Edward Hoornaert's Blog, page 7

Are you injured, ma’am? #mfrwhooks

Today we have another hook from my WIP, The Seven Foot Cupid. Last week we saw that Ember Dayle is examining a newly drilled hole that provides unauthorized access to an important cave. She’s preparing her high-tech rappel vest to lower her safely to the cave floor — but she’s not quite ready to go.

There’s already someone down there. Tyler Estrella has also  been dispatched to the hole, When he calls up to Ember, she jerks, sending her plummeting down. The rappel vest prevents serious injury, but she lands atop of Tyler. He speaks first.

“If you can, ma’am, please get up.” His mouth was so close to her cheek that it was the most natural thing in the world to feather it with the lightest of kisses.

As soon as his lips touched her, she jerked her head up. She stared at him with eyes so wide the whites showed all around her pupils. It was too dark to tell their color.

Without warning, she exploded into action, shoving hard against his chest and belly to shoot to her feet.

“Oof,” he said.

She loomed over him, her posture rigid, hands clenched into fists. Light from above cast harsh shadows over her face, so she appeared more of a creature from a subterranean nightmare than a human being. Her dusty rappel vest was sky blue trimmed with red — Eastcott’s colors.

Eastcott was the rival of his settlement, Westerlin. The competition between the two settlements ran deep, and was becoming downright fierce. But had it exploded into warfare while he hid away from the world?

He rose to a sitting position and felt the back of his head gingerly. His hand came away bloody, but not very bloody. Considering how freely head wounds bled, the injury was minor.

He chose his words and tone of voice carefully. “Are you injured, ma’am?”

Her fists shot open and she patted every square inch of her face, which was unmarked except where his lips had cleaned away dirt.

Be sure to visit the hooks by other fine writers in the Book Hooks blog hop.

The Seven Foot Cupid

Book One in the Passion Island Trilogy

Ember Dayle prides herself on handling anything her newly colonized planet can throw at her. After an injury, she’s determined to prove herself again. She gets her chance when ordered to explore a mysterious cave on a wilderness mountain. Until that’s done, the last thing she needs is the distraction of a man.

Tyler, an explorer from her town’s fierce rival, is sent to explore the same cave. Like Ember, he’s been in an accident . . . but he was the only survivor. When he meets her, he’s drawn not only to her beauty and toughness, but by her ability to deal openly with her accident.

Booker is a naïve Apprentice Cupid for a secret group that hopes to make the colonists stronger, healthier, and smarter by matching people with compatible genes. His first assignment — Ember and Tyler. His strategy — lock them in an abandoned cabin together.

He doesn’t realize he’s locked them in with the fiercest, most intelligent native beast ever discovered. Can love help them survive?

Effing Feline feels naked #wewriwa

I, Effing Feline, complained last week about the cold, and I meant every word. But after getting a picture from my Canadian cousin Sadie, I may have to change my mind.

Sadie is a dog (yuck). Nonetheless, I kind of envy her. I’ll show you why after this message from my sponsor, Ed’s WIP, Pandora Uncaged.

You’ve met Booker, who is an Apprentice Cupid. Picking up where we left off, we learn about the mysterious woman who mentors him.

An impenetrable aura of mystery surrounded Mentor. Inquiries about her were met with frowning silence. Strangely, no one even gossiped about her.

Ironic, considering that Booker was a constant source of gossip because of the rating his genetic material had been given. His genes were, supposedly, Perfect, the first Perfect in a generation. The men here resented him, though he never bragged. The women desired him—not for himself, but for the thrill of bedding a Perfect specimen and maybe producing a Perfect child.

His love life was physically exhausting and emotionally lonely.

He didn’t want to bed all those women, though many of them were young, pleasant, and beautiful. He wanted Mentor, who was middle-aged, cantankerous, and careless about her looks. Something about her intellect and her mystery drew him to her.

Effing Feline here again. Here’s Sadie’s picture, which Ed’s son shared on Instagram.

Look at those snazzy clothes! I’m jealous, even if she is just a dog. Beyond even that, I feel sort of . . . naked.

Oh, the horror!

Be sure to visit the other great writers in Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday.

Pandora Uncaged

Pandora Dayle is her family’s black sheep. Ten years after running away, she’s rebuilt her self-respect by working at an isolated facility for saving animals. Her redemption feels as fragile as a dream, but she’ll be okay if nothing traumatic happens.

But when the best friend from her innocent childhood arrives, her insecurities mushroom.

Aidan was Pandora’s friend until his parents moved away. As an adult, he’s been a policeman and now a Search and Rescue leader. He adored innocent young Pandora so much he judges every woman by her idealized memory . . . and finds them wanting.

But when he rediscovers the real thing, she’s not at all what he expected.

Booker, a naïve Apprentice Cupid for a secret organization, receives his second assignment: get Pandora and Aidan to mate. It should be easy, because they were best friends fifteen years ago. His strategy: Fly Aidan to her island and tell him to impregnate Pandora.

What could possibly go wrong?

Stop shaking me! #mfrwhooks

Now that the holidays are over, so are the hooks from Alien Contact for a Christmas Nutcracker. Instead, I’m returning to a book that’ll be released in early 2021 — The Seven Foot Cupid. It’s close to going up for pre-release sales.

Waaay back in November, I’d gotten to the point in this book where we met the hero, Tyler Estrella, as he explores a mysterious hole in the ground leading to a cave. He’s in the cave, looking up at the ‘skylight’ in its ceiling. Someone’s up there — and he’d rather be left alone.

The final lines from November were: He cupped his hands around his mouth and called, “You up there. Go away, damn it.”

The intruder jerked and yelped. Good.

A moment later, a woman gave a bloodcurdling battle cry and launched herself at him. A hailstorm of dirt and falling rocks distracted him from defending himself. The attacker — this had to be an attack, right? — slammed into his shoulders, driving him backward to the cave’s floor.

His head hit hard stone. The world swam. The light overhead flared, narrowed, danced crazily, split into two. Then three.

Someone groaned. Was it him?

By the time the skylight resolved into a single source bigger than the mysterious round hole that had drawn him here, he realized he was shaking.

Correction. He was being shaken by…someone. But who?

Oh yeah. The woman sprawled on top of him.

“I’m awake, I’m awake. Sort of.” He blinked. “So stop shaking me.”

She didn’t — and she wasn’t, he realized, trying to revive him. She was just trembling because of her fall. 

Be sure to visit the hooks by other fine writers in the Book Hooks blog hop.

The Seven Foot Cupid

Book One in the Passion Island Trilogy

Ember Dayle prides herself on handling anything her newly colonized planet can throw at her. After an injury, she’s determined to prove herself again. She gets her chance when ordered to explore a mysterious cave on a wilderness mountain. Until that’s done, the last thing she needs is the distraction of a man.

Tyler, an explorer from her town’s fierce rival, is sent to explore the same cave. Like Ember, he’s been in an accident…but he was the only survivor. When he meets her, he’s drawn not only to her beauty and toughness, but by her ability to deal openly with her accident.

Booker is a naïve Apprentice Cupid for a secret group that hopes to make the colonists healthier and smarter by matching people with compatible genes. His first assignment — Ember and Tyler. His strategy — lock them in an abandoned cabin together.

He doesn’t realize he’s locked them in with the fiercest, most intelligent native beast ever discovered. Can love help them survive?

Effing Feline shivers #wewriwa

I, Effing Feline, am freezing my tail fur off. It’s winter here, and it’s a week late. Usually our one week of winter here in Arizona comes between Christmas and New Year’s Day — but here it is, January 3, and the tips of my fur still needs a blanket. It must be fifty degrees out there. Ridiculous!

I continue to tear apart — or as Ed calls it, take snippets from — book 2 of Ed’s Passion Island Trilogy. You’ve met Booker, who is an Apprentice Cupid for a secret eugenics organization. In the middle of the night, he flies Aidan Forester to the remote island where his childhood girlfriend, Pandora, has worked for six years.

In his snippet, Aidan asks Booker why he’s doing this.

Two weeks before Booker Markevious summoned Aidan to a midnight flight, Booker had answered an urgent summons from Mentor.

Mentor’s office—and his, for that matter—were in the secret Padmavati Project headquarters on Flanders Isle, eighty-four miles offshore from the mainland, as Passion Island was called. Passion, this world’s largest landmass, was a rough circle eight hundred miles in diameter.

Even with his long legs, the walk from his office in the Project’s Cupid Wing to hers in the Admin Tunnel took twenty-five minutes. The route was so convoluted and isolated he’d needed a map to find it. But then, everything about Mentor was strange.

So strange that Booker fidgeted in front of her door for a few minutes. There was no name on it. If you didn’t already know who sat behind the massive door, you had no right even to knock.

. . . and 3 more for good luck

In a way, he didn’t know who sat behind the door—didn’t know her name, that was—but he nonetheless had every right to knock. She was his Mentor, assigned to train him in the fine art of bringing lovers together. In other words, to officially become—

A Cupid.

Effing Feline here again. Do you have any idea how desperate I am to stay war? I’ll tell you . . . but only if you promise not to tell anyone else. So, promise?

I was . . . I was so darned cold that I . . . I cuddled with the dog to get warm. Remember, don’t tell anyone!

Be sure to visit the other great writers in Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday.

Pandora Uncaged

Pandora Dayle is her family’s black sheep. She’s rebuilt her battered self-respect by working at an isolated facility for saving animals, but her redemption feels as fragile as a dream. She’ll be okay, though, if nothing traumatic happens.

But when the best friend from her innocent childhood arrives, her insecurities mushroom.

Aidan used to be Pandora’s best friend. As an adult, he’s been a policeman and now a Search and Rescue leader. He adored innocent young Pandora so much he judges every woman by her idealized memory . . . and finds them wanting.

But when he rediscovers the real thing, she’s not at all what he expected.

Booker, a naïve Apprentice Cupid for a secret organization, receives his second assignment: get Pandora and Aidan to mate. It should be easy, because they were best friends fifteen years ago. His strategy: Fly Aidan to her island and let nature takes its course.

What could possibly go wrong?

You can’t fight royal romance #mfrwhooks

In Alien Contact for a Christmas Nutcracker, Holly has been hired by the aliens’ king to conduct a performance of The Nutcracker on Christmas Eve. Rafe, the sexy lead dancer, insists on performing a different number on that day. It’s a classic case of:

an irresistible force (Holly’s need to satisfy the king and perform The Nutcracker to save her life’s goal of a musical career)
meeting an immovable object (Rafe’s need to satisfy the queen and fulfill his life’s goal of honoring his ancestors on the Other Earth by dancing a potlatch).

Who will prevail? And by prevailing, will they destroy the chemistry between them?

To find out, you’ll have to read the book.

“I have a secret commission from my queen. Knowing that my life’s work is rekindling the memory of the Old Earth, Queen Elinor commands my troupe to perform a Christmas Eve potlatch as a surprise present for her husband. I danced this arrangement just once, in my youth, so I am recreating everything from memory. It is difficult, but it proceeds well.”

“The queen, eh?” Holly laughed then stopped the sound by covering her mouth with her hand. “You’re kidding.”

That wasn’t the response he’d expected. “Kwadrans do not jape at their royalty. They complain sometimes and gossip incessantly, but never joke. I received the call personally. Hence all plans to dance your little ballet are cancelled.”

“Your comprehension is sunken again, Rafe old boy.” She stood as straight as a totem pole, though her eyes danced alluringly. “King Tro personally hired me to give a performance of The Nutcracker as a surprise present for his wife, also on Christmas Eve.”

Rafe’s eyes went wide. He’d expected opposition from Holly, but not that such a ferocious shark as the king himself would bite into their conversation.

“On the Welcome Centre stage,” she said.

He nodded.

“For the grand opening.”

He curled his lips into a tight line.

“The same stage you think you’re going to use for your potlatch.”

Again he nodded, thinking.

“At the exact same time that your troupe will be dancing The Nutcracker on television. Isn’t that the most romantic thing you ever heard?” She made direct, probing eye contact with him. “You can’t fight royal romance, Rafe. You’ll have to hold your potlatch another day.”

Be sure to visit the hooks by other fine writers in the Book Hooks blog hop.

Alien Contact for a Christmas Nutcracker

The Nutcracker ballet … for and by aliens?

Holly Jansen, a young orchestra conductor down on her luck, is secretly hired by an alien king to conduct The Nutcracker on Kwadra Island as a Christmas present for his American wife. This big break seems like a Christmas miracle. But after she meets the lead dancer, she wonders if it’s a curse, instead . . .

. . . because the queen has secretly ordered Rafe Sekwa, dancer extraordinaire, to produce a native potlatch ceremony honoring her husband’s ancestors — on the same day, time, and stage as The Nutcracker. The stubborn genius is determined to do so no matter what. Soon Holly finds her ambition melting in the face of her growing admiration and love.

Which will she choose — love or her dreams?

Amazon |  Canada | UK | Australia
Apple iBooks
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Effing Feline explains Christmas part 3 #wewriwa

I, Effing Feline, find it tedious to explain things that every cat just knows. You humans get Christmas all wrong.

For example, the day after Christmas. In much of the world, it’s called Boxing Day. In case you don’t know it, that’s a Feline holiday — the day we get to play with all the boxes and wrappings left over from Christmas. So, for all you neat freaks who want to clean up around the tree — don’t. Let your cats play, first!

I continue to tear apart — or as Ed calls it, take snippets from — book 2 of Ed’s Passion Island Trilogy. You’ve met Booker, who is an Apprentice Cupid for a secret eugenics organization. In the middle of the night, he flies Aidan Forester to the remote island where his childhood girlfriend, Pandora, has worked for six years.

In his snippet, Aidan asks Booker why he’s doing this.

“What is it you want me to do? Pandora is one of the best people I’ve ever known, so I warn you, I won’t betray her just because she’s an Eastie and I’m a Westerner.”

Before answering, Booker checked instrument lights on the dashboard and set the automatic pilot. When he turned in his seat to face Aidan, orange light from the instruments cast shadows over his face from below. He looked demonic. Aidan tensed.

But Booker’s words were hesitant. “How can I put this without sounding like some sort of . . . crazy maniac? It’s not the sort of thing one usually asks, you know. Or rather tells. Yes, tells, because it’s very important. You know what I mean, don’t you?”

Frowning, Aidan shook his head

“Oh, dear. Well, then, for the good of the human race, I wish that you — or rather, we wish it, and I’m afraid we must insist — we wish for you to impregnate Pandora Dayle.”

Effing Feline here again. I know it’s not of interest to anyone, but my pet human, Ed, got a belated Christmas present. It turns out he’s been exposed to Covid (whatever that is). The exhibitionist who exposed him is none other than (get this!) his doctor. Now Ed awaits the results of a test of some sort.

Is the test yet another present? Not fair. I want another present, too!

Be sure to visit the other great writers in Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday.

Pandora Uncaged

Pandora Dayle is her family’s black sheep. She’s rebuilt her battered self-respect by working at an isolated facility for saving animals, but her redemption feels as fragile as a dream. She’ll be okay, though, if nothing traumatic happens.

But when the best friend from her innocent childhood arrives, her insecurities mushroom.

Aidan used to be Pandora’s best friend. As an adult, he’s been a policeman and now a Search and Rescue leader. He adored innocent young Pandora so much he judges every woman by her idealized memory . . . and finds them wanting.

But when he rediscovers the real thing, she’s not at all what he expected.

Booker, a naïve Apprentice Cupid for a secret organization, receives his second assignment: get Pandora and Aidan to mate. It should be easy, because they were best friends fifteen years ago. His strategy: Fly Aidan to her island and tell him to impregnate her.

What could possibly go wrong?

She wanted to hug him back #mfrwhooks

In Alien Contact for a Christmas Nutcracker, Holly has been hired by the aliens’ king to conduct a performance of The Nutcracker on Christmas Even. Rafe, the sexy lead dancer has other ideas, which she learns when she watches the dancers rehearse.

The troupe dispersed. Rafe walked toward her, shaking his head. “Well, what do you think?”

From his raised brows and direct, probing eye contact, she guessed this was a test. Was she discerning enough to speak intelligently about what she’d seen, or would he dismiss her as just another philistine, worthy of nothing but a curl of the lip?

“Well, Holly Jansen?” The skeptical rise of his eyebrows warned that he expected her to fail his test. He draped his shirt around his neck, emphasizing his bare chest, which rose and fell as he recuperated from dancing.

His pecs and abs were distracting, so her voice wasn’t as firm as she wished. “It was interesting. The storytelling style is new to me, though, and a bit confusing.”

“Yes, we told a story. But what story?”

“Well, the part where the dancers lined up to give out boxes from the pile reminded me of Christmas—”

“Wrong, wrong.”

“– or maybe a potlatch.”

Potlatches were elaborate ceremonies in which a host invited guests and gave away presents. The parties, which could last days, involved singing, dancing, and telling stories — or at least they had in the old days. The ceremony established your social status — the more you gave away, the more prestige you gained.

Mostly, though, potlatches were the main part of the economy. Instead of accumulating wealth for its own sake, aboriginal people accumulated wealth in order to give it away. Holly thought that was admirable even if it was a kind of boasting. And although potlatches must’ve changed a lot by the other Earth’s twenty-third century, Holly could still recognize one.

Rafe tipped his head back and beamed toward the heavens. “Bravo, Holly, bravo.” He threw his arms around her and hugged.

Kwadrans, she learned, hugged exactly the same as enthusiastic Americans, though perhaps the hug lasted longer. She also learned that after an initial moment of resistance, she wanted to hug him back.

Be sure to visit the hooks by other fine writers in the Book Hooks blog hop.

Alien Contact for a Christmas Nutcracker

The Nutcracker ballet … for and by aliens?

Holly Jansen, a young orchestra conductor down on her luck, is secretly hired by an alien king to conduct The Nutcracker on Kwadra Island as a Christmas present for his American wife. This big break seems like a Christmas miracle. But after she meets the lead dancer, she wonders if it’s a curse, instead . . .

. . . because the queen has secretly ordered Rafe Sekwa, dancer extraordinaire, to produce a native potlatch ceremony honoring her husband’s ancestors — on the same day, time, and stage as The Nutcracker. The stubborn genius is determined to do so no matter what. Soon Holly finds her ambition melting in the face of her growing admiration and love.

Which will she choose — love or her dreams?

Amazon |  Canada | UK | Australia
Apple iBooks
Smashwords
Kobo Books
Barnes and Noble

Effing Feline explain Christmas, part 2 #wewriwa

I, Effing Feline, find it tedious to explain things that every cat just knows. For example, opening presents. In Mr. H.’s house, Christmas wrappings come off with at least a modicum of decorum.  No one care about the paper so much — let ‘er rip! — but if there’s a nice bow or decoration, it must be saved at all costs. And that’s not the way to do it!

I’ll show you the proper, feline way to unwrap after this message from my sponsor, book 2 of Ed’s Passion Island Trilogy, entitled Pandora Uncaged.

Ember has joined a man named Tyler in the lava tube, i.e. a long, tunnel-like cave that the first colonists on planet Addoray had lived in. Here he shares a great discovery with her.

Tyler veered to his left then shone the flashlight at a grey, windowless structure that seemed wildly out of place here, yet so old he could imagine it nowhere else. Objectively speaking, it was just a small, utilitarian building nestled against the cave wall. Subjectively, it was a mystery and a miracle.

“Wow.” Ember’s voice was appropriately hushed in the face of antiquity. “This is old, a hundred years at least — absolutely prehistoric.”

Because of relativity, there could be no contact with Earth. The colonists had arrived here eighty years ago, and that was quite literally the Beginning of History. Old meant the colony’s early days, sixty or seventy years ago. Seven years of cold sleep on the ships had locked the door between Addorayans and prehistoric times—which meant Earth.

(and two more sentences)

To many people in Eastcott, Earth felt as distant as a mythical Garden of Eden that had expelled their ancestors for reasons unknown. A stereotypical Westerner—like Tyler?—believed Addoray was Paradise and Earth was a hell the ancestors had escaped because of moral and intellectual superiority.

Effing Feline here again. Here’s the cat way to open presents. Be sure to do it this way at your Christmas.

Be sure to visit the other great writers in Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday. And remember — Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Pandora Uncaged

Pandora Dayle is her family’s black sheep. She’s rebuilt her battered self-respect by working at an isolated facility for saving animals, but her redemption feels as fragile as a dream. She’ll be okay, though, if nothing traumatic happens.

But when the best friend from her innocent childhood arrives, her insecurities mushroom.

Aidan used to be Pandora’s best friend. As an adult, he’s been a policeman and now a Search and Rescue leader. He adored innocent young Pandora so much he judges every woman by her idealized memory . . . and finds them wanting.

But when he rediscovers the real thing, she’s not at all what he expected.

Booker, a naïve Apprentice Cupid for a secret organization, receives his second assignment: get Pandora and Aidan to mate. It should be easy, because they were best friends fifteen years ago. His strategy: Fly Aidan to her island and leave him there.

What could possibly go wrong?

He’d felt it, too? #mfrwhooks

Recently I watched part of a Hallmark movie featuring a ballerina dancing The Nutcracker — and I choked up and darn near cried. Especially when she danced to a couple of the oboe solos.

You see, for the last eight or nine years, I’ve been down in the orchestra pit, playing oboe for a local ballet troupe, and the movie brought home to me more forcefully than just about anything else how much the pandemic has affected me. How much has been lost. How many good times we’ll never get back.

Don’t get me wrong. Losing a Nutcracker performance is far from the worst thing about the pandemic. It just triggered me.

In Alien Contact for a Christmas Nutcracker, Holly the new conductor, watches the dancers rehearse . . . and she get a rude shock

Within seconds after the bass drum boomed, her heart sank as she realized the dance troupe wasn’t rehearsing The Nutcracker. Or any other ballet, for that matter.

Any ballet of this world, she amended. One by one, a dozen dancers moved in a graceful line as though carrying burdens that they mimed piling them atop the jumble of boxes and then danced to the back of the stage in a brief solo. The steps were more like popular modern dance than ballet, but there were differences. This dance was intent on telling a story rather than showing off the dancers’ moves.

And the story it told was most emphatically not that of Tchaikovsky’s beloved ballet.

“What is –” she began, but pinched her lips shut before saying going on. He’d told her to say nothing, but that wasn’t why she kept her confusion to herself. The best way to handle some guys was to show them you weren’t intimidated and hope they’d respect you rather than declare war.

When he was done and waved his arms to direct his troupe into the next scene, she stomped over to him in a polite, ladylike way and tapped his arm. He hadn’t put his shirt back on, so that meant touching his skin. He was a dancer, though, a tactile person who wouldn’t mind being touched.

He turned to her. “Not a word, remember?” He raised his finger to touch her lips again.

“Don’t do that.” She backed away. “Jeez, why do you have to touch me?”

His lips parted and turned up at the corners. “Because the first time felt so…interesting.”

He’d felt it too? Well, well, well.

Is there a particular pandemic loss that has triggered you?

Be sure to visit the hooks by other fine writers in the Book Hooks blog hop.

Alien Contact for a Christmas Nutcracker

The Nutcracker ballet … for and by aliens?

Holly Jansen, a young orchestra conductor down on her luck, is secretly hired by an alien king to conduct The Nutcracker on Kwadra Island as a Christmas present for his American wife. This big break seems like a Christmas miracle. But after she meets the lead dancer, she wonders if it’s a curse, instead . . .

. . . because the queen has secretly ordered Rafe Sekwa, dancer extraordinaire, to produce a native potlatch ceremony honoring her husband’s ancestors — on the same day, time, and stage as The Nutcracker. The stubborn genius is determined to do so no matter what. Soon Holly finds her ambition melting in the face of her growing admiration and love.

Which will she choose — love or her dreams?

Amazon |  Canada | UK | Australia
Apple iBooks
Smashwords
Kobo Books
Barnes and Noble

Effing Feline explains Christmas part 1 #wewriwa

I, Effing Feline, find it tedious to explain things that every cat just knows. You humans get Christmas all wrong. You buy a tree with branches that are very close together so you can hang up lots of cat toys.

So far, so good. But you put some of the best cat toys waaay up top so they’re hard to play with. What’s up with that?

I continue to tear apart — or as Ed calls it, take snippets from — book 2 of Ed’s Passion Island Trilogy. Editorial schedules dictate a February release.

Two weeks ago, we met Pandora Dayle, who prowled the cages of a wildlife sanctuary for animals native to planet Addoray.

Last week, we met the hero, Aidan, who’s been roused in the middle of the night by a mysterious stranger who flies him to the remote island where Pandora works.

This week, we meet the book’s third major player, Booker — the mysterious, seven-foot tall stranger. Also, his cohort, the even more mysterious blind woman known only as Mentor.

Even with his long legs, the walk from Booker’s office in the Project’s Cupid Wing to hers in the Admin Tunnel took twenty-five minutes. The route was so convoluted he’d needed to load a map into his internal database to find it. Her office was isolated from everything, but then, everything about Mentor was strange.

So strange that Booker fidgeted in front of her door for a few minutes. There was no name on it. If you didn’t already know who sat behind the massive door, you had no right even to knock.

In a way, he didn’t know who sat behind the door — didn’t know her name, that was — but he nonetheless had every right to knock. She was his Mentor, assigned to train him in the fine art of bringing lovers together. In other words, to become —

A Cupid.

Effing Feline here again. I’m proud to report, that intrepid cats everywhere have overcome human stupidity. Any Christmas tree that’s too hard to climb will end up like this one:

Be sure to visit the other great writers in Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday.

Pandora Uncaged

Tentative title, tentative blurb

Pandora Dayle is her family’s black sheep. She’s rebuilt her battered self-respect by working at an isolated facility for saving animals, but her redemption feels as fragile as a dream. She’ll be okay, though, if nothing traumatic happens.

But when the best friend from her innocent childhood arrives, her insecurities mushroom.

Aidan used to be Pandora’s best friend. As an adult, he’s been a policeman and now a Search and Rescue leader. He adored innocent young Pandora so much he judges every woman by her idealized memory . . . and finds them wanting.

But when he rediscovers the real thing, she’s not at all what he expected.

Booker, a naïve Apprentice Cupid for a secret organization, receives his second assignment: get Pandora and Aidan to mate. It should be easy, because they were best friends fifteen years ago. His strategy: Fly Aidan to her island and tell him to impregnate her.

What could possibly go wrong?