Fierce Dolan's Blog: Writing Utopia, One Word at a Time, page 17

An Interview with Fierce by Bonnie Bliss

Thank you, Bonnie Bluss, for hosting me on Sultry Storyteller!

What inspired you to write this book?

I was inspired to write “Gigolo Seduction” after watching an episode of “Gigolos,” simply enough. I was struck by how culturally, we feminize prostitution by demonizing women in the sex trade. Yet we tend to completely overlook men in the industry, and we view them as having a semblance of power that women in the industry don’t have. I was interested in exploring where men who are sex workers compromise their power and how that might explode when confronted by deep emotions.

What were your biggest challenges that you had to face when writing this story?

The biggest challenge in writing this piece was handling the psychology of two very different characters. I had to convey someone who believes himself to be worldly wise realizing he has no clue about his inner landscape, alongside someone who appears to be meager and somewhat simple, yet in the end is the wisest of the two. Because this is a BDSM interaction, I had to show his epiphany through their sexual interaction, but also ground it into a solid emotional reaction. I had to get them through the climax of sex and his catharsis. This wasn’t easy to do, given his general stoicism.

What made you choose the BDSM lifestyle to write about?

For me BDSM is more about the D/s dynamic. I’m far more interested in the psychology of each character and how they fuse to create a space where pain is cathartic and erotic. The whole reason that BDSM works, in reality or fantasy, is because the ego surrenders. Otherwise, characters are just being mean to each other.

Some people dig that, too, though I just don’t find enough range in that interaction to develop a story. I want to develop not just what kink gets characters off, but also convey it sensually enough that even though that kink may not be intellectually palatable to readers, it’s so compellingly raw that they find it hot. In other words, I want to make people crave things they think are offensive. That’s where real release occurs.

You write Paranormal Fiction. Why?

It seems more natural to me, LOL. I’ve had a lot of experience with the wyrd and in my other life I work professionally with helping people resolve intuitive and spiritual issues. I really like bringing that into my fiction. Because I’ve actually had a lot of supernatural experiences I like to think that I can portray them in a way that makes them seem more accessible, thus… creepy. Anytime you can make peoples’ senses turn against them you’ve accomplished an amazing thing. And plots don’t have encompass horror to do that. Just writing on the edge of a common experience and portraying it in a slightly less tangible sensibility can leave readers tingling. I love that!

You write GLBT, what are the challenges you face in that genre?

Gender and sexual orientation are fluid to me, and I’m interested in portraying them as such in my writing. I also like working with alternative relationship dynamics, because once you get to know people, polyamory and swinging are not that alternative. There is a huge audience out there for fiction representing marginalized lovestyles. I think that writing about such lifestyles is challenging because the genre is still niche, and like all others, it has certain expectations of its characters and plots that can be somewhat stereotypical. I will take a hairpin curve in a plot any day over vanilla HEA. Even though there are certain expectations in GLBTP writing, it’s still more liberated than mainstream het erotica.

What are harder scenes to write sexy, combat, or conversation?

Dialogue is very easy for me. If all writing could be dialogue, I’d be relieved of drawing together those vexing plot elements and conflicts. Because I’m very into the psychology of what motivates characters, I’ve got to have clarity of why they do what they do. Even if that motivation doesn’t make it into the story proper, I need to understand it in order to seamlessly weave it all together. Sometimes I have Character A, Conflict X, and Resolution M, but I don’t know how to drive the character to get there, emotionally, or psychologically. Those things have to be present for me to believe my own stories.

I guess for me it’s subtler details that are harder to layer in than the bigger plot progression or character development.

Originally published at Sultry Storytelling.

What I Did with My Royalties Contest

I have funny author friends =) About this time every quarter they all go atitter, excited with their royalty payments. I’m the boring one in the bunch. I’ve not done anything with my various outlets of literary income this round, mostly of the mind to roll them into promo for publications that will be out next quarter.

Bling

But don’t let that stop you from creative consumerism! I want to know what you did with yours!! And if you’re not an author but you just got paid, what pretties are you getting? What decadent treat have you set your sights on? Comment now through Wednesday 22 August, post pics if you have them, and I will pick the most creative one in the bunch to win ebooks of Gigolo Seduction and my latest release, Traveler Through Darkness.

Come on you guys–show me how the extravagant half lives!

Win Traveler Through Darkness

The latest addition to Decadent Publishing’s The Edge series, Traveler Through Darkness is available today!

Kicking off my Cravings, Taboos, Release Book Blog Tour is my first stop at The Edge Blog with The Glory of the Short Story.

Comment there for a chance to win a copy!

Fierce Interview at A Passion for Romance

Thanks, Krista for having me! Read the full interview at her site, A Passion for Romance!

Welcome and great to have you here with us today!

What did you want to be when you were growing up or did you always want to be a writer?

I always wanted to be a writer. I had no interest in anything else, and no idea how little I would get paid!

When did you first start writing?

I first started writing before I learned the alphabet. My mother transcribed things that I dictated to her. I composed my first book at 6 years old, and it just grew from there. Writing is probably the one skill and interest that has persisted and grown throughout my life.

What is a typical writing day like for you?

I don’t have a typical writing day. I write all kinds of things professionally, different genres, but some days it comes more easily. Some days there’s a lot of staring into blank space. Some days there’s the furious accumulation of thousands of words in a brief period of time. It all seems to even out, but there’s definitely nothing typical about any of it.

Do you have any specific routine you follow or specific items you need with you when you write?

No, which is odd, because in other areas of life I’m a fetishist. I do require certain comforts and allies. For writing, I’m plug-n-play. It never turns off, I just have to devote time to sitting down and purging the words from my brain.

What is your favorite part of writing? Is there anything you don’t like about being a writer?

Writing is a very capricious thing, sort of a barometer for other life areas. I find that I have states of being and moods that determine what I can write at any given time, and how easily it comes out. I generally cycle with a couple of weeks of blissful, poetic composition, which seems to coincide with getting along well with others, butterflies wanting to be near me, my general life outlook being good. Then I’ll have a couple of weeks where I’m best at editing, crafting, layering, drawing bits together. These eras always coincide with being generally anti-social, grumpy, and additional coffee. It works, though. I call it Writing Brain vs Editing Brain. I’ve learned that forcing one during the era of the other is pointless. The synapses just aren’t there, and it’s only taken me 30+ years to figure that out…

What is your favorite length of book to write? (Short story, novella, full length novel) Why?

I don’t gauge the length of things as I’m writing them. I just write until I get there, then I’m done. Looking in the rearview, though, it would seem I’m most comfortable with novella-length projects, though I’ve written full-length novels, as well.

How does your family feel about your writing and you being an author?

They like it as long as it doesn’t interfere with the household, relationships, chores getting done, face-time, mood, sleep, other obligations, social availability, quality time…

Is there a to-be-read waiting on your bedside table?

There isn’t, actually. I’m quite caught up on my literature. The last thing I read was Killer in Sight, by Sandra Carrington-Smith, a murder/mystery thriller. I really enjoyed it.

For fun, I have a few personal questions:

Favorite 5

Favorite Holiday ~ Samhain, though Beltane is a close second. And the Solstices…

 

Favorite Drink ~ Good, black coffee

 

Favorite Author ~ Several: Neil Gaiman, Storm Constantine, Dale Peck

 

Favorite Book ~ Several: Neverwhere, Wraeththu, To Kill A Mockingbird

 

Favorite Animal ~ I love cats. I don’t exactly have a favorite animal, but I get along with them best and seem to understand them best.

And for a bonus: What is a typical mood for you? And is your mood different when you’re writing?

I’m a pretty laid back person, very soothing and calm. If I’m able to write without interruption, I can maintain that demeanor. If I’m constantly getting interrupted, just stay back. It drives me nuts when I need to get in the groove and can’t because everything around me is chaotic.

Surfing the (Creative) Flow, Literary-Style

Or, for those of you not in touch with your cosmic sides, how to come up with writing ideas.

I confess, I’m rarely short on ideas, actually, just time and sleep to bring them all into being. Still, on occasion I find myself needing to submit an article that just isn’t coming together, and I’m forced to use Other means to get the creative juices flowing.

For those who don’t know, in my other life I’m a lifelong intuitive and have done readings (and energy work) for others for years. Despite my natural intuitive gifts, or may in spite of them, I’ve never jelled with set divination systems such as the Tarot, I Ching, or anything that requires a close relationship to specific symbols and their meanings. More of a renegade, I often break from esoteric tradition and do what’s considered a chaos reading. Chaos magick is considered a contemporary practice of working with whatever you have, to intuitive ends. The method draws on the resources of what is right in front of me, and my ability to intuitively connect with it on the spot.

I am clairsentient, meaning, I can touch objects and read from them what they have to say about whatever situation I’m in, etc. Pretty nifty skill when I need insight on the fly. Over years of coming up with topics on the run, it only seemed appropriate to blend chaos readings with finding writing topics. Ultimately, I’ve honed a cool skill that keeps my mind open and my skills fresh.

Try this:

Think of the venue you need to write for, the qualities it embodies, and hold your mind open. If you are stumped on a current writing project, think about the part of it that needs attention.
Look around your immediate area and find three objects. Doesn’t matter what they are, but go with the first three that grab your attention. Don’t cheat and choose them with intention. Go with the first three that catch your awareness.
Remember the order you noticed them in and write it down.
For each object, go back and write down everything it stirs for you. What does it make you think of? What memories does it jog? What feelings are inspired? What senses does it affect? Be as descriptive or vague as you like. The point is that you be honest and thorough in regarding each object.
When you have exhausted how you relate to each object, write a summary statement for each, emphasizing how each leaves you feeling.

The order in which you engaged the objects is significant. The order carries the following associations:

The first object represents the way you’ve been approaching the lack of topic, or the point in the project that’s unclear.
The second object represents the change in how you need to approach it.
The third object represents the best approach you can take on this project.

Now that you have identified clear feelings about each objects and how they relate to your project, you can form an overall connection to the project. For instance, I’ve been stuck on how to approach cover art for a current project. With that in mind I gather:

bottle of lavendar oil
pencil, old school style
 a feather

(my desk is an odd mix of function and poof)

Lavendar oil helps me feel peaceful. Having it beg my attention tells me I’ve been too emotionally involved in determining this cover art.

The hand-sharpened pencil stirs feelings of a simpler time, when things weren’t overly complicated. It reminds me to keep this art organic.

The feather leaves me feeling like I can rise above. It tells me to trust my instincts.

Point to consider in deciphering the message before you are:

Where do these feelings manifest in my project? In the way I think about my project?
How can these feelings inform me of approaching this project in a stronger way?
How do these feelings foster your ability to trust your project’s process?

Remember, sometimes the information you get isn’t about manifesting the project, it’s about taking care of yourself while you do. In the throes of tending your own needs, clarity comes.

So. What sages are on your desk? What do they have to say about your current project? The next time you are stuck on a project, remember your allies are right in front of you—literally.

Originally posted at Laura DeLuca’s Blogspot.

To All the Princess Warriors

Through the progression of my Blog Tour we’ve discussed how women are viewed, sexually, in contemporary media and literature. There’s the Cougar, and the MILF, both of which take up ample portions of Internet bandwidth and reader’s group discussions. There’s another such archetype factoring into our modern formation of the sexual woman, and I call her the Princess Warrior, to whom I dedicated my newly released novella, Gigolo Seduction.

Carl Jung identified the archetype of the ‘warrior’ in his quest to map the inner self. According to his work, the warrior is the part of ourselves that protects emotional boundaries and asserts our needs. Though more gender-liberated than many of his peers, Jung’s work was largely based on men. Given that, understanding the warrior archetype in literature becomes tricky, as the very values attributed are generally frowned upon for women. Women are not expected to protect themselves in any way—in fact they are to be completely available to everyone, and most definitely they’re not to assert needs. As a result, heroines across history have lived double lives. Thus, the ‘princess’ aspect emerges. The composed, trained lady that she must present is not the truth of the hot, competent woman beneath.

Princess Warriors are young women who on the surface seem demure, intellectually vapid, and socially in check, though they’re culturally courageous, sneakily brilliant, and Kung Fu badasses. In short, the she’s the unobtrusive technogeek who can ruin your life with the click of a button, the fragile schoolgirl who’s a secret ninja, the pretty little cheerleader who slays vampires, the quaint artist who flogs men into submission at night.

Of course my focus is on the latter. Asif, the confident, composed escort in Gigolo Seduction prides himself on being able to please women, all women. However, when his advances are rebuffed by the young, sweet frescoista, Cass, he doesn’t know how to respond. Imagine how his reaction upon learning she’s a Princess Warrior…

Consider some of these historic and literary Princess Warriors:

Joan of Arc  - Heroine of France
Cut Nyak Dhien  -   Muslim warrior of Indonesia
Princess Leia   –  Star Wars
Willow Rosen   –  Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy Summers   –  Buffy the Vampire Slayer
O-Ren Ishii   –  Kill Bill
Xena   –  Xena, Warrior Princess
Sidney Bristow   –  Alias
Nikita   –  La Femme Nikita
Dana Scully   –  The X-Files

What other Princess Warriors inspire you? How do they kick ass in your world?

Originally posted at You Gotta Read.

Coming this month–Traveler Through Darkness!

Out 17 August from Decadent Publishing’s The Edge series, my new short story Traveler Through Darkness!

A lifetime of want collides with fate the night of Tarik’s bachelor party, fulfilling his deepest secret desire—only it’s not with the strippers his Arab friends hired to cater to his every whim. Uncomfortable with the debauched festivities, Tarik ducks out of the soirée, stumbling into Wo, a kind Navajo artist, who forces him to say what he really wants, then gives it to him, all night.

From Traveler Through Darkness

“I am so sorry–” Tarik began.

“It’s okay. It was an accident.” The words were rushed as he pulled the soaked sweatshirt from his skin and fanned the dripping tablet. Black smudges coated the fingertips and heel of his left hand.

“I’ve ruined your work,” Tarik lamented, motioning toward the pad.

“Oh, no. It’s just a sketch. I was fascinated with the moonlight on the harbor.” He flashed a charcoal rendering of the midnight water. A long, shimmering black strand fell forward of the band securing his hair, lighting just at the edge of his upturned mouth. “No masterpiece here.”

Piercing umber eyes met Tarik’s, and the gentle smile relaxed his shoulders. “You were in the ballroom earlier.”

“Mmm. The bachelor party.”

Tarik pursed his lips, nodding once. “I’m staying in the hotel. Allow me to get for you a clean shirt.”

“It’s fine. I don’t have far to go.”

“In this cold, with no jacket, you will freeze. Please. I insist—”

“What’s your name?” the younger man asked.

“I am Tarik.” He bowed.

“I’m Wo.” He nodded. “Thank you for your kind offer, Tarik.”

<!--<CENTER><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/S5FIHDcdkt4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen alt="Video book trailer for 'Gigolo Seduction' by Fierce Dolan"></iframe></CENTER>–></p>
<p>Enjoy <em>Traveler Through Darkness</em> along with the <a href="http://www.fiercedolan.com/TTD-reader... Guide</a>.</p>
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Piracy Cherry Popping

Sent my first cease and desist notification to ebook pirates this week.

I’ve watched my fellow authors do the circuit of sending such letters in waves, usually to several piracy sites at once. It goes like this:

A site surfaces with illegal lending, selling, or flat out plagiarism.

Letters are sent.
Things die down for a while, until another collection of such thieves surfaces with my friends’ hard work and dreams in their teeth.
More letters.
Silence.
Repeat.

Sometimes the sites are taken down, sometimes they’re not.  Rest assured even if they do vanish, they just resurface someplace else, with a different domain, different look, tons of subscribers.

I knew it would happen to me sooner or later, and I paid close attention to how my friends handled it. I happen to have very informed comrades who generously share their literary experiences, a true luxury amongst authors.

None of them like sending those letters, but they tolerate it as part of the job. They tilt one windmill then move on to the next.

They are more graceful than I am.

It’s one thing to be mad at people who supply ripped off ebooks.  It’s the people who thoughtlessly (?) steal/plagiarize/lend them that I don’t get.  They say they’re fans of authors, but don’t they get that without support, authors can’t write?

I could go on about how hard I freaking work in every area of my life, though especially in writing and publishing.

I could go on about karma and how it’s a bitch, except that I don’t really believe in karma–the New Age fangled-kind, or justice, for that matter.  But I  know all about balance, so if that’s karma, the bitch comes sooner or later.

I could go on about fuck you for stealing my work.

I could go on about art and how if you’re fond of how it moves you to feel something better than your mundane but you don’t feed the artist, it’s energetically impossible to sustain the buzz.

So few make the connection between stealing power and expecting to be empowered.

We no longer have a sense of reciprocity. We are so privileged–and inversely think we  are so underprivileged–that we can just take what we want because it’s there, because we can. Then when we do, we don’t understand why the literary magick can’t sustain us to another download.

It’s all connected.

Am I broke? No.  I’m also not making a king’s ransom, either, and I won’t ever expect to as long as people willfully rip off my work.

The bottom line is if you’re that fucking broke, just ask me. Seriously, if you can’t put up the $1.99 for a freaking ebook and the disarray of your life needs emergency imaginative distraction, just ask me for a copy, because I really have been there.  I have been broke with no idea where it was going to come from.  I’m OK with paying what I can forward.

But if you don’t ask me and instead choose to steal copies of my work and that of others who bust their asses to do something they love everyday, how do you expect things to ever change for yourself? How do you think stealing from someone is going to improve where you are in life?  What will have to be stolen from you before you understand it’s all connected?

SEO Seduction on Savvy Authors

Some know that in my other life I’m an SEO fetishist (OK, SEO Consultant for authors), but many may not know I’ve recently released a novella called Gigolo Seduction. What do those have in common? Well, apart from a title plug, it’s been interesting watching SEO build for a word that otherwise was very under-represented on the Interwebz.

“What’s SEO?” you ask. It’s search engine optimization, the lesser obvious coding of your site that allows it to be found then indexed by search engines. Or, it’s the way you make your website work for you while you’re sleeping. Yes, I’m that technogeeky.

“What’s a gigolo?” you wink. Well, you know what one is. The better question is, what does Google think one is? That was most important to my novella’s blossoming search engine placement. In February, when I got the go-ahead from my awesome publisher, Decadent Publishing, I began seeding the title of my book along the dirty digital strip. I did that by randomly tracking how the keywords in the title performed. In search engines I typed the text string “gigolo seduction,” with the quotation marks. Phrases in quotation marks tell search engines to find that exact phrase, not just the individual words. I found no results matching my phrase, as expected. Entering the text string without the quotation marks was another matter entirely. 

Read the rest at Savvy Authors…

 

Meet Romance Author, Zee Monodee!

Joining me today is the lovely and talented Zee Monodee!  She has two new releases, Before the Morning, from Noble Romance, and Once Upon a Stormy Night, in the 1 Night Stand series from Decadent Publishing.

According to Zee, she grew up on a fence with modernity and the global world on one side, and culture and traditions on the other. Putting up with the culture for half of her life, one day she decided she’d stand tall on her wall and dip her toes into both sides of her non-conventional upbringing.

Straddling that middle ground became her favorite stance, which is reflected in her writing.  ”All of my heroines all sit on a fence, whether cultural or societal, in today’s world or in times past, and face dilemmas about life and love.”

Of Before the Morning (Corpus Brides: Book 2), she says, “It’s an action/adventure, romantic suspense tale on the backdrop of a clandestine espionage agency.    Once Upon a Stormy Night is set on the paradise island of Mauritius.   British billionaire Lars Rutherford isn’t looking for a woman, & corporate law executive Simmi Moyer isn’t looking for a man. But when a matchmaker pairs them together on a blind date, both face a future they refused to contemplate… until now.

 Yum.  So, Zee, what inspired you to write romance?

The craving for a happy ending. Life is already tedious enough, and then on the news all you see is mayhem and desolation. Books are an escape, romance even more, because you know that at the end, everything will work out and there will be happiness.  I couldn’t resist that lure.  Then, of course, there are the handsome heroes…

Yes, the hawt is always a draw.  What was the inspiration for your current release?

Before The Morning turns out to be the prequel to Book 1 in the series, and is mostly the backstory of what happened in the Corpus mutiny plot, and a glimpse into the workings of the agency. I love TV shows like Nikita, and Burn Notice, and movies like Salt. The espionage slant intrigues me, and I love the action and the almost-permanent adrenalin rush in that kind of plot. Since I strive to pen strong heroines who don’t back away from anything, I knew this one had to have a tough heroine, because I’d upped the stakes when I went deeper into the workings of this clandestine agency.

Still, I always have the love story angle in mind, and I wanted to do a story where the couple are best friends turned lovers, and are already married for much of the story. HEA doesn’t come when you say “I do” and I wanted this book to show that. All of the above combined to give me the starting point for this story. I knew I had to tell the story of what happened before Book 1, and I went from there.

I love your focus on real love and romance.   I don’t think it detracts from the story at all for there to be elements of realism in how the plot or relationship builds.  So then, what do you like to read?

Romance, mostly! I also love chick-lit, and a good cozy mystery too. Basically, anything that gives me escapism and a happy and/or satisfying ending suits me. Give me light and fluffy any day – yes, I fully accept that I’m a book airhead who hates serious, maudlin, “I’ll kill myself before I get to half the book” types of literary fare. I’m a reading junkie, so I read pretty much everything that will not make me want to commit suicide thanks to the dry prose and woe-is-reality approach. Some non-fiction will also capture my attention, and I have a strange fascination with cookbooks and chef/food memoirs, despite hating to cook.

I ha!  I read on your site about your desire to channel Nigella Lawson.  I guess that’s not going so well…  So, what are you reading right now?

The Maybe Baby anthology from M&B UK. It’s a collection of three somewhat-connected stories (three sisters) set in the Australian north-west plains, each story having a baby or young child being the catalyst to bringing the romantic couple together. It’s pure comfort-food category romance, despite the authors touching deeper issues like infertility, the feeling of loss after an abortion, and in one of them baby is terminally sick and the couple doing everything they can to save her, aka give the girl a sibling whose cord blood would save her life. It’s profound and not for the faint of heart, but at the same time it’s pure, unadulterated romance with the highs and lows of budding love and that wonderful HEA at the end.

 You’ve mentioned HEA a few times.  Tell me more about your writing curiosities.  Any quirks of style?

I never noticed that, but my CP, the one who has critted all my work so far, pointed out that I string words together with hyphens to create unprecedented descriptions. Like, “the pale pink-gilded mouldings-damask wallpapered salon of the Green Park suite at the Ritz.” I also go into elaborate and very detailed descriptions of setting, and somewhere in every story, you’ll get a rundown of both the hero’s and the heroine’s physical appearance. And when I’m in deep POV, I can ramble, a lot.

Yay!  Another author who makes up words!  I get so much crap for doing that, myself.  At last I am among peers (peer?).  What’s your dictionary of choice?

Does Google count? *grin* I’m afraid I haven’t broken open a physical dictionary in a long time.

Indeed, times have changed.  Along that line, I know that along with being an author you’ve recreated yourself as a bit of a cover artist.  Do tell!

I think for cover design, it’s more an in-your-face approach. You need to find the perfect picture(s) to put to your vision, and what the author requested and wished for, into being. It’s kinda like tunnel vision – that one picture and you’re done. Snap the fingers, and there you are putting this cover together.

The cliché says that an image is worth a thousand words – that’s never truer than when making a cover. In one glance, the cover conveys the story’s tone and setting, while writing demands those thousands of words to convey the same tone and setting. But art and writing are different.   Cover art design is less in-depth than writing, because you work off an idea and make it concrete. No matter what brilliant idea you have for a story, you’ll need more ideas to string with it to make a book, if that makes sense – you need characters, goal, motivation, and conflict, antagonists, wrenches, hurdles to get to that HEA. A cover is simply expressing that one original idea. Creative writing requires you to think in terms of the big picture and how everything falls into place within this frame. Cover design is all about one image and how this image opens the door to everything that fills your story frame.

Ah, and there’s the understanding that some doors don’t get opened.  What’s your best rejection letter coping strategy?

Mope.  No, seriously – just get over it. Rejection is going to happen whether you like it or not. You don’t move forward by dwelling on what’s happened, and what’s outside of your control. But you can take control of what you do with your life, your time, your thoughts, your energy. I’ll probably talk it over with my writing sisters, get a few cyber hugs or two from them, but then it’s onwards and upwards. Always have a backup plan – this is what will keep you sane.

 So back to this desire to channel Nigella Lawson.  If you were her, what meal would you make?

I have a burning desire to make a perfect Sunday roast. Whether a full chicken or a shoulder of lamb, with all the trimmings and the grilled veggies and home-baked bread.  With my luck (and undomestic goddess fingers!), the chicken or lamb would probably end up undercooked (or not cooked at all inside, while they’re charred on the outside!) and the veggies would be half-raw, half-too-cooked. The bread will not have risen, and you could probably use it as a doorstop because it would be that hard.

That said, I do make some edible stuff, but just never where a roast is concerned. *grin*

Here’s the big question we all want answered:  My mother always joked about her special place in Hell—just punishments for guilty pleasures.  What guilty pleasures will send you to your special place in Hell?

I’m glad you said “pleasures” here because I definitely have more than one taking me to that special place!  Shoes – buying more shoes than I need, or could possibly wear, also when I could be using that money to treat my family to an outing to the hotel, or getting stuff for the house.  Chocolate cake – no one’s allowed near my chocolate cake. I’m pretty easygoing and share just about anything with my husband, but not my chocolate cake. I will even buy it and eat it all before he or the boys get home, just so I won’t have to share. Sorry, no can do on that one!  And finally, ogling hunky men on the TV – I love watching rugby. All those big, brawny, sweaty male bodies with the testosterone flying about. Then I watch True Blood mainly to catch a glimpse of Alcide’s chest and abs. I know I should be drooling on my man (and believe me, I do!) but unfortunately he does not have the exclusivity where my ogling attention is concerned.

So there you have it, loves.  The woman you want on that wall, and all of her brilliant colors!  Zee is also hard at work on her next projects–Against The Odds – a novel, again featuring Magnus Trammell (from Once Upon A Stormy Night), and Let Mercy Come, the conclusion of the Corpus agency storyline,

Find Zee:

In her blog
@ZeeMonodee
On Facebook
On Goodreads