Janine Cross backpacked through the Middle East when she was 18; she milked cows in Israel, sailed down the Nile with a couple of Dutch girls in Egypt, and skinny-dipped around various isles in Greece. She then bicycled through Asia and the South Pacific, taking one year just to cycle through Australia. Several years and 24,000 kms later, she returned to her hometown of North Vancouver, Canada. Since then, she has competed in martial arts and dabbled in bellydance, rockclimbing, and real estate investments. She’s worked in a chocolate factory and a veterinary hospital, was the president of a writers’ association for three years, and helped start a private school. She has two children. Janine Cross also writes literary novels under the penname Paulette Crosse. Learn more at Janine’s Cross’s 
Touched by Venom by Janine Cross
I've been tempted by Touched by Venom for a long time. The cover art is sensual; the blurb is intriguing and contains a promising quote by Jacqueline Carey, one of my favorite authors. Something held me off, though, until recently, but I finally broke down and bought Touched by Venom used.
First of all... yowza. I thought I was into dark fantasy. Little did I know, compared to Touched by Venom, pretty much everything I've ever read is all rainbows and unicorns. This is definitely not a book for the faint of heart. Janine Cross doesn't shy away from the grit of a peasant's life (brutality, disease, excrement...) or from the scourges of racism, sexism, and classism. Our heroine, Zarq, is on the wrong end of all three of these big... Read More
