Latest release: FREQUENCY – Book 5, final book in the Planetary Bodies series
Book five in the Planetary Bodies series.
Zev Vertinen has a problem. She lusts after the one man she can’t have—her captain, Frederick Jannes. They have a past—ritualized and uniquely sexual—but for her to remain a pilot aboard the CMC Theseus, they can never touch each other again.
Of course that doesn’t stop Zev lurking to catch a glimpse of Jannes naked, or making him the star of every one of her fantasies. Then sheen engulfs the ship. And the rules that have dictated their lives are changed. Jannes has changed them.
Now he will fulfill another ritual. Hunting her down and making her his. No matter the cost.
Buy here from Ellora’s Cave
You can also read an excerpt here
At my website there’s a little sneak peek behind the series, Planetary Bodies
Frequency is the last book in a linked series. Books 1, 2, 3 and 4 Magnetism, Friction Current and Energy can be found here.
Six Sentence Sunday: Frequency
A little break from Frost as Frequency–yes, I really should see someone about these F titles!–was released last week. See the sticky post above this for details 
“Look, Jannes—”
His mouth brushed hers. There was a raw groan…and it came from her. Heat flared under her skin and her body simply wanted to melt. He planted his hands on the wall on either side of her and stayed taut, still.
“Again?”
As always, you can find more sixes here.
Six Sentence Sunday: Mr Frost comes to Dinner…
I’m at about 8k-ish on the this wip now – so nearly half way through. If I’m lucky. And the evil thing spawned two sequel ideas whilst I wasn’t looking. :/
Frost scrabbled down the steep dip of the hill. His voice echoed back. “It’s all a part of my plan.”
Mason stared after him as he vanished into the freezing darkness, the tracks in the white frost the only sign of his passing. Behind him, the shouts of men and that dazzling flash of light spurred Mason into following him. “This is a *plan*?”
As always you can find more sixsundays here.
Six Sentence Sunday: Frost
Long time not doing this again, but the end of FURY –it’s subbed, yay–and Christmas, New Year and my birthday got in the way. Anyway, here’s my 6 from a new wip, an historical type m/m with a working title of FROST. Yes, me and F titles…
The last man he’d had was an officer on the boat back from India three years before. Captain James Garrett. A survivor of Maiwand like himself. Mason had wanted to believe it was trade—Garrett had offered a reference to the registry—but the heat of the man’s sun browned skin, his hardened body as he shoved Mason up against the wall of the cabin and buried his dick in him, had been all about need. Want. Desire.
“As Williams said, sir, I’m a perfect fit.”
As always you can find more Sunday sixes here
Cover Love: Bitter Harvest
Isn’t it nice? Here’s the unofficial blurb:
It’s 2050, and humans are an endangered species. Lieutenant Robert Sutton has survived the collapse of civilization by luck, his wits, and a chance mutation that makes him immune to the nano-virus that has wiped out millions. Now, his compound of survivors is surrounded by the infected, who are driven by the need to spread the contagion through sex. It’s only a matter of time before they attack. So when Sutton is assigned to interrogate a prisoner who claims to have overcome the infection, he immediately suspects a trap…
Nicholas Rider may have survived the virus, but he’s a changed man, ruled by his desires. But his need for Sutton is different. Rider craves an end to his overwhelming needs, and Sutton could be the man to do it.
Secure in his belief that he’s invulnerable, Sutton can’t understand or resist his intense attraction to his prisoner. Will Rider be his downfall—or his saviour?
Six Sentence Sunday: Fury
This is probably the last post from Fury as I’m getting into the black moment and the end…and I don’t want to give it away
Which means I have to decide what wip I want next. I’m an addictive wip starter, so it could take time to decide. Anyway, here’s this week’s six.
“I could fuck you.” He grazed her swollen bottom lip with his teeth, the tease of his magic tugging at her soul. “But we have thieves to gut.”
Ava twitched a smile and stepped back from him. She took his hand again. “You say the sweetest things.”
As always you can find more sixes here.
Want Han Solo wrapped in gold? Yes? Then step this way…
Yes, I’m giving away a copy of GAMBIT on Lex Valentine’s 30 Days of Christmas. Lex is also giving away a paranormal title from her back list.
Captain Chae Beyon is a hustler, a mercenary pilot, a wounded woman who prefers her men to be easily thrown aside.
Daned Traern is a first-caste Ladaian bound by tradition and DNA to protect his race. He’s willing to align himself with the hot space captain if she’ll transport him home in time to ensure the right candidate is crowned—and thus prevent a bloody war.
Disguised as Chae’s sex toy, Daned is erotically bound to her through living gold, alien tech designed to increase pleasure. When he frees himself, their passion only increases…but succumbing to temptation will bind them together—permanently.
But there’s more at stake than their needs. As Chae is dragged into a world of insane princes and sentient stones, hired killers hound them across the quadrant.
And then, as only her lousy luck would have it, Chae must choose between the good of the galaxy and her own heart…
Oh and the Han Solo reference comes from the idea that spawned this book. I was watching Return of the Jedi, with Leia in her little gold slave bikini and was thinking how much better Han Solo would look wrapped up in gold. With a leash… And Daned Traern was born
And there’s more free stuff!
Back in October, my story, RED IN TOOTH AND CLAW made it into the Just One Bite contest. All the entries are available now as free read anthologies.
The above little story is in this anthology:
Contributing authors:
By: Kim Knox | Shermaine Williams | Lauren Hawkeye | Elaine Lowe | Barbara Elsborg |Rosalie Stanton | Raven Corinn Carluk | Jocelyn Michel | Randi Alexander
You can find the other books here.
Here’s a snippet from RED IN TOOTH AND CLAW:
“Red suits you.”
His voice was little more than a growl and it warmed my skin, fluttering excitement deep into my belly. Shadows surrounded the high backed chair in which he sat. Flickers of light from the fireplace caught his sharp profile, shifting, lighting the burn of his silver eyes. My mark wasn’t quite human, I was sure of it. The remote hall, the obvious wealth, the secrecy. He had to be one of the rare preternaturals.
“Thank you.” I didn’t know what else to say. My being in the hall, in this starkly empty room with him was…hazy. The reason was important, I felt it down to the bone and something about that made me glance at the red silk of my cape. It was the only thing I wore. I frowned. I didn’t remember driving up to the hall, slipping out of my street clothes, changing… Heat from the fire warmed the silk, distracting me and the material brushed against my bared legs like the kiss of a lover.
I forced a smile to twitch across my mouth and lifted the thick sheaf of paper in my hand. The splotch of a broken seal gleamed along its edges. Not that I remembered snapping the seal open. I glanced at the heavy copperplate lettering that simply stated my name, a time and that day’s date. “The…agency hasn’t given me your name.”
“Balthasar.”
“Balthasar…?”
“My last name isn’t important.” He sat forward and firelight licked his features.
My chest tightened and I stared. I hadn’t expected him to be quite so…beautiful—all hard male planes and those silver-edged eyes that burned into me. His black shirt clung to his chest, his muscled arms, bare, browned and dusted with hair. Strong hands flexed. A dark ring gleamed on his right hand.
“So…” I took a step towards him, my bare feet soundless in the deep pile of the rug. I wet my lips. “What do you expect of me?”
His gaze drifted down over the length of my body and made me too aware of the brushing silk of my long cape. “I expect to fuck you.”
Six Sentence Sunday: Biopunk
And still with the lurgy this week, so Fury has hardly moved. Here’s a 6 from my biopunk I was playing with earlier in the week…when I should have been writing Fury. Bad me..
Sarah sighed against his neck, hot but pliant. He needed her to be…human as one of the masked keepers aimed a scanner at them. The heat of the beams cut over his face and he shut his eyes against it. Only for a moment. He had to watch. Had to be ready.
As always you can find more sixes here.
Six Sentence Sunday: Fury
Lurgy slowed the writing down this week–yay, for the neverending cough–but there’s a still a little more of FURY to share:
Heyerdar pushed her back against the cold wall. He loomed over her, his face flickering with the light of his magic. “No.” His hand cupped her jaw and his thumb stroked across her lips, parting her mouth. His low voice filled the silence. “No, we’ll never be like them.”
As always you can find more six snippets here.
Beautiful dust…
I have a weakness for nebulae, which is not something you get to say every day. The latest reason to look at them has to do with my biopunk and how I imagine the sky forming over my little biopunk colony. Really, this isn’t work, is it? *grin*
NEBULAE: A nebula (from Latin “cloud” ;pl. nebulae or nebulæ) is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas, helium gas and other ionised gases.
Here’s my favourite:
Six Sentence Sunday: FURY
And I’m back to FURY I’ve chopped and changed what I was going to post, but I’ve settled on this:
He stretched. Firelight licked around him, moving with the slow ripple of the muscles in his back. Her deep teeth marks lined his shoulders and bruised his upper arms. The taste of his skin, the hint of flesh and the sweet stickiness of his blood still lingered on her tongue.
Everything about him was delicious. It was fucking irritating.
As always, you can read more Six Sundays here.
The making of magical money
I’ve been looking through my books on magic again. I think this post is more bunny fodder than something I’m going to use in my fantasy romance world building. Still I thought I’d share.
(I will admit to The Enc. of 5000 Spells being addictive…as well as weighty 
)
This time it’s tips to work into money spells that caught my interest:
Colours: Green and Gold. (I think this being a US book, it’s defaulting on cash colour. For a Gaslight Romance would it be white, for those vast sheets of white fivers? 
)
Numbers: 2. To hold the idea of doubling and increasing.
Planets: Jupiter. As the planet of good fortune. The Moon. As the body of magic and wish fulfilment. Mercury. For the Roman god of prosperity.
Timing: Spells should be performed under a waxing moon.
And now I have the start of another bunny. Damn those white fivers…
Hump Day News: Cover love
I can finally reveal my cover for SYNTHETIC DREAMS:
Isn’t it pretty? It’s a creation of the wonderful Frauke at CrocoDesigns. She also created GAMBIT (another cover that I love)
Here’s the unofficial blurb (The novella is due out 27 February, so the cover copy is still being polished )
With no past to turn to and no hope for the future, Vyn Somerton does what she always has: she survives on her skills, hidden away from the prying eyes of the Corporation. Until now.
Vyn has created the ultimate in illegal gear, simulacrum, the perfect virtual lie. It’s untraceable, untouchable, and until recently, impossible to create. She has plans to make herself rich beyond her wildest dreams…that is, until the Corporation turns her life upside down. Again.
Paul Cross is a part of that upheaval. Catalyst. Corporate Mercenary. Incredible and forbidden. He’s been watching Vyn, knowing that she’s the key to finding and rescuing his brother, a brother the Corporation he works for has replaced with a stranger. She’s a means to an end. But watching her, moving though her life, he finds his thoughts becoming unexpectedly…carnal.
With their enemies closing in, Vyn’s life is in chaos. Can she trust Paul or is he the key to the destruction of all her worlds?
In wip, news, FURY has crawled kicking and screaming over 44k. It’s feeling like the endless wip…always 20k before it’s done. I also got whapped by another bunny–paranormal romance this time. I wish they were still little bunnies. This one is another series (Me? Series??). Evil things.
When bunnies attack…
I have a slight reputation amongst my follow chatterers at writechat.net of attracting plot bunnies. They do seem to appear from the most innocuous things. But when I read the likes of the following from Project Boreas my brain explodes with them:
‘…spring [on Mars] might be advanced if the polar ice caps were destabilised, for instance by reducing their albedo with a layer of dust of plants. More speculatively, the planet’s precessional cycle might be adjusted with an artificial moon.’
I don’t think the science the first idea was based on stands up anymore, but it doesn’t mean you can make a planet that would react in that way. I love terraforming. Or better yet, altering people to survive in a particular environment…
And creating an artificial moon? Whose brain went straight to the Death Star?
The idea of life aboard the moon at various stages…though I have to admit, the idea of the moon at the end of its life, past its prime is fun. Having to keep it going on limited resources when their work is vital to maintain the health of the planet they serve…
Nope. I am ignoring you, Bunny…
Six Sentence Sunday: ENERGY
ENERGY released this week, so here’s a snippet from that
“Was I a pleasant fuck?” She twisted against him, hating his strength and the fact that she could still taste him on her tongue, feel the ghost of him on and in her body. “Did you enjoy the fact that I knew nothing about sex? That I slavered over you. How shitty was it for you? Really?”
You can read the blurb, excerpts and links for ENERGY here
And as always there are more sixes here
What do you do again…?
On my hunt to flesh out a fantasy city, I need to people it. I need trades and jobs from the past, which will make it sound more authentic. Here are a few I’ve come across in my hunt:
Malkin: A medieval female kitchen worker.
Skep Maker: A maker of beehives.
Puggera: One–usually a child–who treads clay into paste.
Cutty: A wanton and/or short woman.
Lidster: A dyer
Fistic: A bare knuckle fighter.
And the one I’d most like to be: Concher: One who smoothes chocolate.
Ref: A Dict. of Old Trades, Titles and Occupation.
New release: ENERGY – Book 4 of Planetary Bodies
Book four in the Planetary Bodies series.
Callie Thiago lives for gossip. And her crew aboard the CMC Theseus provides her with enough lurid tales of sex to keep her lonely nights warm. It sates her curiosity. Mostly. She has no experience of her own to draw on as shyness plagues her…until sheen smashes into her ship.
Now she’s stuck on a small outpost with Aaron Blane, a man she’s wanted for all her adult life. But she knows sheen can’t work through her as it does others. She’s different. And it’s this difference that Blane is more than eager to explore.
Buy here from Ellora’s Cave
You can also read an excerpt here
At my website there’s a little sneak peek behind the series, Planetary Bodies
Energy is part of a linked series. Books 1, 2 and 3, Magnetism, Friction and Current, can be found here.
What not to wear…when you’re a street spy
I wasn’t sure where to place this post, either here or Preternatural Bites. It’s useful stuff for a number of genres. And mainly I simply like knowing this sort of thing. What’s worn is only one aspect. The huge tome I have on covert surveillance covers so much more.
Following a target on foot, usually in a team, means that they can’t all be dressed the same. They’d stand out and it’d look like a gang on their way to a convention. In suits, the urge to ‘Reservoir Dogs‘ it would be beyond temptation…or is that just me?
- Avoid contrasting colours like red against green, basically dark and light colours. Black against white will stand out. Minimise contrast in a suit with a darker shirt instead of a white one, for example.
- Avoid military style, practical outdoor clothes and military accessories.
- Be prepared and dress for the weather. You’ll be noticed if you’re the only one getting soaked.
- If it proves necessary, dress for the occasion–this is probably the part that the James Bond dinner suit would actually fit in. (Gadgets from the Q Department optional) You have to blend in, no matter what.
- Also dress for your vehicle. It’ll stand out if your smartly dressed–in your Bond suit–and climb into a beat up old banger.
A target is going to see you. That can’t be helped. Whether he notices you is another matter. The aim is that he shouldn’t be able to remember you or describe you to someone else. You’re shadowing someone, so you become indistinct. Grey.
Ref: Surveillance Tradecraft
Useful omens
Research has dragged me off into divination. Yes, I’m a shiny information magpie.
Divination–the art of getting future information in the present–works, as does other magics, on the idea of synchronicity. Carl Jung called it ‘…an ever present reality for those who have eyes to see.’. Synchronicity rejects the idea of coincidence. As in events happening at the same time could reveal something about each other.
In divining, questions have to be precise. Writing them down enables an easier comparison later. And there are numerous ways to seek and find those answers.
Lunar Divination is a simple form. Stare at the moon, pose the question in your mind and keep staring, until the answers and inspiration come.
The I Spy Oracle needs a touch more preparation. It’s a Scottish spell that can only be performed on the first Monday of the month, before sunrise, on an empty stomach and with bare feet.
Walk sunwise–clockwise–around the house, with your eyes shut until you’re back at the entrance again. With your eyes still shut make a circle with your finger and thumb and put it to your eye. Open your eye and the omen is the first thing you see.
Hmm, I could see that one being open to abuse… Yes, I am actively ignoring the plot bunny.
Of course there are a plethora of love oracles. The classic is “He loves me. He loves me not.”
My favourite has to be asking your love question from Apple Peel. The skin is cut away in one, long coil. If not complete, start again. When finished, the peel is thrown over the left shoulder without looking. When it lands, the shape of the peel should offer inspiration to the love question you asked.
And I really like the idea of Tongue Stones. I think it’s the name. It simply brims with possibility… These are small meteorites, strange rocks or found artefacts. The stones are sacred and not meant for trivial use.
Finding an answer involves smearing the stone with animal fat at nighttime. Then bury the stone under a mound of grass and earth. Pee on the little hill and let the tongue stone rest over night. The next morning, dig it up.
If the stone is greasy, whatever you have asked an answer for should be a success. Dry and rough and it won’t succeed. Reddish marks would show that your plan is dangerous. And if muck and grass stick, then whatever you plan will find success, just not in the way you thought…
I think my heroine will have a tongue stone. I can’t resist it. Not the classic type, though. Possibly something a little more sentient…
Reference: Enc. of 5000 Spells
Sale! FREQUENCY to Ellora’s Cave
Ellora’s Cave have contracted the final book in the Planetary Bodies series, FREQUENCY.
Here’s the unofficial blurb:
Zev Vertinen has a problem. She lusts after the one man she can’t have, her captain, Frederick Jannes. They have a past—ritualised and uniquely sexual—but for her to remain a pilot aboard the CMC Theseus, they can never touch each other again.
Of course that doesn’t stop Zev lurking to catch a glimpse of Jannes naked, or making him the star of every one of her fantasies. Then sheen engulfs the ship. And the rules that have dictated their lives are changed. Jannes has changed them.
Now he will fulfil another ritual. Hunting her down and making her his. No matter the cost.
Planetary Bodies was my first ever series. I will admit, now it’s over with, it didn’t seem so bad. Just remind me I said this when I think about another one… 
