Rainbow Snippets - Valraven

The raven flew above the battlefield amidst a bickering horde of his blue-winged brethren, waiting for victory to signal their turn below. Soon they would feast on the vanquished.

One of the others, too impatient to wait for the men to quit the field of war, landed at the edge of the struggle and hopped forward. A warrior sprawled on the ground stained red with his spilt blood. But when the gluttonous bird would have feasted, a drengr stumbled back and nearly trod upon the foolish creature.

The man brought his shield up to block an ax strike aimed at his undefended neck. He moved slowly and the blade bit into the wooden round, catching on the rim. While the ax-welder ripped the shield from his hands, he seized the opportunity to sink his sword into his opponent's gut.

The hot scent of blood followed by the sour stench of bowels filled the air. Not the last to feed war's followers this day.

Drawn off balance by his shield, another's spear point breached the hollow of his shoulder. He fell forward and clipped his head against the haft before it shattered under his weight.

The battle raged on without the warrior. The man would be his.

Valraven from valravn/valrafn. Val means the dead fallen in battle. Valravn is a raven who feasts on the war-fallen. In some versions of the mythos, if a valravn eats the heart of a king, he becomes a knight. For the vikings, this was not as distasteful as it sounds to modern readers. Ravens were revered because this is a culture built on war and glorious death.

The above is a snippet from the prologue of my newest story Valraven, a viking age paranormal story of war and betrayal.
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Rainbow Snippets - Currently Untitled Ice Age Story

Wall painting of Megaloceros

My current WIP is set during the Ice Age approximately 11,000 years ago. Once again, I am creating a culture based on a few scattered facts and the cultures descended from them. I am filling in a lot of blanks.

I feel fairly comfortable stating that any individual "fact" was likely contemporaneous to the existing cultures of that vast time period. But did they all co-exist in one group of people? There's no way of knowing.

I am having nearly as much fun researching all the prehistoric techniques for fine starting, shelter building, stone knapping, basket weaving, hunting, fishing, preparing food and anything else like this wall painting I run across.

I hope to provide a colorful background on which to base my story of heartache, loss, and learning to live again.

So here is my snippet. I hope you enjoy it.

Kantu slipped his spare snowshoes on and slung his pack onto his back. Behind him, The People rested once more in their home with all their possessions. Black smoke boiled into the sky, alerting their enemies that one still lived.

Turning to stare up at the cave mouth, Kantu let the old words slip from his lips. Words as ancient as The People themselves, words that only the now-dead shaman had understood. His clan was gone. Once he died, no one would sing the sacred words to calm the spirits and guide him back to his lover's side. Without the clan to remember them, the ancestors' fires would go out one by one.

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Rainbow Snippets - Save a Horse, Dive a Cowboy

Working on the second draft of Save a Horse, Dive a Cowboy. Adding depth of character and setting, background and sensory information.

He'd had a headache the day before too. What was going on?

Shep stood on the front porch, stamping his feet into his boots. His wet hair slicked back from his face. He glanced up at Charlie's approach and picked up two steaming mugs.

Then Charlie smelled the heavenly fragrance of coffee and knew. Caffeine withdrawal headache.

Maybe he could convince Shep to add Banamine granules to his sweet feed.

They kept a store of the pain meds on hand for minor injuries sustained by the horses. What Charlie wouldn't do for some now. Or some of that coffee.

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Rainbow Snippets - Save a Horse, Dive a Cowboy

Finished the rough--very rough--draft of Save a Horse, Dive a Cowboy.

Now to collect feedback and round out the story with layering--the five senses, back story, foreshadowing and all that stuff.

Hope you enjoy the ending.


Shep shook his head. Clearly, the orgasm had shaken all the sense out of Charlie.

He cleaned them both off and stripped off the nurse costume before crawling into bed. Charlie lay on his side, draped over Shep's uninjured side.

Wrapping an arm around him, Shep pulled his head to rest on his shoulder.

"I thought you said if it wasn't strenuous, it wasn't sex."

"That's right. But this was making love."

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Rainbow Snippets - Save a Horse, Dive a Cowboy

I'm nearing the end of the rough draft of Save a Horse, Dive a Cowboy. Then of course, I work it over again and again, send it to beta readers. And so forth.

Shep has just gotten home after having surgery to fix his broken leg. He's stumping around on crutches wearing a cast.

Charlie's muscles bunched and flowed under flushed sweaty skin. Shep's mouth dried and his cock filled. Damn! What he wouldn't give to get down and dirty with the man right now.

"Hold that thought. Neither one of us is getting any until the doctor says we can."

"But he sent me home with some really good meds!"

"What were his instructions?"

"No strenuous activity."

"Exactly. And if it doesn't qualify as strenuous activity, it doesn't qualify as sex."

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Rainbow Snippets - Save a Horse, Dive a Cowboy

This week's snippet is from my WIP, Save a Horse, Dive a Cowboy.

Charlie nibbled on Rose's withers, grooming her. Her teeth scrapped his skin in return, sending little shivers through him.

The sun bore down on him, heating him through. He swished his tail languidly, keeping the flies off them both. Rose's tail swept down his muzzle and an intoxicating scent filled his nostrils.

Summer didn't get much better than this.

***

This summer sucked! Shep had had nearly all the summer he could stand. He couldn't wait for it to be over. First Hoss lost his shoe, then the asshole at the dive lessons started shit and pissed Hoss off, next one of the hoses found a weak spot in the garden fence and they ate or trampled everything... and was that a fucking coyote laughing at him?

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Rainbow Snippets - Save a Horse, Dive a Cowboy

This week's snippet is from my WIP, Save a Horse, Dive a Cowboy. Shep is working to earn his diving certificate so he can save Hoss. Wish them both luck!

I know it's a bit more than usual, but I felt it was necessary.

Charlie dropped to his knees and rolled, hooves straight up to the sky. He wriggled for a few moments, then rolled upright. The sun warmed him and his eyes drooped.

He wondered what Shep was doing right now.

***

The door closed behind Shep and before he knew what was going on, Chris had shoved him against the door and had his lips on Shep. What the hell?

He dropped his duffle and scuba gear with a clatter and a wince. I hope nothing broke.

Grabbing Chris's shoulders, Shep shoved him back. "Whoa! Wait. What's going on?"

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Rainbow Snippets - Save a Horse, Dive a Cowboy

This week's snippet comes from my rom-com shifter story Save a Horse, Dive a Cowboy. Shep is trying to earn his diving certificate so he can save Hoss.

"Cecil...?"

"Shep."

"But it says here Cecil...." The guy glanced at the clipboard in his hand and gave him a strange look. Was that pity? "Orville Shepherd."

"Just call me Shep."

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Rainbow Snippets - Save a Horse, Dive a Cowboy

This snippet is from my current WIP, Save a Horse, Dive a Cowboy. I blame this on Josh Lanyon, Dianne Thies, Felice Stevens, Sanna Solin, and PD Singer.

Save a Horse, Dive a Cowboy: What's a cowboy to do when his horse loses a shoe?

"I think my horseshoe is loose. I need you to look at it later and make sure it's secure."

Shep's eyes widened. "The magic one?"

Charlie nodded, although the shoe wasn't really magic.

"You've got to be more careful. If you lose it, you'll be stuck as a horse. Then what will I do?"

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Rainbow Snippets: A Shared Love

Coridan leaned forward and Theron's arm slid from his shoulders. When Coridan set his bowl on the ground for Ictis, Theron noticed numerous scars on his forearm ranging from red to almost white. The thin jagged seams marred him from wrist to elbow.

How did I miss them?

Theron stroked his left wrist, fingers circling similar marks there. After every helot he'd killed, he'd marked himself. Practicing for what he would do after he slew Andreas.

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Rainbow Snippets - A Shared Love

Today's snippet is from A Shared Love, the final book in the Spartan Love arc of Apollo's Men. It's a lot longer than six sentences, but I think I can be forgiven for not being able to cut it shorter.

But Theron wasn't ready to be absolved. "Then they wanted me to kill Andreas! And I nearly did. I went to his home intending to take his life with my own hands." He had to stop and swallow a few times. "I felt trapped and angry...and more scared than I have ever been."

Coridan held his peace, a haunted look in his eyes. Theron didn't know what he would have done if Coridan had offered some meaningless platitude. Allowing Theron to continue, "I didn't eat or sleep in the days it took me to travel from the Karneia. I started at the top of the list and slew three men until I came to his name. All I could think was if not me then the ephors would just send someone else. Someone who might hurt him not just take his life.

"So I sat there on his bed with Ictis, waiting for him to come to me and die," he choked out, pausing to try and swallow down the mass of grief clogging his throat. Drawing a deep breath, he continued, "You can't imagine how that feels."

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Rainbow Snippet - A Shared Love

Andreas, Theron, and Coridan are traveling to Corinth and thence to Delphi. Along the way they must pass Agamemnon's  ancient fortress of Mycenae, now the abode of thieves.

The brooding bulk of the Mycenaean hill fort stared down on them, sizing them up like goats waiting to be sacrificed for its splendor. The weight of the cyclopean stone wall, haphazardly darkened by fire, threatened to bow his back permanently.

Andreas had never seen anything built on this scale with, of all things, giant stones. In his experience, homes were made of mud brick and wooden palisades protected villages. Even Tegea's stone walls couldn't rival what he saw before him now. How imposing must the city have been in all its glory?

He doubted Perseus had known when he forced the Cyclopes to build his ramparts to what end his kingdom would come.

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Rainbow Snippet - A Shared Love

A dream from A Shared Love.

A wolf paced toward them. Frantic to protect his lover from the creature, Coridan pulled Lysander's slack body into his lap and wrapped himself around him. "You can't have him!"

The she-wolf whined and crept slowly closer. She sniffed Lysander's outflung hand. Then pointed her nose skyward and gave voice to his grief and fear. All the emptiness and pain in his heart rushing out with their anguished cry.

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Rainbow Snippets - A Shared Love

This snippet is from A Shared Love, the final book in the Spartan Love arc.

A dark whirlwind swept around him, snapping at his legs. Theron barely swung in time to drive the creature off, sadly without doing any damage of his own. His heart thumped harshly. He'd almost been hamstrung. If he'd been any slower, he would have provided the beast with dinner, or at the very least been crippled for life.

Small branches crashed, giving way under its solid bulk. A low snarl reverberated through the night-dark air, allowing Theron to track the creature's return path. He turned with it, every sense bent on keeping him alive.

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Rainbow Snippet - Homecoming, A Tested Love Bonus Scene

Homecoming is an A Tested Love bonus scene featuring Apollo x Halys. You can read it in it's entirety on Charley Descoteaux's blog. Warning: NSFW

Halys knelt on the cool marble of the antrum, awaiting his lord's return.  The doorkeeper had kept watch and informed him when his lord Apollo's chariot was seen approaching. Halys had hurried to the bench next to the door with a pile of soft cloths and a bronze bowl of warm water.

The torches guttered, throwing wild shadows on the walls. Smoke filled his nostrils and spoke of secret things, passions best shared in the dark. Had the goddess of lust and sex exerted her wiles on his lord?

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Rainbow Snippet - A Shared Love

This snippet is from my current WIP, A Shared Love, the final book in the Spartan Love arc of the epics of Apollo's Men.

The wolf stretched out alongside the reclining youth with a wolfish sigh.

"Your warmth is appreciated, my lady. You are the first woman to share my blanket."

The she-wolf seemed to have taken an interest in the young man she guarded. The rest of her pack kept their distance from the warrior, but not her. She curled up next to him with the air of a companion.

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Rainbow Snippet - A Shared Love

Kyria, one of Apollo's sacred wolves

This snippet is from my current WIP, A Shared Love, the final book in the Spartan Love arc of the epics of Apollo's Men.

Apollo is checking in on the young Spartan warrior Coridan. After the death of his lover, Coridan wandered off to die. Apollo found him and commanded Coridan to serve him. Apollo set his wolves to guide Coridan to Delphi.


"How much farther do you think until we reach Tegea, Kyria?"

The wolf that the warrior named "Lady" grumbled a response.

"Not much for geography? You should have paid better attention to your tutors." The mortal chuckled. "Maybe I should have as well. Then I wouldn't have to ask you such things."

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Rainbow Snippet - Body Language

"Are you all right, you son of Seth?"

"Narses?" Lykos drew a deep breath, one he hadn't expected to lay claim to. The wound in his side twinged in protest. He would have to take care not to repeat that mistake. "The bandits?"

"All dead."


To read more about prince Lykos and the young man he rescued, you can download Body Language for free at Smashwords.

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Rainbow Snippet - A Tested Love Follow-Up

Ahead, some women chatted while filling clay vessels with water. Their children ran about the small open square, laughing and shrieking in delight. Theron’s lip curled. These children were too old to be playing games. They would have been part of the agōgē by now had they been born Spartan, learning how to be adults.

Previous snippet was in Andreas' POV. This one is Theron's POV.

Rainbow Snippet - A Tested Love

Coridan and Lysander had been together from the time they were seven years old. So young. Even now they'd barely left their childhood behind. What childhood? They were born for war, did nothing but train for war. Andreas didn't know Lysander or Coridan, but that didn't prevent his grief at their fate from taking deep hold.

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