Fragile Bones excerpt

At the halfway point reading through Fragile Bones hopefully for the final time, so I thought I'd post a little excerpt from where I'm at in the book. :)

The days bled together as they always did when there was nothing
to occupy my time. I paced the apartment when Michael was away. I
sometimes snuck down the fire escape to loiter in the alley. Worried
about whether I would become a victim again, yet hoping for a reason
to vent the insidious, burning rage.
“I need to do something,” I complained. “If I'm here to help people,
I need to be out there amongst them.”
“I've been thinking the same thing.”
My jaw dropped. I wasn't expecting him to agree with me.
“You can close your mouth,” he said with a smile. “We're going
out tonight.”
I grinned. “It's about time. I've been well enough for a while.”
“Don't look so eager. It's going to be hard on you. Whether or not
you think so. Don't you remember that first time?”
I looked away. I remembered. I remembered the sickness in body
and mind from the backlash. “I'm prepared for it this time.” I locked
eyes with him. “I didn't know what to expect last time; now I know.”
“I've inquired about an easier way and there is none. The only
thing I can do is try to bleed off some of the power after it's over.”
I cocked my eyebrow. “And what does that entail?” I tried to keep
my thoughts on a high ground, but they sank low and I smirked.
“They left it at my discretion.” He didn't look too pleased.
“I'm sure you'll think of something,” I said innocuously. If he
didn't, then I certainly could.
“I know what you're thinking. It's not going to happen.”
“So you keep saying.”
“At least let me know when you start to get sick. I can help you. Now that I also know what will happen, I can deal with my own backlash.”
That piqued my curiosity. “How does it affect you?”
“It's nothing I can't handle.”
“That only fuels my curiosity,” I told him.
“You just focus on what you need to do and I'll do what I can to
take the edge off.” He glared at me as if to make a point.
I shrugged my shoulders. “I'll do what I came here to do.” I looked
down at my hands and shook off the impression of black blood stains
splattered up to my elbows. “And if I dirty my hands, it's not as if I
haven't done worse.”
Michael put a hand on my shoulder. “It'll be okay. I'm here with
you.”
I would be okay. I planned on being more than okay. Part of me
pitied the first person that we came across that would benefit from our
particular attentions, but that was a very small part. Anyone who would
assault another deserved no mercy and they would get none from me.
Any compunction I might've had was long gone.
---

Update:

You can purchase Fragile Bones on Amazon in paper or for your Kindle here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1453822054
or in any other ebook format on Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/94497
Use coupon code VD36L for 35% off good through Dec. 26, 2011 on Smashwords.

Real life conversation; fictional dialogue

For some reason a recent conversation popped in my head this morning. It's a bit of dialogue that would be great in a book. Since I don't write that genre, I decided to fictionalize it in miniature:

"Tom and Janet are getting a divorce." My husband sipped his coffee, peering at me over the rim of his over-sized mug.

I looked up from pouring my own cup of joe. "Really! What happened?"

"She said she wasn't happy."

"That's a stupid reason," I said, going back to pouring and dumping creamer and tearing sweetener packets. "No one's happy all the time. What does she expect?"

My spouse of 21 long years bit into his morning toast, trying to hide a smirk.

"I saw that." I fake glowered at him. "Anyway, just because she's not going around singing The Hills are Alive every day is no reason for a divorce."

"I don't know."

"God knows I'm not happy every day," I continued.

"That makes two of us."

I wrinkled my nose and stuck my tongue out.

It was always that way with us. No, we weren't happy all the time, but we had our snarky sense of humor towards life and each other to carry us forward. Perhaps somewhere along the line, Janet had lost her ability to poke fun and merely misnamed it happiness. Which seemed to me all the more tragic.
---

Names were changed, etc. :)