The wonderful, delightful, wise, caring, amazing (seriously, I can go on all day) Marie Ann Bailey of 1WriteWay tagged me in her Work-in-Progress post, in which she showcased her novel, Clemency.

Marie is one of the loveliest people I know, and it has been my honor and privilege to get to know her these last two years. She reminds me to enjoy my life, and what I’ve accomplished with it – and not sweat the small stuff. When one tends to live in her head most of the time – as many of us do – that reminder is huge. All the more so, because Marie means it – her sincerity wraps me up just like a warm hug, and I don’t know what I’d do without her! So, thank you, Marie.

The rules for the WIP blog hop (which are more like guidelines anyway, thank you, Captain Barbarossa), are as follows:

1. Link back to the post of the person who nominated you.
2. Write a little about and give the first sentence of the first three chapters of your current work-in-progress.
3. Nominate some other writers to do the same.

I’m working on two things right now: an expanded edition of Three Ghosts, which can be read in its on-going serial form every Monday, and editing/finessing/loophole-closing/time-travel-induced-head-banging The Coming Storm, Book Two in the Changelings series.

As that is the case, I am going to have my merry way with the rules, and reveal the cover for the Three Ghosts novella first, and excerpt-away with The Coming Storm.

Three Ghosts

What do you do when the decisions you’ve made come back to haunt you? How do you make them right? Can you, when one wrong move will mean lives lost?

Deirdre O’Brien, an American living in Dublin, and one-time political activist, married the wrong man – and had to kill him to save the lives of thousands. Fifteen years later, Pearse Finnegan is back from the dead, with a horrific plan to destroy the tenuous peace between Belfast, Dublin and London. Once Dee shared Pearse’s madness, but no more, and saving the day – or at least London – means throwing herself at a seedy underworld, where nothing is what it seems, and trust is a commodity too short in supply.

She has three days – three days, and three ghosts. She will confront them, or risk becoming one herself.

Three Ghosts will be available on March 17.

Changelings: The Coming Storm

Fresh from their misadventures in Into the Mist, Changelings Maureen O’Malley and Sean McAndrew have been abandoned in a world devoid of magic. The gateway is closed and the one man who could teach them to use the power in their blood is dead. Faced with expulsion, Maureen and Sean have nowhere to go but to the McAndrew estate, run by Sean’s mysterious Aunt Margaret.

But even deep in the Scottish Highlands, Faerie whispers and sinister magic spun by the treacherous king of the Fae, Nuada Silver Arm, reach out to snatch them in the night – and this time, returning home is no longer an option. This time, in order to thwart the king, they must protect the McAndrew family, no matter the cost to themselves.

Slipping between the shifting lands of the Fae, the last days of World War Two, and the heady months leading up to the Jacobean Rebellion of 1745, the war between Man and Fae will come to its dramatic conclusion in Changelings: The Coming Storm  

Chapter 1

The wind tore at his face and bit his hands as he gripped the blade that had been his prize for defeating Nuada Silver Arm’s enemies. Now, Nuada, king of the Fae, stood before him and pulled terrors from his soul.

Chapter 2

“Do you have any idea what you put us through, Miss Maureen?”

Maureen avoided Mother Superior’s cool grey eyes and stared down at her hands. She tried not to pick at the frayed tear in the trousers she’d been wearing for – well, for almost a year, now.

Not really. She and Sean had spent less than a day in the Faerie otherworld, Tír na nÓg, but it seemed like a year. To her, and to the good Sisters of Carrickahowley Abbey.

Chapter 3

“What do you remember?”

Dubh lifted his eyes to the red-haired man standing over him. He looked smart in his pilot’s uniform. He was young, yet his green eyes spoke of many battles.

Every day it was the same question.

Every day he said the same thing: “Nothing.”

It was a lie.

The Coming Storm will be available Fall 2015.

And now, for the fun part – I hereby invite Bradley Corbett to tell us a little bit about himself and his various projects. Bradley is in charge of what I call the Green Embers Experience – he blogs, he encourages via The Building Rome project, and he reviews at Green Embers Recommends. He even manages to corral me into something resembling order so that we can bring you the occasional podcast, The Not So Shocking News Dialogues. In addition to all that, he writes fiction and draws comics, and I definitely want him to showcase all the work he’s put into the world of Green Embers.

A little bit about Brad, in his own words:

My name is Bradley Corbett and I am a bonafide blogger. My day job is working on a special escalation team within a customer service organization. This has granted me the great opportunity to work with individuals from around the globe, which provides a great sense of challenge and fun. I currently reside in Utah.

… When I started blogging, I discovered that the only person keeping me from being happy, was me. So every week I make a concerted effort on improving myself to be the best man I can be. It is a slow process but one that I feel I am succeeding in. These thoughts of improvement and overcoming personal obstacles is what brought about the Building Rome weekly event that I host.

I absolutely love blogging. This has been my favorite hobby even over watching TV, playing video games or even reading. I feel it is because it is not passive but an active hobby where I have to create things – things ranging from my messy writing to my messy art. Content you may find on this blog are my opinions, thoughts, flash fiction and random doodles. I say ‘this’ blog because I have others as well.

If you would like to know more about me, I have 101 facts about me that can be a fairly amusing read.