An Excerpt, and a Celebration!

New Release, Reading

My upcoming novella, Dog Meat, is set in the 1980s in a made-up country (the “Colony”), but the following scene happened to real-life family friends of ours (now American citizens). Ward is a little boy at home with his family. His mother and father (“Patro”) are intellectuals, and Revolution soldiers think intellectuals are dangerous.

The soldiers were angry, so angry. The family’s front door stood ajar, and the soldiers tramped about the living room, knocking books off the shelves and smashing icons with sledgehammers and cane sticks. Ward tried to press his way inside his mother’s body to get away from the uniformed men.

Patro crawled on his knees first to one soldier then the next. “We have done nothing wrong,” he said. Patro’s protest brought a swift cane to the back of his head.

“Patro!” Ward yelled, and his mother covered his mouth with her trembling hand.

Ward’s father wept while the family’s small house filled with smoke from burning books and the bookshelves that once held them. Then the angry men attacked the piano with their sledgehammers, and the discordant wails from the dying instrument joined the cries of Ward and his mother.

From Dog Meat** by Priscilla Bettis

**Sound intriguing? Dog Meat will be released on November 8th. You can preorder an e-book on Amazon or directly from the Potter’s Grove Press. (Paperbacks available on release day.)

In other news, I finished the first draft of my new novel (which might include an abandoned farmhouse and possibly ghosts). Woohoo! Horror author Rami Ungar asked if I was going to drink a bunch of good booze to celebrate and warned me not to drunk-blog about it. I told him nah, I was going to celebrate by eating a bunch of Oreos and sugar-high-blogging about it. (I sincerely hope I don’t regret this evening’s blog post!)

In other, other news, have you been following Bad Moon Rising on Teri Polen’s site? It’s a great way to “meet” horror and thriller authors. I had a turn on October 4th.

This quarter I am reading books from authors I follow online.

Currently reading: This Attraction Now Open Till Late by Bram Stoker Awards nominee Kyla Lee Ward, a collection of 13 delightfully dark tales.

Up next: A Peril in Ectoplasm (isn’t that a fab title?) by Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene, a Roaring Twenties paranormal novella.

Photo by Luke Besley on Unsplash.

Published

94 thoughts on “An Excerpt, and a Celebration!”

  5. Congratulations! And thinking people ARE dangerous.

    I am commenting here because I wanted to send you this photo I took yesterday. I thought it might make good cover art.

    Best,

    Fawn

    Liked by 1 person

  14. Thanks for the excerpt. Atmospheric and menacing. Perfect! Congratulations on your writing, and I have Teagan’s novella also on my list, so I look forward to hearing what you think of it. ♥

    Liked by 1 person

  16. Burning the books and the bookshelves? The soldiers are bad people indeed! Love how excited you are. Sounds like all good things happening on the writing front at the moment 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  17. Hi Priscilla – great post and what a chilling scene. It’s scary that these things are still happening. Congratulations on the upcoming release of “Dog Meat” and completion of the first draft of your new novel! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  18. Congratulations on your upcoming novella! The excerpt sounds very powerful and very authentic – I’m not surprised that it’s based on real events. I preordered the book and I’m looking forward to reading it.

    Liked by 1 person

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