STEVE BENTON

A complimentary, sample chapter from LILI G MUST DIE FIRST KILL W    here am I? I move through the pitch black,   feeling my way along an icky, stone wall of sorts.   It is slimy and gross,   like snot,   yet for some reason I am unable to smell the moisture's composition.   The clanging of cold steel rings in my brain like a hammer against a bell of iron,   and to make everything worse, I feel sick to my stomach.   I truly fear I will vomit again.   But I must not,   for the enemy shall detect the scent of my discharge,   and thus easily track my location.   Then they will eat my face—and my eyeballs. Vampires enjoy eating eyeballs. I find it difficult to move.   The boots I pilfered last week are ill fitting,   and have filled with mud.   They make an unsettling sloshing sound with each delicate step I take in this unfamiliar passage.   Worse yet,   I fear I will be heard...

Finally, after years of struggling with uninterested literary agents and publishers, and having received butt-loads of AMAZING reviews from BETA readers, I decided to pull the trigger and publish LILI G MUST DIE, the first YA installment in The Prīmulī Prophecies. Readers of the series already know Liliana. Born and raised in a restored, feudal Earth of the 43rd century, she experienced her first years in opulence and luxury, being the only child of Lord Kenneth and Lady Marcella Engel, of the Rhönen Dominion. After her parents, both borne lycans, tragically killed each other during a full moon, Lili was kidnapped by the callous minor mage Siegfreid, who performed illegal and nearly-lethal magical experiments on her, having somehow learned she is not only a borne lycan, but also a mage - a rare and extremely dangerous combination of enhanced subspecies. But Liliana survived. Castle life was hard. Having no land nor title, she was forced to work as a servant in the castle of...

It's a new term. It's stylized, and perhaps vaguely familiar. But what does it mean? Well, take out the gmen and you have the word "AUTISM".  Okay, that was obvious. But what isn't obvious is what the term is intended to represent. I guess the best way to describe it, without actually describing it, is to post up the hook for my manuscript of the same name: Bakersfield, California : Eleven year-old William Johnson, a special needs student with Asperger Syndrome, a mild autism spectrum disorder, breaks his arm after being pushed off his school playground's jungle gym. When Bobby Littleton, who caused William's fall, climbs down and punches the defenseless boy, William merely looks directly at the bully, who then inexplicably starts bleeding out of his mouth, nose, eyes and ears, and nearly dies in the process. Baltimore, Maryland : ADHD and autism researching psychiatrist, Dr. Jax Brady, learns of the Bakersfield incident and flies out to Califo...

We've been utilizing beta readers for LILI G MUST DIE, and the results have been no less than outstanding.  Here are some responses back from the readers: "Y our Primulus universe is, to me, the ultimate cross over." "I must say, I am very disappointed!  VERY DISAPPOINTED THAT I COULD NOT PUT THIS BOOK DOWN FOR ONE FREAKING MINUTE UNTIL I HAD READ, AND IN SOME CASES RE-READ EVERY SINGLE PAGE!!!" "M y head is still spinning. It's the kind of book you can't wait to re-read!" "A  wonderful gripping story, I can see as many adults as YA reading this and loving it." "... you weave  all these various genres together more effectively than any modern author I know" "... the end was SPECTACULAR." " WOW! Just wow!"

It was my final night in Moscow. The World Cup so far had been nothing short of amazing. I had met people from all over the world, but what affected me most was the warmth and kindness of the Russian people. From English-fluent hotel employees, to not-so-English-fluent cabbies, I was astounded. Everything I had been taught throughout my life was that Russians were alien, cold and quick to take advantage of foreigners. I couldn’t have been proven more wrong. On this one last night, after strolling through Saint Nicholas Street with my wife, Marielena, (and eating the most amazing hamburger ever) we decided to go back to our hotel, situated in a Soviet-era apartment apartment block fairly close to the Domodedovo Airport. And that’s where it all began. We boarded the Green line (#2) southbound. It was packed. Like sardines. I stood up in the back after I managed to secure a seat for my wife. Looking around, it seemed Marilena and I were the only non-Russians on the car. Now, let me...

I don't usually write tutorials or critiques (although I did write a post called Creating an Alien Language for your Manuscript) , but the other day I was fighting with someone on a web forum (I like fighting. It's fun!), and someone corrected a poster, stating that the person had incorrectly said "their" when it should have been "they're". In essence, the line read "they already have their tickets." Possessive - tickets that belong to "them." However, the responder said it should have been written, "they already have they're tickets." Ooof. My pet peeve. The three "theres" Look, it's all very simple. There are three words that sound exactly the same but are used differently. "There" has many forms (data from dictionary.com). adverb 1. in or at that place (opposed to here ): She is there now. 2. at that point in an action, speech, etc.: He stopped there ...