Madness, as usual... plus a contest!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

         I hope all are having a safe but scary and happy Halloween.  I must apologize for my long absence.  I've tried to at least stay on top of posting new blogfests and contests, but it's been difficult.  Just a work thing, really.  My ship's getting ready for the big 'ol Insurv (HUGE inspection that reports to Congress) so we've been working 6-7 days a week with lots of long hours, late days, and hard manual labor.

        If you wanna know what it's like, just go to your place of work and start doing all the building maintenance and janitorial work yourself on top of your normal workload.  Don't forget you'll also have to fix your own computers, copy machines, telephones and every other electronic device around because they're not under warranty and your boss doesn't have the money to pay for technicians to fix it.  Oh yeah, he also doesn't have money for supplies for all this work, so you'll have to buy you're own grinders, sanders, tape, paint brushes and rollers, and you'll have to borrow the primer and paint from someone else, too.  Quite a bit of madness going on, so right up the Halloween alley!

        Speaking of MADNESS, I've decided it's about darn time for a contest around here.  I haven't had one yet, and since I've gotten up to over 160 lovely Junkie followers, I'd like to host one.  So here's the deal.  I'm giving away some books.  Now, I realized that some of you guys aren't writers, some aren't into romance, and some may not read much at all, so I've got up for grabs an eclectic list of brand-spankin' new books for the winners to choose from.  And all you have to do is come up with some good words because we're going to fill in a Mad Lib!

        Send me your word choices by November 15 in the comments or via email, and I'll enter you into the contest.  I'll pick two winners to choose a couple books each from the selection.  Winners will be chosen based on how ridiculously funny their Mad Lib turns out.  I'd love more new followers and some publicity for the contest, and it's always appreciated, but it's not a requirement.  If you like my blog and content, please do follow.  I'll post winners and winning Mad Libs by November 17.  If I get a big enough response or my friends and I have trouble deciding who's winning, I'll probably pick more winners :)

So here's the words we need to finish the Mad Lib:

1)  Adjective
2)  Verb ending in -ed
3)  Plural Noun
4)  Liquid
5)  Plural Noun
6)  Famous Person
7)  Place
8)  Occupation
9)   Noun
10) Nationality
11) Opposite Sex Celebrity
12) Noun
13) Opposite Sex Friend
14) Plural Noun
15) Number
16) Adjective

 Oh yeah...




For you movie and TV lovers, I also have Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead and Burn Notice: The Giveaway.  There'll be posts to come regarding NaNoWriMo (yes, I'm gonna do it!) and some big contests from other blogs and such coming soon.  Thanks everyone for sticking around.  Also, if you know anyone who likes to beta read or is looking for a crit partner for romance, please send them my way.  I'm actively looking for some critters!

The Worst News: Witnessed!

        Well, so what if I thought I was taking a blogfest break?  They're just too darn fun to resist sometimes.  At any rate, I mentioned I'd show more of my MCs from my second WIP.  So I thank Francine @ Romancing the Blog for her Bad News Blogfest for giving me the opportunity to share the bad news!
        In this scene, Rainee's waiting for Sen to get out of a meeting and wants to spend time with her fiance, Tom, while she waits.

            The debrief was going to take a little while, and she felt a growing need to see her fiancé.  Though she’d seen him less than ten hours earlier, it seemed like an eternity.  She didn’t even care she had blood all over her leather battledress.  All she wanted was to strip down and feel Tom's arms around her.

            He didn’t live too far from her suite.  They both resided in an upscale section of the settlement.  Many of the single suites were studios rather than having separate bedrooms, but this section went all-out with the amenities.

            She entered the well-lit living room.  It was the middle of the night, and all the lights were on.  Tom was nothing if not dedicated to his job.  It was his life.  The poor man needed to stop staying up so late working on his proposals.  Or maybe he was planning their engagement party.

            She slipped the bedroom door open quietly and peeked in.  It was empty, the bed still neatly made and curtains wide open.  She shrugged out of her long jacket and headed for his office.  Damn workaholic.

            When she opened the door, a quick indrawn breath was all she took before her head went from zero to a hundred on the fury scale.  Tom leaned back on his desk, office supplies scattered on the floor.  His pants were at his ankles and her sister, also naked, straddled his hips.  Their faces would have been comical to her if she wasn’t such a violent person when violated.

            Two long strides brought her to them before they could even move.  She grabbed Amber by her extensions, ripping her head backward as she landed two hard, bare-knuckle punches straight to her face.  Amber screamed, blood pooling from her nose and fat lip.

            “You.”  She pulled out her katanas and pointed one down at her sister, crumpled and crying on the floor.  “You should learn some day not to screw over someone who can beat the living crap out of you.  I have no love for you, so you’re damn lucky I don’t kill you.”

            “Baby!  Please, this isn’t—She's not—”

            “Shut up,” she said to Tom, much calmer than she felt.  “I have nothing to say to you anymore, and there’s nothing you can say to me to fix this.  I’m keeping the goddamn ring.”

            With that, she spun and rushed to her suite, grabbing her jacket along the way.  Her insides were jelly and her mind took on a circular spin.  She’d been enraged, angrier than she’d been in a long, long time.  But she didn’t feel the pain yet, just a barren numbness in the middle of her chest.

            Throwing her jacket to the floor, she hurried toward the bar and ran directly into the brick wall of Sen.  She plopped straight down on her behind.  At first she started to get up, but then just sank down and laid flat on the hard, cold floor staring up at the ceiling.  She said nothing to him when he crouched down next to her.

            “Sorry.  I didn’t mean to surprise you.”  She still said nothing.  “What is it?”  She shook her head.

            “I can’t do this tonight.  I can’t talk right now.”  Her voice seemed dead, Sen-like, even to her.  He took her hand, trying to haul her up.  “Just leave me,” she said, pulling her hand away.  Then she looked at the ring.  The red gem inside the diamond was an evil eye laughing at her.  She pulled it from her finger and rolled it away from her on the floor.  Sen frowned.

            “Did you make the wrong choice?”  She didn’t even have the energy to glare at him.

            “I always do,” she whispered.  He scooped her up as he would a sleepy child and placed her softly on the couch.  She watched him move back to the bar to pour a drink for her.  Then she chugged the shot like it was water.  He brought the whole bottle over before sitting next to her.

Aw, it's alright, Rainee.  It's not so terrible.  It leaves the door wide open for Sen, a man who's truly good all the way to his core, even when he's bad!  ***When he asks about making the wrong choice, he's recalling an earlier conversation when he'd asked her about love:

        “I know it’s hard to understand this, Sen. It’s different with Kindred because you know. You feel it right away when you bond. You don’t have to go through all we do to find out how we feel. All we can do is hope we get it right. You hope you make the right choice.”

Thanks everyone for coming by.  Everyone who signed up should be posting today or tomorrow so make sure you get around to the others listed at Romancing the Blog!