EXCITING NEWS – LOOSE ID HAS PICKED UP AWAKING THE ALPHA

On March 30th, Amber Quill Press, L.LC. will cease all sales operations. The site will disappear, and soon all its books on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, All Romance eBooks, Kobo, and Apple will disappear too.

To an author, our books are like our children—born in travail, loved, and presented happily to the world. Although it’s been difficult for all the owners and authors, I’ve learned that losing my publisher is not the end to my writing career.

I’m happy to announce that Loose Id has accepted what is now Awaking The Alpha, and, with some revisions (they want the sex hotter!) and extensions by me, will release the new version in May. I’m eager to see what title and design for the new cover they choose. This story was a favorite of mine. And of readers, too. It hit #10 on the All Romance eBooks Top Ten Best Sellers. Thanks to everyone who bought it. Hurry, hurry if you want to get it!

For the cover of the original version, I accommodated Trace Edward Zaber, the designer for all the Amber Quill Press titles, by hunting for a photo of a contemporary American Indian.  It wasn’t fast, but I found one…a happy man who has also lived in the white world. When the books are removed from all the sales sites, that cover will still be in my computer. A reminder of happy times.

Meanwhile, you’ll find Unmasked and Amen To Love, with their original covers, cropping up on my website. I decided to indie publish them rather than shop them around, and I purchased the rights to the covers from Trace because I’ve always liked them.

Can two stubborn men come to terms with the real definition of “home”?

Blades on ice might have kept them together, but while one man is open about what he does, the other still hides behind a mask long after the masquerade party has ended.

Have a great year, people!

Carolina

http://www.carolinavaldez.com                   http://www.twitter.com/carolina_valdez

https://fingerstothekeys.wordpress.com

http://www.facebook.com/author.carolina.valdez

Did you know Carolina is pronounced car-oh-leena? And that the emphasis in Val-dez is on the first syllable? It’s a Spanish thing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

#MySexySaturday – LURE by Carolina Valdez

Follow the other blogs on this hop http://www.mysexysaturday.blogspot.com

This is a throwback to earlier days of being published…a hot, sexy read  (Odd, but after all these years I’ve never figured out what my “voice” is as a writer. Maybe you can tell me?)

From LURE by Carolina Valdez

The man, Angelo Santini, watched her from the bar through hooded eyes. She was some woman—long legs, breasts to die for, and the promise of wild pleasure peeking out from under a skirt that covered just enough and not enough. He felt his body responding inappropriately or, rather, appropriately, he thought with a half smile. He was a man, after all. He sipped his beer and turned his thoughts to his assignment instead. He was here as her backup, not to seduce her. Or be seduced, he thought with a chuckle as he saw her slap her flail.

They hadn’t met, yet he could swear she was looking at him, dancing for him. It was uncanny. Looking right at me, he thought, as he watched her lazily running her hands down her hips and up her inner thighs, stopping just short of her skirt, then, crossing her hands over her breasts, she rocked her derrière in circles as she moved around the pole.

http://www.amazon.com/Lure-Carolina-Valdez-ebook/dp/BOOIC8E

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Carolina+Valdez?_requestid=1452559

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/412264

SAD NEWS – AMBER QUILL PRESS, MY PUBLISHER, WILL CLOSE IN MARCH

http://www.amberquill.com

If you’ve been to the Amber Quill Press website recently, this is what you’ll see—

“AMBER QUILL PRESS, LLC WILL CEASE ALL RETAIL OPERATIONS AT MIDNIGHT (MDT) MARCH 30, 2016 (0700 UTC) MARCH 31, 2016. The site and all its books will disappear from the Internet at that time. Be sure you’ve downloaded everything from your Bookshelf and have used all your rewards points prior to those dates and time.”

This publisher opened its doors in late 2002, and I was privileged to become one of the authors for this “Gold Standard in Publishing” small press in 2003, when I was a winner in the first Amber Heat Wave Erotic Short Story Contest. My winner, Dark Stranger, was released in the spring of 2004. I recently toned down the sex from erotic to sensual and indie published it as Night Rider, under a different name.

Epublishing was in its infancy in 2002. I’ve been through its rise in popularity and our books finally accepted as non-vanity, non-subsidized real books. In the beginning, you had to purchase an expensive eReader. Today, free apps allow you to read any book on any device.

I like being with a publisher, and am crushed at the loss of mine. The AQP owners and staff were wonderful to work with, they operated an honorable publishing house, and I feel a deep sense of regret that changes in the publishing world have created its demise. Through their support of my work,and thanks to my fans, I earned Published Author Network (PAN) status in Romance Writers of America, saw my stories final and place in romance contests, and built a wonderful online network of author and fan friendships.

In the last two years, I watched royalties slowly decrease for all of us due to a major drop in sales from Amazon. I was among many long-timers who wondered if small presses could survive. With AQP’s closure, I believe at least four houses have been forced out of business in the past year.

Why? Were they poorly managed?

No, the behemoth Amazon, in effect, became a publisher. Not just with Montauk and their Kindle Scout program, but by opening the door to indie publishing. They’ve eliminated the middle man functions of small presses. Now, as an indie publisher/author under a different name, I am the middle man—I pay an editor, a formatter and a cover designer for my books. I pay for advertising, and I’m accountant and tax woman.

Novellas selling for $6.00 on small presses couldn’t compete with Amazon’s prices…often at $1.99, $2.99, $.99. Sometimes even free. Those of us who have joined the indie phenomenon  have had a role in forcing those middle man, small presses out of business. We are part of the downfall. I am part of it because I’ve indie published under a different name.

My website will remain, but on March 31st two male-female erotic stories will be the only books there. In From The Cold will be my first gay erotic rerelease come April 1st. If Loose-Id accepts Silk Stealth (combined with Silk Stealth: Shadow Warrior to make it novel length) it will eventually show up there.

I’ve lived long enough to get it: the world changes. Has ever since my birth in a small Texas town. Now four small presses have closed in the past year, and I’m sure there will be more to come. Some people will stop writing. Others, and I am one, will continue to write. It is what writers do.

Check out the great prices for my books now on Amber Quill’s website. Pick up your free copy of Savage Lust, my prequel to the Night Train vampire series. Do check out my now short-lived, latest release Surf’s Up!, where Raven must decide if he can love a glam man. (I just love these characters.)

http://www.amberquill.com/store/m/78-Carolina-Valdez.aspx

Stay with me! And have a great weekend…

Carolina

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PERFECT HEROES FOR ROMANCE

Friend and author Marilyn Donohue once published an article called “There’s More to a Library than Books.” The point being that there’s a story behind the writing of every book. I’ve always thought how clever she was to come up with that idea, and today I’m sharing the story behind the writing of AMEN TO LOVE…

Men of the sea and their ships hold a special place in my heart because I grew up in Navy country, had sailors as friends and dated officers.

My high school boyfriend’s father was a naval commander, and one night, when his dad’s ship was in port, we sat in silence on the bluffs watching its lights dance on the black water below. The poignancy of those moments are clear to me now that I’m older. In a way I didn’t then, I realize how proud he was of his father, but, unlike mine, who was always home, his was away too much. The lights may have evoked feelings of pride, but the vastness of the dark waters reflected a hurtful longing to see more of his dad.

As news of the exploits of SEALs began to hit the news in recent years, I became enthralled with these superheroes, these elite of the elite Special Forces warriors. They truly do make perfect heroes for a romance. As I thought about writing Awaking the Alpha–my January 2014 All Romance eBooks and Amber Allure best seller–I happened on a TV interview of a highly decorated SEAL who for all his twenty years in the service hid the fact his brain told him he was really female. I drew partly on this idea of hiding your real identity in creating Blaze Canis, a retired SEAL whose teammates never guessed he was gay, much less a werewolf.

As I began writing Amen To Love, I wasn’t interested in doing another shifter story, but I was not quite through with the SEALs. This new release is part of the medical AmberPax, A Cure For What Ails You, and since I have bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing, it was fun to step back into the medical field and create Bond Bergstrom, a closeted and retired Navy SEAL, the new chief of surgery at Weatherton Mountain Hospital. For Bond, I drew on that sense of loss my high school boyfriend felt about missing his dad because newly retired Bond misses his former teammates at times.

I hope you enjoy him and his retired Delta Force operative counterpart, sexy Irish American Rory O’Shea.

I’m a member of the Orange County, CA chapter of Romance Writers of America and the Los Angeles chapter of Sisters in Crime. The murder mystery in the plot springs out of my interest in the crime genres.

I’ve read that people who read crime fiction pretty much ignore other genres, while romance readers tend to enjoy a broad and diverse range of books. I hope combining genres adds to your reading pleasure. Even if you don’t usually care for crime fiction, I hope you’ll find the love story in Amen To Love sizzlingly satisfying.

To purchase or read excerpt see
http://www.amberquill.com/store/m/78-Carolina-Valdez.aspx

Happy New Year!

Love you all!

Carolina Valdez

http://www.CarolinaValdez.com

Tweets by carolina_valdez

https://fingerstothekeys.wordpress.com
http://www.facebook.com/author.carolina.valdez

For a FREE copy of the first chapter of Amen To Love, contact me by leaving a comment here or using the Contact form on the menu above.

SEXY SATURDAY BLOG HOP – AMEN TO LOVE

My 7 paragraphs are from Amen To Love, my latest contemporary gay romance. It will be released this fall as a single extended novella and in the General Hospital AmberPax from Amber Allure. AmberPaxes always contain five stories from five different authors. New releases are discounted.

EXCERPT – AMEN TO LOVE

The stranger smiled, and out of a face framed by greasy hair and smudged with grass stains and earth, two stunningly arresting emerald eyes caught his gaze. They took his measure, head to toes. And they invited him for sex. The look said it all. The man hadn’t spoken a word or made any gesture, but there was absolute certainty in his posture that this would happen. The hairs rose on Bond’s neck and arms and his pulse kicked up.

It was a look beyond any Bond had recalled ever experiencing with any other man. Not even the initial one from the man who had once been his lover. What he’d felt for that partner and what they’d had together instantly faded from his thoughts as if it had never been. Good Lord, you’d think I was young again. And still a virgin.

He might have scoffed, but instead he stopped. His mind imploded with visions of being in bed with this man, tangled in sheets damp with sweat, their bodies naked, wet, and slippery with their cum. The scintillating smell of sex was pungent in the air.

He knew this man’s touch on his arousal would bring searing heat and pleasure beyond bearing. Bond’s every nerve ending flooded him with sensations with the knowledge that fucking this man would be primal, rough and primitive. Cataclysmic. More satisfying than any encounter with any other man had ever been. They would make love, and then they would do it again. Simply being together would set off the need, the urgency.

Bond’s dick threatened to surge in response. His tongue stuck to his mouth as his breath caught in his throat.

The look also said, “I will have you. I am your man. You are my destiny.”

Carolina Valdez     http://www.CarolinaValdez.com  Did you know you can purchase all my books in the format for your favorite eReader here: http://www.amberquill.com/store/m/78-Carolina-Valdez.aspx

http://www.facebook.com/author.carolina.valdez   http://www.twitter.com/carolina_valdez http://www.pinterest.com/Carolina_Valdez

Carolina’s Books are also available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple, and Kobo
NOW HOP TO http://www.mysexysaturday.blogspot.com for more free reads Join us on http://www.facebook.com/mysexysaturday

Cover for Awaking The Alpha

THE ROMANCE REVIEWS FALL BLOG HOP 9/1-9/30

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! DRAWINGS FOR $100 GIFT CERTIFICATE AND GIFTS FROM INDIVIDUAL PARTICIPATING AUTHORS.

My gift for this is an e-copy of my shifter story, TWILIGHT. You must leave a brief comment here on this site to be entered to win this copy. For more on my story, see http://www.amberquill.com/store/p/1454-Twilight.aspx

http://www.CarolinaValdez.com

Tweets by carolina_valdez

http://www.facebook.com/author.carolina.valdez

BLOG HOP and IN FROM THE COLD

WELCOME TO THE MFRW BLOG HOP WEDNESDAY 7/16!

My contribution is a high school gay reunion love story. I was intrigued to learn of an antique strain of English sheep saved by Beatrix
Potter, and I discovered a herd in Oregon! While Jon leaves high school to become a rock star Wendell stays home on the family sheep farm.

Cheers rose as the house lights dimmed and the maroon velvet stage curtain parted. The stage lights were on–smoky and soft. Jon Badd and Mark Winston walked around with their guitars strapped over their shoulders and chests, trailing cords like tails sprouting from Jon’s green Gretsch and Mark’s Fender. Hamilton Garr sat down at the drums, sticks poised. Jon strummed the opening chords, and Mark’s bass filled in as Hamilton’s sticks struck the drums. They were off and running. The amps blared, and Jon’s voice swelled as the music surrounded the fans with sound. They clapped and stomped. Then settled in and listened.

Wendell had heard the band perform in the early days of their success, and that they’d grown even better amazed him. Standing in the wings, one hand in his slacks pocket, his emotions soared. A mixture of excitement, pride and love rushed through him any time Jon took the stage, and it had never changed. He’d hoped feeling this way was over for him. Now he doubted it ever would be.

And therein lies my dilemma, he thought.

Read more at
http://www.amberquill.com/store/p/1447-In-From-The-Cold.aspx
http://www.CarolinaValdez.com
CONTINUE THE BLOG HOP HERE

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BLOG HOP and IN FROM THE COLD

WELCOME TO THIS WEEK’S BOOK HOOKS BLOG HOP

This is a high school reunion love story. It began as a promised novella, and when I discovered an antique type of sheep England’s Beatrix Potter had helped save, I was on my way. Oregon has some of these sheep. Jon has become a rock star, Wendell has remained a sheep farmer. . .Carolina Valdez

Cheers rose as the house lights dimmed and the maroon velvet stage curtain parted. The stage lights were on–smoky and soft. Jon Badd and Mark Winston walked around with their guitars strapped over their shoulders and chests, trailing cords like tails sprouting from Jon’s green Gretsch and Mark’s Fender. Hamilton Garr sat down at the drums, sticks poised. Jon strummed the opening chords, and Mark’s bass filled in as Hamilton’s sticks struck the drums. They were off and running. The amps blared, and Jon’s voice swelled as the music surrounded the fans with sound. They clapped and stomped. Then settled in and listened.

Wendell had heard the band perform in the early days of their success, and that they’d grown even better amazed him. Standing in the wings, one hand in his slacks pocket, his emotions soared. A mixture of excitement, pride and love rushed through him any time Jon took the stage, and it had never changed. He’d hoped feeling this way was over for him. Now he doubted it ever would be.

And therein lies my dilemma, he thought.

http://www.amberquill.com/store/p/1447-In-From-The-Cold.aspx   http://www.CarolinaValdez.com   http://www.amazon.com/author/carolinavaldez

NOW HOP TO THE NEXT AUTHOR’S SENTENCES

http://mfrw-authors.blogspot.com/p/book-hooks.html#.U8RkEbGmU1l

 

 

 

 

#MySexySaturday7 #50 FINDING LOVE AGAIN

Carolina Valdez’s 7 sexy paragraphs from HOLE IN ONE-–

In the golf club lounge, Greg had just finished a croissant sandwich loaded with turkey, cheese and tomato and was cleaning his hands on a napkin when he spotted someone out of his past across the room.

Rio Vargas.

The pulses in his throat throbbed. His mouth went dry. Images flooded his memory.

They’d been so young–maybe nineteen–playing in an international collegiate tournament when they’d met. They’d had a smoldering, three-night affair. It wasn’t Greg’s first time with a male, but it was the first and only time it had meant more than sex to him.

Days, it was a wonder they could swing a club at all after staying up most of the night talking and fucking their balls off, but, even though shaky, they’d managed to play. And play well. At night, they’d laughed themselves silly over how out of it they’d been and how successful. Then the laughter would fade into a blend of hungry mouths and hands touching and rubbing, of cocks pulsing as sensual ecstasy thundered through them in utter abandon.

The tournament ended. So did the affair. They’d returned to their respective countries, separated by almost five thousand miles. Like so many guys that age, they weren’t into writing, but Greg had sent one letter. When there was no response, he hadn’t written again. Or called. An overseas call didn’t fit his wallet, and he wasn’t eager for another rebuff like the unanswered letter.

He’d always thought the loss of this friendship was because he’d beaten the gifted Vargas in the final round. It gave Team USA the win over Team Madrid. Still, he’d wake from a dream in the night and the image, the feel and taste of that lover would be there. He’d lie in the darkness for hours before he could claim sleep again.

If you like what you see, read more of this Amber Quill Allure bestseller at http://www.amberquill.com/store/p/1461-Hole-In-One.aspx

CONTINUE BLOG HOP AT http://www.mysexysaturday.blogspot.com

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SEXY SATURDAY 7 #49 BLOG HOP

This week authors are providing snippets of their favorite heroines with 7 words, sentences or paragraphs. My paragraphs are from Avalanche!, a winter romance.  Gold medalist skier Chad Jenkins is injured on ski patrol leader Seri Lohan’s watch. Trapped in his chalet by a blizzard while she nurses him, sexual tensions emerge. Chad attempts seduction to keep her there, but he’s broken her heart before. Seri’s determined not to let him do it again.

 In the bathroom Seri removed her after-ski boots and outerwear, rid herself of the discomfort of a bra over her full breasts all day and shed her black panties. She slipped under the covers beside him wearing only her long, black silk thermals. He stirred and quieted. She curled near him, just close enough to share her body warmth and stop his shivers. 

Falling instantly asleep as if drugged, she stirred briefly when she felt someone brushing the tendrils of hairs that had escaped from her braid back from her face. Opening her eyes, she saw that she and Chad now faced each other.

“Hi,” he said, his voice soft. He smelled of the emergency room’s antiseptic and soap. In the flickering light of the banked fire, his eyes had darkened to lapis lazuli. 

That’s who he is in real life, she thought. Someone deep and mysterious who keeps his thoughts close to his chest. This was the Chad she knew. 

“Hi,” she whispered back. 

His lips, warm and soft, closed on hers. 

Desire threaded through her body. Alarm bells rang distantly in her head. Thankfully, Chad went back to sleep, and she didn’t think he was aware she hadn’t returned his kiss. It had been shit hard, but she hadn’t done all the things she’d wanted to do with that mouth, that desire-igniting mouth with its warmth and all encompassing sweetness. She turned away. Her feelings for him hadn’t changed since high school. And she was a fool.

FOR MORE: http://www.amazon.com/author/carolinavaldez

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