Saturday, December 14, 2013

Excerpt From Meredith Bond's Magic in the Storm





I was lucky to meet Meredith Bond when I asked her about her classes on formatting a digital book. 

I took the class, and while it was intense, it was worth the time and effort to learn the tricks.  I already knew some HTML and knowing where to put the code and how it affects the manuscript was worth the price alone.  If you know nothing about coding, Merry tells you why this and that is done and what it will do. 

If you'd like to be on her mailing list for the next class, please email her directly at
merry@meredithbond.com or find the sign-up on her website www.meredithbond.com.

Now you get to read a bit of her latest book and wow, what a cover!


Blurb:
In the magical world of the Vallen, it has always been the high priestess who was the most powerful. Tatiana Vallentyn has long anticipated the birth of her daughter, Morgan, who was prophesied to be the most powerful priestess in generations – until the child born turned out to be a boy. Now a man, Morgan, must find his place in the world on his own. In the magic of a storm, his potential appears in a form he never would have expected.

Regency society is not kind to orphan girls. Adriana has been at the mercy of her cruel guardian since she was a young child, and now she is being married off to the highest bidder—but she will not go without a fight. She’d rather sell her precious paintings than marry Lord Vallentyn and have to deal with his scheming mother. But everything changes with the wind of a storm that blows her into a world she could never have imagined existed within ordinary society.

Excerpt:
She turned off the path and picked her way through the wood toward the sounds.  There was a clearing not too far ahead, but Adriana was stopped by the sound of a voice — a man’s voice. More carefully and quietly now, she made her way to the edge of the clearing and peeked out from the trees.

Adriana’s breath caught as she watched a dark head emerge from under the water.
It was him!  He hadn’t been a dream or her imagination. He was real! 
Morgan flipped his long black hair back out of his face, sending a spray of water flying toward Adriana. As he did so, he turned around to face her and she very nearly took a step forward to let him know that she was there. Her hand was half-way raised, her foot in mid-air about to step out from the trees when she noticed that he wasn’t wearing anything – at all.

Adriana stopped and caught her balance on a tree. How embarrassing! 
She couldn’t allow Morgan to see she was there, not when he... she could feel her face heat and was sure she was blushing furiously.
She resolutely tried to keep her eyes on his face, but they disobediently darted down his exposed body. Strong muscles defined his bare shoulders and chest. Below that Adriana couldn’t see anything because of the water, and she was extremely grateful. She had never seen a naked man before, and was certain that she never should – at least not until after she was married.
In her mind, Henrietta’s stern voice told her in no uncertain terms she was to leave immediately. Adriana knew the voice was right – she shouldn’t be here at all. She started to turn away, but Morgan gave another bright shout of laughter. She looked over at him playing in the water and knew she just couldn’t go.
The thought of leaving without drawing even one little sketch of Morgan and the river was unthinkable. Surely it was all right from an artistic point of view.  Men painted naked women, so why couldn’t she draw a naked man? 
No, neither Henrietta’s voice in the back of her head, nor the threat of being caught in so compromising a position could force her to leave. She would stay, but only for a very short time. Just long enough to do one quick sketch, she told herself sternly.



Bio:

Meredith Bond is an award-winning author of traditionally published Regency romances and indie-published paranormal romances. She is known for her characters “who slip readily into one’s heart.”

Meredith’s second favorite pastime is teaching others to write and format books for
self-publication.

Find Merry at:

Facebook
Twitter















 

No comments:

Post a Comment