NIGHT TRAIN SERIES – HOORAY!

MLR, the man-love-romance press, has picked up this series. And I’m on a roll! If you recall,  Savage Lust, a 5k short story prequel to the series, was free. Since it chronicled what Alexandros was like as a young man and how he was turned into a vampire, it’s been added to the opening story—Night Train To Naples. It also contains his character arc.

I think I speak for all the former Amber Quill Press authors when I express the loss we feel that we’ve not only seen our books disappear, but all the online friendships we formed over the years are going as well. Christiane France set up an AQP Alum Yahoo group to share tips and support each other. Some have decided to self-publish all their AQP stories and a few have stopped writing altogether because it seems so daunting. Others, like me, refuse to give up. As I approach new publishers I’ve found it helps to mention that my stories have placed or been finalists in romance contests. Mentioning that some have been top sellers on All Romance eBooks is a boon, too.

As I re-read my stories, it comes to me how good they are.

“So why aren’t more people reading them?” I asked my husband.

“Could be you’re just a little prejudiced?” Clever man.

We had a good laugh over that.

This has been a tough year. The El Nino expected to relieve California’s drought didn’t materialize, Amber Quill Press closed, Spieth choked on the last nine to fall short of the green jacket at the Masters, and Kobe Bryant retired from the Lakers. . .”My body has given all it can to the game.”

Well, my body’s not the same as it once was, but I am not giving up.

Have a wonderful week!

A word to the wise: DO NOT purchase the Night Train paperback so outrageously over-priced at $93 and $119 on Amazon. Authors received nothing from sellers like these, and, frankly, although I consider my books beautifully crafted, they are not worth that kind of money now and never will be.

Carolina
http://www.carolinavaldez

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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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

MY SEXY SATURDAY – CAROLINA VALDEZ’S WIP

HOP TO OTHER BLOGS HERE http://www.mysexysaturday.blogspot.com
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No one is born a vampire, yet this was the destiny of Alexandros Nicolaides. How? And why did he become a creature of darkness, forbidden the daylight, forced to in contemporary times to travel on night trains?

Savage Lust: Prelude to Night Train is the story of his creation.

Athens, Byzantium circa 1300

When they spotted him, the girls waved and called, “Here, Alexandros!”

“Come dance with us!” the boys invited as they formed a circle to dance as the ancients had done.

The young man with a body like a god’s smiled and hurried across white sand toward a bonfire sending sparks into the sky. He waved an earthen jug of wine, and they cheered.

Mereau waited in the pine grove, the sounds of the surf at his back. He drank in the sight of the long dark hair framing a beautiful face, of broad shoulders that built boats by daylight, at the athletic grace of the figure with its narrow hips and deeply muscled legs powering their way to his friends. Thirst rose in his throat, and his groin surged with need.

Soon, he told himself. Soon I will have him—

Watch for this short story, free this summer!

http://www.amazon.com/Carolina-Valdez/e/B0055I94J0/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1433574388&sr=1-2-ent&pebp=1433574417030&perid=1RJH2VZJWKTN6E2S9XZG

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

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MY SEXY SATURDAY – CAROLINA VALDEZ

THIS IS A BLOG HOP! TO REACH OTHER AUTHORS PARTICIPATING GO TO http://www.mysexysaturday.blogspot.com or join the discussions at http://www.facebook.com/groups/MySexySaturday

My paragraphs are from the second book in my Night Train vampire series.

SETTING: FLORENCE, ITALY.

Dusk crept in, and the lamps on the Ponte Vecchio glowed in the soft, settling night. The wet smell of the river, now the deep color of malachite under the fading light, filtered up through the three open arches of the bridge, first built in Roman times.

One by one, the goldsmiths and jewelers had closed their shops at both ends of the bridge for the night. The bridge was quiet, almost deserted, when three young men arrived. They crouched and laid their battered guitar cases on the stone floor, then opened them and removed the acoustic instruments. Their banter and laughter mingled with the sounds of strings being tuned.

“What happened to the fourth young man who usually plays with them?”

The voice startled Giorgio, a slightly overweight, older street vendor. Thinking he was alone, he’d been boxing up his cheap souvenirs in preparation for folding up his display table and leaving. He turned, and fear rushed through him at the sight of the man whose black hair had been swept back from a high forehead, tucked behind his ears and gelled in place. He was elegantly dressed in an expensive dark suit, and the collar of a coat that brushed the tops of his shoes was turned up to frame and partially hide his pale face.

Giorgio wasn’t wealthy, but he judged everything the stranger wore had been custom made by one of Italy’s world famous designers. He wondered if the designer had intended to convey the sense of menace radiating from the man.

Giorgio was at the far end of the bridge, but he’d seen the young men pass. He knew Dante Rocco, a friend, was the missing musician, but a sixth sense warned him to keep this from the stranger. He played ignorant by asking, “Scuzzi, signor?”

NIGHT TRAIN TO NEW ORLEANS (digital)
NIGHT TRAIN (series in paperback)
Carolina Valdez
Website

Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. ~ Orson Scott Card

 

 

MY SEXY SATURDAY – TIE ‘EM UP, HOLD ‘EM DOWN

FIND OTHER AUTHORS AT http://mysexysaturday.blogspot.com   http://www.facebook.com/groups/MySexySaturday

Tie ‘Em Up, Hold ‘Em Down is a favorite of mine. It was my first venture into gay erotic fiction, and it earned an honorable mention in The Lories Best Published Novella the year it was launched. Blurb:   In the all male, macho world of firefighting, it’s dangerous to be gay. Dane’s determined they’ll be lovers, but Bear’s too terrified they’ll be outed to succumb to love.

Seven Paragraphs:   In celebration of Bear having reached the rank of fire captain, they drank champagne from crystal flutes while sitting nude in the spa off his friend Celeste’s living room. White candles flickered in the room, while below them the lights of Vegas twinkled like a salacious Disneyland. The pungent scent of white magnolias floating in low glass vases tickled his nose. Beethoven played softly in the background.

The warm jets pummeled the knots in his muscles. His soft dick floated an inch above his groin, and the bubbling waters teased Celeste’s generous breasts, her dark nipples riding with their motion. While he recognized that most men and some lesbians would love to fondle and tease them, Bear had no desire to touch them. To him they were just breasts. Nice breasts, and he was happy for Celeste that she had them, but they held no appeal for him. The thought of sucking them brought a mild queasiness.

As they toweled off, she said, “The voudrais is open tonight. Would you like to go down? My other friends are already there. I waited for you.”

Je voudrais…I want. The rooms where sexual encounters occurred in deep shadow with participants masked for secrecy. Adulterous, gay, lesbian, ménage, trans, bondage…whatever your fancy, from the darkest wish of the darkest heart to just plain consensual sex, but always with a safe word that meant “Stop.” It had been a long time. It fit his mood. He nodded and slipped into the thick, terry cloth robe she always provided —

Available singly http://www.amberquill.com/store/p/1459-Tie-Em-Up-Hold-Em-Down.aspx

Also available on Amazon in the paperback Smoldering Embers,  which includes its sequel — Hanging With My Window Man — and Hole in One. http://www.amazon.com/Smoldering-Embers-Carolina-Valdez/dp/1602728615/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1428109306&sr=1-4&keywords=Smoldering+Embers

If interested, you’re welcome to enter this Rafflecopter Sweepstakes. It only requires leaving a comment through the Contact page on http://deeannpalmer.com That’s all.  Winner selected randomly. http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/351966e21/

The giveaways include $10 Amazon Gift Card, one digital copy New Adult romance – Dancing in Circles by Canadian author Victoria Adams – one digital copy of Dee Ann Palmer’s sensual, shapeshifter romance How to Seduce a Knight.