Sunday Snippet: Order of Aggression

What a week. We've been very lucky to this point and have avoided anyone coming down with Covid. That ended on Tuesday. Luckily, out of the four living at home, only one tested positive and the others are, so far, negative. I'm crossing my fingers that holds.

Had a decent week and a little more balance on my work projects. I'm trying to more even paced and mindful about my work-life time.

Ended up getting a good amount of television watched this week. I started a new show and picked out a new one to begin next week.

I caught the first of a two-part Blue Heelers and ended up enjoying it a lot. Kind of sad to see Chris and Adam part ways, but I'm interested to see how that plays out.

Ended up enjoying two MasterClass lessons with Neil deGrasse Tyson. The second one ended up being fairly lengthy so maybe my note from last week was premature.

Watched two more episodes of the Babysitters Club and I'm completely charmed by this show. I can see why everyone kind of fell in love with it. Good stuff.

Caught two episodes of Classic Rugrats. Both ended up taking me back to when my oldest was still a toddler and watched the show daily. Two of his favorite episodes were in the group I watched.

Got two episodes of Chicago Med in and, wow, season four kind of went in a few crazy directions. I'm on one of the last episodes of the season and I'm kind of wondering where they'll go with five.

Enjoyed another episode of The Snoopy Show. This is such a fun and lighthearted half hour. Highly recommend if you need something low-key to watch.

Watched another episode of Loch Ness. I'm close to the end and I'm pretty sure I've got a good idea of who the killer is. There have been a lot of red herrings and I'm on the fence between two theories. Can't wait to find out if I'm right.

Got another Classic Who episode in. I'm into an arc I haven't seen, which is good because that distracts me from the low-budget everything about this season of the show.

Caught another episode of Most Terrifying Places in America. Honestly, I kind of enjoy hearing about all the weird, haunted, scary places that abound in the US.

Started The Mandalorian and loved the low-key dry humor. Looking forward to watching more for sure.

Watched an episode of The Hardy Boys. Have to admit, I'm getting annoyed by Joe. He was a lot of quirky fun in the first season but not so much in the second. He's still got good snark, but he's lost a lot of his good nature. I hope that gets explained. We'll see.

Caught another episode of Peak Practice. This one ended up being really good with great plot lines. Nice to Alice back in her home and trying to deal with the scary flashbacks of the robbery. I actually hope they pick up with that and find the guy.

Last but not least, I caught another episode of the Ready Room. Doug Jones was the guest and it fun to get insight into his character and the Kelpian race.

That's pretty much it for the life update this week. Tonight's post is from Order of Aggression, a novella that puts the characters in a tricky situation and a bit at odds with each other.

Here's the mini-blurb:

When Ames Braddock is ordered to take out an enemy outpost with possible civilian casualties, he calls on Parker Hart to be his second, but Parker balks at the idea. Ames isn't thrilled with the mission, but he needs Parker and he's not above using aggression to bring her in line, which gets the job done, but also backfires when she demands satisfaction.

And a preview snippet…

Parker shoved the prints aside and cursed her parents for the millionth time. Her blood debt still outweighed the credits in her book. And this job will no doubt cancel out any good karma I have spinning around out there.

She met Ames's gaze. "We're gonna have civilian casualties. There's no way around it." She pointed to the alley behind the saloon. "This area will be hex-wired to harm humans and avoid anyone with charmed blood." She moved to the building on the left. "This building will be clear until we get close to the perimeter, then it's all bets off and my guess is they'll use layers of curse-laden traps designed to slow anyone down coming in and to keep anyone trying to get out stuck behind the veil." Sitting back, she heaved a sigh.

Ames leaned forward. "What about the old store on the right?" He pointed to the abandoned toy palace.

She shrugged. "Similar setup. This one is closer to the main drag so it'll be reinforced from the main and rear entrances. We do not want to mess with attempting to get in through the toy store." Her fingers traced the huge box factory across the street. "The factory will have fire and flame traps. Quick to go up in smoke and easy to use as a distraction." She got up and paced back and forth. "The roof will be full of triggered hex traps that will give advance warning to the black mages and they'll do everything in their power to use their normals as shields." Dropping back down onto the chair, she suppressed a shudder at the images running through her mind.

Ames made a low growling sound. "How the hell do we get in then?"

She huffed out a breath and pointed to the one and only location they could enter from. "We'll go in through here." Her gaze met his. "And it's gonna suck huge hairy balls to do it."

But … if they kept the element of surprise, they might have minimal civilian casualties and, well, not die in the process.

I like having internal conflict as a driving force in a story. Parker has a past that keeps on giving and she'd really like to see a future where she's free and clear.

 

That's it for this week.

Cheers!

Skye