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Excerpt: The Fever & The Fury

Stephanie Draven — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 14:26:57 +0000

It’s my great honor to announce the release of my newest installment of the award-nominated Mythica series: The Fever & The Fury which releases today! Here’s a snippet that should warm up your new year. She’d already killed him twice this week. Monday, the harpy bitch grabbed the wheel just as he was making a tight turn [...]

Excerpt from Siren Song, the Latest Mythica Novella

Stephanie Draven — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 19:53:58 +0000

When the sexy lead singer of an Annapolis indie band is accused of luring midshipmen to their deaths, she learns she’s not the only one with a killer voice… In January, I have a new novella coming out with HQN Nocturne. You can read more about Siren Song here, download a free pdf for your [...]

Poisoned Kisses First Chapter

Stephanie Draven — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:00:11 +0000

Once a month, a bunch of authors get together and post excerpts from published books, contracted work or works in progress, and link to each other. You don’t have to be published to participate just an writer with an excerpt you’d like to share. For more info on how to participate, head over to the Excerpt Monday site! or click on the banner above.

Chapter One Kyra was dressed to kill. Literally. Just beneath her short red skirt and only inches above her high-heeled boots, a small but deadly hunting knife was strapped to her thigh. A gun might have been more useful, but Kyra preferred the weapons of an older, less complicated time. A knock came at the nightclub’s bathroom door—probably another gaggle of drunken Italian socialites—but Kyra wouldn’t be rushed. She stared at her reflection in the mirror to steel her courage. She might not be able to do much to thwart Daddy and his bloodthirsty minions, but she could do this one heroic thing for humanity. This was her destiny. She’d been born for this. But the mirror reflected a distorted image. It was cracked, as if the thumping club music burst through the wall from the other side. Still, she could see that her plunging pearlescent halter top complemented neither her black tresses nor her ghostly pallor. No matter. Kyra never let mortals see her true form, anyway. Tonight, her prey would see her as she wished him to see her: with blue eyes and cropped platinum hair; after all, she’d studied Marco Kaisaris long enough to know his type. And she was ready. Hydras like Marco were dangerous, but surely not to someone like her. She just had to kill him. Like Theseus and Perseus of old, she had a monster to slay. With that thought, Kyra gave the bathroom door a shove and it swung open like a gate to the underworld. She stepped into the nightclub’s press of bodies and people made way for her, as if they sensed her power. As the dance beat drummed at her pulse points, she brushed against the crowd, and it excited her because she had a nymph’s nature; she found the vitality of humans to be infectious and distracting. This was, of course, one of the many dangers of getting too close to mortals...

Excerpt Monday: Poisoned Kisses

Stephanie Draven — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 09:22:24 +0000

A Steamy Excerpt from POISONED KISSES

Stephanie Draven — Thu, 20 May 2010 01:25:07 +0000

“You’re shameless,” he finally whispered, the scent of expensive alcohol on his breath. But I’m not shameless, she thought. There were many shameful things in this modern world but her sexuality wasn’t one of them. How was it her fault that men were so easy to arouse? “I’m shameless? What about you? You look guilty of [...]

Excerpt Monday: Rites of Passage Part IV

Stephanie Draven — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 05:52:38 +0000

Once a month, a bunch of authors get together and post excerpts from published books, contracted work or works in progress, and link to each other. You don't have to be published to participate–just a writer with an excerpt you'd like to share. For more info on how to participate, head over to the Excerpt Monday site! or click on the banner above.

I wasn't going to post any more of RITES OF PASSAGE but since I've had special requests, I've skipped forward a bit from Part I and Part II and Part III. This month's snippet is from the scene in which our "hero" finds out that he's about to be the fall guy...

Taleo was an expert when it came to beauty, and the Ista Aldrik women were all beautiful. Every, single, untouchable one of them. Petrina's lush lips. Gellina's auburn tresses. Junia's ice-blue eyes. Aldrissa's enticing curves. Even little Fidelia's impish ears had their charm. Yes, the queen's nieces were as lovely and unique as snowflakes, but they all had one Ista Aldrik trait in common—an unflinching ability to poison your tea and smile at you across the table as you drank it.

"I'm not thirsty," Taleo said. "But thank you for the invitation. I've been riding for days and I'm no fit company for noblewomen."

Excerpt Monday: It Happened One Day in the Forum

Stephanie Draven — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 06:00:46 +0000

I've skipped forward a bit from Part I and Part II. This month's snippet is from RITES OF PASSAGE and is the first time our "hero" (and I use that term extremely lightly) meets our heroine.

CHAPTER THREE

"Have you ever seen a lovelier ass?" Taleo asked.

The maiden pretended not to hear him, swirling her red palla over one shoulder, so Taleo urged his horse to follow. It was a bright winter's day and the spring thaw couldn’t be far away, so Taleo was in the mood for a bit of sport.

His brother rode beside him, his horse’s bridle adorned with jingling bells. "Actually,” Kester said, his breath puffing steam in the cool air. “I have seen a lovelier ass and so have you. Yasmina's backside is legend. Her frontside, too, truth be told."

"Don't tell me you're still mooning over her,” Taleo said, navigating the crowded streets of Anarinuell with the kind of authority only a mounted nobleman could bring to bear. “You're like a lovesick cow. It's shameful."

"You're one to talk.” Kester laughed. “Why not give Yasmina up? You know she loves me, so why not let me have her to myself."

"Because Yasmina is a prostitute; you'll never have her to yourself." Besides, Taleo didn't give up anything or anyone that belonged to him, even fleetingly, and his brother should know that by now. “If you're so sure of Yasmina's love, just ask her to refuse me."

Kester shot him a sullen look. "For reasons that completely escape me, women don't refuse you."

"Probably because I give them no opportunity." After all, he was a Firan nobleman. If he chose to press the matter, a common woman couldn't refuse him by law nor could she invite his attention without inviting censure. The injustice of it was one of the many reasons he preferred whores, who were freer to do as they liked.

Excerpt Monday: Rites of Passage Part II

Stephanie Draven — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 06:33:03 +0000

Last Excerpt Monday I baffled, weirded out, and possibly tantalized readers with my creepy prologue to one of my many novels-in-progress. A fantasy novel with romantic elements, this story is founded on ancient medallion magic and features a young heroine who is married to a foreign lord against her will and learns that her worst enemy may be the one man she can trust. (Or something like that. I've still not mastered the logline to this story.)

CHAPTER ONE

As the shamans chanted, Taria tried not to choke on the stench of burning flesh. The flames beckoned with a promise of warmth, but these fires offered no comfort against the cold. They were funeral pyres, so Taria shied away so the spirits of the Ticanee dead could escape to a better place. A much better place.

She watched her tribesmen sway in grief beneath the totem poles, closing their eyes against every gust of frigid wind. But Taria’s eyes remained open, her blue gaze following the pillar of soot up into the winter sky. Overhead, Republic pilots held their griffon mounts in tight military formation on the wind. From so far away, the wings of the great creatures looked tattered and frayed, and she could barely see the men that rode them. She could not imagine the courage it would take to climb upon such a beast’s back and take to the skies, especially since, in Taria’s experience, nothing good ever came from above...

Excerpt Monday–Rites of Passage

Stephanie Draven — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:00:43 +0000

Rites of Passage is a work in progress.

Excerpt Monday: MIDNIGHT MEDUSA

Stephanie Draven — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 05:00:20 +0000

It's a new month and that means two things. The first, is that I'm running a new contest in which you could win an Amazon gift certificate and a free copy of C.E.Murphy's HANDS OF FLAME just for signing up for my extremely infrequent newsletter. The second thing I have going on in September is participation in this month's Excerpt Monday! For your viewing pleasure, I present the first chapter of MIDNIGHT MEDUSA, my first Silhouette Nocturne Bite. It's a full chapter, so stay tuned till the end, where I list more authors offering free excerpts of their own!

The Summer Reading Trail: The Knife’s Edge

Stephanie Draven — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 01:53:10 +0000

Thanks for stopping by on your way through the Summer Reading Trail. I’m busy celebrating the release of my new Silhouette Nocturne Bite, WILD, TETHERED, BOUND. I also have a contest going. But in the meantime, I have something a little different for you–a free e-book entitled THE KNIFE’S EDGE. It’s about an assassin who falls [...]

Excerpt Monday!

Stephanie Draven — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 05:00:34 +0000

Today I’m participating in Excerpt Monday! Check out this excerpt from WILD, TETHERED, BOUND, then get sneak peaks from other authors below: Nuristan Province, Afghanistan In the high leaves of a walnut tree, Dessa caressed the graceful branches. The limbs were covered in gray bark, a smooth skin over the tree’s lifeblood, which pounded in a secret [...]

Excerpt from WILD, TETHERED, BOUND

Stephanie Draven — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 21:37:37 +0000

Nuristan Province, Afghanistan In the high leaves of a walnut tree, Dessa caressed the graceful branches. The limbs were covered in gray bark, a smooth skin over the tree’s lifeblood, which pounded in a secret rhythm only she could hear; this was the dryads’ heart tree and its pulse was just one pace behind her own. It [...]

Excerpt: MIDNIGHT MEDUSA

Stephanie Draven — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 01:30:12 +0000

CHAPTER ONE Renata forced the cutting edge of her blade against the war criminal’s cheek, just below his eye. The man didn’t tremble with fear the way she wished he would–not the way she still trembled when she remembered the explosion. Neither did his cruel mouth quiver the way hers did when she remembered being engulfed [...]