(If you’re here for the Aprils Fools for Love Event & Giveaway, go here.)
Here’s the link to the Weekend Writing Warriors central page, so you can visit all the participants sharing excerpts today…A 
fun way to sample new books and find new writers!
We’re onto a new story of mine, a WIP that still needs a lot of work. Mark, an ex-Special Forces soldier in the Sectors, has been hired by the Outlier Empress to rescue a kidnap victim who’s been taken to the border planet Freemarket, where anything goes and the authorities are usually hands off. Kind of like Las Vegas…he’s broken into the house of Barent Kliin, the kidnapper, persuaded Alessandra to go with him and fled in a stolen car, pursued by the bad guys and the planetary police. They collided with a cargo hauler…Mark knocked the driver out and assisted Alessandra from their wrecked vehicle, after which the couple flee into the crowded marketplace but are now trapped…until a strange little being showed up, offering to help…having no choice, Mark and Sandy flee with the creature and fall into a tent. The owner of the tent is an extremely mysterious being, who prevented him from shooting at their pursuers. She’s offering them the opportunity to Travel…not in a groundcar or a or a spaceship…two weeks ago she showed them the Globes of Amarkana. Now Mark has picked one.
Mark knelt, the gesture feeling somehow appropriate at this moment. He let the Globe roll from his fingertips onto the carpet. Rising, he positioned his heavy boot on top of the orb, and glanced at Lajollae. Features difficult to discern in the blinding aura now surrounding her, she nodded. Mark drew Sandy into his arms. Closing her eyes, leaning against him, she locked her hands behind his back, over his spine. Angry shouting grew closer, Kliin calling the princess’s name. Mark raised his foot and brought it down in one violent motion, shattering the Globe.
And next week Mark and Sandy will Travel.
Cool. Excellent building of tension. No reader will be able to miss that breaking the globe is an Important Development.
And not a moment too soon! Lovely build up. Thank you for sharing.
Whew! Just in time. Can’t wait to see where they end up.
Fabulous – the gesture calm – the scene tense – the smashing of the globe – dramatic.
Great 8! Your build-up was excellent (a bit like the Heinz catsup Anticipation song, lol) Wonderful tension and curiosity definitely raised.
Daaaaaaaaaaaaaamn. Can’t wait to see what happens next!
Great how the snippet shifts from calmness to a dramatic ending with the smashing of the globe. This ending couldn’t have been better for this snippet, Veronica.
Buy-bye, globe. Very excited for the travelling to begin. Awesome excerpt, Veronica!
What a cliff hanger Veronica! Wow! I can’t wait to read their traveling adventure! Fantastic excerpt!
You know how to leave us breathless. What a snippet. Beautifully written with an ending that’s a beginning.
That’s an intense line to end on!
Mazaltov! Sorry. Great snippet, Veronica. Now I want to know where they’ll go. 🙂
Oh I totally get it, Siobhan, and I knew when writing the scene that this would be the thing that would come to some readers’ minds 😉 I just felt the best way to break the globe and Travel would be to stomp on it. We’ll see what I decide when I do the editing. Thanks!
I take it the shattering of the globe makes it a one way ticket to somewhere?
Well done! tight, intriguing, dramatic and compelling.
Great job with the scene setup! Sounds like an intriguing adventure lies ahead. 🙂
Nice job. Good setup and leaving us wanting more.
Excellent tension- a real sense of getting ready to jump off a cliff- and then the gesture of stepping on the globe- awesome.
Wow! Great tension, excellent visual. Thanks for sharing.
Great imagery and loads of tension. I can’t wait until they get where they’re going.
Thanks for all the comments today! I feel really positive about this WIP thanks to The Weekend Writing Warriors…I’m thinking I’ll probably give an excerpt or two from right after they Travel, sort of to completely finish the train of immediate events, but then we’ll move on to a different story.
I can visualize this perfectly, Veronica—this is definitely another winner! 🙂
Loved the imagery! What tension you created.
Great scene, as always!! Love your eight!
I enjoyed the snippet, Veronica. The tension is palpable, and now I’m curious about the significance.
brave, brave, brave. cant wait to see where they end up.
I absolutely love the description of how Sandy grabs onto him. I’m very sold on this story, but wonder what it is that Lajollae and the Globe have in store for our heroes…
Neat method to have them whisked away. And now the question: Have they been whisked to someplace safe? Good 8, Veronica!
Very cool details. It’s an interesting alien way to travel. Does that mean there’s a finite number of globes? Does that fact that Mark and Sandy got to use one make them special beyond what we already know? Engaging!