Hello all!
Currently I am working on a crapload of things.
#1: The third book of the Centennial City series. This book is tentatively titled Wake the Demon and is the next chapter in the Eve/Vincent story. This is a direct sequel to Blood Wish and I’m about halfway finished with the first draft. I expect this to be a late July, early August release.
#2: The prequel to Waiting for Darkness. This is actually a short story, novelette kind of story involving Tanith and the American Revolutionary War, which is a historical topic near and dear to me, so I’m very excited about this. This is going to be anywhere from 10-15k and I expect this particular story to hit the internet shelves closer to the end of this month. I will post up the first couple of raw, unedited pages at the end of this post.
#3: The sequel to Waiting for Darkness. I was about 3/4 of the way through the first draft when I kind of came up against a weird problem. Continuance issues and all…so I am having to re-plot the whole darn thing and start from scratch. I was hoping to get BITE out on Amazon by the end of this month but that no longer seems feasible. I’m hoping for a late June/early July release, but I’ll be more certain as I get closer to the end of the book.
Okay, so it’s only three writing projects, but due to the sizes of 1 and 3, it seems like I’m a lot busier than I really am. >.> Or maybe I really am that busy and I just don’t know it. Or, you can just take a look at my current workspace and decide that for yourself. LOL.
a sign of a messy genius? hardly!
Anyways, that’s enough from me. I’ll leave you with the beginning of Kiss the Night!
“Miss, please, we must leave!”
Most of the villagers of Ashcroft had left and a strange silence fell over the hamlet just three day’s ride west from Philadelphia.
Riya’s face gleamed like ebony under the flickering candlelight as she tugged at my sleeves. “Everyone’s gone already!”
I stared out the window, fingers clenched into the soft curtains, unwilling to believe those lights outside could possibly be torches. “I refuse to run away like a bitch with its tail between her legs.”
“But we’ll be killed!”
Everyone heard stories of the savage Indians who had taken to scalping the farmers venturing too far from the relative safety of others.
I would have liked to see a blood-covered Indian take my scalp.
At the mere thought of it, I felt my fangs elongate. “You may run, if you wish. But I am staying here. I fear nothing.”
She paused, her hands loosening. “But…but…”
I schemed, cheated, stole, whored for everything I had and I’d be thrice damned before I let my home burn to the ground. “Get out! Get out if you’re too scared to face them!”
Admittedly, it wasn’t fair.
After all, Riya was just a human. What could a single human do against the entire British Army and marauding blood thirsty Indians?
On second thought…perhaps I had something in common with the local tribes, after all. “But…”
I let her see my fangs. “Go!”
Her face contorted in painful indecision, she was still for a moment and then with her hands clenched deep into her skirts, she rustled out of the drawing room, her slippers echoing on the wooden parquet floors.
And in the end, she was the most loyal of them all.
I lost all of my other servants in the mad exodus by the other villagers, but Riya had stayed by my side.
Stayed until we could see the flickers of lights in the forest, stayed until we could hear the sounds of a thousand feet pounding on the dirt road, stayed until we could feel the tremors of the approaching supply wagons underneath our feet.
In the distance, the front door slammed and the stately two-story building was plunged into silent darkness.
Still, the troops must have been in a hurry. To travel in darkness was not an easy task, and yet they did it, so easily.
Truly the King’s Army was a force to be reckoned with.
I could leave. Run through the forest and hide in a hole at sunrise. That was, of course, assuming I could find or make a hiding spot where the light could not penetrate.
But the idea of being discovered during the day was enough to make me shudder.
I wasn’t old enough to stand being under the sun for more than a few seconds and the discovery would be sure to end my life a second time.
The last time.
Stay or go?
The sound of horses drifted through the open window and I drew away, hand at my throat, completely flummoxed.
A scouting party.
Of course, those on horses would come to Ashcroft sooner.
It was possible I could eliminate them one by one, but if the main army ever found me, lead bullets or no, the simple matter of a thousand bullets tearing my body in half would kill me.
No. I couldn’t stay.
I no longer had a choice. I was never much of a fighter; I could start over. I would hate every moment of it, but at least I was still alive.
Survival was the most important thing of all.
I do kind of miss Ran and Jason, now.
