Writing Wednesdays

So another week seems to have gotten away from me. This time the culprits are obvious: deep in rewrites for Atlantis Redeemed, planning the release stuff for Atlantis Unleashed (only 2 weeks and 6 days, woohoo!!) and my darling Princess has strep throat. Yes, we're on baby Motrin and the dreaded pink stuff (Amoxycillin, for those of you without kids). But she's happily ensconced with her juice in front of some cartoons, fever down for now, so I can get in a good hour of writing.

I missed Movie Monday again and OMG all I can say is STAR TREK STAR TREK STAR TREK!!!!



It was FABULOUS!!! Saw it Friday and saw it again on IMAX Sunday (Mother's Day gift, yay me!). LOVED it!! I'm a confirmed Trekkie, so it was such a treat for me - all the callbacks to the original show were fun and the casting was brilliant. I'd been concerned about Urban as Bones - didn't seem like a fit - but he was absolutely terrific in the role. I hope he gets a bigger part in the future movies! How about you? Did you see it? Thoughts? Oh, and Spock and [SPOILER]??? ZOWIE!!!!

TV Tuesday continues the season finales and reminds me how much I hate the way network TV does season finales. Cliffhanger, cliffhanger, cliffhanger. Yawn. Do they realize that by the time the show comes back, we won't care? I'd like to have some of this stuff actually WRAPPED UP for a sense of closure. Don't give me spoilers about Fringe, though - it's safely on Tivo and I can't watch till little ones are in bed for the night. Too scary! Am thrilled about Leonard Nimoy casting there and that it has been renewed for next year.

OK, a little good news, I'm starting a Great Read Thursday on the blog - will talk about books I've read that I enjoyed (and why) and I hope you'll do the same in comments so we can intro each other to new authors.

But for now, the story is calling me, so here for WW is a snippet that nobody has seen yet for Atlantis Unleashed (out in less than three weeks!! You can preorder now!! ) - a secret sneak peek just for you!! They've made it to the jungle . . .

Excerpt from Atlantis Unleashed, copyright Alesia Holliday, writing as Alyssa Day

Keely pushed her hair away from her face and tried to breathe, but the heat and dehydration, probably combined with the events of the past few days, had taken their toll. Justice released the energy sphere, lifted her into his arms and moved them both out of the chamber and back to the mouth of the cave, where the outside air was much fresher.

She leaned over, pulling in slow, steady breaths, until the dizziness and hyperventilation passed. “I’m fine,” she said finally. “Just really could use some water.”

Unexpectedly, he smiled. “Although the Nereid still hides from me, or is recovering from the use of so much power, I find that my Atlantean gifts are returning. If water is what you want, my Keely, then water you shall have.”

He strode outside to stand, legs braced apart and arms held up in the air. The sunlight shone down on him as if he were some primitive god, himself, returned to his people and ready to accept their worshipful homage. He was beautiful and stern and primal, and something deep inside her stirred, shaken and moved by the sight of him. Her breasts tingled and her nipples hardened, craving his touch, and her thighs tightened as liquid heat pooled in her center, readying her for him like some ancient virgin to be sacrificed to a lusty god.

Her face flamed at the thought and she tried to remind herself of the biological imperative that caused women to be attracted to powerful men in dangerous situations. She was a scientist. She of all women couldn’t fall prey to something so primal.

Even as she tried to resist the siren call of his intense sexuality, he lowered his gaze from the sky and stared straight into her eyes. His own had darkened to black with blue-green flames dancing in the exact centers of his pupils. “Poseidon, hear me,” he called out in a voice filled with tempest-tossed waves and gale-force winds, never taking his gaze from her. “Bring water to me that it may give life and health to my woman.”

“I’m not your woman,” she whispered, but this time even she didn’t believe it. At that moment, with winds circling Justice like a typhoon, whipping through the clearing to center on him, energy crackling around him like miniature lightning bolts in shades of silver, blue and green, she could deny him nothing.

“For Poseidon,” he roared, throwing back his head. Somehow his braid had loosened, and long strands of hair whipped around his face and shoulders; blues all the spectrum of possibility caught in the strands of his hair flew in the wind as it danced to his call.

She looked up, following his gaze, unable to doubt him for even an instant. He had called for water, so it would come. She knew it, and when the swirling, twirling coils of crystal clear water tumbled through the air toward him, she laughed with delighted joy.

“Come to me, Keely,” he said, and the heat in his eyes seared through her until she wanted to tear off her clothes and throw herself on the ground in front of him; a pagan offering to be taken right there in the downpour that he had created. But instead she stumbled forward, hands clenched at her sides, until she stood a mere breath away from him.

He laughed down at her and shouted out another word, a beautiful word, a word she did not know. The water turned into a spring shower, falling onto them and into their open mouths and down their necks and soaking into their filthy clothes.

From Atlantis Unleashed, in stores June 2nd!