Wedding Heat 

What is Wedding Heat?

Glad you asked! Wedding Heat is my new erotic series. The first ebook came out in late April, and a new Wedding Heat title will be released every two weeks or so. The stories are all centered around Maggie and Ed’s wedding at a luxury woodland resort, but forget the happy couple—it’s the guests that make this wedding sizzle! There are family, friends, and co-workers of all genders and sexual preferences attending Maggie and Ed’s wedding. Some are looking for love, some for new experiences, but nobody anticipated the kind of sexual release they would find in the woods. We’re talking HOT STUFF, so adults only.

Why Wedding Heat?

Lots of readers LOVE weddings, so why not a whole SERIES dedicated to the naughty goings-on at one wedding? Sure the bride and groom get in on the action, but weddings are about so much more than the happy couple. Guests flock to weddings with their own expectations, their own baggage, and their own desires. So, as much as the Wedding Heat series is anchored by the happy couple, it’s really an ongoing tale of the wedding as a whole. I’m sure most of us have attended more weddings as guests than we have as brides or grooms.

Why a series instead of a book?

I love falling in love with characters on TV and visiting them every week, but with so many reality shows on television now, I find I’m watching TV less and less. I started asking myself where I could satisfy my need to form those kinds of bonds with fictional characters. Stories? A series of stories? Yes! Perfect. That’s why I started writing the Wedding Heat stories. I figured there were probably other readers in the same boat, people who want something to look forward to as the weeks go by, something to fill that void. That’s why I decided on short stories–they would take up about the same amount of time as watching a TV show.

Where can I get Wedding Heat stories?

Each installation of Wedding Heat will be sold as an individual ebook from eXcessica Publishing and available through pretty much every major distributor–like Amazon, All Romance, and Barnes & Noble. Though there are common threads throughout and readers will get the full impact of ongoing plot lines by reading stories in order, the series is written in such a way that you can pick up anywhere and enjoy a really sexy story.

What do the covers look like?

The covers of Wedding Heat titles all look something like this one for the first ebook in the series:

The first two Wedding Heat titles (One in the Hand & Two in the Bush) are available now. To get in on the action, check out the Wedding Heat release schedule at the series website: http://weddingheat.wordpress.com/

Hugs,

Giselle

Find Giselle Renarde at:

Her blog: http://donutsdesires.blogspot.com
Her website: http://www.wix.com/gisellerenarde/erotica
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GiselleRenarde

My latest indulgence is Pinterest. At first I didn’t get it. I mean, pin things? What does that even mean? What kinds of things? Most of the people I know said they used it for “recipes.” I’m not that kind of girl, so it immediately lost any appeal for me. It was only recently that I discovered other time wasting joys with it.

For example, I recently set up a little board filled with pictures from the WIP I am currently working on. I picked out the hero, the heroine, the secondary characters. It was great fun and shockingly, it was also very helpful. Suddenly I had a real, sharp visual on the people and places I was making up and it really helped me focus on their stories.

As a pantser, it usually takes me a while to learn my people’s stories, discover who they are. But I’ve found with this new and fun visual aid, that process has become much easier. What we look like has a lot to do with who we are and with a solid vision now in mind, I am finding it easier to imagine how these people would react in the terrible and wonderful situations I throw them into.

And it gives me something pretty to stare at when I am staring off into space, waiting for them to tell me what comes next.

Do y’all use Pinterest? What kinds of things do you do with it?

Or maybe not.  While researching the Tudor and Elizabethan eras for Bound to the Beast, I uncovered a whole load of strange historical bedtime habits that set me going, ‘eh?’ For a start, Elizabethan beds were shorter, and not just because the occupants were diminutive in height.  Many people actually slept sitting up propped up by pillows, because they believed this was better for the ‘humors’ that governed their physiology, and because the hammock-like bed strings that supported the mattress made it impossible to lie any other way.  Hmmm, not that comfortable or cosy, me thinks.

The ‘Tester’ bed, dated from the 1590s, from the Leicester Gatehouse at Kenilworth Castle, home of the Elizabeth I’s lover, Robert Dudley (pic from English Heritage.)

Then again, if an Elizabethan bed-goer dwelt upon all the evil spirits the night was believed to contain, they might feel even less at ease.  Bedtime was surrounded by dozens of rituals to keep such spirits at bay, from leaving your shoes turned upside down so a pixie didn’t try them for size and run away with them, to tying a seed of aniseed onto your nose to ward off nightmares. And even if you did get safely off to sleep, it might not be for long.  Apparently, sleepers in the 1500s woke up ‘naturally’ after the first four hours of sleep to do the things they had no time for during their busy days. This included, of course, making love. What a romantic lot!

However, I do wonder how many people carried out these strange bedtime rituals.  Just because a form of behaviour has been passed on through history as a ‘habit’ of an age, doesn’t always mean it was common custom.  After all, if everybody was doing these things, there would be little need for them to be told to, in conduct books and the like. Moreover, the habits we hear about are often those of the minority rich elite.  To be able to sit up in your bed propped up with pillows you would have to be able to afford both luxuries. Most Elizabethans would not have. And I’m betting if you’d spent ten hours during the day labouring in the fields, even the most passionate lover might not be in the mood for sex if awoken in the wee hours.

Of course, I’m not dismissing the validity of all these titbits of info.  I might just take the tip about the shoes on board.  I live too near the New Forest to not be afeard of pixies with shoe fetishes. But maybe just a few of those Elizabethans lay down, snuggled, and slept the whole night through, just like we like to today.

****

Find out more about my historically-set fantasy books at kayberrisford.com and Loose Id

“Sex and magic, bondage and blood.”

Now I’ve got bangs (or, as they’re called everywhere but in the U.S. I believe, “fringe”).

Shoshanna Evers with blunt-cut bangs

Have a great weekend everyone! xoxoxo

–
Sexily *Evers* After… ShoshannaEvers.com
Amazon Erotica Bestselling Author

Titles on Amazon
Titles on Nook
Titles on Ellora’s Cave
How to Write Hot Sex
Agony/Ecstasy (anthology, Berkley Heat)
Best Bondage Erotica 2012, Cleis Press

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“Fast paced, intense, and sexual…every naughty fantasy come to life for the reader.” -Whipped Cream Reviews
“Shoshanna Evers definitely wields kink well.” – Joyfully Reviewed
“Kink and spice, beautifully written with characters you invest in.” – Happily Ever After Reviews
“Ms. Evers wrote a beautiful love story…” - The Romance Studio

stacks of who knows what

I think I tidied up before RT…but if I’m remembering this right, RT was in early April. Also, this mess doesn’t seem to be all RT related, which is confusing the hell out of me. Where did all this stuff come from and how can I get it to go away?

If elves can make shoes, they can surely put things away. Does anyone know where I can order some helpful elves that will show up while I’m sleeping and clean this mess up? www.elveswilldoit.com ?

But piles aren’t the only problem. So maybe I need more than elves.

keyboards, cords, and cabinet doors

Three weeks ago I lost power due to a thunderstorm and my cute, fun wireless keyboard stopped working. So I did what reasonable women do, instead of trying to figure out what went wrong (or even changing the batteries) I got out the old clunky one I hate and plugged it in.

Writers write! We don’t fix things! Right?

Apparently we don’t put things away or even close cabinet doors, either. Good God.

Maybe doing such mundane things damages our creativity. That must be it.

Do you think I can sell that idea?

No? Think I can manage to clean this up?????

Maybe after another cup of coffee and another 500 words are written.

 *Note: I originally posted this on my author blog a few weeks ago, but I though the topic was so important that I wanted to spread the message to here, too.A

The last thing any parent wants to do is admit that there may be something wrong with their child. In our eyes, our babies are perfect and the most wonderful things in the world. We love them so much that it sometimes makes us blind to the most obvious things.
Ken and I found this out painfully around the time Joie was two. Then one day we had to face facts, our daughter had yet to speak a word and we needed to find out why. No matter how painful the truth may be.

After Joie was first born she met all the milestones, but somewhere around eight months her progress slowed. When other children were walking, she was still crawling. While other kids were talking in full sentences, she would only grunt and point. Where you could somewhat reason with other children, when things did go her way she would have massive meltdowns.

We heard all the excuses and arguments. It’s because she’s the youngest. It’s because her brother is so much old and you all spoil her. Maybe she’s not hearing because she had so many ear infections.

We finally decided that we needed to find the answer for ourselves. So, we took her to various specialist, teachers and doctors and found out…nothing. They couldn’t explain to us why she wasn’t talking or why she was so emotionally delayed. Worse they couldn’t tell us how to make it better. For you see, we were still at the stage where we hoped that there would be some magic pill that could make things all better.

At three they put her in early intervention classes. Joie began to speak some, but only close family members were able to understand her since she was unable to form certain sounds. While on the outside we would jokingly call it Joie-eese, on the inside we were crying. It was so heartbreaking to see how frustrated she would get when she tried again and again to get her point across. Only to have people not understand her, no matter how hard she tried.

Joie eventually made up her own form of sign language. While it helped with teachers and family members, the translation would be lost on the rest of the world. To make matters worse, Joie was becoming painfully aware of the strange looks she would get when we were out. I think the most hurtful incident was when we were at a grocery store and a lady asked me is Joie was retarded. WTF!!! Mind you my daughter was standing right next to me at the time and she heard every word.

As the years progressed, Joie stated elementary school. She was in a regular class, but they would pull her out for speech and special needs classes. Even with all this intervention Joie still fell several years behind her class members in reading and math. That divide still remains to this day. Meanwhile another gap reared its ugly head. Joie was also behind emotionally. So, while she may be ten years old on the outside, mentally she is seven.

Let me tell you this was one of the hardest hurdles to come up for us. Kids can be cruel and they never fail to remind Joie of how much of a baby she is and how they don’t like her. So many days I pick her up at school and have to dry her tears on the way home.

During all this we couldn’t help but wonder if maybe Joie was suffering a form of Autism. Then as we about to lose any hope of ever finding an answer, help came from two separate sources. First, we switched to a new family practitioner. Not only is Dr. Shawn Conner a fantastic doctor, but he is a wonderful human being. He immediately shared my concern and referred us to one of the best pediatric neurologists in the State. The second development is we got accepted to a new program at U of M hospital. It was targeting at diagnosing and treating children with autism.

We eventually found out that while Joie doesn’t have autism, she does suffer from neurofibromatosis. It a disease that can affect both speech and emotional development. Like autism, there is no cure or magic pill for this disease.

Maybe we should have been upset with this news, but as strange as it sounds, we felt an immense sense of relief, because we finally had an answer. I think my father put it best when he said, “At least you’re not fighting a ghost anymore. It has a name and you know exactly what you’re up again.”

People have often asked me if there is anything I would ever change about Joie. The answer is simple—hell, no. Joie is perfect the way she is. She’s better than perfect. She has the amazing ability to see beauty in anything. Just walking down the street with her is an eye-opening adventure. She will point out things that the jaded population has looked over for far too long. Be it a pretty bug, or the perfect flower or a nest with a mama bird in it. She also has a connection to animals that is almost magical. In a way she relates to them better than she does people.

I’ve shared this song before, but I think it’s only fitting that I mention it again. One day when I was in tears over how cruel life has been to my daughter, this song came on the radio. By the time it was over I was crying for a whole different reason. Then I said to myself, “Yes, she is perfect. Just the way she is.”

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I apologize for any typos. Once I got stared, the words just started pouring out and my fingers had trouble keeping up. I would go back and edit it, but I’m a bit emotional at the moment.

Video-Just The Way You Are

Carrot Pecan Spice Cake

1-1/4 cup salad oil

1 cup sugar

1 cup light brown sugar

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp mace

1/4 tsp ground allspice

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground ginger

4 eggs

3 cups grated raw carrots

1 cup finely chopped pecans

Frosting

1 cup butter

2 – 8 oz packages of cream cheese

2 tsp good vanilla

2 lbs confectioner’s sugar sifted

–Combine oil and sugar; mix well.

–Sift together remaining dry ingredients. Sift half of dry ingredients into sugar mixture; blend. Sift in remaining dry ingredients alternating with eggs one at a time.

– Add carrots and mix well; then mix in pecans. Pour into lightly oiled 10″ tube pan.

Bake in slow oven 325 degrees about one hour and ten minutes. Cool in pan upright on rack. Remove from pan.

Frosting:  Combine butter, cream cheese and vanilla, cream well.  Gradually add the confectioners sugar beating well. If mixture is too thick, add a small amount of milk.

Actually, as I write this, it’s Tuesday and I’m enroute to England from California. Thrilled as I am about this trip, I will miss tonight’s results show – the double elimination. Of course I’ll be able to get the results on-line… Not quite the same. We’re taping the episodes of DWTS I’ll be missing – arriving home just in time for the final results (achieved without my vote!).

My love of dancing certainly plays a role in my writing. Of course I hope I’m conveying the passion and intensity of dance – in all its forms. In my next life I’ll start studying ballet as a child – I had my first lesson at age twenty-nine, a bit on the late side.

Flamenco directly inspired one of my Ellora’s Cave novellas, Sherry Amor. I’m especially thinking about that now because we’re going to Barcelona for the last two days of this holiday. In Sherry Amor, two lovers express their passion for each other through the flamenco. When the hero Francisco, who’s trying to hide his devastating illness from the heroine Elena, chooses another man for her, he first brings them together in a dance.

I hope during this trip to Spain, I’ll witness the passion and intensity of the flamenco – its colors and music. I hope too that I’ll find something special to inspire other stories and memories.

I promise to report back on all in my June blog.

Meanwhile, please check my website for up to the minute info: http://MardiBallou.com.

Muchas gracias!
–Mardi

Not to mention all the other things you have to deal with on a daily basis. Oh, and tons of people will hate you just because you are published. Did no one mention that to you? Yeah, I missed that memo as well.

So, in this post I’m going to share some things that I feel every writer needs to hear. Heck, maybe you’re not a writer. Maybe you’re just fed up with your job or you’re totally burned out. Either way, here are some positive thoughts for you. Like I said, we all need them sometimes.

You are valuable. You are talented and creative. Your goals are within reach. You will see your dreams come to pass. This isn’t a stopping point, it’s a step on the ladder. Good things are coming your way. The best is yet to come. A review is one person’s opinion, not the world’s. You are good at what you do. It’s okay to take some time for yourself.

Remember, life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.