Shards of Crimson is out today! This is an anthology set in Crimson City with four new stories by Liz Maverick, Carolyn Jewel, Jade Lee and Me.
My story is Dark Awakening and the hero and heroine are Kimi Noguchi and Nicodemus. Both were mentioned in Through a Crimson Veil although neither physically appeared. Kimi is being hunted by a dark demon, and with Mika and Conor out of town, she calls on Nic to protect her. Nic's been avoiding Kimi for her own good, but now that she's summoned him, all bets are off.
Yesterday, despite the 3:30am wakeup call, was a stellar day! Because it was a holiday for most people, the traffic was nearly non-existent which made the commute in okay. Yeah, the side streets were horrible and so was the highway, but the freeway was in decent shape. I got like the best parking spot at work since my union was the only one required to work and the office was empty. No one else was there. One of my engineers did show up around 10, but he stayed for less than an hour and he's nice and quiet, and because I was able to concentrate, I got a ton of work done.
I was able to wear weekend clothes, which means extra casual and the commute home was fabulous! I couldn't believe how light the traffic was. If only the freeway was like that every day, I wouldn't hate driving so much. :-)
Worked on my edits some more. I'm still mulling over a comment about Deke and his reaction to his circumstances. Part of my problem is the scene where he might be off-balance is in Ryne's POV and Deke isn't going to admit to her--or display in any way she'd notice--that he's rattled. It's displaying a weakness and he doesn't know her, so he wouldn't do that. The next chapter is in his POV, but by then he's reached a few conclusions and he's not shaken up any longer--if he ever was.
POV can be a bitch. On the one hand, I understand why Deke should be rattled, but he's too used to thinking on his feet to display this, and short of headhopping, his reactions are going to seem to be calm. On the other hand, yeah, you'd think he would be freaked out. :-) It's this same thinking on his feet quality that makes him a guy who takes things as they come and doesn't dwell on them or worry too much about what he can't change. He just deals with what is. And by the time I'm in his head, that's where he's at. So I'm mulling for now.
