Carolina Valdez 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.
Kevin Connolly, star of The Detective and named TV’s “Sexiest Man of the Year,” works in Hollywood with frequent filming trips to various locations. Nate Marquette, Kevin’s new love, works part of the year as a fireman in a mountain range not far from Los Angeles, but most of the year he operates his business as a helicopter logger in the Pacific Northwest and Canada. Complicating the logistics of getting together when they’re miles apart is the fact that it’s vital both men keep their sexual preferences secret. Exposure as a gay man might certainly ruin Kevin’s career, but it could also mean death for Nate.
Yet in the end, it’s not these challenges that threaten to tear them apart, but deeper issues of trust and betrayal...
WIN - Join the party by leaving a question or comment today over here on our Cyber Launch Party and you'll get your name in the hat for a free download of Carolina's Amber Allure title HANGIN' WITH MY WINDOW MAN!! The more comments you make, the more times your name goes in the hat! The winner will be announced right here, tomorrow - so be sure to check back!
Congrats on the new release Carolina!!! I love the story line, such completely different worlds your two heroes live in. I'm off to read the excerpt now!
ReplyDeleteHow did you get started writing gay romance? And for those who might not know, what other genres do you write in beside contemporary m/m romance?
Hi, DeNita:
ReplyDeleteI wrote my first m/m romance just to see if I could do it, and TIE 'EM UP, HOLD 'EM DOWN finaled in the 2009 Passionate Plume contest - Novella Division. So far, the rest have hit my publisher's Top Ten Best Seller list.
On my website, you'll also see historical, time travel, fantasy, and mystery/suspense m/f stories. I seldom plan what bent a story will take when I begin. It's fun to write them all!
Carolina
On my blog http://www.carolina-valdez.blogspot.com you'll see SOMEBODY TO LOVE can be purchased singly or as part of A SONG TO REMEMBER Volume 1. It's the newest AmberPax. Five song-inspired stories are included, and the titles, blurbs and covers for each are there.
ReplyDeleteYou'll also see I haven't had a chance to clear up those Photobucket thingies. The original designer of this site apparently went out of business, but I wasn't notified.
Carolina
http://www.CarolinaValdez.com
Congrats on the new release! I'm totally lovin the cover, it's totally drool worthy.
ReplyDeleteAnd kudos to you on all the running you do. It's a great way to stay healthy.
I do have to ask about your nursing career. Do you have any fun stories to share and might some of them end up in a book one day?
Love the cover, Carolina. Is that what they call steak tartare?
ReplyDeleteChristiane
Congratulations on the new release Carolina!!! Wish that you sell ridiculous amounts of your book!!!
ReplyDeleteHappy Reading
Anna Shah Hoque
s7anna@yahoo.ca
I just know I'm going to love reading Somebody to Love...it's got all the elements that make up a great story.
ReplyDeleteHappy Reading
Anna Shah Hoque
s7anna@yahoo.ca
What was your inspiration behind Somebody to Love? There's just such a huge distance in the spectrum of the careers of the two characters; how do you bring about their first connection?
ReplyDeleteHappy Reading
Anna Shah Hoque
s7anna@yahoo.ca
What kind of research did you do have to do in order to fully get into Nate's mindset...both his work as a fireman and a helicopter logger (both such interesting and fascinating careers on their own). I'm already in love with Nate!
ReplyDeleteHappy Reading
Anna Shah Hoque
s7anna@yahoo.ca
Who are some of your favourite m/m fiction authors? Do you have any particular titles that you always fall back to, if so, which ones would you recommend to us?
ReplyDeleteHappy Reading
Anna Shah Hoque
s7anna@yahoo.ca
I'm in complete awe of your marathon abilities...you must have some great stories to tell out of those experiences...any chance of you featuring certain aspects of it in your future works?
ReplyDeleteHappy Reading
Anna Shah Hoque
s7anna@yahoo.ca
How aware is your family of your writing? Do they read your work? Better yet...do you let them? hhehee...Do you foresee ever branching out to other sub-genres of romance? If so, what sub-genre most interests you and why?
ReplyDeleteHappy Reading
Anna Shah Hoque
s7anna@yahoo.ca
This sounds great; I look forward in reading it.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Tracey D
California's 3 hours ahead of the east coast. I've been to the eye doctor and the grocery store. Sorry I couldn't get to each comment individually. Here are some responses.
ReplyDelete1. I have both funny and heartbreaking experiences as a professional nurse. You'll find some of my medical background in a few of my stories, like FORBIDDEN DESIRE and SILK STEALTH: SHADOW WARRIOR. No plans for a book about my nursing experiences. Liability issues there.
2. Yes, Chris. I love the cover, too! I think steak tartare describes it perfectly. Researching the Chippendale dancers was really enlightening.
More on another post.
Carolina
The five song-inspired stories in the AmberPax all had to have the title of a well known song. (Chris's title is THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM.) The Jefferson Airplane's SOMEBODY TO LOVE rattled through my brain, and the wedding scene popped into it right away. So. I needed a character who needed somebody to love and be loved by. An isolated gay man came to mind.
ReplyDeleteI'd just seen a TV special on helicopter logging, and it was perfect for this secretly gay man named Nate. I had to bring him closer to TV's sexiest man, and I'd researched firefighting for my first m/m book. I knew the firestation in Fawnskin, so there it was! California's been through some mega fires in the last six years, so that was easy, too.
More on next post.
Carolina
I no longer run long distances. Twenty years of it and my body said, "Enough." Still enter 5Ks (3.1 miles).
ReplyDeleteI've read some non-erotic, non-romance books about gays, but they don't help in composing what I write. I read few little erotic m/m stories. However, I can recommend Christiane France and M.L. Rhodes. I know you'd enjoy every story in A SONG TO REMEMBER Volume 1 AmberPax. The entire Pax is only $17.25.
To find it, go to http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure and scroll down the lefthand column and click on AmberPax. Then locate us midway down the collection.
As for my family knowing I write erotic m/f and m/m romance, no, they don't know.
ReplyDeleteAs for different genres, I'm published in mystery and suspense under a different name. I'm working on an autobiography for our children. My erotic romances cover time travel and fantasy under the paranormal umbrella, and action/suspense, sports and mystery.
Who knows what I'll try next? Recently I spoke with a new writer struggling with her first book. She almost passed out when I suggested she put that aside and start something else. One at a time really isn't enough. Working on something else can often magically clear up the stumbling block on the other story.
Thanks for answering my questions Carolina :)
ReplyDeletecongrats on the new release i havent had the prvlage of reading your work yet but sounds great ty!
ReplyDeleteNo winner announced?
ReplyDelete