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Showing posts with label self-promotion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label self-promotion. Show all posts

Monday, January 9, 2017

Sex-positive: What is it and why is it good for you?

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Like many terms within feminism, sex positivity means different things to different people. As a broad ideology and world view, sex positivity is simply the idea that all sex, as long as it is healthy and explicitly consensual, is a positive thing.


It's pretty obvious that I believe in the sex-positive movement. I write novels with consensual sex. My female characters own their desires and ask for what they want. My male characters not bullies who threaten or coerce their partners. And everyone in between those two poles has a chance to experience pleasure.


So I put my text where my beliefs are and wrote The Little Sexy Workbook. 

 Cleverly (I think) adorned with full color photos of statues from Italy and filled with fun, relaxed games to promote conversation, The Little Sexy Workbook is here to bring sex-positive energy to your life.

Monday, January 2, 2017

Curiosity: Rice Museum of Rocks and Minerals

Exploring is very important for writers, dreamers, lovers, and well, everyone, really. I like discovering cool things about my local area. So I visited the Rice Museum of Rocks and Minerals.


The museum building was originally constructed by Richard and Helen Rice as their family home in 1952. Richard Rice, a logger by profession, incorporated many rare Oregon woods, such as myrtle wood and quilted maple, in the fabrication of their house. The Rices built a gallery in their basement to display their amazing personal mineral collection. In 1997, the entire building was converted to a public museum, and an additional gallery building was constructed in 2005.

I love learning how the world works. Learning just a little bit of this geology was enough to get my imagination firing.

Enough talk! Let's look at their amazing, mind-opening stuff.
I don't even remember what this is, but wow!
The Charming Mother in Law with an enormous opal.

Imagine the forces it took to create such beauty.

The perfect place for a wizard to meditate.

These agates make these "landscapes" all on their own!

I could see a sort of fantastical entity hiding in here.

Ancient Tiger skull. Yowza!

I love Lapis Lazuli.

What story do you see in this piece?

The Rice's amazing house.

This makes me think of the wings on my angels in the Blood Wings series.

I think Lance's wings float like the chalcedony...
Can't you just see the feathers?





Monday, December 26, 2016

Self-Care: Retreats

The Forest Grove Grand Lodge.
A retreat is a form of radical self-care. It's not always (or usually) possible. If you are in financial tough times, I recommend getting a cheap notebook and scoping some time during your lunch break to empty your brain into it.

You get some time away from your normal schedule and develop your ability to see the trends and patterns that are good for you.


 Back in November of 2016, I took a two-day retreat to clarify my life and my writing. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we have a local chain of brew-pubs and hotels called McMenamins.


Buy it HERE.
I went to the Forest Grove Grand Lodge. Here I had several hours to journal, soak, think, and write. (Yeah, and take lots of pictures of the awesome artwork.) I finished my upcoming novella, Keeping It Up (to be released in January 2017), a sequel to Vamping It Up.

Retreats are perfect for refreshing your intelligent, sexy, and curious selves. (If I may be so immodest, allow me to recommend Vamping It Up as a great retreat book!) 

Ok, back on track.


If you can, find a place that is really pretty.
Explore your environment.

You get some time away from your normal schedule and develop your ability to see the trends and patterns that are good for you.





What feeds your head and your soul the best? Written words? Visual Art? Music? Scent? I like to check out art books from the library and read them for a mini-retreat if I don't have time for a proper get-away. 
Isn't this the perfect place to dream?

Gorgeous view out those windows.

McMenamins' locations are known for their whimsical art.

Serious Whimsy.


This was on the ceiling of my room.

A little face to watch over my fire alarm.




My room number: I was almost James Bond.








Friday, August 19, 2016

Welcome to my Literary Lair.

Hi, I'm Linda Mercury and I write very sexy paranormal romances!

Dracula's Secret is my first book and the first in the Blood Wings trilogy. The second and third books, Dracula's Desires and Dracula Unleashed, are currently being re-edited and will be released in 2017.

As you may guess, it's about Dracula. :)

Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble

 
 Curse of the Spider Woman is a stand-alone novel that blends Ancient Greek Mythology with the action-adventure tension of a James Bond movie.

With consensual sex, that is.

Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble


 Vamping It Up is an erotic coming of age novel with a very special breed of vampire.

Read about Holly getting her mojo back here at

Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble.com 



 The Little Sexy Workbook is for all the people who want to have a joyous, uninhibited sex life. If you want to be able to communicate fearlessly with your lover, this is the book for you!

Amazon

Barnes & Noble.com

Hello, and awesome to meet you! 

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Vamping It Up: Are you ready?

Vamping It Up will be released on Friday, October 24th, 2014 - Just in time for your Halloween reading needs!

To whet your appetite, here is what happens after Holly decides to free herself from her ex's mindset.
***

“Hey, what did that door ever do to you?” Her neighbor, Steven Dearborne, spoke from his doorway. The only time Blaine met Steven, her former fiancée claimed the other man was a horn dog. “Don’t talk to him. He wants to fuck you. A guy doesn’t smile at a girl unless he wants to fuck her.” She had believed Blaine’s assessment. After all, her ex-fiancé was older and more experienced. Hindsight told her his order revealed more about Blaine than about Steven. As a result of her blind trust, she knew very little about Steven.

He was a graduate student in math, shaved his head, and wasn’t with his noisy girlfriend any more. Today, his bald scalp gleamed with perspiration.

Unlike slender, hairless Blaine, Steven’s auburn chest hair decorated a broad barrel chest set with heavy muscles. He would have been right at home in one of those old pirate movies with strong men chained to the oars. Holly gazed at his chest. His pectoral muscles rose from his sternum in a graceful arch. His belly wasn’t a cobbled eight pack, but it was flat and tight, belying the stereotype of the sedentary math major. His reddish body hair was fine and pettable, like the softest fur.

Under that thin coat, his muscles moved with a supple enticement, drawing her attention to the line from his navel to his crotch. Holly glanced down, expecting to see the ubiquitous cargo shorts all men wore around campus. Instead, Steven wore a black and tan sarong decorated with enormous, frolicking geckos. His lax genitalia pressed against the thin cotton. He hooked his thumb under the waistband of his sarong and fanned his fingers.

Steven was framing his wedding tackle. Steven was uncircumcised and dressed to the right. Well, hello, Steven.

Monday, October 20, 2014

Vamping It Up Cover reveal!

Do you want to see the cover for my new novella? I said, DO YOU WANT TO SEE THE COVER FOR MY NEW NOVELLA????
 
Well, since you insist. ;)
****



When half-vampire Holly Barros’s fiancé dumps her via text, she knows she’s gotta do something new with her life. Her glamorous great-aunt, vampire Celeste Barros, states that the girl needs a vacation, and how!


Celeste flies Holly from Seattle to Las Vegas, where she discovers the real meaning of Sin City. The Strip is full of sexy men, eager to tempt and please the broken-hearted young woman. 


Can Holly find out who she wants to be, vampire or human, in the midst of the whirl of Nevada? She’s willing and ready to find out!
 

***
Holly will be released on the world soon!


Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Author Speed Dating!

Sponsored by the Library Foundation of Hillsboro!

Ever wanted to just sit and chat with an author? Find out where all those ideas come from; maybe even find out how to bring your own zany stories to life? Well, come on down to the library on Wednesday, Oct 30th and you’ll get your chance to learn more about how the magic happens with a whole room full of Pacific Northwest authors! Light refreshment will be served. Learn more about NIWA at www.niwawriters.com.

Friday, July 19, 2013

Wise words.

Therese Patrick
Romance writers are generous and loving and kind. Don't believe me? Listen to these wonderful words by Therese Patrick to me, when I was despairing that I couldn't write for 8 hours at a time.

Write for 8 hours on end? Good grief! 4 - tops. I'm not into turning my mind and body over to a muse for half of my consciousness each day. Writers need to be living life in order to write about it. 8 hours of butt in chair every day is not living life, it's avoiding the stories that are developing and evolving all around us.

Stories come from people. 4 hours of being out in the world where people are walking and talking - then 4 hours of butt in chair... Or 4 hours of reading followed by 4 hours of writing.

You can't write about life if you are not living life or reading about life. Find your own personal balance then celebrate that! The words will live there.

Learn more about Therese over at her great blog, Author Marketing 101. 

Co-founder of  Author Marketing 101 with C. Morgan Kennedy.  AM101 is FREE marketing advice and actionable tips for authors. We present workshops and our AM101 Guide & Journal will be published in the fall of 2013!  Our 7 Primary Points can be applied to Artists and Small Business owners who are looking to stand out from the crowd in the internet cloud.  Change the words that apply to authors and books to your title and product and have fun online.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Dracula's Desires now available in paperback!!

Pardon me as I engage in shameless self promotion - Dracula's Desires, Book Two of the Blood Wings series is now out as a paperback!

Links:
Amazon.com

Barnes and Noble


And don't forget that Book One, Dracula's Secret, is also available in paperback, too!




Amazon.com

Barnes and Noble

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Romantic Times are the best of times.

At the beginning of May, I attended the Romantic Times Reader Convention in Kansas City, MO. 

While I was there, I was so busy, I couldn't keep good notes, but I was able to take many photos!

Lori Sjoberg

Me, Lori Sjoberg, and Kim Foster


Fellow e-Kensington auther, Marina Miles.

More fun with eKensington authors!

Kensington had cookies with our covers!


Me at the E-book Expo.
The "before" picture of my table at the E-book Expo.

My "after" picture at the E-book Expo.

OMG I got Laura Kinsale's autograph!

Jade Lee, after I was eating a candy penis from Delilah Marvelle.



Kim Foster and her stash of goodies!

John Scalzi for The Charming Man!