Sunday Snippet: To Create a Spy

My youngest kiddo is twenty today. I'm officially no longer a parent of a teenager. Wow. Feels like a milestone.

Had a long week of work projects but got a decent amount of television viewing done also. Sometimes running in the background and other times when I needed to shut my brain off for a while.

I caught two more episodes of The Alaska Triangle. Skagway featured as a gold-rush ghost town and an island with a possible colony of bigfoot ended up being really interesting.

Watched two episodes of The Muppets. The show is growing on me, which is kind of moot since it's only a single season, I believe.

Enjoyed two episodes of Harrow. I'm very intrigued by the backstory mystery. I want to know who Harrow is protecting because I don't buy into the idea he's the culprit. I'm leaning toward Fern at the moment.

Caught two episodes of Peak Practice. I'm liking season seven even if it's kind of messy at the moment. I also rather love the new doctor.

Dove into two more MasterClass lessons with Es Devlin. I love the way she describes her process and how she encourages collaboration. I think I'm going to love this class.

Started The Witcher: Nightmares of the Wolf and didn't finish it. I'm not in the right head space for the animation right now. I'll pick it back up at some point.

Enjoyed two episodes of Classic Rugrats. This is one of my background shows. I can put an episode on and enjoy while I'm digging into something else. I needed that this week.

Watched two episodes of Chicago Med. I'm very interested in the episode titles and like how they're all part of a theme. This show is so good.

I'm almost finished with the first season of Snoopy in Space. This is another background show that I can put on and enjoy when I need a break. The episodes are a quick ten minutes and very fun to watch.

Caught another episode of The Brokenwood Mysteries. I'll probably finish this show up and then have to wait impatiently for a new season. My one singular critique of this show is having Gina be so clueless about Mike's disinterest. It's been seven seasons and I kind of wish they'd address that dynamic at some point.

Started a new season of Silent Witness and while there's no Harry anymore, I like the changes. Should be fun to follow along now.

Finished up an arc of Classic Who and will usher in a new season this week. I'll be interested to see where the show goes from here.

Started a new mystery show with Paranoid and thoroughly enjoyed the first episode. I'll enjoy diving into this one.

That's pretty much it for the weekly update. Tonight's post is from To Create a Spy, a novella that got a start with a writing community challenge and might morph into a trilogy.

Here's the mini-blurb:

Mariah St. James isn't what she appears to be when she's recruited by a covert black ops group hell bent on using her supposed skill set. But when she finds an ally in Matthew Jamison, she thinks she might actually survive the rigorous and deadly training … until he betrays her by leaving her alone in a dangerous situation.

And a sneaky peek…

Mariah couldn't take it anymore. If she'd been removed from the prison then she had a chance to survive. But first, she needed answers. And she had to find out if she'd landed back in the hands of the insane people who'd forced her to do their bidding.

She craned her neck and scanned the room for something, anything she could use to cause harm … because she'd kill herself before they doused her with those mind bending drugs again.

A sharp pinch along her shoulder made her wince in pain. She told her achy muscles to fuck off and sat up just as the door snicked open and caught her off guard. She moved too fast. Her head swam, pinpoints of light pricking behind her eyelids and the room darkened for a moment.

Squeezing her eyes shut and blinking hard she opened them to find the blue-eyed man standing just inside the door, arms behind his back.

The force of his gaze made her dizzy enough to grab the edge of the cot with both hands … willing herself not to pitch forward and fall off.

Or throw up.

She needed to have a few moments to gather her strength.

Breathing in a calming breath, she raised her head to pin him with a bold stare. “Where the hell am I?” Her voice sounded like gravel on the road.

He merely raised an eyebrow at her choice of language. Damn, ice probably wouldn't melt in his veins. The thought gave her pause but not enough to stay quiet.

She followed with a statement instead of a question this time. “You can’t keep me here.”

Would be nice to know wherever here might be.

Would also be terrific if her head stopped throbbing and her muscles would quit quivering. How could she escape if she didn't get a handle on her body?

I love writing this story and really want to capture a Michael and Nikita with Matthew and Mariah. That series was the inspiration for this novella and part of the writing challenge.

 

That's it for this week. Catch everyone on the flipside.

ML Skye