Home Articles posted by KD Sarge (Page 16)

Introducing Captain’s Boy

Would you believe I wrestled for days with what to write for my blog post? Then I remembered that the reason I was stressed and unprepared was that I have a novel coming out… This is the first chapter of Captain’s Boy, coming April 1st (Monday, aaah!) from Turtleduck Press. As stated in this handy-dandy timeline, it occurs about two years before the events of Knight Errant. Warning for some explicit language. § Donte looked at the sagging awning above him, at the straggly hedge separating the restaurant patio from the graffitied wall next to it, and thought about space and how he’d like to be there. Out there he and Jordan would both be safe, and Jordan might actually learn math. “Yes, Alex is a bully,” he said, interrupting Jordan’s story. “But I’m not fighting him.” Donte shoved his hair back and tapped the notebook. “This answer is wrong,” he said. “Can you see why?” Jordan didn’t even look at the paper, staring instead at Donte in challenge. “Why not?” he demanded. “You could take him! Alex is big, but he’s just a coward. And it’s not just me that he picks on. He stole Cadie’s bundle last week. You know she thinks it’s her baby what died. She was on her knees begging him to be careful and he held it over his head and laughed.” “Math.” Donte tapped the paper again. When he started tutoring Jordan, Donte had bent the mentoring rules to give the boy a…

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The Non-Writing Life

  I finished the major edit of my new novel Friday night. (Honesty compels me to admit it was actually Saturday morning before I sent it off, midnight having come and gone.) I re-wrote a short story introducing the main characters over the weekend, for posting March 1st. Then last night I caught up on all the homework I hadn’t been getting done through the last frantic week of the edit. Tonight I’m…not bored, exactly. I have plenty of things needing doing, and I’m working on them. I guess “restless” would be the word. There’s a reason that writers write, you see. It’s fun. It’s intense. It’s addictive.

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Plans are Fun!

  So due to my youthful indescretions of taking more courses than I could handle way back when (I’m a wild woman, I tell you!) my college financial aid was denied this semester. As with all things bureaucratic, an appeals process exists. Part of it is to lay out a plan to get your degree. Class by class, what will you take to fulfill each and every requirement, and do it in a decent amount of time? Umm… Luckily I had an advisor to help me. Here’s how the conversation went.  

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Seasons Eternal

Seasons Eternal: Stories of a World Frozen in Time Imagine a world where the seasons are frozen in place. How does a land change when the seasons stay the same? Turtleduck Press releases our second anthology, featuring Kit Campbell, Siri Paulson, Erin Zarro, and KD Sarge. Proceeds benefit UNICEF. The Wasteland: After an airship crash in a land charred by summer, two very different people must learn from each other to survive.Stasis: In a world where it is eternally autumn, a lonely woman escapes to virtual reality where she can command the seasons. She finds her deceased husband there and refuses to leave.The Hope of Spring: When danger comes over the glacier to threaten her tribe, Shishiri fights and wins. But she can’t fight the glacier itself.A Chance of Change: Spring, a time of renewal and life. It’s something that should belong to everyone–isn’t it?

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“Assume” Makes An…

  Are you familiar with that saying? I heard it a lot growing up. “When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me.” My Spanish book has made some assumptions about me. I find it very hard to answer questions about when my favorite TV program is on, since I don’t know past tense yet. The last TV show I watched was an episode of Deep Space 9. Yes, it was two days ago, but still. Before that it would be Stargate Atlantis, about…six months ago? And do not, silly Spanish book, ask me why I like or dislike Twilight. I barely have enough vocabulary in my native language to explain all the things I dislike about Twilight. I can’t possibly answer in Spanish. Going back to school has been hard in unexpected ways. The book is written with the 20-something student in mind. While at some point I’m sure I’ll need to know how to say I want to go wind-surfing but I need a board, that day is not this day. It’s annoying, because not only is the vocabulary not the stuff I need, it’s stuff I’d really like to need. Sometimes I actually, verbally, out loud, tell my Spanish book to STFU.

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Should Have Written It in Spanish

For a while there, I was doing pretty well at this life thing. I got my planner out every day so I knew when things were due. I worked on my homework every night, and I started projects early so I could be sure of meeting the deadline. Then a story fought me, like no story in a very long time has. And I couldn’t do what I usually do, which is to throw my arms up and let it win, come sneaking back at it a few months or years down the road and bash it when it wasn’t looking—no, this story had to be done on deadline.

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Keeping it All in the Air

Yesterday at work I kept glancing at my calendar. I’d highlighted Tuesday the 25th in orange at some point, and I didn’t know why. All day it bothered me. Orange is a danger color. If it had been green, I’d have known I was expecting money. Yellow is day(s) off. Yellow is for sunshine and joy! *cough* Orange. Something to be aware of, but not bad. Bad would be pink.

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Adventure! Excitement! Spanish Verbs!

First let me say I’m not done publishing. I’m not done editing, and I’m certainly not done writing. Those things are and will continue to be a huge part of my life. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Turtleduck KD is here to stay. That said, there’s a new adventure in my life. I’m loving every moment and I think I will never let it go again. No, I’m not talking about Tom Hiddleston.

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Fey Touched by Erin Zarro

Chapter 1     JOE   The woman lay in the cemetery on a bed of snow. Snowflakes clung to her blonde hair and sparkled like diamonds. Slivers of moonlight touched her serene face. Her skin was the blue-tinged skin of the Fey. After turning up the heat in my coat, I reached out to touch her and immediately recoiled. She was so cold that I’d gotten a taste of frostbite, the cold stinging my fingers. Was she dead? Pixie, a German Shepherd who was my companion and familiar, whined. She was right to lead me here, her thoughts urgent in my head. She poked the woman with her nose. The woman did not move, did not even twitch. Pixie whined, poking the woman again. There was no rise and fall of her chest. There was nothing. “What do you think, girl?” I asked. Pixie gazed at me with eyes that reflected sympathy and intelligence. The thought – Pixie’s – unfurled in my mind. Not dead. Must save. My heart thudded. I was Fey Touched, a Hunter of her kind. Technically, she was my enemy. I had the right to kill her on sight. Why didn’t I? I didn’t like the Fey as a rule. There were Hunters who believed that all Fey were evil and must die. I was open to the possibility that maybe, just maybe, they were wrong. Maybe some of them weren’t evil. That even without mana – a soul – they could be good. Maybe…

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Fey Touched

Two sisters. Asha is the Queen of the Fey, genetically engineered immortal humans who feed on human souls to survive. But she’s running from her people. When she is found by her enemy, one of the Hunters of the Fey, she expects to die. Yet he’s oddly intrigued by her, and Asha finds herself falling in love with him, hoping she can find safety and the home she’s been seeking. Then she’s kidnapped, and everything changes. Fallon is a Hunter. She’s looking for her long-lost sister, using an addictive drug to search through the stream of time. Her addiction leaves her dangerously exposed to her enemies but, consumed by her search, she doesn’t care…until her fellow Hunters start dying from a mysterious illness. She is torn between duty and desire, and must find an answer before they all die. What Fallon doesn’t know is that Asha might just be the key to saving them all, if only she can find her. And time is running out. PLEASE NOTE that this book contains explicit language, explicit sex, and graphic violence and is not suitable for those under 18. Read the first three chapters here. Click here to buy it for Kindle. A print edition can be purchased here.

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