Happy New Year!

Last year, I learned that effective newsletters should be at least twice a month. I’m going to give it a try, but I’m always hesitant about intruding on people, even in email. Let me know if I’m doing too much or being too pushy.

In the meantime, I’ve been thinking about how to fill those extra newsletters. I’m a pantster (seat-of-the-pants) writer when it comes to fiction, but in things like this, I prefer format and process. Thus, once a month, I’m going to tell you about one of my books – a little about its creation and why I love it, an excerpt, and a short something from or by one of the characters. The other time will be a little about what’s happening in my life and highlight other great authors.

This week, let’s dive into Greater Treasures: A DragonEye Novella.

My favorite thing about Vern is he’s such a versatile character. No one’s life is all fun or all pain, and he makes it easy to tell stories from both. This book is all grit. Grace is in danger, and the only way to save her puts him in a terrible position of sacrificing her or the world. He’s constantly under pressure, often helpless, and – spoiler alert – there’s deep magic at work that even he doesn’t sense.

This book is a rewrite of the 2013 version. So much has happened in the past decade to Vern as well as to me. His world has grown; his relationships with others deepened, and he’s mellowed. All of that entered into the book. It’s about a third bigger and so much better. Plus, there’s a little more humor than in the original version because even in the midst of grit, a dragon’s gotta dragon.

Greater Treasures Summary

Being a detective in the border town of the Faerie and the Mundane worlds isn’t easy, even for a dragon like Vern. Still, finding the wayward brother of a teary-eyed damsel in distress shouldn’t have gotten so dangerous. When Vern’s partner, Sister Grace, gets poisoned by a dart meant for him, Vern offers to find an artifact in exchange for a cure. However, this is no ordinary trinket – with a little magic power, it could control all of mankind.

Will Vern sacrifice the fate of two worlds for the life of his best friend?

Get Greater Treasures

Greater Treasures Sneak Peek

This is an excerpt from the revamped Greater Treasures. Those of you who are reading the DragonEye novels know Vern has “adopted” a local street gang, Los Despredatores. They are going to have continuing cameos in the stories as he and Grace slowly bring them to Good while Vern makes good use of their Bad. I can’t wait until I can write Gapman and introduce them as part of his superhero training! But that’s a later story. For now, here’s one of my favorite new scenes for Greater Treasures:

Speaking of the bad side of town, I decided it was time to pay a visit to Los Despredatores. If there was a new gang—Brotherhood, whatever—they’d at least know about it. They might even know the ringleaders, size of membership, and claimed neighborhoods.

I found a handful of them in the park, shooting a basketball through a hoop with no net. I waited for Mateo to line up a three-pointer and dove down to snatch the ball before he scored.

There are times when it’s gratifying to get cursed at.

“Why aren’t you in school?” I demanded.

“Give me a break, drake!” Mateo snapped at me. “It was a half-day. Seriously. Teachers gotta workshop or sumthin’.”

I believed him. He’d taken over Los Despredatores after the Mishmash incident when his leader had gotten involved in the concert that had summoned a monster. After that, Wolf’s family had moved to Minnesota. That summer, Mateo’s mother took off with some guy, and his abuela came back from Mexico to take care of him. Thus, as he liked to complain, he found himself in charge of a gang, but not his own life. When Abuela found out he was failing because of bad attendance, she threatened to return to Mexico, dragging him with her. I’d cheerfully offered to fly him there personally.

Now, he kept a steady C average and was limiting the gang’s more objectionable activities to outside school grounds and school hours. Our little hood was growing up at last.

“Give us the ball back, drake. Why you hasslin’ us?”

I spun the ball on a claw because I could. “I need information. Sister Grace is in trouble. What have you heard about the Brotherhood of Baal?”

They answered with confusion and catcalls.

“We got the brotherhood, Vern. Now give us the ball!” Eugene jumped up. I easily avoided his grasp with a single wing flap. I didn’t even lose balance of the spinning ball.

“Not ‘ball,’ Moron.” I wasn’t insulting him. That was his gang name. Someone had called him that, and he thought it was clever. Who was going to report that they got beat up by a Moron? I guess that was one way to “flip the script.”

I added, “I mean ‘Baal,” like the ancient Egyptian god.”

“Like on Stargate?” Alberto said. He’d taken the break to go put his arms around Lisabel. I guess they’d made up again. “That dude’s bad news!”

“Yes, thank you!” I said as his compatriots jeered at him and he responded that Samantha Carter was hot. Lisabel punched his arm and stalked away.

“Either way, don’ change my answer,” Eugene argued. “Don’t know them. Don’t care. Give us our ball.”

The others nodded in agreement—except for Alberto who was digging himself in deeper by trying to explain to Lisabel that Sam Carter was an “old broad in this old TV show.”

Interview with Vern:

How long had you and Grace been together when this book takes place?

We met in October, and this took place in April, so about six months. It felt like we’d known each other for longer. You know one of those relationships where you just click with a person? That’s what we’ve got. She knows me better than any human except St. George. She has my complete respect, and she didn’t even have to kick my butt to earn it.

But you and Grace didn’t get along when you first met.

Yeah. I thought she was nuts, and she thought I was lazy and rude. We were both right to a degree and even more wrong. Now, we’re making each other better people. She’s worked through a lot of her problems, regained confidence in her magic, and has found peace in herself again. Me, I’m kinder to lesser beings – as long as they deserve it.

What’s a regular day like for you?

She gets up early for morning prayers, and I join her because I don’t like being called “lazy” by my roommate, the nun. Then, we have breakfast. I like eating alone with her because she doesn’t expect me to anthropomorphize. I can eat a raw chicken out of a dish on the floor, and she’s okay with it.

Then we get to work on a case or on finding a case to work on, or Grace retreats to her workshop to build up our supply of magical items or work on a new spell. She has incredible talent. Too bad it’s so wasted on Mundanes. My brains, her skills – we should be solving international mysteries. Instead, half the time, we’re tailing some guy’s girlfriend because he thinks she’s a selkie. News flash – Colorado is a landlocked state, and they are smart enough to know that. Even if they wanted to emigrate, they aren’t hiding their seal skin by Lago del Rio. They think lake water is gross.

When we can, we break for an hour of spiritual reading in the evening. I like this time. Grace usually scratches me behind the cheek crests while she’s reading. It’s very soothing. I’ve tried to get her involved in my monthly DnD games, but she’s not interested. We do, however, watch movies. I finally got her to see the Shrek movies all the way through.

Does Grace ever sing at home?

That…is a complicated issue. She does sing, but only with specific purposes, like casting spells or praising God. She practices for Mass, of course. So if you mean, "Does she sing Top Ten?" – no, not even Christian Rock, except for church. It’s a line I don’t think she’ll ever cross, and given her past, I would never ask her to.

Do you sing?

My neck is too long for what humans would consider singing. But I do purr sometimes.

Get Greater Treasures Today

Books by Author Friends 

A Vital Breath by Daniel Humphreys: Pax is on the run. He's hunted by the Ordo. And by his own government. Despite all this, he's on a mission from God to stop a cult from ripping holes in reality.

PENANCE: Teen Heroes Unleashed Book One, by Paula Richey: A superpowered runaway, desperate to turn her life around. A young soldier from another world, devastated by betrayal. And an alien threat that intends to subjugate the Earth.

The Haunting of the Ginger's Regret: A 224-Verse Book, by James Pyles: A space freighter pilot and sometime smuggler acquires a new ship to escape an assassin. The only problem is the starship is haunted.

Phoenix, by Lori Janeski: Humanity has colonized the solar system, but crime still doesn’t pay. David Carter is one of the most decorated agents in the Interplanetary Police Forces, but for the last two years, he’s turned reckless, throwing himself into his work—or into the path of a criminal’s bolt pistol. As a specialist in deception analysis and interrogation, Veronique de Tournay has been right where she wants to be: a profiler in the major cases bureau, Division 7.