Sandra Cox's Blog, page 267

Black Opal

Is Now Available In Paper: http://www.ellorascave.com/black-opal-1.html

SBB: Untangling The Knot

BLURB:   “I did what?”
Twenty-eight year old Gabriella Bessu is St. Therese’s meticulous wedding ceremony coordinator. So the fact that she has mistakenly signed her newest couple up for an annulment, rather than a wedding, sends her Catholic guilt into overdrive. But who can blame her? The groom is gorgeous and his two kids tug at Gabriella’s heart in a way that overcomes all her best intentions. Before long she’s in over her head, fixing her mixed-up plans and helping the children and dad come to terms with their haunting grief for the mother and wife they lost years earlier.
Can Gabriella untangle her own fears and accept the messy life that God has handed them? EXCERPT:  Gabriella heard Mandy’s screech all the way down the corridor. Oh no! That didn’t sound good. She’d sort of thought Mandy appeared wound up when they had first arrived at the office but she couldn’t imagine what would have made her explode like that.
She didn’t have to wait long to find out. Seconds later, Mandy stormed into her office pointing a piece of paper at her like a gun. Within moments, Ryan and Fr. O’Shea followed her through the door, Ryan seeming confused and Fr. O looking apologetic.
“There is no way . . .. I can tell you, NO WAY that Tina would have said I was not ready to get married. This is beyond crazy.” She turned to Fr. O’Shea and waved her arm in Gabriella’s direction.
“Okay, let’s slow down a little, honey.” Ryan tried to calm her. “We need to find out what happened from Gabriella.”
He studied Gabriella questioningly, but she could only stand mute, shaking her head.
“Bri, you took Tina’s statement, right?”
Gabriella nodded her head.
“Did she say anything to you to make you think”—Fr. O. stopped and gently took the paper from Mandy’s manic grasp—“that Mandy might not be prepared for being a wife or mother.”AUTHOR INFORMATION: With an English teacher for a mom, DEANNE WILSTED, grew up reciting conjugation instead of nursery rhymes. Now, forty years later, she's sharing that special skill through her writing and her mothering. Her first book, a contemporary romance called BETTING JESSICA, was released October 2011. Her second Novel, UNTANGLING THE KNOT, is due out in February 2013 from Soul Mate Publishing. She is currently marketing her third book for publication and writing her fourth, fifth and sixth while blogging about the crazy stuff she overhears while writing.LINKS:Author Follow Links –www.deannewilsted.comhttp://www.facebook.com/DeanneWilstedAuthor@dwilsted - https://twitter.com/dwilstedGoodreads  author page- http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5294824.Deanne_WilstedAmazon author page - http://amzn.com/e/B005YHFBQ2
Untangling the Knot Purchase Links www.deannewilsted.comhttp://www.soulmatepublishing.com/untangling-the-knot/

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Jobs Accomplished...Or Not

I have or have not...

Pilled the cat:  Oh yes
Cleaned litter boxes: Yes, sigh
Dusted:  Oops
Mopped the floors: Uh, no
Vacuumed:   Dang, I knew I forgot something
Laundry: Ah-ha, I did do that
Worked on Love, Lattes and Mutants: Er, not as much as I was supposed to
Blogged: Working on it
Visited blog buds: Soon, very soon 
Gotten taxes ready to take to the accountant:  Yes! Yes, yes, yes yes! And that one is done for the year!

How's your projects coming this week?

One day it's a sunny 60 degrees

And the next.... I took a shower and when I came out there was snow on the ground.  When we drove around town we saw all the little kids out building snowmen.

VBT:David Gelber's Minotaur Revisited

With us today is David Gelber. David, do you have a day job and if so what is it? My primary means of supporting myself is as a general surgeon. Writing is my second line of work. When the surgeon life becomes very busy my writing diminishes considerably. Even so, I’ve managed to write five books, two short stories and numerous articles which appear on my blog and at various other venues around the Internet. Are you a plotter or a pantser? I had to Google “pantser” to find out what it was. My first thought was that it was someone who became short of breath when exercising, but then I realized that would be “panter.” Then I thought it may be a type of flower, but soon discovered that’s a pansy. Luckily, we have google, which informed me that “pantser” is a writer who goes by the seat of his pants, as opposed to a plotter who plans everything out before committing a word to paper. I usually work out story lines in my head, sometimes writing them down in very brief form.  Then I sit at my computer and write it out, creating as I go. I suppose that makes me more a “pantser.” Do you prefer self-publishing or a publisher? I have self-published most of my work. I have my own company “Ruffian Press” and use “Lightning Source” as printer, Kindle Direct Publishing and Pubit! For the e-books. Does your muse work 24/7 or take more vacation days than she's entitled to? I’ve been looking for my muse for several years now. I thought I saw her when I first started, but that was just a reflection of my dog in the mirror. Then I was on vacation in Las Vegas and caught a glimpse of her at a blackjack table at the Bellagio. She managed to escape, however, only to reappear months later in the operating room at the hospital where I work. She taunted while sitting on one of the surgical lights. Needless to say, I was otherwise occupied allowing her to elude me once again. One time I thought I saw her sitting on the edge of the bed. I snuck up behind her, grabbed her and put my hand over her mouth so she wouldn’t scream. I carried her into the attic and tried to lock her in a trunk. Unfortunately, I discovered too late that it was my wife and not my Muse. I had to sleep on the couch for a month. Seriously, I am always thinking of things to write. Sometimes the simplest thing will trigger an idea and an article for my blog or storyline for a future book is born. BLURB:   Legend states that the Minotaur was confined to the Labyrinth, slain by Theseus and then laid to rest by thousands of years of Greek mythology. But, the truth is far different. Read the Minotaur’s own words as he recounts his full life as god, king, warrior, matchmaker, midwife, monk, sage, father, mother, husband and, most of all, witness. The fierce Minotaur lived to see and be a part of the best and worst of humanity during a life spanning thousands of years. Part bull, part human, the Minotaur struggled to find his place in this world and, in the end, left his unique mark on history. EXCERPT: AUTHOR INFORMATION:David Gelber, a New York native, is the seventh of nine sons and one of three to pursue medicine. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1980 and went on to graduate medical school in 1984 from the University of Rochester. Gelber has been a surgeon for more than 20 years, but over the last few years he began to pursue his passion for writing, initially with his debut novel, "Future Hope" (Emerald Book Company, January 2010). The novel speculates about future Earth and what the world might have been like if man had not succumbed to temptation in the Garden of Eden. "Joshua and Aaron" is a sequel to "Future Hope" and follows the battle of wills that transpires between unsung hero Joshua Smith and satanic Aaron Diblonski. Dr. Gelber has added two books about surgery, "Behind the Mask" and "Under the Drapes", both of which provide the reader with a view of the world of surgery rarely seen by those outside the medical professions. "Last Light" is an apocalyptic short story which starts off asking the question: "What would happen if nobody ever was sick or injured?" "Minotaur Revisited" is an entertaining romp through history seen through the eyes of Quint, the famed half bull half man monster of Greek Mythology. It was in October 2012. Gelber was raised in reformed Judaism, but joined the Presbyterian Church 15 years ago. He is married with three teenage children, four dogs and 24 birds of various species. His interests include horse racing, mechanical Swiss watches and, of course, writing. LINKS:­­­­­­­ http://www.davidgelber.com/
David will be awarding a $100 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter at the conclusion of the two tours.

VBT:Name Before the Masses

BLURB:Nina Kasai is a gorgeous, Ivy League educated executive who would do anything to keep her past a secret, even from her husband. Seventeen years ago, she ran for her life and the truth has been locked away in the pages of her hidden diary, and in the mind of a disturbed woman who will never tell—ever.
When Nina lands the cover of a prestigious business magazine however, she can no longer hide from the powerful enemy she escaped. Phillip Copeland wants to be the next Governor of Massachusetts and he’s not above using his power and influence to silence Nina. He warns her to keep quiet about what happened all those years ago—or else.
As the stakes are raised, both politically and personally, Nina realizes the only way to win this game is to tell the truth. But who will believe her since her diary has been destroyed, and the only other witness isn’t talking?
Nina’s one chance at reclaiming her life hinges on a dramatic courtroom battle where nothing is as it seems. And when the verdict is read, four lives will be forever altereExcerpt:The telephone rang at three a.m. A drowsy Nina answered it. “I have bad news.”She didn’t need a psychic to tell her that. It was three in the morning.“What is it?” she asked Dan McCloud.
“It’s Constance Buckwell. She’s dead, Nina.”
Nina turned on the lamp on the nightstand and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
“How could she be dead? I just spoke to her last night. She emphatically told me she was going to lie on the witness stand.”
“It’s a tough break, for her and for us.” Dan McCloud couldn’t hide his disappointment. Even at this ungodly hour, he was thinking like a lawyer.
“How did she die?” Nina asked.
“Heart attack. She was on her way home and collapsed on the bus. She made it to the hospital alive but died shortly afterwards.”
“This isn’t a good time to bring this up, but we just suffered a major setback and we need to rethink our strategy,” McCloud said. “This case is going to come down to your testimony. I’m still optimistic about our chances, but you have to be the most compelling witness in this case. Your recollection of details is what’s going to persuade a jury to vote for a conviction. Can you meet me at seven?”
Nina shook Marc awake. “We have big trouble.”
“What?” he asked without moving.
“Constance is gone. No more star witness.”
Marc popped up like a Jack-in-the-Box. “Where did she go?”
To hell is my best guess. AUTHOR Bio and Links:Gledé Browne Kabongo began writing at age 14 when she covered soccer matches for her hometown newspaper.  She has also written for the Patriot Ledger and Metrowest Daily News, two Massachusetts based newspapers. She earned a master’s degree in communications from Clark University, and once had dreams of winning a Pulitzer Prize for journalism. These days her dreams have shifted to winning the Pulitzer for fiction, and a Best Screenplay Academy Award. For the past decade, Gledé has worked in senior marketing roles for organizations in the Information Technology, publishing and non-profit sectors. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two sons.Author website: http://www.gledebrownekabongo.comTwitter: @gkabongoBuy linksAmazonhttp://www.amazon.com/Conspiracy-Silence-Gledé-Browne-Kabongo/dp/1475945671/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347649769&sr=8-1&keywords=glede+browne+kabongoBarnes & Noblehttp://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/conspiracy-of-silence-gled-browne-kabongo/1112772082?ean=9781475945690iUniversehttp://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000581049/Conspiracy-of-Silence.aspxGledé will be awarding an Italian leather journal to a randomly drawn commenter (US/Canada Only) during the tour.

It's The Weekend....

Happy Valentine's and VBT: The Seven Year Itch

               Happy Valentine's Day. Hope its filled with love.

The “Itch” in The Seven Year ItchWhen I first conceived the idea for this FBI Espionage (really, counterespionage) series, I wanted to write a heroine modeled after an African American agent with whom I worked at the FBI. She was the only black woman serving as a supervisor in Russian Counterintelligence/Espionage program and I wondered what drew her to a field largely dominated by white males. She was an anomaly but darn good at her job. One of the things I remembered about the agent is that I admired her because she had an almost innate ability to walk into a room, command it, and then cut through the BS. We worked on a task force together, and she waded through all the white noise to get to the nitty gritty and take care of business almost immediately. She wasn’t at all arrogant or bossy, just very no-nonsense, just-the-facts, Jack.  So, when creating the J.J. McCall character, I wanted to somehow infuse J.J. with that same ability to cut through the BS. I wanted her “gift” to be something of a superpower, but not really a superpower because I don’t write paranormal, fantasy, or science fiction. I don’t have the imagination to world-build to that degree. I also wanted her “gift” to be grounded in some reality. Espionage, spying, and intelligence collection is all smoke and mirrors. When I thought about the major challenges counterintelligence agents face, one significant problem is attempting to discern the truth from lies. When an FBI Agent pitches an officer in a foreign intelligence service and he refuses to speak with the FBI, does he really mean it? Or is he putting up a front because he’s afraid of getting caught by his counterintelligence service? When a new Russian diplomat enters the United States and claims he’s legitimate, is he “clean” or is he a spy on a mission to steal U.S. secrets? From operational covers (or legends) to targeting and recruitment, to intelligence collection, the human intelligence spy world is built around lies. Counterintelligence is essentially the ability to use a variety of investigative techniques to detect the truth and then use that truth to neutralize your “enemies.” And you’d be surprised at the degree to which even our so-called “friends” and “allies” target U.S. government information.  So, just imagine a character who could detect a lie in this world?Pretty cool, right?  So, I created a character that could mitigate the “lying” problem by detecting them. Then I immediately wondered if I had made her job too easy. As writers, we can’t make anything easy on our characters or it’s not fun for the reader. Readers like to see characters that face challenges, that suffer before they succeed. After some thought, I realized such a gift was limited in its use. First, she couldn’t be everywhere at once or listen to every conversation. Her gift would only be useful if she was speaking to a bad guy at the time they were lying about something related to a case or operation. Secondly, if you think about why people lie, we tell lies for a multitude of reasons. In addition to attempting to deceive others, we tell lies to protect other people’s feelings. We may lie to protect someone else from harm. All sorts of reasons. So, even though J.J. can tell whether someone is lying, she cannot answer the very important question of why without digging a little deeper. So this gives her an “edge” in this spooky world but limits her ability to leverage it.  As for the “itch,” years ago I took a class taught by an FBI agent, and he taught us methods to detect whether someone might be engaging in deceptive behaviors during interviews. Sometimes when people tell lies it makes them itch and they scratch. And I remember one instance in which we were watch the video of a subject being interviewed and the subject would scratch his nose only moments after telling a lie, but he was oblivious to this twitch.  So, I turned that around and made J.J. itch whenever she hearda lie. As a romantic comedy author in my other life, I thought it would lend itself to some potentially very funny scenes. In addition, most people with extrasensory gifts welcome them. But I thought  J.J. would reject this uncomfortable “gift” of an itch, which would add to the tension when she dreaded the onset.  All that was left was to explain how she got the “gift.” At first I was just going to play God and not explain it, rather tell the reader, “This is the way it is, deal with it.” Well, as a reader, I probably wouldn’t buy into that. So, I decided to explain it through a little voodoo. I conducted some research and found out that people from cultures around the world actually believe in the curse of the “The Evil Eye,” that some “magic workers” could cast a bad luck curse on you through a contemptuous gaze. So, I gave J.J. roots in the Louisiana where in certain sects they believe in jadoo (magic workers) who actually do such things.  I wanted the curse to be generational, so I started with J.J.’s great-great grandmother. After spinning the idea around my head, I thought it would be an ironic twist for a jadoo worker to curse someone with the ability to tell the truth because they got caught in a lie—so being law enforcement minded, I thought “scam gone wrong.” The only thing was, I didn’t know about scams back in the early 1900s. So I conducted more research and found out about the “Spanish Prisoner” scam that crooks ran on African Americans in the 1900s. Creole people were mixed race. They had such light skin that they could pass for Spanish. As the scam went, the wife of the “Spanish prisoner” would claim her husband got arrested on Jim Crow charges and beg for bail money. If the victim helped her, they be rewarded with Spanish gold and become rich. Of course in reality, the crooks took the money and ran. But the harshness of the Jim Crow legislation apparently made a lot of African Americans susceptible to the scam. There I had my scam. So in the midst of all this fiction, there is quite a bit of truth. Mix all the above ingredients together and that’s how I came up with the “Itch” in The Seven Year Itch.

BLURB:Mikhail Polyakov was murdered in a Solntsevskaya-owned cottage located in Lobnya, a small village just outside Moscow. It was a Russian organized crime death chamber. A hulking Mafioso known only as Maskov hovered over his mangled corpse. The ax in his massive hand dripped with the blood of a traitor. He would not live to betray his country another day. In the safe house basement, he lay on the concrete floor. A pool of crimson surrounded him, and his flesh had been gashed and hacked beyond visual recognition; death’s stench thickened the air. In order to serve its only noble purpose, his right hand, which bore a crescent-shaped birthmark, was left untouched.A sliver of light shone through an undersized window revealing the wicked grin that parted the executioner’s cigarette blackened lips. Colonel Anatoliy Golikov. A Russian intelligence officer, he was a member of a cadre of Russian Foreign Intelligence Service—SVR officers—from the First Department. His professional mission had been recruiting people who sold U.S. secrets, but his personal mission was to kill anyone who betrayed the Motherland.His skinny eyes, slight frame, and borderline gaunt face colored him weak, but his iron-fisted will and suffocating persona made him a man few crossed. Even fewer had lived to brag about it if they had. The son of a former hardline KGB General who executed Russians spying for the West, he’d filled his father’s sadistic shoes well. Left nothing in his wake except a trail of dead American sins against Russia.
Bio:S.D. Skye is a former FBI Russian Counterintelligence Program Intelligence Analyst and supported several key cases during her 12-year tenure at the Bureau. She has personally witnessed the blowback the Intelligence Community suffered due to the most significant compromises in U.S. history, including the arrests of former CIA Case Officer Aldrich Ames and two of the Bureau's own--FBI Agents Earl Pitts and Robert Hanssen. She has spent 20 years supporting counterintelligence, intelligence, and military missions in the U.S. Intelligence Community.
An award-winning author of romantic comedies in her other life, Skye is a member of the Maryland Writer's Association, Romance Writers of America, and International Thriller Writers. She's addicted to writing and chocolate--not necessarily in that order--and currently lives in the Washington D.C. area with her son. Skye is hard at work on the next installment of the series. www.facebook.com/authorsdskyewww.twitter.com/sdskye1www.authorsdskye.com Buy Links Ebookhttp://www.amazon.com/Seven-Year-McCall-Novel-ebook/dp/B00AM4HVT2/ref=la_B00AMAUFK8_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355625857&sr=1-1Paperback http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Year-Itch-McCall-Novel/dp/0983920230/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1355625984&sr=1-3&keywords=s.d.+skye
S.D. will be awarding a Kindle Fire to a randomly drawn commenter at the end of the tour. (US/CANADA ONLY)
The tour dates can be found here:
  http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2012/12/virtual-book-tour-seven-year-itch-by-s.html

Madness...

We're getting ready to go back on the housing market. Madness, all is madness.
The realtor came over Sunday to look at the house and take us to see a lot. Even though, we weren't signing I wanted the house in decent shape. Notice I didn't use the P words pristine or perfect. I got up about eight-thirty and thought I'd just do one or two things before I had a cup of coffee and of course sustenance. I got the coffee made but not drank.  I swear cleaning is like a narcotic. Don't misunderstand me, I don't give in to it that often, but when it strikes its like a runaway train. Either grab a dust cloth or stay out of the way. A demon takes possession of me. I can't stop. I was just going to clean the bathroom, that turned into bathrooms, from there the windows and mirrors. Groan. There's nothing worse than mirrors and windows. Streaks are never gone. They keep coming back. Then the floors, spots on the walls, the kitchen light fixture, the kitchen cabinets, the top of the refrig, pick up all the junk lying around, etc. In the midst of the chaos the hh decides he needs to go in town for a paper. Where is his priorities? When he returned,  I tossed him a dust rag.  I had yet to do the baseboards when she arrived. Thank goodness she showed up or I'd still be cleaning.
~*~A woman was sitting at a bar enjoying an after work cocktail with her girlfriends when Steven, a tall, exceptionally handsome, extremely sexy, middle-aged man entered.  He was so striking that the woman could not take her eyes off him.
This seasoned, yet playful heartthrob noticed her overly attentive stare and walked directly toward her.  (As any man would.) Before she could offer her apologies for staring so rudely, he leaned over and whispered to her, "I'll do anything, absolutely anything that you want me to do, no matter how kinky, for $20.00, on one condition..."
Flabbergasted but intrigued, the woman asked what the condition was. The man replied, "You have to tell me what you want me to do in just three words."
The woman considered his proposition for a moment, and then slowly removed $20 bill from her purse, which she pressed into the man's hand along with her address.  She looked deeply and passionately into his eyes, barely concealing her anticipation and excitement, and slowly and meaningfully said....Clean my house.

Sex and Socks

Okay, I know its not a sexy topic but how do you keep your socks' drawer under control? Its a scientific fact that socks multiple like rabbits. And the litter contains multiple types: winter socks, summer socks, work socks, sentimental socks, sleep socks, knee highs and the prerequisite pantyhose. God forbid you get rid of a pair of seldom-used socks, because the minute you do, you're going to need them.
We have a favorite brand of socks in our family that have been christened the better-than-sex socks because they feel sooo good on your feet. Though, the family members with raging testosterone and estrogen call them the almost-good-as-sex socks. But I digress. I just went through my drawer on a throw away mission and decided I could part with four pair. One pair I know has been in the drawer for fifteen years. Seriously, fifteen years.
What about you? Is your socks' drawer under control or are those pesky pieces of cotton procreating?