In just over a month, Sasha White and I will be boarding a ship sailing to the Caribbean! We’ve booked the cruise (got a great deal, yay bad economy!). We’ve booked our flights. Now, it’s down to our own personal lists of trip preparations.
As soon as we paid for the cruise, I headed to the post office to order a new passport. My old one was lost in the move from Texas. It only took two weeks for it come back! So, check!
I booked the flight and will arrive the afternoon before the ship leaves. Sasha and I are hoping to stay with a friend of hers who lives near the port. Otherwise, we’ll get a hotel and start the party!
This week, I will call for that doctor’s appointment and go through my closet to see what kind of cruise-worthy clothing I already have. Then I’m going shopping!
Is there anything you can think of that I’m missing on my list?
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November’s moon is the Snow Moon. According to The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Wicca and Witchcraft, this is a “good time to work with abundance, prosperity, and the bonds of family and friendship.”
Well, I am looking forward to a cruise with a very good friend. I’m bonding with other writers over the NaNoWriMo challenge. And of course, Thanksgiving plans are well under way. So far so good.
The Snow Moon is also the time to “use divination to get an idea of what is up ahead.” Sounds like it’s time to pull out the tarot cards and rune stones or maybe it’s just a warning to start my New Year’s resolutions early. For an inveterate planner, it’s never too early to start a new list!
You do know I’m going to make you wait until the end
to name the winners, so read on!
Thanks, everyone, for your enthusiastic response to the Cat Tails polls. Several of you went even farther and offered suggestions regarding the stories that are helpful. I can plot the first one now. I may come back after I’ve started to get your suggestions for possible titles, so be looking for another contest!
What did we wind up with? Setting: Louisiana Bayou Scenario: Innocent stranger enters a small, secretive town where shifters rule Hero #1: Local sheriff in Louisiana parish who protects the secret of his pride’s existence Hero #2: Bad boy shifter whose job it is to “distract” the human who entered their midst Heroine: Reclusive author who inherits property from a distant relative and wrecks her car before getting to town
What did I accomplish writing-related this week?
1) I completed first round edits of Raw Silk.
2) I wrote the blurb for Raw Silk and completed the cover art sheet.
3) I completed first round edits of Unbridled.
4) I worked on website updates.
That last one reminds me, you have to go to my Coming Soon page. I have new entries there with links to excerpts for the books that are coming this month as well as blurbs for those coming very soon after that! You’ll want to sample them. And could anything be sexier than the cover for my upcoming release Unforgiven?
They’re nekkid, he hasn’t shaved—can’t you already feel the scrape of those bristles? And they look dirty, don’t they? Makes me think they’ve already been doing it for a while. Read the rest of this entry »
All winners will be announced on Sunday. So, be sure to cast your vote today,
then post a comment so I know who voted!
Last day, last poll—promise! And guess what the last question is all about…
Yeah, who’s our heroine? I don’t know about you, but when I start to dream about my story, it all starts with him. And I’m already jealous as hell of her.
I have to get over it. I know I can’t make him happy because I’m nowhere in the story. But I’m going to fall in love with him just the same. Don’t you want the people you love to be happy? She has to be perfect for him. Not that she’s going to be “perfect.” I’d seriously hate her if she was.
As I’m writing this, our bad boy hero is ahead by only one vote. Y’all were no help at all narrowing down that field of possible testosterone donors! So guess what I have to do? No, I’m not going to choose. I figure our girl will get romanced by the bad boy, but the local sheriff is going to be torn between duty to his pride and protecting the innocent woman from that other man. Maybe the two guys have tangled before over a woman. I’m not saying that they’ll share, but there’s the possibility now. Just depends on how this story progresses.
So who is she? You get to choose. Don’t leave me with an amibiguous answer again or I’ll have to hurt you!
Once again, vote for your favorite then post a comment so I know who voted! You’ll be entered to win a $10 gift certificate from Amazon.com! All poll winners will be announced on Sunday—tomorrow!!
What flavor of ROMANTIC fiction do you prefer me write for my next longer Kindle project?
Recently dragged from Hell, a powerful godlike dragon seeks to steal his old lover from the vampire king (43%, 24 Votes)
A teller implicated in a bank robbery seeks sanctuary from the small-town sweetheart she left behind who happens to be the new sheriff in town (39%, 22 Votes)
A disgraced female ex-cop seeks help from two former lovers, her ex-partner and a powerful sorcerer, to stop a murderous demon (20%, 11 Votes)
All winners will be announced on Sunday. So, be sure to cast your vote today, then post a comment so I know who voted!
Let’s recap what you’ve chosen so far:
Setting: Louisiana Bayou
Scenario: Innocent stranger enters a small, secretive town where shifters rule
From my research, the only large cats that were ever indigenous (in recent history) to southern Louisiana were Florida Panthers, a subspecies of North American cougar. So, the majority of the shifters in my stories will be Florida Panthers. These cats used to range from Louisiana all across the coastal south to Florida, but have been hunted close to extinction. Now there are only about 50-75 cats remaining in the wild in Florida. There isn’t any evidence, other than folktales, that “black panthers” ever existed in North America. But I’m thinking some of my shifters can be the source of those folk tales, possessing excessive melanin like some jaguars in South America do. To the left is a picture of one of those melanistic jaguars.
The story is shaping up a bit now in my mind, but I want you to help me nail the hero of the first story.
Vote for your favorite type of hero then post a comment so I know who voted! You’ll be entered to win a $10 gift certificate from Amazon.com! Remember, all poll winners will be announced on Sunday!
What flavor of short erotica stories would you prefer to see from me?
A firefighter series, featuring a single fire station and the firefighters' off-duty playmates (32%, 22 Votes)
A cowboy series, featuring the same lucky lady and a group of sexy cowboys (25%, 17 Votes)
A Victorian series, featuring Dr. Mullaley and Nurse Percy (continuing their story from STROKES) (16%, 11 Votes)
A "Sexy Secretary" series, featuring an administrative assistant and her Dom boss (14%, 10 Votes)
A sex club, featuring different D/s couplings and groupings (13%, 9 Votes)
All winners will be announced on Sunday. So, be sure to cast your vote today, then post a comment so I know who voted!
Well, it looks like the Cat Tales setting will be the Louisiana Bayou! Thanks to everyone for your feedback. I know I cast my vote early on for this one too, but when I thought the Colorado Mountains might win, all kinds of fun scenarios popped into my mind. Louisiana Bayou stories are more limiting for an external premise idea but I did come up with several. Maybe you can help me narrow my focus once again.
Choose which scenario you would prefer for the opening story. Be sure to vote then post a comment so I know who voted! You’ll be entered to win a $10 gift certificate from Amazon.com! Remember, all poll winners will be announced on Sunday!
Which title do you prefer for an anthology of erotic cowboy stories?
I’ve been mulling around the idea of a new free series to offer through my website and newsletter. One with individual stories rather than series installments—although some of these short stories might span a couple of months. I’d like them to be related by place and have some of the same characters appear throughout these sexy little reads.
And the best part will be that the stories will be centered around a family of feline shifters. I love furry heroes!
I want your help narrowing down the focus for the stories. Let me know what your preferences are. The first question I have for you is where you want these stories to take place. Be sure to vote then post a comment so I know who voted! You’ll be entered to win a $10 gift certificate from Amazon.com!
What would you like to see offered as a contest prize for the next round?
A signed and autographed book, reader's choice? (38%, 10 Votes)
A grab-bag of things from Memphis, including Elvis memorabilia? (27%, 7 Votes)
A pretty fairy journal? (27%, 7 Votes)
A fairy ornament to hang on a holiday tree? (8%, 2 Votes)
A power outage yesterday morning brought home just how dependent I am on technology. Not just my computer and Internet service. Without power, I had to light candles because the day was overcast and rainy. I couldn’t bathe or flush a toilet because the pump that draws water from the well didn’t operate. It was too dark to read, too cool and nasty to be outside, the heat didn’t run and I couldn’t open the fridge for fear of warming up the food stored there.
My daughter lives in a rural area—even more isolated than my own home. And when her power goes out, it can last for days. Last year during an ice storm, it took the power company nine days to restore electricity. By then she’d had to toss out all the food in the fridge and freezer. She and her husband had to cook on camp stoves, use a camp toilet, and heat water for “bird” baths over the Coleman. Thank goodness yesterday’s outage lasted only five hours.
My home in South Texas was rural as well, but power lines were strung on tall steel poles far above any trees. In nine years, we only had two power outages that lasted a few hours. Here in Arkansas, the trees loom over the treetrunk power poles, and it takes only one tall, spindly pine snapping and folding over a line to take you out. No way could they afford to replace those old poles with something stronger. I think of the years I lived in Europe. There everything was protected in conduits underground.
I’m rambling again. My EC editor sent me the first round edits of Raw Silk last night. She loved the story and had minimal nits for me to fix (mostly commas!). I should have dates soon for the releases of Knight of My Dreams and Raw Silk.
I’m trying to get my mind in gear for November 1st. Anyone ever do NaNoWriMo? It’s National Novel Writing Month, and the folks who run the site host an annual challenge for writers to complete 50,000 words on a novel during the month of November. I met the challenge last year. I like having to post my progress daily on the site and commiserate with other writers whose fingers are bleeding all over their keyboards. Let me know if you’re taking the challenge and I’ll add you to my list of friends on the site. Maybe we can spur each other on with a “word war”!
November’s moon is the Snow Moon. According to The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Wicca and Witchcraft, this is a “good time to work with abundance, prosperity, and the bonds of family and friendship.”
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From my research, the only large cats that were ever indigenous (in recent history) to southern Louisiana were Florida Panthers, a subspecies of North American cougar. So, the majority of the shifters in my stories will be Florida Panthers. These cats used to range from Louisiana all across the coastal south to Florida, but have been hunted close to extinction. Now there are only about 50-75 cats remaining in the wild in Florida. There isn’t any evidence, other than folktales, that “black panthers” ever existed in North America. But I’m thinking some of my shifters can be the source of those folk tales, possessing excessive melanin like some jaguars in South America do. To the left is a picture of one of those melanistic jaguars.
