EVERY CHILD HAS A GIFT and A PASSION The great thing about being a kid is that you have to learn when to NOT go for something, because we come out of the womb ready to jump at any chance life throws out.   Like every child, I was born with a gift, but I was fortunate to also have a passion for using that gift and found encouragement along the way in the moments that counted. The only downside?  My gift was the ability to draw and paint photo-realistic portraits of anything I saw.  Why was that a downside?  Because art was never considered a viable way to make a living when I was growing up.  If you’ve read any articles about my past, you know that I lost my mom when I was 17 and that I moved out on my own right after that. What you may not know is that I give a lot of the credit for my art and writing success to my mom. My mom, like many moms, spent hours helping her five children with homework and class projects, but she and my father differed on one point.  My mom appreciated my gift of…

As I started this I was reflecting on the first day of Readers ‘n ‘ritas 2010. It was a rather full day that started at home. with attempts at prepping my home and family for a weekend without me. The dogs I think understood fairly well what was happening, but my son said, “you didn’t tell me you were going away for the weekend.” My response…”what do you think I’ve been talking about for the last several months?” Oh well! Got to the hotel and finished prep work for the actual convention. Finally the convention started, and while I worked registration it sounded like the party in the room behind me was in full swing. Thanks to a great team I was able to sneak in for a few minutes here and there, and got hugged by Dakota Cassidy, Sherrilyn Kenyon, and Dianna Love. Could it get better than that? Well, for me it could. For several years now I’ve been fascinated with the works of Tara Taylor Quinn. Her current work is a four book series titled The Chapman Files. When Tara arrived I was pretty excited to be the first to greet her. I got a few minutes…

The Day My Guardian Spirit Saved My Life Have you ever experienced a moment of premonition or a time that something unexplained intervened in your life?  I’ve had quite a few of those moments, but the one which really stands out is the day my guardian angel saved me when I would have died. Many years ago, I’d had a bad day in business.  I’ll spare you the details about that, but I ended up sitting in a restaurant in Marietta, Georgia, until very late, talking to a business associate I’d known for years.  My home was on the opposite side of Atlanta in the Stone Mountain area. I finally had to make that long drive home, which meant traveling on Interstate 285 after midnight.  I was drained from the bad day and I’d been up since 4:00 am. When I pulled onto the interstate it was in an area that had little commerce, so everything was pitch black around me.  The only thing I could see was whatever my headlights touched.  Back then, there were almost no cars on the road during the week at that time of night.  The speed limit was 65 and the weather was clear,…

You could spend the month of Halloween with some pretend supernaturals. . . Better yet, why not spend this October with some real vampires, wolves and wizards oh my. Time to the let magic, fur and fangs fly. . . . Check out these new October paranormal titles. REVAMPED, J. F. Lewis (Pocket, 09/28/10, $7.99) Eric survived a vicious showdown with his double-crossing former best friend and some angry lycanthropes—barely: he’s lost his strip club, his treasured red Mustang, his love life, and even his body. But with a little magic, the die- hard Vlad returns to corporeal form, and “Fang the ’Stang” is restored—with an unlife of its own. Now Eric’s ready to match wits with one of Void City’s most powerful demons to rescue the soul of Marilyn, the love of his (mortal) life. But salvation comes at a high price, forcing Eric to enter his own worst nightmare, vampire High Society, to uncover the truth about the origin of his powers. Having to deal with the Void City elite is bad enough, but the more Eric sniffs around, the more it looks like someone is after his soul, too. Now blood will flow and fangs will be…

When I thought about the blog post this week I really wanted to be bright-eyed, and bushy-tailed detailing the totally wonderful time I had in Orlando at RWA 2010. However, I am sick, and while I understand that it’s a side effect of being worn down from the fun I had, I’m really ready to be over the sick, so I can truly reflect on the fun! I had the chance to attend RWA due to the generosity of Sara Reyes, and Fresh Fiction. It truly was a wonderful experience, and I would suggest anyone and everyone take the opportunity to attend even if like me you don’t think you want to be an author. Being surrounded by the amazing people of the publishing industry is really inspiring, and I have to admit had me giving a fleeting thought to writing a book. For all you other aspiring authors…your chances are still safe, because I don’t see myself writing a book, and I’m beginning to believe if you can’t visualize it you can’t achieve it. There were so many highlights, but two that really stand out was the opportunity to meet Robyn Carr. If you’ve been reading me you know…

Intangible Evidence of MAGIC by NYT best seller Dianna Love Have you ever experienced something you can’t easily explain? INTANGIBLE EVIDENCE is actually the title of a book I read back in the late 80’s that was fascinating.  Authors Bernard Gittelson and Laura Torbet documented accounts of the strange and unusual, but qualified everything as having no hard evidence, thus the title. I’ve had quite a few unusual things happen in my life since my childhood, but like many other people, I realized at a young age to keep odd things to myself.  Still, the supernatural always fascinated me.  Here’s an example: I’ll admit to being absent minded, an inconvenient and frustrating trait many artists have.  I developed ways to work around it so it didn’t drive me and everyone around me crazy.  I especially hate to lose my keys (you know THE keys to your life – car, house, whatever).  I had just moved into a house back in the early 80s during a very stressful time.   I wanted my recently-booted boyfriend out of my life (this was right before I met my terrific husband) and had agreed to meet so we could discuss how to divide up some…

What would it take for you to go into the WITSEC program? We see this on television and read about it in books, but the idea of disappearing from our real lives is so foreign most people can’t even consider the possibility. I had a conversation with someone who knows a person in the WITSEC program and it’s a very scary situation. Notice how vague I kept that. Even though I don’t know this person’s name and there’s no chance of me being involved with this person I wouldn’t want to so much as hint at anything regarding them. But have you ever thought – “What if I saw something that would guarantee my death if I didn’t hide?” Most of us are pretty stressed when life throws a curve our way with a serious family issue that forces us to drop what we’re doing and leave town for a few days, but to walk away from everything within less than an hour? Many WITSEC members have had to do just that. Law enforcement in charge of the program say they have never lost one person who followed the rules, but that includes absolutely no contact with anyone from the…

What do a ‘Busa, a Softail and a Beemer have in common? You either think I’m speaking in tongues or you’re a two-wheel enthusiast who figured out those are all motorcycles, but that’s where the similarities end. I started riding motorcycles at 18 when a bunch of us raced motocross. Not the acrobat motocross you see now, but full bore racing on a rutted and curved dirt track full of choppy hills.  Honda created great off road bikes and plenty of street bikes. Years later they produced a sexy ride called a Blackbird, the fastest street bike running.  Then later on Suzuki turned out one called a Hayabusa (known in two-wheel circles as a ‘Busa) which became THE fastest street bike. A Hayabusa is Japanese for a bird of prey, their main prey being blackbirds…a not so subtle jab at Honda. Softail® is a Harley Davidson touring motorcycle with saddlebags and beautiful lines. I know because I had one of the classic designs known as a Heritage Softail® for several years, and I rode it all over the country. I even took that bike through the Tail of the Dragon at Deal’s Gap, a route through North Carolina and Tennessee’s…

Wow, finishing that sentence is going to take some thought. Many years ago I would have simply ended that sentence with “art,” because I’ve been a portrait artist since birth. I still love art, but now I love writing and fishing and motorcycle riding and golf and…my husband. Isn’t it funny how our passions sometimes change over a lifetime? I’ve always put my all into everything I ever attempted because I don’t know how to do anything half measure, but that doesn’t mean everything I tried became a true passion. At one time, I played competitive racquetball 4-6 nights a week. Before that I was around a group who rode motocross bikes. Both of these activities I jumped on, pursued, and loved. But I don’t actively pursue those now. Other things have stayed as part of my life in some form and become true life passions – art and now writing, motorcycles, fishing, and my husband. I’m passionate about practically everything I do, or I don’t do it for long, but recently I’ve found a new passion. Meeting readers. Up until 2001 when I started writing for the first time, I never expected to meet a reader except in a…

A witch appears in my newest trilogy, The Safekeepers, for Silhouette Romantic Suspense.  In fact, she’s a black witch who curses the Ryan family. Several white witches who do good deeds are in all three books too, but the witches don’t take up the entire plot.  I’ve also written about psychics, mediums, and Native American supernatural beliefs.  My editor and I call that light paranormal elements. Not long ago I was wondering if light paranormal was as popular with readers as dark.  Oh, I already knew about the popularity of those sensual dark vampire and werewolf stories.  Or at least I thought I did.  I happened to ask a readers group and my own newsletter subscribers what they thought.  Boy, did I get an earful! Buy SAFE BY HIS SIDE Buy IN SAFE HANDS “…straight paranormal is currently being overdone.”  “Vamps are sooo over.”  “I don’t care for vampire and the like in books.” “I’m a big paranormal fan who is tired of the vampires.”  And these are the nice replies! But at the same time as people complain about vampire books, one of the best-selling series currently is the Twilight series by Stephanie Myer.  And please don’t tell Sherilyn…