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Hi everyone,

I hope you're having a great week. This week I got a shiny new idea for a story that I hope to show you a teaser of soon. It's an LGBTQ+ story about emotion witches and it's been a ton of fun to write so far. I also have a cover reveal for the vampire story, "Snow's Captive." You can click on the cover to get the story through a Google drive link. Let me know what you think. I'm debating writing more about these characters as a fun side project.

On the publishing front, Amy's Rebellion is officially with editor #1, so I'll be looking for some beta readers probably around early May. And I finally did the thing I've been putting off for an eternity and uploaded "Gabriel is Cursed" on several other major platforms like Apple, Kobo, and Barnes and Noble. You can view where it's being sold here. Finally, I have an excerpt for you from Amy's Rebellion, but I'll keep it short this week.

Secret Mage Hideout-

Naru craned her head to “Why are we going to the Japanese museum? Is this some kind of joke?” 

He parked the car and then turned to Naru. “I wish I were joking, but they like this place despite how many people come here. There’s even a water elemental hideout in the middle of the lake.” 

Naru’s jaw dropped, “They put a hideout in a lake? How?”

He gave her jazz fingers, “Magic.”

Naru rolled her eyes. “Really?”

He shrugged. “Ask dumb questions, get dumb answers.”

“Okay but wouldn’t they eventually run out of magic and the whole thing would get flooded? That seems inconvenient.” 

Ren opened the door and started walking to the museum and Naru followed behind him. “It’s an old hideout made by far stronger mages. It’s in a lake, but there’s a massive wall and a dome over the hideout that keeps the water physically out. The water magic hiding them is only needed during business hours when people are actually at the museum.” 

Naru pulled open the door to the museum. “That seems like a lot of trouble when they could just pick somewhere less populated like I don’t know a nature trail?”

He nodded. “There are some there too, but I didn’t want to risk you burning down an entire forest if our attempt to incite rebellion doesn’t go well.”

She grabbed his shirt collar and lowered her voice. “What do you mean by that?”

Ren threw sidelong glances at the ticket counter. “Let’s just say a lot of the mages here are a bit rough around the edges. Several mages here are self-taught. Do you remember what you used to do before you had a mentor?”

Naru dropped him. “So they use their magic for personal gain, probably some illicit activities that are worse than rigging the crane games so you’ll win.”

He shot Naru with a finger gun. “Precisely.”

“Great. Will they have booze and gambling?”

He tapped a finger to the bottom of his chin. “Maybe, but I’m not letting you drink lightweight.”

She pouted. “Why not?”

“FIRE mage in a tree, drunk. Does that seem like a good plan?” 

She crossed her arms over her chest. “What about the water hideout?”

He shifted on his feet. “I don’t know any water mages and we’d need one to get in and out.”

Naru pushed some hair behind her ear. “Just go get our tickets.”

“That’s what I thought,” he said and made his way over to the ticket clerk. 

Once they had their tickets, they walked down the pathway until they reached the entrance to a nature trail thick with trees. They followed the path to the end and then Ren turned to the left and said “It’s here.”

Naru glanced around. “Where? I don’t see it.”

He pointed at the wall of trees in front of us. “It’s behind all of this. Just take my hand. You’ll need it to get into the fortress.” 

“Okay.” Naru placed her hand in his and the wall of trees twisted and turned before her eyes opening up into a mass of mages. The bartenders coaxed branches into reaching down to shove a beer across the counter to a waiting customer. Water mages forced water down their stumbling friends' throats. 

In the back, Naru spotted a couple of arcade games, and her eyes widened. She shook Ren’s shoulder. “Can I?”

He glanced at the rows of arcade games. “Sure. I’ll join you. I’m just going to get a virgin pina colada first, okay?” 

“Mhm.” Naru said with her eyes fixed on the machines.

She maneuvered over to them as Ren whispered. “She probably didn’t hear a single thing I said.”

“Yes, I did,” Naru called back and winked at him.

END OF EXCERPT

If you want to see more from me, I've uploaded the first chapter of Amy's Rebellion and a formatted epub of "Snow's Captive" to Patreon and will be doing short stories where you get to pick the topic or prompt there each month.

Now, I have a question for you. 

Vampires, shifters, or nymphs?

Hm. I think my favorite is probably shifters with vampires being a close second.

That's all I've got for you today. Have a great day and stay safe.

Sincerely,

Julia