October | 2015 | Veronica Scott

(If you’re here for the SFRB Showcase, it can be found at this link.)

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 authors! (Also welcome to the Sunday Snippet visitors!)

I’ve switched to an excerpt from a brand new novella set in my version of ancient Egypt, working title Healer of the Nile, which is for a boxed set later this year.

Tadenhut, elder son of a noble house and heir to the Hunting Cat estate, has been gravely injured in a battle against Pharaoh’s enemies and brought home to die. Mehyta, a woman from the estate’s village who has skills as a healer, has been ordered to assist the physicians in his care.

Having used her healer’s magic to assess his injuries, she finds herself dreaming of Tadenhut, who remains in a coma in the real world. Her dream takes place on a battlefield, after the combat has ended. I’ve skipped a few sentences of conversation between the end of last week’s excerpt and today’s.

Together they climbed the low rise, Tadenhut assisted her on the uneven footing, and when Mehyta reached the top, she saw nothing but a thick mist completely encircling the valley where the battle had occurred.

“When I first found myself here, I explored the boundaries of my prison, thinking there must be more, must be some path to freedom.” Tadenhut released her hand, gesturing for her to precede him, “Go ahead, try to keep walking.”

She did so, taking about ten steps into the swirling fog and then retracing her path to his side before she lost all sense of direction. “I had no problem.”

Jaw clenched, he nodded. “Now observe what happens to me.” He ran full tilt at the mist as if going into battle, and vanished from her sight between one step and the next, pale tendrils of fog enfolding him.

Astonished, Mehyta pivoted in a circle, searching for him. Behind her she heard a shout and located Tadenhut standing beside the chariot with Pharaoh’s standard, returned somehow to the spot where he’d fallen.

Next week I’ll share what Mehyta discovers about the nature of the mist. I might go a few sentences beyond that (so maybe one further week, depending on where the scene break fits), as she has a dilemma to resolve, but then we’ll have to let the story go and switch to something else.

I don’t have a cover or a blurb for this one yet. but in includes copious quantities of magic and a bit of romance, of course. Locked in his coma, Tadenhut isn’t as ready to give up his hold on life as everyone assumes, especially after this meeting in the dreamspace. The novella took on a sort of Cinderella-by-the-Nile air in some ways as I wrote it.

In the meantime, if you can’t wait, you can always read one of my other novels set in ancient Egypt LOL!

As always, thanks for visiting!

Sharing an excerpt from my best selling scifi romance novel Star Cruise: Marooned:

What in the seven hells had Drewson been thinking, taking off without them?

The ranger station was ominously quiet. The storm shutters were latched and the usually immaculate landscaping had become overgrown, weeds running riot, untrimmed vines establishing a foothold on the ornamental fence, and even scaling one wall.

“How long do you guess the rangers have been gone?” Meg said, eyeing the building. She glanced at the living quarters to the left, noticing the same general run down air. The three small houses were tightly sealed, as if hunched against a coming storm.

“The forest grows fast,” Red said. “Probably not more than a few months. I wonder why we weren’t warned, though.”

“Warned?” Callina Bettis picked up on his remark. “Are we in some kind of danger?”

Red and Meg exchanged glances. “He means we should have been notified there wouldn’t be any immediate help onsite,” Meg said, forcing herself to speak the lie calmly. “In case of an emergency, like the unfortunate bite Sharmali suffered.”

Setting the injured woman on a picnic table, Red went to the front door of the station, Meg on his heels. She tried activating the portal to no avail, punching the tabs hard. “You think the last person out would have left it set to open, general access, in case anyone needed help the way we do.” She thumped her fist on the door.

“Unless the staff didn’t expect anyone to be here,” Red said. “Are you sure there’s not something you forgot to tell me?”

The story:

Meg Antille works long hours on the charter cruise ship Far Horizon so she can send credits home to her family. Working hard to earn a promotion to a better post (and better pay), Meg has no time for romance.

Former Special Forces soldier Red Thomsill only took the berth on the Far Horizon in hopes of getting to know Meg better, but so far she’s kept him at a polite distance. A scheduled stopover on the idyllic beach of a nature preserve planet may be his last chance to impress the girl.

But when one of the passengers is attacked by a wild animal it becomes clear that conditions on the lushly forested Dantaralon aren’t as advertised – the ranger station is deserted, the defensive perimeter is down…and then the Far Horizon’s shuttle abruptly leaves without any of them.

Marooned on the dangerous outback world, romance is the least of their concerns, and yet Meg and Red cannot help being drawn to each other once they see how well they work together. But can they survive long enough to see their romance through? Or will the wild alien planet defeat them, ending their romance and their lives before anything can really begin?

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