Tag Archives: Series

Morgan Liu and her Obsession with Fairy Tales (4D)

15 Thursday Jun 2017

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Ari’s Tour
(previous installments)
4A—Ari Nix and How It All Began
4C—Mrs. Jameson and Her African Violets
4B—Jasmine Leit and her Collection of High Heels
The Rooftop Garden and the Terror of Heights

4D—Morgan Liu and her Obsession with Fairy Tales

 

Ari sailed straight through the layers of concrete and insulation and piping and wood. Straight into an apartment lit with a purplish hue from a fish tank sitting against the wall. And he knew this because he found his head in said fish tank, fake seaweed flowing so close to his eye he flinched, just as a brilliantly blue tang darted through his open mouth.

He gagged, though there was nothing at all to actually gag on.

His flinching caused him to spin sideways, his downward plunge halting somewhat as he spilled free from the brightness of the fish tank and into a living room he’d never before set foot within. He caught glimpses of open books, pages upon pages cut, folded. Words, blended ink, while on the left-hand sides chapter headings curled with fantastical fonts. Shadows from the tank lights swam upon the carpet, giving it a rippled effect.

“Oh thank goodness. This must be Morgan’s place.” He took a breath that smelled nothing of fish or mugginess, though he knew quite well that it should have. That scent had escaped down the hall often enough whenever Morgan opened her door. Continue reading →

The Rooftop Garden and the Terror of Heights

13 Tuesday Jun 2017

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Ari’s Tour
(previous installments)
4A—Ari Nix and How It All Began
4C—Mrs. Jameson and Her African Violets
4B—Jasmine Leit and her Collection of High Heels

The Rooftop Garden and the Terror of Heights

Not everyone could be as boring as Jasmine Leit though. Ari hoped at any rate. There was the artist in 2B who never showed Ari his work and then the glamourist in 3C. Maybe they held secrets in their apartments? Or maybe, he just needed to be looking in bedrooms rather than living rooms.

In fact, one bedroom in particular stood out in his mind. A bedroom with a delightfully attractive man in its bed. A delightfully attractive man who ignored and dismissed Ari on a constant basis.

“Never mind. We’ll go see the artist’s secret paintings,” he said to the swaying branches of the bushes as he finally flew free of the oppressive building.

The brightness of the night sky lit up the roof, the moonlight shining off leaves and causing the glass of the nearby wind chimes to glow. He couldn’t hear his music from up here, just the swishing of the occasional cars driving past and the tapping of the larger wooden chimes along the edges of the roof. That breeze likely held a chill, though Ari couldn’t feel it. Couldn’t feel the wind at all in fact.

“Can you imagine being blown away on the wind,” he mused to himself.

He fluttered his fingers just as a bat came dodging through the small trees. Ari followed the creature’s progress, only noticing after the fact that those trees were quickly shrinking in his sight. The outer edge of the rooftop became visible, concrete ledges that wrapped about the deep wooden planter boxes and the paths between them.

“Oh no. Wait, not good.” Continue reading →

Jasmine Leit and her Collection of High Heels (4B)

08 Thursday Jun 2017

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Ari’s Tour
(previous installments)
4A—Ari Nix and How It All Began
4C—Mrs. Jameson and Her African Violets

4B—Jasmine Leit and her Collection of High Heels

Ari’s sickeningly fast spin did not end in the hall. It continued onward, like a ride he couldn’t escape from no matter how many times he insisted the contraption to stop, stop, stop. It was as if he were on some carnival attraction meant to destroy his inner ears and send him puking in the grass afterward. Only, while the world, yes, was a blur of bright light and greyish carpet, his stomach, which technically was lying upon his kitchen floor back in his apartment, seemed to be able to handle the dreadful sensation with ease.

With that revelation, he slowly opened his eyes as he spun, noticing with amusement that both his feet had disappeared within the wall next to the door to 4D. He twisted in the opposite direction of his spin, attempting to roll back the way he’d come. Not to happen, it seemed. Nothing about this would be easy.

He sighed and settled his hands behind his head in acceptance of the inevitable as he glided down the hall at an upward angle that sent him straight into 4B. Jasmine Leit’s apartment. He mused over calling out to her, but decided against it. She didn’t normally complain about the noise from his place, but he’d caught glances from her randomly that spoke louder than any words. And since he could still hear his music playing on, rising and falling with unintelligible words, words he could have sung from heart by now, he didn’t want to push her into a possible confrontation.

She, unlike others in the building, might have the patience of a saint, but Ari didn’t want to see what might happen if that patience snapped. Continue reading →

Mrs. Jameson and her African Violets (4C)

06 Tuesday Jun 2017

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Ari’s Tour
(previous installments)
4A—Ari Nix and How It All Began

4C—Mrs. Jameson and Her African Violets

Now this had happened once before when he’d been a child. He remembered the day, or at least those few moments, quite vividly. But at that time his sister had been in the room and she’d almost instantly jumped on him, sending him swooping back into his body. He hadn’t had enough time to truly panic then.

Not so now.

The dark kitchen he sailed through was one he’d seen before, though not for quite a long time. Mrs. Jameson kept her pots and pans in an organized line hanging from the wall and a triplicate of feeding bowls ran parallel upon the floor underneath. And at the furthest feeding bowl was a black and white cat, a skinny thing that jerked as Ari floated above its head.

“Hello, hello,” he said with a wave that sent the cat crouching, her eyes glowing in the frail light sneaking in from behind the blinds in the next room. “Don’t mind me. Is your cat lady up? That wonderful woman who feeds you?”

The cat, predictably, did not answer. Continue reading →

May, Briefly

31 Wednesday May 2017

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One of my personal problems is that I tend to forget anything and everything I’ve accomplished in a given time period, thus leading to the thought I haven’t actually accomplished anything at all. Which, I’ve been informed, is completely wrong.

I’m hoping that listing everything I’ve done each month will help remove this thought-process while giving everyone updates on where I am in differing projects.

May accomplishments:

1) Prepared Pre-order for Bridle the Unicorn

This includes Edits, Blurb, Formatting, ISBN info and Promotional Schedule.

2) Wrote 6 short stories.

I did a question challenge in May where I would ‘answer’ a question given to me in story format in a character’s POV. Wrote:

  •  The Illusion That is Failure (I really liked this one so it got bumped ahead of the story I’d originally finished for June)
  • The Baywater and the Hurricane (Set in the same city as The Cascade and the Firebrand)
  • Just a Typical Day in a Nurse’s Life (Sort of a conglomeration of first and second person that is supposed to be humorous)
  • The Choice in the Inevitable (Ideological World-building for a country that never falls to the Merandin Empire)
  • Tall, Dark & Handsome (Coffee shop romance and only non-fantasy I wrote)
  • First Date Taboo (A confession on a dinner date)

I also have a few more small stories started but not finished, but they have dropped to least priority now that May is over.

3) Prepped Bridle the Unicorn Promo

  • Roan’s Interview
  • Ari’s Interview
  • Ari’s Tour
  • Quotes

4) Prepped Blog Posts

I lost count of how many I prepped this month. All the short stories and poems I finished were edited and prepped as well as anything else I finished having to do with Bridle the Unicorn. This was in anticipation of having a bunch of things ready to go in the coming months so I can concentrate on completing longer projects.

5) Requested Cover Date

For a new houndmaster novella set mostly in Crafton. Tentative release next winter/early spring.

Murder in Color Published!

21 Tuesday Feb 2017

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Today’s the Day!!

Murder in Color CoverMurder in Color is officially published!

You can find it for sale on Loose Id’s website as of today. I will add links to the novel for Amazon and Nook, as well as other digital sellers as they come available. (Edit: Kobo | Google) As I normally do for novel publications, here’s my list of 6 random things about the book that you might find interesting :)

1) This was the first time I attempted a love triangle or a serial killer. It will be a long (loooong) time before I do either again. When I do, they won’t be in the same novel.

2) A big portion of the ideas in Murder in Color were actually intended for use in a completely different story, one that featured Marona Baino and Lake Meye from Shatter by Glass. However, I came to my senses and realized that mixing and matching M/F and M/M isn’t actually a good thing because the audiences don’t cross over very well. So I scraped the original plan, mined that story heavily for ideas and created a new novel with Salain Dusari as lead.

3) Guess how many characters I had in my original cast of characters that I didn’t use? Four! Four characters that never made it onto the page. Good thing though because they would have been pointless after the novel took a different turn. I cannabalized the poor characters’ names and used them for other people’s last/first names where needed. On the other hand, Calvo’s last name came from a character who had been going to be in that never-to-be-written novel featuring Marona and Lake. Continue reading →

Excerpt from Murder in Color

20 Monday Feb 2017

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Murder in Color Excerpt

Cover by Valerie Tibbs

Cover by Valerie Tibbs

The day didn’t get better. Not at all. The chief capitulated where Baino hadn’t and granted Arman and his partner access over the “case of the yellow paint” as he deemed it. I got the distinct impression that he was having a hard time believing it wasn’t anything more than a joke, but that he wanted to cover his ass. Which was probably why he assigned Baino and Rhodes to head the investigation jointly with the other two detectives from my old station.

And all that meant to me was my lab became a breeding ground for officers, as if I’d hauled open the door and shouted up the stairwell that I had free drinks and strippers for all.

“Can’t you base your operations upstairs at your desks?” I demanded when Arman spread out some files on my counter. “Or maybe in one of the conference rooms? Blazes, take over the break room, why don’t you? This is my lab.”

“We will, we will,” said Arman, his voice soothing as he laid a hand against my bicep.

I didn’t exactly brush him off, but I did swallow down the nasty retort on my tongue and spin around, where I almost ran smack into Jevette Tunalti. Unlike Arman, his hands didn’t seem to have the incessant need to grab me as if I couldn’t stay on my own two feet without his guidance. And unlike Arman, he didn’t seem all that excited to see me.

“Salain,” said Jevette in a terse greeting.

He had a deep, raspy voice. The kind that couldn’t shout across a crowded, noisy room and hope to be heard. But then again, he’d never needed to. People listened when Jevette opened his mouth. Even Arman. Maybe especially Arman since the two of them had been partners for at least nine years and counting, despite all my fumbling, accidental attempts to pull them apart.

“Jevette,” I muttered. “Nice to see you.” Continue reading →

Murder in Color – Cover Reveal

19 Sunday Feb 2017

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MURDER IN COLOR
gay romance/mystery/fantasy
100k words
Coming Feb 21st, 2017

Cover by Valerie Tibbs

Cover by Valerie Tibbs

Medical Examiner Salain Dusari doesn’t like chaos. He prefers things clean and uncomplicated, like the dead. Yet, when he discovers a yellow maze painted on one of his corpses, he gets everything but uncomplicated in the form of the Maze Killer–a serial killer reemerged to haunt the city once more. But that’s not the only person returning to haunt Salain. Detective Arman Omisto, Salain’s old lover, and his partner, Detective Jevette Tunalti, arrive to give the case another crack, bringing a desert’s expanse of memories and lust with them. Between the two detectives, only one is truly excited to see Salain. Problem is, it’s the wrong man.

With Jevette seemingly uninterested in smoothing old hurts, Salain doesn’t think he has a chance of convincing him that the one night they spent together had been the real thing. Yet, when the hunt for the serial killer turns deadly and they only have each other to turn to, he thinks they might just find the trust they need in order to risk their hearts all over again. But with danger blowing in like a sandstorm, violent and sudden, neither of them might live long enough for it to matter.

Murder in Color will be my fourth novel publication :) It is part of my DaSunder Chronicles, and can be read as standalone or after Shatter by Glass.

The Execution of Caliaso Mivalo

18 Saturday Feb 2017

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This is a teaser for my new book, Murder in Color, a gay romance/fantasy/mystery novel of about 100k words. The Execution of Caliaso Mivalo provides some backstory about a situation that happens prior to the novel’s beginning by about four years. Four of the characters listed below in the reports have parts in Murder in Color: Havai Fabriol, Dana Gravaldo, Arman Omisto and Jevette Tunalti.

Every aspect of the desert served a purpose. Even a mirage, by giving hope to those lost and longing so they have reason to take another step forward.

The Execution of Caliaso Mivalo

HOMOCIDE REPORT

Deceased:
Nerio, Rasieri

Specifics of Deceased:
DaSunder Native, Male, 43

Residence of Deceased:
25 Il Alneri St.

Offense:
Murder

Place of Occurrence:
Il Alneri St., approx. 32 m. off corner of Il Alneri St. & Il Perloma St.

Station & Beat:
Hangbody, 63

Officers First on Scene:
Suso, Emeri
Fabriol, Havai

Medical Examiner:
Gravaldo, Dana

Details:
Nerio was found partially buried in the street, two gunshot wounds to his torso. Witness statements pending. Possible gang involvement. Continue reading →

Samples from Salain’s Case Journals

17 Friday Feb 2017

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Whatever the reason, I thirsted like a walking corpse staggering aimlessly about the dunes. I couldn’t say no when someone guided me to a spring, not even if the squished remains of scorpion tails littered the floor, their venom a cloud thick enough to see.

Samples from Salain’s Case Journals

37-2 y. 4206

Hafarra Retoro & Leo Retoro – Double homicide today. Thought it was going to be a fun one. Ha.

First body was a young woman. She’d been shot once through the heart. One of the cleanest deaths I’ve dealt with so far, though the bullet lodged in the back of her ribcage. Hemorrhaging on her back with lividity and rigor consistent where she’d fallen. No surprises.

Second body was found in the next room. Middle-aged man with seven bullet wounds to his face, torso and arm. Four went through, but I dug out a bullet from his jaw and another two from his chest. He also had multiple stab wounds to his face and neck consistent with a small eating knife found at the scene. A lot of force—the detectives said fury—went into those blows. Victim tried to fight even after being shot, as evidenced by the torn and bloody clothing clutched in his fists and the intriguing amount of skin lodged under his nails.

Plenty of witnesses, plenty of evidence. Detectives didn’t have to detect much to crack this one. Boring case. So, so boring.

09-3 y. 4206

Mona Toreono – Today gave me a truly interesting homicide. Woman had been a singer for a lot of local places. Worked within a small group that call themselves the Musician’s Guild though they don’t quite have enough influence to enforce decent wages, or so I’ve been informed.

She was found spread out on a small outdoor stage in the courtyard of a local lounge. She’d been gagged and tied and raped multiple times. No witnesses because the lounge had been shut down for the night and nobody heard a thing because a light sandstorm had been screaming its way through the streets. Continue reading →