Weekend Writing Warriors #9

Greetings fellow warriors and visitors!  Well, I’m now into my first round of edits on Touch of Salar, and let’s just say, it’s an eye-opening experience.  Apparently, I missed the class on commas, colons and em dashes.  I’ll continue to post snippets from Touch for a while, in a flagrant attempt to get you all hooked.  Earlier snippets are compiled under the Fiction tab.

This post is part of an ongoing blog hop hosted by Weekend Writing Warriors. Every Sunday, participating authors post eight sentences from their current work in progress. Then we hop to our fellow warriors’ blogs and check out all the fabulous fiction that’s happening! I heartily invite you to participate as a reader, writer, or both. It’s a great way to discover your next favorite book. Click the link above or copy & paste this address: http://www.wewriwa.com

Touch of Salar

When M’lan’s palms hit a cool stone floor, he shook his head in confusion as his vision wavered between illusion and reality. On his knees, he breathed deep and tried to remember who he was, and where he was. He raised his head and the tentacles of the night terrors recoiled into the shadowed corners of a temple, chased away by the sun that was cresting the mountain. He was not a warrior, but a monk, a healing monk, and he was in the temple of Ka’alar, not some hideous battlefield.

He let out a shaky breath and climbed the last few steps on hands and knees. The nightmares were getting worse, and so powerful that they chased him all the way out his cell into the blessed light of day. He thanked Salar for the dawn, then groggily staggered to his feet. He dimly recalled rising and dressing before dawn, but the dream had hunted him down and reclaimed him on his way to the temple.

About Touch of Salar

Touch of Salar is a high fantasy, m/m erotic romance. In the kingdom of Rakkan, in a culture ruled by gods, temples and magic, a young monk with the ability to channel the healing powers of the god Salar falls in love with a wounded warrior he knows only as The Major. Relations between the classes are forbidden, and things become even more complicated when the monk discovers that the man he is obsessed with is a king’s assassin. If M’lan is found out, he will be put to death, possibly by the Major himself.

Weekend Writing Warriors #8

This post is part of an ongoing blog hop hosted by Weekend Writing Warriors.  Every Sunday, participating authors post eight sentences from their current work in progress.  Then we hop to our fellow warriors’ blogs and check out all the fabulous fiction that’s happening! I heartily invite you to participate as a reader, writer, or both. It’s a great way to discover your next favorite book.  Click the link above or copy & paste this address: www.wewriwa.com

Great news!  The first book in the Salar series will be published by Loose ID!!!  More details to follow soon.  I’ve been posting excerpts from the third in the series, Curse of Salar, which is my current WIP.  In celebration of an actual publishing contract, this weekend I’ll post from Touch.

 

Touch of Salar 

The sun pierced a crevice in the mountains and M’lan raised a hand to shield his eyes. He stood on a desert battlefield littered with the wounded, the dying and the dead. He let the blood-smeared sword in his other hand drop.  Dawn cut across the broken earth in a fiery lance, the anger of the god Salar exposing man’s cruelty in shocking, vivid detail.  Blood everywhere, limbs hacked, horses screaming. Hundreds of cold sightless eyes, all turning toward him. M’lan stepped forward and tripped over a body at his feet.  He fell, not onto a rock-strewn desert, but marble steps.

 

About Touch of Salar

Touch of Salar is a high fantasy, m/m erotic romance. In the kingdom of Rakkan, in a culture ruled by gods, temples and magic, a young monk with the ability to channel the healing powers of the god Salar falls in love with a wounded warrior he knows only as The Major.  Relations between the classes are forbidden, and things become even more complicated when the monk discovers that the man he is obsessed with is a king’s assassin.  If M’lan is found out, he will be put to death, possibly by the Major himself.

Weekend Writing Warriors #7

Happy Spring!  Love is in the air and on the page.  This post is part of an ongoing blog hop hosted by Weekend Writing Warriors.  Every Sunday, participating authors post eight sentences from their current work in progress.  Then we hop to our fellow warriors’ blogs and check out all the fabulous fiction that’s happening! I heartily invite you to participate as a reader, writer, or both. It’s a great way to discover your next favorite book.  Click the link above or copy & paste this address: www.wewriwa.com

Note: I’ve added a fiction page so that you can read the previous postings in one place and catch up on what’s happened so far.

Curse of Salar

“What dignitaries are here?” Mira asked, brushing past Timon, careful to lightly brush his silk clad shoulder against Timon’s bare one as he entered his sitting area, an open place of marble columns, a fountain, several couches and a large fire pit. Before Mira and his sister had been installed in interior rooms facing the courtyard garden, this set of rooms had belonged to his father’s mistress, Selene.  Alandra had rooms on the other side of the courtyard, rooms where their grandmother Kira had lived and died.

When he was a boy, his rooms overlooked the city of Larsa, capitol of his father’s kingdom.  He missed the view of the sunbaked towers, temples and houses and especially the river and the mountain range far beyond. Sometimes he was overwhelmed by a feeling of claustrophobia, and struggled to suppress it.

Timon was talking behind him, and he’d missed the first names on the guest list. Mira threw himself on a couch and tried to disguise his frustration as boredom.

***

Curse of Salar is an m/m erotic fantasy novella, third in a series set in the world of Salar.  Prince Mira, along with his sister, is the last in the royal line of Jahar, a ruling family of powerful magicians. Mira and Alandra are held as virtual captives in their family’s own palace, kept alive to placate the masses of peasants who are traditional royalists and still believe in the fabled powers of the Jahar. Mira chafes under confinement and dreams of escaping.  Rayn Matisse is a soldier in the rebel army. He has no interest whatsoever in seeing the royals reinstated until he meets Mira and begins to fall under the prince’s magical sway.  Rayn’s people were cursed by the Jahar centuries ago, and though long thought to be a myth, the curse begins to assert its powers once again. As assassination and rebellion upset the false calm of the kingdom, Rayn finds himself torn between love and fear of the young man who possesses an uncanny ability to control him.

Weekend Writing Warrior #6

This post is part of an ongoing blog hop hosted by Weekend Writing Warriors.  Every Sunday, participating authors post eight sentences from their current work in progress.  Then we hop to our fellow warriors’ blogs and check out all the fabulous fiction that’s happening! I heartily invite you to participate as a reader, writer, or both. It’s a great way to discover your next favorite book.  Click the link above or copy & paste this address: www.wewriwa.com

Note: I’ve added a fiction page so that you can read the previous postings in one place and catch up on what’s happened so far.

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Curse of Salar

“How goes things beyond the palace walls?” Mira asked, sipping the wine and keeping his eyes on Timon’s face.  The servant felt his gaze and raised his eyes.  Despite his exemplary training he couldn’t help staring hungrily at Mira, an expression of clear desire disturbing his calm.  After a moment’s faltering he said,  “All is well. The rebel activity has ceased and the markets are thriving again.”

“We are blessed by the strong hand of Premier Skala,” Mira said, mostly out of spite.  Timon would have to wonder if he was being sincere or not, have to wonder if he should report Mira’s sarcasm, and in the end, probably decide not to say a word.  Mira always heard what he said out loud filtered through spies, interpreted by watchers, mulled over by ministers. Most likely, he was taking himself too seriously- most likely, the minister and his cabinet had given up worrying or thinking about him much at all.

***

Curse of Salar is an m/m erotic fantasy novella, third in a series set in the world of Salar.  Prince Mira, along with his sister, is the last in the royal line of Jahar, a ruling family of powerful magicians. Mira and Alandra are held as virtual captives in their family’s own palace, kept alive to placate the masses of peasants who are traditional royalists and still believe in the fabled powers of the Jahar. Mira chafes under confinement and dreams of escaping.  Rayn Matisse is a soldier in the rebel army. He has no interest whatsoever in seeing the royals reinstated until he meets Mira and begins to fall under the prince’s magical sway.  Rayn’s people were cursed by the Jahar centuries ago, and though long thought to be a myth, the curse begins to assert its powers once again. As assassination and rebellion upset the false calm of the kingdom, Rayn finds himself torn between love and fear of the young man who possesses an uncanny ability to control him.

Weekend Writing Warriors #5

This post is part of an ongoing blog hop hosted by Weekend Writing Warriors.  Every Sunday, participating authors post eight sentences from their current work in progress.  Then we hop to our fellow warriors’ blogs and check out all the fabulous fiction that’s happening! I heartily invite you to participate as a reader, writer, or both.  Click the link above or copy & paste this address: www.wewriwa.com

(If you’re interested in reading what’s come before, Salar excerpts are collected in the Weekend Warriors Snippets category in the sidebar.  Soon I will figure out how to present them in more reader-friendly fashion.)

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Curse of Salar

“I’m sorry about your father,” Mira said, “May Ka’atar assist his passage.”

“I am most grateful for your blessing, my Lord,”  Timon filled his cup and bowed again.  They always spoke formally, even during sex. It amused Mira, and saddened him.  Timon was a hand taller than him, well-muscled for a house servant, lean, with hair the color of desert sand and pale blue eyes.  He had a smooth, attractive face, which was why the premier’s agents picked him; they were always trying to guess who might entrance Mira enough to earn his trust. So far they’d failed, he trusted no one.  He found it easy enough to pretend with Timon and Lashmi, although it pained him to watch them love him and be torn apart by conflicting loyalties.

***

Good Almost-News!  An editor has asked for the full manuscript of Touch of Salar, the first in the series.  She said a lot of positive things about the first three chapters, so my hopes are high.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Curse of Salar is an m/m erotic fantasy novella, third in a series set in the world of Salar.  Prince Mira, along with his sister, is the last in the royal line of Jahar, a ruling family of powerful magicians. Mira and Alandra are held as virtual captives in their family’s own palace, kept alive to placate the masses of peasants who are traditional royalists and still believe in the fabled powers of the Jahar. Mira chafes under confinement and dreams of escaping.  Rayn Matisse is a soldier in the rebel army. He has no interest whatsoever in seeing the royals reinstated until he meets Mira and begins to fall under the prince’s magical sway.  Rayn’s people were cursed by the Jahar centuries ago, and though long thought to be a myth, the curse begins to assert its powers once again. As assassination and rebellion upset the false calm of the kingdom, Rayn finds himself torn between love and fear of the young man who possesses an uncanny ability to control him.

Weekend Writing Warriors #4

This post is part of an ongoing blog hop hosted by Weekend Writing Warriors.  Every Sunday, participating authors post eight sentences from their current work in progress.  Then we hop to our fellow warriors’ blogs and check out all the fabulous fiction that’s happening! I heartily invite you to participate as a reader, writer, or both.  Click the link above or copy & paste this address: www.wewriwa.com

(If you’re interested in reading what’s come before, Salar excerpts are collected in the Weekend Warriors Snippets category in the sidebar.)

***

Curse of Salar

Timon was allowed to leave the palace to visit his dying father and had been gone for half a moon.  Mira was glad to see him but would never show any glimmer of what might be seen as special affection.  Any servant who displayed too much loyalty to him was sent away on some pretext or other, and Mira had been afraid that the story of the dying father had been one of these excuses.  He knew Timon was fond of him, and he also knew that he diligently reported everything Mira said or did to the premier’s watchers. He couldn’t blame him, that’s what he was brought to the palace to do.  The premier recruited servants from other kingdoms or from the rebel states, who had no loyalty to the royal family or any lingering superstitions regarding the divinity of Mira and Alandra.

“How’s your father?” Mira asked without preamble.

“Gone up the mountain to dance with the spirits,” Timon said, bowing slightly.

***

Curse of Salar is an m/m erotic fantasy novella, third in a series set in the world of Salar.  Prince Mira, along with his sister, is the last in the royal line of Jahar, a ruling family of powerful magicians. Mira and Alandra are held as virtual captives in their family’s own palace, kept alive to placate the masses of peasants who are traditional royalists and still believe in the fabled powers of the Jahar. Mira chafes under confinement and dreams of escaping.  Rayn Matisse is a soldier in the rebel army. He has no interest whatsoever in seeing the royals reinstated until he meets Mira and begins to fall under the prince’s magical sway.  Rayn’s people were cursed by the Jahar centuries ago, and though long thought to be a myth, the curse begins to assert its powers once again. As assassination and rebellion upset the false calm of the kingdom, Rayn finds himself torn between love and fear of the young man who possesses an uncanny ability to control him.