I have deadlines, so why the hell am I procrastinating!

 By Olivia Starke

So here I am, facing THREE end of April deadlines for two different publishers. One for two 7k+ eroticas, and one for a 17k+ paranormal erotic romance. I promised both would be finished and ready to go by the end of April, because I’m awesome like that. And when I say awesome I mean bloody crazy, because I’m still not clear how any of these stories will go.

What am I doing instead? For one, avoiding my situation by cyberstalking Matt Smith on Tumblr and Pinterest.As I do most days, because, well, it’s Matt Smith, and I’m sort of in love with him. (If you’re scratching your head why, talk with my b/f/f Erin, she understands.)

Actors Matt Smith & Jenna Louise Coleman (Doctor Who)

And second, spending a great deal of time staring into space, just like in math class back in the day. I’m not sure what it is about a looming deadline that brings out the procrastinator in me. Maybe I like the rush of adrenaline when I put things off last minute. Sort of like bungee jumping for those of us not insane enough to try bungee jumping. Maybe I like the sleepless nights worrying about my procrastinating. Maybe I simply have a screw loose. Whatever it is, it likes to eat up a great deal of my time. And I let it, welcoming it with open arms.

If you’re a procrastinator like me, feel free to share your woes (with an email!) and I’ll enter you for a chance to win something from my Decadent backlist J

Olivia Starke

Coming soon to Decadent Publishing Dirty Love my new paranormal for 1NS!

Familiar Desires

Ashley Adams signed up with the 1NightStand service in hopes of stirring up some cougar passion in her lackluster life. When she meets tall, dark, and oh-so-sexy Justin, the sparks fly. But something deeper lies in their magical connection, something she isn’t prepared for. Will a casual one-night stand change her life forever?

Wings of a Butterfly Playlist

Writing my latest short for the 1NS series had seen a reconnect with some old loves, and discoveries of new. Here goes (part of) my playlist:

Baby - Justin Bieber feat Ludacris

 A constant staple, this bubblegum is laced with narcotic, I tell you. Funny thing, to date, I have not liked any other Bieber song.

Cuando Me Enamoro - Enrique Iglesias y Juan Luis Guerra

 Enrique returns from hiphop hell! Hurray for longtime fans who'd been there since his first eponymous album.

Si pudiera bajarte una estrella del cielo

Lo haría sin pensarlo dos veces, porque te quiero, ay

Y hasta un lucero, ay

If I could get a star from the sky for you
I would do it without second thoughts

[And] Because I love you
I would reach the stars

Niña Bonita - Chino y Nacho

A combination of upbeat tunes and sweet lyrics to keep this author amused.

Te queda pequeña la frase "Te quiero"

Por eso mis labios te dicen "Te amo"

The words "I like you" are not enough

That's why my lips say "I love you"

Nel blu di pinto di blu (Volare) - Domenico Modugno

Love this song in all its iterations from Gipsy Kings to Luciano Pavarotti, but Modugno's version suits the mood of Wings of a Butterfly.

Abhi Kuch Dino Se - Mohit Chauhan (from the movie Dil To Baccha Hai Ji)

Like Bieber's Baby, I need some pop to rein in sentimentality. A feel-good Bollywood pop number usually does the trick.

Amor Imposible - El Duo con Clase

Er, a song titled Impossible Love. How can it not be perfect for a story about two people meeting for a brief, perfect night and separated by time?

Loca - Shakira ft. El Cata

Dance, or die. Heh. 'Nuff said.

 If any of these intrigue you, they are all on YouTube. Have fun!

Meet Desiree Holt!

Hi! Let me introduce myself. I’m Desiree Holt and I write erotic romances in almost every subgenre. I currently have 100 titles in release. You can check them out on my web site www.desireeholttellsall.com. You can also find me on Facebook www.facebook.com/desireeholt and Twitter @desireeholt. I live in the Texas Hill Country surrounding by horses, cattle and totally sexy cowboys!

So. A glimpse into who I am.

How did you start your writing career?   I wanted to write for a very long time. I was an avid reader growing up and had so many stories rolling around in my head pushing to get out. So finally, one day, I just sat down and started to write. One hundred and sixty seven rejections later I was beginning to wonder if this was meant for me. Then I sold my first story and was off to the races. And it’s been nonstop since then. I’ve been blessed with a lot of people who helped me along the way and I appreciate every single one of them. 

When in the day/night do you write? How long per day?   I write during the day and I’m actually a very disciplined writer. A NYT best selling author who happens to be a good friend of mine always says you have to approach writing as you would any other job and work to a schedule. I’m never short of plot ideas so it’s just a matter of selecting the one to work on. I spend two hours every morning answering emails and doing promo, then I write for six hours. This also includes doing edits that come in. At night I read and watch television but I always have a notebook with me so I can jot down thoughts about the day’s work. Then the next morning I use those notes as a guide for the day. 

Where do you research for your books?   Actually a lot of places. Much of it comes from the Internet, a wonderful place to find out about anything. Plus I have acquired a lot of human resources: a sheriff, a former Army counterintelligence officer, former Delta Force soldier, gun instructor, cutting horse ranch owner, restaurant owner, you name it. And if there’s a place similar to what I write about and it’s accessible I go there and take a zillion pictures so I have visuals to refer to. I also found that there are people I can phone who are more than willing to answer my questions. And sometimes that happens by accident. When I was in LA for the Romantic Times convention I went to The Viper Room with decadent, fell in love with the band and the bass player inspired a story. In fact the rock club in the book is similar to The Viper Room. 

Plotter or Pantser? Why?   Maybe a little bit of both. I always start off with the outline of a plot, but my books are  very character-driven and my characters talk to me while I’m writing, so very often my plots take an unexpected twist and turn. 

How do you develop your plots and your characters? Do you use any set formula?   No set formula. Sometimes I start with a character just begging for a story, so I do a basic outline of that person and see what my brain tells me to do with him or her. Sometimes I have a setting that says, Oh, please write about me and I let my brain do its thing and come up with a plot. And one book that I wrote I only had one line to begin with but it was a very definitive line. I had to figure out a plot to go with it. Another time I read a Letter to the Editor in the local paper about an incident that set my very strange brain to playing the What If game. So I guess I don’t really have a formula, just a lot of ideas that I corral and then try to put some kind of outline together. And then, sometimes I’ll write a book that by the end just begs to be the start of a series. I think of my brain as a mixing machine filled with ideas about people and things. It spins around and I grab whatever comes out! 

What do you do to unwind and relax?   Sometimes I hang out with my daughter (she’s the only one of my kids who lives close to me) or with friends. But I really love to read and drink wine. My reward at night for making my word count each day is to read at night. Oh, and during football season I’m glued to the television all weekend. I am the world’s most obsessed football nut. 

Tell us about your next release.  I’d like to tell you about my first release coming out with Decadent. It’s called Joy Ride, and was inspired by the very sexy bass player with Run Devil Run, as well as the environment of The Viper Room. It’s the story of Marc, a bass player in a rock band who wants a very grounded life to go with the volatility of the music business, and Emma, who’s spent her whole life never coloring outside the lines until, as she’s approaching her thirtieth birthday, a friend shows her there’s more out there and suddenly she wants it. When she ends up one night at a rock club, the first she’s ever been to, there is an instant physical and emotional connection between her and the bass player. For Marc she represents everything he’s ever looked for in a woman, in a relationship. For Emma he’s a forbidden thrill and the intensity of the relationship frightens her. Want to find out if they manage to work it out? LOL! Look for Joy Ride. I think you’ll fall in love with Marc and Emma and their story.

THE OPHELIA DAWSON CHRONICLES PLAYLIST

By Kimber An

Music inspires me, but more than that it’s a vital writing tool.

I have four children. Yes, four! On purpose! And I enjoy being a mommy more than anything else in the galaxy. But, I also need to write in order to be happy. So, how in the name of all that is sacred do I pull it off?

Music.

My time on the computer is extremely limited. I absolutely cannot wait for The Muse. In fact, one of my heroines chucked her into a flaming tar pit a long time ago for saying her butt was fat and I have not missed the Old Hag one bit.

Instead, I have a Playlist for each story.

As soon as I hear the necessary song, I am transported into that story’s ‘universe’ in my imagination and I can write.

The Ophelia Dawson Chronicles Playlist started with a singing group which was popular in the early 2000’s called the A Teens. http://www.a-teens.com/

They’re from Sweden and all grown up and gone their separate ways now, but you can still find their music. Here’s the pivotal song:

SUGAR RUSH

For me, the Playlist isn’t like a movie soundtrack. The songs end up on the playlist because they invoke a feeling. The first two stories in my series, Sugar Rush (sound familiar) and Crushed Sugar had young love at the heart of them. The next book, Sweet Bytes, which I’m working on now is very much about Ophelia, the heroine, maturing into serious ‘Kick-Buttitude.’ She’s won her freedom from the bad guys through the sacrifice of her true love and she wants him back. Now. In order to get him back and keep her freedom too, she must become confident in her abilities. So, on the face of it, you wouldn’t think a children’s cartoon movie, Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron, would be inspirational at all. But, just feel the beat and listen to the lyrics of GET OFF MY BACK by Bryan Adams

And to end the entire series, Ophelia goes off to college with Adrian, Bianca, and Brandon. The scene is already complete in my head, though I still have two more novels to go before I get to it. Here is the song which inspired it, also by Bryan Adams for Spirit-

HERE I AM

Yeah, I can see it now, Brandon painted green at a University of Alaska hockey game, yelling, “SCORE!” Bianca’s waving pom-poms like crazy and Adrian’s got his arm around Ophelia who is doing vector calculus on her iPod.

http://www.goseawolves.com/

And they all lived Happily Ever After.

The End.

What Drives You Forward?

by Rebecca Royce

Each time I sit down to write Rachel Clancy, the protagonist of The Warrior series, I find myself answering a question.  In Initiation, the first book in the series, I needed to know what would happen to Rachel when she discovered that the monsters she’d feared her entire life, the ones who existed outside, or Upwards, from where she lived were not necessarily as bad as the ones she knew at home.  What would that do to her? And isn’t it the same for all teenagers?  Doesn’t part of growing up mean reassessing the childhood beliefs that the adults taught you to help you get through the day. Who was Rachel? How would she make it through?  

Rachel impressed me so much.  I didn’t really know what she would do when I sat down to write her story and by the end of it she and I knew each other very well. Although she is in no way me, (She is much braver than I am.) I like her a tremendous amount.   

The next book, I knew, would be more complicated for her because the question plaguing me that would be the momentum for Rachel’s story was hard.  When all hope is gone, what drives you forward?  Because learning that lesson is part of the journey every teenager makes.  In Rachel’s case, the situation is different than teenagers today.  In our world, no one is being asked to fight vampires or werewolves. But we do ask teenagers to handle their peer groups, their coaches, their teachers, and sometimes the expectations of the adults around them as they figure out who they want to be for the rest of their lives. 

Driven is complicated.  But Rachel is magnificent and I can’t wait to tell her next story.   

Here is a blurb below: 

My name is Rachel Clancy. Forty-six years ago, life as humanity understood it ended. Armageddon. Well, that’s what we call it, anyway. What other term works as well to describe the day the Vampires and Werewolves slaughtered nearly all of humanity?




When Rachel Clancy turned sixteen, she inadvertently changed the lives of everyone around her. Now, six months later she has to figure out how to live with what has happened.



Sent back into the wilderness—this time with a new love—she will find herself face-to-face with two people she never thought to see again: the boy she thought she loved and the man who wanted to destroy her since birth. If Rachel can learn what drives her forward, there may be a chance for everyone to start again. If she fails, all is lost.


I hope you’ll join me on Rachel’s journey to adulthood. There is a lot of story left to tell! 

~Rebecca Royce~

Brits to the Rescue!

by Maureen O. Betita

A funny thing happened as I started to write the third book in my Kraken’s Caribbean series, The Pirate Circus. I began it without any particular music working to get me into the groove. I tried my Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks but with that playing, I couldn’t find my present H/H voices. I slogged on, doing what I could with no special music selected.

I’d write to whatever Starbucks was broadcasting. But it wasn’t working terribly well. (Let’s face it, on any given day the Starbucks soundtrack can be schizophrenic at the best. I once heard Frank Sinatra then Nina Simone, followed by Bootsy Collin which segued to Toad the Wet Sprocket and move on with Bob Marley.)

What is a writer supposed to do with that?

A friend suggested the soundtrack to Cutthroat Island and I was pretty excited! And it did the trick to get me back on track. Just enough pirate vibe to shift me away from fixating on “Sinnerman” and flirting with putting a character into dreadlocks. (Though the soundtrack from the 1999 Thomas Crowne Affair is a fabulous thing to write by! Especially “Sinnerman” by Nina Simone.)

But it wasn’t really inspiring me. And the words were proving elusive. Then the book sold and I knew I better get my ass in gear. I now had a deadline. I couldn’t afford to let the story drift but needed to strap on the outboard and get going!

I thought, “Well, I need something without words.” I plugged my ear buds into my iPodnano and scrolled through my music.

“Hmmm, the Best of Acoustic JethroTull…well, that might work.” I selected it and sat down, hands to keyboard. The music started and then Ian’s voice wove through my head. Ooops. Acoustic didn’t mean no vocals. Where was my brain?

But wait…this was working… “Life’s a Love Song” filled my head.

I let it play and my story began to unwind. I wasn’t really hearing the words, but the playful, rough voice of Ian Anderson while the changing time signatures that is characteristic of JethroTull managed to break the anchor chain.

So, I’m not up to 25k in four days and moving along nicely, thank you! I expect by the time this blog posts to be more than twice that word count and near the finish. (Then I get to dive into revision, and who knows what might work for that! I have a feeling JT will still do the trick. Maybe the classical version ofTull the London Philharmonic recorded...)

As with all things, I recommend that you be open to what music might work for what you’re writing. I certainly didn’t expect my JethroTull collection to fill my sails with great gusts of inspiration. And it isn’t any particular album that is working. I have the iPod on shuffle and from the acoustic, to Ian’s solo works, to Aqualung and Locomotive Breath…they are all working!

Ah, but when he sings about the sea…or that flute rises… My heart soars and it totally rocks!

Huzzah!

Just found out they’ll be playing next month not far from me… *happy dance!*

Note to everyone! I am holding a very exciting contest on my personal blog and on FB… Help me find the missing kraken at www.maureenobetita.com/blogslinks. Yes, I am accepting entries here and any site I blog on during the entire month and on my author FB page, http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Maureen-O-Betita-Author/155907664465540

I’ve got great prizes, check them out!

Echoes at Dawn Playlist

by Kathleen Gallagher

Here are some of the songs from my playlist for my debut novel Echoes at Dawn.

Each piece has a special meaning pertaining to the story. These are some of my favorites. One of them plays a significant role in the story itself. I won't give it away. You'll have to read Echoes atDawn to find out which one it is.

Love theme from Titanic   
Celine Dion
"This song was released the year I started dating my husband."   

(You Want To) Make a Memory by Bon Jovi

"I love this haunting melody, and of course the singer."

Suddenly 
Billy Ocean
"Suddenly is my hero’s song to his lady."

The Power of Love 
Celine Dion

"This song is my heroine’s song to her love. "

The Music of Goodbye from Out of Africa  
Al Jarreau and Melissa Manchester

"This song is so beautiful, and it ties in with the characters conflict."

Dream on Aerosmith

"Dream on,  sums it all up with an amazing performance by Steven Tyler."

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