release day!

it's officially release day!! wooooooohoooooo!! 

that's my girl.... cari quinn has book two of the hunk du jour series coming out today and man do i love this story! jenny makes me laugh, cheer, and even pump my fist a time or two in this story.

okay, so jenny's pumping her fist a time or two for a whole different reason. ;)

ty's made the mistake of taking the lovely jenny for granted. fears and doubts have twisted the only thing he's ever truly wanted in this life. and in turn, to hold onto the man she's loved for so long, jenny's done 9723 naughty things in the bedroom to keep the lust alive. but instead of holding onto him, it's had the opposite effect on their relationship.

just  how do you keep the spice alive without alienating the one man you love to get so creative for?

welcome to the dilemma that is ty and jenny's relationship. it's a wild ride to realization, with a swift exit into trustville. fundamental lies and half truths can ruin any relationship. cari quinn knows just how to ratchet up the passion and throw a few twists and turns into a story. i might be biased, but i gotta tell you--she gets better with each and every story she tells.

jenny and ty have the hallmark cari stamps of snark, sexy appeal, and complicated characters. in a world of erotica where characters can easily fall as flat as the cliched cardboard cutouts that litter ereaders around the world, cari never fails to give you something extra special.

so give Ex Appeal a try. and while the book stands alone completely, seeing the mastermind behind hunk du jour make a cameo might just get you interested in book one, Full Disclosure with holly and alex. but then again, i know you already purchased book one...right?

right?

;)

oh yeah, and congrats, cari on another release. you go girl!!

i love this...

i've been stumbling around tumblr and have found a few gems of visual inspiration, but this one got to me. the wild ride i've been on all year makes this especially poignant.

goals are well on target this week. i went for 4 chapters edited/rearranged for 100 thousand reasons thanks to some new conflict and some subtraction of love scenes that just weren't ready to be there. changing styles mid-stream is a bit of a pita, but the story is already stronger for it.

thank god.

lol

3 chapters down--1 to go. looks like i might just go for 5 or 6 chapters this week. ;)

inspired...finally

so i've been treading water lately with this whole writing thing. the doggie paddle, you see, is very easy. and at heart i'm lazy. lol i wish i could say otherwise, but i really am.

then the other night in my google alerts...yes, i have to have google alerts on my very favorite crit partner because she sucks at the sharing thing. anyway, she writes this awesome post about How Twitter Can Help the Shy Writer and wham! i'm all over the bloggesphere and twitter trying to set myself up.

i've been very slack with the writing thing since the whole show-down with cancer happened back in march. i suppose it took some time to get the bullet out from between my eyes. it really was my sole focus for 3mos, so it's only right that it took 3mos to get my shit together. and oddly enough it was exactly 3mos since my mom's death last night.

so it's all about me this weekend...well, and lucy and jack. my mfc & mmc get to come out and play again! yay!

Saying Goodbye

On March 18th, the world lost someone whom I never met, but I've heard so much about. The things I heard about Eva Coons spoke to her strength and kindness and loving personality. She brought into this world two wonderful children, Eric and Tara, one of whom has become a very close friend and someone I look up to in more ways than I could ever say. She embodies her mother's strength and ability to love so completely that other people want to be in her presence. The old quote "you have to be a friend to have a friend" is so true, and Tara embodies that saying. In the midst of dealing with her mother's illness and ultimate passing, she emailed me to make sure I didn't feel bad about a review - and if that doesn't tell you the kind of person she is, I don't know what will. She cares about people and she treats them with respect, something I have no doubt she got from her mother, a woman so many people loved. There is no greater testament to a life well lived than the people who mourn your passing, and so many people ache for Tara's mom and the family and friends she left behind.

Even though I never met Tara's mom, I will remember the wonderful things I heard about her. She lives on through her children, who will never allow her memory to fade. I will also remember how she commented to Tara last year when I was going to meet Tara in person for the first time that she was sorry she wouldn't get to meet me then. Now we'll never meet, and that makes me so sad.

Hug the people you love today. Tell them what they mean to you, because tomorrow is never promised.

And the Sunshine goes to...

Me!  LOL  THANK YOU BECKY!

She bestowed this lovely award unto me!  And it's time to pass things along--Pay It Forward if you will. ;)


These are the rules:

1. Put the logo on your blog or within the post.
2. Pass the award onto 12 bloggers whose blogs you enjoy the most.
3. Link the nominees and their award-winning blogs within your post.
4. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.


So, my choices are...

1. My CP, Cari Quinn, Girl Writer
2. Michelle, Michelle Rowen
3. Anthony K, The Screen Door
4. Dear Author
5. Fiction Vixen
6. Cindi Myers, Market News Blog
7. Access Romance
8. Genreality
9. Lynne Roberts
10. Tresca, Life As We Know It
11. Smart Bitches
12. Deadline Dames

Reading? Yep...that's about all I have time for

In my topsy-turvey little world, it's been VERY hard for me to do any writing.  Concentration has been a little scattered due to a family illness.  But I've been sitting with mom a lot lately and have finally been getting some reading in.  (Snatching 20 pages of a book is easier than writing right now.  Not to mention that my laptop did a crash and burn.  *shaking fist at Mercury in Retrograde!!* God, I hope I can get back to it soon.)

So, I finally cracked a book I've been looking at on my library list for awhile.

Lynn Viehl's Darkyn Series. Book 1 - If Angel's Burn

This is a much darker book than I've read in awhile.  I really loved it, to be honest.  It reminded me of JR Ward's series, only that it is a vampire series and doesn't romanticize things that happen between the characters.  It's dark, it's gritty, it's violent, and the love story is not central to the first book, that's for sure.

But the lore, and the central story is interesting--I didn't think there was a vamp story left that would be original, but the lore here? WOW! I was truly impressed.  I don't want to give too much away so that you go and read.

I will warn you that it's dark. 

VERY dark.

VERY violent in parts.

The MFC is NOT sweet, she's not delicate, and she's pissed off that she's drawn to this man.  I think I'd probably have enjoyed a little more romance between Michael and Alexandra, but the story and the religious aspect had me so fascinated that I didn't miss it too much.  I hope to see Michael and Alex in future stories to see if their story progresses beyond where Ms. Viehl left us.  I do know one thing though--I will be looking for book 2.

Thierry's book, I'm thinking.

I know, Cari--It's a sacred name.  Almost as sacred as Roarke.  *gasp* *SWOON* *pant*
But it looks like his story might be just as fascinating.

Let me know what you think if you've read it, or it's on  your TBR pile. 



*pushes my TBR pile back up straight*

Happy New Year

So, I was following a few links around the web thanks to a google alert...and bumped into this quote from Sylvia Plath.

I write only because
There is a voice within me
That will not be still.
--Sylvia Plath

Could it sum up writers any better?!

I think this might have to be one of the big banners created on this blog.  Cari and I are one in the same when it comes to writing--in this one regard.  We may have our days where we don't feel like writing, when we wonder why we do this, when we would love to hang up our laptops and desktops and say fuck the world and just go back to being a reader.

But we can't.

This writing thing has its hooks into us.

It won't let go.

I won't let it go.

It's something that will be key for my 2010--I WON'T LET IT GO.








PS: Thanks to Jamie Harrington and her blog. ;) Where I found it.