I am a transplanted southerner, held captive in a Yankee territory. I have little to no clue what to do with my life. I like to read, cook and write really weird stories that may never see the light of day. I am working on that last but and hope to one day write a story worth publishing. In the mean time, I have the love and support of a lot of truly wonderful people who help me make it through the day.

Jul 23, 2009

CONTEST!!!

THE TAGLINE/TITLE/TEN LINES AGENT READ CONTEST
Submit the tagline, title, and first ten lines of your manuscript, and you could win one of two critiques of your partial + synopsis from Barbara Poelle of the Irene Goodman Literary Agency!
The contest is divided into three phases and runs from July 23 to August 10.

Refer a friend, and you could win a box of spa/author goodies!For more information, visit Dawn Halliday's Website

When We First Met....

Over at Romance Divas we were talking about how ourselves and our SO (significant others) met and it was way too cute, and since I am quickly approaching my 5 year anniversary with the darling BF, I thought I would take a minute to wax poetic about fate and chance meetings. ;)

I went to a mostly girls college (my class was 3:1 girls to guys) and it just so happened that it was also a very homosexual friendly college soo of the 100 guys available about 45 of them were gay another 25 were taken and the remaining 30 were either butt-ugly or riddled with STDs from being constantly chased. Romantic huh?? soo it was October, I had officially been there for 2 months and I was homesick as hell, I had a hard time making real friends and was suffering from shyness and insecurity that accompanies major life changes.

My first job at school was telemarketing Alumni and begging them to fund us so that I could keep my scholarships, we regularly raised over 100,000 in the 10 weeks that this was done so the college paid us minimum wage and at the end threw a big party to celebrate our money whoring. My boss came late to the party, said her car had broken down and oh look how nice her cute (and available *wink wink) nephew had been kind enough to drive her.

I hadn't wanted to go to this party but went in an effort to make new friends (especially of the hot boy variety) and while i was there felt OH soo wonderfully awkward, ended up talking to a very nice girl named Susan who was in teh french program about going abroad. Turns out she knew boss's nephew from high school and ended up striking up a convo with him in the food line. She brought him back to our table and kept chatting him up while i tried not to die of embarrassment because I trip over my own tongue on a regular basis (it was a close call)

Finally he mentioned that he loved Virginia and really wanted to move there when he graduated. My ears perked up like a bunny's and suddenly he and I were engaged in conversation. I told him how home sick I had been and he offered to take me around town, even mentioning that a Martin's (the grocery store that i missed) and offered to take me by, I gave him my phone number on a napkin (that he still has) and we parted ways so he could drive auntie back home

He called me the next day and left possibly the world's longest and most awkward voice mail ever in the history of voice mail. I loved it!! I think i listened to that message about 800 times, he was so fricking cute and I feel a little bit in love with him right then. Of course then came the "boyfriend" question and it was decided by consensus of my hall (about 20 girls) that he was only in the "boy toy" stage at this point and i was cautiously optimistic that he would become more. He came to pick me up at campus (no car in those days) in this beat up old Caviler blasting Maroon 5. I laughed a lot and he said (after the fact) that I stopped his breath with the way I looked.

He took me to the mall and since I didn't know whether or not this was a real "date" (nor did I know how to ask!!) I paid for my own ice cream at Maggie Moo's, a bone of contention he brings up to this day. After the mall he took me to Martin's just like he promised and happiness over took me and I squeed just a tad, which he thought was cute. (yes I am nerdy enough to get excited over grocery stores) we went to the in-house Chinese restaurant and ate on a little bench inside the store. We talked a lot and at the end of the date he drove me back to my dorm and we hugged.

prolly the best hug of my life. I felt this incredible spark and knew i needed to see this boy again. Soo about a week later it was Halloween and I invited him over to watch the Rocky Horror Picture Show and to go to the school dance...only slightly plotting to make him spend the night so we could get past the hugging stage ;) Sure enough it was soon to late for him to drive home and we spent the whole night cuddling on my twin bed (plan worked PERFECTLY) and I am pretty sure my heart, which started tripping at the voice mail, fell firmly at his feet as we spent all night talking (and making out slightly)

Fast forward 5 years and I love him more now then ever, I can't wait to be his wife but we are taking life slow in order to make sure that we have the resources to do things "right" but one day soon I shall be Ms. BF and nothing on earth could make me happier


So...dear invisible people, how did you meet your SO? I love hearing about love so spill :-D

Jul 11, 2009

Moving and flogging mollys

sooo I need a new job, and since writing doesn't pay yet and I still haven't wormed my way into being a kept woman that means I have to interview

I fricking hate interviews

they are like walking up to a stranger and saying "please won't you point out all my flaws and hit me with them??" soo my stomach is in knots, and I am attacking those around me to relieve the stress building in my bowels. None of this is conducive to creativity, although apparently Dax has decided he is Catholic so go figure

anyway I will be gone until next week, trying not to throw up until then

in the mean time enjoy some flogging molly

Jul 8, 2009

more songs!

Remember when I said that each book/person/everything in my brian has a sound track? Well I wasn't lying, it's a prty in there :)

Driving home yesterday I heard one of my favorite songs, "The Best of You" by the Foo Fighters and it is THE perfect song for Kayleigh/Her as-yet-defined man

Kayliegh is an enigma, she runs a bar in the underground (litterally) of Dupont Circle and houses and mentors some of my more esoteric mutants. She is kind and motherly in a tough love kinda way, but that's about all anyone knows about her. She doesn't talk about her powers and is generally defined as "other" even though it is well known that she can sense and track other mutants in the vicinity, so no one comes to her town unannouced.

Her man is even worse, and I fear a long way off becuase of right now he is little more then a dark haired shadow that wanders in occasionally. I do know that they do rescue each other from very different threats, both internal and external and thier book should be an exciting one if I can get the words out of my head on on to the page :)

So enjoy the song and as a bonus here is another one that I love to rock out to: Bandages by Hot Hot Heat

Jul 2, 2009

thoughts about symbiotes

I fully admit to being a card-carrying, pocket protector wearing, sci-fi watching, vampire loving nerd. Which is prolly why I want to write paranormals in the first place, I mean it can't possibly be a coincidence that what essentially amounts to aliens who used quantum theory to come to earth invaded my head right??

Basically I am trying to figure out the low-down on my pet aliens, and since they like to change their minds its been a little hard to pin down but here is what I know so far
1) There are two (Dax and Adrianna) that came to earth in the 19th century, they opened a wormhole onto Earth to escape their dying planet, Meridia
2) Meridian's don't eat, they actually draw energy from other people and living things, making them kinda like energy vampires (and yes their favorite form of energy transfer is sex)
3) They used their knowledge of electronic technology to support themselves during the Industrial Revolution and hold a few patents on some pretty important but largely taken for granted tech
4) Dax fell in love with an English governess, Emma, sometime in this period, shortly after Adriana joined some kind of English exploration company so that she could explore the world
5) Humans with Psychic ability are genetically compatible with my Meridians so within a few years Dax and Emma had about 7 kids, all combinations of Meridian and Human DNA which gives them unique issues.
6) At some point Emma suffers a traumatic injury and Dax gives her his blood as a transfusion, altering her enough that it amplified her physic powers and gave her a life span closer to that of a Meridian, who usually live between 5 and 6 hundred years and are resistant to most things that kill normal people
7) the half-Meridian's (Emma now included) have some pretty particular issues.:

  • with food and digestion, their bodies won't tolerate anything "dead" so the eat a raw veggie diet.
  • They can handle inorganic matter (things like medications and preservatives) but not usually in large quantities.
  • They are also deathly allergic to Tylenol, and have to be very careful about vitamin regiments to stay healthy.
  • Sunlight tends to burn their eyes and their skin becomes very susceptible to burns.

All good right? but what is plaguing me is how to make these changes work, DNA is great for the kids but how do you explain the blood transfer??? it's kinda complicated but I was reading about E-Coli and how it lives in a symbiotic state with humans, infecting them shortly after birth and then protecting them from all other forms of E Coli thereafter and I was wondering if this might be my answer, cause I do love a good symbiote (What Up Teal'c!!)

BUT I worry that I am adding into much, I already got aliens, magic, quantum physics and I don't want to overload people with Sci-Fi outta the gate ya know? Anybody got any suggestions for me???

Jul 1, 2009

Calla

Hello again oh invisible people who may or may not be lurking around :)

I have returned from vacation very relaxed only to go back to work and tie myself into physic knots *sigh* oh well. Today I would like to talk to you about one of my favorite things, music

I am a music-holic, I listen to anything and everything (except country) and always manage to find ways to connect the songs to my life or my stories. All of my characters have songs that remind me of them, all the stories have a soundtrack that sets the mood from the first meeting all the way to that final kiss soo I thought I would share a little something with you

Yesterday I was listening to one of my favorite artists Rufus Wainwright, his voice is unique and he writes and accompanies all his own songs. I love him, and one of his songs Pretty Things, is just perfect for my character of Calla, who you will meet in the second book.

Calla is a brat, a spoiled rotten little princess who never really wants to "do" anything with her life. She lives on her looks (and her parents money) and is pretty much the shallowest person you will ever meet. At least, that's exactly what she wants you to think. Calla is special to say the least and that leads to a lot of pretty unconventional issues in her life. So she hides behind the exterior of a spoiled rich girl that people want to see when they look at her to keep people away.

Pretty lonely life though :( However I have a plan in the works to throw her together with the one man that no one can lie to, and don't worry I'll tell you more about him another day. ;)