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!