December 24th

Christmas Eve. I stood on the shores of Lake Ontario today. Blustery and beautiful. The park was quiet. Not everyone has an affinity to whipping wind and rolling waves. But I do, though. I thought it a wonderful way to pay my respects to the season.

Whatever you may be celebrating tonight, may you be merry and surrounded by those you love, and who love you.

Blessings.

Holiday Shopping

I ventured out to do some holiday shopping with the 1.5 year old. Entertaining! She fell asleep before the toy store. That is a blessing and a disappointment. I don't know who likes the toy store more, me or her!

So, that trip will have to wait for another time.

The days are getting shorter. And colder . Winter Solstice is almost here! I've had the opportunity to live outside during the spring and summer for work, but never the fall and winter. For obvious reasons, BRRR. But, the connection to the natural world when you are so submersed in it, is awesome. I've never had that in the other seasons. Simple remedy, get my butt outside more!

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

Sun coming up.

Two hours to get into work this am. Yikes. Silver-lining- we watched the sun come up while waiting in traffic. There is beauty everywhere. It is up to us if we notice.

Happy Night

Christmas shopping at the Zoo

We went Christmas shopping at the zoo this am. I know, zoos, issues. So do malls. I must say, though, that it is wonderful to have a conservatory to get a splash of vegetation on a blustery, bright Alberta morning, and get Christmas shopping done.

May everyone have a wonderful day and cheers to all the reasons to celebrate in life!

Winter is here!

You know those types of snowstorms that snow and blow and cars get stuck everywhere? We had one of those on Friday that rolled into Saturday. So, it was a weekend of staying at home. I have to admit, I'm a bit stir-crazy, and this was only a couple days. This does not bode well for the -30 weather that usually makes an appearance here sometime in the winter... That's ok, though. I've got a new pair of cross country skis to lay with. Playing outside in the snow makes the weather better... it does, really...

Snowshoeing is calling my name, too.

Happy Day Everyone! Cheers to Winter!

Happy Wednesday!

Special thanks to Tatti today. She took me out for lunch and it had been one of those days where the simple act meant the world. So, thanks!

Never do for someone else, what you won't do for yourself. That line whispered into my consciousness today. Take care of yourselves, everyone! Remember self-care.

Spruce Meadows

We went to The Masters Tournament at Spruce Meadows last Thursday. I love it there. What a gem to have it so close. Thank you to everyone who makes the various tournaments happen. 

Ruby has stopped calling horses 'doggies' and they are now 'horsies'. 

Fall is tickling summer here in the shadow of the Rockies. Gorgeous. The seasons turning are beautiful.

Happy Monday everyone!

Ta-da! Thank you Tara for the help putting the contest up! Looks good. Good Luck everyone who enters!

Tara told me about the picture before I actually saw it. It's cool how each of us can take the same subject matter and run with it. I had so much fun writing Claiming Love. Thanks again Tara!

Happy Tuesday Everyone

A contest with Wings

Take flight with four Amira Press authors by participating in a great contest giveaway! Each author will be giving away one copy of their book from the Wings Series available through Amira Press.



This whole project started with a simple picture, a man with strap on wings walking through a forest. After gathering like minded authors, we put our heads together and came up with a few ground rules, basically, there weren't any. We had a few fall backs, our original publisher closed but Anastasia and Brieanna quickly thought of Amira Press and we were on our way again. Once all of the stories were in Brieanna made sure everything was as it should be and Anastasia created our beautiful covers.




The stories range from sensual to hot.

All you need to do is email us at wingsseries@gmail.com, list the book(s) you are interested in, and we will sign you up for our author newsletters. The contest starts August 5th, 2009, and ends October 5th, 2009. All Winners will be notified via email.


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A Walk Between Worlds by Anastasia Rabiyah

Author Website





bio:


Anastasia Rabiyah writes erotic romance, paranormal erotic romance, and dark fantasy. She often crosses genres in order to follow her muses into the darkness where they seek out destiny in all its forms. She believes in fairies, demons, angels, magic, passion, chocolate, supportive friends, e-books, and writing critique groups. Her deepest desire is to pursue her creative dreams and realize them. Every spare moment she devotes to writing for her haunting muses. Visit her online at http://RabiyahBooks.com



Book Link

Book Blurb:

Treila is the second born twin and heir to the Telen throne after her sister’s untimely death. Her sister, whose magic was of the light, of faith, love and hope, was the one intended to rule Telen, not Treila, whose magic is so obviously of the darkness. Faced with having to wed the Nor King in order to save her city from destruction, she leaves Telen, hoping to discover what became of her sister. She ventures to the cliffs of Plemae where the angels dwell, for it was a dark angel who stole her sister away, but before she can get any answers, she is captured and brought before the demon king in the sky palace. There she is thrown into an unwieldy alliance with the very dark angel who kidnapped her sister—Kolar, now an outcast traitor for standing against his master. Together, she and her enemy must escape the demons and return to Telen before the full moon and the Nor King’s attack. As much as she wants to hate Kolar, Treila can’t deny her heated attraction to the dark winged angel despite who he is and what he has done to change her life.

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Honey Wine by Brieanna Robertson

Author Website


Bio:


If someone were to ask me what I am, it could be summed up in one, simple word: Dreamer. Ever since I was a small child my imagination has run wild. I have been telling stories for as long as I can remember, creating grand worlds in my head and going on adventures that were invisible to others around me. Am I eccentric? Yes. Am I proud of that? Absolutely.

I write about the things that inspire me, both in this world and in realms only seen with the imagination. My heroines are sassy and strong. My heroes are sometimes shy. I have an obsession with music (and musicians) and a fascination with wings. I believe true love does exist, and sometimes it is found in the strangest, most unexpected places. I also believe that family and close friends are the glue that hold people together.

Above all things, I believe in being true to yourself and seizing the day. Life is an amazing gift. Make your experience as beautiful as you possibly can.





Book Link

Book Blurb:

When Autumn finds a sexy, winged statue among her deceased uncle’s belongings, she thinks he’ll make a great decoration for her bedroom, as well as her solitary life. What she doesn’t expect is to wake up in the middle of the night and find her statue replaced by a living, breathing, gorgeous man made up of the four elements.

Gabriel’s been a statue for 500 years. He’s lost, confused, and wreaking havoc on the human realm.

In an effort to get Gabriel home, Autumn experiences adventure she’d never even dreamed about. But will they be able to survive the greatest adventure of all - falling in love?

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Awakening the Blood

Author Website



Bio:



Ever since Tara Nichols was a little girl she has had an affinity for romantic adventures. With crushes on the likes of Tarzan and Hans Solo she grew up looking for the perfect gentleman rogue. When she is not writing about romance, erotica or paranormal fiction she can be found tending her garden, keeping bees or reading a spy novel. Tara roams free on the flat prairie land in Manitoba Canada where she lives with her young son and husband.

She can also be found at her author website and guestbook. www.tarasnichols.com


Book Link

Book Blurb:

Reeling from her recent break up, Meara ditches a Halloween party held in a cemetery at the edge of town, and seeks out the one reliable man in her life - who just happens to be a statue with large bat wings. The winged man had always intrigued her, but that just seems to go along with her other idiosyncrasies – her ability to read emotions and dream the future.

Even after years imprisoned in marble, D'iamonte can feel and see everything that goes on around him. Most of the time, his encounters have been unpleasant, but when his beautiful young mortal comes calling, late one Halloween, he is surprised and pleased that she feels bold enough to crawl in to his lap and have her way with him.

Neither of them expects him to wake up.

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Claiming Love by Sarah Kades

Author Website




Bio:


Sarah Kades has always loved happy ending. Her love of adventure, the great outdoors and the past, led her to become an archaeologist. Surrounded by the inspiration of the natural world for years, Sarah couldn’t keep all those stories bubbling up inside any longer. When she is not writing romance novels, you can find her day dreaming new stories, reading whatever story or non-fiction tome catches her fancy, or playing outside. Sarah lives in Calgary, Alberta with her husband, young daughter and their rough-coat collie.

Book Link

Blurb:
As an archaeologist, Elle loves her job. She just doesn't love all the airplanes she has to take. Before her latest flight, she says a quick prayer and as an afterthought throws in a request to meet her Mr. Perfect.

The Goddess, Gaia, assigns Bodin. He is a human angel-in-training who just happens to not believe in love. Grumpy and usually a divine pain, Bodin has met his match with the beautiful archaeologist.

The two explore their budding attraction working in the wild northern forests, but will love come too late or just in time for forever?

I have the #2 spot on Amira Press' top ten bestseller list!! Yaah!

My father-in-law is visiting, and him and my husband have been on a roll with the house to-do list. Oh yeah!! My mother-in-law calls it a Honey Do list.

So, back to writing. I love it and I am so glad I found it in life.  Sounds cheesy, but it's true. It's fun. 

I'm still perfecting the art of time management. It's cool, though, and coming together.

This post is all over the place, but I want to add a big Thank You to everyone who has been so supportive of my writing and my first book. I love this journey. Cheers to a lot more fun!

Happy Sunday night everyone!

Waterton National Park

I'm still floating, I'm so excited my first book is out!! A million thank you to everyone who has helped support it!! I appreciate it!! Thank you!!

We're heading out to Waterton National Park for the weekend!!! Oh yeah.

For those of you not sure where that is, it shares a border with Glacier National Park in Montana and it is gorgeous.

Claiming Love is available!!

Last Friday Claiming Love was released through Amira Press! I'm so excited!! What a cool journey. Cheers to many more! It was amazing writing it. I had so much fun. I always thought work should really be something fun and something a person enjoys. Well, I found it.

A heartfelt Thank You to Tara S. Nichols.

Now, to figure out the time management. Seriously, that has really been a challenge, so far. Well, here's to figuring it all out, and having a blast doing it.

Thank you to everyone who has purchased Claiming Love. I appreciate it and hope you love it.

Happy Tuesday night!

And the edits continue. . . :o)

In my nerdiness, I'm actually enjoying this part of the writing process. I'm learning tons and I love it! Thank you super awesome editor.

Happy Independence Day and Happy Canada Day everyone! We celebrated by taking our wee one tent camping in K-Country. She loved it! 

FYI, next time, the play yard is coming along! 

Hey, Xavier Rudd was in town last night. Ticket miscommunication, so my husband had to tell me what an awesome concert it was. He got me a swanky t-shirt, though. :o) Happy music.

The Calgary Stampede is going on. Yee-haw.

Happy Monday night everyone!

Ooh the joys of figuring out how to create a website . It's going pretty good actually. I say this now. I haven't tried putting it online yet . 

My first book is coming soon from Amira Press. YAH! 

Check out this awesome cover . . . 

Happy Thursday Everyone. My first round of edits are in and I've been meaning to pop on here and say YAH!.  It was a really cool learning experience. Here's hoping round two is just as nifty. :o)

I took my daughter to Spruce Meadows today. The National tournament is going on now through Sunday. That's horse jumping, by the way. Two thumbs up! Now that's loads of inspiration for a zillion books. 'Course I'm simmering a story with Western riding, not English. Not to fret! The Calgary Stampede is in a month!

I'm working on time management for all the goodies of being a writer. It's good.

I just played a Fender Stratocaster. My music education is seriously lacking, but I'm told that is a pretty cool guitar. When I say played I really mean picked up and strummed. Felt cool, though.

I'm back in the eastern woodlands, well, for a couple more days anyway. So many cool landscapes and so many cool settings for even cooler stories. It's good to see Lake Ontario again, and Lake Muskoka. This is living, being outside. Soaking up life.

Claiming Love is flowing through the process. That makes me so happy. Hope you guys love it! I sure loved writing it.

Happy Day after Earth Day!

Last weekend we went hiking in a park called Nose Hill. It is an oasis of prairie in the midst of a sprawling city. It is also a huge park, so you can almost feel like you are out on the rolling prairie and not within city limits. Walkers, runners, dogs, hikers and mountain bikers all enjoy the park. As well as mule deer, coyotes and smaller critters. The sky was huge and wide open. Big Sky country applies to more than Montana. Gorgeous, if you let yourself feel the land and not get hung up on what surrounds it.

May everyone find an oasis if they need it.

Happy Earth Day everyone.

Hi Everyone, 

Happy Tuesday! My little girl is napping more. Yesss... actually, hot damn! For all you stay-at-home moms or dads, you know what I'm talking about! The cutie is amazing, as everyone's kid is but I'm stoked to get a bit more work time. 

So I thought I was writing about rafting and turns out the story actually wanted to be on horseback instead. Go figure. Works for me, though.

I'm also learning the joys of website development. Ok, so it is still in the preliminary stages, really preliminary stages, but that's cool. It's coming. I've worked on websites for work and for friends, but neat-O, now I'm working on my own. :o) Hmm, now to solicit the help of one of my friends... you know who you are, please help!

Now for a mundane weather update, it is snowing. I know it's April and all, but April showers bring May flowers. I guess Gaia wrote her own memo. Right on Sister!

So my 9 month old discovered the joy of potted plants. Soil, leaves, all inside! How cool, I know. I suppose the daughter of two archaeologists, what did we think she would do with them!

I've started working on my next book. The story keeps... darting in my mind. I need to sit down and focus for a bit. It's jumping to come out, though.

Here in the shadow of the Rockies, I'm trying to be patient waiting for spring. I love winter, but I am so ready for spring... and then summer. Yup, shorts, sandals, tank tops and warm breezes... aah. 

Happy Wednesday everyone.

Howdy everyone! Alright, a right of passage for every author; first submissions! I'm one step away from taking the plunge. Cool.

So I took our 9 month old hiking in the Rockies. Two thumbs up for those baby/toddler back carriers! My Little One loved it! She loves the mountains as much as we do.

Happy Spring!

I celebrated the first day of spring yesterday with a trip to Banff. For those of you unfamiliar, Banff is in the Canadian Rockies and only a blink away from Calgary. Ok, so it is a bit longer than a blink. But, it's nice and close and gorgeous. The herd of elk we saw on the way out was wonderful icing on the happy day cake.

Tonight, snow.

Aerials at COP last weekend!!

Last weekend we went to see the aerials competition at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary. That sport is amazing! I still shake my head when I see how steep the landing hill is. It looks like flying! I pretty much stick to the green runs when I'm skiing but it's cool to watch others with bigger Kaunas fly through the air.

Claiming Love is still patiently waiting for edits. Grandma is here and helping with baby duty (thanks Grandma!!). So time to dive back in!!

Hope everyone is having an awesome day!

New Banner, thanks Tara!!

The Edits for Claiming Love are simmering. I'm excited!! Soon, very soon it will be ready to claim it's wings. I know, I know, that's puny!!

I chose a title (psst, Claiming Love). It was cool, the title waited patiently to be ready to come out and then it just flowed.

I love it when life flows.

Now for something completely different, checked out the Koalas visiting from San Diego. Two thumbs up. Another puny!! I'm on a role!!!!!!!!! (Koalas have two thumbs on each hand)
Oh wait, the thumbs up sign in Australia doesn't mean the same thing as it does here... oh crap.

Happy Day everyone!

Soccer and Stories

Last night I had my first soccer game since I partially tore my ACL a couple years ago. It's a rec league, so not competitive or crazy, just a bunch of friends playing soccer against other friends playing soccer. It's fun, gets me out of the house and tearing around a gym for a while. Ok, I tear it up a little and then rotate out, wondering where all the air in my lungs went to.

I have three new stories simmering in my head. It's good. Keeps me up at night, though, I'm excited to write them. Now, to make the time. I have to make the time. It's good for me.

Happy day everyone!

Another story idea was banging in my head last night. I couldn't sleep, character dialogs were traipsing through my head. It was good and irritating. Seriously, has there always only been 24 hours in a day?

Happy Weekend!

first draft done!

Feels good, but almost anti-climactic. I finished the first draft of my first book today. My mind has already been chewing on other story ideas, so maybe that has muffled the joy and coolness of the occasion. I'm just so excited to keep going. Writing is fun. More fun than I imagined, actually. It has been on the back burner, simmering, for years. It feels really good to slip the leash on that part of me.

Now, I just have to think of a title...

Friday, woo-hoo! It's sunny and warm here with the snow melting like crazy! I love winter but days like this feel good!

Ok, so my leading lady needs attention in the story I'm writing. She's banging in my head, wanting me to fill in her blanks. She's pretty cool and needs her story told. Characters take on a life of their own and let you know when you still have work to do.

I don't mind, feels like a Muse is talking.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Went cross country skiing with a couple friends last night. Two thumbs up! There is something magical about skiing at night as the snow is falling. We were on top of the river valley and could see the lights of downdown through the snowy haze. It actually was quite beautiful. I usually don't ooh and aah at seeing a bunch of skyscrapers, but it looked pretty cool last night.

I just got the skis for Christmas. I love them! I could actually ski instead of just shuffle along. Ok, there was some shuffling when I started to get tired and needed to suck in a few big gulps of air .

Well, happy Thursday everyone!

oooh, sooooore! My body is still sore from my bobsledding escapades! Yowsa!

Monday, back to reality. I'm closing in on the first draft. It feels good. Exciting. I keep wanting to add things, though. So, the question is, when are the additions fabulous and when are they blah blah blah- overkill?

I have the same question when I'm painting. Do I stop now because it looks good, do I add more and risk messing up, do I add more and make a good painting great? Who knows. That's the cool part about creative pursuits, reminds us we have choices.

Exhilarating! The bobsled run was absolutely incredible!! I'm still grinning, hours later!
123 km/hour and 4.5 G forces!!! Tee hee hee!!! Our steer person said it right, TV does NOT do it justice.

Man, that was fun!

Did I say magic? I meant sometimes it's magic, other times it's really irritating. Tee hee. Patience. It's been on my to-do list for oh, about 15 years.

Ok, so writing didn't go as planned the last couple days. I'm still trying to work out that writing schedule with my wee one and husband. The little darling (daughter, not husband ) has a serious aversion to nap time.

So bobsledding is still on for tomorrow. It's for our work Christmas party. Another spot just opened so I can go down twice! Does that mean I can pee my pants twice?! My husband is doing the skeleton! Crazy fellow! I love watching it, but laying on my belly, head-first, roaring down an iced shoot w/ only a helmet and elbow pads, sounds, well, more like a spectator sport!

Last year I went to the Aerials competion held in town. A friend of mine used to compete and is now a coach. I watched athletes ski down a hill, hit a jump, do lots of crazy cool acrobatics in the air and then land on this super steep hill. I was preggo at the time and wondered what I was going to do if my kid wanted to take up aerials, or bull riding. I imagine a lot of deep breathing!

Oh yes, back to writing. So I'm working on a story and I love it. It has been really cool the process and the flow. When you can't write as fast as the story is coming to you, it's great! But then BOOM, I hit a block. Literally, I'll be posed over the keyboard and it's like the taps have been turned off. Nothing. Waiting... False start... more waiting... I know the direction I want to go in is keeping quiet for the moment. Elusive... As life would have it, more from circumstance than planning (thank you six month old daughter and messy house), I let the story simmer, incubate. But it's ok because, POOF, in the shower or walking the dog, or other regualr, mundane living sort of experiences the next piece of the story is revealed. Or slams into consciousness. Sometimes that's a better description.

But that kinda makes it magic, ya know?

Ta-da! Made it to the wonderful world of blogging! (Thank you Tara!)

Ok, so Saturday, as in three very short days away, I'm going to hurtle down a bobsled run. I know I'll be in a bobsled and have pros (I hope... I think...!!) there with me to make the experience, well, real and official and somehow make me feel saver choosing to spend 60 seconds of my life doing this. I'll keep you posted.

As for today, the wild exotic world of grocery shopping and errands with a six month old! Weird how both the mundane and the wowsa can be full of story potential.

As for tonight- WRITING!