Blog Tour de Force and My Story Pitch

anuary snow... and more snow... and yet more... It's pretty, but what to do if you're not a snow bunny and the -30 wind chill is slicing your cheeks and pinching your nostrils, and all you want is to stay indoors?



Why, take part in the Indie Book Collective's Blog Tour de Force, of course! Showcasing a new indie author for every day of the tour, and giving you a zillion chances to win a Kindle.

Meanwhile, Kate Kaynak is reviewing and critiquing pitches for all sorts of unpublished novels, from a wide variety of genres. Thank you, Kate! Mine'll likely be up tomorrow or the next day. Here's what I submitted:

Title: Out of the Water
Author: Deniz Bevan
Genre: Historical romance, set in 1492
Word Count: 100,000

Exiled from her Spanish homeland by the Inquisition and separated from her family as they flee their home, 18 year old Rosa must place her life in the hands of a stranger from the Ottoman Empire. Baha, estranged from his own father and returning to his homeland after ten years, is her one hope of reaching Constantinople and reuniting with her family. The fact that he's attractive and tender is an unexpected pleasure.

As they travel together, her burning drive to be reunited with her loved ones is matched by a deepening desire for the man at her side -- but all too soon they may run out of time to be together. Rosa's family will likely not accept her marriage to a man of different faith, let alone one who has been renounced by his family. Yet before she can even introduce them, their reunion is cut short by the arrest of her father and brother at the hands of the Sultan's Grand Vizier. Rosa and Baha are the only ones that can rescue them, and together prove that their love can withstand their differences.

There's a wee problem, however. I seem to be gaining words as I edit, and I'm up to 131,000. Never had this happen before...