I Solemnly Swear to Continue to be Up To No Good

I've got another book reformatted and ready to go--this one's a previous Ellora's Cave title and one of my favorites, Lady of the Seals.

Please note this is an Elizabeth Jewell title, so it's an erotic romance, so if that's not your cuppa, be warned. And it's a Scottish selkie story, so if that IS your cuppa, go grab it!

Special offer for blog readers--if you go to Smashwords, you can get the story at half-price with the code TW63G.

It's also available at Amazon. 

What I've Been Up To

December and January have been a bit weird for me. There’s been a lot of work, but also a lot of down time. I’ve spent tons of time with family, from gatherings with my now-local parents, sister, niece and nephew and respective significant others, to a visit from my son, who’s still headquartered in Colorado while he finishes up college. December saw the release of Call Me Zhenya, a book I still really like. Based on the reviews, some other people like it, too.

There’s also been a big drop-off in client work, which is typical for the holiday season. It always worries me, though. I’ve been filling the time planning for 2017, promoting Zhenya, and working on some new projects. I’m writing a sequel to Zhenya with the working title Code Name Anya. You can follow a rather cryptic chronicle of my progress on Pinterest. This is where I dump research material, inspirational photos, and other bits and pieces while I’m working on a book. Zhenya has a board, too. Just think of it as a glimpse inside my brain.

I’m also tackling a big project I’ve been picking at for ages, and that’s reformatting all the books I’ve published through Notes on Vellum. I’m making the interiors way prettier using Vellum (no relation), and I’m redoing some covers. The first book to get the treatment is Sweetest Songs. (For some reason the new cover isn’t showing for me on Amazon, although it’s showing on my KDP dashboard. This is what it should look like—)

Sweetest Songs is a little darker and sadder than most of my books, with a bittersweet ending. The hero goes through a process of change that’s painful for him, but at the other side of loss he finds his way to a new and better version of himself. I hope you’ll give it a look.

Finding Anna--the Doctor Who Connection (More about Call Me Zhenya)

When I write, I find it really helpful to find real people to "play" my characters while I'm spinning the story in my head. Sometimes I base them on pictures I find in magazines, but in most cases I cast an actor or another well-known personality, and incorporate some of their quirks into my characterization. It helps the characters come to life for me, and makes it easier to write about them.

In this post, I talked a little about how I tuned in to the character of Evgeni. It was finding my Evgeni that got this version of the story moving along. But I also had to find Anna before I could really get underway.

Anna was a shakier process. Originally, I had pictured Faith from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Eliza Dushku), but as the story changed into its current form, that didn't quite work. While I was doing my initial work, the news arrived that Elisabeth Sladen had passed away. Elisabeth played Sarah Jane Smith in Doctor Who back in the 80s and also in some of the more recent incarnations of the show. She was the first companion I saw, when I started watching Doctor Who with Tom Baker's first story, "Robot," back when the original series was being broadcast on PBS.

Right away, I wanted Anna to be a sort of tribute to Elisabeth Sladen. But she herself didn't quite work for me in the head canon of the role. I named Anna Slaten in her honor (yes, I changed it a little--it just seemed like the right name for Anna although, as an aside, for some reason I kept also calling her Stanten, and had to weed out those typos in the last few drafts), and then started looking at other Doctor Who companions to fill her role. I tried Karen Gillan for a while, but that didn't work. Finally, while I was catching up with some episodes, I hit upon "Planet of the Dead," and the one-time companion Christina, played by Michelle Ryan. She was a kickass type who liked to wear black, and she immediately felt like the right face to put on my Anna Slaten.

I also "cast" Delgrado. This was a strange process, because I had him pictured very clearly in my head, but then couldn't place the face of the actor who had taken him over (this isn't the first time this has happened...). Finally I realized he was Clark Gregg, Agent Coulson from the Marvel movies and now Agents of SHIELD.

You can take a look at all my "casting" photos as well as some other research materials I used for the book on my Pinterest account. And please take a swing by my Kindle Scout page and drop me a vote!

Big Announcement! New Book on Kindle Scout!

I’ve got a new book ready to go, and I need your help!

Over the past few months, I’ve been getting a manuscript ready to submit to Kindle Scout. Scout is a platform on Kindle where readers get to help Amazon decide what books to publish. It’s a little like Kickstarter, in that your votes are part of the process that gets the book picked for publication, but you don’t have to pledge money. All you have to do is vote.

At the end of the voting period, if my book is chosen and you voted for it, you’ll automatically get a free copy. If it’s not chosen, I’ll make it available at a low introductory price as soon as possible after the voting closes, and I’ll have a contest to give away a few free copies.

So I need your votes! The campaign runs for thirty days. Here’s the URL—go check out the excerpt and add me to your Scouting list!

He'll risk his own humanity to save her life.

Short-term protective custody, they said. But two years later, Anna Slaten—and the data locked inside her enhanced brain—is still behind bars.

Evgeni Belyakov seeks atonement. Two years ago, the wolf shifter/assassin did what he was ordered to do. Since then, he’s learned the ugly truth about the Agency. And that Anna is next on their hit list. But saving her could mean risking everything. His heart. His secrets. And surrendering control to the most dangerous creature of all. His wolf.

New Year, New Ventures

I can’t believe it’s a new year already. It seems like they go faster and faster.

Last year was a pretty good year, and I hope that trend continues. I’m trying some new things for the new year, and I hope you’ll join me for the fun.

Mostly for this year, I want to focus on finishing things I left unfinished. Partial manuscripts will get evaluated, and if I still feel they’re worth the effort, I’ll finish them up and look into distributing or submitting them.

I’ve also set up a Patreon page to help get some of these orphan stories to readers who’ll hopefully enjoy them. If you’re not familiar with Patreon, it’s a little like Kickstarter, except it’s for ongoing projects rather than one big project. There are rewards at different levels, and lots of fun stuff I’m planning to integrate into the project as it progresses. Check it out at patreon.com/katrienaknights.

If you’re not on my newsletter mailing list, please consider joining for updates and news. I’m also getting ready to add a special gift for anyone who joins—a .pdf file of a couple of short stories and some excerpts from other, longer works. If you join before I get the gift ready, you'll get it as soon as I get it all sorted, so don't worry about missing out. You can join using the form below.  I promise not to spam you—I’m hoping this year to get something out in the newsletter about once a month.

I hope you had a fantastic 2015, and I hope 2016 brings you even more great things.

Subscribe to my mailing list

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name

Last Name

Email Format

• html
• text

My Three Favorite Things on the Internet This Week

The Internet is a glorious repository of wonderful things. Here are my three favorite things from the Internet this week:

3. This description of Chris Pratt, by his Parks and Recreation co-star Nick Offerman:

2. This picture of Evgeni Malkin in a Santa Hat:

1. This tweet from Sasha Devlin. (Yes, I know this one's a bit self-serving, but man, it made me all verklempt so deal with it):

PRESS RELEASE—Evgeni Malkin a Vampire?

 

Evgeni Malkin (far right) appears to be garbed for an initiation rite at the House of the Eternal.

Has Malkin been Turned? The LVH investigates.

(Quebec, October 2014)

Photos surfaced last night indicating Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins, arguably one of the best hockey players in the world, has been Turned. The pictures were released in the guise of a Halloween party, with Malkin and other NHL players in full costume. However, the photos clearly show Malkin baring fangs and wearing traditional ceremonial garb used in initiation rites in the House of the Eternal, the fundamentalist vampire church that has become quite vocal about vampire rights in the lead-up to this fall’s mid-term elections in the US.

“If Malkin’s been Turned, he needs to contact us,” states Patricia Beaulieu, LVH Commissioner. “We have numerous rules in place stating that an NHL player, if he’s been Turned, must leave the NHL and play for the LVH if he chooses to continue to play hockey.”

“We have no evidence Malkin’s no longer human,” counters NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. “It’s a Halloween costume, for God’s sake. Get your fangy heads out of your asses.”

We also reached out to Travis Payne, right wing for the LVH’s Chicago Cobras, whose fight with the NHL to have his name engraved on the Stanley Cup has been well-publicized. “Those fangs are fake,” says Payne, “and nobody has fangs that look that fake unless they’re wearing them over real fangs. Trust me on that. Malkin needs to face the music. They kicked me out of the league so fast it’d make your head spin—I don’t know why they’re waffling on this guy.”

More information as the story develops.