I went to Cancun and I took...

Did you ever play that alphabet game, “I Went to California and I took…” where each player must remember all the items that came before and add one for the next letter of the alphabet?

Hubs and I just got back from an incredible vacation in Cancun and I thought it’d be fun to play that game. I’ll get started today – keep track, though. In June I’ll say more and run a contest involving some of the items on the list, and I know you’ll want to play and remember. To whet your appetite, here is the view from our balcony!
Here we go!

A – Attitude. In spades. Embrace the moment, Stay Open to Surprise, Choose your Attitude, If not Now, When? If you decide to try a new adventure, might as well give it all you’ve got. We did!

B – Bindis. Nikki of Nipple Charms – did you know your bindis, temporary tats, swingers silver charm anklet and belly button jewelry went to Cancun? I had a lot of fun and got some great comments! I’m especially fond of this Swarovski crystal butterfly bindi – wore it to the disco, more than once.

C – Clothes. Not so much. Can you guess what kind of resort we went to?

D – my Dancing Shoes. Great disco every night, live bands, hot DJ’s – we’ve been practicing, working out to Dance Central on our XBox 360 Kinect, building our stamina and honing our moves. Look out world, Boomers can dance!

E – our Ebook Readers. He has a Nook and I have a Kindle. Easily more than half the peeps who were reading while they tanned had Ebooks instead of print. I think there’s a revolution going on. I’ll blog later on about my beach reads, might surprise you!

F – Fantasies. A girl can dream…That’s the stuff our erotic romance is made of – cougar fantasies, ménage fantasies, swinging fantasies, the chase, flirting, teasing, touching, tasting. I’ll tell you one thing, it was never like this in high school!!

G – G-string. You think? Maybe I’ll keep you guessing – but I have to add, it’s fun to wear sexy clothes, whether or not anyone else knows…

H – my Sun Hat, of course. Wide brimmed, squishable, cotton for coolness, light beige to reflect the sun – sunburn was not on my agenda! If sometimes it was the only thing I wore, would I tell?

I – internet. Well, not really – we didn’t take our computers. This was VACATION. The resort did have a small computer center and I checked in every so often, but really, there was hardly time, so much else to do.

That’s it for now, a third of the alphabet – I’ll be back with two more installments sometime in June. For now I’ll just say it was beautiful, balmy, invigorating, exciting, restorative, and filled with inspiration for new stories we can’t wait to put on the page.

If you're curious about the swing lifestyle, check out our erotic romance series Swinging Games at Extasy Books. Six stories available now, book seven is scheduled for summer 2011!

Need to Keep Thinking This Way--Taking Yourself Seriously As A Writer

Earlier this week I posted this on my personal blogs, but it still holds true and needs to be repeated...No one will take you serious as a writer until you view yourself as a business.

I've recently had discussions with people about my writing and the fact that I gave up a day job with insurance benefits and a 401K to write full time. It isn't a decision I made lightly or without understanding the issues that could arise. I've lived on tight budgets before and considering I'm single with no children (neither two legged, four legged, nor fanged, furry, or feathered) tight to me was fine. Been there, done that and all...

What I hadn't realized until just yesterday, was that I hadn't really started thinking of my writing as a business and a career until a certain, leggy, African-American dynamo opened her big mouth and nailed my ass to the wall. Oh yeah, I'm talking about you Tivi. Uh huh. That's right, it's all your fault and I'm telling everyone about it!

Ms. Tivi Jones , the owner and founder of Creativity Loft, sat my ass down about a month ago and started talking to me about branding...about marketing myself as an author...about color schemes. Me! Color Schemes....Girl, I mix blue-based black slacks with green-based black shirts (I only know this because of a graphic artist friend of mine) and green socks! I dress up in purple pirate shirts and pink box pleated mini skirts with rose colored leather and suede boots!!!  I don't do color schemes.

But I guess I do realize I am a business and I better get started thinking that way. How do I know her lessons got through my thick, Tauran skull? Vista Print.

Yup.

They were having a sale on business cards. Now, me, I've used my own software to create my own business cards in the past. Very nice, simple, clean fonts with just a hint of decoration. And they're sitting gathering dust on my bookshelves, because I always forget to take them with me when I go to conferences. (Probably because they don't say "me" is what I'm guessing now that I've dealt with Ms. Jones.) So I was thinking, hey, if I get one of those snazzy colorful type of cards, maybe I'll be more inclined to pass them around.

Wrong.

Not to say Vista Print didn't have some awesome cards. They did. I was looking through the different ones in the various themes. And every single time I picked one and looked at it closely, I heard Tivi. "Is this your color scheme? Does this reflect your work? Does this reflect you? Is this representative of what your readers expect from you? How would this translate into a Website? Could it work on your MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter pages? Is this the only brand/image you want associated with your work?"

On and on she yammered until there was no fun left in looking at the pictures. Only a litany of "I need to..."s rolling through my head. Oh, what do I mean by the "I need to...."s? Here's part of the list:

1. I need to figure out which color best represent me as an author

2. I need to decide if I'm going to establish a brand based on my Clubs series (oh yeah, readers, I've got more than the Diablo Blanco Club spinning around in my brain--and yes, there are more Halseys out there...damn it!)

3. I need to decide if my author brand is going to be separate or part of my series brand(s)

4. I need to decide which font best suits me (the author) and my series

You get the picture, right? Even worse...it isn't isolated to the business cards. Oh no! Her little lessons kept popping up as I was looking at t-shirts and key chains and other swag I've been considering purchasing for give aways and such.

And you know what? I'm grateful for every irritating thought. I have a feeling, my tight budget isn't going to be tight for long. Not with Tivi helping me out and guiding me toward a successful marketing plan.

By the way, I'm willing to share the pain... Ms. Jones will be presenting an online class/workshop for Heart of Carolina Romance Writers (HCRW) June 15th through July 1st. The workshop is on Integrated Digital Marketing. You can still sign up for it -- only $15 for non-HCRW/Carolina Romance Writers members and $10 for HCRW/Carolina Romance Writers members.

You can also work with her directly by checking out her Creativity Loft website and contacting her. (Oops, guess she's in the process of moving, but hey, check her out on Facebook or Twitter) She's in the process of establishing prices for the various service packages she offers. Check her out. I swear you won't be sorry.

Rant over, I'm off to get Vince and Triss back into bed and off to Happily Ever After--For Now Land.

Have a great weekend.

Qwillia

Is the End Really Coming?

Harold Camping, whoever he is, had predicted the end of the world would take place last Saturday, and thank God—if there is one—he was wrong—for the second time.

Frankly, it makes me mad. Telling people the end is coming and then saying oops, borders on criminal. The trouble is all the abnormal natural disasters that have been happening lately, gives bizarros like Camping a seed of truth. Yes, something seems to be happening. Something bad and we haven't even reached hurricane season yet.

No, not one big cataclysmic event like Camping envisions, but an aggregate of devastating natural and manmade disasters accumulating like stings from a swarm killer bees tearing our world apart.

Earthquakes: There's been plenty on the heels of Haiti's destructive earthquake and Chili's near record eight point quake. New Zealand started the new year with a bang, followed by the most catastrophic event of my lifetime—Japan's triple whammy of a very serious earthquake and tsunami then the slow meltdown of four nuclear reactors. They'll be counting the dead on that one for years, if we have years.

Twisters: I have never seen so much devastation in so many places in such a short time as has happened in the last couple of weeks in our South and Midwest. North and South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas and now Missouri have all been hit by numerous and sometime huge tornados which leave a swath of total ruin.

Add to all this, the record snow and rain falls and subsequent flooding in places like Brazil, Australia and our own Mississippi basin and something just isn't right.

Climate Change? Global Warming? I do not consider myself a Chicken Little type, but you won't get any arguments from me. Too much is happening all of a sudden. How about you? Are we watching the beginning of the end of the world? Is what's happening the result of our disregard for the protection of our own planet—our one and only home? Can we still do something about it or is it too late to reverse the trend?

Let me hear your thoughts.

Announcement

On a positive note, I have an announcement to make. My new epublisher, NEW DAWNING BOOKFAIR, of which I am part owner, is scheduled to open for business on Friday, June 3^rd. Check out our gorgeous web-store right here: www.newdawningbookfair.com

To whet your whistle, here are the covers of some of the new Twisted Fairy Tale titles which will be offered at our web-store.

Assuming there are no more hang ups, like the end of the world, we hope you will join us for our celebration. There will be contests and we will be giving away free books. At the end of the celebration a Kindle will be given away, so make sure you join us. For starters a chat has been scheduled for opening day at the publishing Trove group. If you are not a member click on the link below to join: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/publishingtrove

Update - Gift of Her Submission

Make sure you stop by my author site for the hottest in erotic romance stories!

Gearing up for summer!

The end of May is always a crazy time for me. Things are simultaneously ratcheting up and gearing down at the evil day job. I'm grading papers and trying to cram in as many lessons as possible, while also trying to clean up my classroom and wrap things up for the year.

At home, there is shopping to do (gotta find the perfect swimsuit for lounging on the beach, an exercise in pure torture for almost every woman), miscellaneous cooking, housework, and other boring chores to do, and a hubby to pay attention to at least a couple of times a day. Lol

Then there's my writing. I have a number of projects I need to finish before the summer is over. One's a finished novel that needs tweaking, then there's the sequel to that novel and a spin-off of another series--both of these are started but nowhere near completed. I also want to write a couple of shorts, just for fun.

I'll also need to do some promo for my upcoming summer release, Clay's Challenge, coming in July from Amber Allure.

It's going to be a busy summer! If I can get started instead of procrastinating, anyway...

What's everyone else got planned? Any cool trips or interesting projects?

Cassandra Gold
Gay romance with a heart of gold
www.cassandragold.com

It's The End Of The World As We Know It!

As you know, the world ends on May 21, 2011.

Again.

This latest date is according to interpretations of holy Biblical scripture. Again. J  I'm taking it seriously this time. See, I know I'm not going anywhere near Heaven even if I bought my one-way ticket long in advance. I mock God. I doubt holy scriptures. I watch horror movies and read "Satanic" books. I say naughty words, especially the "F" word when I'm pissed. I'm a feminist. I don’t submit to my husband. I had sex outside marriage. I listen to rock music. I will play Dungeons And Dragons someday soon. I write smut, which makes me look bad in God's eyes. I don't hate, condemn, or pity gays and lesbians. I don't have a problem with abortion. I laughed at Monty Python's Life Of Brian. I think Richard Dawkins and P. Z. Myers are righteous dudes.

So, since I'm not going to be called forth to the Happy Hereafter, but I know I have to do something about this monumental event. So… are you afraid your soul is going to be yanked out of your body without warning on the 21^st, and you don't want to spend eternity praying, hanging out with self-righteous souls, and strumming a harp on a cloud somewhere?

Here's the answer to keep you from that horrid fate - buy my books now and read them before the Rapture! I write smut so that automatically excludes you from crossing beyond the pearly gates. Choose my four books: Feral Heat, The Haunting Of The Sandpiper Inn, Tales Of Lust And Longing, or An Unexpected Guest. Or choose any of the numerous anthologies that include my short stories. Just go to my web site/blog and click on the links in my bar at the top of the main page. Everything you need is there: buy links, excerpts, review snippets, and blurbs.

I'm not the only one with plans for the Rapture. Get a load of this guy who posted on Craiglist: 

Are you attending the rapture on May 21st, 2011? I expect to be left behind when it happens, so if you aren't going to need your worldly possessions; be they money, cars, canned food, durable goods, etc; I would gladly take them off of your hands. Serious responses only, please. And remember, time is short! You can contact me by replying to this ad. I live in Ronkonkoma, But I'm willing to travel for said goods.

And kind souls will take care Fluffy and Spot after you're gone, since according to Christianity, animals don't have souls so they don't get to join you. I would hope that more people think of their pets before leaving for The Great Beyond. Some atheists have offered After-The-Rapture pet care, and Christians are actually using these services! They aren't cheap. One service costs $135 per pet plus an average of $20 per additional pet. Pets covered include cats, dogs, birds, rabbits, and small caged animals. Other sites offer care for animals like horses, camels, llamas, and donkeys. So far this one place has 250 customers, and those slated to care for pets and other animals after the Rapture are, of course, atheist as well. Wouldn't do for the new pet carers to be called to Jesus after agreeing to care for the animals, would it?

Anyway, if you are thrilled about leaving this world for the Great Hereafter, at least you have organizations that will adopt out your pets. And if you don't want to participate in the rapture, read my smutty books! That way, you'll be added to God's No Fly List. J

Books By Elizabeth Black:

   
  

Happy Endings and All That Jazz

OK, I'll admit that I am a sucker for happy endings. Whether it involves books, movies, television shows or whatever else, I want to see that 'Happily Ever After" cliché in full force.

I'm a die-hard romantic, and always have been as far back as I can remember. I hope that I always will be, no matter what life throws my way. Yes, I know those 'fairy tale endings' don't always happen, but I can hope, can't I?

My family laughs at me, because I don't like to watch movies that end tragically. I want to believe that the characters live fulfilling lives and share love long after the credits roll.

On the other hand, I love disaster movies. Go figure. But still, in many of them, the main characters generally triumph over whatever Mother Nature throws at them, so I think many of them end up with a happily-ever-after, after all.

What about you? What kinds of endings do you like or dislike? Do cliffhanger endings get your goat? Does emotional drama grab you by the throat? Happily ever after too sappy? Let's hear what floats your boat!

Spring is here, oh joy spring is here!

Everywhere I walk or drive to here in Boston, things are green and growing! We've even had some very nice weather here.

What things do you like best about the spring? Do you have any places you like to go to or find the best during this time of year? Any particular traditions such as gardening, cleaning, or a vacation you like to take?

Talk to me about spring! :)



Love & Magic,
Adrianne
www.adriannebrennan.com

Does film ruin the imagination?

My birthday was yesterday. Twenty-nine again, haha. My wonderful husband bought me a camcorder. I've never owned one before but millions of ideas are running through my mind. What should I tape first? Well this got me thinking about books and the visions we create while we're reading them. I always have a running image of the characters and their movements as I read. Often I'm disappointed when a movie comes out depicting a book I've read. The characters aren't the ones I came up with on my own. Their mannerisms or quirks don't match up with my imagination.

I may try to do a few book trailers with my camera...and then again, maybe I won't. What kind of activities do you tape with your camcorder?

My most recent release, a lesbian anthology of my short stories, is out at Renaissance Ebooks. Check it out.

Reviews - Good or Bad

Available @ www.extasybooks.com
Steve’s looks were so rugged, the sight made Morgan’s heart beat just a little faster. The other man came to work for the advertising firm six months earlier and since he’d walked through the door, he held Morgan’s interest. From an early age, Morgan knew he was different when it came to his sexual orientation. No matter how beautiful or sexy the woman looked trying to gain his attention, he couldn’t find anything she might have attractive to him.


Reviews – Good or Bad

Do you believe reviews are given fairly? Could it be that someone just had a bad day while reading a work written by you or someone else and decided to project their bad mood on the author?

I know we all believe our work is exceptional and hate to see it ripped apart, but maybe that’s what we need to improve our next book. That’s the name of the game in the writing field.

I had one review that was horrible with the person saying they could only give my book two stars out of five; with five the highest ranking. When I read the second review by another reviewer of the same material, this person said they couldn’t put the book down and gave it a five star rating. It makes you wonder who the people are out there stripping your soul bare by nitpicking over every little detail about your book.

I recently received a review from Long and Short Reviews for one of my short stories titled Dreamscape through Devine Destines. I have no idea how they managed to get a copy of Dreamscape, but I was pleasantly surprised to get a Great ranking from them. Night Owl gave me a wonderful review on Return to Salem published by Devine destinies. This gives an author a great lift receiving accolades from someone they’ve never met.

Have any of you received a good review and then it’s followed by a bad one? Do you brush it aside and concentrate on the good review, or do you try to make improvements on your next manuscript?

http://www.mary-suzanne.blogspot.com

http://www.webspawner.com/users/Romancewriter/index.html