1632 Snippets

This book is available now so this is the last snippet. The Trouble With Huguenots - Snippet 19 "With you, Madame Duchesse, center stage as the proud and happy dowager in the finale." "I can get Soûlas to come and be an acting coach," Ruvigny said. "Who?" "That theater-mad ensign who ran off to join a troupe of actors. They'd hoped to go to England last year, but didn't make it because of the political troubles there, so he's somewhere down in the Marais district, looking for work. Who knows? If Montdory likes him when he sees him working on...

The Initiate - Snippet 04 Chapter 2 Sam began closing down his old life and creating a new one. The first step was to disentangle himself from the financial network. That meant scaling back on his credit cards. He began carrying cash again, for the first time in decades. He remembered how funny he had thought his father's habit of carrying at least a hundred dollars in bills at all times. Now Sam did the same. For a week he did research using the public library computers and one of the few remaining public pay phones in Hartford, looking for...

The Demons of Constantinople - Snippet 14 Wilber shrugged his thanks. "I am sure something can be arranged," Karl said. "Surely we can find an appropriate tree." "If --" Wilber held up a finger. "-- Asuma wishes to stay, we'll do what we can to facilitate. But we need to discuss the technicalities among ourselves. So please excuse us." "Couldn't I listen?" Karl asked. "I'll be quiet as a mouse, I promise." Leona stuck out a small pink tongue and ran it around her mouth. "After we have had some time to consider, Professor," Wilber insisted....

The Demons of Constantinople - Snippet 13 "Well, we should be, Bill. This guy is good. I'd like to have Liane record him." Lakshmi was a drama student whose dream was to be a movie star before they got pulled into this century. She was also a good singer. "I don't disagree, Lakshmi, but you're going to get him in trouble if you keep ignoring the other people at the table." The other people at the table included the archduke, his brother, Leopold, and his wife, Elizabeth, who was even younger than Lakshmi. And who was looking daggers at...

The Trouble With Huguenots - Snippet 18 Chapter 11 Paris July 1636 "They can't leave from the Hôtel de Sully," Raudegen said. "I say that from a professional perspective. The Royal Guards have posted too many sentries. They can't disappear from the court when they are attending the queen and princess. It's not just that they are closely observed there, although they are. There are too many people milling around in random patterns. An escape party would run too much risk of encountering someone utterly unexpected." "Maybe they could leave...

The Demons of Constantinople - Snippet 12 Chapter 4 -- Vienna Location: Danube River, Approaching Vienna, Austria Time: 7:25 AM, September 22, 1372 Two and a half days after leaving Donauworth, Joe Kraken saw the walls of Vienna. He stopped the barge and grabbed a couple of rocks on the riverbottom to hold him in place. Joe Kraken didn't own his body. Roger was the kraken's master -- his pilot, it might be better to say -- but the creature itself was owned by Pucorl. The twenty-firsters had received payment from Pucorl before the kraken was...

The Trouble With Huguenots - Snippet 17 Whereas the maid had thanked the Lord in Highest Heaven for the park in a loud voice, Ruvigny mentally praised Him for perfect timing. Schoolmasters were inclined to ask curious questions when one of their pupils disappeared without an adequate explanation. After some time he asked, "When is Madame likely to return from the park?" "When she is about to collapse from exhaustion or the boy starts to scream that he is starving, whichever comes first." "Perhaps, then, it would be more prudent for me to find...

The Trouble With Huguenots - Snippet 16 Her sister was becoming quite well-known. She was sitting at a breakfast table in Laubach reading about it. She spent a lot of time reading. Thanks be to God that Albert Otto's great-grandfather had been a friend of Philip Melanchthon, who inspired him to found a Latin school in the town and establish a decent library–one that continued to purchase recent books because it had an endowment for acquisitions. A person could learn a lot by reading, but it wasn't the same thing as being there. Albert Otto...