Friday, June 29, 2012

10 Reasons to Buy Monster in My Closet

Posted by: R.L. Naquin

Monster in My Closet by R.L. Naquin
So, we’re a month away from the release of my debut novel, Monster in My Closet. I know your to-be-read pile is probably teetering sideways like a triple stack of pancakes, threatening to topple over the side of your plate and ooze butter and maple syrup down the side of the table leg and puddle on the floor where you’ll probably step in it with your socks and leave a trail of sticky footprints on the tile until you hit a carpeted area where you’ll pick up carpet fuzz and leave bare spots in the middle of the living room.

I hope you’re not renting. You’ll never get your deposit back.

What were we talking about? Ah. Why you should add Monster in My Closet to your already-enormous TBR pile. Allow me to present you with not one, but ten reasons to go straight to your favorite e-book seller and pre-order it right this minute. Here are some relatively spoilerless highlights within the pages:

  1. Red Velvet Death by Chocolate wedding cake
  2. Iron Fist zombie shoes (see photograph)
  3. Tiny, dive-bombing fairies
  4. Carpet stain shaped like Phyllis Diller
  5. Super-hot paramedic with a secret identity
  6. Deadly incubus in a pirate shirt and tight jeans
  7. Stolen produce from a witch’s garden
  8. Bob Saget with a talking fish
  9. Total bridal meltdown
  10. Fairy Homeland Security


There you go. Ten reasons why you cannot live without this book.

Go now! Hurry! What if all the digital copies are gone already? There's only so much digital ink out there, you know. Pixels are precious. You can pre-order it at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Do it for the hot paramedic. Do it for the tasty baked goods.

Do it for Bob Saget. 

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Rogue's Pawn Trailer

Posted by: Jeffe Kennedy
Rogue's Pawn comes out July 16!

Monday, June 25, 2012

Here Be News

Posted by: Unknown
Our new releases this week


A woman with a history of picking Mr. Wrong.
A man with a powerful kink for control.
When lust turns to love, who's really on top?
Maggie Doran is off men, having gone through a string of disappointing relationships. Then like clockwork, her libido fires up over her new boss--the epitome of bad choices. The man is built like a Greek god, sexy, and has a harem of eager gym groupies willing to give him anything he wants at the drop of a hat. Yet one more Mr. Wrong to add to her list.
Mac Jameson fell in immediate lust with his newest employee the moment he laid eyes on her.  Four months later, he's still stuck in no-man's land. Maggie ignores him when she's not glaring holes through him. The woman doesn't understand he's in charge. Unfortunately for Mac, no other woman will do. But he's afraid if he does get Maggie in his clutches, she'll bolt when she realizes he's got a powerful kink for control.
Except she doesn't bolt. She wants more. But just as Mac realizes Maggie is the woman he wants forever, she gets a shot at fulfilling a lifelong dream that might take her far away. Will she leave him when he's just found her? And how could he ever think she'd love a guy like him. Mac only knows he's not giving up without a fight. He'll command and conquer her body, heart and soul.


Purchase information.

Here Be Magic Group Announcements

Nicole Luiken's paranormal YA novel Dreamline is one of five finalists for the Monica Hughes Science Fiction and Fantasy Award! The award is sponsored by the Canadian Children's Book Centre and the winner will be announced in the fall.

For a limited time, Talson's Wait by Marie Harte is free from Ellora's Cave. 

Inez Kelley is the newest client of Vickie Motter of the Andrea Hurst Literary Agency. Read the full story here.

Veronica Scott will be participating in the Angels & Demons Blog Hop along with 102 other Authors, Bloggers, and Reviewers! 
We want to know: Angels or Demons...who do you want?
From June 28th - July 1st, you can HOP around the blogs, comment on each and follow their rules, and be entered to win over 100 giveaways. Each blog will have its own giveaway, PLUS we have TWO grand prizes. 
ONE Commenter from the blogs will win a KINDLE TOUCH and another Commenter will win a $60 Amazon or Barnes & Noble Gift Card! Comment on 1 blog or all 103 blogs and be entered up to 103 times for the grand prizes. 
So please come around those days and do your best to win! Veronica is giving away a $25 Amazon gift card on her blog.


Links of Interest


Is it ever okay to say "And then magic happens"? NK Jemisin on Why does magic need so many rules? Interesting comments section too.

This should have been on last week's post but if you missed the LOCUS award winners, you can find the list here

Cosmo’s 44 Most Ridiculous Sex Tips: "At its core, Cosmo is just a girl, standing in front of a boy, trying to figure what to do with his penis. Or, as they put it, trying to figure out how to "throw his disco stick a party he'll never forget."" My favorite is # 15 under Things to Do with Your Breasts.

Taylor Lautner on Jacob and Renesmee: 'It's not nearly as creepy as everyone likes to joke'. Except, yeah, it kinda is. I like this quote by Pattinson: "Did you ask him if his taste in women has changed? The first scene I saw them together, I literally could not stop laughing. I wouldn’t have been able to do it."


Harlequin's So You Think You Can Write begins in September. "You will need a completed manuscript to enter the contest. So get out that WIP, or boot up that laptop and start a new project. We’ll be here, ramping up for the big event and providing you with the tools you need to write a story that will get you noticed by the largest publisher of romance fiction in the world."

Making E-books Is Harder Than It Looks. From Huffington Post.

Blackmail App for Writers: "The new Aherk app will help you blackmail yourself into meeting your literary goals. The free service lets you pick a goal and save a “compromising picture” of yourself and use it as “knife on your neck” reminding you to finish your project."



Thursday, June 21, 2012

There can be only one. Or not. My love of men with swords...

Posted by: Kim Knox
I thought I'd be sparkly for my first post here, something completely ooo...and you know what I want to  do? Post pictures of men with swords. Because that's where my mind has been a lot lately... *blushes* I'm fiddling with a sequel to DARK DEALINGS, and the hero of that novel does love his sword :D

Here's my top three:

I'll start where my love of swords began. Cheesy, but I still love Highlander.


There's also going to be a Highlander reboot... O. o Ryan Reynolds is supposed to play MacLeod. All that work as Deadpool finally paid off. Obviously.

I didn't really have another sword wielding hero grab me again until Maximus stumped his way onto the screen as a father to a murdered son, husband... Yes, thank you, Maximus. Anyway, I was entertained.



And finally, Perseus from the remake of Clash of the Titans. Have you noticed all these swordsmen are wearing skirts? Complete coincidence...


And yes, Richard Armitage doesn't have a sword, and I only said three...but, you know, he could have a sword...just there, just off the edge of the image... *whistles*



Maybe I should follow up this with Kick-ass Women with Swords, because a few of the images I now have stashed away on my hard drive are simply...wow :D

I've only skimmed the surface of this subject. There's Princess Bride, 300, LOTR and so many others... So who are your favourite men with swords? (With or without skirts :) )


-----------------
Kim Knox brews sex, magic, darkness and technology in a little corner of North West England. She writes erotic science fiction and fantasy romance for Carina Press, Ellora’s Cave, Samhain Publishing, Cleis Press and others.

SYNTHETIC DREAMS and BITTER HARVEST are available now from Carina Press. 
AT THE SORCERER'S COMMAND and DARK DEALINGS coming soon

Monday, June 18, 2012

Here Be News

Posted by: Unknown
Our new releases this week

There's a price on privateer Van Gast's head. So high that Van is tempted to turn himself in for the reward, then escape with it. Escaping with full pockets is what he does best. He managed to steal a ship, a bride, a dowry, a diamond the size of a fist--and then disappear without a trace.

But this time, he can't go very far. The woman of his dreams, his Josie, has stolen his ship and is leading him on a merry chase dangerously close to Estovan, the one place Van Gast should steer clear of...

89,000 words

Click here for purchase information.


This is Book Two in Julia's Pirates of Estovan series. You can find information about Book One, Ten Ruby Trick, here.

Links of Interest

From the Carina Press blog: We love fantasy! Yes. Yes, we do.

Gene Wilder to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory director Mel Stuart. Love his thought process here. It's like a master course on how to build a memorable character.

In case you missed it: Bestselling fantasy author Terry Goodkind is self-publishing his next novel, The First Confessor. 

Swordfighting: Not What You Think It Is - "...Medieval and Renaissance sword fighting was a hell of a lot more violent, brutal, ferocious, and astonishingly effective. The way in which these swords were held, the way they can be maneuvered, and the postures and motions involved, differ substantially from common presumptions and modern-era fencing styles."

The Christian Hurt Charity Auction! Please stop by Me, My Shelf & I to check this out. There are tons of great prizes and it's for a very good cause.

Steampunk vs. The Other Punks. Transcript from Fridays #Steampunkchat which was hosted by Seleste deLaney and Jenny Schwartz.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Steampunkchat Goes Punkish

Posted by: Jenny Schwartz
I hope everyone's survived the week :)

Do you know what you need to celebrate the weekend? A fun chat with other people who love dressing up, talking impossibilities and making the world a brighter place. That's right! I'm inviting you to join the weekly #steampunkchat on Twitter at 9pm (New York time).

Joining a Twitter chat is easy. You simply add the organising hashtag to your tweets, in this case, that's #steampunkchat. Or you use the Steampunkchat Tweetchat room, and it automatically adds the hashtag, #steampunkchat to your tweets. Or you can simply lurk, watching the crazy talk via a Twitter search for #steampunkchat.

This week's chat is themed "Steampunk vs the OTHER Punks", so if you love Cyberpunk or Dieselpunk (I'm falling in love with the glamour of this one...the Jazz Age re-imagined, in particular) this chat is for you!

Everyone is welcome, so spread the word.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

"The MAGIC of Fathers Is..."

Posted by: Veronica Scott




In honor of Father’s Day, Here Be Magic Authors present their thoughts on “The Magic of Fathers is…”

The magic of Fathers is being the ultimate teacher. The one who never gives up on you, and who therefore gets more out of you than you ever expected you could do. Tia Nevitt, THE SEVENFOLD SPELL

The magic of Fathers is...that their sacrifices and guiding hands will remain with their children forever. Angela Campbell, CRY WOLF
…No matter how old you are, they're always there to catch you and set you upright again when you fall. R.L. Naquin, MONSTER IN MY CLOSET
The magic of Fathers is being one, to three wonderful daughters who fill my world with love. David Bridger QUARTER SQUARE
The magic of Fathers is that once they roll up their sleeves they can fix ANYTHING.  Nicole Luiken, GATE TO KANDRITH
The magic of Fathers is the combination of strength and gentleness,  gruff emotion and infuriating stubbornness, all wrapped up in a capable, reliable package.  JK Coi, FAR FROM BROKEN

The magic of Fathers is always having someone to cheer for you when things go right and to take your side when things go wrong. Cindy Spencer Pape, KILTS AND KRAKEN

"The magic of Fathers is teaching kids all the things they don't want to know how to do, like change tires & kill their own spiders, then changing the tires & killing the spiders for them!" Jenny Schwartz, WANTED: ONE SCOUNDREL

The magic of Fathers is to be able to take a baseball in the groin yet still cheer their kid for a great hit.  (between gasps).  Annie Nicholas STARVED FOR LOVE, releasing Sept 2012

The magic of Fathers is hugs, help with science projects or anything else under the Sun…and LOVE! Veronica Scott, WRECK OF THE NEBULA DREAM

Best Wishes to All Dads Everywhere!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Tiny Spectrum, Big Imagination

Posted by: Regan Summers

One doesn’t have to look far for creative inspiration these days. The news is full of things so fantastical that a headline and first paragraph – fewer than a hundred words together – are sufficient to set my mind down a new, possibly disturbing path.

But nothing, and I mean nothing, spins me off my mental orbit like the stories my son tells. He’s four. At one, he was barely concerned with the objects in the room around him. At two, anything bright or loud (or fragile) caught his eye, but only for a minute. At three, his goal every day was to do the opposite of what he was asked. He’s now four, and learning the fundamentals of the world around him.

This is how the world works, according to my son:
  • Days are divided into two types: weekdays, which consist of terrible routines and rituals such as having to wake at dawn, eat gruel, put on a tattered suit of clothing and slave away at day care, and; weekends, during which all waking hours are sunny, the answer to the question “do you want to play?” is always yes, and we get to eat crème brulee for every meal.
  • Vampires, or “bampliers” as he pronounces it (this is obviously the traditional spelling), run rampant through Alaska. Disclaimer: he has never read my books, and I have not spoken to him about them, so he came up with  this on his own. These bampliers wreak havoc nightly, doing things like stealing sandwiches meant for small children and putting small dings in windshields…the devious bastards!
  • The city is responsible for cleaning the mold off the street signs, and they do a very poor job of it. I’ve yet to determine what “mold” he’s speaking of, but he points it out often, making me think he has developed a sixth sense specific to some kind of invasive fungus, invisible to the masses.
  • Municipal services – other than the mold squad – are run by omnipotent robots. Waste management comes because we put our trash out. Their sensitive trash radars pick up the disturbance in the Force that is regularly-spaced household rubbish on the curb, causing them to deploy drones to remove this sanitation concern. I’m waiting for the day he concludes that the utility robots have decided to eliminate the cause of the trash rather than remediate it, thus (re)inventing Skynet.
  • Sharks are not to be trusted.


I used to humor him when he told stories. Then I participated in the discussions, encouraging him to build and expand on his ideas. Now I’m freaking taking notes. So when my next series, about our hygienic robot overlords and their thug-pires and shark guardians kicks off, don’t be surprised.

Visit Regan at: Website     Facebook     Twitter     Goodreads

Monday, June 11, 2012

Here Be News

Posted by: Unknown
Our releases this week

-Now available as a trade paperback
A loose reimagining of the Titanic disaster set in the far future among the stars… Traveling unexpectedly aboard the luxury liner Nebula Dream on its maiden voyage across the galaxy, Sectors Special Forces Captain Nick Jameson is ready for ten relaxing days, and hoping to forget his last disastrous mission behind enemy lines. He figures he’ll gamble at the casino, take in the shows, maybe even have a shipboard fling with Mara Lyrae, the beautiful but reserved businesswoman he meets. All his plans vaporize when the ship suffers a wreck of Titanic proportions. Captain and crew abandon ship, leaving the 8000 passengers stranded without enough lifeboats and drifting unarmed in enemy territory. Aided by Mara, Nick must find a way off the doomed ship for himself and several other innocent people before deadly enemy forces reach them or the ship’s malfunctioning engines finish ticking down to self destruction. But can Nick conquer the demons from his past that tell him he’ll fail these innocent people just as he failed to save his Special Forces team? Will he outpace his own doubts to win this vital race against time?

Click for purchase information.

Links of Interest

Mordor recruitment video recasts the Fellowship of the Ring as the bad guys: "So you're an orc living out your days in Mordor..."

Five awesome vacation destinations you'll recognize from the movies. I would like to visit them all.

Mister Rogers Remixed. Did you ever grow anything in the garden of your mind? A little weird but strangely hypnotic.

Here Be Magic Group Announcements

David Bridger has accepted an offer from AudioLark to produce and publish an audio book of his
paranormal romance BEAUTY AND THE BASTARD. No release date yet but we're talking
some time in 2013.




Friday, June 8, 2012

Meet the Here Be Magic Authors - Janni Nell

Posted by: Veronica Scott

Continuing a new feature at Here Be Magic - periodic interviews with the Authors who create the magic. Our next interviewee is Janni Nell. Her latest is DANCE OF FLAMES (Carina Press Presents: Editor's Choice Volume II).


Tell us a little about yourself: I’m Australian. Sydney born and bred. I started writing my first novel when I was a teenager. In those days I didn’t realize published books were edited. I honestly thought the writers just wrote one draft and it came out right. Well, I was quite young. Anyway my first effort was so appalling, I immediately destroyed it. Of course, I’d caught the bug by that time, but it was several decades (and a lot of learning ) later before Carina Press  published the first Allegra Fairweather novel.

 Which three books would you take to a desert island and why? Susan Howatch’s Mystical Paths (tough choice because I love so many of her books. The depth of her characterizations are second to none.) Caleb Carr’s The Alienist (brilliant historical thriller. One of the great tragedies of publishing is that he didn’t write more than two books in this series.) Kim Wilkins’ The Autumn Castle (a gorgeous Grimm-style fairy tale for adults.)

 Which five people (real, fictional, historical) would you invite to dinner and why?  Ben Elton (yes, I expect jokes), Todd McKenney  (yes, I expect dancing – with me. For those who don’t know. As well as being a ballroom dancer, Todd McKenney is a simply wonderful musical theatre performer. Best I’ve ever seen. He was the first to play Peter Allen in “The Boy from Oz”.) Jack the ripper (a brief appearance only so we know who he is then off to the gallows.) Adam Lambert (yes, I expect songs) Don Bradman (for my husband so he won’t be bored while I’m hanging out with the others).

 What’s your guilty pleasure?   Talent shows like American Idol.

 How do you celebrate when you finish a novel? I buy books and catch up on all my reading. If the book is accepted I indulge in good champagne.

 What has surprised you about being a published author? The number of readers who bought my books.  Big hugs to every one of them.
 
Quickfire:
Favorite TV Show:  at the moment it’s Homeland
Favorite Movie: Mamma Mia
Tea or coffee:  cappuccino
Morning person or evening person:  morning
Favorite food:  a good mango is hard to beat
Favorite song:  The Last Night of the World from the musical Miss Saigon

Finish this sentence  “I believe in the Magic of Angels” 

 What are you working on next? The next Allegra Fairweather novel.

 What one question do you want to ask your Readers today?  Which part of the world would you like Allegra to visit to solve a future case?

 Where can your Readers find you online?

You can find DANCE OF FLAMES at Carina Press  Amazon

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Skirts 'n' Squid

Posted by: Cindy Spencer Pape
Yeah. That's my husband's title for Kilts & Kraken, the newest release in my Gaslight Chronicles from Carina Press. Now before anyone thinks he's anti-kilt, that's him with me below in the Pride of Scotland tartan. He doesn't own just one kilt, either, but several. This photo is from World Steam Expo in Detroit about a week ago, so he's not dissing steampunk either. He just likes to be irreverent. After 20-some years, I've learned to laugh.

I've been asked, since I started the Gaslight Chronicles, how I come up with the ideas of smashing together romance, adventure, steampunk, and fantasy. I think that photo might give you a little hint about that too. Yeah, those are copper spray-painted Nerf guns we're holding, and it's a spoof of the classic Steed & Peel pose from the Avengers. (The old British spy show, not the comic book. But that's in our house somewhere too.)

The truth of it is, Geeks will be Geeks. And I'm a proud, card-carrying geek, happily married to another. Since I obviously dig men in kilts, I couldn't resist the opportunity to get some tartan into my series. And as a former aquatic biologist, I've been waiting for a chance to release the kraken. (Yeah, I went there.) Add in a little Viking lore and the Knights of the Round Table and the love of a lifetime and you get my newest book. Well, and murderers and airships and other cool stuff just for fun. Here's a little excerpt for your enjoyment! FYI, K&K is also available as part of Carina's Editor's Choice, Vol. I anthology, which can be found in e-book and audible.com.

I'll give away a free download of Kilts & Kraken to one random commenter on Friday noonish, so drop a note below. Tell me what you get into--as a reader or writer, and how real life and fiction come together.

Kilts & Kraken
By Cindy Spencer Pape
Steampunk Romance
Carina Press http://bit.ly/L3nw9K

Blurb:
Magnus, Baron Findlay, longs to bring the wonders of the steam age to his remote island home, but his hands are full fighting the vicious kraken ravaging the coast. When he’s swept to sea during battle and washes up on the shore of an isle in the Hebrides, he is near death.

Struggling to establish herself as one of the first female physicians in Edinburgh, Dr. Geneva MacKay is annoyed when The Order of the Round Table sends her north to care for an injured highlander. To heal him, Geneva escorts the handsome warrior home, just in time to defend the villagers from another onslaught.

As the attacks escalate and they work together to fight off the threat, neither Geneva nor Magnus can resist the overwhelming attraction between them. But as their relationship deepens, a new threat arises – from within the village itself…

EXCERPT:

Magnus gaped as Rannulf introduced Dr. Geneva MacKay. What the hell was a tall, striking young woman doing holding a stethoscope to Magnus’s bare chest? Her hair brushed his chin and the scents of violets and carbolic acid tickled his nose.

“I see you’ve improved greatly in just the last hour.” She straightened and smiled down at Magnus, her white teeth straight and even between plump, rosy lips. Her dark copper curls were pulled back into an unappealing knot at the back of her head, and her eyes, a warm hazel blend of greens and brown glinted with intelligence and humor.

Part of Magnus that had no business stirring at all stood to attention. He sat up against the pillows, draping his forearms over his lap to hide his reaction. “You’re the quack?” This had to be a poor joke—perhaps Rodney or Catherine had put Rannulf up to it. His cousins had been trying to convince Magnus to marry for years.

“I am, in fact. The card-carrying quack. There’s a photographic copy of my license in my bag, in case you’d care to check.” She spoke quickly, with the refined accents of the upper class as she peeled a bandage from his shoulder. “You wouldn’t be the first patient to require proof. Now let me see your hip. I had to reset the bone after they carried you in here.”

“I most certainly will not.” He clutched the covers more tightly, not about to let a woman, younger than he from the looks of her, see his naked backside under these circumstances. “Rannulf can check it.”

“Who do you think reset the bone six hours ago?” She glanced toward Rannulf and the nurse, who was perhaps in her forties, and trying a bit too obviously not to look at Magnus’s uncle. “I think our chaperones there will be sufficient to protect your virtue. Now move.”

“I think they’re the ones who need chaperones.” He looked away as she peeled back the blanket. Her fingers were cool when she prodded the area above his hipbone. “Ow!”

“It’s knitting remarkably quickly, but it hasn’t finished yet. At the rate you’re healing, I’d say you can probably get out of bed sometime tomorrow, and be back on your feet fully the day after.”

“I’ve always been a fast healer,” he muttered into his pillow, trying not to panic. How much had she noticed? How much would her silence cost him?

“Relax.” She laid one hand, not as smooth and soft as her voice, against his bare shoulder. “I’ll keep your secret, Lord Findlay. You’ve nothing to worry about from me or Alice.”

“She’s got magick of her own,” Rannulf rumbled. “Can’t you feel it, son?”

Like called to like. Magnus’s magick was simply what he was, not something he practiced but he did have a kind of knack for sensing other powers around him. Now that he concentrated, he could sense some in the doctor.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

COMPLETELY RANDOM

Posted by: Barbara Longley
I've been consumed with 1st, 2nd and 3rd round edits for my upcoming release: FAR FROM PERFECT through Montlake Romance. As a result, this post has not been as…er…researched or planned out as my previous posts. Something struck me while I was editing. There's a moment where the heroine is holding a death certificate in her hands, and she's reflecting on what it means and how official that slip of paper makes everything.

That got me thinking. We get a certificate when we enter this world, and we get a certificate when we leave it, and neither has a huge impact on us at either point. Checking in; checking out. Where do we go in between?

See? Completely random.

Next random thought: My family and my friends don't take me seriously. This pertains to my writing career. My children and siblings will not read my work. (Ouch)  When I first got the offer from Carina Press for HEART OF THE DRUID LAIRD, my daughter's first comment was, "Now, you aren't paying them to publish your book, are you mom? Because…" Because I don't know any better?  Because I'm that desperate? Because what, oh fruit of my womb who caused me three days of labor and delivery hell? Well, I don't really expect my son to read my books. They're romance, and he's a guy who reads the classics. My sister won't read them because the thought of reading sex scenes written by her little sister ooks her out. My other sister is just as bad.

Speaking of my sister…she emailed me the other day to tell me that this guy she knows is published, and he has these postcards with his book cover on the front and a blurb on the back. She tells me I should do that. Head to desk, then against wall, then on laptop. I tell her I have them, plus magnets, plus paid for ads in several publications… "Oh? When did you do all that? I want to see the postcards." Keep in mind I gave her one as soon as I got them, which was months ago.

A teacher friend was on her laptop the other day, and I asked her to go amazon to "like" my upcoming release. She did, and then clicked my name and the Druid book came up. Her expression of surprise, "Oh, look at all these reviews you have…wow." Okay, like this book has been out since last September. I did tell everyone I know. They just didn't take me seriously, or can't see me as anything other than who I am in the day job? Gah.

At what point will I be a "real" writer?

Do the rest of you writer types face this? Readers, at what point does a writer become bona-fide in your eyes? How many books does it take for that transformation to occur?

Monday, June 4, 2012

Here Be News

Posted by: Unknown
Our new releases this week


Magnus, Baron Findlay, longs to bring the wonders of the steam age to his remote island home, but his hands are full fighting the vicious kraken ravaging the coast. When he's swept to sea during battle and washes up on the shore of an isle in the Hebrides, he is near death.

Struggling to establish herself as one of the first female physicians in Edinburgh, Dr. Geneva MacKay is annoyed when The Order of the Round Table sends her north to care for an injured highlander. To heal him, Geneva escorts the handsome warrior home, just in time to defend the villagers from another onslaught.

As the attacks escalate and they work together to fight off the threat, neither Geneva nor Magnus can resist the overwhelming attraction between them. But as their relationship deepens, a new threat arises--from within the village itself...

Buy

                                                              ******


Family vacations fill me with horror--and for a woman who makes her living as a paranormal investigator, that's saying a lot. Still, I couldn't turn down a month in sunny Spain and the chance of flamenco lessons with Casper, my gorgeous guardian angel--even if it did mean sharing a villa with my mother.

But it's true what they say, there's no rest for the wicked. We'd barely unpacked when the maid started having dreams of being tortured on the rack--dreams my intuition tells me are something more than your average terrifying nightmare. After all, we are in the land of the infamous inquisition, and she does have those unexplained marks...

So for now my dance partner's going to have to wait for me to get to the bottom of this mystery, and when I do, I plan to send evil packing.

Buy

Links of Interest

What are your self-destructive reading habits?: This part is me> "I'm not the type of person who should be reading scary stories. I say this not because they scare me, but because they don't . . . immediately. Instead, they nest in my head until the appropriate time."

Together for the First Time: "All five of the Star Trek captains appeared together for the first time this weekend at Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con."

True Blood Season 5 returns June 10th. Trailer!

In case you missed it: Carina Press Spring 2012 call for submissions!

Interesting op piece in the NY Times: Death, Sex and Vampires. "Dread of death, not love of sex, is why the dead keep rising."

Here Be Magic Group Announcements

Julia Knight's The Pirate's Lady, sequel to Ten Ruby Trick, is available for pre-order at .99 for a limited time. Ten Ruby Trick is a great book (Pirates! Magic! Adventure!) so if you haven't read it yet, you should get that one too.




Friday, June 1, 2012

Interview with a pirate.

Posted by: Julia Knight

Yarr! Pirates. Fantasy pirates too.


So, book two in the Pirates of Estovan series is coming soon!




The Pirate’s Lady will be released on 18th of June, and I thought for those who haven’t read the first (Ten Ruby Trick), you might like a taste of our hero, the racketeer Van Gast, who never did a sensible thing when the stupid was more fun.

So, Van, how did you get to be a racketeer? And what is a racketeer?

You don’t become a rack, you’re born one. It’s all in the attitude, see? You know how merchants like to bend the rules? Racks ignore them, except when it might be useful to follow them. Maybe not even then. It’s fun, you should try it. As long as you don’t get seasick, you’ll be fine.

What are the rules then?

No idea. What’s the point of knowing them if I just ignore them?

Okay. So what does a rack do all day?

Oh, the usual. Thieving, scamming, escaping to spend the ill-gotten loot on booze and women. Maybe a little light skulduggery.

Women, eh? Last I heard you only pretend to be a womaniser.

You’ve been talking to Holden, haven’t you? Seriously, that man needs to learn how to have some fun. I’ll have you know I have a fearsome reputation with the ladies.

So the name Josie doesn’t ring any bells?

Well….look, all right, yes. Yes it does. Damn woman – I never know quite what she’s going to do from one moment to the next. When she grins at you, well, she’s going to do one of three things; rob you, kill you or give you the night of your life. Maybe shoot me in the face, maybe take me to bed. I prefer the bed. You know my motto? Never do the sensible when the stupid is so much more fun? Josie’s the stupid thing for me to do. Butterfly Josie I call her, never wanting to be pinned, always slipping through my fingers. But I’ll catch her one day.

If you tell anyone I said that, I’ll have to shoot you. Sorry about that.

I promise. So, who’s this Holden then?

Him? Oh, just some ex-bonded-slave who sails with me.

Bonded?

You don’t know about the Remorian mages? Well, trust me, you’ll know one when you see one. They bond slaves. It’s…not pleasant. The opposite of fun, in fact. There’s this silver bond that wraps around your wrist and then…your mind isn’t your own any more. *shudders* Anyway, so Holden, the poor sod, has forgotten what fun is, if he ever knew. Always so serious, and ‘Don’t you think we should?’ and ‘You should be sensible, Van.’ Boring. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him grin. So, I have decided. He’s going to have fun if it kills me. Or him. It may yet do both, but that’s the fun part, isn’t it? The hearthump of excitement when you don’t know if you’ll live or die.

The thrill of the chase, of excitement. It’s what I live for.

Well okay, Van. Thanks for talking to us. Wait, where the heck did my earrings go? Van? VAN!
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