Salutations! I hope your year is starting off well. My rollercoaster from last year hasn't quite run out of track yet, but I am optimistic that we are finally slowing down into a more predictable series of rises and falls, Lord willing.
So, enough about that. Time to get to the announcements.
Audiobooks!
If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you probably caught my announcement of my first audiobook release. My dear friend and fellow author, Charissa Lees, narrated Word and Deed for me. As a short story, it is a short listen, but a dramatic one.
The latest news is that the first two Courts in Conflict audiobooks are in the works thanks to Tantor Audio.
The Unseelie's Wallflower will be available on February 25th.
The Fae King's Labyrinth will be following on April 29, 2025. Unfortunately, I don't have a pretty cover to share for that one yet, but I am sure that it will be coming soon.
Sneak Peek!
I have been writing in my social media absence. The Captive Dragon manuscript keeps growing. Currently, the project stands at 36K out of the planned 60K and I suspect that it might run longer. I can't wait to introduce my characters to you. Storm is a growly cinnamon roll of a dragon shifter and Selah is a broken healer with trauma in her past she can't remember because of gaps in her memory (hence my suspicion that the book might end up longer than planned). So, here is your sneak peek of the first chapter and their meet-cute:
(Passage subject to change when edited and reworked for publication.)
Storm
I was dying.
The ache in my bones made me restless, but I lacked the strength to move. Pain, deep and throbbing, paralyzed my limbs. The tear in my wing stung, sharp and unrelenting, but it didn’t rival the burning in my eye.
I shivered against the growing chill in my limbs. Dragon’s bane was relentless. Only time remained before the poison quenched my internal fire. And then my heart would stop beating.
In the meantime, I endured the delusions that dragon’s bane forced on my mind, memories, nightmares. Recollections of long-dead and newly dead friends. Scenarios, both fictional and real, played out in my mind’s eye, twisting and turning so that every situation turned toxic. Hate, anger, and bitter regret churned through my being. I groaned deep in my chest and longed for the coming end. Anything to stop this torture.
As I drifted in and out of consciousness, fighting to maintain vigilance until the end, the sound of a plaintive whine cut through my tortured thoughts. I cracked my good eye open.
“Beggar.” My voice vibrated painfully in my throat.
The dark brown dog with floppy ears sitting in my line of sight immediately brightened up. He hopped onto all four of his paws and shook himself. A cloud of dirt and grit exploded from his coat.
I closed my eyes again, too tired to care.
The dog nudged my talons. I slit my eye open again. His thick brown tail whipped back and forth as he watched me eagerly. He was a solidly built creature, though surprisingly agile. He whimpered and did a strange backward shuffle as though encouraging me to follow him.
“No.” My lungs ached. Irritated by the poison that I had accidentally breathed in the day before when I incinerated the foolish fae that attacked me. Or had it been mere hours ago? I found I didn’t care. My head throbbed.
With a bark, Beggar bounced on his two front paws and then glanced over his shoulder before he whined and turned in a tight circle.
My eyelid dragged downward as my ability to fight the poison ebbed. The acidic scent of dragon’s bane filled my senses in a rush, yet another sign the poison was permeating deeper into my body. “Go,” I told the dog.
At least he could escape.
“He can’t. They are guarding the door.” The sound of soft footfalls announced the invader far too late. My hearing must have been affected as well. I had missed her arrival. The voice sounded feminine.
I drew in a sharp breath and lifted my head. No metallic scent meant she carried no metal weapon and wore no armor. Still, that didn’t mean she was unarmed. I blinked through the film blurring my one good eye. Despite my best efforts, it refused to focus.
She was a slender, pale-faced blur carrying a lantern of some kind in the darkness of my makeshift refuge. “Have you come to kill me?”
What do you think? Interested in more?
You can preorder the final result here.
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