The third week of the Haunted Writing Clinic and Contest … I admit, this rolled around a little fast for me.
I guess that sort of thing happens when you’re trying to soothe a distressed six-year-old after having her two front top teeth removed while she yells and cries because they’ve only gotten half the aesthetic she should’ve had into her … that high-pitched scream, where you can feel the hairs in your ears flatten … *shudder* I swear, it is not a sound one should ever hear. Certainly not when it comes from your own child.
And all this grief because a boy pushed her off a mound at school and caused her to land face-first on dirt as hard as concrete. -_-
So, as you can imagine (probably a little too well by now), my mind has been elsewhere since the Thursday afternoon when I first learnt of it. At least she seems to have forgotten all about it now the toothfairy has come and gone.
Still, I hate to think how the next dentist visit will go.
Anyhow, here’s a reposting of the query and first page of The Rogue King …
Dear Super Villains,
Nothing in life comes easy for Veng. He’s unnatural, a product of genetic manipulation. Leading a sheltered life as a young man, he was raised on fairytales and the belief they are possible. All that changes when he becomes a Rogue and is forced to endure the occasional possession by Lorric, the God of Lust.
Crowned king of the feared Rogues and forced into adapting to a lifetime on the run from those who would kill him, Veng’s belief in love is all that’s left of the once innocent boy. Until he meets Lasil. Protecting her rekindles his old ideals and it isn’t long before he falls in love.
But there are few happy endings for Rogues, especially when loving Lasil comes at the price of his soul.
Lorric isn’t pleased with losing Veng or his soul and has Lasil kidnapped. Now, unless Veng can accept his true nature, cross an entire country of people who want nothing more than to see him dead, and face down a god hell-bent on destroying him, he will lose everything he’s ever loved.
THE ROGUE KING is a science fantasy told through the point of view of Veng, Lasil and their son. At 199,000 words, and written to stand on its own, it is the first in a proposed duo.
Thank you for your time.
Koral looked up through the glass panel in the metal ceiling. The combined light of four moons made it difficult to see the stars. Only a scant few shone bright enough to punch through that pallid glow. Which one of those dots, out of the hundreds he knew were truly out there, belonged to the alien creatures raising him? They’d come from another world, somewhere beyond the moons and the twin suns. From a planet they called Earth.
He wished the same could be said about him. But then, he’d wished for countless things during the past twelve years of his life. None of them had come true either.
“Excuse me.”
Koral winced at the words. His birth-mother had caught him. Again. And she didn’t sound all that pleased with him. He sighed. Prepared for the lecture that he knew was to follow, Koral turned to face her.
Hands on hips, Amelia stood in the doorway of his tiny room aboard the spaceship. “Get your tail back to bed, mister.” She was considered short by the men, who weren’t, at least in his mind, that much taller than her. Koral had recently surpassed all of them in height and their latest bio scans promised he would grow further still.
The tip of his tail wriggled between his ankles as his gaze fell to her booted feet. How did she always manage to move so silently on the metal flooring? “Tell me another story,” he said, giving her the smile that usually let him get his way.
“Very well,” she said with a sigh, humour tweaking her lips. Even with Amelia indulging his whimsy, there were times he felt certain he’d seen a flicker of unease in her dark-green eyes. “I suppose, seeing that it is your birthday, I can be lenient. Which one shall it be?”
The battle won again, he dove under his bedcovers and waited while she tucked him in. “I want to hear about the space ship.”
Aldrea Alien 