It’s Beach Season!

Aaaah…. the humid air of a Carolina spring.  The only difference between a Carolina spring and a Carolina summer is the rain.  It’s only mid-April and already the temperatures are climbing into the 90s!  That can only mean one thing– it’s time for the beach!  Long days of lounging on the sand, watching the waves and sipping a tall fruity drink  under a garishly colored umbrella.  Of course if you’re like me, you’ve always got a good book in your beach bag.  So seeing as how I never do much promotion, I thought I’d just give a run-down of my releases.  Just to give you some ideas for loading up your Kindle.  I promise they won’t disappoint!

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Available NOW from Rebel Ink Press!

Beast of Burden:  Sascha has been a slave in the village of Kaspar for most of her life.  Unappreciated and alone, she lives out her days toiling away and putting up with constant torment.  When her kind master goes off to the marketplace in a neighboring town, he offers to bring her a gift.  All she asks is for a single, red rose.  Little does she know that the rose will cast her out into the service of the beastly Lord Marek.  Rumored to be a scarred and cruel man, Cianan Marek has been searching for a kindred soul.  His life as a warrior came to an abrupt end when he was attacked by werewolves in the Outlands.  Bitter and alone, he’s been hiding a terrible secret since returning to Kaspar as Lord Governor.  In this adult retelling of the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Sascha and Cianan learn the power of destiny and that some beasts lurk in the most unlikely of places.  This  one is my newest release and I must say— it’s a hot little number.

 

“Dollface”: ”Dollface” is the story of Caroline, a plain Jane, small town Southern girl who just happens to be a funeral home cosmetian. Everyone in town likes Caroline, though they’ve always felt that there was something not quite right about her. For years Caroline has pined in silence for the funeral director’s son, Scott Bauer. Scott has always been kind, but never returned her affections. Her world comes tumbling down when she discovers that Scott is to be married and will leave her forever. She can’t let that happen and will go to unnatural lengths to keep him. The story has a bit of graphic violence and alludes somewhat to necrophilia, mostly in the style of Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily.”  This one’s straight horror, so there’s no hot sex.  But the anti-heroine, Caroline, is genuinely creepy!

“Masquerade”:  “What’s your fantasy?”  Blythe McLachlan had the perfect life until the night he said those three little words that could make or break a relationship.  When Blythe tells her husband about her fantasy of a hot menage, he’s less than pleased.  But when he drops her off at a mysterious masquerade ball, she finds that the boundaries of love can be crossed and rules are made to be broken.  This short story has been described as a smouldering piece of Heaven that’s sure to fog up your iPad screen…

 

“Second Skin”:  When Catherine Spencer meets the seductive Jack Leannan at her company dinner party, she could never have imagined how fast she’d fall for him. He’s everything her husband isn’t—older, confident, and highly sexual. He lures her under his spell with promises of passion beyond her wildest dreams, and she finds herself ready to give up everything. But Jack is no ordinary lover, and the secret he harbors could destroy her.
Hellsong:  Can mercy be a sin? Lonely bookstore manager Theo Chandler lost herself in Hurricane Katrina. Found wandering alone in a swamp with no memory of her life before the storm, she has spent the last few years building a half-life where no one touches her so no one can guess her secret. Only Father Jerome, a voodoo priest who witnessed her birth, and the minions of Lucifer know her true identity and the monster she could become.
As the last of the Grigori, Heaven’s guardians of humankind on Earth, the angel Saraquel should destroy beautiful Theo before the forces of Hell use her to destroy him, humanity, or even Heaven itself. But like Jerome, he sees the humanity in her that far outshines the hidden demon. He forms a connection to her that he has never known with anyone else through all his immortal life. Choosing to protect her, he joins Theo and Jerome in a fight to bring down hell’s design and save her human soul.
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Wow!  I can’t believe I have that many releases to shamelessly plug!  And coming soon, I’ll be releasing the first in a BRAND NEW SERIES!  I can’t say much about it just now, but it’s my first foray into the world of self-publishing.  I thought I’d give it a try and see what happens.  The idea is to release some “quickies” that will most likely be sold in the $0.99- $1.99 range.  Each story is an erotic paranormal romance that revolves around this strange little place called “The Oubliette.”  So be on the lookout for those!
Finally, I’d really like to thank all of you that have been my faithful readers both of my books and my blogs.  It feels so good to know that there are folks out there that appreciate what you do.  Thanks folks!!  I won’t forget you when I become rich and famous… hehe….

Cianan Marek: Tortured Hero

 

Available NOW from Rebel Ink Press!

The main character in my new book, Beast of Burden, is a tortured hero.  Cianan Marek is the hero we all dream about.  He’s handsome, scarred, brooding… He’s a werewolf.  And I’m not talking about one of those sissy quasi-werewolves.   He’s a bona fide badass with a painful transformation, full moon rage and complete nudity afterwards.  It’s made clear from the beginning of the book that he is not a nice guy.  Even before he made the Change, he had a hair-trigger temper and a lust for violence.  The only thing that could melt his heart was the beautiful Lady Isabella.  And when a tragedy befalls her, his life is destroyed, twisting him into a tormented hermit that is feared by everyone.  Until, of course, a little slave girl named Sascha enters the picture and manages to chip away at his heart of stone.

So why do we love these guys so much?  The tortured hero is an archetype that we see over and over in literature and movies.  Is it because we, as women, are always looking for someone to “fix?”  Or could it be that we love to live dangerously, sleeping beside a ball of pent up rage?  Whatever it is, we love them.  Their angst gives them an edge.  And if they’re a guilty paranormal—all the better. 

Probably my favorite  tortured hero is Heathcliff from the Emily Bronte gothic romance, Wuthering Heights.  And in fact, if you’ve read Wuthering Heights, you’ll probably see a lot of Heathcliff in Marek.  He loves poor, stupid Cathy with all of his heart and when she marries another because of her family’s prejudices—he  loses it.  He becomes this mean and hateful old man that everyone fears.  Seeks vengeance on the whole Earnshaw clan.  But in the end you realize, he loved Cathy all along.  And women eat that shit up.  That notion of how everything he does is for you is so romantic.  It makes us go gooey in all the right places.

Exhibit B—Edward Cullen.  Reluctant vampire with a skin problem.  Ever since Twilight came out, the teeny bopper love of Edward has run rampant throughout the country.  Even among soccer moms.  There are tons of theories out there as to why Team Edward has such a vast following, but I offer, dear reader, that it’s because he’s a tortured hero.  He struggles with loving Bella, yet knowing that their romance could ultimately end badly.  He struggles with the faces of all the humans he killed in the throes of his bloodlust.  He struggles with not wanting to turn Bella into a soulless creature of the night.  Let’s put it this way—he just struggles.  And we love watching it.  Our heartstrings are plucked like an out of tune violin when Edward looks into her eyes and says, “It’s a bit easier to be around you when I’m not thirsty.” 

Marek is no different than the tortured heroes that we all know and love.  But will he be redeemed and have a happy ending like Edward?  Or will he die alone, shrieking at ghosts in a cupboard like Heathcliff? Only one way to find out….

******** EXCERPT********

Cianan Marek had never been so confused.  He was not a person who lived in a state of confusion.  He was always sure and confident.  It was what made him such a formidable warrior. He’d always known what to do and how to do it efficiently.  But not this time.  This new feeling of uncertainty left a distasteful bitterness on his tongue.    He just couldn’t seem to think his way around Sascha.  He’d been waiting so long to find her again.  Bella had promised that she would return to him and now, after twenty years, her promise had come to fruition, yet he had no idea what to do.  He sighed and took another long dram of the glassful of whiskey he held.  Though his “curse” had granted him immortality and eternal youth, he felt very old tonight.  He was exhausted, both mentally and physically, from worry.  He wasn’t sure what he’d expected.  That she would see him and instantly remember her past existence? He’d thought of so many ways to try and convince her of the soul she carried.

            He shook his head and looked down at his empty glass.  He let it fall from his fingertips and roll across the stone floor before taking up the bottle from the table at his side.  He leaned back in his chair, bringing the bottle to his lips, staring up at her portrait that hung over his fireplace.  In the painting, Isabella stood nude, her cascades of hair falling over her shoulder to hide one breast.  In her hand she held a single red rose, pressed to her lips of similar color. She’d commissioned that portrait herself to give him as a wedding gift.  It was quite scandalous and at first he’d been angry with her for posing so suggestively in front of another man.  It seemed so silly now.  “Lady Isabella Caoimhe Marek,” he slurred, raising the bottle in reverence to her.  Her blue eyed countenance seemed to stare down at him in judgment.  She’d hated it when he drank.  But as he’d told her so many times, some occasions just called for it.  Thinking of her was still so painful.  She’d been the one thing on this Earth that he’d loved above all other things and she was gone, destroyed by the very person who’d sworn to protect her.

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Find this and other works by Alexandra Christian at:

Amazon

All Romance eBooks

Bookstrand

And don’t forget– a swag pack and a spankin’ new copy of Beast of Burden is up for grabs this week.  All you have to do is LIKE Beast of Burden on All Romance eBooks OR leave me a comment with an email addy.  The winner will be announced HERE on Saturday evening!

NEW RELEASE: Beast of Burden

Available NOW from Rebel Ink Press!

Well today I’m so excited because my new novel, Beast of Burden, has been released from Rebel Ink Press!  This novel took me about a year to write and it was a labor of love.  The book is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, which has always been my favorite fairy tale.  The relationship between Beauty and her Beast has always fascinated me.  And I thought it would lend itself well to having a little bit of D/s play.  Now before you get all excited, it’s not a BDSM book, but there are some overtones that are a part of the society in which my characters live.

Anyhow, in honor of the new release I’m going to run a contest this week.  I’ve got some fun Lexxx Christian swag along with an e-copy of Beast of Burden up for grabs.  You can enter two ways:  go to http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-beastofburden-770251-140.html and LIKE the book with your Facebook account OR leave me a comment and email addy here at the Southern Belle from Hell.  On Saturday night I’ll announce the winner HERE!

Tomorrow’s (Tuesday 4/3) post:  Cianan Marek, a tragic hero…

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BLURB:

Sascha has been a slave in the village of Kaspar for most of her life.  Unappreciated and alone, she lives out her days toiling away and putting up with constant torment.  When her kind master goes off to the marketplace in a neighboring town, he offers to bring her a gift.  All she asks is for a single, red rose.  Little does she know that the rose will cast her out into the service of the beastly Lord Marek.  Rumored to be a scarred and cruel man, Cianan Marek has been searching for a kindred soul.  His life as a warrior came to an abrupt end when he was attacked by werewolves in the Outlands.  Bitter and alone, he’s been hiding a terrible secret since returning to Kaspar as Lord Governor.  In this adult retelling of the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Sascha and Cianan learn the power of destiny and that some beasts lurk in the most unlikely of places.

************

YOU can buy Beast of Burden and other Alexandra Christian titles from:

All Romance eBooks

Amazon

Bookstrand

The Return of Badass Vamps: A Review of All the Darkness in the World by Andy Deane

I’m writing this review today as a former lover of all things vampiric.  As a kid, I was a whore for anything that had to do with vampires. Books, movies—I drew pictures. The biggest fight that I ever had with my mother was over going to see The Lost Boys at the tender age of 12.  But lately I’ve been disheartened with the whole vampire genre.  And though I’m notorious for blaming Twilight,  of course it didn’t start there.  Twilight was just an inevitable  end that was started by Anne Rice,  “Forever Knight,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and “Angel.”  Of course pop culture has never had trouble making vampires sympathetic characters.  They’re sexy and tortured, what’s not to love?  But lately we’ve taken it to the next level.  The kinder, gentler vamp has wormed his way into the mainstream and frankly… it pisses me off.  Who the hell decided that vampires didn’t actually need to drink blood?  Or that they weren’t ruthless hunters with a knack for seduction?  Or that they didn’t really have fangs?  Or—the worst of all insults—sparkled in the sun?  We have essentially cut their balls off. 

Enter Andy Deane.

 Some of you may know Andy as the frontman of the Goth band, Bella Morte.  That’s how I knew him until last summer.  We were supposed to attend a Sci-Fi Con together and I of course read his bio on the website.  Come to find out, he had started writing some horror fiction and immediately I was excited.  I read his first book, The Sticks and loved it.  I thought that the first chapter was truly one of the best first chapters I’d ever read.  So naturally, when I heard that his next novel, All the Darkness in the World, was coming out AND it was a vampire novel—I was completely psyched!  I forced myself to wait and buy a hard copy for myself directly from, for lack of a better term, the horse’s mouth.  I bought my copy from Andy and even scored an autograph.  My inner Goth chick was all gooey inside.  Then my outer critic tapped me on the shoulder and said, “What if it sucks?  After all, it’s a vampire novel.”  And after reading the book, I can tell my outer critic to shut the fuck up.  I won’t keep you in suspense—I loved it.  All the Darkness in the World has renewed my faith in the vampire genre.  Finally, a slew of badass vamps to wreak havoc for a good 200 pages.  No sparkling. No brooding. No remorse of any kind.  And it’s fabulous!

All the Darkness in the World is told from the first person point of view of our hero, Jace.  By the way, a horror novel told in first person POV is unusual and hard as hell to write.  The story begins when Jace is a frustrated teenager just praying for the day he can get out of his abusive parents’ house.  On a fateful night Jace witnesses two vampires attacking a lone female and he steps in to assist.   Confirming his role as the heroic shit-kicker, Jace lays waste to one of the creatures and ignites the rage of head-vampire, Vaughn.  Vaughn swears revenge on the skinny kid and thus the story gets rolling. 

Let me begin by saying that Deane is a master of characterization.  It’s really important in any sort of horror story to make the reader feel a connection to the hero.  Otherwise, you really won’t give a shit if the zombies are eating his or her brains.  From the first chapter, I had a really good idea of who Jace was and where he was coming from.  A lot of time was spent examining Jace’s relationship with his parents and at first I found it a little tiresome.  Then I realized—Jace’s folks are the real monsters of the story.  And if he can deal with them, a few vampires shouldn’t be much of a problem.  All that backstory makes it believable that when the shit hits the fan, Jace will be able to deliver and survive.  My only criticism of Deane’s storytelling would be that none of his other characters are as developed as Jace.  I found myself wanting to know more about Vaughn.  Why was he so bent on avenging the mindless drone that Jace took care of?  He goes to great lengths to destroy the world of a punk kid.  Why?  I wanted a bit more motivation on that front. 

I’ve been an avid reader since age five and one thing I’ve learned in the last thirty years is that some books are for boys and some are for girls.  Don’t laugh—it’s true.  Women tend to like books with deep characters and intricate plots that deal mostly with those characters.  Boys say to Hell with that emotional shit—get to the hack and slash.  For example, Lord of the Rings is a boy book.  Wuthering Heights is a girl book.  I won’t elaborate—go read them yourself.   All the Darkness in the World is definitely a boy book.  There’s a lot of action and violence.  The last fourth of the book is so bloody that for a moment I thought I might need a sterile towel to mop it up.  Luckily, I love the violence.  After all, I’ve always been a weird girl.  My personal favorite scene is near the end of the book when one of the drone vampires finds himself separated from the rest of the gang and is unluckily on the receiving end of Jace’s rage.  The way in which our hero disposes of the bloodsucker is both creative and sadistic.  So much so that I have made a point never to get on Deane’s bad side.  That being said, I was kind of missing a final mano a mano deathmatch at the end between Jace and Vaughn.  It’s there, but it wasn’t the epic fight to the death I was hoping for. 

It goes without saying that this horror aficionado loved All the Darkness in the World.  I think Voltaire (Goth musician and artist, not the witty writer/ historian/philosopher from the 1700s) summed it up best in his forward to the book when he wrote that reading Andy’s books are like listening to Andy tell a story.  It’s true.  His voice shines through in the narration and it’s endearing.  It makes you interested in what he has to say and therefore, you keep reading.  And that, of course, is the mark of a true horror writer.  To completely scare the shit out of you so that you want to put the book in the freezer, but at the same time make you so curious as to what happens next that you keep reading.  Andy is a true horror writer.  I can only hope that my own horror fiction can someday float around in the same echelon.

I don’t really have much of a rating system, so for those of you that need stars…

****

 

Wicked Little Wednesdays: D.B. Moon

Good morning, children!  This week I’m joined by author D.B. Moon.  D.B. will be sharing an absolutely sizzling little excerpt of the upcoming book, Accidental Intent.  I read the excerpt with bated breath and I’ll just tell you— you’ll be angry.  Just when it’s getting good, damn if the excerpt isn’t over.  But of course… that’s what makes it wicked.  Enjoy…

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Lucy and Nicolai swayed in time to the music enjoying the feel of their bodies pressed up against one another.

“What are we doing?” She wondered aloud.

“I believe it is called dancing.”

“No I mean this, us, what is it?”

He turned her gently around the living room floor. “Your guess is as good as mine.” He sighed into her hair. “I don’t want to define it I just want to enjoy it.” They swayed together letting the music take over. “Loving the Louboutin’s, by the way!”

The shoes gave her the height needed to be in kissing range without straining. Lucy gave in to the pull of his lips and the molding of their bodies. The excitement of tongues dancing together and the loss of breath that comes with desire.

Her fingers clutched his hair tighter pulling him into her. Nicolai tried to work the buttons of her shirt with clumsy fingers but ended up ripping the front. Buttons flew everywhere. His hands seized her bare skin. Lucy responded in kind ripped his shirt open and felt his skin against hers.

A moan escaped her lips as he pushed her into the wall his hands roamed freely over her neck, breasts, and abdomen. His dancing tongue was sending her into tactile overload.

A loud thud against her front door abruptly ended their foreplay.

************

Didn’t I tell ya?  PISSED OFF!!!  But it worked, because I’ll be rushing out to my Nook on release day.  This wicked little gem is coming this spring from Rebel Ink Press.  But to tide you over, here’s some links to other hot little numbers from D.B.  Moon…

Desi Moon http://dbmoonauthor.blogspot.com/

Author of Summerland-Noble Romance (As D.B. Moon) Available Now

My Humiliating Valentine included in Tempting Cupid V-Day Anthology- Rebel Ink Press (February 2012)

Accidental Intent- Rebel Ink Press (Spring 2012)

 

NEW RELEASE: Dollface

Alright, my laptop is playing tricks on me.  Deepest apologies to those of you that follow my blog.  You just received a blank blog post.  This is why I’m a Mac person.  My iMac never betrays me this way.  At any rate, I just wanted to let everyone know that my new short, “Dollface” has been released into the wild from No Boundaries Press!  It’s my first straight horror piece and it’s just so damn exciting! It’s also a great example (in my humble opinion) of that hazy genre we like to call Southern Gothic.   Y’all know I love to write about all things dark and sensual, but this time I delved into something less appetizing.  There are no happily ever afters in this story.  Well… except maybe for the nutty anti-heroine.

“Dollface” is the story of Caroline, a plain Jane, small town Southern girl who just happens to be a funeral home cosmetian. Everyone in town likes Caroline, though they’ve always felt that there was something not quite right about her. For years Caroline has pined in silence for the funeral director’s son, Scott Bauer. Scott has always been kind, but never returned her affections. Her world comes tumbling down when she discovers that Scott is to be married and will leave her forever. She can’t let that happen and will go to unnatural lengths to keep him.

Check out the blurb….

*****

“Hey there, Miss Caroline,” Justus shouted from the kitchen when he saw her come in.  “Thursday night usual?”

“Yes, please,” she replied, squeezing into one of the tiny booths in the corner.  Her Thursday night usual was stew beef and rice with a side of fresh tomatoes.  Looking around she saw the usual dinner crowd.  Sherriff  Roberts and his wife Melissa sat at the large corner table by the window.  Mr. Crabtree sat at the bar with his country fried steak, jabbering away to Mrs. Keester.  The Brewer twins ran around the old broken pinball machine while their mom read a book, completely oblivious.  Caroline sighed, her face fixed in an expression of contentment.  There were advantages to living in a small town.   Caroline always felt like she was among old friends in this place.  It helped with the loneliness.

“So guess who hopped in here for a piece of my sweet potato pie earlier?” Mrs. Keester asked, hefting her heavy breasts on to the counter in front of Mr. Crabtree.

“Couldn’t say,” he replied, helping himself to another forkful of collard greens.  “But I’m sure you’ll be glad to tell me, Wanda.”

Laughter echoed from the kitchen.  Justus’s head poked out from the window.  “Ain’t that the truth, Crabtree?  Our church don’t need a bulletin—we got Wanda.”

The men laughed heartily at Wanda’s expense for several seconds until she cleared her throat.  “You men finished?” she spat and emphasized her contempt on the word ‘men.’  “Anyway, Gerry Bauer’s son Scott was in here earlier today and he was jumpy as a whore in church.”  Caroline’s ears pricked at the mere mention of Scott’s name.  Grabbing the newspaper in the booth beside her, she pretended to read while listening closely to their conversation.

“Why’s that?”

“Well you know that girl from over in Maitland he’s been seein’—what’s her name—Ginny?”

“Ayuh,” Crabtree answered with a disinterested glance.  “What about her?”

“He was takin’ her out tonight so he could ask her to marry him!”

Caroline dropped her tea glass. It fell to the floor with a heavy clatter and  ice spilt all over.

Wanda rushed over from behind the bar and pulled a towel out of her apron.  “Caroline!  Are you okay, honey?”  She dropped  down on her knees and began picking up the ice off the floor.

*****

Now that I’ve whet your appetite, you can find the story at No Boundaries Press and Amazon.

 

LIVE from MystiCon 2012

So here I am, this fabulous Con going on downstairs, and I’m sitting at the desk in my hotel room, penning a blog post.  So I better make it good, right?  So far it has been a great weekend!  As I said before, the big fun for me is seeing old friends and making new ones.  I moderated a great panel last night on what the next big monster in fiction will be.  We determined that zombies are here to stay and that we’d be looking to lesser known mythological characters for new ideas.  I also had a great time doing readings with authors Marcia Colette and Sapphire Phelan.  We managed to run some poor guy out of the room, but I got a chance to use innocents as guinea pigs for my vampire story.

Today’s activities include:

6pm Signing– I always feel strange doing signings.  First off, I write eBooks, so I don’t have much in the way of physical things to sign.  Though I think I’m going to do a little impromptu contest to give away an eBook or two.  I’m just never really sure what to do at those things.  So if anyone at the Con is reading this– drop by and talk to me!!

10pm Romance vs. Erotica, How much is too much?– I think y’all know my take on this.  There’s no such thing as too much as long as it’s pretty.

11pm Taboos and Societal Bans– I found myself on this panel because my good friend, Bethany Halle couldn’t be here.  It’s going to be a no holds barred discussion of BDSM, alternative lifestyles and the like.  It should be fun, though I don’t consider myself an expert by any means.

12pm BELLA MORTE! – Yes folks, I’ll be shakin’ my groove thang into the wee hours of the morning and rockin’ it out with one of my favorite Goth bands of all time.  This weekend I’ve gotten the opportunity to meet frontman Andy Deane (who is also a very talented horror writer) and I’m so glad to go out and support them.

So I guess I should get off this thing and go down to participate.  The husband has some panels this afternoon that I don’t want to miss.  If you’re in the Roanoke area, you should come on down and see us.  We only bite if you ask.

Off to MystiCon 2012!!

And we’re off!  The husband and I are on our way, even as we speak, to MystiCon 2012.  Our goal is to get there by around 3pm.  Last year we barely made it through Windacolypse, so we didn’t have time to eat before our panels started.  I think we had some chips after.  But hopefully we’ll get there in time to grab a bite to eat (anyone wanna join us?)

I did manage to find my schedule tonight and I think my first panel is perhaps 10pm Friday.  I should have plenty of time to explore the wine list before then.  Did I mention that I’m moderating my first panel as well???  What the hell does a moderator do?  I hope its not to keep everyone in line… I can’t even do that for myself.  Beyond that, I know I’ll be at the Bella Morte concert on Saturday night, shakin’ my groove thang.

So the point is– those of you in the Roanoke area– come hang with me!  Have a glass of wine!

Wicked Little Wednesday… Belated: Aretha Smith

So Google has foiled me once again!  Too bad their new privacy settings don’t alert them when my email is clogged…But life goes on and I’m finally here with today’s Wicked Little Wednesday with Aretha Smith!  Aretha is blogging today on the freedom of being a writer.  I have to say, I wholeheartedly agree with her.  Someone, whose name escapes me, once said, “A writer is someone who has taught his mind how to misbehave.” So why should we only write what we know?  We’re writers, damnit!  The masters of our own universes.  We are authors, hear us roar!!

She’s also giving a little taste of her upcoming release, Hearts of Time… I’m tingling with anticipation!

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Saying No to Writing Only What I Know

 One of the freedoms of writing fiction is the power and control to create the characters you want and the plotlines you want, sometimes even farfetched ones. With that freedom comes the ability to create characters that live lives far more interesting than mine, and those who encounter life situations that I have not yet, and in many cases, would hope I’d never have to encounter. But I’ve often heard it mentioned over the years that us writers should play it safe by writing only what we know. Well I have a problem with this notion, since if I stuck to writing only what I knew, I’d be relegated to writing about librarians, piano players, church-going seamstresses and gym rats who obsessively count every caloric morsel that goes into their mouths on a daily basis, because you see, that’s what I know and that’s who I am. Now mind you, a talented writer can create a character that has the most boring profession in the world and still manage to write an interesting story around him or her. I’m certainly don’t dispute this fact.

 

One of the beautiful things about the Internet is that it puts knowledge at our fingertips–literally. Long gone are the days where one had to trek across town to the public library and spend hours between the dust bunny-ridden aisles, leafing through books to find information on subjects they know nothing about. Now, all one need do is logon onto the world-wide-web, Google something specific and be greeted with a host of search hits from semi-relevant to dead-on-specific in regards to the information they seek. One of the things I’ve learned as a writer is that research is my friend. In fact, my passion as a writer couldn’t possibly be more well-matched in terms of my educational background; I am fortunate to have a background in both libraries and research and this comes in quite handy when it comes time to get down to serious research for my stories.

 

When it comes to the Internet, of course it goes without saying that not everything on the Internet can be taken as fact, there are plenty of reputable websites that contain hoards of information on any desired subject, not to mention the advent of social media and it’s subsequent aspect of social networking has opened plenty of doors to network with others who have lived the exact experiences one may seek to write about in a novel. I’d like to think that having not fought in the Vietnam War would prevent me from writing a good story about a character who is a Vietnam War vet. And one of the best things about doing research for my novels is that I learn so many things along the way that I may not have learned otherwise.

 

So telling me to stick to writing only what I know is akin to tying my hands behind my back as a writer. Writing fiction is one of those freeing experiences that I treasure almost like no other. When I sit down at my laptop and dream up intriguing characters, I need to be free to let my mind explore possibilities and experiences for my characters that I may never in this lifetime ever get to experience. Taking that ability away from me would cripple my passion, and as a writer who prides herself on her creative abilities, I simply can’t have that.

 

I look forward to sharing my upcoming April 17th release, Hearts of Time with you!

 

Hearts of Time Blurb:

 

Isn’t it funny when the thing you want the least becomes the thing you want the most?

Olivia Putnam is a fiercely independent, twenty-nine year old career woman. Having survived her mother’s untimely death eight years ago, she’s managed to raise her younger sister all on her own along with fulfilling her dream of becoming successful corporate attorney. She has lots of money, designer clothes, and the other luxuries of life. The man in her life, Theo Griffin, wants her for a lifetime and would gladly marry her on the spot, but two things stand in the way: Olivia’s reservations about commitment and her obsessive work habits. She’s torn between finding time for her relationship and devoting time to growing her career. But when she meets successful realtor, thirty-one year old Alistair Davenport, at her best friend’s wedding, her ideas about love and commitment are about to change. Although falling in love is the last thing on both their minds, Alistair’s chance business proposal to Olivia proves to be the catalyst that ignites their passion for each other…

 

I can be contacted at any of the following:

Blog: www.arethacsmith.wordpress.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/acthewriter

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Aretha-C-Smith/307812299231571

Email: arethacsmith@hotmail.com