A Writer's 'Not-so-Naughty' Thoughts

Audiobooks and how June Appreciates Them

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn R. Blake) — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:00:05 +0000

Every June, Audiobook Appreciation Month celebrates the joy, accessibility, and growing impact of audiobooks. Founded by the Audio Publishers Association, the event highlights how audiobooks—once limited to cassettes and CDs—have evolved into a widely embraced digital medium. The month-long celebration promotes audiobooks’ educational, entertainment, and inclusive value, especially for those with print disabilities or busy lifestyles. Libraries, publishers, and platforms join in with events, recommendations, and genre explorations, honoring the unique listening experience audiobooks offer.

Timeline and History of Audiobooks
A short history of audiobooks and how they have developed over time.

https://www.ala.org/aasl/advocacy/promo/audiobook

Preventing Animal Cruelty

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn R. Blake) — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 20:12:00 +0000

April is Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month, a nationwide observance dedicated to raising awareness about animal cruelty and finding ways to combat it, as recognized by the ASPCA since 2006.

This month is a time to focus on preventing animal cruelty and promoting animal welfare.

ASPCA's Role:

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) officially recognizes April as Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month.

Raising Awareness:

The goal is to raise awareness about the mistreatment of animals and encourage people to take action to prevent cruelty.

How to Get Involved:

You can participate by utilizing social media, adopting a shelter animal, partnering with organizations advocating for change, starting or donating to fundraising campaigns, reporting neglect and abuse, volunteering at local animal shelters, or lobbying for change.

Other Organizations:

The MSPCA-Angell also recognizes April as Animal Cruelty Prevention Month.

World Animal Month:

October is celebrated as World Animal Month in over 80 countries, which aims to bring attention to and increase appreciation of animals.

So, if you're an animal love like I am (a rescue Mommy), I hope you can help prevent animal cruelty. Kathryn

What does Book Blitz Month Mean? (Repost)

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn R. Blake) — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 08:00:00 +0000

So, you've heard January is Book Blitz month. Whoopie! Now what? Well, as an author I can answer that question. Join in the fun. Read! Finish that book you started eons ago. Yeah, the one that has the bookmark in it with a layer of dust. Would you like some other suggestions as to how you can honor the month? No? Tough, I'm giving them to you anyway.

1.      Set a goal for the number of books you plan to read during the month. We're almost halfway through the month now, so if you think you can only squeeze in one book, try this. Determine the number of pages the book you've selected has, and divide that number by 15. That's how many pages you'll need to read to finish the book by the 31^st. Easy peasy, right?
2.      Check with your friends and get suggestions for books they think you'd like, given your elite preferences in reading material, of course. Then purchase or borrow the books and read them. Amazon has a nice borrowing program for their eBooks that you and your friends can use if you both have Kindles. No Kindle, no problem. Your library is a good source of reading material, too.
3.      Ask your friends, or pick on one friend, to hold you accountable for your reading goal. Hey, that's what friends are for, right? To nag you? (Only joking, sort of)
4.      Don't have time to read? I bet you have time to listen while you're doing something else. Try Audible or another audio book service and treat yourself to a book while you skip about doing other things. (Don't do this at work, however. They frown on this sort of thing. Honest.)
5.      Another great time to read is while you're taking a relaxing bath. Remember to lock the door, though, or someone may barge in just when you're get to "the good part." Another thing to keep in mind is that e-readers aren't waterproof. Nope. Drop one in the bath and it's bye-bye e-reader. However, you can seal it into a see-through plastic baggie and protect it that way. If it's a touch screen, you may have trouble turning the pages, but if your device uses a button to flip, you should be fine. No guarantees though. I still wouldn't play games like "Dunk the baggie-wrapped Kindle and see if it floats." Not a good idea.

Above all, you should have fun. Reading is meant to be an enjoyable pastime, so enjoy it! Now, stop playing on the net and go read.

International Bereaved Mothers' Day falls on the first Sunday of May (The Sunday before Mother's Day)

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn R. Blake) — Sun, 02 May 2021 20:38:00 +0000

Though I choose to celebrate Mother's Day, I am one of the unfortunate ones who lost a baby. May 10th is a day that will live in my memory forever. I was in my 26th week of pregnancy when my baby decided it was time to see the world. This was back in 1988. Today, he might have had a better chance of survival, but back then his lungs were simply too small to support his needs.

We chose, for a variety of reasons, not to try again, which I don't regret, though I still find myself getting weepy from time to time.

I wrote a fictionalized version of my situation in my novel "Acting Lessons." The story has its foundations in the musical "Kiss Me Kate," but the heroine's journey includes more than one miscarriage that has made her leery to try again.

If you're interested in reading more, the book is available at Amazon and Blushing Books. The first chapter is available for free at both sites. Check out the link below.

https://www.amazon.com/Acting-Lessons-Kathryn-R-Blake-ebook/dp/B00DNFCTR6

Coping with devastation when the most important person in your life falls critically ill #Personal #Trial

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn R. Blake) — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 20:11:00 +0000

I haven't written for this blog in a long, long time. Looks like most of my thoughts are on the "naughty" side now. Even so, I wrote this post for my naughty blog back in January and thought I would share it here as well. I'm finally getting back to writing but it's taken almost 7 months. I'm not sure whether it was fear that was holding me back or uncertainty. But I'm taking a chance and writing again. As a further note, he is doing so much better now. His voice never fully recovered, but mentally and physically he's back to full strength.

One of the most emotionally complex and difficult things a person can experience is taking care of an ill or elderly spouse or parent. When my husband became critically ill, my world turned upside down. I'm a fairly strong person, but there were times when I feared ever getting him back, and I'll admit I lost hope.

As I searched through the Internet looking up conditions and treatments, I discovered that having my normally dominant husband growing totally dependent on others for his health and welfare was similar to caring for an elderly parent. The difference being that my husband always held the potential to get well again while an elderly parent cannot grow younger.

The shock of having him laughing and joking with me one minute, then sedated, unconscious and on life support the next was almost my undoing. Since I was told he could still hear me, though he most likely wouldn't remember anything because the sedation they had him on also affected memory, I would sit beside him and carry on conversations. I liked to be with him whenever they did what they called a "sedation vacation" where they took him off sedation to see if he could follow simple instructions like opening his hands, grasping fingers and wiggling his toes. In the beginning, these commands appeared to be fairly easy for him to carry out, but the longer he remained sedated and on the ventilator the more difficult it became for him to respond.

I had great difficulty accepting the changes occurring in him. He was the stronger one and he took care of me, now it was my responsibility to take care of him. To make sure his needs were being met both medically and therapeutically.

Since he was unconscious the first few weeks of his hospitalization, I was attempting to keep my head up while I frantically tread in uncharted waters. I took things one day at a time, celebrating every small victory, and trying not to lose hope when his progress appeared to be taking a backward turn. The most difficult day for me was when we first attempted to take him off the ventilator. I expected him to be groggy and a little out of it, but still pretty much himself. He sat with his mouth open and tongue hanging down to one side as he struggled for every breath he took. I watched as his oxygen levels slowly sank into the 70s while his CO2 levels rose into the 90s. His eyes were so vacant and glazed, I doubt he even recognized me. He would only breathe through his mouth, but by the time they attempted to put a BiPap mask on him, his stats indicated he had to go back on the ventilator and quickly. I cried then. Not because he had to be ventilated again, but because even though his body was right before me, nobody was home and I was afraid he was forever lost to me.

After another week on the ventilator, I agreed to having them perform a tracheotomy, He could still be on the ventilator with a trach, but they could take him off sedation, which would allow him to interact more with his caretakers. I was told the stoma and trach didn't need to be permanent, but given his last reaction to being taken off ventilation, I suspected he would require assistance, at least at night, for the rest of his life. However, he'd never get stronger while he remained unconscious and there was a chance he'd eventually improve if he could move around, and engage more with his surroundings.

The nurses and speech therapist talked to me then about ICU delirium, which when you read about it can be pretty terrifying. As I look back now, I'm pretty sure he suffered from it along with his other problems. His apparent cognitive impairment once he was off sedation was severe. In some ways he reverted to the mentality of a two-year-old. His behavior was impulsive and he liked touching different textures (blankets, sheets, whatever he could reach). He could follow simple commands (grip hands, move legs), but had great difficulty making any sort of assessment (cold, warm, discomfort, etc.). He lost track of time and where he was, even whether it was day or night despite the large window in his room. He couldn't maintain focus for longer than a few seconds. Even when he could do these things, and appeared to be able to hold a conversation, he wasn't fully comprehending what he was saying. He was making what he believed to be an appropriate response without really understanding.

None of this surprised me after their first attempt at extubating him, and as he steadily improved, I praised his small successes. What I didn't expect was the total personality change that overcame him. The nurses claimed he was sundowning, but the differences in him appeared much worse than that. He would physically resist his caretakers and even attempted to bite a couple of nurses when they reached out to secure his nasogastric tube. He eventually yanked out the feeding tube himself despite receiving many instructions to leave it alone. He'd both challenge and insult the doctors as he grew more and more paranoid, telling me that everyone in the hospital wanted to keep him sick in order to get more money. He was convinced they were secretly trying to hurt him. I knew his fears weren't rational, but I acknowledged them as I did my best to assure him that everyone caring for him was there to help. I even had the nurse call up hospital security in attempt to assure him there were people he could call on if he was in trouble and they would protect him. He appeared to accept what was he was told, but I knew he wasn't convinced. Everyone, except me, was in collusion to steal his hard-earned money.

In his efforts to leave the hospital, he yanked out four trachs in a period of two days. By Sunday, Respiratory had no more of his size in their stock, and the stock room was closed. So, if he pulled out his current trach, we would have a medical emergency. To be sure he couldn't, they kept him in soft restraints when I wasn't there.

Another thing I didn't expect was his anger with me. But since he has no recollection of how difficult he was being, his behavior was clearly part of the delirium he was suffering. I tried to give him options and choices. In the beginning nothing interested him, but as he slowly became more aware of his surroundings he showed a modicum of interest by selecting the television programs he normally watched. However, he still had difficulty ascertaining night from day, and would insist there should be a football game on Thursday morning. When he couldn't find it after switching through all the channels, he became convinced the hospital was censoring his television. Eventually, this too passed as his comprehension and awareness grew. But with this success came another backward spiral when he refused to work with his therapists, resisting their instructions and insisting they should just let him leave the hospital. He grew convinced he was just fine when in reality he couldn't even sit up by himself. However, he did want to use the bathroom rather than a bedpan. I told him if he ever wanted to use the bathroom again he needed to at least try to do as his therapists asked. So, he grudgingly participated in the beginning, but as he physically improved, so did his attitude until he finally took an active part in his therapy.

Even the therapists were amazed by his daily improvements. However, in addition to the problems I faced with his recovery, I was battling our insurance company. They kept refusing to send him places that were equipped to deal with the different stages of his recovery, so the ICU became his acute therapy unit. Everyone in contact with him worked to get him up and moving. Eventually, he was taken off the ventilator and equipped with a speaking valve on his trach, and finally off the trach itself until all he had was an oxygen cannula for support. At that point he no longer needed to be in the ICU and was moved to a regular room in the hospital. However, he stayed in the ICU for 34 days and was in the hospital for a combined total of 38 days before they moved him to a skilled nursing rehabilitation facility where he spent his birthday, Christmas and New Years. The holidays interfered with his therapy, so when the therapists weren't available to work with him, I convinced him to get up and walk the hallway at the very least while I followed him with his oxygen canister. He continued to improve both physically and mentally so quickly, he was released from the facility after only 16 days and no longer required oxygen support.

Though we still have no definitive answer as to what caused his problems, I've got him home now. He still has difficulty with his balance and walking, but he doesn't require a walker in the house. Though he's no longer on oxygen, I purchased an oximeter and we measure his oxygen at least twice a day. It's usually around 98, which is where he was before all this happened. We now have a nurse as well as three therapists who visit him a couple of times a week. He is beginning to take control of his life again. We even went grocery shopping together, and he rode one of the electric carts while I followed and collected the things he couldn't reach.

He is back to working at his computer, and is getting stronger every day, although his voice is still a little rough from his multiple intubations. All in all, I'd say he was a success story. I bought him a fitness bracelet and we are monitoring his sodium intake as well as his weight to make sure the swelling in his legs continues to go down. Thanks to all who sent me well-wishes. I hope to get back to writing and social media in a few weeks. Right now, he continues to be my priority.

Guest Post - 4/7/15 - Aberrant by Ruth Silver #YA #Dystopian #SciFi

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn R. Blake) — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 04:00:00 +0000

Today I've got Ruth Silver here to talk about her young adult romance "Aberrant." But before we get on to the story an excerpt, I asked Ruth a question.

How did you come up with creating Cabal, dystopian society in Aberrant? What inspired you?

The name itself, Cabal, comes from its definition. "A small group of secret plotters," which I felt fitting for a dystopian society. I wanted the name to signify a revolution, because Cabal is not the perfect society that the government wishes and pretends it to be. I wanted Cabal to strive for Utopian but instead of being perfect, it was something else entirely.

The inspiration itself comes from most of us striving towards perfection. I don't think there are many people that want a world without jobs, filled with homeless people that are starving. I think it's easy to see what's going on in society, what's happening now and see a glimpse of the current world in its worst. It made me want to imagine a better world and then I realized how would this perfect world be flawed?

Excerpt:

Joshua and I both headed out of the council hall with Jacqueline leading the way. The line of young men had barely dwindled. I avoided their stare, their curiosity as they slowly proceeded forward, giving the attendant their name. I wondered how they knew about me and more importantly what they knew. Jacqueline walked a few feet ahead of us, giving us privacy to talk. I silently thanked her for still respecting us and our wishes. She was probably the only one in Haven who liked us. I didn’t know if I should be relieved or angered by the recent news. I could feel the whispers, like tingles against bare skin as we walked further from council hall and rounded the corner. I was grateful to be out of sight from all those curious stares. "I guess we should consider ourselves lucky," I remarked. I didn't feel lucky. I tried to sound upbeat, but everything was quickly falling apart around us.

Joshua scoffed at the idea. "Lucky? I wouldn't go that far," he emphasized. "This is how it starts. Eventually, they'll make it a crime for us to see one another." He sounded disgusted.

"They sort of already are," I remarked, trying to understand the council's decision. "I think they just want to make sure I'm protected." Though I didn't quite understand how setting me up to meet multiple bachelors was any form of protection. It seemed as if they only wanted to keep Joshua away from me. The one person I could trust, implicitly. I knew the rules were different because I was different. They didn’t seem particularly bothered by Joshua having a girl in his room. It didn’t seem fair.

"Seems like they don't really care what we think at all," Joshua retorted as we headed into our building. "Were you okay last night? I worried when Landon escorted you out of the dormitory."

I walked slowly up the stairs, Jacqueline just a few feet ahead of us. "Aside from being locked in a room with no windows." I sighed. "At least they're giving me freedom from the tech center and a real bed. I should be grateful," I mocked. I didn't feel grateful, but I knew his mother at least tried to make it easier for me. As soon as we crested the top stair, I froze in place. The building shook with an alarming intensity as the first drone flew low overhead. The downstairs chandelier swayed and I held onto Joshua's arm and my eyes widened in terror. "What do you think is going on?" I asked watching the movement grow stronger as vibrations echoed through the dormitory. A nearby painting affixed to the wall crashed to the floor, the glass breaking. I could feel the ground quake beneath my feet as Joshua grabbed my hand, refusing to let go.

"We're being attacked." It wasn't a question. Together, we jogged briskly down the hall toward our rooms. I didn't know how much time we had. All I knew was the government was here, and they were searching for me!

Blurb:

What if your existence was illegal?

It was supposed to be the perfect system: food, shelter, and jobs for everyone. A strive toward Utopian.

When children can no longer be conceived through natural means, a lottery is established to determine which families will conceive a child in a lab through IVF.

Eighteen year old Olivia Parker is an anomaly. She shouldn’t exist.

The government wants her dead. The rebels have their own perverted agenda. In a world filled with secrets, betrayals, and death lurking at every turn, Olivia must decide her own path and who to trust.

Adventure, mystery, and romance come together in this fast-paced Young Adult dystopian fantasy that will keep readers of all ages turning the pages. Aberrant is the first novel in the Aberrant series.

Recommended for ages 15+

Goodreads

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE

Ruth Silver

About the Author:

Ruth Silver is the best-selling author of the Aberrant trilogy. With a passion for writing and a love of story-telling, Ruth is actively writing YA fiction under her own name and adult romance novels under Ravyn Rayne. Her interests also include traveling, reading, and photography. Her favorite vacation destination is Australia. Ruth currently resides in Plainfield, Illinois. She can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and her blogs Write Away Bliss and Ravyn Rayne Reads.

Write Away Bliss | Facebook | Twitter

Ravyn Rayne Reads | Facebook | Twitter

Guest Post - 3/19/15 - Ines Johnson - The Grand Gesture - a romance plotting point #

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn R. Blake) — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 04:00:00 +0000

Ines Johnson is on the guest couch today to discuss how The Grand Gesture and its use in fiction today, including an excerpt from her own story "Pumpkin: A Cindermama Story. So, grab your favorite beverage and join us on the couch. We're being very casual today.

The Grand Gesture

Traditionally the Grand Gesture is known to be a common plotting point in romance stories where the hero does something bold or gives up something big in order to show the heroine that his love is true.

In Pride and Prejudice, Darcy puts aside his contempt of Wickham to help save Lydia’s reputation. This grand gesture is what finally convinces Elizabeth to take his hand.

In Twilight, Edward’s grand gesture, the thing that shows his true love of Bella, is when he sucks the poison out of her wrist without killing her.

For more on grand gestures, we’ll turn to the hero of my latest release, Pumpkin: a Cindermama story. This romance is a fairytale retelling of -you guessed it- the Cinderella story.

Having given up on fairytales after falling for her toad of an ex, Pumpkin is afraid to take a chance on town royalty Manny who believes she may be his soulmate.

EXCERPT:

The Mistress of Ceremonies hurried through her introductions and then the microphone was in Manny's hand, but he didn't take out the notes of his prepared speech.

"Many of you knew my mother," he began. There was a murmur of nostalgic assent throughout the crowd.

"You may not know that after her diagnosis, she spent most of her days watching romantic comedies. She believed she could laugh the illness out of her body. Her favorite moments in these films were something called the Grand Gesture. That scene just after all hope is lost because one of the lovers, normally the guy, has done something stupid that's led to the end of the relationship. So he thinks up this bold, romantic move to get the woman back."

A glance around the room told Manny that he held the largely female crowd in rapt attention.

"An example of a grand gesture would be a guy telling his estranged wife that she completes him in the midst of an angry mob of women. Or rescuing her underwear from the class geek and returning it to her at her sister's wedding. Or holding a boom box over his head, in front of her bedroom window, early in the morning, while blasting the song that was playing as he deflowered her."

A different wave of nostalgia swept through the crowd this time as they remembered these treasured moments of Hollywood cinema.

"In the real world, some people might call these behaviors creepy, or stalker-ish. But not my mother. She loved them. She believed in love, believed that when you loved someone you said it loud, you showed it often, and you never gave up."

Manny paused here, partly for effect, mostly to collect himself as visions of his mother's joyous face played in his head. He rubbed the heel of his hand against his chest.

"The national divorce rate is 50 percent."

There was no surprise in the room, where most of the men were older and the women on their arms were younger.

"There's never been a divorce in the Charmayne family. Not one recorded anywhere in our family line."

The sparkle of young women's eyes threatened to blind Manny from where he stood on the stage.

"What that means is when a Charmayne gives you their pledge, they are committed."

The decision was a split second one, but once Manny made it he stuck with it. He stepped around the podium, mic in hand and dropped to one knee. The gasp of every woman in the room was near deafening.

"To earn your vote, I will do whatever I have to, including blast Peter Gabriel in the streets. Charmaynes don't quit. I'm committed to this, to the people of this town. I hope that I can count on your vote."

The room erupted in thunderous applause, and the women's eyes sparkled even brighter.

We’ve seen literary heroes perform the feat of a grand gesture near the end of the tale. In Pumpkin: a Cindermama story, my hero Manny talks about this moment in the first act. I take a moment early in the book to teach the reader the rules of the grand gesture in this speech so that they are prepped for later in the book when I break these rules in favor of a more non-traditional grand gesture near the end of the story. To find out who messed up and how they declared their love in a grand way, pick up the book.

Blurb:

Single mother Malika “Pumpkin” Tavares lost faith in fairytales after she fell for a toad. Now she believes she’s not cut from the storybook, heroine cloth and searches for Mr. Good Enough amongst the sidekicks and supporting men of the town.

Love at first sight isn’t a cliche for town royalty Armand “Manny” Charmayne. For generations the Charmaynes have spotted their soulmates by seeing a golden aura the first time they laid eyes on The One.

When Manny meets Pumpkin he sees…nothing, but sparks fly off the richter scale. The more he gets to know her the more he considers defying fate, if only he can convince her to take a chance on love again.

Amazon Purchase Link:

http://www.amazon.com/Pumpkin-Cindermama-Story-Ines-Johnson-ebook/dp/B00TKP8ZMQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423860750&sr=8-1&keywords=pumpkin+a+cindermama+story

ISBN: 978-0-9909228-4-1 AISN: B00TKP8ZMQ

About the Author:

Ines writes books for strong women who suck at love. If you rocked out to the twisted triangle of Jem, Jericha, and Rio as a girl; if you were slayed by vampires with souls alongside Buffy; if you need your scandalous fix from Olivia Pope each week, then you’ll love her books!

Aside from being a writer, professional reader, and teacher, Ines is a very bad Buddhist. She sits in sangha each week, and while others are meditating and getting their zen on, she’s contemplating how to use the teachings to strengthen her plots and character motivations.

Ines lives outside Washington, DC with her two little sidekicks who are growing up way too fast.

Social Links:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24927912-pumpkin
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ineswrites
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ineswrites
Website: https://inesjohnson.wordpress.com/
Publisher: http://heartspell.com/

How did February become associated with Hearts, Flowers and Valentines? (Repost)

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn R. Blake) — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 04:00:00 +0000

(This is a repost from 2/1/14 with some changed graphics)

Claudius reigned from 268 to 270. Not a long reign, but a bloody one, because Claudius liked to wage war a lot. During his two years, he fought successfully against the Alamanni and scored a crushing victory against the Goths at the Battle of Naissus. It is possible Claudius gained his position and the respect of the soldiers by being physically strong and especially cruel. A legend tells of Claudius knocking out a horse's teeth with one punch. When Claudius performed as a wrestler in the 250s, he supposedly knocked out the teeth of his opponent when his genitalia had been grabbed in the match.

But I digress.... As legend has it, in the 3rd century, Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, so, he outlawed marriage for young men (as soldiers were sparse at this time and he needed men to serve fearlessly in the army without the distraction of a wife or girlfriend making them homesick). However, Valentine, a priest serving near Rome, recognized the injustice of this decree and defied Claudius by continuing to perform marriages for young lovers in secret.. He was caught and imprisoned. While in prison, so the story goes, he may have fallen in love with the daughter of his jailer, and wrote her a letter signed "From your Valentine." He was beheaded on February 14, around 270 A.D., and Pope Gelasius declared St. Valentine's Day around 498 A.D.

So, Valentine was a true romantic at heart. But how did the heart become linked with emotion? In China, the heart is related to thought, life, and emotions. It brings together everything from understanding and recognition to the flow of emotions. The Romans thought the heart contained the soul. Before them, ancient Egyptians believed the heart to be the center of emotions — and intellect. And before them all... pictures on cave walls depicted animals with red hearts in the center of their bodies — evidence that even cave dwellers understood the heart's significance.

However, the symbol we now associate as a heart, really doesn't look much like the human heart at all. That leads us to ask how we arrived at such a symbol to begin with. According to Symbols.com (http://www.symbols.com/symbol/1809) "Specific suggestions include: the shape of the seed of the silphium plant, used in ancient times as an herbal contraceptive, and stylized depictions of features of the human female body, such as the female's buttocks, pubic mound, or spread vulva. A heart is not the only symbol for love."

Hmm. Not sure the female buttocks to represent St. Valentine was what the church had in mind at all. And, since the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred, we may ask why do we associate February 14 with St. Valentine's Day? Though some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial--others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to "Christianize" the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated at the ides of February, or February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.

Romulus and Remus being suckled by the she wolf

The Roman festival began with members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, gathering at a sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. Once everyone was present, the priests would sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. They would then strip the goat's hide into strips, dip them into the sacrificial blood and take to the streets, gently slapping both women and crop fields with the goat hide. (Lovely, right?) Far from being fearful of the bloody whippings, Roman women welcomed the touch of the hides because it was believed to make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors would each choose a name and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage.

Fertility and marriage, a good combination. Yup, that story makes me want to hop right into the car and buy a box of candy and a dozen roses. You, too?

Back to history. Lupercalia survived the initial rise of Christianity and but was outlawed—as it was deemed “un-Christian”--at the end of the 5th century, when Pope Gelasius (remember him?) declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day. It was not until much later, however, that the day became definitively associated with love. During the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds' mating season, which added to the idea that Valentine's Day should be a day for romance.

And we return again to the hearts and flowers decorating the greeting cards of Valentine's Day. Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages, though written valentines didn't begin to appear until after 1400. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. (I'm not sure what he wrote, exactly, but his poem is now part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England.) Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.

Cards decorated with black and white pictures painted by factory workers began to be created in the early 1800s; by the end of the century, valentines were being made entirely by machine. Sociologists theorize that printed cards began to take the place of letters, particularly in Great Britain, because they were an easy way for people to express their feelings in a time when direct expression of emotions was not fashionable.

Manufactured cards notwithstanding, increasingly beautiful handmade Valentines were often small works of art, richly decorated with silk, satin or lace, flowers or feathers and even gold leaf. And many featured Cupid, the cherubic, be-winged son of Venus, and a natural Valentine's Day "mascot." Though Venus, Cupid and Psyche's story is too long to go into here, suffice it to say after many trials and errors they end up happily-ever-after, and we continue to celebrate their successful union in our Valentine's greetings today.

Guest Author - Ines Johnson discusses how to use "AIDA" to sell your books @ineswrites

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn R. Blake) — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 05:00:00 +0000

Ines Johnson is on the guest couch today to discuss how to use the steps of the advertising formula AIDA to craft a book trailer. AIDA is a four step process that focuses on getting the viewers attention, holding their interest, playing on their desire, and finally telling them to act. So, grab your favorite beverage and join us on the couch. We're being very casual today.

Book trailers are visual depictions of a book’s storyline, sometimes made by fans, which are a great way to get readers enthused. But have you ever considered making a book commercial?

The purpose of a commercial advertisement is to persuade a potential buyer, or in an author’s case a reader, to purchase their product. Writing a commercial is a simple four step process known as AIDA.

Start by grabbing the audience’s ATTENTION with a startling statement and a provocative image. For my book commercial, I showed this image, while a male narrator said, “Women, are you tired of being responsible for your own orgasm?”

Image credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Did that get your attention? Other ways of gaining the audience’s attention is to use humor, introduce a conflict, or use sound effects.

Next, you have to hold the audience’s INTEREST by giving them more information. Luckily, one of the most effective techniques for holding interest is one all fiction writers are familiar with: establishing conflict.

For my commercial, I went with, “Want a man who knows his way around a woman’s body? Then hire a Pleasure Hound.”

Image Credit: Yocla Designs & Shutterstock

Other techniques of holding interest are to use anecdotes, testimonials, statistics, or examples.

Now comes the tricky part: playing on the audience’s DESIRES. There are three types of desires: intellectual, moral, and emotional. As authors we most prevalently care about our reader’s emotional desires like love, belonging, and success.

For my commercial, I played on the desire of love and pleasure. My narrator makes some promises to women seeking out this product. “Our hounds are highly trained in the art of the elusive female orgasm. Using ancient techniques and rituals, a hound will bring you to heights of pleasure you’ve only dreamed about.”

Image Credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Pinpoint a plot point or theme of your story with a great emotional impact. Target the way your readers think, behave, and make decisions. Playing on this will give them a reason to buy your book.

And finally, tell them what to do. Give them an ACTION, which of course would be to go buy your book! My book ad ends with my narrator telling readers to do just this. “To learn more about our services, pick up the book, The Pleasure Hound, out on sale December 9th. Hurry! Your climax is waiting for you.”

Image Credit: Yocla Designs & Shutterstock

Once you’ve got got the four steps of AIDA ready, you can start to storyboard your idea. A storyboard is a graphic depiction of what the audience will see and hear on the screen, using a series of panels much like a cartoon strip.

Most commercials are 30 - 60 seconds long. The rule of thumb in the media world is to use one frame for every five seconds of ad time. so plan to use 6-12 frames of the storyboard.

Now its your turn.

1. Think up a way to get the audience’s Attention.

2. How will you hold their Interest?

3. What would motivate someone to do what you are requesting? Play to their desires.

4. Now tell them what to do next in order to get what you’re “selling.” Make them Act.

5. Storyboard your ad by selecting visuals to go with your AIDA steps.

6. Put it all together using a video or image editor.

7. Upload it to your social media outlets.

Stock Images

Below are a few places you can visit for royalty free stock images. I used Free Digital Photos.

● freedigitalphotos.net

● Favim.com

● Dreamstime.com

● Fotolia.coom

● Photobucket.com

● Clker.com

● MorgueFile.com

● Shutterstock.com

Stock Music and Sound

I found free sound clips at Partners in Rhyme. You can try these other sites too.

● Soundsnap.com

● FindSounds.com

● PartnersinRhyme.com

● Brainy Betty

● OpenMusicArchive.org

● Opsound.org

● ccMixter.org

● NeoSounds.com

“Pleasure Hound” BOOK AD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbU9r0ArEkY

What starts as a simple ritual soon turns carnal when a monk falls for a young woman under his tutelage.

The Proposal

"I promise that the choice of mates will be yours," he continued. "And I hope..." He paused, uncertain, looking down at their joined hands.

Chanyn got the impression of Dain as a child asking for permission to have something he didn't think he deserved, but was desperate for it anyway.

"I hope," he began again, "that you will consider Khial and myself for a—"

"Yes!"

Dain startled at her response, then he smiled. "Good. I had hoped..." He squeezed their hands together. "This is good."

Chanyn's heart thudded in her exposed chest. She was sure Dain could see it. He gazed into her eyes. Was this it? Was her first kiss going to happen now?

Dain rubbed his thumb back and forth over her hand. His eyes dipped to her lips. Chanyn parted them in invitation.

Dain brought his eyes back up to her face, his eyes widening more as he looked at the desire clearly written on Chanyn's face.

Dain disentangled their fingers and patted her knee. "This is really good news," he repeated and then rose. "I'll make the arrangements today." He walked over to the large desk that took up most of the room.

"Arrangements? For the marriage?"

He glanced up. "Oh no, no. Arrangements for your training."

"Training?"

"Of course. With a Pleasure Hound."

Chanyn looked on, dumbfounded. He talked of marriage and then was about to get her some kind of dog to train. "A dog would be lovely, I suppose."

Dain laughed. "A Pleasure Hound is a man trained in the art of pleasing a woman." He said it as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

Chanyn shook her head. "I still don't understand. Why would I need another man to..." To what exactly? Have sex with her?

Dain came back around from the desk and sat next to her once more. He reached for her hand.

"Chanyn," he began. His face now sheepish. "I've never... been with a woman before. I wouldn't know the first thing to do to please you."

"But shouldn't we, you know, figure that out together?"

Dain looked scandalized. He reeled back from her. "I would likely hurt you. A Pleasure Hound is trained to find out what pleases individual women. Then they teach the woman's bonded mates those particular techniques. It’s an ancient tradition going back hundreds of years."

Chanyn still looked dubious.

"In our culture women rule. When we are bonded, everything that I have will essentially be yours."

Chanyn knew that in the twentieth century women fought for and earned a place in the government and the right to own many forms of business. But she hadn't a clue that the roles of men and women had shifted so completely on its axis in the past thousand years.

Blurb:

When Chanyn encounters the dashing Lord Dain, with his kind eyes and pure heart, she believes her dreams of love are finally coming true, until she meets with the roadblock that is her betrothed’s bondmate.

Khial can’t help but resent the young woman who comes into his love story to play the hero, but marriage to her may be the only way to save the man he loves.

A young monk is called upon to train Chanyn, Khial and Dain in the orgasmic arts. But what starts as a simple ritual soon turns carnal when the monk’s heart begins to yearn for Chanyn, and hers for his.

Amazon Purchase Link:

http://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-Hound-Part-One-ebook/dp/B00OYU2CYO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415638043&sr=8-1&keywords=pleasure+hound

ISBN: 9780990922827 AISN: B00OYU2CYO

Ines lives outside Washington, DC with her two little sidekicks who are growing up way too fast.

Social Links:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23480179-the-pleasure-hound?from_search=true
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ineswrites
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ineswrites
Website: https://inesjohnson.wordpress.com/
Publisher: http://heartspell.com/

Guest Post - Royal Regard by Mariana Gabrielle @mchristieauthor #RegencyRomance

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn R. Blake) — Mon, 24 Nov 2014 05:00:00 +0000

Today, Mari Christie, writing as Mariana Gabrielle, has dropped by to discuss her newest release, Royal Regard, an erotic Regency Romance, scheduled to be published on November 30, 2014. She's also running two giveaways, but you have to be quick. They end on November 27, 2014.

Blurb:

After fifteen years roaming the globe, the Countess of Huntleigh returns to England with her dying husband. She soon finds herself plagued by terrible troubles: a new title, estate, and sizable fortune; marked attentions from the marriage mart; the long-awaited reunion with her loving family; and a growing friendship with King George IV.

Settling into her new life, this shy-but-not-timid, not-so-young lady faces society’s censure, the Earl’s decline, false friends with wicked agendas, and the singular sufferings of a world-wise wallflower. Guided by her well-meaning husband, subject to interference by a meddlesome monarch, she must now choose the dastardly rogue who says he loves her, the charming French devil with a silver tongue, or the quiet country life she has traveled the world to find.

Excerpt:

Her home life was smoothing out: enough proper staff to manage the house and garden with minimal input from her; an adventurous cook who agreed to use Bella’s recipe box when designing Lord Huntleigh’s menus; workmen finishing one room after another, with less commotion every day; a set schedule for meals, paying and receiving occasional calls, and attending functions to represent Seventh Sea Shipping. Outside her compulsory engagements, though, Bella had seemingly endless free time, most of which she spent with Charlotte and the Marloughe children.

The only thing not falling easily into place in this new life was her marriage.

During the earliest years of their union, Bella had been tasked by her husband—and the King—to smooth the rough edges of a perpetual sailor, giving him the polish of a gentleman with ties to the nobility. The resultant shipboard lessons in genteel manners and proper deportment, and his support for her as she learned to speak up for herself and become more daring, had created an uncommon closeness between them.

As well as acceptance of each other’s strengths and weaknesses, close quarters on the frigate made for self-imposed intimacy, strengthened by the emotion of an oft-thwarted desire for an heir. They had never been in love, but had been true, equal partners in pursuit of their business and diplomatic success, and had shared equally the pain of the loss of many children.

“Shall I attend you during the gentleman’s call, my lady?”

“Of course,” Bella agreed. There was no way she would be caught alone with a man, even in her own home. It would cause Myron such pain for anyone to suspect her of wrongdoing. It might even contribute to the situation she found so difficult to understand: after years of such caring friendship, why her husband had drawn so far away.

Genre

Regency romance

Heat Rating

NC-17

Buy/Review Links

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/485585

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Royal-Regard-Mariana-Gabrielle-ebook/dp/B00OM3VLCC

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/x/id931771765

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/royal-regard-mariana-gabrielle/1120614726

Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/royal-regard

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22732470-royal-regard

Bio:

Mariana Gabrielle is a pseudonym for Mari Christie, a mainstream historical and Regency romance writer. She is also a professional writer, editor, and graphic designer with twenty years' experience and a Bachelor's in Writing from the University of Colorado Denver, summa cum laude. She lives in Denver, Colorado with two kittens who have no respect at all for writing time.

Social Links

Website: www.MarianaGabrielle.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MariChristieAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mchristieauthor

Wordpress blog: http://marichristie.wordpress.com/

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/marichristie/

Amazon Author Central: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005B3QQ6S

Goodreads Author page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5055425.Mari_Christie

Giveaways

Free e-book of Royal Regard in .epub or .mobi formats. Visit:

Goodreads Giveaway: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/114451-royal-regard

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Things You May Not Know About Halloween

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn R. Blake) — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 04:00:00 +0000

Wikipedia, has a great article on Halloween that you can visit at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween#History with the proper footnotes. I've taken the liberty of copying much of their article below to share with you during this spooky, but fun, season.

"Halloween or Hallowe'en (a contraction of "All Hallows' Evening") also known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve,) is a yearly celebration observed in a number of countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It initiates the triduum (three days) of Allhallowtide, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed believers. Within Allhallowtide, the traditional focus of All Hallows' Eve revolves around the theme of using "humor and ridicule to confront the power of death."

According to many scholars, All Hallows' Eve is a Christianized feast initially influenced by Celtic harvest festivals, with possible pagan roots from the Gaelic Samhain. Other scholars maintain that it originated independently of Samhain and has solely Christian roots.

Typical festive Halloween activities include trick-or-treating (or the related "guising"), attending costume parties, decorating, carving pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted house attractions, playing pranks, telling scary stories, and watching horror films. In many parts of the world, the Christian religious observances of All Hallows' Eve, including attending church services and lighting candles on the graves of the dead, remain popular, although in other locations, these solemn customs are less pronounced in favor of a more commercialized and secularized celebration. Because many Western Christian denominations encourage, although no longer require, abstinence from meat on All Hallows' Eve,[ the tradition of eating certain vegetarian foods for this vigil day developed, including the consumption of apples, colcannon, cider, potato pancakes, and soul cakes.

Historian Nicholas Rogers, exploring the origins of Halloween, notes that while "some folklorists have detected its origins in the Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentalia, it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain", which comes from the Old Irish for "summer's end". Samhain (pronounced sah-win or sow-in) was the first and most important of the four quarter days in the medieval Gaelic calendar and was celebrated in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. It was held on or about 31 October – 1 November and kindred festivals were held at the same time of year by the Brittonic Celts; for example Calan Gaeaf (in Wales), Kalan Gwav (in Cornwall) and Kalan Goañv (in Brittany). Samhain and Calan Gaeaf are mentioned in some of the earliest Irish and Welsh literature. The names have been used by historians to refer to Celtic Halloween customs up until the 19th century, and are still the Gaelic and Welsh names for Halloween.

Samhain/Calan Gaeaf marked the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter or the 'darker half' of the year. Like Beltane/Calan Mai, it was seen as a liminal time, when the spirits or fairies (the Aos Sí) could more easily come into our world and were particularly active. Most scholars see the Aos Sí as "degraded versions of ancient gods [...] whose power remained active in the people's minds even after they had been officially replaced by later religious beliefs". The Aos Sí were both respected and feared, with individuals often invoking the protection of God when approaching their dwellings. At Samhain, it was believed that the Aos Sí needed to be propitiated (pleased through offerings or deeds) to ensure that the people and their livestock survived the winter. Offerings of food and drink, or portions of the crops, were left for the Aos Sí. The souls of the dead were also said to revisit their homes. Places were set at the dinner table or by the fire to welcome them. The belief that the souls of the dead return home on one night or day of the year seems to have ancient origins and is found in many cultures throughout the world.

In 19th century Ireland, "candles would be lit and prayers formally offered for the souls of the dead. After this the eating, drinking, and games would begin". Throughout the Gaelic and Welsh regions, the household festivities included rituals and games intended to divine one's future, especially regarding death and marriage. Nuts and apples were often used in these divination rituals. Special bonfires were lit and there were rituals involving them. Their flames, smoke and ashes were deemed to have protective and cleansing powers, and were also used for divination. It is suggested that the fires were a kind of imitative or sympathetic magic – they mimicked the Sun, helping the "powers of growth" and holding back the decay and darkness of winter. Christian minister Eddie J. Smith suggests that the bonfires were also used to scare witches of "their awaiting punishment in hell".

In modern Ireland, Scotland, Mann and Wales, the festival included mumming and guising, the latter of which goes back at least as far as the 16th century. This involved people going house-to-house in costume (or in disguise), usually reciting verses or songs in exchange for food. It may have come from the Christian custom of souling (see below) or it may have a Gaelic folk origin, with the costumes being a means of imitating, or disguising oneself from, the Aos Sí. In Scotland, youths went house-to-house on 31 October with masked, painted or blackened faces, often threatening to do mischief if they were not welcomed. F. Marian McNeill suggests the ancient festival included people in costume representing the spirits, and that faces were marked (or blackened) with ashes taken from the sacred bonfire. In parts of Wales, men went about dressed as fearsome beings called gwrachod. In the late 19th and early 20th century, young people in Glamorgan and Orkney dressed as the opposite gender. In parts of southern Ireland, the guisers included a hobby horse. A man dressed as a Láir Bhán (white mare) led youths house-to-house reciting verses—some of which had pagan overtones—in exchange for food. If the household donated food it could expect good fortune from the 'Muck Olla'; not doing so would bring misfortune. Elsewhere in Europe, mumming and hobby horses were part of other yearly festivals. However, in the Celtic-speaking regions they were "particularly appropriate to a night upon which supernatural beings were said to be abroad and could be imitated or warded off by human wanderers"

As early as the 18th century, "imitating malignant spirits" led to playing pranks in Ireland and the Scottish Highlands. Wearing costumes at Halloween spread to England in the 20th century, as did the custom of playing pranks. The "traditional illumination for guisers or pranksters abroad on the night in some places was provided by turnips or mangel wurzels, hollowed out to act as lanterns and often carved with grotesque faces to represent spirits or goblins". These were common in parts of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands in the 19th century, as well as in Somerset (see Punkie Night). In the 20th century they spread to other parts of England and became generally known as jack-o'-lanterns."

For some videos and other information, visit:
http://www.history.com/topics/halloween

How did February become associated with Hearts, Flowers and Valentines?

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn R. Blake) — Sat, 01 Feb 2014 05:26:00 +0000

So, who was St. Valentine, and why do we celebrate him every February 14 with hearts and flowers? Well, to answer that question we have to go back to the Roman Emperor, Claudius II, commonly known as Claudius Gothicus.

Claudius reigned from 268 to 270. Not a long reign, but a bloody one, because Claudius liked to wage war a lot. During his two years, he fought successfully against the Alamanni and scored a crushing victory against the Goths at the Battle of Naissus. It is possible Claudius gained his position and the respect of the soldiers by being physically strong and especially cruel. A legend tells of Claudius knocking out a horse's teeth with one punch. When Claudius performed as a wrestler in the 250s, he supposedly knocked out the teeth of his opponent when his genitalia had been grabbed in the match.

But I digress.... As legend has it, in the 3rd century, Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, so, he outlawed marriage for young men (as soldiers were sparse at this time and he needed men to serve fearlessly in the army without the distraction of a wife or girlfriend making them homesick). However, Valentine, a priest serving near Rome, recognized the injustice of this decree and defied Claudius by continuing to perform marriages for young lovers in secret.. He was caught and imprisoned. While in prison, so the story goes, he may have fallen in love with the daughter of his jailer, and wrote her a letter signed "From your Valentine." He was beheaded on February 14, around 270 A.D., and Pope Gelasius declared St. Valentine's Day around 498 A.D.

Romulus and Remus being suckled by the she wolf

Join in with the Christmas Carols on Ana's Calendar #Christmas #Videos #AdventCalendar2013

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn R. Blake) — Sat, 14 Dec 2013 20:07:00 +0000

Today on Ana's Advent Calendar readers are pasting lyrics to well-known, and not so well-known Christmas carols as well as videos. Below is a video posted there that is a sand painting done to "Do You Hear What I Hear?" It takes awhile for the audio to load, but it's well worth the wait.

Someone else posted a computerized version of Carol of the Bells, which fascinated me.

For other amazing videos and lyrics, visit Ana's page at: http://governingana.wordpress.com/2013/12/14/christmas-carol-sing-a-long-advent-calendar-day-14/#comment-18858

A little Christmas Cheer - #Christmas #Trees #AdventCalendar2013

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn R. Blake) — Tue, 26 Nov 2013 18:39:00 +0000

I'm doing a series this season on the Christmas Tree that takes readers through history from its humble origins to the large displays visible in public squares today. I'm not going to republish them here, since they are visible with a click. Though I'm placing two on my Naughty Blog, there is nothing "naughty" about them. I just have more visitors on that blog than this one, so that's where I'm doing most of my posting.

They don't have to be read in order, but there is a basic flow to the posts. The first one is on Ana's Advent Calendar where Anastasia Vitsky is offering daily posts and prizes to readers during the first 25 days of December. There's even prizes for readers who sign-up and comment every day. Lots of authors and lots of books ranging from sweet to scorching.

For a preview into the history of the Christmas Tree and more information about the month-long event, please visit Ana's Advent Calendar.

For a glimpse at the more well-known public tree displays, our personal tree from last year, and information about the traditional times for putting up and taking down the tree, please visit The Christmas Tree's Public Persona on my Naughty Blog. Again, nothing naughty or risque about the post itself.

And, the Story Continues....

For a glimpse into the checkered history of the Christmas Tree from the Egyptians to the 20th Century, please visit The History of the Christmas Tree (or how we decided to bring the outdoors inside) on Ana's Advent Calendar. It's a month long event, with lots of prizes and stories to warm the cockles of your heart (wherever they are).

Victorian Ladies in the Parlor

Then, for a close-up look into how Britain reluctantly took the Christmas Tree into their homes and America copied what the Royal Family did visit The Christmas Tree's Story in Britain and America on my Naughty blog. Though again, there's nothing naughty about it.

Hope you enjoy the stories, and have a wonderful holiday season, no matter where you live or which faith you follow...

Guest Post - Maggi Andersen - A Baron in Her Bed

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn R. Blake) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Maggi Andersen, author of A Baron in Her Bed, has agreed to join us today to talk about Barons, Earls and other denizens of British nobility, who could have existed during the Regency period, even if they didn't. We're so glad you could join us and encourage you to grab your favorite beverage and relax with your feet up.

Okay, Maggi, why don't you start off by telling us how long you wrote before you were published?

Some years, but it was time well spent learning about the industry, improving my writing and finding my voice.

I gather you love Regency England, and it's one of my favorite time periods, too. But what other genres do you write besides Historical Romance?

I write contemporary romantic suspense, mysteries and young adult novels/novellas and short stories.

Research is essential for Historical Romances. Tell us what sort of research you did for your book? An enormous amount. Writing a historical requires a lot but my contemporary romantic suspense, Murder in Devon needed plenty too as it was set in England. I have shelves of research books here and there’s heaps of good sites on line. You can find some links on my blog.

What were the challenges you faced in bringing your latest book to life?

I had to make sure my facts about Regency customs, history, food, costume, houses, society were correct. I needed to know what a woman could get away with back then. Morals were strict, very different from today, and a woman’s freedom was limited. Horatia fought against these things by turning her back on the idea of marriage. She is a romantic who wants only to marry for love.

Who or what inspired your main characters?

I think reading Georgette Heyer ingrained a love of certain characters. Horatia is a bit Heyeresque in character. She’s energetic, sometimes rash, hurls herself into anything and is brave to the point of idiocy at times, but you can’t fault her good heart or her determination. She’s honest and loyal too.

For a little more personal flavor, tell us where you write.

I have a cozy little study off the kitchen. Bit close to the refrigerator unfortunately. The view from the window is lovely. I look onto a nice old house, a Himalayan Dogwood tree and a creek filled with ducks.

Confession time. What is your best guilty pleasure? (And by best I mean worst, of course.)

Dark nutty chocolate. Once I eat a piece I have to have several more. It’s good for you isn’t it?

What are your current projects?

With Murderous Intent, a contemporary romantic suspense was recently released on March 16^th with Black Opal Books. It’s set in Ireland and the Australian Outback. I’ve just completed Taming a Gentleman Spy – The Spies of Mayfair, Book Two, which will be released in September. I’ve begun to write What a Rake Wants – the third book in the series.

Sneak preview time. Can you share a little of your current work with us?

What I’m writing now? Here’s a taste of What a Rake Wants, featuring Althea, Lady Brookwood and Flynn, Lord Montsimon:

Her aunt’s bright violet eyes fastened on hers. “I’ve seen the way Montsimon looks at you. If you play your cards right, you’ll be the one to tame him, my dear. Well worth the effort, I’ll wager.”

Surprised and curious despite herself, she asked, “How do you suggest I do that?”

“You take him into your bed. Eventually. But first, you play him like a salmon on a hook. You never promise what you won’t deliver, mind. That would not be sporting.” Her aunt fluttered her fan as if the thought made her too warm. “At first let him get to know you. Let him begin to want more from you than merely someone to warm his bed. When he can’t live without you, then….”

Althea gasped. “Aunt…”

Her aunt laughed. “You’re surprised?”

“I knew you to be wise and shrewd, but I never suspected you capable of such….” She fell silent.

Snapping her fan shut, her aunt nodded with a wink. “I’m as crafty as a fox, my dear. And you are my niece, just as intelligent and smart yourself.” She gazed over Althea’s shoulder. “The prey advances. No doubt to ask you to dance. I would advise you not to shun him.”

Althea turned. Lord Montsimon made his way towards her.

Did you learn anything special from writing your book?

I discovered I love to write series. I like my characters to appear at least briefly again in the next book. It gives a glimpse of how theirs lives have turned out after their happy ending.

What advice, if any, do you have for other writers?

Most new writers lack confidence and need to develop a thick skin. We are subjected to criticism and rejection during our careers. No one escapes, not even the bestselling writers. If there’s a nugget of truth in the criticism, take it on board and ignore the rest. Take every opportunity to study and refine your craft, and never let go of your dreams.

Lastly, is there anything specific that you'd like to say to your readers?

If you get the opportunity to read A Baron in Her Bed and enjoy it, I’d love a comment or even a rating on Goodreads or Amazon. If you like the series, the next book Taming a Gentleman Spy is to be released in September with Knox Robinson Publishing. John Haldane, Earl of Strathairn, appears first in A Baron in Her Bed with gun smoking. Strathairn shows up when Guy Trusedale, Baron Fortescue, is waylaid by footpads in a London alley:

A Baron in Her Bed Excerpt

He’d come here to claim his inheritance, and claim it he would. There was no returning to France now.

Dusk turned to evening, hastening his footsteps. Guy decided on a shortcut and hurried down a shadowy laneway which, by his calculations, would lead into a main thoroughfare.

He was halfway along it when the sound of running feet, made him spin around. Two men appeared out of the gloom and advanced towards him.

Guy moved back until his shoulder brushed the wall. “What is it you want?”

When neither of the men answered, cold sweat gathered on his brow.

His glance flicked ahead to where the laneway joined a busy road. “Répondez-moi,” he demanded. His throat tightened in fear.

“’e’s the one all right,” one of them murmured. They separated and each took a menacing step closer, blocking off any avenues of escape.

The moon sailed above the narrow gap between the buildings and shone on the knife held by one of the footpads.

Guy drew his swordstick. “Back away.”

At the sight of it, they stepped back apace, hesitated, and stood regarding him.

A feint might work. When he had them off guard, he would run for it.

He moved away from the wall and drew circles in the air with his sword. “Come on, you want to fight? I’m willing.”

“’e can’t take both of us,” the tallest of the two said.

“Yer, but he could run one of us through,” the other replied. “And we weren’t paid enough for that.”

“Shut up, you fool.”

Surprised, Guy stilled, his heart thudding in his ears. “Who paid you?”

“Say nothin’,” the tall man warned. He then whispered something to his companion.

He watched them, his swordstick at the ready. Did they mean to kill him?

As the taller man raised his arm to throw the knife, Guy lunged to the left. A pistol shot blasted through the confined space, rattling the nearby windows, and the knife clattered to the ground.

The tall man shrieked. “I’ve been shot.”

“Hey, you there!” Highlighted by the light from the street behind him, a caped figure strode towards them from the main thoroughfare, a pistol in each hand, one smoking. “Next time I’ll aim to kill.”

The injured man snatched up his knife and the pair scuttled back the way they’d come.

As their footsteps faded into the night, the gentleman tucked the pistols into the pockets of his multi-caped greatcoat. He walked towards Guy. “I saw them follow you. I’m sorry I didn’t get here faster, but I turned the corner and wasn’t sure which way you went.”

With a swell of gratitude, Guy sheathed his sword, shelved his suspicion, and bowed. ”I am indebted to you, monsieur, one obviously needs to be well armed in London.”

“It is wise to be on your guard; footpads will tackle an unarmed man.”

Guy clutched his cane. He had been armed, and it had not deterred them.

“We’d best get out of this dark place.” The man led the way towards the lit street. “New to London? I don’t advise you to walk alone around these parts.”

“Oui. I arrived from France this morning.”

“You can’t think much of us, an attempted robbery on your first day.”

“There was more to it than a robbery.” Guy studied his rescuer. He was of a similar age to himself, mid-thirties.

The big, fair-haired man raised his brows. “The war might be over, but not all of the English can forgive and forget.”

A grim smile tugged at Guy’s mouth. “I’m sure that’s so, my friend.” He remembered the footpad’s words, he’s the one. It was him they were after. Who would want him dead here in England?

“Where are my manners?” His rescuer held out his hand. ”John Haldane, Earl of Strathairn.”

Guy shook his hand. “Guy Truesdale.”

The earl’s brows met in a perplexed frown. “Truesdale? Why, that means you’re a…”

Guy nodded. “Fortescue, oui.”

“A relative of the baron?”

“I am Baron Fortescue.”

“Why this is grand news! Your father and mine were close friends.” John frowned. “But this means, of course, that your father is dead. I’m sorry. Not by the guillotine one would hope.”

“Not directly.” They crossed the road. Under the circle of light from an oil lamp, Guy gazed into John’s smiling eyes. “I am indebted to you. I hope to repay you should we meet again.”

John slapped him on the back. “Nonsense, Fortescue. Where do you stay?”

When Guy told him, John said, “Not one of our best hostelries. You must come home with me.”

“I couldn’t presume . . .”

“Not another word. Father, if he still lived, would have been justifiably angry if I failed to offer you hospitality. We reside in Berkley Square and have plenty of room. Feel free to stay as long as you wish. I’ll send a servant around for your luggage.”

“Merci. I plan to travel to the country in a day or two.”

“Your seat is to the north, Hertfordshire I believe.”

Guy nodded. “It borders Sherradspark Wood in Digswell.”

An empty hackney turned the corner, and Strathairn stepped into the road to hail it. As the jarvie pulled up the horse, Strathairn gave directions and whipped open the door.

Guy settled on the squabs beside him. “Je suis dans votre dette,” he said with warmth. “You are most généreuse.”

“In my debt?” Strathairn dismissed the sentiment with a wave of his hand. “Nonsense, Baron. It’s been my pleasure. But once my sisters get a look at you, I may change my mind.”

Guy frowned. “I’m not sure of your meaning.” He had always been proud of being half English, but since he arrived in England, he’d felt terribly French.

“My dear fellow. If you aren’t used to ladies fighting over you, you soon will be.”

Guy shook his head.

BUY LINKS:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1908483342?ie=UTF8&tag=httpwwwgoodco-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1908483342&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-baron-in-her-bed-maggi-andersen/1112790397?ean=9781908483348&r=1%2c+1&cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-GwEz7vxblVU-_-10%3a1&

Sony: https://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/maggi-andersen/a-baron-in-her-bed/_/R-400000000000000969520

Kobo: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/A-Baron-in-her-Bed/book-iUxtF_y28UGP_w4xRq63RQ/page1.html?s=aZ6Q7FqADEGjy9vIuDX8Sg&r=1

Maggi Andersen

I am an Australian author with a BA in English and an MA in Creative Writing. My lawyer husband and I live in a pretty, historical town in the Southern Highlands with our spoiled Persian cat, plus the assorted wildlife we feed: chickens wander in from next door and give us lovely eggs, ducks swim in our pool, parrots and possums line up for bananas and seed. I write historical romance, contemporary romantic suspense and young adult novels.

Social Links

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Maggi-Andersen-Author/372854959805

Twitter: https://twitter.com/maggiandersen

Pinterest:http://pinterest.com/maggiandersen/

Goodreads:http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2786221.Maggi_Andersen

Website: http://www.maggiandersenauthor.com

Blog: http://www.maggiandersen.blogspot.com

Rafflecopter Code for Tour Wide Giveaway:

Giveaway is a $20 Amazon card plus the winners choice of 2 of her books!!

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The Holy Hell Tour - An Interview with the devil

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn R. Blake) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 04:00:00 +0000

We have on our couch today, two very special guests. Although, if one doesn't behave himself, I may need to get the couch reupholstered. Fire damage. Please welcome, Viola Ryan, the talented author of "The Mark of Abel," and the devil himself. Literally.

Viola Ryan: Thank you for being with us today, Lucifer. It’s quite an honor to interview the Prince of Darkness.

Lucifer: Not if you call me that. There’s nothing darker than what lies inside the human heart.

VR: I’m sorry. What do you prefer I call you?

Lucifer: I go by Luke now.

VR: All right, Luke. Thank you for being with us today. Shall we get started?

Lucifer: Whatever. Just as long as you agree to help me find the artist I’m looking for.

VR: You promised me earlier you won’t harm her.

Lucifer: You have my word.

VR: Pardon me if I’m skeptical.

Lucifer: I can always leave.

VR: Fine. Kathryn and her readers are more than happy to help you find this artist.

Lucifer: I only hope it’s in time.

VR: For what?

Lucifer: Before she dies. She keeps dying.

VR: Humans tend to do that. What’s it like to be immortal?

Lucifer: Tiring. Tedious. Lonely.

VR: Lonely?

Lucifer: There aren’t too many creatures who are immortal. Why become attached to someone who is only going to die?

VR: So you don’t have friends?

Lucifer: One.

VR: Tell us about him?

Lucifer: Her. My friend is Maggie. You know her as Mary Magdalene. I turned her into a vampire nearly two thousand years ago, but she’s usually busy with the Gnostics. She turned them about a hundred years after I turned her.

VR: Why did you turn her into a vampire?

Lucifer: I promised Yeshua I’d look out for her if anything happened to him, and we all know what happened to him.

VR: Yeshua?

Lucifer: Jesus.

VR: Why a vampire?

Lucifer: Because that’s what I am.

VR: How did you become a vampire?

Lucifer: Not on purpose. I was sick of the special treatment Adam received. I was the highest of God’s angels. I should have been the favored son. Not that overgrown ape. The only thing separating Adam from the other lower forms of life was the blood of humanity. I drank it, like Adam and Lilith had. That’s what turned me into a vampire. I don’t regret it. Angels lack free will. Now I have it.

VR: Tell us about this artist you are looking for.

Lucifer: Yeshua gave me a prophecy, a way back to heaven. I need to find this artist, study her artwork and a map will be revealed telling me how to get back to heaven.

VR: You mentioned she keeps dying. Human’s only die once.

Lucifer: Not this one. She keeps reincarnating.

VR: How do you know she’s the same artist?

Lucifer: She always bears a mark--a circle with three curved lines radiating from it. I call it the Mark of the Artist. Maggie’s been helping me, but there are so many people on the planet now, I need more help.

VR: What will you do with her once you find her?

Lucifer: Nothing. She is irrelevant. What matters is her artwork.

VR: Okay folks. Lucifer needs your help. Have you seen anyone with a circle with three curved lines radiating from it?

Lucifer: Thank you.

Thank you, Viola and… Luke. I hope you find the woman you seek without having to strip search every female artist you come across.

Readers: since Luke doesn't like to give out his social media addresses, if you happen to find this woman, please leave a comment below and we'll make sure he gets the message. And check below how you can be entered for a $50 Amazon Gift Certificate. Thank you.

Lucifer is fed up with humanity. He created hell to deter evil, but man’s inhumanity is only escalating. He just wants to return home to heaven, but ever since that little problem in the Garden of Eden, the Pearly Gates remain firmly shut to him. It doesn’t help that he’s the first vampire, an abomination in God’s sight.

Fortunately, two thousand years ago Lucifer’s estranged brother, Jesus, gave him a prophecy. To fulfill it, all Lucifer has to do is find the right artist, study her artwork and the path back to heaven will be revealed. The artist even bears a symbol so he knows who she is. Too bad she is murdered every time he finds her.

Janie’s a frustrated artist and college art teacher who wants two things—a guy she can show her paintings to and a night without nightmares. Each nightmare plagues her until she paints it. She doesn’t realize these paintings are key to unlocking her destiny, one that could redeem the original fallen angel.

Click any one of the links below to read an excerpt or purchase The Mark of Abel:

MuseItUp Publishing: http://museituppublishing.com/bookstore2/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=516&category_id=69&manufacturer_id=250&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1&vmcchk=1&Itemid=1

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Mark-of-Abel-ebook/dp/B00B0FSH9A/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1358130524&sr=8-4&keywords=The+Mark+of+abel

Viola Ryan

A very good friend of Viola Ryan in high school said, “You don’t think outside the box. You blow the thing up.” Sometimes boxes need exploding. That’s why she’s here. She has a whole bag of C4 and isn’t afraid to use it. She’s blessed with people who treasure her eccentricities or at least put up with them.

Sometimes the box can be a cozy place. Without some sort of stability, her two daughters’ and her life would be unmanageable. That stability comes from her husband. He’s the rock holding her family together.

On the flip side, his career is anything but stable. He’s a Chief Marine Safety Technician in the US Coast Guard. They’ve lived from Kittery, Maine to Yorktown, Virginia. Fortunately, the moves have all been on the east coast. Then again, the Coast Guard tends to guard the coast.

Her oldest daughter (16) was born on Cape Cod, not far from Plymouth. Massachusetts. Her youngest (12) was born in Yorktown, Virginia, down the road from Williamsburg. Viola jokes they’re doing the colonial America tour.

Interested in finding out more about Viola, you can find and follow her at the following links.

Social Media Links:

Website: http://www.violaryan.com

Blog: http://violaryanauthor.blogspot.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jeanie.ryan.9

pinterest: http://pinterest.com/violaryan/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6922260.Viola_Ryan

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/author/violaryan

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Thoughtful Thursday - A pantzer who plots ahead

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn R. Blake) — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 05:00:00 +0000

I've concluded that it doesn't matter how you do it, as long as you keep writing. I've always been a plotter, someone who meticulously puts together an outline, character sketches that include a family tree going back several generations, costume designs, room designs, you name it. I still have all that material for my fantasy trilogy set in the late 18^th century, but I've resisted delving that deeply for my contemporaries. With those, I start with an idea for a story and plot it out. Occasionally, as I'm plotting, the scene comes alive for me. So, I flesh it out more fully with the understanding it will still need editing, and then I plot on.

Jen Hayley's Virtual Plotting Board out of Post It Digital Notes

The method works for me, though most times my plot outline looks more like a sketchy rough draft. However, what I have discovered is the sketchier the scene, the more often it ends up changing. Once I'm in my POV character's head, the actions I thought he or she would take when I roughly plotted them, no longer seem "realistic." So, they get rewritten according to the character's personality. However, those scenes I've written out more fully either stay pretty much as written, or get cut entirely, if I feel I'm headed in a direction I didn't want to take.

My virtual plot board on Scrivener

So, for NaNoWriMo, I started with my plot and my characters veered off the road to take their own trip. Not significantly, since they are still headed in the same direction, but enough that their scenery is vastly different from what I'd originally imagined. For example, in this scene my hero, Peter, and heroine, Kate, are at odds.*

*(Background: They are both famous, wealthy people, but the hero, who used to teach college drama courses before he left to direct on Broadway, has agreed to teach a college summer camp workshop, and he wants the heroine to do it with him. She senses he has an ulterior motive, and she's right. They are legally separated and she has filed for divorce, but he is determined they try again. She's not at all convinced their getting back together is wise, but he persuades her to spend the summer with him putting on a show.)

When she discovers the musical Peter selected has a spanking scene in it, Kate believes he set out to deliberately trick her and wants him to apologize. Not an unreasonable request, but he refuses because he assumed the spanking scene in "Kiss Me Kate" was famous enough that it didn't require further discussion. So, Kate puts her foot down by invoking a clause in her contract that states he has to provide her with separate lodgings at the camp. That means they won't be sleeping together. Seeing the tactic for what it was, Peter takes her to the cabin his staff has assigned based on Kate's specifications. The resulting scene (from my unedited WIP) is from Peter's POV:

Though Kate was a good actress, the moment she stepped into the ten-by-ten-foot cabin she did nothing to mask her dismay. Since the camp catered primarily to students, the cabins tended to be rustic. Against the far wall sat twin, cot-like metal beds with their bare, thin mattresses rolled up like bales of barbed wire. Between the beds stood a small, roughly-hewn table, and at the end of each bed lay an empty army-type footlocker to serve as dressers in case Kate didn't want to live out of her luggage.
For hanging clothes, a row of pegs lined up on each side of the door, which also happened to be the only solid wall in the cabin. Half of the other three walls were taken up by screen windows, which, if privacy was desired, could be covered by the rolled-up, green, duck-cloth shades hanging above them. As additional protection, heavy awnings had been stretched along the outside, which could be collapsed in case of inclement weather. No heat, no air conditioning, outside of the occasional cross breeze flowing through the windows, and no electricity.

Kate snapped her gaping mouth shut and glowered at him. "Is this your idea of a joke?"

He's serious, and if she insists, this is where she will stay since it fulfills the exact wording she insisted be added to her contract. When I originally plotted this scene, I imagined Kate would be so angry with Peter that she'd stay in this cabin to spite him, but as I fleshed the scene out I realized she'd be so horrified by the thought of living with so few amenities and having to share a communal toilet and shower, that her pride would have to bend. So, she agrees to stay with him in his luxurious, by comparison, air-conditioned and fully-equipped cabin when he sweetly asks her to reconsider. Not a big deal, but it did turn something in the plot. He gave a little by asking instead of demanding, and she relented. Give and take.

So, even though I plot out my story, I go where my characters take me. There's a lot of push, pull and take in this book, and though these two head-strong characters are in love, they are not above trying to top each other whenever they get the chance. Peter does wear the pants in the relationship, however, and he's perfectly willing to press his point if his darling Kate makes it necessary.

It's a fun romantic comedy that I hope will make readers laugh and cry.

Thoughtful Thursday - NaNoWriMo and Scrivener

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn R. Blake) — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 06:41:00 +0000

Considering this is my first NaNoWriMo, don't you think I should have stuck to my "tried and true" methods and left new software tryouts for after November? Um, yes. Did I do that? Um, no. And why not? Because …. Because…. Because I fell beneath Scrivener's temptation spell and had to try it out. Was that a good or bad? Potentially, very bad, but as of yesterday (2 week point) I clocked in at 40,700 words, which is the 81% mark for a 50K novel. Not bad. I expect this novel to come in at a little over 75K, so my web sites are all reporting me at 54%, and I still have 2 weeks left.

Has Scrivener helped me? In some ways, yes. Definitely. However, because of the learning curve, I have to do a lot more "playing" with the Word file I compile everyday as a back-up than I'd probably have to do if I'd been using the software for a while. Yes, I did take the tutorial first, which I recommend to anyone who is thinking of using the program. However, like most authors, I have a few personal quirks that the tutorial didn't cover. Not the program's fault by any means, but it still requires me to do some jerry-rigging until I can get the manuscript over into Word looking the way I want.

So, what did I find I could do in Scrivener that I couldn't do in Word? Lots. Its basic structure is set up to make a writer's job easier. I normally work on a scene-by-scene basis, dividing the work into chapters as I go along, or later in the process, and Scrivener is set up to work that way. In addition, it provides me with an easy way to group my scenes and import any research I'd like to access quickly for reference.

For example, as I'm writing, I can determine if a scene is going to need a lot more work before I can even consider it a "first draft." Once I determine that, I simply mark its status as "To Do." Then I can search for all the scenes that have a "To Do" status and save my search as a collection. That means as I continue to give that status to more scenes, my collection grows automatically. Then, I can go through my collection of "To Do" scenes and work on them at my leisure without ever moving them from their original place in my binder, or manuscript. Once I change the scene's status from "To Do" to "First Draft" the link to the scene is instantly removed from my collection of "To Do" scenes needing more work. Nifty, huh?

In the synopsis, or notecard, that comes with each scene, I begin by stating which is my POV character for the scene. Then I created a search for each POV character and saved the search as a collection so I can see at a glance if one character is getting more scenes than the other is. At this moment, my heroine is getting the lion's share of scenes. I may want to change that later, but for the time being, I'm okay with that.

In any case, I'm pleased I had an opportunity to try out the software, and NaNoWriMo definitely gives it a rigorous tryout. I don't recommend anyone wait as long to do what I did, but I do recommend the software. That said, I now return you to your regularly scheduled blog hopping while I go back to Nanoing.

P.S. Scrivener has a special NaNoWriMo offer if you're feeling adventurous...

http://www.literatureandlatte.com/nanowrimo.php

A First Time NaNoWriMo Participant

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn R. Blake) — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 18:20:00 +0000

I'm going to be a first time participant in NaNoWriMo this year. I'm excited and anxious. Because the book I'll be writing is one of my "naughtier" ones, I'll be giving progress reports on my Naughty Blog. However, since I've got some readers interested in my paranormal spicy books, but who aren't comfortable with the naughtier bent my new books are taking, I thought I'd at least put up a progress meter here. The book I'm working on is tentatively titled Kate and Peter (that title will change, I'm sure) and it is a contemporary spanking romance.

If you'd like more information regarding my progress, the story and my naughtier books, you can visit here. Otherwise, you can follow my progress by checking the meter on the right.

See you on the net...

Thoughtful Thursday - Pitching to Editors is not for the fainthearted

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn R. Blake) — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 05:29:00 +0000

This past weekend (September 8-9), Marketing for Romance Writers* held a pitch session where authors could "chat" in person with the editor(s) of their choice. Thirty eBook publishers participated and authors could sign up for one or more (up to three) editors from the list.

Next, the group held workshops that helped writers hone their selling skills for their six-minute interview with an editor.

A recommended pitch consisted of the following:

Logline: "a short (25 words or less) description of what your book is about. It should include the main character, what they want, why they can’t have it and the consequences if they can’t get what they want. It should allow the person reading it to immediately envision what the book is about. It should be the premise, not the plot. It should generate story questions, but not story confusion. It should get the person on the receiving end excited about the story." from Cindy Carroll on how to write a logline. It's what you might answer when someone says, "Tell me what your book is about."

Blurb: A 100-150 word brief summary of your book, using the goal, motivation and conflict you included in your logline.

After you've given your pitch, it's the editor's turn to ask questions.

Though the process sounds easy, I probably got only 4 hours sleep the whole weekend. However, I wasn't the only writer suffering from a flock of butterflies in the stomach. The waiting is the worst. You're told at the start where you are in the queue of authors presenting to the publisher, and you wait until you're told to go into the pitch room. Once there you immediately begin copying and pasting the pitch you spent the last week polishing until it shined, while your fingers tremble and your mouse refuses to cooperate. (It's amazing how quickly your typing can degenerate until it begins to look like a trained monkey is sitting at your keyboard.)

All the editors I chatted with were great. They were very patient and understanding as to why I suddenly developed a typing stutter and forgot how to spell manuscript.

When your six minutes are up, you return to the common chat room where you bemoan your sudden stupidity and tell the others what, if anything, was requested by the editor.

As the title of this article suggests, pitching is not easy on the nerves, but I highly recommend it if you're a writer who wants to query your wip (work in progress) to an editor in person. The sessions were open to both published and aspiring-to-be-published writers, so previous experience was not expected. From the comments I've seen, the venture was extremely successful for authors and publishers alike, so MFRW is considering doing it again next year.

Hopefully, by then, my fingers will have learned to behave.

*(Note: if you write romance, like to share and learn, and don't belong to Marketing for Romance Writers, I suggest you join. It's free, and this weekend (Saturday, September 15) Treva Harte (Editor-in-Chief for Loose Id) will present a short workshop on what to look for in a publishing contract. No legal advice will be given or offered. What will be offered is a high-level look at what to expect in a contract and how to protect yourself. Terms will be explained. A Q&A period follows. The workshop and Q&A are only open to MFRW members, but there is no cost to join. Interested authors should go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MarketingForRomanceWriters/ and send in a request to join. Currently there are over 1600 members.)

Thoughtful Thursday - Is Big Brother Really Watching?

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn R. Blake) — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 04:30:00 +0000

I read an article in the Wall Street Journal entitled "Your eBook is Reading You." Okay, that seems ominous. My Kindle has been getting a lot of use lately, and if anyone is tracking my reading habits, I'm afraid they're going to think I'm a psychopathic eroticist. Books on poison, murder, police procedures and some less than family-friendly fiction top the list.

According to the article, "In the past, publishers and authors had no way of knowing what happens when a reader sits down with a book. Does the reader quit after three pages, or finish it in a single sitting? Do most readers skip over the introduction, or read it closely, underlining passages and scrawling notes in the margins? Now, e-books are providing a glimpse into the story behind the sales figures, revealing not only how many people buy particular books, but how intensely they read them."

Now, as an author, this information would be very helpful and interesting. As a reader, not so much. I'm not a paranoid person, but the notion that someone knows not only what I'm reading, but how intensely or quickly I'm reading the books I purchase, gives me goose bumps. The article goes on to say, "The major new players in e-book publishing—Amazon, Apple and Google—can easily track how far readers are getting in books, how long they spend reading them and which search terms they use to find books."

Photo credit – William Duke

http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/WK-BC359_COVER__DV_20120628153540.jpg

Usually, I search for books by title on Amazon. Occasionally, I'll use Google to find a book I want. I'm fully aware that Amazon keeps track of my digital purchases. They have to, so I can download a book again if I've removed it from my device. They also keep track of any paperbacks or hardbacks I purchase in my order history. But do they have to "watch" me read? I mean, I don't like someone reading over my shoulder, so why are they peeking into my Kindle?

Don't get me wrong. I love eBooks. I'd better love them, because I write them, too. So, I have no intention of changing my reading habits, but that doesn't mean I'm totally comfortable with an unknown entity taking note of how many times I open my Kindle and how long I spend reading from it. However, I did feel a little less paranoid when I read this, "But the data—which focuses on groups of readers, not individuals—has already yielded some useful insights into how people read particular genres. Some of the findings confirm what retailers already know by glancing at the best-seller lists. For example, Nook users who buy the first book in a popular series like "Fifty Shades of Grey" or "Divergent," a young-adult series by Veronica Roth, tend to tear through all the books in the series, almost as if they were reading a single novel."

They got me there. Since I was one of those million or more readers who purchased all three Fifty Shades of Grey books at the same time, I'm in those statistics somewhere. Another thing I found of interest was, "Science-fiction, romance and crime-fiction fans often read more books more quickly than readers of literary fiction do, and finish most of the books they start. Readers of literary fiction quit books more often and tend skip around between books."

I'm not a speed-reader by any means, but when I'm on a reading kick, it's not unusual for me to read one or two books a day.

EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), a non-profit group that advocates for consumer rights and privacy, is pressing for legislation that will limit how a retailer can use the information they gather. They also want a way for readers to "opt out" of having their reading habits tracked.

What worries me most, no doubt worries other authors as well. "… that readers may steer clear of digital books on sensitive subjects such as health, sexuality and security—out of fear that their reading is being tracked. "There are a gazillion things that we read that we want to read in private," Mr. Bruce Schneier, a cyber-security expert and author, says." And even though I don't intend to change how I purchase or read, others may be more sensitive about having their habits tracked than I am.

So, why am I posting this information on my blog? I find technology fascinating, and I know we're barely scratching the surface of what we'll be able to do in the future. I don't want anyone to stop purchasing books out of fear, but I felt the topic was worth sharing, so I decided to take the risk.

To read the WSJ article in full, please click the URL below.

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052702304870304577490950051438304-lMyQjAxMTAyMDIwOTEyNDkyWj.html

Thoughtful Thursday - Procrastination "A Time Killer"

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn R. Blake) — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 04:00:00 +0000

I recently read an article by Maria Mallory about the top six ways a writer procrastinates. Guess what? All of them involve social media, which means by writing this article I am procrastinating. I'd like to say I'm surprised, but I'm not. The six she listed are:

Twitter

Facebook

Blogging

Triberr

KDP/Pub It

Writer Forums

Now a few of those are writer related only, but Twitter and Facebook along with Google+ chew up and swallow the time of everyone who chooses to play in their sandbox. Time that some of us should be spending doing other things.

Okay, as a writer, I'm guilty of all those listed above except Kindle Direct Publishing and Pub It, since I haven't yet ventured into self-publishing. Although I do have a NovelRank account to track my Amazon sales. However, I can't say I spend too much time ogling my sales numbers since they aren't very stellar at the moment, and I don't like getting depressed.

A great procrastination tool, which the author failed to mention, is Pinterest. Also not specifically writer related. I've visited and poked around, but managed not to fall prey to its enticements, yet.

E-mail is another evil, time-sucking vampire. I spend way too many hours playing in my e-mail box, though I will admit most of what I'm reading are postings from the writer forums and Yahoo groups I've joined. So, for my major time wasting activities, I'm an avid Triberr user, which counts as Twitter in my book, even if I am not directly viewing the tweets I've received. Facebook, which I try to limit my postings to once a week. Google+, which I should check once a week, but haven't so much as peeked in for a few months, and my two blogs where I currently do only 4 blog posts a week between them. Even so, I don't spend as much time writing as I should. So, now what?

A week later, Mallory wrote another blog article on the six ways to combat procrastination. What she lists is very good advice, except I know I won't follow it. All the same, I'll share the list with you.

Disconnect your router - I'm not the only one using the Internet in our house, so that's not possible for me.

Turn off the phones - not a major time waster for me, so little point in doing something I'm simply going to have to undo a few hours afterwards.

Limit your music to non-intrusive instrumentals when you're writing - already do that, so it's not going to change anything for me.

Skip the household chores - What? I'm supposed to do housework? Who knew?

Enlist a writing buddy and/or timer - Just discovered "Write or Die," but haven't employed it yet, so that's still in the realm of possibilities for me.

Search out items that will inspire you to write - I tend to do this in my spare time, since I can get story ideas from the strangest places, like those little teasers you see on AOL's home page.

Most of these recommendations can be applied to anything you want to accomplish, not just writing. Painting, needlework, even reading, if that's one of your goals. So, although this article is directed toward writers, if you have a hobby or avocation that you just aren't getting to because of time wasters absorbing all your attention, maybe these suggestions from Maria Mallory will work for you, too.

It's a thought.

http://abcsoferotica.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/top-six-ways-to-procrastinate-as-a-writer/

http://abcsoferotica.wordpress.com/2012/06/11/top-six-ways-to-combat-writing-procrastination/

Thoughtful Thursday - No Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn R. Blake) — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 04:00:00 +0000

I never considered my writing eligible for a Pulitzer Prize, and, as an erotic genre writer, I'm pretty sure it's not. What I find interesting, however, is that the Pulitzer committee decided none of the three novel finalists was eligible this year, either.

So, what makes a novel Pulitzer eligible? According the Pulitzer site, the qualifications are: "For distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life." So, the author needs to be American, preferably writing about American life, in a work that a committee would consider "distinguished fiction." I have a feeling the last point is the stickler. What exactly makes a piece of fiction "distinguished?"

If we look at some past winners, we can get an idea of the sort of fiction the Pulitzer committee considers up to their standard of excellence.

1921: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

1925: So Big by Edna Ferber

1932: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

1937: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

1940: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

1953: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

1961: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

1980: The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer

1983: The Color Purple by Alice Walker

1988: Beloved by Toni Morrison

1992: A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley

2011: A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

An impressive list to be sure, though I primarily picked the ones that were familiar to me. The years in which fiction entered and nominated as finalists did not garner a Pulitzer are: 1917, 1920, 1941, 1946, 1954, 1957, 1964, 1971, 1974, 1977 and 2012. So, not giving out a Pulitzer isn't something new or shocking, I guess. Still, every year since 1977 the committee awarded a prize, which made me wonder why this year was an exception. Below is the list of the 2012 finalists, with a brief description of each story, posted at the Pulitzer site.

Pulitzer Award

Finalists

Nominated as finalists in this category were:

"Train Dreams," by Denis Johnson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), a novella about a day laborer in the old American West, bearing witness to terrors and glories with compassionate, heartbreaking calm.

"Swamplandia!" by Karen Russell (Alfred A. Knopf), an adventure tale about an eccentric family adrift in its failing alligator-wrestling theme park, told by a 13-year-old heroine wise beyond her years.

"The Pale King," by the late David Foster Wallace (Little, Brown and Company), a posthumously completed novel, animated by grand ambition that explores boredom and bureaucracy in the American workplace.

I can't say I've read any of the books, so I'm no judge of their quality, but perhaps they just weren't interesting enough. A day laborer in the American West, a failing alligator-wrestling theme park and boredom and bureaucracy in the workplace may not be exciting enough when compared against the list of winners I selected. Only the members of the committee know for sure, and they won't say. Whatever the reason, I'm a little sad that none of the fiction entered was deemed worthy of a prize this year. Perhaps next year…

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/18/opinion/and-the-winner-of-the-pulitzer-isnt.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/17/business/media/2012-pulitzer-prize-winners-announced.html?_r=2&hp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulitzer_Prize_for_Fiction

I'm Baaack!

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn R. Blake) — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 03:50:00 +0000

Don't know if you've missed my normal Thoughtful Thursday posts, but I wanted to let everyone know I haven't posted since May because I got sick and had to be hospitalized. Um, hospitals aren't really a fun place to visit, but they're even worse if you get admitted. I'm a pretty patient, patient, but even I had to wonder how some of the things could happen to me while I was there. Like the nurse giving me the hep-lock IV forgot to bring the locking part with her, so I bled all over the bed, onto the floor, the walls.... Even the phone had blood on it. Good thing I'm not one to faint at the sight of my own blood.

She said she'd never seen anyone bleed as freely as I did, which is probably because she'd never forgotten the lock before. And I hope she won't ever do it again to some other unlucky patient. On top of that, she couldn't leave me to get one, or else my blood would have spurted out even more. As it was, she was trying to maintain pressure on my arm to decrease the flow in addition to the tourniquet I still had on. So, we were both calling "help" until someone was able to get the part for her. Sigh.

In addition to the hep-lock IV, which has Heparin in it to prevent clotting, they gave me an anti-clotting agent shot in my tummy. It wasn't as bad as it sounds, but I was a little surprised they wanted me to have one since it seems my blood was already flowing pretty smoothly.

However, I only had to spend one night, which is good since the story is true, you do not get any rest in a hospital. I was on an hourly check, due to the seriousness of my condition, and people kept coming in to either take a vial of my blood, since my potassium was low, or prick my finger, since I'm also a borderline Diabetic

The worst, or funniest, thing that happened to me was on the day I was released when the nurse needed to give me a suppository. To keep from getting gross, all I'm going to say is that she didn't know her body parts very well, so she inserted it in the wrong place. She was very nice, but when she finally got one inserted correctly and left the room my husband said, "I bet she didn't graduate at the top of her class." We had a good laugh about it, but it is a little scary in some ways. I mean she's a female nurse. Even if she didn't pass anatomy class, she should know the difference, right?

Oh well, I'm home now, I've finished taking all the meds needed to clear my infection, and I'm feeling a whole lot better. So, I'm going to go back to posting again, and I bet you're glad to hear that, right?

Stay well, and keep out of the hospital if you can.

Kathryn

Marketing for Romance Writers (MFRW) Summer Camp - #MFRWSummerCamp

noreply@blogger.com (Kathryn R. Blake) — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 03:19:00 +0000

Subject:
Marketing Summer Camp July 14-15, 2012

Marketing Summer Camp is a free, two-day online conference designed to help authors learn the basics of marketing and promotion, and to fine tune skills already obtained. It will include guest speakers, pitch opportunities, prizes, top giveaways, and plenty of learning and fun. It will be held on the Yahoo group, Marketing for Romance Writers. Membership is open to published as well as non-published authors, editors, publishers, literary agents, author promotion services, cover artists, and virtual assistants. MFRW members are automatically signed up for Camp. If you want to take a particular course, read the messages posted with that title of the class. If you want to skip that class, don't read them. It's going to be that easy. Handouts and goody bags will be up for grabs once the conference begins. Giveaways include advertising packages, blog tours, and more. Discounts on services will also be available for all attendees.

PITCH APPOINTMENTS
There will be pitch appointments with multiple publishers for camp attendees. These will take place after camp so you don't have to miss classes.

To learn more:
Website: http://is.gd/mfrworg
Paperli: http://is.gd/mfrwpaperli
Newsletter: http://is.gd/mfrwnews
Facebook group: http://is.gd/mfrwfb
Marketing Camp Schedule: http://is.gd/mfrw_camp_hours

The MFRW Friends of Romance Award is presented to companies seeking to aid authors with promotion at little or no cost, and to offer affordable programs. In 2012 they are: The Romance Studio, Romance Junkies, and CoffeeTime Romance. The award is one way we can help authors and publishers save money and obtain ethical and excellent service.http://marketingforromancewriters.org/friends.htm

Kathryn R. Blake

Tweets:

Free Training for #Authors #MFRWSummerCamp. http://is.gd/mfrworg July 14-15

No Cost Online conference for #Authors #MFRWSummerCamp. http://is.gd/mfrworg July 14-15

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Four days to camp!