Manic Monday: All Hallows Eve

Hey. Today was so bloody hectic I didn't even get the Manic Monday post up until this evening!

Sheesh!

Eh, what's a momma to do when the call of the kidlet sounds? Scramble to make the trick-or-treating go off without a hitch of course. :) And it did. Now? Just have to get my self situated to start ...

*gulp*

NaNoWriMo 2011

Er, and finish edits to my Christmas stories.
Um, and finish up some major household tasks.

I know, nutty, right?

Eh, I usually work better under pressure.

Night all.

Oh, and the kidlet and I had a wonderful time doing family stuff tonight. I love both my jobs.
Mom.
Writer.

Yeah, my life totally rocks.

Sad News: Farewell, Bobby Michaels

Elisa Rolle says it all, and says it so very well.
http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/1420843.html Go. Read about an amazing man, if you have never heard of him. Say farewell with Elisa if you have.
And do something Extraordinary in his memory. Write, for the night is coming.

Sunday: In the Cave and Snogging

I love being in my Writing Cave. Just love it. Today in the cave, I'm hanging for a bit in the editing section, wrestling with the Christmas story for Mlr...Christie and Robert need to have a little, er, Face Time. LOL.

Coming from MLR Press December 12th, Cuddle Time Chicken Soup

An Unedited Snogging Excerpt:

“Well, good luck to you. I’ll even go so far as to wish you my portion. I think you might need it more than I do.”

Less than a minute after the seat was vacated, another tall, muscular body slipped onto it. Christie didn’t turn his head, and he didn’t wait for the latest clown to try out his shiny new pick up line.

“Married. Fuck off.”

Christie reached across himself to lay his hand flat on the bar in front of the other man.

“Very, very married. And all my close friend slots are filled.”

The guy didn’t move. In fact he scooted his stool closer and turned sideways, leaving Christie sitting in the open end of the vee formed by his legs.

Christie opened his mouth to blast the idiot. He turned his head. Robert’s amused blue eyes greeted him.

“Very, very married, are you?”

Robert’s eyes danced with mischief.

Christie’s eyes widened.

“Robert.”

Robert placed his fingers lightly against Christie’s lips, stopping the smaller man’s words. The corners of Robert’s eyes crinkled and a small smile played across his lips. Christie leaned toward him. Robert leaned forward, his eyes fastened on Christie’s slightly open mouth. Christie’s eyelids swept down, his long lashes veiling the turbulent seas of his eyes.

The brush of warm, supple lips against Christie’s ear just as Robert slid his hand up Christie’s neck to cradle the back of his head sent a spike of need lancing through the smaller man.  

“I never realized how many bars this town had until I started traipsing through them to find you. Between hunting through most of them to find you and tracking Nikki down to watch Frankie I’m about worn out now. Come on, hot stuff, I’ll take you home to your husband.”

Robert nearly had him half hard with that sexy move. The big freaking Viking had gotten Christie out of his clothes at warp speed with the same trick many times since the first time he discovered Christie’s slut button.

Christie moaned.

Then Robert’s words registered.

Cheeky bastard.

Christie ought to give him a piece of his mind.

Robert used the hand at the back of Christie’s head, applying subtle pressure until Christie turned his face a bit. Then Robert swooped in, plundering Christie’s mouth thoroughly. Christie lost all sense of the bar. Only the heated depths of Robert’s cinnamon flavored tongue existed in Christie’s world, only the broad strength of his shoulders beneath Christie’s flexing fingers had meaning.

A low whistling sound intruded into the perfect place Christie had found where his arms twined over the top of Robert’s shoulders and his hands eased up the taut line of masculine perfection which existed from the ball of Robert’s shoulders to the chiseled edge of his jaw. Robert insinuated his hands between the top of the barstool and Christie’s ass. Christie opened his mouth wider and whimpered. Robert pulled Christie across the intervening space until Christie was seated fully in the other man’s lap.

The whistle sounded again.

Robert eased back, big hands cupping Christie’s neck with fingers splayed and thumbs framing the line of Christie’s jaw.

“Are you ready to go?”

**************************************************************

Check out these further Snogging Goodness Reads, and start hip hopping around the internet reading lotsa yummer kissing stuff. Heh. Here you go with the links, and please start with the incomparable

Victoria Bliss: Sunday Snog

Lily Harlem: Menage a Music

Lisabet Sarai: A Vampire Kiss

Dakota Trace: Trust

Getting it Up: Fire & Ice #10

Here it is babies.
Enjoy.

Fire & Ice #10

Shock punched Ryan square in the chest. Josh made a choked noise. Ryan looked at Simeon, took in his faintly annoyed expression, then raised his eyes to lock gazes with Joshua. There was a beat of silence.

Then laughter boomed through the room. Ryan tried to speak, choked on his own spit, and then gave up and lay shaking, tears streaming down his face, holding an equally incoherent Simeon in one arm and Josh in the other. After several minutes they all wound down sufficiennty to be able to draw breath without immediately bursting back into raucous laughter. Ryan wiped his eyes.

“Simeon, Josh’s dad did hear you. And he wants us…no, he wants Josh, to come to Hell for a while. He’s told Josh that the only way he can get out of you having to go there in his stead is to gather the things he’s put onto an impossible scavenger hunt list, or…and he didn’t say this part, but he told Josh once that he’ll always accept his son’s unconditional return to Hell. Forever.”

Josh wiped his head back and forth, not so much in negation, but more in a shamed display of anguish. Simeon’s jaw dropped. What kind of father?

Oh.

“You mean—Lucifer is Josh’s father?”

Ryan braced himself for Simeon’s rejection. He was the only one who’d ever dealt well with Josh being Satan’s son. Ryan wasn’t sure that a virginal, extremely sheltered frost elemental would be able to deal with the implications without painting Josh with the same tarnished reputation his father struggled with. In Ryan’s opinion, Lucifer actually wasn’t that bad a guy. He’d had a big disagreement with the big guy, and then everyone started treating him like shit. No one had ever listened to his side of things.

It was understandable that he was a might short tempered after all this time. Even J.C. lost his cool on occasion, but the big guy never got pissed about that. And really, where was the fairness in that?       

Simeon’s eyes were huge, and his face had gone just as pale as in the seconds before he fainted. Ryan shook him, lightly, and spoke sharply.

“Simeon. Simeon, Josh is still the same guy. He’s good. He’s honorable. And I love him.”

Josh made a soft, pained sound. He turned into Ryan, burying his face in the crook of the angel’s neck, with his clean shaven face turned into the broad curve of Ryan’s white feathered wings. Simeon made an inarticulate squeeking sound somewhere between a scared mouse fleeing an owl’s outstretched talons and an angry babe demanding a mother’s attention.

Simeon cleared his throat and tried again.

“I never said he changed Ryan. Who have you two been spending time with that you’d assume I was going to think so badly of him?”

Simeon shook his head, bewilderment clear on his face. He reached forward, his hand settling as lightly as the kiss of an angel’s wing on the upturned face of the mortal they guarded. Ryan marveled at the sight. He’d never seen anyone touch Josh so reverently except him. Josh quivered against him. Simeon’s fingers trembled discernibly as he smoothed them down over Josh’s shoulder.

Ryan’s skin prickled. He glanced up quickly, amazement turning his insides to liquid gold. The sunshine of the presence before him soothed him. He drew in a shaking breath. Everything would be fine now. He knew his friend couldn’t take sides, but to have his support this way?

Oh.

Oh, wow.

“Josh, Simeon. I’d like you to meet my friend, J.C.”

*****

Simeon looked up, and his heart melted. The most beautiful being he’d ever seen stood at the foot of their bed, his arms outstretched in what could only be a benediction.

“Give him to me.”

Ryan’s mouth dropped open.

Simeon’s brow crinkled.

Did he…could he mean Josh? If this being was who Simeon thought he was, then surely this went against some sort of protocol.

“Ah, and who might you be, sir? I mean, I think I know who you are, but…you aren’t going to punish him are you? Take me instead, please. I think maybe Josh has been hurt enough already.”

The being turned burning eyes, every color of the sky on Simeon, and suddenly the little frost elemental who had never been warm enough was burning alive. A voice whispered in his mind, and the whisper was as the roaring of canons and lions. The thunder of Heaven itself rolled in the small confine of Simeon’s mind and he froze, suspended above the vastness of eternity.

“You would take his pain, Simeon of the Elementals, daughter of my mother?”

Simeon shuddered.

“Yes, sir, I would.”

The eyes bore into Simeon a moment, an eternity longer, and then in a flash of laughter softer than springs first shoot unfurling to the warming sun a laugh wrapped round the three on the bed, tying then inexorably together with visible strands of gold.

“So be it, Simeon of the Elementals. You shall be bound to these two troublemakers, and they shall bear your pain and joy as you bear theirs.”

Something warm, unbearably sweet and full and endless opened in Simeon’s chest. The painful stretch as his soul filled to overflowing with beauty and love brought tears to Simeon’s eyes. Josh gasped, his eyes wild and filled with fear.

“Oh, J.C., what have you done? Now both our fathers have claim on him.”

J.C. smiled, an enigmatic curl of his plush lips over his wide mouth.

“Yes, Josh. I know. And he is too pure, too beautiful for us to allow either one of them to sully his hearth, isn’t he?”

He shimmered then, before fading slowing into the ether. Simeon was sure then just whom he’d been talking to.

“Er, guys, I’m pretty sure I know who that was…but what did he just do to us?”

Ryan answered in a shaking, awestruck voice.

“Yeah, Simeon, that was the son of God. And he just bound the three of us tighter than Josh and I ever could have, and in doing so bound you forever to both Heaven and Hell.”

Friday: Fire & Ice

Keep your shirts on, babies. I'm gonna get it up today.

Heh.

The post gutter babies, the post.

*facepalm*

*sigh*

The Blog Post?

Next installment of the story?

(though as I haven't the right equipment, it'd be a neat trick for me to get what YOU were thinking up.)

Just joshing. Give me a bit more Java and a couple of rocking tunes and I'll make sure to get a good 1,000 words or so of the ongoing saga up for y'all.

Smooches!

Manic Monday

The rain started while I was on my way to do laundry this morning. The morning  is cold and grey, chill seeping in around the edges of my sweater, and I want more than anything to just curl up in bed with a good book and dream the day away.

Heh.

I have way too much to do though. And really? I love  my job. I love dreaming up characters, or more accurately, getting out of the way when they start talking.

So here's the line up for the week.

Write. Write some more. Edit. Edit some more. Get stuff done at home, clean and unpack and ...yeah, don't wanna bore you with the details.

Let's just say I need to get 2,500 to 5,000 words a day for the next five days. Um, and get the laundry done, the living room re-arranged, and the dining room unpacked. The household stuff needs to get done by tomorrow. The writing stuff needs to get done asap. Blogs to write,and more and more.

I'm off to get stuff done.

Ciao Babies.

Saturday at the Library

Fall is here.
Chilly winds and a hint of specters in the wind.
A taste of cold rains in the air.

My favorite time of year shook out her pretty skirts while I was way down yonder in New Orleans, land of dreams. I returned home to shiver in delight.

I know.

I'm a weirdo.

*shrugs*

Eh, but I do love the fall. Something about being able to snuggle into the couch with a warm cup of tea, curled under a fluffy blanket with a good book.

My idea of a very good time indeed.

More later babies.
I've writing to do.

Must Have Authors

ZA Maxfield

Jaime Samms

Jambrea Jo Jones  

Chatting today With the Wonderful Pender Mackie over at Silver's FB Page

Check it out over on FB: http://www.facebook.com/silverpublishing

Shiny, Pretty Things

I couldn't be more pleased with the fabulous cover the amazing Reese Dante created for Silver Publishing's 25 Days of Christmas...of which *squee* I shall be a participating member. Color me extremely excited!
Oh babies, it's lava-lava burning hot, and just perfect for my boys...how does she DO that? Reese is magic, and isn't that just perfect for the season?

Le sigh. There is my sexy Professor Neil, in all his glory. Thanks Reese. You rock out loud.

Friday Five: Five Extraordinary Things

That's my theme again today.

Extraordinary Things.

Because, well, death has rested his cold hand on my shoulder a time or two. And I know that life comes with no guarantees. So today I'm posting a list of Extraordinary Things I want in my life. And then I'm gonna go out and find them.

One amazing moment at a time.

The List:
1)Finish up and sub three novels by Christmas.
2)Write a segment of Rue and Woe's story every month.
3)Stand up for someone in a tangible, personal way. RL support.
4)Finish unpacking (for me? this would be an Extraordinary Thing, LOL)
5)Finish my cd. Yeah, the one I'm singing on.

Don't just sit there, baby.

You better get your list ready too.

Cause I'm gonna be checking.

Be Well Babies. Smooches to you.

Thursday Think Tank: Do Something Extraordinary

Damon Suede, brilliant, witty and charming, author of the scorching tale of love and bravery shared between two smokin' hot firemen and called, appropriately enough, HOT HEAD, sat at the opposite end of the table from me during a dinner I attended with several other authors, artists and three of the staffers from Riptide Publishing. Damon said something I will never in my life forget, something that changed his life once upon a time, and that he has passed on to me.

Do something extraordinary today, because tomorrow you might be dead.

It hit me like a punch to the heart. I want more than anything to be exactly that, living my life to the fullest every single moment of every single day...and until he said those words, I don't think I'd ever heard it articulated quite so well.

Wow.

Okay, Damon, challenge accepted. I'm doing pretty well at making my dreams a reality, but you...gorgeous, vibrant, so damn full of life...you just told me to step up my game.

Here I go, baby.

Watch me soar.
I'm gonna finish the edits to my Mlr Christmas short, and then work on another story. The one inspired by events that occurred at GayRomLit in New Orleans at Lafitte's in Exile. I'm gonna pick another open call at Dreamspinner Press and submit to it. Because I want to be able to say I've published with DSP. I'm going to work on my new story for Riptide Publishing, cause baby, come hell or high water, I will publish with them. I believe in them. And then I'm gonna work on the sequel to The Soldier & the State Trooper. After I finish up those projects I have a few others lined up. I can't wait to get started, so...Ready, Steady, Go!
I'll see you later, baby, in the spotlight.

And you?

Yes, you, my sweet little lurker.

What extraordinary thing are you going to do today?

Raging at Specters and Hobgoblins

When will the world spin at a better angle?

I'm so hellishly tired of hearing stories of wonderful young people taking their lives.

And I fucking loathe trying to write through a veil of tears.

Don't you do it.

Not a single fucking one of you.

Don't you dare take your life.

You get on a damn phone and call somebody.

Get on a computer and throw out a line, baby.

Someone will pick it up.

It does fucking get better.

I know.
I know.
I used to be right where you are.
I cut.
I did all kinds of shit.
And somehow I hung on and it fucking got better.
Please, please don't give up.
Don't leave us all here, with giant YOU shaped holes in our chests, bleeding all over the fucking world because you didn't just say to us look at me. I'm being sliced to ribbons inside.
Say those things.
There's not a chance you'll go unanswered.
Somebody cares.
I care.
Dammit, don't you dare.
Cause if you do?
You'll break so many hearts.
You'll break them in ways that will never heal cleanly, baby.

We will miss you.
And I'll be mopping my heart's blood up off my fucking floor for years dammit.
You're another friend I didn't get to have, and another bright place in the world gone dark.

And my heart fucking hurts.

Mores

I would write something pithy about missing my online friend, but Taylor V. Donovan beat me to the punch.
You will be missed, Mores. Sorely missed.
I have a little numb place, just to one edge of my heart today, where you touched me for just a moment in time.

Manic Monday

I'm saying goodbye to New Orleans today.

Back to the familiar sights of my own writing cave.

My dear little Kleine Maus.

Ah, but NOLA, you were grand.


I'll pop back around later to write a real post if I can, but if not then tomorrow I'll have a full on why I love GRL post for you!

Saturday in New Orleans

Harry Connick crooning.

Gilt fixtures and handsome men in suits asking me things like, "Ma'am, what can I do fo' you?"

* in their delightful accents, and surprisingly not all of them are southern...who woulda thunk it?*

I haven't tons to say this morning....just that the whole experience has been and continues to be so much better than I was expecting, and I was expecting fabulous.

I'm gonna try to scare up a little more coffee, and then I'm gonna work on a story or two until the rest of the world that doesn't work at the hotel catches up to me in wakefulness.

Til then, sleep tight babies, and dream of wonderful things.

Friday Five: N'Awlins Style

1)*squee*

2)Yup, I said squee.

3)Seriously, I'm in New Orleans, down in the Quarter. How can I help myself? I can't, and wouldn't want to if I could.

4)I flew in yesterday, and on both flights had nice seatmates...though on my second flight? From Baltimore to New Orleans, there were two sisters sitting next to me who were absolute dolls! So very sweet, and full up to the brim with joie de vivre. They flat out made my heart happy.

5)Yesterday I met a plethora of my favorite authors. This also made my heart happy.

*bonus*

6 and then some) The folks are friendly, my roommates are, as my mum would say, both peaches.
The sun may not be shining down here today, but I've got a Jambie Jo in my pocket (well, sort of), I met Laura & Kris from Mlr last night and found I liked them as much in person as I did via email and such...and Ethan Day, Damon Suede and all the gentlemen of the Gentlemen's Juke Junket put on a fine time for us last night at Lafitte's in Exile. Yeah. That's a whole lotta reasons to be loving my Friday, and finding it fabulous.  

Think Tank Thursday: Of Chicks & Dicks

So, y'all know by now that I write a whole lotta man on man action. Cause, yummers! There's more dicks that way. And I am not ashamed to say I love those funny mushroom capped tube steaks. But really, not having one of my own, I wonder sometimes if I'm getting it right when I write the male orgasm...

So, when my friend Anne Tenino came up with a little questionnaire about what the big O feels like for someone with a homegrown, actually attached to their body permanently penis...I asked to get in on the action.

Yeah, but I need your help.

If I can figure out how to put this up as a downloadable thingy, it'll be up here on the website that way soon...but in the meantime, I'll just copy and paste, and beg you to post answers in the comments section. If you don't have a penis, please ask someone you know who does have one to answer the questions. That would rock out loud. :)

Oh, and if there is anything we didn't ask, feel free to leave an additional point in your comment about something you think we should know in order to write realistic male orgasms.

Right. Here's the questionnaire then:

Anne's Male Orgasm Questionnaire

Please answer all questions as thoroughly as possible.  This questionnaire is intended for research, but some answers will be shared in upcoming blog posts in November 2011 on the Chicks & Dicks blog (chicksndicks.blogspot.com).  Any information identifying you with this questionnaire will be removed as soon as it's received.

Finished questionnaires can be emailed to anne@annetenino.com, or left here in the comment section. If you want to email, just cut and paste the questionnaire into a document and then shoot it over to Anne. :) 

1.  Pre-cum: how much to do you produce, and how excited do you get before it appears?

2.  When do you start to feel orgasm approaching? Is there a point where you think something like "A-ha,  there it is."? (I ask this because for most women there is a feeling like this-- keep in mind we don't necessarily have one every time.)

3.  Do your testicles pull up? How much and when? Slowly over time, right before you come, etc. Are there other physical signs that orgasm is approaching or imminent?

4.  Where do your orgasms generally seem to begin? Testicles, anus, some weird internal spot you can't define?  Do you have a clue what I mean? Does your spine tingle?

5. Can you describe the progression of your orgasm?  Once you've started to come, do you begin ejaculating right away? Are the physical feelings concentrated in one spot the whole time, or do they travel around?

6.  How does the sensation of ejaculation enhance your orgasm, or not?  What percentage of the pleasurable sensations are associated with the ejaculate coming down the urethra?

7. How far do you "shoot" regularly?

8. Where else do you feel your orgasm? Anus, testicles, taint, etc.

9. About how long does it last? How much of that time are you ejaculating?

10. Have you ever given up and decided it just wasn't going to happen this time?

11. Have you ever faked an orgasm?

12.  Top, bottom, versatile or no anal?

13. Have you ever had a prostate orgasm?

14.  Is there anything you want to to tell me (or maybe feel compelled to tell me) about the male orgasm that isn't covered in the previous questions? I am eager to be enlightened.

Work in Progress Wednesday...today that's me.

I didn't get out of bed today.

Thought I was sick until I remembered what today was. Anniversary of my sister's death.

So, today?

The work in progress is me.
I'm working on being thankful for every moment I spent with that wonderful woman.

Thanks, Wendy, for every wonderful thing you did. I miss you. Your crooked smile and your chicken in the barnyard laugh that tickled everyone around you into laughing as well. I miss your clear eyed honesty, and your heart stubborn loyalty. 

You? Were and are so very dear to me. Love you.

Tuesday Triumph: A Revealing Interview with Lily Harlem

.     Today's triumph is all about the fabulositiy of Ms. Lily Harlem. Ladies and gentlemen, take some advice from one who has read some of her work...


      Get out your asbestos panties and jocks,  cause when Lily picks up a pen, the result is sure to be fiery! I cooked up a few questions for Lily, and she kindly consented to answer them...with the result being the intriguing little Q & A you'll find below.
      Go, read the interview. Then, when you find yourself panting *mind out of the gutter luv* for more of Lily's fabulous brand of steamy, sexy romance--get right on over to Lily Harlem's corner of the world and poke around. There's sure to be something sexy going on.
  
     Can you tell us a little about the story you have coming out today?

    

     My short story Berets and Bras is an action packed military romance. There are only two characters in the whole book and the sexual tension fizzes from the word go and  steams right until the end!
  
     What was the inspiration for this particular piece?

I was thinking of hunky military types one day and just felt compelled to create one of my own- that is how my mind works! Tom came about and of course he needed a love/lust interest. That’s when I decided to give the tale a twist. He wouldn’t have an ordinary woman, not a big macho mercenary guy like him. So Carol, or Carl as she’s known, is a feisty little thing and a force to be reckoned with in her own right.

 What did you love about writing this book?

The way the truth simmers beneath what they are feeling and then the sudden urgency and the unique circumstances in which they come together - its explosive.


Was anything especially difficult for you in this story?

Imagining what it is like to be under fire – fortunately not something I have experienced. And also getting a past, present and future into a short story is always a challenge.


What inspired you to write your first book?

The first piece of saucy literature I wrote was for a competition. It’s called Madam President, and is all about the first female president of the USA having a wild romping affair with the British Prime Minister – they are of course both gorgeous! I was thrilled when their naughty Oval Office shenanigans won me the Love Honey Award for Erotic Fiction. I realized then that I had found my genre! You can read Madam President for FREE on my website.


*waggling eyebrows* 


Any guilty pleasures that steal you away from your writing process?

Walking. I love to walk. I am very lucky and live near the beach so spend a lot of time mooching along the water’s edge with my hyperactive dog - usually dreaming up more spicy stories.

The delectable Mr. Harlem is another wonderful guilty pleasure and is far too distracting for his own good!


Who is your favorite character you’ve written to date and why?

Not one but three favourite characters and the list is growing. I’ve dreamed up my own hockey team called the Vipers. I have three full length novels in my Hot Ice series to date, and Logan ‘Pheonix’ Taylor, The Brick, and Rick ‘Ramrod’ Lewis are just smoke-off-the page, rough and ready gorgeous. I am working on the fourth book now, and Raven is just as delectable, and the woman who catches him every bit as lucky as my other heroines.


Who is your favorite character, full stop? In anyone’s written or unwritten story.

Great question. I thought it would be hard to answer but no. I adore Henry DeTamble from the Time Traveller’s Wife. I completely fell for him and my heart soared and broke as I read the book. I thought Eric Bana was wonderfully cast in the film.


Do you get hot and bothered when writing sex?

No, not hot and bothered, but I type really, really fast when I am getting to the grand finale!! And if anyone interrupts me – not pretty!


Mention one element that readers will find in all your books, and why.

Sex, sex, and more sex. Usually toys and bit of kink too. Why? Because I like to leave the bedroom door open. It is so disappointing if you’ve spent an entire book waiting for your hero and heroine to get it together and then just as they are heading up the stairs hand in hand, lust in their eyes….  The End!!!!!


What do you come away with after you’re finished writing a book?

Usually it is more like what do I get – a really messy house. I am rubbish at keeping up with my chores when my head is in a novel. Everything goes to pot as I frantically get the story down. In a way I hope my readers get an element of that too, that they become lost in the story and forget about mundane tasks, real life, for a little while at least.


What book would you recommend to a new reader that isn’t familiar with your work?

I write a lot of ménage, Shared and Shared Too, being two full lengths. They’re explicit but also romantic. They would be a good place to start. But also my Mattress Music trilogy, it heats as the stories follow a raunchy group of rock-stars finding their girls! Or just try my new release today, Berets and Bras!


What is coming next? (WIP)

As I mentioned I am working on my Hot Ice series, but also on a few short stories and a co-author. I write with the multi-talented Natalie Dae. We have our first novel out in April next year with Total-E-Bound, That Filthy Book, and we are currently midway through writing our second. I also have a Christmas novel, Cold Nights, Hot Bodies, that is waiting for editing. I’m looking forward to re-visiting my characters in that one, its about a girl who is obsessed with reading erotic romance!

Manic Monday: Falling into You

The world is grey and chill.
The coffee pot sits silent and still.
I stand, at my window on the world dreaming of yesterday and the times I could not help but fall into you.

Yeah, you sweet room of musical glory.
You my lovely Utah, abundant with laughter and sighs, hopeful waiting and nervous second tries.
I'd give the world for my memories of times spent, belly up to the bar, laughing with Laura as I ate a fabulous humus plate. Damn I hope they still make those. My mouth waters just thinking of it bursting across my palate, garlic and lemony brightness wrapped in chickpea and pita bread.

The warp and weft of time in that room never felt the same as anywhere else in the world. I'm not sure what made it that way. Perhaps the intimacy of the space? The little alcove just down the stairs, balcony above, cavern of creativity below and sound board to one side certainly felt like home.

Hell, who am I kidding?
All the way across the country, or even half a world away when I was in Germany, The Utah still feels like home.

Rock on babies, and kiss someone for me, especially Donna Jean and Hal Marcus, cause those two? Are beyond delicious.
Yeah.
Use your hips to move across the room tonight, in honor of my love of movement.
Dance on up to the bar for a cosmo or perfectly poured draft,
and for the love of music, and whatever else you hold holy, tip your bartender.

Don't miss me, lovely ones...life is too short for regret, and I am as Laura so aptly put it, busy writing salacious stories.
Heh.
They truly are often hot enough to singe my laptop.
*waggles eyebrows*
Know that I'm there tonight, cause really?
I'm at the Utah every night in my heart.

Smooches.

A very PG-rated Sunday Snog

From The Tales of Rue & Woe

Being fourteen?

Sucks.

You’re too old to just chill with your toys, and too young to do anything else. Just riding bikes with your buds isn’t an all day event anymore, unless you’re some kinda freaky exercise nut. Not old enough to drive, not old enough to just tell the folks you’re going “out” without having to explain in minute detail just where “out” is, and thinking up the lies to tell them about study projects and wholesome activities when all you really wanna do is go hang at the rink and watch the cute boys play in the skate park.

Huh.

When my mom first took me to the park…I dunno. Maybe I was four? I found the prettiest boy in the park and told him he was my friend. He smiled at me, and to this day I compare every boy’s smile to that one. I find it hard not to compare everything in my life to that day. I can still feel the soft warmth his pouty lips and little white teeth instilled in me curling into my chest whenever I feel lost, or alone.

Of course, when I was four all I knew was I liked him. He was older, tall and strong. I thought he was the smartest, most beautiful person I’d ever met in my whole life and I asked his name. He smiled a crooked little smile, and let a jumble of letters fall from his lips.

When he told me his name I couldn’t make all the sounds come out right.  I know the very first part of the word was woe. My mother wrote his name down, I think because she couldn’t say it either, and to this day the letters look like an incomprehensible mishmash of consonants to me. I ended up just calling him Woe.

Woe was the very first boy I kissed.

At the end of a magical afternoon where he played the part of a friendly giant rescuing me from the clutches of an evil magician over and over again, he knelt in the grass to give me a hug goodbye. I recall clearly rocking up on my tippy-toes to reach his cheek, and pressing a kiss against the smooth surface with ice-cream sticky lips.

I asked him to wait for me to grow up before he married anybody.

“Woe, can you wait to gets married? ‘Cause if you wait, the you could marry me when I grow up. I don’t think nobody could never love you as much as me.”

Woe turned startled eyes on my mother, and then got up from the grass, patted my head one last time and walked out of my life. He’s been half a step ahead of me ever since. I guess not much has changed in my life in the past ten years. Boys are still running away after I kiss them.

Well, sometimes they beat the shit out of me instead, or stop talking to me. One tried to get me to bend over, but dude. He was scary. Plus, I heard Woe is moving back, and I’m waiting for Woe. 

***************

Find more Snogging Goodness by clicking on the following links:

Not so Cold Call by Sandrine Lopez

Timey Whimey Sunday Wunday Snoggy Woggy
Tomfoolery by Kat Black
Freddy MacKay's Sunday Snog
A Snogger Prepares by Aussiescribbler

and of course the one that started them all by the incomparable Mz. Blisse

Spiced Vanilla

Saturday --My window on the world.

My window on the world looks out on main street in a little city.
The leaves of the tree that waves to me every morning have begun to bow to the dictates of fall.
Yellows and golds mingle with the green of late summer still, and the rain from last night stripped one branch nearly bare.

I'll be back later to tell you what the day has held for me, but for now?
I'm off to a birthday party.
Ciao.