Cynthia D'Alba's Blog

Nikki Duncan Cops To OCD

Confessions of an OCD, and Sometimes Overachieving, Author

Hello, my name is Nikki Duncan and I am an OCD, and sometimes overachieving, author.

Day after day:

~ I sit in my office and hammer away at the dreaded To Do List, or

~ I head out into the field and conduct training sessions for the day job, or

~ I build power point presentations for work, or

~ I go to the oldest kid's school to volunteer in the band hall, or

~ I do work for a romance review site, or

~ I design graphics for websites and other promo materials, or

~ I do volunteer stuff for one or both of my writing groups, or

~ I speak at writer's groups, or

~ I run the two kids around, or

~ I help keep the house cleaned, or or or

The list goes on and on, and the more detailed I make the list the more tired it makes me. Take last night for example, despite feeling not great and having worked a really long day the day before and then sitting through a long work meeting, I came home and did more work before tackling some of the clutter in the house so that I could focus enough to work on the things I needed to get done.

It seems that for me cleaning the house helps clean away cobwebs in my brain so I can think better. It was on such a cleaning spree that I worked out some of the plot kinks in ILLICIT INTUITIONS. One such plot kink centered around the hero, Dr. H.

See, I knew he was an empath, but I wasn't fully sure how his abilities made him unique. Then the depth of his abilities and all the issues that would come with them came to me. It's those complexities that made him a valuable asset as a child. An asset that had a clandestine branch of the government taking him for experimentation. A branch of the government that let him go when he became an adult, but is now after him again.

Yes, I could probably benefit from a 12 step program, but then again that could spoil some of the party in my head.

Tell me, what complexities or special abilities have you seen in characters that has you going back to them in your mind?

Commenters will be entered into a drawing for an ARC of ILLICIT INTUITIONS, set to release next Tuesday.

Love could be their greatest liability.

Ava Malia knows three things. She was once a kickass covert operative. She will eventually adjust to her new team, the FBI Specialized Crimes Unit. And the only way to finally be free of her professional past is to solve her first case and get her hands on a game-changing technology. The only problem? Success rides on her ability to swallow her distaste for the persona she must adopt in order to earn the trust of a mysterious scientist.

Dr. H escaped childhood captivity with three things. His sister. Complete control of his gift. And an engulfing distrust of anyone in the government. Adjusting to a life of freedom hasn't been easy, but he's found peace in solitude. The sexy woman auditing his empathic studies, though, has a way of getting under his skin that's both arousing and disturbing. Plus, his psychic ability warns him of secrets so deeply buried in her psyche, they'd be better left alone.

Yet their instant attraction strips away all their protective barriers, down to the foundation of a new, fragile trust. And a vulnerability that, when an old enemy opens fire, could blast away any chance of a future.

Read an excerpt of ILLICIT INTUITIONS now!

To order your copy, click on a link below

Samhain | Amazon | Barnes & Nobles

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Published on April 05, 2012 06:59 • 3 views

Playing Tag with Cynthia D'Alba by J.E. Taylor

Playing Tag with Cynthia D'Alba

I love playing Tag games and when I saw Tag! I'm It! on Cynthia's blog, I thought this would be a fun thing to do as a guest post on her blog. Don't forget to check her answers out too if you haven't already…

1. What foreign country would you most like to travel to that you haven't visited yet?

It's a tossup between Australia and New Zealand

2. Name your most coveted gadget—unlimited budget, and something you don't currently have.

Jaguar XJ220 J Fast mother….sweet ride.

3. Do you have brothers and sisters? How often do you get to see them?

Yes an older brother and a younger sister. I don't see my brother as much as I'd like to. Once a year isn't enough, but our lives as well as the distance between where we live prevent us from getting together more often.

My sister I see probably once a month – but we talk every weekday on our way into our respective jobs.

4. How much of your own wish fulfillment is put into your books?

A little here and there – especially a few of the key material possessions like the cars and homes featured in both the Games Series and my Steve Williams Series.

5. If you dug into your basement/attic/back closet/whatever storage space, what item would you find that would make you go "I WONDERED where that was!"?

This is a hard one because we really don't store a lot of stuff. The theory of equilibrium is enforced in our home – for every item that comes in, an item of equal spacing must go. We don't hang onto crap. The only thing we have in storage is the Christmas stuff, luggage and some textbooks from college, which we really should toss out but I'm too lazy to get them out of the little storage space and my husband has the same lack of motivation.

6. Have you ever had direct encounters with a wild animal? Describe the circumstances.

I got bit by a chipmunk a couple years ago. Here I was trying to get him out of the wire netting he was all wrapped up in and I did a pretty good job getting the top half of him free – but the minute I tried to get at the tighter lower half – the sucker swiveled and chomped my finger. OUCH!

Needless to say – I flung him away with a yelp that brought my kids running. I have no idea where he crawled to and luckily I only had one small puncture – my fingernail stopped the other tooth – but damn, my finger hurt. It was my left index finger, making typing a challenge.

I called the doctor but he didn't know quite what to do with me beyond what I already did to clean it out and was going to look up the particulars – like if I needed automatic antibiotics or not (if it was a cat bite – antibiotics are automatic- who knew?).

I got the lecture from hubby about not handling wildlife without gloves and was laughed at by the doctors answering service for being the most bizarre caller of the evening.

And you know what – I was still concerned about whether that little rodent made it or not. Doesn't that beat all?

7. Who is your favorite non-famous musician/singer? If possible, provide a link to their music/website.

My son's guitar teacher just because he makes me laugh during my son's lessons. He's the lead guitarist in the 80's spoof band – Mullethead.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Mullethea...

8. What's your favorite NFL team? Or professional team in general, if football isn't your thing.

New England Patriots! I was bummed when they didn't pull out a win at the superbowl this year especially since I knew I was going to get a call from one of my best friends who's a Giants fan and I'd never hear the end of it – until next season.

9. What was the most fun job you ever had, besides your current one(s)?

Film editor and Kid's News Producer at a local television station. I took dirty words and scenes out of movies. Even had a list of what could be said when and what body parts could be displayed when. Talk about a fun post-college job.

10. Are you living where you want to live? If not, where's the home of your heart?

I have a very nice home in Connecticut and a getaway on the shore in Maine – but it isn't the dream house. 99 Nubble in York is the dream…and I think it's still for sale.

11. What book are you reading right now?

I'm actually reading submissions for Allegory – an online e-zine for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. I'm a senior editor over there and between this and the submissions for my publishing house, I'm finding it hard to fit leisure reading in my schedule these days but I've got roughly fifty novels on my Kindle still waiting to be read. I need serious beach time to do that though. Summer can't come soon enough…

Thanks for joining me on this blog tour venture – and remember – I'll be on tour throughout the month, including a giveaway over at Bitten By Books (www.bittenbybooks.com) on April 20th, where you have a chance to win a $50 Amazon Gift Card. I'll be asking questions relating to my tour posts – so check out my Crystal Illusions blog schedule for a chance to win.

Crystal Illusions, my next Steve Williams Novel is now available on Amazon.

J.E. Taylor is a writer, a publisher, an editor, a manuscript formatter, a mother, a wife and a business analyst, not necessarily in that order. She first sat down to seriously write in February of 2007 after her daughter asked:

"Mom, if you could do anything, what would you do?"

From that moment on, she hasn't looked back and now her writing resume includes six+ published novels along with several short stories on the virtual shelves including a few within eXcessica anthologies.

In addition to being co-owner of Novel Concept Publishing (www.novelconceptpublishing), Ms. Taylor also moonlights as an Assistant Editor of Allegory (www.allegoryezine.com), an online venue for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. She has been known to edit a book or two and also offers her services judging writing contests for various RWA chapters.

She lives in Connecticut with her husband and two children and during the summer months enjoys her weekends on the shore in southern Maine.

Visit her at www.jetaylor75.com

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Published on April 03, 2012 01:36 • 1 view

Last Stop on Official Book Blog Tour

Today is very special.
It's the last official stop on the Texas Two Step Blog Tour!!

No Really! You can't be happier than I am!

So let's celebrate TOGETHER

Here's the link.

http://www.deepintheheartromance.com/2012/03/dithr-special-feature-author-cynthia.html

AND here's a secret…

One person will win these today

The only notices will be here. But comments HAVE TO BE LEFT AT GUEST BLOG below

http://www.deepintheheartromance.com/2012/03/dithr-special-feature-author-cynthia.html

Good luck

P.S. TELL ME YOU KNOW THE SECRET in the comments of the guest blog!

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Published on March 08, 2012 09:09 • 4 views

Texas Two Step Freebies

I still have some Texas Two Step freebies for anyone interested!

You have either have a jar/bottle opener

or a Texas Two Step Romance Trading Card

Just let me know which one you'd like!

Send you name and mailing address to:

cynthiadalba at gmail dot com

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Published on March 05, 2012 06:51 • 36 views

TEXAS TWO STEP SUPER PARTY WINNERS

Yesterday I had my Texas Two Step Release Super Party. It was WILD and fun and CRAZY!

There were over 1150 visits to the party.

I can't begin to thank everyone for their support yesterday. It would have been mighty lonely if I'd been talking to myself all day.

If you came by you know I had a new prize almost every hour.

Now I'm looking for my winners!

Winners have 24 hours left to contact me to claim their prize.

And the winners were:

Time

Prize
Winner
Claimed