My multicultural contemporary romance SHORT SOUP has won a Swirl Award for best contemporary romance! I'm thrilled to bits.
I'm joining the Teaser Tuesday meme and posting an excerpt from my steampunk romance, ASHER'S DILEMMA.
In this excerpt, Asher has travelled back in time and is reunited with Minerva, who is unaware of what has happened.
He folded his arms around her, and the familiar sensation of her body set his heart hammering. There were some things time could never change. “Minerva, if need be, I would wait for you forever.”
The smile she gave him was enough to melt a glacier. “Forever is a long time.” Circling her arms around his neck, she pressed herself against him. “I promise I won’t make you wait that long.”
Eyes glistening with expectation, she raised her mouth to him, and his blood began to thrum. Oh, dear heaven. He’d not thought this out thoroughly. How the blue blazes was he to avoid such knee-buckling temptation?
Through the thin stuff of her dress he could feel her warm curves sliding against him, igniting a firestorm of lust in him. The lure of her lips was too much. He lowered his head and kissed her fiercely. Heat shattered through him. Lust, unfettered, roared in his veins. In an instant she’d brought him fully back to life. Aroused, he pulled her closer, and she moaned in response.
“My love.” She caressed his chest and shoulders, her hands moving over him compulsively. “Will you be staying the night?”
In this excerpt, Asher has travelled back in time and is reunited with Minerva, who is unaware of what has happened.
He folded his arms around her, and the familiar sensation of her body set his heart hammering. There were some things time could never change. “Minerva, if need be, I would wait for you forever.”
The smile she gave him was enough to melt a glacier. “Forever is a long time.” Circling her arms around his neck, she pressed herself against him. “I promise I won’t make you wait that long.”
Eyes glistening with expectation, she raised her mouth to him, and his blood began to thrum. Oh, dear heaven. He’d not thought this out thoroughly. How the blue blazes was he to avoid such knee-buckling temptation?
Through the thin stuff of her dress he could feel her warm curves sliding against him, igniting a firestorm of lust in him. The lure of her lips was too much. He lowered his head and kissed her fiercely. Heat shattered through him. Lust, unfettered, roared in his veins. In an instant she’d brought him fully back to life. Aroused, he pulled her closer, and she moaned in response.
“My love.” She caressed his chest and shoulders, her hands moving over him compulsively. “Will you be staying the night?”
The prices of my Carina titles have recently been reduced!
When Harriet Came Home (contemporary romance), Asher's Invention, and Asher's Dilemma (steampunk romance) are now only $2.99 on Amazon and even less on Carina Press. Try them now :)
When Harriet Came Home (contemporary romance), Asher's Invention, and Asher's Dilemma (steampunk romance) are now only $2.99 on Amazon and even less on Carina Press. Try them now :)
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I’ve always loved the concept of time travel. One of my favourite movies is Back To The Future. I loved the crazy professor , the DeLorean time machine, and the “flux capacitor” which magically made the time machine work. I also loved how neatly interwoven the past and present were, and how, when Marty McFly returns from the past, the present has been altered because of his actions.
So when I began writing Asher’s Dilemma I thought I had time travel all sorted out in my head. Turns out, once you accept that time travel is possible, the door is opened to all sorts of mental gymnastics. I spent hours pondering the various scenarios, wondering what would happen to X if Y did this to him in the past? Would X disappear? Be wiped out from history? Travel to another dimension?
As I investigated time travel, I found scads of information on the subject. I found I had to choose a model of time travel from one of three broad choices:
(1) There is only one single fixed history which is unchangeable
(2) History is flexible and subject to change
(3) There are multiple co-existing timelines.
Even after I’d chosen my model, I had to work out my storyline to fit in with it. Many roundabout arguments with myself and headaches ensued. Every now and then I had to remind myself that I was writing fiction, not a scientific thesis! It’s a strange experience striving to be logical about something that is unproven, illogical, and—most people would say— impossible.
Hopefully, readers will enjoy Asher’s Dilemma, time travel glitches not withstanding.
So when I began writing Asher’s Dilemma I thought I had time travel all sorted out in my head. Turns out, once you accept that time travel is possible, the door is opened to all sorts of mental gymnastics. I spent hours pondering the various scenarios, wondering what would happen to X if Y did this to him in the past? Would X disappear? Be wiped out from history? Travel to another dimension?
As I investigated time travel, I found scads of information on the subject. I found I had to choose a model of time travel from one of three broad choices:
(1) There is only one single fixed history which is unchangeable
(2) History is flexible and subject to change
(3) There are multiple co-existing timelines.
Even after I’d chosen my model, I had to work out my storyline to fit in with it. Many roundabout arguments with myself and headaches ensued. Every now and then I had to remind myself that I was writing fiction, not a scientific thesis! It’s a strange experience striving to be logical about something that is unproven, illogical, and—most people would say— impossible.
Hopefully, readers will enjoy Asher’s Dilemma, time travel glitches not withstanding.
What was London like during the Victorian era? I imagine it to be sprawling, heaving with humanity, glittering with fabulous riches, and also dirty, overcrowded, and downright stinky. Victorian London was the biggest city in the world, with a population in excess of 4 million by 1880. Streets teeming with traffic quickly became filled with horse poo. Chimneys from factories and homes belched out black smoke. Raw sewage ran down gutters and into the rivers. Pickpockets and scavengers roamed the streets looking for an easy mark.
Until the second half of the 19th century London residents drew their drinking water from the same stretch of the Thames where open sewers discharged their waste. Makes me shudder to think about it! No wonder they preferred drinking ale or small beer. The Great Stink of 1858 finally mobilised the authorities to do something about the antiquated sewage system.
When researching Victorian London, one of my favourite internet sites to visit is David Perdue. He has an interactive map of Charles Dickens’ London, which shows you all the major landmarks of the city and also where they are referenced in Dickens’ novels. If you’re a fan of Dickens’ work or just interested in Victorian London it’s well worth a visit.
Until the second half of the 19th century London residents drew their drinking water from the same stretch of the Thames where open sewers discharged their waste. Makes me shudder to think about it! No wonder they preferred drinking ale or small beer. The Great Stink of 1858 finally mobilised the authorities to do something about the antiquated sewage system.
When researching Victorian London, one of my favourite internet sites to visit is David Perdue. He has an interactive map of Charles Dickens’ London, which shows you all the major landmarks of the city and also where they are referenced in Dickens’ novels. If you’re a fan of Dickens’ work or just interested in Victorian London it’s well worth a visit.
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| Photo by Peter Hindmarsh |
It's late autumn here in Sydney, and the chilly weather has finally arrived. I love this time of year when the humidity vanishes and the air cools. I'm a reluctant cook at the best of times, but in autumn I get to make lamb shank soup and Massaman curry. By the end of winter I'll be sick of them, but for now they're the perfect comfort food.
I've just handed in edits for my Entangled Indulgence book, Grace Under Pressure, which releases in October. After writing three Bliss books where the door was firmly shut on bedroom activities, I've had to fling open that door and go charging in, so to speak. It does take a certain amount of creativity and effort to write a sex scene that doesn't sound too mechanical!
My blog tour for Real Men Don't Quit is over and winners of my giveaway picked. I love the ease and convenience of giving away gift cards. So far from two blog tours 100% of my winners have chosen Amazon gift cards, but I'm guessing these can be exchanged for other things.
My favourite ebook retailer BooksOnBoard recently closed doors! Such a shame as their prices were always great. Looks like I'll have to go with Google Play. Kobo is a pain to use because they don't have a shopping cart (!) which means each book must be purchased separately. Also Kobo prices aren't very competitive.
I recently contributed to a steampunk romance roudtable discussion about plot and world building which you can read here.If you're into steampunk romance or just sampling it, the post includes contributions from fantastic authors like Zoe Archer and Cindy Spencer Pape.
Goodreads
BookBub
