{"id":33,"date":"2009-05-05T02:58:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-05T02:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dakotafrost.com\/blog\/?p=33"},"modified":"2009-05-05T02:58:00","modified_gmt":"2009-05-05T02:58:00","slug":"skindancer-book-2-blood-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dakotafrost.com\/?p=33","title":{"rendered":"Skindancer Book 2: Blood Rock"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blood Rock<\/a> is the sequel to Frost Moon<\/a>, and continues the story of “skindancer” Dakota Frost, a magical tattoo artist living in an alternate Atlanta. <\/p>\n

SPOILER NOTE: The beginning of Blood Rock unavoidably gives away some things about Frost Moon – sorry. Keep it under your hats, and please don’t tell anyone Anakin Skywalker is actually Darth Vader either.<\/p>\n

And now: Blood Rock:<\/p>\n

From the outside, my baby blue Prius looks as normal as can be: a streamlined bubble of a car with an aerodynamic rear-hitch bike rack, humming along on a hybrid gas\/electric engine. <\/span> She couldn\u2019t scream \u2018liberal soccer mom\u2019 louder if she was a Volvo plastered with NPR stickers. <\/span> Peer inside, however, and you see something completely different. <\/p>\n

In the driver\u2019s seat, yours truly: a six-foot two woman with a purple-and-black Mohawk \u2013 short in front, a la<\/em> Grace Jones, but lengthening in back until it becomes a long tail curling around my neck. <\/span> Striking, yes, but what really draws your eyes are my tattoos.<\/span><\/p>\n

Starting at my temples, a rainbow of tribal daggers curls under the perimeter of my Mohawk, cascading down my neck, rippling out over my arms, and exploding in colorful braids of vines and jewels and butterflies. <\/span> Beautiful, yes, but that\u2019s not why you can\u2019t look away \u2014 its because, out of the corner of your eye, you saw my tattoos move<\/em> \u2014 there, they did it again! <\/span> You swear, that leaf fluttered, that gem sparkled. <\/span> It\u2019s like<\/span> magic!<\/em><\/p>\n

Why, yes, they did move, and yes, they are magic. <\/span> Thanks for noticing. <\/span> All inked at the Rogue Unicorn by yours truly, Dakota Frost, best magical tattoo artist in the Southeast.<\/em><\/p>\n

Beside me sits a five-nothing teenaged girl, listening to a podcast on her iPod. <\/span> Normally she\u2019s dressed in a vest and Capri pants, but today she\u2019s in a shockingly conservative schoolgirl\u2019s outfit that clashes with her orange hair and elaborate tiger-striped tattoos.<\/p>\n

At first what you see is easy to interpret: an outsider trying to fit in, or a rebel suffering a forced fit. <\/span> But then your eyes do another double take: are those \u2026 cat ears<\/em> poking out from beneath her head scarf? Did they<\/span> move<\/em>? <\/span> And is that a<\/span> tail<\/em>? <\/span> My God, honey, could she be one of those \u2026 what are they called \u2026 \u201cwere-cats\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\n

Why yes, her ears did move, and yes, she\u2019s a weretiger. <\/span> But didn\u2019t your mom tell you it\u2019s rude to point? <\/span> She has a name: Cinnamon Frost. <\/span> And she\u2019s my adopted daughter.<\/em><\/p>\n

Both the Prius and the weretiger in its passenger seat are brand new to me. <\/span> I met Cinnamon only two months ago, visiting a local werehouse to research a werewolf tattoo, and ended up adopting her after a serial killer damn near killed her trying to get to me. <\/span> I picked up the Prius right around the same time, a little splurge after winning a tattooing contest.<\/p>\n

The adjustment was hard at first: Cinnamon took over my house and tried to take over my life. <\/span> But my Mom had been a schoolteacher, and I\u2019d learned a few tricks. <\/span> In the first few weeks after she moved in I put the hammer down, never smiling, setting clear boundaries for her<\/em> behavior and<\/span> my<\/em> sanity. <\/span> Finally \u2014 when she got past the point of the tears, the \u201cnot-fairs,\u201d and the most egregious misbehaviors \u2014 I eased up, and we once again shared the easy \u201cgee you\u2019re a square but I like you anyway\u201d camaraderie we\u2019d started with.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now we were peas in a pod; whenever I went out she tagged along, riding shotgun, listening to her audiobooks while I jammed to Rush. <\/span> The two of us look as different as can be, except for the identical stainless steel collars about our necks, but one minute seeing the two of us laughing together and you\u2019d think I\u2019d been her mother for her whole life.<\/p>\n

But today my sunny bundle of fur was feeling quite sullen.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t worry,\u201d I said, patting her knee softly. <\/span> \u201cOne<\/em> of them will accept you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

-the Centaur<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blood Rock is the sequel to Frost Moon, and continues the story of “skindancer” Dakota Frost, a magical tattoo artist living in an alternate Atlanta. SPOILER NOTE: The beginning of Blood Rock unavoidably gives away some things about Frost Moon … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dakotafrost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dakotafrost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dakotafrost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dakotafrost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dakotafrost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dakotafrost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dakotafrost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dakotafrost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dakotafrost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}