Give me some Space…
Posted on | March 10, 2010 | 2 Comments
Fiction, that is. I’m talking about science fiction. 
Hi! *waving from Australia*
My name is Yolanda, and this is my very first post here. So I thought it might be nice to introduce myself first. I live in a suburb of Sydney, Australia with my hubby, daughter, and cat. I enjoy writing in a variety of genres—ranging from urban fantasy to sci-fi.
I’ve got a sci-fi story now available from Samhain Publishing, which mixes in some otherworldly elements. I can’t seem to get away from those. Although, to be honest, why would I want to? I love giving tales some sort of paranormal slant.
The other day I got to thinking about the fascination I seem to have with space stories. It’s not something that I developed recently, but something that’s been in my life since I was a kid. Some of my first recollections of movies that I really enjoyed were the original STAR WARS trilogy and FLASH GORDON. Not the Flash Gordon TV show.
And that got me thinking about westerns. Because when I was a kid, I didn’t like westerns. My father loved watching them, but no matter how much I tried I just didn’t enjoy them. They bored me.
Fast forward quite a few years and I started watching an awesome anime show called COWBOY BEBOP, then followed it up with another called TRIGUN. So, by the time FIREFLY came around, I was already hooked on the idea of space cowboys. That’s when I realized that the original Star Wars trilogy kinda had space cowboy elements too.
So when the idea for a space cowboy hit me, I was ecstatic.
That’s when my story, WITHER, hooked me in. I cast my characters and they had some very long and complicated pasts, both apart and together. I also threw in some feral wildlife terrorizing the small town of Wither, and there was my own space cowboy tale to tell. A tale that I wanted to inject with a little red, hot passion. After all, these ex-lovers had a lot of unfinished business left between them.
Once I was finished and looked at my notes, I realized that this world I’d created had so much more to offer—a bunch of other characters who had their own stories to tell and places to visit. That’s when I decided that this would more than likely be a series. A series I wanted to call RECAST. I liked that name as soon as I stumbled upon it. To be honest with you, I don’t even know what I was looking for at the time, but I can tell you that I found it online while visiting a thesaurus and looking for another word. Love it when that happens!
An array of characters, which will all be somehow connected, has slowly evolved into a saga that I can’t wait to tell. I’ve already written the second story and the next two are itching inside my brain, desperately trying to get out. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun, because I’m really enjoying creating new worlds, creatures, and robots that will fit into this wicked and often complicated galaxy. But not only are the surroundings vivid enough that I can see them, but I’m looking forward to delving and telling the different stories that are continually evolving.
So, what about you? Are space cowboys and a galaxy filled with characters leading complicated and entwined lives something that appeals to you?
Thanks for reading!
—–
Yolanda Sfetsos
www.yolandasfetsos.com
Dispatch from a middle school dance and a free Kindle/Nook book
Posted on | March 3, 2010 | 2 Comments
Recently, my husband and I were recruited to chaperone a dance at the local middle school. These dances are sponsored by the Student Council and one of our sons is a member, so there was no way we could get out of it. Don’t get me wrong, I like kids. But chaperoning several hundred kids on a Friday night with loud music and no comfortable chairs couldn’t compare to curling up at home with a Taco Supreme pizza and an hour of The Ghost Whisperer.
Deciding to make the best of it, I figured I’d do some research for the young adult novel I’m writing. I watched, I listened (as best I could over the music) and I put on my pre-teen/teen secret decoder ring.
Secret #1: Trying to fit in, while appearing unique, is crucial to kids. Crucial and nearly impossible to do. And yet, every generation attempts the impossible through their choices in clothes, shoes, hairstyles and of course music preferences. Every generation has their version of The Breakfast Club. There are athletes and princesses, brainiacs and underdogs. What was interesting to me, besides the fact that all the girls, no matter their dress code, hairstyle or popularity ranking, knew every word to the Miley Cyrus songs, was the fact that all the kids wanted to be part of the dance. There were two obvious loners, one girl, one boy, who didn’t hang out with anyone or each other, and when they approached a group or a potential dance partner, were shunned. Why did those kids come to the dance? Certainly not to have their feelings crushed.
Secret #2: Human beings, no matter their age, want to be loved, accepted, desired. After the dance, I thought more about what I’d observed and at first patted myself on the back for making it through those awful, awkward teen years with only a few battle scars. Then it hit me like a hundred girls singing Party in the U.S.A.—even as old as I am and with all the experiences I’ve had, I’m not so different from my younger counterparts. While I pride myself on being self-assured and wise, I often find myself second guessing what I say, what I do, and what I’m wearing. The pressure’s really on when I give a lecture at the local college or meet with a book club to discuss one of my novels. I spend hours figuring out what to wear—casual or dressy? Flats or heels?—and then spend extra time on my makeup and hair. I up the charm, the self-deprecating humor, and all the while, pray like crazy that they like me.
So the secrets I learned at the dance weren’t actual secrets. We all suffer from internal misgivings while trying to be part of a group and seeking love and acceptance. Even the characters in my novels struggle with the same issues. Julia, in Operation Sheba, is a great analytical thinker but doesn’t trust her emotions and therefore has trouble trusting others as well. Zara, in I’d Rather Be In Paris, has no trouble going head-to-head with a psychotic terrorist, but put her in a business meeting and she struggles not to stammer or stutter in front of her boss. Brigit, in Proof of Life, understands people and what motivates them from the inside out, but she only has one friend and she’s completely estranged from her family.
I’m curious…are you like me and so many others, whether young or old? Do you ever belt out Party in the U.S.A. while praying for approval inside? Do you fix your hair three different ways and try on six pairs of pants before you feel confident enough to walk into a group of strangers? Do you ever stammer in front of your boss?
Misty Evans always wears her secret decoder ring in public and can be overheard singing Miley Cyrus songs in the shower. The first book in her Super Agent Series, Operation Sheba, won a 2008 CataNetwork Reviewers’ Choice Award, a 2009 CAPA Nomination from The Romance Studio, and is a finalist in the 2010 New England Readers’ Choice Bean Pot Contest for Best Romantic Suspense. To download a free copy of Operation Sheba for your Kindle, click here. For a free copy for your Nook, click here. The free promotion runs through March 14th. Enjoy!
Tags: acceptance by peers > characters with insecurities > dance > free Kindle book > free Nook book > Miley Cyrus songs
What Do You Dream?
Posted on | March 3, 2010 | 3 Comments
Available now!
Yesterday (March 2) marked the release of my romantic suspense, REYN’S REDEMPTION from Samhain Publishing. The idea for this book originally came from a dream I had many years ago about a guy who returned to his hometown where he was an outcast. The reason for his outsider status was vague, as dreams tend to be, but the impression of this loner, a mysterious but magnetic personality, stuck with me.
Ta-da! Reyn Erickson was born. I played around with the storyline, secondary characters, and other minutia of the story for months, even years before this final version was compete, but Reyn stayed true to the original concept that came to me in that dream years earlier. REYN’S REDEMPTION is, as the title implies, Reyn’s story, and I didn’t want to change anything about him or his journey toward finding peace-of-mind, self-forgiveness, and lasting love. The identity of the killer changed many times through various drafts, but not Reyn… or his inner pain, his brooding manner, his isolation, his gruff facade, his heroism, his kind heart. I do love a tortured hero!
Reyn isn’t the only character created from dreams I’ve had. I have an unpublished manuscript with an unusual hero who came to me through a dream. Kevin is a pacifist, raised by a flower child mother whose husband was killed in Vietnam. He works a blue collar job in a Southern town where he has little illusion of ever changing his life. Enter the pampered (but sweet) debutante from out of town who wants to find independence from her overbearing parents. The result is a sort of reverse Cinderella story… Cinder-Fella if you will. And the concept of Kevin came to me in a dream. A character so vivid and unique to me I had to create a story for him.
The basic premise of my contemporary romance HEALING LUKE, a beauty and the beast type of story, also came from a dream.
Dreams, experts say, are an expression of our subconscious, a way for our brain to sort out and catalogue all the images and experiences we bombard it with all day. Sometimes dreams are whacky and random. Sometimes they are symbolic and significant. Memories might be replayed with odd embellishments or with a realism that plays havoc with our emotions. I’ve had dreams about my husband that had me waking up steaming mad at him. Other dreams have left me near tears and missing my grandmother. Sometimes dreams express our hopes or our fears.
So it really is not surprising to me that I’ve found fodder for great heroes or plot lines from dreams. Of course, not all of my books start out as dreams. Many come from things I see that make me ask, What if…?”, a news story, a line in a song, an intriguing plot hook, or a secondary character who begs from a book of their own. I built the character and plot of UNDER FIRE from the ground up. I started with my hero, Jackson, found the most unlikely heroine for him to fall for, crafted a perilous situation for him to deal with, layered in conflict, secondary plots and characters, and so forth.
Book ideas are everywhere, but the most fascinating ones to me are the ones that derive from dreams. There is something profound and magical about those gifts from my subconscious muse.
I hope you will enjoy Reyn’s story. The journey to get his book published was a twisting path, but I’m thrilled to finally be able to share this dream-inspired, tortured hero with readers.
So now it is your turn. What do you dream? Have you ever had a character from a dream or a scenario stay with you for days after the dream? Ever woken up mad at your spouse/kids because of a whacky dream?
Share something here about what you’ve dreamed in the past, and I’ll put your name in a drawing (on March 
to win a book from my backlist (See my backlist at my website: www.bethcornelison.com).
Happy reading and sweet dreams!
Beth Cornelison
Freebie: Happy Valentines Ghost by Teresa Noelle Roberts
Posted on | February 28, 2010 | 2 Comments
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download: Happy Valentines Ghost by Teresa Noelle Roberts (201.71KB) added: 28/02/2010 clicks: 242 |
Tags: Free ebooks > Samhain Freebies > Teresa Noelle Roberts > Valentines Day
What to blog about?
Posted on | February 28, 2010 | No Comments
I’m admittedly the world’s worst blogger and I’ll be the first to admit that’s probably odd. I can fling out ideas for new stories faster than the speed of light, but if someone says, you need to blog on such and such a date, my brain freezes. Goes on permanent holiday. I’ve just spent this last week in a mini-panic as this blogging date loomed closer and closer. And then this morning, the light went on. I’m going to write this blog, not as an author, but as a fan-girl.
There are so many awesome books at Samhain, I thought I’d take a few minutes to write about some of my all-time favorites. I’ve noticed on the café that each week there are lots more readers joining the ranks of Samhain fandom and I wanted to make sure they didn’t miss some of the really terrific, older books still available.
Dream Machine by Jayne Rylon released in July of 2009 and this week it comes out in print. I loved this book. Seriously loved it. It’s a unique concept layered with a tortured alpha hero (damn, could there be a better type of hero?) and some of the hottest sex scenes ever written. It’s a winner from beginning to end. I own the ebook and I will definitely purchase it in print. I also plan to stalk Jayne mercilessly until I get my print book signed!
Inferno by Bianca D’Arc released in June, 2009, shortly after I had the very distinct privilege of meeting Bianca at the Lori Foster Get Together. This woman is a class act from the word go. She’s personable and kind and when you mix that with her talent for writing, it’s safe to say I’m so jealous of her, I can hardly see! :) Inferno is book two in the Tales of the Were series. After meeting her, I immediately read book one, so I was one of the fortunate few who didn’t have long to wait for the sequel. Inferno did not disappoint. Bianca draws such vivid characters and worlds it’s hard not to be sucked into her story and I find myself remembering bits and pieces of the book even now, months after I read it.
Mortified MatchMaker, A Handyman’s Best Tool, and Stud Finder’s Incorporated by Alexis Fleming released in 2006 and 2007. I am a huge fan of romantic comedy, whether it’s in a book or a movie. Alexis’ books are truly wonderful examples of this genre. She fills the pages with lots of laughs as well as plenty of ‘aw’ moments that tug at your heart. These books are fantastic stories that provide a perfect little escape from everyday life and its stresses.
And, of course, if you get bored, you could always try a book by Mari Carr. 
Mari Carr
Freebie: Almost Home by Mary Eason
Posted on | February 27, 2010 | No Comments
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download: Almost Home by Mary Eason (203.83KB) added: 27/02/2010 clicks: 245 |
Tags: Free ebooks > Mary Eason > Samhain Freebies > Valentines Day
Birthdays are Good for You
Posted on | February 27, 2010 | 2 Comments
“Birthdays are good for you; the more you have, the longer you live.”
As it happens, today’s my birthday, which may or may not have anything to do with a subject that’s been on my mind a lot this week: fictional characters and their birthdays. A more likely reason for my obsession is the fact that I’ve just finished writing a birthday party scene—and worrying a lot over whether or not the birth date “fit” my characters’ personalities.
It’s not the first time I’ve given a character a specific birthday, but it is the first time that the timing of the story dictated the date, rather than the character’s personality. I don’t know about you, but it really bugs me when I’m presented with a character/birthday combo that just doesn’t make any sense. It’s an astrology thing and yes, I know, I’m weird that way. But I can blame it on my own birth aspects—Pisces sun, Aquarius moon, Sagittarius rising (i.e. weird, eccentric, strange and damn but I do love talking about it).
Probably one of the most well known fictional-character-with-a-birthday is Harry Potter. JK Rowling gave him her birthday—July 31. A very Leonine thing to do, in my opinion.
In her book Fast Women, Jennifer Crusie listed birthdays for several of her characters. I thought they fit pretty well. She even gave one of her characters my birthday. Franciscan Desert Rose dishware. An unfortunate fondness for Amaretto laced soy milk and a wish to avoid any kind of unpleasantness that borders on the pathological…yeah, that seemed to fit a little too well.
Moving right along…
Eric Kripke, the creator of the TV show Supernatural gave Dean Winchester the birthday January 24. He gave the same birthday to Jessica (Sam’s girlfriend, I don’t know her last name). Apparently there’s no significance to the date other than it happens to be his wife’s birthday. But, overall, I think Dean seems quite believable as an Aquarius.
In any case, seeing as it’s on my mind, I thought I’d post a little birthday trivia–just for fun.
According to something known as the ‘Birthday Paradox”, if there are twenty-five people in a room, the chance that at least two of them will share a birthday is 50%. However, if you increase the people in the room to sixty, the chances of it occurring increase to 90%.
Here’s another paradox for you. Something like four billion birthday cards are sent each year. The world population is six billion. Supposedly, the average person receives seven birthday cards. If you figure that one out, be sure and let me know!
According to statistics, more people celebrate their birthdays in August than in any other month, followed by the months of July and September. And yet, the most common birth date is October 5. Not really sure how that makes sense either…must be some weird Math-related thing.
However, I’d say the fact that October 5 falls approximately nine months after New Year’s Eve, probably speaks for itself.
Oh, and, by the way, the least common birthday is May 22…which is nine months away from mid-August. Now, that at least makes some sense. I think.
More babies are born on Tuesday than any other day of the week. Sunday is the day with the lowest amount of births. And, not surprisingly, February—the month with the fewest days—is also the month with the fewest birthdays. Well, duh.
The world’s largest birthday cake weighed 128,238 pounds and was covered in 16,209 pounds of icing. No clue what flavor either the cake or the icing was. I’m guessing chocolate.
The Happy Birthday song is copyrighted and brings in approximately two million dollars a year from licensing fees. Nice.
Freebie: Wishful Thinking by Beverly Rae
Posted on | February 26, 2010 | No Comments
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Tags: Beverly Rae > Free ebooks > Samhain Freebies > Valentines Day
The Birthday Rule
Posted on | February 26, 2010 | 3 Comments
Can you turn on my cartoons?
I’m hungry. What’s for breakfast?
The puppy’s biting me!
I’m wanna go, too!
Ouch! That hurts.
That’s not the cartoon I wanted to watch.
No. Stop biting me.
Stop biting her!
This game isn’t working.
I don’t like those shoes, I wanna wear these.
Would you pleeaaze stop!
Yeah. That last one is often what I think when I first wake up to the joyful sounds of my healthy children and their tremendously healthy lungs.
Don’t get me wrong, I love being a mom. I adore my kids, but you know how it is. You have those moments, those days, where you just want silence. The air gets so heavily clogged with tension and frustration and exhaustion that you really do feel like your going to collapse or bust. It’s times like that that keep me enacting “The Birthday Rule.”
“The Birthday Rule” is basically the rule that your birthday is your day to have your way. Simple really. The kids and spouses have to fall in line and not irritate you. They have to stop whatever they’re doing instantly if they do begin to irritate you. They have to let you read if you wanna read and they have to watch whatever movie you choose without argument.
“The Birthday Rule” is a rule that leads to a great day, and often makes the greatest gift.
See, in my house, the birthday person gets the meals prepared for them and then cleaned up. Cakes are baked and it’s often a day without arguments and bickering, though there is always craziness in a house with two children, three cats and a puppy. And of course CIS, hubby, keeps things interesting.
Why am I talking about this? Because Sunday I get to implement “The Birthday Rule”. I am so looking forward to a day of doing what I want without feeling guilty. It’s a once a year day, and I feel that we each earn that day.
So tell me, what do you look forward to on your birthday?
What makes your day special? Any great traditions?
Tags: Nikki Duncan > Scent of Persuasion > Sensory Ops
Freebie: Devilish Hearts by MK Mancos
Posted on | February 25, 2010 | No Comments
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download: Devilish Hearts by MK Mancos (172.73KB) added: 25/02/2010 clicks: 227 |
Tags: Free ebooks > MK Mancos > Samhain Freebies > Valentines Day
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