OUR DEAR FRIEND, ELIZABETH GUEST IS GONE

Our dear friend and sister Quill, Elizabeth Guest (Suzanne Guntrum) died during the night. We are in sorrow. We know that those of you who knew her in person or through her books will also miss her positive energy, optimism, wit, love of life and kindness. All of those things shone through in her writing.

Those of you who would like to share your thoughts, memories or feelings, please feel free to do so here. She loved RWQ.

--Jayne, Stella, Ann, Lori, Susan

LOST IN THE SHUFFLE

Apologies to everyone.

We had intended to take a vacation until after the first of the year, but that notification wasn't posted. All our attention has been on Sue/EG.

I know Jayne has a wonderful new book out on 12/30/09. RUNNING HOT is just what we all need on a cold winter night.

Again, apologies. The blog got lost in the shuffle of life.

Please say a prayer...

Our dear friend Suzanne Guntrum (Elizabeth Guest) is critically ill and needs the power of our prayers and good wishes. Please remember her in your thoughts today. We need a miracle.

Stella

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

Read Part 1

Actually (pronounced, acherly) I heard from my source at the North Pole several days ago but hadn't the heart to add to the generally miserable news I already shared. But today came another missive. Now, you may not like it, but if you don't, you'll just have to lump it--as they say.



Santa's polar bear can be a real pill. Just because he's got a broken leg set with duct tape, he feels sorry for himself. Big baby. Since everything is on hold while the elves, etc., are away chasing the thieving trolls, Andre, Chief Toymaker to Santa Clause has taken a flat-bed cart from Costco (they donated it, acherly) and turned it into a perfectly fabulous rolling chair for Bear:)



I love it when something rhymes.



Andre padded the cart, put a luverly pile of pillows on it for Bear to lean against and added brakes on the wheels so Bear can stop and go at will.



So, you wonder, what does it matter if the Bear is ungrateful--we have bigger fish to fry--or rather smaller ones? We have trolls to defeat and elves to save and Santa's temper to cool off, and FAIRIES to make. And we don't have much time.


True.



But what you don't know is where Bear is right now, as the trolls and elves are warring on the edge of chocolate lake and the elves--being lighter than the trolls--are acherly winning because they're advancing on the trolls who have dropped every single stolen toy and tool on the ice to begin a retreat.

The trolls are slipping and sliding away with empty hands and the elves are tippy-toeing across the fragile lake surface to retrieve what everyone needs. Hooray!



Uh oh!



Bear is bearing down on the scene, roaring at the top of his considerable lungs. He arrived on the last and steepest slope down to the lake and is whipping toward the ice, muffler flying, ears flattened to his head, wheels on the cart going so fast they look like orange and white striped lollipops.



And the brakes have snapped . . .



Smash!!!



Crack!!!



Screech!!!



Many screeches, acherly!!!



That bear has broken the ice and sent all the elves, all the toys and all the tools into the water--I mean, chocolate. There are things like that at the North Pole--chocolate lakes, that is.



Ah, well--you win some, you lose some. It does make you a bit mad to see all those trolls laughing like that.



Laughing? No, they're wailing. My goodness, they're sliding into the bubbling chocolate and because they're heavy, they're sinking. The only way for them to keep their heads above chocolate is to drink it fast. Wow, I knew they were greedy, but fear for their lives makes them rapacious. Look at 'em go. Slurp, slurp, suck, suck, globble, globble.



The level of the lake is going down so fast, I can't believe it. Well, acherly, I can because I knew it wasn't terribly deep.



Oh, my, now I see all the toys and the tools, and the elves have stopped swimming because they can stand on the bottom. And the trolls are still stuffing down the chocolate because they've lost their senses entirely and can't control themselves.



Will they come to their senses eventually and beat up the elves, take away the tools and toys again?



Of course not, you sillies. Don't you remember what I told you after I first heard what was going on up at the North Pole?



Chocolate makes trolls sick. A lot of chocolate makes them very sick. Gazillions of gallons of chocolate . . . well, it won't be pretty, but the elves, Santa, the reindeer, the toys and the tools will be back at the castle getting cleaned up and ready for the Big Night before things get really icky.





Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Wonderful 2009 to all. We'll hang in there together and remember as often as we can that the people who are part of our lives matter more than any thing possible could. Thank you for sharing with all of us here and thank you for putting up with my serial silliness:)



Fondly, Stella



Q: What is your very favorite part of Christmas, or your particularly special Holiday?

The Christmas Branch

I love the holiday season. We have beaucoup traditions in our family. None of them big or fancy, but, still, customs that have meaning to us. The tree is mostly my baby. I do all the trimming. The Soul Mate puts it in its stand and strings the lights for me, then he's done. I enjoy decorating it while he'd rather stick needles in his eyes, so that works for us. :)

When my Sweet Baby Boy was little, however, he and I used to trim it together. Don't tell him, but some years I'd wait until he went to bed, then rearrange the ornaments. But probably my favorite tree of all time? That would be the year of the Christopher Branch.

He must have been three or four that year. He was racing back and forth between the tree and the box where I was getting out the ornaments. I was busy dusting them off, since I'd been too lazy to clean em up the previous year before I put them away, so I wasn't paying attention. Until I turned around. . .and found all of the ornaments hanging from one low branch.

That was a tree I left alone for the sheer fun value. And I'm sorry that I don't have a picture to show you. I know I have one somewhere, but I have about 25 photo albums and I didn't start putting my loose photos into them until Chris was around eight or nine, so before then they aren't in chronological order--and I simply ran out of time this evening. (Who knew it was Thursday night already--when did that happen?) But here's a couple of pics from around that era.

What are some of your traditions or fun memories of things that your kids or other family members have done?

And since this is my last blog until after the holidays, I wish you and yours a wonderful Christmas/Hanukkah, Kwanzaa. And a healthy, happy New Year!!


~Susan

Elizabeth G: The Best Gift!

I know what I'm giving myself this year for Christmas. A great gift. The best gift. I'm finally finishing my latest manuscript: NIGHT HUNGER, Book 2 of my vampire romance series, Pharaohs Rising.

I try to write at least one book per year. But sometimes, like this past year, LIFE, in capital letters, intervenes and it’s not that often. So you can imagine how euphoric I’m feeling right now.

Yes, I need to take a deep breath and painstakingly (no pun intended, but I do write about vampires) read through the sucker (sorry, there I go again:-) — all 400+ pages of it.

Yes, with blue rollerball pen in hand, I will scribble my final edits up one side and down the other, filling the margins and every available white space on the page.

Yes, I will make myself enter all those darned edits on the computer. A tiresome job at best.

Yes, I will then and only then reward myself by writing the final climatic scene or two, making sure I've tidied up all those pesky loose ends. (This is my favorite part of a book as I work with a speed and passion that amazes even me sometimes. :-)

Yes, I will print out the manuscript and since my HP LaserJet 4M spouts out pages at the rate of 4 per minute, it takes a full day. (But since my printer still does a beautiful job, why invest in a new one?)

And, yes, I will at last drive over to FedEx and ship the book off to New York. (Unless, my publishing house allows me to e-mail the manuscript, in which case it will take me a good part of a day to create a single document.)

But by Christmas, for all intents and purposes, the book will be finis, a done deal, completed, off my “to do” list.

There is always a huge sigh of relief when a book is finished.

Almost.

Actually, the huge sigh of relief will come after my editor has read and approved the book.

It’s a little too soon to decide how I’m going to celebrate once that glorious moment arrives. I took a raincheck on my birthday in August and my wedding anniversary in early September, so I figure it’s going to be a humdinger whatever it is. (And short-lived since I'm starting Book 3 on January 5th.)

So I’m asking for your input: Pray tell, Party People, after you've completed a huge project, how do you celebrate?

Happy Holidays!
EG

Aack!! Calling Danie88

I messed up one of the names of the winners. There is no "Lanie88". That should be Danie88. My apologies! I hope you see this and contact my assistant, Wendy, to collect your prize. The other winners were: Beth, Lindseye, BGoddess7245 and Cory.

Once again, to collect your prizes please email your real names and mailing addresses TOGETHER WITH THE PRIZE OF YOUR CHOICE (see my intro to Kate's blog for your options) to my assistant jaynespa@gmail.com She'll take care of getting all the details to Kate.

And thanks, again, Kate for a fabulous blog!

Best,
Jayne

JAYNE PRESENTS: KATE DOUGLAS and CHANKU

Jayne, here, to introduce guest blogger KATE DOUGLAS. The latest in her sensational Wolf Tales series is out this month. If you like paranormal erotica, Kate is your author. No one, but no one, does it better.

By the way, to celebrate the release of her new book Kate will be giving away five books — or a cute stuffed wolf, your choice — to five lucky folks who post comments to this blog. Winners will be announced here late Tuesday afternoon. They will get to choose from Sexy Beast III, IV or V or Wolf Tales V, VI, or VII. Or the stuffed wolf!

And now, please welcome Kate Douglas:

The thirteenth book in my Wolf Tales series—counting the novellas—is coming out this month. I'm currently writing number seventeen, and it's hit me that when this series finally comes to a close—when it finally does—and I have to put my beloved Chanku away, I will probably need therapy....

To begin at the beginning, Wolf Tales started as an online serial for a small publisher called Changeling Press. Kensington Publishing picked up the series to launch their new erotic imprint, Aphrodisia, and suddenly I had to come up with stories to fill books, not short little vignettes for readers to download every six weeks.

So far, my characters have been wonderfully accommodating—all thirty of them, at this point, each with his or her own voice, set of issues, individual needs and desires... Why is it I can juggle connecting plot lines from one book to another and keep my entire pack of sexy shapeshifters straight in my head, but I can't remember why I walked into a room? Scary stuff, but the Chanku, named after an actual species of Tibetan wolf, appear to be much more organized than I am. They definitely lead more interesting lives, which is probably why I prefer my fantasy world to the real one most of the time. The scary thing is, my fantasy world often IS more real to me than, well...this one.

My current book, Wolf Tales VII, a Romantic Times Magazine Top Pick, brings all the Chanku together at uber-alpha Anton Cheval's mountain home where they try to discover who is targeting the females and young among them.

I wanted to post an excerpt (Jayne said keep it clean—not easy! I do write erotic romances, after all...) that would give you an idea how my Chanku think. Manda is one of my favorites—a complex character caught as a young woman in "mid-shift." She was kept in a cage for twenty-five years, a freakish combination of human and wolf, believing all that time she was cursed by God. Allen was one of her keepers, a cruel technician who took great delight in torturing and tormenting her. In this scene, Manda is finally a whole woman, fully aware she was not cursed and not a freak of nature. Allen has tried to recapture her, but as a Chanku shapeshifter and a self-confident alpha bitch, the young woman who was once a freak has shifted to her wolf form and turned the tables on her tormentor:

This time, she aimed for his throat.

She didn't miss. He went down without a sound. She ripped into the soft flesh beneath his jaw and then backed away from the spurting blood. His eyes were open, his mouth gasping like a fish out of water.

Manda shifted. Standing tall and proud, naked and perfect, she stared down at the dying man and felt nothing but disgust. "Sorry, Allen. I bet that hurts. Remember me? The little freak you loved to torture?"

He blinked and stared at her, dying but still aware.

"That's right. I'm Manda. Hard to imagine, isn't it? Not a helpless, deformed little creature now, am I?" She squatted down and looked directly into his eyes. "I want to be the last thing you see before you reach hell, Allen."

He blinked and Manda rose to her full height. She waited and watched while he bled out, until his chest no longer heaved in search of breath, until the shimmer in his dead eyes turned dull.

It took much longer than she'd expected.

It took hardly any time at all.

Hard to believe Manda's really a sweet young woman, but she definitely had issues with Allen. I have full first chapter excerpts of all my Wolf Tales (including the Sexy Beast novellas, which are also part of the series) posted at www.katedouglas.com/eroticromance if you'd like to take a look, but I am curious about something. If you read erotic romance, what's your favorite genre? Do you prefer contemporary, historical or paranormal? Personally, I find it easier to accept the really sexy stories when the entire world is fantasy, but I'd love to hear your take on this.

Sincerely,
Kate Douglas

Favorite Christmas Cartoons and Movies

Watching the many Christmas cartoons and movies takes on new meaning when you get to watch them with a 3 year old. It's given them a whole new perspective, let me tell you, because how a 3 year old will interpret the meaning behind each one has really altered my idea of favorites.

For instance, How The Grinch Stole Christmas is just plain wonderful. Sure, the Grinch starts out terrible, and the way he treats that little adorable dog is dog-abuse in a major way. (We had a few conversations about that with my grandson, given he has his own small dog now, just in case he got the wrong idea.)

But when, toward the end, the Grinch realizes that Christmas isn't about the pretty lights and the gifts, that it has a much deeper meaning that encompasses counting our blessings, being together with loved ones, and sharing of ourselves more than of monetary gifts, well... The Grinch's heart grows, and I get teary-eyed every time.
For me, that is one of the most wonderful moments EVER in any Christmas story. And in the end, the little dog gets the biggest slice of "roast beast" at the holiday dinner. :::sigh:::
Such a wonderful story!

On the opposite end of the scale, watching Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer, which USED to be a favorite, was a near painful thing for me this year.
Good grief, in this rendition, Santa is a grade-A jerk, the head toymaker elf is outright abusive, and in general everyone is downright cruel to Rudolf and poor Herbie, the elf who wants to be a dentist.

And those so-sad misfit toys! Talk about tearing your heart out! They were soooo badly ostracized!

For my grandson's sake, I spent more time trying to gloss over the meanness in that cartoon than I did smiling at the fun.
Remember when the reindeer coach tells the rest of the reindeers that they won't let Rudolf play in any of the reindeer games... because he's different?
I was horrified!
And Rudolf isn't different like Herbie, who makes a choice to be a dentist instead of an elf.
No, poor Rudolf is born with a physical affliction, ie his red nose.
And because of that, he's shunned, harrassed and all but kicked out on his own. It isn't until later that his father (who Santa says "should be ashamed" of his young buck) goes to look for him!
Though in the end, the "bad guys" are sort of redeemed, it wasn't to my satisfaction - or my grandson's!

Another good one is A Charlie Brown Christmas. When Charlie Brown drags in that ragtag tree that doesn't even have any pine needles, well, my heart just melts. I see Charlie Brown as a defender of the underdog - eveni f it's just a sad little tree - and that's something I've always been too. My kids are the same and I hope my grandson will be too.
I like the idea of the special sensitivity to all things.

And when Linus explains the true religious meaning of Christmas, it's a wonderful thing. We all smiled a lot with that cartoon.

(Though I do wish, just once, Lucy would let Charlie Brown kick that stupid football!)

Then you have Frosty The Snow Man. When my grandson asked, "Where are their mommies and daddies?" because the little kids (like grade school age!) take off with Frosty and stay out all night and sleep in train box cars... yeah.
Try explaining that one!

Of course, I just went with the, "It's make-believe. In real life, a mommy or daddy would NEVER let their little kid go off alone that way."
My grandson wasn't entirely convinced, and even he saw the danger involved, but it was still a fun cartoon about believing in miracles, being fair, and doing the right thing.

And lastly, I could never forget the unforgettable A Christmas Story!
We haven't watched it yet this year, and I'm not sure a 3 year old would "get it" anyway (or be patient enough to sit through it when there are singing Christmas decorations all over my house) but A Christmas Story will always be a classic.

Sure, we're led to believe that the dad rules with an iron fist. His major fit when he gets the "leg lamp" is a riot. His French pronunciation of "Fragile" is hilarious.

But the big pay-off comes at the end, when the right toys are there for Ralphie, and the dad forgoes his Christmas turkey (which gets eaten by the neighbor's dogs) for a Chinese Christmas that the whole family enjoys even more - because they're together.

There are a lot of other Christmas stories we're looking forward to watching, like The Muppets, and Scrooge. I hope that they're at least as good as I remembered!

What about you? Do you have any favorite Christmas cartoons or movies?
Have you seen any new holiday movies recently?

Scrooged with Bill Murray is one we love, but it's definitely not suitable for our grandson!

I hope everyone is warm, safe, happy and healthy for this wonderful holiday season!