You say you like fantasy? You say you want Trolls, fairies, valkyries and a terrific adventurous love story to boot? Then say no more, because here! It’s finally here. FIREBRAND by P.K. Eden. This novel written by Kathye Quick and I is the book of our collective hearts.
We worked hard and long on this story and fell in love with our characters from the beginning. Kathye’s incredible plotting and world building offers up true heart pounding adventure as well as excellent storytelling. I could not have written this book without her. (She of course says the same, but its not true-she is the best). We can’t say which one of the character’s are our favorite because each is no unique is his/her own right. I, of course have a secret and unhealthy lean toward the bad boy Gorash. But Kubla the mighty warrior who I fashioned after Tyr Anazazi is my favorite love man. I adore the interaction we created between him and Teezal the protector. The story is theirs and we will be working on it soon. So! If you want adventure spice and thrills by the minute visit Cerridwen Press
And download FIREBRAND. You won’t be sorry.
Update! FIREBRAND IS JANUARY 2008 TWO-LIPS REVIEWERS CHOICE AWARD.

It's my Blog and I'll B&(*ch if I want to..(Sing it like Leslie Gore)

I am assuming everyone has heard the phrase CATCH-22. Well without naming too many names let’s just say that is where most of us writer’s who do NOT have an A*$&%T, and the PUB&#&^#$er says you need one. But when queried, the A*$&%T tells you that they are not taking on any NEW clients, or that YOUR work is not right for any publisher in the known universe. That is when your frustration becomes almost tangible, and you are sure you can rip the yellow pages in half with your two front teeth.

Yes my friends, as I perused the vast world of media information to see just who is looking for what in the annals of publishing, I keep seeing the same phrases, WE ARE LOOKING FOR NEW AND FRESH VOICES and NO UNAGENTED MANUSCRIPTS ACCEPTED. So I ask you, is it fresh voices they are really looking for or just want to continue to walk the safe road? I have known a few brave A&*$&%Ts who dared to take a chance on someone new (not someone they KNEW) and made quite a name for themselves and helped someone get published. It was so refreshing. BUT THEN....the other day, I went into the one the larger book chains (you know of where I speak) and I was appalled at some of the stuff that has been put to paper. If I may borrow the line from somewhere, I WEPT FOR THE TREES. How in the world can such CRAP be published, yet people with real stories to tell never get a chance to tell them? The big HUH? in the middle of my face gave me a headache that has lasted until today.It’s said that everyone can write a book but not everyone can tell a good story, but WHY do some stupid stories get published?

Just the other day I was watching the FOOD Channel where this guy who was into photography decided he was going to take pictures of EVERYTHING he ate (before he ate ...thankfully) it. It was daily pictures of his morning French cruller, lunchtime pizza and even his all day chicken SOUP marathon when he had a week long cold. I kid you not, this GUY had a book published about it. He said he wanted to "educate the masses." ON WHAT? I eat every day and nobody gives an old rat's left nut ball.

Why do I and other writer/readers see the same old thing ALL the time? I’m not angry, just bewildered. When they say: "This is what’s hot" and "what we want more of," so run home and hurry to send it in, and WHAM, the manuscript hits you in the back of the head before you can get your car door closed. I call this the Frustration Factor and TOO many of us are living it. But I'll keep on just like you'll keep on, because you know what? YOU NEVER KNOW!

Luck Vs Chance

Is there really a difference? Are people just lucky? Or is there some little pack of powers-that-be who pick and choose who they want to reward or mess with?
I know you’ve been wondering about this, so I figured I’d get it off my chest and help get it off yours.

We’ve all had those days and certainly those thoughts of why ME and why NOT me. Yeah, yeah I know we’re supposed to be thankful, and I am, as I am sure you are. But come now, haven’t you ever wondered about stuff? Like the Lottery numbers and how some days they come out 1-2-3-4-5-6-11 or 34-35-36-37-38-7? Or my personal favorite, when MILLIONS of people are playing MILLIONS of different combinations of numbers, yet days go by without a winner and then BOOM someone (no one we know of course) wins the whole kit and caboodle! Somewhere along the lines of Eighty-Two Krillion dollars to the ninth power.
Is that LUCK or CHANCE? Or is it that your chances AND your luck just plain SUCK!
How is LUCK determined? Who determines? Is it living right? Living wrong to see what you do with it all?

Why am I going here? Certainly you’ve heard about the family that won Million in the Lottery-TWICE! Oh I can just hear some people saying that they might have things in their lives that are NOT so favorable and I totally understand that, but TWICE in less than ten years?

You like that? well you're just gonna love this. MILWAUKEE - U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, already a millionaire and heir to the Kimberly-Clark fortune, is on a lucky streak. The Republican hit it big in 1997 with a $250,000 jackpot in the District of Columbia lottery. Then, last spring, he won $1,000 prize in the Wisconsin lottery, and he won another $1,000 in that lottery last week. Okay so it wasn't like he didn't ALREADY have money, the fates decided he needed MORE $$$. Go Figure. Or maybe not because in the scheme of things, the figures just don't add up.

And what’s this mess about people saying that after they’ve won One hundred sixty BA-ZILLION dollars that they will NOT quit their mundane (usually just above minimum wage) job because they LIKE it there. This is right up there on my give-me-a-friggin list. Everybody I know would not only quit, but act like they never had a job in their lives.

Okay so let’s talk about the actual cash. How come people who win go bankrupt in a few years? Why don’t they ask me about how to spend money, or better yet let my friend Thel SHOW them how to spend it. She’s an expert and will not only have them buying stuff they don’t need, but everything they want but with purpose. But NOOooooooooooooo, people just have to spend it until its gone. What ever happened to the rainy day syndrome? SAVE SOME FOR A RAINY FREAKIN… well you know what I mean. Maybe I should win so I can show people that it won't change me. Yeah right!

I know someone has to be first, and someone has to be last. I know the world is filled with winners and losers, (a lot more losers given today’s standards and all), but what are the chances that the same people would hit on good fortune so many times? On the other hand I know its not just GOOD luck, but how about the people seemingly have nothing BUT bad luck? WHO IS MESSING WITH THEM AND WHY? (This is where being thankful for the hand you've been dealt comes in.

I think I ought to stop here, because the fates are listening and I don’t want to catch any undue attention. But this right in the realm of why and something to make you think. So? what DO you think?

Daniel Jackson an Ori? I don’t think so.

Okay, so I pretty much stopped watching Stargate SG1 when Richard Dean Anderson left. As a creature of habit I usually stay close to the original of things. Like Lays and Wise potato chips, not
Utz or store brand, Hellmans REAL mayonnaise not Salad-spread and Butter not Margarine, stuff like that.
I love the chemistry between Daniel, Samantha Carter, Jack and Teal’c, it just worked for me all the time. By time R.D.A left the show and they brought on Claudia Black and Ben Browder (formally of Farscape) I was pissed. I mean they worked fine there, I loved them there, but they never worked on SG1 for me. Number one, Ben is cute but he’s a little too cutesy and Claudia Black is getting a little long in the tooth to be wearing them damned pigtails. GIVE EM UP ALREADY.

I liked it when Daniel ascended into a higher being. (do these writers recycle? I saw this premise on Buffy, Angel AND Charmed) not to mention the 5thj incarnation of DR.WHO, but this ORI thing was a complete mystery to me.

Having spewed my disgruntled-ness, (is that even a word?) I might as well go on to say that I got so stubborn that I adamantly REFUSED to watch Stargate Atlantis. But like a child coaxed with a treat I gave in and discovered Ronan Dax (Jason Mamoa) and well anyone who knows me, knows what happened next. Yep you got it, but I only watched the scenes with him in it.
But like all really good shows, Star Trek, Beauty and the Beast etc, it all has to end. So what am I tiptoeing around now?
EUREKA!

Exercise and Cake

I couldn’t have had a lovelier Thursday evening.
Okay, I’d all ready been told that my wonderful Aqua Aerobics buddies wanted to take for dessert at a local restaurant to celebrate my new book. What I did not expect was Joan T., a truly terrific person (as well as alternate instructor) made me a beautiful Tee shirt and Tote bag with the cover of my new book on them. I was floored.

Ordinarily that accompanied with the much anticipated gooey sticky calorie laden-gut-bustin-ruin-every-diet-you’re-ever gonna-be-on cakes and pies, would have been enough, but there were other surprises, like how ALL the ladies jumped out wearing a tee with the cover on it. You simply cannot buy that kind of advertising folks.

As we got to the restaurant, still more people showed up including someone who no longer comes to our classes (because of the distance) and I wanted to cry but didn’t because I was all ready a sight having just gotten out of water and make-up was distant memory. Both my instructors were there Laura and Diane, and at least I couldn’t feel that guilty about eating the Pecan pie sans whipped cream (because they didn’t have any).
You think that’s all? NOT!, I was presented with a HUGE bouquet of flowers with everything in them including tiger lilies, roses, freesia and everything else.
We ate and laughed and then I signed their shirts. I couldn’t have felt more like a celebrity.

If you ever wonder why special people come into your life when they do, don’t just be grateful for the blessing of their presence. Thank you Julie, Sue, Laura, Liz, Diane, Alicia, Mirta and Mary too who would have been there but had a really bad cold. I especially want to thank and give a great big cyber-hug to Joan. It’s not just for this but just being a great person.

Ring Dancer's Destiny has arrived

Yesterday I got my FLE's (final line edits) but nothing prepared me for to day when I saw that my book was listed on the Cerridwen Press Website as a new release.

It's a dream come true and when it comes out in print, I will be even happier.

I have to tell you that my Editor who lives and works in Australia, was up until 4am her time to make sure my (and other releases) got out on time. She is immeasurably wonderful. The next edits for my collaborative effort FIREBRAND with renowned author Kathye Quick will be starting soon so I am looking straight ahead and will keep on going.

Listening to the written word

Everyone knows I love AUDIO books. It started when I was working at a job that required me to spend endless hours testing , re-testing and tri-testing data for one of the largest health insurance carriers in the country. BORING!

Like most women I live in multi-task town ( because we have to) and was able to do my work effectively while enjoying a damn good read. (not to mention keeping annoying mundane conversationalists away. I have acquired quite an extensive list of books that I have listened to from 2002 to present on an excel spreadsheet. The anal part of me categorizes them, rates them, and I do have a list of the audio readers that I like. Some famous, others, not so much. Brad Pitt has a great narrative voice (Interview with a vampire) and does a wonderful job on westerns. Alison Fraser (not so famous) has a great Highland Scottish voice in both the female and make point of view.

I've found that a lot of biographies are read by the author, which gives it a little more personalization. Speaking of that, I've read quite a few and I can tell you, some famous people give it ALL up and others just tease around the edges making you wonder, "OKAY WHAT ARE YOU NOT TELLING ME."

I guess you you're wondering do I listen and drive. Yes I do. But to me its no different from listening to your favorite radio station or someone yammering at you in the car. HEY! if people can keep a cellphone to their ear like they were born with or or surgically attached, then a little tiny ear plug or shoving a cassette or CD in the slot is not going to hurt anybody. I do it when I garden or just sitting in my back yard enjoying the breeze. (we get good ones).

Some people can 't wrap themselves around Audio books, but I love them and if you start, you you really need to get a good one so you don't get turned off by a bad read. If you want to know what's good, lemmie know. I got a list.

Green it up will ya!

Kinda sounds like "GROW UP" doesn't it? Something your parents used to say. Well folks we are in it up to our sweet little necks. The chickens have come home to roost, the cat's in the cradle, who let the dogs out? We did it all and I am thinking that the powers that be are NOT happy.

Mother Nature has put her hand’s on her hips and asking "what the #^$%@#(@ are you all doing?"
Okay I am not about to pontificate on things you all ready know, like how millions of forests have burned out and how the floods have devastated the mid and south wests, or how the snow trails up to Mount Everest are now beginning to look like yellow brick road. I am hoping now that we are beginning to see the painful destruction of mother earth that we will at least do something to slow the process. Just ONE Eco-efficient light bulb is a start, I am replacing all mine.

Bend it like MONEY

Is it just me or has Celebrity endorsement gotten way out of hand.
GA-Zillions? Isn’t there anything else we can do with that money? Yeah Yeah! I know WHY they do it, its to get US to pay for their products so that THEY can pay them. Whew! I think I just answered my own question. Having said that, BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM, DAVID… I think I might just have to shell out the ducats too.

Mama's got a brand new book

Well folks here it is, the long awaited cover of my first

full length novel. I guess you might want to know a little about the premise. Well let's say, WHAT IF KING ARTHUR AND
GUINEVERE HAD NEVER MET?

The story itself is not so much about them, but about Gillaine Madeen, a woman of middle years, and Lachlan Gilwayden, a Scottish Liege whose destiny it was to see that it did happen.

It's a love story, its a bit of a historical, complete with secrets, battles and lots and lots of magic.

Two of the most enjoyable characters are Hallum, the Liege's General and Conor, the ruler's illegitimate, precocious son by Gillaine.

A heavy secret prevents Lachlan from accepting true love, but when all is revealed, his very life hangs in the balance and only Merlin and the forgiveness of the woman he wronged can save him.

Typical you say? Nahhh!

There is also back story that includes a very hateful MAB, queen of the sorceresses and how she gets even with Merlin for loving young Nimue, a novice LAKE PROTECTOR and his true love, and how she becomes the Lady of the Lake and insures that Arthur will indeed be king.