Guest Post- Setting the mood
One of the first author's to ever extend a helping hand to me as I stumbled into this business like an awkward puppy (I'm on an analogy kick today ) this woman knows a lot about the hurdles writers face every day. And she's got some damn good advice.
Please welcome——>
Robin Badillo
As a writer I find it difficult to just sit down, crack open the old laptop and start pecking away at the keyboard. No, I'm a woman with needs and that means I need to be in the mood. Yes, guys, sometimes we really do have a headache. LOL!
Living in a house with teenagers and the recent addition of my visiting 40 year old brother, whom I inherited when my parents divorced twenty-five years ago, I have a hard time setting the mood.
When school dismissed for summer break the first week of June, I knew immediately I was doomed, but did I prepare? Did I firmly set the ground rules? Did I draw up an evacuation plan? NO! So, two months later, on the verge of a nervous breakdown, here I am, suffering the consequences of my inaction!!
I find myself recalling a time in my life when I had goals and saw to it they were met.
Then… I had a kid… then came the bills… then came the dreaded dead-end job…then I added more kids….then more bills. You know the cycle, the one that develops overnight then abandons you with little hope of escape? I know what you may be thinking…damn kids ruined everything, right?
It's okay to think that, and it may not be too far from the truth of the matter, which is…the kids are to blame!!! Just not in a bad way. They're who I do it for and that puts a different spin to the never ending cycle.
I try to think of it as a fine tuned racecar, well on its way to the finish line on this track we call life. The stress and interferences thrown at us are merely glitches in the engine that require some finesse and maintenance from time to time. Maintenance, I like to call…time out.
For me, total separation is a must.
Now imagine a small three bedroom home in the country with teenagers, two insanely hyperactive dogs and yep, the brother. Not pretty, I assure you.
Now add an xBox, PS3, iPods, iPhones, satellite TV, outside temperatures reaching a scorching 100+ degrees daily and not a damn thing for the kids to do other than talk to me. No, you haven't stepped into some nightmare episode of the Twilight Zone, you've entered my life.
These are the days when I want to get in the car and drive until I run out of road. Not gonna happen though.
Instead, I banish myself to the "cave", otherwise known as my bedroom, dragging with me, the laptop, my big comfy chair, and a tall glass of iced tea.
Once set up, I turn on a little Pandora internet radio, tuning in my favorite classical music and love songs, open my WIP or whatever edits I may have waiting and I get to work. Isolation from the chaos is sometimes the only way I'm able to keep the little men in white coats at bay, though sometimes, I cut it rather close.
It's amazing how well I can focus when I'm all alone with only my goals to worry about. Granted, these time-outs are few and far between. Most times I'm only able to write a little here and there, inching my way to the finish line, but in those perfect moments of relaxation and often times, silence, I zoom past that checkered flag and take home the trophy.
It's a great feeling when everything comes together and I meet a goal. Though few and far between, it's all worth it in the end.
As a writer, mother, daughter, sister etc., we must find balance. I mentioned that just yesterday to another author friend of mine. It's true. Balance is the only way to make anything work, whether you're a writer, chef, sales clerk or some wealthy corporate executive. We all live in the same world and have our own tailor made stresses. Setting the mood for dealing with those issues may be different for each of us, but still a necessary tool if we want to succeed.
Hot bubble baths while sipping champagne, working out at the gym, swimming a lap or two in the pool, taking a walk in the park or banishing yourself to your "cave"… it doesn't really matter, as long as it works.
Perhaps, you're one of the lucky ones who've already figured out how to set your mood. If so, that's fantastic. Keep it up!!
If not, just remember, if all else fails, chocolate is a great listener and hits that sweet spot every time!!
Blurb: Raven Prince, a vampire, and Thorne Abbott, her
human lover, have endured secrets, lies and even murder. The only task
remaining is for Thorne to become a vampire as well. Eternity never looked so
good.
Haunted by the shame of deserting his first true
love, Jason Craft, became a hunter of his own kind. Brought together on a
mission of revenge, he found sanctuary in the arms of Jazmine Fabré and
together they uncovered a startling truth.
Jason, now an enemy of the Vampire Lord for whom
he'd been employed, sets out to save the coven he's been commissioned to eradicate,
which leads straight to the woman he left behind thirty years before, Raven
Prince.
Will fate lead them to where they were meant to be? Or will evil forces destroy them all?
Sometimes the only way to get something right is to go back to where it all went wrong.
Two Mini-Excerpts
Blood Hunter ~ The
Return
Thorne and Raven
Her stomach fluttered, hearing the sound of his car engine rev as he pulled up the long drive to their family's estate. He was home.
Raven dabbed a bit of tuberose scented perfume on her neck, then dipped down between her breasts and made a quick swipe across her wrists, hitting all the pulse points as though she were still human. Some habits were hard to break.
She glanced down and smiled as the sheer fabric skimmed across her breast, prompting her nipples to ball into tight, sensitive buds. Thorne's warm tongue lapping at her hardened peaks would have them softened and wet in no time.
"Raven," Thorne called out as he neared their bedroom door.
Raven bit back a giggle, dove onto the bed and stretched across it on her side, making sure she bent one knee ever so slightly to force her rounded hip to rise up from the indention of her narrow waist. The negligée clung tightly to her shapely form and the split up the side revealed enough flesh to get a rise out of him the instant he walked through the door. What little skin the slit didn't show off, the sheer fabric would surely expose.
"Raven? Why aren't you downstairs?" Thorne froze, wide eyed, as he rounded the corner of the entryway leading into the bedroom of their private suite.
Raven ran her tongue over her lips and eyed him up and down. "Would you prefer I be down there with the entire family, or up here waiting for you?"
His heart pounded so loud she heard it from across the room. "Well that depends," he said as he inched toward her.
"On?"
"On whether or not you want me to take that off of you."
Raven rose up on her elbow and glided her fingers up her thigh. "Oh, this better come off." She giggled.
He came to her and stood next to the bed. "What's gotten into you?" The left side of his lip curled as his hooded gaze took her in.
"You, if you hurry."
Jason and Jazmine
Jason stared at her as she returned her attention to the road. How had a guy like him managed to find the only two women on the
planet who could get through to his tough, loner ways and dig their nails in so deep he couldn't stand the thought of being away from them, not once, but twice in his life?
He had, in fact, let Raven go, but Jazmine? That was a different story. He wouldn't make the mistake again of bowing down to anyone,
not even his creator, Mena, and certainly not her ruthless sire, Bruin Duerr. Jazmine, he would die for.
He scanned her body, taking note of the way her thigh high leather boots hugged her legs and how soft ivory flesh peeked out from
under the hem of her short, black skirt. She rarely wore skirts, but when she did, every ounce of her sensual femininity seeped from her every pore. "If you don't get to the hotel in the next five minutes, I just may have to force you to pull over."
Jazmine's attention snapped back to him. "Why? What's wrong?" Her brow pinched with worry.
"I need to see you in those boots and nothing else, Kitten." He offered a cocky grin as his jeans tightened from his uncontrollable desires.
Jazmine arched her left brow, the corner of her mouth tugged tight and a devious grin followed suite. Tires skidded across gravel as
she slammed on the brakes, pulling over to the side of the road.
"You'll have to catch me first."
Before Jason could unfasten his seatbelt, the driver's side door slammed shut. She was gone.
"I love it when she plays dirty," he growled as he exited the SUV and bounded toward the forest just beyond the road's shoulder.
Playful laughter echoed through the night, bouncing from one redwood tree to another as he hurried through the woods in search of
Jazmine.
"You're getting warmer," she sang out from the dark.
Jason slowed his pace. "When I find you, and trust me, I will find you, you're gonna be in real trouble, Kitten."
"What's the matter? Is the big, bad vampire hunter feeling frustrated?" She continued to tease.
Jason's chest rumbled with a hungry growl as he skulked through the underbrush, her sensual scent, burning in his nostrils. The
delicate skin around his eyes tightened and his fangs slipped down into a predatory position. If it was a vampire hunter she wanted, that was exactly what she would get.
