Roxanne Rhoads's Blog, page 294

Guest Blog and Giveaway -Isle of Savages by T. Briar

Have you heard the story behind Isle of Savages?
Hi, there. My name is T. Briar, the author of Isle of Savages. Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to drop by to visit with me. I really appreciate it.

Now I have a few confessions to make… Isle of Savages isn’t my first published book. As a matter of fact, I’ve published twelve other books in a different genre.

You see, I never really had any aspirations of becoming a thriller writer even though I’ve always loved the adrenaline rush the genre provides. Yep, survival tales rank especially high on my reading list. 

You probably know the kind of tale I’m talking about. It’s always set in some sort of dark and foreboding environment where the threat of imminent death looms around each unexpected twist in the story. And you just know that with one accidental misstep the hero’s and heroine’s lives will end in bloodshed. Without a doubt, those are my absolute favorite kind of thrillers to read.

But still, I never thought the genre was for me as a writer. I mean, when I first started writing, life sort of pushed me in the other direction. And, after many years of dedication to learning the craft of writing, I finally got a book published. Other books followed the first. One of them even became an Amazon Bestseller.

So how in the world did I ever come to write Isle of Savages since I’m adamant that I never thought I’d write something so different from my usual genre?

Well, it’s not that complicated an answer. I saw Eric in my mind’s eye, lying face-down in wave-wash, coughing and sputtering, simply trying to live.

At the time, my only thought was: What in the world happened to you, buddy?

When he didn’t answer right away, I decided to take a closer look to see what was going on with him. Yeah, just call me a Good Samaritan because I couldn’t let him or his story die on that beach, all alone in the dark. 

To my immense surprise, by the third page I was completely hooked on the story. I quickly discovered that Eric was only seventeen years old and had shipwrecked along with a group of students on a seemingly deserted island. That he was desperate to reconnect with his only friends amongst the students, Mia and Keri. But the girls are nowhere to be seen.

 To make matters even worse, the despicable captain and his watchdog of a first mate have survived also. Those two villains have sinister plans for Eric, Mia, and Keri, as well as the other students, if they can only catch them. 

The hair-raising chills and thrills that followed was especially exciting to write.  On one hand, the captain and first mate are treacherous adversaries for the trio. On the other hand, the subhuman savages proved themselves even more treacherous as they start collecting what the storm has delivered. No one was ever really safe and it was a race to the finish to see who would live and who would die. And yes, people did die on the island. Some even died badly.

To be totally honest, once I’d finished writing it, I reread it and thought it a pulse-pounding story, full of unexpected twists and turns, and adrenaline-filled to the very end. 

But what was I ultimately going to do with it? I wasn’t a thriller writer. I’d always written in that other genre.

As it turned out, I agonized for over two weeks before sending it in. I finally decided I couldn’t not send it in. Lea Schizas, my publisher and editor, said she’d take it on and here we are. Only a little over a year later and it’s made it to publication. 

Now you know the story behind the story. 

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. One last confession to go. In that other genre, I go by the name of Thomas Briar. 

Thanks again for visiting with me today! 

Isle of SavagesT. Briar
Genre: New Adult Action Suspense Thriller
Publisher: MuseItUp Publishing
Date of Publication: June 13, 2017
eBook ISBN: 978-1-77127-926-0ASIN: B07195LTB8
Number of pages: 220Word Count: 59,400 words
Cover Artist: Eerilyfair Design
Tagline: Eleven souls are shipwrecked on an island teeming with sub-human cannibals. Who will survive to tell the tale?
Book Description:
On July 20, 20— a charter school’s sponsored sail from San Diego to Hawaii hits a reef during a violent storm. Sixteen souls abandon ship. Nine students, along with the hated captain and first mate, wash up on what they believe is a deserted island.Separated into three groups by circumstance and mutual distrust, treachery and death lurks for all. Over the course of a single day, one student betrays all the others. Another drowns. Two others get ambushed by a great white shark. And, like falling dominoes, the captain, first mate, and six students fall prey to a tribe of bloodthirsty cannibals.
In the face of almost certain death, who will escape from the isle of savages to tell the tale?
MuseItUp    Amazon     BN    iTunes    Kobo
Excerpt: Date: July 20, 20—General Location: Pacific OceanDefinitive Longitude and Latitude: UnknownThrough strangled, sputtering coughs, Eric Kovac’s eyelids flickered open to stark darkness. He lay face down in receding wave-wash, naked except for a pair of board shorts, drenched to the bone. A tortuous grittiness seared the tender linings of his mouth, nose, and throat; pain wracked his body, inside and out. As he struggled to make sense of his peril, the sound of crashing waves thundered. A sudden rush of warm saltwater buried him underwater.Choking and coughing violently, he forced himself up onto his hands and knees, stomach clenching in excruciating spasms as he vomited up great bouts of saltwater. Although the purging left him weak—on the verge of blacking out—it cleared the irritating sand from his breathing passages. Survival instinct, more than cognizant reasoning, sent him crawling up the shoreline. After only a few feet, his battered body could go no further and he collapsed onto wet sand while his feet and legs still lay in the incoming tide.The sound of crashing waves slowly returned, and with it, the recognition of something new. Wind buffeted his body from all directions…storm-washed, freshly cleansed wind. Beneath the dizziness threatening to overwhelm him, he had only one coherent thought.What happened to me?For the life of him, he couldn’t remember how he’d come to be on this beach, hurting and possibly grievously injured. Despite the horrendous pain, he rolled over onto his side to lift himself on an elbow and scan the darkness for clues.In the edge of the surf, a dark silhouette resembling the shape of a human body floated, the incoming and outgoing surf pushing and pulling at it. It was a tossup as to which would win the tug of war.Instantly, the memory of the ship’s boom careening into his forehead materialized out of nowhere. In something akin to shock, distorted memories of the chain of events leading up to the blow that had laid him low flitted through his mind…The storm had come out of the northwest late yesterday evening, the leading edge blue-black and roiling. It’d chased after them relentlessly, finally howling down on their sixty-foot blue water cruiser in the middle of the night, crackling long streaks of lightening that were blinding in their frequency and intensity. Fierce winds and towering waves tossed the yacht to and fro as if it were a toy. Deafening claps of thunder reverberated through the vessel to drown out the terrified shrieks of the sixteen students cowering below deck. Then, without warning, when only the tiniest tendril of hope remained, the yacht ran into something, cementing their fate—That’s right! We’d run from the storm well into the night, hoping to angle out of its path to safety. But we hit something…Snapshots flashed through his mind, one after the other in quick succession: the sickening crunch of fiberglass shattering; the non-stop rush of water breaching the hull; the ear-splitting cries of his classmates’ despair; the captain ordering everyone from below deck to abandon ship; the screeching wind and stinging rain above deck merciless; brilliant veins of lightening illuminating the pitch blackness to reveal the shoreline of an island; so much water in the air, breathing seemed almost impossible; a boy and a girl at the very end of the line of joined hands snatched up like kites and flung out into darkness; the terrifying fear that the rest of the line would quickly follow; the glassy, shock-stricken stares of his classmates waiting their turn to be helped over the side into the life raft; the white boom breaking loose from its mooring and whipping toward him; trying to duck and almost making it; total blackness…Eric, trembling in the aftershock of surviving the impossible and being grateful simply to be alive, remembered something else…there had been a girl he was intent upon saving…and one of her friends. He’d helped them into the raft right before his accident. But what were their names? Who were they to him?He concentrated on summoning their faces, unable to shake the feeling they had been his close friends, or perhaps, one of them had been more than a friend.Slowly, like gooey fluid forced through a half-clogged strainer, the image of a dark-haired girl—seventeen years old and of Asian-American descent—with a beautiful oval face, olive skin, and dark eyes took form in his mind’s eye. The face of a pretty, blue-eyed blonde with curly, shoulder-length hair quickly followed.Mia! I was trying to save Mia Miller! And her best friend, Keri Shaw!Peering at the floating body again, a burst of adrenaline coursed through his veins, energizing him into action. The sickening hollowness in his stomach and the aches in his body disappeared. He flipped back over onto hands and knees to scramble toward the dark silhouette in the white surf. As of yet, he couldn’t tell if the body was male or female.Please don’t let it be Mia. Please, anyone but her.His eyes made out what he thought looked like the muscled back and arms of a young man and his fear receded…somewhat. Grasping the corpse by the hair of its head, he lifted the face out of the water to ascertain that it wasn’t Mia—instead was Charles Darry, a Low Country kid from South Carolina. He’d been the only other Southern student on their cruise of horrors, which had given Eric and him something singularly in common, although they had never become what one would call friends. He released Charles, frantically glancing around the darkness.“Mia!” he attempted to yell, but the name came out strangled and weak. He tried again and it came out clearer and louder this time.
“Eric!” answered a frightened, high-pitched voice. “I’m over here!”
About the Author:
Always striving for pulse-pounding action, sitting-on-the-edge-of-your-seat suspense, and hair-raising thrills, T. Briar’s mainstream thriller writing places courageous heroes and heroines in the fight of their lives against the elements, hostile surroundings, morally bankrupt villains, and any other obstacles T. can think of.
But be warned, once the wheels are set into motion with the first sentence, it’s a twisting, turning journey to the end to see who lives and who dies. And make no mistake, someone’s going to die. Some will even die badly. That’s just the way it is when fighting for survival under perilous conditions. The only question is: Will it be the heroes and heroines, or the villains?
T. Briar’s target audience is New Adults who boldly step up to meet life’s challenges with the confidence of youth urging them on.
Please checkout T. Briar’s page at http://thomasbriar.com to find out more about T. and his thriller writings.

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Playlist - Broken Angel by Amanda Jones

I need to get in the right head space to write paranormal romance, and nothing gets me to that dramatic (or melodramatic…depending upon who you ask!) place better than music!  
If you were to peruse my playlists you’d probably be wondering if I had multiple personalities – kinda like every genre threw up into my Spotify account.  
I love all kinds of tunes, from angsty grunge to alternative, classic rock, and the stinkiest of pop fromage!  So with no further delay I share with you, dear reader, some of my favorite songs to play while writing battle scenes and tortured love.  
I’ve also included a few of the Devil’s favorites – if you’ve read the books you’ll know which ones I mean!!!  

Spotify Playlist for The Fallen Chronicles 

Broken AngelThe Fallen ChroniclesBook TwoAmanda Jones
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: New Concepts Publishing
Cover Artist:  Jenny Dixon
Tagline: Dancing with the Devil…
Book Description:
Mara is a beautiful and talented surgeon with everything going for her…at least on the surface.  She has a dark secret she has kept buried for centuries.
Bataryal is a fallen angel broken beyond repair…or so it seems.
Will the beautiful surgeon who saved his life also be able to redeem him, or will Bataryal’s damaged soul lead them both into the depths of Hell…
New Concepts Publishing Excerpt 2
Mara flopped back on the pillows. B crawled back up her body, tucking a stray red curl behind her ear as he smiled down at her.            “So? Was that okay?”  He asked.            Mara chuckled.  “If that was any more okay I think my heart would have started beating again.  You’re definitely a fast learner and you do good work, sir.”            B gave her a cocky smile.  “We’re just getting started, darling.”
            “I was hoping you’d say that.”  Mara said with a wink.

Dark Angel
The Fallen Chronicles 
Book 1
Amanda Jones

Genre: Paranormal/Fantasy Romance

Publisher: New Concepts Publishing

Date of Publication: March 29, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-60394-970-5

Number of pages: 141 
Word Count: 81,321

Cover Artist: Jenny Dixon

Tagline: With this fallen angel it never felt so good to be bad!

Book Description: 

Katia may be a celebrated musician, but she'd always felt a little like an outsider looking in. Who knew that being abducted by a handsome stranger would set her on a crash course with her destiny...

Luc has spent an eternity keeping everyone and everything at a distance as an unstoppable darkness consumes his soul. Will his beautiful captive be his salvation, or will they both be consumed by the ultimate evil...

New Concepts Publishing          Amazon
Excerpt 3

“Are you okay?” Katia said, standing in the doorway of the bathroom.
Turning his head towards the sound of her voice, Luc was struck dumb yet again, but for an entirely new reason.  Katia was leaning with one shoulder against the doorframe, the steam from the bathroom hung in the air behind her like mist.  She was wearing the oversized white t-shirt from earlier, but now it hung loose covering the tops of her thighs, but leaving the rest of her thin, toned legs bare.  Her wet hair hung in one long braid over the front of one shoulder.  Luc’s mouth watered as he imagined tracing that phoenix tattoo with his tongue.  With her doe-like mismatched eyes, fine features, and small, thin body, she looked like an otherworldly princess that had wandered out of her fairy tale and found herself in this awful motel.  Luc’s breath caught in his throat.  
“Yup, everything’s good,” he said in a strangled voice.

Giving him a dubious look, Katia headed towards the bed, pulled back the covers and sat down leaning back against the headboard.  Luc turned back to the mirror, watching her in it as she flipped her braid over her shoulder and leaned her head back with a sigh.  Locking eyes with his own reflection, Luc started to mentally panic.  There was a small problem — well, not a small problem, and it was getting bigger.  


About the Author: 


Add captionAmanda Jones lives in Toronto with her exceptionally spoiled pets.  Aside from sharing her crazy imagination with others through her books Amanda enjoys travelling and frequent Netflix binges.  Amanda has worked in several fields including sports, music, film, corporate human resources, and is a graduate of York University and Sheridan College.

Website: www.amandajonesauthor.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/darkangelauthor/

Twitter: @AmandaLJ1981 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14761429.Amanda_Jones


Amazon Author Central: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0196WYYRW

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The Dragon’s Playlist by Laura Bickle

The Dragon’s PlaylistLaura Bickle
Genre: Contemporary Fantasy
ISBN: 9781537891965
From the author of THE HALLOWED ONES and NINE OF STARS comes a new novel blending the magical and the real…
“This is war,” the dragon said. And she believed him.
Di fled rural West Virginia to study music and pursue a bright future as a violinist. But when a mining accident nearly kills her father, she is summoned back home to support her family. Old ghosts and an old flame emerge from the past. When Di gets a job as a bookkeeper at the same mine where her father worked, she is drawn into a conflict pitting neighbor against neighbor as the mine plans an expansion to an untouched mountain.
If the mining company’s operation goes forward, there will be more at stake than livelihoods or the pollution of the land: Di has discovered a dragon lives deep within Sawtooth Mountain, and he is not happy with this encroachment upon his lair. When catastrophe strikes, Di must choose between her family’s best interests and protecting the dragon – the last surviving bit of magic in Di’s shrinking world.
In every fight, sides are chosen. And there can be no yearning for what has been left behind.
Read 2 New Chapters Free Each Week Starting June 1at Wattpad andhttps://www.facebook.com/Author.Laura.BickleFull eBook Available at 


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About the Author:
Laura Bickle grew up in rural Ohio, reading entirely too many comic books out loud to her favorite Wonder Woman doll. After graduating with an MA in Sociology-Criminology from Ohio State University and an MLIS in Library Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she patrolled the stacks at the public library and worked with data systems in criminal justice. She now dreams up stories about the monsters under the stairs. Her work has been included in the ALA’s Amelia Bloomer Project 2013 reading list and the State Library of Ohio’s Choose to Read Ohio reading list for 2015-2016.
More information about Laura’s work can be found at 
www.laurabickle.com
https://twitter.com/Laura_Bickle   
https://www.facebook.com/Author.Laura.Bickle

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Playlist - Guest Blog - Lady Knight by T. Nathan Mosley

Hello everyone!
First, many thanks to Fang-tastic Books for their support in allowing me to make this guest blog. My name is Nathan Mosley, the author of Lady Knight. While Lady Knight is my first novel, I do have several other works in progress and I’m excited to share what will likely be the first of many with you all.
Music is a driving force behind my writing. Without it, I’m almost incapable of writing. That said, I’d like to share with you all the exact playlist I listened to while writing Lady Knight. 
On repeat. Over and over. Until the book was finished. 
It’s available on Spotify, here: https://open.spotify.com/user/1220647428/playlist/2PhJATJHWgPSE7eiDT88hk

Writing Lady Knight was a uniquely surreal experience for me. I’d written things before, of course. Poems, short stories, the beginnings of what would ultimately end up in the trash, and more. But having a finished product, something I’m proud of and extremely excited to share… Well, there’s a first time for everything I suppose. 
I like to think of Lady Knight as an introduction. A prologue. It’s the first book in The Knight Case, but it’s more than that. In it, you’ll find all the characters that the remainder of the series will be about. It doesn’t tell their story fully, and couldn’t come close to doing so. Certainly, Lady Knight has all the pieces of a complete story. It could likely stand on its own, if there wasn’t so much more I wanted to share with everyone. With the rest of the series, I want to be able to give every character their dues. They’ve done so much for me by allowing Lady Knight to exist that I must pay them back somehow.
That said, I do have a bit I would like to share with everyone about the future of the series. Knight Captain, the second book in the series is still being written, but I can share that it will focus on Knight Captain Emil, who has several threads in Lady Knight that need to be tied off. The third book in the series, Detective Knight, will return to the primary character of Lady Knight. The events of Lady Knight have left her world in a completely different place, and her place within the world has drastically changed. The fourth and fifth books are still in the planning stages, but we’ll see familiar faces from Lady Knight, Knight Captain, and Detective Knight again in those.
So, hopefully you’ll be able to join me on this wonderful adventure that is The Knight Case and Lady Knight.
For anyone who reads the book, I encourage you to contact me in any way you can. There are links to all my social media accounts in this post, and I’d love to hear from you, even if you absolutely despised the book. I want all my readers to feel like they’re part of the story too, and being able to provide me with feedback is vital to that endeavor.
Thank you for reading, and again, many thanks to Fang-tastic Books. I look forward to hearing from you all and can’t wait to do this again.
Nathan

Lady KnightThe Knight CaseBook OneT. Nathan Mosley
Genre: Fantasy/Urban Fantasy
Date of Publication: January 27th, 2017
ISBN: 9781520470863ASIN: B01N26OWAV
Number of pages: 229Word Count: 84,819
Cover Artist: Ruben G. Ramos
Book Description:
Detective Cameron Knight does not believe in magic. It's kind of hard to when you're a single(-ish) mother in a high stress job that pulls you from bed at all hours of the night. One of these nights, though, Cameron encounters a magician. Not one of those guys who pulls rabbits out of hats, but a real, true magician. Of course she doesn't believe it. Until Mathias reveals to her a world that is full of magic, Knights, kings, and more.
Following the writings of one of the most powerful magicians to have ever lived, Mathias escaped to Earth, running from Knight Captain Emil Rouland. Emil has been tasked with bringing Mathias before the King of Draeca to face the King's justice.
But Marek, a magician and enemy of Mathias, has other ideas. He sees this as his big break to finally exact his revenge on Mathias and become the hero he's always wanted to be. Little do they all know, however, the cost of traveling between Earth and Draeca has a terrible cost.
The fate of both worlds will hang in the balance as Vee, a being of immense power and evil, plots to conquer one, or both, of the worlds.  Amazon     Amazon Paperback
Excerpt: "We found someone - a man. He's... not quite right, and he's got this weird costume on. Said he knew about the explosion. Thought you'd want to try talking to him." The kid said. Cameron exchanged a look with Kim and pulled the cigarette from her mouth, sighing. It would have to wait."Alright, where is he?" Kim said. "Over talking to the paramedics, they're saying it's dementia, uh, maybe caused by shock or something. I'm not a doctor.""That's what we pay them the big bucks for. Good work, uh..." Cameron inspected the officer's name badge, "Officer Winsley. Off you go." Cameron nodded to him and patted him on the shoulder as she blew past him, heading for the ambulance. The 'costume' Winsley had reported was actually a set of long, flowing green and gold robes that draped off the man. A heavy cloak was set about the man's shoulders, and he spoke calmly to one of the paramedics as they asked him questions."My eyesight is perfectly fine, madam. This is the third time you've put that lightstick into my face - I kindly request that you cease immediately." The man said, and the paramedic looked to the detectives with a shrug. "He checks out. No signs of drug use that I can see, physically healthy, just..." The paramedic made a spinning motion with her hand, one finger pointing at her head. "He's all yours." She said.The man stood as the detectives approached, his head bowing to them so deeply it bent his shoulders and torso towards them. "I know not who you are, but please allow me to thank you for getting that... vulture, away from me. Poking and prodding with her..." he waved a hand, "instruments." The man was strikingly handsome, and Cameron couldn't help but notice how focused and intense his blue eyes were as he regarding them. His black hair was slicked back with some sort of gel, and it was cut close to his head - just long enough to be styled and flare out slightly behind his ears and along the back of his neck. "That's her job." Kim said as Cameron took the time to light her cigarette, puffing on it as Kim continued, "She's a paramedic. She wanted to make sure you were okay.""Ah, a healer! I beg pardon, I did not understand her ways, and this word... 'paramedic'. It is foreign to me," he said, a look of worry crossing his face. "Please, assure her I am quite alright. Perfect in all of my faculties," he paused as Kim and Cameron shared another look, "Well, except, I cannot seem to find my staff, but it will turn up sooner or later I suppose.""Alright, cut it out. Enough of the jokes," Cameron said, and the man frowned at her in confusion, "How about we start from the beginning. Who are you, what are you doing here, and what do you know about the explosion?"The man's face brightened some, and he swept into a low bow, leg forward and one hand on his chest as the other swept out to one side. "I am Mathias, Lord of the House of Relain, personal magician to His Majesty King Lerrad Olmsith of the Kingdom of Draeca, and..." Mathias frowned, "Well, that is who I used to be. I am now an outlaw by decree of King Lerrad, but I suppose that is not what you are inquiring about. I brought myself here as I was fleeing from his soldiers - you understand I am sure, it is difficult to corner a magician," he finished with a wink at Kim. Cameron put a hand on Kim's arm as she took a long drag from her cigarette, stopping Kim from decking the wacko. "Alright, let me get this straight. You're, what, some sort of wizard? And you want us to believe that you brought yourself here, using...""Magic, yes, of course. The signs are evident," Mathias said, nodding towards the warehouse. "My apologies about the, ah, building there. An unintended side effect of my hastily constructed spell. I believe in my haste I may have made a mistake in the incantation. It would also explain the disappearance of my staff..." He said, his tone turning thoughtful as he spoke."Can you give us a moment?" Cameron asked."But of course," Mathias said, bowing his head towards them again.The detectives stepped away from the man and Cameron dropped her cigarette, smashing it into the pavement with her shoe. "Okay. What the hell." She said."He's clearly lost his mind. The explosion knocked him into something and he snapped," Kim said."He didn't have a mark on him, Kim. No dust, no ash, nothing," Cameron pointed out."Well, okay, but - wait, you're not saying you actually believe him?""No, of course not! Magic and spells and kings... Ridiculous, of course. Okay, how about this: He sets a bomb, gets clear, and then the shock of what he's done makes him conjure some crazy fantasy.""What, like repression or something?" Kim said, glancing back at Mathias - if that was even his name. He was standing patiently, watching them with his hyper-focused eyes and his hands clasped behind his back."Yeah. Maybe it started before he even knew what he was doing. Got caught up in his fantasy and doesn't really know what's going on.""Okay. Works for me. How do we handle him?"
"Play along, for now." Cameron said, frowning towards Mathias. He returned her frown with a wide, toothless grin. She looked back at Kim and sighed, pulling another cigarette from her pocket. "It's gonna be a long night."
About the Author:
T. Nathan Mosley was born and raised in Woodstock, Georgia. He is an avid fantasy and science fiction fan and gamer. He lives in Roanoke, Virginia with his two cats and dog that he tries constantly to avoid spoiling too much. His primary genres include general fantasy and urban fantasy, though he has played with the idea of science fiction on occasion. He is currently studying to become a professor of mathematics.
Blog: http://blog.tnmosleybooks.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tnmosleybooks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tnmosleybooks/



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Ancient Heat by Kira Shayde

Ancient HeatThe FollowersBook OneKira Shayde
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Kira Shayde
Date of Publication: June 10, 2017
ASIN: B0716SK1XHISBN:  978-0-9990183-0-9
Number of pages:       379Word Count: 94,400
Cover Artist: Kira Shayde
Tagline: When evil follows, the brave can no longer run and hide.
Book Description:
Her mind is in another woman’s body…and the other woman is a werelion.

Nicole Abramson gains more than razor-sharp claws and a taste for raw meat. With a latent telekinetic talent, she’s a weapon to be used in a millennia-long war, but will she serve or resist? Fighting for her life, Nicole rails against the thief who stole her ordinary and safe life, even as she seeks comfort from the woman’s intended mate, the gorgeous Sander Evans.

Although drawn to her outspokenness, Sander keeps Nicole at bay while he defends his clan. Werelions and humans don’t mix, yet he can’t deny the passion igniting between them, particularly with her body in heat. But as the danger around them amplifies, they’ll need more than courage and strength to fight for their newfound attraction—and their lives.

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Excerpt 1
Stretching, Nicole slid her hand across smooth, slippery satin sheets. Odd. She never slept on her stomach. Her eyes flew open. She didn’t own satin sheets.The approaching footsteps gave her little warning.“Marsi, you can’t sleep all day,” a man chided in a deep voice she didn’t recognize.Acute stress tends to trigger fight or flight. Neither response was possible unless hyperventilating was considered a form of fighting and bumping into the headboard was a form of fleeing. Clutching the sheet to her chest, she rolled over, and her gaze zeroed in on a man in his late twenties or early thirties. Two words came to mind: blond and built.He tilted his head. His sandy-blond hair, burnished with highlights, draped across his face as if he’d just prepped for a fashion shoot. Tight T-shirt and fitted jeans outlined incredible male perfection. On any normal day, he’d make her thighs clench.But who was he?Her focus darted around the room—tall chest of drawers, Victorian-style chair, heavy drapes—before returning to the man, who regarded her with a quizzical arch of his eyebrows.“New game of yours?” he asked with a playful smile.Yes, if by game, he meant waking up in a stranger’s bedroom with no memory of how she’d gotten there. She zipped through possible explanations. Went home with the guy after too many drinks at a bar? Nope, she’d stayed home and binge-watched Netflix. Rescued by a good Samaritan after an accident? Eh, that only happened in the movies. Captured by a Greek god to be his sex slave? Sadly, probably not.Fantasy man’s smile faded to a confused frown as he sat on the bed.
Heart racing, she closed her eyes, counted to three, and tentatively reopened them. Still there. And this close, she couldn’t ignore his vibrant blue eyes, lush lashes, or the slight crook in his nose that gave his otherwise perfect face a touch of rugged masculinity. Not to mention the killer cheekbones.
About the Author:
As a paranormal romance writer, Kira Shayde explores somewhat atypical pairings and settings and can’t help adding a twinge of societal awareness to her works, but the focus is always on the developing romance, passion, and happy endings.
Kira enjoys studying love, sex, and relationships, and has a thing for shapeshifters, demons, mythological gods, and the fae. On a personal level, she is devoted to animal and ecological conservation…and devil's food cake.
http://www.kirashayde.com
https://www.facebook.com/kirashayde.author
https://www.twitter.com/kirashayde
https://www.instagram.com/kirashayde
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8319459.Kira_Shayde

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Interview - Slipspace: Harbinger by P.C. Haring

1. What inspired your story?

Slipspace Harbinger, and the entire Slipspace universe as a whole can find its greatest inspiration in the writings of the Star Trek franchise.  I grew up watching The Next Generation and while I cannot say that I fully understood each episode I saw at the time, the show captured my imagination in a way nothing else ever has.   Over time, shows like Babylon 5, and the rebooted Battlestar Galactica helped to inject some grit and realism into the idealistic world of the Enterprise and in the end Slipspace came to be.

2. Is the setting to your story important?

I would consider the setting to be extremely important to Slipspace: Harbinger.  While the basic themes surrounding duty, love, survival, and family can be universally applied, the setting is one of the defining elements of the Space Opera genre.  Whether in the visual or written media, a consumer of space opera has come to expect certain things, the lack of which, could blur the lines between genre and subgenre.  At its core, this story could be told in almost any genre you wanted.   But the grand vistas of exotic planets and larger than life starships are just as much an element of the story as the characters, without which, the entire feel and tone of the narrative would be different.

3. What genres do you normally write in?

For the most part, I stick to Science Fiction, Cyberpunk, and Space Opera.   I have either written or co-written a pair of Steampunk short stories for an anthology and while it has been fun to dabble in that genre, I’ve also found that it’s far more difficult for me to write.   I tend to lean towards the future applications of technology as it captures my imagination and drives me in ways nothing else does.

4. Is there a genre you haven’t written in that one day you’d like to tackle?

That’s difficult to say for certain.  I have been playing with a couple of concepts that I can’t seem to properly spin into a Sci-Fi genre or subgenre.   They seem to fit better into an urban fantasy environment and while I’m not opposed to writing in that genre, I’m not entirely convinced that I would have anything effective to add that hasn’t already been done.    But with all things, time will tell.

5. What was the first book you ever published? (This is a good time to mention your backlist)

My first novel was Cybrosis: A Codename CIRIS Conspiracy.  It is a near future Cyberpunk that I’d describe as “The Ghost in the Shell Anime meets James Bond.”   The story follows Ciris, an agent for the government and the world’s first fully converted cyborg, as she pursues a wanted hacker terrorist.   However, she finds the tables turned on her when the terrorist seems to infect her with a cybernetic virus designed specifically to target her classified systems and the deeper she dives into her investigation, she finds herself caught in the middle of a deadly game of truth and lies.  It was published in 2010 as a stand-alone piece, but over time I’ve come to develop that world a bit more deeply and have started outlines for the next two books in that series.   I don’t have target dates for those at this time, but I do hope to be tackling the draft of book 2 sometime in 2017 or early 2018 and I am very excited to reacquaint myself with these characters.

6. What was the craziest thing you’ve ever done when it came to a storyline in your book?

I’m currently working on a work in process set in modern day Chicago and while the project is still being developed, I do know that this will likely be a story told in a nonlinear manner.   Flashbacks are a common literary device, of course, but as I noodle through the outline I suspect that the two main characters will be telling their stories in a way that I’ve never tried to tell it, with just as much of the story being told in the ‘present’, as in the ‘past’.  I’m both nervous and excited to see how this project turns out.

Slipspace: HarbingerBook 1P.C. Haring
Genre:  Sci-Fi/Space Opera
Date of Publication: 5/1/17
ISBN: 978-1545253663ASIN: B06Y4MW2VT
Number of pages: 336Word Count: 110,600
Cover Artist: Starla Hutchton
Tagline:  The War went cold a decade ago…
Book Description:
A fringe colony world has gone dark, and Captain Cody Amado and the crew of the ISPA’s newest battle cruiser, Mjöllnir, must respond and investigate. No one is prepared for the destruction that awaits them.
Agendas collide as the bonds of duty, loyalty, and family are tested, and the major governments position themselves to prepare for what is to come next. With interstellar tensions rising, the crew of the Mjöllnir race to discover the connection between the colony’s destruction, an alien society so reclusive it has only been rumored about, and an enemy that disappeared a decade prior.
Is this merely an isolated incident, or is this a harbinger of much darker things still to come?
Amazon Excerpt:
October 13, 283206:30Mjöllnir - Captains Quarters
Morning came too soon for the Amados, much to Nira’s chagrin.  Together, she and Cody made their way through the endless corridors.  With the Mjöllnir just a few minutes out from Artez, the decks were buzzing with activity as the crew prepared for as many contingencies as could be planned.  They exchanged a brief kiss before going their separate ways- Nira towards the Med-deck and Cody  to OpCom as Cassie’s voice echoed through the ship’s public address system announcing their pending arrival and setting the ship at condition two.  He stepped through the hatch and found the ship’s command center no exception to the activity about the rest of the ship.  The traffic on deck paused to give the Captain room to move to his station and log in.  “Give me a sit-rep,” The Captain ordered.Cassie stepped to the opposite side of the central station.  She betrayed no anger or frustration.  Any animosity she had towards him lay buried behind as much professionalism she could muster.“We can’t find an exit aperture. According to navigational charts, we’re well within range of the outer guide-buoys, but there’s no sign of them.  We’ve also tried to raise the gate on comms, but no luck.”“Deploy a replacement buoy,” he spoke to Cassie.  “We’ll have to make a blind exit.  Hopefully it won’t be in the middle of an engagement.”  He paused and reviewed the data.  “Still, best be prepared.”  He stepped away from the console and turned to the deck.  “Sound General Quarters!  Set condition one throughout the ship!”The order relayed through the chain of command.  The Mjöllnir’s klaxon rang out only seconds later and the already busy decks burst into further action.  Two minutes later, Cassie turned from her console.  “All rail positions are manned and armed.  Main cannons are charging.  ECM is charging and calibrated full negative; frequency coverage at ninety seven percent.  Replacement nav-com buoy has been deployed.  ETA to Artez...,” she paused to check her watch. “Three minutes.”“Good work.”“Captain, we’re close enough to pick up preliminary data,” the navigator reported.  “Without the buoy, we’re without detail, but I’m detecting over one hundred separate energy signatures.  The data is too obscure to plot an exit trajectory.”The display in front of Cody updated, a wave of distortion sweeping out from center, erasing old information and leaving new data in its wake.  “There go my hopes of not walking into a fight,” Cody muttered.  “Pilot, overshoot the combat area!  Tear us an exit to normal space and double back!”“Aye, Skipper!”The deck rumbled as the ship tore itself into normal space.  Without the aid of a functioning gate, the transition came with far more violence.  The ship shuddered and bucked, throwing both Amados off balance, and a few crewmen to the deck.  Cody and Melor exchanged looks of tepid relief.  He noted that even as an emergency maneuver, one within the ship’s tolerances, the blind exit always carried dangerous risk.  Power transitioned to the Mjöllnir’s sub light engines as the pilots brought her about and proceeded on course at flank speed.  As they approached the edge of the zone, the first signs of debris floated past the ship.  The pilot and navigator avoided it with ease but soon found the ship surrounded by hull fragments from broken fighters.  This was no surprise as fighter wings always took high casualties.“ECM to full, activate all fixed weapon positions and roll the Gryphons onto the tarmac,” Cassie ordered.  Cody continued to study the out-of-focus holograms on the central display.  The objects still showed as general spheres, indicating the sensor’s inability to obtain a full resolution scan.“Can we clear up this interference any time soon?” Cassie asked.In response, Melor turned to a secondary console.  “I’m trying, Commander.  There are a lot of cross signals out there preventing us from getting a full resolution scan on the area.”  She transferred a data module from one console to another.  The device whirred to life as she accessed its programming.  “However,” she muttered as she worked, “I have a couple of algorithms up my sleeve.  I’m bringing them online right...”At the same time, all screens and displays showing the battle zone refreshed to show its data at full resolution.  Melor, Aler, and both Amados looked to the center and watched.  “My God,” Cassie muttered.No one responded.  Everyone’s eyes locked on the displays and the sensor returns.  Op-Com fell silent save for the humming of the ship’s engines and the beeping of the computers.  No one moved, as they stood locked in a trance of awe and horror.  The Mjöllnir’s engines powered down as they arrived at the coordinates.  What should have been a fully functional slipgate was little more than a field of burning hulk and slag.  “The station...it’s just gone,” Cassie said, to no one in particular.After what seemed like an eternity, Melor turned back to her console.  “Sensors are detecting no weapon signatures, no power signatures...”
“This isn’t a battle zone,” Cody stated. “It’s a graveyard.”
About the Author:
A fan of Science Fiction from an early age P.C. Haring has always been one of those who looked up at the night sky and wondered “what if…”
P.C. Haring made his debut as a writer and podcast novelist on 01/01/10 with Cybrosis. This production met with a strongly favorable response that propelled it to number four on the Podiobooks.com Top Ten list when it was re-launched there that October. His audio fiction can also be heard in Scott Sigler’s The Crypt: Book 1 — The Crew and in Philippa Ballantine’s Chronicles of the Order anthology. His contribution for Tales from the Archives, co-produced by Philippa Ballantine and Tee Morris, won him the 2012 Parsec Award for Best Short Story. This momentum propelled P.C. Haring into publishing Cybrosis as well as his latest project, Slipspace: Harbinger independently.
When he isn’t developing new projects for podcast and publication, P.C. Haring works as a corporate accountant in the Chicagoland area and as a husband to his beautiful wife.
www.pcharing.net
https://www.facebook.com/pharing1
https://www.facebook.com/pcharingfans/
www.twitter.com/pcharing
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3351696.P_C_Haring

Where On Earth? An Alaska Adventure By David H. Minton

Where On Earth? An Alaska AdventureBy David H. Minton
Fiery Seas Publishing
May 2017  
Romantic Adventure
Book Description:
Dan Richards, an Iraq war vet, is a surveyor for the mining company, looking to open a new silver mine. Scrambling to establish his helicopter charter business in the wilds of Alaska, while trying to stay connected to his teenage daughter, his world soon turns upside down when he rescues a woman and her dog sledding team after an avalanche.
Samantha Bettencourt, an environmental engineer, is eager to begin her first project with the university. A spokesperson for an environmentalist group intent on preserving the wilderness, she is on the path to saving the wild, but when Dan walks into her life things start to change.
Sparks fly between Dan and Samantha as they find themselves running for their lives—from the good guys as well as the bad guys out to ruin the things they long to protect. Will they be able to escape before it’s too late? Will they get a chance at love or will they lose everything. . . including their lives?
Excerpt 3

  Turning to the frozen bundle, Dan asked, “What’s the matter, Larry?”
“Don’t know,” he mumbled, hardly understandable. “She’s hurting, can’t stand. Baby not due for 10 more weeks, last check-up everything fine. I left her with enough firewood for a couple of days, been walking all night.”
“Okay, you stay here and get warm and fed. Frenchie, have Ken break out the snowmobile, get it topped off and add a couple cans of fuel; take Larry to the infirmary and get him to bed. You are going with me. I’ll be ready in two minutes; we’ll take rescue kit C.”
“Roger,” Frenchie said and left the room.

“I’m going with you,” Larry said.

“No,” Dan was quite gentle. “We have to get her back here in this storm.  I’ve done this before and so has Frenchie; you rest easy, we’ll make it back. Frenchie is a combat EMT. You’ve been up all night and need to rest up for what is to come. If I take you, I won’t be able to bring Frenchie back—nothing personal, but I’d rather have the medic in this case. We’ll be back in six hours, max. You sit tight.”
“I could walk back here again,” Larry said.
“Don’t be heroic, Larry. Anne will want you here when we get this done. Sit tight, go with Frenchie.” He checked his watch. “We’ll be back around lunchtime.”
Frenchie hurried out of the room, yelling to Ken. Dan rushed into his bedroom-bath area, quickly brushed his teeth, got dressed and picked up a Winchester 30-06 with a box of ammo on his way out the door. Samantha felt forgotten in the hubbub, but he stopped in front of her, gestured to the room, and said, “Mi casa, su casa. I’ll be back as soon as I can; you won’t be stuck here any longer once we can get a chopper out. I’m sorry to leave in such a rush.” And then he was gone and she was alone in the room.


About the Author:

After graduating college, David spent two tours in United States Military Assistance Command Republic of Viet-Nam, before beginning his career as a nuclear engineer, then electronics engineer, tele-communications engineer, and software security engineer. He has previously published three non-fiction books, several poems, and many non-fiction technical and historical articles.  

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Guest Blog Sevyn by Renee Dyer

 “Does your husband read your books?”
This question makes me laugh.  Not because he’s a guy, and I write a lot of romance, but because he’s not a reader.  Not in the sense that most of us think of readers.  He reads tons of articles, but in the eighteen years we’ve been together he’s read a whopping ten books.  Up until a few months ago, he had only read nine.
I have a fun relationship with my beta readers.  We chat in a group message on Facebook, text, talk on the phone, one of them even comes over for craft days.  Without these ladies, writing wouldn’t be nearly as fun.  One night, I was gabbing away on the phone with one of my girls and Marty heard me say, “I know there are a lot of deaths.” 
His curiosity was piqued.

He kept listening to me yap away, talking about changes to make and things to keep.  The more I talked, the more he became intrigued.  At the end of the conversation, he asked to read Sevyn.  I think I went into a state of shock.  I stood there, mouth moving, but no words coming out.  I may have nodded.   When I finally found my bearings, I ran for my laptop and forwarded him the file.
Excited doesn’t begin to describe how I was feeling.
Don’t get me wrong, Marty has been supportive since the beginning, letting me bounce ideas off him, giving me input on the male thought process, watching me freak out on my characters—he’s loved me through all my crazy.  But now I was able to talk to him in detail about one of my babies.  It was all new territory.
Every day, for almost two weeks, he read on his lunch break.  It was torture waiting for him to get to the end.  I worried he might look at me differently.  That he may read the dark, twisted tale I created, and wonder if he should sleep with one eye open, but he loved it.  He wanted more.  More dark.  More secrets.  More twisted.  As he put it, the ending left him with his balls in the air, and it would have been cruel to leave him like that, so I wrote an alternate ending.
Thanks to Marty reading Sevyn, readers will now get an alternate ending.  I’m curious which ending people will like better.

SevynRenee Dyer
Genre: Thriller/ Romantic Suspense/Dark Romance
Publisher: Forever Red Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-941853-39-9
Number of pages: 300
Cover Artist: Lee Ching from Under Cover Designs
Tagline: When life hands you impossible choices, can you become the man you want to be?
Book Description:
Born into rival drug cartels, Kevyn Zozlov and his best friend Esperanza Torres defy the odds, finding laughter in a world full of pain. Ripped away from her at a young age, Kevyn has to learn the difference between family, loyalty, and obedience. Fear keeps him focused each day. Memories fill his dreams at night.
Torn between the death he sees daily and what he believes is right, he struggles to decide the kind of man he wants to be—until a promise he makes to his mother, the person he loves more than anyone, changes everything.
“Get out of here and find Esperanza. Promise me.”
Now, Kevyn has to figure out how to make his way to the only friend he ever had—the one person who understands his damaged world. Will she welcome him back with open arms, or turn him away, leaving him more lost than he already is?
With time against him, can he find Esperanza and his happiness, or will he be another casualty of the drug war, buried in an unmarked grave with no one to mourn his loss?

Books2Read

Amazon    BN     Kobo     iTunes     Inktera
Excerpt 2:
There is no way to explain the punch in the gut you feel seeing someone murdered.  The sound of the gun shooting.  The way their head jerks.  That moment before the body realizes that its essence is gone, eyes staring nowhere, devoid of all emotion, before finally crumbling to the ground.  Blood dribbles from their lips and pools on the floor.  It’s like your soul performs one last dance before wrenching away to find out what lays beyond.  One last morbid, horrific waltz, it gripped onto me and imbedded every detail into my young mind.I would never be the same. He was really gone.I never wanted to be responsible for someone’s death, but I was responsible for this.  My father was dead because of me.  As he laid there, his eyes devoid of life, no longer able to judge me—hate me, I looked up to the sky and silently thought to my mother…justice is yours.

About the Author:
From a young Renee Dyer had a love of writing, starting with a doodle pad at age four that morphed into journals.  Poetry became short stories and short stories a novel.  Although she’s surrounded by males all day having three sons, a husband, and a hyperactive chocolate lab, she still finds time to be herself by escaping into the fantasy of reading and writing romance.  That is, until she needs a male’s perspective and garners eye rolling from her husband at all of her questions.  Renee is a true New Englander.  You can find her screaming profanity at the TV while the Pats play and cuddling under blankets during the cold seasons (which is most of them), reading a good book.  She doesn’t believe snow is a reason to shut things down, only to slow down and admire the beauty.  Ask her anything.  She’s an open book—pun fully intended.

Facebook Author Pagehttps://www.facebook.com/AuthorReneeDyer
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Free Books- CIN Series Limited Edition Bundle by Christina Leigh Pritchard

CIN SeriesLimited Edition BundleChristina Leigh Pritchard
Genre: Paranormal/Romantic Suspense
Publisher: Lotus Books
Date of Publication: 1/28/17
ASIN: B01NAYCAN7
Number of pages: 398Word Count: 117,469
Cover Artist: Michelle Monique
Tagline: “Lynn, Lynn, the City of Sin. You Never Come Out the Way You Went In.”
Book Description:
LIMITED EDITION BUNDLE!
This offer will not be online once book three is released. This bundle will disappear forever on 6/12/17.
Now, you can own the limited edition of both CIN and TRAITOR, plus deleted scenes!
Get ready for Ally's Secret, book three! Order the bundle (for free) and email the author your receipt through the newsletter http://www.christinaleighpritchard.comand get all 12 short stories FREE (plus the free bonus stories given through the newsletter).
Book Trailer:  http://youtu.be/yRdrGVinWdQ
Amazon
C I NBook One
The Doctor said I should be dead.
My heart beat furiously. I looked up at the flashes of lightning in the sky. Yes, I should be dead.
Why wasn’t I?
Seventeen-year-old Lisa Brown’s life is falling apart. First, her mother and father divorce, then their house forecloses and now, her mother has decided to commit herself to a psychiatric hospital.
If that weren’t enough, she must leave sunny south Florida to attend a boarding school full of geniuses in cold, Lynn, Massachusetts. The city where the locals chant “Lynn, Lynn, city of sin; you never come out the way you went in.”
And, they aren’t kidding. Lisa must live in a tiny shack with two strange teenagers, a dog named Pig who growls when you look at him and a cat named Rat. “Mind the cat,” everyone says. What the heck is wrong with this place?
Lisa thinks she’s landed in her own house of horrors with the anti-social Alex and his facetious sister Ally. But, the real drama begins the day she is struck by lightning…
TraitorBook Two
Lisa thinks she knows everything about her new life. She can deal with the boundaries and even being torn away from her family. But Alex withheld more than she ever expected. Like, what happens when you lose control? How about when you begin to realize just how trapped you are? He leaves out a lot of stuff about himself too. He doesn’t mention the dangers of some of the others—or of what she herself can do…


BONUS STORY Amie's Journal Book .5
Deleted scenes from the original version of Traitor.







About the Author:
Christina Leigh Pritchard was born and raised in South Florida. Her first stories were written at the age of nine in wide ruled spiral notebooks (which were supposed to be used for class) and in the various diaries she kept. Stories she wrote from age nine to twelve fill about four storage boxes!
Since she's upgraded to a computer, she's completed over fifty books and still going strong. Her genres include dark fantasy, young adult, drama, suspense, historical romance, multicultural, comedy, poetry and many more.
Website:http://www.christinaleighpritchard.com/  
Like her Facebook page and receive a chance to win new releases FREE:
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Tour giveaway
Subscribe at Christina's website, hit reply to your welcome letter, and send me your receipt of the C I N Series Bundled, Limited Edition (free receipts too!) and I will send you 12+ stories FREE! (Please allow 72 hours).
You can subscribe by going to http://www.christinaleighpritchard.com/
If you have any trouble, you can ask me for help or even send your receipt through the contact form: http://www.christinaleighpritchard.com/contact

Release Day Blitz Beautiful Corpse by eden Hudson

Beautiful Corpse A Jubal Van Zandt Novel Book Twoeden Hudson
Genre: Fantasy – Cyberpunk / Dystopian / Post-Apocalyptic
Publisher: Shadow Alley Press Inc      Date of Publication: June 9, 2017
ASIN: B072M1HVRG
Number of pages: 167Word Count: 52,000
Cover Artist: Katherine Kalymniou
Book Description:
The best thief in the history of the Revived Earth is back, and this time it's personal.
A deadly plague is ravaging the world's population and threatening to kill the only person Jubal Van Zandt cares about—himself. If he doesn't find a cure soon, he's dead.
The most promising lead is buried in the ruins of an ancient sunken city stalked by savage predators, cunning parasites, and the twisted souls of long-dead mages. It would take an army to get Jubal inside ... or just one of the most renowned knights in Guild history. The one Jubal betrayed and left for dead eighteen months ago.
First Jubal has to convince her not to kill him. Then he has to convince her to help save him.
Amazon
EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER ONE
I  motored  the  Mangshan  between  a  pair  of  thorny  locust trees  that  served  as  the  end  posts  for  the  fence  marking  the southern  boundary  of  the  Xiao  family’s  ancestral  holdings.Carina  thought  she  could  avoid  me  by  ignoring  my  messages  and staying  holed  up  out  here  in  the  middle  of  nowhere.  Pretty ridiculous  considering  how  well  she  knew  me.At  the  end  of  the  driveway,  the  trees  pulled  back  to  reveal a  traditional  wet-country  house—long  and  low,  enclosed  by  a weathered  wooden  porch  complete  with  steel  sliding-panel  storm walls.  Today  the  storm  walls  had  been  thrown  open  wide,  letting the  meager  sunlight  shine  onto  the  house’s  creamy  parchglass  and wood  exterior  walls.I  parked  the  ’Shan  at  the  end  of  an  ancient  stone  walkway that  had  been  buckled  by  the  unpredictable  water  table,  and hooked  my  helmet  and  ventilator  over  the  handlebars.  It  had taken  me  almost  an  hour  to  get  way  the  hell  out  here  from  Taern— and  that  was  running  the  ’Shan  wide  open,  without  any  traffic.Why  Carina  would  want  to  live  so  far  out  in  the  soggies  that  she could  smell  the  fishshit,  I  couldn’t  fathom.Fire  threw  open  blast  doors  all  through  my  body.  Heat,  the most  perfect  heat,  swirled  in  my  veins,  warming  me  inside  out. There  was  even  a  taste,  sweet  and  spicy  and  a  little  ashy,  like ember  dust  mixed  with  wrackrath  smoke.My  eyes  flew  open  and  I  sucked  in  a  damp  lungful  of  country air,  trying  to  catch  up  on  the  oxygen  I’d  missed  while  I  was out.  I  checked  my  wristpiece.  The  attack  had  only  lasted  a  few seconds.  Less  than  a  minute,  definitely.  The  PCM  fits  were getting  more  frequent,  but  they  weren’t  getting  longer.  Yet.  If Carina  had  been  watching  me  out  one  of  her  windows  or  via  a security  feed,  she  would  think  I’d  just  been  taking  in  the scenery.I  headed  up  the  walk,  careful  not  to  trip  over  the  uneven stones,  and  stepped  onto  the  porch.  One  very  handsome  devil  with sculpted  stubble,  perfect  skin,  and  dark,  piercing  eyes  looked back  at  me  from  the  reflection  in  the  house’s  parchglass  walls. I  admired  his  striking  features  as  I  knocked.Not  that  I  needed  to  knock  with  the  number  of  early  warning systems  Carina  probably  had  set  up  around  her  house.  But  I’m nothing  if  not  polite.  Especially  when  I  want  something.From  inside  came  the  unmistakable  sound  of  someone  kicking something  heavy  across  the  room.“You  better  pray  to  God  I  never  make  it  to  this  door,  Van Zandt,”  Carina  yelled  from  inside.Paperinas  flitted  around  my  stomach,  and  a  crazy  grin stretched  across  my  face.  I  hadn’t  felt  much  of  anything  but  the PCM  attacks  in  such  a  long  time  that  the  excitement  was  making me  giddy.“Are  you  seriously  still  mad?”  I’m  not  always  great  with time,  but  it  felt  like  centuries  had  passed  since  I’d  last  seen Carina.  I  took  a  guess.  “Soam  was  like…a  year  ago?”There  was  another  crash  inside.  Then  the  house’s  door roared  open  on  its  track  and  I  was  staring  down  the  business  end of  Carina’s  well-worn  knuckgun.  She  grabbed  me  by  the  jacket collar  and  slammed  me  against  one  of  the  porch’s  thick  wooden columns,  then  jammed  the  knuckgun  up  under  my  jaw.“Eighteen  months,”  she  said.  A  muscle  in  her  mahogany- colored  cheek  ticked.  If  the  symmetrical  muscle  under  her  other cheek  hadn’t  been  trapped  in  all  that  shiny  pink  scar  tissue,  it probably  would’ve  tocked.Our  time  apart  had  not  been  good  to  Carina.  Since  the  last time  I’d  seen  her,  crow’s  feet  had  etched  themselves  into  the dark  skin  at  the  outside  corners  of  her  green  eyes.  She’d  been athletic  and  sleek  before,  a  very  successful  feline  predator.Now  shadows  stood  out  below  her  high  cheekbones.  Where  her  long sleeves  rode  up,  I  could  see  the  veins  in  her  wrists  and  thin straps  of  muscle  in  her  forearms.  The  past  eighteen  months  had whittled  her  curves  and  soft  places  down  to  hard  angles  and razorblades.  She  looked  sharp.  Painfully  so.Apparently,  in  spite  of  Soam’s  nationwide  obesity  epidemic, good  eats  were  not  a  part  of  their  prison  system.“It  took  you  eighteen  months  to  break  out  of  a  prison  pit?” I  squinted  at  her  in  disbelief.  “In  Soam?”“My  femur  was  shattered,”  she  said.  “Two  of  my  vertebra  had to  be  replaced.”“Pretty  convenient  excuses,”  I  said.Carina  thumbed  the  knuckgun’s  switch  from  SAFETY  to  BURST, effectively  changing  its  purpose  from  SCARE  JUBAL  to  TURN JUBAL’S  SKULL  INTO  A  BRAIN  GEYSER.I  tried  to  jerk  away  from  the  deadly  weapon—I  love  myself and  I  don’t  fucking  like  anything  that  has  the  potential  to  kill that  self—but  Carina’s  grip  on  my  collar  just  tightened.  She  had me  pinned  to  the  column.I  grunted.  “You’re  awfully  strong  for  a  stick  figure.” “It  was  a  miracle  I  wasn’t  killed  on  impact.”“Exactly,  so  what  are  you  yelling  at  me  for?”  I  said.  “It’s not  like  you  didn’t  know  what  you  were  getting  into  ahead  of time,  hiring  me.  You’re  just  mad  that  I  saw  through  your manipulation  in  time  to  save  my  own  skin.”Carina’s  dark  eyebrows  twitched  together,  and  her  head cocked  a  fraction  of  a  fraction.  “Manipulation?”“Don’t  play  dumb  with  me,  Bloodslinger,  it  looks  terrible on  you.”  I  tried  again  to  squirm  away  from  the  knuckgun.  “Will you  put  that  piece  away  already?  We  both  know  you’re  not  going to  use  it  on  me.  It’s  served  its  purpose—I’m  very  intimidated and  a  little  bit  aroused.”Carina  made  a  disgusted  sound  in  her  throat  and  shoved  away from  me,  lowering  the  knuckgun  to  her  side.  “What  are  you  doing here,  Van  Zandt?”“What  kind  of  stupid  question  is  that?”  I  straightened  my jacket.  “You  know  why  I’m  here.  You’ve  opened  every  message  I sent  you  since  you  got  back  to  Emden.”“You  hacked  my  wristpiece?!”

About the Author:
I am invincible. I am a mutant. I have 3 hearts and was born with no eyes. I had eyes implanted later. I didn't have hands, either, just stumps. When my eyes were implanted they asked if I would like hands as well and I said, "Yes, I'll take those," and pointed with my stump. But sometimes I'm a hellbender peeking out from under a rock. When it rains, I live in a music box.
But I'm also a tattoo-addict, coffee-junkie, drummer, and aspiring skateboarder. Jesus actually is my homeboy.
https://whitetrashcappuccino.com/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8023393.eden_Hudson

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