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Writing in Paradise

Rebecca York | August 3rd, 2011

DARK MAGIC Cover

It’s a hot afternoon, but I’m outside on the screened porch, enjoying the world around me.  Cone flowers and tall phlox sway in a gentle breeze.  A dove is eating the birdseed I put out a while ago.  Cat birds have come to splash in the birdbath.  The koi in the pond glide in and out of the cascading waterfall.  Two of my cats are sleeping nearby.

This is the perfect place to write.  If I’m trying to think of a word or a sentence or struggling to figure out a plot point, I can look up and enjoy the garden for a few minutes.

I think most writers have other creative outlets as well.  One of mine is gardening.  I love putting in plants and flowers and watching them grow.  I love moving rocks around the pond until I get their placement just right.  Weeding the flower beds isn’t as much fun, but it’s part of the job.

I edited a lot of my August Carina novella, DARK MAGIC, while sitting here in my little Eden.  That story took me away to another world entirely–one I’d made up for my own pleasure.  I started with the idea of a kingdom under siege and a virgin princess who thinks she can save her father’s people by sacrificing herself to the dragon who saved them long ago.  She doesn’t know her plans aren’t going to work out the way she expected.  A dark, mysterious, sexy stranger has taken the dragon’s place, and he wants to awaken Princess Devon’s sensuality rather than ravage her while she’s tied to a stake.

I had a lot of fun with this story–with Devon’s sexual awakening and also with her courage in choosing a heroic way to save her people–rather than the shameful fate her father had planned for her.

This isn’t contemporary romantic suspense, which is what I usually write.  Instead, I get to explore a fantasy realm where women are only pawns in the games that men play.  Of course Devon’s not willing to stick to her assigned role, which is what made her fun to write.

You can read an excerpt of DARK MAGIC here .

What kind of heroines do you like best?  Or do you care, as long as she’s the right match for the hero?

On August 8, I will give away an autographed copy of my classic Harlequin Intrigue, NOWHERE MAN, to a randomly selected reader who comments on my above heroine questions.

A USA Today Best-Selling Author, Rebecca York is a 2011 recipient of the Romance Writers of America Centennial Award.  Her career has focused on romantic suspense, often with paranormal elements.

Her 16 Berkley books and novellas include her nine-book werewolf “Moon” series.  KILLING MOON was a launch book for the Berkley Sensation imprint. She has written over 50 books for Harlequin Intrigue, many in her popular 43 Light Street series.

She has written for Carina Press, Harlequin, Berkley, Dell, Tor, Kensington, Tudor, Scholastic, and Pageant Books.

Her many awards include two Rita finalist books. She has two Career Achievement awards from Romantic Times:  for Series Romantic Suspense and for Series Romantic Mystery. And her Peregrine Connection series won a Lifetime Achievement Award for Romantic Suspense Series.

Many of her novels have been nominated for or won RT Reviewers Choice awards.  In addition, she has won a Prism Award, several New Jersey Romance Writers Golden Leaf awards and numerous other chapter awards.

Web site:  www.RebeccaYork.com

Twitter:    @rebeccayork43

Facebook: www.facebook.com/RuthGlick

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Posted in Authors, Behind the Scenes, Books, Carina Press, Contest/Giveaway, Cover Art, Excerpt, Writing/Submissions Advice | 7 Comments »

Hunting Kat on Dysnomia Station

PJ_Schnyder | July 6th, 2011

The majority of Hunting Kat takes place on Dysnomia Station, a space station built into the single moon orbiting the dwarf planet Eris.

Why choose Dysnomia?

Stepping back in the timeline of Hunting Kat to Kat’s history, she came from Triton Moon Base. Triton is the largest moon orbiting Neptune. I wanted to choose another space station for Kat’s life beyond the events of Triton, a place farther from the home planet Earth and one with greater opportunities, or scope for mayhem. Take your pick.

In my research, I learned a bit of the process for naming Dysnomia. From a mythology standpoint, Dysnomia is the daughter of Eris, fitting the historical pattern of naming moons afer minor deities associated with the major god after which the planet has been named. Both Dysnomia and Eris represent aspects of chaos. This resonated with me on a deeper level because I wanted Kat to shake things up a bit when she arrived on station.

But that’s not all, the man who discovered the moon seems to have been a fan of Xena:Warrior Princess and liked that “Dysnomia” could be translated to “lawlessness”. This fun fact tickled me to no end.

Dysnomia was interesting to me. I wanted my setting for Hunting Kat to be interesting on many levels, even if the depth might not be a direct part of the story. From the mythology to the meaning of the name to the fun facts revolving around the moon, it was perfect.

So I hope you’ll visit Dysnomia Station with Kat and pull up a stool at Dissention Bar. Have a scotch.

Hunting Kat is available now at Carina Press.

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Posted in Authors, Books, Carina Press, Cover Art | 4 Comments »

An excerpt from Mercy

Eleri_Stone | September 7th, 2010

And last but not least, here’s an excerpt from Mercy…

Mercy cover“How was that for a mutant?” One arm was tucked behind his head, the other curved around her shoulders. His fingers traced lazy circles on the bare skin of her back.

She smiled against his damp chest. “Acceptable.” She would not pander to the weakness such a question represented. He swatted her rear and she pulled closer against him. “And I have never called you names,” she added.

“I can see it in your eyes, Iada. The same as all the others. I know what you think of me.”

“Obviously you do not.”

His fingers closed in the hair at the nape of her neck and tugged her head back so that he could look in her face. “You believe mixed blood is inferior.”

She would not lie. “Yes.”

His fingers tensed for just a moment before he suddenly released her. “You believe that I am inferior.”

“No.”

“Unique, then?” He chuckled, a low rumble beneath her breasts. He must have seen the answer on her face. “I’m not as unique as you think. Not even as unique as I would like to think.”

She looked at him steadily. “Show me. You’re the first person of human birth I’ve met. You could take me to your city, show me the others, let me see Anna.”

His fingers stilled in their circuit along her spine. “Trying to remove me from the compound?”

“I want to see the truth for myself. I’m risking everything to support you and we have no allies here. I assume you have friends who would return with us? We’ll need to gather people to protect us before we’ll be able to gain any support from the others. You must see that.”

She pushed to a sitting position and realized her mistake as soon as his eyes dilated and his attention drifted to her breasts. He skimmed his work-roughened hand over her skin, catching her nipple in the crevice between two fingers, and squeezed lightly. Her nipple instantly tightened in response.

“Is there no one here who will aid you?” His gaze lifted and there was a curiously pitying expression on his face.

“No one who is beyond manipulation. Even Mateus would yield if my uncles were to threaten Beatriz.”

He slowly nodded, then wrapped his strong fingers around her arm and jerked her forward so that her face was only inches from his. “If you work with your uncles to manipulate me in any way, Iada, your reign will be brief and violent.”

She closed the distance and licked his tightly compressed lips, swallowed down the growl that passed through them as they parted for her. There was never much hope that it could have been otherwise.

Thanks for stopping by today! Please don’t forget to check the comments if you posted previously to see if you’re a winner.

You can find Eleri online at her website or her blog.

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Posted in Authors, Books, Carina Press, Cover Art, Excerpt | 16 Comments »

Scope for the imagination

Eleri_Stone | September 7th, 2010

Mercy coverA large part of my inspiration for Mercy came from an archaeological site called Chavín de Huantar. It’s a pre-Incan site. The people who constructed it believed that their priests could actually turn into jaguars. They built a canal system beneath their Temple that was designed to make the sound of a roaring jaguar as the water rushed through it. The culture is fascinating, the artwork amazing and I was captivated by the mystery of the place. 

What if their priests really could turn into jaguars? What if there were other cities like that, hidden and undiscovered? What if someone still lived in them?

While Chavin is located in the Peruvian Andes, Mercy is set in the Amazon jungle. I love reading about the Amazon, mostly because there’s so much that we don’t know about it with new finds being made all the time which force us to reinterpret our understanding of the land, its history and the people who lived there.

For example, early Spanish explorers described encountering large numbers of natives, cities and even roads but this was dismissed as impossible for centuries because no one believed the harsh environment could possibly support a large organized civilization. But within the last year, satellite images over a cleared area of the jungle showed the remains of large structures, canals, roads and bridges. Also archaeologists have recently found areas in the jungle where the soil was intentionally modified by humans using as-yet-unknown methods to produce soil fertile enough to support large numbers of people.

Living as we do in a society with free education, public libraries, the internet and 24 hour news, it’s easy to think that there’s nothing left to discover. I like that edge where everyday life and accepted understanding meets with the undiscovered, the hidden and the strange.

It’s what draws me to paranormal fiction as a reader and as a writer – that maybe there’s more out there than what you can find in a Google search.

There are certain things that will always make me look twice at a book. If it’s set in Ireland, Scotland or a South American jungle. If it involves an archaeologist, a cowboy or a shapeshifter(I’ve yet to come across one that has all three but please let me know if it’s out there). And of course, if it involves the paranormal – magic, psychics, ghosts and all the beasts of legend and folklore.

So what is it that trips your book buying trigger? Aliens? Vampires? The Sahara desert? Alien vampires in the Sahara? (I’d read that book too.)

Commenting in this blog post will enter you into a drawing to win a free copy of Mercy. I’ll announce the winner at 7pm in the comment section of my last post.

You can find Eleri online at her website or her blog.

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Posted in Authors, Books, Carina Press, Cover Art | 14 Comments »

So….I wrote a book

Eleri_Stone | September 7th, 2010

PhotobucketMercy is my debut novel and before Carina accepted it, no one outside of my immediate family even knew I was writing a book. My extended family is large, loud, and a little bit wild. Not many of them are big into romance and I wasn’t sure exactly what they’d think.

My grandmother, who likes to read by the fireplace in the winter, says when she gets to a really bad (good?) sex scene, she rips the pages out and tosses them into the fire(this is after she reads them). I’m not sure whether to be relieved or concerned that mine’s an ebook.

So I was kind of worried telling my family all about my HOT paranormal romance, Mercy. I love my family. They’re all wonderful but my place has always been as the quiet, sensible, “good” kid and there’s an awful lot of sex in my book along with some violence. It’s not a quiet or a gentle story. I thought they might be shocked, or worse, disappointed.  But I called anyway and told people that I wrote a book, that it was a romance and yes it had a lot of sex in it. I hoped they liked it.

My first sister said it was great and I shouldn’t care about what anyone else thinks. My brother said, “Well, it’s not like you made a porno.” No Bri, that’s next week. And my other sister said, “That’s great. I love sex. I had sex today.”

I thought I was being scandalous but as it turned out, not so much. I do tend to over-worry about things like that. Right now, with the book releasing, I’m again feeling like a masochistic exhibitionist, all anxious and excited at the same time with everything just hanging out.

Adding to the anxiety, my real baby is starting kindergarten this year and my oldest is starting high school. As I write this, it’s just a few hours since we dropped the youngest off at school. He sat down at his little desk and started coloring the Welcome to Kindergarten printout. I told him to smile for one more picture and he gave me a what-are-you-still-doing-here look then said, very gently, “Mom, I’m busy right now.”

I think he’ll be fine. Right? He’ll be fine.

Anyone else out there dealing with first day jitters or know of a cure?

Commenting on this blog entry will enter you to win a free copy of Mercy. Stop back at 7pm and I’ll announce the winner in my final blog post of the day!

You can find Eleri online at her website or her blog.

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Posted in Authors, Books, Carina Press, Cover Art | 23 Comments »

What if…?

Inez_Kelley | September 1st, 2010

Married does not equal dead. Just because a woman has a husband doesn’t mean she packs her sexual fantasies in bubble wrap and shoves them in a box. There is nothing in those marriage vows that restricts your imagination. Fantasies are healthy. They keep the magic alive and give an outlet to all those wicked little thoughts that creep up during the day. It doesn’t mean you are going to be unfaithful, or even that you want to be unfaithful. It means you are human.

Maybe you have a secret obsession with Nathan Fillion’s butt. Maybe you lust after a certain singer who makes your panties melt. Maybe that rough-handed mechanic could rotate your tires juuuuuust right. That hottie on the subway? Pure mind-candy. That soccer-dad who coaches the opposing team who does wonderful things for those cotton shorts? Yummy.

Do you really think all those adult toy sites are selling vibrators ONLY to single women? Uh, no. And men, if you think your wife only has fantasies about you…*rolling on floor laughing* Yeah, right. Like you never look at Angelina Jolie and have things stand at attention. Does your wife feature in EVERY naughty thought that pops in your mind? Of course not. We know this and accept it. Human beings have a wonderful capacity to imagine.

There are those marriages where one partner insists they never think about another person. I don’t believe that. I think in those cases they just aren’t comfortable sharing those fantasies. And that is okay. But in many marriages, a woman actually shares some of her fantasies with her husband. He shares his with her. They use those fantasies as foreplay, to make their sex life richer, help strengthen their marriage.

But what if… what if you told your husband a fantasy and discovered he had the same fantasy?

That is the premise for COMING CLEAN.

Vivi and Grant Michaelson are a normal married couple. They are in love with each other and neither wants to stray. They hold nothing back from each other, sharing property, checking accounts and their fantasies. Those fantasies help make their marriage stronger. Then Vivi tells Grant about a scorching ménage fantasy she has about his best friend Cade. And Grant admits to his own desires concerning Cade.

Quite the admission for a straight man, I must tell you.

Then Vivi has another What if thought. What if this shared-threesome-fantasy actually could come true?

Well, then you would have COMING CLEAN.

DIRTY LAUNDRY just got a whole lot dirtier….

Grant and Vivi Michaelson share everything in their marriage: love, commitment—and their wildest sexual desires. But their relationship is tested when Vivi admits she wants a threesome with Grant’s old friend Cade, proposing their annual trip to the lake as the perfect opportunity to fulfill her fantasy.

All three of them are aroused by the idea. Vivi and Cade have long felt a smoldering attraction to each other…and Grant and Cade have hidden an illicit desire for decades. Going through with the ménage will test their boundaries, reveal old secrets…and maybe tear them apart. After all, there might be room for Cade in bed, but is there room for a third in their marriage?

ADULT EXCERPT:

She snuggled up beside him, kissing his heaving chest. She swooped her long hair over her shoulder and propped her chin on her laced fingers. “Anything?”

With his eyes closed, he felt her stare rather than saw it. “Anything.”

He didn’t need his sight to know her cheeks colored when she turned her face away and said, “Never mind.”

“Come on, what?”

“I just…I don’t want you to get mad.”

The silky skin of her back slid under his palm. “I won’t.”

“Promise?” she asked. He nodded and she took a slow breath. “I was kind of…fantasizing.”

He cracked one eye and smiled. “Care to share it?”

A slight firming of her muscles tightened his stomach in anticipation. Vivi fingered his hair. “Okay, here goes…remember your promise. I was thinking about…a threesome…with two men.”

Grant cocked his head at her. “Was I one of them? Ouch!”

Vivi smoothed the lock of hair she’d just tugged. “Of course you were.”

“So who was the other guy? That actor that makes you drool?”

“Does it really matter?” Vivi nibbled her lip and looked away.

“Yeah, I want to know.” She wouldn’t turn her face toward him and her evasiveness piqued his curiosity. “Vivi, tell me.”

She brought her gaze back to his. “It was Cade.”

His bones turned to sheetrock. “Cade? Uh, what was he—I mean, what were we doing?”

“You’re mad.”

“No, I’m not. I’m just curious.”

“I was riding him. And kissing you.” Her fingers caressed his cheekbone, across his lips and over his Adam’s apple. “Just before I came on his cock, you moved behind me and—”

“Fucked your ass?” His voice growled deeper as the fantasy image burst into his mind. His spent balls began to tingle, blood rerouting to stiffen his softened cock.

“Uh, no.” Vivi tugged the sheet over her hip. “Although I might borrow that fantasy for later…after I’ve had a bit to drink. You bit me the way I like. I could feel your fingers on my clit, your teeth in my neck, and the pulse of Cade’s cock inside me. That’s like the ultimate high. I guess it’s hard for a man to understand but it was…wow.”

“I can imagine.” Something taboo, forbidden and tempting swelled in Grant’s chest. Her shared fantasy took on new life in his mind. A startling and vivid picture painted itself before his mind’s eye and his mouth took off without thought. “I have imagined it.”

Vivi sat up, leaning over him, a questioning look on her face. “You’ve fantasized about us with another man?”

“No.” Sudden fear held his tongue. Did he dare tell her what flashed in his head? It was the first time he’d ever let those words be fully thought out, let alone spoken. His hands buried in soft hair, hips thrusting toward the hot, tempting mouth sucking him. That hair morphs from auburn to blond, the lips around his cock sliding from feminine to masculine, the fingers cupping his balls shifting from slender and soft to callused and strong. “Promise you won’t get mad…or anything?”

“Promise.” She smiled.

“I…when you said…” Grant sucked in a deep breath and blurted it out. “I wonder what being with Cade would be like…me with Cade.”

“You mean like…as lovers?”

“Yeah.” He braced for her disapproval.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

COMING CLEAN never felt so good… BUY NOW

For the full Dirty Laundry miniseries, check out COIN OPERATED and TALK DIRTY TO ME

Follow Inez Kelley on Twitter using ID @Inez_Kelley on Facebook at facebook.com/inez.kelley or check out her  author website at http://www.inezkelley.com/

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Posted in Authors, Behind the Scenes, Books, Cover Art, Excerpt | 11 Comments »

You shouldn’t judge a book…

Shirley_Wells | July 28th, 2010

… by its cover. But we do. At least, I do.

For me, the part of having a book published most likely to cause nightmares is the cover. In the past, I’ve been lucky and have liked most of my covers. Some have been great and some have been okay. One, however, was downright vomit-inducing.

I must say here that I’d never had any input regarding covers. The publisher has decided what it wants and I wait to see what I get.

My experience with Carina Press was totally different and I was asked to provide details of any interesting visual elements in Presumed Dead. Dylan Scott drives a 1956 registered Morgan in Daytona Yellow which would have looked terrific, but misleading. I didn’t want people expecting a book set in the fifties and ending up with a contemporary mystery. Besides, while writing the book, I’d had the perfect cover design in mind. I thought the story would suit a dark, moody, atmospheric Northern landscape. I wanted something almost black and white with the missing woman, Anita Champion, in the red dress she’d been wearing on the night she disappeared, providing a splash of colour.

I tried to convey this to Carina’s art department and sat, chewing fingernails, to wait.

Meanwhile, I saw other Carina Press titles – and the artwork was stunning. Honestly, I haven’t yet seen a bad cover. I especially like Toni Anderson’s Sea of Suspicion, J. Wachowski’s In Plain View, Rebecca E Grant’s Liberty Star, Shannon Stacey’s Exclusively Yours – the list is endless. Those covers are all very different and yet they have one thing in common. They make me want to read the book.

Even Carina Press, I worried, had to produce a dud. Presumed Dead was going to be that dud, I just knew it.

I’d already seen the blurb and I’ll share that with you:

Dylan Scott has problems. Dismissed in disgrace from the police force for assaulting a suspect, he has no job, his wife has thrown him out and—worse luck—his mother has moved in. So when Holly Champion begs him to investigate the disappearance of her mother thirteen years ago, he can’t say no, even though it means taking up residence in the dreary Lancashire town of Dawson’s Clough for the duration.

Although the local police still believe Anita Champion took off for a better life, Dylan’s inquiries turn up plenty of potential suspects: the drug-dealing, muscle-bound bouncer at the club where Anita was last seen; the missing woman’s four girlfriends, out for revenge; the local landowner with rumored mob connections—the list goes on. But no one is telling Dylan all they know—and he soon finds that one sleepy Northern town can keep a lot of secrets.

That described the book perfectly – but it didn’t stop me worrying about the cover. Then the email arrived with the cover attached. Believe me, I needed coffee and chocolate (lots of it!) before I dared look. Then, taking a deep breath, I opened that attachment -

And shrieked.

It’s the most beautiful cover I’ve ever seen. And I mean ever. Yes, yes, I know I’m a little biased, but it’s everything I imagined and so much more. I love the scenery and the stunning sky. The missing woman, Anita Champion, in the red dress she was wearing on the night she disappeared, looks exactly as I imagined her. It’s just perfect.

What do you think? Is it or is it not the best cover you’ve ever seen? :)

So – do you judge a book by its cover? Or is it just me? Unless I’m after books by my “must-buy” authors like James Paterson, Ruth Rendell, Jodi Picoult, etc., I’m always drawn by the cover. I then read the blurb and make up my mind whether I buy or not. How do you choose your books? Are you like me and browse for new authors when the mood takes or do you have an organised wish-list for books? How much does the cover influence you? I’d love to know.

Thanks for stopping by. Just a reminder that I’m having a giveaway with prizes including a copy of Presumed Dead. You can find all the details here and I hope you’ll join in the fun.

Shirley Wells can be found all over the place – at her website, her blog, on Twitter and Facebook.

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Posted in Authors, Books, Carina Press, Contest/Giveaway, Cover Art | 22 Comments »

What made it real for me…

Aideen O'Leary-Chung | June 9th, 2010

After months of discussing Carina Press with anyone who would listen, the day I searched for and discovered our titles on ebook retailers’ websites will probably remain one of the most exciting of my career. All of a sudden Carina Press was real! Oh, I had been awakened to the reality of things several times over the past few months – when we acquired our first books, when we saw our first cover – but this moment was the culmination of all of those little moments and it was fantastic.

After holding my breath as I searched for “Carina Press” on Amazon, my heart skipped a beat as the list came up. And to see the books on our own site…well that elicited the gasp that was heard around the world…or at least throughout cube-land here at Camp Carina.

Working on Carina Press has brought great new experiences. When wearing my Harlequin hat, my position doesn’t involve regular contact with authors and cover designers. As part of the Carina team, I get to work with our authors from submission all the way through the publishing process and thanks to a trip to the Romantic Times Convention, I’ve been lucky enough to meet some of them. They are a fun bunch and I think their fabulous posts on our blog this past month have really allowed their personalities to shine through!

As for the designers that I’ve had the pleasure to work with – Frauke, Angie, John, Monika, Mandy, Gin, Sherin and Annie to name just a few – I never fail to be impressed by their talent and ability to know what I want in a cover, even when I don’t know myself! Thanks to all of them for your hard work and patience these past months. While I’m famous for last-minute requests, I promise to set a more leisurely pace now that we’ve managed to get 37 plus covers out the door!

Now that we’ve launched, it’s only the beginning and I can’t wait to see where Carina goes next! Actually, I could swear I heard Malle muttering about holograms the other day. I’m pretty sure she was joking…right?

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Posted in Behind the Scenes, Carina Press, Cover Art, Marketing | 4 Comments »

The Making of CAPTIVE SPIRIT

Liz_Fichera | May 30th, 2010

CAPTIVE SPIRITScience fiction world-building, as my fellow Carina Press author KS Augustin pointed out in her post about IN ENEMY HANDS, must feel natural to the reader, almost like you could slip into it as easily as walking inside your own house.  With historical novels, it’s no different.

In order to get the setting just right for CAPTIVE SPIRIT, including descriptions of things like the clothing or food that the Hohokam Indians prepared over 500 years ago, I spent many an hour at the Phoenix Heard Museum, trying to make my story as authentic as possible.  The Heard has one of the world’s largest Native American history collections.   I’m fortunate that it’s only about a thirty-minute drive from my house.

Not much is known about the Hohokam Indians, but if you’re ever a contestant on Jeopardy and Alex Trebek asks you that daunting $1000 category question, know this: After establishing a thriving community, the Hohokam Indians vanished from the Sonoran desert around 1500 and no one knows why.  Cool, huh?   To me, there are about a million stories in that fact alone.   And it’s also the piece of history that inspired me to write CAPTIVE SPIRIT.

Despite my good intentions, Carina Press editor Elizabeth Bass and I had an amusing time trying to come up with the right words for time because, let’s face it, 500 years ago, a girl wasn’t pulling out her Blackberry.  What would a “year” be to the Hohokam?  A day? A minute?  So, we used terms like a moonrise or a sun to mark the passage of day or days.  Harvests, since the Hohokam Indians were farmers, would mark the passage of seasons and years.   If you read the story, know that great care went into making sure every detail felt right, including the time of day!

Aiyana might be from the dawn of the sixteenth century in CAPTIVE SPIRIT but she is one kick-butt, savvy heroine.  I figure you’d have to be as clever to survive during that period in some of the most unforgiving terrain you’d ever want to see.   Much of it is still pretty rugged today, as you can see from this photo of Four Peaks, just east of Phoenix.  Like the history of the Hohokam–or lack thereof–the mountains that surround Phoenix also inspired me to write CAPTIVE SPIRIT.  The landscape is very much a part of the story.

There is a line in the first chapter of CAPTIVE SPIRIT where I talk about “boulders as jagged as Grandfather Eyota’s front teeth.”  I’m talking about Four Peaks in that sentence, a gorgeous mountain range that I’ve hiked and admired for a long time.  I could picture Aiyana gazing at those mountains, wondering what surprises waited on the other side.

It was hard for me to write the words “The End” to CAPTIVE SPIRIT because I had become so attached to their world.  For about one year, Aiyana, Honovi, Eyota, Chenoa–they were all that I thought about, dreamed about, and sometimes even talked about.  And now I feel so privileged to be able to share their world with you.

What makes you become so attached to a book that you can’t let go–or, even better, what makes you want to read it over and over?  Is it the writing? The characters? The setting?  The love story? Inquiring minds just gotta know! :-)

Thanks so much for spending time with me today.

Don’t hesitate to connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, my blog, or my web site and let’s dish about books and writing and LOST reruns.  Whatev!

Remember that you can win a free copy of CAPTIVE SPIRIT, just for making a comment on this blog, Twitter, or Facebook.  CAPTIVE SPIRIT releases on June 28, 2010.  Commenting on any of the Countdown entries will also enter you into the big giveaway for a Carina Press promo prize pack. How cool is that?!

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Posted in Authors, Behind the Scenes, Books, Carina Press, Contest/Giveaway, Countdown, Cover Art, Marketing | 33 Comments »

Chasing a CAPTIVE SPIRIT

Liz_Fichera | May 30th, 2010

So there I was, minding my own business this past January when a tweet flashed across my laptop from a seemingly nice editor lady named Angela James. “Send your historical novels to Carina Press!” she tweeted. “Our editors are hungry for historicals!” CAPTIVE SPIRIT

Historicals? I thought. I’ve written one that I love.  Maybe this Angela lady will love it, too? What the heck? I’ll give it a shot.

And off flew my manuscript into cyberspace and so began my hopped-up-on-steroids but memorable publishing journey with the very cool and hip Carina Press.

Hey, book lovers!  My name is Liz Fichera and I am thrilled to be one of the Carina Press launch authors.  Formerly from Chicago, I now call the American Southwest my home.  And the historical novel that I sent to Angela earlier this year is CAPTIVE SPIRIT, although it was originally called VANISHED.   More on that in a bit.

CAPTIVE SPIRIT takes place in the Sonoran desert at the dawn of the sixteenth century.  It’s about a young Hohokam Indian woman named Aiyana who isn’t like the other girls of her White Ant Clan. Instead of keeping house, she longs to compete on the Ball Court with her best friend Honovi and the other boys. Instead of marriage, she daydreams of traveling beyond the mountains that surround her small village. Only Honovi knows and shares her forbidden wish, though Aiyana doesn’t realize her friend has a secret wish of his own.  When Aiyana’s father arranges her marriage to a man she hardly knows, she takes the advice of a tribal elder: Run! In fleeing, she falls into the hands of Spanish raiders and finds herself being taken over the mountains against her will, putting Aiyana on a quest to return to the very place she once dreamed of escaping. And she’ll do whatever it takes to survive and find her way back to the people she loves.

I’ll share more details with you later today about the story and what inspired me to write it.  And, no, it did not come to me in a dream.

But first I wanted to share my Carina Press experience because it’s been the kind of experience you hope for as a debut author.  Not only have I had the chance to work with the fab Elizabeth Bass, Kimberly the copyeditor extraordinaire, and Aideen O’Leary-Chung and her uber-talented book cover artists, but I’ve been able to connect with so many great writers who share a passion for rich storytelling. Thanks to them, my TBR pile has not only grown it’s exploded.  Also, thanks to the support of my fellow Carina Press authors, it’s  become very Sisterhood of The Writer Traveling Pants, although no one has suggested that we share a pair of faded bluejeans. Yet.  

Like most authors, my full-fledged publishing journey has been neither quick nor easy but it’s never been dull.  There have even been moments when I wanted to throw my laptop out the nearest window, burn all my rejection letters, and take up basket-weaving. But I’ll always be grateful to Carina Press as well as their readers for taking a chance on this writer hidden amongst the saguaros and coyotes in the wild, wild West who likes to tell tall tales.

Before the next post, I invite you to check out my web site for the first chapter and book trailer for CAPTIVE SPIRIT.  I’ve left a few clues in the book trailer that will help me to explain the inspiration behind CAPTIVE SPIRIT later today in my next post.  Can you guess which ones?  :-)

And if you tweet, friend, blog, or are just plain obsessed with social media like me, I’d love to connect with you on Twitter, Facebook, and My Blog.

Be back later! Rock on, Carina Press!

Remember that you can win a free copy of CAPTIVE SPIRIT, just for making a comment on this blog, Twitter, or Facebook.  Commenting on any of the Countdown entries will also enter you into the big giveaway for a Carina Press promo prize pack. How cool is that?

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Posted in Authors, Behind the Scenes, Books, Carina Press, Contest/Giveaway, Countdown, Cover Art, Writing/Submissions Advice | 46 Comments »

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