masked man – Heather Carnassale

July 14, 2018

Kindle Countdown Deal – UNMASKED

UnmaskedCoverWebsite1 Kindle edition for my novel, UNMASKED will be available at Amazon.com for only $.99 starting Monday, July 16th, 2018. The sale will continue through Saturday, July 21st, 2018.

If you don’t have a Kindle, you can download the Kindle App (for other devices) for free at Apple.com or for Android at Google Play.

Excerpt from UNMASKED:

Though he was doing a good job concentrating on the task at hand, his thoughts once again betrayed him, by sending him right back to the Bank of Philadelphia. But this time, it wasn’t the meetings before or the actions afterward, it was right at the point when he and Tom retrieved the diamonds. They each had one of the two keys required to open the safety deposit box, and Liam thought about how as they unlocked the box, he was oblivious to Remi being in the vault with them. He was so focused on the diamonds that to him, she didn’t exist. Of course, she soon became very real when right before they were about to exit, Tom asked what they should do with her. Those dark blue eyes, he thought. It was as if those eyes could see directly into his soul. Liam remembered telling Tom just to leave her. Never realizing that it was at that exact moment, he began protecting Remi. Even with his own empty threats against her, looking back, he had to laugh at the irony. Other than knowing she was one of the tellers, she was a stranger to him and knew little about her but yet he was still compelled to risk it all for her. “You identified with your hostage, that’s a big no-no.” Remi’s own words certainly rang true, in more ways than one.

He gazed up at the full moon then started smiling. “No regrets, no emotions, no involvement…blah blah blah,” he uttered. Those words sounded so false now. While inside the vault, Remi asked who he was trying to convince, after his cold declaration that hostages were just part of the job. She didn’t believe him, and at the time, he thought she was dead wrong, but now knew she was right. It took someone like her to make him face reality. And face it, he did. The longer he laid there, the more he realized that not only did he want to go back to Philly, but he needed to go back. – Chapter 5

May 9, 2018

Kindle Countdown Sale – Behind the Mask

BehindtheMaskBookWebsite Before the sequel read about how a masked gunman became a reluctant hero to a young woman who would forever change his life. My debut novel, Behind the Mask, Kindle edition will be available on Amazon.com for only $.99 starting this Friday, May 11th, 2018. The sale will continue through Friday, May 18th, 2018.

If you don’t have a Kindle, you can download the Kindle App for free at Apple.com or for Android at Google Play

Excerpt from Behind the Mask:

He had never regretted his decisions; stealing was a means to an end. Guilt was something he kept at bay. An expert at being selfish, he made zero apologies for it, but he didn’t enjoy dealing with hostages. He preferred the jobs that were done overnight, where no one else was involved, or the smash and grab ones where everything was done in record time. On the other hand, Charles and Tom took great pleasure in watching innocent people suffer. Up until that point though, no hostage had ever been sexually violated or killed under Liam’s watch, and he had planned on keeping it that way. Even though he did threaten Remi, he never had any intention of harming her. He hated to admit it, but she was absolutely correct in her assessment of him. He was certainly no angel, but she was safe—at least with him. – Behind the Mask

April 28, 2018

Literary Agent Rejection Letters

Back in June of 2014, I began the difficult task of sending out query letters and a 10-page synopsis of Behind the Mask, to a list of literary agents I found at WritersMarkets.com. Having absolutely NO clue what I was doing, I researched how to go about the process. And I’m pretty sure I did it all wrong, but the longer I do this, the more I learn.

So, the query letter was awful, even when I read it now, I cringe. And the 10-page synopsis, which needed to basically spoil the reader, was harder to write than one would imagine. But I was undeterred in my quest to make a fool of myself. I say that because though I felt I had a decent story to tell, I wasn’t fully confident I had succeeded in writing it.

After skimming through the names of hundreds of agents, I just picked out ones that I assumed handled fictional novels. I typed up the required self-addressed stamped envelopes, stuck in the query letter, along with the synopsis and hoped for the best.

Since I self-published both of my books you can guess what happened. However, I had heard horror stories about some of the rejections letters authors had received, even famous ones. Therefore, I was prepared for the slaughter, but surprisingly the rejections weren’t as painful as I expected. That being said, after the tenth one or so, can’t say they didn’t sting a little.

I sent out 24 in all and got back 20. Some were just my query letter sent back to me with a few words written on them, stating how they weren’t interested. Some were a standard stock robotic letter, saying they couldn’t represent me. But a few were very kind and no one told me it all out sucked. Or that I should give up writing. There was one in particular who wrote the most amazing letter and told me how she saw it as a movie, but I didn’t submit a screenplay, I submitted a novel. Two completely different things. Not going to lie, can’t say I haven’t thought about the movie version, but I’m a realist. Even though she didn’t represent me, I never forgot about her letter. The following are just three of the rejection letters, to show the difference in responses. The first one is my favorite:

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