Another horrendous week at work has all but killed my creativity or even my ability to properly promote this upcoming novella.

So have a little more of Modified and Sacred. You met Addison last week. This week meet Deveral who is a Fryian, a humanoid race. Deveral is the titular Sacred, having abilities his people once believed was a spark of the divine. He’s a rather sheltered fellow, living within the confines of the temple system because of his abilities.

Reaching the shrine, Deveral knelt before the roughly carved statues of the Goddess and her Consort. Most of the altar had been carved from the calcite flowstone walls which had continued to grow after the work was done—curtains of white and rust stone rippling down to meet the floor—swallowing up almost all the details but the statues themselves.

He reached up, touching their legs. While their features weren’t as fine as the more modern statues descended from these earliest ones, the smooth, slick marble cooled his fingers as he caressed the Goddess’s face. He prayed silently for the success of his mission, for his people and those he was going to help, for peace. Deveral’s knees ached as he unfurled from the floor, the cold water soothing them as he trekked back.

Blurb

Lieutenant Addison Hunt is proud to serve the Confederation even if he still feels like he’s on the outside looking in. Addison was illegally genetically modified as a child, leaving him burdened with a sense of shame. Emotionally isolated from his fellow crewmen and recovering from injuries from his last job, Addison is happy to have light duty transporting an esteemed diplomat to a peace conference.

Deveral is one of the Sacred Kin, possessing a psychic ability that his people consider a spark of the divine. Like all the Sacred Kin, he’s led a sheltered life as a temple priest, but his heightened empathic ability makes him the perfect diplomat. Nervous to leave his home, he’s curious about his new companion, Lieutenant Hunt.

Not everyone wants the diplomatic mission to succeed, and a rebel faction poses a real threat to Addison and Deveral. Finding themselves cast adrift on a “lost” colony, they’ll have to fight to stay alive.

Pre-order link Here at Ninestar Press

If you’d like to play along, Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook community where we post up 6 sentences of one of our LGBT stories every Saturday. It’s been fun and you can find it here. Be sure to check out all the offers! It’s been a great supportive group!

Finally catching up. It’s been a week of stress and exhaustion, so much so even on a day where I was feeling fine, I walked into my local writers group and they all thought I was sick. Yikes. I do have good news. I’ve been selected as the Welsh fellow from my university and I’ll be going back to Wales to do research.

And my SF novella Modified and Sacred is now up for pre-order so I’ll be snippeting from there and return to These Haunted Hills later. As a brief introduction to the snippet, Addison was illegally modified to be underwater slave labor and was rescued by Captain Valdis and her sister. He know serves on her ship as an officer (Your typical Starfleet-esque space opera set up) and he’s been given his assignment, to guard and deliver the ambassador, Deveral, to a conference and Deveral is considered sacred by his people (hence the title, also I fear I’ll never get back down to six sentences with the way I’m going).

“An uncomplicated escort mission would be a nice change of pace. Besides—” He grinned impertinently at his captain, breaking his own self-edict of being emotionally controlled. “—how often will I get to talk to a living god?”

Addison offered her a flat smile, recognizing the subtle reprimand hidden in those humorous words. He’d spent too many hard years outside the military. He hadn’t been broken to their respectful ways, not entirely. That was why he fought to improve his on-duty demeanor. “I’ll behave.”

Blurb

Lieutenant Addison Hunt is proud to serve the Confederation even if he still feels like he’s on the outside looking in. Addison was illegally genetically modified as a child, leaving him burdened with a sense of shame. Emotionally isolated from his fellow crewmen and recovering from injuries from his last job, Addison is happy to have light duty transporting an esteemed diplomat to a peace conference.

Deveral is one of the Sacred Kin, possessing a psychic ability that his people consider a spark of the divine. Like all the Sacred Kin, he’s led a sheltered life as a temple priest, but his heightened empathic ability makes him the perfect diplomat. Nervous to leave his home, he’s curious about his new companion, Lieutenant Hunt.

Not everyone wants the diplomatic mission to succeed, and a rebel faction poses a real threat to Addison and Deveral. Finding themselves cast adrift on a “lost” colony, they’ll have to fight to stay alive.

Pre-order link Here at Ninestar Press

If you’d like to play along, Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook community where we post up 6 sentences of one of our LGBT stories every Saturday. It’s been fun and you can find it here. Be sure to check out all the offers! It’s been a great supportive group!

I’m getting closer to the release date for my new novella but I’m waiting until the pre-order links and all that jazz are ready before snippeting it. I just got back from the Out of Darkness Suicide Prevention walk which was a nice experience (though it was a mile walk around campus, something I usually go to lengths to avoid).

I’ve jumped a little here in These Haunted Hills. It’s been awhile since we’ve seen Cassia. She’s Josh’s best friend and fellow steampunker/ghost hunter. I picked this one because it shows Josh’s growing feelings.

“You have a strange look in your eye,” Cassia said, hip bumping him.

“It’s been known to happen.”

If you’d like to play along, Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook community where we post up 6 sentences of one of our LGBT stories every Saturday. It’s been fun and you can find it here. Be sure to check out all the offers! It’s been a great supportive group!

Exhausted. Drove across the state (on the skinny end so it wasn’t so bad) to the Steampunk Symposium. Tomorrow I’ll be doing my first author panel appearances. Wish me luck.

I’m hoping to have great fun (In spite of a late start tonight was good). I’ll be snippeting from These Haunted Hills again. I skipped a little. They’re now back at the cabin after putting out the cameras.

By the way I owe you thanks.”

“It’s appreciated more than you know.”

If you’d like to play along, Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook community where we post up 6 sentences of one of our LGBT stories every Saturday. It’s been fun and you can find it here. Be sure to check out all the offers! It’s been a great supportive group!

Sorry, I’m a little behind on last week’s reading between a writing deadline, prepping for the author’s panel next weekend and with my blood sugar being way out of control. I’ll try to catch up.

Picking right up with where last week left off in These Haunted Hills. Josh and Brendan are in the woods putting up cameras so Josh can monitor fox activity.

Josh told him the various odds and sods he needed to get the camera mounted. Joshua was every bit as enticing as he swung back out of the tree as he’d been going up. He clapped a hand on Brendan’s shoulder.

They left the woods with Josh babbling happily about all the data he hoped to collect. By the time they broke out into open sky it had been painted in roses, purples and gold. A few stars had begun to pop up.

If you’d like to play along, Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook community where we post up 6 sentences of one of our LGBT stories every Saturday. It’s been fun and you can find it here. Be sure to check out all the offers! It’s been a great supportive group!