In addition to the anthology, there are all sorts of goodies--rewards for the different levels. More books are better than no books, right?
And we've blasted past our initial goals and are working on our stretch goals for this last day of the campaign. Check out some of what you'll get.
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I contacted the designer, who sent me the original images and showed me what she'd done and her receipt from a well-respected stock site which clearly stated, the images were available for book covers. When that didn't satisfy Amazon, I tracked down the photographer who took the original images and he gave me permission to use the images. That still didn't satisfy Amazon, so a friend made a trio of other covers for me. But this cover and its two mates always said post-apocalyptic witchiness to me and I love them, so I am using them with my story. You can find it here.
I you've been with me for awhile, you know that I love, love, love mysteries and have been devoted to them since I was a child. Yes, Nancy Drew, but also Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and more. I started out writing noir-ish stories and was lucky enough to fall into a wonderfully supportive community that encouraged and nurtured me. But a lot of my stories were dark. Sooooo dark.
And then one day I wrote a Christmas romance. A clean, sweet, cozy, feel-good romance full of quirky characters and food and good things happening to people. And I loved it. I wrote a few more. Then I wrote a Thanksgiving story. Then I wrote a couple of Valentine's Day stories. (If you want to hear my
I also have a Mother's Day story, a couple of Halloween stories, and a graduation day story. Most of them are set in my fictional city of Silver Birch, Washington, which is a lot like Bellingham, WA, a city I lived in for four years.
Right now I'm writing a St. Patrick's Day story, and in the next few months I'm writing another "harvest time" story, an Election Day story, a Fourth of July story, and an August story. I plan to collect them all in a book called Seasons of Silver Birch.
I'm hoping to hit up one of my friends to do the cover for it because I got a little carried away buying covers this year and I am going to try not to buy ANYTHING next year that's not vital. Even buy-ins to boxed sets. I got carried away with those as well.
I wrote 350K words last year, all of it for boxed sets. So that will give you an idea. But a lot of those stories were gentle, sweet, holiday romance. And I enjoyed myself immensely. I hope my readers did too.
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Come meet your next obsession…
2 Hot 2 Handle are a K-pop group whose career hasn’t always been easy, but the sextet has worked hard to solidify their presence in the Korean music scene.
But when their eldest member has to leave the band to fulfill his mandatory military service, their career takes a turn for the worst.
After two flopped albums, their management decides to make a lineup change: making their youngest member the main vocalist, even after the band is complete.
With one stunning performance at a prestigious award show, suddenly 2H2H are back in high demand, all around the world.
How will the group handle their newfound fame while finding love at the same time?
Now meet the members…
Ye-Jun by Samantha Calcott
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09XY193WH
2 Hot 2 Handle’s new main vocalist, Ye-Jun hops a plane from Seoul to Chicago in order to train his voice and ensure he's prepared for this new, daunting position.
He just never expected to meet the girl of his dreams there.
Yvie is a plus-sized tattoo artist and avid heavy metal fan. She absolutely wants nothing whatsoever to do with K-pop.
Until Ye-Jun walks into her shop, and it seems like time stops. This sweet, gorgeous, soulful-voiced man turns her life — and her heart — upside down in an instant, and she has no idea how to handle it.
But it's widely known that K-pop stars don't date, lest they alienate their predominantly female fanbase. And even if Ye-Jun would give Yvie the time of day, there's no way they can be together ... right?
Yvie takes drastic action to see what might happen, but will her bravery be rewarded, or will her heart get broken?
And how can Ye-Jun handle his new duties in the band when it seems like every woman he encounters is trying to drive him insane?
Kwan by Amelia Hayden
https://www.amazon.com/Kwan-Contemporary-Rockstar-Romance-Handle-ebook/dp/B0BMPFC4LZ
After living the life he's always wanted in the US during 2 Hot 2 Handle's break from the spotlight. Kwan has to shove it back into the closet now that they were working on their comeback tour. Only he didn't count on his management pairing him with an up-and-coming music producer to work on the group's album. One who frustrated him so much that all he wanted to do was...kiss him.
Clint wasn't the type of bisexual to wave a pride flag everywhere he went, but he refused to hide it, which took closeted pop stars off the list of boyfriend material. Yet, when it came to the music he'd never been more in tune with another person.
Except, when his musical soulmate refuses to acknowledge what they have his only choice is to walk away. If only he'd done it before he fell for one of the hottest k-pop stars on the planet.
Ashlynn In two months I lost everything: my boyfriend cheated with my best friend, my other friends took their side, and now I’ve been kicked out of my flat because I can’t make the rent alone.
I end up collapsed on the side of the road near an arena, the thumps of bass covering my cries. The music is a comfort to my broken heart, so I stay until the show ends … and a Korean man with kind eyes and a warm smile finds me.
Geon by Leigh Kelsey
https://www.amazon.com/Geon-Contemporary-Rockstar-Romance-Handle-ebook/dp/B0BCZLLBVK/
A broken woman. A K-pop idol. A love worthy of a song.
The more we spend time together, the more the hopeless romantic in me is in danger of falling for her. Hard. But the next tour date is in four days, and even if I somehow get Ash her apartment back and solve all her problems, I don’t know how I’ll ever get on a plane and leave her behind.
This love could heal her … or shatter me completely.
Seung by Marilyn Jeulin
https://www.amazon.com/Seung-Contemporary-Rockstar-Romance-Handle-ebook/dp/B0BC3JQWWR
Hyun by Amber Draeger
https://www.amazon.com/Hyun-Contemporary-Rockstar-Romance-Handle-ebook/dp/B0BJT8S26J
As one sixth of the Korean worldwide sensation, 2 Hot 2 Handle, Hyun has it all. He owes his now comfortable lifestyle to self-discipline and two rules: one, work hard to breed success, and two, never fall in love. Devoted to his Kpop idol life, Hyun leaves himself free for his fans.
However, he’s watching his lifelong friends and fellow group members pair up with the loves of their lives. All he senses is trouble….and a newfound pain in his heart.
Scheduled for a small break but driven to keep himself busy, he’s been presented with an offer he can’t refuse – a global ambassadorship for the young couture label Wild X Hunter. This job comes with a price, as he’ll be working daily with one of their lead stylists to create content for their social media campaigns.
And their stylist happens to be the most intoxicating woman he’s ever met.
MK doesn’t believe in second chances. Three years a widow, she believes love is waiting for her in the next life, not this one. Ambitious, MK pours herself into her work as a stylist for Wild X Hunter. She’s used to spoiled celebrities and atrocious aristocrats in measured doses, but when her boss is hospitalized, MK finds herself flying halfway around the world for a month-long job that she’s completely unprepared for: babysitting Wild X Hunter’s newest ambassador, a Korean pop idol that she’s never heard of.
Fighting against epic odds, in a foreign country with a language she doesn’t speak, MK is determined to succeed at all costs. This idol is nothing more than an assignment to help the company climb in their global standing.
But despite his cold appearance, there’s something gentle about this gorgeous man.
And between the two of them, there’s an attraction neither is prepared for…and a small glimmer of hope that maybe–just maybe–love can grow out of their shadows.
Chul by AR DeClerk
https://www.amazon.com/Chul-Contemporary-Rockstar-Romance-Handle-ebook/dp/B0BJFNJ8WX
Drained physically and mentally after a long tour, Kang Chul only wanted to kick back and relax, not realizing that accepting one drink from a hot girl would almost end his career. Rumors fly that Chul was driving drunk, causing the accident that injured his knee, and the company can't take so much heat right before the Grammys. In order to let the fervor die down, the company decides Chul should complete his rehab in the US. Unfortunately for him, they won't be sending him alone.
Kim Nari is known at Starboard Entertainment as the only staffer who can't and won't be swayed by the good looks of their idols. Offering Nari a fully funded course at a prestigious school, the company only asks one thing in return. Nari is to travel to LA with Chul and keep him out of the limelight as he heals. Determined to make her way in the male-dominated entertainment industry, Nari needs the course to move up. She's not happy about babysitting a nearly-disgraced idol but she has no other options.
Despite their differences, Chul and Nari must learn to live together and lean on one another when a snoopy reporter comes knocking, looking for the real story about the injured idol. They can only save Chul's reputation and Nari's job if they learn to work together, even as unanticipated sparks fly between them.
Easiest way to check out what's free is to check out my author pages on Amazon.com and just scroll down:
And if you're not "following" me on Amazon, think about pressing that button, because 023 is going to be filled with awesome content--mysteries (cozy and not), a science fiction romance, lots of sequels to stories that have been out there awhile, and a brand new paranormal women's fiction series. Come along for the ride. It's going to be a blast.
It's a short novel (only 42,000 words or so), so what Amazon calls "a short read." I've put it on KU in case someone wants to read it as part of their subscription. I am rather pleased with it. If you'd like to check it out, you can do so here.
Here's the blurb:
Lark Riordan works long hours as a crime scene investigator.
She does not expect to return home to find one of her neighbors murdered.
Max Switek is the decorated homicide detective who catches
the case. He is familiar with the victim, as he is with all of Lark’s
neighbors.
He spends a lot of time with Lark, and not just in a
professional capacity.
This does not go unnoticed by either his father—a cop-turned-judge—or
her mother—the ex-wife of a womanizing actor who’s just been nominated for an Oscar®.
Who just happen to be married to each other. Even for L.A.,
it’s complicated. But so is the case, and there’s no shortage of people who
wanted Jimmy Morrissey dead, and the chief suspect out of the way.
Lark and Max take the case personally, and with help from a
surprising source, they’re going to solve it.
Now if they could only do something about their love life.
S.T. Gibson's sensational novel is the darkly seductive tale of Dracula's first bride, Constanta.
This is my last love letter to you, though some would call it a confession. . .
Saved from the brink of death by a mysterious stranger, Constanta is transformed from a medieval peasant into a bride fit for an undying king. But when Dracula draws a cunning aristocrat and a starving artist into his web of passion and deceit, Constanta realizes that her beloved is capable of terrible things.
Finding comfort in the arms of her rival consorts, she begins to unravel their husband's dark secrets. With the lives of everyone she loves on the line, Constanta will have to choose between her own freedom and her love for her husband. But bonds forged by blood can only be broken by death.
"A dizzying nightmare of a romance that will leave you aching, angry and ultimately hopeful." --Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author of For the Wolf.
You can follow the author here.
You can read an excerpt here.
It's also available on Kindle, but it's $2.99 there. It's the first in a new series, so if you like it, there are more to come!
I remember the first year "ghost pumpkins" came on the market. I was in Los Angeles, working for Los Angeles magazine, and a rep from one of the local supermarkets came in with the white pumpkins. We were all amazed. (Now, apparently, they have blue pumpkins. I'd like to see a black pumpkin. I bet people would snap those up.)
I have a bunch of October/Halloween-themed book reviews coming up. Stay tuned.
I started out writing in the mystery genre as well. Short stories that were dark and mean and full of the tropes I grew up reading. My brother was a lawyer by then and he would sometimes tell me stories about his clients. I remember one was about a guy who killed his aunt and a fellow resident at a boarding house. The cops found him sitting on the steps, waiting for them, a bloodied hammer in his hand. I didn't want to seem blood-thirsty, but I told him to keep the stories coming.
Weirdly, I have no interest in lawyer shows or true crime. Except for Homicide Hunter. I love Joe Kenda. I love that he always caught the bad guys. I LOVE his wry delivery. I love the way he tosses off observations about how dumb crminal behavior is, or just observations in general. "Nothing good ever happens at two a.m."
I'm writing it under my real name, and I hope people will like it. It's a return to my roots. And you know what they say about roots being noursished by blood. You can pre-order it here.
In a future world where people are known by their occupations or descriptions, a human data processor called a Calcutec is summoned to a meeting. What happens next is a story that mixes a stylized reality with a dream world populated by people from the “reality.”
It’s hard to categorize the genre of this book, which slipstreams between science fiction, hardboiled noir, cyberpunk, horror, and literary fiction. (There’s definitely a little Franz Kafka here.) The book will remind readers of China Mieville’s The City and the City, with its two different worlds existing simultaneously.
It’s hard to nail down the theme of the book as well. Murakami is working with a palette that includes ambiguity, consciousness, and self. In both sections the hero is adrift a bit—an outsider who’s being kept off-balance.
The book is also a dazzling romp through the tropes of pop
culture, and cross-culturally (and self-consciously) hip, so it has that going
for it as well. Find the book here.
Until the day she's finally had enough and tells her section head that she can't clear away the detritus of a meeting she wasn't in--coffee cups stuffed with cigarette butts. She tells him she's pregnant and the smell nauseates her. Her life changes immediately--for the better. For one thing, she's no longer expected to work hours and hours of overtime. The first night she goes home at a reasonable hour, she's shocked at how packed the metro is, and how bright and inviting the supermarkets are. (Usually by the time she gets there, all that's left are limp vegetables.) She has time for leisurely baths. She has time to cook. She begins taking aerobics class and incorporates stretching exercises into her daily routine.
She starts taking care of herself and as the lie lingers, she comes up with all sorts of strategems to maintain the ruse, including using an app that tracks pregnancy. Along the way she interacts with a large cast of characters, from co-workers to other mothers, and the book becomes a reverie on loneliness that's bittersweet and incredibly affecting.
Yagi knows human nature. Shibata is a wonderful character and working women will completely sympathize with her frustration at being the only woman in an all-male environment. There are bits and
Diary of a Void is a lovely book. You can find our more here.
The story of what happens when Tina's bossy older sister Lucy (scarily efficient and not empathetic at all) installs Tina in the apartment to establish residency while she and the other heirs fight things out in court is more about Tina finding her self-esteem (and love) than anything else.
There's a lot of fun to be had with the quirky characters, the plot full of twists and betrayals and the little side trips into such topics as moss. Tina is a wonderful character and we cheer for her as she finds allies and learns how to deal with her enemies. There's a particularly delightful little girl named Katherine who figures into the mix, and also a gorgeous socialite the doorman is in love with. Rebeck winds everything up in a very satisfying way, in a way that will send you searching for her other books. She really knows sibling dynamics, and it's a pleasure to watch her move her characters around. The apartment sounds fabulous, and so do the contents of that hidden room!!
For this new collection of rewritten fairy tales I've gone back to Beauty and the Beast. My story is called The Dragon's Pearl, and it's a retelling set in a setting that's modeled after the Han Dynasty in China. The "beast" is a dragon and I've made a number of changes to the story, including the heroine's relationship to her father. (Spoiler alert: He's a scholar and a jerk who does not value her.)
I'm also rewriting Beauty and the Beast for my story in a billionaire collection that's a charity anthology. That one's called Hero's Kiss, and it's about a military veteran who returns from war scarred by an IED. I bought a cover to use for it years ago, but it now seems rather old fasioned. My story is going to be a bit tamer than a lot of the stories--it does have a "billionaire" cover after all. My heroine is an activist lawyer named Ruth (after RBG) and she loves her father but it turns out that he's an unlucky
I've also written a really dark YA version of The Little Mermaid, called Blue. That was one that I bought the cover for and then had to write a story around it. I knew from the beginning it wasn't going to be a fluffy version of the story, but then, the original story is so tragic before it was Disneyfied. I did change the ending but it deals with some pretty tragic story elements.
I've ssigned up to write a contemporary version of Rapunzel that will take place in a luxury high-rise apartment and feature a thief with our modern-day princess. I haven't worked out all the little ways in which the new story will have the old story embedded in it.
In the meantime, if you've never seen the gorgeous fairytale retellings and illustrations by artist Kinuko Y. Craft, check her out here. She has an absolutely stunning 2023 calendar on sale.
Just look at her Sleeping Beauty.
Or her Cinderella.
Or her Beauty and the Beast
Or her Cupid and Psyche
If you haven't discovered his writing, please let me introduce you to him.
Here's his website. His tongue-in-cheek "About" section on his site is hilarious.
Here's his bio on Wikikipedia.
Here he is on Goodreads.
The call for submissions had me at "Witch Queens." I once wrote a historial novella about Catherine the Great being a queen, and I keep thinking about giving QEI the same treatment. I like research, so that would be fun. But it woul also be fun to set a witch queen story in my mythical fantasy worl of the Twelve Realms. I even have a cover for it. I like the cover for the anthology. You can preorder it here.
It’s all part of the game.
Watch as these guys battle the biggest game of
their lives. Winning the hearts of the ones they love.
Some of your favorite authors have come
together to celebrate two of our favorite things: love and sports.
Whether it's friends to lovers, brothers best
friend, or midlife romance, these couples are going to score -- on the field of
love AND in the bedroom.
Preorder Bases loaded now. Exclusively on Amazon.
I think King is the Dickens of our time. And I say that even after reading Insomnia. The less said about that, the better. I hope he lives to be a hundred.
If you're watching House of Dragons and just can't get enough Dragons, then this is the promo for you.
Sespite the banner, the books here are an eclectic mix of genres, from straight up sci fi, space opera, fantasy, epic fantasy, and beyon. You can browse through them here.
This first book has everyting a reader could want--history, pageantry, sex, betrayal, great characters. The only thing its missing is dragons. (And you won't miss them.) Kleoatra's time was so far in the past that even the ordinary feels magical. This is an extremely satisfying book.
I don't make a secret of my politics. Bu telling you to register to vote has nothing to do with who I vote for. It's one of the duties of being a citizen. The country doesn't ask much of you. Occasionally you might be summoned for jury duty. And every so often, they ask you to vote. If you aren't registered, visit this site. The mid-terms are important. The presidential election is important. The city council elections in your home town are important. VOTE!
I am cheered to see that celebrity influencers are geting involved too. Normally I just roll my eyes when I see a TikTok star or an Instagram influencer talking politic. But the lousy turnout of millennials shows that the regular messages are reaching them. So pieces like this are welcome: https://youtu.be/V2cYnsYqlZE
One of my favorite things about being an indie author (and I've been traditionally published) is hat you have control over what your cover looks like. In trad publishing, even heavyweights like King and Patteson don't have that much say. But as an indie, you can have exactly the cover you want. (That doesn't prevent a lot of indie covers from being awful, but you could say that about a fair number of trad published books as well.)
A cover will make me want to pick up a book. The cover of Mexican Gothic, for example, is so beautiful it looks like a piece of art I want to put on my bookshelf facing out. (It's a wonderful book, but that cover is what snaggedme.) If ou haven't seen it, I urge you to look it up. I couldn't post the cover because it's protected by copyright, and I couldn't.
When I started publishing 11 years ago, you could buy a lot of covers for under $50. There were a couple of designers who specialized in inexpensive covers. They all used the same photo sources--Deposit Photo, Shutter Stock, Dreamstime--so you started to see the same faces over and over. (I have the same model on several books. His name is Gunther, and his images are up at a site called Period Images. Another of their models, Karl, is on a couple other books.
Prices have gone up, but you can still snag some bargains if you cruise the sites. The one I use most often is Book Cover Design. They have tons of designs and one of the things I like about them is that they don't accept covers that use AI-generated images. I've seen a lot of posts touting how writers can make their own covers quickly and freely using sites dedicated tojust that. Right now, honestly, they mostly look awful but in a few months, who knows? (This is different from covers using characters that designers have patiently created on their own.) But the way AI images are created involves a kind of "sampling" from other images, that are the property of the designers who created them. In other words, depending on how you look at it, it's sketchy or it's stealing.
I have stockpiled a lot of covers, which turned out to be a good investment when prices started going up. A lot of designers I bought when they were just starting out are now in the $200-$300 range per cover. But there is one drawback. Styles in covers change and what looked like an awesome cover back in the day looks hopelessly dated now. Or you bought covers for a series you planned and now find yourself writing in another direction. (I have a number of covers for horror stories and I don't really write those that often.)
But I also contribute to a lot of anthologies and in general, the covers are geared to an audience that's looking for more heat. I often feel like "which story is not like the others?" But the thing is, I don't really read the sexier stuff. I'm not a prude--sex is awesome in movies--but when I read it, it often sounds really clinical and I get distracted by the words. Rod, shaft, manhood, cock. Or pussy, cunt, mound, vagina. It's not that I want to say "thing" and "ya-ya" but I'd rather take you up to the bedroom door so you can imagine what happens then.
Which brings me back to those covers. Basically, if you see I'm in an anthology with a Man Chest cover, it means that I've been invited to play along even though my story isn't as sexy as my fellow writers' fiction. If you like your romance across the spectrum, you will be a happy reader. (As Kat Parrish, I have done some Man Chest--the Rezso novels are sexier.)
So when I write about shifters, they're likely to be somthing else. I have a whole series of books spotlighting women who shift into a tiger, a lion, and a snow leopard. The tiger story is called "A Tiger's Heart" and it's included in this anthology, Shifter Time. You might enjoy it. The title is taken from a Shakespeare play because I love Shakespeare and look for any opportunity to use it. It comes from Macbeth, one of my favorite plays despite its cursed reputation. It's a description of Lady Macbeth, who has a tiger's heart "wrapped in woman's hide."
