Serenity Snow's Blog, page 41

WIP

As a writer, I’m almost constantly writing. That is I’m working on something at least six days a week. Having finished Assassins Core 3 and Cozy Bend Romance 4, I set to work on Assassins Core 4 and Cozy Bend 5. I’m a little torn as I write on Assassins Core because the focus seems to want to shift from Alexi and Tatiana to another couple. I’m really having a hard decision about whether to allow that at this stage.

I want to give Cattail her own story, but as it stands she’ll have to share it with Alexi. So, I’m probably going to make a few chances to avoid that. I have a story all planned out for Cattail. So, I might just take her out of this one. It didn’t really occur to me until I began writing this post that I could just change a few elements in the 3rd book’s ending to omit Cattail. In fact, I could really change it to make this new character a problem rather than a friend of Alexi’s.

Some interesting ideas are starting to form now in fact. They would work perfectly with ideas I have for the rest of the series which would keep Alexi front and center for at least one more book after this one. Just writing this post has made me excited to dive back into Assassins Core 4 instead of putting it on the back burner for a week or two while I work on Cozy Bend Romance.

The Cozy Bend Romance story is isn’t going to be as long as the last one. I hope. I’m already loving the idea I have for it. It actually follows right on the heels of the last and wraps up the loose thread I created at the end. These are both romantic suspense stories and for this one, I’m planning to make the actual killer a little harder to identify. I can’t give you an excerpt from Cozy Bend because I’ve just started and barely have 1000 words. So, here’s a brief look at Assassins Core. It’s barely 6,000 in, but here’s a little sample. It comes from the point at which I am right now, but with the new ideas that came to me during the writing of this post, I’ll be back-tracking to make some changes tomorrow.

Today, I’ll be working on Cozy Bend. Oh, yeah. I’m laying the foundation for Sensation 3. I rather like what I’ve started out with. I’m veering off the relic course for a few books to create another arc that brings in other shifters. I really like the plans I laid out for this series a few years ago when I first started on it. I think I should get to work putting some of them down. I’ll share a excerpt from that one and Cozy Bend soon.

Spring Love

With cold
eyes, Sienna shifted into the microform of the red-and-black-spotted box-lady
as the two men reacted to the clairaudient scream projected from Kallie’s mind.
The noise was deafening but had little effect on her as she crawled out of the
partially open door and scurried quickly toward the retreating figures.  

Sienna cast
a web on the garage door and swung high in the air and glided straight for the
man who’d shoved her mate. She landed on his neck and stretched out her very
long spiky arms and legs as if attempting to hold onto him, simultaneously
lowering her head. She bit him with relish, knowing the venom that would pump
through his system would kill him a little slower which would give her time to
kick his ass. He let out a curse and reached back to smack her. As he did, she
leaped off him and shifted back into her human form. She punched him in the
back and partially shifted, spider arms waving at her sides.

She was
going to kill the son of a bitch as well as his boss. There would be no place
he could hide for attempting to snatch her mate from her own home.

“Bitch!” he
snarled as he whipped around. “Get the butterfly out of here!”

“No, you
don’t.” Kami flew out of nowhere in her microform. She quickly shifted into
human form and attacked the man holding Kallie.

Sienna
became more enraged as the spider’s black arm scraped across her jaw, causing
her to wince in pain. He was a golden-brown rocker spider with sharp spindly
protrusions on his spider arms. But his legs and arms were shorter than hers.
He hit her hard across the face with a fist, and she stumbled back with pain
exploding through her jaw. She screeched as he followed, and she used one of
her four arms to strike him back.

She kicked
him between the legs, her foot connecting hard with his cock and balls before
snaking one of her spider arms around his neck and then another. He grunted,
striking out at her.

“Who are
you working for, Dizzy?” she asked softly as she used two more of her spider
arms to wrap around his body, holding his arms down at his sides. “You know
you’re going to die, and you know it’s going to hurt.”

“That’s why
I’m not telling you a thing,” he snapped at her. “So kill me, butch.”

She
grimaced. “Okay, I’ll just go to Draden for all the answers I need.”

“Go ahead,”
he snapped. “He doesn’t know a thing about it.”

“Maggie
left me a note telling me all about Lima and Draden, but she didn’t know about
you. So I guess I’m going to send Tas and Peta to pay Lima a visit. I doubt if
either of them will be as nice to her as you were to Kallie.”

“Max
Sherra,” he said. “He’s staying at the hotel.”

“Lima is
going to die for her betrayal of Maggie and so is Draden,” she whispered and
then gave his neck a hard jerk and it snapped.

 * * * *

 Kallie
struggled hard as adrenaline pumped through her fast and furious. She tugged
against the hold of the scorpion trying to pull her into the van. Her movements
were frantic and nearly uncoordinated in her urgency.

“No.” She
struck out and the heel of her hand connected with his nose, and when he
grunted she tugged as his tail came forward to sting her. Her eyes widened as
fear assailed her in nauseating waves. She had the butterfly quickness of
healing but she would never heal before the poison attacked her nervous system
and poisoned her blood. She just didn’t recover from toxic scorpion stings the
way checkerspots did.

She dodged
the first strike, but the second—the stinger landed in her shoulder, and she
screamed from the pain of it. She used her free hand to rake at his eyes and he
cried out and released her. She stumbled and the momentum carried her back into
her mate’s arms with a hard thud. She grunted.

“Shit!” the
scorpion in the truck cried. “Go. Damn it. Get us out of here.”

Sienna
growled as the van peeled away. They were not going to get far. Some of the men
of her coven were out there waiting.

“Sia, he
stung me,” Kallie said breathing hard. “It hurts.”

“Shh,
sweet,” Sienna murmured as she backed toward the house while Kami finished her
prey off with lethal flourish. “You will be fine.”

“He’s
toxic, I saw the red markings on his tail.”

“I
promise.” She hurried her inside.

“Sheriff is
picking up the retreaters,” MJ said as his cousin moved into the garage past
him.

“Good,” she
muttered. “Get Tas.” She would have to leave her mate alone to heal. Even now
her body was starting to go cold as the cocooning process was beginning to take
place. Her butterfly would cover her in a hard shell while she healed,
effectively taking her into a larvae state to regenerate as was the way of all
butterflies seriously injured.

Reviews Wanted

Looking for reviews for my latest The Madam’s Criminal Intent. If you’re interested message me here: serenitysnow23@gmail.com.

Sensation

Sienna’s
spiky arms pulled tight around the head of the man who’d invaded her home. How
dare the dumbasses not even think to bring heavy mortal artillery instead of
Glocks and Bowie knives? Were they the stupidest hunters in the pack?

“Bitch!” he
snarled. Only a second later, she used the tough spikes of her spider arm to
puncture his throat. She drove the spikes through as his eyes widened. He was
gasping for air with fear leaking from him. His stinger waved uselessly, and he
shifted into his human scorpion form. She released him and did a half turn as
he quickly evaded her with green blood staining the floor.

Her arm
curled around his scorpion neck and snapped it with vicious force. The tail
thrashed about and another one of her spider arms curved around it as it waved
toward Kami’s back. She broke it with a loud crunch. He shifted back into human
form, and she let him drop lifeless to the floor.

“Sting
that,” she muttered and turned with a determined and purposeful stride toward
the garage. The elders had said the protections on the house had been
successfully released, giving the intruders full access to the house. Tas and
Peta, along with the rest of her dominant coven sisters were defending the
original section of house from attack there.

The sheriff
had been given a heads up, but she wasn’t counting on him getting here before
the party was over.

Springtime Affairs

In honor of spring, I’ll be sharing excerpts from two of my series–Winswept and Sensation, Louisiana over the next two weeks. Both are about elements seen in spring and summer–winds and weather phenomenon and the return of butterflies and ladybugs.

The Windswept series is one of my favorites of my works because it combines two interests of mine–well three. Magic. Psychic skills and abit of mythology. These stories are shifter and romantic romances with kisses of suspense. 

The common themes of these stories include the age old dance between good and evil. Can love defeat darkness as the past and present unite. These are themes that are prevalent in a lot of stories today, making for a good conflict. 

Enjoy these excerpts as you start thinking about your spring preparedness rituals if you live in areas that are tornado prone.

“I’ll be starting with book one of Sensation, Louisiana, Training an Unruly Submissive tomorrow. 

Photo by Johannes Plenio from Pexels

WIP

I’m working on edits this week. I still haven’t decided on a title for Cozy Bend 4 and as I edit I’ve already added another 1000 words and made some vital changes. 

Here’s a little sample.

That was Sarina?

What. The. Fuck.

She had always been a knock-out with her mama’s
thick curly black hair and her father’s whiskey brown eyes. Sarina caramel skin
had haunted her and those lips—god those lips. Remi had fantasized about them
more than once as she lay in bed alone in the dark.

Smith’s daughter had sparked something in Remi
that she couldn’t define. Still couldn’t.

Sweet Sarina had been off limits and not
because she’d been the chubby geek girl, and she’d been the bad girl from the
wrong side of the tracks. Their color difference had had a little too do with
it, but Smith would have killed Remi if she’d have so much as looked too long
in Sarina’s direction because they’d both been girls.

Sarina been Smith’s pride and joy. She’d
had the good grades, the sweet disposition and kind heart to go along with
them. She’d always been nothing but nice to Remi and her siblings despite the
storm going on around them.

Course I’m working on Assassins Core 4. When I finish my edits on Cozy Bend I’ll start working on the next Coyote Bound book. I’m still stuck on the beginning, but I’ve got a few ideas how to change that. I just hope one of them appeals. Otherwise, I’ll write on and look at the beginning again later in the story.

A writer’s life. 

WIP

I’m on the verge of finishing up my current WIP which is a Cozy Bend Romance. No, I haven’t submitted the next Assassins Core book yet. That happens this weekend. 

Cozy Bend. This book was only supposed to be 20,000 words. Alas, it’s knocking on 60,000 words. It still contains the main premise of conservatism in a small town to an extent. This is the story of a conspiracy that spans decades and destroys two families while two others rise to wealth. 

The story starts out with the conspiracy’s initial fallout and picks up years later. Our main characters are brought back home by two different reasons that bring the conspiracy full circle and those behind out to protect their freedom.

I don’t have a name yet so I suspect once I finish with the editing next week I’ll come up something. Any ideas? 

Photo by Min An from Pexels

Thanks!

Thank you to everyone who voted for me. I greatly appreciate it. The Madam’s Lover won best lesbian romance. 

https://evernightpublishing.blogspot.com/

On Sale for .99 cents for a limited time. Grab this sci-fi menage romance...

On Sale for .99 cents for a limited time. Grab this sci-fi menage romance now!

https://www.bookstrand.com/the-price-of-passion-reynolds

WIP Wed.

I’ve finished Assassins Core 3. It’s a long one. I haven’t sent it off to the publishers yet because I’m still grappling with one issue. However, I’ve cleaned up the manuscript and noticed it’s pretty action-packed and includes lots of scenes with Alexi and Tatiana too. 

In this one Alexi’s hard edge really shows and I’m debating whether to tone it down by taking out one scene that might be a bit objectionable. I think the scene is warranted in some ways. It ties up a few loose ends and leads into the next story subtly. 

Also, as I start the fourth book I contemplate not making Alexi the star. The new character I’m bringing in will take some attention from Alexi and Tatiana as it includes a love story between this new character and Cattail. I will be working on this story for at least the next four weeks. 

I have started–and am almost done with the fourth Cozy Bend Romance story. It’s longer and leads into a different story arc with new characters. A few of the old ones come into play, but this one still remains contemporary though I’d like to add some supernatural elements in in the future. 

That’s my thing. I like the paranormal and the supernatural. Can’t escape it, but I admit that comes from living in a house where odd things happen. I wouldn’t call them supernatural, but well, what do you call seeing a ghost and things that move at will on occasion.

Well, here is one more excerpt from Assassin’s Core 3.

“I was trying to protect my daughter,” she
screamed.

“That’s the reason I wouldn’t have killed
you,” Alexi said. “I love Tia, but I’m not in a very generous mood today. If I
hadn’t spent the night in jail thanks in part to what you did, I’d be willing
to negotiate, but all bets are off.”

“I’ll start screaming and Tatiana will
hear me.”

“Slate get Tia on the phone,” Alexi said.
“I want her to say goodbye to her mother. I think April might even like to say
her goodbyes as well.”

“What?” Melissa whispered, eyes wide.

“April is vey much alive,” Alexi said.

“I—you’re lying. You failed to save her
and that’s part of the reason I did this.”

“What’s the other reason?” Alexi asked.

“I want you away from my daughter. She’s
not safe with you.”

Alexi studied her, wishing she could
believe that. She’d heard enough in that call to convince her Melissa’s motives
were only a fourth altruistic.

Slate walked into view from the kitchen
holding her sleek smartphone out.

“Tia,” Alexi said, still holding her gun
on Melissa.

“Alexi? Is that really you?”

“Yes, Melissa can attest to that,” she
said. “I’m with her now. I thought you’d like to say goodbye to her. She’s
going on a trip.”

“Goodbye Mother,” Tatiana said. “Have a
nice trip.”

“April?” Melissa called, desperation in
her voice. “Alexi is going to kill me.”

“She’d never do that Mother,” Tatiana said
coldly. “Now, who’s being dramatic.”

“Tatiana,
listen to me, Alexi is going to kill me,” Melissa said. “She thinks I betrayed

her.”

           “You did, and more importantly, you
betrayed me. I wish you’d just realize how happy Alexi makes me.”

           “Mom,” April said. “I’ll see you—”

           “I’ll arrange for a hotel,” Alexi
said quietly. “You won’t be able to get back into Gwen and Charles’s just yet.
It’s still a crime scene.”

           “Thanks,” April said. “I’ll see you
in a few minutes, Mom.”

           Alexi nodded to Slate who ended the
call. “Slate, leave us alone.”