Judi Fennell | Meet a Genie

First, thank you so much for having me back here at Fresh Fiction (LOVE the pink shirts, ladies!)

This month I'm celebrating the release of my fifth book, and second in the Bottled Magic series, GENIE KNOWS BEST. If you've read the first book, I DREAM OF GENIES, you will sort of have met the hero of GENIE KNOWS BEST, Kal. He's the genie who was at trial with Eden, her for accidentally murdering her (perverted) master, and him for removing the cuffs that bind him into The Service. The interesting thing about writing Kal's story was that I knew him long before I knew what his story was, but trying to figure out where in his life to start this story was a tough one. 

Do I start with him getting arrested from his lover's arms and brought to trial? (Kind of a bummer moment in his life, so probably not the best place to start what is supposed to be a romantic comedy...)

Do I start with him fleeing treasure hunters who are looking for his bottle? (It was fun to write, but there was no romance because Samantha, the heroine, wasn't even a twinkle in her father's eye—mainly because he wasn't even a twinkle in HIS father's eye...)

I tried starting about a half hour before Samantha inherits the bottle at her father's "life celebration," and while that was a cute scene, the story really doesn't start until Samantha overhears her  fiancé calling her useless and clueless—at her father's "life celebration," no less. Yes, Albert is as far from Prince Charming as you can get.

Kal, on the other hand...

I had a blast writing him. Kal wrapped himself around my heart back when I first "met" him for Eden's backstory. I remember picturing him on the dais next to her, facing Faruq, the evil vizier who had it in for him, and well... here. I'll let you read the trial scene that I didn't end up using, but still love. If you'd like to see the other outtakes and an excerpt from what did make it into the book, check out my website: www.JudiFennell.com. Hope you enjoy the (magic carpet) ride!

Outtake from GENIE KNOWS BEST

©Judi Fennell

City of Paradise, Sahara Desert

213 AD

Kal paraded through the corridors of the High Master's palace with his head held high, his anger in check, and the all-important vial of potion tucked securely beneath his tongue.

He was finally going to be free. After two hundred years of captivity at the hands—and sadistic imagination—of his old nemesis, the High Master's vizier, Kal was finally going to outsmart Faruq and lose himself in the vast desert surrounding them.

"Move along, traitor," one of the eunuch guards taunted, poking him in the back with the recently sharpened point of his scimitar.

Kind of hard to get mad at a eunuch. All Kal could muster for him was pity because, personally, he'd rather be dead than sentenced to that hell on earth.

The corridor opened into the main hall where a serving girl was pouring ambrosia into a set of glasses beside the High Master's throne. Before it, in the middle of the room, stood a dais three times the size of Kal's cell and draped in blue silk shot through with gold.

The irony wasn't lost on him as he glanced down at the blue sirwal he'd been given to wear. Everyone knew the High Master favored blue; it was the gold that was ironic; it matched the bracelets Kal had figured out how to remove, which was his crime and the reason he was here.

Two other prisoners were already seated on the dais, with cushions for four more. Kal wondered what their transgressions were. Surely none of them could compete with the horror he'd committed; no djinn removed the bracelets of Servitude, a badge of honor among those who found The Service admirable.

He was no longer one of them.

Kal ran his tongue over the vial his former lover had given him before he'd been captured. Iman had taken his lantern for safekeeping, so he still had hope: as long as his lantern lay unclaimed, he could belong to no man. But the minute someone picked it up, he was back in The Service.

Thanks to Iman, he'd been able to keep Faruq from finding it. No matter what torture the vizier had devised, Kal couldn't reveal something he didn't know. By the time he'd broken down about Iman's aid, she'd been dead for over a century. One perk to being mortal—about the only one as far as Kal could see.

"Move along." The eunuch prodded him again.

Kal stopped and spun around. He'd had enough of being sword practice. And he was itching for a fight. "Go ahead, walad. Stab me. Let's see if you've got the balls to do it."

A stricken look crossed the eunuch's face just as Kal realized what he'd said. The guy didn't have the balls, actually.

The big, muscular guard behind the first one growled. "Get up the steps now, traitor, or you won't either."

Newly snipped, probably. And not happy about it.

And definitely not worth it.

Kal climbed the steps, wanting to get through this trial so he could be out of here faster than a flying carpet.

If only he could use his powers on a carpet, but no. He'd have to lay low on magic because Faruq would be able to track him through the Glimmer all magic left behind—unless he could come up with some way to disguise it.

A door opened on the far side of the room and three women were brought in, two in shackles and the last one with such a disgruntled look on her face, Kal wanted to laugh. She was pissed and, yeah, he could relate.

"Sit." Newly-Snipped knocked the back of Kal's knees and shoved down on his shoulders, leaving him no choice but to do as he was ordered. Story of his life.

The shackled women stumbled up the steps on the far side of the dais, their chains catching under their feet. The other woman added Disgust to Disgruntled and huffed over to the steps he'd just climbed, marching up them and plopping on the cushion next to him.

"What are you in for?" she asked, her eyes a surprising blue against an olive complexion.

"Quiet!" Newly-Snipped shoved his knee into Kal's back as if Kal had been the one talking. Ah well, the guy had to muscle his testosterone around while he still had it.

Blue Eyes rolled those striking eyes, then turned her face forward and arranged her tiny feet beneath her knees. No lotus position for her. Faruq wasn't going to be pleased about that. Faruq was all about the pomp and circumstance—and torture and starvation—of his position.

A cloud of blue mist wafted into the room, dissipating when the High Master emerged with Faruq following a half pace behind—the closest he could get without overstepping his bounds, but Kal knew how much that half step killed the power-hungry vizier.

The High Master clapped his hands and the eunuchs stepped behind the prisoners and slammed the tips of their scimitars into the wooden dais. The room grew quiet as the High Master scanned the line of prisoners. Then he began giving those at the far end his Evil Eye—the one that rendered them either dead or unconscious for transportation to their bottles and lanterns. He knew which would be his fate; there was only one outcome for removing the bracelets.

The manacled women fell back in tandem, the eunuchs catching them before they hit the floor.

The High Master approached the next victim, er, prisoner, and Faruq read the man's list of transgressions from a papyrus scroll.

He hadn't finished before the High Master passed judgment.

Kal jiggled his knees with nervous energy and tongued the vial. Iman, herbal mistress extraordinaire, had said it worked almost immediately. He should have enough time to swallow the evidence before he, too, would keel over, looking for all intents and purposes as if the Evil Eye had worked its deadly magic on him.

The High Master moved closer and Kal saw a slimy smile slide across Faruq's face when the vizier's gaze landed on him. Faruq could look that way because he'd learned what Kal had tried so desperately to hide from him over the years—that the bracelets that bound his kind into The Service had one weakness. One way they could be removed.

Kal ought to tell someone. What if the potion didn't work as Iman said it would? What if Faruq caught on and managed to kill him? He couldn't let the secret die with him.

The man next to him fell back, the eunuch behind him catching him and laying him down softly.

"Diamonds," Kal muttered to Blue Eyes.

Of course, telling her would be a loss if she was sentenced to death, too. The chances were fifty-fifty for her. For him? One hundred percent dead.

Or so they'd think.

The High Master now stood before him. Kal worked the vial onto his back teeth and closed his jaw, waiting for the right moment.

"High Master, this is Khaled," Faruq said, not even trying to keep the gloating out of his voice. "The one who destroyed your most magnificent bracelets. The one who dared to try to release himself from his pledge of Service, and then hide like the dog he is. The one who is unworthy of even the slightest mercy on your part."

Kal snorted and rolled his eyes. He couldn't help it. The vizier was laying it on thick. Especially after the bastard had earned the vizier position by stealing his thesis.

The High Master glanced over to study Blue Eyes when Kal returned his gaze. Was that a look of regret on the chubby old guy's face?

Hmm... Maybe her odds were eighty-twenty.

"Sire?" Faruq was nothing if not diligent.

The High Master shook his head and grabbed the sides of his shudra, pulling them across his belly where eight inches still separated them.

"He freed himself?" the High Master asked Faruq, one eyebrow arching into his bald head. "You corrected this oversight, I presume."

"I have, Sire."

"Good." The High Master bent down and stared Kal in the eyes. The High Master's irises started to swirl.

Kal crunched the glass vial between his teeth, uncaring that he'd cut his tongue. This better work.

The swirling in the High Master's irises increased and Kal could swear bolts of lightning flashed across his pupils, but he remembered to close his eyes so the magic wouldn't have any affect.

And then the potion hit. Kal could feel it slam through his veins, and he had time for only one thought before he fell back into the potion-induced coma.

Damn it all—Newly-Snipped didn't catch him.

###

The thing is, while Kal tried to fake his own death, he was dealing with the High Master—the all-knowing, and in some cases, all-plotting ruler of the djinn world. Kal should never have thought he'd pull something over on the High Master.

Because he couldn't. He ended up spending the next eighteen hundred years in The Service until Samantha, his 1001^st master found him. And then the fun began...

GENIE KNOWS BEST by Judi Fennell - In Stores November 2011

Be careful what you wish for...

Samantha Blaine is about to make a fateful discovery. A tall, dark, handsome, ohmygosh kind of fateful discovery...

Kal is very pleased to meet his attractive new master—especially since he intends to seduce her into granting him freedom. But when seriously dark magic spells trouble for both of them, Kal can't help himself from falling for the woman who holds his fate in her hands...

Warmly acclaimed by readers and critics alike, Judi Fennell brings to life a fabulous world of magic and mayhem where wishes come true in the most unexpected ways!

About the Author

Judi Fennell is an award-winning author and writes what she calls "fairy tales with a twist." Her romance novels have been finalists in Gather.com's First Chapters and First Chapters Romance contests, and have won numerous RWA Chapter Awards, including the FF&P Prism Award, and the New Jersey Golden Leaf Award. Judi lives with her family in suburban Philadelphia, PA, where she is working on the next book in the Genie Trilogy, MAGIC GONE WILD, set for release in August 2012. For more information, please visit http://www.judifennell.com/.