Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

I’ll do one last snippet from Rose. Unfortunately, I can’t share snippets from what I’m writing now (book 2, The Road to Shanhasson) without giving spoilers to the first book in the series. I do have an idea for a prequel starring Gregar that I might work on and share as I write it. Are you sick of me talking about him yet?

Seriously, he is my Muse. He haunts me. To be perfectly honest, he often scares me. He has no limits, and he’s a bit of a masochist as you’ll see in this snippet about 1/3 of the way into Rose.

Setup: On the ride to the Plains, Shannari’s thrashing wakes Rhaekhar up in the middle of the night. No longer breathing and unable to awaken, she’s trapped in a nightmare of Shadow.

“How can I help her?”

Gregar tucked his ivory rahke into her hand. “She needs a weapon. And she needs to bleed.”

“Nay,” Rhaekhar whispered, his entire body shaking.

“It is best if you do it, Khul.” Gregar met his gaze. His mouth twisted in that trademark smirk, but agony glittered in his dark eyes. “I would draw too much.”

She went rigid, her body vibrating from head to toe.

“Hurry, Khul.” Gregar’s voice softened and a dreamy peace smoothed the pain from his face. He cradled her hand gripping the rahke in both of his palms and lifted the blade to his chest. “A little blood will be sufficient.”

Silently, Varne offered his rahke. Rhaekhar shook his head. “Mine.”

Another Blood appeared beside them, Khul’s rahke in his hand. Rhaekhar took his rahke and lifted the wickedly sharp edge to her fragile skin. He chose the scar over her heart, the scar he wished to obliterate. Closing his eyes, he whispered a quick prayer, and then made a small incision.

Light blinded him. For a moment, he couldn’t tell where it came from. The ivory rahke in her hand glowed like a captured star, shining in the night like a beacon. In the many years he had called Gregar friend, Rhaekhar had never seen such a marvel.

Shannari took a long, shuddering breath. Her eyes flew open. And with a low, vicious cry, she buried the rahke in Gregar’s chest.

#

The dark-haired Blood with the wicked smile fell forward slowly, the knife in his chest still in her hand. Horrified, Shannari tried to pull back, but his hands gripped hers in a vise, pressing the blade deeper.

He fell on her, staring into her eyes. No surprise, no reprisals, no pain. His gaze was heavy lidded, smoldering with desire, pleasure, raw hunger, death. Blood gushed from the wound, searing her skin.

“Thank you,” Gregar whispered, his voice thick. “You honor me.”

One of the other Blood she didn’t know gently lifted his weight from her and lay him on the ground beside her. Gregar never took his gaze from hers, even as the blade slid out of his flesh. No pain flashed in his dark gleaming eyes.

His chest glowed like the knife in her hand. Light pulsed in the wound, a liquid rainbow flashing in the night. Before her eyes, the wound closed until only a scar remained. A scar over his heart to match hers.

“Oh, Lady, I didn’t mean to

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Thirteen Creative AffirmationsI’ve been reading Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way and I really feel like some of my creative mo-jo is coming back. I wasn’t blocked, exactly, but I wasn’t nurturing my artist. I was on the slippery slope downward. Now, I write my Morning Pages and read positive affirmations every day. These are 13 that she recommends in the book that really spoke to me personally. 1. I am a channel for God’s creativity and my work comes to good. 2. My dreams come from God and God has the power to accomplish them. 3. As I create and listen, I will be led. 4. Creativity is the creator’s will for me. 5. My creativity heals myself and others. 6. I am allowed to nurture my artist. 7. Through the use of my creativity, I serve God. 8. My creativity always leads me to truth and love. 9. I am willing to let God create through me. 10. I am willing to be of service through my creativity. 11. There is a divine plan of goodness for my work. 12. My creativity leads me to forgiveness and self-forgiveness. 13. I am willing to create. What positive affirmations do you use? [I’m running a Book Giveaway this week but will NOT include Thursday Thirteeners in the drawing unless you voluntarily comment on the main giveaway announcement here.]

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here! The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Balancing sweeping, epic fantasy and romance is not easy, as this discussion at Dear Author demonstrates.

Speaking as a reader first, I

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

I was thrilled when Krista won a copy of The Rose of Shanhasson. I’ve known her a long time through her blog and she was very kind to help me with Letters before I entered it in the Brava contest. Not only has she already read it, but she wrote up a terrific review here!

I kept trying to scroll down, certain there had to be more. Of course, there is, but it’s not in this story. Although I don’t have it on the author’s authority, I’m pretty sure the continuation is under construction in Gregar’s book. If it’s not, I may have to shake Joely up just a little, because this story is far from over…

Indeed, “Gregar’s Book” is coming right along, formally titled The Road to Shanhasson. If I write faster, we’ll hopefully have it out this fall.

Thank you, Krista!

[Don’t forget to comment this week for a chance to win a copy of Rose and more–details here]

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

What, you don’t believe me when I say I’m losing my mind? (Triple Book Giveaway this week, comment to be entered)

Last night, Middle Monster threw up in her bed. No, she doesn’t have the flu. No, I don’t believe she was sick. She’d been rewarded with the chance to stay up 15 minutes later than her sisters, but when she went to bed, they were already asleep. It was storming, thunder and lightning. And big mean Mom and Dad wouldn’t let her sleep in their room. So she threw up on her bed. Solved that problem, didn’t she? Of course by the time I stripped the bed and got her clean clothes, all three girls ended up in Mom and Dad’s room. Yippee.

On the bright side, the Shadowed Blood came to pay me a visit in dreams last night. Oh, dear. It was quite a gruesome, terrible, bloody nightmare. I was so excited I got nearly 1400 words this morning D&E before work. That’s the most I’ve written in one sitting for quite a while…

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

This week the monsters are on spring break and I’ve already lost my mind!!! So I’m giving away a triple header:

1. Your choice of one download from my backlist: Survive My Fire, The Fire Within, The Rose of Shanhasson
2. Off Limits by Jordan Summers
3. My Immortal Protector by Jen Holling

I’ll e-mail your e-book choice to you immediately, and then snail mail the other two books to you. To enter, comment on this or any entry throughout this week through Friday, March 21st, midnight CST. The more you comment, the more times I’ll enter your name in the magic hat. If you don’t want to comment on the blog, you may also e-mail me once at joely AT joelysueburkhart DOT com to enter. Anybody on the planet is eligible, even if you’ve won something from me in the past. Note that I do not retain your name or e-mail address after the giveaway ends.

Edited: The Winner will be announced Saturday, March 22.

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

I received a shipment from VistaPrint and WHOA they look incredible! I have bookmarks for both The Fire Within and The Rose of Shanhasson, as well as oversized postcards of each cover. If you’d like any for yourself or to distribute, drop me a line at joely AT joelysueburkhart DOT com and I’ll be happy to mail you some!

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

I haven’t done a snippet of the novella, The Fire Within, for quite a while, so I thought I’d share a little dream sequence. Dreams aren’t just simple sleepy-time visions in this world, as you will see. Darius is the High King of Shanhasson, the throne stolen from the legitimate blood line through murder and treachery. His sister, Eleni, talked him into letting her travel to Keldar to seek allies, where she plans to escape. War approaches Shanhasson, and Darius is desperate enough for more troops that he allows Eleni to flee. She’s never far from his influence, not when he can walk in her dreams with his dark power. She seeks sanctuary with Zahak and/or his brother, the leader of his tribe.

She walked on blood-red sands swept across a blasted land riddled with ravines. A full moon blazed down in the velvet sky, lighting the strange landscape. Ahead, a twisted black Spire pierced the sky. She wanted to run as far away from that Spire as possible, but it sucked her ever closer, her feet heavy and dragging through the sand.

Something in her blood stirred at the sight of that dull-black rock, like worms wriggling in a corpse.

At that thought, Darius appeared, walking across the cracked ground as though he were emperor of the world. She waited for the familiar flood of adrenaline, the rushing of blood in her ears, the vicious clenching of her stomach. Yet all she felt was a spreading warmth in her veins.

Tea. Fire Tea.

Keldar is a hard land.

She remembered Zahak, the feel of his arms sliding around her as she fell. The raw silk scent of his skin, dust and spice and sweat and man. He

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

Krista asked about my “had” hatred and what that entailed.

About 3 years ago or so, I stumbled across something Miss Snark said about hating “hads.” I believe it was one of her Crap-o-Meters and how she hated all of the “backstory” up front, but somehow that hatred of poor “had” lodged into my brain and didn’t want to come out. I stripped nearly all the past perfect verb tenses out of my writing. Even though I knew it technically wasn’t the right tense, it was something my brain started doing as I wrote (not something I edited out later).

Now, I’m trying to break that habit and write any little introspection of the past or mini-flash-back of past history in the correct past perfect tense FIRST so I don’t have to go back through and add all those pesky hads. It’s been an amazingly hard bad habit to break.

For example, this is a little snippet from Beautiful Death before I fixed it:

As if it were yesterday, she saw her sister slung over an alien

Originally published at Joely Sue Burkhart. You can comment here or there.

I’m feeling a bit scatter-brained this month, this week. The revisions to Letters still aren’t finished. I’ve written about 5K on Gregar’s book, which is good, but not as much as I wanted. Now I’m switching gears entirely to prep Beautiful Death for editor revisions.

Why? Well, you see, I had this small hatred of “had” for a long time, which Deena has patiently pointed out to me through the past 3 books. BD was written back in 2005/2006, so to say that I’ve learned a thing or two in the past years is an understatement. No sense in the editor wasting a ton of time fixing something I already know needs to be fixed.

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about Beautiful Death after being gone from it so long. It’s my rebellion child. It dragged me kicking and screaming to Olympus, just as Isabella and Hades both were betrayed and taken to face Zeus in the end. I had to get MAD to finish it. Mad at myself, mad at the world. In the end, I loved this book, because it helped me finish. If I hadn’t finished… If I’d quit a book again…

I really don’t know that I’d be here now.

So in many ways, BD saved me as a writer. It was my answer in the darkest moment of my journey to-date. So far, revising it has been like seeing an old acquaintance to whom a great debt is owed, and I’m feeling a little awkward and unsure how I can help it when it helped me so much. I’m starting with those “hads.” We’ll see what else needs gentle smoothing.

We had a horrid personal squick day yesterday with Littlest Monster. Let me just say that I’m still washing everything in the house and I seriously contemplated dragging out all the beds and furniture and just torching it.