Tuesday 15 March 2016

RELEASING ~ Zephania's Chance

THE FREEDOMERS
Zephania's Chance

Publisher: Fireborn
Release: Date: March 16


BLURB
Chance Hastings is alone. The person he was closest to was ripped away from him and sent to the world below the high city. Chance is determined to find his sister, no matter what it takes.

Zephania Aroson is being hunted by his own race for believing their leaders were wrong. The more he saw of the people of Earth, the more he realised they needed to be afforded the opportunity to live. He wasn't willing to stand by and watch the extinction of an entire race because his leaders commanded him to do so.

By saving the life of the human, Zephania finds his mate in Chance Hastings. Together they learn of a legend surrounding Chance and his siblings. With the help of a group of freedomers, Zephania and Chance begin the search for them. Along the way, they save Zephania's own family, and a new legend is uncovered.


EXCERPT
  July 18, 5023 AD had changed Chance Hastings' life forever. His view of the world had been irrevocably altered, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. It had been a bloody rude shock to the system when he'd found out humans weren't the only intelligent race inhabiting the universe. He hadn't even been sure it had been aliens, as by all rights and reasoning they hadn't existed—or so he'd been taught throughout his life. Hell, who had he been kidding? The strangers flooding into cities all over the world were real honest-to-God aliens and not little green men, either. These were more humanoid looking. Word quickly passed from human to human that the aliens had come to take over the world and turn the human populace into mindless slaves. Others were saying the aliens had come to wipe everyone off of the face of the earth so they could claim it for themselves.

  Chance was in the group who believed the latter explanation. So far, from what he'd seen, the newfound alien race was the "shoot first and ask questions never" kind of people. Chance sat against the side wall of Guardian Lowell's residence and took in the destruction around him, trying to come to grips with what he'd found. Inside the mansion, the whole Lowell family had been slaughtered, and by the state of the decomposition, they'd been murdered a good couple of weeks ago—if not longer. Deep down, Chance knew that if his first guardian had still been alive, the family would have helped Chance if they could. Guardian Lowell had been one of the few guardians who'd actually liked Chance and his siblings. The whole Lowell family had treated them as their own, rather than the wards they truly were. Instead, their lives had been forever changed the night they were taken from the Lowell's home to live with a new guardian family.

  Chance's mind wandered over the distant past as he thought about how much their world—the world of the human race—had changed with each passing century. Once, there had only been Earth. Now there were interconnecting cities above the earth's surface—great cities, each joined to the other via endless corridors of housing. The wealthy thrived in the cities, and the areas joining each city were where the poorer citizens resided. Those people were known as bridgers. Chance had preferred his quadrant of the world rather than being one of the city dwellers. The one strange thing he'd seen was that there were no imperfect people in the upper world. It had taken a long time for him to understand why. Then it was only through overhearing one of his guardians talking that he realised anyone born less than perfect wasn't tolerated. Imperfect people were taken to the lower world then left to defend themselves as best they could. Chance didn't know how long the two worlds had been separated—or even why.

  All he knew for sure was that it had been done a long time before he'd been born. He'd learnt since the day he'd eavesdropped on the conversation, how those in charge at the time the worlds separated had chosen who went up and who stayed behind, and the decisions hadn't been done fairly. The rich had been given preference. All criminals, the disabled, and the dirt-poor people had been left behind to fend for themselves. Families had been torn apart. People hadn't even been given the choice of remaining with their kin on the surface. They had been just rounded up and taken up to the shining new city to live, and basically told that if they didn't like it to get over it and start living their happily ever after.

  Sometime Chance had to wonder why he, Faith, and Maven had been up in the city and not on the surface. They were orphans—or so they'd been told over the years by their guardians. It was odd for the three siblings to be allowed to stay together. Usually orphan siblings were separated and doled out to deserving families to use as they wanted. Faith had believed there was something special about the three of them, mostly because they weren't always treated poorly. At one time, people had actually given them respect. That was, until seven years ago when they had been transferred to their latest guardians. Something had changed, and in the middle of the night, they'd been woken and shipped out of the inner cities to live among the upper-class of the poorer citizens, although going from the life of luxury to being a bridger had been a blessing in some ways. Chance no longer had to pretend to be someone he wasn't. Luckily, Faith had been like-minded. A week after they had joined Guardian Kremmer's family, he and Faith woke up to find Maven missing, and the Kremmers weren't answering any of their questions about where their brother was. Seven years had passed since then, and the reality was that it didn't even matter anymore. Right now it looked like they wouldn't survive until the end of the week, let alone long enough to find Maven. Chance knew that if he were going to die, he was going to go out fighting.

  Chance stilled as a small craft flew by overhead. If he didn't move, maybe they would assume he was dead. At least, he hoped they would. From the pattern of their flight, he surmised they were looking for something—or maybe someone. He hoped they found whoever it was before they found out that he was still alive and roaming free.

  Well, they aren't going to get me. Not today... Not ever, if I can help it.

  For the past three months Chance had been in hiding. It was more like he'd been on the run with Faith for the first two months, then in jail for the last month, and since getting out, he'd been on the run again for the last week. At least he thought it had only been a week. The day he'd been thrown in jail, the enforcers had carted Faith off, which scared the crap out of him for two reasons.


  The first reason was because once the enforcers assessed Faith, they would send her down to the surface. His sister would now be classed as imperfect, seeing as she was currently deaf. She'd lost her hearing three months ago when Guardian Kremmer had come home after having had too much to drink and had beat her across the back of the head with the object he'd had in his hand, which, at the time, happened to be a hot frying pan—all because he hadn't liked what she'd prepared for supper.

Saturday 12 March 2016

The Demons Inside My Head

Why is it when you're on a deadline and you are running out of time, new ideas pop into your head until you get the gist of them written down... they never shut up until they are happy that you won't forget about them.

I thought I'd share what I have so far so you can tell me what you think. (forgive any punctuation errors):

CHAPTER ONE...

  The first time I remember meeting Killian, I was three years old. he rescued me from a man my mother sold me to. I don't know how long I was with the man. Honestly I don't remember much at all, just momentary flickers of pain and terror. All I know for sure is Killian killed the man and carried me all through the night and gave me to my father with the coming dawn, and then he was gone."

  Bailey shifted on the sofa where he was lying and glanced at Cayden Moran, his best friend and cousin over the arm. "I don't know what I ever did to make my mother sell me the way she did.

  "Bailey David Rondell, you listen to me and you listen to me good. You never did anything wrong. What happened to you back then was not your fault. I remember Grandmother and mother talking about what had happened. According to Nonnu, your mother had been troubled for a while. way before you disappeared. Nonnu swears she was possessed by a great evil." Cayden said. 

  Bailey could see he was pissed at him for believing it was his fault. Who knew for certain? Cayden may very well be right. Bailey grew up not knowing anything about Marta Rondell, his mother, because his father had removed every little thing that had belonged to the woman. It was as if she had never been a part of their lives at all. when he'd asked about her, his father would change the subject, until in the end he just stopped asking.

  With a sigh Cayden asked, "Tell me more about Killian? Anything that you can remember. Maybe it will explain why you are obsessing over someone you met once when you were a kid."

  "It wasn't just the once. The second time I met Killian I was ten. My father had just crashed our  car. I knew he was dead, but I was trapped. the car was on fire and I thought I was going to die right alongside my father. When I resolved myself to the fact, I thought of Killian. Then he was just there, pulling me free of the wreckage. He took me to my aunt and uncle, on my father's side to raise."

  Cayden tapped the arm of the sofa. "Have you seen him since then?"

  "Yes. When I was seventeen the house I lived in with my aunt and uncle blew up. I was the only survivor. I was starting to believe that somehow I was jinxed and that I was causing the death of all my family members. This time Killian took me to my mother's sister. I didn't want to go, but he insisted I stay with her. I didn't want to be the cause of her and her family's death. I wanted to stay with Killian."

  "My mother is a lot stronger than she looks. I didn't know it was Killian who brought you to us. Did he tell you why you couldn't stay with him?" Cayden shook her head. "That came out wrong. I'm not implying that I don't want you here I'm just wondering why he insisted."

  "Killian told me the next time he came for me would be the last. Next time I would be ready." Bailey answered.

  Cayden moved until he was sitting on the sofa beside Bailey's hip. "Ready for what? And when the hell is the next time?"

  "Think about it. I was three, then ten, then seventeen.  Seven years between each visit. I'm twenty-four now. I think something bad is going to happen to me. I don't want you, Aunt Nikki, or Nonnu to be hurt because there's something wrong with me. I don't know why bad stuff keeps happening, it just does. this time I'm not waiting around for it to find me."

  "So when do we leave?" Cayden stated.

  Bailey shook his head. "I'm going alone, that way I won't get you killed."

  "I'm going. End of story."

  They both jumped as Nonnu spoke from the doorway. "It's time you both learnt the truth about who you are, and about why you were born into this life. The secrets of our existence is no longer safe."

 * * * *

Okay that's all I have... I have no clue where it's going or who Killian even is... I will let you know more when I figure it out. 

Friday 11 March 2016

Writing Updates.


 Tentative Release Dates

Wardens Of The Guild 1
The Real You

Preorder: 23rd August
Early Download: 6th September
General Release: 4th October

Wednesday 9 March 2016

New Idea ~ I Think...

Okay, this is what has been bugging me for the last week or so. I can't seem to get the damn thing out of my head... So I'm hoping that someone out there can help me decide if this is a new story idea for me... OR ...a book I have already read.

This is what I know/have running around inside my head...

NEW DREAM/STORY IDEA (03/03/2016)
·       Guy lives moves to live with his father who lives with Step mother/brother & sister…
·       Step mother is some sort of clothes designer.
·      Guy goes to have a shower SB takes his clothes both dirty and clean and leaves in their place a long skirt and like a girl cardi—when he goes to his room the minimal amount of clothing he has is gone as well.
·      Forced with going naked/with a towel/ or wearing the outfit left Guy gets dressed and heads out to find out where his clothes are.
·       SB is with a group of his friends and laughs when guy walks out in an ankle length skirt.
·    Guy ignores SB and heads straight towards his father—his SM sees him in her design and instead of going off like he and the SB thought she likes the way he looks and has a photographer take photo’s of him—guy is kind of taken aback by the attention…especially when SM asks him to think about modelling more of her stuff (which is all geared towards females).
·       SB isn’t happy that his joke backfired.
·       Father/ SM/ SS are cranky with SB and think as punishment (Just deserts) the AB can wear the male clothes to Guy’s Female clothes in each photo.
·       Neither realise how well the photos go over and they get offered more and more work.
·    In one early session the photographer asks them to be more intimate—almost kissing…intense looks… tender caresses. One kiss actually lands and starts changing everything.
·       During these sessions the more the guy and SB spend together the more they get to know each other they find they actually like each other and have a lot in common.
·       Okay for SB to Tease Guy, but if anyone else does SB gets very protective.
·    Family doesn’t mind—shocked maybe—but are supportive—If too taboo I can change to SB Best Friend.

·       Probably just a one off book told in the POV of Guy/SB, & SS (so we get a third POV for when talking to family and friends).

Thursday 3 March 2016

Why Is It...

Why is it... when you think you have everything under control something comes along to stuff you up? I'm now two days behind in my new writing schedule because of Emily... 

A) had to go to UNI for some careers day thing and then realised they had enrolled her in the wrong class--they messed up by one number--so that had to get sorted out and now I have to spend more money on UNI books... at least the wrong class has to be done next semester so she already has those books.

B) Her automatic car is shuddering so now tomorrow I'll be interrupted because I'll have to pick her up and drop her off at the mechanics--which is in the next town over--fingers crossed it isn't anything expensive.

Kids... they drive me nuts, but I gotta love them.

I won't have time this year to compete in DRitC this year, which I'm a little bummed about. But I'll still be doing NaNoWriMo--I'm not sure what stories yet as I'll be doing 1 & a bit novella's to make up the 50K quota.

Monday 29 February 2016

Today I Am...

Today I'm working on The Connelly Chronicles 2: Beautiful Goodbyes... I have 5 days to try and get it finished in... as on the 6th of March I need to work on the following:

Hidden Hearts 3: Going By The Book
Lancaster's way 3: Pre-loved
Moon Runners 2: I Won't let You Go


PS: Happy first day back at uni to my daughter, Emily S who is studying Law. May today be the start of a great year.