Today’s theme is Lost Loves and I actually have several reunion type stories. For me as a reader I love to read the stories of lost loves reunited. In fact I’m sort of writing a new one.
So I’ve chosen The Revealing which is the fourth and final story in my Pentacles of Magick series. Noah and Jessie were a lot of fun to write.
Excerpt:
“C’mon, Jessie, we have to go now, our time is up.” His magick hummed, sensing other users nearby. When she came out of the bathroom carrying a duffel bag with her, she took his breath away. A night of rest and a shower had made a world of difference, and now she looked more like Jessica. Silky brown hair fell just below her shoulders, the perfect length for grabbing onto. The almost too short denim shorts and tight green t-shirt she’d chosen from the clothes that had been delivered first thing this morning showed off every inch of her luscious body. Not exactly subtle nor disguise material, but dayum she looked good enough to eat. Even the plain white tennis shoes on her feet seemed sexy to him.
When he finally let his gaze meet hers he could have sworn he saw the same heat in the normally cool blue depths of her eyes. Shaking his thoughts loose, he opened the door and ushered her out and down the stairs to his waiting vehicle. She was turning into a distraction neither one of them could afford.
“Where are you taking me? To see Jake?” She slid onto the seat next to him, looking at him for an answer.
“Not quite yet. We still have some trouble to deal with, and I don’t think either of us wants to involve more people than we have to.”
“Then where are we going?”
“Somewhere safe.”
She glared at him, waiting.
“How familiar are you with the bayou?”
“Probably not enough, guess it depends on what you have in mind,” she blurted.
Ignoring the jolt in his groin from the look she threw him, he continued. “We need to hide for a while. Somewhere I can protect you. I know of a place deep in the swamps that will fit the bill.”
“Should I be nervous? I mean, I’m not your favorite person these days, and going deep in the swamps with someone who doesn’t like you sounds like a recipe for big trouble.”
“I’m not the one that left in the middle of the night, Jessie.”
A dark cloud passed over her features, making her look sad. Seeing her like that made him feel like shit. Which really pissed him off since he had nothing to feel bad about.
“I know.” She turned toward the window and settled in for the ride.
He pulled the SUV out of the parking lot, watching everything around them despite his preoccupation with the woman beside him. Obsession is more like it. He took a deep drag of air into his lungs, held it until it burned, and then let it out as slowly as he could. He needed to be in complete control of this situation and couldn’t afford to be distracted.
He knew as soon as he left this section of the Quarter the veil of voodoo they had been hiding under would dissipate. Denn would be doing his best to aid them with his own spells, but whatever new source his uncle had harvested was some pretty powerful shit. That worried him the most. If his uncle had gained some additional power he either had a coven working for him or something far worse. Demons.
His brothers were currently looking into what was brewing in this region, which was a good thing, but Denn had been hiding something from him this morning. That had him worried. He’d thought about pushing him on it, but hadn’t had time. He and Jessie needed to get out of New Orleans, and fast. He wasn’t sure he could take on an army.
Crossing the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, they quickly left the city limits of New Orleans, headed for the middle of nowhere. They drove in silence as the empty road and occasional car went by them until he heard a growl that had to have come from Jessie.
“Are you hungry?”
She nodded her head. “A little, but I’m fine. I’ve gotten used to living on very little.”
His stomach heaved at that thought. His imagination could have run wild with possibilities of just what she had endured. “Once we get settled in a safe place, you’re going to have to tell me exactly what happened to you back there.”
“It’s over, Noah, we need to just let it go.”
“Uh-uh, cherie, it’s far from over. In fact, we likely have a long, tough road in front of us.”
“What do you mean?” She looked confused.
“According to my brothers, Uncle Scott has quite a plan going on. Something else we are going to have to discuss soon enough.”
She shifted closer to him in her seat. “Why not tell me now? I think we have time.”
“Not yet, Jessie, for now I have to stay alert and focus on getting us away from here safely.”
She crossed her arms against her chest, pushing her breasts up and against the already tight fabric. His mouth watered when he saw the peaked nipples poke against the shirt. The pouty look on her face only inflamed him further, challenging him to take her over his knee and teach her a lesson or two. He loved the lure of a woman with an independent streak and Jessie was just his type—it’s what had drawn him to her in the first place.
For years he’d pursued the meeker and submissive women for his darker tastes, but Jessie had taught him the sweeter pleasure of submission with spirit. Despite her lack of enthusiasm toward his lifestyle, she’d responded immediately and with such intensity he’d thought his heat would combust them both. As it turned out they’d both been surprised with each other’s response. Their time together had been hot and brief, and her ultimate disappearance had driven him mad for a while. His pride prevented him from searching for her, so instead he’d indulged himself in every vice he could to forget about her. Work, sex, tequila and eventually he’d moved on. Until he answered his brother’s call.
Be sure to follow the trail for more snippety goodness!
As of Noon today I have finally finished my commitment to read 10 books from my HUGE TBR pile. (I’ll do a blog post this week to highlight what I’ve read and what’s next for me in regards to reading.)
So, what does this mean? I finally get to buy books after two dry months! Wheeeee!
Since today is the last day of the ARe’s 28 Days of Heart campaign, I want to purchase some of these books first. I love that so many authors donated stories so that all proceeds could go to the American Heart Association. Since heart disease has directly affected my family I hated that I didn’t have time to write something to give as well.
While I am eyeing all the many great choices, I’d love to hear what readers out there have purchased and read. Do you have a favorite? Did you read them all? Which ones do you want to read?
If you haven’t had a chance to look through the 28 Day books you can find them all here.
For anyone who leaves a comment on this post I will choose a random winner to receive their choice of one of the 28 Days of Heart eBooks.
Okay first off this picture doesn’t exactly go with this post but it made me laugh.
But just a few short days ago I woke up and ambled into my office before caffeine as usual to see instead of my screensaver, a black and white DOS screen that said “Operating System Not Found”. Uh oh.
I tried not to panic thought I’d reboot and see if it magically fixed itself. (reboot on the MAC seems to fix everything) No dice! In fact it got worse. I couldn’t even get to the BIOS anymore and the computer was clacking. (Don’t I sound so smart with all the cool acronyms?) Not. I called a friend who helped me diagnose that in fact most likely what had happened was my hard drive died.
I could have totally panicked here but I am smart enough to have a back up and even though I hadn’t done one in a while I probably didn’t lose anything that couldn’t be either recreated or picked up from somewhere else. And in case you were wondering I don’t do my writing on that computer, that’s done on the MAC laptop and I email my books to myself on a regular basis as well as store them in an online group. So all is not lost but I’ve lost access to some pretty important software that I don’t have in a MAC version.
Since my entire family has switched to netbooks I’m left searching for an affordable PC. I thought for two seconds about fixing this but it was already a broken screened laptop being used as a desktop hooked up to a monitor. As my DH put it…I’d already squeezed the life out the seriously out of date computer.
Last night and today I found myself determined to figure out how to use Fusion on the MAC which essentially creates a dummy PC and allows me to use Windows software on the MAC. I did and I even created a new graphic in photoshop for the day job. Yay me!
This of course got me thinking… If I can do what I need on the MAC why do I need another PC? I’d browsed the Apple store online when the iPad was announced and the MAC Mini looked pretty cool. Although isn’t having two MAC’s on the same desk redundant? And then someone online mentions to me that she has her MAC mini hooked up to a flat screen so she can stream Hulu, Netflix, watch DVD’s and use the internet on the TV.
OMG The plotting began. I must have one of these. I’d already planned to get a small flat screen TV for my office during the current office redo we are slowly undergoing. OMG yes I am that excited. I love gadgets! Even if I don’t understand everything about them. See how cute it is?
Now all I need to do is add win the lottery to my to-do list and I’m all set. LOL
Snippet time and this week we are paying homage to other artists. I enjoy having my characters explore different careers but one of my favorites has been Abby Douglas in Awaken. She is an incredible singer, albeit confused about her life. When vampire Caleb hears her voice for the first time… Well, you can see for yourself below.
Talking about artists and Awaken wouldn’t be complete without a shout out to my childhood friend Brian Lewis who excitedly wrote the original lyrics for Awaken that Abby sings in the book. He has an incredible gift.
Excerpt from Awaken:
Hours later, Caleb still sat at the table waiting for her. She’d delivered them drinks all night without so much as another word. She seemed afraid of him as she ran around the room avoiding eye contact. He watched the band setting up on stage, and wondered if he should head home. He could try again tomorrow. Then he saw her walk on stage. She’d let her hair down, and the fall of straight black silk fell nearly to her waist. She still wore the same skintight jeans that molded long, lean legs, the jeans he imagined peeling from her body as she writhed and begged for him to hurry up.
His cock lengthened, pressing tight against his zipper as images of her naked body spread out before him entered his mind. His fangs descended at the thought of piercing into her creamy thigh and taking her essence into his body.
“Hey, Caleb buddy, you’re about to see what really brings us out to this dive night after night.” Caleb fought the urges rushing through him as he focused on his friends again. “Abby is one hell of a singer.”
Caleb looked back to the stage as Abby stepped up to the microphone. When the band started a slow melody, the crowd fell silent, waiting, every eye on the enchanting woman about to sing to them.
She swept her eyes around the room, briefly connecting with him before her eyes slid shut and the first line of lyrics slipped from her ruby lips. “I’m not sure about this. I’m not sure about anything anymore. I fight to look inside.”
The dark voice from the small, beautiful woman whipped through him, heating his blood and flooding his mind with lustful images. Images of their two bodies intertwined across blood red silk sheets. His fingers wrapped in her long hair, pulling her head back, exposing her pulse at the base of her pale throat. Her arms wrapped around his back, urging him forward. Those haunting amethyst eyes imploring him to take her as his hips surged forward, burying his cock to the hilt.
Shaking his head, he forced the all-too-real images from his mind.
“Who are you and who am I?” Her velvety voice reached for him as her eyes opened, releasing a small tear. Caleb watched the tiny drop track down her cheek. He fought the urge to run to the stage and drag her away. The compelling need to claim her came from deep within his soul.
Mine. All mine. The thought shocked him with a certainty he didn’t understand.
Caleb managed to force his gaze away from the stage to look around the room at all the people sitting enraptured as Abby crooned to them.
“If I awaken it’ll be to my sin.” Her voice called to every person in the room. Luring them to her. She had a rare gift indeed. As a vampire, he should be able to resist a mortal call. Why her? What made her different from all the many others? Why now? He tried to hold onto those questions like a lifeline but found it impossible to resist her. He turned back to face the woman of his desires, only to find her staring straight at him, focused and sure.
“Always safe in your eyes of blue. For an eternity I’d gladly face my death….”
With a start, he realized her song belonged to him. But how could that be? They’d just met. As the song faded into the final chorus, he wondered about the images he’d seen. He’d felt the smooth, satiny skin of her leg wrapped around his naked hip. Her spicewood scent filled his mind with reality. Fiction? The past? Or the future….
The crowd around him erupted into thunderous applause. He watched in amusement as a blush crept into her cheeks. She seemed quite the contradiction, one minute a shy country girl waiting on tables then changing to a sultry singer with a stunning talent. He couldn’t wait to unwrap her story. Slowly. One layer at a time. There was definitely more to Abby Douglas.
His interest stirred, he looked around the bar, taking in the rough-hewn furniture, some of which was in disrepair. Many in the crowd were also a little rough around the edges. A puzzle for certain. After the show, he would find out firsthand what a woman like her was doing in a place like this.
This novella is available in both ebook as well as print in the Vampire Oracle anthology.
Please don’t forget to follow the trail for more awesome snippety goodness!
As happens a little too frequently for my taste, my internet flickered off and on this morning before finally going out for a few hours.
To say this makes me a little crazy is probably putting it mildly. My day job is on the internet, much of what I do as a writer promoting myself is on the internet and many of my friends are on the internet. I liken much of the occassional here and there small talk going on in my IM or on Twitter to having cubicle buddies if I worked in an office.
So after a few reboots to my network with no results and no car (still broken from crash in snow storm) to take me to the coffee shop for internet, I decided to buckle down and be productive while I waited it out.
I wrote. I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned that I’m trying my hand at a wolf shifter story. A three men and one woman shifter story. It may or may not be what you’re thinking so don’t get too excited but as I sat down to write this afternoon I knew I was headed into the land of writing S.E.X. I think writing those scenes are the most difficult. Not only do you have to consider body parts going this way and that, the emotions of the characters run high and in my opinion in an erotic romance it has to affect the plot. That is a lot going on in one scene and it usually results in a slower pace with a lot of concentration into just the right words. Because just how many different ways can you say c*ck? (and me without my online erotic thesaurus that I’ve built.)
Two hours later I had 3000 words of the wildest, hold-em-down-so-no-one-gets-hurt, crazy werewolf sex. When it was done I was the one looking for a cigarette and wondering if I’d lost my mind.
I may or may not have gone too far but it’s one of those magical writing moments where the fingers were flying and the words were flowing and the result looks pretty good to me. I’ll still have to edit the hell out of it but now I’m really excited.
This moment and the moments when readers tell me how much they enjoyed one of my stories is why I love being a writer and what keeps me going through the rough spots.
Of course once I recovered and realized the internet was still out I was starting to get antsy. I needed to check my email, see what I missed on Twitter and generally make sure the world was still spinning. LOL The internet gods must have been listening because withing 30 minutes it came on. Ahhhhhhhhhhh
I’m back with Saturday Snippet and today’s theme is Dumped. Going through the stories I have I found that I haven’t written a lot about characters being dumped. Some in their past have had relationship issues though, so that’s what I am going to draw on today.
Submissive Secrets was about love lost and then refound many years later. You don’t get dumped much worse than when you’re getting married and that’s exactly what happened between these two. So here is a short snippet into their future after being dumped.
Snippet:
He’d known Carli finding him naked in her bed would likely unnerve her, but he didn’t expect this much reaction.
God, she felt good.
He didn’t want to stop. He wanted to tear her clothes from her athletic body and force his throbbing dick up her juicy pussy. Releasing Carli’s mouth he trailed his lips along her jaw and neck nipping at her sensitive skin as he went. When he reached her breasts he rubbed his cheek against the cool silk of her shirt feeling her distended nipple. Carli arched her back into his touch begging for more.
Maintaining his grip on her wrists with one hand, Aidan reached underneath her shirt pulling the fabric out of his way exposing her bright rosy nipple. Instead of laving her gently with his tongue as she anticipated, he bit her nipple with a quick sharp bite. She didn’t protest his roughness, but instead surged against him, pleading for more.
Unfortunately, looking back up at her face, flushed with her arousal brought Aidan’s memories crashing back down. He remembered the last time he’d seen her and the pain of his heart splitting in two when she told him, just before their wedding, that she needed something more. Needed to travel. Needed to get away from him for a while. In the end the anger of her betrayal had won out and he’d opted to leave town.
Rifling through her personal belongings when he entered her home had brought out a need in him he thought long buried. As much as he wanted to fuck her mindless, he couldn’t do this. Couldn’t screw Carli now without thinking of the girl back then. The girl who crushed his heart, leaving him behind as she went to explore the world. As his lust subsided, cold anger took its place. He released her arms and stood. He had a job to do and reliving old times with Carli would only fuck that up.
He turned his back on her as he reached to the floor for his discarded jeans. Quickly pulling them up not even bothering to button them before turning back around to face her. The expression on her face remained blank but her eyes sparked with repressed emotion.
“I can’t do this, Carli.” His gut tightened at the pain he saw flicker across her face.
She looked up at the ceiling and tunneled her fingers through her long chestnut locks, probably trying to get control of her body just as he did.
With a pronounced sigh she nailed him with a steely stare. “Why are you here, Aidan? What brings you back to my bed after all these years?” she bit out, her voiced laced with cold sarcasm.
Boldly lying back against the pillows, she crossed her arms behind her head, further baring her breast to him and waited for his answer.
“I’m here on assignment. I need your cooperation.” He paused waiting for her reaction that never materialized.
Oh, she’s good. Very good at keeping her cool when it counted.
Aidan knew Carli had tried several times over the last couple of years to find him as his organization kept tabs on that kind of information. But, he didn’t want to be found. If not for this mission, he would never have returned to this old town. Aidan didn’t need the physical reminder of where he came from or the circumstances in which he had left. The sooner Aidan got the information he needed from Carli the sooner he would be out of here. In the meantime he had no intention of letting her get to him. No one got to him anymore. Her leaving him taught him how to build barriers to shield his heart. At least he could thank her for that.
Now don’t forget to follow the trail for more snippetty goodness.
Love this show so much. While Monday night is one of my favorite nights on television I was disappointed beyond measure to find out that Sheldon err I mean The Big Bang Theory was already a repeat. Jeez, we just got back from holiday break people.
Luckily Castle was not a repeat and it was a lot of fun as usual. He squealed like a girl, grimaced over a spider, had the cutest fight with Beckett and we found out Castle definitely goes below the fold.
All in all a fun episode. I even rewound the squealed like a girl part so I could laugh again.
Last week was the return of Vampire Diaries and Supernatural. Woot! Seriously now… PUDDING!!!!!! If you missed it then you have no idea of what I speaketh but trust me Dean had me rolling with that one line. Not a believer? No problem I have video proof. hehehe But don’t blame me for any spoilers.
As for Vampire Diaries, it may be a teenage show but even an older chick like myself loves the bad boy Damon. He is B.A.D. and I’m loving every minute of it. Which reminds me I need to hit the CW and rewatch last weeks episode because I missed some of it because I was busy chatting online. (when am I not chatting online?)
Those were the highlights of my TV week, what about you?
It seems like every year after a hectic and sometimes expensive holiday season, I find myself thinking about January on a budget. I came across a book in the bookstore called $5 Dinner Mom and it got me thinking and set me on the path of getting creative with my food budget.
So here’s a sneak peek into some of the things i’m doing.
The first thing I did when I got home that night from the bookstore is hit the web. Thanks to all the bloggers of the world just about anything can be found online. Including the $5 Dinner Mom’s own blog and website.
I thought making dinners on $5 sounded like a great challenge albeit totally unrealistic. However, I was game to give it a try and off I went. So far this month I can honestly say that nearly all my dinners have been made for $5 and certainly all under $10. I’ve been lucky though. I scoured my pantry and freezer and determined what I had on hand. Then found recipes that would use what I had with me only buying minimal ingredients. I have to say it didn’t take me long to blow through my pantry supplies and things are running dangerously low. (except for rice and canned fruit. Now I gotta find something to do with all that canned fruit because I don’t think my family will eat it. Don’t even know why I have it. lol) Now the real hard part starts. Resupplying the pantry and still making dinners on a budget.
Now a big part of making this adventure successful is taking the TIME to plan. There in lies the real challenge of my plan. With a full time day job and a writing schedule that rivals many full-time writers, I don’t have a lot of time. Good thing one of my goals for the new year is a strict schedule which hopefully leaves me a tad more free time.
So far I’ve been winging the meals but alas it’s time to start planning a weekly menu. Time to pull out the magazines and cookbooks and looking up recipes on line. One of my favorite places to find recipes is at allrecipes.com
One new to me recipe I discovered after seeing it mentioned online several times was the Slow Cooker Chicken Stroganoff. It was far tastier than I expected and believe it will become a regular here in our household. To make my life easier I altered the recipe by only using light ingredients (light cream cheese and the Healthy Request chicken soup) and by putting frozen chicken in the crock pot. (I easily broke it into chunks after it cooked) Easy Peasy.
Tonight we are trying the Beer Braised Beef from one of the Cooking Light 5 ingredient cookbooks. (I cannot recommend those highly enough. LOVE LOVE LOVE my 5 ingredient cookbooks) Yes, this recipe would cost a little over $5 but I already had the steak, the tomatoes, the onion and the molasses was provided by a dear friend who lives nearby. YAY!
I’m including the recipe below. FYI I’ll be serving this with mashed potatoes and baby carrots. (yep had those on hand too)
Beer Braised Beef
1 Cup chopped onion
Cooking Spray
1lb boneless top round steak, trimmed
1 (14.5oz) can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano, undrained
1/2 cup light beer
2 T molasses
1/4 t salt
1. Place onion in a 3-3 1/2 quart electric slow cooker coated with cooking spray.
2. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat; coat pan with cooking spray. Add steak; cook 3 minutes on each side or until browned. Place steak over onions in cooker; pour tomatoes and beer over steak cover and cook on low for 8 hours or until steak is very tender.
3. Shred steak with 2 forks in slow cooker; stir in molasses and salt. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.
Yield: 4 servings
If nothing else, I’ve managed to utilize what I had and now have a clean pantry. Maybe you’re like me. You look at the pantry which seems stuffed yet you can’t find anything to make. Now i’m off to get some writing done so I can hunt up the good grocery deals. (i.e. Super Wal-mart, Super Target, Aldi’s)
Like the rest of you we are still suffering through nothing to watch on TV. I’m not big into reruns and I’d rather read a book or write a little more on my WIP. But once I’ve torn myself away from any work activity I do like to watch some Television with the family.
So Hulu or Netflix Instant Play to the rescue.
After whipping through 3 seasons of Friday Night Lights in about 10 days, (yeah I liked it way more than I thought I would) the DH and I have moved on to Farscape.
Not sure why we never gave this a try when it was originally on TV because we watch a lot of Sci Fi television. We are five episodes into the first season and i’m not completely hooked yet but I am very interested and grateful to have something new to me to watch.
Tonight though a new Netflix movie arrived and I’m planning to watch the Sandra Bullock comedy, All About Steve.
What about you? How are you faring through the barren wasteland that is rerun television still lingering from the holidays?
February 1st is the big day! The long awaited rearrival of Lucas followed by Kane in April and Malcolm in June. I hope you’re looking forward to the black cougar trilogy as much as I am.
Please spread the word and feel free to grab the ad below by clicking on the share button on the bottom.
"“Lucas: A Black Cougar Novel is gripping; adventure packed, and will have you on the edge of your seat from page one…”
-Janis, The Black Raven Reviews"
As of Noon today I have finally finished my commitment to read 10 books from my HUGE TBR pile. (I’ll do a blog post this week to highlight what I’ve read and what’s next for me in regards to reading.)
Okay first off this picture doesn’t exactly go with this post but it made me laugh.
during the current office redo we are slowly undergoing. OMG yes I am that excited. I love gadgets! Even if I don’t understand everything about them. See how cute it is?
Excerpt from Awaken:
As happens a little too frequently for my taste, my internet flickered off and on this morning before finally going out for a few hours.
Submissive Secrets was about love lost and then refound many years later. You don’t get dumped much worse than when you’re getting married and that’s exactly what happened between these two. So here is a short snippet into their future after being dumped.
Castle Castle Castle.
As for Vampire Diaries, it may be a teenage show but even an older chick like myself loves the bad boy Damon. He is B.A.D. and I’m loving every minute of it. Which reminds me I need to hit the CW and rewatch last weeks episode because I missed some of it because I was busy chatting online. (when am I not chatting online?)
It seems like every year after a hectic and sometimes expensive holiday season, I find myself thinking about January on a budget. I came across a book in the bookstore called $5 Dinner Mom and it got me thinking and set me on the path of getting creative with my food budget.
