SFFS 31-10-2015 Impcatcher

This is my snippet this week for SFFSat. SFFSat is a place where a number of authors post snippets from their written works, and give the opportunity for comments, support and encouragement. Please also explore the other blogs that are part of this set - you can find the information here.


 Today's snippet is from Impcatcher, which is now on sale on Amazon for the Kindle and in paperback, and DriveThru in pdf format. The general epub version is at Lulu.

This snippet carries on from last week's episode. Tal is being attacked in his shop by a pair of professional killers - he managed to fling a hooked net over his male assailant (the one with the demon-blade), but the female is equally deadly - and she too has a knife. Fortunately it is not enchanted, but...

Something flickered through the air and slammed into my upper arm. There was no pain for a moment, and I looked at the dagger as the blade shivered in the muscles of my bicep. There was blood welling around the edge of the blade. I wondered for a moment what it was and how it was holding my arm against the shelves.

And then I screamed as the pain hit me. The woman grinned sadistically. Beardy had managed to get the net off him. His face and arms were peppered with small red wounds, like an extreme case of measles. The woman ignored her friend and moved in for the kill, yet another blade in her grip. She had to be weighed down with all the ironmongery she had produced.

The bell over the shop door clanged loudly. A squat, heavily-built figure was in the doorway, looking into the murky depths of the shop, a face I recognised expressing puzzlement through a dark beard. In his large, ham-sized hand a short, solid hammer swung upwards in clear and obvious threat.

The woman looked at me, looked back at the dwarf, and then made her last attempt to puncture my self-esteem. She flung her latest dagger at me. 

As always, comments welcomed!

 

SFFS 24-10-2015 Impcatcher Launched!

 This is my snippet this week for SFFSat. SFFSat is a place where a number of authors post snippets from their written works, and give the opportunity for comments, support and encouragement. Please also explore the other blogs that are part of this set - you can find the information here.


 Today's snippet is from Impcatcher, which is now on sale on Amazon for the Kindle, and DriveThru in pdf format. A more general epub version is on its way, as is a paperback.

This snippet carries on from last week's episode. Tal is being attacked in his shop by a pair of professional killers.


 

The man had a bushy beard and a fixed expression, his pale blue eyes like flint chips. Psychotic. Deadly. He lunged – I twisted to evade the shimmering blue of the blade and shoved a large crate into his path. The blade caught the cheap wood, and it charred. I shivered and flung myself back further, knowing the wooden shelves on the side wall were within feet of me, and that I had nowhere further to run. Beardy grinned icily, moving forward with professional caution. I risked a glance at the shelves behind me. He lunged immediately, not entirely to my surprise. I swung sideways and grabbed at the object I had spotted on the shelf, flinging it round and into his face. He cried out in pain, blood welling from each of the spikes digging into his face. Barbed nets are vicious things, like a blanket full of fish-hooks. I use them sparingly, only on really savage prey. Beardy qualified.

Comments welcomed!

SFFS 17-10-2015 - Impcatcher

This is my snippet this week for SFFSat. SFFSat is a place where a number of authors post snippets from their written works, and give the opportunity for comments, support and encouragement. Please also explore the other blogs that are part of this set - you can find the information here.


 Today's snippet is from Impcatcher, which (Amazon willing!) should be released on Thursday - here is the definitive cover!

In this snippet, two people have just walked into Tal's shop.

 

Two people were in the shop - a man and a woman. Smart leathers. Artisans from Eastwall was my first assumption. I didn't feel any immediate alarm - they didn't look like cheap thugs.

Mostly because they weren't – this pair were expensive, professional thugs. I was reaching out my hand in greeting to the bearded, heavy-set man when I saw a glint of steel moving in the woman's hand. If I had been a second slower to respond, everything would have been over then. For ever. As it was, I jerked sideways, tumbling into a hobcage and falling backwards, the deadly knife slicing across my leather tunic without impacting upon my flesh. This was no attempt to beat me up – this was lethal, ruthless, offering no quarter.

Her cohort had drawn a blade of his own, the edge rippling and shimmering blue-gold. Enchanted. I had no doubt that any injury from that particular edge would be fatal. With a few minutes' thought and perhaps a glance at one or more of my books I could have told you the type of demon bound within the blade. As it was, I had an extremely unpleasant suspicion I would never get to find out.

 

As always, comments welcomed!

SFFS 10/10/2015 Impcatcher

 This is my snippet this week for SFFSat. SFFSat is a place where a number of authors post snippets from their written works, and give the opportunity for comments, support and encouragement. Please also explore the other blogs that are part of this set - you can find the information here.

 





Today's snippet is from Impcatcher, which I am aiming to publish in roughly two weeks' time.

In this snippet, Tal, the impcatcher of the title, is about to make a very nasty discovery in the sewers.

 

I held the crystal in my left hand, pushing it forward into the darkness as I peered warily into the opening. My right hand reached automatically for the knife in the sheath on my right shin - saved my life more than once, that blade. But the void was empty of immediate threat.

It was a low, arched chamber, only a couple of hundred years old. I guessed it dated back to the Meraxian occupation, when our then overlords had insisted on improvements to the town's waterworks. The area was only ten feet across. A small, artificial cave, probably intended for the crew who had, in the distant past, maintained these depths.

I moved the light to illuminate the other side of the chamber, and my throat choked up. The occupants were both here. One was sprawled on the floor beside the makeshift bed, skin tight across her skull and shoulders, eyes staring blankly upwards, dirty teeth revealed by half-open lips in a rictus grimace. The other body was contorted on a slew of papers making a mound against the wall, all-but-skeletal hands clutching a long knife. His skin, too, was pallid, like parchment stretched over dry stone. His tunic was torn and patched, his breeches held together by old twine. He looked as though he was ninety.

Except that I knew he was sixteen at most.

I finally have the design for the cover - it may be tweaked slightly, but the fundamental design is settled.

As always, comments welcomed!

SFFS 3/10/2015 Impcatcher

 This is my snippet this week for SFFSat. SFFSat is a place where a number of authors post snippets from their written works, and give the opportunity for comments, support and encouragement. Please also explore the other blogs that are part of this set - you can find the information here.

Today's snippet is from Impcatcher, which I am aiming to publish in roughly a month's time. Tal, the eponymous impcatcher, is in a cellar, endeavouring to capture an imp which is throwing bottles of vintage wine at him.

Last week, he tried to blind the little horror with a crystal that flared brightly, but which has now gone out.

I swung my heavy, squirming burden down onto its back against the stone floor with a solid thud, hoping to knock the fight out of it before it thought to start throwing fire around. So far, it had been playing games, amusing itself with the idiot human. Now that said idiot had proved to be reasonably capable, it might well use some of the more dangerous abilities in its arsenal. It twisted and shrieked, but in anger, not dismay. Not to my surprise, it snarled something else, and its skin began to smoke. Small flames began to lick from its skin – the grey slab walls around us flickered red from the glow, wet moss reflecting the light in wide patches on the ancient stone. I hauled the imp off the deck and slammed it down again with all my strength. 

 

The second blow didn’t stop it, either. It twisted in my grip, and flung out its legs. It must have connected with a pillar – the sudden impact caught me off balance, and I slammed into the floor on my ass. The quozac squirmed out of my clutches like a greased rat. The fire crackling from its skin went out – it wasn't stupid enough to provide me with sufficient light to see it. My head collided with something – I had no idea what, except that it was hard. The imp guffawed – it could obviously see in the midnight black that had enveloped us again – and was suddenly on top of me, long, strong fingers clutching at my throat. 

  I still haven't decided on a cover - my job this weekend is to experiment further!

   As always, comments welcome.