Juno Books

The sequel to CHASING SILVER in which Remy and Nathan play secondary roles (they go off to South America in search of the Silver Maiden) while Isaac and a new protag, Olivia Wright, team up. Olivia here is a “cold case” detective and she and Isaac tangle with Tian in LA. (Of course, there is hot sex!)

From Fresh Fiction

Jamie Craig has written a heart thumping tale with evil villains and a time travel romance where the sex between Nathan and Remy is beyond hot. These two are attracted to each other right away and that doesn’t stop them from acting on their feelings for each other. Even though a future between them may not be possible, they grab what happiness whenever they can. CHASING SILVER has excellent written chase scenes along with mind numbing fights. Nathan is one incredible and sexy hero who won’t back down from getting what he wants and protecting those around him. Remy in turn may act tough, but she is soft when she needs to be, and that means when she is with Nathan.

Kristen is the worst kind of villain, a very amoral character who will kill without any reason. Remy is the total opposite of her but she has a sharp mind and will try her best to come on top. Isaac also rounds out the good guys with his wit and observations. For anyone who likes stories that will keep them on the edge of their seat, CHASING SILVER is the one to read.

The sex is “beyond hot”. . . chuckle. Just thought I’d mention that they toned down for Juno AFTER you read CHASING SILVER, do catch up with their beyond beyond hot stuff: Jamie Craig.

From Joyfully Reviewed:

Unveiling the Sorceress is an incredible magical tale that weaves all the elements of a wonderfully sensual fantasy – love, magic, intrigue, murder, true evil and gods who are not above influencing the outcome of events. Ms. Walker does a wonderful job of creating such vivid characters and a world so full of magic that it will leave you wishing it were real so you could visit. Elishiba is an amazing character who will have you turning the pages to find how she will face and overcome all the challenges in her path. She is left constantly wondering who her allies truly are and it is entertaining to watch Elishiba navigate the intrigue and test her mettle against all the forces aligned against her. Pick up Unveiling the Sorceress for a truly entrancing read that will transport you to a world where magic is real and the gods interact directly in the lives of their people.

This is our ad for RT Booklovers Magazine’s May issue (which actually comes out in April. Didn’t Stephen do a great job? :

According to a Harlequin new release they had a bad fourth quarter, with sales down 11 % to $106.6 million (Canadian), as operating profits dropped 23% to
$12.8 million. Results for the full year weren’t so bad: full-year sales fell, to $462.7 million (Canadian), down 2 percent from a year ago, operating profit rose almost 8 percent to $60.6 million.

The increase in profits for the year came mainly from North American retail, from “a combination of the positive impact from the mid-year price increase on series books, a more profitable mix of titles, reduced
overhead and promotion costs and lower amortization expense.” The weakest spot for sales was the UK.

Harlequin reports are always complicated by the fact they do business in multiple countries with multiple currencies and I am guessing a strong Loonie may mean complications for US sales results. The company notes in looking at 2008, “the strength of the Canadian dollar will continue to have an impact on Harlequin’s results.” They say that their “underlying business is expected to be stable in 2008 but with some variances in the quarters compared to 2007. Changes in the publishing schedule are expected to cause the first quarter of 2008 to be lower than the strong first quarter of 2007.”

I’ve radically altered the guidelines.

See what you think.

What can I do to clarify?

Is there other information you want?

As we were discussing, I don’t want to shut the door on anything. We are publishing RIVERSEND, the sequel to AMBERLIGHT, this year. It is, like AMBERLIGHT, literary, and even more controversial as far as its examination of gender roles.

There’s a manuscript I have right now that is sort of John Kennedy Toole meets Kurt Vonnegut, that I hope to soon acquire.

That being said — I think I also need to spell out what our biggest needs are rather than what exceptions we make.

Of course, assuring people will READ them before submitting is still the biggest challenge

APRICOT BRANDY is an exciting combination of horror and dark urban fantasy that takes readers to the edge of sanity and leaves them there wondering if this time evil will triumph. Karen may be innocent, but she is the catalyst (thanks to her DNA) that sets things in motion–even though she is the polar opposite of her cruel father. She reaches inside herself to find the determination to defy him and his god while the Mayan witch [Quetzal] rallies her ghostly horde and the townsfolk. Readers will find Lynn Cesar’s work magically entertaining. — Harriet Klausner

Midwest Book Review
Alternative Worlds
Genre-Go-Round
. . . and other places!

Hey, don’t forget to weigh in on his “name the novel” contest — http://the0phrastus.typepad.com! I’ve posted a few ideas, too, there. What do you think?

According to a news release Harlequin has started posting 20-minute Meet the Editors podcasts, adding new episodes every two weeks. The first features Melissa Jeglinski, senior editor for Silhouette Desire, and Diana Ventimiglia, associate editor for Silhouette Desire and Silhouette Romantic Suspense. The company says they are “designed to demystify the concept of the editor as an inaccessible resource for aspiring authors. Meet the Editors brings the personalities of the various Harlequin Enterprises editors to the fore and offers listeners the opportunity to get to know the people that shape the books they love to read.”

Says these podcasts were to be released Feb 20 — but no URL for them.

I dunno. I don’t think I’m an “inaccessible resource”?

But in the interests of cutting edge editorial technology, I feel I *must* offer something! Thus, using my handy-dandy built in camera on my iMac, here are two photos of “Editor @ Work”:

Good heavens…never realized Brandon Lee was leering over my workspace in quite that manner. The poster keeps falling down…This is what I look like working. Scary, eh? Anyway one is “normal” the other is “thermal” sfx.

Nasty new growlings will be added to the guidelines soon. And more specifics. Maybe I need some chill pills, but I can’t keep from getting more an more irritated at “writers” who — with all the information freely available these days — cannot be bothered with learning the most basic publishing etiquette.

Yes, I still get submissions without female protagonists; I also get submissions of non-fiction, short stories, novellas, collections, poetry, and New Age material. I get novels without a single element that can considered “fantastic.” And YA material.

Hello? read the guidelines.

And, although I really, really hate to narrow the guidelines further, I am going to have to do that, too. Science fiction for instance: I don’t want to rule it out entirely because I *might* get something like THE OUTBACK STARS by Sandra McDonald — an outstanding debut novel that combines military SF with romance, mystery, and interesting culture and chracters.

But that’s not what I am getting and I am getting so much SF–especially dystopic stuff — that I guess I’ll have to figure out something to say to save us all time.

Juno Books had a lot of leeway to experiment our first year. We’ve switched directions now three times and I guess it is time to reflect the future more in everything we do — including the guidelines.

Guess I will summon the editorial staff and marketing departments to get busy on this…>>Snap! Snap!<<

Oh. Wait. That’s me…

I keep putting this off because I wanted to update the whole Web site, take down covers and the “submit to” thingy, update the guidelines (and also get a newsletter out), but that will come soon enough. For now just wanted to mention that I’ve cancelled BEST NEW ROMANTIC FANTASY 3 and the series as a whole.

Should have announced this Valentines Day, eh? Most appropriate!

CHRIS HOWARD has posted a contest on his blog for coming up with a title for the sequel to SEABORN (with the caveat that whatever he selects, may not end up on the book’s cover as the published title). His working title is THE NEW SIRENS which, he says, no one likes.

He’s posted some ideas and contest guidelines here:
http://the0phrastus.typepad.com/the0phrastus/2008/02/name-my-book-an.html

I think I have replied to everything submitted through at least December 1. I have gone beyond that, but not replied in all cases. Some people have even been astonished to get a reply rather quickly. (Not that one wants to let people thik one is capable of that!) But if you have submitted a novel before December and not heard from me, you might drop me an email to make sure I didn’t lose it or if I got it or whatever. I did get quite a few sub during December, but hope to have them responded to soon.

Shara Saunsaucie has posted a couple of interesting reviews of AMBERLIGHT and BLOOD MAGIC on her LiveJournal. (She mentioned in a comment below, but thought I’d point out here.) There are interesting comments, too. It is nice to hear that people actually do read about a book and then go and buy it Sometimes I wonder if I am the only person to do that . . .

She also mentions something positive about the covers. I got into a . . . discussion . . . with someone over our covers recently. It was his contention, more or less, that a guy wouldn’t be caught dead reading one of our books in public because they every single cover he’d seen had a woman on it in soft lighting and they were very analogous to
Romance covers

Now, I will admit that some of our covers are romantic. I will also admit that—although as works of art Tim Lantz’s work is superb—some of the covers might be less than optimal for a certain book. It might be a “good cover” and might represent, even, the content…but it didn’t exactly match a character or whatever. Lately, I personally feel we published too many books with the same model too closely together. I think that detracted from them all. Finally, we have had some challenges reworking art originally intended for trade paperbacks into mass markets. Anyway, point is — I know we aren’t perfect.

So, I looked at the covers. Now, *I* am embarrassed by some books’ covers (although not ours), so I understand the feeling. I figure THESE (below) might challenge some men:

THESE (below), though, I didn’t see as books a guy would be afreaid to be seen with in public:

The rest are sort of in between.

Of course all the covers — with the exceptions of A MORTAL GLAMOUR and DARK MAIDEN used art a male created. With the the exception of MATTERS OF THE BLOOD, a male designed the covers. And THEY seemed to like the covers.

So. I dunno. What do you think?

There’s a summary and it got four stars, but here’s the pertinent part:

Powerful descriptions, atmospheric settings, and some thought provoking issues add depth to this ale of mystery and dark secrets. The search for a murderer bogs down in the middle, but there’s a happily-ever-after ending.

They also feature the cover nicely

Genre-Go-Round:

APRICOT BRANDY is an exciting combination horror and dark urban fantasy that takes readers to the edge of sanity and leaves them there wondering if this time evil will triumph. Karen may be innocent, but she is the catalyst (thanks to her DNA) that sets things in motion although she is the polar opposite of her cruel father. She reaches inside herself with determination to defy him and his god while a Mayan witch rallies her ghostly horde and the townsfolk. Readers will find Lynn Cesar’s work magically entertaining.

Went to the local B&N today and they had copies of APRICOT BRANDY! They also finally had gotten CHASING SILVER on the shelf. They still had two copies of ETERNAL ROSE, DANCING WITH WEREWOLVES, and three copies of BLOOD MAGIC. (Somebody go buy them all!)

* * *
MATTERS OF THE BLOOD by Maria Lima was chosen to be a Fresh Pick at Fresh Fiction. The cover and a link to the appeared on every page of FreshFiction.com on February 7, 2008 and mailed to the subscribers of the Fresh Pick newsletter.

* * *
Matt Cook (author of BLOOD MAGIC) is featured in Heidi’s Pick Six

* * *
Rae Linley spotlights Carole McDonnell, author of WIND FOLLOWER.

…and The Carl Brandon Society
recommends WIND FOLLOWER for Black History Month (along with titles by such luminaries as Nalo Hopkinson, Octavia Butler, Samuel R. Delany, and Tananarive Due)!

This is simple. Just do it.

Caitlin Kiernan, a talented writer and a good person, needs some help. I know how hard it is to go public and ask for this sort of thing. And, knowing Cait, I’m pretty sure it is particularly hard for her. She has some medical problems that she’s posted about. As she says: “I am a freelance writer. And I have no health insurance, like most freelance writers. So, the reason that I’m finally writing about all this here — where it still seems not to belong — is that a) it has had an enormous impact on my ability to work recently, leading to the extension of my deadline on Joey Lafaye, and b) I need to ask readers for just a little assistance with the medical expenses I am presently incurring. Nothing fancy. But if you can bid in our eBay auctions, or if you can afford a subscription to Sirenia Digest, or hell, even if it’s only buying new copies of my novels in a bookshop or from Amazon to help insure they stay in print, anything of the sort would be enormously appreciated. Truly, every little bit helps.”

Truly. It does. What helps more is cash. You can donate directly through Paypal — through a link here.

Pass the word.

There are some posts and comments gone from the blog. No more opinion will be voiced here. There will be nothing but news and comments about Juno Books. Thanks.

Update: I’ve deleted The comments posted to this and have disallowed further comments or pings. Sorry, but obviously I don’t won’t more public discussion.

If you feel the need to express yourself to me personally, then email me.

The APRICOT BRANDY info page never got posted, but it is up now. (There’s also an excerpt online.)

You can buy Apricot Brandy directly from the publisher or from Amazon. It is also available at Barnes & Noble stores and many others but, at least for now, not Borders.

If you like dark fantasy or horror, I think you’ll love this book. It’s well-written, has indelible scenes and awesome characterization. There’s not many horror novels where the heroine is gay and her lover — who is, of course, another woman — comes to help her deal with some heavy stuff. And before you jump to any conclusions: no, there is no gender bashing here. There’s a manly male hero, too.

But, hey, I’m the editor, so you aren’t going to believe me anyway.