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 #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. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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Chosen is away... and hello! to Nimue's Price

I did it. It's gone. Finally.

Chosen is gone!

I think this is the first story I started and completed in one go. That is, without twiddling with something else and going back to it in a couple of months. And even then, some days I struggled to write more than a few words. I wrote the final 8000 words in the last fortnight, and 6000 of those since Saturday.

So it seems I need an external deadline to finish anything.

And I should have several projects on the go at once, so I don't lose interest in writing completely, LOL

And yesterday, Nimue's Price popped up on the Coming Soon pages at Samhain.
This is a link to the author's page, as the Coming Soon pages are transient.
Kim Knox



But here's a picture... couldn't resist...: