Pen To Publication with Karen J Mossman, featuring Broken Chains by Karina Kantas

When a book is released, we hear all about the story, so with Pen2Publish, we’d like to find out more about the process, and the people who helped it along the way.

Why are we featuring this book?

I was, fortunate to read a small excerpt of this a few years ago. It was the beginning of a story that Karina hoped to write. She did, and it is now a novel. So I’m honoured at being to feature this in Pen2Publish.

Hi Karina, welcome to Norns Triad Publications, please tell me the name of your book and a little about the story.

Karina Kantas Broken Chains.
Broken Chains is a dark mafia romance and strictly for those over 18s as it’s graphic and explicit. It had the Greek, Italian and Russian mafia, and MI5 also featured.

When did this story first make itself known to you?

After I binged on Mafia books, dark romance novels, Mafia films, and TV series like the Sopranos. Once my addiction was sated, then I was ready to write my book.

In fact, you could say it started years before then, as the prologue to Broken Chains was a short story in my collection Heads and Tales. The story was about a wannabe author that went a little too far researching for her thriller novel. She ended up training and then joining MI5 and then the story just took off and it basically wrote itself.

Roughly, how long did it take to write, and what was the process after the first draft?

I already had the prologue, so I just need to carry on the story from there.
I took part in NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month. I knew I could use that time and get the novel written and finished. Which I received a certificate for and felt very proud of myself. After each chapter was written I added it to Wattpad, a place online where readers can read books for free and leave comments. Even after the book was published I left that first draft on Wattpad and Inkitt, is another place I posted the first draft. The first draft is very different from the original.

Did you have to do any research? Tell us a little about that.

Not a lot of research was needed after watching the firms and reading the books. I knew what was right and wrong and how graphic I needed to go. I did some research on medical terms and treatments, small things like that, that readers would pick up on if it didn’t make sense. I never do make-believe. I go as realistic as possible. I don’t sugarcoat. I tell it how it is.

Who are your main characters? Tell us about them.

Elizabeth (Liz) is the main character the story is told through her POV unless she’s not in a scene. She wants to be an author and as she tries an experiment (for research purposes) it gets her into trouble. But that only fires up the passion inside of her and so after evaluating her life, she joins MI5 and that’s when everything gets turned upside down and the mafia gets involved. she becomes the most wanted female on the planet.

Alex is an MI5 agent. Her supervisor until they become more. But the reader will be shocked when they learn the truth about him.

Once your story is complete, did you send it to an editor? If so, tell me about them and how they enhanced your story.

The first draft was left on Wattpad and Inkitt, but I made some changes on there before sending my copy to my editor. She was actually triggered by it, but she said that was a good thing. I then sent it to a beta reader, who works more like an editor, and she helped me polish the book into what it is today. So the book only needed a line editor and then the book went to the beta reader.

Now tell me about the formatting, who does that? And how did you decide on your book cover?

My publisher for my fantasy duology, did the formatting for me, even though it’s not a genre she works with. We’ve been good friends for many years and I wanted someone who could add graphics to some of the chapters. The graphics I used gave the reader an idea of what was coming up.

How long did it take from conception until the publication of Broken Chains?

I had the name before I started the book. Then I just had to make sure there was a broken chain somewhere. In fact, the chain of command was broken in many places. I wrote the first draft of the book in one month. But a lot of work was needed after I got the report back from the beta reader. So at least another 6 months before the book was officially published.

Why do you think readers will like this book?

It’s not just a page-turning thriller. There is a romance included and this book has so many twists and turns you don’t know who to trust. I put Liz, my main character through hell and back. Does she get a HEA, you’ll have to read it and find out. This is a strictly 18+ read. It’s very graphic and explicit. It’s not an easy read. But if you’re after a dark mafia romance, it doesn’t get much darker than Broken Chains.

Broken Chains won the Top pic award for the Author’s shout book awards.
Broken Chains was voted in the top 10 of indie books for 2021 by Go Indie Now, a multimedia platform for indies.
Broken Chains also won an award in Pencraft for literacy excellence.

Thank you for allowing us to learn more about Broken Chairs and about you. Lastly, please tell us about your hometown or city. Apart from being famous for having such a talented author living there, 🙂 what else is it famous for?

I live on the Island of Corfu in Greece. Corfu is famous for a sweet orange liquor called Kumquat.

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Book Description

If only she had stuck to singing in bars.

If only the idea of wanting to become an author had never entered her mind.

If only she’d never met Alex.

That one meeting had caused an avalanche of fate to clash with a dangerous destiny that forced Liz Finely to become the most wanted woman in the world. Stalked by three deadly mafia bosses, Liz has to learn to survive. Passed from one brutal hand to another, tortured, and abused, it’s her blood, her name, which lands her in trouble each time.

Now it’s up to Liz to find the strength to accept and become who she’s meant to be, and finally, break the chains that bind her.