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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ALL OR NOTHING AT ALL by Carolina Valdez
Duty robbed them of their last night together. A deadly fireball struck Earth's New Los Angeles in the late afternoon, and instead of an evening of dinner and passionate sex with his lover, Battalion Chief David Garrison reported for duty and led his elite firewarrior squadron to fight the raging flames engulfing historic L.A. At first light the next morning, duty sends David's lover, Dillon Rapner, a special agent working undercover, off world to ferret out the source of these incendiary bombs destroying Old Town. During his search, Dillon is captured and enslaved for several years on another planet. Only thoughts of returning to David, the man he would love forever, keeps Dillon alive and determined to escape.
Never in his wildest imaginings, however, did Dillon expect that when he returned to Earth he'd find another man in David's bed...
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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 OLD STONES AND NEW WINE, her August release. Please leave your email address so we can contact you if you are today's winner - Good luck!
Happy Monday from my part of Southern California, everyone! The sun's peeping through a thin layer of clouds on this crisp day, and the birds are pecking for seeds beneath our orange trees.
ReplyDeleteHubbie and I spent a few days in Solvang recently. [Until it was dismantled, Michael Jackson's Neverland used to be about five miles east of it.] We've vacationed there in early November for several years, staying in a place where a huge oak tree peppers the roof and walkway with acorns. Woodpeckers sometimes peck it. They're gorgeous birds! Black, red and white, but oh, so raucous! It's the only place I've seen them in California.
Getting away from home for awhile is nice. Coming home refreshed again is nice, too. OLD STONES AND NEW WINE is about escaping Los Angeles for the beautiful French countryside. And finding love.
Have a great day!
Good morning Carolina! What a beautiful description of your vacation spot - you can tell you're a writer!
ReplyDeleteTell us all about the new book. Sci Fi/Futuristic is something different for you, how did you decide on the setting (time and place) for your new book?
Do you have other books you've written in this genre?
Wishing you the very best with the new book and I hope it's another bestseller for you! Enjoy your party!
Congratulations on your latest release, Caroline! I enjoyed the excerpt, talk about long distance sex.
ReplyDeleteI am curious after reading the blurb why Dillon would be so surprised if he was gone for years and possibly thought dead that David wouldn't have moved on. Hmmm, is there a happy ending to be had?!?
A good question, Anne. The depth of their feelings for each other - a sort of soul mates kind of thing - and his promise that he would return convinced him that David would wait for him. Too, the slaves aren't aware of how much time has passed. Their cells are changed often, so they can't keep marks on the walls.
ReplyDeleteHint: Romances usually call for a happy ever after ending, and this is a romance.
Hi Author Island!
ReplyDeleteAs for tackling a futuristic/sci fi story, that's easy. I'm published in fantasy and time travel, so the jump didn't seem so huge. I guess having a degree in science helped me risk it. I see the story has more futuristic than hard core sci fi, however.
Click on my blog to read the complete explanation of where I got the idea to do this and why I finally did.
I love Sci-Fi romance but this is one of the few I've seen with a m/m theme. Do you intend to write more like it? I hope so :D
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your latest release! What are you working on now?
ReplyDeletesmaccall AT comcast.net
Congrats on the new release.It sounds really good.
ReplyDeleteIs there another genre you'd like to tackle one day but are hesitant to try?
elaing8(at)netscape(dot)net
Thanks for such a nice bit of encouragement, iLona! I'm not sure. Maybe so.
ReplyDeleteRight now my WIP is Book 3 in my vampire/human Night Train series, NIGHT TRAIN TO VENICE. It's been difficult but interesting to find the information I need on Venice, but I did find there IS a night train to Venice! The historic Orient Express runs to it from Rome. My characters are on it now.
If you've read the first book, you know Dante and Alexandros first met on a night train running from Rome to Naples.
It's amazing how this is all falling together. The story should be released in April.
Just a caution - I'm going to my cardio/strength training class. Will be checking in again in about 90 minutes. Don't go away!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your newest release! :D
ReplyDeleteWhat made you decide to write a menage? I think it's a very tricky thing to write, especially since not everyone in the M/M world likes menage, and some people who do are very particular about it. (As for me? As long as it's good, I'm in!)
Beatrice
beatrice.g.tan [at] gmail [dot] com
Let me just say that a menage was necessary for this story. AQP author Caitlyn Willows's answer to the question 'How do you write a menage scene,' was, "Very carefully." LOL
ReplyDeleteIt's true that some people who enjoy m/m do not like m/m/m in their story. And that the market for m/m/f menage is separate from those who like pure m/m. If you like m/m you won't want a woman in the story. That's true in reverse.
I wrote a menage in NIGHT TRAIN TO NEW ORLEANS, the second book in the series, for a different reason.
I think anyone who reads m/m/m menage will find All OR NOTHING AT ALL quite acceptable.
The thing is, my publisher believes you can't sneak things into a story without alerting buyers to what they're getting. So at Amber Quill Press you'll always know if BDSM or menage occurs in a book, even if they play a small role in the story.
I wouldn't be upset if someone refused to buy one of my novellas because they don't like BDSM or menage, and I have it in there. I write where the story and the characters take me.
Thanks for the question!
Now, I have to leave for a time to see the ophthalmologist. I'd like to be able to see again! Makes it tough on my writing.
I'll be back again,
Meh! You tease us with that little taste of All Or Nothing At All and that's it! Now I have to add it to my wish list. I have to know what happens. How it is resolved. I mean...geez! Thanks for the giveaway.
ReplyDeletejepebATverizonDOTnet
Seeing the ophthalmologist took more time than I thought, but I was glad to see more comments when I returned. I hope I've answered all of them so far, but I'm ready for more. If you're a down-under reader, you can still ask something during your day tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteSounds like an exciting book. Do you have to outline a world before write the story?
ReplyDeleteHi Debby:
ReplyDeleteNo, I don't outline anything, but I write under 40,000 words and can get away with it.
I decide where I want my characters to live and move, and then I create it in my mind. I'm very familiar with Los Angeles, and was raised on the So Cal coast. In this current release, it was easy to imagine an L. A. of the future.
I know the California deserts, so they became a pattern for how the planet Oragone would look and feel.
As a Registered Nurse, I spent time with firemen and paramedics training to respond in an emergency or a disaster. It wasn't a big jump to imagine how we might fight fires in the future.
You're probably aware that most authors use what we know when we write, but expand our knowledge and dare to risk writing about what we don't know. That's where research and imagination come into play.
Sounds like a fabulous story! I just started writing F/F scifi romance, so any GLBT scifi romance appeals to me. Congrats on your release! :)
ReplyDeleteHi Jessica!
ReplyDeleteThanks, and good for you! F/F is something I don't think I could write. I thought about this recently and tried to figure out why, but it just holds no interest for me, I guess. Thankfully, it does for other writers.
I've checked out your blog and website, very interesting and I'm glad to have found you. I'll be checking out several of your books.
ReplyDeleteOne question, do you hav an author page on Facebook? I follow a lot of my favorite authors over there.
I'm so happy you checked out my website and found it interesting. And it's nice to know you're glad you found me.
ReplyDeleteI don't do Facebook. Twitter's enough for me. You can follow me there at http://www.twitter.com/carolina_valdez I also have a Yahoo newsletter group, and if you'll send me your email address at keen3849(at)mypacks(dot)net I'll add you. Soon I plan to be sending them out with Mail Chimp because I can have some color and images.