Samhain Publishing Ltd. Weblog

Giving the last devil his due

Hey y’all, Beth Williamson here. The last three years I’ve been hanging around with devils. They’ve teased me, tortured me, possessed me and even lured me. Now I can say that I’ve given the last devil his due.

The Art of Procrastination

This morning as I sit at my desk, clicking key after key on my keyboard and surfing every possible site known to humankind, I have decided to write a blog about the one thing I am an expert on: the gentle art of procrastination.

See, even as I write this, an annoying voice in the back of my head is telling me I should be working on my latest manuscript and not messing around with blogs. But that voice has forgotten who it’s talking to. It’s forgotten that I am the master of doing everything except the one thing I should be doing.

Let me catch you up to date with what I’ve done up until now.

I drop the kids at school and seat myself at my desk at about 8.45am with every intention of writing. But I just have to check my emails first and clear my inbox.

Done.

Then I have to check in with the various Yahoo Groups I belong to. Okay, so I don’t like spending too much time at Yahoo groups, especially when I’m working on a book as it wastes precious time, so I simply visit two. Unfortunately, one of these has about 100 messages to wade through. Most of them do not pertain to me, but I read them anyway. Just in case.

Whoops. Quickly have to check email again to make sure no one has responded.

Then something vital pops up. See, I’ve been contemplating going to RT in April next year. It’s a thought. A desire. Nothing definite. But all at once, it’s urgent I check out ticket prices. So, four airlines later, and one trip to Travelocity, and I have all the price comparisons I need. But wait. I best send them to everyone else in Australia who mentioned they may be going to RT. Even the ones who aren’t thinking about going to RT. And maybe to my friends who aren’t even writers because some of the prices are pretty damn good, and maybe, just maybe, one of them has decided, out of the blue, to go to Los Angeles in April next year.

Quick visit to my email to report on ticket price findings, and then I open my current work in progress. I have to work!

Whoops, hang on. I haven’t checked my blogs today. Off I go. Then, once I’m online anyway, I better just check my stats on Amazon. Oh, and why don’t I Google my name, see what comes up that hasn’t already come up on the last 3 879 654 searches I’ve done.

Back to book, because I have to get some words down.

{{Slap}} Twitter. I haven’t check my Tweetdeck. Better run.

You know what? All of this is hungry work. Now I feel the need for some breakfast and a coffee. I bring the food and drink back to the office with me because I can’t afford to eat it in the kitchen and lose all my precious writing time.

But hang on. It’s hard to concentrate on the book when I’m eating, so I’ll just quickly check my emails again. And my Tweets. Oh, and remember, I have to blog at Samhain!

Which is why, almost two hours after sitting down to work on my book, I still have not entered a single new word into that document.

If you would like any tips on how you too can avoid doing the one thing you absolutely have to get done today, email me! Email now! I’m just looking for another excuse not to get back to that book.

Jess

BTW – if you’re looking for a reason not to work, here are some fun sites to check out:

international Heat
Down Under Divas
My blog
My Website

NEW RELEASE: JACK (Red, Hot & Blue, Book 2)

Okay, so now I’m going to spill some secrets about the writing of JACK that I hope don’t get me whacked… here it goes…

Desperately Seeking...

Some of you will look at this post and realize that it’s a repost of something I posted on my blog last week. But I know a lot of people don’t see that, and a lot of people like to know specifically what some editors are looking for. So, here ye be. =)

1. Foodie books a la Lousia Edwards. I love her “A Recipe for Love” books, and I’d love to see some contemporary foodie books. And when I saw foodie, I mean I want the details. I don’t want books that contain food. =P If you don’t know anything about being a chef, catering, how a restaurant runs, etc. then you probably shouldn’t even think about writing a book like this. =)

2. Harry Potter with a twist. I love the world Harry Potter is set in, I love the wizardry, I love the fantastical story/stories. I would LOVE to see something like this, only with adults instead, since Samhain is currently not accepting any YA materials. And when I say adult, it doesn’t mean add a bunch of sex scenes into it. No, that’s not want I want. Heck, there doesn’t have to be any sex in it at all, but it needs to have romance in it. Come on, you can do it.

3. Stories with a Pagan theme/character/s. No, not the Harry Potter type of magic. And really not “magic” as people think of it as all. I want to see people following real Pagan and Wiccan traditions. Blessed be. =)

4. The ’60s. I LOVE the 60s. Whenever someone asks me when I feel I should have lived, I always answer the 60s or the 20s. Give me Timothy Leary and Haight Ashbury, Grateful Dead, Janis Jopin, The Doors and Jimi Hendrix. Give me Woodstock. Give me the protests. Give me free love.

5. The ’20s. I love the 20s. Prohibition and flappers and gangsters….love it. There is a Purdue Bar in my town called “Harry’s Chocolate Shop” that is just steeped in history. Back during Prohibition, they turned it into a chocolate shop, but there was a trap door in the floor that led to an underground speakeasy. That same trap door is still there in the middle of the floor, except now they use the area for a cooler and storage. All of Harry’s shirts that you can buy say “Go ugly early.” The majority of people who see the shirts or don’t know anything about Harry’s think it’s some sort of drinking slogan. Nope….it was the password to get into the speakeasy during Prohibition. =)

6. Civil War/Underground Railroad/interracial. Oooh, this could really be a good one if done right. Gimme history, give me some hot loving between two people who shouldn’t be together during that time frame. I want to see how love can cross all obstacles…slavery, racism, war. Be aware when you submit me something like this, I’m a Civil War buff. Hint, hint.

7. The ’50s. Ah, the days of Leave It to Beaver and Father Knows Best. Where men worked and women stayed home to take care of the kids, clean the house, cook, and have a cocktail tell ready for their master…I mean husband, when they got home from work. Just think of all the neat things you can do with this genre. =)

8. Post-Apocalyptic/Doomsday. Do I really need to explain this one? smile

9. Serial-Killers/Cults/Etc. Did anyone say Dexter? Yeah, that’s what I want, baby. Dexter with more romance. Don’t look at me crazy, it can be done.

Note: One thing about all of the “historical” stuff I’m looking for…do your research and know the time period. I want to read the book and be immersed in that time frame. I want really history in it. That’s extremely important.

VIRTUALLY HERS arrives in print (by Gennita Low)

First, my thanks to Vivian Arend for helping me out of my technical difficulties.

I’m Gennita Low, and I’m so excited about my first Samhain book in print! It’s Virtually Hers and the cover is everything I imagined my hero to be. Kanaxa did a great job!

I’m visual writer, always trying to find the right image in my head. I love to write with lots pictures posted around my area (and yes, this makes the place very messy, but hey, my furbabies make a bigger mess…). One thing that makes my writing job fun is the eye candy research and pictures. For fun, I made a slide show of my now-in-print book, VIRTUALLY HERS, spoofing the All Spice Man ad, you know, the very sexy guy in a towel telling you to just look at him.

Granite Lake Wolves in PRINT

It’s been a long ski from Granite Lake to the shelf of the bookstore, and yet every moment of the journey has been incredible.

February of 2006, my family of four took a helicopter ride into a beautiful part of the Yukon. There we found a small cabin on the edge of Granite Lake. With a ten and a twelve year old, we ice-fished, played cards and eventually skied the 16km out to the Alaskan Highway.

Our son, who refused to leave the ice auger behind, strapped it to his backpack and carried it the entire way out. There is nothing more stubborn than a twelve year old.

It was a couple years later I decided to write a story about werewolves, and the setting of the North was a must. Having traveled through parts of the Alaskan and Yukon wilderness, it was the perfect place for the Granite Lake wolves to find a home.

Wolf Signs released in March of 2009, Wolf Flight in October. Two novellas about the loves and lives of a group of people who just happen to be able to change into something furry. Wolves.

They say the North changes people. It changed my life. Gave me memories I now love to share in my storytelling. Share with you.

Welcome to Granite Lake. Under the Northern Lights there are many things to see and enjoy. Hope to see you there soon.

Warning: Contains nasty Alphas, secret Omegas, and yup—predestined mates. Includes dangerous use of sarcasm and hot wilderness nookie.

~~~

Under the Northern Lights is an anthology of the first two books in the Granite Lake Wolves series. It’s available from MB&M, Amazon , B&N, and BookDepository

Book 3 in the series Wolf Games is available in ebook, with Book 4, Wolf Tracks, releasing in October.

Vivian Arend continues to write about the outdoors, including the ocean, the mountains and the occasional sauna/wilderness cabin. You can visit Romance, Hot and Wild to find out what’s next.

Love, Like Ghosts Becomes Corporeal!

That is, it’s out in print now :) Woo-hoo! I think Kanaxa’s cover is especially suited to touching inappropriately. Heh. Here’s the blurb, and an excerpt to whet your appetite. Enjoy!

© Copyright 2010 Ally Blue
Buy the book (and read a different excerpt) here.

Truth. Lies. A century-old mystery. What a tangled web…

What's Love Got to Do With It?

Swans mate for life, but by nature, humans are more like the fickle hummingbird. Or are they? Is man truly less committed to relationship than a swan?

Evidence for fickleness abounds of course – societal acceptance of casual sex, increasing numbers of out of wedlock pregnancies, high divorce and STD rates. On the other hand, there are those who stay with an abusive partner or one who will never provide them with the loving support they deserve. Why can’t/don’t they pull away?

To Read or to Write, That is the Question

Like many authors, every now and again I fall into a writing slump that takes a while to get out of. I’ll often turn to poetry to get my creative juices flowing. Sometimes I’ll go to a writer’s site I’m fond of and review other writers’ work. My last resort is to stop writing all together and read. Why is that the last resort? Because once I start it’s very hard to stop. I have many authors I love to read, quite a few in my own genre and some not, and their books are hard to resist. It never fails that as soon as I start a new project the next book in a series I like is released and I’m torn.

Redefining "Sexy" for A Man

Men are visual creatures. This is no secret. They like a gorgeous face and big boobs and long, lean legs. They are visually attracted to woman’s body first and foremost, but what happens when they can’t see?

In SOUNDS TO DIE BY my hero, Ian Cabrera, was blind. When his senses sharpened, his hearing abilitied more than tripled. Thanks to the help of his dad’s special ops team Ian was trained to survive and use his blindness to his advantage.

Fast forward to adulthood and Ian’s a man who can walk through a crowd without a cane or dog. He knows who is in a room by the way they move or more uniquely by the sound of their heartbeat. He can handle himself in hand-to-hand as competently as a sighted person. And he’s an expert listener with high tech equipment designed for him.

In “Covert Affairs”, a new spy show, Auggie Anderson was blinded on an op, but rather than wallow in self-pity he’s moved in a new direction. As an expert tech with well-honed hearing he’s able to tell who steps into a room before they speak. he can handle the computers with skill and hand-to-hand fighting isn’t an issue.

Both men have the ability, and they use it, to pick up on emotions by a person’s voice, and both men have to rely on senses other than sight to determine what attracts them.

So what is it that makes a woman attractive, sexy, or appealing to a man? Her voice? The sound of her hair brushing a silk blouse? The way she shifts against him, her clothes brushing against her lace underwear? The way she smells? The way other men talk around her? The taste of her kiss? The feel of her hand in his?

Tell me, if you couldn’t see your love, what do you think it would be that would attract you to them?

Nikki Duncan

SOUNDS TO DIE BY is now available in print. Learn more here, or skip straight to buying. ;)