Teaser Tuesday: The Swan

“The good news, Miss Semenova,” Spinner said, “is your doctors were right. The bad news is … they were right.”

Anya rolled her eyes at his back, unamused.

“It’s unsalvageable,” Spinner continued.

“See this?” Rake pointed at the outline of the right lung where a discolored area surrounded the bottom lobe.

“Uh-huh.” Spinner nodded and said over his shoulder, “It looks like the doctors killed the bug but failed to contain the infection. It’s seeping out through the pleura.” He shook his head. “This isn’t good. We’ll have to remove everything before the abdominal cavity is damaged too. You really don’t want to get rid of everything in there.” He gestured at her torso. “I mean it can be done but…”

Anya wrapped her arms protectively around herself. Was he talking about eviscerating her? Serioja’s comforting touch on the back didn’t erase her suspicions.

(The Nightingale Circus Collection - The Swan)

Teaser Tuesday: The Magician

Half an hour after the show ended, the circus announcer, a heavy man with a green-tinged complexion and dark patches spread over his skin, huffed and puffed his way inside. “If this is your way of catching a free ride—”

“I’m not catching a free ride,” Nicholas said, standing up from his box, though he would have to settle for that if his plan failed. The man had brought no reinforcements, and that said something. He wondered what it meant.

“What do you want then?”

“A job. I’m your new magician.”

The man gave him an up and down look. “We don’t need a magician. The audience these days is too clever for cheap tricks.”

“Not like my tricks.” Nicholas pressed his hand on an empty spot on the wall, and when he removed it, its outline remained clearly burned in place.

“Don’t damage my property.”

Grinning, Nicholas ran his palm over the same spot on the wall. The mark vanished.

(The Nightingale Circus Collection - The Magician)

Teaser Tuesday: The Blade Masters

Despite his hazy brain, Spinner tried to remember everyone’s location just before the blast. Maybe he wasn’t the only one lucky enough to survive. Hard to tell since his visual sensors didn’t work properly.

“Rake … are you there?” His voice came out croaked, but his jaw worked enough to produce the words.

A groan came from his left. “I wish I was dead.”

A relieved sigh escaped Spinner’s lips. Life wasn’t so bad if his best friend had survived.

“Any idea what happened?” he asked.

“Another screw up of our wonderful scientists.” Rake’s gruff voice was strained.

“What’s the status?”

“I think I broke my back. I can’t move,” Rake said.

Tough luck but not unfixable. A month of rehabilitation would do. It meant they weren’t going to be shipped to the battlefield together this time around. Bummer.

“Any tingling?” Spinner asked.

“Yes…” Rake said.

“Me too. It’s not the back, it’s the implant.”

“Right … I can’t think straight. It keeps firing inside my brain.” Rake groaned again, possibly another failed attempt to extract himself from the pile of mangled bodies. “Can you move at all?”

“No.”

“Then we’re stuck until the cleaning team gets here,” Rake said in an unhappy voice. 

(The Nightingale Circus Collection - The Blade Masters)

Teaser Tuesday: The Nightingale

 Starting with today, each Tuesday you'll meet one member of The Nightingale Circus crew via an excerpt of their origin stories. Enjoy!

Pushing the blonde wisps of hair away from her face with both hands, Cielo thrust her pointed chin up. “I refuse to live like this any longer.”

And here they went again. One day she would turn into a beautiful woman, but for now she was a skinny kid, only joints and bones, dressed in a too big shirt and faded shorts, and on the verge of a tantrum.

Rake’s chuckle didn’t help improve the situation.

“You were told not to leave the train,” Big Dino said in a reasonable voice. “You are safe there, and we can’t run around chasing after you to protect you.”

“I wasn’t safe the last time.” Cielo held his gaze without blinking. “No one was.”

“We fixed that glitch,” Spinner said, voiced subdued and head lowered between his shoulders. It had been his fault for not taking into consideration that particular scenario. The security system was new, and they still worked on figuring out all of its quirks.

Big Dino nodded in his direction. See?

“They would have hurt people.” A stubborn crease formed between the girl’s eyebrows. She was too young for wrinkles.

“We would have gotten to them in time,” Rake said, and Cielo glared at him. Not too young for holding a grudge.

“Not good enough,” Cielo said, her small fists clenching by her sides. “I want this to stop. I can’t keep killing people.”

(The Nightingale Circus Collection - The Nightingale)

Leonard Cohen - Almost Like the Blues

I can't wait for the new album to be released!

Blue Moon Cafe Series New Cover

It's time for Blue Moon Cafe Series: Where Shifters Meet for Drinks to get a makeover too. This one is more drastic, brand new cover by Robot Brain Design, and another round of proofreading by Lynzie Fitzpatrick.

This little book was a surprise for me because, despite being a short story collection and not very long, it sales better than all of my other titles, which  proves there's a huge market for paranormal out there.

So, if you want to read about shapeshifters, here's your chance. It's only $0.99.

Blue Moon Cafe Series: Where Shifters Meet for Drinks is available as an ebook through Amazon, Smashwords,  Barnes and Noble, iTunes, and Kobo.

Human Instincts New Cover

Human Instincts English edition ebook cover got a makeover.

The original was two years old and looked very amateurish. Back then, it was my first self-published title, and I still had a lot to learn. The new cover looks... less so. Hopefully! :P I kept the image and the colors, but fiddled with the fonts a little. I'm happy with it at this point.

Human Instincts is available on Amazon.com,  Kobo, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Smashwords.

And don't forget about the Romanian edition available here.