Author Name: Amir Lane
Release Date: Monday, October 22 2018
Word Count: 55000
Cover Artist: Covers by Combs
Genres: Urban
fantasy, supernatural fantasy
Keywords/Categories:
trans, lesbian, jaguar, mythology
Series Title: Morrighan House Witches
Position (Number) in Series: 3
Book Blurb:
When cattle rancher Lenna Alvarez rescues a
black jaguar, she discovers there’s more to the animal that meets the eye.
Bonding with a centuries-old Aztec Warrior wasn’t part of her plans. Then
again, neither was simultaneously facing off against an American businessman
and poachers encroaching on her family lands.
With her newfound powers, Lenna is sure the poachers don’t stand a
chance. Only, Lenna isn’t the only one bringing strange animal powers to the
game. The poachers have them too, led by businessman Ansen Peters. Lenna is in
over her head, and not even the jaguar can save her.
Ansen Peters doesn’t want the ranch. He wants the jaguar. And he’s
willing to kill her for it.
Excerpt :
Night fell around Lenna, and
her ass had long since gone numb. Her camera was full of new pictures but she
didn’t have anything for night photography. The equipment was bulkier and
heavier than she was willing to carry through the Pantanal.
As she prepared to dismount
from her tree, she tried to see how awake her legs were. Not very, judging by
the tingling in her feet. She scanned the riverbank for her boat while she
kicked her heels against the tree trunk and spotted two others. That was odd.
When had someone else shown up? Maybe it was Valente and Luciano looking for
her. But she had taken their only boat, and they would never venture this deep
into the Pantanal unless she’d been missing for at least a day, not just a few
hours. They didn’t know their way around like she did.
It was probably just wildlife
photographers trying to get shots of the nocturnal animals. Something made her
feel uneasy, though. She looked around for the occupants of the boats and
spotted them approaching her jaguar.
The two men were not wildlife
photographers. She knew hunting equipment when she saw it. She also knew the
hunting regulations for the area. The regulations were pretty simple: no
fucking hunting. Which meant there was no way these men were allowed to be
killing anything out here. Which meant they were poachers. Their faces were
only just visible in her camera. She doubted anything would happen to them if
she reported them. Nothing ever happened to poachers.
The poachers found a spot close
enough to the jaguar to hit it, but not close enough to attract its attention.
She had to do something before they fired. At this distance, they wouldn’t
miss.
She thought of her own shotgun
tucked uselessly in the back of Luciano’s truck. She’d never needed it before,
and there didn’t seem to be any point lugging it with her. It would have done
her a hell of a lot more good than the machete at her hip. It looked like she
was going to have to get creative.
“Hey!”
Her voice carried over the
Pantanal, farther than she would have thought possible. The deep shout
certainly got their attention. They shot at her, grazing the trees around her.
“Shit!”
Lenna couldn’t stay up here.
She’d be a sitting duck. She climbed down the top branches to avoid breaking
her legs and jumped down from the tree. It was still too high, and she hit the
dirt with bruising force. She pushed herself back up without a moment of
hesitation. She could have lost them in the wooded area, easy. But the odds of
getting lost or eaten by an anaconda were higher than the odds of getting shot
before she made it to her boat.
Hopefully.
Camera still in hand and
binoculars thumping painfully against her tattooed chest, she took off across
the grassy plains of the Pantanal. The silencers on the guns muffled the shots,
making them sound more like thumps than bangs. Though, that might have been her
heart pounding in her ears. The still-rational part of her brain that was still
working told her to run in a zig-zag to make herself harder to hit. The animal
part of her brain told her the shortest distance to her boat was a straight
line run as fast as physically possible. She had no idea where the bullets were
or whether or not they were even close to hitting her, and she sure as shit
wasn’t going to stop to check.
A roar that sounded more like a
throaty cough filled her ears. For a split half-second, she thought the jaguar
was on her. But that wasn’t her screaming. No, it came from behind her. She
didn’t dare look back, not even as she heard more gunshots, not even as she
heard the jaguar cry out in pain.
They shot it! They shot her
jaguar!
Rage filled her, and she had
half a mind to turn around, but self-preservation won out. Her boat was right
there. Right there, just eight, six, four feet away. Keys, where the hell where
her keys? Where were her goddamn fucking—
Found them.
Lenna shoved her keys into the
ignition, her eyes scouring the Pantanal for the jaguar and the poachers. The
jaguar was limping away, and the poachers’ bodies were lying on the grass. One
was shifting, dragging itself away from the animal. The other was not. Lenna
had no sympathy for them, and she wasn't about to stick around to make sure
they were okay. They could be eaten by caimans for all she gave a fuck.
The boat started without any
issue. Though the poachers were down and the jaguar was obviously in no state
to come after her, Lenna couldn’t wait to get as far away from here as
possible.
She ran on foot through the
brush, never wanting to leave her horse alone with the night predators, until
she found her truck, the green paint chipping to show the silver metal
underneath, in the same place she always left it. The roar of her engine
drowned out the shriek of birds. Muscle memory alone guided her back to the
ranch house. She practically threw herself through the front door and slammed
her bedroom door hard enough to rattle the walls.
“Lenna?” Vidonia called.
Lenna leaned against the door.
She knew Vidonia wouldn’t hurt her. Nobody in this house would, and not just
because she could practically bench press one of their cows. She was safe here.
So why did she feel the urge to push the dresser against the door and hide
under the bed?
“Lenna? Honey are you okay?”
No, no she wasn’t.
She slumped down against the
door and pressed her forehead to her knees. Exhaustion washed over her. This
day suddenly felt so long. The solace she’d found watching the Pantanal was
gone. She just wanted to curl up somewhere safe. Home should have been safe,
but the memory of Ansen Peters’ standing just down the hall from her room with
that sly smile made her shudder.
“Lenna, please talk to me. Did
something happen? Luciano!”
There was panic in Vidonia's
voice. She was afraid for Lenna.
This place was safe, Lenna
reminded herself. Nobody would get past Vidonia and Luciano. Nobody could hurt
her here.
“I’m fine,” Lenna said, though
her voice cracked and she wasn’t sure she believed herself. “I’m fine, I’m just
tired.”
There was a long silence. Lenna
struggled to keep her sobs quiet. She didn’t want them to know. She didn’t want
to get in trouble.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure, auntie.” Her voice
trembled, and cleared her throat. “I’m— I’m going to sleep. I have an early
morning.”
She changed into a
pair of boxers, crawled into bed, and pulled the pillow over her head to drown
out the screams ringing in her ears.
Buy Links:
Amazon US: smarturl.it/mhwpantherqueenamz
Interview with the Author - Amir Lane
·
Do you reward yourself for writing, or
punish yourself for failing to do so? How?
I believe very strongly in a reward system. For a while I was treating
myself to a cupcake whenever I met a milestone, which worked out great until I
actually started meeting my deadlines. I try not to punish myself, because I
don’t want to take the fun out of writing. Writing itself is something I enjoy;
the hard part is staying focused on what I’m supposed to be doing. I’m too
easily distracted like that. What I do now is if I meet my deadlines, I get to
work on whatever is scratching the inside of my skull.
·
Do you read your book reviews? How do
you deal with bad or good ones?
I really try not to read my own reviews. I love my good reviews but the
bad ones just tank my mood. Before I call a book done, I spend a lot of time
with beta readers to pick out any story problems, so bad reviews usually tend
to be a matter of opinion or taste. And that’s fine, there are books that are
objectively good, but not really my thing. But I know it’ll make me doubt
myself and throw me off my game, so I don’t bother unless somebody sends it to
me directly.
·
How long on average does it take you to
write a book?
Depending on what’s going on, I can crank out a draft in six weeks but
it usually takes about two months. Usually the story sits in my head for a long
time before I get to sit down to write so it doesn’t take me long when I
actually have the time to sit and write. After that, three to four months on
edits depending on much work the draft needs. Then about a month for fine-tooth
edits; things like proofreading and final read-through for any last mistakes.
·
How long do you write each day?
I try for an hour a day. I work during the day, so I take what I can
get. Some days I get two hours, some days ten minutes. I try not to have any
zero-word days, which means taking advantage of what I can, even if it’s just a
few minutes in line at the grocery store.
·
What secondary character would you like
to explore more? Tell me about him or her.
One of the characters in Panther Queen that I think would fun to explore
more is Aldo, Lenna’s jaguar familiar. He’s a several-thousand-year-old Aztec
jaguar who, historically, has bonded to human warriors to share his strength
with. In Panther Queen, he bonds with an 18-year-old cattle rancher after she
saves him from poachers.
·
What are you working on now, and when can we expect
it?
I am working on Gift of Curses, the second book in my Barrier Witch
Trilogy. The series follows gay witch and detective Fairuz Arshad as she
investigates supernatural crimes and tries to take down a dryad gang. The whole
series will be out in 2019.
Author Bio:
Amir Lane is an LGBT+ supernatural and urban fantasy writer
from Northern Ontario. Engineer by trade, they spend most of their writing time
in a small home office or in front of the TV watching every cop procedural on
Netflix. They live in a world where magic is an every day occurrence, and they
strive to bring that world to paper.
When not trying to figure out what kind of day job an
incubus would have or what a Necromancer would go to school for, Amir enjoys
visiting the nearest Dairy Queen, getting killed in video games, absorbing the
contents of comic books, and freaking out over how fluffy the neighbour’s dog
is.
Author Website: amirlane.com
Author Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/amirlaneauthor/
Giveaway:
Amir is giving away a Morrighan House Witches prize pack - paperbacks,
bookmarks, and magnets – enter via Rafflecopter for a chance to win:
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