Short stories

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    Elemental Assassin reading order …

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    So I’ve gotten a couple of questions about the reading order for my Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series.

    Of course, I would suggest reading the books in order, starting with Spider’s Bite, the first book in the series. But, as you finish each book, I would check my Excerpts page and read the free short story (or stories) that go along with each book. For example, Spider’s Bargain goes along with Spider’s Bite, while Web of Death and Web of Deceit go along with Web of Lies. And so on and so forth.

    You’re not necessarily missing anything if you don’t read the free short stories, but I thought those would be fun extras for readers.

    I also have an e-novella — Thread of Death — and a couple of short stories that I’ve done for anthologies — Haints and Hobwebs and Parlor Tricks. So I’ve listed the reading order of those below with the books:

    • Spider’s Bite — book #1
    • Web of Lies — book #2
    • Venom — book #3
    • Tangled Threads — book #4
    • Haints and Hobwebs story in The Mammoth Book of Ghost Romance — takes place after the events of Tangled Threads
    • Spider’s Revenge — book #5
    • Thread of Death e-novella — takes place after the events of Spider’s Revenge
    • By a Thread — book #6
    • Widow’s Web — book #7
    • Deadly Sting — book #8
    • Parlor Tricks story in Carniepunk anthology — takes place after the events of Deadly Sting
    • Heart of Venom — book #9

    Does that make sense? Anyway, hope this answers some questions about the reading order of the series. Happy reading!

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    More details on Spartan Frost e-story …

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    Okay, so I promised to share some more details on Spartan Frost, the e-story that I’m writing from Logan freaking Quinn’s point of view.

    First up, here’s the description, although please note that this does contain some spoilers for Crimson Frost. So If you haven’t read that far in the series yet, you may want to skip reading the description:

    I’m Logan Quinn, the deadliest Spartan warrior at Mythos Academy. At least I was — until the day I almost killed Gwen Frost.

    Professor Metis and Nickamedes say that I’m fine, that Loki and the Reapers don’t have a hold on me anymore, but I can’t risk it. I can’t risk hurting Gwen again. So I’m leaving Mythos and going somewhere far, far away.

    I know Gwen wonders what’s happening to me, whether I’m safe.  I can’t tell her, but this is my story …

    Basically, Spartan Frost tells what happened to Logan after the events of Crimson Frost and leads up to the events of Midnight Frost (book five, which is due out in July 30). I got several e-mails asking what happened to Logan, so hopefully, the e-story will fill in some of the gaps, as well as giving folks a better understanding of Logan, since it is told entirely from his point of view.

    Spartan Frost is about 14,000 words long. It will be an e-book only and is set to be released on June 25. I believe the price will be $1.99. Spartan Frost is not up for pre-order online yet, but when it goes up, I will let everyone know. I also should be getting the cover art to share soon.

    Anyway, more to come soon, and I hope that everyone enjoys the e-story when it is released.

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    Elemental Assassin short story in The Mammoth Book of Ghost Romance …

    The Mammoth Book of Ghost Romance coverI’ve mentioned this before, but I want to remind everyone that there is an Elemental Assassin short story in The Mammoth Book of Ghost Romance anthology. Here’s the book description:

    A wonderful collection of stories of supernatural love by Sharon Shinn, Dru Pagliasotti, Caridad Pineiro, Jennifer Estep, Gwyn Cready, Carolyn Crane, Jeannie Holmes, Anna Campbell, Julia London, Christie Ridgway, Holly Lisle and Liz Maverick. In happy-ever-after endings, ghosts come to life so that lovers can be united in the flesh.

    My story is called Haints and Hobwebs and takes place between the events of Tangled Threads and Spider’s Revenge. Basically, in Haints and Hobwebs, a ghost needs Gin’s help to be reunited with her lover and stop an old enemy.

    The story does have some mild spoilers for Tangled Threads, so if you haven’t read that far in the series yet, you may want to skip the story.

    The print book will be released tomorrow, Aug. 7, in the U.S. It looks like the e-book is available already in the U.S. (I see it on Amazon and Barnes & Noble). The print book is also already available in the United Kingdom from what I have been told (the book publisher is located in the UK so I guess that’s why the print version was released there first). 

    Since the story is in the anthology, it will not be posted for free here on my website. However, you can read a brief excerpt of the story here.

    Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys Haints and Hobwebs. Happy reading!

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    Spider’s Nemesis short story …

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    Just a quick announcement to let everyone know that I’ve posted Spider’s Nemesis, a short story that goes along with Spider’s Revenge. You can also read the short story over at Pocket After Dark.

    Spider’s Nemesis spans a period of many years, beginning before Gin was born and ending during the events of Tangled Threads. It is told from the point of view of Mab Monroe and shows how the Fire elemental grew up, including her first meeting with Eira Snow, Gin’s mother.

    Hope everyone enjoys the story. Happy reading!

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    First Frost prequel e-story released …

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    First Frost is finally here! Happy release day to me! Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah! Okay, okay, I’ll quit huzzahing now.

    First Frost is a prequel e-story in my Mythos Academy young adult urban fantasy series. Here’s the description:

    I am Gwen Frost, and I have a Gypsy gift.  It’s called psy­chome­try — that’s a fancy way of say­ing that I see images in my head and get flashes of other people’s mem­o­ries off almost every­thing I touch, even guys.

    My gift makes me kind of nosy. Okay, okay, maybe a lot nosy — to the point of obses­sion some­times. I want to know every­thing about every­one around me. But even I don’t want to know the secret that a girl in my class is hid­ing or the ter­ri­ble loss that will send me to a new school — Mythos Acad­emy, where the teach­ers aren’t prepar­ing us for the SATs, but to bat­tle Reapers of Chaos.  Now I have no friends and no idea how my gift fits in with all these war­rior whiz kids.  The only thing I do know is that my life is never, ever going to be the same …

    First Frost takes place before the events in Touch of Frost, the first book in the Mythos Academy series. You can read an excerpt here. It is avail­able through Ama­zon, Barnes & Noble, etc. as 99-cent download.

    You don’t have to read First Frost to start or enjoy the Mythos Academy series, but if you want to see exactly how Gwen winds up at the acad­emy or get an early feel for the books, you might enjoy it.

    Happy reading, everyone! 😉