I already have this on my home page, but I figured it deserved a blog post.
YES, I do have critters like that one above in the book. But they are cute, I swear it on my grandmother's garden bed.
I call these clockies.
Here is a tiny excerpt, a sneak peek of Steel Dominance.
From the feel of it Dankyo had scooped something up. He moved in so his thighs jammed hers into the desk. Then the rhythmic quaking of his body on hers puzzled her a moment. “Are you laughing? What was it?”
“This.” He held a golden metal creature the size of her palm before her eyes.
“Oh!” She jerked her head back. It wriggled…had many legs. And damn, it reminded her of a cross between a spider and a crab.
“It’s a clockie,” Dankyo said. He put a squarish glass jar on the desk, dropped the creature in and screwed on the lid. “The Ottomans bombard Byzantium with them every Tuesday or so.”
“Ugh.” She peered at it, her thoughts strung between the feel of Dankyo’s body pressing on her and watching the thing scrabbling about in the bottle. “What are they for?”
“They write religious graffiti. Don’t worry. It only got as far as G.”
“G? Where?”
“On your ass. G is for God.”
Oh hell. And now he really was laughing. “Damn you! Stop that!” She squirmed about to shout at him but he only leaned in and squashed her flat with his whole body.
“Shh. Stay there. I’m not finished with you yet.”
And that statement made her freeze. Clockie a foot from her nose, some writing on her throbbing sore ass, but with him on top of her, the world drifted far far away.
“Mmm. Yes.”
Nothing much happened after that. He lay on her, breathing softly, holding her down, at times playing with her hair. The weight of him was enough to keep her still but not hurt her, enough to keep her from escaping or wriggling, and slowly, like a tide washing in and filling a rock pool, his presence filled her up. A word came to her that seemed to sum up how she felt. Possession.