Vitamin P! Got any?

Vitamin P.
Ever heard of it?
Me, neither. Until the other day in a magazine, the writer espoused a regular dosage of Pleasure.  Got any for yourself?
Connected to digital devices of every kind, we are definitely hyperactive.
Example? Last night on a newscast covering Irene, all four people on a boardwalk in New Jersey were walking into the camera view with cell phones to their ears.
Really folks. Sure, they were calling home to tell their families, "I'm on TV. Turn in!"
But really! My question is, why the heck were these people out on the BOARDWALK, rain pouring down, ONE WITH A BABY STROLLER, calling home when they should have been in their cars and, as their Governor so improperly told them, "to get the hell off the beach"?  I want to know why they were on their phones (and why the one with the baby stroller wasn't well outta there yesterday)?
More than that, I wonder why the heck they were connected via cell phone when their brains are not connected to their common sense?
Habit?
Addiction?
I vote for both.
I have Rules about how I use my electronic devices.
I don't do email when I travel.
I turn my cell phone off when I'm not using it or not expecting any calls.
I don't text. Ever.
If you want me, you have to email me or call me during normal human being type hours. I do the same for my friends.
I turn off my computer every night at 5, 6 at the latest.
I cook dinner. A really fine one.
I may read at night or I may watch movies.
The news I get comes from the NYT on line and anything else on line until I fold clothes after dinner and watch CNN and MSNBC or maybe (my newest fave) HGTV. (Wanna buy a house in Paris? London? Belize?)
My Blood Pressure is fine.
I work out 2-3x a week.
And my newest addiction is Dance Jam class on Saturdays.
WHAT's your addiction? What are your Rules for electronic devices?
What can you change to give yourself a dose of Vitamin P???

Joy Ride~You need one! Desiree Holt's got one!

Welcome my lovely pal and talented author, Desiree Holt, who celebrates her newest release, JOY RIDE with a great giveaway!  Drum roll!
Here she is:
I look at the places my life has taken me and hope that I was smart enough to enjoy them all while I was there. I had great experiences working as a reporter for weekly newspapers, covering everything from local political meetings, to the trial of a man who shot his wife because she wrecked his car, I once did a tour of thirty stores in one day interviewing Santa Claus. It’s a good thing I didn’t wreck my car! I’ve done things both sane and insane, like promoting the opening of a shopping center by sending a band up in a hot air balloon and stopping traffic for four miles in every directions.

But I think the real richness of my life came from my years managing rock bands.

Rock musicians are a breed unto themselves. The music is their life, and one of their first goals is to be able to move their practice sessions from someone’s garage to a real practice studio. Sometimes they’re lucky and they get to practice far enough out of civilization that only the cows and horses can comment. Other times the poor manager gets to field phone calls from neighbors and—if you’re not lucky, the police—about that “awful sounding stuff”.  But wherever they practice, it’s all about the music.

The sound.

Their sound.

And the music is great. It’s good. It’s terrific. The success of a good song can give you the same high as really good sex. The success of your client can take you to orgasmic levels.  And despite all the pitfalls, there’s nothing like being at the top, even if the bottom is always just a misstep away.

Last year I went to Johnny Depp’s Viper Room to see a performance by an excellent rock band, Run Devil Run. The moment I stepped into the room it was like stepping into my past, surrounded by memories, excitement and hot music. The person who drew my attention, however, was the bass player. Can you say sex on a stick? He was sooo into his music, and so “hawt” on stage you could feel the energy and electricity sizzling from him.  I knew I had to write a story where the hero was based on him.

Check out this shot of him.

And so Joy Ride was born.

The traditional story of the good girl and the bad boy, set against the world of rock music. I hope you’ll come along for the ride with Emma and Marc.

And to celebrate, Decadent Publishing will give away a copy of Joy Ride to one lucky person drawn from those who comment today. 

Available at: Decadent Publishing, Amazon, Sony, All Romance eBooks.

Also, celebrating the opening of my Café Press store where you can purchase all kinds of items with the logo of Lightnin’, the band in Joy Ride.

Just go to www.cafepress.com/desireeholt

Blurb:

Emma, the good girl poster child, is running from a life she suddenly sees as grey and suffocating. A life where she’s successfully buried all her hopes and secret dreams. Until the night she wanders into Aftershock and is immediately drawn to Marc, the hot bass player with the band. Marc doesn’t much care for the groupies who hang around the band. He wants a woman he can create a life with that’s a counterpoint to the craziness of the rock music business. When he sees Emma for the first time something inside him cracks wide open. Just one sizzling glance between them and he’s sure he’s found the woman he wants. But as the relationship grows, there’s a huge stumbling block: Emma won’t tell him her name.  The sex is fabulous but he wants more. So does Emma but her fear of everything falling apart builds a barrier she can’t seem to cross. Marc is taking her on the joy ride of her life, but will her own insecurities destroy everything?

Excerpt:

Clutching the cold beer bottle in her hand, she wedged her way between gyrating bodies, hypnotized by the music until she reached the front of the crowd…and stopped at the edge of the stage, mesmerized. The bass guitarist stood with one foot balanced on the monitor in front of him, his body leaning into the sound. His head was thrown back, dark hair flying around his face as he pounded out the rhythm of the song they were playing. He was wild, uninhibited, totally immersed in his music. He moved with an incredible grace to the accented beat, hips thrusting as his clever fingers plucked the strings and slid on the neck of the guitar.

For one incredible moment, Emma had the feeling he was playing only for her and she realized she really had been struck by “Lightnin’.” Permanently electrified by it.

A surge of heat raced through her, and it wasn’t the kind that emanated from the tightly packed sweaty bodies. Instead, an electric excitement gripped her, sending a charge of unfamiliar sexual thrill to every nerve. Her breasts tingled and between her thighs, she felt a throbbing as deep as the sound of the bass. At first she stood stiffly, clutching her drink. People jostled and shoved her as they kept time to the beat. She took two quick swallows of the beer, grimacing at the bitter taste. But as the alcohol eased her tension, she found herself catching the rhythm of the music and trying to mimic the movements of the bass player, totally caught up in the seductive lure of the song. For one crazy moment, she was gripped by an uncontrollable urge to jump up on the stage, and bump and grind with him. Her! Emma, the good girl!

Clumsily juggling the beer bottle, she slipped the thin strap of her purse over her head so it lay crosswise between her breasts. Her focus still on the bass player, she swayed to the beat, hips moving, rocking. When the song ended, the bass guitarist threw back his head on a final note and then looked out into the crowd, peering beyond the glare of the stage lights.

His eyes seemed to find hers as if pulled by a magnet, and a fist slammed through her.

Ohmigod!

Historicals, at the movies or in print? What's the purpose?

As a professionally trained historian (with grad degree in the Old Stuff), I love to write historical fiction and read it.

A few nights ago, a professor of American history gave a big slam on prime time TV to the new movie, THE HELP. Her critique was, IMHO, the one of the "More Knowledgeable Academician" telling the lowly world how inaccurate, improper and downright disgraceful the film was to have portrayed that time and place and characters with joy, humor or compassion. Her conclusion was that the film is a gross glossing over of the truth.

Now, first, I must tell you, I read this book months ago. Loved it for its humor, compassion and finely drawn characters. Most of all, I loved it for its portrayal of the times and the milieu. I lived through that time and I remember it well.  And while I lived in a fully integrated city and went to public school in one, I also went to college with women (and men) from the Deep South. I know what my friends thought and how they lived. I listened to them as we watched riots and hosings, the aftermath of the murder of Medgar Evers and Dr. King. I visited the South with my friends, met their parents and siblings. And while I am not a professional historian of slavery in America, I can say all of the following with certitude:

1. No book, non-fiction or fiction, can portray the total truth of a period or a people.

2. One book, non-fiction or fiction, can explore only one angle, hopefully, well.

3. One author, especially a fiction author, does not aspire to write the definitive picture of a person, place or period.  (If she does, she'll never finish that book.)

4. The author's job is to pick one premise, one theme and one or two morals of the story. If she's doing her job well, she's going to use the best of her talents to accomplish that limited goal.

5. This author chose to portray a group of white women and a group of black women whose intertwining relationships were representative of a culture and a period.

I think she accomplished her goal well.

If she didn't accomplish this TV historian's goal well, she didn't have to. 

And clearly, since THE HELP continues to strike a chord in hundreds of thousands of people who have read and continue to read it--and smile and laugh and shake their heads and feel the pain of those characters--the author did her job.

That is the only thing she was supposed to do.

The only job any author of fiction has or should.

Pesky little issues of self-publishing: Q & A

Want to learn more about my journey into self-publishing?
Today, I have a blog up at http://goddessesofstorytelling.blogspot.com talking about Questions you should ask yourself about this venture!

To see how well I did, you may buy the book here on AMAZON:
Lady Starling's Stockings
It is also now available on B&N Nook, Apple platforms and many others!
All are available for 99 cents.
Enjoy!
Ciao, bella!

Joy Ride~You need one! Desiree Holt's got one!

OUT TODAY!
Another long lovely trip into romantic fantasy with Desiree Holt!
The set up?
As her thirtieth birthday approaches Emma Blake takes a bold step to shake up her very proper life – she goes to a rock club for the first time in her life and is instantly drawn to Marc, Malone, the electrifying bass player in the band. Throwing caution to the winds she goes home with him, something the “proper” Emma would never have done. Stunned by the erotic night they spend together, Emma also feels an emotional connection forming, and she’s frightened by the intensity of everything. So frightened she refuses to tell Marc her name. But not so frightened she doesn’t go back again. And again. And again. At night she loses herself in his arms. By day she’s fighting not only the confusion in her mind but the fallout from her former lover and from her family, who can’t understand what’s happening to her. As the band’s career is about to take a huge leap forward, an event causes Emma to run from Marc and from the love growing between them. Can she get past her hangups and reach for the joy ride of her life?
WHERE TO BUY: www.decadentpublishing.com
ENJOY!

Delectable! LADY CHAMBERLY'S CHOICES! 5 STARs

Lady Chamberly's Choices
Love Regencies? Love sexy romantic ones?
I know you do. You'll love this one, too!
LADY CHAMBERLY'S CHOICES by Meta Mathews is a treat. What is the plot?

After the Marquess of Chamberly unknowingly participates in the sexual humiliation of Lady Eliza Warren, he feels honor bound to propose. But she wants nothing to do with him—or any other man for that matter. Her forced introduction to acts of a sexual nature convinces her that she can never willingly give a man access to her body. Still, she can’t convince her body that it doesn’t still desire the marquess’ touch.

Determined to right the wrong he’s done to Lady Eliza, Chamberly agrees to marriage on her terms—in name only. He assures her that if anything physical ever happens between them, it will be by her choice. Fortunately, she tends to want him. The challenge is to keep her safe until she chooses to give in to her desires.

Buy it at:
http://www.jasminejade.com/p-9331-lady-chamberlys-choices.aspx 


And now for a nibble, eh?
Copyright, 2011. Meta Mathews. All rights reserved.

Eliza was to recall later that she’d been smiling that afternoon when the new footman interrupted her letter writing. She’d almost finished a missive to her older sister, Martha, who was married to Baron Preston and lived in Sussex. Martha always enjoyed stories involving the antics of their youngest sister, seven-year-old Abigail—who called herself Abby-gal because she thought that was her name.

So, Eliza had written, when Abby remembered she had imprisoned the kitten in Mama’s sewing basket, she ran back to the sitting room to release Boots and discovered the feline had entangled herself in several colors of thread, and in the process destroyed the order of Mama’s basket. Were it not for poor Abby’s condition, I believe Mama would have paddled her on the spot.

“Excuse me, my lady.”

Eliza jumped, not having heard the footman enter the drawing room. What was his name again? Mitchell? Marshall? Whatever it was, he moved too quietly for her taste. He stood practically at her elbow, and she hadn’t even heard him enter the room.

She suppressed a sigh, placed the quill back in its stand, and turned in her chair to face him. “Yes?”

“You have a message, my lady.” He grasped a folded sheet of paper in his hand but made no effort to hold it out to her. Instead, he merely stared at her. Eliza narrowed her eyes. His expression bordered on a sneer, but that made no sense. Footmen didn’t sneer, especially footmen who had been in the family’s employ for only two weeks. They were generally eager to please so they would not lose their position.

But this fellow continued to stare, and he certainly appeared to sneer. Eliza searched her memory and finally recalled his name.

“Thank you, Mayhew.” She nodded toward the paper he held. “May I have my message, please?”

He leaned forward to hand her the letter, then pulled back quickly as though to avoid her touch.

Irritated, Eliza turned her back on him and unfolded the paper. The writing was bold and black.

We have Abigail. If you want your feeble-minded little sister returned to you in one piece, you will follow the instructions in this letter carefully. Otherwise, your sister will disappear forever.

First, you will make an excuse to forego any activities that might have been planned for this evening and retire early.

At ten o’clock, you will make your way to the back door leading out into the garden. There you will be met by a man who goes by the name of Nate. Nate will escort you to a house where you will be the dinner guest of a man and whichever of his followers he chooses to invite.

You are to obey anything and everything Nate or one of your dinner partners tells you to do. If you follow instructions successfully, you will be returned to your home unharmed, and when you arrive home, you will find that your sister is safe in her bed.

Should you fail to obey or successfully follow instructions, your evening will be prolonged and your sister will be turned loose in one of the worst of London’s slums. Considering her limited mental capacities, I doubt she would live a long life, and certainly it would not be a happy one.

Her future is in your hands.

Delicious Danger: Any book by Desiree Holt and certainly this one!

YEP!  She did it again! Another sizzler by Desiree Holt!  Today at EC is Delicious Danger!
The scoop on what's Delicious?
Kelly was shocked when her Caucasian Ovcharka Xena bonded with Rick Latrobe. The dogs are known for linking with only their owners. She’s even more shocked at the intense sexual heat that sizzles between her and Rick. When she tumbles into bed with him at the very first opportunity, experiencing a night of erotic bliss in his arms, she knows they have something special.
But Xena is very much aware when an attempt is made on Rick’s life, and the dog drives Kelly crazy with signals of danger as a shipment of arms is stolen in Iraq. Rick is nearly killed and Kelly and Xena are ferried to the secret clinic he’s taken to. As Rick heals and they race to find the mastermind behind the plot, the sex between them heats to the boiling point.
The link? Buy it here: http://www.jasminejade.com/p-9393-delicious-danger.aspx