Saturday, March 26, 2022

The portrait - excerpt from Lure by the Lion for #WeWriWa and #SnippetSunday

 


Welcome to another Sunday with Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday. Sample the work of a new author. Read snippets of stories in different genres.

I’m posting another excerpt from my new Sci-Fi Romance, Lured by the Lion. This story is part of a new series, Second Chances in Space, with standalone stories about space pirates, spies and second chances for romance.

Relevant background: Josie, a taser-toting captain of a small spacecraft, was delivering a vase to her aunt when she rescues a frightened young woman from a gang of bullies. She offers to walk to the woman’s home and discovers that Penelope is a school friend of her younger sister. Josie meets her father, Leonardo Horlis, a widower still mourning his deceased wife. The Horlises invite Josie for lunch next day.

You can read last week’s excerpt at: https://auroraspringer.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-grieving-widower-excerpt-from-lured.html

I’ve skipped the next chapter where Josie delivers the valuable vase to her aunt. Here, Josie has arrived for lunch with Penelope and Leonardo Horlis and meets Penelope at the door. This excerpt introduces a conflict.

Josie stepped into the hallway and looked around, curious about their home. The hallway ran the full length of the building with two doors on either side wall and a glass door at the farther end. Coat hooks were mounted on one wall next to a mirror in an ornate frame of carved ebony wood. The life-size portrait of a woman hung on the wall opposite the mirror.

Penelope pointed at the portrait. “That’s Mama. Isn’t she beautiful?” 

The painting showed an ethereal lady with large brown eyes and a halo of blonde curls. Her rose-pink gown had the same high neckline and long sleeves as her daughter’s dress. Perhaps it was a style peculiar to the Felicines’ home planet.

Ten sentences plus a little more:

“Very lovely,” Josie agreed.

“I wish I were beautiful.” Penelope sighed and shook her head. “I’ll never be as beautiful as Mama.”

Scrutinizing her forlorn face, Josie felt compelled to encourage the modest girl without being untruthful. “Perhaps not. I think you look charming. And, if you wore your hair like your mama’s loose curls it would frame your pretty eyes.”

“Do you think such a style would improve my looks?”

“Undoubtedly.” Privately, Josie thought the girl’s sweet smile was her greatest asset.

Pursing her lips in thought, Penelope withdrew her gaze from her mother’s portrait to look at the glass door at the end of the hallway. “We should join Tata on the patio. He’s waiting for us.”

Josie laughed. “And for his lunch, I’m sure.” As she walked along the corridor, the mother’s luminous gaze seemed to follow her. Suppressing a shudder, she wondered if the dead woman’s specter haunted the house and disturbed its occupants. 


Widow with a spaceship meets widower with a dangerous secret.

After the death of her ailing father, Jocelyn Navarre Yazzie is free to roam the galaxy in the Star Condor, the spacecraft she inherited from her deceased husband. She embarks on a trip to deliver her father’s bequest to her aunt on a rural planet outside the civilized sectors.

A chance encounter with the crippled Leonardo Horlis changes her future. Horlis suffers from a debilitating malady and expects to live for less than a year. Josie is strongly attracted to him, yet she cannot hope to compete with his beautiful dead wife, whose portrait dominates his house and his memories. Sympathizing with his grief and illness, Josie offers to transport him in her spaceship to the top medical center of the ultracivilized inner planets.

Their attraction intensifies in the cramped quarters of her spaceship. But, Leo has a dangerous secret that threatens to terminate their voyage and their lives. Can Josie and Leo escape the perils and vanquish the ghosts of their past to find happiness together?

You can pre-order Lured by the Lion for release on the 30th at Amazon  iBooks  B&N  Kobo  GooglePlay  Other

 


The first book in this new series, Captured by the Hawk, is a fun and fast-paced space opera. An intrepid Irish spy is captured by the notorious space pirate, Captain Hawk, a widower with a tragic secret. 

Discounted to 99c at Amazon  iBooks  Kobo  B&N  GooglePlay

 

I’ll be happy to reply to your comments.

Please return to http://wewriwa.blogspot.com/ to sample the works of the other writers.

 

Find a catalog of my published stories HERE.

 

 

22 comments:

  1. Your blurb reeled me in. Just one clicked it. :-)

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  2. Nice description and I liked her reply to the young girl.

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    1. Yes. Josie is kind. Maybe too kind according to her senior crewman.

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  3. It's very sad that Penelope feels that way about herself. I think Jocelyn will be a good roll model for her.

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    1. Exactly. Her father probably has the same idea.

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  4. Yeah that life sized portrait is a bit much (in regard to the characters, I mean; it works great for the novel!)...I can see all kinds of plot threads opening up here. Well done snippet.

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    1. Yes - the portrait preys on Josie's imagination.

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  5. What a presence the mother had that even in death and from a portrait she can still intimidate. In that small snippet, I had the sense of all the characters. Intrigued!

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  6. This is a well-written scene that allows the reader to picture the setting vividly.
    Personally, the older I get the less value I place on physical attractiveness. Many plain-looking people are honest and genuine while oftentimes attractive people are so used to being adored that they become vain and shallow.
    Tweeted the post.

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  7. So glad Josie tried to help Penelope with her self-image. That portrait is something else. What an influence it has on Penelope.

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    1. It influences Josie too. She knows she's not as beautiful as Leo's dead wife.

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  8. Josie gave Penelope good advice, but I wonder if anything can counteract the pall the mother casts over the household. Great conflict here! Tweeted.

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    1. She might not cast the pall that Josie imagines.

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  9. I like Josie. She was so kind to Penelope, but it will take a lot to overcome the mother's sway over the family.

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  10. Leaving quite the question at the end about the possible ghost.
    Tweeted.

    Sorry I'm so late - busy busy day.

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    1. Thanks for the tweet.
      The ghost is in Josie's imagination, although the image of her mother obviously influences Penelope.

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  11. Sweet scene. I love her trying to boost the young one's self confidence.

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    1. Thanks. I thought it was a good touch. Josie acts like a big sister to Penelope.

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