Jennifer M. Zeiger's Blog, page 6

Daunting

I’m at GalaxyCon in Raleigh North Carolina this week. It’s an intensive, four-day convention, so starting a new adventure is probably not the best idea, but since I’m already in the convention frame of mind, let’s talk about the journey that brought me here. The daunting, scary journey that’s led to something beautiful.

When The Adventure came out, multiple people mentioned comic cons and such as an opportunity I should explore for selling books. I shrugged their suggestions off, scared to jump into something so unknown. In my mind’s eye, conventions were a giant black hole. I’d never even attended one, much less sold things at one. Plus, they were super peopley. Just thinking about them made me want to curl into my shell and hide. 

I can’t say exactly what finally pushed me past that fear. I just know that, around the time things were opening up from Covid, I met a game store owner who asked if I’d be interested in selling books at the convention he ran in Myrtle Beach. Maybe it was the comfort of knowing the organizer, or maybe I just jumped before my lizard brain kicked in. Who knows, but for whatever reason, I agreed without really knowing anything about his convention.

So of course, after agreeing, I went home and googled the event. It was XCON. I’m not even sure if it’s still running as the dates on the website are old, but at the time five or six thousand people were expected to attend. Gulp. Up to that point, I’d only ever done book signings where I’d talk to a grand total of maybe ten or twenty people. Thankfully, google also showed that the date for XCON was a ways out, so I decided to find a few smaller events first to break the ice.

I found Captains Comic Expo in Charleston. Not only was it smaller, it was closer to home. Now time to prepare. I already had a tablecloth and such from the afore mentioned book signings but I realized I had no signage because the bookstores always printed posters for me. Guess I needed some posters. I put together a couple that advertised my books and printed them at the local Staples. When I picked them up, they’d been rolled a tube for transportation and they curled up tight unless taped to a wall or something. Ummm. That doesn’t help the display. How to display them when there wasn’t a wall behind the vendor tables? 

I cast around for options and finally realized the posters were the perfect size to lay over my smaller dry erase boards, so I bought an easel that I could set a board on and then used magnets to hold the posters up. It was janky, trying to tip over the whole Captains Comic Expo weekend, and a guy nearby ran through all the ways my display labeled me as a newbie. The feedback was helpful and not all at the same time, but I digress. It worked for what I needed.

My nervousness at attending conventions has never gone away, but the dark hole in my mind’s eye has. In its place sits anticipation right alongside the nervousness. I now know what I would have missed if I’d allowed fear to hold me back. Conventions are still super peopley. My perspective on that hasn’t changed beyond an acceptance that that aspect is just part of the bargain. (Thus the nerves). But there’s also the reward of meeting amazing people face to face who share my love of reading and who want new stories. 

Writing is solitary and after a while, it starts to bring up doubts that echo back in the silence. Is this even worth it? Does anyone find value in what I’m doing? Am I throwing words into this noisy world and just making it noisier? 

The conventions silence that nonsense. I get to connect with people in a mutual passion, however briefly, and bring joy to their day. By the end of a convention weekend, I’m exhaused, but newly motivated that what I’m doing is worthwhile. It’s beautiful.

The Next Daunting Thing

And now I’m looking at audiobooks, especially for Quaking Soul. It’s another black hole in my mind’s eye. The only advantage over the conventions is that I enjoy listening to audiobooks, so they’re not totally unknown, but I’ve never seen the flip side when such a book is produced. 

It’s daunting. Unknown. Scary. I’ll probably look like a newbie the first go around and have some guy tell me all the things I did wrong. Maybe his critique will be helpful. Maybe not. But I also I don’t know the blessings that’ll come from it either. Maybe it’ll just be the knowledge that I tried. And then I can let it go and move on. But maybe the reader will be amazing and listeners will fall in love with both my story and the way the reader brings the characters to life.

Who knows? 

Blessings,

Jennifer

P.S. What dream do you have, yet are scared to pursue? What blessings might come from it if you do try?

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Fairy Feud – Kitchen

Welcome back for the last installment in the Fairy Feud adventure! Last week, readers voted to head to the kitchen in search of iron.

If you missed the previous posts, you can read them – Fairy Feud, Fairy Feud Make a Call, and Fairy Feud Owe Her a Favor. Or, just know you were at a hotel when you spotted a fairy. You faked a call to scare it away and headed inside only to be confronted by a fire elemental who gave you a choice. You chose to owe her a favor in exchange for not telling the fairy about your fake call and she asked you for silverware. Unable to get to the special silverware, you figure she actually wants the iron in the dinnerware to ward off the fairies, so readers voted to head to the kitchen in search of other iron items. 

Let’s see how this adventure ends!

Fairy Feud – Kitchen

You wait in the bathroom. The tiled walls gleam, looking shimmery to your drugged eyes. Vanessa probably has a stronger influence near the kitchen as opposed to the garden where you’ve already seen one fairy wandering, so your goal is the kitchen. But it’s likely that the fairy is watching in the lobby. As soon as you exit the bathroom, he’ll be at you again, unless there are other humans around. 

Consequently, you wait for someone to rattle the doorhandle. When they do, you’ll know it’s safe to exit as the fairy won’t be able to attack. 

And so you wait. And stare at the shimmery walls until whatever drug you were shot with starts to fade. The late hour doesn’t help. One hour passes. Then two. 

You hear the wheels of a cart and your heart rate spikes. There’s a knock and you about jump out of your skin. 

“Hello,” calls a male voice. 

“Sorry,” you holler, exiting to find the night clerk with a bucket of cleaning supplies. Behind him there’s a flash of orange. You give him a sheepish smile and head for the elevators, quick stepping to be around the corner before the clerk enters the bathroom. 

You barely make it as the bathroom door clicks closed. Alone again, you dart past the elevators and around the corner to where you spotted the back entrance to the kitchen when you first checked in. 

Ducking inside, you lean against the door. The kitchen is dimly lit by the red glow of an exit sign and a small square of light coming through the window in the far door. You’ll have to move quickly. 

You zero in on the cabinets. The first one’s full of bowls. The drawer below it napkins, straws, and creamers. The next one’s stainless-steel pots and pans and you start to worry that you might have chosen poorly. You just found disposable cups when a slight breeze pushes through the door. It’s too dark to tell if there was a flash of orange with it but you assume there was. 

The fairy found you. He probably brought friends. On instinct, you pitch the stack of disposable plates from the next drawer into the air. 

Paper flies in all directions and there’s a chorus of angry, high-pitched grunts. 

Yup, the fairy brought friends. 

A dart plunks into the drawer next to you. 

You pull open the next cabinet, an oversized one, with too much force and the hinges screech. 

Pay dirt! There’s a huge, cast-iron skillet that looks ideal for laying overtop the firepit outside. It weighs a ton! You fall onto your backside trying to pull the thing out. A dart barely misses your head as you do. A fairy, about an inch tall with spikey orange hair, almost lands on top of the pan, hisses as he realizes it’s iron, and instead pitches a two-inch spear into your shoulder.

You swing the pan at him, clipping his heels. It sizzles like you just threw bacon on it. He screeches and darts away. 

The spear must be coated in the same drug as the dart was earlier, because your vision immediately starts to waver as you shove to your feet. 

Giving up on trying to defend against individual fairies, you simply swing the huge pan in wide arks while stumbling for the far door. 

Another dart hits your ear. 

You fall through the door and into the dining room, dragging the pan now as the drug starts to make your limbs numb. 

Reaching the seat you shared with Vanessa earlier, you slump onto the booth and try to call, “Vannesha,” through numb lips. 

Later, you wonder if the drug was a sort of blessing because what happens next terrifies you even through a blurry memory. 

A pillar of fire swirls down from the ceiling like a tornado. For a moment, Vanessa’s face appears above you. 

“Debt is paid,” she says, and then vanishes in a wave of fire, taking the insanely heavy skillet with her. It turns to molten metal in the air, and then scatters like ashes on a stormy wind, misting the entire dining room in tiny embers of molten iron. 

There’s the smell of hot metal and the brush of heated wind on your skin just before the drug takes over and you pass out. 

***

You wake to the night clerk shaking you. From his expression, you guess he probably thinks you were drunk the night before. 

“Breakfast is about to start,” he says, and leaves. 

There’s no tiny spear in your shoulder or wound on your ear. You groan and sit up, reaching to rub your eyes. You stare at your palm instead. Shifting your hand side to side, there’s a faint shimmer. You blink, thinking that maybe the drug’s still affecting you.

“The shimmer will fade.”

You start as Vanessa takes a seat. 

“The shimmer will fade,” she says again and grins devilishly, “but the effect won’t. We both win this time.”

“How you figure?” you ask, still staring at your skin. 

“The fairies won’t come near you now. You reek of iron. And my dining room,” she gestures around and pokes at the fabric of the booth, which also shimmers in the morning light, “is coated in the stuff. I have a safe territory, and you don’t have to worry about fairies ever again. Win-win.”

She winks and vanishes. A moment later, a woman with her two children wanders in for breakfast. 

The End

Thanks for joining in this adventure! It’s been a while since I posted one of these and it’s been super fun getting back into it.

Until next time, blessings

Jennifer

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Fairy Feud – Owe Her a Favor

Welcome back for the third installment in the Fairy Feud adventure! Last week, readers voted to owe the fire elemental a favor in exchange for her not alerting the fairy to your fake call ruge.

If you missed the previous two posts, you can read the beginning of this Adventure here and last week’s part here. If you don’t want to hop back, just know you were at a hotel sitting out by the fire pit when you spotted a fairy. Since you don’t want to get snared in its shenanigans, you faked a call to scare it away and headed inside only to be confronted by a fire elemental who gave you a choice. You can either do her a favor in exchange for not telling the fairy about your fake call or you can do nothing and she’ll tell the fairy that you were lying. Readers voted to owe her a favor.

(Side Note: If you’ve never participated in an adventure, here’s how it works. You’re the main character in the story below. At the end of this section, you’ll be given two choices on what to do. Leave your vote in the comments and next week, I’ll post whichever option gets the most votes.)

Let’s see what happens next!

Fairy Feud – Owe Her a Favor

“Thank you for not drawing the fairy’s attention,” you say to Venessa. “How can I repay you?” Instantly a weight settles in your chest like a lode stone. Dang, it feels just like making a pact with a fairy. That weight will trouble you until you fulfill Vanessa’s request. 

Venessa almost purrs in delight and her orange hair shines with an added glimmer of red. “There’s a lovely set of silverware held behind the front desk for special occasions. Please bring it to me,” she says. 

“And this is enough to show my appreciation?” you ask.

“It is.”

The weight in your chest starts to ache. “Excuse me, then.” 

She tips her chin as you rise and head toward the front desk. You’ve just settled on asking the clerk for more coffee packets and toilet paper to get her away from the desk when something smacks you in the temple. It smarts like a bee sting. You feel at it and another sting hits your hand. 

Instantly your skin welts. 

Fairies and their mean tricks! 

You keep walking for the desk, determined not to be deterred, when a stronger sting hits your neck. 

You pull a dart from your skin. 

Dang. 

A lobby bathroom door presents itself and you duck inside before whatever the fairy hit you with takes effect. You lock the door.

Thank goodness for doors meant to create privacy! Once locked, the fairy can’t follow. 

Leaning against the bathroom wall, you debate. The weight in your chest combined with a sudden wooziness makes it hard to focus on anything but getting the requested silverware. 

As you think, you realize some things. You probably could have called Vanessa’s bluff. With the fairy actively trying to stop you from fulfilling her request, it’s likely they’re at odds with each other. Which means the silverware is a weapon against the fairy. How?

It comes to you a moment later. Iron. Some silverware contains iron, which fairy’s hate. So it’s not necessarily the silverware Vanessa wants. If you find something else with iron in it, you might be able to fulfil her request. 

Where might there be iron? 

The kitchen maybe…or perhaps the gardening shed you spotted from the fire pit area. 

Do you choose:

Kitchen?

Or

Gardening Shed?

Thanks for joining in the adventure. Leave your vote in the comments below and we’ll return next week to see how this adventure ends!

Blessings,

Jennifer

P.S. I’m doing some updates on the website. If you see anything that’s not working or doesn’t look right, I appreciate the feedback!

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Fairy Feud – Make a Call

Happy 4th of July to those in the United States and welcome back for the second installment in the Fairy Feud adventure! In the last post, readers voted to fake a call, hoping to scare the fairy away.

If you’ve never participated in an adventure, here’s how it works. You’re the main character in the story below. At the end of this section, you’ll be given two choices on what to do. Leave your vote in the comments and next week, I’ll post whichever option gets the most votes.

If you missed last week, you can read the beginning of this Adventure here. If you don’t want to hop back to the last post, just know you’re at a hotel sitting out by the fire pit. You were about to enjoy nachos when you spotted a fairy. Since you don’t want to get snared in its shenanigans, you’re going to fake a call in hopes of scaring it away.

Let’s see what happens next!

Fairy Feud – Make a Call

There’s a flicker of orange to your left. It’s far enough away that you think it’ll be safe to fake a call.

“Hey, George,” you say, putting your phone to your ear. “What’s up?”

The orange flicker darts away down the stone patio wall and vanishes into the hedge on the far side. Still “talking,” you pick up your nachos and finagle your way through the door and into the bar where you find a seat near an older couple eating a late dinner.

You finish your “conversation” and hang up.

With the couple nearby and the short, dark-haired server at the bar, it’s unlikely the fairy will bother you now.

You select a chip covered in cheese and steak and start to take a bite.

Heat radiates against your left side and the cheese goes from slightly gooey to liquid. It turns the chip to mush and streams back onto the plate.

You’re afraid to look over but the heat’s still there and your entire plate is now liquid cheese.

“I won’t melt you,” says a husky female voice.

“You’ll destroy my dinner though,” you mutter.

“Price of leaving the fairy’s territory and entering mine.”

Finally, you look over. She’s a flame-haired woman with cobalt eyes. At a distance, she’d appear like any other human. But you’re not looking at her from a distance. You look away, her heat making your eyes water.

“Fire elemental?” you guess.

“Right on the first try,” she answers. “Name’s Vanessa.”

Dang. You’ve never encountered an elemental before. From with your know, you just moved from the pan to the fire.

“I could tell the fairy that you just lied to him,” she says, “but I’d rather not indebt you to him. He’s kind of a pain. Or you could do a small task for me and I’ll keep mum. What do you say?”

Is she bluffing? There’s a chance she’s at war with the fairy and won’t involve him at all but if you’re wrong, you’ll be right back to where you started.

On the other hand, a favor owed to a fire elemental? You have no idea where that might lead.

Do you…

Call her bluff?

Owe her a favor?

Thanks for joining in the Adventure! Leave your vote in the comments below and we’ll see you next week.

Blessings,

Jennifer

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Fairy Feud

It’s time for a new Adventure! A little bit of fun for your Thursday morning =)

If you haven’t joined in an Adventure before, here’s how it works. You get to be the main character in the story below. At the end of this section, there are two options on what you do next. Leave your vote in the comments and next week I’ll post whichever option gets the most votes. This adventure will run for four weeks, so let’s jump in and see what happens!

Fairy Feud

The hotel’s patio firepit is stone, almost like a pizza fire oven but bigger, with lounges encircling it. The evening sits balmy and the nachos in front of you drip with cheese, steak, green onions, and sour cream. You wish you could enjoy it but you’re pretty sure you just spotted a fairy walking along the top of the firepit.

Fairies are tricky. If this one notices you, it’s only a matter of time before it approaches and finagles you into doing something for it. That’s what they do with people who can see them. They don’t care if you’ve got other things to do, like getting home tomorrow to sleep in your own bed.

But if you suddenly get up and leave, it will follow you. You’ll have to be more subtle than that.

Maybe you can dump your nachos. It’s a sad prospect. They smell delicious and your mouth is watering for the savory cheese and steak. But it would give you a reason to get up.

On the other hand, it would also draw attention and if the fairy hasn’t noticed you already, it surely will when you drop food on the flagstones. You’re not sure if the resulting mess would be enough to ward it away.

The other option you can think of is to make a call. You’ve found fairies don’t particularly like cell phones for some reason that you haven’t been able to figure out. It’s late though and you can’t think of someone to actually call who might be awake. You can fake one, though. The hitch is that fairies have excellent hearing, so if the creature realizes the call isn’t legit, he’ll blame you for cheating. Then you’ll be stuck as fairies treat anything they view as a lie very seriously.

Do you…

Drop food?

Or

Make a call?

Thanks for joining this adventure! Leave your vote in the comments and we’ll see you next Thursday to continue the story =)

Blessings,

Jennifer

 

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The Takeaway from Theos Rising

I’ve attempted to write this post several times. The takeaways from Theos Rising are many but my thoughts on them are scrambled. At least, they come out scrambled when I try to put them in writing.

So instead of expounding on the nitty gritty details that just aren’t gelling together right now, I’ll focus on one takeaway and keep this brief.

The One Major Takeaway: Time

It can either help or hinder. It helps when I set aside chunks of time that are solely devoted to writing. When I know, this hour’s dedicated to the story, I can let go of anything else that needs to be done and the story has space to grow. It allows me to relax into the process.

If I don’t set aside such time, then the opposite happens. Every other task whispers that it’s being neglected and the writing is taking too long.

Plain and simple. That’s the biggest takeaway. Writing’s a passion of mine and if I allow it dedicated time to grow, I love it. If I don’t, the joy seeps away into frustration.

I think this is probably true for anything I love to do. How about you? Is there a passion you need to give time to today?

Thanks for joining me in this writing journey!

Blessings,

Jennifer

P.S. Theos Rising is now available here on the website, on Amazon, or can be ordered through your local bookstore.

 

Memory Lane

I did some meandering down old blog posts. That’s a dangerous endeavor. Hours later and I’m still looking, remembering, appreciating how past years have played out. It’s like reading through a journal, except it’s one I’ve shared with the world.

After all that meandering, I didn’t find what I was looking for. My goal was to find when I started writing Theos Rising. I know it’s been a long journey, but I’m honestly not sure at this point when it all started. My guess is somewhere in 2021. I have a few handwritten scenes that started playing in my head in late 2020 but true, focused writing on the book probably didn’t start until late 2021.

Which means the novel took about 2 1/2-3 years to write and produce. I’m a bit surprised. That’s actually not terrible for a novel. If you’ve been following me for any period of time, you know this book stretched me and took way longer than I originally planned. But now as I look back, the entire process wasn’t nearly as slow as it felt.

I know I finished the rough draft in December of 2022 (Done Right or Done Now, But Not Both), and then in February, I posted about finding ways to balance that feeling of never being finished. (Peace in the Process). That’s the danger of such long projects. They never feel finished and so there’s never that moment where you stop and appreciate the joy of accomplishment.

That’s one of the things I’ve learned about writing and publishing. If you’re not careful, you always feel like you haven’t arrived yet. There’s always more to do. More writing, more editing, more formatting, more advertising, more….

When one book’s done, there’s almost an unspoken expectation that you’re already working on the next while advertising the current one. It can suck the joy out of completing an entire novel.

I’m not always great at doing it, but I’ve learned to pause at the big junctures just to breathe in the joy of seeing the accomplishment. I should have done this after each stage of editing. I think it would have helped me acknowledge the progress more instead of focusing on how much farther I still had to go.

But I’m doing it now. Theos Rising publishes on Saturday. My brain still hasn’t fully taken that in. I’ve completed my second published novel. Quaking Soul wasn’t just a one-off thing. I can make this writing life a reality.

Thank you for taking this journey with me! If there’s one thing better than holding the physical book in my hands, it’s sharing the journey with all of you.

Blessings,

Jennifer

P.S. What accomplishment can you celebrate today?

P.S.S. There’s still time to pre-order and get a signed copy if you like. Just hop over to the book here and leave me a note on the order if you’d like it personalized. =)

The Holding Cell – Theos Rising Excerpt

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been sharing snippets from Theos Rising that give a small peek into each of the viewpoint characters. If you missed Na’rina, the dryad, and Icarus, the werecat, you can reach their snippets through these links: Tea and Monster.

Publication: June 15, 2024

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Lead In: El is our last viewpoint. She’s a Sedessan, or what I’ve termed a mind walker. If she touches a person, she can read his or her thoughts, with a few exceptions. Greek mythology might have a creature for this, but when I first started on Quaking Soul years ago, this was a made-up mythical creature in my head. So even if there is a creature from myth that matches the description, the Sedessans were not based on them.

Anyway, El is short for Elodie Varela. She, like most of the Sedessans, is a spy, intelligence agent, political mover in the background. Whatever you’d like to call it. She does appear, kind of, in Quaking Soul, but it’s brief, so she brings a whole new aspect to the Hidden Mythics world. And for those of you familiar with this world, she’s Icarus’ half-sister.

The Holding Cell

The holding cell reeked of sweat, mold, and the musk of stone never allowed to dry. It wasn’t the first El had ever gotten herself thrown into, but it might have been the most crowded.

Sunlight, but no breeze, trickled in through the small window of the cavern-like room. The buzzing of the invisible sensors El had stuck on her arms before the mission told her that, despite the room’s rustic appearance, there was an invisible barrier over the window in addition to the bars. She rubbed her arms. The humidity clung to her skin. From her perch on a rocky ledge six feet above the cavern floor, El counted at least twenty mythics vying for space, although most of that number was the gaggle of imps scuttling beneath the other creatures’ feet.

Spindly, slobbery troublemakers.

Their cackling echoed against the vaulted ceiling while three grayish-green imps spit at the eyes of a small group of gnomes. The gnomes sat back-to-back, and a wave of calm washed out from them but it evaporated under the imps’ antics. Giving up on the calming, one gnome threw a rock. The imps scattered and the rock smashed against the wall, showering an ior sleeping in the corner. El snorted softly as the blocky creature, who bore the large head of all iors and appeared droopy from his nap, bowed up threateningly at everyone, unable to place who’d attacked him.

More imps ran through a group of tiny fairies and jabbed their needle-sharp claws into their delicate feet. The fairies gave high-pitched squeals of distress and danced away but their silvery blood smeared the ground from the few times they hadn’t dodged fast enough. The imps dissolved into cackling fits of laughter.

Yet another imp pair tried to climb the wall around the iron-barred door, rattling the hinges and lock, and hissing and spitting at anyone else who approached.

Imps didn’t usually gather in such large numbers. When they did, they fed off the group hysteria. Either our captors have a terrible lack of knowledge about imps, or they want to keep everyone on edge. El suspected the latter; their jailors were not stupid.

Beyond keeping an eye on the creatures, El ignored them. They would not be helpful. Having gotten thrown into the Fae embassy’s holding cell on purpose, El now needed to get out—she’d gathered the information she’d come for and there were only a few in the cell capable of helping her escape.

Because of the nature of her mission, she’d come with very little tech. Other than the sensors on her arms that told her about nearby electronics, all she had was a tracking device. She was naked without a phone or comms, but her captors would have confiscated such devices anyway.

And so El considered the other mythics in the cell. People could be as useful as technology.

***

That’s it for today. Thanks for stopping by! Pre-orders for Theos Rising are open here on the website or Amazon.

Blessings,

Jennifer

Monster – Theos Rising Excerpt

Pre-orders for Theos Rising open on Saturday! Last week I shared an excerpt from the book that shared a bit of Na’rina, the dryad’s, point of view. If you’d like to read it, check it out here.

This week, I’m going to share Icarus’ point of view.

Publication: June 15, 2024

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Lead In: Icarus is a werecat. We saw him in Quaking Soul but didn’t get to spend any time inside his head. Now we get to see his perspective =) He’s the Wer-Kadis, which means he leads the werecat, or wer-im, people. It’s a new position for him and not one he’s super comfortable with yet. In this scene, he and his two friends, Felis and Dante, are at a campsite regrouping after some setbacks in their plans.

Monster

The soft pad of feet alerted him a moment before Felis appeared.

“What now, Kadis?” Felis asked. He squatted on his heels to fill his water bottle, his stalky frame surprisingly comfortable in the compact position. He was larger than Icarus and resembled a bobcat instead of a lynx. Long whiskers came off either side of his chin in a beard humans mistook for chops.

Icarus tore off another bite of jerky so he didn’t have to answer immediately. If he’d had his way, he’d be in Charleston, helping Na’rina.

“How do you think Charleston’s going?” he asked.

Felis sat back on his heels. “Better cause we’re not there. Just like Obek now knows the faun’s name is Aileen.”

If Na’rina can learn to trust us, so can others. It was a mantra he often repeated.

“Do you know my full name?” he asked Felis.

Felis’ yellow eyes twitched. He’d been caught off guard by the question.

“I’m not familiar with your surname, Kadis.”

Icarus snorted, his nostrils flaring as he smelled fireball candy from across the creek. “Not my birth name. That’s irrelevant. I mean the name Silas gave me.”

Felis froze. Icarus had killed Silas while protecting Na’rina, and now most of the wer-im avoided saying his name like Icarus would fly into a rage if they did. He never had, nor would he. Silas made his choice and so had Icarus. His anger was not a mindless rage.

“I don’t, Kadis. Didn’t think it was important.”

“He gave me the surname Teras. Loosely translated as ‘monster.’”

After a moment, Felis shook his head. “I don’t follow.”

“He’s wondering,” came Dante’s voice across the creek, “whether people will always fear us.”

Felis bolted upright, a growl rumbling in his chest, and launched across the creek.

Dante surprised him…again. Felis hated when the other wer-im did that, and Dante did it a lot. Icarus suspected it was purely to goad the older wer-im. He didn’t intervene despite what Silas’ training urged him to do. I won’t meddle in every little thing.

***

Thanks for stopping by! Until next week, blessings,

Jennifer

Tea – Theos Rising Excerpt

As we draw closer to the publication of Theos Rising on June 15th, I thought it’d be fun to share a few short excerpts from the novel.

Since I have three Points of View in the story, I’ll be sharing one excerpt from each character so you get a chance to know them just a tiny bit.

Publication Date: June 15, 2024

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Lead In: This first one is from Na’rina. If you’ve read the first book in the series, Quaking Soul, you already know Na’rina, but for those of you who don’t know her, Na’rina is a dryad or tree spirit who lives in the modern-day United States. She’s a bit naive but she’s learning. Unfortunately, her learning comes in the form of landing herself in dangerous situations.

Tea

The man who entered was short and gnarled like an old pinyon pine dressed in a brown suit. His cane, a polished twist of dark oak, clicked as he stepped forward. A delighted smile bloomed below his mustache when he spotted her.

“Come, come,” he gestured to someone behind him, and a group of servants bustled in, carrying a small, short table, a teapot, two cups, and two serving jars with small spoons peeking through their lids.

They arrayed the table with a white cloth in front of Na’rina. Once the teapot and mugs were set, the servants placed a blue cushion on the floor opposite her and all but one of them left. The remaining servant helped the old man forward, taking his cane and fedora as he sat. Na’rina started. The servant was Armando.

He bowed shallowly when he noticed her watching and retreated to stand beside the door, bland as always.

“You make Armando nervous, you know?”

Na’rina’s eyes snapped to the man now seated across from her. How can he tell Armando’s nervous? He’s as expressionless as a rock.

“You’re Master Thomas?”

The smile below the mustache grew. “Quite right. And you are Na’rina Drydanda.”

Na’rina did not respond.

Master Thomas’ smile sagged and then he gestured at the table.

“Tea? I assumed you would want some refreshment after your travels.” He poured a dark tea into the cup in front of her and then his own, his knobby hands steady despite his age.

My travels? As if I chose to be here? And he wants me to drink tea with chains on?

She held up her wrists, raising a brow just like Icarus would have.

***

That’s it for today. I debated on a longer excerpt but decided to curb my desire to over-share. It’s hard not to when I’ve worked on this story for so long! Thanks for stopping by =)

Blessings,

Jennifer

P.S. Pre-orders will open on the website on June 1st!