Category: Excerpts

Giveaway, Excerpt & Pics

4/21/2016

Hi there!

I'm excited to show you pics from a recent reader/author convention, to announce a surprise giveaway of one lucky newsletter subscriber, and to share another excerpt of Book 3.

Thanks for all of your emails, posts, and reviews. Thanks for reading, and thanks for supporting me and these books. You're the best!

Jen

Back from Vegas for Booklovers Con

Whew! I'm back from my first author convention. RT Booklovers Con was incredible, informative…and exhausting.

Fantastic panels featured top-notch authors, publishers, and industry professionals who gave insider tips and advice. I met readers, bloggers, other authors, and even fangirled a little myself. The trip was worthwhile, the experience incomparable, but I’m glad to be home.

Check out some of the great pics from my week in Vegas.
L-R:
This is why readers go to RT--loads of free books!
Made time for fun with author friends Kathleen Groger, Abbie Roads and Brinda Berry at Rock of Ages.
Gorgeous super readers Rachel and Michelle made the week so fun!
With old and new friends atop the Rio.
With YA author Kiera Cass
With author Nalini Singh
Traci was the first fan to approach me at RT. Such a sweetie!

Giveaway

Authors and publishers were so generous at RT Con that I want to share the wealth! I've chosen a random winner from among my newsletter subscribers to receive these three paranormal novels by NYT bestselling author Christine Feehan, as well as a few freebies of my own.

Kim King, congratulations! Contact me to receive your prize!

Betrayal Foretold Excerpt

Book three in the Descended of Dragons series is at the editor in preparation for a May release. I've had several anxious readers asking about Betrayal Foretold lately, and wanted to send another little snippet. It's so hard finding excerpts that don't give *too much* away!

“Where are we going?” I snapped at Gaspare. “Who do you want me to meet?”
“It’s a surprise.” He smoothed his white button-down shirt nervously before taking my hand to trace.
“I am sorry about your mother,” he said, holding my gaze. “And your friends.”
I nodded, twisting my mouth to keep it shut. I didn’t want to get into another argument with him.
Gaspare traced us to a square building just outside of town. Inside, wide hallways led to offices and roomy labs with technical equipment the purpose for which I couldn’t even guess at.
“What is this, some type of lab?”
“Yes, precisely. Just through here.” We rounded a corner and entered a lab that occupied the entire top floor of the building.
“Emelie?” he called to someone working behind a screen. She looked up and began removing a light blue lab coat and gloves as she walked toward us. She stopped near Gaspare, who beamed with delight and ran a hand around her petite shoulders.

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Rare Form - Excerpt One

7/16/2015

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I left the science building when my nine-thirty astronomy class dismissed and tossed my backpack into the passenger seat. The Beast, a not-quite-fully-refurbished but much-loved '67 Mustang, purred to life. It didn’t have power steering or air, but it had style.

The thin black steering wheel groaned under the pressure of my grip as my thoughts turned to an impending college graduation, a lack of plans for the future, and the absence of a career path. You’d think all of that would be settled, but…nope. I was soon to receive a degree for which I had no real-life application from a university for which I felt no real connection. Because going to college was what was expected after high school.

I adjusted my sunglasses in response to the brightening May horizon and chewed my lip as I began obsessing, again, about the twenty-thousand in student debt I’d racked up thanks to the exorbitant and ever-increasing cost of a degree.

Wham!

Thoughts of joining the real world evaporated.

Time suspended, and the scene before me played out in slow motion. In the span of two heartbeats my world became devoid of sound, of rational thought—there was only reaction as a sharp, jarring impact snapped my head to the side and catapulted the car into oncoming traffic.

My beloved Mustang was not only spinning in a circle, but toppling side over side. As the car thrust down, flipped over, and crashed roughly again onto the pavement I grabbed at handles, braced my legs, and scrabbled for purchase of any solid surface to prevent being tossed around the car like a pinball.

It seemed an eternity before the Mustang bounced a final time and stuttered to a stop. I let out the breath I’d been holding and looked around aimlessly, confused. Air rushed back into my lungs that smelled of burning rubber and the bitter, complex odor of overheated electronics.

Out. I needed to get out of the car. But I wasn’t sitting upright. The left side of my body leaned heavily against the driver’s side door. The only thing visible through the windshield was a bent-up cherry red hood. A shock of pain that weakened my knees shot through my neck as I sought out the skyward-facing passenger door. I ground my teeth, put a hand to my neck, and made an effort not to move so suddenly again.

Unbuckling my seatbelt with one hand, I shimmied around inside the car to kneel upright. The car’s interior was out of proportion and the passenger door had been badly damaged. The door handle above taunted me, guarding the only way out. I pushed the passenger door with all of my strength, but it was so jammed it wouldn’t budge. Short, panicked breaths didn’t provide enough oxygen for my addled brain to function properly, and I kicked and punched at everything in futile effort. I was stuck.

And something was definitely burning.

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Rare Form - Excerpt Two

7/15/2015

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In this scene from Chapter 21, Stella and her suite mate, Timbra, attend a Midsummer festival, where Stella gets a dose of history.

In the early afternoon the crowd thickened. People flowed in the direction of the stage, which had been erected on the banks of the river. “What’s going on over there?” I asked Timbra.

“Oh. Yes, you’ll want to see that,” she nodded soberly.

“What? What is it?”

“A play. A reenactment, really. Each year, the Steward Massacre is reenacted to honor our fallen and to remind us of what’s at stake…and what’s still out there.”

We made our way to the grassy seating area just in time. As the production began, Gnomes and winged Fae—they didn’t want to be called fairies, but Fae, Timbra had admonished—worked farmland together in worn tunics and breeches. Heartier built Dwarfs loaded crops onto the backs of wagons drawn by miniature beasts of burden that resembled water buffalo. The creatures worked dutifully, if happily, joining together in songs that illustrated the simple pleasures of working the soil.

When the workday concluded the creatures returned to their families, life peaceful and contented at hearth and home. A new day brought about more good work.

A woman’s ear twitched. She had heard something and looked to her mate across the field who confirmed her concern. With no further warning, a monstrous dragon dove overhead, releasing a deafening roar and scorching the crops in the field. The Gnomes, Fae, and Dwarfs let out cries of terror and ran for their lives, diving under wagons and running into the forest. More dragons ravaged the sky, seeking out the hiding creatures after they had destroyed the crops and farmland. One by one the dragons ferreted out the small beings—their children, too—and set them ablaze, their excruciated shrieks filling the air before stopping altogether.

The crowd that had gathered for the reenactment sat stunned, silent, moved. I dragged in a ragged breath, on the verge of tears at the gruesome sight that I knew had actually occurred, yet on a much larger scale. Timbra discreetly wiped her eyes and gazed into her lap in silent despair.

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Rare Form - Excerpt Three

7/15/2015

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A fun (and sexy) exchange from Chapter 28.

“When I agreed to this plan I didn’t realize we’d both be standing here naked.” He raised one shoulder. “Well. That’s the thing about changing forms. A lot of enforced nudity. Best get used to it.”

He stood before me without shame, his powerful presence taking up more space in the room than merely his body. Since the moment I saw him, I’d always found him to be ‘more.’ I swallowed past the lump in my throat, my pulse suddenly racing.

His back was to me as he looked out my window for signs of trouble. I took the opportunity to appreciate his incomparable form. His powerful back was wide and chiseled with thick muscles. His wasn’t the distended musculature of a body builder, but a more balanced manifestation of strength. As I raked down his body, definition at his shoulders caught my eye. Farther down the firm crease of his back a powerful ribcage slimmed into a tight waist. He had a good-sized scratch down his side, probably sustained during the fight. It looked to be healing well, though, and quickly. One firm crease disappeared, another taking its place. I shivered and stifled a groan of appreciation.

He turned around and held my gaze. “One thing you may not yet have noticed, Stella.”

“Hmm?”

“Once you’ve found your form, some parts of you change forever. Senses, for example, remain heightened. Not to the level when in form, but stronger than they were before.”

“Senses? You’re saying I can see better? Hear better? I did know that, actually.”

“Yes, and we can scent better, too,” he said as he stalked toward me. “I smell your arousal now, for example.”

I gasped. He was so bold, so comfortable with himself, with sexuality.

“That’s not something said to someone you see platonically.” God, I was in over my head with him.

“I’ve never seen you platonically. Who am I kidding?”

He was looking at my body. Hard. His gaze had wandered from my eyes and his breathing had become slower, more deliberate. He closed his eyes briefly, as if in gratitude.

“You’re trying to kid yourself if you think you can ignore the attraction between us,” I said. Look at me. I’m confident. I was so not confident.

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Origin Exposed (DoD, Book 2) Excerpt 1

7/14/2015

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“Stella, girl, stop gnawing your cuticles. It’ll be alright. We’ll figure this out.”

Timbra watched as I fidgeted in my chair during our Wednesday morning Intro to Craft class. For once the stand-in professor, Dean Miles, was the least of my concerns. She never missed an opportunity to humiliate me or make me feel inadequate in some way. Honestly, I would’ve welcomed the distraction. I smiled weakly at Timbra’s ever-forward way of navigating life. I was feeling significantly less positive about the situation.

“I just don’t know what to do next,” I said.

“Too bad you can’t divine some kind of plan or see the future through a spell or something,” Timbra mused.

“Timbra, that’s it!” I yelped.

“What’s it?” Her over-long black eyelashes blinked repeatedly with incomprehension.

“Obviously, I need help. And this place is crawling with clairvoyants, oracles, and seers of all kinds. I don’t know what to do, but surely someone could help me see what the right path is. Right?”

“Sure, I guess. Who do you think could help?”

“Hell, I don’t know. I’m new here. Don’t you know anyone?”

“I’m afraid my family’s not very magical. We excel more in the political arena. But I did hear our Elements professor saying she dabbled in pyro-osteomancy.”

“Pyro-what?”

“It’s a kind of divination that uses bones heated over a fire until they crack. Then someone trained in the craft reads the cracks to foretell the future.”

“What kind of bones?” I screeched.

“I dunno. Surely animal. I don’t think it has to be the pinkie toe of a virgin or anything.”

“Wait a minute,” I said slowly. “Layla. Layla once said her mother is a clairvoyant. A good one.”

“Miss Stonewall?” rang a sarcastically-pert singsong voice. Dean Miles. Perfect.

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Origin Exposed (DoD, Book 2) Excerpt 2

7/13/2015

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TEASERS

Chapter 3
“I’m sorry for what I said,” he offered again. “It was crude.” Then he stood to his full height, using the significant advantage to drive home his next point. “For what it’s worth, I thought we had potential for something legendary.”

He leaned in close to me, his breath a puff on my forehead beneath my scattered hair. “And Stella?” he said barely above a whisper as he ran a finger from the top of my shoulder down my bare arm.

“Yes?” I managed before a compulsory swallow.

“I still do.”

Chapter 12
“Don’t go there again,” I said. “We’ve already been through this. Our relationship is none of your business. Don’t say something out of jealousy you’ll regret.”

“Jealousy?” He balked, his bold eyes alight with emotion. “It’s not jealousy that I feel about it, Stella. It’s anger. It’s profound outrage that he took something that belongs to me. And righteous indignation that you gave it away.”

I was stunned silent at the truth behind his words. He meant it. Flutters of forbidden pleasure scrambled up my spine and filled me with a sick satisfaction. It was a visceral response to his bold claim. Damn him.

Chapter 24
My lips quivered and my despair threatened to take me down with it. I sat up straighter. No. I would not break down again.

Never taking his gaze from mine, he rose from the bed. He bent his knees, his back still straight and strong, and knelt in front of me. I felt the warmth of his long arms as he pushed them along my thighs and around my hips. He pulled me into him, forcing my legs on either side of his waist. We were at eye level and he stared into mine as he slowly shook his head.

“No,” he said and put the full force of his gaze, of his powerful bearing, behind his words. “No. You’re Stella Stonewall and that’s what matters. I’ve known who you are since first I laid eyes on you. And I like it. Very much.” His voice rasped with emotion. “You’re determined, and you work hard. You’re kind, generous. You’re the smartest person I know. You’re good, Stella—I know that like I know myself.”

“You don’t know what you’re saying,” I whispered and threw my arms around him. “I could be dangerous. And I’m not just talking physically. Politically, too. Being known as my friend could mean serious trouble for you.”

“Funny,” he said and kissed high on my cheekbone where my tears had been moments before. “I forgot to add that you’re funny.”

I let out a sad chuckle. “You confound me. You absolutely blow my mind.”

EXCERPT
I had difficulty finding an excerpt that didn’t give away anything from Book 1! I did find this fun scene from Chapter 22 in Book 2 of Stella and her friend Timbra’s night out dancing. ~Jen

Chapter 22

Loryn had recommended a place in town that hosted local musicians on Saturday nights. Ewan assured me he and Boone would be long gone by then, and we could have all the fun we could stand without fear of bumping into them.

It was clear an hour and a half into the night what Timbra’s intention was: obliteration. I couldn’t blame her, really. She’d been nursing a dreadful heartache. And I knew as well as anyone the driving desire to be rid of the oppression of loss and sadness.

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Giveaway, Excerpt & Pics

Back from Vegas for Booklovers Con

Giveaway

Betrayal Foretold Excerpt

Rare Form - Excerpt One

Rare Form - Excerpt Two

Rare Form - Excerpt Three

Origin Exposed (DoD, Book 2) Excerpt 1

Origin Exposed (DoD, Book 2) Excerpt 2

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Giveaway, Excerpt & Pics

Back from Vegas for Booklovers Con

Giveaway

Betrayal Foretold Excerpt

Rare Form - Excerpt One

Rare Form - Excerpt Two

Rare Form - Excerpt Three

Origin Exposed (DoD, Book 2) Excerpt 1

Origin Exposed (DoD, Book 2) Excerpt 2

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