Firlefanz

Second office day today, I've been taking it easy. However, I managed 400 words for the Vampires, and I'm finding out more and more things about the story. Loving it.

Have a sneaky lesbian couple. (This is set in the 1930s.)

This was the third cheating case in as many weeks, and Leander was heartily sick of the whole topic. Emotions always ran high and the results generally weren’t pretty. At least this one seemed completely harmless. The woman he was being paid to follow around did not meet with another man. No, she just spent a lot of time with another woman, clearly a best friend and nothing more.

That meant he could write up his report and tell the suspicious husband that he had nothing to worry about.

Wrote 700 words for the Vampires - a new beginning for the story as the plot comes together.

A bit of a traumatic start, but it explains Leander much more. And Melody is tearing her hair out.

I also scheduled an author interview for February, read a new vampire book (might become a comfort book), and cooked a meal, which is big for me. In other news, it's been snowing all day. And I have to slog through it all tomorrow because it's an office day at work. grumbles

Going to share some Melody tonight.

“Are you even listening to me?”

“Of course.” Which was a lie, she was so tired. Her body ached all over, but worse was the sense of failure. Again and again they had failed to reach targets in time, failed to keep the Shades in check. It was beginning to wear her down, and that had never happened in her long existence. What had changed?

“Winston, we need to find another angle. A better way to protect those souls. Just fighting off the Shades and burning nests is not cutting it. We’re losing ground, you know that just as well as I do.”

Woke up early today with a very fun scene for my vampires in mind.

This book is clearly refusing to be written in order. So be it. This is from much later in the story, after [spoilers]. But it shows a playful side of Leander that we rarely see.

In other news, my new Wolf book is finally also up on Apple. They took their sweet time.

Not much else happening, I'm on a recovery day after the intense weekend with my sister. (It was good, don't get me wrong, just a lot of things and me going into overwhelm.)

Anyway. Have some Melody and Leander.

“Ma’am, we have a report about a, ahem, corpse being brought into this house.”

That bloody caddie. He’d tattled on her, after all, despite the generous tip. If she ever saw him again, he’d rue his deed.

“Well,” she said, putting her hand on her chest, trying to sound as exasperated as she could. “That is certainly an interesting turn of events.”

“My apologies, Ma’am, but we do need to investigate this report. I am very sorry. The… err, witness said that you… err… carried it into the house.”

She managed a tinkling laugh. “Someone is certainly prone to exaggeration. Do I look as if I can carry a person?”

“No, Ma’am, you don’t, and I’m not implying…”

“But you are, Detective.” No, Melody would not let him off the hook.

A sound behind her made her turn, carefully moving as slowly as a human would. Leander was leaning against the doorjamb, saucer in one hand, cup of tea in the other, looking as posh as anyone of the British upper class.

“That corpse, Constable, would be me.” He sounded British, as well.

Today, it's Release Day for my new Christmas Novella "A Wolf's Christmas".

It's part of my Wolf Shifter series "Wolves of the South". Most of my stories take place in the South of the US (hence the name), but this one actually moves to Germany, to a small town I'm somewhat familiar with. Here's the description:

Fred’s little cousin in Germany is in dire need of help.

When Fred receives her aunt’s plea for help, along with an invitation to spend Christmas in Germany, she jumps on the chance.

Little does she know that her sweet cousin is in a world of trouble – trouble that might cost her and her work partner Mark their lives.

Mark is still grieving the loss of his parents and his childhood home. When his pack leaders Nick and Connor ask him to play bodyguard for Fred in Germany, he’s delighted to spend Christmas away from old memories.

Little does he know that the harmless trip to help a young Wolf will end in massive danger to his life and his heart.

*Can Fred and Mark eradicate the roots of Alex’s problems? Can they survive tangling with a wannabe drug baron? And can they keep their hearts safe with all that Christmas sappiness? * If you feel like having a fun adventure, a sweet little romance, and a troubled teenager, check out the book here:

https://books2read.com/WolvesSouthChristmas

Cover Reveal!

While I was out with my sister, enjoying an awesome day in the snow, my cover designer finalized the design, and now I'm sharing the cover with you.

I love Fred and Mark. Love how sweet they look, love the background and the fact that she incorporated one of my very own images in it (of the tower with the city gate in it).

Enjoy the Wolves!

Wrote about 500 words for the Penumbra tale. Skipped ahead to a scene that was occupying my mind.

Still no Wolf cover. Apologies. Still hoping for a weekend release.

Sister is here, and it's good. We're also getting a LOT of snow, so walking will be fun tomorrow. Definitely Lake Effect at work here.

I'll share a bit of Leander. Have fun:

The woman sighed. “There’s a lot to explain, and I don’t want to do that here and now. You’ll find clothes on the dresser. Meet me in the sitting room.”

He stared after her when she simply marched out of the room. After a while, he shrugged, slipped out of bed and dressed in the clothes she had laid out for him. They were a shockingly good fit and of a much better quality than he was used to. Strange, really. What was going on here?

There was only one way to find answers, so he went in search of Melody. Walking down the stairs to the first floor, he realized that he felt just fine. Maybe even a little stronger than he was used to, and there was a bounce in his steps that he rarely felt. A single day after almost dying?

Okay, so no uploading today. sigh

Cover designer hasn't finished the cover yet, which is fine. But it also means no cover reveal. I do hope I can get all of it done tomorrow, but it will be a close thing.

You see, my sister comes over for the weekend, arriving around noon tomorrow, and while she knows I might have to take time out of the visit for my book, she also has PLANS.

I'm writing a little for Penumbra. Still need a good title for that little prequel (and all the others that might follow).

“Winston. We have at least one Shade in this town, and we really must stop it. We need better leads. I’m sure it has already killed, and I know it’ll kill again.”

“Well, why don’t you go and explain all this to the good detective? I’m sure he’ll hurry up just for you.” Yes, Winston was good at sarcasm. He had plenty of time to perfect it.

“You know we can’t do that.” Melody whirled and stalked away, unable to face that man any longer. Unfortunately, she needed him. Nobody was better than Winston at digging up lost information.

Feeling hugely accomplished: I just formatted A Wolf's Christmas and gave the cover designer the number of pages in the PDF.

Now we wait for the finalized cover. I'm fairly confident I can upload both versions tomorrow.

Phew.

I did it!

I just wrote The End under the Epilogue of the Wolves, after a thorough edit.

Tomorrow, I'll do a final, final read-through and plonk the file into Atticus. Tomorrow evening, I'll have the epub and the print PDF, and can tell my cover designer about the page numbers.

I saw the final cover just now, and it looks awesome! I hope can find the time to do a quick cover reveal. Will upload to all stores on Thursday.

I've done this so many times. And yet, it's still exciting!

Not sure where to put this, but I just found a wonderful new review for one of my books on Amazon.

"This was beautiful. And thrilling. It keeps you on your toes because you just HAVE to know how the story goes on. You'll probably fall in love with the main character. I know I did.

I particularly liked that it wasn't romance heavy but very emotional. You really got to feel for all the characters, even those who are antagonists. It shows what grief can do to people and ultimately that love can overcome nearly everything."

https://www.amazon.de/gp/customer-reviews/R1JSG6IJ8A1DKL/

Not a lot of writing - I do need to think about the next chapter of the Penumbra Prequel. There is a side character I need to develop more. (And knowing me, that side char might well become a main char in a sequel.)

On the other hand, I did edit (clean up) about half of the Wolf story. Added footnotes for the German sentences and marked them as German (I hope that will help with the audiobook).

Nothing new from the cover designer yet. I hope I can do a cover reveal tomorrow or Wednesday. Still planning to release on Thursday, but Friday would also be just fine.

So no snippet today, sorry. But help me find a good place to share my Penumbra work... would appreciate pointers.

Not sure what happened to the day.

I ended up writing about 500 words for a prequel for a new vampire series Writer Brain keeps pushing at me. I hope I can keep it to a short novella. Title is "Penumbra". Yes, it makes sense.

I read a comfort book or two, played Spider Solitaire, cooked food (need to improve my sauce-fu) and kind of lost myself.

Let me share the beginning of "Penumbra". (My character kept surprising me, such fun!):

It was raining.

Of course, it was raining. This was bloody New York, after all, and at this time of the year, it was just as likely to snow as it was to rain.

Leander flipped up the collar of his coat for a little more protection before stepping out from under the eaves and onto the sidewalk. He walked fast, with the stride of a man who knew exactly where he was going and why.

In truth, he was just trying to put distance between himself and the body. Discovering it had been a little shock, but he’d grabbed what he had been sent to find and hurried to get away, leaving no trace of his presence.

Leander kept walking, keeping his stride, slipping out of the neighborhood, making sure to shake any tail, ignoring the rain. Something had not been right, something was bothering him, and it wasn’t the body.

It certainly wasn’t the first one he had seen, and more than likely also wasn’t the last. At least this time, there hadn’t been much blood. It was always easier without the blood. Something about that always made his stomach queasy. Not that he would admit that to anyone. He was a damn P.I., and he was good at what he did. Nobody needed to know about his reaction to blood.