St. George Reef Lighthouse

Hollywood was wooing back the public with blockbusters like The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Key Largo and The Three Musketeers. The beautiful people were “seen” at the Brown Derby and held their not-so-secret trysts at Chateau Marmont. They drove fishtail-finned Caddies and flew in the luxurious Douglas DC-6.

Darla Foster wanted to be in pictures. Just 21, she worked the circles, attached herself to the arm of any available actor with connections. On this night, March 20, 1948, one of her dreams came true as she sat at Sid Grauman’s Chinese Theatre watching Hollywood’s brightest accept their coveted Oscar statuettes. Later, at the Derby with her date, she met one of Tinsel Town’s favorite sons: the suave, slick headliner, Jordan Kent.

Darla’s life was about to take a sudden left turn as she found herself cast in Jordan’s next big film, about star-crossed lovers, a lighthouse and murder. Exciting fantasy, or true life?

CAPE SEDUCTION… available now for your reading pleasure!  BUY IT HERE:

Chicago 2007

It’s been three years since I last attended Printers Row in Chicago. It was hot but pleasant. Hoards of people. There I met fellow Echelon Press authors J.R. (Jenny) Turner, Luisa Buehler, Robert Goldsborough, Marc Vun Kannon, Margot Justes, Mary Welk and of course our fearless leader, Karen Syed. This year, we’ll be joined by Norm Cowie, Nick Valentino, Sam Morton, Joel Fox, L.J. Sellers, Beth Solheim, Kieryn Nicholas and Marlis Day.

Here’s the press release for my appearance this year.

I’m not packed. I’m leaving the house at around 6:30 AM tomorrow. Mentally, I have my list:  bookmarks, postcards, banner; stickers, pens, Altoids. My standard signing kit, which includes sunscreen, scissors, granola bars, change, lip balm, more pens. Bookstands—new ones this year.

Technology-wise, I’ll have my laptop. My Blackberry. My nook. My iPod. Numerous AC adapters. I’ll be wired for sound.

Also toting some new things. A very pretty necklace with a USB drive hanging from it. Some mini-coloring books with pictures of lighthouses. A hat. Yes, I am wearing a hat.

And I will be seeing my new release for the first time. CAPE SEDUCTION will “pre-release” in limited quantities at this event. I’m so excited about that! I love this book and can’t wait to see/hear the response. Official release will be in August. Ebook is a few days delayed, but should be online for purchase any day now.

Technology slows things down. Yes, that’s what I said – new formats take longer to prepare. We’ve waited this long, a few more days won’t matter!

Come by booth #FF if you’re in town. If not, hang out and read the excerpts while I’m gone.

Will report in when I return. This is going to be a great weekend, thunderstorms and all!

• Small press month
• Women’s history month
• National Nutrition Month
• National Kidney Month
• American Red Cross Month.

See anything interesting yet? Maybe you’re not up to a whole month of anything, so consider this: it’s Read an ebook week! Yes, those annoying tree-huggers are back, admonishing you for still reading paper books! I’ll admit to reading both, although I prefer the “e” variety and have for many years. Do I have a dedicated ereader? Yes, and no. My ereader is the granddaddy of all ebook reading devices, the Rocket eBook, and it’s like 8 years old already. Heavy, clunky, but adorable.

On Monday, I noticed the woman on the next treadmill was jogging while reading a Kindle, placed on the magazine deck of her machine. She had to reach up every few seconds to press the spot that would turn the page as she ran. Very jazzy. Poor me, trying to read about Johnny Depp in Entertainment Weekly, while the overhead fan kept blowing the magazine’s leaves. Hrmph.

To celebrate REBW, my niece and I went to B & N yesterday and she scraped up $280 in cold, hard-earned cash (she’s 18) for a nook™ ereader. (Yes, it’s lower case. Go figure.) We were both so excited and spent quite a while playing with it later. While I am enamored with the upcoming Apple iPad, I am so not enamored with the $500+ price tag. So I’m going to wait a bit, get the feedback from my niece on the nook and see if I get a chance to test drive the iPad when it comes out. In the meantime, I’ll play with her nook. Say, look what she’s reading!

POINT SURRENDER is available for your nook, your Kindle, your Sony reader and even your Rocket eBook. Read it on your computer, your iPhone, your MACBook. Your Pocket PC, your Blackberry, your Palm Pilot. And even (shhh! – don’t tell everyone) available in dead-tree version! (On sale at B&N.com for $11.69!)

Happy Reading!

Coming Soon! (Honest)

Aside from the notion that I am, in fact, going mad, everything seems to be fine.

Everyone is quick to say, “2010 will be better!” Even in the bank today, a customer—a stranger to me—called out the same, asking for my concurrence. I do believe that people everywhere are ready to feel better. They are ready for recovery, and their attitude may just be a self-fulfilling prophecy. I hope so.

About 2009? What do I remember? What influenced me?

John. Although most things take no particular precedence, one event does stand out above all the others: the death of our friend John. Nothing quite so profound has happened to me before. Nothing pervaded my mind so completely for so many weeks and months. The shock notwithstanding, the empathy I felt for his widow—my best friend—was, and is, enormous. Unbidden, the memory of her phone call still haunts me. It’s not something you can forget. Nor was John someone you could forget. If a man’s wealth is truly measure by the love and grief of his survivors, John was a very rich man.                               Other things….

Going back to school. So proud of myself for doing it. I enjoyed my classes, I worked very hard, was rewarded with good grades. 2010: Will resume classes in February.

My family. Hubby had to change jobs, but is working and fully recovered from his health scare of a year ago. Major thankfulness on that front. Kids are now working (yes!), and happy at their jobs. Daughter went missing, alien teenage girl took her place. Still looking for the original, but the replacement turns out to be not so bad.

My writing career.  Finished two novels, nearly finished a third. CAPE SEDUCTION is a great book, probably the best I’ve written, has a wonderful cover I had the pleasure of designing myself, and will be released soon. OLD ENOUGH, another middle grade mystery, is yet to be submitted. (My bad.) My WIP, UNMASKING PAULIE BINGHAM, is nearing completion and at the moment is a long book. Of course it will be shaved down, eventually, and I don’t look forward to that prospect. JUST LIKE JAY, a short story for Sisters-in-Crime/Los Angeles’ upcoming anthology, MURDER IN LA LA LAND, will be published this spring. Huge, puffed-out-chest-pride on that one. 2010:  Will finish Paulie’s story, will start third paranormal lighthouse mystery. Will try to work on getting OLD ENOUGH at least submitted…

Part Two to follow…..

I can’t speak for other writers, but music inspires me so much that I’ve been known to play the same songs again and again—and again!—while I’m working on a  manuscript. The visions conjured by certain a lyric, mood, even pacing mesh with the scenes I am trying to capture. Here is an example.

In STARCROSSED HEARTS, my lengthy, soap-opera styled first installment of the StarCrossed trilogy, there is a scene between hero Dane Pierce and would-be lover Jessica Taylor. The sexual tension between them is high; they’ve had a one-night stand that she’d hung her heart on, and he’d buried in the past. He wants her back, but she’s interested in someone else.

They are on location, a tiny island in the Caribbean, filming a potential blockbuster on the beach. There is a small cantina where the cast & crew unwind in the evenings. It’s dim, smoky, tropical, with a jukebox and a tiny dancefloor. It’s also hot and humid. On this particular night, Jessica is still giving Dane the cold shoulder, and he can’t put up with it much longer. Another guy asks Jessica to dance, and she accepts, with barely a glance over her shoulder at Dane. The dance is decidedly dirty, and Dane gets up and dismisses the young man.

Jessica watched the scene unfold with irritation. She hated Dane for interfering, hated his possessive way with her. She turned from the dance floor as Dane approached, but he caught her by the wrist and pulled her back. “If you want to dance like that…” he said, grinning as the next record to drop on to the player crooned a torchy tale of lustful blues.

Dane took her into his arms, skillfully moving her around the floor in a blatantly shameless exhibition for the watching crowd; his hips moved against her, his thigh sliding between hers as he dipped her backwards in an erotic maneuver that would have challenged Patrick Swayze’s own moves. He held her there for a dizzying length of time. Jessica stared up at him, her hair wet and sticking to the perspiration on her face; she could feel her damp shirt stretched down and taut across her breasts as her chest heaved with emotion. It was a picture of perfect control, Dane’s control over Jessica.

He whipped her back up, spinning her a half turn before stopping with his lips not an inch from hers; she moved as if mesmerized, seeing only Dane, responding to his touch; programmed only for him.

The song ended, and with it, the “spell.” Jessica walked purposefully, if weakly, to the table and sat down. Dane followed, shouting his request for a drink to the bar and straddling a chair facing her.

The song? “I Put a Spell On You” by Creedence Clearwater Revival (click for 1:30 sample from MySpace). Like Dane to Jessica, it was a perfect fit.

So take a look at a sweet, sexy, youthful Edwin as he shares my favorite song. Try not to drool on the keyboard!

Sandie & Dolce

Was it a hoax? It’s kind of looking that way, isn’t it? Would a six year old manifest anxiety over lying by being nauseous? Could happen. If it was a scheme, how sad. People can be so pathetic in their obsession for notoriety. If it truly was as presented, it’s still a sad commentary on many levels.

I don’t usually write politics or religion. I have to admit, even with my (self-imposed) minimal exposure to the media, I am getting sick to death of Obama bashers. And let me say this not about Obama himself or his platforms, his actions, his family, his speeches, etc. It’s just about the depths to which Americans, in general, have sunk. This country has lost its ability to debate, to be civil, to think independently. Manners and dignity have become passé, attributes to be dismissed as archaic. People say whatever they feel, whenever they feel, without regard to anything but their own opinion.

I have a problem with my animals. Until recently, we got by with our big ol’ lovable hulky Golden Retriever, Sandie. Not the sharpest dog in the drawer, but a real lover. Moesha, our feral Tortie cat, tolerates Sandie and barely, the rest of us. She’s a tough kitty, not afraid of anything. Enter Dolce, an almost 2 year old, American-Bred German Shepherd. Dolce is possibly smarter, and definitely better trained than our stubborn Sandie. She minds well, does tricks, has puppy-ADD. And an overt fascination with the cat. If Moesha is even in the house, Dolce can’t function. We are a foster home for this sweet (pun intended) doggie, but I must keep her and the cat separated. I’ve tried and tried to socialize them, to no good result. The cat ends up chasing the dog through the house. It’s become a nightmare. And now, the once-perfectly trained puppy is pooping in my living room. Argh!

For you die-hard, loving, loyal fans, a word:  CAPE SEDUCTION will not release on November 1. Not sure the exact date, hopefully by the end of November. My editor is backed up, and we are not through the edits yet. No worries.

I spoke too soon about our fickle California weather. We are back to warm! Looking forward to a fun, relaxing weekend, hope you are too.

Moesha.

Suffering. I made some kind of mistake, not knowing (well, if we knew when we were making mistakes, we wouldn’t make them, duh!) and now I am trying to fix it. It’s not an easy thing to fix, either. My day was going pretty well, too. The thing is, I’m the kind of person that doesn’t take mistakes that easily. I know people who basically just shrug it off when they goof. Life’s too short for regrets, right? Yeah, but.

Moesha is not my mistake, but she is kind of a mistake, hence her photo here.

We’ve had great weather the past two days. Excellent weather. We are neither sweltering, nor under water. Breezy, 72 degrees, the kind of weather the rest of the nation thinks we have all the time. We don’t. In a matter of days, it will be either HOT again, or the pre-Halloween cold snap will settle in. But I’m okay with it, I really don’t want to live anywhere else. Not permanently. I think I’d enjoy London for a few months. Kahana, too, would work. (That’s in Maui, FYI.)

I’m probably 2/3 or 3/4 through my oddball book. This book will need serious editing. I may consider self-pubbing this one, as an experiment, since the story itself is experimental. My cross-cultured characters are struggling, and I am trying to help them find peace. We shall see.

I caught up with George this week. BOY GEORGE to most of you, George O’Dowd to some and just plain George to me. Although he doesn’t yet know it, we have become good friends as he unwittingly helps me to write my story. Although there have been periods where he has tried to shed the “BOY” part of his moniker, it does have a bit of franchise with it and likely serves him well even now. Unfortunately, his good name has been hi-jacked, used as a somewhat derogatory nickname for conservative British Parliament member George Osborne. (While I’m sure you laugh it off, dear George, I’ll bet you hate it, wish you’d trademarked it way-back-when.) Anyway, George is looking good, sounding good, and I’m happy to see he is busy and productive.

Saturday I’m heading out to the Duarte Library Festival of Authors. Fellow Echelon authors Gayle Carline, Jeff Sherratt and I will be participating in a mystery panel as well as hawking our books to hungry readers. On Sunday, I’ll be signing with Sisters in Crime/LA at WEHO – West Hollywood Book Fair. Should be a fun weekend!

Los Angeles Times reports that ebook readers are expected to be a hot item for holiday sales this year. Great news for all authors, I think. Since CAPE SEDUCTION comes out in November, I’d say that’s very good timing.

Okay, back to obsessing about my mistake. Back soon.

Okay, I’m also writing a new book. Yeah, I know, I shouldn’t be, with school, and the edits to CAPE SEDUCTION due on my desk at any micro-second. (Katie?) I’m also just gearing up to participate in the upcoming political campaign of a good friend. Fun, but time consuming.

Oh, the book? You want to know about that. Well, it’s about… a secret. I mean, the story is a secret. It’s different, WAY different than anything I’ve ever ventured into. I guess you could call it a romance, of sorts, and it involves two unusual, needy people who persist in getting into trouble and rescuing each other every few years. What’s so different about that? Well, not much, actually. It’s just that one of the characters is rather… androgynous. Or maybe a little gender-bent. There I go, spouting off secrets. Zipping lips now.

Have you heard about Echelon Shorts? Well, similar to Bermuda Shorts, only a lot more fun. The authors of short fiction at Echelon are blogging about their great stories. Hey, I think I’m there today! Yep—I’m there, yapping about WHEN HARRY MET SOLI. I love this little story. It’s great fun, about a little boy who is convinced he is the real Harry Potter. Easy, 30-40 minute ebook read for $3.00. Enjoy it today…

Let’s see… today is September 11^th, a day we do, and don’t, really want to remember. What I do recall was my husband sitting beside me on the bed as we watched (again and again) the towers burning, collapsing. He said to me, “the world will never be the same after this.” He was right, of course. Some good info on Patriot Day here.

Today is also my super duper smarty-pantz niece’s 18^th birthday. I can’t believe she made it this far without talking herself—and me—to death. Happy Birthday, Litter Box!

Heading out to the Hollywood Bowl tomorrow night with friends. Our last deal of the year. Blame it on Rio! With fireworks finale! Can’t wait.  (Note to self:  take extra cushion for aching back.)

Okay, chums, have a great weekend and hopefully I’ll be back on track next week…