Some Men Have "IT."

Is it really my turn again? Seriously?
How did that happen?

Wait, I know.

I forgot all about it because I have a book due March 1st (almost done with it)
and galleys for two other books due back March 3rd (just finished reading them over)
and revisions on a book that just came in,
and line edits...
And ANOTHER book due June 1st.

Can you see me with my hands knotted in my hair! Argh!!!

So after a marathon of writing, and reading, and editing... I took a day off. I read Kresley Cole's MOST excellent, Immortals After Dark Book 6, KISS OF THE DEMON KING.
Oh la la! Just what the old brain needed.

Kresley Cole's books have it all. Super hunky alpha males (who, okay, happen to be creatures of lore) and sizzling sensuality, and FABULOUS romance, incredible conflict - with so much humor that I laugh out loud the entire time I'm reading. Good stuff.

In this book, Rhydstrom was especially seeeexxxxy. And Sabine knew just how to get to him.

I devoured the book, and soon as possible, I'll pick up another. Kresley's books never, ever disappoint me. I positively can not wait for Nix's book! I actually just joined her newsletter in hopes of finding out when that one will be released.

I also took in a few movies, and the combo of Cole's mega tough, but very protective and caring heroes, and the macho guys in the type of movies I prefer, made me think about how some guys have that certain something that qualifies them as the protective, caring, take-charge-and-handle-all-problems alphas, and some... don't.

It's not really about looks, though I appreciate a gorgeous guy who is also an alpha.

Before playing his role on 24, never ever would I have thought Keifer Sutherland had "it." But he plays Jack Bauer like nobody could, and he's a believable alpha - because he must have "it."
Clint Eastwood ALWAYS had "it."
John Wayne, too.
Harrison Ford. Oh yeah.

But... Mathew McConaughey... not so much. He's a great actor, but he's not a believable alpha. He's more a laid back beta.

Matt Damon? Hello! The Bourne movies? He's definitely got "it."

What about Eddie Murphy, Leonardo Di Caprio, George Clooney or Tom Hanks.

GREAT actors, but not Alphas.

What guys do you think have that certain "it" that makes them believable as take charge, crush all villains, defend the women and kids, carry good over evil characters?
Are there any guys who, like Keifer Sutherland, took you by surprise with thier alpha fit?

We can talk guys in books, or movies. In fact, I could probably name a perfect alpha guy for each of the authors on here. I think for my books, Joe Winston is one readers think of. Not sure what Joe had, but he's a favorite with my readers.

And by the way, if you haven't read Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark series, unless you have a real strong aversion to paranomral, you should try them. Talk about ALPHA! Whew. The best of the best!
Vampires, Werewolves, (who aren't all hairy) Valkyrie, Demons... good stuff!

Happy reading folks! (And wish me luck with my many deadlines!)

ELIZABETH'S "NEW" BOOK

You'll have to forgive me if I dance around the place. I'm a bit excited.

Busted Flush Press has been trying for several years to reprint our (my husband's and my) mystery series, aka the Fiddler and Fiora and mysteries. Finally the planets have aligned, the good luck bunny has hopped, and the printing presses are running!

JUST ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE comes out in the first days of February. In it you meet Fiddler and a Fiora, a divorced couple who can't live with each other and can't live without. The series traces the growth of their relationship as they orbit around each other and the dangerous underside of southern California in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

We wrote as A. E. Maxwell because, at the time, women weren't particularly welcome in the mystery genre. My, how things have changed!

At least some things. Fear, greed, love, and danger haven't changed at all. They are part of human nature. Fiddler and the love of his life are nothing if not human.

See what other people have said about them through the years:

"The writing is lean and restrained, and Fiddler . . . gives Travis McGee a real run for his money." —Los Angeles Times

"If there is a 'new' macho, the epitome would be Fiddler, whose self-possession, subtle wit, electrifying speech, and personal honesty spell good news for mystery readers." —The Washington Post

"The most unusual, up-to-date private eye with the hard-boiled characteristics of the legendary Sam Spade." —San Antonio Express News

"Maxwell’s style is sexy and hard-hitting." —Publishers Weekly

"One of the most interesting and engaging private eyes since Robert Parker’s Spenser." —Advertising Age

"Weary of dreary police procedurals, morally ambiguous cold warriors, hypersensitive and much-too-introspective private eyes? Then you may just be man or woman enough to ride shotgun with A. E. Maxwell’s Fiddler." —Los Angeles Herald Examiner

"Maxwell’s work is engaging and wonderfully articulated." —Robert B. Parker, best-selling author of the Spenser series

"The Fiddler novels are silky and sly and emotionally grown-up in a way that is exceedingly rare in American crime fiction. I highly recommend them." —David Handler, Edgar Award-winning author of The Sour Cherry Surprise

"Fiddler is to California what Spenser is to Boston and Travis McGee is to Florida. Tough, smart guys who know that sometimes, what looks like paradise, is pure hell." —Paul Levine, best-selling author of Solomon vs. Lord and Illegal

"A. E. Maxwell wrote one of the smartest, most consistent PI series in recent memory. Big plots, great villains, and a kickass private eye with plenty of humanity. The toughness of Robert B. Parker’s early Spenser novels blended with the wry humor and scope of Ross Thomas. Wholly original, endlessly entertaining. The books of A. E. Maxwell are a forgotten treasure." —Tim Maleeny, best-selling author of Greasing the Piñata and Jump


Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll just go back to dancing around the room.


If any of you have something that's made you smile lately, please share the dance!

People Who Need People

This was going to be a little piece about time and how there’s never enough of the stuff. There isn’t, but something else wants my attention for a bit.

This morning as I drove through the Arboretum (attached to University of Washington) toward Seattle I got a bubbling over sensation. When I woke up I was in my customary “Grr, it can’t be morning already” state, but an hour later when a little sun shone through the trees my heart became amazingly full.

What was this?

Why was this?

I felt optimistic and happy. We’re not supposed to feel like that at the moment, are we? Aren’t we supposed to be in a state of total panic and gloom because the world as we know it is coming to an end?

Hell, no!

Folks were riding their bikes, all tricked out in their black second-skin cycling outfits with wild, space-like helmets, and looking like healthy creatures from Mars with big grins and rosy red faces.

Others walked, alone or in pairs and groups, with and without dogs, with and without strollers, toddlers or various other offspring. Once more, these contrary souls were actually grinning, sometimes laughing and obviously determined to have a good time no matter what they’ve been told they ought to do.

What I felt was LOVE in the air. Good gracious, I’m a revolutionary. But what do you expect when I’ve chosen to spend most of my adult life looking for as many ways as I can find to write stories designed to make my readers (and me) bite their nails as they wait for disaster, while managing to stick to the notion that love is the greatest gift of all.

Love will conquer all. Just give it a chance, that’s what we’re charged to do. Of course there are and always have been hard times, sadness, loss, insecurity, but we don’t have to be alone through these trials. People need people. We need each other and only if we choose to bury ourselves alone in hard times will we face the bad stuff alone.

These are the thoughts that put a smile on my mouth today. I’ve allowed myself to see one face after another in my mind–people I know, or have known, people I’ve lost but still love. I thought about the experiences I’ve shared with these friends, present and past, and realized I’ve got a wagonload of memories to grin about, or laugh, or give a softer smile about.

We, all of us who come to RunningWithQuills to share (and we do this whether we actually write a blog, or comment, or not), have something in common: we’re people who need people. We need to reach out and touch someone (yup, the song titles and lines are flowing today:) regularly. I’m so glad we do come here and that what we initially had in common were stories about that favorite of all subjects for me: good overcoming bad–love overcoming all odds.

The stories we wanted and still want to read formed our bond and we continue to draw more friends to us, more friends who like other people and think optimism is a pretty good idea.

Blessings, my flowers :)

Stella

Q. Returning to what I’d intended to write about–shortage of time–what makes you
feel as if there aren’t enough hours in the day? And what helps you to cope? But it would also be lovely to know how you’re feeling these days. Do you believe in optimism against all odds?

FAMOUS FIRSTS are twelve books by twelve different authors who have written for Harlequin but who became known for single title, New York Times bestselling books. MOONTIDE is my book in this promotion and this month (March titles) I join Debbie Macomber, Linda Howard and Anne Stuart in the first group. Next month our own Jayne Ann Krentz and Lori Foster join Linda Lael Miller and Heather Graham for the second four books. May brings Diana Palmer, Joan Johnson, Carla Neggers and Barbara Delinsky. I hope you enjoy these stories.

From Wolves to Demons...and Demon Hunters

I’ve started work on my new paranormal series for Kensington Zebra, tentatively called Demonfire, though since I recently noticed that Emma Holly has a book out called Demon’s Fire, that may get changed...titles are strange things. As an author you can be highly invested in a title and yet someone else will get to it first, or the editor will think it’s horrible. Need I say who generally wins this one? That happened with my Wolf Tales series, when I called the overall series, while it was still an online serial, Wolf Tales, but gave each story a new name: Stefan, Alexandria, Anton, Keisha, etc.

When Kensington bought the series, they decided to call every novel Wolf Tales with a Roman Numeral to designate which book it was, but now that we’re up to IX they’re talking about going to Arabic numbers—personally, now that I’ve figured out how the Roman Numerals work, I hate to see them change, but it’s out of my hands. Point being, using Wolf Tales as the overall title has worked really well, though I know my readers get confused when I have to explain that the series continues in the Sexy Beast anthologies, where all my titles have “Chanku” in them—but I digress. I was talking about Demonfire!

This new series is going to be something totally new for me. It’s not erotic, but it is a sexy paranormal. Picture Earth as the fulcrum holding the world of Eden (Good) and the world of Abyss (Evil) in balance. However, demons from Abyss have been invading Earth in ever growing numbers, until now, it’s reached a tipping point where Evil might be in a position to take over all three worlds.

The good citizens of Eden can’t fight, even to protect themselves, but they know something has to be done to stem the flow of demonkind into Earth’s dimension. They hire a fallen demon to do their work for them. Dax has been booted out of Abyss—he’s got a streak of good, though he’s far from perfect. He agrees to do the Edenites’ dirty work for a chance at Paradise. They give him a human body and a tiny will o’ the wisp named Willow to help him adjust to the strange dimension called Earth, and send him off to save mankind—with exactly seven days to get the job done before he gets zapped back to the void where they found him.

Unfortunately, Dax gets hit by the powerful curse from a demon the moment he sets foot on Earth. He ends up unconscious in Eddy Marks’s potting shed, where her dog Bumper discovers him. Eddy’s a pragmatic soul, but it’s hard to deny the existence of a demon when there’s a little Tinkerbell clone flitting around, and the snake tattoo that runs from this absolutely gorgeous man’s thigh to his chest seems to have a life of its own. I did tell you he’s naked when she finds him, didn’t I? Oh, well, he is...and, uhm, you can see where this is going, right?

I absolutely love starting a new story that’s set in a totally unfamiliar world. I’m about eighty pages into this one and it’s beginning to open up for me. It’s lighter than Wolf Tales, with a little more humor and a lot of action. I think readers will identify with both Eddy and Dax—and Bumper the dog. Poor Bumper is a case of odd breeding. Picture a pit bull crossed with a standard poodle—she looks like a pit in a blond Marilyn Monroe wig, but she’s loyal and brave, and with Willow’s help, often finds her own voice.

I’m not exactly sure where this story will take me, but it’s the first book in a series of four that, unlike Wolf Tales, will end after the fourth book is written. We don’t have a set release date, but I expect Demonfire (or whatever it’s called) will hit the stores by Spring of 2010, which, in the publishing world, isn’t all that far off. In the meantime I’ll be splitting my time between writing stories about my demon hunters and my sexy Chanku and trying to keep everyone straight.

So my question is, do you have a problem when authors change genres? Wolf Tales is definitely erotic, but Demonfire most assuredly isn’t. I’m hoping readers will be open enough to something new from me—it’s time to stretch my wings a bit and make the move from trade paperbacks to mass market. I’d love to hear what you think.

Higgins stole my RITA, but I'm digging her writing anyhow.

That's the quote I sent when asked to give one for Kristan Higgin's Too Good To Be True. Don't know why they declined to use it.

Okay, okay, if you wanna be picky, I sent two quotes and Tracy Farrel, the senior editor at HQN did say she was determined to use the RITA one somewhere.

RITA smuggled me a picture shortly after Higgins absconded with her. It was accompanied by a note that read: Help. Am in the hands of Yanks. They just don't get West Coast chicks like us. Come get me.

Then....nothing. So, I suppose the little gold traitor acclimated. Sucks for me. But, hey! I got the next best thing --Kristan's agreed to join us today.

Cuz the truth is, I do dig Higgin's writing. So join me in welcoming her to Quillsville, everyone.
*************************************************************************************
Hello! Thanks to the lovely Susan Andersen for inviting me to be here today…interesting and little known fact about Susan: Give her a cosmo, and suddenly she’s belting out a saucy rendition of “Baby Got Back.” (And by the way, Susan…I forgive you.)

Dearest Susan invited me here to chat about my fourth romantic comedy, TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, which hit the shelves this month. The story centers around Grace Emerson, whose ex-fiancé has recently started dating her younger sister (I just hate when that happens, don’t you?). To keep everyone from obsessing about her love life, Grace whips out a fake boyfriend. A completely imaginary man…the best kind, some would say.

I am a big fan of imaginary friends. Mr. Goober and Sally were my first imaginary friends, and they’d keep me company as I sucked my thumb and held my special soft blankie (this was back in my turbulent 20s, you understand). As a child, McIrish, my dear husband, had Fifi and Tuckery who lived in the drain of his bathtub. My daughter had Violet, a thumb-sized moose; my son had Di-Di-Dah. We’re still not sure who Di-Di-Dah was, but he kept our boy happy on long car rides.

Like my heroine, I often imagined having a perfect boyfriend back in the day (and even now, when I’m feeling crotchety). How pleasant to imagine a wonderful man — some magical combination of Tim Gunn, Rhett Butler and Clive Owen — bringing me a glass of wine!

And yes, like my heroine, I’ve faked a boyfriend. In my case, it was to avoid hurting the feelings of a would-be suitor, back when I sported big hair and a sweeter disposition. “Oh, you’re so nice to ask, but no, sorry…I’m seeing someone. Otherwise…” My voice would trail off, and I’d bat my big brown eyes in feigned regret. Now, of course, on those rare and happy occasions when a guy hits on me, I bask in the moment for a sec, soaking up the details so I can torment my husband later on. Then I flash my wedding ring and simply say, “Save it, bub. Married.”

But in TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, Grace makes up a boyfriend for different reasons. See, she really adores her younger sister, who, through no fault of her own, fell in love with Grace’s fiancé. No one set out to hurt anyone or steal anybody…it was just an unfortunate twist of fate. Grace wants Natalie to find happiness, and to alleviate her sister’s guilt, she pretends that she’s seeing Wyatt Dunn, M.D. And it does the trick. For a while, anyway.

In TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, it’s pretty obvious that Grace’s family means everything to her. She’ll do anything for them…to a ridiculous degree. It got me to thinking — we’ve all done dopey things for those we love. There was the time I robbed the…oh, wait, my parole officer said I shouldn’t discuss that. Well, there was also the time my sister made me pretend to have car trouble so she could chat up a certain gorgeous mechanic. I had to sit in the driver’s seat, revving the engine while Sissy ogled the poor guy as he bent and probed under her hood (her car hood of course, get your minds out of the gutter).

So here’s my question for you. Have you ever done something vaguely questionable to help out someone you loved? How’d that work out?

Leave a comment, and I’ll pick someone at random and send them an autographed copy of the book.

All the best,

Kristan
www.kristanhiggins.com

JAYNE DOES ARCANE MATH

Okay, I'll be the first to admit that math was never my strong point in school. I struggled through addition and subtraction and barely made it through multiplication — thanks to rote memorization and a teacher who believed in flashcards. But division was fuzzy math to me and after fractions it all became a blur. Lately, however, people have been asking me to count. Fortunately, only to 6.

I'm getting a lot of email from readers who want to know the order in which my Arcane Society books were written.

Now, rest assured, I write every book in the series so that it can be read as a stand-alone. But that doesn't satisfy a lot of readers. They like order and sequence. So, I dug out my calculator (didn't want to mess up the math) and here goes:

SECOND SIGHT # 1

WHITE LIES # 2

SIZZLE AND BURN # 3

THE THIRD CIRCLE # 4

RUNNING HOT # 5

THE PERFECT POISON # 6 (coming in late April)

Whew. Now that's over let's discuss just why the sequence of a series is so important to all of us. Most authors I know write their series books as stand-alones and I'll bet most readers don't even discover a series until it is two or three books along. In fact, a lot of authors will tell you that a series doesn't usually "catch fire" until the fourth or fifth book. But as soon as it does everyone wants to go straight back to the beginning and start reading from Book I.

I think this is fascinating. Hey, I do the same thing as a reader. But I wonder why it matters so much. What about you? At what point did you get hooked on your favorite series and when you realized you were hooked did you go back to the beginning of the series? And what do you do if you come into a series and discover that it has been running for quite a while and that you've missed a lot of books?

Inquiring minds....
-- Jayne

Guest author, Ann Christopher- Ode To Fuzzy Faces

Everyone, please give a giant QUILL welcome to my friend, and very talented author, Ann Christopher. I snagged this poor woman yesterday, begged her to guest blog for me today, and she stepped in with one of my most favorite topics ever! Animals.

Thank you, Ann! You're a lifesaver!

Thanks for having me! Special hugs to Kate and Lori, whom I know personally! Jayne, did you know that Mistress is one of my favorite romances ever? I cornered you at cocktail party at Nationals one year and talked you into a stupor about it.

That’s all forgiven now, though, right?

*AHEM*

Since Lori allowed me to guest blog today and since Lori invited me to participate in her upcoming anthology, Tails of Love, which is about pets, I thought I’d talk about pets--writing about them and living with them.

I’ve written about two so far: Zeus, the bacon-loving Yorkshire terrier in my latest release, Road to Seduction, and Atticus the mini-marshmallow-loving capuchin monkey in my Tails of Love novella, Atticus Saves Lisa. I find pets every bit as fun to write about as people, because God knows they have personality and cuteness to spare.

Zeus the dog, for example, wears T-shirts and bandanas and sleeps with his favorite transition object, a stuffed bunny named Fluffles. Atticus the therapy monkey also has a transition object, a blue blankie, and he spends as much time as possible playing with toddler toys, like tool sets with hammer and nails.

In real life, I’ve had the obligatory gerbils, guinea pigs, dog and even a blue parakeet named Smokey. Currently we have two rescue cats that keep us on our toes. Savannah, the green-eyed gray, likes to “hug” me by rising up on her hind legs and putting her front paws on either side of my neck. Sadie prefers to spend her time chasing and retrieving (yes, she’ll bring it back and drop it at your feet) shot rubber bands.

I love my cats. I love pets.

What about you? What are your favorite cute pet stories? Please leave a comment, and at the end of the day I’ll draw a name to win a copy of Road to Seduction and a book bag.


Ann Christopher
http://www.annchristopher.com/



PS from Lori: Ann mentioned Tails of Love, so I wanted to explain real quick that it's a special anthology of 10 authors, due out June 09, with all author and agent proceeds going to the Animal Adoption Foundation (AAF) - http://www.aafpets.com/ - a fabulous no-kill animal shelter in my neighborhood.

STUFF

Just stuff, that's all.

Life is made up of STUFF.

My husband and I have too much of it.

We're planning to move our winter residence, and our daughter is planning to move her year around residence, to be closer to the "little darlings," AKA grandchildren. Two days of driving, plus two days to get back home again, really clamps down on visiting opportunities.

But moving...ah, yes, STUFF.

Have you opened your closets and drawers lately? Yikes! Everything I thought we needed, or was too busy to weed out, is haunting me.

Now I have it face it.

Them.

Hordes and hordes of...

STUFF.

I keep telling myself "Do this one closet and then you can write." But one closet has misplaced STUFF, so I try to sort it and end up running from one end of the house to the other. I end up running all over the house rearranging...

You guessed it: STUFF

And I have a cold.

*SNUCK*


What's your stuff quotient? And when did you last go through it?

LET ME BE YOUR VACATION GUIDE:

If I tell you I’m going somewhere, either don’t go there at all or go in a different season.

Want some ideas about beautiful places to vacation? I’m a deep well of fabulous ideas. But if you discover I have plans to be there when you want to be, just take my word for it, the airports will close, the freeways will close, the garbage people will go on strike, all buses and other modes of transportation will stop, shops will run out of basic supplies, there will be power outages while it’s either roasting hot or freezing cold and the dollar will undoubtedly collapse so that you can’t afford to buy anything anyway.

Now where in the world can Stella be today? Why, in England. Of course. We flew into Heathrow during a curfew window yesterday morning. And these “green hills” are white, everything’s white, and no one here has the vaguest notion how to drive in snow and even if they did, there is NO snow removal equipment and the only news I’ve heard relates to salt or grit–the lack thereof. Every other word out of any news anchor’s mouth is either snow, or grit.

Just a few weeks ago I came up with the brilliant notion to be in England for \my second cousin once removes First Birthday. I haven’t even seen him yet (and take it from me, it’s not looking good for that situation to change anytime soon) and Jamie has been a much awaited little boy. And, while in England, we would have a lovely visit with my brother and sister-in-law. We are with Phil and Lynn, thank goodness and it’s cold enough to freeze appendages off brass monkeys.

Snow everywhere, and sludge. And there are laws against clearing sidewalks or driveways here because you can get sued for doing that if someone subsequently takes a fall. If you take a fall and kill yourself on the sidewalk because it hasn’t been cleared, tough luck–suck it up, mate.

Whine, whine, moan, moan. Like I’ve already written–take my advice on places to go, just not when I plan to do so. I am madly in love with Kauai and love to go when warm rain is tipping in buckets but if you want to go there in sunshine and get a tan, check my schedule first. Monsoon prediction is one of my big talents.

I’m writing this on Friday while planning to make the drive to Dorset (where I was born and grew up) for the big Birthday Party on Sunday. They’re planning this party to coincide with our being there. Cissy will post this blog for me but if I’m still sitting here in London sniffling (have acute bronchitis and sinusitis–why hold back the good news) expect more riveting prose from me:)

Forgot something. My upper lip is so dry it’s swollen to twice its normal size and I have to breathe through my mouth because my sinuses have quit allowing anything into my nose. When I breathe, I cough. Isn’t that nice? I mustn’t keep any lovely word pictures from you.


This was supposed to be a blog about the reissue of MOONTIDE, a book I dearly love because it’s set in Dorset:) Y’know, rotten weather even comes into it so give it a whirl and you’ll read a bit about how crummy beautiful Dorset can get–when it’s not being absolutely beautiful. Make no mistake, this country is amazing to look at. One funny thing I noted yesterday was that all the sheep look brown rather than white against the snow.

MOONTIDE. A British woman who settled in US, married and set up a business there is on a buying trip in the south of England.. Just before the book opens they are in a crash and the husband is killed. The heroine, who is pregnant, is hospitalized and meets a spectacular, if jaded, surgeon. Of course, she’s hardly looking for romance. This is a poignant book about some of the curves life throws at us and how we try to fight our way out. There is a mystery, but most of all, there is survival and eventually a chance to love again.

My true preoccupation of the moment is my paranormal trilogy, COURT OF ANGELS, set in New Orleans and I’m aching to tell you about it but it’s too soon and I must behave and be patient.

Chilly hugs to all,

Stella

Please share your most irritating, horrifying, or disappointing holiday stories with us.

Hug-me suit, size 6, please?

I’m wondering if I need therapy...serious therapy. I’m coming to the end of a novella that I’ve been writing for the past couple of weeks—I’m down to the last two or three pages. I wanted to get it done quickly, as I’ve got other projects waiting and no time to waste, so I’ve totally immersed myself in the project—living and breathing Chanku Spirit for days on end, to be honest.

So why therapy? Well, since I write an ongoing series with returning characters, a new story consists of sitting down at my computer and asking whichever character pops into my head just what they’ve been up to. They’re all like old friends and I love the chance to spend time with them. In this case, I got Matt, a young man who was abandoned as an infant and raised by a family who had no clue they’d adopted the child of a Chanku shapeshifter, a child who might have grown up and never realized the amazing birthright he’d inherited. In Matt’s case, it was even worse because he was sort of an odd duck and his adoptive parents never quite bonded with him. Then they had twin daughters of their own, and Matt, who was a young teen by then, ended up out on the streets. He fell in with a group of homeless kids who suddenly discovered they were all the same—shapeshifters with fantastic hidden abilities. For the first time in his life, Matt had a family that understood him and people who loved him just the way he was. (Their story comes out next month in Sexy Beast VI: Chanku Honor)

Okay...notice what I’m doing here? I’m telling you all about this poor kid like he’s a real person, but he’s FICTION! I made him up, but I lie awake at night worrying about Matt and hoping his life will turn out okay. See, in the story I just wrote, he was kidnapped by a goddess who wanted him for his youth and the energy she could siphon off of him. But Matt’s the kind of kid who didn’t know love until he fell in with his Chanku packmates, and now he’s not about to share himself with anyone—including a goddess—without love. So, instead of letting her turn him into the person she needs, he does his best to turn her into the woman she’s never had the chance to be.

I’m not going to say how the story ends, other than to say it does NOT end the way you think it will because it didn’t end the way I thought it would, but I’m down to writing the last few pages and I’m depressed! It’s ridiculous, but this happens every time I finish a story, and when you realize this is my eighteenth in the last three years, you’d be right if you think I spend way too much time depressed...might I add, it also happens when I finish reading a good story? I just read Lori’s book, MY MAN MICHAEL, and when I realized Michael’s story was over and I probably wouldn’t be hearing about him much in the future, I got depressed.

Get a life, right? I’m trying, believe me, but I will admit I’m absolutely thrilled to know that my publisher still wants more Wolf Tales and I can put the trip to the shrink off a little bit longer. And I’m almost positive that Lori will at least MENTION Michael in upcoming stories, so I’ll know if he’s doing okay, but I would love to know that you understand me. That you don’t think I’m totally around the bend when I worry about my characters, when I cry through scenes as I’m writing them, hoping like mad that everything will work out okay.

I keep wondering if the characters are as real to my readers as they are to me, but the occasional note from someone wondering how Anton and Keisha’s daughter is doing or if little Alex has gotten over his colic gives me hope—I’m not the only one who’s nuts. Maybe we need a support group? What do you think—are there characters in stories you just can’t let go of? I won’t even begin to list the ones that come to mind for me...if you knew the truth, I wouldn’t need to worry about therapy because someone might just have me committed.

Artsy-far--ahem.

I've had art on my mind today. I know, I know: it's a topic every bit as subjective as our reading or music tastes. Me, I really dig women in art. I love Pre-Raphaelite art in particular, with its lushness of fabric, skin, hair, scenery and jewelry. I have a poster of Vanity from the Art in the Age of Queen Victoria Exhibit that was at Seattle's Frye Museum years ago. My pics don't do it justice since I needed either a light or the flash on and both wash out the colors and set up glares, but here 'tis. She pales in comparison to the original, anyway, which was around six feet tall with a luxuriant purple background that doesn't even show up in the poster. But still I think she's gorgeous with her pearls and rich fabrics.

It doesn't have to be pre-Raphaelite, though. I like a lot of African American art, for its vibrant colors and textures. The same applies to Tarkay's cafe
women.


You might be going, "What the hey?" You call that art???? What can I say? We're attracted to the ones that speak to us, and for me, that usually includes the feminine form drawn with lots of color and texture.

What floats your boat?

JAYNE FACES FACEBOOK

First, I want to let you know that SIZZLE AND BURN, an Arcane Society novel, is now available in paperback. In this one you'll meet Zack Jones, destined to be the Master of the Society. Sadly, he doesn't want the job. He's too busy trying to find a wife. His last fiancee tried to kill him...

Okay, where was I? Oh, right. Facebook. I'll be the first to admit that when it comes to technology I'm rarely on the cutting edge. Back in the day when I worked as a librarian, for example, I uttered those prescient words: "Audio book publishing will never reach beyond the library. There's no market." I totally neglected to factor in the commuter crowd, the treadmill crowd, the crowd that likes to listen to a good story while working, etc., etc.

And then there was the time that I predicted that the paranormal would never be more than a niche market in publishing. Ahem.

But Facebook and the whole, online social networking thing intrigues me and not just because you can run a pretty darn good political campaign with it. I like the idea of having a page on Facebook for the same reason I like having a website and this blog. I see it as a great way to communicate with readers.

I decided to take the plunge. And immediately came up against one of the hard facts of modern life. I don't have time to do everything. Duh. (Hey, I'm trying to write a book here and I've got one out right now, and there's a proposal due and, boy, howdy, I'm swamped!). Not to mention the maintenance and attention it takes to develop a truly active and engaging experience at the networking sites. I didn't want the pages to be static.

So I went looking for someone who could help me get into the social networking world. And I found: PURPLE PAPAYA! Really, where has this business been all of my online life? I knew immediately that I needed the Papaya, big time.

Purple Papaya (as it says at its own Facebook page) "works with authors and others to create an engaging social experience for readers to enjoy while between books".

Thanks to the Papaya, I can now proudly state that you can find me on Facebook! I'm so excited that I'm moving on to MySpace. Yes, at long last, I'm catching up with a couple of other Quills who are light-years ahead of me online (you know who you are Lori and Kate!).

I'm hoping you'll join me on Facebook and, soon, on MySpace. Can Twitter be far behind? Then, again, does anyone really want to know what I'm cooking for dinner?

Where do you do your social networking online?

Sincerely, Jayne