Cardeno C.'s Blog, page 124

Conversations with Tom (part 1) -- aka T.C. Blue terrorizes the new guy. :P

As I've said here before, I'm somewhat prone to having odd conversations with people. Much of the time, the oddness is amusing -- to me, anyway.
A few months ago, a man moved into my building, right down the hall from me. Now, I didn't actually know his name until last week (we're not exactly friends, as such, but I we run into each other sometimes on the elevator), but as I came to find out, it's Tom.
I'm not sure about how old Tom is, but he's a widower and had two children who live with him. His son David is about to graduate from high school and his daughter Jennifer is one year behind David in school, so I'm going to say they're 18 and 17, respectively.
Why, you may be thinking, is this at all relevant?
Well, it's relevant because… this past Sunday:
Me: *gets on elevator and sees Tom* Hey, how's it going?
Tom: *shrugs* Pretty good. The kids are ready for the pool to open, though.
Me: Yeah, no shit. It's been really hot lately. (It was. Still is. Went from the 50s-60s to being in the 80s in about 3 days. Yay, DC weather. *snorts*)
Tom: Hey, have you been watching 'So You Think You Can Dance'? (We sometimes talk about 'the Voice' so it wasn't that much of a stretch.)
Me: Kinda sorta. I caught the first two episodes of the new season online. Why?
Tom: Did you see that girl?
Me: *O_o* Um, which girl? There were kind of a lot of them.
Tom: I don't know her name. She was wearing these white shorts and a top. The one who pretended to be deaf. (The girl in question was joking with the judges. She never seriously claimed to be deaf.)
Me: Oh, yeah. What about her?
Tom: *grins* She was really hot. (He looks good enough at whatever his age that he can say someone's hot without sounding like a lecherous prick, just to be clear.)
Me: *O_o harder* Yeah, she can dance, but she's eighteen, man. Pretty much your daughter's age.
Tom: *looks like he just threw up a little in his mouth* Oh. Well. Thanks for ruining that fantasy forever.
Me: No problem. So who else do you think is hot? *toothy grin*
Tom: Bea Arthur?
Me: So you're into necrophilia? That's kinda gross. *sees Tom's confused stare* Um, she's dead, in case you didn't know.
Tom: I think I'll just shut up now.
 
This was actually a really fun convo. For me, anyway. I suspect that poor Tom may still be traumatized, so… yay me! *hee*
 

Release Day: Until Forever Comes by Cardeno C.

Happy Monday, y'all. Today is the release of Until Forever Comes, the second book in my Mates series. I'm going to share the blurb and an excerpt below. I hope you enjoy it! 

Blurb
Ethan Abbatt is a wolf shifter who can’t shift. Plagued by pain and weakness all his life, he hopes to find an honorable death by joining his pack mates in a vampire attack. Instead, Ethan learns two things: draining his blood releases his pain and his wolf, and he has a true mate—a vampire named Miguel.

Miguel Rodriguez is more than four centuries old. Strong, powerful, and vicious, he walks through life as a shadow, without happiness or affection. When a young shifter tells Miguel they’re true mates, destined to be together, Miguel sends him away. But Ethan is persistent, and Miguel can’t resist for long. Once Miguel gives in, being together comes naturally. The challenge is keeping themselves alive so they can stay by each other’s side until forever comes.

Excerpt
“Listen very carefully, wolf,” Miguel whispered in my ear, still covering my mouth with his hand. “I’m going to step over there to deal with the humans. You’re going to wait until they’re focused on me, and then you’re going to quietly, but quickly, head in the other direction. And you will not stop until you are out of town and back with your pack. Have I made myself clear?”

I tried to think of a way to stay with him. I might help by… help by…. Yeah, no way to end that thought with anything helpful I could do. I was doing much better than earlier that day, true enough. But just because my veins no longer felt like they were going to burst didn’t mean I was anywhere near as strong as Miguel or Ted. Plus, Ted wanted to kill me, so getting involved meant I’d be trying to help him at the same time I’d be trying to avoid him. That was a surefire way to distract Miguel in the midst of a battle. I sighed in frustration.

“Ethan.” Miguel said my name for the first time. He didn’t call me wolf. I supposed that meant he was serious. “Do you hear what I’m saying to you?”

I nodded and he dropped his hand. Miguel took two steps forward, then paused, turned on his heel, and returned to me. He gazed into my eyes for several long seconds, and then he dipped his face and kissed my cheek.

“I won’t forget you, Ethan Abbatt,” he said. And then he really did walk away.

Seconds later, I heard the start of a scream, then a gurgling sound. I peered over to where the half-souls had gathered and saw the one who had been walking toward Ted down on the ground with his hands around his neck, trying to stem the flow of blood. Miguel was standing above him, red dripping from his claws.

“I believe my friend told you to keep walking,” he growled at the other half-souls. “This is your last chance to listen to his advice. Because if you don’t walk away now, you won’t be walking. Ever.”

Lord, he sounded cold and cruel. I did as I’d been told and walked in the opposite direction, quickly but quietly. It sounded like at least one of the half-souls hadn’t taken Miguel’s generous offer, because another scream rent the air. This one was cut off just as quickly as the first, so I reckoned the half-soul had been injured, or worse.

Okay, so I might have underestimated how dangerous Miguel was. Maybe I even underestimated how dangerous it was for me to be in Kfarkattan. But I was right about what was important: Miguel was my true mate. That meant my home was with him. Even if he was a vampire and a male and, all right, I’ll admit it, a bit of a ruffian.

Because if I knew anything, it was to be grateful for whatever blessings were sent my way. Nature hadn’t gifted me with much in my life, and I was starting to suspect that my share of the good stuff had been set aside because I’d been slated for a whopper: I had myself a true mate. Now I just had to figure out how to prove it to him.


You can buy the ebook here and the paperback here.

Have a wonderful week!

- CC

www.cardenoc.com

Love is Never Wrong

“Love is never wrong, no matter the form. Fear is a big factor, sadly, in who we love if we are outside society’s ‘norm’. Normal is loving. Loving anyone, regardless of color, religion or sex. And sometimes the fear comes from inside ourselves. So be courageous. Love.” 

- Author G.A. Hauser

Lancelot in Love is a story of courageous love. When Lancelot Sanborn escapes to the Catskill Mountain Resort, he can't help but fall for the young, and still in-the-closet Keefe Hammond, even though he is still working through the emotions of a previous romance.
Author G.A. Hauser chose the Catskill Mountain Resort as the setting for this courageous love story because as a child, her family used to take vacations to upstate New York to the Bungalow cottages. She has fond memories of those times, and loved her visits there. So, when her big city character Lancelot needed an escape, this was the first place that popped into mind. 
The author G.A. Hauser credited the character Lancelot Sanborn to a month of hard days typing away in her home office. Hauser says her characters tell her what they want to do - she has a plot in mind but in the end, the characters dictate where they want to go. The defining characteristics of Lancelot Sanborn are his intrinsic kindness, his patience, and his understanding of what Keefe was going through. Lancelot was older and wiser, and even though he had been burned by his last lover, he never took his pain out on Keefe. 
This love tale and many others can be found at Rainbowebooks.com. Use the link below to enjoy a special Cafe Risque fan discount!
WWW.RainbowEbooks.com

Just a quickie! :P

Sorry, all. I've been completely insane for the last few weeks but I'm finally here now. :)

Sadly, I somehow lost track of time and didn't realize today was Thursday until about 5 minutes ago. I could have sworn it was only Tuesday... which maybe supports my previous assertion of me being insane for the last while, come to think of it.

As I tend to be a pantser, I have nothing prepared, so I'm just going to paste a couple of links here.

These are actually the same story but one is the source article whilst the other is more of a blurb than anything else. Still, it's the comments that I find so fascinating. Truly. (Mostly not in a good way, tbh, because homophobia is clearly alive and well on the internet, no matter what's happening politically in the US. Otoh, some of the comments/replies didn't make me want to kick someone in the nads, so there's that.)


http://now.msn.com/kristopher-sharp-is-target-of-smear-campaign-at-university-of-houston-downtown/
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2013/03/uhd_sharp_aids_posters.php
Until next time, when I hope to have something actually prepared... Peace. :)

~T.C. Blue

Fear and Loathing in Real Life: Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia 2013 by Cardeno C.

"I'm sick of the word homophobia. You're not scared; you're just an asshole." 

I've seen a few versions of this saying floating around the internet, most recently in video form. It's funny and catchy and gives us the "Yeah!" feeling. But is it true? 

My personal opinion is that there are some people who hate because of malice or evil or a blind devotion to a particular faith leader's interpretation of their religious text. But I want to believe, need to believe, do believe, that those people are the minority. I think most people make bigoted comments or say they are opposed to equal rights under the law not because of fear or loathing, but rather because of ignorance. 

For example, I recently had a dialogue with a person who said he was opposed to marriage equality because people shouldn't be able to call themselves married "just because they love someone." In his opinion, marriage has had a very specific definition for many generations and that definition shouldn't be changed. 

Now, I'm not going to say this view didn't elevate my blood pressure, because that would be a lie. But what I will tell you is that when I tried to stay as patient as possible and really engage in the discussion, what I realized was that this person didn't know about the legal impacts of marriage. I hope that maybe after we were done talking and I provided him with resources about the more than 1,100 federal rights provided by marriage, he realized that legally recognized marriage is about more than what he considers to be an amorphous concept of love and has real impacts on people's lives. I doubt he now wants his church to sanction marriages of same sex couples, but I hope he believes his government should.
I had a similar discussion about discrimination in the workplace where someone insisted that a person cannot be fired for being gay. Of course, this is patently false. The truth is that in 29 states a person can be fired simply for being gay and in 34 states a person can be fired for being transgender. Again, I provided information about this and the person softened his stance about the "noise" surrounding gay rights. 
Did my conversations make a difference? Did they change the hearts and minds of these two people? Maybe not. But maybe, just maybe, learning the truth about the laws in our country and about the lack of protections and benefits offered to real people made a difference not only to the people who heard the information from me, but also to their wives or siblings or friends or coworkers. 

While I may never know what impact, if any, I had, statistics tell us that the conversations being had by people every day are making a difference. Hearts and minds are changing. Equality is winning. So I will continue to try to hold my temper (and fail sometimes) and have the conversations that need to be had. I hope you'll join me.

May 17th is International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia and this post is my contribution to the Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia. You can read more about the hop and find other participants here. And as part of the hop, I'm giving away the winner's choice of an ebook from my backlist to a (randomly chosen) person who comments. I'd love to hear from you. 
Speaking of giveaways, I'm giving away a copy of Until Forever Comes, my upcoming release at Stumbling Over Chaos and at Joyfully Jay (there's an excerpt there for you to read too).

CCwww.cardenoc.com

Happy Mother's Day

Since it's Mother's Day I thought I'd devote today's post to coming out, and to the moms who support their kids no matter what. You hear all kinds of craziness, and as a mom I'm always grateful when I hear about mothers who accept their children with open arms. My youngest is in preschool right now and I see these adorable little children and wonder how people can kick their children out of the home, send them to Bible camp, or whatever the hell else. I'm sure they think it's love, but it's heartbreaking. So happy Mother's Day. THIS mom is happy for you, whoever you happen to be. And this video here is adorable. The bickering between the mom and son is adorable, because it's not about the son being gay, but because she thinks he was stubborn and should have come out sooner:


Happy Mother's Day, Love Ellis

Beyond the Story with Andrew Grey

Andrew Grey’s Good Fight series final book “Fight for Identity” was officially released on May 10th. Rainbowebooks.com offered this title and a bonus book “Takoda and Horse” on May 9th. In anticipation of this release staff at Rainbow eBooks interviewed Grey about his writing process:
Question: When did you write your first book? Grey: I wrote my first book, Master of the Revels in 2007.  Question: How do story ideas come to you?Grey:  I really wish I knew.  Ideas seem to spring from nowhere or from news stories, works of art, or simple conversations.   I never really know what will spark a story idea.
Question: What is your writing process?  Grey: I sit down and write.  Usually I start with the characters, but sometimes I start with the setting.  There's no outline or grand plan.  I just tell my story.  Most often I have a particular scene in mind and I know where I'm going, bit other than that, I'm as surprised as the next person where the story will take me.
Question: How long did it take for you to write "Fight for Identity"?  Grey: Almost a month I think.  I write every day.  Its important for me to keep the story flowing and that can only happen if I work on it daily and keep it fresh in my mind.
Question: Can you tell me a little about your characters? How do they evolvefrom creative idea to individual with a recognizable voice in a story? Grey:  I don’t know.  For me it just happens.  When I'm writing a story, there are at least three people in my head.  Myself, and my two characters.  I once tried working on two stories at once and thought I was going to go crazy.  There were too many voices talking all at once.  It isn't a mechanical process, but one that happens inside me.  I wish I had a better answer, but it appears to be an organic part of me.
All of the titles in the Good Fight series and Grey’s bonus story are available at RainboweBooks.com. Use this link to enjoy a 25% discount while shopping!

 http://www.rainbowebooks.com/store/affiliate-referral.php?code=lz7snvn4hyic

Upcoming Releases by Cardeno C.

Happy Monday, y'all. Just a quick post today to tell you about a giveaway and my upcoming releases. 

On May 20th, Until Forever Comes, the second book in the Mates series, is being released. You can enter to win a copy of the book here; preoder an ebook here; and preorder a paperback here. Here's the blurb:


Ethan Abbatt is a wolf shifter who can’t shift. Plagued by pain and weakness all his life, he hopes to find an honorable death by joining his pack mates in a vampire attack. Instead, Ethan learns two things: draining his blood releases his pain and his wolf, and he has a true mate—a vampire named Miguel. 

Miguel Rodriguez is more than four centuries old. Strong, powerful, and vicious, he walks through life as a shadow, without happiness or affection. When a young shifter tells Miguel they’re true mates, destined to be together, Miguel sends him away. But Ethan is persistent, and Miguel can’t resist for long. Once Miguel gives in, being together comes naturally. The challenge is keeping themselves alive so they can stay by each other’s side until forever comes.


On June 1st, I have a short novella called A Shot at Forgiveness in Dreamspinner's sports themed daily dose. Here's the blurb:


A dozen years, two thousand miles, and a law degree after high school, Rafi Steiner continues to harbor resentment toward Isaac Jones, his childhood bully turned NBA star. When Isaac appears at Rafi’s favorite restaurant acting like a long-lost friend, Rafi bluntly dismisses him.

But Isaac is tenacious and has his heart set on the grown-up version of the boy he always wanted and never forgot. The way Isaac sees it, he and Rafi are perfect for each other, if only he could sink the most important shot of his life: his one shot at forgiveness.


The story will be available individually on June 1st or you can buy the entire package here.

I hope you have a terrific week.

CC
www.cardenoc.com

Hold That Thought...

I'm out of town this week. And I've been way to slammed to do flash fic lately, sorry. Until next time, gaze into this guy's eyes. Or at his chest. Whatever...


Happy Sunday
Love, Ellis

Real Life & A New Novella by Cardeno C.

Happy Monday, y'all. Today is my blog day and I was going to do a little post about my upcoming novella, A Shot at Forgiveness, that'll be released on June 1st individually and as part of Dreamspinner's Make a Play Daily Dose. 

But then real life happened, and that takes precedence. NBA player Jason Collins came out in a heartfelt, articulate, strong way. Read his story here: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/magazine/news/20130429/jason-collins-gay-nba-player/?mobile=no.
I'll tell you about my novella next week.
CCwww.cardenoc.com