A Taste of Magic

Dear Reader -- I'm delighted to share a sneak-peak at my newest Mageverse novel, Master of Magic, coming Oct. 17, 2017

Return to New York Times bestselling author Angela Knight’s Mageverse in this never-before-published novella about a man with mysterious abilities and a hidden past—and the woman who must help him decipher his secrets.

Olivia Flynn finds herself on the brink of death, unable to call upon her Sidhe magic, when a handsome stranger rescues her. But this male is no ordinary human, and Olivia wants nothing to do with him. The foreign magic boiling around him is far beyond the power of even the Sidhe.    

Rhys Kincade has never been able to explain his magical abilities. Olivia is the first person he’s encountered who shares his gifts. But before he can ask her about them, they find themselves under attack by a pack of werewolf assassins. An even deadlier threat follows, and the pair is forced to rely on each other as they fight unknown enemies—and an ever-growing attraction between them.

You can pre-order the e-book for $2.99 here:

Amazon         Barnes and Noble     Kobo

Olivia found herself longing to feel the slide and roll of the tendons, the warmth of the skin. Were his palms callused? How would it feel if he touched her?

The craving to touch him, to explore all that powerful muscle made her heart beat faster. She’d spent too many years as a Sidhe alone among humans, pretending to be something  wasn’t. Unable to reveal who and what she really was.

I don’t have to hide with him. He’s in the same boat I am.

But this isn’t the time. I’m being targeted, maybe by Gorin, maybe by somebody else. Either way, I can’t afford to get distracted. She dragged her eyes away from that big, tempting body. Fought to control her need.

“If our bad guy intended to use you as bait,” Rhys said slowly, “why give you your power back? They could’ve kept you paralyzed while those guys killed us both.” He made an impatient noise. “But like you said, it doesn’t make any sense that you’d be working with them, especially given that you killed that wolf to save me.” His amber eyes focused on her, intent and cool. “I need to know if I’m right to trust you.”

Olivia opened her mouth to speak, but he leaned forward and caught her jaw in one big hand. She froze as the sensation of warm, rough skin made her arousal surge yet again.

Then his magic hit in a tingling rush. With a gasp of alarm, she tried to shield, but his power blew right through her hasty barriers as if they were tissue paper.

They were nose to nose. Close enough to kiss.

His amber eyes changed color in a flash, the irises going a bright, piercing gold as the pupils shrank to pinpricks. It wasn’t a human gaze at all. He spoke, his voice resonant and deep. “Are you working with them?”

“No.” He’s put me under a geas! Betrayed anger made her grit her teeth. And she’d just been thinking how much she wanted him! Idiot!

“Do you know who did this? Do you know who’s trying to kill me?”

In her anger, she fought not to answer. The answers poured from her lips anyway. “I have no idea what’s happening or why. I don’t know who cast the geas on me, and I don’t know why anyone would do it to me or why anyone would want you dead.”

“Why are you cooperating with me?”

“Gorin killed my husband and son for King Ansgar. I’ve dreamed of killing him for centuries. You have the power to help me avenge them.”

His hand dropped away from her face, and the compulsion broke.

Olivia jumped off the couch and backed across the room until her shoulders hit the fireplace mantle. “Don’t you ever do that to me again!”

Seeing something glowing in her peripheral vision, she realized a fireball floated over her right hand. She banished it, knowing bitterly she didn’t have a prayer against Rhys in afight.

But instead of attacking her, Rhys sank back into the couch, his hands falling loose in his lap. He looked shamed, almost defeated. “I’m sorry,” he said in a low voice. “I had to know if you were telling me the truth.”

“You could’ve trusted me—the way I’m going to have to trust you, because I can’t put you under a geas.” Her voice sounded more than a little bitter. “I don’t have the power.”

An excerpt of a love scene from Master of Magic, coming in October, 2017

Dear Reader -- I'm delighted to share a sneak-peak at my newest Mageverse novel, Master of Magic, coming in October, 2017 from Berkley Sensation.

Return to New York Times bestselling author Angela Knight’s Mageverse in this never-before-published novella about a man with mysterious abilities and a hidden past—and the woman who must help him decipher his secrets.

Olivia Flynn finds herself on the brink of death, unable to call upon her Sidhe magic, when a handsome stranger rescues her. But this male is no ordinary human, and Olivia wants nothing to do with him. The foreign magic boiling around him is far beyond the power of even the Sidhe.    

Rhys Kincade has never been able to explain his magical abilities. Olivia is the first person he’s encountered who shares his gifts. But before he can ask her about them, they find themselves under attack by a pack of werewolf assassins. An even deadlier threat follows, and the pair is forced to rely on each other as they fight unknown enemies—and an ever-growing attraction between them.

You can pre-order the e-book for $2.99 here:

Amazon         Barnes and Noble     Kobo

****

Rhys leaned forward and spread his fingers on the wall, his eyes drifting closed. His full lips tightened, making her imagine what he would taste like.

Power shot from his fingers, tracing the length of the wall, spreading outward and upward and down into the earth. Olivia felt the spell shoot around the house, much more powerful than her own ward. “That’s a little too strong. It would wake you up every time a leaf blew against it.”

“Ah. Okay, let me try that again.” He drew the magic back out of the ward, then spun it out again. The air filled with the smell of ozone and something that reminded her of sandalwood on a cool night wind. The muscles of his angular face tightened in concentration as his eyes narrowed.

Again, she saw that flash of gold across his irises, a marked contrast to his normal amber.

When he dropped his hand and turned to her, a pleased boy’s smile spread over his mouth. “How about that?”

Goddess, he looked so tall and broad and powerful. So profoundly male. Arousal surged through her in a ravenous wave, more intense than anything she’d ever felt before.

This isn’t right, an uneasy mental voice whispered. She never went up in flames this fast. And certainly not to a man who’d just invaded her mind with a spell.

He went very still then, as if something in her eyes had given her away. His pupils flared gold and his carnal lips parted . . .

Before Olivia even knew what she was doing, she’d plastered herself full-length against him. He stiffened in astonishment, might even have pulled away . . . Except she covered his mouth with hers, kissed him with heat and greed, enjoying the blend of spices and ozone . . .

And felt something darker, something wilder she didn’t recognize at all.

Something she craved. Forgetfulness. A moment’s peace and pleasure. An escape from the guilt and loneliness . . . With a moan of delight, she opened even wider.

Rhys tensed, shock rolling through him. What the hell was she doing?

A moment later, he didn’t care. His consciousness was full of Olivia, the soft weight and pressure of her breasts against his chest, her cool hands cupping his face as her mouth moved urgently over his. Her taste filled his senses with a delicious little crackle and tingle flavored with Riesling and the fresh, sharp taste of ozone.

Rhys loved women. There were times when the only distraction he could find from the pressure to succeed was in the body of women. He was nobody’s idea of inexperienced.

And yet no one’s mouth had ever tasted like Olivia’s. As if she fit him somehow, matched him perfectly on some level. Even physically; he had to stoop to kiss most women in an uncomfortable contortion of his far taller body. Yet Olivia could reach his mouth in flats.

And he could reach hers.

His hands came up, closing around her shoulders, pulling her tight, the better to feel the firm, lithe strength of her body. It seemed the only soft parts of her were those tempting breasts.

He didn’t feel he had to hold back with her, didn’t have to worry that with his greater strength he’d hurt her. He remembered the way she’d leaped and spun with that sword in her hand.

Olivia wouldn’t break.

That had been his fear with every woman he’d dated since he was seventeen. He’d never injured anyone badly, but he’d inflicted bruises more than once before learning the art of sensual delicacy.

Olivia was no stranger to that particular art, either. Her long fingers traced the contours of his jaw, the tendons working along the line of his throat. Then they slid down to explore his chest, the width of his shoulders, the thick contours of muscle and bone.

She rolled her hips against him, her belly pressing deliciously against his erection. Rhys found the curve of her ass, cupped her hips, caressed and stroked. She drew back from his mouth, just far enough to gasp. “I need you.”

The only response he could manage was a groan.

**** 

I'd also like to announce I’ll be the keynote speaker at the 2018 BDSM Writer’s Conference in New York Aug. 16-19. This conference will include demonstrations about writing for the dominance and submission markets, as well as demos of techniques used by real-life Dominants and submissives. The conference is also accepting workshop proposals. I’m going to be teaching a seminar on writing an erotic romance from brainstorming to revision. I hope you’ll check it out! 

Best,

Angela Knight

 

An excerpt from my upcoming Fight Scene class

Hi! I wanted to give my fellow writers a taste of an online class I'll be teaching on Fight Scenes beginning Sept. 4, 2017 for Savvy Authors. You'll find information here about signing up for the class,

This class is designed to help people get a handle on writing fight scenes. It will include 12 lessons taught in the month of September on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays. Students are invited to post sample fight scenes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for my critique.

Now, here's the class introduction: 

Introduction

by Angela Knight

First I would like to thank you all for taking my class on writing action sequences. This is one of my favorite topics, since there are two types of scenes which I enjoy writing the most: love scenes and fight scenes.

This may seem an odd combination, but they have more in common than you might think. 

Both are scenes in which two or more people engage in physical contact as an expression of strong emotion.  In one, it’s the love between your hero and heroine, while in the other, it’s the hate between your hero and villain.  But both are the passionate expression of a relationship. The more passion you can bring to each type of scene, the more effective it is.

You create that sense of passion through vivid, clear descriptions of both the physical action and the emotions of the characters.

For someone who wants a career in genre writing, being able to write a good fight scene may be an even more important skill than the ability to write a good love scene.  There are a number of genres where you may never have to write a love scene at all, such as science fiction, inspirational romance, and mysteries.  Almost all genre fiction requires writers to be able to pen a good fight. 

My objective in this class is to share the writing techniques will keep readers on the edge of their seats – and editors begging for more.

Classes will be posted on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  I will also upload the classes to the files section of this group so you can download the completed file to keep.

Note I often find that students’ questions raise new issues, and I may decide to do additional classes to address those issues.

Here’s a rough list of the lessons I’m currently planning for the class:

1. Introduction
2. Characterization: Handling heroes, heroines and villains in fights
3. The importance of motives and high stakes in a fight. Without this, there's no tension.
4. Setting: Choosing the best location for the fight you have in mind
5. Choreography: Planning a fight
6. Violence levels: How to avoid turning the reader off
7. Pacing: Escalating the tension through fights
8. Language and description in fights
9. Types of combat: The differences and techniques of sword fights, fistfights and gun flights
10. Genre and fight scenes: How do you create a fight tailor-made for your particular genre
11. Climactic fights: Avoiding an anticlimax
12. Summing up

Now let’s examine the question of why fights are often so difficult to write.

I think there are some fairly simple reasons for this.  One is that many of us were brought up to believe that ladies don’t fight.  People get hurt, and they sweat and bleed, and other unpleasant things happen which we would prefer to avoid. We’re supposed to be society’s nuturers.  Violence is the business of men.

At the same time, the very definition of the word “hero” implies combat: heroes are people who fight and win, often at great personal cost.  So to show that our hero (and heroine) is heroic, we must show him or her fighting. 

Yet for many of us, the last time we were in a physical fight was in grade school.  You’re supposed to write what you know, so how can you write about fighting?  It’s like a nun trying to write a love scene.

I have an advantage when it comes to this problem, because I took fencing in college.  It’s been 20 years, but I still remember what it’s like to fence competitively.  I vividly remember the intense concentration, the effort and exhaustion, the desire to avoid pain and to defeat my opponent.  (Getting poked with even a dull foil leaves nasty bruises.) 

I've found I can apply that experience to the fights I write.  How much more intense would the experience have been if those swords had points?

If you’re serious about writing, you may want to take a martial arts class to give you some idea of what it’s like to fight.

But if you can’t take martial arts, there are other alternatives. 

• YouTube.com. My go-to these days whenever I need an idea for a fight scene is YouTube. In a book I wrote recently, I had two paranormal characters similar to eagles, who were locked in aerial combat. I obviously know nothing about fighting in the air, so I started watching YouTube nature videos. I discovered that eagles don’t use their beaks when they fight, but lock their talons together and whip in circles around their joined claws as they fall to the ground. The centripetal force rips at them, and the one who gets pulled loose first is the loser. This gave me all sorts of cool ideas. I also researched all kinds of other cool fighting techniques for police officers, soldiers, etc. Give it a shot.
• Check Hulu or Netflix for films with particularly dazzling choreography.  I became a big fan of the Highlander TV series because the sword fights were amazing.  Make lots of use of the pause button to get a feel for the attacks and blocks.
• You can also find books on various styles of fighting, but it’s harder to get a sense of physical action from a textbook. You need to be able to visualize the fight in order to write it clearly. And clarity can make or break a fight. You don't want to confuse the reader.
• If you go to a movie and see a fight scene that’s particularly striking, consider sitting through it again.  Analyze what made that scene so exciting.  Can you create similar effects with your writing? A lot of the recent crops of films like Captain America: Civil War and Wonder Woman have featured stunning fights. Atomic Blonde also had some of the most brutal fights I’ve ever seen. I found them particularly striking because periodically the heroine and her opponent would collapse, panting, until they could regain the strength to go at each other again. It made the film seem more realistic and added to the heroine’s sense of peril.

Another film I found inspiring was QUANTUM OF SOLACE, one of the 007 series

There’s very little dialogue in the Daniel Craig fights, unlike some of the older Bonds.  There’s just a raw savagery that sends your heart into your throat.  It gives you the feeling of what it must be like to fight for your life, to fight to kill.

Those scenes also tell a lot about what the film makers are trying to say about Bond as a character.  He’s a ruthless man who doesn’t let fear or pain stop him.  He is powerful, he’s agile, he’s a very skilled fighter.  And he’s insanely brave and dedicated to serving his country.

Which brings me to the topic of the next lesson: characterization.  Fight scenes are a great way to reveal the inner truth of your characters. It’s said you never really know what’s inside someone until you see them in danger.  What will they do when their lives are on the line?  Will they fight or run?  Will they risk their lives for the people they love? 

A character can talk a good game all he wants, but until he shows what he’s made of, the readers won’t really believe he’s a hero until he proves it. 

Too, there is no better way to create sympathy for a character than to show him in pain, in danger, and fighting for his life.

Thanks for reading! I hope you'll join me Sept. 4.

Best,

Angela Knight