Dear Reader who probably likes epic fantasy,
Above you see Mochi, lounging in a cloud of pillows while I try to make the bed (his favorite). He almost wasn't around for this, because a few days ago he escaped from the house. I chased him until 2 in the morning. But more on that later.
I am pleased to tell you that I finally (FINALLY) got around to reorganizing the audio for the Pirates of Wefrivain series. This was a serious chore that I was not looking forward to. Fortunately, I am intensively procrastinating beginning the Sleipner-verse books. In this frame of mind, the headache of reorganizing Pirates audio began to seem like a fun and relaxing activity.
Dear reader, it was not. But I got it done. All while managing to avoid writing anything new or marketable. Impressive, yes?
You can get either the ebooks by themselves or the audiobooks (which also include the ebooks) directly from me. The final book, The Cormorant, is not in audio yet. That will happen near the end of this year at the earliest. But the other 4 books are in audio in their proper form. They're about 18 hours each. Here's what Book 1 is about:
Gerard lost his birthright in his small island kingdom when he married the court minstrel. He fled to the only place that offered protection from his father and his vengeful local deity—the service of the High Priestess.
Unfortunately, his superior officer, Silveo, takes an instant disliking to Gerard. Silveo has a reputation for cruelty, cunning, and a biting wit. Rumors claim that he was once an assassin, who clawed his way to power from a childhood of poverty and abuse.
In spite of their differences, the Priestess insists that Gerard and Silveo cooperate to destroy the charismatic pirate, Gwain, and his mysterious organization, the Guild of the Cowry Catchers. Gwain has been killing off the Temple Police for years, and he seems likely to make a swift end of Gerard...if Silveo doesn't do it first.
Pirates of Wefrivain is an epic fantasy saga that includes LGBT+ themes, polyamory, dragons, sassy anti-heroes, characters overcoming a history of abuse, true love, talking cats, and outrageous clothing. Mature audiences only.
And just because I love you, I will give you the first one for free and the second one 80% off. I'm only going to do this for a couple of weeks, so get them now if you want them. The Code is: QXZ2K44RYW
This is for the Audio + eBook versions. Book 1 The Guild of the Cowry Catchers and Book 2 Shores Beyond the World.
Put the books in your cart, click Checkout, and at the bottom of the checkout window, there's a little blue link that says "Enter a discount code." I tested this and I noticed that my system was choking a bit on the concept of 2 items discounted differently in the same basket. If it seems to be having a problem, check out with the free book first, and then check out again with the other one. It's the same code for both.
The books are slowly making their way onto other platforms, both audio and ebook. I've done what I can to issue the new versions on Audible, but it will take a while to percolate through the system. If you get them off my site, don't forget to grab the free extras, such as the outtakes from the first 2 books (quite funny), as well as music and interviews.
What else is going on?
The first two Incubus eBooks are currently free on Amazon. Note: this ends on Wed the 25th (3 days). The MM portion of the story gets going in Book 2. I'd recommend you read them in order, but you don't absolutely have to. I know most of you are here for the guys kissing, so this is how Book 2 begins:
Mal is a summoned incubus, trapped on the mortal plane by Azrael's magic. When he finally escapes with Jessica's help, they spend four glorious months abroad, visiting exotic places, enjoying other people and each other. However, they’re tired of traveling, and they both miss Azrael more than they expected.
When the sorcerer shows up on their doorstep, they’re excited to see him. However, Azrael hasn’t come on a social call. He needs Mal’s magic for a difficult task. Mal isn’t willing to wear Azrael’s collar again for free, no matter how he feels about him. Mal’s price: "You. No wards. Anything I want. And Jessica gets to watch."
Jessica has misgivings. A night together could be bliss…or it could be a disaster that will break hearts and ruin everyone’s chances of the home they desire. As they work together to build a magical gate, dodging hostile wizards and fairies, can Mal and Jessica gain Azrael’s fragile trust and find their way into his heart?
"Distraction" is running in the Patreon feed. Dudes on 4 legs kissing here. High tension, high stakes, enemies to lovers, loads of sass. You do need to have read or listened to Hunters Unlucky and Lullaby for this to make sense. Lullaby is still in the feed ahead of Distraction. Hunters Unlucky is here.
Finally, the moment you've been waiting for, the reason you read to the bottom of this email - the story of Mochi's Night Out.
Guys, he's wily. He's so very wily. He waited until I was taking trash out. I had the garage door up for purposes of moving cans to the road. Then, without warning, he shot through the door while my hands were full and made straight for the open garage. I admit, I was up later than I should have been. This was around midnight.
Mochi has not been allowed outdoors since Taro's 5-day disappearance. They've been strictly indoor cats since then. Taro learned his lesson and does not try to go outside, but Mochi doesn't understand why is brother's poor decisions ought to result in his permanent imprisonment. Additionally, Mochi has never been loose outdoors at night in his life before. He was clearly finding the late hour intoxicating.
He had a shopping list of places he wanted to visit. He moved purposely around the front yard while I weedled plaintively behind him, offering treats, his favorite toys, and my undivided attention. He was having none of it.
What's more, he soon found a friend. The unneutered tom who enticed Nix away (never to return) has been talking to Mochi nightly through the screened porch (the porch I screened specifically for my cats). This tom, whom I shall call Lothario, is an equal opportunity flirt. He trills and rolls around shamelessly, no doubt regaling Mochi with tales of dodging coyotes and trucks in the exciting world beyond his gilded cage.
So they found each other sometime after midnight and proceeded to play tag all around my house. I trotted along behind them, already mourning the imminent loss of my silly boy, who fairly glows in the dark, is unafraid of other animals, and has "coyote dinner" practically written on his forehead.
Mochi, meanwhile, was having a glorious time. I'm afraid that my chasing after him might have made him bolder. I guess he thought I had his back. I guess I did. So we circled my house and wandered through neighbors yards, through flowerbeds, under vehicles, and beneath the neighbor's parked food truck. (My neighbors definitely do not have an alarm or motion sensor lights. I would have noticed while blundering through the flowerbeds beneath their windows at 1 in the morning.) I did all of this while wearing my slippers, because I was too afraid of losing Mochi to go back for shoes. So my pristine slippers were soon caked in garden soil.
Sometime around 1 am, Mochi and his playmate went over my fence into my backyard, where they proceeded to hang out, sampling garden plants, and dancing out of reach whenever I got too near. Taro - who had been sound asleep on my bed when this escapade began - finally woke up and came out into the screened porch. When he saw that his brother was on the outside, he proceeded to cry desperately and claw at the screen. Mochi, heartless in his freedom, ignored him.
Meanwhile, Lothario kept playfully trying to get Mochi to follow him over the back fence, where I would not be able to track them. Each time, Mochi veered back into my yard at the last minute. My fear seesawed back and forth across the fence.
Finally, I had the bright idea of opening the door from the backyard into the garage. Mochi has never seen that door open. I thought he might be curious.
But Mochi turned out to be the more cunning of the two. It was Lothario who strolled into the garage to check it out. I raced up and shut the door. "At least you won't walk off with another of my cats!" I hissed at him.
Mochi disappeared to sulk, since I'd stolen his buddy. I settled down with a despondent Taro on the back porch, calling every ten minutes or so. Around 2 am, Mochi had had enough freedom. He came cheerfully up to the porch. I went out and he let me pick him up.
*relief*
I put some food and water in the garage for Lothario and went to bed. Where was Nim during all this, you ask? Nim is old and deaf and slept through the whole thing!
Next morning, I went out to assess Lothario. He's a beautiful tabby cat, well-fed with a soft shiny coat, and most definitely not neutered. After a night alone, he approached me for pets. When I sat down, he got in my lap and tried to rub his face against mine. Totally tame. This cat is not feral or even stray. Someone feeds and pets him on the regular. They just don't care enough about him to neuter him, and that probably makes him intolerable as an indoor pet.
I posted about him on the lost pets websites, hoping his owner would approach me and I could offer to help with neutering him if was a financial issue. No owner revealed themselves. By evening of the following day, Lothario was extremely anxious to leave, and it had become clear that he is not familiar with the litter box. I felt certain he has a home and knows how to get there, so I released him. I hoped that his imprisonment had, at least, frightened him into staying out of my yard for a while.
Alas, dear reader, he was back the following night, trilling at Mochi through the screen. *sigh*
Yours, An Author desperately tempted to neuter some neighbor's cat,
Abbie