Nimue’s Price – due for release 22 May

Nimue entered Camelot with her order plain. Seduce Merlin.

And here’s a snippet in honour of the cover *grin*
Excerpt

All right. She would start again. Morgan had given her time.

Her gaze dropped, fixing on the strong column of his throat. She focused on the strip of black leather slipping beneath his tunic. Nimue had seen the crested ring that hung from it. He had held it up to a flickering candle, the black, carved stone blazing, and told her of his father. The ring was his only connection to that long-dead man. She calmed her nerves. “Will…will you be my teacher?”

“Nimue.”

Her name was almost a growl. She ignored the delicious shiver running over her skin. Morgan had warned her about this. He will weave his magic around you, Nimue. Wrap darkness around your heart. Resist that. And you can destroy him. She let out a slow breath. “Who else can show me, Merlin? It’s taken you years.” Her eyes lifted and she ran slow fingers over the sharp plane of his jaw. He flinched. “I’m…I’m scared.”

Something flickered in the dark depths of his eyes. And was gone. Merlin backed away. “It’s the King’s decision.”

“Then we go now.”

A muscle in his jaw jumped. His mouth opened. Then shut. “Yes.”

He stared over her long, creased dress. She followed his gaze and saw the stains of blood and fluid. “I have to change. I’m sure the King wouldn’t approve.” A smile twisted her mouth. “And the Queen would be horrified.”

Merlin’s mouth flattened. “If the King decides I am to be your mentor, then your irreverence stops, Nimue.”

She couldn’t help herself. “So I have till then?”

“You know that’s not—” Merlin bit back more words and turned to the solid wooden door. “Let’s go.”

He shot back four heavy bolts and tugged at the wrought-iron ring. The door groaned. Nimue stared back to the raised circle that had burned her with agonising light. She hadn’t told him a lie. She was scared. Voices had whispered in that searing light, whispered of the distant future, the forgotten past. One voice told her power could be hers. It would be hers.
All of it.

(c) 2007 Kim Knox (and as it isn’t fully edited, it could be different in the final version)

Thursday Thirteen #4

Since I am never getting around to blogging about Rome (this week’s excuse is small child germwarfare ie what bugs can we infect you with now, Mummy) I’ll TT about it. So…

Thirteen Things to do in Rome.

1… Stay in a beautiful hotel

2…Arrive at the magnificent Trevi Fountain… only to find no water and two men having fun scrubbing it out

3… Mistake the column of Marcus Aurelius for that of Trajan

4… Get your first photo of the Forum

5… Get your 79th photo of the Forum… 😉

6… Take as many pictures of the colleseum as humanly possible

7… Realise that St Peter’s Square is fairly big… though not as big as Tianamen… 😉

8… Have fun with light in St Peter’s Basilica

9… Stand by this; it’s an altar. I had to wait a good ten minutes to take a clear photo as so many people were posing under the skeleton. Nice…

10… Run down this staircase out of the Vatican museum. There’s usually one pic that I love from every holiday… and this is the Roman one.

11… Visit the Baths of Caracalla, because no one else does *grin*. Vast place that we went to on Valentines Day. The Ent The Ent proposed… and then we managed to talk ourselves out if again, hehe

12… When in Rome, one must really see the pyramid… so we did. *grin*

13… And on the final morning, you must get soaked to the skin and have to get on the plane home uncomfortably damp.

>

14…Added extra… Remember to take your Alphasmart, for writing and making blog posts… and only turn the damn thing on for ten minutes on the plane back! LOL

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Thursday Thirteen #3

Thirteen Things Kim Rees should have done this week.

1… Blogged about Rome. I know I went about 6 weeks ago now and haven’t updated with the promised tales and pics.
2… Repliedto the comments on my blog. I’m bad. I know. Thank you for commenting. How much to you want me to grovel?
3… Wrote more of my Welshman’s story. Having his only presence in the story so far with the words: “What the hell’s the matter with you?” isn’t doing him justice, LOL
4… Put my washing away. The only thing that’s holding it in the utility room is a chair and a whip.
5… Read a book properly. I’ve been dipping into Persuasion, Mirror Mirror and Viva Anna’s first Nocturne, who’s name escaped me.
6… Tidied the front room. It’s a bomb site.
7… Read through my rejected 20k novella. I’ve been asked to make it longer and resend it. So far I’ve gotten to page 8 and realised it is probably a novel *gulp*
8… Been more prepared for my son’s assessment tomorrow. But since the ‘experts’ don’t know what’s wrong with him we can’t really prep for it. Just point out that hello, we’re not parents in denial…which sounds a bit Transformer-ish to me LOL
9… Gone to bed earlier. I’m really feeling it now.
10… Won the lottery. What? Well, I should… 😉
11… Watered the plants. Big windows on a south facing room and you get surrounded by brown and crinkley vegetation. It’s not inspiring. Doesn’t smell too nice either…
12… Stop calling my postman Mungo. But I can’t help it.
13… And… all together now… I really should be writing… hehe

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Thursday Thirteen #1

Thirteen fictional villains who inspire me… Guess who’s plotting right now?

So in no particular order…

1… Servalan – I was a Blake’s 7 obsessed 10 yo. And having a villain in evening dress and high heels teetering about in a quarry was… unusual. The creation of Servalan has nothing to do with the rise of Margerat Thatcher, of course 😉

2… Cybermen – old and very much new. They’ve always been my favourite Dr Who baddy.

3… Daleks – just because. Now they’re a proper battle droid. *grin*

4… Livia – Yes, I’m heavily influenced by Robert Graves. But the endless machinations of the fictional Livia are impressive and compelling.

5… The Shadows – no not Cliff Richard’s backing group… though, thinking about it Hank Marvin is pretty scary. The Shadows from Babylon 5. Evil with an unknown face and really cool ships.

6… Anubis – the Stargate villain, mainly because my 5yo reenacts the season 7 finale. Declaring ‘I AM ANUBIS!’ he stretches out his arms and lets his 2yo brother shoot him with his lego gun. Yes. I’m a bad influence.

7… The Enviroment – This probably goes back to my Blake’s 7 watching. It started with a planet with sentient sand deciding to kill off Vila because Avon was the alpha male. It also inspired lust to make the others breed so the sand could live of their offspring. I love Blake’s 7, hehe

8… Satan in Paradise Lost – The perfect villain, who’s outlook colours his world… well, that’s what I remember from college anyway. I just liked pandemonium *grin*

9… Family villains – betrayal by family members is always fun to write about. That has to be the Julio-Claudians again.

10… Augustus Carp – not so much a villain as an anti-hero, but for someone truly awful you can’t do better *grin*

11… The Mayor – Season 3 of BtVS – I just loved his picky little ways while he happily slaughtered anyone in his way.

12… which led me to think of Iago . From A-Level and Degree English, I knew Othello inside and out. Iago is great at being completely two-faced.

13… And last, but not least, The Terribly Deep Thinkers – I’ve suffered through In Search of Santa more times than I can count. But these book-burning, intolerant, small-minded, evil penguins have grown on me.

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Thursday Thirteen #1

Thirteen Things about Kim Rees

1… For a romance writer, I have far too many books on how to kill people… *grin*
2… I’ve been inside 3 pyramids, despite being claustrophobic. They told me to stay on the bus… were they kidding?? LOL
3… I have no tattoos what-so-ever. A terror of needles has seen to that.
4… I have all 8 seasons of Stargate… What there are ten? Really? 😉
5… I have a degree in Fine Art. Don’t ask me how.
6… I’m counting the days until the DVD of Hot Fuzz comes out. Go and see that film. Really. For The Wicker Man scene alone.
7… The book that got me hooked on romance is Persuasion by Jane Austen. I read it twice a year. Can’t get enough of Captain Wentworth *grin*
8… I live exactly half way between Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields. Honest.
9… My DVD player is broken. ARGH!
10…I really want to learn another lauguage. So far I’ve tried Spanish, French, German, Arabic and Ancient Greek, but nothing’s sticking.
11…I often get mistaken for Kate Winslett… What…?
12…This is my first Thursday Thirteen, and I hope I did it right… *gulp*
13…And of course, I really should be writing,LOL

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
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Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Building a story: Theme

I blogged here yesterday about my trials of starting a new project.

And today, I learned something else about successful story building… well for me any way.

Find your theme.

I’m usually a one word theme-ster. Chosen was Choice, for example LOL But there were variations on the word. Having no choice. Making the right and the wrong choice. I realised when I started writing Chosen, that having even a single word theme helped me with a stuck plot. When everything died, I went back to my theme and *bing* out popped the next part of the plot. Cool. I might have actually hit on something useful for me. For a change *grin*

I remember stressing over Past Lies and having no idea what the theme was. Then I had to think of a new title. Out popped the above. And guess what the theme of that book is?

I wish I had a direct line to my subconscious. It would make life so much easer…