Kim Fielding's Blog, page 72

I love this cover

My next novel is called Venetian Masks. I don't have an exact release date yet, but it should be some time in February. I'm working on the second round of edits today, in fact. But in the meantime, I wanted to share with you the cover by Shobana Appavu. I've been fortunate to have some amazing covers from Dreamspinner artists, and this one just blows me away.


Isn't that gorgeous? I've spent a lot of time over the past day just staring at this cover in admiration.

The guy with the mask is named Cleve Prieto. He has some issues.

Little tease

Just a little tease for you today. This is the cover for one of my upcoming releases.


Night Shift is a 30,000 word novella. It will come out in March or April. My novel Venetian Masks will release before that. The cover for that book isn't quite ready yet, but I saw a draft yesterday and I am totally in love with it.

Pictures from Europe

My next novel, Venetian Masks, will come put this month or next. As the title suggests, a good chunk of the action takes place in Venice. Other central European cities also appear. In preparation for a fun (I hope!) contest I'll hold when the book is released, I was going through my photos from 2011, when I spent 5 months in Croatia. It's made me homesick. But here are a few silly photos I thought you might enjoy.

  This is a train station in Slovenia. I could actually take a stab at pronouncing the town's name (hint: the j is like a y), but it's more fun just to admire it.
 I travel with a Spike the vampire doll. He's been to many countries and even has his own passport. The reactions I get to him are often really fun. Here's one I didn't catch until later, when I was looking at the pic. I was sitting in a gondola in Venice, and the boat behind Spike is--appropriately enough--a hearse. I love the smile on the face of the hearse pilot. (My husband's aunt is in the pic too. I think she's pretending she doesn't know me.)   This is Trieste, a small city at the northeastern corner of Italy. I took this particular photo because I loved the Roman arch sticking out among the other buildings, which are relatively modern, being only 400 years or so old. And my grandfather spent his childhood in this neighborhood. But I also like the lady in the background.   
This is in Croatia, in the region called Istria. The town atop the hill is Motovun, an adorable little city that resemblsd a dry miniature version of Venice (Istria was Italian for a long time). Motovun is where Mario Andretti was born. And that's Davor, my Croatian tourguide, good-naturedly holding Spike for me. He even posed the arm upward. :-)

My WIP

I know I did a The Next Big Thing entry already, talking about my upcoming Venetian Masks. But Tammy Jo tagged me so I'm doing it again, this time for my current WIP.


1) What is the working title of your book?

Jelley's Valley

2)Where did the idea for the book come from?

I am interested in the (shameful) history of mental hospitals, and I have taught in a building that was once a large psychiatric hospital.

3) What genre does it fall under?

Contemporary m/m romance

4) Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I hate this question. I honestly have no idea.

5) What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

When William gets a caretaker job at a former mental hospital, his discoveries there force him to face his own denials of who he is.

6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I plan to submit to a publisher.

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft?

I've just begun it. It will probably take a couple of months, depending on my other life events.

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I also hate this question!

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?

As I explained above, my interest in the history of mental hospitals. Also, I was inspired by a small town I visited briefly on the way home from a family vacation. That town had a tiny general store/post office. So will Jelley's Valley, and that's where William will meet someone who shakes his world.

10) What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Although thie book is a contemporary and not paranormal, William is going to be "haunted" by a former patient.

Also, I was once accidentally locked in the morgue of a former mental hospital! There were a few other people there and we were released after a short time, but it was an interesting experience.

2012

I hope all of you are finding a bit of peace amidst the holiday bustle. My children have been shipped off to grandparents, while my husband and I fled the country. It's been a deliciously lazy week. This is the view from our balcony:
  And my big decisions have mostly concerned whether to have the next margarita poolside or on the beach.
I earned this rest! Aside from a very busy year in my day job, 2012 was extremely active for publishing too. How busy? Here's a rundown of the year:

Equipoise was self-published"Act One" appeared in Men of SteelGood Bones was published"Violet's Present" appeared in Dreamspinner's time travel anthology"Care and Rehabilitation" appeared in Animal Magnetism"Tyler Wang Has a Ball" appeared in Don't Try This at HomeSpeechless was published"A Great Miracle Happened There" appeared in Dreamspinner's holiday anthologyBrute was published"Joys R Us" appeared in Silver's holiday anthology
But that's not all! Here's what's slated for 2013 already:
Venetian Masks (novel) releases in January or FebruaryNight Shift (novella) releases in March or April"No Place Like Home" will appear in the Snow on the Roof anthology in February
And! I've just submitted a sequel to Good Bones and I've begun a new novel, a contemporary set in a defunct mental hospital in rural California.

See? I told you I earned those margaritas!

Thank you all so much for your support and I hope 2013 is filled with peace, joy, and love!

Brute blog tour winners

Congratulations to Rush, strive4best, Juliana, and Urb, the winning commenters during the Brute blog tour. And thank you very much to all of you for visiting with me. Happy holidays to you all!

Today is your last chance to win a copy of Brute on the b...

Today is your last chance to win a copy of Brute on the blog tour! Here's the list of blog entries: http://kfieldingwrites.blogspot.mx/2012/11/december-tour-giveaways-and-releases.html

Every comment gives you another chance to win!

:-)

Almost vacation

As I prepare to drag myself and my family all over the place for the holidays, I thought I'd share two photos with you. The first one is my younger daughter working on peppermint bark (recipe in my last post).
You can tell from her expression that she takes pounding very seriously. Careful drizzling is even more crucial to her.
And this is Xena, Warrior Princess. She lives outside my office building, where she is very well-fed. Sometimes she lets people pet her. She was the inspiration for Elwood, the cat in Speechless. Xena has been blind in one eye since she showed up as a kitten, but not too long ago she actually lost that eye completely when she got into a fight with a fox. She's a pretty tough cat. And I need to mention: Dreamspinner is discounting everything by 25% from now through Christmas. So stock up! I just did. :-)

Peppermint Bark

The weeks leading up to the holidays are really busy ones for me. I’m a university professor, so I’m always spending that time grading exams and term papers and dealing with all the end of the semester chaos. So although I like to bake I generally don’t have much time for it in December. This year is especially crazy because I have three new fiction releases this month, plus I’m in varying stages of working on two different textbooks.
Sleep? Sleep is for wimps.
But there is one holiday treat-making tradition I never miss: making peppermint bark with my daughters. We always make a few batches to give as gifts to teachers and neighbors. My kids love pounding the candy canes and drizzling the chocolate (the younger one’s a pro at that), I love how quick and easy the project is, and everyone loves to eat the stuff.
So here’s the recipe, which I think I adapted years ago from Martha Stewart. I recommend whipping up a batch and curling up with some bark, a beverage of your choice, and one of my new releases. J
 
Peppermint Bark
8 large candy canes
2 packages (12 oz. each) white chocolate chips
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Line an 11x17 baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the unwrapped candy canes inside a ziploc bag. Crush them with a meat mallet or rolling pin until pieces are less than 1/4 inch long. Melt white chocolate chips in medium bowl in microwave at 50%, stirring often. When chocolate is completely melted, stir in crushed candy canes and peppermint extract. Mix well. Using a spatula, spread mixture evenly in baking sheet. The mixture should cover about 3/4 of the sheet. Melt semisweet chocolate in microwave, using 50% setting and checking and stirring often. When semisweet chocolate is completely melted, use a spoon to drizzle and splatter atop white chocolate mixture. Place baking sheet in refrigerator until bark is hardened (about 30-45 minutes). Break bark into pieces (I use the point of a large knife to crack the bark). Package--or eat yourself! For best results, store in refrigerator.
 
 
Brute
by Kim Fielding
 
Brute leads a lonely life in a world where magic is commonplace. He is seven and a half feet of ugly, and of disreputable descent. No one, including Brute, expects him to be more than a laborer. But heroes come in all shapes and sizes, and when he is maimed while rescuing a prince, Brute’s life changes abruptly. He is summoned to serve at the palace in Tellomer as a guard for a single prisoner. It sounds easy but turns out to be the challenge of his life.

Rumors say the prisoner, Gray Leynham, is a witch and a traitor. What is certain is that he has spent years in misery: blind, chained, and rendered nearly mute by an extreme stutter. And he dreams of people’s deaths—dreams that come true.

As Brute becomes accustomed to palace life and gets to know Gray, he discovers his own worth, first as a friend and a man and then as a lover. But Brute also learns heroes sometimes face difficult choices and that doing what is right can bring danger of its own.
 
Buy links at Dreamspinner Press:
E-Book
Paperback
At Amazon
 
Kim Fielding on Facebook
 
As part of the Brute Blog Tour, I am running a contest. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this entry, stating your favorite holiday treat. Please leave your email address in your comment. You can comment at multiple blog tour entries for multiple chances to win! Click here for the full list of tour stops. Winners will be chosen on December 25. One person will receive a paperback copy of Bruteand another person will receive an eBook copy of Brute.    
 

Guest blogger: Jana Denardo

Today I'm very pleased to welcome Jana Denardo as a guest.



When I started my novella, The Darkest Midnight in December, it was actually a short story aimed at Dreamspinner Press’s Advent Calendar, but it took a darker bounce. I worked it into a novella, getting the chance to research and write some of the harsher Christmas legends.
This, by no means, is indicative of my feelings for the holiday. I think the ideals of Christmas, Hanukkah and Yule, at least those dealing with the ideas of peace and love for all mankind, are wonderful, and should be practiced year-round. But for this story, I got to look at Christmas through the eyes of the Soldiers of the Sun, my four young demon hunters. Caleb, the default leader, who is partnered both within the demon hunting organization and as a lover with Agni, the most placid member of the group, who arrived in the organization via Bombay. Temple is the youngest and most boisterous of the group. He comes from a long line of demon hunters, but defected to this group from the much more repressive Knights Templar. His partner and lover is Fu Li from China.
With such a diverse group, I was able to explore all the facets of the holiday. Caleb, growing up partially in an orphanage, has less excitement than Temple. Temple, on the other hand, had a strict childhood and he still covets the things he missed out on. Li and Agni, being non-Christians, have a different perspective on the whole holiday.
Back to those darker myths I mentioned, one of the two demons the Soldiers of the Sun have to face before any more children go missing in Economy, has his roots in those myths. Some time in the last hundred years, the legend of Santa Claus was cleaned up a bit, and bad boys and girls were forced to make due with lumps of coal. In centuries prior, it was possible they’d be faced with Santa’s evil counterpart. Whippings, kidnappings, even being eaten up was on the table for ill-behaved children. Krampus, Le Père Fouettard and Zwarte Piet all fall into this category, though, given Temple’s French background, I went with the French version. I probably would have been much better behaved if I thought some guy was going to sneak into the house with a whip on Christmas Eve.
There are the more traditional gift giving and family moments in the story as well, but I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not always a “sweet fiction” author. I’m very fond of my action-adventure stories and this is definitely that, set against a background of Christmas in the Great Depression.
My love of history and folklore filled in many of the remaining blanks. I didn’t know all that much about the 1930’s, so in my writing, I had a lot more work to do for this than I did when I wrote the short story, Snowbound, for the same characters. (Snowbound appeared in Dreamspinner Press’s anthology, Necking).
It’s tricky working time for intimate encounters into a story where not only babies are going missing, but there is almost a certainty that it will continue unless Caleb and his team are able to stop the supernatural creature taking the babies and the couples.  It doesn’t work if the characters seem insensitive to the drama unfolding around them in order to make time for sex, but their own fears and concerns about surviving this dangerous assignment serves to bring them together in a more organic, holistic way.
I moved away from the Pittsburgharea years ago, but in my stories, I keep going back to that area. The city and the towns around it make for great settings, and I enjoyed putting Caleb, Temple, Agni and Li into the city’s history. For me, they are vibrant characters, and religious lore and mythology, not mention my own imagination, allow for a vast array of demons for them to fight.
At its base, the story isn’t a traditional romance. It’s definitely more action/adventure. However, both sets of couples do find time to indulge their passions. For me, some of the most romantic moments of the novella aren’t in the bedrooms, but at the times when they risk injury and death to keep their partners safe. This story gives them ample opportunity for that kind of sacrifice and at the end, there is a tender and happy moment for them all.
I wanted to say thanks for having me here on your blog today, and thanks to everyone who stopped by.  
You can find The Darkest Midnight in December here: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=2951&cPath=55_202.  ebook from Dreamspinner Press
Or
http://www.amazon.com/The-Darkest-Midnight-December-ebook/dp/B0087FB932/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355463015&sr=8-1&keywords=the+darkest+midnight+in+december  ebook from amazon
Excerpt from The Darkest Midnight in December
 
“How many babies have gone missing?” Li asked.
 
Caleb tapped the briefcase holding a stack of files given to him by General Taglioferro before they left their headquarters in Pittsburgh. “Three and several couples. The local priests and police think it’s all the work of demons.”
 
“I was too busy packing.” Temple patted the box that held his Tommy gun and ammunition. “I didn’t get a chance to check out what the Order already knows about what’s going on here.”
 
“Once again, Li, your partner was napping.” Agni leveled a look at Templewho wrinkled his nose.
 
“We’ll bring him up to date once we get there.” Li pulled his coat tighter as the truck taking them from train station to hotel lurched down the road. “I just want to know why we have to ride in the bed with the luggage.”
 
“We all wouldn’t have fit.” Caleb shrugged. “And the driver they sent didn’t want any demon hunters in the cab with him, like we’ll infect him with our ability to see the demons or something.”
 
“Idiot. Who does he think is going to save this dumb town?” Templegrumbled.
 
“I also think he wasn’t too keen on our partners.” Caleb glanced over at Agni, the Hindu’s dark skin peeking out of the scarf wound around his hooded head.
 
Templesnorted. “Big surprise. One of Father’s biggest complaints about me joining the Soldiers of the Sun and not the Knights Templar was that we welcomed all faiths, all cultures. I thought he’d go apoplectic when he found out I have a Chinese partner,” he said. The wind nearly whipped away his whispered, “Too bad he didn’t just die from it.”
 
The four demon hunters hunkered down, trying to keep out of the wind as the truck wound its way through Ambridge, Pennsylvania. The store fronts winked by with promises of Christmas treasures on offer. The holiday was only a few days away. None of them, Temple in particular, had wanted to leave home before Christmas. There was no guarantee they wouldn’t be spending the holiday holed up in their hotel, nursing demon-inflicted wounds.
 
The brick hotel looked hospitable enough from its exterior.  The truck driver was quick to help them off his truck and inside, away from him. It wasn’t an entirely new reaction. As Soldiers of the Sun, they had long since gotten used to people being wary of them. The hotel staff shunted them upstairs just as swiftly to adjoining rooms. Templescowled at the twin metal bed frames in the room he shared with Li.
 
“These beds better be movable,” he grumbled.
 
“If you keep me awake, that adjoining door will be a pathway to your doom,” Agni warned grimly.
 
Glaring, Templeleaned against the wall. “Tell me what I missed of the report. Three missing babies?”
 
Caleb sat at the rickety desk crammed into the corner near a radiator that knocked and banged, but offered up toasty steam heat. “And several couples. No bodies have been found.”
 
“They could have been eaten,” Li pointed out. “Demons are best known for doing that.”
 
“That’s one of the reasons the Order was contacted,” Caleb replied. “We’re to meet with the local police tomorrow.”