Screaming O Friday

Another Friday, another chance to browse the man-candy. But before we get into that, I’d talk to about my writing.

I’m at it again! Yeah! I am so happy! Well, I’m not technically writing yet, but I am plotting. And that is a great thing. It gives me that little happy feeling. And this is in spite of the fact I got my scores back from the contest I entered. It reminded why I don’t like entering them. Such a huge span of opinions I don’t know which advice to take and which not to  take.

Anywho, you didn’t come here to listen to me talk about what’s going on in my world, you came to gawk at some man-flesh. *beg*

I’m pretty sure he’s waiting for me. I can tell by the look in his eyes.

Err…wait. Maybe he was waiting for me. *grins*

And belly-button slayer just had to make an appearance. He told me that he thought you girls just might change your mind.

And I know he’s been waiting for me!!!!

Have a Screaming O weekend, girlies!!!

My To-Do List

Last Saturday at my chapter meeting, Meg did a fab workshop called, Being a Kick-Ass Heroine.

She hit on a lot of things but I loved how she incorporated what a KA heroine is and told us how we could put it in our stories and ourselves. She is a 50 year old woman who writes, scuba dives, races a dirt track car, works on her own race car and does home repair projects around her house herself. She is also a mom and wife. She is one really cool lady!

But it got me to thinking, am I a KA woman? I don’t think I am, even though Meg assured me I was. She said being a KA woman doesn’t mean doing wild stuff, it means having the courage to push out of our comfort zone, if only a little bit.

So I got to thinking about what else I would like to do that I haven’t.

~ publish a book. That one is a no brainer!

~visit Scotland. Again, a no brainer. I love anything Scottish! Hiking throughout Scotland would  be a dream come true. Along with that, I would love to travel all over the world. If money was no object, I can assure you, I wouldn’t be here very much and me and my kids would be travelers.

~I’ve snow skied once, I would love to do that more. It was so much fun.

~I think I would like to give workshops. You know those people who travel around talking at conferences. I think I would love that.  But I have no idea what I would talk about. lol

~I would like to participate in a renaissance fair. I’ve always wanted to do that.

~ Meg belly dances too and I really have always wanted to try that. I might do that after the first of the year.

~A new one that I thought about lately, I would like to learn to meditate. 

~And one that I can’t control but still dream about – to be a NYT bestseller and have people lined up out the door to sign my books. Wouldn’t that just be wickedly cool??

Okay, since I’ve spilled my dreams out on the page, what do you want to do? What could you do to become a kick-ass woman?

Screaming O Friday!

Here it is. Another Friday. And I really need it!

So to usher us into the weekend, I think we might need some inspiration.

 

Let’s start with the come hither look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we can move on to the slow strip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And….oh, who am I kidding? I got nothing. He’s just HOT. *beg*

 

Have a Screaming O weekend, girls!

This ‘n That

 Have you read this yet? If you haven’t, why not? It’s freakin’ awesome!!! I think it’s better than the first one, BLOOD MAGIC, and that’s saying something!

This is the second book in the Wing Slayer series and all I can say is I want more. Hot men, tortured souls–what more do you need? Toss in the fact that they HAVE to have sex to keep the curse at bay…and I am in!!

Jennifer Lyon has it all so go out and buy it now!!

If you don’t her witch clan over at www.jenniferlyonbooks.com will hunt you down! HAHAHA

Next on the TBR pile is COVET by JR Ward or BORN OF FIRE by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Yeah, I can’t make up my mind! Decisions! Decisions!

On the writing front, no, no new writing. I KNOW! I can hear you all yelling at me why not. But I did submit ON EDGE to Ellora’s Cave and Carina Press. I should hear from EC anytime now. I haven’t given up on Jake’s story, girls! I want to see it out there. We shall see.

Even though I haven’t been writing, I’ve been thinking about stories. Mainly DARING THE WAVES and for some reason, my very first book, TEMPTING FATE. You probably noticed that since I posted 2 snippets from it recently. If you haven’t read them, just scroll down. I had hoped to have DARING THE WAVES completed by now,  but real life interferes– and now the holiday season has hit. But that’s ok. I think. lol I will get back on the wagon.

But a friends post got me thinking about goals for next year. I’m a goal person, so I like to set them. Have you started thinking about your goals for next year yet? About the goals you set this year?

2009 is almost over.

And one last thing, although certainly not the least–

 Happy Veterans day to all the soldiers past and present. You have my utmost respect.

Warning: Extreme Heat

Since Cecile has hinted how much she wants to read it, I thought I would let it drop.

The hot scene from my first novel- TEMPTING FATE.

It’s a little bit long, but it only works if you read it all. Remember, this is from my first book so it’s probably a bit rough in places.

Oh, and in case you forgot, here is a pic of Darach, the hero.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alex lay on her side, staring at the door as he came in.

Darach raised up the pack. “Camden brought us food. Are ye hungry?”

“Starved.” Alex rose up and sat cross legged on the bed. Her hair was a chaos of waves that framed her smiling face. She didn’t seem angry with him at all and he saw no wariness in her gaze.

He opened the cloth and spread the food out on it. There were hunks of cheese, two large pieces of bread, breast meat, a skin of ale and two sweet pastries. He sat on the edge of the bed, the plaid still tied around his waist and began eating. Alex joined him, without saying a word.

He felt like he owed her an apology, but he had no idea how to go about doing so. She seemed at ease, eating and drinking with him, while she sat on the bed. More at ease than she ever seemed to be while eating in the hall. But the silence seemed to stretch on.

“Mother thought ye should return with Camden, but I told him that we would return on the morrow.”

“Why did she think that?” she asked before taking a drink of their ale and looking at him.

“’Tis not right ye being here alone with me. It could tarnish your name.”

She gave him a full blown smile that hit him square in the gut. “I don’t care. I’m where I want to be.”

Screaming O Friday!!!

Happy Screaming November!!!

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drum Day!!

Last Sunday, my daughter participated in Drum Day.

Basically it’s a food drive for the needy and just in our town alone, we collected over 7200 pounds of food. How awesome is that??? And you know what else is cool?

We BROKE THE WORLD RECORD for the number of drummers drumming the same beat!!! Woot!!!

We linked up via computers with other states having Drum Day and all started the same beat at the same time. The whole day lasted 11-6 and was exhausting, but it was the so much fun and one of the coolest things I’ve ever witnessed.

My daughter had a freaking blast! She was one of only 4 or 5 girls even there out of about 300 drummers. She has a killer kit and several people stopped to drool on it. lol And I don’t know how many times guys would stop and look at my 13 yr old girl in disbelief and say ‘Is this your set?’. She totally ate that up. hehe

 

Here she is right after we set it up and before most everyone got there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here she is playing. And yeah, she plays the ENTIRE set.

Her drum teacher was totally impressed!

 

 

 

Here is her drum teacher playing her set. You can tell from her smile she thought that was so cool.

He used to be the drummer for Reba and he is also in two Hall of Fames– rock and jazz. Very talented man.

 

Here is a shot from up above of about half the people there. It was a wickedly cool event.

 

 

 

I was so proud of my girl. She was so nervous when we got there because she has never played in front of anyone but close family. Well, after she warmed up to it, she played almost the entire time. She is so talented for being so young.

Way to go, Elexus!!! You Rock!!!

 

 

Snippet!

Here is a snippet from my very first novel, TEMPTING FATE. It is rough in some areas, but this scene is one of my favorites. I think I mentioned this to Cecile–where the heroine slugs the hero.

Darach                                                                       Alex

Just to get you up to speed, Alex is a woman from present day and Darach is a 16th century Scottish Laird. He has sort-of kidnapped/saved her and brought her back in time. She is finding out that she can’t return to her own time after he promised her she could. And is what you might call possessed.

“Why do you hate me?” Her face flamed as those words blurted out before she could stop them. He stopped and turned to face her.

“I dinna hate ye, lass.”

That was the voice she remembered so vividly. Smooth and deep, it sent ripples of awareness through her body. She took a deep breath.

“Has Jamie asked ye to marry him yet?”

Shocked senseless, horror filled her. “Uh, no.”

He nodded and quickly mounted his horse.

Screaming O Friday!!

Happy Friday, girlies!

My plans for this weekend are set. Saturday is Halloween, of course and Sunday my daughter is going to participate in drum day. She plays a drum kit and is very good–that’s not just mom talking. But drum day is where they try to beat the Guinness book of world records by having the most amount of drums playing the same beat at the same time. This year not only is Oklahoma doing it, but they are hooking up with different states and everyone is going to play at once. SO very cool! I can’t wait. The girl is so excited about it. I’ll post pics her and drum day monday.

Okay, so I’ll quit bragging and give you what you all want. Man-candy!!!

 

 

There are several things I love about this pic. The first being his bare back…the second, well I’ll let you figure it out.

Wait, I think those are my hands. *beg*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This makes me think of so many tortured hero’s I read about. Or maybe the alpha male soul.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, well…*sighs* Does it really matter what his face looks like at this point??

 

 

 

 

 

Have a Screaming O weekend and Happy Halloween!!!

 

 

To Authors Everywhere

HOPE IS THE DREAM OF A SOUL AWAKE.  –French Proverb

I think a lot of aspiring authors can relate to this saying. It verbalizes the dream of one day becoming that best-selling author. Or maybe you’re just at a point where being published would be enough.

I’m there.

And hope sometimes is all that keeps me going. Because sometimes you’ve done all you can do, you’ve worked as hard as you can and hope is all you have left. Have I done all I could at this point in my writing? No. I could work harder. Life tends to interrupt. But really that is only an excuse, because life will ALWAYS interrupt. It’s why they call it life. Sometimes life just stinks. I have no plans of giving up though. Even though there are times I think, ‘Why do this to yourself?’- I always talk myself out of it. Because not creating would be like cutting off one of my arms. It’s necessary for my well being.

Have you ever written a sentence and thought, oh my gosh, this is soo good! I have. It puts a smile on my face and brings a  joy to my soul. Several times I’ve had to stop, get out of my chair and do a little dance because of some cleverly written sentence. It’s usually just something small, but it means something to me. Even if it never makes it to print, I wrote it. And it made me feel good.

That’s the joy of writing.

One day I hope to share with you all my joy…in print.

My soul is awake.