Aurora Springer's Blog, page 75

Snippet 2 from Captured by the Hawk for #WeWriWa

Welcome to another Sunday with Weekend Writing Warriors . Every week, writers showcase their stories with 8-10 sentences. Join the fun and read our snippets.
This week, I’ll share a scene from Captured by the Hawk, my Space Operetta. Kat has stolen key codes from the Emperor’s Revenge in the docks of Hassam spaceport. You can read last week’s snippet here - http://auroraspringernovels.blogspot....
They dragged Kat, kicking and wriggling, down the docking bay and into the spacecraft. Everything she saw was colored black; a black ship crewed by black clothed men. They towed her, still struggling, through the ship’s passages to a storage room. No one spoke to her. One man searched her dirty overalls, removed her knife, and then, he flung her into a small featureless room. 
Kat was left alone in the room. The familiar noises and vibrations marked the ship disengaging from the dock, and lifting into orbit around the spaceport. She stared around the windowless room. A simple bed platform on one side and a utility pot relieved the monotony of the white walls. The vibrations damped as the ship entered the eerie vacuum of hyperspace.

The ebook is on sale for 99c at all locations. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MYHSC52 https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id973177042https://www.scribd.com/book/257550700/Captured-by-the-Hawkhttp://www.barnesandnoble.com/sample/read/2940151679107https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/captured-by-the-hawk

Please return to www.wewriwa.com to sample the works of the other writers.

Snippet with dragons & aliens from WIP Grand Master's Mate for #SFFSat

Welcome to another Saturday of Science Fiction & Fantasy and read snippets exchanged by several writers. http://scififansat.blogspot.com/ For a change of pace, my contribution this week is from my unedited WIP, Grand Master’s Mate, Book 3 in the Grand Master’s Trilogy. Note: the dragons are reptilian sentients and the walliths are “watchdog” reptiles from the planet of Sythos. The Brululians resemble giant lobsters. I’ve jumped to later in the same chapter with an action scene starting in the great hall of the Black Dragon’s eyrie. You can read last week’s snippet here – http://auroraspringernovels.blogspot....
A small brown dragon popped into view, flying in midair towards Ythris. “Attack on Illoris!” it croaked.  Silence fell within the great hall. Acting fast, Ythris ordered, “Seltos, peep at the portal station.” The copper dragon vanished. “My children!” Gullish wailed, clutching at the nearest little Brululians. “We’ll get them,” Athanor grated, leaving Violet momentarily uncertain whether he meant the attackers or the Brululians on the moon. “Both,” he sent, grabbing her arm. The rock walled hall disappeared as they spun into the void. “You retrieve the Brululians and I’ll hold off the attackers,” Athanor’s command winged to Violet. Emerging under the dome of the portal station on the moon Illoris, Violet blinked at the confused melee of the attack. Giant amoeboids rolled over the rocky surface like gobs of gel. One wallith thrashed on the ground, leaking blue blood from its ripped limbs. The second wallith tore pieces from a pale green blob. Seltos was nowhere in sight. Violet guessed he had scouted the moon and already returned to report to the Black Dragon.
Books 1 & 2 are published and Book 1 is FREE from 28-29thAugust.
Grand Master’s Pawn: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TP1N5PMGrand Master’s Game: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0104OFJJ8
Please return to http://scififansat.blogspot.com/ and read the other snippets. Your comments are welcome.

Meet the Grand Masters - FREE eBook 28-29

Who are the Grand Masters? The twelve Grand Masters on the Council are the most powerful entities in the galaxy, or so they claim. Their psychic powers are immense and secret.
At the beginning of Book 1, Grand Master’s Pawn, much of the information about the Grand Masters is unknown. The new pawn, Violet, learns about them through her empathic sense and conversations with the other pawns. Finally, she meets her Grand Master, Athanor, and two others. Exposure to a Grand Master’s power can be lethal to ordinary people. Fortunately, Violet is protected by her secret psychic power.
During Book 2, Grand Master’s Game, Violet meets all of the Grand Masters on the Council. She learns their names, auras and some of their emblems. Some are her allies, others are deadly enemies. The twelve Grand Masters include six humans, male and female, and six aliens. We will learn more about the aliens in Book 3.
Human Grand Masters
Nathan, Lord of Lightning, is the Chair of the Council. His eyes flash green psi fire and his emblem is a bolt of lightning. He is proud and dominates the Council.
Pashtari Hanuman, is the oldest of the Grand Masters. He has a benign face, like a Buddha, and yellow-white aura. His emblem is a white monkey. Hanuman is the monkey-faced Hindu god.
Morrigu, the Red Queen, is a prominent adversary in the books. She has four arms and strawberry blonde braids in a hideous amalgam of Celtic and Hindu mythology. Red is her psi color and her avatar is a red cobra, poised to strike.
Garron Lionheart has a handsome face with golden hair and blue eyes. His emblem is the lion rampant.
Ravaleen,the Meilai of Marina, is a green skinned woman with flaming green eyes and turquoise hair. She is as beautiful as a fairy queen.  
Athanor Griffin is the youngest of the Grand Masters. He attended the Terran Space Academy at the same time as Violet’s parents. He has a hooked nose, long black hair and glowing blue eyes. His emblem is the griffin rampant. Athanor took a risk when he selected Violet as his pawn because her father prophesied the doom of the Council of Twelve Grand Masters.



Alien Grand Masters
Radjuserresembles an orange octopus. He emits orange slime and psi fires. He was killed at the end of Book 1.
Amarylla Threeleaf is a planetoid alien. She has three pink petals and trailing roots. Her aura is pink and her emblem is a trefoil.
Umloa Thundercloud is an amoeboid, a semi-transparent green blob filled with bubbles.
Baxicki is a brown insectoid with six thin legs.
Eziz looks like a bunch of dry twigs with dots of gold eyes at the tips.
Sulkar is a yellow pebble covered with undulating filaments.



How can you become a Grand Master? To achieve the status of Grand Master involves: 1. An inherited potential for psi talent. 2. Training to control your talent, since nascent psi powers can be erratic. 3. An initiation ordeal. The details are secret, although not everyone will survive the horrid ritual.

Blurb “The Council of Twelve will be destroyed.” Prophesy of Frank Hunter.
Young empath, Violet Hunter, travels the galaxy on missions for her mysterious Grand Master using the vast web of teleportals. Life-threatening cracks appear in the portals and Violet agrees to investigate the disruptions. When she discovers the perpetrator comes from within the ranks of the Twelve Grand Masters, Violet penetrates their curtain of secrecy to fulfill her task. Armed with only her erratic powers and a mishmash of allies, she must challenge the most powerful beings in the galaxy.
Book 1 will be FREE August 28-29th.
Buy Links:Book 1, Grand Master’s Pawn: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TP1N5PM Book 2, Grand Master’s Game: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0104OFJJ8

Special Agent Maximilian by Mimi Barbour - New Release

Special Agent Maximilian by Mimi Barbour Series: Undercover FBI, #3Genre: Romantic SuspenseRelease Date: August 25, 2015


Identical twins but different men – she loves both!

In this electrifying romantic suspense set in the steamy streets of New Orleans, Lieutenant Commander Nik Baudin, accidently meets up with an identical twin he never knew existed. When his brother Max goes missing, Nik assumes his identity as Special Agent Maximilian. This gives him access to FBI files making it easier to arrest the gangsters who attacked his brother and to stop their trafficking of underage girls. Being that Nik has specialized commando training, he’s the perfect man for the job - that’s if his PTSD doesn’t kick in and leave him cowering in a corner.

Special Agent Maya Barnes can’t believe it when she spots her partner, Max Foster, wandering along the French market without a care in the world. Since he’d been beaten and had gone missing weeks earlier, they all believed him dead. There’s only one problem… though this man might look exactly like the missing agent, she knows differently. In all the years they’ve worked together, she’s never wanted to have mind-blowing sex with her partner before.










Mimi Barbour is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who's sold over 500,000 copies of her books world-wide. Her five romance series: The Vicarage Bench/ time travel at it's best, Angels with Attitudes / angels love romance, Vegas / fast-paced plotting, Elvis / make a song a book and her newest, Undercover FBI / with sizzling conflicts and lots of humor.

Mimi's been heard to say: "I'm an author who loves to read uplifting stories about romance. Add in some time travel, or maybe an angel, or even a little romantic suspense and it makes the story more fascinating because of the incredible possibilities."




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Captured by the Hawk - Snippet 1 for #WeWriWa

Welcome to another Sunday with Weekend Writing Warriors. Here, writers showcase their stories with 8-10 sentences. Join the fun and read our snippets.
This week, I’ll share a scene from Captured by the Hawk, my Space Operetta. Kat has stolen key codes from the Emperor’s Revenge in the docks of Hassam spaceport.
Two men strode past the container where she crouched in silence. They spoke in low, cheerful voices as if their business had prospered in the port. Kat did not recognize their nondescript dark clothes, but they bore stunners in their belts. She watched them walk down the bay toward the ship, which was blocked from her sight by a stack of boxes. When they vanished behind the stack, she turned quietly, intending to creep away. She squeaked involuntarily, as her arm was grabbed roughly from behind. 
A man said in a gruff voice, “It’s the thief.” Kat wriggled vigorously, trying to escape his grip, to no avail. 
Footsteps sounded, and a second man came up behind her. “The Captain wants to question the thief,” he said.

The ebook is on sale for 99c for this week. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MYHSC52
Please return to www.wewriwa.comto sample the works of the other writers.

Snippet from WIP Grand Master's Mate for #SFFSat

Welcome to another Saturday of Science Fiction & Fantasy and read snippets exchanged by several writers. http://scififansat.blogspot.com/ For a change of pace, my contribution this week is from my unedited WIP, Grand Master’s Mate, Book 3 in the Grand Master’s Trilogy. Note: Seltos and Ythris are dragons, or reptilian sentients, from the planet of Sythos. The Brululians resemble giant lobsters. These stories are full of weird aliens. You can read last week’s snippet here - http://auroraspringernovels.blogspot.com/2015/08/snippet-for-sffsat-with-dragons-from.html
Seltos crouched and Athanor hoisted Violet onto the dragon’s ridged back. Violet leaned forward to hold the dragon’s neck, her head pressed against the iridescent scales. The Grand Master stepped on the dragon’s knee and leaped up to straddle the back behind Violet. He clasped Violet round the waist with one arm and gripped the ridges of the dragon’s back with the other hand. “Fly to the Black Dragon’s eyrie,” Athanor barked. The dragon spread his wings wide, scaring the Brululian babies into their cabin. Seltos thrust his wings down and soared up. The starlit sky vanished just before they collided with the dome and they popped into the void. Seltos emerged in the upper atmosphere of Sythos, dropping swiftly through the yellow clouds towards the planet’s surface. The orange sands of the deserts predominated on the continent beneath them. Flames shot from the volcanic fissures zigzagging across the arid continent. Peering over the dragon’s neck at the vast amber dessert, Violet recognized the green stain of the swamp where Ythris had killed the Mynothros, an enormous snake-necked saurian. With steady beats of his wings, the dragon flew towards the isolated pillar-like peaks of the dragons’ eyries. “I’ve never visited this planet,” Athanor’s thought flew to Violet. “You saw the place through my pawn’s collar,” she replied.

Books 1 & 2 are published and Book 1 will be FREE from 28-29th, next week.Grand Master’s Pawn: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TP1N5PMGrand Master’s Game: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0104OFJJ8
Please return to http://scififansat.blogspot.com/ and read the other snippets. Your comments are welcome.

Terra's Slums - Snippet for #WeWriWa from A Tale of Two Colonies

Welcome to another Sunday with Weekend Writing Warriors. Here, writers showcase their work with 8-10 sentences. Join the fun and read our snippets.
This week, I’ll share a scene from A Tale of Two Colonies, the story of an attempt to colonize an alien planet inhabited by giant arthropods. 
Lily strode through the grimy subterranean passages to her tiny room, flushed with the success of her performance and indifferent to the hunched figures of the silent passersby. She ignored the group of five ragged youths lounging idly at the corner, until they moved deliberately in her direction. “Out alone!” one man jeered, clearly believing her to be vulnerable. “We’ll give you a good time!” another man called with vulgar intentions, reaching out to grab her arm. She swiveled rapidly, punching him below the belt. He collapsed with a moan. Two others advanced angrily on her. She leaped at them, aiming a vicious kick. Her target crumpled in agony, clutching at his groin.
The ebook is on sale for 99c during August. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MFY8A5Q

Please return to www.wewriwa.comto sample the works of the other writers.

Snippet for #SFFSat with Dragons from Grand Master's Mate

Welcome to another Saturday of Science Fiction & Fantasy and read snippets exchanged by several writers. http://scififansat.blogspot.com/ For a change of pace, my contribution this week is from my WIP, Grand Master’s Mate, Book 3 in the Grand Master’s Trilogy. The editing is not complete and I apologize if you spot any errors. Note my dragon, Peter.

Lowering his long, scaled neck, Seltos pointed his muzzle at her and hissed, “Vron Violet, I welcome your visit. Your quest brought me honor among dragon kin.” He twisted his narrow head towards Athanor’s tall figure and said, “Even the Griffin Zyzost is welcome in my sight.”
Athanor barked a laugh and bowed. “Noble Seltos, I owe you thanks for your generosity. You carried Violet back to me for the battle.”
The dragon tilted his head sideways and said, “Our Chief Hadros was at first unwilling to permit a Zyzost on our planet. The gracious Silver Dragoness persuaded him of your good will towards dragon lords.”
“Just so, I wish you no harm.”
With a rattle of his scales, Seltos asked bluntly, “What is the purpose behind your visit?”
Sober faced again, Athanor said, “Wait; I’ll speak frankly before Ythris the Black.”  
“Discretion is wisdom,” the dragon agreed. “Mount my back. I can bear two Vron for the short trip to Sythos.” 

Books 1 & 2 are available Grand Master’s Pawn: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TP1N5PMGrand Master’s Game: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0104OFJJ8
Please return to http://scififansat.blogspot.com/ and read the other snippets. Your comments are welcome. [Especially encouragement to finish this trilogy since I hate editing.]

Teaser Tuesday #sfrgtt A Tale of Two Colonies #99c Sale

5* Review: A positive view of the universe June 23, 2015 An excellent story of how two societies can live together for the betterment of all. It is my hope that this author gives us ore based in this universe. I am looking forward to reading more by this author.  
Four hundred years earlier the great spaceships had departed from Terra to colonize distant planets. Few ships reached their destinations; their sporadic signals waned and disappeared. No one knew whether the colonists survived. Now, construction of a new generation of hyperdrive ships is scheduled at one every five years. Planet Delta was selected as the next target for survey when the arrival of a brief signal suggested the descendants of the colonists were still alive. Tiger Lily longs for freedom. In her fight to escape the subterranean slums of Terra, Lily competes to join the scout team selected for the next spaceship along with a new set of prospective colonists. Their mission to discover the lost colony faces the challenges posed by the voracious predators of the planet. In the mountains, they encounter Conley, a grim warrior who longs to escape the confines of his isolated valley. Has Tiger Lily met her match in this tortured warrior? Where is he leading them? Danger lies ahead, and conflicts between humans and aliens. Can they ensure the safety of the new human colonists, or must they retreat in shame to Terra? 
On sale for 99c - Buy Link:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MFY8A5Q 
Excerpt - Why Lily wants to leave Terra
Lily strode through the grimy subterranean passages to her tiny room, flushed with the success of her performance and indifferent to the hunched figures of the silent passersby. She ignored the group of five ragged youths lounging idly at the corner, until they moved deliberately in her direction. “Out alone!” one man jeered, clearly believing her to be vulnerable. “We’ll give you a good time!” another man called with vulgar intentions, reaching out to grab her arm. She swiveled rapidly, punching him below the belt. He collapsed with a moan. Two others advanced angrily on her. She leaped at them, aiming a vicious kick. Her target crumpled in agony, clutching at his groin. The third man hesitated, unluckily for him. Her fist thudded against his jaw and he sagged to the ground, unconscious. One of the two youths, who had hung behind well out of the action, shouted, “Watch out! It’s Tiger Lily. I saw her fight in the arena.”The other man called, “She’s big trouble! Let’s get out of here!” They dashed away, abandoning their injured comrades who lay groaning on the dirty floor. 
She will contend with giant arthropods on the colony planet. 

Avalon: Snippet for #WeWriWa from Grand Master's Game

Welcome to another Sunday with Weekend Writing Warriors. Here, writers showcase their work with 8-10 sentences. Join the fun and read our snippets.
This week, I’ll share a scene from my new release, Grand Master’s Game, Book 2 in my series, Grand Master’s Trilogy. In this series, the portal web is the main means for interplanetary transport. But, the portal misdirected to an ice planet with a toxic atmosphere. Last week’s snippet can be read at http://auroraspringernovels.blogspot....“Hades!” he grunted. Quickly checking that they were linked together, the Grand Master tapped his insert and they flipped into the soundless void. To Violet’s amusement, Kondric’s mouth had frozen open in a cry of shock. She and Athanor had slipped into their customary half embrace.   They popped out beside the teleportal cylinder in the central square of the main town of Avalon. Violet inhaled the flower-scented air and relaxed. She wriggled out of her survival suit. “Avalon!” Kondric breathed in relief, recognizing the quiet town with its thatched cottages hung with baskets overflowing with bright flowers. 
Now they are safe, for the moment, next week I'll try a different story.

Buy LinksGrand Master’s Pawn: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TP1N5PMGrand Master’s Game: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0104OFJJ8
Please return to www.wewriwa.comto sample the works of the other writers.