The Government Watches Us… We Should Watch Back

I’m not a crazy alarmist. I’m just crazy. lol Seriously, I KNOW when people say things like this, it sounds crazy. Plus, there’s this whole laziness factor to add in as well. Then there are elements of disbelief because… it just can’t be. But it is. Parts of our society have gone to seed, been allowed to run rampant with unfettered access to power and position as we watch on.

Do I think our government is evil? No. It’s populated with people as well, who are just as lazy as the rest of us. But when the general population is being all lazy and shit, we isolate and want everyone to leave us the hell alone. When government gets lazy, something else happens. Corners are cut and shortcuts are taken. Only the people who represent our government do this, its the general population that ends up paying.

So what started all this? Just watching video after video of cops pulling people over and going beyond the scope. So, here’s the deal. It used to be that some cops had cameras on their cars. It got pulled because there were too many incidents that made the cops look unfavorable. So many departments got rid of them. So my bright idea is to have citizen filmers.

That’s right. We all have smart phones and some of us carry around small video cameras. Film traffic stops and various other cop/citizen interaction. Then upload it onto youtube so that interested parties can access it. Tag it with date, time and city/state and crossroads.  As more videos are uploaded, it’ll be like the largest grass roots reality TV show ALL on youtube. Not only do we keep everyone in check, we get some good entertainment as well. Win/win, dude. What the hell are we waiting for?

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Examples of why we need to watch our government, starting with the police.

Hundred’s Protest Albuquerque’s Trigger-Happy Police Department

Hot Autumn Nights Blog Hop Winner

We have a winner, or three. 🙂

Drum roll, please… the winners are: Carolyn and BookAttict. But because it’s the Christmas season, I picked a third. Well, random.org did. lol My third winner is jennifer mathis. If you’re a winner and didn’t indicate your email address or book title and format preference, please email me or use the contact me page with the contact form, and let me know which ebook you would like, which format you prefer and an email address to which I may send the aforementioned prize.

To help that decision along, I’m linking to both the Holiday Spice anthology with my story Homecoming, and to the FarSeen. Just click on the pictures below and it will take to the parent pages. If you click through on the FarSeen cover on the OtherKind page, it will take you to the FarSeen main page complete with reviews, blurb and excerpt. Once you’ve read the tidbits available for the two offered prizes, that’s when an email to me should be happening or about to happen.

FarSeen

Click for more

holidayspice_small

Click for more

As soon as I know which book you want, I will either send a link or the book directly to you. I would really appreciate it if you’d leave a review on Amazon or goodreads or somewhere, but it’s NOT necessary. Mostly, I want you to enjoy my stories. 🙂

Also, if you didn’t win, but feel you must have my book(s), I would totally be happy and willing to exchange a copy for a review. Shoot me a note using the contact methods listed above for the winners if a review in exchange for a copy of the ebook is something that sounds interesting.

Last, but not least, THANK YOU to everyone who participated in the hop, came to my blog and commented. I really appreciate it. We all do.

Hope you all have a wonderful, happy holiday season!

Manday Monday and Tribute

Paul Walker died a few days ago. I loved him in FF. Thought I share one of his pics today in tribute. Because we lost one of our go to Manday men. He will be missed, and not just because he was so pretty.

 

And a close up.

 

Night Blind Cover Reveal and Saturday Snippet

Night Blind

nightblind_800_2 Just got my cover for NIGHT BLIND. It is so pretty. lol I really should wait to do a reveal until the edits and everything are all worked out. But I got so excited that I just couldn’t wait. I keep looking at the pretty, shiny and getting all excited. 🙂

This story is Part 2 of a 2 part prequel to my OtherKind series. The main characters in these two books are sisters. Unbeknownst to them, the witch sickness is the opening salvo by a madman bent on controlling the world, human and OtherKind alike. As sides are picked and lines are drawn, the world as they know it will be changed forever by this power struggle.

Night Blind is the story of Ellie, Lucien and Rory coming together as they hunt down the source of the witches’ magical sickness. Lucien is a Vampire Lord, Rory is Lucien’s werewolf body guard and Ellie is the witch sent to dispense the goddess’s justice. They’ve been sent to seek and destroy. Along the way, they find each other.

Ellie is Evie’s sister. Evie, Trent and Drew were featured in FarSeen. Anyway, here’s the blurb. Bear in mind that the blurb and snippet haven’t been edited at all. So, any mistakes are mine. Flog me. lol

Blurb:

Every Vampire Lord needs a shifter bodyguard. Rory’s been Lucien’s for a while now. And although Rory’s been protecting Lucien’s body, Lucien has just been plain lusting after Rory’s. Unfortunately, Rory’s been rebuffing Lucien’s advances; that is, until Ellie comes along with her witchy bad self. The Witch Council is sending her in her capacity as Enforcer to Dallas. And to make matters more interesting, they’re also sending Lucien and Rory

Ellie’s mission is to find and destroy the source of the witch sickness. Along the way, she uncovers Rory’s reason for hesitating in accepting Lucien’s advances. It isn’t because he doesn’t like or want Lucien. Rory does. He’s just never been with a man before. As a result, Rory and his wolf were confused when Lucien came on to him in the past. With Ellie’s help, Rory’s not confused anymore. Now, what happens in Dallas… well, it’s not going to stay in Dallas

As Lucien, Rory and Ellie navigate the intricacies of a full triad and one man new to manlove, they also have to navigate the treacherous home of Dallas Vampire Lord during the winter solstice. Because something is rotten in the Texas city. And Ellie’s pretty sure it’s the Dallas Vampire Lord.

  Snippet:

“Thank you for your cooperation,” she said as she slid her blade into its sheath. It had taken her a long time to learn to sheath and unsheathe her blade in one move. It looked cool and impressed bad guys. It had the added benefit of not cutting off her neck at the same time. It was the latter she enjoyed the most. Although, she wasn’t adverse to imparting shock and awe in her opponents. “You can either call the Council for a pick up or dump him on the roof for the sun. The choice is yours.”

“The Lord sent word that he wishes to speak with you,” Morrie told her, ignoring her disposal instructions.

“Tell Luc I’ll get back to him,” she replied.

Morrie’s eyes got big  and wild while his guards went solid. “Enforcer, I don’t think he’ll be pleased by that news.”

His eyes stayed big. She wasn’t sure if he was shocked she wasn’t scurrying off to call the Vampire Lord or if it was because she had just called the Vampire Lord Luc. Probably a bit of both.

“Don’t care. I got a job to do, Morrie. I don’t have time to detour to speak to your Lord,” she was bone tired. She needed to report in to the Council. But she needed sleep. Killing rogues and drawing her power had left her very, very tired. “If he doesn’t like it, tell him to take it up with the Council.”

She turned and walked out the room. The scent of ozone receded as she made her way to the rear exit. She had no desire to walk down the hall again listening to people fucking and sucking, nor did she want to go through the packed blood den’s bar area.

She stepped through and walked out into the night.

I hope you enjoyed the cover, blurb and snippet! NIGHT BLIND will available early next year.

Preorder: 14th March 2014 (book becomes available to preorder through TEB website)
Prerelease: 28th March 2014 (book becomes available to buy through TEB website)
General Release: 25th April 2014 (book becomes available everywhere)

Hot Autumn Nights Blog Hop

One more blog hop to end the year on a high note. I’ve got a new release this month from Foreword Literary in their anthology entitled Holiday Spice. My story, HOMECOMING, is in there. It’s a brother’s best friend turned lover and their first holiday at home… together.

I also had a release late last month from Totally Bound entitled FARSEEN. That book has witchy goodness, menage and magic. FarSeen is Part 1 of a 2 part prequel to my OtherKind series. NIGHT BLIND  is Part 2. I just got my cover for it, and HAT TRICK. If you scroll down the side bar, you can see the cover for Night Blind.  Or scroll down the blog and read a snippet from it. Homecoming and FarSeen have numerous snippets peppered throughout the blog, click on snippet in the category or tags and it will pull them up for you in one location. To see the cover for Hat Trick, mouse over titles and click on Name of the Game. Hat Trick is Book 2 in that series.

So this blog hop is to celebrate those things, like my book releases or just to have fun around the holidays. lol Thanksgiving is one such holiday. Food, family and football. The ubiquitous recipe for food coma. Our country could get invaded during the aftermath of Thanksgiving dinner and we wouldn’t do more than groan and roll ourselves onto the couch to lie down. lol

Speaking of which, my favorite way to spend hot autumn nights– especially a Friday night, is to go watch a local high school football game. Hanging out with friends, neighbors and other parents cheering on the local team sipping hot apple cider with someone you like-like. 😉 Holding hands, grabbing a 3-2 beer, making out under bleachers and generally horsing around. Grinning like mad when the team scores, booing the refs off the field and shaking my groove thang to the slightly off-key marching band. Could any night get more perfect? Whether this is date night with your lover or just getting together with the community, what a great way to spend a fall night. Well, I guess if it turned even more sultry and hot later, you know, after the game with… a… smokin’… hot… round… of… ummm… kissing. Yeah, that’s it– kissing. 🙂

Anyway, you can choose either the Holiday Spice anthology with Homecoming or FarSeen as your ebook of choice. Just leave me a comment. I’d love it if you told me about your perfect hot autumn night, but any comment will do. Just be sure to include your email, which format you want the ebook and which ebook you want.

I hope you enjoy the hop. To get the most out of it, check out the others in the hop as well. There is a $80 grand prize gift card as well as cool winnable swag from other authors. The gift card is being picked at random from a commenter from one of the blogs.  If my understanding is correct, random.org is being used to pick a blog in the linky list at random, then a commenter from that blog will be picked at random. Just as an FYI– you increase your chances of winning the GRAND prize if you comment at each blog. So stop by, have fun and enjoy yourself!!!!

Happy Halloween 2013

Happy Halloween! It’s the spookiest day of the year. Muhahaha. lol An excuse to dress up and eat candy? Sheesh, what’s not to like? I love Halloween. I like the trick or treaters. I like the grownup costume parties. I like it all.

Halloween always signifies the start of the holiday SEASON. You know the one with the capital S. It starts the Halloween-Thanksgiving-Christmas trifecta. One right after the other toward the end of each month. And mostly having to do with food. Again, what’s not to like?

So I did the Wicked Warriors Halloween Hop to give away my book FarSeen. I gave away two last time I participated in a hop. Gonna do it again this time. The winners are sandyg265 and Krysta B. I’ll get in touch with you by email or you can go to the contact page and drop me a line with what format you want. ** as an aside- if any of you who participated in the blog hop but didn’t win and you want an epub copy in exchange for a review, please let me know by leaving a comment or using the contact form or email. I’ve got one left.**

Thank you to everyone who participated!! I had a lot of fun doing the hop and I hope you did as well!!

Just a little news. I have this on my home page, but I signed a contract for my second book, Hat Trick,  in the Name of the Game series with Rebel Ink Press. I signed to have part 2 of a 2 part prequel released next year in March/April. Night Blind will be published by TEB and is part of my OtherKind series. I also had 3 short stories accepted into anthologies. Date Night, Homecoming and Show Me will be released at various times over the next few months by some really good people. October has been a month filled with treats for me. Lovin’ the awesome.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday Season. lol

Update 10/30/13

I’ll do a larger post tomorrow. I just wanted to briefly do a small status update today. Mostly because the blog hop is closing tonight. If you want a chance to win my latest release, go the Halloween Hop post and leave me a comment. I kinda think of these hops like trick-or-treating as adults go from one blog to another gathering chances for treats. lol

I will announce the winner of my giveaway tomorrow. Probably on the home page where I do most announcements. I might do more than one giveaway. It is Halloween after all and you never know what the spirit will move me to do. 😉

I think I might do nano. Although the work I’ll be working on is longer than 50k. So maybe I will use any 50k within the 92k-ish the novel will be as the barometer of whether I win at nano. I win. lol I like the sound of that. So if I can set shit up to make that happen more often than not, well, don’t shoot me if I do it. lol I should get one of those nifty word/progress bars to put in the side bar menu to track if I’m on target. But I am not doing this as part of the big nano. It’ll be a personal one. Just for me.

Cripes. November is almost upon us. I can’t believe how fast this year has gone. Halloween tomorrow. Then All Saints Day the day after. Should be a blast. Not.

 

Music Monday 10/28/13

Justin Timberlake, y’all. Yes, yes I know. I’m sure some of you have strong feelings about my selection for this Music Monday. Don’t care. Not a me problem. He’s been on my mind lately. Not just because he has a new album out, but also because he’s been mentioned in a trilogy I was reading. Like worlds converging, yo.

See, I didn’t use to like JT. Not at all. I had relegated him to the corner of laughable boy band personas with lip syncing capabilities, pretty boy looks and easy docility. In other words, I wrote him off. Completely.

Then one night as I was on the way to the forum. No, not really. I just always wanted to say that. It was one night. But it wasn’t on the way to the forum. It was as I was hanging out watching HBO in my bedroom that JT came on in his FUTURE SEX/LOVE tour badness. He took over the screen. And he gave a helluva performance. Which made me rethink things about him. No, I still don’t think he has a great voice. But it’s passable. What he does have is the ability to perform and put on a show and entertain us. And that’s a talent. It takes skill. Charisma. He has it. He’ll never be a great singer. But he is a good performer.

So here are a few JT selections. Two from that concert I saw on HBO and one from his latest album. Enjoy!

Love Stoned/I Think She Knows

What Goes Around

Mirrors

Snippet Saturday- Homecoming

holidayspice_smallHere’s a little treat from my upcoming soon-to-be released short story, HOMECOMING, put together by the good folks at Foreword Literary. It’s being released in a holiday anthology called HOLIDAY SPICE. I hear plans are in the works to have this out and in your grubby little hands by early November if possible.

I’ve seen the lineup of writers listed in the table of contents for this one and it’s a goodie. Should be some hot, hot, hot stories in there to help warm you up on a cold fall-ish/winter-y night. I’m pretty sure this is their first Holiday anthology. I’m betting it won’t be their last. It would be a good thing to get in on the ground floor and get the very first one and then each one every year after to make yourself a little collection. Plus, you might discover the next up and coming hot author in one of the anthologies. If my experience with past anthologies is any indication, then several of the authors you find in current anthologies will be the next Sylvia Day or something.

Anyway, here’s my story with blurb and snippet below.

Blurb:

Tessa’s known Nathan for most of her life. She should. He’s her younger brother’s best friend. Which means she’s also his elder by two years as well. They’re both home for the Christmas holidays. And for the first time, they’re together.

Tessa knows her brother isn’t going to react well. She doesn’t know how everyone else is going to react. What she does know is that she wants Nathan more than she’s ever wanted anything or anyone. This homecoming for the holidays could be the worst in the history of holidays, or it could be the best and the start of more yet to come.

 

Snippet:

“Babe, you look beautiful,” Nathan whispered from behind her.

She hadn’t heard him come up behind her.

Hearing his voice gave her an unexpected thrill. A fluttery feeling that began in the pit of her stomach and radiated out. God, she had missed him. Which was so funny. Nathan had been around her, her brother and in their home constantly when they were all growing up. Sure, she’d noticed he was hot and growing up hotter. But he was Rick’s best friend. So while she noted him in a vague sort of way because he was her brother’s friend, she hadn’t noticed. Not really

When he’d come and stayed with her for some job interviews in DC, she hadn’t seen him for several years. They kept missing each other at holidays. Not only had he grown up but he had become beyond hot. They’d gotten a little tipsy that first night and then everything had changed. She was pretty sure they hadn’t dressed or left her apartment the entire he’d been there. Ordering food in and staying in bed when they weren’t eating or showering. Or the few times he left for an interview.

Now he was moving to DC. He wanted to move in with her. And she wanted that too. She was just unsure of how their parents would react. And she was pretty sure that Rick would go ballistic.

Rick and Nathan had been best friends since grade school. She so did not want to get in the middle of that friendship. Not at all. But she refused to give up Nathan. Which meant that this Christmas was going to get tense.

“Hey, Nate.”

“I grabbed some mistletoe. Come with me. Let’s find a secluded place so I can put it over your head and you can kiss me senseless,” he said, his lips tipping up as he teased her.

“Nathan,” she admonished. “We can’t make out in my parent’s house.”

“Yes, we can,” he disagreed. “Either come with me and find a hidey-hole or I’m going to kiss you senseless right here.”

New Purchase

Seriously posting a status update to talk about hitting the button for a new Kindle Paperwhite 3G… y’all. OMG. I am so excited. Seriously. I only have one reading device and it is really, really old. Like getting to the point where it keeps shutting down and rebooting old. Like I might not have a reading device soon old. So I ordered the new device. I could’ve gotten the non- 3G one now. But, I dig on the 3G. A LOT. It makes downloading books way easier to have both wifi and 3G capabilities. And it’s for life so the extra money is well worth it. The one I have now is 3G as well and it ROCKS. Wanted the same for the new one.

So I broke down and looked at the available options. And because I already have a Kindle, I’m getting another one. It’s just the way I roll, yo.

This seems to be the week for me to get electronic devices. I also picked up a small 7 inch tablet. It’s yellow and cute and I like it. I need more time to study it. But it seems cool for now.