HAPPY 4th of JULY!!! NEWS and ANNOUNCEMENTS

Hey all!!

I was recently interviewed by the wonderful Mimi Tremont of IMRR for the imrrbookclub.com's website. I really had a good time and we laughed a lot. Check it out when you get a chance.

Also, I'm busily polishing the ending of my current novel, SWORN. It's a past lives story with an other worldly edge. I'm thinking it will be released in the next couple of months. I've posted an excerpt below. Enjoy!

.....excert from SWORN

As quickly as the storm began, it ended. The cacophony died down until only uneasy quiet remained. Dim waves of light streamed inside creating more shadows than not. After a moment, Asia pushed back the tangled mess that was her hair and stood.

“Good lord,” she breathed, surveying the damage.

To her right, a wall had been punctured in multiple places by pens and pencils that now formed an odd sort of design in the drywall. A stapler half hung out of the wall near the office door. Hail and bits of glass covered the floor in a sea of glimmering white. She shivered, knowing how lucky none of it had hit her.

Absently smoothing her hands down her skirt, she stepped over broken coffee mugs, ruined paperwork, and scattered rolodex cards.

A flickering light caught her eye and Asia crossed the room toward it. What she found was a crystalline chunk of hail, nearly twice the size of her fist, glowing from where it lay wedged under a desk. Mesmerized, she knelt and extended a hand to touch it.

The chunk moved and she snatched her hand back, body tensing. She swallowed, shook herself. “It didn’t move.” Almost defiantly she touched the spiky object. It was cold, very cold yet oddly pliable and definitely not hail. So what was it? She’d put both hands around the object to dislodge it from under the desk, when light blazed from within and it began to grow and elongate. It doubled then tripled in size, taking shape. The desk tilted backward precariously, unable to contain it.

Asia watched the thing grow a moment then scrambled to her feet and began backing away. She’d seen enough sci-fi to know when it was time run. She bolted. The office door slammed shut and locked the instant she reached it, causing her to crash bodily into it. Hot panic closed her throat, making it impossible for her to even scream.

She clutched the door handle jiggling it frantically. It wouldn’t budge. “Open, damn you!” She pounded her fists on the heavy wood, threw her body against it, pounded some more. “Shit!” She chanced a glance over her shoulder but could no longer see the thing pulsing on the floor. Eyes darting around the room she flattened her spine against the solid paneling and used the heel of her shoe to kick it as hard as she could. When nothing leaped out at her from the shadows, she turned back to the door and yanked on the handle again.

A tremendous crash and a brilliant flash of white sent her heart catapulting to the back of her throat.

“Kai-let turat na, idy-ya dae.”

Asia froze, breathing in tiny hitches as icy tendrils of fear skittered down her spine. Too frightened to look, too frightened not to, she stopped thinking and spun around.

She screamed.           

                                                                              Chapter 3

A man, tall and heavily muscled, stood at the edge of the shadows sliding loose fitting linen pants up and over his bare hips. He pulled the strings taut, tied them then lowered his hands to his sides at her scream. He went motionless, regarding her from behind a thick fall of white/blonde hair that fell to his chest. He wasn’t pale, yet his skin contrasted sharply with the black scroll tattoo etched into the right side of his neck.

The way the man stood there just staring at her, frightened Asia far more than the way he’d…formed out of an inanimate chunk of ice and light. Not human. Not human. The words echoed in her mind like a mantra. She told herself it wasn’t possible, that there was a perfectly logical explanation for what she’d just witnessed.

Everything about this defies logic and you know it. What happened, happened. Now figure out a way out of here.

As if completely unaware he’d scared the life out of her, the man padded barefoot around the room. He crouched and began lifting items from among the hail. A shirt resembling black netting. A dark knit hat. A pouch. Eyes on the ground, he went to the over turned desk and knelt. Pressing a fist against the floor, he lifted an end of the heavy oak desk with the other hand and scanned underneath it. Reaching in, he pulled out a pair of black boots.

Momentarily forgetting her fear, Asia became riveted by the rippling expanse of muscle in his broad back. The bunching and releasing of definition in his shoulders with the weight of the desk. He maneuvered and the fabric of his pants conformed to his heavy, sculpted thighs. Several inches higher the cloth molded to his incredibly tight...

 Flushing, she looked away. Had she lost her mind? Why the hell was she checking him out instead of trying to get out?

The man was huge, powerful in a way that, depending on his intentions, could either appeal to a woman or crush the life out of her and here she was gawking at him? Good grief, he wasn’t even human, just something that sort of…morphed like out of a sci-fi movie. She should be grabbing anything heavy within reach to use to defend herself.

Maybe, if she could get to the window, break the rest of the glass out and escape before the man could--No way. He’d have his hand clamped around her windpipe before she made it three steps and then what? Asia didn’t want to think about ‘then what’. Still, something about standing around waiting to be a victim didn’t sit well with her. “What are…I mean, who…are you?” she demanded.

The man stood to face her, black shirt hanging limply from a clenched fist. Lord, she wished she hadn’t said anything. His hair still partially concealed his face making him look downright menacing. Now that his attention was again on her, Asia felt her small bit of courage desert her.

I hope you've enjoyed this excerpt of SWORN.  It's due to be released in the next couple of months so keep an eye out for it.

Well, it's back to writing for me!  Have a very Happy 4th of July!