Dee Tenorio's Blog, page 8

A Test Post

I upgraded my blog today, so I wanted to do a test post to make sure the functionality works okay.

Crossing fingers!

Dee

Diet Days

I've been at this for a week now. No number changes on the scale and to be honest, I'm this close to stabbing people with plastic forks–spoons even–but yours truly has successfully begun her diet. Again.

I'll tell you the truth. I fell off the wagon back in October when a strange swelling problem turned exercising into an excruciating event. My hands and feet would blow up and turn purple. Well, I got busy and began ignoring that the swelling was happening whenever I exerted.

Fast forward a few months and those 10 lbs I'd slaved to lose were back. With friends. And a brutal case of bronchitis. But I have to be grateful, because when I finally went to the dr, it turned out I was suffering from a serious allergic reaction. I should have guessed, but I just couldn't afford to think about that possibility.

So fast forward another month for recovery and I'm back on the horse. I'm determined to lose some significant weight and I fully plan to keep y'all apprised of it. Maybe with your eyes on me, I'll stay on the train. So, my springtime countdown to 50– the number of pounds I need to lose–has officially begun. From Mar 1-Aug 31, my goal is 2 lbs a week.

Today's weight: 190

Exercise, here I come.

Turned In Tate!

So, on Thursday I got an unexpected surprise. No Internet, YAY!

Um, not.

Didn't get it back up due to needed cable repairs until Friday night, which—as you can imagine—led to some interesting back ups. My email still hasn't recovered from the month long illness of mine and so I'm going to have to set aside a day of email–probably Monday–and get things back to rights, as well as getting my computer backed up again. It's a good little comp and needs it's care.

But the great news is that I was able to get my edits turned in thanks to the offline time. :) Tate and his lady–the next book in the Resurrection series–have a heck of an adventure in the Pennsylvania countryside, so I'm hoping you're all ready for it this summer. :)

I figure edits will be running fast and furious between me and my editor through March, but I am committed to keeping up with my blogging and updates to my site as well. So keep watching this space. For now, how about a not-totally edited snippet?

Unedited Snippet:

"My sister tried to give me the silent treatment once," he said to no one in particular. "I followed her for four days straight singing "999 Bottles of Beer" at the top of my lungs." He began whistling the cheery tune, the notes coming out in a brow-raising pitch. "I'll last a lot longer whistling than singing, don't you think?"

Her foot skid on the ground.

She could hear the smile in that whistle.

Just watch the damn tassels. He'll give up eventually. You've survived worse…

She tried picking up the pace, but his legs were longer and he seemed to have energy to spare. She tried yanking out her toothbrush and spitting pointedly in front of his boots. He just sidestepped the puddle without missing a step. Losing hope, she put the toothbrush away before she broke off the end and stabbed him with it.

With nothing else to occupy her time except listening to him, the road stretched interminably ahead while the sun sank faster and faster to the west. Worse, the whistling was turning into a piercing ringing in her ears. In her brain. Reverberating up and down her nerves until her skin crawled and her eyes tried to roll up in her head.

Usually, when she walked, the only noises to bother her were crickets and bugs or birds. Maybe a stray dog or cat. Nothing as loud as this, not for this long. No matter how she twisted away from him, or changed her pace, he was right there. Whistling. Setting her senses warping from misery. When she finally had to put her hands over her ears, he actually got louder. But when he laughed—he actually laughed at her!—lights began popping on the edge of her vision.

"Don't you ever shut up?"

"Of course not. I'm a lawyer, I'm trained to talk for days."

She stared at his smug expression, not the slightest clue what he could possibly want. "You said you were taking me to the next safe house. I never agreed to act like your best friend until we got there."

"I'm not asking for friendship." Flinty gray eyes stayed trained on hers and his voice had all the inflection of a steel beam…so why did she get the distinct feeling he was looking at her entire body like it was his own personal buffet? "I just don't like being ignored."

Hugs gang!

Dee

I didn't forget…

I've had company this weekend for hubby's b-day. :) I've been cooking and actually leaving my house for once.

No one was more shocked than the people in my town. It's not every day a yeti shows up in public.

What can I say, I've been in a writing/work cave.

Anyhow, a few tweezer attacks later, I was nearly passable. We took the kids to see "I Am Number Four" and have pretty much partied all weekend with snacks, spaghetti tacos and Shawn The Sheep.

I know, we expect the cops anytime now, lol.

In other news, lol…

Much to my surprise–and glee!–"Tempting The Enemy" was nominated for Best Book of 2010 at The Long And Short Of It Reviews.

There's a week left on the voting and I'd love it if any of you were inclined to take a second to pick your favorite among the nominees. :) Just click on the icon to head over!

See you later!

Dee

Guest Post: Inez Kelley!

My special Wednesday guest this week is my buddy and the happiest bad girl I know, Inez Kelley! Enjoy!!

***

Man-candy: the type of men who make your mouth water

You know the kind I'm talking about. Those magazine photos, website goodies and oh-my-God pictures.  Granted, it is all looks. The internet is a veritable sampler of man-candy. Pick a flavor and it is there. Its an indulgence for your brain, a trip down an erotic, voyeuristic lane. Most are beautiful, some are provocative, others may be raunchy. Whatever your pleasure level is, there is a man-candy picture out there for you.

It's a risk-free excuse to let your imagination have a treat with no danger of crossing any boundaries. Married, in a relationship or single, you can look your fill. Men have done it for ages. Even ancient civilizations have paintings or graffiti of beautiful women on their walls. Women are just making up for those long centuries of having to cover up that we too enjoy looking at the opposite sex.

In SWEET AS SIN, Livvy starts out looking but not touching. You know that changes but hey, it was sweet while it lasted!

Livvy caught herself staring and yanked her gaze away. Man-candy, he was just man-candy. Nothing she could sink her teeth into.

Well, she could. But it would all be empty calories. Calories she didn't need. Not to mention cavities.

Livvy succumbs to the lure, the temptation of John and oh my, how sweet is it? As SWEET AS SIN.

Excerpt:

With a flick of her thumb, she popped the plastic top and the thick scent of buttercream wafted upward. His nostrils flared but his eyes never left her face. "Smells sweet."

"It is. It's Italian buttercream frosting, so it stays very…smooth and soft. The sugar is heated so it's like silk on your tongue as it melts."

John barely glanced at the pastry. "Buttercream. Silk that melts on your tongue. I like the sound of that."

"You'll like the taste, too. The heating means it's very sturdy but it tastes very delicate."

He lifted his hand and drew his knuckles down the curve of her cheek. Her breath caught.

"Sounds… sinful." Livvy inched closer and tilted her head. "Want a bite?"

"Oh, yeah."

"Devil's Food or French Vanilla?" The words meant nothing. She was offering him so much more.

"Devil's Food, of course." He accepted her offer with a whisper.

His pupils dilated and his tongue skated across his lip. The cake was heaped with a frothy swirl of frosting in snowy white. Slowly, she licked half the frosting off the mini. She held it in her mouth and stepped to him. The sugary cream slipped from her tongue to his.

Drenched in sweetness, his mouth caressed hers. Long after the frosting had melted away, she pulled back and brought the cupcake to her lips. John's breath deepened as she held half the mini dessert in her mouth. Gripping his neck, she yanked his lips back to hers. A wolfish grin appeared just before he took the dark cake and her kiss in one greedy motion. The shared bite melted with their heat and dissolved with their hunger.

A stray trace of chocolate speckled his lip and Livvy brushed her finger against it. He captured her fingertip, drawing it inside his mouth for a wet caress. A throb began between her legs.

"Your turn."

~~~~

SWEET AS SIN

She's made for sin. Sin is something he knows intimately.

John Murphy is tormented by nightmares. A bestselling young-adult author, he writes the ultimate fantasy: stories where good always triumphs. He knows better. His past has shown him the worst in people—and in himself. When he moves next door to the sexy, vibrant Livvy—a woman completely unlike his usual one-night stands—he's driven to explore every curve of her delicious body.

Pastry chef Livvy knows that giving in to the temptation that is John Murphy won't lead to anything permanent, but she deserves a passionate summer fling. John discovers she's as sweet as the confections she bakes while Livvy slowly unravels his secrets. But what will happen when she uncovers them all?

Buy Sweet as Sin at Carina Press, AMZ, ARe, BoB or B&N

Inez Kelley is a multi-published author of various romance genres. You can visit her at her website http://inezkelley.com/  Follow Inez on twitter at @Inez_Kelley or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/inez.kelley

Returning To Form

It strikes me as a great irony that two years ago, February 14th became the very worst day of my life. Even the memory of that day in 2009 never fails to make me want to lock myself up in my room and cry. Two years ago today, my sister was taken from us. Two years ago, part of my soul died.

Today, because my sister would be the first to punch me in the arm and ask me what the hell was taking me so f'ing long, I'm making the decision to start taking it back.

Now, generally, rule of thumb is to keep your personal life separate from your online professional life. But that never really applied to me after my sister passed away, because without the help, support and friendship of the people in my online life, I would not have survived losing her or the other 5 family members I lost the rest of that year. Or any of the other truly heartbreaking things that have besieged my family since.

I feel like I've been fighting a losing battle the last two years, clawing to hold onto everything that I have left and watching it slip through my fingertips. Watching myself slip away with it.

No more.

I tend to put myself last on my priorities and unfortunately, a lot of that has meant my career. I've tried–several times–to kick myself in the tail and get back on the horse. Writing, I've finally done. I have some exciting plans for spring and summer this year, and while I'm always present on Twitter, I have let this space become a ghost town.

I have to be realistic–because I am not an interesting person on the day to day–but I can discuss things with you at least twice a week. Please, I hope you'll be able to look for me on Mondays and Fridays from this point on. I may have guest visitors–this Wed will be my friend Inez Kelley!–but for the most part, that's my commitment. Mondays and Fridays, my promise to all of you.

I'm going to do my best to have contests and games and try to keep it fun. I'll do what I always do, talk too much about my insane children, share story bits and talk about how writing is the only way I stay sane. I may even start throwing in some code days, but that's all in the future.

Today, I'm cleaning my house and purging out everything that's tying me down. Today, I'm starting over. Today, I'm going to make myself new.

See you Wednesday gang.

Dee

Top 10 Secret Gems of 2010

It's that time of year, when everyone is listing their favoritist books they read in the last 12 months, which is great. But the problem for me is…I often see all the same books (because, let's face it, they're great…or just really popular) or I see books from the big authors who have books in grocery stores, even.

It made me think…

Particularly when it comes to eBook authors, it's not easy to get seen by as many people or to make a top 10 like that because you're just not as visible. So here's my thought–what books did you read this year that you haven't heard many folks talking about, but wish they were?

So I want to see your lists. What are your Top 10 (or shoot, 5 even!) Secret Gems of 2010?

Characters With Scars: Love Or Hate?

There's a rule about telling jokes that is a warning to those who can't tell jokes: "If you have to explain it, it's not funny."

The same rule applies, in many ways, to writing. A writer really only has the length of her story to explain a character's motivations, actions, behaviors and the reasons why those might all change. Much like a marathon, an author has to push those facts into the pace without sacrificing the plot, and cover all the information by the end of the book. For the sake of telling the story as the story needs to be told, the author works with many different, challenging character types from the Mary Sues to the over the top, Kick-Ass heroines to the hard-boiled cop and the tortured hero. All of them must live their character arc and change from someone who is just getting by to someone who has thrown off the yoke of their past and learned to live a full life in spite of their pains.

Of course, not all characters are born equal. Some are happy go lucky, playful folks whose idea of a rough time is having the power go out or having to get a menial job. Then there's the ones who come from truly dark, grueling places. Characters who have to overcome scars that are deep and emotional and ingrained. Their idea of a rough time is not eating for three days and getting the crap beat out of them in an alley and being left to bleed to death. As you can imagine, these folks are going to require different lures to draw them out of their ingrained natures.

In some genres, for some fans, that's understandable. They give the character time to overcome their issues as the plot moves along. And if they sometimes come out of a book with a few of those old reflexes, old issues, still there, like shadows they are still dealing with but can work around, in some genres, for some fans, that's okay.

Some genres. Some fans.

And this is the part in the post when the author says something she probably shouldn't.

Because one of the things I've noticed is that in romance…the expectation is different.

Now, I totally admit, I only really noticed this because I've written a few characters that are "dark". I personally have a hang up, in that if I'm going to give a character a conflict, I want that conflict to have a realistic, generally possible resolution. The same as I would be expected to portray a character with cancer to have certain symptoms, certain health care treatment that has to be expressed or the reader who knows better will call me on it. And rightly so.

When I fit a conflict to a character, I know that no matter how good their love lives, how good the sex even, something has to happen within the character to bring on the change toward a happier future. The rougher the past, the deeper that lesson was learned in the first place, the more time and more requirements those characters are going to need in order to give up the security of the life they currently lead. I want very much to feel that a person who has been in that predicament can read what I write and say, "Yes, that's what I went through. That's what I know is true or close enough that it makes sense."

But in romance, I've seen a reaction to characterizations like these that worry me a little. Readers have, in a notable way, made their confusion by these kinds of characterizations known. They don't like characters who carry their baggage past the initiation of commitment. As if finding romantic interest could cure what is often decades of training. There's a frustration with characters who "waffle", as they worry at the knot of unresolved fears in the face of taking a chance on getting hurt by newest love interest. Generally, the law of inertia applies to people too. If you've had to protect yourself all your life, it's going to be impossible to stop on a dime. But romance expectations–and resulting disappointments in characters–continue.

I've heard some people say that if they wanted reality, they wouldn't read romance. They don't want characters who can't accept a good thing. They want the escapist experience, where true love conquers all and that the right words said at the right time can take all the hurts away.

Or perhaps it's the fact that readers are already aware of the romance-promise of a guaranteed happily ever after. Do they grow impatient with characters who don't realize that this love is the love that will last? Which leads one to wonder, how is the character to know that? To them, this is just one more person who is likely to hurt them. One more person they could hurt, that they don't want on their conscience.

I really puzzle on this and would love to open a dialogue with readers on it. Can you handle a character that doesn't give into love easily? One that has further to go to find their happily ever after? Or is that simply not what you want in your romance?

Writing…

So, I thought maybe I needed to try another tack for getting my writing moving better and I found one. Writing long-hand.

Let's take a moment to appreciate the glory that is typing. Typing, you see, takes the "crappy handwriting" quality out of writing. And by crappy I, of course, mean "illegible, scribbly, tangled and just outright FUBAR'd quality of the letters. That would be my handwriting. It'd be one thing if it was consistent, but some days the writing is flat letters, some days loopy.

And a weird thing. My writing is starting to look like my Mother In Law's.

Isn't that against the rules of nature?

Normally, this wouldn't be much of a thing, but as Tate is proving stubborn, I'm writing the book in longhand.

So, if you see typos that make no sense…well, that'll be why.

How does everyone else manage their inspiration? What do you do when you need to go outside the box?

Dee

What Would You Do First?

Hubby and I have a long-standing list of what we'd ever do if do if we won the lottery and got millions of millions of dollars. I think most people do, because it makes doing the laundry or cleaning the house a bit more tolerable if you can fantasize about getting someone else to do it for you.

But this weekend I thought about it and asked, "But what would you do FIRST?"

Me, because I'm a materialistic cow, my first thought was–Party at the Apple Store!!! Yup, iPads and/or comps for the whole family! Pretty much, anything any one wanted, I'm thinking. Then, I'd start looking for houses–one for us, one for Mom, one for Dad. Then us and our fabulous array of computers would move and start our happily ever afters.

I asked hubby and his first thought was–apparently, AFTER the lawyer to protect the money–purchasing various stacks of silver in case the market fails, so we have trade goods. He has a whole list of things he'd do before he went on an Apple-store run (including setting up trust funds for all the kids in our families).

So what about you? What's the very first thing you'd do when you got your lottery check?