Cover of the Week

I won somat! I never won somat! Thank you for voting - IRMC Books website is fabulous for getting the skinny on all forthcoming releases, sexy cover votes, author interviews and much more. Once again, I WON SOMAT!!! And Billy is calm. (tiny woo hoo!)

Blue Velvet

Oh dear. I've hit a bit of a brick wall. Actually a lot of a brick wall. I knew my Superman/Clark Kent trying to juggle two different roles thing would catch up with me eventually and it has. I would love for the day to come where all I do is swan around in my big arse mansion and write all day every day. The day is yet to come. I have a day job - sucks. I have a life - impacting on everything else and Hank has gone on a Muse holiday - or knowing Hank a Muse stag do (bachelor party). I'm stuck dudes.

Fortunately, I have access to the Woman Who Knows (Jayha Leigh) who told me to take a break.  I will. I don't know how it'll work hopefully in the finding of the Zen, Zen will happen all by itself. Come on Zen, hurry up man I gots things to do!

Ascending To Outer Space

I now have the biggest girl crush on Marteeka Kartland. I can't help it. So much so, I've dubbed her Freaky Teeky. I do have a reason for this worship. I read two stories from her Wanted series, the second of which is Vodka Shots.

It features Russian Dmitry, who is mad. Mad, mad, mad. Mad as a cow with a well known disease, and with good reason. The woman he loves has not only left him but betrayed him to the Consolidation. He's out to find her, capture her and make her suffer for every minute he suffered. Karri had to make a sacrifice for her child, which meant giving up Dmitry and it broke her heart. The danger the two face is not just in getting Karri's child back, but what happens when Dmitry catches up with Karri.

I have never wanted to jump a man more than when I finished this story. Marteeka isn't just smart and ridiculously talented (she does her own cover art) she's bold. There's a line in this story that made my jaw hit my laptop, then made me break a rib laughing so hard. She writes with such clarity of thought and the beauty of her word weaving is that you are instantly pulled into the world with the lightest of descriptions, you know where you are, you know what the limitations are, you know who is who, they be getting busy and they are not going to apologise about how good that loving is going to be. I would recommend start on the first book, White Russian just to get comfortable (and uncomfortable in other places if you know what I mean!)

You won't love Dmitry to start, but damn if he won't throw you down on the nearest space bed and make you love him. He proves his worthiness within sixty pages of intergalatic erotica. The cherry on top are the secondary characters, one of which got me into so much trouble. There was a treaty and negotiations and, I don't know what. Totally worth it though, the man is melted chocolate on caramel on peach cobbler with toffee pieces delicious.

You know what, just thinking about this is getting me all hot and bothered again. I'll catch up with you later. Phew! Hot in here...

http://www.changelingpress.com/product.php?&upt=book&ubid=1613

To the Right and Down South

Don't get me wrong I love Ghanaians and I write about them because I know them. Mostly due to their voices still ringing in my head from years ago. But while I was writing about Tony (still doing it, not finished yet, please don't hurt me) I wrote a short story about a Zimbabwe girl married to a Scottish soldier who has just finished a tour in Afghanistan. What? Why make things simple?

Anyways, I picked Zimbabwe for two reasons. One, because one of the nicest women I've ever met talked of her home country with such love and disappointment and grief that I thought er 'what if...' and on the other because well, I had a very good chat with a Zimbabwean lawyer who reminded me that responsibility for justice is global. I'm very keen on the global justice. Makes interracial interaction easier. Okay three. I wanted to venture from Ghana. See if I could do it. Actually the best judge of that will be y'all. So let me know what you think when you have a read.

Rolling In The Deep

You've seen my post about how much I freaking love Violette Dubrinsky, right? Well! She's doing a series called The Dark Gods Saga. There are so many Greek Gods to play around with, I expect to be reading new ones when I'm eighty and showing parts to my husband and say, “Remember when we were able to do that?” For him to say, “Woman I did that to you last night!”

And back to the Purple Lady! I don't know what to say other than, dayum! This book knocked me sideways. It was not at all what I was expecting, leaving me astounded. Okay, let me start with some sense.

Remember Thanatos from Fallen? Remember he had a twin brother? Yes, my jaw did that too, stick with me. In Bound beautiful blond Hypnos, god of sleep and dreams is held and tortured to the point of death by Marissa, a succubus of the worst kind. By some god-like miracle, he is helped to escape and as he heals, he plots wicked revenge against Marissa. When he's finished with her, there won't be a trace of her left in Olympus, Earth or the Underworld, to beings awake or asleep.

Quietly struggling with her own pain, caused by her own existence, is succubus in hiding, Katrina who happens to be the spitting image of Marissa. Katrina is in Hypnos' sights for vengeance that only a dark god can conjure, regardless that it's mistaken identity of the highest order. Now, I can't go into too much detail because I will spoil it for you. But I do want to say this.

There are some people who pooh-pooh romance/erotic writers as fluff. Because it features a happy ending or it's about love, so it couldn't possibly have the depth or richness of intelligence that one would apply to a for example 'Cloud Atlas'. The same people should sit down and read this book and tell me the same thing when they are finished. It gets dark, dangerous, and there is an deep emotional understanding about this story that brought me pretty damn close to tears. The essence of this book I believe is forgiveness. And how love itself is dependant on other emotions to support its survival. Bound is sharp, vivid, almost recklessly sexy – makes a girl want to do bad things! It's also a love that is as sad, beautiful and moreover as everlasting as all the greats. Get reading and get breathless people.

PS Violette, if my family finds out about my plans to get a tattoo, it's totally your fault.

Busy Billy

I've been really quiet recently - blogging wise anyway. I did a mini total of what I've been up to in the last few months, what with family, my 'day' job, getting published, birthdays, weddings, cat babies. It's been mad. Which is why I resonated with Nevea Lane's blog post:

http://nevealane.wordpress.com/2011/06/02/resurrected-and-ready/

Sometimes we all need to stop and take a breather. Which I did for all of an hour before in the middle of scribbling Tony's story, I stopped and did a really short story about a reunion sealed with a kiss. I didn't mean to, it just popped into my head! Don't worry, I'm still all over Mr T. Caristo, I just had a brief diversion. Which is finished. Promise. Back on the road with everything.