Welcome fellow EC author, Kathy Kulig! ~DD

Thanks Delilah for letting me guest blog. I thought I’d do something with a holiday theme.

I love listening to Christmas music, at home, on the way to work and at work, beginning from Thanksgiving until after the New Year. I checked out Amazon to see what the top selling CDs are. I was surprised the traditional ones I listened to as a kid weren’t in the top 10. Bing Crosby was #27, Burl Ives didn’t even make the top 100, Nat King Cole was #100. They’re really old songs but ones I hear every year on the radio. Personally, I enjoy Mannheim Steamroller and Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

Does anyone remember the house in Ohio that had their lights synchronized to “Wizards in Winter” by Trans-Siberian Orchestra? I think Coco-Cola used it in a commercial later too. Here’s the YouTube link if you want to check it out: Wizards in Winter

Some fun facts: The illuminated Christmas tree started in England during Queen Victoria’s reign 1832, and through immigration spread to North America and Australia. The first known electrically lit Christmas tree was in 1882 by Edward H. Johnson, an associate of Thomas Edison, and vice-president of Edison Electric Light Company (now Con-Edison in NY City). He hand strung 80 red, white and blue incandescent light bulbs the size of walnuts. (From Wikipedia, where else?)

Where did Christmas songs originate? In AD 129, a Roman Bishop said that a song called “Angel’s Hymn” should be sung at a Christmas service in Rome. The first specifically Christmas hymns that we know of appear in fourth century Rome. Latin hymns such as Veni Redemptor Gentium, written by Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan. St. Francis of Assisi in 1223 in Italy started his Nativity Plays with songs or “canticles” that told stories. The carols later spread to France, Germany, Spain and other European countries.

For classic songs, one of my favorites is: “Do You Hear What I Hear?” What are your favorites?

Wishing everyone a happy, safe and healthy holiday!

I have a free read with a Thanksgiving theme on my website if you care to check it out: A Moveable Feast For Demons

Warm regards,

Kathy Kulig

Read Kathy’s latest!

While working on an environmental project in the Arizona desert, research scientist Amy Weston finds herself caught in the war between two men. Dante Akanto lures her into the desert to explore the dark side of her passions, pleasuring her in ways she never thought possible with his bizarre sex games. And park ranger Jake Montag has a compelling mysticism and powerful sensuality that’s impossible to resist.

But the two men, demon and shapeshifter, are engaged in a supernatural fight between worlds. Amy and her high level of life force energy is the key. Dante’s world and his immortality depend on claiming her as his own. The choice Amy makes between the two men will affect both her world and her future.

Reader Advisory: Contains scenes of mild bondage.

Give a warm welcome to Mary Alice Pritchard! ~DD

All I want for Christmas is a weir wolf or maybe a weir tiger. Really! I love shifters. What is it I love about them? Well, besides all that gorgeous male anatomy, there is the dark tortured soul that just begs for someone to save him. Those alpha males with their dark sides are so sexy to me. Can you imagine waking up Christmas morning to one under your tree? I can dream can’t I?

What else might I want this Christmas? I don’t think we have enough time for me to give you the entire list but just to name a few: an e-book reader; a back up drive for my computer; a gift certificate for Amazon; and my list of e-books I want for my e-book reader. I don’t want much do I? Seriously, what all do you guys want? I might pick up some ideas if you share them with everyone. Leave a comment. I’d love to know.

What do I like most about Christmas? Watching people unwrap their gifts. Especially if it’s something I’ve given them. I like to see that first look on their faces when they realize what it is. Nothing is as sweet as watching children though. They get excited about everything. Well, everything except clothes that is. The younger they are the more fun it is to watch. They have just as much fun with the boxes and paper as the toy itself. I remember watching my nephews open their presents when they were younger and thinking I could have just wrapped up empty boxes for them to play with.

I write shifter books because I love to read them. I’ve probably own or read just about everyone ever written. My house is full of books. If you love to read like I do you know what I mean. Hence…the e-book reader for Christmas. Are there any other shifter fans out there? Let me hear from you. Which type do you like the most, the wolves or the cats? I’m partial to cats myself. If you read my blog you’ll learn just how much.

Right now, I have a cat shifter book out, Jaguar Nights. It’s about a jaguar shifter, Cole, who has trouble with his temper and fears he will lose his pride if he can’t control it. He meets his mate, a human who has been bitten by a rogue wolf and finds that she can help him calm his beast. Since he had to heal her using his blood, he doesn’t know if she will turn wolf or jaguar if she turns at all. Can he claim her as his mate without knowing for sure? Will he provide the home she has always wanted or will he be the death of her? The sequel to Jaguar Nights, entitled Leopard Dreams, will be out later next year. It continues the story of the weir cat pride and their struggles.

You can purchase Jaguar Nights, the first in the Tales of the Cat series at www.thewildrosepress or at www.amazon.com
Mary Alice Pritchard

Hope to hear from you about all your favorite things soon!

Another of my Texas friends! ~DD

Hi, all, I’m Meg Benjamin, and I write about South Texas where I lived for twenty-plus years, mostly about a mythical Hill Country town called Konigsburg. However, my DH and I recently moved northwest of Denver. Just before moving, I retired from twenty years of teaching writing, Web design, and desktop publishing.

Be My Baby, released by Samhain on December 8, is the third book in my Konigsburg series. The hero is another Toleffson brother, Lars, an accountant who broke up with his vicious wife Sherice in Wedding Bell Blues. My heroine, Jess, is the babysitter for Lars’s two-year-old daughter, but she has problems of her own in the form of some nasty, kidnapping former in-laws. In the excerpt, Lars and Jess have both been awakened by noises outside her house (where Lars is staying as a live-in bodyguard). As you’ll see, there’s a lot of unacknowledged sexual tension between them that finally comes to a head (so to speak). Hope you all enjoy it!

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There’s no room in her life for love. Love has other ideas…

Konigsburg, Texas, Book 3

If Jessamyn Carroll had only herself to consider, staying in Pennsylvania after her husband’s death would have been a no-brainer. Her vindictive in-laws’ efforts to get their hooks into her infant son, however, force her to flee to a new home. Konigsburg, Texas.

Peace…at least for now. She’s even found a way to make some extra money, looking after sexy accountant Lars Toleffson’s precocious two-year-old daughter. She finds it easy—too easy—to let his protective presence lull her into thinking she and her son are safe at last.

Lars, still wounded from enduring a nasty divorce from his cheating ex-wife, tries to fight his attraction to the mysterious, beautiful widow. But when an intruder breaks into her place, and Jess comes clean about her past, all bets are off. Someone wants her baby—and wants Jess out of the picture. Permanently.

Now Jess has a live-in bodyguard, whether she wants him or not. Except she does want him—and he wants her. Yet negotiating a future together will have to overcome a lot of roadblocks: babies, puppies, the entire, meddling Toleffson family—and a kidnapper.

Warning: Contains Konigsburg craziness, creepy in-laws, a conniving two-year-old, a lovelorn accountant, a sleep-deprived Web developer, and lots of hot holiday sex.

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Jess stood next to the sink, her bathrobe pulled tight across her chest. She was leaning forward, trying to see out the kitchen window.

“Jess!” he whispered.

She whirled toward him, her hands over her mouth.

“Sorry.” He stepped beside her. “What do you see?”

“N-nothing,” she stammered. “I don’t know what’s making the noise.”

He put his hand on her shoulder, moving her gently to the side. Beneath his fingers, her skin felt like ice.
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No, I’m not back. I preposted this before I left! ~DD 😎

For those who don’t know, my sister and I co-founded a website for writers called Rose’s Colored Glasses. From that site, we run a critique group and provide workshops—some free and some for pay (hey, teaching is work!). In January, we will be leading a month-long plotting bootcamp. How’s our workshop different from every other one out there? We provide feedback and brainstorming every step of the way. We are so good at it that we have many authors return again and again for help with their new Works-in-Progress.

Here’s a description of the class. January is a great time to take on a new challenge and a new book. Join us if you can!

Your DIs (Drill Instructors): Elle James and Delilah Devlin

Dates: January 4—January 30, 2010

Cost: $35.00—cheap, considering everything you get!

What you can look forward to during Plotting Bootcamp?

Learn a methodical approach to harness your creativity in order to produce an in-depth plot for your next novel! Sound scary? It is-when you’re staring at an empty page without a compass and a map to guide you through the novelistic jungle. Your DIs will lead you through four weeks of activities that will help strengthen your abilities to: capture the conflicts, the major plot line and subplots; deepen your knowledge of your characters; and conceive of and develop an in-depth, by-chapter description of your book. Elle and Delilah will accomplish this with weekly lessons, bi-weekly chats and daily online communication. Be ready for bivouac!

Interested? Follow this link to sign up: Rose’s Plotting Bootcamp

Okay, that’s the end of my promo. The bootcamp is intense and fun. And you will learn something new or reinforce knowledge you already have! Guaranteed!

Our mom drew the picture for our site, morphing my sister and I into “Rose”.

Welcome my old friend, Masha Holl. We’re buddies from my days in San Antonio. ~DD

Delilah and I share a passion…and it’s not what you think. Sure, I’m as, um, seduced by her stories as any reader, but I get a particular enjoyment out of the mythical dimension she gives them.

Writers of paranormal, fantasy and science fiction must learn quickly that when they create a hero that is more-than, or other-than human, they must also create a villain, or at least obstacles, that will adequately challenge the hero. But what adds to Delilah’s stories is that she creates a whole world that fits her characters. A whole new structure, a whole new set of rules, beliefs, a whole new reality.

And why would that please me particularly?

Because I’m a folklorist.

I don’t just read and know folk tales and songs. I don’t just collect traditional recipes and study articles on the theoretical relationship between African spider stories and the Norse trickster god Loki. I look at how people lived with all these tales and beliefs.

It does help when I have to take myself into the heart of the story-world I am creating.

But you have to wrap your mind around concepts that are as alien to a modern person as particle physics are to a sixth-grader, to put yourself in the shoes of a medieval peasant.

At the core of traditional, non-scientific thinking we have the opposite kind of perception: magical thinking.

How does this work?

Modern man believes in science. I mean, we all know science, and we know that science works. From the simplest things like boiling water to sterilize it, or wiping surfaces with alcohol or bleach to disinfect them, to more complex concepts like computers and phones, which we may not be able to fix, but we know someone knows, they’re just objects made of other objects, and not constructs working on the mystical power of spells.

We don’t need to perform arcane rituals in order to propitiate some power before we turn on the TV, or else it might blow up in our faces. We just hit a button.

That’s science.

We only read about magic. In Delilah’s books, maybe.

The world centered on magical thinking works differently.
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Welcome my friend, Marley Delarose! ~DD

Whether you’re a newbie to writing or a published author I’m sure you’ve been frustrated a time or two with word processors like Word, wondering if there isn’t something out there just for writers.

There are!—Many software packages to choose from, some fairly inexpensive, some free. So many, in fact, that knowing which one is right for you can be a bit overwhelming.

Some of the issues to take into consideration include:
Your expertise with computers in general
Your operating system—Windows XP or Vista, Windows7, or Mac OS
How you work. Are you a pantser, a plotter, or a planner?
What genre do you write in; do you build an extensive fantasy world?
Would you like helpers like timelines, name generators, character creators included?
Do you want to track POV, conflict, revision status?
Want to place all your research including pictures in the program with your manuscript?
Would you like the program to offer a storyboard.
Expense.

Recently, I reviewed five software packages and a few tools on my blog—link to Marley’s reviews

Here’s a list of the packages I covered:
For writing:
PC only and entirely free of charge—Ywriter 5
MAC only—Scrivener
MAC AND PC (this means you can use the same file on your pc and your son’s MAC)—WriteItNow4, Writer’s Café

(There are more packages than these which I’ll review later. My overall recommendation for most writers would be WriteItNow4 for its ease of use and the multitude of built-in writer tools.)

For brainstorming and organizing your scenes or your life:
Freemind—Mindmapping software
Bubbl.US—online flowchart or mindmapping
Both are free to download and use.

For word production:
Write or Die from Dr. Wicked—many writers are familiar with this little online sprint helper but did you know there’s a new inexpensive desktop version? Try a word war today with a partner.

Go to my blog and click on the label ‘Software for Writers’ or on any of the links for the programs themselves at the bottom of the page. On each blog you’ll find a link to the software developer’s site where you can download a DEMO good for thirty days or click on an image to view it larger in a window of its own.

Happy Writing,
Marley

Marley Delarose is an RWA PRO, a member of DSRA, Nola Stars, and a former manager and computer teacher who is pursuing her goal of becoming a published author with her current paranormal mystery.

Welcome my high school friend, Shayla Kersten! ~DD

Hiya, all! I’m Shayla Kersten, author of gay romances filled with hot manlove! *cackle* I’ve known Delilah Devlin for more years than either of us will admit. I could tell you tales! Woo howdy! But then, so could she so we pledge to remain silent in mutual self-defense. I’m totally jealous of her vacation. I can imagine her sunning herself on the ship’s deck as I freeze my posterior off in frigid Arkansas!

FOR OLYMPUS’ SAKE is my first foray into time travel. Why I haven’t dabbled in science fiction before, I don’t know. I’ve been a scifi geek since I was a kid. So while I’ve written gay vampires and lots of gay cops, FOR OLYMPUS’ SAKE is the first—but not the last—scifi story! I have the first book in a new scifi series coming out after the first of the year. Enjoy this excerpt from FOR OLYMPUS’ SAKE and be on the look out for ANGEL MOON—space cowboys with fangs! (Special thanks to Brandy W for the ANGEL MOON prompt! *cackle*)

FOR OLYMPUS’ SAKE
By Shayla Kersten
Copyright © SHAYLA KERSTEN, 2009

Stephen Liatos’ career as an archeologist hit a brick wall a long time ago. His love life crashed and burned right behind it. When a young, golden intern claims to have the key to the illusive artifact known as Aphrodite’s Necklace, Stephen’s life takes a strange turn. Suddenly, he’s in the middle of the hottest wet dream he’s ever had. Until all hell breaks loose. Literally.

Alex’s mission was to retrieve his mistress’s necklace. He didn’t need a passenger along for the ride, although Stephen’s overactive libido makes for an interesting trip. Nor did he expect to end up in Hades instead of Olympus. Now he has to get the necklace and Stephen out of the Underworld before they both become permanent residents.

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Stephen Liatos looked up when his office door opened. His body tightened as the new intern Alex stepped into the room. His brain reminded his cock of the trouble young interns and assistants could be. Stephen’s punishment for screwing one of his students led to exile at a completely excavated ruin. Nothing new had been discovered at Knossos in years.

Alex stood a couple of inches taller than Stephen and had a body that looked like he was a Greek god come down from Olympus. And he had a profound effect on Stephen’s libido in spite of the danger—or maybe because of it.

“Can I help you?” Stephen winced at the slight crack in his voice. Grabbing a bottle of water, he hid his embarrassment behind a long drink as the desk hid his physical reaction.

“I found the site of Aphrodite’s necklace!” Alex’s enthusiasm filled his tone and brightened his face.

“What do you mean?” Stephen scowled across the desk. A flush of heat crawled up his neck. Surely, he knew about Stephen’s history of tilting at windmills. “The necklace is a legend, not a real artifact.” He’d once believed a lot of things…

“No, it is real. And I know where to find it.” Alex was practically dancing with excitement. “Would you drive?”

Stephen ran his hand through his hair. To be young and so naïve again. He was tempted to tell Alex to get back to the job he was assigned, but the young man needed to learn from his own mistakes. “Okay. Let’s go.” Maybe getting away from worrying about the museum’s budget would make the world look less gray today.

Pushing away from his desk, Stephen stood then grabbed his jacket against the blustery winter day. Situated between the Mediterranean and the Aegean Seas, Crete didn’t get very cold weather but the damp wind could be chilling. “Lead the way.”

Stephen lagged behind Alex for the short walk down the corridor to the parking lot. A small trowel, a ruler and a couple of brushes in Alex’s right back pocket raised his wrinkled T-shirt enough to reveal the contours of his denim-covered ass.

The view from behind both raised and lowered Stephen’s mood. His body reminded him of how long it had been since he’d been up close and personal with something other than his hand. Too bad his personal rules now made the staff off-limits. Especially the young hardbodies also known as grad students and interns.

Alex scurried across the parking lot to Stephen’s truck. He swayed from one foot to the other, waiting on Stephen to catch up.

Lowering his head, Stephen hid the small smile forming. Once upon a time, he’d had been as enthusiastic as Alex about archaeology. Now at nearly forty, Stephen understood that the find of a lifetime was usually in someone else’s life. Instead of putting a damper on the young man’s mood, Stephen unlocked the car and climbed in.

“So where to?” Stephen asked as he started the car.

Alex stuffed his tall frame into the seat next to him. “The Minoan ruins.”

“But they—” Explaining how many times the palace of Knossos had been searched—by Stephen and others—wouldn’t do any good. Stephen started the car. “Knossos it is.”
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