Tag Archives: Alexis Duran

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ On the Prowl

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Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the blog hop where writers from a wide variety of genres share from their work in excerpts of ten sentences or less.

Life has gotten interesting around here.  I’ve welcomed two new kittens into my household and have received my official Crazy Cat Lady certificate.  You can now address me as Alexis Duran, CCL.  I’m sure Jacqui would be thrilled with the new arrivals. They’re all about getting into trouble, just like him.

Speaking of Jacqui, he’s on the prowl for some trouble himself.  This scene is from the first chapter of my upcoming release Wild, Jacqui the Cat Mysteries #4. Jacqui has shifted into his cat form and is setting off to explore the neighborhood.  You can read last week’s snippet here.

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Blinking a few times, he stretched to his full length, arched his back and shook all over. Then he jumped onto the dryer and slid out the window. A thick rhododendron bush grew right outside. Not the easiest shrub to navigate, but he rustled through it and soon stood on the street in front of Wyatt’s apartment building, scanning up and down for threats.

No one was in view except for a possum rooting around a few doors over. A bat darted across the sky above him. Jacqui yawned and took another big sniff. With Cat’s nose, a thousand new smells crowded in on him.

Strange cat on the prowl, up the hill.

He padded in that direction.

***

Prowling companions

 

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Wild: Jacqui the Cat Mysteries #4 coming soon! Blurb-in-progress-

Jacqui Corleone has finally met his fated mate (Newsflash: it’s Wyatt), but unlike a romance novel, reality has other plans. The dog men are back, and along with their slobber and bad manners they bring a new level of danger to Jacqui’s life, and to Wyatt’s.  Jacqui meets other cat shifters for the first time and is tantalized by a glimpse into their strange new world.  Only cats aren’t much nicer than dogs, and soon Jacqui must choose if he’s going to run again, or stand and fight against an enemy more powerful than he ever imagined. And that’s saying a lot.

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Go Wild

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Hello and Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the blog hop where writers from a wide variety of genres share from their work in ten sentences or less.

To those of you in the US, Happy Independence Day! To those not in the US, Happy Weekend! Hope it’s not too hot or noisy or, you know, end-of-the-world-ish wherever you are.

I’m continuing to share from my upcoming release, Wild, Jacqui the Cat Mysteries #4.  The process drags on, but I am oh-so-close, and will soon be sharing the awesome cover with you.  For now, we join Jacqui as he does his thing, which is turning into a cat.

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Jacqui took a deep breath and let it out to a count of ten heart beats, centering himself in his body. He didn’t have time or room for his normal meditative, yoga shifting ritual, so he simply shook out his arms and commanded his muscles to relax. Relax and let go.

Let go of his shape, his humanity, his over-sized brain full of man concerns and man anxieties. Let Cat take over. Shrink, compact, go wild.

He and Cat were more than ready. With a dizzying shimmer he shed unnecessary bulk and height. For one heart-stopping moment he had no shape and then, as if he’d flung himself off a cliff, he plummeted. His perception altered, colors faded but details sharpened, and everything grew in size around him.

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Wild: Jacqui the Cat Mysteries #4 coming soon! Blurb-in-progress-

Jacqui Corleone has finally met his fated mate (Newsflash: it’s Wyatt), but unlike a romance novel, reality has other plans. The dog men are back, and along with their slobber and bad manners they bring a new level of danger to Jacqui’s life, and to Wyatt’s.  Jacqui meets other cat shifters for the first time and is tantalized by a glimpse into their strange new world.  Only cats aren’t much nicer than dogs, and soon Jacqui must choose if he’s going to run again, or stand and fight against an enemy more powerful than he ever imagined. And that’s saying a lot.

 

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Guess What? I’m a Cat

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Hello and welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the blog hop where writers from a wide variety of genres share from their work in excerpts of ten sentences or less. I’m sharing from my upcoming release, Wild, Jacqui the Cat Mysteries #4. In case you didn’t guess from the title, Jacqui is a cat shifter. He’s in a relationship with a regular human, which is a new and dangerous thing for Jacqui. He’s trying to figure out how to keep both his love life and his secret in tact. Good luck, Jacqui.

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Jacqui picked up the trail of his clothing leading to the stairs—Wyatt had undressed him with particular enthusiasm that night—and carried the bundle to the utility room. He stowed the clothes in a cupboard and slid the window open a crack.

No problem, just a quick tour of the neighborhood and back in time for some hot man sex before Wyatt got up to go to work. This could work. They could work. No need to break Wyatt’s brain with the whole “Guess what, I’m a cat” thing.

He quietly closed the door and listened for sounds of a hunky man moving around upstairs. He heard nothing—nothing except the thud of his heart.

Admit it, you enjoy the thrill.

Maybe a little.

***

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Wild: Jacqui the Cat Mysteries #4 coming soon! Blurb-in-progress-

Jacqui Corleone has finally met his fated mate (Newsflash: it’s Wyatt), but unlike a romance novel, reality has other plans. The dog men are back, and along with their slobber and bad manners they bring a new level of danger to Jacqui’s life, and to Wyatt’s.  Jacqui meets other cat shifters for the first time and is tantalized by a glimpse into their strange new world.  Only cats aren’t much nicer than dogs, and soon Jacqui must choose if he’s going to run again, or stand and fight against an enemy more powerful than he ever imagined. And that’s saying a lot.

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ A True Confession

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Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the blog hop where writers from a wide variety of genres share from their work in excerpts of ten sentences or fewer.  It’s been raining a lot here lately. You’d think after three months of enforced solicitude, I’d be ready for summer, but there’s something about a seriously raining day that really nourishes my creative side and allows me to sit and write all day without a twinge of guilt. I’ve been getting so much done. Wild is done, after way too long, and I’m just waiting for the final edits before I can publish.

I’m continuing to share from Wild today. This is from the opening scene, and Jacqui is trying to figure out how to live an ordinary life with his non-shifter boyfriend, Wyatt.  Of course, Jacqui and ordinary don’t mix, so his plans are surely doomed to failure.  (Note: Satan is what Wyatt calls Jacqui in his cat form)

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Shifting on Wyatt’s patio was stupid to contemplate, but, if he was very careful, there was probably nothing to worry about. Wyatt would inevitably figure out Satan had returned—that was a given—and if Jacqui had to fall back on his nude sleeping walking excuse, well, Wyatt already knew he was weird and loved him anyway.

Jacqui’s heart cramped and sweat beaded his skin in spite of the chill in the air. Wyatt loved him. Had said so out loud in front of Cat. A true confession. Jacqui wasn’t sure what to make of this, other than it made him purr and flick his inner tail at the same time.

“A quickie,” he said, and returned to the cozy confines of the apartment. He had to be smart about this stupid thing he was about to do. He really didn’t want to shift out on the patio and Wyatt would be pissed if he got up and found the door standing open, so Jacqui cruised around for an alternative exit.

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Wild: Jacqui the Cat Mysteries #4 coming soon! Blurb-in-progress-

Jacqui Corleone has finally met his fated mate (Newsflash: it’s Wyatt), but unlike a romance novel, reality has other plans. The dog men are back, and along with their slobber and bad manners they bring a new level of danger to Jacqui’s life, and to Wyatt’s.  Jacqui meets other cat shifters for the first time and is tantalized by a glimpse into their strange new world.  Only cats aren’t much nicer than dogs, and soon Jacqui must choose if he’s going to run again, or stand and fight against an enemy more powerful than he ever imagined. And that’s saying a lot.

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ A Quickie

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Hello and welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the blog hop where writers from a wide range of genres share from their work in excerpts of ten sentences or less.

I’m sharing from Wild, Jacqui the Cat Mysteries #4. Jacqui, a cat shifter in a world that doesn’t believe in them, is trying to figure out how to make life in the ordinary world, with an ordinary boyfriend, work.

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Jacqui lifted one bare foot from the cold concrete patio and wriggled his toes, then the other. With September came the chill northern winds whipping down the Salish Sea, bringing in salty air from the harbor and a smoky smell of wood stoves burning all across the island.

Must shift.

Jacqui was excruciatingly careful about when and where and for how long he turned into Cat these days. He never appeared in daylight and kept to himself. Wyatt, in his well-meaning way, had attempted to relocate Cat, or Satan, as Wyatt called him, to the “wilds” of San Juan Island’s southern shore area. Jacqui had found his way home in a day or two, but hadn’t let Wyatt, or anyone else, see him in his feline form since. The villagers were out to get him, to cage him and maybe even put him down, just because he was half caracal and therefore a threat to the local ecology, or some such nonsense.

We’ll make it a quickie. Shift, explore the hood, check out the new cat, and be safely tucked under the covers before Wyatt notices we were gone.

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Wild: Jacqui the Cat Mysteries #4 coming soon! Blurb-in-progress-

Jacqui Corleone has finally met his fated mate (Newsflash: it’s Wyatt), but unlike a romance novel, reality has other plans. The dog men are back, and along with their slobber and bad manners they bring new danger to Jacqui’s life, and to Wyatt’s.  Jacqui meets other cat shifters for the first time and is tantalized by a glimpse into their strange new world.  Only cats aren’t much nicer than dogs, and soon Jacqui must choose if he’s going to run again, or stand and fight against an enemy more powerful than he ever imagined. And that’s saying a lot.

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Predator

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Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the blog hop where writers from a wide variety of genres share from their work in excerpts of ten sentences or less.  I missed last week due to an urgent need to not sit at the computer for a while. No, I didn’t go out and party on a crowded beach. I stayed home and worked in my yard/jungle, making it slightly more habitable for humans. I’m assuming someday I’ll be able to have friends over to the patio/oasis to enjoy adult beverages and re-learn how to socialize.  Until then, I loft a glass of wine to you in a toast to sanity and safety.

On to the snippet: I’m sharing from my soon to be released cat shifter romance, Wild, #4 in the Jacqui the Cat Mysteries series. In this opening scene, Jacqui is ruminating on the hardships of being a cat shifter in a world that doesn’t know they exist, and worrying about the villains he encountered in book #3, Roam (might be a little spoilery if you haven’t read Roam and intend to).

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And then there were the dreams. The Dog Men dreams in which he relived the horror of being trapped in a cage and watching the evil vet, Casey Vandel, shift from dog to man. Why oh why did the first shifter he met have to be a husky? And not only a husky, but a husky who was running some sort of dog fighting ring in the rural woodlands of San Juan?

After he fought his way out of the dreams, the night terrors took hold and the impossibility of his situation stabbed at him with sharp-edged persistence. The urge to leap out of bed and shift became nearly unbearable.

Shifting was a survival mechanism. As Cat, Jacqui had claws. He could climb trees in a few bounds. He was quick, lithe and one fierce, kick-ass little predator.

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Roam is the book in which Jacqui encounters the Dog Men, who are not nice to him at all. Just click on the cover to go to the Amazon info page.

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Wild: Jacqui the Cat Mysteries #4 coming soon! Blurb-in-progress-

Jacqui Corleone has finally met his fated mate (Newsflash: it’s Wyatt), but unlike a romance novel, reality has other plans. The dog men are back, and along with their slobber and bad manners they bring new danger to Jacqui’s life, and to Wyatt’s.  Jacqui meets other cat shifters for the first time and is tantalized by a glimpse into their strange new world.  Only cats aren’t much nicer than dogs, and soon Jacqui must choose if he’s going to run again, or stand and fight against an enemy more powerful than he ever imagined. And that’s saying a lot.