UNEDITED
He reached under his jacket and pulled out two pistols. Todd whistled. “These are locked to me, you try to use them? Well, this Boss Childers won’t need to worry about the area around here as we will all be blown to kingdom come. So, if it is all the same to you, I’m placing these back in the holsters, and you have my word I won’t draw them.” He turned his right pistol and held a small button above the trigger.

All four heard a click.

“Turned off,” he told them and did the same for the second, “now both are turned off.”

“Or on,” Jeremiah spoke up.

Michael snorted, “So, this whole time I have been with you guys, I had my pistols off? I don’t think so, and neither do you.”

Sarah Jennifer’s eyes narrowed. What kind of technology and guns did this guy have? Was he a plant by Childers?

He holstered the two pistols, and they heard the snap as he placed the leather back over them in the holster. The guys figured they had him if he played foul, they could take him with enough time to spare.

“Now, it’s time for you to learn why chivalry was needed in the first place, Sarah Jennifer.” he told her, “because, in my day, a woman understood why attacking a man was a poor idea.”

The FDG or Force de Guerre never understood why Sarah Jennifer was faster than almost everyone in the group, except TH.

He knew, but he never shared the reason with anyone.

All Sarah Jennifer knew was she could kick ass. Men, women, it didn’t matter. She didn’t like being told she was about to be put in her little woman’s place by a smirking man in her own yard.

But she wasn’t a fool, either.

She cricked her neck and assumed a position with her right leg behind, only half her body now facing the guy, “Whenever you are ready to feel my size seven’s up your ass,” she told him, “bring it.”

“Why is it,” Michael asked as he started walking towards her, “that after so long being absent, I have to hear about size seven shoes coming from a female’s mouth again?”

“Boss” Childers’ town – West of Denver, Colorado (United States Post-Apoc)

“Have you ever,” Jack Childers asked his second in command as the two of them walked through the small fortified town, “wondered how men dealt with having to turn the other cheek before the apocalypse?”

The two men topped over six feet tall. But Jack was at least thirty pounds of hard muscle larger than his hatchet man, Russell Wood. They stopped walking and looked around. “Seems to me,” Russell turned away to spit into the dirt, “without that damned bitch for some of the slaves to run to for protection…”

“Or even giving them ideas,” Jack interrupted.

“Point, giving them ideas,” Russell agreed. “Life will be a little easier to deal with around here.” Russell nodded towards the mess building, “you going to pop the cork over there?”

Jack turned around to see where Russell was nodding, “Jacqueline?” he asked as he turned back around to his partner.

“Yeah,” he agreed, “Got to say, you called it on that one. She turned into a real beauty. Might be something to get ready for tomorrow night’s festivities.”

“Huh,” Jack turned back around and started rubbing his chin, “That might not be a bad idea. Damn, I could go with getting a little pre-victory slash before…” the two men turned towards the front gates when the clanging started.

It was the signal for visitors, not a danger signal.

Although visitors could be a danger, as well.

Russell started walking towards the gate, Jack only half a step behind him. He looked over his shoulder at the Boss, “No rest, or sex, for the wicked, eh?”

Jack chuckled, “Maybe not tonight, but that wine only get’s better with time.”

The two men laughed as they approached the gate to find out two men from Sarah Jennifer’s had arrived, wondering if they needed an extra hand or two?

South of Douglas Mountain, old Colorado (United States Post-Apoc)

The fool was walking right at her, not even trying to setup.

This man was stupid. She would spell it out in capitals for damned sure. What a world class shit-head.

She darted forward, using the strength from her back leg to come at him faster than most anyone she had ever fought before. She tossed a right, a left and then followed it up with an uppercut.

CRACK!

Sarah Jennifer hit the dirt to her right and rolled twice before coming up eyes blazing, eyeing the man who had just casually knocked her ass silly. She put up a hand to feel if her burning cheek, and her teeth, were still a part of her body.

Behind the two of them, Todd leaned towards Dirk, “Did he just block both of her punches, capture her fist and backhand the shit out of her?”

“Shhh!” Dirk answered in reply, then “Yeah, I think so. It went so damned fast I’m not sure.”

Michael turned to face the woman, “Not bad, but it’s going to take a lot more to get those,” he pointed to her feet, “anywhere near my ass.”

Sarah Jennifer’s eyes narrowed. “You surprised me.”

“No, you are cocky,” he replied. “Too much time being top bitch.”

“Fuck…” She started towards him, “You!”

“Oh God,” Jeremiah whispered, “She really, really hates to be called a bitch.”

“Ready for your spanking?” Michael asked her once. Her eyes, almost flaming mad, opened wide. Then she ran at him, ready to pound the smirk off his perfect face and make him swallow his damned teeth.

Using her momentum, she jumped, kicking out at him.

The pain, when it hit, was intense. He pivoted too fast. He used his left arm to stop her kick cold. But, he hit her in her shin with power she wasn’t expecting. His right arm was held out, and he let her momentum carry her right onto his fist, knocking her breath out of her. She damned near bounced off of him, to slam into the ground, dirt and dust billowing away as she rolled, painfully over a few times making sure she didn’t get kicked easily.

She couldn’t breathe in enough at the moment to curse him out. Her shin, however, was cussing the shit out of her.

“So,” he asked the woman, lying on the ground, trying to find enough breath to struggle to get back up, hopping on her left leg due to the pain in her right. “Now we get to the point where you decide if you want to accept reality or allow your pride to put you right back there,” he looked to the ground, “again.”

Her eyes darted to the three men on horse, all of them eyes wide open at the spectacle.

“You should always believe,” Michael told her, in a calm voice, a teaching voice. “There could be someone out there who can take you. Just because you may never have experienced it, doesn’t make the reality an impossibility.”

Sarah Jennifer, able to breathe again, spit out, “I’ve been bested once, but not by anyone not in the FDG.”

“So, my lack of pedigree is the problem?” he asked, his eyes questioning. “I was told I had to prove myself to you to be included in teaching what the term chivalry really means.”

“You, however,” he continued, “need to prove to me that a lady is inside that body for chivalry to have any meaning.” He turned to look around. “Obviously, the original meaning of chivalry is absent.” He turned back towards her, “I’m referring to the more modern version of chivalry including manners, especially to the weaker, or fairer, sex.” He nodded in her direction.

“And if I tell you to get the fuck off my land?” she asked him.

Jeremiah heard Todd whispering, “Please don’t do that, oh please oh please oh please oh please don’t do that…”

“This is your land because of what?” he asked.

“Hard work, and a willingness to keep it,” she answered.

“Then you would be a fool to turn away an offer to help,” Michael told her, “And I’ve not been accustomed to helping idiots.”

Sarah Jennifer was trying to figure out the man’s meaning. His abrupt answers took a second for her to parse, “So, you are saying you would leave because telling you to leave is foolish.”

“Indeed,” he answered her.

She gritted her teeth. Why the hell couldn’t he just answer ‘yes’ like everyone else? She used her hands to start knocking the dirt and dust off of her clothes. It irritated her to know he didn’t need to be cleaned at all. “Fair enough,” she jerked her head towards her guys, “I’m too prideful for myself to keep you here, but I’ve been told that as a leader, your pride is what you swallow most.”

Michael nodded his agreement.

She turned towards Jeremiah and started walking towards him, calling out over her shoulder. “You got a last name?” She reached out for Michael’s sword, Jeremiah handed it down to her. She started back towards the man.

He reached out and accepted the sword, sliding it inside his jacket and connecting it somehow underneath it.

“Yes,” he replied. His eyes looking out into the dark.

She put her hand on her waist, “Ok, thanks for making me play twenty questions, what is it?”

He looked over to her, “Nacht.”

“Good to know,” she told him, stepping around him and heading into the house, “Place to sleep is that way,” she pointed towards the crew house.

None of the men noticed the fear in her eyes as she walked up the stairs to the porch.

—

Michael accepted the bowl of stew Jeremiah had provided. He deflected their questions about his martial skills and speed.

“Don’t you think not cleaning boots is enough for tonight?” He answered Todd. “Otherwise, you and I can have a physical discussion where you are too busy to ask me questions I obviously don’t care to answer.”

Todd stopped bugging him after that.

Michael stepped out of the crew house about midnight. A minute later, Jeremiah stepped out with him.

“Hey,” Jeremiah stepped up next to him.

“Good evening, Jeremiah.” he replied.

“Don’t be too hard on Sarah Jennifer. My family would say ‘she’s good people.’”

Michael grinned, “Anytime three men are willing to die to protect a woman?” he told him, still looking into the night as if he actually saw something in the dark, “the woman … is good people.”

“I’m not sure how much you can help, Michael,” Jeremiah chose to look into the dark as well. Why the hell not? “We need a damned savior for this to go in our favor tomorrow.”

Michael chuckled, the sound wasn’t peaceful. “I’m not an angel, nor a saint, Jeremiah.” He told him, “and certainly not a savior. Someone I love very dearly would tell you I’m just a stubborn, obstinate, pain in her ass.”

“Where is she?” he asked. “Sorry if you have lost her.”

Michael looked up at the stars eyes flitting from one to the next wondering which one she might be fighting around right now. “Oh, I might have misplaced her for a while, but I haven’t lost her.”

—

Michael was leaning against that same post the next morning when Sarah Jennifer stepped out of the house. She eyed him, then set her shoulders and stepped off the porch, heading in his direction.

He raised an eyebrow at her in question.

“Firewood,” she told him, “we need some. You willing?”

“Of course,” Michael answered, stepping off of the wood porch of the crew building. “Which direction are you clearing?”

“Huh, hadn’t expected you to know that,” she turned and pointed to Michael’s right, “about half a mile that way. You will find a small hut with the tools in it. I’ll send a lunch and one of the guys about noon to grab what you got so far.” She turned back to him, “Be back here by dark. I think I know Jack Childers well enough to know he likes using the dark to ramp up the fear.”

“I’ll be here in time,” he promised. Then started walking in the direction she had provided.

—

“You did WHAT?” Jeremiah, usually pretty quiet, hissed in anger at Sarah Jennifer.

The two of them were in her office, and it was late afternoon. Dirk and Todd had come back with two loads of firewood. More than they would need for days.

“I told him Jack wouldn’t be here until dark,” she replied. Only slightly annoyed with him for getting angry at her.

“Help me understand, SJ,” he told her, his false calm evident, “why you sent our one seriously badass guy away? He is going to get caught outside of the fight and not be able to help us. If he were to do anything, they will just track his ass down and kill him. Otherwise, he will need to run to keep his own skin.”

“Look, I don’t expect you to understand,” she replied. “But there were a few stories that the FDG whispered, and they all came from Terry Henry.”

“God!” Jeremiah burst out, “That man was not a god! Not everything that comes from his mouth is Gospel!”

She leaned across her desk, finger pointed, eyes angry, “Then you tell me how many times you have heard ‘Nacht’ as a name before?”

“WHAAAT?” Jeremiah answered, not following her logic at all. Typical female argument tactic. “The hell does Nacht have anything to do with this?”

She leaned back with a thump, “Because TH always said that if you should ever, ever meet someone that seemed too good to be true, with the last name Nacht, to leave them the fuck alone.”

“We ARE leaving him alone!” Jeremiah argued. Then he pointed back towards the north, “the PLAN is we are not going to tell Childers to leave him alone!”

“Doesn’t matter,” she replied, her voice growing tired, “He is gone. He can’t get back.”

He shook his head in frustration, “You just screwed our best chance of living through this, SJ.” Jeremiah stood up, pushing the chair back. He eyed her, the anger that wasn’t in his voice, clearly in his eyes, “The best chance for a savior for this colossal fuck up and you just pissed him away.”

“He’s no savior, no messiah, Jeremiah,” she whispered to the empty room, he had already left her office fuming and exited the back door. She looked out, seeing the darkness coming in the sky, the shakes taking her.

“He’s a dark messiah,” she finished pronouncing to the empty house.

FROM MICHAEL >>>

This is it…the last 48 hours (or less) before The Dark Messiah, my second series in The Kurtherian Gambit, goes live.

I’m a little anxious to admit to you the truth.  Why? Because Michael is such a fan favorite (which, I hadn’t realized way back in book 9) and the question becomes…

Can I do justice to him?

Will this new story discuss a little the new Michael…The guy he was kinda of becoming, but isn’t all the way and what would he do if he doesn’t have Bethany Anne’s …errr, calming influence on him?

Well, I’ve found out and very soon, so shall you.

PLEASE, enjoy the season, it has a lot of meaning.  The book will be there later to be enjoyed…But really, do enjoy the book when you have time – Ok?  And let me know on FB or Amazon Forums or in the reviews itself.

Also, I’m going to ask you to consider this gift: Do a review of someone’s book for Christmas, as well.  A favorite author…someone who doesn’t have but a few reviews.

Us Indie Authors love that present!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

And to ALL a Very Kurtherian Night!

Michael Anderle

UNEDITED

Sarah Jennifer looked out over her yard, her dark, vacant yard, and snorted.

Not one.

Not one damned man decided to stick with her.  Well, except for Jeremiah, Todd and Dirk.  She knew why the guys really stepped off the property here by the house.  It was easier for the other dickless dirtbags to put their tail in between their legs and run away.

She turned and entered the house.  What was done, was done.  She wasn’t going to change anything by screaming in annoyance when it was her feelings that were hurt, not her concern with dying.

Her old Merc leader, TH, had told her one time, you do what you got to do.  Most of the time, it will come out alright.  Occasionally?  Well occasionally it might come up snake-eyes and you just hope that when you close your eyes a final time, you can be proud of yourself.

That was over ten years ago.  She considered what she had built out here in the Fallen Lands and considered it good.  She’d helped over a hundred souls through the years and pulled a few out of a bad future.  Now, she had three who were willing to walk into Purgatory with her.

She stopped in the kitchen, and started the coffee water to boiling on the old pot-bellied fire stove.  It helped heat the house and warm the body.

And hopefully, the soul when all of this was done.

“Hellooo the house?” a strange voice called out.

Sarah Jennifer turned towards the door leading outside.  She pushed the coffee pot off the main heating area and walked back towards the back, grabbing a rifle on her way.  

It would be stupid not to be careful.

She took a sidestep into the viewing room beside the door and looked out. In the faint light, she could see her three guys up on their horses, surrounding a tall man in a black trench coat, the light reflecting off his bald head.  He was looking around the yard and the obvious lack of activity for such large buildings, the horse stables mostly empty.

Bastards had even taken the horses she had provided them.

With her men behind him, she considered it safe enough.  She set the rifle down and walked around to the door, opening it and stepping outside.

—

Michael looked around, his lip twitching.  He could see the signs that there should be at least another fifteen people minimum here right now.

All this woman had was the three guys behind him and now, him.

Seems like the other side might need to bring another thousand if they wanted a shot at this.

His cold eyes turned back towards the house when he heard the slight grating of wood on wood.  He caught the motion and saw the concealed area she was using to check him out.

Him and his bald head.  How very Yul Brynner of himself.

Fortunately, the bastard nanocytes that had his hair wrong, didn’t consider his eyebrows too.  He was having enough of a problem dealing with his chrome dome up top.  If he didn’t have his eyebrows, he might decide it just wasn’t worth living any longer.

He snorted, perhaps Bethany Anne was right.  Just a little.  

He could be rather vain.

He could hear her close the viewing door and move around. The main door opened up a second later and an attractive, somewhat older, woman stepped out.  Her figure cast in shadows with the lights around the yard.  

She nodded to the men behind him and then, spoke to him.

—

“Mister, can I ask why my guys here are bringing you around? I can only trust that these miscreants informed you we expect to be attacked tomorrow?”

“Blunt,” Michael replied.

She raised an eyebrow, “Do you have a problem with blunt?”  His little smirk annoyed her, “Do you?”

Michael pursed his lips, “I don’t.  I doubt you can be more blunt than a couple of women I know.”  He thumbed at the guys behind him, “And, these men did inform me that there was going to be a little activity here tomorrow.”

She threw an annoyed glance over at Jeremiah.

Jeremiah put up his hands, “Hey! I told him the details.  He said he wanted to come along.”

Sarah Jennifer stepped off the porch and started her way towards Michael, “And what details would that be, Jeremiah?”

Before Jeremiah could answer, Michael answered.  “Probably forty, maybe fifty guys coming here to burn down the place, take you whether you like it or not and the expectation they will all end up dead.”

Sarah Jennifer threw a glance at the guys.  Dirk leaned forward as he sat on his horse and hissed quietly, “Way to go get her pissed off!”

Sarah Jennifer pointed to the men, “that’s going to be boot washing for all of you, bad attitude!”

“How about …” Michael interrupted, drawing her ire as he put his hands behind his back, and started circling Sarah Jennifer.  He looked her up and down.

“What are you doing?” she asked, but quickly countered his walk, keeping him ten feet away, and now focused on this stranger.

“You are favoring your left leg, be careful when you announce that.”

“How about I use my supposedly weak right leg and kick your ass with it?”

“Well, if you are just going to be angry,” Michael replied, his hands still behind his back, “I’d still suggest using your left leg, more power.”

Her eyes narrowed, “what was your suggestion going to be?”

“I understand from Jeremiah that if I cuss around you, it might be a boot washing if you can best me in a fight?”

“Or soap in your mouth, but we happen to be out soap, so maybe horse dung instead?” she told him.  The thrill of a good fight already loosening up her muscles.  

“Oh, I’m not worried about horse dung ever reaching this mouth,” he told her, his right hand coming around and pointing to his face. “However, how about we agree if you can’t take me, then these guys are absolved from any punishment?”

“You are a cocky one, aren’t you.” She proclaimed.  Good, she liked them cocky.

“No, you mistake confidence for cocky,” he told her.

“What weapons?” she asked, “I see a sword and a couple of pistols if I’m not mistaken.”

Michael stopped and cocked his head, “You aren’t, but if you want weapons, feel free to go get some.”

She stopped circling as well, “I always enjoy feeding a cocky person their foot to chew on the best.”

“Well,” he reached under his jacket and pulled out the Wakizashi.  Her eyes opened a little.

That was a beautiful piece of work, and it had been taken care of very nicely.  She couldn’t spot any dirt on the scabbard, at least not in the dark.

“Jeremiah?” Michael spoke out and when he knew he had the man’s attention, he tossed the sword in its scabbard to him, “I’ll expect that back in a moment.”

“Wow, let me change that to super cocky,” Sarah Jennifer told him.

Michael turned to look at her and smirked, “oh, I’m just getting started.”  At that comment, she raised her own eyebrow in surprise.  
No one pushed her buttons on purpose and got away with it.

FROM MICHAEL>>> WORDS COMPLETE BABY!  WOOHOO!  Damn, I LOVE when I get to say that.

It means I get to write the Author’s Forward, and then after the JIT team I get to hit PUBLISH.  Except, this time it isn’t a Bethany Anne book, it’s Michael’s.

Is it going to fly?  Will the fans like it?  Damn, I sure hope so.  (totally not hiding my head under the desk, biting my nails off….yet.)

We will all find out in less than a week, won’t we?  😮

Ad Aeternitatem, folks!

Michael

Book for today?

So, there is this super cool author over in England (Mark E Cooper) that I’ve seen around the author areas and I was honored that he was reading my books, and sending out stuff to his own fans (he’s been in the business a lot longer than I).  He was so effusive, that he had me blushing.  (Which, let’s be honest, I can be totally ok with…I’m not so humble it doesn’t feel GOOOOOOD!)  😉

Anyhow, I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned his books before (months ago), but thought why not return the favor?  I didn’t know he was going to promote me, so (shhh), I’m not telling HIM I’m promoting him…

Yet…

His latest book in his series is out!

Incursion: Merkiaari Wars Book 5

The war games are on, but the real battle has just begun…

The Alliance is ready for the war games. The spectacular show of innovation and strength may change the way war is waged, but on far-flung worlds, devastating incursions have already begun. The Merkiaari are back, but news can only travel as fast as a foldspace drone.

Captain Eric Penleigh of the 501st Infantry Regiment looks forward to an easy assignment. All he needs to do is evaluate the best cutting-edge tech the Alliance has to offer and make nice with new alien allies. But when preparation for the games turns into a deadly war, nobody will be ready for what comes next…

Incursion is the long-awaited fifth book in the Merkiaari Wars series. If you like breathtaking space battles and heart-pounding military sci-fi, then you’ll love Mark E. Cooper’s latest entry in the beloved space opera saga.

This book is WIDE (not in Kindle Unlimited)

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE / BUY IT ON AMAZON

UNEDITED

“Helloooo the fire!”  a strange voice called out.

Jeremiah, Dirk and Todd all turned towards the voice, Dirk sliding out about twenty feet into the trees off to the side.

“Not looking for trouble, guys,” the voice called to them.  “Just looking to make a difference and get some questions answered.  May I approach?”

Jeremiah called back, “Who you with, stranger?”

“Just myself, recently landed in these parts,” the voice called back.

“C’mon in, but behave yourself.” Jeremiah allowed, “we ain’t got much, but what we got, we will share.”

The man entered the dim light of the fire and Jeremiah’s eyebrows went up.  He was damned handsome, didn’t have a lick of hair on his head nor could he see any scars on the man.

And he carried himself like a warrior.  

“You can come out of the tree’s, Dirk,” Jeremiah called out, “If he was here to harm us, I imagine he might have already done it.”

Todd looked over to his friend, “and you say this because why, the black coat?” He turned back to the stranger, “no offense, the black coat is impressive.  But Jeremiah here,” he threw a thumb back at his friend, “is way too impressed with clothes.  He was certainly born in the wrong age.”

“No jackass,” Jeremiah replied, and pointed to the stranger, “Because he balances like a cat, he’s got at least one pistol I’ve seen and something else underneath that coat.  I’d guess a sword.  He knew where,” he pointed to the trees where Dirk was just becoming visible as he returned, “Dirk went and he wasn’t bothered by coming right up to us.  So,” he turned back to the stranger, “is it just you, or do you have another out there waiting to come in?”

“No,” the stranger told them, “it’s just me.  I  overheard what you were talking about, so I have a basic understanding of what you are up against. So … I thought I might see if it is a fight I want to join.”

“Let me get this right,” Dirk scratched his nose, “you mister, might want to join the three of us,” he pointed to his friends, “and one lady against thirty to forty guns?”

“You said she was worth ten herself, right?  Doesn’t that leave, at best, ten for each of us?” The stranger asked in a no-nonsense voice, “I don’t know about you guys, but in my time, we tended to pride ourselves on being better than the ladies.”

“Stranger, you got a name?” Todd butted into the conversation.

He turned towards the man, his cool eyes seeming to bring the temperature down a moment, “yes, it’s Michael.”

“Well, Michael,” Todd continued, a little less boisterous, “unless you have been in the FDG, you might have a little problem with Sarah Jennifer. I’ll be willing to bet you a boot cleaning…”

“Excuse me, a what?” Michael interrupted, “A boot cleaning?”

“Ahhh,” Jeremiah tried to explain, “it has less to do with money and more to do with embarrassment.  No one likes to lose a bet and be made to clean boots, it’s humiliating.”

“And the FDG?” Michael prompted.

“You from another country?” Dirk asked, “You never heard of the FDG?”

“Can we pretend I’m from another time and leave the real history out of it?” Michael asked, pushing a little soft velvet over steel tones into his voice.

All the men agreed that was a splendid idea.

Michael mumbled, “Glad to know one damned thing still works.”

“The FDG,” Dirk answered, “is Force de Guerre.  They started over a century ago.  They come in, they kick ass, they leave.  Made up of a lot of damned impressive people.  Many are really strong, or really fast.  They try and keep a little normalcy out here in the Fallen Lands.”

Michael bit his tongue, he would follow up on that term, later. “So, they are a police force?”

Todd and Jeremiah both snorted, “I wish,” Jeremiah answered, “if we had a police force, the three of us wouldn’t be rushing forward to die in a couple of days.”

Michael’s eyes narrowed, “And why do you think you are going to die?”

“Because chivalry,” Todd answered, eyeing his friend, “makes us dead.”

Michael raised an eyebrow, “Oh, then I definitely want in on this.”

“Why, you have a death wish?” Dirk asked, amusement coloring his voice.
“No,” Michael told him, his voice going cold, “I just have something against those who would wish a woman, dead.”

FROM MICHAEL >>> DAAAAMMNN… Last 4 chapters, last 10-12,000 words…21 chapters down, ready to rock and roll (as soon as I post this.

Just finished a long chapter this morning where some …errr…Wow, that would be giving away too much.  Suffice to say, Michael finds himself falling back away from the ‘new and compassionate Michael’ that Bethany Anne was working on.

BUT!  It was with permission, so what’s a man to do?  Well, the book title is called the DARK Messiah for a reason!  😉

Now, need some more Kurtherian Gambit to feast your eyes on?  Well, we have Books coming out this week, including hopefully by Christmas Eve, a Frank Kurns Special for Bellatrix which might have a few scenes with your favorite lady, as well.

Plus, the TH Chronicles following one of The Authors favorite characters from books 12 and 13 and introducing a new character that I’ve grown to love.

This time, she’s a were…

Michael

Want some other reading options today?  Check out a friend that helped me when we had the great Justice Is Calling kerfuffle earlier in December.  This author has a special where you not only get the first book in the series for FREE $0.00 (Including Kindle Unlimited – this is a time sensitive sale) but IF YOU LIKE AUDIO – Snag the Audio book For $1.99 as well.

Four (4) book series 😉

Lichgates: Book One of the Grimoire Saga (an Epic Fantasy Adventure) Kindle Edition

The final page will leave you breathless…

When Kara Magari uncovers a secret door in the middle of the forest, she discovers (and trips through) a portal to a hidden world full of terrifying things: Ourea. She just wants to go home, but the natives have other plans for her. She clashes with immortal shapeshifters, is carried off by a dragon, nearly dies on several occasions, and somehow becomes the master of an ancient book of magic called the Grimoire. Every time she thinks she’s safe, her new “friends” show their true colors.

Kara needs an ally, or she might not survive Ourea’s monsters. She drops her guard when Braeden, a native soldier with a dark secret, vows to keep her safe. And though she doesn’t know it, her growing attraction to him may just be her undoing.

For twelve years, Braeden Drakonin has lived a lie. The Grimoire is his one chance at redemption, and it lands in his lap when Kara Magari comes into his life. Though he begins to care for this stranded girl, there’s something he wants more.

He wants the Grimoire.

Welcome to Ourea, where only the cunning survive.

CHECK OUT THE BOOK HERE (AND POSSIBLY BUY IT, WHO KNOWS?)

UNEDITED

South of Douglas Mountain, old Colorado (United States Post-Apoc)

The three men ate sitting around a tiny fire.  It was a little chilly, but they dared not build anything larger.  The stress up at the main house was already getting tense.

The size of the fire matched the size of their spirits.  Small and not much help warming them up.

Jeremiah looked out at the landscape and blew out a heavy breath.  He turned back and nodded to the two of them, “Todd, Dirk, I got to ask, and I’m going to lay it out right up front, I’m staying.”  

Todd, about six foot two inches and thin as a sapling tree snorted, “You know it’s our death’s right?  Sarah Jennifer ain’t going to go down for any man.  She will take her size whatever-the-hell-they-are boots and shove them up Childers’ ass, guns blazing before she accepts any of his deals.”

“Seven,” Dirk answered.  Both men looked at him, “What?” He shrugged, “Common size for women, it isn’t strange or anything.”

“She had you clean them, right?” Todd asked, “Caught you cussin’ around her?”

“Damn right she caught me cussing,” Dirk admitted, smiling at the memory, “I slipped and popped myself in the mouth trying to pull some leather.  It hurt.  So, I go off and say shit or something like that.  I turn around and there she is, glaring at me like my mom or something.  I figured, ‘what the hell’, so I went ahead and let loose with everything I could remember.”

“Got them all out of your system?” Jeremiah asked.

“Yeah,” Dirk admitted.

“So, did you screw up again?” Todd asked, “Just curious, took me three times to start looking around myself.”

Dirk smirked, “One other time.”

Todd turned to Jeremiah, “You?”

“Oh, no.” Jeremiah shook his head, “My mom was hell on wheels about cussing.  So, I learned early to treat all women as ladies.”

Todd nodded in the direction of the house, “That why we all making our last stand?”

Jeremiah turned in the direction of the house, “No, not for me.  Sometimes you realize that when civilization cratered, morality took a beating.  Justice died and ethics took a sabbatical.”  He turned back to the two men with him, “Ain’t ever gonna come back unless someone is willing to take a stand.”

Dirk pointed to Todd and then Jeremiah and finally at himself, “So, the three of us against thirty…or more right?”

“Well, say it like that and you make me want to tell Childers he needs to bring another twenty or so.  Don’t forget Sarah Jennifer is worth probably ten of those sad sacks.”

“And her armament.”

“You ever seen it?” Dirk asked, looking between the two men.

“Her guns?” Jeremiah asked.
He never got to answer, a call came out of the night.

—

Michael had been walking for a day already.  It had taken him three solid hours to figure out how to Myst again, and go through the damned hole up at the old base.

At least he had decent clothes again.

Bethany Anne had provided money.  While he kept some, he figured it would probably be useless.  He had on jeans, a black shirt, and for some insane reason, her guards had provided him a black leather trenchcoat.

It did help hide his two pistols, apparently Jean Dukes Specials.  He read the instructions carefully before locking them to his palm print.  With over five thousand rounds, he figured he would be good for a while.  But, he had no idea how often this new world would require … attitude adjustments.

He practiced with the pistol, turning up the kinetic kick from one to ten and back down.  Ten had impressive destruction.  John’s note to him explained how the pistol used etheric generated magnetic something or another and how the rounds were made to replace them.

Basically, he figured out, he had a tiny rail-gun in his hand.  Technology ahead of its time and probably still ahead of this time, as well.

Well, he sure hoped so.  He was sure that rail-gun technology would be pretty nasty stuff to deal with if it was pointed at him.

Finally, she provided two Wakizashis and one Katana.  He left the Katana behind as being too impractical and kept one Wakizashi, the two pistols, two sets of clothes and scrounged for soap and other stuff pushing it into a leather bag he slung over his shoulder.

He had no shampoo.  He spent an extra hour looking for any damned shampoo but the base was dry.  He passed a mirror at the hour mark and saw his reflection.

Making a face, he realized the soap was sufficient.  He still had no damn hair.

It took him another two hours to once again attain his Myst form and make it back up and out of the base. He was pushing himself and had made it halfway down the mountain when he suddenly dropped out of Myst form. This resulted in an ass over appetite, arms and legs flailing, tumble down the slope. He travelled more than a hundred yards, introducing himself to hundreds of small rocks and stones and bouncing off of one damned large rock in the process.

He laid for a minute, just muttering “OOOOwwwww” over and over again.

Finally, he turned over and stood up, trudging back up the hill, grabbing his bag and thought about why he was having trouble with skills he had honed over a thousand years.  
“Focus,” he muttered, “It’s got to be focus.”  Some time later, he saw the campsite, the tiny fire burning like a lighthouse beacon for him.

>> FROM MICHAEL – THANK YOU EVERYONE who is helping w/ the Queen Bitch edits!  The is SUCH a relief…believe me.   Right now, we are about 9 days from releasing The Dark Messiah.

I have about 20,000 more words to write (I just gave Chapter 18 to Stephen Russell.)  I always split my longer books up into 25 chapters…So, 6 chapters to go. 😉

We are releasing NOMAD FOUND in a few days…And we are looking to release (we hope) TS Pauls Book and Paul C. Middleton’s book “very, very soon” as well.

JUSTICE IS CALLING (With Justin Sloan) is doing very well.  Thank you ALL who have bought it, enjoyed it and reviewed it (or bought it and enjoyed it, too!)  You have already changed an author’s life.  It’s been pretty cool being his partner, and seeing the possibilities open in his eyes for himself as an author, and his family as Valerie takes hold.

Not read it?  Check it out HERE and see if you want to read it this weekend.

UNEDITED

The small town was less town as it was a stronghold.  Men and women came in, some left again, others stayed.  Either they were persuaded this was a safe location … or they stayed, as slaves.

The young woman, attractive, used her sense of touch to grab the next plate.

Others asked the Boss why he kept an obviously deficient girl in the camp?  

Too many thought that a blind girl couldn’t listen and think for herself.  But in that, they would be wrong. She hadn’t always been blind, that was a new development which had occurred when her group had been attacked.  She had left her pack against her dad’s wishes and decided to travel the Fallen Lands.  Seeking her fortune, he told her, was a damned fool’s journey.

She had yelled back that she would just be a damned fool then.

Now, she couldn’t see.  For her kind, it was almost unheard of.  She should have healed from the damage by now, or be dead.

She wasn’t dead. The hours in front of a tub of water washing dishes and occasionally in front of a tub washing clothes, was proof she was still alive.  

But she could hear, much better than normal humans and she had heard the Boss’s answer.

He was just waiting until she was old enough so he could bed her.  Didn’t the rest of them see how beautiful she was going to be? He was waiting, he told the men, for the flower to be as beautiful as she would ever be before plucking it.

Jacqueline always kept a knife secreted on her body.  

This flower, she had decided, was going to have thorns.

Deep under the Denver base.

The E.I. woke up.

It had been in passive mode for almost eight-two years, by the records it kept. The normal intrusions into the base had been logged and it had obediently uploaded the information to the E.I. resources in outer space.  Placed there by TQB Enterprises when they had used this base.

Well over a hundred and fifty years before.

The base E.I. was hidden behind tons of rock that had been dropped before the old government could try to force their way into this hidden server room.

However, the E.I. was still connected, still recording, and still updating the records to the E.I.s in outer space.

It logged the human which had found the supply closet.  Then, the human left for a couple of hours before it triggered the alarms which brought the E.I. online.

It was in front of Storage Location D.D. 2.  The E.I. watched, patiently, as the human stayed in front of the door for three hours before it seemed to disappear off of it’s sensors.

The E.I. stayed on full alert for another twelve minutes, then it changed its parameters for wake up and went back to sleep.

Never realizing the human had gotten inside a secured room within the base.

FROM MICHAEL >>> Ok, about 50% done with the writing.  Chapters 1-4 are w/ the final edit before they come back to me.  I just sent chapter 13 (out of 25 to do) to Stephen Russell.

Lot’s of action going on and I have to admit, a real tear-jerker for me personally.  I don’t know if others will find it so touching, but it got me right in the tear ducts and squeezed them for all it was worth…

I was seriously praying my wife didn’t walk in on my, wiping my face as I was type-type-typing on my laptop.

It looks like we should have a very Kurtherian Christmas this 2016. ;-).

WHAT’S BELOW?

Michael-Scott Earle is a really good friend I encountered through the 20BooksTo50k group.  He has a new series (he is also a super-fast writer) coming out on Thursday and IS ON PRE-ORDER FOR $0.99 RIGHT NOW.

He is the author of many series. One he is very known for is the Destroyer series.  This time, he isn’t doing stuff quite so dark 😉

He asked if I would mind mentioning his new series, as he has high hopes and knows my readers are freaking voracious… And let’s face it, most authors WANT to get in front of you.  I answered of course, what are author buddy friends for…Well, ok, buying drinks, but OTHER than that, what else are they good for?

Yeah, ok, helping to decide where to bury the body…But WHAT ELSE…

Oh, for Pete’s sake, mentioning new series to their fans… (This could go on all night if I don’t stop here).

Till next snippet – Michael.

Wings of Justice (City of Light Book 1) Kindle Edition

Welcome to Petrasada. The City of Light. The City of Clouds. The City of Joy. It is the last bastion of human life floating miles above an endless desert world.

And a string of serial murders are threatening to tear the city apart. 

Anelia Orba is the newest rookie in the magical winged police force of Petrasada. She is inexperienced, naive, paired with a resentful partner, and fully expected to fail. But when a strange clue takes Anelia off the procedural path, she’ll have to overcome the odds before the City of Light falls to darkness, and she loses everything she cares about.

CHECK OUT THE BOOK HERE ON AMAZON – AND PREORDER IF YOU LIKE

UNEDITED

OLD DENVER BASE FOR TQB

The front living room had the couches removed.  There was a round table, with two chairs.

A table stood in the middle, a piece of paper in the middle.  Michael walked past the table and went to the bedroom.

It had their bed, made up.  He looked around but there was nothing else in the room.  It looked like an empty room one might find at an old motel, it was so devoid of anything personal.  He opened the closet, but it was empty.

“No clothes. Couldn’t you have at least left behind some clothes, baby?” he muttered.  He stepped into the bathroom.

Clean.

He stepped out and made his way into the brighter main room. Heading straight for the table and the note, it was time to see what this was about.

“Dearest Michael,

Your clothes, if you should need them, are in the locked area near the Team BMW area.  You should be able to Myst through the opening we left you at the top.  I don’t know what you would want to wear, so I left you everything from suits to jeans and a few items in between.

John and the Group left you a surprise.

Further, there are weapons for you as well.

I leave you these things because you made me a promise, one I expect you to fulfill.

You had better return to me, or when I am done with the Kurtherians, I will figure out how to go back in time and kick your ass.

All my love and my heart,

Bethany Anne.”

Michael stood there for minutes, reading and re-reading the note.  She expected him to return and she was waiting.  He calmly folded the note and put it in the pocket on his chest.  The outfit he had on might be ugly, but it had a lot of pockets.

He turned and walked out of the suite and took a slight left.  He needed to go about a half mile around the front and to the other side of the airplane hangars where Team BMW’s area used to be.  Obviously, his love had taken the fight out into space.  And by the look of things, something must have happened here on Earth either before or after she left.

Something that had caused them to leave Earth, and apparently for her to lock up their area and make it look like it was dangerous to check out.  He suspected they had washed it down with radioactivity sometime in the past so geiger counters would scream.

Well, there wasn’t anything he could feel floating here at this time.  He sure hoped he wasn’t wrong and didn’t glow in the dark now.  That’s all he needed to see in the mirror.

A bald head that reminded him of a light bulb at night.

South of Douglas Mountain, old Colorado (United States Pre-Apoc)

The seven men decided to camp away from the main house this evening.  Two of them nodded to each other and the first, the one with dark hair, walked out away from the fire to guard against the chance of someone trying to sneak up on them.

It wasn’t likely to happen, but this evening, it was as much to protect against those from their own group coming up to the fire and listening to the talk as it was to protect from others who might wish them ill.

The second man, David Tellison, waited ten minutes to make sure his friend was properly down the path. Once the time was up, he walked beside the fire which the other five guys were sitting around, drinking a form of coffee that they made out of some bark off a tree and clapped his hands to get their attention.

“Ok, I know the rumors have been heard by everyone.  So, I’m here to figure out what you guys are going to do when Boss Childers’ men attack Sarah Jennifer.  I’ll tell you this straight up.  She has been good to me, but she ain’t been good enough to me so that I take bullets for her.  I ain’t waiting to be stuck there, guns in front and guns in back of me.”

Jackson spit over to the side, behind the log he was sitting on , “I figure he has what, forty guns?”

David nodded, “That’s the low count, he can afford more.”

Jackson chewed on a bit of jerky, “Wouldn’t be right to leave Sarah Jennifer and run over to Childers’ group.”

“I’m not suggesting we go join Childers, even I know that would be a dick move,” David retorted.

“Dick move or not,” Buddy spoke up, from his log next to Jackson, “It’d be easy money.”

David nodded to Buddy.  The man was strictly out for himself and David figured if the best he could do was make sure six out of the seven men here didn’t join Childers, then that was something for Sarah Jennifer.

That night, five more decided to leave the employ of Sarah Jennifer and seek their fortune somewhere else.

Somewhere that didn’t have thirty or forty men gunning for them.

FROM MICHAEL >>> So, right now I’m about 25,000 words into the The Dark Messiah book (1/3 of the way.)  I would / should be further, but holidays and collaboration release etc. etc.

So, not much here so I can go there and continue writing!

We have the following location(s) for snippets for the other series (or books out) right here! 

Justin Sloan – Reclaiming Honor Series – Book 01 – Justice Is Calling

CHECK HIM OUT HERE: http://www.justinsloanauthor.com

BOOK IS LIVE HERE  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MQM45QD

Facebook Page for the Series: https://www.facebook.com/ReclaimingHonor

TS Paul – The Etheric Academy – Alpha Group 01

CHECK SCOTT (and the snippet) OUT HERE: https://tspaul.blogspot.com

Craig Martelle – Terry Henry Walton Chronicles

CHECK CRAIG (and the snippets) OUT HERE: http://www.craigmartelle.com/apps/blog/

Facebook Page for the Series: https://www.facebook.com/TerryHenryWalton/

Paul C. Middleton – The Boris chronicles

CHECK PAUL (and the snippets) OUT HERE: https://betrayedbyfaith.wordpress.com/2016/12/09/revelations-snippet-1/

UNEDITED

Outside an old military Base – West of Old Denver, Colorado (United States)

Confusion was the first thought.

Michael looked around and considered confusion to be his second, third and damn near fourth thought as well.

What happened?

He walked, bare ass naked, through a base that had seen better days.  When he pulled open a door and it dropped off of its hinges, he had to agree it was probably years or decades.

Perhaps a better century?

Michael walked into the old command center.  It was dusty, a broken window in the front allowing the weather in.  A few leaves were lodged in crevices.

Empty.

He pressed his lips together and moved further into the base inside the mountain trying to understand what had happened.  Each room he checked was cleaned of anything relevant.  He found no computer equipment and more than that, he found no lights which worked.

It was chilly, so the time of year had to be fall, at least.  It took him an hour and the only thing he ran across was a small supply room.  He did find clothes of a sort.  They were old work clothes, a single suit.  He snagged a tan pair, but made a face.

They weren’t his preferred style.  However, he was clothed and that had to be worth something at the moment.

He walked across the base, the car parking lot empty and went to where he had lived with Bethany Anne.  The building was not only empty; it was boarded up.  Not a type of boarding because windows were busted, no, this was boarded up to keep people from going through something important inside.

This was professional and it had the faintest marks that shows warnings about radioactivity.  Which seemed ludicrous.  His time in the Etheric enhanced his ability to discern energy, and there was nothing related to Radioactivity he could feel.

Well, he hoped there wasn’t.  His lack of hair was bothering him and all he needed to do was get a fresh dose of radiation of screw any chance of hair growing back.  He could still regenerate from wounds, that he had figured out after falling out of the Etheric, using the limbs of a tree to slow his rapid descent.

He willed himself to turn into Myst, that amorphous state which allowed him to disappear and fly, moving through gaps that only air could flow through.

Except, he was still standing right in front of the boarded up living quarters, looking fairly stupid.

He turned to view around the area he was standing, but there was nothing but the old, time run-down base and a bird that was flying overhead about a quarter-mile to the north.

And, he wasn’t in his Myst form at all.

“Ok, something broke that used to work,” he muttered, “like my hair.”

He made a fist and tapped on the board where the door should be.  Hollow.

He made a fast, sharp punch and the board cracked.  He did this twice more and reached in with his left hand, pulling out pieces of the board noticing the thickness of the wood.

They really didn’t want anyone in here.

Tossing  the chunks of wood behind him, he grabbed a few more pieces and pulled, yanking them off.  He found a metal crossbeam and smiled. Something he could really get a grip on.  He set his feet, his eyes glowed red and he pulled, the strain on his muscles felt good, felt warm, felt like…

CRACK!

A huge, ten-foot-tall by four-foot-wide chunk of the wood was breaking out of the protective surrounding. Michael frowned.  He felt both stronger, and weaker at the same time.  It was as if his energy was deeper.  His connection to the Etheric was beyond his previous ability.

But his muscles didn’t work nearly as well.  He flexed his arms, rolling his shoulders to test his body and had to agree.

“Now, this is damned embarrassing,“ He was out of shape for the first time in over a thousand years.  “Can’t let Bethany Anne see me like this.  I’m hairless, and in desperate need of a work-out, or five.”

He took a step to the side and yanked three more times on the steel beam and finally the huge chunk of the wall cracked and he tossed it to the side, dust coming up from the ground where it made a resounding crash.

Behind the opening was the door that went into his apartment.

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” he checked the door knob, and it was locked.  “Of course it is,” he kicked it open.  What was inside, surprised him.

FROM MICHAEL >>>  I’m writing this on Wednesday afternoon.  I’m sitting in Todd’s P.U.B. next to the Aria hotel after finishing the burger (only a handful of fries.  The burger was fantastic, but NO…ROOM…LEFT!)

Anyway, I wanted to mention something that was really cool to wake up to yesterday morning.  When I woke up, way early for here as I’m still on Central Time (2 hours ahead) I grabbed my phone and started seeing if there was anything I needed to deal with.

Well, I was on the Facebook Group and reading the posts when I got to the one below.  I have to tell you, it was a super cool feeling to read the post that I copied below, and to see the huge amount of outpouring support for Brandon Barr and the people in the group really supporting one of our team.

Just like I think anyone in the Etheric Empire would do, for someone in their group.

I had  nothing to do with the request, didn’t know about it, didn’t read anything for about ten (10) hours after it went live and all of this support happened.

I might have shed a tear.

Special thanks to my collaborator, Justin, who wrote the original post and to all of the fantastic authors who are supporting Brandon Barr as our way of helping him.

Feel free to do something, do nothing, or just send good wishes his way.  There is a free book below, a book for sale and, for those interested, his Youtube channel.

I’m supposed to promote between the 11th and 17th, so I’ll put his book up in a snippet again next week.  I did it early because it feels like giving a Christmas gift…I just want to do it now, not wait!

Take care until the NEXT Dark Messiah Snippet!

Michael

FROM JUSTIN SLOAN –

Team 20Books: We have an author going into the hospital tomorrow because his leukemia has returned, and a couple of us thought it would be an awesome sign of support — to show him we care and we 20Books authors stick together — to do one week of featuring him in our newsletters (also social media and all that, of course). The author is Brandon Barr, and I checked with him first to make sure this would be appropriate/ wouldn’t make him uncomfortable. He’s actually doing YouTube videos about it, which you can check out. (Link below)

South of Douglas Mountain, old Colorado (United States Pre-Apoc)

Jeremiah rode into the main yard about two hours before sunset.  He pulled the saddle and rubbed down Black.  Giving him some food, he stalled his horse after giving him a carrot.

He nodded towards Jake, one of the men who, in his opinion, was a question mark and headed towards the back of the house.

Towards the office.

Sarah Jennifer wasn’t some old maid willing to take in just anyone.  No, she was an ex-tactical member of the FDG – the Force de Guerre.  She had suffered some neurological damage during an operation, and they couldn’t get her back into prime reaction speed again.  She wasn’t willing to be dead weight and refused to take an office job.

It just reminded her too much of what she couldn’t do, anymore.

Jeremiah arrived at the back and pulled the string which rang a bell inside her office.  Soon enough, her voice came out of a tube next to the door.  “You got my attention, who is this and what do you need?”

He was pretty sure she knew exactly who was standing here, but her ability to keep secrets was legendary, and no one knew exactly how much tactical weapons she had from her days being a merc.

He grinned for anyone who might see, “It’s Jeremiah, SJ.”  He lowered his voice, “I got a visit from TB’s goons to relay to you.”

Her voice, confused came back through the tube, “TB?…Oh, that jackass.”  Jeremiah could almost picture her blue eyes rolling under her blond hair, “Come in, let’s discuss scuzzbucket’s latest threat.”  With a clunk, the door unlocked, and Jeremiah pulled open the door and walked in, the door closing and a small bar locking behind him, it’s weight taking care to lock it after it closed.

The hallway was only ten foot long with a door at the other end which would open into the house proper.  He took two steps and turned right.  Inside the room, about twenty feet long and fifteen wide was a small round table to his right with three chairs for meetings.  Sarah Jennifer, a pencil in her right-hand tap tap tapping the desk she was behind when he walked in.

She noticed his sand and sweat covered body and got to the point, “Ok, what’s bull-shittiest-Maximus want this time?”

“Your ass, or your land, probably both,” Jeremiah told her.  He grabbed one of the two chairs in front of her desk and pulled it back to sit down, “Sucks to be you?”

She snorted, “I understand it used to be that women wanted men to appreciate them for their intellect, not their tits.  Now, my intellect is third string behind my land.”

Jeremiah kept his mouth shut.

The tap tap tap of the pencil continued, “That’s not all, is it?” She asked him, watching his fidgeting hands. “You got something you don’t like admitting.  What’s asshat Maximus got planned now?”

Jeremiah looked up and then back to Sarah Jennifer, “The two heavies told me you got a little time to make a decision, one week.  You either decide to marry him, or sell to him.  If you go past that, then he reduces what he is willing to buy it from you and the insinuation is it won’t be a wedding bed at the end of the deal, but there will be a physical consummation.”  Jeremiah looked pissed he even had to pass on such a despicable threat.

Sarah Jennifer’s eyes narrowed, “So, sell or rape?”  Jeremiah returned her gaze and nodded his head in agreement, “Well, at least the disgusting pig is finally showing his true colors.”  She blew out a breath.  “He’s got about thirty in his group?”

“Last I heard, it was thirty-two.  But, if he decides that isn’t enough he could get some cheap hands willing to pull a trigger and maybe get ten more from closer to old Denver if he decides it’s going to be a pain in the ass to root us out.  However,” Jeremiah turned to look out through her wall in the direction of the hands sleeping quarters, “I can’t promise you more than three for damned sure, and five if I’m giving a couple the benefit of the doubt.”

Her lips compressed and she followed his gaze where it lead.

Out to the building where her hands slept at night.

FROM MICHAEL >>> I’M CHEATING!

So, I really need to get some writing done and I can’t do that if I’m writing this…So, since I JUST put up another snippet today (and wrote a good amount – If you haven’t seen it, you should TOTALLY go read the first snippet of The Etheric Academy – Alpha with TS Paul (Bethany Anne is in the opening scene…and Marcus 😉

So, I’m going to pimp Martha Carr again for those who haven’t seen the previous pimp earlier today (it is below, check it out!)

It has EVERYTHING to do with how awesome Martha is, and very, very little lot do with how much I need to write on Michael’s story 😉

THANK YOU ALL FOR CONTINUING ON THIS CRAZY JOURNEY WITH ME!

Michael

Now, for a very tiny story (not because I couldn’t write more, but because I have to eat and get back here before Cox Cable shows up).

Martha Carr is an amazing person.  I don’t want to ruin the enjoyment of learning her story (which you get to do as you read her books) but also, she is just so damned Zen.  Like..I don’t know how to explain…a Mary Poppins for the 21st century?

No…probably not.  She likes killing people too much in her stories.  You see, she writes Thrillers and Conspiracy stuff.  I would say “she grew up on it” but, for her, it’s the truth.

You know what makes her stuff scarier?  The more you know about her background, the more it makes you wonder if the book is a story, or is it a carefully covered up truth she is trying to get us to understand.

Without upsetting the powers that be in Washington.

Check out her first in the Wallis Jones Series, and get ready for #2 due out this week…And #3 in two more weeks…  They are all hitting hard, fast and continuously.

I’m a personal fan of Martha, and want her success more than I want my own.  If you happen to enjoy this genre, check it out and let me know what you think, ok?  If you like it enough to drop a review – please do so.  Mind you, every freaking time you leave one…She will probably ping my ass on Facebook and let me know about it!  So, the more she pings, the more I’ll probably have to stay writing in Scrivener and get the Michael Book done.

😉

Love you all! – Michael

The List Conspiracy (Wallis Jones Series 2016)

What would you do if you found out your child was involved in a shadow government conspiracy…that they can’t get out of?

Perhaps, just perhaps, you might know Wallis Jones.

If you don’t?

Then pray.

When you find out your entire life is the conspiracy…

When a stranger arrives in Wallis Jones’s driveway she learns of a daring enlistment strategy known as the Butterfly Project. With two secret factions secretly battling for control and actively recruiting new members at a young age families find out too late, there’s no out clause.

Caught in the crosshairs of two warring shadow governments, Wallis realizes she must uncover the hidden meaning behind the names on the list the stranger provided.

Can Wallis find a way to uncover the truth and expose the real powers before more lives are lost? Or will she lose the one case that matters most?

Follow Wallis Jones in Martha Carr’s intriguing new political thriller, The List Conspiracy – the first book in the Wallis Jones series!

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE / DOWNLOAD THE BOOK TODAY!

UNEDITED

The Etheric Dimension

Stumped.

Michael was frustrated, his lips compressed into a tiny line cutting across the horizontal plane of a face irritated with oneself.

“How does she do this?” he mumbled for the hundredth time, if he had mumbled it once.

Michael had been standing here what seemed like forever.  He knew he merely needed to take a step and he should be on the other side.  He should be…  He took another testing step, and dropped out of the grayness into nighttime on the side of a hill, falling through limbs, cracking two in the process as he slipped and tumbled twice head over ass.

“Gott Verdammt!” he cursed before his legs hit a low branch and twisted him radically turning him over to land hard, His breath exploded out of his mouth, his eyes open in surprise and pain.

He was now on the ground, laying on his back looking up into the branches of a tree above him, the moonlight caressing its branches.

“Oooouuuch,” he moaned, laying there a moment to collect his thoughts.

Michael reached towards his back and rolled to his left.  His right hand grabbed a small rock and yanked it out from underneath him.  He pulled it up in front of him and looked at it in the moonlight.  He opened his mouth to say something, but then shook his head and tossed the rock ten feet away to land in the bushes.

He listened for a second, not hearing anything or feeling anything dangerous.  Twenty feet above him, something silvery and translucent seemed to close slowly.

The silver expanse, he would later swear, snickered at him when it closed off, and the tree limbs behind it were now all he saw.

He was losing it.  He rolled forward and stood up, knocking the pine needles and other dirt and detritus off his body.

He looked around and snatches from a run came back into his memory.  He had a bag, a package.  NO!  He had a bomb.  He had been running to return it to someone who had attacked the…

Michael turned, looking up the mountain.  He had been running away from the base.

Michael took his first step in the moonlight, up towards the location where there should be a base.

A base … and answers.

FROM MICHAEL >>>  Well, we start again, don’t we?  Michael has made it back to the place on Earth he last left.  The problem?  This Earth is vastly different from the one he left.

Decades have passed, and the unthinkable has happened.  Now, those who have been risen in this time are focused on how to survive, it is what they have lived.  The UnknownWorld, while still staying in the shadows, have groups preying on the humans.  Additionally, there is a sickness that is afflicting the humans with each new generation…

The world needs help, it needs a savior that can help them learn how to treat those around them better.

The problem?  What they receive is the Dark Messiah and he has rarely been known to turn the other cheek.  The last time that happened, there was a woman involved

And she isn’t around at the moment…

NEW BOOK OUT!

JN Chaney (I just found out his real first name a couple of days ago…I was always wondering if I should call him “JN” or something else) is one of the Author’s I’ve meet in the 20BooksTo50k group who has been doing his own thing, and climbing the charts himself with his series THE VARIANT SAGA.

Recently, he cracked the top 100 Authors in Science Fiction (Woot!)   As of this post, he is #84 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction

For those who have started his series, I’m announcing BOOK 03 IS OUT!  For those who HAVEN’T started it, well then click on the link and go check it out if you want some weekend reading! (Well, you need to finish by the 8th, just a suggestion for getting ready for when Michael makes a cameo BEFORE his book comes out DECEMBER 25TH, 2016   😉 )

Hope Everlasting: A Dystopian Sci-fi Novel (The Variant Saga Book 3)

Terry is on the run, having escaped from prison and killed its overseer. He and his friend Ludo need to find a way to get to the northern border. That’s where Ludo’s wife is being held, but time is of the essence. If they don’t hurry, she’ll be sacrificed to the gods as part of some barbaric ceremony.

With an army at their heels and a continent to cross, Terry and Ludo will need all the help they can get.

Meanwhile, Mei Curie has opened a portal to another world…and it isn’t what she expected. There are worms the size of cars, animals with bulletproof hides,and an advanced alien race unlike anything mankind has ever witnessed.

Not to worry, though. Johnathan Finn has just the ticket: a rifle stocked with bullets, ready to deal with whatever threats come knocking.

Along with his team of soldiers, John is here for a single purpose–to find his missing friend and bring him home–but in a world as strange as this one, a simple search and rescue mission could prove deadly.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE!