So, how do you like the new look to the site? Quicker loading? It’s minimalist, huh? I love the rotating images at the top. Those are paintings of women writing or reading along with a pirate, a paranormal investigator, and one or two nice paintings. I’m still going through making sure the stuff I changed works properly though.

I wanted to add another painting but it’s kind of racy, even by today’s standards. It’s the Venus of Urbino by Titian. I’ll post it here, but I won’t as a banner. Don’t want to give some unsuspecting visitor an MI. LOL

For a larger version, click here.

I’m off to Walmart to pick up my meds and then home again to work on rewrites. Skipped the gym yesterday and today, I have a cold. (Pretty sure I got it from the kids hacking on ME.) I don’t want to hack all over the equipment or anyone else. I figure I’d be okay to go back tomorrow. Okay, okay, I lifted some weights this morning, working on my arms. So I wasn’t completely lazy.

Today I am home working on edits for my ghost hunter novel. This weekend the book took a turn for the better. Saturday I had an epiphany. My heroine was too serious for my hero. He’s serious and it fits his character, but she needed to loosen up with a some more humor. When they are together, the banter is just so fun because she brings out his more relaxed and flirtatious side. I’m racing to keep up with the changes and the tone is definitely better.

In doing the rewrites, I am wondering if I was trying to adapt my style to the other books in the Blaze line, thus making it harder for me to write. I shouldn’t try to adapt my style, and instead I should let my style come through. All in all, I am liking this more. The story was good, but now it is better.

Here’s a snippet of what I mean:

In riding with Daniel she’d made a serious tactical error. The entire situation reminded her of a bully on a playground calling her a chicken. In the attempt to prove herself, she made a mistake costing her hours alone with Daniel–long, grueling hours of smelling his damn fine aftershave which seemed to be enhanced by his body’s chemistry. No man had the right to smell so delicious.

Brooke bit her bottom lip and suppressed the urge to yell at him. Screaming wouldn’t solve anything. She’d fallen into his trap, her tormented I-need-to-come-now-now-now condition her own fault.

Infuriating man. Who would have guessed Daniel could be so…so…manipulative? He tricked her into the long drive from Tallahassee to Andersonville by issuing a challenge, and she accepted without really thinking out the consequences.

Okay, note to self: beware quiet, sexy analytical type paranormal investigators issuing challenges.

Okay, did you giggle once or twice while reading that?

I had a ball writing this pirate adventure. I would listen to the soundtracks to all the Pirates of the Caribbean movies as I imagined Captain Jason Flint strutting the deck of his pirate vessel, The Sea Hawk. In the scene below is a duel on the beach between Jason and Captain Lorenzo Mendoza, Spanish pirate who took Jason’s mistress, Shelley, in payment for stolen goods–namely The Sea Hawk.

I remember when I got the cover for Sea Hawk’s Mistress. I did a happy dance. Jason is exactly how I pictured in my head. This is still my favorite cover.

See more about Sea Hawk’s Mistress (included in the trade paperback Pirate’s Mistress)

EXCERPT from Sea Hawk’s Mistress

Out of the green foliage walked a group of men—led by Jason!

His face was hard, his mouth drawn in a grim line. His eyes were like stone and he walked past her without a glimmer of recognition.

“Mendoza, I believe you have something of mine,” Jason said commandingly.

Lorenzo laughed and waved Jason to come and sit outside his tent, where there sat a few chairs and a small table set for morning refreshments.

“I do not recall having anything belonging to you, Capitán,” Lorenzo said as he sat. “You had stolen my ship and I collected on that debt. We are even.”

Errol Flynn in "The Sea Hawk"

Jason refused to sit and stood glaring at the Spaniard. “We are not even.”

Lorenzo thought for a moment. “Yes, perhaps it was not an even trade. She is worth much more to me than any ship.”

“The girl is mine. I’m here to take her back.”

Lorenzo clucked his tongue. “No, Capitán, she is mine. You have a fine ship and I have a beautiful woman. My hunt for revenge is over. Now leave this island before I grow angry and teach you another lesson.”

Shelley stood stunned, watching the exchange. Jason acted as though she was invisible, yet he demanded her return. A shiver of anticipation skittered down her spine at the thought of his naked body sliding along hers. She almost moaned at the mental image of being tied to his bed, ass in the air, ripe for a paddling. Cream gathered between her legs and her cunt clenched in want for his touch.

Her reaction to Jason was so much deeper than that to Mendoza. She was attracted to Lorenzo, but she was in love with Jason. Her pirate lover awakened the woman inside who yearned to emerge and experience sexual pleasure—and love.

“Careful, Captain, I am not feeling forgiving this morning.”

Lorenzo leaned forward in his chair. “Don’t threaten me, Capitán. The senorita remains as my lovely hostage.”

Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Carribean

Jason laid a hand upon the hilt of his sword. “She comes with me. The woman is my slave, and as such, she is my property.” He drew his sword and pointed the tip at Lorenzo. Jason’s command faltered for a split second before he fought down the outward sign of weakness.

Shelley took note of the painful wince upon Jason’s face. She wanted to go to his side and help him. But his countenance was firm—his heart was ice. He wouldn’t even spare a glance in her direction.

“I fear you take your life into your own hands. You are not well enough to face my blade.”

“Afraid to find out, Mendoza?”

Lorenzo’s face turned angry. “You are a fool, Capitán.” He stood and pulled his blade from the sheath at his side. “You see her as only a slave. I see her as my future wife. I will fight for what I claim as mine.”

Wife? Shelley glanced from Lorenzo to Jason as they stripped away their side arms and began to circle each other on the beach.

Lorenzo wanted to marry her. Jason wanted to possess her. What did she want?

When Jason pealed away his coat, the strips of a bandage shone beneath his white linen shirt. Her breath caught as the men faced each other—anger, resentment and revenge filling the air with a thick aura of negativity.

Someone was not going to walk away from this confrontation. Someone was going to die. Could she live with the consequences of this battle?

It was like watching a scene from a movie as the two powerful men faced off with their sword skills as their only defense.

“Perhaps we should end this feud today,” Lorenzo quipped as he slashed his sword through the air. “To the winner go the lady and the ship.”

Shelley’s heart beat wildly as Jason swung his sword at his foe.

“So be it!” The crash of metal against metal filled the air as the two pirate captains battled upon the beach—fighting for their very lives.

Her chest tightened as her breath came quicker, anxiety pumping through her veins with each beat of her heart. How could she stand here watching Jason and Lorenzo fight over her like wild beasts over a mate? To the winner go her body—and all the rights of a male over his woman.

Lorenzo cut and slashed and Jason parried each attack. However, strain etched Jason’s face with each cut of his sword. His prior wound was draining his strength quickly and Lorenzo used it to his advantage. Instinctively, she moved forward when Jason fell backward onto the sand. She was promptly grabbed by Jason’s first mate, held back from interfering in the battle.

“It is between them now,” he whispered.

Lorenzo motioned to Jason to rise before continuing the fight.

“This is insane!” She pulled her arm from the man’s grasp. “Jason is injured. He can’t last much longer against Lorenzo.”

“He knew that before he even challenged Mendoza.” He paused then said as they watched Jason attack Mendoza once again with his sword, “He loves you more than his own life.”

“What good will that do me if he gets himself killed?” She turned to the pirate and pleaded with him. “Let me go. I must stop this.”

“Do you love him?”

Tears streaked down her face as her heart’s longing ate at her soul. “More than anything.”

They turned back to the men fighting for the right to own her, and when Mendoza slashed open a wound on Jason’s right arm, Shelley screamed.

She broke away from her captor and ran across the soft sand, yelling, “Stop!”

Jason grabbed at the wound with his left hand, pausing a moment to stanch the blood. Lorenzo lowered his sword at her approach. She ran to Jason’s side and threw herself at him. She clung to his body crying and he wrapped his right forearm about her waist weakly.

“Jason…please stop. I can’t take anymore,” she wept.

“Shh, luv.” Jason nuzzled her hair and her tears flowed harder.

From behind her, Lorenzo breathed heavily. “Go. Take her. And the Sea Hawk.”

She turned in Jason’s arms. “You’re letting me go?”

He closed the distance between them. Touching her face with gentle fingertips, he said in a low voice, “I stole a few moments with you, querdia. You will always carry with you a part of my heart…but I see your heart belongs to him.” He looked up and gazed at Jason. “Gold and jewels buy a warm companion for your bed, but there is no treasure as precious as the love and devotion of a true lady.”

Booked my flight to Chicago for next month. I can hardly wait! Spending a week in Chicago with Annmarie. She’s making a list with her friend Misia of things to do, places to go, and where to eat. LOL Don’t worry, I bought a new camera so there will be lots of pictures.

Oh yeah, I need to go over that handout. We are doing a workshop for the Spring Fling conference, and Kim (AM’s cousin) made up a handout. I started adding a lot to it…I need to finish that.

Before Chicago I have Pensacola Beach. The weekend after next I’ll be driving buds Dana and Tracy across Florida to the Silken Sands conference. I’m not pitching but I plan on networking. I am planning on talking to an editor there about my ghost hunters.

Speaking of which, I’m working on rewrites, of course. Cracking myself up as I go along. Its close to when I wrote Beast in My Bed, funny moments that develop characterization. Okay, moments that make me laugh with evil delight. Hey, got to get those moments in amid the grammar tediousness.

Don’t worry, it is all going well.

Oh and the depression… I’m fine with that too. The medication I’m taking has really helped. I’m laughing more and I feel good. Of course getting on the treadmill to work out my frustrations through activity helps too. I have more energy. I mean, I was up at midnight the other night dancing in the kitchen to tunes on my iPod because I couldn’t sleep.

The only real complaint I have with the med is that I am not sleeping well at night. I don’t stay asleep. Tired but not sleepy, know what I mean?

Okay, got 60 pages edited/rewritten.

190 to go.

Uh yeah, I made that lolcats pic.

Edited to add:

hooman=human

It’s the lolcats speak…

Get it now, Blondie?

LOL

I thought I’d post an EC author reaction to this latest report of the ongoing legal drama involving Ellora’s Cave and Samhain’s owner and former EC Publisher, Christina Brashears. To read more click here.

First I wanted to say that when I went to Dear Author to check out the article and the comments, there was a Samhain Publishing ad on there. Right off I’m thinking there may be some favoritism ahead when I read this.

But then again….read on…

Looks as though the legal battle is dragging since April 2008. There’s been a counter suit and failure to show in court leading to contempt charges. Why didn’t EC’s lawyer show up? This is the third lawyer they had on the case, the first two withdrawing. What is going on?

I can say that my books there haven’t been making like they used to, but then I haven’t had a release there in a while.

I don’t get the reason sales are down for OTHERS as there is such a surge in ereaders like the Kindle, the Sony reader, and the as for the iPhone and the upcoming iPad. Ebook sales have jumped across the board, so why not at EC too?

Here are a few possibilities: Readers are not visiting individual publisher websites to buy ebooks like they used to. It is too convenient to buy books from a one stop shop like the Amazon Kindle store, the Sony store or Fictionwise (owned by B&N). I know from my own experience, I buy ebooks from Fictionwise’s Ebookwise site. (I have an eBookwise reader which delivers my purchases right to my reader via a USB cable.) Ellora’s Cave and Cerridwen aren’t even listed on Fictionwise or eBookwise. EC is on Amazon, but the books are marked up. On the EC site a Quickie is 2.49, but in the Amazon Kindle store it’s listed as 3.98. IMHO that is a lot for a 12K story. Add in that there are 2 release days a week at EC with like 6-8 books each time, no one is really getting a chance to emerge as a star like they used to.

Anyway, I’m interested to see how this all pans out. If it was me, I would have wanted to settle out of court. Or at least show up to court. Avoidance is not going to gain time.

Patty Marks, the CEO of Jasmine Jade/Ellora’s Cave, wrote to the authors to reassure that the legal battle will have no affect on the business of publishing.

Time will tell, right?

As for me, I have an idea I’m about to work on after I’m through with edits on my current project. I plan on subbing it to EC. Why? Because I’m there already and they DO pay. Basically, I don’t care about the legal problems these folks are going through. As long as I get paid, I’m okay. I have titles at EC that continue to sell well month after month and they’ve been out for years. Have I thought about subbing to Samhain? Of course. And I haven’t reconsidered that possibility, I just don’t have anything to offer them at this point. I am more focused on getting in a NY pub right now, and I think my ghost hunters will be the ticket I need to do it. This is going to be the year.

[Pictured is one of my EC releases, Sea Hawk's Mistress {buy link}. The other, Friends with Benefits by Kelly Jamieson {buy link}, is published by Samhain Publishing.]

AM, I bow to your brilliance.

And for someone who surely needs a laugh…

Medieval Menage is available on Amazon now.

I made that one today on lolcats. Yes, I am sick. Funny, but sick.

Okay, back to editing. And my usual question?  “What’s another word for moan or groan?” There’s always a lot of both of those going on in this book, and it does get repetitive. LOL

Just a note to say I’m heading to the library to crank through edits. Still have like 3 scenes to add in though. I’ll worry about those after I go through what I have down on paper first. It is all about “tightening”. The adage is true, good writing is rewriting.

So, AM if you try to call me, I’m telling you here–I’m in the library. Texting, okay. Calling, not so much.