Play 21st Century Courtesan series for FREE in "TO KILL A COURTESAN" Interactive GAME on Storyloom! (Link in e-book) __ "If Sierra Simone and Skye Warren had a book baby..." USA TODAY Bestselling author Samanthe Beck __ I’m a 21ST CENTURY COURTESAN. I'm down to my last four clients. One wants to play me. One wants to buy me. One wants to marry me. And one wants to murder me. Will I get out in time... Gorgeous movie star Jake Keller’s on track to win an Oscar. But Jake’s shutting down, going off grid, doing nothing to help promote his chances. I'm traveling to Hollywood to try and help discover what -- or who -- broke Jake. But dirty little secrets prefer to stay buried… 21st CENTURY COURTESAN is a sexy, dark, addictive series filled with love, lust, family loyalty, deceit, revenge, and all the sweet little things in life worth killing for... PRAISE for 21ST CENTURY COURTESAN “…breath-taking, beautiful, and brilliant. A must-read…” USA Today bestselling author Maggie Marr “I am ADDICTED! ...” Liz Vrchota “…original, suspenseful, mysterious, sexy, and dramatic… a captivating read.” Angela Hayes “…was completely enthralled and blown away by this book!” Vegas Daisy One-click Movie Star now!

Imprint/Series: Harlequin Romance -- Category: Contemporary Romance -- Publication Date: Apr 2014.

When unemployed costumer Marian Fitzgerald sneaks into a glamorous Hollywood party hoping for a one-on-one with her costume-design idol, she gets an unexpected assist (and a hot, spine-tingling kiss) from famously icy movie star Luke Gable. But when the paparazzi are everywhere and magic is just another special effect, can a midnight kiss survive a 6:00 a.m. call time, a no-dating-coworkers rule, and a secret that could make or break Marian’s career?

Drawing on a wide range of archival sources, Andrew Shail traces the emergence of film stardom in Europe and North America in the early 20th century. Modifying and supplementing Richard deCordova's account of the birth of the US star system, Shail describes the complex set of economic circumstances that led film studios and actors to consent to the adoption of a star system. He then explores the film industry's turn, from 1908, to making character-based series films. He details how these characters both prefigured and precipitated the star system, demonstrating that series characters and the 'firmament' of film stars are functionally equivalent, and shows how openly fictional characters still provide the model for 'real' film stars.

This book takes as its focus film stars from the past and present, from Hollywood, its margins and beyond and analyzes them through a close consideration of their films and the variety of contexts in which they worked. Essays spread the net wide, looking at past stars from Rosalind Russell and Charlton Heston to present-day stars including Sandra Bullock, Jackie Chan and Jim Carrey, as well as those figures who have earned a certain film star cachet such as Prince, and the martial artist Cynthia Rothrock.

Indian Film Stars offers original insights and important reappraisals of film stardom in India from the early talkie era of the 1930s to the contemporary period of global blockbusters. The collection represents a substantial intervention to our understanding of the development of film star cultures in India during the 20th and 21st centuries. The contributors seek to inspire and inform further inquiries into the histories of film stardom-the industrial construction and promotion of star personalities, the actual labouring and imagined lifestyles of professional stars, the stars' relationship to specific aesthetic cinematic conventions (such as frontality and song-dance) and production technologies (such as the play-back system and post-synchronization), and audiences' investment in and devotion to specific star bodies-across the country's multiple centres of film production and across the overlapping (and increasingly international) zones of the films' distribution and reception. The star images, star bodies and star careers discussed are examined in relation to a wide range of issues, including the negotiation and contestation of tradition and modernity, the embodiment and articulation of both Indian and non-Indian values and vogues; the representation of gender and sexuality, of race and ethnicity, and of cosmopolitan mobility and transnational migration; innovations and conventions in performance style; the construction and transformation of public persona; the star's association with film studios and the mainstream media; the star's relationship with historical, political and cultural change and memory; and the star's meaning and value for specific (including marginalised) sectors of the audience.

During the mid-1950s, when Hollywood found itself struggling to compete within an expanding entertainment media landscape, certain producers and studios saw an opportunity in making films that showcased performances by rock 'n' roll stars. Rock stars eventually found cinema to be a useful space to extend their creative practices, and the motion picture and recording industries increasingly saw cinematic rock stardom as a profitable means to connect multiple media properties. Indeed, casting rock stars for film provided a tool for bridging new relationships across media industries and practices. From Elvis Presley to Madonna, this book examines the casting rock stars in films. In so doing, Rock Star/Movie Star offers a new perspective on the role of stardom within the convergence of media industries. While hardly the first popular music culture to see its stars making the transition to screen, the timing of rock's emergence and its staying power within popular culture proved fortuitous for a motion picture business searching for its place in the face of continuous technological and cultural change. At the same time, a post-star-system film industry provided a welcoming context for rock stars who have valued authenticity, creative autonomy, and personal expression. This book uses illuminating archival resources to demonstrate how rock stars have often proven themselves to be prominent film workers exploring this terrain of platforms old and new - ideal media laborers whose power lies in the fact that they are rarely recognized as such. Combining star studies with media industry studies, this book proposes an integrated methodology for writing media history that combines the actions of individuals and the practices of industries. It demonstrates how stars have operated as both the gravitational center of media production as well as social actors who have taken on a decisive role in the purposes to which their images are used.

One picture. One tabloid. Two lives changed forever. Finian Alexander is one scandalous tabloid photo away from catapulting his acting career onto the A-list. All his bad boy persona needs is an agreeable member of the paparazzi to give him a friendly boost. But vacationing out in the middle of nowhere, the only photographer he knows is way too scrupulous for her own good. Or is she? Hailey Summer is desperate for cash—so desperate that she's willing to do just about anything with her photography skills to save her family's cottage and keep her secrets hidden from her sisters. So when sexy and arrogant movie star Finian makes her an offer, Hailey can't resist. But does his proposition take things too far? And when their plans begin to unravel, will Finian and Hailey find the limelight too blinding? A sweet and funny family romance full of twists and turns that will have readers laughing well into the night as they fall in love with this movie star hero. * * * This special edition includes book 2, Falling for the Boss! * * * One sexy, burned out billionaire. One spitfire graduate. One small island. Tycoon Connor MacKenzie has it all from the penthouse to the world-dominating corporation. At least that's what everyone believes. Underneath it all, his life is disintegrating faster than a stock market crash. When Connor's doctor forces him to take it easy and go deep into cottage country for some much needed R&R he lands on an old cottage veranda in Muskoka which lacks the luxuries he’s accustomed to. Maya Summer, a recent business grad, has been waiting for opportunity to come a knockin’ and not only has it arrived on her doorstep, but it’s presented itself in a very sexy package. However, despite Maya's best advances and proposals, Connor's strict new "no-work diet" has them both starving for much more than than just business. Can Maya convince Connor to let her be his new right-hand business gal while gaining enough income to save her family's cottage? And will Connor, the workaholic, be able to resist her charms, both in and out of the boardroom? Start reading this boss, CEO billionaire romance today and fall in love with the series that will have you laughing and crying!

NOMINATED FOR A SHIRLEY JACKSON AWARD AND BRITISH FANTASY AWARD "This rich and masterful collection of horror highlights both up-and-coming and established authors in an interesting twist on the standard anthology [...] Highly recommended for longstanding horror fans and those readers who may not think horror is for them. There is something for everyone in this one." — Booklist This new anthology contains 20 original horror stories, 16 of which have been commissioned from some of the top names in the genre, and 4 of which have been selected from the 100s of stories sent to Flame Tree during a 2-week open submissions window. It is the first of what will hopefully become an annual, non-themed horror anthology of entirely original stories, showcasing the very best short fiction that the genre has to offer. Contents List: BUTTERFLY ISLAND by C.J. Tudor RESEARCH by Tim Lebbon SWANSKIN by Alison Littlewood THAT’S THE SPIRIT by Sarah Lotz GAVE by Michael Bailey WHEREVER YOU LOOK by Ramsey Campbell SAME TIME NEXT YEAR by Angela Slatter MINE SEVEN by Elana Gomel IT DOESN’T FEEL RIGHT by Michael Marshall Smith CREEPING IVY by Laura Purcell LAST RITES FOR THE FOURTH WORLD by Rick Cross WE ALL COME HOME by Simon Bestwick THE IMPORTANCE OF ORAL HYGIENE by Robert Shearman BOKEH by Thana Niveau MURDER BOARD by Grady Hendrix ALICE’S REBELLION by John Langan THE MIRROR HOUSE by Jonathan Robbins Leon THE NAUGHTY STEP by Stephen Volk A HOTEL IN GERMANY by Catriona Ward BRANCH LINE by Paul Finch FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.