Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

This is Gina Conkle posting on behalf of Asa Maria Bradley and her amazing Vikings. We both love Click this link to get the book on Amazon. HOT alpha male heroes from the icy north. Asa is from Sweden, and I've only visited. Asa's been to Iceland, and I'm planning to go, possibly next winter! It can't be so bad. I'm a southern California transplant to Michigan. I can make the leap from mid-North American climes to the edge of the Arctic Circle, right? Black Beach in Iceland. Beautiful. Iceland has been on my list of places to see for over two decades. The landscape is amazing. While I'm at it, I might add a hop over to Greenland, but I'll save that for summer. In fact, I want a winter, summer, spring, and fall visit to Iceland. I've been following the Icelandic Writers Retreat since its inception in 2014. The Prime Minister of Iceland of spoke at one of their conferences. They take writing seriously there. It is the homeland of...

If you've ever hit the Google Translate button to read a website that was published in a non-English language, then you know how crazy the results can be. When I needed a few Spanish phrases in Viking Warrior Rebel , I first used an online translator. But after running the result through a different translator back to English--and laughing hysterically for a while--I decided I better ask a real person. And even then I did a reverse translation through a second real person. The results were great and I'll rely on my Spanish-speaking friends again, I'm sure. Lately however, I've had to relate on Google Translate to email with some Russian physics professors. As part of a Women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) program, they came to visit my college and we communicated through a real-person translator. I've visited Russia twice, but all I managed to pick up in terms of language was how to say "ice cream" and "peace." No...

Or, The Magic Luncheon at the Barbara Vey Reader Appreciation Weekend . Author Sally Kilpatrick engaging in Viking Duck shenanigans. :-) Last month, I attended my very first #BVW and it was a crazy fun time with so many super romance fans. We played games, we had unusual Q&A sessions, we celebrated with a pizza party, we laughed ourselves silly during dirty mad libs, we signed books--so, so, many books. And in the middle of it all, was the beautiful extraordinary out-of-this world author luncheon. If you've never been, here's the deal: readers buy tickets to a specific author's table at the luncheon and the authors outdo themselves (and each other--in a totally friendly way) by decorating their tables in themes. Sounds like fun? It was! The tables of this year's luncheon were a true testament to how creative authors (and their assistants are). Here's an overview of the chaos that is authors socializing while decorating tables. And an...

Have you discovered the Team Sourcebooks Facebook page yet? If not, you should head there right away and make sure you click the "Like" button. And because we know how fickle Facebook can be about what shows up in your feed, you should visit the page every day so that you don't miss out on: Exclusive content from your favorite Sourcebooks Casablanca authors.  Author-specific giveaways posted almost every day. New releases and other author news. The monthly giveaway where you can win all the releases from that month.  You read that right! Every month, we do a drawing for a bundle of books of all the new releases for that month. The April releases giveaway is going on right now and closes on Sunday 4/23 at 8 pm Pacific Time. Enter for your chance to win all the Sourcebooks Casablanca April releases from  Kianna Alexander, Adriana Anders, Sarah Castille, Vivien Jackson, Abbie Roads, Terry Spear, and Julie Ann Walker!

Every writer, whether seasoned or just starting out, need a support system. Completing a book is hard work and you need writer friends to cheer you on, commiserate with, and sometimes to bounce ideas off in order to solve tricky plot problems. But if you’re just starting out, how do you find your support tribe? Answer: You join Cherry Adair's Finish the DamnBook (FTDB) challenge . I met Cherry at my very first romance writer conference where I knew absolutely nobody. She recognized me as a very lost and scared beginning writer and introduced me to everybody she knew. Since Cherry is one of the most social and vivacious people in the world, that means I pretty much met everyone who attended that conference.  Warning: this is where the post turns all gushy and fangirly. It’s hard to find the words to describe how much this amazing woman means to me. Basically, Cherry Adair has been an incredible influence on my career. Thanks to her—and FTDB challenge—I completed...

Désirée Clary by François Gérard (1810) Like many writers, I have always been a voracious reader. Luckily, my mom is also a book addict and happily enabled her daughters addiction. My favorite stories were about human connection. Relationships between siblings, strangers, and soul mates fascinated me equally. I don’t remember the first romance novel I read, but I do remember shocking my Swedish seventh-grade history teacher by my extensive historical knowledge of how the current ruling family of Sweden was founded. All the kids in my class knew the event took place in 1818 by a French general named Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte.  And that he changed his name to Charles XIV John when he was elected heir presumptive to the Swedish throne. (The royal family was dying out because of too much inbreeding. Seriously!) We learned those details from our textbook. But I was the only student who rambled on about King Bernadotte's queen, Desideria, and the challenges she faced when sh...

Happy 2017! Hope you've had a great start on this new year. For this post though, I'm going to rewind to exactly a month ago: December 10th. That's the day when the Nobel Prize is awarded each year. As much as I'm always interested in who gets the prize in Physics (I teach this topic at college level for my day job) and Literature (Bob Dylan for 2016!), my true pleasure in keeping watch of the event is the amazing dresses the guests wear for the big party after the ceremony. Especially the dresses of the royal family. The Swedish royal family attracts a lot less international attention than their UK peers, but they rule the tabloids in their native country and never more so than when they are all gussied up for an official event or wedding. In case you are not up to date with the Swedish royal house, here's a quick tour of the female members of the family and the outfits they wore to the 2016 Nobel Prize evening festivities. Let's start with Sweden's f...

A 6th century Swedish bronze plaque with Odin and a berserker wearing a wolfskin. (Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images) I've been fascinated with Norse mythology ever since my grandparents gave me a children's picture book based on the Icelandic Sagas. Growing up in Sweden, I learned even more about my Viking forefathers (and mothers ;-) ) as I studied history and archaeology in school. In seventh through ninth grade (what we in Sweden call högstadiet or highschool), my history teacher noticed my interest and gave me books to read outside of class. This is when I first learned about the berserkers, Odin's fierce warriors who could whip themselves into a battle frenzy that made them feel no pain and allowed them to become such superior fighters that they always defeated their enemy. Viking Warriors Book 1 A double 2016 RITA finalist In my contemporary paranormal Viking Warriors series, immortal king Leif and his band of warriors have been sent back...

If you read the first book in the Viking Warriors series, then you are already familiar with immortal Valkyrie Astrid Irisdotter. This week, she is one of the main characters in the second installment of the series: VIKING WARRIOR REBEL. Astrid is probably the most stubborn character I have ever written. She has a tendency to take over on the page and shape her own story the way she wants it to be told. All I can really do is hang on for the ride. :-) Here's some more information about VIKING WARRIOR REBEL. She can't let him discover... Immortal Vikings are among us Astrid Irisdotter is a Valkyrie-a fierce warrior fighting to protect humanity from the evil god Loki and his brutal minions. She's on an urgent mission for her queen when everything goes hideously sideways. Undercover agent Luke Holden arrives on the scene just in time to save her life-and put his own on the line. Luke may have saved her, but that doesn't mean Astrid can trust him. Tempers flare...

I've just finished one of the most fun writing projects I've ever worked on: six writers collaborated on an anthology of short stories. We are all women who write about Vikings--some of us historical, some of us paranormal--so it makes sense to call our collection TALES OF THE VALKYRIES. Writing can be a very solitary exercise and working with Gina Conkle , Lisa Hendrix , Anna Markland , Emma Prince , and Harper St. George on this project refueled my creativity. Since we finished the anthology, I've written more words per day than I normally do. The anthology is currently free at Barnes & Noble and Kobo . We're still waiting for Amazon to price match, but they say they will do so shortly. Meanwhile, you can claim your Kindle version through our instaFreebie campaign. And then mark your calendar for our super fun Facebook party on Thursday September 15 at 5:30 - 9:10 PM (EDT) . You'll be able to win great giveaways and a grand prize of Amazon gift car...

One of the best things about being a writer is that your all consuming interests are called research instead of obsessions . While writing my Viking Warriors series, I can bury my nose in books about Norse mythology and nobody can fault me for not working. It's so awesome! Most of my research comes from books and the internet, but during a visit to my parents' house a few years ago, I took a side trip to the Roskilde Viking Ship Museum in Denmark . The museum houses five original Viking ships from the 11th century. These ships were used in a blockade in a natural channel close to Skuldelev, which is 20 km north of Roskilde, the Viking age capital of Denmark. During the scrimmage, the ships were purposely sunk. In 1962, they were excavated in thousands of pieces. An unbelievable feat of underwater archaeology. Each piece of timber had to be conserved and then painstakingly puzzled together to recreate the ships. Each ship is a different type and together they give a unique in...