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Vicki Stewart

April 1, 2016 By Vicki Stewart

Losing Our Way

I find it interesting when I hear someone say, “Make sure you have your affairs in order,” they’re often referring to your financial situation and not your spiritual relationship with God. Personally, I would rather leave this earth buried in debt than buried in sin. And by saying that, in no way am I saying I am without sin – FAR from it. I make mistakes every single day. God knows it, and He expects it. The key is to recognize those times when we make those mistakes, learn from them, ask for forgiveness, and never do them again.

If you take your eyes off the cross, it’s very easy to lose your way.

So make sure you have your spiritual affairs in order. Our time on this earth is short. Here’s an excerpt from Chapter 1 of Children from the Light as an example of someone who lost their way.

Children from the Light, Chapter 1 “…Wade saw the looks when they went out together in public. The glares from the women when they caught their husbands looking at Wendy embarrassed him. He became tired of giving those women looks of apology in reply, which immediately became looks of sympathy back at him.

Wendy seemed oblivious to it all. She enjoyed the attention she received from other men and soon, people stopped asking them over for dinner parties. No one invited them to join them on weekend trips anymore. They were no longer the couple everyone wanted to be.

The moment he knew he lost her was the day she finally turned her eyes to his, and her once bright, beautiful blue eyes, stared back at him through filmy, green contact lenses. Emotionless; dull; and empty. The once wide-open windows to her soul were now clouded over by her fear and insecurities. He couldn’t see his reflection in her eyes anymore so after a while; he stopped looking.

Then he met Julia. Beautiful, exotic Julia.

They met at the health food store one day when he was buying whey protein. He remembered turning down the aisle and nearly stopping in his tracks at the sight of her.

She was that beautiful.

She had been reading the label on a container of the same brand of powder that he used. That had given him the perfect opening to talk to her when he took a container off the shelf beside her, barely avoiding brushing up against her hand in the process.

Then she had turned to look at him and in an incredibly soft, sexy voice she had asked, “I see that you’re buying this same brand. Is it good? I’m not sure which one to try. Perhaps you could help me?”

One look from those incredible brown eyes had been all it took and for the second time in his life, he had been captivated. She was one-hundred percent all natural; no preservatives; no artificial fillers; a voluptuous all-American beauty.

In the beginning, they were just running partners. After he had introduced himself as a personal trainer, she asked for his help so when he offered she happily accepted. They began meeting twice a week in the mornings for an hour, here at the lake. Within a few weeks, she had matched her pace to his, and they were running seven and a half miles, stride for stride.

It was nice having someone to run with when she was able to meet him. She was easy to talk to, not to mention easy to look at. She hadn’t seemed to mind that he was married. He told her everything. And instead of looking at him with pity afterward, he had seen compassion and understanding in her eyes.

Then one day, they got caught in a downpour and had to wait out the storm in a section of the woods under the protection of the trees. They laughed at each other, at first; seeing each other soaked to the skin. But he couldn’t keep his eyes from wandering over her. The shape of her body through her wet clothing set his pulse racing and when her eyes met his, the mutual desire he saw reflecting back at him was too overpowering. The storm of emotions raging inside of each of them unleashed as they grabbed one another into a passionate kiss; that turned into a lust-filled hour in the back seat of his Town Car.

Did he love her? Maybe; he wasn’t sure. All he knew was when he was with her; he felt alive again like he was a part of something special. And when he touched her, she was warm and soft and real. Everything a woman should be.

Completing another pass by the kayaks and canoes, he checked his pulse again and realized he was up to one-hundred and ninety beats per minute. “Easy, man,” he warned himself. “Stop thinking about the girl and focus on your stride.”

Laughing at himself, he adjusted his pace, blew out a deep breath and locked his eyes on the path ahead, trying not to think about her.

Distracted by his thoughts, he didn’t notice the red dot on his shirt, located where is heart was racing at one hundred and ninety beats per minute.

When the bullet struck him, there was no time to react. With his veins and arteries wide open, he felt his heart faltering at the sudden loss of blood, and his legs gave way beneath him.

As he fell to the ground, the last image in his mind were Julia’s beautiful chocolate brown eyes…”.

Filed Under: Blog, Children from the Light Tagged With: Children from the Light, Tori Cooper Novels, Vicki Stewart

March 1, 2016 By Vicki Stewart

Today is the day! Book four has been released!

Children from the Light 3D small PNG

At long last, book four is out!  Enjoy!

Click here to order your copy of ‘Children from the Light’ today!

Being an FBI agent with supernatural abilities who can see what others can’t, has become very advantageous for Tori Cooper.  Especially when those abilities help her and her team track down and catch even the most heinous of serial killers.

But Tori’s abilities are continually evolving, and they’re often difficult to control.  Her visions have always been of events that have already happened, until recently.   One vision, in particular, shows her the face of a killer and his next victim.

As the team closes in, Luc decides to show a few of his own supernatural abilities and directs the killer’s attention towards a different victim, Tori.

When Tori sees a vision of herself in the crosshairs of the snipers scope, she knows it’s only a matter of time until he finds her.  The question is, will she be able to find him first?

Filed Under: Blog, Children from the Light Tagged With: Children from the Light, Tori Cooper Novels, Vicki Stewart

February 2, 2016 By Vicki Stewart

Children from the Light Release Date is March 1, 2016

The release date for book four in the Tori Cooper Novels is only a month away!

To make sure you’re caught up in the series by then, the Kindle versions of books one, two, and three are all 50% off on Amazon.com starting today through Tuesday, February 9th.

Click here to order your copies today!  Amazon.com

Filed Under: Blog, Children from the Light

December 25, 2015 By Vicki Stewart

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of my wonderful readers!   I appreciate you all very much.

So as a special gift to you, mark your calendars and get ready.  The release date for book four in the Tori Cooper Novels, Children from the Light, will be March 1, 2016!

I pray you and your families have a wonderful holiday and a very happy new year!

Children From The Light Front Cover PNG

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Tori Cooper, Tori Cooper Novels, Vicki Stewart

November 22, 2015 By Vicki Stewart

Tori the Interrogator

One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about Tori is the evolution of her character. When we first meet her, she’s so completely wrapped up in her little cocoon of familiarity she only allows a small number of people into her inner circle. And she likes it that way. In book two, she fully embraces her newly discovered spiritual gift and along with her training at the FBI Academy, ends up making friends with some unique individuals. When we next see her in book three, Agent Hunter’s influence and training are evident, and she’s becoming a strong agent and a very fierce interrogator. Even to a dead man.

Guardians of the Chosen, Chapter 31 “…Removing a stack of pictures from the folder, Tori carefully lined them all up in rows facing Talman until the surface of the table was covered. “What about all of these people that you murdered,” she demanded. She rose from her chair, now eye level with him and placed a final photo of Rogan’s face on top of the others. “Would that have made your parents proud?”

Talman’s eyes flicked down to the table and then back up at Tori, unwavering.

Changing her tactic, Tori broke eye contact with Talman and began casually walking around the room. When she reached the corner where his body lay draped on the gurney, she ran her hand along the fabric lightly and turned to face him.

“I understand we have a common acquaintance,” she provoked, watching his eyes carefully as they wandered from his body back to her face. “Did he happen to tell you who he was? Tell you his name?” Tori laughed lightly and added, “Well, he has many names, so that’s not really a fair question, is it?”

Very slowly, Tori began walking towards Talman, taunting him into breaking his silence. “Did you ever see him – face to face? Have a conversation with him like we are now?”

Talman’s eyes wandered away from hers, and she smiled inwardly as he began to react to what she was saying.

“You’re trying to remember, aren’t you?” she prodded quietly, still approaching him slowly. “All of those nights when you heard a voice speaking to you in the darkness, keeping you up at night? The times when the sound of his voice was like sandpaper grinding away in your head, and no matter what you did, he just wouldn’t stop talking?”

Now face to face with him, Tori waited until Talman regained eye contact with her. When he did, she tilted her head slightly, noticing the confused look on his face. “You’re wondering how I know all of this, aren’t you, Talman? How could I possibly know what the past several months have been like for you with that sound constantly buzzing around in your head?” Pausing for dramatic effect, she asked, “Tell me, does he still talk to you, Talman? Have you heard him speak with you since your spirit left your body?”

Again, Talman’s eyes flickered uncertainly as she seemed to read his mind.

“Do you know why he stopped talking to you, Talman?” she continued to provoke him. “I do. He doesn’t need you anymore. You’ve become expendable. What did you say about Rogan earlier? Oh yes, you said he was a means to an end and when you didn’t need him anymore, you ended him. Well, guess what, Talman? You were a means to an end to the devil himself, and he doesn’t need you anymore!”

Talman clenched his jaw and glared at Tori menacingly, “You don’t know anything about me so just shut your mouth!”

“Or you’ll do what to me, Talman? You can’t hurt me anymore; you’re dead. Besides, I know a lot more than you think I do,” Tori explained. “You see, at first, when he began talking to me, I’ll admit, I was a little scared of him. All of those stories I heard growing up about the fires of Hell and how Satan was this fallen angel with red skin and bad hair, walking around with a pitchfork. Stories you probably didn’t hear where you were growing up, right?”

Again, Talman just stared at her, seething.

Ignoring him, Tori continued, “Anyway, like I said, at first I was scared of him but then after a while, I realized, there really wasn’t anything scary about him, he was nothing more than a big bully. He was a big bully who loved to prey on the weak so he could look and feel stronger to everyone else. Once I realized that, I was no longer afraid of him, and when I started to hear that buzzing in my head, I simply ignored it. I showed him that I was stronger than he was and that he couldn’t control me.”

Tori paused again, giving Talman time to think about what she was saying before she threw the final punch. If she was right, this would be what she needed to break him.

Bracing herself, she very quietly said, “So do you know what that makes you, Talman? That makes you the little kid in the school yard getting his lunch money taken from him and pushed down in the mud by the school bully. That makes you the last one to get picked in gym class, the one that everyone laughs at and the one the devil zeroed in on when he was looking for a puppet to control. That makes you a means to an end, and it means you’re weak.”

The dam now broken, Talman cried out in outrage and lunged at Tori with his hands outstretched, attempting to grab her by the throat. Making a concerted effort not to flinch, Tori stood motionless as Talman’s spirit passed through her. She turned around slowly and regarded him calmly as he stared at his hands, realizing that he couldn’t touch her.

“Is that the first time you’ve tried to make contact with the living, Talman?” she asked him quietly.

He looked up at her with his eyes filled with an expression Tori could only interpret as total confusion. The pain, anger, and fear that she saw tormenting him, almost made her feel sorry for him. She hesitated, wondering how much further she should push him and decided he had enough for now.

“I can help you if you want all of that pain and anger to stop,” Tori offered. “But first, you’re going to have to talk to me about what you did to all those people and why.”

“I have nothing to say to you,” he snarled.

Exhaling a deep breath, she said, “Fine. You will eventually. Just remember, I’m the only one who can help you, and my offer won’t last forever.”

Leaving the file and the pictures lying on the table to remind him of his sins, she walked out of the room, down the hallway and never looked back….”

Filed Under: Blog, Guardians of the Chosen

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