I’m excited
to be visiting Snarkology today.
And to be
celebrating the launch of my dark paranormal romance series, the Scimitar Magi, from Wild Rose Press. Book one came out in March
and the second one is releasing in January 2014. This series features kick-ass
warriors that work for the Egyptian gods to protect us from daemons. Who doesn’t
love a hot alpha hero? Toss in some Egyptian mythology, magic, and make it
modern…that’s different!
There aren’t a lot of Egyptian paranormal
romances that take place in modern times. There’s a reason for that: Egyptian
mythology is tough! I like tough topics
and I love ancient Egypt. I’m not an expert on Egyptian mythology and I’m sure
I get it wrong a lot, if you ask an expert in the field. Creating a paranormal
hero group the utilized Egyptian mythology andweaving that into a romance
required a tad bit of fascination with the subject and a lot of research. To
build this world I read a lot of very heavy books (they actually did weigh a
few pounds each) and tried to get a handle on the vastness of the religion, the
mythology, the lifestyle, and the magic. What I concluded was that there wasn’t
always consensus on the meanings behind myths and symbols. Each expert has his
or her own opinion on the surviving hieroglyphics found on tablets and papyri. Then
there are the gods…oh my. Did you know there are over 700 Egyptian gods and
goddesses? Some had three to five different names. Once you get beyond the
sheer number of them they are an interesting bunch. They did a lot of kinky
stuff from incest to revenge to killing to curses. Bottom line was after all
this research my fascination persisted, but I ended up utterly confused. So, what did I do? I let my imagination play
around with the mythology. Use it, but bend it. And focused on my heroes.
Who are the
Scimitar Magi? They’re a bonded group of hard as nails, hot as fire, destined
for one woman alpha male defenders of the innocent. I just love everything
about them. Their fierce protectiveness, their supernatural powers, and of
course they’re just plain hot. Yeah, you can’t go wrong with gorgeous
paranormal warriors! This small band of ten magi warriors and their struggles
to find love and happiness in the midst of constant battle against daemons, the
evil purgatory-bound spirits of magic
dabblers.
How do magi fit
into Egyptian mythology? Their bosses are the Egyptian gods, but they’re only
supposed to communicate through their liaison goddess, Ma’at. Of course, as the
series progresses, especially in the Forgotten
In Darkness, there is more godly input and more mythology.
Blurb:
After
an unjustified two-century stint in purgatory, Scimitar Magus Dakar
returns to the human realm, renewing his eons-old curse. Once again he
must murder the woman he loves. To break the vicious cycle, he must kill
her before she strikes her deathblow, something he's never done in the
past.
Archaeology
grad student, Shay McGinnis, suffers a near-death attack in pursuit of a
piece of Scimitar Magi lore. But did the magnificent warrior who
pinned her to the wall injure her or the daemon he fought? In her
search for answers, she draws the attention of both an ancient evil
sorcerer and the warrior Dakar. The attraction between her and Dakar is
instant, and for Shay confusing. She wants to be with him, but intuition
equates him with death. Not random death. Hers.
Zoe Forward writes action-adventure paranormal romances. She lives in North Carolina with her family and an assortment of pets. A graduate of Duke University, she majored in biological anthropology, but always had a special love of archaeology, especially anything Egyptian. Although a deep part of her wishes she had pursued a career that would have her at a dig site in a hot, sandy country, she's a small animal veterinarian, caring for everything from chinchillas to dogs...and even one hermit crab in there. When she's not being a vet, a mom, or sneaking out to a movie with her husband, she's at her laptop writing.
Read more
about Zoe’s books and her up-coming release of Forgotten in Darkness.
Hi Zoe, thanks for being my guest today. I'm curious about your blurb. I'm not sure I entirely understand the basic premise. Could you expand on it a bit for me?
ReplyDeleteHi, Zoe - love those Alpha heroes! And got hooked on Egyptian stories through the Elizabeth Peters mystery series. What a great combo you've created!
ReplyDeleteI'm an Elizabeth Peters fan also. This series sounds a little darker and more romantic. The story sounds intriguing -- have they been killing each other in past lives through the ages?
ReplyDeleteHi Melissa. Thanks for having me visit!
ReplyDeleteThis book is so much fun. It is a darker PNR, but it's also fun and adventurous.
Dakar and Shay were cursed back in the days of ancient Egypt by a powerful dark magik sorcerer (the guy was Pharaoh and got mad when our hero stole the Pharaoh's future wife...but that is history). The curse requires these two bound souls kill each other within 2 weeks of meeting in each lifetime...serious bummer. Dakar remembers the past. Shay doesn't until he activates her memory. Once she remembers they get a few days of bliss before one of them kills the other (in the past he's never been able to kill her and it's always her left with this task). This time is different. Our heroine gets a bang on the head that makes her unable to remember the past. And Dakar thinks he knows how to reverse the curse: he must kill her...but he's not sure he could ever bring himself to hurt her.
On top of all this angst, our sorcerer is back in this lifetime (our bad guy from book 1: Djoser). He realizes Shay is back, and that she doesn't remember. He's got a combo of need-to-have-her and need-for-revenge. Oh the adventure.
And it's just gone up today on Amazon as it's Kindle Select kicks off. Check it out:http://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Darkness-Scimitar-Magi-ebook/dp/B00FDSLRIS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1380210139&sr=8-2&keywords=zoe+forward