Welcome back to Love Bytes! It’s great to see you here! In my January guest post I mentioned that 2015 was a whirlwind year, and 2016 promised to be an equally exciting year!

As most of you know, I have a unique writing background in a number of ways, not the least of which is that I was raised by a prolific author. I have also written in multiple mainstream venues for years, and spent way too much time on movie sets as a kid watching films come to life for the silver screen. Though I write for Harmony Ink Press and have spent the past four years concentrating on young adult works, I write primarily for adults—surprise! 

Throughout 2016 and 2017, I’ll be concentrating on adult stories and here is a little of what we can expect this year!

Elpida, Book 3 in the Elpida Series, coming late this year from Harmony Ink Press:

Michael and Christy made prom, graduated high school, and Michael has taken the lead in the USATF tryouts. With Oxford University on the horizon, his future looks bright and he believes life has returned to normal after Christy’s rescue from a past abuser—he couldn’t be more wrong.

Christy has been free from a life of slavery for more than a year and made remarkable progress due in no small part to the love he found with Michael. But the recent prosecution of a past tormentor shattered the life he so painstakingly built out of nothing but a mountain of horror. He must now face the daunting task of building a new life—yet again.

Twelve-year-old Thimi has been missing since Christy left Greece and, unbeknownst to everyone, has hidden out in a vacant mansion in Glyfada. Learning of Christy’s survival is the only thing that brings him out of hiding. People, open spaces, even the most common of sounds frighten him beyond reason. A mere ghost of a boy, Thimi arrives in the US with no knowledge of the outside world—the only constant in his life a purple marble.

Lost, shattered, and afraid, only hope gives them the strength and courage they need to begin anew.

A special short story for Benedicte Girault’s “Seasons” anthology coming to you from her label, Men Over the Rainbow. Finding love in the ruins beneath the sea a la Jacques Cousteau! All proceeds to benefit LGBT youth.

 

One-Eyed Jack Series is a planned series (currently eight books) coming to you beginning late 2016 from Cool Dudes Publishing! Sleight of Heart is a spinoff of this much larger fantasy series in which humans know the preternatural exist. Jacqueline McKenzie is a marshal in charge of keeping the preternatural in line in the western US. Though only part fae, she is next in line to replace the Great Fae Mother. Two men are sworn to protect her: Llyr, a sea god, and Kismet, a warrior and parrot shifter… and are in a relationship. A dark sexy fairy tale told in first person from Jack’s perspective, it’s a story of treachery and deceit. Here is a never before seen excerpt:

I clenched the gold locket in my hand as I waited behind the red velvet curtain for the introduction to end. Another lecture, another exposé. Goddess, give me strength.

I opened the locket slowly to the familiar pictures. My father’s beautiful turquoise eyes gazed out at me from one side, my mother’s fierce emerald green from the other. Only I could see my parents’ pictures within. Everyone else saw Llyr and Kismet. Tell no one, my mother said of the locket’s magick. I hadn’t breathed a word to anyone in my short fifty-year life.

I calmed my empathic mind and pushed away the vexing thrum of the audience’s thoughts. Setting my metaphysical tendrils to flight on the air, I spied the gathering of the Great Fae Courts in my mind’s eye.

High King Darling of the Seelie Court all but levitated from his seat, his furry jet brows knitting in anger. “She is part human, Margaux! How dare you put a mongrel on your throne!”

Máthair reined in anger at High King Darling’s remark. “Need I remind you that we need someone who can protect us from the humans? Who better than someone who is part human?”

“She’s nothing but a three pence whore!” King Jeffrey of the Unseelie Court squealed causing his belly to jiggle like the grotesque lard it was.

Not very original. King Jeffrey’s hideous past-times were well known to the Fae Courts. It was his forays into the human world to meet his violent sexual needs that had left us exposed, and embittered our peril among the humans. Far be it from him to cast aspersions.

Court members cringed at his words and fell silent as the air thickened with the weight of Máthair’s powerful magick. “Jeffrey, if you use that term or anything remotely like it again when referring to Jack, I’ll seal your mouth shut for a year and cast you from this gathering,” she intoned evenly before turning to the conclave of Court Families. “I agreed to this unscheduled gathering out of courtesy and in anticipation of hearing viable arguments regarding Jack’s candidacy for my throne. Rather, I have heard nothing but puerile, derogatory criticism of her pedigree. As I see it, her being one quarter human is to our advantage. Therefore, Jacqueline of Merry will remain a candidate for my throne.”

High King Darling made to speak and Llyr silenced him with a raised hand. “Ye will give Jackie she due on me say-so.”

“It’s only a matter of time before you no longer have the power to lord over us! What then, sea god? What happens when all cease to worship you?” Jeffrey flouted.

Heightened murmurs filled the air and Llyr ignored Jeffrey.

High King Darling mustered his courage. “Although stated rather impolitely, he has a point, Llyr. What happens to us when you’re gone and we’re left to be ruled by a mongrel?”

“I will not fade during ye time of existence and I be here to protect ye, not to govern ye ways.”

“He lies!” Jeffrey yelled. “He’s only here because we worship him! I say we worship another!”

Murmurs became shouts and slurs, and some stomped their feet.

“If left to you, Jeffrey, the fae would worship the Dark,” Margaux criticized.

“That’s right!”

The chamber fell into an uncomfortable silence.

High King Darling gathered himself once more. “This gathering is to discuss who will be our next Great Mother, not who we worship.”

“With a whore on Gran Máthair’s throne we must discuss whom we worship! We’re fools not to worship the more powerful gods! The Chthonians are more powerful than Primordials because the humans still believe in them! I say we worship one of them!” Jeffrey ranted.

Murmurs filled the vast chamber and Llyr’s irritation rose on the air. The room fell silent once more under the sheer weight of his unrivaled power. “Ye be a mooncalf to think a Chthonian more powerful than a Primordial, Jeffrey. Ye do well to recall that ye Ard-Voir be bound to whoever ye worship. Do ye truly wish ye Gran Máthair be bound to one of the Dark?”

The audience erupted. “Nay!” “Yeah!” “Will it help us?”

Disappointment filled Llyr and he quieted the room once more. “Ye will give Jackie she due lest ye suffer me wrath,” he said calmly.

“Llyr, please, you can’t expect us to abide half-blood filth,” High King Darling pled.

Silence rang in the chamber like a gong, tension heavy on the air.

“Ye do well to curb ye tongue, High King. Jackie be no more unclean than ye own princess.”

Murmurs grew and someone shouted, “The Princess if full fae!”

“Aye, she be, but she not be bred of ye sweet Seelie Court. She bear a taint, eh, High King?” Llyr’s tone was soft, but rife with derision.

High King Darling flushed a bright yellow and ignored the rhetorical question. “At the very least, you must permit us to put forth others for consideration.”

Llyr was thoughtful for a long moment. “So mote it be.”

Margaux turned to him in alarm. Jack will never survive the duels! she thought loudly in his head.

Llyr turned intense eyes to her. She will or she not be fit to seat ye throne, Margaux.

She swallowed hard and turned away from his ruthlessness. He had just condemned the realm’s only hope for survival to death. She gathered herself and stood. “I hold the preeminent right to put forth candidates for my throne subject only to the Ways and the Sith. Please keep that in mind when presenting your candidates for consideration High King Darling and King Jeffrey. Please also be reminded that the Sith has yet to give countenance to either of your princesses. This gathering of the Great Fae Courts is closed and sealed under oath of silence.” She offered a cursory bow to each king and departed.

See you back here next month on Friday, June 17th! Thank you for reading my books!

About Cody Kennedy (aka Aisling Mancy)

Cody is an author who lives, most of the time, on the West Coast of the United States. Cody, writes adult fantasy, science fiction, adult romance, and fiction for gay young adults as C. Kennedy.

Raised on the mean streets and back lots of Hollywood by a Yoda-look-alike grandfather, Cody doesn’t conform, doesn’t fit in, is epic awkward, and lives to perfect a deep-seated oppositional defiance disorder. In a constant state of fascination with the trivial, Cody contemplates such weighty questions as If time and space are curved, then where do all the straight people come from? When not writing, Cody can be found taming waves on western shores, pondering the nutritional value of sunsets, appreciating the much-maligned dandelion, unhooking guide ropes from stanchions, and marveling at all things ordinary.

Cody’s Facebook, Twitter @CodyKAuthor, Pinterest, Tumblr, Google+, Ello, Goodreads,

Medium, Booklikes, and read my free serial story, Fairy

Find Ash on blog, Twitter @AislingMancy, Facebook, Goodreads, Booklikes, Amazon
and Ash does respond to emails because, after all, it is all about you, the reader.

Pssst. Click on the captioned title of each book to read the first chapter!