Status Report - January 2018

I can finally say A Modicum of Truth is in the production phase! As in I sent the files to my incredible formatter Jaye Manus at QA Productions last night right before five p.m.

This book kicked my ass. It is literally the longest book I've ever written, clocking in at a final word count of 100,362.

Yeah, yeah, I know the word count was at 89K when I finished the first draft. I'm one of those weird writers who add words to a manuscript--all the 'a's, 'to's, 'the's, 'her's, etc. while taking out the unneeded 'that's and 'just's.

Unfortunately, when I write, I don't see the words. I see a movie playing in my head, and I'm trying to take notes.

Sacrificed is next on the block. I'm considering doing a preorder for it, so y'all will know exactly when it is coming out.

After that will be Hero De Facto, which the lovely Elaina Lee at For the Muse Design is currently working on the covers for the series.

But whatever you do, don't ask me when A Matter of Death will be done. My brain needs a break, and I'll have to lash you with a wet noodle if you do.

P.S. A new chapter of Sacrificed will be up next week!

Sacrificed - Chapter 2

Sam

I ‘ported to Duncan before he finished his sentence.

He blinked and lowered his cell phone. “Someday, someone will capture you on camera,” he muttered.

I glanced around me. We were in a private conference room in the Laura Lannigan wing of Good Samaritan hospital in Los Angeles. Just us. “Where’s Max?”

“In surgery.”

I charged for the closed door, but Duncan grabbed my arm. I halted before I accidentally ripped his offending limb off. To say things between me and my husband were strained was the understatement of the century.

“Ellie is missing.”

“Why didn’t you say—” I cut off my words at his irritated look. Because I hadn’t given him a chance to tell me, that’s why. I cleared my throat. “What happened?”

“We were at Caesar’s home for dinner.”

I frowned. “Tonight’s poker night.”

Duncan pressed his lips in a straight line.

I raised my hands. “Sorry. I won’t interrupt again.” It would have been easier to read his mind, but part of our marital issues was due to my becoming exponentially more powerful than him. Rifling through his thoughts would not help the situation.

“Thank you.” He sucked in a large gulp of air. “From the preliminary evidence, whoever attacked Max was waiting in the house when he and Ellie arrived home. Tiffany found him on the living room floor.”

All the energy seemed to rush out of Duncan. “He has broken bones, severe internal injuries, and—” His voice hitched. “Bebe is most concerned about the bleeding near his brain stem.”

“She’ll call in a healer or two from Silver Bear. Her grandmother’s the high priestess of the coven for crying out loud.”

“She has,” he said tightly.

Duncan’s attitude was really starting to piss me off. “Then what’s the issue?”

“You do not seem to be taking this seriously.”

“Of course, I’m taking this seriously.” I threw up my hands. “But this isn’t the first time one of us has been in the hospital.”

His eyes flashed neon green. “Nor is it the first time you have forgotten the rest of us are not immortal.” He pivoted on his boot heel, whipped open the door, and stalked out of the room.

Well…crap. Ever since he found out the damn nanites were turning my original human DNA into god DNA, his panties had been in a wad. I knew his ego was still firmly planted in the sixteenth century, but I was getting pretty fucking tired of his resentment that goddess trumped vampire in the power department. It wasn’t like he didn’t know what I was when we actually tied the knot.

So I did what any irritated wife did when her husband walks out of the middle of an argument. I followed him.

“So what are you saying?” I asked when I caught up with Duncan at the elevator bank. “Bebe and her people can’t help Max?”

“They do not know yet,” he said softly.

My stomach lurched at the sadness in his tone. “Come on, my big brother’s too tough to kill.”

Duncan didn’t even acknowledge my smartass comment. The elevator dinged. I followed him into the car.

So I tried to be as grim as he wanted me to be. “Have you called my parents yet?”

Duncan stared straight ahead. “They are upstairs in the waiting room.”

His statement felt like a punch in the gut. “You called Mom and Dad before you called me?”

His jaw muscle twitched. “I tried you first, but as usual, you did not answer.”

I opened my mouth to rip him a new one...

And shut it before I did. I hated that he was right.

I’d taken one fucking mental health day. I went to Paris for lunch after spending the morning exploring the Apollo 11 landing site on the moon. After a delicious meal on the Seine, I headed out to Pluto to check out its heart-shaped formation. It was such a thrill not to need travel money, or oxygen tanks, to visit all the places I dreamed of as a kid. I just kept forgetting that my cell service didn’t extend past the International Space Station.

“You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“I do not want to fight, darling,” he said softly.

The fact that it’d been forever since he called me “darling” hit me even harder than the fact that he’d reached my parents first. Maybe we needed to look into marital counseling.

The elevator doors parted, and we exited. Only Mom and Dad sat in the surgical waiting room.

I learned in and whispered, “Where’s Tiffany?”

An exasperated sigh issued from Duncan. “At the moment, irritating the hell out of the enforcers looking into her daughter’s kidnapping.”

Sacrificed - Chapter 1

Max

Max Howell tossed ten M&Ms on the pile in the middle of the kitchen table. “See your five and raise you five, Caesar.” The vampire master’s left eyebrow twitched, but he said nothing. Max turned and watched the players on his other side.

Duncan held up his cards to consult with his partner sitting in his lap. “What do you think, Ellie?”

Max tried not to smile at his daughter’s serious expression while she examined her uncle’s hand. She’d inherited the St. James blue-black hair, but somehow ended up with the Howell blue eyes.

“Hey, that’s cheating!” Alex said. His protest emphasized the Texas accent he’d kept for over a century and a half.

“You had the opportunity to obtain your own partner, Stanton.” Caesar smiled over the top of his cards.

“At least Phillippa plays poker,” Colin grumbled. “You should have heard the lecture I got about gambling.” The last scion of the famed Fitzgerald political family scowled at his own hand.

“Auntie Anne is right. You’re not very good at poker, Uncle Colin,” Ellie’s sweet voice piped in. She tossed twenty brown M&Ms on the pile. “Raise you by another ten, Daddy.” She popped a blue one from her prodigious pile into her mouth.

Colin glared at her in mock outrage. “Did you talk Duncan into reading my mind? Because that cheating, too.”

“Dude,” Jake Wong drawled. “In case you hadn’t noticed, two mere Normals are kicking your supernatural ass, and one of them isn’t even in kindergarten yet.” He tossed the requisite number of M&M’s into the kitty.

Max checked his two cards again. Did the four vampires realize how obvious their tells were? Only the really crappy hands he’d drawn had kept his pile from being as big as Jake’s or Ellie’s.

Alex pushed his cards aside. “Too rich for me.”

After a bit of grumbling, Colin folded as well.

“I’m out.” Caesar laid down his hand.

Max made a show of checking his cards again. He’d played with Jake long enough to know his sister’s ex was bluffing. However, his sister’s husband couldn’t bluff to save his life even with Ellie as his partner. “I match your bet and raise you another five.” He added more candy to the growing pile.

Sure enough, Duncan whispered into Ellie’s ear, and she tossed the necessary amount of M&M’s into the kitty. “Raise you ten, Daddy.”

Jake tossed his cards face down on the table. “Mazel tov, kid. Maybe your mom and dad will let you come to Vegas with me next weekend.” He winked at Ellie.

“Can I, Daddy?” She bounced in her excitement. “Uncle Duncan and Aunt Sam will let us stay with them.” She batted her big blue eyes at her poker partner. “Won’t you, Uncle Duncan?”

“Of course, you may visit.” He glared at Jake. “But you need to ask your mother first.” Silently, Duncan mouthed over Ellie’s head, “And you are not taking her on the casino floor, Wong.”

That didn’t mean Duncan wouldn’t set up a private room for Ellie with staff to play with her. Hopefully, her presence would get Sam to...

Max clenched his jaw at the disturbing thoughts. To what? Relax? Rejoin the human race?

Except his baby sister wasn’t human. Not any more. And she’d become obsessed with hunting down the rest of the saurian demons who’d managed to escape the Battle of Tuttle Creek last year. Even Duncan had admitted Ellie was the only thing linking Sam to the mortal plane these days.

Max stared at the flimsy cardboard in his hand. Duncan would totally lose it if Sam simply didn’t come home from one of her hunting trips one day.

“Daddy!”

Max realized with a start Ellie had been calling him more than once. “Sorry, sweetie. Just thinking about what I should do.” He tossed his matching bet on the pile. “I call.”

Ellie squealed in glee. “Three kings!” She laid down her cards.

Max smiled. He may not be able to save his sister, but he could damn well make his daughter happy. He laid his full house face down. “You win, sweetie.”

She clapped her hands. “Another hand.”

“No. I said this was the last one for tonight.” At her pout, he added, “But we can play more this weekend when we go visit Duncan and Sam.” Tiffany wouldn’t argue too much about a father-daughter weekend road trip. With the class load she was taking, she needed some serious study time.

“Can Uncle Jake come, too?”

Max hesitated for a moment. Jake and Sam’s ancient engagement was a sore point with Duncan even though Sam was long over the stunt man turned enforcer.

“Yes, he may,” Duncan said.

“Yay!” Ellie jumped off his lap and ran around the table, singing, “We’re goin’ to Vegas!”

Max rose and stretched, only to have Jake grab his arm and pull him into the foyer of Caesar’s mansion.

“You sure this is a good idea?” Jake’s brown eyes reflected Max’s concern. “I was joking about Vegas. I won’t come if it’ll cause problems.”

Max glanced at the vampires, who were studiously ignoring him and Jake. He knew damn well they could hear everything they said, but he was grateful they kept Ellie entertained while they cleared drinks and snacks so he and Jake could talk.

“Actually, yeah, it would be good if you came. Nothing against Duncan—”

“I am glad to know you bear me no ill will.”

Max jerked and glared up at his brother-in-law. How could someone with his bulk and height sneak up on anyone? “I really need to put a bell on you.”

Duncan’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. He turned his attention to Jake. “You are most definitely welcome to visit the Karnak. I think it would do Samantha some good.”

A sick feeling filled Max’s gut. Duncan wanting Jake at the hotel/casino he ran said volumes. “Are things getting worse?”

“Define ‘worse’.” Duncan grimaced.

“She’s been coming home, hasn’t she?”

“It is not the coming home that disturbs me.”

Alex joined them. “My father-in-law isn’t trying to put the moves on her again, is he?”

Max leaned around the men to check on Ellie. Caesar galloped down the main hallway of his mansion with her on his back. Max shook his head. If he filmed the vampire master, and former prince of Egypt, playing horsey with his daughter, he could make a mint. He just wouldn’t live long enough to enjoy it.

“No, she has made her wishes in the matter quite clear to Ares. We have not had any more issues with unwanted suitors.” Duncan looked perplexed. “She has taken to playing bridge with some of the goddesses when she’s home.”

Max took off his glasses and cleaned them on the hem of his polo shirt to cover his own unease. He’d met some of Sam’s new friends, all of them death deities from various world religions. It was creepy as hell, but what could he say when Sam was one of them? “She’s not ignoring the baby zombies, is she?”

Duncan shook his head. “No, and please stop calling them ‘baby zombies’. They are restored humans, and they have been for nearly five years now.” Lines creased the alabaster skin of his forehead. “Frankly, they are doing better than she. And they are worried about her obsession with the Old Ones’ acolytes as well.”

Max put his glasses back on and rocked on his heels. “Guess we’re coming out to Vegas this weekend.”

* * *

As Max had figured, Ellie was out cold by the time they pulled into their Tarzana ranch house’s driveway. When he lifted her out of her safety seat, her little arms automatically wrapped around his neck and baby snores filled his ear.

The living room lights weren’t on. That was odd. Was Tiffany still at the university?

No, it wasn’t just the main lights. Even the little antique lamp Grandma Neel had sent them as a wedding present was out, and he was pretty sure he’d turned it on before he and Ellie left for Caesar’s this evening.

Crap. One burnt out bulb meant tripping over whatever toys Ellie left scattered in the living room. He really didn’t want set her down on the couch. If he did, she’d be wide awake, hyper about the trip to Las Vegas. Then he’d get an earful from Tiffany for allowing their daughter to stay up so late.

Maybe if he shuffled along the carpet, he’d be okay.

Max twisted the key and nudged the front door open. The hairs on the back of his neck rose before he consciously recognized the scent of sandalwood.

Vampire. Fresh vampire. Except it had been two weeks since the last time Duncan had dropped by, much less any of the rest of Augustine Coven.

The odor was followed by the equally distinctive scent of unwashed human.

Intruders.

Max pivoted back toward his Volvo, but something grabbed him from behind at the same time his daughter was ripped from his arms.

“Ellie!”

Pain exploded at the back of his head. He couldn’t make his arms work. The second punch landed on the side of his face and sent his glasses flying.

“Daddy!”

He struck out blindly in the direction of his daughter’s terrified shriek. There was a muffled grunt before a blow to his back drove him to his knees.

“Ellie!”

Her screams grew fainter. Someone was taking her away. He lashed out, but fists pounded him, boots kicked him until he couldn’t take a breath. A sharp crack and his jaw broke along with a couple of teeth. More bones broke until all he felt was agony.

But it didn’t match the agony in his heart. Someone took his daughter.

Ellie!

A voice whispered through his mind. Your daughter is ours. Make sure you remember that when your world burns.

The fire in Max’s brain consumed him until everything he’d ever been burned to ash.

Sacrificed - Prologue

While I finish up A Modicum of Truth, here's a little taste of Sacrificed. Fair warning though, this is not the final edit of the book.

--------------------------------------------
Duncan

Eight months ago…

It was movie night. Samantha wanted the latest version of the Expendables franchise. I wanted the new Sandra Bullock-Melissa McCarthy comedy. We compromised with Shakespeare in Love, my wife’s favorite method of torturing me.

Thankfully, my head of security, Mai Osaka, rang me before the end of the first act.

“Thad’s out with Leslie and the kids northwest of the city. They found a body. Female. Possibly demon related from the damage to the abdomen.”

Of course, Samantha could hear the entire exchange without benefit of activating the speaker phone feature. She stiffened, and her eyes glowed silver. Her appearance still bothered me. On the surface, my discomfort was ridiculous. As a vampire, my eyes did something similar, but it was a reminder that I had failed to keep her safe when I had the chance. When she had still been alive.

“We are on our way,” I said to Mai.

Our private elevator to our penthouse whined to life. “I’m still here in the Karnak. Please tell Sam to wait for me, Master St. James. I’ll be there momentarily.”

“Of course.” I ended the call and rose from the couch.

“I wouldn’t have left without her,” my wife grumbled. Ozone tainted the air. Samantha’s powers manifested further, changing her clothing from shorts and a t-shirt advocating a fictional character for president to a solid black coat with matching slacks and boots.

I had discovered I could not look at her directly too long when she was in this state. Not without risking my sanity. I focused on a spot on the couch next to her left ear. “Of course not, darling. However, I need to change my clothing if we will be traipsing through the desert.” I gestured at the black sweatpants and t-shirt I wore.

She jumped up from the couch. “I could—”

I held up my index finger. “No!” At her stricken expression, I softened the tone of my voice. “I appreciate your offer, but I can dress myself through conventional methods. Thank you.”

Samantha crossed her arms. “Just because I screwed up once—”

“If Thaddeus and the werecoyotes found evidence of a demon, arguing about my dress now is not a productive use of our time.” I left the living room before either of us could say something else. Otherwise, she would continue to use the issue of my clothing to mask her anxiety of a possible demon incident so near our home.

A few seconds later, I returned to the living room to find my wife and my chief of security whispering furiously at each other. Perhaps they forgot I could hear every word from our master bedroom, but they dropped their argument of whether or not I should go to the crime scene the moment I stepped into the hallway.

And they both consistently accused me of being overprotective.

“I am ready unless you two wish to continue your debate concerning my delicate masculine sensibilities,” I said as I strode into the living room.

Mai’s cheeks flushed a bright pink. At the sweet scent of her blood, I had to clamp down on my instincts, but there was nothing I could do about the lengthening of my eyeteeth or the emerald glow of my own eyes. I hoped the women would interpret my slip as concern over Thaddeus’s discovery.

Samantha glared at me as she seized Mai’s hand. Unfortunately, her telepathic powers had been growing along with her other abilities as a goddess.

Goddess. As much as I tried, I still had problems accepting the concept.

“Get your ass over here if you’re coming,” she snapped.

“Yes, my lady.” I crossed the floor and clasped her warm hand in mine. Everything went black and the floor tilted from under my feet.

Then the full moon shone directly overhead, and sandy loam cushioned my boots. Two high-pitched yips of dismay rent the cool desert air.

“Booker, Deanna, get your butts over here now,” barked a deep voice. “I told you two not to wander off.”

The female werecoyote pup toddled back to the Normal enforcer sitting on a nearby waist-high boulder. The male, however, crouched down and growled at us.

I scooped him up. The little bugger tried to nip my fingers while I strode to where Thaddeus Wolford waited. A shot gun lay beside the enforcer. He cuddled the whimpering female pup.

“Where is the corpse?” I handed Thaddeus’s grandson back to him.

His head jerked in the direction of more boulders. “Back there. Leslie and the kids have been sniffing around, trying to pick up a scent.” He turned in the direction he had indicted. “Staci! Need you to watch the babies for a few minutes!”

My wife’s secretary trotted from between the two closest towering rock formations. Brimstone and ash radiated from the werecoyote. Thad set down her children, and they immediately began wrestling in the dirt. A sharp bark from their mother ended the tussle.

Samantha, Mai, and I followed Thaddeus through the maze of rocks to a shallow depression. Two flat slabs leaned against each other, forming a lean-to of sorts. From the run-off tracks in the soil, the corpse had originally been placed under the slight cover.

“In all my years as a sheriff back in Ohio, I never saw this much weird shit.” Thaddeus paused at the edge of the depression. Four werecoyotes prowled around the area. The female padded over to the sheriff.

Her gray-brown fur faded. Muscles and bones flexed and twisted until Leslie Warner Wolford stood beside her husband. “Body’s been here for at least a week. We were out here running last Thursday so somebody dropped the body soon after we left.” She shook her head and her graying dirty blonde hair flew. “No scavengers have touched it. Not even insects.” She shuddered. “Fucking creepy as hell. Boys!”

The three male werecoyotes, her sons by her ex-husband, backed away from the corpse, and Samantha took up their prowling behavior. Her eyes flared silvery-white. The glow provided enough illumination for Mai and Thad that their flashlights were not needed.

Samantha crouched next to the body. “Honeyed apple. It’s Sharon Tyson all right.”

One of the two women who could not be accounted for after the Battle of Tuttle Creek. Sharon was the one woman we had discovered was supernatural. The poor lady had not known she was part fae. However, no one deserved her fate. If I did not feel the wash of my wife’s rage, the rocks around us humming would have given us fair warning.

“Darling, you need to control yourself before someone is harmed.”

Her attention focused on me. “Haight used her, Duncan. This is my fault.” She jabbed her index finger in the direction of the corpse. A fissure appeared in a boulder with a sharp crack. “There’s another demon running loose because I didn’t find her in time.” She rose in a motion that was unnaturally smooth even by my vampiric standards. “And they left Sharon’s body here to make sure I knew.”

Mai stepped a little closer to my wife, but I noticed not any closer to the corpse. “Sam, you can’t let them rattle you—”

“Shut up, Mai. Just—” Her gulping inhale meant she was trying not to let loose her tears. Or her power. “Just shut up, okay? I’ve heard it all.” Samantha pushed past my chief of security.

“Darling—” I reached for her, but she evaded my touch.

A strong hand grasped my arm as I turned to follow her. “Let her go, Duncan. The kid needs some time alone,” Leslie murmured.

“She is taking this personally.” I glanced down at Leslie’s hand but she didn’t release me.

“The bastards meant it to be personal,” the werecoyote said. “It’s the reason they left the lady’s body so close to Las Vegas.”

“Leslie’s right, sir,” Mai said before she turned to Thaddeus. “You have any extra gasoline? We need to burn the corpse.”

He frowned. “Don’t you want one the witches to take a look at it first?”

Mai looked at me for confirmation, and I shook my head.

Thaddeus shrugged and trudged off to retrieve the fuel. Leslie released me and shifted back to her canine form. She and her sons followed the enforcer.

Mai clasped her hands behind her back. “May I ask why you don’t want Quinn’s people, or even Bebe, to check out the body?”

“Because its purpose was exactly as Leslie said.” I stared at the thing that had been a living breathing woman until a demon had clawed its way out of her abdomen. “To taunt us.”

“But why would the demons do such a thing?” Mai gestured at the remains. Remains not even bacteria would touch.

“This was not the demon’s idea,” I replied. “This was Marcus’s.”

The Ravaged Paperback Is Now Available!

For those of you who love having a hardcopy of a book, Ravaged is now available in trade paperback! You can buy it online through Amazon or Barnes & Noble. If you want to support your local bookstore, you can have them order it for you.

Right before the holidays, a reader asked why the paperback version is so much more expensive than the e-book for my titles. Unfortunately, it comes down to production and transportation costs.

For an e-book, downloading a few MBs of data is relatively inexpensive for me as the publisher. I pay the retailer a percentage of the cover price to host my book on their commercial website (and that fee covers their computers and personnel) and an additional few cents to transmit the book to you when you buy it.

For a paper book, there're more hands in the pot. The printer charges X amount to print the book, which is generally based on the number of pages. They have to pay for the paper, the ink, the machines, and their employees. Then there's the distributor. They've got to pay for the trucks that carry the books, the fuel for the trucks, the warehouses where the books are stored, and their own employees. And finally the retailer in a brick and mortar store has to pay for rent, utilities, equipment, merchandise, and their own employees. All those little costs add up.

In the final accounting, Writer Me makes less money on a paperback than I do an e-book. And that's okay because I know what it's like to want to have a paper copy of the things you read over and over again. (Though in my case, I re-read my own books because I forgot to record something in the series bible and have to go look it up. LOL)

In the end, it doesn't matter which format you prefer. As long as you're happy with the story I wrote, then I'm happy.

In other news, I'll start posting chapters of Sacrificed next Wednesday. That novel will start 2018 with a bang!