Yes, the series is continuing!

It’s been a long time since the last update, but Book 8 of Raven of Iskandar is nearing the completion of the first draft.  We’re now over 80,000 words with still a couple of chapters to complete. 

The cliffhangers from Book 7 are resolved and the threaten conflict finally occurs.  It took a while to make the beginning of the conflict natural. 

Below is a sample chapter from the new book.  No spoilers, this is just one of those incidents that Raven and Chaoschick get themselves involved in.

After the failed Beta test of a Galacnet match, the team decided to get away, just in case Control wanted to try again.

Raven and Chaoschick were quickly out the front door and into the crowds on the street. Then they encountered a large crowd gathered for some reason. They wiggled through the crowd to see what was going on.

Raven thought that this was very strange. Out on the street, with a thick crowd around them, two men in full yellow jumpsuits were dancing in a circle.

There was an older man near her.

“Sir,” she asked. “Can you tell me what is going on here?”

“Oh, a Necris,” he remarked. “Welcome to Central. Well, these two men are the Lakes brothers, Lando and Thouson. Since it is International Cheese day, they are dancing the Tortellini. It’s a rather cheesy dance, they only go in circles.”

“Oh, ok,” she responded. “International? Not Alliance-wide?”

The old man didn’t turn. “Just keep watching,” he said.

Raven heard some rattling like stuff in a cardboard box and noticed that a few in the crowd had pulled out boxes of pasta. They opened up the boxes and began throwing handfuls at the dancers. The two men in the yellow suits gleefully began stomping on the pasta. There was so much that each footfall of the dancers made a crunching sound. The crunching was continuous.

Many in the crowd began clapping in rhythm.

Suddenly the Lakes brothers shouted out “Ho, Ho, Tortellini!” and reversed direction but still going around in a circle.

“All they need is tomato sauce,” groused Chaoschick.

“Why’s that?”

“Well you have lots of pasta and two meatballs dancing.”

Raven gave her a raspberry.

“That was pretty funny,” said the old man.

“Why are they throwing pasta at them?” asked the Necris.

“Traditional,” he replied. “They’re trying to make them fall over. The pasta gets to be like walking on marbles if they don’t stomp it.”

“Fall over?” expressed Chaoschick. “That’s easy.”

The brunette turned to the lady next to her, who was holding a container with what looked like lunch.

“Those are great meatballs,” she said. “Full, plump and aerodynamic.”

“Thanks, uh, what?” replied the lady.

“Can I have a meatball?”

“Sure.”

Raven knew what was going to happen. Chaoschick picked a particularly chunky meatball.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked in a hushed voice.

“At least they’ll stop blocking the street,” said Chaoschick, who launched the lunch at the dancers. The throw was excellent. It hit Lando in the side of the face. He staggered and slipped on some pasta and fell. Thouson tried to grab him before he fell, but he slipped also and fell on top of his brother.

The crowd cheered. Except for one man who must’ve been at least seven feet tall.

He pointed at Chaoschick. “You! I want to talk to you!” he threatened.

The lady with the lunch backed away. “No more lunch for you,” she expressed and backed into the crowd.

Raven and Chaoschick looked at each other. The man with the threating finger got close and Raven ducked behind him. As he reached Chaoschick, Raven kicked him in the back of the knees while the brunette shoved him in the chest. Raven had to duck as the huge man did a backflip onto the pasta and slid all the way into the brothers. Just as Lando got up on one knee and was pulling at Thouson, the big man hit them direct. Pasta and brothers launched into the crowd.

Some applauded and some emptied their pasta boxes on them.

Chaoschick was about to take a bow, but Raven grabbed her and dragged her out of the crowd.

They were headed away as security officers headed past them toward the ruckus.

Thanks for reading this far. Updates and posts will be more frequent, eh, not more than one a week. Any questions? You can reach the author (me!) at RavenofIskandar@gmail.com or just comment here.