Sunday Snippet: "If I didn’t escape Garnet before Abby turned twelve…"

It's time for Weekend Writing Warriors, the weekly blog hop where hardworking authors to share 8-10 sentences from their current work in progress. My snippet this week is still from the first chapter of Crimson Sky, the first novel in my steampunk horror series Dark Sky, which will be released this Tuesday! Last week we learned that living conditions are less than ideal for Claire's community, and this week we begin to meet the man behind it all, and the stakes Claire will risk if she defies him...

The only reason I escaped Garnet’s hands was because I was an engineer, and he didn’t want to burden me with being a mother when I could fix and create things for him. But Abby was eight years old, and had dreams of being a nurse instead of an engineer. We needed nurses, but not as much as we did engineers. In Garnet’s eyes, anyone could use a needle and thread to sew a wound. Repairing a broken machine to give us light or heat was much more difficult.

If I didn’t escape Garnet before Abby turned twelve…

I stopped that horrifying thought when a sharp yell and another painful cry came from behind the curtain. After a muffled but sharp conversation that ended with a young girl sobbing, Garnet pulled back the door to his bedroom and stepped out.

They’re always watching. They’re always waiting. They’re always starving…

Ten years ago, the sky shattered and the Hellions emerged. No one was able to keep them from destroying the city of Westraven. Now that the bloodthirsty monsters rule the skies and have forced the few remaining humans underground, Claire Abernathy lives in a nightmare. She survives by using her skills as an engineer for a ruthless tyrant connected to her mother and father’s past failure.

Then Claire’s world is torn apart when her sister Abby is kidnapped by the Hellions, and Claire herself is taken by dangerous sky pirates known as marauders. But Claire will not be intimidated by them while her sister’s life hangs by a thread, and so she strikes a deal with them: If they help rescue Abby, she will fix their ship and give them the chance to take the revenge they desperately seek.

As Claire fights for her sister’s life, she begins to realize that the Hellions are not the only dangers she’ll face. Burdensome secrets and devastating betrayals threaten her at every turn, and if she loses herself to them, it won’t just be her life that is destroyed…

I'm super stoked about releasing this book. Seriously, I'm excited to see where it goes. I've even completed the Beta edits for the sequel, Midnight Sky (scheduled for August 2016), and will be writing a short prequel novella for a steampunk horror anthology being put together by Mocha Memoirs Press, which I'll be starting in February. A couple of my writing friends and I started a writing/critique group, and every month we're supposed to complete and share a chapter. Since I have a couple other projects to work on and am not sure what next major story I'll be starting, I decided my entry for the anthology would suffice.

During this "down" time, I'm working on the next round of edits for Damnation's Door, the third and final Cursed novel scheduled for June. My next big project will likely be editing Storm Born, my standalone novel scheduled for May. I'm nervous about releasing it, since it was a lot more complicated than Path of the Horseman, my previous NaNoWriMo release. But I still think it will be pretty cool once it's been relentlessly polished.

Last of all, I wanted to share the cool prizes I got for the Michael J. Sullivan Kickstarter I participated in. I've been waiting months for the book and swag to come in, so I might have squealed a little when I got the rest of it last week.

Swag for one of my favourite books!

Autographed by one of my favourite authors!

Yup. Definitely a fangirl moment. Anyway, that's my writing life at the moment. I should probably wrap up, since I'm currently looking after my brother's puppy, which means I'm throwing his new favourite toy around the house– a plastic bottle. Say what you will about puppies and chaos, but their toys can be remarkably cheap.

Be sure to check out the blogs of the other extremely talented Weekend Writing Warriors and leave them some love in the comments! Cheers!

Amy