Yellow Balloons for Boston

Two yellow balloons
escape

Smoke, Panic, Destruction
death
Bystanders, cheering
are now the runners, escaping
Victims and the terrified flee the sidewalks
and road and buildings, away
Helpers by the Dozens
flee to those injured, frightened
offering arms, feet, shelter,
protection
Come, we will carry you
away, as the wind carries the smoke
the screams, the terror
away.

The world watches
saddened
and two yellow balloons
float up into the sky

~~ ~~ ~~

My heart, as with much of the rest of the world, is with Boston and all those affected by the horrific attack on15 Apr 2013. As I watched footage, the searing sight of two yellow balloons released from a child’s hand gripped my soul.

I have spent many hours in Boston. It’s one of my favorite cities. I’ve written it into stories. I carry the memories, just as a good friend carried my daughter on his shoulders while we traveled Independence Trail years ago. That daughter is grown now. We live a couple of states away now.

I have lived in a terrorized zone and I understand how shaken everyone in the area will be for a long time to come. I pray for all those injured physically and mentally to find peace again. 

For those who were murdered… let there be justice.

The Julia Belle Swain: FT scenery

According to traced family history, I have some ancestry in common with Mark Twain. Maybe that’s where my love of boats, and especially old steamboats, comes from.

What a thrill it was when my Girl Scout troop arranged a short journey up and down the Illinois River on the Julia Belle Swain. Isn’t that a gorgeous name for a steamship? I vividly remember watching that big red paddle wheel rotate slowly into and out of the river, sloshing water up along with it, as I stood on the deck and the city crept by on both sides.

The Julia Belle docked in Peoria back on those days. By the time I graduated high school, she had moved on. I had no idea where she went and chose to believe she was elsewhere instead of other dreaded possibilities.

A boat is like living thing. It seems to have life of its own. And it deserves the respect that comes with that. At least in my mind that’s true.

In the late Eighties, the Julia Belle had been replaced with the Spirit of Peoria (pictured above), which looks much the same. To me, it wasn’t the same. It’s not the steamship I stood on and merged with as we rolled along the murky green river. It doesn’t have that “first time” and “new adventure” feel when I think of it. Still, I’m glad there’s still an old steamship representative in my home town area.

I’ve just found that the Julia Belle is indeed docked somewhere. She’s sitting in Wisconsin and there is a new group trying to raise awareness and work at preserving her. They have plenty of photos on their Facebook Page, so go give it a look! (and maybe a like)

My memory of the Julia Belle and that day excursion were strong enough that I put her into my first novel, Finishing Touches, which is set in my home town area.

NEWS: Finishing Touches will be ten years old in June and I plan to have its sequel out by then. If you’d like to read my first novel, which could aptly be defined as Mid-length New Adult with Romantic Elements, I will have it on the front page of my WEBSITE as an instant download upon payment for only $1.10 ($1 for the first book and .10 for 10 years). Choose Epub, Mobi, or PDF to best fit your reading device. This is a secure download through pulleyapp.com.

I have very few prints left of this first edition, but a new edition will include both Finishing Touches and Final Strokes together. I have an incredible idea for the cover, or at least I think it will be incredible. ;-)  The ebook version will remain separate.

You can find the beginning of Finishing Touches on its site, as well as reviews, the book trailer, and the song used at the end.

Stay tuned for more looks into the setting of my debut novel and its soon-to-come sequel.

Technorati Tags: fiction,art,romance,new adult,Peoria,Chicago,mainstream,Julia Belle Swain,Spirit of Peoria,Illinois River

Tartan Day and following the band

The Declaration of Arbroath, which declared Scotland’s independence from England, was signed on April 6th, 1320.

Firstly it set the will and the wishes of the people above the King. Though they were bound to him 'both by law and by his merits' it was so that their freedom might be maintained. If he betrayed them he would be removed and replaced…

Secondly, the manifesto affirmed the nation's independence in a way no battle could, and justified it with a truth that is beyond nation and race. Man has a right to freedom and a duty to defend it with his life.   from TartanDay.org

In 1997, Tartan Day became official across the United States in recognition of the Scots influence in America and that our own Declaration of Independence was modeled after the Declaration of Arbroath.

~~

During the Creative Mojo radio interview, I mentioned that my Rehearsal series was inspired by my favorite band back in the 70s. It was “coming out day” as Nessa said, since I hadn’t said publicly which band that was. As it turns out, yes, the band was from Scotland and that gave a lot of us teenagers and pre-teens a huge interest in Scotland and in tartan. Hey, the BCR lads wore it to honor their heritage (or … to catch attention) so of course it was super cool, although in those days it was only super cool for Roller fans. It’s everywhere now, and it is “sick,” or whatever they say these days to mean cool, to wear plaid. Think it’s only circumstantial that it’s in vogue now that all those teens are now grown up and running things? Hm. Maybe.

Anyway, yes, Raucous, my band in Rehearsal, was inspired directly. And no, they are not meant to be an imitation. Raucous is an American band with a Scottish interloper, and they’re rock in the vein of Chicago and Journey meet KISS. As I told Nessa, I was still a young teen when I created this story and these characters. (Don’t worry; the writing has been completely redone since then!) The idea of a new guy coming in affected my thoughts and of course the tartan thing is there (but not worn by my band), and I borrowed a couple of names as a tribute of sorts.

Mainly, Rehearsal comes from my music obsession and my obsession with wanting to know and understand people’s backgrounds, the whys and hows of what they do and their choices, even when they are people I don’t know. I’ve also made a habit of studying the ripple effect in interpersonal relationships. Everything we do affects those around us, even if we don’t see it. Rehearsal has a huge ripple effect to it.

-- What happens when you give up something you want to help someone else? How does it affect that someone long term?
-- What happens when you choose to stay quiet and let things take their course instead of guiding them?
-- What happens when you don’t tell someone how you feel?
-- What happens when you make judgments about things you don’t fully understand?

There are many, many other ripples in the story, but all of these things spread wider than any of the characters expect.

Anyway, it’s Tartan Day, so back to Scotland. The photos in this post are my own, taken in 2008 when we went on a whirlwind Scotland, Ireland, England trip. The guy to the left is not a Rehearsal character (so far). He stood guard over dinner in a Medieval Castle dungeon.

The guy at the top is a bagpiper we found upon our entrance into the Highlands. We stopped and talked with him (yes, you have to love that accent!) and got our photos taken and picked up a Highland Sounds CD.

Along the way, everyone we met was incredibly friendly and it’s hard to go anywhere else and see as many smiles as we did across Scotland. Maybe that’s because we were so happy to be there they were laughing at us. Or because their Whisky is THAT good. (In Scotland, it is whisky, not whiskey.)

Although I began writing this series looooong before I ever visited Scotland, our trip provided some luscious detail that has been and will be included more here and there as it fits. (To the left is me along Loch Ness.)

Now what I need for the series is to tour with a rock band so I can to add to my internet research with more luscious details. Okay, that’s not likely, but then I never expected to meet the BCR, either, and in recent years, I have met two of them. No, they are not like the characters I created to work with the story. Hm, well, maybe bits and pieces are similar. ;-)


Happy Tartan Day to all Scottish Americans! And to all who love Scotland and all things tartan for whatever reason.

Here’s an excerpt from Rehearsal: A Different Drummer when Susie meets the Scottish interloper for the first time:

~~ ~~ ~~

As Susie walked beside him, she did her best not to let her nervousness show. What was wrong with her? She hadn’t been nervous when she met the other guys; well, not very. And she was nineteen now, not sixteen as she’d been on her first visit.

The guitarist’s eyes remained on her face. They were gorgeous: bright blue, with long lashes, and so shockingly direct. She generally didn’t like stubble on a man’s chin, but his accentuated his ruggedness. Maybe that wasn’t the right word. It was more ... a sensual aura. As she had felt at a greater distance, the man truly emitted pure sensuality.

“Suse, this is Duncan O’Neil. Susie Brooks.”

She barely heard Evan, but she already knew his friend’s name.

He extended a hand without releasing her eyes. “It is a pleasure.”

She felt the calluses on his fingers as he gripped her hand firmly, but carefully, as though trying not to hurt her. “Thank you. It’s nice to meet you finally, since I’ve heard so much.” Good. She had managed to keep her voice from shaking.

He glanced at Evan with a slightly raised eyebrow, just one. It was adorable.

“I know you remember me talking about Susie.” Evan touched her back again, her lower back: a possessive touch that didn’t make much sense, considering.

Duncan noticed and released her hand. He studied her as though trying to remember. Evan obviously hadn’t talked about her much.

“My friend from Pennsylvania. I wrote that she moved out here.”

Now, a sign of recognition. “The one your mum took care of?” He tilted his head with a touch of a frown. “He did no’ describe you well. I was picturing a young girl, which you are no’.”

A young girl? Was that how Evan saw her?

“I can no’ imagine why anyone would no’ want you around.”

Susie pulled her eyes away in hopes he wouldn’t see the warmth she could feel crawling into her cheeks. Why was he getting to her? It wasn’t as though she had never received a compliment from a guy. She’d received plenty, but most had only been lines, not real.

“I am sorry. I did no’ mean t’ embarrass you.”

She forced an imitation calm and grinned at him. “No, it’s ... I was thinking the same thing ... about you... I mean...” Cursing herself silently, she shook her head and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. It’s been a long week. What I mean is ... Mike was just giving you a hard time. You fit with the band well. I hope you’ll stay and give it a try.”

“Hey, that is a compliment, coming from Susie.” Stu jumped in and nudged Duncan’s shoulder. “She’s the one who always has an objection for everyone we audition.”

Duncan barely glanced at Stu and his eyes were back on her. “D’ you hang with the band much?”

Band talk. She could handle that. “Pretty often. Whenever I’m not working.”

“In that case, I migh’ just hang around a while.”

Rehearsal: The Series
- A Different Drummer
- The Highest Aim
- Of Chaotic Currents
- books 4-6 still to come

LKHunsaker.com/Rehearsal/main.htm

Technorati Tags: Rehearsal,fiction,music,70s,Seventies,romance,Tartan Day,Scotland,books,BCR,Bay City Rollers

Scattered and un-Constrained

I’m all over the net. Authors are expected to be all over the net these days, even if you aren’t self-published. I’ve seen so many authors who said they were approached by a publisher but the publisher first wanted to know how they planned to market. The publishing world has come to this. Authors must market, also.

I’m bad at it. I admit that straight out. I like to chat with people. I don’t like to sell myself. Family, friends, and supportive readers sell my books far better than I do (and I’m eternally grateful for that!). Still, I am all over the net. I own or am part of eight different blogs by now. I’m at Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Writing.com, Nanowrimo,  Goodreads, LibraryThing, Myspace (though I haven’t touched that in some time), among others, and on some of those, I now have two or more accounts, one for LK Hunsaker and one for Ella M. Kaye, and pages for Elucidate Publishing and Elucidations. Along with this, I help network for Sandplay Voices, as the network coordinator.

During the Creative Mojo interview (20 March 2013), one thing Nessa asked was how constrained I felt as a romance writer. Constrained? I’m far too scattered to feel constrained. Of course that’s not what she meant.

What she meant was that the romance genre today has very strict guidelines as to what publishers will accept, to include a very limited word count. I understand the concept of that. As I said in the interview, a lot of readers expect certain things from the genre they choose and they will pull away from an author or publisher who does not give them what they expect. Certainty is comforting. There’s a lot to be said for getting what you expect from fiction, since, let’s face it, we can’t get that from daily life. I think that’s a big part of why romance is constantly the best selling fiction genre. We can be assured of a happy ending, and a limited word count assures that we won’t have to wait too long to get that happy ending.

I fully understand. I can sit and read a romance while hubby is watching golf and let my brain unwind while I enjoy someone else’s fun characters and make-believe worlds that take me somewhere else for a while. I don’t have to try to figure out what will happen. I can just enjoy the ride, and often, that’s enough. When we’re out on the bike, I’m often asked why I don’t get my own instead of always sitting on the back of hubby’s. Nope. Not interested. I just want to enjoy the ride without having to watch for signs and pot holes.

To a lot of readers, that sounds terribly boring. I understand that, too. I think golf is incredibly boring while others, those who really understand the game and its nuances, find it highly interesting. I love baseball. Many find that boring. To each her own.

But Nessa is right. The romance market is constrained. All commercial genres are constrained. It’s not only publishers constraining it. Readers who want what they want constrain it. Why publish what won’t sell? Makes sense.

I can say I’m not constrained. I can say I write what I want to write and the way I want to write it because I’m self-published. Of course, getting readers to give something different a try is another story, especially when you’re self-published and a lot of stories people throw out there because it’s easy now is … well, I’ll say it … a waste of a reader’s time. Yes, a lot of it is. (Honestly, I feel that way about FB games and hitting a little ball just to find it and hit it again, too, but it’s just my opinion.)

Anyway, yes, I’m scattered. In between all of that marketing and chatting with people, there is the actual writing thing. It’s easy to lose track of that main goal in between the musts of publishing and convincing people you’re worth reading. So if you email and I take forever to answer, or if I forget to reply elsewhere, or if I start to do something and it sits echoing for some time… well, I’m probably actually writing and I’ll have to ask you to bear with me.

Or I’m watching my birds out the den window or playing in my garden (Oh… I can hear the “talk about boring” comments now!) or taking photos from the back of the Harley. Oh, and now and then bills need to be paid and laundry needs to be folded…

Technorati Tags: writing,romance,publishing,marketing,social networks,novels,fiction

Radio Show Rewind

I was honored to be invited to a talk radio show just the other day. Now, I’ve never done talk radio; in general, I’d much rather be interviewed in print. I write better than I talk. But how could I resist? I like doing new things – okay, sometimes I do. And this is an artsy show where they celebrate creativity. Right up my alley.

So, if you go to Creative Mojo with Mark Lipinski and click on the March 20 show, I’m Nessa Reifsnyder’s first guest. We talk about writing and creativity and inspiration and publishing, in particular self-publishing.

With the radio show format naturally creating a short and concise interview, and with Nessa touching on so many pertinent issues, I thought I’d use that discussion and expand on it here over a series of blogs.

Go listen to the show and then come back for discussion. If there are things you think should be addressed further, please comment below!

Technorati Tags: writing,interview,radio,Mark Lipinski,self-publishing

Ever wonder what I sound like?

Okay, probably not. But if you are odd enough to wonder (and I do like odd people, by the way), I'll be on live internet radio today.

When invited, my urge was to bolt, but then my constant interest in doing new things kicked in and I'm very honored to have been asked.

Mark Lipinski's Creative Mojo broadcasts every Wednesday from 3 to 5 Eastern. I'm scheduled for about 3:20 today. If you can't catch it live, they will have it archived.

Here's the info link: A Pocketful of Creative Mojo!

I'll be chatting with guest host Nessa Reifsnyder about creativity and self-publishing. If you do listen, be lenient. This is my very first radio appearance!

3-13-13 or Shades of Art & Porn

I love Pinterest. I really do. As a visual and artsy person, it’s a wonderful place to spend some downtime. Of course, I also use it for promo and have boards to depict each of my books in images. A lighthouse photo I found there last year inspired a new story.

They might, however, need humans to watch for inappropriate images instead of bots, which I’m guessing is what they use.

I also love Michelangelo. He is my all-time favorite artist. The guy was pure passionate genius mixed with a lot of hard work and creative talent. Of course I re-pinned someone’s photo of the David in all its glory. It’s a truly gorgeous sculpture that I’ve been lucky enough to see in real life. The muscles and sinews are life-like, other than being marble, and it does show the beauty of the male body. Michelangelo did believe the male body is far more artistically beautiful than the female body. I very much agree with him, although maybe I’m biased. David is more than just a statue of a legendary Biblical figure. And it’s more than the small man defeats the giant theme. It’s an artistic statement of the beauty of the human body.

It got deleted by the site for nudity.

Now anyone who has been on the site knows darn well what kind of pictures you can find that show pretty much everything and likely barely covered in lazy black undergarments and in provocative photos. So I was rather aghast that Michelangelo’s David was removed.

Being the smart aleck I can be at times, I put it back up, covered by a big fig leaf with bright red border. Maybe I should have used black lace undergarments.

Either way, I mentioned it on Facebook and it led to a conversation about the difference between art and pornography. Many artists, as they call themselves, have done shows of nude photos in the name of art and they are open to the public. Is this art? I think that’s borderline. Maybe, depending on composition and such. But then what’s to keep artists from posting any kind of nude pose online and claiming artistic license? And why would a nude marble statue be less okay for public viewing than a photo of a woman in black lace lingerie?

It all comes down to common sense. We all know David is an artistic masterpiece, as are Renoir’s nude women and other classics. They are, however, paint or marble. Does it follow, then, that anyone could sit and draw an obscene pose and call it art that should be publicly available? Of course not. (Yes, obscene is a judgment call, but I bet you all know what I mean.)

As I see it, sex in fiction is the same. Is it there just for the titillation factor (or for the sales)? Or is it artistry and character development? There is a difference. Each viewer/reader has his/her own taste, of course, but common sense is common sense. There is gray area. But there is also black and white and the difference between the two is clear.

By the way, the photo above is not mine and I have no rights to it. Maksim Chmerkovskiy posted it on Facebook, and art lover that I am, I couldn’t help appreciate its beauty. He’s a dancer, you know.

Technorati Tags: art,porn,romance,fiction,David,Michelangelo,Maksim Chmerkovskiy

Labels of Gray

I was explaining Chick Lit to someone the other day, or trying to explain it since that genre isn’ t my forté and I haven’t read much of it. To be honest, I started one or two of them and set them aside. But I wanted something light recently to read in between two fairly heavy reads (yes, I have made a habit in the past few years of reading 2-3 books at once – why not, since I write 2-3 books at once?) so I grabbed one from my to-read shelf I’d picked up at a library sale some time ago. The whole thing screamed Chick Lit and light easy read, from cover to description.

The first third of the book definitely screamed Chick Lit. And then it changed. But back to that later…

While explaining Chick Lit, I compared it to Women’s Fiction, which is a term I don’t appreciate a lot since it’s mainstream fiction that would just be called Fiction if centered on a male character and was written by a male (why not Men’s Fiction, then?). Anyway, I said Chick Lit is a lighter version of Women’s Fiction, usually centered on 30-40 somethings, working moms and career women, usually light and humorous but with serious issues such as marital problems or trying to date with children involved and so on.

When Chick Lit was first labeled as such, it was meant as a derisive term, meaning throw-away type books only suitable for women who didn’t want to read “serious” literature. Hm. Like many derisive labels, authors and readers of Chick Lit grabbed the term and gladly used it to define what they were writing or reading and fully enjoying. There are wonderful Chick Lit books out there by a myriad of authors - female authors talking with their readers about specifically female issues in a nice camaraderie style, with humor, because let’s face it, the strongest women do have a good sense of humor that helps us deal with everything under the sun.

Back in 2009, I wrote a post about my genre and how to define it since it doesn’t fit neatly into any one category already accepted in the industry. Author Sydney Logan stopped by that old post yesterday to comment. Apparently, she writes the way I do: with deep social issues and commentary highlighted by a budding/growing romance that becomes central to the story. How wonderful! I see on her blog that she’s been compared to Nicholas Sparks, as I have as well, but I haven’t seen Sparks called anything but a romance writer. Maybe it’s time for a new label to take hold, a different offshoot of women’s fiction (that men can use, as well, if it fits).  But the question is still: What do we call it?

Author Celia Yeary wrote a post recently about the difference between romances and love stories. One publisher defined a love story as of a married couple, but I think that limits the definition far too much. All of my books can be called love stories but the characters aren’t married and may not get married. Love doesn’t always equal marriage; sometimes love equals letting go because it’s better for one or both of you. It’s still a love story.

And then, of course, there’s the new genre New Adult, which I love, because I write plenty of that. It’s somewhere between teen romance/young adult and adult romance. It focuses on legal aged teens and twenties but it’s romance more than coming-of-age and a bit past coming-of-age from what I gather so far. Some of my work fits the New Adult category, but much of it doesn’t.

I still call what I do Literary Romance. So far, it’s not a very trusted genre term when I use it because people haven’t heard it, or because literary fiction and romance as a genre seem to be at complete opposite ends of the novel scale. Maybe they are, but as one reviewer said, it “shouldn’t work, but it does.”

Most, or all, labels are pretty well shady when it comes to a strict definition, therefore all the recent genre blending. I’m always amused when I see a book described as something like “contemporary fantasy romantic suspense … with a Twist!” And I’m still waiting to see “literary erotica” which could happen.

I have to wonder: do readers actually care how a novel is labeled? (And authors, please please do not call your book a fictional novel. Novels are fiction. It’s redundant. Please know what redundant means.)

Maybe we should stop labeling and just make sure our blurb explains what the reader should expect. Yes, I hear publishers and bookstores yelling about that idea since they would be hard to organize without labels.

So… how about Literary Romance? Why not? Any bookstore out there ready to add a new section?

Oh, about that book I’m reading that screamed Chic Lit? After the first third, it turned heavily literary instead. Elizabeth Buchan’s Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman will get a nice review on Goodreads soon.

Technorati Tags: genre,labels,fiction,writing,romance,contemporary,New Adult,Literary Romance,love stories,Chic Lit,Celia Yeary,Sydney Logan,Nicholas Sparks

 

Prerogative and Creative

It’s a writer’s prerogative to change her mind.

Okay, it’s supposed to say a woman’s prerogative, but I think writer fits in there, and since I’m both woman and writer, it entitles me to change my mind as much as I want, right?

Well, since I’m an indie writer it does. That’s a large part of why I’m indie.

Every time I do a book signing I tell potential readers that it’s romantic but not spicy: sensual at times here and there, yes, but not spicy. I don’t do spicy.

Well, you know … growth means change. It also means expanding out of your comfort zone at times (not that I haven’t done that many, many times already in different areas of my life). I’m also indie because I don’t want to do things the same as everyone else just to fit in enough to be accepted. There’s nothing wrong with it. Commonalities are good. It’s just not me.

A large percentage of romance readers like spice in their stories. Sure. Don’t we all like some spice in our lives in some form? It’s normal and natural. And you know what? I don’t have little kids anymore. My daughter, who insists on getting every story I write first and can’t wait for the next one, is nearly 24 and married. She reads another LKH who I’ve heard is basically a vampire porn writer (that could be exaggerated – I don’t do vampires so I wouldn’t know) so I doubt anything I might write would shock her (*insert laugh here, as very few kids are easily shocked by much of anything anymore).

And honestly, I’ve read steamier, more vulgar scenes in many literary novels than I have in many romance novels. Seriously. I learned much about sex, at least the act of it, from literary fiction when I was young (yes, I was a geek who read literary way back then). In general, the romance spice tends to be less vulgar and with more feeling behind it, at least what I’ve read (there are exceptions). To be honest, some of those literary authors made it sound fully disgusting.

Well anyway, what I’m slowly getting around to is that … yes, I do spicy.

In November I started a short book for Nanowrimo based around an injured ballerina. I didn’t know where I was going with it. I had my character, Caroline, and a basic situation of her injury and her “what now” moment, and I let it go from there. I also decided, since Nanowrimo is supposed to be a challenge, and since I’d done it eight times already and knew I could get to 50K in a month, that I would make it more of a challenge and make this one a spicy romance, a romance that fits the commercial romance genre category, not too long, without subplots leading everywhere, without a bunch of social issues (okay, I fudged slightly on that one, but most romances do have some kind of social issue involved). In one month, I had her complete story.

It wasn’t at all that hard to break my not spicy rule. The hard part came when it was finished and Now What Do I DO With It set in. “Well,” my little voice said, “you’re an author. You publish your books.” “Yes,” my other voice said, “but I don’t do spicy and many of my readers don’t want it.”  “Yes, but some of them will, and a lot of readers you don’t have yet will.”  “But… but…“

So, a pen name came about as a compromise. Easy enough. Readers of LK Hunsaker’s fiction will still find only lightly sensual scenes and the pen name can take the fall for the spice.

Except it’s not that easy. Next came Do I let people KNOW it’s me writing in that pen name? If I don’t, I start from the bottom in my marketing, from a completely unknown name. Yes, that’s a daunting thought. But, I did it once; I can do it again.

Back and forth and round and round with the two voices arguing…

The winning argument was one I told myself long ago when I first started to publish: If you don’t want someone to know you wrote it, then why write it? If you’re ashamed of it, why put it out?

It’s an honesty thing. Now, I fully understand the many wonderful reasons for a pen name writers keep hidden. I do. And I nearly let every one of those reasons talk me out of equating my real name with the pen name. But there’s a little hitch in my brain somewhere that makes honesty a top priority. Not everyone appreciates it all the time, I know, particularly in today’s world of politically correct sweetness to hide true thoughts (ugh!), but don’t ask for my opinion if you don’t really want my opinion.

And if you don’t like spice, stick with my LK Hunsaker books.

For those who do like some spice, look up my brand new Ella M. Kaye line. So far I only have a Facebook page and a Google+ page, but I’ll work on a better landing spot, possibly on a page here on my blog.
 
That artwork up top is for the cover of Pier Lights, the first Ella M. Kaye novel, which will be the first of a lighthouse and dancers series. This one is set in Folly Beach, South Carolina. Others in the series will feature different cities around the States. With advice from helpful fellow authors, I put it in an image program, darkened it and highlighted the couple, then gave the lighthouse a light. Of course, it still doesn’t look like a typical romance genre cover since most of them now use photos of real people. I’m an artist. And I may bend to certain things, but only to an extent. Remember the old romances?



Art. :-)  I like art. I also love some of the gorgeous modern romance covers, but I love the art/fiction combination, so that’s what I’m going with.

So… Ella M. Kaye is Sexy, Smart, & Slightly Dark Romance.
Spicy, but not vulgar. Artsy, but on the darker side of the arts. Short, fairly quick reads, but with emotional depth.

They will be ebook only, with possibly a very small print run I’ll keep on hand for those who really want them in print instead.

Pier Lights will be free on Smashwords only the day of its release: February 14th, 2013.  If you grab it and enjoy it, please tell your friends! It will soon be out at most major ebook retailers, as well. Watch the Facebook page for updates. 

Technorati Tags: romance,spicy,fiction,books,authors,Ella M. Kaye,lighthouse,ballet,swordplay,Folly Beach,South Carolina,art

My 2012 in Photos and Words

I’m stealing this idea from my friend, TC, The Write Gardener because it was such a great one! What’s better than a nice mix of words and images? Of course, adding music would make it better so expect some links thrown in to complete the ambience.

January: David Garrett at the Benedum Center in Pittsburgh. Incredible rock and classical violinist David Garrett has been named the fastest on record. More than that, it’s just absolute beauty for the ears. My son and I enjoyed the performance greatly. I was introduced to this musician on an episode of Dancing with the Stars and you can find it here.

February meant a quick trip to the Pittsburgh airport to drop my husband off so he could be with his dad on his transition to the next adventure, whatever that may be. As we parked and got out, these Mourning Doves greeted us.

March was very much a snow lion and lent for some gorgeous nature scenes. By the end of the month, I was taking photos of daffodils instead.

In April, my wood talented husband created bookshelves to go in front of a slanted staircase. It holds my growing collection of children’s books for future grandchildren. ;-)

May: We had Cardinal and Robin’s nests in our shrubs and trees this summer. This little Blue Jay was fluttering about on the ground beneath our trees as he tried to find his wings. By the way, it is a myth that if you touch a baby bird, the mother will turn it away. Not that we would ever take one out of a nest, but this little one was off on his own adventure already.

June: Mandolin Whiskey at one of the several places we stalked, uh, followed, them. They were the band that played for…

A July wedding! Our daughter married and moved out of state this year with our new son-in-law. Since he’s Army and had no choice, we won’t hold it against him. ;-) It gives us another place to ‘have’ to visit!

 

 

 

 

August: I couldn’t choose only one. We spent a day in Foxburg PA for their annual Scottish Highland games and enjoyed some Scottish food (not quite the same as in Scotland, but decently similar), dancing, and music along with the games. We also visited the Moving Vietnam Memorial Wall. We’ve seen the original in D.C. but couldn’t help stopping to look at the small and mobile version when it was in Mercer County.

We did a lot of biking over the summer and fall. This September day we got caught! Actually, we were inside when it hit and waited out the passing downpour, so only part of us got a tad wet. I have a lot of scenic photos taken from the back of the bike, many of which will be over on my Mercer County images blog as I find time.

October in PA is just incredible for the artistic and nature-loving eye! This is along Shenango Lake.

In November, I took part with fellow local artists on Small Business Saturday to show our stuff at the James Winner Arts & Culture Center in Sharon PA. We had snow that day, but Pennsylvanians are well used to snow and cold and we had a wonderful crowd.

In December, my 7th novel and 8th book was released. Rehearsal: Of Chaotic Currents is third of the series. Find more info on my website.

So that’s a brief overview of 2012. It was hard picking only one photo for each month (and I fudged in August) and I hope you enjoyed the quick journey with me. I appreciate everyone who stopped by here last year and look forward to interacting with anyone who stops by in the year to come.

Have a wonderful 2013!