It's UK heroes time. Skhye Moncrief chats about Swordsong. Comment to win big!!!

Welcome! This week kicks off my Sizzlin’ Hot Heroes of Scotland, Ireland, England & Wales summer blog event. It’s my pleasure to welcome back Skhye Moncrief who will be dishing out about her latest release, Swordsong. I have to tell you…I’m already droolin’ over the book cover! Naturally, there’s a contest involved. For a chance to win an Ecopy of Swordsong and a $6 gift certificate to the main store Wild Rose Press, be sure to leave a comment.

SWORDSONG

He's arrived to help her create the perfect bride.

He’s stuck in present-day Scotland with a bent time-travel key only she can repair. Duty requires he return to his time. His ticket home relies on a lonely woman haunted by more than apparitions. Her track record with men keeps her at a distance. And ghostly events keep pushing them closer together. Earning her trust will require the kind of patience only a valiant time guardian learns during his twenty years of apprenticeship. If time-travel duty, romance, and a bit of magic don’t help them realize their destiny resonates in mysterious fairy

SWORDSONG, all known history could change.

SKY: Welcome, thanks for joining me this week!

SKHYE: You’re very welcome!

SKY: Tell me, what inspired you to create your hero’s character? Did he simply form as you wrote or had he been in your mind for some time?

SKHYE: Oh, Murdo McEwen is just chivalry at its best. My Time Guardians were valiant (and all that noble stuff) long before I started inducting ex-special services guys from the present into The Cause. I decided to play on chivalry with Murdo to show how the Brothers study literature as much as the Sisters. And since my heroine Katie is a literature major in the present, the duo work well together as a couple. All Murdo’s recitations of Scottish love poetry win her over. ;) So, he’s all roses and whispers. That’s until shit hits the fan because Brothers are bodyguards for their soul mates. And Katie is about to learn how she is a member of the Time Guardian Orders by default! Anyway, he grew out of what she needed and what a Brother was rather quickly.

SKY: Sounds great! Give me a little insight into your hero’s personality. Is he cunning, aggressive, arrogant, kind, humorous─share all!

SKHYE: Uh, Brothers are all that in various situations. It depends on what the situation calls for. They must be able to acclimate in any time along the timeline. They are survivors. And then, they tend to pick up the humorous label after being exposed to the Scottish ambiance in the future during apprenticeship. Humor reflects intelligence. As for Murdo specifically, he is not arrogant but can be aggressive when he instigates paradox or someone goes after his maiden. Yep, he thinks of her as his maiden because Time Guardians are chivalric and medieval in the future.

A taste…

Wide Druid-blue eyes gazed up at Murdo. He lost his breath, then, found the unruly molecules. Fluctuating temperatures indicated shifts in electromagnetic radiation. Fairy movement. Most likely fey working with Seers. And the blonde rubbed her arms. Obviously chilled. Something was wrong.

“’Tis freezing where you stand.” He studied the doorway. “Don’t go out there alone.” His words sounded foolish.

Twentieth-century humans simply didn’t understand the powers of Seers.

She rubbed her arms frantically. “Aren’t you cold, Murdo?” Her sweet maiden lips trembled beside his chest where she frowned.

She spun to the door, arms whipping out, hands poised ready to react, legs firmly planted beneath her. “What do you want?”

Elemental or Seer. Naught was there but the post and lintel, stone masonry and a dark void. The spirit had come for Katie.

“What’s the matter, Katie?” Pam barked from behind him.

“No,” Katie yelled, springing into motion, lunging for the doorway.

Shit. The lass pushed something over her head.

Something invisible.

She flew back toward him and fell at his boots, arms scrabbling behind her for a handhold like a crab.

Guinevere pealed like a banshee.

He grabbed beneath Katie’s arms and hoisted her upward as the blaring female cacophony ricocheted off the stone walls. “What is it?” He searched Katie’s disturbed gaze.

She stared at the door, regaining her footing. “Stop laughing, you bastard.”

There had to be an intruder. Or spirit. But he only saw an empty doorway.

A quiet moment passed.

“No,” Katie screamed, reached out, seemingly blocking a blow with her forearm.

What did she see?

“What is it, Katie?” Pam shouted.

Katie had to stop reacting and fool the Seer. If she didn’t look, she wouldn’t react to the spirit. He grabbed the blonde maiden, crushing her gaze into his chest. “There’s naught there, Lass.”

Katie squirmed, fighting his grip. “He’s got a knife.”

He scanned the doorway for a person. Why would he expect to see the apparition? The Seer had only come for Katie.

She stilled in his arms.

Yet, her thundering heart hammered.

She wasn’t ready to believe his Post-Modern alchemical notions. Not with Truth hounding her in an astral projection.

The air warmed about them.

Probably more the heat from the fear in the chamber than an actual rise in temperature, but a rise in temperature would note the visitation had ended.

“Is he gone?” Murdo studied the doorway.

“I can’t see,” she droned.

Of course she couldn’t. He loosened his hold enough to permit her to look over her shoulder. Better to hang onto her with a spirit afoot.

Katie scanned the whole room. “He’s gone.”

The other females descended upon him. The three crowns bobbed beneath his chin as the other maidens’ arms grabbed Katie.

“What was it?” Guinevere simpered.

“Yes, tell us what you saw,” Pam commanded.

Out of the three, Murdo liked the masculine maiden most. She was all business. Very much a Brother in behavior.

“A large man in big black boots,” Katie gasped. “He laughed at us, shaking a knife over his shoulder. He was going to kill us.”

“I didn’t see him,” Guinevere managed to speak plainly.

“None of us did.” Murdo kept his hold on the maiden.

Katie shot him a bitter scowl.

Her pinched glare of betrayal wasn’t what the prize he wanted. “I’m not saying you didn’t, Lass.”

SKY: Great excerpt! Turning up the temperature─Why are readers going to fall in love with your hero-lust for him?

SKHYE: The cover makes most people I’ve spoken to lust. LOL Oh, seriously, choices, choices…

“I feel silly,” she admitted, gazing at the pinkening horizon. Here he was, Mr. Sentimental, watching the sunrise. And she’d screamed loud enough to wake the dead from Fort William to Inverness. Didn’t sentimentality rank up there with poetry recitations?

“No, Katie.” He wrapped a consolatory arm around her shoulders. “Watch him rise for duty.”

Lord. How could she watch the sun when he held her so intimately? How could she have behaved so stupidly?

The arm tightened around her.

Forget work. She could sit here all day.

His arm pulled her deeper into his drumming chest. “Before you bolted into the yard, I was recalling a poem.”

No way. “Oh?” She wasn’t about to admit her perfect knight in colorful tartan would recite Burns while veering her into the sunset. Sunrise would do just as nicely.

“I hadn’t finished.”

“Don’t let me interrupt.”

“I’ll tend thy chamber door all night-”

Poetry? She’d melt.

“And squire thee all the day.
If sweetest sounds can win thy ear,
these sounds I’ll strive to catch;
thy voice I’ll steal to woo thyself,
that voice that none can match.
But if fond love thy heart can gain,
I never broke a vow;
no maiden lays her skaith to me,
I never loved but you.
For you alone I ride the ring,
For you I wear the blue.” He stopped.

Applaud? Only a stupid girl would clap and disrupt the magic bubble around them.

“Katie?”

What now? Slowly, she peered up at his glinting eyes.

His gaze was so intent he couldn’t want words. “I’m going to kiss you.”
Why the wait? “Hurry.”

SKY: Another fantastic excerpt. Very romantic. And definitely, as I said earlier, that cover makes ya lust! Thanks so much for visiting and sharing!

SKHYE: No, thank you for having me here! Your time is so valuable. I truly appreciate the opportunity to talk about SWORDSONG.

What they're saying...

"Ms. Moncrief's SWORDSONG will have you hooked from the beginning until the "happily ever after." My biggest concern coming into this book was that it was the third one in a series. After a few pages, I was able to get a pretty good idea of what was going on. Some of the terminology was a bit confusing, but there was a glossary at the front of the book to assist with that. The author made it easy to pick up book three without reading the others...an entertaining read."

~Happily Ever After Reviews

Skhye's Time-Guardian series:

"Arthur is a masterpiece..." HE OF THE FIERY SWORD's King Arthur ~Diane Mason; The Romance Studio

"FORBIDDEN ETERNITY... spine-tingling suspense. The story is dynamite; it explodes off the page and leaves you breathless for more." ~Tulip, LASR

“THE SPELL OF THE KILLING MOON offers the best of spine-tingling suspense. The setting is perfect... Moncrief’s ability to wield magic and emotion are without compare. Her words twist together emotions and visuals until you experience this tale as if the trap were set for you. Some lines blend a kind of poetic magic: “Moonlight wove a special kind of magic, a spell so vacillating that a person never knew if reality were anything other than a dream.” Darkness and premonitions and deadly intent fill these pages... a unique blend of mystic Medieval Gothic and romance…and a true blood-curdling thriller." ~Snapdragon, LASR

"Intense, original, suspenseful, and dramatic... an unpredictable topsy-turvy romance... the suspense builds with every page in SACRIFICIAL HEARTS. In a world where symbols mean everything, magic is the way..." ~Snapdragon; LASR

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Visit Skhye and learn more about her stories at http://www.timeguardians.com/ or
http://www.skhyemoncrief.com/

Skhye hosts contests and gives away monthly her Time-Guardian fan kit at her newsletter group where she posts 3-5 times a month.

Thanks again for joining us this week. Don't forget to leave a comment by Friday, July 9th 12 PM EST for a chance to win an Ecopy of Swordsong and $6 gift certificate to The Wild Rose Press.

~Sky