July 5, 2010

Time Travel & Kilts! Contests too...



He's arrived to help her create the perfect bride.

He’s stuck in present-day Scotland with a bent time-travel key only she can repair. Duty requires he return to his time. His ticket home relies on a lonely woman haunted by more than apparitions. Her track record with men keeps her at a distance. And ghostly events keep pushing them closer together. Earning her trust will require the kind of patience only a valiant time guardian learns during his twenty years of apprenticeship. If time-travel duty, romance, and a bit of magic don’t help them realize their destiny resonates in mysterious fairy SWORDSONG, all known history could change.

Hello, everyone! Thanks to Anna Kathryn for having me over. I'm going to leave you with some quotes on life that hit me as fitting for Independence Day. But first, I'd like to post an excerpt for my latest release SWORDSONG.

Excerpt

Wide Druid-blue eyes gazed up at Murdo. He lost his breath, then, found the unruly molecules. Fluctuating temperatures indicated shifts in electromagnetic radiation. Fairy movement. Most likely fey working with Seers. And the blonde rubbed her arms. Obviously chilled. Something was wrong.

“’Tis freezing where you stand.” He studied the doorway. “Don’t go out there alone.” His words sounded foolish.

Twentieth-century humans simply didn’t understand the powers of Seers.

She rubbed her arms frantically. “Aren’t you cold, Murdo?” Her sweet maiden lips trembled beside his chest where she frowned.

She spun to the door, arms whipping out, hands poised ready to react, legs firmly planted beneath her. “What do you want?”

Elemental or Seer. Naught was there but the post and lintel, stone masonry and a dark void. The spirit had come for Katie.

“What’s the matter, Katie?” Pam barked from behind him.

“No,” Katie yelled, springing into motion, lunging for the doorway.

Shit. The lass pushed something over her head.

Something invisible.

She flew back toward him and fell at his boots, arms scrabbling behind her for a handhold like a crab.

Guinevere pealed like a banshee.

He grabbed beneath Katie’s arms and hoisted her upward as the blaring female cacophony ricocheted off the stone walls. “What is it?” He searched Katie’s disturbed gaze.

She stared at the door, regaining her footing. “Stop laughing, you bastard.”

There had to be an intruder. Or spirit. But he only saw an empty doorway.

A quiet moment passed.

“No,” Katie screamed, reached out, seemingly blocking a blow with her forearm.

What did she see?

“What is it, Katie?” Pam shouted.

Katie had to stop reacting and fool the Seer. If she didn’t look, she wouldn’t react to the spirit. He grabbed the blonde maiden, crushing her gaze into his chest. “There’s naught there, Lass.”

Katie squirmed, fighting his grip. “He’s got a knife.”

He scanned the doorway for a person. Why would he expect to see the apparition? The Seer had only come for Katie.

She stilled in his arms.

Yet, her thundering heart hammered.

She wasn’t ready to believe his Post-Modern alchemical notions. Not with Truth hounding her in an astral projection.

The air warmed about them.

Probably more the heat from the fear in the chamber than an actual rise in temperature, but a rise in temperature would note the visitation had ended.

“Is he gone?” Murdo studied the doorway.

“I can’t see,” she droned.

Of course she couldn’t. He loosened his hold enough to permit her to look over her shoulder. Better to hang onto her with a spirit afoot.

Katie scanned the whole room. “He’s gone.”

The other females descended upon him. The three crowns bobbed beneath his chin as the other maidens’ arms grabbed Katie.

“What was it?” Guinevere simpered.

“Yes, tell us what you saw,” Pam commanded.

Out of the three, Murdo liked the masculine maiden most. She was all business. Very much a Brother in behavior.

“A large man in big black boots,” Katie gasped. “He laughed at us, shaking a knife over his shoulder. He was going to kill us.”

“I didn’t see him,” Guinevere managed to speak plainly.

“None of us did.” Murdo kept his hold on the maiden.

Katie shot him a bitter scowl.

Her pinched glare of betrayal wasn’t what the prize he wanted. “I’m not saying you didn’t, Lass.”

Read the 1st Chapter

Read about the hero today and enter to win a pdf of SWORDSONG & a gift certificate!

Enter to win a Time Guardian Fan Kit and learn how to enter to win a HIGHLAND HEATHER GHOST-CONJURING KIT at my yahoo newsletter group!

Now for my quotes... It's true. I'm a thinker. So, expect a bit of thinking from all of my characters. Just a wee bit though! ;)

Straight from the mind of Charlotte Bronte...
"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will."

"If you are cast in a different mould to the majority, it is no merit of yours: Nature did it."

"It is vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility; they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it."


My reviews:

"Arthur is a masterpiece..." HE OF THE FIERY SWORD's King Arthur ~Diane Mason; The Romance Studio

"FORBIDDEN ETERNITY... spine-tingling suspense. The story is dynamite; it explodes off the page and leaves you breathless for more." ~Tulip, LASR

“THE SPELL OF THE KILLING MOON offers the best of spine-tingling suspense. The setting is perfect... Moncrief’s ability to wield magic and emotion are without compare. Her words twist together emotions and visuals until you experience this tale as if the trap were set for you. Some lines blend a kind of poetic magic: “Moonlight wove a special kind of magic, a spell so vacillating that a person never knew if reality were anything other than a dream.” Darkness and premonitions and deadly intent fill these pages... a unique blend of mystic Medieval Gothic and romance…and a true blood-curdling thriller." ~Snapdragon, LASR

"Intense, original, suspenseful, and dramatic... an unpredictable topsy-turvy romance... the suspense builds with every page in SACRIFICIAL HEARTS. In a world where symbols mean everything, magic is the way..." ~Snapdragon; LASR


Stories available at www.thewildrosepress.com
Kindle
Nook (most 64% off)
In Paperback

My website

"Be the change you want to see in the world." ~Ghandi

4 comments:

Anna Kathryn Lanier said...

Hi, Skhye. A belated welcome to my blog. It's great having you today.

Mary Ricksen said...

Sounds wonderful Skhye. Good luck`

Skhye said...

Thanks, you both! :)

Margaret Tanner said...

Great excerpt.
You have won me, I love anything Scottish.
Regards

Margaret