Anywho, because I was so rushed and in a hurry to get back to my manuscript, I decided to make tacos for dinner last night. They’re quick and filling and everyone in my house will eat them. As I was draining the meat in the sink, the fan that sits in the kitchen window fell (it wasn’t plugged in.) It hit the big wooden spoon I held which flipped up and splashed into the hot grease, spilling it all over my thumb and…the front of my very thin tank top.

Now, my thumb I can stick under the cold water tap or in the freezer on the side of the ice cream carton. I can’t exactly stick my boob under the tap or in the freezer. *sigh* Yes, that’s what got burned courtesy of my thin shirt. And really, it seems okay. The thumb and the boob. They both stung for an hour and everything was fine after that. But man, when someone asks you how your weekend was and you have to say “I burned my boob” well, that’s when it’s time to fall back on the old reliable, “It was okay.”

This week my co-worker is back from Napa (Yay!) and even though it’s month end, it shouldn’t be a killer. I spent last week with my nose so firmly to the grindstone it’s a wonder I have one left. But it left us in good shape so we probably won’t have to stress. I do have my IT budget due but I think I’ve got it in the bag. So I’m hopeful the work week isn’t too harsh.

Once Sunstroked has gone to my editor I may write up a romantic suspense review over at the Lex Valentine blog this week. I read one this past week at lunch and I was impressed. It had me turning the pages like a fiend. I’m not even a suspense fan! But I truly enjoyed the hero and heroine and the plot was exciting and timely. So if you see a Valentine Review come across Facebook or Twitter for Carried Away, you might want to check it out.

I’ve been thinking lately that I should look for some new Marcus images. You never know when new ones will turn up. For a guy pushing 40 Marcus is still hotter than hot.

We should all have genes that good. *sigh* Looking at him should have you in the burn zone in no time! LOL Have a smokin’ hot Monday, but don’t burn yourselves!

Big thanks to Lex Valentine for letting us come here and play today! We’ll get started with our first Q&A.

Dead and Totally Doable

Q: Do we bite? Do we like the idea of being bitten by others? What is our take on vampires?

A:

Michelle: Yes. No. Yes. Wait, what was the question again?

I don’t bite. It’s Mandy you have to look out for. With me you’re generally safe unless you’re a giant plate of pasta… mmm…pasta. Wait, darn it!, I got distracted again.

In real life, I don’t really like to be bit. You know, mouth germs and all. But in novel life I think the idea of vampires needing your blood to survive, that thing that is primitive and vital to our own lives, is very intimate. Vampire represent those things most humans long to be. They’re immortal and we’re generally afraid of death or at least fearful of the unknown. Vampires are (depending on the version) beautiful and alluring. We age and have bad hair days. They’re powerful, beyond mortal law, and intense. Plus, they have the age = knowledge thing happening because they’ve been there, done that. As  a woman, being chosen by a vampire is like being chosen not only above all others in your time, but all others over *enter the vamp’s age here*.

Of course, this isn’t counting the horror version of the vampire. With that version some of the same things still apply. They’re powerful and primitive. I think they represent those parts we’re not allowed to express…with good reason. Whether horror movie or romance novel versions, Vampire live beyond societal restraints. It’s a fun world to play in.

As for my books, I tend to like the darker vampires—brooding, bored, arrogant, with a god complex. They’re not all saints. Some struggle with their curse. Some think it’s a gift. In the coming month’s I’ll be re-releasing Tribes of the Vampire through The Raven Books (www.TheRavenBooks.com). Much of my world building is based on extensive historical research and vampire myths from all cultures—not just the typical Victorian view of vamps. Now that it has a new home, I hope to add to the series very soon.

Mandy: Do I bite? Hell yeah! Hard. Really hard. I love, love, love the idea of vampires and being bitten. I wish I could fully explain it but I don’t understand it myself. All I know is Dark Shadows did it for me in a big way. The very idea of a timeless, immortal bad ass who needs something from someone weaker (human) is a turn on to me. I think it gives them a layer of vulnerability and empowers the human within the story—unless of course your vampires are evil blood-lusting crazed maniacs who drain everything they see until it’s shriveled.

Vampires are what first inspired me to write fiction at all. Daughter of Darkness has a master vampire named Pallo in it who owns and operates Necro’s Magik World & Supernatural Theme Park. Think of Victor Victoria—but here you have a vampire, pretending to be a man, pretending to be a vampire who owns a supernaturally themed amusement park. The idea came to me while on vacation with my family at Sandusky, Ohio’s Cedar Point—Hallow Weekends. So, yes, to answer the question, dead is totally doable and I bite.

Featured M&M Book of the Day:

Buy Link

Raven Books

www.theravenbooks.com

Raven titles are available on Amazon.com as well as other third party sites

Mandy M Roth

www.mandyroth.com

Michelle M Pillow

www.michellepillow.com

Thanks for letting us hang here, Lex! Everyone, remember that to be entered in the contest at the end of the tour, you need to comment on the posts. You can enter as much as you like.

Join us tomorrow when we visit Shelley Munro where we answer the question Who Are You Again? ? (Shelley’s url Blog: http://www.shelleymunro.com/blog/ )

Many thanks to Michelle and Mandy for coming by and talking vampires today. They sure made having a guest blogger totally painless.  I already have a bunch of their books, but I must check out Daughter of Darkness since I don’t have that one. Oh, and here’s Dave2’s TVC, just to titillate us this Tuesday! LOL

Wishing you all a very TVC Tuesday!

Anyway, I’m really bad. I can’t breathe. I feel like I’m suffocating. My chest burns and my inhalers are not helping.

Why? you ask.

The answer is simple. Because people are selfish. Actually, smokers are selfish.

The stupid tubes of tobacco have been proven bad for people yet there are those who still light them up.  They don’t care if it kills them. They also don’t care if it kills me.

As an asthmatic I’ve learned that every breath is precious. Yet here I sit, lightheaded from lack of oxygen, my meds working OT but doing nothing. All because there is a smoker at the front of my house and others outside my window and all the air I breathe is polluted with their selfishness.

I live in an old condo. It doesn’t have central air. It has an ancient wall unit in the dining room at the floor level. Two summers ago the painters painted over the outside of it when they painted the building and it’s never worked the same since. The condo sits over the building’s two garages. The dryers for all four condos in the building vent INSIDE the garage. And the Asian family in the condo next to mine do laundry 24/7.

In the summer, the heat in my house is impossible. I must have fans on and the windows open. My neighbors have been moving all weekend, standing beneath my bedroom window to smoke their cigs. Rott has been pissed off all weekend so he’s not gone completely outside to smoke. He’s standing (or sitting) at the open front door. And even if he did go outside on the front balcony, the way the fans and the wind around here works, it would still get sucked back to my bedroom where I work.

The result is that I’m seriously fucked when it comes to being able to breathe.  I just want to run away to someplace where there is untainted air. Where my every breath doesn’t feel strangled in my lungs. The frustration and the fear is overwhelming. Can you imagine how you would feel if you had a pillow on your face all day? That is me trying to breathe while being surrounded by smokers.

Nikki will be checking on me to ensure I don’t have any issues once I pass out, er go to sleep. Hopefully, it will get better now that the neighbors seem to be done for the night. They’re a selfish lot on a lot of levels, but you prolly remember the parking wars post. Oy.

Anyway, here’s a Marcus for today and then I have some exciting news about Tuesday!

Oh, he is so yummeh. *sigh*

Anyway, tomorrow there will be a special Sunlight Sucks post! Authors Mandy M. Roth and Michelle M. Pillow will be here talking about vampires and their books.  I hope you will stop by and show them some comment love.

Wishing you a breath of fresh air Monday!

In the past, I’ve deal with mega-stress. I’ve suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder from the onset of sudden massive stress like my parents dying 6 months apart.  I’m beyond that now and I haven’t felt those odd disassociated pangs and horrific nightmares in many years.

The stress I deal with now is insidious and grows exponentially depending upon the moods of those around me, my workload, my deadlines, money, the demands of my kid, how much my body hurts, and how tired I am at any given time. The ebb and flow of high or higher stress is nothing like the 500 pound gorilla suddenly in my face stress I suffered in the past. But it comes with its own set of inherent issues.

Since the way I do virtually everything seems to have changed monumentally in the past year, I think I need to sit down and strategize how to do what I need to do while under the influence of this new type of stress. How I deal with deadlines is a good example. In the past, I would work away at my manuscripts every weekend without fail. Now, every weekend, I nap. A lot. I don’t turn on my IM. I don’t do anything but futz a little, delete my email, and nap. Then I realize I have a deadline and I push myself for a few days at high speed, operating on very little sleep in order to get things done. I back myself in a corner and go on an all nighter for several nights in a row until I’ve forced myself to do what needed to be done.

I could have just made myself work an hour a day on the damn writing, but oh, no I had I procrastinate and feel the stress and do nothing until I hit panic mode while sitting in that corner I backed myself into. And I don’t know why I’m doing this to myself. I astound me. In my head, I know better. A lot better. But do I listen to myself? Do I make myself do what needs to be done?

NO.  I nap.

Now that I’ve decided that stress has rewired me, I have to figure out to wire myself to hit deadlines and other things better. Some people will say it’s a lack of discipline that is causing this. In some ways, they might be right. For the most part, they are not.

For decades I’ve suffered from insomnia. Now, I seem to have the need to catch up on all those hours of sleep I lost over the years. Hence my weekends spent sleeping I think. I’m just damned tired and when I try to do the right thing, I fall asleep at my desk trying to do it. I often feel like my insomnia has morphed into narcolepsy.

Acknowledging that my life is beyond different and I can’t do things the way I used to even a year ago is a big step. I’m hoping I can come to some sort of agreement with myself that leads me out of this corner I’ve backed myself into. Baby steps I tell myself. Just ease into it. Cold turkey might be way too much…although it worked with cigarettes when I got pregnant with Nikki. At any rate, this easing myself out of the corner may mean I’ll drop a post into this blog a bit more often than just Mondays. I did it this week. We’ll see how it goes rolling forward.

Now, it’s time for a lovely Marcus. I missed him last week!

Here he is with some hot companionship for those of you who like women.

Wishing you a stress fee Monday!