Sometimes you just shouldn’t mess with the woman… SFFS for February 1

Today’s snippet comes from WIP JOURNEYS, the second volume in the Color of Fear series, that follows WINDMILLS. Lin Kwan and Valery Paz have started their trip east to find Kwan’s father in Cincinnati, carrying their precious medicine, but one of their traveling companions has come up on the losing end of a meeting with a rattlesnake. They stop in Holden, Utah to pick up some medicine at what they think is an abandoned drug store. But they’re not quite right about that:

***

The display came crashing over on top of Kwan, driven by a heavy male body that took her down. Her head hit the floor and she blinked dizzily, trapped under the man’s weight. Light flashed off the barrel of a gun in his right hand.

   She reached out almost instinctively, grabbed the gun from the inside of his grip with her left hand as she flexed her knee into his crotch. He pulled back and she planted her foot solidly in his midsection and pushed, squeezing her fingers tight on the gun, his momentum allowing her to pry it into her own hand. She slapped it into her right, pointing it at him.

   Surprised blue eyes locked with hers. “Now just take it easy, miss—”

   Another gun cocked, above them. Valery said, “No, chief, you take it easy—get your ass up and I won’t put a bullet in your head.”

***

If you’re interested in catching up on the first part of the story, you can find the sci-fi YA post-apocalyptic novel WINDMILLS at Amazon or Barnes and Noble .

Bio-terrorists release a plague in the United States that spreads to kill most of the world’s Caucasian population. As the deadly virus mutates, Tzu Shin, a renowned medical doctor and biologist, defects from China to help develop a cure. His only daughter, Lin Kwan, is left behind in Hong Kong with her aunt.

Then Kwan’s father summons her from across the sea to bring him Chinese medicinal herbs he needs to develop a cure. Lonely and missing her parents, she accepts the challenge, traveling with her sensei Li Zhong to the New World.

But a Chinese assassin is on her trail, determined to kill her and Li Zhong, and when Kwan discovers her father has disappeared, she sets out on a journey to find him and deliver her precious cargo, a quest that she may not survive.

Book two should be released some time this summer, and carries the story east as Kwan and her companions head for what remains of civilization in the east, perhaps St. Louis, Cincinnati or beyond, unaware that danger travels with her every step of the way.

I’ve got a bad feeling about this… Sci-Fi Fantasy Saturday for 1-25

Greetings from the frozen Northland! I used to live in Montana, where THE ELF MAGE is set, and I decided to leave there because it just got too cold in the winter. So today I woke up to -3 (-16 with the wind chill) here in Pennsylvania, and in Missoula, it’s 22 degrees. What’s up with that?

Anyway, as I sit here bundled up in my chair and just my fingers sticking out so I can type, I wanted to share a snippet of THE ELF MAGE, part of the Clan Elves of the Bitterroot series. This piece is near the beginning of the third book, just after the elf prince has been abducted by persons or elves unknown and the clan nearly destroyed. Daven Talvi, whose pride helped bring things to this point, has come to after being knocked out in a fight, in the queen’s enchanted home, finding himself alone and everything in shambles:

Astan had many times expressed his concern since the queen came to live in the forest with the clan, worried that Grigor had not perished alone in the forests, and that he would return to avenge his dead master Bartolomey. But Daven had counseled his son not to take action, to wait and watch. Astan disagreed, but obeyed his father, as duty required.

            And look where that has brought you.

            Truly Daven had underestimated the evil Grigor held within him, the sense of blackness that still pervaded the atmosphere inside the queen’s home. As a fullblood elf, well-trained in the ways of divination, Daven perceived several mental voices, several personas who had left the barest impression of themselves behind, an impression of menace and ill-will.

            Something about one in particular felt familiar to Daven. Something he had not felt for many years. Something so vague he couldn’t put a name to it yet. But he would.

***

And thus begins a transformation that will lead to the biggest battle this clan has ever endured…that may be the end of them all.

For more on the series, visit the Clan Elves page or my tab above, or check it out at Amazon.com .

For other amazing snippets from sci-fi fantasy authors around the world, check out this week’s edition of SFFS here!

Uncovering BATTLE CRY–coming in June 2014

#CoverReveal:  BATTLE CRY by Melissa Snark

 

BATTLE CRY by Melissa Snark

 

A Victoria Storm novel

 

#3 Loki’s Wolves series

 

Genre:  Paranormal/urban fantasy

 

Coming in June 2014  * * *  Add to your Goodreads Shelf

 

“We meet Valkyrie Victoria Storm in the middle of a blood bath, and we did continue on from there. I must say Melissa Snark has all the makings of an awesome story teller.”

Gloria Lakritz

Sr. Reviewer and Review Chair for the Paranormal Romance Guild

 

“A definite must read for anyone who enjoys urban fantasy.”

Lisa Lester

Fight For Your Write Blog

Melissa Snark

 

 

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better…