Great Beginnings

I belong to several Yahoo groups dedicated to writers and writing. There was an interesting discussion on one this week about opening lines of a book. It was such fun to read what the authors posted. My MasterCard wasn't happy since I had to make a trip to Barnes and Noble.com on a shopping trip after reading so many of those great openings. Well, at least I earned a lot of points toward a B&N gift certificate. :-)

I decided to ask the Sizzling Scribes to contribute to my blog this week with their favorite opening lines of one of their books. They graciously agreed to help me.

He saw her standing with a group of three other women. Lust hit him with the force of a size thirteen combat boot rammed into his stomach.

One Night of Pleasure

by Lynn LaFleur

Ellora's Cave

"Mr. Coleridge, I'm Constable Anderson." The officer walked forward, his face and hands scrubbed clean, but his uniform reeking of smoke and dust and death. His eyes and his stench told the story long before he spoke. "I'm very sorry to inform you that there's been an accident."

Firefly Promise

by Nikki Soarde

Ellora's Cave

The corner of Jackson McCay's mouth lifted arrogantly as he stared across the room directly into a set of angry slanting eyes. Lowering his gaze to the barrel of the small derringer pointed straight at his heart, he reached for his own gun lying heavy at his side and lifted it slowly from the holster to set it carefully on the table before him. The sudden click of the silver derringer's hammer being pulled back echoed in the quiet room, an ominous threat as to what would transpire if he didn't continue to follow orders.

Perfect Betrayal

by Ruby Storm

Ellora's Cave

Kendra stood to the full stretch of her five foot seven inch height and glared down at the gorgeous man lounging in the visitor chair on the far side of her desk. "Brand, if you ever put your fangs on one of my friends again, I'm going to rip them out and make myself a pair of earrings."

Vampires and Donuts

from Ellora's Cavemen: Legendary Tails II

by Tielle St. Clare

Ellora's Cave

"Mayday, mayday, this is Rafferty Sloan of the Imperial Cruiser The Federation. We're caught in an unknown planet's orbit at the following coordinates." Sloan rattled off the coordinates and launched the emergency beacon. Feck, he hoped at least one beacon escaped the gravitational pull and made it into open space.

Sloan's Heart

by Arianna Hart

Ellora's Cave

Like the cover of a romance novel, the young couple lay intertwined with each other on a heart-shaped bed, modesty safeguarded only by the closeness of their bodies and the tangle of the red satin sheet. The gold of their hair and of the rings on their fingers glinted in the light from the candles that flickered over them. Clothes lay scattered around the room, and a table by the window held the remains of two meals. On the nightstand, an open bottle of champagne rested in a bucket of swiftly melting ice next to two empty champagne flutes.

Believe in the Magic

by Cait Miller

Ellora's Cave

This was such fun! My only problem with reading all these great opening lines is that now I want to read the whole books!

I think my MasterCard is in trouble again.

Lynn

A Low Tech Kind of Day

We all talk about how technology has invaded our lives…we’re strapped to our cell phones, the kids are always texting, and there is no place to escape it. I’ve started to wonder if anyone has a conversation these days that doesn’t involve hitting a button to send or connect.

But yesterday, I went to the Alaska State Fair and you know…it’s a lot like I remember it from when I was a child. Very low tech.

Oh, the cell phones were still present and a lot of people were on them…usually saying “I’m just down from the Grillin’ Challenge booth. I’m waving. Can you see me?”

I saw one TV…at the Direct TV sales booth…but beyond that everyone was engaged in the fair. I didn’t see one video game in a child’s hand. Even the ear-buds were gone from most ears.

Like most Fairs, our day was all about the food and the rides and the strange little booths you only see at the Fair. The rides have gotten a little scarier from when I was a kid but everyone still eats candied apples and cotton candy and the line for a pork chop on a stick was huge! My favorite food of the day was the Denali Cream Puff...5-inch diameter custard fill pastry with chocolate fudge topping. Yummy!

Going to the Fair reminds me of how low tech our lives can be—not all the time, but just to get away from it. The textiles displays are amazing. Admittedly, it was more my generation checking out the quilts but they are still pretty freakin’ impressive.

Over in the barn area, a pig had given birth the night before to 11 piglets. That grew quite a crowd from kids and adults alike as did the baby chicken section where you can actually watch them hatch and see the various growth stages. Including petting the baby chicks at the end. Sooo cute.

And the highlight of the Alaska State Fair…the giant vegetables. A 127-pound cabbage on display. New world record holder I believe. Here is when the tech came out…we all pulled out cell phones and digital cameras to take a picture!

(Note: the picture is the 2nd Place Cabbage...only 125.9 lbs. Same grower.)

Summer's End

Not sure how everyone else's Summer has been but ours has consisted of 90% rain filled days. Does that predict a Snowy Winter in store for us? The old farmers in our area proclaim that it does. Yeah for my skiing and snowboarding teenagers. But for me...it means possible delays in getting to work or better yet, I get to build even better Snowmen...maybe even a whole snow family.
Being originally from the south, we didn't get much snow as a kid so I do enjoy it from time to time.
But back to the end of Summer...
It's been extreme hot weather spiking between 90 and 100 the past week with horrific storms popping up all over. So to get over this odd change in climate, I've decided to ask all of you to share your favorite SUMMER RECIPE.
To start things off here's mine.
GOTCHA SANGRIA
10 ounces Brandy
10 ounces Triple Sec
30 ounces Orange Juice
30 ounces Ginger Ale
7 1/2 cups of wine (red or white whichever you like)

This recipe equals one gallon of Gotcha Sangria
We call it that because it goes down easy and sneaks up on you quickly.
Looking forward to checking our your recipes and trying them!!!
Tara Nina
www.taranina.com
Hot Romance with a Sexy Attitude

Does Office Max offer a 12 step program???

I admit it, I’m totally addicted to office supplies. I had to go into Staples to buy my children’s school supplies, and I found myself wandering the aisles going, “I’m sure if I buy the $50. desk organizer I will be much more efficient and more able to manage my life!”

I just love all the colorful sticky notes and folders and notebooks. I could spend hours coordinating pens and folders and colored pencils.

Of course, then I’d actually have to DO something with those office supplies, you know, like WRITE!

In all honesty, I have notes for stories written on the backs of receipts, the backs of announcements sent home from my children’s schools, in old college notebooks, and on folded up wads of paper stuffed into my desk drawers. For me, the ideas come when they come, and I don’t always have a handy-dandy notebook and matching colored pen to jot them down in.

Some of my best ideas for stories have been plotted out while doodling during meetings. I’ll get a song in my head and to combat boredom, I’ll try to make a story out of it. I’ve been fiddling around with a story that goes with SON OF A PREACHER MAN by Dusty Springfield. Don’t tell my husband, but that idea came while we were on a road trip and I was supposed to be listening to him vent about work. . .

I guess the moral of this blog is, just because you like all the accessories that go along with writing, doesn’t mean you NEED them to be a writer. All you really need is a writing utensil and a piece of paper—of some sort.

But don’t tell my accountant that, because I’m claiming those colored pens and nifty notebooks I bought today!

How tweet it is...

It used to be "Do you yahoo?" then it was "Do you have a Blog?" closely followed by "Are you on Facebook?" but the newest craze to sweep the net is Twitter. Ok, maybe not so very new. It's been around for a while but I only discovered it a few months ago. For me, as wtih many people it's become a big part of my daily routine. It took me a while to find my way and to discover what the point of it all was. So, if Twitter is still a big mystery to you, here is what I've discovered.

Twitter is what you make of it.
It can be somewhere you visit several times a day, or once a month. Somewhere you post advertisements, new book releases, reviews or hold chats. It can be where you go to find out about all of those. It's a place to go to keep track of how your favorite author is progressing with their work in progress. Find out behind the scenes information about your favorite tv shows from the people who work on them. Touch base with your favorite actors or comedians. Find out what's happening in the world, sometimes before it hits the news. Or just make new friends and chat about your lives. In the few months I've been a member of the community I've done all those things and more.
So tell me, do you tweet?

Vacation anyone?

As my husband and I get ready to take our first vacation sans children, I find myself in a bittersweet place. In our years together BK (Before Kids), we didn’t take many vacations as we couldn’t really afford them, so we went only to places we could get to and come home from on the same day.

Once we had children (2 of them) we did the “staycation” thing long before it was popular. But all a kid really needs is a hose, a sprinkler and a hot day. An ice cream cone from the little white truck doesn’t hurt, either. Who needs to go anywhere?

Then my parents gave us their old pop-up trailer – the same one I’d camped in when I was a kid growing up. My husband’s family had camped as well and we found our feet itching to take the kids somewhere. Anywhere. It didn’t matter…just away for a weekend.

And so it began. Every year was someplace different. At first, we would only go for three-day visits, knowing their ability to handle long car rides had to be honed and refined before trying anything longer. So Sesame Place in Langhorne, PA and the North Pole on Whiteface Mountain with a stop at Frontier Town became our first forays. Zoos and “hands-on” museums were the order of the day and we had a lot of fun seeing who could build the fastest gizmo or make the tallest tower with the huge building blocks.

They kids grew and so did the length of time we stayed away from home. The Seaport in Mystic, Connecticut and whale watching, Plimoth Plantation and the Mayflower one year, Colonial Williamsburg in Virgina the next (and if you’re looking for a great deal, get the year-long pass, even if you’re going to be there only a few days. We figured the kids would be able to handle two days max – and they kept begging to go back. We ended up spending five days wandering the town and participating in lots of activities, including raising a barn! Of course, it didn’t hurt that we slipped in a day to Busch Gardens as well).

And then came Disney. With friends and family scattered throughout the Sunshine State, we combine our trips to Florida with family reunions and stays at Disney World’s Fort Wilderness. Gotta love a trip where one can walk out of the campsite, take a boat and be in the Magic Kingdom - all in half an hour! We’ve now been there a total of four times and will probably go back again in 2010.

So what’s different this year? When my husband’s sister died suddenly last year, her insurance policy listed her mom as the beneficiary. She and my husband’s mother had always planned a trip to Alaska – which they never got to take before Chele’s passing. So my M-I-L decided to use that money to fund a trip for her remaining children and their spouses, plus a niece to help her with her wheelchair.

A bittersweet trip to be sure. First one without children in nearly twenty years, first one on a guided tour rather than us doing our own thing. It wouldn’t even be happening but for my sister-in-law’s accidental death.

And yet….it’s freaking ALASKA!!! We’re going to see glaciers and Denali (Mount McKinley to those of us in the “lower 48”)!!! I’m going to cross two things off my list of Ten Things to do Before I Die list (I’m going to get to see mountains with permanent snow on them and I’m going to see the sun not set. Well, almost not set. It gets to twilight and then it comes back up again, but I’m counting it!). I’m going on a CRUISE, for crying out loud! All the food I can eat and then some. Swimming pool and nightly music. Cue Doc and the Captain, Julie, Issac and Gopher! (and if you know who those people are – um, our ages are showing!).

It’ll be hardest leaving the kids behind. They, on the other hand, can’t wait for Mom and Dad to leave. My son tonight realized he’s going to get seven full days in the house all by himself after his sister leaves for college. I could see the wheels start turning in his head the moment he said, “Sweet!” in response to my affirmation that his math was correct. No, they’re not going to have any trouble at all with Mom and Dad leaving them alone.

And the two of us? My husband and I are looking at this as the honeymoon we wanted but couldn’t afford. We’re soon to be empty-nesters and I can’t think of a better way to reconnect with the man I married. Sappy? Probably. But I am SO looking forward to it!

The one part of this trip that might not come off is a hoped-for booksigning. Because we're on a tour, our free time is limited and scheduling one will be difficult. But I'm still hoping to see fellow scribe Tielle St. Clare at least (waves furiously and hopes to meet for lunch!).

If you live in Alaska, drop me a line or leave a note here. I'd love tips on what to see and do in Fairbanks, Denali, Anchorage, Seward, Ketchikan, Haines and Juneau. And who knows? Maybe I can steal away from the group for a lunch with you! Although I might just have my wonderful husband in tow and you might have to put up with us making goo-goo eyes at each other .

Play safe everyone! See you in a few weeks!
Diana

Writing Partnerships

I recently joined up with two very good friends of mine to co-author a series for Ellora's Cave and Cerridwen Press called The Tarot Cafe. Randi Monroe and I write for EC, Micqui Miller and I write for CP.

Turning Point, the first book of The Tarot Cafe series written by Randi and me, released on June 26th. It took us almost a year to write that book. We had delays due to family, personal crises, other writing obligations, you name it. If there could be a problem to stop our writing, we experienced it. But finally, we typed The End and were so excited to have finished our first project together.

Micqui and I are plotting out our first book we want to submit to CP. Micqui writes romantic suspense instead of erotic romance, so her books contain lots of characters and plot and suspense. She has one book out now with CP, Morning Star, a very powerful book about a mother's love for her children.

Randi and I are currently working on our next two books we plan to pitch to our EC editor. She's finishing up the edits on one while I work on the first draft of the second one. Turning Point is Randi's first published book, but I'm sure it won't be her last. She's very talented.

I never thought about working with a writing partner, much less two! But I'm having so much fun with them. We work well together and it's great to bounce ideas off another writer instead of having to work out everything by myself.

The Tarot Cafe and its owners, Synda and Leandra, were introduced in my book, Premonition, from Ellora's Cave. You can read the first chapter and a

sexy love scene on my website, www.LynnLaFleur.com. And check out our special website, www.TheTarotCafe.com, for info on our books and yummy recipes.

Randi, Micqui and I have lots of ideas for future books. We hope our readers will enjoy the adventures at The Tarot Cafe.

Lynn