Over the Moon b. Knight, Davidson, Kantra and Sunny

An interesting little guilty pleasure of an anthology that I read on the plane from Texas. For their compact sizes, each of the stories was sufficently spicy and compact enough to seem complete. While not a keeper, it defintitely works for a introduction or refresher for the paranormal genre. All of the tales revolve around shifters of some sort and 3 out of 4 are about werewolves. As a werewolf-lover, I was not blown away but I was pleased with the stories.

My favorite was 'Driftwood' by MaryJanice Davidson, a sassy love story about a vampire and a sweet, wacky werewolf.

Chocolate Paranormality...

I ride the train to work and often I see a lot of young afro-american women clutching tight to an urban romance. Now while the premise ussually involves relations (adultry, dl brothers, wantoness behavior, or dangerous attraction) some also include religious bits such as locale, occupation and/or underlying themes.

As a lover of paranormal lit, I often wonder why there's not more interest by the afro-american community in things that go bump in the night. I myself was surprised to discover Dark Thirst, an afro-american paranormal anthology and L.A. Banks collection of paranormal lit.

Still there is a niche which needs to be filled. Maybe it has something to do with religious beliefs, maybe a lot of young, metro-ridding women are just not interested. But in my pipe dreams of promoting "A Guardian's Desire," I thought about advertising on some of the urban sites. (The fact that I suck at promo not withstanding)

I went online and did a little research. My cover looks just as slick and as saucy as many of the urban titles, so I figured 'perfecto' then I thought some more (as folk with OCD ussually and unfortanately do). While the issue of submission complexity occured to me, the fear that my book might not be urban or black enough (I know it ain't PC) did occur to me. Not just that however, I also write gay fiction and how would readers and/or reviewers respond to that? Would they discount me because I only have one heteroish novel? Yes, I have several black characters, but is there some taboo out there? I don't really know. I am however, going to attempt one of the review sites below (or at least try to advertise) but my paranoias aside, for those of you who are interested--Look what I found :D

*Urban Reviews

*RawSistaz Reviews
*APOOO

*The Urban Book Source

*QBR
*Black Butterfly Reviews

*Black Authors Online

Gridlinked b. Neal Asher

I was about to say that it had been a long time since I had read a cyberpunk novel, but then I just recalled that I had read "Kiln People." I won't try to compare the two however, because one leans heavily on it's Gumshoe detective while "Gridlinked" leans half upon it's James Bond-like hero, half upon the wonderous world of technology. In this book, human beings and technology's relationship are intertwined. Humans have augs and implants which allow them to have instant and constant, internet-style access to data and others. Humans are also capable of modifying their looks to reflect animal-like features. Of course there are the starships and the wicked assualt weapons that are ussually included inside of good science fiction, but where this book stands apart for me, involves the amount of brutality in this piece. Its not a total blood bath, but the acts of violence are poignent and calculated almost with a mechanical emotionless manner. The main character, Ian Cormac, has been gridlinked (hooked into augs) for so long that his human characteristics are slim to none. The best at what he does as a lawman, his list of enemies is not only long but includes something far greater than the usual rebels and criminals. When a transporter (runcible) is destroyed and the inhabitants of a planet are wiped out, Ian is sent to investigate. Without his aug and detached from the information grid upon which he has been linked into for over 30 years, Ian is forced to rely on his less than reliable humanity to confront not just the mystery of the accident, but a villian with a vendetta to score and ...something very godlike.

A good read if you like your scifi to have a harder, sleeker edge to it. I really enjoyed it.

Vieques Island, Hurricanes and Fine Dining

My third trip to the beautiful island of Vieques, Puerto Rico was an adventurous one. Fine Dining and beautiful beaches, I knew what to expect; the bounty of free roaming wildlife such as horses, roosters, geckos, etc. I knew that I would have a wonderful time with my best friend who has relocated to live on the island...but what I didn't know was that another visitor would attempt to show up to the island. His name, of course was OMAR.



Destined to hit Vieques head on, it struck dread in me. Besides watching the Weather Channel like it was the SuperBowl, I got a glimpse of what Hurricane prepardness means. It's always rather intriging to watch disasters on television, but breaking out the generator, the hurricane shutters, checking the cisterne, making sure adequate food, water, beer and charcoal are in stock, clearing the yard of loose possible projectiles, was a whole other ball of wax.



Now H. Omar just barely slipped past the island at the 11th hour, but when I went to sleep, I was prepared to wake up surrounded by water. Vieques is not a big island and with a lot of concrete structures it wouldn't have totally been annihilated, but water, electric, mudslides and property damage will have still been an issue...Hell, they take all of the small planes from the airport in preparation and no way are the ferrys going to be in port before a hurricane.



I did not think that I was going to be home today, but thanks to the carribean sea winds, I got away with no problemo.



Now, Vieques is a quaint island, nowhere as fast and modern as San Juan, but absolutely gorgeous and perfect for some one who wants to relax, admire horses herding upon the beach. It is home of the Bio Bay, a bioluminescient bay where if you swim at night the little micro-organisms glow around you. (They are harmless) It is a place where you can eat gormet meals as well as local fare for reasonable pricing and drink well into the night with friendly faces around. Most of all though, it is a place to chill and despite the excitement of the hurricane, I did just that putting on more than a few pounds to boot. Fine dining, I had such great conch fritters, swordfish, chirascuro, pasta, chowder...Several of my favorite eateries, such as Tradewinds are located on the malecon (like a boardwalk), that overlooks the sea, but there are other restaurants peppering the island that are just as delightful such as Coqui Fire (who make exquisite hot sauces).

Again, it is a gorgeous island and I plan on returning soon, but for the uninnitiated, it is defintitly a place you need a guidebook and a guide for. And be careful of hurricane season.

Cons, Cons, Cons....

I leave for lovely Vieques, Puerto Rico on Friday and yet I can't help wanting to cry because Gaylaxicon starts this weekend! Yeah, some well known folk from Loose-Id and other publishers will be there. Yup, it will cover juicy topics like Bi-guys in fiction, but me... I'll be drunk and lying face down in sand, and while that will be a lot fun. I am missing out on prime networking.

Consoling myself and thinking about the cool conventions (but they won't be MM cennntraalll)... um, yeah the cool conventions to come. There are two in 2009 that I will definitely be at because I will be working security for them (again, not the best thing promo, but free admission helps). Those two will be Katsucon in February and Balticon around March.

As a new member of Romance Writers of America (RWA), I am saving coin to attend their conference in DC, July of 2009 but who know with the economy. That convention seems to cost a great deal

The most expensive for me would be Epicon in Vegas. Hotel, airfare, registration fee... coughcoughgamblinganddrinkingcoughcough money. Oh well, here's to getting out of my cave and socializing in 2009!!

Contests + Prizes= Happy

I love contests and prizes and goodie bags, but I also like shouting out for other authors.

Michelle Cary, a writer of romantic suspense is holding a contest over on her blog. She will be giving out tote bags, promo goodies and books. Feeling lucky? Head on over here for details.