It is finally here! The hot vampire romance LOVE ME TODAY, KILL ME TOMORROW is available at Amazon!
I'm so fricking excited!
Here is the blurb if you need a juicy tidbit:
Alexus's depression is eating her alive. She longs for an escape from the
prison of her life. One day she accidentally witnesses a mass murder
and she soon finds that she might get exactly what she wished for.
Devastatingly handsome, Artus is a vampire that relishes a good
kill. His newest victim is a girl that saw what no human was meant to.
To his surprise, she's receptive to the idea of him draining her dry.
Even more surprising is the dawning realization that he doesn't want to.
Though this book is full of spicy sex scenes and a naughty bad boy, one of the main themes is mental illness. The main character suffers from depression and has no help dealing with it: no therapy, no medication, not even a friend to confide in. She becomes anxious in social situations because she doesn't know how to handle people.
I'm hoping this can help those that don't understand mental illnesses, people who are on the outside looking in, by giving them a glimpse of what it is like to deal with this on a daily basis. The highs and lows. The zoning in and out. The struggle of just getting out of bed everyday. These are real issues that sufferers deal with that a lot of people just don't get.
Tonight I am throwing another party on Facebook! If you love vampires and want to come, it is open to the public and everyone is invited. Some great authors are hosting and there will be plenty of fun games, discussions and lots of sexy vampires. Come party with us!
Please take a minute and visit my website for more information on my novels. To purchase LOVE ME TODAY, KILL ME TOMORROW on Kindle, click here.
Don't forget to check out the cover artist, Julie Nicholls's website for more information on her own published works and cover art. She is just amazing!
I was watching some Youtube vids about creepy ghosts caught on film. Some looked legit, some badly Photoshopped. It reminded me how much I like creepy stuff and got me thinking about my few brushes with ghosts.
As a young child, I would hear counts of hauntings and I would always end up shrugging it off as a load of crap. Ghosts weren't real. As much as I liked to read about them and think up scary stories about them, they just weren't real.
In middle school, I spent the night with a friend and we sat down to watch a movie on one of those TVs that has a VHS player in it. A few minutes in, the TV cut off. I look at her questioningly and she just rolls her eyes. "Oh yeah, the television is haunted."
Of course, I think she's joking, teasing me. She just said it so nonchalantly! But she cuts the TV back on, puts the remote on the dresser in front of the TV and we continue to watch. Later, the movie stops itself and starts rewinding. Now, for you young people, VHS players used to do this at the end of a tape. We were nowhere near the end.
It continued like that throughout the movie: the TV cutting on and off, the movie rewinding, fast forwarding, that sort of stuff all while the remote control is in plain sight. Though slightly freaked, I was mostly full of wonder. Was this really a haunted television or some weird electrical screw up in the wiring?
Not long afterwards, during a party at my house in a very rural area, I was dared to run inside this creepy one-bedroom house that was abandoned and now used by farmers to store tobacco. It was empty this time of year and though I had no idea how old the house actually was or who had lived in it before, I was only a little frightened of it. My brothers and I were pretty adventurous children and we often explored old barns and abandoned buildings without fear.
Never at night, though.
My friends stayed near the barn we played in while I walked the dirt road up to the house that summer night. I went inside with no fuss, sure I would win the bet and laugh in their faces. I saw this light in the middle of the room. It looked like the flame of a candle. Now, from the windows, all manner of lights were shining in from distant houses and trailers across the fields.
But this light wasn't coming from outside. It wasn't a reflection on the glass either. It was just floating in the middle of the room. Needless to say, I hauled ass.
My last real experience with a ghost was more up close and personal. When my mother-in-law's husband died, she moved out of their old bedroom. She claimed that she just couldn't sleep in there anymore. She left the bed, dressers, and rocking chair and just relocated to a room closer to the front of her huge house. Their old bedroom became the guest room.
When her son, his wife, and their son would come to visit, they would usually stay the night because they lived over three hours away. My sister-in-law started claiming the room was haunted. She said she saw mom-in-law's dead husband in their sometimes, often sitting in the rocking chair. We kind of blew her off about it. I recall her spinning the tale, my husband and I rolling our eyes at each other. Mom-in-law, who is hard of hearing, said she never heard or saw anything, though she rarely went to that part of the house anymore.
A couple of years ago, we hit on hard times and moved into my mom-in-law's house with our three girls. Hubby and I took her old bedroom and the kids took the room next to us. It was supposed to be temporary until we found a good place. We stayed for over a year.
During that time, I became pretty well acquainted with the ghost. I am a very light sleeper, unfortunately, which is probably why I was the only one having ghost issues. Late at night, I would feel a pressure on the end of the bed, like someone was sitting on it. We have three cats but we always locked them in another room at night so they wouldn't run around keeping me awake. I would sit up, thinking my husband went to smoke and accidentally let one of the little furry fucktards out. Nothing was there. No cat. So I would roll over and go back to sleep.
Some nights I'd sleep on my side and feel a tap on my shoulder. Thinking it was one of the kids needing something, I'd wake and look but no one was there. Just my husband sleeping soundly, snoring, on the other side of the bed. This happened a handful of times while we lived there. Instead of scaring me, it mostly annoyed me. Momma does not like it when someone messes with her sleep schedule, whether you are living or dead!
It went on like that, me feeling things in the night, no one awake to confirm it. Sometimes at odd times of the day, I would see movement out of the corner of my eye but I always just chocked it up to cats. I might hear sounds like someone moving around at night, again attributing it to the cats in the next room.
The most memorable night was the night I felt someone whisper in my ear, very low but clearly, "Hey." I woke immediately, again thinking it was a kid having a nightmare and wanting to crawl into bed. No one was there. My husband comes in from a smoke a few minutes later and I asked if it was him just messing with me. The man cannot lie to me. He tries but I can always see it in his face. He swore he had no idea what I was talking about.
A few weeks before we moved out, I was sitting on the bed in broad daylight, reading, when the TV across the room turned on. I didn't even know where the hell the remote was. Now that did creep me out because it was the middle of the day! "Stop this bullshit!" I cried out, hopping up and fast walking it to the kitchen where I knew mom-in-law would be.
"It's official, you're haunted." I told her.
I knew she didn't believe me. She would just smile when I would mention the ghost. Like she was humoring a child. I might have an overactive imagination but someone or something disturbing my sleep on random nights was not my idea of a good time!
A few weeks after we moved out and her house became much quieter without kids and cats running around and raising hell, she informed me that she thought she had a ghost. She said she would hear things at night when it was especially quiet. Noises from that room.
Ha! I'm not crazy!
Those are my experiences with ghosts so far. I have always wanted to visit known haunted places at night and get real peeks at paranormal activity. I guess I'm more open to them than some people, or maybe my super hearing and hyperosmia just detect crap that other people can't. Like those damn voices in the baby monitor. It's like twenty people having different conversations at once. Shut the hell up, I'm trying to sleep!
Did you catch the reference? No?
It's from Supernatural. You don't like that show? Go away!
I keed, I keed.
This has been a crazy/wonderful/horrible year for me so far. Entering the world of publishing is quite a learning experience, let me tell you! There is still so much I don't even understand about what I'm doing here as far as the publishing itself. I'm learning new tricks and getting tips from friends everyday. Yeah, it is crazy!
I have learned that I am not good at marketing or promoting my own books, though. Not. At. All. I worked really hard to prepare for the re-release of my short story. I made plans, posted everywhere, redid my author website, created a newsletter, did a Facebook party, etc, etc. The book came out and I was so excited! A week later: no sales. Almost a month later: no sales. Bummer.
Then I find out that the cover I worked so hard to make myself, the one I was so proud of, was not sized right for Createspace. It looked like total ass. That's when I finally broke down and cried. Holy crap, I'm a failure! How can I call myself an author if no one reads my books? Things just seemed to go downhill fast. It got pretty... dark.
Then I thought, fuck it, I might suck at authoring but I can still kick ass at writing. So I did. And I do. I have a new story from a series that I've passed around and have some beta readers going over for me. I've heard back from a few already and they have been super helpful. I plan to publish it next month. People are going to buy it or they're not.
I do have an awesome cover artist working with me this time. Julie Nicholls is an excellent artist who I have great confidence in. We've had some chats through Facebook and email and I know she will work magic to produce a beautiful cover for me! I just can't wait to see it!
I've also been working on another series (actually the one I've been working on for years) and I plan on publishing a book from that one early next year. So yeah, it has been really rough these last few months. I've been lower than I think I've ever been before in my life. I've had bouts of excitement that had me jumping around like a fan girl at ComicCon. But in the end, this is going to be my year for some kick ass writing. 2015, I'm about to make you my bitch.
And people wonder why I'm so busy?
Here is a link to Julie's website. Check out her stunning work!
Being a parent is hard work, don't ever let anyone tell you differently. If you are a parent you know exactly what I'm talking about. The experience is equal parts wonderful and horrifying. Creating life is easy, being responsible for it is another thing entirely. So, like every parent, I have got some stories.
I have four girls so suffice it to say, the estrogen floating around here is in quantities large enough to create an invisible fog that when breathed in, gives you crazy ideas about cooking, hairdressing and nail painting. But I have a serious potty mouth. Though my husband hates it and I'm constantly told what a horrible parent I am, mostly by my family, I could give a shit. This is me. So my children are pretty used to hearing mommy scream out random things like "This fucking internet!" or "Where is my god-damn shoe?" Yes, this is parenthood done right.
My oldest will be turning eleven in a couple weeks. Let me tell you a little story about the Kass-Kass.
A few months ago, (I guess. Time is a funny thing in my world. Hell, it could have been last year, I have no idea.) my daughter approached me about an "embarrassing" problem. She comes in my room with that nervous and excited look in her eye and I'm immediately thinking, "Oh, noooooo, she did not just start her period! I'm not ready for another being experiencing the red river in this household!"
Fortunately, it was another matter. "Mom, I have this weird lump in my nipple."
What is the first thing that would pop into your head? Boobs! Wait, weird lump? Cancer!
"OMG, let me see that thing!"
I was fully prepared for boobdom. Hell, I know she was too. In fourth grade, she had a friend who was almost my height and had boobs my size. I shit you not, this kid borrowed my bathing suit one time to play in the sprinkler and it fit her. So in fifth grade, at a different school, her new best friend is taller than me with boobs about my size. I'm not that fricking short, my kid just chooses to friend the Jolly Green Giant's relatives. Which only makes her look like a dwarf in comparison because she has been the shortest kid in her entire grade for a few years now.
But anyway, back to lump tit.
After some poking and prodding I come to the same conclusion she did: this lump is weird. So I take her to the pediatrician.
"It could be an infection."
Blood work says it is not an infection. They put her on meds anyway, two weeks later we are right back there, lump still there, if anything, bigger.
"It could be this or that."
It is not this or that.
"Well, maybe it is just her breasts growing in." I love how doctors say breasts. Like this is a word people really use outside of romance novels. I live in the real world and in the real world they are boobs. Or tits. Awkward looking, pain-in-the-ass-in-a-tank-top, too-big-and-your-back-hurts boobs.
"Just one?"
"It's rare but it happens. Let's send you to a specialist."
In other words, I have no fucking clue what is going on with your kid so I'll throw you on another doctor. Story of my life.
We go to said specialists and after looking at it for five seconds and touching it once, he comes to the conclusion that it's a breast growing. Right. I had to make a special appointment, drive all the way to another town, using gas I can't afford just for you to basically look at my kid in two minutes? Again, story of my life. Doctors never have the time for my kids.
So, on the way home, while I'm cursing out stupid doctors, I tell the Kass-meister just to keep an eye on it and let me know if it gets bigger or discolored or whatever.
Two weeks later it's gone. Just like that. Definitely weird.
Jump forward to a few days ago. Kass-Kass approaches me again. "Mom, the other nipple has a lump now." Instead of the embarrassed, I'm-growing-up look of pride that she had the last time she approached me, this time she has this frustrated, not-this-shit-again look on her face. I've taught her well.
So once again my kid has a one-lump wonder going on under her shirt that she is just going to have to deal with. Doctors are idiots and boobs don't just show up then disappear. At least, I don't think they are supposed to. Mine didn't but who knows with kids these days? Are boobs like groundhogs now where they pop up, look around and if they don't like the look of things, disappear again? Maybe.
Maybe.
