The Moments
The people I call friends will tell you I have moments. I can see the eye rolls and grins on my friend’s faces now. (Grin.) My moments can range from any sort of news good or bad in writing or daily life. For the good I scream, effervesce and all around make a fool of myself. I celebrate my own news but go nuts over the news of my friends. I know some probably suffer temporary hearing loss from my screaming. LOL. I’ve even been known to do a dance. Butt shaking and all. I send cards for releases, news and just because. Yeah I am a sap. For the bad moments I curse, cry and support with them. Then we talk about it and come up with another plan.
You’re probably wondering why I am telling you all this. Well because I read something the other day that made me realize that there are a lot of moments that people shrug off and just let pass. Life is too short not to dance at each victory and think on the failures then dust yourself off and move on. It’s the moments that keep us going. The moments that define who we are. Each second of a day there is a moment. Now I am not saying that you should dance each second but when you get that next promotion, compliment from someone, book contract, book release, or any number of things take a moment to acknowledge it is someway.
I shared a moment with a friend the other day and was glad they chose me to share it with. There was butt shaking, screaming and all in between going on. LOL.
The moments in life are precious and should be acknowledged. I make sure that I take time for my moments because I don’t ever want to forget how blessed I am to be able to have moments.
What are some of your moments?
Taige Crenshaw
http://www.taigecrenshaw.com
…increasing the sizzle factor
Blog: http://www.taigecrenshaw.com/blog
Chat Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crenshawcafe
Newsletter: http://www.taigecrenshaw.com/newsletterandgroups.shtml
Free Reads Site: http://www.satinnotes.com
Wilde Seduction – What happens when a woman who doesn’t know how to relax meets a man whose lust for life will change her and make all her deepest desires come to life?
Buy here at Total-E-Bound.
Travel with Us ‘On the Way to New Isosceles’!
Calling all lovers of science fiction and erotic romance! Join me for a day of space faring angst, drama, peanut butter and love as we take time out for some fun with my new sf erotica novel from Eternal Press! Let’s get to know On the Way to New Isosceles, shall we?
Blurb
JJ was as hard nosed as they come-and them some. But, hey, the destruction of earth did that to everyone. Humanity fractioned into three groups. Affectionately known as ‘the Shitters’, the Shipper Brigade manufactures the best space faring vehicles for themselves. Skilled fighters and martial artists Combatants like JJ fight the Shippers for what they can-even though Combatant numbers were severely depleted by the third faction. The Nukes rescued chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons from earth’s doom and aren’t afraid to use them.
You can imagine JJ’s surprise when she meets the Nuke Lieutenant Rub. Their initial meeting didn’t rub either the right way. Despite her Nuke anxiety-JJ has to put it all aside. Her Captain and the Nuke Colonel have struck a deal to defeat the Shippers once and for all. The Nukes leave their tiny outpost on a far flung, degrading planet and join the Combatants in taking the lush planet protected by the Shippers.
It’s a long, tough journey on the way to New Isosceles, and the animosity between Rub and JJ gets hotter by the day…….
Excerpt, PG-13
Rub waited with Captain Westmayer and Colonel Gauthier by the Nuke’s small but streamlined transport in the Mother Ship’s Lift-Off Zone. Once Rub had met the very hot and charming Kimmie Dejonaire, Miguel warmed to him as well. Most of the Combatants had relaxed on their flight to Isosceles – except for one. Well,two, but he suspected Private Wu never thawed. The zone’s doors parted as Kimmie and Ina strutted toward him in their sexiest get ups; satin and tiny, hair vamoosed – Rub noticed these things. Friendly or iced, it was still hawt.
Miguel hurried behind them, equally dressed for a night on the town. His style was a little flashy for Rub’s tastes. He didn’t have to show his dick size on the outside. It showed in his smile and charm.
“How do I look?” Kimmie asked her friends.
“Not as good as me,” Ina chuckled. She did look phenomenal out of uniform, if a bit scary. She was taller than Miguel and probably always intimidated him. Ha!
“Where’s JJ?” Miguel asked.
Yes, where was the anti-Nuke who spent all her time avoiding Rub? A little socializing would do her good; all the other Combatants were dressed to the hilt and ready to part-ee! He wanted an opportunity to piss off JJ, but he didn’t really expect her to join them. His duty to pilot the transport almost assured it.
“She’s pouting, of course,” Kimmie puckered her lips in mock imitation. She stopped beside Captain Westmayer and Colonel Gauthier. Her breasts had entered the Lift-Off Zone before she did, and Rub was amazed by her ability to not give everything away when she hiked into the Nuke shuttle before the men. Did all the Combatant women have such long legs?
Where to Find Us
On the Way to New Isosceles is currently available in ebook from our publisher’s website. Look for our storefront explosion at Fictionwise, Barnes and Noble, eReader, and All Romance ebooks to follow in the coming weeks. Our paperback edition will also be available on Amazon later this month. You can read all the details at our EP Ordering Page:
http://www.eternalpress.ca/onthewaytonewisosceles.html
Wow, we’ve got 4 Flames-that’s HOT HOT HOT! Here’s EP’s definition for erotica enthusiasts:
Erotic Romance – 4 flames (includes clinical/graphic terms for body parts and intercourse. Must contain a romantic theme. It may include light bdsm, glbt,ménage and anal sex as long as its frequency does not out weigh vanilla sex)
Science Fiction and sex, oh my! You can also read the first TWO Chapters FREE at my blog and collaborative livejournal with fellow EP author Kristin Battestella:
http://leighwood.blogspot.com/
http://kristin724.livejournal.com/
If you’re a fellow author or reader and want to connect on Facebook, do come and find me! You can also do the RSS subcribe and follow magics at my blog, co op livejournal, or join the Kristin Battestella Yahoo Group where I’m known to be a pain in the ass! I’ll be making my presence known there again for a Guest Day Tuesday November 17. Look to the calendar there for more upcoming chats, appearances, and events as well!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Leigh-Wood/100000432241842
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kristinbattestella
About Leigh
Lastly, here’s a touch about me, just in case you’re wondering who this zany red head is!
Newly married and living the high-rise condo life, Leigh Wood is not tech savvy and fights with writing on her laptop between baking and sewing projects. She prefers handwriting with weird pens and odd paper and collects animal prints and records via rummage sales. Leigh loves naughty fantasy and science fiction, but sharpens her skills with nonfiction essays and reviews. Her articles can befound at I Think, Therefore I Review (http://ithinkthereforeireview.blogspot.com) or her own blog (http://leighwood.blogspot.com).
Previously, Leigh boldly wrote her memoir Cracked, and is currently working on her next epic erotic novel-a fantasy tentatively titled Horns of Myleness.
There’s similar bits at my EP Author Page, too, I’m currently last in the author’s tab!
http://www.eternalpress.ca/Wood.html
Fin!
LW
On the Way to New Isosceles
by Leigh Wood
Available NOW from Eternal Press!
http://leighwood.blogspot.com/
Blessed Friday & Giveaway Winner!
Happy Friday Ocean Dreamers! Any exciting plans coming your way? Wanna take a few from me pretty please because I am feeling a tad stressed over everything that is coming. Seriously. But…it will be fun! Yay!
It is time for Blessed Friday my lovelies. Oh, and it is time to reveal the winner, but not yet. You have to wait. Ha ha ha, so sorry! Keep reading!
Sooo…
1. I am blessed that tonight I am hosting a Bachlorette Party at my apartment. Party! Nah, we are actually just chilling and painting our nails, eating yummy soup and chatting. This is the kind of party I want to be a part of! Wish my nails looked like this! 
2. Checking out an Interior Design school to see if I want to add to my current career. So excited to learn all about interiors! I am blessed that I have many opportunities living in Cali!
3. Blessed to get my hair done all blonde again. Yipee! I admit it has been way to long since I got my hair done, it is just so expensive now and at least my roots are a shade of blonde, just not the pure blonde I prefer like in the pic below! I used this pic before in my Blonde July post, yep, it’s a repeat.
4. Birthday party for a friend Saturday night…at a lovely Mexican restaurant that I adore by the water. I am blessed to be surrounded by friends and celebrating a birthday!
5. Going to a wedding on Sunday, same friend that the Bachlorette party is for. Big Kiddo and I have bit of a road trip – it is about an hour and a half away. I love weddings and I look forward to celebrating the love that my friends have for one another! Love this photo by the way.
Okay, so that about sums up my blessed Friday happenings and activities that I am thankful for.
Now it is time to reveal the winner of my chocolate giveaway!
The winner is Hanako66 @ Through The Looking Glass
Hope you don’t mind that I stole a picture from your blog love! I couldn’t resist. If you haven’t checked our her blog, you must and you will fall in love!
I love this lady’s heart and her fashion sense, so this is just perfect for her. Plus, every girl needs some chocolate, right?
I hope you all have a great weekend! I’ll be back to play catch up on your blogs once all of my madness is over.
XOXO,
The Tip Of The Iceberg
Recently, I found myself sitting in an audience filled with teens and tweens at a movie theater showing of FAME. At the start of the previews, the screen suddenly filled with a rather non-descript lake scene–well, apparently not that non-descript–as the 100 or so adolescent girls in the room began screaming with joy. Of course, it was the opening to the preview of the TWILIGHT sequel NEW MOON. Recently buff teenage werewolves and all…
It got me thinking, what pop-culture fad had my friends and me falling over ourselves like that? The answer came rather quickly: Leonardo DiCaprio and all things TITANIC.
I bought the soundtrack, took TITANIC quizzes in Teen People magazine, covered my wall in movie posters, memorized lines…yes, it’s true. I then recalled something I had truly forgotten…the birth of a late-90s sub-genre of disaster-focused YA fiction. Very suddenly, my bookshelf acquired HINDENBURG 1937, WASHINGTON AVALANCHE 1910, and SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE 1906.
And, speaking of YA-reminiscing fun…Starting November 1st, blogger “Booking Mama” launched a six-month SHELF DISCOVERY reading challenge. Pick six (or more) of the titles covered in Lizzie Skurnick’s book about classic YA fiction and write quick “book reports” of each…go to her site for details…looks like winners could get free copies!
White On Time
People ask me all the time how I manage to be a full-time wife, mother, and writer. The answer is easy: prioritizing and organizing (thank goodness for my Palm Pilot—the best thing since volumizing shampoo and creamy concealer!). I’ve delegated the things that take too much of my time ie. cleaning and cooking, and I only do laundry once a week. My kids know that if their stuff isn’t in the laundry room by 6:00 am Thursday morning, it doesn’t get washed. Yes, I know, they’re old enough to do their own laundry. This is my one compromise: because I can’t physically be there for every sporting event, or cooking hot meals for them every night, this is what I always do for them. And for my long-suffering husband.
I don’t Twitter, but I do have a Facebook page and email—which I schedule during the day so I’m not tempted to check both all day long or I’ll see my time sucked into the dark vortex! As for grocery shopping—once a week, after church with the whole family so I don’t have to listen to anybody complain that they didn’t get something they wanted. And I TiVo everything so I can watch my favorite shows (Medium, HGTV, Cold Case) without sitting through commercials. I’m also really good at finding time. Three times a week my daughter and I take a Pilates class together. It’s a way of spending time with her as well as keeping in shape (multi-tasking!) and because she can drive now, I can work on a blog or check email on the way there and back. And did I mention I’m now under the heat dryer? I’m guessing this blog will be done by the time I leave—assuming I don’t mind hairs on the keyboard and keep my laptop out during the cutting process. My stylist, Veronica, thinks it’s cool what I do and is very supportive and understanding when I’m not chatty. That’s the other thing to getting things done: surround yourself with supportive and understanding people. Friends send me encouraging texts (instead of calls) and I’ve got all sorts of fun things scheduled with them after my December 1st deadline. So, why do I make my life so complicated? Another easy question to answer—because being a writer isn’t what I do, it’s who I am. I think it’s important for everyone to include in their lives something they’re passionate about. Otherwise, everything else just seems like you’re going through the motions. I love my children, but in a few years they’ll both be in college and I’m so glad that I have my books to fall back on when I’m surrounded by a suddenly empty, quiet (and spotlessly clean!) house. Veronica’s approaching, ready to take me from the dryer and start the shampoo/deep condition process. I will gladly close my laptop for this—there’s nothing nicer in the world than having somebody shampoo and massage your head and I’ve been known to fall asleep during the process. Yes, I make time to enjoy myself, too. Regardless of my to-do list, I make sure to spend time each day doing something fun that requires no brain cells. Yes, that can include napping (of which I’m a big fan). It an also be watching tv with my family or laughing over videos my son finds on the Internet. Which brings me to my point: balance. Decide what’s important, what you’re passionate about and then, just like that Nike commercial says, Just Do It!
Happy Halloween!
Hello Ocean Dreamers, I hope you have an amazing Halloween!
Tonight I am off to Cirque du Soleil with Big Kiddo…I just can’t wait! Hopefully I’ll be able to take some photos, we will see if they allow it. I am not wearing my costume, I wanted a little break after my work party on Wednesday. I am wearing an orange shirt however!
Check out these pumpkins that my friends carved {I was the on looker} on Thursday night. They did such a good job!
Have a spooky night tonight, I can’t wait to see all of your costumes and hear all about your Halloween tales! I am watching The Nightmare Before Christmas right now and it is sooo good!
Happy Halloween!
XOXO,
Haunted
In the spirit of Halloween I want to tell you a story Ocean Dreamers, enjoy the story of my haunt…
Found at Weheartit.com
I was 18 years old. I had never been in love. I never knew what love felt like until I met him. He become my everything. He became my all…
My High School sweetheart is someone that I no longer like to talk about very much. Our love story was the kind of love affair that you read about in romance novels. He would carry me up the drive way to my Victorian home, buy me flowers, kiss me until I was breathless, write me love letters, and buy me Tiffany necklaces. We traveled together everywhere. We had the most perfect and happy photos. Kissing at sunset, on the beach, under the stars, it was everything I ever wanted and more. Everything and more. I met his family, he knew mine well. I was infatuated, I was in love, I was his everything and he was mine. For five years we were inseparable. Even though we went to different Universities, we traveled back and forth up to two to three times a month to see each other in either Kansas or California. We couldn’t wait for the weekends when we would see each other. It was a desperate and passionate love. So many memories, so many plans. I never thought anything or anyone could separate us until…
One weekend when I was in Kansas my haunt and I decided to go with his friends to Dave and Busters. My haunt was making glances with a mutual friend…I could tell things were not the same between us. No, it did not happen over night, but I was losing my love, my everything. He kissed me then. He told me everything was okay, that I shouldn’t have any doubts. He had no feelings for the other girl. But inside of me I was screaming. I knew that was not the truth, my premonition was I was losing the love of my life. I would never get him back…
Flash forward to graduation day my Senior year of college. I was in turmoil. My ex and I had just broken up with one another but out of my desperation I was not ready to let go. I invited him to be there with my family and they understood, even though they knew he had broken my heart. My haunt made phone calls to that girl that weekend, I couldn’t understand why I invited him there. All I knew was that he was my heart, but yet my heart was missing. Why did he have to trample my heart on the ground?
By Alegion @ DeviantART
It took me three years to get over my haunt. Some days, when I am driving in the car a song from High School or our time together turns on the radio…it brings me back. Back to those days when we would hold hands in the car, kiss at red lights, and tell each other over and over again that we love each other. That we were meant to be together. Music was so much a part of who we were. It reminded me that I thought that nothing would ever separate us, ever.
Some nights, when I am all alone, or in my dreams, my mind reverts back to the love of my past. He never seems to leave me alone, but it has lessened over time. I consider him my haunt, because for five years this China man occupied my thoughts in every way and he still haunts me occasionally to this day. It was a suffocating love, a love that was not meant to be. But, despite the way our relationship ended, I hung on to the hope of a reconciliation. We remained friends…but it was not the same. He broke my heart, I could not let go. Over and over the cycle went, it was very unhealthy but I thought that was what love was. Did I not understand love? I wanted him more than anything. I was haunted, I am still haunted, I will forever be haunted.
Haunt by Simplistic Scion @ DeviantART
I tell you this story not for you to feel sorry for me or to think that I am still clinging on to my haunt. I am blessed beyond measure with the man of my dreams, aka Big Kiddo. He came into my life at the perfect timing too. Right when I needed him, right when I was still healing but Big Kiddo gave me the time to heal. Big Kiddo taught me what love truly is.
I tell you the story of my haunt because it is a part of me, it made me who I am today. It helped me learn about love, and it helped me learn about life. I do miss my haunt, but I know better now. I know not to run back to someone who even though later came back to me and wanted me to take him back, I did not. He wanted me to marry him, he said he would never leave me again. But why would I take someone back who was only going to trample my heart and leave me again? That was the hardest decision of my life, for you see, I will always love my haunt. That is the type of love you don’t find everyday. And yet…I learned that love is not desperation, is not always fireworks, is not sacrificing everything, is not materialism, is not becoming a weaker person. My haunt managed to make me feel inferior and not good enough, no haunt or person for that matter should ever make you feel this way Ocean Dreamers.
Instead love is mainly loyalty, cherishing someone, not leaving them, consistency not manipulation, improving someone and encouraging them to be an even better person, having the same goals, and trust. My trust was gone, therefore my love was not the same…
I will forever be haunted by this love from my past. But with every haunt comes a happy ending, healing, new beginnings and a new love. But I know that my haunt is one that I will never ever forget.
“Ghostly Tales of Route 66″ (Vol. II) Can Be Sexy, Too!
More Pirates Please
A get-together with my friends invariably leads to conversation about romance reading. This past weekend, between the chocolate cupcake and stuffed French toast, I got an earful.
“Pirates. Give me more Pirates!” one of them said. So, for those of you who share her love for Pirates, I recommend Sabrina Jeffries’ THE PIRATE LORD, an oldie but goodie:
The Daring Book for Writers
(In which Barb ruminates and babbles a bit…)
I’ve never thought of myself as particularly daring. I don’t jump out of planes or run for public office and motorcycles terrify the hell out of me. I never dated a “bad boy,” nor do I have any particular affinity for them. Never hitchhiked or even rode in the open bed of a pick-up truck. I’ve never flown off to Europe on a whim, hell, I don’t even ride roller coasters. *shudder* I have a friend who’s a teacher in an International school and has done stints in places as varied as Egypt and (currently) Thailand. That, my friends, is daring. (She’s kind of one of my heroes for it, too.) Actually, I’m amazingly lucky in that I have a wonderful group of friends who all do what I consider to be daring, marvelous, creative, incredibly gutsy things and who inspire me on a daily basis. For the longest time, I’ve felt kind of like the lollygagger in the group– the boring one who lives kind of this very calm, middle-of-the road, downright blah existence.
Yet… I’ve been been wondering if maybe I’m not just a little more daring than I tend to think of myself. Certainly, the impression I’m getting from others would seem to suggest so. It’s like, I get on Facebook and find people from as far back as elementary school and they’re still in our same hometown, in many cases, in the same neighborhood, or at least, not that far. They stayed local for college, have never really ventured all that far from the familiar. Which is admirable in and of itself. Same goes for my husband’s family around these parts. They may have flitted off for a bit, but they’ve all come back home to put down their longterm roots.
I come across as a mystery to them. I’m not “normal.” First off, I’m a writer. It’s a bizarre career choice in that it’s not a particularly stable one that operates within any kind of easily understandable parameters. For people who are rather pragmatic and very career-oriented, it’s in a word, weird. They’re a bit mystified by the idea that I’d much rather follow a deeply held passion and accept the risks and inevitable disappointments that come hand in hand with that passion than to follow along some easily prescribed path of “normal.” Don’t get me wrong, they’re all very proud, they just don’t get it and I’ve had the occasional, “Wow, it took guts to follow your dream.”
Really?
Because to me, it just seems natural. The mere idea that I’d go to a day-to-day job that falls within the prescribed realm of “normal” makes me twitch. That takes a kind of guts I’m simply not in possession of.
Recently, something else has come up that’s made me wonder if I’m not a bit more daring than I like to give myself credit for. See, my husband and I have decided to do something we’ve wanted to do forever. We’re moving. Not just the moving in and of itself– we’ve done that plenty, from Florida, to Nashville, to Ohio and back to Florida again within the last twenty years—eight different moves. But this one has no rhyme or reason behind it– there are no schools waiting at the end or family beckoning us to come “home.” Nope, this one is stamped with a big fat, Just Because. Some time after the first of the year, we’re going to pack up and move from Jacksonville, FL to Seattle, WA. Just Because. We visited the Pacific Northwest when we were first married and kept trying to make plans to migrate west, but something always got in the way, not the least of which was that it was “so far from home.” And it’s that very thing that has the family looking at us like we’re nuts (again). Three thousand miles. We’re up and moving kids, cats, and dogs three thousand miles for no other reason than we want to, we can, and if we wait for the “perfect moment” to do so, how do we have any guarantee that it will ever come? Life’s kind of short, so you shouldn’t only take opportunities when they present themselves, you should make them for yourself.
Yeah, I guess that takes a certain kind of daring, not to mention blind (some might say stupid) optimism.
Which brings me back to writing. When I started thinking about this move in context with my writing, something became inescapably clear: I treat my writing the way I treat my life. I live it on my terms, by my rules, even if they don’t quite fall in line with the current fads. It’s why I can’t see myself writing to market, even if it might make my life easier. It’s why I persevere with my genre blurring, not quite one thing or another, “it’s great writing, but we don’t know what to do with it,” stories.
But it’s the only way I know how to be. I have to believe that at some point, these stories into which I’ve put so much of my heart will find their audience– their one true home, as it were. And I’m excited, too, thinking that this move is going to provide me with all sorts of inspiration and fodder for new stories that probably won’t fit any current parameters, ’cause that’s just how I roll.
Yeah, I guess that takes a certain kind of daring, not to mention blind (some might say stupid) optimism.
Those of you dipping your toes into the writing pool, it would seem you’re already doing something daring by most of society’s parameters. If you’re going to do that, then go right ahead and write what your heart/gut most desires. Why not, right?
Relatedly: What’s the most daring thing you’ve ever done?
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