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SFFS for September 8– how do you get to be a super-elf?
Today’s entry at Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday hearkens back to the most recent book in the Clan Elves of the Bitterroot series, THE ELF MAGE. Elf Vez and his mother have been reunited after a long separation, and he hopes to learn magic and win power from her. But first he must come to understand the power structure of the clan–and he knows that most of what he’s heard so far has been lies:
Vez had been taught mages had greater power than any individual elf of the clan, but they were not taught by the Circle, those old dried up witches who believed they controlled their little elven world. They controlled nothing. This, his mother Veraena had told him, saying that several powerful mages existed in and about the mountains, elves who had evolved past ordinary magic and elven skills, and they were the reason the elves still lived.
“Long ago, Vez, very special nians and neris studied the traditions of the clan, and learned the deepest secrets the Lady of the Forest had to share.” In the reflected firelight, her face lit with excitement as she shared the tales. “When they’d learned all the Elders could teach them, they went to the earth itself, which taught new lessons. Clearing the mind, clearing the heart, becoming one with the essence of natural things opened the door for them, the santwarja.”
“A true door, Mother, a gateway to a higher existence?” Vez remembered his heart racing with elation. What marvelous creatures these Intalus must be, how powerful, how able to help others, to improve the status of all elves.
Of course, with great power comes great responsibility–or so they say. And power can be used for good or for evil. Which might Vez choose, if he has the opportunity to study this great magic? Find out in THE ELF MAGE.
Find out more about THE ELF MAGE at the Clan Elves tab above, or at http://clanelvesofthebitterroot.com –buy links at Dragonfly Publishing, Inc.
Find more great science fiction and fantasy snippets at Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday’s main page–enough to keep you inside from the rain all morning!
Ah, sweet revenge…SFFS for July 21
Greetings, science fiction and fantasy fans!
Today I’ve got a selection/snippet from the opening of THE ELF CHILD, book two in the Clan Elves of the Bitterroot series:
He wanted her dead.
All the years he’d been alive, Grigor Biren had wanted…something. An ever-changing, vast ‘something’ that seemed to be just out of reach. He had never been able to define exactly what would leave him satisfied.
Until now.
He wanted her dead. Jelani. The elf queen. The child of elven Linnea and human Vincent Marsh, who’d grown up to return to Montana, to the Bitterroot Mountains, to ruin everything.
And from there evolves a bitter plot that drives that story through the end of book two and into the beginning of book three. But I guess it’s good to figure out your motivation, right?
More snippets from the series are available at the Clan Elves tab above and also at the Clan Elves of the Bitterroot webpage. The books are available at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, Smashwords and many other outlets, or order it from your local indie bookseller! (We support local bookstores!!)
More snippets from other talented sci-fi/fantasy writers are available at the Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday page, so don’t miss a one!
Montana’s a gorgeous place…even in SFF snippets!
This week’s snippet is from book four of the Clan Elves of the Bitterroot series, which I’m writing as we speak.
It’s titled THE ELF GUARDIAN and is due out early next year.
The quandary in the beginning of the story is that a defrocked but flashy paranormal investigator named Chiara DeLuna comes to the forest to investigate the Montana Vortex, hoping to make her name again. She arrives just as the elves are about to conduct their solstice ritual– collision course ahead!
Having just returned from Glacier National Park (above, right) myself, I have to confess I’m as twitterpated about the place as Chiara.
The mountain before her rose with the majesty of poetry to a snow-capped peak far above her head. Another sat to the right, and another to its right, a perfectly sculptured range of mountains that looked like something out of a nature documentary. The breeze was ripe with the scent of pine and the wild flowers that seemed to carpet the ground below. Some sort of raptor flew far overhead, a pair of them, she noted a moment later. They cried out to each other, then executed a graceful drive to the ground somewhere on the far side of the hotel where she couldn’t see them any more.
Okay, so it wasn’t Manhattan. The mountains were of rock instead of steel. And the city never smelled like this–never.
Re-energized, she went inside and called the desk to hire a driver to take her out to the vortex. If the hotel was this inspiring, the psychic energy might just be amazing after all.
For more information on the Clan Elves series, click the tab above or visit their website, Http://clanelvesofthebitterroot.com . For more snippets to make your Saturday wonderful, visit the SFFS site and read all the fantastic bits and pieces filling the creative airwaves today!
A teaser! Snippet for SFFS from book four, still in progress…
This week’s snippet is from book four of the Clan Elves of the Bitterroot series, which I’m writing as we speak. 🙂 It’s titled THE ELF GUARDIAN and is due out early next year.
The quandary in the beginning of the story is that a defrocked but flashy paranormal investigator named Chiara DeLuna comes to the forest to investigate the Montana Vortex, hoping to make her name again. She arrives just as the elves are about to conduct their solstice ritual–collision course ahead! But first she finds Lane Donatelli, who’s written a “novel” about his friend Jelani and the elves, considering him an expert. When she goes to pick his brain, he realizes she’s much too close to discovering the truth.
Snippet:
“You’re effing delusional, that’s what’s wrong with you.” Lane leaned as close to the table as he could get, his generous paunch in the way. “You see things that aren’t there. That’s why that amusement park haunting was a bust. Why you couldn’t find a speck of alien dust in that mountain community nearAsheville. And have you already forgotten that ghostly schoolgirl roaming the halls of that tornado-destroyed town? Oh, wait. We never saw her on your show. Because she didn’t exist.”
Each example he gave ripped some support out of that smarmy grin, and her eyes grew wider, and when he’d finished, the pen slipped from her fingers. She looked like a different person. Maybe even someone real.
Find out more about THE ELF QUEEN, THE ELF CHILD and THE ELF MAGE at the tab above, or at http://clanelvesofthebitterroot.com –buy links at Dragonfly Publishing, Inc.
Find more great science fiction and fantasy snippets at Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday’s main page. I love this group of authors–what great imaginations!