Time to Grab Your Bear!

What do ancient magic sturgeons, video game developers, enchanted beards and bears have in common?

They're all part of Wild Rose, Silent Snow, of course!

The new Tilted Gay Fairy Tale from Angel Martinez launched as part of the Once Upon a Fairy Tale AmberPax yesterday (11/18/12) and if you read one story about bears who are truly bears this holiday season, make sure this is the one you don't miss!

Blurb:  

Content with the quiet isolation of their lake house, Snowden and Rowan Hadley survive on summer jobs and winter hunting, unable to move on since their parents died. Their peace, however, is shattered by a strange, human-acclimated bear who insists on following Rowan like a giant hunting dog, and then again by the discovery of a naked, surly stranger in the snow.

Both bear and man lead the Hadley brothers into a strange, surreal world where sorcery and RPG software intertwine. Curses and magical traps lie in wait around every turn. Rowan and Snowden will need to adjust their view of how the world works, and quickly, if they want to live through the process of rescuing their enchanted princes.



Excerpt:

Familiar trees marked his route. He took his time, checking and resetting each empty snare. Anything would be welcome, of course, a squirrel, a pheasant, but with so much of the wildlife hunkered down for the winter, all the snares were empty.

With a disappointed huff, he reset the last one, turned back toward the house, and froze, his heart slamming against his ribs. Not more than ten feet away, his coat dusted in snow, stood a brown bear the size of a compact car.

How the hell does something that big make no sound?

Rowan backed a careful, slow step. The bear watched him silently, his only movement a shift of weight from one front paw to the other and the dragon steam of his breath on the morning air. He tried to remember everything he had heard about bears. Did you stand still and hope it went away? Did you run like hell and hope it wasn’t interested?

Running seemed foolish with the bear watching him so intently. Another step back…another…and then his snowshoe caught on a log to send him flailing backward. The air rushed from his lungs as his back hit hard pack. The impact jarred his grip on his rifle, the weapon skittering across the clearing.

A heavy weight settled on his chest. The bear gazed down at him, pinning him with one huge paw. He lay as still as his trembling allowed, gulping for air that felt suddenly too thick to breathe.

I’m going to die. Snow, I’m so sorry… Oh, God, I don’t want to die like this…

Images of his poor twin coming out into the snow to find him and discovering only the blood and gore of his remains haunted him. He squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the pain to start.

And waited. And waited.

He cracked an eye open, hoping the pressure on his chest was just anxiety and the bear had wandered off. No such luck. Bear. Still very much looming over him, head cocked to one side. Damn if he doesn’t look…puzzled.

“Mr. Bear,” he ventured softly, knowing it was just a hair shy of idiotic, but too nervous to keep quiet any longer. “Think you could let me up, maybe?”

The huge head lowered. Rowan’s heart lurched hard as if it recognized its last beat. Please make it quick. Tear the jugular. Still no pain followed the bear’s movements. Even with all of Rowan’s personal proximity alarms screaming, his body urging him to kick out, yell, do something, he lay still, mesmerized as the bear snuffled at his hair and face.

A grunt in his ear sent shivers down his back, but the bear finished his inspection by nuzzling at his jaw. The heavy paw lifted and the bear sat with an odd, mournful moan.

Rowan sat up slowly, easing back to gain a few feet between them. Jump up, grab the rifle, and run? But the bear sat squarely in his path to his Remington, staring at him solemnly.

That regard somehow struck him as alien intelligence rather than ursine, something both sad and curious in that steady gaze, if one could assign emotions to a bear’s strange, white-less eyes. The bear sat back, human-wise on his butt, back legs stuck out in front. Definitely “he” from that angle. The pose seemed an assurance of non-aggression.

“I’m getting up now,” Rowan said in that same soft, reasonable tone, uncertain of his sanity as he tried to negotiate with an ursine intellect who couldn’t possibly understand what he said.

The bear grunted and gave a resigned huff, but he didn’t move.

“Don’t have anything for you. And humans taste pretty awful…”

A snort from the bear.

“So I’m just going to go back home now if that’s all right with you.” He backed a step, risked turning when the bear still didn’t move, and started slowly through the ice-laden trees back toward the house.

When he glanced back, his breath caught. The bear followed. He stopped. The bear stopped. He took another step. The bear echoed him, step for step, always keeping a few feet behind him...

Pick up your copy while it's hot and at the New Release 35% discount! :)