Friday, March 11, 2011
Sunday, November 7, 2010
When I'm NOT writing...
I've been writing, I swear. BUT.
I've been working on another project for a month now.
Finally, it's done and I want to share!
I've been paintintg my kids' room. Here's what I started with:
White walls. I sketched in some standard sized blocks just to see where the painters tape should go. Then I put a color on the upper portion of the walls, and a slightly darker color on the lower parts of the walls where my faux "stone" was going.
The boys wanted stone arches over their beds. So I drew a template and painted around it. At this point, I was still excited and eager to see the room come together.
Then I outlined the stones...that took days. I painted in one arch because I had to motivate myself. Seeing how cool the stone was going to be, helped me pick up the momentum that was lost.
Then I painted and detailed each stone.
Individually.
I began questioning my sanity.
Why did I ever start this project?
What the heck was I thinking???
I was in over my head. But the boys were so excited...I couldn't stop and paint over it all in a nice, normal solid shade. No matter how I might want to.
And this big empty, windowless wall loomed.
I arranged the room and got the border painted.
I put up the props. The shield and helmet. The axes. (All are plastic toys.)
Still there was that empty wall.
It needed dragons.
So, I put in pillars and blacked out the part that would be "open to the outside."
I put in the clouds, the mountains in the distance. The moon and the stars.
And I started to paint dragons...
Finally...it was done.
Friday, September 10, 2010
DRAGON CON 2010 part 2
Here are some of my favorite pictures from DRAGON CON 2010
Of course we have to start with Conan...
So mad at myself for not taking several of this guy. The costume was great but my camera sucks. I got ALOT of blurry images this year. (*insert various creative expletives here*)
However, my kids would love to have a Master Chief costume like this. (Yeah, the Arteest and the Future Stunt Man made me zoom in on this picture so they could examine the gun and expressed how they wished the guy had been carrying an Energy Sword.) Oh, Halo dude, where did you get the armor, and does it come in boys 14, and boys 10?
Speaking of alternate worlds...
Can you imagine Highlander with Storm Troopers?
I got a picture of this man's homage to Fransis Ford Coppola's Dracula last year and it was all blurry, so I was delighted to run into him again. Love this costume! Every detail. The Costumes are one of the best things about Dragon Con. People not only come up with the coolest costumes, when they copy one from film/tv/comics/etc. they attend to all the details! (Except for the guy who thought a belt with a towel draped through the front, between his legs, and then draped over the back was a "loincloth." In my opinion, towels aren't really costumes. **The various young men who wore a towel and carried around Old Spice deodorant and said they were dressed as "the Old Spice guy" are an exception, however.
The highlight of the can, for me, as I said in my previous post, was the CELLDWELLER concert. See how excited I was? Below is a pic of Klayton at the keyboard.
Romulan Ale. This proves my Trek fanhood. I have no pics of Klingons or Starfleet Officers, but I bought Romulan Ale and smuggled it home in my luggage. I wonder if Han Solo could use another sidekick? I now have experience as a smuggler....
Monday, September 6, 2010
DRAGON CON 2010
As I walk around the big D-Con, my ears are always picking up bits and pieces of the conversations of strangers. It's become a thing for me, so I'm sharing my favorites...
--but first--
A quickie recap of the highlights of my 2nd D-Con:
* Meeting all the fantastic people--you know who you are!
* Taking pics of the costumes.
* Being on a Supernatural CSI panel with Laura Anne Gilman, Jim Butcher, Laura Bickle/Alayna Williams. Butcher's fans packed the room--it was the most people I've been in front of on a panel. (*nervous* SQUEE!) It was great fun! Carol Malcom is the best moderator EVER!
* Getting to see CELLDWELLER in concert!
When I first wrote about my character Johnny Newman's band Lycanthropia in VICIOUS CIRCLE, I had an idea what they sounded like and described it as similar to Flesh Field, but edgier, with more guitars, and predominantly male vocals. Someone kind of poked me and said, "Hey, check out this band, Celldweller," and provided a link to a video for Switchback. I was hooked immediately. OMG! Kick ass! Getting to see the concert was--for me--the biggest thrill of Dragon Con 2010. I had to get back to the hotel at about 2:30 a.m. and had to pack. I left to catch my plane home on 3 hours of sleep, but it was worth it!
To make it even better...I was on the front row. Almost center! Klayton was right in front of me. So cool!
If you don't have their cd, go buy it now. Really. Seriously. Here's a link to their you tube video for Switchback: http://www.youtube.com/celldweller#p/f/10/8WzPw6hBpkY
I'll post more pictures tomorrow from D-Con tomorrow, but for now, here's my
Top Ten Favorite Phrases I Randomly Overheard at DRAGON CON:
10.) Can we have a king size bed? We're friendly, but not THAT friendly.
9.) You want this? You want this?
8.) Yeah. You're gonna have to drag me.
7.) But it's squishy!
6.) We need to find the long gerbil tube.
5.) I'm suffering from too much boom boom.
4.) I gave you one when we got back to the room last night. I gave you one this morning. Now I'm not giving you any more.
3.)Are you sure you're putting the right end in?
2.) Shake it. It's soft rubber. It won't hurt you.
1.) Ack! My nozzle is gone!
Monday, August 30, 2010
CONTEXT 2010
Context is one of my favorite conventions. It's full of writers and readers! I got to meet Linnea Sinclair who writes sci-fi romance. http://www.linneasinclair.com/ Here she is with the wonderfully talented Laura Bickle (aka Alayna Williams)http://www.laurabickle.com/
Also got to hang out with some established friends--on the left is DeniseVerrico with her book CARA MIA, book one of the Immortyl Revolution series. She has a background in theater, aint' that cool? In the middle is S. A. Swann with a variety of his books (BTW he's won some major awards and has impressive nominations--you should be reading his work!), and James O. Barnes is on the right with THEIF KING. He's an author, a publisher, and teacher.
Their websites are: http://www.deniseverricowriter.webs.com/
http://www.sandrewswann.com/
http://jamesobarnes.com/
And lastly here's me in the Lycanthropia shirt some fans made and gave me at the Romantic Times Convention. It's my new standard book-signing shirt. :-) And I had the honor of sitting with Lucy Snyder, another award winner. (http://www.lucysnyder.com/) I recently finished her Urban Fantasy Spellbent and it was gritty, fast-paced, and full of little quirky details that are highly entertaining but also grounded the story (for me anyway--I have kids and dogs--so unexpected goofy things are commonplace).
I also met Cat, J.M., Trista and Dan, Greg, and so many people who's names I sadly don't remember!! Thank you to everyone who had books for me to sign (squee!), thanks to all the Context organizers, especially Nick and Linda Winks, and on a personal note, my tongue-tied nervousness with public speaking does not yet seem to be abating. I'm fine if I'm not in front of the room behind a table. So if you see me at a con and I seem like a nit-wit on a panel, come up and talk to me when I'm not behind the table. I'm still a goof, but I'm not as likely to stutter.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
EVIL, make up some of your own today...
I'm not one to share recipes, really, but I have discovered the recipe for EVIL and it bears sharing. It has many names I am sure, but I am hereby dubbing it EVIL, because that's what it is. You'll read this and think, "No way," but I swear it is deceptive. If you try to touch mine I swear to you I will get out one of the swords and an axe...but if you want to make some for yourself all you have to do is this:
Set your oven to 400 degrees. EVIL likes the heat. Take out the 10x13 (or thereabouts) pan from your kitchen--NOT a cookie sheet. (Recommend sturdy pan, NOT foil.) This has to have at least short sides.
Grease the bottom and sides lightly. (Also ok to line pan with foil and spray the foil lightly with non-stick coating. Because, EVIL needs to be convenient to the way YOU like to roll.)
Line the pan with saltine crackers. Yes. Regular, ordinary crackers. (I said it was deceptive.)
Get out a small saucepan, melt 2 sticks of butter with 3/4 cup of brown sugar. Boil that mix for 3 minutes.
Spoon mixture(or carefully pour it) onto the crackers making sure to coat them all.
Bake for 5 minutes, remove carefully and scatter some almond slices (1/2 cup or more if you like)on top, then cover with chocolate chips (2cups; minis works best but regular chips are fine. Chocolate can be sinister in any size).
Wait a few minutes for the chips to melt, use a spatula to spread it around and let cool. (If you have space in the freezer, this cools it FAST.)
Cut 'em, break 'em...whatever, just eat 'em. And discover the EVIL part. You can't leave 'em alone. So deliciously rich...so freaking simple.
If anyone needs me next week, I'll be on the bike, the treadmill, or walking the dogs over and over to get rid of what EVIL has done to me.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
EXCERPT from FATAL CIRCLE
CHAPTER ONE--------
My living room clock read two-forty-six a.m. It was no longer Hallowe’en night, but All Hallows Day. Or, as some called it, All Saints’ Day. But it was no saint who held me in his arms—it was a wærewolf.
“I think you’d like my apartment, Red.” Red. That’s me. Persephone Alcmedi to the rest of the world. Seph to some. Red only to Johnny, my not-exactly-Big-Bad-wærewolf. “It has that open-living concept.”
I wasn’t fooled. “It’s a glorified dorm room, isn’t it?”
“If, by ‘glorified,’ you mean it has a private bathroom, then yes.” Johnny sniffed, affecting annoyance. “Something I sacrificed when I moved in here.”
I’d had to forfeit my home’s vampire defenses three weeks ago to save a friend’s life, Johnny had temporarily moved into the third-floor attic room—for protection purposes only. In the three weeks since, those defenses had since been reinstated, but he’d remained. Being the epitome of “tall, dark, and handsome,” I hadn’t complained.
“C’mon.” Johnny’s deep blue eyes glittered seductively. His voice dropped low. “Nothing’s more romantic than a bachelor pad.”
We’d both had a hell of an evening. Words like “hectic” or “demanding” didn’t begin to cover it. I must have been the only one suffering from fatigue.
His band, Lycanthropia, had played at the Hallowe’en Ball. Johnny was the vocalist and guitarist for the techno-goth-metal band, and he’d given his all on stage. He should have been as exhausted as I was.
Of course, I’d made quite an effort on that stage, too. I’d fought and killed a fairy in front of hundreds of witnesses who’d applauded afterward, thinking it simply part of the Hallowe’en show.
Killer fairies and rock-n-roll: that was only a small part of what we’d dealt with this evening.
“Do you honestly want to show me your apartment now?”
“My one bulb is burned out so there’s not much you’d actually see.” His lean-muscled arms slid around me. I felt so grounded and safe in his embrace. “But I promise, what you feel will make up for it.”
What Johnny wanted was crystal clear, and so was the reason why he thought going elsewhere was a good idea. I’d already mentioned my fears about the rest of the household learning we were intimate, so he was trying to keep the secret. At his apartment we could have assured privacy and we wouldn’t have to retire to separate bedrooms like we did here. Cuddling and sleeping together after sex would have been nice.
Apparently, to him, if we weren’t actually seen together we had plausible deniability. Not that my live-in grandmother, I call her Nana, would ever believe that we’d visited his apartment in the middle of the night just so he could give me the nickel tour.
Nana and my nine-year-old foster daughter, Beverley, were asleep in their bedrooms—each just a hall’s width from mine. The old saltbox farmhouse had paper thin walls. Even the layers between second-floor ceiling and attic floor lacked the ability to dampen noise. I’d heard Johnny playing his guitar up there when the little amplifier wasn’t cranked up to “1.”
Still, there were things he didn’t know. Like, “The lucusi is coming here at dawn, Johnny.”
He pulled me closer. He’d gotten a shower after the show, washing off the smell of leather stage-clothes and leaving only the cedar and sage that was his unique scent. “Had to try.”
His breath on my neck was warm, his voice just rough enough to catch in my ear and tingle down to my toes. Parts of me were suddenly insisting they didn’t qualify as weary. It made me reconsider the definition of tired. “It’s just so far to drive. All the way back to town, only to turn around and come back here by dawn.”
But people in the throes of new love did crazy things like that.
Did I just think the ‘L’ word?
I stiffened just as he suggested, “You could fly.”
He was right, I could. Due to my performance a few days earlier in the Eximium, a high priestess competition, I’d been inducted into the powerful lucusi led by the Eldrenne Xerxadrea that was due at dawn. A real witches broom was one of the perks. “But…”
“You don’t want to fly?” He nuzzled my neck.
“It isn’t that.” Running my fingers through his long , dark hair, I looked up—way up, he’s six-foot-two—and let him see I wanted him, too. “I have a better idea.”
“Do share.” Another nuzzle.
“There’s only one place in my house with any kind of soundproof privacy.” Tiptoeing, I kissed him lightly before answering. “Your kennel.”
“Oh, that is sooo hot.” He rubbed up and down my backside and couldn’t suppress his grin.
Carrying a lit jar candle and blankets, I led him outside and around the house. Johnny pulled the slanted metal doors open and I descended the concrete stairs.
While Johnny shut the cellar doors, I placed the candle in the middle of the floor and spread the blankets over the freshly straw on the floor of the cage. I glanced into the shadows at the door of the rearmost steel kennel. This was where his beast was unleashed, where the animal in him took over. A shiver of desire ran through me.
When I heard Johnny’s footsteps had reached the bottom stair, I asked over my shoulder, “I don’t suppose you could help me out of this costume?”
He stopped in his tracks.
I tugged on the lacings of the bell-sleeved velvet mid-driff bustier—part of my costume for the Ball—and smiled.
“Actually—” His voice was a little higher than he intended. He stopped to clear his throat and started over. “Actually, I can help with that.” He was by me in an instant, deftly working the knot. Seconds later, the fabric loosened and I took a satisfyingly deep breath. Then those skillful fingers touched the bare skin at my waist, thumbs drawing little circles. “Anything else I can help you out of?”
“I’m not technically out of this.”
“Oh,” he said softly. “My bad.” He began loosening the lace-up strings even more. “Up or down?”
Though I knew he meant should he lift the shirt over my head or push it down over my hips, I went with the word that had more impact. “Definitely up.”
He was so gentle, moving so slowly, careful of my hair and the mask. He was just removing my shirt, but he made it sensual, as if he were rubbing lotion all over me. Tanning lotion. The cellar was suddenly so warm I could have been standing in summer sunlight. The bustier fell into the blanket-covered straw at my feet.
As I kept my arms raised, Johnny placed my hands on the bars atop the open cage door, and squeezed my grip to indicate I should let them remain there.
His warm fingers traced every contour of my arms, slowly descending until he could brush my hair away from my ear on one side. He put the line of his body against the back of me and nuzzled against my ear. While he sucked gently on my earlobe, his hands shifted toward my breasts.
A trembling resonance fluttered up my spine. Heat was building low in my abdomen, and under my sternum. Sensations jolted through me like electricity, and all thought of tiredness fled.
Abruptly, the cellar door creaked open and crashed loudly against the ground outside. “I locked that,” Johnny muttered.
Someone was coming down the steps. We turned as one to see who—
Menessos.
