Hello, Clever Reader.
I'm excited (and slightly queasy) to share "Distraction." This one took some courage to put into the world. Here's what it's about:
Ever since Roup and Halvery helped take Charder to the Ghost Wood, Roup has noticed a curious tension between them. After working closely with Halvery all spring in order to improve the common way trails, Roup finally talks to Arcove about the situation and gets permission to experiment a little.
At the same time, Halvery is dealing with an officer who seems to be a spy from the Southern Mountains. He presents the problem to Roup, who immediately begins a high-stakes game of espionage with a dangerous opponent. As move follows countermove, Halvery becomes increasingly enmeshed in both Roup’s schemes and Roup’s personal life.
Their project brings them into contact with friends both new and old, including Arcove, Keesha, Lyndi, Storm, Storm’s yearling foal, and Halvery’s mates. As Roup and Halvery’s friendship deepens, they both learn surprising things about each other and their shared history.
However, not all differences can be overcome by affection and mutual grooming. Halvery and Roup have brought out the worst in each other in the past, and their fundamental differences remain unchanged. When their opposing character flaws combust at the worst possible moment, they risk losing not just their friendship, but their lives.
Bonus: This book includes the short story “Hungry,” which was previously sold separately. “Hungry” is a prequel story. Arcove and Roup are adolescent cubs, living as rogues on the edge of Leeshwood. Roup grew up among the ferryshaft and is still adjusting to life with his own kind. One night, they have a particularly violent encounter with other cubs, and Roup learns more than he had expected about social life among the creasia.
This download also includes Abbie’s notes from the original Hunters Unlucky rewrite. This novella-length document is only available with Hunters books purchased directly from the author.
Warning: Distraction contains explicit scenes and is not for children. Most of these scenes are sweet, considerate, and even humorous. However, all stories have a darkest moment, and the one in Distraction is pretty dark. It involves some bad sex. The sex is consensual, but nobody is having fun. The scene is not highly detailed, nor is it lengthy. The book ends with love and compassion.
Yes, Rish is going to record the audiobook. It will be along in about 6 weeks. When he read the manuscript, he described it as a "court intrigue." I would not have thought of this. I would have described it as a spy story with a romance structure. But Rish is also correct. He also said that it rhymes, which made me happy. He didn't mean the words; he meant the structure. Thematic elements from the beginning carry through and reappear in a different form at the end. I always aim for my plots to "rhyme," but I don't always achieve it.
Yes, there will be paper. Give Jeff and I a few weeks. I am not currently planning on putting digital versions of the book on Amazon. eBook and audiobook from me only.
A few of you are going to ask whether you can start with Distraction, having never read anything else in the Hunters Universe. Friend, you do you. I have no idea how this reads as intro material, but if you want to start here, knock yourself out. My intended reading order is:
Hunters Unlucky (ebook, paper, audio)
Lullaby (ebook, paper, audio)
Distraction (ebook, paper is coming, audio is coming)
Arcove's Bright Side (pre-order)
You can get them all from me, or you can get the first two from the Zon.
Those of you familiar with the Hunters Universe may immediately wonder whether this story represents some kind of personal betrayal for Arcove. Answer: No! I wouldn't do that (you know I wouldn't). I am going to share the first chapter with you, which should put that uncertainty to rest. It will also show you show I handle explicit content in this setting, and you can decide whether you want to read on.
Like Lullaby, Distraction started out as a short story. In the case of Lullaby, that first chapter suggested a quest, and I just couldn't stop myself from writing it. In the case of Distraction, that first chapter suggested a spy story, which I just had to write. But the first chapter still works as a self-contained unit. Magnificent cover art by Iben Krutt.
Note: I will remove the second half of this (the NSFW part) in 2 weeks, leaving only the first half as a sample. If you want to read the whole chapter, do it now! Here's how it begins:
Distraction
Part I - Flirt
Roup followed the winding course of the stream the creasia called Crooked Tail through the late afternoon shadows. He’d come early in the evening, before most creasia were awake. He confirmed what Lyndi had already told him—that the edge of Halvery’s territory lay west of the tail’s bend and that this was a prime deer watering spot. Indeed, several deer came to drink while Roup sat quietly thinking.
Moashi’s cats had been here. Roup could smell them. They were patrolling along the edge of the territory, but Halvery’s nearest den was keeping it well-marked. Moashi’s cats were not fools and they hadn’t been hunting here. But they would like to.
Roup made another circuit of the area, just to see if any new ideas presented themselves, but none did. Halvery is not going to be happy about this.
Roup turned east, conscious of an unfamiliar tension in his stomach. He’d been putting off this errand for several days and was annoyed with himself. You are being absurd. You are going down to Halvery’s den to have an argument. You’ll pull rank if you have to. That’s all.
He could make Lyndi do it herself. This was her project, after all. But that would have been unfair. Halvery was her superior officer. Only Arcove and Roup outranked him. If someone needed to give Halvery orders he wouldn’t like, it should be one of them. Arcove had more than enough to deal with at the moment. Halvery was Roup’s problem.
Lyndi and I are doing a good thing, Roup told himself. It’ll be good when it’s done, at least.
Lyndi had volunteered to sort out the muddle of the common way trails that spring. Well-established game trails were, as it turned out, a shortsighted solution to the problem of other species passing through Leeshwood. Old game trails frequently ran near dens. They meandered in and out of various territories via unnecessarily complex routes. Efforts by various dens and clutters to surreptitiously move the trails had escalated until it became clear that a better solution was needed.
It had been Wisteria’s idea to make the trails follow the edge of territories. “Nobody dens right up against their neighbor’s territory,” she reasoned, “and territory borders are well-marked. If we made the common way trails follow territory edges, it would also mean that, in some sense, the trails are not in anyone’s territory at all.”
Everyone, including Arcove, had agreed that this was a good idea. Lyndi had elaborated on it. “Most territories also follow natural boundaries like streams, bluffs, and ridges. If we keep the common ways along such boundaries, nobody will be able to move them. Not unless they move an entire stream or ridge.”
This idea had received strong support in council. However, the details were not so easy. Occasionally, territories did not follow natural boundaries in quite the way one could wish. Lyndi had dealt with complex negotiations throughout Hollygold, Stefen, and Moashi’s territories. She was their superior officer and this was her project. When it came to issues that would annoy Halvery, though, the job of delivering the bad news and managing negotiations had fallen to Roup.
“You’re the only one he’ll listen to,” complained Lyndi.
“He doesn’t listen to me at all,” objected Roup. “He’d argue with me about the color of the sky!”
“Well, you can tell him ‘Arcove said,’ and he’ll listen to that.”
In this, she was correct, but Roup wasn’t in the habit of putting words in Arcove’s mouth, nor he was he about to trouble him with the relatively minor issue of the common way trails. So Roup had been going down to Halvery’s den once a month to sort out problems as they arose.
They’d managed to work through each dispute so far, but Roup wasn’t sure how to address the discrepancy between Halvery’s territory border and the loop in Crooked Tail. He knew he should be considering what kind of trade might be possible between Moashi’s nearest den and Halvery’s. There had to be something that Halvery’s cats wanted that might facilitate a smooth transition for this particular loop of stream. Instead of focusing on this problem, however, Roup’s mind kept returning to the conversation he’d had with Arcove three nights ago at the top of the cliffs.
Arcove had been in a mood to run, so they’d roamed all the way to Turis Rock and then back, talking all the while about the creasia living in the Southern Mountains and the situation developing between them and Sedaron’s herd. Near the end, Arcove had said, “You’ve been down to Halvery’s den a lot lately sorting out this business with the common way trails. Is that progressing, or are you two at an impasse?”
Roup had rolled his eyes. “No, we’re getting it sorted. He’s…”
When Roup did not continue, Arcove said, “He’s what?”
“More friendly than he used to be,” finished Roup lamely.
Ever since Charder’s death the previous year and their unplanned journey to the Ghost Wood, Roup had noticed a shift in the tenor of his interactions with Halvery. Roup had been terribly worried that night. He’d confided more than he’d intended, and Halvery had behaved remarkably well. They’d been on reasonably friendly terms ever since Treace’s rebellion, but something had shifted further on that summer evening last year.
They’d engaged in a fair amount of mutual grooming during that adventure. Creasia frequently groomed each other in order to give reassurance. This behavior was even more common when they were far from their home territories and in a state of anxiety. There was nothing unusual about the way Halvery and Roup had been behaving, except that it wasn’t how they’d behaved with each other in the past.
Ever since that night, Roup had noticed that Halvery was quick to resume licking his ears, even if they were arguing. It wasn’t unpleasant, but…
“Sometimes I think he’s flirting with me,” he blurted and then glanced at Arcove.
Arcove missed a step. He looked as though Roup had just told him that the deer had begun to sing like telshees. “Halvery…?”
“Yes.” Roup stopped walking. “Please stop looking at me like that.” Before Arcove could respond, he blurted, “I’m not crazy.” A long pause. “I don’t think I’m crazy.” Roup shut his eyes. “Maybe I’m crazy.”
Now Arcove was trying not to laugh. Roup’s ears prickled. He wished that he hadn’t said anything.
Arcove thought for a moment. “Do you want to…?”
“Arcove!”
“I’m only asking.”
“You’re supposed to say, ‘You are imagining things, Roup. Also, that’s a terrible idea.’”
“You would be a better judge on both counts than I would.”
A moment’s silence. Roup didn’t know where to put his eyes. Arcove’s tongue startled him, running from his nose to the crown of his head. “If he’s bothering you, I will have a word with him.” In a lower voice, he said, “If he hurts you, I will eviscerate him.”
Roup gave a shaky laugh. “He’s not bothering me. I doubt that he would hurt me…in the way that you mean. He’s probably not flirting with me.”
“From the way you’re acting, I think he must be.”
Roup turned away, tail flicking.
Arcove sounded amused again. “Try flirting back and see what happens.”
“Arcove!”
“Roup.”
They walked in silence for a moment. “You’re going to tell me I’m behaving like a ferryshaft.”
“I was not going to say that.”
“You were thinking it very loudly.”
Ferryshaft usually mated monogamously and for life. There were exceptions, but this was their most frequent pattern. Creasia were highly polygamous and engaged in a fair amount of same-sex activity. Males did this most often during their juvenile years before they were strong enough to win a female in a fight. Low-ranking males also mated with each other, and occasionally two or three alphas would form an alliance to share a den. Females engaged in same-sex bonding because they spent more time with each other than with their male mates and often became more attached to them.
Roup knew that Halvery thought his extreme attachment to Arcove was a remnant of his ferryshaft upbringing. Roup had bonded with Arcove as a juvenile. If they’d been allowed to share a den, he might never have mated with anyone else. That wasn’t the way their lives had worked out, and Roup had stopped resenting it long ago. He loved Caraca and Lyndi. He loved his cubs.
But Arcove was part of him. In a way that no one else would ever be.
Roup knew that his attachment was returned, but he also knew that Arcove enthusiastically enjoyed his female mates. He’d inherited a den with five breeding females, all of who were now too old to have cubs. Arcove hadn’t added young blood to his den at quite the pace of his predecessors, but he did take a new female every ten years or so. He currently had three who cycled through heat seasons. He would likely add another one or two over the course of his life, and no one would think this unusual.
Roup, by contrast, had made no effort to bring younger females into his den when Caraca and Lyndi moved past their breeding years. Roup and Arcove’s relationship was not quite equal in this way. It was something they never spoke about.
“I would be an utter hypocrite,” said Arcove, “to tell you not to mate with anyone you like. But…Halvery?”
Roup ignored the invitation to joke. “I don’t care about hypocrisy, Arcove. I don’t care if you mate with half of Leeshwood and I only mate with you. I would rather never mate again than to…do something that would…that would….”
Arcove resumed washing his face. “Dearest friend, you’ve got my blessing to do as you please. Just…don’t kill each other?”
Roup smiled.
“In all seriousness, do you want to?”
“I don’t know.”
“Would this make the two of you get along better or worse?”
“I don’t know.”
“Because I can think of ways that… Ghosts, Roup. Here’s my only request: don’t fight. I’d hate to return to the days when the two of you were hissing at each other.”
“I can’t promise that won’t happen if I…flirt back. But I can’t promise it won’t happen on any given night that I visit his den, either. We often disagree.”
“Yes, that’s why I find this turn of events puzzling.”
“I know.”
“You’re his superior officer. If you lie down for him, will he still obey you?”
“I don’t know.”
Arcove sighed. “I’ve never heard you say, ‘I don’t know’ this many times in a single evening.”
Roup fidgeted. “Changing your mind?”
Arcove paced back and forth. “I’ve spent my entire reign trying to prevent a real fight between the two of you. You’re my brightest, most competent officers with very different skills. I think you might actually kill each other in a real fight.”
“I know that.”
“If he forgets his place, you’ll have to put him back in line.”
“Probably.”
“And you’re still interested in this?”
“I don’t know!”
A smile tugged at the corner of Arcove’s mouth. “Yes, you do.”
Yours,
An author who is once again humming along on Bright Side