Vixenwriter

Thirteen PJ Harvey Lyric Snippets I Love

I’m a huge PJ Harvey fan. My second summer at college my friend April brought Dry to work and that was it. I’ve loved her ever since (oh and April too! Hi April XOXO!). There’s nothing like angry PJ, but I still love PJ in love and in New York City too. If I had to pick a favorite CD it would be Rid of Me. Favorite song? Impossible to choose! **Edited to add links to hear some of her music because many haven’t yet. On the amazon pages you can scroll down and listen to snippets*

1. Speak, I’m listening. Baby, I’m your sweet thing… Rub ‘Til It Bleeds

2. Give just everything, She’s got me so mesmerized… Yuri G

3. I’m coming up man size, Skinned alive. I want to fit, Got to get, Man size, I’m heading on, Handsome, Got my leather boots on… Man Size

4. look at these, my child-bearing hips, look at these, my ruby-red ruby lips, look at these, my work strong-arms, you’ve got to see my bottle full of charm… Sheela na Gig

5. Angel at my table, God in my car… Victory

6 Over, Under, Die of, Pleasure - Long Snake Moan

7. And this world tonight is mine, A world to be remembered in… The Sky Lit Up

8.

9. Can’t you see, In my handwriting, The curve Of my g? The longing …The Letter

10. God of piston, God of steel, God is there, behind my wheel - Working For the Man

11. I remember it all started when he bought that car, It was the first thing he’d ever owned apart from me, And the color was red…Taut

12. Tie yourself, to me, and no one else…Rid of Me

13. I’d put stars at your feet, Put Mars in your head… Missed

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Thirteen Things I’m Thankful For

1. My husband. He’s good, kind, compassionate, strong, smart, passionate about things, handsome, very muscly, a fabulous father, supportive of my writing, brings me chocolate and he’s my number one fan. I’m so incredibly blessed to have a partner like him.

2. My kids. I may joke about them being monsters and so, okay I’m not joking, they are, but they’re the best part of me and my husband. They’re beautiful, horrible creatures and there’s nothing in the world better than their snuggles and smooches.

3. My mom and dad - they’re the best. They taught me about compassion and caring, they taught me to pursue the things that mean something in life. They’ve been tirelessly supportive of everything I’ve ever done and I can only hope to be half as good a parent as they are.

4. My friends. Jordan wrote about support yesterday and there’s a fabulous video up at Alison’s blog that touches on women’s relatinonships and for me - I know without a doubt I get through each day because of my friends’ support and love. From doing crit at the drop of the hat to sending me chocolate when I made my first NY sale - my friends are an integral part of my life and I’m grateful for them.

5. My readers (and many are friends too so I’m doubly lucky). You’re all amazing and I would not be here without you. Thank you. Seriously and most truly, thank you for supporting me and sending me notes and taking the time out of your busy lives to comment here, come to chats, to say hello on the loops, to read my books - you rock and it humbles me that you’re out there.

6 and 7. My editors - most notably Angie James and Ann Leveille. Ann has edited all my EC books and has taken me from something like 8 rounds of edits on Triad to two on books now. She’s taught me how to be a better writer. The thing about Ann I’ll always be most thankful for? When she sent my first round of edits on Triad she said, “make sure you make the threesome realistic.” And quite honestly, IMO, it’s the key to writing a good menage book. Make your characters human, there will be moments of jealousy, etc (well, even my non human characters can have jealous moments or at the very least a reason that three would work). She’s a good person and I love working with her.

And Angie - since Ann spoiled me and in the interim before I sold to Samhain I’d had other editor experiences, one was so awful I lost hair over it - I was wary but Angie is a fabulous editor. I remember asking one of her authors about her before I submitted and that author said she was hard core but a really good editor who didn’t mess with author voice. And that author was right. I love working with her, I love her sense of humor, I love the way she pushes me to write a better book. I never get the sense she’s just going through the motions or that she doesn’t care about anything other than finishing up and getting to the next person on her list. I always feel like she cares about me as a person, as a writer and that she wants me to do the best job I can.

8. My agent, Laura Bradford. She’s a wonderful person. Supportive. Tireless (and I mean tireless, the woman never takes time off). When I’m all mopey she sends me these great doubled edged emails that are supportive and then tell me to knock it off. I love that.

9. My laptop - oh how I love my laptop. Every book but Triad and A Touch of Fae has been written on it. It weighs next to nothing and has a nice, wide screen.

10. Music - I love music and I don’t know that I could write without it. Currently I’m loving TV On The Radio, Ministry, Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, Sleater-Kinney and The Good, The Bad and The Queen. Next week the list will be different.

11. Books - I started reading pretty early and I’ve been a book junkie ever since. There are books I read over and over because they’re like comfort objects or they inspire me. The book from my childhood I remember most? The Dark is Rising - I still read it from time to time. There are many others (god knows I’ve written about them a lot, books always kept me company) and every week I read something else that brings me enjoyment, joy, anger, inspiration, etc.

12. My house. It’s not big. It’s not grand. Most of the time it’s a chaotic mess filled with noise and clutter but it’s mine and it’s where my family lives. It makes me happy every time I come around the corner and see it there.

13. Inspiration. Each time I finish a book there’s always a bittersweet feeling. I’m glad I was able to finish and find the end for my story and characters, I’ll miss them and a tiny question about whether or not I’ll be able to do it again. And each time I start a new book, each time a new idea comes and I start to give it life, the wonderment that I’m living this cool as hell dream of writing settles in and I hope I never become so jaded it doesn’t fill me me with awe.

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Thirteen Men Who Remind Me Of My Heroes

1. Clive Owen - Okay, I’m more than a little crushy on Clive so he’s made his way into two heroes so far (and a few heroines too, heh). He’s…so masculine and hard and very alpha. I love that.

2. Ryan Reynolds - He’s my inspiration for Kael from Vengeance Due only Kael has platinum blond hair.

3. Dominic Purcell - He’s who I see when I close my eyes and think about the hero in Bound By Magic and also in Battlefront - not surprising that both these men are very, very dominant and both books have D/s storylines.

4. Keith Hamilton Cobb - Nate came from an amalgam of Keith Hamilton Cobb and Gary Dourdan (his eyes!) I love keith’s dreds (although he’s cut them off now and still looks very fetching)

5. Gerard Butler - When I wrote Tri Mates Gabe Murphy was a joint creation between my husband and Gerard (oh man, now THAT is a sandwich, whoo!)

6. Patrick Dempsey - speaking of Tri Mates - Nick, mmm, Nick. He’s suave, debonair and smooth as well as sexy. It’s no secret I likey the men with dark hair and eyes. Patrick here totally reminds me of Nick.

7. Jason Statham. Oh Jason, you’re so very, very very bad. I love that in a man. Sigh. Card Leviathan from Threat of Darkness is Jason’s kind of bad.

8. Fredrik Ljungberg - Yeah, so there’s a theme - tight, hard bodies and I like the shaved head thing too. Fredrik’s an athlete so he works with his body. Marc Chase (only Marc has lots of hair) is a lot like Fredrik.

9. Mark Valley - Mmm! Small town sort of good looks. Broad shoulders - he plays a lot of cop roles and it works for a reason. Mark totally makes me think of Shane Chase.

10. Keith Urban - seriously, this is how shallow I am - I never thought I was much for country music until I happened past a video from Keith’s Golden Road. I bought the CD shortly after and I have to admit I do love his music - almost as much as I like looking at him. Keith is Jude from Second Chances - it’s not hard for me to think about Keith tying me up, nope, not at all.

11. Brad Pitt - the thing about Brad Pitt is that I don’t normally go for blond men. In fact, I used to think, upon hearing his name, eh, he’s okay. And then I see him onscreen and he always blows me away and makes me tingly. So I’ve given in and I send him crushy goodness with no flavor of stalkerishness. Still - he’s Matt Chase. Yep, Matt’s a bit more bulked up, he’s a firefighter after all, but he’s got Matt’s attitude and sexy demeanor.

12. Julian McMahon - oh my. My, my, my. I do love it when the dirty bad boy can dress up and look suave but the dirty bad boy is still there, just waiting to be unleashed. Nash from Stripped is that kind of dirty bad boy. Happy sigh. He can wear a Prada suit but still bend you over the hood of his car in three seconds flat. Whoo!

13. Viggo Mortensen - speaking of dirty bad boys, oh man! I know the exact scene on the Fellowship of the Ring DVD where he first makes an appearance. How could that broody air of mystery not give way to ideas for heroes in romance novels? Lex from Enforcer has a lot of those elements, Con from Touch of Fae, Shane from Taking Chase, Ben from Enclave - mmmm!

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Thirteen Things I Do When I Should Be Writing

1. Read Livejournal.

2. Read Blogs.

3. IM - oh sweet, sweet Yahoo IM…

4. Google. Google searches are like crack.

5. Yammer at my husband. My sweet, long suffering husband who is the strong silent type. Unluckily for him, he’s married to a woman who never shuts up.

6. Play with my website.

7. Sex. Mmmm. Okay so this isn’t in order of preference or this would be number one. It’s research anyway!

8. Reading. If I’ve got something particularly yummy in my TBR pile it’ll call to me.

9. Catch up on email.

10. Obsess about selling new manuscripts sadly, this would be near the top of the list if we were ordering by frequency.

11. Plan my packing for RT.

12. Surf the internet for clothes for RT.

13. Surf the library and Amazon for books. Clearly, hooking up to a wireless router so I could access the net at night when I write is a bad influence.

Thirteen Things I Do For Comfort

When I’m down or anxious there are several things I turn to to make myself feel better.

1. Sex. My husband is always glad to help on this one. The endorphins, the physical activity, closeness with my partner - it all helps.

2. The Matrix - I love this movie. Every time I watch it I feel recharged from all the eye candy, brilliant filmmaking and script. It’s one of the things that never fails to get me out of a writing slump.

3. Bladerunner - Another movie I love. It’s one of the best movies ever made - creative, innovative, great mystery, fab sexual tension, stark sets. I fall into the world Ridley Scott and Phillip Dick created and it always feels like I’m in a museum or in church or something. I’m in awe of that talent.

4. Steel Magnolias - sometimes you need to laugh and cry and then laugh again when you’ve got the blues. Every freaking time Sally Fields is at the funeral and she’s beating her chest saying talking about how it wasn’t right her child should die first, I weep and weep. And then I laugh when Clairee pushes Ouisa forward and tells M’lynn to hit her. It’s such a beautiful play and book about women and the relationships they have. Makes me weep buckets.

5. Retail Therapy. What? You don’t think I can’t be a shallow chick who feels better after buying a new purse or pair of shoes? Or eight books at once?

6. Mashed potatoes - Oh god, so good.

7. Cupcakes. Okay the thing is, I haven’t yet met a problem buttercream and a good cupcake couldn’t make at least a tiny bit better. Cupcakes are like, a tiny bit of heaven. Not so much you feel guilty, but enough you know you’ve treated yourself.

8. Reading The Outlander. I love this book and I love the way it straddles several genres. Jamie and Claire are a wonderful couple. Lots of emotion and action.

9. Reading Dune. Holy moly. I was in my early twenties before my husband finally convinced me to read this book (this is my problem you know, all of my favorite books are ones I pick up and put down a dozen times and end up reading because I have nothing in my TBR pile - I should be less judgmental about blurbs). Anyway, Herbert’s sweeping epic about religion, politics, empire building, addiction, sex, power with a healthy dose of magic thrown in is without a doubt my favorite science fiction novel of all time. It reminds me that there is truly amazing writing out there and to keep working, keep trying to make myself better.

10. A mug of decaf chai in my retro Minnie Mouse mug. A few years back we did a family vacation to Disneyland and my husband saw me looking at these cups that had this great sort of forties era diner design on them. When I was unpacking when we got home I saw he’d bought them and hid them for me to find later. Have I mentioned lately what an amazing husband I have? Anyway, every time I drink out of the mug it makes me happy. I had a Bellagio mug that was similar but my daughter broke it, sigh.

11. Read Welcome To Temptation because it always makes me laugh. It’s one of the most perfect romance novels I can think of, it’s just a great combination of humor and sex, chemistry and plot. It’s totally unexpected and odd, I love it.

12. Snuggling with my kids in my bed. On the weekend mornings when no one is rushed, having those small people who mean everything to me hugging me and excitedly telling me about their Saturday plans just warms me. I love it that my daughter just repeats every third sentence one of my sons says. I love it that my husband will look at me and his face tells me how much he loves what we’ve created together. It’s a great reminder of what is truly worth fretting over.

13. Time alone with my husband. I miss not having more of this. Last night I’d hit this wall as I was writing a series synopsis, I was a bit agitated and he hung out with me and plotted and let me bounce ideas off him and gave me some of his own for well over an hour. As it happens, I was able to totally plot out the second book and finish up the first one because of that. I love him and i love our connection.

Thursday Thirteeners - add your comments and I’ll link ya!
1. Rhian
2. Ciar
3. Anni
4. Riley Merrick
5. Spyscribbler

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Thirteen Romance Heroes I Love

1. Roarke (In Death series) - okay so my absolute love of Roarke is tarnished a bit by what an utter dumbass he was in Innocent in Death. Still, he’s just marvelous. He’s handsome, mysterious, sexy, smart, super rich, oh and Irish. Yum!

2. Rule Turner (Eileen Wilks’ Lupi series)- Yep, still simmering from that Eileen Wilks binge of a few weeks ago. From the first time Rule steps onto the page, he dominates the book. Even Lily can’t resist so why should I?

3. Aidan Gallagher (Jewels of the Sun) - Say what you like but no one does the Irish hero like Nora. I loved this book and I love Aidan. I think I was as eager for a glimpse of Aidan in the other two books as I was for the other Gallagher siblings to find their love.

4. Phin Tucker (Welcome to Temptation) The scene on the dock? Sigh. He’s funny, he’s sexy, he’s a great dad - what’s not to love?

5. Declan (The Hunters) Yeah, so he won’t be the last Irish hero on the list. What? I can’t help it.

6. Patrick Dugan (Velvet Glove) This is my favorite Emma Holly book ever. Patrick is so, shiver, alpha and dominant and yet not an ass. Oh and he’s Irish too.

7. Doyle (Merry Gentry books) Oh how I love Doyle and hopehopehope LKH makes him king.

8. Jamie Fraser (Outlander) I love him more with every book. My favorite moment in the entire series? When Claire walks into his print shop after being gone for nearly 20 years and they see each other again. That moment is so poignant, so well written and bittersweet. It’s why I love Jamie in a nutshell.

9. Ken “Wildcard” Carmody (Out of Control) it’s hard to pick just one in Brockmann’s SEAL universe, it’s a tie really between Ken and Blue. I loved this book though, the very first one of hers I ever picked up.

10. Beau Dupree (Be My Baby) It’s the accent, the cop thing, the alpha maleness - I love this book and I love Beau.

11. Sam Donovan (Mr. Perfect) Another cop - the scene where Jaine looks though her window to see him next door in his kitchen? Fabulous!

12. Devil Cynster (Devil’s Bride) The first three books in this series have some of the best historical heroes ever. Devil is my favorite.

13. Derek Craven (Dreaming of You) Undoubtedly I have a thing for bad boys gone good, or at least, when it comes to the women they love. This one is such a great mixture of good girl who isn’t nearly as good as she appears and bad boy who’s not as bad as you think. It’s my absolute favorite Kleypas (and that’s saying a lot!)

Thursday Thirteeners - add your comments and I’ll link ya!
1. Amy
2. Riley Merrick
3. Jaci
4. Rhian
5. Jenn is still moving but you should visit her anyway

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Thirteen Quotes I Love

1. Work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. - Vaclav Havel

2. The dissident does not operate in the realm of genuine power at all. He is not seeking power. He has no desire for office and does not gather votes. He does not attempt to charm the public, he offers nothing and promises nothing. He can offer, if anything, only his own skin — and he offers it solely because he has no other way of affirming the truth he stands for. His actions simply articulate his dignity as a citizen, regardless of the - Vaclav Havel

3. We don’t see things as they are. We see them as we are. - Anais Nin

4. He who controls the past commands the future. He who commands the future conquers the past. - George Orwell - 1984

5. I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. -Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird

6. In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

7. Love is the difficult realization that something other than oneself is real. - Iris Murdoch

8. Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything. - George Lois

9. Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean. - Maya Angelou

10. I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. - Nelson Mandela

11. A word after a word after a word is power. - Margaret Atwood

12. I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. - Elie Wiesel

13. Your silence will not protect you. - Audre Lorde

Thursday Thirteeners - add your comments and I’ll link ya!
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1. Encyclopedia Mythica - I write a lot based on different mytho-religious structures. EM is a fabulous place to learn and find new info.

2. Dictionary.Com and Thesaurus.Com So much at my fingertips! Usually most helpful when I’m trying to come up with a title.

3. Google

4. Sex-Lexis - fabulous! I surf this site just for amusement. Great slang dictionary as well as other words/names

5. Smart Bitches

6. Livejournal

7. My Messageboard

8. Samhain Cafe

9. EC Chat

10. Go Fug Yourself

11. TVGASM

12. Amazon

13. My My Yahoo page where I’ve got feeds from some of my favorite blogs and news feeds - politics, world news and fluffy entertainment stuff

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. Samantha
2. Jaci
3. Elisa
4. Jenn
5. Rhian

(leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

1. Fuck (it’s such a great word and you can add all sorts of things to it to dress it up - some of my favorites: monkeyfucker, fucktard, fuckadoodledoo)

2. Dude (I know, it’s terrible but I can’t help it!)

3. Stop That! (you can throw in, “stop touching your_____” and “Get your finger/hands out of your _______)

4. Get out! (and not “get out of the pantry Morrigan, if you get near the chocolate powder again I’m sending you to convent school” but in a no way sort of way)

5. Although

6. Whatever

7. What is that? (usually followed up rather quickly by, “no, don’t tell me, just wash your hands - with soap and water, please)

8. Yeah, yeah, yeah

9. As if

10. Ew

11. Nu uh!

12. Conversely (see, I do have a brain in there somewhere!)

13. Come here and let me kiss it (by the way, my husband likes this one as much as my kids do)

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. Anya
2. tvaddictgurl
3. Jaci
4. Karen
5. Jenn
6. Rhian
7. Amy
8. Gale
9. Jessica

(leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)