TELL US YOUR BACKSTORY with Christina Phillips

 

Tell Us Your Backstory with Christina Phillips

Ever since I can remember, I’ve always loved writing. When I was home sick from school I’d write long rambling plays, and when I was a teen I remember penning epically tragic poems. I even wrote a time travel story for school where I escaped from a less than honourable Roman centurion and ended up in an evil time machine that (I think) was going to eat my soul.

Yummy.

Although I’ve always loved reading historical romance (I started when I was eleven with Victoria Holt) when I first decided to write with the aim of publication it was with short contemporary romances aimed at Mills and Boon. I’ve lost count of how many I submitted but I think it might’ve been about ten! And although I got close with requests for revisions on a few occasions, I never quite got that cigar 🙂

So I changed gears and wrote a couple of first person chick lit novels and then, because I was obviously doing the old throw-spaghetti-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks, I wrote a couple of PNR. These books caught the interest of several New York agents, but not enough to be offered representation.

Sigh.

By this point I was pretty fed up and thinking of jacking the whole writing thing in. Except deep in my heart I knew I never would because if I don’t write, I get twitchy and a little crazy. This is when my fabulous CPs, Amanda Ashby and Sara Hantz (we all started out together as totally green newbies) gave me the challenge to write an erotic romance.

I wasn’t convinced I could do it, but I decided to write down a recurring dream I’d had for ten years and, nine years after I started this journey to publication, Foretaste of Forever became my first published short story with The Wild Rose Press. I wrote another short PNR for them (Touch of the Demon) and then Maximus, a gorgeous hot Roman centurion, stormed into my life searching for his Druid princess and I was captivated.

It didn’t matter that Romans, Druids and ancient Wales were hard sells. I knew all that, and yet I still had to write their story of an impossible love. Within weeks of sending the book out, I signed with a NY agent and three months later we sold to Berkley Heat, the erotic imprint of Penguin US, in a two book deal.

I thought I’d arrived but the world of publishing is nothing if not a crazy rollercoaster of a ride and during the last six years I’ve been published with Harlequin Escape, Entangled and Tule, and indie-published a couple of box sets with Cathleen Ross and Mel Teshco, all positive experiences. I’ve also had an appalling experience with another publisher, so all things taken into account there’s not a lot that shocks me about this business anymore 🙂

Next month marks the six year anniversary of when Forbidden was first published. So much has changed during that time, especially in the way indie publishing has taken off, and both authors and readers have so much more choice in the marketplace. But one thing for me hasn’t changed, and that’s the love I have for this story. It was my first full length novel to be published and they say you never forget your first J I’m thrilled to finally give this story another chance, so more readers can discover the forbidden love between Maximus, a proud, noble patrician, and his mystical Druid princess, Carys.

 

 

Forbidden
Christina Phillips

He was a master of seduction – but no match for the magical allure of the woman he wanted most.

Carys knew from the moment she first spied on Maximus in his naked barbarian glory that he was a dangerous Roman centurion – his taut, battle-scarred flesh marking him as a fearless warrior. But her desire for him was as undeniable as it was illicit.

Charged by his emperor to eliminate a clan of powerful Druids in Britain, Maximus never expects his mission to be thwarted by the clan’s ethereal princess, Carys, his daring voyeur. Falling under her spell, he doesn’t realize her true heritage – until he captures her heart as well as her body.

As Carys’ loyalties are twisted, and freedom is no longer her single-minded obsession, an avenging former lover threatens to crush Maximus’ people into oblivion. Now Carys and Maximus must overcome the devastation of war and face the ultimate sacrifice if their forbidden love is to survive.

Previously published by Penguin US in 2010

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About the Author:
Christina Phillips is an ex-pat Brit who now lives in sunny Western Australia with her high school sweetheart and their family. She enjoys writing contemporary, historical and paranormal romance where the stories sizzle and the heroine brings her hero to his knees.

She is a multiple finalist in the 2012 – 2014 ARRA Awards for Favourite Erotic Romance, Favourite Contemporary Romance and Favourite Paranormal Romance.

Christina is addicted to good coffee, expensive chocolate and bad boy heroes. She is also owned by three gorgeous cats who are convinced the universe revolves around their needs. They are not wrong.

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