'Tis the Season

Oh, the weather outside has been frightful. We have been below zero for much too long here -- today feels like a revelation at 25 degrees! But Santa, and other gift givers, shall not be deterred!

As part of the 'Tis More Blessed giveaways, this is your weekly signup thread for GOLD & GLASS, my steampunk adventure, which sprawls from Paris to Cairo in 1889, and involves shapeshifters, airships, and ancient rings that... Hey, that is not a TARDIS, be careful. To enter this giveaway, just leave a comment below! Should we give away TWO copies this week? I think we should!

To whet your appetite, here's a peek from GOLD & GLASS -- and after that? ANOTHER chance to win, thanks to Masque Books and SF Signal!

Everyone carried secrets. Virgil Mallory knew this better than most. He was reluctant to pry Miss Folley from the comfortable world she knew, reluctant to expose her past when she appeared to set it behind her. Still, he would. If Hubert or anyone else thought to muck about in the past to change the future, he meant to prevent that.

He ducked as he stepped into the four-in-hand, fingers already ripping at his tie as the carriage moved into the streets, away from the Exposition Universelle and Eiffel’s god-awful tower. He had not worn a tie since Caroline’s memorial, but today, venturing into the much-loathed public, he felt it was best to look like what he was.

“What I am,” he muttered. “Agent. Only that.”

The tie unknotted with a whisper. He pulled the length of it loose and crumpled it between shaking hands. The beast inside him clawed to be let out, and Virgil closed his eyes, sinking into the cushioned bench. His fingers itched for the opium pipe, the one thing certain to quiet the creature within. No pipe was at hand, so he stroked the ring of silver around his right index finger, rubbing the worn skulls along its smooth circle, praying for calm. Viver disce, cognita mori. The words engraved on the band bade him to learn to live, yet remember death; he had difficulty with the former, though the latter came easily enough now.

As to that other giveaway? SF Signal is having a worldwide giveaway for RINGS of ANUBIS and Jacqueline Koyanagi's ASCENSION. The ASCENSION give ends tomorrow, December 11, so scoot over there and enter! The ANUBIS give ends on December 18. Go, go, go.

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