Nicole Cutter - THE ORANGE PEEL GAME

Excerpt for The Orange Peel Game reads; “My advice, Caroline?” asked Olive. “If there’s something out there that you want —a claim to fame in your job, the prize that’s in that little box, whatever— then you need to agitate some gravel to get it.” Just days ago Caroline convinced herself she was doing just that. Now, sitting across a familiar stranger, who had just showed her foreign sights and newfound tastes of the very city she grew up in, Caroline realized that she hadn’t even scratched the surface of her life. “Applesauce!” Olive spat. “It’s nearly five and we’re the other side of town!” Like a hunt in the blossoming field of Central Park, Caroline and Olive galloped outside and bounded across the streetcar tracks. They soon spotted and pursued and barely boarded a trolley, back for the Yards.

Caroline spends the day with a new ally, who shows her there's much more to life than watching the world go by...

Excerpt from 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦 🍊

#tbr #readsky #mystery #amreading #bookrecs #booksky #bookish 💙📚

Excerpt from The Orange Peel Game reads: Caroline thought of picking and peeling the tough pith of an orange. The game became very much like one— as something to peel back. To unwrap and lay bare. One, ripe prize in its center. If she wasn’t before, she had decided it now: Caroline was its player, and she’d make the game maker regret that. By the time she’d get the box open, she’ll have exposed a killer.

It's 1949 Cleveland, but the encryption games of WW2 are not quite over. Searching for a killer, Caroline solves puzzles laid out across the city... and she can taste the world 🍊

Excerpt from my soon debut, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦

#tbr #readsky #mystery #amreading #bookrecs #booksky #bookish 💙📚

I sure wish there was a place to rest
The humble three-legged bar stool:

Thank you! I have a form myself but it was so great to do the research on this one 🍊

Excerpt from The Orange Peel Game: "Each house was like a white pearl on a string— every residence perfectly identical. Perfectly placed. Perfectly indefectible. Every prim ranch of the suburbs of West Boulevard was a perfect, carbon paper copy of the next. Lush, lurid lawns rowed out like tile. Houses glowed under the sun, flaunting their floral remains of victory gardens. Polished sidewalks ran alongside fresh laid asphalt. And the air was serene, nearly sweet."

A flawless suburb should be the last place corrupted by an ominous game, but that's exactly where Caroline finds herself in search of the next puzzle... (walk > sidewalk)

Excerpt from The Orange Peel Game, coming soon 🍊

💙📚 #bookish #booksky #authorsky #writesky #writingcommunity #mystery #tbr

That sounds like The Orange Peel Game by the letter! I'm an independent author who has written five novels (and many more unfinished), who is finally ready to debut 🧡

a person is holding an orange with their thumb and index finger Alt: An orange being peeled away.

Enjoyed the high concepts of THE 7½ DEATHS OF EVELYN HARDCASTLE?
Miss the nostalgia for THE WESTING GAME?
Crave the puzzles of THE INHERITANCE GAMES since its finale?

🍊 Then my debut 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦 is on its way to your hands! Follow its journey 🧡

#WSPit #Q #M #NA #In #CS #WF #bookish 💙📚

This is a great idea!

Thank you for the rec, I'm going to check that out! And thank you 😊

Yes, this is the first novel that has felt effortless!! I have a form of synesthesia, and I just adored writing Caroline 🧡

The Orange Peel Game

It's 1949 Cincinnati. Everyone is unwrapping their war wounds, but the encryption games of WW2 are not quite over. Searching for a killer, Caroline is forced to solve puzzles laid out across the city... and she can taste the world 🍊

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦 is coming soon!

#WSPit #Q #M #NA #In #CS #WF

Thank you so much! Indie publishing is a steep hill to climb, so your interest is invaluable to me 💕

The Orange Peel Game. "Caroline shouldn't have heard what was on that call."

Caroline can taste the world🍊

7½ DEATHS OF EVELYN HARDCASTLE
WESTING GAME
INHERITANCE GAMES

A strange scavenger hunt in 1949 caused a murder, and a woman who tastes names must solve its puzzles to catch the killer

7 players
1 murderer
1 mastermind
A little locked box

#WSPit #Q #M #NA #In #CS #WF

Excerpt from The Orange Peel Game reads: “We can convince ourselves of many things.” The woman spoke with more strange conflictions— a voice that was assured, and brittle, and croaking. “But when we’re met with something unexplainable, that becomes much harder to do. But it sure does make us curious, doesn’t it?” She pointed at Caroline’s journal. Caroline carefully lowered the book she had sheltered, and the sight of blank pages alarmed neither. “You know this book,” Caroline decided.

A stranger meets Caroline in the library, where the game has planted the puzzle of an empty book...

Excerpt from 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦

#tbr #bookish #writingcommunity #authorsky #writersky #writing 💙📚

Preparing for querying and the upcoming #WSPit has helped me to finally get the perfect book comps for The Orange Peel Game! 🍊♟️ Looking forward to Feb 25 🧡

💙📚 #bookish #booksky #authorsky #writersky #writingcommunity #mystery #tbr

Excerpt from The Orange Peel Game reads: The Conservatory was a monument of steel and glass at the far end of the park, harboring every kind of pruned and exotic verdure. The central atrium curved to the shape of an inkpen, and framed its front gate with metal lattice. Caroline crossed paths with another rabbit there, one she knew but hadn’t seen in a while. Drawn in ink and leaping over a burrow, and pasted in paper over the handle. Through the humid glass she caught sight of a hazy figure already having made its way inside.

Short introduction to the Conservatory greenhouse. Settings are a type of character, themselves, and this enchanting preserve got two chapters of limelight.

Excerpt from my soon debut, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦

#bookish #writingcommunity #reading 💙📚

Excerpt from The Orange Peel Game: Caroline huffed stray strands of hair off her cheek and faced down the payphone. There— what she had missed: A slip of paper pasted to the booth's wood, and softly scratching at her dress. Only a caller could have seen it from that dark corner and at that awkward angle. A crude drawing was scratched into the paper. A simple outline of a fleeting rabbit, poised and suspended above a large pool of ink beneath its leap. A void in the paper. A pit. A hole. A rabbit hole.

Inside of a phonebooth, Caroline finds the first of many puzzles injected around Cleveland, and they all fittingly start with taking a leap with a rabbit...

Excerpt from 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦

💙📚 #bookish #booksky #authorsky #writersky #writingcommunity #reading

🔪 Halfway through trimming fat and rendering out sentences that weren't as clear- editing my fifth novel feels like becoming a butcher, in all the best ways

My debut, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦, is on its way to your hands!

#tbr #bookish #writingcommunity #authorsky #writersky #writing 💙📚

Yes please!

Thank you so much! Getting things together for Reedsy

Excerpt from The Orange Peel Game: Tick. Tick. Tick. The screen stuttered with slowing film, before the picture dissolved back into a quiet death. Caroline’s eyes shot to the projector, in time to watch its beam cut off. The showroom returned to black, with only the projection booth’s soft glow to share Fritz at the top of the steps, rearing back and bracing his arm. A crash and clatter of small objects sounded from inside. His shoulder blew the door open. Summiting the stairway, Caroline caught up with him before they both stumbled in. The end of film still tumbled around in the projector, slipping and clicking and whirring down. Smoke of a teacandle blew away from a fresh draft and from the new sunlight let in by an opened door. Pens littered the booth from a toppled cup, still settling and one rolling to a stop at Caroline’s shoe.

Lasers have yet to be invented in 1949, so "beam" it is- as Caroline and Fritz try to catch a Gamemaker in a derelict movie theater.

Excerpt from 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦

💙📚 #bookish #booksky #authorsky #writersky #writingcommunity #reading

The ingredients of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦:

♟️ Puzzles hidden in the corners of Cleveland after WWII
🍊 A fragile flavor-laced narrative, concerned with a girl who can taste names
🗝️ 7 players, 1 mastermind, 1 murderer, and a little locked box

#mystery #litfic #tbr #bookish #writingcommunity #reading 💙📚

Thank you so much!

HOW DO YOU HAVE THIS RANGE

a man in a tuxedo is holding a microphone with the words oh that 's not written on it ALT: a man in a tuxedo is holding a microphone with the words oh that 's not written on it

The "Oh- Oh Beast, no" really got me

Excerpt from The Orange Peel Game reads: Caroline had hoped she would know the next clue when she saw it: Searching through the glazed, cracked arms of the Renaissance for a white hare, or between the abstract’s contours for a black circle to crawl into. And everything was too quiet. Leaving another pasted face on the wall with sealed lips, framed in glorified gold, Caroline thought the decadence would surely be better fit for something live. And royal. And loud.

🍊 Excerpt Day! 🍊 Who could ever hate an art gallery? Caroline, apparently, as she searches for the strange Game's next puzzle...

Excerpt from 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦, follow its publishing journey 💙📚

#bookish #booksky #authorsky #writersky #writingcommunity #reading

Excerpt from The Orange Peel Game reads: Meaty hands clapped, making an echo chamber out of the gallery. A shuffle of polished soles scampered over the marble floor. A parade of people were marching through the halls. The air was finally being eaten up with one, loud, grating voice. Caroline’s ears hurt and her mouth watered, but very soon she wished she hadn’t wished for any talk at all.

Caroline can't stand a place that isn't meant for talking, but soon fresh words will hurt her ears...

From 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦 - Murder on the Orient Express meets National Treasure. Publishing release coming soon! 💙📚

#bookish #booksky #authorsky #writersky #writingcommunity #reading

Early quotes are filtering in for 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘗𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦...

"Reading it feels like watching a Wes film"
"Couldn't stop reading, and then it ended. Why did it end?"
"A concept even more awesome than its vision"

🍊 Publishing/release updates coming soon!

#bookish #booksky #writingcommunity #reading 💙📚

Thank you!

Thank you!! Lots of comparisons, symbolism, and foreshadowing in this novel!