Weekend Writing Warriors #40

December 14, 2014 by Alexis Duran

Greetings and welcome to another edition of Weekend Writing Warriors. I hope your holiday season has been peaceful and productive so far.

This week I’m going to continue with my little Paranormal Mystery, which I’m temporarily calling Phoenix Night Stalker, though that won’t be the title because I loved the original Night Stalker with Darren McGavin and wouldn’t dream of ripping it off (unless I thought no one would notice).

So here we are with Detective Sergeant Lucas Fortier and his partner Sandra Teasdale at the scene of a murder. I’m skipping ahead to hit juicy plot points. Lucas is questioning the officer on the scene, Red Oxford.

***

“What can you tell us?” Lucas asked.

“Not much. Neighbors heard nothing unusual.”

“Who found him?”

“You’re going to love this – a reporter for The Cosmic Eye.”

Lucas groaned inwardly. Sandra said, “That crappy tabloid that reports Bigfoot sightings and haunted burial grounds?”

“The very,” Red said.

***

This post is part of an ongoing blog hop hosted by Weekend Writing Warriors. Every Sunday, participating authors post eight sentences from a published work or perhaps 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 use the address: http://www.wewriwa.com

Weekend Writing Warriors #38

November 30, 2014 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the blog hop that has it all. Much like a Thanksgiving smorgasbord, here you can sample romance, science fiction, mystery, YA, fantasy, sweet potatoes- you name it, we’ve probably got it. If not this week, then next week or the next.

This week I’m overindulging on mystery. My NaNoWriMo scheme to write on several stories has floundered on the shores of reality, but it’s a good reality. I received an acceptance and revision suggestions which swept aside my vision of a purely playful November. Details coming soon.

So today we continue with Detectives Lucas Fortier and his partner Sandra Teasdale still discussing the wreck of his love life as they approach the crime scene.

***

“I never liked him,” Sandra said.

“You told me to marry him before he got away.”

“That had nothing to do with him, everything to do with me. You’re such a grouch when you’re not getting laid regular.”

“Better get used to having a grouch for a partner for a long, long time,” Luke said. Gloom settled over him- dating wasn’t on his to-do list either.

Officer Red Oxford greeted them at apartment number 317. “Morning, detectives, fine day for a murder investigation, eh?”

***

Weekend Writing Warriors #37

November 23, 2014 by Alexis Duran

Hello warriors and web wanderers! In this week’s Weekend Writing Warriors snippet I’ve decided to stay put for a while and continue with my fledging mystery, set in Phoenix. Last week I introduced detectives Lucas Fortier and Sandra Teasdale as they approach a crime scene in the wee hours of a Sunday morning.

***

A rare rain had fallen and actual puddles lingered in the busted blacktop of the parking lot. Of course Luke stepped in one and felt the water wick up his socks.

“Rough night?” Sandy asked as they mounted the cement stairs that zigzagged up the front of the building to the third floor. They’d worked together long enough she recognized his silence as a sign of internal pain. He wasn’t much for sharing his personal life, but he knew Sandy would wheedle it out of him with persistent questioning, so he decided to get it over with and hope the case would prove interesting enough to distract her.

“Alan moved out last night, after regaling me for several hours with a recitation of all my shortcomings as a partner, roommate and human being in general.”

“Ouch.”

When they reached the walkway fronting the apartments she reached up and patted his shoulder.

***

Weekend Writing Warriors #36

November 16, 2014 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to another edition of Weekend Writing Warriors! At the risk of appearing commitment-phobic, this month I’m sampling from various story starts, trying to decide which to get serious about next. Having completed and submitted my last WIP after much suffering and hair-pulling, I’m indulging in the writerly impulse to go play with whatever story is new and shiny. As far as getting things done, not a good plan. But it’s fun and I hope you have fun playing along.

This week I’m sampling from the opening of a contemporary fantasy/mystery set in Phoenix.

***

The apartment building should’ve been torn down about twenty years ago. A fire hazard, an eyesore and a den of iniquity all rolled into one architectural disaster, it teetered on the brink of collapse near the gritty western edge of downtown Phoenix. Detective Sergeant Lucas Fortier accepted a paper cup of coffee from his partner, Sandra Teasdale, with heartfelt gratitude. It had been one hell of a night and answering a homicide call at 4 AM had not been on his to-do list for Sunday morning.

“Barney Baker,” she said in response to his unasked question. “Ran a dubious real estate business, occasional bookie at the dog track, legendary alcoholic.”

“And we know it’s a homicide because . . . ?”

“Because of the bowie knife in his back.”

***

Weekend Writing Warriors #35

November 9, 2014 by Alexis Duran

Bon jour and welcome to another installment of Weekend Writing Warriors. It’s NaNoWriMo time and I’m happily jumping from project to project, testing the fictional waters to see what holds my interest. I’m currently working on a contemporary fantasy set in Seattle. My hero, Terrance Grant, is a fifth generation jeweler. His life is pretty routine, all work and no play, until a mysterious man blows into his shop and commissions him to build a most unusual piece. My eight today is from their initial meeting.

***

No social skills, smelly, uncommunicative, just my type. Terrance was already mocking himself over his initial reaction. When not locked in the man’s penetrating gaze, he could see the whole picture and it wasn’t pretty. Roark wore heavy, lace up army boots encrusted with mud. The mass of hair was tied back with frayed string. The dingy coat was coming loose at the seams beneath his arms.

Relieved to be over his momentary attack of misplaced lust, he slid into the chair between the desk and the wall. Roark’s bulk blocked out most of his view of the store, but Terrance could see his uncle Gunther fussily wiping the water droplets off the display cases and reaching for the mop to wipe up Roark’s trail. This comforted him – the ordinary world went on, even if a most unordinary man had taken over the center of it.

***

Official Blurb for my newest release, To Catch a Threeve ~

Now available!

Axel Blackwood catches a thief and is astounded to see that he closely resembles Liam Alloway, the love he lost seven years ago in an attack by the evil woodland folk known as threeves. Axel suspects he’s fallen prey to dark magic, but can’t help becoming infatuated with his prisoner. He’s overwhelmed with the hope that he can at last bring his lost lover home, despite everything that warns him it’s all a diabolical trick.

Bryn Darrow, the half-threeve, half human orphan sent to trick Axel and rob him of much more than a simple gem finds himself equally as fascinated with his handsome human captor and the lure of someplace to call home, but he knows deep down that the constable is in love with a dangerous illusion. When he’s commanded by the threeves to murder Axel and steal a witch’s powerful grimoire, he’s forced to decide between the only family he’s ever known and the one person who might rescue him from a life of isolation and pain.

Will Axel and Bryn be forced into a deadly confrontation before they can discover the truth?

Weekend Writing Warriors #34

November 2, 2014 by Alexis Duran

Happy November! It’s Weekend Writing Warriors time and it’s also the second day of NaNoWriMo, that month long event for crazy, masochistic writers like myself who just can’t get enough of making stuff up. This month I thought I’d ~~subject you to~~ share with you snippets from what’s falling out of my brain pan currently. I can’t decide what to work on so I’ll be testing the waters on several stories I started during the last year. Maybe at the end of the month I’ll conduct a survey to see which story gets the most votes. Today I’m sharing from a contemporary m/m romance about a tough guy gay reporter who discovers he’s the inspiration for a womanizing hero in a series of smutty romances. He’s not happy about having intimate details of his life show up in print, and is determined to track down the elusive author.

Here’s the opening 8:

The twist of Melanie’s lips told Aaron everything he needed to know. Add the sparkle in her eyes and the way she lightly fingered the skinny pink straw in her drink spelled nothing but doom. Instinct told him to leave her sitting there, go home, eat a tub of ice cream and forget all about the message she’d left on his phone.

Instead, because curiosity hadn’t killed him yet but it did pay the bills, he threw his satchel on one of the empty seats at her curbside table and sat down.

“So what’s the big joke?”

She batted her thick lashes at him. “Did I say there was a joke?”

“Well, all the laughing you were doing when you asked me to meet you indicated some sort of humorous development at my expense.”

***

Hey, it’s not too late to pop in on my To Catch a Threeve book blast and enter the giveaway for a $10 Loose Id gift certificate, which you can use to buy two and half copies of my book! or whatever suits your fancy, I guess. Click on this link to Pride Promotions to find the list of participants and the rafflecopter entry form thingy.

***

Official Blurb for To Catch a Threeve ~

Now available!

Will Axel and Bryn be forced into a deadly confrontation before they can discover the truth?