Hailey Edwards's Blog, page 75

Evermine Has A Blurb!

Well, Evermine edits have been put to bed. A few days ago, I received the finalized version of its tagline, blurb and warning. I love the tagline. This time I had two options, and one really spoke to me. The blurb is all shiny thanks to the blurb editor and my editor. It's so much better than the one I used during submission. *cough* The warning, however, was my contribution. I guess TPTB appreciate my sense of humor.

He can be a slave to his past…or allow her love to free him.

There's such a thing as too much change. Emma's sister is mated. Revolution is brewing in her home realm. The last straw: her would-be mate is back from the dead and back under her skin—yet when it comes to the last five years, he's not talking.

Desperate for a chance to start her own life, she answers the queen's call to ensure equality for all of Askara's newly freed slaves. It's the perfect opportunity to escape a heartbreak in the making named Harper.

Harper loses a piece of his fractured soul when Emma walks away. His lies were meant to protect her from torturous years that drove him to the point of madness. Instead, when he comes to her a year later to help avert a crisis in a freed-slave community, the wedge those lies drove between them is firmly in place.

As their new lives collide with old wounds, they race to stop a threat that could not only destroy the queen, but send Harper back to the hell he escaped. Emma must decide if the man she still loves deserves equal rights to her heart.

Warning: This title contains torn pants, ripped gowns, and sand in uncomfortable places. It also includes one overcompensating villain, one gnarly priest, and two battered hearts willing to give this thing called love one last chance.

 

Gateway to the Best Contest

Submit 7000 words (approx. 25-28 pgs) of the beginning of your manuscript. No synopsis. $30 for first manuscript, $15 for each additional manuscript. 

More info about categories and how to enter here: Gateway to the Best contest page

Final Judges

The final judges for each category are:

Contemporary Series – Laura Barth, Editor, Harlequin

Historical – Esi Sogah, Editor, Avon

Single Title – Katherine Pelz, Editor, Berkley

Paranormal – LaToya Smith, Editor, Grand Central Publishing 

Romantic Suspense – Margo Lipschultz, Editor, Harlequin

Young Adult – Adam Wilson, HQ Teen

Deadlines



Entry Deadline: Entry must be RECEIVED not later than September 9, 2011.

First Round Finalists Announced on/about: October 30, 2011

Final Winners Announced on/about: December 3, 2011

Judging Criteria

Each entry will be judged by three experienced judges with the lowest of the three scores dropped from the final tabulations. Judges will be encouraged to write comments on both the score sheet and manuscript.

Prizes

GRAND PRIZE:

The Grand Prize winner will receive US $100, a full reading and critique of her entire manuscript by a MORWA Published Author, a certificate, and a "Gateway to the Best Grand Prize Winner" electronic banner announcing the win for the author's website.

First, second, and third places are awarded in each category.

First place winners will receive:

A certificate of accomplishment
A one-year membership to MoRWA (e-newsletter option only)
The Gateway charm
An electronic banner announcing the win for the author's website

Second place winners will receive:

A certificate of accomplishment
A one-year membership to MoRWA (e-newsletter option only)

Third place winners will receive:

A certificate of accomplishment

Submission Package

The Gateway to the Best Contest is an electronic format only contest. Please read the official rules prior to completing the submission process.

Manuscripts must be in Word .doc or standard .rtf (rich text format) only. We will reject entries that do not conform to one of these formats.

** All information on this web page is subject to the official rules listed with the entry form.

The Suzannah Contest

It's that time again…

NOLA STARs Is Proud To Present

The  Suzannah Contest

The Suzannah Contest is named in honor of romance author and founding member Suzannah Nelson Davis.  We continue to celebrate her love of the romance genre and spirit of support and encouragement to struggling writers through the sponsorship of this contest

The Suzannah is different from most other writers' contests in that  published authors and unpublished writers all compete against one another in a single pool of entries without categories. Yep, you read that right. Published and unpublished writers all hashing it out together for a spot as one of the six finalists. The only criteria we require is that the manuscript fit within the romance genre and that it be unpublished and uncontracted.

Why would we do such a thing? Because this format allows published authors to anonymously test the waters in a new genre. It also gives unpublished writers the experience and prestige of having their writing judged as in the 'real world' against already established authors—just the way it is on an editor's desk!

 

For more information, visit the Nola Stars website.

Six Sentence Sunday

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The best thing to happen this week was flipping the calendar over to September and seeing "First Day of Fall" marked on the twenty-third. Come on, cool weather! These one hundred degree days with heat indexes twenty degrees above that are killing me.

On that somber note, I unearthed my grimoire. Oiled leather rubbed softly beneath my fingertips as I brushed aside dirt clods and revealed the well-insulated tome. When I touched its cover, awareness sparked. "Sleep." After allowing brief skin-to-page contact, its flare of sentience snuffed out in a pulse of latent magic. Then I rewrapped it and tucked it under my arm.

For more Six Sunday goodness, check out the official website.

CALL FOR SUBMISSION:FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS

Liquid Silver Books is always looking for great Paranormal Romances. This time, we're looking for Paranormal Romances that feature a 'Friends With Benefits' theme.

Your story can have any type of Paranormal angle – vampire, shifters, demons, psychic abilities, witches, ghosts – with the blend of Friends With Benefits premises.

As always, we ask that the stories end with a HEA (Happily Ever After) or HFN (Happy For Now) but the key piece being plot-driven, dramatic, intriguing and hot and sexy romances.



This call is open to any heat level. All stories will be published as single titles.

Ø Submissions are open to all authors currently published with Liquid Silver books and those wishing to be published with Liquid Silver Books. 

Ø All works can be new material. Previously published works or works currently part of a series will not be considered.

Ø All submissions must be exclusive to Liquid Silver Books; if we decline your submission; you are free to submit elsewhere. 

Submission requirements:

ü Full manuscript in Arial, 12pt saved as RTF.

ü Length: 15k – 80K

ü Genre: Paranormal Romance

Heat Level:

Ø Open to all our current heat levels – Sterling, Liquid and Molten. Please refer to our submission guidelines for further information.

Ø Deadline: December 15, 2011

To submit, please send full manuscript via email to submissions@liquidsilverbooks.com with CALL FOR SUBMISSION:FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS in the subject line. 

Include your author information on the first page of your manuscript, as well as a blurb please.

I look forward to reading your submissions!

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me directly – tracey@liquidsilverbooks.com 

*permission to forward*

Full Moon Halloween Web Scavenger Hunt

 

Full Moon Halloween Web Scavenger Hunt

Win a Kindle and More!

 

September 1st (Noon) - October 31st at Midnight PST

The GRAND PRIZE is a Kindle Wi-Fi and 5 eBooks from Silver Publishing.

ENTER NOW!

GRAND PRIZE

Silver Publishing – Amazon Kindle and 5 eBooks from Silver Publishing

Terry Wright – $15 Amazon Gift Card

Beverly Rae – $5 gift certificate to Samhain Publishing's eStore

Castles & Guns – $20 Amazon Gift Card + $10 Amazon Gift Card + eBooks – Unbreak Me by Lex Valentine, Crimson by Nickie Asher

David M. Brown – eBook copy of Short Stories I-IV + and eBook copy of Fezariu's Epiphany

Angela Johnson – Autographed copy of Vow of Seduction

Rachel Haimowitz – eBook Copy of Each – Counterpoint: Song of the Fallen, Sublime: Collected Shorts, Where He Belongs, and Anchored: Belonging

McKenna Chase – Readers Choice of my available ebooks (McKenna Chase) via Kindle or directly to winner's computer via the Free Kindle app

Simone Bern – $10 Amazon gift card + Readers Choice – a copy of one of my ebooks

Darah Lace – eBook from my back list and $15 gift cert

Mary Abshire – 5 of my ebooks (I have three in a series to select from)

Carol North – $15 Amazon Gift Card

Elle Druskin – eBooks – To Catch A Cop, Nominated as Best Romantic Comedy of 2010 by The Romance Reviews | To Catch A Crook, the second book in the "To Catch" series due for release on June 30, 2011 | Outback Hero, a contemporary romance set in the Australian Outback

Maggie Jaimeson – Choice of autographed print copy of ETERNITY and print copy of EXPENDABLE OR a $15 gift card from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Karen McCullough – ebook copy of Heart of the Night – ebook copy of A Question of Fire

SECOND PRIZE

Minnette Meador – $100 Gift Certificate to Amazon

New Line Press – $15 Amazon Gift Card

DB Reynolds – $15 Amazon Gift Card

Beverly Rae – $5 gift certificate to Samhain Publishing's eStore

Castles & Guns – $10 Amazon Gift Card + eBooks – Rock My World by Lex Valentine, Loving a Fairy Godmother by Danielle Monsch, Jungle Heat by Sarah Mäkelä

Donna Brown – eBook copy of Short Stories I-IV + and eBook copy of Fezariu's Epiphany

Angela Johnson – Autographed copy of Vow of Seduction

Rachel Haimowitz – eBook Copy of Each – Counterpoint: Song of the Fallen, Sublime: Collected Shorts, Where He Belongs, and Anchored: Belonging

McKenna Chase – Readers Choice of my available ebooks (McKenna Chase) via Kindle or directly to winner's computer via the Free Kindle app

Sharon Donovan – $15 ebooks

Tina Donahue – eBook Copy of The Yearning + eBook Copy of Lush Velvet Nights

Myra Nour – $15 Amazon Gift Card – One copy of To Tame a Werewolf

Jianne Carlo – Two books from my backlist or 1 print book.

Rebel Ink Press – E-books in PDF format equaling $15 from Rebel backlist winner's choice.

S. K. Yule – Ebook PDF copies of: Lycan Lover (shape shifter novella) | Lycan It (shape shifter novella) | Lycan Lust (shape shifter novella)

Jaxx Steele – 4-ebooks, 1-$10 Amazon gift card

Mimi Barbour – Gift cards for my two full-length books

THIRD PRIZE

Grace Elliott – $15 Amazon Gift Card

Jocelyn Michel – $15 Amazon Gift Card

Gail DeYoung – $15 Amazon Gift Card

K.M. Mahoney – $15 All Romance eBooks

Beverly Rae – $5 gift certificate to Samhain Publishing's eStore

Castles & Guns – $10 Amazon Gift Card + eBooks – Shifting Winds by Lex Valentine, Across the Veil by Lisa Kessler

Donna Brown – eBook copy of Short Stories I-IV + and eBook copy of Fezariu's Epiphany

Angela Johnson – Autographed copy of Vow of Seduction

Rachel Haimowitz – eBook Copy of Each – Counterpoint: Song of the Fallen, Sublime: Collected Shorts, Where He Belongs, and Anchored: Belonging

McKenna Chase – Readers Choice of my available ebooks (McKenna Chase) via Kindle or directly to winner's computer via the Free Kindle app

Dakota Trace – 1 set of my BDSM series from Excessica Publishing. Nisey's Awakening, Taming Kalinda and Conquering Jude

Shona Husk – PDF copy of 'How to Breathe Fire' and PDF copy of 'Kissing Phoenix'

Evernight Publishing – $50 Amazon Gift Card & 5 Evernight eBook of the Winner's Choice

Roxanne Rhoads – ebook copies of Eternal Desire, An Unexpected Evening, A Halloween to Remember, and Paranormal Pleasures

Shannan Albright – eBook of my current release

Tara Lain – eBook of Genetic Attraction

Suzanne Rock – One .pdf copy of Cria (retail $5) | One .pdf copy of Dark Deception (Retail $6) | One .pdf Copy of Up on the Housetop (Retail $5)

Tracey H. Kitts – eBook Copy of a Latest Release

FOURTH PRIZE

Kari Gregg – $15 Amazon Gift Card

Sarah Ballance – $15 Amazon Gift Card

Jodi Redford – $15 Samhain Publishing gift card

Lori Green – $10 Amazon gift card

Castles & Guns – $10 Amazon Gift Card + $10 Amazon Gift Card + eBook – Techno Crazed by Sarah Mäkelä

Donna Brown – eBook copy of Short Stories I-IV + and eBook copy of Fezariu's Epiphany

Angela Johnson – Autographed copy of Vow of Seduction

Rachel Haimowitz – eBook Copy of Each – Counterpoint: Song of the Fallen, Sublime: Collected Shorts, Where He Belongs, and Anchored: Belonging

McKenna Chase – Readers Choice of my available ebooks (McKenna Chase) via Kindle or directly to winner's computer via the Free Kindle app

Dakota Trace – 1 set of my BDSM series from Excessica Publishing. Nisey's Awakening, Taming Kalinda and Conquering Jude

Shona Husk – PDF copy of 'How to Breathe Fire' and PDF copy of 'Kissing Phoenix'

Secret Cravings Publishing – $25 GC to our website

MuseItUp Publishing, Inc. – eBook Copies of … Becoming NADIA by Cyrus Keith, Thriller | Crewkin by Robin L. Courtright, Sci-fi Space Opera | Dark Side of the Moon by Terri Lynn Main, Sci-fi Mystery | Murder is a Family Business by Heather Haven, Cozy Mystery

Lynnet Shannan – eBook of my current release

Tara Lain – eBook of Scientist and the Supermodel

Tracey H. Kitts – eBook Copy of a Latest Release

FIFTH PRIZE

Trish Jensen – $15 Amazon Gift Card

Keta Diablo – $15 Amazon Gift Card

Lori Green – $10 Amazon gift card

Castles & Guns – $10 Amazon Gift Card + eBooks – Ruined by Kinley Baker, Insolence by Lex Valentine, Pleasure Satellite by Danielle Monsch

Donna Brown – eBook copy of Short Stories I-IV + and eBook copy of Fezariu's Epiphany

Angela Johnson – Autographed copy of Vow of Seduction

Rachel Haimowitz – eBook Copy of Each – Counterpoint: Song of the Fallen, Sublime: Collected Shorts, Where He Belongs, and Anchored: Belonging

McKenna Chase – Readers Choice of my available ebooks (McKenna Chase) via Kindle or directly to winner's computer via the Free Kindle app

Virginia Rifkin – $20 Amazon gift card

Lynnet Shannan – eBook of my current release

Sable Hunter – eBooks

Tara Lain – eBook of Golden Dancer

Lynn Hubbard – eBook Copies of Run into the wind ebook | Desperado | Return to Love

Jean Hart Stewart – three of my e-books, reader's choice

Nina Pierce – TBA

Tracey H. Kitts – eBook Copy of a Latest Release

You must be 18 to enter.

Many stops on the tour are for HOT romance sites.

Full Details Online  

 

Link Up With Us!

    

Ghost in the Machine by Barbara J. Hancock

It's not often that a book's blurb hooks me. I mean, they can sell me on a book based on the premise. What I'm talking about is borderline obsession with a blurb. (Don't look at me like that. I'm not in this just for the wings.)

My editor handled Samhain's recent Cyberpunk anthology call. The three novellas she picked were released on Tuesday, and I admit–I ogled the covers and moved on. While I love Steampunk jewelry, I've never gotten into reading it. I hadn't even heard of Cyberpunk until that anthology call, so I was wary of the unknown. And then I saw the trailer for Ghost tweeted.

It grabbed me. I love, love, love the last lines: I've heard the warning my whole life. Never talk to Shadows. But no one ever told me what would happen if I kissed one. That right there sold this book to me. I'm swamped at the moment. Edits on Evermine and Frost are finished, which means I have crit work to catch up on and Eversworn to get back to. Once I'm all critted up, this book is my reward.

(Again, stop looking at me like that. I have willpower. Sure I do. Tons of it. *blinks*)

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Rule number one: Run from the Shadows. Unless one knows the secret that will save you.

A Cybershock Story

I live in a world of waifs and shadows. Live might be an overstatement. I scrounge and scramble and survive in an atmosphere made thick and gray by the ashes of the Fallen. And sometimes I dream of sunlight. My parents were taken, even though they followed all the rules. Never scavenge at night. Never talk to Shadows. Don't fight the Sweepers. Run. Run. Run.

Now that they've taken my little brother, Douglas, I've realized I've only been surviving for him. I have two choices: Follow him or lie down and die. I can't just quit after years of struggle. I wouldn't know how if I tried. Determination is all I have left.

And then I meet him.

He claims to be a rogue who can help me find my brother. It's got to be a lie. But I don't run. I stop. I listen. And I make a deal with a Shadow even though I know it will mean the death of me.

Never talk to Shadows.

But no one ever told me what would happen if I kissed one.

Warning: May cause fantasies of forbidden kisses from dark heroes who balance on the edge of evil. Where shadows wait and ashes fall…

For more information on this book, head over to Samhain or Amazon. For more information on Barbara J. Hancock, visit her website.

 

 

 

Evermine Excerpt

Guess what I have? Fresh from my inbox, I give you the finalized version (Yay! Edits are done!) of the first chapter of Evermine.

 

Chapter One

 

 

Earthen Realm, Dempsey Colony

 

Country music warbled through a battered radio on the shelf behind me. I glanced through the cutout between my kitchen and the dining area, but none of my customers seemed to mind hearing about heartaches and hound dogs, so I let it lie.

 

"Maddie," I yelled. "Order up."

 

My sister finished marking her notepad, then made a beeline for me.

 

"You're still coming over tonight, right?" She plucked napkins from a leaning stack and took the plates from my hands. "I've got popcorn, movies galore and China King on speed dial."

 

"Sounds like heaven." And I meant every word. Our girls' nights came less often these days. Maddie wouldn't be free if her mate, Clayton Delaney, hadn't gone off realm, to Askara.

 

Clayton worked with the freeborn legion, the demon equivalent to the Red Cross. Before Maddie, he'd traveled between this realm and the next often, bringing supplies and medical care to those in need. Now he was content to let others go in his stead, which suited her just fine.

 

I wasn't sure what had tempted him off realm this time, and Maddie's lips were sealed. Huffing bangs from my eyes, I ignored the envious twinge in my chest. Even Clayton's brother, Harper, wouldn't spill any of the details. I frowned. Actually, I couldn't find him to ask.

 

"Good deal," she said. "I was hoping we could—"

 

A metallic screech sliced open my ears as the diner trembled.

 

I braced on the counter. "What the hell was that?"

 

"Madelyn," a masculine voice, raw with pain, roared down the short hall.

 

"Oh God." Maddie's eyes rounded at whatever she saw. The plates she held wobbled, sliding down her arm to shatter as they hit the floor. She ran for all she was worth, past me.

 

"Marci," I called for my managing waitress. My apron tangled. I gave up, ripping the neck strap while tugging it over my head. I tossed it to her and made eye contact. "Cover for me."

 

"Is something wrong?" She touched my shoulder, but I shrugged her off.

 

"Don't know yet." I sprinted down the hall and out the rear exit, skittering through gravel. Sunlight cost me my vision long enough I heard my sister's pained cry before I saw her.

 

Maddie knelt beside Clayton, who sagged against the brick wall opposite the door he'd torn from its hinges to reach my sister. Her pale hands were stained red, and his right wing hung from his shoulder in tatters. Blood pooled at his hip. His black eyes shone with feral intensity, but each stroke of her hand down his cheek lulled his heaving chest into a more even rhythm.

 

The glamour he wore to appear human had failed. He was operating in full demon mode.

 

Lucky for us, the gateway between realms stood nearby, and our small colony touched its border. Otherwise, we'd be in for trouble. Evanti demons weren't what I'd call inconspicuous. They were black-skinned, with matching hair and eyes. The only touches of color on them were their massive carmine-colored wings. Unless aroused, then their dark eyes rimmed with silver.

 

The way Clayton's eyes shined for Maddie left few of his intentions to my imagination.

 

I turned before I saw the stuff of nightmares—my sister and demon-in-law making out.

 

"He needs Doc River," a harsh voice grated to my right. "Not sexual healing."

 

Dillon, another Evanti demon, stood at my elbow. A wide gash split open his face, made the cheek beneath his bicolored eyes swell. His glamour was intact, as always. I sometimes wondered if even he knew how his natural form looked. Sometimes I forgot he wasn't human.

 

That was the point. All Evanti used glamour here. They had to.

 

Earth might be our salvation, but none of us were fool enough to think humans, en masse, would welcome the knowledge that escaped slaves, winged demons from another realm, had set up colony in this sleepy town at the base of theBlue Ridge Mountains. Not that all of us had wings. Askaran demons, even half breeds like Maddie and me, looked human for the most part.

 

"What happened?" I squinted up at Dillon, into the sun.

 

"Fucking ambush." He rolled his shoulders as if limbering up for a second round. "Talk about your piss-poor party planning." He snarled. "Nesvia needs to get her shit together."

 

"What are you talking about?" I frowned. "Nesvia had a party?" And he'd been invited?

 

"Something like that." He sounded thoughtful. "We have news." He cracked a smile, something so rare from him, I stared. "Didn't think I'd live to see it, but Harper will fill you in."

 

"Harper?" I asked. "Is he here?" I glanced around. "Or did you stop by his place first?"

 

Dillon glanced away, and suddenly I knew the reason I hadn't been able to find Harper.

 

He hadn't been here, on Earth, to find. He must have sneaked off realm with Clayton.

 

Tremors worked from my knees, through my chest, and rattled my heart in its cage. "Where is he?" I spun on Clayton, who would have known, and Maddie, who hadn't told me.

 

"Emma." The way Clayton spoke my name, trying to soothe me, raised my hackles.

 

I couldn't breathe. From one second to the next, my brain scrambled. My pulse skittered.

 

I tried again to be rational, but every pair of eyes in the alley had locked on me. I swallowed hard and locked my knees, but they still shook hard enough to make my teeth rattle. I'd seen those sympathetic glances once before, the last time he went to Askara…the time he didn't come back. I couldn't lose him, not again. Spots danced in my vision. "Where is Harper?"

 

"I'm here, Emma-mine." His voice caressed my ears with the sweetest relief.

 

I sagged with it, almost too limp to turn. When I did, I got an eyeful of what no one wanted to tell me. I swallowed again as my gorge rose. He was sliced from black shoulder to hip. One of his carmine wings dragged the ground, and so help me God, there was an arrow lodged in his flank. His lips hitched to one side in his trademark, lazy-days smile as if nothing were wrong.

 

"Come here." He opened his arms to me. Well, one arm. The other hung limp at his side.

 

I was glued to his chest before my mind caught up with my feet. "What's wrong with you two? You should have gone to the clinic. You should have gone to Doc River, not come here."

 

Granted, Doc's clinic was still brand new, but she'd been the resident doctor for decades.

 

A low growl worked through his chest, sounding wet and making me shudder with fear. I kissed his collarbone. I couldn't help myself. I wanted to strangle him for doing this to me, again. For lying by omission, because he knew I'd crack under the strain of him leaving. There was nothing I could imagine so important he would risk himself by returning to Askara.

 

It had stolen five years of his life.

 

I didn't have it in me to forgive him if he let it steal even one more day.

 

"You're bleeding out." My voice went hoarse. "You're going to the doctor."

 

Instinct must have overridden his common sense. Both he and Clayton had been drawn to their mates, or in my case, would-be mate, as an imperative above seeking medical attention. Now his primal self was sated, and his adrenaline crash would be a doozy. "Come on. Let's get you to the clinic." I called over my shoulder, "Dillon, get Clayton on his feet while you can."

 

I led Harper across the street, past gawking humans, fellow colonists with ties to the Evanti, and into Doc River's clinic. Doc's lips set in a grim line as she herded him to an exam room. I collapsed into a chair in the waiting room and told myself every little thing was fine.

 

 

I started when someone jabbed my shoulder, then I rubbed the sore spot. Doc River stood over me with a pen in her hand, looking like she might want to poke me again. I scowled and she shrugged. After sinking into the chair beside me, she crossed her feet at the ankles on the coffee table.

 

"Hey, perk up. He's fine." Toying with the wild ends of her white braid, she added, "Or he will be. He's looking at a good twenty-four-hour healing window, and I want him walking everywhere for the next week. He can't risk those wings. Keep his feet on the ground."

 

My head bobbled along as I soaked up the important part—that he would recover. Even though Evanti healed fast compared to the sloth of human mending, I worried.

 

"How's Clayton?" Shame heated my cheeks. "And Dillon?" I hadn't thought of him until this minute.

 

"Dillon refused treatment." She clicked her tongue. "Like he's got something under that glamour I haven't seen before. As for Clayton, that boy hasn't been this messed up since Maddie ran over him." She made a rapid sign of the cross. "Speaking of lead-footed demonesses, I need to give this speech to her." Pointing over her shoulder, she said, "You can go in now."

 

I nodded, the only thing my head seemed capable of doing, then followed bloody footprints to a room in the back. Beeps and whirs from machines put me on edge, but when I stepped across the threshold, I heaved a grateful sigh. He was dozing, and his color looked good.

 

I went to his bedside and sat on the edge, staring until I had to reach out and touch some part of him. Pushing dark curls from his forehead, I stroked his temples, then his hollow cheeks.

 

"What were you thinking?" I murmured, more to myself than to him.

 

Askara was our home realm, a brutal realm where slavery thrived.

 

For all that I claimed Maddie as my sister, we weren't blood relatives. Her mother, Eliya, was the fallen queen of Askara, which made her the princess ascendant. My father, Archer, had been Eliya's longtime consort, but my mother was a human courtesan, which made me his half-breed, bastard daughter. Since Mother had died giving birth, her indenture passed on to me, and I became a slave in Father's house. Eventually, I'd been given to Maddie as her handmaiden.

 

I'd had no future, no dreams and no hope there. I'd been nothing.

 

Except in Harper's eyes, where I was more than the station of my birth, more than an accident of genetics, I was a female of worth. In all the years Harper had served as Maddie's guardian, his closeness to her had made my father assume Harper was in love with her. Never had it occurred to Father that he could love someone like me.

 

He'd been dead wrong.

 

Tick. Tick. Tick. A machine at Harper's shoulder spat out a curlicue of paper with his vitals. As I stared at the peaked sketches, I was transported back to the mountainous city of Rihos, to the night of Maddie's ascendancy ceremony, the night that changed all our lives.

 

I squeezed my eyes shut and matched my frantic breaths to his measured ones.

 

The heat of his palm cradling my cheek snapped my eyes open.

 

"Don't cry." His words slurred. Doc must have given him something for the pain.

 

I leaned into his touch. "I'm not." Sniffling, I added, "You scared me."

 

"Didn't mean to." His thumb swiped beneath my eye.

 

"You went back there." I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from raising my voice.

 

"Had to." His forehead puckered. "No choice."

 

"There's always a choice," I said on a near-hysterical laugh. "You just make poor ones."

 

His voice turned gruff. "Not true."

 

I wanted to drive home my point, but the old argument wasn't worth rehashing.

 

He knew about choices. He had made several on the night he crashed Maddie's ceremony, and we both had to live with the repercussions of my father's death and Harper's choice to bring Maddie and me to Earth. He'd spared us a most intimate violation, rape at the hands of aFirst Court priest, then he'd returned to Askara, to warn his father and brother of what he'd done, and flown into an ambush.

 

His father, Marcus, had died. Clayton had been good as dead. Harper…he didn't return.

 

All because of his choice to spare me and my sister from the lives we would have led.

 

For five years, I mourned his death. I made him a grave. I erected a marker, for God's sake. Then last month, Clayton had found him. He'd been imprisoned, by Eliya, all this time.

 

Learning Harper was alive tilted my world's axis. I'd been running backwards ever since.

 

"Have news," he said. "About Nesvia."

 

I swept my arm down his side to indicate his wounds. "Nesvia was there for this?"

 

He made a sound of agreement as his eyes fluttered closed.

 

Nesvia was the closest blood tie Maddie and I had. She was our half-sister, the only child born to her mother and my father. She was a reformist who craved change and Eliya's crown.

 

Harper's arm went limp, and his fingers slid down my face. I caught his hand and held it.

 

A knock at the door drew my head around. Maddie stood there, her face drawn and pale. Blood streaked her cheeks, vivid scores marring her alabaster complexion. "I'm sorry."

 

"You knew he was going." Of course she knew. Mates shared everything, and Harper couldn't have gone without clearing the trip through Clayton first. "And you didn't tell me."

 

The worst part was, as much as her betrayal stung, I'd done the same or worse to her where Clayton was concerned. Forgiven and forgotten. We always hurt those we loved the most.

 

"He knew you'd be upset. He made me promise I wouldn't say anything." She ran a hand through her hair. "He had no choice—Nesvia summoned him and Clayton. They both had to go."

 

My chest tightened as fear snuffed out my anger. "Why summon them specifically?"

 

Maddie bit her lip, as if deciding how much to tell me.

 

I stood and stalked toward her. "Why, Maddie? What's happening?"

 

Her gaze slid over my shoulder. When she saw Harper sleeping, she shut the door behind her and guided me into a chair at the foot of his bed. "Nesvia has been confirmed. She is now the Queen Ascendant of Askara." Maddie took my hands in hers, and they trembled. "She's done it." Her eyes gleamed. "She's freed the slaves."

 

My mouth fell open.

 

Our sister was now queen. Our kingdom was now free. Our lives were truly our own.

 

"But why ask for Clayton and Harper?" It made no sense. "Why not you, or even me?"

 

Her smile lost some of its brilliance. "She knew Clayton wouldn't allow me off realm until he was certain her peace offering wasn't a ruse. And I think…" her cheeks pinked, "…Nesvia assumed you wouldn't go without me."

 

"Oh." In other words, she still viewed me as a slave who dared not leave her master.

 

"Besides, her proposition was meant for them." Maddie shifted in her seat when my hands tightened. I loosened my grip so I wouldn't hurt her. "Clayton and I have been exchanging letters with Nesvia for the past several weeks." I nodded along. She'd mentioned it to me before. "And during that time, we outlined how the earthen colony operates. How it's funded. That sort of thing." She leaned closer. "Since Marcus Delaney founded this colony, and Nesvia has ties to him through me, and you, she's asked that one of his sons found a new colony…in Askara."

 

"No." The chair I'd sat in toppled onto its side when I got to my feet.

 

"Clayton can't accept her offer. This colony depends on him. They trust him to care for them and head up the legion." Her gaze lowered. "He's also afraid of what might happen if I returned. Like it or not, I'm still a princess, and Nesvia's coup has swirled a lot of controversy."

 

My back hit the wall, and I slid to the floor. "What did Harper say when she asked him?"

 

Maddie rubbed her arms as if she were cold. "He said he would consider her offer."

 

"Of course he did." I hid my face in my hands and braced my elbows on my knees.

 

Harper. He had locked the horrors of his imprisonment in some mental vault and buried the key so deep, his confusion was genuine if you asked him about what had been done to him.

 

Sadly, his loss remained razor sharp in my mind. Our separation burdened me, pressed on my shoulders, miring me in dreck from where we'd come from, where he'd have us go yet again.

 

Copyright © 2012 Hailey Edwards

All rights reserved — a Samhain Publishing, Ltd. publication

More Evermine information is available here.

Six Sentence Sunday

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I had an exciting week. I turned thirty on Thursday and got my first pair of glasses on Friday.

The first thing I noticed? Trees have leaves! Not green blobs!

 

Memories from his enslavement scrubbed his thoughts raw. Drawing his glamour closer, he exhaled through the tightness in his throat and unfastened the top buttons of his shirt. No collar. No choke chain. No reason to panic. Breathe.

 

For more Six Sunday goodness, visit the official website here.

Novellas Need Love, Too! Contest

Eligibility

Here are the rules:

The "Novellas Need Love, Too" contest is open to both published and unpublished authors. For the purposes of this contest, "Published" means either an RWA member or non-member who has accepted or initiated a publishing contract from any kind of publisher for fiction in the past five years of 12,000 words or more. "Unpublished" means either an RWA member or non-member who is unpublished in novella (12K or above) or novel (40K and above) length fiction and who has not accepted or initiated a contract with any kind of publisher for fiction in the past three years. This includes self-published works of fiction. If upon entry, you are "unpublished" but receive a contract (for other than the entered manuscript) before the entry deadline, you must notify the contest coordinator and we will give you the option of switching to the "published" category, or withdrawing from the contest.



Entries

Entry must be a novella, whose completed word count falls between the range of 12-40K words. Manuscripts must be completed by the final deadline so they may be submitted to the final judge if requested (November 1st). If a final judge asks for a full, you'll want to be able to send it out immediately. Entrant must retain all rights to the entry and not have granted any of them to a publisher or any other party by the contest entry deadline. If your entered manuscript is accepted for publication during the time of our contest (before October 1st) you must notify the contest coordinator; your submission(s) will be withdrawn from consideration and your entry fee(s) returned.

For "published" authors, the entirety of the entered manuscript must be uncontracted and unpublished, including (but not limited to) the concept and characters, the plot and storyline, and the written manuscript itself. It may be part of a series if

(1) the rest of the series is uncontracted and

(2) you are not under contract for subsequent series books with a publisher (vanity/subsidy or otherwise).

For more information, check out the Celtic Hearts Romance Writers website.