Answering the Age Old Question

It has been a battle of taste that has raged for years with no clear winner. The question that has set friend against friend, sister against sister and mother against daughter:

Who's hotter, Angel or Spike?

The last week or so has been a Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathon. The library where my SO works recently got the entire 7 season collection on dvd. We've finished the first season and started the second. It is in this second season that the conundrumm to end all conundrums came to be. Which vampire is the hottest? Is it tortured, vampire with a soul, Angelus (Angel) or the cocky, funny, alpha male vampire William the Bloody (Spike)?

We're supposed to love Angel. He's a vampire with a horrendous past. He was one of the bloodiest and cruelest ever created. He killed his entire family. Hell, he created Spike. But he was given back his soul. Now, haunted by a conscience and in love with the little vampire slayer he has become a good guy...of sorts. We're supposed to love him because Buffy does.

We're supposed to hate Spike. His caustic wit, his merciless nature...I mean, he killed a little kid. Granted said little kid was only a kid in body and was actually the annointed one who was controlling the othe evil vampire, but hey, he was cute. And Spike torches him. Spike wants to kill Buffy. (We won't discuss the chip debaucle that marked the point at which Buffy jumped the shark.) We're supposed to root against him.

Sorry, can't do it. Yes, Angel is a cutie. Yes, he's a dark, brooding, tortured soul. But he's also a whining, whishy-washy pain in the arse and a borderline pedophile. He was what, 25 or so when Darla turned him? Buffy is 16! You spent an entire two seasons reminding us that there is a close to 250 year age difference. Icky factor- in a big way.

Spike doesn't want to kiss Buffy until she's at least legal. Spike is a decisive undead man who knows what he wants and does it. He's brutal and you know exactly where you stand with Spike. And he does have a softer side. Look how he watches after Dru. So sweet. And he's quite lovely. I've never been much for blonds, in fact I've always loved the dark, strong type. But give me my Spike any day!

Of course, a girl does have to keep an open mind.

The Weres are Here

Release day for Measure of Healing is here!

I'm very excited and evidently so is Mother Nature. We've had our first trackable snow in Atlanta, GA in 4 years. Trackable snow means it's sufficient in amount on the ground that you could see a rabbit's tracks. What a great treat for this winter missing Northern girl! That or she was trying to make our current setting look more like the mountains on the cover.

I think you're going to like Alejandro Ramirez. Alej is a tough-ass, motorcycle riding, works with his hands kinda guy. He also happens to only be half human. The other half is Were. Were-Cougar to be exact. Not usually the warm fuzzy family type, Alej finds his Cougar instincts constantly at war with his human side, especially the one cultivated by the loving human family that takes him in when his Cougar mother throws him out.

Dr. Gabriela St. Jerome is a strong-willed woman who doesn't want anything to do with Alej. It's not that she doesn't think he's a nice guy, he probably is. But he's exactly the kind of man who will get her dead. Very dead.

Add an injured child that one fiercely protects and that the other can heal and you force these two adults to deal with their fears, prejudices and passions.

Measure of Healing is available at www.cerridwenpress.com

For an excerpt check out my webpage at www.jacquelineroth.com

One More Day!

Tomorrow will be release day for my second book, Measure of Healing from Cerridwen Press. As much as I love my first book, Access Denied, and as much as James and Leah are a huge part of me and incredibly special to me (I'll probably always be more than a little in love with James); this second book is hugely important.

Measure of Healing marks the first book in a world I began creating four years ago. I'd not read a paranormal romance at that point and honestly didn't know they existed. I'd never seen or heard of people like Sherrilyn Kenyon, Laurel K. Hamilton, Christine Feehan, Susan Krinard and the countless other brilliant paranormalists. I didn't know there was such a thing as a paranormal romance, but I was writing one. I wrote a fanfiction story four years ago where I took a minor character from a series of books and put him in my own little world.

From that grew a world my characters call Semira. They call themselves the Children of Semira, or Semiraht. In their language it literally means "heaven." My Were creatures came to this place seeking peace from the wars and violence of a home realm they call Gehenna. The theologically literate know this word means "hell". So my shifters came to this world looking for a place to call home, a Garden of Eden in which they would be safe. When a disaster forces them to tie themselves to the lifeforms of this realm in order to avoid being sent back to Gehenna, they become Weres. And their natures, their way of life and their identity changes forever.

Measure of Healing is the first story set in this world and focuses on the Cougars. February 8th will mark the release of another book, released as Elyssa Edwards by Ellora's Cave, that also deals with Children of Semira. (You might say Elyssa and I share the same imagination and often the same brain.) Mating Stone, and it's sequel Lovers' Stone due in July, follows a family of Bears. I'm currently working on another book that will finally look at our favorite of Werelings, Wolves.

So if you're in the mood for a bit of paranormal romance with a powerful brooding male and a quick witted, strong heroine, slide on over to Cerridwen Press tomorrow and check out Measure of Healing.

Jae

Blog Sharing with Sandra Cox

Today my blog isn't about me or my writing. (Thank goodness because after the first day back with the kids at school I may just have to crawl in a hole and sleep for 12 hours.)

So Cerridwen Press writer Sandra Cox, known for her wonderful previous releases Boji Stones and The Crystal, will be favoring us with a blurb and excerpt from her Cerridwen release Silverhills. Thank you so much, Sandra.




Silver Hills
By Sandra Cox
Available here.

Set in the 1870’s, Silverhills is the epic saga of tough, handsome Brandon Wade and lovely tempestuous Alexandria O’Malley.

Brandon is driving a herd of longhorns over the Chisholm Trail when a youth appears out of nowhere riding a magnificent black stallion and packing a deadly-looking six gun. In need of trail hands, Brandon hires the young man on. Not till weeks later during the middle of a terrible stampede does Brandon learn that his young sharp shooter is a beautiful woman. A woman, full of fire and passion, that he burns to possess. A woman steeped in mystery who refuses to disclose her past.

Alexandria is on the run and must be able to disappear at a moments notice. When she hires on to the cattle drive, she doesn’t expect the powerful attraction between herself and her trail boss or the response of her treacherous body. Will love and desire cost Alexandria her life. . .or save it?

Excerpt:

Brandon squatted down in front of her, the brown blanket partially covering his arms and exposing his hard chest and flat stomach. “And now, Alex O’Malley, I think its time we had a little talk.”

Alexandria gave him an uneasy look.

He stared at her, his eyes hard and searching. “Who the hell are you?”

“What kind of fool question is that?” Alexandria scoffed trying to brazen it out.

“If you have any sense at all, you won’t push me, O’Malley, not tonight,” he warned quietly.

Her chin came up and she looked him in the eye. “My name is Alex O’Malley.”

Before Alex could react, Brandon reached out and grabbed the front of her poncho and ripped it from top to bottom. The poncho slipped from her shoulders, leaving her bare to the waist, except for her bound breasts. He grabbed a fistful of material, his fingers pressed against her bosom.

She clenched her hand and swung. “Bastard,” Alexandria spat, as she hit him in the jaw.

Brandon barely registered the blow, aware only of the rise and fall of her breasts against his fingers. His grip on the cloth tightened.

“Let go of me,” she groundout, rubbing her aching knuckles.

“Who are you?” His voice was ragged.

Alex spat out, “Alexandria O’Malley.”

He abruptly removed his hand.

Alex grabbed the torn poncho and wrapped it around her.

“How old are you, Alexandria O’Malley?”

“Nineteen.”

Brandon’s face registered relief.

“Why the masquerade and why my trail drive,” he asked in a grim voice.

“If I had realized those four-hoofed horrors were your particular longhorns Mr. Wade,” she snarled, “you can be damn sure I would have kept riding.”

“And the masquerade?” he demanded.

Alexandra glared mutely at him then turned away.

As the silence between them grew, the foreman watched his wrangler. He bit back a grin as the light from the moon revealed the determined jut of her jaw.

Studying her, Brandon wondered yet again how he could have ever mistaken her for a boy. The days in the sun had tinted her skin a warm apricot. Raven-winged brows sat above glittering amber eyes, now hidden by heavily fringed lashes. Her cheekbones were high and stained with color and she smelled of rain.

He removed Alexandria’s soggy hat that she usually wore pulled down on her forehead. Short, auburn curls fell about her face. His gaze moved to Alex’s full mouth and lingered.

“Okay, forget it for now. But make no mistake, O’Malley, someday you will tell me and of your own free will.” He dropped the subject. “We’d better turn in. It’s been a long day. Lay down and I’ll share my blanket with you. You’re chilled to the bone.”

“Not in this lifetime or the next,” Alex said grimly, trying to ignore his bare chest.

Wade’s eyes traveled over her. “You’re perfectly safe with me, O’Malley. To me you are just one of the boys.” And I’m hell bound for lying.


So? What are you still doing here? Go on, buy the book. You know you want to. What could be more enticing than rugged cowboys, hot-headed strong-willed heroines and forbidden attraction?

And so it begins...

Tomorrow my winter break is over. *sigh* I have to get up early, about 4:30 am so I can get dressed and make my commute to work. Why couldn't I have been born rich? Had a trust fund? I'd have put it to so much better use than some people who can't keep their panties on or their faces out of the tabloids.

Why didn't I marry rich? No, I had to marry for love. A poor librarian. Wanna know who has to have a Master's degree, be licensed by the state and gets paid even less than a teacher? Yep. Librarians.

So tomorrow I go back to my classroom. Report cards await. Such a joyous time of parents screaming and kids crying and wondering if they can still bring up that grade. No sweetie, it's already on the report card in your hand. I'm not a tough teacher. To quote the brother of one of my current students (I taught big brother about 2 years ago.) "If you fail Mrs. R's class, you must be stupid." A gratifying observation if not very helpful.

Since tomorrow is a work day, I'll take my dachshund with me. He loves to run about the room, sleep on the desk, etc. while I putter about. If I have to leave for something, he curls up in his carrier and snoozes until mom gets back.

*Sigh* At least it's not Wednesday yet.

And a reminder:

Measure of Healing
Jacquéline Roth

January 17th

Alejandro Ramirez’s Were-Cougar mother drove him out after his first transformation at the age of fifteen leaving him to seek out his human father and find the family his human side craved but that his animal side can never embrace. Now a man, he finds himself responsible for a traumatized Were-Cougar child. When he turns to the Weres for help, they send him to a human. Dr. Gabriela St. Jerome knows of the Cougars and hates them with every fiber of her being. But now she must swallow that hatred to work with Alejandro to help a Were child who has been thrown into transformation far too early by the horrific death of his mother. As they are forced together in the remote woods of the North Georgia Mountains, both find their mutual attraction overwhelming. But if Brie gives into this man and her own passions, it will cost her dearly. It will cost her her life.

Double Your Pleasure

Today's blog includes two reviews for books by two amazing writers. If it seems that I'm mentioning these two a lot, it's because they are writing the books that I am excited about reading.

Maid for Death
Amarinda Jones
Ellora’s Cave
Buy it here

Maid for Death opens incredibly hot and maintains its burn all the way to the last. This book is one of Ellora’s Cave’s Quickies. And, yep, that’s just what it sounds like, a short story of intense, scorching erotica. Cassandra Kent is a young Aussie who is working her way through the UK. Her latest job is as a chambermaid at the Philbeach Manor Hotel. On Halloween night she gets more than just a dirty room to clean, she gets a ghost and a ghost hunter, both interested in having carnal knowledge of her body.

Jones leaves the reader panting as she moves from one sizzling scene to the next with more than enough plot to keep you intrigued as well as hot under the collar, or wherever it is you get warm.

Cherished Destinies
Anny Cook
Ellora’s Cave
Buy it here

Anny Cook delivers the next installment in the Mystic Valley series with all the style and humor we are used to from her. Though this story deals with much more serious situations, domestic violence, sexual assault and rape, she still manages to deliver a warm and sometimes funny dual love story to readers featuring the characters we’ve come to love. (You’d think by now Dancer would understand about getting caught with his sharda down.) Cherished Destinies tells the story of two very damaged people. Both were brutalized and violated, one through a particularly violent rape and one through systematic beatings, emotional abuse and sexual assaults.

Arano is the son of Jade and Merlin, brother of Eppie and Wrenna who we met in earlier stories. Arano has long been in love with Silence who is many years his senior. But Silence is bonded to Homer, a man who treats her cruelly. When Homer dies during Eppie and Dancer’s bonding storm, he leaves a terrified and confused Silence who does not know the first thing about taking care of herself. Arano slowly and carefully begins to take care of Silence teaching her to take care of herself and teaching her to find her place in their community. The couple defy the conventions and rules of Mystic Valley to have their relationship and are rewarded when the Valley itself sanctions their bonding.

But Arano is torn in his loyalties. His twin brother Arturo has recently been the victim of a brutal and vicious rape. His violators have been found and judgment delivered to them. But healing for the young warrior and judge is slow as he must also face his twin’s finding of a mate and what that means for the two of them. But Arturo’s family and the valley take steps to make sure the wounded young man finds his destiny and his own bond-mate.

The story is wonderfully told and engaging. The characters we’ve come to know and love add such rich life to the borders of these painfully touching stories. Cherished Destinies is a welcome addition to the series.

The Loneliest Job

A few months ago I heard Holly Black, author of Tithe and the Spiderwick Chronicles say that being a writer was the loneliest of jobs. She pointed out that even in the most regimented of cubical infested offices you at least have the knowledge that on the other side of that cloth and Styrofoam wall is another living breathing human being.

As writers, often times we do work in a situation of isolation second to almost no other profession. Unless you are part of a team, you write alone, edit alone, revise alone and in many cases suffer the pain of rejections alone. It can sometimes be hard for a non-writing significant other or family member to get it. They pat you on the back and say, "It's okay. Just write something else," or some other inane but well meaning thing.

This makes the contacts we form with other writers and with our readers vitally important. Finding a first or beta reader is a difficult job for a writer. You can't simply ask a friend. What if your friend isn't into paranormal romance and you've just whipped out the worlds best were-opossum story ever to be seen? Your friend isn't into fantasy, and you've just finished world building the most amazing place filled with dragons and fairy-folk? You've written the best CSI type murder mystery and your friend can't even spell forensics, let alone understand the science.

I have to admit I’m lucky. I belong to an online workshop that lets me put my work up for critique. The workshop is fairly diverse and we have writers, poets and artists. Some write for fun and some are more serious. But having that support is important. My first novel, Access Denied, would never have been finished if not for the support of some members of that group who kept prodding me to keep going. Don’t tell their husbands, but they all admitted that they had fallen in love with my hero, James, and were going to make sure I finished it.

My current work in progress is about two chapters and an epilogue away from being finished. What is done is in the hands of two very special betas, my SO and a friend of mine named Steve. Steve is the king of grammar and punctuation. He's also the one who tells me when my male character is acting very male. My SO is the one who reads it and tells me where it doesn’t make sense. “But why would he use magic? Wouldn't it just be easier to walk over and set the table?”

*Sigh*