Retire I said. Write full time, I said. Get up when I want. Eat when I want. Listen to books when I want. Go out with friends when I want. Eerrk! Wait, back up. Write full time? That’s work, right?
Did I really think my pod people (aka book characters seeded in my brain by aliens) would let me retire? Get up when I wanted, go out with friends when I wanted. eat when I wanted? Okay, so that stuff is actually happening, but yikes! I am really writing full time!
Like get up, stay in my jammies, bring a cup of coffee to my office, and start writing, until I want to stop kind of full time writing. Oh Yeah!
It was a great month to retire from the old day job because it’s Camp NanoWrimo! I passed my goal yesterday and I’m closing in on a finish to a story I have been dying to write since Book Two in my series, The Starlight Chronicles (slipping in an announcement here – my series relaunch is happening in May!!), because there’s a vampire, one of those secondary pod people you fall in love with from his very first introduction. And he only gets better all the way through to his cliffhanger ending (coming in Book Three!!).
So what better Camp project is there than giving Mortas his own short story. And events unfold that include another great secondary pod person, Ember, the witch. But pod people beget more pod people when writing fiction. And that’s what’s happening in this story. New compelling pod people!
I’m trying to keep it short, which means its 15,000 if I want to submit it to an Indie Press anthology. But it’s pushing the boundaries really tight. So, we’ll see.
Let me know what you think of the story description that follows my beautiful teaser. I would love any help with using it for my submission.
Mortas
Description:
No one remembers how Mortas came into existence, least of all him. Due to his vast age, he can command magic, and his vampire urges. His other inexplicable ability? He can exist in daylight. These skills mean Lord Aramis, the ruler of the North American Vampires, often assigns his favorite emissary to missions involving humans.
But Mortas has not always been at the pinnacle of vampire perfection. He’s done a lot of things in his thousands of years he would rather forget.
When he meets a witch in San Francisco in 1969, he wonders for the first time if it’s possible to live life without being plagued by dreams of regret. But Ember has another calling and leaves their bed one afternoon, never to return.
When you’re immortal, you move on.
An assignment leads Mortas to Selena Aires. He’s captivated by the beautiful, marked maiden with a prophetic destiny. Turns out she needs his help. But Mortas’s help is never free. When she pays the price without question and joins him on a dangerous mission, his fascination turns into purpose. A purpose that sends him into the worst predicament of his life.
~~~
Ember grew up in Fisherman’s Wharf, part of a coven who told fortunes for sailors as cover to more lucrative work, like picking their pockets. When two of her marks got the better of her at fourteen, she got rescued by a bear. To this day, she would do anything for that bear shifter because Andras Johns is one of the best men she knows. When he calls on her to help a vampire in trouble, she doesn’t hesitate to answer.
She pelts him with bunchberries the first time they meet. The black wolf would suffer the sticky mess an entire day if it meant listening to her sweet laughter and the soothing sound of her wings, but he has a job to do.
Selena Aires is fine with her nine-to-five life in the city, using her spare time to create art instead of making friends or finding love, until her mentor insists she’s on the wrong path.
When he dies, her grief and faith in his convictions prompts her to move to a small town in the lofty Sierra Nevada Mountains. But more is waiting for her in Quincy than the invigorating pine-scented air, endless trails, and the perfect artist bungalow. What Selena didn’t expect was an encounter with an astonishing man whose barely restrained power calls to something buried in her she had no idea was there.
The alpha of the North Star Pack thought he’d faced every challenge until he laid eyes on the new human in his territory, a beautiful artist with the heart of a warrior. Andras Johns knows instantly his life will never be the same.
The two of them must find a way to merge their opposing worlds while Selena grapples with her feelings for a man with a mystery beneath the surface and faces a destiny that’s expanded beyond her wildest imagination, a destiny fraught with peril in a world that just keeps getting stranger.
Prologue
Zigan – 1988 AD
Thunder boomed and lightning flared across the wheatfields the night Zigan materialized on the upstairs landing of the farmhouse that hunkered against the storm, square and sturdy in its aged timbers.
The floor creaked under his feet as he inspected the closed doors, using the light from the watery halfmoon. He wasn’t worried. Any noise he made was concealed by the winds that rocked the house. It took him only a moment to sense the soul he was to bind himself with for the rest of his earthly life.
Soft snoring from the room at the end of the hall confirmed her parents were asleep, and Zigan was free to carry out his purpose. Still, he paused at her threshold to savor the moment he’d waited for since he was seven, the year his parents gave him to the Order of Hala.
Since then, Zigan had trained in many disciplines to prepare for this bonding and the challenges it would bring. Decades of dedication had brought him to this time, this remote California county, and to this precious infant. He pushed open the door.
Two children slept despite the raging storm and pulsating light. His own electricity throbbed on the inside of his wrist as he approached the baby girl who came awake when he leaned over the crib. Her arms and legs wiggled in response to the magic he sent surging around them.
The tiny being made no sound as she watched him from unusual ochre eyes rimmed in silver. Eyes that confirmed she was the one. He noted the feature unique to the human she was in this cycle, a heart shaped face framed by a halo of shiny dark hair. These things together would help him find her when she was grown.
A faint rustling drew his attention to the bed against the opposite wall. Her four-year old brother dreamed, nestled beneath a Spiderman cover with his own mop of dark hair peeking out.
It was time to do what Zigan had come to do. He pressed his wrist against the infant’s minuscule left shoulder. An obscure image of a half-moon and a wind symbol tucked next to it formed on her delicate skin. Her eyes sparkled, and she smiled as their souls connected.
He whispered in the quiet room against the noise of the storm, “Until we meet again, grow well, my precious one.” Zigan gathered his mist and was gone.
Chapter 1
Selena – Present Day
Gemma Landry rested her hand next to my sketchpad after setting down my beer, and I pulled my attention away from my drawing to look up at her glittering violet eyes. “Look past my hip. The show’s about to begin.”
A screech confirmed her prediction, and the source of the unruly sound tossed her drink into a man’s face.
“They’re at it again. You can see the air vibrating between them. I didn’t think drink-tossing was a thing in real life,” I said with a fair amount of amazement.
The Starlight’s cook, Kenny Sullivan, appeared at the kitchen door, wiping his hands on his apron. He winked at us while we waited for the drama to unfold between two regulars who got into heated arguments at least once a week. They had to enjoy the constant conflict.
It was the sort of scene that inspired my art, and I turned to a fresh page in my journal and started drawing.
I prodded Gemma for more predictions. “What do you think Jason’s going to do about the message dripping down his face?”
She laughed. “I’ll wager you one of Kenny’s tuna melts he walks away without kissing Lucy like he wants to, despite the insult.”
“You’re on.”
Jason’s posturing didn’t faze his wife, who kept the sparks flying his way. At one point their lips were so close they nearly brushed together, and I thought I might win the bet. But they pulled back before they made contact, and that’s when I noticed something more subtle in their interaction. An odd light flashed in both pairs of eyes.
I swallowed. “I can’t be the only one who sees that.”
Gemma cleared her throat. “Yeah. I see it. And I have no idea what it means.”
Judging by her tone and the fact that the Starlight’s most popular server was tapped into everything that went on in this pub, I was sure she had at least an inkling. But I let it go for now and added more to my drawing, even as the hairs prickled on the back of my neck like they did every time these two dueled.
Though we were convinced something more would happen, it never did. That didn’t stop us from waiting for it. I laid down more charcoal.
“How do you do that?” Gemma said as she leaned over me. “Getting action to leap from your pages. It’s two faces, and they aren’t even moving.”
“There’s a trick to it, and anyone can learn. I’ll show you sometime.” I drew her attention to other intriguing characters hunched over their beers at a table in the opposite corner. “I’ll bet you a chicken salad at Jean’s that one of those men will intervene.”
We looked at five Harley Davidson riders who, for whatever reason, acted as informal security. At least they appeared to be bikers, but like so many things in this place, more lurked under the surface.
Gemma snorted. “Nope. Not taking that one.”
I watched in fascination when the one who demonstrated authority with every move gave a wordless command to one of the other four, a man whose face was shrouded by his hood and even weirder, ebbing shadows. The effect combined with his aura of power kept me from voicing my observations. What I saw was too strange for words.
Jason stiffened in response to whatever the hooded man said, shrugged his beefy shoulders, and left without a backward glance. I didn’t blame him. I would obey the shadowy guy without question too.
The shrouded face bent to Lucy’s ear next. Her shoulders slumped and she nodded. The lights in her eyes retreated. When she joined her friends at the bar, she was no different than any other half of a rowdy Starlight couple, and I could almost believe I’d imagined all the strange signals.
Kenny caught my eye again and grinned before disappearing into the kitchen. Red Russo, the proprietor of this establishment had observed the whole thing while he stood next to Kenny rubbing a towel over a glass mug. I wasn’t surprised when he traded a glance with the honey-blond giant giving the orders.
Gemma squeezed my shoulder and headed to her next table, her black braid with purple highlights whipping around her hips. I thought about her mysterious tone earlier. Gemma might be carefree on the outside, but worry lines etched across her forehead, and she held secrets in her eyes. I wanted to help with whatever it was and hoped she would let me in soon, or I might have to start probing.
Sometimes it felt like everyone at the Starlight had secrets, and I looked down at my drawing, wondering if that were true for most small towns. I risked another peek at the five men crammed into that table. It was no surprise when the blond giant mentioned earlier looked my way.
He nodded. It wasn’t the first time.
Despite the heat flaring up my neck and the fluttering in my belly, my stubborn side kicked in, and I gave him my best smile. He held my gaze but didn’t smile back.
These exchanges were getting harder to respond to because each time, he appeared to question his wisdom in acknowledging my existence. It was confusing as hell, and it had been going on for weeks.
I broke the contact, finished my beer, and turned to another page in my journal. The sketch I landed on marked the beginning of what I could only describe as a reluctant fascination.
Before the month is out- I wanted to say again what a pleasure it was to join this community. And to participate in an author interview. – D. L. Lewellyn
A little introduction: Hi, I’m so glad to meet you all. My pen name is D. L. Lewellyn, but you can call me Darci. I started writing fiction in my 50s…
First off, I live in a state where these are legal to own. My husband is a blade expert. And he’s the best story collaborator any writer could have. That said, this was my present today after a hard day’s work. Something to keep at my desk as I write my urban fantasy story involving Japanese brothers who are animal shifters (which animal is completely unique in shifter lore and will remain a secret until release time), and they come from a long line of shinobi warriors, otherwise known as the ninja. And okay, so this is a pink monarch butterfly design. But it’s still badass. I love it. Thank you honey.
The Nakamura brothers are teaming up with a homeless teenage girl and her dog Harley to find their missing parents. Raelyn has a knack for throwing blades, at least she thinks so… until she comes under the scrutiny of Mrs. Nakamura. My husband likes this story. When I got home today, he told me he had a present for Raelyn.
MTech Knives made this beautiful linerlock it dubbed Onna-Musha, female warrior, because it’s perfectly sized for a female, well-made, and feels great in the hand.
Naturally as a writer, I had to research. Scroll down for photos and a link to the fascinating story of the female samurai, namely the valiant Nakano Takeko.
A 19TH CENTURY ONNA-BUGEISHA. VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.A recreation of a photo of Nakano Takeko, from the 19th century.TOMOE GOZEN BY TSUKIOKA YOSHITOSHI CIRCA 1875. VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.AN ONNA-BUGEISHA SAMURAI WIFE WITH HER NAGINATA BY UTAGAWA KUNIYOSHI, CIRCA 1848. VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.1880 PAINTING BY TSUKIOKA YOSHITOSHI OF EMPRESS JINGU INVADING KOREA. VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.
Feudal Japan’s Women Samurai, Were Erased From History
While most Japanese women were subject to rigid social expectations of domesticity, onna-bugeisha women warriors who were known to be to be every bit as strong, capable, and courageous as their male counterparts… Click Herefor Ms. Hastings account.
By D. L. Lewellyn 