Carolina warns not to be fooled by the photo. "Even if you walk most of the race, you want to be sure to break into a run for the camera." Although most of her running days have morphed into walking days, she's completed over a hundred distance races - six of them marathons. Her short story about a murder on the streets she's actually competed on, in the Los Angeles Marathon, appears in a Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles anthology.
After a varied career as a registered nurse while winning awards and making sales writing freelance, she decided to retire to finish her first novel. Now she writes about searing passions and the sweetly explosive ecstasies of love.
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OLD STONES AND NEW WINE by Carolina Valdez
"A jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou." Omar KhayyámVictimized by the con man he'd been married to, and grieving the death of a beloved dog, internationally known mystery writer Alan Brynton plunges into complete writers block. Needing the income, and desperate to meet his publisher's deadline, he leaves Los Angeles and rents a house in a village in the south of France. Beside the blue Rhone River, among lush vineyards in wineproducing Provence, he struggles to overcome his anger and grief to break the hold the block has on him.
When rescuing an injured dog, he meets and finds himself falling for the irresistibly charming Frenchman, Jacques Marchand. But Jacques has the same easy charm his ex had, and having been burned in his marriage, Alan no longer trusts his ability to know who a person really is. He can't risk being victimized again, but can he risk losing the intoxicating "new wine" Jacques is to him?
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WIN - Leave Carolina a question today at her Cyber Launch Party, and your name goes in the hat for a free download of her book UNMASKED. Please leave your email address so we can contact you if you are today's winner - Good luck!
Happy Release Day Carolina!
ReplyDeleteAlan's story sounds like a heartbreaking journey of learning to trust again. I love those kinds of stories.
Tell us a bit about your story and how it came to be. And will we see Alan and Jacques again?
What else have you been working on?
I hope the new book is another bestseller for you - enjoy your day!
Thanks, DeNita. I spent the day prior to release day with my writing friends in an RWA meeting, so that made release day a happy one.
ReplyDeleteOLD STONES AND NEW WINE is one of five stories by different authors in Amber Quill Press's THE FRENCH CONNECTION AMBERPAX. The stories had to have some link to France, whether it was through New Orleans, Montreal or France itself. I chose an L.A. man because I know L.A. I wanted a contrast to the harsh, big city of Los Angeles, so after researching France, I invented a small village in the wineproducing south.
Right now I'm finishing a futuristic firewarrior story connected to TIE 'EM UP, HOLD 'EM DOWN. Then will come a third NIGHT TRAIN story. At this time, I don't have plans for Alan and Jacques again.
I should point out that this isn't an interracial story. I tell my publisher what elements there are to my stories, and somehow that slipped in. I'll have to ask the Webmaster to remove it.
ReplyDeleteI would love to read Alan's story. audie@wickerness.com
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your new release!
ReplyDeleteThe story sounds like one of trust needing to be restored. Trust being the biggest issue in any relationship. Thank you for the contest, and this book sounds so, so good..*S*
Darcy
Darcy @pommawolf.com
Thanks for the congratulations. Naturally, I like my story, too!
ReplyDeleteWhen I began it, however, I didn't know the theme of trust would weave its way in. My plots arise out of the interaction between my characters plus whatever else is going on in their lives. I don't plot my stories ahead of time because they're not novel length.
I see Audra loves some of the same books I do.
I love animals and nature, and wolves are one of my favorite animals. Yellowstone National Park has a pack raised to appear in a movie that didn't happen, so they were moved to a shelter in Yellowstone. Abandoned and wounded grizzlies have found a home there as well. They're gorgeous.
I think it is so interesting when a group of authors write with a related concept. What made you decide that this project would be a good fit for you? I have always wondered because every author has such different writing styles and character development. Will the story by one author intersect the stories of the other authors?
ReplyDeletejepebATverizonDOTnet
Congrats on your latest release! Sounds like a good read :-) What do you like to read for fun?
ReplyDeletesmaccall AT comcast.net
This sounds really good, Carolina, and I like the cover a lot!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your new release.It sounds great.
ReplyDeleteelaing8(at)netscape(dot)net
Congratulations on your new release!
ReplyDeleteI love the animals on your covers. Do you have any pets?
Is there any genre you would like to write in that you have not yet?
Thanks!
emmasmom AT wi DOT rr DOT com
Congreats on the new release. I love m/m stories, more hot men to dream of! Are there any authors who are autobuys for you? Any who really inspired you to write?
ReplyDeleteJune M.
manning_j2004 at yahoo dot com
Congrats on your release! Did you get to travel to France to do your research?
ReplyDeletedebby236 at gmail dot com
i my self love the book cover the color is great and then you blurb is great congrat on the book
ReplyDeletedesitheblonde@msn.om
Regarding the AmberPaxes, each has a theme. Five authors whose imaginations are stirred by that theme commit to writing a story. We don't write the stories together; in fact, we may have no idea what even one other author is writing about. You'll find they're truly all different. The stories don't intersect.
ReplyDeleteI read many Amber Quill releases--I buy the AmberPaxes for sure--and I read mystery, suspense, other romances, fantasy, vampires, and non fiction. I read or listen to about ten books a week.
Sad face - no trip to France to prepare this story.
Thanks, LYNDI, for mentioning my cover. I love it, too.
When I was ten, I'd take my lunch and bicycle to the San Diego Zoo. I remember taking a class on apes, gorillas and chimpanzees one summer. My husband and I love cats but no longer have one. I'm fascinated by the cat family, and so TWILIGHT and INHABITING THE NIGHT feature men who shift into big cats...a snow leopard and a white tiger.
I can't say any one writer inspired me to write. I've been reading and writing since I was about seven. I read all the children's books in the county branch library, and the librarian, bless her heart, picked out adult books for me.
However, I admire how other writers express themselves and am charmed by vivid imaginations and minds that can write suspense and thrillers.
Thanks so much for all your comments.
Congratulations on your new release. This sounds like it will be a very good book.
ReplyDeletesstrode at scrtc dot com
Congratulations on your new release. This sounds like it will be a very good book.
ReplyDeleterogcaprino at homtmail dot com
I too like the cover and the title. I like that your hero is missing his beloved dog when he meets and helps another dog. Sounds like the book is a story of healing on many different levels.
ReplyDeleteI think I would have cried my entire way through writing this story...lol...at least the begining of the story from Alan's point of view. Sounds like he's in a bad place.
Is it difficult for you to switch writing gears from a contemporary to your next project? How do you clear your mind of your last world and characters? Or are you one of those incredilbe people who can write several at the same time? That totally amazes me! I have trouble reading more than one book at a time, much less try to create one!
Good luck with the book, I'll be adding it to my list!
It's not that difficult to switch gears or agree to write a book or story when you have no idea what you'll write about. You get used to it. Writers tend to be voracious readers, and you get a feel for the subgenres you read.
ReplyDeleteI'll admit I was a little nervous about my futuristic, but I solved the problem by making David a descendant of firefighter Dane Garrison [TIE 'EM UP, HOLD 'EM DOWN]. That gave me an anchor to build on. Now firefighters are firewarriors, and it's been fun to research how fires may be fought in the future. This will be the third story related to Dane and Bear's original story.
Again, my thanks to all of you for such great questions. I enjoyed talking with you about writing.
Carolina Valdez
http://www.carolinavaldez.com
keen3849(at)mypacks(dot)net
keen3849(at)mypacks(dot)net