R. Lee Smith's Blog, page 29

Sunday Sneak Peek 9/15

Sneak Peek Sunday is a weekly blog hop in which writers are challenged to post six paragraphs, no more and no less, from a published work or work in progress and then invite other writers, readers and random bloggers to read, critique and comment. Visit their site by clicking on the button below for a list of other participating writers and share the love! Today’s Sneak Peek, like all my snippet-producing posts for the immediate future, is from The Last Hour of Gann, picking up where yesterday’s WeWriWa left off and continuing with Wednesday’s Hump Day Hook. So read, enjoy, and even though the Gann Giveaway is over, keep the love flowing!

So…as of midnight, Amazon Kindle is allowing people to look at The Last Hour of Gann, but not to buy it. Sorry about that. All my other books were up and running within hours of submission, so I stupidly assumed this one would be the same. I apologize to all my (hopefully) patient readers, especially my Gann Giveaway winners, who are still waiting on their winnings. I’m going to be on the road today, so I may not have a chance to check again until this evening, but I promise you, as soon as Amazon is selling the book and I am in a hotel with wifi, those free copies will be winging their way through cyberspace to your respective Kindles. Sheesh, nothing can ever go right the first time, can it? And don’t tell me it’s my own fault for leaving my edits to the last minute because I already know. Anyhoo, here is your sneak peek Sunday snippet, from the (sorta) newly available, The Last Hour of Gann.

It was nothing new for Meoraq, but he knew no better how to extract himself from it than he ever had. He finished securing his travel-pack and slung it onto his back, then turned to face her at last.

She bent her neck at once, hiding her eyes from him as a proper woman learns early to do, but her hands grasped anxiously at one another, never entirely still.

Meoraq started walking, but stopped at the door. He sighed, rubbed once at his brow-ridges, and came back to her. He stood awkwardly before her while she cowered, then reached out and brushed the back of his hand gently across her well-scarred shoulder. Her short spines only flattened further, uncomforted.

“I thought surely it would be you,” she whispered.

“Mine is the same clay as any other’s. Look to no living man for your restoration.”

“He has forsaken me.”

Weekend Writer Warrior 9/14

The Weekend Writing Warriors blog hop is a weekly event in which writers are invited to share eight sentences from one of their works for other writers, readers and random bloggers to read, critique and comment on. Visit their site by clicking on the button below for a list of other participating writers and share the love!

The Great Gann Giveaway is over! Congratulations to my lucky winners, Mary (who won the Sizzling Summer Giveaway waaaaay back in July), Lisa Jo (who won the First Fan To Write to My Email Address prize), Dawna (who won the first of two Gann Giveaway prizes) and Rue (whose name was the last to go into the hat and the first to come out of it)! By the way, Rue, honey, I don’t seem to have your email address anywhere and I need it to send you the book. The book is up on Amazon and has been submitted to Barnes and Noble, so it should pop up there pretty soon. My publisher has begun the thankless task of submitting all my books, Gann included, to Kobo, so we should see it there in the next few weeks. Plans are in the works to submit it to ARE as well, but Apple’s draconian attitude toward erotica may mean I never show up there at all. Like Steve Jobs never looked at porn. Anyway, even though the Giveaway is over, the snippets will continue until Meoraq’s chapter ends, after which, I guess my snippets will have to come from wherever I’m at in Pool Be warned, I do not write chronologically.

I leave tonight for the Bucket Vacation which will terminate (hmmm, bad choice of words) in my surgery, so I will be away for the next three to four weeks. My posts are all pre-scheduled, so the snippets should continue, I just may not be as prompt in responding to comments. Nevertheless, I will be checking in as often as I can, so thanks for reading and enjoy the hop!

He had not decided yet how this made him feel. His masculine pride was, in truth, somewhat insulted, although he knew it was Sheul who had the ultimate judgment over each mortal coupling and therefore His will that she not conceive of him, but only receive Meoraq’s fires. If that was enough to heal her barren womb, so be it; if not, well, Meoraq didn’t particularly want her haunting the halls at House Uyane anyway. Sheul had blessed him at each coupling, sometimes twice, but the sex itself had been as unpleasant as sex could be. Her way of bending silent and motionless beneath him disturbed him. He had given her permission to move, to speak, even to struggle, but she did nothing except to whisper her prayers and drift away when it was over.

Now she seemed dismayed at his leaving, as if it were some failing of hers that drove him out from the city in the dark hours of night—that if she had been more winsome, or if her worn flesh had just been fresher, he might stay and give her the children Sheul had thus far denied her. That she had displeased him, shamed herself, failed God.

Hump Day Hook 9/11

Hump Day Hook is a weekly blog hop where writers are invited to hook readers with just a few paragraphs from a work in progress or published work. Visit their site by clicking on the button below for a list of other participating writers and share the love! Today’s Hook comes yet again from The Last Hour of Gann, continuing Sunday’s Sneak Peek and continuing on Saturday’s Weekend Writer Warrior! Feel free to catch up with some back-posts and if you like what you read, why not enter my Gann Giveaway? As soon as the book is ready for publication, I will draw two names from the old hat and send them a free ecopy of the book! Just remember that, like all my books, it contains graphic violence and strong sexual content, so you must tell me each and every time you enter! Thanks for reading and enjoy the hop!

She retreated one step, but only one. Her hands clasped, trembling, at one another. “Have I offended you, sir?”

She had not. Nor had she gone to any great effort to please him. Indeed, she had done little to make any impression on him whatsoever. She hadn’t even told him her name.

Nor should she, in all honesty. She was not a friend to him, only one of the many women who came to the temple after being turned away by their husbands for want of children. They haunted the halls of the temples in every city, veiled shadows in the shape of women, offering themselves in solemn rituals in the hopes that Sheul’s sons would heal their wombs. She did not come to him for pleasure and he should not expect to find any in taking her.

She was neither young nor beautiful, but Meoraq had been compelled to have her all the same when he had passed her in the hall, returning from his first judgment in this city. As Sheulek, he had the right to any woman he was given to desire, but it was this one who lit the spark in him that night and every other night that she came to him. The marks of many Sheulek before him scarred her from neck to mid-arm, but she had not burned for Meoraq and his own did not stand among them.

Sunday Sneak Peek 9/8

Sneak Peek Sunday is a weekly blog hop in which writers are challenged to post six paragraphs, no more and no less, from a published work or work in progress and then invite other writers, readers and random bloggers to read, critique and comment. Visit their site by clicking on the button below for a list of other participating writers and share the love! Today’s Sneak Peek, like all my snippet-producing posts for the immediate future, is from The Last Hour of Gann, picking up where yesterday’s WeWriWa left off and continuing with Wednesday’s Hump Day Hook. So read, enjoy, and don’t forget to let me know if you want to enter my Gann Giveaway!

Meoraq tightened his bootstraps and loin-plate and finally glared at the table where his weapons awaited him. The abbot had requested, as all of them did, that he not go armed within Sheul’s House. Meoraq’s usual reply to this was that all the world was Sheul’s House and he went where directed ever-ready to do Sheul’s work, but having the right to be an arrogant ass whenever the whim took him did not make it an obligation and this abbot was a better man than most.

He put his travel-harness on over his wet tunic and clipped the great hook of his beast-killing kzung at his hip. Its weight was an immediate comfort to him. Next came the long, wide samr, sheathed and slung across his back to be drawn against those whose crimes either did not merit or could not wait for trial. Last of all, his honor-knives, the slender sabks, buckled high on his arms. They were meant only for the arena in the sight of Sheul and frequently used in the wildlands for all manner of menial work. If his years of service had taught Meoraq nothing else, it had taught him that one could not skin a saoq with a blade as long as one’s arm. If Sheul saw it as disgrace, He had never let Meoraq know.

A soft knock upon his door. A familiar sound these past many nights. Not a priest.

“Enter,” Meoraq called without turning. “And stand.”

She had already taken her first steps toward him. Now they faltered to a stop. Her voice was as hesitant as her footsteps. “Sir?”

“Sheul calls and I go to answer. You have done well in your service to me,” he added, damned generously. “Go in my favor.”

Weekend Writer Warrior 9/7

The Weekend Writing Warriors blog hop is a weekly event in which writers are invited to share eight sentences from one of their works for other writers, readers and random bloggers to read, critique and comment on. Visit their site by clicking on the button below for a list of other participating writers and share the love!

Today’s WeWriWa is from The Last Hour of Gann, picking up where Wednesday’s Hump Day Hook left off and continuing with tomorrow’s Sunday Sneak Peek. Feel free to catch up if you’re just joining me, and don’t forget to leave a comment if you want to enter my Gann Giveaway! Two lucky winners will be drawn just as soon as I’m ready for the book to go live. You can keep an eye on my progress with the Work-In-Progress widget in the sidebar. Just remember that, like all my books, The Last Hour of Gann contains graphic violence and strong sexual content, so if you want to enter the drawing, you have to tell me so each and every time you leave a comment. Thanks for reading!

He sat there in his soaked leather breeches and the city-soft tunic the priests had given him while his own was laundered, dripping puddles on the floor, and cursed the rain, which did no good. He had dry clothing in his pack, but could see no point in donning it only to have it drenched ten steps out of the city gate. The rain fell and he would just have to walk in it as just punishment for staying so long in Xheoth.

“A refinement to my sense of humility, I suppose,” muttered Meoraq, glancing heavenward. “And I thank You for it, O my Father. It is so comforting to know that You take so personal an interest in the improvement of my character.”

Sheul did not reply. Not here, at any rate, although it might be raining even harder outside.

Hump Day Hook 9/4

Hump Day Hook is a weekly blog hop where writers are invited to hook readers with just a few paragraphs from a work in progress or published work. Visit their site by clicking on the button below for a list of other participating writers and share the love! Today’s Hook, like all my snippet-producing posts for the immediate future, is from The Last Hour of Gann, picking up where yesterday’s Sneak Peek left off and continuing with Saturday’s WeWriWa. So read, enjoy, and don’t forget to let me know if you want to enter my Gann Giveaway!

Meoraq descended the stair and beckoned indiscriminately to the crowd of youths and low-born priests still clustered in the upper halls hoping for a glimpse of the miraculous fires. Several came forward at once. He took the first to reach him for his usher, made his few demands to the others, and allowed himself to be led back to the room he had been given for his own upon his first night’s arrival. He did not have many preparations to make, but it was the polite thing to give the temple’s provisioner time to arrange his supplies so that they would be at the temple gate when he did leave. Rushing out at once only to wait around where all could see him would only embarrass Xi’Xheoth and those who lived there. Meoraq knew he was not always as patient as he ought to be, but he tried not to be rude. Sometimes he tried.

The boy bowed in ahead of him and lit the lamp, then waited, his small head pressed to the floor and back stiff with pride at being made usher for so prestigious a guest. Meoraq dismissed him with a silent tap to the shoulder and, knowing that little eyes would be on him and little ears listening, kept his back to the door until he heard it shut and catch.

He was alone.

“Fuck,” said Meoraq, and gave the cupboard where he ought to be sleeping even now a solid kick. He hit the supporting framework rather than the lower door as he’d intended, so that instead of a resounding thump as his boot struck home, he damned near broke a toe. He swore again, limped over to the simple chair provided for his simple needs, and sat.

It was raining. It would be raining. Thirty days he’d passed in Xheoth and it had not rained once in all that time. Thirty days, but now he was leaving and the water poured out of the sky as from a cattleman’s pump.

Sunday Sneak Peek 9/1

Wow! September is upon me already! It’s going to be a big month, beginning with this blog post and ending on the 30th with surgery that will hopefully correct my most major health problems. I plan to get The Last Hour of Gann out before I leave, since I don’t know how up I’ll be feeling to staggering all the way out to my computer to work on it afterwards. And as you can see by my WIP widget in the sidebar, I’m moving right along on those edits! I plan to take the next book with me and work on it while I’m in the hospital. I do my best work under anathesia.

Anyway, it’s Sunday and that means Sunday Sneak Peek, a weekly blog hop in which writers are challenged to post six paragraphs, no more and no less, from a published work or work in progress and then invite other writers, readers and random bloggers to read, critique and comment. Visit their site by clicking on the button below for a list of other participating writers and share the love! Today’s Sneak Peek is from The Last Hour of Gann, concluding the scene up on the rooftop, but beginning a new one with Wednesday’s Hump Day Hook. So read, enjoy, and don’t forget to let me know if you want to enter my Gann Giveaway!

“Perhaps.” But now he felt certain it was. Meoraq had trained a lifetime to hear Sheul’s voice and feel His touch. Now he saw His waving arm. It would be a foolish thing to pretend he did not know what it meant.

Or what he had to do.

“I leave for Tothax immediately,” he said. And naturally, it was raining. “I require provisions for the journey.”

“Name them and be met, honored one,” said the abbot mildly. “Shall you take a bed until the morning?”

“No.” Meoraq turned away as the burning arm, its work done, finally slipped behind the horizon and returned the night to uninterrupted black. “Sheul has lit His lamp for me at this hour. I can only trust it is the hour He wishes me to follow. It would seem I have lingered too long already.”

“We shall pray for you,” said the abbot, bowing. The other priests remaining on the rooftop bowed as well. “Go in the sight of Sheul and serve Him well.”

* * *

Weekend Writer Warrior 8/31

The Weekend Writing Warriors blog hop is a weekly event in which writers are invited to share eight sentences from one of their works for other writers, readers and random bloggers to read, critique and comment on. Visit their site by clicking on the button below for a list of other participating writers and share the love!

Today’s WeWriWa is from The Last Hour of Gann, picking up on the rooftop with Meoraq where Wednesday’s Hump Day Hook left off and concluding the scene with tomorrow’s Sunday Sneak Peek. Fear not, as I’m not done yet with my final round of edits, there will be a new scene starting up on next week’s WeWriWa, so feel free to catch up if you’re just joining me, and don’t forget to leave a comment if you want to enter my Gann Giveaway! One lucky winner will be drawn just as soon as I’m ready for the book to go live. You can keep an eye on my progress with the Work-In-Progress widget in the sidebar. Just remember that, like all my books, The Last Hour of Gann contains graphic violence and strong sexual content, so if you want to enter the drawing, you have to tell me so each and every time you leave a comment. Thanks for reading!

They watched. Another hour was tolled and the fire waved, feebly but still with some life, as it slipped lower and lower.

“He has set a mighty banner,” the abbot remarked, “but for whose eyes, I wonder?”

Meoraq flattened his spines. The elderly priest gazed benignly straight ahead and did not acknowledge his narrow glance.

“I should have journeyed on to Tothax many days ago,” Meoraq admitted at length.

The abbot bent his head at a polite angle, flexing his spines forward with interest. “Perhaps the message is meant for you.”

Hump Day Hook 8/28

If you’re looking for my Hot Heroes post for HD Thomson’s blog hop, you can find it here!

In the hopes that HDH’s linky list will open sometime before Wednesday, I’m going to go ahead and write this.

Hump Day Hook is a weekly blog hop where writers are invited to hook readers with just a few paragraphs from a work in progress or published work. Visit their site by clicking on the button below for a list of other participating writers and share the love!

“Without moving,” agreed the abbot, tapping the back of one hand broodingly with his fingertips. “A plains-fire would move in this wind.”

“And swiftly die in this rain,” added Meoraq. His clothing was now plastered unpleasantly to his scales. “And no plains-fire would ever burn so tall.”

“Yet still it burns. And beckons.”

Meoraq grunted.

“It is a true sign of Sheul, then.”

“So it would seem.”

Sunday Sneak Peek 8/25

If you’re looking for my Hot Heroes Post for HD Thomson’s blog hop, you can find it here.

Sneak Peek Sunday is a weekly blog hop in which writers are challenged to post six paragraphs, no more and no less, from a published work or work in progress and then invite other writers, readers and random bloggers to read, critique and comment. Visit their site by clicking on the button below for a list of other participating writers and share the love! Today’s Sneak Peek, like all my snippet-producing posts for the immediate future, is from The Last Hour of Gann, picking up where yesterday’s WeWriWa left off and continuing with Wednesday’s Hump Day Hook. So read, enjoy, and don’t forget to let me know if you want to enter my Gann Giveaway!

“Tothax,” Meoraq replied at once. He knew every city that fell within his circuit well, and quite a few others that did not. Tothax, he knew better than most. He had received an urgent summons to that city half a year back, a summons not merely for a Sheulek but for Meoraq himself, and refusing to name the charges. This had so annoyed him that Meoraq deliberately made Tothax his last stop upon his circuit and he made certain the courts of Tothax knew it. Indeed, upon his arrival in Xheoth, he had found another summons waiting for him, even more tersely worded than the last. And if there was a reason why he had perhaps overstayed himself in this city many days after the last dispute had been heard and the last trial judged, there it stood. He was a Sword of Sheul, greatest of the warrior’s caste, a Sheulek. He took orders from his father and from God and no one else. He would move on in his own time, and he fully intended to make himself obnoxious in the House of whoever wanted him so damned badly right up until the last lick of autumn.

Ah, but then it would be home, home to Xeqor and House Uyane. Familiar faces. A bed more myth than reality. His father’s company in the evenings, and perhaps his brothers’ as well, if they were home from their own duties. Well…Salkith would be there; he was a governor’s guard and entitled to a room in their barracks, but he preferred to sleep at home where he could punish those who joked about his infamously slippery brain instead of force himself to laugh along. Nduman was a Sheulek with his own circuit and his visits were infrequent enough, but he was also keeping a low-born woman and several children in Vuluth, outside of conquest and without formal marriage, although he thought it a great secret. Thus far, their father had seemed strangely inclined to tolerate this, but Rasozul was lord of Uyane and steward of the bloodline and could not ignore the scandal forever. As for Meoraq himself, he was what he was: the eldest son of a legendary man, the heir to a glorious name and a proud House of Oracle Uyane’s own lineage, a servant in the favor of great Sheul, and a man who was perhaps not as humble as he’d ought to be. He was working on that.

“Tothax,” the abbot mused, bringing him roughly back to himself.

“If somewhat to the north.”

“So it is not Tothax that burns.”

“No.” Regrettably. “There is nothing there that should burn for so long.”