Donna St. Cyr

Title: The Secrets of the Cheese Syndicate

Publication Date: September, 2009

Publisher: CBAY Books Author’s

Website: www.donnastcyr.com

Description of the Book: Robert Montasio discovers a green glass bottle of “Madame Gorgonzola’s Effervescent Elixir” on his school bus. After the bane of his existence, little sister Janine, gulps its contents, he and Janine are thrown into the shadowy society of the Secret Cheese Syndicate, a mystical network whose mission is to safeguard humanity from the forces of darkness and bad taste. Madame G. leads this group and has summoned Robert to go after his father, an agent with the group, who has been missing for two years. After a hasty induction into the Syndicate and a quick tutorial on their secrets, Robert embarks on his quest to recover the Mystic Cheese of Eliki. If he finds it, he may find his father and cure Janine’s little problem; she is shrinking into oblivion because of the Elixir. Gorgons, Chimaeras, and Manticores, oh my! A plethora of hairy beasts endeavor to put an end to Robert’s mission – some want to put an end to Robert himself. Fortunately, a few odd Syndicate friends pop up to help save Robert from his own missteps and he might just succeed in his quest - if he can stand to let Janine help him.

About the Author: Donna St. Cyr loves to get to the end of a good book. The problem is, once she begins a riveting story, she ignores everything else until she closes the final cover. Her devoted husband and loving children don’t mind this one bit; they possess similar obsessions. So, on any given day, with every nose in a book, dinner might not get cooked. It’s a good thing everyone loves cereal. When she isn’t turning pages, Donna enjoys life in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she has worked as a teacher and school librarian for over twenty years. She enjoys hiking, gardening, traveling, and cooking. Her family doesn’t eat cereal every night.

Excerpt: The Chimera lifted its lion head and spotted me. A column of fire climbed into the sky, and I saw the middle head turn towards me. It had some horns, maybe it was a sheep or a goat. The tail looked at me too. Ugh! The tail had its own head. It was the head of a snake, with huge fangs. The whole thing was hideous. “Montasio!” All three heads screamed into the night. “You will fail! We will see to that!” Teeree got in a flash of something that must have made it very angry, because the Chimera turned from me and swatted Teeree with his huge snakehead tail. I saw Teeree’s speck of light sail off as though he’d been hit with a baseball bat. My stomach tied itself into a knot. What had happened to Teeree? I wanted to run after him, but my feet were frozen. The chimera turned its heads again toward me. “You are mine now!” Its three pairs of eyes locked onto mine and I understood, for the very first time, the danger I was in. “Robert!” Janine pounded on my chest. “We’ve got to go!” “What?” I managed to look away for a minute. “Now, Robert!” She screamed at me. “We’ve got to go NOW!” She was right. I had stayed too long.

Recipe:

Madame Gorgonzola’s 222 Grilled Cheese Sandwich