Six Sentence Sunday: Monster

Time for another Sunday of Six Sentences!

This week’s Six goes way back to my first-ever published story. Monster takes place in a small town’s Halloween celebration where an unsuspecting haunted house worker comes up against a group of monsters she doesn’t see coming. You can find the whole thing in the Wicked East Press anthology Halloween Frights vol. III.

 

At somewhere around eleven at night creatures of all sorts filled the fields and temporary trailers that had been set aside for the Spooktacular. There was a singular intent shared by every werewolf, every vampire, and every corpse drawn back to life by the power of the moon. Things that lurked in shadows slithered down these paths, the bumps in the night lumbered onward, each slimy alien, each blood-soaked cannibal, each lunatic and crazed and primal beast tainted with the darkness of October walked on and on. All the visitors had been cleared out and urged to leave, so there was no one to stop them from taking over, from heading to their own secret destination in a humongous gathering of tooth, claw, fur, scale, flesh, and blood. An hour before their hallowed day ended, they would have one last congregation of their ilk. After all, they still had to get their makeup off and collect one last paycheck.

 

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SSS: Power Chord

It’s time for Six Sentence Sunday! And in celebration of my second release I am giving you six from Power Chord! And this week’s six is naughtier than usual so use your discretion (ppppbbbbt or just sit back and enjoy!)

The Six:

In his mind he watched her begin to play with herself, fingers circling and delving, her lips just barely parted in unknowing pleasure. He knelt in front of her and if he would have really been there, his breath against her sex would have made her fall back, gasping for more. “Touch me, I need your release. Need your freedom. Need your screams.” He mouthed the lyrics to his recorded voice and when the chorus repeated he looked up to her face expecting the tight, flushed expression of a woman in heat.

Curious about Power Chord? For the blurb and excerpt and purchase information go HERE

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Available Now: Power Chord

Amazon       Barnes and Noble     ARe     Bookstrand

It’s finally out! My first erotic romance title is out! As I’ve said all over the place – I love music, love the concept of the weird tale, and love a good steamy story. It’s only right that this little story combines all three aspects into one whole!

Go HERE for the lovely press release put together by the gals at Rebel Ink!

The Blurb:

Drake has gotten used to having things his way – he makes the decisions whether it be recording his music, on the road while touring, or in bed. He may be somewhat older than when he first started, but he can still pack venues and still has fans at his mercy. But while professional success brings about one type of satisfaction, there’s a certain type that he just can’t seem to reach one dull night after a show. He doesn’t party hard anymore – he knows better – but that doesn’t mean he can’t indulge in a dirty fantasy all his own. What would it be like to have ultimate power, to be able to shed the confines of his body and sneak up on the unsuspecting by way of astral travel? What would it be like to seduce a woman when she can’t see him, can only feel him when he wants her to?  And what happens when he’s not the only one who appreciates good music and is turned on by the power of control?

The Excerpt:

As soon as the opening chords strummed into being, he was back in the daydream, back in the room with her exactly as he’d left her. A strange relief filled his chest and an even stranger heat surged under his skin. He was right behind her, close enough to touch. Her hips swayed to the song’s rhythm, her hand still close to where they both wanted it, but not close enough. Could he touch her in astral form? What the hell, it’s my daydream, he reasoned.

He was right behind her, close enough to touch. Her hips swayed to the song’s rhythm, her hand still close to where they both wanted it, but not close enough. Could he touch her in astral form? What the hell, it’s my daydream, he reasoned.

“Does that make you wet?” he breathed as the guitar once again surged into a fiery series of aural pyrotechnics. She froze as if she couldn’t quite hear him but sensed that something was amiss. “Do you want me to put my hands all over you the way I do my guitar?”

He smiled when she darted to the wall to hit the light switch, apparently forgetting that she hadn’t dressed yet. “Sit down,” he urged, and in the hotel room his fingers curled tighter around his length when she immediately obeyed. The song changed to a sultry ballad with a steady, pulsing rhythm. Perfect. Her lips were turned down in confusion, her dark eyes darting back towards the dresser. “No you don’t,” he rumbled, sliding his presence right up beside her. She didn’t look his way. “Touch yourself, honey. Go on; no one’s here.”

Curious? Then check out all of Power Chord and be sure to give it a read while listening to your favorite sultry song!

Facebook Page Heads Up!

I wanted to give a heads up – I’ll try to do this on the old page before I take it down but due to various technical difficulties I’m having to change my facebook fan page. The new page will be HERE and all future updates etc will go to this instead. Feel free to like and pass it on! More to come very soon but I wanted to get this detail cleared up before putting anything else out there!

Thanks for the patience and I’ve got some exciting news coming soon…

Mary Monday: Thoughts on the broad, herself

So instead of going for the lowest common denominator for once, I want to take a post to actually talk about the Mary Sue phenomenon. I get that usually self-insertion is obnoxious and not done very well, but I do think there’s actually something to be said for Mary Sue.

Like so many others I have (a very long time ago) written fanfic. I do think that people should be careful to disclaim, but I’m not necessarily against it. Think of it like this: in nerd culture the boys have got D&D and other role-playing/world-building games to do their escapism/self-insertion thing. I’m not saying girls can’t get into that but a lot of the time they don’t (the same with boys and fanfic). I see fanfiction like training wheels for writers – you have a chance to develop stories in a situation where the pressure is pretty much off. You don’t have to world-build, the characters are also established, etc. In a perfect world this is a chance for budding writers to focus on developing plotlines, developing well-rounded people, and learning how to use grammar and spelling effectively. Yeah – it doesn’t usually happen that way but I have known the few and far between who have gone on to write for different franchises or become authors of their own original creations.

Let’s be fair, though. Girls need to have an outlet to explore the things that are happening to them and the pressures and emotions that they feel. this is true if you’re five or if you’re fifty. If you’re a woman, you need a place to vent or an outlet through which to escape. Again – in a perfect world Mary Sue becomes the ultimate tool to develop yourself; an emotional stepping-stone between playing pretend with your friends and having to tackle the day to day of the mundane world. I can see the draw for many teens (and women who are not teens) to want to write stories that involve their favorite characters and someone just like them. We all want to believe we’re special. Think of it: if the wallflower in highschool is beaten down because she can’t catch the eye of the guy in the school halls, she can build her confidence via Mary Sue by catching the eye of Edward Cullen or Harry Potter or something. For those really, truly invested in writing this character can lead them to learn to tackle challenging situations  and is a safe way to explore relationships.

Unfortunately people tend to get very possessive of their fandoms and a lot of Mary Sues don’t take advantage of the stories they inhabit. It becomes all about snaring the guy (nevermind if there’s a legitimate reason for him to fall in love with her or not) or making herself the hero (I’ve seen this done believably and not so believably). I’ve also seen a lot of stories where Mary Sue is a put-upon, traumatized girl and the love of whatever dude is in fashion is the only thing that saves her. These sorts of stories are where the joke of Mary Sue comes in. And it’s a shame. Why SHOULDN’T we girls have an archetype who can do anything and come out ahead? If there can be a way to use her while still keeping the integrity of the characters around her, she’d be an incredibly powerful device.

I can’t help but think that the self-insertion thing gets made fun of because it’s usually women who do it. It’s looked upon as a weak ploy by bad writers, when it’s just human. We all want to be the best. We all want to be surrounded by people we know we’re never going to meet, let alone look at us a certain way. And how many guys do you know lose themselves in things like WoW where they can be something more than they already are? It’s human, but because Mary Sue is usually seen as a cheap excuse for a badly executed love story women usually get the butt of the jokes on self insertion.

It’s a double-edged sword and I don’t know if there’s a right answer. I would say that those only interested in the fandoms, themselves, will move onto other things while those that are truly into writing will move on to writing their own fiction and develop a strong sense of self. And in the meantime I can hope that there will be some awesome self-insertion fics and Mary Sue stories that don’t take themselves so seriously. I hope among the zillion stories that the few that are really, truly awesome and those that let characters like our gal Mary can do their part to show that yeah, fandoms are cool,but stories that are well-crafted and feature really amazing women characters are even better.

 

 

 

There be Winners Here!

Because apparently announcing blog hop winners makes me want to talk like a pirate. And this surprises no one – right?

Thanks to everyone who commented! I love hearing what everyone does for holidays and it sounds like a lot of people have some great traditions and other fun things planned! I hope everyone had a great weekend whether celebrating or not.

And now for the good stuff.

The winner of my blog hop is…..(drum roll drum roll drum roll drum roll….)

Megan!!!!

Megan I ‘ll be contacting you shortly to give you your PDF copy of The Inheritance! Congratulations!

Thanks again to all who commented – we’ll have to do another hop again soon!

It’s blog hop time!

 

It’s hippity hoppity blog hop time! Spring is here, the weather is warmer,  flowers are blooming,  chocolate bunnies are everywhere! Whether you’re celebrating the more religious aspects of the holiday, digging into your basket of goodies,  or just enjoying the fact that everything’s growing and pretty – Easter’s a pretty good day. It doesn’t get as much press as Christmas but it’s a fabulous time to get together with family and friends and remember that even though there’s a lot going on people can change and move forward. Plus you get to ditch the giant coats and Christmas sweaters for fluttery dresses and snazzy shirts and slacks.

Me, myself,  and I – I’m going to be hanging out with family and enjoying a quiet weekend before my job starts picking up and things get crazy over the summer. I’m looking forward to hunting for eggs with the kids in the family and glee-ing over cute little Easter trinkets (Admittedly I am a sucker for cute things so the season of little pink bunnies and yellow chickies and sidewalk chalk shaped like carrots is fabulous for me.) I’m looking forward to some good food and some good conversation. For me Easter is kind of the calm before the storm of the summer and I enjoy it very much.

And of course it wouldn’t be a blog hop without a giveaway! Leave a comment (with your email) telling me what Easter means to you/how you’re celebrating/what your fave Easter memory is and you’ll be entered to win a PDF copy of my first release The Inheritance.

And of course don’t forget to hit the other fabulous blogs in the hop to comment for chances to win a lot of goodies!