I started a little experiment in July. I have been trying out Patreon. I write a lot of things that don’t end up in my books, including fan fic, side stories, deleted scenes, and serials. Some of them I post to my fan group on facebook but most of them sit on my computer. So I decided to take these things and try to support my art in another venue.
I have two continuing serials going on there now. One will be a Clouded Hell serial that follows all the characters as they work out what happens after the end of Oasis. This one has the grit and angst of those books. The other is a brand new fantasy world called Magical Misgivings.
This will be the first place I send out ARCs and signed paperbacks as well as post blogs and life updates.
If you want to check it out here is the link.
Here is the first part of Magical Misgivings:
One
Magic was a bitter drug. It left a taste in my mouth and an energy over my skin. That didn’t stop me from using it like a junkie used heroin, but it gave me reservations every time I picked it up for pleasure and not need. When there was need it happened, and I dealt with the aftermath. Tonight there wasn’t need. Tonight there was pleasure. I changed my features to not look so damn strange. Magic was a bitter bitch. She took as much as she gave. Like meth, leaving the user looking haggard from her love. I guess I was being dramatic. It wasn’t like I picked the skin off my face or seemed like I hadn’t slept in weeks. But I looked nothing like I used to. My once dark hair and eyes had bleached and blued. Magic tasted blue for a reason. It ran blue through your veins and morphed you right along with it. So my hair had gone from dark to blond and then slowly to this periwinkle bullshit everyone thought was dye. I could have pretended to be a punk piece of shit like the rest of the dudes trying to hard at the club but instead I used more magic to hide it which might have meant I was as bad as everyone else posing in this club but we all had our demons to carry didn’t we?
I sipped my drink near the bar watching. Waiting for the right person to catch my eye. I wasn’t picky about gender but I was picky about type. I needed someone who wasn’t going to stick around and ask questions. My needs were simple, someone who didn’t want to get to know me. I couldn’t do connections. Not when I lived like I did. Connections were dangerous. Connections could be used against you.
I’d been doing this long enough to know what I was looking for. Kindred souls looking for a night to forget and nothing more. There were enough of us looking to forget, I usually didn’t run into any issues. Half the time we didn’t bother with names, as they were forgotten almost as soon as they penetrated the ears. A useless social pleasantry not needed for what we were about to engage in.
“Fishing slow tonight?” I glanced over when my brother spoke. We were the same in appearance. Eyes, hair, face. Only he didn’t hide them while we were out. He embraced all of magic. He loved the marks it bore on our flesh, proudly proclaiming us what we were.
“Has been for weeks. Winter brings us those who would rather surf apps for hookups.”
“Tech will be the death of life,” he mused using his finger to light the end of a cigarette. “But you could use them too.”
“It’s harder to tell what someone is after on an app. When I look them in the eyes, I know.”
“Shame.” He enjoyed watching my antics as much as I enjoyed the practice. “No show for me tonight, I guess.”
“It’s still young. I might find someone.” He was probably right, but I wasn’t going to admit defeat yet and let him drag me out of the club.
“Your poor cock. What will you do without an ass to take your angst out on?”
I rolled my eyes. “I will bitterly jack off loud enough for you to hear through the walls.”
“Mmmmm I can’t wait.” He snapped his teeth.
“I know you not so secretly love listening to me cum.” Some would think we were too close for siblings, sharing more than we should, and joking about what the world saw as indecencies. But when you share a womb with someone, the lines become blurred. There was nothing Lex didn’t know about me.
“It’s not a secret. We’ve shared enough guys for you to have seen what it does to me.” He smiled blue eyes gleaming in the black light. “It’s like watching a porno with myself as the star.”
“I mean without a person between us,” I said, jokingly elbowing him in the side.
He barked out a laugh but then froze and grabbed my arm.
My lips pressed into a line. “Not tonight.”
“The gods don’t let us choose.”
Too true. “Where?” I scanned the room, my gaze landing on the guy Lex saw at the same time he pointed him out. “Did you book this one?”
Lex shook his head. “Not hard to find us even when you insist on doing that shit to your hair.”
I pushed my fingers through the chin length strands. It needed to be cut. But who had the time? “I don’t want to blend in with these fucks.”
“And thus we stand out in a crowd. Plus, our reputation precedes us.”
“Doesn’t it always?” It was good and bad. More bad of late. When the world was shit, those with power were used as weapons. It would have been easier to stop all those years ago had I known what we were getting ourselves into. “Should we bounce?” I asked still taking stock of the guy.
“Let’s hear him out?”
“Famous last words.”
“This won’t be like Italy?” he replied with a laugh.
“Good. I like Asia. It gets so inconvenient when there are wanted posters all over the place.” I swallowed the last of the drink and followed my brother as he went to meet the man.
“You call it inconvenient I call it fun.”
“Always with the need for excitement,” I said, knowing he could still hear me despite the music. Speaking out loud was purely habit, he could hear my words in his mind.
“Better than chasing dick for my entertainment.”
“Touché,” I said as he stopped in front of the man.