The Carina Press authors are “Getting in Character”!

Where is your character’s dream vacation destination, and why?

Wesley “Hauk” Haukon joined the Army right out of high school to see more of the world than his happy but cash-strapped upbringing provided. A natural leader, he quickly rose in the NCO ranks until a fire scarred him, taking his leg and mangling the rest of him beyond recognition. Now that Hauk’s fully recovered—in capability though not in appearance—he lives in Austin, working as a an agent of the Underlight to fight a secret battle against a sinister organization.

Hauk would still love to see more of the world, and there isn’t any place he wouldn’t travel to. He does love studying Viking lore and history, so his dream trip is to visit Scandinavia and Iceland to explore the fjords and battlefields where the old legends occurred. It’d be even better if he could convince his “best friend,” a brilliant, gorgeous, burlesque dancing redhead, to come along…

How Beauty Loved the Beast is available now!

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Bobby Prejean is a New Orleans native, owns his own restaurant – consistently rated at five stars, thank you very much – and is unmarried. He enjoys cooking, excellent cuisine, recreational jogging and all things fetish.

Dream vacation?

Having trained in Paris, I developed a deep appreciation for the European love of food and wine. The French cuisine dovetails nicely with what I like to serve in New Orleans – and with what the tourists, as well as the purists, expect. But for a vacation, I’d love to take Danielle to Tuscany, to explore the savor and sensuality of their culture. I have some ideas for creative uses of their fresh-pressed oils, as well.

Ruby by Jeffe Kennedy is available now!

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Whitney Vidra is an outspoken plastic surgeon who knows her worth and isn’t afraid to make sure other people know it, too. She recently moved to a small town that doesn’t much care for her, so getting away for a vacation is probably a good idea. 

Where is your dream vacation destination, Whitney, and why?

Anywhere that’s not tropical–that’s where. I refuse to step foot in any country where the spiders grow bigger than mice and monkeys are trained to steal things from tourists. Rain must be for ambiance only. A highly functional infrastructure is a definite must. Maybe Paris. They have lovely shoes in Paris.

The Rebound Girl by Tamara Morgan is available now!

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What is your ideal vacation destination? Tell us in the comments !

In The Rebound Girl, my heroine is a plastic surgeon opening a medical spa with her friends. Because I like to be thorough (and because it’s never a bad idea to start thinking about Botox), I figured it would be worthwhile to visit a medspa to get a feeling for the setting. I wanted to know how the business was set up, what kind of services they offered, the technology they used… You know. The usual.

I assumed a few local places would be willing to help. I mean, I’m not exactly famous, but who wouldn’t want a chance to help a romance author out? I pretty much live for the rare opportunities when someone asks me a question I actually know the answer to. Who doesn’t?

Medspas, apparently.

I called half a dozen places in my area—and got shut down each time. The people I talked to on the phone were nice enough, but there was always some sort of legal or business complication in the way. It went against HIPAA regulations. It was company policy. There were issues of sanitation to consider. Tours were open to prospective clients only.

CUE THE SCREECHING HALT. Prospective clients, huh?

Now, I’m not proud to say that I lied and coerced my way through the doors, but that’s exactly what happened. With a professed interest in liposuction (which, let’s face it, carries a respectable plausibility), I booked my tour and got to see all the dirty secrets.

I know it wasn’t fair of me to take up the receptionist’s valuable time when I had no intention of actually having any work done. And the poor woman probably thought I was a touch crazy, scrambling to take notes and drawing an eerily detailed map of their facility while I was there. But research is an author’s best friend, right? No matter what lengths she must go to get it?

Hey—we should all just be glad I didn’t have a police ride-along turned down. Can you imagine what I might have to do to sneak a ride in the backseat of a cop car?

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Plastic surgeon Whitney Vidra knows all about getting over a cheating ex. She followed her boyfriend halfway around the world before she found out about his infidelity. Now she’s focusing on her career and her friends, and using men just for single-serving, no-strings fun. Until she meets charming Matt Fuller.

Newly single Matt is captivated by the vibrant Whitney, in every way the opposite of his cheating ex-wife. When he confesses to Whitney that he hasn’t had sex since his divorce, she volunteers to be his rebound girl. But Matt’s not a no-commitment kind of guy—he’s either all in, or all out.

Whitney is determined to remain attachment-free, but Matt is equally determined to prove to her that what they have is more than just a rebound fling.

Available at Carina | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBooks and most ebook retailers

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Tamara Morgan is a contemporary romance author of humorous, heartfelt stories with flawed heroes and heroines designed to get your hackles up and make your heart melt. Her long-lived affinity for romance novels survived a B.A. degree in English Literature, after which time she discovered it was much more fun to create stories than analyze the life out of them.

Website | Twitter | Facebook

When my editor, the amazing Deb Nemeth, sent me the final version of Ruby, she whined a little bit. With this story taking place in New Orleans, and with the hero being a passionate chef in a five-star French Quarter restaurant, there’s a lot of food. Food as seduction, in particular.

I made her really hungry.

To throw her a bone, I sent her one of my hero’s recipes. She told me I *had* to post this for everyone.

So, download a copy of Ruby here, make a batch of Bobby Prejean’s gingerbread pudding with bourbon sauce, and settle in for some serious indulgence.

Ingredients

2.5 c + 2 t All Purpose Flour
2.5 t ground ginger
1.25 t cinnamon
1 t salt
5 oz crystallized ginger, chopped
1.5 sticks butter
½ c light molasses
2 t baking soda
6 eggs
½ c raisins
1/3 c + 2 T bourbon
1.5 c whole milk
1.25 c sugar
¾ c + 3 T whipping cream
1 t vanilla

Preheat oven to 375. Butter 13X9 pan.
Sift together 2.5 c flour, ground ginger, 1 t cinnamon, salt. In another bowl, mix crystallized ginger with 2 t flour. In another bowl, beat 1 stick of butter till fluffy. Add brown sugar and beat. In another bowl, mix molasses with 1 c of boiling water and baking soda. Stir the molasses mixture into the butter mix. Stir in flour mixture. Add 1 beaten egg and the crystallized ginger mix. Pour into pan. Bake 15 minutes, reduce to 350 and bake ~12 minutes more, until a tester comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack 30 minutes, turn out and cool. Can be made ahead. (As with all bread puddings, it’s better if the bread is slightly stale.)

Combine raisins and 1/3 c bourbon. Soak 30 min and drain.

Preheat oven to 375.

Put gingerbread, in 1” pieces, in bowl. Whisk milk, ¾ c sugar, ¾ c cream, 3 eggs, 2 egg yolks, vanilla and cinnamon. Pour over gingerbread. Add raisins. Transfer to 9X5X3 glass dish. Cover with foil. Bake 40 minutes. Remove foil and bake ~30 minutes, until golden.

Melt ½ stick butter on medium heat. Whisk in ½ c sugar, 3 T whipping cream & 2 T bourbon. Add a pinch of salt. Simmer ~3 min, until thickened.

I’ve made this a few times and it’s delicious! It’s also worth it to double or triple the bourbon sauce, because it’s like gravy – there’s never too much.

Enjoy!
Jeffe Kennedy is an award-winning author with a writing career that spans decades. Her works include non-fiction, poetry, short fiction, and novels. She has been a Ucross Foundation Fellow, received the Wyoming Arts Council Fellowship for Poetry, and was awarded a Frank Nelson Doubleday Memorial Award. Her essays have appeared in many publications, including Redbook. Her fantasy BDSM romance, Petals and Thorns, originally published under the pen name Jennifer Paris, has won several reader awards. Sapphire, the first book in Facets of Passion has placed first in multiple romance contests.
Her most recent works include three fiction series: the fantasy romance novels of A Covenant of Thorns, the contemporary BDSM novellas of the Facets of Passion, and the post-apocalyptic vampire erotica of the Blood Currency. A fourth series, The Twelve Kingdoms, will hit the shelves in 2014. A spin-off story from this series, Negotiation, appears in the Thunder on the Battlefield anthology.
An avid user of social media, Jeffe engages daily with thousands of fans on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads. She frequently guests on publishers’ Twitter-feeds and reviewers’ blogs.
Jeffe can be found online at her website: JeffeKennedy.com or every Sunday at the popular Word Whores blog.

As an adoptive mom, I didn’t get to name my children; at ages 4 and 7, my darlings already had names when they joined our family. Good thing for me I get to create plenty of names for characters!  Sometimes I put a lot of research into names, choosing them based  on their etymology and past usage in literature and history. But sometimes the sound of something strikes me and I can’t call a character anything else. I almost always check a name’s meaning to make sure it doesn’t clash with the character’s personality.

Click the image to find out more about How Beauty Loved the Beast

For The Tales of the Underlight, coming up with Jolie’s name was easy. She comes from Houston, Texas—right near the Louisiana border. Her family moved to Texas out of Acadiana (southern Louisiana), so her name reflects the French influence of that area. Beauty and the Beast is a French fairy tale, after all! Jolie means “beautiful,” and Benoit (pronounced Ben-wah in her family’s case) is a French surname that means “blessed.” I like the way Jolie Benoit sounds, and it makes sense for the character. I had also thought the last name a rarity…and then a fellow Carina author and I had a laugh when we discovered the heroine of her book releasing the same day as my series opener How Beauty Met the Beast (the amazing Undercover Professor—if you like contemporary romance, check it out!) was also named Benoit. What a wild coincidence!

Naming hero Wesley Haukon, or “Hauk” as everyone calls him, was a little more complicated. Since he is Heathen and worships the Norse gods, I decided to pull from Scandinavian names instead of French for him. Though Hauk is a working class hero, his last name is an Americanization of Håkon, from Norwegian royalty, and means “noble son,” a reference to his status as the prince of the tale. It also allowed me to use the nickname “Hauk.” As he is our beast, I wanted to use an animal-related name just as I used the word “beautiful” for the beauty of the tale. Plus he has a phoenix tattoo to represent him rising from the ashes of the fire that scarred him, so I liked the idea of using a bird instead of a more traditional furry beast. (Hauk is the opposite of furry, after all, as his burn scarring doesn’t allow hair to grow!) His first name has a far simpler origin. I paid tribute to one of my favorite movie heroes of all time—farm boy Wesley from The Princess Bride.

What are some of your favorite names? Does the meaning of a name matter to you, or is the sound of it more important?

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

The Carina Press authors are “Getting in Character”!

What is a favorite memory from your character’s childhood?

Lord James Dupree grew up an only child and heir to a gernerations-old vineyard.  When he was a young man and newly married, with a daughter little more than a baby, he went out gambling with an old friend instead of attending the Harvest Feast at his family’s estate.  It seemed harmless, one last fling before he settled more fully into his responsibilities, but he came home to find his father murdered and the elf-crafted talisman, the Dupree Luck, stolen. Since that night he has seen his family’s fortunes have declined. James’s wife died of a fever the Luck might have prevented.  He fears he will see his family’s estate taken to pay their debts, see his mother homeless in her old age and his daughter without prospects. He worries also for the fate of the families that have served his family for generations should the estate fail. He is determined to regain the Luck, but when the chance comes, the cost may be his own soul.

The Stolen Luck by Shawna Reppert is available now!

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The heroine from The Brazen Amazon—Gina Himmel—had this tale to tell about her favorite childhood memory.

I grew up pretty much everywhere, and I didn’t have too many friends for more than a few months at a time. But there was one person who had a big influence on my life—tae kwon do master Gung Kae. I was only eleven and didn’t know anyone in Daejeon—the city my aunt moved us to. Master Gung found me fighting off a pack of boys who didn’t like that I’d beat them at ping-pong. He chased them away and told me I needed discipline if I was going to learn to defend myself. Then he took me to his school and taught me tae kwon do. Damn good thing since I use it all the time in my Amazon duties!

The Brazen Amazon by Sandy James is available now!

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Ian’s a confident, self-assured, charming man in his late-twenties who’s still a little bit in love with his childhood crush, who also happens to be his older sister’s BFF.

One of my favorite childhood memories was when I was twelve, maybe thirteen. Emma, Livvy and I were at some sort of carnival—the kind with deep-fried everything and rides they erected in half a day. Emma refused to go on any, so Livvy begged me to ride the Ferris wheel with her. When I agreed, she looked at me like I’d told her I was taking her to Paris or something. By the time we got seated, it was getting dark and a little cool, and she scooted closer to me to get warm. I was in heaven. Horny, teenage boy heaven. Nothing monumental happened. She didn’t suddenly look at me and declare her undying love and I didn’t make a move on her, but it was just the two of us sixty feet in the air, talking about everything and nothing, and it felt like we were in our own little world.

Plus One by Brighton Walsh is available now!

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Ben works as a code monkey, but his real love is history. One of his favorite childhood memories is finding an old set of his father’s toy army guys in the attic, and using them along with a military history book to stage a re-enactment of the battle of Agincourt. Sadly, his mother confiscated the soldiers after a few hours, because they were the kind made of lead. Ben was sixteen at the time, and still resents the incident. “Mom, I could just wear some gloves or something. It’s not like I’m going to put them in my mouth. Jeez!”

The Seduction Hypothesis  by Delphine Dryden is available now!

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What’s your favorite childhood memory? Tell us in the comments!

Last week we attended the 2013 RT Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. Along with 2000 other readers, authors, bloggers, reviewers, librarians, retailers, aspiring authors and a few manly cover models, we went from morning to night talking about books, writing, publishing and sometimes things like “what’s the best BBQ in Kansas City”, “how much sleep did you get last night”, and “can you breathe in that corset?” RT is always a fun time for me, because I get to talk about books with people who are actually interested in the books I like to read. However, I will say that for an introvert who likes to spend days in the house having little contact with anyone, RT is overwhelming and exhausting. I needed to sleep for three days after I got home.

Still, this was my 8th year attending and I never regret the time I spend there because I love the community. This year, we did a number of activities as Carina Press, but the one below, organized by the amazing Morgan Doremus, was probably my favorite.

Friday afternoon, we brought together a group of Carina Press authors, Cosmo-Harlequin authors and HarlequinE authors, as well as reviewers, bloggers, readers and librarians and gave them an hour to have lunch, interact with each other, and play a quick, fun game. Each table was a team and they were told to pick 1-2 people to act as “cover models”. The rest of the team was then given 60 seconds in which to pose their models like the covers we flashed up on the screen for them. Below are the original covers, and our wonderful “cover models”. The spirit and laughter was infectious and frequent, and everyone had a fantastic time.

And the winning “cover”, as voted on by the attendees via applause…

The Seduction Hypothesis is book two in the “Science of Temptation” series, which began with The Theory of Attraction. And just to be clear – the name of the series is as ironic as it gets.

As we all should know by now, love isn’t rocket science. But when we nerds try to love, we often over-analyze it, as if it were something we could quantify into submission. A game we can learn the rules to, and thereby win. A formula. Or even a type of sorcery, but still subject to its own set of rules…because we are sure we can become wizards and master the spells needed. This certainty can indeed lead to magical thinking, particularly when love goes awry: if we could just get that magic spell absolutely correct, just solve that equation, just get it right, it would all work out. Logically, it should be so. There must be reasons, support. Proof. Surely, it must be science*.

Which goes to show that when it comes to matters of the heart, citizens of Geek Nation are just as stupid as everyone else (if not more so). The heart wants what it wants, and it isn’t concerned with logic. And just as in The Theory of Attraction, the dweebs of The Seduction Hypothesis are as helpless to resist the pull of love as a single wisp of cloud is to resist the Coriolis effect of a gathering hurricane.

This time my lovelorn, kinky brain trust take their show on the road, in a pilgrimage to an event that is the spiritual nexus of nerds and geeks everywhere: a Con.  You’ll see Ivan and Cami again, Ed and Lin…and poor Ben and Lindsey, caught in that vortex of doom love.

[*It's not science. And don't call me Shirley. Sorry, that's like a reflex, I couldn't help myself ]

The Seduction Hypothesis Blurb

(1 Curious Sub + 1 Dom in Denial) – Inhibitions = 4 Naughty Nights

Wildlife biologist Lindsey thought attending a fan convention with her new boyfriend Ben was a great idea—until their relationship fizzled. Lindsey still lusts after her ex—but if he wants her, he’s going to have to prove it.

Ben will do anything to win Lindsey back, and when he sees her in her skimpy black vinyl convention get-up, he realizes what she’s been craving all along. And he is inspired to finally give in to his own dark desire to take complete sexual control…

Lindsey is surprised by her reaction to Ben’s kinky new seduction techniques, and suddenly sees the brilliant but uptight code guru in a different light. After several erotic encounters in hotel rooms and stairwells, she’s falling for Ben all over again. And wondering if the intimate connection will last once they head home…

The Seduction Hypothesis is available now.

About Delphine

Delphine tried unsuccessfully to get past being an English major by becoming a lawyer, a special education teacher, and an educational diagnostician. She finally gave up the fight several years ago and began writing full-time. When not writing or doing “mommy stuff” Delphine reads voraciously and noodles around with web design. She and her family are all Texas natives, and reside in unapologetic suburban bliss near Houston.

Where you can find me:

Website: www.delphinedryden.com
Tumblr: http://deldryden.tumblr.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DelphineDryden
Twitter: @deldryden

At what point would you give up on finding love? Or at least take a break from it? A handful of bad dates? Six months’ worth? A year? And how horrific would they have to be for you to finally throw in the towel and declare yourself off the market and on a break from it all?

Those were all thoughts that went through my mind when Olivia’s character from Plus One first came to me. After that, I started getting bombarded with all these absolutely horrendous dates that she’d been on. There was the cat pee guy. The plumber who discussed his work over dinner. The thirty-five year old who lived in his mother’s basement and brought porn along for their first date.

Wretched, right?

Now, I’ll admit—I’m not the authority on this subject. I’ve never really had a bad date. In my defense, I’ve been with my husband since we were wee little babies at the age of fourteen.

But still.

I hear stories—awful, horrible and (forgive me) sometimes hilarious stories—from friends who are fully immersed in the oftentimes dreadful dating scene.

But even with all these bad dates, you can’t give up hope, right? There still has to be that glimmer in your subconscious that thinks, Maybe it will be different with this one… Otherwise, everyone everywhere would have given up on dating a long, long time ago.

And, yeah, I’m a hardcore romantic, in case that wasn’t clear.

Once Olivia’s character was fleshed out completely in my mind, I wanted her to have hit rock bottom on the dating scene. To be completely fed up with the crap that goes along with it. And I wanted her to have kissed a lot of frogs before giving her a chance at her prince. (In case it wasn’t obvious, Ian is one hell of a prince.)

But I think the one thing that worked for Olivia was, even when she’d declared herself on a break from all things men and dating, in her heart, she didn’t give up. Even though she was taking a break from the true dating scene, she was open to the possibility. Of a connection. Of meeting someone when it seemed like she’d gone through the entire state population of Minnesota in her quest for her prince. Of love.

And, really, that’s what it’s all about, right?

What was your worst date? And did anything ever come of it? Post in the comments and on Wednesday I’ll pick one winner to be the happy recipient of a shiny $10 gift card to your choice of e-book retailer.

~*~

Olivia hates the singles scene, so when her best guy friend, Ian, offers to be her plus one to a series of weddings she has to attend, she agrees. Although she doesn’t want to complicate their lifelong friendship, she can’t pass up the chance to have a steady date without the dating drama. What she doesn’t expect is to now find Ian so incredibly sexy.

When Ian sees his old friend Olivia dolled up for wedding #1, the boyhood crush he once nurtured transforms into smoldering attraction. It doesn’t take long for their no-strings arrangement to turn physical. But as Olivia’s desire to stay “just friends” becomes clear, Ian’s feelings are deepening. In the time they have together, how will Ian convince Olivia that one plus one can make for a lifelong pair?

Plus One available for purchase at: Carina Press | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes

Brighton Walsh is a storyteller at heart. Whether through words or pictures, she’s been weaving tales for as long as she can remember. After decades of cultivating her writing, she finally decided to give life to the voices in her head and set forth to write her first novella. Love is her first love, and writing about it is a dream come true. When she’s not writing, she can be found with her nose buried in a steamy book or partaking in some retail therapy. She lives in the Midwest with her swoony husband and two energetic kids who (fortunately) know nothing about the naughty things she puts down on paper. She frolics around online frequently and loves to chat, so stop by and say hi. website | twitter | facebook | pinterest | goodreads

You might be a Type A if…

 The Brazen Amazon released on May 6th. The hero—Zach Hanson—is a cross between Stephen Jobs and Ryan Gosling. Stephen Jobs in intellect and ambition. Ryan Gosling in looks. One of the traits I assigned to Zach hit close to home. I made him a Type A personality—a proclivity I share.

 What is a Type A personality? It’s the name given to a temperament that many people share which forces them to constantly strive to do more, to be more. I’d venture to guess that a very high percentage of successful people are Type A.

 Writers, in particular, seem to display many of the Type A traits. Just to test that theory, let me borrow from Jeff Foxworthy’s well-known “You might be a redneck if…” to show “You might be a Type A if…”

 If you walk and talk rapidly, you might be a Type A.

 If you constantly do more than one thing at a time…texting or watching TV while eating, for example…you might be a Type A. (Be honest, if there’s nothing to do while eating breakfast, do you read the back of the cereal box?)

 If you suffer from road rage, often yelling or making sarcastic comments about other people’s lack of driving skills, you might be a Type A.

 If you tend to finish things like exams before other people, you might be a Type A.

 If you show up to appointments or turn in projects on deadline early, you might be a Type A.

 If you get impatient when you have to wait, especially when that waiting is in a slow-moving line, you might be a Type A.

 If you “talk with your hands,” you might be a Type A.

 And if you feel “lost” when you have nothing to do, you might be a Type A.

 Did any of those sound familiar? Hit a little too close for your comfort? Being a Type A isn’t a BAD thing. But we—and I say we because I exhibit every single trait I listed—should be aware that keeping such a high level of activity and stress can take a toll. The most important word that should be introduced into our vocabulary is “relax.”

 Why? Because repeated exposure to high stress isn’t good for a person—either physically or psychologically. A person can only push herself so long before her engine runs out of gas. So be kind to yourself if you’re a Type A. Learn to enjoy your success, and take some time to stop and smell the proverbial roses.

 In The Brazen Amazon, Zach Hanson is the prototype for this personality. He’s a technology whiz who is constantly looking forward to his next innovation, seldom taking the time to enjoy what he’s already achieved. When Gina Himmel—the Air Amazon—literally jumps into his life, Zach will discover that there is life beyond his techno world.

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About the Author: Sandy lives in a quiet suburb of Indianapolis with her husband of thirty years and is a high school social studies teacher. She and her husband own a small stable of harness racehorses and enjoy spending time at the two Indiana racetracks.

The Alliance of the Amazons urban fantasy series from Carina Press premiered with book 1, The Reluctant Amazon, which was named a USA Today Recommended Read. Book 2, The Impetuous Amazon, has been an All Romance Ebooks Bestseller. The Brazen Amazon, book 3, debuted May 6, 2013. The series concludes with The Volatile Amazon in September.

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The Brazen Amazon Blurb: Zach Hanson is a tech wizard, capable of creating and improving gadgets—including remote nuclear warhead launchers. But he’s always known that he’s destined for something more, something greater, something…supernatural.

Powerful Air Amazon Gina Himmel is one of four sisters called to protect the world from those who would do it harm. Demigods in league with an Ancient have been taking over the bodies of leaders in the military and technological sectors, and Gina is sent to San Francisco to watch over Zach.

Under Gina’s protection, Zach is introduced to a world of ancient deities, rogue gods and the bold, brazen Amazons who keep humanity safe. Amidst the whirlwind of battle, Zach and Gina discover a love that could give them the power to save the world…or destroy it.

How a Book is Born
Everyone ask writers how they come up with their ideas. The Stolen Luck was born out of a move to the wine country of Oregon, a lifelong love of fantasy, a stray comment from one friend and a long conversation with another.
I moved after my divorce to live closer to the barn where I kept my horse, but I quickly fell in love with my new locale. Every morning on the way to work, depending on the weather and season, I drove past vineyards shrouded in mist or golden in the new light stark brown and fallow and dreaming of spring to come. Every weekend some winery was hosting a tasting; Thanksgiving and Memorial Day weekends meant a blitz of wine tours. Even if you don’t work in the industry, out here wine gets into your blood and seeps into your soul.
About this time, I had a conversation with another avid reader of fantasy. The topic turned to tropes that are too often badly handled in fiction, and how to turn them around so that they could make realistic, believable, and interesting fiction. We both agreed that the master/slave relationship topped the list of badly done plot devices. If someone is a slaveowner raised in a culture where slavery is the norm, that person is unlikely to have moral qualms about treating another person as property. Someone who doesn’t believe in slavery is unlikely to have a slave. The way to make the trope work as real and interesting fiction, I proposed, was take a character adamantly opposed to slavery and give him a compelling reason to acquire and keep a slave. The moral stakes that drive him have to be high enough to equal the immorality of owning another person.
The obvious question is why? And what does the character in this dilemma do? And what effect does the decision have on them?
I remembered a comment another friend of mine had made. I can’t even remember the context, but she said that the tragedy of imbalance of power is not just what it does to the powerless, but also what it does to the soul of the one in power. Yes.
Story elements started coming together. A vineyard owner raised to abhor the custom of slavery . The vineyard he loves is imperiled, the vineyard that supports not only him, but his family and all those who have served his family for generations. Why is the vineyard in danger?
I shot off an email to a vintner I met once on a quest for a certain late-harvest pinot gris, a vintner who I knew shared my love of fantasy. We did some online brainstorming.
A talisman is stolen, a talisman that kept the vines and the people healthy, that made the Dupree wines prized above all others.
So where does the slave fit in? The vineyard owner, James Dupree, discovers that the talisman has disappeared into the elven sanctuary, the Lands Between. He needs an elven slave to cross the magical boundary. When the slave proves untrusting and resistant, James finds it too easy to use his power as master to command and threaten him into obedience, hating himself more each time. This pattern continues even as the two forge a friendship out of shared danger, and each instance becomes a small betrayal.
How to make his dilemma worse? He falls in love with the slave, and cannot approach him or even confess his love. Since a slave cannot refuse, a slave cannot truly consent, and James will not further compromise his morals by bedding someone who may not be entirely willing.
Meanwhile, Loren faces his own conflicts— his resentment of his slavery versus his respect for James and the complicated feelings he has for him.
How to make the risks higher? They are pursued by enemies known and unknown, and finally James must choose between Loren and the Luck he needs to save his family and all who depend on them.
How does it end? Well, I’m not going to tell you that part. You’ll just have to read the book.

***

The Stolen Luck by Shawna Reppert is available now!