Just a quick thanks to everyone who bought Shattered Souls! Once you find time to read it, let me know what you thought. More of Sam and Cait is coming in June!
And now, to today’s announcement. The release date is officially next week, but I happen to know Amazon is already shipping copies of Best Lesbian Romance of 2013. I have a little ole story in the collection, entitled “Night at the Wax Museum,” which originally appeared in Girls Who Bite.
Here’s a snippet…
12:02 AM—Remind V.H. to call the exterminators. Rats, again, in the vicinity of the freak show exhibit!
Krista Pike clicked the end of her ballpoint pen, slid the small spiral notebook into her pocket and clipped the pen in her uniform lapel. Then she slipped her mag light from its holster, picked up a sturdy broom and went in search of the rodent.
For the third night in a row her nerves were wired tighter than an M-16’s recoil spring. Shouldn’t have been. The security company that’d hired her told her that other than some minor vandalism to the museum’s windows and door, this shift should be a cake walk.
“Tell that to the fucking rats.”
A skittering sounded behind her. She spun and aimed her light toward the floor. Nothing. As she raised the beam, it caught the exhibit. Light flickered in the eyes of the wax figure lying in the open coffin—a scene straight out of a horror movie, created especially for the Halloween crowd.
She shivered at the tableau. A raven-haired vampire, red glassy eyes, milky-white skin , the tops of her breasts exposed above the black, corseted gown, not a hint of color in her or the white-satin-lined coffin other than blood-red paint on her full lips. Above her, the vampire hunter stood with arms raised, a hammer and a wooden stake in his hands, ready to puncture her chest. The setting surrounding the two figures was straight Hollywood kitsch—a gnarled tree, an open pit readied for the coffin, and a tall Celtic cross knocked at an angle.
The overhead track light beamed directly on the vampire’s face, and her glass eyes appeared to be fixed right on Krista.
She shivered, and aimed the beam back to the ground, unsure which creeped her out more now, the rats or the red glowing lights the artist had placed behind the wax figure’s eye sockets.
She moved along, scuffing her feet to make enough noise to scare away any critters looking for discarded scraps of popcorn or candy bars that patrons of the wax museum had tossed.
Damn nerves. She needed to make an appointment with her VA shrink to up her meds. Problem solved. Read the rest of this entry »
