Archive for 2015

Well, I freely admit it, I've been AWOL for a a few months from my blog and website, but...I have a really good reason, one that I am super excited about! During that two month period I was working on my first adult coloring book. I'm sure you're all like, "coloring book?" I thought you wrote romance! Have no fear, an new romance book is in the works as well and I'm hoping to have that finished and out by December 2015.

Anyway, back to the coloring book, LOL, this one is a mandala coloring book that I had a blast creating the drawings for. I've always loved to do any kind of art as most of you know. I paint, do Native American beadwork, doodle, and create 3D art whenever I have a chance. They all help me to relax and unwind. Plus they're just fun! And I've now added coloring to the mix. I started out downloading free adult coloring pages from around the web, and then well, I decided I wanted to create my own. I already had some ideas about how to do that, and then I took a class on how to do it and I was as you can imagine off! And believe it or not, coloring is helping me with my writing as well, I've added an entire chapter to my latest WIP and I couldn't be happier. The book is coming together and I even know the end, shocker, I know! Usually I just kind of write my way to the end, I'm a confirmed pantser when it comes to writing and I freely admit it. LOL

So, without further ado, I want to share with you my brand new adult coloring book Pretty Mandalas, Book 1, Adult Coloring Book. This is an e-book by the way, not a print book and I'll tell you why. I love coloring books that are e-books because I can print the designs multiple times and try different color schemes. While print books are great, you always have the issues of the possibility with the printer putting part of the design in the binding, or not centering it even though you sent them the document with it centered, or crappy paper that bleeds through to the next design, leaving you with a design you can't then use, just to name a few. Most of the authors who have created adult coloring books and used Createspace have had one or more of these issues, so I've opted to go e-book only for the time being. I may eventually put the book into paperback, but for now I'm hoping my readers and colorists will prefer as I do an e-book. Oh, and while the designs and book are copyrighted, you are are free to print out the designs and color them as often as you like for personal use only though.

Right now the book is available through the Coffee Time Romance E-bookstore and it's 20% off which means instead of $2.99, it's $2.39, so take advantage of it while you can, this reduced price will be gone soon! Oh, and the mandala on the cover is just one of the 25 designs, that range from simple to complex.

Blurb:

25 pretty mandala designs for the discerning colorist. With both simple and complex mandala designs, adults and older children who enjoy coloring are sure to find something to tickle their fancy and inspire their creativity! This e-book is offered in a PDF version only so colorists can print as many copies of the designs to color as they like.

Excerpt:

A Short History of the Coloring Book

Coloring books have been around for a lot longer than most folks think. In fact, the first coloring books were created by the McLoughlin Brothers partnering with Kate Greenaway who initially published the “Little Folks Painting Book” in 1879. They continued to publish coloring books until the 1920’s when they joined the Milton Bradley Company.

Before crayons, coloring books were intended to be painted rather than colored with crayons. Also, even after the 1930’s when crayons were invented, coloring books were made so the pictures could be both painted and colored so users had a choice.

Another historical fact that many people don’t know is that in the beginning some coloring books were actually used to advertise products such as the one created by Richard F. Outcault who created the character Buster Brown to help advertise shoes from the Brown Shoe Company. This character was well known to Americans in the early twentieth century since he was also the star of a comic strip by the same name. Coloring books were also created to showcase coffee and piano brands as well!

More recently we’ve begun to see that coloring books aren’t just for kids anymore! In fact, there are hundreds of coloring books created just for adults. While there were coloring books for adults prior to the adult coloring book boom that has taken place in 2015, Scottish artist Johanna Brasford has been the one to really get it going, starting with her first adult coloring book, Enchanted Forest: An Inky Quest and Coloring Book. Since then there has been no stopping adult coloring book creators, nor the adults who want to color!

You know I used to think it was cool being half-angel. But what they don't tell you is that when you are you will always have a target painted on your back. That both angels and humans will hate you, that demons, and monsters will be gunning for you, all because you're an "abomination" not meant to exist.

Most half-angels don't get wings, I'm lucky or so my guardian Gabriel says. Personally I'm not so sure. I mean you try and get a job when you've got white wings that stretch out four feet on each side. And my dad, you know the angel? The man or angel or well you know what I mean is curiously absent for my entire life until I turned eighteen. Then what does he do? He shows up, introduces himself, tells me there's nothing he can do for me, after all, he has "a job to do for God." But, and that's a big but, he says to me, "I'm not supposed to do this, but here." and hands me a short black sword with a silver tip. "Use this to protect yourself." Then the bastard kisses me on the forehead and disappears. No smoke, no popping sound, just one minute he's there and the next he isn't.

I swear if it wasn't for Gabriel, I'd either be dead or wishing I was. Right after dear old Dad disappeared, another angel appeared. Like my dad he was beautiful, but unlike dad, he had black hair and cerulean colored eyes. He introduced himself as my "guardian" and then proceeded to teach me how to use my sword. Unlike my dad, Gabriel is not one of the "fallen," as my dad is. His connection to God is unbroken. Most of what you've read about the Fallen is untrue. They're not necessarily evil, although they can be, and many of them are still trying carry out God's will. In fact, they're so busy interfering with humans and other races that they've completely lost their connection to God, so they're just guessing. Not so for Gabriel.

I asked him once why he was always watching over me. His response was, "Every living being in the universe has free will. You asked for help, and I am your answer."

The funny thing? I don't remember asking for help, but apparently the ominpotentness himself heard me. I stopped asking questions after that. The fact is Gabriel has a body to die for, looks that any girl would love to stare at every day for the rest of her life. And he loves me, or so he says. And I mean it's hard not to love someone that always has your best interests at heart. There's this one little problem though, you see, I don't just love Gabriel, I'm in love with him. Something that is forbidden. That's one of the ways angels fall because they aren't allowed to love humans in that way. Of course I'm not wholly human and that complicates things even more. And since I don't want Gabriel to fall, I have to keep my feelings to myself.

Like I said, sometimes being a half-angel sucks. Because while I may be in love with my guardian, I can never have him, for if you are half-angel and you knowingly cause another angel to fall, whether you are human or half-angel you share that angel's fate. And no angel, or half-angel for that matter wants to spend eternity trying to figure out how to get back into heaven.

I love writing books that have Native American heroes and heroines. Most of you that have read my books know this already because it doesn't matter what the genre is 9 times out of 10 there's going to be a Native American main character. This is especially true with my Native American Paranormal Romantic Suspense Through a Dark Mirror. The hero is what my husband would call a "common Indian" meaning this is not someone with any particular special gifts or powers. And the heroine is a caucasian woman who has a past life as a Lakota medicine woman. Here's a bit of a sneak peek!

Blurb:

Sometimes evil follows you from one life to the next…

Summer Thompson grew up around Native Americans. She has great respect for Native American peoples and traditions. Because of that respect she has made it a point in her work as an antiques dealer to purchase and return sacred objects back to the tribes they came from when she finds them.

Hawk Kills Pretty Enemy, a successful Lakota business owner makes it a point of driving around in his tow truck looking for stranded drivers. He figures he has hit the jackpot with the pretty blonde behind the wheel of the Mercedes Benz sitting on the side of the road. When he discovers that she is the Summer Thompson that has returned so many sacred objects and artifacts back to the People, he is even more happy to help. But it does not take long in Summer’s presence for Hawk to begin to suspect that Summer may be someone he has been searching for his whole life.
But when an artifact of great power comes into Summer’s possession, and an ancient evil returns, will Summer remember what she needs to in time to save the man she is coming to love?

And here's the short excerpt and sneak peak!

The glow from her bedside lamp spilled into the living area, casting shadows on the walls and windows.

Her eyes glanced over to the bay windows in the south of the room. A chill raced up her spine when for a second, an image seemed to appear in the glass, and it was not a pleasant one. Whatever it was seemed to be nothing more than skin hanging off of a skeleton and glowing red eyes.

Summer put one hand to her throat, backing up. It can’t be real! she thought. The figure almost seemed to loom from the glass and enter the room. Her throat closed on a scream, but then she blinked, and the image disappeared.

She sprinted to the different light switches around the room and turned them all on before she felt like she could walk up to the glass and look out. Nothing. The parking lot beneath her two-story apartment and shop was empty, but well lit as usual. No one was walking around, and her Benz appeared unharmed by the illusion she’d seen.

The vision on top of the dream and the strange phone call had rattled her. What does it all mean, if anything? Were the incidences even related?

For the first time, she was uncomfortable and didn’t feel safe in her own home. Summer wrapped herself up in a hug, for once wishing that she didn’t live alone.

I watched as the bridge materialized and two spirits began to cross over it to the other side. Death is part of life and watching spirits cross over the rainbow bridge is miraculous, but I knew I was going to be dealing with the fallout from families momentarily. It would have been so much easier to just not be in any kind of field where I had to deal with grief stricken family and friends. Sometimes it just didn't pay to have the ability to see and communicate with ghosts.

I could hear the mother sobbing, and when I looked over her husband was trying to comfort her, but it didn't appear to be having much effect. Something was fake about her behavior, it smelled like an act. I couldn't put my finger on it, but it just wasn't real.

Suddenly the coldness that envelopes my body when a spirit is near chilled the air around me. I turned my head just a bit and found myself staring into a pair of violet eyes framed by short black hair. Hair that wasn't dyed. There was a blood tear tattoo just beneath the corner of one of those eyes. A silver eyebrow ring adorned her left eyebrow and its twin was in her bottom lip.

"I wasn't supposed to die." She said, her lips not moving.

I couldn't talk to her here, because no one else could see the young goth woman but me. I discreetly motioned to follow me outside to the garden area. There was no one there at this time of morning. Once I was there, I turned to see if she had followed. Her image was standing next to me.

"What do you mean?"

The spirit looked uncomfortable for a moment. "I wanted to know what happens when we die, so I told my mom and she said, she could help me. That she could help me die for a little while and then she could bring me back. She's a nurse you know."

I turned and stared at the couple through the glass in the waiting room. They weren't paying any attention to me, the mother was too busy putting on her act and attracting a lot of attention. At least the act made sense now.

"So what did she tell you to do that would allow you to die for a little while and then she'd miraculously revive you after a short time?"

"Have you ever seen that movie The Frightners?"

I had actually and I was quickly seeing where this was going. "She had you get into a walk-in freezer and she locked you in?"

"Yeah." Goth girl was looking a little sheepish now. "My dad owns a restaurant." She shrugged.

"So, what went wrong?" I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Some sixth sense was telling me this wasn't about some goth kid wanting to know what it was like to die anymore, and had become murder.

"She didn't revive me." Anger bled out of her tone. "It seems she had taken out a million dollar life insurance policy on me. I mean I know my mother isn't like other mother's she's not all touchy feely, you know? But I didn't think she wanted me dead."

I looked at the spirit again. Black lipstick, black nail polish, piercings, purple t-shirt, celtic crosses with amethysts in the centers, black slacks and biker boots. She'd wanted to know what it was like to die, but she hadn't counted on her avaricious and greedy mother. Now she knew what death meant, but she was also stuck and I had a feeling she wasn't going to cross over until her mother's guilt was clearly established.

Honestly, the dead are easy to deal with, it's the living that make my job so much harder. I nodded at Charity, such an old fashioned name for a girl that was anything but. "I'll see what I can do. No promises, but your mother does need to pay for what she's done."

Have you ever had one of those super weird experiences that you never thought would happen in a million, zillion years? Well, I just had that experience yesterday morning. Figures with it being Monday that the universe would pick that day to remind me not to get too comfortable.

So, like most mornings I ride the bus to my job at a busy hospital OR and yesterday morning was no different, except for the fact that the bus was crowded and I couldn't get my usual up front seat. I've never liked sitting next to people I don't know, mainly because they always seem to want to chat with me. Now, don't get me wrong, chatting is fine, but I love to read and having this twenty minutes to read and listen to soothing music on my Kindle is just awesome! I love to chat and get to know people too, just not during my "me time" on the way to work. Anyway, there are two seats at the front that are single seats, not bench seats where you have to share, so I like to sit on one of those in the morning. Unfortunately, this morning was different. I ended up having to take a seat farther towards the back of the bus. No big deal and I lucked out, no one sat next to me. So like usual, I read and listened to music and just relaxed on my way in to work. When we were getting close to my stop I rang the bell like normal and then got up and went to the back door. Now most drivers automatically open the back door whether there are people in the back or not to be sure that everyone can get off the bus. This driver however did not. Now in and of itself that's not that big of a deal, when it became a big deal was when I called out loudly "Back door, please!" And got crickets for a response.

At this point we're to my stop. I mumble to myself, "Shit! He's not going to open the back door!" So, I begin jogging towards the front door, my steps loud. There is a woman who was at the front of the bus and she gets off. You'll never guess what happened next! Wondering? The driver closes the front door! I'm only half way to the door at this point and I call out loudly, "Please open the door!" I'm thinking to myself, "This idiot is going to drive off and not let me off!" Does the driver open the door for me, does he apologize? No! Instead he leaves it closed. By this time I'm to his seat, and he leans out of it and leans down until his face is like an inch or two from mine, and says, "It's dark back there, I didn't see you." I clearly got it that he thought he could intimidate me. I only glanced at him as he said this because I had no idea what the wack job was going to do at this point. I said to him, "Okay, fine. Now open the door." Fortunately, he did open the door and let me off. But I had to ask him three times, and he clearly cut off my ability to get off the bus twice. Oh, did I mention there were no witnesses since he waited until I was the last person on the bus to pull this crap?

I still do not understand his reasoning for trapping me on the bus with him. It was only for a few minutes but it was enough to get my heart racing and for fear to slide down my spine. I felt threatened, and intimidated and like my safety was in jeopardy. If you're wondering why I'm sharing this with you, it is for this reason. We are all taught that if we're in trouble, we can flag down a bus and the driver will help us. Someone following you? Flag down a city bus and get help. Someone hurt you and you got away? Flag down a bus if you see one and they'll help you get help. I've even seen advertisements on public transportation saying that if you need help bus drivers are people that can help you. But what do you do when the bus driver is the one putting your safety at risk?

I always thought bus drivers for public transportation were safe, that if I was on a bus I was safe. The fact is this is not true. I filed a complaint against this bus driver as soon as I got to work. I have heard nothing from Metro about it as of yet. My concern is what if he does this to some little girl who's twelve or fifteen and alone who is riding the city bus to school because she missed her school bus. What if this little girl doesn't know what to do or gets scared and this bus driver actually does something other than keeping the doors closed for a minute or two before letting her off. Quite frankly it doesn't bare thinking about.

This same bus driver was driving my bus this morning. In order to stay safe, I sat at the very front of the bus and behind him so I was not visible. I also made sure that when it was my turn to get off there were still people on the bus so there were witnesses in case another incident happened. I also kept my keys handy as a weapon if necessary. And I will be purchasing pepper spray this week so I have that as well. I would encourage anyone who is a woman or who has daughters, nieces, friends with the same to teach these girls and heck the boys too for that matter, that even bus drivers are not safe. Make sure they know what to do to stay safe when they're riding public transportation, and that they should trust no one, including the bus driver. I let myself get too comfortable, and this has been a good reminder to me to always stay aware of my surroundings and what is going on around me.

There will be those who think I'm overreacting to this incident but I'm of the mind, better to overreact than to wind up raped, murdered or some other awful fate. All you have to do is watch the news to know that it is often the person you think would never do something that commits these sorts of crimes.

Sahara looked at her companion. "You realize this isn't going to be easy, right?"

Lazarus gave her the look. Of course it's not going to be easy, it never is. What I want to know is when am I going to get my human form back?

"I don't know, my love. The sorceress who trapped you in this form keeps slipping away. The only way to turn you back is to find her and pierce her heart with the arrow Justice gave me."

If she was here right now, I would rip her heart out. Sahara's mind flashed with a picture of the woman in question, mauled, bloody and very very dead. The sorceress's bleeding heart ripped from her chest dripped on the stone floor from Lazarus's beak.

Sahara shuddered. "I'm just glad I'm on your good side."

Lazarus rubbed his large head against her arm. You could never be on my bad side.

"So, where do you think she'll go next?"

Lazarus shook his head. Maybe the Zaous realm?

"Maybe. You want to open the portal?"

Yes. I want my form back, and I want her to be trapped in this griffin form as she was before.

"It was a long time ago. You have to stop blaming yourself. She tricked you." Sahara petted Lazarus. As much as she longed to see his human form in more than just her mind, she hated that he continued to blame himself for being tricked.

I should have known better. I mean a female griffin? There is no such thing, griffins are magical creatures, and they're always male.

"You have a point, but it's still possible that there were female griffins at one time as she told you. And unlike you, she got her human form back during the full moon."

Yes, well, I intend for the curse she put on me to be the same for her, no more getting her human form back during the full moon so she can seduce some other poor unsuspecting young wizard as she did me. She will truly be stuck in this form forever.

"If I don't kill her first." The rage she felt was all consuming. Unlike the sorceress Talia, she could see past the form her true mate had been trapped in to who he was inside.

Just be sure and pierce her heart with the spear, if she is killed any other way I will be trapped forever.

"Oh, don't worry. I'll pierce her heart alright. Her black heart will feel my wrath and she will know it was Sahara who killed her and broke the curse."

Lazarus cuddled against Sahara as they waited for his magic to open the portal. This was the only magic he had left in this form, as if Talia wanted to taunt him by leaving him just enough to chase her from realm to realm.

When the portal opened they would begin the search again...

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