DRAGON'S MARK
Shauna J. Rousseau
Edited by Angela Rasch
*****
CHAPTER EIGHT
I lay in the unfamiliar bed in Ginger's … and now Sis' … guestroom. My eyebrows are still stinging from the abuse they took from Ginger's wicked tweezers. My long, oval, bright red nails feel soft on top as they run under the satin sheets … and my nipples harden as they tickle them through the satin of my ...
2021-12-23 06:04:16 +0000 UTC View Post
Big Rock Candy Mountain Detour
The radio played that song, "Big Rock Candy Mountain," all summer long in two or three different versions. Burl Ives sang it on the pop stations, and Harry McClintock sang it on the Country and Western stations in between Hank Williams songs. I loved that song.
I made everybody be quiet whenever it was playing. I would shush them, and I wasn't above climbing into someone's lap and putting a hand over their mouth if they wouldn't shut...
2021-12-19 03:27:27 +0000 UTC View Post
DRAGON'S MARK
Shauna J. Rousseau
Edited by Angela Rasch
*****
CHAPTER SEVEN
"Okay, so we need to start using waterproof mascara on you. Duly noted!" Sis is "fixing my face" after my flight from Race's office and before I go into the War Room. "And you're going to have to start learning to do your own makeup, Sis. I won't always be around to fix it for you."
I glare at her. "Gee! I...
2021-12-16 22:18:56 +0000 UTC View Post
Buttermilk Beer
Springtime in Wenatchee is cool and pleasant. Momma and Daddy got jobs at the hop orchard where Billy, Gladys, Charlie and Velma already worked. Daddy dug postholes and put together climbing frames for the vines. Momma trained the vines and weeded and sorted strawberries, grapes and vegetables for the truck farm next door.
I sat on a pallet next to the field with Johnny Blankenship while our mothers worked. Sometimes they left us with a teenage bab...
2021-12-14 14:21:56 +0000 UTC View Post
The song, "Big Rock Candy Mountain" may have saved my Aunt Opal's life back in 1951. It happened like this.
My parents and I left Senath, Missouri looking for steadier work than my dad could find in a little farming town in the Bootheel. We drove out to Wenatchee, Washington where both sides of the family had relatives.
We traveled in a black 1942 Packard, a model called a salesman's coupe. It had two big heavy doors, wood and leather all over the inside, and no back seat or trunk...
2021-12-10 10:10:01 +0000 UTC View Post
"She's been haunting my dreams, insisting that I tell one of her stories..."
2021-12-09 16:46:31 +0000 UTC View Post
DRAGON'S MARK
Shauna J. Rousseau
Edited by Angela Rasch
*****
CHAPTER SIX
I sit in our usual conference room and squirm in my wheelchair. Not only are the pins and needles in my legs still causing me discomfort, but the knowledge that I'm wearing a bra is unsettling. It's not uncomfortable, per se—at least not physically—but it's blowing my mind.
I nearly refused to l...
2021-12-09 01:16:44 +0000 UTC View Post
The book should be up on Kindle in the next few days, sixteen tales of transgender romance in time of war. :)
2021-12-04 06:55:07 +0000 UTC View Post
DRAGON’S MARK
Shauna J. Rousseau
Edited by Angela Rasch
*****
CHAPTER FIVE
I look into Race’s beautiful deep-blue eyes and once again get lost in their endless depths. He smiles hungrily back at me and gently pulls off my shirt. I unbutton his and slowly pull it down off his shoulders ….
I tightly close my eyes in eager anticipation of what’s to come, and when I open them ...
2021-11-30 05:37:13 +0000 UTC View Post
“Is Mom at home?” Donna asked, taking turns with Rod ruffling Oscar’s ears.
I nodded.
“You guys going to the park?” she asked, looking at Rod, not me.
“Yeah, I guess,” Rod said, not looking at me either. “I have to put some stuff in the house,” he added, waving at his books.
“Me, too,” Donna agreed. “And I’ll need to tell Mom that I’m home. Meet you guys at the park,” she promised, heading off back the way I came. “Jon,” she said as sh...
2021-11-23 19:14:24 +0000 UTC View Post
I got through the evening somehow, but it wasn’t easy. My parents and sisters had to be told everything about Jake’s injury and more than once. But I didn’t spill anything about what had happened to me. The longer I could keep that a secret, the better, for my part.
I wasn’t really hungry at dinner, and that triggered a little maternal worry. I might not be as big of an eater as Jake and some of our teammates, but normally, I did put it away. Just for Mom’s sake, I took a seco...
2021-11-21 13:30:04 +0000 UTC View Post
DRAGON’S MARK
Shauna J. Rousseau
Edited by Angela Rasch
*****
CHAPTER FOUR
“Alex! Bro! Wake up!”
I blearily open my eyes and glance at the time on my phone. I think I must be still dreaming when I see it’s only four o’clock. I groan.
“Good! You’re finally awake! I’m going to turn on the light!”
Before I can shield my eyes, the overhe...
2021-11-18 22:59:43 +0000 UTC View Post
Mr. Todd Harrelson, the assistant director who seemed to be in charge of today's shooting, had me standing on a mark on the street while cameras, lighting and props were readied. The cape that went with my costume was more decoration than warmth, but I pulled it around me in a vain attempt to keep from shivering. The thin spangled cloth did little to keep out a chilling breeze.
I struggled to keep my teeth from chattering. California was the fabled land of warm summer sunshine all year ...
2021-11-17 08:29:56 +0000 UTC View Post
DRAGON’S MARK
Shauna J. Rousseau
*****
CHAPTER THREE
I’ve never had the slightest interest in a relationship of any kind—outside of with my family. I’ve never had a heartthrob on TV, or a singer in a band I’ve pined over. Friends have never been high on my agenda—and a “significant other” of any kind never even made my agenda … period, full stop. I’m an antisocial, eighteen-year-ol...
2021-11-11 18:50:37 +0000 UTC View Post
So, I sat down today with almost a whole day free and clear of major tasks. Perfect for getting some writing done.
But first I had to deal with one of those pesky muses who was clamoring that she had an idea I had to write down before I forgot about it. This happens regularly, and this was not an idea I could pass off to Maryanne Peters because it involved magic, and Maryanne does not do magic. Mostly.
Anyway, I had had a dream in the night. I dreamed of being the director o...
2021-11-07 05:07:44 +0000 UTC View Post
DRAGON’S MARK
Shauna J. Rousseau
*****
CHAPTER TWO
“Who is this we’re going to see, Momma?” Sarah is giving Momma J a skeptical look.
“Ummm … Well … She’s … ummm … Well, she’s the sister of the acquaintance of a friend.” Momma J looks unsure.
I grin. “So, you have no idea how this is supposed to go? Aaaaannnnnnnnnd … you have no idea whether this friend’s acqu...
2021-11-04 21:26:07 +0000 UTC View Post
This is the cover art done by Rasufelle/Melanie Ezell for the next Masks book, out later this week. The story appeared on BC as Masks 16 - The Outside Man and will still be up for another few days.
2021-11-02 21:16:12 +0000 UTC View Post
I did the cover last week and just noticed I hadn't posted it here. The book has been posted to Kindle but it takes sometimes a day before it appears. This is a good one, but then Maryanne is no slouch at this stuff. :)
2021-11-01 03:02:30 +0000 UTC View Post
DRAGON’S MARK
Shauna J. Rousseau
*****
PROLOGUE
She’leth lets out an exasperated sigh and white smoke escapes her nose and mouth. There is no stopping the catastrophic event about to befall the planet. It will bring on an apocalypse.
The asteroid will hit within hours and wipe out most all life with potential for sentience. Some low-level life will likely survive and be...
2021-10-23 02:05:25 +0000 UTC View Post
Melanie's next book from DopplerPress.
2021-10-17 01:55:34 +0000 UTC View Post
There's a salad bar place in the mall, and that's where we ended up. They had a bacon, cheese, and potato soup that I liked, plus a plate of greens and crusty bread made a good lunch.
"Your appetite seems healthy," Mom remarked when I came back from the dessert table with a piece of chocolate cake covered in soft-serve ice cream.
I didn't feel that hungry, but the cake and ice cream were tempting. I shrugged, content to dig in and enjoy the treat. It would have been even better if...
2021-10-16 02:24:39 +0000 UTC View Post
Just a teaser for Shauna's new serial that will be starting here soon. :)
2021-10-16 02:05:30 +0000 UTC View Post
I stopped at Tommy’s house on the way home to lend him a bit of moral support in case Mrs. Nakamura began one of her lectures. She turned out to be in a good and expansive mood, though, and ended up inviting me to stay for dinner which was just beginning.
Amy and Emmy had prepared the meal, which might have been what put Mrs. N in such a good mood. I thought of begging off, sometimes the food in the Nakamura household was a bit weird for my whitebread tastes, but it turned out Tommy...
2021-10-11 17:46:40 +0000 UTC View Post
Turned out Jake had only bruised his hand, not broken or sprained anything, but it was a nasty bruise. Whether he would be able to quarterback next Friday depended on how fast he healed.
Coach was pissed but confined his anger to making sure Jake understood what was expected of him. "You gotta be religious, coming back from something like this. I mean, religious about following the doctor's instructions and doing your therapy."
He spared a glare or three for me since I had been al...
2021-10-10 03:11:37 +0000 UTC View Post
I did two covers and I liked this one because of the emphasis on the word Crimes, but...I couldn't seem to find a way to balance the typography to my liking, so I went with the other one.
What do you think?
2021-10-01 01:07:15 +0000 UTC View Post
Unless you’re a musician or a rodeo rider, if you want to make your living as a performer in America, you need to live near either Hollywood or Broadway. Of course, those names are just shorthand for the communities that have grown up around the original industries in those locations.
And to be sure, there are others, like Las Vegas, Nashville, even Branson and Orlando. But for actors, Hollywood and Broadway are definitely where most of it’s at. ‘It’ being regular work at paying...
2021-09-29 08:50:51 +0000 UTC View Post
"This is not happening to me," I told myself again, staring at my reflection in the full-length bathroom mirror. "I am not growing tits!" I didn’t say it out loud though because someone might hear.
They certainly looked like tits. Small, pointy, with nipples about the size of a Hershey's Kiss sitting on an miniature cupcake. Two of them, one each side. I poked one. "Ouch," I said.
My younger sister Donna tapped at the door. "Hurry up!" she said urgently but only loud enough for ...
2021-09-25 11:19:32 +0000 UTC View Post
Bow-Legged Girls
Melanie E.
I laughed as my pappy picked me up and helped me to stand on the old farm gate that made up one of the panels of the cobbled-together safety fence, the only thing that separated the raucous crowd on our side from the action on the other.
I always loved going to the rodeo. The music, the smells, but most of all I loved the animals. The bulls with snorts and mad power, and the horses with their glistening flanks ...
2021-09-23 20:13:04 +0000 UTC View PostI started posting a new-old story today. It's "Sixteen the Hard Way" and it is based on Wanda Cunningham's outline of her first novel written during her lunch hours, longhand, while she was going to college and working as a teacher's assistant. This was fifteen years before she started work on Kelly Girl.
The original manuscript has been lost over the years and I'm not really trying to recreate it. I'm not even sure it will be a novel, perhaps only a ...
"This is not happening to me," Jon told himself again, staring at his reflection in the full-length bathroom mirror. "I am not growing tits!" He didn’t say it out loud though because someone might hear.
They certainly looked like tits. Small, pointy, with nipples about the size of a Hershey's Kiss sitting on an miniature cupcake. Two of them, one each side. He poked one. "Ouch," he said.
His younger sister Donna tapped at the door. "Hurry up!" she said urgently but only loud eno...
2021-09-21 19:08:41 +0000 UTC View Post