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I\u2019ve always been a sucker for a good story about magical beings\u2014sorcerers, wizards, witches, genies, and the like. So when I started writing gay romance, it was pretty much a no-brainer that my first book would incorporate both the magic and the romance. But I wanted to do something different. Something that hadn\u2019t been done much.<\/p>\n
A friend and fellow writer, Venona Keyes, suggested a \u201csand fic\u201d \u00e0 la \u201cThe Arabian Nights,\u201d and the first thing I thought of were genies, or \u201cJinn.\u201d With my friend\u2019s help, I wrote a short story as a birthday present for a fellow writer, \u201cThe Prince and the Jinn.\u201d It was a sweet story reminiscent of \u201cIt\u2019s a Wonderful Life,\u201d but with a gay twist. That story was the inspiration for my long novella: \u201cThe Dream of a Thousand Nights.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDream\u201d is my own personal fantasy. I totally admit it! Neriah, the handsome, tortured Prince of Tazier, is nearly killed by his father\u2019s men and his mother gives up her life so that he can live. Tamir, the Jinn who falls completely and utterly in love with Neriah, is stripped of his powers for loving a human by the other Jinn. The story is written like a fairy tale, features plenty of sex, and a powerful force that intervenes to separate the lovers and threatens to destroy the sweet, sometimes na\u00efve Tamir. There is a slave\/dubcon element that runs throughout the story and plenty of angst to go around. Oh, and of course, my only prerequisite for a romance: a sweet HEA.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Dream of a Thousand Nights\u201d is available on Dreamspinner Press\u2019s<\/a> website and at most other ebook outlets such as Amazon and All Romance. It comes in at about 45K words and 206 pages, just shy of \u201cnovel length,\u201d so it\u2019s a pretty substantial read for a novella. It was nominated for several Goodreads M\/M Romance Group Best of 2011 awards, including \u201cBest Cover (Anne Cain),\u201d \u201cBest Slave\/Dubcon\/Kidnapped,\u201d and \u201cBest Overall Book.\u201d \u00a0\u2013 Shira Anthony<\/p>\n Neriah, the crown prince of Tazier, escapes his father\u2019s deadly wrath with the help of a Jinn named Tamir. Knowing that the other Jinn would find and punish him for falling in love with a human, Tamir takes Neriah\u2019s memories of their brief time together and leaves him with only a jade pendant as a token of his love. Tamir is then stripped of his powers and imprisoned for his crime.<\/p>\n Ten years later, Neriah is still on the run from the King\u2019s assassins, but each night he dreams of a lover whose face he cannot see and whose name he does not know, but who fills his heart with peace. Tamir, freed at last from his prison cell, poses as a pleasure slave and offers to serve the prince. Although Neriah does not recognize Tamir, he falls in love with the powerless Jinn. But just when Tamir has earned Neriah\u2019s trust, he is forced to betray it. There may be no hope of mending their broken relationship, but Tamir is determined to see Neriah on his rightful throne\u2014even if it costs the Jinn his life.<\/p>\n \u00a0Read an excerpt<\/a><\/p>\n In her last incarnation, Shira Anthony<\/strong> was a professional opera singer, performing roles in such operas as Tosca<\/em>, I Pagliacci<\/em>, and La Traviata<\/em>, among others. She\u2019s given up TV for evenings spent with her laptop, and she never goes anywhere without a pile of unread M\/M romance on her Kindle.<\/p>\n Shira has published two books with Dreamspinner Press, \u201cBlue Notes,\u201d and \u201cThe Dream of a Thousand Nights.\u201d \u00a0The second book in her \u201cBlue Notes\u201d series, \u201cThe Melody Thief,\u201d will be released in August of 2012. \u00a0Her next book, \u201cThe Trust,\u201d a gay spy thriller co-authored with Venona Keyes, will be released by Dreamspinner Press in June, 2012. Links: \u00a0Shira can be found on Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter (@WriterShira), or on her website, www.shiraanthony.com<\/a>. \u00a0You can also email her at shiraanthony@hotmail.com<\/p>\n
\nShira is married with two children and two insane dogs, and when she\u2019s not writing, she is usually in a courtroom trying to make the world safer for children. \u00a0When she\u2019s not working, she can be found aboard a 30\u2019 catamaran at the Carolina coast with her favorite sexy captain at the wheel.<\/p>\n
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