For those of you who follow me on my Facebook fan page, you know I’ve been posting a few teasers as I’ve been editing EE5 (now titled, with the help of beta readers and Twitter folks, Blood and Betrayal). I thought I’d collect them together and post them here for those of you who aren’t on Facebook. And, just for kicks, I’m adding a couple of new snippets at the bottom.
As far as publishing news goes, I’m still on track for an early September release. I just finished the first major editing pass, and I’m about to send the last third off to my beta readers. I’ll incorporate their comments, go through one more time to clean up the little things, and then send the manuscript off to my editor later this month.
In the meantime, EE5 teasers (don’t read if you don’t like any sort of spoilers, because who’s in which scenes gives away a little):
From the first chapter
Long before Maldynado thought crawling out of hiding would be wise, Sicarius darted past him. He leaped ten feet into the air, caught the side of a stout pine, and scrambled up the trunk. Maldynado gaped as Sicarius skimmed upward, zipping around branches like a squirrel before disappearing from view.
“That man is exceedingly odd,” Sespian observed.
“Oh, you have no idea,” Maldynado said.
Maldynado risks himself for the good of the team, but naturally he has to make a big deal out of it…
“I… am not certain I’d risk my life on that assumption,” Sespian said.
“That’s what I’m here for.” Maldynado flung an arm around Yara’s shoulders. “Don’t look so concerned, my lady. I’ll not die before I’ve fulfilled your most concupiscent fantasies.”
Yara shoved his arm away. “We’ve discussed you not touching me numerous times now.”
“Does this mean no good-luck kiss?” Maldynado asked.
Snipped from another Maldynado/Yara scene:
A few moments passed without comment, until Yara said, “That explains one thing anyway.”
“Oh? What’s that?”
“You see Amaranthe as a little sister. I was wondering why you didn’t leer lecherously at her like you do at every other woman.”
“My leers are not lecherous,” Maldynado said, relieved to have a lighter topic, one where he could shield himself with his usual flippancy. “I’m far too handsome and charming for anyone to consider my leers offensive or unwanted.”
“Please.”
“And I don’t leer at every woman.”
“You even leer at me. And I’m… not someone people leer at.”
All-team tidbit from the last few chapters
The vehicle rumbled closer until Sicarius stopped it at the base of the cliff.
“The light may simply be the sun filtering through from an opening above,” Books said.
“What sun?” Akstyr asked. “It was raining harder than a pissing donkey by the time Am’ranthe picked us up.”
“Lovely imagery,” Books murmured.
“It’s wider than it looked from back there.” Amaranthe waved toward the fissure. “Think we can drive inside?”
Sicarius slanted her one of his unreadable looks.
“What?” All right, wider wasn’t the same thing as wide, but Amaranthe didn’t think the opening looked that narrow. Just because it twisted and turned and one couldn’t see anything except darkness and rock ahead…
“I was wondering who would get blamed should the vehicle crash,” Sicarius said.
A few silent heartbeats skipped past before Akstyr whispered, “Was that a joke? Did he make a joke?”
“Nah,” Maldynado whispered back, “he doesn’t know how to do that.” He raised his voice and said, “It’s been my experience that it’s never the woman’s fault.”
“That is my concern.” Sicarius nudged the vehicle forward and gripped the control wheel.
Amaranthe smiled as they crept into the fissure, inching across a bottom that had changed from rocks to sand. “It’s good to have the team back together.”
“Says the woman who has her own seat and isn’t wearing Basilard’s elbow on her belt,” Books said.
“I can’t wait to finish up this stuff with the emperor,” Akstyr said, apparently needing a less sentimental topic. “I really want to go study, and none of the gangs will be able to find me if I’m on the Kyatt Islands. That bounty isn’t big enough that anybody will go halfway across the world to find me.”
“Probably not,” Maldynado said.
“You should visit me on there sometime when I’m studying. All of you. Well, maybe not Sicarius, but Am’ranthe and the others for sure. It’d be like a vacation. I heard some of the women over there go topless to the beach too.”
Maldynado probably shouldn’t poke fun at Akstyr, not twice in five minutes, but this uncharacteristic rambling tickled his sense of humor. “Aw, I see what this is about. We might be on our final mission together and you’ll get to leave soon, and you’re realizing you’ll miss us.” He slung an arm around Akstyr’s shoulders.
“I will not.” Akstyr rolled his eyes and shoved the arm away. “I just thought you might like the Kyatt Islands. That’s all.”
“Topless women, you say?” Maldynado decided not to tease the boy any more, at least not for expressing his feelings. His ancestors knew that opening up and making overtures of friendship to people wasn’t Akstyr’s strength. “You reckon you’d know what to do with one?” There, normal manly teasing, that shouldn’t bother him.
Akstyr crossed his arms. “I know what all the parts are for, yes.”
Maldynado and the team in action again
Maldynado peered between the cracks in the front window, admiring the close-up view of a copse of trees, their leaves turning the rich browns and reds of autumn. “So, who was responsible for docking the boat halfway up the mountain?”
Sespian flushed, glanced at Amaranthe, and then studied the floor assiduously.
“I assumed it was you,” Amaranthe told Maldynado, “until we encountered you on the way up to the wheelhouse.”
“Me?” Maldynado flattened a hand on his chest. “I was on the hurricane deck, risking all sorts of bodily harm to keep those enforcers from boarding. I’ll have you know that the men who did get on didn’t come up on my side of the boat.” Since Basilard wasn’t there, Maldynado decided it wouldn’t hurt to leave out the fact that Yara had been helping him, and Basilard had been forced to defend his side alone.
“So… the emperor crashed it?” Amaranthe’s eyes twinkled, though Maldynado wasn’t sure if Sespian noticed that. The kid’s flush had grown deeper. Even his ears were red.
“I lost tiller control,” Sespian said. “They were shooting at the paddlewheel and the engine room. They must have smashed the rudder as well.” He looked back and forth from Amaranth to Akstyr to Maldynado and added, “It wasn’t my fault.”
Maldynado laughed. “I’ve said that many times, and it hasn’t worked to shift the blame away from me yet.”
Sespian’s shoulders slumped. “This isn’t at all how I imagined this mission going.”
Emperor or not, Maldynado patted the kid on the shoulder. “I think this means you’re officially one of us now, Sire.”
“Emperor or not, Maldynado patted the kid on the shoulder. “I think this means you’re officially one of us now, Sire.””
cannot WAIT to read this entire scene!!!!
Maldynado is delighted at your enthusiasm for *his* POV section. 🙂
Yay! Love snippets, though I’m not sure if I can wait a month . . . 😀
Mapmakers get early copies… 😉
Awesome. I’m super excited for Blood and Betrayal.
Way cool title! I cannot wait to read it! Why does September have to be so far away?!
I’m so happy to say that I am actually taking a break from reading right now (mostly), working on my math skills. But in just a few short weeks, I will be able to read the next book in a series that I love!
Oh, I am writing too. I have a fantastic ‘section’ of a book that I am looking forward to sew together with other portions.
Hope you’re doing well, Lindsay (and maybe I can make it up there and lose to you in tennis soon).
Good luck with the math and writing! Tennis sounds good. 🙂
I can not wait!!! 🙂
Who do I have to maim to get on the beta readers list?
Uhm, I better not give you that information. Maiming sounds unpleasant… 😀
SQUEEEEE!
*EXCITEMENT*
I love the title! You never cease to please your fans, Lindsay. My favorite was the last snippet.
“Emperor or not, Maldynado patted the kid on the shoulder. ‘I think this means you’re officially one of us now, Sire.'”
But I also love all the Books/Mal/Akstyr moments.
Maldynado is quite certain *all* of the ladies will enjoy his scenes… 😉
Since I don’t have an eReader (and reading off the computer is annoying) I hope the hard copy version isn’t too long behind the E-release.
I’m still a tad miffed about the cliff-hanger ending of Conspiracy… but not so miffed that I’m not excited about Blood and Betrayal. 🙂
I’ll work on the paperback version and get it out this fall too!
Love the snippets! Hey I’m more than willing to be a beta reader if you need more. Just say the word and I’ll be there to help out! 😉
I LOVE the name! Can’t wait to read it.
That whole last bit makes me want to grab Sespian’s cheeks and pinch them 😀
In other news, exciting …. !!!
Coming out in September…. that’s only a month away – hopefully early September rather than late, cause I can’t wait 😀
If you are aiming for an early September release, may I suggest getting the book out before or on September 5 (my birthday)? It is the fifth book in the series after all, so why not have it come out on the fifth of September? ;o)
Cant wait for the book to come out!!
Thanks for sharing! Good luck!
Thanks for sharing. Good luck!
So super excited! I cannot wait until the release! I read the first 4 books in 2 weeks, then listened to the audio books, then went back and read them again. Then went and read all of Ms. Buroker’s other books. I absolutely love all of them, and would give a kidney to be a beta reader! (notice, I’m offering something that I can actually live without ; ) I’ve been standing on my head, waiting for September to arrive. These teasers just might hold me over til then. I might just have to go back and re-read the ones I have, though!
Any chance of EE5 becoming available for Pre-order at Amazon, as we head toward September?? (Desperate to have a copy on my Kindle as soon as it becomes available!!!) Please?!!!! :o)
Thanks for the invite to stop by! Enjoyed the snippets. Looking forward to more!
I honestly wasn’t expecting myself to enjoy Maldynado’s POV, but I’m actually really excited for him!
All of this is awesome! Now, I have to go set up a countdown clock until September…:D
September. So close and yet so far…
I’m so excited! can’t wait! and Sespian! awesome!
I’m not reading the snnipets because I don’t want to spoil myself (and believe me, that’s weird for me). But I’d like to tell you how happy I am that the book will be out in September!!
I started reading the series because it was free- and got sooo hooked! I love it- getting others to read it too! I can’t wait for #5-
Glad to hear it, Alisa! Thanks for telling others about the books. 🙂
Sooo excited for this book! Thank you for the snippets!
I have just recently come across your books and have read all of them now and the first half of bllod and betrayal online, unfortunatley thats all it would let me read, dying to read the second half. You are a very talented writer. 🙂