Six Sentence Sunday -- Conduct Unbecoming

So I have been up to my ears in craziness the last few weeks, and completely neglected to post anything for Six Sentence Sunday. But I'm back!


Today, six sentences from my contemporary military romance, Conduct Unbecoming, which comes out October 23rd (and is already available for pre-order!):

The fact that we were gay was the least of our problems if we kept doing this. If we were younger, things would have been different. If I were a freshly commissioned ensign and he were a seaman straight out of boot camp, we wouldn’t have had so much at stake. As it was, we were both too close to retirement to fuck up our careers. Some twenty-one-year-old getting kicked out still had a chance to start a new career, but a thirty-five-year-old who pissed away a solid fifteen-plus-year career with an other-than-honorable discharge due to conduct unbecoming a gentleman? Yeah, that would look fucking spectacular on a résumé.

Want to play along? It’s fun and easy!
1. pick a project – a current WIP, contracted work or even something readers can buy if you’re published
2. pick six sentences
3. post ‘em on your blog or website on Sunday

Six Sentence Sunday - Nothing of a Son

Sunday again already? Wow.

Today, a little snippet from my newest release, Nothing of a Son, where Daedalus, a traveling soldier who is staying with a nobleman during a storm, has just laid eyes on the duke's son, Rauman:

No son of a duke would ever look twice at a man, not if he knew what was good for him. Any soldier who engaged in such perversion would have been sent to the front lines without a shield. Or, now that the war was over, hanged. Maht had no reason to warn me about his son.

A night in the same house as a man that striking. Gods help me, I’d have been safer riding into the storm.

Want to play along? It’s fun and easy!
1. pick a project – a current WIP, contracted work or even something readers can buy if you’re published
2. pick six sentences
3. post ‘em on your blog or website on Sunday

Six Sentence Sunday - Who's Your Daddy?

It's almost time for a new release! On August 7th, Who's Your Daddy? will be available from Samhain Publishing.  Pre-orders are currently available (at a discount, no less!) on Samhain, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iTunes.

And to whet your appetite, here's six sentences from that very book. This comes after Donovan, Isaac, and Carmen make a trip through a baby store so Donovan -- the only one of the three experienced with infants -- could bust some myths about early parenthood. Carmen's gone home, and Donovan and Isaac are now in bed:

Isaac killed the light, then rested his head on my shoulder again, and in no time flat, he was out cold. I, on the other hand, couldn’t sleep.
Going through that store had made this a little more real. Sure, I’d bantered with Isaac and Carmen. I’d done what I could to settle their fears and ease their worries, but I hadn’t put a dent in my own. Seeing all those things we wouldn’t need and all the things we would had brought back every fatigue-blurred memory of Ryan’s infancy.

Want to play along? It’s fun and easy!
1. pick a project – a current WIP, contracted work or even something readers can buy if you’re published
2. pick six sentences
3. post ‘em on your blog or website on Sunday

Six Sentence Sunday - From Out in the Cold

It is indeed that time again...already!

This week, I give you the opening lines of my work-in-progress, From Out in the Cold:

I hated the walk home from my grief counselor’s office, especially this time of year. It was the second week of December, and the evening was cold the way only a winter evening in Chicago knew how to be cold. That windy, dirty cold that threw grit in your eyes just before it climbed under your clothes and into your lungs. Nights like this, only an idiot would walk anywhere he didn’t have to.
Especially when he didn’t have to walk the fifteen blocks from his counselor’s office to his apartment with the train rumbling down its tracks below his feet and sometimes above his head. I still couldn’t get on that train, though. 

Want to play along? It’s fun and easy!
1. pick a project – a current WIP, contracted work or even something readers can buy if you’re published
2. pick six sentences
3. post ‘em on your blog or website on Sunday

Six Sentence Sunday - Wireless

I'm serious, this year is flying by. We're almost to August, and my brain still thinks it's March. I'm gonna wake up next week and find out it's 2017.

Anyhow, it's Sunday again, and that means a snippet.  This week, the opening lines of Wireless, my futuristic/science fiction work in progress:

The ground is always moving in San Angeles. If it’s not one of the massive machines lumbering from one monolithic construction project to the next, it’s another day, another quake. Yesterday, there was an earthquake strong enough to spill my coffee on the sleek stainless console in Sim Room 12, and just this morning, a smoke-belching earthmover—one of the small ones, the kind with tire treads that can only fit two full grown adults—went by and made the lights flicker.
But every other Thursday at exactly fourteen thirty, my balance goes straight to hell. Whatever I’m holding has about a fifty percent chance of tumbling to the floor, so I always make sure my hands are empty and, if I can swing it, I’m sitting.
Because every other Thursday at exactly fourteen thirty, Aiden Maxwell strolls in through the simhouse’s front door. 

Want to play along? It’s fun and easy!
1. pick a project – a current WIP, contracted work or even something readers can buy if you’re published
2. pick six sentences
3. post ‘em on your blog or website on Sunday

Six Sentence Sunday - The Healing & The Dying

For this week's Six Sentence Sunday, how about a little bite (so to speak) of the second Tooth & Claw book, The Healing & The Dying, which will be available on Tuesday. (Pre-order now from Samhain, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble)

We go now to Levi's POV...

"Look, if I’d been given the choice,” Ian said softly, “I never would have converted. I never wanted this. What I wanted was death, not an indefinite life to watch everyone around me die while I avoid daylight and wallow in everything I’ve ever done wrong. I can’t even drink blood without gagging.”
“And I can’t breathe without wanting to die,” I said through my teeth.
“That’ll heal,” he threw back.

Want to play along? It’s fun and easy!
1. pick a project – a current WIP, contracted work or even something readers can buy if you’re published
2. pick six sentences
3. post ‘em on your blog or website on Sunday

Six Sentence Sunday - The Left Hand of Calvus

Sunday again already! This year is still flying by. I hope all my readers are keeping cool out there.

For this week's Sunday six, a little bite of The Left Hand of Calvus, my ancient Roman work in progress.

An important note to give the sentences context: Calvus is sending his slave Saevius to do a little spying on a man named Drusus, a notoriously brutal lanista (gladiator owner/handler/trader, basically). Saevius is also to deliver a gift of five hundred sestertii that was promised to Drusus by another nobleman.  Which leads us to...

Calvus puts his hand on my shoulder and looks me in the eyes as the amusement leaves his expression. “Be warned, Saevius. I do not tolerate treachery or dishonesty.” He leans in, lowering his voice so I’m certain no one but me and the gods can hear him, and he presses down harder on my shoulder. “Give me a single reason to believe you’re not doing precisely as I’ve ordered, or that you’ve breathed my name within the walls of the ludus, and I will have no choice but to ask Drusus if he received the full seven hundred sestertii I sent with you. Am I understood?”

Want to play along? It’s fun and easy!
1. pick a project – a current WIP, contracted work or even something readers can buy if you’re published
2. pick six sentences
3. post ‘em on your blog or website on Sunday

Six Sentence Sunday - Cold Feet in Hot Sand

How on earth is it July already? Insane.

And since today is July 1, that means tomorrow is -- obviously -- July 2.  Which means I have two new releases!  Well, okay, one isn't super new. Out of Focus has been out for almost a year, but tomorrow it's out in paperback.  Click here for links to where you can order!

The other release is a brand spanking new one, and not only that, it's going to be FREE for a limited time, exclusively on Amazon. So, to whet your appetite, here's a little bite of Cold Feet in Hot Sand, where we join Deanna as she's hunting down the man who stood her sister up at the altar, and she's just found him in a bar:

Grinding her teeth and resisting the urge to cuss him out from the opposite end of the room, she stormed across the sanddusted wood floor.

She was about five steps away when he turned his head, and as soon as he saw her, he mouthed “Oh, fuck” just before he looked away.

The fury in her chest threatened to boil over. “Nick Wallace, you had better have a goddamned bulletproof explanation for why you’re here right now.”

He looked at her again, his eyes narrow. “That depends on how willing you are to hear it.”

Want to play along? It’s fun and easy!
1. pick a project – a current WIP, contracted work or even something readers can buy if you’re published
2. pick six sentences
3. post ‘em on your blog or website on Sunday

Six Sentence Sunday - All The King's Horses

Man, it's Sunday again already. And only a week left until July. o.O  This year is flying.

Anyway, this week's snippet comes from one of Lauren's books for a change: my current work-in-progress, All The King's Horses. Dustin and Amy are at a country bar, enjoying a slow dance, and things are heating up just a wee bit...

I wondered if she lifted her chin on purpose, or if she did it subconsciously like I’d lowered my own, and when her eyes flicked from mine to my lips and back, there was no pretending we didn’t know where this was going. My mouth watered with the anticipation of tasting hers. The music’s slow tempo emphasized the rapid beat of my heart, and I didn’t care if we shouldn’t be doing this or why.  

Her eyes slid closed, and a second later, mine followed suit. I moved in closer until her breath whispered across my lips.

And a screaming steel guitar startled us apart.

Want to play along? It’s fun and easy!
1. pick a project – a current WIP, contracted work or even something readers can buy if you’re published
2. pick six sentences
3. post ‘em on your blog or website on Sunday

Six Sentence Sunday - Finding Master Right

Is it really Sunday already?  Apparently it is, and you know what that means...time for Six Sentence Sunday!

This time, a little snippet from my kinky contemporary WIP, Finding Master Right. The boys are waiting in a sweltering hotel lobby to check into their room for the kink convention, and the hotel staff has assured them they'll get the air conditioning fixed, stat:

Might want to step it up, boys, I thought as the revolving doors deposited another half dozen or so attendees into the lobby. At least most of us could improvise if the heat lingered tomorrow. It would still be unpleasant, but we could just strip off layers until no one wore anything but bondage harnesses and hot pants. Half the attendees would be almost naked most of the time anyway, aside from the guys who’d be demonstrating the full-body latex suits. They’d be miserable. And oh, God, the poor furries…

Want to play along? It’s fun and easy!
1. pick a project – a current WIP, contracted work or even something readers can buy if you’re published
2. pick six sentences
3. post ‘em on your blog or website on Sunday

Six Sentence Sunday

More Six Sentence Sunday!This time, something from Lauren Gallagher.  The opening lines of All The King's Horses:

I didn’t go to my husband’s funeral.

It was a closed-casket service, so there’d be no closure from seeing him one last time. I didn’t care to see him again anyway, closure or no. All the tearful sentiments—he was so young, it was so tragic, he was such a wonderful man—would have sent me right into the ground with him. I couldn’t stomach the thought of one more person patting my shoulder and telling me how sorry they were, how horrible it must be for me, and to call if I needed anything at all.

The day before they buried Sam, I quietly packed whatever I couldn’t live without into my truck.  The next morning, around the time family and friends were probably all dressed in black and filing into the church, I climbed into the cab and drove out of town without looking back.

Want to play along? It’s fun and easy!
1. pick a project – a current WIP, contracted work or even something readers can buy if you’re published
2. pick six sentences
3. post ‘em on your blog or website on Sunday

Six Sentence Sunday - Something New Under the Sun

More Six Sentence Sunday!

One more snippet of Something New Under the Sun, the cyberpunk/vampire sequel to A Chip In His Shoulder. Very brief one this time, as Liam and Daniel have a little conversation in the midst of making preparations to kick some ass and take some names:

"You don’t think I can handle breaking into this place after breaking into Cybernetix?”

“It’s not where we’re going, Daniel. It’s why. Are you sure you can do this?”

I swallowed. “I have to.”

Want to play along? It’s fun and easy!
1. pick a project – a current WIP, contracted work or even something readers can buy if you’re published
2. pick six sentences
3. post ‘em on your blog or website on Sunday

Six Sentence Sunday - Something New Under the Sun

More Six Sentence Sunday!

One more snippet of Something New Under the Sun, the cyberpunk/vampire sequel to A Chip In His Shoulder, where we find Daniel and his father having a little heart to heart: (and Daniel is the one speaking; hard to make that 100% clear in six sentences)

"Pretty ballsy for a man whose entire empire could go down if I’m not alive to press a few buttons every day.”

Dad’s eyes narrowed, and his chin rose slightly as he stared me down. I knew that look as well as I knew Liam’s glares and smirks, and I saw right through the son of a bitch. He wanted to call my bluff, but I was alive, wasn’t I? His carefully orchestrated plan to kill me and pin it on Liam, taking out two of the biggest thorns in his side at once, had blown up in his face.

“So I have your attention now, right?” I asked.

Want to play along? It’s fun and easy!
1. pick a project – a current WIP, contracted work or even something readers can buy if you’re published
2. pick six sentences
3. post ‘em on your blog or website on Sunday

Six Sentence Sunday - Something New Under the Sun

More Six Sentence Sunday!

The opening lines of the sequel to A Chip In His Shoulder, which is called Something New Under the Sun:

Less than twenty-four hours had passed since I’d been killing time and waiting to die in a glass-encased penthouse high above the glittering Sky. Surviving? That was unexpected. Waking up naked in a cramped Gutter apartment next to the ex-lover my father had paid to kill me? Yeah. That came out of the fucking blue.

Want to play along? It’s fun and easy!
1. pick a project – a current WIP, contracted work or even something readers can buy if you’re published
2. pick six sentences
3. post ‘em on your blog or website on Sunday