Kimberly Adkins | Is there a mystical connection between lost loves?

My hands were clammy and the nervous feeling in my stomach felt like it was trying to work its way out as I dialed the numbers on the telephone.

“Hello?” he answered, and I was immediately taken off guard.

“I…I am sorry, I didn’t expect you to pick up the phone,” I stumbled over the words, desperately thinking about what I could say. After all, he hadn’t actually answered the phone for years; how could I have predicted that he would now!

“I dreamed about you all night last night,” I decided to go for broke with an honest explanation.

“And I tried to call you yesterday,” he said quietly, like the words might betray some emotion. “Most of your old numbers don’t work, but I left some messages at the one that did. I just wanted to hear your voice.”

Has something like this ever happened to you? I am a firm believer in the magic of love. Whether it is the science of chemical reactions or an attachment on a spiritual level that we can’t explain, I can honestly say that it is the last true magic I see in the world

I once had a friend tell me that we are all attached to the people in our lives by little psychic threads, and the thread to our soul mates is a beautiful, shining silver. At the time I considered it to be a lovely statement, prompted by fantasy and passion and I accepted it in an abstract fashion, but I have grown quite fond of the thought.

Do you believe the force of love can connect you to someone you haven’t seen or spoken to in years? What unusual things have you experienced with someone you are apart from? I’d love to hear some stories from the folks out there, and see what everyone thinks about it!

Thanks for sharing, and thanks for all your time :)

Kimberly Adkins

Author, The Medallion of Solaus

You can visit me at a couple of places, if you’d like to keep in touch or see what I’m up to:

My main website http://www.kimberlyadkins.com/

Come on over to Myspace and meet my wonderful friends! www.myspace.com/solaus

I have to travel out of state for a book signing on Nov 10th, but I’ll be checking in to see what everyone has to say!

Leigh Wyndfield - The Search for the Perfect Male

I’ve got a confession to make. The heroes in my romances are usually a prototype of my husband in some way, shape or form. After all, he’s the man I know best and I married him because I obviously find him hero-material. Combining him with a little Han Solo, I had in my opinion a wonderful male. But after many books, I began to think I needed a new prototype. Someone was bound to start noticing that my hot, yummy heroes were all a little alike.

So, I started the search for another hero archetype. He had to be handsome, smart, witty and the number one requirement was that even if he wasn’t perfect (in fact, I was looking for slightly flawed), he needed to be okay with not being perfect. I like heroes who feel great in their own skins.

I looked and looked and couldn’t find anyone. Months rolled by. I began to despair. Even the issue of People magazine’s yearly Best Looking People provided no new fodder. The men all looked too handsome, too delicate, so perfect as to be uninteresting.

Then I saw him. I was meeting my old work buddies (think a table full of computer geeks) when this guy walked into Panera’s. Tall, lean but covered in muscle, sandy hair, a real tan that had lasted into October, and a walk that screamed confidence. But that wasn’t the clincher. The thing that sealed the deal was that he wore an Australian outback riding jacket as if he’d just come in off the range. My mouth dropped open. What guy could actually pull that off and not look like a complete idiot?? My fingers itched to take out the small writing pad I haul everywhere with me for just these occasions. He was the perfect combination of Brad Pitt before he got all weird and a 30 year old Robert Redford. Brad Redford I named him in my mind, suppressing a female giggle that really isn’t my style, I swear.

It might have been better if he’d walked on by, forever to live in my mind as a fictional character. Instead, he sat down next to me. It turns out he was friends with the guys I was eating lunch with. Usually I’m okay with my voyeuristic tendencies – I’m an author after all. How am I supposed to build stories if I’m not constantly watching my fellow man? But now I felt a little weird and uncomfortable, similar to the feeling I had when my mother-in-law told me about her sex life.

This odd feeling went on until I looked down and saw him fiddling with his sock. Only it didn’t look like a sock exactly. It looked like…

“What the hell is that on your leg?” I asked, horror creeping into my tone.

He yanked on the thin, stretchy fabric. “That’s the problem with wearing tights. They always get all messed up around the ankles.” He spoke as if there was nothing out of the ordinary about men wearing tights.

I couldn’t stop myself. I had to know why Brad Redford was wearing women’s legging, even if I had a feeling the answer wouldn’t bring me any satisfaction. “But why are you wearing tights?”

He looked at me as if I’d lost my mind. “It’s cold out,” he said, as if that explained everything.


I left that day heartbroken and, without knowing it, had made a new (tights wearing) friend. Dave plays soccer every chance he gets, is a complete jokester and is, yes, hot. Weird (too weird), but hot. It took me two years before I finally used him in a story and when I did, it was unexpected, mainly because it isn’t the type of tale I ever thought I’d write. He’s one of the two men in my latest release, a ménage with the title TWO FOR THE MONEY. If Dave ever knew I put him in a M/M/F ménage, he’d be furious. He may wear tights, but he’s also much too Alpha to ever share a woman. But lucky for me, he’ll never know. It will just be our little secret!
Check out an excerpt of my stories at www.leighwyndfield.com/!

Ann Roth | Fodder for the Creative Mill

People are always asking, Where do you get your ideas? Oh honey, if they only knew! Here are some of my favorite idea generators.

Eavesdropping. I do that a lot. It's easy, fun, and good for getting those creative juices flowing. Also, when friends say something intriguing, I let them know that some day their story or clever word usage could end up in a book. Fictionalized of course, so that often they won't recognize themselves. With strangers.... they'll never know.

Observation. People watching is such a kick. Even more fun is making up stories about those you watch. Why are they behaving that way? Who are the people they are with? I'll bet even non-writers do this.

TV, radio, music and the movies. I've been known to take a premise or a snippet of and run with it. The end results never look remotely like the show from which I drew my inspiration.

Magazines and newspapers. Tons of great stuff there. Especially those advice columns and the stories of personal triumphs over bad situations.

And of course, life itself. Something happens to me or a friend or relative, or a friend's friend, and I get to thinking, What if?

I'm sure there are other ways of generating ideas. If you know of any that aren't mentioned here, please share.

Ann
http://www.annroth.net/
Mitch Takes A Wife, August 2007
All I Want for Christmas, November 2007

Jasmine Haynes | 10 Things Erotic Romance Writers Might Hear When the Word Gets Out

I started out writing romantic suspense, murders, serial killers, little things like that. Maybe I was watching too many forensics shows or something. Then a bit of paranormal slipped in there. You know, ghosts, psychics, big hunky, sexy detectives (yes, my Max Series by JB Skully from LiquidSilverBooks.com). After that came the humor. It just sort of slipped in there with Ladybird Long (my hunky, sexy detective’s mom from my Max series), then went off the charts with my first Jennifer Skully book, Sex and the Serial Killer. Finally, there was the really spicy stuff. And Jasmine Haynes was born (the pseudonym, not the real Jasmine). My mom asked me why I couldn’t write children’s books. I said that generally speaking people didn’t get murdered by vile methods in children’s books, and, really, there wasn’t supposed to be any S-E-X either. So, ever since, I’ve been leading a sort of double life. Actually, make that a triple life. Eventually, however, I had to come out of the closet. To my family. My neighbors. My accounting coworkers! My boss!!!! Here’s just a few of the things people said to me.

10) I imagine your husband needs Viagra. (I’m not quite sure whether that one was an insult)

9) Can I help with your research? (my male ex-boss, OMG!!!)

8) Could I do some hands-on critiquing for you?

7) Don’t you have to have more than one person involved for it to be called sex? (I didn’t feel the need to explain about...um...you know)

6) My husband raves about your books to all his guy friends. And he hasn’t even read one of them yet!

5) Isn’t there only one way to do it?

4) How can you write a whole book about it? It only takes two minutes.

3) That’s like the “funny” sex my husband made me do when we were young. Sometimes, it made me faint. (I was afraid to ask this lovely elderly lady for details!)

2) So that’s how you have phone sex! How does one go about finding a young man to try it with? I’d even settle for an old man (my 89-year-old neighbor!)

And my personal favorite:

1) I gave your book to a friend as a present, but I covered all the naughty parts with sticky notes. (Single-handedly, she keeps the sticky note people in business!)

So, to find out what everyone’s referring to, please don’t miss The Fortune Hunter by Jasmine Haynes, in bookstores today. It’s a sexy tale of a woman who agrees to be her own husband’s uninhibited mistress. Faith Castle wants a family, Connor Kingston wants to run her father’s company. In a modern-day marriage of convenience, the bargaining begins with the kind of no-holds barred sex life Connor desires and Faith is afraid she can’t live up to. Now everything is on the table, including them...

The Fortune Hunter is the first book of my “swan” trilogy about women coming into their own, finding themselves. Show and Tell will be out in July 2008 and Games People Play arrives sometime in early 2009. I will also have an anthology story out in December 2008. In addition to Jasmine Haynes, I also write as Jennifer Skully, over-the-top (hopefully hilarious) romantic mysteries, and as JB Skully, I’ve created the Max Starr psychic mystery series at http://www.liquidsilverbooks.com/. Readers can learn more about all my pseudonyms at http://www.skullybuzz.com/. They can also watch two movie trailers on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/skullybuzz. Subscribing to my newsletter for updates on the latest releases is easy, just send an email to skullybuzz-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

And don't miss my monthly contest with lots of wonderful prizes from different authors at http://www.skullybuzz.com/.

And for those of you who enter my contest today, you will be entered into a drawing for a PDF download of JB Skully’s Dead to the Max, Book 1 in the Max Starr series. I’ll choose the winner at midnight (okay, I’ll be in bed, so I’ll choose the winner as soon as I get up in the morning!)

Michael Connelly

Michael Connelly
Originally uploaded by freshfiction

Oh, shucks, we missed Harry Bosch! He couldn't come to the Texas Book Festival -- but Michael DConnelly -- yup under those shades -- was able to read, take questions and sign his books.!! Woo Hoo we got one for Fresh Fiction.

Alyssa Day | When Characters Run Wild

Here’s a little secret that not a lot of non-writers realize: Authors are not always in control of their characters. Some of us are rarely in control, which makes for the occasional difficult conversation with our editors. For example:

Me: Um, about that synopsis. It doesn’t actually bear any resemblance to the finished book. You’re good with that, right?

Editor: (long-suffering sigh) Well, I’m kind of used to that with you . . .

I can’t help it. It’s not like I consciously set out to drive my poor editor nuts. It’s just that I’m happily writing along, following my lovely plotted-out outline (yes, I plot, I love to plot, I outline, I describe scenes, sometimes I even include snippets of what I think at the time is wickedly brilliant dialogue), and then when I start to write . . .

Most of it ends up in the recycling bin.

When I was writing ATLANTIS AWAKENING (coming to stores near you November 6th!), I had an especially tough time with this. You see, I fell victim to one of the other problems that can strike unsuspecting authors, usually with no warning: The “I know too much about my characters” syndrome.

My hero, the Lord Vengeance, is one of the fiercest warriors in the history of the lost continent of Atlantis. He’s also dealing with many very deeply painful emotional issues, not the least of which is that his soon-to-be sister-in-law, a woman he’s grown to care deeply for, may lose the baby she’s carrying. The baby is Ven’s brother’s first child and heir to the throne.

In the early draft of the beginning of the book, I had envisioned Ven reacting to a lot of this worry in a certain way. But around page 100 or so, I got stuck. I just couldn’t write. I knew something was wrong and I couldn’t figure out what.

Finally, FINALLY, Ven walked up and smacked me “upside the head” as my Grandma used to say.

Ven: What in the nine hells are you doing to me?

Me: What are you talking about? Also, you’re a fictional character, so back off.

Ven: I’m the toughest warrior in Atlantis. I’m the leader of the Seven. I have kicked vampire and shapeshifter ass for CENTURIES. But on these pages, I’m a damn whiny baby. Are you freaking kidding me?

Me: Um . . . you’re dealing with all that stress! Riley and the baby! Conlan! The thought of perhaps being forced to take over as high prince!

Ven (disgusted): I’m not a girl. I’m not going to sit around and talk about my FEELINGS with the rest of the warriors while we demolish vamps in a back alley. Freaking whiny baby. Cut it out or I’m going on strike and walking out of this book.

Me: Fine. Fine. You can’t walk out of this book – you’re the HERO! You have to meet Erin and fall in love . . .

Ven: Yeah. And about that . . . I’m not really the hero type. Why don’t you make somebody else fall in love?

Me: Shut up, or I’ll make you sit around with Denal and Justice braiding each other’s hair.

As he snarled at me and stalked off, I realized that he was completely right. Not about not being a hero – Ven is one of the most heroic characters I’ve ever written, in spite of not seeing himself that way. But about the way I was portraying his struggle to deal with the emotional issues in his life. I knew too much about what he was facing, but I wasn’t being realistic in how he would deal with it all.

When I scaled back on my empathy for him and fell back into his true voice, the book flowed like Atlantean ale in the palace dining hall. The experience of breaking through my writer’s block, although painful to go through, taught me a lesson about my own process: I need to plot and outline and plan, because I love working my way through options and ideas and twists and turns. But then, I need to set it all aside and write, letting the characters tell me their stories in their own voices.

That’s when the magic happens – when I let the characters run wild.

Speaking of wild, in honor of tomorrow’s release of ATLANTIS AWAKENING and my birthday on the 9th, enter my contest and tell me something wild you’ve done on a birthday (keep it at least to PG-13, please!) and I’ll randomly pick two entries to win an autographed copy of ATLANTIS RISING, the first book in the Warriors of Poseidon series. And please visit me at http://alyssaday.com/ for updates on all things Warrior!

Hugs,
Alyssa