Words That Bind

My name is Ash Krafton, and I’m proud to call myself a speculative fiction writer. Speculative fiction covers a whole range of wonderful ideas—fantasy, science fiction, horror, and every single shade in between. Speculative fiction begins with a question: What if…? I have loads of fun finding new ways to answer that question.

I’ve wanted to write romance for a long time. This is my first romance novel—paranormal, of course. (Wouldn’t do having everyone in the book being human.) I love the endless possibilities that the paranormal realm offers us readers. It’s true my first and best love will always be vampires but, with so many amazing stories out there, I can’t help but developed an appreciation for the other intriguing species of beasties out there—including genies.

In WORDS THAT BIND, a social worker breaks the cardinal rule: never fall for your client. Especially when your client is an immortal djinn and you are the talisman to which he is bound.

I get a lot of questions about how I name my characters. A name is another layer of detail to tailor when creating our characters. Heroine Tam Kerish’s name was selected for its rhythm and feel. Her full name, Tamarinda, however, has a different feel to it—a taste, as the hero might say. Tamarind fruit is both sweet and sour—complexity in its simplicity—and the tree flowers “inconspicuously”. That rather suits Tam, who begins the story as a closed and reserved woman.

The hero, Burns, is a fire elemental (a djinn, actually) who has chosen his own name. It describes him from head to toe, inside and out, from the flame that sometimes erupts along his skin to the force of his firestorm emotional outbursts. His true name is a source of great power, so that’s a card he plays close to his chest. If someone were to find out, they could use it against him…

As the heroine is a social worker, it was very important to research her role, as well as the code of ethics she follows. In fact, after studying the ethical code and all its provisions, I had to rewrite the plot because I didn’t want to dishonor the profession. Tension and conflict are good things for a book, though, and the story is much better for the research and the big revisions that came about as a result.

By pairing a realistic professional dilemma with an unrealistic fantasy character, I tried to create a love story with enough realism to make you believe it could happen…and enough fantasy to make you close your eyes and wish that genies are real.

Thanks for stopping by to check out WORDS THAT BIND!

About WORDS THAT BIND:

Social worker Tam Kerish can’t keep her cool professionalism when steamy client Mr. Burns kindles a desire for more than a client-therapist relationship—so she drops him. However, they discover she’s the talisman to which Burns, an immortal djinn, has been bound since the days of King Solomon…and that makes it difficult.

Ethical guidelines are unequivocal when it comes to personal relationships with clients. However, the djinn has a thawing effect on the usually non-emotive Tam, who begins to feel true emotion whenever he is near. Tam has to make a difficult choice: to stay on the outside, forever looking in…or to turn her back on her entire world, just for the chance to finally experience what it means to fall in love.

UK links

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/words-that-bind/id923744360?mt=11&uo=4 http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00NU7GQLM
US links

http://www.amazon.com/Words-That-Bind-Ash-Krafton-ebook/dp/B00NU7GQLM http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/words-that-bind-ash-krafton/1120491909?ean=2940150603257
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/words-that-bind/id923744360?mt=11&uo=4
Universal

http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/words-that-bind
AUTHOR BIO

Ash Krafton is a speculative fiction author from northeastern Pennsylvania. Krafton’s first novel, Bleeding Hearts was published in 2012 as part of an urban fantasy trilogy The Books of the Demimonde (Pink Narcissus Press). An urban fantasy novella, Strangers at the Hell Gate, was published by Wild Rose Press in 2013. Her newest release, Words That Bind, won first place in the HeRA RWA “Show Me the Spark” 2013 competition as well as a Zebulon award in 2014.

Krafton also writes New Adult speculative fiction novels under the pen name AJ Krafton. Upcoming titles include The Heartbeat Thief, Face of the Enemy, and the award-winning Takin’ It Back. She is part of a YA/NA collective known as the Infinite Ink Authors.

In addition to novel-length fiction, Krafton enjoys writing poetry and short prose, some of which earned distinctions in various writing competitions. One of her poems was also nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She’s a proud member of Pennwriters, Romance Writers of America, and Pikes Peak Writers. Krafton also writes for the Query Tracker Blog and the Prose Cons blog.

She resides with her family in northeast Pennsylvania.

Facebook: http://facebook.com/AshKraftonAuthor
Blog: http://ash-krafton.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ashkrafton
Goodreads: http://goodreads.com/Ash_Krafton
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/demimondeash