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Giveaway

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Nicole Northwood is running a pre-order campaign for her new book (under pen name Nicole Bea) Beneath the Starlit Sea. If you pre-order the eBook and send proof of purchase to her on Instagram or Twitter, she will mail you a copy of an exclusive print with a secret letter written on the back.

A photo of the postcard.

Beneath the Starlit Sea is a new adult / adult fantasy romance comparable to The Witcher, with lush worlds, sweet scenes between the main character and her love interest, and a fox who helps save the day.

Sorceress Illyse prefers to isolate herself from the age-old conflict between her coven and the humans of Sjökanten, but not at the expense of her own life. Captured by the king’s men, she is threatened with the ultimate demise for sorceresses—being forever imprisoned in ore—unless she manages to put an end to the gruesome murders of human citizens at the hands of a mysterious sea creature.

Bound by an iron band that limits her power, Illyse, and her fox familiar, join with Garit Darling, a medical practitioner and an enigma unto himself. Together, they delve deep into forgotten lore and forbidden romantic entanglements, despite a ban on relationships between sorceresses and humans. However, when it is discovered that Garit’s past is more closely tied to their investigation than either initially realizes, soon their passion and distraction from the crimes may just be at the cost of Illyse’s potential freedom… and Garit’s life.

Copies can be pre-ordered here. 

Round Table

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Romance: Let’s Talk Spice!

Sabitha: Are you regular romance readers?

Zilla: As much as I’m regular about anything in life! I grew up on the Harlequins you get at yard sales, 4 for a dollar, and I’ve always loved the comfort, the spice, and seeing what an author can do to make the genre their own. And now I’ve got friends who write romance, so I’m (beta) reading a lot of it, and I really love that. I just finished reading MadameRaeRae’s chicklit novel about a recovering ballerina and I cannot wait until someone picks that up and publishes it.

Rachel: Far less so! When I was growing up, I had a lot of internalized misogyny around romance as a genre, and it was only in later adulthood that I realized that quite a lot of it is good, actually. So now it’s about making up for lost time.

Sabitha: What are your favourite tropes, either in romance as a genre, or in romantic plotlines in general?

Zilla: At the risk of being a cliche myself, enemies to lovers. Gideon the Ninth is everything. Goth lesbian necromancers in space, childhood enemies until they are forced to rely on each other for survival … It’s catnip.

Rachel: 100% it’s the slow burn for me. Give me years of pining, or decades, or, if we’re venturing into the paranormal, centuries. Enemies to lovers is fantastic, but I’m equally if not more of a fan of friends to lovers. I want to know and appreciate the characters as individuals and watch their relationship change and develop over time. And because I’m sadistic, I want to see the characters obsess and suffer and come to the brink of giving up on happiness until they take that last possible chance at love.

Zilla: Readers in the audience, take note of Rachel’s answer. It is a warning. Rachel’s magical realism novel Cascade has two characters who’ve been in love with each other for like … twenty years already when the novel starts? And at the risk of spoilers, Cascade is the first novel in a trilogy. And Rachel loves a slow burn.

Rachel: Haha. Also take note of Zilla’s answer. What’s a little murder between love interests?

Sabitha: Any tropes you don’t like?

Zilla: I have an allergy to anything which gets earnest. I break out in hives when I read heartfelt communication. So hurt/comfort usually gets a pass from me. I don’t want characters to talk about their feelings, I want them to fuck about them. That said, I’ll give Nicole Northwood’s Unsteady a pass here, because while there’s definitely hurt and comfort, there’s also plenty of, um, physical therapy.

Rachel: I’m not a fan of forced anything, which is something that put me off a lot of bodice-ripper romances when I was younger. This applies to consent but also to tropes where characters are destined or fated to be together. To me, the heart of romance is choice, regardless of whether or not it’s a good choice or a terrible one.

Sabitha: What would you like to see more of in romance?

Zilla: As a disaster bisexual, I’d like to see more of them in romance. I’m not picky, though. I’ll take disaster queers across the spectrum, from disaster ace to disaster gay, and anything in between. And while there are plenty of het romances in the world, we can always use more disasters hets too—if you haven’t read S.M. Berry’s Hallowed Emancipation yet, get on that. I want to relate to the characters I read about, and while I wish I could relate to your classic “one major flaw” romance protagonist, the truth is that I’m mostly flaw.

Rachel: I loved Hallowed Emancipation. But yes, more queer romance for sure. And more specifically damaged protagonists. I don’t want to impose myself on a blank-slate POV character—I want leads who are complicated and messy and feel real.

More romance that subverts genre expectations. One of the trends I find troubling is just how segmented the marketplace is. I know romance is often a comfort read, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for a bit more weirdness within the formula.

I’d love to see snappy dialogue that puts a modern twist on screwball romantic comedies. And I’d love to see more unconventional settings and characters—give me love stories set during union organizing drives or paranormal romances with non-Western mythological monsters. Maybe not all in the same book!

Zilla: But maybe in the same book?

Rachel: I wouldn’t say no to it.

Sabitha: HEA, HFN, or do you care?

Zilla: I am all over the place here. Romance-romance, I want happiness forever please. If I’m reading something which promises me genre conventions, I want people staring deeply into each other’s eyes for the rest of eternity. One thing I loved about Bixby Jones’ Soulmate, Stage Right was the absolute certainty I had going in that it would end well. It’s such a lovely, gentle read.

That said, if the story is promising me a romance, without being Romance—I’m more open minded. As long as the bittersweet or sad ending feels earned, and not tacked on to make the story feel important, I’m open to a story ending however it needs to. It’s okay to cry at The Fault in Our Stars.

Rachel: It is a complete myth that I bawled like a tiny infant at The Fault In Our Stars. I don’t know where you heard that. I have a cold, withered heart and I have never cried.

In terms of endings, I’m not picky. The difference between a happy ending and an unhappy one is, in any case, where you end the story. My favourite romance of all time is Casablanca, where the leads don’t end up together at all, and the romance and the narrative are stronger for it.

Sabitha: Sexytimes? How explicit should an author go?

Zilla: All the way. Well. It depends on the novel. If I’m reading two cinnamon rolls finding happiness in each other, I’m happy to fade to black. If there had been explicit smut in Fangirl, it would have been deeply unsettling. But If I’m reading about an abusive vampire and his lovingly dysfunctional polycule, I want it to get as raunchy as Dowry of Blood.

Most of all, I want sex in a novel to tell me something about the characters. There’s nothing worse than a sex scene which reads like an IKEA instruction manual, and nothing better than watching characters at their rawest, most vulnerable state.

Rachel: I agree completely. I have fond memories of giggling over turgid sex descriptions in some of the campier romances I’ve seen, but good writing is good writing, and if the author can pull it off, bring me your spiciest ghost peppers.

Sabitha: Favourite romance subgenres? Or other genres with romance plotlines?

Zilla: Regency might be my favourite genre, but I haven’t met a genre I don’t enjoy. Lisa Kleypas is an absolutely delightful author, but give me anyone in period costume and I’m sold. One of my top fanfics I’ve read is a period AU of Gideon the Ninth by JeanLuciferGohard, though it might be a wee bit closer to erotica than romance. I am specifically not linking to it here, because I need to protect the innocence of the reader.

Rachel: Oh my God, yes, Regency. Bonus if it’s Regency with magic. It’s the perfect storm of repression and ostentatious costumes. In general, anything along the historical or Gothic bent generally appeals to me—I may stay for the romance, but I came here for the aesthetic. Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s The Beautiful Ones and Mexican Gothic, Ellen Kushner’s Riverside books, and C.L. Polk’s The Midnight Bargain spring to mind as having lush, immersive backdrops for atmospheric love stories.

Sabitha: Favourite guilty pleasure?

Rachel: Oooh, it’s time to rave about my all-time favourite Harlequin, Firebrand by Rosemary Aubert. It’s the story of a controversial Toronto mayor (no, not the one you’ve heard of—it’s very clearly the progressive, environmentalist John Sewell with the serial numbers filed off) and the City Hall librarian who’s arrested with him during a protest. I bought it as a joke—I mean, it’s a Harlequin about Toronto municipal politics and that is hilarious—but it turned out to be an absolute gem of a book that is as much about two people falling in love with a city as it is about two people falling in love with each other.

Zilla: I refuse to feel guilty about any of my pleasures. 😉

Got a suggestion for a future roundtable? Email us! Nightbeatseu (at) gmail (dot) com.

Night Beats on Tour

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Night Beats went on a blog tour to the magical blog of Valkyrie Visionaries! These women are amazing marketers who will help an author get a book (or a fictional extended universe) noticed. They’re so knowledgeable, so friendly, and so supportive. For someone learning about how to market a novel, it was great to have experts in our corner. Since the tour, we haven’t let them get away – we’ve already contacted them again to get advice on promoing Rachel’s upcoming release of Cascade.

Go read the interview on their blog, because it was a joy to be interviewed by them. The best part was the Wrong Genre Cover they requested from us, because Lord of the Rings as a Bachelor-style romance is the best kind of mistake.

A fake cover for Lord of the Rings as a Bachelor-style romance.

Book Report Corner

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by Zilla N.

N.B. We were given an Advance Reader Copy of Soulmate, Stage Right to review, and we could not have been more delighted.

Things that make me happy, a partial list:

  • Cats
  • Convoluted television plotlines that the novel’s Protagonists can’t stop watching
  • HEA
  • There are two cats
  • Hot people
  • People who are doing Their Best
  • Did I mention one of the cats is a kitten?
  • And orange
  • He was named Pumpkin by the Love Interest’s daughter, Pressie
  • And the Protagonist has to use her Expert Cat Detecting Skills to find Pumpkin for Pressie when he hides behind the dryer

Bixby’s contemporary romance Soulmate, Stage Right is the kind of story that makes me happy. That’s what this story is for. There’s drama, to move the plot, but it keeps running into two Protagonists who are deeply caring people, who just need to find someone who can give back the wealth of affection they have to offer. They’re going to end up together because they make each other happier, fuller people by being together, and they make a little girl and two cats happier that way too.

The plot is a delight, of course. D is a former soap opera star discovering that television and theater call for different skills, and Abby is a high school drama teacher and stage actress who is extremely committed to her craft. And to D’s abs. The plot of the soap opera is as confusing and contrived as any Night Beats fan could hope for. (Though I know Bixby – we got this as an ARC – and when I asked, Bixby assured me that she’s worked out the plot twists of All or Nothing for seasons to come. And she promised me more soap opera goodness in sequels!) There are well-meaning meddling mothers aplenty, not to mention the twin sisters and friends. But there’s no moment where I doubted they belong together.

At its heart, this is a romance about family. It’s about people looking out for the ones they love (though it’s not always appreciated at the time!) It’s about the family you choose, stage friends who are with you for life. Most of all, it’s about the family you make. Two adults, a kid and two cats (one of them an orange kitten named Pumpkin). No wonder this book makes me happy.

Wrong Genre Covers

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Our first Wrong Genre Cover comes courtesy of a suggestion from Saevelle, who asked for Fahrenheit 451 as a steamy romance. Your terrible wish is our terrible command, Saevelle!

A reminder that if you want early access to see these beautiful monstrosities, you can sign up to our newsletter here.

And if you want to suggest what Rachel Rosen should craft using a combination of dark magic and Photoshop, email us or tweet at us!

A fake book cover. The blurb says "The only thing hotter than the books ... is their love."

Book Report Corner

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by Sabitha F.

Out of the Ruins, edited by Preston Grassman.

What a generic title. I have to keep looking it up, every time I tell anyone about it, because it just drops out of my head. In fairness, I suspect that there are only so many titles one can have for post-apocalyptic anthologies. There were two other recent post-apocalyptic anthologies that I loved enough that I wanted to buy them, and I still can’t remember which one was which based on the titles, so I can hardly fault the editor on this.

That said, the concept itself is anything but generic. In many ways, this collection of stories is closer to the original Greek meaning of apokalypsis: revelation, not merely destruction. Its tagline (can books have taglines?) is “What would you save from the fire?”, and it focuses on salvage, change, and reconstruction, even in the darkest of times.

All of the stories are about surviving and rebuilding after various sorts of apocalypses—a topic we really ought to talk about more often under the circumstances. We all know the Mad Max fantasy of riding around in ramshackle vehicles and shooting at warlords, and I respect that, but even leather bikers need to eat eventually, and someone has to grow the food. So what does life after the end look like?

The authors range from living legends, including Samuel R. Delaney, Ramsey Campbell, and Clive Barker to newer talents like Anna Tambour and Charlie Jane Anders. China Miéville’s in it, and honestly, I’d have bought it just because I automatically buy anything he writes. Like any short story anthology, it’s uneven in quality, but there are more hits than misses.

My favourite, somewhat unsurprisingly, was Nick Mamatas’ “The Man You Flee At Parties,” which is a weird, inventive tale about future economies and the darker side of utopia. The post-apocalyptic world he depicts is in many ways an improvement over what currently exists, despite its violent birth and the violence required to maintain it, but it never feels unrealistic or unachievable.

If the current apocalypse has you burned out on reading post-apocalyptic literature, this collection might just be the breath of fresh air through your respirator that you’ve been waiting for.

Book Report Corner

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by Zilla N.

Cass Neary of Generation Loss (by Elizabeth Hand) is the platonic ideal of a disaster bisexual. Women, men, plausible deniable otherworldly spirits, she will pick the most self-destructive option and run in full tilt. She is an unreliable narrator and honestly, she’s an unreliable human. And I adore her.

The story hangs on the edge of real and mystical. I was never quite sure if there was magic in the photographs, in the island, in Cass herself. The way she tastes damage on people is more than ordinary, but then, maybe she just leans in when she hears the siren call of death ideation. I almost regret that there was a mundane explanation presented as an option to solve the mystery. But there’s no requirement for me to choose that as canon.

And the art. Generation loss is what happens when you reproduce a photograph, and each copy is lower resolution and less sharp than the one before. It’s the perfect metaphor for the fading of the punk scene, for digital photography replacing film, for the passing of an era. From her art exhibition of Dead Girls to her analog film to the final collection of turtle prints, the things Cass loves best are gone or fading, and she’s the last one grasping at the memory of them.

Generation Loss is a memorial. It is dark, and tumultuous, and beautiful, a storm on the lake destroying everything in its wake.