Two new releases in one day!

At some point the other day it finally occurred to me that I have two new releases on February 11. As I've mentioned already, my new novel Venetian Masks comes out that day. Here's the link for preorders: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3568 . In addition, Dreamspinner will be releasing the anthology Snow on the Roof, which contains my short story "No Place Like Home." Here's that link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3561

And as I promised, I'll have a contest running February 11-25. It's a sort of bookish scavenger hunt.

Here are my daughters' culinry adventures this weekend. The older one developed a taste for haggis during a visit to Edinburgh. We found her canned haggis here in the states. Here she is yesterday, with her late-night haggis-on-tomatoes-and-toast.

 

The younger one is less adventurous. She's been making Pac-Man out of potato chips and then insisting I take photos.

Tomorrow I'm running away from home. I'm escaping the family and fleeing to San Francisco for a couple of days. I have a lot of work to do for the day job, and doing it there involves fewer interruptions and less self-pity, since I can reward myself with fun breaks. I'm hoping to also make some headway on my current novel-in-progress.

Venetian Masks is Coming Soon

Venetian Masks is now on the Coming Soon page, which means it can be preordered. Here's a link to the e-book, but it'll be available in print too. http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3568

Blurb and news

Just a few updates for you this evening.

• I have a release date for Venetian Masks: February 11. Yay!
• I have a blurb for Venetian Masks too:

Jeff Dawkins’s last partner left him with a mortgage he can’t afford and nonrefundable tickets for a month’s vacation in Europe. Despite a reluctance to travel, Jeff decides to go on the trip anyway. After all, he’s already paid for it. He packs a Kindle loaded with gay romance novels and arrives in Venice full of trepidation. There he meets the handsome and charming expat Cleve Prieto, who offers to serve as his tour guide. Jeff has serious misgivings—he wasn’t born yesterday, and something about Cleve doesn’t sit right—but anything is better than wandering the canals alone.

With Cleve’s help, Jeff falls in love with Venice and begins to reconcile with his past. For the first time, Jeff finds himself developing strong feelings for someone else. But he can’t be sure who that person is because Cleve’s background remains a mystery embroidered with lies.

Then a dark figure from Cleve’s past appears, and Jeff must choose whether to let Cleve flee alone or to join him on a desperate run through central Europe. Maybe Jeff will finally be able to see behind Cleve’s masks—if he survives the journey.

• I'm going to run a fun contest to coincide with the book release. The prize will be a big box of souvenirs from Venice and other locations in the book--with a value of nearly $100. Stay tuned for details!
• I've opened a Twitter account. Come follow me @KFieldingWrites
• In February and March I'll be hosting a bunch of fantastic authors here.

I love this cover

My next novel is called Venetian Masks. I don't have an exact release date yet, but it should be some time in February. I'm working on the second round of edits today, in fact. But in the meantime, I wanted to share with you the cover by Shobana Appavu. I've been fortunate to have some amazing covers from Dreamspinner artists, and this one just blows me away.

Isn't that gorgeous? I've spent a lot of time over the past day just staring at this cover in admiration.

The guy with the mask is named Cleve Prieto. He has some issues.

Little tease

Just a little tease for you today. This is the cover for one of my upcoming releases.

Night Shift is a 30,000 word novella. It will come out in March or April. My novel Venetian Masks will release before that. The cover for that book isn't quite ready yet, but I saw a draft yesterday and I am totally in love with it.

Pictures from Europe

My next novel, Venetian Masks, will come put this month or next. As the title suggests, a good chunk of the action takes place in Venice. Other central European cities also appear. In preparation for a fun (I hope!) contest I'll hold when the book is released, I was going through my photos from 2011, when I spent 5 months in Croatia. It's made me homesick. But here are a few silly photos I thought you might enjoy.

  This is a train station in Slovenia. I could actually take a stab at pronouncing the town's name (hint: the j is like a y), but it's more fun just to admire it.

 I travel with a Spike the vampire doll. He's been to many countries and even has his own passport. The reactions I get to him are often really fun. Here's one I didn't catch until later, when I was looking at the pic. I was sitting in a gondola in Venice, and the boat behind Spike is--appropriately enough--a hearse. I love the smile on the face of the hearse pilot. (My husband's aunt is in the pic too. I think she's pretending she doesn't know me.)

 

 This is Trieste, a small city at the northeastern corner of Italy. I took this particular photo because I loved the Roman arch sticking out among the other buildings, which are relatively modern, being only 400 years or so old. And my grandfather spent his childhood in this neighborhood. But I also like the lady in the background.

 

 

 

This is in Croatia, in the region called Istria. The town atop the hill is Motovun, an adorable little city that resemblsd a dry miniature version of Venice (Istria was Italian for a long time). Motovun is where Mario Andretti was born. And that's Davor, my Croatian tourguide, good-naturedly holding Spike for me. He even posed the arm upward. :-)

My WIP

I know I did a The Next Big Thing entry already, talking about my upcoming Venetian Masks. But Tammy Jo tagged me so I'm doing it again, this time for my current WIP.


1) What is the working title of your book?

Jelley's Valley

2)Where did the idea for the book come from?

I am interested in the (shameful) history of mental hospitals, and I have taught in a building that was once a large psychiatric hospital.

3) What genre does it fall under?

Contemporary m/m romance

4) Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I hate this question. I honestly have no idea.

5) What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

When William gets a caretaker job at a former mental hospital, his discoveries there force him to face his own denials of who he is.

6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I plan to submit to a publisher.

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft?

I've just begun it. It will probably take a couple of months, depending on my other life events.

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I also hate this question!

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?

As I explained above, my interest in the history of mental hospitals. Also, I was inspired by a small town I visited briefly on the way home from a family vacation. That town had a tiny general store/post office. So will Jelley's Valley, and that's where William will meet someone who shakes his world.

10) What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Although thie book is a contemporary and not paranormal, William is going to be "haunted" by a former patient.

Also, I was once accidentally locked in the morgue of a former mental hospital! There were a few other people there and we were released after a short time, but it was an interesting experience.