Countdown to Halloween

Halloween is by far my favourite holiday. I mean, okay, yes, I'm an actor and, therefore, I get to dress up in costumes a lot. But it's not the same as Halloween! Halloween is the day when everyone gets to be whoever they want to be for (at least) one day. How fun is that? We can be so mired in the day-to-day, wake-work-sleep routine that the opportunity for such blatant frivolity and living fiction is almost necessary to keep a mind sane. ... Or is that just my mind? ;-)

My costume is essentially done already. Of course, I chose not to pull from my stock this year. (What? Doesn't everyone have a personal stock of costumes?) I just had to build a new one. *rollseyes* Fortunately this one wasn't too tough and a friend of mine generously came over to help. It looks pretty damned cool, if I say so myself. I'm just waiting on the one item I had to order, and I'll be good to go! Good thing, too, since I have two parties to attend this weekend. (Making up for not going to any for the past several years.) If I get a good picture, I'll post it to Facebook.

I love October!

Tuesday is the New Hump Day

Here's a little something to get you through the week. :D

Tyler Hoechlin from the surprisingly awesome show Teen Wolf.

Busy month...few months.

Busy month ahead. Well a few of them. These last few months have been busy with releases and lots of writing.  I’ve been working hard and plan to keep continuing. Love when I have lots to work on. I can’t believe it is October and in few months the year will be over. Now I’m off to get some more work done.

Before I go I wanted to mention I have 2 releases this month. :) This month Wicked Alliance ( Bonds of Justice #2) will be released to cyber shelves at Total E Bound on October 8, 2012 and The Law of Desire (Encounters#1) will be released to cyber shelves at Dreamspinner Press on October 17, 2012.

Very busy month. :)

Talia Carmichael
http://taliacarmichael.com/
Fill Your Cravings
Blog: http://taliacarmichael.com/blog Newsletter:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/taliacarmichael

Buy After the Fall here

Just in case you missed Keira's post on Tuesday.... you can download a FREE cookbook from All Romance eBooks!!

Just click HERE for your free copy, featuring recipes from today's hottest romance authors!

Food and love have had a long association, for Passionate Cooks: Free Recipes From Today’s Hottest Romance Authors, over 150 authors of the genre have put their pens and computers aside to don aprons, get down and dirty in the kitchen, and share their love of food.
Much like romance novels themselves, the dishes range from spicy to sweet. There is something for every taste and every level of culinary expertise. The cookbook includes New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Mari Carr’s “Wild Irish” Cream of Crab Soup recipe. Western GBLT author BA Tortuga contributes a dish as spicy and colorful as the straight-shooting author herself with Ranch Hands—a blend of Tabasco, salsa, onions and cumin, added to pinto beans, eggs, Canadian bacon and cheddar cheese and served in a tortilla. And for those of you who are feeling extra creative and sexy, there’s the Avocado Dip that doubles as body paint from mystery writer Marcia James.

Some recipes are simple, such as Down Home Mac & Cheese, while some are more exotic, such as Spicy Shrimp Risotto. There are even some gluten-free selections, like the Sweet and Spicy Gluten-Free Lo Mein-ish Noodles from erotica author Sommer Marsden. And a few are perfectly timed for a Halloween, such as Tracey H. Kitt’s Gamberi del Diavolo or Shrimp of the Devil.

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Quivering with An-tis-ci-paaaaaaaa.....tion

Okay, so Frankenfurter quotes don't translate well to written word.

But I am getting excited for Desire in the Desert...GayRomLit in Albuquerque. I start road tripping it on Wed. next week. I have a new cowboy hat and everything. New one is leather b/c the straw hat is starting to fray around the edges.

Elisa Rolle is running a finishing contest on her blog: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/1763641.html You can win 100 eBooks or one of two DVDs.

I'll see y'all there!

To NaNo or Not to NaNo?

It's almost that time again. November is coming and that means NaNoWriMo. I'm seriously considering not signing up this year. Oh, I think I'll still buckle down on the writing in November, but I'm not feeling the call of the meaningless, self-imposed, arbitrary deadline. That may change. There's a steampunk western knocking around in the back of my brain. If it finds its way to the front, then perhaps. Still, I've done six NaNos in a row, and that's not bad. I could take a year off. Maybe this is the new 7-year itch. We'll see.

Anyone else on the fence this year? I'd love to hear your thoughts, pro or con, on taking a year off NaNo.

Ring Drop

Slash & Burn

A little over a week ago, I had some free time one work day afternoon. I wrote my Slash & Burn post then, very excited to get it finished ahead of time. With football season in full swing, and me in another writing slump, it felt good to be ahead of schedule, even if only for blog posts.

Today, being my day of the month to post here at Slash & Burn, I went into my Dropbox folder to grab the file and … it’s not there. I don’t blame Dropbox. I love that app. Before Dropbox, I’d wash flash drives on a regular basis. I lived in constant fear that I’d drown one completely, and lose a bunch of work. Ah, but that’s a tangent for another day. Where did that blog post go?

I don’t know…

Now I’m thinking maybe I just wrote the post in my head. Sound weird? Yeah, I know it does. During the work week, I walk around the office building on a regular basis. It helps my back and neck survive the horrors of sitting at a desk all day. When I’m walking, I think and plan. I come up with new scenes for characters that I’m struggling with, or I map out blog post ideas, or I plot out timelines for what I’d like to accomplish in the coming months. I’m sure I sketched out the idea for today’s post in my head on one of these walks, and this morning, I also would’ve sworn that I returned to my desk after that walk and added my thoughts to a Word document.

Except I can’t find that Word doc I thought I titled “Rings”.

Sure, there have been several walks were I created what I thought were great ideas, and promptly forget them by the time I sat down at the computer again, but today might be the first time I thought I wrote something down when I didn’t. I blame the Muse. She’s been elusive lately, so maybe I’m daydreaming about actually accomplishing my goals instead of simply letting cute twink boys run wild in my head for the sheer pleasure of it. Anything is possible.

As for the Rings, perhaps I really will write that one for my next Slash & Burn visit. Or, maybe it’d be better to write it on my blog this week. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll just think about it some more, because apparently thinking makes me feel extra productive. And the rings themselves? They were cock rings. Public cock rings. More… later.

Ciao,
Pia Veleno

PS Haven’t tried Dropbox yet? Free back up storage and syncing between storage and multiple computers… why not? Free here: http://db.tt/nUvSipK

Passionate Cooks: Free Cookbook!

All Romance Ebooks has outdone themselves with this new cookbook featuring more than 150 recipes from today's hottest romance authors -- and I feel very fortunate to be counted in that group!

Much like romance novels themselves, the dishes range from spicy to sweet. There is something for every taste and every level of culinary expertise. The cookbook includes New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Mari Carr’s “Wild Irish” Cream of Crab Soup recipe. Western GBLT author BA Tortuga contributes a dish as spicy and colorful as the straight-shooting author herself with Ranch Hands—a blend of Tabasco, salsa, onions and cumin, added to pinto beans, eggs, Canadian bacon and cheddar cheese and served in a tortilla. And for those of you who are feeling extra creative and sexy, there’s the Avocado Dip that doubles as body paint from mystery writer Marcia James.

I'm excited to try out the recipes from my fellow authors, and you'll find something sweet and simple in there from me. Download your free copy today!