Mandy M. Roth's Blog, page 82
August 13, 2012
Brian Haughton, Interview by Michelle Pillow
Brian Haughton, Interview
By Michelle Pillow, www.michellepillow.com
European Archaeologist, Brian Haughton spends his time between playing guitar in a band, The Electric Rays, and exploring his passion for ancient history. An author and researcher, he’s written about prehistoric megalithic sites, ancient sacred places and supernatural folklore. A self-defined critical thinker, he approaches the supernatural as a skeptic, looking for facts within the folklore and myths.
I had a chance to read his latest popular archaeology title, History’s Mysteries: People, Places and Oddities Lost in the Sands of Time. This book explores the latest archaeological evidence to some of the oldest mysteries of the ancient world, addressing everything from what happened to the Neanderthals to controversial ancient artefacts like the Iron Pillar of Delhi, mysterious places like the Newport Tower of Rhode Island to the questions surrounding some of history’s most infamous people.
I recommend this book for anyone interested in various aspects of ancient history. Each chapter examines a different mystery from around the world, exploring it fully by outlining the known facts, including the latest in archeological findings, while giving the reader plenty to think on as they draw their own conclusions.
I would like to thank the author, Brian Haughton, for joining me.
* * * * *
Q: Brian, how did you get into archaeology, and more specially studying ancient history, the supernatural and the mysteries of our past?
Brian:I long ago fell for the lure of the ancient world and tales of the supernatural, initially inspired by visiting the Neolithic chambered tombs of the Cotswold Hills in England, the Minoan site of Knossos on the island of Crete and by reading the ghost stories of Sheridan Le Fanu and M.R. James.
Q: What inspired you to write your newest book, History’s Mysteries?
Brian:The constant new archaeological discoveries being made throughout the world on an almost daily basis. For example a new stone circle near Stonehenge, and the remains of previously unknown hedges which once surrounded Stonehenge keeping the ceremonies that took place inside the monument secret from those outside.
Q: Can you tell us a little bit about the book?
Brian:History’s Mysteries is an investigation into 35 archaeological mysteries from across the globe, organized by geographical region. As with my previous book Hidden History, this work separates its collection of enthralling ancient riddles into three sections: Mysterious Places, Unexplained Artefacts, and Enigmatic People. The choice of subjects was made to include a wide range of cultures and a mixture of both the well known and the relatively obscure. Consequently you will read about India’s celebrated Taj Mahal and the biblical Temple of Solomon, as well as the little known Royston Cave, in the UK, the infamous Rennes-le-Château, in France, and the forgotten site of Great Zimbabwe, in South Africa. In the book I have tried to present a summary of the current level of knowledge for a small selection of archaeological mysteries, I leave it to my readers to pursue in more detail these riddles left to us by our ancient ancestors.
Q: What do you feel are some of the book’s most fascinating historical highlights?
Brian:The chapter on Boudica – a queen of the Iceni tribe of Eastern Britain in the 1st century AD. She is regarded as one of Britain’s greatest heroines for her brave rebellion against the tyranny of Roman rule. Despite her brutal excesses in battle, Boudica is still a heroic figure, one who was after all fighting to defend her entire culture. If her revolt had been successful the Romans may have been driven out of Britain forever, and the culture, language and subsequent history of Britain, Europe and even perhaps the world, may have been very different.
Q: Did Cleopatra really kill her sister?
Brian:The BBC seem to think so, there was a BBC documentary, sensationally (and unnecessarily) entitled Cleopatra: Portrait of a Killer. But they are probably right that Cleopatra asked her lover Anthony that her sister Arsinoë, still living in protection at the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (modern Turkey), be executed to prevent any future attempts on her throne. However, the situation was complicated. Years earlier, around 49 BC, Cleopatra’s brother Ptolemy XIII allied himself with his and Cleopatra’s sister Arsinoë in an attempt to depose Cleopatra. After Ptolemy was captured Arsinoë escaped and joined the Egyptian army under Achillas, who gave her the title of pharaoh in opposition to her sister Cleopatra. She was later captured by Caesar’s army and transported to Rome. So Arsinoë was a constant threat to Cleopatra, who probably would have had her killed had the roles been reversed.
Q: What can the Uluburun shipwreck tell us about contacts between ancient cultures?
Brian:The Uluburun Wreck was discovered off the southern coast of Turkey in the 1980s, and is the oldest known shipwreck in the world. Dating back around 3,300 years, the ship carried a cargo of incredible richness and diversity which included Egyptian scarabs, copper ingots from Cyprus, Mycenaean pottery from Greece, Canaanite jars, lamps, and bowls, ebony logs from Egypt, an Italian sword, elephant tusks, gold, silver, faience, and amber from Northern Europe. There have been suggestions that this wealthy cargo was a gift or offering from Egypt’s Queen Nefertiti, wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaton, or that it was a Phoenician trading ship or even, because of the amount of raw material found aboard, some kind of itinerant smithy or tinker. What this ship with its vast array of goods originating in so many different ancient cultures tells us is that more than 3,300 years ago these cultures were mixing commercially and probably socially also. May represent royal gifts or tribute, perhaps involving Egyptian pharaohs.
Q: How recently did the Neanderthals die out?
Brian:Between roughly 45,000 and 30,000 years ago Neanderthals shared Europe and parts of western and central Asia with anatomically modern humans. The question of why a large-brained intelligent hominid, in many respects so similar to us, who had dominated Europe for so long vanished completely may never be resolved satisfactorily. It is more than likely that there is not a single cause for the Neanderthal’s extinction – they did not disappear overnight in one huge group. Neanderthals covered a vast area of Europe and western Asia and there were probably localized factors affecting their disappearance in different regions at various times between 45,000 and 25,000 years ago. Perhaps the question should not be why Neanderthals became extinct, but why did they disappear and we survive?
Q: What are Venus figurines and when were they made?
Brian:Venus Figurines are a class of distinctive portable artifacts dating back to the Upper Paleolithic Period (roughly between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago). The most notable and common type of Venus Figurines are small three-dimensional sculptures of usually voluptuous women, ranging in height from 1.2 inches to more than 15 inches and carved from a wide range of materials including serpentine, schist, limestone, hematite, lignite, calcite, steatite, fired clay, ivory, bone and antler. The fact that Venus Figurines are found over such a wide geographical area indicates that there was a shared understanding amongst the Palaeolithic hunter gatherer tribes of Europe and western Asia of a particular aspect of womanhood or a certain type of woman.
Q: Where was Lyonesse and what happened to it?
Brian: Story of drowned land of Lyonesse, often referred to as the ‘English Atlantis’, is told in medieval Arthurian tales and may also be connected to older Celtic legends of cataclysmic floods. The country of Lyonesse is said to have had many towns, woods and fields, and 140 churches, but all this was all lost underneath the waves in one catastrophic inundation. According to local tradition only one person escaped the flood, the hero Trevilian, who rode a white horse to the safety of high ground. Lyonesse is most commonly located between the English county of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, 28 miles to the south west of the United Kingdom. Celtic legends of overflowing wells seem to be the source of much of the material contained in British, Irish and French stories of Lyonesse and other drowned lands. It is such ancient tales, combined with glimpses of submerged parts of the former coast at low tides off Land’s End, the Isles of Scilly, and the Bay of Douarnenez, that probably constitute the origins of the tale of Lyonesse.
Q: Looking at your backlist titles, I’ve noticed you’ve written a lot about ancient history and supernatural folklore. Tell us a little bit about your other works.
Brian:My first book Hidden History, is really History’s Mysteries Part 1. The 49 short chapters of the book are fact-based, accounts of mysterious places, curious and unexplainable artifacts and unusual historical people from across the world.
My book Lore of the Ghost is an exploration of the numerous categories of ghosts and hauntings throughout the world. It discusses the possible motives for each type of haunting—from phantom white ladies and spectral black dogs to haunted highways and ghostly vehicles—what they represent, why they occur, and their possible functions. Unlike the vast majority of books on the subject, Lore of the Ghost is not a gazetteer of ghost sightings or a ghost hunter’s manual, but an investigation into human belief in the supernatural and its effect on the nature of ghosts worldwide. The book attempts to delve deeply into the roots of supernatural folklore and urban legends, the very same tales that are often the foundation of modern sightings of ghosts.
Q: In Haunted Spaces, Sacred Places: A Field Guide to Stone Circles, Crop Circles, Ancient Tombs, and Supernatural Landscapes, you talk about ghosts and unexplained phenomena. What do you find to be some of the more fascinating stories in the book?
Brian:The vast Neolithic tomb / temple of Newgrange, north of Dublin. This was one of the greatest architectural achievements of prehistory, and one of the earliest roofed buildings in the world. Newgrange was probably built around 3200 BC, and consists of a passage running for 62 feet and a 20 foot high chamber with a corbelled roof, constructed of large stone slabs without mortar. The passage and chamber are covered by a huge stone and turf mound about 262 feet in diameter and around 44 feet high, surrounded at its base by 97 large stones known as kerbstones, some of which are elaborately ornamented with megalithic art.
The entrance to the Newgrange passage tomb consists of a doorway composed of two standing stones and a horizontal lintel. Above the doorway is an aperture known as the ‘roof box’ or ‘light box’. Every year, shortly after 9 am, on the morning of the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, the sun begins its ascent across the Boyne Valley over a hill known locally as Red Mountain, the name possibly originating from the color of the sunrise on this day. The newly-risen sun then sends a shaft of sunlight directly through the Newgrange light box, which penetrates down the passageway as a narrow beam of light illuminating the central chamber at the back of the tomb. After just 17 minutes the ray of light narrows and the chamber is once more left in darkness. This spectacular event was not rediscovered until 1967 by professor Michael J. O’Kelly, though it had been known about in local folklore before that time, in fact the monument was known locally as Uaimh na Gréine (the ‘Cave of the Sun’). The Newgrange light box reveals in spectacular fashion the knowledge of surveying and basic astronomy possessed by the Neolithic inhabitants of the area. It also illustrates that for the people who aligned their monument with the winter solstice, the sun must have formed an important part of their religious beliefs.
Stonehenge, Wiltshire, begun around 2900 BC, has always fascinated me, particularly the folklore surrounding it. There is a tantalizing glimpse of what may be a memory of the transportation of the bluestones to the site over a great distance to Salisbury Plain in the most famous legend connected with Stonehenge. The story is found in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain (c. 1136), and describes how Aurelius Ambrosius, King of the Britons, desired to have a monument constructed to commemorate the massacre of 460 British nobles by the troops of Hengist the Saxon. On the advice of prophet and magician Merlin, the King sent his brother Uther Pendragon (the father of King Arthur), with an army of fifteen thousand men to bring back a stone structure called the ‘Giants’ Dance’ from a mountain called Killare (possibly Kildare) in Ireland. Merlin describes the Giants’ Dance as a “structure of stones there, which none of this age could raise, without a profound knowledge of the mechanical arts”. Uther Pendragon’s army was unable to budge the huge stones and so turned to Merlin, who using “his own engines” dismantled the stones which were then transported to Britain by ship. Whether or not this tale is a distorted memory of the actual journey of the bluestones from somewhere in ‘the west’ is much debated, though the mention of ‘engines’ is certainly intriguing. Nevertheless, it would be an inordinately long time for even a fragment of the event to have survived orally.
Q: Why are strange phenomena often connected with these ancient places? Do sacred sites somehow generate or attract the paranormal?
Brian:There is no evidence for this, but mysterious ancient places, especially those of unknown origin, attract and generate strange tales / urban legends / folklore, mainly because no-one is sure exactly why they were built and what went on there.
Q: What can the legends and folklore of ancient places reveal to us about the beliefs and ideas of our ancestors?
Brian:Because we are talking about an age of over 2,000 years, sometimes a lot more, for prehistoric sites, the legends and folklore of ancient places tell us more about how these places have been seen and interpreted by people over the last few hundred years (which is when most of the folklore dates back to) rather than anything about the beliefs of the actual builders of the monuments.
Q: What is the truth behind the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor in China, home of the Terracotta Warriors?
Brian:The monumental tomb of China’s First Emperor, Qin Shi Huang is located 22 miles east of Xian, the capital of the Shensi province of modern China. The tomb itself, which according to traditional Chinese geomancy represented the eye of a huge dragon in the landscape, is underneath a huge vegetation covered earthen mound, 154 feet high, and measuring 1690 feet from north to south and 1590 feet from east to west. The mound has eroded considerably in its 2000 year history; it is believed that it once soared up to a height of 330 feet. though they estimate there are as many as 7,000 magnificently crafted warriors, 130 chariots with horses, and 110 cavalry horses, buried to guard China’s First Emperor more than 2,000 years ago.
The Terracotta Army are a vast army of soldiers discovered three quarters of a mile from Qin Shi Huang’s tomb in three huge subterranean pits supported by wooden frameworks, and are spread over an area measuring 135,630 square feet. Each pit is separated by a number of partitioning walls, which divide the army up into columns. The soldiers are all arranged in battle formation, with crouching crossbowmen, archers, infantry, chariots and cavalry all in their appropriate positions. Perhaps a tradition of the terracotta crossbowmen may have lingered on to become the legend that the Emperor’s tomb was guarded against intruders by automatic cross bows? Every soldier in the Emperor’s army is unique, with its individual face, hairstyle, height, uniform and weapons, all in accordance with his rank. Archaeologists have excavated over 1000 of these soldiers, though they estimate there are as many as 7,000 magnificently crafted warriors, 130 chariots with horses, and 110 cavalry horses, buried to guard China’s First Emperor more than 2,000 years ago.
Q: Why are there modern encounters with ghosts, UFOs, spooklights, Bigfoot and phantom dogs at many sacred places?
Brian:My research for the book Haunted Spaces, Sacred Places showed that supernatural stories are often connected with liminal places (old roads, ponds, ancient monuments) which were often seen as dangerous places, boundary areas between the living and the dead. Reports of paranormal phenomena at such places are an extension of such folk beliefs.
Q: Why do you think readers, and society in general, are fascinated by the paranormal?
Brian:People love a mystery, and want desperately to believe in something. As Mulder says in the X-Files “I want to believe”.
Q: Do you believe in the supernatural? Or are you a skeptic?
Brian:I believe most supernatural tales are folklore or urban legend, I’m a critical thinker.
Q: What period throughout history do you wish you could visit? Anyone in particular you’d like to meet and interview?
Brian:I would have like to have visited Stonehenge when it was being constructed (c2800 BC). I would love to have met Cleopatra.
Q: What are you currently working on?
Brian:I’m researching a book on the conspiracy theories surrounding the Manson Family. Scary people.
Thanks for joining us, Brian!
Brian’s latest book, History’s Mysteries: People, Places and Oddities Lost in the Sands of Time, released March 2010 and is available at Amazon.com. You can learn more about Brian and his books at his website, www.Brian-Haughton.com. Interview by Michelle Pillow, www.michellepillow.com
August 11, 2012
Yes I Can! Kicking it off!
Any of you that follow me on Facebook or Twitter know that I need to make some life style changes. The weight is creeping back on and its now a health issues for me. I was warned that my sugar at a level the doctors have concern. I need to take some more weight off. I’ve enlisted the help of my readers for support. I will be accountable to you all.
Things I’m doing:
Yesterday I downloaded the My Fitness Pal App for my smartphone. It was recommended to me by my nurse practitioner. I inputted my weight, my goal weight, my height and age and it gave me a daily calorie amount to go off of. I then inputted in anything I was eating or drinking yesterday. I was just shy of my calorie “limit”. Yay me.
I found a Weight Watchers magazine I have that has recipes in it. This morning for breakfast I made myself their Cheese and Tomato Omelet. Its 147 Cals per serving and there are two servings in each. I have my computer set to remind me to eat something small every three hours and I’m on the hunt for great tasting healthy friendly recipes.
I’ll be sure to keep you all posted on my progress because dammit I WILL have progress.
August 10, 2012
Snippet: The King’s Choice
King Jakov of Braluse sat at his throne and waited as his head advisor, Andrija, led the females into the great hall one by one. The act of selecting a queen wasn’t one he relished. His harem would continue to see to his needs, as they always had. He had no use for a woman to sit by his side and rule the Kingdom of Braluse with him. He’d done so on his own for centuries. However, the prophecy called for the choosing of a queen by the night of the sixth red moon of his reign. Disobeying and angering the gods was not something Jakov wanted to do. Red moons occurred once every one hundred years and if he didn’t select a queen by the rise of this one, he would never have an heir.
That was not acceptable.
His people, the Avistaurus’ of Braluse—part human, part shifter, were immortal. The entire planet of Hafoca was inhabited with various forms of bird-like shifters. All the tribes were able to shift into a bird of prey. In addition to shifting into a bird of prey, they could also shift into some other animal. That, of course, was dependent upon the tribe. The Avistaurus’ shifter forms were that of an eagle and a bull. His child would share in these traits if it was male, as all males did.
The females on Hafoca were only immortal once they began to take a male’s semen internally on a regular basis. It was not a kind way of life, but necessary to the survival of their breed and tribe.
Each virgin made her way past Jakov. Their faces were veiled with only their eyes showing, giving them an air of mystery. Gold chains adorned their near-naked bodies. Each was beautiful, toned, free from signs of aging but none made his cock stir and his chest burn. It was too much to hope that the woman he was forced to select would actually appeal to his carnal sexual nature. No. He would be lucky to find one he even wanted to bother sinking his cock into long enough to impregnate her with his child. Thankfully, he would be able to roll off the wench and allow his harem to see to giving him adequate relief.
Andrija cast him a wary look and motioned for the virgin nearest him to leave the room. The girls’ eyes were wide with fear as they hurried from the room. He wasn’t sure why he was so feared. He thought himself a fair ruler. Merciful. Strong. Fearless. The people seemed to have a different opinion of him.
“King Jakov, many women have passed by you on this day, yet you have seen none,” Andrija said.
Rolling his eyes, Jakov shrugged. “I have seen them all, Andrija.”
“Then why have you not selected one?”
Jakov rose slowly. “None have called to me, brother. None have made me cease to think about all but them. We live long lives and I do not wish to be tethered to a woman I am indifferent too. If at all possible, I would rather not have to tolerate my wife.”
Andrija arched a dark brow. “Do my ears deceive me or could it be that the great, powerful King Jakov wishes to be in love with his wife?”
Not wanting to subject himself to his brother’s obvious amusement, Jakov laughed off the idea. “Brother, I merely wish to be able to sink my cock into the woman that will lie next to me for eternity and it remain hard long enough to give my seed to her.”
“I see.” The look on Andrija’s face told him that his attempt at justifying the innate need to be drawn to the one he must choose was not going over with him.
It wasn’t as though Jakov wanted to have these feelings. No. He wanted to be like so many other kings before him. He wanted to pick a wife that was prime stock to assure his sons would be both handsome and healthy.
“Would sampling the women help?” Andrija asked, his dark brown gaze locked firmly on Jakov.
The thought of bedding several virgins in one sitting did sound interesting. Shifting his robe slightly, Jakov felt the stirrings of arousal deep within. He wasn’t worked up enough for his cock to harden but it at least seemed to be interested in the prospect of taking the virginity of many. That was one of his favorite things to do. “Perhaps. Send the next one in. I shall have her wait here for the others then I shall allow her the pleasure of servicing me.”
“Very well, my king.”
Megan Hart:Read in bed!
Leah Braemel
Eliza Gayle
Mandy M Roth
Lissa Matthews
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Myla Jackson
Taige Crenshaw
HelenKay Dimon
Lauren Dane
TJ Michaels
Shelli Stevens
Jody Wallace
August 3, 2012
Snippet: Force of Attraction
Bradi walked up from the training fields with one thing on his mind—checking on his wife. He’d spent more time lurking in the shadows over the last several weeks than not. He knew he was being a coward, and the fact that Nina had come right out and called him one to his face didn’t help either.
Come to think of it, every member of his family, including his holographic sister, had come right out and called him a coward.
Somehow, the thought of facing Marisa and telling her that they’d not only had sex but that she now carried his child, was his wife, his mate, his life, scared him to death. Being in love was the hardest thing he’d ever done. If she left, he’d never survive without her.
Bradi heard the sweet sound of her voice and followed the sound of it. He saw his sister Lorelei first, with her hands on her hips complaining about never letting Sevan impregnate her again and then he saw Marisa. Her long brown hair blew softly in the breeze and the white gown she wore made her look like an angel.
Laughing, she made a quick move toward Christian. Christian dodged her playful strike and swept her up in his arms. Bradi’s heart stopped when the two didn’t immediately break apart. The beast within him tried to rise as he watched Christian’s lips come down on Marisa’s. As quick as the kiss started, it ended, but the beast in Bradi didn’t care how chaste it was. That was his wife, damnit.
He ran headfast at Christian with the primal urge to tear his heart out. How dare he touch his mate? How dare he attempt to lay claim to that which had already been marked?
“Bradi, no!” Lorelei screamed.
He didn’t stop. Slamming into Christian, he toppled them both over. They rolled and Bradi let his claws spring forth from his fingers. He brought the tips up and pressed them to Christian’s throat. “Mine,” he growled out, the beast riding him too high to form much else.
Christian smiled smugly up at him. “Then it is high time you proved it.”
It hit Bradi then that he’d been baited. Christian had sensed him coming and kissed Marisa to get a rise out of him. It had worked. A little too well.
“What the hell are you doing?” Marisa asked, running up behind him. She pushed him hard, and he had the decency to pretend it hurt. “Get off him and suck those claws back in or whatever it is you do with them before somebody gets hurt. What were you thinking?”
“That you are mine,” Bradi said matter-of-factly.
“Oh, it’s about to get ugly around here. Come on, Christian. We better get out of here.” Lorelei reached down to help him up.
Bradi looked up to find Marisa glaring at him. Her green eyes were livid and he couldn’t recall a time when he wanted her more. She smacked him hard on the back of the head, and he bit back a laugh. “I belong to no one!”
“Not true. You are mine.”
She thumped him upside the head again. “I’m sorry, but the last one must have knocked what little sense you had right out of your thick skull. I belong to no one, Lieutenant Commander Janelle.”
“Actually,” he said, rising to his feet. “I would much rather prefer it if you call me by my newest title.”
“What? Jackass?”
“No. Husband.” He grinned and wagged his brows. “But you’re the only one who gets to call me that, wife.”
Marisa’s mouth dropped open and Bradi refused to back down. He’d spent weeks being afraid of this moment and he knew that it was now or never. “And while we are at it, wife, I think you should start thinking about what you want to name our child.”
Seconds ticked by, feeling more like hours. He expected Marisa to throw a fit. When she burst out laughing, he wasn’t sure what to do. “Oh, you had me for a minute there, Janelle. The husband thing was good, but the baby thing pushed it too far. Nice try, buddy. A baby requires sex. Of which, I’ve had none.”
She laughed harder and Bradi wasn’t sure what to do, so he gave into his animal instincts. Grabbing her up in his arms, he ignored her protests and headed toward his quarters.
Megan Hart:Read in bed!
Leah Braemel
Eliza Gayle
Mandy M Roth
Lissa Matthews
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Myla Jackson
Taige Crenshaw
Delilah Devlin
HelenKay Dimon
Lauren Dane
TJ Michaels
Just Released! Wicked Anthology (re-issue of Sex on Holiday)
WICKED WORDS: showcases some of the best erotic writing from both sides of the Atlantic, bringing together a collection of unashamed, wildly entertaining fantasies. It includes MAGIC FINGERS by the international bestselling author Sylvia Day, author of the Crossfire trilogy including the Sunday Times bestseller Bared to You.
Also contains stories from:
Alison Tyler
Mandy M. Roth
Kimberly Dean
Primula Bond
Fiona Locke
Maria Lloyd
Jan Bolton
Mathilde Madden
Caroline Martin
Angel Blake
Fransiska Sherwood
Celia Stuart
Deborah Knightly
A Colorado Woman
August 2, 2012
Series Delay and Muse Standoff
I’m often asked why one book comes out prior to another. Like, why one series book will come out long before another or why an unrelated title will come out when everyone has been waiting for a certain next book in a series. The answer often varies. Sometimes, publishers decide a release date and its set no matter what. I write for many different publishers. I have different series with diff pubs.
Also, a few things I’m waiting for the rights to the first books in a series to revert to me so they can be released as a whole with a new publisher. Other times something is found during edits that needs fixed, delaying the book’s release. And yet other times I can’t get my mind to focus and be fully part of the series world I created. Instead of pumping out a book that doesn’t match the feel of the rest of the series I wait. I would rather forgo sales than simply slap words on paper and throw a series title on it. That isn’t fair to my readers and it isn’t fair to my characters. I spend endless hours creating the worlds, creating the characters and breathing life into them. I could force it but the end product would read as such. I want to thank everyone for being so awesome about my releases and for embracing all of what I do. For loving me even when I need to clear my head and ignite the muse by stepping out of my genre and writing under a pen name. I know that you understand in the end it means stronger stories with my FULL heart poured into them. Never a book for the sake of a book or a book to “make a publisher happy” but in the end doesn’t satisfy my readers who become every bit as invested in my characters and worlds as I do. THANK YOU!
July 27, 2012
Snippet: Postin what I want to post
Snippet from Going the Distance by Mandy M. Roth
“You staying late?” Crosby asked as he held his bag over one shoulder. He was going through a painful separation from his long-time girlfriend and spent as much time as he could lending a hand at the gym.
Quinn glanced at his cousin, not really understanding the whole long-term relationship thing. When he found a woman he liked, he fucked her. That was all there was to it. He didn’t ask for more and he didn’t want more. Crosby was altogether different. He wanted to settle down and have the American Dream. The idea made Quinn shudder. Who in the hell wanted a picket fence and two point two children? Not him. “Yeah.”
“Want me to stick around? I could help you train?” The hopeful look in his cousin’s eyes was enough to make Quinn smile. As the Extreme Fighting Champion, Quinn was considered the shit around the gyms. Crosby got a kick out of the fact he chose to train in a gym in the area, rather than a big fancy one. The guy didn’t have room to talk. He still owned a rundown hotel in the neighborhood and also owned a big swanky one in the city.
“Nah, you go on home. I have it on good authority your mother made a big dinner and is expecting you.” One untimed hit by Quinn and Crosby would be dead. Didn’t matter that the guy also carried the blood of the wolf in him, that he was a wolf breed, and had the ability to shift forms like Quinn. He didn’t have the strength and the years of experience behind him. He wasn’t an alpha like Quinn. Not yet anyway. In a few years, maybe. For the time being, it would be too easy to accidently hurt him and that wasn’t something Quinn wanted to do.
Crosby groaned, kicking a foot out a little. “She called here lookin’ for me, didn’t she?”
“Maybe,” Quinn said with a slight smirk. “It’s a good thing. Means she cares and worries about you.” He refrained from commenting on how much he’d give to have his mother alive and worrying about him. He motioned to the back of the gym. “Hit the lights for me back there on your way out. I’m gonna stay here, do some reps and then shower.”
“Sure thing, man.” Crosby did as instructed and hurried off.
Quinn ran through two sets of free weights and then moved on to jumping rope. It helped his speed and agility, plus he tended to get lost in thought while doing it. A faint noise cut through the silence of the gym.
“What the hell?” Quinn stopped his training, set the jump rope aside and listened with his ultra-sensitive hearing. Assuming he’d imagined the sound, he moved to the next step in his nightly routine. He stood before the heavy bag, his hands bare and ready to strike. His knuckles were long since scarred over, no longer requiring tape or attention. He struck the bag and at the same moment, the noise returned.
“Arghh.”
His body cramped. Never had he responded to a sound in that way before. It was crippling, seeming to center in his groin. Catching his breath, his entire body strained as he listened for more. He heard it again and this time it was unmistakable.
A woman’s screams.
Not just any woman. One who was able to call upon his primitive side. The wolf that was as much a part of him as the very air he breathed raised its hackles, wanting to be freed. It was a side of himself he wasn’t embarrassed by, but one he didn’t let out often. When he did, bad things happened. In human form, Quinn wasn’t a man to be messed with. In wolf form, he was downright deadly.
He couldn’t deny going towards the woman in need. Her draw was unlike anything he’d ever experienced before and resistance was futile. She needed help and he needed her. It was basic but true.
Quinn had friends who had suffered through something similar—the inability to reject a certain pull or call to a female. In the end, it was because they were a destined pair. Mates. If it held true, that meant his mate really did exist and that she was in dire need of him.
“It’s my fucking imagination.”
He rolled his shoulders, doing his utmost to disregard what seemed painfully obvious. The odds were too high. There was no way he had a mate and that she’d be close enough for him to hear. The woman screaming was probably someone fooling around, having a laugh. The theatre district wasn’t far from the gym and more than once the actors had left the buildings late at night, carrying on so loudly one would think Armageddon was nearing. In the end, there was nothing really wrong with any of them. Didn’t stop Quinn from being fooled into checking on them. Not this time. No. This time he’d ignore their ruckus. He was sick of falling for their crap.
He placed his attention upon the heavy bag, doing all he could to clear his head. The screams came again, taking with them his ability to turn a deaf ear. Something was wrong. The terror in the female’s voice was too real, too full of emotion to be staged.
He snarled, the beast moving to the forefront and challenging him internally. It wanted him to respond to the cries, to save the woman, his mate.
“Stop thinking of mates.” He grunted. “All that leads to is a heap of bullshit.”
As was often the case, the wolf in him tended to see past the bullshit and cut right to the point. When all else failed him, his beast saw the world with a clear head and it said go to her.
Thrusting open the door of the gym, Quinn bolted, running full force in the direction of the disturbance. It was late and this section of the city wasn’t one to frequent after-hours. Various gangs had laid claim to it some ten years prior but that hadn’t prevented Quinn from training at the gym where he had started his career. A creature of habit, Quinn had always been one to follow through with the norm, to stay the course. The old neighborhood was no exception. It didn’t matter how well he’d done for himself or how many vacation homes he owned. The old gym was a part of him.
The woman’s scream echoed off the buildings around him, drowning out the sounds of the city at night. Gone were the sirens and the seemingly endless sound of traffic. Even the dogs that spent their nights barking, keeping up anyone unfortunate enough to reside in the area, were silent. All that remained was her plea for help.
Still caught off-guard by the intensity of his beast’s reaction to the sound, Quinn stumbled before catching himself with one hand. His knuckles scraped the brick of the building nearest him. The flesh ripped and blood pooled.
Sweat beaded on his brow, dripping down his face. His temples throbbed as his pulse sped. Her feelings beset him.
So much fear. So much pain.
The agony felt as if it were his own. Lifting his head, his eyes, now an icy blue because of the wolf within him, he stared out into the night. He was closer to the woman who called to him from blocks away. The one whose very cry had ripped him from his training, hardened his muscles and prepared his beast to strike. The hairs on his body rose as his senses heightened. She needed him.
The city’s current heat wave meant the breeze carried hot air with it. Humidity clung to the air as did her scent, reminding him that he had to find her. The option to refuse the call was no longer presented to him. It was internal and primitive. Something he could never turn down.
The call of my mate.
Burning need filled him and he surged forward, partially shifted. He leapt over an abandoned car and then a dumpster. Upon landing, he found himself standing in the center of a group of young, human males. They looked wired, their eyes bloodshot and their movements jerky, twitchy. They circled a bloody mass on the ground. He knew without being able to see that the mass was the female in need. His woman.
A low growl started deep in him. His jaw was tight, his mouth burning with the need to change. He was eager for a fight, hungry for the kill.
“Get the bitch!” one of the young men yelled, scratching at his arm. It was apparent he did so often from the scabs there.
Quinn had seen similar scars on junkies. Not just any junkies, but tweakers who were hopped up on the latest drug craze that was sweeping the streets. He wasn’t a hundred percent sure what the drug was but he knew it had something to do with supernaturals. He also knew the shit was potent and highly addictive to humans.
Another punk nodded, his face gaunt. “She has to know where her boyfriend keeps it stashed.”
“I need it, man,” the other replied, still picking at his arm while shaking his leg uncontrollably. “I can’t wait.”
Unconcerned with what they needed, Quinn roared, catching their attention for the first time. Shocked expressions covered their faces. They shared a look before taking a fool’s approach and attempting to come at him. One pulled a knife, bandying it about as if he really thought he might get somewhere in the using it department. It was almost laughable.
Unimpressed, Quinn blocked the strike with one blow, knocking the would-be attacker far from him. Another guy made a similar move only to find himself sprawled on his back, his upper arm bleeding. Quinn continued, granting no mercy. Even if he wanted to, his beast would not permit it. They were the cause of the woman’s distress. They were who had inflicted the pain upon her and they were who would answer for the crime. He could smell her blood and her fear upon them. It was like they’d been painted as targets for his beast to dispense with.
Two of the thugs were smarter than the rest and ran in the other direction. Giving chase was an option but Quinn had to see to the woman. Whoever she was, she needed medical attention. Bending, he reached with the intent to move her long brown hair back from her face and to check the extent of her injuries.
He turned her onto her back. Her eyes opened partially. Dark brown, almost black greeted him. She blinked and her brow furrowed before a sense of peace seemed to settle over her.
He nodded, hoping to come across as the bringer of peace rather than of death and destruction. “You got a name, beautiful?”
“C-Carri,” she whispered before her eyes fluttered closed once more. Her wrist was sliced wide open, the cut jagged. A broken bottle lay near her with blood coating its edges. The loss of blood was great. A supernatural would even have difficulty healing after losing that much blood. She lacked the scent of a fellow paranormal. All he could smell on her was her humanity, her mortality and her pending death.
Unable to let her pass, Quinn lifted her wrist to his mouth and allowed himself a partial change. The healing agents in his saliva would aid in controlling the bleeding and closing the wound. He licked her wrist, the sweet taste of her blood coated his tongue. His body responded with mind-numbing buzzing. It centered in his groin, his cock growing thick and long. He did his best to ignore the pulsing need, making his organ take heed of his better sense.
Energy seemed to pass from him to her and back again. For a moment, it felt as if he’d slipped his skin, left his body, his essence traveling into her, merging with her own. He shook the feeling but not before it had fully consumed him. There was no denying the signs. The wolf, as well as the man, was coming to an understanding—she was his mate.
He finished licking her wrist, the wound clotting nicely. Setting her hand down gently, Quinn checked her for any more injuries. Blood from his scraped-open knuckles mixed with hers. A niggle tickled the back of his mind bringing with it the knowledge that not everyone could come into contact with nonhuman blood and live to tell the tale.
Megan Hart:Read in bed!
Leah Braemel
Jody Wallace
Eliza Gayle
Mandy M Roth
Lissa Matthews
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Myla Jackson
Taige Crenshaw
Shiloh Walker
Delilah Devlin
HelenKay Dimon
Lauren Dane
Shelli Stevens
My writing cave…
I thought you might like a glimpse at my writing cave. This is as clean as its getting. And yes, I do own a LOT of books. Most are reference/research because I buy my fiction electronically now.
Pic taken over chair and laptop area of printer area
Look out my door. Its my office "guard".
Desk Area. Yes, two desktops are on it.
Back to School Shopping
The ads and flyers are coming. That means its that time of the year. (The most wonderful time of the year.) Time for the kidlets to head back to school. Now, insert the crappy part of this… school clothes and supply shopping. Who is dreading this? Who is groaning at the thought of fighting your way through the section with the .25 cent glue sticks and arm wrestling over the .99 cent boxes of crayons? Please tell me its not just me.
Also, I should note I always grab extra and donate them to my school for kids in need.
July 25, 2012
Need your help again on making a book FREE for good on Amazon
I hate asking for help but the only way to get a promo book to be free for good on amazon is to get reader help. Its a flawed system, I know and please know how very grateful I am that my readers are so awesome and willing to help.
Amazon reset the price of King, King, Goose? to $.99. I want it to be FREE for good to everyone on amazon. I need your help to get it listed that way again.
Here is how you can help:
Instructions:
King, King, Goose by Mandy M. Roth
1. Visit this AMAZON book page link. King, King, Goose? by Mandy M. Roth (click and new window will open)
In the PRODUCT DETAILS section you will see this under the info listed there “ Would you like to give feedback on images or tell us about a lower price?” Click on TELL US ABOUT A LOWER PRICE. Select ONLINE story option. In the url section you can paste one of the following URLs (doesn’t matter which one you use) and you can input the price as $0.00 and the shipping as $0.00.
URLs to be pasted in
http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/item/SW0...
OR
http://www.allromanceebooks.com/produ...
OR
http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/King-K...
