Realms of the Raven

Join Maura Anderson, Celia Kyle, Lizzie T. Leaf, and Kara Griffin for fun, chats, book news, and giveaways. Find out about their latest hot book releases, news and more! Bring a friend and get more chances to win prizes and books. Everyone attending will get a special prize just for joining these sexy and sassy authors on Thursday, July 31th from 5pm to 7pm in the Author Island Chat Loop.

Click here to visit the chat loop on the web.

And next week may be delay.

I’m going to be traveling to Fort Benning, Georgia, to see my oldest son graduate from US Army Infantry training. He’ll be in Germany until January, then is scheduled to deploy to Iraq for six months and then Afghanistan for six months. This timeline is, of course, not set in stone and can change with little notice.

I’m very proud of him and I know he’s going into this with his eyes open but I’m a mom, I can’t help worrying.

So my time got sucked up by packing and preparations, so please excuse me for skipping the first week since I started the Friday Flash series.

All good thoughts and prayers for my son are also appreciated. You can never have too much.

Now is your chance to tell me how you’d like to see the Friday Flash Archive page. It’s gotten BIG since I’ve been doing a weekly Friday Flash for over 40 weeks now and I was trying to decide if I should change the order it’s displayed in or what I should do and I decided that I should ask the people that read it (or might).

You can see the current page here.

At the upper right of this page, in the sidebar, is a poll offering the options I’ve thought of for ordering the page. Please vote and let me know what you think would be the best way. Feel free to leave a comment if you have an idea I haven’t listed, too!

(I’m working on this week’s Flash, too)

Join Maura Anderson, Celia Kyle, Lizzie T. Leaf, and Kara Griffin for fun, chats, book news, and giveaways. Find out about their latest hot book releases, news and more! Bring a friend and get more chances to win prizes and books. Everyone attending will get a special prize just for joining these sexy and sassy authors on Thursday, July 24th from 6pm to 7pm PST on the Fallen Angels Web Chat.

Click here to visit the chatroom!

Join Maura Anderson, Celia Kyle, Lizzie T. Leaf, and Kara Griffin for fun, chats, book news, and giveaways. Find out about their latest hot book releases, news and more! Bring a friend and get more chances to win prizes and books. Everyone attending will get a special prize just for joining these sexy and sassy authors from Sunday, July 20th to Friday, July 25th on the Sexy Delights Yahoo Loop.

Click here to visit the loop on the web.

Join Maura Anderson, Celia Kyle, Lizzie T. Leaf, and Kara Griffin for fun, chats, book news, and giveaways. Find out about their latest hot book releases, news and more! Bring a friend and get more chances to win prizes and books. Everyone attending will get a special prize just for joining these sexy and sassy authors from Sunday, July 20th to Saturday, July 26th during the Aspen Mountain Press featured publisher week on the Romance Excepts Only yahoo loop.

Click here to visit the loop on the web.

Well, late but not as late as last week. I’ll take a small improvement!

(Archives are on the website, if you want to read the offerings of past weeks)

——————————-
Grove of the Ancients
(c) 2008 by Maura Anderson

The chill wind stole what little warmth Tayla’s cotton pajamas provided. Great heaving shudders wracked her body but she still struggled against the tightly knotted ropes that bound her. Warm wetness made her wrists slick, but the coarse rope that bound her to the spikes driven into the ground only tightened with each struggle, each attempt to free herself. Exhausted, she stopped struggling to catch her breath again.

What the hell was going on around here? Her quiet weekend getaway at a cabin had turned into a kidnapping before dawn and being staked out like a pagan sacrifice in the woods. Maybe she’d been drugged—she’d gone to bed really early the night before, unable to keep her eyes open, and fell asleep immediately. Then she’d woken up here with a headache and mouth so dry she wanted to drink a river dry.
Read the rest of this entry »

Join Maura Anderson, Celia Kyle, Lizzie T. Leaf, and Kara Griffin for fun, chats, book news, and giveaways. Find out about their latest hot book releases, news and more! Bring a friend and get more chances to win prizes and books. Everyone attending will get a special prize just for joining these sexy and sassy authors on Thursday, July 17th from 11am to 5pm PDT on the Fallen Angels Review chat loop!

Click here to visit the loop on the web.

Join Maura Anderson, Celia Kyle, Lizzie T. Leaf, and Kara Griffin for fun, chats, book news, and giveaways. Find out about their latest hot book releases, news and more! Bring a friend and get more chances to win prizes and books. Everyone attending will get a special prize just for joining these sexy and sassy authors on Monday, July 14th from 6pm to 9pm PDT in the Realms of Love chat room.

Click here to join the chat!

Delayed again. My close friend and writing mentor had give two of her beloved cats into the arms of Bast this week and, though they were not my own pets, my heart grieves for her and the pain she’s going through. It left me rather adrift and unable to put my mind to writing.

Sorry for the delay but hope you enjoy the flash.

Oh - and an interesting tidbit… As I was writing the last part of this flash, my seven year old son came in from our yard and brought be a beautiful feather he found. It’s either owl or hawk. :)

(Archives are on the website, if you want to read the offerings of past weeks)

——————————-
Spirit Messenger
(c) 2008 by Maura Anderson

At least it was a weekend. That alone was something to give thanks for, given his current exhaustion. Lately it seemed that no matter how much he worked, how exhausted he became, he lay awake most of the night. The tossing and turning had long since grown old and now it both pissed him off and worried him.

Dreams interrupted what little sleep he managed. Images of lightning, thunder mixed with the sound of battles and the smell of blood and death. Something was calling to him, screaming out to him, pleading with him. He knew he was the one supposed to answer but he couldn’t figure out what he was supposed to do.
Read the rest of this entry »