When Alpha female Galina Sudenko agreed to attend her distant cousin’s birthday party, she wasn’t counting on meeting the devastatingly handsome and powerful Rom Alpha, Andrey Lupesco, or having her sexy times with him interrupted by the murder of her idiot brother-in-law, Sergei. But such is life when your father is one of the most powerful werewolves within Seattle’s supernatural Russian organized crime syndicate.
Not content with being just a pretty face and good breeding stock, Galina sets out to make her mark within the family. But in doing so, she runs afoul of her eldest brother, Alexei, the heir apparent to the family dynasty. He has no intention of ceding his position without a fight. Andrey and Galina’s burgeoning romance is threatened when she discovers that before his death, Irina’s husband, Sergei, hijacked Andrey’s shipment of the werewolf drug, Bullet, a synthetic drug that gives the supernatural creatures a cocaine-like high. Sergei’s theft means that Andrey had a reason to have Sergei killed, leaving Galina to decide whether to risk trusting Andrey even as her feelings for him deepen. As her brother Alexei’s behavior becomes more erratic, Galina must find the missing shipment, prove to her family that she’ll be a capable leader, and decide whether her lover Andrey can be trusted before she can hope to challenge her brother for his position as head of the family. A tale of sexy werewolves, forbidden love, family power struggles, and danger closing in, Gia Corona and Jacey Conrad's From Russia With Claws will leave you howling for more! Expected Release Date - August 18th, 2015 A Day In The Life of Conrad & Corona -
Gia: Usually, we are writing from separate states.
Jacey: Curse you, real estate gods!! Gia: But we do manage to get together in the same place several times a year for writing retreats or conferences. And our writing routine goes something like this… I will cruise by wherever my beloved Jacey is that morning (because she’s usually awake before me, unless she’s jet lagged and cranky). I say, “Get in loser. We’re going adulting.” Jacey: Seriously. This is how she greets me. But I love it because Gia is one of the people who taught me that “adulting” is totally acceptable to use as a verb. Gia: Adulting is our code word for being useful members of the grown-up populace. This usually entails writing scenes with embarrassing situations or the word “cock” in them. Because that’s the way we roll. Jacey: Seriously, I still want “scenes with embarrassing situations or the word ‘cock’ in them” on our business cards. Gia: We’ll stagger somewhere that has caffeine and partake of something approaching a reasonable breakfast. Jacey: She insists that Diet Dr. Pepper and Peanut Butter M&Ms are not a grown up breakfast. I disagree. Gia: And then we settle down in front of our respective laptops. Jacey writes on a Mac, I use a PC since my Mac is only good for use a paperweight now. Writing maybe happens. At some point, I will lean over to Jacey and ask, “Are you seriously watching that Luke Goss shower scene in Death Race 2 AGAIN?” “It’s for research. I’m adulting!” She’ll look at my screen. “And you can’t say anything, Miss ‘I have Michael Fassbender smiling in every role he’s ever been in on a GIF loop’. Really, Gia? Even Jonah Hex? That’s just sad right there.” “Don’t make me call Richard to have him tell you about Tom Hardy’s nefarious past!” “Oh, you keep your mouth off of Tom. Ours is a pure and abiding love!” “I’d be the only one keeping my mouth off of him…” Jacey: This may be why the retreats we attend have the “Instant Messaging, Go Outside to Talk or STFU. Gia and Jacey, this means you” rule. Gia: The Luke-Fassie-Tom arguments might degenerate into fisticuffs at this point. We try to make good decisions, but with the lack of TV, we sometimes have to make our own fun. This is about the time we break for lunch. Jacey: While my breakfast choices are irresponsible, I’d like to point out that I balance it with a huge lunch salad. I’m not a toddler. Gia’s nutritional choices don’t have to be monitored by other people. Gia: The afternoon is spent with ALL THE WORDS. Jacey and I will message back and forth with lines of dialogue that we are especially proud of or pass back and forth a scene that we’re sharing in our respective books. Jacey: That’s been something I’ve really enjoyed about our werewolf projects and the Facile stories. I love writing in the same timeline and each having our own twist on things. But the shared scenes are always my favorites because we tend to build off of each other’s ideas until it’s hilariously awesome. Or insane. But mostly, awesome. Gia: We’ll go back and forth with any questions we have or suggestions for ways to make things sexier. IM conversations tend to go something like this: Jacey: I’m afraid of making her too much of a sad panda. There’s like a sad trombone wah-wahhing in the distance as I write this. Gia: Is Alexei too creepy? How creepy is too creepy? Like ‘heads in the freezer instead of pizzas?’ Too much? Jacey: I feel like opposable thumbs should be playing more of a role here. Thumbs, dammit! Gia: Which is funnier in terms of fish comedy—being slapped with a mackerel or a salmon? Jacey: So in terms of classy, is it too much to have them hook up at a funeral? Once we’ve gotten our respective words down, we’ll usually read each other’s work and then giggle inappropriately because we are only about eight years old maturity-wise. At which point, if there’s a pool available, we’ll avail ourselves of that, floating on our backs and chatting to clear up any lingering plot holes or pressing story problems. Water is a fine way to combat writer’s block and we both enjoy a good soak. Also booze, although our last retreat involved this exchange: Gia: Why are there two cases of Low Rent Apple Ale in here? Where’s the Angry Orchard cider I asked you to pick up? Jacey: Damn it! I got confused! Do you know what it’s like going to the grocery store with four authors? It was like an orc raid! I deserve combat pay! Gia: You had one job, Jacey. One. Job. Jacey: I’m really sorry. Gia: One. Jacey: I can see if anyone else wants it … Gia: Now, that’s just crazy talk. I’ll drink them. It’s got alcohol in it, right? I’ll drink them. Jacey: Oh, good. Gia: But still. One. Job. Jacey: Shut up. Gia: And after drinking a few (lower quality apple ciders), we either talk about the project or devolve into an epic game of “Marry, Screw, Kill” featuring various shirtless celebrities. Then we’ll eventually go to bed. Or pass out. Whatever. Only to do it all again the next morning. Jacey: Again, we live a couple of hundred miles apart, so we don’t get to work like this every day. On a normal writing day, after I have launched my children on an unsuspecting school bus driver, I settle down on the couch to check emails and Facebook messages. In general, if we’re not mocking each other in some fashion, we’ll update each other on progress on our projects or continuity questions like, “What are we calling their apartment building again?” or “How are we spelling that cousin’s name?” Gia has a grown-up job, so I try not to bug her too much. But depending on which disturbing tumblr meme I’ve found recently (Harry and Eggsy from Kingsman as mermaids? YOU’RE WELCOME!) that may not hold up. I live to mess with Gia’s fandoms. Once I’ve got a handle on what to expect that day, I’ll go to the gym. Because I have to physically prepare for the zombie apocalypse and/or the day Gia calls to inform me that her plans to kidnap Michael Fassbender have gone terribly wrong and I have to help her hunt a fleeing Fassie through the mountains surrounding her secret compound. I cannot pound out tens of thousands of words at a time like my partner. She is a beast. So I have to apply more of a “slow and steady” principal, writing about two thousand words a day. If we’re particularly proud of a spot of dialogue or a scene, we’ll message it to each other under the header of, “I did a thing.” For example, I was particularly proud of: Irina shook her head. “Don’t teach Galina any scary Russian ninja tactics, Sveta. She’ll end up overthrowing the government and starting her own scary shoe-based dictatorship.” “Would the shoes be pretty?” Sveta asked. “Oh, my life,” Irina sighed, scrubbing her hand over her face. A slow, slightly creepy smile spread across Galina’s features. “I would be ruthless, but fair, and well-shod.” We’ll make a few suggestions or just say, “I love you, that’s awesome.” And then confab about what we can do to build on what was written that day. When we’re at retreats, we come up with a master plot for what we’re working on, but sometimes that has to be flexible if we come up with something that makes more sense. (I’m looking at you, last five chapters of From Russia with Fangs.) By the time our kids get home from school, most of the writing messages devolve into, “Oh my god, you won’t believe what the Tweenlet got in trouble for today.” Or “How does a kid even get a paper cut on his cornea?” And then we try to go to sleep at a reasonable hour, like reasonable adults. Or we binge write until 2 a.m. and crash. Like less reasonable adults. Visit With Conrad & Corona -
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