posted on Wednesday
Call it an experiment. Little bits from the books. But I admit it: the ego is fragile. And I do watch the numbers. So if it turns out that the Grand Snippeting Experiment isn’t truly of interest in the long run…well, you’ll know why you aren’t seeing them any longer!
From the first chapter of The Reckoners….
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Sklayne stretched his awareness into their new location, sheltered by an unfamiliar spreading bush. ::green sharp smells, twittering dry feathers, hard glossy beetle–:: A satisfying crunch and swallow, beetle no more. “Think cat,” Trevarr said, his tension battering at Sklayne’s edges.
Sklayne knew cat. Sklayne had done cat in the darkness not long ago. Sleek reddish feline, leggy and much with the ears. Sklayne held his mind still, pushed; he expanded to encompass everything and anything before abruptly shrinking back to the cat shape. Now…vision of washed-out colors with sharp edges up close, fuzzy edges across this green expanse of manicured growth. Scents just as sharp, just as stingingly dry–and the recently consumed beetle had left its own aura. A prominent needled branch caught Sklayne’s attention; he sniffed, then delicately rubbed his face against it even as it bent out of his way. “Mrow,” he said, an experiment.
“Very convincing.” Trevarr stood tall beside him, shaded beneath a pampered cottonwood, squinting into the too-bright sunshine of this place even through his newly acquired sunglasses. Trevarr in disgrace. Looked much like Trevarr not in disgrace, but felt…
Tension. Guilt. Determination.
Trevarr ignored the brush of Sklayne’s thoughts. “Now behave yourself, and let’s go deal with this.”
“Mrrp,” Sklayne said, and liked that one even better. He found their target–not very large, not in the least aware of them. Sitting on a curvy wooden bench in the shade, bent over a printed binding. ::Get herrrr,:: he added.
It sounded like a purr.
Love Sklayne! Love, love, love! (Yes, finished the book. More, please!)
Read the book, loved the book, want more, but I’m not a smippet person. I never read the chapter of the next book in a series (the ones tha are put in to make you want to buy it. If I like it i’ll buy it but only when I can get th whole book. But if you are short of time or want to push your book, go for it.
Ruth, glee, glee, glee!
*distant author giggle*
Peggy, I can be fussy about snippets, too. They’re not for everyone, that’s for sure.
I find I use them if I’m not sure whether I want to get a book or not. If I know I want it, then I don’t read snippets and I don’t read those teaser chapters at the back of other books, either.
I also find I *never* read really long ones, but I’ll happily read a series of short ones. So that’s what I’ll try to do here.
I’m also on the fence about snippets. Like Peggy I never read the 1st chapter thingy either. But if it’s a brand new series I’ve never read then I like to see something from it. Looking forward to the books!
FCC.
ooh — new shifter stories — haven’t read any of yours yet but the excerpts have dragged me in. and i do like snippets… altho sometimes when i then read the book i have to remind myself why something looks so familiar.
Sandy, I ran into that problem just the other day at the start of a book–it was new, so I knew I couldn’t have read it, but I knew I had! It had been a sample chapter at the end of another book…
FFC!