The Power of Friendship

Sunday, May 6, 2012

When I was a girl scout we would gather around in a circle and sing:

Make new friends,
but keep the old.
One is silver,
the other is gold.

Little did I truly comprehend at that young age the true scoop of friendship.  After all, family is blood and those connections are complex, but ultimately a family's duty, loyalty, tolerance and love flows from being related.

A friend, however, can choose to walk away at any time and not look back.  The connection is based on that mysterious karma of simply liking another person. A tenuous thread that could snap at any time or strengthen over the years.

With the loss of my parents and no immediate family living close by, I've been blessed with circles of friends who are my family.  Some people I've been friends with for over a quarter of a century; others within the past year.  They're all precious; they all enrich my life beyond comprehension.

This fabric of my life is reflected in many of my books. The three law school friends in the Legal Weapons series who form a criminal defense law firm [Courting Danger, Courting Disaster, Courting Death]; Emma-Lee Dalton's relationship with her ailing college girlfriend in Chasing The Truth; and Gail Malloy's bond with Angela Rivera in Her Dark Protector.  Although the women may differ on many things, they have each other's back. They listen, give comfort or a kick when needed. For them friendship is thicker than blood or water.

Make new friends but keep the old.  What is your favorite story of friendship?

Carol

Writing Process: West Palm Beach settings

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

It's almost an annual tradition, my receiving a jury summons. Once more I cooled my jets in the jury assembly room the entire day and was never called up on a panel.

However, during the lunch break, I took a few pictures as so many of my books have centered around downtown West Palm Beach. Years ago my office was in a buiding along Clematis Street, which is featured in both COURTING DANGER and COURTING DISASTER. I remembered all too clearly the smells emanating from the alley that ran behind the buildings on the north side of Clematis.

Here's a shot of the alley by the parking garage showcased in the first chapter of HER DARK PROTECTOR where Gail Malloy is in trouble when the mysterious Jason Hawke first appears.

I wrote in a frenzy to get COURTING DANGER out before the renovation of the old Palm Beach Courthouse was completed.  Here's the outside of the restored building, which now serves as a museum, and the view from the balcony of the double-decker courtroom where the heroine Kate Rochelle hides during a climatic scene.





















Finally here's the Palm Beach County Courthouse where the Legal Weapons team of the Courting series--Kate Rochelle, Carling Dent, and Nicole Sterling--try cases and appear for hearings. 

:) Carol

Happy Birthday, Carina Press!!!

Monday, June 6, 2011

One year ago this week Carina Press launched with 37 ebooks and man has it grown! I've been privileged to part of its launch year, and it's been an amazing experience. I've met so many great people and made wonderful friends. My editor Gina Bernal is too die for as an editor and the cover art has been amazing.

The Carina Press author community is savvy and amazing. and now I'm part of the NOT YOUR USUAL SUSPECTS blog.  Not only were COURTING DISASTER and COURTING DEATH released in ebook format but also as audio books by audible.com so I've been part of a whole new market. 

I can't wait to see what Carina has up its sleeve for its second year. Under the steerage of Executive Editor Angela James, the amazing digital team of Malle Vallik and Jenny Bullough, the acquisitions folks, the editors and art department, I suspect the readers will be in luck for more quality reads embracing so many genres.

And I will continue to be part of the growth and development with my next book for Carina Press in which I'll introduce a secret justice alliance: HER DARK PROTECTOR. 

Be sure to visit http://www.carinapress.com/  and the eharlequin community Carina Press forum http://community.eharlequin.com/forums/carina-press for the fun all this week!

:) Carol

Courting Death's Release Day Is Here!!!!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

It all began with Kate Rochelle's story in COURTING DANGER for Silhouette Bombshell in 2005, and now with CARINA PRESS's May 2nd release of COURTING DEATH, the Legal Weapons series concludes [at least for the moment].  DEATH features Nicole Sterling and one of my favorite heroes, Sam Bowie.  Their relationship was actually born in another book when I first began writing...a book now trashed as a learning experience.  However, Nicole and Sam stayed with me and finally I found the story for their combustible relationship.

I loved exploring the friendship of three strong women and the relationships with the three men who ultimately win their hearts, and I hope you will enjoy the legal adventures of the law firm affectionately known as 'Debt, Default, & Miscarriage'.

Fortunately, the first book DANGER is also now available in digitial. According to the information I have, DEATH will also be released in audio version by Audible as was COURTING DISASTER.

:) Carol

Courting Disaster's Release Day is here!

Sunday, April 3, 2011

With the dawning of Monday, April 4, COURTING DISASTER will be available. It's listed on all the major online bookstores, ready for download. I'm so stoked. When I wrote Courting Danger, all along I had planned to do all the stories of the partners of the criminal law defense I had created. When Bombshell folded, I feared Carling Dent and Nicole Sterling's stories would never see the light of the publishing world.

Then Carina Press opened its doors and bought the other two Legal Weapon stories, making my dream come true. I hope you enjoy the continuing adventures of the Legal Weapons. The Tweegal short story is wrapping on twitter [@LegalWeapons] in conjunction with the debut of Carling Dent's book.

Available at Carina Press http://bit.ly/dQxTxT
Amazon   http://amzn.to/i7M1Jr

Barnes & Noble  http://bit.ly/eIvEUL

Calibre

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Have a reader and want to buy a book from a different site other than the reader-supported bookstore, such as Kindle? There are a few conversion programs floating out there. I used Calibre, which does have a video tutorial you can watch:

http://calibre-ebook.com/

Once downloaded, the program will appear like this on your computer:

Next up is adding approved email addresses to your reader. I have a Kindle but presumably other readers will go through similar steps. Kindle’s site for adding email addresses is here:

http://amzn.to/i4YXk9

Next, go to the Calibre screen and click on ‘preferences’ on the far right side of the tool bar.

Click on sharing books by email

Click "add email" on right.

Enter the email address of your reader (for Kindle it should end with @kindle.com in some form) and click return. Formats should be "mobi, PRC".

Scroll down to the "Send email from" box and fill in the email you want to send the email from. Be sure that this is the same email you added to approved email addresses when you were setting up your reader
account.

Note: This is not the @Kindle email address that you are mailing TO but your personal email address that you'll be sending FROM. Since several friends reported problems with using an aol address, I opted to use set-up a gmail address as Calibre had a button I could click on to set it up.

To see if you’ve have the system set up, click’ Test email in lower right corner’.

You should get a "mail successfully sent" message. If you did not, that means you haven't set up either the TO or FROM email correctly.

Click Apply in upper left corner, and then click close, to close preferences.

Now you'll be able to convert to your reader a book...say my upcoming releasses COURTING DISASTER and COURTING DEATH...puchased from http://www.carinapress.com/

:) Carol

Launching Legal Weapons Twitter story

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Maddie here. Carol's had an exciting week. She attended Sleuthfest, leaving me in the hands of my fav neighbor. However, I have to pup up to the fact that I missed her. After all, she is the keeper of Pupperoni.

Carol not only got her new cover for COURTING DISASTER,  

but she also learned CHASING THE TRUTH is a finalist in the novella category of the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence Contest. I'm so proud of her that I gave her an extra few licks.

Yet, what is most exciting is Carol is launching the 'tweegal' [tweet + legal] adventures of her fictional criminal defense law firm. Starting tomorrow you can follow tweet by tweet the latest case involving the intrepid heroines of COURTING DANGER, COURTING DISASTER, & COURTING DEATH: Kate Rochelle, Carling Dent, and Nicole Sterling. After all, stirring up trouble can be the best defense. You can follow the story here:  http://www.twitter.com/LegalWeapons


Now I think I deserve a treat.