Archive for September, 2011

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Changes to Carina Press

Angela James | September 30th, 2011

As every business grows, they also change and evolve to better suit their market. Carina Press is no different.

As of today, Carina Press will no longer be accepting submissions in the following genres: women’s fiction, family saga, and literary fiction. This is in addition to the fiction genres we already currently do not accept: inspirational fiction, young adult and children’s books. And, of course, we do not publish any non-fiction or poetry.

We’ll continue to accept, publish, market and grow other adult fiction genres, including the subgenres and niches within romance, mystery, science fiction, fantasy, thrillers, horror.

We do not require manuscripts that are submitted have romantic elements. We’ll continue to publish non-romance in a variety of genres. In addition, we do not have any sexuality or heat level restrictions or expectations. We publish a variety of books across heat levels, from sweet to erotic. In fact, erotic romance or erotica comprises only approximately 10% of what we publish.

The submissions guidelines have been updated to reflect the changes in the genres we’re no longer publishing. Authors with a pending submission in these genres will receive emails, and the submission will not be read. I apologize to anyone who’s waited on a response for a manuscript in this genre.

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Posted in Behind the Scenes, Carina Press | 1 Comment »

Drinking the Kool-Aid

GinaBernal | September 29th, 2011

So, did you preorder a Kindle Fire tablet yet? I have to admit that, up until Wednesday morning, I had avoided drinking the Amazon Kool-Aid. My trusty Sony PRS-300 (love making collections to sort books!) and original Kobo have served my ereading needs well, and as a coupon hound I’ve enjoyed taking advantage of special sales at a variety of ebook retailers. But ever since the iPad debuted, I’ve been lusting for a tablet…I just couldn’t fathom dropping $500 on a gadget I didn’t really need. Want, want, want, yes. Need? Not so much. However, the Fire’s price tag (minus a couple gift cards) set off my shopping impulse and I surrendered.

The thing I wonder is, how—if at all—will owning a tablet change the way I read? Back when the original Kindle launched and ebooks became big news, I confess, I was a naysayer. I didn’t think a gadget could satisfyingly replicate the experience of holding a book in my hands. Then I borrowed a colleague’s first-generation Sony for the weekend… “Duh, Gina you big goober,” I probably said to myself, “it’s the stories that make you love reading not the feel of the paper.”

Now I’m a huge fan of dedicated Eink devices—though I may occasionally sniff a new paper book now and again. I love how I don’t have to choose only a couple books to bring on vacation. How I can start a new book at midnight without leaving my bed or even reaching for the nightstand. And especially how well ereaders hide my book hoarding tendencies from my significant other.

I also know how much fun it is to waste hours playing Angry Birds or streaming random PBS documentaries on my iPod. Will having a nifty new gadget with more than just books on it mean my reading time will have even more competition? Or will the color browsing and same-place access to book blogs and Amazon’s one click make book shopping that much more fun? Guess we’ll see come November!

What’s your favorite device to read on? Are you tempted by Amazon’s new Kindle offerings? How have ebooks changed your reading habits?

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Posted in editors | 15 Comments »

Walking the SF Plank

Robert_Appleton | September 28th, 2011

Remember the execution scene in Return of the Jedi, when Luke and Han are forced to walk the plank over the Sarlacc Pit? Classic pulp sci-fi stuff. I mean there’s no way they can get out of that mess, right? R2?

Well, that scene gave me nightmares as a kid. The appalling odds (shut up, 3PO) of escape. Han’s blindness. The tentacles reaching up, dragging Boba Fett and others in for a gratuitous thousand-year digestion. Um, thanks for that one, George.

Cut to me as a thirty-year-old SF author inching my way along that same plank, about to submit my latest manuscript for publication. In my mind, the odds of doom are equally appalling—I trusted in Sparks in Cosmic Dust as I was writing it, but as soon as I let it go…I could practically hear the Sarlacc’s burp.

Nervous isn’t the word. All those months of outlining, worldbuilding, writing, editing and heeding Angela James’s sage ‘Before You Hit Send’ advice are now Bantha fodder because:

a) the story sucks
b) the title sucks
c) I suck
d) I should have concentrated more on the Romance & eased off on the SF
e) I should have concentrated more on the SF & eased off on the Romance
f) my writing style has gotten more juvenile than an Ewok
g) my writing style has gotten more cryptic than Yoda on peyote
h) Carina’s contemporary romances are selling HUGE
i) Carina’s straight SF (without the romance label) is selling…hey, there aren’t any yet!*

*in late 2010

After twenty published books, you’d think I’d have this confidence thing licked by now. Maybe if I stuck to one genre or conformed more to the mainstream, hitting send might get easier. In a way it has—I have a track record behind me, so if nothing else, I know my writing itself is ready for prime time. But these offbeat stories…man, they lead me out over the Sarlacc every goddamn time.

It’s exhilarating when the acceptance call or email comes in—in the case of Sparks, it was a double acceptance email (with SF novella Alien Velocity, March 2012)—but I’m telling you, any confidence I had while writing this novel, my longest at 87K, evaporated as soon as I’d finished polishing the synopsis. Doubt is an ever-present entity for an author. But so is faith is one’s creative abilities, deep down, the way the Force is for Luke Skywalker. It has to be. As desperate as things seem, he can ultimately find that calm centre telling him everything will work out fine if he believes in his ability to make it so. Sometimes that means taking hits, revising strategies, and growing a thicker skin in the process.

It also means taking chances and following them through no matter what. More than anything else, that’s what Sparks in Cosmic Dust means to me. No half measures. No compromises.

“Do or do not. There is no try.”

As it turned out, the Force was strong with me. Alissa Davis, my steampunk editor at Carina, isn’t keen on straight SF so she passed it on to Deb Nemeth, who loved it. Consequently, I now have two of the best editors I’ve ever worked with, in my two favourite genres.

Eat that, Sarlacc!

The final frontier is shrinking. Interstellar Planetary Administration sanctions are forcing the border colonies of deep space into extinction. Kappa Max is one of the last major cutthroat outposts, home to the lawless and the lonely…

Varinia Wilcox, the star attraction of a lucrative bordello gambling house.
Solomon Bodine, spurned by his lover and looking for distraction.
Clayton Barry, AWOL and a few drinks away from having to live in the gutter.
Lyssa Foaloak, a double-crossing criminal who’ll kill anyone for a few credits.

Four strangers, each with secrets that could cost them their freedom, are desperate to get off-planet. They meet Grace Peters, a cynical ex-doctor with an intriguing offer: a six-month trip to a faraway moon where she claims a stunning fortune awaits.

But this adventure is no easy escape. Danger, passion, secrets and madness await. Can they survive the mission, and each other, to make it out alive?

87,000 words

To celebrate the release of Sparks in Cosmic Dust, I’ve written a five-part look at the book’s development, from initial concept to publication. I’m also giving away one SF title from my back catalogue with each segment, ending with this special Sparks giveaway. The contests are all still live, and the winners will be announced on September 30th on my own blog: http://robertbappleton.blogspot.com

Here’s where you can find the other installments:

Part 1: Concept (Aug 31)—Contact: Infinite Futures Blog
Part 2: Character (Sep 13)—Mercurial Times (my blog)
Part 3: Worldbuilding (Sep 23)—Shawn Kupfer’s Blog
Part 4: The Writing Process (Sep 26)—Cathy Pegau’s Blog

With this final installment, I’m giving away an ebook copy of Sparks in Cosmic Dust. To enter, simply leave a comment on this blog post. Also, anyone who enters all five contests will automatically win an ebook of their choice (except Sparks) from my SF backlist.

Thanks and good luck!

Robert Appleton
www.robertappleton.co.uk
http://twitter.com/robertappleton

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Posted in Authors, Behind the Scenes, Books, Carina Press, Contest/Giveaway | 16 Comments »

Is it possible to have too much action?

Eleri_Stone | September 27th, 2011

PhotobucketI was a teenager during the 1980’s and have fond memories of the action adventure movies produced during that much maligned decade. The last Star Wars movies were released in the 80’s, along with Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Temple of Doom and the Last Crusade, Romancing the Stone, ET, Goonies, and Die Hard. Filmmakers back then seemed to have a knack for combining high stakes peril with engaging characters you wanted to root for when the chips were down and the cards were stacked against them.

That particular brand of action movie is scarce nowadays (although 2009’s Star Trek was awfully reminiscent and I loved the heck out of it for exactly that reason). In today’s films, you can still find larger than life heroes, outlandish plots and loads of action but a lot of times they come across as just a series of action clips strung together (Cowboys and Aliens, I’m looking at you).

So what’s missing?

I think it’s the spirit of adventure. And by that I mean the kind of adventure where triumph isn’t necessarily finding the lost treasure but it’s finding the courage to take that next step into danger when it’s the right—or even the only—thing to do. I’m talking about the thrill of exploration and the wonder of discovery. Romance.

I tried to capture some of that spirit in Adriano and Sophie’s story, Redemption. Adriano is a jaguar shapeshifter, a mercenary who was sent into exile five years ago by his people the Yaguara after being setup as a scapegoat to end a political conflict. He wants to go home and is on the brink of recovering a priceless artifact from a damaged archaeological site in Peru, knowing that the Yaguara can’t afford to let it fall into human hands and confident that he’ll be able to exchange it for a pardon.

Sophie is an inquisitive and hard-working archaeologist who keeps getting in his way. Adriano’s plan to seduce her as a distraction backfires and what follows is a fast-paced adventure through a labyrinthine tunnel system hidden beneath the ruins.

The site in Redemption was modeled after a real archaeological site in Peru called Chavín de Huántar which captured my imagination when I first heard of it—dark tunnels, a forgotten culture, an ancient temple constructed by a priesthood who actually believed that they could transform into jaguars (while under the influence of psychotropic drugs). It’s been called a real life temple of doom and I have to admit that my love of Indiana Jones definitely influenced my decision to set the story there and flavors its telling.

So, there is a lot of action but the real story belongs to Sophie and Adriano. It’s about whether these two people from very different cultures can find common ground in what they love and whether they’ll find the courage to leave the past behind and let their attraction develop into something more.

If you’re on the fence about diving in, you can find an excerpt here.

Also, I’m giving away a free copy of Redemption to one of the commenters today. Just drop a comment letting me know what your favorite 80’s movie is…or if you hate them all and always secretly hoped that Indy would choke on his fedora. Make sure to leave an email address where I can reach you if you win. I’ll leave the contest open for 24 hours.

Note: Redemption is the second book in the Lost City Shifters series after Mercy but it can be read as a standalone story.

Where you can find me:

Website: http://eleristone.com/

Twitter: @EleriStone

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EleriStone

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Posted in Authors, Books, Contest/Giveaway | 16 Comments »

There’s just so much a girl can take!

Claire_Robyns | September 27th, 2011

I’ve always had something of a love/hate/fascination thing going on with fortune telling.  I’ve a couple of friends who are die-hard about this – their lives just don’t work without their monthly forecast.

I’ve heard all the predictions, everything from, “You vil meet ze tall, dark, handsome…” to “Honey, you know that road trip you were planning next week? Well, don’t.” Uh, my friend did, and she really shouldn’t have, thank God it was only a minor accident.

But, whether it’s just a matter of playing the odds or even if the power of suggestion is subconsciously enabling these predictions to come true or not, there’s certainly something fascinating about the prospect of (maybe) knowing what’s coming around the corner.

Not so much for my heroine in Second-Guessing Fate

Photobucket Gemma’s just your everyday girl carrying a dream in one pocket and a healthy dollop of wariness in the other. Her best friend’s a little obsessive about living life according to the predictions of Madame Hooch, but hey, no one’s perfect!

She’s had her share of heartbreak (and then some) but who hasn’t?  Right?

And if things have been a little slow on the dating front these last couple of years, well, what’s a girl to do? Put her energy and passion into growing her catering business, that’s what.

But then Gemma’s friend drags her off to Madame Hooch for a little fortune telling therapy. She doesn’t really believe in all that mumbo jumbo, but seriously! She hasn’t even met the guy yet and he’s going to dump her? That’s enough to make any girl mad enough to get even. In this case, it means tricking the gorgeous Nick into dumping her sooner rather than later. There’s a soul mate on the line if Madame Hooch is to be trusted. Unfortunately she’s up against Fate and things don’t go quite according to plan.

I had so much fun writing this book! Gemma has to get herself dumped before Fate plays its trump card and leaves her heartbroken. She’s not sure how she got into this situation, she doesn’t even believe the future can be  predicted, but suddenly she’s playing a game and the prize is a soul mate she never gave much thought to before.

I’ve only been to a fortune teller twice, dragged both times by obsessed friends. I don’t seriously give it much credence, but I’ve had fun along the path of my life, smiling wickedly when some of the things come true and quirking a brow when the exact opposite unfolded.

My fortune-teller saw travel in my future, and I’ve moved continents three times. So far. She also predicted a couple of mind-boggling awesomeness stuff that, um, I’m still waiting on, lol.

What about you? I’d love to hear your fortune telling stories, or stories that happened to a friend of friend!

If you’re up for a fun read this summer as Gemma tries to outwit fate and get herself dumped, you can read more about Second-Guessing Fate here on Carina Press or pop along to my Website for a longer excerpt.

Claire Robyns lives in Berkshire, England, with her husband and twin boys. For so long as she has memories, she was either reading, dreaming about reading, or planning what she’d be reading next. Then one day she started dreaming about writing and that was the beginning of an amazing journey.
When Claire isn’t thigh-deep in laundry, shopping, cooking and general crowd control, you’ll find her head-and-heart-deep in the tangled lives of her characters.


Visit Claire at her website www.clairerobyns.com or on twitter @clairerobyns

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Posted in Authors, Books, Carina Press | 5 Comments »

You tell us: Movie versions of books?

Angela James | September 26th, 2011

I’m a reader. I love to read. In fact, I don’t watch a lot of TV. Mostly sports and sports-related shows. What TV I do watch is usually seasons of shows I like, buy on iTunes, and watch while I travel. I’m basically never able to intelligently discuss a show the day after it’s aired (or often the week or month). The same seems to be true of movies. We do go to the theater on occasion, but outside that, we don’t spend a lot of time watching new movies at home. Well, my family is more likely to than I am. Because I’m a reader at heart. That should explain why I’ve read 265 books so far this year.

It probably also explains why movies adapted from books don’t often appeal to me. When I see a movie’s been made, based on a book, I’ll wait years to see the movie…so I can read the book first. I can think of few exceptions (one is Harry Potter, and that only because I have a child living with me who loves the Harry Potter movies, so I’ve seen the first…three. I think.) I did see Gone with the Wind before I read the book.Oh, and Silence of the Lambs. I saw that before I ever read the book. But subsequently, once I started reading those books, I didn’t continue watching the movies.

The reason I want to read the book first is not just because I’m a reluctant TV/movie watcher, however. It’s also because I generally just believe the book is better. And I don’t want any spoilers for the book, by watching the movie. But so much of a book depends on getting the reader into the characters’ heads, and that’s much more difficult to do in the movies. I feel like a lot of the nuances of character development and insight are often lost in the movie versions. Though I will say, Silence of the Lambs is still suitably creepy!

I also know there are a lot of people who love it when their favorite books are made into movies. You won’t be shocked, at this point in the post, to know I’m generally not one of them, I’m sure ;) I’m terrified to see what they do with the Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum books, I resented the changes they made to the True Blood tv show versus how the books go (I’m a longtime fan of the books) and I don’t really ever want to see Roarke and Eve from JD Robb’s In Death books personified by an actor and actress. I’m happy to have them live on only in my head.

So this you tell us has a couple of different questions. You tell us…

1) Do you look forward to seeing a favorite book/series made into a movie or TV show?

2) Do you generally think the book is better? Or the movie?

3) And do you have any specific examples to share of when the book was better? And when the movie was better?

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Posted in Carina Press | 20 Comments »

Photo Friday: Posting from mid-air

Angela James | September 23rd, 2011

This morning I got up at 4a in order to catch an early morning flight from Toronto to Charlotte, NC. From there, I’m currently somewhere over the middle of the US (the pilot says we just passed the Ozarks), on my way to Phoenix. And then I have one more flight to Tucson (which it currently appears I’m going to miss thanks to an hour’s delay in Charlotte).

So it’s a day of travel, travel weariness, and some flight hassles. But I was fortunate enough to see this gorgeous sunrise out of Toronto, from thousands of feet in the air, between two layers of clouds. And hours later, it still makes me smile.

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Posted in Carina Press | 3 Comments »

Carina Press Authors at Word on the Street Sept. 25!

Elyse_Mady | September 23rd, 2011

On Sunday, September 25, 2011, Toronto will hold its 21st Word on the Street festival. This annual event takes place in Queen’s Park every year and celebrates everything literature! This year Word on the Street will feature something extra special…

wots_logo_colour_with_tagline_transparent_connection

A chance to meet some of your local Carina Press Authors!

If you’re in the Toronto area please make the trip to booths 219 & 220 – located in the Toronto Star Exhibitor tent. You’ll get to meet J.K. Coi and Christine D’Abo (at 12pm) and Elyse Mady (at 3pm), all of whom will be doing signings and giving away treats. Needless to say they are very eager to coerce (er…tempt) new readers to try a book by Carina Press!

Created to promote Canadian authors, books, magazines and literacy, Word on the Street has grown from a small event hosting 40,000 booklovers to become Canada’s largest annual book and magazine festival.

J.K. Coi

I’m excited for Word on the Street because it celebrates literacy, books, reading, authors, and all things wordy, which my mother definitely approves of! I owe my joy for reading to my mother, who didn’t yell at me when she found me with a book and a flashlight under the covers in my bed at night, and who always made sure I had the book I wanted to read—even if it meant that she had to wait longer to afford her own books. (I didn’t realize she made such a sacrifice until I was much older.)  Her love of words inspired me to write so that one day she might read something of mine.

J.K. Coi is a multi-published, award winning author of contemporary and paranormal romance and urban fantasy, including FALLING HARD released this July, and FAR FROM BROKEN, one of four steampunk novellas in A Clockwork Christmas, a holiday anthology coming in December from Carina Press. Find her at www.jkcoi.com and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jkcoi.

Elyse Mady

I have always been a big book lover, so of course I’ve been telling *everyone* about this year’s Word on the Street! There really is no better place to be if you’re a reader, a writer, or just a fan of books, period. What I’m most looking forward to is meeting current Carina Press readers, and hopefully some new ones as well! My favourite memory about learning to love books happened when I was seven and my father read J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” out loud to me before bed.  He was a huge fan of the English writer’s novels and he had a beautiful leather bound edition of the book, with gilt edges and a gold spine.  It had its own case and I still remember the sound the book made when my father would slide it out.  I’d sink down in my bed, wriggling ‘til I was just right, and listen to my father as he read the story out loud, a chapter at a time. I owe my father a great debt for that and only hope I can repay it by giving the same gift to my own children, too.

Elyse Mady is the author of “Something So Right”, “Learning Curves” and “The Debutante’s Dilemma”, all with Carina Press.  Upcoming books include “The White Swan Affair” (2012).  She blogs at www.elysemady.com.  You can also find her on Twitter at @elysemady and Goodreads.

Christine D’Abo

The idea of an event dedicated to reading and literacy is like candy to me. An opportunity to meet readers, talk about books, writing and my favorite authors without coming across as weird is a chance I couldn’t pass up.  Growing up, I drove my parents nuts. Living in a small town, I had limited access to things though my parents got me into whatever they could. One of my fondest memories was our weekly trips to the local library. Every Friday night, my parents would throw me and my sister into the car and we’d head down. It didn’t take me long to tear through the “children’s section”, leaving me with a hunger for more. We didn’t have a large bookstore and Amazon wasn’t even a thought in someone’s mind. My parents didn’t want to slow down my love for reading. After speaking with the librarian, they gave my permission for me to access the “adult’s section”, and I was off!

Christine’s Long Shot series debuts October 3 from Carina Press. She is also published with Ellora’s Cave, Samhain Publishing, and has a future release with Berkley Heat. She can be reached via her website at http://christinedabo.com/

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Posted in Appearances/ Conferences, Carina Press | 4 Comments »

Hoarders: Literary Edition

Dana_Grimaldi | September 22nd, 2011

by Dana Grimaldi
Harlequin.com Copy Editor

It’s a pretty safe bet that if you’re reading this post, you love books. And if you’re anything like me, you love books so much that you can’t bear to part with them. This can become a problem, right? Even if you read ebooks, you’ve probably got a lot of print books that you bought in the dark ages, before ebooks were created. And even though I still love print books, they do take up space, and I can only pile books so high before the possibility that they’ll crush me in my sleep becomes a serious concern.

Every now and then I try to do a book cull, getting rid of the books I no longer need and making room for new books. Over the years, I’ve honed this process to a fine art, not unlike classical music or video games. I’d like to share the questions I ask myself when deciding whether or not I should keep a book. Hopefully you’ll find it useful!

1. Did I like this book?

This is the most important question, and it’s also probably the easiest to answer. If you didn’t like the book, out it goes. If you did like it, things can get trickier…

2. Will I read this book again?

If you liked the book, but won’t read it again, you can safely set it free for someone else to discover. If you’ll want to read the book again, you’ll be tempted to keep it. And maybe you should, but first you should consider this…

3. How easy would it be to find another copy of this book? For example, if you loved Jane Eyre, and you know you’ll want to read it again, it would probably be pretty easy to find a copy at any bookstore or library. Or, you could get rid of the paper copy and purchase the book in electronic format. (FYI a lot of out-of-copyright books are available in ebook format for free!) If that’s the case, you can probably get rid of it. Unless…

4. Do you have an emotional attachment to this book?

Some people might laugh at this question. Emotional attachments are for people, right? Or pets? Or handsome, brooding Fassbenders? Not so! There are many books I’ll never give away because of the emotional attachment I have to them. Here’s an example: I have quite a few books my mother read in university. Even though I may have read Heart of Darkness, and even though I could easily find a copy at the library, I can’t get rid of her copy. This is mainly because I love reading the painstaking notes she made in the book’s margins. Check out the allusion to “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”! And speaking of school books…

5. Did this book stop being useful once you wrote the exam for first-year psychology? If so, then get rid of it. You will not need to know about classical conditioning in your everyday life. And if you suddenly find yourself with a burning need to find out about it, there’s this thing called the internet. (This is easier said than done. I’m still hanging on to my copy of CP Caps and Spelling, despite the fact that it’s very out of date and I no longer use Canadian Press style.) Next question…

6. Did you buy this book and never read it? Was that more than five years ago? If yes, get rid of it. And finally…

7. Is this book suitable for someone of a first-grade reading level? Then keep it. I firmly believe in keeping children’s books. Even if you never have children, there will be a day when you want to remember what it’s like to believe that you could plant a balloon in the ground and wake up to discover a balloon tree. After all, that’s one of the reasons we love books—it’s why we read them. Books have the ability to transport us to another world, and that’s always worth giving up some shelf space for.

Hopefully these questions will help you figure out which books you can let go of and which books you should keep. I’d love to know what you think…which books will always stay on your keeper shelf?

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Posted in Books, Carina Press | 11 Comments »

An Unusual Encounter

Fae_Sutherland | September 21st, 2011

Do you know what’s kind of embarrassing? Being bumrushed by a 2000 year old Thracian gladiator in the grocery store. That’s how I met Gaidres, the tortured warrior hero of The Gladiator’s Master, right there between the shampoo and the cleaning products. It’s one of the more interesting ways a character has come storming into my life, insisting to be written.

Perhaps I should back up a bit and explain what led up to this ‘meeting’ of ours. See, the credit (or blame, depending on your perspective) for this supermarket attack lays solely on the shoulders of my life partner. In fact, she’d actually told me about Gaidres a couple of weeks beforehand. Browsing in the drugstore on her lunch hour, she’d seen a magazine cover with a bodybuilder-type dressed up like, of all things, a gladiator. She knows me very well – and what intrigues me – and snapped a picture of the cover with her cell phone to show me.

Then promptly forgot to show me.

Two weeks later, while grocery shopping, she mentioned seeing the magazine to me and how she’d been sure I’d be into the idea of a hot gladiator, so we went off to the magazine section to see if it was still on sale. I was curious what had prompted her to decide I’d be so interested in this particular picture.

And then there it was, sitting there staring up at me. Oh, the guy was alright, nothing special in terms of looks, but that wasn’t what was important. What was important came barreling down the aisle, sword waving, battle cry bellowing. Enter Gaidres, 6’2” of muscle, furious blue eyes and a chip on his shoulder the size of Rome. Demanding vengeance, justice and – curiously – peace. Hmm.

Well, you don’t ignore that kind of thing, do you? Not I. I immediately whipped out my cell and called Margie. I told her I’d just been attacked by a gladiator and I’d need her to please get him a mate pronto or I feared he’d lop my head off with that very sharp sword of his. Luckily for us both, she knows exactly what to do when dropped into conversations like this with no lead up. I mean, it’s not like she’s never gotten a call or an instant message from me randomly shoving a character at her, going “Help!” before. In fact, that’s often how it happens!

Next thing we knew, there was Caelius. Gentle, kind-hearted, hedonistic Caelius who took one look at my gladiator and… well, let’s just say the reaction was all kinds of naughty. Margie created the perfect foil for my vengeful Thracian, and we dove in the very next day as they spilled their story out to us and we scrambled to keep up, along for the ride of a lifetime.

So if you ever wondered how Gaidres and Caelius’s story began, now you know. It began in the Safeway aisle next to a shampoo display. o_O Isn’t that where all historical romances start?

In celebration of The Gladiator’s Master, Marguerite and I are giving away two $10 gift cards to Amazon.com. All you have to do to be entered is leave us a comment telling us the strangest time/place you’ve been hit with a brilliant idea. We’ll draw two random numbers at midnight EST.

* * * * *

The Gladiator's MasterThe Gladiator’s Master – Available NOW at Carina Press, Amazon and any of your favorite etailers!

When Roman politician Caelius inherits a stable of gladiators, there is one who captures his attention above the others…one whose eyes gleam with hate, pride and desire.

Forced into slavery by Roman greed, Gaidres can barely conceal his contempt toward his new Dominus. Gaidres has a plan: kill Caelius and end the lineage of the Roman family that enslaved him. For his plan to succeed, he must make a show of respect and obedience—even when called on to service his master’s desires.

Gaidres is shocked to learn that in the confines of his quarters, Caelius doesn’t want to dominate his slave, but to be taken by him. The sex is explosive as they break society’s taboos and, to Gaidres’s dismay, they form a tenuous relationship. Even when Caelius learns of Gaidres’s plans for revenge, he knows he can’t live without his perfect lover. Is he willing to risk it all to tame his gladiator’s heart?


Fae and Marguerite are the authors of over 20 M/M novels and short stories collectively. They’ve been friends and partners in crimes of the smutty nature for nearly a decade. They both live in the DC metro area, a mere 40 minutes from each other. You can find out all about them, their books and all the other places online where you can stalk them on their website –  Chasing Dreams and their blog - The Den Of Iniquity. The Gladiator’s Master is their first novel for Carina Press.

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