Why did I go to college

First off the good stuff:

Mating Stone got 4 angels from Fallen Angel Reviews. Ashley reviewed it and seemed to really like the guys in the story. "...the men in this book are to die for. Mark is sexy and charming. It is easy to see why Sarah fell in love with him so fast. You can relate to Sarah after Mark makes a huge mistake, and you can feel for him when he tries to fix it. There is also his brother, Luke, who has just enough bad boy in him to make you want to claim him as your own. Then there is Tarris, Mark’s close friend, another sexy and mysterious man. These two stuck out and I hoping they get their own stories soon. Elyssa Edwards has done a great job with Mating Stone. She has written a unique shapeshifter story that any paranormal fan will enjoy." Thank you Ashley!

The Contest! The April 11th deadline is coming up!

The hero of Mating Stone, Mark Ursine is a Were-Bear as is his twin brother Luke the hero of the upcoming July release, Lovers’ Stone. The Ursines present their lady loves with stones rather than engagement rings. For Mark and Sarah it’s an amethyst. So to win the 17” freshwater pearl and amethyst necklace here’s what you need to do. Write a brief answer to the following question and send it to ElyssaWrites@aol.com with “Mating Stone Contest” in the subject line. I’ll pick the best response as the winner, and two honorable mentions to receive smaller prizes. The winning entries will appear in my blog on April 13th.

In Mating Stone, Mark falls in love with Sarah. Sarah, a young human woman who has no idea that Were’s even exist beyond novels and movies. Strictly fictional. As a human woman, how do you react when Mr. Yummy tells you he’s the one with claws and may just leave fur on the sheets? So tell me: What type of Were is Mr. Wonderful and how does he break it to you?


Now to the title of this rant.


Why did I go to college? I mean, I spent four years of under graduate studies and a year of graduate school and for what? To be someone's scapegoat? To continue to have to scrape and stretch to make ends meet? To be treated with total disrespect and disdain?

Yes, that's right it was parent-teacher conference time again. Another day of listening to someone tell me that I don't care about their child because I didn't give him an extra week to complete an assignment. Another day of listening to someone tell me I am picking on their child because I expect him or her to follow the same rules that apply to everyone else. Another day of listening to someone tell me and my administration how I have no concern for parent involvement because I won't stay two hours after school for a conference because that's when they get off work.

Now I love teaching. I do. I love the kids and I love working with them. What I hate and abominate is babysitting, hand holding and nose-wiping. That’s why I teach middle school and not kindergarten.

So let’s get this straight. I apologize to all the great parents out there. You know who you are. You’re the one who volunteers for fundraisers and who helps pass out maps at orientation. You’re the one who returns my calls or actually has a phone number at which I can reach you if I need to touch base about your child. You’re the one who knows that budgets are tight and so you donate paper towels and tissues. You’re the one who shows up for conferences even when your child isn’t failing and we haven’t had to send the social worker to your house to force you.

Sorry to bore you with my ranting, but it’s absolutely ridiculous and some days it’s just too much to let roll off your back.

Maybe I should have been a plumber. We had to call one today because our bathtub wouldn’t turn off. Of course the estimate came in at almost a grand. Lovely to ya’ll, too.

The End

No, it's not the end of my blog, but I finally was able to close out my latest Work in Progress. I've been working on getting the last story in my Stones series finished for a while now. The problem was it just grew and grew and grew. It out grew novella length by some publisher's standards and now sits as a full novel. I'm pleased with how it's turned out. It was rather harder to do and the longer length I think comes from the need to build the backstory for the character. When you're writing a Were story you can sometimes rely a bit on the pop culture awareness of the lore. There isn't such a wide base of knowledge for the incubus and so I had to do a bit more world building.

Actually it was more of world revealing. I already knew exactly what role the incubus and some of the other species played in my world. But I found I had to explain more of it than I'd anticipated.

It's time to enter the world of self and peer edits. Then it will be time to see if Soul Stone (the working title) and my little incubus Tarris can find a publishing home. But in the mean time I plan to take a few minutes to celebrate before I start editing.

Contest:

The contest I'm sponsoring to mark the release of Mating Stone (currently available from Ellora's Cave and the first in the series I mentioned above) and Seeing Me (releasing March 28th also from Ellora's Cave) is still open.

To win the 17" freshwater pearl and amethyst bead necklace, write a brief answer to the following question and send it to ElyssaWrites@aol.com with “Mating Stone Contest” in the subject line. I’ll pick the best response as the winner, and two honorable mentions to receive smaller prizes. The winning entries will appear in my blog on April 13th.

In Mating Stone, Mark falls in love with Sarah. Sarah, a young human woman who has no idea that Were’s even exist beyond novels and movies. Strictly fictional. As a human woman, how do you react when Mr. Yummy tells you he’s the one with claws and may just leave fur on the sheets? So tell me: What type of Were is Mr. Wonderful and how does he break it to you?

Seeing Me Releases Friday!

My one and only Quickie from Ellora's Cave releases on Friday. Seeing Me is the story of first time author CJ Ellison who finds herself on a panel at a large scifi/fantasy convention. Not only is she on the panel with some big time authors, but also with one of the most yummy actors in the business today. When she opens her big mouth, as usual, and speaks before she things, as usual, she gets His attention in a big way. Now not only are her professional aspirations coming true, so are some of her fantasies.

Excerpt:

“And then you come…”Cara jerked her head up at the sound of the words. He gave a short harsh cough, took a sip of water and continued. “Sorry and then you come to the pivotal moment in the story and if you aren’t focused you can ruin what needs to be the payoff for the viewer.” He cleared his throat again, “That’s why it’s important to me to be able to commit myself to one project at a time. It makes having a personal life of any kind hard but there are often sacrifices you have to make.”

Looking down she realized she’d actually sketched the body of the nude male, no face but his hands were definitely…

She felt the heat wash over her cheeks and lowered her head, letting her hair fall across her face. She flipped the page over on the table and continued her list. She should choose a safer topic but right now she doubted her mind could focus on anything else.

The questions continued from the audience and she thought she noticed Him grow a bit uncomfortable. True, ninety-nine percent of the questions were for him but that was something she was actually grateful for. God help her if someone asked her a question right now.

She was up to twenty on her new list, having just added the delightfully archaic “deflowering,” when she heard the voice of the angry writer from earlier denounce the idea of film representation of his books as a bastardization of the art, as selling out for the money. “No screenwriter, no director, no actor can do justice to a well-written story or character without cheapening it, without robbing it of some essential element that a given reader holds dear,” he’d practically sneered. “So there’s no chance I’d ever sell one of my stories to the commercial Hollywood machine.”

“Are you crazy?” The words were out of her mouth before she realized she had spoken them. “You’d sell your left testicle if someone wanted to make a movie from one of your books with that kind of budget.” She waved her hand at the actor and author who were being criticized.

There was an undercurrent of laughter and she suddenly realized everyone in the room was looking at her. He was looking at her and wearing that wickedly seductive smile that had put him in the pages of many a magazine. Her face flushed hotly and she looked down at her hands. I can’t believe I said that, she moaned silently. The moderator quickly swung the conversation back on track. A quick glance down the table saw that indeed, the offended writer was glaring at her in disgust. Great, just great, she thought. He’s got twenty times my sales, we share the same agent and I go and piss him off. Well, it was nice while it lasted. My agent is going to kill me.

Better Late Than Never

I was recently bemoaning fact that I'd not thought to run a contest in conjunction with the release of my first Ellora's Cave novella, Mating Stone. Well, it was pointed out to me that it isn't too late, especially since I wanted to do similar contests for the upcoming July release as well.

So, here it is, the new contest for Mating Stone, just in time for the release of my Quickie, Seeing Me. Seeing Me is about two people who see past the hype to who the other really is.

Now the Contest:

The hero of Mating Stone, Mark Ursine is a Were-Bear as is his twin brother Luke the hero of the upcoming July release, Lovers’ Stone. The Ursines present their lady loves with stones rather than engagement rings. For Mark and Sarah it’s an amethyst. So to win the 17” freshwater pearl and amethyst necklace here’s what you need to do. Write a brief answer to the following question and send it to ElyssaWrites@aol.com with “Mating Stone Contest” in the subject line. I’ll pick the best response as the winner, and two honorable mentions to receive smaller prizes. The winning entries will appear in my blog on April 13th.

In Mating Stone, Mark falls in love with Sarah. Sarah, a young human woman who has no idea that Were’s even exist beyond novels and movies. Strictly fictional. As a human woman, how do you react when Mr. Yummy tells you he’s the one with claws and may just leave fur on the sheets? So tell me: What type of Were is Mr. Wonderful and how does he break it to you?

What Would You Save?

Friday night a tornado did what no tornado in recorded history has ever done. It hit downtown Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta was supposed to be too Metro for tornados to actually touch down. Atlanta was supposed to be protected by its position a the edge of the Appalachian Mountains. Winds, hail, flooding. Yes, we could fall victim to those, but tornados were for the outlying areas. Until Friday night when the Southeastern Conference basketball championships were disrupted live on national television and the talking heads kept talking pointlessly while someone tried to find out what the hell just happened. Why was the building shaking; and why were there now two larges splits in the roof of the building?

As I was straightening my bookshelf tonight I began to think about all the books, CD's, DVDs and other things I have that I've collected like the proverbial packrat. It's a lot. Then I got to thinking, what if I had to choose?

My first book, Access Denied from Cerridwen Press, has as it's premise the destruction of the Earth. A select group of people are chosen to continue the human race under the oversight and control of The Committee. The Committee played the major role in deciding what parts of human culture were saved and weren't.

For example, in the book it talks about certain sports not be "encouraged" by the Committee and how they died out. This mysterious and slightly sinister group also made all the decisions about art, literature, music, film and creature comforts down to the food that would be available. Some of the decisions were made out of practical necessity. Others weren't. Only what the people themselves brought in with them survived if the Committee didn't chose to save it.

My heroine, Leah, remarks how her entire life inside Sanctuary now fits in a couple of small crates or trunks. My hero James, in atypical fashion, brought more than she did, but still not much more than he could actually carry.

But I began to wonder about the real answers we would give to the doomsday drinking game that many of us have played. Sitting with friends over dinner and wine or over pretzels and beer, most of us have been struck with the question of If you could only have 3…fill in the blank. But what if it were real? What if I really had to choose? What if you really had to choose? What if our families and our pets were safe and we were told we were going to shelter and would probably never return to our homes? What if you had only minutes to decide what you would save? If you could save only three things from your home before you had to flee to safety what would they be?

My family pictures top the list. I have pictures of my grandparents, great grandparents, great-great grandparents and even my great-great-great grandmother. They would have to be saved.

My purse. It contains not only my identification and money, but also my ereader and my flash drive on which is stored all my WIPs. In a way losing them would be like losing my family.

If I weren’t wearing it because I’d gone to bed, my necklace. I have a silver chain that carries a silver cross that is made of twisted silver and a silver crescent moon. In my first real novel that I ever wrote, a fanfiction piece that taught me about pacing and characterization, I created an OC (other character) that was the first person who was ever completely and totally mine. In the story her dearest love gave her a silver crescent moon because she was the only light in his dark world. She never took it off. No matter the pain and discord that grew between them, her wearing it became a symbol of her unconditional love for him. My SO read that story and loved it though I have never been forgiven for killing off that particular character. (She had to die. The young man could not have grown into the person he became in the author’s canon if she had lived.) A while after I finished it I received a gift. A silver crescent moon on a silver chain.

Everything else I can replace.

New Issue of eMuse Out

The March 08 issue of eMuse magazine is out. I serve as an editor for this online literary magazine and I have to tell you with all sincerity that I work with the best bunch of folks imaginable. They scurry about behind the scenes dealing with deadlines and the missing of deadlines, technical problems, last minute emergencies and general disasters. Through it all they create a wonderful magazine each quarter.

This month eMuse features an interview with erotica writer LA Day and reviews two of her recent releases. Our art department offers up the amazing work of James Neely. His art is unique and spans genres. Our fiction section includes three character driven shorts from Gary Beck, William Falo and an impressive new writing talent Tony Vanderdrift. All of these stories are excellent reads and contain fascinating characters. Vanderdrift's The Huntress gives us just the right blend for a dark, deadly and beautiful character. Sheila is someone you're going to want to meet.

The issue also spotlights and article by your's truly on epublishing. It takes a look at the pros and cons of epublishing and some of the misconceptions too. I want to thank Raelene Gorlinsky of Ellora's Cave, Brenna Lyons of Epic and Deanna Lee of Cobbleston Press for their help. Also several writers chimed in with their thoughts and ideas as well. So many people wanted to talk about this topic that it could have taken over the entire issue.

And of course we couldn't do a literary magazine without doing interviews. The issue includes reviews on the works of authors such as Carrie Vaughn, Sherrilyn Kenyon/Kinley MacGregor, Jacquelyn Frank, PC and Kristin Cast, Amarinda Jones, Shelley Munro, Bronwyn Green, Jean Hart Stewart, Anny Cook, JC Wilder and more.

So pop over and checkout all the hard work of the writers, artists and editors.

I've been watching an rather excellent miniseries. It probably isn't new to most of you, but to poor little me with out cable or satellite there is a great deal of good stuff out there that I only get a chance to see when it goes to DVD. So this past week I've beenenjoying a few minutes here and there watching a BBC mniseries called The State Within. Now this movie is appealing to me on two levels. I love the intrigue, the political twists and turns. I like to be kept guessing who is the good guy, who is the bad guy. The acting is quite excellent.

But even better is the fact that it is several hours of Jason Isaacs. The man is so lovely to look at. I don't care if he's playing a good guy or a bad guy, he's truly fine. Pleasantly enough, in the case of this series he is playing a good guy. How nice to get to cheer for him and not feel guilty.

Another great review for Mating Stone. Alternative Read.com did a flattering write up on this paranormal novella. “She gave it enough twists to make you think, but to me the crowning touch was Tarris. He can come feed from me if it's anything like the scene between him, Mark and Sarah...YUM!”

As a matter of fact, I’m currently running up to the wire trying to get Tarris’ story done. As way of motivation for myself, I thought I’d give you a little peek at what the reviewer enjoyed.

This excerpt contains adult material. Read at your own risk.

At first she thought she’d awoken. But there was something about the feeling and the scene that made her certain she was dreaming. Everything up close was clear but the edges of her vision were glassy, blurry. And there was the fact that she was lying there wearing only the white silk slip she’d put on under her dress. Only the slip and she definitely had not gotten undressed before going to sleep.

She felt the mattress give and looked to her left. Mark was stretching out on the bed beside her. The feel of his body told her he wore only his pants, his arm sliding under her neck to cradle her to his chest. His head lowered and he kissed her tenderly. His mouth was soft, almost playful in its exploration of hers. When he lifted his head, his eyes were again filled with that dark hunger that never failed to cause a physical response. She felt the aching begin between her thighs. Her body was readying itself for him, desperate to feel his touch. She explored his mouth with her tongue and he responded by palming her breast and beginning to squeeze gently. His hand ran down her body, smoothing over the silk until he reached the edge where it lay across her mid-thigh. He lifted his head slightly and brushed his lips across her cheek to her neck. As she turned her head to allow him access she realized they were not alone.

She should have been shocked. She should have been horrified. But she wasn’t. There was an almost disturbing sense of calmness as she looked into Tarris’ blue eyes. His eyes were soft, like falling into a warm soothing pool. He stood at the edge of the bed watching them, a soft smile just curling up the edges of his lips. There was a seductive, needful look in his eyes but his face didn’t seem hungry or in the remotest way predatory. Mark’s kiss, his tongue stroking her neck, made her gasp and she couldn’t look away from the voyeur.

Mark’s hand caressed her shoulder. “It only a dream, Sarah. Only a dream.”

“A dream,” she murmured, lost in the feel of Mark’s touch and the beautiful blue gaze of the man who stood beside the bed watching them.

“Look,” Mark pointed toward the chairs. She lifted her head. She saw Mark sitting there, his head tipped back and his eyes closed. She couldn’t see Tarris but then she hadn’t seen him sitting in the chair when she entered the room. “It’s only a dream Sarah. Tarris wants to join us. He wants to share this with us. But it is your choice.”

She hesitated. A rather vociferous part of her was yelling, Hell yes! But another part of her dreaming mind—and damn this had to be a dream—was still rational. She looked into his dark eyes searchingly. What would he feel if she said yes? Would he hate her for it? Would she hate her for it?

“Sarah,” he smiled gently. “If you want to feel his touch, if you want to share our passion with Tarris, it is all right. It’s his way. He’s not like us, Sarah. Tarris is an incubus. He needs this, the energy our bodies radiate as we touch and are touched, to survive. This is part of who we are, my family. We take care of him and he gives back to us more than you could understand until you feel it. Think about it Sarah. Would you deny your sister food if she were starving?” The dark eyes lifted for a moment and met his friend’s. “I want to share this with him. To give him what he needs. It would not be the first time between he and I but this is not a world you are used to. So the choice is yours.”

An incubus? Her gorgeous, sexy boyfriend wanted her to help him feed Tarris, the incubus? Damn but her mind had pulled out all the stops to justify this erotic little dream. An incubus was the very symbol of forbidden and decadent sexuality. Dark spirit beings, they came in dreams to indulge the darkest and most hidden of fantasies within a woman. And they fed off her reactions, they fed from her passion. Her release, her pleasure was the very food of life to them. Some lore painted them devils tempting women—or it seemed in this case men too—into the sin of lustfulness.

Sarah swallowed hard. God, she’d never done anything like this before, even in a dream. But there was no denying she wanted it as well and if Mark was okay with it… It was only a dream after all. She turned to look at the beautiful face hovering over her. Slowly she reached out her hand to him. His smile brightened and he took it. Within seconds, the warm heat of his body was pressed against her right side and he had sandwiched her between them. A warm glow seemed to encompass their bodies and she watched Mark tip back his head and sigh. She felt it too, this sense of being wrapped inside sexuality, in the arms of need and desire.

Sarah suddenly felt out of her depth. She had no idea what was supposed to happen now. As if he read her mind, Mark was speaking tenderly. “Relax. All you have to do is relax. Let us please you. We are here for your pleasure, my darling.”

A shudder ran through her when, as if choreographed, the two men placed their fingers gently against her cheeks. They moved them down over her jaw, down her neck and across her collarbone. The two hands slipped down over the curves of her breasts, down her ribs and came to rest on either pelvic bone.

Mark unfastened the halter of the slip. Working in perfect harmony, their hands moved up and pulled down either side of the silk covering. Pausing, the men’s next actions stunned and delighted her.


Well I can’t give everything away.

Reviews and Rants

First off, I received two great reviews today.

Measure of Healing received 5 nymphs from Literary Nymphs Reviews Only. I was thrilled with the review and thankful that the reviewer ejoyed it. "Secrets, pain and desire blend together and opposites are not so different after all. The Were-child is the glue that brings the story together and softness to these strong characters in Measure of Healing. I loved watching Alej and Brie find everything that has been missing in their lives and finally accept what they were. I was emotionally drawn to them and enjoyed the way their shells are chipped away little by little. Roth did an excellent job and I look forward to more of her stories."

Great news since several of my WIPs and sketched outlines involve this world. Almost finished is the story of the young Wolf who appears at the end of Measure.

Mating Stone was also reviewed at Literary Nymph Reviews Only and received 4 nymphs. This is my first Ellora's Cave release as Elyssa Edwards and I was nervous about its reception. But it's been great. "Mating Stone - Amethyst is a wonderful story with humor and sensual love play. Elyssa Edwards displays a very creative talent in this surprise saga. Mark is every woman’s dream man, caring, gorgeous and considerate of Sarah, who thinks about herself as a plain, shy woman. This is a remarkable read that I enjoyed."

More good news since this is the same world as Measure and the sequel to this, Lovers' Stone, is due out in July.

Other great authors getting terrific reviews that popped up on my radar today include:

Bronwyn Green-Mystic Circle. Bronwyn kicked butt with her 5 nymph rating. The reviewer couldn't stop gushing. Check it out at : http://literarynymphsreviewsonly.blogspot.com/2008/03/torrid-tarot-mystic-circle.html

Mona Risk- To Love a Hero. Lots of very nice praise for Mona at: http://literarynymphsreviewsonly.blogspot.com/2008/03/to-love-hero.html

Contests

Some of my more savvy colleagues manage to have killer contests and to do so regularly. I admit I’m not quite so adept. Mostly because I’m new to this and also because I’ve always doubted my taste. What if what I think is cool, no one else does. That happens to me a lot. You know that look you get when you go…”Oooh, isn’t that neat?” and the other person doesn’t think so? I get that frequently. Or maybe I’m just hanging out with the wrong people.

I also admit to being a person who often finds myself thinking, “Damn! That was a good idea. I wish I’d had that.” Or the one who gets the idea after the fact. I have a current release that would have been great to do a contest related to the amethyst since it was an “Amethyst” release from Ellora’s. Did I think if this? No, not until March. A bit late on the uptake, I am. Some days I feel like Winnie the Pooh. A bear of little brain. Lot’s of fluff and stuff between my ears. Maybe if I sat down and had a good think, think, think… I’d do better. So what idea did you miss the boat on?

This is my gripe for the day, and yes it is a gripe. There really isn’t anything anyone can do about it, but ignore me while I complain. I need more time to do what I need to do in each day. Namely to write. I have a WIP that I’ve been literally working on since July and I can’t seem to find time to finish it. The worst part is if I’m going to meet the deadline on it, it has to be done very, very quickly. There just aren’t enough hours in the day.

I have a long commute-3.5 hours. I’ve tried the idea of dictating to myself, but that really doesn’t work. It’s hard to make the words come out the way you want them to verbally and still look good on paper. And no, moving isn’t an option right now because the SO works in the opposite direction.

My job is time consuming beyond the confines of my day “on the job”. Grading, planning, creating worksheets, tests, etc. occupies a great deal of my time outside of the school day. Those who think teachers only work 6 or 7 hours a day are deluded. If I give an assignment, I have to grade it. One hundred and twenty times. If I need to give an assignment, I have to create it. There are some resources available that teachers share on the internet, but once you get out of elementary school there really isn’t much out there for teaching reading in upper grades. Add to this the fact that like most school districts, mine doesn’t provide resources for teaching reading. We have a few class sets of novels, but that’s really it. The rest is up to me to find, buy and or create myself.

I have a family. It’s just the two of us at the moment and the dogs, birds and fish, but that still means I have to do all the regular stuff like dishes, laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, running errands etc. Then it’s time for me to write or sleep. Some days it’s a choice between the two. And I have to tell you, sleep usually wins. I like sleep. Sleep is my friend. And yes, I know that we “make time for what’s important.” But there is a point at which there is no time left to squeeze.

Thus ends my complaining. So what do you find that you want to do or do more of, but just can’t seem to squeeze the time in for?