Bianca Sommerland's Blog, page 33
March 4, 2011
Guest Post Anatomy of a Hero
Please welcome today's guest, multipublished author—–>
Taige Crenshaw
Ahhh…. the hero. The person that drives most stories. No matter the genre the hero brings the story to life. The anatomy of a hero – what makes him who he is – and what drives him fascinates me. What is behind this action? Why is he acting this way? Where has he been before? What drives him to react when this or this happens? And many, many more questions fill me. 
My favorite hero is an alpha hero mixed with touches of beta. I love the hero who are strong men but when needed shows there sensitive side. They make you feel safe, protected and get the juices flowing yet when they show there emotions and cry there is nothing more sexy. They are slightly flawed and those flaws are what make them real.
When I find this combination of hero I am delighted. As I read each page of their story and see those layers reveled it builds them into more. Makes them a real man. One that you want to know more about. The journey of that catch's me bring me along for a ride. It is a ride that I love and want to take often.
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Taige Crenshaw is a multi-published author with books available at Ellora's Cave Publishing, Liquid Silver Books, Loose Id, and Total-E-Bound. Taige has been enthralled with the written word from time she picked up her first book. It wasn't long before she started to make up her own tales of romance. With novels set in today, in alternate dimensions, or in the future she writes with adventure, fun sassy heroine's, and sexy hero's. Always hard at work creating new and exciting places Taige can be found curled up with a hot novel with exciting characters when she is not creating her own. Join her in the fun, frolic, interesting people and far reaches of the world in her novels. You can find out more about Taige at her website: http://www.taigecrenshaw.com or blog: http://www.taigecrenshaw.com/blog.
Indigo Rain
(http://www.taigecrenshaw.com/books/eseries/indigorain.htm) – To save the world and humanity from extinction from a being that can herald Armageddon a woman must trust a man whose race destroyed the people she held most dear. There's more at stake… their hearts.
Buy March 14, 2011 – (http://summerhousepublishing.com/author/taige-crenshaw) at Summerhouse Publishing.
Unsung Heroes
Before I do the big reveal of my cover for my soon to be published book, Deadly Captive (don't skip to the bottom and cheat now) I want to say a few words about unsung heroes.
You know, the word 'hero' always makes me think of someone who dodges bullets or breaks down doors to rush into a burning building. It's the men and women with medals and badges awarded to recognize some great achievement. Wonderful people, almost larger than life.
No one would deny they deserve the recognition. But what about the heroes of a lesser scale? The ones that will never see themselves as a hero at all?
For example, in my journey to becoming an author and putting my books in the hands of all you wonderful readers, who would be my heroes? My script teacher in college who told me I could make it as a script writer, but I would make it as a novelist? Or my High School Math teacher (who was also my English teacher) who pretended not to see me penning fantasies behind my textbooks? The list goes on and on as I sit here and think of all the people I should thank, as I try to consider who out of all my 'heroes' who I should dedicate my next book to.
Am I forgetting anyone?
Not this time 
One of the first people you build a relationship with when you publish a book is your editor. She/he is the person who will push you to produce something better than what you've got. How much better depends on both the vision of the editor and your own abilities, but by the time you're done—sorry to be cliché—but you've found your diamond in the rough.
Thing is, that 'diamond' doesn't look like much. This is where that pretty metaphor ends because what you've really got is a heap of words. Might be formatted a bit different than how you originally typed it, but so what? Would you buy that?
Time for a pretty cover. In my opinion, this is the moment that could make or break you. As an artist yourself, you've no doubt got an image of what you'd like your cover to look like. So you fill out that Cover Art Request Form with every detail you've envisioned.
And now the poor cover artist has to make sense of what you've just written and come up with something appealing that you won't hate. Which means picking apart your words to get an idea of what you really want, because no matter how hard you try, you haven't really told them.
Then they send you the mockup of the cover. Maybe you love it right away. If so, great! If not, you're probably not shy about saying so—but if you're smart, you'll say so real nice.
Okay, I'm not going to go on about the process any longer, I really am getting to a point. In this industry, the greatest unsung heroes, in my opinion, are the cover artists. If you really think about it, they are on the front line of your books success. They can make your book stand out among the masses or fade into the background. They can make you look professional or…well, not.
So today I would like to thank, first of all, the cover artist for Rosemary Entwined, Lyn Taylor. Most of all for ignoring my crazy suggestions for the cover and coming up with the perfect way to showcase Rosemary and her men.
And now for the moment you've all been waiting for…
To my new cover artist, Fiona Jayde, I have no words to tell you how much I appreciate your hard work and your patience. This book is one of my special babies, and you took very good care of it. And I shall show you my appreciation by letting this be the last time I say that–until the next cover you design for me
Oh, and for all of you who haven't checked my new schedule, I'm blogging at the Noble Author's Blog today. Come say hi! 
March 2, 2011
Guest Post Become Your Own Hero
Today I'd like to welcome a new author I've discovered who's book Ravena & The Resurrected I will be reviewing soon. Creative and outgoing, she writes and blogs from the greater Seattle, WA area, and has taken a unique approach to one of my favourite genres. Urban Fantasy.
Please welcome—>
Tami Jackson
I am just thrilled to be visiting Bianca Sommerland's blog today (thank you Bianca for hosting this visit)! I'm going to do something very different and will talk about something that no other writer ever does when they do a blog post. Why? Because I'm very brave. (I'm laughing after saying that because it's utterly not true. I can be a total wimp, sometimes.) Truth is, while I've been published repeatedly in newspaper and magazine articles, R&R is my first book and I'll admit that I felt completely terrified when it came time to release it.
To overcome my sense of dread, and to send my book off like a wee child attending its first day in kindergarten, without crying, I found a lot of encouragement and writing inspiration by studying J. K. Rowling with all her publishing success. In many ways, the Harry Potter series author is my hero because she has sold more books than anybody else. (What's not to admire about someone whose so very confident, creative, and successful?)
BECOME YOUR OWN HERO
The point about me admitting I felt afraid to release my own book, is to demonstrate that no matter what sort of work you do, dear Bianca Sommerland's blog-reader, you should pursue your dreams with all your might. Overcome your fears. Ralph Waldo Emerson is credited for saying "The characteristic of genuine heroism is its persistency." So never give up on your ambitions. Pursue without looking back or allowing thoughts of self doubt to enter your mind. Become the person your children and grandchildren will always look up to and admire. You can only do that by pressing beyond the boundaries that feel comfortable and familiar to you.
HEROES IN RAVENA & THE RESURRECTED
Ravena Doomlah (our heroine) always wanted to meet some great heroic vampire who would sweep her off her feet. While all of her colleagues from work feel very uncomfortable even talking about the possibility that vampires exist, Ravena is rather open about believing in them. She relies on self knowledge and looks to vampires for a more hopeful future because of how they seem to defeat death, disease and the legal system, quite successfully.
In chapter six, Ravena meets her first non-vampire hero. She's just recently been turned vampire – only for her maker to abandon her – and she mistakenly feeds on a violent drunk to suddenly realize, to her complete surprise, that she's terribly inebriated herself. After she removes her high heels and starts belting out lyrics to one of her favorite songs, shouting "I am a vampire" for all of Seattle to hear, a mysterious man appears to offer her aid: "Can I help you?"
EXCERPT from that story segment:
"S-s-sure," I slurred, still marveling at how head-over-heels I felt toward this delicious-smelling stranger. For a moment, I began to sway and felt I might fall, like someone slipping on a treadmill, but he caught me by my elbows and proved how heroic he truly was when he set me back on my feet.
Moments later, he offers to walk her to her small loft in a Belltown high-rise building. She slurs her approval while she can barely stand up.
"Oh I'm quite s-s-safe walking around S-s-seattle alone." I said, making my proposition a bit too loud, thanks to the alcohol. I did not care if I seemed too eager for him to draw closer while I leaned his way. "I mean. I us-s-sually walk alone but you can walk with me; if you're brave enough."
The man does walk her home and, the next day, Ravena cannot stop thinking about him, and she chastises herself for not even collecting his address or phone number before he slipped away. She realizes how careless she had been by not realizing how drinking a bum's blood could cause her own demise. She wants desperately to thank her rescuer for being her very personal hero.
ANOTHER SCENARIO
Later, in chapter nineteen, a number of homeless individuals take turns deciding to become a "hero" and save the homeless camp from the vampire who now proves harmless but lives among them, and they mistrust her. As they wield wooden stakes and crosses, they take turns attacking the young vampire, whose been starving herself due to grief over her friend's recent destruction. Because Ravena found shelter from her enemies by dressing to look like a transient herself, and because she hid in Seattle's dilapidated historic underground, where many escape extreme weather, the underprivileged know exactly where she sleeps. After the first person makes his brave attack, Ravena realizes that a common English proverb seems to fit her second aggressor to a 'T': "A hero is a man who is afraid to run away."
I felt curious when he cowered in the shadows like a frightened dog and wondered if he would ever gather enough courage to make his attack.
Even while she moves at heroic speed, Ravena feels the total opposite of "hero." She loathes how easily she can kill people. She especially feels remorse after meeting her first human-feeder (vampire blood-donor) named Karissa. Ravena adores her and regards Karissa as being quite innocent and sweet. True heroes are those, like Karissa, who inspire us to become better individuals ourselves, are they not?
Meanwhile, back at the large army camp for surgically altered humans, whose sole purpose is to destroy vampires, werewolves and metaphysical creatures, each soldier considers him or herself to be a "hero" who's destined to defend the masses. During one large military-like assembly, a motivational speaker says the following to energize the large crowd.
"Our mission is very great." She continued. "The task is much grander than what the boldest heroes have ever faced in history. When we succeed, our children will praise our names. We will be honored as celebrities by all of our colleagues. What we do today will have everlasting and glorious effects. Notoriety and fame will be ours!"
Thank you Bianca, for inviting me to be here and to briefly discuss "heroism" as it applies to Ravena & The Resurrected. My readers are finding your link from this author tour calendar: http://suntigermojo.com/book-tour-author-tami-jackson-blogs.html. Perhaps your subscribers will be interested in following along as well.
Author: Tami Jackson
Publisher: SunTigerMOJO ~ Novel: Ravena & The Resurrected
Online Identity: Vamchoir
Twitter: @Vamchoir
Facebook: Facebook.com/Vamchoir
Character Blog: Vamchoir.blogspot.com
Book Reveiw Blog: VampireReview.blogspot.com
February 28, 2011
Blogging today with Lucy Felthouse
While I work on updating my schedule for March and giving you a preview of what I'm up to for the next few months, why don't you swing by Erotica for All to read my post about Scarred Heroes. Commenters will get a chance to win the last copy of Rosemary Entwined that I'm giving away until May. Lucy will be picking the winner and letting me know who it is, so be sure to leave your email address!
Good Luck!
February 27, 2011
I need a Hero!
Ever have a song give you that little chill, a feeling of being touched deep inside beyond the reach of sound?
Well, I Need a Hero, by Bonnie Tyler, has done that to me since I was very, very young. Too young to understand the words, so it was the thrill expressed in the rising tempo, the rhythm, the voice, that drew me.
Obviously I'm at the point were not only am I old enough to understand the words, but as an erotic writer, they mean more to me now than ever before. Even as I delve deeper into my most recent mutipartner sexcapade, I find myself wondering 'Who is the hero? What makes him better than the rest?'
Well, in a story where the menage isn't just a one time thing, no one man should be better than the rest. Every one should have qualities that make both the lucky lady and the other men want to keep him around.
Being a nice guy just won't cut it. He needs the qualities of a hero.
But what are those exactly? What makes a man a hero?
Since I've got five to work with in my latest project, I'll be thinking about the answer to that a lot. So much that I've decided to make Heroes my theme for the week.
Tomorrow, I'll be blogging with Lucy Felthouse. My post will be Scarred Heroes. I think they are the easiest to work with and I'll explain why in my post.
Hope to see you there!
