Why Yes, I Did Have a New Release

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With the help of the estimable Sophia Beaumont, I finally got this short story collection knocked out and it is now available for purchase! 

The Night Wars Short Story Collection gathers all of your favorite Night Wars shorts into one volume, with five never-before seen stories!

 In Devilry Done, when Lucas decides he wants Ambrose back, he needs a plan. Unfortunately, Lucas has never been very good at plans. By the time he’s gotten Ambrose’s attention, Lucas is in trouble with some dangerous people and broke to boot. Of course, he also gets into trouble with Ambrose, and if he’s very lucky, his former paramour will be in a forgiving mood. Followed by An Eye for Trouble, Lucas and Ambrose are back for another spot of trouble as an old friend asks Ambrose to come to Chicago. Too bad Lucas just got bit by… something and he’s not exactly sure how much help he’s going to be. Poisoned Spirits takes us to Chicago Special Police Officer Ian Mulhane, who has never been stood-up before, so when Billy doesn’t show up to the speakeasy, he’s not a happy camper. But anger quickly shifts to worry, and Ian soon discovers Billy is gravely ill, poisoned by magically tainted whiskey. Ian’s used to the paranormal, but witches might just be more than he can handle.

Fast forward to modern day Chicago in Happy Halloween, Jack’s past has always been something of a question mark, until now. On Halloween, an eighteen-year-old Jack found himself in a world of trouble, and headed straight toward the man who would take him from hustler to cop. In Foxtrot, Remy starts this year’s Masquerade miserable, but with help from an old flame, things start looking up. Across the ocean in Ame, Takashi Matsumoto has spent his entire life in Tokyo. He’s seen terrible things working for the yakuza, but when an encounter with something straight out of folklore leaves him nearly dead he has to revise everything he thought he knew. After he recovers, he runs into an old flame, Daisuke. Can Takashi have a relationship knowing what he does? Or will his past catch up to both of them?

Cary Vaughn has found himself on the wrong side of a lot of people. When he ends up in Edinburgh hiding from one of those people he meets a tall Scotsman in a bar and goes home with him. He spies a small fortune on a bookshelf and takes a chance by stealing it—but he’s not the only one with an ulterior motive in Feumaidh Mi Ruith. In The Ten of Cups, Isaiah Cappelli is trying to overcome a broken heart and a cloudy future. Is it fate or only coincidence that leads him to a New Age shop and a handsome stranger? Christmas comes in This Time of Year and a dragon is loose in Chicago. Howl would be more concerned if the case didn’t keep interrupting his lunch reservations. Partnered up with the distractingly handsome Detective Reyes, Howl is going to have to pull himself out of his melancholy if he wants to solve the case and get back to his Christmas plans, getting drunk while watching It’s a Wonderful Life, alone. Well, not if Detective Reyes has anything to say about it.

In Fiends in Low Places, Simon Murphy, psychic and former thief is trying to rekindle the romance between himself and his FBI beau, Gabriel. Can a pizza date fix this mess? The Raven and the Wolf introduces Bran Morning, he owns an occult bookshop, has PTSD and doesn’t remember what happened exactly that gives him nightmares. Roped into attending the wedding of an old squad member, Bran is in for more than he bargained for and discovers that the body can remember things the mind forgets. Evie Cappelli has been with the Montreal Night Shift for a while now, but she’s about to get the surprise of her life—if a wedding dress and some rosary beads don’t kill her first in L’Île des Sœurs. 

A Curse on the Mountain: Preview

 IT ALWAYS rains.

Myr sighed at the sight of moisture beading on the window. He hated the rain. Hated that it made everything stink of ozone and mold. Myr was a slight fellow, with the pale blond hair of a native Eldoran. He was dressed neatly, a dark apron over his linen shirt, black tie knotted simply, and trousers tucked into the top of his calf-high boots. His hazel eyes, uncommon among the usually blue-eyed Eldorans, held a deeper pain than his outward posture would suggest, and there was an unusual grace about the way he held himself.

“Myr! We have a customer!”  Jole, the proprietor of the shop called from the front.

Myr rolled his eyes and pushed away from the window, his melancholy air shifting as he rearranged his apron and  slipped a smile on his face. It was a mask so complete it erased the pain from his eyes—but it was  a mask. “I’ll be right there, sir,”  he called back. He’d been ostensibly organizing the backroom, though in reality he’d simply been looking for a reason to  get away from a particularly annoying customer. He peered out to make sure she had left before heading into the front.

The shop was kept very clean to  compete  with the damp. The floors were glossy red tile and the walls lacquered wood. Oil lanterns hung from long chains to light up the bolts of fabric and lengths of ribbon, lace, and bobbles. Tall jars of buttons, needles, and spools of thread and yarn stood in neat rows. Large books filled with prints of the latest fashions sat on the countertop.

Myr wasn’t sure who the trendsetters were, but he was starting to question their taste. Goring had made a recent, most unwelcome comeback in jackets and bodices. He’d very much hoped he’d seen the last of it three seasons ago.

A lady and her sober attendant stood in the silks section of the shop. With an appreciative eyebrow raise, Myr noted the lady’s tasteful blue gown and approached her with his best customer service smile. The lady’s complexion was fine and slightly tan, a fashion for the wealthy who could afford to leave the rain-cursed mountain and vacation in the sunny valleys and plains beyond it—or at least could afford the skin-darkening creams sold at the most trendsetting salons.

Her hair was dark and her eyes a touch darker, a sign of foreign ancestry. She wore her hair in braids coiled and pinned to her head underneath a wide-brimmed hat of felted wool adorned with wax flowers and birds, something that could withstand the rain without being utterly unfashionable. Myr recognized the work as that of a milliner three streets over. Her umbrella was made of hide and trimmed with pierced leather so fine it looked like lace.

Her low-heeled boots were a match to the umbrella, with buttons made of round blue stones that matched the dress. Myr was betting the buttons were changeable. It was a common way to update a pair of boots to suit a garment.

“What may I assist you with, milady?”  Myr asked with a bow of the shoulders and sweeping gesture.

She smiled.  “I need a new dress for a winter ball. I would like it to be in keeping with the weather.”

The weather indeed. As winter approached Eldore, the rain turned to sleet. The streets turned to ice, and no few buildings collapsed under the weight of it. Not everyone could afford a mage to spell the ice away from their rooftops with fire.

Myr nodded.  “May I inquire as to your color preference? Or may I be so bold as to suggest something for you?”

Myr had always had an eye for color and a charming smile, talents that served him well as a salesman in a fancy dress shop, just  as they had in his previous life.  He kept his eyes on the lady’s face, though he never quite met her gaze. Cautiously respectful was the wisest tactic to take with nobles one did not know.

“Please do. I have heard you have excellent taste.”

“Thank you, milady.”  Myr led her over to the velvets and pulled a few swatches in green, dark cream, and a rose tone that would bring out the tan of her skin. He draped them casually over his arm and presented the colors to her.  “These would be warm enough for the season, and the texture is quite luxurious,”  he said with a smile. They come all the way from Galei.”

She made an appreciative face and fingered the fabrics with a confident eye. She nodded after a moment. “These would be fine. The rose would do for the bodice, perhaps a fuller skirt than the fashion, and a cape to match with the cream for a liner. I would like a touch of fur. If I send one round, could it be done?”

“Yes of course, milady.”

“Lovely then.”  She snapped her fingers,  and her lady’s maid handed over a  small envelope.  “Here is the design I would like to have done and my measurements. Please ensure they are burned after you are finished. I prefer no one else show up wearing a similar gown.”

“Yes, milady.”

“Very good.”

“Then my master, Jole, will write up  your order and see about the rest. Sunshine be in your wake.”

She smiled. “And in yours.”

Myr bowed and slipped away, placing the samples and the envelope on the counter and allowing Jole to take payment. Jole’s wife and daughters did all of the sewing for the shop, all of the fine embroidery and trimming. Jole handled the money, and Myr was the handsome face there to compliment them into spending more.

He was good at it.

Myr ducked back into the stock room and  wrapped up  his organizing. After Jole finished up with the noblewoman, he joined Myr.

“She spent a tidy bit of silver.”  He rubbed his hands together gleefully.  “I thank the gods every day you walked into my shop. I swear you were blessed with god-given charm.”

Myr smiled.

“Now I’m off.  My wife  wants  me home early. Our son is coming home for a visit all the way from the coast.”

“Of course. I’ll lock up.”

“Thank you, Myr.”

Myr let Jole out and locked up the shop, blowing out lanterns and closing curtains, stoking the furnace in the basement before heading up to the loft over the shop where he lived. The small room was furnished with a beaten and dying clothes chest, splintered in one corner from a recent fall where the leg had broken and was crudely repaired. A carpenter Myr was not. A small wavy mirror of battered copper covered with a thin layer of silver hung over a short washstand with a chipped basin.

He lit the lamp next to his cot and glanced toward to the small porthole window on the far wall, overlooking the street. The thick, bubbled glass was difficult to see through. Jole wasn’t the sort to spend money on unnecessary luxuries. A student glass-smith’s work was fine for an attic room. Myr sighed and took a seat on the cot.  His shoulders hunched,  and his spine bent as all of his poise slipped away, and the mask of jovial calm melted off his face to expose the raw pain.

“I can’t keep doing this, Ryall. I  can’t. I  need  you too much. I miss Quinn.”  He reached under his pillow and retrieved a small silver ring. He slipped it onto his finger, twisting it sharply.  “I can only hide so long. I can only keep  living  for so long.”  He clenched his jaw  before speaking.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know if I’m strong enough.”

Back List Titles

If you are wondering whether a back-list title is available through conventional channels, these are, at current, the titles which are out of print. I'll be going through them in the next few weeks and converting them, putting new covers on, etc, and getting them back up through new distribution channels.

The King's Dog
The Eagle's Scheme
Poisoned Spirits
Coming Home
Crooked
Ame

I plan to wait on the first two until The Servant's Heart  is also out of contract, wrap up the last couple stories in that sequence and bundle them up as a group. Poisoned Spirits will most likely reappear in The Hellfire Boys which will by (I think) an anthology of sorts devoted to Ian Adder.

Coming Home was a one shot, but I loved it so I'll probably just get it back up as it stands.

Crooked was meant to have another part so I think I'll be expanding it before it comes back up.

Ame is a Night Wars short, and may just get folded into it's companion piece, Tokyo Nights. 

If you have any questions about books from the back list, or would like to get a hold of one, please let me know.

Cheers,

Missouri

The Hellfire Legacy - New Release!

It's here, it's here, it's finally here! In honor of the release my blog's gone green!

The Hellfire Legacy : Night Wars Volume III

Everything has fallen apart. With the Night Shift HQ destroyed and supernatural murders spreading across Chicago, the Night Shift circles the wagons. Reeling from their losses, Fynn has to draw on every friend he has left to track down the monster responsible, a chase that will take his team far from home and the comfort of the world he thought he knew.

Questions about his family, an old feud and the Night Shift’s origins will bring Fynn closer to the truth, but he’s not sure he going to make it out of this one. He’s not sure he wants to. 

Ooh...I'm so excited. I promise, this makes up for the ending of the last book, and explains why that book had to end the way it did. It was not something I did lightly, I assure you of that. You can click on the cover image and you'll be taken straight to Torquere's buy page! 

The Hanged Man's Ghost

Long overdue, but here's the cover art for The Hanged Man's Ghost, scheduled for release the second week of February!

The same day it comes out I'll have a side story here on the blog that ties into some of the things that happen in this book. I've heard from a few people wondering when/where there would be more information/stories about the characters from Fiends in Low Places and Poisoned Spirits, well folks, this would be the start of the series that the stories spun off from.

The Hanged Man's Ghost marks the first of three books (Should be three) from the POV of Fynn Adder, who you met in Fiends in Low Places briefly. I'm also working on Sleeping on the Job, which will be from Simon's POV and go into greater depth with his background, he and Gabriel's relationship and all those little juicy bits glazed over in Fiends.

For those of you who've read Poisoned, keep your eyes open, because there is at least one character making a return to the page in this one, and you'll be sure to see Ian take the stage in this series. I'm working on that book too, which has no title just now, but will go into Ian's activities before the events of Poisoned.

I've other ideas I'm playing with as well, and there's still the sequel to The Grave Watchers muddling around.

Once I get the cover/schedule for my other book, I'll post about it, but for now I shall keep you guessing. 

Happy Halloween! (Early, I know)

Poisoned Spirits is out now for those of you in the ghostly mood.

Blurb:

Chicago Special Police Officer Ian Mulhaney has never been stood-up before, so when Billy doesn't show up to the speakeasy, he's not a happy camper. But anger quickly shifts to worry, and Ian soon discovers Billy is gravely ill, poisoned by magically tainted whiskey. Ian's used to the paranormal, but witches might just be more than he can handle.

Snippet:

Thursday night the sun set and we still had no leads on the whereabouts of the ATS. What we did have were three more confirmed victims in the hospital. Nobody had died yet, but Patience was surprised. We managed to find a bottle of poisoned liquor that hadn't been opened in the Domino Room and Patience worked her magic on it.

The stuff was meant to be deadly. So either our victims hadn't drunk enough of it, or it was only a matter of time before they started to die.

Before Billy died.

Jo-Jo seemed confident in her ability to keep him stable, but she's a six inch pixie. I was having trouble putting faith in her. I spent part of the day at Billy's side, hoping maybe he'd come out of it on his own.

But nothing changed.

Sebastien Answers Some Questions and a Contest

Gravetells.com was kind enough to offer an interview up to Sebastien, who after a few shots of bourbon, was more than willing to facilitate. Check out the full interview for some fun facts.

 In celebration of the Review/Interview, I'm running a little contest. Comment on this post with answer to how many stars Sebastien gave Bones and using a random number generator I shall choose a winner.

The winner's name will go into my next book (if you'd like to be a dead body, random bad guy or witness I'll take preference into consideration) and a copy of my new short, The King's Dog.

The contest will run until Midnight, EST, October 8th, so get commenting!

Cheers,

Missouri

Review

The Gravetells review of The Grave Watchers, is out now. An interview with Sebastien will be up on October third.

Shifting Steam

Submitted my Shifting Steam short for that anthology. *fingers crossed* A thank you goes out to my beta readers today. You are all amazing!

In other news, I'm still mashing away at the Grave Watcher's sequel, still working on the sequel to something else and enjoying a couple days with my family as they just came in from the east coast.

Also reading--lots of reading. I checked my count for the year and nearly choked. So far, this year, (counting graphic novels) I've read ninety books. (Twenty five of those (I think) were graphic novels)
 No matter how you slice that, it's fair impressive. My goal was 52. Well, I think I've met that goal for the year. At the moment there are seven books on the floor waiting to be read, and I know for a fact three books are coming out this summer that I want to read.

It seems Jim Butcher is coming to my neck of the woods on his book tour, which means getting to meet him and get Ghost Story signed! I'm very excited. His full schedule is here, and really, I can't believe I got this lucky! Now to get the day off work...

Writing!

Despite the fact that's it been a week since I slept more than five hours at a time (or at night) I've managed to write. I'm working on Death's Children, which should be the sequel to The Grave Watchers. (I need a name for this series.)

So, in the spirit of sharing, there's a short excerpt of the first chapter after the jump. Enjoy.

Word of the Day: Solidus [sol-i-duhs] (n) : technical name for the slash (/) punctuation mark. 

One of the Other Dwarves...

So I'm currently a combination of Sleepy, Grumpy, and Dopey. I've never had insomnia this bad, so it's sort of beating the hell out of me. Really, I ache all over and I'm starting to think the lamps are talking about me behind my back.

All right, the sleep deprivation hasn't resulted in auditory hallucinations yet, but I'm starting to wonder.

You would think I'd have gotten writing done, but seeing as all I and my body (as evidenced by the achy-ness) wants to do is sleep and possibly eat on occasion, that hasn't happened. Which is disappointing on another level as I have anime to watch (Trigun, lent to me by Sine (her name has an accent over the i I can't seem to put on here, and is pronounced She - nah) and currently unwatched. I haven't ever watched it so...) and a pair of library books. The first being Magical Kingdom for Sale, Sold! by Terry Brooks, one of the Landover novels. Oddly enough, I have read one of them, Tanglebox, which is like, the fourth book. Silly me never went back and read the others so I'm trying to remedy that.

The other is Bloodhound, the second Beka Cooper book by Tamora Pierce. Despite the fact that I am no longer a teenager, I still read them.

Yesterday morning/lunch I went and saw Sucker Punch. I was pleased to see, after, that my friends were just as unsure as I was. It is, undeniably a stunning film from visual and technical aspects. It has very neat transitions, I think it was well written and well acted.

I'm just not sure if I liked it. Seeing as I was the only sleep deprived one in the group, I thought perhaps it was altered state of mind, but the others were of the same frame and we tend to agree on films. (Not always though, there is the issue my love for John Wayne and adult comedies of the Hangover variety which Sine finds to be weird). I think I'll have to watch it again to make any cohesive decision.

Word of the Day: Somnolent [som-nuh-luhnt] - sleepy, drowsy. Tending to cause sleep.

Welcome!

First post...well, first off, I'm a writer. That should be the first thing said. I enjoy ice cream in winter, hot cocoa in the summer and may have lived out of a suitcase for a touch too long for my own well being.

More importantly, I now have a closet! This was a fantastic accomplishment, really.

That makes no sense out of context I am certain.