Hello and welcome to my Weekend Writing Warriors post.  It’s good to be back after a two week break. I went on a writing retreat for part of that time, so pretty soon I’ll be sharing excerpts from the next Jacqui the Cat book. For now, though, I’m continuing with my re-imagined fairy tale, titled Snow. In this scene, Prince Gabriel is reluctantly taking part in the royal hunt. The head huntsman, Falkner, has discovered a mysterious nest in the woods, and Gabriel found something even more disturbing. You can read the last snippet here.

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Falkner sent his men off to look for tracks, then moved closer, arms crossed over his chest.

“What?”

Gabriel stepped back, and toed aside a clump of ivy. There, moss covered and gray, was a skull.

“Oh, holy hounds of Astrid. Don’t let the king see that.”

“Why ever not?” Gabriel asked, surprised by the huntsman’s reaction, “That’s a human skull, which means there’s been a death on the king’s land. It must be investigated.”

“We mustn’t feed his obsession,” Falkner said.

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Thunderstorms, mist and rain helped put me in the correct mood on my retreat.

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Blurb-in-progress for Snow, a reimagined fairy tale:

Following the death of his mother the Queen, Prince Gabriel is called home by his brother, now King. Gabriel hopes for a reconciliation with his estranged brother, but all is not well at Castle Rosenthal. King Tristan has fallen under the sway of a scheming alchemist, the magical denizens of the bordering Black Forest are on the move, and Gabriel begins to fear for his life. Is the handsome huntsman in on a plot to assassinate him, or is there an even darker, more evil force afoot? A forced flight into the Black Forest may expose ancient powers at work, if Gabriel can survive long enough to uncover them.

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Weekend Writing Warriors is a blog hop where writers from a wide variety of genres share from their work in excerpts of ten sentences or less.  Click the link to check out the other writers participating today.  It’s a great way to discover your next favorite book.