Hey, folks! Honestly, I need to write here much more often. So much is going on that I should write about, but I don't write about it because so much is going on! Sheesh! The holidays are upon us, so there's all of that rigamarole to be dealt with, plus all the usual day-to-day of running a martial arts school, plus writing as much as possible...yes, it's crazy busy up in here.
In November, I participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time, and although I didn't reach the goal of 50,000 words by the end of the month, I did manage to get around 32K words into a new fantasy, GrimFaerie. It's an Urban Fantasy set here in the Houston area. I'm having a lot of fun with it, though I decided to put it aside here for the last couple of weeks and work on something else. What is that project, you ask? It's a new book!! Short Workouts for Beginners: Get Healthier and Stronger at Home (Book 1 of the Jade Mountain Workout Series). It's available for Kindle right now at only $2.99 or FREE on Kindle Unlimited, and the paperback version will be out right after Christmas (just in time for the new year)!
I've worked with adults for 13 years, teaching them how to exercise safely and properly, create a doable workout routine, and improve their health. Although I'm a martial arts instructor, this is not a martial arts book; it's geared for beginners who need a place to start and need a clear plan they can follow at home. In it, I demonstrate some basic exercises (links to videos included) and outline some simple workouts that have worked for my students over the years. Click HERE to check it out on Amazon!
Now that I've got that out of the way, I can get back to GrimFaerie...or maybe a book on Kettlebell Training, I'm still deciding. ;-) In any event, here's a blurb and a teaser for GrimFaerie:
"Not all of the Faerie are sweet little Pixies. There are a few who do the dirty work on the side of the Light, those of fang and claw and abilities far beyond those of the mere mortals they walk alongside. They are known as GrimFaeries. If you are evil enough to try to tip the balance towards the Dark side, you might just get a visit from one. And they won't be leaving a coin under your pillow."
GrimFaerie
“Great power brings great responsibility.” That’s a little something that I read from a character called Spider-Man some years ago. It seems that every so often, somebody remembers something obvious and puts it in print for everyone to ooh and ah over. As for me, I’d known this little fact of life for a particularly long time, and my belief in its truth often had me skulking through the darkest, most dangerous parts of the city in the wee hours of the morning, usually in search of a very evil son of a bitch.
This time was no different. It had been brought to my attention that another killer was loose in our city, and it was time for me to do something about it. Oh, I can hear you now, “But there are killings all the time!”
Well, you are right. People die or get killed quite often around here. People kill each other right and left, and I don’t lift a finger. Innocents are murdered for their sneakers, and street thugs kill each other by the dozens. People die of neglect, disease, car wrecks, and though I admit that it occasionally pains me to hear of such things, I don’t walk the streets at night in an attempt to avert those deaths.
But this particular killer was different. These recent deaths were the work of a single man, one very sick, twisted, and evil individual who brutalized and murdered young women. Now THIS I can do something about. And I would be only too glad to take care of the bastard. Sometimes, humans need a few bad genes removed from the old pool. That’s what I do sometimes. My unique talents assist me pretty well in such removals.
Hearing all this, some might ask if I think I’m God. ‘What right do you have to choose who dies and who lives? What makes you so special?’ Well, I certainly do not think of myself as God, though I have a lot of his/her power within me. And I actually have far more right to kill than psychos like this one, considering the evil nature of my targets. What goes around comes around. That’s a universal law, baby. Most folks would just depend on fate to take care of such karmic debts. Well, just who do you think that ‘fate’ calls on to tend to business? I’m a bit special, you could say.
I am of the Faerie, and though I usually look, walk, talk, and even occasionally think like a man, I am actually far from being human. And don’t ever mistake me for one of those cute little winged pixies that flit about and sprinkle shiny dust all over the place. I’m just not that kind of Faerie.
I’m the kind that had your ancestors bolting their doors and cowering in their homes at night. I’m the kind that caused unwary travelers to disappear in the deepest of our forests without a trace. Seeing me at work is usually enough to send people to years of therapy, and I’ve heard that their nightmares never go away.....
