QSFer Angel Martinez has a new sapphic comedic fantasy out: Ice + Alligators.
Offend the Frost King? Get kicked from the Court. Land in the jaws of a living dinosaur?
Ink, the black ice fairy, isn’t shocked that his frostiness banished her, but she’s shocked to find herself sent to a swamp. It’s hot, sticky and mucky—an ice fae’s worst nightmare. Banishment means she’s stuck with the heat and the stupid, hungry alligators. She’s gone from knowing all the rules of her world to knowing absolutely nothing about existing in her soggy new home. At least the draiad guardian’s kinda nice, though what the hell is a draiad?
A thunderous boom and an ice fae being dropped into her swamp interrupted Pickerel’s quiet, contemplative day of preserving flowers. The fae is abrasive, just shy of rude, and apparently unable to leave. The last thing Pickerel needs this close to the winter solstice celebration is another responsibility. But she can’t ignore her host obligations, nor can she deny the fae is rather attractive.
When dangerously reckless human poachers invade the swamp, all other concerns evaporate. Ink and Pickerel must learn to work together, combining their knowledge and their wildly different talents to combat the threat to the wildlife and the peace of the swamp. And–oh no—they might even have to admit they like each other.
Ice + Alligators is a novella that contains talkative squirrels, a mischievous and overly opinionated alligator, and a shy but grumpy fae who might’ve found a caring nature spirit who is everything she needed.
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Excerpt
When the boom sounded, Pickerel glanced up from her flowers, blinking at the fox squirrel chittering on the rock beside her.
“You’re right, Swiftpaw. That didn’t sound at all like thunder.”
Carefully, Pickerel placed her brush and quartz-sand preparations back in one cypress-bark box and her unfinished flowers in the other. She brushed off her knees, pulled on a moss peplos, and ran toward the sound, her feet skimming the top of the water.
Only a few trees farther on, a trio of swamp raccoons stopped her, all wringing their little hand-paws and chattering at her.
“Oh dear, again?” Pickerel picked up her skirts. “I suppose we’d better hurry.”
The screaming reached her long before she got to the scene of disaster.
“Help! Someone help me! A dinosaur’s trying to eat me! Mother of snows, doesn’t anyone live in this forsaken trash fire?” The voice certainly had volume and a carrying resonance. A singer, perhaps? But rather more sharp than melodic. “No, no, no! You can’t climb up here! You shouldn’t be able to climb trees!”
Just as the raccoons had said, Benji had treed a visitor to the swamp and was doing his best to haul his eight-foot alligator frame up the trunk of a tupelo that shook and swayed dangerously under his weight. The person swaying even more dangerously in the topmost branches wasn’t human, as the raccoons had assumed, but instead appeared to be some sort of fae. From the lily-white hair, Pickerel would’ve guessed frost fairy, but this fae was too broad, too bulky. Nothing like a delicate, dainty frost artist.
Author Bio
Angel Martinez has been published since 2005 and writes Science Fiction and Fantasy with queer characters. Currently living part time in the hectic sprawl of northern Delaware, (and full time inside the author’s head) Angel has one husband, one son, at least one cat at any given time, a love of all things beautiful and a terrible addiction to the consumption of both knowledge and chocolate.
| Author Website | https://angelmartinezauthor.weebly.com/ |
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| Author Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/amartinez2 |