You know you want it. You can’t wait. Well… you’re going to have to. I Promise you it will be worth it. Author E.L. Wicker reveals everything you wanted to know about Fractured Immortal. From where the inspiration came from to write the story of Ilia and her friends, to who she would rather be if it came right down to it; a vampire, witch, or shifter?
Since I know you’re thirsty for a taste I will leave you with this teaser until tomorrow…
It’s a big day in the Wicker household. Actually…it’s very quiet, but there’s a good reason for that. Today my husband went back to work for the first time in about two and a half years. He’s not been very well you see, so this is a triumph for him.
Usually at this time of day Bargain Hunt or such like is on the TV. This is after being subjected to the Jeremy Kyle show, which I cannot stand, but Ricky loves. Right now everything is quiet – you could hear a pin drop in here. The only sound is my fingers as I tap tap on the keyboard and the occasional snort from the dog as he chases dream bunnies.
It’s weird, to the say the least. So as I sit here, tapping away, I’m pondering. Dangerous, I know. What ever am I going to do with myself? Should I try to find a job that I can do during school hours. Employment is pretty hard to find, especially if you can only work school hours during term time. I could redecorate the house (I think I just heard my husband groan all the way from London).
I have some tins of paint in the utility room and I never did finish that restoration project I started on the porch….or on the stairs. Yep, I think I’ll finish those. They need doing, but I was going to do them anyway, so that still doesn’t solve my problem.
There’s always the pets to play with.
Or I could take up Parkour, I kind of need to if I want to be a good vigilante 😀
No, okay that probably wouldn’t end well.
I’ve always wanted to learn how to ride a motorbike.
Or, I could learn cross stitch – I used to do that, wasn’t very good.
I could maybe get a treadmill.
Or, join the gym…
I suppose I could work on a new talent.
Or try some cool moves.
Most of those look dangerous. Maybe I should just write. I’ve been having problems on the writing front lately, they’re pretty much solved now, but I did fall waaaay behind. So while I puzzle it out, I’ll write. Sounds pretty darn good to me!!!
I’ve been reading a lot lately. Way more than usual. I was ill last week and when I’m ill, all I want to do is watch a film or read a good book. I need heartwarming things to heat the cold slamming my system (can you tell I’m a tit when I’m ill? ‘slamming’ lol).
I watched a really good film based on a recommendation from a good friend. It was called Hope Floats and it was just the sort of film I like to watch in between yelling ‘I’m poorly’ at my poor husband. As I said, I also read a lot of books. This week I’m back to critiquing, writing, marketing (which I suck at) etc, which leaves little time to read all of the books that I want to. This got me to thinking. I recently had a discussion with a friend about all the books we’d love to reread. She wants to try and fit in Harry Potter. I thought I’d share the books that I would love to reread, and why. These books have stood the test of time with me, and I often find myself thinking about them.
A Tale of Redwall by Brian Jacques.
There are 22, YES, 22 books in this series and I want to read every single one of them again. I plan to buy them all for my children too. These books are exceptional and provided me a whole different world to escape into for much of my crappy childhood. The characters – a bunch of mice, crows, voles, squirrels, snakes, ferrets, magpies, hares….the list is extensive and each one is as interesting as the next. The description is vivid, from summer feasts to bloody battle scenes, oh my gosh – stunning. I just clicked on the ‘Look Inside’ on amazon and a contented sigh escaped my lips. These books are MAGICAL. If you haven’t read them yet, whatever your age – I highly, HIGHLY, recommend them.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
How sad I am that this was Emily Brontë’s only book. I don’t know how many times I’ve read it – lots. Highly criticized in its time, Wuthering Heights went on to become…..YOU KNOW!!! It’s a beautiful classic that has inspired many productions for film, television, opera and stage plays as well as many retellings. And let’s not forget the song – THE SONG!!! The themes and issues were deemed too controversial in the mid-nineteenth century, however by the later part of that same century, more people argued its corner and saw it for what it is – a haunting and beautiful tale of love, jealousy and loss. And how beautiful is is that her sister, Charlotte Brontë, edited it after her death to create a second edition?
Vale of the Vole by Piers Anthony
Another wonderful, magical fantasy. This is one of the first books that I vividly remember reading. It was like nothing I had ever read before and opened me up to the fantasy genre. Absolutely fantastic.
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Who doesn’t want to reread this one? After reading Vale of the Vole, off I went in search of something similar and this is what I found. I adored it. In fact, I loved it so much that when I found out that Bilbo Baggins wasn’t starring in Lord Of The Rings, I threw a strop and wouldn’t read it (I was a child!).
I, Houdini by Lynne Reid Banks
I want to read a lot of these types of books again, I was a big fan of Dick King Smith so those are on my list too, but this book by Lynne Reid Banks is amazing! It’s the tale of a Hamster who, as the title suggests, is a bit of a Houdini, always escaping his cage and going off on fantastical adventures. When I reread this book, I’m going to read it to my youngest daughter, Phoebe – she’s inherited the bookworm gene and I know she’ll enjoy it.
There are a lot of classic books in that list, so now on to the modern. All of these I’ve read recently. Usually I delete books from my Kindle once I’ve read them, unless I really, really love them. So, here they are!
Archer’s Voice by Mia Sheridan
This book is soooo beautiful. Archer is the town pariah. After an accident left him mute, Archer has lived a very sad and solitary existence. I’m not going to go into the blurb, but suffice to say that love finds a way to bring Archer the happiness he truly deserves. I am a MEGA FAN of Mia Sheridan. Her books are so beautiful and poignant – I can’t get enough of them.
Stepbrother Dearest by Penelope Ward
I’m going to hold up my hands and say ‘I have a thing for stepbrother books’. The premise to them all seem fascinating. Forbidden love, often a jerk of a stepbrother (gotta love those bad boys!) and how it’s all overcome. This one is my favorite – I love it and I will be reading it again. Like Mia Sheridan’s books, I have also read all of Penelope Wards books – I ❤ her!
Drive Me Sane by Dena Rogers
This book sang to me because of the issue it explores. So often I find that psychological problems are brushed over in fiction or that they’re easily fixed. Not so with this book. This is the poignant tale of an ex soldier struggling to deal with events that haunt her. Realistic and poignant – a beautiful romance.
There we have it! Those are SOME of the books that I want to reread. There are many, many more, but these ones instantly sprang to mind. If you have a moment, I’d love to know what’s on your list – maybe I can add more to my TBR pile!
I’m terrible at marketing – truly terrible! For example, my book has been free on Kindle since yesterday and I haven’t even blogged about it yet! See – terrible! Mostly though, it’s because I worry about shoving things down people’s throats. I rarely tweet buy links to my book, I figure I’d rather waffle on about something else or chit-chat to my friends on there. I will not be winning any marketing awards…..ever!
Anyhoooo – my book is free on Kindle until PSD midnight Friday….just in case anyone out there wants to know 😀
After a terrifying vampire attack in 1810, Ilia Rose spent the next two centuries hunting Sol, the man responsible for turning her and her friends into vampires.
When Ilia discovers he’s run to the one place she’s running from, she’s forced to face her most painful memories back in her hometown, Bearwood.
There, Ilia finds herself face to face with Nathaniel, an insanely hot vampire, and despite the evidence he’s working for her enemy, Ilia can’t fight her attraction to him, especially when he seems to show up whenever she needs him most.
But Nathaniel is keeping secrets and as they begin to unravel, instead of running away from him, Ilia finds herself falling for him. When his last secret is revealed Ilia’s past comes together in a way she never imagined and she’s left with only one option: trust Nathaniel to help her kill Sol, or risk relinquishing her new found strength thus causing catastrophic and devastating consequences for her and everyone she loves.
Ilia begins a gut-wrenching battle to save her life and the lives of her friends, a battle which not everyone will survive.
A vampire tale like none other, love, pain, devastation and revenge, all weave together to create the first in a dark and unmissable new adult series.
Due to sexual content, this book is intended for readers age 18+
Now I can check shameful self promo and tag manipulation off the list…….
Spring is in the air! And along with the subtle aroma of tulips, the waft of another pitch comp keeps tingling in my nostrils. Yes, nestpitch is almost upon us! Another glorious pitch competition where writers have the chance to get their manuscripts in front of some awesome agents. I know there are some pitch competition lovers and addicts out there, so get your polished manuscript out, hone that 35 word pitch and let’s do this thing.
I have the privilege of wading through the slush this year along with some other smawesome (<<that’s a new work Nik made up) slush readers. Every one of them are highly talented individuals who I am honored to be working with.
I guess I should go over the rules……but I’ll do that at the bottom of this post.
First…………drum roll
……………..
………
….
(Why have a drum roll when you can have a panda roll – right?)
Meet #TeamEvilBunny
And in a nod to our team name, I have defiled the #Nestpitch Easter bunny. All in the name of team spirit!
Heading up our team is the wonderful Sharon Johnston:
As well as her own blog, Sharon also contributes to Aussie Owned and Read and YAtopia. She has earned the nickname #ThePitchWhisperer because of her work mentoring almost every pitch competition that springs to mind! Sharon is also an author and some of her short stories have appeared in The Basics of Life and The Life and Times of Chester Lewis. And if all of those things weren’t enough to keep Superwoman on her toes, Sharon also interns for a publisher AND is a senior specialist for the PR company that she works for. Wow! So you can see, if you want ANYONE to mentor you, it’s got to be #ThePitchWhisperer! Like me, you can always find Sharon twittering to her hearts content over on Twitter.
Slushie numero uno:
‘Tis me! E.L. Wicker
Author of The Bearwood Series and seriously obsessed with New Adult fiction, I’m always on the look out for a new book by a sparkly new author. I very much dislike opening a book to find that the writer has an aversion to contractions and I CANNOT STAND ‘off of’ – just off is sufficient. As well as blogging here, I’m also blog assistant to Sharon Johnston and I’ve just joined the YAtopia team so will be contributing over there soon! You can find me on Twitter or…well, right here!
Slushie numero deux:
It’s J.C. Nelson!
Author of the Grimm Agency series, J.C. writes Urban Fantasy blended with fairy tales. Software developer by day and by night, and a herder of children and chickens.
You can follow J.C. on Twitter or peruse his web page.
Looking good!! We will all be wading through the slush pile picking out the nuggets of gold. So what will we be looking for? I can only answer for myself.
PRETTY, PRETTY WORDS!!!
Oh, what’s that? I have to be more descriptive? Ohhhhhhh, okay then. If I must.
I want to be immersed into your characters world. I want to see what your character is seeing, feel what they’re feeling. I always feel a little meh if I finish a book and don’t feel like I’ve lived the story. That pretty much means that if you use words that place a filter between me (the reader) and the main character – I’m going to feel the impact. It might seem a difficult thing to do that in your first 300 words, but it’s really not. Just plop me into your story through all the feels, make sure that your grammar is sparkly, and I’ll love you forever and ever.
If your 2500 or more is requested by #TeamEvilBunny then I will be kind in my critique, because I learned some of my CP’ing skills from Kathy who is a slushie for a team who shall not be named 😀 I will point out anything that trips my focus, any errors, as well as anything that catches my attention, and probably offer you a cake or such like along with a pat on the back – ‘there, there – we all do it’. I am totally human and we all make little errors. I have a habit of writing me instead of my and my eyes skip past it every time I do, so I know how it feels to get it a little bit wrong.
And now, the rules!
Just send our team everything you have and we’ll give it straight to the agents. WOULDN’T THAT BE GREAT!!! (I’m gonna get myself in trouble!)
But rules are there for a reason, and as I’m a new slushie – I can’t really go scrapping the rules, nor can I make them up. So – straight from Nik’s blog, which you can also (and should) read here, here they are!
The submission consists of:
(i) A 35-word pitch
(ii) The answer to this question: If your MC was an Easter Egg, what flavour would s/he be? (no more than 15 words please)
(iii) The 1st 300-words of your manuscript*
*1st 300 = if you have a prologue, then your 1st 300 starts from your prologue. If you don’t think your prologue is strong enough then perhaps you need to rethink your prologue.
Finish at the end of a sentence. This is 300-word MAX, so your last word is 300-words. If your sentence finishes on 292-words, submit that. If your sentences run into 30 or more words, then rethink the length of your sentence(s). Broken sentences do no one favors.
Please note that this year’s nestpitch is not accepting PB’s, but do visit Nik’s blog as she has something special planned for PB’s and possibly MG’s.
Two things to add/note:
(1) A condition of entry is any MS #pitch submitted to previous #pitches, which resulted in being selected, in the twelve months prior to April 2015, is ineligible. The only sub-clause to this is #PitchSlam. Please let us know if you have the same MS in #PitchSlam & #Nestpitch, and again if you’ve been selected. Nik has spoken to the Host of PitchSlam & they’ve agreed to work closely on this one.
(2) This year there will be less final selection featured pitches. (Expecting final the number to be around 40). With each Team concentrating on fewer submissions, we can be more hands-on with feedback and mentoring. By doing this, not only will the pitch + 300-words be stronger, but so will the entire MS. This year there will be rounds.
a. Round #1: Last year Nik gave everyone the benefit of the doubt when errors were made in following guidelines. That will not be the case this year, aside from formatting issues (which happen). To get past #1 author’s must be able to follow guidelines.
b. Round #2: This year each Team will select and initial 5-8 submissions and then request more pages/material. Based on the additional pages/material, each Team will drill their selection down to between 4-5 to go to the next round.
c. Round #3: On having picked their final 4-5, each Team will then critique the first 2,500-words and ‘get to know’ the author(s). This is a 3-fold process. Being selected does not necessarily mean being featured. Teams will want to know the author(s) are willing to accept feedback etc. The Teams will work with their author’s for 3 weeks, offering feedback, sharpening pitches, & suggesting improvements. After this, the author’s have a full week to re-read their MS in full & make any final changes; before the agent round.
From the Slush-pile Picks.
Nik’s Team, #Team2Beat, will be hunting through the slush-pile and the reserves, looking for gems that have been missed. We will have the option of selecting between 1-5 pitches (at their discretion) to feature. This is basically a bonus-pick so, you may just get an email after the date, but if you do, expect to work twice as hard as the other author’s as you’ll have less time – so be ready!
So now that I’ve waffled on about the rules – it’s time to wish you all good luck. You have the tools you need, now write!
And one more time, just because……
Today, I’m revealing the cover for Dragons are People, Too, a young adult contemporary fantasy by Sarah Nicolas releasing April 28th from Entangled Teen. Read all the way through and scroll to the bottom for a giveaway.
Never judge a dragon by her human cover…Sixteen-year-old Kitty Lung has everyone convinced she’s a normal teen—not a secret government operative, not the one charged with protecting the president’s son, and certainly not a were-dragon. The only one she trusts with the truth is her best friend—and secret crush—the über-hot Bulisani Mathe.
Then a junior operative breaks Rule Number One by changing into his dragon form in public—on Kitty’s watch—and suddenly, the world knows. About dragons. About the Draconic Intelligence Command (DIC) Kitty works for. About Kitty herself.
Now the government is hunting down and incarcerating dragons to stop a public panic, and a new shape-shifting enemy has kidnapped the president’s son. Kitty and Bulisani are the last free dragons, wanted by both their allies and their enemies. If they can’t rescue the president’s son and liberate their fellow dragons before getting caught themselves, dragons might never live free again.
Sarah is a 30-something YA author who currently lives in Orlando with a 60-lb mutt who thinks he’s a chihuahua. She believes that some boys are worth trusting, all girls have power, and dragons are people too.
She’s a proud member of the Gator Nation and has a BS in Mechanical Engineering, but has switched careers entirely. She now works as an Event Coordinator for a County Library and as a freelance book publicist and author’s assistant.
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Tumblr
Giveaway
Since Sarah couldn’t have written any of this book without coffee, she’s giving away a $10 Starbucks Gift Card! (Open anywhere Starbucks Gift Cards can be used) Click here to enter.
The idea behind this blog hop, is to name my favorite Movie and TV characters then nominate others to do the same. I’m going to take what I now call ‘The Dena’ and just invite others to do the same if they want to, then I’ll link you up if wanted too. Dena recently posted hers and I loved reading them, you can read them here. So, now I’m going to do mine, because – how awesome!
Felicity Smoak – Arrow.
She’s awesome. A computer geek and an all round sweetheart, there is nothing to dislike about this woman. Plus – she’s really good at keeping secrets.
Maggie Smith
Ah – I love Maggie Smith. Such a talented actress. She appears in some of my favorite films – Sister Act 1&2, Hook and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. It’s impossible to pick which portrayal I love the most.
Mrs Doubtfire
This film!!! I loved it as a child, I love it even more now. The magic of Mr Robin Williams will never, ever fade. I read the book when I was young and I didn’t realize until I watched the film that Mrs Doubtfire was actually the dad – and everyone used to say what a bright child I was – yeah right!
Gigi
I have lost count of the amount of times I’ve watched He’s Just Not That Into You. I love that film and Ginnifer/Jennifer Goodwin is so adorable in it.
John Coffey
Oh – this film. *Sobs* If you haven’t ever seen this film, you really should. John Coffey is a sweet, harmless and magical man, imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. *Sobs again*
Fat Amy
Fat Amy from Pitch Perfect. She is SO hilarious and had me crying with laughter at times. “Whoomp there it is.” I can’t WAIT for Pitch Perfect 2.
Ryan
This dude is CRAY CRAY!! Who – WHO in their right mind would not only pretend to be a cop, but then buy a cruiser, conduct surveillance and try to take down a hardened criminal. That guy up there would – with hilarious consequences. Let’s Be Cops is quite possibly one of the funniest movies I have EVER seen.
Lara Croft
I’m not really a huge fan of the films, but I am a HUGE fan of Lara Croft. I want to BE her. I have played every game on the Playstation then Xbox. I made the move to Xbox just so I could play Xbox exclusive DLC. I am one of the worlds best online mulitplayer’s on the xbox one on Tomb Raider 2013. Lord knows how, because I spend a lot of the time suspended in rope traps. Luck, probably. I even put a tiny Xbox easter egg in each of my books. I love Lara.
Indiana Jones
The first movie I ever saw in the cinema, also – my first crush. I LOVE Indiana Jones. Love, love, love. I want to be him too, but I’m missing an appendage, so maybe not. My husband always jokes that I crush on the geeky guys and it’s ALL Indiana Jones fault.
Roy Harper
He rose from the slums of The Glades to serve up justice in the form of arrows and kickassery. I struggled whether to have Oliver Queen or Roy Harper as this last one, but went with Roy because of his journey. I wonder if I can recruit Roy and Felicity onto my Vigilante team?
So – that is my lot! All of these characters I love. This has been one of the most fun blog posts I’ve done in a while – thank you Dena!
Biomites are artificial stem cells that can replace any cell in your body. No more kidney failure, no severed spines or blood disease. No cancer. Pharmaceuticals become obsolete. With each dose of biomites, we become stronger, we become smarter and prettier.
We become better.
At what point are we no longer human?
Nix Richards nearly died in a car accident when he was young. Biomites saved his life. Ten years later, he’s not so lucky. The Halfskin Laws decree a human composed of 50% biomites is no longer human. Halfskins have no legal rights and will have their biomites shutdown. It’s not called murder, merely deactivation.
Cali Richards has been Nix’s legal guardian since their parents died. She has lost far too many people in her life to let the government take Nix. She is a nanobiometric engineer and will discover how to hide him. But even brilliance can succumb to the pressure of suffering. And technology can’t cure insanity.
THE REAL AVENGER’S BLOG
Shooting Truth-Bullets Since Birth
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It’s the end of time, peeps.
Mark this date, put a black X on your calendar because it’s all over, starting today. It used to be that if you didn’t like the laws where you lived, you just moved to another state or another country. Freedom existed somewhere in the world. We had a choice. I mean, hell, if you were desperate enough you could live on the South Pole with penguins and shit.
Not anymore.
Today, it’s all over.
Today, M0ther was born.
Who’s M0ther? Our M0ther. Already got a mother? Now you got two, only this one will know everything about you. You can’t hide from her, she’ll know when you’re full of crap, know where you stash your porn, know when you pick your nose and when you eat it.
You’ll hate her, and she’ll know that, too.
Case you’ve been asleep for the last 10 years, the Mitochondria Terraforming Hierarchy of Record is what I’m talking about.
Let’s just call her M0ther.
A mother that doesn’t bake cookies or wash your underwear. She’s not getting up to make you French toast or wipe your nose. Nope. This bitch is going to spy on you until you’re dead. Which may be sooner than you think.
M0ther is somewhere in the frozen plains of Wyoming. No pictures of her exist because no one’s allowed to even flyover. But rumors say she’s this massive dome, a computer the size of a football stadium, like some artificial brain heaved out of the frozen soil that’s wirelessly connected with every biomite in existence.
Did you catch that? EVERY BIOMITE IN EXISTENCE!
Hear that buzzing on your phone? She’s listening.
Feel that tickle on your laptop? She knows you’re tapping.
All that Do Not Covet Your Neighbor’s Wife crap? Yeah, that’s the real deal, now. M0ther might tell your wife what you’re thinking about doing to Joe-Bob’s wife mowing the lawn in a tube top.
George Orwell wasn’t even close, man. I mean, Big Brother was just a pea shooter compared to M0ther. Big Brother was pissing on a forest fire; M0ther’s bringing the goddamn ocean.
Here’s the official statement from Marcus Anderson, Chief of the Biomite Oversight Committee.
(BTW, he looks like a gargoyle. Right?)
It is with great pleasure that, after ten years of global effort, I present to you the greatest feat of humankind. I present to you a regulatory system that will keep all people safer and healthier for centuries to come. Bionanotechnolgy has put us on the brink of greatness, but with that comes uncertainty and danger. The human species has the potential to live forever. Or end tomorrow.
I prefer the former.
Mitochondria Terraforming Hierarchy of Record is linked to every booted cellular-sized biomite living inside our bodies. Its primary function will be to monitor individual levels of biomites and take appropriate action if, or when, they cross a previously determined threshold. This will keep us human.
This will keep us safe.
Forever.
Also available at the following locations:
During the day, I’m a horticulturist. While I’ve spent much of my career designing landscapes or diagnosing dying plants, I’ve always been a storyteller. My writing career began with magazine columns, landscape design textbooks, and a gardening column at the Post and Courier (Charleston, SC). However, I’ve always fancied fiction.
My grandpa never graduated high school. He retired from a steel mill in the mid-70s. He was uneducated, but he was a voracious reader. I remember going through his bookshelves of paperback sci-fi novels, smelling musty old paper, pulling Piers Anthony and Isaac Asimov off shelf and promising to bring them back. I was fascinated by robots that could think and act like people. What happened when they died?
I’m a cynical reader. I demand the writer sweep me into his/her story and carry me to the end. I’d rather sail a boat than climb a mountain. That’s the sort of stuff I want to write, not the assigned reading we got in school. I want to create stories that kept you up late.
Having a story unfold inside your head is an experience different than reading. You connect with characters in a deeper, more meaningful way. You feel them, empathize with them, cheer for them and even mourn. The challenge is to get the reader to experience the same thing, even if it’s only a fraction of what the writer feels. Not so easy.
In 2008, I won the South Carolina Fiction Open with Four Letter Words, a short story inspired by my grandfather and Alzheimer’s Disease. My first step as a novelist began when I developed a story to encourage my young son to read. This story became The Socket Greeny Saga. Socket tapped into my lifetime fascination with consciousness and identity, but this character does it from a young adult’s struggle with his place in the world.
After Socket, I thought I was done with fiction. But then the ideas kept coming, and I kept writing. Most of my work investigates the human condition and the meaning of life, but not in ordinary fashion. About half of my work is Young Adult (Socket Greeny, Claus, Foreverland) because it speaks to that age of indecision and the struggle with identity. But I like to venture into adult fiction (Halfskin, Drayton) so I can cuss. Either way, I like to be entertaining.
And I’m a big fan of plot twists.
For the last few days I’ve been in a funk. You know that point where you can no longer form a coherent sentence? Where any words you string together are a bit crap, or even a lot crap. And even those times where you seem to be able to kill it when writing dialogue but as soon as you need to add the action, reaction, emotion, you fall on your ass and pick yourself up only to rather unceremoniously face plant the floor? That stage of writing – that’s where I’m at. In that dark little pit trying to claw my way out. Of course, the faster I claw, the further I slip so maybe some quiet contemplation is needed. Hmm.
I keep reading and rereading my earlier chapters and thinking – hey, I wrote that, I like it – so why can’t I do it anymore? I dunno. We all get to this stage though, that’s for sure. Then, at some point, something strikes and we can do it again. I’m waiting for that moment, but in the meantime, I thought I’d share a little bit of my WIP because one of my cp’s tagged me to do so. So here’s the opening of Finding Immortal – it’s still a little rough around the edges and there’s stuff I need to add per my amazing cp’s advice.
Finding Immortal
The text notification from my cellphone cut into my thoughts with the sharpness of a razors edge. Another message from Alex. I knew without casting so much as a glance at the screen. It was always him. Lana preferred email and sent me pictures of whatever country she’d chosen to gallivant through that week. I tipped my head back, staring into the sky above the Mallory estate. Clouds, heavy with the weight of unfallen snow, hung low, threatening to explode at any moment.
Lucas shifted next to me on the cold porch steps. “Aren’t you going to read it?” His breath billowed into the air, mixing with the muted light of the frosty morning.
Shaking my head, I pulled my phone from my jeans pocket and tossed it to Lucas. “No point.” Alex’s messages only ever consisted of one letter, a simple ‘x’, and though I’d replied on several occasions, asking how and where he was, he never responded.
Lucas slipped my cell into the front pocket of his green hoodie.
I tried to take a deep breath, but the familiar stabbing at my chest prevented anything more than a small inhale. For the past three months, the simplest of things hurt, opening my eyes each morning ranking amongst the most painful. My mind began to fog, pulling me back to the night of the ferocious battle with Sol and Selena. The night the colors in my world had paled to barely recognizable blurs of insignificance. Nathaniel’s face flashed and I clawed at the memory, desperate to hold it strong and unwavering, but as always, it faded to obscurity.
I raised my head as the crunch of hurried footsteps sounded across the yard of the Mallory estate. Kyle’s black hair lay flat and damp against his forehead, his maroon t-shirt and gray sweatpants bearing the sweat patches of his run. As he drew closer, he pulled his earphones from his ears and whipped off his top, then used it to scrub the moisture from his face.
Lucas rose from the steps to greet him. “Just in time, breakfast’s ready.”
Kyle slung his t-shirt across one shoulder and used his other hand to rub his taught stomach. “Good, I’m starving.”
Lucas pushed the front door open and stepped inside.
Kyle held his hand out to me. “You coming?”
I dropped my gaze to the ground. “No, I’m not hungry.”
One, two, three. I counted the maroon stripes on Kyle’s sneakers, at the same time, wondering when he’d begun to color co-ordinate his wardrobe.
“Tough shit, babe. You’re eating.” Kyle grasped my wrist and pulled me from my perch. I landed with a thud against his solid chest.
So I’ve kinda killed two birds with one stone(<<< ooo – a cliché, I should know better). I’ve talked about my feelings without talking about my feelings and I’ve shared some words. Now I’m off to stare out of the window. Hope the rest of you are coming along well in your writing endeavors!
A disillusioned soldier. A spoiled, untried prince. A coup that threatens the country they both love. When retired soldier Kemen finds the young prince Hakan fleeing an attempted assassination, he reluctantly takes the role of mentor and guardian. Keeping the prince alive is challenging enough. Making him a man is harder.
As usurper Vidar tightens his grip on power, Kemen wrestles with questions of duty and honor. What if the prince isn’t the best ruler after all?
Invasion looms, and Kemen’s decisions will shape the fate of a nation. What will he sacrifice for friendship and honor?
You can also purchase The King’s Sword direct from the author, Barnes and Nobel, Smashwords and Kobo.
I live in Northern Virginia just outside Washington, DC, with my husband, young children, and our sheltie mix. They keep me pretty busy, but in my free time I write, read, teach karate, make jewelry, and bake. I love the smell of snow but I hate being cold. I once hugged a tiger. I love hearing from readers, so please get in touch!
You can find C.J. Brightley on her website, Google+, Facebook and Twitter.
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