Scorpions Sting

My extremely artistic, homeopathic non-Scorpio sister is going to kill me for this, but we've had conversations very close to this one (minus the nose job):

Devil Without a Cause

The first book in the Devil's Bargain series is now in the hands of my editor, and it has a new title: DEVIL WITHOUT A CAUSE. (No, this IS NOT the actual cover - it was done by a friend - but it's SO funny, isn't it?)

This particular title fits the book on so many levels - a misunderstood loner, rebelling against what's expected of him, taking on the world with his own version of right vs. wrong.

So what if he just happens to be the Devil himself, hm? :-)

(I must admit, there's even a resemblance between Sammy (Satan) Divine and James Dean!)

Sammy's not the only bad boy is this book. He goes head-to-head with his old friend, the Archangel Gabriel, and a more recent acquaintance named Finn Payne, who sold his soul for rock-n-roll.

Finn's had a long and very successful career, and Sammy's tired of waiting to collect on his end of the bargain. In DEVIL WITHOUT A CAUSE, he uses an unsuspecting young woman named Faith to tempt Finn to his doom, much as he feels he was tempted by Eve in those long ago days of the Garden of Eden. It's a twisted tale of love, forgiveness and redemption, and if I told you more than that... well, let's just say I want you to READ it to find out what happens!

I promise to post an excerpt as soon as my editor gives me the go-ahead, which should be soon. In the meantime, patience is a virtue, or so I'm told!

(Sammy would definitely disagree, but who you gonna listen to -- an angel, or a devil?)

Refilling the Creative Well With Family, Flowers and Pottery

One of the hazards of being a writer is that it can be a very solitary job, one that requires a lot of living in one's own head. The people we end up talking to the most can sometimes be the imaginary ones we create for our stories instead of the living ones who actually surround us. When one of my sisters recently told me that I "needed to get out more", I took her advice and booked a quick trip up to visit her in the Atlanta area for a change of scenery, a change of routine and a couple of days worth of relaxation.

Valerie is an extremely creative person, and has always been able to think outside the box. Her gifts are many and varied; she's a talented floral designer who recently opened her own shop, AND she's an amazingly gifted potter, with her own pottery studio.

I hadn't seen the store yet (though I'd heard all about it), and wasn't sure what to expect, though I knew it would be awesome. What I didn't expect was to walk through the door and go "WOW!" But I did, and here's why:



She's put her heart and soul into the place, and it shows. Unlike many florist shops, walking into hers is like walking into a secret garden, full of nature and gorgeous blooms. Check out the wallpaper - it's a silkscreened photo of an actual forest - and look what she has hanging there... those are her originally designed, handmade "tree masks". No two are even remotely alike (this picture doesn't begin to do them justice). They're outdoor garden art, designed to be strapped to live trees with rawhide. The expression, the detail, and the glazing makes them all fantastically unique and oddly alive.

So, yesterday, we spent most of the day in her pottery studio, where she showed me how to make my own. Since I have "devils" on the brain these days, guess what I came up with? :-) I was going for Puck, the horny satyr from Midsummer Night's Dream, and wanted him to look both naughty and mischievious.

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream.

This is just the raw clay version - Valerie will paint it with the glaze I chose, a speckled concoction of browns and creams, and then fire it in her kiln. Since firing up a kiln is quite a production, I probably won't see the finished product for several weeks. It was a pretty fascination process, though - shaping, smoothing, slicing - I used sea shells for the texturing. Who knew?

Anyway, I came back today, relaxed and refreshed, and ready to start the next book. Plus, my sister can't nag me about "getting out more". :-)

And They All Lived Hoppily Ever After...

I have no idea what possessed me (must've been a wild hare! Get it? Hair, hare? Oh, never mind...), but I agreed to play the Easter Bunny at my local YMCA this weekend as part of an Easter celebration sponsored by my church. Never having worn a big giant bunny head before, I didn't realize what I was getting myself into until I actually got fitted for the costume, and found out that big giant bunny heads can be extremely difficult to see through, and extremely hot.

However, they can also be extremely fun. :-) Here I am suiting up before the event:


And here's the finished product:


My obligatory "bunny pose" (take that, Playboy magazine!):


And the reason(s) I did it (look at those little faces!!!):


There were an estimated 300 people at the event, by far most of them kids. all who got to hunt for Easter eggs, jump in the bouncy house, make Easter crafts and eat snowcones and popcorn while listening to live music. And oh, yeah, get their picture taken with the Easter Bunny. :-) Luckily, only a few were frightened by me, and only one burst into tears. (Weirdly enough, they seemed more scared of my big white mitts than anything else.)

So yes, I'm a published author, and no, I'm not at all ashamed to say I dressed up as the Easter Bunny and made some kids happy. I end this Easter Blog with two of my favorite quotes: "Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused", and "Th-th-that's all, folks!"

Blame It On Billy

There was a trending topic on Facebook the other day, asking people about the first concert they ever attended. It got me thinking, and it got me remembering. :-)

My first concert was when I was 14, and while I can't remember the actual name of the band, I do remember the when, the where and the why. You're looking at him right now: my very first boyfriend, Billy.

Billy was my first serious crush, my first kiss, and the first teenage boy to ever tell me he loved me. (Can I hear an "awwwww...."). He lived in my neighborhood, was a year or two older than me, and gee - he had a garage band! I used to spend Saturdays hanging out at his house and listening to them play, and when he got his first real gig at a local apartment complex, I was there, as his biggest fan. I can't really remember why we broke up, but I do remember it as being amicable - no major drama, just growing up and moving on, I suppose. We eventually lost touch, of course, because right after high school, Billy struck out on his own looking for those "bright lights and big city".

I'm happy to say he found it, or at least his own version of it, and has been in several bands over the years. He's still making music out in Montana, both as a rock-n-roll deejay on local radio, and a solo performer. He tracked me down a couple of years ago, and I was thrilled to hear from him. He now goes by the name of Billy Angel, and though his hair doesn't look quite the way it used to :-), he's still the same sweet guy I remember: kind, funny, devoted to his wife and to the music he's always heard in his head.

I've been asked many times about the musical references I use in my books, the bands I love and follow (both old and new) and basically just how I got so into music. I have eclectic tastes when it comes to bands and am always open to variety - if I like it, I like it, and if I don't, no way am I going to accept your friend request on MySpace, no matter how many times you send me one! :-p (If I do, though, I will.)

While the easy answer as to why I like rock-n-roll so much is just that I just enjoy it in general, the real answer is that I blame it on Billy. :-)

HORNS: A Novel by Joe Hill

As the Rolling Stones once said, "You can't always get what you want, but you get what you need". That's how I felt about Joe Hill's HORNS. Once I got past the first scene, which I found a bit confusing (horns? a girl pigging out on doughnuts?), I couldn't put this book down, and actually had to force myself to put it aside and parse it out in small doses to make it last longer.

You see, one morning, after Ignatius Perrish spent the night "drunk and doing terrible things", he woke up with a hangover, a raging headache, and a pair of horns growing from his head. Not just any horns, but horns that had the power to make total strangers want to tell him their deepest, darkest thoughts. What he learned wasn't so great - everyone in the small town he grew up in believed he'd gotten away with brutally murdering his girlfriend a year earlier.

What drew me in and kept me there was how I honestly didn't know for quite some time whether Ig's horns were real, or just a figment of his tortured imagination. I loved how I wasn't sure myself whether Ig had murdered Merrin or not, and whether every evil thing that the secondary characters confessed to him was just part of an overall guilty psychosis. I found myself truly looking forward to each new character encounter, just to find out "what evil dwelt within the minds of men" (and women).

By the time I got to the middle of the novel, I could see where the author was flagging a bit, but I didn't hold it against him - I really wanted to see where it went and what would happen to poor, tortured Ig. I wanted to know if Merrin was the good girl she seemed to be, or if she, too, had the Devil inside. Joe Hill is obviously a fan of old time rock-n-roll, and the song references got to be a bit much (I had to roll my eyes at a particular plot point involving the Devil in a blue dress), but this was SUCH a good exploration of the evil and the good contained within the human heart, and our ongoing struggle to determine which side is going to win. Hill's writing style was so simple, yet so poignant, that I found myself reading certain passages over again ("The corn whispered frantically, spreading false rumors about him." "The wind caught her hair and did pretty things with it.")

As an aside, I'll point out that Joe Hill is the son of Stephen King, and (no offense to Mr. King), this was easily as good as anything his father has ever written. It was clear to me, however, that this book reflected the author's own style and voice, not his father's.

I will admit I found the ending a bit frenetic and somewhat fantastical, but again, it IS a horror novel, and after all the buildup, it could hardly be something as easy as "the bad guy got his, and they all lived happily ever after". As the song goes and as Hill's characters ultimately discovered, you can't always get what you want, but you get what you need. In this case, that goes for the reader, too.

Despite a few flaws, this one is going on my keeper shelf, and unlike many second novels, I think this one was far better than Hill's first (A Heart-Shaped Box).

Here, There and Everywhere

The first quarter of 2010 is almost gone, and I find myself busy planning the rest of my year before it gets away from me. I've got several trips scheduled, but before I say when and where, I want to point out to any Internet burglers or bad guys that my house will NOT be empty while I'm gone! I have a full-time housesitter, a neighborhood watch, an alarm system, a very loud dog and two hissing, spitting, extremely territorial cats for you to deal with!

The next three months are just the usual family stuff (birthdays, out-of-town relatives, a college graduation) plus some writing deadlines I cannot miss: Book #1 in the new series is due April 1st, and I will have to immediately begin work on Book #2 to have it delivered by the end of the year. In between I'll be doing A) revisions B) copy edits C) back cover copy and D) proofing of galleys for Book #1, then start the process all over again for Book #2.

I am, however, planning a week at the beach to relax and regroup in mid-April, and cannot WAIT to watch the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico with a drink in my hand!

July will be busy, as I will be flying out to Denver for the RomCon Conference, a three-day readers/writers extravaganza, during which I will sign books, chat with readers, and participate in such delightful silliness as "Speed Date An Author" or play a game of "Were-Squares" (in which two reader teams go head-to-head attempting to detect which werewolf & shape-shifter authors are telling the truth and which are lying through their canines). Sounds fun, doesn't it? Before the conference, I'll be spending a few days exploring the Rocky Mountains, which I've always wanted to see but never have.

Home for two weeks, then I'm off again, this time flying to Nashville for the annual Romance Writers of America Convention, being held in the world-famous Gaylord Opryland Hotel, July 28-31st. I'm flying out early then, too, so I'll have extra time to spend with writing pals I don't get to see any other time of the year. This conference is the biggie of the industry: workshops, meetings, multiple booksignings, meetings with agents, editors and other industry professionals, and the ever-popular RITA and Golden Heart Awards. (Can't wait to see who wins this year!)

August will find me re-grouping and working hard to finish Book #2 before jetting off to London in September for a real vacation... we'll be staying with friends in Cambridge and plan to do the "tourist thing" to the fullest, exploring the great cities of London and Cambridge as well as venturing out into the surrounding countryside to check out Hampton Court, old abbeys, stone circles and life in Merrye Olde England. (Maybe I'll be inspired enough to write a classic historical like The Scarlet Pimpernel, hm?)

October will be full as well, as I'm planning on going all out again this year on my annual Halloween festivities, including a fundraiser for a local children's charity, but before the ghoulies and ghosties arrive, I'll be attending yet another conference, Necronomicon 2010, a science fiction, fantasy and horror convention being held in St. Petersburg, FL, Oct. 22 – 24th. I've never attended a conference like this one before, but it promises to be fun: panels, workshops, costume parties and ghoulishly themed get-togethers like the Eye Scream Social, a Scavenger Hunt, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog and something called "Filking", though I have no idea what that is! I only hope I don't get eaten by a zombie (or a grue) while I'm there.

By the time November and December roll around, I plan on being exhausted, yet will still have to make it through the holidays - Thanksgiving and Christmas will be right around the corner!

And there you have it, my year in a (very long) nutshell. There may very well be some other events and activities that arise. I'll keep you posted!

Vampires Read, Too - The Story Behind The 69 Eyes and Dead Girls Are Easy

It's no secret that I'm a fan of Finnish glam/goth rockers, The 69 Eyes. A friend sent me a link last year to the "Live At Tavastia" videos on YouTube, and I was hooked. I friended the band on MySpace, and to my surprise, got a reply directly from Finland's Prince of Darkness himself, their lead singer, Jyrki69 (Jyrki Linnankivi). It's pronounced "Yurkee", if you're wondering. :-)

You see, I hate to blow the band's badass cover, but they're actually a bunch of really nice guys, and Jyrki was dropping me a note to tell me that he'd read my books, and that one of them had provided a little inspiration for a song he'd written for their new album, which they were working on at the time. He didn't tell me which one, and I didn't ask, because he evidently wanted it to be a surprise. Since I've never been one to peek at presents before they're given, I was happy to wait and see what happened next. We corresponded a bit, which was very nice, and I learned a lot about Jyrki and the band in the meantime: gold-selling artists with a career that's spanned over 20 years, fan clubs in just about every country in Europe, and still the original group of guys who have yet to burn out and fade away. Jyrki himself is a well-read, articulate, art aficionado with a degree in Chemistry and a "Young Person of the Year" award for his work with Unicef. (I don't know why I even bother to write fiction, because THAT is just the kind of stuff you can't make up, people!)

At any rate, the wait was worth it. The debut single from their current CD, Back In Blood, was titled DEAD GIRLS ARE EASY and it was simply awesome, as is the rest of the album. The song was then turned into a music video, which debuted this summer on Playboy.com. You can see it, and listen to it, right here.

The Eyes then took the Australia, the US, Europe and the UK by storm with a follow up tour promoting the new CD, during which I got to meet them all in person. I posted all the pics on my blog back in October when it happened, but this, of course, is my favorite one - Jyrki and me, with Jyrki holding up a copy of Dead Girls Are Easy, which all of the band members signed.
While they were in Croatia during their tour, they did several interviews with the local media, and here, for the first time, is Jyrki telling the story of how he found the book in a bookstore, thought the title was cool, and bought it. The Croatian to English translation leaves a bit to be desired (through no fault of the lovely Ivy Sataic, who conducted the interview - it's more of a Google problem), so I'll reprint the portion about the book right here:

IVY: And when we talk about art we cannot bypass books, which leads us to the song "Dead Girls Are Easy" after the same named book. What attracted your attention in the book to name the song after it?
J69: I get inspired in many ways. It can be the name of the movie or it can be a painting or picture in the magazine. Something that just got my attention. So one of these days I was walking around the book store and I noticed the Dead Girls Are Easy book and was like, "Wow! The title is cool." I bought the book. Then at the same time we were writing new music, so that title really fit as a song. Later on I had to think about what the hell that could mean as the song obviously is not the straight reference to the book. I actually have all Terri Garey's books, which is pretty cool stuff, and I can't wait if they're made into movies. But I mean, in general, Dead Girls Are Easy was a really cool expression and I just started to think what it could mean and what it could mean as a chorus in a song, so I started to build it up like that.

So there you go. Truth really IS stranger than fiction, in SO many ways.

I love The 69 Eyes--for their music (their drummer, Jussi, puts Tommy Lee in the shade, and all three of their guitarists, Bazie, Timo-Timo, and Archzie, are masters of the craft) their originality, their showmanship, and their kindness. As Jyrki pointed out in yet a different interview, good guys can wear black, too. :-) Buy their CD, and get bitten!

The Addams Family - A Musical

I'm not much for musicals, but this is one Broadway show I wouldn't mind seeing! I loved and adored the Addams Family - Gomez, the creepy but adoring father, Morticia, the sexy but loving mother, and irrepressible Uncle Fester, oh my! I will even admit to having a strange crush on Lurch, the zombie-like, monotone behemoth of a butler. I wanted Thing (a disembodied hand) to live in a box in my bedroom, and I wanted to brush the hair of Cousin It (even though I couldn't understand a word he was saying).

What's tipped me over to the musical side here though is not so much that I loved the TV show, but the Broadway version's casting is PERFECT: Nathan Lane as Gomez and Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia. For those who don't recall, Bebe Neuwirth played cold, controlling wife Lilith in one of my all-time favorite sitcoms, Frasier, and Nathan Lane was absolutely brilliant as an over-the-top drag queen in one of my favorite movies, The Birdcage. Not only do they both look the parts of Morticia and Gomez, but they're wonderful actors, and anybody who knows me knows my opinion that casting is everything.

I'm buried under a deadline at the moment, but I'm definitely considering a trip to New York for this one!

A Beautiful Cause, A Beautiful Day

Thought I'd post a few pictures from the Walk To Defeat ALS, which I participated in this past Saturday. It took place downtown near the river, and the turnout was fabulous, as was the beauty of the day. While it was sad that all of us were there because we'd lost family members to this horrible disease, it was extremely uplifting to know that we were there to make a difference, to hopefully keep future families from going through what we all went through.

Several hundred of us walked in a long line, laughing, chatting and appreciating that we could do what our loved ones no longer could (even when they were alive), which is WALK. Walking is something we all truly take for granted. I try to do it every day for my health, but it's also a great way to unwind and enjoy life.



This final shot is of my wonderful brother-in-law, his lovely wife (my sister), me, and my sweet husband. I think my mom would've liked it, don't you?



Thanks so much to everyone who came out and participated! And the rest of you? Go out and take a walk!!

The Man Your Man Could Smell Like

I saw this commercial for the first time last week, and it's got to be one of the most effective, clever (and hilarious!) commercials I've ever seen. Not only did the name of the product itself stick in my head (which supposedly doesn't happen until you've been exposed to an ad a minimum of seven times), but it worked! I'm going to buy some for my husband (he won't use it, but I'm going to buy it anyway, just to see how it smells). Way to go, Old Spice, for figuring out how to motivate women into buying an exclusively male product!



Personally, I've never been an Old Spice kind of girl - I prefer the smell of Calvin Klein's "Obsession" for men - but I know how important smells can be in evoking memories and feelings. My first boyfriend wore English Leather, and to this day I can't smell it without thinking of him.

So here's the obvious question, ladies: What does YOUR man smell like? :-)

London Calling...

Clash - London Calling download at emp3

(Hit the play button before reading this post. It's more fun that way.) "London Calling' by The Clash is one of my "oldie-but-goodie" favorites, and it's particularly appropriate today for two reasons:

1) I just got off the phone with one my dear friends who lives in Cambridge, just outside of London, and
2) I have plane reservations to go there in September! Woot!

Yes, the hubby and I are going to do the "American Not-So-Much-Werewolves-As-Tourists in London" bit, and are flying in for 10 days of sightseeing, fish-n-chips, and a bit of 'God Save The Queen". No doubt we shall be gobsmacked and chuffed to bits by our visit (that means amazed and thrilled), and shall do our best not to get too knackered and arrive tickety-boo (that means not too tired and with no problems).

Don't you just love the way British speak? I do.

So, off we go, and Bob's your uncle. (And that's that!)

Another Random Excerpt - "Uninvited"

Like most published authors, I have a few old, unpublished manuscripts under the bed (technically, they're on my hard drive, but the point is, they were never published). One of them, called UNINVITED, is a modern day ghost story about a young woman fleeing an abusive husband, who moves into a house that turns out to be the scene of a murder/suicide, and haunted by two different ghosts, both the murderer and the victim (ooo, spooky!). And just so you know, this is based on a true story, which I've mentioned on my blog before. So here's a scene from UNINVITED, in which the heroine has called in a paranormal investigations team (4 guys and a psychic) to help her figure out what's going on:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The lights on the electromagnetic field detector flashed bright green, then red. Dave stopped, fiddling with the dials. “Baseline reading was .4mG. I’m getting spikes up to .9, and down to .3.” He spoke for the benefit of the video camera as much as ours.

“He was surprised.” The psychic, Maureen, came up behind me. Her soft statement had an otherworldly tone to it, bringing us back from the safe world of science. “He didn’t think she’d do it.”

She moved down the hallway, Dave and Steve making way while keeping their eyes on their instruments. At my bedroom door, she stopped, then turned, searching the air around her.

“Is the EVP recorder on?” Steve’s sharply hissed question betrayed his excitement.

Maureen ignored him as she addressed herself to the shadows. “Spirit, tell us why you linger.” Her voice was like honey, soothing and full of ease. She lured an answer from the air as though inviting confidences from her best friend. Closing her eyes, she swayed slightly, her rosary clutched in both hands. Even in the dimness I could see her fingers moving on the beads.

Utter silence, save for whatever Maureen might hear. I felt nothing this time... saw and heard nothing. Somehow I knew that Parker was drawn to Maureen instead of me, concentrating his ethereal efforts on someone whose earthly spirit reached out to him, a potent lure for a phantom forever trapped in a hell of his own making. A chance to communicate with the world of the living again, however briefly.

“Guilt, and remorse.” Maureen opened her eyes. “He feels very badly about something -- no, someone. He feels very badly about someone, but I don’t know who.” Surprisingly, she smiled. “He likes you, though, " she said to me. "Your aura’s just brightened.”

Sure enough, I felt a whisp of ice on my cheek. I shrank against Adam and stayed there, avoiding the sweeps of Dave’s metered amplifier.

“Another big spike here,” he said, for benefit of the camera. “.9 and fluctuating.”

“I don’t think you need to worry about this gentleman. He isn’t out to do anyone any harm.” Maureen’s grin turned decidedly naughty. “But I get a very clear impression that he likes the ladies... Jody, in particular.” Apparently unconcerned, Maureen turned and entered my bedroom.

I righted myself, determined not to be afraid of a flirtatious ghost. Since I’d seen him at the séance, I’d felt no menace from Parker. He was in death what he’d probably been in life, an ineffectual shadow of a man – reduced to peeping through the mist at the physical world he no longer had access to.

Parker wasn’t the reason I was here tonight. Holly Townsend and her overwhelming anger - her tortured, unquiet soul was why I was here.

I wanted to set her free. To prove to myself that no one person can so influence your life that you’re driven to acts that forever doom you to an even more hellish existence.

Imagine -- living out eternity in the house of the lover you killed, doomed to feel all that turmoil and jealousy over and over and over again – driven insane by the knowledge that you’ve killed a person you once loved, and lost everyone you ever loved in the bargain. Crazy as a loon, and dead to boot.

Giving Adam’s hand a squeeze, I let go of him to follow Maureen into the room. She was standing at the head of my bed, looking toward the window. As I watched, she staggered, catching herself with a hand against the wall.

“Oh, there’s terrible grief here.” Maureen shook her head, steadier now. She trailed her fingers over the wall, moving slowly toward the closet. “Sadness,” she whispered.

Next to my dresser, she stopped, and put up a hand, signaling the rest of us. “Wait there, please.”

I stood in the doorway, Adam at my shoulder. I could hear Jim’s camera equipment humming as he hoisted it higher, keeping it trained on Maureen.

She closed her eyes and stood in the quiet darkness, listening. Crossed her arms, she hugged herself as though cold. “Don’t be afraid. We won’t hurt you.” Anyone hearing Maureen would have thought she spoke to a frightened animal or a small child. “We’re here to help."

Her breath was indrawn on a hiss, and as she let it out, she spoke more urgently, this time to the humans in the room. “She doesn’t like us being here.”

No one questioned the pronoun usage, accepting the switch from ‘he’ to ‘she’ without question, for the feel in the room was very different from the earlier encounter.

And then, though I willed it not to be so, I saw the first dark coils of shadow moving in a far corner. I was frozen with fear, for the black tendrils oozed up the wall, spreading like a stain in the gloom.

Incubus Rising (Part 2) - An Original Short

Incubus Rising (Part 2)
by Terri Garey^©

**WARNING: SUGGESTIVE THEMES, EXPLICIT NAUGHTINESS, AND IF YOU'RE UNDER 18, YOU NEED A SPANKING FOR READING THINGS YOU SHOULDN'T. GO DO YOUR HOMEWORK. I MEAN IT!!**

(Incubus Rising is an original work of erotic fiction by Terri Garey, written for my entertainment, and yours. An incubus, according to legend, is a male spirit who comes to women in their dreams, inciting them to all sorts of lascivious behavior, both awake and asleep. Good thing we no longer live in the age of the Inquisition, where you could be burned at the stake for having erotic dreams, isn't it? This is a snippet from the story of Ash, a demon of desire, and so we begin...)

~~~~~~~~~

This one was dark, as dark as her dreams. Lashes black as soot lay against delicate cheekbones, hair a spill of ebony against the creamy whiteness of linen sheets. Should they open, her eyes would likely rival the night with their mystery and depth. At least, I would wish them so.

I leaned in and brushed her lips with mine. My tongue slipped within to sample the softness of her own, savoring the taste of loneliness, of tears - the emotions that had drawn me to her from the darkness.

She had not stirred with my kisses, but that would soon change. I dipped into her thoughts as easily as her lips, and let the essence of her dreams overtake us both.

Her breasts were beneath my hands, warm mounds topped with ripe raspberries, though they needed no such sweetness. Her belly was flat and taut, tapering to a veed valley of black curls, the pale folds of her womanhood peeping coyly from the brambles of desire. Round was her bottom and curved were her hips, smooth skin smelling of pampering and flowers.

I was lost to her, and lost in the newness of my lust. It would wane, as it always did, but for now it was all.

She stirred beneath my hands, arching against my hardness. A gasp escaped her, but that was all the quarter I would give, capturing the next within my mouth as I settled myself between her thighs, sighing with satisfaction as she spread them for me. I drove myself home, unwilling to prolong the moment, and it was then I realized -as always - that I was not the conqueror, but the conquered.

She kissed me back, a willing participant in our pleasure. I drank deep of her softness, letting her tongue war with mine as I possessed her femininity, deeply and fully. I held myself still within her, letting her lead the way, feeling the ripples that moved within her warm depths. Her nipples were hard, rising to my lips. She welcomed me even deeper into her warmth, whimpering her need as she tossed her head against the pillow. Her arms came around me, her hands kneading my shoulders, her palms soft against my skin.

I let her dream pull me even deeper into our mutual yearnings, beginning the thrusting that would give her what she needed. Her legs came hard around me, trapping me in place as I drove home again and again, reveling in her unrestrained heat. Beneath me, she writhed and gasped her pleasure, dampening my shaft with the dewy offerings of her body.

While I... I burned, stiff with a need that could never be eased.

Confucious say...

If you're in a bookstore, and you can't find my books, then you are in the:

The Truth About The Writing Process

A Darker Shade of Disney: Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland

I knew that Tim Burton's version of Alice In Wonderland was going to be a darker and more twisted version of Disney's original 1951 cartoon, but I had no idea how far down the rabbit hole they'd gone until I read an article in the Wall Street Journal this morning, entitled "Disney Invites 'Goths' to the Party". Hmm...

Then I read that the movie soundtrack featured Robert Smith, lead singer of the Cure, and contained songs by modern artists like Shinedown, Tokio Hotel, Wolfmother, and Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, and immediately went to see if I could find a sampling online. I did, and you can listen to the soundtrack here on a really cool site called Almost Alice.

Disney has not only aimed this movie at the 18-34 female crowd (as opposed to the 6-11 girly princess crowd), they've entered into a marketing partnership with that good old American Gothic subculture store, Hot Topic. (In fact, if you live anywhere near Hollywood and are a Johnny Depp fan, today would be a good day to head over to the Hollywood Mall, where Disney and Hot Topic are hosting a massive event where Johnny and other cast members will be mingling with fans, and some of the bands featured on the soundtrack will be playing live.) T-shirts, hats and jewelry, all taking over prime display space previously held by promotional merchandise for "Twilight" fans. (Move over, Edward!)

What's even more interesting is the creation of a brand-new line of Victorian-style frocks by designer Sue Wong, that will be sold in high end stores like Neiman marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. Can you say gorgeous?

All in all, I applaud Disney for taking a step closer to the dark side with Tim Burton's vision, and though I have no idea whether I'll be buying any merchandise, I can't WAIT to see the movie! Watch this trailer for a trip into the dark world that awaits Alice:

LRC's Best of 2009 Awards

I just found out this morning that I've been nominated for TWO awards at Love Romances Cafe!

Silent Night, Haunted Night has been nominated for "Best Paranormal Book 2009", and I've been nominated as "Best Paranormal Author 2009" - woot!

This is an award that's voter based, so you guess it - I need your votes! (Why did the song "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" just pop into my head?) Voting instructions are below, but I've already gone and made it easier for you: JUST CLICK ON THE PINK AND RED "BEST OF 2009 NOMINEE BUTTON ABOVE, and it'll all be filled in for you!

In case that doesn't work for you, or if you'd prefer to do it yourself, here are the manual voting instructions: To vote, email Dawn Roberto at dawn_roberto@yahoo.com with your choices. Be sure to put "LRC's Best of 2009 Awards" in the subject line of the email. (This is important because anything else will get deleted.) In the body of the email, put:

Best Paranormal Book 2009:
Silent Night, Haunted Night (Terri Garey - Avon)

Best Paranormal Author 2009:
Terri Garey

Voting closes on Feb. 22nd. Thanks in advance for your help, and I'll let you know the results when they're announced next week!

The Wolfman

While perhaps not the most romantic movie to watch on Valentine's Day, I very much enjoyed seeing The Wolfman this weekend. The cinematography was beautiful, and the casting was excellent (if you can overlook the fact that Benecio del Toro is not the most verbal or the best-looking guy in the world, which makes him perfect for the Wolfman). I appreciated the fact that they took care to remain true to many of the original aspects of the story: a remote estate, a man troubled by mental illness affected by a curse beyond his power, a beautiful woman endangered by love, and even the gypsies (including Maleva, who knows all).

Then they threw in some added twists which I won't spoil here, but really worked (nobody does cold and crazy the way Anthony Hopkins does it, baby!), but they didn't get carried away with them, which would've ruined everything.

Even the excess blood, guts and entrails didn't bother me in the least, which is more than I can say for all the slasher/scream movies out there. The special effects were good, and the atmosphere was moody, somewhat grim, yet still beautiful.

All in all, I give it a 7 out of 10. It you go expecting a jaw-dropping, over-the-top experience, you're going to be disappointed. If you want to experience The Wolfman as it was perhaps meant to be when they made it originally, go see it.

What A Guy Wants For Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day is such a girly holiday, isn't it? We women want (and expect) some visible token that our special guy is thinking about us: flowers, candy, a card. Doesn't have to be big, doesn't have to be expensive, just needs to be there.

Guys, on the other hand, have very low expectations of Valentine's Day (according to my husband, who claims most men's only goal on February 14th is to stay out of trouble by not forgetting it!). Getting lucky is a bonus. :-)

But what to get him? Here's a few inexpensive ideas for the man in your life to share the love on Valentine's Day, or any other day:

Is he a sports fan? How a hand-written IOU stating that during the next televised game he watches, you promise no interruptions of any kind and his favorite snacks on a tray beside the couch?

Does he work too hard? How about a Saturday or even just an evening when he can be completely alone – no kids, no yardwork, no dinner dishes, no honey-do list. You take the little darlings to the movies, to your sister’s, to the mall, or anywhere that gets all of you out of the house for a while.

Hobbies? A magazine subscription to Car & Driver, Runners World, Muscle & Fitness, Field & Stream or Sports Illustrated shows you’re paying attention to his interests, even if you don’t share them.

Does he cook? A new saucepan or a sharp set of knives isn’t out of line for the man who fancies himself a gourmet. If his skills are limited to the grill, a new set of outdoor grilling tools is probably well overdue.

A deep thinker? Can’t go wrong with a gift certificate to your neighborhood bookstore, and the promise of an uninterrupted few hours browsing to his heart’s content.

Dad of the Year? A special photograph of the kids – either taken by you or professionally done – nicely framed in a masculine style.

Does he like sweets? Who doesn’t? How about a freshly baked batch of chocolate chip cookies, or a bag of Hershey’s kisses to take to work?

Of course, if all else fails – never underestimate the old saying “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”. Cook the man something, and after dinner, who knows...

Just how special and romantic was that card he gave you?

Art, Like Beauty, Is In The Eye of The Beholder

Look at this painting - a bit macabre, wouldn't you say? It's called Skull with Burning Cigarette, and looks like it belongs on the front of a t-shirt. It would be perfect for use as someone's online avatar (if they're of a Gothic bent), or for say... showing up on someone's blog (if that someone leans toward the spooky.) :-)

I found it yesterday when I was doing some research on the book I'm working on, and was shocked to see it that it was done in 1886, by an artist I would never have expected: Vincent Van Gogh.

He did this one, too, which is much more distinctive, utilizing the vivid colors and frenetic brushwork that characterizes much of his general body of work, and is titled, simply, "Skull".

I actually prefer Skull with Burning Cigarette, because it shows a sense of humor I wouldn't have expected to find in someone like Van Gogh - he was evidently a very troubled individual who was extremely lacking in the sense of humor department. All those landscapes, all those still-lifes, a life marred by mental illness and an early death by suicide, four years after painting Skull with Burning Cigarette.

Perhaps he already knew what was coming, and wanted to view Death as a friend, not an enemy. (Yo, Death... can I borrow a ciggie?)

Anyway, I like it. Wouldn't hang it in my living room, but I like it.

A Writing Funny

Hell Has Frozen Over

Not really.

The day Hell freezes over will be the day I believe Justin Timberlake (Justin Timberlake?!? Really??) can actually get hot girls to pay attention to him other than in carefully scripted music videos, like the one I just saw on Fuse TV.

Get real, Justin. I've got some frozen marshmellows for you to roast over those Hell fires. Oh, wait... they're frozen.

Never mind.

Walk to Defeat ALS

On June 5, 1996, my family got the devastating news that my mom had been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Average life expectancy after diagnosis was 2 1/2 years, preceded by slow paralysis of the entire body. There are exceptions to this, of course - noted physicist Stephen Hawking, for one - but the outlook for my mother was not good as she was already having issues with her walking, her balance, and her swallowing. Mom and I sat together in the neurologist's office as he delivered this difficult news, and one of the few coherent questions I could ask was, "How?" His answer was that there was no rhyme or reason to this disease, and it could strike anybody, at any time, at any age. He then added (as I later wrote down in my journal), "We've noticed it always seems to strike nice people."

Unfortunately, my dear, sweet mom was not one of the lucky ones - a few months later she was bedridden and on a respirator, unable to walk or breathe on her own. She lived the last 18 months of her life tied to a bed and a machine, and passed away less than 2 years after her initial diagnosis. I remember thinking very clearly how much we take for granted the simple act of walking - the ability to stand up and walk to the front door, the fridge, the dinner table, the yard. It was then I made up my mind to start walking daily for exercise - quite simply, because my mom couldn't. Twelve years later I still do it, and plan on doing it until I can't anymore, because I'm so very conscious of how quickly the ability to walk can be taken away.

This year, I'm participating in the annual Florida Walk to Defeat ALS, which will be held on March 13, 2010. One of my sisters is a Team Captain for her firm, and has already raised almost $400.00 for the cause - you can see her page and her progress at http://web.alsa.org/site/TR?px=2582385&fr_id=6237&pg=personal . You don't have to walk to donate.

Keep in mind that every 90 minutes a person in this country is diagnosed with ALS and every 90 minutes another person will lose their battle against this disease. No racial, ethnic or socioeconomic boundaries.

And no cure. Yet.

Why I Want To Like "Ghostwhisper" and "Medium", But Don't

I was thrilled when these two shows came on TV a few years ago (yes! Shows about ghosts and the young women who see them!) I liked Patricia Arquette as an actress and for being a bit of a rebel (always secretly impressed that she was married to Nicholas Cage for a while, back when he was hot), and I was neutral on Jennifer Love Hewitt.

But these two shows, while having a common theme, have leading ladies who are polar opposite personalities, and unfortunately, I don't find either one of them realistic.

Patricia Arquette, as psychic mom Alison in Medium, is about as much fun as a sack of wet laundry. The woman never smiles, EVER, and is completely self-absorbed, ignoring her gorgeously supportive husband and three semi-psychic children, sticking her nose in people's business with the finesse of an absent-minded rhinocerous, never caring about the repercussions to the living in her quest to make sense of her dreams of the dead.

Jennifer Love Hewitt, on the other hand, as Melinda in Ghostwhisper, is so sickly sweet and dewy-eyed all the time that you wonder if the spirits are drawn to her because she's made of spun sugar. She's SO girly precious-soft-and-feely that you just know she's got stuffed animals on her own personal Jennifer Love Hewitt bed. As in right now. Right this minute. I saw her on a talk show recently where she talked about how she "bedazzles" her lady parts - as in with a rhinestone stapler - which is a bit much TMI for TV, I think.

At any rate, I like characters who are realistic, and I think the writers have missed the boat on both these shows. Mix it up a little, will ya? Get Melinda out of those fake eyelashes, and let Alison do something besides frown. Get to the ghost stories, and give us some characterization we can care about.

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Forever Young - Love Rod Stewart, Hate the Song, and Here's Some Alternatives

Recently, someone asked me how old I was, and I told them the truth (like a fool). The response was, "I'd like the name of your plastic surgeon."

While it was meant as a compliment, it hurt my feelings. My face is my own-nothing nipped, tucked, or injected.

I have nothing against plastic surgery, when did it become impossible to look good without it? There are several things you can do to look younger than your age, and all of them are simple (stop rolling your eyes - I can see you!):

1) Good moisturizer, every day, and stay out of the sun or at least use heavy-duty sunscreen. (Vampires, take note! You were on to something long before the rest of it realized it!)

2) Omega 3 Fish Oil. Pharmaceutical grade, not the over-the-counter stuff. Good for your heart, your complexion, your hair, your everything.

3) Laugh a lot, every chance you get. I can't emphasize this one enough.

3) Regular exercise, doesn't have to be extreme. I walk. Lots.

4) Cut way back on the red meat, unless every few months you feel a burning desire to be a carnivore. Indulge it, and then you'll remember why you don't really miss it.

5) Watch the fried foods. Fried=bad. Might as well open a bottle of fat and drink it.

6) Red wine vs. hard liquor. Must I really explain this one? One your body likes, one it doesn't. Try it, and after a day or two while your taste buds adjust, you'll like it.

7) Don't smoke. Smoke is right up there with sun when it comes to causing skin damage (not to mention what it does to your lungs, your arteries, your brain cells...)

8) Having people who love you, even if you're not perfect. (I'm not minimizing this one by putting it last - appreciate those who appreciate you.)

In many ways, it comes down to the simple equation of input vs. output. Treat your body well, enjoy it while you can, and it will last longer. Abuse it, and say "buh-bye" to your youth long before you're ready.

Oh, and by the way, don't call me a "cougar", either! Hate that women over the age of *cough, cough* who still look good have to be labeled as predatory felines. Geesh. Bite me, already. Or maybe I'll bite you, and throw in a claw mark or two while I'm at it. I can do that, and I don't need fake nails to do it.

I Love Me Some Fireworks

Every year my town throws its own version of Mardi Gras, Florida style, by hosting the annual pirate invasion festival known as Gasparilla.

It's a week-long extravaganza, with at least three street parades, a recreated pirate invasion (swashbuckler style) involving thousands of boats, an airshow, fireworks, charity events, street parties, and general craziness. It's not uncommon right now to walk through my neighborhood and see a giant flag on someone's front porch that says "Arrggghhh! Surrender the booty!"

Why we celebrate being invaded by pirates, I'll never know, but it's fun. :-) Gasparilla begins today for the kids with the Gasparilla Children's parade (the week starts out gently and gets crazier), which will be held not too far from my house. While I'm not going to the parade, I'll be able to stand outside and see the airshow, and tonight my husband and I will walk down to the water to see my favorite part of Gasparilla, the free fireworks.

It'll be fun. Fireworks in the the sky, music in the air, sea breeze in my face. Life is good.

Dweller - A "Monster Bromance" by Jeff Strand

My friend Jeff Strand writes horror novels - sometimes with a comedic twist, sometimes not, leaving his style to perhaps best be described as a blend of a Stephen King and Christopher Moore, who maybe met and adopted a psychopathic baby with a reddish moustache and goatee. (C'mon, wouldn't you be twisted if you were the adopted love child of Stephen King and Christopher Moore?)

DISCLAIMER: I am not saying that Jeff actually IS the adopted love child of Stephen King and Christopher Moore. I'm saying that Jeff is, in theory, LIKE the adopted love child of Stephen King and Christopher Moore might be, if such an adopted love child existed.

Anyway, last week I got an email from Jeff with the attention grabbing title of "I'M NOT RIPPING YOU OFF!", and opened it to find that he was indeed doing just that. (I expected no different, and admire him for his initiative.) Jeff had fulfilled a life-long dream (or at least a two week dream, give or take a week) by corresponding with another delightfully creative whacko, Trevor Strong of The Arrogant Worms, who wrote and performed a catchy little tune for Jeff's latest novel, DWELLER. To prove I had no hard feelings for the festering feelings of jealousy that drove Jeff to try and duplicate the coolness of DEAD GIRLS ARE EASY by The 69 Eyes, I decided to dust off my movie maker skills, add some visuals to the mix, and created this book trailer for DWELLER (which, by the way, has his full approval, and he is now using as his "official" book trailer, so it's not like I'm a meanie or anything):



I think it turned out pretty good, but now just TRY and get that song out of your head! If you can't, just go ahead and buy the book when it comes out in April, and maybe the voices inside your head will go away.

The 69 Eyes on Swedish TV - Never Say Die

Ok, ok, so I have the Helsinki Vampires on the brain (best of luck on the latest European tour, guys!), but all you have to do is watch this video of them performing live on Swedish TV Wednesday morning to see why (have to sit through a Swedish commercial first, though, sorry!):



An old-school-cool and new-school-show-you-how-it's done, 110% performance from each and every one of them. I heart rock n' roll, 69 Eyes style!

Silent Night, Haunted Night Voted One of the "Top Ten Books of 2009"

Pop Syndicate is a cool pop culture review site, filled with variety: a multitude of reviews and podcasts about books, movies, TV shows, music - everything popular, everything modern, with some cult classics, anime and manga thrown in.

Their most recent review of Silent Night, Haunted Night was one of my favorites (a very insightful review that went deeper than most, which every author loves!). It was icing on the cake to learn that I'd been voted as one of the top ten books reviewed by the site in 2009!

I'm flattered to be in the company of these other nine authors and their work:

Child of Fire by Harry Connolly
Running Hot by Jayne Ann Krentz
Prime by Nate Kenyon
Gotcha! by Christie Craig
Darker Angels by M.L.N. Hanover
Enter Evil by Linda Ladd
The Dangerous Book for Demon Slayers by Angie Fox
The Fireside Cookbook by James Beard
Living Trust Advisor by Jeffrey L. Condon

Congratulations to you all, and thanks, Pop Syndicate!

A Final Word On E-Piracy

I've yet to read one of David Hewson's books, but I admire him a great deal for the public stance he's taken on the subject of illegal file downloading. Already ordered a couple of his books, in fact, simply because they not only look intriguing, but because he's an intelligent guy, and I assume intelligent published authors write intelligent books. If anything, he's too intelligent, and because of that, I fear much of what he's pointing out will be missed, so I'm reiterating it here.

He began by talking about e-piracy itself, but took it one step further by making an insightful point about e-piracy in his blog about how e-piracy sites are ad-driven, which means the noble file hackers who ignore the rules and upload files to the web for the "benefit of their fellow men who can't afford it" are actually making money off the misguided Internet shoplifters who frequent their sites.

How does it feel to be taken advantage of, book/movie/music thieves? You're nothing more than a pawn in the empiralistic world of consumerism, being lured to a site by a trial of breadcrumbs, falling prey to the oldest scam in the book, that of "something for nothing". (Oh, please don't start leaving me comments telling me that you've never once clicked on an online forum ad...)

At any rate, the excuses for e-book piracy seem to boil down to:

"I share stolen files out of the goodness of my heart, for the benefit of my online friends."
"I do it because these are books I would never have bought anyway."
"I do it because I can't afford to do otherwise."
"I do it because I want to know if I'll like it before I spend money on it."

Hm. I guess when I stole a balloon as a child I should've said, "But if I hadn't stolen it, the world would never have possibly/maybe/sort of/theoretically enjoyed that balloon!"

And all would've been well with the world, because hey... who needs to learn the difference between right and wrong in this day and age, anyway?

(For you literal nerd-types, I meant that sarcastically. )

And here's my final point: I'm going to read David Hewson's books not because I got them for free, but because I read something about him that I liked, and in that, I found some commonality. We agree on book piracy, and his books look interesting. We are strangers, yet sympatico.

You people out there who want my books for free after I've worked so hard on them and my publisher has invested money in them? We are not sympatico. We have nothing in common. Don't bother to download my books, because you won't like them.

We have no commonality.

The Lamest Excuse for E-Piracy I've Ever Heard

If you've read my previous blog on this subject, or any other author's blogs, or excellent articles like this one or this one or that one, you may have heard that ebook piracy has become a major problem for authors. We, and our publishers, lose many thousands of dollars in revenues from books sales every year, because our books (even those that are already available as low-price ebooks for Kindle, Sony Reader, or Nook) are being illegally converted to downloadable format and distributed for free all over the Internet. What this means is we (and our publishers) can either spend tons of time and effort to send "take down" letters to these file-sharing sites threatening them with legal action (which is kind of like squashing cockroaches - as soon as you crush one, another pops up, and for every five you see, there are probably another five hundred hiding inside your wall), or we can ignore them, and freely allow ourselves to be exploited.

Well, this past weekend I received yet another Google Alert of yet another illegal download of ALL FOUR of my books, so instead of simply reporting them to my publisher's legal department, I took the time to speak up publicly on the file-sharing site's forum about how I felt about what was happening.

I thought it might be fun to share with my readers the reaction I got when I did. :-)

Here's my first comment, in reply to the posting of the illegal downloads:

I hate to be a drag, but my books are not freeware. This is stealing. If you like my books enough to read them, you should pay for them (the Kindle/Sony/Nook versions are very inexpensive).

Why? Because pirated downloads like these not only take money directly from my pocket, but they do not count toward my "publisher-recognized" sales, and if they don't know my books are selling, they're not going to pay me to write more.

Boom. No more books by Terri Garey, or any of the other authors you might like but download for free because you think it's okay.

Tell me this - would you work for a year (or more) for free? Because that's how long it takes to write a book.

Terri Garey (the author)

Apparently, hackers are not used to actually being called on their hacker-ism, and I wasn't believed, as evidenced by this response:

OOOOOpppppppsssss !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

this does beg the question, is this an early april fools day trick by or, what is dear ms garey looking 4 on this forum ?

To which I responded:

Ms. Garey has a Google alert set up to notify her when her books are being pirated for free on the Internet. She usually just reports sites like these to her publisher without speaking up publicly, but she's pretty darn tired of dealing with ebook piracy, so tonight, she decided to speak up. In third person, even.

Terri Garey (the author)

(So what do you do for a living? Feel like doing it for free for the benefit of your Internet friends, like those in this forum? If so, you're a better man/woman than me.)

Strangely enough (or perhaps not strangely at all), it turns out that guy who questioned my response was one of the forum administrators who routinely posts these illegal downloadable files. Here is his completely lame and laughable response, in which he basically says that he does it out of the good of his heart, and that no one bothers to download them anyway. (So, um... like WHY DO YOU DO IT THEN?), and then turns me over to one of the other administrators to be "dealt with". (*Note* "d/l" stands for "download"):

i do it for free, converting ebooks for my internet friends. lot of noise at the moment while the publishers realise there is no place for them anymore, they are going to lose all those profits. but in reality the dl's don't justify the noise. just look at how many times ur posts are d/led, not viewed, but d/led. not many and this forum has a high number in comparison to some. most people don't know or are too scared to d/l from a forum. hell who cares as long as we enjoy our selves and the viewers keep coming.

have a great week andree, i'm off to the beach for a day or so, you can "deal" w/Terri.

By the way, the way I was then "dealt with" was by being blocked from the forum. LOL! Bad author! How dare you speak up for yourself?!

Anyway, one final comment before I step down from my soapbox: Downloading books for free instead of paying for them hurts the reader just as much as the writer in the long run. Publishers will not continue to pay authors for books if they can't make money on them. Your pool of quality reading material will shrink to next to nothing, because the good authors will still expect to be paid for their work. (You think Stephen King or Nora Roberts or J.K. Rowling are going to start writing for free?)

What about Charlaine Harris, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Yasmine Galenorn, Jeaniene Frost, Larissa Ione or any of your other favorite Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance authors? If no one is willing to pay for their books, why should they bother to write them?

Think about that.