Christmas Grocery Shopping with Rebecca Rose

Hi Wendy! Thank you for having me here.

Who doesn’t like the holidays? Most people will say, “I love the holidays!” Then in the next breath complain about the lines while shopping, the money you have to spend. What bothers me the most? Not what you’d think. While I have three children 7, 11, and 16, the hardest part is the grocery store. Aaagggg!

Now, I’m not one to complain, but does everyone develop bio-polar disorder, or what?

I try to keep thinking positive. And, while it very hard when you get hit with a grocery cart and are told to, “Move” from some stranger, I remind myself to count to ten. Fore, they might have a very good reason for being nasty. Here’s a little story about how just the other day, I had to rein myself in to not ruin someone’s day. (Including mine)

I was going to the grocery store with the three kids. Now, if I was a sane woman, I would have left them home. But, nooooo. So we’re getting out of the car when the 7 yr old, Jack, slams the door into the car next to us! Now no one out there can tell me they haven’t thought of inspecting the car and deciding its okay and not to leave a note. I was hoping for this scenario. What I got was a dent and paint scratch. So, I reached into my purse, pulled out a business card, because that’s all I had, and wrote a note with my name and number. Little did I know a man was watching me from his vehicle. When we turned to go, he gave us a thumbs-up. Awesome, that brightened me up a little about the problem.

The grocery shopping started as usual. I sent the older two on ‘missions’ to find things, while Jack and I went to the deli. This is where he proceeded to topple the carriage when I ordered our meat. The older two ones came back, I sent them out again, grabbed my sandwich meat and turned to find Jack gone. Panic hit me until I noticed he was under the carriage. Upon exiting his hiding place, I caught the carriage before it did a full-on dump, AGAIN. Now people are watching me and me vibrating son who can’t seem to sit or stand. I tried talking to Jack about Santa, Christmas parties, anything to distract him from getting in trouble. But it was as if some alien had taken over my son and left me with a jittering, chattering, nutcase! When my additional sandwich meat was ready, I kept him next to me but then found him on the floor.

“What happened?” I couldn’t help but laugh. He’d tripped on his own feet.

So Jack went into the back of the carriage and my 11 yr old, Leah, was in charge of helping me watch him. As we walked away a man said, “Mine was the same way around this time of year.” Very comforting words and what I needed to hear so I didn’t run from the store pulling my hair out. It was a ‘bi-polar’ moment.

After getting home we decorated the tree and Jack broke a few ornaments. And, while my head was splitting in two from holding my temper and trying not to ruin the excitement he has toward Christmas, I had to wonder…Who the heck is this kid?

HAPPY HOLIDAYS. May they be as sane as possible!

Rebecca Rose

Blurb: Sometimes Redemption Is The Only Salvation Needed To Forgive Yourself.

In his first ever selfless act Donald Write takes a bullet for a man
he just met, Daniel Allen. Now he's changed his name and moved across
the country to live with Daniel’s family whose welcoming home
reception wasn't very warm.

Jacqueline is Daniel’s daughter. This soft spoken, well dressed lady
soon teaches Donald that looks can be deceiving and her heart can be
his if he’s willing to open up and except her gift of love.
Donald hadn't counted on the intense and immediate attraction to
Jacqueline. She’s the boss’s daughter and off limits; that is until he
finds himself with an irresistible primal need to be with her. She
shows him love in a way he's never felt before and gives him the
strength to become the better man he's always wanted to be. But how
can Donald touch and care for someone so pure of heart when their
future can be destroyed by his past? A future built on redemption and
second chances.

WARNING: This novel contains M/F romance, action, and explicit sex.

To buy her books: http://www.lyricalpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=authors&authors_id=103&zenid=dpgmkge3q608tnhhb0avsg0kh1

Let's about sex, bay-bee with Gayle Carline

One of my friends emailed me after she read Freezer Burn, my debut mystery. Let's call her Mrs. NeedsMore, who wrote:"I enjoyed the read… I was more than a little disappointed with your approach to sex. Not enough detail... You can work on that in novel #2.

"I do have sex in my novel. I mean, my protagonist Peri has sex. She is in a long-term, committed relationship with Skip Carlton, a detective in the Placentia Police Department. They have lovely, delicious, hungry, languid, voracious, rapturous, gourmet sex.You just don't get to see it.Don't get me wrong: I like to read sex scenes. I just don't need to write them.

Before I wrote Freezer Burn, I wrote another novel. It's literary fiction, took me a year and a half to write, and is so convoluted, I can't tell you what it's about in 25 words or less. Hell, I can't tell you what it's about in 25,000 words. There was a young girl in it. She traveled. Stuff happened. Boring stuff. It now lies on my external hard drive, where I use it for parts.I had a big, fat sex scene in that book. It took me a long time to write, because I wanted passion without flowery euphemisms, but when I attempted lean and mean prose, the sparseness was boring. Finally, I had pages of detailed sexual play, leading up to a satisfying ending. And then…I was done. It was like I had this sex scene stuck in my head, and once I coughed it up, I didn't have to write about the details anymore.

In Freezer Burn, I let Peri and Skip make love whenever the mood strikes - before the murder investigation starts, but not after Peri's ribs are broken, after her ribs are healed, but before she gets shot - you get the picture.

Here is an excerpt:******They made it as far as the den, where Peri pulled him down to the rug in front of the fireplace. Laughing, stripping each other, stripping themselves, they made effervescent, enthusiastic love. At last satiated, they lay back on the pillows, propped against the fireplace bricks.

Skip groaned. "Man, we're too old for this."

Peri traced his jaw line with her fingers. "Speak for yourself, buddy. When you can't stand to look at my wrinkles, we'll just do it in the dark."******

The reader knows what happened. They just aren't going to see the videotape. So, Mrs. NeedsMore, you won't see any more detail in the next novel than you did in the first. I'm glad you enjoyed the read, but these are my characters. They deserve their privacy.

Gayle's Bio: Gayle spent 25 years as a software engineer, before escaping into the world of penniless authors. She has a weekly humor column in the Placentia News-Times (CA), but she loves a good mystery, so she wrote Freezer Burn, a cozy little tale of what to do when you find a severed hand in your freezer. It was so much fun, she's writing a second one!

Presenting Dellani Oakes- guest blogger

Character Questionnaire
Manuel Enriques

Dellani Oakes: What is your story?
Manuel: My story is still being written, but a portion of it is chronicled in "Indian Summer" by Dellani Oakes.
DO: Who are you?
M: My name is Manuel Enriques and I am confidential aid to Governor Ferdinand Deza.
DO: Where do you live?
M: I live in the beautiful town of St. Augustine in the Florida territory.
DO: Are you the hero of your own story?
M: What is a hero? A man who does what he must to protect that which he holds dear. I am such a man. If that makes me a hero, then I accept this role gladly.
DO: What is your problem in the story?
M: The problem is that there is a pesky British spy wandering around causing trouble. The beast is wily and sly, but I'll catch him, have no doubt.
DO: Do you embrace conflict?
M: Conflict is in many forms. If it is in the form of a beautiful woman, I embrace and make love to it. If it is in the form of this annoying little fly speck of a spy, then I spit on it and grind it to dust beneath my heel.
DO: Do you run from conflict?
M: Never! Face conflict proudly and fight it to the death.
DO: How do you see yourself?
M: In my life, I have done many bad things. However, I am trying to change to be worthy of my darling Gabriella.
DO: How do your friends see you?
M: I haven't many friends, but those are very close. They see me as strong, intelligent, passionate with women, stubborn and capable.
DO: How do your enemies see you?
M: My enemies never see me. They are dead long before that. If by chance they do catch a glimpse, it is as of the face of death.
DO: What are your achievements?
M: That is perhaps not a question I should answer here, eh?
DO: Do you keep your achievements to yourself?
M: Many of them, yes.
DO: But why? Surely your accomplishments are wide ranging and very nearly stuff oflegend.
M: Not all legends have a happy ending. Some things are better left unsaid.
DO: What makes you happy?
M: Would you like to me say something poetic like a beautiful sunset or the seagulls above the water? I am not poetic man. What makes me happy is very simple, my love for Gabriella. It drives me, moves me to be the best I may be.
DO: What, if anything, haunts you?
M: In a soldier's life, are there not many things to haunt him? What haunts me, cariña, is better left forgotten.
DO: Do you have any distinguishing marks?
M: Oh, yes. I am very well appointed.
DO: You would love for me to ask what that means, wouldn't you?
M: No, I would like you to read the book and find out.
DO: Have you ever killed anyone?
M: I was a soldier, of course I have killed. And nearly been killed more than once.
DO: What is your most prized possession? Why?
M: My most prized possession? Must I have just one? Perhaps my pistol. Or my best pair of boots? No, not really, although I am rather fond of these pants.
DO: Oh? Why is that? (All I get is a sly grin and a slow, wicked wink.)

You can find more from Dellani Oakes here: http://writersanctuary.blogspot.com/

Relationships and writing

It occurred to me that I as a romance writer focus a lot of my writing on the relationship that develops between the characters. Thus romance. However in my personal life it might surprise you to know that I have issues. I am insensitive and sponge like when it comes to the love that is given to me. I am married to a wonderful man who would move heaven and earth for me and considers me just as beautiful now at 250 as I was when he married me at 130. God bless him.

I have some idea why I'm like this really. I was raised by a mother who has admitted in recent years that she didn't know she was allowed to love her children and thought her job was to keep them at arms length while making sure they didn't hurt themselves. In addition to that I have a father that sexual abused me and then was ripped from my life. That alone is enough to give you issues. My step father never had children of his own he was an instant father once he married my mom and he did the best he could loving us in the only way he knew how. My parents (that is my step father and mother) were not very affectionate people in general. So when my husband asks me to hold his hand or kiss him in public it's almost a foreign concept to me. This has led me to train myself over the years to show affection. It's still hard for me sometimes and can be uncomfortable.

I learned a lot the instant my kids were born. I have been told I was a natural mother. Beyond the fact I was determined not be like my mother. I loved my kids from the instant I saw them something inside me swelled and filled a place I didn't know was empty. I have no problem showing my kids affection.

It makes me wonder now as I reflect how I can easily break down other peoples problems and create relationships even though I have issues of my own. Am I that smart? Do I know human emotion that well? No I'm just a regular person who is able to visualize and comfort others and has been through her own relationship issues. I use those as building blocks to create and weaver characters that are real and believable.

Check out Buffy's book The Mating Moon visit http://www.sapphirebluepublishing.com/catalog/index.php?manufacturers_id=20&osCsid=c63d74bc724f3a8761262b42df2b3e0c

Buffy Christopher