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What’s in a (Character’s) Name?

Jax_Garren | May 14th, 2013

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.

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Posted in Behind the Scenes, Books | 2 Comments »

The Worst Bad Dates

Brighton Walsh | May 8th, 2013

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 bio pic 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

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Posted in Authors, Books, Carina Press, Contest/Giveaway | 7 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.

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

It’s the end of the world as we know it…

GinaBernal | December 20th, 2012

If you believe the theories, tomorrow, December 21, 2012, is the Mayan Armageddon (and not the good one with Aerosmith tunes and Ben Affleck). Way to ruin my birthday, Mesoamerican Long Count calendar!

Personally, though, I think we’ll all be here come December 22. We better, as I have theater tickets for Saturday and a hard time pronouncing the word “apocalypse.” While I’m not prepared for end times in the stockpile a bunker way, I feel like I’ve learned a thing or two about surviving in a post-apocalyptic world from reading many a book set in the aftermath of doomsday.

But what if “your” world ceased to exist before you were ever born? This question provides the backdrop for Eleri Stone’s Twilight of the Gods series. Although those around them are living in Earth as we know it, there are people for whom the apocalypse has long been a reality. In Demon Crossings, readers were introduced to the denizens of Ragnarok, Iowa, folks who can trace more than bloodlines to mythological times. They’re the descendants of the ancient Norse gods, a people who found refuge on Earth when their own world, Asgard, was destroyed.

What little magic remains in Asgard leaks through fault lines between worlds…but so do demon threats. Imagine being charged with protecting the lives of your own people as well as those of the unsuspecting humans around you. It’s a duty and a burden shouldered by the heroes and heroines who, while never having experienced the old way of life, are stilled ruled by it. But let’s face it, if I was starting over after the destruction of this world, Aiden and his hunt are people I’d want guarding my back!

That tension between duty and the old clan ways and modern, earthly desires is one of the things that make this series so fun to edit—and read. And a conflict that takes center stage in book two, coming in June 2013. Hopefully you’re all still around to enjoy it!

What traditions/customs from our current culture would you want to see make it through to a post-apocalyptic world? What fictional character would you want at your side if you had to go into survival mode?

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Posted in Authors, Books, Carina Press, editorial, editors | 3 Comments »

A Reason to Believe

Diana_Copland | October 24th, 2012

 Being haunted is a fascinating thing.

I don’t mean by a ghost, necessarily.  It could be a scene from a movie, or a section from a novel.  It could even be the lyrics of a song, or a sweet memory.  Sometimes I think we’re all haunted by something, whether it’s childhood memories or a lost love.  And in some cases, I really do believe it might just be… by a ghost.

I grew up with a healthy respect for the paranormal.  When I was a kid, we had something going on in our house. A Poltergeist, I guess you’d call it.  Things that go bump in the night.  Pictures would lift and fall off the walls but the nail would remain, things would disappear from one place and turn up someplace else later. There were whispers in empty rooms, or a whiff of cigar smoke when no one was smoking. Nothing huge or overt like having a ghost materialize, just enough that couldn’t be easily explained.

But I’m not sure I ever really understood being ‘haunted’ until a character named Matthew Bennett came to life in my head.  Matt had been whispering through my thoughts for about five years, but his voice got loud enough about two years ago that I just couldn’t ignore him any longer.

In my new novel, ‘A Reason to Believe’, Matt is a police detective who is still recovering from the tragic death of his lover, a man who was his partner in both life and his work.  He’s hanging on, functioning, but he’s haunted by what was, and what might have been.  Then he’s called out on a missing child case early on Christmas morning, and being haunted takes on a whole new meaning.  Little Abigail Reynolds appears to him and leads him down to her parent’s basement.  Thinking he’s found the child alive, he really isn’t prepared for the shock of finding her body, instead.

Writing this was both a labor of love and an occasional pain in my butt.  Matt isn’t particularly happy in the beginning, and I wanted to find the balance between his understandable sadness and the reader feeling like he needs extensive therapy.  And when he’s introduced, Matt’s unexpected and startling new love interest, psychic Kiernan Fitzpatrick, is a man brimming with life and joy and energy, but he couldn’t seem so peppy and obnoxious that Matt would want to smack him.  I found it to be a delicate dance these characters performed: Matt taciturn but attracted in spite of himself, Kiernan filled with an infectious sense of humor and an uncomplicated delight in life that pulled Matt along, even with his reservations about what Kiernan does and what he believes.  Kiernan could reintroduce Matt to love if he’d let him, but Matt is understandably hesitant to risk his heart again.

Add to that the mystery surrounding the murder of little Abby, and this was one of the most complex plots I’ve ever cooked up.  I wrote myself into corners and fought the urge to pound my head into my keyboard so many times I can’t even tell you.  Finally, my agent Saritza said, ‘stop limiting yourself with the tangible.  This is a ghost story, right? Chase the intangibles!’

I think it was the advice  that finally made ‘A Reason to Believe’ come together. Then Editor Deb Nemeth came on board, helping me trim and tighten a very long manuscript to one I believe now thrums with tension.  I’ll never be able to thank her enough.

A Reason to Believe is the result. I’ve never written anything that felt as ‘real’ to me, which is interesting considering it’s a ghost story.

But then, who said ghosts aren’t real?

So, what haunts you?

 

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“Copland’s writing is sharp, heartfelt and thoroughly entertaining.”

Bestselling Author Josh Lanyon

A Reason To Believe

Detective Matthew Bennett doesn’t believe in ghosts.

So when the spirit of a murdered child leads him to her body, he’s shaken to the core—and taken off the case. Unable to explain his vision, or to let go of the investigation, Matthew turns to renowned medium Kiernan Fitzpatrick. Though he has doubts about Kiernan’s claims to communicate with the dead, Matt is nevertheless drawn to the handsome  psychic, who awakens feelings he thought were long-buried.

Haunted by the lingering spirit of the little girl, Kiernan is compelled to aid in the search for her killer. The chance to get closer to the enigmatic Matt is an unexpected bonus. Although Kiernan’s been betrayed by people who turned out to be more interested in his fame than in himself, with Matt he’s willing to risk his heart. As the two men grow closer, Kiernan helps Matt rediscover that life offers no guarantees—but love offers a reason to believe…

 

 

Diana Copland’s first brush with writing the paranormal began when she was twelve and she combined the most overwrought elements of Jane Eyre and the television soap ‘Dark Shadows’ for a creative writing assignment. The result earned her an ‘A’, mostly, she thinks, because the teacher couldn’t believe she had the nerve to turn it in! She now lives in Spokane, Washington with her daughter and their demanding, obnoxious, incredibly spoiled cats.

You can contact Diana and read more about her writing at her webpage, Diana Copland.com, her blog, Diana on Live Journal, and her twitter, @dianacopland. She’d love to talk with you!

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

Have You Ever Been Haunted?

Bryn_Donovan | October 17th, 2012

A couple of years ago, my husband and I were driving home from work past some old houses when I said to him, “You know what would be cool? A romance about a guy who hires a female contractor to fix up a house that turns out to be haunted.”

It’s not surprising I wrote a story about a ghost. We had one in our first apartment in Kansas City. She actually wasn’t all that scary, but she really annoyed me. And when I was a child playing with a Ouija board, I talked to another spirit who taught me a new, grown-up vocabulary word, but I won’t say too much about that incident, because I put it in the book.

I wrote a lot of the first draft of Sole Possession as a project for National Novel Writing Month, which challenges you to write 50,000 words of a novel in the month of November. (Is anyone else besides me doing NaNoWriMo again this year?) After that, I finished the story and rewrote the whole thing. And then I rewrote it again.

Although the story takes place in the Chicago area, The Vaile Mansion in Independence, Missouri helped inspire the house in the book. They try to make the house look festive and normal on the official website, but seriously, it’s creepy. My favorite rumor about the place is that the first owner had a hard time saying goodbye to his dead wife, so he originally buried her corpse on the premises in a glass-topped coffin flush with the ground. (This is not in my story, by the way, so feel free to use it if you’re writing something scary!)

In Sole Possession, my heroine, Andi Petrowski, is good at her contractor job, but her most unique talent lies elsewhere. Wait, that sounded sexual. And actually, the book is sexy, but what I mean is, she has psychic powers. David Girard, my hero, has to face his personal demons, in a pretty literal sense. A reviewer pal of mine envisioned Jeremy Renner in the role of David. Works for me! I particularly like the character of Morty Silva, a blunt and eccentric ex-priest turned psychic. Publishers Weekly called Sole Possession “an intriguing haunted house tale with spine-tingling suspense and an emotionally fraught romance,” which is exactly what I wanted it to be.

I was thrilled to get the call from Carina Press. OK, actually I didn’t pick up, because I didn’t recognize the number and I hate talking on the phone, so they had to email me, but anyway, I was really happy. I keep Carina books on my iPhone so no matter where I am, I always have something good to read. I’m planning to take the anthology Romancing the Holiday on Christmas vacation with me, because love reading something that gets me in the mood for the season.

Speaking of getting in the mood, since it’s almost Halloween, I would love to hear other people’s ghost stories! I won’t put them in a book, promise. And if you’d like to check out Sole Possession, you can buy it here!

Bryn Donovan is the author of one previous romance, An Experienced Mistress. She has an M.F.A. in Creative Writing, and she’s also published two children’s books as Stacey Donovan. When she’s not at her day job writing greeting cards, she makes quilts,  watches TV shows about the supernatural, and hangs out with her husband and two silly dogs.

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Posted in Carina Press | 14 Comments »

It’s All In The Details

Tina_Beckett | August 28th, 2012

Those pesky little details are so important in a book. At least they are to me. Get something wrong, and someone is bound to notice. I’ve tried to make that work in my favor—at least most of the time. The details I choose to focus on in my books are ones I’ve either researched to death or that I have personal experience with. I don’t always get it right, but I try my best not to break reader trust. It means a lot to me, and I don’t want to let anyone down. In IN HIS SIGHTS, for example, the hero and heroine are forced to flee through the wilds of Angola. During their trek, I incorporated some little details that I think make their journey more interesting:

1. Hammocks—We live in Brazil, so yes we have one in our backyard and use it often. Ours is a typical Brazilian hammock without the wooden spreader bars along either end. It takes up less space, since when it’s not in use, it lies flat against the wall (as you can see from the photo of our little courtyard area). But this type of hammock is also trickier to sleep in. You can’t just lie straight up and down—parallel to the lines of the hammock—or it’ll roll up around you, trapping you in a fabric cocoon (remember, no spreader bar). So, in order to keep the hammock flat, you have to lie diagonally across it. And just like I mentioned in the book, it’s amazingly comfortable to sleep on…or to just lie in the shade and read a good book. Our dog loves to jump up there with my husband for a quick snooze. Our house even has steel hammock hooks built right in to the walls—another detail I used in the book. When you want to use the hammock, you stretch it across the open area of the courtyard and slip the loops over the hooks.

hammock small file

2. Beiju—this is a type of crepe eaten in northern Brazil–only it’s not a normal crepe. It’s made with manioc flour, rather than wheat flour (manioc flour is sometimes called cassava or tapioca flour). Tapioca used for pudding is made from this flour. So, I learned how to make beiju from a Brazilian friend, and it seems there’s quite an art to it. You mix water with the manioc flour until it’s barely moist and still looks powdery, then push it through a sieve to get rid of any lumps. It doesn’t stick together like normal bread dough would. Once you get the proportions right, you take the resultant powder and sprinkle it evenly around a dry hot skillet…and voila! The powder magically coalesces into a type of tortilla. You carefully flip it over to cook the other side. There is nothing better than a warm round beiju spread with butter and folded in half. Or wrapped around fruit. Or filled with Nutella. Mmmm! Google it, and you’ll find all kinds of options.

3. Roar of a waterfall—In Brazil we have a huge set of waterfalls that I used as the basis for the waterfalls in my book. The multiple waterfalls cover a large semicircular area, and when you reach certain parts of it, the cascading water is so loud you can feel the vibrations in your chest and have to shout to be heard. When I researched the Calandula falls of IN HIS SIGHTS, the images looked very similar to the Iguacu falls here in Brazil, so I incorporated the noise levels into the book. 

So what about you? Do you notice those little details in books? Do they add to your enjoyment, or are they things that just slip by unnoticed?

A three-time Golden Heart® finalist, Tina Beckett writes contemporary medical romances for Harlequin Mills & Boon as well as single title romantic suspense for Carina Press. When not in the middle of her latest book, Tina enjoys crafting stained glass panels, riding horses and hiking with her family. Fluent in Portuguese, she divides her time between Brazil and the United States and loves to use exotic locales as the backdrop for many of her stories. You can learn more about Tina at her website: http://www.tinabeckett.com or find her hanging out on Facebook or twitter.
In His Sights, small file

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Posted in Carina Press | 3 Comments »

Dedications. Who the heck reads them anyway? (+ giveaway)

Kaily Hart | August 28th, 2012

Before becoming a writer, I never really took any notice of dedications. I mean, it was just another page to scan past to get to the good stuff, you know? If I did see one, I might glance at it, but I’d still flip on by. I never gave much consideration to what they contained or why an author might go to the trouble to create one. That was, until I was asked by my editor what I wanted to include for the dedication in my very first published book.

Honestly, I kind of blew it off. I wrote right back with something meaningful, but kinda generic. It was my editor who asked if there was anyone special I wanted to acknowledge, would anyone be disappointed if I didn’t mention them and reminded me I’ll only ever have one first book. Huh. It gave me pause and it got me thinking. Perhaps these dedications were more purposeful that I’d thought. Perhaps there really were people out there who took note of them, found them interesting, actually read them! And she was right about something. There was only one first book.

I really wanted to acknowledge the aspiring author first and foremost. I’ll never forget what it’s like to be there, how difficult it was and is, how much effort it takes just to continue to write each day. And there were two writer colleagues I was especially thankful for and wanted to acknowledge specifically. And so…my first dedication was born.

I decided then and there that I’d include a dedication for each of my books moving forward and Rise of Hope, my latest from Carina Press, was no exception. Of course, I’m not going to publish it here, but it’s the thought that came from my heart and soul as I wrote the book, the thought that I wanted most to share with readers at the time. Dedications for me now will always be that. A special message to the reader. From heartfelt me. And if no-one reads them? Well, that’s OK because I know it’s there and it’s the very special something I wanted to say at the time.

So…do YOU notice dedications? Do you read them and if so, have there been any that stood out to you? Or are you too eager to get to the good stuff :) ? [I'll choose a random commenter by 5 pm Eastern, Thursday August 29 to receive a $10 gift card to the online bookstore of the winner's choosing!]

Rise of Hope

hart_riseofhope_FINAL.inddA secret ancient race of humans with fantastical abilities, the Vadïm are on the brink of extinction. Many of their women are imprisoned by an organization known as The Assembly, their history all but lost . . .

Devon Monroe has been a prisoner her entire life. She’s determined to make sense of the strange markings on her body, to learn why no one may touch her, to find where she belongs. That means escaping into the unknown, where she has no choice but to trust her self-appointed protector.

Soldier for hire Seth Eastman has a job to do: deliver Devon to safety. When Seth discovers the markings on Devon’s body, he’s stunned at what it means. And at how she awakens his long-suppressed needs. As they struggle to escape detection and search for the truth of the Vadïm, can he ever hope to claim her for his own?

Rise of Hope, book 1 in the Fabric of Fate series, released from Carina Press on August 27!

About Kaily Hart

Kaily HartKaily Hart, a seemingly straight-laced mother of four, left corporate America and a high-powered, lucrative career to be a stay at home mom. Right… That lasted about four weeks, during which time she realized she had a deeply repressed dream—to write. And (gasp) romance at that! Who knew? By day, Kaily plays conservative wife and soccer mom, but at night crafts hot and steamy tales of romance and love with gorgeous heroes who wouldn’t dream of leaving the toilet set up. Ever. She’s smart and sassy, at least in her own mind, and is creating as many happy ever afters as she can, one hot story at a time. Kaily never would have thought she’d be doing this, but now that she is? Well, you couldn’t pay her enough to do anything else.

You can find out more about Kaily and her books from her website. She’s also on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Of course, only when she’s not supposed to be writing.

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Posted in Authors, Behind the Scenes, Books, Carina Press, Contest/Giveaway, Cover Art | 21 Comments »

The Guardian of Bastet by Jacqueline M. Battisti

Jacqueline Battisti | August 23rd, 2012

I’ve been an avid reader all my life. Some of the best memories I have are of me, with a flashlight, reading a book under the covers and hoping not to get caught reading past my bedtime. I’m not much different as an adult. I love to read. My taste in genres has grown up a little over the years, (I’ve gone from C.S. Lewis and Madeleine L’Engle to Kim Harrison, and Ilonya Andrews) but I am still attracted to books with a strong female lead that gives me someone to cheer for and identify with.

My catalyst to becoming a writer came in a couple of waves. I remember reading “Undead and Unwed,” by MaryJanice Davidson on a car ride with my family, and laughing so hard I thought I might have to borrow a diaper from one of the kids. I loved her Queen Betsy. She was funny, snarky and real. I wanted to create a character like that. Then came the motivation. NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) where I put myself to the test of writing for an entire month, and found out I loved it.

From there, a writer was born, and so was my main character of The Guardian of Bastet, Trinity Morrigain-Caine. We developed together as I created her world and how she would interact in it. I gave her my voice and hoped, someday, someone else would want to read her story and laugh out load at her antics.

I wanted to write a story that would make the reader laugh, yell and root for the heroine and I think I’ve accomplished that with The Guardian of Bastet.

Blurb:

Like a good girl, I try to say my prayers every morning. This morning was no exception.

“Goddess, it’s me, Trinity Morrigan-Caine. Could you please let me get through today without pissing off too many people or wanting to kill anyone? And would you please grant me patience for the idiots I meet and guidance to keep my mouth shut when they say something really freakin’ stupid? Thank you.”

From the back cover:

Cat-shifter Trinity Morrigan-Caine has discovered a demon is killing supernaturals. Magically challenged, she has every intention of letting handsome Alpha werewolf Gordon Barnes handle it. But after a dying vampire gifts Trinity a mystical amulet, she is drawn into the fray as the legendary Guardian of Bastet, a warrior born when the need arises.

Though Trinity initially rejects the role, she warms to the idea when Gordon agrees to train her—and their passion for each other grows as he teaches her to embrace her animal instincts.

As she begins to accept her destiny and believe in her growing powers, Trinity realizes the danger is even closer to home than she ever imagined—and she and Gordon are going to have to face the demon in a fight to the death..

About the author:

Jacqueline Battisti was raised in Little Falls, New York where she met and married her high school sweetheart. They have two children and live near Rochester, New York where she is a stay at home mom and writer of the paranormal and urban fantasy of her vivid imagination.

Flash forward to today: Jacqueline has two children who are very outgoing and keep her on her toes. Cub Scouts, Daisy Scouts, play dates, school activities for the kids…then writing, reading current authors, following blogs, facebook, household chores,gardening and exhaustion for mom. Add in a new puppy, two furry feline children and fish and you have the craziness that is the Battisti household. 

The Guardian of Bastet is available from Carina Press, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. You can get in touch with Jacqueline on her website, or check her out on  facebook, twitter, and goodreads.

Win a Pewter Egyptian Bastet Cat Pendant

The Goddess Bastet (cat goddess) is an important role in The Guardian of Bastet. I have a lovely pendant version to give away to one lucky Carina reader. Leave me a comment here with your email and I’ll randomly select a winner on August 27th. I’ll contact the winner by email on the day and arrange shipping to a mailing address to anywhere in North America. Good luck!

 

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Posted in Authors, Books, Carina Press, Contest/Giveaway, Marketing | 8 Comments »

Superheroines and the Girls Who Love Them (+ Giveaway)

Ruth_Diaz | August 22nd, 2012

I never read comic books, but I grew up on superheroes. Spiderman and His Amazing Friends was my favorite cartoon when I was seven years old. I particularly loved Firestar. She could create heat and start fires, and she could fly. I was just sure life would be so much better if I had powers like Firestar.

The Superheroes Union: Dynama came about because I read the words “superhero romance” somewhere and couldn’t get them out of my head. After all, it wasn’t like all of us little girls who grew up wanting to be superheroines had lost interest in them as grown-ups. What would it be like to be a superheroine here and now, today, as a grown woman? What kind of challenges would it present?

And how hard would it be to fall in love when supervillains kept wrecking the world and you had to keep your secret identity a secret?

The first character to speak to me was Annmarie Smith–not the superheroine, but her love interest. She asked the most wonderful, practical questions, like who would look after the kids while you were out fighting mad scientists and where did health insurance come from? Saving the world wouldn’t pay the bills.

TJ Gutierrez, who used to be Dynama, answered her. And that’s how the Superheroes Union was born.

Who is your favorite superheroine or superhero? If you could have one superpower, what would it be? Would it really make life easier?

And what would you do if your evil ex really was evil?

Click through to my blog and enter to win a Superheroes Union tote bag or T-shirt!

Buy now: Carina Press store | Amazon.com | BarnesandNoble.com

Ruth Diaz writes genre romances about non-mainstream relationships. She hides a number of publications in a different genre under another name, but The Superheroes Union: Dynama is her first romance publication. For more information, you can subscribe to her blog, like her on Facebook, or follow @RuthDiazWrites on Twitter (where she is most active and, well, opinionated).

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Posted in Authors, Books, Carina Press, Contest/Giveaway | 6 Comments »

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