WeWriWa: “Taming of the Shrew” meets “Goodfellas” in BETRAYED BY SHADOWS

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Sunday, January 20, 2019

WeWriWa: “Taming of the Shrew” meets “Goodfellas” in BETRAYED BY SHADOWS


Reluctant hero Giles St. Clair doesn’t need a problem like Brigit MacCreedy to babysit. How much trouble can the head-strong beauty get into in two weeks? Kidnapping . . . manipulation . . . seduction. A preternatural clan war!With her family’s lives on the line, Brigit will do whatever it takes. The only thing in her way is a man she can’t bully or beguile. . . a Human, putting himself between her and her powerful enemies in a battle he can’t win. Enjoy this week’s taste of BETRAYED BY SHADOWS . . .

Giles St. Clair liked things arranged in neat, straightforward columns, days of the week, morning/afternoon, day/night, black/white, right/wrong, good/bad, and when something didn’t fit or fell into a gray area, that was when his life got complicated. Better to keep things simple so he wouldn’t have to dwell on them too deeply, something he’d learned from Jimmy Legere. 

Living under the mobster’s roof had taught him a lot about the world, generally, that it was a cruel, merciless place, but there was beauty to be found even in the meanest of circumstances if one looked for it hard enough. Jimmy called beauty the silver lining that quickly tarnished. 

Jimmy had been no philosopher, but he’d managed to see right to the truth of things, the same way he’d read the naive college boy Giles once was. Things were usually exactly what they seemed, and no amount of wanting and dreaming would ever change that. 

Brigit MacCreedy was one of those beautiful things that would appear in his harsh, ugly world to make him want and dream again. Watching her was like watching a sunrise, like seeing those first bright spring flowers pushing through the dead remains of winter. She was like poetry and music that teased the heart and transported the mind, but only for a moment because he knew the second he got closer, the minute he looked deeper, that surface loveliness would begin to dull and darken, and things would get complicated. 

So, he’d watch from a distance and appreciate what he saw without having to put her into one of the two basic categories that arranged the way he viewed everyone he met, a lesson his own father taught him: There were good guys and there were bad guys.

Self-sacrificing promises, deadly secrets, and dangerous pasts collide at a bayou crossroads in this “Taming of the Shrew” meets “Goodfellows” tale of consequences, redemption and finding love in all the wrong places in this e-only Book 7 of my dark shapeshifter “By Moonlight” series. I’m rather heartbroken that I don’t have the book trailer available for viewing since it was the first I’d scripted, but the text survives in the paragraph above. 


I’m using the loooong holiday to stow the last of Christmas away and keep up the momentum on the final “By Moonlight” book after a jump start at last week’s critique group weekend. What are your plans?

Happy Weekend, fellow Warriors!!



Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly hop for everyone who loves to write! Share an 8 to 10 sentence snippet of your writing on Sunday. Visit other participants on the list and read, critique, and comment on their 8sunday posts.

Spread the word, share the love, warriors - Hashtag #8sunday.

29 comments

  1. This sounds like a promising take on The Taming of the Shrew. Throwing in a mobster increases the chances of conflict exponentially.

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    1. Oh,yes, indeed! Though our hero is a recovering mobster associate not by choice.

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  2. Love this world. When is it published?

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    1. BETRAYED BY SHADOWS was release in e-book in December 2012. It's still available. I'm revisiting the previous books of the series as I finish the final installment. Happy reading!!

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    2. Oh.Yes! I find I've already got it! A blonde moment

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  3. Just what I want, Nancy. Sex, excitement at every turn. You go girl.

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    1. Well there's a little plot and conversation in there to break up the pace. ;-)

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  4. I wonder how long he'll be able to keep her at a distance. Great snippet!

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    1. Thanks, Jessica! Distance isn't what either of them really wants but to convince them of it . . .

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  5. For someone who wants to make life simple and straightforward, he's sure got a lot of poetry in his soul. Loved the snippet!

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  6. I understand wanting everything to fit into its proper place and how screwed up that gets when they don't fit that neatly. I'm just hoping she ultimately ends up in the "good guy" category! Love the snippet!

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  7. Wonderful and poetic insight into a frame of mind. It's understanding to want things to be simple, classifying the world is what the human mind excels at as a way of making sense of the universe. Trouble is, the universe is never so obliging ... :)

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    1. And never is Brigit when it comes to rocking his world. Thanks, Ian!!

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  8. I'm betting keeping her at a distance will last about five seconds. Time to have your tidy world view overturned, Giles!

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  9. Great insight into his mind. He's finally got the world figured out and she comes along to mess it up. :)

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  10. Hmm, dad might seem cynical to many, but in his line of work, he's a pretty smart guy. :-)

    Great snippet, Nancy!

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    1. Exactly. Now his son has to decide which one he is.

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  11. I have a hunch his life is about to change. Some shades of gray may be thrown into his black and white. lol

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  12. Another fantastic snippet, I loved it!

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  13. I think his "good guys" and "bad guys" theory is about to get shaken up.
    Tweeted.

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  14. I imagine Brigit is about to chance some deeply held beliefs. Good snippet.

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    1. Rather she'll remind him of ones he used to hold!

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