Thursday, September 25, 2014

Through the Veil is AVAILABLE NOW!

It's RELEASE DAY

for

THROUGH THE VEIL

 

My paranormal dystopian romantic suspense novel. 

 

This book starts an 8-book series in this all new world made up of two societies...the ES, where government and technology rules; and the WS, where society is based upon a respect for the Earth.

 

The world has changed in the last 18 years and this first novel delves into the changes to both the land and humanity in what used to be the US, before it was split in half by a mysterious Veil



Amazon buy links:




58 years ago
a gorge opened up from Mobile, AL to Quebec City, Canada to split the United
States into the Western States (WS) and the Eastern States (ES).

 

40 years
later, a fog rolled in on the WS that they called the Veil. Within twelve hours
it formed an impenetrable wall between the two sides.

 

It’s been 18
years since anyone has known what’s happening on the other side of the Veil.

 

Now, Lori,
an Other, in a desperate attempt at escape from the ES’s torture and
experimentation, has crossed the Veil and found a world beyond belief.

 

Marcus is a
Warrior, but when Lori collapses at his feet wounded and exhausted, he knows he
has to protect her. But seeing that she’s the first person he’s seen in 18
years without wings, he’s worried about what her appearance means for his
people and the world they’ve created since the Veil fell.

 


Two new
societies: one built on a respect for the natural order of nature and the
world, the other built on mistrust and corruption. Can they learn to co-exist
once again?




 
Author's note: While there are serious undertones to the story and plot line in the book, there are also moments of fun that I like to include in all my books. This scene below is one of my absolute favorites from the story. I hope you enjoy it too.


He
hated the way medicine made him feel a disconnect between his head and body,
but what Malcolm said made sense so he relented. “Okay, but no one in this room
is allowed to hold anything I say against me.”

Brooklyn
gave a gleeful look to Lori which sent a chill down his spine before she said,
“Ooh, I like the sound of this. This could be fun.”

Try to keep them from taking advantage of
me,”
he told Malcolm. He’d tried to reinforce the walls again, but it
didn’t help.

“Most men would be begging for two
women to take advantage of them.”

He
just smiled at Lori. He’d never be able to have another secret again. “Sweetheart, if it was just you, I’d be all
for it. It’s Brooklyn I don’t trust.”

“I’ll protect you.”

He
groaned as he told Malcolm, “Let’s just get this over with.”

Malcolm
nodded and injected the medicine into the vein in his arm. An hour later,
Marcus didn’t know which way was up. He knew Malcolm said he’d added 127
stitches into his back and Lori held the place as the most beautiful woman he’d
ever laid eyes on.

As
Malcolm pulled him into a sitting position, he felt the need to wax poetic once
again about her eyes. “Man, have you seen her eyes? They’re so fucking
beautiful, like the petals of a lilac bush in the spring. And when she uses her
power, they flash with brilliant color like bursts of purple grapes.” He
brushed across her cheek, not even wondering about the laughter spilling forth
out of those same eyes right now.

She
turned to the others. “I see why he didn’t want any drugs now.”

Malcolm
shook his head. “Yeah, the big guy has no tolerance whatsoever. Hopefully,
tomorrow he won’t remember what a schmuck he was today. Poor guy is whipped.”

“I
think it’s kind of sweet…you know, in a slightly pathetic kind of way,”
Brooklyn said. Marcus watched as Brooklyn defended him and he nodded with what
she said while he petted Lori’s soft hair. It truly felt like gossamer wings.

It
took him a moment to realize Brooklyn had just called him pathetic. “Hey!”

Lori
reached up and kissed his cheek to distract him. “Don’t worry about it. You’re
really very sweet in a totally manly kind of way.”

He
smiled at her. “And that’s why I like you best.” He started to scowl at the
other two laughing at his expense, but he got distracted by the fact that Lori still
wore her swimsuit wrap top. He started to reach up to hold her breasts as he
said, “Well it’s that and your breasts are the perfect size. Your nipples are
the perfect pink…”

She
jerked back out of his hold while yelling at him in an outraged voice, “Marcus!”

“What?
You liked me touching them just fine at the waterfall.” He looked at her
beautiful face and couldn’t figure out why she suddenly looked so flushed and
angry.

Brooklyn
mumbled to Malcolm, “Damn, I wish I had some way to record this for the other
guys to hear.”

Malcolm
laughed and Lori looked even more mortified than before.

He
didn’t understand what bothered her. “Baby…”

“Don’t
you ‘Baby’ me.” She scowled at him again.

She
really was beautiful even with that frown on her face. Maybe he needed to cheer
her up by finishing what they’d started at the waterfall. But, whoa, wait just
a minute. He frowned down at the front of his shorts where there was a definite
lack of interest going on. What the hell? He’d been half-hard ever since Lori
fell into his arms at the bridge.

His
mortified gaze met Malcolm’s.

“What’s
wrong?” Malcolm asked.

He
waved Malcolm over to him and then turned them away from the girls for a guy
pow-wow.  “Mal, I don’t have an
erection,” he whispered urgently, but it must not have been quiet enough
because he heard Brooklyn snicker.

Malcolm
frowned at him confused. “Um, okay? I wouldn’t really expect you to have one
right now.”

He
didn’t understand. This was serious. “No, I always
have one when Lori is around.”

This
time Brooklyn didn’t even try to quiet her loud laugh. “It is so unfair that
this falls under patient confidentiality.”

He
turned to glare at her, but became distracted by Lori’s sweet indulgent smile.
She was so beautiful. He looked down. Again…nothing. He turned a desperate look
to Malcolm to find him grinning like he found this funny. That shit was not
acceptable. “You think this is funny?” he asked incredulously.

“Well,
maybe a little, but Marcus, you’re fine. It’s just the medicine. It’s deadened
your nerves. All of them. Don’t worry. It will be back.”

He
turned back to Lori and gave her thumbs up. “Did you hear that, Baby? I’ll be
fine.”

He
could see the corners of her mouth quirking up like she fought a smile. “I
never had any doubt.”

He
turned back to Malcolm and grinned. “I impressed her with my big sword.”


Malcolm
groaned and tugged Marcus over to Lori. “Let’s get you home big guy, before
this gets any more embarrassing for all of us. The rest of us don’t have the
luxury of drugs to wipe our memories of this encounter.”


 

Amazon buy links:




 

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Where THROUGH THE VEIL came from...

I posted this blog post earlier in the week on my book review blog (because this blog wasn't working).

But my awesome PA fixed this one now, so I'm reposting this here.

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Where did THROUGH THE VEIL come from?

 

I don't know if you've heard, but I have a new book coming out this week and it's not my normal type of book...

 

Paranormal Dystopian Romantic Suspense…Through the Veil is NOT my normal genre. So many of you may ask…where exactly did it come from?


There’s a story there…


Through the Veil may be my 9th release, but it was actually started way, way early in my writing career…right after I finished Operation: Endgame.  (my first release)


The story began as a 30 minute writing prompt in my local writing group. That prompt was “crossing a bridge” and we were given 30 minutes to get a scene on the page. For the most part, besides fixing the technical aspects of the writing, the basic framework of that scene is still completely intact in the book as it is now.


 


Here’s that scene…

Crouched behind the
rock, gasping for air, Lori surveyed the decrepit bridge below swinging eerily
over the deep gorge. Measured at a mile deep, the quarter-mile wide gorge was
edged by stone cliffs with even more treacherous looking rocks jutting out from
the bottom of it. Would that old, worn out, rickety structure support her? No
one had been able to use it for eighteen years.

Pressing the bullet
wound at her side to stem the flow of blood, she glanced behind her, trying to
ignore the pain that sizzled along every nerve ending. She hadn’t heard her
pursuers for several hours, but that didn’t mean they weren’t nearby.

A bead of sweat rolled
down her spine as she glanced at the bridge again. It had been built decades
ago, a few years after the gorge had suddenly appeared. And, damn, that gorge
looked scarily deep right now.

The only reason Lori
even knew about this bridge was because her family came here for vacation a year
before the Veil appeared. The riskiness of climbing this bridge so far above
the ground became the highlight of her trip back then. She’d been nine years
old at the time and it remained as one of her best memories of time with her
family, a family that disappeared from existence ten months later.

Now this bridge
featured as both her nightmare and salvation. If she stayed on this side of the
gorge, the men after her would kill her—or worse, imprison her again. She’d rather
die than spend any more time as a lab rat. And with the blood oozing from her
side, that remained a very good possibility. Survival meant she could come back
and help the Others escape, too.

Gritting her teeth,
Lori stood and crept down the hill. The closer she got the more flimsy the
bridge appeared. It was simply a foot bridge made of wood and rope, suspended
across the gorge. The irony of the situation didn’t pass by her. They only
wanted her for her gift. She counted on her ability to manipulate space to save
her life now.

But she had to
escape. If that meant using every last drop of energy she had, she would.

She let go of her
side and sucked in a breath to focus her concentration. Grasping the rough
ropes, she took her first step onto the bridge. It shifted slightly under her
weight with a creaking sound which reverberated through the quiet of the
surrounding forest. It was as if nature held its breath to see if she would
survive this. The swaying bridge took more effort from the muscles of her core.
She hissed at the added pain and fought off the black spots encroaching on her
vision.

Glancing behind her,
she didn’t see any movement except the leaves rustling on the trees. Looking
forward again, she tried to peer through the Veil to the other side. She had
about fifty feet of bridge before she hit the wall of fog. Slowly, she edged
her feet across the rough wood, stepping gingerly to avoid falling through the
rotted boards. The farther out she crept, the more the bridge swayed over the
huge expanse. She couldn’t look down. Her breath came out in gasps as she inched
across.

Finally, she reached
the Veil. She reached forward with a hand, and could feel the semi-transparent
barrier like a huge wall in front of her. She closed her eyes and gave a silent
prayer this would work.

“She’s on the
bridge!”

Lori swung around. Men
in camouflage holding guns poured out of the forest behind her. Damn. This was
her final chance. She closed her eyes and faced the Veil again. Using every
ounce of energy she could pour into it, she focused on creating a hole big
enough she could climb through it. Finally, the energy moved and the wall
shifted. She scrambled through the invisible hole she created.

Once through, she
let go of the energy to seal the wall back up and not a moment too soon, as the
energy reverberated under the hail of bullets striking it. But she couldn’t see
or hear the men on the other side anymore. The fog had enveloped her. She held onto
the rope supports and felt her way across the rest of the bridge on wobbly
knees.

She’d made it
through. Falling wasn’t an option now.

When the solid
ground of the other side met her feet, she collapsed in exhaustion and relief.
She lay there gasping and trying to find energy to stand. Manipulating the Veil
had taken everything she had. The darkness was slipping over her consciousness
when strong arms lifted her up.

The fog still surrounded
them, but that didn’t keep her from seeing the gorgeous, scowling, concerned face
of the man holding her against his naked chest or the dark purple wings at his
back.


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About two months after I wrote that scene I took a fast-writing workshop and wrote 35,000 words in 7 days that centered on that original scene. I did that without any sort of plotting or planning whatsoever…not the way I normally write.


Through the Veil is now around 76,000 words and it took me over two years to straighten out the hot mess that I began with. I never doubted the story, but this is a whole new world filled with winged Warriors, tortured/talented Others, and two whole new civilizations. And it’s the start of an 8-book series. So there was a lot that I had to sort out. I think I’ve done that now and am thrilled that Through the Veil is releasing NEXT WEEK! I honestly wondered if this day would ever come…LOL!


 


Through the Veil Story Description:

58 years ago
a gorge opened up from Mobile, AL to Quebec City, Canada to split the United
States into the Western States (WS) and the Eastern States (ES).

 

40 years
later, a fog rolled in on the WS that they called the Veil. Within twelve hours
it formed an impenetrable wall between the two sides.

 

It’s been 18
years since anyone has known what’s happening on the other side of the Veil.

 

Now, Lori,
an Other, in a desperate attempt at escape from the ES’s torture and
experimentation, has crossed the Veil and found a world beyond belief.

 

Marcus is a
Warrior, but when Lori collapses at his feet wounded and exhausted, he knows he
has to protect her. But seeing that she’s the first person he’s seen in 18
years without wings, he’s worried about what her appearance means for his
people and the world they’ve created since the Veil fell.

 

Two new
societies: one built on a respect for the natural order of nature and the
world, the other built on mistrust and corruption. Can they learn to co-exist
once again?


The book releases September 25, 2014,

but you can preorder it now on Amazon.

Here are the Amazon.com buy links.


 

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