Michelle L. Levigne's Blog, page 64

New release sample: THE KINDNESS CURSE

 

In the very next village, she looked at the villagers with new eyes, and watched their interactions, seeking the innocent and cheated among them. Surely there would be a kindred soul here? There had to be, since injustice filled the world.

She decided the blacksmith was dangerous. He had a thin smirk on his thick face, when he settled at the village well and watched the young people dancing that night. He had a way of looking at people that made her skin crawl. Merrigan asked the baker's daughter about the blacksmith the next morning, when the girl gave her fresh bread dripping with butter and honey. The girl looked in all directions before leaning closer to whisper that the blacksmith was new to their village. He had arrived last fall, claiming he was the long-lost younger brother of their smith, who had just died. No one could dispute him, because the brother had indeed been gone for nearly twenty years and no one could remember if he looked like his older brother or not.

They accepted him and let him take over the smithy. The four orphaned sons of the smith were only half-trained. They needed a teacher. The village needed a blacksmith. Nobody could fault the man, but nobody was entirely happy with him, either. 

Merrigan did not believe in coincidences. Chances were the new smith had arranged for the death of the old one and came in to take his place. Probably by magic. That was just the way the world worked, according to Leffisand and Nanny Tulip.

ARE YOU COMING TO THE PARTY?

 

REMINDER:

Hey, I'm having a BOOK LAUNCH PARTY and YOU are invited!

THIS Sunday, June 6 -- from 6 to 8 pm, EST.

It's on ZOOM, so you don't have to travel.There will be a COSTUME CONTEST.Come as your favorite faerie tale character!
We're going to have fun launching a new fantasy series called Magic to Spare, with Book 1: THE KINDNESS CURSE.
It's full of fractured faerie tales and a snarky heroine who needs a lot of reforming.Hence the name of the book!
Check out the information page for the Zoom link, and find out more!
https://yeoldedragonbooks.com/its-a-book-launch-party/

New release sample: BRIDE OF THE LIVING PROOF

 "It's a setup," Doni insisted an hour after that, when she and Cosmo and Wallace came by the newspaper office to have a conference with me.

"London contacted me to get to Athena," Wallace broke in, "because something was jamming the phone signals, so she couldn't get to her. I was on my way over, and London and Sherwood were both cutting into all the security cameras around campus. They got the plates, and the car was reported stolen three days ago. It was seen parked behind the Wypnash Building, and the drivers have been seen hanging with Freddie Grandstone multiple times."

He winced and his hand went to the Bluetooth link in his left ear. Wallace was one of the few guys I knew who wasn't entranced by Bluetooth. He only started wearing it recently, to have audio communication with our two AIs.

"Yeah, the two of them are going to town, gathering gobs of evidence. The four creeps in the car seem to be regular minions of Monsieur Architect." He wrinkled up his nose.

If Reggie Grandstone was planning on taking the legal profession by storm (and saving the Grandstone clan hundreds of thousands of dollars every year by handling all their false claims and counterclaims) then Freddie was setting himself up to become a world-changing architect. Or so he claimed. The last any of us knew, he had managed to stay for two solid years at the fourth architectural firm he had joined since graduating from college. Rumors speculated that the Grandstones wanted to remake Neighborlee from the ground up. Freddie would be in charge of having the architectural plans and designs in place. Rumors spread by various members of his former architectural firms said the entire town had already been redesigned. Where the Grandstones were going to get the equipment to raze buildings and rebuild them quickly enough to suit their vindictive aspirations, most people didn't know.

Off the Bookshelf: THE SECRET ZOO, by Bryan Chick

 

Audiobook

Narrated by Patrick Lawlor

Fun adventure book about kids who notice a whole lot more than the adults around them -- and the trouble they get in when they let their curiosity lead them.

Megan notices odd happenings in the zoo next door to her house, starting with monkeys traveling across the rooftops of the neighborhood. When she investigates, she disappears. That's just the prologue.

Noah, her brother, and their two best friends, Richie and Ella, are determined to figure out what happened to Megan. And when some of the animals in the zoo start acting strange -- starting with bringing the children fragments of journal entries in Megan's handwriting -- the tension and danger and clues mount. It takes some courage and determination and a lot of sneaking around and risk, but the children finally get behind the scenes and discover the Secret Zoo behind the zoo.

Then things start moving fast. So fast that most of the book's action takes place in one night. There's danger everywhere, and a big handful of narrow escapes, but nothing that will keep the kids up at night. Or impressionable adults. Guaranteed you and the children listening with you will cheer when Noah, Megan, Ella and Richie make it safely home. And ready for more adventures.

Upcoming release sample: THE KINDNESS CURSE, coming June 1

 

By the third moon of her unfair exile on the other side of the world, Merrigan decided the imbeciles and goody-two-shoes of the world had an unfair advantage over the clever girls and boys who wouldn't stand for any nonsense. Granted, the sweet girls and boys were the ones who actually noticed the shriveled old woman in need of food or a place to spend the night. Several times she considered going back to tell them she was a queen under a terrible curse, and ask if they would put in a good word with the faerie or pixie or minor wizard who had just rewarded them.

Each time, she mentally slapped herself. Askingfor the help that should have been hers by right galled her.

She chewed so long on the injustice that had been meted out to her, she got past the sharpness of the ache. She learned to examine the whole situation with less emotion, and tried to determine where the mistakes had occurred. Possibly, she had done something wrong. Of course, not anything bad enough to warrant what she now suffered. Perhaps she was being punished for something Leffisand did? Was being stupid a crime? Or perhaps her husband had been a little too clever, a little too lucky? Could he have brought his ignominious demise on himself because he had broken several rules of magic? She had been deprived of her throne, her home, her beauty, because of something hedid?

She would be safely at home in Carlion if she had produced the heir to the throne. Could it be the fault hadn't been with her at all? Perhaps Leffisand was denied an heir because of underhanded things he had done? Things she knew nothing about? After all, she had heard the rumors. There was the whole magical apple tree debacle, and the accusations that Leffisand had been involved in the death of his first wife, Fialla. Merrigan didn't believe any of it, otherwise she never would have married him, but … what if? 

If that were the answer, it simply made her whole situation more unbearable. She suffered for the crimes of others. She had been robbed, cheated, when she was innocent of wrongdoing.

New release sample: BRIDE OF THE LIVING PROOF

 

"What happened? Someone said you were hurt?"

"The slimebags knocked me down, trying to take my computer. I'm okay. My clothes are wet, but I'm okay. They didn't get my computer." She laughed a little unsteadily.

"End of the world as we know it. Want me to call Ford? Or Charlotte?"

"Maybe you should." She sighed. "Campus police just showed up, and it's that ink-for-blood regulation-bound weasel at the wheel, which means reports in triplicate."

The baritone voice started arguing with someone in the background, insisting Athena needed to get checked by a doctor before she gave reports.

I grinned and about half my tension dropped off, because if Athena could say what she did about the one-and-only Julia Irving, head of campus security (voted most likely to bankrupt the college from too much paper-pushing), then she was all right. She might be wet, she might have fallen down, she might be upset about having to fight to protect her computer, but she wasn't hurt, and she wasn't scared.

"Who is that guy?" I had to ask, as the baritone voice got louder, drowning out Julia's whiny voice. She certainly sounded like the chittering of a weasel, and all the slinking, self-righteous little sidekicks of despots ever portrayed in movies.

"I'm not sure, but he does look familiar."

Within two hours, an outraged Ford Longfellow reported that Athena's knight errant was none other than Freddie Grandstone.

Off the Bookshelf: THE ICEBOUND LAND, by John Flanagan

 

The Ranger's Apprentice series, Book 3

Aauugghh!

Warning: if you're a fan of the series and you expected Will and Evanlyn to be rescued by the end of the book, to be headed home from Skandia ... don't hold your breath.

Yes, Evanlyn is in the process of rescuing them both, with some help from an unexpected quarter, but Will has now been separated from his master, Ranger Halt, for two entire books.

And I have to wait until my A Libris order arrives with books 4, 5, and 6 before I can find out how and when they get home! (Sorry, I know I said I wouldn't buy any more books, not even used books, until my to-be-read skyscraper lowers by a couple of floors, but ... well, I need to know!)

Will and Evanlyn ended book 2 as prisoners, heading for Skandia and slavery. Halt and apprentice knight Horace set out on the road in book 3 to make their way to Skandia to try to find the two and bring them home. Unfortunately, they have an entire country full of unchivalrous knights standing between them and their goal -- and then winter sets in, making travel, and eventual escape, even harder.

This reminds me why I often hate the second movie of any trilogy -- things are just left hanging, with a little hope that our heroes will survive and triumph, but ... frustration!

Upcoming release sample: THE KINDNESS CURSE, coming June 1

 By nightfall, she found her way to a village small enough that people noticed the elderly stranger among them. They offered her shelter in the little building that served as a general meeting hall and chapel. The bread and butter, mug of milk and bowl of porridge provided weren't up to her standards, but she said nothing. Demanding better because she was a queen would earn her mockery. She curled up on the bench cushion the circuit judges used, wrapped herself in the blankets several people offered for the night, and told herself she was quite comfortable. She was, compared to how she could have spent the night.

She finally fell asleep, trying to persuade herself that she liked the silence and solitude. The porridge reminded her of her nursery days, before Nanny Starling fell from grace and Nanny Tulip took over. Her dreams were full of her long, secret, magical correspondence with Leffisand, and all the advice he had given her, helping her to grow wise and insightful, to become a queen worthy of him. He had taught her the truth behind all the tales of faeries and godmothers and other majjian folk. He claimed they were lies, sweetened to trick people into trusting magically gifted folk. The witless, ignorant and undeserving always expected to be helped, rather than picking themselves up by their own bootstraps and fighting for what they wanted.

As the days and moons passed while she journeyed, Merrigan thought long and hard about the things Leffisand and Nanny Tulip had taught her. The truth behind the tales of majjian folk. While she trudged from village to town, she had many chances to see majjian injustice at work. It galled her to realize some of the too-sweet-for-their-own good twits who helped her with a loaf of bread, a coin, a ride down the road, were often rewarded soon afterward. 

If faeries were waiting around every corner to reward every village idiot and simpering twit for performing charity, why did none of them show up just ten minutes earlier and help her? She was Queen Merrigan of Carlion, daughter of King Urson and Queen Daylily of Avylyn. Surely she deserved their help.

New release sample: BRIDE OF THE LIVING PROOF

 

Then I heard an unfamiliar baritone voice shouting through the scuffling and deep splashing of multiple feet in slush. At least I had a better idea where Athena was on the campus. There was only one place where slush was deep on the sidewalks, and where the sidewalks were next to deep craters in the road and --

Heck with it, I was going to help Athena. I got to my feet, braced against my desk, and took a deep breath to concentrate and try to remember what it felt like when I could kinda-sorta fly. I needed a running start, though, if I was going to fly without Kurt taking control. That meant I needed to get outside. Oh, heck.Well, at least my legs were steady. Could I get to the door without triggering heart attacks in whoever was still in the office?

By then, the shouting stopped, and I heard the rumbling of an engine gunning as a car raced away, and that baritone voice was asking if Athena was all right.

"Let me take you to the hospital? They hit you." Followed by some semi-mild expletives.

"Athena!" I shouted, and wished I had Kurt's ability to zap electronics and give them extra power. I was determined to make myself heard. "Athena, are you all right? Who's there? What happened to her? Who --"

"I'm okay," Athena shouted over my shouting. 

Several of my co-workers came running up one ramp or down another, from different sections of the building. Not one of my more dignified moments, but I didn't care. Athena was as close as I was ever going to get to having a kid of my own, I figured.

Off the Bookshelf: THE BURNING BRIDGE, by John Flanagan

 

Book 2 in the Ranger's Apprentice series

Apprentice Will and Ranger Halt are separated by the exigencies of war and diplomatic tasks. Halt, despite being very experienced and respected, doesn't seem to have much respect for diplomatic constraints. This, however, comes in handy when dealing with some arrogant, recalcitrant nobles. Especially since war is coming.

Will and his friend, apprentice knight Horace, head off with Ranger Gilan to perform some diplomatic errands as well. But what they find in the country of Celtica adds mystery on top of mystery, and growing danger. 

A long-time enemy has been scheming and maneuvering, and now his trap is about to close on King Duncan and the kingdom of Araluen. Halt is separated from his apprentice at a crucial point in the defense of their country -- and their separation threatens to become permanent.

Does it need to be said? Book 3 is sitting next to my bed, ready to catch up with Will, the apprentice ranger. What's going to happen next?