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We are writers mainly from Australia and New Zealand who write speculative fiction with romantic elements. Be it fantasy, paranormal, dark urban fantasy, futuristic and everything in between.

Wednesday 3 October 2012

A Bite Of.. Secret Ones

Hello and welcome to our fortnightly "A Bite Of..." today I'm pleased to introduce the lovely Nicole Murphy with a bite of her book Secret Ones


Can you, in less than five words describe your book?
 
Romance, action, secrets, monsters, magic.
 
What inspired you to write it?
It started with a dream of a girl having a passionate affair with a guy but hiding from him the fact she was a witch. From that I developed the world of the gadda – a secret magical race that are trying to keep their culture and power intact in a human world. 
Last month, I did a great thing where I annotated the three Dream of Asarlai books for Kobo – download the Kobo app on your i-product (iPhone, iPad…) buy the books and then you can read my thoughts on the book as you're going. To celebrate the books are on special – you can buy at any major ebook retailer for just $3 J
 
 
And here's the excerpt!
 
A red glow dimly lit the darkness below. John threw his arm out, stopping the women. “Stay here.” He started down the steps slowly. Siobhan and Maggie looked at each other, then followed him.
 
A message hovered in the air over the star of gulagh. The red letters of the message dripped as though they were bleeding. It read: Stay away from the humans.
Maggie wrapped her arms around her waist, a chill running through her. Who would come up with such a thing?
“Who’s it from?” Siobhan said.
“I might be able to work it out if I can extract some of the essence, but it will be difficult. Siobhan, some oil of cloves please,” John said.
Siobhan frowned. “Shouldn’t you call the Sabhamir?”
Maggie nodded. Essence was the DNA of the gadda – a little bit was left behind in every spell to identify the creator. Extracting and identifying it was delicate work, something that should be left to the Sabhamir.
John shook his head. “I’d rather not get the Council involved until I know what’s going on.”
Siobhan shook her head and muttered, “Stubborn old man,” but she went over to the cupboard under the shelves. John took the bottle that Siobhan bought to him. “Girls, stand back. Siobhan, have your shield ready.”
Siobhan took Maggie by the arm and pulled her into the far corner, placing Maggie behind her. Maggie looked over her mother’s shoulder and watched her grandfather pour a couple of drops of the clove oil onto his hands. He rubbed them over his hands and up his arm a little. Then he stepped forward until his toes were right next to the star. He leant back, then stretched his arms out.
Maggie realised the clove oil was to protect himself from the power of the star in use but even so, it was a risky thing to do. She squeezed her hands together and pressed closer to her mother.
As her grandfather’s fingers started to pass over the top of the star, the message flickered. John quickly pulled back. He put his finger to his chin and tapped it, studying the message.
“Dad, just call the Sabhamir,” Siobhan said.
“No, I can do this.” He turned and walked over to his bench. He picked up a knife, gleaming sliver with jewels worked into the metal handle. He poured some of the clove oil over the knife, then wiped it over the entire weapon with a cloth. Then he went back over, this time standing some distance from the star.
He lifted his hand with the knife extended out and started to push it towards the message. As the blade passed over the star, there was a soft hiss in the air. John stopped it just as the tip was about to touch the message.
“That should have split it,” he muttered as he reached up with his other hand and started to push it towards the star, while the hand holding the knife shook with the effort of keeping the weapon still. Slowly, his hand moved up to level with the knife, then along it, so close that Maggie thought the edge of the knife must be cutting her grandfather’s skin.
This time, his hand passed over the star, but just when his finger was about to touch the last letter, the message flared and then disappeared.
“Damn.” John stepped into the star. “I almost had it.”
“I told you we should have gotten the Sabhamir.” Siobhan walked over to the star and bent to touch it.
“You’re probably right, as always Shevvy, but it’s too late now. Anyway, until we find out what’s going on, I’m not taking any chances. Damn, I’d find a way to keep you away from people altogether if it weren’t for Maggie’s sentence.” Maggie winced and wondered when the punishment would stop. John looked at the ground for a moment, then nodded and lifted his head.
“I don’t want you two girls to go anywhere apart from work. You aren’t to spend any time alone with humans outside of work. Siobhan, I want you to put a simple lock over your medical practice, just enough to give you warning if a gadda enters by using their power. I’m going to put a lock over the house and over Maggie’s office and one of the tutorial rooms. I’ll make sure you’re programmed to teach only there, Maggie. I’m also going to put a lock over Lucas’s laboratory, just in case he gets embroiled in all this. We also need to tell Peter what’s going on, so he can protect you when you’re with him, Mags.” John’s face was set in stern lines. It was clear he wasn’t going to argue about this.
“You don’t think it was Shaun, do you?” Maggie tried not to shiver. The man was deranged.
“Not he, although he does have access to people who could.” John walked over and put his hands on her shoulders. “I will protect you from him, Maggie. I promise you.” Then he pulled her into his arms.
Maggie tried to hide the tremors in her body from him, not wanting to worry him, but was sure it was probably a lost cause. She buried her face in her grandfather’s chest and wondered what she could do to make it all go away. Everything.
 
Sounds amazing Nicole, thank you so much for sharing.
 
If you loved that excerpt and are keen to read more, here are some links!
 
-buy links -
-webpage/twitter-
Twitter - @nicole_r_murphy
 
 
Enjoy your Wednesday!
 

 
 
 

2 comments:

  1. Nicole, I've read The Secret Ones and loved it. Book 2 is waiting oh-not-so patiently on my TBR pile. But I will get to it soon :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Eleni :) You know we NEVER tire of hearing people loved our books :)

    ReplyDelete

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