There is also a new review from Fallen Angel Reviews. Amanda says, in part, "Fortune’s Fool is an emotional, rewarding story rich in characters and realistic details." It got 4 Angels, and you can read the full review here.
I'll be putting the covers for my next two releases up on the side bar here, hopefully later today. I'm still playing catchup a bit, but there's no reason for radio silence. I'm back!
So let's get back on the wagon, shall we?
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The teacup took seventeen days to construct. Three villages worked together, digging clay, smoothing it into sheets and firing them into bricks. Twelve men painted and glazed and set the stones and a lake of laquer was poured over the resultant vessel.
No one for miles would have tea until the next crop grew. Every leaf was gathered and bound into a sheet of linen that would have blanketed the magistrates house. It took a team of eight horses to lever it over the lip of the cup.
Then an canal was dug from the Myoli River and the fires burned for five days just to get the water hot enough.
Yi pedaled hard. He was part of the last task. He was the thirty-fifth rider in a string of forty men bringing blocks--not cubes--of sugar for the God's Tea.
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Your turn!
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Quan Yen, the heroic daughter of the disgraced travelling deity Sun Wukong was seen on the outskirts of the village for the first time in thirty-five years. The men huddled around the priest with questions. Quan Yen was ripe with portent. The cup doubly guarded.
She had lived in seclusion in a mountain cave with her thoughts and secret prayers. Why she appeared prior to the ceremony, no one could fathom. All manner of village elders, even those with little respect, strained their legend knowledge thin over the pipe smoke of many hearths. For many nights, only early in the morning would the women feel their men's warmth beneath the covers.
Quan Yen was seen again days later, on the very spot which would soon be cast into shadow, for the sword that appeared in the earth and stone reached so far to the heavens, that that the entirety of the village was deprived of warming sun.
Was this a gift for the coming celebration or a warning?
Mei fought against the bonds that held her immobile. The demon laughed at her attempts to free herself.
"You never should have made a bargain you did not intend to keep, little girl."
The deep voice of the creature made her stomach clench in fear. She gulped in an attempt to hide her reaction, knowing any hint of weakness would make the demon even more eager to punish her.
"I will suffer whatever punishment I have to but I won't turn over my husband to you." Her voice was brave, despite her terror.
"You merely have no idea just how much punishment I can require. See the man over there?" The demon gestured across the street where Mei could see a small man carrying enormous numbers of stone blocks. Bent over in paint, the man sweated and panted on his bicycle to move the weight of the stone even a few feet.
"That man refused to honor his bargain with me. Now he is doomed to move those stones to the site of a new temple. But as soon as he arrives at the temple, the stones disappear."
"That could be your fate, little Mei, if you betray me as well."
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