But I’m hoping that January is the sum total of crap I see this year!

I don’t feel like laying on the couch staring off into space today! I am up and even wearing pants with a zipper! My fever is finally gone and I’ve been working a little today (on Beth’s book proposal, btw).

I think I’m going to have a blurb for BENEATH THE SKIN to show you all very soon as well…

Have a great weekend everyone.

This is just a few paragraphs from his amazing Letter from A Birmingham Jail (which I highly recommend)

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly I have never yet engaged in a direct action movement that was “well timed,” according to the timetable of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This “wait” has almost always meant “never.” It has been a tranquilizing thalidomide, relieving the emotional stress for a moment, only to give birth to an ill-formed infant of frustration. We must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.” We have waited for more than three hundred and forty years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jet-like speed toward the goal of political independence, and we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward the gaining of a cup of coffee at a lunch counter.

I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say wait. But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an air-tight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her little eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son asking in agonizing pathos: “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?”; when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading “white” men and “colored”; when your first name becomes “nigger” and your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and when your wife and mother are never given the respected title “Mrs.”; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tip-toe stance never quite knowing what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness” — then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of injustice where they experience the bleakness of corroding despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.

And here are a few other quotes that are in my favorites files:

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.

Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.

Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

This week is a catch up week. I need to finish several proposals – one for the next Petal book – this one will be about Beth! And several others (including a Bound By Magick book). And also a metric ton of email to answer and deal with! Oh and cleaning my house which is a pit of deadline induced clutter.

Up next for me on my schedule after the proposals is LAID OPEN, the digital Ben, Todd and Erin novella, then Mary’s book (still have no title but that’s on my list for this week), and following that one, is Raven’s book. I’m working on my calendar this week as well so I can figure out what the rest of my year looks like. I’m a control freak, yes. I like lists and I like calendars. It’s a sickness I know.

We got snowgasm yesterday and up here in the Cascade foothills we’ve got several inches and they’re forecasting more through Thursday. Snow is lovely on weekends. But during the week, as an adult, it’s all about the dude getting to work safely and the kids school schedule (will they or won’t they be open, are they on late start, will the bus be on a special route). Still, I’m grateful for the beauty and for the fact that I have a warm house to shelter me and my spawn.

Um, that’s about it for now. Kids are home, two of them are sick and I’m off to make some hot tea because I’m losing my voice. (the dude says I lost it because I mutter to myself when I write). Stay warm!

“Ha.”

“Ha? Is that the best you’ve got? Ha?”

“You’re stubborn. And temperamental.”

“I’m resolute and in touch with my emotions.” She tried to sound haughty but in her attempt not to laugh it didn’t come off as good as she’d have liked.

“Ha.”

and one more

She stood between his thighs as she’d been tweezing the glass out of a wound on his shoulder. He made her dizzy. Which was also part of the adrenaline, she knew. But it was him.

His pheromones changed. Surged and then sort of blanketed her in warm, sexy hotness. This was…well, she’d never had this before. Her arm throbbed, her leg throbbed and she really should sit down and rest, but she was rooted to the spot as one of his hands slid up the back of her thigh and came to rest, cupping her ass.

The heat of him blasted against her chest as his scent rose to her nose. His dreds brushed against her bare arm. His cat was just barely leashed, but he vibrated with all that self control.

He tipped his head back and her breath caught.

This is a digital only novella that’ll be out in September!

All she needed to pack was a few bikinis, a toothbrush and some sunscreen. This is what Ben told Erin when he presented her and Todd with tickets to Fiji and the promise of ten days of nothing but sleeping until whenever they wanted, sex without having to lock the door and lots of alone time.

And that’s what they have. Long days and nights filled with pleasure. Long enough that the stress and exhaustion drops away and the three can simply enjoy each other.

They’ve got heat. More than ever before. Recharging their batteries has also brought new levels of intimacy and connection. But when Erin stumbles over the pain of her past, both men band together to not only help her through, but to help each other as well.

USA Today bestselling author Lauren Dane serves up a sweet, sensual, and hot-to-the-touch novel in which one woman’s most intimate desires are stirred by two very special ingredients

Juliet Lamprey is having the time of her life running her successful bakery, TART, when Gideon Carter comes back into her life. Returning home to help his grandfather run the family on the farm, Gideon is back for good. When they meet again, the spark between them is immediate, and it isn’t long before the former childhood friends play catch up in bed.

That’s not good news for local lawyer Cal Whaley. Though the sexually open but strictly monogamous Cal has loved Jules for a long time, he’s hardly ever taken it further than friendship. When he sees her start to fall for Gideon, he knows he has to make his move or risk losing her forever.

Who would have anticipated that all three of them would connect on such an intimate level? The trio’s scalding liaisons take them places they’ve never dreamed. But such an intensely passionate and unusual relationship comes with equally as complicated emotions, and when Jules must suddenly leave town, she wonders if she’ll have a choice to make when she returns