The Tuesday Tease for Curse - on a Thursday.

Yup - I'm really late, but I've been really busy!

There's been a bunch of stuff going on which has left me rather frazzled and feeling all over the place, but I'll get to that in a moment.

First - and again, sorry for the delay - I have put up the first half of my new About the Author thing I've been working on. It got longer than I expected and I ended up cutting it into two parts because who the heck wants to be met with fifteen pages of story when expecting a short author bio?

I haven't put the second part up yet because I had a little cooking accident which has hindered the use of my arm a little bit (won't slow me for long though!)

That nasty blister is the result of a scalding hot butter-splatter while making french toast the other night. Yes, we have french toast for dinner on occasion. It's awesome, just not when you get burned.

Anyway, this post is supposed to be a teaser for Curse!

I picked one of my current favorites. I'll probably use it as one of the excepts for Curse in The Crow Series section when I finally get around to that...



Curse - The Crow Series Book Four:

I waited until she was almost out of sight before I crept out from the darkened alley and started following her with a determined gait. She walked down several blocks, peering over her shoulder every few feet.
I slowed my pace, pushing the sunglasses firmly up over the bridge of my nose as she turned into an old bookshop and the door jingled shut behind her.
What is it with this girl and books?
I counted to twenty before stepping inside, panning my eyes across the endless shelves until I spotted her in the back.
She was leaning over a long wooden table, flipping through stacks of books laid out under a twenty-percent-off sign. I casually circled through the room, picking up random books and glancing down blankly at the covers while I watched her out of the corner of my eye. I slid over onto the other side of the table, lifting up a romance title with a shiny red cover just as Eva looked up and her eyes suddenly widened with recognition.
“Denora - is that you?” She took a hesitant step back, “Funny, Conner was just asking me if I’d seen you around. Seems like everyone’s been looking for you lately.”
I reached across the table and grabbed her by the front of her rose-print shirt in a firm grip, pulling her hard over the flat surface until her hazel eyes widened an inch in front of my face. Stacks of books thudded to the ground around us but all I could see was the look of dread on Eva’s face.
“I know you’ve been keeping my mother’s journal from me. I don’t know if you’re working for Leena or you’re just angry about Conner, but if you don’t give me all of it - right now - I’m going to make you regret ever having laid eyes on him.”
It was a hollow threat, but Eva accepted it without hesitation. She sucked her breath in sharply, the color draining from her cheeks.
“I would never get involved with Leena.” She said, her voice almost a whisper in fear, “I don’t have the book on me. It’s at my sister’s place.”
I released my grip on her shirt and she quickly slid back onto her feet, her hands smoothing down the front of her clothes as she peered over her shoulder to see if anyone had observed.
I waved my arm in front of me toward the door, oblivious to potential witnesses.
“Take me to it.”

So there you go! Now I'm excited.
In other news, I've been going back and forth with myself for some time over an idea that won't seem to let me alone. I'm not sure how many of you know about Patreon or how it works but the prospect of it has my brain buzzing the past week or so.

It's essentially a "patron the artist" system where people who like the work a person is producing commit to giving them a certain amount of money per month. A lot of people just do $1 a month, but a lot of people adds up. In return, the artist agrees to send the patrons certain rewards for helping them out based off how much they've committed to giving each month. Things like signed copies, behind the scenes videos, personalized art pieces etc.
 
The very idea of it both thrills and terrifies me. I feel anxious and excited, like I can't hold still - but at the same time, I'm nauseous and nervous to the point of cold chills. I'm taking the terror to mean I should jump in and just do it. Probably not the smartest move, but I don't feel like this very often. When I do, it usually means something big.

I like it though. The intimacy of the interactions with your patrons - people who have already shown an interest in what you're doing by their very presence there. You start out automatically having something in common. Sharing things blindly with the wide world online is daunting. I often feel like I'm watching a torrential storm, trying to pick out individual raindrops. The vastness of social media often leaves me more isolated and contemplative than enthusiastic and co-operative.
But that's me. I do better in smaller groups I guess - more personal, less plastic.

Anyway, it's still in the plotting stages. I've got a lot going on right now with finishing the other half of the Mouse Interview, pushing through the current round of edits on Curse to get it publishable in the near future and a couple of other side things I have in the pipeline. I've already built a basic Patreon page, I just haven't gotten up the nerve to launch it yet lol. Kind of feels like it did the very first time I hit the Publish button on Amazon. Actually, that's exactly what it feels like - every time I publish something. Hopefully that's a good sign, otherwise I might be doomed :P

Thanks for reading!