Dare to Dream April 28, 2012

Ever since I was a child, I have set goals for myself.  Small goals at first, like Student of the Month, Top Teen.  When I entered High School it was to attend Illinois Summer School for the Arts at Illinois State University.  I’m not even sure if they have this program anymore, but it was two weeks of freedom and discovery.  I was exposed to every form of art and encouraged in my writing by people my own age, as well as my creative writing instructor who was a published author.  A lot of healing was done that summer, as I learned to get my emotions onto paper, something I feel has strengthened me as a writer.

From there I made more school goals: National Honor Society, graduate High School with honors.  I then got into the college of my choice.  I successfully graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Education.  I taught different ages, trying to find where I thought I fit, and was never quite content with where my life was taking me.

Although the road was bumpy, and many tears were shed along the way, I managed to find myself back to where I started.  Writing.  I couldn’t be happier.    After years of working on my first novel, I finally finished Terrahtu, The Black Dove.  It seems that finishing that one project allowed me to keep pounding the keys with stories that seemed to fly from my brain so easily.  Four books later, and I am finally seeing a dream that I was almost afraid to believe in.  My third book, In Flames (The Destined Series)  has been accepted for publication at World Castle Publishing(WCP).  I am so thrilled!  I know a few of the authors at WCP, and I am so honored to be among their ranks.  From what I can see, these authors have become a tight knit family, and that is something I am excited to be apart of.

My best friend, Kevenn Smith, told me that now that I have met my goal, which was to become published, that perhaps it is time to move the goal posts back a bit.  It’s hard to think past the edits/revisions that need to be done to In Flames, and while some people might easily respond, well to make money, I am still heading into this with the intent to just be able to write stories that people enjoy reading.  So my goal is to continue to entertain my readers and at least publish the three series that I have started.  So all in all perhaps 9 books.  It’s certainly a challenge, but I know I have it in me.

I am so thankful for all the people who have helped me believe in myself enough to get to this point, and I am so lucky to have a publisher that is willing to give me a chance to show the world what I’m capable of. I hope I never let them down.

Book Review: The Bracelet, by Beth Muscat February 25, 2012

This is the second book that I’ve read from Ms. Muscat, the first one being Remember the Eyes.  I love the author’s use of first person for her characters.  I feel this is a point of view that is often neglected or never used.  It was refreshing.  This book was such a fast read that I finished it in a matter of hours, and since I have trouble reading ebook formats sometimes, that is saying a lot.

I love the simple loving nature of her characters.  It’s not overdone or underdone, it’s just right.  This book is about a man searching for his true love and a woman who was settling for what she has, but somewhere in the back of her head she knows she deserves better.   Alaric lives in another dimension and completely separate planet filled with so many wonderous and horrible things.  His world is plagued by many different unique monsters that are and will always continue to attack the people of his world.  He has a bracelet made for him to find the one woman who will be his true love, Aislinn.

Aislinn is a college student caught in a dead end relationship while trying to finish up her college degree.  Her boyfriend, Eddie is a lump on a log when it comes to romance and finds spending time with his friends more rewarding than lifting a finger towards their relationship.  She is desperate for any love or affection and when a mysterious unseen being starts to tuck her in at night, she welcomes the attention.  While most people would be creeped out by this scenario if it were to happen to them, Aislinn begins to welcome this ghost-like interaction each night.

This ghost is actually Alaric traveling past dimensions, time, and space in order bring Aislinn home to his kingdom.  Aislinn starts out as a small, powerless character, but grows under loves tutelage becoming a strong, confident, woman who can take care of herself as well as any monster that comes her way.  A few twists along the way will shock and amaze you, so much so that I really don’t want to give them away.  The simple beauty and wonder in this story was so ultimately refreshing and I am almost holding my breath, hoping that Ms. Muscat writes another paranormal romance novel that is so unique as The Bracelet was.

Book Review: Love Changes by Marsha Casper Cook February 25, 2012

I recently downloaded this book free from Amazon.  I got a bargain, let me tell you, for this book was amazing!  It follows the life of a woman who is so loved by her husband and yet she is blind to it.  You want to hate her in the beginning, for she has everything anyone could ever want and seems to throw it away so callously, but we learn that there is something inherently wrong with Elaine.

Elaine is troubled by mistakes in her past that torture her to this day.  She punishes herself every day for the death of her sister, something she keeps painfully locked up inside her.  She reaches a point in her life where everything starts to spiral out of control.  She spurns her true love to find a fleeting happiness in the arms of other men, but once these men start to show any sign of love for her she pushes them away as well.  Finally Elaine falls down so far in her pit of despair that she tries to end it all.

She finally accepts help in a special hospital that treats people who are respondent from the rest of the world.  This book is a rollercoaster ride that shows us you cannot assume a person is truly whole and healthy until they are ready to accept who they are and ready to find love for themselves.  I truly enjoyed this book and have to say that it was not what I expected at all, which more than anything I find refreshing and real.  I’m looking forward to reading more from this author.

Book Review: Nickolas, by Kathi S. Barton February 25, 2012

 

First let me say that if you were looking for your every day happily every after romance novel, this one should show right from the beginning that it is anything but typical. The characters are strong right from the moment, and pig-headed too. They have had their own troubled pasts, one of which included being raped and abused repeatedly. This did make it harder to read for me at times, because I could internalize the anguish this character must have felt as she tried the best she could to survive the outside world when everything seems to topple down around her. But as I said this is no cookie cutter story.

I have read some of the reviews that bashed the author for her portrayal of a victim falling for someone who could very well abuse her right from the beginning. That’s life though, a life that is more realistic than someone just coming to her aid and helping her right from the beginning. More often than not people are attracted to the person who can hurt them the most and they continue to fall for them. Did I like Nickolas, the character? Not one bit, but that’s the beauty of this book. Not every man a woman meets is the best thing in the world for her and Ms. Barton did a good job allowing you to hate her character while falling in love with the brothers that surrounded him. Some may want the brothers to do more to push the moral right on their brother, but I feel like they did and if you were a realist you would understand family dynamics a little better. There are many families that sit and watch their loved ones make mistakes repeatedly, for if you intrude or force your beliefs of the situation they become volatile to the point that they push their families away from them.

Do I get this book? Yes, I think I do. I think I understood it better than most people commenting on it. It was a fast read and had characters you loved to hate. It was original in that fact. I am actually looking forward to reading about the other brothers and hoping that I am able to fall in love with them as easily as I hated their brother.

Book Review: Courting the Darkness by Karen Fuller February 7, 2012

I enjoyed Karen Fuller’s book, Courting the Darkness.  Her main character, Desiree, is a witch who casts a spell that backfires on her making her never age and granting her immortality.  She is 125 years old at the start of the story.  I really enjoyed this premise, and I also appreciated the great details that Ms. Fuller uses in her circle and spell casting.  It really gives us another view into the world of magic.

Desiree is in hiding from the world, as there are still witch trials and witch hunters.  While hiding out, her land lady gives up her identity to Drake, the King of the local vampires.  He wants her to use her magic to cast a spell that enables him to go into the direct sunlight without being harmed.  Desiree is unsure that she can do this.

While going to retrieve her items she is kidnapped by a witch hunter.  Drake sends Mica, a rogue vampire, to rescue her from her kidnapper.  Add in Caleb, a man capable of shaping into any animal, and you have a love triangle waiting to happen.

This was a fast read to me and I really enjoyed the new concepts that the author presented.  There were a few things that I wanted her to go into more detail on because I was intrigued by the story she was weaving.  I wanted to know more about the world and how these witch trials were still allowed.  I also wanted the story to be longer in certain cases.  For example, Desiree needs to cast this spell, but she does not think she can do it.   We only see one attempt at the spell; although I assume there were other attempts that we just weren’t privy to for she has been in her work space for quite some time.  I always feel that if I want to know more about the story, that the author has done a good job getting my attention.  I would definitely recommend this book and plan to read the author again.

Flash Fiction- The Night Order February 6, 2012

Well I thought the challenge was hate this week, but then I was informed it was blue wig.  So I inserted a blue wig into the flash fiction somewhere.  Hope you like.  It could easily be another story.

The Night Order

By Elissa Daye

Hate, it’s a small word, four letters; yet its meaning is colossal.  If I said I disliked the man that created me you would never fully understand the feelings that swarm deep inside of me, never even get close to touching the rage that ignites my soul.  If I told you I hated, detested, vehemently abhorred him then you have just reached the bottom of the ice berg.

Yet when you find hate, you find that sometimes its beginning is often tainted with love.  Love him, I did, with every single fiber of my being.  I wrapped my entire world around him, so tightly I thought one day he would explode, but he knew my intentions.  He had counted on it, as he bided his time before he turned me inside out.

I looked in the mirror; the light of darkness more often a void that would never be filled again streamed down around me.  I could see the room clearly echoed inside the silver frame, every piece of furniture littered with the decay of my rage and every speck of dust that streamed down in the aftermath.  I could see all those things, but I could not see me.  I yanked the blue wig off my head and watched as the remnants` fluttered harmlessly to the floor.

I smashed the mirror with my fists, slicing a few knuckles in the process.  The smell of blood teased my nostrils.  An acrid, metallic longing filled me, but I forced the monster inside me to keep at bay.  I went to the bathroom and found a towel to wrap my cut hand inside and waiting for the bloody trail to contrast the bleach white towel, the stark reality of it all slamming into me yet again.

My life was torn in two between the land of the living and the land of the dead.  I was stuck somewhere on the outside of oblivion, because Demetrius had changed me without consent of the brethren, without so much as a thought for how his creation might impact the world around him.  If he had known my secrets, the ones that had been buried so far deep inside me that even I had trouble remembering them, if he had known those, he would have thought twice before he sunk his deadly fangs into my body.

The demon inside, the restless darkness that I fought was nothing compared to the memories of a life long forgotten.  They were circling my mind like vultures as if to say my damnation was only the beginning.  The magic, old, deep, bitter, dark magic that raced through my veins beckoned me closer, but the angel inside, the woman who had kept a lid on the ancient ways, I captured it inside my.  It swarmed likes bees in a mason jar, with only a thin cotton lid.  I felt the stings of desire slicing through my and I closed my eyes, put my hands to my ears hoping above all else that the magic that had been passed down to my would go silent once again.

The demon, the vampire, the innocent.  I was fighting a battle I could not win.  One way or the other I was damned and it was his fault.  I ran through the apartment, so fast I had not realized my feet had not touched the ground.  I opened the window and attempted to jump to the stairwell, but my aim was off.  I had leapt so far that I missed the metal staircase completely and started to plummet to the black asphalt below.  I closed my eyes, not daring to look as I fell for I knew I would be crushed like a bug on a windshield once I hit.

I waited for the impact, but it never came.  When I opened my eyes I found myself floating inches from the ground, and a shocking gasp of air filled my lungs.  I touched the ground by reaching out a tentative touch from the tip of my left shoe.  When I touched the asphalt, the rest of my body followed.  I did not have time to reflect on my new abilities, for it was time to find the beacon that called to my from the depths within. I was being summoned somewhere.  I heard the annoying buzz in my ears, felt the magnetic pull that pulled on my like a mystical tether.  I started off slow, but soon my feet were racing underneath my.  I saw a strange glow light the night sky, one lone shaft of light that projected its signal to the world.  I seemed to be the only one traveling towards it.

Book Review: Natural Magick, by Kathi S. Barton January 30, 2012

 

This weekend I was very fortunate to score a few books from Amazon for free and I finally got to read a book by Kathi S. Barton.  The full title of the book is Natural Magick, Aaron’s Kiss Series Book Three. I was immediately drawn into Ms. Barton’s world of vampires, werewolves, and magickal beings.  I will say that I feel like I really need to go back and read the first two books in this series, for some of the characters in this book have a back story and I am definitely curious about how they got to be where they are.  That is gift of a writer, to make the reader curious about the world they have written.

But alas, my review should be on what I took away from this book. Our main character, Pete, or Picadilly Fresno Bartholomew is a fresh, bold character right from the start.  She is the kind of character that grabs the world by the balls and takes off running.  You have to admire the gusto of this woman, who’s taken on a male name as if to say screw you stereotypical jerks, I’m doing me just fine.  She is an amazingly talented computer genius, who is doing many odds and ends jobs to help others who are less fortunate.  This is how she got involved with Aaron’s Kiss, a group of vampires run by the master vampire, Aaron.

When Pete arrives at the house she helps them get their hive in the 21st century introducing every aspect of technology imaginable, even teaching them how to make their fortress more secure.  While Pete is working at the house she is accosted by Dominick, the most persnickety male vampire you have ever met.  Well, he’s only a clueless jerk for so long, until he realizes that Pete is his one true mate.  From here, well Pete saves a few babies, making her a target for the family she has left behind: mass murderers delving in magick that is so dark not even black describes the color.

Throw in some of the hottest, and I mean scorching lava filled scenes and you definitely have an engaging story.  Vampires who take what they want and never once do they ask for permission.  Oh my, my, my!  I have another book from Ms. Barton to read as well and I’m thinking I need to get the fan started before I open it up.  It’s going to be a hot one!

Book Review: I Am Wolf, Joann H. Buchannan January 29, 2012

After reading  Joann H. Buchannan’s first novella, Soulless Light, I was anxious to read I Am Wolf.  I Am Wolf  is such a unique book that it could be marketed for Young Adult or even Adult, and almost needs its own category as a Paranormal Fantasy Horror Novel.  Magic, it has it.  Werewolves, it has that too.  Horror, oh yeah, there is definitely blood and gore in this book enough to make any head bashing, limb decapitating monster happy.  If you love all of these things, then you will love I Am Wolf.

While the characters in this book are high school students, anyone can relate to the tales of Jonah and his youngling pack.  Jonah is a typical teenager filled with angst and when he is sent to live with his grandparents in Sisters, he is in for the surprise of his life.  He soon learns that the wildness he had been feeling inside is something much more deeper than normal teenage hormonal issues.  He and his friends are actually part of a youngling pack of werewolves who have a keen sense of comraderie that serves well to help them become a close-knit pack.

When a crazy, well there are probable better words for Ralph, like lunatic, deranged, homicidal, when this foe wants to hunt down the white wolf he becomes even more fixated on learning the secrets of Sisters.  To protect his first love, Alaynee and her brother, Squeaks, Jonah attacks Ralph creating an Unnatural beast that no longer sees the line between right and wrong.  Ralph goes on a killing spree that would make your regular mask murderers stand back in awe.

I don’t want to give away the rest of the book, for there are quite a few twists and turns that make this book so unique.  The Native American lore and poetic beauty of the writing make this book stand out among many that I have read.  Since this book has been marketed first for the young adult audience I was quite pleased to find that Ms. Buchannan does not feel the need to make her book any less mature, that she did not have to dumb it down for her audience.  I greatly appreciated this for it is the kind of book I hope my daughter wants to read someday.  We should inspire our children to be better, and introducing them to novels that improve their vocabulary, give them a greater appreciation for the poetic nature of the written word. and perhaps even just give them a place to escape to that does not feel sparkly is nice now and then is extremely important.

I definitely recommend this book to the young adult and to the adult that wants to go down memory lane and remember how they felt when they were driving their first car, going to their school football games, and falling in love for the first time.

Happy New Year- Magneira January 9, 2012

I had so much fun interviewing Mag last week.  Here is my second posting for character New Year’s resolutions for another character from Terrahtu.

ME: Hi, Magneira.  How is your year so far?

MAGNEIRA: Well so far I can’t complain.

ME:  Would you ever?

MAGNEIRA: Well, that’s a good question.  What good does complaining do?  Sending out all that negativity to the Universe doesn’t really help anything.  The world doesn’t need any more darkness.

ME:  So what do you do with it then?

MAGNEIRA: I meditate, do a spiritual cleansing, whatever it takes to remain peaceful and calm.

ME:  What is your New Year’s resolution?

MAGNEIRA:  Well usually I would say finish my magickal studies with the Covenant, but this past year has actually pushed me in a different direction.     Before I just had to worry about being a good person.  Now I have to worry about my other half and what havoc she might be causing.

ME:  Who Mag?  But you’ve settled the big issue right?

MAGNEIRA: Well if you really want me to talk about it, I suppose I can.  Do you really want to give away your plot before people have finished reading the story?

ME: Probably not.  You’re so wise, Magneira.  What other concerns do you have?

MAGNEIRA:  Well, we have to find a way to defeat the Nemnoch’s Army of Darkness while keeping the Gods of Terrahtu safe from destruction.

ME:  It sounds like you have a lot on your plate.

MAGNEIRA:  This is true, but I’m in good company.  The Collective and the masters of the Covenant have banded together to create the Legion of Light.  We’re obliterating darkness from our world, one step at a time.

ME:  Wow.  Taking action for a change.  How does the Universe feel about this?

MAGNEIRA: We’re still here, aren’t we.  Look, I hate to cut this short.  I do appreciate the time you’re taking here, but we have a prison camp to free in the next day or so and I need to make sure we’re ready to move.

ME:  Best of luck to you, Magneira.

MAGNEIRA:  Many thanks.  Love and light.

 

Magneira, such a lovely person, filled with every inch of hope and peace.  She has been such a joy to watch grow over the years.

Happy New Year January 1, 2012

Do any of you have goals for the New Year?  I used to have goals when I was younger, but I was never successful with any of them.  I’ve become a little cynical about these rituals.  It seems to me that most of these goals are created as a punishment for character flaws you have developed over the past year. So rather than create goals for myself, I thought I might create goals for some of my characters.

ME:So Mag what are your goals for the year?

MAG: I’m going to find that damn Chaos Demon and gouge his beady little eyes out.

ME: Dagashi?  Why would you want to do that?

MAG: He was going to leave me stuck up in that stupid cloud.  Do you realize how far that jump is?

ME: What cloud, Mag?

MAG:  Seriously?  You wrote it, you stupid idiot.  The cloud, where the Temple of the Gods floats above Terrahtu.  What were you thinking?  How does a building sit on top of the clouds anyways?  You would think it would fall through.  It’s bad enough you left me stuck inside Magneira for so many years.  But then to leave me sitting there with no way to get down.  I had to almost beg him to let me down.  You know how I feel about begging.

ME:Really? Wow.  Well I can always write you back into the box so to speak, if you’re having so many issues with my writing, Mag.

MAG:  Watch it, woman.  I’m not going back there ever again.  I’ve got a dagger and I’m not afraid to use it.

ME: I’ve got a delete button and I know how to use it.

MAG:  You wouldn’t dare.

ME: (sigh)  So Mag.  Is that the only goal you have for the upcoming year?

MAG:  Well there was that one barbarian.

ME: Whatever floats your boat, Mag.

MAG:  Hey it must float your boat too.  You created him.  Hey just a little side note for you.  Perhaps next time you can make it last longer.  Not that hot, fast, and heavy isn’t ok sometimes, I just think I deserve a little more time and attention.

ME:  Well you seemed happy at the time.  (rolling my eyes).  So no goals to take over the world?

MAG: Pshaw!  Of course there are.  I’ll defeat Magneira yet.  Just you wait.   Are we done here?  (Mag starts to examine her red painted nails, the boredom clear on her face).

As you can see Mag’s goals seem to be the same as usual.  I don’t see her making resolutions to punish herself for being a bad girl the year before.  If only we all could be so carefree.

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