Romance Writers of Australia, 2019

The fabulous Bec McMaster. Read her books!

 I am home from my visit to Melbourne, Australia for the Romance Writers of Australia Conference,  2019! Friday night, the Mercure/Pullman hotel hosted the annual cocktail party. The theme was Twisted Fairy Tales. Not all of us dressed up, but man, those who did looked AWESOME!

The party was the kick off of an amazing weekend full of workshops with brilliant women, talking writing, and of course, my presentation on Writing the Best Sex of Your Life. Australian romance writers are so gracious, intelligent, and friendly. I was beyond honored to be there.

A half-feral Belle.

 Various links of various people I met:

Davina Stone

Bec McMaster (OMG her books are so good)

Jacqui Greig, Editor of Blush Magazine

Nalini Singh A giant among romance writers, though she is petite and adorable.

Moses, telling us how to do it.

Me in front of the gorgeous rose wall.

Jacqui Greig, of Blush Magazine, and tall husband!

So many cool costumes.

All the criminals of the fairy tale world.

A hippy, happy Malificent!

More criminals!

Coming soon!

I'll be releasing Dracula Unleashed in the fall - a perfect adventure story for the cold days.

In order to whet your appetite, here is a snippet!

Patience was a virtue Valerie Tate usually lacked. Loyalty, though, she had in abundance. Therefore she loyally, if impatiently, told Glenath Tempesta for the sixth time. “No.  I don’t know where Luc is.”

Luc Breton, the leader of the paranormal community in Europe, was obviously avoiding Glenath. On a stranger note, though, he was avoiding television and all media appearances. For as long as Valerie had known Luc, oh, a couple of centuries now, he was an attention hog. She cleared her throat in emotional discomfort. Personal honesty forced her to admit to having this particular flaw herself.

“I’ve got this damned conference in three weeks,” Glenath said for the seventh time. “I need him here, in Portland, so we can renegotiate the Treaty of Prague.” A slight slurping sound came over the phone. Glenath had taken to calling Valerie during mealtime. The woman was living on milkshakes snatched between meetings. Valerie said nothing on the Bishop’s terrible habits. Her own diet was equally limited. “This whole situation stinks,” Glenath said after swallowing. “The tensions here are rising. I’m sure there will be a war.” In the background, Glenath's vampire lover, Anthony, growled in agreement.

Valerie made a non-committal sound. Her own extensive experience of war had left her jaded. There was always going to be another war. Her friendship to Glenath kept her silent on the topic. The mortal had an aversion to such matter-of-fact thoughts.

Humans, Valerie thought kindly. Always so hopeful.

Glenath and her boyfriend, Anthony, are based off of this hot pairing.

Dracula Unleashed.

Behold! The cover for Dracula Unleashed, the last book in the Blood Wings Trilogy.

On the cover, we have our lovely and dangerous Valerie. The sleeveless one is everyone's favorite angel, Lance Soleil.

And rocking that gray tee-shirt is John Jante, the sweetest of our little menage.

Here are some other pictures that I am using to inspire my writing:

Angle Wing Chalcedony

My original vision for Lance.

Valerie loves diamonds.

The inspiration for her dragon embroidered coat.

Topkapi Palace

Lots of people visit Topkapi

Pinterest Love.

I love my Pinterest boards. I use them for brainstorming on my books and for general inspiration. Here are a few of my boards and their pins.

Live Like Celeste
My friend Babs and I came up with this board one day when we decided we wished we could be Celeste Barros from Vamping It Up and Keeping It Up. Celeste is brave, bold, and super-stylish. Here are a few outfits we thought she would wear.

This is what she wears in Keeping It Up to meet her new lover.

Some Alexander McQueen.

Keeping It Up
Who doesn't love doing research? And who doesn't love doing research on a location for sexy good times?  This is the library at Vilnius University in Lithuania. 
 

Where I imagined Holly and Linc getting it on.

Curse of the Spider Woman 
I'll be honest. I based Jordan Tasos, the hunky ex-lover of my main character Rachel Havelock on Jeremy Renner. 

Can you blame me?

And this is Rachel.

 

Book Locations: The Drake Hotel.

My current work-in-progress involves travel (as all my books do). The heroine starts in Chicago, Illinois, and ends up in Athens and Delphi, in Greece. As part of my preparation to write, I like to collect maps, photographs, and descriptions of my locations.

My first location is the Drake Hotel, a long-time fixture of the Chicago Gold Coast. For me, it has long been the epitome of luxury, style, and class.

So of course, I had to set a scene where my hero receives his top-secret orders and his weapons on a secret floor. Something like this:

Obviously, I need to go to the Drake and get some of my own photos!

(The following clip has nothing to do with the Drake, so just think of it as a bonus yummy for the day.:)

Photo Blast of Rome

How can I describe the massive experience that is Rome? I can't. So here are a bunch of photographs.

The impossibly blue sky over the Colosseum.

Umbrella Pines at the Imperial Palace

The Boxer of Quirinal, a bronze of 330 BC.

A sarcophagus. Check that crazy detail!

The center of Rome, in the Forum.

Trajan's column.

The Pantheon. Appropriately a busker was playing Stairway to Heaven in the courtyard!

The enormity of the Colosseum.

Athena will mess you up!

Augustus as the Pontifex Maximus.

The head and hand of Constantine.

Reclining Dionysus.

A dramatic corner of the Baths of Caracalla.

The only photograph of Florence you will ever need.

You cannot go to Florence without seeing Michelangelo's David. 

It's hard to describe how truly epic this sculpture is. No photograph can truly capture it's emotion and passion.

Except, maybe this one:

From the Women's Restroom at the Accademia.

Art, Emotion, And Muses

A repost from October 2009

Michael and I

I got to participate in one of the coolest things ever.

I got to experience a photo shoot with the hugely talented and visionary Michael Baxter. Internationally known as the premier belly-dance photographer in the world, he was willing to meet with me and work on some portrait and retro-style pinup photographs.

Michael is the sweetest person you'll ever meet. He's generous, kind, and the very definition of artist. In between shots, we talked about what makes a photo or a paragraph or music into art, something transcendental.

Not to get all Aristotelian on everyone's asses, but we kept coming back to the idea that art evokes emotion. For example, tragedy arouses fear and pity, then creates a catharsis for those emotions. All art forms revolve around emotion- the arousal, examination, and release thereof.

Aristotle, author of the Poetics.

The visual arts can suggest a story in a single image. The written arts can suggest actions and meanings that re-create or imitate the world.

Thank you, Michael, for being a Muse for me.

Dream Big!

Self portrait of Peter Paul Rubens

Writers are told "not to quit their day jobs", that publishing is a difficult industry to break into, that you'll never be as big as you dream.

To these naysayers, I say,

MEET PETER PAUL RUBENS

Rubens, 1577-1640, was the foremost painter of his time and is considered one of the truly great artists of Western Civilization.

Rubber ducky added to show scale.

But most people know Rubens through pictures in a book - small pictures, if not down right tiny.
Look at these lovely thumbnails from the book The Louvre: All The Paintings.

Teeeeny-tiny little dreams. See that picture on the right with the three naked ladies just sort of hanging out? Yeah, looks like a masterpiece from a big shot artist, huh??

But! Rubens dreamed BIG. And I do mean BIG.

It's hard to take a steady picture in the presence of the magnificence of Rubens.

Here is (a crappy iPhone) photo of the painting in person, at the Louvre. With me, a 5'10" next to it to show scale.

This is not the dream of someone who is scared of losing their day job.

So dream like Rubens. Dream big. Dream of words thirteen feet tall and 10 feet wide.

Cool stuff at my desk, part six.

For the days I need an extra brain.  

I had to correct its grammar. Think original? Really???

 

Dracula's Secret, Book One. At Amazon. At Barnes and Noble.
Check out a chapter!

Dracula's Desires, Book Two. At Amazon. At Barnes and Noble.
Check out a chapter!

Dracula Unleashed, Book Three. At Amazon. At Barnes and Noble.
Check out a Chapter!

The rise of cool stuff at my desk.

 

 My jade magnifying glass and a beautiful statement for my nervous mind.

Tranquility has no boundaries.

Dracula's Secret, Book One. At Amazon. At Barnes and Noble.
Check out a chapter!

Dracula's Desires, Book Two. At Amazon. At Barnes and Noble.
Check out a chapter!

Dracula Unleashed, Book Three. At Amazon. At Barnes and Noble.
Check out a Chapter!

Cool stuff at my desk rides again!

The text reads:
This creature is a performance organist. Recently he feels that he has exhausted his repertoire of Romantic compositions. He would like to be adopted into an American home in order to properly learn the culture of jazz. He feels the jazz organ is a highly neglected genre and nees some filling out. His favorite classical composer if Bromanavich.

Ain't he a cutie!

 

Dracula's Secret, Book One. At Amazon. At Barnes and Noble.
Check out a chapter!

Dracula's Desires, Book Two. At Amazon. At Barnes and Noble.
Check out a chapter!

Dracula Unleashed, Book Three. At Amazon. At Barnes and Noble.
Check out a Chapter!

Son of Cool Stuff on my Desk.

 Is there anything left to say?

Impossible you say? Nothing is impossible when you work for the circus.