Hello word press. I’ve toyed with the idea of starting another blog for a while now. Years ago, I had one with blogger but wasn’t crazy when they changed the formatting. I’ve used word press with several author clients (I do web design for authors on the side) and I liked how easy it seemed to be to use. When I discovered that Word Press had an iPhone app, that was the clincher for the new blog.
My big announcement for this new blog is that I’ll have a new release up at Passion in Print Publishing on November 19th. It’s been one of my favorite stories for a long time and I’m thrilled The Last Sorceress found a great home at Passion in Print.
Here’s an excerpt I hope you’ll all enjoy and stay tuned for a twitter contest and more details about the release. Happy 11/11/11 everyone and I hope you remember to hug a veteran today and tell them thanks since it is Veteran’s Day.
Those amber brown eyes glittered with what looked like amusement. He handed her a brown paper package.
“Here, open it when you leave,” Glenn said.
“Um, thanks, I guess. Will you be doing another conference in the Cleveland area anytime soon?”
“We will meet again, very soon. Do not worry, Maurelle.”
He was gone before she could ask why the heck he’d called her Maurelle. Janet did see him hand identical packages to
Spencer and Anita. Anita gave her an awkward little smile as Spencer rushed straight for the exit. His face was red and his fists
were still clenched. She wanted to say she was sorry for giving
up without a fight. Her pride prevented her from speaking to him at all.
Spencer charged through the door and stopped. Janet almost ran into him.
“Spence, what the—” She broke off as she looked over his shoulder.
One white stone room, covered in thick vines, was all that
remained of the massive convention hall. She would never know
if the vendors or the rest of the convention goers noticed that
the entire network room had vanished, but her jaw dropped as
she turned. They stood in the middle of a huge forest. There
were no forests in Cleveland. The Metroparks ran through the
suburbs, but even the Metroparks had roads. Tall, majestic trees
surrounded her. Deer ran wild and free. A dragon with thick,
blood-colored scales soared above their heads. It’s wild, lionlike
call held Janet spellbound. Hold it, a dragon? No, it’s an
airplane. It has to be a plane, if it was a dragon that would mean
we were all in the…
“M-mom, d-did y-you s-see that t-th-thing?”
“It’s an airplane, sweetheart. That’s all it was. Come on, let’s
go find our car.”
“N-no, that was not an a-airplane.”
“Spencer is right,” a small voice whimpered. Anita
approached. Her entire body trembled. “It was red. It had scales.
I heard it roar.”
This cannot be happening. Carnitha is not real. We’re still in
downtown Cleveland. We’re not that far from Burke Lakefront
Airport. It was just a special airplane decorated like a dragon.
Maybe the air show was in town?
A tree branch snapped behind them. Janet turned to see a
very large ogre with golden-brown eyes smiling at them. “Open
the packages now. It should explain a lot.”
The paper crinkled in her hand when she slowly ripped
through her package. She didn’t know how to react when she
found the leather get-up Maurelle wore and a large, golden
book. The only thing missing was the staff. But before she could
say anything, the handsome man dressed in an ogre costume
handed her a golden staff with a large opal stone on top.
He grinned, and Janet shuddered at the sight of his glistening
fangs. “It was too large to wrap. Go try it on. I’m eager to see
how you look in it.”
“Okay, this isn’t funny, Shrek.”
She winced when Spencer looked to the sky, as if he prayed
for a dragon to fly by and carry him off to its lair. Sorry, kiddo. I
know that one was pretty bad. Slipped out of her mouth before
she could take it back. She sighed when Dazzart laughed. Why
is everything I say or do the end of my child’s mortal existence?
Then again, she was pretty sure this was the end of their mortal
existence.
“Shrek, yes, I saw the movie,” the ogre replied. His raucous
laughter filled the forest before he continued. “Real life is far
more interesting. I wonder where your movie moguls get their
ideas from.”
“Okay, we’ve gotten off track here. We shouldn’t be discussing movie ogres. We should be talking about why you
gave us this stuff. Number one, I don’t have the body to wear this sort of thing…”
“Oh, I beg to differ.” He laughed. “Look down.”
Her boobs had ballooned to twice their normal size. Now, she wasn’t about to complain about it but did feel pretty uneasy
about the sudden chest growth spurt. It wasn’t just her breasts,
though. Her legs were longer. Janet’s jeans looked more like capris. She reached behind her neck, gasping as she realized
her plain old short hair was gone. It was longer and fely like it had been braided. She grabbed the braid, tossed it over her
shoulder, and saw that it was velvet black.
Janet glanced over at Spence and Anita. They had changed too. Anita was now a pretty little elf with silvery blonde hair and
very pointy ears. Spencer was a tall elf with black hair, dark blue eyes, and a frightened look on his face.
“What the hell did you do to us?” she shouted. “Change us back right now.”
“I can’t,” the ogre replied. “You are no longer Janet Lind.
Henceforth, you shall be Maurelle Windhaven, your son shall be
Nidhogg Windhaven, and Anita, you shall be Gilraen Elenzar.”
“No, no, no! No, this sort of thing doesn’t happen. This is a
sick joke. Did my ex put you up to this? Take off that ridiculous
costume now and change us back.”
“Why is my human form more appealing to you, my sorceress?
I saw the way you looked at me during the conference.”
His voice was still very husky and very sexy. It made her long
to see the man beneath that mask again. She reached forward
and gave his chin one heck of a yank. Very odd—it didn’t feel
like latex.
He grabbed her arm, and she felt a loss of circulation from
his strong grip. “I would advise you not to do that again. Put on
your uniforms now, please. The others are all waiting at Fort
Greenbalm, and I have to return in time to welcome the rest of
the gamers to our world.”
She stood there, frozen for a moment, rubbing her pulsating
temples. Her heart pounded, and she could barely breathe.
Okay, so the guy I thought was my knight in shining armor is
really an ogre, I am not Janet anymore. A dragon flew over my
head. Holy crap, the growth on the walls of the network room,
that’s how the bastard lured us here. It was real. This place is
real. I’m really a sorceress. Oh shit, that must mean Adieal really
existed. At that point she did what any woman in her position
would do. She freaked out.
Marguerite's Romantic Ramblings 