Warrior
(Breeder 3) blurb:
A female fighting for freedom. A male armed with determination. Can they
save their people?
As a despotic Qalin marches through Parseon intent on
conquering every province, Commander Marlix pledges his sister to another Alpha
to protect her. Desperate to decide her own fate, Anika flees and finds refuge
with the guerrilla resistance movement against Qalin. Marlix’s aide Urazi hunts
her down to bring her home to fulfill her duty. But when love blossoms between
them, and provinces fall to Qalin, Anika and Urazi realize home has ceased to
exist, and they are all that stand between the people of Parseon and the end of
the world.
Warrior is the third and final book of the Breeder science
fiction romance series, but it can be read as a stand-alone.
Warrior
(Breeder 3) excerpt:
She stared at the bloodied body. “Is Grogan dead?”
Urazi knelt and checked for a pulse against the
alpha’s neck. “Yes.” He peered up at her. “Who is he to you? Has he used you?”
“Monto, no!” she gasped, not considering the alpha’s
intentions pertinent. “Grogan is the leader of the Guerilla Resistance against
Qalin and Artom, which I have joined,” she explained. Urazi’s eyes narrowed,
and she added, “Grogan was training me and other breeders to fight.” Breeders
could approach a sentry without arousing his suspicion then immobilize him,
allowing male guerrillas to storm the post and secure it. She thrust back her
shoulders with defiant pride. She, a female, was capable of supporting the war
effort in a productive way.
Urazi rose to his feet to examine the paper target.
“You are an excellent sharpshooter, but winning a battle requires more than
skill with a crossbow. You would not fare well in hand-to-hand combat.”
Anika shrugged. “If I have a crossbow, I will not need
to engage in hand-to-hand combat.”
“Did it help you today?” Urazi strode to Grogan’s
body, and yanked up his bloodied uniform shirt. Attached to the alpha’s nipple
was an insignia ring. Urazi unclipped it and carried it over to her.
Anika stared. A single star. Province one. Qalin.
“You have joined with the enemy to strike against your
own people? You would betray your Alpha? Your sibling?”
Qalin’s insignia lay in Urazi’s palm, damning, but
untrue. So untrue. “No! How could you say that? The Resistance plans to strike
against Qalin. Against Artom.”
Urazi tucked the star into his uniform pouch.
“But maybe Grogan is an infiltrator acting alone,” she
argued, fighting against the insidious memories; the ease with which she’d been
accepted into the camp when her comrades learned of her familiarity with both
Marlix’s and Dak’s provinces; Grogan’s constant but subtle questions about
locations. He’d asked if she’d ever encountered Marlix himself. At the time,
she’d feigned ignorance of the latter, fearing they would send her back to him.
Anika clutched her throat. What if Urazi’s accusation
was correct?
“If he were an ordinary alpha or beta, I might concede
it possible. But he is—by your account—the leader. I do not believe in
coincidence. I have been observing the camp. Neither Marlix nor Dak would have
sent females into combat.
“The Resistance you are so proud to be a part of is
using you as expendable cannon fodder.”
Warrior
Links:
Maddie’s Intimate Author’s Corner
I’m thrilled to have Cara Bristol in the corner today
for the first time. Cara is always on
top of trends in the spanking fiction community and I was excited to pick her
brain on some hot topics. <rubbing
hands together in anticipation> Here
we go…
MT: Cara, get
us started by tell me a little bit about your new book, the third in your
Breeder series. An inspiration, a funny
anecdote, or a mishap during the process, something won’t find in the pages or
the blurb.
CB: In the
Breeder series, I used every single letter of alphabet for names, including q,
x, y, and z! In Warrior, just for fun, I included an anagram of my own name,
both my pen name and my real name. Can you find them? (Hint: the anagram of my
pen name is a spelling variation).
MT: Oh goodie,
a puzzle. I can’t wait to see how many
get it right. You’re going to have to
give me a pass, I haven’t had a chance to read it yet. Its at the top of my
TBR, though.
How about this one.
I ask all sci-fi authors this burning question Star Trek, Star Wars, or
Battlestar Gallactica???
CB: Star Trek!
MT: And of course the follow up, Captain Kirk or Picard which ever your
generation may be, Han Solo, or Captain Adama.
If the answers is ‘who?’, this interview is over. Just kidding.
CB: Toughie!
It’s close to even, but if I had to pick, I’d say Picard. Kirk was a bit of a
loose cannon.
MT: I’d agree with Picard, if you like the sexy accent
and the older man thing he’s got going on.
But have you seen Captain Adama???
I should have clarified its Captain Lee “Apollo” Adama. Does that change your answer???
MT: Next
question. Writing a series is a huge
undertaking with interwoven story lines and multiple characters, how do you
keep everything straight?
CB: I know some
authors will use a series manual to keep track of all the details, but other
than keeping a list of names (to ensure I didn’t keep repeating the same
letter), I kept it all in my head. I wrote them in close succession, and I
pantsed every one. Sometimes I had to go back to a previous book and check
“facts,” but I knew my characters so well, I didn’t have to do that very often.
MT: You’ve
touched on my next question, plotter or pantser? (Plotter:
methodical process including an outline, notes and highlighters, or
pantser: fly by the seat of your pants, write
frenetically and go back and clean up the mess.) What is you writing
process?
CB: I am a
pantser who plots and then ignores the outline and pants anyway. I outlined
Warrior, and followed it about 1/3 the way through, then veered off. I think
what I came up with on the fly was so much better than what I had
“hard-plotted.” You can see remnants of my original plot, though. I had
intended that the villain (Qalin) would plant a spy in the good guy’s
(Marlix’s) inner circle. So I created two possibilities: Zoulin the guard and
Nibor the cook. They’re still in the book but they aren’t spies. Even though I
write on the fly, I do not write frenetically, and there is a not a lot of
clean-up. I think it through as I write—which is why I write slow. About 500
wph when I’m really truckin’.
MT: I’m
thinking 500 wph in a standard 8 hour day.
Nice!
The next question is about publishing. To self-pub, or not, that is the
question. Do you or have you
self-published? What do you find are the
pros and cons?
CB: After releasing 14 titles with publishers, I have
ventured into indie waters. The rights to Unexpected Consequences, the first
Rod and Cane Society series spanking romance, reverted to me, and I
self-published it. And Warrior, the third Breeder book is self-pubbed.
I think there
are four cons to self-publishing. One, I think if you are new to authoring,
self-publishing can overwhelm you (even though it’s not that hard). There are
so many decisions to make and you may not have all the necessary contacts. Second,
many writers self-publish too soon. If you go with a publisher who offers GOOD
(and that is the qualifier) editing, you will learn so much and produce a
better product for it. You’ve heard the rules, and you think you’re doing it
right, but nothing teaches you better than seeing your manuscript a red-lined! Third, because of
no. 2, there is still stigma attached to self-publishing. The perception
that indie books are not as good as traditional books still exists. Fourth, if
what you want is a print book in a brick and mortar bookstore, you are still
better off to go with a traditional publisher because as an indie, you will not
have the same access to distribution. But, if you are focusing on e-books
(which IS the wave of the future, like it or not!), no. 4 is not an issue.
The pros: first, the potential to make money is far
greater in the electronic book market because you are not giving away half your
royalties. You can take advantage of more markets. A publisher might hold the
print rights to your book, but never print it. If you’re indie, you venture
into that market, or audio, or foreign translations. You can take advantage of
vendor incentives like KindleUnlimited or being able to list your book for free
to boost sales.
Which leads to the second big pro: control. You have
complete control over what to release and when and how it will look. One of the
things that has bedeviled me was the timing of releases. I wanted to pace out
my books so that they generated a continuous income stream. I’d bust my ass to
get a manuscript to my publisher early, but they didn’t get to it right away, and there went my
schedule. Once I had three books release in the same month. I was torn in three
directions and couldn’t promote any of them effectively.
I’ve presented four cons and only two pros, but the
cons are tiny and the pros are HUGE.
MT: Good
insights. Particularly about print
rights.
I’d just add one con:
time. If you are a moonlighting
author like myself, it is nice to lay much of the post production work at
another's feet. Fortunately, the
publishers I work with value the authors opinion, or at least like to keep us happy
so that they ask for input on covers, offer final copy review, etc. Otherwise, with a forty hour per week job in
addition to writing, I’d be much less productive as a do it myselfer.
MT: Social
media is a wonderful thing, but it also takes a lot of time away from
writing. How do you balance the two?
CB: People always
say you have to set limits on social media participation so you have time to
write, but really, the reverse is what needs to happen. You need to set a daily
goal of how much you’re going to write and stick to it. Any time left over can
go to social media.
MT: A daily
goal for writing? What a novel
idea. No pun intended, really. I love that you have such discipline. How do I get some of that? I write when the spirit moves me, which is
feast or famine. When it’s famine time,
that’s when I blog and chat on FB, unless I get sucked in by a friend, which
often happens.
MT: There has
been a lot of discussion in social media and the blogs of late about changes in
the e-book industry, including difficulties with self publishing and also the
recent crack down on erotic content including titles, cover art, and the scary
Amazon dungeon. How have you been
affected and what do you see as the future impact on authors?
CB: OMG. About
a month before the release of Warrior, Breeder, the first book, was adult
tagged and thrown into the dungeon. That meant that when the 3rd book released,
the 1st book would be invisible. Crisis! When Loose Id, my publisher, was
unable to get the book untagged. I spent a frantic week on the phone with
Amazon and got the adult tag removed. But after all the drama, I understand
Amazon’s position, truly I do. They are trying to avoid salacious packaging on their
site. From my observation, they don’t care what’s in the book, they only care
what buyers (and potentially, children) see as they browse. So cover and blurb are
the targets. Some books clearly, obviously are adult . Others clearly,
obviously are NOT. But there is a huge gray area in the middle, and that’s
where authors and publishers need to make smart, business decisions. “Adult” is
in the eye of the beholder, and Amazon is the beholder.
MT: As a former
parole of the Amazon dungeon, I feel your pain.
I’m glad you were able to fix it before your new release, which would
have been devastating. We know that a
new book in a series catches the eye of new readers and your older books soar,
too. I’m sure it was horrible.
How about some fun stuff before we go? Tell me 5 fun facts about yourself that
would surprise us if we knew, sexy or mundane is up to you…
CB: My five...
1. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.
2. I’m an only child.
3. I love to crunch numbers. I track my book sales,
figure out percentages earned (from various vendor sites), maintain a monthly
household budget, estimate investment growth, etc. This is fun to me. But, I
don’t bother to balance my checkbook. If I get within $20 of what the bank says
I have, I figure it’s close enough.
4. I have not been to a movie in maybe a decade. I don’t
like sitting in a theater for two hours.
5. My husband encouraged me to write erotic romance
because he said, “sex sells.” And then he was shocked by what I wrote.
MT: Hahaha! I love #5.
I guess Mr. Bristol learned to be careful what he asked for. I’m also with you on #4. I don’t see the appeal of sitting in a
crowded theater with a bunch of coughing, chatting, chair kicking, wrapper
crinkling strangers. Except for the
popcorn, which can’t be beat.
That wraps it up for us. Thanks for chatting with me Cara, it was so
much fun. Come back any time and best of luck with Warrior. I know it will do great!
Here's more information on Cara and ways to follow her work:
Cara Bristol bio
Cara Bristol continues to evolve, adding new subgenres of erotic romance to her repertoire. She has written spanking romance, contemporary romance, paranormal, and science fiction romance. No matter what the genre, one thing remains constant: her emphasis on character-driven seriously hot erotic stories with sizzling chemistry between the hero and heroine. Cara has lived many places in the United States, but currently lives in Missouri with her husband. She has two grown stepkids. When she’s not writing, she enjoys reading and traveling.
Join me next week Wicked Wanton fans when my guest
will be new author Meredith O’Reilly.
Have a Happy Halloween!
