Karpov Kinrade's Blog, page 6

How Parents Have Sex, Part 1

This looks fun! Honey, where’s my mask?

I’m not actually sure if there will be a “Part 2″ to this post, but the title felt more complete with a Part 1. And I’ve just now realized that the “How” part might be misconstrued as an actual demonstration of how to physically have sex, as if parents have sex differently than those who don’t have children.

I think the basics are still fundamentally the same, though. If you still need help, pick up one of our sexier books and you should get a few pointers!

Seriously, though, kids are the ultimate cock-blockers, amiright? You get started, all hot and heavy, things are getting intense. Body parts are getting hard, or wet, depending on the part. And then BAM! That kid who was sleeping? Not so much. Party over. Time to put on the parent hat and hide the hard-on.

Now, we don’t really have a huge problem in this department. After all, we need to research! *wink wink nudge nudge* Dmytry actually does a significant amount of research on an ongoing basis on how to spice things up in the bedroom, so you won’t hear me complaining. We like to keep the flame fanned in both our physical connection and our emotional intimacy.

But if we go a couple days without, one of us starts getting grumpy. Or both of us. Usually both of us. So, we’ve gotten pretty good at working around the kid problem, usually by staying up ridiculously late or having sex while they’re at school. Or both.

Summers are trickier to navigate, though, because THEY NEVER SLEEP AND THEY ARE ALWAYS HERE. We might need to get a motel for a few hours if those kids don’t go to sleep!

So, to say we’re looking forward to back to school day, well, that would be an understatement.

Here are a few tips we’ve found useful to keeping things hot in the bedroom.

1. Look for ways to please your partner. We both look for new and exciting ways to pleasure each other, whether that be a new position or new technique, of spending a little more time on focused giving. It keeps us engaged in the act of experiencing real pleasure with each other, and ensures things never get dull. And don’t be afraid to get kinky and try new things. You never know what you’ll find a turn-on.

2. Communicate what you need and want. Neither of us are afraid to ask for what we’d like, or to guide our partner in how best to make that happen. When this is combined with #1, it’s a reciprocal and mutually satisfying exchange that keeps us both coming back for more.

3. Make time to talk. This is about emotional intimacy, which is key when you want deeper physical intimacy. We talk. We listen. We communicate about work (which we do together all day), about our kids (which we are equal partners in raising), about the house (which we are also equal partners in sharing responsibilities) and we also talk about our hopes, dreams, fears, concerns etc. We connect deeply, before and after sex.

4. Prioritize intimacy. We have three kids. We know how crazy life gets with parenting and housework and a business to run, books to write, THINGS TO DO. Make time to do each other. Regularly. It makes all the other stuff much easier. (This is based on the assumption that the marriage is healthy. If it’s not, then more sex will not help it and you should consider getting professional help from a family therapist or finding a way to work on your bigger problems.)

5. Be grateful for the small things. This may not sound super sexy, but trust me, it is. Dmytry and I are both very conscious of thanking each other for the small day to day acts that keep our family and home functioning. He thanks me when I drive the kids to school or when I pay the bills. I thank him when he makes dinner or does the dishes. Even if these are things we do every day, ESPECIALLY when these are things we do every day, the act of being noticed and being thanked is a huge turn on! Because it connects us emotionally. I know I’m being seen. Being appreciated. Being valued for my contributions to this marriage and family, and it makes it so much easier to make time to connect physically with him.

This isn’t a complete list, but it’s a few ways we grow our marriage, and keep things hot in the bedroom. What about you? What are your tried and true tips for keeping things fun in your marriage?

We hope you enjoyed this blog post. Want more from Karpov Kinrade? Check out our Amazon page here. New to our work? Get Seduced by Innocence FREE everywhere ebooks are sold, and find out why the Seduced Saga is a bestselling fan favorite!

Seduced by Lies, Vol. 3 is here! #AncientOne

[image error] The wait is over!

The next-to-last installment of the Seduced by Lies saga is FINALLY here, and we could not be more excited!

In the third volume of this riveting paranormal mystery serial in the bestselling Seduced Saga, new alliances are formed, new powers are learned, and new dangers threaten the lives of all who live at Elysium.

Go get your copy!

Amazon: http://bit.ly/Lies3Amazon

iBooks: http://bit.ly/Lies3iBooks

Nook: http://bit.ly/Lies3Nook

Kobo: http://bit.ly/Lies3Kobo

When you’ve finished, go here: www.facebook.com/groups/KarpovKinradeStreetTeam and tell us what you thought! 

If you need to catch up, get Seduced by Lies, Volume 1 here, and Seduced by Lies, Volume 2 here. Oh, and Seduced: Rose’s Story is on sale for $0.99 to celebrate the release of Lies 3, so make sure to pick up a copy if you haven’t already!

HAPPY READING! Happy Friday!
We hope you enjoyed this blog post. Want more from Karpov Kinrade? Check out our Amazon page here. New to our work? Get Seduced by Innocence FREE everywhere ebooks are sold, and find out why the Seduced Saga is a bestselling fan favorite!

Who wants a "Seduced By Lies Vol. 3" excerpt? Here you go! :)

The countdown is officially ON! The next-to-last installment of the Seduced by Lies serial, Ancient One, is coming THIS FRIDAY! We couldn’t be more excited about this story finally getting the ending it deserves! And, of course, we couldn’t wait to give you a little taste of what’s to come in Volume 3 of the Lies saga. Oh, and you definitely want to make sure to sign up for our newsletter–we’ve got an EXCLUSIVE, VERY STEAMY excerpt of Lies 3 coming on Thursday, but it’s only going to be available to our newsletter subscribers! So sign up!

And if you want Lies 3 to show up in your ereader the SECOND it is live, make sure to pre-order it:

iBooks: http://bit.ly/Lies3iBooks
Nook: http://bit.ly/Lies3Nook
Kobo: http://bit.ly/Lies3Kobo

KINDLE readers will be able to get it on FRIDAY…stay tuned for the link!

Need to catch up? You can get Seduced: Rose’s Story (Volumes 1-3) here, Seduced by Lies 1 here, and Seduced by Lies 2 here.

Alright–without further ado, here is Chapter 1 of Seduced by Lies, Volume 3: Ancient One.

————-

ROSE O’CONNER

 

THE PULSE OF power called to me, pulling me into its web of temptations, but my eyes landed on my husband, close to death, fighting the infection from Ryder’s claws. How could I leave him?

I fell to my knees, screaming, when another wave of pain shot through my arm as it attempted to shift back to human, attempted to heal the broken bone, only to be locked into the gruesome half-shift of broken bird wing and arm.

Ryder had faced three of us—me, Derek and Bishop Alaric—in an ancient Trial by Strength, and he had won. He had his life. His freedom. Even while Drake fought for his life back home.

I didn’t see him as I struggled with my decision to leave or stay, tears streaming down my face, knees bruised from the stone floor.

A hand rested on my shoulder and I looked up at the White Wolf. “Go, child. We will care for him. Go.”

He’d said I alone could find the ancient Druid. And he alone could help me survive my powers.

And so I pulled the robe the Lycans had given me to protect my naked flesh around me, and walked through the door that led to the white forest of snow.

Barefoot, in too much pain to feel the cold, I followed the thrum of magic moving in me and around me.

I lost all sense of place and time and found myself before a cave, with icicles covering it like a magic castle, finding warmth in the golden glow that emanated from the space.

The man hunched by the fire looked up, his body a patchwork of different animals. Fur for skin, antlers protruding from his head and wings sprouting from his back. He raised a hand at me—a bear claw, actually—and smiled. “Come,” he said. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

I took his gesture as an invitation and shuffled closer to the fire, the heat now searing my skin, burning away the cold that had seeped into my bones. “Who are you?”

“I am Talon.”

He offered nothing more and I stared into the fire, fighting my pain and desperation. “Why am I here? The White Wolf told me to come, but why?”

“You have a rare magic in you. It could destroy you. Or it could make you great. I am the last remaining Druid who understands this power and knows how to control it.” He looked up at me, fire dancing in his dark eyes. “I can teach you.”

I slipped my broken arm out of the cloak. “Can you fix this?”

“No, but you can.”

“I’ve tried,” I said, sounding too much like a petulant child. “I can’t do it.”

“You just don’t know how to yet.”

“Derek said it’s forbidden to shift into forms other than wolf. He said it’s dangerous.”

Talon’s lips twitched. “It is.”

“Why should I trust you?” My body shivered again, pain making me dizzy.

“Because you have no other choice, unless you want to spend the rest of your life feeling the way you do right now.”

My chin fell to my chest and I choked back a sob, pulling myself together enough to look up with tear-stained eyes. “I’m in. What do I need to do?”

***

I expected my training to be one of those action packed sequences you see in movies, with intense physical challenges mixed with obstacle courses, a soundtrack creating the emotional tension—but no. I got a lot of meditating.

This wasn’t as exciting as I’d hoped, but was about all I could handle, given how much pain radiated through my arm. I could barely walk straight, so I guessed I was lucky that this was all I had to do.

And as it turned out, sitting still for hours on end required a lot of endurance, and wasn’t easy with my arm screaming at me.

For many hours nothing happened. I felt cold, tired, in pain, impatient and miserable. I wanted to go see Derek, to make sure he was okay, but I knew if I left I’d lose my chance to ever master my shifting abilities. I’d hurt myself and my husband in the process.

So I stayed. As my knees cramped in the lotus position. As my lips dried. As my ears froze and my nose turned red and runny. As a bug crawled over my bare foot. As the fire dimmed and died and the last breath of warmth fled our little cave. I stayed.

I’d nearly passed out from the pain and exhaustion when something changed. My mind dug deeper than it ever had before. I found a hidden corner of my consciousness that I hadn’t known existed. Like a secret door that I’d lost the key to.

Everything became so vivid and real I was half sure I was hallucinating, but I didn’t fight it. I knew I needed to follow it through to the end to see what lay beyond the door, what mysteries I might discover of myself if I didn’t give up.

And so the door became more real. The color of blood, a deep red with grooves in the wood and a shiny silver door knob. I pushed it open, the silver cool on my hand, the grains of wood deeply textured with glossy coats of paint smoothing the roughness.

Inside the room a low hum rose in the darkness, and from some unknown source of light the room became visible all at once, blinding me.

I squinted, letting my eyes adjust to the brightness as I took in the sight before me.

Animals.

Animals everywhere.

But they weren’t wandering about randomly; they were each centered under a colored beam of light, the source once again unknown. They had vacant expressionless eyes, like statues, but they moved in small ways, breathing, shifting, scratching.

I recognized the bear first. The bear from my dreams that I had shifted into during my fight with Ryder.

Next to her hovered the hawk I’d shifted into during my recent fight. Something seemed off about her though, so I stepped closer and shuddered at what I saw.

Instead of a wing she had a human arm. My arm.

I looked down at my own wing/arm and cringed, then glanced at the other animals. My wolf, her golden coat soft and shiny, and other animals I’d never seen before but recognized at a soul level. A deer, innocent and sweet. A black panther, deadly and sleek, its dark fur reflecting a glowing purple light. A rabbit, sniffing at its own pawns, its ears twitching.

And so many more.

I walked closer to the hawk and placed my good hand on its wing. Darkness gripped me and I fell into an abyss, screaming without sound, crying without tears, my body no longer corporeal in this eternal nothing.

Talon’s voice called out to me through the darkness. “She is your way back. The hawk is you and you are her. You must reconnect with her spirit and give back to her what you took so that she can do the same.”

“How?” I think I screamed, but I couldn’t hear my own voice, not even in my mind.

“By finding her in you.”

My heart pounded, fear gripping me, my stomach no longer real but still dropping into my gut as I felt sure I’d fall forever.

I tried to find my breath, find my happy place, but it no longer existed.

So I looked for my hawk, tried to feel her in the frantic panic of always almost dying.

And there she was. A faint flap of wings out of the corner of my eye. A soft sound almost forgotten, but there if I listened closely. I put the full force of my concentration into that sound, that memory of something, and honed in, grabbing more of her. The woody scent of her feathers, the powerful muscles in her wings, the sharpness of her beak and talons. With each detail, I became more real too, my body forming and shifting until I was her and she was me.

We were one, flying out of the abyss and into the warm light of the room I’d been transported out of.

When I reached the room, I released her, and she flew with both wings back to her waiting spot.

I looked down at my two good arms and snapped back into my frozen body by the dead fire, breathing heavily, nearly unconscious, but whole at last.

###

WHAT DID YOU THINK?! We are SO excited about this installment of the series! Definitely make sure to sign up for our newsletter so you can get that exclusive excerpt of Lies 3 on Thursday!

And if you want to preorder Lies 3, you can do it right here:

iBooks: http://bit.ly/Lies3iBooks
Nook: http://bit.ly/Lies3Nook
Kobo: http://bit.ly/Lies3Kobo

KINDLE readers will be able to get it on FRIDAY!

Who wants a “Seduced By Lies Vol. 3″ excerpt? Here you go! :)

The countdown is officially ON! The next-to-last installment of the Seduced by Lies serial, Ancient One, is coming THIS FRIDAY! We couldn’t be more excited about this story finally getting the ending it deserves! And, of course, we couldn’t wait to give you a little taste of what’s to come in Volume 3 of the Lies saga. Oh, and you definitely want to make sure to sign up for our newsletter–we’ve got an EXCLUSIVE, VERY STEAMY excerpt of Lies 3 coming on Thursday, but it’s only going to be available to our newsletter subscribers! So sign up!

And if you want Lies 3 to show up in your ereader the SECOND it is live, make sure to pre-order it:

iBooks: http://bit.ly/Lies3iBooks
Nook: http://bit.ly/Lies3Nook
Kobo: http://bit.ly/Lies3Kobo

KINDLE readers will be able to get it on FRIDAY…stay tuned for the link!

Need to catch up? You can get Seduced: Rose’s Story (Volumes 1-3) here, Seduced by Lies 1 here, and Seduced by Lies 2 here.

Alright–without further ado, here is Chapter 1 of Seduced by Lies, Volume 3: Ancient One.

————-

ROSE O’CONNER

[image error]

THE PULSE OF power called to me, pulling me into its web of temptations, but my eyes landed on my husband, close to death, fighting the infection from Ryder’s claws. How could I leave him?

I fell to my knees, screaming, when another wave of pain shot through my arm as it attempted to shift back to human, attempted to heal the broken bone, only to be locked into the gruesome half-shift of broken bird wing and arm.

Ryder had faced three of us—me, Derek and Bishop Alaric—in an ancient Trial by Strength, and he had won. He had his life. His freedom. Even while Drake fought for his life back home.

I didn’t see him as I struggled with my decision to leave or stay, tears streaming down my face, knees bruised from the stone floor.

A hand rested on my shoulder and I looked up at the White Wolf. “Go, child. We will care for him. Go.”

He’d said I alone could find the ancient Druid. And he alone could help me survive my powers.

And so I pulled the robe the Lycans had given me to protect my naked flesh around me, and walked through the door that led to the white forest of snow.

Barefoot, in too much pain to feel the cold, I followed the thrum of magic moving in me and around me.

I lost all sense of place and time and found myself before a cave, with icicles covering it like a magic castle, finding warmth in the golden glow that emanated from the space.

The man hunched by the fire looked up, his body a patchwork of different animals. Fur for skin, antlers protruding from his head and wings sprouting from his back. He raised a hand at me—a bear claw, actually—and smiled. “Come,” he said. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

I took his gesture as an invitation and shuffled closer to the fire, the heat now searing my skin, burning away the cold that had seeped into my bones. “Who are you?”

“I am Talon.”

He offered nothing more and I stared into the fire, fighting my pain and desperation. “Why am I here? The White Wolf told me to come, but why?”

“You have a rare magic in you. It could destroy you. Or it could make you great. I am the last remaining Druid who understands this power and knows how to control it.” He looked up at me, fire dancing in his dark eyes. “I can teach you.”

I slipped my broken arm out of the cloak. “Can you fix this?”

“No, but you can.”

“I’ve tried,” I said, sounding too much like a petulant child. “I can’t do it.”

“You just don’t know how to yet.”

“Derek said it’s forbidden to shift into forms other than wolf. He said it’s dangerous.”

Talon’s lips twitched. “It is.”

“Why should I trust you?” My body shivered again, pain making me dizzy.

“Because you have no other choice, unless you want to spend the rest of your life feeling the way you do right now.”

My chin fell to my chest and I choked back a sob, pulling myself together enough to look up with tear-stained eyes. “I’m in. What do I need to do?”

[image error]

I expected my training to be one of those action packed sequences you see in movies, with intense physical challenges mixed with obstacle courses, a soundtrack creating the emotional tension—but no. I got a lot of meditating.

This wasn’t as exciting as I’d hoped, but was about all I could handle, given how much pain radiated through my arm. I could barely walk straight, so I guessed I was lucky that this was all I had to do.

And as it turned out, sitting still for hours on end required a lot of endurance, and wasn’t easy with my arm screaming at me.

For many hours nothing happened. I felt cold, tired, in pain, impatient and miserable. I wanted to go see Derek, to make sure he was okay, but I knew if I left I’d lose my chance to ever master my shifting abilities. I’d hurt myself and my husband in the process.

So I stayed. As my knees cramped in the lotus position. As my lips dried. As my ears froze and my nose turned red and runny. As a bug crawled over my bare foot. As the fire dimmed and died and the last breath of warmth fled our little cave. I stayed.

I’d nearly passed out from the pain and exhaustion when something changed. My mind dug deeper than it ever had before. I found a hidden corner of my consciousness that I hadn’t known existed. Like a secret door that I’d lost the key to.

Everything became so vivid and real I was half sure I was hallucinating, but I didn’t fight it. I knew I needed to follow it through to the end to see what lay beyond the door, what mysteries I might discover of myself if I didn’t give up.

And so the door became more real. The color of blood, a deep red with grooves in the wood and a shiny silver door knob. I pushed it open, the silver cool on my hand, the grains of wood deeply textured with glossy coats of paint smoothing the roughness.

Inside the room a low hum rose in the darkness, and from some unknown source of light the room became visible all at once, blinding me.

I squinted, letting my eyes adjust to the brightness as I took in the sight before me.

Animals.

Animals everywhere.

But they weren’t wandering about randomly; they were each centered under a colored beam of light, the source once again unknown. They had vacant expressionless eyes, like statues, but they moved in small ways, breathing, shifting, scratching.

I recognized the bear first. The bear from my dreams that I had shifted into during my fight with Ryder.

Next to her hovered the hawk I’d shifted into during my recent fight. Something seemed off about her though, so I stepped closer and shuddered at what I saw.

Instead of a wing she had a human arm. My arm.

I looked down at my own wing/arm and cringed, then glanced at the other animals. My wolf, her golden coat soft and shiny, and other animals I’d never seen before but recognized at a soul level. A deer, innocent and sweet. A black panther, deadly and sleek, its dark fur reflecting a glowing purple light. A rabbit, sniffing at its own pawns, its ears twitching.

And so many more.

I walked closer to the hawk and placed my good hand on its wing. Darkness gripped me and I fell into an abyss, screaming without sound, crying without tears, my body no longer corporeal in this eternal nothing.

Talon’s voice called out to me through the darkness. “She is your way back. The hawk is you and you are her. You must reconnect with her spirit and give back to her what you took so that she can do the same.”

“How?” I think I screamed, but I couldn’t hear my own voice, not even in my mind.

“By finding her in you.”

My heart pounded, fear gripping me, my stomach no longer real but still dropping into my gut as I felt sure I’d fall forever.

I tried to find my breath, find my happy place, but it no longer existed.

So I looked for my hawk, tried to feel her in the frantic panic of always almost dying.

And there she was. A faint flap of wings out of the corner of my eye. A soft sound almost forgotten, but there if I listened closely. I put the full force of my concentration into that sound, that memory of something, and honed in, grabbing more of her. The woody scent of her feathers, the powerful muscles in her wings, the sharpness of her beak and talons. With each detail, I became more real too, my body forming and shifting until I was her and she was me.

We were one, flying out of the abyss and into the warm light of the room I’d been transported out of.

When I reached the room, I released her, and she flew with both wings back to her waiting spot.

I looked down at my two good arms and snapped back into my frozen body by the dead fire, breathing heavily, nearly unconscious, but whole at last.

###

WHAT DID YOU THINK?! We are SO excited about this installment of the series! Definitely make sure to sign up for our newsletter so you can get that exclusive excerpt of Lies 3 on Thursday!

And if you want to preorder Lies 3, you can do it right here:

iBooks: http://bit.ly/Lies3iBooks
Nook: http://bit.ly/Lies3Nook
Kobo: http://bit.ly/Lies3Kobo

KINDLE readers will be able to get it on FRIDAY!

We hope you enjoyed this blog post. Want more from Karpov Kinrade? Check out our Amazon page here. New to our work? Get Seduced by Innocence FREE everywhere ebooks are sold, and find out why the Seduced Saga is a bestselling fan favorite!

5 Tips to Succeed at Indie Publishing

[image error]A fan recently messaged us asking what specific things we did to make it as far as we have in the indie publishing world.

This question came at the heel of finding out that Hugh Howey and ‘Data Guy’ googled us to determine if our imprint, Daring Books, is indie, when culminating data for the July Author Earnings Report, because NINE of our books ranked high enough to be included and draw their attention. I have to admit to squeeling a bit at that.

What we’ve discovered lately is that there are a growing number of indie authors making in the 6-figure income range, including many of our friends. We’re out-earning most of our traditionally published peers, even authors you might recognize more than ours.

Last January (2013) we made a few hundred dollars in royalties, mostly from the ten books I had with a small publisher.

In February 2013 we formed Daring Books, LLC and published Seduced by Innocence, then Seduced by Pain. We went from a few hundred dollars to almost $10,000 in income. This April we hit our highest monthly earnings at $30,000. IN ONE MONTH! Earlier this year we also bought back the rights to all of our books and now we are 100% published through our own imprint.

How did we do it?

That’s a simple question with a complicated answer. I’ll do my best to answer that in one blog post.

1.    Owning our own books was key.

We couldn’t have reached this level of success (and growing) if we were still published with someone else. We control our price points, our launch dates, our marketing plan, our genre choices, our cover art, everything! It’s been that flexibility that has allowed us to take risks and do things even small publishers might not do.

However, I have to add a caveat to this. In order for this to be effective, we had to learn a LOT. We have studied design, cover art and formatting- not just from a technical or artistic perspective, but from a marketing angle. What book covers sell the best? Capture the reader’s attention the most for this genre? What appeals to the widest audience? Every week, sometimes every day, we study bestseller lists, tracking what’s selling and what’s not, trying to analyze and understand why.

We read blogs on design and study new techniques. We spend a huge amount of time on this. HUGE.

We also learned marketing. I worked for a marketing firm for a time and then we started our own until we transitioned to full time authors. Once again we look at bestseller lists and books that are addictively selling to the masses. We analyze their pre-launch marketing, post-launch marketing, genre, style of prose, price point, cover, EVERYTHING. We read articles and books and we talk and think constantly about ways to be innovative.

Which leads me to my second point.

2.    Innovations. BEING DARING!

[image error]We chose our publishing name for a reason. We believe in taking risks, in being daring, with genre choices, with marketing choices, with length and style of books. We’ve written stand alone full length books, serials, cliff-hanger trilogies and we’ve written in genres for all ages, all the while studying what works, what doesn’t and what we love doing the best.

We are fortunate that we enjoy writing in a variety of genres so we can explore a lot of different styles of writing.

We also got in early on programs that might have seemed risky at first (KDP Select, free days, perma-free, advertising on BookBub) but that paid off. We’re still doing that. Which is why we’ve enrolled most of our books in Amazon’s new KindleUnlimited program. Will it work? We don’t know, but we’ve made our career based on taking chances and trying new things, so we’re going to try it.

You can’t copy what worked for someone six months ago. The main reason we’ve been successful is that we have a lot of books out, we write fast and we’re not afraid to do something no one’s doing, or try something that’s new and scary.

3.    Write FAST and WELL and FIND YOUR NICHE

This is tricky. Everyone has their own writing style and speed. We happen to be pretty fast and we edit well and have a great team to help us. Over the last few years we’ve put out a 6 book children’s series, a YA trilogy, a new adult paranormal romance series, a new adult sexy mystery trilogy and a stand-alone contemporary romance, as well as several short stories and collections.

Throughout this process, we’ve discovered that what we thought we’d write (epic fantasy) isn’t what we actually love writing at this time (sexy mystery). We’ve taken[image error] two of the most popular genres right now (mystery and edgy, sexy literature) and combined them into a niche market of SEXY MYSTERY. And we’re branding the shit out of it, complete with our own stamp on our sexy mystery books. We’ve found that many readers who love it hot, also love a good mystery. We touch on taboo themes, explore the dark, push boundaries. Our books aren’t for the faint of heart. We swear and get naughty and take you to places that aren’t always comfortable.

And WE LOVE IT. So do most of our fans.

So, find your niche and OWN THAT SHIT!

4.    Build a solid team or be the team you need, and do it RIGHT.

We started just the two of us doing everything. We had to. We were broke. We learned it all and are rigorous with every detail of our books, from cover to formatting to editing to marketing. Does that mean we never have typos or never make mistakes? HA! I wish. But it means we are always working to improve everything we do.

Now we have built a fantastic team to help us, our key player being our publicist Anne Chaconas of Badass Marketing. She is like my second brain. I’m pretty sure she has our brains bugged, as well as our house. She’s beyond genius and I can honestly say she’s a better marketer than I am. And I don’t say that lightly. She’s helping us take our game to the next level.

But even with her, we still study everything and analyze everything. And also, we never forget the main objective, which is to write a great story. So we never stop studying the craft and art of writing. We strive always to improve. We know we can always be better and we never give ourselves an easy out to mediocrity. Our goal always is to be better than we were, to push ourselves further in our craft, to be the very best we can be.

Another part of that team building is your fans. We LOVE our fans. Seriously, we heart them so hard, and we look for as many ways to tell them that as we can. We have real relationships with them, a KK Minion Army where we engage even more intimately with them, we do giveaways and special things for them and we interact on Facebook, Twitter and our website. Our fans are the reason we can do this full time and we will NEVER EVER forget that!

5. This is a business, not just an art

I’d say the biggest thing to remember is that when you self-publish, you become a business owner. We take this very seriously. We wear many hats and have had to become experts at many things. (If you have money starting out, you can hire experts to wear those hats, but you still need to know what works and know what you want and need.)

Too many authors get personally wrapped up in the business choices of cover art, story etc. We get it, it’s your baby. These are our babies too. But once we write the story, we put on a different hat and it’s no longer about coddling our beautiful creation, it’s about stripping it down and making it a marketable product. It’s about knowing what will sell and how to sell it. It may sound crass and commercial, but we aren’t in the business of writing books for free. Why can’t we love what we do AND make a decent living at it?

I’m not sure why there’s this idea that artists and authors and those in creative jobs should ‘suffer’ for our art. That we should hold to this higher calling where money doesn’t matter. It does matter. We have three kids to feed and clothe and care for, not to mention ourselves. We have 24 hours in a day and if we didn’t make money doing this, we couldn’t do it, at least not to this level. We are not ashamed of wanting to make a good living, and we take our business seriously so that we can do that. I may like a certain cover for our book, but if it’s not right for the genre and marketing, we won’t use it. Period. I don’t let my personal feelings get in the way of marketing choices. But in the end, I also love the choices we make and am proud of them, so we aren’t selling out for cash, but we aren’t coddling our sentiment at the expense of our career either.

I hope this makes sense.

At the end of the day, we could write in a lot of genres, but we are branding ourselves in a nitch market that not only appeals to us, but also sells the best of any books we’ve written. While I love writing children’s books, they don’t sell. So I can’t write them right now. But I couldn’t write books I didn’t love, so we are still writing from our hearts. We are still writing books we believe in and are passionate about.

I hope this helps answer the question our fan asked. It’s a lot of work, but it’s the best job in the world. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments and we’ll reply to everyone. Thanks for taking the time to read this. We wish you all the best success in your endeavors. And remember, be DARING!

 

We hope you enjoyed this blog post. Want more from Karpov Kinrade? Check out our Amazon page here. New to our work? Get Seduced by Innocence FREE everywhere ebooks are sold, and find out why the Seduced Saga is a bestselling fan favorite!

Pre-order Seduced by Lies 3 today! #ParanormalMystery

[image error] We’re excited to announce that the third volume of Seduced by Lies is launching on August 8th and you can get your pre-order in TODAY! (Amazon will be available on the day of launch.)

In the third volume of this riveting paranormal mystery serial in the bestselling Seduced Saga, new alliances are formed, new powers are learned, and new dangers threaten the lives of all who live at Elysium.

PREORDER YOUR COPY TODAY!

iBooks: http://bit.ly/Lies3iBooks
Nook: http://bit.ly/Lies3Nook

Kobo: http://bit.ly/Lies3Kobo

Want to get caught up on the series? Check out ReadKK.com for a full list of all of our books with buy links. And watch for an exciting announcement about Seduced by Lies 4 (the last Seduced book!) coming soon. Newsletter members will NOT want to miss what we have for you, so be sure to sign up for our newsletter if you haven’t already!
We hope you enjoyed this blog post. Want more from Karpov Kinrade? Check out our Amazon page here. New to our work? Get Seduced by Innocence FREE everywhere ebooks are sold, and find out why the Seduced Saga is a bestselling fan favorite!

Tell Me True is HERE! Some debts can only be repaid in blood.

[image error] Some debts can only be paid in blood.

In the final installment of the bestselling Call Me Cat Trilogy, Catelyn and Ash are faced with their most deadly trial yet.

When their picture-perfect wedding ends in tragedy, Catelyn discovers a dark truth about her parents’ past.

Will she catch the real killer and avenge her parents before it’s too late?

Get TMT on AMAZON

 

Tell Me True is here! HOORAY!
Come celebrate with us, have a blast, and win prizes!

Have you caught up on the trilogy? If not, this is the perfect time!

Call Me Cat (Book 1) only 99cents! Get it here!

Leave Me Love (Book 2): Get it here!

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And to celebrate the launch of the final book, we’re having a BIG party on Tuesday, June 3, where we will discuss the Call Me Cat trilogy, give away prizes and swag, and have some very naughty conversations.

Join the PARTY
And enter our EPIC GIVEAWAY HERE!
You could win a signed copy of all three books or a $50 Amazon GC!

a Rafflecopter giveaway



 

 

We hope you enjoyed this blog post. Want more from Karpov Kinrade? Check out our Amazon page here. New to our work? Get Seduced by Innocence FREE everywhere ebooks are sold, and find out why the Seduced Saga is a bestselling fan favorite!

Tell Me True is coming on June 1st! Come to the release party and win prizes!

Guess what? GUESS WHAT?

Tell Me True is almost here! It will be officially available for sale on Sunday, June 1! 

Have you caught up on the trilogy? If not, this is the perfect time!

Call Me Cat (Book 1) only 99cents! http://bit.ly/CatonKK

Leave Me Love (Book 2): http://bit.ly/LoveonKK

And to celebrate the launch of the final book, we’re having a BIG party on Tuesday, June 3, where we will discuss the Call Me Cat trilogy, give away prizes and swag, and have some very naughty conversations.

RSVP “Yes” right here!

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And you know what else we’re doing to celebrate? We’re having a giveaway for an autographed trilogy and $50 Amazon gift card! It’s just too much fun! Enter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

We can’t wait to see you at the party!

We hope you enjoyed this blog post. Want more from Karpov Kinrade? Check out our Amazon page here. New to our work? Get Seduced by Innocence FREE everywhere ebooks are sold, and find out why the Seduced Saga is a bestselling fan favorite!

Confessions of a teenage ‘jailbait’ #YesAllWomen #LetsTalkAboutSex

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Me at around 15. This isn’t how I normally dressed, but should it matter?

Let’s talk about sex. More importantly, let’s talk about unwanted sexual attention. There’s a hashtag trending on Twitter right now that’s creating quite a stir. #YesAllWomen

What’s it all about? Check out Twitter and see. Here’s an article that summarizes it. The gist is this: A 22-year-old got pissed that women kept turning down his advances, so he killed three of them.

“You girls have never been attracted to me,” he said. “I don’t know why you girls aren’t attracted to me. But I will punish you all for it. It is an injustice, a crime.”

Many men became defensive, saying “Not all men” are like that. Of course they aren’t, but that’s not the point. There is a subversive culture of misogyny that is prevalent in this country and elsewhere. It’s dangerous and sick and it preys on women. And the men who perpetuate these hate crimes aren’t labeled in any way. They look like ordinary guys. They look like someone you could maybe trust. So of course not ALL men are like this, but there are enough, and they look just like you and nearly every woman knows what it’s like to be treated like a sex object.

Nearly every woman knows what it’s like to be sexually harassed.

I knew what this felt like as early as 12 and 13 years old. I was an ‘early bloomer’. Because of this, I looked like a hot 16 or 18 year old when I was barely in junior high, which led to my nickname of ‘jailbait’ when guys found out how old I was.

Nothing too horrible happened to me growing up, however. I wasn’t raped like so many others. I wasn’t habitually harassed on a daily basis. It didn’t lead to depression or suicide. But, it wasn’t nothing, either. I recall one day walking home from school when a total stranger walked by me and GRABBED MY CROTCH hard! On the public street. I was alone. I was 12 or 13. I was terrified.

On another occasion I was riding my bike home from school and a man in a car cat-called me, saying lewd and awful things to me as he followed me home. I didn’t want to lead him to my house so I had to take a detour, going in between houses until I lost him and could safely go home.

On a nearly daily or weekly basis, I couldn’t walk anywhere past men working without one or more of them making lewd comments, catcalls, etc. This continued throughout junior high, high school and college. Eventually I put on weight, largely I think, in defense of this unwanted attention.

And here’s the kicker, and something I’ll be talking more about in future posts, but I had two warring messages in my mind about what my role in all this was as a woman. From the world at large I was taught that it was my job to be sexy and desirable for men. That I should be flattered they showed me this kind of attention.

From my church I was taught that my body was inherently sinful and caused men to sin. That it was my job to guard men’s thoughts so that they didn’t sin.

This meant that when I received this kind of attention I had conflicting feelings. Fear at being the recipient of this kind of attention, some small amount of flattery that I was ‘sexy’ enough to warrant harassment (think REALLY HARD about that last bit for a moment, will you?) and shame that I was somehow causing all of this because of my inherently sinful body. Was it any wonder that in defense I put on weight and shied away from sexual attention?

Is it any wonder that many gorgeous women in our world have also done the same to protect themselves? It doesn’t really work. It brings a different kind of abuse. But it’s not conscious. It’s our subconscious mind’s way of coping with the consistent onslaught of complete disrespect and disregard for our personhood.

Women live in an impossible double standard their WHOLE LIVES!

We are the victims responsible for our own victimhood, according to the way our society works.

This is reinforced every time a woman is asked what she was wearing when reporting a sexual harassment crime.

This is reinforced every time someone teaches our girls that their bodies cause boys to sin and it’s our job to prevent that.

This is reinforced every time women are objectified in the media for their bodies.

This is reinforced every time a guy doesn’t take ‘No’ as an acceptable answer to his advances.

This is reinforced every time a man harasses a girl or woman and tells her to ‘not be so serious’ and ‘lighten up’ when she gets offended.

This is reinforced every time a school teaches girls how to ‘be safe’ and ‘avoid being raped’ but does not teach the boys NOT TO RAPE.

It’s reinforced daily, for women everywhere, when our voices are silenced by men and BY WOMEN. Yes, we perpetuate our own victimhood onto each other when we slut shame each other. When we criticize each other’s appearance or sexual history. When we fight about breast milk vs. bottles or staying home vs. working or any number of things that are important, but also silly–because CHOICES. We fought for the right to choose, and then we criticize each other on those choices.

So pay attention this week. Read the posts and tweets about #YesAllWomen Notice the men who are supporting this and those who are getting defensive. Notice the stories, how uncomfortable they make you. How AWFUL they are. Learn to empathize. Learn to set aside judgement of each other and let’s start to change the system.

My husband and I have three little girls.

I am not willing to raise my daughters in a culture that treats women this way.

Share your stories below. Let your voices be heard.

#YesAllWomen

#YesAllWomen because this film was made almost 29 years ago and this line is still relevant pic.twitter.com/CN8Ork3IAS

— FAT AMY (@RelatableQuote) May 28, 2014

 

We shouldnt have to remind you that shes someone’s daughter, someone’s sister, someone’s friend “SHES SOMEONE” should be enough #yesallwomen

— Princess Londy ⚓️ (@AlondraaDeppxo) May 29, 2014

 

#YesAllWomen because we even have to learn how to walk a certain way so men won’t think we’re was an easy victim #notallmen but enough

— Shonna White (@ShonnaTheWhite) May 29, 2014

 

Yelling at a guy because he groped my friend’s chest in a club & he thought it wasn’t my place ’cause he had money in his hands.#YesAllWomen

— Brit Bliss (@BritBliss) May 29, 2014

 

#yesallwomen because I just had a man try to get in my car and said if I didn’t let him I’d regret it.

— Megan⭐️Miller (@MeganMbmiller) May 29, 2014

 

#YesAllWomen as a teenager walking at night I was followed by a man in a trenchcoat for 5 blocks. I escaped him by hiding in a grocery store

— Maggie Athena Galvin (@maggieathena) May 29, 2014

 

***This summer we’ll be talking about sex in a series of posts called “Let’s Talk About Sex.” We’re going to tackle some pretty heavy issues, as well as some fun ones. Join us for more on this important subject.***

 

We hope you enjoyed this blog post. Want more from Karpov Kinrade? Check out our Amazon page here. New to our work? Get Seduced by Innocence FREE everywhere ebooks are sold, and find out why the Seduced Saga is a bestselling fan favorite!

Confessions of a Gay Man’s Daughter After Watching HBOs The Normal Heart #LetsTalkAboutSex

[image error]It’s the early 1980s. Sexual freedom is on the rise and is as much political as it is emotional and physical, particularly for the gay community. They’ve fought long and hard to love who they want, when they want and how they want.

And then AIDS hits them. It hits them hard and it hits them fast and it starts killing everyone they love. But it only appears to kill gay men.

If this disease, this virus, this plague, if it had struck down children, the citizens of this country would have raised their collective voice and demanded the government, the scientists, the doctors, find a cure. Save their children. Stop the dying.

But it wasn’t our children who were dying.

It was gay men. Men who were already shunned by society for being sick. For being sinful. For suffering from a psychiatric illness. It was only a few years prior that homosexuality was ‘officially’ removed as a mental illness, but public opinion would be slower to change.

And so we let them die. We turned our collective eyes away and pretended that their lives didn’t matter. That their suffering wasn’t our suffering. That their rage and pain weren’t our rage and pain.

We pretended, as a culture, as a society, that their lives didn’t matter.

In the 80s I was a young child. Too young to understand the political ramifications of sexual freedom for gay men. Too young to understand sex at all. I was too young to really know what AIDS was or what it meant to be gay in our culture.

Here’s what I knew by the mid-80s, just after the events of this powerful movie, The Normal Heart, took place. I knew that my biological father was gay. And I knew that was wrong. That he would go to hell for being gay because it was a sin, an unforgiveable sin if he didn’t repent and stop being gay. “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” But what that really meant was hate the sin and pray the sinner stopped sinning or they’d be punished.

And so do you know, to my shame, what my child’s heart prayed for at that time? That my dad would get AIDS so that he would realize he was sinning and repent before he died and went to hell. I was more worried about his soul suffering in the eternal flames of hell than his body suffering from an unforgiving virus on earth.

I’m not that child anymore. I’m a grown woman who outgrew those beliefs once I learned to question them. Once I learned to think for myself.

AIDS isn’t a punishment on gay people any more than breast cancer is a punishment for sinful women or prostate cancer is a punishment for sinful men. It’s all so silly. And so very sad.

I don’t know what my dad went through in the 80s and 90s. Did he lose friends? Lovers? I imagine so. I plan on asking him next time I talk to him. Did he worry about getting sick himself? Did he take precautions?

In this movie, The Normal Heart, Ned Weeks, played by a brilliant Mark Ruffalo, is an outspoken writer who commits his life to raising[image error] awareness about the AIDS epidemic before they even know what the disease is. Initially they call it the Gay Cancer, and Dr. Emma Brookner, played by a wheel-chair bound Julia Roberts, spearheads a plea for gay men to keep it in their pants until they know more. This is met with resistance, because they’ve just come out of the closet (even if they haven’t all actually come out of THE closet), as a gay community they are finally free to express themselves and be with others sexually.

It’s their equivalent of bra burning, I think, to some degree. It’s a way to express their freedom and they refuse to be shoved back in to the sexual closet and gagged and repressed so that the conservative straight community can use this as proof of the ‘wrongness of homosexuality.’ It’s not natural. It’s immoral. It’s sick. And this is the punishment.

Based on the largely autobiographical play of the same name written by Larry Kramer, The Normal Heart explores the rise of AIDS and HIV in the early 80s in New York City as gay activities find themselves in conflict over the best way to fight for their dying friends and lovers. I discovered this movie from a Facebook post by Anne Rice and watched it the night it came out. And I’m so glad I did.

This movie is brilliantly cast and takes you into a loving relationship between Ned and Felix Turner (played by Matt Bomer ,who is phenomenal) as Felix fights for his life against AIDS and Ned fights for funding and awareness to save his lover in a confrontational way that not all of his friends support.

It shows us the inherent conflict in managing a health crisis that is spread sexually at a time when sexual repression was seen as political suicide for their cause. But mostly, I think, it shows us that this love they have for each other, it is the same as the love I have for my husband. It is normal. The heart loves who it loves and that love is as beautiful between two men or two women as it is between a man and a woman.

I cried a lot during this movie, and I thought a lot about my dad, and I thanked whatever god or gods might have been listening to my 6-year-old self that they didn’t answer that particular prayer of mine.

When I first wrote The Forbidden Trilogy, I based the gay couple of Greg and Gary on my dad and his husband, and in part of the Forbidden books and later in the Seduced by Lies spin off, the issue of gay prejudice and bullying is addressed, but for the most part they are characters in a book with many other characters and their ‘gayness’ is not a plot issue or main theme so much as a ‘normal’ part of the world.

And I think it’s important to do this, to have homosexual relationships as ‘normal’ and not as special plot elements, because in my life that’s how it was. As I grew and understood more, I became close to my dad and am still close to him and to me the idea of being gay or not being gay is somewhat irrelevant and normal. I don’t really care one way or the other what someone’s sexual orientation is as long as they’re happy.

[image error]And I know this for certain. Their suffering. Their pain. Their deaths. It is our suffering. Our pain. Our deaths. It affects us all. Every. Single. One. Of. Us.

Because we are all part of each other. We are all connected on so many levels and we cannot live as autonomous creatures cut off from the suffering of another just because we don’t agree with their choices or their sexuality or like who they are. It doesn’t matter. When one of us suffers, we all suffer.

And so we have to fight. We have to raise our voices. We have to put aside our petty prejudice and learn to love others if we ever hope to save ourselves.

I hope each one of you will find a way to watch The Normal Heart on HBO. I’d love to hear from you. How did the movie affect you? What are your thoughts?

For those of you who do feel homosexuality is a sin, or who do not support gay marriage or the right for homosexuals to live as they want, why? How does their love hurt you in any way? How does it stop you from having the kind of family dynamic you prefer? What do you get out of preventing two people who love each other from being together? How does that serve your God? Your family? Your life?

Please note we will be moderating comments and while we are open to discussion with differing opinions, we will not tolerate any hint of gay bashing, hate talk or anything of the kind. Keep it civil.

**This is the first post in a series of posts called “Let’s Talk About Sex” that we will be exploring this summer, so stay tuned for more on the subject of sex and so much more!** 

We hope you enjoyed this blog post. Want more from Karpov Kinrade? Check out our Amazon page here. New to our work? Get Seduced by Innocence FREE everywhere ebooks are sold, and find out why the Seduced Saga is a bestselling fan favorite!