Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Lots Going On!
It's been a busy time on The D'Arc Side... I had a book release (FireDrake - which I don't think I got a chance to tell you about last time), then a bunch of book signings, the Lori Foster event in Ohio, a trip with family down South, then an RWA luncheon here on Long Island. It's been a whirl, I can tell you!In the midst of all that, I've been working steadily on edits for my August 5th release, Jaci's Experiment, which is the third book in my very successful Resonance Mates series. The cover was just approved, so I'm showing it off here. Ain't it grand? :)
As for FireDrake, it's been receiving a lot of critical acclaim and topped the Samhain Best Seller list for a while there, which was awesome. I recently created a quick, 40-second video for the book to give you a flavor of it. You can check it out on YouTube by clicking here.
FireDrake is part of my ongoing Dragon Knights series, but it starts a whole new sub-set of books that have more magic, more magical creatures and more action than the previous ones. I hope you'll enjoy them! Here's a little bit about the book:
Fifteen years ago, Drake left everything behind for a life in the shadows. While it broke his heart to leave his grieving dragon behind, serving Draconia as head of a network of spies suited him better. Far better than never quite measuring up to Mace, the “perfect” knight his father wished he could have been.
Mace has always done his duty, and done it well. Drake, his childhood friend and rival, was the charmer who effortlessly stole every woman who caught Mace’s eye. Some things never change—not one day back in town, and Drake’s already putting the moves on Krysta, the woman Mace has been courting.
And now the three of them have taken on the dangerous task of rescuing a kidnapped prince.
With each day that passes on their perilous journey, Krysta sinks deeper into the complicated relationship between the two men and their meddling, matchmaking dragons. Mace is clearly the safer choice for a mate; yet Drake tantalizes her with that unpredictable gleam in his eye. When the three of them come together, any sense of torn loyalty burns away in nights of fiery passion.
The safety of the stolen prince hanging in the balance, Krysta accepts the challenge to unite two strong men—and their dragons—into a real family.
If the fire within doesn’t burn them all to cinders first.
Available now in ebook (in print next Spring). Buy now from MBAM.
Labels: Bianca D'Arc, covers, New Releases
Friday, June 06, 2008
Inspiration and imagination
As a writer many things inspire me.
Here are a few:
Watching a man hold his tiny baby with a look of wonder on his face.
A toddler throwing his arms around his Mom's neck and giving her a sweet, sloppy kiss.
Puppies at play.
Kittens asleep on the floor with a sunbeam highlighting their little fuzzy body.
Children's laughter.
A devastatingly handsome man with abs that are begging to be touched, among other things.
All these things and more can instantly spark an idea for a writer or help with a troublesome scene .
When I speak to writer's groups or schools, almost every time I'm asked where writers get their ideas.
My answer: everywhere.
Then I explain it's all in how you look at things around you. A writer has trained their mind to always be alert for any gem tossed their way.
Conversations and people watching are two other ways, we can evilly glean information. A gesture, tone of voice, a sentence, the way someone is dressed--all are fodder for the writer.
One thing writers do not do is write characters based on family members and close friends. This is dangerous.
I'll let you stop and think about the many ways something like this can cause damage.
There's a shirt I need to buy that says something like: Make me mad and you'll end up in my novel.
Writing in itself is inspiring. It gives me the chance to help make someone smile with my work or make them sigh with pleasure. My goal is to have readers think enough of my work as keepers for their shelves, that my imagination and inspiration have made their lives better.
Lightening their stress load by having the chance to laugh or live through the adventures of my time traveling heroine.
Inspiration and imagination are powerful for both writer and reader.
All my best,
Tambra
Coming July 18 from Aspen Mountain Press:
Goin' Down Anthology Book 2
Here are a few:
Watching a man hold his tiny baby with a look of wonder on his face.
A toddler throwing his arms around his Mom's neck and giving her a sweet, sloppy kiss.
Puppies at play.
Kittens asleep on the floor with a sunbeam highlighting their little fuzzy body.
Children's laughter.
A devastatingly handsome man with abs that are begging to be touched, among other things.
All these things and more can instantly spark an idea for a writer or help with a troublesome scene .
When I speak to writer's groups or schools, almost every time I'm asked where writers get their ideas.
My answer: everywhere.
Then I explain it's all in how you look at things around you. A writer has trained their mind to always be alert for any gem tossed their way.
Conversations and people watching are two other ways, we can evilly glean information. A gesture, tone of voice, a sentence, the way someone is dressed--all are fodder for the writer.
One thing writers do not do is write characters based on family members and close friends. This is dangerous.
I'll let you stop and think about the many ways something like this can cause damage.
There's a shirt I need to buy that says something like: Make me mad and you'll end up in my novel.
Writing in itself is inspiring. It gives me the chance to help make someone smile with my work or make them sigh with pleasure. My goal is to have readers think enough of my work as keepers for their shelves, that my imagination and inspiration have made their lives better.
Lightening their stress load by having the chance to laugh or live through the adventures of my time traveling heroine.
Inspiration and imagination are powerful for both writer and reader.
All my best,
Tambra
Coming July 18 from Aspen Mountain Press:
Goin' Down Anthology Book 2
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
New Release: The Honourable Lady
I've been away for a while, blame my kidney and my ISP... I do ;-)
So...mainly I've been writing, a lot, and subbing like a crazy woman. The story in the anthology below is one that was accepted *grin*
Buy here
Royal officials are vanishing and Evia-ben-Thiak doesn't intend to be one of them.
So...mainly I've been writing, a lot, and subbing like a crazy woman. The story in the anthology below is one that was accepted *grin*
Buy here
Royal officials are vanishing and Evia-ben-Thiak doesn't intend to be one of them.
As a high-ranking member of the court, she fears for her life. So, she takes the only option open to her. She hides on a boat sailing to her home-island.
However, the boat is not the sanctuary she hoped for. A friend from her childhood, the now-feared sorcerer, Makovik is also onboard. To be seen with him could end her career; have her thrown in the deepest dungeon. But more than that, she finds he has a plan.
And his actions will change her life forever...
And here's an excerpt:
The Honourable Lady
(c)2008 Kim Knox
"Do you know why I'm hated?" His voice was soft, almost to himself. "Why Silan foams at the mouth whenever my name is mentioned?" His shrewd eyes fixed on me, expecting an answer.
Rumours ran that Kear-al-Makovik practised blood magic, a form forbidden by the Crown and the League of Sorcerers for five centuries. Other tales told of sacrifices, that he butchered animals...babies...women. His estate had become a haven to all the evil in the Islands. But then he thought me ignorant of his true reasons. I could never believe my childhood friend would commit such atrocities, so quietly--carefully--I'd had him investigated.
Makovik had contested, in writing, every decree the emperor had issued. The first minister had recorded them, but the evidence against the emperor he'd burned into so much ash. He had to, to preserve his own skin.
"You question imperial law," I said.
His eyes narrowed. "And why is that, private secretary to the First Minister?"
I held his dark gaze, showing no fear, even though my heart pounded and my hands grew clammy. "Because it's wrong."
He shook his head, and his eyes closed. A heavy sigh escaped him. "Yet you happily work with and within the Court." Makovik shifted his gaze back to the sea.
I stared with him. I had no way of changing the madness of the emperor and his family. They had all been insane for three generations, a fact acknowledged by all Royal Officials. Yet, we could do nothing. The army and the imperial guard stood as solid supporters of their excesses. The emperor and his brother saw slights behind every glance and whisper. They issued orders, demanding the army crush any imagined resistance or raze some village or town to the ground.
Soldiering had turned into a lucrative profession.
Makovik became a lone voice against their rule. Open voice.
"The Court is a dangerous place. No one who's a part of it has ever considered themselves happy."
"Then resign!"
"And be replaced by someone worse?"
"Oh, I was forgetting the high principles of the Lady Evia-ben-Thiak," he said, his voice thick with sarcasm. "The woman who ordered ten men have their tongues cut out because they were talking on duty--"
"And would you rather have them dead?" My face flushed with an angry heat. I pushed at his shoulder, making him look at me. "Silan could hear them from his room. Whispering, plotting, joining with the voices in his head. He wanted them all decapitated."
I closed my eyes. Silan's image burned into my memory.
His heavy frame lurched about his room, eyes rolling, white foam flecking his painted lips. Ranting, he demanded the duty guards were talking, talking about him. He wanted them dead, their heads on pikes, their corpses hung from gibbets in the market square....
"Those ten guards still have a position in the palace, far away from Silan. Their families won't starve." I willed down the surge in my blood. "So why are you on this boat?"
"Him." Makovik jabbed a thumb back to the fat-jowled councillor who lectured his guards by the main mast. The wind-chaser had finished with her fun, and his bright blue robes hung loose over his large body. "Ran Lucian. I've a bone to pick with him."
"What are you going to do?"
Makovik smiled. Sly. Almost wicked. The knot in my stomach tightened. Had he given up on the legal path? "Don't ask that sort of question, Evia. You might get an answer you don't like."
And here's an excerpt:
The Honourable Lady
(c)2008 Kim Knox
"Do you know why I'm hated?" His voice was soft, almost to himself. "Why Silan foams at the mouth whenever my name is mentioned?" His shrewd eyes fixed on me, expecting an answer.
Rumours ran that Kear-al-Makovik practised blood magic, a form forbidden by the Crown and the League of Sorcerers for five centuries. Other tales told of sacrifices, that he butchered animals...babies...women. His estate had become a haven to all the evil in the Islands. But then he thought me ignorant of his true reasons. I could never believe my childhood friend would commit such atrocities, so quietly--carefully--I'd had him investigated.
Makovik had contested, in writing, every decree the emperor had issued. The first minister had recorded them, but the evidence against the emperor he'd burned into so much ash. He had to, to preserve his own skin.
"You question imperial law," I said.
His eyes narrowed. "And why is that, private secretary to the First Minister?"
I held his dark gaze, showing no fear, even though my heart pounded and my hands grew clammy. "Because it's wrong."
He shook his head, and his eyes closed. A heavy sigh escaped him. "Yet you happily work with and within the Court." Makovik shifted his gaze back to the sea.
I stared with him. I had no way of changing the madness of the emperor and his family. They had all been insane for three generations, a fact acknowledged by all Royal Officials. Yet, we could do nothing. The army and the imperial guard stood as solid supporters of their excesses. The emperor and his brother saw slights behind every glance and whisper. They issued orders, demanding the army crush any imagined resistance or raze some village or town to the ground.
Soldiering had turned into a lucrative profession.
Makovik became a lone voice against their rule. Open voice.
"The Court is a dangerous place. No one who's a part of it has ever considered themselves happy."
"Then resign!"
"And be replaced by someone worse?"
"Oh, I was forgetting the high principles of the Lady Evia-ben-Thiak," he said, his voice thick with sarcasm. "The woman who ordered ten men have their tongues cut out because they were talking on duty--"
"And would you rather have them dead?" My face flushed with an angry heat. I pushed at his shoulder, making him look at me. "Silan could hear them from his room. Whispering, plotting, joining with the voices in his head. He wanted them all decapitated."
I closed my eyes. Silan's image burned into my memory.
His heavy frame lurched about his room, eyes rolling, white foam flecking his painted lips. Ranting, he demanded the duty guards were talking, talking about him. He wanted them dead, their heads on pikes, their corpses hung from gibbets in the market square....
"Those ten guards still have a position in the palace, far away from Silan. Their families won't starve." I willed down the surge in my blood. "So why are you on this boat?"
"Him." Makovik jabbed a thumb back to the fat-jowled councillor who lectured his guards by the main mast. The wind-chaser had finished with her fun, and his bright blue robes hung loose over his large body. "Ran Lucian. I've a bone to pick with him."
"What are you going to do?"
Makovik smiled. Sly. Almost wicked. The knot in my stomach tightened. Had he given up on the legal path? "Don't ask that sort of question, Evia. You might get an answer you don't like."
Labels: The Honourable Lady
