Monday, December 30, 2013

Looking Forward to a Happy New Year--Guest Jordyn Meryl!

Jordyn is a lovely person and wonderful author I met through WisRWA. Today she's sharing inspiration for the upcoming year. Please welcome back Jordyn!

Looking forward to the beginning of a new year, I have to first express my gratitude to God and His Universe for the many blessings given to me as a writer in 2013.

Years ago I bought a crystal box from Waterford. I call it my Christmas Wish Box. On New Year’s Eve I open it and look at last year’s wishes. Then I write three more wishes for the coming year. Some wishes are repeated for years, but eventually all come true or they lose their importance and are dropped.

I am not big on resolutions. I do like to set goals. Someone posted that you should make goals every week. I agree. Some goals are meant to be replaced by other goals. Things change, new opportunity present themselves. As writers we must be prepare to move forward.

For 2012 I was inspired to go out into the writing world, meet successful writers, visit new places. Mid 2013 I was told to stay put. "Be Still. Turn Around". Who told me? The spirit in me that I trust more than any human. 2014? I know I am going somewhere, where and when is not clear yet. But I will be shown the way, given the resources, a course will be charted.

Why, as a writer, do I believe and follow the directions of my soul? That is where I live. In the creative world of magic. Even when I hit block walls, are betrayed or belittled, I still trust the voice inside.

My world has no room for bitterness or regrets. I push on. I am living my dream and I like it here. Like I said I have been blessed.

May the coming year encompass you with love, strength, patience and many blessings.

One of my many blessings was to sign a contract with Idyllic Ink Publishing for my first novel "Becca’s Dance". It is scheduled to be released this spring.

I have always been inspired by music when writing. A song will spark a scene, a melody stir a feeling. Starting in January I will be blogging at http://jordynmeryl.wordpress.com/ connecting songs with scenes.

Coming early 2014 from Idyllic Ink Publishing--Becca’s Dance


The journey of life is not about the path traveled, it’s about the dance.

Remember your first love? The itching in your palms to touch that person, the churning sensation of your stomach when you kiss, or the promise of forever love? A summer romance had all the possibilities for Becca and Clay. But a tragic accident killing two of their friends, sent Becca running away to build a sheltered life, protected from pain. Clay tried to drown his pain in booze and other women, but failed. Each picked mates for reasons other than love.

Twenty years later their paths cross as Becca tries to escape from the shame of a divorce, and Clay is living life as a single father to six grown boys.

In the small community of Lester Lake, love, fate and star-crossed lovers work towards rekindling a first and only true love.


I am adding two more novellas to my "When Dreams…" series. All my books are available at
A

Right now if you buy the print copy, you can get the e-book for free.

Here’s hoping everyone enjoys a year to remember in a good way. Love and Peace.

jm

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays

To everybody who celebrates at this time of year,
warm wishes for a happy Christmas, Bodhi Day, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Happy Holidays and Prosperous New Year!

Mary

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

3T Writing Tidbit

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.

Archetypes. How many are there, and what are they?

Basically, an archetype is a prototype; a model on which all others are based.

The problem is that archetypes are found in a variety of fields, e.g. psychology, literature, drama, mythology. Each field adds its own flavoring to the word. For example, Jungian psychology ramps up archetype to a universal model subconsciously shared by all of us.

Of course as authors, we're looking for character archetypes. Are there seven? Eight? Twenty-eight? Depends on which website you visit. Some base their archetypes on recurring mythic characters; some on their roles within the story.

Here are some interesting links I found. (No recommendations explicit or implied here, they're simply places I found with ideas that might jump start your own. That having been said, I did see some neat ideas :)

Some views on archetypes:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ArchetypalCharacter
http://www.tamicowden.com/archetypes.htm
http://www.how-to-write-a-book-now.com/archetypal-characters.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archetype
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archetypal_literary_criticism

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Cougars and Cops--Guest Teresa Noelle Roberts!

Teresa had me at Bugs-Bunny-on-crack magic. Please welcome again Teresa Noelle Roberts with the second installment from her marvelous newest red-hot paranormal romance, Cougar's Courage!

Toronto cop Cara Many-Winters Mackenzie is still reeling from her fiancé’s murder when her orderly life takes a turn toward the weird, complete with voices in her head and phantom bleeding wounds.

This violent awakening is the rise of her Different gift—a chaotic, Bugs-Bunny-on-crack magic that she must learn to control before it destroys her. There’s only one place to get help: her mother’s ancestral village, and a mentor who seems to have stepped straight out of the smoke of her erotic dreams.

Cougar Dual Jack Long-Claw reluctantly agrees to take Cara under his wing, though he’d much rather take the beautiful city girl into his bed. As he guides her through a crash course in shamanic magic, sparks fly—some sexy, some snarky. But when an ancient enemy attacks the village, they must work together to hone a magical weapon against certain destruction.

Common sense tells them it’s a terrible time to fall in love. Their spirit guides have other ideas. And shamans who don’t listen to their spirit guides are dead shamans…

Warning: Hot shape-shifting feline hero. Strong but shell-shocked heroine. Snarky, meddling spirit guides. And lots and lots of sex: angry sex, crazy sex, magical sex, and just plain sexy sex.

Thanks for letting me visit your blog. I’m here to celebrate the release of my paranormal erotic romance Cougar’s Courage, the next installment of the Duals and Donovans: the Different series. (It’s book 3, though there are four Duals and Donovans titles out counting this one. Fox’s Folly takes place several years before the numbered books in the series. Don’t worry, it confuses me too!) Duals are shapeshifters, persecuted in the US for their abilities. Donovans are a powerful witch clan. But while Donovans are important secondary characters in this book, the book focuses on another flavor of magic-users: shamans. And unlike witches, shamans don’t have to be human…

“Officer Mackenzie?” The voice sounded like her captain’s, but Bell wasn’t known for his stealthy tread. Had Cara been that lost in thought?

Cara jumped a little and looked up from the incident report she was struggling with, the words dancing behind a rising headache and the pervading sense of anger and uselessness she’d been fighting since Phil’s death five months ago. She expected to see her captain’s bulky, blue-clad form looming over her with that awkward no, I’m not checking up on you expression that was way more annoying than open concern would be—and open concern had gotten annoying sometime before her fiancé’s grave was filled in.

Instead, she saw a totally unexpected person, a tiny, wiry old woman with long white braids, no taller than most ten-year-olds, who bristled with energy.

Cara’s rational brain took in a few things. Normally, civilians didn’t get into the squad room without an escort, but the elderly lady was alone. Maybe someone had dropped her off, said something about why she was there, and then left? If that were the case, that was bad even for the mess Cara had been for the past five months.

The visitor wore a pale buckskin dress ornamented with beads and porcupine quills, not a fashion statement but traditional Native clothing, and no coat despite the frigid February weather. Her silvery braids were fastened with rawhide strips. Not something you saw every day in Toronto. Maybe the old lady figured serious business like a visit to the police station merited her version of a weddings-and-funerals suit or dress uniform.

“May I help you, ma’am?” The unusual visitor had roused her curiosity, which could only be good.

“No, but I can help you, Cara.”

How did she know Cara’s first name? Her name plate just said Mackenzie.

The elderly woman extended a small, bony hand, and Cara instinctively took it. She expected it to be icy. Instead, it was hot. As soon as they touched, Cara felt like she was focusing properly on the other woman for the first time. She blinked and recognized her visitor at last. “Grand-mère? Is that you?”

It couldn’t be. Cara had been ten the last time she’d seen the elder of her mother’s village, and the old lady must have been over eighty then. But the woman nodded and smiled. It was an odd smile, like a tree smiling, serene in a way that you didn’t normally see on a human face. “Of course it is, silly. Who else would I be? It’s time to come home, Cara. Come to Couguar-Caché before it’s too late.”

Couguar-Caché—“hidden cougar” in French—her mother’s ancestral village. A place so remote Cara had never been able to find it on a map, even though she knew she’d been there as a little girl. Yeah, just where she wanted to visit in the depths of winter.

As the old woman spoke, the room closed in, leaving only Cara and Grand-mère. The rest of the squad room was still out there—Cara could hear voices, a ringing cell phone—but they were hidden somehow, masked by a fog. Grand-mère had been seated, but suddenly, with no transition Cara noticed, she was standing in an archway made of snow-weighted evergreen boughs. Behind her, where Cara should have seen Dalhousie’s chaotic desk and the captain’s neat one, was forest and snow, woodland twilight and the corner of a log cabin. A cold, bracing wind blew through the archway, smelling of snow and pine and wood smoke. Somewhere in the background, she could make out a tall man with long dark hair. He turned and looked through the weird portal straight at her with intense amber eyes. He was movie-star gorgeous.

That proved it. She’d dozed off at her desk—it wouldn’t be the first time since Phil had been killed, seeing that the busy squad room felt safer and less lonely than her empty bed—and was having a particularly vivid dream. It had to be a dream, right? Because no one else in the squad room was even glancing at her unusual visitor, when normally, on a quiet, snowy afternoon, Goulding, who was a wolf dual, would have been literally sniffing the air and the others would be leaning in, hoping for something interesting. It was the first time Grand-mère had joined the cast of beloved dead people who romped through Cara’s mind whenever she closed her eyes, but unlike the others, Grand-mère was cheerful. And she’d brought a very decorative man with her.

But Cara shouldn’t be dreaming about handsome imaginary men. In some ways, that was more disturbing than dreaming about bloody dead ones. The involuntary surge of interest reminded her of the real man she’d lost.
 
Amazon US/Amazon UK/Kobo/Barnes&Noble Nook/Samhain

Teresa Noelle Roberts started writing stories in kindergarten and she hasn’t stopped yet. A prolific author of short erotica, she’s also a published poet and fantasy writer—but hot paranormals and BDSM-spiced contemporaries are her favorites. She’s hard at work to bring you sexy magic with more Duals and Donovans adventures and getting kinky with hot dominant guys and smart women who submit to them—but not anyone else!—for your reading pleasure.
Teresa is a bit of a crunchy granola girl who enjoys belly dance, yoga, medieval re-creation, playing in the ocean, cooking, and growing more vegetables than she and her husband can possibly eat. She shares her home in southern Massachusetts with her husband, a Leo who works in law enforcement, and two overstuffed cats, who deserve their own shout-out as inspirations for her works. She and her husband often plan vacations around food, history, and/or proximity to water.
Find out more about Teresa at www.teresanoelleroberts.com. Or if you’d rather chat a bit, follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/TeresNoeRoberts or become a fan at www.facebook.com/AuthorTeresaNoelleRoberts.


Tuesday, December 3, 2013

December 1T Olio

Lots going on, but I'll try to keep it short :)
  • Downbeat available for preorder A B 
  • Biting Holiday Honeymoons is now available. This is the updated rerelease of Nixie's and Elena's honeymoon short-shorts.
  • PARTY! Multi-author Facebook party celebrating the release of Biting Holiday Honeymoons. December 11, grab bag of prizes including 3 $10 Amazon gift certificates!!
  • Check out my upcoming books here.
  • Blurbs for Downbeat and Biting Holiday Honeymoons plus "Biting Christmas" excerpt below
A B

That special night with their master vampire is interrupted by Santa Vamp and Dracula.

Biting Christmas--Nixie and Julian slide into a hot-tub honeymoon, but things turn nasty when Santa Vamp shows up.

Biting Halloween--Elena and Bo's honeymoon in the Dells is derailed when they get run off the road by a vampire. They chase him, only to find out Dracula--the real Dracula--is on the loose. Introduces Glynn Rhys-Jenkins from Biting Oz.
Warning: These titles contain vampires. Fighting, biting, loving vampires. And adult couples trying to have sexy times on their wedding nights. Explicit language. Slang guide included.

Biting Halloween originally published as Biting Dracula. Biting Christmas originally published as A Biting Christmas Special.
 
From "Biting Christmas". Nixie and Julian are celebrating their first night as newlyweds.

I clinked my champagne flute to his. "A toast. To the first night of the rest of our lives."

"To the rest of this night." His eyes nailed mine, blue irises banding wide pupils, red flames dancing in them. "To taking you every way known to man or vampire--and more."

Whoo-hah. I drank. After a toast like that, with the images of the full honeymoon treatment, I needed the cooling. I set my glass down and reached for him. "Good. Great. Round two?"

He smiled, his eyes heating to that sexy violet. He reached for me. "Certainly--"

"Help! Please, someone help!"

Stab me with mistletoe. It was my honeymoon so of-fricking-course someone needed rescuing.
 
 
Downbeat
Striking the right note could shatter more than their hearts.

Biting Love, Book 7
After an attack that slaughtered his family, vampire Dragan Zajicek walled off his heart and went on a sixteen-hundred-year rampage with the bad boys of history.

Now a rock star of the concert podium and master freelance spy, he’s taken the baton for a small orchestra near Chicago to investigate rumors of a monstrous, undefeatable vampire dubbed the Soul Stealer.

But it’s the lovely, unassuming Raquel “Rocky” Hrbek who mesmerizes him from the first touch of her luscious lips on her flute.

Rocky, a shy shadow scarred by middle school cruelty, is mystified as to why core-meltingly gorgeous Dragan would notice a mouse like her. As his stolen kisses draw her dangerously close to the edge of her carefully constructed comfort zone, he exposes her secret—she’s investigating the monster herself.

As their quest draws them closer together, the monster zeroes in on the woman Dragan’s rebellious heart tells him is his mate. Now they must find a way to destroy the indestructible before Rocky is utterly consumed. And Chicago is bathed in the blood of innocents.

Warning: Contains a master of seduction and symphonies, an awkward and innocent flutist, small-town humor, heart-stopping action, and an exodus to Iowa. Oh, and the cheese balls are ba-a-ack—and deadlier than ever.