Fic: Awkward Moment, (PG, Charlie Waterman Flashfic)

As I am sure you have noticed me mention, I have a new book out this week. It is called Cat's Confidence and it is book 3 in The Chronicles of Charlie Waterman. In honour of the release I have written a little flashfic for this week's Drabble Cascade. It is a tag scene to the book, but has no spoilers, so it can be enjoyed by all.

Awkward Moment

by Natasha Duncan-Drake

Charlie opened the door from his bedroom and stepped out into his living room, where Alexander was waiting for him. They were still on their break after the last Task and they'd decided to take a trip to a world neither of them had visited before. Thanks to losing himself in the library all morning, Charlie was running late.

"Sorry," he apologised and then stopped, because he saw what Alexander was doing.

His friend had one of his many books in hand and was scanning through it. When Alexander looked up and lifted one perfectly shaped eyebrow, Charlie wasn't sure what to say.

"A stake through the heart would kill anything," Alexander said, "not just vampires."

"So would beheading," Charlie agreed, "and fire," at which point he realised, that possibly wasn't the most tactful thing to say.

Of course Alexander had to have picked up the book about evil vampires. The only vampire he knew couldn't have gone for one of the ones about dragons, because he wasn't that lucky.

"Now you know why everyone on Earth thinks vampires are fictional," he added with an awkward shrug; "none of the vampire lore actually makes sense."

Alexander stood up and placed the book back on the shelf without another comment and Charlie really hoped the book hadn't offended his friend. Books about evil white guys didn't offend him, but then half the universe didn't have the wrong idea about his race, so he wasn't sure he could judge.

"Shall we go?" Alexander asked and didn't sound overly bothered, but sometimes it was hard to tell.

"Yeah," Charlie agreed and plastered on a smile.

"That book did get one thing right," Alexander added as he lifted his arm to create a portal.

"Really?" Charlie asked, honestly surprised.

"Yes," Alexander said and paused in a way that wasn't overly dramatic at all, well not for a vampire anyway, "we are all devilishly handsome and good in bed."

The whole speech was delivered with a perfectly serious demeanour, so it took Charlie a moment to catch up.

"Oh you bastard," he said and laughed, "I was really worried there for a second."

Alexander merely gave him a superior smirk as the portal flared into life.

~*~

Drabble Cascade #30 COMPETITION - word of the week is 'stake'

View more lists from Wittegen Press

Available for Pre-order - Cat's Confidence. Chronicles of Charlie Waterman #3

Cat's Confidence, Available for Pre-order Now

It's finally ready!

Thank you to everyone who has been so patient, Cat's Confidence is finished and in the pipeline of being published. The official release date is Tuesday October 1st 2013, however, it is available for pre-order.

The very nice people at Smashwords now ship to Apple, B&N and Kobo for pre-orders so we have decided to take advantage of this option. While on pre-order and for one week post the release date, Cat's Condidence will be available for ~10% off at $2.99 (or equiv - regular price $3.29).

Cat's Confidence pre-order options:
Barnes and Noble
Kobo
Apple (coming very soon - it's been submitted, but it sometimes takes them a while).

For those who use other services like Amazon, we're very sorry, there is no pre-order option, but the price will remain at $2.99 for one week after the launch date. So buy early and you will get your ~10% off.

Description:

The Seer says that a Questor is always prepared for the Task for which they are chosen and Charlie has been a Questor long enough to know the Seer is always right. Still, it never occurred to him that being ready would mean specific training for a specific Task. Charlie, Kaelyn and Alexander are given six weeks to become a Dragon Warrior team: all they need to do is master magical telepathy, archery, flying and, the trickiest of all, how to put on a dragon-harness in under five minutes!

Once through the portal in the land of Snijela, they must pass as veterans, make friends with other dragons and figure out why they've actually been sent on their Task in the first place. Add in a volatile young queen, two feuding nations either on the verge of peace or all out war, as well as spies, sexism and an alarming acceleration in Charlie's premonitions, and nothing is ever going to be straightforward.

Writing update - Cat's Confidence & Nanowrimo

So my new novel is almost ready. I'm formatting it as we speak and then it just needs some final checking and it's good to go. It's called Cat's Confidence and is the third book in The Chronicles of Charlie Waterman. It has magic and dragons and lots of other good things :).

What I like about writing the Charlie series is because each adventure is partly set on a new world I can go for a new slant in the genre. The first one is contemporary fantasy, the second is mafia and paranormal and this one has a high fantasy bent to it because of all the dragons.

It's actually taken a lot longer to finish than I thought it would, but I'm really pleased with the end result and giving my readers the best I can is always my aim. So sorry to those I have been keeping waiting, but it's ready now. Watch this space for the release date.

I've also decided what I am going to write for Nanowrimo this year. Usually I do the next in the Charlie books, but since I have only just finished the last one I'm breaking the chain.

I'm seriously considering looking for an agent again, at least for some of my books, and I have one who I would really, really like to catch. I think the novel I want to write for Nano could grab her interest and I've been meaning to finish it for a while. So far I have 10K wds and so with an extra little push I could finish the first draft during Nano and edit it up afterwards.

It's sci-fi/fantasy adventure, futuristic, but with a touch of myth along the lines of something like Indiana Jones. I suppose it could be looked at as a little like reverse gender Indie in space. My lead is called Eli, she's feisty, fearless, asexual and has a rather problematic deep, dark secret. She is backed up by Lance, who is her eccentric AI and makes it his duty to fill the gap Eli leaves in the sexual market with just about anyone he can get to enter VR with him as well as making sure Eli doesn't do anything too insane. They retrieve things that have been lost, usually in very dangerous places.

I'm at the stage where I know what happens in it, but not quite why yet, so I shall have fun diving in. I don't plan for Nano, I just write, so I think I'm actually good to go way before I need to be. Who knows I might be 30K words in by the time Nano starts, then I'll have to write something else too :).