I've been seeing her in my dreams for years, a beautiful girl with coal black hair and silver eyes. She always has two wolves with her. Are they guarding her? I don't know. Those eyes make me think she may be the more dangerous of the three. After all, who has silver eyes? Not any human I've ever met.Who is she? Again, I don't know. The dreams have been plaguing me for so long now that I don't know what to make of them. And the dreams are always the same. I'm walking in the woods, and in the distance I see her and her wolves. In the dreams they aren't walking, it's more like they suddenly take off and are in front of me. Her mercurial eyes look deeply into mine before she pulls one hand from behind her back and offers me an apple. The apple isn't a deep red color like most apples, it's almost like there's a milky white film covering the normal deep red of a red delicious apple.

She never speaks, never says anything just holds the apple out to me while her wolves look at something she is not paying attention to, and I cannot see. It's almost like a sadness enters her eyes when I don't immediately reach for the apple. Then I wake up, I always wake up.

Sweat coats my skin causing my t-shirt to stick to me in a sticky and uncomfortable fashion. The dream is always the same, and I've never been able to change it. I thought you were supposed to be able to change a lucid dream, and as aware as I always am in this dream I can never change it. Never move, never take the apple, never touch one of the wolves, never speak. I used to try and tell my parents about her, but they always said it was just a dream. But even now twenty years later I know it's not just a dream. I just don't know who she is and why she keeps appearing to me.

I push back the covers just wanting the stickiness off my skin and then I see the clock. Five am, the same damned time the damned dream wakes me up every morning. What is it about 5:00 am and this girl and her wolves. The funny thing is she always appears to be same age, early twenties, the same as me now. I wonder if she will always be that age. I wonder how I can change the dream, take the apple, pet the wolves, talk to her?

I groan as my alarm shrills ten minutes later. There's no help for it, I need to get up, shower and go to class. There are days that I hate the fact I decided to take classes in the Summer when all my friends are out partying and playing in the sun. Instead, I get to get up early go to class, go to my part-time job and then study. Ugh!

I pull myself into a sitting position and then walk into my tiny bathroom with it's tiny shower stall to turn on the water and give it a chance to heat. I chuck my t-shirt and panties and climb into the now hot shower. When I look to my little shower rack, I notice I'm nearly out of shower gel. One more thing to put on the list to buy. I sigh, sometimes being a grown up sucks. I liked it better when I could just add what I needed to my mom's grocery list and she'd buy it and I didn't have to worry about having enough money to make it through to my next work study paycheck or my next grocery clerk paycheck.

I squeeze a small amount of the gel onto my shower pouf, the strawberry scent mixing with the steam and engulfing me in the shower, sending me back to picking strawberries with my grandmother in her garden. Some days I miss Grams the most. I love my parents, but they don't understand me, not like Grams did.

I look at the clock high on the wall above the door and see that I've managed to spend fifteen minutes musing about shower gel, and Grams. I need to hurry up or I'm going to miss the bus that comes at and then where will I be? Late for my work study shift that's where. I scrub and rinse my body and hair in a hurry, and then shut off the blessed hot water and grab my favorite blue over-sized towel. I'd lucked out finding that one in a discount store. I hate small towels that barely cover you, and I really hate towels that don't wick the water off you. But that's a story for another day. Right now? Right now I need to get my shit together and get to the bus stop.

I've been a little absentee lately from my blog, mainly because I've been dealing with life and I've had a lot of it to deal with lately. One of the ways though that I've been relaxing is taking online art classes. "What you're not writing?" You're thinking...LOL Yes, I'm still writing and yes that's relaxing too, but I've always wanted to be able to draw and create art and quite frankly I didn't think I had it in me. So, I've always wanted to draw, so one day when I was putzing around online I came across this delightful lady Tamara Laporte who had a few free art classes. I checked out her work, loved what I saw, the playfulness and comfort of her art I mean and thought, "I want to learn how to do that!" So, I took her free 4 week course Art, Heart and Healing and loved it. Suddenly I found that yes, I could draw, how about that! And now I'm working my way through some of her other free Life Book offerings that she has on her website and some lessons I purchased as well. What I love about Tam is that she believes anyone can learn to draw, and there's a lot of self-care information mixed in with her lessons. They frequently include meditations and other stuff that makes you feel really good about yourself. Can you tell I think she's awesome?! LOL

Okay, so before I share some of the art I've created based on her lessons and one that just sort of came to me while I was working on a piece, here's the free lessons she's offering now:

Art Heart and Healing This is the free 4 week art course that I took initially.

Layers of You This is a full blown art lesson that is from a year long course that Tam teaches along with other mixed media artists every year called Life Book. And she's the founder and creator of Life Book as well.  I loved this lesson and the fact that she offers it completely free to anyone who visits her blog, you can even download the videos to your computer just makes it that much better.

The Happy Traveler This is another Life Book lesson taster and one that I haven't taken yet. It will only be available until November 7, 2016, so if you like what you see I'd suggest downloading the videos and materials to your computer before the 7th so you can do the lesson when you're ready.

What can I say, Tam's lessons make me happy, doing art makes me happy, and I wanted to share the love! Want to learn even more about Tam and her art? Check out her website/blog at www.willowing.org

Okay, rather than post all the art at the bottom here, I'm going to insert it to the right and left of different paragraphs. If you'd like to use any of these pieces as desktop backgrounds, please feel free to do so. I don't mind sharing as long as you don't claim them as your own.

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!


(c) Copyright 2015 by Regina Paul. All Rights Reserved.

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 necessarily 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.

Photo from iStock Photo

I had an interesting conversation a couple of weeks ago with a friend about whether or not you should consider paying for book reviews. She wanted to, she's an indie author trying to make book sales, but is having a hard time getting reviews because so many of the review places are glutted. There are a number of companies out there now that are charging authors in exchange for a review. Authors can pay for a review for as little as $5 per review and as much as nearly $500 for a review. Honestly, I was stunned because more and more of these types of services are being offered now  and I had to ask myself, "Would I pay for a book review?" Honestly, I would never pay for a book review. I have several issues with this and while I know it can be more difficult to get reviews right now since there are so many new authors, I still would be more likely to hit up book bloggers, and free review websites than I would to pay for a review.

My biggest concern is that I don't feel like a pay for book reviews place would give me an honest review. Personally, I'd rather have an honest review even if the review wasn't saying my book was fantastic. Another issue is when you pay for a review you can never be certain that the reviewer actually read the entire book, after all the more books they read and review the more they'll be paid.While most of these companies claim to give an honest review, if their reviewers started writing reviews such that they didn't like certain books, it would be bad for the pay for review company's business. So you most likely would always get a good review. While this might seem cool to some authors, personally I'm of the mind that if a book has nothing but 5 star reviews then there's something wrong. This isn't to suggest that there aren't books out that are just that darned good, because there are, but rather that even those kinds of books have detractors. There is always going to be someone who doesn't like your book, always. And in most cases there will always be someone who is not afraid to write a review that is less than stellar. So the point I'm making is that books that only have 5 star reviews? I tend to think at least some of those reviews has been paid for. As an author I do not want other readers or even other authors thinking that so I'll take my free honest reviews any day over a paid for review.

Don't believe me or don't think there's anything wrong with paid for reviews? Check out this article, it might change your mind!

This is just my opinion of course but feel free to chime in if you have a different thought or even if you agree. I'd b interested in hearing what other authors and readers think about this!

Photo from Morguefile

I was thinking about this today and wondering which excerpt I should put up, and I decided on Alien Dreams, one of my upcoming new releases! Enjoy!










Denara crouched behind a crate waiting for Lamdarak to return to the cargo hold; he always seemed to know when she was there. She had never been brave enough to go to the bridge, worried that someone else might sense her presence. She’d been leaving her body during sleep and traveling to the starship since the first time she’d accidentally come here when she was fifteen. That was ten years ago, and now she traveled here as often as she could, simply by thinking that she wanted to.


Suddenly Denara heard heavy boots slapping metal and knew that Lamdarak had sensed her presence and come to see her.


“You can come out now, Denara. I am here.” He called, his voice heavily accented. How he had managed to learn English she had no idea. Especially considering she didn’t think he even knew where her planet was.


Denara took a quick sniff of the air to be sure she only smelled Lamdarak. Once a crewmember had followed him and she had nearly been discovered by another. When she could only smell his heavy earthy scent, she stood and came out from behind the cargo crate that was being held by a force beam to keep it from moving around the cargo hold.


She took in the sight of the man she had loved for ten years. He was six and half feet of lavender skinned muscle with long hair that was a much darker shade of purple. His eyes had square rather than round pupils and were an enchanting color that she thought of as opal because the milky color with the flashing colored sparkles reminded her of the stone. Even stranger was the long tale covered with a short coat of fur, and ending in a thicker tuft the same color as the hair that nearly reached his hips.


She loved everything about him, his look, his eyes, his trim hips and long muscled body, but while he had always been very affectionate with her, he had never shown any sexual interest. This made her sad, but she respected him too much to push for something that he might not be capable of.


“Hi, Lamdarak. I missed you!” She called, running and then jumping towards him, knowing he would always catch her.


As was normal he shoved his face into her hair taking deep breaths, scenting her as he had always done. Denara had learned early on that his people’s sense of smell was much more developed than her own.


“Mmmmm…I’m sorry it was so long before I came again, but I had friends visiting from out of state and you know I talk in my sleep.” She rolled her eyes. “ I didn’t want them to hear me.” She said, pulling back from him.


(c) Copyright 2008-2014 by Regina Paul. All Rights Reserved.

Photo from Morguefile.

One of the hardest things to do when you're an author in my opinion is finding the balance between your writing, editing and publishing and your day job and just everything else that life throws at you. It's something that I've been working on for years and this last year I've been failing pretty miserably in most cases. I do quite a bit of freelance work on top of my day job and so my writing has taken a back seat to everything else in my life. Throw in a lot of overtime with my job at the hospital and you can guess how frustrating that can be at times.

Initially I thought if I set a schedule for myself with this blog that I'd be able to keep it, but as usually happens, my day job, my home life and my freelance work got in the way. While I was able to keep it for a few weeks, continuing became difficult when the time just wasn't there. And there's another thing, this thing called time and how we use it. Why is it that we always think we don't have enough time. The truth is I think at least for me is that I don't manage my time well. In fact, I'm lousy at it, and I'll be the first to admit it. So that's one part of me finding balance as an author that I've been working on.

The main thing with time is that I'm finding I have to work on training myself to focus on what I'm doing this moment. For example, in this moment I'm writing this article. So, the trick is whenever my mind wanders to what I'm going to make for dinner tonight, what I have to get at the store, the statements I need to print out so I can pay my school loan payment, and when I'm going to do my taxes that I work on gently bringing my mind back to the task at hand which is writing this article. We get so caught up in what's coming up or what has happened ie we got a bad review for example that we don't focus on the present. My Native American ancestors were actually really good at focusing on the present tasks and I think it's an important part of finding balance to adopt this habit. It's not easy by any means, but it does work when you continue to employ it. I also find I get much more done when I focus on the task at hand. We've become such a society of multi-taskers that it's not any wonder that we feel so frantic all the time. We rarely give our brains a break to just think about one thing at a time.

Since I've begun doing this paying attention to what I'm doing in the moment I mean, I've actually begun writing again. Wonder of wonders, with just this little tip to help me find some balance in my author life, I've begun writing again. Imagine that!