Princess Oona’s Diary

An excerpt from the diary of Princess Oona Talomir.


Dear Diary,

Another day has passed, and still I am no closer to understanding what I am supposed to do in order to end this damnable war. I fear I am not as everyone believes me to be, and to have them all hanging their hopes upon my crown is a weight I am surely incapable of bearing. I dare not venture a guess as to what manner of alchemical concoction the seers must have inhaled in order to predict I would matter in this conflict.

Father has kept me shut up in this castle for years now. I barely remember what the city outside is like. Assassins, he says. Always, talk of assassins, yet not once have I seen anything. I’m sure he’s being overprotective… or maybe he knows about Kitlyn?

We passed again along the garden walk this afternoon. She looked so miserable, yet she refused to admit her unhappiness. I think she looked at me a certain way, but I cannot be sure. Oh, the price of assumption would be great if she shares not my feelings.

Lucen demands purity, yet I feel nothing purer than my love for her… but it is against the teachings. I know the priests have misinterpreted the will of the gods, yet dare I risk confessing to her? The plea in her eyes may well be only sorrow at the horrible way Fauhurst treats her, and all the drudgery she must endure.

Oh, how I hate that man! He treats her like an animal, and he of middling birth! What nerve! Why does father refuse to hear me on the matter of her station?

I must tell her. It is cruel to my heart to keep such a thing inside, yet if I am mistaken, she would regard me as an abomination. My closest friend, my love, would recoil in disgust. The mere thought of her face in that moment drives me to tears. Damn this war, and damn the seers, and damn Evermoor and all their savages!

Tonight, I shall visit the temple and beseech Lucen for wisdom. I shall ask him to free me of this burdensome crown. I know it is impossible, but I long to return to the days of our youth, when we had been left to ourselves and I could spend all day with her. Before that wretch Fauhurst fell upon her like a plague of tedium and drudgery. I shall have him reduced to a groundskeeper! Hah! To see the look on his face.

If only I am to live up to the Foretelling, but I do not see how. I would end the war, if only to be able to confess my love. Perhaps I shall at that. This silence is more terrible than death. I am a coward. In front of Lucen, I am a coward unworthy of this crown if I cannot tell her how I feel.

I will tell her. And if Kitlyn can no longer bear to be in my presence after that, I shall have nothing left to fear, and nothing left at all. And so shall come to pass the Foretelling. I will lead the forces of Lucernia to victory, and find solace in death.


Freebie | Divergent Fates Anthology

Hi all!

Just a quick announcement – the Divergent Fates anthology is free on #kindle for a few days. It contains a group of short stories set in the DF universe, featuring Kirsten from the Division Zero series, Althea from the Awakened series, and Nina from the Virtual Immortality series, along with many original works by other authors.


In Loose Ends, a false lead from an old case comes back to haunt Agent Kirsten Wren. In JS Hughes’ Last Flight, Raleigh, a shot-down pilot struggling to survive the Badlands encounters a strange child and a stranger reality. JP Sloan’s Snake Oil is a view into the harsh life of settlers who ask nothing more of the Badlands than continued existence, but even that is a prize hard won.

Wilbert Stanton’s Prophet’s Wake follows Cassie Black, a hardened escaped con chasing a hail-Mary payday into the Badlands. Betrayal leaves her at a crossroads between greed, revenge, and a change of heart.

In The Old City, young Althea ventures into the dangerous part of Querq to help some boys who broke the rules, and learns why the abandoned city is off limits to children.

Robert Defendi’s Stance-No-Stance is set in the neo-feudal world of 2418 Japan, where a master duelist faces a conflict of honor when he discovers a plot to exploit society’s most vulnerable for corporate profit.

In The Contractor by Mark W. Woodring, a retired merc can’t resist one last job. Alas, when something looks too good to be true, it usually is.

James Wymore’s Special Project tells the story of Min-gun, a mechanic who lives for hovercar racing in the Korean underground until gangsters get involved and threaten the life of the racer he loves.

In Field Test by Patrick Burdine, a Mexican-born commoner struggles to rise within the political ranks of the Allied Corporate Council. His assignment to infiltrate a resistance cell and destroy it from within offers a chance at recognition, if it doesn’t erase his psyche.

Nina Duchenne is adjusting to her new life with a doll body and a position with Division 9. In Maestro’s Requiem, amid one of the darkest cases she’s ever worked, she finds a surprising glimmer of light for her dreary soul.

Benjamin Sperduto’s Sins of the Father follows a man named Dmitri as his beloved daughter is taken away by the government for being psionic. His effort to save her costs him his citizenship and leaves him on the street, until a chance meeting with the resistance forces him to decide how far he’s willing to go for a lifetime of inaction.

 

Araphel Release Event

Join me Thursday 9/21 at 8-10pm EST (on Facebook) for the Araphel (Daughter of Mars Book 2) release event!

https://www.facebook.com/events/860828650745696/

Q&A, chat, play some games, and win prizes:

$20 Amazon gift card
2 signed paperbacks of Araphel
2 signed paperbacks of The Hand of Raziel (book 1)
3 ebooks (winner’s choice from my backlist)

– – –

Daughter of Mars Series page

 Humans have killed for land since the dawn of civilization, and in 2418, the fight has moved to Mars. Colonies formed by the two greatest governments of Earth compete for space on the red planet, where borders shift with every drop of blood. Amid this war rises the Pueri Verum Martis; a secretive resistance movement that rejects both governments and seeks to define Mars as a sovereign world.

Risa Black is a true daughter of Mars―a cybernetically augmented spy, assassin, and patriot wanted as well as feared by both sides. Many soldiers facing insurmountable odds ask help from higher powers.

In her case, however, the angel speaks back.


 

Convergence .99 sale

Starting tomorrow (9/12/17), Convergence (Book 1 of the Winter Solstice series) will be on sale for .99!


From J.R. Rain, the international bestselling author of over seventy novels, and bestselling author Matthew S. Cox, comes their first co-written fantasy thriller, CONVERGENCE!

Solstice Winters has spent most of her life halfway between normal society and the world of her magical parents. However, when getting caught between two worlds becomes more than metaphorical, being able to summon light or open locks might not be enough.

Neither her love life nor her professional life are going anywhere in a hurry. Her boyfriend is successful and handsome, but she constantly has to compete with his job for affection. At thirty-two, she works as a photojournalist for The Spiritualist, a small paper dedicated to magic and the supernatural – that most people regard as a tabloid. Desperate for that ‘one break,’ she’ll do almost anything to get that big story and get into a ‘real’ media outlet.

Years of always not quite fitting in begin to make sense after an error at a particle physics laboratory alters the dimensional alignment of the world, strengthening magic and revealing an unexpected truth to Solstice.

She’s not even human.

In the wake of an event her boss at the paper is calling The Convergence, magical beings are appearing all over the Earth. Solstice doesn’t hesitate, racing to be the first to capture indisputable evidence of mythical beasts. Alas, being a magical creature herself, she soon winds up in the cross-hairs of not only a three-letter government agency, but an ancient sect of mages with dark intentions.

 

Grab it here:

Also in paperback: