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| Sunday, November 23, 2008 |
| Chilly Winter Warms Up |
Like a flash across the sky, the winds of change are coming your way! Whispering into your ears and souls, "Stroking Sahara" curls into your mind. From author A.H. Scott (Collusion, Mirror Moon, Ambrosial Melody - all on sale at LoveYouDivine.com), a tale to keep the chill of Winter from enveloping your body. Arrow of arousal hits temptation's target on November 28, 2008!!
For now, you can see the trailer for STROKING SAHARA
Giving thanks is more than just satisfying the stomach, but the heart....... |
posted by A.H. Scott @ 11:07 AM  |
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| Thursday, November 20, 2008 |
| Prolific Writers - Are You One? |
So you think you write a lot — How many books have you written? As a reader, how many books do you read a month?
Barbara Cartland, who my college Women’s Lit Instructor disliked intensely, wrote a stunning 723 books and made the Guinness Book of World Records for her efforts. She wrote a novel in one or two weeks. The critics say she actually didn’t write them she dictated them to her secretaries and they typed them up. I beg to differ with them. It was her creative genius that dreamt them up in the first place. If she hadn’t dictated them would each of her secretaries have written a best seller and had them published?
I take issue with the big name authors who have an understudy of sorts write from their outline and create a book for the named author. I see James Patterson and a few others are finally listing those as co-authors on the covers of their books. But now does that make them author of those books or the co-author? Who gets to count coup – will Patterson have 300 books because of their efforts or will he let them count those as their own?
Isaac Asimov wrote over 200 books, by himself – he then, in my humble opinion, especially with all the special issues Sci Fi authors face, was a prolific writer.
Georges Simenon wrote 400 books each book took him eleven straight days of writing. I’m sure he took food breaks and a nap break here and there – but that’s profound. Imagine fellow NaNoWriMo authors if you could write a novel in 30 days, why not one in eleven days?
How many words a day would that be? Approximately 4,500 words a day. Hey you could do that couldn’t you? {smile}
So write like the wind, read like a Tsunami and perhaps you will earn a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for your effort. After NaNoWriMo I’m sure many of you are thinking you deserve at least that commendation. I am proud of those of you who tried, even if you didn’t finish. And I am doubly proud of those who did – included in that my own daughter who finished her novel at just under 54,000 words ahead of the deadline. GO BECKIE!
www.cricket-sawyer.comLabels: Barbara Cartland, Cricket Sawyer, Geroges Simenon, Guinness Book Of World Records, Isaac Asimov |
| posted by Unknown @ 1:29 PM |
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| Tuesday, November 18, 2008 |
| Forward and Upward |
Forward for Inferno, coming soon from Forbidden Publications
When an author re-reads something they have written long ago it’s sometimes very disconcerting, at least I thought so. I thought I was the only one who looked at my once written, even once published books and thought, oh my good gracious how could I have let that go as a publishable piece? I don’t feel so bad any more after reading this from Aldous Huxley (Brave New World 1932 among other novels) This was in the revised/republished 1946 edition of Brave New World. “…Chronic remorse, as all the moralists are agreed, is a most undesirable sentiment….”
He goes on more eloquently but it boils down to what we both feel after pouring over the short comings of a novel written at a younger more inexperienced time in an attempt to patch a faulty piece into a perfect masterpiece. That particular piece having missed that mark the first time around—should be repaired to a place where growth had taken me. To spend time trying to mend the artistic sins committed by that different person, the person I was then—is surely vain and futile. Its defect may be part of its charm.
I could rewrite the whole book as an older, perhaps wiser, other person. What might happen then though is I probably would get rid not only of some of the faults of the story, but also rid it of some of its merits as it originally possessed them.
So, resisting the temptation to wallow in artistic remorse, I leave well and ill alone and move on to ‘next’ with what I have learned and am able to create in my next novel, with much thanks to Aldous Huxley for making me feel less alone and imperfect.
Cricket Sawyer
www.cricket-sawyer.comLabels: Cricket Sawyer, fiction, forward, greed, Inferno, jealousy, lust |
| posted by Unknown @ 10:45 AM |
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| Monday, November 17, 2008 |
| A Dessert for the Holidays |
I came across this recipe in a book titled The Empty Nest Cookbook written by a fellow writer. She has a whole slew of recipes in the book including how to cook the perfect turkey.
And just in time for the holidays! This book has a slew of wonderful recipes. There's a great section on how to cook that perfect turkey. Joy Smith is a member of my CTRWA Chapter who has written this cookbook that gives not only delicious yummy recipes but also menus and a bit of revelations. You can read more about Joy and her books at her website titled Joy Smith's Blog! And you can read all about her latest adventure on the open seas! Just reading through this episode I got a little seasick myself.
Here's one recipe from the book I don't think Joy will mind if I share. I think it's perfect for the upcoming holiday season.
BLUEBERRY PEAR COBBLER
(Who doesn't like a well prepared cobbler! I'm making it and bringing it to my son's on Thanksgiving Day! )
(Try this no-batter coffee cake when time is short.)
4 pounds ripe pears, peeled, cored and sliced.
2 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar 2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 package regular-sized refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
4 tablespoons melted butter or margarine
1/4 cup granulated sugar
Preheat over to 350 degrees.
Butter a 9x13x2 inch baking pan. In a mixing bowl combine the pears, lemon juice, sugar, blueberries, and cornstarch. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Open the package of biscuits and separate them. Dip each biscuit top first in the melted butter and then in the sugar. Arrange them on top of the fruit in a single layer. Bake the cobbler in a 350 degree oven for about 50 minutes, until fruit bubbles and is tender and the biscuits are golden brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream!
I can't wait to try this recipe!
Marie Roy
My Newsletter
 No More Secrets, No More Lies at Forbidden Publications.
Earning a four star rating from Romantic Times Book Club Magazine, my book No More Secrets, No More Lies has been well received by those who read the story.
Here's the blurb:
Sydney Morgan, single mother, financial advisor, wants the best for her physically challenged son. Except when his biological father re-enters her life, she realizes the secrets and consequential lies she has forced her son to live may destroy not only his trust but also his love.
When Grant Sinclair brings Sydney Morgan back into his fold, he soon discovers her long held secret. Will this secret end up destroying the yet fragile emotions that still exist between them, as well as a possible future together as a family?
Click here to read an excerpt!
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| posted by Collette Thomas @ 12:27 PM |
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| Sunday, November 16, 2008 |
| Exercise: The Reluctant I |
 Coming Soon from Forbidden, Inferno Heat of a bonfire and suspense of a thriller. Watch for it.
Now a tribute to the woman who guided my life.
I sat there listening to her always with the phrases for everything. A quote, a song title, a bible verse, pulled as if from a small box in her mind. This time it was essential that her directive be avoided (not that it was known then.)
"Brags a good bargain, but hold on is a lot better," she said.
"Then how do you propose a writer will sell his/her work? No one can promote what another has written as well as the author. It's his/her baby, birthed with no fewer labor pains than the birth of a human infant. It seems weird to internalize that phrase and know now that one size, or in this case, one phrase, does not fit all.
Years after her death her phrases pop up as rules of life. Life is not a box of little ticker tape answers to every questions, though a lot of those do strike home with a ring of truth. Following, hanging on her every word helped to raise a lemming, a self-conscious, fearful individual with a couple dozen successes that many have never had, and yet that success feels like an embarrassment. It shouldn't.
Not all her phrases affected life that same way. Expressing the way her grandfather began a story - a phrase she repeated often, began a story created for my only Young Adult Historical novel. Watch For the Raven was born from her phrase, "When Tag was a pup, and turkey's chewed tobaccy."
Her phrases in all fairness did guide and still do.
We stood, the five of us, at her coffin during her wake, the final time we were able to talk with her and reminisced those phrases and funny fax paus she emotionally rendered throughout our growing years. "I'll slap my face against the back of your hand," was meant to be an admonition to my brother for inappropriate actions and words that we no longer remembered. We did remember watching our dad try to repress the laughter lighting up his mahogany eyes, the twitch in his lips that threatened to curve in a smile. Five faces suppressed the laughter only until she caught her mis-spoken words.
Laughter, hearty and long, followed as the tension in the room dissolved in fits of laughter, as it was as we swayed, arm-in-arm, remembering--the good, the bad and the hilarious--
And now alone, I think of perhaps the only wrong phrase, at least for me, that she ever insisted was law. Perhaps, she was right, but never for her daughter, the multi-published, award-winning author who needs to promote herself to sell her books. What would she say knowing about the Erotic Romantic Suspense titles written by me?
Perhaps there is a way to brag without boasting, is that what she meant? Be proud but not too proud? Be verbal, interesting, social, outgoing, be discovered by your talent, not what you say on your own behalf. If only it was possible to ask her for clarification, if only she had lingered as long as her phrases have. If only she had stayed until I had my first book published--then maybe it would have been different. Maybe then she would have said,"You deserve to be proud and brag," perhaps...
(This post sprung from an exercise in the book The 3 A.M. Epiphany. The use of I was permitted but only twice and it had to be a first person narrative.)Labels: aka Billie A Williams, boasting, bragging, Cricket Sawyer, Mother, promotion |
| posted by Unknown @ 10:06 AM |
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| Thursday, November 13, 2008 |
| LIVE THE FANTASY NOW AVAILABLE |
LIVE THE FANTASY has gone live at Forbidden Publications
Heat Index: Erotic
Genre: Anthology/Collection | Contemporary
Book Length: Novella | 32 pages
Cover Artist: Anastasia Rabiyah
Read an Excerpt
Happy Anniversary, Honey - Cassie Daniels, erotic romance writer, plays out her very own erotic fantasy with handsome Mannie Rodriguez during a sumptuous dinner.
Happy Birthday, Honey – Tracy Miller wants to be a slut! Her friend Melissa helps her play out this wish. In return, Tracy provides Melissa and her husband Bruce the best birthday gift ever. (Involves a ménage.)
Happy Valentine’s Day, Honey – Gabriele Clarke and Amanda Morelli certainly know how to enjoy Valentine’s Day and do more than swap Valentine Day cards when they enjoy a delightful ménage with one man called Antonio. (Involves a ménage.)
CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR COPY |
| posted by Collette Thomas @ 2:50 PM |
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