Sight Unseen

Pre-Order links:

Amazon - Apple - Kobo - Barnes & Noble

Sight Unseen releases on June 6--that's only three weeks away now! I've got some pre-order links, some blurbs, all the fun stuff. 

Here's the back copy: 

Five top voices in romance dare you to explore the distant corners of their imaginations as they test the limits of storytelling and break the boundaries of what they thought possible. But there’s a twist—the author of each story is a secret. They’re each plumbing the depths of the human heart in ways they’ve never attempted. Taking you high, bringing you low, until you will be hardpressed to guess who wrote what. Can you tell? Want us to? 

Too bad our lips are sealed... for now.

We'll reveal who wrote what sometime in September. Until then, if you have any guesses I would love to hear them! I won't be able to confirm or deny, unfortunately. So far none of our early readers have guessed all the stories right. I think this is such a fun game--I hope you do too.

Here are the individual story blurbs--I've seen one person guess the author just from the summary. 

LOST THAT FEELING

Alma knew who she was, once—that is, before she erased her memory with a spell. Some, like the guards at the prison in which she’s held, say that she was a thief, a murderer.

Others say she was a hero. Like Driss, the man who rescues her. He claims to be a friend. He's certainly handsome. And charming. In a word: perfect.

That's the problem. If he's perfect and she's a hero, how did she end up in prison with a seven-year hole in her memory to begin with?

A CLEAR VIEW OF YOU

As a child, Kate had one dream: to escape her mother’s deluded hippie commune and live in the real world, where mature adults know that magic isn’t real. But the real world also has its downsides—like rent, student loans, and a cutthroat job market. 

Happily, Kate is uniquely qualified for one in-demand position: psychic. Of course, she’s as fake as the rest of them but nobody plays a fortune-teller as convincingly as a girl raised by a would-be witch. If only Kate’s newest client weren’t so perceptive...and attractive. If only crystal balls didn’t have the habit of lighting up in his presence. 

Magic isn’t real, right? Kate is about to find out otherwise... 

FREE

Brad White would be an ordinary accountant with an unrequited crush except for two things: he works for a criminal motorcycle club and he’s in love with the club president’s daughter. When she discovers the truth about the family business, Brad has to move beyond ordinary and put his life on the line to keep her safe.

Wren Masters, unlike everyone else in her graduating class, chose to stay in Montana because she loves it. But when she finds out her father’s club is running drugs, her family and world crumble. She and Brad risk everything to uncover the truth...and begin a scorching affair.

As the conspiracy—and their feelings—deepen, Brad and Wren must choose between family and justice. And neither seems to include a future for them.

CHARIOT OF DESIRE

CJ Crespo, drummer for the once wildly popular rock band Donjon, has always had a thing for frontman Donny Times. They spent the seventies getting high together, making music together, self-destructing together. But her qualms about ruining a creative partnership with sex kept them from ever hooking up. Now, Donny’s conversion to a bizarre fringe religion that won’t allow him to engage in—or even sing about—sex, drugs, or other “sins” threatens to tear Donjon apart.

As the band struggles to embrace a new decade and a new Donny, CJ must decide where she belongs: by Donny’s side even if he can’t ever love her? Or making her own music away from a man who gives and takes in equal measures?

THE HEART IS A UNIVERSE

On the remote planet of Pax Cara lies the greatest secret of the universe. Every generation, the inhabitants must offer up an exceptional young person—the Chosen One—who sacrifices his or her life for the sake of that secret and the planet itself.

However, Vitalis, the current Chosen One, is desperate to free herself from the yoke of destiny. An unexpected invitation to an aristocratic summit seems to be the perfect opportunity for escape. But as soon as she arrives, the most eligible prince in existence proposes marriage.

Sparks fly but Vitalis is wary. Eleian of Terra Illustrata can have anyone he wants. Why has he set his sight on Vitalis who will die within days? Is he hiding an ulterior motive, one that could put everything in jeopardy—her plans, her life, and her heart

I've got a very, very fun project to tell you about today.

Five authors--Sherry Thomas, Meredith Duran, Emma Barry, J.A. Rock and me--have contributed novellas to the Sight Unseen anthology. I am thrilled to share a cover flap with some of my favorite romance writers. When it comes to Sherry Thomas and Meredith Duran, I'm not just a reader, I'm a fan. And Emma Barry's books are wildly original--she's written contemporary romances set in the cutthroat world of DC politics and mid-20th century romances set in a fictionalized space-race-era NASA. The settings are impossibly tense but her characters are mature, thoughtful adults and the combination is just wonderful. 

But I haven't gotten to the best part yet. Are you ready? 

Our names are on the cover but we're not going to tell anyone who wrote which story. 

At least, not at first. Sight Unseen will be published in early June and readers will have a few months to read the anthology and guess who wrote what. All will be revealed in the fall.

What makes the puzzle even better is that we're all writing outside of our usual genre. I know that some readers will hear this and think, "Oh, no, please stick to writing what I love! If I wanted another genre I'd buy another genre!" I can't blame you for feeling that way, but I can tell you that I've read the whole anthology and I loved it. The stories are fun and varied and I don't think that the guessing game element would work if we, the authors, weren't playing a bit of hide-and-seek ourselves. 

Smart Bitches Trashy Books is hosting our big reveal. Click this link to visit the page--you'll find more information there, including blurbs for each novella in the anthology. 

Let the speculation begin!

The Not-So-Hidden Canyon

I don't think I've mentioned it here on the blog but I'm traveling for a while & at the moment I'm hanging out in Bali. After five years on an isolated farm in Kentucky, I need to stretch my legs a bit--see new things, soak up new sensations, challenge myself a bit. 

So I might have more fun stories to tell. Like this one: I'd arranged with a couple of the people I've met here to go on a hike through the "hidden canyon". The hidden canyon can be found on google maps, there is a road leading right to it, a sign by the road, and a ticket booth selling tickets before you go in. But... hidden canyon.

Someone who'd made the trip earlier said it was a short hike, about an hour, and that we'd be fine with our flip flops. Cool, I thought. A nice easy, low stress hike to a beautiful location! I'm in! 

But when we get to the hidden canyon and our guide asked us to take off our shoes, I realized I'd made a mistake. We weren't supposed to wear flip flops because the hike was easy. We were supposed to wear flip flops because instead of a trail, we'd be wading through a stream, and we were expected to do it barefoot. 

If you can see the picture above you can tell that this place was beautiful and it was a fun hike, as well. A bit like an obstacle course. The stream was pretty narrow but deep--eight or ten feet deep in places--so the guide helped us weave our way along a navigable footpath and avoid sudden dunkings. 

Last week I tried that beauty treatment where you stick your feet into a tank full of fish who eat dead skin but not living skin. Again, trying new things. So I'd recently stripped all the calluses off my feet & stepping on the sharp pebbles that lined the stream bed got more and more painful--until I was having a hard time appreciating the beauty or the contrast of the cool running water against the hot sun or the adventure of skipping from rock to rock. It hurt every time I stepped on a bed of sharp pebbles and before long, the pain was excruciating. 

And then I realized: the guide had my shoes. He had them in a backpack. Just because he'd suggested we hike the canyon barefoot didn't mean I was required to go barefoot. I could ask for them back. So I did. And the guide gave me my shoes. Just like that! I could have asked for them at any time. I didn't have to wait until I was worried about deadly freshwater parasites climbing through open cuts in the soles of my feet to kill me.

So. A nice hike and a lesson, too. 

2016: Best Books

So it looks like I read about 40 books in 2016, which is not a tremendous number for me. I think one of my resolutions last year was to read more and I'm going to re-up that one. Three books a month is not bad, exactly, but there's not enough room for variety and experimentation at that rate. 

Okay, so what did I enjoy? Let's see. 

The Vorkosigan Series by Lois McMaster Bujold. I won't list them one by one. I'd heard so many people talk about these books before I picked them up--with reverence, enthusiasm, sometimes envy. How can they be so good? How can I do that? So I knew I was in for a treat before I even started and that's a unique experience. Like making a reservation at a five star hotel or something.

I'm always a little wary of books that center on a hyper-brilliant protagonist because the author has to be pretty clever to pull it off, but Bujold clears that bar with inches to spare. I loved the worldbuilding, plots, and characters immediately but the more I read of Bujold, the more I appreciate her writing. It's beautiful without being showy and wise without ever feeling forced. Just wonderful. 

Oh, and since it's not obvious from the above: the Vorkosigan books are space operas. Start either with Shards of Honor (first of the prequel duology) or The Warrior's Apprentice (first Miles book). 

A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas. Metaphorically speaking, I've sat on the beach and admired the rising wave of Sherlock adaptations/reimaginings from afar, only dipping my toe in now and again. I like the BBC Sherlock but never rewatch the episodes, I've liked Elementary when I can catch it. Etc. So I was decidedly neutral about the idea of a Lady Sherlock... but I adore Sherry Thomas and she sold me on this new series.

I like the idea of transforming the static genius of Sherlock Holmes into a story of growth and learning. I like the way that Thomas distributed some of canon Sherlock's abilities to secondary characters; there's a generosity of spirit inherent in the change that serves as a pointed counter to the original, which has an almost Randian focus on the brilliance of a lone genius.

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. I have been trying to fill in some of my own blind spots about race in the United States. It's an ongoing process and every time I fill in a bit of the picture, see a little more clearly, I ask myself: why didn't I know? Why didn't I care? The answers to those questions are usually depressing. 

The New Jim Crow was the most painfully illuminating book I read on the subject this year. If you're on a similar quest, you should probably read it. 

And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts. I'm not quite done with this one yet--just a little bit left to read. This has taken me months to finish because it's so depressing that I have to listen in small doses (sidenote: don't do the audio, the narrator is not great.) The book traces the spread of the AIDS epidemic and efforts made to contain and combat the disease.

Let me tell you, I have never, ever in my life read a book where so many people do exactly the wrong thing. At every level--government, research organizations, activist groups--there seem to be 10 people bent on self-destructive sabotage for every 1 who is earnestly doing the hard work of research and organizing. It's breathtaking. If you ever doubted mankind's ability to shoot itself in the foot, scream in pain, then shoot the other foot... boy, do I have the book for you.

This is exactly why I find the book so gripping, however, and so important. Plus, the subject matter is recent enough that it's easy to relate to a lot of these people, to put myself in their place, and see myself making the exact same mistakes. There are a lot of good intentions on display, a lot of elbow grease spent on the problem, and still...

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Hariri. This is one of those books that can subtly shift your understanding of everything. Or maybe it just played to a lot of my established beliefs. Or both--probably both, actually. 

Anyway, it's an acerbic, cynical, self-consciously provocative take on human history, from a largely anthropological framework. I majored in anthropology in undergrad (I double majored, so that and art history), so the sections about early human history gelled well enough with what I remembered from school to give me confidence that this guy had done his research. 

I was hooked early on, by the part about how the rise of agricultural societies is not the story of man mastering the land but of wheat mastering man. It completely blew my mind and I already knew a lot of the basic facts. If that piques your curiosity, give the book a try. 

Made for Sin by Stacia Kane and Attachments by Rainbow Rowell. Two very different books that satisfied my craving for good romance. Stacia Kane is one of my favorite authors and she always writes within exactly the shade of gray morality that I find most exciting. Her characters struggle to be bad, or maybe they struggle not to be... it's hard to tell. Plus, fantastic chemistry. Rainbow Rowell is exactly the opposite. Attachments is so sweet and lovely, so charming and poignant. It's uplifting simply by virtue of being about truly decent people, written with empathy and insight. 

Note: the above are all Amazon affiliate links. 

Best/Worst

One of the most profound things that anyone has ever said to me, and which I have found to be consistently true, is this: 

The thing you like most about a person when you first meet them is the thing you will hate most about them when you leave them. 

Our best qualities are our worst qualities. An easy, unflappable, don't-sweat-the-small-stuff attitude can be careless and sloppy. A thoughtful attention to detail can be picky and controlling. 

The qualities that make a person special are the qualities that make them distinctive--the qualities that stick out (snag), that draw fire (attract attention). 

It's that two-sides-to-every-coin thing, except that every trait is double-sided. We don't all mesh well with one another and that's not a judgement for or against anyone. It's the natural consequence of developing a personality.