Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Welcome, Mallory Braus, Freelance Carina editor!

In celebration of our one year anniversary, I asked as many of our Harlequin team members and Carina Press freelance editors as possible to write a short blog post, talking about what the past year or so has been like for them, working on Carina Press. I deliberately didn't provide any direction other than that, because I wanted to see what people came up with, in the spirit of Carina's 1st anniversary. I was so pleased when I saw what they'd all come up with, and had to say (and some of these posts made me just a little teary)! I hope you enjoy the post, and look for your opportunity to win a Carina Press book at the bottom of this post. ~Angela James

Mallory Braus is a freelance editor for Carina Press. You can follow her on Twitter.


When I was younger, I became obsessed with Indiana Jones. I wanted to be a treasure hunter—traveling the world, discovering what no one else had, falling passionately in love with each new adventure.

Then I realized I’d have to deal with bugs. Airplanes. Rickety boats. Permits. Extreme heat (or cold). Sand. Have I mentioned airplanes? Thus, the life of Indiana Jones was not for me.

Or so I thought.

Working with Carina changed all that. I am a treasure hunter. Every day, I wake up and begin an adventure. I’ve traveled in space on a mercenary ship. Overcome grief to find redemption in the glorious Montana sunset. Faced down a killer in the days of Prohibition. Flown through the skies by way of dragon. Gone undercover to determine the innocence of a family of spies. I’ve fallen deeply, passionately in love. And that just skims the surface.

What first drew me to Carina was the company’s motto—Where no great story goes untold. And the more I followed Carina’s growth, the more Carina books I read, the more I knew I wanted to be a part of it.

I love hearing the funny stories my authors share about receiving “the call”. Now I’ll share mine. I read a tweet by Angela saying she’d be contacting the editors she’d like to bring on the next day. I spent the night tossing and turning, having multiple nightmares which involved creative and mortifying ways I might find out I’d not been chosen, and then finally gave up the fight at 7am. It was 10am on the East Coast, after all.

I opened my inbox to find the email waiting. I only made it through the first paragraph before I leapt from my bed. My dream job had become a reality. I ran down the hall, calling out “I got it! I got it!” and caught sight of my sister (and roommate) heading into the bathroom. Undeterred, I continue after her…

I would find out later that she was on a work call and at my first screech had decided to hide. And lock the door.

Yep. I ran straight into that sucker. Staggered back. Shook my head to clear the stars away. I gave a good measured knock on the door. Shouted, “I got it!” one more time and continued on my path of sharing the good news. Finally, after grabbing an ice pack, I finished reading the email, called my parents, and texted my friends.

It was the best day of my life.

Carina Press encourages us to be trend starters, rather than trend followers. We look for great stories and find them in droves. With every acquisition, I’ve been gifted with a gem—sparkles galore. With every author interaction I’ve learn something new, whether it be about the editing process or myself. Working with the other editors has been a gift. What an amazing group of women! I’ve found such support and generosity and comradery. I’ve also learned to drink my morning tea before reading through editor emails—for fear of choking from laughter mid-sip.

Every day I wake up with a smile—excited to begin the adventures of the day. Every night, I fall asleep in anticipation for what tomorrow will bring. I have to say it, working for Carina rocks and I’m so excited to be here celebrating the 1 year anniversary with all of you!

To celebrate Carina's one year anniversary of publishing books, we're giving away some prizes. Today, on each of the nineteen blogs our team members are featured on, we're giving away a download of a Carina Press book to one random winner (that's nineteen total winners!) All you need to do to be entered to win is comment on this post. You can enter to win on all nineteen posts. In addition, on the Carina Press blog, we're giving away a grand prize of a Kobo ereader and 12 Carina Press books of the winner's choice. Visit the Carina Press blog to enter to win, and to see links to all 19 of today's blog posts.

And a sincere thank you from all of us, to our readers and authors, for making Carina Press's first year a success!

53 comments:

  1. Congrats on an amazing 1st year. Here to an even better year 2 and beyond!

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  2. It's exciting to read about people so happy with their jobs. Congratulations on the call and on your continued success.

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  3. Lol, I wanted to be Indiana Jones too ;) before I realized that it was not quite as fun

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  4. Love Indiana Jones. That is a good way to remember getting a job, knocking yourself out lol.

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  5. I loved your story of how you got "the call". Congrats on a great first year and best wishes on many more to come.

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  6. Congrats on an amazing first year and thanks for telling us about how much you love your job! That makes such a difference in what you do.

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  7. Mallory,

    What a hoot and a half on your getting the email. Thank you for all your hard work and enthusiasm!

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  8. Congratulations on your first year anniversary! Loved your story about running into the door- fun post. It's great that you are still happy and upbeat a year later. Here's hoping that year 2 is even better than the first!

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  9. Congrats on the anniversary! It must be great to work in something you love so much. Books are wonderful and they take you on so many adventures.

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  10. That is exactly how I see it too, Mallory. every day is chock full of adventure for us editors:) Love Indie too.

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  11. Happy 1 year anniversary.
    Crystal816[at]hotmail[dot}com

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  12. Congratulations on 1year. You make this job sound amazing!

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  13. Love the Indiana Jones reference!
    Congrats on a fabulous first year!

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  14. Hello Mallory!
    Congrats on the big anniversary at Carina Press1

    LOL! What a funny story! Your sister probably thought you had lost your mind. It is great that you were so excited. I have to admit your job is the kind of treasure hunter I can relate to. I'm so not a bug person. Indian Jones can keep them. ;)

    user1123 AT comcast DOT net

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  15. I love the story of how you got 'the call'. Too funny. :)

    Happy anniversary!

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  16. Mallory: Congratulations on the one year anniversary of Carina Press! I loved your post-you did get to be the female version of Indiana (India??) Jones; that is just so very cool. I loved hearing the love and excitement for your job in your 'voice'. Wishing you continued success.

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  17. LOL!! Awesome story, Mallory! Congratulations on your dream job (and as much as I love Indiana Jones, your job sounds WAY more exciting!) and thanks for sharing--looking forward to many more exciting years and stories from you and Carina Press!

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  18. Congratulations on a great year of treasure hunting! I've read some fantastic Carina Press books. Keep searching!

    ReneeRearden(at)yahoo.com

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  19. The post was so wonderfully heart felt, and I hope the second year is even better than the first. Congrats everyone.


    Cathy M
    caity_mack at yahoo dot com

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  20. I loved your "call story". :) It's so fun to hear it from an editor!

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  21. I have loved reading the Carina press books looking forward to the next years releases!!

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  22. @ Lisa (Lisa's World of Books) and @Lisa J: Thank you! It's been such a fun year!

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  23. @Ivelisse : Your comment made me laugh! Yes, exactly. It's definitely unforgettable...

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  24. @Blodeuedd : Right? Sitting at home in my pajamas and living vicariously through books is much better. ;)

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  25. Congrats on a year! I know I love my digital books!

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  26. @PhyllisC and @Caridad Pineiro and @Carol Stephenson and @ Maria: Thank you! It has been such an amazing year. And I laugh whenever I think about that day. Lucky I found out via email and not by phone!!

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  27. Indiana Jones is one of my favorites, too.

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  28. Happy Anniversary Carina Press!

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  29. It was great, hearing your call story, Mallory!! Guess it isn't that different from authors ;)

    Dreamy sigh... I hope I get one soon too ;)

    And Happy Anniversary!!!!!

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  30. Yay!! Happy Anniversary!!

    jess [at] gonewiththewords [dot] com

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  31. It's hard to find a job you love. Congrats on one year!

    Lisa B
    modokk at yahoo dot com

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  32. Thank you everyone for your comments!! It really has been a fabulous year. And I'm so excited to continue the journey with Carina Press! But it's thanks to the readers that we've had such tremendous success. Your feedback, your support, your enthusiasm--we wouldn't be here today without all of you!!

    We're all treasure hunters in that way--searching for those stories that sparkle. What I love best about Carina is that there is something for everyone.

    I have to thank Susanna for having me here today. I should note that The Sergeant's Lady was one of the first Carina titles I read. It's swoonworthy--and definitely one of the books that made me go, "This. This is where I want to work."

    I'll keep coming back throughout the day to check for comments and questions. Thank you all again for celebrating Carina's first anniversary with us!

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  33. Happy anniversary! It nice to hear that there are jobs out there that you can have fun and enjoy. I'm jealous :)

    Drmgrl99(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  34. Happy Anniversary! Carina has had some awesome books this past year, glad I got to read a few!

    shiderly77@yahoo.com

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  35. Congrats on your 1 year anniversary!

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  36. I have to thank Susanna for having me here today. I should note that The Sergeant's Lady was one of the first Carina titles I read. It's swoonworthy--and definitely one of the books that made me go, "This. This is where I want to work."

    Thanks, Mallory! I'm glad it worked so well for you.

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  37. Congrats on one year!
    marlenebreakfield(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  38. Congratulations for such a grand and successful year.

    Thanks to Carina Press, I've discovered many new authors.

    Thanks,
    Tracey D
    booklover0226 at gmail dot com

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  39. Congratulations on a year and I wish you many, many more wonderful anniversaries in the future:)
    jwitt33 at live dot com

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  40. Congrats on your 1 year! Hope the next one is even better! This would definately be a great job to have.
    manning_j2004 at yahoo dot com

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  41. YAY!! One year happily down and many more to come congratulations 'Ms. Indiana Jones' :) Fun post too!

    emilystarr373@hotmail.com

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  42. Carina press books are addictive. I'm so glad I could celebrate birthday one with you!

    Holly wright at comcast dot net

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  43. What a meaningful post. Congratulations on an amazing first year!

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  44. that was a great story! lol it must be so exciting to get to read all potentials :D

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  45. Love the ability to travel without experiencing jet lag.

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  46. Happy Anniversary!
    jepebATverizonDOTnet

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  47. Great post. congrats.

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  48. Happy Anniversary! Hope you have many, many more!

    ironss [at] gmail [dot] com

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  49. Happy Anniversary! It really does sound like a great job to have...hoping you have many more great adventures, just not with the door ;)

    Gigi

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  50. "Every day I wake up with a smile—excited to begin the adventures of the day. Every night, I fall asleep in anticipation for what tomorrow will bring." Wow, sounds like you found your dream job :-D

    Congratulations to the whole Carina team and Happy 1st anniversary, here's to many more! :-)

    stella.exlibris (at) gmail (dot) com

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  51. I never wanted to be Indiana Jones. The heat (well, all weather, but mostly heat), the dirt, the wildlife… Nah. But I'm happy to read about it. :)

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  52. I too, hate planes. It's so much easier to travel with Rick Steves....I'm with you. Congrats.

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