Romance in Bonham, Texas and The Jack Ass Award!

I'm very excited to speak at Romance in Bonham this Saturday, Feb. 13th with ten other authors. We'll be speaking about our careers, the publishing industry, what inspires us, our travels, our books and writing in general. Afterwards we'll be signing our books. I'll personally be signing three of my books; Canyon Wolf Bride, The Wooden Nickel and Nocturnally Vexed. I look forward to meeting new readers and hanging out with ten very talented, inspiring ladies.

Romance In Bonham on the News

Changing the subject, I would like to personally thank all the wonderful authors who have nurtured and mentored me as my career buds. Sometimes we run into other authors who for some unknown reason, like to humiliate and hurt others. I came across this kind of ugliness this week when I found out a dear author friend of mine was doing a blog tour. Another author commented on the fact that her prize was not large enough. I was stunned. First of all, let me say that this lady is guilty mostly of having "foot in mouth disease" and while I don't believe she truly meant to be rude to my author friend, she didn't think before she wrote what she wrote on a very public blog. I think she meant to study what works and what doesn't work in blogs and marketing but she certainly wasn't delicate about the matter.

Let me be the first to say that we're all in a recession. Any prize given out is a valid prize to me. Even if it was a buck. This happened to be a gift certificate for ten bucks. (Did this lady know we're talking about U.S. Dollars here and not Pounds?)Heck, yeah...I'll take it! We all know that authors struggle for years before seeing a real profit from their books. It takes years to build an audience. And in those years, marketing may be slim but at least this author tries and has a growing audience. She inspires me. Stephen King was excited when he received an advance in the mail and he could buy the pink stuff for his sick daughter...not kidding...his own words in his book. Now I can't remember for sure if it was an advance he received or if it was when he sold the rights to Carrie for $400,000.00 but he couldn't afford fricking penicillin for his daughter. Authors are real people with kids, husbands, wives, struggles, strifes. For this other author to ask if the ten bucks could even buy anything decent and pay the shipping....WRONG!!! RUDE!!! Even if she didn't intend it, she could have wondered out loud and discussed marketing strategies, what works, what doesn't, author contests, etc. She should apologize. I'd feel like an idiot. In fact, I feel so embarrassed for her, I'll apologize on her behalf. I'm sorry for the inconsiderate author who thought it was okay to make fun of another author's prize and label her observation as "snarky". Here's my label. Well...I've got two labels. TACKY. SHAMEFUL. This author gets the JACK ASS REWARD. Feel free to upload it on your blog, Ms. Tacky-Shameful.



Okay...done with that negativity but it had to be said. Think before you write, ladies. And yes, I thought it out before I wrote this blog. Again, it had to be said. Now, you know who you are. Go pull the foot out of your mouth or at least off of your damn hand to keep yourself from typing rude..oh yeah..your word...snarky comments....snarky is too nice a word...HATEFUL. That's the word. I thought I was done with this...ugh....okay..now I am.

Happy Reading and Writing!
~Alisha

The Only Televised Sport for Me!

On this Superbowl Sunday, I am devoting my blog to not those hulking beasts of the gridiron, but those hotties Down Under who make my blood boil and mouth water.

This. I'm talkin' about this!



Let me introduce you to the gentlemen of the AFL - The Austrailian Football League - Austrailian Rules Football/Footy.

OMG!!! I'm having a meltdown. Granted this picture was taken back in '04-'05 so I'm not even sure if all of them are still playing the game, but dammmmmmmn, who cares.

Above and beyond the luscious factor, these guys are top-notch atheletes who can do some really amazing things with balls. *wink*




I'm not kidding they kick the ball sidewise from mid-field while running and make it through the goal. On a really bad day they might get a "behind" - those are the posts beside the goal and are still worth some pointage. I've seen an injury occur on the field and the game doesn't stop - oh, no - they just run over the guy while the ref yells, "Play on. Play on." - Now, these are men.

It's Feb. and I'm already getting antsy. What if Setanta doesn't carry AFL this year? What will I do? I'm getting very upset by my lack of finding them on the schedule amidst the soccor. Ughhhhh. I don't want soccor. I want something with the cool kicks and sprints of soccor, but with the speed of hockey and toughness of rugby. Only AFL fits the bill.

Thing is, I'm not one to generally watch sports. I will watch the Olympics and rugby with my hubby. I used to be an NFL fan back when Don Shula's Miami Dolphins dominated the gridiron, but I lost a love for the game when that era came and went. It just wasn't the same. But honestly, in American football there is too much stopping and going. Each time a down is made the entire defensive and offensive lines have to regroup and line up to put the damn play back into play. Not true for the AFL. When you pay your ticket and enter the stadium, you get more bang for your buck from the get-go. Non-stop action. Even watching it on tv, you get that. It's just amazing. I'm not going to go into any of the rules or how-tos here, because I'm still trying to figure them all out as I watch.

However, I will leave you with a final thought.



Have a great Sunday!

-Kate

Crazy Thing Called Love

I love you. Those three words can be said in a variety of languages from around the world...

Spanish...Te amo

Irish...Is tú mo ghrá

French...Je t'aime

Arabic...أنا أحبك

Dutch...Ik hou van jou

Slovenian...Ljubim te

Italian...Ti amo

But that's just over a handful of ways to say, "I love you" to someone.

This thing called love I just can't handle it
this thing called love I must get round to it
I ain't ready
Crazy little thing called love
This (This Thing) called love
(Called Love)
It cries (Like a baby)
In a cradle all night
It swings (Woo Woo)
It jives (Woo Woo)
It shakes all over like a jelly fish,
I kinda like it
Crazy little thing called love

Lyrics of Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen

Love is addicting, right? It should be fun. We all want to be in love and be loved. And like the lyrics of Queen's song, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, say, love can be crazy and wonderful and you shake and jive all over when you find that special someone. But are any of us ever ready for love when it stings us like a jelly fish?

Here are some other ways to write the word "Love" in other languages:

In Greek mythology Eros (or the Roman counterpart Cupid) was the god of sexual love and was worshiped as a fertility god. He married Psyche, the goddess of deification of the mortal soul and in Greek the word psyche means “spirit, breath, life or animating force.” Psyche was often depicted as a goddess with butterfly wings on ancient mosaics.

(depiction of Eros & Psyche)

The brief version of Cupid and Psyche’s story is that Psyche was the youngest princess of Sicily and she was so beautiful suitors flocked to ask for her hand in marriage. But she grew bold with her beauty and claimed to be more beautiful than Aphrodite, which was rather ballsy if you ask me and stupid drawing attention to herself by belittling a goddess and elevating herself with her own importance. Just asking for Greek Goddess wrath if you ask me. And, as with all Greek gods and goddesses, Aphrodite decides to settle the score and dispatches Eros/Cupid to thwack Psyche with an arrow that would cause Psyche to fall in love with the closest person (some stories claim a monster) available. But Eros/Cupid falls victim to her beauty, fell in love with her and secreted her away, marrying her and having her turned into a goddess by Zeus (the big honcho Greek God just in case you didn't know).

How romantic, right? LOL Well, maybe not, because in another version Eros/Cupid fell in love with Pysche only after accidently nicking himself with the arrow intended for her. This sound like my kind of luck! =)

Wonder why Eros is depicted as a cherub? I've always thought Eros was probably some stud-muffin that had a multitude of torrid love affairs. But what do I know, I'm not a Eros guru...but I have a naughty imagination. ;-) And my imagination for Cupid/Eros runs more along the lines of this:





To read more on Eros and Psyche visit Wikipedia at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psyche_(mythology)

But maybe for us all love is just blind chance, an accident birthed by the events of the moment, or Eros/Cupid’s arrow flying wide and hitting the wrong mark. Who the hell knows, but I do know one thing, after 18 years of marriage, I love my husband more today than I did when I married him. I respect him, admire him, and am honored to be his wife. I’m still excited to see him each night when he arrives home. I love cuddling with him, kissing him and spending time with him. I’m thankful he thinks my bitchiness is adorable, so long as it’s not directed toward him, of course. ;-)

In honor of Valentine’s Day, I blow my husband a loving kiss for yesterday, today and all the tomorrows to come.

So, tell me, what's your definition of love and if you could kiss anyone on Valentine’s Day who would it be? Here’s your chance to scream your love to the world! My hope for you today, and the rest of the year, is that you'll love someone or be loved by someone with an intensity that will enrich your life.

Don’t forget I have a contest running and it doesn’t end until March 5, 2010. You can enter it here: http://wickedthornandroses.blogspot.com/2010/01/contest.html


~~All photos were taken from Google Images or Photobucket and no copyright infringement was intended.~~

Awesome Giveaway of adult fantasy books filled with myth, magic, eroticism, and the Tarot by Ravenous Romance author Cecilia Tan

Hurts So Good

by Cecilia Tan

I'm a big fan of suffering.
I don't mean I like stubbing my toe, or being cold or hungry. I mean I enjoy it when the main character of a book I'm reading suffers. And as a writer, this means I especially like it when the main character of a book I'm WRITING suffers.

My poor characters. I really do put them through a lot. I'm writing a four book series now called Magic University, which is basically my version of a Harry-Potter-style tale, but set in a college and with my own ideas of magic. As with the Potter books, each book takes place in one school year, and I recently finished writing the second book in the series (The Tower and the Tears, just released last week). It's not really a spoiler to tell you some traumatic things happen to our hero. No surprise there.
The surprise was that although I had planned for him to get over it by year two, when I actually started writing it, it turned out he was definitely not over any of it. Apparently what I'd put him through left him more deeply affected than even I'd realized at the time. While considering this fact, I decided that ultimately it was a good thing. Why? Two reasons. One, if I'm affecting my character so deeply that he's refusing to move on, perhaps it means I am affecting my readers deeply as well. Two, because one aspect of the Harry Potter books I never found believable is that Harry seems so unaffected by the horrible things that happen to him, and so in my world, I want my hero to be changed by his experiences.

 
Which isn't to say that I want things to swing totally the other way into being emo. Kyle, my main character in The Siren and the Sword (book one of the series) takes a lot of things in stride. But I did discover just how deep the scars really go. It changed the way book two unfolded and intensified the effect of the traumas he meets in his second year, as well. There is suffering, there is heartbreak, there are "learning experiences" which are painful.

Of course, when my characters suffer, my readers suffer, too. But in a good way, I hope. Because really, I want the experience of reading to be good for them. The Magic University books are romance, after all. I'm not giving away anything by saying there will be a happy ending. But in a four book series, the end can seem very far away!
Hang in there, Kyle. I start writing book three in two weeks. You get a reprieve until then.

 

Blurb: Kyle is a college sophomore worrying about the usual things students do, like what he's going to major in and getting along with his dorm mates, but he attends a most unusual college. He's a student at Veritas, the hidden magical university inside Harvard.
Before he got to Harvard, Kyle hadn't even known he was magical. Now he finds he has a talent for sex magic and the erotic arts. Not only that, a girl in his sex magic class has a crush on him. Kyle looks forward to lots of "study sessions" together with Ciara and their friend Marjory, but when their professor is mysteriously attacked, Kyle finds himself embroiled in a mystery deeper than university department politics. Someone has been stealing magical artifacts and the dean suspects Ciara, sending Kyle on a quest to discover the real culprit.
Kyle will learn sizzling sexual technique and unleash powerful magic on his incredible erotic journey, but is the study of sex really the route to true love? Perhaps what Kyle needs to learn about most is himself.

Bio: Cecilia Tan has been writing professionally since she was a teenager, which she definitely isn't, anymore. She is the author of several romances for Ravenous Romance, including her "Harry Potter for adults" the Magic University series and Mind Games, as well as the BDSM sci-fi adventure Royal Treatment just released from Torquere Press. Her literary erotica has been published nearly everywhere. She loves tea, baseball, cats, and books, and more of her thoughts on these and other subjects can be found at her blog: http://blog.ceciliatan.com.

Buy link, book one: http://www.ravenousromance.com/fantastica/magic-university-book-one-the-siren-and-the-sword.php
Buy link, book two: http://www.ravenousromance.com/fantastica/magic-university-the-tower-and-the-tears.php

 

The Tower and the Tears is the second book in the Magic University series by Cecilia Tan. Bringing together myth, magic, eroticism, and the Tarot, the Magic University books are for all the adult readers of classic fantasy who want a bedtime tale of their own.

 

WIN Book one or Book two

Leave your comment for Cecilia, follow this blog and you’ll be entered  to win.

 

Thanks!

 

Tierney O’Malley

Book of the Week: The Pauper's Prize

Over there at MANtastic, the book of the week this week is one of mine, The Pauper's Prize! I am so thrilled to see it up there, open for discussion and getting a bit of the spot light. So comments and thoughts are welcome!

Here's the lovely write up about The Pauper's Prize and something more about my writing, too.

Winning 2nd place in the Fantasy category at 2009 Rainbow Awards, The Pauper’s Prize is a classic tale set within a time of Lords and Ladies and with many intriguing twists. Mark Alders loves to write on a grand scale in fantastical settings. Whether its unicorns, deep space or country woods, his characters are always in for the adventure (and love) of a lifetime.

Blah!

Right now our family is fighting the flu. I pitched my children's book to an agent this week. This book is for middle school age kids.

Here's the pitch and what the agent said:

Tusk

Two Ice Age kids are orphaned and left to survive alone in the wild after their parents are killed in a bear attack. Tusk and his sister, Flint, discover ancient cave paintings with a secret warning and how to survive the deadly meteor. Tusk is a natural born leader and believes only he can warn others and lead the clans to the land bridge and the new world. Flint has secrets of her own and a plan to unite with the animal kingdom and save them all from extinction.

AGENT - I'm just not in love with the pre-historical fiction ideas. They're not right for me. Thanks though!

So...I'll pitch elsewhere and look elsewhere. I have another young adult novel as well...a fantasy for middle school kids. I actually sold that book but had to pull it from publication due to "creative differences" with my editor.

Hmm...I'm thinking maybe I should stick to writing adult fiction? But what if I can do both? I'm always reaching for more.

Ah well...I'm going to go have some more chicken soup and ponder my future before I suffer the same fate as the poor sad snowman. I think I'll go outside and talk him out of it. Maybe I'll go write a hot love scene instead.

What's going on in your little neck of the woods?

~Hugs!
Alisha

My obsession!

Today, I plan to bring to you… my latest obsession. How exciting! I think so anyway. :D

But first, a confession. I’m a bad little writer girl. I’ve not read the books yet. I do own them, but I haven’t read them. I know, it’s a terrible thing to admit, but I figured it’s best to be honest up front. If I love the show this much, though, the books must be amazing! I can’t wait to dig in.

So, for my obsession, The Vampire Diaries. I am in LOVE with this show! I can’t get enough of it. Every time I watch it, I fall in love all over again. And, not just with the good guy, but the bad guy, too. Yeah, he’s not all bad, but bad enough. :D He can bring his bad self over to my place anytime he wants to.

This is Damon. So delicious! Check out these eyes…



Yummy!

And, for some more gorgeousness for you to lust over…



How’s that for catching your attention? It sure got mine!

Now, for the good guy. He's definitely good enough to eat. Meet Stefan...



and...



Do you need to wipe the drool from your mouth? I sure do!

Ok, so I think I’ve made it clear that I love this show, right? Well, I just wanted to share a little of the love with you this week.

Have you seen the show? Read the books? Do you love it as much as I do? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

If you haven't seen it, you can catch it on Thursday nights on the CW. I highly recommend it!