Archive for the ‘Random conversation’ Category

« Older Entries

Sealed with a kiss!

Maggie Wells | April 10th, 2013

The first volume of the Love Letter Anthologies released this week. Yay!

This project has been quite the undertaking – 4 authors, 6 volumes and 26 steamy stories. Uh huh. Yeah. We didn’t sleep, but had a blast creating them.

The conversations were epic. And, at times, mildly disturbing.

We shared a fictional (but frighteningly realistic) transcript of one of these conversations on the Harlequin blog yesterday. Here’s another glimpse into the inner workings of the Love Letters Team and what you might find in Love Letters Volume 1: Obeying Desire.

photo CARINA_0413_9781426895357_zps5ccd5476.jpg

Maggie: So how was it we all wrote BDSM for the first Love Letters volume, anyway? In my case, I thought it would be cute for the daughter of the sex-shop owners to encounter her high school crush, only he’s a police officer in their town. Could have been pretty vanilla, but when he whipped out those handcuffs…

Emily: Characters will do that to you.

Christina: Handcuff you?

Emily (rolling her eyes): I meant, characters will surprise you like that.

Ginny: I don’t know about characters, but you three all surprised me when you sent in your stories.

Maggie: I guess we all wanted to try something new.

Christina: Speak for yourself. The “something new” for me was writing a story with first-person point-of-view. The BDSM was same-old, same-old for me.

Emily: That’s our whips-and-chains girl!

Ginny: I liked the contrast of our four stories. We have distinct voices, but I could tell our stories would mesh well.

Maggie: You mean, they could be tied together easily.

Emily: With Ginny, everything’s easy!

Ginny: Hey! I mean, hey, Chris, tell me more about this same-old, same-old…

Maggie: Heh. Tied together.

Christina: Well, it all starts with a safe word. Let’s say yours is “alphabet”…

Emily: Focus, ladies!

Ginny: Oh, fine, spoil our fun. I’m thinking back to our first Skype session. Or, as I like to think of it, the one where Christina bothered to show up. She seems often “tied up” with other things. ;)

Christina: I’m never going to live that down, am I?

Emily: Oh, I don’t know. If you showed up on time, we might forget your previous lapses.

Christina: Moving on. Yes, I remember that discussion too. When we realized that we’d all written BDSM, we thought we should branch out, try new themes.

Maggie: As I recall it, Chris, you were the most nervous about that idea.

Christina: I’d had so much fun writing about Rachel going to “bondage school” and having a crush on her French instructor, Marc. Who’d want to give that up? But I came around.

Emily: I enjoyed exploring the BDSM dynamic between two women. I thought about how weird and intriguing it must be for a young woman to work as the receptionist at a BDSM club and have a crush on a gorgeous Domme.

Maggie: So what inspired you, Ginny?

Ginny: I thought about how a little bit of kink could get together two people who might otherwise never have hooked up. I liked the idea of cops being undercover, but I wanted Lane to be something other than a police officer. Cameron’s got a couple issues, so I liked their layered dynamic. In real life, he has to submit to her as the department shrink, but undercover she has to do what he says. And in the bedroom…

Christina: Yes, that’s true of all our stories: In the bedroom…

Emily: Or, in my case, in the dungeon…

Maggie: In the sex shop…

Ginny: So that’s what brought us together. Our love of the ellipses (sorry to Deb, our editor, we’re working on it.) Those three little dots that suggest sexy times wherever the characters might find themselves. We hope that you enjoy the spicy new twist on the alphabet that we’ll be bringing you this year, and that you love reading what comes after the ellipses as much as we loved writing it!
Love Letters Volume 1: Obeying Desire by Ginny Glass, Christina Thacher, Emily Cale and Maggie Wells

available NOW at the Carina Press bookstore or your favorite ebook retailer!

Hang out with the Love Letters ladies on Twitter!

@GinnyGlass

@ChristnaThacher

@EmilyCale

@MaggieWells1

Posted in Authors, Behind the Scenes, Books, Carina Press, Cover Art, Random conversation | 4 Comments »

War Stories from My Family

Jax_Garren | February 12th, 2013

Click to see the description and for purchase links.
Wesley “Hauk” Haukon, the hero from How Beauty Saved the Beast, is a war veteran from Afghanistan who came home a burn survivor with an amputated limb and burn scars covering most of his skin. Though fortunately no one in my family was severely injured, I am the proud daughter and granddaughter of veterans—my father from Vietnam, and my grandfather from WWII. Like many veteran families, we have our war stories passed around, some of derring-do, some funny, some sad, but all part of the unique lives of soldiers. Here are a few of my favorites  from my father. And check the Harlequin main blog tomorrow (Wednesday) for stories from my grandfather!

  1. Like everyone with a bit of adventure in them, my father has a few scars on his arms from his wild youth. When I was a kid, I was convinced they were bullet wounds from his days in the jungle. When I finally got up the courage to ask, he laughed and said, “Jenny” (my family calls me Jenny), “the worst injury I got in the war was one night when I threw my hands up in the air to emphasize a point and stuck one in a metal fan.”
  2. My father was stationed in the jungle just outside of Saigon, and his life was stretches of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. In a boring stretch, he and some friends started a water fight with the base’s fire extinguishers. The next day the mess hall got bombed…and burned to the ground because they had nothing to put the fire out with. Oops!
  3. Dad was an Army helicopter pilot. Part of his job was flying soldiers into the jungle for missions. Usually the drop offs would be no big deal; they’d land the helicopter, the guys would get out, and Dad would fly away. But if they saw pineapple plants, the soldiers would pick some for Dad to take back to base so that everybody could enjoy fresh pineapple along with their mess hall, er, food.  One time they landed in a pineapple field. Dad was so excited he repeatedly yelled at the soldiers to, “Throw me some pineapples!” What he didn’t realize, because the rotors were so loud, was that they’d landed in an ambush and were being shot at. Bullets were flying, the guys were looking at my dad like he’d lost his mind…and Dad was yelling about fruit.
  4. My dad is a friendly, adventurous, laughing sort of guy. He’s got a big heart, but he doesn’t do serious moments often. Once though, he told me a story about the war without any jokes. He said that flying was hard. He dropped guys off, never knowing whom he’d pick up. He knew with each mission that if the Viet Cong could shoot him, the helicopter would go down and make their job a lot easier. Sometimes it made him wonder why he did this. Then… he was picking up a wounded soldier off a battlefield. Men hauled the guy into the back of the helicopter, and Dad checked behind him to make sure everyone was secure before takeoff. The wounded soldier gave him a look that said the pilot was an angel, come down from the sky to save him. At that look, Dad knew at least part of his job was worth the pain of living in a war zone. He made sure wounded men came home.

Do you have any stories to share? Feel free to honor service members you know by telling us their tales in the comments.

Jax Garren is descended from Valkyries and Vikings (she’s part Swedish) but was raised a small town girl in the Texas Hill Country. She graduated from The University of Texas with a degree in English and a minor in Latin then found her own Happily Ever After with a handsome engineer who is saving the world through clean energy technology. Jax loves meeting new people, so if you see her out and about say hello! She’s always happy to raise a glass with her readers (or anyone else) to toast courage, adventure and love.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Authors, Books, Random conversation | 2 Comments »

Books you hate to love, and love to hate

Brendan_Flattery | January 31st, 2013

Okay, so “hate to love” is maybe a bit strong. Think of this more as guilty pleasure reads. What are some books or series that you can’t stop reading to the point that it’s maybe a little embarrassing?

For me, The Wheel of Time definitely goes here. I devoured the first seven books of this epic series, despite too many scenes of people traveling around in wagons (even though they have magic), talking about action rather than doing it, the disturbing plethora of women hitting each other with branches (and the pervasive gender dichotomy as a whole), and the story lines that never seem to go anywhere (I’m looking at you, Egwene).

And yet, I’m excited to read the last book, and not just because it’s the conclusion and I’ve spent so much time on the series thus far—though I did only get back into it when Brandon Sanderson took over and I knew there was a firm end in sight. The overall good defeats evil paradigm is a bit tiresome—I’m pretty sure good’s going to win—but yet I feel compelled. I want to know how things will turn out, and though there will likely be plot holes and hasty conclusions, I’ll probably feel a sense of satisfaction when I’m done.

Similarly, I’ve read about 20 books from Raymond E. Feist’s Riftwar Cycle and I give up on these/pick them up again every 3-4 years or so. I’ve read the first four numerous times, and there’s something about the immortal magician Pug that I find intriguing. So I wait until there’s a few out that I haven’t consumed yet then read them all in a week(end). The more of them I read though, the more I feel they are meant for teenaged boys, which might explain why I liked the early ones better.

As for books I love to hate, the main one that comes to mind is Life of Pi. Yes it won the Man Booker, is still on bestseller lists thanks to the movie, and when it came out it was the book everyone had to read. Typically, I avoided it for latter reason but ended up reading it for a university class. While I’m usually a fan of magic realism, I had a lot of trouble finishing this. Many love it, and that’s great. I’m not here to say you shouldn’t. I’m a huge fan of Midnight’s Children, as I’ve mentioned, and similar criticisms can apply to both novels (I’m not going to go into those here). The point is that I’m still a bit hung up on my difficulty reading Life of Pi, 6 years after the fact. Some books or characters just have ways of getting under our skin, for good or bad, and never letting go.

I’m a sucker for punishment and always looking for more, so feel free to share some of yours!

Posted in Carina Press, Random conversation | 2 Comments »

A SMART 2013

Vivi_Anna | December 31st, 2012

The New Year is all about starting fresh, making anew. For many of us its about making goals for the upcoming year.  Resolutions, of a sort. I am a firm believer in making goals. I make yearly goals, monthly goals and sometimes daily goals, especially if I’m not getting my monthly goals done.  Over the years I’ve set goals and failed to reach them, and I wondered why.  I realized I wasn’t setting proper goals. I was actually writing down wishes, or dreams, not goals.  Things like, making the USA Today list.  Well, that’s something I don’t have control over, and is not something I can measure.  So now I use this simple 5 step method to make my goals:

SMART

SPECIFIC – what?

MEASUREABLE – how much or how many?

ACTION ORIENTED – what’s the result?

REALISITIC AND RELEVANT – is this something that makes sense?

TIME BASED – by when?

So now I can write down my goals with confidence and know that at least they make some kind of sense. *side note* I still have make USA Today bestseller list, but it is now in brackets. :)

And to get into the spirit of the New Year, here are Jovan and Skylar’s (from my book League of Illusion: Legacy) goals for the new year:

legacy
Jovan Davenport’s Goals:

  1. Perfect the invisibility spell
  2. Avoid Lord Soren at all costs
  3. Make more amends to Rhys
  4. Learn how to pick any lock ever made
  5. Take Skylar on an airship cruise to Africa

 

Skylar Vanguard’s Goals:

  1. Learn the art of necromancy
  2. Get even better with a bo staff
  3. Learn to make curare
  4. Learn how to skrye in fire
  5. Persuade Jovan to go on an airship cruise to Africa

Posted in Authors, Books, Carina Press, Getting In Character, Random conversation | 1 Comment »

New Year’s Resolutions? Not this time…

Rhonda Helms | December 28th, 2012

When I think about all the sugar and junk and deliciously bad food I’ve eaten over the last few days, my first instinct is to cringe. To have a wave of massive guilt and say, “At least January 1 is coming, so I can start all over.”

Yes, I am totally that person. The one addicted to doing new personal resolutions each year. Perhaps this could be the year I’d learn to speak German, or lose that extra weight, or read 5000 books, or whatever. Every year, for as long as I can remember, I’ve sat down with my blank piece of paper on December 31, excited about the prospect of how I was going to change myself. Better myself.

I’m not going to do that this year.

Instead, I’m going to try a different strategy. This year I’m going to not write a list of how I can make myself “better”–less stressed, less fat, more educated, more efficient, blah blah blah. This year, I’m gonna focus on all the awesome things I already have and simply being happy with who I am right now.

Loving my job. My body. My family. My life. Stop worrying so much about trying to achieve these goals that will supposedly push me to the “next level” and make my life complete.

My life IS complete. And I should be happy about it. Appreciate it.

What about you? Are you a person who loves making personal resolutions? Or do you prefer not sweating them?

Posted in Random conversation | 6 Comments »

That Time I Unexpectedly Got Engaged

Tara Stevens | December 6th, 2012

by Tara Stevens, Carina Press acquisition team member

Once upon a time there was a shy, redheaded girl who worked at a romance novel company. She was in charge of the eNewsletter program. On her first day of work, she met a dishy Italian fella who would copyedit her newsletters and change her life. Yes, he diligently pointed out all her missing commas and awkward phrasing, but he also lent her his book on Woody Allen films and asked her to go for a walk at lunchtime. Sometimes she would sneak secret looks at him when he walked to the printer or they had a meeting together.

Eventually, through a gift of kismet, they found themselves sitting across from each other in an open-plan office and falling in love. They tried to keep their romance private, but her blushing cheeks often gave them away when they were caught standing a little too close together at a social event. One sad day he left the company to work at an awful banking job and she missed her lunch partner and best friend. One happy day they moved in together with a plant called Bernard. Twenty months later he made her a delicious brunch for her 30-something birthday. Then he slid off the couch, popped onto one knee and asked her to marry him. She asked if it was a joke four times, then said yes.

***

Confession time: an unexpected engagement will not only tilt your world in a wonderful-yet-scary way, it will also steal all your blog post topics. It’s been three weeks since I got my surprise sparkler, but I find my mind has been taken over by all things betrothal.

With all this excitement in my personal life, my what-to-read-next thoughts are naturally turning towards books featuring engagements and weddings. I want to read about other women experiencing this magical, special time and bask in the glow just a little bit longer, before all the wedding planning reality sets in.

I’ve begun compiling a list of wedding-focused reading material to devour once the holidays arrive and I have time to lose myself in books. Of course, I started with any Carina Press titles that fall into this category that I haven’t read yet! The first one that popped into my mind was Ask Her at Christmas, by Christi Barth, along with the first book in her popular Aisle Bound series, Planning for Love. Fatal Destiny by Marie Force is another must-read on my list, since I adore her Fatal series.

I know there must be loads of other titles out there that fit this theme, and I’m greedy for more! Which romance novel with an engagement or wedding as a major plot point is your favorite?

 

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Authors, Behind the Scenes, Books, Carina Press, Marketing, Random conversation | 9 Comments »

Leah Braemel, Anne Calhoun, and KA Mitchell – Red Hot Holidays

Anne_Calhoun | December 4th, 2012

Get holiday Bound in Red Hot Holiday…

It’s no secret that the holidays contain the rest of the year’s emotional journeys, but taken to a power of ten. People laugh more, cry more, worry more, buy more, drink more, eat more, and feel more during the holidays. This time of year is bound to magnify everything that’s beautiful and conflicted in a character’s life. In the Red Hot Holiday anthology three couples find themselves bound in a variety of interesting ways, but ultimately to each other, forever. Read on for insights into how each author created her story…

Buy the Red Hot Holiday anthology at Carina Press, Amazon US, Amazon UK, Barnes and Noble

Bound and determined…I Need You for Christmas by Leah Braemel

Leah: Whenever I buy my family and friends presents—not just for Christmas—I try to put as much thought in them as possible, so they’ll know that I’ve listened to them, that I care for them. I think it was inspired by listening to O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi when I was little. So when I was writing I Need You for Christmas, I knew I wanted my characters to have that much love and passion that they would be willing to give up their most prized possessions for the person they loved. And given they’ve been kept apart by family and career obligations for years, now they are bound and determined to give each other the best present they can. Themselves, for the rest of their lives. Even though it means making sacrifices, of their careers, and even of their family. That they decided to make those sacrifices a surprises, in keeping with the Gift of the Magi story, adds a slight complication…

Buy I Need You for Christmas at Carina Press, Amazon US, Amazon UK, Barnes and Noble

 

Bound in darkness…Breath on Embers by Anne Calhoun

Anne: I have an ambivalent relationship with the holidays. When Angie James approached me in February about writing a Christmas novella, I was thrilled to work with Angie and Carina Press, but less than delighted to think about Christmas. I was still coming down off the previous holidays and not feeling particularly cheery, Christmas-y, or sentimental. That resistance to thinking about yet another holiday season less than two months into the New Year carried over into Thea Moretti, the widowed heroine of Breath on Embers. Thea used to love the holidays as passionately and vibrantly as she loved her husband. But he’s dead, and yet another holiday season is upon her. She has to choose between staying trapped in the darkness of grief or choosing to embrace the light the hero, FDNY lieutenant Ronan O’Rourke brings into her life.

Throw in the holiday setting of New York City and you’ve got what I hope is a compelling story that celebrates the tipping point that takes us from long, dark nights to the coming light of spring.

Buy Breath on Embers at Carina Press, Amazon US, Amazon UK, Barnes and Noble

 

Bound to find trouble…Wish List by K.A. Mitchell

K.A.: My Wish List character Jonah and I share the wonderful, agonizing, infuriating trait of procrastination. To us, deadlines are both helpful because they force us to act, and horrible because they induce panic and resentment.

One thing those incomprehensible people who get their work done on time often tell people like me and Jonah is to make lists, and one of the most list-filled times of all is December: shopping lists, gift lists, Christmas card lists, naughty and nice lists, all with the intractable deadline of the twenty-fifth. I got to thinking about what other pressures I could put on a procrastinator to make him feel as if he’s running out of time and drive him to make a list—and what would happen if that list fell into the best and worst possible hands. As if Christmas wasn’t stressful enough, imagine facing a surprise wedding proposal, possibly in front of your boyfriend’s relatives whom you’ve met only twice before, and you have an idea of why Jonah’s sweating bullets when he finds a ring box in his boyfriend’s desk drawer.

Buy Wish List at Carina Press, Amazon US, Amazon UK, Barnes and Noble

Posted in Authors, Books, Carina Press, Random conversation | Comments Off

Giving Thanks for Series

GinaBernal | November 22nd, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving to all those in the U.S (and happy Thursday to everyone else)! Depending on when you’re reading this, I’m either helping prep an intricate turkey dinner, enjoying that delicious turkey dinner, or napping after said tryptophan-laden turkey dinner. Yum.

Today, many around the country are thinking about the things they’re thankful for. Me? I’ve got all the usual biggies on my list: family, friends, health. But on a lighter note, I’m just thankful I was able to finish the first five books in George R.R. Martin’s gargantuan A Song of Ice and Fire series before the end of 2012.

Cue the theme song…

Like many recent fans, I was spurred to pick up the books after watching the HBO show. I downloaded Game of Thrones to my ereader on January 31, 2011 and turned the final page of A Dance with Dragons in the wee hours of October 29, 2012. Whew! Now I know why it’s called epic fantasy.

Reading a series—whether made up of thousand-page tomes or shorter, but more plentiful volumes (J.D. Robb anyone?)—requires commitment. And I don’t know about you, but I have some personal quirks when it comes to series. Aside from the length and my snails’ pace reading, one thing that slowed my journey through A Song of Ice and Fire was the simple fact that I bought the first book but checked the second out of the library. Because I’m a weirdo who doesn’t like to own some books in a series but not others (and who hates spending my precious book budget on things I’ve already read), I was at the mercy of the library wait list. See what I mean by quirks? Lesson learned: buy the book bundles!

All about instant gratification, I prefer to start a new series when there are at least two or three other books already available. I have mixed feelings about cliffhangers, but keep me interested and I’ll keep reading until I feel burned out or need a palate cleanser. Not that I haven’t fallen out of love with series in the past—sorry, Stephanie Plum. Sometimes I’ve fallen behind (again, J.D. Robb anyone?). And a recent post at the Dear Author blog sparked a thoughtful conversation about whether a seemingly endless run can possibly be detrimental to a series.

Still, despite the time investment reading a series demands, when an author creates a world or characters that capture the imagination, I’m happy to come back again and again. Treat me right, authors, and I’m a loyal reader.

What about you—series, yay or nay? Do you have any quirks about reading a series?

Tags: ,
Posted in editors, Random conversation | 1 Comment »

You tell us: Do you read science fiction?

JL_Hilton | October 1st, 2012

OCT 1, 2012 — I’ve met many women who don’t read science fiction. They might enjoy supernatural, fantasy or historical romance. But anything with aliens, robots, space ships or lasers, don’t bother to beam them up, Scotty.

Reasons for their dislike include a lack of characters to whom they relate, pervasive misogyny in the genre, absence of emotional depth or romance, too much violence, and too many boring descriptions of aliens, machines and technology.

I’m a woman who likes science fiction, sci-fi, SF, or whatever you want to call it. There are women who write great futuristic stories for Carina Press. And I meet women at science fiction events. Yet, even there, I hear a lot of “I only became interested after watching Firefly with my boyfriend.” Or they don’t read the stuff, they just like steampunk cosplay, anime, RPGs or video games.

Maybe I should keep this to myself, since I’m a science fiction author, but I don’t read a lot of science fiction, either. I’m turning into a fan of steampunk, but steampunk is kind of a weird cross-genre thing that can be science fiction-y … or supernatural, fantasy, romance, historical, horror, mystery, Western and just about anything else.

For the purposes of this question, I’m mainly talking about futuristic lasers-pew pew science fiction.

I grew up with Star Wars, Buck Rogers, Battlestar Gallactica, Alien, Terminator and Star Trek. As a kid, I read my dad’s Heinlein books and Omni magazines, though I preferred Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes to his Martian Chronicles, and Michael Moorcock to Isaac Asimov, so I guess I had steampunk/supernatural leanings even then. My doctor is the Ninth Doctor and my favorite TV characters are Jayne Cobb, G’kar and Gul Dukat – all from science fiction shows.

Yet, when I settle down with a book, I tend to chose fantasy, romance, classics or non-fiction. With maybe a dash of supernatural. And I spent most of my life writing non-fiction or fantasy. Which is why I’m still a little surprised that my first published novel, Stellarnet Rebel, is science fiction — as is my second, Stellarnet Prince, coming out next month. And I have a third Stellarnet Something WIP. How did that happen? (I’m being sarcastic, but… no, really, how did that happen?)

I’ve had several female readers say, “I don’t usually like science fiction, but I loved Stellarnet Rebel.”

So, here I am wondering what’s up with that — not with my books, specifically, but the genre in general. I’m addressing women, because I have yet to hear a man say, “I don’t like science fiction.” But, if you’re a man, I’d like to hear from you, too.

You tell us: Do you read science fiction – hard, soft, military, cyberpunk, futuristic, apocalyptic, space opera? If not, what turns you off of the genre? And if you do, what are some of your favorite titles and why?

J.L. Hilton is the author of the Stellarnet Series, a regular blogger for Contact-Infinite Futures, and an artist whose work is featured in the books “Steampunk Style Jewelry” and “1000 Steampunk Creations.”

* I know some people use “science fiction” and “sci-fi” interchangeably, while others make a distinction between the two. I’ve also received conflicting information about the abbreviated “SF” — it’s used in place of “science fiction” and also “speculative fiction,” in different circles. I’ve chosen to just use “science fiction” throughout, but you’re welcome to substitute your favorite term, abbreviation or euphemism as you read.

Tags: ,
Posted in Authors, Carina Press, Random conversation | 28 Comments »

You tell us: How do you like your steampunk?

JL_Hilton | September 10th, 2012

Long before I heard the word “steampunk,” I knew I loved clock gears, old keys, Art Nouveau, Neo-Victorian costumes, time machines, Michael Moorcock and anything with brass, copper and rivets. But it took me awhile to warm up to contemporary steampunk literature. Carina Press authors such as Robert Appleton, Christine Bell, Cindy Spencer Pape and Seleste deLaney finally turned me into a fan.

Robert mentioned Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle when he blogged about The Mysterious Lady Law. Which might explain why I enjoy his books so much. I read quite a bit of Victorian Era literature and some of my favorites include those authors, as well as Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, William Thackeray and Elizabeth Gaskell. Since steampunk is based on the Victorian Era, I expect it to have a voice and feel (at least somewhat) akin to the classics of the period.

One of the charms of steampunk is that it may be mixed with a variety of other genres. Cindy Spencer Pape’s Gaslight Chronicles series includes magic-and-fantasy. Island of Icarus by Christine Danse is a Male/Male romance. Christine Bell’s The Bewitching Tale of Stormy Gale is a time-pirate adventure. Cruel Numbers is a detective mystery by Christopher Beats. Selah March’s Heart of Perdition is gothic horror along the lines of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.

With anything I read, I want great characters and a compelling plot, of course. But I think world-building is absolutely essential for steampunk. I don’t want to read, as my friend Jill calls it, “find/replace steampunk.” As if the author wrote a generic story, then went through and substituted “dirigible” for “airplane,” “corset” for “dress,” and “steam” for “electric.”

But enough about me. You tell us, how do you like your steampunk? Romantic? Supernatural? Scientific? Do you enjoy elaborate descriptions of fantastical contraptions? Automatons and mad scientists? Explorers and airship pirates? With Victorian morals and conventions, or with modern sensibilities? Are you getting a little bored with gears, goggles and dirigibles, or can’t get enough? Do you want it set in Victorian London, or would you like to read some steampunk set in far-flung locales? What are some of your favorite steampunk stories, and what do you think is missing from the genre?

J.L. Hilton is the author of the Stellarnet Series, including Stellarnet Rebel (January 2012) and the upcoming sequel, Stellarnet Prince (November 2012) published by Carina Press. She is also a jewelry artist whose work is featured in the books “Steampunk Style Jewelry” and “1000 Steampunk Creations.”

Tags: , ,
Posted in Carina Press, Random conversation | 4 Comments »

« Older Entries