Five things this past week...
1. Thank you to everyone for the lovely messages about the new wolf pack short stories - I'm thrilled that people enjoyed them. I do plan on doing more short stories in the future (I think the Lucas twins and Tanner boys deserve their own short story next time), so am pleased to find out how many people enjoy catching up with the characters again.
2. I have been to see Spy and it is an awesome movie!!! I will watch just about anything with Jason Statham in and I love Melissa McCarthy. The two of them together in a film is hilarious.
Favorite quote: I know there's a fucking face off machine! You're just trying to hide it from me!
3. I have discovered that it is possible to win things out of those claw machines - I have the stuffed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle to prove it. (Raphael now has pride of place on my bookcase.)
4. I have read (or rather devoured) the new Eve Langlais book - When An Alpha Purrs. For anyone who has not already read it - do so immediately! Just one question - can I be Eve Langlais when I grow up?
5. And possibly the point you're most interested in (although the claw machine thing was a doozy), I've completed the first few chapters of Book Three Supernatural Enforcers Agency. See below for a small sneak peek at chapter one. Don't have a date for it yet, so I'll keep posting regarding progress.
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Something wet and raspy tickled her toe. “Mmmm, stop it,” mumbled Isis from under her pillow.
It didn’t stop. No, it was joined by two more equally wet and raspy tongues, and soon pincer-like teeth started nibbling. “Okay!” Isis threw the pillow onto the floor and propped herself up on her elbows so she could glare at the offending nibblers. “I’m getting up – happy?”
Her three cats, Brimstone, Lucifer and Minion, all gave her guileless looks in return that she didn’t believe were genuine for one second. One by one, they leaped off the bed with a grace that would make a gazelle envious. They sauntered toward her kitchen awaiting their morning meal. Isis wasn’t naïve enough to think that her three hellcats lived with her because they enjoyed her company. No, they deigned to stay with her because she fed them top-grade salmon on a regular basis and had a balcony from which they could come and go as they please. As for Isis? Snooty cats who did whatever they wanted and tormented the neighborhood males? They were her freaking soulmates! Keeping them for company meant that she was never tempted to do something insane like find a live-in boyfriend or get the urge to bring a mini Isis into the world. No, the pitter patter of three cats who may or may not be evil geniuses was more than enough for her.
“You shouldn’t allow cats into your bed!” chided her mother, Cleo.
Isis narrowed her eyes as her inner tiger, Ms. Kitty, let out a huge yawn. “Good advice, Mom, shame you didn’t follow it when you were alive.”
With that, Isis hopped out of bed and ambled through the ghost of her mother. Her form turned into smoke before reappearing again. “I find it very disrespectful when you do that,” sniffed Cleo as she followed Isis into the kitchen. She hovered over the ground wringing her hands, looming over Isis like a… well like the ghoul she was.
“Consider it payback for materializing in the bathroom whenever I take a shower,” retorted Isis as she grabbed the salmon out of the refrigerator and started carefully slicing it into bite sized pieces. Nothing was too good for her hellcats.
“How was your date last night?” asked Cleo with interest.
Isis smirked. “I’d hardly say it was a date.” Nope, a wham-bam-thank you-ma’am on the top of his sporty Jaguar, was more like it. Hey, it was a really cool car and when the zebra shifter from tech support offered her a ride she was powerless to resist. And since Isis was coming into heat, she virtually sexually assaulted the unsuspecting shifter the moment they hit the city limits. They ended up pulling off the road so she could have her wicked way with him. Sadly, he just proved that he bought the car to make up for certain other deficiencies… let’s just say her pussy was not impressed.
Cleo clucked her tongue. “Isis, you’ll never get a husband if you carry on like this.”
“Here’s hoping.” She grinned and drank half the milk straight from the carton. Her tiger groaned in appreciation. Yes, she was a kitty who liked milk – she could care less that she was a stereotype.
Her mom frowned at her. “That’s really unhygienic.”
Isis shrugged and put the carton back in the refrigerator. “Who cares? It’s not like anyone else will be drinking it.”
Brimstone rubbed against her leg and let out a plaintive yowl. Isis picked her up and stroked the black feline. “Except for you, my smushy, little, button-nosed princess.” Brimstone let out a regal purr and practically sneered at her mom.
Yep, all the cats could see her ghost mom. She didn’t understand it, but apparently cats were pretty au fait with the netherworlds. Go figure. It was perhaps the reason why Isis had some psychic ability. She was a full-blown tiger shifter – thanks to her tiger shifter father, yet now and again she could see the odd ghost – thanks to her psychic mom. She was hardly a strong psychic and had never seen visions, but now and then, an extremely annoying specter would pop into her life and bug the crap out of her. Like the one who had currently set up residence in her apartment.
Isis rolled her eyes at the ghostly frown on her mom’s face. “I’ve told you before; I’m not interested in mating or having tiger cubs, okay? I want to be young, hot and promiscuous. Then I want to be the middle-aged but still a sexy woman who chases after inappropriately younger men. And then I want to be the old crone who leers at the young men and makes them feel uncomfortable.”
Cleo huffed. “Just because I had a bad experience with a male…”
“A bad experience?!” roared Isis. Her tiger woke up and snapped her jaws at that. In boiling rage, she dropped Brimstone to the floor. Naturally, the lithe kitty fell on her feet, but she still afforded Isis a glare that promised retribution later. “Fucking hell, mom, even in death you’re delusional.”
“Don’t swear at your mother.”
“Hey, this is my apartment, I will swear as much as I fucking well like. You don’t live here. You don’t belong here. You should be in the afterlife bothering other dead people about their swearing.”
“I won’t leave this plane until I’m sure you’re happy,” Cleo told her gently.
“Well, I’m fucking ecstatic,” snarled Isis.
Cleo had the nerve to laugh at that, and Isis threw a frying pan at her. Of course, it went straight through her ethereal form – but it made her and her tiger feel a little better, and it stemmed the loud guffaws.
Her mom was outraged. “If I had been alive…”
“We wouldn’t even be having this conversation. Now, I have to get to work, and I’m sure you have to get back to haunting something or planning what you’re going to do next to piss me off.”
Isis strode through her mom, ignoring the sigh of annoyance. Her tiger grumbled lowly, and Isis fought the urge to scream. Maybe she needed an exorcist, or the Ghostbusters or something. A whole year of her mom hovering around, trying to get her to mate and have babies was becoming intolerable. There was no way in hell that Isis was ever going to mate. Not a snowball’s chance.
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