30 August 2015

Sunday Snippets- A snip from Maddie and The Norseman.

Your chance to grab Maddie and The Norseman in your favorite ebook format for 99c through September at Smashwords, Amazon ARebooks and others.

Available at AREbooks for 99c

Madeline (Maddie to her friends), an Australian history teacher, travels to York, England, to visit her friend Amber who is working there with a team of archaeologists unearthing Viking relics. They share a passion for the Viking Age, and both studied the Old Norse language.
About to take part in a re-enactment at the Viking village and wearing typical clothes worn by a Viking woman, they are swept back in time to the town of Jorvik, a thriving trading town, as York was in the year 879 AD. Maddie meets Norse trader Erik and is stunned by his uncanny resemblance to the Viking she has been dreaming of. 
When Amber is kidnapped, Maddie persuades Erik to help her find her friend. Their journey takes them across to France and to Rouen, then further inland. They encounter misadventures on their perilous journey. Erik risks everything to aid Madeline in her quest. And the fear is always there; will she stay in the past to share her hero’s life, or be snatched back to her own time?

The jeweller was followed across the workroom by someone who was taller, and broader, than him. Maddie and Amber scuttled backwards to make room for the men. Both had to duck their heads to enter the small living room. The visitor appeared to be a giant.
As they entered, filling the small space with their size, Maddie felt her world spinning again. With a hand to her throat she let out a small shriek. The visitor was the man she’d never expected to see anywhere but in her dreams. Her Viking stood still as the curtain dropped behind him, a look of puzzlement on his face.
Maddie clutched at Amber’s arm, and her friend’s bewildered frown was the last thing she saw before everything went black and she felt herself falling.
****
“Wake up, Maddie.” Amber’s worried plea came to Maddie through a haze. Somewhere at the back of her consciousness she felt sure she’d heard that plea before.

Ah yes, she was dreaming again.

For some reason this thought brought comfort. Maddie blinked, and as she opened her eyes all comforting feelings fled. She wasn’t in Amber’s tiny flat. Wasn’t even in the twenty first century. Groaning, she sat up, her fingers sliding along the dirt floor. That was enough to remind her of their situation. The two Norsemen were staring at her as if she’d grown two heads.

“Did I faint?” she mumbled, and Amber nodded. She looked stunned and blatantly terrified. “Oh God, Amber, you know why, don’t you?”

“I have a pretty fair idea.” Amber’s voice quivered. “He looks like your dream hunk, doesn’t he?”

Maddie put a hand to her head and rose onto her knees. Amber helped her onto the bench. “I can’t take this in. What’s going on?” Maddie knew a touch of hysteria flavoured her question.

“Be blowed if I know.” Amber clutched at her elbows as she folded her arms across her chest.

Their jeweller friend offered Maddie a goblet, saying, “Drink this. And please speak in our tongue.” It was an order, for all he’d delivered it in a kindly tone. “I suppose all this has been overwhelming for you.”

That was an understatement if ever there was one.

“Yes. It’s not every day one gets taken up by the gods and tossed into an unknown place.” How she'd managed to get that out she didn't know. Her dream man was scowling at her and Amber as if they were freaks. She took a sip of the drink; it was some sort of wine, very sweet, but tasty.

“The gods?” the newcomer asked, his voice rumbling over Maddie like a well-remembered lullaby. But that was odd, for she couldn’t recall ever hearing him speak in her dreams.

“They say they come from a far place,” the jeweller said, shrugging. He pulled the necklaces from his pocket and held one in each palm, his thumbs brushing over the small droplets that caused all this trauma. Maddie cringed in horror, but nothing monumental happened. “They say Thor sent a storm raging overhead and as they both touched these talismans they were somehow transported here.” He gestured to the doorway. “Into my workshop, with copies of work I have only recently finished.”

His visitor looked skeptical. Who could blame him? “What nonsense. They are obviously thieves.”

Well, that was nice of him.

Please take a moment to hop over to these blogs to read more snippets
http://mizging.blogspot.com (Ginger Simpson)
http://yesterrdayrevisitedhere.blogspot.com/  Juliet Waldron



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