D.B. Jackson's Blog, page 50

SPELL BLIND Teaser #2!!

Here’s the second Spell Blind teaser. The book drops on January 6 from Baen. The sequel, His Father’s Eyes will be released in August. Enjoy! And happy New Year!

A cold prickling on the back of my neck—premonition, or instinct

honed by years on the force—made me pull out my weapon. I eased

toward the door, holding the pistol in front of me. I also released the

spell, felt the warding settle over me like a blanket. I reached the door, stepped past it so that I could swing it open and enter the garage in one quick motion. That was the plan, anyway. I had forgotten about that vanishing money from Jessie’s account and the possibility that she was with a myste. Stupid of me. And nearly fatal.

As soon as I flung the door open, I sensed the spell. It wasn’t particularly strong, but it was an assailing spell—an attack—and whoever cast it had aimed it at me. I braced myself, hoped the warding would hold. It did, but the spell—it felt like an impact attack, meant, no doubt, to seem like I had been hit with a two-by-four—was strong enough to stagger me and to make the doorway shake. By the time I was moving forward again, I could hear footsteps retreating toward the front of the garage.

I followed, Glock ready, the power for a second spell already building inside me. This time I planned to cast an assailing spell of my own. I hate it when people use magic against me; makes me want to get even.

I hadn’t taken five steps, before I slowed, then halted. The smell would have been enough to get my attention—feces, urine, vomit, sweat, fear, desperation—there could have been a body rotting in here.

It was hard to tell.

But what I saw was every bit as bad. Worse, really. At least twenty college-age kids lay sprawled over the filthy cement floor, most of them unconscious. At least half of them were emaciated, their cheeks sunken, as if they’d been prisoners in this hell-hole for months. Others—the newcomers, most likely—might have been marginally healthier. But all of them wore stained, tattered clothing; all of them looked like they hadn’t bathed in weeks or longer.

I spotted Jessie Tyler right away, but I couldn’t help wondering how many of these other kids didn’t have anyone searching for them. I heard a loud crash at the front of the shop. Another glance at Jessie convinced me she wasn’t going anywhere. I eased forward,

gripping my weapon with both hands, considering what spell I ought to use. Assailing spells worked best with a precise target. I didn’t have one, at least not yet, and I didn’t want to hurt one of those kids. Unfortunately, the myste I was stalking didn’t have my scruples. Again, I felt the spell as soon as he cast it—the air was electric with magic. I sensed the heat before I saw the wave of flame rolling toward me. I backpedaled, scared, but also unwilling to ward myself and leave the kids to roast. Fire spells are rudimentary magic, but this myste, whoever he was, had poured serious power into this one.

The temperature in the garage jumped twenty degrees. The skin on my face and hands flushed, like I’d been sitting way too close to a campfire.

The flames were almost on top of me when I cast my spell. Three elements, because that was how spells worked: the kids and myself, the fire, and a wall of magic in between. I recited the elements to myself three times, allowing the magic to build inside me. On the third repetition, I released it, the way I would a held breath. The barrier winked into view and then shuddered as the attack hit it. But like my earlier warding, it held. That wall of flame passed over without burning any of us. There was nothing I could do,

though, to keep the guy’s magic from setting everything else in the garage on fire.

SPELL BLIND Teaser #1!

So the release of  Spell Blind (book I of the Case Files of Justis Fearsson) is just a few days off — January 6, from Baen Books — and I haven’t even offered a teaser yet!!  Time to rectify that. This is the opening. More to come . . .

Ask most people to point at the moon, and they’ll lift their gaze

skyward, trying to locate it. Ask the same of a weremyste like me, and we don’t have to search for it. We know where it is. Always, and precisely. As it waxes full, we can feel it robbing us of our sanity and enhancing the strength of our magic. Like ocean tides, our minds and our runecraft are subject to its pull.

I was on the interstate cutting across the outskirts of Phoenix, and already I could feel the moon tugging at my thoughts, subtle and light, but as insistent as a curious child. Three hours before today’s moonrise, nearly a week before it would wax full, and its touch was as real to me as the leather steering wheel against my palms, the rush of the morning desert air on my face and neck.

I sensed the reservoir of power within me responding to its caress, like water to gravity. And I felt as well the madman lurking inside my head, coaxing the moon toward full, desperate to be free again. I had five days.

And in the meantime, I had work to do.

Work for me means investigating. Once it meant being a detective for the Phoenix Police Department, but those days are gone. I was on the job for six years and eight months. The day I turned in my badge was, next to the day twenty years ago when my mother died, the worst of my life. Still, when I look in the mirror, I see a cop, a detective. I’ve heard it said among cops that once you’re on the job, you’re never really off. Some things are like that, they’ll tell you. Some things get in your blood and that’s it. You’re never the same.

A New Year’s Post at Magical Words

I have a post up today at Magical Words — another in what I am calling the Unofficial Winter 2014-15 Spell Blind Blog Tour.  The post is called “Taking Stock and Taking Risks,” and it is about the closing of this year and some of my goals for 2015. You can find the post here. I hope you enjoy it, and I wish you all a wonderful New Year.

SPELL BLIND is Now Available for E-Readers!!

Some of you have already contacted me about this, and I have noticed it on several bookseller sites:  The hardcover edition of Spell Blind, the first book in my new series, The Case Files of Justis Fearsson, will be published by Baen Books on January 6, 2015 — a week from tomorrow.  But the electronic version of the book is already available.  That’s right, if you read your books on a Kindle or a Nook or a Kobo (like me) or any other e-reader, you can start in on this new adventure right now! I’m not sure why this is the case, but I’m not going to argue about it.  So download the book today, and enjoy!

A Pair of Posts Up Today

Today on the unofficial Spell Blind Winter 2014-15 Blog Tour, I have two posts up. The first can be found at the Magical Words blogsite. It’s a pretty light-hearted post  — a list of holiday superlatives (best holiday movie, best gift I’ve ever received and given — that sort of thing).  It’s meant to be fun and will, I hope, prompt others to offer similar lists in the comments section. The Magical Words post can be found here.

The second post is at the SFNovelists blogsite and it is about the new series I have coming out from Baen — the Case Files of Justis Fearsson. The Fearsson books are the first that I have set in the contemporary world, and writing in this world is quite different from setting a novel in a created world, or even a historical setting. The SFNovelists post touches on some of those differences and can be found here.

I hope you enjoy them both, and I wish all of you a wonderful holiday and a happy and successful 2015.

A Magical Words Post on Point of View

Today’s  post, the latest in the unofficial Spell Blind Winter 2014-15 Blog Tour, can be found at the Magical Words blog site. The post discusses point of view, and for those who know me this comes as no surprise. I happen to believe that point of view is one of the most important narrative tools a writer has at his/her disposal. Specifically, the post looks at the choices we make with regard to point of view and voice, and how those choices shape a project and are also shaped by the project.  You can find the post here. I hope you enjoy it.

“Long Nights Moon” is Live at Baen.Com

“Long Nights Moon,” the first published short story (or fiction of any sort for that matter) in the Justis Fearsson universe (written under the David B. Coe) is up and available at Baen.com.  This holiday themed short story takes place before the action described in Spell Blind, Book I in the Case Files of Justis Fearsson, which will be released by Baen Books on January 6, 2015. I had a great time writing this story and I’m very pleased with how it turned out. I hope you enjoy it. The story can be found here.

And just a note, the first line should read: “December’s full moon is known among some of the tribal peoples of North America as the Cold Moon, or the Long Nights Moon.”

A Post About Opening Passages, at Magical Words

Today’s post in the unofficial Spell Blind Winter 2014-15 Blog Tour can be found over at Magical Words. The post is called “Openings, Hooks, and Breaking Rules,” and it breaks down the opening passages of Spell Blind, the first book in the Case Files of Justis Fearsson, the new urban fantasy series I’m writing for Baen Books.

I had certain goals for those opening lines, as all writers do for their openings, and I discuss those in depth in this post. The post can be found here. I hope you enjoy it and find it helpful.

Post up at Magical Words!

I have a post up today at MagicalWords.net. It’s called “My New Old Book,” and it’s about the twisted, meandering history of Spell Blind, book I of the Case Files of Justis Fearsson, the new novel I have coming out in January from Baen Books. (It’s written under my real name, David B. Coe.) I guess you could say that this post marks the beginning of the Winter 2014-15 Spell Blind Blog Tour, but since I don’t really know what kind of blog tour I’ll be doing for this release, that might be a bit premature.

Still, it’s a fun post. Spell Blind has been through several iterations, it has been rewritten and torn down to its component parts and rewritten again. Its impending publication is a case study in perseverance and authorial stubbornness.  So if that sort of thing interests you, you should check it out.  Here’s the link: http://www.magicalwords.net/david-b-coe/david-b-coe-my-new-old-book/

Enjoy!

A New Post About Short Fiction and a Kickstarter Campaign

After a lengthy hiatus from blogging (I’ve actually been spending my days writing a new novel) I have a post up today at the SFNovelists Blog Site, which I help maintain along with approximately 100 other writers of fantasy and science fiction. Today’s post is called “Short Fiction, Anthologies, and an Ongoing Kickstarter Campaign,” and it is about exactly that. (This is what we call truth-in-advertising, folks!) Writing short fiction is a terrific way for aspiring writers to hone their craft, and this post discusses the benefits of writing stories, as well as the fun of crafting them for themed anthologies. And finally, it offers a few details about a new project — Temporally Out of Order — that a group of us are trying to get off the ground.  Please check out the post here.  And learn more about the Temporally Out of Order kickstarter campaign here.  Thanks, and enjoy!!