A Home in the Library

Growing up, the library was home to me. I mean, I was born into my parental home and I loved it, but the library was the first home my soul chose. I remember spending several recesses hiding out in the school library, lost in a book. On weekends, I would haunt the British Council Library in the community. Even today, rows and rows of books, colorful spines with a rainbow of titles, comfort me like nothing else can.

So imagine my joy to find both A Tale of Two Djinns and Wildfire on the shelves at my local library. I SQUEED! Yes, I know it's the library, but I couldn't help it. :)

Here's a picture:

Happy dancing in West Texas!

Libraries bring readers, young and old, to new worlds and possibilities. They fuel the imagination and let you get your hands on books, precious books, even when you don't have a job or live on a limited budget. They are the best kind of entertainment and education.

So support your local library, go read a book!

xoxo

Mina

Alphas Unleashed and Review Copies

Alphas Unleashed, an anthology of science fiction and paranormal romance, with stories set in different worlds. 

UNLEASHED (aka Released) JUNE 15
Available on
Google Play goo.gl/zKCzsa
Kobogoo.gl/RPZyH0 
Amazon 

NOOK

iBooks

Interested in reviewing Alphas Unleashed? All that is required is your honest opinion. 

Email me at minakhan(at)wcc(dot)net and let me know what format you'd like. Thanks!

In other news...Wildfire was nominated in the best fantasy book category of the Indie Romance Convention...by readers. I don't know who you are, but thank you!

Father's Day, Books and Blessings

When you have worked in the news business and you've lived in several different places around the world, you are a realist, you know there is good and bad and lots of in between. You also appreciate the blessings in your  life. My parents are one of the biggest (and definitely the earliest) blessings.

My Dad and my Mom gave me unconditional love, made sure I got educated, let me go off on adventures half way across the world (Bangladesh is literally across the globe from America), and let me marry for love. Many parents don't, but they did. I am who I am thanks to them. All my books, my projects, are possible because of them.

My father, Capt. Rashid Khan, is no longer with us. However, his impact on my life is there and will be there through generations.

To celebrate him this Father's Day, I'll share five facts about him:

1. He lied about his age and ran off to join the Merchant Navy.

2. He wooed my Mom away from another man.

3. He loved to laugh and make people laugh.

4. He loved to dance. In fact, my memory of the last New Year's Eve he was alive was watching him and my Mom dance.

5. He traveled the world, but we were his world.

With a dad like him, how could I not write romance? So dear readers, celebrate your fathers today whether they are with you or not. A good dad makes a world of difference.

Traveling to Other Worlds via Stories

One of the reasons I love stories, both as a reader and a writer, is that they let me escape. I don't have to wait for vacation days, or save pennies to build up a decent budget, and I don't even have to pack. Every new story takes me to a different world and on an exciting adventure! So I was ready to jump on the story rocket when Michele Callahan, founder of RomCon, first proposed Alphas Unleashed, an anthology of science fiction and paranormal romance, with stories set in different worlds. 

UNLEASHING (aka Releasing) JUNE 15
Available on
Google Play goo.gl/zKCzsa
Kobogoo.gl/RPZyH0 
Amazon 

NOOK

iBooks

So what worlds will you be traveling to? Here are the deets!

A Warrior’s Heart (Marastin Dow Book 1.1) by S.E. Smith

Ben and Aaron Cooper think their luck has ended when the freighter they are on is captured by the Marastin Dow, a terrifying alien species known for their savagery. Instead they discover love with two warriors who capture their hearts. Now, they are in a race to keep the fragile gift they find before it is ripped away from them forever.

Sealed With A Kiss, A Djinn Novella by Mina Khan

Rayez, a smoking hot chef and fire djinn in exile, lands himself in deep trouble (at the bottom of a beer bottle) when he tries to help a mysterious beautiful woman.

Selene is pursued and desperate. She’ll do anything to keep her brother safe—including capture a djinn.

While deception brings them together, dangerous enemies make them unlikely allies. Can one wrong lead to two rights and true love?

Dead Drop, A My Immortals Novella by Carolyn Jewel

Wallace Jackson has so little magic she expects to be kicked out of her group of street witches being trained to use their gifts and work with demons. No one is more shocked than she is when a powerful demon proves her wrong. And then asks a favor of her.

The demon Palla is a warlord’s enforcer, a stone cold killer. Wallace Jackson is a pacifist witch with a dangerous power. He wants nothing to do with humans until he needs Wallace to help him free his former lover from a living death and release her spirit from unimaginable suffering.

Chimera Born: The Beginning  (Book 1 of the Chimera) by Michele Callahan
Aron of Itara, Forbidden Son, has been a prisoner of fate since before he was born. Captured as a child by the evil Triscani, it’s been centuries since he’s felt the sun on his face or the tenderness of a woman’s touch.  Determined to help humanity break the elusive but powerful Itaran Triads’ hold on Earth, Aron escapes with one goal, to find the one man who can help him save humans from an eternal prison. After that, he’ll fight to the death, but he’ll never go back in the cage.

Zoey Williams watched her sister die at the hands of monsters, and no one believed her.  She’s spent the last five years using her journalism skills to track aliens, investigate paranormal activity, and hunt for answers.  But she got too close to the truth, and now it’s not just monsters hunting her, but her own people. Zoey doesn’t believe she needs a guardian, but once Aron finds her he can’t leave her to the vicious hunters that would turn her to ash or to the power-hungry humans who seek to silence her.  In fact, he discovers that he doesn’t want to leave her at all…

So what do y'all think?

AND...there is a giveaway! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Remembering Author Jay Lake and His Wisdom

I just found out today that science-fiction fantasy author Jay Lake passed away on June 1, 2014. He was a good man, an amazing author and an inspiring human being.

A few years back I stumbled across an essay titled "Jumping Off the Cliff, Looking for Water on the Way Down". It was an essay about writing being an act of faith, writing despite obstacles like self-doubt and cancer. That essay inspired me then and continues to inspire me today. That essay introduced me to author Jay Lake, a talented and established writer in the science fiction and fantasy realm, and led me to hunt down his books.

In 2011, I participated in a Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer's Chat with Jay Lake on twitter. For those of you who are totally into Romance, that's like a tete-a-tete with Nora Roberts for me. Thank you to author Bryan Thomas Schmidt for arranging it. Anyhoo, I got to ask questions, listen to other questions and hear Jay's answers. Again, I came away inspired.

(Originally posted in 2011 on Romance Magicians, but the wisdom is timeless): Being writers, I'm sure all of us can learn from another writer's wisdom, no matter what the genre. So, with Jay and Bryan's permission, I'm going to share some of my favorite quotes from the chat. Blog readers, I present you Jay Lake :

"I can gin up a story from a very small seed. It's one of the pleasures of the craft for me."

"Publishing is meritocracy, but it is not a just meritocracy"..."Which is to say being good is a necessary but not sufficient condition for success."

"Write more" just means whatever you're doing, do more of it. Plus I'm a big fan of putting down the tv and the video games...Nothing wrong with entertainment, but things that scratch your plot bump will keep you from writing...The question is: do you want to be a producer or a consumer?

"Nobody is born a literary genius...You would expect to practice a martial art or a new instrument or a foreign language. Why wouldn't you practice writing?"

"And write new stuff. Don't spend years laboring over your Great Work. Trust me, it's not that great. Go write another one."

Regarding reading to write: "Absolutely. It's called filling the well. Imagine a chef who never ate anyone else's cooking. But time is an issue."

"Writing has really interfered with my reading career."

"I talk openly about the cancer because so many people don't. I get more fan letters off my cancer blogging than off my fiction."

"Re outlines, for short fiction, never. I 'follow the headlights' For novels, always. But the process changes every time."

RE: breaking in:
"I wrote and submitted regularly from 1990 to 2001 before making my first sale."

"Probably about 800,000 words of first draft before I broke in."

"At this point, I've probably written close to 3,000,000 words of first draft. Sold over 2,000,000 of those words."

"DId I ever want to quit? Lots of times. But I kept going. Because, well, this is what I wanted."

About Submitting and Rejections:

"And yes, I still get rejected all the time. More often than I get accepted, I think."

"Submitting fiction is kind of like dating. It helps to be cheerful and bullet-resistant."

Rest in peace Jay, and thank you.