Review for Shadowed

Jenre, at her aptly-named Well Read blog, has reviewed my novella Shadowed.  This is a squee-causing event, and as such deserves a post with a link for the interested:  Shadowed review. 

Here's a taste of said review:  Those readers who liked Treasured are going to like this book too. It gives us an opportunity to delve deeper into the relationship with Daniel and Rhys as well as seeing some of Rhys' background. There's a good mix of emotion and action in the story coupled with some interesting paranormal ideas. Overall, I would recommend Shadowed with a grade of 'Very Good', and I'm really looking forward to more from these great characters.

Aww, thanks!  I hope to write more for them.



As noted, Shadowed is the sequel to an earlier story, Treasured, and things are brought up in the review that remind me that there's still a lot of back story to resolve, and so I'd better get on it.  Hopefully Pink Petal Books will contract me for a third installment.  If you're looking for an intro to the body of work that is my fictional existence, I think this series is a fun way to go.  You can get it here: http://pinkpetalbooks.com/Shadowed-by-Cari-Z.html.

And just as a reminder...

Jenre Review for Wild Passions

I may have mentioned a few times before that I love it when Jenre reviews my stuff.  Not just because she tends to like my work either, although that certainly does make me all glowy.  She gives thorough and thoughtful reviews and good constructive criticism, which every little author needs if we want to grow up to be big authors someday.  Jenre recently posted a review for the anthology Wild Passions, which features a story of mine.  You should check out her site if you're interested in good information on a lot of different books in the genre, no pun intended.  Here's the link:  jenre's wellread blog.

Here's the excerpt for my story.  So nice:)

Opening Worlds by Cari Z


I have a total girl-crush on Cari Z's stories and so I was really excited when I saw that she'd written one for this anthology. Once again she didn't fail, and this story was my favourite from the anthology. It tells of lonely luxury space ship captain, Jason (yes, two stories with a Jason as a hero!), who is a little bit fed up that three Perels are joining his ship on the last leg of their space-tour. Perels are known for being alluring creatures with the sexual habits of tom cats. Jason is still nursing a broken heart and prefers not to sleep around so he decides to keep himself as far away from the Perels as possible, something which proves difficult when politeness means that he meets Ferran, one of the Perels who takes an interest in Jason. There were two things that I particularly liked about the story. The first was the way that Ferran and Jason slowly get to know each other. The dance around their attraction was wonderful to read and all the more satisfying when they give in to their feelings. It was all just so romantic! The second thing was the world-building which was done so deftly with little incidental details slotted in amongst the larger information about Perel society. The only niggle that I had was that the ending was just a tad convenient, but I forgave that when the rest of the story had been such a delight to read.



Why thank you, Jenre!  I would comment appreciatively on your blog, but apparently the whole "posting from West Africa" thing has caught up with me and blocked all my ids.  I can't even comment on my own blog.  Hopefully I'll resolve the situation soon.  If not..America in less than 2 months, baby.  Wooo!!!

Aww, nice review for Wild Passions!

Wow, super fast reviews up and there are lovely things to say!  It pays to go trolling sometimes.

Alex at the Creative Whimsy blog posted a review of Wild Passions.  Here's the link:  http://creative-whimsy.blogspot.com/.  But let me transcribe the bit about my story.


Opening Worlds by Cari Z


In this futuristic space story, there aren't so much animals as aliens, but the important parts all work the same. This well-written story explores sex vs. love, the different social requirements of different planet societies, and the individual's required duties to society. This story made my chest ache with the longing that the narrator felt and it was superbly constructed. While the end may be considered to "work out too perfectly," I found it good--especially since the alternative would have made me cry. I think if this had been a novel, the author would have explored things more in depth, but as it stands, the ending worked. This was one of my favorites.




Thanks, Alex.  Glad you liked it.

Two Awesomely Cool Things

First things first, I am again behind the times in getting the word out for this anthology:



Mine, edited by Shawn Clements and published by Torquere Press.  I'd call it a paranormal possessiveness anthology featuring vampires and shapeshifters.  My story is titled "State of Mine"; yes, I'm so punny.  It's available starting tomorrow on the Torquere website: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2883.

I actually wish I'd had more length to develop this story, the world is very interesting if I do say so myself.  Vampires have taken over Seattle (naturally, right?) but there are also psychics and great escapes and bits and pieces of Chopin.  It's a little over 8k long, and while I haven't read all the other authors in the anthology before, the ones I have (JL Merrow specifically) are awesome.

The other awesomely cool thing of late (my mental editor is shrieking at me about repeating that word over and over again, but darn it, sometimes nothing fits the bill like "awesome") is a review I got for my story Treasured on jessewave's website, actually guest-written by Jenre.  If you're the sort of person who likes to read reviews, here's a link: http://www.reviewsbyjessewave.com/?p=33647. 

Why is this so cool?  Apart from being a great review that introduced me to several new people, it was brought to my attention by my publisher as it boosted sales.  That's cool because the only way I get to write about the Treasured world again in the forseeable future, at least with these characters, is if I get enough sales to warrant a sequel.  I know, the story could have been a novel, not a shortish-novella, but I couldn 't commit the time.  I would really, really freaking love to write a sequel, so thank you, Jenre, for the lovely review, and thank you jessewave for letting it get posted, and damn it, thanks for buying my stuff, people.  Seriously.  Writing is how I spend my limited hours of computer-charged time, it's how I relax, it's how I get creative.  Blogging isn't.  Some of you may have noticed, I'm not a tres-savvy blogger.  I do this so I can be a better writer, for myself and for all the people who put time and effort into me, including those who review and those who read me.  So jeez.  Thanks. 

Enough mush.  I'll post the prologue of the third chapter of Shadows and Light up here tomorrow (probably tomorrow), which should make people who've followed that story on Literotica happy (the rest is getting beta'd soon, it'll be up on their site asap, swear).  Lots of my stuff's there and it's free, folks.  Merci beaucoup.