Waiting on Wednesday (20)

Waiting on Wednesday is the weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

I am eagerly waiting for...

The Gathering Storm

by Robin Bridges 

Release Date: January 10 2012

Goodreads: 

St. Petersburg, Russia, 1888. As she attends a whirl of glittering balls, royal debutante Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, tries to hide a dark secret: she can raise the dead. No one knows. Not her family. Not the girls at her finishing school. Not the tsar or anyone in her aristocratic circle. Katerina considers her talent a curse, not a gift. But when she uses her special skill to protect a member of the Imperial Family, she finds herself caught in a web of intrigue. 

An evil presence is growing within Europe's royal bloodlines—and those aligned with the darkness threaten to topple the tsar. Suddenly Katerina's strength as a necromancer attracts attention from unwelcome sources . . . including two young men—George Alexandrovich, the tsar's standoffish middle son, who needs Katerina's help to safeguard Russia, even if he's repelled by her secret, and the dashing Prince Danilo, heir to the throne of Montenegro, to whom Katerina feels inexplicably drawn. 

The time has come for Katerina to embrace her power, but which side will she choose—and to whom will she give her heart?

NaNo Madness - Week 3

~Week 3~ 
I can't believe I forgot to make this post yesterday...Sigh. 
You've no idea how beautiful it was to see that damn word-count bar turn green. Seriously. I could feel my muscles relaxing, my breathing easing down, the insistent need to tap my fingers stop. But then my brain took that as permission to start thinking about other things. And not just any other things, but other stories! Can you believe that? I do not need to get sidetracked now, now matter how tempting those other stories are. So I've taken to writing down the ideas and putting them inside a little index card box. Only when I finish NaNo will I allow myself to wonder about them. 
 
Otherwise it was a great week though I failed one day, again writing only 400 words. But I had a doctors appointment that day, and I couldn't write the much even though I did take a notebook to write at the office. I also noticed some characters had disappeared from the story. Yes, disappeared as in I forgot to keep writing them in the story. WTH. I can't wait to start editing all those little errors I've been leaving behind. 
 
I hope all you NaNo-ers are doing great, and those of you who aren't don't give up! Even if you don't complete the 50k words, what's important is that you kept on trying until the last minute!

 ~WordCount Today~
  44,224 at 9:30 pm

~Favorite Quote~

The horn sound blasted across the arena. A second later an energy blast was sailing towards Hanna’s body. A second later bones exploded everywhere. Hannah was standing, shielded, behind three of her creations. One which was currently missing its skull. Holly hell! That was some fast summoning!

The angelic faced necromancer smiled at me again, and though her smile held no malice, it still made my skin crawl. I’d lost my opportunity at taking her out first, now I’d have to somehow deal with her unbeatable minions. So unfair how she could have minions do her dirty work, yet I had to work my ass off trying to defeat her and her minions.

Teaser Tuesday (19)

Teaser Tuesdays is a meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. 

Mastiff

by Tamora Pierce

"Mithros's spear, what kind of cracknob picks a mage name like Farmer?"
The mage shrugged. "Most of the mages that taught me would say I acted like I had my feet in the furrows and my head in the hayloft. I thought maybe there was something powerful, them thinking the same thing, so I took Farmer as a mage name." He looked at me. "I've been wondering lately, though, do you think mayhap they were making fun of me?"

~♥~

He looked at us. "You're wet."
Tunstall scratched at his whiskers. "With those powers of observation, I'll wager the army and the City of the Gods were fighting over you," he said.
"Naw," Master Farmer replied with his three-cornered grin. "The army found out I don't know my left foot from my right. It's a problem."