And became inspired! The fam and I drove about forty minutes north and hung out at Bass Lake. It’s amazing what forty minutes and about three thousand feet will do for you.

Beautiful trees and that wonderful pine smell…

A house Mama wanted to move into.

A boat we will wanted to jump onto.

I’d already planned to base the new book I’ve just started on Bass Lake. Now that I hung out there all day I knew I had to base the fictional town I’d created in my head on Bass Lake. Why don’t we come here more often? Next time I swear I’m bringing my laptop and writing.

 Anywhere you can go and escape the heat that’s not too far? Share.

From Gennita Low’s blog:
Here’s a intro video of the coverage of the Romantic Times Convention from 2007 (last year). The film, Reading, Riting, and Romance: Taming The Alpha Male, will be shown in its entirety in the Cut Film Festival in San Francisco next spring.

Something about this just IRKS the HELL outta me. Taking into consideration my allergies are acting up again, it just seems….I dunno. I almost want to say Kinda Tacky. Maybe it’s because in 9 stories out of 10 I don’t WRITE Alpha Males and, at least from the clip above, it feels like, once again, the genre’s getting misrepresented. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe there’s more to the movie but based on the trailer….*shakes head* I dunno

talk amongst yourselves….

So I’m not really a huge believer in good luck charms. (Though I did just write a novella that centers around one!) But in the past year I changed my min a bit. I picked up three that were writing related. Though I never convinced myself they’d help me strike it big in my writing, I just thought they’d be good to look over at on my dresser to keep me focused. Keep my eyes on the prize!

The first lucky charm was a bit out of my control. I won it at the Elephant exchange at my chapter holiday party. What was it? A oh so charming Casanova figurine. (You know they make librarian ones too!)

The second item I picked up was a stuffed armadillo doll in the Dallas airport. I was inspired after the ‘armadillo talk’ at one of the luncheons.

And the third I bought was a Nora Roberts bobble head doll. You did know they existed, right? Well there not easy to come by. I bought mine on Ebay and I’m sure I was bidding against some other romance writer just dying to get their hands on it. I grew up reading La Nora, and after hearing her speak at the PRO retreat in Atlanta I came to respect her/like her even more. She’s smart, funny, an inspiring. And I’m so amazed with what she’d done with her career, that when I learned she had a bobble head I just knew it must join my lucky charms collection.

So all three sit on my dresser. I stare at them all the time. And maybe it’s a coincidence, but since I acquired the trio I did sell to NY and get an agent. So those lucky charms? Keeping them!

How about you? Anyone else have a ‘lucky charm’ or item?

Whose Line is it Anyway?

Co-writing a book… erm… an erotic book.

Oh, the joys of someone seeing you misspell various parts of anatomy or accidentally add another breast to the equation. Yes, we’re talking about the wonderful world of co-writing erotic fiction. Writing with another author on regular fiction can be challenging enough. The addition of erotic bed play can add another level to the tangled web we writers weave.

Stumbling over the sometimes blunt prose needed to make a scene really work certainly takes writing relationships to new levels. Michelle and I decided to try our hand at co-writing together. Our first attempt is the (still going) free online story—The Raven. This, while it had a few hiccups, wasn’t something so out of the realm of possibility that we had trouble merging our minds. Scary thought. I know. Then, one of us got the bright idea to try our hand at writing an erotic together.

*blinks innocently, hoping Michelle doesn’t start pointing fingers*

The first stages were awkward. You know, that how many dates do you need to have before you end up in bed together kind of awkward.

*Michelle covers eyes*

“Mandy, the rumors will fly on the web now. You know that right?

*clears throat*

After several bottles of wine, a lot of nervous laughter and then a Nike—Just Do It—approach to life, we dug in and our first erotic joint title was born. After birthing more, we’ve found we can almost finish each other’s sentences. We also found that too many bottles of wine and late night phone conversations make for headaches and unreadable notes the next day. Oh. And Barbie Jeeps. Its best you not ask.

*Michelle gets duct tape in hopes of stopping any more equating books with birth talk from Mandy*

*Mandy dances out of the way, laughing*

Thanks for letting us take a minute to share with you, the joys of co-writing erotic fiction.

About the Authors

Michelle M. Pillow and Mandy M. Roth are published romance authors. Michelle’s newest release, Recipe for Disaster, will be on bookshelves June 10th. Mandy’s newest release, Daughter of Darkness 3: Bella Mia, comes out the end of June. Check their websites for more details.

Michelle’s Links
Website, www.michellepillow.com
Blog, www.michellepillow.com/blog

Mandy’s Links
Website, www.mandyroth.com
Blog, www.mandyroth.com/blog

The Raven
Website, www.ravenhappyhour.com
Radio Show, http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ravenradio

Mandy M Roth

www.mandyroth.com

Bella Mia—Now Available!

Michelle M Pillow

www.michellepillow.com

Recipe for Disaster—Now Available!

I’ve had a broken leg for one week now. Well, one week, twelve hours and forty-two minutes. Not that I’m counting. Okay, I am. Because as annoying as the past week has been, at least it went fairly fast. Pain is funny that way. It actually makes time go quickly. It was like that when I had my kid, and during the many hours I’ve spent getting tattooed. Pain makes time flow in fits and starts. The clock will be stuck in one place for what seems like months, and then it’ll jump ahead and you wonder where the last hour has gone.

But now the pain of my broken leg is lessening. And that leaves me, just me. Laying here, alone, hyper aware of the fact that every movement I make requires a huge amount of effort. Although I’m getting better on my crutches, I can’t make myself a meal, or even sit at my desktop computer because I’m supposed to keep my leg elevated as much as possible over the next two weeks.

So I’m stuck in bed now. And time is beginning to go very slowly. I’m not feeling quite up to writing yet (percocets are not conducive to creativity) and I can only spend so much time at my computer before my eyes start to cross, anyway. The only thing I can do is lay here and watch a movie every now and then. And so time is starting to pass very slowly.

I’ve had a few people tell me it’s good for me, this sitting around. Because I’m a bit of a spaz normally, and a control freak. So now I have no choice but to just lay here and let everyone get me things. In theory, it doesn’t sound half bad, right? But for someone like me, it’s torture.

Anyway, this is only temporary. As soon as I get the cast off (in two weeks) I’ll be able to be a little more mobile. I won’t be making gourmet dinners anytime soon, but at least I can be upright for more than a few minutes at a time without needing painkillers.

And I still plan on going to conference. Which is four weeks and four days away. Not that I’m counting.

In the summertime! We had what I called family fun day yesterday. Yeah, yeah I was a tad sarcastic considering all of the yelling and fighting that went on between the siblings but hey we spent the entire day together! Doing fun stuff! Dad wasn’t working and Mom’s butt was out of the chair and away from the laptop! A miracle!

First we went to the movies and saw Indiana Jones and the blah blah blah. I can’t ever remember it’s official title. Good movie, a bit long but my boyfriend Shia was in it and so I forgave the length. My children could barely forgive the length. The two youngest were crawling all over the chairs they were so bored.

Then we went to lunch, came home and jumped in the pool! It’s so hot and smoky here in California. Fires all around us. So it was nice to cool off in the water.

Trippy pic of the pool.

The giant lobster my dad scored on Shasta Lake working boat patrol. Someone’s loss is our gain!

A child just jumped in the pool in this pic. I either get them jumping too early or too late like this one.This is a lazy woman’s post. What are you all up to so far this summer?

Swiped from Charlie! Who got the idea from Michelle Rowen who is challenging blog-landia to share their dusty bits and bytes.

Feel free to join in and post your own……This is the original beginning for a book that was supposed to be a Blaze…then wasn’t and is now lying in a dusty heap on my computer. I can’t even begin to tell you how HARD it was not to edit…and how much I cringed  :lmao:

See below the cut

(more…)

I’m back! Yaaaaaaaaay!!

Okay, so Disneyland has that reputation as being the ‘happiest place on earth’ or something like that, right? Well, as a young kid I never got that. Sure, it was fun, but the happiest? Hmm. It had some competition. Then I went back as a late teen and early twenties. Basically, before I had a kid. And yes! It WAS the happiest place on earth. I couldn’t get over it. I’d run from land to land, riding every ride I wanted to do. Stay late at night to avoid lines and devour churros galore.

And then I went back again. This time with a child of a my own. A four year old. And I’m right back to ‘not so much the happiest place’. Now you have to switch into cranky kid waiting in lines in 100 degree or more heat–lines for rides you haven’t done since you were a kid. And forgettaboutit on the big scary fun rides. No time for those and the kid won’t go. And no late night parties closing down D-land. We didn’t make it past noon before melt downs started.

But despite the new version of doing D-land, it was still a lot of fun. Truly. Dumbo rides and getting hugs from people in costumes is all good. And yes, obviously I was in denial about how I’d surely have ‘me time’.

Beyond that, we did a day at the beach that was just brilliant and fun! I loved it. I had to get over the fact that we were the only obese/overweight people on the beach. And I was sure I’d end up on TMZ when I a wave knocked us down, and the two big girls were rolling around on the shore trying to get up–which in the midst of that I had a Tara Reid moment. My breast popped out of my swimsuit but no one told me for like a minute. I’m sure it was quite the entertainment for the Barbies’ watching in fascinated/horror on the beach. I could see the headlines ‘Somehow, non svelte women were able to infiltrate the hot chick beach and did their best impression of beached whales and Tara Reid’.

And we had dinner with Diva Dana who is so sweet and too much fun. It was just so much fun over all. Though yes, I may sound a bit negative nancy about it all typing it up. I’m simply trying to be sardonic. Or something. And I’m in the midst of a really dirty scene I want to get back to writing, so my thinking is a bit raw right now. I had a fabulous trip and it’s good to be back!

Oh, and be sure to ask Emma Petersen about the dirty hotel neighbor and the Giant Peach (bra).