#MusicMonday For Something Unpredictable

  There aren't a whole lot of really good punk bands left now a days. One that has survived and even recently came out with a new album, is Good Charlotte. If you want a song to make you want to jump up and down to the beat, a song to make you smile and lift up your spirits in a cool rock way, then they are your guys.
 
  This is one of their older singles. A mixture of art, graphics and pure punk attitude.

Predictable By: Good Charlotte

  And if you are interested in their newer stuff. Here is another one of their songs that will really get you going.

Like It's Her Birthday By: Good Charlotte

Snippet Sunday With a Challenge

  Here is a snippet from my favorite of my books, Old Dreams. Sam is some strange human Josh picks up while following the Puritan Vampire. Just like the Zogones, Sam wants to catch the Puritan Vampire and put an end to him. Josh welcomes him along, but Josh isn't in charge of this mission, his sister Ginger is and there is just something about Sam that rubs her the wrong way. So, in order to become a part of their group and g along on their quest to end the Puritan Vampire, Sam has to pass a test. Surviving it might be hard even for him.

  So, I'm going to share the very beginning of their battle and leave you hungry for more.

From Old Dreams- 

  For a moment they just seemed to circle each other, then Ginger struck quickly, but not to powerfully in Brian's opinion. One of Sam's crossed arms shot up and easily blocked her. Time and time again Ginger struck out in the same almost easy gesture. A right here, a left there, a quick kick to the shins. All where easily deflected.

  Sam deflected, but didn't hit back which seemed to anger Ginger. "Are we going to fight or dance all day?"                                                                               

Grab your copy of Old Dreams here!

#MusicMonday With a Yawn

  Despite my best efforts I didn't manage to get back here this week. Spring Break was long and tiring, but today the kid is back in school and I am back to work. So, I need a kick in the butt to get me moving. To help wake us up and get us moving, I'm going to share a song I love by my favorite female Japanese singers Anna Tsuchiya.  She will definitely catch your attention if nothing other than the coffee pot does this morning.

Lucy By: Anna Tsuchiya

  Also I jumped the gun on thinking I was having a guest last Thursday. That guest will be stopping by in June. Keep an eye out for it, because this is going to be a repeat guest we've been looking forward to see what she has been working on. Correction- Dianthia will be here July 17th or 26th.

  Happy Monday and may we all survive the long week, with a good book to help us get by. :)

#MusicMonday When Music Meant Big Hair

    As a romance writer and a hopeless romantic, I'm a sucker for the L word (love). And no one does  love ballads better that the Rock hair bands of the late 70's through the 80's. Honestly, I miss seeing bands lie these. They might have been complete badasses, but on the inside they weresoft as marshmellows and would fall to their knees and do anything for thier woman. Not to mention they were confident enough in their own masculinity to walk around with the long sexy hair. Not to many men can do that now a days. My own dear hubby still keeps his long. :)

  So, for all the readers who miss a good rock ballad, here is a classic that always touches the heart.

I'll be there for you By: Bon Jovi

P.S. Sorry I missed the rest of my posts last week. It was a go do and do some more type of wee. I'll make sure to get myself in gear this week, though my son is on Spring Break. And, I might even have a special guest stop by later in the week.

Music Monday For an Alien's Courage-

  To go with yesterday's Snippet, I have the perfect song for Music Monday. In a scene in my W.I.P. the hero Lee has finally realized he likes the Earth girl heroine. But, it takes a lot of curouage to make a move. Falling in love is a scary thing, but after watching alomst everyone he loves die, taking that leap is daunting even to a warrior like Lee. So, to give him some courage to kiss the girl, I'll let Gloriana help him get a clue. No one knows what tomorrow will bring, so find the courge to live and love while you can.

(Kissed You) Good Night- By: Gloriana

Snippet Sunday from a W.I.P.

  For those who missed this snippet when I first wrote it, I wanted to share this snippet from my W.I.P.  These are the hidden feelings of a young man, Lee, an humanoid alien whose own planet is long gone. Along with what little is left of his race and the few people they have managed to save, they come to Earth to try to finish off the monsters who destroyed their planets. There is just one distraction he never counted on.

From Young Adult/ Sci-fi Romance W.I.P. -

  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? 

Yes, this is a very unedited W.I.P., so please excuse the confusion and thanks for stopping by everyone!

Hump Day Hunks For the Other Brother.

 I've been talking a lot about my Zogone character Sam lately it seems. It isn't a well known fact that he has a younger half-brother, Tama who shows up in Ancient Enemies. Unlike his two older siblings Tama doesn't show any vampire qualities other than speed and agility. Instead he somehow manages to inherit some of the Wiccan powers the Puritan Vampire absorbed from attacking sister Jade's mother before his own.
 

Instead of being like his own brother he is more like Ginger's brother, smooth with the ladies and a young heart breaker in the making. Here is a part of a scene when he first finds the girl who was meant to be his.
 

  From Ancient Enemies-

Laughing merrily at her Brian shook his head and left the room. A room now empty except for Tama and Caroline. Watching her tidy the room and shut the equipment down, he noticed a small frown cross her face.
 

 Taking the initiative, Tama slid himself onto the side of the bed, so she was between him and the computer stand. "I can tell you are happy for her, but also sad for you. Why? No husband and children of your own?" 

  Ok so it was killing two birds with one stone, but a man had to try, right.

  "No, I have neither a husband nor any children. But I have to say that was a pretty inventive way of finding out if I was single." Skirting around him she headed toward the door.

  "Why don't you? Seeing Ginger's happiness made you envy her, so why hasn't some lucky man scooped you up before now?"

  "Almost every man I know is a cousin of some sorts or intimidated that I am such a well-respected young doctor. It's no big deal. It's just something I have learned to live with."

  Lightly taking her arm he turned her to look at him. "I think it is a big deal. A woman who is obviously as caring as you should have a family. Besides, everyone needs someone. It's human nature."

  She pulled away from his hold, turning her body away from his. "I don't think this is any of your business."

  He went with her movements, until he had her against the edge of the doctor's long tables. "Let's say I want to make it my business."

MusicMonday for the April Fool-

   Happy April Fools day and praise be that Spring is finally here and I have seen the sun again after the long mean Winter. So, what makes us the biggest fools in this life? That would be Cupid and his mischievous arrow. For April Fool's Day I know the perfect song for fools in love. This song is from a newer singer, a lovely young woman named Juniel. To help her out with this song is a young man from her company that is well known to a lot of K-pop fans. His name is Jung Yong-Hwa and he is the lead singer of C.N. Blue.

  Together, these two very talent singers tell us all about what it is lie to be a fool in love.

Fool By: Juniel Ft. Jung Yong-Hwa

Easter Sunday Snippet

  First to all my visitors, Happy Easter. If you don't celebrate Easter, Happy Sunday enjoy a day to just be lazy, stretch out on the couch and read a good book. To me Sundays especially Easter Sunday is all about family. So, to share one of my characters feelings on family, I'll share a snippet from my Zogone book #1- Old Dreams. Sam lost his mother when he was eight and grew up in an orphanage until he was finally old enough to go after the man who had killed his mother. Along the way he meets the Zogone family visiting Earth who also happen to be chasing the same enemy as him. This is what being with them feels like.

  From Old Dreams-

  For the first time since he was a small child he had a home and a family ... with them. Josh had become the brother he had always wanted and his best friend, always there when he needed a man to talk to. As strange as it sounded, Brian had taken him under his wing and made him feel like he was one of his grand children just like Josh and Ginger.

  Then there was Arlene who knew his father had killed her, yet didn't see him as some half blooded monster. No, she pulled him in and excepted him for who he was. He could see why Brian went through so much to get her back. Arlene was the sweetest, most kind and caring person he had ever met. She had taken on the task of grandmother to so many of the stations residents and everyone felt it.

Grab a copy of Old Dreams here!

Music Monday- Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone.

  When writing a believable character, you have to give them traits, likes, dislikes, a past, even hopes for the future. But, sometimes you start out with one type of character, then to move the storyline along you have to pull them out of their comfort zone. Sometimes they have to leave everything they know behind to get where they need to be, to become the person they always hoped they could be.

  A prime example is my Zogone character Sam. The family finds him in Old Dreams on Earth hunting the Puritan Vampire. After they destroy the monster, his reason for fighting is gone, so what is a guy with vampire powers to do with himself when there is no enemy left to fight? Move on and find more bad guys to fight and more innocents to save. So, Sam leaves his old life behind and moves to the Zogone's home planet Adrivar to join their military, where he can finally use the powers he was born with from the monster father he had just killed.

  A real life hero like this, willing to do whatever it takes  to become who he wanted to be does exist. Three of them actually. They left behind the band that had made them famous, to get out of a life they didn't want. Together they fought and won the chance to become who and what they really wanted to be. They are now known as Jyj. I'll share a link at the end to help you find more info about them. But, of the three one stands out the most.

  His name is Kim (surname) Jaejoong. Not only did he go out on a limb with his two best friends, but he has also now came out with his own solo album and this album took a lot of guts to make. Being used to being a R&B/Pop/Dance group, you would think he would stick to what he knows, but he didn't. Instead, Jaejoong became the man he always wanted to be and created his own Rock solo album.

  So, today's Music Monday is showing what it felt like to be chained down, then break free and become the character, the person you want to be, which happens to be the point behind his first video Mine.

Mine By: Kim Jaejoong

To learn more about Jyj, you can find them here-
On Facebook
Their entertainment agency's site. C-Jes
Kim Jaejoong on Twitter
Member Junsu on Twitter
The third member, Yoochun also has a Twitter account, but isn't active.

Also, for a spacial extra here is two of Jyj's songs so you can understand the major difference between JYJ and the huge risk Jaejoong took making his Rock album.

One of Jyj's normal Korean songs.
Get out By: Jyj

One of their English songs from their American album- The Beginning.
Empty By: Jyj

Lucky in Love Winner!

  I chose my winner today for the Lucky in Love Blog Hop. After reading my post Chelsea Rafferty left the comment- "Looks interesting ;) Music note on his side indeed...I'd want to explore that myself :)"

  That told me a lot. I love that she liked the detail of my sexy rock musician having that tattoo. So, congrats Chelsea. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you love my Ritter and fall helplessly in love with him along the way with Talkers.

Music Monday and my Favorite Irish Band

 Lucky in Love Hop here!

When I think of Irish rock, one band always comes to mind, a group that I've listened to since I was just a preteen trying to discover my own music taste. This band made a huge impact on my taste. I went from listening to Southern Rock, Country and Oldies music to wondering what else is out there. The Cranberries have never shied away from making a statement and letting people know they care. Here is an old favorite of mine that says plenty. For the fighting Irish!

Zombie By: The Cranberries

To find out more about them you can go here-
Wikipedia page on The Cranberries
The Cranberries Web Site

Don't forget there is also still time to enter the Lucky in Love Blog Hop for a chance to win a copy of Talkers. Click the link at the top, leave me a comment with your e-mail answering my question and follow my blog to be entered.

Snippet Sunday With a Hop

To Get to the Lucky in Love Blog Hop click here!

  For my Snippet Sunday, I'll share six sentences from an excerpt of Talkers. To read the full excerpt you can click on the link above. There you can also leave a comment with your e-mail and just follow my blog for a chance to win the book.

From Talkers-

 
  He didn’t seem to even notice she was next to him. Slouched against the door, he had his head leaned against the window. His eyes were closed and his arms were crossed loosely over his chest. Even with a baseball cap pulled down over his forehead and plain, no makeup or fancy clothes, he was distracting and it was making her nervous.

  Drumming her fingertips against the steering wheel, she began to bob her head to imaginary music, then hummed to herself softly. Ritter startled her by dropping a hand across hers to stop her tapping.

  "Do I make you nervous?"
------------
Happy Saint Patrick's Day and good luck winning the hop!

Share the Love with the Lucky in Love Blog Hop

  Lucky in Love? Well, are you? It's a time of luck and wealth...or not. With each romance we find ourselves in a new world of love and memories. Are these just by chance? Is it luck? Welcome to your second annual Lucky in Love Blog Hop where we want to hear about your love, your romance, and how much you love St. Patrick's Day!!! Are you wearing green? Ready to get pinched...or wait...do you like that?

Want to win a copy of my book Talkers? Read on!

Almost 300 bloggers have giveaways and posts about those men we love! 

But that's not all....

We have TWO grand prizes. You as a reader can go to EACH blog and comment with your email address and be entered to win. Yep, you can enter over 200 times!

Now what are those prizes?

1st Grand Prize: A $100 Amazon or B&N Gift Card

2nd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack that contains paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, cover flats, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more!

 Hosted by Carrie Ann's Blog Hops

Who else is talking about the Lucky in Love Blog Hop? Check it out-

On Twitter use the hashtag #LuckHop

And Carrie Ann's Blog Hops Facebook Group

*      *      *      *     *

"What's so lucky about love?" That would be a question my heroine, Shayla from Talkers would ask.

 

  To her way of thinking, the only real love would be the love of family, her father and son. Her boy was the only good thing love had ever given her. The man she had fallen hard for at the Flight Academy, then married had been nothing more than a lying cheater. So, now he was her ex-husband and as she was concerned, one ex-husband was enough of a strike against her.

   Ritter, the young man who hires her to protect his rock band, feels the complete opposite. Between stalkers and gold-diggers, Ritter has pretty much given up ever finding real love. Or that was until he laid eyes on Shayla. It didn't take him long to realize Shayla was the one for him. It would just take a lot of convincing, a few dirty tricks, a twin brother with zero morals and more luck than Ritter had ever asked for to change her jaded resolve.
 

  So, what is really lucky about love? Is it surviving the pain of a lost love, only to later find true love? Is it knowing what is the right and wrong ways to go about a relationship? Or do you think the real luck is more about finding that one person you were truly meant to be with out of the over seven billion people on Earth. Tell me what is so lucky about love. Leave me a comment with your e-mail address and follow my blog for a chance to win a copy of Ritter and Shayla's lucky love story, Talkers.

* * * * *

Here is an excerpt to show you how luck can really come in handy. Or how unlucky it can be at times.

 

  Excerpt 1-
 

  Her thoughts, from the moment she had opened her eyes had been for him. Why would he tease me like that? Had he been joking around or did he seriously ask me to go to bed with him? Shaking her head, she tried to dislodge the steamy ideas the thought of them together had put in her head.
 

  No matter what she had always been a girl with proper morals. First of all, there was no way she would be messing around with some guy, especially one she barely knew. Secondly, he was close to seven years younger than her, a green kid who had barely lived. No matter how sexy and tempting he was, the kid was off limits. Not to even mention he was her employer at the moment.
 

  He didn’t seem to even notice she was next to him. Slouched against the door, he had his head leaned against the window. His eyes were closed and his arms were crossed loosely over his chest. Even with a baseball cap pulled down over his forehead and plain, no makeup or fancy clothes, he was distracting and it was making her nervous.
 

  Drumming her fingertips against the steering wheel, she began to bob her head to imaginary music, then hummed to herself softly. Ritter startled her by dropping a hand across hers to stop her tapping.
 

  “Do I make you nervous?”
 

  She didn’t dare look at him, knowing the truth would be written across her face. “Of course not. I’m just impatient to get there, so we can keep to our schedule.”
 

  “Right.” Ritter said sounding more than a little sarcastic and unconvinced, then yawned as he sat up in his seat.
 

 

Excerpt 2-
 

  “Ritter…. Ritter.” Was their only warning, before Petrus let himself into the bedroom.
 

  Ritter had just enough time to jerk the sheet over Shayle’s head where she was kissing each music note up his side. When he entered the room Petrus stopped dead in his tracks as his mouth fell open.
 

  “What brouther?” Ritter peeped over the covers at him.
 

  Clearing his throat, Petrus coughed into his hand. “The magazine interview is in five minutes. You’ll be late if you don’t hurry. Everyone else is already downstairs in the conference room.”
 

  Poking her head out of the covers, Shayle sat up straight and nodded, while trying to keep everything important covered. “Go ahead, we will be right there.”
 

  Petrus’ flushed face showed he was in the embarrassed shoes for once. Watching him squirm made Ritter grin in perverse satisfaction.
 

  “Stall, ve vill be there in ten..” Ritter said.
 

  Once Petrus excused himself, they hurried to dress and rush down to the conference room. Ritter spent the next hour distractedly answering questions and watching Shayle. Leaning against the wall behind the interviewers, she just stood and watched.
 

  The room was only about ten feet by ten feet and empty except for two long grey couches facing each other. There wasn’t much for Shayle to watch other than the pale peach walls. Each bodyguard leaned against a different wall, each one looking more bored than the last.
 

  Shifting his eyes back to Shayle, Ritter couldn’t help but grin. Standing there in her wrinkled t-shirt and old faded black jeans, her hair was wildly sticking out around her face. She had never looked more beautiful to him. With her well loved glow, she made him tremble. Finally, she had become fully his and it had been the best stolen few hours of his life.
 

  At the next question, Ritter glanced back and realized one of the reporters was keenly watching him. Dropping the grin into his normal fake smile, he didn’t look back at Shayle again, to stop from giving them away before she was ready.
 

  When her cell phone went off everyone turned to look as she flustered pulled it out of her front pocket, apologizing for the interruption. Stepping toward the door she walked into the small two by two entrance hall that led to the door and answered the call.
 

  “Hello.” Ritter leaned further over, one butt check coming off the couch as he leaned as far as possible to hear better. “Gunter? What?” She let herself out into the hall and the distress was obvious in her voice.
 

  Doing something completely uncharacteristic, Ritter stood up and followed with barely a, “Gentlemen, you’ll have to excuse me.”
              *      *      *      *      *

 Don't forget to leave me a comment and answer my question.

And if you can't wait until the 20th to see if you won to read the book you can buy it- HERE!

Interested in buying my other books. A full list is on my publisher's site- HERE!

And don't miss out on all the other sites participating in the Lucky in Love Blog Hop!
 

Hump Day Hunks for the Lucky in Love-

  Today a very special hunk is on the agenda. Everyone has a different type that attracts them, so whose to say our friendly Irish leprechaun isn't someones type. In a lot of mechanics shops you'll see calenders of pin up girls, who knows maybe Saint Patrick was lucky in love in February, so he became the pin up hunk for March. :) A silly notion I'm sure, but there always seems to be some small smidgen of truth in most legends.

   
Personally, I'm not Irish though the hubby and son both are. Me I'm a kissing cousin I guess you can say, being part Scottish. But, on St. Patrick's Day we all share a little in the Irish. So this year, I'll be participating in a Blog Hop Giveaway. If you are interested in hopping along with us and winning some great prizes, don't miss the Lucky in Love Blog Hop, starting this Friday March 15th. I'll be giving away a copy of my book Talkers, so don't miss it.

From Carrie Ann's Blog Hops. Click on picture for more info.

Until then, think about what being lucky in love means to you. Let me know during the hop for your chance to win and Happy St. Patty's Day to all the Irish and non-Irish alike.

Music Monday into the Unknown with Stormy Weather.

 Music doesn't always have to be understandable to be enjoyable. A good beat, a melody that pulls you in or a singer with a voice you just can't ignore are all things that make a person like a song. Personally I know all about that. My mp3 player has music on it from all over the world. I do speak bits and pieces of 8 different languages, but none of the fluently, not even my own some days. I may understand the meaning of what I am listening to, but not always what each word means. Yet, I still listen to enjoy the music each band put some much work into making.

  Then again, sometimes it helps to understand what the words mean. Let me give you an example of a song that can be both understood and not depending on your personal knowledge. One of my favorite bands is a German rock band called Tokio Hotel. They started out at a very young age singing all their songs in their native tongue, but later as their popularity grew, they released two albums in English, both of which I own. The song that drew the world's attention was called Durch Den Monsun (Through the Monsoon). When it was re-released in English they changed the name to just Monsoon. Here are both versions. Watch both and see the difference between them and how enjoyable both versions can be.





Monsoon By: Tokio Hotel

Durch Den Monsun By: Tokio Hotel

You can learn more about the band at these sites.

Tokio Hotel on FB

Tokio Hotel on Twitter

Interscope (The record company they use here in U.S.A.)

Tokio Hotel's website (currently under reconstruction)

Snippet Sunday With the Super Powered Mechanic

 Not all my heroines have obvious super powers or strange alien abilities. Some of my heroines are all to normal, Earthlings who are a special breed of their own. The heroine of my last released book, Talkers is definitely a one of a kind. And from chapter one her special abilities are made obvious. So for this weeks Snippet Sunday I'll give you the first six sentences of the book and a peek into Shayle's life.

From Talkers- 

                       Chapter One

  Since she was old enough to walk, Shayle had been in constant residence in her father’s hanger bay. There wasn’t a ship that had come in for service that she hadn’t touched or fiddled with in more years than she cared to remember. Now in her early thirties there wasn’t a fighter plane or cargo ship she couldn’t take apart and put back together even better than it was before.

  Along the way she had lost most of her femininity, replacing it with threadbare automotive jumpsuits and lean muscles from hoisting motors and transmissions. There was even a time or two she had been forced to use those muscles to defend herself and her father’s business from drunkards and even loan sharks trying to repossess a clients plane. It had given her a well known reputation for being not only a top notch mechanic and pilot, but also a woman who could easily take care of herself.

Thoughtful Thursday-

 For the second week in a row, I've gotten busy and forgot to do my Hump Day Hunks post. Well yesterday I wasn't just busy, but also convenience it was Thursday. I was getting a head of myself again. A bad habit of writers who tend to spend too much time with their imaginary friends.

So instead of the Hump Day Hunks, how about a question for those hunks. Should I throw in a love triangle into my Sci-fi Romance Young Adult work in progress? End of the world, bad aliens attacking, fighting to save your planet with the help of a very sexy alien. Then, steps in another human survivor. Should I add the twist or is saving the planet and dealing with one hero enough drama to keep the readers going? What do you think?

  And don't miss out on my upcoming blog hop. I'll be giving away a copy of one of my books and talking all about what it means to be lucky in love.

Music Monday With an Angry Action-

  Now that we are into March, it is time to get back to the real action. War, fighting, defending, doing whatever it takes to keep the bad aliens from completely taking over our planet. To go from being an innocent to an alien killer, you have to take your anger at all you have lost and use it to protect what you have left. To write an action scene that shows that anger, you have to have the perfect soundtrack. One of my favorites that covers all of the above, is today's Music Monday. War, hate, fear and just a dash of hope thrown in for good measure.

One By: Metallica

And keep a look out. I have another blog hop coming on the 15th.

Snippet Sunday Without Super Powers.

 I've been talking about the special abilities of some of my heroines, but not all of them have special super powers. The heroine of my book His Kiss is all to human. In fact she has a lot of hidden weaknesses, the main one being that she has accidentally fallen in love with her best friend Taylor. We all have our issues in life, some we don't like to advertise either. Amber's major human quality she likes to hide is a car phobia. Every heard of that or know someone who might have it? For this weeks snippet check out Amber's reaction to a bus ride.

From His Kiss-

   The bus ride was only about five minutes before she pulled the rope to get off. No matter
how little time she was on the bus, her nerves were on edge and she was tempted to find a trash
can to barf in.

  "God I hate automobiles and crazy drivers." She groaned stopping on the sidewalk to
calm herself.

  From twenty- five she counted backward to one, taking a deep breath with each number to
calm herself down. Smoothing her sweaty palms over her skirt, she squared her shoulders and
walked the last block to Gary and Karen's.