The Art of Procrastination by Margay Leah Justice

Before I begin, I’d like to thank Terra for allowing me the opportunity to guest post here. I am foremost a reader and Yankee Romance Reviews is one of my favorite places to catch up with my favorite authors, learn about new books, maybe enter a giveaway, waste a little time…okay, waste a lot of time…read about other authors’ writing processes – oh, wait, got to entertain my kitties, they got a new toy for Christmas. What’s that speck on the monitor? Have to get that off…boy, this keyboard is dusty. Was someone eating a powdered donut over it? I wonder what’s happening on Perez Hilton? Maybe I could just troll his website for a bit and chock it up to research. Although…I really should be writing an article/blog post/book right now…

Ah, procrastination. As you can probably tell from the rambling above, I am a Procrastinator. I always have been, starting so far back in my academic career, I no longer remember how it started. Need to make a 3D map of Russia for Social Studies? Why not start it two days before it’s due? Book reports? The night before. Study for a test? The morning it’s scheduled. The births of my daughters? How about the day after they’re due? Yeah, that works for me.

The ironic thing is, it does work for me. Somehow, some way, something mystical happens when I am under a deadline. I thrive. I just stare down the barrel at the blank page, pull the trigger – and words just shoot onto the page. I don’t know how it happens and I never question why. I am just grateful that it does and that the deadlines are met. This is why I have decided to turn procrastination into an art form, although I wouldn’t recommend this art form to anyone else as the stress of it can be murder on the psyche.

So what is the art of procrastination, you might ask. It’s the ability to take those little things you do when you should be doing something else and putting them to good use. Trolling the internet when you should be writing, for instance. A waste of time? Not necessarily. You never know what you might come across when you visit other sites and you never know what interesting little tidbit might spark a story idea. A news byte about the first sighting of a wolf in Massachusetts in over a hundred years made it into my research folder and became an integral part of an upcoming book. Playing with my cats and their new toy? Feline therapy; they get to play and I get to take a mental holiday for a few moments as the batteries in my brain recharge.

Nothing is ever a waste of time if you use it to your advantage. Long walks around the neighborhood are not only good for the body, but for the mind as well. Many of my story ideas were sketched out and reshaped on such walks. Or while I was knitting a scarf, a hat, an afghan. Knitting is another activity that could fall under the procrastination label, but serves many purposes. Not only is it productive – everyone can use a new hat or scarf – it’s also therapeutic, forcing the mind to concentrate on something else and therefore relieving the stress. I love anything that is multifunctional, whether it’s an activity or an appliance. Waste of time? Not in my book.

Ah, my book. I should be working on that now. But I’ve got this promotion to do, the dishes won’t clean themselves – okay, okay, so technically they will because I have a dishwasher, but somebody’s got to load it…Hey, maybe if I load the dishwasher, I can work through that tricky spot in my plot. Hhmm…clean dishes equal unlocking tricky plotting. You see where I’m going with this? Another multifunctional activity.

So there you have it, in a nutshell. My secret to turning procrastination into an art form. Let everything you do serve a purpose whether you chock it up to research or a need to unwind from the stresses of creativity. As long as you get back to work at some point and make your deadline, procrastination can be a good thing. So don’t be fearful of it, embrace it. Then use it to your advantage.

I’d love to hear how you procrastinate. Why not share it with everyone in the comment section? Maybe we can compare notes, get new ideas for ourselves, or stick it in a folder called research. It’s all in the way you look at it. Speaking of looking, I wonder what Perez Hilton is up to now… (Margay will pick one winner from all those that comment for her giveaway)

Margay Leah Justice is the author of Nora’s Soul, book one in the Dante Chronicles, available now on Amazon.com. To learn more about her and her work, visit http://margayleahjustice.com/.

Congrats to the Winners of our Christmas Contest here at YRR

*Tammy Yenalavitch ~ The Christmas Countess by Adrienne Basso

*Carolsnotebook ~ Highland Guardian by Melissa Mayhue

*PatriciaAltner ~ Do You Believe In Magic by Ann Macela

*K Giardina ~ The Oldest Kind of Magic by Ann Macela

*Cheesygiraffe ~ Nature of the Beast by Adrienne Basso, Hannah Howell & Eve Silver

Please send your snail mail info to terraontop57 at yahoo dot com. Congrats to all our winners and I hope you enjoy your prizes!

Never Dare A Duke by Gayle Callen (Terra's Review)

Never Dare A Duke by Gayle Callen is a delicious sweet to be enjoyed whenever a good book is needed. A wonderful Regency period piece that will make you lick your lips in anticipation. A spunky heroine and an overly cautious hero make for a delightful game of romance unbridled.

Abigail is not your average girl of this time period. She is pretty but not too pretty, a bigger than average girl and does not want marriage at all. To her, marriage is a stifling curse worse than death. She does not want any man to be able to control her and she is bound and determined to make a place in society for herself but as part of the working class. She longs to be a writer in the worst way for her father's newspaper but can she find the precise article that will show her the stairway to her dreams and save her father's newspaper company at the same time?

Christopher is a Duke. A tall, dark and handsome man is the understatement of the year where he is concerned. His family's is of the opinion that he takes his position too seriously which proves to be more fact than fiction. He is overly protective of his private life, does not like or care what society has to say or think and prefers his time away from the Ton and all of it's rules and gossip. Oh, and did I say he is the most desired bachelor of the day! Hmm...how could I have left that fact out.

This story is quite comical with our heroine Abigail making a pact with our hero Christopher to help him with a couple of ladies who are like bloodhounds on the scent of the a prized piece of meat. They say "The Thrill Is In The Chase" and oh my how true that is in this delicious novel. Christopher is really in a run for the money with ladies who know that persistence pays off nicely. Or does it?

What starts out so innocently with Abigail and Christopher very quickly gets complicated. Trust turns into deception and lies. Maidenly virtues turn into carnal hunger and then all Hell breaks loose giving us a page turner that will delight your appetite.

Our author has given us a treat sure to be savored long after we finish. She plays our characters for all they are worth and you can't help but get sucked into each and every scene as if it is playing out right before your eyes. A novel that you will surely giggle with, hunger over, gasp at and make you glad that we the women of today are so much stronger and less likely pull someones hair out if they should cross our path the wrong way.

Congrat's To This Week's Winners

*Lara Lee ~ Book by Gayle Callen

~ She Wolf by Teresa D'Amario

*Lara Lee ~ Tempt The Devil by Anna Campbell

Please send your snail mail info to terraontop57 at yahoo dot com. Congrats to all our winners and I hope you enjoy your prizes!

Gayle Callen and "Never Dare A Duke" (An Interview)

Thanks so much Gayle for taking time out of your busy schedule especially during the Holiday Season for this interview. This is such a delicious book that I just had to devour it in less than a day. YUMM!

Terra: What made you decide to give our heroine such conflicting traits? She’s an innocent, a tease, loyal to her family, sneaky, intensely protective of her best friend but endangers her reputation none the less.

Gayle: I always want my characters to grow as people. If they’re perfect in Chapter 1, why would the reader care about them? I gave Abigail lots of loyalty, because she is doing something so risky for herself and her friend, and the only good reason is to save her family. She would do anything for them. Her father’s newspaper is going under, and she thinks the only way to save it is to find a truly scandalous story about Christopher, the duke of Madingley. And to get the journalist “scoop on the duke” she needs to be sneaky, because Christopher can be sneaky himself! By the end of the book, Abigail grows as a person, realizing there are some moral lines she can’t cross.

Terra: Our hero is every woman’s dream man. Tall, dark and handsome, exotic, protective, oh I could really just melt looking at him. Did you an any point consider using a different type of man for the hero, why or why not? What made you realize that he was the perfect one for this book?

Gayle: I started this trilogy with three cousins in mind, all of whom had a different reaction to the scandals that every generation of their family succumbs to—Daniel from Never Trust a Scoundrel (April 08) who’s an admitted rake, Matthew from Never Marry a Stranger (September 09) who spent his life repressing his wild side, and Christopher, hero of Never Dare a Duke, who decided after his scandalous teen years, that he had to become the “perfect duke” to shepherd his family. Only a certain type of man fits that mold, someone proper on the outside, but smoldering on the inside. That made Christopher really fun to write!

Terra: Oh I just have to know, what would you say is your most romantic scene to you personally and why that particular one? (evil grin) (spill girl)

Gayle: Strangely enough, there’s a scene in a dusty old attic—really! Abigail, my undercover journalist, is attending a house party given by the duke’s mother—days and days of living in the same home as Christopher while she tries to discover his secrets. In the attic, she’s searching for an old gown to wear to a costume ball; Christopher is coming to find her even as he’s trying to figure out what she’s up to. They’re almost caught alone together, which would lead to a forced marriage. You’d think they would flee—but they’re alone in the dark, arms brushing against each other, and passionate sparks fly! There’s something about the threat of discovery that really builds the romance.

Terra: I love the cover of this book and that in itself is enough to make you want to pick up this book to see if the storyline is as delicious. After reading the story I know both are delicious and wicked, how would you rate "Never Dare A Duke" in comparison to all the other books you've written and why?

Gayle: It’s like asking how my children compare! ;) But seriously, every time I write a book, I challenge myself to do something different, and this time, it was to have a lady journalist investigate a nobleman. Only once before did I have a commoner and someone from the nobility. In A Woman’s Innocence, the hero was the commoner. I found it interesting for Abigail to immerse herself in the world of a duke, just as much as I enjoyed his fascination with her, and how different she was from the women of his class.

Terra: How much is our heroine like you and the hero like your husband?

Gayle: Ha! Hey, if I based all my characters on me and my husband, that would be only one book! But seriously, loyalty to family is important to me. Hmmm…and as for Christopher being like my husband? My husband would have to grow a foot—and more hair. ;) But my husband has always been a romantic man, not in the gifts and flowers way, but in letting me know how special I am to him. That’s the behavior of a true hero.

Terra: I am a fly on the wall above your computer as you type furiously trying to get down each detail as it comes to mind so you not forget, what else would I see? Do you mutter to yourself, talk out loud doing both sides of the conversations or drool while intimate scenes are going from mind to fingers?

Gayle: I definitely mutter the occasional line of dialogue. And I’m a big believer in reading the book out loud to myself before turning it in. I catch more mistakes that way. As for drooling—though it’s difficult, I refrain so I don’t ruin my laptop!

Terra: What’s it like being an accomplished romance author after being a fitness instructor and computer programmer? While you were in the other fields did you jot down notes for possible storylines or was it during your off time from your jobs that you would sit down and contemplate possible scenes and stories?

Gayle: I spent my whole life writing. I wrote stories from the time I was thirteen. So even when I was working other jobs, I was always writing at night and on the weekends. I wrote three complete manuscripts that way over thirteen years before selling, and even for a year or so afterward, I still worked a part-time day job and wrote at night. Writing in the daytime is so much easier for me! And as for jotting things down, that happens all the time. I always keep paper with me, and I have index cards in several places in the house so I can write down ideas.

Terra: In “Never Dare A Duke” you have gone against the rules of the ton and society by paring up couples of different stations in life, do you think this would have been at all acceptable during that time period and what do you think the probability of this type of relationship even happening?

Gayle: From my research, it was pretty rare—but it did happen. Sadly, in real life if a commoner married nobility in the nineteenth century, the commoner often fared poorly at Society events. Yet maybe that didn’t matter to the couple, as long as they had love?

Terra: Do you have any particular rituals before or during your time with each story? Upon finishing a novel do you ever crawl up to your hubby and wrap your arms around him and say, “No headache tonight sweetie, I’m done so what are you going to do about it”?

Gayle: I don’t really have any rituals. I treat my writing as a job, working at least 6-8 hours a day, and even more when I’m near deadline. Although I’m a fan of solitaire and minesweeper, I don’t let myself play them until I’ve written five pages. Maybe that’s a ritual! As for my husband, let’s call him research material… ;)

Terra: What is your favorite memory of a Christmas past and why?

Gayle: This is one of my favorites, although it’s more amusing than touching: Last year I told my family we were going to midnight mass so I could hear the choir sing. I love Christmas music. Throughout dinner that evening, my family proceeded to sample various wines that my son, a wine sommelier, insisted they try. They sort of went beyond tipsy, and I fumed and insisted we were still going to midnight mass. But it all turned out happily, because my kids were just loose enough to sing every song in the beautiful harmony they’d learned in their years belonging to their school choir. It made me cry with happiness.

To Everyone: Post a comment about Gayle's interview, ask her a question and leave your email addy with your post to have a chance to win a copy of one of Gayle's books.

Never Dare a Duke
by Gayle Callen

Abigail Shaw is a proper young lady, hardly the sort to boldly offer a deal to London's most distinguished and perfect duke. But Abigail, desperate to save her father's newspaper business, is after a good scandal. She'd have the sensational headlines that would keep the ton talking--and the family business thriving--if only she could uncover the secrets of Christopher Cabot, the Duke of Madingley. What better way than a pretend romance? Yet, with all his seductive glances and stolen caresses, she somehow has to keep from succumbing to temptation.

Christopher Cabot finds Abigail--and her proposal--intriguing. A fake romance with the stunning commoner would allow him time to choose a suitable wife from among the would-be duchesses nipping at his heels. It seems like a perfect plan...as long as he can keep her from uncovering his one deep, dark secret. But as he falls for the cunning beauty, he will be tempted to reveal all--his secret, his heart, and his soul.

But You Look So Normal by Teresa D'Amario

Lance is a Wizard. He’s not a great wizard, but he’s all right. Descended from a long line of wizards, his brothers taunt him for being slow to learn. And as the youngest, it’s his due course to accept such teasing. Life is good, and normal. For a wizard that is.

Cassie is a Shifter. A tigress to be exact. Raised by her father after her mother’s death she’s as well adjusted as any shifter can be, and still live in the human world, hiding who and what she is.

Bliss comes to a screeching halt the night Satanists kidnap Cassie and her best friend to use as sacrifices to bring forth their Dark Lord. When Cassie literally collides into Lance, she begs him to help them escape their captors, despite the dangers. The couple work together to save the life of Cassie’s friend, only to discover a shocking passion driving them closer together at a time when both should be devastated. But when Lance overhears Cassie’s father threaten his life, he heads for the hills. Cassie follows, determined to clear up the confusion. But evil is still afoot and Cassie is taken by a secret government organization dedicated to the eradication of all things magick. Is Lance willing to put his life on the line for a woman he believes is out to kill him? Especially when he realizes the organization that’s taken her, is the one he works for?



Any paranormal author will tell you, when people learn we write paranormal Romance, there's one question that always comes next: "You write WHAT?" Then of course, there's the expression of "But you look so normal. How does someone like you come up with ideas like that?"

I always laugh. What can I say to that type of question? It's just me. I always tell them I spent way too much time watching Star Trek and Dark Shadows as a kid. I know, I'm showing my age, right?

But ideas come from the strangest places. They pop into my head in the dead of night, while the rest of the world is asleep. Just as I'm about to doze off, something pops into my mind. A face, an idea, an entire scene. I recall once I woke up in the morning, and within two minutes an entire scene, colors, smells, the entire situation, popped into my head. It didn't feel like a dream remembered. It felt like *gasp* Imagination!

I think the initial ideas always come from one important place. Life. To start, the characters are usually first for me. They walk into my life unasked. And usually they interfere with the work I’m presently writing. For instance, even now, as I finish the current work in progress, another male is in my head, shouting to be written. His entire life history has presented itself, and he wants to tell me his future. Sometimes the characters come fully developed, sometimes it takes a process of thinking and feeling what he would feel, and why. Or she, of course.

The plot is something that comes slower. Much slower. It usually sparks from the characters themselves. Something they say which leads me in the right direction – something about their lives that tells me their deepest fear. I, as the author, have an obligation to exploit that fear for your benefit. So I dig. What makes him or her hurt? What terrifies them? And then it happens. Is it the fear of shifting in public? Losing one’s self to the control of the beast within? Is it losing one’s mate? Is it having a mate? That fear always guides me in the right direction.

Each character comes with their own package of faults and fears, as well as the strength that is required to overcome those faults. How we get to that strength, how we build it to the power needed, that of course is where the fun begins. For Tigress by the Tail, the hero is a wizard, who's been teased his entire life by his brothers. He's the youngest, and was very close to his mother, who made him promise to stop being a ladies man, that the next woman he took to his bed would be his mate. After she died, he lived by this rule, which works great until he runs into a young shapeshifter who draws him like no other female. The heroine, Cassie, is a young, immature shifter who's led a very sheltered life, and she lives by one rule: No humans can see her shift. But when she's caught in a bad situation, and needs a human not only to see her shift, but help her escape, the one rule she's lived by is in jeopardy. Even knowing her father will take Lance's life, she still finds herself drawn to him in ways which shouldn't be natural.

Okay, I'll admit it. Tigress by the Tail started as a dream! (Uh oh, didn't Stephen King once say that?) So what kind of person dreams such weird things? Do I look normal? I think so. Quiet, unassuming me.

I met an author at Celebrate Romance (who shall remain nameless, Oh Queen of England), who looks nothing like what she writes. Yet she does so with aplomb. So for me, I look normal, but what lies within my heart, that, my friends, is another story all together. And you can read what’s hidden in the recesses in The Moon: Tigress by the Tail, available at Amazon.com

So share! Tell me, my dear friends. What is YOUR deepest, darkest secret? What fears do you have? Are you willing to step into the world of a character, and tell me?

Ok, just kidding. But please, do comment. Tell me what you thought of SheWolf or Tigress by the Tail, and what it is you like so much about paranormal romance. One lucky winner will win a ecopy of SheWolf, the 2nd place finisher in the 2008 PRISM awards for best first book!

Teresa D'Amario
SheWolf - Prism Finalist, Best First Book
Tigress by the Tail

Lip-Smackingly Good by Anna Campbell

Hi Terra! Hi Yankee Romance Fans! Terra, thanks for having me as your guest on Yankee Romance Reviews. I love your site and I’m looking forward to having some fun here.

One of my favorite bits of a romance novel, whether I’m reading or writing it, is the first kiss. It’s always one of the major turning points in a story, and usually it means trouble for the hero and heroine. I love it when lead characters are in trouble!

It can be that moment when lightning strikes and they realize this is the person for them, however much they wish it wasn’t true. It can be that moment when they realize no matter how they resist, the physical attraction is too strong and they’re going to have to give in to it sooner or later. It can be that moment when the person who thinks they’re in a position of power realizes they’re completely overwhelmed by the what’s happening to them in this relationship. A first kiss can mean a multitude of things, but it almost always signals change in some form, a dangerous hairpin bend in the road to love!

In my first Avon historical romance CLAIMING THE COURTESAN, the first kiss takes place just after the Duke of Kylemore kidnaps the heroine Verity/Soraya (you’ll have to read it to get the point of the double name, bwahahahaha. How’s that for a cunning plan?). He kisses her to prove he’s got the power and she’s not immune to him, whatever she says – but he finds himself completely lost to desire. She’s utterly sure that she can resist any lures he casts her way – but she forgets her anger in a passion which scares the life out of her because as long as she’s angry, she’s safe. See what I mean about a shift in power?

In UNTOUCHED, my second Avon romance, the first kiss is perhaps even more significant. After fighting the attraction he feels for the heroine Grace, Matthew is finally driven beyond his control and drags her into his arms and makes a complete mess of it. This prompts him to admit that he’s never before touched a woman – a big moment in my hero’s life!

In TEMPT THE DEVIL, which comes out on 30th December, the first ‘real’ kiss comes after quite a bit of bedroom action (it’s one of THOSE kinds of books!). It’s a very dramatic scene in the middle of a rainstorm in Hyde Park. It’s the moment my hero and heroine, the Earl of Erith and Olivia Raines, who avoid anything that hints of emotional commitment like the plague, realize there’s more going on here than just an affair. They’re in big, BIG trouble now and they both recognize it. London’s most notorious courtesan and the infamous rake who is desperate to reconcile with his family can have no future together – so what are they to do with the overwhelming passion that stirs between them?

If you want to read the first couple of chapters of TEMPT THE DEVIL, why not call over to Love Gives Back? This is an Avon Books initiative which gives readers sneak peeks at upcoming books and with every page you read, you contribute to literacy charities. How good is that? http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780061234934

So let’s talk about kisses. Do you like kissing scenes? Do you have any favorite kisses in movies or books? Did they change things between the hero and heroine? My top pick answer gets a signed copy of my next release, TEMPT THE DEVIL, after its release on 30th December. Good luck!

Blog Award

Hugh thanks to Dina at Dinasthoughtblog and to Ruth Shaller at ruthiesbookreviews for nominating me for this award, the Kreativ Blogger award. WOOHOO!!!!!

The rules are:
Mention the blog that gave it to you.
Comment on her blog to let her know you have posted the award.
Share 6 values that are important to you.
Share 6 things you do not support.
Share the love with six other wonderful blogging friends.

6 values that are important to me:
Family
Love
World Peace
Kindess to Everyone
Protection of Nature
Genorisity

6 things that I do not support:
Hatred to Anyone
Abuse (Human or Animal)
Greed
Vanity
War
Self Serving Individuals

Now for my 6 friends to share this with:

Simply Romance Reviews http://simplyromancereviews.blogspot.com/

Casablanca Authors http://casablancaauthors.blogspot.com/

Shaunie's Happy Place http://shaunesay.blogspot.com/

Sidhe Vicious Reviews http://sidhevicious.wordpress.com/

Cheesygiraffe's Blog http://cheesygiraffe.blogspot.com/

Witchy Chicks Blog http://witchychicks.blogspot.com/

Congrat's To This Week's Winners

ScorpJen ~ free download of "Embezzled Love" by Ginger Simpson

Jessa Slade ~ "And Then He Kissed Her" by Laura Lee Gehrke

~ a pdf of "The Secret Hunter" by Susanne Saville

*Jennjvamp ~ "The Undead Next Door" by Kerrelyn Sparks

*Stephanie (DragonStar1974) ~ "The Undead Next Door" by Kerrelyn Sparks

*Alyx514 ~ "The Undead Next Door" by Kerrelyn Sparks

Please send your snail mail info to terraontop57 at yahoo dot com. Congrats to all our winners and I hope you enjoy your prizes!

Ginger Simpson Says "Hmm......."

Good Morning All.

I want to thank Yankee Romance for allowing me time here on this wonderful blog. So many great authors have preceded me, I’m a bit intimidated. Though, never one to be shy, I’ll still ramble on.

Can you believe it’s already December. The trees here in Tennessee are barren, and leaves are everywhere. My Christmas tree is up, decorated and my drastically reduced amount of gifts, wrapped and in place. I think everyone has been hit in some respect by the dragging economy. Still, I love this season so I can dress in layers. I suffer from the mistaken belief that I can hide my weight with over-sized sweats and turtle necks.

I’m not sure how many of you read my personal blog, but I’m still reeling from the news I posted from Reader’s Digest that says obesity has a link to the Adenovirus 36, the same germ that causes stuffy noses. All these years I’ve considered myself fat, but have now learned, I’m just a little sick. The scientist who discovered the link is working to find a cure, so it’s quite possible that any day now I may be able to become the ‘runway’ model I always dreamed of being. Sure!

Can we even believe the things we see and hear on Television or read in magazines? I watched an infomercial on the “Shamwow.” It seems this is a wonder fiber that soaks up everything in its path. With just a blotting motion, it absorbed an entire soda spill, removed the stain and even dried the backing. That sounded quite impressive, but when the announcer said it was machine washable, I scratched my head. Wouldn’t it soak up all the water in the washer? Sometimes I wonder if I have ‘stupid’ stamped on my forehead because that’s how watching TV makes me feel.

I wonder about silly things like: What happens if I wear an eighteen-hour bra for nineteen hours? Will I really develop a gambling problem if I take a certain drug? If I use Miss Clarol and dye my own hair, why would a hairdresser know? The questions are endless.

Just when I think the silliest things are commercials, along comes politics. For months, home owners have been going under, losing their homes to foreclosure and their investments to the banks. No one did anything to help them, but now that the stock market is in dire straights, someone decided the tax payers, their children and their children’s children need to bail out the banks and finance companies. The car companies are standing in the wings with their hands out. We already owe more money to China than we’ll see in our live times, now we’ve incurred another debt to the tune of eighty-five billion.

What’s next? I’m just not certain how I can afford my share of the growing financial obligation when electricity is expected to increase by twenty percent and the cost of food and clothing have risen to cover the increase in fuel to the trucking industry. How much can we stand before we all crack? Just a few months ago, gasoline approached $5.00 per gallon, but suddenly there seems to be an excess because of lack of demand. Right! Have you noticed fewer cars on the road? I sure haven’t. Oh, another question. Do you remember when diesel (a derivative of gasoline) used to be so much cheaper than gasoline? When and why did it become so expensive?

Okay, I didn’t mean this to be a dismal post. I started out celebrating the beginning of winter but somehow got carried away. A sign of old age, I suppose. I find myself wandering around the house these days, wondering what it was I went in search of.

See what I mean…I totally got off topic again. Let’s hope the person we elected as president makes good on all his promises. He’s bound too. Have you ever seen anyone else with an official podium that says, “Office of the President-Elect?” What office? He hasn’t even been inaugurated yet, but he already has his own official background. Sadly, I’ve heard that he’s already re-considering some of his tax reform strategies. No surprises here. Has there ever been a president who lived up to his campaign pledges?

The good news… at least we can all escape the madness by reading a good romance, historical, suspense, sci-fi, or fantasy novel. Might I suggest my latest fantasy romance, Forever Faith? She has a myriad of her own problems, but they’re all make-believe. A perk to being a writer is being able to live life through your characters and have the story end how you want it. How cool is that?

You can find out more about Faith at http://www.gingersimpson.com. While you’re there, checkout my other ladies: Sarah, Chastity and Grace. They have great stories to share, too. Thank goodness for blogs like this that bring us all together.

Did I mention that Embezzled Love finaled in the 2009 Eppies? I hoped it would happen, but never dreamed it would. I’m sure all the finalists feel just as I do…anxious for March to find out the results. Before I go, I’d like to invite you to stop by my blog and join in the craziness sometime. You can find me at http://mizging.blogspot.com

Thanks again, Yankee Romances for hosting me today. This has been fun…at least for me. *smile*

Anyone leaving a comment today will be entered into a drawing for a free download of Embezzled Love... you know that EPPIE finalist I mentioned. :)

Laura Lee Guhrke and Deadline Hell

I’m blogging today from hell. Deadline hell, that is. For those of you who are not writers, let me explain what deadline hell is.

It’s that place where they serve no food but cold pizza, Hot Pockets, and Red Bull.

It’s warm here. It should be smokin’ hot (it is hell, after all, and I do write romance) but I feel cold due to my overwhelming sense of panic.

The devil’s here, too, that snake. He’s slithering around, whispering wonderful things like, “That is the stupidest sentence you’ve ever written,” and asking helpful questions like, “Does she have to feel tingles up and down her spine again?”

When I’m in deadline hell, I always wonder how I got here, but thinking it over, I realize that plenty of good intentions pave the road to deadline hell. “Today I am going to get up at five a.m. and start work,” and, “I won’t stop until I’ve got twenty pages,” and, “I will not play Spider or Bookworm today,” are several that come to mind.

There is a way out of deadline hell, though, and that way is to finish the $%#*& book. It seems impossible and I whine and cry about how impossible it is and how haaaaaard it is, and my boyfriend pats me on the head with a skeptical, “Uh-huh,” and sends me back into the pit for another round with the serpents. When I proclaim that I can’t do it, and that this is the hardest book I’ve ever done, he laughs. Demonically. I’m not kidding, people. That man has no compassion.

I decided to blog about deadline hell today, not only because I am there, but also because my characters are there, too. I am just finishing up a book about writers. WITH SEDUCTION IN MIND is the 4th book in the Girl-Bachelor Chronicles and tells the story of Daisy Merrick, fresh-faced wanna-be who decides to become a writer because she can’t keep any other sort of job, and her hero, Sebastian Grant, a cynical literary legend who’s burned out, washed up, and in the throes of writer’s block.

When I started this book, ‘lo these many months ago, it seemed like it would be a piece of angel food cake. I mean, the how-to books are always telling writers to write what we know. So I did, and it’s been the hardest book I’ve ever written. (I can hear you saying skeptically, “Uh-huh,” just like my boyfriend, but I am serious, people). Explaining writers in a way that makes us sympathetic without being crazy or whiny is really hard. The reason, of course, is that we are all crazy and whiny. And because we have no time for romance. This is the part my boyfriend agrees with, since he had to drag me out of the house (AKA: deadline hell) last Valentine’s Day.

Deadline hell is full of fear, and it is not rational fear. My rational mind knows that I can finish my book because I’ve done that very thing fourteen times before, and I have the books with my name on ‘em to prove it. But my writer mind is always afraid that this time, I won’t be able to do it. This time, I’ll mess up. Deadline hell is where I had my first writer’s block, first panic attack, and seventeen-hundredth chocolate brownie (in a week). But I keep coming back here, and I don’t know why. I never intend to end up in deadline hell, and every time I arrive, I think, “Wait. How did I get here?” My mom says it’s because I secretly love deadline hell. That I get the same thrill out of this that I get out of black diamond runs at the ski resort. That I do this with every book because I like the thrill and the drama. She says I’m an adrenaline junkie. My mom, though, is crazy. She also says I write my best stuff down here. Sheesh.

What about you? Do you do your best work in panic mode? Or do you cave under too much stress? Are you one of those people who thrives on impossible odds or do you always makes sure to get the work done on time without any increase in blood pressure? Are you an adrenaline junkie, addicted to dangerous roads? Or are you a plan, ahead, look at a map, choose the safe route, sort of person?

Leave a comment about one of the questions above and your email addy and one person will be chosen from all who enter to win an autographed copy of "AND THEN HE KISSED HER", the first Girl-Bachelor book.

Susanne Saville and The Chatty Cat Cafe

Thank you so much for inviting me to guest blog!

Now, how to work in the topic of John Barrowman.... :)

Yes, if you've been to my website or my blog, you know I have a total crush on the Doctor Who and Torchwood star. (And, yes, I took that photo. The story behind it is on my website.)

One of the great charities John Barrowman supports is Dogs Trust. They are "the largest dog welfare charity in the UK" and they find homes for stray and abandoned dogs. John Barrowman is all about his dogs, most of which he adopted.

This got me thinking about other cool people and their pets. And you know what? Noir novelist Christa Faust's Boston Terrier Emma is a rescued dog. Sharon Kay Penman, historical author and medievalist, adopted her German Shepard Cody. And it's not just dogs. Romance legend Bertrice Small adopted her cat Sylvester.

From this research grew The Chatty Cat Cafe. In the Cafe, I interview authors about something close to their heart - usually their pets. :) (Please stop by and check us out.)

Love for one's pet is not just a modern thing. Many famous writers of the past have had pets they adored. George Eliot, for instance, loved her pug. She credited her pug with keeping her sane when her world got difficult (she was in love with a married man - a married man whose wife had basically left him for a friend of his, but with the laws of the time, they still couldn't be legally married to each other).

Fictional characters have their favorite pets, too. Jane Austen gives Lady Bertram a pug in Mansfield Park. You can just make out the pug on the lap of the woman seated in the background of this illustration for Mansfield Park by C.E. Brock.

I was extremely happy to discover this when I read Mansfield Park because I intended to include a pug in my Regency romance, The Secret Hunter. And now I knew such a pet would be historically accurate.

The pug in The Secret Hunter is a tribute to my own pug. He had a large vocabulary and could have given Lassie a run for her money. :) If you're not sure what a pug looks like, please watch my book trailer for The Secret Hunter. The pug in that is adorable.

The Secret Hunter, already available in paperback, is coming out this month as an audio book - whoo-hoo! It is my first audio book and I am very excited. To celebrate, I'm going to do a drawing from the comments on this blog - and the prize is a pdf of The Secret Hunter (thus anyone in the world can enter). Make sure you include your email, and comment away.

And give your pet an extra hug from me. :)

The Secret Hunter Susanne Saville Book Trailer

Kerrelyn Sparks and The Bloody Truth

The Bloody Truth behind the Love at Stake Series By Kerrelyn Sparks

I'm often asked where did I come up with the idea for the Love at Stake Series, and the truth is I didn’t realize I was writing a series till about the third book. It wasn’t till then that my editor and I decided to give the series a name. That’s why the books weren’t published with the labels Love at Stake #1, #2, or #3. And I have no idea how many books there will eventually be.

Why, you may ask? Because so much of this business is completely out of my control. I was absolutely thrilled to sell the first book, How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire. HarperCollins offered me a two-book contract, but to be perfectly honest, if those first two books had not sold well, that could have been the end of it right there. So it was due to all you wonderful readers out there that I was offered a second contract for a three-book contract, and it was then, that the series actually got started. How long will the series last? Again, that’s not entirely up to me. It’s the readers who buy the books who have that power. So you see—my Vamps and I are at your mercy!! The stake is in your hands. Do you want to kill the Vamps or love them?

Why do you write Vamps, you may ask? Believe it or not, I was never a fan of the gory, scary vampire from horror movies. I don’t even like horror movies. I just can’t see how injuring, maiming, and killing people can be considered entertainment. But when Frank Langella came along, playing a vampire, I could definitely see how sexy a vampire could be. Then George Hamilton and Leslie Nielsen played vampires, and I loved it! All of a sudden, I realized how truly funny a vampire could be. Is he dead or not dead? What if he flies into a window? What if his mind control doesn’t work properly? What if his cape gets caught in a car door of a taxi, and the taxi drives off?

The first book, How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire, started off with a similar question. What is the most embarrassing thing that could happen to a suave, debonair, and sexy vampire? My answer: he loses one fang and risks being laughed at for all eternity as the One-Fanged Wonder. If the hole in his mouth heals up during his death-sleep, will he be stuck as a lop-sided eater for the rest of his unnatural life? So there—I had the premise for the first book. But could I write it? I wasn’t sure. I waffled in self-doubt for a few weeks, then caught the flu. While I was zonked out on Nyquil, and my inhibitions were lowered, I sat down and wrote the first three chapters. I thought they were funny, but I was so loopy at the time, I wasn’t sure. I sent the chapters to my agent to see what she thought.

She immediately sent them to several publishers and within a week, we had several offers. The book sold! I was thrilled! I was ecstatic! I was scared stiff! The flu was gone, and I was off the Nyquil. How on earth could I admit I was drugged when I wrote the first three chapters? And how could I ever finish the book without medication?

I’m happy to report that I finished the first book and wrote several more, all without the aid of drugs. It turned out that I’m naturally loopy. Thank goodness!
For the second book, Vamps and the City, I asked myself what will happen to Roman’s harem? How will a group of uneducated, untrained vampire women who are all stuck in the past manage to survive on their own in the modern world? I was convinced that they would want a new master, and how better to choose their new master than in a reality show on the Digital Vampire Network?

For the third book, Be Still My Vampire Heart, I was intrigued with the question, what happens if you imprison a male vampire with the mortal woman he loves? If he refrains from biting her, how will he live? If he goes ahead and bites her, how will he live with himself?

For the fourth book, The Undead Next Door, I asked myself what if a male vampire has a vampire enemy, one who has been torturing him for years by killing every woman he ever loves? Will the vampire hero ever want to love again?

And that brings me to the fifth book in the series—All I Want for Christmas is a Vampire. This one stars Ian MacPhie, who was stuck for five hundred years with the face and body of a fifteen-year-old. Due to a drug (other than Nyquil), he was able to age twelve years, so now he looks 27, and he wants to find his true love. Will he automatically know how to flirt with women and how to date? Or will he flounder about in the dating world like all of us lowly mortals? Poor Ian. He’s looking for love, and in all the wrong places. But what fun! It’s on sale now, just in time for Christmas!

You can see that each book in the Love at Stake series began with a question. What question do you have about vampires? What opinion? Do you like them scary or funny? Let me know, and someone will win a signed copy of The Undead Next Door. If you’d like to read excerpts from my books or watch book trailers, please visit my website at www.kerrelynsparks.com. And thank you all for your support!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Christmas Gift Suggestions:

To your enemy, forgiveness.

To an opponent, tolerance.

To a friend, your heart.

To a customer, service.

To all, charity.

To every child, a good example.

To yourself, respect."

Oren Arnold

Congrat's To This Week's Winners

*Dani ~ Night Fall's Darkly & Pretty Journal by Kim Lenox

*bison61 ~ Night Fall's Darkly & Pretty Journal by Kim Lenox

*Estella ~ Delicious by Sherry Thomas

Please send your snail mail info to terraontop57 at yahoo dot com. Congrats to all our winners and I hope you enjoy your prizes!

Holiday Gift Suggestions from Author Kim Lenox

Eeek! It’s Purple Tuesday! It’s almost Christmas! Do you have your shopping underway? Okay, okay … I made the phrase Purple Tuesday up … it sounds a lot less ominous than Black Friday.

I always enjoy reading or watching television shows where product recommendations are featured. I don’t watch much Oprah, but if I hear her “Favorite Things” giveaway is scheduled, I do my best to tune in. I’ve found some cool gift ideas for friends and family by watching those episodes. So when I came across this amazing product, I knew I had to share it with all of you at Yankee Romance Reviewers, just in case you had someone on your list that you still hadn’t bought for.

This gift item provides the ultimate in a virtual reality experience. Seriously, the Wii can’t touch it. Sensations … textures, scents, sounds, vivid colors and tastes? They’re all included, and require no expensive cartridge/refills. This product also provides chills, thrills and sighs like you wouldn’t believe.

The name of this marvelous invention is: the Book™©®.

Still not convinced that this is the perfect holiday gift? Here are a few other product details to consider:

A Book™©® can be used as a Time Machine, offering glimpses – and even allowing you to spend time with a variety of famous personages, long since passed. My book, NIGHT FALLS DARKLY allows you to share moments with Queen Victoria, Bram Stoker and Jack the Ripper, just to name a few. (All from the safety of your own seat). But that’s not all … if historicals aren’t your thing, the Time Machine function works just as well to sneak you into alternate realms, or even transport you into the future.

Books™©® come highly customized to suit user preferences. You can choose any “fit” – one size fits all -- or select a more specific, tailored version. And best of all … the Book™©® will never run out of batteries or charge, go out of stock, or expire. And you can be assured that the manufacturer won’t release a newer version next month with expanded bells and whistles, leaving your Book™©® obsolete.

If that isn’t enough to convince you, I’m providing the following price comparison:

The Nintendo Wii - $249.99

The Book™©® – 3.99 - $35.99 (Upgrades and additional options may increase the base price of your book by a nominal amount).

Happy Holidays everyone!

Kim Lenox, despite sometimes writing very corny blog posts, writes dark and sexy paranormal historicals – with a dash of wicked humor -- for NAL/Signet Eclipse. Her debut novel, NIGHT FALLS DARKLY: A NOVEL OF THE SHADOW GUARD, is currently available at your favorite bookstore. She invites you to visit her at http://www.kimlenox.com/ and http://www.silkandshadows.com/.

Death is inevitable.
But there are some souls, more wicked and disobedient than most, who defy Death’s claim.
Rebellious souls who must be called to heel.

ARCHER, Lord Black, returns to England at the behest of Queen Victoria to immerse himself in the dark, hellish streets of London’s East End. Among the immortal Shadow Guard, he is the most prolific and cunning of the Reclaimers. He revels in the hunt of his current prey: an ill-mannered, reluctant soul reviled in the daily newspapers as Jack the Ripper. Archer has only one weakness … one distraction … the young woman he spared from death two years before.

ELENA WHITNEY has never wanted for anything – not since coming under the protection of her mysterious and absent guardian, Lord Black, who has gifted her with everything a young woman of quality could ever hope for, including an enviable address, an unlimited income and entrée into the drawing rooms of high society. But now, after nearly two years of indifference, he believes he can sweep into her life and rid himself of her by marrying her off. If he knew anything about her – anything at all – he’d know she had greater aspirations than that.

Leave a comment about Kim's article or ask her a question and you will have a chance to win a copy of her book "NIGHT FALLS DARKLY" and a pretty journal too. Don't forget to leave your email addy.

Sherry Thomas and "Delicious" (An Interview)

Terra: You’ve taken Cinderella to a whole new level with “Delicious”. Your heroine is sweet, not so innocent and has an affinity for perfection. What would you say her most interesting attribute is and her worst habit?

Sherry: I would say her most interesting attribute is her resilience. She has fallen awfully hard in life, but she has dusted herself off, dried her tears, and forged on. Her worst habit is of course her tendency to fall in love with just the wrong man at just the wrong time. J So that’s what this book is all about, we take that wrong man at the wrong time and turn it into the right man at the right time.

Terra: The old saying, “The Way to a Man’s Heart Is Through His Stomach”, is really quite an understatement here. What made you decide to make our hero go from not liking food to taking one bite and nearly shattering himself with an Orgasmic Explosion?

Sherry: Much of Delicious is about the hero's loneliness. He is a man who no longer tastes and his dead tastebuds are a metaphor of the way he's buried his emotional self. When the heroine's cooking shocks his palate into life, this is his reaction:

“And therein lay the danger of Mme. Durant and her cooking—not that it was delectable, but that it was evocative, and made him think far beyond food. The rediscovery of taste was as perilous as he’d feared it would be, rousing other dormant, dangerous longings for everything he did not have, everything he’d hoped to hold dear and could not.”

The food in the book is really all about the hungers of the heart.

Terra: Your bathroom scene with the heroine was better than fantastic. If that were you in the tub doing what our heroine were doing, what would you have felt like and done if caught?

Sherry: I have two bathroom scenes with the heroine (and the hero). I’m guessing you are referring to the one in which she pleasures herself in the hero’s big bathtub and he walks in on her?

I want to make perfectly, perfectly perfectly clear—just because I’d be horrified if people were to believe I used my own experience as basis for my love scenes—that I have never abused/delighted a bathtub in a similar way. It is a rather uncomfortable place if you think about it. J But, if I had, and were caught doing so by a man whom I’ve loved from a distance for ten long years, I’d expect him to show some proper appreciation and ravish me posthaste.

Terra: None of our characters in this novel are without flaws, was that to make them more appealing to us and why? Do you think that in the 19th century people would have been more like your descriptions or more puritan and prudish?

Sherry: I always feel that the more real all the elements of a historical romances are—from characters to settings to conflicts—the more I’m likely to get sucked into the fantasy and to believe the happy ending. So flawed characters are just my way of making everything more real, since I’ve yet to meet a perfect person in life.

The Victorians, despite their public prudishness, are very passionate people in private. If you read what young Queen Victoria thought of her consort, she was just absolutely smitten. I try to utilize as much as possible this rather sexy dichotomy between one’s public correctness and private hungers. And I think it works quite well in DELICIOUS, especially in the case of the hero, as this habitually abstemious man is forced to face all the inner longings he’s suppressed for so long.

Terra: You are extremely secretive about our heroine’s background. Instead of having the Fairy Godmother guiding her she has a blackmailing Aunt trying to make her disappear. Why?

Sherry: The main reason is to emphasize the difficulty, if not impossibility, for the heroine to return to the world she was born in. And since this is my take on Cinderella, the Aunt is a stand-in, part of the time, for the Wicked Stepmother/Stepsisters.

Terra: If you could go back to the 1950’s , write this novel and publish it, what do you think the reaction would be in comparison to readers of today reading such a different take on Cinderella?

Sherry: That is a very interesting question. I’m not sure the 50s reader would receive Verity, my heroine from DELICIOUS, quite so positively. Because Verity is a much more familiar character to the 21st century, the woman who achieves happiness despite huge missteps early in life. We celebrate her, whereas it seems to me—and I apologize profusely if I’m totally off track here since I wasn’t born until the 70s—that in the 50s, society would have still tried its level best to keep such women out of sight.

Terra: I would love to be a fly on the wall of your mind while you were in writer’s mode with “Delicious“, what do you think I would find zipping past me?

Sherry: LOL. What you would have found was mostly panic. DELICIOUS took three complete drafts (and I don’t mean revisions, I mean toss-everything-out-and-start-again kind of drafts) and sixteen months, as the story very stubbornly refused to gel. It was my fault mainly, for jumping in and starting to write without having thought through the characters and the conflicts and what it was this story was truly about. (In the end, it was about sacrifice, about giving up everything you hold dear for the one you love, but it took me along time to get there.)

Our hero is really noble considering his early years, was his persistence to be the type of man that his is because of trying to impress his father or to show the world that the lowly areas of society really can produce something of quality?

Stuart Somerset, the hero of DELICIOUS, is an illegitimate child of a gentleman. He spents the first nine years of his life in a slum, before his mother took him to his father and his father took him in. But I think what drove him most was his rivalry—a brotherhood turned bitter—with his elder half-brother, his father’s legitimate heir. That story is there in DELICIOUS and is actually one of my favorite elements in the book.

As for his nobility, I think sometimes it’s just innate, whether a man comes from a palace or from the gutters. Stuart is just a wonderful man.

Terra: Do you have any particular ritual’s that you follow to get into writer’s mode? What do you feel like when you are finally finished with the final draft?

Sherry: Does excessive web surfing and simultaneous self-recrimination (because I’m wasting so much time) count as a ritual? If not, then I don’t really have one.

With DELICIOUS, which is the first book I wrote under contract, when my third-time-is-the-charm draft finally finished, it was such overwhelming relief. Because I knew I’d at last achieved on paper what I’d seen in my mind from the beginning.

At the end of NOT QUITE A HUSBAND, my May 2009 release which I just turned in to my editor, it’s actually a bit of sadness. The H/H in NOT QUITE A HUSBAND took an incredible journey and I wanted to stay in their world and spend more time with them.

Terra: If you could be any one fairytale character who would it be and why?

Sherry: Definitely the Fairy Godmother because it is better to give than to receive. And boy, isn’t it cool to grant people their hearts’ desires with a swish of a magic wand?

Sherry Thomas
NOT QUITE A HUSBAND--JUNE 2009
PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS--Available Now
DELICIOUS--Available Now
http://sherrythomas.com
http://sherrythomas.blogspot.com


Sherry will be giving away one copy of "Delicious" to one lucky commentor. Make sure and leave a comment about the interview or her book and your email addy to be qualified.

"Delicious"

Famous in Paris, infamous in London, Verity Durant is as well-known for her mouthwatering cuisine as for her scandalous love life. But that’s the least of the surprises awaiting her new employer when he arrives at the estate of Fairleigh Park following the unexpected death of his brother.

Lawyer Stuart Somerset worked himself up from the slums of Manchester to become one of the rising political stars of England’s Parliament. To him, Verity Durant is just a name and food is just food until her first dish touches his lips. Only one other time has he felt such pure arousal—a dangerous night of passion with a stranger, a young woman who disappeared at dawn. Ten years is a long time to wait for the main course, but when Verity Durant arrives at his table, there’s only one thing that will satisfy Stuart’s appetite for more. But is his hunger for lust, revenge—or that rarest of delicacies, love? For Verity’s past has a secret that could devour them both even as they reach for the most delicious fruit of all…

"Private Arrangements"

To all of London society, Lord and Lady Tremaine had the ideal arrangement: a marriage based on civility, courteousness, freedom—and living on separate continents.

But once upon a time, things were quite different for the Tremaines…When Gigi Rowland first laid eyes on Camden Saybrook, Lord Tremaine, the attraction was immediate and overwhelming: she simply had to have him. But what began in a spark of passion ended in betrayal the morning after their wedding—and Gigi wants to be free to marry again. Now Camden has returned from America with an outrageous demand—an heir—in exchange for Gigi’s freedom.

Gigi’s decision will have consequences she never imagined, as secrets are exposed, desire is rekindled—and one of London’s most admired couples must either fall in love all over again…or let each other go forever.