Dear Reader,
A new year always brings with it a sense of expectation and promise (and maybe a vague sense of guilt). Expectation because we don’t know what the year will bring exactly, but promise because we always hope it will be good things. The guilt is due to all of the New Year’s resolutions we make with such good intentions.
This year, Carina Press is making a New Year’s resolution we know we won’t have any reason to feel guilty about: we’re going to bring our readers a year of fantastic editorial and diverse genre content. So far, our plans for 2011 include staff and author appearances at reader-focused conferences such as the RT Booklovers Convention in April, where we’ll be offering up goodies, appearing on panels, giving workshops and hosting a few fun activities for readers. We’re also cooking up several genre-specific release weeks, during which we’ll highlight individual genres. So far we have plans for steampunk week and unusual fantasy week. Readers will have access to free reads, discounts, contests and more as part of our week-long promotions!
But even when we’re not doing special promotions, we’re still offering something special to our readers in the form of the stories authors are delivering to Carina Press that we’re passing on to you. From sweet romance to sexy, and military science fiction to fairy-tale fantasy, from mysteries to romantic suspense, we’re proud to be offering a wide variety of genres and tales of escapism to our customers in this new year. Every week is a new adventure, and we want to bring our readers along on the journey. Be daring, be brave and try something new with Carina Press in 2011!
We love to hear from readers, and you can email us your thoughts, comments and questions to [email protected]. You can also interact with Carina Press staff and authors on our blog, Twitter stream and Facebook fan page.
Happy reading!
~Angela James
Executive Editor, Carina Press
www.carinapress.com
www.twitter.com/carinapress
www.facebook.com/carinapress
Dedication
To my family. You are my bedrock.
Thank you.
Acknowledgements
Jaq’s Harp could never have happened without the influence and work of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm for their collection of fairytales, and of course, without my wonderful editor, Deborah Nemeth, who made this story shine.
Chapter One
Jacqueline threw the digi-missive across the room to shatter into tiny shards of tech. Her latest assignment would waste her talents taking out a little band of smugglers. She wanted a much bigger target. No, not wanted. Needed.
She needed to take down Giant Corp.
She stalked past the sparsely furnished front room, through the dim hallway and into the back room of her small apartment, toward the hacking cough. On Jaq’s bed, her sister, Merrilyn, stared listlessly at the ceiling as a bloodied cloth flittered from her hand to the floor. Jaq sat on the edge, careful not to jostle the one and only person dear to her. Well, the only one left who took up residence in her personal space.
“I told you not to trust Giant Corp.” She ran a hand through Merry’s blond hair, so like her own.
Merry’s slight pat on her arm reassured her, though only a little. “They said the treatments would work. What else could I do?”
“What else, besides sell your condo and leave us destitute to pay for a charade?” Jaq clucked soothingly to take the bite from her remark. She had other reasons to distrust Giant, but Merry didn’t know about those.
“Don’t go to work,” Merry pleaded. Too weak to keep a hold, her hand fell back to her side and she closed her eyes, her lashes dark against her pale skin. “I’d rather never recover than have you do such horrible work.”
“I’m good at it. I’ll be fine.” Yes, she would be fine. She was good at what she did at Mother, the secret espionage arm of the Global Organization of Strategic Equity, de facto government of New Castle.
“You’ll be fine?”
A new year always brings with it a sense of expectation and promise (and maybe a vague sense of guilt). Expectation because we don’t know what the year will bring exactly, but promise because we always hope it will be good things. The guilt is due to all of the New Year’s resolutions we make with such good intentions.
This year, Carina Press is making a New Year’s resolution we know we won’t have any reason to feel guilty about: we’re going to bring our readers a year of fantastic editorial and diverse genre content. So far, our plans for 2011 include staff and author appearances at reader-focused conferences such as the RT Booklovers Convention in April, where we’ll be offering up goodies, appearing on panels, giving workshops and hosting a few fun activities for readers. We’re also cooking up several genre-specific release weeks, during which we’ll highlight individual genres. So far we have plans for steampunk week and unusual fantasy week. Readers will have access to free reads, discounts, contests and more as part of our week-long promotions!
But even when we’re not doing special promotions, we’re still offering something special to our readers in the form of the stories authors are delivering to Carina Press that we’re passing on to you. From sweet romance to sexy, and military science fiction to fairy-tale fantasy, from mysteries to romantic suspense, we’re proud to be offering a wide variety of genres and tales of escapism to our customers in this new year. Every week is a new adventure, and we want to bring our readers along on the journey. Be daring, be brave and try something new with Carina Press in 2011!
We love to hear from readers, and you can email us your thoughts, comments and questions to [email protected]. You can also interact with Carina Press staff and authors on our blog, Twitter stream and Facebook fan page.
Happy reading!
~Angela James
Executive Editor, Carina Press
www.carinapress.com
www.twitter.com/carinapress
www.facebook.com/carinapress
Dedication
To my family. You are my bedrock.
Thank you.
Acknowledgements
Jaq’s Harp could never have happened without the influence and work of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm for their collection of fairytales, and of course, without my wonderful editor, Deborah Nemeth, who made this story shine.
Chapter One
Jacqueline threw the digi-missive across the room to shatter into tiny shards of tech. Her latest assignment would waste her talents taking out a little band of smugglers. She wanted a much bigger target. No, not wanted. Needed.
She needed to take down Giant Corp.
She stalked past the sparsely furnished front room, through the dim hallway and into the back room of her small apartment, toward the hacking cough. On Jaq’s bed, her sister, Merrilyn, stared listlessly at the ceiling as a bloodied cloth flittered from her hand to the floor. Jaq sat on the edge, careful not to jostle the one and only person dear to her. Well, the only one left who took up residence in her personal space.
“I told you not to trust Giant Corp.” She ran a hand through Merry’s blond hair, so like her own.
Merry’s slight pat on her arm reassured her, though only a little. “They said the treatments would work. What else could I do?”
“What else, besides sell your condo and leave us destitute to pay for a charade?” Jaq clucked soothingly to take the bite from her remark. She had other reasons to distrust Giant, but Merry didn’t know about those.
“Don’t go to work,” Merry pleaded. Too weak to keep a hold, her hand fell back to her side and she closed her eyes, her lashes dark against her pale skin. “I’d rather never recover than have you do such horrible work.”
“I’m good at it. I’ll be fine.” Yes, she would be fine. She was good at what she did at Mother, the secret espionage arm of the Global Organization of Strategic Equity, de facto government of New Castle.
“You’ll be fine?”
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