This announcement on the WR(ite) Blog is long overdue–as is a blog post of any kind, in fact–but I thought you all might like to know that the A Different Kind of Hero anthology is now out, featuring another story from the City Between universe! Those of you who have already met Pet through Cloudy with a Chance of Dropbears in the Fell Beasts & Fair anthology will be glad to know that she makes another appearance in my contribution to the anthology: All the Different Shades of Blue.
For those of you who like your heroes struggling with their own limitations and disabilities as well as the world around them, A Different Kind of Hero is the perfect read. It’s a limited time offer, so don’t miss out!
$3.99, or free to read on Kindle Unlimited, and there are eleven amazing novellas and novellettes to be found within its pages. Below you can find the blurb, and below that, an excerpt from my own contribution.
Perfection is overrated.
From sweeping kingdoms to modern cities, a different kind of hero emerges. This hero must contend with dastardly villains, nefarious plots, and a harsher reality: disability.
-A musician with magical music … who has lost her sense of hearing
-A merman born without gills, who can’t walk on land or breathe underwater
-A 63-year-old shifter with chronic memory lapses
-A Valkyrie warrior with severely limited sight
-Two knights missing more than their limbs
These heroes and more await you in this exciting collection of eleven clean EPIC and URBAN fantasy stories featuring heroes with disabilities. Laugh, cheer, and cry along with our daring heroes as they defeat the villain and save the day.
All the Different Shades of Blue excerpt
–oOo–
Oblivious, Pet sipped her coffee, sighing her contentment in rainbow-spangled steam. She let me work for a few minutes in silence before she asked, “Are you hurt?”
I looked instinctively at my hands. Sometimes I don’t feel it when I cut myself on the Airy side. “What? Am I bleeding?”
She stared a bit, and then grinned. “Oh! Right! Sorry. I meant the wheelchair. Did you have an accident?”
“No,” I said, and went back to my work. The spell hack hadn’t taken in any of my earlier tests, and I didn’t like that. That’s the most absurd thing about working magic through electronics—sometimes it takes up without so much as a pull, and other times it refuses utterly to work. “I was born like this.”
“Oh.” She nodded. “I thought it might be a cover.”
“A cover?” I couldn’t help smiling. Her tone was just the right mix of gusto and speculation to make me think she was the kind of human girl who snuck around the town hoping for dark deeds and nefarious characters.
“Yeah!” She nodded again, this time more enthusiastically. “A few of the merpeople I know don’t like to walk, so they go around in wheelchairs when they’re above.”
I kept smiling, but I had the distinct sensation that I couldn’t breathe. “Did you say merpeople?”
She actually shushed me. “What if someone hears you?”
“What are—What are you?”
“Me? I’m just a human.”
“That’s what I mean,” I said, frowning. My fingers hovered over the keyboard as I tried to decide where the greater part of my attention should be fixed; Pet, or my merger program. “You’re just a human. What do you know about merpeople?”
“Not a lot. I can’t breathe underwater, so I don’t meet many.”
“That’s not what I really meant.” I sat back in my chair, genuinely curious and just a little bit amused. “You’re very good at not answering questions, for a human.”
“Aren’t I!” she agreed, looking pleased and pink. “I’m getting a bit of practise, these days.
–oOo–
If you were hoping to see more of Pet and the Troika (or are new to them and want to check them out), their first adventure, Between Jobs, is up for preorder on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited right now!
Due out May 31st!
–oOo–
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