Meet My Guys

Yesterday I participated in a chat loop to kick off the Valentine’s contest. While chatting I was posting excerpts from some of my books, and enjoyed telling folks on the loop to my guys. So I thought I’d spend a few days introducing people to my guys.

I’ve said before that my stories are often driven by the male characters. No, not often, always. They are the ones who pop into my mind first, they tell me their stories and introduce me to the people in their lives. They whisper in my hear, argue with me, pout, fuss and sulk when I don’t get it right or don’t write for them that day and they open up their souls to my inspection. My men may not be corporeal, but each one of them is special.

Alejandro Ramirez
Half Human/Half Were-Cougar
Age: 51 (looks about 28)

Alejandro is the son of a She-Cougar and a human man. Though not the only kitten in his litter, he was the only one with human blood. When he experienced his first transformation, as is the way of the Cougars, his mother sent him out with nothing but a few dollars in his pocket and his human father’s driver’s license. A souvenir of their tryst.

Taken in by his human family, Alejandro finds a life that his human half craves, but his Cougar half can never fully accept. Male Cougars do not form families. They are solitary creatures who hunt, mate and defend their territory. When he finds himself responsible for a small Were child he has no choice but ask the Were world for help. They send him to a human. But Brie has secrets that could get them all killed.

As his human need for love and family war with his Cougar heritage, he finds that the family he really wants includes Brie and the child they are working together to heal.

Excerpt:

The man who sat in the corner booth this early afternoon was certainly no college boy. He also wasn’t one of the park staff. But he could easily have been one of the regulars. His tightly set jaw cut a clean, slightly squared line. The long hair was loose and reached his shoulders, a red bandana tied around his forehead to keep it out of his eyes. The mixture of medium brown and golden strands gave the hair the color of richly polished maple. He was a bit pretty for this neck of the woods but there was something dangerous and hard about him that warned everyone a harsh penalty would be extracted from anyone who pissed him off.

Henry continued to eye him warily until a familiar voice called out as its owner entered the door. “Hey old man, you still alive?” Henry scowled at the speaker and immediately opened a bottle.

“Haven’t you been eaten by a gator yet, asshole?” He slid the beer down the bar to where the new arrival stood grinning at him.

“Naw but keep prayin’. Between you and my ex-wife, maybe you’ll get lucky.” He picked up his bottle and stepped away from the bar.

“I’ve seen your ex-wife, Eddie-boy. Just hearing her, me and getting lucky in the same sentence is enough to make me swallow drain cleaner,” Henry snorted. Poor kid couldn’t be over 30 and he had one hell of bitch nipping at his heels.

Eddie grimaced, “Where were you with your sage advice before I said I do?”

“As I remember it, every male in the family tried to stop you and you threatened to kick the hell out of all of us,” the deep voice rumbled up from the booth in the corner.

Eddie pushed his black hair out of his eyes and his face grew serious, his voice hard. “This good-for-nothing giving you trouble, Henry?”

The bartender glanced between the two men. He’d never heard Eduardo Ramirez speak a harsh word to anyone. Even in the midst of a fight, Eddie’s smile was fixed on his face and he used his quick tongue to strike as many blows as his fists. The man stood up and Henry reached carefully for the handgun that sat beneath a stack of towels on the shelf under the bar. If this guy messed with one of his customers, he’d be sorry.

Eddie slowly approached the man who was two to three inches taller than he and much leaner. He looked like a seasoned predator, one made hard by the struggle to survive. The smaller man was broader but Henry’s experienced eye told him who would be the more deadly if trouble broke out and it wouldn’t be Eddie.

The two men stood, eyes locked and bodies held stiff. “You look like shit,” Eddie snorted reaching out and grabbing the other man into a quick embrace.

At the hard, two handed slap on the back a hint of a smile broke out on the tall man’s face, a faint curl of the lip that almost looked like a snarl. “Let go of me, cabron.” The man pulled away and sat back down.

Eddie laughed again and looked over at the older man whose tension was almost tangible. “It’s okay, Henry. Alejandro has been calling me a lot worse for years.” Eddie slid into the booth, “Still a friggin’ ray of sunshine aren’t you, hermano?”

Sunglasses lowered to reveal golden brown eyes only a shade darker than the man’s hair. “I’m sitting in a dive in the middle of the Everglades and you know how much I hate the Everglades,” he glanced up to see the bartender standing close enough to hear, while trying to seem as if he weren’t hanging on every word. Both of the old man’s hands were now visible above the bar. Alejandro breathed a sigh of relief. He’d known there was a weapon back there and he’d have hated to have had to hurt the old man had he decided to use it. He’d have hated it but he wouldn’t have hesitated, not if it meant protecting his brother or himself. He met Eddie’s eyes and held them intently. The dark chocolate eyes of the other man widened in surprise as the next words sounded in his mind and not his ears.

Not to mention it’s not even noon yet and I’m walking on two legs instead of four. The frown deepened. So this better be good, little boy.

Eddie shook himself breaking eye contact. He squirmed for a moment in his seat as if he’d gotten a sudden chill. “I hate when you do that, man.”

Alejandro slipped the glasses into the pocket of his leather jacket, glanced back up at the bar and jerked his head toward the back of the room. “Let’s go play pool.”

His brother looked at him surprised. “You hate playing pool. Come to think of it is there anything you don’t hate?”

“Your parents,” the deep voice said briskly as Alejandro stood and walked to the back of the room. He paused and looked back toward Eddie. So unless you want to discuss this important business in front of the old man, get back here.

Eddie followed and muttered as he stepped past him to pull a cue off the wall, “You do that because I hate it, don’t you.”

“Sometimes,” came the cryptic reply.


(Photos of Alej are courtesy of Antonio Banderas only he doesn’t know it.)

Now, How to Win Free Books

Eternally Yours Contest

What could you spend an eternity doing? What is your passion? Your hunger? Your deepest desire? Each day beginning February 5 and running through February 14 one of the ten authors will complete the line, "My darling I could spend eternity…" on either their blog or website. Collect all ten answers and e-mail them to anny@annycook.com with Eternally Yours in the subject line to win some hot, romantic books. There will be three lucky Valentine winners.

The prizes –1st prize--5 books

2nd prize--3 books

3rd prize--2 books
Entries must be in by February 16 at midnight EST. All books and prize winners will be drawn randomly.

Sandra Cox Silverhills
Mona Risk To Love a Hero
Brynn Paulin Tribute For the Goddess
Bronwyn Green Mystic Circle
Cindy Spencer Pape Stone and Earth
N.J. Walters Seduction of Shamus O’Rourke
Elyssa Edwards Mating Stone
Amarinda Jones Shades of Gray
Kelly Kirch Time for Love
Anny Cook Honeysuckle

Defending The Honor of The Average Male

First the contest plug, then the rant...


Eternally Yours Contest

What could you spend an eternity doing? What is your passion? Your hunger? Your deepest desire?





Each day beginning February 5 and running through February 14 one of the ten authors will complete the line, "My darling I could spend eternity…" on either their blog or website. Collect all ten answers and e-mail them to anny@annycook.com with Eternally Yours in the subject line to win some hot, romantic books. There will be three lucky Valentine winners.

The prizes –
1st prize--5 books
2nd prize--3 books
3rd prize--2 books

Entries must be in by February 16 at midnight EST. All books and prize winners will be drawn randomly.

Sandra Cox Silverhills
Mona Risk To Love a Hero
Brynn Paulin Tribute For the Goddess
Bronwyn Green Mystic Circle
Cindy Spencer Pape Stone and Earth
N.J. Walters Seduction of Shamus O’Rourke
Elyssa Edwards Mating Stone
Amarinda Jones Shades of Gray
Kelly Kirch Time for Love
Anny Cook Honeysuckle

Also note that some of these authors will be participating in a lovely chat at Love Romances Cafe from 1pm to 8pm on February 4th to kick off the contest. If you haven't already joined, what are you waiting for? Trust me, you don't want to miss this contest.

Now the Ranting shall begin.

I find myself flabbergasted, disappointed and angry on behalf of the men in my life. While recently reading an erotic romance I ran across the following line:

“To men, physical love and emotional love are one and the same.”

This was the advice of a mother to a daughter when her daughter expressed her concerns that her mate/husband had not told her he loved her and spoke of love only as an action verb. I had a visceral reaction to this comment.

I don’t say this to brag or to seem like an expert, but I’m usually spot on about guys. They seem so simple to me —not intellectually but in terms of understanding what they are thinking and saying. I have a coworker who literally runs her dates past me for approval. A friend of mine commented, after reading my novels, that my male characters are among the most realistic he’s seen and that he could identify with them even if it was a romance novel and not his usual fare. It seems I only fail in his esteem when it comes to relating the man’s thoughts during sex, which my friend says are generally very basic and not very romantic. I must admit this flaw is intentional, I'm writing for women readers as a rule.

Perhaps the writer meant that men express emotional love physically. They do. Men are very driven by the physical. Absolutely. And as women are no longer taught to fear and feel shame over their own sexuality, needs and desires, we are also becoming more rooted in the physical. Look at the skyrocketing rise of erotic romance. Such things were beyond comprehension fifty years ago. Men might sneak naughty magazines but women? Never. Look at the number of women who are openly engaged in extramarital sex, premarital sex or “no way in hell I’m marrying this dude, but let’s have some fun” sex.

Back to my point. Men are physical, and we as women understand that a great deal of how they express what they feel is done physically. Often the time men best know how to and feel comfortable expressing their love and affection for their partner is during sex or sex play. This does not mean that men don’t know the difference between physical lovemaking and emotional love. It does not mean that they are one in the same. To claim such cheapens all male/female, and especially male/male, relationships. It is this attitude that perpetuates the idea that gay male relationships are merely about the physical act of love, making it easy to marginalize their relationships and make their needs and feelings base, crude and unimportant.

It is insulting. It is insulting to men and to those who love them to say that the men’s emotional loving is the same as the physical. Can you honestly say you don’t know a man who doesn’t know the difference between a hard on and love? Look at the clichéd excuse for infidelity, “Honey, it didn’t mean anything. It was just sex.” Men understand the difference. They feel the difference. To claim otherwise demeans them.

It demeans the men like my dad who spent twenty-five years at the side of his wife. Raised to be a “man” he doesn’t show affection where anyone else can see. But when she died from heart disease as he knelt by her bedside, the tears falling from his eyes don’t come because he is sorry he will miss her in his bed, but because his heart is breaking.

Taming the Beast within.

When I started working on the story that became Measure of Healing, I chose to work with cougars as my Weres for a couple of reasons. First of all, I’d never seen a Were-Cougar. I’d seen Wolves, Lions, Tigers, Bears , oh my. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) I’d even seen dragons, opossums and armadillos. These last two were in a young adult novel series about vamps and Weres. But I’d never seen a Cougar.

Then there was the way this story got started. It shares a common origin with the story being released next month by Elyssa Edwards, Mating Stone. It too is a paranormal with shape shifters. And both started as writing challenges. Neither of these two came from some sudden inspiration. Neither came from some a flash of creative insight. Both came because someone challenged me to write a story with a certain set of parameters. This time the challenge came from my friend Llew. I almost always take Llew’s challenges. She is extremely creative and a wonderful writer. One day you will all own books by Llewellyn McEllis.

Measure of Healing came about when Llew challenged a group of writers to write a fiction story based on a current events article. As I flipped through the pages of news on the internet I wondered what I could write about, I came across a story about the conservation efforts in the Everglades in Florida. Most particularly about the attempt to preserve an isolated pocket of cougars who were misnamed the Florida Panther.

This group of pumas (the official scientific term for cougars) had become cut off and had not retreated from humanity’s encroachment by fleeing westward. As man moved down the Florida peninsula, they became trapped and restricted to smaller amounts of territory, now almost exclusively living in the Glades. I’d been working on a different story about werewolves. I’ve long been fascinated by Weres. Not so much the ooh, scary man gets bitten and now howls at the moon type, as the we aren’t exactly human type. Yes, I’m a sucker for what some horror aficionados like to call the tame or “defanged” werewolf.

I heard L.A. Banks and Carrie Vaughn talking about this transformation last September. Both agreed with an opinion I’ve heard expressed by several authors of vampire and Were stories. There is something primal and sexual about the lack of control of the werewolf. The primitive, base feelings that this creature taps into are, in the correct settings, highly erotic. A Were is the ultimate alpha male. He doesn’t care about society and what the world tells him he should think or feel or want. He knows what he wants and he will move heaven and earth to get it. For a woman there can be something very sexy and satisfying if that thing your alpha Wolf…or Cougar wants is you. How he gets what he wants is the line that separates paranormal from horror. And the honest truth is there just aren’t very many horror Weres out there anymore.

So being in a Were state of mind already, I wondered what would happen, how it would impact the world if the animals being pushed toward extinction were Weres. Being intelligent and sentient live forms they would eventually decide to push back. And even more importantly, what happens to Weres if their base animals become extinct? And if the Florida Panthers were part of a larger Were community, what were they doing about the problem?

These questions formed the frame that became Measure of Healing. Alejandro Ramirez is a Florida Cougar, or at least half of him is. Dr. Gabriella St. Jerome is a human doctor whose past has become tangled in the Were world that she hates. In Measure of Healing she has to over come those feelings not just toward the Weres, but toward one in particular. Problem? If she does over come, it just might lead to the death of everyone involved.

Oh, by the way, Mating Stone, which is due out from Ellora’s Cave on February 8th came from a challenge to write a story set in February that included an amethyst, a Mardi Gras mask, a kiss and a groundhog. Were-Groundhogs? Naw…

Eternally Yours Contest

What could you spend an eternity doing? What is your passion? Your hunger? Your deepest desire?

Each day beginning February 5 and running through February 14 one of the ten authors will complete the line,

"My darling I could spend eternity…" on either their blog or website. Collect all ten answers and e-mail them to anny@annycook.com with Eternally Yours in the subject line to win some hot, romantic books. There will be three lucky Valentine winners.

The prizes –

1st prize--5 books

2nd prize--3 books

3rd prize--2 books

Entries must be in by February 16 at midnight EST. All books and prize winners will be drawn randomly.

Sandra Cox Silverhills
Mona Risk To Love a Hero
Brynn Paulin Tribute For the Goddess
Bronwyn Green Mystic Circle
Cindy Spencer Pape Stone and Earth
N.J. Walters Seduction of Shamus O’Rourke
Elyssa Edwards Mating Stone
Amarinda Jones Shades of Gray
Kelly Kirch Time for Love
Anny Cook Honeysuckle

Most of these authors will also be participating in a chat on February 4th from 1pm-8pm at Love Romances Cafe. If you have not signed up for the chat loop, it's at LoveRomancesCafe-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

I Do Not Talk Funny

I find myself saying this on a regular basis. Usually to my SO, but from time to time to others as well. It seems that though I am currently residing in a place where people "mash" buttons, "might could" do things or are "fixin ta" do things I still "talk funny."

I grew up in south central Illinois. (And just for the record, the s is silent.) Anyway, the region where I grew up was near some of the larger coal mines. When the mines in West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky failed, many of the miners relocated their families to portions of Illinois and Indiana. It wasn't until many, many years had passed that I realized that those people had had an impact on the way we speak.

I was teaching a unit on a book called Dovey Coe. This is the story of a young girl in the North Carolina mountains who is accused of murder. As I was researching the Appalachian dialects, I began to notice something. The very speech patterns they were identifying were present in mild forms in my speech and that of the people where I grew up.

While teaching Across Five Aprils (my favorite Civil War era book) I learned that yes, just like in the book, many of the people of Kentucky and Tennessee had moved into our part of Illinois and some families were divided during the war with one son fighting for the Union and one going back home to fight for the Confederacy.

We'd always heard people from Northern Illinois accuse us of having a "Southern accent," but dismissed it. It turns out they were wrong, and not wrong. People from where I grew up have an odd blended dialect that resembles mountain talk. Some examples:

We have words for some things that are different in ways that don't fit the regional differences:

fireflies= lightening bugs

ghosts =haints or haunts

valley =holler

cabinets=cupboards

bowl or plate =dish

We say somethings differently:

across (sounds like) across-t

wash (sounds like) wa-r-sh

squirrel...two syllables? Nope. Just one. squrrl

hoop (sounds like) hup

roof (sounds like) rough

hoof (rhymes with rough)

And my editor has helped me notice that my writing and speaking style has an odd sense of formality to it, and older pattern of words, that she rearranges from time to time. I remember a lengthy conversation about how it had to be "an herb" not "a herb."

My point? A lesson in patience I guess. The next time one of my colleagues "might-could be fixin ta mash that there button." I'll just smile and shut up.

Oh, and meet the most beautiful newborn little girl in the world. Carly Georgette has officially made me a great-aunt. And anytime that starts to bother me, I just remind myself that makes my younger sister Staci a grandmother.

Wanna Win Free Books?

Eternally Yours Contest

What could you spend an eternity doing? What is your passion? Your hunger? Your deepest desire? Each day beginning February 5 and running through February 14 one of the ten authors will complete the line, "My darling I could spend eternity…" on either their blog or website. Collect all ten answers and e-mail them to anny@annycook.com with Eternally Yours in the subject line to win some hot, romantic books. There will be three lucky Valentine winners.

The prizes –

1st prize--5 books
2nd prize--3 books
3rd prize--2 books

Entries must be in by February 16 at midnight EST. All books and prize winners will be drawn randomly.

Elyssa Edwards- Mating Stone
Mona Risk- To Love a Hero
Brynn Paulin- Tribute for the Goddess
N.J. Walters -Seduction of Shamus O'Rourke
Amarinda Jones -Shades of Gray
Sandra Cox- Silverhills
Bronwyn Green -Mystic Circle
Cindy Spencer Pape -Stone and Earth
Anny Cook -Honeysuckle
Kelly Kirch -Time for Love

As a special treat, these authors will be participating in a chat on February 4th from 1pm to 8pm at Love Romances Cafe.

When Anny Cook showed me this list of books I was so jealous. I want to win them! This list includes some of my favorite authors and their exciting new releases. So climb on board, check out the blogs and websites for these authors. Find out what they could do for an eternity and win enough books to keep the last howls of winter at bay.

Sunrise, Sunset

You know the old song from Fiddler on the Roof? The one they sing during the wedding scene? I was reminded of the lyrics to that song today.

"When did she get to be a beauty? When did he grow to be so tall? Wasn't it yesterday when they were small?"

The reason for this sudden journey into the land of show tunes? My oldest nephew just made me a great aunt and my younger sister a grandmother. Yep I said younger. At 24, settled, married, house and job under their belts, he and his wife just brought little Carly into the world. (Spelling may change depending upon when someone tells me for certain.)

I'm telling you it's not possible. Just the other day he was three years old, riding his first bike-that I bought for him- and falling off of it (yes editor of mine, I just typed off of). I know it wasn't more than a day or two ago that he was dressed up like a ninja, running around trick-or-treating. I swear yesterday he was going to his first school dance. He can't possibly be becoming a daddy!

I guess perhaps this has all been a bit more of a bitter pill to swallow since we recently made a very important decision in my house. We've decided to try to have a baby. My SO is 11 years my junior and has just reached the time when having a family has become important. It's been a hard sell for me. I was there about five years ago and thought I had moved on. But now we have decided that it is what we both want.

Only...

I worry that I'm too old. That I won't have enough energy. That I'll be a bad parent. And most terrifying of all, what if it doesn't work? What if now that we are actually going to try, actually going to want this, what if the answer from the great powers that be is, "No"?

So when I look at my nephew I see his youth. I see my lack of it. I see them tackling something that at 24 I was in no way ready for. Something I was afraid to try too soon, and now fear I may have left too late.

MeMe'd x3

Okay my friends, I've been meme'd three times over. For those of you who don't know what this means, it means I've been "blog-tagged" and have to give out six random facts about myself. Well, you're only getting six, not 18 because...well...frankly, I'm not that interesting.

1. I love peaches. I will consume almost anything with this flavor. Tea most especially but certainly not excluding alcoholic drinks. Imagine my delight when I discovered a sparkling peach wine to celebrate at New Years. Yummm

2. I'm a nerd. Yep, I can nerd-out with the best of them. I get excited about diagramming sentences, Star Trek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and even more embarrassing things which I refuse to reveal. I have multiple costumes not used for Halloween but for things like Cons and Ren Fests. (YeeHaw folks, an excuse to have picture of Spike two days running makes me a happy girl.)

3. I'm afraid of alligators. No, you don't understand, not just afraid--phobia afraid. My SO is from Florida and I hate going to visit the in-laws. Not because of the in-laws, but because this requires going to the land of the alligator. I tell you they are lined up at the Georgia/Florida border waiting to get me.

4. I know several children's books by heart. The SO is a Youth Services Librarian and I am often the practice dummy for story times. So certain phrases have been altered in our house. "I don't care," must be immediately followed by "said Pierre and so the lion ate him then and there." "Me too," must be followed by "said the chick." And the word "terrible," cannot be said in isolation but must be followed by "horrible, no good, very bad day. Mom says somedays are like that, even in Austrailia."

5. I have OCD and ADD so I HAVE to lose interest in what you're saying... (I so need someone to make that into a tshirt. I'd buy one for every day of the week.) I can loop on things until my darling one looks at me and asks if I've taken my medication. This OCD manifests itself most particularly in my books. I have books on my shelves and they are organized by author and then in chronological order of the series. If one of my books is out of order I must fix it. Right now. The SO will torment me at times by moving books on the shelf. If a book I haven't read yet is on the shelf of books I have read I must fix it. NOW!

6. I live in a zoo. We own four dogs, a cocker spaniel named Shiloh who is literally insane, a Brittany named George who thinks he can cook and subsequently almost burns down the house about once a week, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Gracie Sue who is unaware that the breed standard says "not for rough play," and a miniature dachshund named Wendell who believes he is human. We have two birds, a blue parakeet named Pip and a green and yellow one named Green Bird. We have three neon tetras who do not have a name except for fishies and a snail my SO now has us all calling Snailie-po.

I have delayed in resonding to my meme'd stated because I cannot think of six people to tag in return. I do promise to do so, but that must come at a later time.