Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Serial Novel - The Hunt

The lioness sniffed the air. Lovac was near. Zna slowed him down by giving him a false scent trail to follow. The hunter was fooled for only one hundred ticks or so, but it was enough for her to find what she was looking for.
The only way she would be able to keep the thirty tick advantage Mister required would be to run the hunter through the ‘Hole’. Most lionesses did not want to risk the hole. Most hunters didn’t either. The Ministry did not have vids that could follow into the area. If she and the hunter went into the hole, the only way the audience would be able to follow the hunt would be through the biological cameras imbedded in each of their skins. It would be less exciting than watching the big bad hunter chase the sensual exotic lioness, but it would serve her purpose. Mister did not say he needed a good show. He only needed a thirty tick advantage.
Zna raised her head to the wind. Her whiskers twitched. Lovac was nearing.
This hunter is good. I wonder if he is good in bed as well. Spirit Leana, what am I saying? Zna snorted in derision. Of course he is good in bed. Has a high sperm count as well I bet. Otherwise he wouldn’t be the most successful hunter. I wonder how many lionesses have simply let him catch them. I wonder how many half-breeds he has sired.
Zna walked into the mouth of the hole. She could only take a few steps without it closing around her. She only needed to take a few steps into it to accomplish what she wanted. Pressing down with her foot, allowing her claws to sink into the soft ground, Zna made a foot print. She then stepped away from the track into the hole. Moving to the side the lioness again stepped into the soft soil. This time the prints barely made any impression. She moved several steps forward into the hole in this manner.
Leaping with all the strength she could muster, claws extended, Zna caught hold of the edge of the hole. The ‘Hole’ was really a cave entrance. About fifty steps into the cave was a field that was black. No light penetrated it. No sound came from the cave. Lionesses and hunters alike who passed through the field were lost for hours at a time. Very rarely did the biological cameras record anything but darkness. The times the cameras did, the images were erratic, frightening, and bloody and filled with sounds that came from the depth of hell itself. The lionesses and hunters that came out of the Hole were never the same. Some went insane. Some simply didn’t care what happened to themselves. Others became violent and uncontrollable. Then there were the ones that made it back whole.
Zna had a secret. She knew what was on the other side of the field and how to battle it. Her mate and she had ventured into the hole when they were young. Stupid, foolish, dangerous, and very informative. As far she knew, no one else, lion or hunter, had ever gone into the hole.
Zna never ventured into the hole during a hunt. She never needed to. All Mister needed on previous hunts was for her to avoid being caught and mated. This time he wanted a thirty tick advantage.
For Bescjen’s sake I have to lead the hunter here. I don’t like what it does to people, but I can’t risk not having the thirty tick lead and losing Bescjen. I will emerge unscathed. Lovac will not.
Finishing her leap from the leading edge of the cave into the trees above, Zna scratched first one then another and then another tree further and further from the hole. the scratches were deep and obvious. Moving among the branches without a sound, Zna moved back to the first tree she leapt into. She pulled herself into a small package, curling her tail around her body, crouching on a smallish limb. her breathing slowed to less than a whisper. She watched, waiting for the hunter to come, to show himself, to fall into her trap. The lioness waited for her prey.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Adventure Peril and Intrigue All Day Long June 18

I am co-hosting Danger Zone Theme Day on Catanetwork Message Board on June 18. It's an all day marathon where you can come read some excerpts from authors of Action and Adventure novels. You'll have a chance to ask questions, participate in contests, and discover that perfect book for your summer reading.
Authors, if you write Action, Adventure, Suspense, Thrillers, and everything that makes the reader's pulse race, then stop by and share some of your work.
You have to register first, so be sure to do that today so you will be able to participate in the Theme Day first thing Wednesday, June 18th. The link to the registeration form is
http://ping.fm/gk9sI

Look forward to seeing you there!

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Zna Menita - The Serial Continues

Zna moved, twisted first one way then the next, stretching in preparation for the hunt to begin. There always seemed to be something that delayed the beginning of the hunt. Sometimes it seemed the broadcasters did something purposefully to increase their viewers. Suspense! Anticipation! All the elements of drawing in a larger audience. She glanced at the hunter, Lovac. He seemed as nervous and edgy as she was. Zna wondered what went through a hunter’s mind prehunt. She slightly shook her head. No, she didn’t wonder what went through hunters’ minds, only this hunter’s mind. She watched as the referees discussed something in low tones. She caught herself just before she reached for the key Tosca gave her. She couldn’t give away the location of the key.
The Minister of the Hunt appeared on the floating vidscreen hovering over the starting gate.
“We at the Ministry of the Hunt regret to announce that due to the lack of audience each night, we must cut back on expenses. As such we will be eliminating certain positions.”
Tosca and the other Handlers walked quietly onto the staging platform. Tosca had a look of resignation on his face, uncovered by his mask. The other Handlers looked confused, a little frightened. The referees moved away from the platform.
A light flashed brilliantly.
Zna blinked, partly at the light, partly to keep the tears from falling. Her feline eyes adjusted to the light immediately. She knew the humans, the referees, the hunter, all were blinded for several seconds. They did not see the bodies destroyed, disintegrated by the light ray. Rather they only saw the empty platform when the light cleared.
“We no longer need the Handlers. They have been transferred to another place,” The Minister announced over the vidscreen .
Zna heard the humans in the audience murmur in understanding. Those standing on the platform had been moved from one place to another place where they would be useful. Zna resisted the urge to extend her claws, leap into the audience and rip the throats out of the people. They are so stupid. They choose not to see the truth. Some day the government will turn on them. Leana will have her revenge someday.
The Minister of the Hunt bade everyone a good night. The vidscreen shimmered and changed to the view of the first lap of the hunt. Cheery lights and popular music danced around the staging area.
The hunt was about to begin.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Failure

A few thoughts about failure:

There is much to be said for failure. It is more interesting than success. Max Beerbohm

There s no failure except in no longer trying. Elbert Hubbard

From The Internet from unknown sources

Failure is only a temporary change in direction to set you straight for your next success.
Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
Our business in life is not to succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.
If there exists no possibility of failure, then victory is meaningless.
Remember, no man is a failure who has friends.
Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.
Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.
The only real failure in life is the failure to try.
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.
Life’s real failure is when you do not realize how close you were to success when you gave up.
Success builds character, failure reveals it.
There are no failures - just experiences and your reactions to them.
Failure is the tuition you pay for success.
A man may fall many times, but he won’t be a failure until he says that someone pushed him.
Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up.
I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.

Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently. Moshe Arens

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Agan. Fail again. Fail better. Samuel Beckett

Success doesn't come to you . . . you go to it.- Marva Collins
Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must first set yourself on fire.- Fred Shero

Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.- William Feather
Half the failures in life arise from pulling in one's horse as he is leaping.- Augustus Hare
If you stop every time a dog barks, your road will never end.- Arabian Proverb
Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. - Albert Einstein
In order for you to profit from your mistakes, you have to go out and make some.- Unknown
Success doesn't mean the absence of failures; it means the attainment of ultimate objectives. It means winning the war, not every battle.- Edward Bliss
Failure is success if we learn from it.- Malcolm Forbes
Success does not consist in never making mistakes, but in never making them a second time.- George Bernard Shaw
The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success.- Paramahansa Yogananda
Get up one more time than you're knocked down.- Peter's Principle of Success
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.- John Kenneth Galbraith
We are not retreating - we are advancing in another direction. - Douglas MacArthur

My favorite and the reason for this blog:

From my close observation of writers, they fall into two groups: 1) those who bleed copiously and visibly at any bad review, and 2) those who bleed copiously and secretly at any bad review. - Isaac Asimov

I recieved my first review of Stone of Cruento. If you would like to read the review here is the link http://goodbadandunread.com/2008/06/01/review-stone-of-cruento-by-charlene-leatherman/#more-5132

My response to the review? I thanked the reviewer for her reviews, it gives me another direction in which to advance, and give me something to learn from. I let you, the reader, know that Stone of Cruento might be something for you to think about. I will get back to writing Vials of Aquilonia all the while making corrections in my writing course.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

A Rose By Any Other Name continues


Lovac rolled his shoulders, stretching, readying himself for the hunt. He despised what the government called entertainment. The hunt was a tradition centuries old. His father and grandfather were hunters. In the old days, a hunter sought a lioness, pursued her then if he captured her he was given the right to compete against the lions for her attentions. It was the way of Dyad to keep the gene pool level between the feline based humanoids and the covjecji, or the non-lion humans.
Female covjecji used to hunt with the lionesses, bringing game to the lions to compete for the attentions of the male feline. The government stopped the female covs, as they were called, from hunting. Human females could only mate with human males.
Lovac watched as the gene pool became weaker. It had been ten years since a healthy baby was born to a totally covjecji couple. Dyad was simply not meant to have the species separated. Lion and cov were meant to compete, to couple, to mate. It was the way the Ancients planned it. The Spirit of Dyad, Leana was pictured as a woman with the head of a lion. The two species combined.
The government changed the way it was meant to be. The government chose blood-thirsty hunters out of the thousands of registered hunters. They sent the men out to destroy the lions. Wiped out hundreds of lions. Orphaned thousands of cubs and widowed hundreds of lionesses.
Probably took the husband of the beautiful lioness standing before him. She certainly held the look of hatred in her eyes.
The government also took advantage of the mating instincts of the lionesses. The female felines were almost driven to mate. The powers that be wanted to keep the lion gene pool unchanged. They wanted the lioness to mate with the covs.

Lovac didn’t know the reason why, he didn’t care.

The government also wanted the process broadcast over the moon-wide holovision.
Lovac took a deep breath. He hadn’t been given a choice. If he had he certainly would not have chosen to be part of some twisted Minister’s idea of entertainment. His father, in his old age, became a prolific gambler. Lost everything his family ever owned. Lost more than everything. The government took Lovac as a young man and enslaved him. He could have run, but the government still had his mother and sister as hostage. If he didn’t hunt, the Ministers would kill his mother and sister. So, Lovac hunted. And he hunted a lot since he was the choice of most of the audience.
Hunters were chosen for their gene appropriateness. Lovac was considered a perfect mate.
Perfect! Yeah, I’m perfect. A perfect stud. I hunt, or pretend to hunt depending on how badly the lioness wants to mate. I capture and impregnate. There is no hunt anymore. No thrill in the chase, no pursuit, no competition. All there was any more was a moon-wide broadcast of my sexual exploits. I’m perfect alright, a perfect whore.

Lovac eyed the lioness before him. Perhaps she would be different. There was something challenging about her. The way she stood perhaps. The confident swish of her tail. The way her ears laid back. Not to mention her curvaceous body. The hunting jumpsuit did nothing to hide her lush hips, the full globes of her breasts and her flat stomach.

Lovac could feel arousal thrumming through his veins. He inhaled deeply, pulling from his training as a hunter to remove the evidence of his attraction. The Ministers would not be happy if he displayed too soon.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Congratulations to Winners of the Contest

Congratulations to Cathie, Rain, and Ute in the contest I had. Each of them emailed me with the correct name of the heroine in my serial novel "A Rose By Any Other Name". The heroine's name is Zna Menita. Each of them won a copy of Stone of Cruento. Hope you have a good time reading, Cathie, Rain, and Ute.

Zna Menita
If you would like to purchase a copy of Stone of Cruento, visit CerridwenPress.com.
Charlene Leatherman
Author of Adventurous Romances
Defeat the Villain, Destroy the Monster, Deliver the Hero, and Never Break A Nail