In the Moonlight with Barbora Knobova

Pump Up Your Book Promotion

Please Note: There was a mix-up in today's guest post. Below is the corrected version.



Barbora Knobova is a writer, love coach and expert in Delicious Life. A world traveler, she is one of those rare world citizens who live everywhere and nowhere. Barbora is a firm believer in female friendship, loyalty and bonding. She writes hilarious, sharp-witted, caustically apt, ironic, moving, true books for strong, independent, smart, fearless women. Barbora has also written several self-improvement books and teaches women about the importance of self-love in relationships and life in general. Barbora speaks eight languages and has found her home away from home in New York, London and Milan. She is always on the move, accompanied by her beagle Brinkley, the nasty dog from her new book Tales for Delicious Girls.

http://www.barboraknobova.com

Tales for Delicious Girls contains twenty-five exhilarating real-life stories about delicious women, eccentric men and stubborn dogs. The book offers witty, refreshing, clever and ironic insight into relationships between men and women from all points of view. The book is a modern relationship manual, providing answers to the most pressing dating and friendship questions that strong, independent, modern women want to know. “Tales for Delicious Girls” deals with wishes, desires and dreams – as well as hilarious mishaps and dating disasters.


Learn To Love The Delicious Self


One of the main subjects that my book Tales for Delicious Girls deals with is self-love. Why? Because we cannot be completely happy unless we love ourselves. Women often believe that sacrifice is the way to go. That they have to love their boyfriends, husbands, parents and friends more than they love themselves because loving yourself and putting yourself first is wrong. However, there is nothing wrong about true self-love. It's not selfish and conceited to love yourself and put yourself first. No one is responsible for your life, only you. No one can make you happy, only you. You have the right to be happy and you have the right to love yourself, respect yourself and be your best friend.

The way we feel about ourselves influences the whole world around us. Life is a mirror that reflects the relationship we have with ourselves and projects it into the relationships we have with other people. If you feel miserable about yourself, if you’re overly self-critical and focus on how "imperfect" you are, guess what happens? People around you see you the same way you see yourself.

However, as soon as you acquire a healthy, balanced, loving and generous attitude to yourself, the way other people treat you will change miraculously. Why? Because if you love yourself, you will be loved.

You can actually learn to feel better about yourself and literally fall in love with yourself, which will make other people fall in love with you too. It might not be easy at first but it depends only on you, which is good news. Decide right now that you are going to love and respect yourself unconditionally and that you are going to appreciate all the little details that surround you and that make you happy. You are the most important person in your life and you are unique.

There is one piece of advice that helped me a lot when I was learning to love myself more and discovering how to do it. Let me share it with you: When you feel uncomfortable, when you find yourself in an unpleasant situation, when something makes you unhappy and when you're not sure how you should react or what you should do, relax and think for a while:

Would I like my best friend (mother, sister, etc.) to experience this?

Would I like her to feel like this?

Would I suggest she acts this way?

If the answer is no, it means you’re fighting your self-love and not acting in your best interest.

Do what's best for you, not what's best for others! Self-love is your key to happiness and I hope that Tales for Delicious Girls helps you love your delicious self more than ever.

Mystic Monday

Blood Tax, Protectors and College

Yesterday I found myself doing the dance of joy because I'd finally finished Book 6 of Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampires Series. I started the series on October 30th, and have been under thrall ever since. I literally could not do anything else but read. The thrall was so bad that I found myself reading every chance I got - while watching TV shows (which is why I still haven't watched last week's Castle); while in the car; while sitting at the Bradley Center waiting for Bucks games to start, during half-time and during time-outs if I felt I could get away with it (as part of Bogut's Squad 6, I have certain obligations to be a loud, cheering fan during the games). I still don't know how I managed to put the books down long enough to shower, cook or get dishes done, although these past two weeks I haven't been doing much of any of that. As I said, under the thrall of the Morganville Vampires.

What's so great about this series?

Well, it's different, very different from all of the other vampire stuff that's out there. In most cases, vampires hide themselves from humans and it's usually a vampires against humans kind of situation with the occasional human/vamp love story. In the case of Morganville, it's a community of vampires and humans working together, sort of.

Basically, the vampires control the city and many of the older vamps give the humans what is called "protection". Think of the vampires as a mob, only you don't pay money for the protection. No, that's a tax of a different color - red.

Red, as in blood. That's right, blood. Each month, all adult humans living in Morganville are required to donate blood to the Morganville Blood Bank. They even have portable units that drive around to collect "back-taxes," should you fail to make your monthly donation. The blood bank isn't just for the vamps either, it means that there is always a large supply for those humans who need it. See, the vamps want the humans to live because they know that, without the humans, they wouldn't be able to live.

There's only been one drawback to being under the protection of vampires. While being under the protection of one vampire means none of the other vamps can hurt you (unless they don't follow the rules), the protection agreement doesn't protect you from your vamp protector. Protected vamps can do anything they want to with the humans they "own." There hadn't been any safeguards in place to protect the humans from the vamps they serve, which created a vampire resistance movement.

If Morganville was a city with humans in it, how did it not get destroyed by the government?

Well, The Founder of Morganville took care of that. Anyone who left the town generally forgot what they knew of Morganville once they left it. They remembered living there, but not much more. If you did remember and did pose a threat to it, the vamps came and "took care of you," in that oh-so-subtle way that mobs take care of their own problems.

Oh, Morganville is also a college town, too! It has Texas Prairie University, or TPU for short, which is how Claire finds herself in this town. Me, I like to think of it as Toilet Paper U (sorry, can't resist that one and not sure too many of us can!). The Founder knew that keeping an influx of a sort of tourism would keep the city flowing in money, so there were rules to protect the college students. The campus grounds are off limits to the vampires except for those teachers that taught night classes or those attending classes, college students are exempt from the blood tax, and there are human cops to deal with the human problems.

Yes, Rachel Caine went to a lot of trouble to build this town. Then she added Claire Danvers, an extremely smart teenager whose mother thought that TPU was safer than MIT for her bright, 16 year old daughter because she would be closer to home.

However, because she starts off on campus, Claire's biggest problem isn't the vampires, it's Monica Morrell, the mayor's daughter. She rules the roost and terrorizes as many of the student population as she can get away with, but she never prepared herself for Claire, a small girl who would fight back against her. Claire's need to fight back against Monica and her stooges almost gets Claire killed while she stays in the dorms. This situation leads Claire to find off campus housing.

It is through this search that Claire finds Eve, Shane, Michael and the Glass House. There's a something special about the Glass House, and Claire can feel it from the moment she enters the house. There's also something special about Michael too, but it's not what you or even his two roommates (Eve and Shane) suspect.

This is where Claire's adventure in Morganville begins. She doesn't just discover the secrets of the town, she discovers the importance of friendships, her brains and manages to stumble into a relationship along the way. She also attracts the attention of the most prominent vampires in the town, which lends itself a whole new set of problems for Claire.

This series has it all - Romance, mystery, suspense, murder, mutiny, fear, cooperation and crazy vampires!  Rachel Caine is the master of cliff hangers and the master of tension!! Once you pick up Glass Houses, Book 1 in the Morganville Vampires series, you'll see what I mean. The cliffhanger at the end was so good, that you had to read on to find out what happened next. The Dead Girls' Dance, picks up right where Glass Houses leaves off. Midnight Alley picks up right where The Dead Girls' Dance ends, Feast of Fools continues the story from the ending point of Midnight Alley and Lord of Misrule picks up right where Feast of Fools stops.

Confused yet? If you've managed to follow along, Rachel Caine managed to carry cliffhangers successfully through the first five books of the series. Book 6, Carpe Corpus, continues the story, but not quite where Book 5 left off.

Do I recommend this series? Absolutely!

How many stars have I given them on Goodreads? 5 stars for each one!

There were laugh out loud moments, there were cheers for characters' success, there were "I can't believe that just happened!" moments and some very sad moments. All in all, there were some great victories and some bittersweet ones too. Very emotionally satisfying!

Do you need need to read them in order? Most definitely!

Here's the order again:

Book 1 - Glass Houses

Book 2 - The Dead Girls' Dance

Book 3 - Midnight Alley

Book 4 - Feast of Fools

Book 5 - Lord of Misrule

Book 6 - Carpe Corpus

Book 7 - Fade Out - Released November 2nd! Must find this one!

The sense of closure after Carpe Corpus is enough that the need to go on to Fade Out right away is minimal, but the desire to continue reading about Claire, Shane, Eve and Michael is just as strong!

I hope you find as much enjoyment out of the series as I have!

SUPERNATURAL SUNDAY

Kissing the Muse

By G.R. Bretz

Muses, flirtatious and fickle, intangible and surreal, they are as unique as the men and women they descend upon. They craft themselves to be whatever we need them to be. They mold us to be what they need us to be. I think that’s one aspect of Muses that is often overlooked. They need us as badly as we need them.

Mine arrived one night last December; quick on the heels of my sixth glass of absinthe. Or perhaps it was eight; I try not to count. No good will come of it. She stormed into my life; a sultry, shadowy specter that could only be seen with eyes wide closed and mind wide open.

She made her offer the moment she arrived. “Make me real. Tell my story and I will give you a thousand more to tell.” A very nice return on my investment, but not without a caveat. “Fail me and you will you go mad.”

My momma didn’t raise a fool. There was no way I would undertake such a foolhardy enterprise. I was fully prepared to stop drinking and turn on the television. Television is toxic to Muses. If you turn it on they will flee and not return until after the screen has faded to black.

I had my exit strategy, but there was no way out. She already knew me better than I knew myself. She swept in close, swirled about me, lingered on my skin like the memory of mosquito bites, and whispered words that I could not resist.

“Nothing in your life has ever been constant. Friends and lovers come and go like the passing seasons. Youth, health and sanity dissipate and depart without so much as a ‘by your leave.’ I alone will never leave you.”

That was nearly a year ago. My television still decorates the north wall of my living room. It’s very fashionable, but no longer functional. The rest of the nation took the ditch to Swigital and I chose the path less traveled. The story is long since told. My publisher is happy with it. My Muse is tickled pink or pickled tink; depending on how much we’ve had to drink.

As for me? Well, I’m sure you’ve figured it out by now. My grasp on reality is tenuous, at best. A number of writers have assured me that you have to be a little crazy to be in this business. I’m sure it’s true, but I’m not a little crazy. I’m mad as a hatter and I grow madder with every page I write, including this one.

I don’t mind. The pills and the pot and the booze conspire to keep it under control. I can actually function in the normal world and no one suspects; as long as I don’t say too much. Sanity is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there. It’s just not my cuppa.

In the end, it comes to this. I didn’t go mad from kissing the Muse. The Muse kissed me because I was already mad.

Glenn
Three sheets to the wind and one toke over the line

Here's an excerpt of my first novel, Absinthe Eyes & Other Lies:

Part 3: The Ice Maiden Cometh

I never wanted to be a writer. It was the furthest thing from my mind. I have a calling. I was born to it. My family refines the finest absinthe in the world. They have for six generations and I would be the seventh. It was destiny enough for me. It was all I ever intended to be.

I stand here beside the large wooden barrel, Vat 64. I am as solemn and discreet as a mortician. I watch as six of Paris’ darkest and dreariest file past his grave. They lay flowers against the modest headstone. Lucinda puts her long black shawl on the ground and kneels beside his grave. I know what she’s going to say, it’s a ritual for her. “What an appetite, mon cherie. Did you think you could drink it all in one night?”

No, I never wanted to be a writer. The only writer I have ever known was Richard Chalmer. I barely knew him, but nothing about the man spoke well of the profession. He was a tortured and tormented soul. I was only a child back then, but I could see that; everyone could see that. The last time I saw Richard Chalmer I was thirteen years old and he was floating face down in Vat 64. No, I never wanted to be a writer. It just happened.

*****

I remember it like it was yesterday. The vats hold a thousand gallons each and we open a fresh one every few weeks. It was a family affair and I was maturing. It was the first time I had been asked to attend an opening.

Grandfather was unlocking the doors when she walked up. Everyone just froze. The sun was to her back and she was wearing a thin, green cotton dress; every wondrous curve was silhouetted and high-lighted. It is an awe-inspiring image; most especially for a thirteen year old boy. She was beauty and she was legend; she was the Muse.

Richard Chalmer stumbled into her life four years earlier. They met on a rainy night in one of the city’s seedier nightclubs. She was sixteen; a hormonal cascade in progress, a heartache searching for a soul mate. He was in his fifties; an over-the-hill writer of hack fiction. His best days were behind him and his best days had never been all that good.

It was a match made in heaven. They moved in together. Over the next two and a half years he wrote five award-winning novels, international best sellers. One night he simply vanished. The press insisted that he had disappeared under suspicious circumstances. How astute of them. Has a human being ever vanished under less-than-suspicious circumstances?

There was an intensive search, a rigorous investigation, but nothing came of them. After a few months it slipped from the headlines and became one more file sent to the cold case squad. His muse retreated to their villa and was not seen in public for the next year and a half: not until that morning.

She walked straight up to me and put her hand on my shoulder. “Are you opening Vat 64today?”

I opened my mouth but the words refuse to form. I was too awestruck to speak. I nodded my head. If we weren’t I would gladly have opened it for her.

She pressed her credit card into my hand. “I want to buy it; every last drop. Have it delivered as soon as it’s bottled.”

Grandfather unlocked the door and invited her in. As far as I know, no one outside of the family had ever been there for an opening; but she was legend, and it was her absinthe.

We moved the overhead crane into place and lifted the heavy wooden lid from the vat. There he was, the subject of much speculation, floating at the top of Vat 64. Old mysteries were solved that morning; new ones sprang up to take their place. The police no longer asked where Richard Chalmer had gone, but they were very curious as to how he had gotten there. The vat could not have sealed itself.

The investigators wanted to question her, but people don’t always get what they want. They asked her to come in for questioning and her lawyers arrived with a sworn deposition. It said that their guess was as good as hers. They presented her with a subpoena to testify before the Coroner’s Inquest. She took a red marker, graded it C- and returned it. In her opinion it lacked originality. So did the second one; which she simply ignored. They threatened to have her arrested for contempt of court. Richard’s fans, her fans, took to the streets by the thousands; they laid siege to the courthouse. The judge reconsidered the matter and decided that a sworn deposition would be sufficient.

We watched as the paramedics lifted him from the vat and lowered his body to the ground. It was likely that he had been in the vat since the night he disappeared. You wouldn’t have known it to look at him. Apparently our absinthe preserves as well as it intoxicates. The expression on his face was that of a man who had died a moment ago.

She stared at him a minute and turned to face me. She was taller than me and larger. Her body was all that an adolescent boy might wish a woman’s body to be, but her face was ageless. It would have been at home in my classroom. It would have been at home carved on the side of a mountain. She laid her forehead on my shoulder and she wept. She wept and she clung to me like the morning fog clings to the Seine. She wept and I held her.

Starlight Saturday

YA Author Spotlight Presents...

Alexandra Sokoloff!!!

For those of you looking for the dark side of the Thanksgiving holiday because all the sentimental mush makes you gag, then you’ll like what I’ve got on the menu for today!

The Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff is a horror story that takes place over Robin Stone’s Thanksgiving weekend. Of course, she isn’t one of Them, the Normal Ones who go home to be with family and friends. Oh, no, not freshman Robin. To Robin, staying alone in the Gothic buildings was a more appealing concept than trying to have a conversation with her lunatic mother who, even at the best of times, barely has a hold on reality. It also beat having the constant reminder that, even though he did his duty and paid for her to come to Baird College, her father wanted nothing to do with her and preferred his new family.

What did it matter to her if she had nothing to do for Thanksgiving? It’s not like she was anything special. Oh no, she was nothing.

Robin’s outlook is pretty bleak, huh? Yeah, and Alex does a great job of painting that picture. The only thing that worries me is that the slow start might be enough to turn heads away.

Some of you familiar with the story might be going, huh?

Well, in truth, I had a difficult time getting into the story. The first five pages made it feel like I was wading through something heavy. While I know we’re taught to set the setting, there’s something to be said for the story that goes to hook you into the characters and then real you in and set the scene.

Seriously, I honestly would have preferred if the story went from the Prologue to this part found on page 7 because this is where I was hooked, where I asked, “What’s going to happen to this girl?” and where I felt I wanted to read on:

“In the two months she’d been at Baird, she’d made exactly zero friends. It wasn’t that she was a monster…”

Call me crazy, but all of the stuff written before this point could not hold my attention, but this did. Then, by the next page, you read her thoughts about herself, understand why she hasn’t made any friends, and it makes you care about her and very curious about what will happen when she’s left alone.

Yes, I do suggest this book because it looks to be a great read once you get into it. I think if I wasn’t so distracted by Rachel Caine’s Carpe Corpus, I would have been able to take the time and sink my teeth into this book. But I will do that after I finish with Book 6 of the Morganville Vampire Series because Book 7 isn’t quite available to me just yet.

Let’s get on to the interview!

Let’s start with some trivia about Alex:

Q. Do you have any favorite Thanksgiving movie or program that you enjoy watching every year? If more than one, tell us all of them!

A. Oh, for sure: Holiday Inn. Good for so many holidays! And I’ll watch Philadelphia Story on any holiday, too. And Holiday. My family is also very into doing the Fawlty Towers and/or Absolutely Fabulous marathon on Thanksgiving weekend.

Q. What, if any, Thanksgiving traditions (decorating, gathering with friends and family for a meal, etc.) do you have?

A. Besides the above entertainment, my family is big on reading tabloids during food prep and clean up. Weekly World News was the best! Bat Boy! Alien Abductions! Bigfoot!

Q. What was your most memorable Thanksgiving and why?

A. I’d have to say one of the biggest was my freshman year at Berkeley when I stayed by myself in my dorm for the holiday weekend and realized only once it got dark that I was all alone in that huge building, with a storm outside, and the bathroom all the way down the hall. It was so memorably terrifying that I based The Harrowing partly on that experience.

Q. Which do you choose: white or dark turkey, white potatoes or yams, green beans or corn, bread rolls or crescent rolls?

A. Dark turkey on a whole wheat sandwich with avocado. Lots of avocado. Yams, green beans and no extra bread.

Q. What, in your opinion, was the oddest food served at a Thanksgiving dinner you’ve attended?

A. I think it was the Thanksgiving in college that my sister and brother and I went out to an oyster bar. I highly recommend it!

Q. Tell us 3 things you are thankful for this year, please.

A. Just three? I have a great family, great friends, and my dream job. It’s ALL good.

Q. Just for fun, if you could be among any of the original members of that first Thanksgiving, who would it be, the Pilgrims or the Wampanoag (Native Americans)? Why?

A. Oh, I would have to do both. As a writer you have to have the entire experience, from all sides. But I would love to live Native American spirituality from the inside.

Q. Considering that feast, what do you think that first harvest celebration meal would be?

A. Trust me, you don’t want me giving anyone any advice on cooking.

Now, let’s get to your writing:

Q. Your father was instrumental in cultivating your love of horror and the paranormal, but why choose to focus on college student fiction over other age groups? What’s the draw?

A. Well, I don’t do colleges every time! But I guess I feature college-age characters in a lot of what I write because I’ve taught teenagers and college age students and so have a lot of characters to draw on. Plus that age tends to attract a lot of the paranormal – at that age you are open to just about everything, hauntings included. You tend to experiment with the dark side and that can open some doors that aren’t so easy to close.

Q. If you could describe your writing with a word or phrase, what would it be? What do you want readers to take with them when they've finished reading your story?

A. Haunting.

I hope they take with them the mystery and wonder of the paranormal, the feeling that there’s more out there than we’ll ever truly understand. And the sense that good does triumph over evil.

Q. Have you ever written Thanksgiving into your stories other than The Harrowing? Why or why not?

A. Not so far. For a long time it was my least favorite holiday, the most ripe for family dysfunction in my opinion, so that was my take on it in The Harrowing.

Q. Who decides what you write about, you or your muse? What kind of influence do you have over your story, or is the muse always the one basting the turkey?

A. Oh, ideas come from the Universe. But I think I’m fed certain stories and characters because I have a natural propensity for certain themes. I would say I believe that all writing prep work is really honing your craft so you have the chops to execute what the Muse presents you.

Q. You’ve said that you’ve based some of your stories on real-life events that happened to people you’ve met or heard about. So, have any of your characters, outside of The Price, been based on a real-life person? If so, who and why? Was it simply to immortalize them or was there more to it than that? If you can, tell us the name of that person, please! We’re all curious here!

A. Oh, lots of characters. In a novella I recently finished, I took great pleasure in detailing a sociopathic producer I worked with and then bashing his brainless head in. No names there, sorry. I don’t think I’m trying to immortalize anyone; sometimes someone just naturally fits into a story.

Q. What character did you have the most fun creating and why?

A. In The Harrowing I’m particularly fond of Lisa, because she has so much energy. She would come into a scene and agitate the other characters on purpose, which made everyone else try to top her, and it gave the whole group a fun dynamic.

Q. If you had the opportunity to meet just one of your characters in real life, who would it be and why? Which of your characters would you never want to meet under any circumstance and why?

A. Well, since you mention it, I wouldn’t mind spending some quality time with the smoking hot shapeshifter in the book that I’m writing now, part of The Keepers trilogy for Harlequin Nocturne.

I wouldn’t want to meet the villain in The Harrowing. Pure evil is just something I try to avoid.

Keep an eye out for Alex's latest novel, The Unseen! 

 

PHANTASM FRIDAY

I want to send a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to ALESSA on this Friday the 13th!!

~~~~~~

Instead of me gabbing about something nonsensical today, I want to brag about our Supernatural Sunday's guest blogger, G.R. Bretz, and his new novel, Absinthe Eyes & Other Lies, which was released by Noble Romance Publishing. From the first paragraph of the book, I was spellbound. Tell me what you think:

"The sun burned out this morning. Did it think that I would care? I have lost so much more. I lose it over and over again with every tortured moment of my pointless existence."

This book should be ingested slowly like absinthe liquor, but one sip and I was gulping the pages as fast as I could read. Absinthe Eyes & Other Lies is ingenious and very creative, startling unique. Once I started reading this novel, I couldn’t push it aside any more than I could have pushed my child into the deep end of the pool without the ability to swim.

It’s a brilliantly twisted story—and I mean that in a positive way. Half the fun is figuring out the secrets of Dahlia, so I don’t want to give away too much, but in her lovers she inspires equal parts creative masterpieces and insanity. Now, Dahlia has set her sights on Stephen who is heir to the Absinthe distillery. She has lofty aspirations for him even though he’s not artsy with paper, pen or canvas and he believes both artists and authors alike are fools.

The characters are so vibrant and well written that while reading them they were jerked from the pages to play out before my gaze like a schizophrenic movie that balanced between romance, horror and a psychological drama.

Absinthe Eyes & Other Lies is an extremely original work of art and I would love to know what muse inspired Mr. Bretz to write this fascinating novel. No doubt, I’ll be drawn to read Absinthe Eyes & Other Lies again, hopefully more slowly this time, so that I can absorb all the nuances of the characters and the storyline in greater detail. I’m certain I missed something as fast as I swigged the words from the page. And at times I truly felt intoxicated by Mr. Bretz’s ability to bring the scenes and the reader’s five senses alive with stark detail and brilliant turns of phrases, for example:

“I must vomit her tears onto the page while they still mean something worthwhile.”

“I stand up quickly and I have never been more profoundly aware that the world is round. After a few moments it flattens again and I regain my balance.”

But those were only two of the many amazing descriptions that salted the pages of this story.

This isn’t the typical romance, but it is a romance, along with sex scenes that are detailed and frank. If you like dark tortured souls, then you’ll love this book as much as I did. Accolades of the highest order are due Mr. Bretz for this brilliant, one-of-a kind novel!

~~~~~

Be sure to check back on Sunday to hear from G.R. Bretz and to read a blurb and excerpt of Absinthe Eyes & Other Lies.

In the Moonlight with Pat Bertram, Author of Daughter Am I

Grateful to be an Author

by Pat Bertram

It seems a bit paltry to have a single holiday to give thanks when I have so much for which to be grateful. I am grateful for my online friends and for my fans. (Odd to think I actually have fans!) I am grateful for the readers of my blog, who never fail to offer support and suggestions. I am especially grateful for my publisher, who understands my books better than I do. But I am most grateful for being the author of my novels rather than being a character in them.

It’s an author’s responsibility to put her characters through as many traumas as possible. Readers want to worry about characters, they want to see how characters act when faced with horrendous conditions and dilemmas, and they want the characters to go bravely where they themselves would never go. As an author, I might give readers what they want, but frankly, I would never choose to be in any of the situations my characters encounter. And, although I am trying to be bold and brave in my own life, I will never be as bold as my characters. Nor do I want to be.

When Mary Stuart, the hero of Daughter Am I discovers she inherited a farm from recently murdered grandparents she never knew she had, she becomes so obsessed with finding out who they were, why someone wanted them dead, and why her father claimed they had died before she was born, that she ends up driving halfway across the country with strangers. That these strangers are all in their eighties might have put her at ease, but when she finds out about their less than lawful pasts, it still doesn’t deter her from her goal. In fact, she heads for Leavenworth, hoping to talk to Iron Sam AKA Butcher Boy AKA Samuel Bornstein, a hit man for the mob who might have known her grandfather.

Um, yeah. Like that’s something I would do! I am grateful that I have never had to deal with such a situation. When Mary discovers that one of the aged crooks is carrying an illegal weapon, she confiscates it and tucks it in her purse. Forgetting for the moment that I don’t carry a purse, having a gun tucked away in a handbag where it might accidentally go off is not high on my list of priorities. (Though I would be interested in firing a gun just once to see how it would feel. Strictly for research purposes, you understand.)

Sneaking onto the property of a connected guy to dig for stolen gold . . . hmmm. Perhaps I might do that, but I’m grateful I don’t know of any such treasure in real life that would put me to the test.

And that’s just one of my books. When I consider all of them, my gratitude is unending. I am grateful I never had to twice attend my mother’s funeral as poor Bob Stark did in More Deaths Than One. I’m grateful I have not yet had to deal with an epidemic so severe that the entire state of Colorado needs to be quarantined as described in A Spark of Heavenly Fire. I am grateful that I am not being held captive in an underground installation run by a quasi-government agency as are my heroes in Light Bringer, which will be released in the spring of 2010.

I am also grateful to Margay Leah Justice for inviting me to be a guest here on Moonlight, Lace, and Mayhem.

So, what are you grateful for!

Pat, thank you so much for the shout out. It is my pleasure to have you here on our blog today!

Pat Bertram is a native of Colorado and a lifelong resident. When the traditional publishers stopped publishing her favorite type of book — character and story driven novels that can’t easily be slotted into a genre — she decided to write her own. Daughter Am I is Bertram’s third novel to be published by Second Wind Publishing, LLC. Also available are More Deaths Than One and A Spark of Heavenly Fire.

}Wistful Wednesday{Making Mayhem with Cheryl Wyatt

First, I want to apologize to our guest today. Cheryl was supposed to appear on the blog yesterday, but due to illness, I didn't get the post up. So I am giving her my spot today. I hope you enjoy her post!

Bring on the Bad Boys

I love reading books that have bad boy heroes because I love to study how authors manage to make them likable despite the traits that earned them a bad boy badge. They can be dark and lethal, blonde and brooding, cowboy-tough, military-level-menacing, French and formidable, unremorsefully sexy, womanizing, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Insert your own favorite bad boy trait here. LOL!

Romance novel fanatics love to read about heroines they’d want to be and heroes they’d want to be with. Fact: women are attracted to bad boys. Why?

Do you think it’s the nurturing side of us, thinking we can tame them? Or the fantasy that we can be the one woman on earth to finally capture their mustang heart? Why do you think it is that readers are drawn to bad boy characters?

I love when an author does it right. If a guy comes off like a jerk and has no redeeming quality whatsoever, I never connect with or care about the hero. Bad boys still have to be likable in some way.

In Debbie Macomber’s Sooner or Later, Murphy, the lead male should not have been endearing, but he was. The fact that he cared about children in jeopardy smoothed out his rough edges. Also that he found himself helping the heroine even though every unmanageable thing in him flailed against it. Debbie did a wonderful job of showing this mercenary’s inner struggle. This character was very memorable.

Why did television viewers love Angel, a demon vampire? I mean really…a demon? But Angel mesmerized his audience. If you watched the series, what qualities do you think his character possessed that drew viewers?

Think of Doctor House in the award-winning TV series, House. He’s a total jerk and virtually friendless but readers can’t look away. Why do you think that is? Do you think it’s because the writers made him vulnerable by giving him a limp? Or because he’s great at his job? Or could it be because we can glimpse his private pain at times despite how he lashes out at those around him?

Study these and other movies and books containing bad boy heroes to see how that author effectively endeared them to us. Can you think of other examples I haven’t mentioned here?

Another example is Vince from my January 2010 Steeple Hill release, A Soldier’s Devotion. All along the Wings of Refuge Series (Steeple Hill-2008-2010) we know that he’s the stubborn, brooding, dark and deadly member of the Pararescue team. He’s a party animal and a player. So why did so many women, Christian women at that, write me begging for his story?

I don’t have the answer but I truly enjoyed writing his story. He didn’t change overnight and he was still tough and brooding. But he obviously had some kind of appeal or readers wouldn’t have fallen in love with him even as a secondary or ancillary character. I am anxious to see the reader response once his story finally hits shelves. I sincerely hope I have done his character justice and satisfied readers’ hunger to see him redeemed and having his own story while still maintaining his bad boy-ish-ness. He was fun to delve into and to figure out. And sexy? Oh, yes. And he knows it, but it’s how he uses it or not, meaning the restraint he exercises after his conversion that I think gave him the greatest strength as a character.

Do you like bad boy heroes? Why or why not? Who are some of the bad boys you remember most? Why do you think that is? At what point in the story did you come to care about them? How did the author engage you to them, meaning what did the character do or think or say that led to your liking them despite their flaws?

Have you written a bad boy character? What makes them bad? What is their noble trait or redeeming quality—the thing that is going to make them irresistible to readers?

Talk away!

I love Suzanne Brockmann’s (warning: explicit content in those novels) and Susan May Warren’s and Shirlee McCoy’s (no explicit content) characters because they often fall into this bad boy mold, yet we end up loving them very soon into the book. If you read these authors, I’d love you to analyze the story as to what the authors did to make the bad boys lovable. When you figure it out, I’d love for you to take a moment to comment or e-mail me with your thoughts.


Born Valentine’s Day on a naval base, Cheryl Wyatt writes military romance. Her Steeple Hill debuts earned RT Top Picks plus #1 and #4 on eHarlequin's Top 10 Most-Blogged-About-Books, lists including NYT Bestsellers. www.CherylWyatt.com

Soldier Daddy-Oct 2009

A Soldier’s Devotion-Jan 2010

Mystic Monday

Hero Inspiration

I wasn't sure what I was going to blog about today, but an email "conversation" gave me the inspiration for this post.  

I have liked actors and sports figures before, but I've never really been rocked to my core all that often.  In fact, it's a rare occasion.  I can only recall a couple of times when I've been rocked to my core by a celebrity or athlete that has stood the test of time.  Yes, I've fallen in love characters like Legolas and Aragorn, but not so much on the actors themselves.  Not to any extremes anyway.  I've also liked the way some athletes have played, but again, I've never really had one rock me to my core, until fairly recently.  

First guy to totally rock my world?  Harrison Ford, but sadly, it faded.  I love his acting, but I wouldn't say that he really rocked me to my core, but I was naive enough to think he did at one time.  

How do I know he didn't really rock my world?  

 
Well, this is where the first real man to rock my world comes in.  I loved the Norwegian band A-ha when I first discovered them in 1984.  That video was really cool and Morten Harket was such a hottie!    

In fact, I still do love their stuff.  When I can sing a song as odd as "Where looking for the Whales," from Scoundrel Days (1986) almost by heart to this day, it's more than an infatuation.  I may not have actually seen them in concert yet, but with pictures like this in all the magazines, I didn't need to, until now. 

I plan on going to their next USA tour in May of 2010, before they retire.  I seriously hope they come to Milwaukee, so I don't have to travel.    But it wasn't just his abs and sexy accent that caught me.  

There was always something about his music and his voice that got to me on a subatomic level.  That's still the case today.  Of course, Morten Harket looks so good that he makes glasses look sexy!  

While he specifically has never really been the basis for a hero yet, there's a high chance he will be, especially since I am really spreading my writing wings these days!  

Of course, I had to save the best for last.  Here is the only other man (other than my husband) to rock my world.  The other shocking thing for me was that he is a professional athlete.  Okay, I've admired several athletes for their talent in their respective sports, but I've never been one to drool, until the year the Milwaukee Bucks drafted Andrew Bogut, the 7-foot tall Croatian center from Australia!  

Yeah, as you'll soon figure out, I've had it bad since draft day, and it wasn't just his body or his looks that first attracted me (but he is oh so hot and well...mmmmm...), but the vibes of potential that surrounded him.  Some people were reluctant about him, but I could just see the potential floating around him like a cloud and I was excited because it seemed as though we would have a decent center for the first time in a long time.  He may have been injured, but as far as I am concerned, he's been an awesome acquisition.  

Since we've had him for a few years now and he has some different looks, I searched and searched for some images that best represented his style, and I found some great ones.  However, this one here is one that I just found, which only increases the drool factor!  Oh those abs!  And did I mention he's 7 feet tall?  Oh, and he's built and very agile!  It's magic to see him flying through the air to see him dunk the ball in the net!  As a rule, even if it irritates the hubby to no end, all Bogut dunks are replayed a minimum of 3 times!  Yay for the DVR!  Thank you to the one who posted this shot!  

Okay, I feel I must move on before my drool shorts out the laptop!  Isn't it supposed to be fall?  It seems rather hot in here!  I guess I need to turn on the AC!  

For fun, here are a few more pics to give you a glimpse of the personality of Andrew Bogut.  Every off season, he travels home to Australia and during one such trip home, he came back with a new look, a shaved head with a tiny pony-tail coming from the back of his head.  Now, he didn't keep it very long, because of all the flack he received, but it did give us some entertainment and he was quite entertaining to watch.  Ooh, look at those strong arms...  


Eventually, he grew his hair out.  It isn't just his court presence that I appreciate, but his off the court sense of style!  
 
Very Sporty!

In this next one, it was winter. He wore this suit to have a bit of fun! It caused quite the media stir because, well, you just don't
wear white after Labor Day or before Memorial Day!

Very Humorous!

In his defense, it was considered summer in Australia.

My characters of Drake and Brandon were somewhat inspired by him, but not completely.

SUPERNATURAL SUNDAY

Please help us welcome author, H.C. Brown. She’s the author of a newly released novel by Noble Romance Publishing, Purr-fect Seduction.

~~~~~

GRACEN: In the U.S., we celebrate Thanksgiving with a large feast (akin to early harvest celebrations), family gathering and in some cases, prayer. Do you have a similar holiday in your country? If so, what is it called and when do you celebrate it?

H.C.: We have Australia Day. Here it’s usually celebrated with a barbecue or a day out on the beach. It’s the only day gambling is allowed outside the normal venues, in the form of an old Aussie game called two-up. Two coins are tossed in the air and bets are made on the resulting heads or tails.

GRACEN: What, if any, holiday traditions (decorating, gathering with friends and family for a meal, etc.) do you have?

H.C.: We celebrate Christmas and have all the usual decorations. It’s hard to eat the traditional hot meal of turkey and plum pudding but we do even when the temperature is 100F outside.

GRACEN: What was your most memorable holiday and why?

H.C.: Last Easter was the first time I had all my children and grandchildren together for the first time.

GRACEN: If you were to have a Thanksgiving meal with us, which would you put on your plate: white or dark turkey, white potatoes or yams, green beans or corn, bread rolls or crescent rolls? (If you have other ideas for a Thanksgiving feast, please share them!)

H.C.: White turkey, white potatoes, and corn. Some Gluten Free items for me.

GRACEN: What, in your opinion, was the oddest food served at a holiday dinner you’ve attended?

H.C.: No food at all.

GRACEN: Tell us 3 things you are thankful for this year, please.

H.C.: 1. The safe arrival of my granddaughter after a great deal of worry.
2. My husband’s strength and devotion.
3. Having 4 books published

H.C. and her granddaughter

GRACEN: Just for fun, if you could be among any of the original members of that first Thanksgiving, who would it be, the Pilgrims or the Wampanoag (Native Americans)? Why?

H.C.: Well the Wampanoag as there's no way I would set foot on a ship after the first one sank!

GRACEN: Considering that feast, what do you think that first harvest celebration meal would be? What would the meal be if it happened in your country?

H.C.: Here no doubt Damper (bread baked without yeast over an open fire) and kangaroo steak. (Yuk! I have never eaten Kangaroo.)



Now, let’s get to your writing:

GRACEN: Why paranormal erotica? What’s the draw?

H.C.: Well Paranormal erotica is only a very small part of what I enjoy writing about to be honest. Paranormal allows my imagination to create heroes and villains in any shape or form my mind can create. I can build worlds to fit them in without any restrictions. Fantasy for me is the same; I enjoy writing erotic and YA fantasy romance, witches/warlocks and Faerie.

I also write murder mystery and I have just finished a manuscript with an Australian P.I as my heroine - with romance…all my books have romance.

Historical is one genre I love to write but my mind is working overtime with other genres and research takes up so much time. Hence, the fact I have an 80,000-word manuscript (about pirates and a highwayman in 1665) gathering dust waiting to be edited.

GRACEN: If you could describe your writing with a word or phrase, what would it be? What do you want readers to take with them when they've finished reading your story?

H.C.: Escapism. I try to take my readers to a world were anything is possible. I want my readers to ride a roller coaster of emotions when they read my stories, and sigh when they read the very last line.

GRACEN: Have you ever written holidays into your stories? If so, which ones and why?

H.C.: No not yet, perhaps a Valentine’s Day story…because everyone can enjoy it.

GRACEN: Who decides what you write about, you or your muse? What kind of influence do you have over your story, or is the muse always the one basting the turkey?

H.C.: The muse, trust me I’m only going along for the ride.

GRACEN: Have you ever based a character on a real-life person? If so, why? Was it simply to immortalize them or was there more to it than that? If you can, tell us the name of that person, please! We’re all curious here!

H.C.: Well to some degree, the story in Betrothed to the Enemy was based on a one-line message written in a prayer book, “I am to be given to a knight, God help me.” My ancestor Sir William D’Anise gave me the surname of Sir Damien in the story. The Muse gave me the rest.

GRACEN: What character did you have the most fun creating and why?

H.C.: I think creating the shape-shifter Knight Watch princes is the most interesting, brothers but all with unique personalities . I enjoyed creating Zandor, (My Purr-fect Alphas) a troubled bad boy; he gave me scope to delve into situations that are more erotic.

My favorite character is Nox the Faerie King. Who wouldn’t love a seven feet tall bisexual dark angel? He will be in all the Pride Brother Series with a story and/ or series just about him and the Fae in the works.

GRACEN: If you had the opportunity to meet just one of your characters in real life, who would it be and why? Which of your characters would you never want to meet under any circumstance and why?

H.C.: Nox of course, I would just love to touch those silver tipped black gossamer wings. The one I’d hate to meet….well any of the Rams they have a body odor problem and horns… or the Druik doctor, Pic, in My Purr-fect Alphas (you would have to read the book to understand.)

BLURB: Purr-fect Seduction by H.C.Brown

Jill Morfran, a sassy redhead from New York is enjoying a photo shoot in the Scottish Highlands when she stumbles into an alternate realm. Trapped in a frightening world of strange humanoid creatures, her life turns upside down when a sinfully handsome shape shifter kidnaps her. Will she win Dare of Knight Watch’s heart or will he trade her for his sister at the next slave auction?


~WARNING - EXCERPT MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL READERS~

EXCERPT: Purr-fect Seduction by H.C.Brown

The croaking frogs and the evening song of tropical birds serenaded them, and Dare’s powerful scent consumed her being, filling her with a frightening erotic desire. His gentle touch sent tongues of flames through her, awakening a longing in her she did not know existed. How long had she dreamed of finding a man who would hold her just like this? Who would desire her as much as she desired him? She craved his touch, and the realization both frightened and enthralled her. I’d give up everything, my family, my home . . . anything at all just to have him.

She caught her breath when his caressing hands moved slowly up to her breasts. She moaned as he cupped them, groaned when he rolled her taught nipples between his callused fingers, tugging them into hard peaks. His warm lips sucked at her earlobe, and when his hot tongue trailed down her neck, the delightful sensation sent shivers down her back.

“So sweet, so innocent . . . your heart flutters under my embrace. Let me teach you to fly, little dove.”

He rose and lifted her into his arms, turning her to face him. His warm hands snaked under her tunic, he captured her bare breast and she gasped. Warm tingles of pleasure engulfed her when his fingers pulled at her aching nipples. She pushed her breasts toward him, wanting more of this delightful sensation.

“My touch pleases you. Your skin is so soft, and your nipples call to me to suck them. Do you want more of me, little dove?”

Jill drew a deep, steadying breath. Decision time. Memories of a life spent alone—always a bride’s maid, never a bride—flashed through her mind. Hell, she decided. Life is too short, and a chance like this may never come again. “Yes, teach me everything.”

Jill pushed trembling fingers into the raven silk that framed his face and brushed her tongue across his bottom lip. A ripple went through his body and he made a growling sound.

“Everything? But you’re so innocent. Are you sure, little one?”

“Yes.”

He took her mouth fiercely, deeply. He tasted divine, hot, musky. His spicy tongue lashed the inside of her mouth, molding her to his will. His kisses became deeper; his warm hand teased a nipple while the other slid around her waist, enclosing her in sweet passion. Pulling him closer, she kissed him back, melting beneath his touch. She pushed against his fingers to ease her insatiable need. He pressed closer and the heat from his body burned her skin. His thick cock pushed into her stomach, pulsed against her skin, proof of his desire for her. She wanted this, wanted his touch, his lips, his body hard against her, deep inside her.

The cat inside Dare roared with pleasure as he lifted Jill into his arms and carried her into the cave. He bent to lay her gently on the sheepskin. Flames from the fire sent velvet shadows dancing across the walls, and the hot, spicy aroma from the stew hung faintly in the air. He removed her tunic, and tossed it to one side, and the sweet moan from her lips made him burn with desire for her. She laid before him, gloriously naked, all dewy-eyed innocence. Her skin looked so delicate in the fire’s glow. Damp curls framed her pink flushed cheeks and flowed across her shoulders in glistening gold highlights. The warm, luscious scent of female arousal surrounded him and his inner cat purred.

“Do you want me inside you, Jill, as your first?” he said huskily. He removed his loincloth, and lay down beside her. Her pure white breasts firmed under his touch, her deep red nipples reached toward him.

He wanted to taste her, to bury his tongue into her slick wet folds and suckle her hard pearl. He craved her, desiring only to drive her over the edge in insurmountable passion. He looked into her eyes but she showed no fear. Only need burned in those twin emerald pools, desperate need for him.

“I want you, Dare. I want you to touch me, to love me. Teach me how to love you.” She reached for him.

He took her lips again, sweet as spiced apples. She moaned in his mouth, and the delightful sound sent blood rushing to his cock with such speed his ears rang.

“Wrap my tunic around your neck. My cat is anxious, and I don’t want to bite you.”

He handed Jill the tunic, and she covered her neck. Dare slowly licked his way around each breast and purred. Her damp skin tasted sweet. The potent scent of aroused female surrounded him. He watched her as he scraped his fangs over each nipple before suckling hard. She looked so delicious, so wanton, writhing beneath his touch, but he must wait to plunge deep within her heat. He groaned as his cat demanded so much more. The need to bite, to sink his fangs into that tender white skin, threatened to overwhelm him. He craved to suck and savor her hot, sweet metallic blood. He looked up into her eyes, and she smiled so innocently and arched her back in a silent plea for more.

His control slipped, and his inner cat roared. Mine. Bite her. I need her. Now.


Available from www.nobleromance.com