Wagering in the World of the Blue Pearl Moon

Hey! Big Kitties, today the Kougar is a guest blogger with Destiny Blaine, fellow terrific Siren author, and a wonderful all-around good gal ~ who recently blogged on Title Magic ~ titlemagic,blogspot.com. Meow-wow! did moi have a rollickin' good time that day.

Okay, Beautiful Big Cats, the Kougar put an adventuresome paw into the blue ray waters writing her blog with Destiny.

An Interview with Baron Vettura ~ Wagering in the World of the Blue Pearl Moon ~ was moi's first attempt to write as if she is the hero of All Shades of Blue Paradise (Siren Publishing). Baron Zaggry Dhio Vettura allows himself to be interviewed by an Emissary from the planet-world next to his own. The Emissary and her people wish to learn more about why there is such a high level of gambling and betting in the Baron's aristocratic realm.

Indeed, wagering is a complex strategy-enjoyment-business in the Gryhiz, World of the Blue Pearl Moon ~ which Baron Zaggry speaks about in his own self-assured, turn-the-blue marble table style. It's all about the right win in his world, and knowing how to bring that win forth.

Lovely Big Cats, you are going to relish Lexie's blog ~ Flying into the Fog. Prance and dance on over to Title Magic. Moi's mew-sings below.

Lexie, so luved your blog. I'm a sucker for flying through fog and over clouds, in my imagination and for real.
I'd have to say I'm a combo of pantser and plotter -- mostly, I just let it fly, except when I get stuck, that's when the plotting takes over, or usually the inspiration. Thanks to my Muse.
Hope you get back on track.

Flying fog kisses from the Kougar...

Flash! then Crash...

Happy Meow Mother's Day to every Big Cat Mama, to every mother. What was the Kougar's gift to her mommy? A totally from scratch, partially organic, made with no recipe Pineapple Upside Down cake. Yummy for the tummy, and one of her mommy's favorite foods. Completed with Breyer's French Vanilla Ice Cream.

Flash! then Crash! into beddie bye ~ the Kougar posted her first Sunday Flash Fiction on the Liquid Silver blog ~ liquidsilverbooks.com/blog ~ before she rolled in the sheets this morning around five in the morning. Once again, it was a lovely international day of flashing. And if you never thought libraries were fun...well, shuckey-dern, Roscoe James, Liquid Silver author, just might change your mind, or convince you never to have a late library book???
Without further purring-adieu, the Kougar's fiction-flashing...

From my WIP ~ Don’t Bite the Fortune Teller
ONE
Her hands still shaking slightly, she fanned the cards. And desperately wished she didn’t look like an unprofessional klutz. "Choose a card, Birthday Man."
"You should know, my Solitaire...I have the ability to choose whichever card I desire."
Ohmygawd, his hand...impossibly beautiful and powerful, with tapered fingers. Solitaire swallowed down her passion, now threatening to steam out her ears.
"Prove it," she murmured the challenge, ridiculously breathless.
"King of hearts," he low purred. Selecting one card with the grace of a magician, he presented it to her.
The King of Hearts – the card’s face seized her entire being.
TWO
She tore her gaze away from the betraying card. "Is that a statement?" she inanely crooned.
"Soon to be ‘truth’." His voice grazed over every inch of her flesh.
"Is that so?" She flung up her chin, having knife-flung the question at him.
He smiled, trip-tripping her heart.
"I do have a question for the fortune teller who can see our newest project beneath the ocean."
"What? The manner of my disappearance?"
"We will have to ‘disappear’ for a short time, to view the city."
"View the city...?"
"My question..." he honed in on her eyes with his eyes, darkly intense.
THREE
"Who seeks to destroy me? By sabotaging our restoration?" The importance of her answer shone in his eyes.
"The invisible man," she blurted out, the words pulled from her.
"Make him visible, my Solitaire...to your mind’s eye."
His command was hypnotic. Not to be refused. She wondered at her compliance as the image quickly formed. An office of wealth and power. Expensive subdued furnishings. The seal of the United States, a flag...the politician’s face...the elder politician she easily recognized behind his huge resplendent desk...
Solitaire squeezed her eyelids tightly.
"No need to speak his name, my Solitaire."

Kiss of the Fortune Teller from the Kougar...

The Kougar's Wild Turkey

Yesterday, during the late morning hours, Big Beautiful Cats, the Kougar noticed through her back window, this giant dark-colored bird standing on her un-mowed lawn. At first, moi could not determine despite her stalking scrutiny if it was a hawk or a wild turkey. When she grabbed her driving spectacles and the bird finally moved -- a great rejoicing occurred inside the Kougaress's breast. A single wild turkey, not more than thirty feet away. Either a hen or a young male. In prior blogs moi has waxed long and poetic over her love for these incredible majestic birds roaming around her cattle country neighborhood.
Fascinated for far longer than moi would have believed...because the turkey didn't leave quickly as the Kougar would have thought...no, Turkle hung out for close to an hour, leisurely and carefully moving about. Always close to the cover of a tree, Turkle checked the surroundings for any sign of a predator, then took a time of peacking, feeding on the ground and stripping off the dandelion seeds. Turkle also preened quite a bit. Let me meow, that long neck comes in handy when cleaning back and breast feathers, and the feathers beneath those large, large wings. Once, Turkle spread those wings, absolutely delighting moi.
It was the most amazing experience, Big Kitties. The Kougar hopes Turkle will return soon for eye-devouring only.
The shaman message? If there is one? Certainly, Turkle was an absolute gift to the Kougaress's soul. Thank you, Divine Bast.
Today was Siren author chat day on the Two Lips Review chat loop. What moi learns about her fellow authors ~ enough to scorch the whiskers off her scrunchy face! Meow-wow! One mew-sing below, Big Kitties.
To answer one of Tina's questions, my current release with Siren, All Shades of Blue Paradise, began as a semi-dream I had of the heroine, Lady Sheridan, as she sultry-walked to the meet with the hero, Baron Zaggry, her fiancee' from ten years past. I knew he was still in love with her and had never discovered why she ended their engagement. I also knew he intended to punish her with pleasure, given his dominant ruling nature.
Smooch to the wild turkey from the Kougar...

The Talgorian Prophecy ~ Ariana Dupre'

For the jeweled slant of your eyes only, Big Kitties...

Hi Title Magicians all. Today we have an amazing lady and author with us. I first heard her, yes, ‘heard’ because I listened to her blog radio show. There was a link on the Passionate Ink forum, and being a radio fan (not to mention curious) I tuned in. Impressively, Ariana Dupre’/Melissa Alvarez interviewed authors and publishers. She also gave a ‘psychic’ reading or two, which, personally, I find even more impressive. Having dabbled in that arena myself and listened to several outstanding psychics over the years, I kinda know what rings true.
Ms. Dupre’ also rings true as a superb author. She is a paranormal author with Cerridwen, and her current novel, the Talgorian Prophecy, is receiving outstanding reviews. One after another! So many it makes my head spin. And, nope, I’m not possessed by an earthbound spirit! Contrary to popular opinion.
Without further adieu...

To Be Or Not To Be…..
That really is the question isn’t it? As authors we can be ourselves or we can be someone else and use a pen name. Since I write under a pen name I thought this would be interesting topic for today but before I start I’d like to thank ya’ll (yep, I’m a Southerner) for having me here today. I thoroughly enjoy your blog and am honored that Savanna asked me to participate as a guest blogger.
I saw that Mai posted about pen names not too long ago (so go check the archives because it’s a great post) and I’d like to add my experience to the mix. Why would an author decide to use a pen name? Well, there are a couple of reasons that I know of:
A) They want to protect their privacy.
B) They don’t want anyone to know what they write because it could adversely affect their day jobs.
C) They are so prolific that no one would believe they could write that many books in a year.
D) They write in multiple genres and don’t want the two confused.
E) And this list could go on and on and on and on like that little pink bunny.
I decided to use a pen name for several reasons. First, I’d worked as the guide to About.com for over a year and a half and I knew a lot of people in the industry. I was also the owner of a publishing company. I wanted my work to stand on its own – to either fail miserably or do well – based solely on the writing and not on my name. As in every industry some people may like you and some may not and I didn’t want the book to be given great reviews because someone liked me or poor reviews because they didn’t so I used a pen name that I’d come up with years earlier. I was fortunate in that the book received rave reviews and won awards – all without anyone knowing my identity. But having a secret pen name is crazy hard! Here’s an example. In 2004 with the original release of Night Visions, I was invited to the Cataromance Reviewer’s Choice Awards chat where they revealed all of the winners. Since I have quite a few authors with New Age Dimensions, I was pretty sure that one of our books was going to receive an award – I just didn’t know which one. So here I am sitting in the chat as Melissa Alvarez, owner of and publisher at New Age Dimensions, when they announced the winner of the Winner of the CataRomance.com Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Single Title Paranormal Romance 2004 – it was Night Visions by Ariana Dupré. I was so shocked that I couldn’t even type for a minute and then when I was able to answer I had to accept on Ariana’s behalf because she wasn’t there. But I really was! LOL Can you imagine – accepting a book of the year award on for yourself and not being able to tell everyone? After that I decided that it was just too hard having a secret identity so I held a contest (which was tons of fun) to reveal Ariana’s true identity. If you decide to go with a secret pen name you have to be prepared to celebrate successes by yourself unless everyone knows you only by that name.
I also write in multiple genres so that was another consideration for me to write under a pen name. I actually have a few. I write paranormal romantic suspense as Ariana Dupre, nonfiction as Melissa Alvarez and am self publishing two children’s books as Jara Jordan. By having multiple pen names people know exactly what they can expect from each of my names (engaging romantic suspense, eye opening nonfiction or fun and educational children’s books) even though it’s not a secret they all of those names belong to me.
When you’re thinking about the pen name that you’d like to use consider why you need one to begin with. Then take advice from Mai’s post and look at the importance of the type of name you choose and it’s marketability. Keeping a pen name secret is hard but it can be done.
Thanks again for having me here today! It’s been great fun.
Smiles,
Melissa Alvarez/Ariana Dupre
Talgorian Prophecy On Sale Now
http://melissaa.com , http://aspsychichaven.com

SIMPLY ROMANCE REVIEWS: TALGORIAN PROPHECY ~ GRADE: A
What would you do if you were a famous psychic and your son was just kidnapped by a ruthless serial killer? Go the police? I think not, especially when they don’t believe a word you say. You head off to find him, and that’s just what Megan Cassidy does in Talgorian Prophecy.
No one believes she can find her son but she knows she can, her visions become more and more haunting and she has no choice but to ask for the help of her ex-fiancé Brody Phelps. She has never stopped loving him but he has never forgiven her for the loss of his parents seven years ago.
But Megan has a secret she’s kept from Brody and when he finds out and agrees to help her find Robbie they learn even more unbelievable truths as they hike through the mountains of Virginia.
What is the Talgorian Prophecy? Well you’ll have to read this fast paced, hold on to the edge of your chair book by Ariana Dupré to find out. I’m not going to spoil one word of this excellent story. Can you say "what a twist?" You will and more as you hike along with Megan and Brody on their desperate search for Robbie before time runs out.
I really loved this book, it had a couple of really great surprises and it was never slow. The characters were well rounded from the obnoxious police officer (I swear I wanted to kick his butt myself) to Megan, our heroine, who loved her son so deeply nothing not even the threat of death would keep her from rescuing him. One warning, make sure when you start Talgorian Prophecy you have plenty of time to read because you won’t want to put it down until you have turned the last page. I can’t wait to read more by this very talented author. ~Reviewed by Lynda

For horse lovers check out Melissa's website ~ melissaa.com

Prophecy kisses from the Kougar...

Tangerine Dreams and Marmalade Kisses

Hi, my Big Beautiful Cats, it's spin a cat by the tail day. Once again. Promo demands and opportunities out the ole' kitty wazoo. Meow-Yowl! Which ones work the best? Then, Roar and some time to snore! What about all the missed opportunities? Saturday is Siren Publishing chat day at Two Lips ~ twolipsrevies.com ~ And tomorrow! Ariana Dupre', Cerridwen Author, will be the Kougar's guest blogger on Title Magic.

Kitty time out! For a dandelion-sniffing moment. Although most of moi's yellow bright dandelions have become ephemeral white globes waving in the breezes and among the giant mounds of green grass, which will not know the discipline of a mower for quite some time. A feline smug smile of celebration. Mother Nature wins!

Tangerine Dreams? Whoopee! Great-purring actually, that's Tangerine Carnal Dreams, moi's sci fi stallion shifter novella contracted by Aspen Mountain Press. Tail-twitching happily, the Kougar's editor has been in contact. And! If all goes editing-well, there could be a July release date...*hope, hope*. Rolling-enthusiastically yay. Forget the celebratory caviar, where is the Kougar's champagne and marmalade kisses?

And the Kougar's wolfie shifter novella has been submitted, awaiting approval or non-approval. Prayers to Bast and the Great Wolfen Goddess.

And....shhhhh...big kitties, this is on the downlow until the names have been sorted out -- but Siren-BookStrand has just begun a blog for authors, which is wonderfully cool and where hep-hip-hop romance cats can learn all sorts of juicy meaty tidbits. Psssst...the Kougaress has already posted twice. An Author Intro and a Paranormal entry.

For a sumptuous taste of magic and mist and stone circles, swiftly race on over to Title Magic, where Evonne has brought us a most fabulous peek at the stone circles on her part of the planet, Wales and Great Britain. Mew-sings below:

What a fantastic blog, Evonne. I so wish I could visit those stone circles and those areas of Europe. They feel so compelling to me.
You should use your ending paragraph of the blog for your Stone Circle story. It's beautifully descriptive, IMHO.
Have you considered on one of your visits to the stone circles, doing a bit of daydreaming. I think your story would emerge from the mists.

Sticky marmalade kisses from the Kougar...

Mooncusser Cove ~ Darragha Foster

Hi Big Cats, cover art magic continues. Now that moi can claw her way to blogger. Today, my guest blogger on Title Magic, Darragha Foster, Liquid Silver author, couldn't be with us. Family always comes first! So, the Kougar thought she would present one of her covers because, for one thing it's entered in the Cover Cafe's cover art contest ~ covercafe.com/contest/2007/ ~ and for another thing moi think it's absolutely dreamy beautiful. And yes, the Kougar spent time voting in all the different categories, which was a purring-blast. Especially the Worst Cover entries.

Beware before you read the blurbage of this story. And unglue those eyeballs if you're under 18.
Mooncusser Cove
~ available from Liquid Silver Books ~ liquidsilverbooks.com ~
Darragha Foster
ISBN 978-1-59578-383-7
Born in 1864 to a wealthy coastal family, Vesper Highgate-Adaire was well on her way to becoming a first-rate stripper just like her mother. A stripper of boots and brass off the bodies of wrecked sailors, in accordance with family traditions—the traditions of the Mooncusser clan. Traditions that changed after the wrecking of a ship befouled by an accursed sea captain—who in his twisted rage, shared his curse with the clan.
They became Shadow Lovers, the lot of them, for all time, cursed to feed upon those energies best expended only between husband and wife. Or upon blood. And only on the dark of the moon.
Forced to leave their beloved beach so as not to saturate the land with their poison, only Vesper remained behind to care for the family estate, and wait for the unholy captain’s return.
But time and tide and the feverish nightmares left behind in her victims after her embrace do not wait for dark nights to move in their unstoppable, mysterious ways. A juggernaut of hellish proportions is coming to the beach—and there’s only one way to stop it. Hard-headed and proud, Vesper won’t accept that fact. She’d rather die fighting than flee and live. Good thing the only person alive able to control a Mooncusser’s daughter has returned to the cove. And his blood-ties to the beach are just as thick as hers.
Mooncusser Cove -- a modern day retelling of Frankenstein with a Brigadoon twist. Ghost ships! Curses! Land pirates! Vampires who feed on sexual energy! The persecution of witches! Just another day at Vespers by the Sea bed-and-breakfast at Mooncusser Cove.

Dreamy moon kisses from the Kougar...

When a Good Angel Falls ~ Cover Art

The Magical Invitation of Cover Art

Just for your Big Cat shiny eyes from the Kougar...
One of the best things about walking into a bookstore for me, besides all of those fantastic books just begging to be read, is the magical invitation of cover art. Yes, there’s also the wonderful smell of all those books, tempting and teasing all of us bookaholics. There they sit on their shelves and endcaps, in the bargain bins, waiting to find their right homes, ready to be ensconced in our shopping bags.
But before I choose which ones to buy, whether it’s an adventurous escape into romance or my eclectic appetite for non-fiction, anything from travel to building that next deck, I look at the pictures, those amazing displays of graphic art.
I saunter around the shrine of reading and indulge in all those rows of cover art. Today, more than ever, it’s a kaleidoscopic feast of styles, meant to tempt you to pick up that book and buy, buy, buy. Usually, I don’t unless the accompanying blurb and a quick peek inside convince me...yep, this read is for me. Once in awhile, I’ll succumb and purchase just for the cover art, if it resonates at such a deep level I can’t resist.
Yup, even as a kidlet before kindergarten I wanted the irresistible eye candy of those big picture books as much as I wanted to hear my mom or dad read the story. What could be better than living the tale and seeing it unfold as the artist imagined the story? All at the same time? That has never changed or me. Growing up, I was usually as excited over the cover art and pictures as I was eager to read the story waiting for me, the one that would wisk me away to another time, another place.
Now, in the age of cyber cover art, I’m in a beautiful-color paradise of images designed to catch my eye and lure me to the click-buy button. From the lovely sensual romance cover art of our Friday guest blogger, Sarah Mallory – to the exquisite sizzling beauty of the vampire slayer on Colleen Gleason’s cover art – or the more traditional oh-be-still-my-beating-heart covers on Anna Campbell’s novels (I always feel like swooning into the hero’s hard, but tender embrace) – to our Helen’s cover art for The Magic Knot. Which, I swear, grabs me more each time I look at it. Perhaps, it’s the celtic lyrical magic of the images combined with the realism of the entwined couple. That feel of mythos brought forward into modern times, which has an enchantment-appeal all its own to our psyches, where archetypes live and constantly weave their spells inside us. Hey, think Xena, Warrior Princess or Hercules with Kevin Sorbo, where the gods and goddesses were on their worst behavior and their best behavior.
Okay, why a blog about cover art? Gee, I dunno...could it be? Could it?
Yeah, big surprise, I’m showing off my cover art for When a Good Angel Falls, coming from Siren-BookStrand late in 2008, and currently featured on the new BookStrand site. Jinger Heaston is the cover artist and I think she beautifully captured my story. I couldn’t be happier. Kudos, Jinger!
Blurb for When a Good Angel Falls ~ 2012 futuristic ~
A world-weary, worn-out, incarnated angel who believes she is merely human has three choices: let the Nazerazzi of the North American Union capture her, walk out into the desert night and let the wildlife have a meal, or trust a mysterious stranger on a black motorcycle...More ~ http://www.bookstrand.com/comingsoon/

Good angel kisses from the Kougar...