Independence Day Blog Hop

 http://thebloghopspot.com/event-page/

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

These words were written and adopted by the Congress of the United States over 200 years ago. And yet, still today, there are citizens in this country who are denied the unalienable right of happiness because of their sexual orientation. Until ALL citizens are treated equally, can we truly say we are Independent?

Prize for this hop is an ebook copy of Catriona’s Curse. You must be a follower of this blog to win.

Advertisement

WIP

Have decided to make the werewolf into a shifter. Also decided to make it the last of a series of short stories about the same entity over a period of over two hundred years.

First story starts in 1795

I have my Independence Day Hop post written and will set it to go live July 1.

Sexy Summer Solstice Hop

Congratulations to my winner, Amanda Ward. She received copies of all three of my books.

I had a great time chatting with the other bloggers and readers yesterday evening, people from East to West and even New Zealand. It’s always fun meeting new people, even if not fact-to-face, particularly when you have something in common such as reading and writing.

werewolf

Thought I’d finished the werewolf story yesterday and gave it to one of my beta readers. Then realized I’d left out a couple of sentences I wanted included.

Is any work ever done to a writer’s satisfaction?

Summer Solstice Hop

This is an excerpt from Catriona’s Curse. Not much romance in this scene I’m afraid. The speaker is my main character, Matthew Sunshine Nelson a/k/a Sunny.

June 21
After church, the whole family gathered at Mom and Dad’s house. The adults spent the day lounging around the pool watching the kids play until Dad fired up the grill and cooked some steak and chicken kabobs and roasted some corn in the husks.

Although the family was active in the Methodist Church and attended services regularly, Mom still semi-observes the Pagan holidays. In keeping with the celebration of Litha or the Summer Solstice, she marinated the meat for the kabobs in thyme and chamomile. The tossed salad contained rose petals, and there was a fresh fruit salad with a lemon-flavored dressing. She also prepared fresh green beans with thyme, basil, and fennel.
On each wall of the room a sconce held a different colored candle, yellow for Air in the east, red for Fire in the south, blue for Water in the west, and green for Earth on the north. So even though Mom hadn’t cast an official circle and didn’t follow the complete ritual of Litha, as she lit the candles, there was a feeling of peace and protection.
I remembered when I was a kid and friends ate with us, they often remarked on the strange flavorings Mom used. We lost a lot of possible friends over the years because other parents were afraid for their kids to come to our house.

Author Extravaganza

Had a wonderful day yesterday. Four other members of my writers’ group and I went to Emporia, KS (about 90 miles) to Town Crier Bookstore for a book signing. There were approximately 30-40 authors attending.

Great conversations not only at the store, but also on the rides down and back. It’s nice spending the day with people with whom you have something in common. Of course, I’m the only one in my genre, but that doesn’t matter. We all have the same goals – be recognized for our ‘babies’.

Also, the bookstore had two of my titles in stock and now they have all three.

today

Trying to work on paranormal story. Also trying to come up with a title.

‘Lonely Wolf’ — ‘Lonely Heart’ — ‘Lonely Howl’

Six Senence Sunday 6-3-12

I’ve never had two WIPs at once (of course neither one has a title).

This is from a short story about a warewolf.

The wolf watched from the dense underbrush as the young family unloaded their car; something was pulling him. He had been alone for over two years since Brian died. He vowed then to never love another human; it hurt too much to lose them. There are drawbacks to being nearly immortal; you outlive everyone you love. He ached for companionship. It wasn’t so much sex he missed as the closeness of another creature.

My bit for anti-discrimination

I make it a practice to try to not patronize discriminatory companies. So, I think I should do what I can to patronize those who do not discriminate.

I’m attending a function in two weeks to which I feel I should wear a dress. Now anyone who knows me, knows I do not own a dress. After seeing the JC Penney add with the two fathers and their children and knowing the backlash Penney received when they hired Ellen, I decided to go to Penney’s .

Now I had a Penney’s charge account years ago, but hadn’t used it for over four years. I went to the Outlet store in Lenexa, KS and discovered the account closed for inactivity. They could not open a new account so I went to Oak Park Mall (another place I hadn’t been for years – it’s difficult to shop in stores with a walker). They opened a new account for me. Since I opened it today, I got 20% off of everything I bought.

I wanted a brown dress to go with a brown hat I already had. Now I have a choice of three brown dresses and two hats to wear to the author extravaganza in two weeks.