Category Archives: Weekend Warriors Snippets

Weekend Writing Warriors #16

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Greetings Warriors, Writers and Readers.  I’m continuing on from last week with a selection from my recently completed WIP (yeah!).  To Catch a Threeve is  an erotic m/m fantasy.

To Catch a Threeve

Axel rested one forearm on the pommel, closed his eyes and listened as old Talesin had taught him. Only a few moments passed before the forest creatures adjusted to his presence. A nighthawk shrieked, four-footed scavengers rustled in the low growing shrubs and night feeding swallows cut and darted in the air above him.

I know you’re still there, he thought, and sank deeper into his listening trance. Axel’s deputy, Drummond Alloway, had fallen behind at the last creek crossing, partly because his mount was not as sure of foot as Axel’s, but also because Axel wanted this time alone and had hurried his pace. Drummond’s horse now pounded along the road in the distance.

The far off creek burbled, its mineral scent rising beneath the pungent bite of ironwood pitch and moldering oak leaves. With his senses sharpened, Axel smelled his stalker before he heard him.

***

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 here or copy & paste this address: http://www.wewriwa.com

Weekend Writing Warriors #15

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And now for something completely different.  In celebration of completing my current WIP, I’ve decided to post a few snippets from the first chapter. To Catch A Threeve is high fantasy, with swords, castles, witches, hunky constables, sexy thieves, and oh, yeah, threeves. Stay tuned to find out what the heck a threeve is.

 

To Catch a Threeve

As the crescent moon sank behind the jagged line of the Lacknor Mountains, shadows merged in the depth of the forest, smothering the last of the light. An oppressive stillness was disturbed only by the thud of hooves on a narrow dirt road. That too ended when the rider reined in his horse and waited, chin lowered to chest.

The man formed a silhouette against the shadows, draped in a black cloak and mounted on a black horse. His boots and hair were also black and his sword sheathed in black leather. If any dared draw close enough, they’d see eyes the shade of storm clouds and a gaze that pierced the dark with an uncanny light.

Constable Axel Blackwood barely breathed as he listened for signs of his stalker. Except for the heavy panting of his horse, the creak of his leather saddle and his own heartbeat, nothing out of place disturbed the quiet.

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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 here or copy & paste this address: http://www.wewriwa.com

Weekend Writing Warriors #14

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Welcome warriors, writers and readers!  I’m going to share one last snippet from my upcoming novel, Touch of Salar.  The almost certain release date is June 17th and I hope I’ve wet your whistle enough that you’ll check it out when it’s available.  Does time go into super slow-mo when you’re waiting for a book to launch?  It has for me. I’m already half way through the next in the series, working title Blood of Salar and I’m so excited about it I wish both books could come out at once.  Ah well, patience is a virtue, I guess.

 

Touch of Salar  (I cut a few lines to reach a nice stopping point. If you like you can read the complete scene up to this point on my Salar page.)

The major lay down on his stomach without a word, crossed his arms above his head, and rested his face on the open frame at the top. He was tall, and he reached from one end of the table to the other. M’lan moved closer, rubbing warmed zinn bark oil onto his hands.

“With your permission,” he said as was required – all he got in return was a grunt.

After warming his hands, he placed them on the small of the man’s back. Though heavily scarred in places, the skin was smooth and hot from the sulfur bath. Electric sparks trickled up M’lan’s hands, and he nearly jumped back. He closed his eyes and let out a calming breath, feeling the rhythm of the man’s pulse beneath his palms.

***

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 here or copy & paste this address: http://www.wewriwa.com

About Touch of Salar, soon to be released by Loose Id.

Touch of Salar is a high fantasy, m/m erotic romance. In the kingdom of Rakkan, in a culture ruled by gods, mystical orders 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 #13

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Hi! If you’re participating in the Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia, please scroll down to the next post to find my HAHAT post and leave a comment for a chance to win a prize!  I haven’t quite figured out yet how to update my linky-thingy on the website to go directly to the post.

Okay, back to the snippet!  Greetings Weekend Writing Warriors!  My, I’m using a lot of exclamation points today! Maybe it’s because I’ve finally reached the point where M’lan gets to interact with the major.  Be still my heart. (creative punctuation alert)

 

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Touch of Salar

The major crossed the tiled floor without a sound and stepped up to the table. From behind him, M’lan watched the silk robe slide from wide shoulders and drop to the floor before he raised his eyes, ready to assess what he saw.

His breath caught. Even though he was used to seeing well-sculpted, muscular bodies, this one was exceptional. Faint scars crisscrossed the truly beautiful almond skin but were hidden among the swirls and tangled vines of an elaborate tattoo that climbed from the crease beneath the man’s left buttock to the base of his neck. His torso tapered from the broad shoulders to a slim waist, the arms and legs were lean yet muscular, and the buttocks tight and hard. He had glossy black hair that flashed red in the sunlight. M’lan glimpsed a fine high cheekbone, sculpted jawline, and aquiline nose– a true son of Rakkan.

***

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 here or copy & paste this address: http://www.wewriwa.com

About Touch of Salar, soon to be released by Loose Id.

Touch of Salar is a high fantasy, m/m erotic romance. In the kingdom of Rakkan, in a culture ruled by gods, mystical orders 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 #12

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Do all writers love the rain? I do.  The constant patter of sloppy drops on the window, the chilly gusts rattling the blossoms off the trees, gives me permission to ignore the weeds, the foot high grass, the  drooping limbs in need of  trim, to hole up with a cup of  tea and write, write, write.  If you’re a writer who loves the rain, nothing beats Oregon in the springtime!  Back to the snippet–at last, the warrior arrives, M’lan’s ultimate challenge.  Here’s a little eye candy to wet your whistle.

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Touch of Salar

Cobwebs clearing from his mind, M’lan hurried to wipe down the soft-padded table in the middle of the room with essential oils and snapped out a fresh cloth to smooth on top of it. Today he was to begin the healing process on a new patient. For the sake of secrecy and discretion, patients were referred to by title. Today’s client, if spoken to, was to be addressed as Major. He was male, twenty-eight passages of age, and had been in the intensive-care ward of the temple for three weeks.

The entry chimes sounded, and M’lan bowed his head, as was custom when nobility entered. The patient wore a black silk robe, head covered with a hood. He moved with an easy grace and a lightness of foot, unlike most of the warriors M’lan worked on, who tended to be heavyset and muscle-bound.

wewriwa

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 here or copy & paste this address: http://www.wewriwa.com

About Touch of Salar, soon to be released by Loose Id.

Touch of Salar is a high fantasy, m/m erotic romance. In the kingdom of Rakkan, in a culture ruled by gods, mystical orders 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 #Lucky 11

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Greetings fellow warriors, writers and readers.  I’m feeling lucky this week– Lucky that my novella Touch of Salar will soon be published, lucky that I’ve been assigned a great editor, lucky that I’ve finished the second round of edits with hardly any mental or emotional damage!  I feel especially lucky that my dreams of being a professional writer are on the verge of becoming real.  I much prefer my dreams to those of poor M’lan, who’s in for a rough of time of it.

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

M’lan had trained for years to calm his mind and cool his passions. While he was busy treating his patients, passion was not a problem. Despite the array of beautiful bodies he worked on, he remained as cool as a mountain lake, his mind as still as he concentrated on sinews, muscles, tendons, and ligaments. At night, though, his passions erupted in those violent dreams of war, killing, and terror.

The monks of Ka’alar Healing Temple exclusively served the noble classes of the kingdom of Rakkan. In recent years, most of their clients were soldiers, officers who’d been injured in the ongoing battle with Jirnan Province to the south. The monks also treated elite forces of no particular rank or designation—spies, assassins, sons and daughters of the nobility trained to serve the king in secret and deadly ways. The only reason M’lan knew this was because of the nightmares that showed him what his clients did, where they went, who they killed. If anyone ever found out, he’d be executed on the spot.

About Touch of Salar, soon to be released by Loose Id.

Touch of Salar is a high fantasy, m/m erotic romance. In the kingdom of Rakkan, in a culture ruled by gods, mystical orders 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.