Vixenwriter

is comment #18 - Bella!!

Bella, send me your mailing address and I’ll have amazon send you a copy!

And I had to re-draw for the Grimspace contest because the original winner never claimed her prize:

Crystal B - commenter #23, you’re the winner of Ann Aguirre’s Grimspace! Email me your mailing address and I’ll get the book your way!

I am convinced that love is the most durable power in the world. It is not an expression of impractical idealism, but of practical realism. Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, love is an absolute necessity for the survival of our civilization. To return hate for hate does nothing but intensify the existence of evil in the universe. Someone must have sense enough and religion enough to cut off the chain of hate and evil, and this can only be done through love.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

This is one of my favorite King quotes - as my oldest son told me earlier today, today isn’t a day off, it’s a day on.

I love LOL Cats - Always cheers me up no matter what.

moar funny pictures

It’s not that hard. Pay people for their work.

Okay, so I’m sort of a 15 year old girl when it comes to my heroes - I admit it proudly. Anyway. So when I was working on dirty/bad/wrong it was Julian McMahon and holy cow why not? Youtube, you’re my crack. And now, with Standoff, it’s Dominic Purcell who’s my sex muse for Cade Warden. Just look at him…

Tonight - May 24 - please join me, Anya Bast and Megan Hart for a chat at 5 pm pacific/8 eastern at the Maverick Chatroom. There’ll be prizes and stuff too so come over and say hey!

While at RT I wandered past the Manlove promo swag and said to the woman standing next to me, “mrwow! Verra sexy!” and it was. Classy, sexy and really well done artwork.

When I went by later it was gone and I thought, “well done, manlove chicks!” but later I heard rumors about how the material had been taken down by the hyatt but never from anyone directly involved or even with actual details.

Until yesterday when I read Ally Blue’s blog that linked to Laura Baumbach’s. You can read the whole sordid story there.

We’re all authors - at any given time there’s going to be someone who doesn’t like what we do. Even if boysmut didn’t make me all tingly (especially Laura and Ally’s) if I didn’t like it, I’m certainly able to oh, I don’t know, walk on by. We’re all adults and I saw those materials which were not explicit at all - especially in comparison to some of the other stuff I saw.

It’s a sad day when we can’t just walk by things we don’t like but instead seek to censor what OTHER people may be interested in. I don’t need a parent, I’m a grown woman. These materials were in a conference area filled with other adults. If you’re so fragile you can’t just avert your eyes, I feel for you but that doesn’t mean it’s okay to censor what I read or see.

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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The two winners of the ARCs of Chased (chosen at random from all the entries here and the other blogs) are:

Annmarie
and
Jpercival

Email me with your format preference and I’ll get your copy to you!

Congratulations and remember I’ll be at the Samhain Cafe on Monday giving away a few more before the official release day on Tuesday!

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!
1.

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