Music Monday- To Blow You Away-

Today my mind isn't on writing, but on the storm coming. I live on the East Coast in U.S.A. so we've made preparations in case the storm is bad and we are without power for a week again. Growing up in the Carolinas I learned to have a huge respect for Hurricanes. I've seen some nasty weather and heard about even more.

  For today's Music Monday I found an appropriate song to let everyone effected by this storm know  my thoughts are with them. Stay safe and try not to get blown away.

Blown Away By: Carrie Underwood

P.S. If I don't post later in the week, you know we have lost power. I'll keep everyone updated on what is happening as soon as I can. :)

Wicked Romance Giveaway/Hop Winner!

  The Wicked Romance Giveaway/Hop has come to an ending and it was a lot of fun. I'm happy to say I picked up a few new followers and had a lot of comments over the week. i love hearing what everyone has to say about my crazy ideas.

  The winner of the copy of New Beginnings was chosen by my son. It is my new follower Denise Zaky. Congrats and I hope you love it. I'll be e-mailing the book to you shortly.

Frightful Friday- Don't Let Shiva Get You-

  Wicked Romance Giveaway/Hop

  Probably the most revered God of them all in the Hindu religion is Shiva, the god of destruction and rebirth.

Color Portrait of Shiva

  To Shiva’s worshipers the God is terrifying, beautiful and a vision of hope for what is yet to come.

Statue of Shiva

  So, how in the world did such a character end up being a ten foot long albino ferret with mystic powers including mind reading and being able to talk to others telepathically in any language. It all started with a video game franchise called Final Fantasy made by the company Square-Enix. My son loves the franchise so much, he wants to get his game design degree in collage and go to work making the games for Square-Enix in Japan.

Check out Square-Enix online

  In Final Fantasy the characters can sometimes summon help in the form of Aeons, GF’s (guardian force), or summoning monsters, whatever they want to call them in the newest versions of the game series. One of their regularly used summoning monsters is Shiva, a magic creature whose attack power is ice with a special attack move called Diamond Dust.

From Final Fantasy VII (7)

From Final Fantasy X (10) with a lot better graphics

Screen shots of Shiva's Diamond Dust attack in FFX

  The summoning monster, Shiva is strong enough to quite easy take care of the destruction part of the name. As for the rebirth, after her attack covers everything in ice, the haze clears and your surroundings are back to the way they were. Shocking, powerful and absolutely beautiful.
                             ****
  When my hubby Tim was picking up hamster food at the pet shop a few years ago, he saw cute baby ferrets and he just had to have one. He decided he had to have an albino ferret, because they looked so cool, so we went back to the pet shop and picked one out.

  Eyes blood red ringed in pink, soft silky coat like pure snow and we quickly learned a diva-ish princess personality. Within hours of buying her, we knew the name fit her perfectly. Here is a sneak peek at the real Shiva who is such a character I had to actually make her one in my book New Beginnings.

Shiva forcing my son T.J. to tote her around in the hood of his hoodie. A favorite pastime of hers.

Shiva happily cat napping surrounded by her gazillion toys.

With the greatest love of her life, her baby brother Scooter, who we bought for her when she turned one.

 Want to learn more about the Hindu God Shiva? Here is a good site.

Hindu Devotion-Shiva Link
 

 Don't forget to click on the Wicked Romance Link and leave a comment for your chance to win a copy of New Beginnings. I'll randomly chose one of my blog followers Saturday to win. Good luck and happy reading!  

Thoughtful Thursday is visiting day with Author Craig Thompson-

Wicked Romance Giveaway/Hop Link!

Welcome special guest Author Craig Thompson

Hump Day Hunks for a Wicked Girl's Heroes-

Wicked Romance Giveaway/Hop Link!

Oct. 24th- For a Wicked Girl With a Choice of Heroes-

  I shared info on my two heroes last Wednesday, but some of you might have missed it or be new. While I’m doing the Wicked Romance Giveaway/Hop I’ll share the info again, that way you’ll be sure to leave me a comment on the Link above to try to win a copy of New Beginnings.

  To have a worthy hero you need to have a heroine the man would kill for. Our heroine for New Beginnings is named Yazawa, Megumi. By now everyone has learned about Megumi’s checkered past, but I bet you are wondering where the idea for a yankii gang girl came from. Growing up I saw a lot of martial arts movies, filled with gangs, hoods and bikers. The ones that stood out the most were the Japanese gang members dressed in floor length kamikaze coat in vivid colors and the most detailed embroidery.

  After I started reading manga and watching animes I came across the cutes fantasy romance story, with two characters who had been Yankii gang girls in the past. It intrigued me and sparked my interest to learn more.

To watch Fruits Basket online- Go here!

To buy the anime, manga books and other Fruits Basket gear- Go here!

A lot of my readers probably know by now that my favorite movie is a Japanese movie called Nana. Nana was also made into an anime. The opening theme song for the anime led me to learn about a singer/actress Anna Tsuchiya.

Nana anime opening theme- Rose By: Anna Tsuchiya- See it here.

I grew to love Anna, so when she came out in the movie Kamikaze Girls I had to see it. She played the part of a yankii gang girl Ichiko so well, it got me excited to try my own hand at writing a character like her. Showing even more of her usual rocker girl attitude I based my Megumi off of Anna.

Read about Kamizake Girls here.

Watch Kamizake Girls here with Englidsh subtitles.
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Now that you know were my Megumi came from, let’s take another peek at her two heroes and see, which guy would you pick for Megumi.

 1- Captain Dragunter- He is one of the Zogone aliens, a military man, a solider. But, the kick in the butt for him is, after an accident he has been infected by an enemy and can't control himself from changing... into a werewolf. On Adrivar, Megumi meets Dragunter and they are instantly attracted to each other. But, after his accident he dumps her, afraid of what he might do to her. That is until he finds out about Ryuu!

 

Model of Captain Dragunter

   2- Ryuu Harada- Japanese business man who works for his father's company, giving up being a musician to be a stable person in her life. He is Megumi's first love, a man she never wanted to separate with, but they were ripped apart by the Yankii gang. Losing him was one of the biggest regrets of her life, but she knows he can never forgive her for walking out on him. Honestly, she could never forgive herself either and knows she doesn't deserve his love. Ryuu on the other hand will stop at nothing to get her back, including going to an alien planet to find her.

Model of Ryuu Harada

   So let me pose this question again for those who missed it-

  Who would you choose if you were Megumi? The solider or the lost great love of your life? Go home to Japan and try to fix the life you lost or start over with a brand new beginning on the Zogone's home planet of Adrivar? Leave me a comment. I'd love to hear the readers opinions on this!

And don't miss tomorrows post and miss out on our special guest, Author Craig Thompson. Come by and help support great authors.

Music Monday for the Truly Wicked

Wicked Romance Giveaway/Hop Link!

When I think of wicked Halloween worthy music one man comes to mind. If you want scary, creepy and slightly insane, Marilyn Manson is the go to guy. His visualization and wild imagination are enough to pull you in to his videos and not only seriously creep you out, but also get your mind racing as you unwillingly think about what he is trying to share through his music. His sound also kinda rocks and makes for excellent writing background music when you are writing a scene your character just might not make it out of in one piece.

The Beautiful People By Marilyn Manson

  Don't forget to keep coming back all week to read more about New Beginnings and share in our Blog Hop. Along with my #sixsunday this week I'll be sharing the winner of a PDF copy of New Beginnings. Just hit the link above, leave me a comment on the link and be a follower of my blog for your chance to be that winner.

  Good luck and happy wicked reading!

A Wicked Happy Birthday Six Sentence Sunday-

      Wicked Romance Giveaway/Hop Link

    It seems really appropriate that my sister Barbara (Babs) was born in October. Halloween is her most favorite time of year, her Christmas, Easter and Valentines Day all rolled into one. For Babs' birthday today I'll share a picture from Halloweens past from one of my favorite Halloweens years and years ago, with a her as her favorite wicked witch and a crazy gypsy who shall remain nameless. *cough...cough* Me!

  Happy Birthday Babs, try not to be too wicked today! :)

  


     My #sixsunday from New Beginnings-

  She saw Dragunter walk by the lab where the Paddington's extended family was cooing over the new teeny baby girl and followed silently behind him, staying far enough behind so he would not see her. Going through the walkways between all the buildings, he headed to the edge of the city.

  Once he was out in the open, in a field full of tall weeds, he pulled off his shirt and changed. His
long arms and legs contorted as dark brown hair sprouted all over his body. That body leaned in
on itself as it drew closer to the ground. The man was no more, in its place stood a beautiful
strong wolf. Megumi's boyfriend had become a werewolf.

Grab your copy of New Beginnings here!

Wicked Romance Giveaway/Hop- Finding What is Really Scary

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  Sharing My Favorite Read Giveaway Hop was organized by Reading Romances!
 


   When you hear the word wicked images of darkness, demons and evil come to mind in the form of monsters and boogie men. But, horrors of pure evil don't always have to be fictional. In the forth book of my Zogone Saga, New Beginnings, Megumi goes from dealing with the vampire breed of monster to the human kind. After reeling in the images of the attack on her mother, Megumi is slowly pulled into a place where others like her, victims, have learned to fight back and have become the monsters themselves.

From www.spooky-wallpapers.com

  Megumi's demons are in the form of Japanese Yankii gang girls. Using her trauma from the past, they reel her in, brainwash her until she willing gives up everything for them. She barely makes it through school, then runs away from home, barely seeing any of her family. She dumps her boyfriend, who begs and pleads with her to stay away from the gang. Refusing to listen to anyone she moves right into the abandoned warehouse with the gang, but quickly learns the other girls’ promises aren't all they were cracked up to be.


  What the wicked gang girls don't tell you on joining!

-Once you are in there is no going back. We own you.
-Make the leader angry, your punishment is a beat down by all the other girls. If you survive it you are lucky. If you don't survive, "Oh well."
-Gang life means rival gang fights. Lose and die.
-Girl gangs have male counter parts. If your gang is allied with a brother gang, they think you belong to them.
-Joining a Yankii gang isn't like joining Girl Scout's. There are no tea parties and cookies here, just violence, drinking and drugs.
-If it can be used as a weapon, it will be. Just watch your back, because a sister can turn that weapon on you at any time.

From the Japanese movie Kamikaze Girls

From the Japanese movie Kamikaze Girls

  By the time Tama comes to get his sister in my Zogone book #3, Ancient Enemies, Megumi is more than ready to go with the aliens when they come to abduct her from the warehouse. Seeing the aliens erase her from the minds of the gang girls, here is her reaction.

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  "Seriously… I don't know what to say." Dropping her cigarette on the ground, she stomped it, then dropped an arm across his shoulders. "How can I help? "

  "I want you to leave this world behind, the gangs, the violence and come with me. I need you by my side and I need a way to make amends to you for everything that happened in the past."

  "None of that was your fault. You know that right?"

  "Yeah, I know, but I finally have a chance to really do something for you and this family. Will you leave this crap behind and come with me?" Tama asked glancing up at her.

  "Yeah kid, I had pretty much had enough of this scene. Come on let's make a move first." Turning him around they headed back toward home, Tama looping his arm around her waist in relief, never imagining she would go along with his plans so easily.

----------

  Not so lucky for Megumi, she hops out of the frying pan and into the fire. In her story, Zogone book #4, New Beginnings, she is living on the Zogone's home planet Adrivar, but being in the wrong fighter plane at the wrong time, sends her right back into the hands or rather paws of an evil adversary. Along with her now ex-boyfriend, Zogone solider Captain Dragunter they are captured and held by the Goddess Shiva, a ten foot long albino ferret with mystical powers that loves to play with all types of alien beings.

  So mirror mirror on the wall who is the most wicked of them all. My blog hop question for a chance for one of my followers to win a copy of New Beginnings is-

  Which evil would you rather face? The Yankii girl gangs in Japan with their chains, bats and all manner of scary weapons or the Hindu goddess of destruction and rebirth, Shiva on her home planet carefully kept under her paw?

What you can win here: Is a PDF copy of New Beginnings, the fourth book in my Zogone saga.

How to enter: It is simple, just be a follower of my blog and leave me a comment answering my question with your e-mail address for your chance to win.

Hop and enter the other giveaways!

To sign up, please add your link bellow:

  Over the next few days during the blog hop, I'll share information on where I learned about these Yankii gangs. I'll be sharing all sorts of interesting Halloween bits of wickedness. Come back everyday to read something new and interesting. I might even throw in a surprise picture from Halloweens past. 

Find me on Twitter! 

Like my Author Page on Facebook! 

                                        Can't wait to see if you win? Grab your copy here. 

Hump Day Hunks With a Choice of Heroes-

  For the upcoming Wicked Romance Giveaway/Hop I'm giving away a copy of New Beginnings.

  To win a copy all you have to do is stop by during the week of the Blog Hop, leave a message and follow my blog. I'll randomly pick one winner and let them know, plus post about it on the 28th.

  For this weeks Hump Day Hunks, we have two heroes. As you see on the cover of New Beginnings, Megumi has two heroes and you don't know until almost the very end who she will choose. So who are these two heroes.

1- Captain Dragunter- He is one of the Zogone aliens, a military man, a solider. But, the kick in the butt for him is, after an accident he has been infected by an enemy and can't control himself from changing... into a werewolf. On Adrivar, Megumi meets Dragunter and they are instantly attracted to each other. But, after his accident he dumps her, afraid of what he might do to her. That is until he finds out about Ryuu!

Model for my Captain Dragunter

                                 
 2- Ryuu Harada- Japanese business man who works for his father's company, giving up being a musician to be a stable person in her life. He is Megumi's first love, a man she never wanted to separate with, but they were ripped apart by the Yankii gang. Losing him was one of the biggest regrets of her life, but she knows he can never forgive her for walking out on him. Honestly, she could never forgive herself either and knows she doesn't deserve his love. Ryuu on the other hand will stop at nothing to get her back, including going to an alien planet to find her.

Model for Ryuu

  Who would you choose if you were Megumi? The solider or the lost great love of your life? Go home to Japan and try to fix the life you lost or start over with a brand new beginning on the Zogone's home planet of Adrivar? Leave me a comment. I'd love to hear the readers opinions on this!

Music Monday With the Remedy for Wickedness-

    Here is a perfect song with Halloween coming up. It also goes well with my W.I.P. a SFR YA novel. Image what the world will look like around you after a nasty alien invasion. Charred remains, broken buildings, melted cars and fires breaking out everywhere. Now imagine you survive the attack and you are doing anything in your power to remain undetectable to the aliens.

  But, as soon as you start to feel hopeful of living, a new enemy appears. The dead that have fallen, poisoned by the scratch of the aliens, rise again. Undead controlled by evil alien monsters, reanimated walking corps with bones showing, dripping blood and gore, chunks of meat falling off as they stalk you. And chances are this body might have been someone you knew, loved and had already had to bury once.

  This would be the theme song for having to live through that day, desperate to find a remedy.

Remedy By: Seether

Six Sentence Sunday On the Road to Wickedness-

  With Wicked Romance Giveaway/Hop just around the corner so I've been telling you about Megumi's life from my book New Beginnings. If you haven't read the rest of my Zogone Saga you are probably wondering, how did a Japanese Yanki gang girl end up on an alien planet? The previous book Ancient Enemies introduces us to Megumi's younger brother Tama. He is the one the aliens come to Earth to capture.

  In Ancient Enemies I break the book up into two parts. The first part is about one couple Josh a Zogone solider and a regular throughout the whole series and a witch named Snow who he finds protecting her aunt, one of the Puritan Vampires victims and her cousin Jade one of the lost vampire children . In part two Jade has joined the Zogone military and helps in the DNA search that found her. She finds Tama and adds a little more trauma into his life. 

  This weeks #sixsunday is from the opening scene of part two were we meet Tama as he sits alone trying to figure out what to do after he has lost control of his powers and hating himself for it, because he doesn't understand how he became like this after being born from an attack on his mother.

  Both of his parents had brown eyes while his were a strange smoky blue like he had never seen on another person and it was the bane of his existence, but he might have never known if Megumi hadn't of told him the truth in a fit of rage.  She told him what had happened that night to their mother and that it was his fault that she had become a Yankii gang girl.
 
  Then it all changed when the strange woman came leaping out of the darkness at him, wielding a set of double katanas. Long silky black hair fell to the middle of her back, skin as pale as the new moon and flashing eyes pierced him as they flashed brightly. Relying on instinct, he jerked his leather guitar case in front of his face, stopping the katanas descent in an X formation on either side of his face.
 
  "Human, alien or vampire?" Were the girl's snarled words.

Want to see what happens next?

Hump Day Hunks For the Alien Turned Werewolf-

  Usually for Wednesday I post an excerpt, but with the Wicked Romance Giveaway coming up I'd like to tell you a little secret. When I started writing New Beginnings, Megumi had a boyfriend, an alien solider she met on Adrivar.

  Captain Dragunter is crazy about the sexy spitfire Earthling. He starts dreaming of wedding rings and tiny babies. That is until he is in an accident and genes from an enemy Bayger (half cyborg/half werewolf) are transferred to him. Before he knows it he starts changing uncontrollably.

  Fearing what he could become and what he might accidently do to her, Dragunter breaks up with Megumi. But after their plane crashes and all they have is each other to depend on, he starts to rethink their relationship.

  It doesn’t help when he finds out about Ryuu and is exceedingly jealous. Then again, what man wouldn’t be jealous when he finds out his woman had a first love she had lost and secretly still pines away for?

  For the first time in my writing career, I have two heroes and the reader doesn't know who Megumi will chose until the last chapter!

Want to know who she picks? Grab your copy here today!

Music Monday to Make Sure She Doesn't Get Away-

All this month I'll be talking about Halloween themes as we work our way up to Wicked Romance Giveaway/Hop.

  For this great Blog Hop, I'll be giving away a copy of my book New Beginnings. My main character Megumi, has lived almost her whole life dealing with evil of one sort or another. The one real good thing in her life was her first love Ryuu. When things got bad in high school, she left him to join a Yankii girl gang and a life of violence.

  Ryuu wasn't about to lose her. He gave her time to see how bad that life could be, while he grew up and got his own life together. Once he can't wait any more he goes to fins her, to save her from gang life, but he is to late. Megumi is not only gone, but she has been completely erased from the minds of the gang girls.

  WHen Ryuu finds out that Megumi has been taken to the planet Adrivar, he will stop at nothing to make sure she isn't the one that got away. Even if that means being abducted by the aliens himself and going to their home planet to get his woman back.

 

Six Sentence Sunday- #sixsunday

10/07/12- From New Beginnings-

  It’s October and Halloween is right around the corner. It is like Christmas to my sister Babs. To get into the spirit of the holiday, I’ve pulled out my ghost earrings and I’m ready to jump into a great blog hop. The Wicked Romance Giveaway/ Hop is the perfect time to talk about true evil. Oct. 20th - 27th I’ll be a part of the hop and give one of my blog followers the chance to win a copy of my book New Beginnings. Here is my Six Sentence Sunday with a sneak peek at New Beginnings the fourth book in my Zogone Saga.

  The girl probed until she learned Megumi's secret knowing something was deep inside hurting Megumi. The girl pushed month after month until Megumi told her everything, and then used it to make Megumi feel bad.
  "All the sisters would understand what you are going through. Every one of us has been
used up by society and spit back out, left destroyed and in pain." The girl told Megumi time and  time again.
  All of society was bad and people were horrible. The only person a girl could trust was
other girls, other victims like herself, people who knew how she really felt in the deepest darkest parts of herself.
Don't want to wait? Grab your copy here!

Hump Day Hunk For the YA Hero

 Along with You Were Wrong!, I've also been working on a new SFR YA, which I'm hoping will be later picked up by Harlequins new YA line. When I started this book I had a vague idea of what type of hero I wanted. Being a YA, he has to be a YA like my heroine, but with her world on the verge of all out apocalypse there is no way he could be a simple highschool boy.

When aliens attack the planet, who is best to help fight them other than another alien race who has already fought them and survived to tell the tale. In comes our hero, a young man whose own planet was attacked when he was very young. Their planet’s resources were sucked dry, left desolate, with a good 95% of the populace wiped out.

  The remaining survivors trained, took what they could salvage from their homes, then followed the evil creatures who had destroyed their home. Taking the fight to them, became all they had left to live for. Their world may be gone, but they could stop those monsters from destroying anyone else’s planet.

  For a kid who grew up running, hiding, learning to survive and fight, there was no normal life for him. Instead he became a warrior, running on instinct and adrenalin. Coming into contact with our young heroine is a huge shock to him. His usual confident self, becomes shy and awkward. And it takes his brother’s encouragement to realize these strange feelings mean he likes the girl. By why is it that it takes more guts and pure nerve to kiss a girl than kill an alien?

Music Monday- Music For Those Who Value Love-

  Some days it feels like our society has given up on true love. In today's world it is all about hooking up, playing with marriage and breaking up once you get bored with your lover. It is horrofying to think about. To me, when you promise forever, that is how long to stay together, not until you get bored and move on to someone more interesting.

  For my heroine in my W.I.P. Val, from You Were Wrong!, forever just walked out one day without looking back. Val always assumed she would grow old with her first love Aidan, until out of the blue he could no longer deal with being with her. While, her mother goes through men like used tissues, Val is a solid committed woman. Val never wants to fall in love again, because she assumes her heart will alwaysbelong to her ex.

  Petrus throws her for a loop. Where she sees him as just a playmate, it surprises her to have real feelings for him. But, when she sees him with another woman, she has to think long and hard about sticking with him or letting him naturally float back to his player ways.

  This song is to help her figure out who is the right man for her and whose love is worth sticking with.


Stick With You By: The Pussycat Dolls