Every reader I know uses words like “escape” when they describe why they love books.

I have always looked at books with loftier expectations— searching for wisdom, philosophy, artfully crafted phrases, and an emotional punch.

Here at Parisian Phoenix, we have three books available, two deep in production and one in preproduction.

And I knew this project— my publishing company with my partner Gayle Hendricks who designs my covers and my books— would be a labor of love. It started as a desire to preserve the novels I had written in a more permanent form that digital files but has evolved into a mission bigger than I ever imagined.

My first novel, Manipulations, is a chick lit/horror fiction hybrid that kicks off the Fashion and Fiends series.

In the novel, 400-year-old fire mage Galen Sorbach stalks and seduces supermodel Adelaide Pitney for the powerful water magick she doesn’t even…