Stealing Time
Servants of Fate
Book One
Wendy Sparrow
Genre: Paranormal Romance (Holiday)
Publisher: Pen and Kink Publishing
Date of Publication: November 1, 2016
ISBN: 9781988233093
ASIN: B01L32M3H6
Number of pages: 87 pages
Word Count: 26,000
Cover Artist: Amanda C. Davis
Book Description:
Father Time’s son, Zeit Geist, must sacrifice a mortal’s lifetime to the Fates each New Year’s Eve. Last year—inexplicably, really—he made an 11:59 substitution. The Fates are pissed and they’re after his mortal Hannah. With the year ending, he ought to figure out why he’d saved her—and why he keeps doing it.
Following an unlucky year, Hannah Lyons needs a week’s holiday in a lodge to unwind. What she gets is near-death experiences and a sexy immortal who can’t avoid kissing her, but might have to kill her. After all, even Zeit can’t hold back time indefinitely.
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Guest Post:
Seven Reasons to go with a Novella
I love novellas, but I realize that not everyone has
discovered the charm of shorter works. Common complaints are that if you’re
going to pay for a book, you want something significant to show for what you’ve
bought. Or, maybe, you just haven’t had a lot of success finding authors who
can tell an entire story in a novella-length. Possibly you’ve been burnt on
cliffhangers or teasers. Don’t get me started on the mid-series novella with
thirty characters appearing in thirty pages. I shake my fist at them and consider
throwing my Kindle. But…but…let me offer a few good reasons to give novellas a
shot.
1.
Seasonal or theme treats. Anthologies or novella
standalones often revolve around a holiday or theme. While you’re baking
cookies, you can page through a novella that’ll get you in the mood for the
upcoming holiday and won’t leave you with charred cookies. Also, some themes
would feel tired over the course of an entire novel. I’ve written a horror
novella that there’s no way I could have sustained the emotions through three
hundred pages.
2.
Find new authors. Novellas are the perfect chance to
sample new authors without committing days and days to it. If you’re one of
those people who can’t DNF (did not finish) a book, then novellas can be a
saving grace for you. Novellas are auditions for longer works that are greater
monetary or time investments.
3.
Sleepless but not hungover. You’ve finally finished
that project. You even did a load of dishes. Everyone is in bed…but it’s after
ten p.m. You could pick up that novel on your bedside table, but the last time
you did that, you finished it at 6 a.m. and had a book hangover. Novellas are
the perfect wind-down reading that don’t tie you down. You might be up until
midnight, but you’re not greeting the dawn while thinking, “Just one more
chapter.”
4.
Mini-adventures and micro-trips. Most readers love the
opportunity to dive into a fictional world and be there. They can have the
thrill of a far-off place or a magical realm while snuggled into an armchair
with a bowl of soup. If the average adult reads five books a year, then that’s
five mini-vacations via fiction. Novellas give you the chance to double that or
more. Think of all the places you’ll go and lives you’ll live! There’s your day
at the beach on lunch breaks in February. Your Christmas in July while watching
swim lessons. Trek through the rainforest while commuting home. I’m a prolific
reader, and I need my two hundred vacations to make up for the time I spend
paying bills and doing laundry.
5.
Mooooore. With the ease of digital releases, many
authors are putting out interim novellas in between novels. Sometimes, it’s an
epilogue or prologue type of contribution to a series so readers can find out
more about the world and characters. Sometimes, it’s a story that is close to
the author’s heart but not as easily marketable like a holiday story. Readers
can get their grabby hands on more work by their favorite authors.
6.
They boldly go everywhere. As an author, I can tell you
that novellas are great for more diverse and interesting “what if” scenarios.
For a while, “trapped in an elevator” romances were big and I read quite a few
of them. The novellas were far better than the novels in my experience. There
was a flash-bang feel to the novellas. They had an encapsulated magical meet-cute
squishiness that I loved. In the novels, it was a scene in a greater plot and
the remainder of the book often didn’t have as much appeal.
7.
The intensity. Good novellas can’t drag. A well-written
shorter work doesn’t waste time building character depth through their cereal
choices. The reader is plunged right into the story or into the relationship.
The writing has to be tighter and the emotions often tug at more universal
conflicts. There’s no drawn-out backstory. There’s this moment, this scene, and
it’s all on the line.
Stealing Time was intended to be a
single novella when I wrote it…but I couldn’t stay away from the world. Readers
couldn’t either. This was the story that I was contacted about regularly.
“Loved Stealing Time, but when are you going to write the rest of the series?”
Writing a seasonal paranormal novella already felt like a risk to me and that’s
even without acknowledging there really isn’t a category for “Father Time’s
sons” romance on retail sites. I put off readers for a bit, but eventually I
couldn’t resist. The novella length gave me the opportunity to take this chance
with Stealing Time and then its two sequels. I hope you’ll give them a chance
too.
Excerpt:
“What are you doing to me?”
“What do you think I’m doing?”
She glared at him. Saying it out loud would sound utterly stupid. “I keep having these lapses of time. One minute, I’m in one place and, the next, I’m in another. And four times now, I’ve seen you walking away from me when it’s happened.”
“So, you’re accusing me of doing something to your memory? Or of stalking you?” He took another sip of his drink as if he was only mildly interested in her response.
She opened her mouth to say something before snapping it closed. What was she accusing him of? It all sounded silly and impossible, and he’d be around this whole week. Every time they saw each other, she’d feel humiliated that she’d actually thought…
Oh, who cared? She was going to get brain cancer from all this testing if she couldn’t get to the bottom of things.
“You’re doing something to time. I don’t know what you’re doing, but I don’t think your name is just an odd little coincidence.”
For a blink, she saw something in his eyes and a quick half-smile. “It’s a family name.”
“So, your entire family manipulates time?”
Copyright © 2016 by Wendy Sparrow
About the Author:
At home in the Pacific Northwest, Wendy Sparrow writes for both an adult and young adult audience
in many genres but always with a happily ever after. She has two wonderfully quirky kids, a supportive husband, and a perpetually messy house because she hates cleaning. She’s an advocate both online and in her community for autistic children in addition to actively trying to raise awareness about obsessive-compulsive disorder. Most days she spends on Twitter procrastinating doing the dishes.
Website: http://wendysparrow.com
Blog: http://wendysparrow.com/blog/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WendySparrow
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WendySparrowAuthor/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3346109.Wendy_Sparrow
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Wendy-Sparrow/e/B00AYIR3HQ
Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/cgOTF1
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