing, listening allow entry into that troubled solitude; you disappear into it regardless t of the time or place you really are in, be it bed, kitc

      12 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Taunt

    5/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Taunt - Juli Valenti

      Macintosh HD:Users:rene:Writer:Writings:Twisted Wolf Tales:4. Taunt:Cover:Taunt-paperback-bg-title-web.jpg

      Synopsis

      There’s no place like home.

      When a tornado plagues the state of Arkansas, picking up Emmy’s house and dropping it into a world she’s never seen before, she thinks things couldn’t get any worse. Except, she was wrong. Especially when it killed the good witch and she’s named a murderer.

      In order to get home, and to escape the wrath of the enraged town-folk, Emmy must maneuver the Wicked Woods, along with her pet wolf, Laurent, to prove she, herself, is not a Wicked Witch. In the woods lurk nightmares of her own creation, and, when doubt begins to set in, she realizes things are not always as they seem.

      Follow the story of Emmy and Laurent in this modern day twist on The Wizard of Oz.

      Copyright © 2016 Juli Valenti

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

      This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

      Editing by Kristina Circelli with Red Road Editing

      www.facebook.com/RedRoadEditing

      Cover by Rene Folsom with Phycel Designs

      www.Phycel.com

      ––––––––

      Dedication

      To my dad, EJ.

      Thank you for choosing to be my dad, when you didn’t have to be.

      Thank you for helping me conquer my own fears.

      And lastly, thank you for showing me I really can have that damned cupcake.

      Table of Contents

      The Tornado

      The Sentence

      The Whispering Woods

      The Brains

      The Hopeless Clearing

      The Heart

      The Valley

      The Courage

      The History

      The Shrine of Truth

      The Final Challenge

      Acknowledgements

      About the Author

      Follow Juli

      Juli’s Books

      Macintosh HD:Users:rene:Writer:Writings:Twisted Wolf Tales:4. Taunt:Cover:Taunt-title-web.jpg

      The Tornado

      The walls on the old, already bruised house creaked and shuttered, groaning and protesting the wind that battered them. It was supposed to be merely a summer shower, a quick downpour as a prelude to yet another warm and sunny day. Judging by the intense torrential wall of rain, no ease in the clouds in sight, it seemed the weatherman was wrong. Adding in the black, looming clouds and the green tint now emitting an eerie glow across the field, the weatherman was very wrong.

      Time was not on my side; I’d waited too long, putting my faith in the reports rather than my own instincts. Surely I could remain outside, gardening, protecting my Mimi’s precious blooms from the rain that threatened ... except I shouldn’t have. Now, as the wood around me snapped and crackled, I snatched my long-forgotten friend from the floor and continued sprinting toward the bathroom. I climbed into the tub and huddled down, burying my face in the ratted tatters of my plush animal as I had so many years ago.

      Laurent, the jet-black furry wolf, had been a gift from my grandmother when I was just a small child. Having grown up in the sticks, no neighbors for miles, the stuffed toy had been my best friend. We’d shared secrets in the dark, read books under blankets long past bedtime, and, when I was scared, I squeezed Laurent tightly, crying softly into his long, dark fur. Of course, as I’d grown, my soft friend had reverted back to merely another toy and, eventually, forgotten.

      After Mimi died, I’d put the wolf in a box with the rest of my childhood things, and into the closet they’d gone. Only recently, since I’d taken ownership of the old house and property, had I rediscovered the things I’d so carelessly left behind. Laurent being among them. Now I couldn’t help but long for the days when I could hear his wolfy voice, along with his reassurances, or my grandmother’s.

      I squeezed my eyes shut as the walls around me spun, the sounds of the house echoing like a howl in an abandoned alley. My breath caught as I was suddenly floating, the force of the storm throwing me from side to side, my body slamming painfully into the porcelain of the claw-footed tub. Laurent tumbled from my hands as I tried to find purchase, my fingers desperate to find a stable grip.

      For how long the storm tossed me and the house around, I wasn’t sure. It could have been ten minutes or ten days, but when the world was suddenly still, the walls heaved a final sigh of relief, and the silence was deafening.

      Moving to stand, my legs shaking and breaths coming in pants, I carefully extracted myself from the tub, my eyes immediately scanning the floor for Laurent, though through the debris

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1