Racheline Maltese's Blog, page 31
January 12, 2015
Quote A Day til Doves – 9 days to go
January 11, 2015
Quote A Day til Doves – 10 days to go
January 10, 2015
Sentence A Day Countdown to Doves!
We have just ten days left til Doves comes out, and in honor of the release we’ll be posting ten sentences from the book — one a day, one at a time — here as well as on Tumblr and Twitter.
Let’s start with today’s!
When they get to their room Paul grabs Alex’s face and kisses him because some traditions are damn well worth keeping.
(Psst, don’t wanna wait? You can preorder Doves from Torquere right now!)
January 7, 2015
The Awesome Women of Love in Los Angeles, Part 9: Carly Amadahy (is back!)
So Doves comes out in just over two weeks (and is available for preorder from Torquere now), which means we’re going to get you caught up with what some of the amazing women you know and love from Starling.
First, is Carly. Liam’s non-nonsense fiancée, Paul’s ex-girlfriend and best friend, and the chick Alex admires fiercely and is mildly terrified of, Carly spends Doves wishing the people around her would get their shit in order — and often goes out of her way to help them do just that. She’s trying to plan a celebrity wedding when Liam’s work schedule leaves them barely any time to see each other. Don’t even talk to her about their hunt for a house. She’s worried Paul is falling apart, she’s by turns amused and annoyed at Alex’s complete failures to be a grownup, she’s royally pissed at Victor for all sorts of things, and she really, really wishes that people would stop making Liam cry.
Carly is a private person with a rich tapestry of loves and relationships. We got to see some of that in Evergreen, and even more of that will come to the fore in Doves. For everyone who wanted more Carly and Liam, and Carly in general, it’s definitely coming your way.
January 6, 2015
Doves – Now available for preorder!
We’re super pleased to announce you can now preorder Doves at TorquereBooks.com. It’ll be delivered to your email or the device of your choice on January 21! For those who prefer to order from Amazon or other retailers, you’ll be able to purchase and downlaod there on January 21.
The paperback edition will be available on February 14!
For those wondering why Doves is a dollar more than Starling, that’s because Torquere prices by length, and Doves is 20,000 words longer than Starling is, clocking in at a whopping 90,000. (The wordprocesser I used to do galley edits would like you to know it’s still angry at me for that.)
The ties that bind…
Two years after the events of Starling, Cinderella story and star of The Fourth Estate J. Alex Cook is living happily ever after with his boyfriend, television writer Paul Marion Keane. But when Paul’s pilot, Winsome, AZ, gets picked up, the competing demands of their high-profile careers make them question their future together.
…can sometimes tear you apart
As Paul becomes increasingly absent from their relationship, Alex tries to regain control of his private life and establish a career path independent of Fourth’s enigmatic, and at times malevolent, showrunner Victor. But the delicate web of relationships that connects Alex, Paul, and their friends — including Alex’s excitable ex-lover Liam and his no-nonsense fiancée Carly — threatens to unravel.
With the business of Hollywood making it hard to remember who he is when the whole world isn’t watching, Alex is forced to confront major changes in the fairytale life he never wanted as he discovers that love in Los Angeles often looks nothing like the movies.
Doves is Book Two in the Love in Los Angeles series.
January 5, 2015
Do the Thing: Knowing when to stop
Doves (Love in Los Angeles, Book 2) comes out on January 21, which is…16 days away, and I kind of wish I hadn’t counted that out just now. Our blog tour is also starting soon, and it’s going to be bigger and more extensive than our tour for Starling was. And while that means good things in terms of our marketing, it also means much more work for us. We kind of both just want to take a nap already.
But, even with as much marketing as we do, I always wonder if we should do more. After all, every new blog post on another site hits another potential audience, right?
Which is probably true. But there’s a cost/benefit thing going on, which is basically that the more time I spend marketing, the less I have for other things. Like actually writing. And sleeping. And while a lot of times that tradeoff is worth it, to an extent (our rule of thumb is an hour of marketing every day, for each of us) there is a point of negative returns. Like this morning when I emailed Racheline with a new list of blogs to possibly add to our tour, and she replied with, in essence, “Staaaaaaahhhp.”
Because as much as we want to talk about the book in all the places, we do have to keep writing new projects. And sleeping. And paying attention to our partners and our cats. And not overextending ourselves to the extent that we can’t actually deliver on what we need to.
There are never enough hours in the day to do everything I want to. I’m still learning how best to prioritize the time that I do have. And it’s hard, to let things that I want to do and that would benefit me, go,and put some things to bed so I have the time and the brain to do other things. But it’s also completely necessary, so I don’t get a heart attack and don’t miss deadlines.
So what hard choices are you making this week, between all the things you want to do? Leave a note in the comments, and we’ll be encouraging, offer whatever advice we can, and always give you a high-five for doing the best you can to make the hard choices.
Reading Tonight: Lady Jane’s NYC
If any of you are in the NYC area tonight, and want a sneak peek at what we’ve got coming up in the Love in Los Angeles series, I hope you’ll come to Lady Jane’s Salon, a monthly romance reading series there in the city. It’s from 7-9pm tonight at Madame X (94 Houston Street, NYC).
I won’t be there myself (tragically), but Racheline will be reading from Doves (which will be out from Torquere on January 21).
To celebrate the reading tonight, we also have a roundtable about romance books up at Romance@Random, the pop-culture and romance blog of Random House books.
Hope to see you there!
December 31, 2014
Starling: A New Year’s Eve Excerpt
It’s New Year’s Eve and three weeks away from the release of Doves, book 2 in the Love in Los Angeles series.
Below is an excerpt from a New Year’s Eve party that takes place relatively late in Starling, the first book in the series. Everyone’s kind of a mess, nothing’s been resolved yet, and while our protagonists are starting to figure out what they want out of the new year, none of them are sure just how to get it yet. This excerpt is written from the viewpoint of Carly, the polyamorous girlfriend of one of the main characters who often finds herself sorting out everyone else’s relationship dramas, failures, and foibles. She loves her chosen family. She just finds them wildly inefficient, is all:
Liam greets Carly at the door with a wild hug and an enthusiastic kiss, and then grabs her hand and drags her into the room. New Year’s with Liam’s family—all generations of it, all packed into a reconstructed black box theatre on 42nd Street—is a must for the holidays, and totally worth flying out for.
When she finally finds Alex—his hair is fucking useful sometimes—she wraps him in a hug too and rocks a little until he finally relaxes and hugs her back.
“Hi, Carly,” he says, his voice drily amused, when she lets him go.
“Hello, Alex.”
“…That’s not a good voice.”
“Come with me,” she says and hooks an arm through his elbow. She drags him to the back of the room, where it’s darker and quieter and there’s less chance of an audience, because none of this really needs one.“Okay, real talk time,” she says.
Alex looks a little scared. “Yes?”
“So, the genius thing where you called Paul about Liam? Total asshole move. I mean, I am sorry you were messed up about that, because Liam really does adore you. You guys are good now, right?”
“I thought that’s what you were going to yell at me for.”
Carly waves that off. “Oh, no, honey. I’m glad you had a good time. I am going to yell at you about Paul, though, because he’s fucking Craig again which is actually more bullshit than you thinking Liam should be your boyfriend—”
“I didn’t—”
“Rounding up! Let me finish, then you can talk. Look. We are all crazy and fucked up, but we also all adore you. And you’re being fucking crazy and also an asshole, so you should be patient and good and decide what you want and what you’re doing so you have a plan when Paul is done with this self-injury routine he has going on.”
Alex’s eyes go a little wide, and it’s the exact opposite of the cute squinty thing he does when he smiles.
“Oh, sweetie,” Carly says, and grabs his hand to squeeze it. She wonders how much Paul has told him, but he’s a smart kid in any case. “Paul’s fine. He’s just stupid. But please, figure out what you’re doing with him.”
“He’s back with Craig?” Alex asks.
“Total bullshit,” she says firmly, because it is. She squeezes his hand again before she drops it. “Which is why you need to figure your shit out. Now come on, baby boy, you need a drink.”
If you enjoyed this excerpt, please consider picking up Starling so you can be ready to slide into Doves come January 21st. If you need a fix while you wait, we also have a Liam-centered story available called Evergreen.
If you buy them from Torquere Press (Starling: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=97&products_id=4269 /
Evergreen: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=79_108&products_id=4328) use code Endof2014 now through January 3rd to get 25% off your entire cart.
Otherwise, consider visiting Amazon, All Romance, or your favorite print and ebook retailers.
December 29, 2014
Guest Post and Giveaway from Missouri Dalton
Today we have a guest post from Missouri Dalton, whose new book, A Curse on the Mountain, is out today from Dreamspinner Press. Sometimes books come easily, sometimes books have to be turned over from every angle to figure out how to best tell the story you know all 360 degrees of. For Missouri, this was one of those books:
First off, a thank you to my hosts, who were gracious enough to be the second stop on the tour for A Curse on the Mountain, and happen to be the RELEASE DAY! Stop! Yes, those exclamation points are completely necessary. This book has been a real labor of love. Emphasis on the labor part. It has had more drafts than any other novel I’ve ever written. Well over a dozen in fact. I changed character names, changed POV types, changed—everything.
Then I went back to the beginning. Of course, now you can all read it for yourselves and decide it all that work was worth it or not but I hope you enjoy the book and now here’s a snippet and we’ll follow that with all the pertinent links and such like.
Excerpt:
At the very top of a mountain shrouded in dark clouds was a city, the capital of a kingdom called Eldore. It had rained for a thousand years, with no indication it would ever stop. Centuries ago the city was cursed by Cai, a god torn from the mortal woman he loved by Death and the borders that limited his influence outside the kingdom he called home. The other gods refused to allow the lovers to reunite after her death, and in his grief and anger, the once loving god turned his sorrow into a curse.
Clouds formed over the mountain and the plains on the first day, dark clouds filled to bursting with Cai’s tears. Those raindrops fell onto the city and continued to fall as the god cried for his beloved wife, withheld from him by the jealousy of his brethren. Over time the clouds shrank as Cai’s power diminished, until only the mountain was subjected to his curse.
The mountain’s name had been lost to time, and the records on which that name was inscribed had long since succumbed to must and mold and damp. The city perched on its crest was called Var Eldore. Like all cities on mountains, the wealthy lived at the peak while those with less struggled closer to the bottom. Unlike all other cities on mountains, there was a slightly more practical reason for this than simple ego or even defense. It was the rain. The rain flooded the lowlands beneath the mountain. The poor built their homes upon stilts of stone, while the rich built elaborate systems to divert the water from one place to another.
The rainwater eventually made its way to the plains below the mountain. The plains muddied and sank and became a marsh, a cold, harsh place where little life grew. What life there was came in dangerous forms. Large beasts of claw and tooth and pebbled leather hide. For the most part, carnivores roamed the thick swamp. Stretching farther from the marsh, the plains took hold again. The great beasts were present there as well, but tamed by the efforts of those who dwelt on the plains. A people apart from their pale neighbors on the mountain, the Ruvi were gypsies and nomads with dark skin and hair the color of blood. Legend told of the time when the mountains to the far east split open to allow passage, and these strangers came to the plains.
The winds swept the grasses and drew music from the reeds at the edge of the swamp. Sunlight warmed the plains, and the Ruvi kept their herds in peace. They traded east and west, and even with the city, though Var Eldore was a dangerous place for a Ruvi to go. Slave markets abounded in the lower city, called the Mire by those who lived there, and the traders weren’t particularly choosy about where their wares came from. They raided the plains and stole children from their beds. The small settlements on the edge of the swamp were all fair game to those vile men with their vile trade. Farther up the mountain, slums and slave markets gave way to taverns and tradesmen, and farther still were the fine shops where petty nobles and wealthy merchants spent their coin.
It was also there, in the highest reaches of the city, where the guild of magic resided. Many such guilds dotted the city landscape. There were those traditional edifices for carpenters and wheelwrights, bakers and smiths in Blathe’s Row, but in the Palace Green, in the shadow of the Royal Castle, the Mage Guild stood as testament to the power and influence of magic.
For every guild there were guild lords. The Mage Guild had nine, though the trade guilds were limited to three. These lords were powerful, wealthy and influential. Through the guilds the people of the city felt security, and over all of this was the king. Every profession had its guild, and every member had protection.
Except not every member was equal. Certainly in trade there were those merchants with more power than others. There would always be a better blacksmith and a smarter alchemist. In magic, however, it was different. There was magic that killed, magic that healed. Magic to build and protect. For each of those schools there were those guild members that stood out. Sentinels who watched and worked closely with the King’s Watch, the city’s erstwhile police force; Enforcers who dealt out justice with the Crown’s grace and no trial; Healers who could knit bone and blood with a touch; Artificers who made armor and weapons of magic.
Yet these masters of the arcane were only a handful in comparison to the numbers boasted by the guilds of trade and craft. These more mundane men and women kept their heads out of palace politics and avoided places like the Mage Guild and the dangerous wizards it bred. They worked in their forges and shops and simply tried to make a living in a cursed city.
It was at such a shop, on a particularly foul-weathered day, winter beginning to settle in on the mountain, that a man stood by a window staring out at the sky and the dark clouds that still hovered over the mountain.
A Curse on the Mountain
In the cursed city of Var Eldore, perched on a mountaintop surrounded by a frigid swamp, the rain never stops. Former pleasure slave Myr lives in hiding, trying to stay a step ahead of his captor. But there’s more to Myr than he realizes, and destiny has other plans for him. Soon, he counts soldiers, spies, nobles, and wizards among his allies. Their goal is to oppose the king and those who perpetuate slavery, and fight for the freedom of their land. As they uncover secrets and conspiracies, each more tangled than the last, Myr also discovers he has unique abilities to aid their cause—the Redeemers.
As the strength of the Redeemers grows, so does the number of enemies they must face. Each member of their alliance has his or her own demons to battle, and Myr must confront the truth about himself and become the leader they need. Alongside his lover Ryall and the people who have become his family—as well as some unlikely friends—Myr and the Redeemers must prepare for war. If they fall, the city in the rain will follow.
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=5886
It’s day two of the blog tour and I’m giving away something at each stop along the way! Today, those of you who comment on this post will be entered to win a copy (in the e-format of your choice) of Death’s Children, a book about what happens when the dead don’t stay dead and how to cope with your afterlife.
Bio:
Missouri Dalton is a writer of horror/paranormal contemporary fantasy and alternate historical novels.
Missouri was raised mainly in transit, slowed down to finish school in one place and was then determined to be as nomadic as possible, if only because that’s how things just worked out. She uses writing as an escape from her own neurosi and currently lives with her dear friend Sophia.
See more from Missouri Dalton at missouridalton.blogspot.com
@missouridalton
![CurseontheMountain[A]FS](https://avian30.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/curseonthemountainafs.jpg)
December 23, 2014
Free books from Torquere: Day 11
Through December 24, Torquere Press is giving away ebook copies of one or two titles through their website all day every day. I’ll be posting them here so that you can make sure to grab them.
Today is our very own Starling and Laney Cairo’s Running the Nullarbor.
Starling
Be careful what you wish for…
When J. Alex Cook, a production assistant on The Fourth Estate (one of network TV’s hottest shows), is accidentally catapulted to stardom, he finds himself struggling to navigate both fame and a relationship with Paul, one of Fourth’s key writers. Despite their incendiary chemistry, Alex’s inexperience and the baggage they’re both carrying quickly lead to an ugly break-up.
Because the stars aren’t benign
Reeling from their broken hearts, Alex has an affair and Paul has an ill-advised reunion with an old flame. Meanwhile, the meddling of their colleagues, friends — and even the paparazzi! — quickly make Alex and Paul’s real life romance troublesthe soap opera of the television season.
But while the entertainment value may be high, no one knows better than Alex and Paul that there are no guarantees when it comes to love in Los Angeles.
Running The Nullarbor
Times are tough in Western Australia. There’s a war on, though nobody will call it that yet. Dan, injured in the line of duty, now takes in orphaned children until the Red Cross can find a place for them. He’s become an old hand at looking after the kids, running his little hand crank radio, and just surviving.
That is until Sid rolls up to his house on a motorcycle, claiming to be the uncle of the baby girl Dan is currently looking after. It isn’t that Dan doesn’t believe Sid, it’s just that the man knows nothing about taking care of babies and Dan doesn’t see how Sid is going to manage taking the child across the outback on his bike.
Heavy bombing in the area prompts Dan to flee eastward with Sid and the baby, but neither Sid nor the baby are your ordinary humans and the so-called police action is becoming more and more of a war every day. Will Dan and his companions survive the army, the war, the outback, and, worst of all, Sid’s relatives to become something more than they are?
