Hooked on Magic #MFRWHooks

Welcome to Book Hooks, a Wednesday blog hop offered by MFRW. 

This is my first time participating and I'm uber excited. Since I love stories with magic and paranormal fun (both as a reader and a writer), I decided to share a magical excerpt from my newest release, A Christmas Wish:

Rayez narrowed his eyes and threw all his power at her. Searing, roiling heat flashed through him to his fingertips and out. As it emerged the heat took shape and raced like entwined fiery snakes swimming through the air.

She paled even more but stood her ground. The flames whipped over Selene and around her, covering her head to toe. They licked every inch of her tiny frame. She stood there like a flaming human torch. One breath, two breaths, three and then the flames vanished, leaving her unharmed.

Rayez gawked. What the hell was she?

(Instead of having a cute meet, my hero Rayez and heroine Selene have a rather unhappy meet...)

Blurb: Rayez, a smoking hot chef and fire djinn in exile, lands himself in deep trouble 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 gigantic wrong lead to two rights and true love?

*Also included are some of the recipes Rayez made in the book.*

***All proceeds from the first two weeks of sales will be donated to the Concho Valley Regional Food Bank. ***

This is an enhanced and expanded version of a story previously published as Sealed With A Kiss in the Alphas Unleashed anthology. 

Sound interesting?  Here are the buy links:

Amazon: http://amzn.com/B00RKQJB20

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00RKQJB20

Amazon Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00RKQJB20

Barnes & Nobles: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-christmas-wis…/1120976558…

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/505708


*I'm also visiting ParaYourNormal blog and sharing about djinn mythology today!*

To check more book hooks from other MFRW authors: 

New Story, New Year

Life comes with snafus. No ifs and buts about it. As you grow older you learn to work around them and get things done despite them.

Due to unplanned and unavoidable circumstances my novella A Christmas Wish almost became a New Year's wish. Making the decision to delay publication was hard, but quality is important to me and so it was the right decision. Now I'm happy to report all the recipes have been tested and retested, the story has grown and developed in all kinds of new directions and it's out...before the end of 2014. What a great way to wrap up the year :)

So without further ado, let me introduce you to the new story:

Blurb: Rayez, a smoking hot chef and fire djinn in exile, lands himself in deep trouble 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 gigantic wrong lead to two rights and true love?

*Also included are some of the recipes Rayez made in the book.*

***All proceeds from the first two weeks of sales will be donated to the Concho Valley Regional Food Bank. ***

This is an enhanced and expanded version of a story previously published as Sealed With A Kiss in the Alphas Unleashed anthology. 

Sound interesting?  Here are the buy links:

Amazon: http://amzn.com/B00RKQJB20

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00RKQJB20

Amazon Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00RKQJB20

Barnes & Nobles: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-christmas-wis…/1120976558…

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/505708

Wishing you and yours good health, good times and good books in 2015!

Djinns For the Love of Mytholgy

***WINNERS!!!***

Sorry, I was out of town attending my first Boas & Tiaras in the DFW area. It's a fabulously fun event. And author Nalini Singh was the keynote! SQUEE! Anyhoo, that's why the winner announcement is a wee bit late  and I'm sorry for that. To make it up to you, I picked TWO winners instead of one:

Vanessa N. & Kamla L.

Also, the winner of the grand prize I donated for the blog hop is RACHEL!!!

WooHoo! Congrats! Thanks to everyone who hopped along & left comments!

So I saw the theme and the amazing art work for this blog hop and it was love at first meet. I write about dark and dangerous djinns (often called "genies") and so it seemed perfect to jump on board the 

Love of Mythology Giveaway Hop. 

My djinn stories are inspired by childhood tales of djinns based on Asian and Middle Eastern mythology. In those stories, djinns are not demons but beings similar to humans, except they are made from smokeless fire and are prone to stronger emotions and have power to grant wishes, change forms and create havoc (that's the dangerous part.)

They live in a parallel dimension and have their own cities, politics and culture. The only time you'll find them in a lamp or bottle (or other inanimate objects) is when they have been trapped there. So in my stories I like to explore the djinn world and pit djinn against djinn, and sometimes throw in a human as well. But yes, they also fall in love because, to me, that's what makes life worth living.

When you say genie, most people imagine

or

The djinn of my imaginations looks more like Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan

Thanks so much for joining me on the blog hop! Leave a comment and your email address to win a signed copy of A TALE OF TWO DJINNS and genie lamp key chain! 

Make sure to check out the different posts on the hop. There's lots of giveaways as well as a rafflecopter entry.

This giveaway hop is running from June 1st to 8th .
The Grand Prize Consists of the following:

$45 Amazon GC or $45 worth of books at TBD.

ebooks from Patricia Bates

a prize from Lisa Beth Darling 

an ecopy of Sunburn by Rosanna Leo

an ecopy of Ain't No Bull by Danica Avet

an ecopy of Remedy Maker by Sheri Fredricks

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Rise Above Discouragement And Believe in Your Stories

First the good news: A Tale of Two Djinns won 2nd place in the novella category of the 2013 National Excellence in Romance Fiction Awards. WooHoo! I'm happy dancing over the moon in W. Texas :)

Every story I write comes from deep inside and is important to me, but this one is special because I dedicated this to my parents and donate 50% from every sale to UNICEF in my dad's memory. So it does my heart good to see Two Djinns doing well in the Universe.

This is also a personal validation. I have been writing fiction seriously and pursuing publication for about five years now. It's a hard business and my biggest challenge has been: Discouragement. 

We are taught to respect experts and often we auto-buy into their opinions. In the writing business, you’re constantly facing rejection from editors and agents. In fact, someone told me my first genie story would never sell. I still sent it out into the world and fortunately an editor at Harlequin loved the story enough to buy and publish it.

I had to learn to trust myself. I did this by honing my craft and evaluating my work for myself, and then pushing past my fears and putting myself and my work out in the world. 

There are no guarantees. I'm married to a West Texas cotton farmer and every year he works hard to plant his crops. Yes, he weeds and waters and cares for them. But at some point he has to let go and hope for the best. He can't control the weather. Some years he makes a bumper crop, other times he's grateful to have enough, and sometimes it's zilch. But he does it again next season. Why? Because he loves being a farmer.

Well, I love being a writer and telling my stories. I continue to learn, evaluate and create every day, with every story. 

You don’t need anyone’s permission to dream your dreams. So, dream big, figure out what you can do to make them real, and achieve with confidence. Believe in yourself and give your best to every story. And don’t forget to say thank you to the universe by giving back and paying it forward.

Thanks for visiting!

#RT2013, Puppies and Other Writerly Updates

Woot! I'm going to my very first Romantic Times Convention ever and I'm thrilled to bits! It sounds like a few days full of books, writing, parties and friends...how cool is that? If you are attending, come find me and say hi!

Here's where I'll be at:

CLICK on the photo above to actually read the details!

***NOTE: There will be lots of free books, goodie bags filled to the brim with fun swag, games with hot prizes, music, and food at the  

Fountain City Jazz Club Breakfast Mixer! 

You will also find me at at the:

* RT Expo, Thursday, May 2, 4 to 6 p.m., with multiple eBooks and paperback copies of A Tale of Two Djinns

* Club RT: Thursday, May 2: 2:45 p.m., Friday, May 3: 10:30 a.m.

*FAN-tastic Day Party, Saturday, May 4: 7:15-7:45 p.m.

BOOK NEWS

So, The Djinn in the Mirror is done. Writing a book is like pregnancy, you can't and shouldn't rush it. There's a lot of morning (or any other time of the day) sickness and fatigue involved, but also moments of pure wonder and bliss (like when you feel your baby kick or see that first sonogram). 

And writing the last bit is the hardest for me -- all this information rushes at me and I can't type fast enough. At the same time, there's a lot of pain and resistance because I have to capture the action film in my mind and translate it into words. The right words.

The story has been sent to my wonderful and invaluable first readers, and my editor, and now I'm waiting for their reactions...all the while biting my nails.  Will they love Ash and Dahlia as much as I do?

I want The Djinn in the Mirror to be the best story it can be. So instead of April, now I'm going to release it in May. I apologize for the delay, but I will not rush it. And, I hope, we will all be happier with the end result.

Now, for the Puppy News!!!

I have added Mason, a 2-year-old MinPin and Chihuahua mix to our family. He's last owner couldn't keep him for health reasons, and we had room in our home. Besides, it was love at first sight for me! :) 

Introducing him to my other dogs. 

You'll notice all my dogs are different and that's because all of them are dogs from the pound that needed homes. I'm a big advocate of adopting shelter pups -- you find unexpected and wonderful friends. My older dogs include a corgi and the cutest mutt ever (yes, biased mom here).

I leave you with Puppy Smiles! :)

Sneak Peek from The Djinn in the Mirror for Authors In Bloom

***UPDATE: We have winners! Tracie2667 wins the gift card and Sdylion gets to choose one of my books! Congratulations! I'll be in contact with you both later today.

And thank you everyone for playing along and making this such a fun hop! Come again :) ***


Wow, it's been a year and we are back in wonderful spring, the perfect time for the second annual Authors In Bloom Blog Hop.



This is one of my favorites hops because along the way you can collect recipes, garden tips, all kinds of prizes (books, swags, garden items and more), as well as GRAND PRIZES: Kindle Fire or Nook along with a $25 gift card. Woot! (Check the end of the post for MY giveaway!)

Not only that, the garden theme is perfect for my upcoming release THE DJINN IN THE MIRROR, which is based on the question: what if Cinderella had to deal with a wicked sexy genie instead of a fairy godmother?

(My inspiration for the djinn or genie)

The heroine DAHLIA (note the flower-inspired name?) comes from a family of earth witches and, wow, can she make a garden grow!

(My inspiration for Dahlia)

Here's an excerpt for you to enjoy:

All night she dreamt of green things growing. Blades of grass spearing skywards, trees spreading their branches and unfurling new leaves, vines climbing and creeping forward, with beautiful pale white blooms opening wide under the moonlight.

In the middle of it all, Ashmael and her.  On the ground, naked, pale and golden bodies entwined, rubbing, sliding and rocking together. The air reverberated with their soft sighs and strangled moans, whispers of desire.

While it was a welcome break from the nightmares of the kris, her fertile, fecund dream garden didn’t leave her well-rested. She awoke yawning and her body dragging and weary. Or perhaps, the gritty itch in her eyes came from crying herself to sleep. Whatever the reason, Dahlia’s heart  slumped, weighed down by sadness  and a strange aching need.

She padded over to her window to let in some morning light. Perhaps that would cheer her up. As the outside world came in focus, Dahlia gasped. Instead of a pretty little cottage garden with carefully tended and planned beds of flowers, herbs and fruit trees, a  jumble of unruly plant life had taken over the cottage garden during the night. The bougainvillea trees, which had been much shorter just yesterday, now almost blocked her window. A riot of orange, purple and red flowers with white stamens nestled among leaves and pale long thorns sprouting from twisty thin limbs.

“Oh. My. God.” Dahlia ran out of the room, holding up the edges of her night dress so she didn’t trip. 

She burst through the front door and confronted a jungle, all around her and over her, tangles of overgrowth hid the road from her.  Ferns, grasses, bushes, mango trees and coconut palms spilled and tripped over each other. Birds called to each other in different songs as if playing an elaborate game of peek-a-boo among the foliage. The air steamed and the musky scent of earth and grass mixed with the sweet perfume of roses, jasmines and lilies. Every breath intoxicated her.

I hope you enjoyed the sneak peek! 

Dahlia also grows her own herbs and fresh produce for the dinner table. One of her favorite recipes is a simple vegetable toss that still lets the garden-grown flavors shine.

Citrusy Veggies

Ingredients:

salt and pepper to taste
3 to 4 Tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 Tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon fresh, chopped oregano or 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 teaspoon fresh, chopped cilantro

4 cups sliced, steamed mixed vegetables such as zucchini, asparagus, corn, and tomatoes 

1. Drain the steamed vegetables, and place in a bowl to cool.

2. Mix lime juice with oil. Add oregano, and cilantro and combine.

3. Pour lime juice mixture over cool vegetables and mix well.

4. Season with salt and pepper. Serve. 

The Djinn In The Mirror will be available later this month! 

Until then leave a comment with your e-mail and enter the rafflecopter giveaway! Two winners will be randomly chosen and announced on April 20.

Grand prize winners will be selected at random from the comments sections of participating blogs!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also, don't forget to visit the other Authors In Bloom Blog Hop participants!

Of Hearts and Heartbreakers

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and any where you go you're like to be confronted by hearts. Big, red hearts painted on restaurant windows, fat and shiny heart balloons at the doctor's office, sweet heart-shaped treats at the grocery store. Yes, hearts, hearts everywhere! Not surprisingly then, I jumped on Carrie's Heartbreaker Blog Hop (check out out the lovely hearts & the hunky abs...resistance was futile!)

And the topic: Heartbreakers. Oh my. To me, heartbreakers are the ultimate bad boys. They could be wearing leather jackets or Armani suits or cowboy hats, doesn't really matter. All of them exude wicked sexiness, Alpha-hole confidence, love-em and leave-em attitude. But what makes them hard to resist, to me and only in romance novels, is that they are redeemable. A hero like that falls hard when he falls...and suddenly you see this big, bad guy going through heartbreak...because any heroine worth her heroine-ness is going to make him earn her love. Love that!

So, of course, the hero of my first published story The Djinn's Dilemma, is a heartbreaker. He is also a djinn(genie) and human hybrid assassin who lives in the shadows. 

Trouble starts when he meets his latest target, Sarah, a Texan journalist. He's enjoyed plenty of djinn females and human women, but none of them affect him like Sarah because...well, you'll just have to read for yourself. (Insert evil author cackle here).

For my second story, A Tale of Two Djinns, I turned the tables. The heroine, Maya, is the heartbreaker. She tells the hero: "I'm not really interested in getting to know you, just your body." 

All she wants is some no-strings-attached fun sex. Instead, their one-night stand leads to assassins, abduction and amore.

So, what are your thoughts on heartbreakers? Do you prefer the hero or the heroine as the heartbreaker? In the spirit of Valentine's, I'm giving away a SIGNED copy of A Tale of Two Djinns, a Romeo and Juliet story with genies, feminists, kickass action and sexy adult fun! 

And there are THREE blog hop grand prizes:

Now what are those prizes?

1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet

2nd Grand Prize: A $100 Amazon or B&N Gift Card

3rd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack that contains paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, cover flats, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more!

All you have to do is LEAVE A COMMENT WITH YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS!!!! The hop ends Feb. 11, so hurry up & comment!

For other participating blogs, check out this website: 

http://carrieannbloghops.blogspot.com/

I'm also giving away a copy of Rumi the Book of Love, poems of ecstasy and longing. Isn't a book of poems the perfect Valentine's gift? Check out my 'Tis the Season for Love post to enter the giveaway.

A Not-So-Sweet First Meet for #SixSunday

Happy first Sunday in December! I'm almost done with my next book, and I'm in the Can't-Wait-To-Share!!! mode *grin* so my six sentences today are from my WIP, The Djinn in the Mirror.

The Djinn in the Mirror is a Cinderella story with earth mage heroine needing to escape from her wicked step father and a sexy djinn playing the role of her fairy godmother (except he's not a fairy and not at all motherly...). If he keeps her safe until after after her eighteenth birthday, Dahlia promises to free him from the mirror in which he's trapped.

However, the djinn isn't happy about serving yet another human, a species he tends not to trust. This scene is Dahlia's and Ash's first encounter.


BTW, my inspiration for the djinn, Ashmael, is Bollywood heartthrob Hrithik Roshan :)

Let me know what you think of Dahlia & Ash's first meet....

With a roar of anger, he leapt from the bed and stalked to the edge of the mirror.

Her gaze latched onto his…thing. It stood at half-mast, thick and heavy, showy like a prized Iris in full bloom. She forced her eyes up. 

“So, the mouse knows how to crack the whip.”

“The “mouse” is your mistress, and you will address me as such,” Dahlia said with a coolness she didn’t feel, even as her heart thundered in her ears and warm tingles erupted somewhere much lower.

Be sure to visit the Other Sixers' Posts and follow the #sixsunday hashtag on Twitter! Thanks for reading and hopefully commenting, too!

Adventures in Gift Wrapping & Other Firsts

October has been a month of firsts for me and super-busy. But that's good. Sometimes we get into ruts or stick with the familiar because it's easier...and safer. Trying something new is always risky, but it has its rewards. You stretch your boundaries and grow.

One of the firsts I'm proudest of is the publication of my multicultural short, "DEAD: A Ghost Story."

Unlike my other published stories, DEAD is NOT a romance. In it, Nasreen – the Indian-American protagonist grapples with her life and death in West Texas.

DEAD was inspired by the many immigrant wives I met during my time as a business reporter in West Texas. For the most part these women are invisible to the mainstream society for various reasons – language barriers, isolation, and unfamiliarity with their adopted country’s laws and social mores etc. So this story was written to recognize them and to highlight a usually hush-hush part of the immigrant story.

I have readers who love my genie romances, so why not write another one instead of trying on a completely different genre? Because the idea of all the invisible Nasreens in the world sort of haunted me until I’d written the story. In doing so, I discovered a different side of myself, a new voice inside.

If you'd like to check DEAD out, here's the Amazon link.

Another first I'm proud of is putting together my Author's Basket for the Southern Magic Romance Readers Luncheon 2012.

I'm not a crafty person. I can't turn ribbons into works of art, and gift wrapping usually involves LOTS of tape...and the end result isn't pretty. Hey, it's what's inside and the thought that counts, right?

But, I'd promised my Southern Magic sisters a raffle basket and by hook and crook I'd get it done. So I enlisted the DH (he's married to me and doesn't have a choice...plus, he's very practical & task oriented).

I loved the shopping part. A perk of writing genie romances and stories with an Asian flavor means I can have fun getting colorful, exotic gifts. Of course, I over-shopped. But that's okay, my DH managed to fit most everything into the basket in a nice, snug, efficient way. Here take a look:

(The book in the back is a Moroccan cookbook, then other good reads, incense, candles, Christmas decorations and more...um, like I said...I had fun shopping!)

We ran into trouble when it came to wrapping. I measured/guesstimated the cellophane and it was too short. So we had to creatively angle the basket, pull and stretch...and use LOTS of tape. By the end of it all, I wasn't even going to attempt working with a ribbon. Instead, I purchased a pre-curled pretty concoction and stuck in on top!

Now I have got my fingers and toes crossed that the ribbon bit stays stuck...if not, I hope the recipient is too distracted by the goodies inside to notice the missing finery. Whew, I feel like I have truly earned the good times and the several glasses of wine I'll enjoy when I finally get to my first Readers Luncheon.

Share some of your firsts!

Cover Reveal & Karma -- A Tale of Two Djinns

I believe in karma. I believe in paying it forward. And I believe in thank yous. Because of all these, I have pledged fifty percent of the proceeds from the sale of A Tale of Two Djinns to UNICEF’s new Schools for Asia initiative.

One of the best gifts my parents have given me is my education. Thanks to it, I discovered my love of reading and writing, pursued an adventurous journalism career, and became a published author.

Growing up in Bangladesh, I have seen the poorest of poor. I have seen children forced to work instead of attending school. I have also seen education make a difference —lead to job opportunities, raise the quality of life for entire families, and allow individual new possibilities.

Unfortunately, many don’t get this precious education. According to unicef, 67 million children are currently not enrolled in school worldwide, and 26 million of them live in the Asia-Pacific Region. How much potential is the world losing out on? How many Einsteins, Joyce Carol Oateses, and more remain undiscovered because they were born in bad circumstances?

My mother never finished high school. Back in the early 1950s, in traditional Bangladesh where arranged marriages were the norm and good proposals a blessing, my mother was married to a handsome young sailor. She was seventeen and he was nineteen. Her father, who had great hopes for his clever eldest child, agreed to the marriage only after the groom’s father promised to let her continue her studies. This promise was not kept.

Many years later, older and wiser, my mother insisted on her daughters being educated, finishing college. Her favorite saying is “No one can take knowledge away from you.” My late father, who knew a thing or two about raising daughters, made our education a family priority.



(They were married 53 years: 1958 to 2011)

To honor my parents, to give thanks for my blessings, I’m passing forward the gift of education through UNICEF’s Schools for Asia, which will work in Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam.

I need your help. I hope you will consider picking up A Tale of Two Djinns, and if you enjoy the read, I hope you will tell others about it. Meanwhile, every RT and share helps & is greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance! I hope together we will make a difference.

Anyone dressing up as a djinn/genie for Halloween?

Happy Halloween! I'm all about djinns & genies right now...because tomorrow my debut paranormal romance, THE DJINN'S DILEMMA, is coming out. Thank you Harlequin Nocturne! So thrilled to be part of the new Cravings line :D And, I just turned in my second djinn story to my agent. Woot!

So, I thought I'd dress the DH & myself up as genies and looked up some costumes.

(These first two costumes are available at Fantasia Wear)

Erm, a bit too daring for me...though the DH was game. What can I say, the Joan Wilder character in Romancing the Stone comes pretty close to me -- bold on paper, but not always in day-to-day life.

Then I found some tasteful possibilities that I could go for:

(These next two costumes available from Mr. Costumes)

Then I saw the prices tags...and we decided to fall back on the tried & true. The DH is dressing up as Indiana Jones & I get to be buxom Earth Witch babe :)

Hope y'all have fun & festive plans for today :) So what's everyone else dressing up as?