So, how is everyone doing? 

I hope you all had a fabulous February. Mine was pretty good. February is my birth month. It's always harder getting a year older, but there isn't much we can do to stop that process. The only true thing we can do is age gracefully.

In past years, I've sent out freebies or deeply discounted books for my newsletter readers as my birthday gift to you. I totally planned to do that this year too, but life got in the way. 

I'm just finishing the editing on a companion novel to my Storm series and I was going to make it available to all of you, but unfortunately winter decided to take a swing at us up here  in the PNW.

I know it hit everywhere and lots of people were affected by the big storm a couple of weeks ago. I had all sorts of plans for my days off to edit and finish the layout of the novel, but instead I spent a week without electricity.

Needless to say, it was an adventure. I didn't get anywhere near the amount of work done that I needed. So the companion novel will probably be coming next month. 

I did however republish my first three books. These books were originally published by a small press in Salt Lake City called Walnut Springs Press. I purchased my rights back last year and finally was able to republish the books under my self-publishing press, Red Heel Press.

It was fun to do a tad bit of redesigning and changing to the look of some of the books and it was even more fun to get those emails from KDP saying my book is now published.

All three are available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. Check out the links below.

In the mean time, I will give you a little teaser of what is coming hopefully next month. (Fingers crossed)

Happy reading!!!

Melanie Mason

Taken Teaser:

Silence surrounds me—unnatural silence. Usually this late in spring, the forest is teeming with sound, but now it’s as though all the animals and birds in the forest have frozen in place. I glance around, expecting a larger predator to be sneaking through the trees around me. Nothing. No signs of life.

Annoyance surges through me, tightening all my muscles. Something has frightened the animals. There will be no hunting game today. I take a long, slow breath and start toward home. Mother is hoping for some venison to go with tonight’s dinner. She’ll have to make do with one of our chickens instead.

Suddenly, the air above me fills with the rushing whir of machinery. My gaze snaps skyward until I sight the narrow imperial transport. My heart hammers in my chest, and dread twists my stomach. I break into a sprint for home. I may be one of the fastest fourteen-year-old boys in town, but the transport easily outstrips my long legs.

It takes me ten minutes to reach the outer edges of town. The soldiers have already disembarked from the transport. The Opprimere block the roads in and out of the town. The red slashes that identify them as the elite imperial troops look like bloody scratches against their black uniforms. The regular soldiers in their plain black uniforms move from house to house.

Thankfully, we live at the edge of town. I cut through our neighbor’s backyard and head to the back of our house. I burst through the door into the kitchen, gasping for breath. My mother looks up, surprised. Singh, the neighbor girl I have a huge crush on, drops a pan. It clatters to the floor spilling the pastries they had just taken out of the oven. 

“Sem, you idiot, look at what you just did,” my sister Sariah yells. “That was a whole morning’s worth of work.”

“Sem, what in the world are you doing?” Mother asks, bending to help Singh clean up the mess.

“Opprimere in the town!” I blurt out.

They all freeze. My mother’s head snaps up, her face pale. Singh shudders, and Sariah gasps. They hurriedly pick up the spilled pastries and dump them in the trash.

“Open the front door, Sem,” Mother says as she turns off the oven. “They’ll break it down if they come here. The Opprimere never knock.”

I stride through the house and yank the front door open. Mother, Sariah, and Singh follow me into the main room, and we all huddle down on the couch to wait. I grasp Singh’s hand. She looks over at me, her eyes filled with fear and worry. I squeeze her hand while trying to shutter the fear I feel inside. 

She squeezes back and leans her head on my shoulder, filling me with hope for what our future might bring. Then again, our future is a fragile thing that could be changed or even shattered in an instant.

The seconds tick by like hours. 

“Will they go to the mines where father and Jon are working?” I ask in a hushed voice.

“If they don’t find who they’re looking for here in the town, then yes,” mother says.

What if they take father or Jon? Will they let them say goodbye to us, or just leave? My body feels compressed like it’s being held in a vice. The waiting and wondering is torture.

When the soldiers appear in the open doorway, my breath catches in my throat. Like my mother predicted, the soldiers don’t knock. Two young men dressed in solid black uniforms enter the house. They both look only sixteen or seventeen.

“Please stand,” the soldier in charge says.

We all rise from the couch and wait while the soldier points a boxy machine at us. A green light passes over my mom as the soldier scans her DNA. Nothing happens. Next, he scans Sariah. Again nothing. Then they point the boxy device at me. The green light moves down my head and chest, and the machine beeps. 

The soldier glances at the screen, surprise registering on his face. He looks up at me, his brow furrowed. “Semuel Gherard?”

“Yes.” My voice croaks like the large bullfrogs in the pond near my home.

The soldier’s body droops. “He’s the one.”