Welcome Joely Sue Burkhart, author of The Bloodgate Guardian

Welcome.  Let's let my readers get to know you.

Tell us about your Carina Press release.


Based on Maya mythology, THE BLOODGATE GUARDIAN mixes paranormal, thriller, and romance as Dr. Jaid Merritt must find—and survive—the Gatekeeper in order to rescue her father from the Maya hell, Xibalba. Official blurb:

Worlds within worlds await through the Maya Bloodgate…

Dr. Jaid Merritt doesn’t do digs. The last time she ventured into the jungle, someone died. Now she’s content to decipher Maya glyphs from pictures sent to her by her famous archaeologist father. But when he goes missing while trying to perform a ritual based on her translations of an ancient codex, Jaid must put aside her fears and travel to Guatemala to find him.

After misusing the Bloodgates to bring his twin brother back from the afterlife, the Maya priest known as Ruin was cursed by the gods to stand as the guardian for all time. He was unable to stop Dr. Charles Merritt from opening the gates, and now demons roam this world. The last thing he wants to do is hurt the beautiful woman who is somehow infused with his magic, but if she uses the codex to retrieve her father, Ruin must do his duty. And this time, he won’t fail. Even if it kills him. Again.

I’m fascinated with how books get their start. Do you remember the spark of an idea that grew to become this book?

There's a lot of hype about the Maya predicting the “end of the world” as December 21, 2012. I wondered what if instead of the world ending, the powerful Maya gods were returning to our world?

What kinds of stories do you like to read and write?

I love to read just about anything, and write just about anything too. Right now I'm reading a mix of non-fiction (Parallel Worlds by Michio Kaku) and fairytale retelling (Nadia Lee's A Happily Ever After of Her Own). I write romantic SF/F for Drollerie Press, contemporary erotic romance for Samhain Publishing, and paranormal thriller/romance for Carina Press.

Tell us a bit about yourself. Family, house, pets, hobbies, that sort of thing.

I'm married with three monsters (girls) ages 11, 8, and 7 and two dogs. I love crafts, everything from knitting, crochet, and cross stitch, although I don't have as much time as I'd like to work on everything and still write.

What kind of music do you like? Do you listen to music while writing?

I always listen to music while I write, developing a “playlist” for each book. The Maya playlist included the soundtrack from Apocalypto and Willie Nelson & Ray Charles singing Seven Spanish Angels.

Who do you think is the sexiest man on Earth? What makes him sexy?

I love Sean Connery's accent and Clive Owens's distinctive face—all those canyons and lines and angles!

How would you spend your ideal day?

A big pot of coffee or iced tea and my laptop, writing frantically until it was time to fix dinner for the monsters!

Is there something else you’d like to mention that I haven’t asked about?

I have another contemporary erotic romance releasing from Samhain in October and I'm plotting and working on Maya #2 for Carina as I type!

Thanks for having me, Alice!

Review or rate THE BLOODGATE GUARDIAN (or any of Joely's books) by July 31st to be entered to win at least two $50 gift certificates! Details See here

Read the first chapter of The Bloodgate Guardian Carina Press

Joely always has her nose buried in a book, especially one with mythology, fairy tales, and romance. She, her husband, and their three monsters live in Missouri. By day, she’s a computer programmer with a Masters of Science degree in Mathematics. When night falls, she bespells the monsters so she can write. Find her on her Website, Twitter, Facebook, and check out and check out free reads for free reads!

Please welcome KS Augustin, author of In Enemy Hands

When Alice and I first emailed each other, we discovered that we were on the opposite sides of the spiritual fence. I'm an atheist, Alice is a committed Christian. And the first thing we decided is that we should give the other space on our blogs to perhaps say something about that, tying it in with our upcoming Carina Press releases.


So, hello everyone. My name is Kaz Augustin and I have an hard sf romance coming out with Carina on 7 June. It's called IN ENEMY HANDS, and here is its cover:

In Enemy Hands

The Republic had taken everything from Moon―her research partner, her privacy, her illusions. They thought they had her under control. They were wrong.

Srin Flerovs, Moon's new research partner, is a chemically enhanced maths genius whose memory is erased every two days.

While he and Moon work on a method of bringing dead stars back to life, attraction between them flares, but that poses its own problem. How can their love survive when Srin forgets Moon every two days?

When she discovers the lethal applications her research can be put to, Moon knows she and Srin are nothing more than pawns in a much larger game. Together, they must escape the clutches of the Republic before they become its scapegoats. But there are too many walls around them, too many eyes watching. They want to run, but they're trapped on a military vessel in the depths of space, and time is running out....

The story is set in Republic space, which is a far future where humans dominate their part of the explored galaxy. Every species that isn't human is regarded as inferior and treated as such. I have a few stories set in the Republic, so I suppose you could call IN ENEMY HANDS part of the Republic series, but every book is standalone and can be read without referencing any of the others.

None of the characters are religious, but they do vary in terms of moral standards, and I hope the reader will enjoy gauging the level of morality that each character displays. The characters don't always get it right, either. Moon Thadin, the heroine, quite frankly doesn't care how the Republic behaves as long as she gets the recognition she deserves. But when she's forced to confront the evil of her government, will that ambition be enough to comfort her? Srin Flerovs, a man kept imprisoned in his own mind, naturally wants vengeance for what has been done to him, but is that what he should seek? And what of the ship captain, who must know what's being done in his name? How is he able to reconcile his humanity with its lack around him?

These are all questions as deep as spiritual faith, yet not dependent on it. I think my biggest criticism of religious people as a whole is that they seem to regard atheists as people without morals. Yet, with only one life to live, and no afterlife to look forward to, it would seem to me that the compulsion to do good, to achieve something worthwhile, in that one life is at least as strong as the compulsion to live according to a list of set-down rules. Maybe even stronger, because you come to those rules yourself, they are not thrust upon you.

And so the time for fateful decisions comes to each of the characters in the novel, and the decisions each of them makes has a bearing, not only on the situation at hand, but on the rest of their lives. IN ENEMY HANDS is a look at one point in time, where all these characters converge, and what gets decided during a span of only a few months. It also contains romance, physics and assassination pharmacology, and I hope you enjoy it.

Kaz Augustin is a Malaysian-born writer of science-fiction, romance, and permutations of the two. Her website is at http://www.ksaugustin.com/ and she blogs at http://www.blog.ksaugustin.com/ You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter; just look for “ksaugustin”.

COMPETITION: I'm giving away two copies of IN ENEMY HANDS at my blog, Fusion Despatches [http://blog.ksaugustin.com]. To be in the draw, stop by and comment at the Competition post, telling me at which blog you read about my book. You have till 30 June!

And thanks Alice for having me here! :)

Please welcome guess blogger Carrie Lofty (Song of Seduction)

Carrie's given us an excerpt from her Carina Press book, Song of Seduction!

Tormented by guilt. Haunted by scandal. Freed by love.


Austria, 1804

Eight years ago, composer Arie De Voss claimed his late mentor's final symphony as his own and became an icon. But fame has a price: fear of discovery now poisons his attempts to compose a redemptive masterpiece. Until a new muse appears, intoxicating and inspiring him...

Mathilda Heidel renounced her own musical gift to marry, seeking a quiet life to escape the shame surrounding her birth. Sudden widowhood finds her tempted by song once more. An unexpected introduction to her idol, Arie De Voss, renews Mathilda's passion for the violin—and ignites a passion for the man himself.

But when lust and lies reach a crescendo, Arie will be forced to choose: love or truth?

Song of Seduction

Set-up: Mathilda has just come to the realization that she loves Arie, the composer and musician she's idolized for years. But upon performing his most renowned symphony while alone in her room, she comes to a startling realization...

She loved Arie--not a musical genius, not a figment, not an idol. She loved the man.

And she wanted to express her emotions in the way that had come to dominate her life. Through music. Words and thoughts failed to fly, falling short of the miraculous language she had discovered. Passive listening, no matter how engaged she became in hearing a composition, only made her yearn for that spark of creation. Arie had taken her heart and put in its place an unending need to perform.

With the door closed behind her, Mathilda glanced across her room. She had left Jürgen's medical bag at the foot of her bed, and its familiar black leather shape reached her like a touch. But the touch was gentle, tolerant of her frailties. She smiled, surprised but gratified by her placid reaction to his memory.

Leaving the bag where it sat, she found the violin case and opened the latches. The cloth she used to muffle the strings draped across the instrument. She tossed it to the floor. Nothing would silence her this evening, not doubt or gossip or manners. She wanted her violin to announce what her heart sang and sang, an endless chorus.

Tuning the instrument, finding her stance, Mathilda inhaled.

Beginning with the sonata Arie had played at the Venners' ball, she gave voice to all she imagined, sought, desired. Another piece followed without pause, then another. Arie's improvisation at the piano competition. The cantata for Duke Ferdinand. The movement she had helped compose. And finally, Love and Freedom.

A frivolous grin spread her mouth wide as she revisited that landmark symphony for the first time since their inaugural lesson. Even alone, there in her room, she could not hide the flush of embarrassment as she recalled the girlish fantasies she had fostered about her maestro, about what he had composed. Never had a woman known less about a very complicated man.

But joy banished her embarrassment. She performed Love and Freedom with happy gusto, glorying in the wonder. She followed the notes, chasing a musical bird across the aching blue of a bright summer sky, swooping and twirling with the force of a steady wind on her face. Restive fingers quieted the noise in her head and in her heart...until she heard something altogether different.

She played it again. And again. She studied and parsed and dissected. And somewhere in the third movement, she heard the truth.

Arie did not write this.

Song of Seduction

In the beginning (Please welcome guest, Inez Kelley, author at Carina Press)

e

IN THE BEGINNING…




Salome at Sunrise was never intended to be written. The story, I thought, ended with Myla by Moonlight. But those characters, they linger, whispering in your ear and prodding to you tell their tale.

When I finally gave in and decided to write Bryton’s story, something bothered me. He’d whispered he was a widower and that he could never love another. So I wondered who his heroine was. Salome burst into my mind in full living color, completely formed and individual. The first scene that appeared to me was breathtaking. It had this tremendous mountain vista, a dazzling sunrise that bled reds and oranges across a violet sky and a woman with tears shimmering in her eyes.

This scene is in the story SALOME AT SUNRISE, not in the beginning but about halfway through. Back in the beginning, I didn’t know who she was or why she was sad. Now I do. Can I show you what Salome shared with me?

“Kat was promised to another man. He died in battle before they could marry.”

There was no anger or disappointment in his tone, just simple acceptance. The blanket edge slipped and she tugged it higher to her chest, the move hiding her spinning thoughts. “Did it bother you she had a lover before you?”

“It would’ve bothered me a hell of lot more if she’d had a lover after me.” His indignation pushed against the damp air with swift heat. She stiffened and his hands gripped tighter. “Sorry. No, it didn’t bother me. How could I judge her when I was no innocent myself? We were a good match, she and I. We understood each other. We loved each other.”

Cottony fog clung to the ground, swirled around the trees and wrapped the last breaths of night in softness. Salome let her gaze drift to the shifting skies. The sun rose beyond the mountain ridge, spilling pale gold light into the fading gray. Streaks of red lined the sky, birthing blood of a new day. She drew the cool air deep into her lungs and relished the crisp tingle. Every muscle in her temporal human body cramped from her position but her heart rejoiced holding him, being held.

Her joy was tainted by his wife’s memory. Katina was everything she could never be to him. Mother to his child, companion for his life, music for his heart. Human. Salt swam across her vision and blurred the sunrise. The day was born beneath the shimmer of her tears.



You tell me, could you have left that story untold? I couldn’t. I didn’t.

Salome at Sunrise

June 21st from Carina Press.

~Inez Kelley

http://inezkelley.com/

Welcome guest blogger, Leah Braemel

When Alice first invited me to be a guest on her blog, I have to admit, I hesitated. I write steamy romance. I write really steamy romances. The first blog post I read was about her pastor and her church. I scrolled down and there was a discussion about pronouns in religion. So my first thought was “oh, boy, Alice’s readers are going to be sending her email on having me on as a guest.”


Then I checked out the books Alice writes and discovered she’s sold stories to Harlequin’s Spice Briefs, and Ellora’s Cave amongst other publishers. Phew! Alice writes steamy too. Now I feel safe. Especially since my upcoming release, Texas Tangle, involves a ménage. And not just a one night event, but where the three lovers are seriously considering making it a permanent arrangement.

The whole idea came to me during a trip to Texas back in 2007 when I visited a farm where one of my critique partners breeds Arabian BLUE horses. As she was taking around her farm, introducing me to her horses, and her donkey Gandalf, the plot bunnies started hopping around my fertile imagination. (Like everything else in Texas, plot bunnies come in the extra-large size. By the way, I’d never seen Texas hares before—they proved they do things BIG in Texas. They reminded me of miniature kangaroos!) It took me a while (and two books in between) to get around to actually writing the story that started forming during that trip.

Going with the idea that everything’s bigger in Texas, I gave my heroine a Texas-sized problem to solve. Nikki Kimball’s the proverbial horsebreeder next door. She’s more than a little gun shy about relationships after divorcing her first husband, and now her brother has just stolen everything she owns. Up rides Dillon in his white pick-up truck—after all, most heroes keep their horses under the hood these days. Dillon’s a hard-working neighbor who always sees the best in everyone and everything. He teaches Nikki to laugh again. Laughter comes harder to his foster-brother Brett Anderson. Brett comes with a passel of issues – not the least of which is the history between Brett and Nikki. They shared kisses for one night back in high school but it turned out that Dillon was sweet on Nikki too. Those kisses just about destroyed Dillon and Brett’s friendship, and nearly lost Brett the only family he’d known. So he’s bound and determined not to come between his best friend and the woman they both love again. But that’s tougher than he’d thought, and when Nikki and Dillon discover his secret, Nikki’s caught between the two, knowing whatever she decides could destroy their friendship forever and cost Brett the love and security of the entire Barnett family. Yup, life just got plenty complicated on Dillon’s Double Bar ranch.

Thanks to her cheating ex-husband and her thieving brother, all horse breeder Nikki Kimball has left is a bruised heart, an overdrawn bank account and an empty home. When sex-on-legs Dillon Barnett and his brooding foster-brother Brett Anderson start showing more than just neighborly attention, Nikki is intrigued…and a little gun-shy.

Dillon and Brett have a history; back in high school, the two friends fought a bitter battle over Nikki. Now, ten years later, Brett still longs to be the man in Nikki’s life, but he’s determined to stand back and let Dillon win Nikki’s heart.

Society says Nikki must choose between the two men she loves. Is Nikki strong enough to break all the rules in order to find happiness?

Read an excerpt at http://alicegaines.blogspot.com/p/excerpt-from-texas-tangle-by-leah.html

Interested in reading more about Leah or her books?

Visit http://www.leahbraemel.com/, or follow http://twitter.com/leahbraemel” or http://leahbraemel.blogspot.com/ or  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Leah-Braemel/95697551732

My cover for Miss Foster's Folly

This will be a really short blog.  Mostly just

SQUEEEEEEEEEEE

Is this gorgeous or what?  The book will likely be out in June, and I'm so excited.  It's part of the launch of Carina Press.

Major kudos to the Carina team, and many, many thanks to my wonderful editor, Jessica Schulte