My first Hump Day Hook!
So here’s a paragraph from my novel, Dark Dealings that released this week 😀
“I’m not one of your little mages. My power comes from the heart of the earth. The heart of the sun.” He leaned forward, his mouth so close to hers she tasted his sweet breath and couldn’t stop the quick hitch in her chest. His voice was just above a raw whisper. “Never offer me anything you’re not willing to lose.”
You can find more Hook-ees here
Whee! release day! I’m on a fantasy kick at the minute and Dark Dealings was a lot of fun to write. Wild magic, thieves, ambition and well, a hero that still turns my legs to jelly… 😀
There are monsters in the city. And one of them is her…
Ava Kalle’s empty soul devours magic. And her hunger is deadly. She’s sharp, quick and can live in shadow, making her work as a spy for the Mages a natural choice. She lives on the fringes of society and likes it that way.
When the man she loves takes another woman for his mate, the darkness in her heart unravels and she’ll do anything to get him back. She makes a dangerous deal with a fire elemental, Heyerdar, who has a vested interest in agreeing: together they’ll use forbidden magic, harnessing their sexual energy to drive the couple apart.
But soon their pact pushes them both into a dark sexual obsession. One that Ava may not be able to control…
Carina Press || Amazon US || Amazon UK
Amazon de || Barnes and Noble || ARe
You can read an excerpt here
Ellora’s Cave has put three of the Art of Love stories into print as ART OF AMOUR. To celebrate my contribution, here’s the first chapter of PAINTED PROMISE
Chapter One
The gears of the lift clanked over. They marked the cyclical rhythm of light dropping from the top of the metal box to bathe my body in light before it hit my feet. I drew in a slow breath and straightened my shoulders. The air tasted dry, bitter, with a hint of something that burned against the back of my throat. It was familiar. I didn’t push at my memory. I didn’t want to. Hell, they weren’t my memories anyway.
Beside me, the senior manager of the project coughed.
I glanced at him. Linus Vrome, retained by my family to preserve their most prized asset…which wasn’t me. The moving band of white light dropped down over his sharp face. Sweat glistened on his forehead and a nervous tick jumped at his temple. He was nervous? He wasn’t the one who would have to walk out of the metal coffin when it finally stopped its long drop into the bedrock of the planet. He’d get to ride back up again.
“Are you aware of the full history of our connection to the Tashen-Dar?” His voice rang against the metallic walls, fighting with the clunks and clanks of the lift’s mechanisms. “Of how your progenitor captured the one known as Zaid?”
“No,” I lied.
STELLARNET PRINCE: Book two of the Stellarnet Series
Release date November 12, 2012
An otherworldly love. Human blogger Genny O’Riordan shares two alien lovers: Duin, a leader of the Uprising, and Belloc, the only surviving member of the reviled Glin royal family. Their relationship has inspired millions of followers–and incited vicious anti-alien attacks.
A planet at risk. A Stellarnet obsessed with all things alien brings kidnappers, sex traffickers and environmental exploitation to Glin. Without weapons or communications technology, the planet cannot be defended. Glin will be ravaged and raided until nothing remains.
A struggle for truth. On Earth, Duin discovers a secret that could spur another rebellion, while on Glin, Belloc’s true identity could endanger their family and everything they’ve fought for. Have the Glin found true allies in humanity, or an even more deadly foe?
You can read the prologue here.
The following excerpt is sexy and exclusive:
Belloc’s voice was low and sultry in her ear. “More.” Begging, yearning, he repeated the word in Glinnish.
More? More what? She took as much of him as she could, rocking back on his full length, gliding on his smooth skin. His answering moan was like music, and she moved faster and harder until he joined her in ecstasy. His back arched as he cried out a stream of aqueous sounds she couldn’t translate. The passion he poured into her was all the more powerful because of the contrast with his usual reserve. In one, dazzling moment, he shared everything.
J’ni lost herself completely, until she felt his lips and the tip of his tongue, tasting droplets of salty sweat on her brow and the tears forced from the corners of her eyes in the fury of her release. Breathless and spent, she came back from the deep darkness of bliss and realized her arm was caught under his shoulder and her hand was falling asleep. And she was damn thirsty.
She lay beside him, her head on his shoulder. After a few minutes, he reached for her arm and touched the controls on her bracer, turning off the netcams. His gloves were somewhere on the floor.
She smiled. “’Lo, husband.”
“’Lo, wife.” He faced her, laying on his side, one leg lifted over her hip and drawing her as close as possible. “If I was from Earth, your new name would be J’ni Nidenn.”
“Maybe. Not everyone follows that tradition anymore. I might keep my name. Or you would be Belloc O’Riordan. Or we could be J’ni and Belloc O’Riordan-Nidenn.”
Belloc’s winsome smile was tinged with melancholy. He pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, and traced the edge of her earlobe with his fingertip.
“Sometimes, I wish I was human.”
And you can also go here for the chance to win a r’naw eye necklace and free copies of Stellarnet Rebel and Stellarnet Prince!
The content edits for the first book in the Agamemnon Frost series, House of Death, are nearly all the done and I’m almost half way though Hollow Ships. So here’s a 6 from that second book:
“And in those moments, I remember who I serve.”
The air seemed to crack between them, the promise of what they couldn’t show in Greenbank Hall, or on the open streets burned there in the thick darkness of the empty corridor.
Frost leaned forward, only a whisper of air separating their lips. “Say it.”
Mason’s mechanical heart drummed in his chest, his body aching. “I serve you.”
As always, you can find more Sunday Sixes here.
Haven’t done this for so long. I am such a slacker!
My wip-du-jour is book 2 of the AGAMEMNON FROST trilogy out next year. It’s slow going as I said in the post below –every word has to be checked and reseached–but here’s my six for today.
Mason acted on his need, drawing a trembling line over Frost’s bristled jaw. “You need a shave.” His voice was thick, strained. The slightest touch of the man’s skin sent a shock of pleasure through his flesh. It was why they had to be so cautious. “Sir.”
As always you can find more six sundays here.
I’m in full research mode for Agamemnon Frost and the Hollow Ships. It’s a steampunk-y story and therefore needs practically every word researched and checked. It’s the second book in the series, so I knew this going in! 😉
This part of the wall shows a 40 year period of Garston docks –OS maps–and the interior of Greenbank House – the rest of the wall (I wasn’t able to fit the whole wall in!) has Liverpool docks in 1893. I had to wrestle with the library photocopier for a good hour…so they’ll be staying up there a while…
This is out from Cleis Press now, in the US in paperback and kindle. Rest of the World, you have to wait until October. Sorry 🙂
Amazon US || Amazon UK (pre-order) || Amazon De (pre-order) || Barnes and Noble || ARe
The main site of Thrones of Desire is here. And the Behind the Scenes of At the Sorcerer’s Command is here.
Here’s the blurb to my story, AT THE SORCERER’S COMMAND and the anthology as a whole.
At the Sorcerer’s Command:
Miar is her people’s only hope to defeat the sorcerer who has besieged her home. She has an unusual talent. She’s a soul-catcher, able to twist any soul to her will. And Varun, the man who must guard her, is willing to use her and her gift anyway he can.
Thrones of Desire: Erotic Tale of Swords Mist and Fire ~ edited by Mitzi Szereto
Thrones of Desire: Erotic Tales of Swords, Mist and Fire is a place where lust and legend abound, and adventure, passion and danger entwine. Think mystical lands and creatures, kings and queens, knights and renegades, heroes and villains, warlords, maidens and princesses. Think battles and danger, honour and dishonour, good and evil. Most of all, think hearts filled with passion and secret desire.
This is a place where romantic chivalry is alive and well, but so too is romantic wickedness. This is a place where the good do not always win, and the bad are often more captivating and desirable than their altruistic counterparts.
In these lush and timeless landscapes, the battle for flesh can be as important as the battle for power. Intrigue, sorcery, revenge, lawlessness, dark secrets and mysterious elixirs; entanglements with supernatural beings – everything is possible in these magical mythical landscapes.
There are monsters in the city. And one of them is her…
Ava Kalle’s empty soul devours magic. And her hunger is deadly. She’s sharp, quick and can live in shadow, making her work as a spy for the Mages a natural choice. She lives on the fringes of society and likes it that way.
But when the man she loves takes another woman for his mate, the darkness in her heart unravels and she’ll do anything to get him back. She makes a dangerous deal with a fire elemental, Heyerdar, who has a vested interest in agreeing: together they’ll use forbidden magic, harnessing their sexual energy to drive the couple apart.
But soon their pact pushes them both into a dark sexual obsession. One that Ava may not be able to control…
Ok, so I never set out to write an inter-racial polyamorous erotic futuristic romance with heavy doses of political commentary…it just kind of happened. Well, that’s not entirely true, I did know from the offset that the second book in my Mystics and Warriors series (the first book is Bad Religion) would contain a menage where the three main characters ended in a relationship together. I just had no idea when I put fingers to keyboard how involved the characters’ backstory would become. And that’s just as well. I like my characters to surprise me as a write. I like to discover things about them that I didn’t know when I started writing the book. In the vernacular of the writer, I’ve become more pantser than plotter these days and the transition has lead me down some very interesting paths of late.
Such as with Sacred Sacrifices. I had this one scene planned out – Oh man, I could see it so clearly in my head. My heroine, Jerella, was going to have on a sheer red dress and seduce the enemy general, Keis. Yeah…did not happen that way. My characters had other plans, my scene–which I always knew would take place in a jail cell–ends up with Keis protecting her from his own men while trying to maintain a covert operation. In other words, the planned twists got tangled up and the book ended up with more depth and emotion because of it. It pays to listen to what the characters tell you. Sometimes it might hit you upside the head like it did when my main hero, Veric, decided to tell me he and Keis used to be lovers. Oh, really? Well, thanks for telling me before I finished writing the book. Luckily this came to me when I first starting writing scenes with Keis so it wasn’t such a hardship. If anything, it made the ties that bind the characters together stronger and offered me a chance to explore those aspects of their relationship like anger, betrayal and forgiveness.
I really enjoyed writing these characters and bringing them to life. I am currently working on book three of the saga, Ascendant Rising. I have a feeling this one is going to get very interesting as the characters begin to reveal themselves more clearly too me. Already the heroine, Lynx, has thrown me a huge curve ball. *sigh*
Now, here’s a blurb for your reading enjoyment and tantalization.
Blurb:
Sophite adja Jerella Montegro has crossed the length of the Sangrah Provinces to connect with a Unarion she’s only communicated with in her mind. Hunted by the theocrats on an order of execution, she has risked everything to come to the aid of the psychic sect she’s only heard of in stories. To bring them into the rebel fold with the Sophites and Drumas, it’s worth any price–including her life.
Unarion psychic Veric has spent the last few years mourning the betrayal of his lover, Keis, to the theocratic guards. Now, with the construction of a tower near the borders of his homeland, and the rift of a nexus opening in the city of Rimfel, he needs Jerella’s help to defeat the theocrats and their sinister plans once and for all.
Guard General Keis has given his all to the uniform he wears if only to bring his secret agenda to fruition. With Jerella and Veric in his crosshairs, he can’t lose. For what’s the promise of the future without a few sacrifices? But what’s his future without Jerella and Veric?
http://www.loose-id.com/mystics-and-warriors-2-sacred-sacrifices.html
Amazon link for Sacred Sacrifices
***But wait there’s more….****
Leave me a comment and you are automatically entered to win an electronic copy of Bad Religion.
Happy Reading!
-Kathleen Scott
www.MysticKat.com
www.katedavisonromances.com
Contest closes 22 August 2012
KIM KNOX 