At the Beach with Hermes and Hecate by Lucienne Diver

Lucienne DiverAs one of the #CMCon16 featured bloggers, I get to have a little fun with a few of the fabulous authors who will be hitting the beach for Coastal Magic 2016 by showcasing their many stories. Last year I interviewed four of the the CMC15 authors, but this year I’m changing it up. I came up with this really fun idea to have the authors introduce us to their worlds by sending their characters to the beach.

Quite a few of the authors took me up on it and today Lucienne Diver is taking us to the beach with Hermes & Hecate, that mischievous god that will be starring in the fifth Latter-Day Olympians novel, which also happens to be a prequel, Trickster Blood, which releases September 29th.

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Tricks, Treats and Sandy Feets

LDiver-Trickster Blood

“Okay, so you said this hellhound—”

“Mopsie.”

“Mopsie?” Hermes said, looking askance at Hecate.  “Really?  Not very intimidating for a hellhound, is it?”

“It is if you’re the one who has to clean up after her.  Mopsie has this…nervous condition.  Every time Hades yells, she pees.  Can’t help herself.  Hence, Mopsie.”

“Okay, whatever.  So you’re sure Mopsie came this way?  Because I’m not hearing horrified screams.  Or stampeding in fear.  Personally, I’d love to see that one stampede,” Hermes said, nodding toward a blonde in a bubblegum pink bikini with ruffles. “Very bouncy.”

“Focus,” Hecate growled.

But he was focused…just not on her intended target.

“Look,” he said, “you invited me along.  Remind me, why was that again?”

“Private beach access,” she growled.

“That’s right.  So behave or I’ll have you removed.”

“Just try it,” she said.  And the next thing he knew, there was a hand cupping his privates…and not at all in a loving caress.  Hecate squeezed just hard enough to make him yelp.  “Try it and shrinkage will be the least of your worries.”

The blonde flashed them an amused glance.  She probably thought Hecate was his dom.  The witch goddess hadn’t bothered to change out of her black leathers, even as a concession to the Florida heat.  Her matte black boots sank heels deep into the sand, but she didn’t seem to care.  After the first step or two, she’d employed her magic to harden the sand beneath her feet so that she now walked on it like a basilisk lizard running on water.  Or, you know, like any sane beachgoer in sandals or bare feet.  Hermes was perfectly sane…by some of the more obscure definitions of the word.

“Relax,” he said, removing her hand from his happy place.  “I said I’d help and I will.  If anyone’s going to cause trouble with Hades’s invisible helmet, it’s going to be me.”

Hecate glared.  “Helmet of invisibility, not invisible helmet.”

Hermes rolled his eyes, “Big difference.”

“It is.  One is as ridiculous as Wonder Woman’s airplane where she shows right through it because it’s the plane that’s invisible.  The other imbues the wearer with invisibility and vanishes along with him…or her.”

He knew that, actually.  He just liked to tweak Hecate.

He was scanning the beach, looking for a helmet-sized lump where the hellhound might have buried the thing during its brief escape topside, when the blonde yelped, her bikini suddenly flapping in the breeze as it mysteriously came untied when she reached for her soda.

“I think I might have found your helmet,” Hermes said, an appreciative glint in his eyes. The blonde was all-natural, he was pretty certain of it.  Not that he’d mind a closer look just to be sure.  Oh, the mischief he could manage with that helmet!

Hecate immediately started in the blonde’s direction, but Hermes put a hand to her arm to hold her back.  It was almost hellishly hot, the black leather having superheated in the sun.  He had no idea how Hecate wasn’t baking.

“What?” she snarled, turning on him.

“Just look,” he said.

The sand wasn’t firming beneath the prankster’s feet, unlike Hecate’s, and while they couldn’t see the man in the helmet—or woman, Hermes was equal opportunity—they could see the divots in the sand left by the trickster’s running feet and hear the chuckling left in his wake.  Yup, his.  So, one mystery solved.

The prankster stopped by another blanket, this one occupied by a foursome who’d just begun unloading their picnic basket. Suddenly, a second set of impressions appeared next to the first, and from the roundness of the dents, Hermes suspected the trickster had dropped to his knees in the sand beside the blanket.

The next thing he knew, the giant deli sandwich one of the guys was unwrapping was swiped away.  It hung floating in the air, rocking back and forth like a boat on the ocean.  For good measure, the invisible thief made “Whoo ooo” noises like a fake ghost in a Scooby Doo cartoon.  Three of the four on the blanket scooted back in horror, one of the girls squealing, but the fourth guy, the one who’d done the unwrapping, threw himself at the sandwich.  The trickster whisked it away, and the would-be sub rescuer landed face-down in the sand.

Hermes was laughing so hard he could barely see as he raced after Hecate, who’d bucked his grip.  Sand-in-the-face guy was just coming up for air, spitting sand, as Hecate tackled the invisible prankster to the ground.

Hermes arrived just in time to save the sandwich.

Everyone near the disturbance on the beach stared as Hecate whipped off the helmet of invisibility, revealing a skinny teenaged boy with stringy hair and black and gray swim trunks with sharks all over them. He flashed her a “Man, you’re ruining all my fun” look usually reserved for cops and parents.

“And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids,” he intoned, confirming Hermes’s suspicion of the prankster as a Scooby Doo enthusiast.  He could relate.

Hecate growled.  Hermes grinned.

The day had been saved.

Or at least Hades’s helmet.

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Meet Lucienne Diver!

Lucienne Diver is the author of the popular Vamped series of young adult novels (think Clueless meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Her short stories have been included in the Strip-Mauled and Fangs for the Mammaries anthologies edited by Esther Friesner (Baen Books), and her essay on abuse is included in the upcoming anthology Dear Bully: 70 Authors Tell Their Stories (HarperTeen). 2011 saw the launch of Bad Blood, the first novel in her Latter-Day Olympians series of contemporary fantasy, set in LA and featuring a heroine who can, quite literally, stop men in their tracks.

LDiver-Blood HuntContact Info: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Google+ | GoodReads | Amazon

Want to purchase Lucienne’s novels?
Latter-Day Olympians

  1. Bad Blood
  2. Crazy in the Blood
  3. Rise of the Blood
  4. Battle for the Blood
  5. Trickster Blood (September 28, 2015)
  6. Blood Hunt (October 27, 2015)

Vamped

  1. Vamped
  2. ReVamped
  3. Fangtastic
  4. Fangtabulous

CMC16

Don’t miss your chance to meet over 50 fabulous urban fantasy, paranormal, and romance authors at Coastal Magic next February! This super casual book-lover weekend happens on Daytona Beach, and gives everyone the chance to hang out with fellow readers and amazing storytellers.

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About Jackie 3282 Articles
I am a 30-something SAHM with two adorable boys and a supportive husband who is very tolerant of my reading addiction. I love to read and easily go through about a dozen books a month – well I did before I had kids. Now, not so much. After my first son was born, I began to take my hobby of reviewing a little more serious and started Literary Escapism to help with my sanity. I love to discuss the fabulous novels I’ve read and meeting all the wonderful people in the book blogging community has been amazing.

1 Comment

  1. Quick note: Trickster Blood is actually a prequel story to the Latter-Day Olympians series, all in Hermes’s POV. Quite fun (I hope!) and pubbing as a free read!!! No risk involved…unlike the usual dealings with tricksters!

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