Sunday Snippet: On the Circuit

It's been a wild and busy week! I'm buried with work projects, which I'm thrilled to have—even if I could use about four more hours in each day. Good problems to have.

Had a slower than normal television viewing week, but I kind of expect that when I'm trying to keep plates spinning with work and only have a small wobble here and there.

I caught two episodes of Hawkeye and I'm kind of bummed there's only one left. I'm loving this show a lot.

Caught the season three premiere of Harrow and I already intensely dislike the new boss. That said, I kind of love the shifting dynamics of the character relationships. Fern could grow up just a little, but I like where everyone else is for the most part.

Watched another episode of Blue Heelers and liked the way everything played out. Really good case of the week on this one.

Enjoyed another MasterClass lesson with Neil de Grasse Tyson. Learned about cognitive bias and have a much better understanding of how that works.

Caught another episode of Young Wallander: Killer's Shadow. Poor Kurt gets his ass kicked on a regular basis. Glad to see Reza get bumped up to detective. Poor Rusk has a lot going on at the moment.

Got two more episodes of Classic Rugrats in and thoroughly enjoyed. I love the call outs to stuff from my younger years. That's why the original show is genius. Enjoyable for parents and kids.

Watched another episode of Chicago Med and things got interesting at the end. Not sure I'm down with Will possibly hooking up with Agent Lee. Really kind of squicked out by Nat's involvement with the dad of her former patient. But I love the whole saga of Daniel's ex and everything that's going on with that.

Enjoyed another episode of The Snoopy Show. I like how the short vignettes are themed around a topic. This one had Halloween stuff and it was a lot of fun.

Caught another episode of Loch Ness and I'm kind of amazed how things are moving forward but at what seems like a maddeningly slow pace. A couple of big reveals in this episode.

Finished up season seventeen of Silent Witness and should start eighteen this week. Have to say I quite liked how this one ended. Glad Jack will be sticking around.

Watched another episode of Classic Who. Poor Seven just doesn't have a lot to work with. That said, I'm kind of enjoying this arc.

Enjoyed another episode of The Laundry Guy. I think I could honestly watch multiple seasons of this show. Patric needs his own YouTube channel. I'd totally subscribe.

Also watched another episode of The Hardy Boys and have a lot of love for this show. It's so much fun to talk to my brother about the episodes after we see them. Brings back a lot of eighties memories.

That's it for the life update this week. Tonight's post is from On the Circuit, a novella that features dragon rodeos and two bull-fighting characters that keep the riders safe.

Here's the mini-blurb:

The popularity of breaking dragons on the rodeo trail lures Reggie Pitch to test her mettle as a bullfighter. She works her way up from green recruit and tries out for the big show with Dwight Merlyn as her trainer, which proves intimidating because not only is he attractive as hell, he's a third generation handler and his family breeds the rankest, meanest beasts on the circuit.

And a preview snippet…

Dwight arrived at the bar and scanned the room for Reggie. "Not here yet. Good." He needed time to come down from the high of facing down rank bulls for the last several hours.

The rodeo owner, Jeb McCallister, signaled Dwight over to the counter. Dwight ambled over, ready for anything. Jeb had a lock on the circuit in this area. He owned the arena, the bar, and most of the supply shops. He also had shares in the crew quarters and family housing.

The dragons were the only thing the man didn't have a financial interest in … Dwight's family had full control of the stock and breeding of the beasts. What started out as a relationship of necessity between the two clans had turned into lifelong friendship—at least for three generations. Dwight respected the hell out of Jeb, even when he butted into Dwight's personal life.

Jeb tapped the wood surface. "Get this man a shot."

Mathis, the bartender and one of Jeb's brothers, poured amber liquid into a glass. "Hell of night out there. New bull fighter is coming along." He slid the tumbler toward Dwight.

Dwight gave a nod. "Yeah, she's got some chops." He downed the drink.

Jeb snorted. "Hell, she's got more than that. That little slip of a woman put on one hell of a show." He leaned his forearms on the bar. "She gonna stick around?"

He left the real part of the question unasked. Would Reggie follow Nordstrom?

Dwight inclined his head. "Far as I know. She gave Nordstrom the boot right after you did." His lips curved when he remembered how well she'd handled that scene.

Jeb cocked his head to one side. "Tread carefully, my boy." The warning tone had humor laced through it.

Dwight huffed out a breath. "Always do." He spied Reggie enter and pushed away from the bar. "But I appreciate the advice." He lifted his chin. "Even if I don't plan on taking it."

Jeb and Mathis rolled their eyes. Dwight didn't care. He'd pretty much made up his mind to let nature take its course with Reggie. If they ended up twisted around each other, so be it.

He could question the choice later.

I love this story so much! As a rodeo fan, I'm challenged by writing the scenes with the dragons, but moments like the preview are fun to dig into.

 

That's it for this week.

Cheers!

Skye