Veronica Scott here: Author Sandy James was one of our comrades on Here Be Magic for quite a while. Her family is going through a tough time right now due to her husband of 32 years battling Stage 4 colon cancer (which she has discussed and tweeted about, so I'm not giving TMI here). I thought we'd rerun this post from her, on the first book in her Amazon series from 2012, show our support for our friend, and encourage anyone who's been thinking about reading this or any other of Sandy's wonderful novels to go ahead and take the plunge!
Post edited a tiny bit to update the publication information. The following is what Sandy wrote in 2012:
The prologue.
Post edited a tiny bit to update the publication information. The following is what Sandy wrote in 2012:
The prologue.
Reviled or praised?
It seems that authors and editors simply can’t come to a
consensus on whether a book should have a prologue.
I’ve used prologues before. In fact, I love writing them! Perhaps that’s because I also love reading them.
To me, they’re like a movie trailer with scenes of an upcoming story. A
prologue sets the tone of the book and can provide vital information from a
character’s past to understand everything that comes next.
On the other hand, prologues can be nothing but unnecessary
backstory—a litany of things the reader really doesn’t need to know.
The Reluctant Amazon,
the first book in the Alliance of the Amazon series, released from Carina Press
yesterday. If you read it, you won’t find a prologue. I wrote one, but in discussion
with my editor, we figured we needed to start this story with Rebecca rather
than an Amazon you would only see once—Maria.
So…just for kicks and giggles, I’m going to let you all read
the prologue for The Reluctant Amazon.
***
Prologue
How damn ironic. The Guardian
had let her guard down.
Taking slow, careful steps to
the window, Maria calculated the time to reach the fire escape, climb down and
run like the wind she used to command.
She’d never make it.
She wanted to scream in
frustration, wanted to slam her fist into a wall. How could she have allowed
herself to forget? How could she have allowed herself to think evil would ever
remain at bay for long? It was a wish, born of blind hope that the next
generation wouldn’t have to be summoned. Without her, the three who remained
wouldn’t be enough to fight this new threat.
Maria’s stomach tightened into a
painful knot as she sensed them inside her apartment now. The hunters—the
revenants. Cold and predatory. She wouldn’t even give them a good fight, her
skills rusty from being idle for far too long. Almost nine decades since her
heyday. Ninety years since she had wielded the power of the skies. Scolding
herself for her lack of discipline in keeping up with her training wouldn’t do
any good. Her bones creaked like the ancient woman she should be. Her physical
and mental discipline had fallen out of practice. She’d let the damned
revenants sneak in without immediately feeling their presence.
Reaching out with her senses,
hoping they would miraculously return to the level Maria had enjoyed when she
was young, she tried to count the revenants and anticipate their movements. How
many were seeking her?
Too many.
She had the advantage—she knew
they were hunting her. The revenants had arrived in stealth rather than
charging about like the mindless minions they were.
If they’d been certain she was
there, she’d already be dead.
Slowly sliding the window up,
she crawled through, trying to keep her movements slow and praying to the
Ancients that the fire escape wouldn’t make a sound as she eased onto it. The
Ancients weren’t listening, or else they simply didn’t think her humble life
was worth an intervention. The betraying metal creaked and groaned as it
accepted her weight.
The revenants knew she was there
now—she felt them surging toward her. The stench of the creatures assaulted her
nostrils, making the bile rise in the back of her throat. The smell was too
similar to the subways she rode almost daily. Piss and decay.
They came through her apartment,
and she sensed more of them working up the ladder from ten stories below. In
her heyday, the jump would have been easy. If not easy, at least not fatal. But
this wasn’t her era, and she was good and trapped.
Two options. Death by their
hands or death by her own. And being murdered by a revenant wasn’t…pleasant. Nor
would it serve as a fitting end for one of her kind.
Well, to Hades with that!
She was an Amazon—one of the chosen—and the Guardian of the others, no less. She
had lived as a warrior, and she was damn well going to die like one.
Beckoning all of her remaining
power from the skies, she sent a warning on the wind to the three who remained.
This Guardian was going to die, but not before she summoned another to take her
place. The dawn of the next incarnation had come.
May the next have more
discipline and power.
The vile creatures piled
together, trying to push through the window as one. More crept up the fire
escape.
“You’re too late.” Maria gave
them a smug smile. “Your master will be displeased.”
Then she jumped.
***
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