Enjoy the magical world of the Wishing Blade universe or the sci-fi elements of Huntress?
You might enjoy some of the free ebooks available here!
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It seems like dishes… and just about anything else… gets done when it’s time for the proofreading stage.
Oh, there’s a chore that needs done? Dishes been piling up? The counters are clean now!
Laundry need washed? Everything’s now been washed and hung in the closet! (Or neatly stacked in a chair because the closet is cold and I’d rather put on warm clothes in the morning thank-you-very-much).
Plants need a little bit of pruning? Even those pesky scale bugs are about to face the gardener’s otherwise defeated wrath.
Or, for a little more fun… new stories need written? Old stories need revised? Let’s do this!
(Inner voice just scowls. “No new stories for you right now. Jot down a few notes and get back to proofreading! Finish what you’ve started!”)
*Sigh.*
There’s all these other new stories calling you to write them, but you’re stuck giving that manuscript you’ve looked over nearly a dozen times one more read to look for typos, and then after you’ve given it that maybe-final/maybe-not-final read you’ve got to actually input those notes into the manuscript.
*Cue second sigh.*
Proofreading might be my least favorite part of the process.
Still, proofreading is important, and helps me to correct little typos I don’t want you guys to suffer through. Missing “a”s and “the”s. The occasional word that just doesn’t make sense. Minor plot points I thought I removed during the read-aloud but accidentally remained in place. That sort of thing.
It’s all about polishing… even if, for me, it is the least interesting part of the process.
Funny thing is that in the 2018 newsletter email I’m adapting this post from, I was lamenting the proofreading process for Fractured Skies.
Now I’m lamenting the proofreading/editing process for The Dark Forest of Aneth. The reading part’s been done. I just need to add my editing notes to the manuscript. But… uh… there’s been an outline and draft written for Huntress 3 and a whole new 5,000-word short story drafted, polished, and sent to beta-readers since I finished that reading a few months ago. *Cough.*
So… yeah.
Do I need to write that draft I’ve been meaning to write for five years?
Looks like I just need to get myself some proofreading or editing notes!
In the meantime… here’s a throwback to when my Legion Spore plushie got to help out with the proofreading:
Isn’t it adorable? (Well, as adorable as living airships made from shapeshifters go). Isaac made it for me for Christmas a few years back.
Actually, I also made him a Legion Spore plushie (we both had the same idea), but let’s just say that the one he made better matched the first Legion Spore, and the one I made closer resembled the Manticore. We had a productive discussion after that regarding the differences between how we saw the living airship of The Glitch Saga.
Needless to say, the Legion Spores you see in the books have been refined a bit.
Or a lot.
And that’s another reason that proofreading… and read-alouds… and beta-reading… is important!
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Read a few polished books that I at some point had to proofread or edit…
Previously I’ve talked about how Distant Horizon got its start as a role-play game between me and Isaac. Many plot points changed, but many stayed the same. In today’s post, we talk about how, in Fractured Skies, Jenna and Lance met AnnaâŚ
Who had a few changes along the way.
I’m pretty sure Anna started as a way for Isaac to keep my character, Jenna, from getting herself hopelessly captured. Let’s set the stage, shall we?
In the game, Jenna and Lance have returned to their hometown in search of her parents, who she knows might be in danger. Security guards have started to notice Jenna looks really familiar (she’s the granddaughter of a rebel leader, so they’ve been given her profile), there are a set of conspicuous mercenaries on her tail⌠and she is very good about demanding information in a not-so-subtle way. Not a good combination.
So Anna, an old friend from her high school, shows up and manages to (unintentionally) whisk Jenna and Lance to safety.
This despite shouting “Jenna! Lance! It’s you guys!” across the same room with said guards and mercenaries.
Needless to say, I can only assume the guards failed their notice rolls or smarts rolls.
Anyway, Isaac and I realized that wasn’t going to be very believable in the actual novel, so we made a few changes.
One, we gave Anna powers.
Surely Jenna and Lance weren’t the only one who didn’t take their daily pills in a huge city, right?
Two, we decided Anna isn’t an old friend⌠at least not that Jenna remembers⌠and that Anna knows more than she first lets on⌠allowing her to get them away from the guards a little more naturally while still arousing their suspicion as to her real intentions.
Here’s an excerpt from Fractured Skies:
One of the guards looked toward usâthe one who had examined our IDs earlier, but before he could question us again, a young woman our age plopped into a seat across from me. She had shoulder length brown hair pulled into one of the few âstylizedâ cuts the Community allowed, and she wore a pale blue shirt and pale gray pants, nothing that stood out.
I blinked. âUh⌠hello?â
âI canât believe youâre back! Chris⌠KateâŚâ She propped her chin on her knuckles. âSo good to see you again.â
I stared at her, dumbstruck. How did she know what our fake IDs said? Was she a Special Forces agent in disguise? A telepath?
Lance chuckled nervously. âIâm sorry. Do we know you?â
âOf course!â She laughed. âItâs me, Anna. Donât you remember? We shared chemistry in high school.â
I tried picturing my classmates from chemistry, but honestly, I couldnât remember more than a few of their faces. I certainly didnât remember this âAnna.â
Lance and I exchanged glances. Quin seemed to be fast-talking the guards toward the exit, both groups too busy to worry about us. Was Anna a merc? If so, she fit in way better than the others.
She gave us a mischievous grin. âNow that youâre back, thereâs a question everyone wants to knowâare you two dating?â
I blinked. Why would anyone care about that?
Lance shrugged. âSort of.â
I froze. What was he doing?
Annaâs eyes popped open. âSeriously? Oooo⌠just wait until I tell everyone! I told them it was bound to happen.â
âYeahâŚâ I shuffled uneasily in my seat, suddenly wishing we were dealing with the mercs. At least it was clear what they wanted.
âThatâs so exciting!â Anna clapped her hands together and glanced over our shoulders. She quickly diverted her eyes back to us. âYou should totally see my room here. Itâs great. Iâve been living on my own ever since I moved from my parentsâ house.â
âIâm not sureââ
âSounds cool,â Lance said smoothly. âWhy donât we go check it out?â
I glared at him. What if this is a trap?
Lance flinched. âItâll be fun,â he murmured, his voice forced.
Dear Communityâ
This flower charm was obnoxious. Technically, it was a telepathy artifactâartifacts were objects enchanted to mimic certain powersâand Iâd accidently used it to project my thoughts. At least I had directed the thought rather than broadcasted it across the room. That would have been terrible. What if everyone thought they had theophrenia? I shoved the charm between my shirt and my coat, where I wouldnât have to worry about accidently using it.
âCome on!â Anna grabbed us both by the wrists and yanked us from our chairs. Since I didnât want to cause a scene and attract more guards, I didnât resist. She dragged us through the hall and into an apartment room a bit bigger than our old dorm rooms combined. Her walls were covered in pictures of similar people with similar hairstylesâall smiling like cheerful leaders on cheesy self-help brochures, except these were beauticiansâ posters.
If I took off my hat, it would be painfully clear I did not fit in.
Anna’s come a long ways from the original campaign.
Right now she only shows up in Fractured Skies, but she’s an example of some of the changes we made along the way. đ
If you enjoy the fairy tale retelling aspect of the Huntress universe, you might enjoy these books!
(Note: The giveaway above is hosted through BookFunnel. Authors will usually ask for your email address, and in many cases, the author will collect these addresses for their newsletters.)
While plotting, I often enjoy listening to music. Sometimes it helps me invoke a particular mood for a scene, come up with new ideas, or simply picture scenes better in my head.
For example, I often listened to Rush’s “Subdivisions” while working on Distant Horizon, especially on scenes involving the Community (It seemed to fit the Community quite nicely).
Then, for a while, I enjoyed listening to DragonForce’s “Through Fire and Flames” while working on the end of Fractured Skies and Spirits of a Glitch. Isaac introduced me to that song and which scenes he thought it fit best. Epic battle scenes… determined character montages in my head… that sort of thing.
(Also makes for a great… and difficult… custom Beatsaber level).
Other times, music helps inspire titles. For example, there’s a line from Styx’s “Brave New World” which inspired the title for Distant Horizon. (I don’t like coming up with titles for books. Seriously… they’re illusive little critters that like to hide away and have to be dragged out from their cozy caves for me to find them).
I’ll admit my tastes in music are eclectic. I’ve listened to a lot of Gordon Lightfoot songs. My favorites are “The House You Live In” and “Race Among the Ruins”, though these tend to inspire me more with the Wishing Blade Universe. I’ve also listened to a little bit of Tarja Turunen (“I Walk Alone”) which almost always makes me think of Ivy Man’s character from Fractured Skies (as does the song “Darkness” by Blackmore’s Night). Both are quite useful when writing any scenes that involve that character.
And sometimes songs might not… really fit, but they still work great for me to plot to. I like “Anti-hero” by Taylor Swift for the character of Sanjorez, even if it doesn’t exactly fit. And… even if I put together an animatic in my head of him dealing with the rest of the Camaraderie whenever I listen to that song.
Once I find a song that works for me, I tend to listen to it on repeat, as I did with Nightwish’s “Escapist” as performed by Alina Lesnik & Guitarrista de Atena (Great for plotting with Shevanlagiy’s character in the Wishing Blade Universe), as well listening to as Joan Baez’s “Rejoice in the Sun” and “Silent Running” (on repeat. Several times. Because when I like a song, it usually ends up looped).
I think I like music I can picture a story to, even if the song might not normally be paired with a particular character or genre. And even if I don’t hear the lyrics right and that spins off a whole ‘nother idea.
There was that one time I listened to Skye Boat Song and misheard “Over the sea to Skye” as “Over the sea to die” and BOOM… new character! (Who, ironically, hasn’t yet shown up. Maybe eventually. That particular story arc took a major turn from the original plan).
And sometimes music gives me ideas for magic systems. Really. The concept of Magic’s Lure and the Wishing Blade spawned from singing “Rainbow Connection” during voice lessons. And the idea of shadows got their first inklings from listening to the song “Shadows” by Gordon Lightfoot.
There are so many more songs I could list as inspiration… But I’ve got to wrap up this post sometime.
Lately I haven’t really listened to music a lot when writing or revising, unless it’s background coffeeshop music, but I still like listening to music while plotting, or if I’m trying to get in the mood to write a certain scene. Or if I’m trying to plot out a stuck spot.
So there you have it. A few songs that I’ve enjoyed listening to while working on these books.
How about you? Do you ever have a soundtrack that reminds you of your favorite books? Do you associate a certain song with a certain character?
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These two series both got a lot of inspiration from listening to music:
If you enjoy the worldbuilding and magic/power system of the Distant Horizon universe, you might enjoy these books!
(Note: The giveaways above are hosted through BookFunnel. Authors will usually ask for your email address, and in many cases, the author will collect these addresses for their newsletters.)
Recently, I was thinking back to some of our early role-play campaigns⌠including the one for Distant Horizon.
See, the game started as me and Isaac wanting to plan a one-shot campaign that was something of a cross between The Giver meets X-Men.
Actually, that’s not entirely accurate.
The very first campaign set in this universe was a group campaign that followed the terrible exploits of superheroes from the Super Bureau who did more damage than the villains. It was great fun, and ended up providing a bit of lore you occasionally see in the Distant Horizon series.
There’s even an easter egg regarding the Super Bureau campaign in the Glitch saga (Ghost of a Memory), when Tim is researching previous encounters with spirits:
After reviewing an article about a spirit that possessed a brain-dead child, I find several related articles from the time shortly before EYEnet was founded. One is about a man listed as Agent Knight. According to the text, he took an unruly team from the Super Bureau to remove a cult leader who tied the spirits of his followers to metal photographsâsome superstition about photographs stealing a personâs soul. But the methods werenât magical. The cult leader used life-spirit powers to bind his followers to a separate object, where he could better control them.
Long story short, though the actual events have been tweaked to better fit the story (as a great many of the campaign events have), and we don’t actually see all of the members of the ill-fated Super Bureau, some of the basic concepts of that campaign remain.
There is still a possessed, brain-dead child (at the time, she simply had a ridiculous level of power, rather than being possessed) who has a large role in the backstory of this universe (a back-burnered work-in-progress titled Little One). I have Isaac’s notes on the current version of the manuscript, and eventually I’ll need to work on those revisions. There, the investigation of the cult leader who stole souls continues⌠though he’s already dead (more-or-less) by the time Little One begins.
That said, we do get more Easter eggs regarding Little One’s story in Starless Night… and it’s a plot point that has some weighty significance for Jenna in dealing with the brain seed she’s trying to thwart.
There’s plenty of other little references as well. Jim mentions a few of them in the Distant Horizon series. The character of Benjamin had his start in that early campaign, though his character has gone through several iterations before you see him as he is now.
Distant Horizon was conceived as a campaign about a year or two after that one, but just between me and Isaac, and it started with Jenna in the Community, trying to figure out what was going on with the Health Scan. (Another key idea for this was that the superheroes had failed and the villains now ruled the world⌠but those in the Community didn’t know).
Of course, it’s not uncommon for our “one-shot” campaigns to run much longer⌠and it was about halfway through the campaign I decided I wanted to try writing it as a novel (I started taking notes about the spot where Fractured Skies ends). Though events have changed, the basic concept has stayed pretty much on point. One of the biggest changes being how big of a role “memory seeds” play in the story, since telepathic attacks existed, but the detailed workings of memory seeds came about later.
Tim’s story in the Glitch saga, on the other hand, wasn’t actually one of our campaigns. Portions did get played out between Isaac and me (primarily conversations between the Legion Spores and Tim⌠with Isaac voicing the living airships and me voicing Tim), but a lot of details were notes that Isaac had regarding what happened behind the scenes in the campaign for Distant Horizon.
Now, those aren’t the only Distant Horizon Universe campaigns we’ve done. Of note, we also had one we called “Exiles,” of which much of the story arc has been dismantled due to changes made in the published Distant Horizon series. I may revisit a version of it later, but, for now, you can see hints of it in the Deceived series. A team of young power-users have to escape a beast facility and then go on adventurers to change their world for the better… one of those characters being over-powered enough that the Camaraderie isn’t terribly happy about them…
Another campaign was the Athena arc, which is something of a techno thriller that takes place after Exiles. Again, a lot got changed based on changes to Distant Horizon. However… other aspects might eventually get reworked into later books if we ever explore the world beyond the Distant Horizon series once that’s complete. (And I have been dropping certain foreshadowing hints into the current series in case we do lean into that route).
And then there’s another campaign I ran much farther into the story’s future, but it would need major, major edits to be even remotely feasible, though there are some plot details which may work themselves into other books… especially Little One.
In any case, role-playing has been a fun way for us to develop the story and delve deeper into the individual characters and the world. đ
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Sneak around with Jenna in the Distant Horizon series!
Jenna, the main character of the Distant Horizonseries, is somewhat notorious for eavesdropping when it comes to trying to gather information.
Today I’ve got a few excerpts of her doing just that… or trying to. đ
In case you haven’t read Distant Horizon yet, here’s an example of what I mean. To catch you up on what’s happening, Jenna is standing outside of her grandfather’s office, listening in on a private conversation between him and the rebel’s mission leader, Jack.
There was a pause, and this time, Jackâs voice was quiet. âNext time, if thereâs even the hint of danger, tell me. Or have Inese do whatever she does and give me a heads up.â
A bit of metal clanged behind me and I jumped, but the hallway was clear.
Mustâve been the vents.
âI do my best,â Pops said. âWhat about the kids? Howâd they do on the field?â
âWell, Lance has a good hand with swords, and heâs exactly the type of guy we need right now, but heâs inexperienced and brash.â
Pops snorted. âYouâre one to talk. What about Tim?â
âBesides being Community, heâs a good kid with a good heart, and he managed to hack the Camaraderieâs communications without them batting an eye. I didnât get a chance to see his shooting skills, but if you want to get Crush on the ground again, Tim should be able to run navigation without a problem.â
Pops cleared his throat. âAnd my granddaughter?â
I pressed closer to the wall.
Jack grunted. âShe needs Inese to teach her to gather intelligence without being caught.â
âWhat do you mean?â
âGiven that sheâs been listening for the past five minutesâŚâ
Heat rushed to my cheeks as the door swung open. Jack smirked. âCome in, kid. Your ears must be burning.â I stared at him, mortified, but he waved me in and pulled the door shut behind us.
Pops stroked his beard, evaluating me. âHow long have you been out there?â
âSince you were arguing about the reason you sent Gwen to Guatemala,â I said sheepishly.
Jack patted my shoulder. âSee? Whatâd I tell ya? She has a knack for the sneaky spy stuff. All she needs now is some training.â
Pops fixed him with a glare and sipped at his coffee. âIâm guessing you have questions about the mission?â
âActuallyâmy parents.â
Pops motioned to a chair with his coffee mug, and I sat, twining my fingers around the pendantâs chain in my pocket. âI want them to know Iâm alive, and whatâs going on in the world. The beasties, the powers. Everything.â
Anyway, her tendency to try overhearing information she’s not supposed to know continues in Fractured Skies... though she hasn’t quite learned how not to get caught.
To fill you in on this excerpt, Jenna has just left the room where she has been eavesdropping on someone she’s not sure she trusts. She’s trying to gather information about the people she’s currently stuck with.
I stepped over Quinâs legs into the other room. He still stared at the wall, his expression blank. I bit my lip, and then slid down next to him. âHey.â
âDone eavesdropping?â
I stared at him. He hadnât moved an inch, save to speak. His hands were clasped over his knees, his chin tilted toward the glass window in the ceiling. His black hair was cropped less than half an inch from his ears, the most Community-oriented hairstyle Iâd seen in a while, though he wasnât Community. He had a rounded face, a smooth, beardless chin, and a lean form. His tunic hugged his chest but gave his arms space for movement.
âYou heard me?â I wrapped my vines close. This guy could easily beat me in a fight. Hopefully Pops was right to trust him.
âDidnât hear you,â he corrected me, still staring at the window. Aside from the reflection of that creepy blue light, there was nothing of interest outside. âYou walked by, but once you went to the other room, they didnât acknowledge your presence. I figured you were trying not to be seen.â
âUmâŚâ I closed my mouth, not really sure what to say. âDoes it⌠I meanââ
A small smile formed at the edge of his lips. âIâm not mad at you, if thatâs what youâre worried about.â
âSheâs your partner, so I didnât knowââ
He snorted, still staring at that confounded window. âSheâs my sister, and Iâm a mercenary. Mercenaries eavesdrop.â
âIâm not a mercenary,â I protested, vines quivering with annoyance. Months ago, they responded to my thoughts at a snailâs pace. Now they responded to all my thoughts.
âI didnât say you were.â
I scowled. âYou implied it.â
âNo. I meant only that if I eavesdrop, I should not be angry when others eavesdrop.â
I blinked. Someone who worked for the Camaraderie who talked sense?
Once we get to Starless Night, however, Jenna has a whole new tool for eavesdropping… telepathy. Granted, she’s not always aware she’s using it (and she does have a pesky brain seed that keeps trying to take over and loves using it for her) but the more the seed influences her, the better she gets.
Here, in this excerpt from the beginning of Starless Night, she’s still not that great at using telepathy to read minds.
It doesn’t help that, perhaps, there’s more to the butler than he lets be known.
Though Lady Black droned on, her butler observed me with a cutting blue gaze. Uneasiness flitted through me.
Something about that butlerâŚ
My thoughts strained to reach his surface thoughts. Why did he make me so nervous? Tell me who you areâŚ
I slammed into a steel wall of nothing.
You may call me Stuart, Miss Nickleson, he responded, his mental voice chillingly precise. I am Lady Blackâs butler. And you will find that I am not so generous as the ambassadors regarding who I allow into my head. If you have a question, you need only ask. I am quite forthcoming on a good many topics.
I swallowed hard, ducking my head so I didnât have to see him watching me. Iâd done it againâtried reading someoneâ s mind without thinking about how I didnât want them reading mine.
And that’s it for Jenna sneaking around today and eavesdropping today!
Do you have any favorite characters with sneaky skills? đ
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Sneak around with Jenna in the Distant Horizon series!
Well, in previous years, there was National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. Many a book was drafted in the span of a month, the goal being 50,000 words by the end of the month, or a short novel.
This comes to writing, on average, 1,667 words a day.
Some writers would front load their word count (I know one very fast typist who hit 25,000 words in a day… though this is not the norm). Others would make a last minute rush during Thanksgiving break to complete their book before midnight on the 30th. (I think my highest count was 12,000 words in one day because of this).
But, for 1,667 words a day, you can complete the rough draft of a short novel in one month.
Or make some really, really good progress on a longer novel.
Unfortunately, NaNoWriMo is no more (for a variety of issues I won’t go into here), but the desire for a community of writers encouraging each other to meet their word counts, competing with each other if that’s what makes them write best, and simply proving to themselves that they can finish a book, or that they can make progress on a book, even if they don’t reach the 50,000 word count… that remains.
And I’m thrilled that ProWritingAid (an editing app) has put together something akin to what NaNoWriMo used to be. (I believe AutoCrit has something similar, but I haven’t had a chance to explore it yet).
This new edition is not as fancy or as glorious as NaNoWriMo was in its hey-day, but it promises a lovely word count tracker and a few forums for community.
Let it be known that I’m finally going to finish Huntress #3.
(Seriously… after two drafts I wasn’t happy with, I am stoked to announce I have a full-blown outline/skeletal rough draft all ready to go that I’m super excited for.)
Let’s do this!
Are you doing Novel November this year, or something similar?
Let me know!
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I wrote Huntress in two weeks, and I’m fairly certain I wrote Changeling as part of a NaNoWriMo challenge (whether Camp NaNo or November… I don’t remember).
Today, I want to talk about a power that doesn’t get a whole lot of visibility in the Distant Horizon series (yet), but has been seen in The Glitch Saga:
Laser eyes.
Laser eyes is what it sounds like… the ability to shoot lasers from your eyes. That being said… what kind of lasers is still in question.
At this point in the currently-published stories, they are mostly highly focused, high-powered beams of damaging light. There are still plenty of related possibilities which have yet to be explored.
And, while it’s the name of a pre-Camaraderie group (the LEU, or Laser Elementals United), this has yet to referenced in any of the currently published stories. They were a band of misfits who were open to all power users… though they didn’t tend to get along well with the Super Bureau (the superheroes of the superheroes vs villains era).
Once I eventually get a chance to revise Little One, we’ll see more about the LEU.
As for the dangers of laser eyes, Tim is all too familiar with them, as evidenced in a scene from Spirits of a Glitch:
The elevator dings and rumbles open to the final floor. I bolt for the hangar. I created a temporary lock on the life support systems in the area, but the heater hums too softly to be running at anything other than minimum capacity.
Another hack, and I skirt through the next two doors.
A red beam of light flashes beside me. My heart jumps to the back of my mouth. Heat scorches the wall. Multiple eyes form along the Manticoreâs hull, pulsing with crimson energy. I duck behind the command console near the doors and plug my tablet into the mainframe port.
The Legion Spore (and the Manticore) use laser eyes as their primary weapon against other ships (except when dealing with a glitch). Hence why the Camaraderie is so intent on having power users with laser eyes among those who would make the merge into the monstrous contraption.
Still, little is known about how the power actually works. As mentioned in Distant Horizon:
âWe shouldâve brought Tim along,â Lance whispered. âHe couldâve set them straight.â
I sighed. âI donât think he knows any more than they do. Besides, we canât go back in timeâitâs not scientifically possible.â
I glowered in his general direction. âPowers do have a logical explanation. At least, some do. Some are weird. Like laser eyes. How can a person shoot lasers from their eyes? Wouldnât that burn out their retinas?â
âYou tell me. Youâre the one reading Popsâ dissertation.â
Granted, it has been a couple decades since Pops wrote his dissertation, so more may be known than what the rebels have access to.
Regardless of its oddity (some powers, such as reality bending, laser eyes, and phase-through, do seem to bend the laws of physics), the Camaraderie of Evil likes to make use of the ability.
In fact, when Isaac and I first put together a list of powers for use in this universe, we created four categories: Mental, Reality Shift, Physical, and Elemental. Though we’ve changed the categories somewhat since we started writing this series, we’ve kept several of the powers that fell into the reality shift section.
Among those powers are fourthwalling (later split into reality bending and insight… with “fourthwallers” being related to a specific cult), flying, shapeshifting, phase-through, laser eyes, portal creation, power steal, luck/probability manipulation, alchemy, and invisibility.
Fractured Skies delves a bit deeper into the insight power, alchemy, and briefly touches on probability manipulation. And Initiated goes full scale into reality bending. But, given time, you’ll eventually see all of them. We hope you stick around to see how it all plays out. đ
Here’s an example of laser eyes being used in a battle during Fractured Skies.
Lily pointed to a black helicopter coming in low. A vested, shadowy figure raised a rifle to its shoulder while another stood nearby, eyes glowing a faint red. âHeads down!â She and Quin dropped to their knees behind the boxes. Mom shrieked, covering her head with her arms while Dad threw himself over her. Inese ducked, but a blast of red light smacked her in the chest, sending her sprawling.
âInese!â I crawled after her, but Quin grabbed my foot and yanked me back. A bullet ricocheted off the concrete where I wouldâve been.
âSpecial Forces agents work together,â Quin said simply. âSo should we.â
Eventually we’ll see even more cases of laser eyes in use. đď¸
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Neither Jenna, nor Tim, are much a fan of laser eyes…
Stephanie Flint - Author and Artist 