StanleyWheeler

The four musketeers are painted. I must say that my painting skills occasionally soar to heights very nearly approaching the underbelly of mediocrity. This wasn't one of those times (I'll aspire to mediocrity another time), but sometimes it happens.

Aramis, Porthos, Athos, and D'Artagnan.

More importantly, the manuscript for Justice Resurgent is (I hope) being proofread by one of the extremely talented people who suffer though such things for me. But the most fun I had this week was writing on, not one, but two novels. A while back I started writing a new novel, but I felt guilty that I had not yet done the sequel to my YA Fantasy Finding Jack Book One The Orb (FJBOTO, or The Orb). More importantly, a particular fan of that book keeps insisting that I write the sequel right away. So, I decided to ease my conscience, get that fan off my back, and work on the sequel: Finding Jack Book Two The Rod (FJBTTR or The Rod). I can't stop the new novel either, so I have to do both. That's a rookie mistake, but it's how I wrote Smoke, Justice Resurgent, and The Orb--working on all three until I had to focus on each one in turn to write the last portion of each.

I had to re-read the last couple chapters of The Orb to get back into the right mindset, and to pickup right where the first book ends. I'm only a few thousand words into it, but it's a fun one to write.

Here are a couple excepts from The Orb, copyright 2016--used with the author's permission, of course--all other rights reserved. These are from the last third of the book. (Also, the paragraph indentation didn't transfer properly).

Nazanzires stirred. A familiar fragrance filled her olfactory receptors. A certain and distinctive incense lingered in the air. Her eyes snapped open as she recognized the scent…of sorcery. Magic had been brought, or wrought, within the confines of her den; a whiff of wizardry mingled with the usual odors of her habitation. Like an aromatic spice, the perfume permeated the entirety of the cavern.

She turned her head about, searching for a tell-tale stream emanating from the source of the odor. In a few seconds she had found not one, but three sources. One source she traced to the wall where she knew it had been for a time; but now it had been activated, and its odor aroused. There she also found the trace of two humans, each with the scent of sorcery upon them.

The location of the familiar item radiated a pulsing red hue of a scent. The other two streams smelled of latent, unused power; one bore a swirly pastel scent. The other struck her suddenly; even in its dormancy it burned with a steady white intensity.

Nazanzires reared back in pain and anger as the piquant white scent seared her nostrils. She felt an instinctive wave of wrath rising within herself. She opened her jaws and, with more than a hiss, but less than a roar, spewed her fiery breath at the area with the heaviest concentration of the stinging stench. She drew back to the far side of the lair. She ran her scaly tail along the wall, rapidly clicking the bony ridge scales against the rock. The action served as a sort of release of nervous energy, a calming exercise. She knew that smell. She knew its source. She would regain her composure before she left the lair to pursue the thieves, one of whom bore that baneful stone.

...

...

Jack closed his eyes, expecting to be consumed in flame. He opened them a moment later to see fire nearly engulfing himself and the stranger; but the fire turned away, unable to penetrate some unseen shield that protected the two of them.

“You’ve been rousing monsters. You won’t live long here!” the stranger shouted grimly over the sound of the pounding flames.

Jack didn’t have any response. He looked around. Vinto lay unmoving near the tree where the horses had been tied. The horses were nowhere in sight.

The flames stopped. Jack glimpsed the silhouette of the dragon rising from its swooping attack. The beast flew over them. As the dragon passed, the stranger rose, and ran toward a patch of trees, nearly a hundred yards away.

Nazanzires turned back toward the sorcery. Her first flaming onslaught had been ineffectual against the power of the stone. She knew that her fire could not penetrate that shield. She also knew somewhat of the workings of the stone. She knew that eventually her attacks would deplete the power of the stone. Then would the bearer be at her mercy.

As she turned, Nazanzires saw the bearer of the stone running away. She swooped back toward the retreating figure. The figure turned, holding a strange object in one hand, the stone in the other. The figure pointed the strange object at her. She stuttered in her flight as a force struck her. Delayed, but not deterred, she continued toward her target. Again the wave of force struck her. It was stronger this time, but she only shuddered under its impact without breaking off the attack. She dove downward, spewing flame.

Jack managed to roll to his stomach. He pressed himself against the earth, and the dragon swooped over him toward the stranger. Standing now, the stranger held the orb between himself and the dragon. The beast’s flaming breath beat upon the unseen shield without burning the stranger. But the stranger was being forced backwards, as if he were inside of a ball being pushed by a strong wind.

When her fiery breath stopped, Nazanzires did not turn away. She came straight at the stone-bearer. Only as she was about to impact the figure did she pull up to drive her talons toward her target. 

I note that The Orb is available now for only $0.99. That's real value!