Denise Verrico's Blog: Immortyl Revolution, page 6

Blog Ring of Power Interviews

Starting tomorrow, I'll be featured in a series of interviews on my Servant of the Goddess tour, hosted by the Blog Ring of Power:



Part 1 @ www.terribruce.net - Wednesday, July 25th
Part 2 @ http://twfendley.com/- Thursday, July 26th
Part 3 @ http://emlabonte.blogspot.com - Friday, July 27th
Part 4 @ http://ulbrichalmazan.blogspot.com- Monday, July 29th
Part 5 @ http://deanswritingtime.blogspot.com- Tuesday, July 30th


Please join us!

Sexy Cedric on Aphrodisiacs? Not Bloody Likely! /Ebook Giveaway

Your host with the most, Cedric MacKinnon
Hello, my lovelies!  I took a hiatus last weekend to spend a little time with my darling Mia.  The woman is demanding, let me tell you, but I rose valiantly to the occasion.  She asked if, in my former profession of sacred courtesan, I ever employed aphrodisiacs.  
Well, it helped to know all sorts of ways to rouse a lover.  I was indeed trained in the use of aphrodisiacs.  Even extraordinarily beautiful and skilled practitioners like the adepts of the ancient arts sometimes resort to exotic herbal concoctions to coax the desired state from a lover, just as many humans employ drugs such as Viagra to boost their capabilities.
Of course, yours truly never has those problems, either in the arousing or arousal areas, but it is a fascinating subject.  Today, I'll share a few cautionary tidbits.

Aphrodisiacs

The word aphrodisiac is derived from the name of the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite.  This randy lady is known for her numerous affairs and the ability to inspire lust in all men.  Throughout history, men and women have employed magical, chemical, animal and herbal remedies to enhance sexual desire.  However, these weren’t always used to attain sexual pleasure.  Sometimes the user was looking to increase fertility or to partake in mystical rites. 
Here is a list of ten notorious and strange forms of aphrodisiacs I’ve run across in my reading:
Bufo Toad Skin- The toxin bufotenin is secreted by the cane toad and found in its skin.  It is chemically is related to the neurotransmitter, serotonin.  The secretion is sometimes used as a psychedelic drug with effects similar to mescaline and LSD and is often employed as an aphrodisiac.  It is highly dangerous as it is toxic in rather small doses, especially if taken intravenously.  The chemical can naturally occur in human beings, and a 2010 study linked a high concentration of bufotenin excreted in urine to mental disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. 

Spanish Fly is a bright green blister beetle, Lytta vesicatoria, and one of the oldest-known aphrodisiacs. The insect produces cantharidin, a substance that produces blisters on the skin of creatures that come in contact with it.  If ingested, the compound basically irritates the genitals.  I suppose some people find that arousing, but if one takes too much of this stuff, it can also act as a poison.  I’d beware any lover who swears by its use.  The Marquis de Sade was once said to serve Spanish Fly-laced candies to prostitutes at an orgy.  Some party.  Yet, the lowly beetle does have a beneficial effect--in the treatment of warts.

Panax Ginseng is a Northern Hemisphere plant found only in North America and eastern Asia.  Scientific research has shown it to contain phytoestrogens, and it may cause the pituitary gland to produce gonadotropins.  Some studies have shown it to affect the estrus cycle and sperm production in mice. 
Sparrow Brains-In Greek Mythology, Aphrodite considered the sparrow a sacred bird.  To the ancient Greeks, the sparrow was looked upon as a lustful creature, much in the way people today think of rabbits.  The Greeks believed ingesting the sparrow’s brains would increase libido.
Oysters-These mollusks were thought to have aphrodisiacal qualities because they resemble the female genitals.  Personally, I don’t see the resemblance.  I mean, really?  I find oysters to be tasty, but rather unattractive creatures.  To equate something slimy and grey with something as delightful as female parts is missing the point to me.  And would oysters even work in same-sex trysts?  Some of us like to swing both ways.  I say, leave the oysters to the realm of appetizer, not aphrodisiac. 
Mandrake root was also said to resemble a woman’s anatomy and thus was believed by many cultures to boost a woman’s fertility.  It’s a member of the nightshade family like potatoes and tomatoes and other more notorious plants like Jimson weed.  It looks nothing like the ugly, muddy babies in Harry Potter, more like a couple of intertwined parsnips, and it doesn’t scream when pulled from the earth.  However, it is poisonous and has been used throughout history as a hallucinogen.  It is called the “love plant” in Jewish scriptures. 
Deer’s Penis- in China and Taipei, deer penis is often served in restaurants or even soaked in alcohol to make “deer penis wine”.  Because of the prodigious size of the organ, it is believed to enhance male virility.  Tiger’s penis is also used this way.  Okay, let’s leave the lovely animals intact so they can create little animals.  Surely there must be a better way to increase one’s randiness?

Horny Goat Weed (Epimedium grandiflorum) is a flower in the barberry family found in China, Japan and Korea.  It contains icarin, a flavonol, that shares some properties of drugs used to treat impotence.  The plant is used commonly in Chinese herbal medicine to treat erectile dysfunction.  I can’t get past the name.
 Ambergris is in fact the sick of a sperm whale.  It is a waxy, odorous substance produced in the whale’s digestive tract and was widely used as a preservative base for perfumes, although some people ingested it as an aphrodisiac.  Whale’s vomit?  I’d have to be pretty desperate to go that route.
Arugula (rocket or garden rocket)- yes, that peppery, somewhat bitter salad green has been considered an aphrodisiac in the Mediterranean since Roman times.  This one, along with the oysters, the most innocuous and tasty solution.  Perhaps there is no real aphrodisiacal quality than the sensual delight of a good meal of varied tastes, textures, colors and aromas.  Interesting that eating arugula was called “elitist” by political pundits during the 2008 American presidential election, when this humble herb was eaten by peasants for centuries.  Maybe “arugula eaters” had the right idea all along.
Now, do you see a common thread among these so-called aphrodisiacs?  Most are either poisonous or in some way repugnant.  The biggest problem in the loss of libido in humans is illness or stress.  First, see a doctor to see if there is some illness underlying the condition.  If you are just stressed out, make some time to re-connect with your lover.  Take a walk on the beach or in the woods and commune with nature.  Have a good meal with wine.  Play the right music.  My advice is to steer clear of ingesting dubious herbal remedies and drugs and employ more innocuous forms of arousal—like erotic books, films or images.
Hmm… I have a wee suggestion.  Not erotica in the strictest sense, but steamy, like the hero.

Leave a comment for me with a contact email address or url, and I'll send you a link and coupon code for a free ebook of short tales featuring Mia, Kurt and me!




Until next time, my darlings!
Love and dark kisses,
Cedric MacKinnon
@cedricmackinnon http://www.facebook.com/cedricvampire

Nancy Kersey Talks about her Longtime Friend, Dark Shadow's Jonathan Frid

 A word from Denise:

Twenty-three years ago, I was living in NYC, pursuing a career in acting and working graveyard shift at the law firm of Davis, Polk and Wardwell.  My husband also worked there and a host of other aspiring actors, musicians, writers, filmmakers and other artists.  We were an interesting lot.  One of our co-workers was a young actress, Nancy Kersey.  She was a fun person to work with and a great friend.  One night, Nancy asked my then fiancee, Donovan, and me to attend a preview of the performance by an actor with whom she worked.  When I asked the actor's name and she said, "Jonathan Frid", I was flabbergasted.  She worked with my childhood idol!  I was a big fan of "Dark Shadows" as a small child.  Of course, I said yes.  Thanks to this very special lady, I had the opportunity to meet this lovely gentleman and visit his home.  A dream come true for me!
I never imagined back then that I'd be the published author of four vampire novels, but I have to say that the complex characterization of Jonathan Frid as Barnabas Collins certainly influenced the way I view vampires.
Twenty-two years later, I was on the "Dark Shadows" fan page and who do I see posting on the board but Nancy!  I messaged her, and we re-connected.  Sadly, Mr. Frid passed away shortly after that.  I thought my readers might enjoy hearing Nancy talk about her friendship with this wonderful actor and approached Nancy with the idea.  To my great pleasure, she agreed, and now I'm proud to introduce Nancy Kersey to you!
Nancy with Barnabas'  signature wolf's head cane.


Nancy: 


When I was nine years old, one of my favorite pastimes was watching a creepy soap opera in the afternoon before “Wee Willie Webber” cartoon hour came on.  The show was called “Dark Shadows” and my young curiosity honed in on it’s vacillating vampire, Barnabas Collins.  I couldn’t get enough of the character and at one point I wore red boots much like the character did during the famed 1795 time period when the show went back to explain how the tortured vampire came to be.
For most of us, fantasy is an important component in our existence; it is that mind trip outside of ourselves and our daily routine that centers on a character, series of characters or an environment.  It was a lot of fun to slip into the town of Collinsport and further into the home of its namesake the Collins family, also known as Collinwood.  “Dark Shadows” furthered my budding interest in horror movies and Gothic stories.  Haunted houses? I already lived in one so that wasn’t anything to pursue.  What I did decide to pursue was the theater because the actor who played Barnabas Collins, Jonathan Frid, had trained to become an actor, worked on the stage and now was creating this fabulous and forever intriguing character.  I knew his background from reading the magazine articles I spent my allowance on every month. 
My love of writing and play acting started before I was even in school.  I didn’t realize you could actually get paid for doing such things until I read everything I could about Jonathan Frid and his theatrical background.  I decided that I wanted to work in the theater.  I would write scripts and I would act in them too. 
On the way to doing all that, I discovered that “Dark Shadows” was being shown in syndication on a public television station in New Jersey in the early 1980s.  I would watch the show when I could and in mind gave it a nod for steering me into the direction I was now heading in my career.  One day, I discovered that Jonathan Frid was going to appear at what was called a “Dark Shadows” festival in New Jersey.   I had often wondered what had become of him and when I learned he would be performing some material there, I made plans to go.  Long story short: I saw Jonathan do what was termed a “work in progress” one-man show.  Part of the apprehension I did have about seeing him perform is that I had already learned that what intrigued me as a child, and what I thought was good, wasn’t necessarily so to my adult eyes.  Well, that certainly was not the case with Jonathan’s performance.  I was intrigued by what he was doing and wrote up the event in performing arts monthly in PhiladelphiaI contributed to.  Serendipity intervened and within a few months of my having wrote about the wonderful experience seeing Jonathan Frid perform; I was invited to his apartment in New York to see more of the work-in-progress.  That led to a long conversation with him afterwards, some more trips up to New York, and finally an invitation to work with him, his business partner and some other associates in creating a touring one-man show under the banner of his production company, Clunes Associates.  I accepted.  It fit into my plans to move to New York to pursue theater work.  And now I had been hired as a writer by a new production company for a theatrical project.  Perfect.
What I never expected was to actually become friends with Jonathan Frid.  Yes, I was thrilled beyond measure at the prospect of working with an actor I thought was greatly talented but already experienced enough in life to realize there was a clear difference between fantasy and reality.  He was NOT Barnabas Collins.  This was not pretend.  This was a business proposition that could help open doors for me.  It was important for Jonathan too, as it turns out, that I not view him from the standpoint of a fan nor interact with him that way either.  He wanted to work with a professional writer to develop and edit material for his shows.  My natural “let’s look at this realistically” was going to be welcomed.  It was a good thing that Jonathan didn’t want “yes men” around him because I was certainly not one of those.  I didn’t cater to people (unless I was paid to do so) and in business I tended to speak plainly.  All of this, plus a shared sense of humor, culminated into a wonderful working relationship. 
As I have detailed in several entries in my blog nancykersey.blogspot.com, it was a very intense working relationship but there were many moments of play, including day long road trips. I had a car. I loved to drive and take trips.  Jonathan did not have a car and loved road trips.  What a combination!  We would just drive up to Connecticut or the Hudson Valleyand explore the little towns and hamlets, find an interesting restaurant to eat in and take whatever roads looked interesting to us.  That meant getting lost quite a bit too.                                                                                                  While on these drives there would be prolonged silences due to our just looking at the scenery and enjoying sights.  Other times we would ponder things I wonder if anyone else in the world thought about such things such as the gender issues regarding the words woman and person.  A waitperson.  A chairman or chairwoman.  Jonathan wondered if for women it shouldn’t just be wo-per = a woperson.  Sometimes he would come up with these crazy combinations that made me laugh so hard I had to pull the car off the road to catch my breath.  He was one of the funniest people I have ever known.  The common things fascinated him. 
When Jonathan retired in 1994 and moved back to his native Canada, I did wonder if he would pursue the friendship.  Out of sight, out of mind.  I helped him move to Canadaand would send him letters now and then.  Jonathan had a loner personality and I would have understood if he didn’t really keep with me anymore even though we had a grand time working and doing stuff together.  One day in May 1995, Jonathan called “Hello, yes I am still alive,” he said.  “When can you come up?” 
So for the next decade plus I made many trips a year up to Canada to visit Jonathan, help work in his beautiful yard and garden, launch his website at jonathanfrid.ca, and basically just sit around and talk about 50 things at once.  He was the only person I knew I shared this irritating habit (to others) , we would go off on tangents.  Sometimes those discussions went on literally for hours and people who had also been with us when we started talking had disappeared without our realizing it.
Jonathan’s health during the past two years had been declining.  I was told that he also did not plan to take medications to prolong the decline.  He was starting to lose his independence and finally after a particularly bad fall, succumbed to the complications in his sleep on April 14th.  He went the way he hoped.  When I heard the news from his nephew, I cried.  After drying the tears I raised a glass to Jonathan’s memory thanking him for the good times and all the inspiration. 


Nancy, I'd like to thank you once more for being my guest here today!  Readers, please a comment for Nancy and share your fond memories of "Dark Shadows" and Mr. Frid.  Those who leave a contact email or url will receive a free ebook of my vampire short stories Annals of the Immortyls as a thank-you from me!                                                                                                

Sylvia van Bruggen on Writing with Soul/ebook giveaway

Today, I welcome Sylvia van Bruggen!   She's on tour with the Virtual Book Tour Cafe.
Giveaway:  One lucky commenter will win an e-copy of her new book, Mindscreens.  Winner will be chosen by random drawing.  Deadline to enter is 7/12/12 at 11:59 p.m. EST.  In addition, all commenters will receive a link and free coupon code for my ebook Annals of the Immortyls.  Please leave an email address or url where you may be contacted. 






How do you know that you are writing what you love to write? You know it because you can't contain yourself, you jump up and down in excitement and really can't wait to see what happens next.
This may mean for instance, that you have been writing a whole wrong genre for you. For me the big change came when I discovered I love to write fantasy. I felt that excitement. I felt my hands trembling as I wrote down my words, and I couldn't fathom not writing anything else.
I feel the same kind of excitement when I write on play. They are the same. Both are connected to my soul.
Yes, there is that word again: soul. I believe that writing, like all forms of creativity, is connected to the soul. It's passion. I define passion as soul sparks, the sure fire way you know that you are doing what you love and what you were born to do.
So, how do you discover what you love to write? By trying. I tried paranormal romance for instance, finished a book in it, and realized I didn't give a damn about the characters. I had a completely different experience when I wrote my novella MindScreens. I do love writing anything but writing MindScreens: oh my goodness. It was completely freewritten (no plot or anything, just an idea), it made me giggle and feel all gleeful and I couldn't wait to write again.
You also know you were meant to write something when you feel your fear kick in majorly. The intenser the passion is, the harder your fear comes poke it's big fat nose around the corner and roars his bum off until you sit shivering in the corner.
So, when fear comes to bully you, you shouldn't cower away, in stead you should be very very happy because it means you have found your passion in writing.
Some of you already may know what you love to write, others may have a hard time with it. To inspire them I have made a list of genres you could try out, and I have added non fiction too. You could start brainstorming topics that you are interested in, that's going to be a lot of fun to begin with. I can highly recommend going to Squidoo and start writing there. It's fun to do and you get to flaunt your knowledge on a specific subject.
A completely incomplete genre list, just to get you going
Science FictionAlternate historyFantasyHigh Fantasy (lotr et al)MagicHistoricalMysteryHorrorHumorDetectivesThrillerRomanceParanormal romance
Just get the basic ingredients for a story (a character, a setting, and something that changes for that character) and just freewrite. You could even use the same character in each story, and tweak the setting to the genre, and you are good to go.
This discovery is going to be a fun little journey for you :)


Sylvia van Bruggen:Sylvia van Bruggen is a fantasy/science fiction writer, poet, avid blogger and artist. She is the founder of Playful Creative, a website for creatives who want to work through their mental blocks and who want to learn how to play with their writing. She has self-published a novella, two poetry books, and her poems and short stories have been published in various magazines. She currently writes a fantasy novel, and she works on publishing another poetry book. She lives in the Netherlands with her husband, two cats and several novels in various draft stages.
MindscreensJessamine Harper has it all: University course she loves, job as a Top-level Healer and dream man in the form of desirable Professor Lucas Corwin; but when Corwin breaks down and is taken away by the Mindcops, the world that Jessamine knows begins to unravel. Does the boy she hate, Ben, hold the key to her past as well as her future? Can she escape the clutches of the Mindcops herself? Only time will tell, and does Jess have much of that left?

Excerpt"What's the emergency?" An equally snappy voice answered straight away, "Healer Harper, report to Med-Office at the south entrance. Slip and fall, going through scanner now, but judging from the bone sticking out I'd say it's broken." Grade A injury, good thing I hadn't eaten."I'm gonna miss class, you have to report me!""Not my problem, now scoot along." I pushed my Jotter into my bag, shouted: "Medical emergency!" and started to run down the hallway. Left, right, down the stairs, swerve around some slobbering kissers, and then down the long corridor to the Med-Office, my voice getting hoarser and hoarser from shouting at people. The curse of being a Grade A Healer, only getting called when there's a big emergency. Better learn how to run fast if you want to save someone's life.

http://sylviavanbruggen.blogspot.com/

Winner of e-copy of Silver: Acheron (A River of Pain)

Congrats to the winner, BN 100!

Steven Saus of Alliterationink on Epublishing

Today, I welcome Steven Saus.  When I put out my short stories, Annals of the Immortyls, I'd never self-published anything before.  I had great help with editing and proofreading from some writers in my crit group, one of whom edits professionally, but I had not the first idea of how to go about formatting a book to make it into an ebook.  Enter Steven Saus, a writer I'd met through sci fi conventions.  He'd started a company that helps authors to convert their works into ebooks.  I asked Steven here today, to tell you a little about his company.
Steven Saus on Alliterationink

“I want to make an eBook,” Slartibartfast (not his real name) tells me. “That’s what you do, right?”

“Yes, I --”

He breaks in: “So here’s my idea. It’ll change the world, it will. First, there’s this guy...”

The specifics of the idea are interchangeable. It quickly becomes apparent that Slartibartfast doesn’t have a book that needs to be converted. He hasn’t written a book yet.

It’s the newest wrinkle on “Hey, you’re an author, you should totally write this idea I had” that you’ve probably heard before. (Honestly, you’ve probably done it before - I know I have.) And in some ways, those of us who are participating in the “digital revolution” are probably encouraging it.

You know the slogans and catchphrases (along with the failed attempts at each): Digital revolution. Vertically integrated publishing. e-Revolution. And so on.

And they’re not wrong. There’s money to be made out there. But in convincing authors that they’re able to make money without a gigantic support network, we’ve given the impression that it’s simple or automatic.

At Origins, I was on a panel with Bryan Young, Tracy Chowdhury, and R.T. Kaelin. All of us - all of us - agreed that when an author takes on the publishing aspects of the business, that it’s not a shortcut. As Tracy said: “I think it took just as long, and maybe more work publishing it myself than if I’d sent it off to a publisher.”

So you already know the difference between Slartibartfast’s “I have this idea for a book you could write” and writing a good book. There’s just as much of a difference between “I have this book you could publish” and (successfully) publishing your own book, either digitally or in print.

Both writing and publishing can be fascinating, fulfilling, and even a lot of fun.

But doing it well isn’t easy. And that’s okay.



Steven Saus

Steven Saus injects people with radioactive material for a living, but only to serve the forces of good. He is an author with multiple story credits in markets online and off, including “So You Want to Make an eBook?”. He is also the force behind Alliteration Ink, a small publisher whose titles include “Net Impact” by Donald J. Bingle, the Crimson Pact series of anthologies edited by Paul Genesse, and “Eighth Day Genesis: A Worldbuilding Codex” edited by Sabrina Klein. You can find him at stevensaus.com and alliterationink.com.



Link for Bryan: http://www.bigshinyrobot.com
Link for Tracy: http://worldofshandahar.com/index.html
Link for RT: http://www.rtkaelin.com/
Link for eBook: http://alliterationink.com/store.html#ebook
Link for Net Impact: http://netimpact.alliterationink.com/
Link for Crimson Pact: http://thecrimsonpact.com
Link for 8th day: http://8thday.alliterationink.com

Please leave a comment for Steven to receive a free ebook of Annals of the Immortyls.  You must leave an email address or url where I can contact you.

Sexy Cedric's Playlist/June Drawing Winner/Free Ebook

Greetings, my darlings! First off, I'd like to congratulate, Ann Dieteman-Thayer, the winner of the June drawing!


I didn't get a post up yesterday as my fabulous life in the fast line got in the way, but here is a little something to entertain and edify!


Enjoy!  
Your Host With the Most: Cedric MacKinnon



Sexy Cedric's Playlist
I wanted to share a few of my favorite tunes with you, my darlings.  There are so many to choose from.  It was difficult to narrow it down, but these are the ones that I keep going back to.  Read the list, my darlings, and then share a few of your own in the comments.  Cheers!
1. Suffragette City- David Bowie2. My Generation- The Who3. The Man Who Sold the World- David Bowie4. All Apologies- Nirvana5. I Wanna Be Sedated- The Ramones6. Stairway to Heaven- Led Zeppelin7. London Calling- The Clash8. Lust For Life- Iggy Pop9. Imagine- John Lennon10. Like a Rolling Stone- Bob Dylan11. White Rabbit- Jefferson Airplane12. Love me Two Times- The Doors13. All Along the Watchtower- Jimi Hendrix14. I Want it All- Queen15. Bad Reputation- Joan Jett16. God Save the Queen- Sex Pistols17. Me and Bobby Magee- Janis Joplin18. White Room- Cream19. I Don’t Like Mondays- The Boomtown Rats20. Stone Cold Crazy- Queen21. I Am a Rock- Simon and Garfunkle22. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction– Rolling Stones23. Space Oddity- David Bowie24. Ziggy Stardust- David Bowie25. Across the Universe- The Beatles
Yes, it's rather heavy to Bowie, but he is a god.  If you missed my Bowie post a few weeks back, here's the link: Everything I Need to Know I Learned From David Bowie. 

Keira Michelle Telford on Five Things a Writer Should Know

Today, I welcome Keira Michelle Telford.  She is currently on tour with The Virtual Book Tour Cafe.  She has some great tips to share.  Please leave a comment and I'll send you a link and free coupon code for my short stories Annals of the Immortyls and you'll also be entered to win a copy of my latest novel, Servant of the Goddess. Drawing ends 6/30/12 at 11:59 p.m. EST. Please provide a contact email for both giveaways.




Fragment, Consider Revising
From a persistent, irritating wavy green line to the IRS, here’s five things a new writer should know:
First and foremost…
Turn Off the Grammar CheckerIt lies. It was the bane of my existence while I was writing my first book, and I quickly learned that there was no way to placate it. No matter what I did, it wasn’t happy. Part of the problem with it is that it doesn’t understand style and aesthetic. My advice? Cut the damn thing loose and make an effort to learn the rules of proper grammar. Rely on your own knowledge, not on a computer program that might understand the dictionary definition of ‘creative’, but doesn’t know how to apply it.
Beta ReadersI can’t emphasize their importance enough. Put together a reliable network of people who read (preferably people who love your genre) and whose opinions you trust. And in case you were wondering, the answer’s no: your mom doesn’t count. You don’t need people who’re going to tell you how awesome you are, and how you’re the next Stephen King. You want people to tell you “there’s something fucky with it” or “that doesn’t make any sense”. If someone reads an entire draft of your book and can’t give you one single criticism, don’t be fooled. You’re not a genius, they’re just a lousy beta reader.
RoyaltiesCollecting royalties is simple. Just go to a CAA to file a W-7 with the IRS to get an ITIN, then fill out a W-8BEN and send it to… wait. Did I say this was going to be easy? Sorry. I might’ve told a porky. It’s easy if you’re a US citizen, or if you have an agent who can deal with this type of thing for you (or if you don’t mind having 30% of your cheque withheld). But, if you’re a non-US indie like me, and you want that 30%, you’ll need to follow the rules. If you’re published through Amazon/Createspace, it’s laid out in a fairly straightforward manner. Go here if you’d like to read more: https://www.createspace.com/Help/Index.jsp
Ignore, Ignore, IgnoreYou’re going to get a bad review. Or two. Or three. Over the course of your writing career, you’ll probably get many. The thing is: a bad review isn’t the end of the world. A lot of times, a bad review isn’t even a reflection on the quality of your work. Sometimes, a reader just won’t ‘get’ you—and that’s okay. Opinions are free, and they’re all valid. The trick is not to take anything personally. To one reader, my use of present tense might be ‘jarring’. To another, it’ll add to the cinematic feel of the text. In any case, whatever you do, don’t respond. Even if a reviewer makes a criticism that you feel is invalid, say nothing. Hold your tongue. Bite back the instinct to defend yourself. In the end, it’s just not worth it.
Learn When to Say NoPeople are going to want to give you advice. Some of it’s going to be good, and some of it’s going to be bad. Someone once told me that there was too much extraneous information in my narrative. They said that if they took out all of the ‘junk’, they’d cut away a third of my book. My immediate reaction was to doubt myself. In the past, I know that I’ve had issues with dumping information into a narrative like truffle oil over a nice risotto. It’s too much, it’s over-powering and it’s unnecessary. That being said, I’d put a lot of work into pinpointing the weak areas in my text and banishing the exposition where necessary, so I didn’t feel like that was a legitimate criticism of the book.
So what did I do? After much thought, I decided to ignore the advice. And as it turns out, one of the things that’s most often highlighted in the positive reviews of my work is my world-building. See, the person who gave me that advice isn’t a big science fiction fan. It’s not that he doesn’t get me per se; he just doesn’t get the genre. The trick is learning to spot that, and knowing when to go with your instincts.
Ultimately, it’s impossible to please everybody—never forget that. Don’t beat yourself up over a negative comment or a few less stars than you’d like. There’s plenty more where those came from. Just take it on the chin and get ready to do the same thing all over again tomorrow.

Keira Michelle Telford
www.keiramichelle.com
www.ellacross.com
www.facebook.com/thesilverseries
www.facebook.com/silver.acheron
@mylostanddamned


JOIN THE FIGHT

Dishonorably discharged from the Hunter Division and banished for crimes she did not commit, Silver struggles to come to terms with her new prison-like surroundings: a segregated area of the city called the Fringe District, populated by murderers, thieves and rapists. 
Starving, and desperate for money, she reluctantly accepts the Police Division's invitation to enroll in a covert Bounty Hunter program: an initiative devised to infiltrate the criminal underworld of the Fringers, and to force the very worst warrant dodging law-breakers to meet their fate—death.
Unfortunately, Silver doesn't realize that the Police Division is about to up the ante. They need more than little snippets of information and arrests—they need someone to pull the trigger.
They need an executioner.

Book Trailer

Available now:
 


   











Coming Soon!


About the Author:

Keira Michelle was born and raised in the UK. She moved to Canada in 2006, and there she still resides in her west coast townhouse with a husband and 10 guinea pigs.
She is the author of a 10-book series of post-apocalyptic dystopian science fiction novels, all centering on the lead character of Ella 'Silver' Cross. The first book (a novella) in this series, Acheron, was released Nov 2011.




Buy her books on Amazon!

Sexy Cedric Interviews a Fully Functional Cyborg/ The Syn-En Solution by Linda Andrews Virtual Tour

Genre: SciFi with Romantic elements
Publisher: LandNa Publishing
Release Date: 4/27/12

Welcome to Sexy Saturday with Cedric!  Today is definitely a first for me.  I’ve interviewed shape shifters, vampires, werewolves, humans and hermaphrodite aliens, but I’ve never before interviewed a cyborg.  Not that I have any prejudices.  I’ve spent meaningful evenings and had deep—ahem—relationships with machinery. 


Giveaway: Leave a comment for our guests today, and you'll receive a free ebook of Annals of the Immortyls and be entered in the Immortyl Revolution monthly drawing for an ebook of my latest full-length adventure, Servant of the Goddess! You must leave a contact email, so we can send you your free ebook.
All commenters will get this!CM: Welcome!  I do hope you’ll share a few spicy tidbits, my darling.  Settle into my hot seat of love.  Don’t worry--I never bite unless invited.  Of course, it might present a challenge.

Please introduce yourself to the readers.
BY: My name is Beijing York and I am an Admiral in the Syn-En Fleet. The first Synthetically-Enhanced human to make Admiral in the 120 year history of the Corps. My men and I are on a mission to settle the alien world of Terra Dos  when I discovered a naked human female floating in my cargo bay. Her name is Nell Stafford and she claims to be from 2012. In the future we've colonized space but have yet to master time travel, so her story is a bit hard to believe. But there's not denying she's a bit odd even for an unenhanced human.
CM:Bei, why don’t you share a little about your vital statistics?  What makes you such a mouth-watering object of desire?  How do you differ from humans?  Can you actually feel things?  In other words, are you fully functional?
BY: I'm over six foot and of Eurasian descent. I differ from humans in that except for my brain and a modified biologic core, I am made up of interchangeable parts. I understand you biologics are constantly working to increase certain areas of your anatomy. Syn-En can shop for stronger limbs without lifting weights should we so desire. As for feeling things, I have extra sensors built under my synthetic skin that allow me to detect when a subject is telling lies.
Wait. What? Nell tells me you're asking about our sex life.
I find it odd that biologics are so fascinated with Syn-En habits. Sure, we don't have the same taboos as your society. Most of us use sex to blow off steam (some call them orgies) but quite a few of us set a period of time in which we are mate exclusively. We tend to stick with our own kind but a few of us, myself for example, enjoy the textures of human skin against my sensors. My Security Chief says I'm a skin addict. With skin like Nell's I'm quite happy to be so.
 (Nell interrupts) 
Nell: Ahem. Bei is fully function and thatpart of his anatomy doesn't require pills or pumps to be, um, used. Nor do I think any woman could, um, accommodate an upgrade.
CM: Sounds like my kind of man.  Tell me a little about yourself—don’t spare any juicy details.
BY: Like many Syn-En, I was given by my parents to the government to pay for their debts. I was less than a year old at the time. As I grew, more and more of my biologic pieces were stripped away and with each promotion my upgrades became heavier and more specialized.
What?
Again with the sex thing. You should seriously consider have  your mental subroutines checked. I believe yours is looping. Besides, last time I mentioned having slept with other biologics, Nell stalked off. It didn't matter that the encounters were before I'd met Nell...
CM: My dear, sex is my business.  I'm a conduit of divinity.  Well, lately I've been killing nasty vamps rather than sleeping with them.   But I digress.  Share a little of your fascinating world of the future. 
BY: Fascinating? Maybe from where you sit. Nell is certainly fascinated by it. To me, this world settling represents one problem after another. Ships keep exploding and there's a saboteur on my ship. Plus my new mate (Nell) is hearing voices and sometimes speaks in a language that I've never heard called TV shows. Apparently, it's main adverb is MacGuyering.
CM:What are some of the unique challenges that face your species? 
BY: Is that another sexual reference? Oh, I see you're talking about our space voyage. We're more than up to face any challenge. Indeed, if we find our upgrades are not sufficient, we'll create a new one. Of course, no one survives a cascade failure but all Syn-En are happy to ride the chariot (Nell: that's their saying for die) to keep humanity safe. It is who we are and it is a duty to serve.
Nell: But service is not the same thing as slavery. Right now, the Syn-En are slaves. Settling on this new alien world will emancipate them, set them free. Now, I just have to work on getting everyone to see passed their technology and see them as people.
CM: Ah, I understand.  My kind practices slavery.  I used to be a slave.  Bloody awful life, let me tell you.


What do you look for in your ideal partner?
BY: I just look at Nell. She's never what I would have pictured for a mate. She talks. A lot. (Nell elbows him) But she sees me, not my upgrades and she's not constantly throwing it in my face that I'm not human.
CM: So Nell is the special someone in your life? She is simply ravishing.
She's special to everyone on the Planet. And I don't mean that in a good way. But if you're talking about sex, she's my mate. And the terms are everlasting. (Bei flexes  his arm) Do you know the pressure at which biologic bones snap? I do.

CM: I've never measured, but I've snapped my share.  
I’ve had my share of tumultuous relationships, but I must admit, I prefer those that present a challenge.  Do you like someone who lets you take the lead, or do you like strong-minded lovers? 
BY: In the relationship department, we are much alike. Most of the biologics wanted me to be in charge, sometimes forcefully. But with Nell, sometimes she's on top, other times I am. It is better that way, don't you think?

CM: What is your idea of the perfect evening?  All great lovers have their trade secrets.  How you create the perfect romantic atmosphere?
BY: A perfect evening would be with the Com off and Nell behind locked doors. It rarely happens but we're finding some nearby places to take the edge off. I don't create atmosphere but I can seal--
What?
Oh, for sex, you mean. Nell likes chocolate. A lot. It excites her and by touching her skin, I can share in the excitement. I like to taste my chocolate on Nell.
CM: Mmm...I love chocolate. Just ask Mia.  Talk about a woman on top.  Yow. Thanks for joining me today, Bei--and you too, Nell. It's been simply delightful. I'm always up for a threesome.  


Nell and Bei are products of the fertile imagination of the lovely Linda Andrews.  Read on to learn more about them and their adventures!





Linda Andrews:Linda Andrews lives in Phoenix, Arizona with her husband, three children and a menagerie of domesticated animals. While she started writing a decade ago, she always used her stories to escape the redundancy of her day job as a scientist and never thought to actually combine her love of fiction and science. DOH! After that Homer Simpson moment, she allowed the two halves of her brain to talk to each other. The journeys she's embarked on since then are dark, twisted and occasionally violent, but never predictable.



Visit Linda's website at:  http://www.lindaandrews.net/









A woman from the past. A cyborg with no future.
They have every reason to mistrust each other but one: survival.

When Nell Stafford passed out it was 2012. When she wakes up naked aboard a starship it's 2138, and she's surrounded by the Syn-En:
synthetically-enhanced soldiers with a grudge against humans like her. She
doesn't know where she is or what's happened, only that her life has been
destroyed and everyone she's ever known is dead.

Their leader Beijing York has just discovered his people's creators--humans--have betrayed them. They were promised freedom and equality in exchange for settling a newly discovered planet at the other side of a wormhole. But the Syn-En have outlived their usefulness.

The offer was a trick.

The wormhole has collapsed, and now both Nell and the Syn-En are trapped
far, far from Earth to face almost certain death.

Bei has lost his future, and Nell has lost her past.

But Nell gained something in her 120-year sleep; somehow, she knows
everything the Syn-En need to survive. Now she must convince Bei and his
people to trust her--as soon as she learns to trust the mysterious intelligence.

Excerpt

His gray eyes narrowed a fraction. "You want me to believe you're from over a century ago come forward in time to save us?"
"I don't expect you to believe it." Nell gulped as hysteria threatened to bubble out of her. She set her hand over his, knowing she wouldn't be able to stop him if he decided to strangle her but determined to try anyway.
"Honestly, I'm having a hard time thinking of this as anything other than a dream."
"Do you have proof?"
She snorted. "Where exactly would I put it?"
Soft as a caress, his gaze skimmed down and then up her body. "There are places."
Nell squeezed her legs together. "There better not be!"
His lips twitched. "Shang'hai found a data recorder on your life pod."
Feeling cold air against her teeth, Nell clicked her mouth shut. He deliberately let her think he planned a body cavity search. Should she take it as proof of a sense of humor or sadistic streak? She forced the
thoughts aside. "Shang'hai? You're talking about the pink haired woman who left with the box, right?"

"Yes."
"Well good. Then I hope we both get answers about how I got here."


Purchase this book through Amazon.










Once more, I'd like to thanks my guest for chatting!




Until next time, love and dark kisses,




Cedric MacKinnon


         

Carl Hose on Dark Light an Anthology to Benefit Ronald McDonald House

Today, I’m pleased to welcome author and editor, Carl Hose, to Immortyl Revolution.  Carl is the creative force behind the new horror anthology, Dark Light.  I’m thrilled to be promoting this work because the proceeds benefit a very worthy cause, the Ronald McDonald House Charities. 


Carl, I’m honored to have you here today.  Will you please tell us a little about yourself and your writing?
CH:Thank you, Denise. I’m married to a wonderful woman, Marcee Hose. We live in Florida. I have six amazing kids, Nick and Haley, who live in Missouri, and Seth, Ethan, Caleb, and Ireland. I’ve been writing since I was in jr high, published in a bunch of magazines and anthologies, and now publish my stuff through my own publishing company, MARLvision Publishing.



In your introduction to Dark Light, you give an account of harrowing events surrounding with the birth of your daughter, Ireland, and how this experience motivated you to put together this anthology.  I’m sure my readers will also find your story as moving as I did.  Would you mind sharing?
Well, Marcee had complete placenta previa, which meant the placenta was blocking the birth canal. For that reason, they were scheduling her C-section a little early, not wanting the placenta to begin attaching itself to her organs. In the end, that’s exactly what happened, so as soon as Ireland was born, Marcee underwent a hysterectomy. It was necessary because the placenta had begun attaching itself to her uterus. Ireland was born at 10:35 p.m. and Marcee wasn’t able to see her until 3:00 a.m. Marcee was still a little weak from all the blood loss, but she insisted I wheel her to the nursery.
The next day the hospital wanted to move Ireland to another hospital—one that was better equipped to deal with a surgery they thought she might need at the time. Not a major surgery, but any surgery for a premature baby is scary. Thankfully, she didn’t end up having the surgery at that time (she’s having it June 21st), but she stayed in the NICU so they could watch her. Being six weeks premature, they wanted to make sure she was doing everything she was supposed to. Moving her, of course, meant that I would need to go with her. Marcee agreed. There was no way we wanted her so far away and alone. That meant Marcee would be left behind without Ireland or me. That didn’t last long, though. Marcee left the hospital just 36 hours after a C-section and hysterectomy to come be with Ireland and me. The doctors weren’t too happy, but you don’t keep a mother away from her newborn.
One of the images that stands out in my mind about the night they moved Ireland was seeing an ambulance that read “Neonatal Transport Unit” on its side and thinking, “That’s a baby ambulance and it’s for my baby.” That’s just something you wish there was no need for.
Being so far from home, the nurses in the NICU insisted I get a room at the Ronald McDonald House. There were actually three on the hospital campus. One of the nurses set me up for the night at one of the smaller, more quaint houses, but later, because of Marcee’s condition, Ronald McDonald House moved us to a facility with an elevator.
One of the hardest parts about this whole ordeal, other than getting little sleep and worrying so much about Ireland, was being away from our boys. They were with their grandparents, who were so helpful in keeping the boys in their routine as much as possible, but we were away for three weeks and didn’t get to see them that much. They came to visit us at Ronald McDonald House a couple of times, and we drove home when we could, but for the most part, they were without us for three weeks. That was difficult, on us and them.


Is there a central theme to the anthology? 
Story wise, there is no theme, although some of the writers submitted stories they felt were more fitting to an anthology for a charity such as Ronald McDonald House. The theme, for me, was simply the idea behind the anthology itself, and for which the title Dark Light was used as a title. I wanted to show that a bunch of horror writers, whose work by its very nature is dark, could use their dark talents for something good. That, to me, encapsulates the essence of the project.

Dark Light has an impressive slate of 42 authors.  How did you assemble this wealth of talent?
This was one of the most memorable and inspiring parts of the process. Some of the writers I knew well, such as William Todd Rose, Terry Horns Erwin, and Walt Hicks. William Todd Rose was the first writer on board. Before I even got around to asking for help, he was offering it. Dark Marketspicked up on what I was doing and I got a couple of submissions that way, but most of the writers were invited. I basically created a dream list of writers and wrote a personal note to each one telling them my story and what I wanted to do. I didn’t worry about how big their names were or if I’d ever talked to them before, I simply approached them. The response was overwhelming, of course, as you can see by the size of the book. I didn’t expect so many submissions, but with just a few exceptions, everyone was happy, and even eager, to submit something.
There are some heavy hitters. Graham Masterton, of course, John Shirley who co-wrote the Crow screenplay, as well as lyrics for Blue Oyster Cult, Scott Nicholson, who work I admire, Ray Garton, who is another favorite of mine, Deborah LeBlanc, Nancy Kilpatrick, and the list goes on. There’s a cool story from Wrath James White, Lisa Morton is in the anthology, Joe McKinney . . . I wish I could name each writer in the book. Besides the heavy hitters, I got to see work from lesser known writers who should be seen more frequently, like David Tocher, who has also worked his butt off to help get attention for the anthology. I received a story from Walt Hicks, who has not submitted anything since 2009, I believe, and I got to reprint a favorite story of mine, After the Fall by Paul Fry. Every writer who contributed was gracious and happy to be helping me give back to the Ronald McDonald House. I absolutely couldn’t have done it without them, and the reason the book is so big is because I can’t imagine it without one of those stories. One writer I should really point out is Sebaston Milam, who was born with craniosynostosis, a pretty severe condition that can lead to blindness and other lasting health issues. He spent time in the hospital when he was born and at Ronald McDonald House. He’s thirteen today, healthy as ever, and this is his first published story. That’s very cool to me.
Would you please share some highlights of the tales included in the anthology?
This is sort of a loaded request here. No matter which stories I talk about, I will be leaving out many that should be mentioned. There were several stand-out tales for me. I particularly liked John Sadness by Jeffrey Thomas, Resurrecting Mindy by Joe McKinney, and A Sight for Sore Eyesby Deborah LeBlanc, Hunters by William Todd Rose, and Raphael by Stephen Graham Jones. My wife loved David Tocher’s story Confidence Man and Debbie Kuhn’s Crasher. Everybody I’ve talked to liked Randy Chandler’s Death Comes Calling, my mother in law love Trap Door by Tim Curran. A really cool surprise for me was a story from David B. Silva entitled The Sum of a Man. Not really horror, per se, but a truly engaging piece.
Where can readers go to learn more about Dark Light?
You can also follow me on Facebook and there is a Dark Light blog tour running from the 25thof June to the 27th of July, with chances to win a Kindle and signed copies of the book. Innovative Online Book Tours has set up a dedicated page for this at http://innovativeonlinebooktours.com/Dark_Light_Fund_Raiser.phpwhere you can find the stops for the tour and read more about the Dark Light story. If you find me on Facebook, there’s also a Dark Light page. My website is carlhose.net, which will also be updated with new information. 
Carl Porter did an amazing trailer for Dark Light, which you can view here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYauSHnqlFc&feature=youtu.be
Where can readers purchase a copy of Dark Light and will it be available both in ebook and print?  

There will be a print version and all digital versions of Dark Light, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, the Apple Store, Sony Reader Store, and Kobo. I wanted to make it as widely available as possible.
Carl, thank you for visiting with me today!  I wish you and Dark Light the greatest of success. 
Denise, I can’t thank you enough for taking time away from a busy schedule to help us get some visibility for Dark Light. Thanks for talking to me.
Readers, as a thank-you for stopping by today, if you comment and leave a contact email, I’ll send you a link and free coupon code for my short stories, Annals of the Immortyls.  Also, you’ll be entered in my monthly drawing for an e-copy of my new release Servant of the Goddess.