Before I get too far into the business of the blog, I thought I’d take a moment for a little BSP.  As a special thank you to my readers, I’m announcing:

The Dreaming of You – Preservation This, Bitch! Giveaway. 

It’s your chance to win one of Three Free copies of my second book upon its release in May.  You can find out all the details at my website or my new Yahoo Group. 
You’ll find both links below.                                            

 Jealousy…why do you have to bother me?

Now I’ll be the first to admit I’m far from perfect, but I have never suffered from nor understood this particularly annoying emotion.  Perhaps there’s someone out there who can make me understand, but I suggest you come fully prepared to go to the mat along with a sales pitch unlike any other.

I’ve fallen for an unavailable man or two over the years and been envious of the person they were with, but I’ve never gone Coo Coo for Cocoa Puffs over it.  I don’t burst a blood vessel if I catch the guy I’m with checking out another man…he might catch me at some point and then what?  Those damn glass houses!

Before we continue I do feel I should also state that the first part of the following story all took place back in my early twenties.  I’m much nicer than I used to be.  Back in those days, the old me might have done something evil such as drink too much vodka, hop up onto the roof of someone’s car while pointing at random guys and declaring, “I’d fuck you and you…”  True – that in itself was really only embarrassing to me, but I unfortunately decided to also point at other guys while declaring, “I would soooo NOT fuck you or you…”  Yeah…I was a real sweet heart in those days.

My first real experience with the green eyed monster didn’t actually involve me personally, so to speak.  I know already that I’m going to get some unkind comments over this, but what the hell.  All I have to say is, unless YOUR  roommate comes home from a weekend trip to a hair show in Nashville with a complete stranger in tow, declaring they’ve fallen in love while moving this perfect stranger into your home…you aren’t allowed to bitch at me.  Now that I’ve hopefully built up a little sympathy for myself…stranger guy also happened to have Tourette’s.

I was a little surprised by how much I instantly disliked this man.  To be fair, my BFF’s twitchy boy toy was not very friendly either.  I’m sure he’d been made fun all his life and perhaps that made him a little anger ball, because he was certainly never going to win Miss Congeniality.  I know it’s not PC and I realize he couldn’t help himself, but it’s very frustrating when you’re lounging on the couch trying to enjoy your favorite TV show while some dude you never intended on living with is sitting on the floor bumping the back of his head into the sofa and muttering, shit…shit…shit…periodically.  Pretty soon, you too might feel your own sanity slip as your normally Walt Disney-like personality slowly begins to get all Tim Burtony, while you imagine yourself picking up the table lamp sitting next to you and smashing him over the head with it.  Granted…I now know it was actually my roomie who deserved to be bludgeoned, but hindsight and all…you know. 

Their relationship was tumultuous at best, and wound up only lasting a few months.  I was witness to things in that short amount of time, well…ever seen War of the Roses?  I’d never seen behavior like that, coming from my don’t-ask-don’t-tell family background.  The accusations of indiscretions, declarations of love, and instantaneous assumptions of guilt were enough to make me swear, *channeling Scarlett O’Hara clutching a handful of dirt*  “As God as my witness, I shall never date crazy as long as I live.”

Something I also hadn’t learned at the tender and impressionable young age of twenty one…never say never.  It wasn’t long after their break-up that my BFF and I became Frenemies – apparently my lack of support during their relationship was unforgivable.

 
I used to think jealous people were just drama junkies, until I found myself dating one.  In my defense, he wasn’t like the jealous people I’d known in the past.  He totally flew under the ‘crazy’ radar.  In his defense, he told me he was prone to jealousy when we started dating.  He was quiet and sweet…downright loving.  Not only was he interested in me, but he was very curious about my writing as well.  I thought I’d won the man-lotto, cause on top of his seemingly mature and manly demeanor, the sex was also fantastic.  I scoffed at his declarations of being a jealous man.  He was way to level-headed for such non-sense…plus I knew I’d never give him reason to be.

For several months I was walking around in a haze…seconds away from a sugary-sweet diabetic love-coma.  Then, it stopped.  He vanished!  I left a few messages and then stopped myself.  After all, (insert sassy head bobbing here) I was certainly not going to beg.  He finally did call, though.  When we met up to discuss, to his credit, he was completely honest.  I’d given him a rough draft of a book I’d been writing, the soon to be released, Dreaming of You.  He informed me that he’d stopped calling because the imaginary ‘dream man’ character in my fictional novel was nothing like him.  I kid you not, folks…not even I could make this shit up.  The man was jealous of my imagination!

While I did appreciate his honesty…I was also carefully sliding the silverware sitting on the table we were occupying away from him.  In the end, I of course had to jump off the express train to Crackertown, but I still to this day have never understood jealousy.  If there’s anyone out there who can suss this one out for me, I’m all ears.

For more info on the Giveaway go to:                                                                                                http://www.ethandayonline.com/
or
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EthanDay/

Much Love

It’s Wednesday! Happy Hump Day!

Today’s theme is the ocean. I live fairly close to it, but I rarely go there. I think I just like the idea that it’s nearby. Enjoy these ocean scenes!

That’s Brazilian model Rafael Verga and actress Jessica Alba, in case you didn’t know. The men kissing was just cause it’s a hot ocean photo. LOL Enjoy!

So, here I am watching Miami Vice. I’m on the last episode of season one. I’m loving it! I’m having a blast watching these old time shows. I used to watch them, every episode. But, since it has been so long, they’re all new again! It’s great!

I”m also thinking about buying The A-Team, and Charlie’s Angels, Macguyver…etc. So many to think about, so many to see!

So, they made movies for most of these, but me and my writer brain were thinking. I would so love to see a new Miami Vice, the next generation, a tv series. yanno?.A female vice cop, Crocket’s daughter, and a male vice cop, Tubbs son. I think that would be so cool!

So, what do you think? Cool idea?

And what about you all, any old time favorite shows that you would like to see remade for the 21st century? I’d love to hear your ideas! Tell me about it!

Hi Everyone. Firstly, let me thank Lex for the invitation. I’m still really new to blogging, but hopefully as I do more it’ll become like old hat.

Now, where to begin. It’s been about a year now since I signed my first contract from MLR Press. Let me tell you how happily stunned, amazed and absolutely floored I was, when I got that first email saying they’d publish Dark Robe Heart. Woot!

It was several weeks, maybe even longer, of cloud nine status for me. My dream had finally come true, and I’ve been riding high ever since.

Dark Robe Heart, which was published in October 2008, by MLR Press in the Space Escapes anthology, along with the wonderful Angela Fiddler, was such a joy to write. The story grew much larger after signing the contract, and then it just got bigger and bigger, like a little something I know about.

Once DRH (our lovely acronym for Dark Robe Heart) was done, I immediately began to write the sequel. Book 2, Dark Robe Edges (DRE). It was so fresh and clear in my head, it was done before I knew it. Dark Robe Edges, will be released in April (this month) by MLR Press, in The Edge of Desperation anthology, and I am so psyched that the incredible James Buchanan is the other author in the book. When I heard James had signed on I did cartwheels. Talk about stoked! I am just so thrilled to be working with James, and it’s something I’ll cherish into infinity.

Currently I’m working on two contemporary stories. One, I hope will be my first full length stand alone novel. A coming out story. There needs to be another! The other story will be a novella, but that’s all I’ll say on that one until I get some substantial work done on it.

I think that’s all I can think of at the moment. I’ll post some excerpts and thank everyone for taking a look!

Best Regards,

Romance exists down a gravel road

While visiting our place in Southern Missouri last month, my partner and I decided on a rainy, and rather chilly, day to go driving around. We were less than 50 miles from Arkansas. Why not go? Then we could say we’d been to Arkansas. Since it was too cold and rainy to stand on our land and discuss where to put things, or hang out and read, and a drive sounded lovely. So, since we both like long drives, we went, and discovered a very beautiful lake and more gorgeous Ozark scenery.

However, on the drive down, imagine my surprise when I passed a road sign that said “Romance 2 Miles.” Funny, I thought, looking at my partner, we have romance back at the hotel in the Jacuzzi suite. Given that I write, and publish, romantic fiction, I knew I had to get a picture of me (and maybe even my car with the magnetic signs advertising Pink Petal Books) by the Romance city limits sign. So, on the way back, we found our sign for Romance (after thinking we lost it, because we thought Romance could be found closer to the Arkansas border than it was) and turned.

Romance, it seems, exists down a gravel road. (And no, Lex, not with two farmers and a couple of pigs as you suggested. Unless that’s something they don’t tell the locals.) Not wanting to go down a gravel road in the middle of nowhere with no signs, we turned around, and alas, didn’t find Romance, Missouri, that day. (I did find out later, from some friends who are locals, that yes, Romance does exist down a gravel road, and there isn’t much more there except a church (inspirational romance?) and a couple of houses (contemporary romance?).

But it got me to thinking, how many other states have a town named Romance?

Well, it turns out three. And, looking at the geography of them, I can say that as far as I’m aware, Pink Petal Books is THE closest publisher to Romance. Missouri. Arkansas. And Wisconsin.

Further research revealed that all three towns are unincorporated, so there’s a good chance that if the towns aren’t on a gravel road, they’re probably near one. And I suppose that’s a metaphor for life. After all, most of us don’t know where romance is. It’s not on any major maps. And we have no clue how to get there. We just happen to stumble across it one day and decide that we rather like the destination. And maybe, just maybe, we find it on a drive to Arkansas.

My long suffering partner made a comment that has been running laps in my head for some time now. While helping me go thru a mountainous stack of WIP’s he innocently opined “Why are all your main characters at least six feet tall? You have a problem with short guys?” Knowing that he had gone to the doctor for a physical recently and was told he had lost a quarter of an inch in height and was now officially five foot eleven and three quarters I just smiled and said “No. Not sure I ever noticed that fact before. Here, have another rice cake.” Fact is …….I’m a snob. Yep…only had one BF in my entire life that was under six feet tall. It lasted exactly three months and was doomed from the start. And yeah I know all my main characters are tall. It’s a pre-requisite. When I storyboard one of my pieces I look thru an extensive list of modeling and acting portfolios. If the guy isn’t six foot or over-he doesn’t even get a second look. Used to have a long list of other don’ts: no blondes, no tattoos, no piercings, no thongs, the list went on and on. Used to-that list is gone. Wrote a piece that has a blonde, tattooed, thonged and multi-pierced main character that my beta’s are getting hard over, so that list has been banished. The six foot minimum stays tho. Sorry short guys-Trin, Ame, Lisa (yeah the other Lisa too) or Lex might have some work for you. I’ll let them know you’re available. LOL

I’m five seven. I’m a romantic. I love to cuddle. I love walking on the beach hand in hand, I love to…..well we won’t go into that just yet….ahem. All the slots and tabs fit just right with a guy who’s six foot or taller. Everything I want is eye level whether I’m standing or kne……uh…..laying on the bed beside him. And of course tall men have big hands and big feet which translates into big other things as well, at least according to old wive’s tales. (Trust me…..those old ladies knew what they were talking about.)

Uh…where was I again? Oh yeah. Tall heroes. What other kind are there? I can’t see a six foot four bad guy getting offed by a five nine stable boy. Do the math! The swords were close to four feet long. Big hands, big feet required to handle those things. Can you imagine my hero dragging his sword thru the mud……uhm…..the steel sword in the jeweled scabbard… (cough). And the love scenes? No offense to the real couples in the real world but I write romantic fantasies. If I can’t live vicariously thru the characters I write then I just can’t seem to write convincing dialog. Five eight alpha Ranulf telling six three Bryce he wants to ride him till the cows come home gives me a case of the giggles. My mind is doing a mental Tetris with their bodies. The Twister theme from my youth is ringing in my ears….gigglefest at full tilt.

In closing-just to make sure everyone is straight on the facts: Yes my heroes are all six feet tall or over, all with large hands and large feet so they can handle those big unwieldy swords of theirs and keep their partners healthy, happy and by their sides. Size does matter………. that came out so wrong………

TTFN