Sandra Cox's Blog, page 292

Seven Rings of Hell

The HH's theory is any rodent foolhardy enough to make its way into our house must think its entered the seventh ring of hell. For instance:
Last night he heard clattering and banging in the kitchen and ran in to find one of the cat's had caught a mouse. Now the HH has been programmed to extricate the mouse from the cat and toss it outside. If the mouse doesn't get snagged by the outdoor cats its chances of survival rise exponentially. As the HH was heading for the cat to get the mouse, the cat dropped it. The mouse weighed its options and headed for the dog. Chomp. Chomp. The mouse was gone.
Who would have thought a nearly fifteen year old decrepit, deaf, half-blind dog would become a mouse executioner?

Sunday: The Day of Rest and Other Stuff

Faux Paw is a big believer in Sunday being a day of rest, along with Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Blogspot has updated. I'm not sure I like the new navigation system. Anyone else having problems with it?
~*~


A sharp wind blew off the water. My eyes closed. I stood perfectly still, except for the shudders that racked my achy body as fear and revulsion washed over me like the loud pounding waves below. 
~*~Blogs of interest:Amarinda JonesAnny CookHelen WoodallJennifer Shirk Julia BarrettShelley Munro 

Current freebies at Amazon:
Winner Take All by Diane Amos
http://www.amazon.com/Winner-Takes-All-ebook/dp/B007L88N4Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1334932360&sr=1-1 

Ashes for the Elephan God by Vijaya Schwartz
http://www.amazon.com/Ashes-Elephant-God-ebook/dp/B00486UG24/ref=lp_B001JP7U

It's Saturday...

It's Saturday. Enjoy it!

Squirrel Adopted by Cat Learns to Purr

This one's too cute......

An E-Book Verdict That Makes Cents

Read about it:
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/11/justice-files-suit-against-apple-and-publishers-over-e-book-pricing/?emc=eta1

Have you been reading about this? The justice department has actually sued Apple, Penguin, Hachet, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and Macmillan over their e-book pricing. One state attorney general said that the publishers had inflated the e-book prices by as much as $5.
I found this article fascinating. And it basically reiterates what we've been saying all along, that the larger companies are driving up the cost of e-books.
What does this lawsuit mean for us? Hopefully, lower e-book prices. And for some consumers possibly even restitution.
This ruling has been a huge plus for Amazon, who like to keep their prices lower as an incentive to buy and use the Kindle. Because of Apple's 'favorite nation clause' they weren't allowed to lower their prices, asked by these publishers, below the pricing in Apple's bookstore.
On the flip side, some authors are concerned about the large influence Amazon has over the book market. And this most certainly is a concern.
What's your take on the situation?
~*~
Jill Huey is giving away Unbidden, a historical romance today and tomorrow at
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0067DDX1M/ref=cm_sw_su_dp

I Swore I'd Never Get Falsies

Okay, I broke my word. I swore I'd never get falsies, but three of my nails were broken so they glued on false tips. Ever had them? On the very tip of the nails, they glue on extenders that are a mile long. I'm not kidding a mile, okay maybe a couple of inches but they seem like a mile. Then they trim them down to the length you want them. Walla, no more stubs.
You can probably tell my life isn't filled with glamor, glitter and travel to exotic ports of call by the amount of blog time I spend on my nails.
What about you? What breaks up the mundane in your corner of the world?
~*~
Blogs of interest:
Amarinda Jones
Anny Cook
Helen Woodall
Jennifer Shirk
Julia Barrett
Shelley Munro

Battered Women and Their Pets

My son sent me a story that was gut-wrenching on many levels. It was about a Great Dane who threw itself on top of his mistress when she was being beaten with a hammer and ultimately saved her life. Here's the link if you'd like to read the story: http://www.takepart.com/blog-series/paw-and-order/2012/01/17/great-dane-saves-woman-vicious-beating#.T3G25Dh8yiQ.email.
Its hard to believe that some women live in fear of their life from the person who has sworn to love and protect them. Unfortunately, its only too true.
Nearly, forty percent of battered women stay in the situation they're in because they refuse to leave their pets.
Some women live in their cars because they can't take their animals with them to safe houses.
Over seventy percent of abused women have had pets maimed or killed by their abuser.
There are no race, age, or financial boundaries when it comes to abuse. Halle Berry, Madonna, Carol King and Tina Turner have been in abusive situations.
Nearly four million women are beaten each year by their significant other.
Nearly forty-five percent of women who are beaten are beaten during pregnancy.
The average prison sentence for men who kill their significant other is less than seven years.
Every fifteen seconds a woman in the U.S. is battered.
In the United States, domestic violence is the leading cause of injury for women in their teens through middle age.
Abuse normally increases and becomes more violent.
After the Great Dane incident, The Rose Shelter decided to add seven kennels so that more abused women could bring their pets when looking for a safe house.
*If you're interested in making a donation, the link can be found in the article noted above.

Vampire Romance Books

Greetings, everyone. I'm hanging out at Vampire Romance Books today. If you have the opportunity, stop by and keep me company.http://www.vampireromancebooks.com/author-interviews/sandra-cox-interview/

Toni Sweeney's Back

Once again, I've pulled double duty!

I've had two books released within a week of each other! The same thing happened when Sinner, Book One of the kan Ingan Archives came out, and now, history's repeating itself with Exile, Book Two. The other book is my futuristic novel, Earthman's Bride, being re-released by Class Act Books on April 15, 2012. I certainly hope it doesn't happen again with Book Three, because I'm running myself to a frazzle, trying to promote both books without repeating myself.

These two books—Exile and Earthman's Bride—couldn't be more different, yet, in an odd way, they're also a bit alike. One's about a dynasty which has ruled a planet for over 3000 years, the other concerns a people's fight against aliens who invade their planet and one woman's sacrifice to free her people. Common denominator? The aliens in both cases are from Earth.

…

One thing about writing about a dynasty, it covers a lot of territory and a whole lot of people...centuries of events...millennia of generations... I took the easy way out. I decided to write about the beginning and the end of a dynasty—the rule of the kan Ingans of the Emeraunt Galaxy. My series, The Chronicles of Riven the Heretic (Bloodseek, Blood Curse, A Singing in the Blood, and Barbarian Blood Royal, and soon to come, The Man from Cymene) told of the kan Ingans' origins. My series, The kan Ingan Archives, told of their inglorious end thirty-one hundred years later. I'll admit I "borrowed" a bit of the plot from an old Greek legend: Phaedra. You know, the one about the young wife who falls in love with her stepson and tragedy follows? But I gave it my own little spin and made it different enough. Spoiler here: The young man doesn't die. He's exiled, which to someone like Aric kan Ingan—handsome, pampered, and titled—is almost like dying. When I was finished, and patting myself on the back, I realized it was begging for a sequel, so I began that, but as usual with characters with which I have more than one dealing, familiarity bred contempt—and Aric yanked the plot out of my hot little hands, and, in his superiorly Arcanian way, took over. I paid him back though. In his exiled wanderings, I set him down on a small planet where only a mining colony existed, made him a guard, and surrounded him by…gulp!…Earthlings, hundreds of them, and he's the only person there who's not from Terra. That definitely did something to that colossal Arcanian ego, believe you me.

As for Earthman's Bride…

It started out as a short story which then decided it wanted to grow. Like Phaedra, the story has been told many times before with many variations. I imagine there's probably a Greek myth about it, too: a young woman given to a conqueror as part of a peace agreement...he desires her...she fears him...eventually they fall in love...

The villains in this story are Earthmen, and definitely not nice people. Having depleted their own natural resources, they head to the stars looking for planets having the elements they lack, and they were ruthless in their determination to get what they wanted. They've been fighting a war for 30 years, and now, the rebel leader asks for a truce, offering his daughter as part of the negotiations. Rebeka has been charged with a difficult task…made the Earthmen's leader fall in love with her and then kill him, and free her people forever.

Of course, Rebeka and Philip fall in love, and that should solve all the problems, but there's an Artifically Intelligent fly in the ointment…Darius, an android programmed to protect Rebeka. Unknown to everyone, Darius has an empathy chip which enables him to experience emotion, and he's fallen in love with Rebeka, too…

Aric kan Ingan has to make choices when his uncle returns to Arcanis with his young, Terran wife, and those choices get him exiled to a planet where's he's no longer royal and living the lowest life possible. Rebeka, Philip, and Darius also have choices to make and theirs are no less dangerous and heart-rending than Aric's. Each decision carries with it the possibility for emotional as well as physical tragedy and calamity, and the greatest probability of all…death to those involved.

What do they do? How will their stories end?

Unh-uh, I'm not telling. Buy a copy of Sinner, Exile, or Earthman's Bride—or borrow a friend's—and learn for yourself. (I'd appreciate it if you'd buy the copy, of course!)

BLURB for Exile:

What do you do if you're guilty of a crime--but not the one for which you've been convicted?

Aric kan Ingan is a Non-Person, an Exile, stripped of title and citizenship for treason against the Arcanian Empire, crimes of which he is innocent. Caught in the intrigues of a secret society determined to overthrow his uncle's rule, Aric is accused and arrested, then compelled to allow the evidence saving him to be destroyed when the rebels threaten to reveal his affair with his uncle's Terran wife. Aric has wandered the Emeraunt Galaxy a lonely decade, and now, destitute and addicted to the two most powerful substances in the Galaxy, he enlists as a guard for a Terran mining colony. Though he doesn't know it, he's about to meet the two people who'll become the most important in his life.

Blurb for Earthman's Bride:

For 30 years, Rebeka Spearman's people have been at war with the Edarthmen who invaded their planet. Now, her father wants a truce and offers his daughter to Philip Hamilcar, the Terran's leader in exchange for peace. Unknown to Philip, Rebeka has her own agenda; she's to make him fall in love with her, lull him into trusting her, and then kill him, and end the Earthmen's hold over the planet once and for all.

It's a great plan, and it might work, except for one thing.

Rebeka and the Earthman have fallen love.

Will Rebeka ignore her people's plight for her own happiness, or will she give us her love to free her people?

Earthman's Bride placed first in the 2008 Maryland Romance Writer's "Reveal Your Inner Vixen" contest in the alternate/SF category. It will be available from Class Act Books on April 15, 2012:

Buy Link for Exile: http://www.double-dragon-ebooks.com/single.php?ISBN=1-55404-947-4

Trailer for Exile: http://youtu.be/4BMnKzoSgmc

Trailer for Earthman's Bride: http://youtu.be/6WiF7HFIYN0

Carrier of Souls

I'm blogging today on the Sacred Birman, carrier of souls at Night Writers. www.sevennightwriters.blogspot.com