In the past, I’ve tried a few different ways to bring interested readers to my books, including posting photos of pink flamingos to my Facebook page and sharing various inspirational quotes. As we begin a new decade of 2020, I thought it would be nice to let my words speak for themselves. As such, I’ll be posting more excerpts from my books in hopes of catching your interest.

So, in a desire to let my words speak for themselves, the following is an excerpt from Dreaming In Moonlight. It’s a scene I found fun to write and added a bit of humor for Lord Gavin Richard Montague, Grand Duke of Maninberg, and his backstory.

Please enjoy this excerpt from DREAMING IN MOONLIGHT

Focusing only on his desire to claim his birthright and gain ultimate control over his father’s realm, Gavin had called upon the highest powers of the land to grant his wish. For better or worse, his wish had been granted, almost too willingly, by the wizard Tazire.

It seemed so simple, so amazingly simple. In exchange for accepting immortality, he had been granted complete and total control of his kingdom, the small but prosperous Duchy of Maninberg. At the time he had thought it the most magnificent blessing possible, the ultimate fulfillment of his grandest desire, to live forever with complete and total control of Maninberg. However, he quickly discovered there was one stipulation he had not fully considered. He was absolutely, positively, and completely limited to inhabiting his domain and only his domain, always and forever, and not one step more.

Years upon years, decades upon decades, had given him ample time to repeatedly test this limitation. Countless times he had tested the power holding him confined to his land, and each time he had experienced the same disappointing results. He could not step one foot outside of his domain. He could not add one square inch of ground to his kingdom, nor could any be taken from him.

His kingdom had become his cage.

Some of his attempts had been comical, some nearly tragic, but none had been successful. With particular embarrassment he remembered the time he tried to catapult himself across the invisible border, only to fly face first into the invisible and impenetrable wall and crumple painfully to the ground.

Nearly as painful, both physically and to his ego, was the time he thought to disguise his exit by hiding in a coffin strapped to the back of a wagon. Surely the appearance of a dead body in a coffin would be allowed to cross the boundary. The driver, with horse and wagon, had proceeded across the border without incident, but the coffin in which he laid had become dislodged. The heavy wooden casket encasing his body had simply slid off the back of the wagon, and dropped to the ground with a bone-crushing thud. Once again, he’d been prohibited from making the crossing.

For all his efforts, he had finally learned to accept that he was a prisoner within his own kingdom. Anyone else could come and go as they pleased, but Gavin was held captive by an unseen force holding him ultimately and firmly within the confines of his kingdom. He often had an eerie feeling that the old wizard, Tazire, was somewhere watching his ridiculous attempts at freedom and laughing his ass off.