Blogging buddy and fellow girl-on-girl aficionada, Madame Butterfly, has just reviewed Bound by Steel, and has lots of nice things to say about it.
Snippet:
That said, Kirsten Saell writes some of the most smokin hot sex out there and I had to keep the fire extinguisher next me in case my eBookwise spontaneously combusted. Whoa!
As usual, for me anyway, Kirsten Saell’s gritty, bawdy, colorful way of writing is so entertaining in itself, and that made this book so much fun to read even outside of the story. Her writing and story telling seems to be maturing with each book and I hope there is a third Emissaries of Belthalas because I’m totally addicted.
Guess I better get writing. :D
Monday, October 27, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
No, it Isn't Snow
It's dog hair.
Yes, it's that time of year once more: Shedding season.
"What's this?" you say? "A dog, shedding in the fall? But spring is the time of year for dogs to molt!"
To you doubters, I say "Pooh"--right after I spit out a mouthful of dog hair.
Every October my fat, stupid, lazy, coffee table of a dog drops her entire coat. Yes, her entire coat. Like any fashionista, she is unsatisfied with merely expanding her current wardrobe--twice a year, she requires a completely new one.
This means for about three weeks, the rest of us are forced to wade through drifts of soft, ivory fluff that aspire to the ceiling. Woe betide the child who climbs sticky-fingered onto the sofa. We hostages to the hair wear dark colors at our own peril. Why, just this morning, I couldn't get the F on my keyboard to function. The problem? A matt of dog hair stuck under the key.
There's dog hair in the butter dish, dog hair in my freezer, dog hair sprouting from the window screens, dog hair stuck to my mascara wand. And yet there is still, defying all laws of physics and common sense, dog hair on the dog. I can brush her for hours, harvesting bales of the stuff, and three and a half minutes later she'll wander by in a cloud of freshly molted fur, depositing her dubious bounty on every piece of furniture within fifty feet.
I have fought this biannual war of attrition with a multitude of inadequate weapons: brooms, dog-combs and vacuum cleaners, lint-rollers and sticky tape. I have even considered applying a generous coat of spar varnish to the dog so the whole mass comes off in one, solid shell. But this year, I simply no longer have the energy to fight. I concede defeat. The hair wins.
I'm not even going to vacuum until the saturation bombardment of dog-follicles ceases. The battle is unwinnable, so why even try?
If any of you all are looking for me, I'll be under the dog hair until the second week of November.
Yes, it's that time of year once more: Shedding season.
"What's this?" you say? "A dog, shedding in the fall? But spring is the time of year for dogs to molt!"
To you doubters, I say "Pooh"--right after I spit out a mouthful of dog hair.
Every October my fat, stupid, lazy, coffee table of a dog drops her entire coat. Yes, her entire coat. Like any fashionista, she is unsatisfied with merely expanding her current wardrobe--twice a year, she requires a completely new one.
This means for about three weeks, the rest of us are forced to wade through drifts of soft, ivory fluff that aspire to the ceiling. Woe betide the child who climbs sticky-fingered onto the sofa. We hostages to the hair wear dark colors at our own peril. Why, just this morning, I couldn't get the F on my keyboard to function. The problem? A matt of dog hair stuck under the key.
There's dog hair in the butter dish, dog hair in my freezer, dog hair sprouting from the window screens, dog hair stuck to my mascara wand. And yet there is still, defying all laws of physics and common sense, dog hair on the dog. I can brush her for hours, harvesting bales of the stuff, and three and a half minutes later she'll wander by in a cloud of freshly molted fur, depositing her dubious bounty on every piece of furniture within fifty feet.
I have fought this biannual war of attrition with a multitude of inadequate weapons: brooms, dog-combs and vacuum cleaners, lint-rollers and sticky tape. I have even considered applying a generous coat of spar varnish to the dog so the whole mass comes off in one, solid shell. But this year, I simply no longer have the energy to fight. I concede defeat. The hair wins.
I'm not even going to vacuum until the saturation bombardment of dog-follicles ceases. The battle is unwinnable, so why even try?
If any of you all are looking for me, I'll be under the dog hair until the second week of November.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Release Day!!! And a Contest!!
Well, today's the big day--Bound by Steel is now available. Unfortunately, the Canadian federal election and the tryptophan in last night's turkey have conspired to steal all my verve. Even if I hadn't overindulged in the ubiquitous bird and all its assorted accompaniments, I'm pretty sure the notion of braving the weather today so I can exercise my democratic responsibilities would have me equally nauseous. Bluh.Methinks perhaps when I am done eenie-meenie-miney-moeing at the polls, I will bundle up with a blankie and some flavored coffee and partake in my usual release day tradition: read the book, surf yon webs, post an excerpt and give away a book or two.
I expect that y'all will be acquiring this beauty before doing anything as unimportant as voting for whichever political tool you hate marginally less than the others. (And I hear the economy is bouncing back, so you all got no excuse now to not buy it.) Heck, at least with a book, there's a chance you won't feel like you've wasted your time, right? I mean, if I want to participate in a giant wank-job, well, I'll pick one that isn't political, and has a hope in hell of getting me excited. :D
For all of you who still fear impending economic disaster and are looking to save yourself five bucks and change, you can head on over to Loving Venus- Loving Mars for a chance to win a copy for nothing. And even if you aren't the contest type, you can still pop in and read the hot girl on girl excerpt.
Now, to vote. One potato, two potato...
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Already??!!
Where on earth does the time go? Feels like Healer's Touch just came out yesterday, and here I am staring down the gaping maw of another release day.
Bound by Steel will be available on Tuesday. As it happens, BbS shares its release day with another significant event for those of us who live north of the 49th. Yes, Tuesday October 14 is election day for us Canucks. The political choices, they are as lame as ever. The fiction choices, however, are looking much more peachy.
In honor of election day, and in anticipation of Bound by Steel's release, I am going to post an unusually clean excerpt. All right, not clean, precisely, considering the questionable politics. Please remember, the political views expressed in this excerpt are not necessarily those of the blog owner.
"Tell me, Master Gil, do you know much Fjorn history?"
"As much as any man who is neither Fjorn, nor a historian."
"Then you must be familiar with the fall of the Temple Knights?"
Gil frowned, wondering exactly where this was going. "What man isn’t? High Prelate Eddard of Banebury wanted his brother Hillard on the Fjorn throne, despite the fact it was already occupied. His Knights would have succeeded, but for perfidy within the ranks of the Temple priests. After the debacle, it was decided that the clergy had too much earthly power, and the Order of Temple Knights was disbanded."
"A foolish knee-jerk reaction if there ever was one," the chancellor concluded.
"How so?"
The chancellor deftly peeled a prawn and bit it in half. "They disbanded an entire order of elite fighters—fighters who had, up until that one incident, been unerringly loyal to king and country—who then had no choice but to turn mercenary and find positions in the private armies of the Fjorn nobility. In essence, the disbanding of the Templars only increased the chances of civil war."
Gil sat back and took a long sip of his wine, intrigued despite himself by the man’s unorthodox politics. "What would you have done, chancellor?"
"The crown would have been better advised to enact measures to prevent nobility from rising to supremacy within the Temple. I will not need to tell you how such measures would have benefited Fjorg in its more recent troubles with the Dragon’s Head. And they ought to have written legislation consolidating all the armed forces of Fjorg under the aegis of the crown. A king cannot effectively rule if he must always tiptoe around his lords and their personal militias."
Gil stabbed at his salad with a three-pronged fork cast from pure silver. "But allowances must surely be made for a lord to defend his land, his vassals and tenants, and of course his family. Even these days, the world is a dangerous place. The Bal-shar may be gone, but brigands and raiders still victimize the innocent, especially in more isolated regions. You can’t possibly advocate the total abolition of the traditional household guard?"
Chancellor Collin smiled with a dry humor that did not quite reach his eyes. "That is exactly what I advocate."
Gil set his fork down on the edge of his plate, the delectable salad turning tasteless in his mouth. He may not be able to see quite where this conversation was leading, but he was beginning to feel the first stirrings of unease, and he’d learned over the years to trust his instincts.
The chancellor’s smile widened, but did not grow any warmer. "It is my belief that a strong king, with the proper resources, must be the ultimate authority of the land. If he is granted sufficient wherewithal through taxes and manpower, it should be his sole responsibility to govern, and to protect his subjects. And the first rule of good governance is upholding the law."
"And if a man has a grievance with his neighbor?"
The chancellor lifted his glass in a salute. "A king who cannot smooth over a neighborly feud has no business being king."
"And what," said Gil, trying to maintain a certain lightness of tone and not entirely succeeding, "ought a man do when he has a grievance against his king?"
"Then that man has a problem," the chancellor said quietly, his smile gone.
Gil pretended a keen interest in his wine as the serving girl brought in the second course, a roast pork sirloin with pearl onions, baby peas and a loaf of white bread hot from the oven. Everything looked delicious, but Gil’s appetite had fled. Over the course of the long wait in the salon, he had largely discarded the possibility of working with this man, and this…discussion only reinforced that decision.
The girl finished dishing out their meal and retreated. Gil picked up his knife and speared an onion, not with any real intention of eating it. All he wanted now was to finish this ridiculous conversation and get the fuck out of here. "Your interest in the topic seems more than a passing one, chancellor."
The chancellor’s smile was back full force. "I’m a man of ambition. A such, I aspire to change the world for the better."
"Surely you have no royal aspirations? After all, Belthalas has no king."
"Belthalas may be a city-state," the chancellor said affably, "but it is more similar to Fjorg than you might realize. Scaled down, it possesses all those parts that comprise a kingdom—a ruler, his loyal nobility, the civil service, a strong clergy, the commons and a militia. Unfortunately, it also abounds with mercenaries who threaten the stability of its righteous governance."
And there it was, out in the open. Gil stabbed a second onion onto the point of his knife. "The Emissaries."
Chancellor Collin’s teeth flashed, but the coldness of his eyes lent his smile a predatory aspect. "The Emissaries."
Gil’s fingers tightened on the haft of his dagger. Without being too obvious, he made a note of the exits, and where they were likely to lead.
Oh, dear. It looks like someone has an agenda. *sigh* I guess this is what happens when politicians don't get enough action in the bedroom...
Bound by Steel will be available on Tuesday. As it happens, BbS shares its release day with another significant event for those of us who live north of the 49th. Yes, Tuesday October 14 is election day for us Canucks. The political choices, they are as lame as ever. The fiction choices, however, are looking much more peachy.
In honor of election day, and in anticipation of Bound by Steel's release, I am going to post an unusually clean excerpt. All right, not clean, precisely, considering the questionable politics. Please remember, the political views expressed in this excerpt are not necessarily those of the blog owner.
"Tell me, Master Gil, do you know much Fjorn history?"
"As much as any man who is neither Fjorn, nor a historian."
"Then you must be familiar with the fall of the Temple Knights?"
Gil frowned, wondering exactly where this was going. "What man isn’t? High Prelate Eddard of Banebury wanted his brother Hillard on the Fjorn throne, despite the fact it was already occupied. His Knights would have succeeded, but for perfidy within the ranks of the Temple priests. After the debacle, it was decided that the clergy had too much earthly power, and the Order of Temple Knights was disbanded."
"A foolish knee-jerk reaction if there ever was one," the chancellor concluded.
"How so?"
The chancellor deftly peeled a prawn and bit it in half. "They disbanded an entire order of elite fighters—fighters who had, up until that one incident, been unerringly loyal to king and country—who then had no choice but to turn mercenary and find positions in the private armies of the Fjorn nobility. In essence, the disbanding of the Templars only increased the chances of civil war."
Gil sat back and took a long sip of his wine, intrigued despite himself by the man’s unorthodox politics. "What would you have done, chancellor?"
"The crown would have been better advised to enact measures to prevent nobility from rising to supremacy within the Temple. I will not need to tell you how such measures would have benefited Fjorg in its more recent troubles with the Dragon’s Head. And they ought to have written legislation consolidating all the armed forces of Fjorg under the aegis of the crown. A king cannot effectively rule if he must always tiptoe around his lords and their personal militias."
Gil stabbed at his salad with a three-pronged fork cast from pure silver. "But allowances must surely be made for a lord to defend his land, his vassals and tenants, and of course his family. Even these days, the world is a dangerous place. The Bal-shar may be gone, but brigands and raiders still victimize the innocent, especially in more isolated regions. You can’t possibly advocate the total abolition of the traditional household guard?"
Chancellor Collin smiled with a dry humor that did not quite reach his eyes. "That is exactly what I advocate."
Gil set his fork down on the edge of his plate, the delectable salad turning tasteless in his mouth. He may not be able to see quite where this conversation was leading, but he was beginning to feel the first stirrings of unease, and he’d learned over the years to trust his instincts.
The chancellor’s smile widened, but did not grow any warmer. "It is my belief that a strong king, with the proper resources, must be the ultimate authority of the land. If he is granted sufficient wherewithal through taxes and manpower, it should be his sole responsibility to govern, and to protect his subjects. And the first rule of good governance is upholding the law."
"And if a man has a grievance with his neighbor?"
The chancellor lifted his glass in a salute. "A king who cannot smooth over a neighborly feud has no business being king."
"And what," said Gil, trying to maintain a certain lightness of tone and not entirely succeeding, "ought a man do when he has a grievance against his king?"
"Then that man has a problem," the chancellor said quietly, his smile gone.
Gil pretended a keen interest in his wine as the serving girl brought in the second course, a roast pork sirloin with pearl onions, baby peas and a loaf of white bread hot from the oven. Everything looked delicious, but Gil’s appetite had fled. Over the course of the long wait in the salon, he had largely discarded the possibility of working with this man, and this…discussion only reinforced that decision.
The girl finished dishing out their meal and retreated. Gil picked up his knife and speared an onion, not with any real intention of eating it. All he wanted now was to finish this ridiculous conversation and get the fuck out of here. "Your interest in the topic seems more than a passing one, chancellor."
The chancellor’s smile was back full force. "I’m a man of ambition. A such, I aspire to change the world for the better."
"Surely you have no royal aspirations? After all, Belthalas has no king."
"Belthalas may be a city-state," the chancellor said affably, "but it is more similar to Fjorg than you might realize. Scaled down, it possesses all those parts that comprise a kingdom—a ruler, his loyal nobility, the civil service, a strong clergy, the commons and a militia. Unfortunately, it also abounds with mercenaries who threaten the stability of its righteous governance."
And there it was, out in the open. Gil stabbed a second onion onto the point of his knife. "The Emissaries."
Chancellor Collin’s teeth flashed, but the coldness of his eyes lent his smile a predatory aspect. "The Emissaries."
Gil’s fingers tightened on the haft of his dagger. Without being too obvious, he made a note of the exits, and where they were likely to lead.
Oh, dear. It looks like someone has an agenda. *sigh* I guess this is what happens when politicians don't get enough action in the bedroom...
Friday, October 10, 2008
Cool Blog Post!
Lissa Matthews over at Kiss and Tell just did an awesome post on the hot girl-on-girl action and why there isn't more of it out there in romance. You all should go check it out--and leave a comment, too!
Monday, October 6, 2008
Holy Crapoly!!!
This just in:
Please join us at Romance Divas THIS WEEKEND!Friday October 10th and Saturday October 11th, we will be joined by some huge names in fantasy and fantasy-romance for a workshop on what the difference really is between the two genres.
OMG, I am so there.
Please join us at Romance Divas THIS WEEKEND!Friday October 10th and Saturday October 11th, we will be joined by some huge names in fantasy and fantasy-romance for a workshop on what the difference really is between the two genres.
OMG, I am so there.
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