Clare C. Marshall's Blog, page 21
May 21, 2012
Faces in the Mist, Part Twenty-Three
She’d accepted that she was about to die. She shut her eyes to the world and waited for Lady Harmony’s new set of pointy teeth to sink into her neck and for her sharp fingernails to gut her senseless. She waited.
But it didn’t come.
Kristen chanced a peek. Lady Harmony’s breath was ragged and hoarse, like she was about to heave up everything she just ate (oh God, no, I don’t want to see half-digested Lady Méline bits, Kristen thought). But she tilted her head, as if examining Kristen, and without turning, gestured for her to come closer.
“I have a task for you.”
Her voice was the same. Somehow, Kristen found a small sense of relief in that. Some part of her was still human. If she could appeal to that, then maybe…maybe she wouldn’t eat her. She refused to look at Lady Méline’s corpse on the other side of the room.
When Kristen didn’t reply, Harmony stepped closer. Kristen leaned back further on the door and wished she could melt into the steel that kept her locked in. Blood stained Lady Harmony’s many teeth as she smiled.
“You’d do anything for us, wouldn’t you, Kristen.” Harmony said. It wasn’t really a question.
Kristen bit her lip.
“Maybe you’d like to hear what it is, first,” Harmony continued. “And then you can decide. But it will be worth your while. You do want to be a First Lady someday, don’t you?”
Her heart lurched. “A First Lady?”
“Yes, Kristen. Think about it. You could be in charge of all the Ladies on the Dome. You could decide their fate. Who succeeds, who fails. You could even take on Ladies that wouldn’t otherwise have had a chance at court. Giving back for everything that your Lady mentors have done for you.” Her steps were soundless on the cold tile as she inched closer to Kristen. “And all you have to do is carry out our simple instructions.”
“Or else I’ll be eaten.”
The words flew out of her mouth before she could stop them. So stupid! There was a flicker of anger in Harmony’s eyes and once again Kristen said goodbye to life.
“There is something you must understand,” Harmony said. She gestured to Lady Dominique, and the Second Lady joined the First before Kristen. Dominique’s hand slipped into Harmony’s like they were old lovers. “We must eat, just as you. We simply require a different…form…of sustenance to maintain our bodies.”
“But if it’s meat you want…I could get you anima–”
“Enough,” Harmony’s voice cut through Kristen like a knife through a ripe avocado. “Your task is to gather the Ladies and prepare them for an address in the Lady’s Quarters.”
“Wha…what are you going to–”
“That is none of your concern.”
Kristen’s heart was pounding in her ears. “And I wouldn’t have to hurt anyone, right? All I have to do is tell them you’re going to talk to them. Today. Right?”
Dominique’s black eyes slid to Harmony’s, as if asking permission to speak. After a slight nod, Dominique revealed her pointy pearly-whites in a sickly-sweet smile. “Right.”
The faster she got out of here, the better. The door behind her was locked, but the Ladies had punched a hole through the walls–perhaps they would do it again. Kristen averted her eyes from Lady Méline’s remains as she walked around the Ladies, giving them a wide berth.
“And Lady Kristen?”
Kristen swallowed and glanced over her shoulder. “Yes…my lady?”
Her voice was sickly sweet. “If somehow Captain Darian or Queen Skyla got word of our plan, we will not hesitate to devour your essence. Don’t think for a moment that we won’t.”
It was all too much. The world was becoming dizzy but she fought it. She just had to get out somehow. Get. Out.
And with more courage than she felt, she said, “I don’t doubt it.”
Previous | Next
May 19, 2012
Book Giveaways May 19, 2012
This week we have lots of first books in a series and lots of little known indie books this week…hurray!……and a Kindle Fire! Yep, you know you want that. I sure do.
Obligatory Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with these blogs or these authors. I just do this for fun.
Book title: The Vicious Deep
Blog Doing Giveaway: I Heart YA Books
Book Type: Physical Books
Open: Us/Canada
Giveaway Ends: May 30, 2012
Book title: Exiled and Shift (not pictured)
Blog Doing Giveaway: Author M.R. Merrick’s Site
Book Type: Physical Books
Open: International!
Giveaway Ends: June 16, 2012
Other things being given away:
Posters of the book covers
Book TitleWritten in Ashes
Blog Doing Giveaway: Unabridged Expression
Book Type: US: Physical book OR eBook; International: eBook
Open: International
Giveaway Ends: May 30, 2012
Book Title: Seers
Blog Doing Giveaway: Fictional Candy
Book Type: Physical Books
Open: US Only
Giveaway Ends: May 20, 2012
Book Title: Stained
Blog Doing Giveaway: Book Sniffers Anonymous
Book Type: Physical Book
Open: International? (Doesn’t say)
Giveaway Ends: May 29, 2012
Book Title: Shadowland
Blog Doing Giveaway: Disincentive Reviews
Book Type: eBooks (10 copies available = 10 winners!)
Open: International
Giveaway Ends: May 28, 2012
What’s being given awayA KINDLE FIRE!
Blog Doing Giveaway: [Fikt]shun
Open: to anyone 13 or older who can receive an Amazon Gift Card. (International)
Giveaway Ends: May 30, 2012
Also being given away:
$50 Amazon Gift Card (see contest rules on site; special rules for non-US peeps)
Previous Giveaways
These are ones that I mentioned last week that are still going!
An eBook copy of Revamped by Ada Adams at Paranormal Indulgence. Ends May 28, 2012.
Oodles of Books is giving away oodles of things. Check out her blogoversary giveaway.
Paperback copy of Kill Me Softly, by Sarah Cross at Tynga’s Reviews. Ends May 21, 2012.
Goddess Goodies over atConfessions of a Bookaholic, ends May 24.
May 14, 2012
Faces in the Mist, Part Twenty-Two
There was a bump on the other side of the wall.
Lady Kristen’s eyes flickered up from her datapad. At least they’d let her have that in quarantine. She found re-reading the Charter to be comforting anyway. In a time when there were different rules, acknowledging the rules that did exist normally was relaxing for her. The Charter turned out to be better company than Lady Méline. She was fast asleep on one of the hospital beds, sprawled out quite unladylike, but she’d been pretty shaken up. Or, that’s what Kristen thought, anyway. She stopped paying attention when Méline went off in French. Her French was pretty good, but not as good as Lady Dominique’s or Lady Méline’s, obviously. Eventually she’d given up trying to communicate with her.
She knew she talked too much sometimes. But she couldn’t help it. If she had something to add, her mother always told her to add it, no matter what. Her voice was important enough to be heard, as she had won out over her other sisters when her family decided she was the one who would go the Lady’s Academy. Whatever she earned, she kept little for herself. The rest was for her family. Else, she’d never hear the end of it. And once they heard she was in quarantine…
She rubbed at the spot where they’d taken her blood, and picked at the band-aid. They’d been ushered into the quarantined room near where Lady Harmony had…well…attacked?…Lady Dominique. The nurses had assured Kristen that everything was going to be fine, that their initial tests had come back negative for whatever infection had infected the two head ladies.
Kristen set aside the pad on the nightstand next to her–she’d stopped reading the text long ago–and slowly climbed to her feet. The titled floor was so cold it hurt her soles; she leaped back onto the bed next to Lady Méline and leaned against the baseboard. Whatever that bump was, it had only happened once. It was probably just a nurse checking in on Lady Harmony and Lady Dominique.
Or maybe it wasn’t…
The two head ladies, infected. Could that be a coincidence? She shook her head? She had always been reprimanded by the Ladies at the Academy for jumping to conclusions. She thought about the Third Lady. Lady Jade didn’t have a way with people nor was she as beautiful as Lady Harmony or Lady Dominique, but she was book-smart, that was for sure. She spoke four different languages fluently, travelled around the Asian continents until her family sent her to the Lady’s Academy. Lady Jade was too nice to have done something like this. Once, she had lent Kristen some of her face cream when Kristen couldn’t afford to buy a new container. People who buy other people face cream don’t infect them with strange light diseases.
Bump.
There it was again! Kristen’s eyes slid to Méline. “Hey! Wake up. Uh…pas de dormir! Bienvenue! Come on, Méline!”
She let out a tiny groan, stretched like a cat who had been disturbed by its master’s gentle hand, and then rolled over again.
Another crash. There was definitely something going on. Kristen braved the cold floor and padded to the wall they shared with the adjacent room. Every breath she took seemed louder and louder as silence prevailed. She leaned her right ear against the wall, strands of her flattened hair brushing against her cheek.
There was nothing to hear.
She let out a sigh of relief she didn’t know she was holding.
“I’m just being silly,” she told the sleeping Méline. “I mean, like, you’re asleep, but they’re super asleep. So…yeah. Not going t–”
And that was when the wall broke.
Pieces of steel, splinters from a wooden frame, and insulation flew across the room. Kristen ducked behind her bed and shielded her eyes. “What is…”
She stole a glance. Dust from the debris settled, and sure enough, it was Lady Harmony and Lady Dominique! Kristen leapt to her feet and went to greet them.
“I’m so glad you’re–”
But it wasn’t the Lady Harmony that Kristen knew.
Sharpened teeth. Hundreds of them, fit into her tiny mouth. Her lips, red, like she’d put on too much lipstick and then smeared on another coat of blood. And her eyes: as dark as space itself, with only a pinpoint of white for the pupil.
Lady Dominique shared a similar affliction, but she hung back behind Harmony, clutching the sides of the newly formed door between their two rooms. Her soulless, alien eyes were fixed on Harmony, like a young chick watching a mother hen. Except that chickens definitely didn’t look like they were going to murder people.
Kristen’s lips moved to placate them, but before words could escape, Lady Harmony–or the creature that looked like her–blurred as she whipped across the room to Lady Méline’s sleeping form. She didn’t even have a chance. As Méline’s eyelids fluttered, the Lady Harmony creature gripped her by the shoulders, leaned over her face and…oh God, the sound! Like a sloppy, slurping vacuum cleaner…but more muffled screaming…and bones crunching…
Kristen ran for the door and tried the knob. Locked.
“HELP! HELLLLLP!” she screamed.
She clawed at the door. There were no windows.
She pivoted around again. Lady Méline lay discarded on the floor, face down. Lady Harmony’s face was stained with Méline’s blood. It dripped onto Harmony’s dress, and onto the floor. Kristen dared herself to look away, but she couldn’t. To take her eyes off Harmony meant dying.
“Lady Harmony…please don’t kill me…you know me! Junior Lady Kristen…”
It was no use. Her words became babbled nonsense, and then murmurs. For the first time in her life, Kristen had nothing to say. Lady Harmony put one bare foot in front of the other, a smile spreading across her face. A smile that said, victory.
Because Kristen was next.
Previous | Next
May 13, 2012
Finished The Violet Fox!
Finally. I’ve finished the first draft of the Violet Fox. But there’s still a lot of work to be done. I’m re-thinking my goal to publish two books this year. I think it will end up being one novel (the Violet Fox) and my not-so-secret project that I’m working on, which will be published (for free!) for everyone to download and enjoy.
So…I’ve finished a novel, what next?
Well, now it’s time to re-write the thing. Because it’s a YA fantasy, there’s a lot of world-building I have to revisit. The characters are pretty fleshed out but now I have to go back and sculpt them, so each person feels unique and at-home in the world. There’s a couple of places where I know the plot is how I want it, others, well, not so much. I’m really in love with the beginning this time.
Projected publishing time? I don’t want to tie myself down, but probably September. And I have a lot of marketing ideas that I hope to put into swing soon–including giveaways and contests! YAY!
For those of you who don’t know, here’s some teaser cover-copy (cover to come, of course…Dave has a great mock-up as always!)
Run.
That’s what instinct told me.
But in order to save the secrets of my people
and to protect my brother
I have to become the enemy.
Stay tuned 
May 12, 2012
Book Giveaway Finds, May 12, 2012
Here are book giveaway finds for this week! There are tons of international ones, from both big and small blogs, so check it out!
If your blog is hosting a giveaway, let me know in the comments or shoot me an email on the contact me page, and I’ll do my best to feature you!
I’m going to make this a weekly event, so check back next week for more great book giveaways!
Book title: Dead Radiance
Blog Doing Giveaway: Gothic Angel Book Reviews
Book Type: Paperback
Open: International!
Giveaway Ends: May 16, 2012
Additional items being given away:
Signed Bookmark
Necklace
Book title: ReVamped
Blog Doing Giveaway: Paranormal Indulgence
Book Type: eBook
Open: International!
Giveaway Ends: May 28, 2012
Book title: (Multiple)
Blog Doing Giveaway: Chick Loves Lit
Book Type: Paperbacks
Open: US Only
Giveaway Ends: May 13, 2012
Notes: This is a “clear my shelves” giveaway; the blogger is giving away ARCs of books she has reviewed in the past.
Book title: Bitterblue
Blog Doing Giveaway: Page Turner’s Blog
Book Type: Paperback
Open: US Only (No P.O. Boxes)
Giveaway Ends: May 18, 2012
Additional Items being given away:
A tote bag featuring the names of the Seven Kingdoms
Book title: Slammed
Blog Doing Giveaway: Addicted to Words
Book Type: eBook
Open: International!
Giveaway Ends: May 18, 2012
Book title: (Choice of one of three of the Books Pictured)
Blog Doing Giveaway: Oodles of Books
Book Type: Paperback
Open: International (as long as Book Depository ships to you)
Giveaway Ends: May 25, 2012
Additional Items given away:
Key & Wing Charm Necklace
Notes: This is a blogaversary giveaway. There are two other giveaways she is hosting for her blogaversary here and here.
Book title: Die for Me
Blog Doing Giveaway: Xpresso Reads
Book Type: Paperback
Open: International!
Giveaway Ends: May 15, 2012
Book title: Kill Me Softly
Blog Doing Giveaway: Tynga’s Reviews
Book Type: Paperback
Open: US/Canada Only
Giveaway Ends: May 21, 2012
Giveaway title: Goddess Giveaway
Blog Doing Giveaway: Confessions of a Bookaholic
Book Type: Paperbacks
Open: US/Canada Only
Giveaway Ends: May 24, 2012
Giveaway includes:
1 copy of The Goddess Test
1 copy of Goddess Interrupted
Goddess French tote bag
Goddess sunscreen
Goddess beach ball
$5 iTunes gift card
Other Giveaways:
Debz Bookshelf is giving away any Fairy Tale book worth $10 or less. US Only.
Avery’s Book Nook is giving away a box of YA paranormal & dystopian (ARCs and published copies) books. Ends June 7. US Only.
May 7, 2012
Faces in the Mist: Part Twenty-One
She’d been hungry for so long, before Another Light came.
YOU ARE THE LIGHT KEEPER, said the Other in its all-consuming voice. MAKE THIS LIGHT YOURS, SO YOU MAY TRAVEL IN NUMBERS.
She was worried that she didn’t know what to do. How long ago since she had accepted its deal; allowed it into her soul and known its hunger? It felt like forever since her last meal. The Other, it had eaten Light on a ball in the middle of the Great Blackness some distance from here. That Light had a different shape, a different colour than hers had had, but those physical characteristics didn’t matter. It was all sweet nectar, the Other said. It was the nectar from which all life was based, and that was how the Other kept its life.
When the Another Light erupted into her consciousness like a sun going supernova she did the first thing that came to mind: she drank. And it was so sweet, it was nectar, it was life, it was everything good that the Other said it would be, and more.
As she drank she saw into the Light. Images so brief yet so intense passed before her. For a brief moment she was inside them. She saw faces that she’d never seen before, that she didn’t know but the Another Light knew. Places: a small apartment in a large city, the cold warmth of a mother, slaving away to provide for her child Lights.
Dominique, the Another Light was screaming. I am Dominique, you are Harmony. The Other, this is his hunger.
But the hunger was too loud. She consumed the Light and made it part of the Other, part of herself. And yet she left a spark–the tiniest measurement of Light–because the Other had instructed her to travel in numbers.
YOU WILL NEED HELP FOR THE NEXT STAGE OF YOUR JOURNEY, it said.
What must I do now, she asked.
GATHER YOUR STRENGTH. FEED. THERE ARE MORE LIGHTS TO BE CONSUMED.
Where do I find them?
LOOK, AND YOU WILL SEE.
But Harmony only saw darkness. The Light had been consumed, leaving nothing for her to see. That didn’t mean she knew something else was around her. She couldn’t sense in the conventional way of describing it: she knew that other lights had been buzzing around her, and there was one nearby–blocked by some kind of non-light substance, but her previous life experience told her that it could be easily destroyed or maneuvered around so that she could get to her precious nectar.
It was like she was treading water now, swimming towards the surface. Breathing was not a problem. She was not afraid. She was driven by her hunger, the Other’s hunger, the hunger that it had known since its creation long, long ago–and she would help it continue its journey–because it had spotted the billions of Lights in the blue ball in the Great Blackness, and to both of them, that looked delicious.
Previous | Next
May 6, 2012
Get 50% off WITHIN at Smashwords!
To celebrate me finally uploading my book to Smashwords, I’m having a 50% off sale for the rest of the month.
That’s right. You can get an already cheap e-copy ($2.99) of WITHIN from Smashwords OR my website for even cheaper!
Use the following code:
SK26J
At checkout on Smashwords or here at Faery Ink Press and you will get 50% off.
Hurry! Sale ends at the end of the month!
May 1, 2012
“The Best Book Report I’ve Ever Written”
About a week ago, I got an email from a girl named Christine. The email was entitled, “The Best Book Report I’ve Ever Written.” Turns out, she had done my book Within for a book report in high school–and she got 100% on it! She has kindly given me permission to post some of the pictures she sent me of her project.
As part of the project, she had to make a collage to represent the book.
She writes in her book report:
I chose to represent this novel by making a fabric collage. The background is bright on the left and grey on the right with a jagged, rough transition between the two. This represents that everything in Trinity’s world started out happy and normal (the bright colors) but the car accident was a rough transition (the jagged edge) which started a bleak period in Trinity and her family’s life (the grey fabric). I also added a girl cut out of denim, but then ripped in half because after the accident, Trinity’s life is torn apart, although she doesn’t realize it, and so are the lives of all her family members and friends. It also represents that her family and friends are torn about whether or not to believe the story that Trinity, or some divine power inhabiting her body, is writing. Ellie is also torn between caring about her best friend and wanting Zack to be interested in her instead of Trinity. This is also why the piece is entitled Torn.
Here’s a picture of the collage, and the book report. Notice the cover of the book report has text from the novel! Super cool.
Way to go Christine! She did a great job evaluating the book. I really like the collage, and the name “Torn”. That would have made a good name for the novel itself!
April 29, 2012
Faces in the Mist, Part Twenty
Mac Jaclow’s communicator wouldn’t stop ringing, and he seriously considered uninstalling the program from his datapad.
Ever since the Daily Dome ran the story about Queen Skyla and her collapse, he’d had the whole spectrum of calls: “Jaclow, you’ve done it again, you sly bastard, congrats on the big question that caused the break.” And: “I can’t believe you brought up her dead fiancé. A cheap trick for a cheap story.” His favourite? “Mac Jaclow, submit this story for the Charles Lynch Award, and come claim your prize.”
Mac glanced over at his prize wall. Framed certificates and metals were mounted over his single cott in his home-office, where he did most of his writing. Those prizes, that was all he had. Best story covering the drug smuggling ring in Taiwan. His CAJ award: that one was for his story about human trafficking between Canada and Italy.
Those awards were surrounded with the cheaper certificates: Most Likely to turn in Story on Time. Worst Article about Bigfoot Sighting. Best Coverage of Ghosts in Space.
His eyes flickered up to his degree, which was at the centre of his other awards. He’d nailed it to the wall proudly when he’d first arrived at the Dome three years ago. Boy, he’d been a different person then. Present Mac would’ve told Past Mac to stay away if time travel were possible. The Daily Dome was no Earth newspaper, that was for sure. At least some people back home still had standards. Here? These people were happy to read anything to make them forget that they were floating on a useless piece of rock.
The problem with writing a great article? Now the paper wanted more. Normally he’d make something up, but the rumours…they were too juicy to ignore. Lady Harmony had had a seizure. The medical bay was on lockdown. The Moon Flash Virus? Maybe.
Or maybe not.
So Mac decided to dust off the ol’ journalism skills and called up some of the ladies, and began plotting out Lady Harmony’s day the night she’d had her incident. The ladies were more than eager to talk, of course. That’s what they were trained to do.
He used the wall adjacent to his awards to construct the timeline.
Morning: Daily Instruction with Lady Dominique for the Junior Ladies. He’d gotten three Juniors to confirm her being in class with Lady Dominique. She’d been firm in her instruction, as usual, but one of the Juniors noted that she seemed more distracted than usual.
Noon: Lady Harmony was supposed to dine with Lady Dominique at the French café on the promenade, but she had cancelled last minute. Source? The café’s owner was miffed because the two Ladies were big spenders…especially when it came to the finer Earth wines. Even at lunch time? This amused Mac greatly. Where Lady Harmony actually ate lunch, Mac didn’t know.
Early Afternoon, 12:59pm Lunar Standard Time: Lady Harmony’s pass card was swiped at the cargo bay.
1:05pm, LST: Lady Harmony signs in at the front desk.
1:46pm, LST: Lady Harmony signs out.
The rest of the day, Lady Harmony seemed to have spent in her quarters, according to the Juniors who had seen her. The physical evidence seemed to support that as well: she’d swiped her pass-card to get in, and the only time she swiped it again was late at night, before she’d went wandering around the Dome.
The key to the mystery had to be in the cargo bay.
When he called the security department, he’d managed to convince them to release the security tapes for the cargo bays and their adjoining docking bays—but they were on loan, and would be deleted from his datapad within the next hour, regardless of whether he found something useful or not. One hour was barely enough time to comb through the day’s footage. He was pretty sure that if he were anyone else, he would’ve had them for the whole day. The downside to being a journalist with a reputation.
The footage was in black and white with poor sound quality, which was another problem. Most of Earth’s surveillance’s systems had long upgraded to colour, but this was the Lunar Dome. Earth’s old technology dumping ground. There were three cameras: the first one being in the entrance of the cargo bay, above the front desk. Lady Harmony came in, flushed and in a rush, and scrawled her signature on the sign-in sheet.
“The shipment. Has it arrived?” Lady Harmony asked.
“It’s scheduled to dock soon, my lady,” the receptionist replied. “Have a seat in the waiting room.”
Their voices were scratchy and had a robotic undertone from the poor sound quality.
“But I need it tonight!” she insisted. “My current bottle is empty, and my skin…”
“…is just as radiant as ever, as always, my lady. Please, have a seat.”
The receptionist directed Lady Harmony to a waiting area, where there was a second camera. She sat there for more than fifteen minutes. Mac switched to the third camera. The docking bay had one large tightly sealed door, which rose slowly to let in the vaccum of space–and the cargo ship that carried whatever precious product Lady Harmony so desperately needed. Shipments from Earth were an important part of the Lunar economy, and any Lunar citizen could easily order whatever commodity they needed from Earth and have it shipped to the moon–for a price.
Mac fast-forwarded most of the docking procedure. When the ship had safely landed, the docking bay door began its long descent. Workers in space-suits and chords wrapped around their waist to anchor them to the bay floated against the walls until the room pressurized and gravity was restored. The gentle release of steam from the rear cargo ship door rose into the air.
No, that couldn’t be right. Rewind.
He watched the cargo bay door close again. The steam began to rise before the space door was shut–just as the ship was landing. Fuel from the aft? No, that wasn’t right. It would have been sucked into space.
Rewind.
There it was again.
A hazy black mist slipped through the crack in the bay door just as it shut, and jumped into a nearby air vent as the room pressurized.
The workers were all wearing suits, but the eager customers who entered the bay after the ship landed were not. A tendril of black smoke hung in the air, as if waiting for a vulnerable person to walk by…
And who was the first civilian back in the bay, but Lady Harmony.
Previous | Next
April 21, 2012
Secret Project! But not really.
The past month has been a blur. I’m now settled in Calgary, where I’ll remain for the foreseeable future. Other family stuff has gone on that has prevented me from writing too much…
…but…
I am working on a cool sort-of-but-not-really secret project that I hope to unveil soon. Those of you on my Facebook know what it is, and you know that I’m having a lot of fun with it. And it will be available for FREE for everyone to download and enjoy.
I’m going to try and finish up Faces in the Mist soon. I’m pretty close to finishing the draft of The Violet Fox–over 80K so far. It just sort of keeps going on and on, but in a good way. It’s a fantasy novel so there are some worldbuilding things that take up more space. Hoping to get that to an editor soooooon!
