I’m over at All Romance’s ARe Cafe today talking about striking the right balance in a horror erotica.

I’ve surpassed the 25K mark on my own horror erotica WIP. After reworking some plot in order to let my characters be themselves rather than trying to squeeze a square peg into a round hole, I’m pretty satisfied with how it’s turning out so far. Not only does this promise (in my head) to be a pretty disturbing horror erotica, it’s the first BDSM story I’ve ever written, so it’s quite challenging. I’m determined to get it right—as much as I can at least—so some days I only eke out a few hundred words.

They’re the “right” words, though and I would rather come back to my WIP every morning reading something I’m mostly satisfied with than a few thousand words that’ll probably get cut in a rewrite. I wish I were blessed enough to slam out 2K before lunch and then another 3K in the afternoon, but progress is progress and I gotta say…so far, despite all the challenges, this has been my favorite story to write so far. It’s hot and angsty and dark—and I friggin’ love it!

Though it started out as a Christian feast day as part of the calendar of saints—and is still celebrated by Catholics and other Christians—St. Patrick’s Day has evolved into a celebration of Irish culture. My husband and I both have some Irish ancestry (him more than me), so we’ll grab some Irish soda bread, maybe some shepherd’s pie and though it’s a bit consumerist to wash down our food with Guiness (we Americans can’t help buying “traditional” holiday foods, like Cadbury Eggs for Easter), we’re going to do it anyway.

On top of parades or parties or fireworks, being a film nut means I like to watch certain films to celebrate holidays. We watch a few scary movies for Halloween (Hitchcock or Kubrick work), Die Hard on Christmas, and any of the following movies to get into the St. Patrick’s Day spirit: Read more

I’m over at Tina Donahue’s blog today talking about the odd little nuggets of information I dug up while researching for Escape With Me. On the 17th as well, you’ll find a post from me here for the Big Cocks and Shamrocks Giveaway Hop, so if you don’t happen to win a prize for the Escape With Me release contest, you have another shot to win a trade paperback copy of Stay With Me as well as tons of other prizes on other blogs. The hop is already huge with over a hundred romance authors or sites who will be offering up lots of fun prizes!

Work on my WIP has been slow but at least moving forward. It’s been very fun hosting the giveaway for the Kindle Paperwhite and I’ve already learned a lot from the experience. Decided my minimum writing goal this year will be my two (unrelated) horror eroticas and the first of a fantasy series with powerful magic-users, brave warriors and a strange world full of mystical creatures.

I’ve registered to attend this year’s RomantiCon at the McKinley Grand Hotel in Canton, OH from October 10th-13th. If you’re attending, I’ll see you there! If you’re thinking of attending, you should! It’s an incredibly fun time and zips by so fast! From the panels to the parties to the hunky EC Cavemen, you’ll have a very entertaining weekend.

[WARNING: This post is image-heavy and very long. That happens when you try to analyze an entire film franchise.]

1981′s Raiders of the Lost Ark first introduced the world to adventuring archaeologist Indiana Jones. It utilized the most obvious of bad guys—Nazis—leveraged the style of the serialized adventures from the ’30s and ’40s, and had a great excuse for bringing the audience along to various and exotic locales. Jones has the gumption and historical knowledge to be the only good guy who can stop the bad guys from using a powerful object for evil, but he’s still an “everyday man” who can get injured, tired and tricked. We loved Indiana so much—as in, the film made so much money—that two more films were made that decade: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).

Let’s jump ahead to nearly twenty years after Last Crusade‘s release. I’ll not defend the decision to revive the Indiana Jones franchise with 2008′s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull—because what else is Hollywood good at besides milking their cash cows—but I’d like to assert that the recent installment is pretty much a perfect Indiana Jones movie that everyone should’ve embraced heartily if they loved the first three so damn much.

First, I’ll go into the required elements for an Indy film and then we’ll dig into how well (or not) those elements were actually executed. Then, we’ll talk about peripheral decisions that people criticized, such as casting choices. Read more

MARCH 1ST is finally here, which means ESCAPE WITH ME is now available from Ellora’s Cave! To celebrate its release, I’m sponsoring a huge contest for all you lovely readers!

WHEN

The contest runs from Friday, March 1st to Friday, March 15th.

PRIZES

Grand Prize: Kindle Paperwhite and a US Power Adapter, worth $138.99
Semi-Weekly Prize: trade paperback copy of Stay With Me, worth $14.99
Early Bird Prizes: the first thirty people to forward me their purchase confirmation of Escape With Me will be sent a 2013 calendar magnet and a signed bookmark

a Rafflecopter giveaway

HOW TO ENTER FOR A CHANCE TO WIN

Use the Rafflecopter widget above to enter and earn points. The widget should (hopefully) tabulate everything. The more points you earn, the better your chances of winning a prize!

1. Buy a copy of Escape With Me to earn 10 points. Be sure to use the Rafflecopter widget to claim your points. You’re not limited to one purchase, so buy a copy for a friend to earn more points! If anyone has difficulty claiming points for more than one purchase, please contact me.
2. Like my Facebook Page for 3 points.
3. Follow me on Twitter for 2 points. I mostly tweet cat pictures.
4. Tweet about the contest for 1 point, which you can repeat daily. No need to spam your friends, so just keep it to one tweet a day and potentially earn 15 points!

Here’s a titillating excerpt from my time-travel historical romance Escape With Me, releasing very soon on March 1st. Don’t forget to enter the release-celebration contest that day. Details here! Read more

Though this incarnation of the boogeyman may have taken inspiration from various sources (e.g. the Chzo Mythos‘ Cabadath or “Tall Man”), Slender Man’s rise as an internet urban legend can be easily attributed to the infamous comedy site Something Awful, where forum members can get up to all kinds of shenanigans, including the famous “Photoshop Phriday” photo-editing contest. One such contest asked users to turn ordinary photos into paranormal ones that could be passed off as “real”, and thus Slender Man entered the realm of our collective nightmares. Read more

I like to trawl the Internet for fun stuff (not just porn and cat pics). Here’s this Tuesday’s round-up of the weird and/or cool:

-Nothing is stranger (and dumber) than reality. If you read a book recently where the convict escaped prison but only because of the utter ineptitude of his guards, don’t automatically fault the author or throw the book across the room. It’s really happened. Notorious asshole and crazy-person Ted Bundy pulled off insane prison escapes (keyword: insane) twice.

-We’ve got two videos today. The first is a long video but I couldn’t stop watching! If you check this blog semi-regularly, you know I love space, and someday when I get enough courage, I have plans to do a sci-fi romance series. In this video, Astronaut Sunita Williams gives us a tour of the International Space Station. So cool!

-People keep asking for proof of an inevitable Robopocalypse, and I’m glad to share proof as I find it. Judgment Day will soon be upon us, but at least our robot overlords know how to rock.