Weekend Writing Warriors ~ A True Confession

June 13, 2020 by Alexis Duran

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)

***

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.

***

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

June 6, 2020 by Alexis Duran

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.

***

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.

***

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

May 30, 2020 by Alexis Duran

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).

***

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.

***

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.

***

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 ~ Cat in a Man’s World

May 16, 2020 by Alexis Duran

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’ve been sharing from my soon-to-be-released shifter romance/mystery, Wild, Jacqui the Cat Book #4. Jacqui, a cat shifter, has naturally been a solitary creature for most of his life, but recently, he’s found himself entangled with an ordinary human, to the point of bandying about the “L” word. This both entices and freaks him out. In this opening scene, he’s wondering if he should give in, or run away. You can read last week’s snippet here, if so inclined.

****

One of the problems with having a boyfriend—and there were many—was that fleeing the warm and snuggly bed at night to go roam the streets as a cat was awkward behavior to explain away. Jacqui tended to make excuses to go home, insisting he slept better in his own bed, that he needed to get up very early and work, that sometimes he lashed out and clawed his partners as he slept, which was true.

Wyatt pouted and accused him of being snuggle-phobic.

Jacqui wanted to stay the night. He really did, and sometimes he managed it. He loved spooning with Wyatt and being disgustingly kissy-face with him, but too much love and tenderness did something to him, triggered a panic attack, made him want to turn on Wyatt and bite him all over.

Snuggle-phobic.

No, not snuggle-phobic . . . sensible, I have sensible trust issues. Shifter issues. Cat in a man’s world issues.

****

Wild: Jacqui the Cat Mysteries #4 Coming in June! 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 ~ New Cat in the Hood

May 9, 2020 by Alexis Duran

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 continuing to share from the opening chapter of my soon-to-be-released romantic gay shifter mystery, Wild: Jacqui the Cat Book #4. I’m hoping I can unleash Jacqui on the world while we’re all still stuck at home, so I have a captive audience and all, but we’ll see what life brings. Life is so strange right now, almost as strange as Jacqui’s. As a shifter in a human world, he’s struggled to adapt. Just as he’s found a niche for himself, things change once again. You can read last week’s snippet here. (PS- the other voice in his head is his inner cat, cleverly known as Cat)

****

You love Wyatt.

I do not!

He tilted his head back and sniffed the air. Slight hint of ocean; the lingering burnt charcoal fumes from someone’s barbeque; possums and cats on the prowl, musky and feral.

He didn’t even know what love was, to be honest. He’d never been afflicted with the ailment before. Not since his teenage days anyway, and everyone knew what a hormone-induced hallucinatory rollercoaster ride that kind of love was. He forced his thoughts away from looming emotional insanity and analyzed the tangy scents teasing his nostrils.

New cat in the hood. We should check that out.

****

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 their drool they bring a new level of danger to Jacqui’s life, and to Wyatt’s, as 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 ~ Come and Get Me

April 25, 2020 by Alexis Duran

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.

Today I’m shifting gears (and centuries, and continents, and genres) to begin sharing from Wild, Jacqui the Cat Mysteries #4. Don’t ask me why this took so long. Sometime about a year ago I went completely off the rails, writing-wise, and so Wild had been much delayed. But now, I’m oh-so-close! Besides, it morphed from a novella into a novel! That’s a good thing, right? Today’s snippet is from the opening of the book, which I shared once before but that was like a hundred thousand snippets ago, so hopefully no one minds.

***

The Dog Men Cometh.

Of that, Jacqui had no doubt. They would come with their fangs, their drool and their fleas, armed with tranquilizer guns and iron cat traps. The only question was when.

Jacqui slid open the door to Wyatt’s back patio and stepped out, shivering as the cool night air hit his bare skin. He pulled the quilt he’d snagged from the foot of the bed tighter around his shoulders. 3:37 a.m. and he couldn’t sleep—hadn’t been able to sleep since his encounter with the dog men—didn’t wantto sleep. Sleep meant nightmares and vulnerability and an unleashed subconscious that filled every dark corner with snarling canines.

He wanted to shift and prowl the moon-drenched streets of Friday Harbor. He wanted to scour every yard for enemies, dig in gardens for buried threats, howl at the top of his lungs—Come and get me, Dogs.

***

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

Jacqui Corleone has finally met his fated mate (Wyatt, in case you hadn’t figure it out yet), but unlike a romance novel, reality has other plans. The dog men are back, and along with their slobber and their drool they bring a new level of danger to Jacqui’s life, and to Wyatt’s, as 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.