by Natalie Grey
She took a big gulp, wiping the foam from the corners of her mouth with a self-conscious laugh. Then she took another drink. And another. “This is amazing. Where did you get it?”
“Actually….” Bobcat took a seat. “I brewed it myself.”
“Really?” She took another drink. “This is so good. Could you teach me?”
“To brew beer?” He grinned pretty damned wide. “Hell yeah! Want to go learn about it in the back now?”
“But we have the whole rest of the ship to see...” her voice trailed off as she looked down at the beer, and then over to the door. Down at the beer again and slowly to the door once more.
Her eyes rested back on the mug, “Ok, Let’s brew some beer.”
Bobcat nodded, “Good choice. Come on, I keep the supplies through here….” Bobcat led her away, pausing only to fill two more mugs for them.
As soon as they were gone, Bethany Anne, William, and Nathan came out from the other side of the restaurant / bar.
They’d been in the bar and hid when Merideth told them the two were heading in this direction. They stared after Yelena and Bobcat incredulously.
“He found a woman who likes beer as much as he does,” William admitted.
“He found a woman he likes more than beer,” Bethany Anne agreed.
“If they ever have babies, they are going to be born holding steins,” Nathan concluded.
Beside them, Bellatrix chuffed with laughter.
FINIS
Author Notes - Natalie Grey
Written December 21st, 2016
This is Michael and I’m going to write Natalie’s first Author Notes. Why? Well, two reasons.
First, she is leaving for vacation with her family early in the morning and is out of touch and I didn’t make sure to get one from her :-(
The second, and possibly just as telling, is that she really isn’t that fond of attention. She is, in my experience so far, the first author that says that she doesn’t want too much attention…and like, means that.
So, as you might guess, I’m trying to get her to open up a little. I’ve asked for an Author Notes from her (about five minutes ago). and we shall see if I get something. If I do, I’ll add it below this so you get both of these ;-)
I met Natalie AKA (Facebook name withheld on purpose) on 20BooksTo50k. She is helping me with this book (ALL OF YOU DOG LOVER’S REJOICE - That means you too, Stephen Russell). Further, she is going to do a series of the happenings in the three years between The Kurtherian Gambit 13 (My Ride is a Bitch) and The Kurtherian Gambit 14 (Don’t Cross This Line) called The Dark Years Illuminated. These stories are going to be anchored by Stephen and Jennifer.
I’ll give more information about Natalie when I’m given permission, and we shall see if I can get her to enjoy opening up about this author thing that she does so well.
Please give a warm welcome to the VERY FIRST lady Kurtherian Gambit Author!
(I received a quick Author Note from Natalie before she left last night…Here we go ;-)
FROM NATALIE
I grew up in rural New England, surrounded by a lot of vegetables and relatively little excitement. Therefore, I was obliged to make up excitement by pretending to be a knight, mage, jet-setting international assassin, Jedi, or (occasionally) I was a shape-shifting dragon.
I read everything I could get my hands on, from Lord of the Rings to Modesty Blaise, and eventually started writing my own stories full of what-ifs and snarky put-downs.
Now I live with two German Shepherd mixes in the frozen wilds of Minnesota, and my own inventive swearing happens while I have to shovel stuff out their!
Author Notes - Michael Anderle
Written December 21st, 2016
As always, can I say with a HUGE amount of appreciation how much it means to me that you not only read this book, but you are reading these notes as well?
This book about Bellatrix was not only a fan desired book (ok, some fans demanded the book) but also my editor Stephen Russell was bugging the shit out of me to get it done.
Like…weeks ago (as soon as he saw Bellatrix in book 14).
Now, you may not know it, but Stephen Russell previously bred dogs, and he has been a big supporter of Ashur through all of these stories. As one of my editors since book 5, he has had a lot of time to bug me. Now, he had ANOTHER dog to champion, and he was using the fans clamoring for a story to bludgeon me because of HIS desire for a story.
So, I told him to write some ideas down, and then he and I worked with Natalie to flesh out the story, and the two of them gave it life. I edited and provided commentary in the beginning, and then I polished the final draft changing some things that wouldn’t work in the universe.
So, due to their hard work, we have BELLATRIX, and I have to say, there were two scenes that brought tears to my eyes.
Dammit!
Merry Christmas Natalie, and to all of you as well!
Michael Anderle
Thank you to the following Super Help
for putting together a SERIES TIMELINE
Keith Hellis
Timeline Here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwImbYUAN598WTVkLXJuMXZpOEE/view?usp=drivesdk
Coming January / February 2017
