Kimber An's Blog, page 26

My Guest Post at Alien Romances

Ancient Egypt & Blood-Sucking Dead Guys   Just so you know, I believe I'm the only Young Adult author there.

"You think I'd want to be a vampire? Clearly, you've forgotten the taste of chocolate!"

I just wrote that and I love it so much!  The heartbreaking thing is that this is the first draft, which means it might get edited out of Sweet Bytes before the book is ever released.  Such is the reality of published authors.  We have a lot of 'darlings' which never see the light of day.  I hope this one will though.  Dang, I'd even like to make up a t-shirt!  In fact, I think I may have used the line in Sugar Rush, but I can't remember because it went through so much editing.  I think it's okay to use it again though, considering context.  Only time will tell if the editors agree.  Now I must go update my wordcount and get on with my very busy day.

Another Four Star Review for SUGAR RUSH!

SUGAR RUSH at Romance Reviews

SUGAR RUSH Receives a Four Star Review from Night Owl!

SUGAR RUSH at Night Owl

McHugh Creek and Beluga Point

This setting is from Sweet Bytes, the book I'm working on right now.  If you've read Sugar Rush, you know Adrian ran off with the intent to kill himself.  Beluga Point is one of the places he tries to do this.  McHugh Creek is nearby and it's where he goes after he fails.  While there, he realizes a couple of things about Ophelia which changes his mind.
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Beluga Point and McHugh Creek are two of the most beautiful places in Alaska.  My husband and I had our first date at McHugh Creek.  He carried me across it to pick a flower.  Altogether now, "Awwwww!"  Here's a link to learn more-   McHugh Creek, Alaska

My Guest Post at the Dusty Rose

Dusty Rose

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

My little brother got me into this movie because I'd just escaped, uh, graduated high school and got out of the 1980's and didn't want to go back for nothing.  This movie's set in 1988 and is about two goof-offs who must pass their History class or they flunk out and the future of the world will be destroyed.  They're helped along by a time traveling phone booth.  What's a phone booth?  A phone booth is how people made calls before cell phones were invented.  Your parents and grandparents probably had fun cramming as many of their friends into them as they could too.  Yes, your parents were probably dorks back in the 1980's, but I think they were kinda cute too.  All I can say is Thank God they grew out of black eyeliner!  Ewww!  Here's Wikipedia's entry on this movie-
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
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And here's the movie trailer from YouTube-
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
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I think the best thing about this movie is that it demonstrates, in a hilarious way, that you never know what you can accomplish and the impact you'll have when you're a young person until you go out and do it.  Sadly, a lot of grown-ups forget how it feels to be a teenager.  The media doesn't help.  Too often I'll watch a show and think, "Oh, good grief, that actor is at least twenty years old!"  (child labor laws in the US makes it difficult for real teens to work the long hours making a movie requires)  Actually, the two actors in this movie were at least twenty as well, but they did an excellent job of portraying their teenage selves.  One of them, Keanu Reeves, went on to superstardom in movies like, The Matrix

So, if anyone calls you a loser, just watch and/or remember this movie.  As a young person, you have your whole lives ahead of you and there's no telling what you might do.  You have talents and strengths you haven't even discovered yet.  *You are not a Loser!*  Anyone who tells you otherwise is the real loser.

SUGAR RUSH is Reviewed at Tink's Place!

It's a place for those who love reading and other mischief.  SUGAR RUSH at Tink's Place

The Best Thing About Alaska

And it's the reason I moved here.
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THERE ARE MORE MALES THAN FEMALES!  That became a big issue for me when I finally got around to deciding I was ready to get married.  The male-to-female ratio has changed since I moved up about a couple of decades ago though.  I think it's about two to one, but there is an exception which I'll explain at the bottom of the post.
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I was looking at a census of the area where I grew up and I thought, "Geez, no wonder I was depressed as a young person there."  The dating prospects were not good at all and then everyone split after graduation.  The economy stinks, which means most young people move away after high school graduation, like I did.  Of my siblings, in fact, only one remained in that area. 
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In contrast, Alaska has a certain macho appeal with all our wildlife and wilderness, not to mention all the military bases.  So, when I was about 25, I think it was, I casually mentioned to my brother that I was ready to get married, but I didn't know what to do about it. 
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Hesaid, "Move to Alaska.  The men outnumber the women, ten to one there.  Just walk into the biggest church you can find and take your pick."
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And I said, "Well, okay."  And I did.
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Here's the thing, the ratio of male-to-female is different, depending on what social group you're in.  I'm a Christian, so I wanted a Christian husband.  Once I got to Alaska, I walked into the biggest Christian church I could find and the ratio was fifteen guys to every girl.  Not kidding!  There were thirty guys in my Sunday School class and only one other girl, and she was already engaged to be married! 
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JACKPOT!
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So, I scanned the room, saw a tall, gorgeous blond and thought, "Lord, I'll take that one."

Tristan Li

Tristan Li was dealt a fatal wound after failing to protect his mother from being murdered.  The name 'Tristan' means 'sadness.'  As he lay dying, a woman he thought was just a florist found him and asked if he wanted her to save him.  He did and she turned him into an Oldblood.  If you've read Sugar Rush, you know that the Oldbloods originated the vampire myth in my fictional 'universe.'  The florist was a benevolent Oldblood and immediately took him to Joseph, an elder who trained him to live peacefully among humans.  Again, if you've read Sugar Rush, you know who Joseph is and his role as a father to newly turned Oldbloods.
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Tristan was orginally caucasion, but during revisions on Crushed Sugar I thought a lot about vampire mythology.  Ancient China holds one of the oldest myths, along with Egypt and Babylon.  I've always been fascinated by Ancient China, as well as the history of Chinese Americans.  And so I decided Tristan ought to be Chinese. 
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Tristan makes his first appearance in Crushed Sugar, which will be released soon, as an Oldblood scout sent by Joseph to investigate reports of a Newblood (alien-human hybrids) coven and a Sweet (a beautiful diabetic) in the remote town of Togo, Alaska.  I hope readers are not disappointed with him, because he does fail in this first quest.  No one was born all-powerful, you know. 
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All my protoganists make mistakes, because I do and everyone I know does.  That's the way it is when you're human.
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Tristan returns in the next full-length novel in this series, Sweet Bytes, which I hope will release by summertime. I think readers who like him in Crushed will be thrilled with his heroics in the novel.  He portrays a central protagonist and even enjoys a romance with Ophelia, after she comes to believe Adrian is dead.  As the most gifted telepath of Joseph's 'children,' Tristan is assigned to protect Ophelia and also to help her develop her ability as an empath, so that she can protect herself.
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In my imagination, Tristan looks like Chow Yun-fat as a teenager with thick black hair, but I haven't found any inspirational pictures yet.