Tag Archives: Jacqui the Cat

Weekend Writing Warriors~ Ordinary

by

9

Greetings 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 fewer, with maybe a bit more to round out the scene.

My last excerpt ended on a downer note. Jacqui found out from Reggie that cat shifters don’t tolerate cross-breeds and kill them at birth. Jacqui, being part Caracal, part-domestic, is in mortal danger. Plus, his people are jerks. I’ve skipped ahead a bit to get Jacqui back to his usual brand of crazy trouble. I might share one more scene from Wild before I switch to my next release, coming soon!

***

Overcome with emotion, Reggie opened his arms wide and lurched toward Jacqui, declaring, “I’m so glad we met!”

Jacqui braced himself and accepted the hug. He expected to be squeezed and throttled, but Reggie folded around him gently and rested his chin on Jacqui’s shoulder. He was about three inches taller, and gangly like a teenager, but hard, his arms quivering with repressed strength. 

Jacqui patted him politely on his bare back.

Reggie murmured in his ear, “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

Jacqui bristled and pushed him away.

“I thought you said you weren’t tracking me.”

“I wasn’t!” Reggie rolled his eyes.

That’s ten. Here’s a bit more to get us to Jacqui’s next challenge.

“I meant, in theory. I was looking for someone like you.”

“Oh.” Jacqui continued to scrutinize him with suspicion.

What the hell is going on here? What does this nude cat man want from us?

Footsteps on the stairs outside forestalled this line of questioning. The footsteps ended, followed by a knock. A certain rat-a-tat-tat.

Wyatt!

Jacqui hiss-whispered, “It’s Wyatt! Hide.”

Reggie smirked and said loudly, “What? You let your ord boss you around?”

“‘Ord’?” Jacqui asked before he could stop himself.

“Ordinary. Guess you’ve been out of touch for a long time, huh? Do you want me to shift? Be your new pet?”

“Yes. No. Wait. Stop.” He knew Wyatt would have heard Reggie’s voice, if not the words. He seized a bolt of fabric from his worktable, unwound it, and threw it over Reggie’s shoulder, then wrapped it around him like a toga. “You’re a client. Shut up and behave or I’ll claw your scrawny ass to ribbons.”

***

***

Wild: Jacqui the Cat Mysteries #4 ~ Available Now!

Cat Shifter Jacqui Corleone has finally met his fated mate, but unlike in a romance novel, reality has other plans. For one thing, Wyatt doesn’t know Jacqui is a shifter. For another thing, the dog men are back, and along with their slobber and their bad breath they bring a new level of danger to Jacqui’s life, and to Wyatt’s. When Jacqui meets other cat shifters for the first time, he’s tantalized by a glimpse into their strange new world, but cats aren’t much nicer than dogs, and soon Jacqui must decide if he’s going to run again, or stand and fight against an enemy more powerful than he ever imagined.

Click Here to buy on Amazon.

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Crashing

by

9

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

Last week, Jacqui found out something terrible about cat shifters. They don’t tolerate crossbreeds, and put them down at birth. Jacqui is half caracal, half domestic, so here he is, dealing with the fallout of that information:

***

Like a crashing line of dominoes, several monumental thoughts hit him—one by one.

One—his mother had abandoned him for good reason. He was a reject. He should have been put down. She’d left him with regular humans to save his life, and maybe hers. So risky a choice, and yet so necessary. He’d always believed she cared about him, wanted him to survive, because her last words to him, seared deep into the marrow of his subconscious, were, “Never let them see you shift.” Now he could see why, if she really had cared about him, she would’ve dumped him on the stoop of a church.

But then, Domino Number Two hit; a thought that had never occurred to him. His tribe didn’t want him.

That’s ten, but I’ve finished out the rest of Jacqui’s thoughts below:

Or more accurately, he didn’t have a tribe. He’d always imagined that when he found his people, they would welcome him back with loving arms, rejoice in his homecoming as if he were a lost prince, or at least a lost brother, or second cousin.

But there would be no welcome. No homecoming. They hated him. Wanted him dead.

Domino Number Three—there were a lot of cat people out there somewhere, and they weren’t nice.

***

***

Wild: Jacqui the Cat Mysteries #4 ~ Available Now!

Cat Shifter Jacqui Corleone has finally met his fated mate, but unlike in a romance novel, reality has other plans. For one thing, Wyatt doesn’t know Jacqui is a shifter. For another thing, the dog men are back, and along with their slobber and their bad breath they bring a new level of danger to Jacqui’s life, and to Wyatt’s. When Jacqui meets other cat shifters for the first time, he’s tantalized by a glimpse into their strange new world, but cats aren’t much nicer than dogs, and soon Jacqui must decide if he’s going to run again, or stand and fight against an enemy more powerful than he ever imagined.

Click Here to buy on Amazon.

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ You Ain’t Them

by

11

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 fewer. However we now have a new rule which lets us add a bit more to round out the post, so I’m abusing that privilege today! I’m going to start sharing from my upcoming release soon, so only a few more Jacqui excerpts to go.

I’ve skipped ahead from last week, because I want to get a big revelation that affects everything that happens next. Jacqui is grilling Reggie about where he came from. Reggie speaks first.

***

“The head of my clowder is a total asshole, so I split. I ran. Been running ever since. New York, Munich, Casablanca. There are more wild domestics than you’d think. They treat us the worst, I guess. Say, what breed are you, anyway?”

Jacqui had prepared for this question all his life.

“I’m a caracal. A wild African—”

*That’s ten, but I wanted to finish out this part of the conversation, in which Jacqui learns something disturbing about “his people”.

“No, you’re not. I met some caracals when I was in Morocco and you ain’t them. They’re bigger and their ear tufts are longer. I thought I knew all the tribes but you look kind of like, uh…holy shit.” Reggie blanched and his buggy eyes got wider. Even though they were alone, he dropped his voice to a whisper and asked, “You’re a mixed breed, aren’t you?”

At a loss, Jacqui glared at him.

Yeah. Probably. Maybe. So what?

“Got a problem with that, Reggie?”

“Me? No! Not at all. It’s just that, uh, they usually kill mutts—I mean—mixed breeds, at birth, so I’ve never met one.” His big eyes shifted around nervously. Clearly he regretted bringing it up, giving Jacqui the chance to have another internal mental meltdown.

Kill at birth. Reject. Outsider. Loner. Mutt.

We’re still alone.

Everything he didn’t want to be. Everything he thought would end when he met “his people”.

***

***

PS To those also frustrated by WordPress’ new block editor, I discovered that if you start a post, save it and go out, you then have the option to edit with “Classic Editor”, which gets you back to the format to which we are accustomed! The only draw back is that every time you press save a message box pops up to ask if you’re sure you want to use classic. Worth it if you’re tired of struggling with the new format.

***

I’m doing the book tour thing, featuring the entire Jacqui the Cat Mysteries line up. You can click here to read up on all the books and enter a giveaway for an Amazon gift card!

***

Wild: Jacqui the Cat Mysteries #4 ~ Available Now!

Cat Shifter Jacqui Corleone has finally met his fated mate, but unlike in a romance novel, reality has other plans. For one thing, Wyatt doesn’t know Jacqui is a shifter. For another thing, the dog men are back, and along with their slobber and their bad breath they bring a new level of danger to Jacqui’s life, and to Wyatt’s. When Jacqui meets other cat shifters for the first time, he’s tantalized by a glimpse into their strange new world, but cats aren’t much nicer than dogs, and soon Jacqui must decide if he’s going to run again, or stand and fight against an enemy more powerful than he ever imagined.

Click Here to buy on Amazon.

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Welcome Home, Jacqui

by

9

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.

First, I have to take a moment to complain. Why oh why do software and tech companies have to constantly meddle and mix things up? WordPress just changed it’s whole post editing look, and I haaaaaaate it. I don’t know where anything is. When it comes to programs like this, I hate change, especially because I know as soon as I get used to it, they’ll change it again. Grumble grumble grumble.

Speaking of change, Jacqui is facing a big one. As a cat shifter, he’s been alone his entire life, abandoned as a toddler to live with regular humans, always hiding his true nature, always the odd cat out. All of that is about to change. You can read last week’s snippet here. I’ve jumped ahead a bit.

***

Jacqui’s head hurt and his heart thumped against his ribs. 

We’re not alone anymore.

He’d always imagined that this moment, this first meeting with his kind, would be all purrs and love nips and pats on the back. Sleekly attractive men and women in exquisite clothing would all say, “Welcome home, Jacqui.”

Instead it was snarly and weird and—

He forced himself to put the scissors down and think.

Mustn’t let him see our ignorance. Find out as much as we can. Don’t trust him just because he’s a cat.

“Are you alone?” Jacqui asked.

***

Snarly and weird…and adorable!
  • And an update. This post was late going up because there’s a new, last step before publication to confirm everything’s okay that I wasn’t aware of. Aaaaargh!

***

I’m doing the book tour thing, featuring the entire Jacqui the Cat Mysteries line up. You can click here to read up on all the books and enter a giveaway for an Amazon gift card!

Wild: Jacqui the Cat Mysteries #4 ~ Available Now!

Cat Shifter Jacqui Corleone has finally met his fated mate, but unlike in a romance novel, reality has other plans. For one thing, Wyatt doesn’t know Jacqui is a shifter. For another thing, the dog men are back, and along with their slobber and their bad breath they bring a new level of danger to Jacqui’s life, and to Wyatt’s. When Jacqui meets other cat shifters for the first time, he’s tantalized by a glimpse into their strange new world, but cats aren’t much nicer than dogs, and soon Jacqui must decide if he’s going to run again, or stand and fight against an enemy more powerful than he ever imagined.

Click Here to buy on Amazon.

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Jacqui’s People

by

10

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 fewer.

I don’t know about you guys, but I could use some light-hearted fiction to take my mind off things. All the things.  That’s one reason I love Jacqui. He always makes me smile and laugh at my own jokes.  I hope he makes you smile too.

In this scene from Wild: Jacqui the Cat Mysteries #4, Jacqui isn’t feeling too light-hearted. He’s discovered an intruder in his apartment, and is about to have his world up-ended.  You can read last week’s snippet here, if you like.

***

“Reggie. We met last night.” The grin became stiff and the man’s nervousness seeped through his initial bravado. Man-boy. Young. Early twenties. Lanky but muscular. Big, almost buggy brown eyes. A close-cut, amateurish hair cut that might have been self-inflicted with garden shears. Toothy smile.

That’s ten. A lot of short sentences there so I’ll finish out the moment:

Cute as all get out. Rough boy manner. Rough like that mangy stray—

Cat!

Jacqui couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Couldn’t stop clutching the scissors like a mad man.

“You okay, dude?” the man asked.

Cat man. Cat shifter. One of his people. Jacqui’s people. Here in the flesh. All the flesh.

Nude cat shifter man in my place!

***

 

***

 

I’m doing the book tour thing, featuring the entire Jacqui the Cat Mysteries line up. You can click here to read up on all the books and enter a giveaway for an Amazon gift card!

Wild: Jacqui the Cat Mysteries #4 ~ Available Now!

Cat Shifter Jacqui Corleone has finally met his fated mate, but unlike in a romance novel, reality has other plans. For one thing, Wyatt doesn’t know Jacqui is a shifter. For another thing, the dog men are back, and along with their slobber and their bad breath they bring a new level of danger to Jacqui’s life, and to Wyatt’s. When Jacqui meets other cat shifters for the first time, he’s tantalized by a glimpse into their strange new world, but cats aren’t much nicer than dogs, and soon Jacqui must decide if he’s going to run again, or stand and fight against an enemy more powerful than he ever imagined.

Click Here to buy on Amazon.

 

 

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Snarl

by

9

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 fewer.

Hallelujah! The rains have come (to Oregon) and the air quality has gone from hazardous to moderate. In the night the air is good, and I can’t tell you what a relief it is to be able to open the doors and windows and breathe. Being a writer and a hermit, I’ve always loved the rain, but now it feels like an extra special blessing.

Unfortunately, our friend Jacqui is not feeling the love.  On the contrary, his world is about to be upended.  He thought the stray cat he’d met the night before had snuck into his place, but who is this intruder, really? I’m sharing from the first chapter of my new release, Wild: Jacqui the Cat Mysteries #4.

***

Every muscle tightened, and the air rippled slightly as his body prepared to shift once again. To flee or fight as required. He forced himself to keep his shape, and seized up a pair of scissors from the workbench.

The bathroom door opened and a man stepped out.

A nude, grinning man. “Hello,” he said. “Hope you don’t mind that I used your shower.”

Prepared only to snarl, Jacqui managed to choke out, “Mind? Of course I mind. Who the hell are you?”

***

***

I’m doing the book tour thing, featuring the entire Jacqui the Cat Mysteries line up. You can click here to read up on all the books and enter a giveaway for an Amazon gift card!

Wild: Jacqui the Cat Mysteries #4 ~ Available Now!

Cat Shifter Jacqui Corleone has finally met his fated mate, but unlike in a romance novel, reality has other plans. For one thing, Wyatt doesn’t know Jacqui is a shifter. For another thing, the dog men are back, and along with their slobber and their bad breath they bring a new level of danger to Jacqui’s life, and to Wyatt’s. When Jacqui meets other cat shifters for the first time, he’s tantalized by a glimpse into their strange new world, but cats aren’t much nicer than dogs, and soon Jacqui must decide if he’s going to run again, or stand and fight against an enemy more powerful than he ever imagined.

Click Here to buy on Amazon.