Well, I think I'm well rested from some time off over the last month. I've caught up on my reading, organized my office, and even got enough sleep over the past few weeks to keep me going for this year. It promises to be a great one and I wanted to thank everyone for all their support over the last few months. Here's what I have coming up for 2012-2013...
ARPEGGIOS IN THE DARK - Sci-Fi (appropriate for YA) - Earth has joined alliances with two other civilizations, the Gammond, a race of diplomatic geniuses, and the powerful, very dangerous Saatus race, who have already wiped out a fourth civilization because of a slight to one of their royals. Mousikós, the very first half human, half Gammond hybrid faces a life of celebrity where she is never allowed a single minute to herself. When she hides on a derelict freighter to escape the ever-present paparazzi, her life is changed forever when the ship suddenly takes her into space where she discovers, quite by accident, that her voice can kill. Unfortunately, the Saatus she annihilates, is the crown prince of the sovereign family. Earth teeters on the balance of destruction with only a strange young woman, her very inexperienced attorney, and a salty aged space captain who can tell their story. RELEASE DATE: TBD.
PHANTOM HEARTS - Book II in the Ghost Series, Paranormal Romantic Comedy - Dyna is having a bad day... a really bad day. Her house is now filled with ghosts, the neighborhood association is trying to get her evicted, a coven of erstwhile witches are camped on her front lawn, and she just found out she's pregnant with a demon child. To top everything off, a handsome cop thinks he can make it go away, but all he is doing is making it worse! RELEASE DATE: 10/31/12
THE PIRATE PRINCE OF EGYPT - Book IV in the Centurion Series, Historical Romance - Hasani has a reputation to uphold as the world's greatest pirate; but that's hard to do when you're wasting away in a Syrian jail for making love to one of the Parthian king's daughters. For the first time in his life his luck has run out and he faces a very real possibility of losing his head for good this time. When a mysterious woman shows up and helps him to escape, he falls in love for the first time. The problem is... she is taken prisoner and swept away to Egypt, the last place he wants to be. Will he risk his life and riches to save her or follow old habits and simply walk away. There is something about this girl... RELEASE DATE: 1/16/2013
PHANTOM HEARTS - Book III in the Ghost Series, Paranormal Romantic Comedy. He's suave, he's debonaire, he can say or do no wrong, the ladies love him, and life couldn't be any sweeter. That is until he finds out he's the devil's love child and strange things start happening around him. Enter a sexy, snoopy female reporter who not only seems immune to his charms but does everything she can to double his trouble. He simply can't resist her and that's where the fun begins. Will he fight the evil deeds blooming in his head or will he finally succumb to his father's wishes and "join" the family business. Only a crazy girl knows... and she's not talking.
On Tuesday night I was honored to present "Creating Romantic Friction Between the Sheet... of Paper" to Willamette Writers Association at The Old Church. What a wonderful group of writers! Several of them asked me to post the notes from the talk and they are now available on my resources page for review by anyone. I talked about some of the tools I use including the ARC (an abbreviated version of The Hero's Journey and Aristotle's Fall From Grace scenarios), a copy of The Hero's Journey Summary, It Not What You Say; It's How You Say It; Body Language Basics for Writers, and my comprehensive 11 page list of Chart of Body Cues By Emotion/Attitude and Color Terms. Please feel free to download the article if you can use it.
