Meet Diego Chan

He's the protagonist of the original novelette of mine that will appear this summer in the anthology, The Wild Side, that I'm editing. Publisher Toni quite reasonably wants you all to have to buy the book to read his story--so do I!--but I'm confident she wouldn't mind me sharing with you a tiny, tiny taste of the first scene of the first story of a character with whom I hope to spend a lot of time over the next several years.

The Long Dark Night of Diego Chan

"Sam’s gone over,” the first line of the text message said.

“You said you’d help if it ever came to this,” the second continued.

“It has.”

“Barbara.”

Diego Chan kept running but reversed direction and headed back to the Super 8 that was passing for home this week. His legs carried him easily, his heart beat a steady rhythm, and his muscles moved smoothly and with power. He brushed the sweat from his eyes and thumbed a response, “Okay.” He sent it on its way through the three redirectors that would mask its origins before it reached her.

He pulled up the tracking display on his phone: five miles out, a hair over seven minutes a mile so far, over thirty-five minutes to make it back. Not good enough. He pushed harder but not so hard that anyone would notice. That wouldn’t buy him much time, but if she was right, the clock had started ticking a while ago.

The morning sun was still coming into its own when he reached the motel thirty-one minutes later.

I did say it was a tiny taste, right? For the more than twelve thousand remaining words in what I must immodestly say is a story I quite like, you will indeed have to buy the book.

Of course, when you do that, you'll get nine other urban fantasy stories you're sure to enjoy, an exclusive introduction to the collection, and afterwords to all the stories from the writers. Plus, a kick-ass Dan Dos Santos cover--and all for only $13 list, less online and at many bookstores.

You know you need to meet Diego. Give in and pre-order now.