Sunday Snippet: Hold to Let Go

Man, July felt likea decade but it actually kind of flew by. August is off to a running start andit's hot temperature-wise, which is the norm for rural central Ohio. We've hadsome big storms move through, too.

 

My inbox is jammedwith work projects and that makes me happy! I'm working on a mystery for a copyedit. I have a developmental edit on a memoir. There's a possible copy edit of anothermemoir in the wings and some research for another author. I also sent the nextset of chapters on a developmental edit to the author for review. I love beingbusy.

I didn't get a lotwatched this week. I started an episode of My Life Is Murder but have tofinish it. I also haven't been able to get back to the episode of ElementaryI started two weeks ago. I don't know … I'm not as into this episode and I'mstruggling to finish it. Maybe I should skip to the next one.

I did have a fairlygood week of writing, which also limits my screentime. I got a big scenewritten for one of my WIPs and a few smaller ones for a couple of other worksin progress. All in all a good week!

That's it for thelife update. Tonight's post is from Hold to Let Go, a sexy short thatexplores a couple's bond and the hold they have on each other.

Here's theminiblurb:

Banner Nix and Quade Newelson go way back and have a lotof baggage to show for it. When an opportunity to save their people presentsitself, they put their crap aside and work together to make it happen, eventhough their plan is in direct opposition to their leaders'.

And a preview snippet…

A sharp knock sounded outside theopen hatch.Banner didn't look up. "Ifyou're not bringing coffee, go away." She tracked the most recent fivejumps, not liking the lack of anything new.But … intuition said they werestill going in the right direction. The constant noise in her mind lurked inthe background instead of screaming in the middle of her skull. That had tocount, right? If she made a wrong move, she'd be curled up in a fetal positionunable to function because the static interference made it impossible. And hercrew would be duking it out over who got to take the helm first.Stan Harmon entered quarters andput a fresh carafe of Banner's life-sustaining liquid on the desk—well awayfrom the star chart. Smart move. The last person made the critical error ofplacing the brew dead center of her workspace. Banner nearly drew blood withthe blistering lecture she gave him."Thanks." Banner didn'tsay more.She concentrated on drawing astraight, solid line over the dashed trajectory they'd taken. She completed theaction and dropped the pencil then poured a hot cup of coffee into the dregs ofher mug. Bringing the cup to her lips, she drained half the contents whilecontemplating the next series of jumps.The scrolls had to be close. Theydidn't have many options left.Stan shuffled his feet."Banner? You got a minute?"His voice grated, breaking herbarely held together concentration. The solid eight had done wonders … but thathad been well over twenty-four hours ago.She glanced up, scowling. "Didyou draw the short straw or what?"He grimaced. "No. Ivolunteered."Stupid man. "Are you a gluttonfor punishment or just an idiot?" Okay, ouch. She drove that one home alittle harder than necessary. But Stan needed to realize he didn't have anybrilliant insight into her mindset just because they'd slept together a verylong time ago.He let out a low whistle. "Youknow, if I didn't get how you had the bitch thing ingrained, I'd swear youworked hard to pull it off." He added a zing. "No one should havethat much natural talent."Touche. She completely deserved theinsult. "What do you want, Stan?" She sipped the coffee and studiedhim. "I can't tell you anything to take back to the crew because I don'tknow any more now than I did twenty-four hours ago." She placed her mug onthe file cabinet and poured another round. "And I'm not going to waste mytime playing nursemaid." She pinned Stan with her gaze. "Everyoneneeds to follow my orders. As in grow a pair and deal. I don't care who itpisses off." Braced by the caffeine and bored with the conversation,Banner went back to studying the grid pattern. I have to be missingsomething.Stan sighed and ambled toward thehatch. "Okay, then. I'll take my leave."God, she hated the wounded puppyact he liked to pull. "Yeah. That would be great." When he hit thedoorway, she added. "And Stan? Be a good soldier and share my exact wordswith the others, yeah?"Stan's shoulders tensed, but herolled them and continued out into the corridor. Banner gave him a ton ofcredit for not telling her to fuck off.

I love where thisstory is going. The blend of sci-fi and mysticism is something I love to write.

 

That's it for thisweek.

Cheers!

Skye