There is romance and then there's love. Just plain old love. And among the creatures I have loved most in my life, one stands out--Dancer Dog. Here is her story, with love on Valentine's Day.
Showing posts with label DCL Publications. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DCL Publications. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Friday, February 3, 2012
Writing in the Arena by Michelle Miles
Miriam was kind enough to invite me here to promote my latest release from DCL Publications, Phoenix Fire. So today, I’d like to introduce you to someone who is near and dear to my heart. She’s a tough ol’ gal and she can kick just about any man’s butt. She’s muscular and buff and carries many a scar from her journey.I’m talking about my heroine, Elena. She’s my gladiatrix.
When I started out with the book, I wanted her world to be authentic to who she was and the struggles she’d gone through. I wrote a long backstory that wouldn’t make it into the book but would give me insight into her character. There were certain things I knew: she fought to live another day, hoping she could someday earn her freedom and knowing it may never happen.
I set out to create this world by researching Ancient Rome and the gladiators. They were heralded. They were heroic. They were larger than life. Yes, most were men. But there were women, too. And not very many of them. They were thrown into the arena as punishment for some crime they committed, entertainment for Citizens and Senators alike.
It fascinated me.
For the story, I put myself in Elena’s shoes (sandals) and imagined what it would be like to live like that. It sucked, quite frankly. To step into the arena, wondering if would be your last day to live. I couldn’t imagine being in a world like that, though I did imagine it. I used every fear I had about dying and put it into Elena. I had to figure out how to write fight scenes with swords, scimitars, tridents, and all manner of weapons. When I wrote Elena’s fight scenes, I wrote them as her.
Here’s a sneak peek:
After participating in the Games for years, Elena could no longer smell the familiar reek of blood and death and rot. She could no longer hear the death noises of men and beasts slaughtering each other. The screams of defiance. The splish of blood against sword. Being inside the arena was like home—and hell.
"Elena, look out!"
Heart pounding, she whirled in time to block the sword. Holding it two-handed, her muscles contracted to ward off the attack. Fatigue had slowed her reaction, turning her limbs into sweat-soaked noodles. The seedy-looking fellow grinned, showing off decaying yellow stumps of teeth.
Their swords clashed and he threw all his weight behind his, pushing her backward. Energy failing, she stumbled, giving him enough opportunity for his stumpy fingers to latch onto her throat and squeeze.
And then later, when Elena is remembering her hatred for the Emperor and how she’d ended up in the arena:
"But aside from all that, you have raw talent," he continued. "In time, I believe you could be one of the best. You will begin training at once and be put into the Games as soon as possible."
"But--"
"If you wish to live, then you’ll learn how to kill your opponent quickly." He gave her an icy stare. He meant every word. That thin-lipped smile appeared again as his steely gaze moved over her. "Or...you can choose to stay here in the palace and serve me."
She knew all too well, even at her tender age, what he meant. Fury bubbled in her throat, sending hot pinpricks through her. That was the moment she first discovered how to shove Fear and Anger into the black void in which she kept them locked. The black void that eventually took shape as her vault. The vault where she kept unwanted things.
Elena personifies her fear and hatred and shoves them away. Until the day the black void nearly overtakes her when she learns she has to fight her lover to the death in the arena.
Here’s the blurb for Phoenix Fire:
Kill, or be killed.
Elena Gaius is Hixyl’s most heralded gladiatrix, catching the Emperor’s eye with her unspoiled beauty and fiery temper. Determined to let no man have her, he forces her into a life of unwanted accolades—for slaughter in the Games. With independence out of reach, Elena knows each day could be her last.
Cassius Antonius is a former general hired by an underground secret order to assassinate the Emperor. When he refuses, they take away the only thing precious to him—his freedom. Forced into servitude, he meets Elena and manipulates her into helping him, forming a shaky alliance and a searing romance.
The two become unwitting pawns in the struggle to save Hixyl from the Emperor’s tyranny. But plans spin out of control with the discovery of their secret tryst, and for their ultimate act of betrayal, the Emperor demands one last entertainment—to be pitted against each other in the Games in a fight to the death.
I hope you enjoy the story, now available from All Romance eBooks and Amazon!
Michelle Miles writes contemporary, paranormal and fantasy romance and is published with Samhain Publishing, Cobblestone Press and DCL Publishing. You can follow her on Twitter @MichelleMiles and “like” her Facebook page at Facebook.com/MichelleMilesRomance. To sign up for her newsletter and read her blog, visit her website at http://www.michellemiles.net/.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
KINDLE RELEASE - HEART OF THE EARTH BY MIRIAM NEWMAN
BLURB:
Robbed of her husband by the arrows of assassins, Tia must flee to the Northern Prince who has always wanted her. But the price of Hilgi’s protection is too high. Separated from her land and her Goddess, can Tia find a way to return to them…and to a love that may redeem her?
EXCERPT:
Light flooded through the opening. Hilgi’s tread was heavy upon the stone floor; he was a big man. He looked just as I had seen him some months earlier. He still wore the circlet of a Northern prince, the gold armbands of a Chieftain’s son, and his Havacian battle axe strapped to his chest. His furious expression was the same, as well. So he had looked the day he clove our mutual enemy King Edred of Tumagia in twain with that axe or its twin.
“What have they done to you?” he asked in Omani. It was the only language we had in common. But I did not care to speak on that day and I was the Queen and could do as I liked, so I kept silence.
“What have they not done to you?” he demanded again, wrenching open the drapes. I flinched as he sank into a knee-bend beside my chair, taking my chin firmly inhis big hand and looking into my face. “When did you last eat, Tia? You look like death!”
I made no reply and he backhanded me. I blinked.
“That’s the first one,” he said. “Every time you ignore me, you’ll get another.” I was more shocked than hurt and the hot seep of rage began to fill me like water soaking through a sponge. “Bad enough I was beaten by King Edred and a slave dealer in Omana…but you?”
“That’s better.” Tipping me forward to wrap the quilt from my bed around me, he lifted me, effortlessly. The world spun when he changed my position and I clutched him in panic as he bore me from that chamber, pausing only to kick my chair across the room so hard I could hear the solid oak splinter like kindling.
“That was a perfectly good chair,” I objected.
“I’ll make you another.”
In the hallway, Alcinic guards were deep in conversation with some of Hilgi’s Ancient Order fighters--men feared throughout the world for their habit of cutting out their enemies’ hearts still beating.
“No crying, little Tia,” Hilgi said softly. “If you want your men to live, be silent.”
I was weak from starvation, grief and near-madness and it took me a few moments to realize that Hilgi and his men had not come from the last fighting in Tumagia to pay honor to my dead husband. They had come for me.
That is why the Prince of Havacia carried me like a doll into pounding surf to one of the oiled leather skiffs Havacians used for passengers. Other craft would not attempt to come past the offshore island called Lady’s Weeping for its habit of causing wrecks, but the red and white striped sails of King Maruk’s fleet bobbed there on a fierce undertow and men took me speedily to Hilgi’s ship, the Boar’s Head. Ships of the Ancient Order--their macabre prows carved in the shape of gods and demons--surrounded it, but only skeleton crews were aboard. The other men who had sailed with Hilgi held my soldiers at swords’ point while their Prince absconded with me.
BUY LINKS: .www.thedarkcastlelords.com/heart-of-the-earth.htm (PDF) http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006O1OHMG (Kindle)
Monday, September 12, 2011
KISS ME GOODBYE by Heide Katros
Today I'm excited to have material from a new release by romantic suspense author Heide Katros.
"Kiss Me Goodbye" continues the story of Nick and Stephanie which began in "Judas Kiss." For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of reading "Judas Kiss," I'll try to summarize:
The promise is simple. If Nick Andropov is willing to risk his life on a suicide mission to Afghanistan, he'll be guaranteed a new identity and U.S. citizenship. For Stephanie's sake, Nick is willing to do anything. Stephanie has no idea that Nick is training covertly for the impending mission until the morning he gets his marching orders. Shocked by that unexpected news, she is too angry to even kiss him goodbye one last time. While Nick dodges enemy fire along the mountain ranges of Afghanistan, Stephanie fights her own battles at home. She is stalked by someone who seems to know her every move. The moment Stephanie is notified that Nick died in a helicopter crash, the stalker abruptly ceases to harass her. But Stephanie is unwilling to believe that Nick is dead. During his life, he was a master at subterfuge. She begins to investigate his death and stumbles across a horrendous secret. Her discovery will do monumental international harm, and those behind it have no intention of letting Stephanie live to tell about it.
EXCERPT:
Holding both hands palms up in submission, he shook his head in denial. “Steffi, I am sorry. I know that sounds lame after all we’ve been through together. I love you. I knew it the minute I met you. I really thought I’d have more time to prepare you for this. The suddenness of the orders took me off guard. Please, don’t hate me. Give me some hope to take with me into combat.”
“You are going into combat?” Alarm turned her voice into a squeak.
“Yes, that’s what I’ve trained for these past two months. It would be suicide to venture into enemy territory without being able to defend yourself.” It was a suicide mission, but he couldn’t tell her that.
Enemy territory? It sounded so ominous. “When … when did you prepare for all this?” Pressing a hand to her lips, her eyes widened with dread. “God, where are you going?”
His gaze slid away from hers. “Most times I trained while you were at work, but sometimes I snuck out after you were asleep. It seemed fitting since we’ll be moving mostly during the nights. I learned to get along on little sleep. And I’m sorry I can’t tell you where I’ll be headed. I don’t really know myself yet.”
He dragged her back into his arms, tried to kiss her, but she twisted away and his mouth grazed her jaw line instead. Her rejection hit him with the force of a sledgehammer, but he didn’t let on. Instead, he held her close and rubbed his lips along the side of her face, loving the softness of her skin. “Please, believe me, Steffi. I didn’t mean to deceive you. I meant to tell you sooner, I just couldn’t.” It was the truth. The patriot in him told him he was doing the right thing. The lover wanted to hold on to her forever.
Monday, February 14, 2011
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY - FEBRUARY 14!!!
It's the last day for my offer of a free PDF of my Valentine's Day book, Stupid Cupid. If you would like a copy, just leave a comment and your email address.
This little novella is a quick read set in Ireland, where the arrival of both Cupid and a pugilistic couple in need of his services disrupts the life of the faerie band first met in my novel Confessions of the Cleaning Lady. If you like paranormal with an Irish twist, don't miss Stupid Cupid with its adorable cover by DCL cover artist Annie Marshall!
Miriam Newman
www.miriamnewman.com
www.thedarkcastlelords.com
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