Sales and other happy things

Sunday was a bit of a mad day.

I got an email saying that TOUCH OF A DRAGON had reached the next round of the Loose Id Hot Hooks contest.  I now have to finish and polish that story to within an inch of its life by 1 Feb 2010.

I got another email from my EC editor, saying yes, she’d love to contract my fantasy menage novel HER DARK SOUL 😀  The contract is winging its way across the pond as I type.  You can get a sneak peek of the story further down in my blog.  Here’s the link.

Then I sold SHAPES IN THE BLOOD to Loose Id.  Yep.  On the same day!  The contract is keeping the other one company, lol Here’s the unofficial blurb for Shapes.  I’m still working on the Her Dark Soul’s blurb.

Aila Parry is a disaster waiting to happen.

Bad luck dogs her, has followed her all her life, ever since her grandmother’s heated warning when she was only three years old. Food spoils, metal stresses and breaks, equipment fails…and people are wary of her, forming strange hatreds, or worse shunning her completely. Men run scared. Which is why her colleague, Nathan Ahern’s, interest stuns—and delights—her. But Nathan is not all that he appears to be. And the only need he has for Aila is the desire to spill her blood. Matt Kinnon, a tempting stranger, a man compelled to guard the human race from creatures like Nathan, offers her protection.

But can she trust a man who is as much a demon as the one who wants her dead?

And the fourth piece of good news I got was from Samhain.  Weaving Words will be offered as a Kindle freebie from 15-28 December.  So a nice little Christmas present for all new Kindle owners 😀

Warflesh ~ available now!

warflesh_msrFina Brodie is warflesh. Enhanced by her government to bring ultimate pleasure, her negotiation skills secure anything her superiors want. The choice of pleasure she offers has always been hers. Until now. She’s not meeting Kian, Lord of the Tir, to negotiate for their mysterious spice-water. She’s payment.

And she’s not alone in bringing pleasure to the mysterious Tir leader. The man Kian has chosen to join them in the very sexual, very public spring festival has long headed her “never ever” list. Add the spice-water, which is rocket fuel to her already highly evolved libido, and it makes her reactions to Jonathon Raegh all the more dangerous.

But the Tir have a hidden agenda, and as the aphrodisiac qualities of the spice-water ignite long-suppressed lusts, all is revealed to Kian, Fina and Jon in the heat and passion of the arena.

Reader Advisory: Let there be no confusion. The spring festival is a sexual feast between two incredibly sexy men and one very lucky woman. Get the ice water ready!

Buy link and Excerpt

Excerpt Monday: Satin Spar

Once a month, a bunch of authors get together and post excerpts from published books, contracted work or works in progress, and link to each other. You don’t have to be published to participate–just an writer with an excerpt you’d like to share. For more info on how to participate, head over to the Excerpt Monday site! or site! or click on the banner above.

Blurb

Scar’s marbled skin and stunted tail aren’t all that make her stand out. Her Caraniae DNA has a strange effect on the male of the species, which makes her career as a pilot perfect. The less interaction she has with people–with men–the better. She won’t risk her wayward pheromones bonding her forever to one man.

Then there’s her boss’s new bodyguard, Anthony Tyler. The pure-human is tight-lipped about his sketchy past. He also seems determined to work her prehensile tail off.

Once imprisoned and drummed out of the Corps for conduct unbecoming, Tyler is intrigued with his ship’s unheard-of, human-Caraniae hybrid. He spent his career fighting her kind, but when a message from home throws Scar into a tailspin, he finds himself drawn to help her in any way he can. Even if it means risking life and limb to help her sweat out her anger.

Their sparring session turns into something else. Something wildly sexual. Something so wrong as to be suicidal–if Scar’s father discovers she’s bonded with anyone other than the husband he’s forcing her to marry…

Warning: This book contains violence, nekkid wrestling and hot, alien-human naughtiness.

Satin Spar
(c) Kim Knox 2009
Buy Link

“What do you want me to do?”

She smiled that wicked Caraniae smile. Her strong thighs gripped him and before he knew exactly how, he was on his back. Surprise had worked his grip free and now she pinned his arms to the cool sand. “You disobeyed orders. How?”

“That’s not what I thought you’d ask.”

She smirked. “Satisfy my curiosity first.”

Time for the sanitised truth, the woman was half-Caraniae after all. “There was a suspected nest. We went in.” The Corps had ordered an atrocity at Vistern Ridge. With the end of the war, they’d buried that order and his career. Tyler pushed back the memories; they were a part of his old life. “I refused to authorise the clean up.”

“And that’s a euphemism for…?”

The muscles in his jaw tightened. “It’s not open for discussion.”

Scar leaned forward, pressing deliciously along his erection. Her mouth hovered over his, her lips almost touching. Just a simple tilt of his head would– “Want to discuss it now?”

“Why are you pressing this?”

“What? This?” And she shifted her hips in a slow slide that had him involuntarily thrusting up to meet her. “So…why are you here, Tyler?”

She was still asking him questions. Why the hell was she still asking him questions? “Scar…?”

“Rochester told you who my stepfather is, didn’t he?”

Tyler held down a curse. Sparring with her would’ve seemed natural. Throwing her on her back and offering her whatever she wanted…yes, didn’t he look obvious now? “He mentioned it in passing.”

Scar’s expression was unreadable as she sat up. The friction made him wince. His erection mocked him. “And you just thought you’d drop by, say hello, curry favour?” She wiggled and he sucked in a breath. “Offer me this?”

That wasn’t planned.”

Her mouth twisted and there was a hardness to her eyes, hiding…what? He wanted to label it nerves, but that would be crazy.

“An unexpected bonus?”

“Scar…”

She leapt up with an unnatural agility and offered her hand. “Let me try not to kill you.”

Tyler grabbed her hand and she pulled him effortlessly to his feet. “Suddenly this is not a good idea.”

“Really?”

Tyler shucked off his jacket and threw it beyond the edge of the arena. His fingers moved to his shirt and stopped. What was he doing? A fight felt more real, more immediate to him when air brushed his skin. But now, that would be so very wrong. He kicked off his boots and pulled at his socks instead. His toes curled into the warming sand.

“Finished?” Scar lifted an eyebrow. “Can we fight now?”

“Impatient for me to beat you?”

She burst forward, but he stopped her attempt to grab him, blocking her with a palm-strike. Dropping, she tried to strike him. Another block. She swung around and struck out again. She was quick, fast and strong. It was fun to play with her–

“You’re grinning. Think this is funny?” She growled and his balls tightened.

He staggered at the kick to his shin. She leapt, crashing him to the sand, and ripped at his shirt. She nipped at his neck with her teeth and Tyler’s vision blurred. Blood raced south. Her scent burned through him and he tugged at her undershirt, the thin cotton tearing across her back.

“Ah, so that’s what you want to play.” Her lips brushed against his throat, searing the words into his skin.

His hands slid down her spine and found her tail curling tight around his right wrist. It squeezed hard. “Scar…” He couldn’t help the low, warning snarl. “This is not playing fair.”

She lifted her head and grinned at him. “I want to fight, not fuck, Tyler.”

She whipped free of him, standing back, her body loose and ready to attack him again. Tyler rolled to his feet and tried to keep his eyes off her small, firm and now very exposed breasts. Fire flickered under his skin and the only thought that consumed him was his need to get her shorts off. Some insane voice in the back of his head screamed that she had to be naked. And so should he.

“Shall we make this interesting?”

Her green eyes narrowed as she edged around him, matching his movements. “Interesting, how?”

“You take a fall, you lose clothing.”

Scar stared down at her body. She looked back up at him from under her lashes, her eyebrow lifting. “I only have these. You have trousers and underwear. What say we make it even first?”

Tyler paused, to give the illusion that he was reluctant. But that small voice wanted his fingers to fly. His mouth pursed. “Fine.” And his trousers pooled at his feet. He threw them and both of their shredded shirts out of the arena. “Happy?”

Her smile was wicked. “When you’re on your back, I will be.”

His cock twitched. Her scent drifted above the sterile odour of the filtered air and the dryness of the sand, something sweet and intoxicating. His chest tightened. He wanted her–

Scar’s foot connected with his knee and he grunted. Muscle instinct took over and he grabbed her arm, yanking her forward and kicking out her legs. She thumped into the sand, face down. Tyler straddled her thighs. “One for me, I think,” he murmured. His fingers slid down her spine, easing over her ribs until he reached her hips. He hooked a finger into her shorts and twanged them.

“Okay, you got this one,” she muttered and he was certain there was a curse mixed in under her breath. “But after I get you…” her head turned and bright green eyes speared him, “…and I will, then the one who beats the other into submission is the winner. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” Tyler murmured. “Now I take my reward.”

—————————————-

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Loose ID Hot Hooks Contest

I made the Top Ten for this Loose ID contest on Sunday!  Yes, I’m late in posting.  It’s Twitter’s fault.  I definitely blog less now that I use that, lol

So, this is the hook and 250 that got me enough votes to send me to the next round. I’ve sent in the first thousand words of Touch of a Dragon. I’m not certain whether it’ll be an in-house choice of the Top Five or readers will again get to decide, but I should know whether I made it to the next stage by 19 November.

Story Hook for Touch of a Dragon
“Do you want to live?”

Half dead and under a heap of rubble, Leona Munro isn’t going to turn down that offer. Yet accepting, spins her life out of control. She is the Chosen and what that means no one will say.

Thrown into the world of magic she secretly craves, Leona must find the strength to survive. Too many people want to use what she is to their own advantage in the war between technology and magic. She can trust no one…least of all the sinfully attractive Samuel Blake.

First 250:
“Do you want to live?”

What the hell…?

I focused on the brown hand thrust into my face, held onto it like a lifeline. Everything else around me was a scorched blur. My heart beat hard and pain rode through my flesh. Did I want to live? Where was I? What had happened? Panic bubbled and words burst out. “What sort of insane question is that?” I choked and agony shot over my skull.

“Make a choice.”

I breathed slow, wanting to ease the fear, the pain enveloping me and refocused on the man’s hand, on the ring on his third finger. Heavy, white gold and ornate, it gleamed against his smooth, brown skin. Something about it itched, tugging at my memory, but my dull brain couldn’t help me remember. I concentrated on his question instead. Letting out a slow breath, my throat hurt. “Choice?”

More sensation worked its way through my fogged brain, breaking the pounding pain beating against my skull. Flagstones scraped against my cheek, my jaw. Cold air brushed against my skin and the thin taste of smoke, brick dust, the river’s damp air slid into my lungs. I swallowed and blood and grit thickened in my mouth. All right, I was lying down outside somewhere. Which made no sense. I’d been what…heading into work? And then what? Collapsed, passed out? Now some freak with insane questions had found me. Always my luck.