Mar 2 2014

Never Lose the Amulet PRIESTESS OF THE NILE for Weekend Writing Warriors

A fun way to sample new books and find new writers! Here’s the link to the Weekend Writing Warriors central page, so you can visit all the participants sharing excerpts today…

My new book is still a week or two (finished the copy edits yesterday) away from being Released, so I thought I’d fill the gap with excerpts from PRIESTESS OF THE NILE, which was my first published work, because the new book is a sequel to PRIESTESS.

This excerpt is a tiny bit edited from the published book to meet the eight sentence requirement.

You can read the beginning of Chapter One of PRIESTESS here on my website so for the excerpt I’ll go a bit further into the story. Last week, Merys, who has been tending an abandoned temple of the Crocodile God Sobek, didn’t realize she was talking to him (in his human form).

Sobek forms a habit of stopping by the beach in the evenings to chat with Merys. He grows ever more attracted to her, she falls in love with him (of course or there’d be no story)…but she still doesn’t know who he is. Isis intervenes with serious threats….but eventually Sobek can’t resist sneaking back to the beach to catch a glimpse of Merys… “just to hear her sing”.

And now the events begin that cause him to reveal his true identity….she’s been fishing with a net in the Nile shallows when she loses her protective amulet, which unbeknownst to her Sobek had bespelled to keep his crocodiles from attacking her. With it gone, she’s easy prey…

She pushed her hair out of her eyes roughly and sighed in frustration, checking her neck one more time, not quite accepting the loss of her necklace. The slithering sensation against her skin as the old leather thong parted and the amulet fell had been so startling, she had not grabbed for it in time. Peering uselessly into the murk of the Nile, Merys blinked back tears. The only possession of my great-grandmother’s I had left, the symbol of my being a priestess—gone. I’ll wait for the silt to settle and then hopefully I can find it. Taking a moment to enjoy the soaring flight of a flock of white ibis against the blue sky, she stood straighter, easing her muscles.

The sky tilted and vertigo assailed her as her feet were violently yanked out from under her. A crocodile closed its mighty jaws around her ankle, ripping a desperate scream from her throat.

Next week we’ll see what Sobek does…I love your comments and feedback!

The story:

Drawn to his abandoned temple on the banks of the Nile by an enchanting song, Sobek the Crocodile god is even more captivated by the sight of the singer herself. Appearing to her as a man, he learns she is Merys, a descendant of his last priestess. Though filled with lust, Sobek believes Merys deserves to be more than just his mistress. But the rules that govern the Egyptian pantheon forbid anything beyond a physical joining of a Great One and a human.

Merys is attracted to the handsome stranger, who arouses passions in her that no man ever has. But with no dowry and no hope of ever leaving her village, she dares not dream of the future—or love.

Sobek takes every opportunity to visit Merys, taxing his resolve to leave her pure. And when he saves her life, their mutual desire must be sated. But can a love between a human and an immortal survive the ultimate test of the gods?

Available: Amazon Barnes & Noble Carina Press All Romance

Jan 5 2014

Will He Apologize? Snippet from DANCER OF THE NILE Ancient Egyptian Paranormal Romance

Depositphotos

In my paranormal romance set in Ancient Egypt DANCER OF THE NILE Nima the dancer and Kamin, one of Pharaoh’s warriors, are traveling with the caravan for a few days as they seek to escape the pursuing enemy and get vital information to Pharaoh to stop an invasion. Nima is being exposed to various temptations involving her future as a dancer and Kamin realizes how much she means to him. But he’s got secrets he can’t share…

Today’s excerpt comes after the Minoan dance master Andrios provoked an argument between Kamin and Nima, after which she danced with the troupe, spending the night in their company, while Kamin kept a self-imposed watch over the area to be sure she was safe. I’m skipping some further contemplation on Nima’s part and banter with the Minoan dancers. I’ll start with Kamin’s greeting to her. There’s been some editing from the published version.

Giving her a bow, as if she was some grand lady at Pharaoh’s court, he said, “One of the camels has given birth this morning, out of season, but the calf appears healthy.”

Surprised by his choice of topic, she went along with it, “Is that the source of the delay in departure?”

“Yes, Ptahnetamun doesn’t want to abandon a perfectly good camel, so we’ve waited for the mother to give birth. I—I thought you might like to come see the baby – it’s a cute little thing.” He rubbed the back of his neck as if suddenly uncomfortable with the notion.

“I’d love to, thank you,” she said, pushing away from the stone wall, and they walked together out of the center of the oasis, down the caravan line.

“I want to apologize for my words last night,” he said as soon as they were well away from the cluster of Minoans. “I never meant to spoil your pleasure in the dancing.”

New cover SEPT 2019

The story:

Egypt, 1500 BCE

Nima’s beauty and skill as a dancer leads an infatuated enemy to kidnap her after destroying an Egyptian border town. However, she’s not the only hostage in the enemy camp: Kamin, an Egyptian soldier on a secret mission for Pharaoh, has been taken as well. Working together to escape, the two of them embark on a desperate quest across the desert to carry word of the enemy’s invasion plans to Pharaoh’s people.

As they flee for their lives, these two strangers thrown together by misfortune have to trust in each other to survive. Nima suspects Kamin is more than the simple soldier he seems, but she finds it hard to resist the effect he has on her heart. Kamin has a duty to his Pharaoh to see his mission completed, but this clever and courageous dancer is claiming more of his loyalty and love by the moment. Kamin starts to worry, if it comes to a choice between saving Egypt or saving Nima’s life…what will he do?

Aided by the Egyptian god Horus and the Snake Goddess Renenutet, beset by the enemy’s black magic, can Nima and Kamin evade the enemy and reach the safety of the Nile in time to foil the planned attack?

Can there ever be a happy future together for the humble dancer and the brave Egyptian soldier who is so much more than he seems?

DANCER OF THE NILE, an Amazon Best Seller, is AVAILABLE on Amazon Barnes & Noble KOBO Apple Books GooglePlay

VS Note: I love Nima and Kamin so much I wrote a sequel for them entitled RETURN OF THE DANCER OF THE NILE (yeah, I freely admit I’m not creative with titles) and then a third book about their adult son DANGER ON THE NILE. Here’s my page with full details on all the ancient Egyptian paranormal romances.

Nov 3 2013

Weekend Writing Warriors And the Fire Burns DANCER OF THE NILE

Continuing on with DANCER OF THE NILE for a few more weeks…last week we had a moment of humor as Nima the Dancer and Kamin gthe Warrior were escaping their captors. This snippet today is from further on in the book, after “some events” (no spoilers!). They’re holed up in a cave, waiting for nightfall before they travel onward. Nima is dreaming about the night she was captured:

Cherry-colored flames with yellow and violet cores crackling everywhere, above and below. The blackened roof timbers groaned, glowing from the inside out. How much longer would they hold? Small pieces were falling away each moment, burning embers igniting new blazes wherever they fell. Wind generated by the fire itself blew sparks in a mad whirl.

Her skin hot, dry as the desert to the point of pain. I’m baking alive.

The screams from every direction had stopped or were muffled by the roaring flames….she couldn’t stay where she was, but if she broke cover and ran, the attackers would see her.

(A small historical note here – the Egyptians are generally agreed not to have eaten cherries until Roman times. I decided since Nima danced on a circuit in all the border towns, she might have seen them 1200 years before Rome got there…or not LOL. I do take a few deliberate liberties with my Ancient Egyptian time frame.)

I love and appreciate your comments and feedback every week! Go here to find all the other Weekend Writing Warriors and read an amazing variety of terrific excerpts…

The story:

Egypt, 1500 BCE

Can there ever be a happy future together for the humble dancer and the brave Egyptian soldier who is so much more than he seems?

DANCER OF THE NILE, an Amazon Best Seller, is AVAILABLE on Amazon Barnes & Noble All Romance eBooks iTunes Smashwords

Oct 21 2013

ESCAPE FROM ZULAIRE Video Book Trailer Debut

I’m always thrilled to have a new book trailer to debut and it’s such fun to work with the awesomely talented (and patient) Theresa McClinton of Making It Reel. Here’s the backstory of how we work on the trailers!

First I give her the book cover art, the blurb and any really quotable reviews there might be. Then we start by selecting the music – she sends me a set of suggestions, which I dutifully listen to and make notes about. Last time I even got brave and went questing on the soundtrack site for a few more choices (fast tempo, drums – that’s me LOL). Ultimately we went with her top choice but bookmarked my favorite for possible use on our next SFR trailer. It just wasn’t quite the right “feel” for ESCAPE.

Then it’s on to the images and video clips. She and I go back and forth on the stock photos as she has excellent instincts for what might work but ultimately it’s my book and my characters and we authors are funny about the little worlds we create. (Which Theresa totally gets as she is an author herself). We had an easier time of it collaborating on the video trailer for my “Gods of Egypt” paranormal series because there are wonderful stock photos and computer recreations to use, both of Egypt itself and of artifacts from the time period I set my novels in. Please feel free to judge that video for yourself on youtube!

A challenge I do run into on book trailers for the Gods of Egypt is that the models in stock photos (or their photographers) tend to think that old, hackneyed “walk like an Egyptian” dance craze is the pose to use (um no) AND/or they’re wearing what look like bad Halloween costumes. Not what you want for your serious, romantic book video! Someday maybe I’ll have the luxury and fun of doing my own photo shoot for the covers and videos. I have looked into the idea, for the future, but to do it right, since authentic-looking costumes, wigs and elaborate makeup would be required, I’d need a decent budget and right now, that much promo for any one book just isn’t in the (credit) cards.

For ESCAPE FROM ZULAIRE, the requirements included the far future, an alien planet and alien sentients. Again, without a Star Trek or Star Wars-sized budget, I think Theresa was quite artistic in choosing the photos that made the final shoot. There is a whitewater rafting incident in the novel and my characters do visit a monastery high in the mountains seeking help along the way, so we could use some Earthly photos to suggest the feel of those episodes on Zulaire. After all, Zulaire has to be quite Earthlike for my characters to survive without life support or spacesuits.

Luckily for us, the female cover model had a variety of other poses available we could use in the video but the hero, much as we both liked him, took all of nine photos in one session, once, as far as we can tell from searching the photo sites, and that was it. So we had something of a challenge in assembling a video that told the story effectively in about two minutes, using stock photos of the original book cover art models.

Once Theresa has assembled a rough cut of the video she sends it to me to review. First I’ll watch the trailer two or three times without analyzing or commenting, just to get an overall sense for the feel of it, does it convey the feel of the book to me, are any elements standing out – good or bad – on repeated viewings? I make detailed notes for her, with the exact spot in the video that is affected, down to the second. Some elements are only a few seconds long but they all add up to the experience of the final product. Sometimes I want the wording changed a bit and sometimes I’m not resonating with a particular photo or video clip. But we rapidly reach the point where I LOVE it and then the video goes live for everyone else to (hopefully) enjoy.

I hope our mini movie will please you (and the book of course, which so far has spent nearly two months on the Amazon Science Fiction Romance Best Seller lists…)

Sep 23 2013

Interview with Djet the Cat From Warrior of the Nile

One of my author friends, Jody Wallace & her cat Meankitty (don’t ask!) have interviewed the cat from my latest Ancient Egyptian paranormal romance, WARRIOR OF THE NILE.

Here’s the first question:

1) So, nameless cat in Warrior of the Nile (whom I’m going to call “Djet” because reasons…and because the author told me it’s your secret cat name as well as the name of an ancient Pharaoh), what do you look like?

I’m a one-eared black tomcat, proudly wearing my battle scars, won in fights up and down the Nile. No sissy harbor cat is going to beat me. I’ve got one green eye and one yellow eye, sharp teeth and claws like knives. No vermin on my ship!

For more of this catseye view of the action in the journey down the Nile segment of the book, please go visit Jody’s blog!

Sep 5 2013

Cover Reveal Dancer of the Nile

I’m really pleased to share the cover for my upcoming October release in the “Gods of Egypt” series: DANCER OF THE NILE. It was so much fun to work with the amazing Frauke of Croco Designs again (she did the cover for PRIESTESS OF THE NILE in 2012).

I’m making a few last minute edits on DANCER so expect to see this title available toward the end of October. (You can sign up for my mailing list to be alerted of new releases, if you like. I promise to be very respectful of your mailbox!)

Here’s the story for my DANCER:

Egypt, 1500 BCE

Can there ever be a happy future together for the humble dancer and the brave Egyptian soldier who is so much more than he seems?

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And of course we’re getting really close to the September 16th release date for WARRIOR OF THE NILE, which is available for preorder at Amazon. Lots going on, but I like it that way! Thanks for stopping by 🙂

Sep 1 2013

Weekend Writing Warriors Lady Tiya Answers

better wewriwa Still counting down to the release date for “Warrior of the Nile” on September 16th…. the snippet below comes after Khenet is rather harsh in response to the heroine’s request for him to call her Tiya, as her family and friends do, instead of being so formal. Here’s her response to him (creative punctuation reigns yet again to make 8 sentences LOL):

Resting her hands on her hips, fists clenched, she narrowed her eyes. Drawing herself to her full height, her voice was chill as she said, “I didn’t ask for this, not any of it. Yes, I volunteered to serve, but I had no idea what Nephthys was going to demand of me – I certainly didn’t request you as my guardian. But, like it or not, we’re in this together, at least until we reach the Viper Nome*, so we don’t need to be rude and angry with each other the whole trip. Common courtesy goes a long way.” She shook one finger in his face. “I understand Pharoah gave you a choice – Nephthys merely told me to ‘Go there and die at my command, girl ‘. “

He had to admire her determination, calling him to task for his rudeness.

*Nome = province of Ancient Egypt

I love and appreciate your comments and feedback every week! Go here to find all the other Weekend Writing Warriors and read an amazing variety of terrific excerpts…

Oh and if I may SQUEE, the cover of ESCAPE FROM ZULAIRE, my new self published SFR, was on the USA Today HEA blog homepage last week (tiny but still…I was thrilled)

And the blurb for WARRIOR OF THE NILE (which is available on Netgalley now for reviewers BTW):

Egypt, 1500 BCE

Lady Tiya is bound to the service of the goddess Nephthys, who plans to sacrifice Tiya’s body to protect Egypt from an ancient terror. She embarks to meet her grim fate alone but for the hardened warrior Khenet, who is fated to die at her side. Tiya’s dreams of love and family now seem impossible, and Khenet, who is the last of his line, knows his culture will die with him. Struggling with the high cost of Nephthys’s demands, both resolve to remain loyal.

Neither expects the passion that flowers when Tiya’s quiet courage and ethereal beauty meet Khenet’s firm strength and resolve. On a boat down the Nile, their two lonely souls find in each other a reason to live. But time is short and trust elusive.

Without the willing sacrifice of Tiya and Khenet, a great evil will return to Egypt. How could the gods demand their deaths when they’ve only just begun to live?