Welcome to the fantastical side of romance with magic and myth, ,
You read that correctly. I was minding my own business at the YMCA last week. With summer now in full swing, and the kiddos at home. I STILL have to get Breaking Fate finished up. I'm determined to finish the first draft before the end of JUNE!
At the YMCA they give members 90 minutes where they can drop their kids off in their indoor playcenter. So, that's what I did. They are excited to go. I go upstairs for 30 minutes on the elliptical, watch an inappropriate for kids movie on my phone while I get my heart pumping.
Then, I went downstairs and sat at a table with my distraction free typewriter to wrap up book two! Believe it or not, I had my headphones in listening to music and really was minding my own business, typing away while the kids played for the remainder of their time at the kid's play zone. But it was my typing device that intrigued a fellow member.
They approached, wondering about my strange typewriting machine, and we chatted about distraction free writing and how I get more writing done and told him about my device, but that it was not a cheap expense. If he wanted similar results there was also a more affordable Alpha Smart Neo, which is an older technology but can provide the same benefits for cheaper than a Freewrite device.
This is not an advertisement for distraction free writing devices, but typing in public got someone's attention and they asked "So, you're a writer? What do you write?"
In good introvert fashion, I stammered and blustered, but finally got out that I write about mythology and romance. And the statement that intrigued him was when I said:
Tell me one myth where the monsters went out of their way to harm someone that wasn't commanded by the gods themselves?
Most of the legends, mortals and demi-gods alike went out of their way to kill the "monsters". But what made them monsters? That they looked different? That they had power? Were they monsters? Or were the gods?
I'm writing book two of a Medusa Retelling after her head is reunited with her body in modern times and fate tries to kill her all over again. It's adventure, romance, and tells myth and legend from a different perspective where monsters aren't really monsters at all.
And in typical fashion of many writers, I left it at that and didn't prompt him to read my book or even say, "check it out". I'd answered his question and told him about the distraction free writing device that he was interested in, but then he asked, "What's it called? Is it in Audiobook?"
"Yes, it is in audiobook," I replied awkwardly. "It's called Taking Medusa."
He proceeded to say how excited he was to have met an author in person and that he would definitely grab the book.
I didn't think anything of it. People tend to be polite and it wasn't the first time someone said they'd read or check out my book, but forget about it later.
But, he did.
The next day, I saw my book had a purchase, and a blip of activity after a long time of it being stagnant. I'm sure it was him, because up until that moment, I had only had one person grab my book in the month of June. And many days of no pages read, no new eyes, no new readers. And then the blip of activity.
It's awkward to admit that, since indie authors like me have anxiety about if telling readers about our bouts of insecurities or the lack of movement could be seen as lack of social proof that our books are good or worth someone's time.
But it just goes to show that, interest can come from anywhere, regardless of if we are trying. Sometimes it's luck. Sometimes it's someone else giving us a chance. But every single one of my reviews on Taking Medusa are from people I've never met in person, perhaps that changes today?
It may seem like a small number, but for me it's huge, that Taking Medusa has 71 ratings on Goodreads with a 4.5 star average with 91% of readers rating 4-5 stars! From people I've never met in person.
Not even my mother rates my books, because I've told her that even though ratings and reviews mean a lot, the algorithm will do better finding more readers who may like my books if she doesn't, because she doesn't usually read my kind of genre. She reads historical fiction mostly, and the only way I'm going to make it as an author is if I find my clan! The die-hard fantasy romance readers out there like me!
And if you are a reader, and you see someone typing away in public, at a Starbucks, the YMCA, feel free to say, "Hi." and find out what they are working on. Most of the time, us authors are surprised and it makes us smile long after the encounter. That little bit of excitement in his eyes and the knowledge that he will actually read my book, was exactly the motivation I needed to write more and get excited about launching book two again.
Thank you kind stranger, and maybe... this story gets others excited to take a chance on Taking Medusa and bring yet another smile to my face to know that slowly, but surely, there are readers who are just as excited as I am for the Dark Gods Rising Series and Medusa's POV.
Haven't read Taking Medusa, you can dive into Fated Mates, Slow-burn Romance, Fantasy Adventure with myths, legends, and sexy gods with book one in Kindle Unlimited! Has over 70 reviews on Goodreads with a 4.5 star average! https://books.steviemarie.com/takingmedusa (Breaking Fate can be read without reading this, but there are spoilers in book two for book one. Head over to reading Taking Medusa in Kindle Unlimited
Excerpt:
Waking to achy muscles, I felt like I’d ran a marathon, or in this case swam one. Despite the soreness, I was oddly comfortable. Blinking several times, my eyes had to adjust to the brightness before seeing myself in a cushion of colored tentacles. If my body listened to me, I would have jumped up in panic.
“I had the anemone sting you so that you wouldn’t harm them when you woke. It’ll wear off soon, but I don’t recommend moving unless you want them to excrete more toxins. They are harmless to most sea nymphs, you just have to give them a few fish to eat or some algae and they’re happy enough,” the girl from my nightmares explained. In the light of the day, her hair was the same color as the kelp, a rich green, and her eyes were a warm mango yellow. She was inhuman, but she didn’t seem as scary now as she did in the moon’s glow, but she also wasn’t flashing me those flesh tearing grinders.
My head was propped up on the rocks with a few anemones for a pillow, the salty water calmly sloshed against my ears. We were in some sort of enclosed pool, blocking the harshness of the sea’s waves, and my host’s head peeking out from the water in front of me, her mouth thankfully below the surface so I could pretend she wasn’t going to eat me.
“I can’t decide what kind of sea nymph you are,” she pondered, though her mouth was still hidden, and I only now realized I was hearing her through the water still clogging my ears, “I’ve never seen one quite like you, at least not in my lifetime. Most of your kind don’t look so much like a mortal, not since King Triton ruled that any offspring with mortals be stripped of their gifts at birth if they don’t live in the sea.”
She spoke as if I should know about what she was talking about, and all I could do was stare. My throat was raw, and my mouth felt like cotton, but I could breathe.
I thought I would croak my response, but odd enough I sounded normal, “I’m not a nymph.”
Waving me off she continued, “I don’t care that you’re a rogue, betrayer of the gods. Fuck them,” she said flippantly as she leaned back to float on her back, a large fin burst from the water splashing me with salt water. “Times have changed, they don’t want mortals to ruin their entertainment by being too aware of them. They get enough of a power boosts from the myths, and bullshit media worship that they don’t want the responsibility of managing a bunch of temples and prayers again.”
My mouth opened and closed like a guppy, and she stretched, her fin on full display, sparkling in the sunshine like a rainbow. She was a freaking merperson.
“Plenty of people lose their phones in the water. I’m not completely cut off from the land dwellers… Plus, we like to take a few mortals for fun every so often,” she admitted sheepishly, but all I heard was the word ‘we’.
There were more, somewhere around here.
Wherever here was.
She leaned in, gathering her green hair to one side over her shoulder. “Have you always had legs?”
I sputtered on some water that crashed over my mouth remembering her previous question about bargaining for my legs. Was that why I was here? My wet suit was gone, and my legs were exposed, still numb from whatever toxin the anemone gave me.
“I won’t tell King Triton. I’m under oath to eventually tell him you exist, but,” she shrugged, “we can negotiate when that will be, and between just us fishes he’s not particularly fond of mortals, and let’s us do what we want as long as we stay in the sea, and clean up our mess.” She winked, then glided up next to me, lifting herself onto the rocks.
And by mess, the only image in my mind, was merpeople chowing down on human meat.
“Do you eat them?” I couldn’t help but ask, now that her smile was on full display along with her large fin. She seemed pleased by this assessment and laughed. The sound that came from her throat was like sandpaper, and metal on metal grating, nothing like the voice I was hearing earlier. Even the anemone that had no sense of sound were startled into sucking all their tentacles back into their bodies by whatever awful vibrations that noise produced.
Rock met with the back of my skull, no longer cushioned by the sea creatures. My body slid down the slope into the pool of water. Still numb from the anemone toxin, I only floated at the top for a moment before my face sunk under with the rest of me.
“The Petite Mermaid was only half right,” her voice was melodic once more, “We do have beautiful voices… but only under the water.” Now that I thought about it, the only time I heard the cries for help the other night was when I was swimming with my ears in the water. Frantically searching for where the girl was drowning… I’d heard nothing.
I sunk deeper into the depths of the hidden alcove, surrounded by high rocks, and beautiful colors of sea life. I had been tricked by merpeople to drown, and I didn’t even believe in such things. This was a nightmare designed to make me feel bad for not believing my sister about the myths of gods and monsters.
Leave it to a dying breath to start believing I should have, considering what my own blood could do, but I had convinced myself that there was a scientific explanation. Something in my DNA, a mutation, an evolution of the human condition that let me heal faster.
This time when I sucked in a breath of water my lungs knew what to expect, and the shock of the salt burning wasn’t as bad. That’s what I told myself to cope with how desperately I wanted to claw at my throat. The merlady’s green hair covered her exposed breasts, seemingly plastered in spot as she circled around me, her fishy scales refracting like a silver rainbow fish. My eyes stung to watch her, but I’d face my death head on, I wouldn’t turn blindly into my final moments, I tried to convince myself.
That was easier said than done, when the anemone took my choice away of trying to run.
She was a deadly dream that might have been lovely to see if it didn’t mean it was the last thing I’d know. The vulture of the sea, she circled me, not making a move to save me from my fate.
“You’ve been away from the sea for too long nymph."
Continue reading Taking Medusa: https://books.steviemarie.com/takingmedusa available in Kindle Unlimited, and Audible!
Add to Goodreads Shelf: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/150498806-taking-medusa
Read Taking Medusa today in Kindle Unlimited: https://books.steviemarie.com/takingmedusa
Support more book by S.M. McCoy by pre-ordering Breaking Fate: https://books.steviemarie.com/breakingfate
Or joining the ARC team: https://forms.gle/HmLDnnsUCeGWbEGV7
Add to your Goodreads shelf: Breaking Fate (Dark Gods Rising, #2) by S.M. McCoy | Goodreads
Pre-order on Breaking Fate on Amazon: https://books.steviemarie.com/breakingfate
Read the award winning Romantasy Taking Medusa and how we got to this point: https://books.steviemarie.com/takingmedusa
Join the ARC TEAM to help launch the book! https://forms.gle/zHWK1kSkSMXUy44g8
Also by me: Do you like Alien Romances? Check out my Pen Name Sky Robert!
Check out Michael's Passion an angel demon romance in Kindle Unlimited!
(This is a free sample) check out Unveiled Justice by Daisy Grace!
Check out Kraken's Vow by Raven Hush in Kindle Unlimited!
Check out Dragon Daddies by Lilly Wilder
Together with fellow indie sci-fi fantasy authors we've pooled together to offer this awesome Firefly Fan giveaway. Why? Because we write books with these kinds of feels, and if you like Firefly then you'll probably find a new favorite author among the bunch! The space adventure, the political intrigue, and even the romance! Firefly had it all, and you may not think of the comparison, but my alien romances have these same kinds of feels, the fast paced interstellar adventures with plots to unravel and romance that doesn't close the door when it gets spicy. Check out my Sky Robert's Alien Romances available in Kindle Unlimited. All are standalone complete romances where you can start from any book, but the more books you read, the more you unravel about the universe and how all of our couples fight together to save it! Sky Robert Books:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0BNXSFHZ4/allbooks
Author Updates/Writing Progress!
Breaking Fate Progress! 82K / 90,000 word goal (90% completed)
I've finally pushed through a writing block in this story and surged forward in my goal. We're so close to a completed first draft!
Book Stats: Breaking Fate currently has 19 preorders on Amazon, and 1 pre-order from my author store! The total cost of launching Breaking Fate is currently at $1080 (including 450 set aside for editing costs after I'm done writing.) and around $40 in preorders, makes us at 3.7% of launch costs covered. Goal of 225 preorders by October to cover editing costs, or I will have to rely on the ARC team and volunteer typo-killers to reduce launch costs.
If you would like to help support future books, and this series, you can preorder Breaking Fate on Amazon here: https://books.steviemarie.com/breakingfate
Or grab the pre-order from my Author Store here: https://payhip.com/b/CDfku
Want to read my books for freesies? Join the ARC TEAM!
https://forms.gle/zcXKjfRiEhsUhh5z5
(This form is for people who are not already part of the ARC team, if you were part of Taking Medusa's ARC team, there is no need to reapply, search your emails for "ACTION REQUIRED" and find the ARC opt-in and simply reply "YES" to that email to join the current team. My goal is to have my ARC completed by end of JUNE.)
The best thing about meeting and connecting with this team of book heroes is that this team is who I can rely on to help boost my author morale and keep me motivated to push through imposter syndrome. ARC team readers really are Book Heroes! Thank you for being part of my team!
If you haven't checked out book one, this is a series, these are not standalones, and I highly recommend reading Taking Medusa first, even though I do write my books to be easily read regardless of having read a previous book, there are plot reveals and spoilers if you start with book 2 instead of reading book 1 first.
Convincing you to read Taking Medusa:
Mermaids! Medusa is kidnapped to Atlantis for killing the last daughter of King Triton with her poisonous blood. To be fair.. she was trying to kill her first, and she has no idea how she survived it. She has no memory of being Medusa at all!
This is modern day and she believes that she's a normal mortal after her sister (a gorgon) stole her stone body from the watery depths and reunited her head after stealing it from Athena's shield, conveniently left in a museum instead of guarded by gods.
Enter DION! An Atlantis sentinel, who has some strange connection to her, and TRITON, who is apparently a glutton for falling for nymphs and collecting brides that don't survive long past their marriage vows.
There are mysteries, and romance, and adventure as Medusa (Aless) is lured back into the chaos and schemes of the gods. She's destined to protect them all, but fate has a funny way of trying to repeat itself. Can she keep her head this time around or will she sacrifice herself all over again?
This is a slow-burn romance fantasy adventure, so there is no clapping the cloisters, tickling the tentacles, or fishing for fins in book one, but this is a fated mates romance that will keep you turning the pages, and twisting your expectations of myth and legend. <3 Read Taking Medusa in KU!
https://books.steviemarie.com/takingmedusa
Already read Taking Medusa? Did you know Breaking Fate is available for preorder.... I'll just leave this here... (sparkles) https://books.steviemarie.com/breakingfate
Want to help me reach my next author goal of connecting with book heroes? Read my books for freesies and join my ARC TEAM! https://forms.gle/zcXKjfRiEhsUhh5z5
Chat soon!
xoxo
Stevie
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