Buried under snow...

Yeah...its that bad LOL The snow started on Friday, went until Saturday and has pretty much shut down a lot of things here in Baltimore. I didn't go to the lab Monday but walked up to the bus stop and went in today for a couple hours. Now as I type this, its snowing again and isn't supposed to stop until tomorrow night. So what have I been doing while snowed in? Have a look :

The pounding in my head was worse then any pain I'd ever experienced. I felt hands brushing my cheeks, vaguely registered that someone was talking to me but I couldn't focus because of the pain. Through the fog, I knew there was someone else in my mind with me. Who are you?

Don't. The voice, distinctly male and angry broke through the pain and then was gone. Retreating but not gone. A little of the pain subsided and I could make sense of the words I was hearing.

"Come on, honey, open your eyes." This voice was female, light and sweet.

Did I have to? Light would only make a headache like this worse. Wake up. Now. Grudgingly I cracked open one eye and found the room blessedly dim. I could make out a face, hovering over mine. "Where am I?" I managed to croak.

"We call it The Bunker. Can you sit up?"

Whether or not I could, obviously this woman meant to make me. Her arm snaked under my shoulders and lifted me to a sitting position. The room spun, making my head hurt that much worse.

"Here drink this."

She held a cup to my lips and I was struck by a foul smelling odor. Grimacing, I pressed my lips together. There was no way I was drinking that. The other woman laughed softly. "I know it smells terrible honey and it tastes worse but I promise it will take the pain away."

Drink it. The presence in my mind surfaced again briefly, commanding and then disappearing again. I figured neither would leave me alone until I drank the stuff and if it made this pain go away, I supposed I could drink it.

I swallowed quickly, wincing at the burn as it slid down my throat. "Yuck."

The woman looked at me with sympathy in her dark eyes and patted my hand. "I know, honey. Just give that a minute to work, k?"

I nodded and leaned my head against the back of the bed, glancing around at my surroundings. The room was rather large but only had one other bed. "Where did you say I am?"

"The Bunker. This will be where you are staying for quite awhile. I'm Miri."

"Kellan Teague."

Miri smiled. "Welcome to the Program, Kellan. Let me guess, Dr. Hutchins didn't tell you much of anything right?"

I laughed and realized the pain was starting to go away. "Yeah, she was pretty vague on the details."

"Typical. The military guards us closely. Only a very few not directly involved in the Program know about us. You want the insanely detailed version or the short version?"

"I think I'll take the short version," I replied.

"Basically you've become a glorified message transmitter for a dragon."

I remembered vaguely something about dragons...and something about a Link. I looked around, other than Miri and I, there was no one else in The Bunker. "So where is it?"

"Outside. Even the little ones are too big to fit in here, honey. Think you can stand up? I'm sure you're curious to see who they paired you with."

As Miri helped me across the empty room, I wondered if the presence in my mind was the dragon. I tried to focus on him again but was pushed away. I could feel his anger. Whoever they paired me with wasn't happy about it. We passed out of the dim interior and into the sunlight. There was a large stone space and then it dropped off. Before I could see how far up we were, I was knocked back a few steps by a gust of wind. A dragon was landing in front of us. He was about a little larger than a draft horse, his underside was dull black but the rest of his scales were dark green. Ridges ran down his back to a spiked tail. He lifted his head and let out a strange warbling cry. For a minute I thought maybe this was my dragon but the voice I had heard didn't match. My dragon was bigger. Much bigger. I glanced at Miri out of the corner of my eye and saw her smiling. "Friend of yours?" I asked, hesitantly.

"Yes, that's my Enoch," she said proudly. She strode forward to stand beside the dragon, rubbing his snout. "Go ahead, call yours."

"How?" I asked.

Enoch and Miri moved away from the edge and the woman gestured. "Step up to the edge. You can feel him in your mind can't you?"

I nodded. He was there but he was most certainly doing his best to ignore me. I did as Miri suggested and stepped to the edge, looking down. We were pretty high up. I could see now a stairway off to the side, leading down to lower levels. There were many other such plateaus and I could see other dragons laying about on the cliffs. The range of colors was amazing. For a moment I was captivated just watching them.

"Well, what are you waiting for honey? I'm busting a gut here to see your dragon."

"You and me both," I muttered. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes to concentrate better, focusing on that other presence. Well...are you going to come say hi?

Run away, little girl. Run away.

I'm not going anywhere.

We'll see about that, he snarled. A tremendous roar shook the ground and something red streaked by from below. The wind of his passing knocked me to the ground, my elbow striking the hard rock painfully. I heard Enoch bellow behind me in surprise. A dark shadow blotted out the sun and Miri pulled me back just in time or the dragon would have landed on me. He was huge. Bigger than a house. He barely fit on the platform as he stood on two legs, his wings spread. His back scales were red but the sun glinted off his gold undersides. Two viscious horns curved from above his eyes like a rams to point forward. He roared again, revealing his rows of jagged pointy teeth. "Oh good god, they gave you Jericho," I heard Miri breath in my ear.

Upcoming Conference

Just thought I'd stop in and let you guys know about this. Its going to be neat.

New Month, New News!

So some exciting things! Firstly, The Quickening has been nominated for two awards!! First the CAPA - Cupid and Pyche Award at The Romance Studio. I'm up there with some pretty big names so its very cool. The second award is LASR's Best Book of 2009, so go vote for me!

I submitted King of Cups, just waiting to hear back about that one and I'm working on a new story called Jericho. More on that another time.

I'll be guesting at Cindy Jack's blog for her Love Blog-abration, as well as be over at Miss Gingers.


Off I go to write!

New Year's Bash Day 31 - Welcome Aubrey Leatherwood

Its the last day of January and so we're welcomeing our last guest of the month for the New Year's Bash. I can't believe its flown by so quickly! And now give a nice big welcome to Aubrey!

WIP Me!



It’s January 31, 2010, the last day of the first month of the year. Momentous!



Hi, I’m Aubrey Leatherwood writer mainly of contemporary erotic fiction though I also dabble in erotic horror as well.



On the last day of every month, I practice a ritual of sorts. I the wee hours of the morning, I take account of my Works-In-Progress. Out comes a cute, aqua file box with cream rosettes all over it, the laptop and a massive Excel spreadsheet titled bibliography.docx which houses everything I’ve written in the past two years (one day I’ll got back further) and everything I plan to write in the next two years. There’s a synopsis of each title (each work must have a title even if it’s crappy for the time being), the date I start(ed) on it (I am ashamed to admit that some of them go back to the early 90s), the date I’ve targeted to complete it, the genre, the applicable subgenre, two paragraph blurb, challenges, target audience, submitted to, submitted date, and status of submission. After an update of each title and a review (this takes a couple of hours) I decide on a plan of action to achieve my writing goals by the end of the following month.



And for the following month, I completely disregard that plan.



It’s funny because I am well-known by those who well-know me J to be a pantser. Yes, I write by the seat of my pants without a care to plotting or reason or to jumping between radically different voices and atmospheres. For someone as fiendishly organized as I am, I know it’s sort of odd. I write the end, the beginning, the middle. Whatever moment inspiring me to put words on paper is what comes out. And later on, I connect the dots. I say it like that’s simple, it’s soooo not, and frequently it has me cursing about why I didn’t map the darn thing out any better.



Still, at the end of the following month, I update my status and make a new plan.



It’s madness, I know. But I produce an incredible amount of writing each month even if it’s haphazard and spread between WIPs.



Without further ado, here’s an excerpt from a recently completed WIP, “The Soul in Nowhere” a work that is going to be a dark and sizzling departure from the nice Aubrey many of you have seen thus far.



Rahmi's thighs weakened as moisture trickled between them, two spots at the center of her back tingled, and she sank even deeper into her bed. Her legs lolled open a little, restless.

She tested the liquid between them with curiosity and appetite. “Do you want to punish me?”



“It is my nature and my duty,” He stepped forward and pinched one of her swollen nipples tightly. Rahmi gasped. “I can see in your eyes and in your actions that you agree you must be punished. This half-Arcane life in this realm is not enough for you. It is not what you were meant for.” Mast sharply dragged her hand away from her body burning her wrist with his hot skin. He pressed the pads of his super-heated fingers to her wet, abandoned flesh before abruptly pushing two fingers inside her. Rahmi’s body jerked and she hissed as did her flesh. Mast abruptly pulled his hand away.



“Do you want to hurt me?”



“I don’t know,” he responded but Arcane eyes never lied. He licked his fingers. His tongue was long, moist, and came to two sharp points, “Yes. Desperately.” He admitted.



Rahmi had never felt desire in her human form before those last twenty-four hours. She could never indulge such a feeling. Rahmi feared what copulating with a human would cause. She didn’t know if a human would survive it. She didn’t know if her wings would sprout from her back and startle one. She didn’t know if it would affect her and kill what was left of her Arcane. She didn’t know if she would kill and absorb the soul in the way of the demons. She just didn’t know. But with Mastema, she had felt if from the start. It was animal and aggressive and it responded to him powerfully. And, she would feel no guilt over any bi-product of harm. He was, after all, a demon.



Jerahmeel stood and padded over to her Harp. She took a robe and covered the instrument. Turning to Mastema, she explained, “It will try to protect me.”



Let me close by thank Antonia Tiranth for inviting me to blog. I’ve had a lovely time!



Aubrey Leatherwood

Http://www.aubreyleatherwood.com

New Year's Bash Day 30 - Welcome Jane Toombs!

Today we're welcoming Jane Toombs!



1. Tell us a little about yourself. Do you have a "day job?"

For many years I did work as an RN. This came about because of WWII, when the country was intensely patriotic. All males in my graduating high school class went into one branch of the service or another. At 16, I was too young, so I went to Michigan State for a year, waiting to turn seventeen and a half, so I could join the Cadet Nurse Corps. My local MD refused to sign the physical until I had my tonsils out, telling my mother they were still infected and, though she’d refused to let him take them out for over two years, now she had to agree or he couldn’t in good conscience sign the physical certifying I was entirely healthy. So out they came under local anesthesia. Once out he showed them to me, saying, “Just look at all that pus.” I promptly threw up all the blood that I’d swallowed during the operation. He then asked if I was sure I wanted to be a nurse. “Because you’ll see a lot worse than that.” He was right, but I never threw up again when I did.

So I became a nurse because I wanted to be able to help the war effort. Of course the war ended by the time I got my RN license, so I never did go into the service as one. Even after I was selling regularly as a writer, I continued working part time as a relief supervisor RN. Strangely enough, I missed it when I stopped to write full time.

2. What made you want to become a writer and how long have you been writing?

I think maybe enjoying reading as much as I did triggered my wanting to be a writer. Also, my father was a published non-fiction writer, mostly about the past in the area where we lived, and he encouraged me when I tried it as a child. So I’ve been writing since I was about seven, As to seriously writing, that didn’t happen until about I was married and had five children, only to find my husband considered what I wrote “trash.” I wasn’t published until after our marriage suffered a dissolution, as California puts it. Not an easy decision, but I felt a desperate need to write that he was trying to stifle and we could were unable to reach any tye of compromise. .


3. What is your favorite genre to write?

Since my first published book, which was the first novel I actually finished, was a gothic, I believe romantic suspense with a touch or more of paranormal has to be my favorite genre. But I also enjoy writing historicals, and fantasy. I‘ve also written horror, though I really prefer happy endings. Also contemporary romance both sexy and sweet. And a thriller here and there. Also a couple of hospital mysteries.


4. Do you have any particular writing rituals? Any snacks you must have while writing?

I write only in my writing room and only on the computer these days. This goes for both story ideas to contracted-for stories. Once at the computer, I stop thinking about anything else. I do get interrupted, but am able to go back after I handle whatever the interruption was about (like fixing dinner). The writing room is only for that purpose. I do nothing else in there except read emails. I don’t snack, but I do drink lots of water,

5. What's up next for you in the writing world?

This month I have two books coming out. NULL AND VOID from Red Rose Publishing’s SHADOWED HEARTS new gothic series and NIGHTINGALE MAN from Champagne Books. A WWI spy thriller with a touch of romance.

Then I have to finish “The Charmer” a novelette for HALLOWEEN TREASURES an already contracted-for anthology by various Jewels Of The Quill Authors. We’re a closed promo group of 12 published authors (I’m Dame Turquoise) who promote each other. To help us do so, we contribute to Tales From The Treasure Trove Anthologies--up to # 7 now--and also holiday ones. Many of these have won awards, which makes our publisher, Whiskey Creek Press, happy. You can visit us online, where we do give away books at www.JewelsoftheQuill.com.

After that I’ll be finishing DRAGON’S PEARL, the first book in my DARKNESS OF DRAGONS Trilogy, as yet uncontracted.

Ooo dragons! My favorite ^.^

6. Do you have any advice for the writers/readers?

My New Year’s resolution for 2010 was to finish all the books I’ve started. If they sell, then I’ll be stuck with a lot of trilogies and series books to finish--work, but the satisfying kind. Like many authors, new ideas twinkle like fireflies in the darkness of my mind, but I’ve decided I must ignore these ephemeral enticements and concentrate on what I’ve already started. And that’s a great resolve for any writer. Always finish what you start! Especially for beginning writers, who learn from every book they do finish. Lately I haven’t adhered to that unwritten rule, getting too far ahead of myself with ideas. By this, I refer to books where the story ideas are viable, not just transient thoughts. Which doesn‘t mean a viable idea for a story can’t develop from one of those mind fireflies. So, okay, jot that idea down and go back to finish what you’ve started.

As for readers, if you haven’t managed to acquire an ebook reader yet, save up or request one for a birthday or Christmas present. You won’t be sorry. Lots easier than reading on the computer because you can literally curl up with a good book when you have an ereader. Most of them are good ones. nowadays. And ebooks are far less expensive than print.

New Year's Bash Day 29 - Welcome Kat Holmes

The month is nearly over but we still have a few more awesome guests to go! Today we have Kat Holmes. Welcome Kat!

1. Tell us a little about yourself. Do you have a "day job?"

LOL it’s truly terrible but no I don’t have a day job and I can honestly say I haven’t suffered for my craft. A friend of mine who’s an ebook author started encouraging me to try submitting my own writing. It really wasn’t something I ever considered doing. I wrote just for my own pleasure the kind of stories I liked to read. I honestly did not think I was good enough to get published.

But, she kept insisting I try so I finally caved. The first book I submitted was rejected because of too many POV changes. The second book was rejected because that particular publisher wasn’t accepting that type of genre. But then I found Red Rose’s website and saw they had a section for Autumn Rose stories about older women and younger men and an idea just came to me. I wrote it, submitted it and they contracted it. Interestingly enough, the second book that was rejected because the publisher didn’t want that genre has since been contracted by Red Rose as well. It’s the first in a new series.

2. What made you want to become a writer and how long have you been writing?

I’ve always written. My mom instilled a love of books and words in me when I was very young. I was and still am a voracious reader. But, as I said before it wasn’t until my friend, whom I have dedicated my first book to, encouraged me that I attempted to get published.

3. What is your favorite genre to write?

I really like erotic paranormal. I like a story in which anything can, and often does happen. But I also write contemporary, interracial, and even ménage. In fact, my first release is an erotic contemporary.

4. Do you have any particular writing rituals? Any snacks you must have while writing?

I like to write when I first get up in the morning and am fresh. I don’t write later in the day when the brain is tired because I just don’t feel like I can give the writing my all. As for when I’m writing, I always need a bottle of Diet Pepsi. It’s my one bad habit and the only way I get my caffeine fix because I don’t drink coffee.

5. What's up next for you in the writing world?

Well, as I said Red Rose has contracted a new series from me. It’s about the Gods of ancient Greece and what would happen if the bad economy affected them too. I’m really excited and am having a lot of fun with it. So far only the first one is contracted but I have submitted several that I’m waiting to hear about. I’m also almost finished the current one and will dive right into the next when it’s done.

Beyond that I have a few stories in mind that are not part of this series and I’ll begin writing after I complete the next book.

6. Do you have any advice for the writers/readers?

Honestly, it’s just to keep trying. If you really believe in yourself and your work than just keep plugging away and being persistent. Also, don’t take rejections to heart. Everyone gets them. And I do mean everyone. Just pick yourself up and try again. It will happen.


Voice In The Night by Kat Holmes
Releases March, 18 2010
From Red Rose Publishing

New Year's Bash Day 28 - Welcome Roseanne Dowell

Just a few day's left in the New Year's Bash. Today we welcome Roseanne Dowell!

1. Tell us a little about yourself. Do you have a "day job?"

For starters I’m a wife, mother of six, grandmother of 13 with another on the way, and soon to be great grandmother.

I’m a former school secretary and also worked as a floral designer. I was an editor with an e-publisher and I taught two writing classes at our community college. I currently teach several writing classes at Long Story Short Writing School.


2. What made you want to become a writer and how long have you been writing?

I’ve been interested in writing ever since I can remember. When I was young, I’d make up stories all the time. Sometimes when I read I changed the ending. I’ve been writing forever, but not until six years ago seriously and submitting. I did take a course for writing for children when my children were young, but it takes a special person to write for children, and I just didn’t have it.


3. What is your favorite genre to write?

I love romance and mystery with a little paranormal (ghosts mostly) and the combination of them is what I really love.


4. Do you have any particular writing rituals? Any snacks you must have while writing?

No particular writing rituals. I do try to write every day, even if it’s only one line. Another author and mentor taught me that. I often find, if I force myself to write one line (even if it’s dreck), I start writing more, and it eventually turns into something worthwhile.

Snacks? Any and all. Unfortunately, I’m a junk food junkie.


5. What's up next for you in the writing world?

I currently have seven short stories available on Amazon.com and my latest novel, Time to Live Again has a release date of March 11, 2010 with Red Rose Publishing. and they’ve accepted another, Designed for Love, but I don’t have a release date for that one. Check out my website.


6. Do you have any advice for the writers/readers?

Yes, never give up. Follow your dream. Don’t take the rejections personal. Just because you get a rejection doesn’t mean your work isn’t good. Sometimes the editor already has something similar or it doesn’t fit their needs. Most importantly, do your homework. Don’t send a romance to a mystery publisher (unless it’s a mystery with a romance element), just as you wouldn’t send a romance to a sci-fi or fantasy publisher.