Seeing Red

It’s time for the second “red” song for the month of December. Have I mentioned red is my favorite color?

Today’s song is by a band I don’t know much about. I mean, I know them (obviously) because of this song, but as for their other music, I couldn’t say. The band is called Unwritten Law and today’s song is “Seein’ Red”. It’s catchy.

I don’t really have any memories associated with this song, which is strange because music always reminds me of something. I just know I liked it when it came out and sang along (badly).

Sick, Sick People

If you’ve followed this blog for long, you already know how sick my family is. We kind of take pride in our sense of humor, but newer members of the family have trouble assimilating to the mental illness that rubs off on them. Case in point is my sister-in-law. I mentioned yesterday that she and my brother came to visit with baby Bennett on Sunday. Bennett, of course, was not a happy camper and proceeded to snort and cry. Snort and cry. He sounded like a cross between a pig and a bull. It was too cute.

My sister-in-law said she’s a bad mother because when he gets mad, she laughs. Well, I’m here to tell her, and all of you, laughing at your children when they do something painful, stupid, goofy, or outrageous is acceptable. It’s even encouraged.

It isn’t that the women in our family are mean, but they don’t take crap from their kids either. There’s Mom who seems to have the kind of humor that ensures you won’t get sympathy and hugs when you accidentally stab yourself with a steak knife, or who laughs in your face when you admit to nearly breaking your nose on your dresser when you sneeze.

There’s my cousin who would laugh in the face of her daughter’s tantrums. There’s a picture floating around somewhere of a very red-faced, teary-eyed, pissed off seven-year-old who was told she couldn’t swim anymore with her mother laughing in her face. The more the little one would scream, the louder my cousin would laugh until finally her child gave up hope at having her way.

Is that cruel? I don’t think so considering tantrums are no longer a problem with the little one. She might pout and grumble, but she doesn’t throw screaming fits anymore because there’s nothing like being laughed at to ruin the mood.

There’s also my sister who will throw out sarcastic comments to her children, who are now grown. Her oldest son (22) says mean things to her like she can’t cook (before he turns around and pigs out). Over the weekend he asked her if she hated him. Apparently he does this a lot. I guess it’s his version of reverse psychology, except this time my sister told him “yes”. She said the look on his face was priceless which led to much laughter on both our parts. Silly boy.

So laughing at my newest nephew who hasn’t even reached 2 months yet is perfectly natural, as far as I’m concerned. It isn’t like we’re being cruel, right? It’s more of conditioning him so he’ll be able to handle the insanity of the family. Tantrums are not allowed, little Bennett. Take it from me. I used to throw some whoppers and my mom would go about making dinner with the comment “You’re going to dent the floor if you keep banging your head on it.”

Baby Envy

No, I don’t have the sudden urge to have a child. I’m talking about something completely different.

Yesterday my brother and his wife came over to have lunch while I was watching the Saints game (Geaux Saints!) and they of course brought baby Bennett with them. He was so cute in his little Saints onesy that said “If the Saints are playing, I’m not napping”. I was so excited to see him since I haven’t been to their house since last weekend sometime.

I’m not a completely horrible aunt. I had a good reason for avoiding them: they were sick. First it was my brother, then his wife and the last thing I need is to wind up ill so I stayed away. My mother didn’t. Nothing is going to keep her away from her newest grandson.

So when they arrived at the house yesterday, I immediately grabbed Bennett from his carrier because it was my time with him. Mom apparently didn’t see it that way and she sat right next to me telling me everything I was doing wrong with him. Poor Bennett. He probably felt like a bone between two dogs. He wasn’t happy at all. I can only surmise it’s because Mom has spoiled him so much for her he has no love for me.

*sniff* Poor me! He’s not even two months old yet and she’s already turned him against me! *sniff, sniff* I know it isn’t true, but it really does make me jealous. I don’t visit my brother and his wife often because I don’t want to bother them. Then I realize not everyone is like me. I actually dread the thought of visitors because it messes with my routine. You know, my whole putting my pjs on as soon as I get home and vegging out on the sofa until it’s time for bed. That routine. It’s important to me and when it’s interrupted, I get cranky.

Oh my God, I really am a hermit!

But I’m a hermit who wants to be able to cuddle her nephew without his grandmother hovering over her telling her “Look, you’re making him mad.” *sniff* Eventually it’s just easier to hand the very pissed off infant over to his doting grandmother and glare at her between football plays.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Fantasy Man Friday

What a glorious day! What a great week it’s been! Yeah, you know it’s Friday. Thank goodness. (I’ll try to avoid using so many exclamation points, promise…oops, almost did it again.)

What was so great about this week? Well…I’ve written over 10k words on a story I started for NaNo that I ended up rewriting because it was going nowhere. Now I’m on track and with another 15k, I can wrap it up, send it to my wonderful CPs, and then to my agent once it’s revised. Yesterday began the build-up to the first love scene and I swear it made me light-headed. This was just the lead into the scene, mind you. I haven’t even started the love scene yet. I can only imagine how I’ll feel after I write that. I’ll probably need a cigarette *cackles*

Then I got a Top Pick 5 star review for Succubus-in-Waiting from Night Owl Reviews! Oops, there went another exclamation point. I didn’t expect it. I originally put my books up for reviews to build my author page on their website so when the e-mail came through all I could think was “oh man, this is gonna be bad”. To my surprise it wasn’t a bad thing at all. I love surprises like that.

And on top of all of this awesomeness, my new bed came in yesterday. I know, I blogged about it, Tweeted about it, but it’s just that wonderful. I was ready to go to sleep at 8 last night but forced myself to stay up until 9:30. When I was ready, I looked around for my dog and couldn’t find her. That sly little minx had climbed in the new bed and was sleeping before I was.

As for the bed…I woke up on the verge of song this morning. I only turned over once in the night which is rare for me. I’m a restless sleeper, flipping this way and that. That didn’t happen last night though. I woke up with only the minimum of fuss, mostly because the dog was whining since she felt it was time to go outside, and from there things were fantastic. I sang my way through my shower, getting ready, and had a long conversation with my dog as I dressed. I know she’s going to spend the entire day in bed. Her and the cat. They wait for me to leave so they can have the bed to themselves *mutters*

The only thing that would have made the bed better is if this had been in it:

But then you wouldn’t have heard from me today at all. I would’ve been too busy uh, helping him get comfortable. And the best way to do that is to remove all clothing. It’s true. It might even be scientific fact. What happens after that is a state secret and if I told you, well, bad things might happen. Needless to say we would not be having this conversation and I would not be sharing him with any of you. We’d be otherwise occupied.

So Happy Friday my friends! Have a safe weekend.

Today is the Day

Can you hear me squeeing from here? I’m so excited! No, I didn’t get a mega-million writing contract. No, Gerard Butler hasn’t returned my many phone calls and agreed to be Mr. Danica Avet. It’s better than all of that.

Today my new mattress comes in! Wheee! There’s a lot of happy dancing going on in the Avet household, I tell you. If you recall this mattress set is the only thing I bought on Black Friday. When people say “So you bought yourself a Christmas present,” I tell them it’s actually for everyone who comes into daily contact with me. Trust me, you want me to have this mattress for your continued health.

I suppose some people would say my old mattress was just fine, but it killed my back. Each morning I greeted the day with a huge stretch and a grimace as my lower back cringed at the thought of moving. It was so bad my dog even greeted the day with a stretch and a little puppy groan. It’s sort of a habit with us. I think we’ll both sleep much better on the new bed.

Of course my belief in this mattress is based on the fifteen minutes I tried it out. Yes I tried it out for fifteen minuets while the salesperson talked with me. It felt a bit like a slumber party…in public, but in the end I knew I had to have this bed. And it’s coming in today! *squee*

Do the happy dance with me folks, hopefully I’ll be rejuvenated tomorrow morning!

Little Red

Today marks the start of another color theme. This month’s color is red in honor of Christmas. That doesn’t I’ll be playing a load of Christmas songs, by the way. Nope, this month I’ll be playing songs with red either in the title, the band name, or lyrics.

The first song in this series is one of my favorites from childhood. I’ve mentioned before how eclectic the music in our household was when I was growing up. This song is one that seemed to play every single time my dad picked me up to bring me to his house for the weekend.

Even now, thirty years later, I remember clear as day riding in his blue Oldsmobile while he had Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs blasting out “Little Red Riding Hood”. He’d drape one hand over the top of the steering wheel and keep time by flicking his fingernails against the dashboard. We’d sing and howl the entire drive to his house.

Ah, memories. I hope you enjoy the first in the red theme. Trust me, I have some great ones this month!

Guest Blogger: Shara Lanel

Welcome Shara Lanel to the blog! Be sure to comment to enter for a chance to win Blame It on the Moon! Take it away, Shara.

My Hometown has Werewolves

I guess it’s funny that I think of Arcade, NY as my hometown, since I’ve lived in Richmond, VA three times as long and I only lived in the actual Village of Arcade for a year. After we’d trimmed enough logs from the state forest to build our log cabin, we moved onto our land in Freedom, NY. We lived there for six years, but “downtown” to us meant Arcade (http://www.villageofarcade.org/).

Write what you know…but only if you can remember it accurately.

Writing about Richmond is pretty easy, because I live here currently so I already have a good idea of the flavor and reputation of the various neighborhoods, and I can go out and take pictures of a location to refresh my memory. Several of my stories are set here, including BLAME IT ON THE MOON (http://sharalanel.com/books/blame-it-on-the-moon/). Werewolf Haden knows nothing about his birth parents, and therefore has no idea if there are others like him out in the world. Mind reader Kitty works in a DVD store (like I did) in a shopping center near University of Richmond (one of the locations I worked at), so I felt pretty confident about conveying an accurate picture of the place.

But when it came to working on the sequel, BLAME IT ON THE NIGHT, I knew I wanted to set the story in Western New York. I wanted to draw on my memories of Arcade as it was when I lived there, without having to double check the names of every store, restaurant, and shopping center. I’d only been up to visit a few times in the past decade, so I was likely to get something wrong. Not to mention, I doubt there’s a pack of werewolves living on the county line. So I gave my story town a different name: Devona.

Since my story is not set in the 80s (when I lived in Arcade) I needed to infuse Devona with all the technology and Starbucks of the 21^st century, but many of the locations come straight from my memories.

Yankee Doodle—wings and curly fries, Jenny Lee Dairy—ice cream (someone said it’s now a Thai restaurant), my grandfather’s family camping area in Sandusky, and Brown School House Road where we built our log cabin with the woods behind it. Brown School House Road is a lot more built up and our cabin has siding instead of logs now. I’m sure the snow is exactly the same, though. My son thinks I’m making up the fact that we used to have to wait in waist-deep snow for the school bus, but it’s true! My mom brought me a t-shirt from one of our fave restaurants, Earl’s, a year or so ago. Friday Fish Fries, curly fries, Cokes in mason jars, jeans and boots on the table legs, and a juke box loaded with country music. That’s the way I want to remember it always.

But things change and I wanted to focus on Guy and Olivia’s story and Haden’s journey to discover his birth parents. In the town of Devona, the Dairy is still the Dairy, Earl’s will never close, and there’s still a five-and-dime. But there’s a werewolf in the Village Police Department and one on the town Board and a shifter lawyer on Main Street, just in case.

Do you prefer authors use fictional towns in their novels? In the case of books set in big cities, like New York, do you expect the author to know exactly what street each of her crime scenes is set on and exactly what train to take to get there? Do you still live in your hometown? How much has it changed? Leave a comment below and be entered to win an e copy of BLAME IT ON THE MOON. I can’t wait to hear from you!

Shara

http://sharalanel.com/

 Bio:

Award winning author Shara Lanel resides in Richmond, VA with a clingy dog, an action-oriented son, and a handsome hubby. Don’t put her in the kitchen, unless you want to burn it down, and her green-thumb is hit-or-miss, but she excels as a bibliophile, hoping she never has to pack up and move, since her hubby might see just how many volumes she really has. Shara’s novels are always full of suspense and hot romance, whether set on the moon or in a Mexican jungle. Visit her at her web site any time (http://www.sharalanel.com) or find her procrastinating on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/sharalanel) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/sharalanel).

 

BLAME IT ON THE NIGHT

Blurb:

Human/werewolf relations were forbidden. Guy’s father had made that clear years ago, but Guy had come very close to disobeying with naïve, teenage Olivia. He’d barely kept his body under control, as he’d held her during her first shocking orgasm. Years later, on edge with anger, grief, and the pull of the moon, Guy knows she’s the last person he needs near him.

Olivia is overcome with humiliation at the mere thought of seeing Guy again, though he’s starred in all of her fantasies over the past several years, but she refuses to leave his doorstep until he answers her questions about her missing sister and the dead body found on his property. Problem is, he’s ordering her to leave while blocking the door, telling her to get lost while pinning her between his hard body and the table, saying he doesn’t know what he’s doing while his every touch takes Olivia closer to heaven.

Sometimes forbidden love is worth the risk, but sometimes it leads to revenge and murder.

Buy link: http://www.loose-id.com/Blame-it-on-the-Night.aspx

Excerpt: http://sharalanel.com/books/blame-it-on-the-night/excerpt-blame-it-on-the-night/

 

 

Starbucks Stupid

I hate not knowing how to do something and most of the time, I fake knowing everything really well. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work at Starbucks.

I drink coffee; no more than a cup a day, but sometimes I treat myself. Saturday was one of those days. I was heading out to get my hair done and run errands, one of which took me to Starbucks. My sister and I went to buy a gift card and I figured I’d get a decadent cup of coffee while I was there. I stared at the board not sure what I was going to get. It was warm so I didn’t want anything hot. I kept trying to remember what I drank in NYC since I visited Starbucks more than any other place while I was at the conference.

Then it was my turn. I thought I saw something that looked familiar and placed my order. The server said something I still don’t understand. It sort of came out “blah blah latte blah blah or iced coffee blah blah blah”. I stared at her in surprise. I could see the people in line behind me shifting impatiently. My answer? “The first.” Cause I had no idea what she said. The only thing I did know was the size “venti”.

Phew. It felt like the most monumental decision I’d made since I accepted representation! How difficult is it to order coffee? Should it be that hard? Maybe they didn’t have the same things at this Starbucks as they did at the NYC one because the drink I ended up with sucked. Sorry to die-hard Starbucks drinkers, but it did. I’m sure it was my fault since I was struck stupid while listening to her spout off something that was far too complicated for my just-woke-up brain to handle.

It wasn’t all that bad though. I did drink my…whatever it was, got my hair done, did a little shopping with my sister, and had lunch, but that moment of stupidity hovered over me like a dark cloud. Needless to say when I drank my coffee (regular stuff I made myself, thank you very much) on Sunday morning I breathed a sigh of relief because this I understood.

Do you drink fancy coffee? Or are you like me and you feel like there’s a spotlight on you when you order and if you say something wrong you’ll hear “You are the weakest link. Goodbye.”?

Fantasy Man Friday

TGIF! Seriously, y’all this week has been one for the record books. It’s been one thing after another, but now we’re at the highlight of the week.

I’m trying a new stylist out tomorrow. Since most of y’all know my color addiction, there’s no telling what I’ll leave the salon looking like. I kind of feel the need for a change. New stylist, new hairstyle and color, you know? My mind has been churning over the possibilities all week and I still haven’t decided on anything.

Oh! Next Tuesday, December 6, I’m having a special guest over on the blog. Shara Lanel will stop by to chat about fictional towns in honor of her newest release, Blame It On The Night. She’ll also have a giveaway and this book sounds hawt!

But enough about hair and books! Today it’s all about the menz. The manly menz with body hair—or without—and muscles and what we want to do with them. Rar. It’s really the best part of this blogging thing, you know. Searching for men to share with my friends. Now if I could only get these guys to do a private dance…

Oops, I was trying to scroll down to see the rest of the picture before I realized that was the end. Heh. He looks young and in need of some serious instruction, don’t you think? And I’m sure he has a lot of enthusiasm and energy; enough to last for hours and hours and…okay, shutting up. *cough* If only the photographer had taken a full shot…le sigh.

Happy Friday y’all! Have a safe weekend.

Did I Notice Your Book Blog Hop

Hey y’all! I know I usually do Cajun French lessons on Thursday, but this week I’m taking part in a really cool experiment my good friend Ciara Knight started several months ago.

This is the premise directly from Ciara’s blog:

With all the new tools out there to monitor book sales and blurbs mentioned about their books, I’m going to highlight a new book each week. I’ll post it in the morning. If by the end of the day that author finds her book on this post I want her or him to tell us how they discovered it; word of mouth through the close network of writers, a Yahoo group mention, or through some new fangled Google tool.

Now, how will I choose this book each week? It will be a book that caught my attention. As a reader, I will keep an eye out for something that either provoked me to read the blurb, look at the author’s blog, or purchase said book.

Before I reveal my choice I want to clarify that this author has no idea that I’ve chosen his/her book.

When she asked if I wanted to take part, I knew I had to. Especially when I was given the erotic category. *squee!* I’ve been so neglectful, I should have mentioned this blog hop earlier, but I’m blaming Thanksgiving.

So…on to the book I noticed. I chose Omega Mine by Aline Hunter.

A bond forged in blood. Fealty given to the one he desires above all others.

Graced with the ability to shift into any form, Diskant Black is the absolute authority when it comes to New York shifters, and as the Omega of the city his word is law. Protecting the shifter races is more than a job, it’s a predisposition ingrained since birth—nothing is more important.

Until a chance encounter with a tiny female sets fire to his blood, brings him to his knees and turns his world upside down. Ava Brisbane is more than he bargained for in a mate—beautiful, fragile…human. If he wants to keep her by his side, he’ll have to sacrifice a portion of his soul to establish a bond that can never be broken.

Unfortunately the timing couldn’t be worse.

Shepherds—the hunters of all the shifter races—have arrived in New York. To protect the woman he can’t live without, Diskant will have to stand against those who have come to start a war.

Okay, so how did I notice this book? I hit up my recommendations from Amazon and the cover caught my attention. It’s gorgeous! That sweet hottie with the amazing tattoo snagged my interest. When I saw the title and then read the blurb, I knew it was going on my TBR pile. Now, the book came out a couple of months ago, but sometimes I’m a little slow (my family swears that happens ALL the time).

So does this look like something you’d like to read? Have you read it yet? Don’t tell me anything about it, or I will hunt you down and make the fat cat sit on you

Here are the other stops on the hop:

Action Adventure http://www.warriorsforlight.com/
Historical Fiction – http://emerylee.wordpress.com/
Inspirational http://www.christylasheasmith.com/
Mystery http://murdersandmysteries.wordpress.com/
New Adult http://lynnrush.com/
Non-Fiction http://raelynbarclay.wordpress.com/
Paranormal http://www.hildiemcqueen.com/
Sci Fi http://rustywebb.blogspot.com/
Suspense Thriller http://stephentremp.blogspot.com/
Sweet http://www.lindipeterson.com/
Urban fantasy http://lauraeno.blogspot.com/
Young Adult http://www.brindaberry.com/blog.html
Grand Central Station: www.ciaraknight.com