#FREE short story – SPRITE NIGHT – #UrbanFantasy by Deborah Jay

October 22, 2015 / Deborah Jay / Debby Lush / 10 Comments

FREE

Hey folks, my short story SPRITE NIGHT is free from today until the 25th, so please go ahead and grab yourself a copy from Amazon. It’s a companion story to my Caledonian Sprite novel, DESPRITE MEASURES, but is also a complete stand alone story.

Discover a unique eco-urban fantasy with a touch of romance.

When Scottish water sprite, Cassie, volunteers for an anti-fracking protest, the last thing she expects is to find herself at odds with a druid. But with time running out for the local environment, she can’t afford to be distracted by the handsome hunk of a Highlander.

Intent on a minor act of sabotage, Cassie is totally unprepared to be caught in the cross-fire of a magical battle. Can she avert catastrophe? Or will she become the very agency of an ecological disaster?

What people are saying about SPRITE NIGHT

***4.8 stars***

“This story flowed smoothly and gave the reader an enjoyable glimpse into the world of Cassie Lake. The author intertwined real life elements into her magical world of druids, magicians and sprites. It was a clever twist to include internet links to various real life sites to bring a touch of realism to this fantasy. I would recommend this story to anyone looking for an easy, quick story that will make you smile.”

“There was a lot to love crammed into this short story. First, there’s the interesting world-building, centered around a water sprite who can dematerialize into her individual molecules at will. Next, the Scottish setting and culture was very vivid and intriguing, like an armchair vacation. Add in the hydrofracking issue that is currently so important on a world-wide level and you have an intellectually intriguing and enjoyable read.”

“Another wonderful Deborah Jay story, proving that she writes short fiction as fabulously as she writes novels! I love her dialogue best – believable, funny, and her heroine Cassie is always sassy. The balance between plot, action and information (who knew all that about water sprites?) is perfect – the writing is truly fast-paced at time, yet still includes such strong imagery to make you wince, or laugh, or both simultaneously.
Perfect follow-up to Ms Jay’s Sprite novel, but works as a strong stand-alone, too.”

” This story gives you an excellent chance to dip your toe into the Cassie waters. Sorry, couldn’t resist that.”

Download your copy from Amazon HERE

#Excerpt week – DESPRITE MEASURES (a Caledonian Sprite novel) by Deborah Jay #UrbanFantasy

September 16, 2015September 16, 2015 / Deborah Jay / Debby Lush / 2 Comments

Caledonian sprite, Cassie, attends a coven meeting with her friend and aspirant witch, Alison. The guest speaker for the evening is a water diviner – a human talent Cassie has spent millennia avoiding…

The coven, fifteen in number tonight including the two of us, was gathered in a semi-circle on the lawn around Brian Chivers, who was brandishing a split hazel rod rather in the vein of a blind man’s cane. We arrived in time to hear the end of his explanation, and positioned ourselves behind the others. It was as far from Brian as we could arrange without looking suspicious.

“… you can dowse with almost anything, the most popular these days being plastic rods because they’re light and long-lasting, but I prefer to use a natural material, and hazel has a particular affinity for water.”

Staying behind Alison, I peeked over her shoulder as the diviner raised his rod to show it off better.

“I cut this one a couple of days ago. See,” he ran his finger down one side, “how I’ve split it. A very delicate procedure on a branch as fine as this. And then,” he pointed towards the end, which was bound with white tape, “I’ve taped the end to keep the split from extending. It won’t last forever, but this will prolong it until the wood dries out completely, at which point it will need replacing.”

Continue reading →

Siren Excerpt

June 3, 2015 / Jenny / 1 Comment

Siren glanced down. The cat was the only thing visible in the shadows around their feet, his stark white fur practically glowing in the dark and his large, unblinking eyes catching the flickering lightning in an iridescent display when it flashed.

“I’ll just stand here and shiver to death then.”

A perturbed breath lodged in Carver’s throat and he took a step back, blocking out the minimal light streaming through the door behind him. “Oh for crying out loud,” he sighed again. “I’ll take care of the alarm now. I just have to find it first. Nobody move, please.”

Siren had no intention of moving. She felt weird enough as it was, standing in the middle of a stranger’s sun porch with a wicked storm raging just beyond the shutters blocking out the world. The humid air smelled clean, like laundry had only just been taken from the dryer and the owners gave everything a good scrub down with pine cleaner and lemon-scented dusting spray moments before they walked through the door.

In the dark, however, every sound was amplified. Carver’s scuffed dress shoes clomped quietly across the hardwood, and she swore Mr. Pounce was scratching at himself as if he’d come down with a bad case of fleas. The cool floorboards creaked beneath her sandy feet, her knee clicking audibly as she started to turn away from the window to stare into the house around her. Continue reading →

#Excerpt week finale – SPRITE NIGHT by Deborah Jay #UrbanFantasy #ecology #fracking

March 15, 2015March 16, 2015 / Deborah Jay / Debby Lush / 8 Comments

Here is my last contribution to excerpt week – and a fun and informative week it has been 😀

This little offering is from a short story that has not yet been released – maybe next month if I can find the time, once I have the anthology (excerpt here) all sorted.

Back to Urban Fantasy today, and a bit more of Cassie, the Caledonian Sprite, who has a tendency to get tangled up in ecological issues, seeing as they have potentially devastating implications for her element.

This story takes place just after DESPRITE MEASURES, (excerpts here and here), and finds our sassy sprite involved in a fracking protest near Stirling, Scotland.

NOTE: there are live links scattered throughout the Caledonian Sprite stories, taking readers who choose to follow them to informative pages and photographs of all things quintessentially Scottish. My stab at a (slightly) interactive experience.

Excerpt from SPRITE NIGHT

The inn was typical of its type; old, creaky and in need of renovation, but warm with hospitality and a reputation for excellent food and choice of single malts. It’s one of the more frustrating aspects of my human body that consuming food or alcohol is a futile exercise; I can eat, but solid food needs disposing of—let’s not go there—and alcohol, whilst I can take pleasure in the taste, has no affect on me.

Companionship though—that I can, and do, enjoy.

I pushed open the swing doors to the lounge and glanced around. Most of the crowd were locals I’d come to know over the past few weeks, but a rather delectable-looking stranger sat in the snug beside the chimney. My body perked up with interest.

Right now, my DNA stores were high, and harvesting more would be an indulgence, but this guy had the makings of a pleasing dalliance, with or without extra benefits. His shaggy brown hair melded into a luxuriant beard, above which shone a pair of the brightest blue eyes I’d seen in a long while. He was dressed in a heavy woollen sweater, with a thick, quilted jacket and thermal beanie discarded beside him on the bench. Continue reading →

#Excerpt 2 from DESPRITE MEASURES, a Caledonian Sprite novel #UrbanFantasy #ecology #LGBT

March 13, 2015March 14, 2015 / Deborah Jay / Debby Lush / 7 Comments

Anyone up for a little more elemental mischief?

Yesterday I shared the opening page from DESPRITE MEASURES – a Caledonian Sprite novel. If you missed it, you can find it here.

Today I thought I’d give you a bit from the thick of the action, towards the end of the book, so without further ado

Excerpt 2

“Come on, Wynter, get a grip and get me in there!”

The witch fell to her knees, and for a horrible moment I thought she was going to blubber, but then I noticed the implements on the ground: a small cauldron, some pouches of who-knew-what. The remains of a fire.

Wynter’s hands shook as she tried to re-kindle the fire. For one ironic moment, I wished for Gloria. She’d have lit the charred sticks in an instant.

A tiny puff of smoke wisped upward and Wynter sprinkled dried grass around it, blowing delicately as she coaxed the infant flame. I stopped breathing.

“Find something to burn!” she ordered, and I scanned the hillside, grateful my vision was not as poor as human eyesight in the gloom. I located a cluster of twigs beneath a sheltering gorse bush and scooped them up.

“This do?”

“It’ll have to,” Wynter said, and now I heard steel in her voice. She sounded well pissed off. Finding out that your lover is using you can have that effect.

She poured a portion of oil into the cauldron and set it on a tripod above the little fire. Then she emptied out the contents of her pouches, muttering as she did so. I didn’t listen; I wanted nothing to do with human magic. I stared with laser beam eyes at the invisible spell shield, trying to burn a hole through it. The twined aromas of thyme and lavender swirled around me.

“Cassie, I need your help. Please?”

“What? You know I can’t do magic.” Continue reading →

#Excerpt from #UrbanFantasy DESPRITE MEASURES (The Caledonian Sprite) by Deborah Jay

March 12, 2015 / Deborah Jay / Debby Lush / 1 Comment

And now for something completely different…

I have so far shared excerpts from my Epic Fantasy, THE PRINCE’S MAN, here and here.

Today it’s the turn of my Urban Fantasy, DESPRITE MEASURES. And no, that’s not a typo.

Here’s short blurb, so you know what you’re letting yourself in for:

Scottish water sprite, Cassie, lives a quiet life in human guise, along with her selkie boyfriend, until a magician tries to force her to power his crazy experiment.

Escape is only Cassie’s first challenge; she falls for her dangerous fellow captive, fire elemental Gloria, and somehow becomes the prize in a contest between rival covens.

Struggling to stay one step ahead of it all, her life and loves spiral dangerously out of control.

A unique eco-urban fantasy

Excerpt from Desprite Measures

It’s just as well I’m not claustrophobic.

Even so, being held captive in a bottle was not how I’d planned to spend my weekend.

It was also one of the most undignified positions I’ve ever been in; a water sprite can be squished down pretty small, but it doesn’t mean we enjoy the process.

Rainbows played across the clear glass walls of my prison, refracting through the swirling liquid of my elemental form. Taking a deep breath, metaphorically speaking, I tried to slow my agitated motion, in danger of over-heating. If someone would uncap my bottle, I’d be able to let off steam.

I prowled the confined space. It stood around ten inches tall, or should that be twenty-five centimetres? I can’t keep up with the speed humans alter things. My existence had flowed serenely through the millennia without need for change until the human race invented plumbing.

I’d known there might be drawbacks to living in human form but, after one too many close encounters with the local sewage farm, I’d taken the risk. It had its upsides. Elementals are solitary by nature, but I’d found that I liked having friends—not to mention the thrill of experiencing human emotions.

I don’t understand them all yet, but I’m learning.

Perhaps I should also have considered potential pit-falls, but I was still quite new to all this, and when Alison had come to me for support I’d wanted to help. Replaying the fateful conversation in my mind, I realised I should’ve smelled something fishy from the outset.

“I know it’s not your kind of thing, but will you come with me, Cassie? Please say you will,” Alison pleaded.

I considered my flame haired friend for a millisecond before committing. “Aye, of course I will, as long as you’re certain it’s what you want.”

She frowned. “What, to become a witch or go to this meeting?”

“The meeting, dear heart. I have no problem with you trying out witchcraft; all that communing with nature is so you. I’m just none too sure about this group.”

We both studied the website on Alison’s laptop.

“Look at this list of events.” I pointed to one corner of the screen. “Like this one: ‘Self-development through equine partnership’. What’s that all about?”

“But that’s only one thing,” Alison protested. “Look at the rest. Crystal dowsing, aura reading, herbalism, etcetera, etcetera.”

“Okay, okay! Of course I’ll come with you. It can’t hurt to go to one meeting, can it?”

How wrong could I have been? I know that at the first whiff of strong magic I should have run in the opposite direction. But no, that whiff had been so enticing: aromas of strawberries and cream and chocolate all rolled into one. Someone had studied the Facebook group I’d set up for my gym clients, and discovered exactly what would make me hesitate just that fraction of a second too long.

* * * * * * *

Happy Teaser Tuesday

February 17, 2015 / Jenny / 5 Comments

Happy Tuesday everyone. I’ve been so absent lately, bogged down with work and writing, and I’ve been neglecting so many of my online things. I hope everyone is doing well here, that you’re all writing your way through the winter. It’s ridiculous cold here, and I’m so tired of snow, I’m about to crawl into a cave and hibernate until my birthday near the end of May. I am not a winter person at all. So depressing, and the cabin fever is just ugh!

So, I keep myself busy with tons of work, and I’m getting tons of writing done. Sadly, my own blog has suffered terribly from this winter-avoidance spell. You’d think it would be the opposite, but no. Fortunately, this week I had some time to put together a Teaser Tuesday to promote Siren, which is currently on sale over at Amazon for just $.99 through February 21. If you haven’t had a chance to snag a copy yet, now would be an excellent time to pick one up, plus, it’ll give you something to read the next time you get snowed in, or, you know, if you’re one of those lucky people who gets to wear shors and tanktops through the winter months and you just so happen to be headed toward the beach! I wish I was at the beach right now.

On sale for just $.99 through February 21 over on Amazon US or UK

If you’re a member of the KULL program, you can borrow and read Siren free with your subscription.*

*Kindle Unlimited Lending Library is available to Amazon U.S., Amazon Canada, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany and Amazon Mexico subscribers at this time.

Happy Teaser Tuesday

December 30, 2014 / Jenny / Leave a comment

I can’t believe there are only six days until Siren finally goes live. It’s been a busy few weeks, on account of the holidays and all the bustle of book release prep, but it’s been fun. I am so excited about this story, and I can’t wait until it starts reaching the hands of everyone who pre-ordered.

I wanted to thank you all here at The Write Stuff for your insightful comments and support every Teaser Tuesday. I really look forward to sharing these with you each week.

Happy Teaser Tuesday!

Coming to Kindle/Kindle App January 5, 2015! Now available for pre-order: Amazon US, Canada,UK,Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Japan, Brazil, Mexico and Australia.

For signed paperbacks, follow the link to the Siren main page over on my website.

Don’t forget, you can read the entire first chapter right here!

Happy Teaser Tuesday

December 23, 2014 / Jenny / 4 Comments

I am really excited about this week’s Teaser Tuesday, and have been chomping at the bit to share it with you guys for hours! I have come to love making these images, and I’m particularly proud of this one. I have no idea what I’m going to do with myself until I have a new book to promote once this one’s out in the wild, ha!

I’m also bouncing up and down in my seat because there are less than two weeks until release day, and there’s only one Teaser Tuesday left. I don’t think I’ve been this excited about a book release all year.

Coming to Kindle/Kindle App January 5, 2015! Now available for pre-order: Amazon US, Canada, UK,Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Japan, Brazil, Mexico and Australia.