Chicks-n-Scratching

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So, I’m currently impersonating the Little Mermaid. Or, well, I would be if I didn’t keep TRYING to talk. My voice cuts in and out, though when it’s there it sounds more like a frog on the verge of death.

Oddly, this is not accompanied by any of the standard suspects – no fever, no chills, not much sinus action, only a little bit of cough. No, in all other respects, I’m fine.

But no voice.

Do you have any idea how annoying that is? Especially since I have to TEACH college courses? Yeah. That’s going well.

Where’s that stinking Ursula? I NEED that magic shell!

Kree Janus is a sexual mystic.

As the head of the Order of Sopha, it is her sworn duty to ensure her religion continues under the threat of genocide. Trapped in a warehouse by one of the theocrats’ enforcers, a Druma warrior who hunts by pheromones, Kree is captured and taken to a secret hideout away from the long arm of the guards. Kree’s survival depends on the plans of her sworn enemy, a man who brings all her sensual desires and pleasures raging to the surface, even in the face of peril.

Eavan desMort is a Druma warrior.

Contracted as an enforcer for the theocratic council, he has taken an assignment to bring in the Sophite premier, Kree Janus, for execution. Eavan has plans of his own. Charged by his people to bring Kree to their settlement, he has taken vows to die for her if necessary. Nothing, however, prepares him for the overwhelming call of her flesh. It is a temptation that could mean the very loss of his honor if he gives in.

Publisher’s Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: anal play/intercourse, menage.

Click here to read an excerpt. Click here to purchase.

Visit Kathleen’s website for more information on the author and her other works.

We have entered the time when I switch my drink of choice from cold beverages like root beer and Cheerwine to hot chocolate. Hooray, hot chocolate!

As I type this, I’m sitting in one of my favorite cafes slurping down a large hot chocolate and smelling the pumpkin bread baking (John, the one doing the baking, is awesome). My daughter is down the street doing her kung fu class and I’m enjoying the mellow feel of the evening. It seems odd that it’s dark already (it’s only 5:30), and Munchkin is up with the sun, so I don’t like that part. On the other hand, I get the most sleep during the winter since she sleeps more when there is more darkness. I’m considering painting her windows black. Okay, not really. Well. Maybe.

So, I’m enjoying the hallmark of the changing season – hot chocolate, the smell of pumpkin stuff baking, and more sleep.

Now, if I could just manage to ignore all the Christmas stuff that’s already up, I’d be set.

my internet connection from home has been on the blink. Not totally gone, but intermittent. Sometimes I can get online, sometimes no. Sometimes it works fine, sometimes it’s slower than molasses in January.

I hate that.

So, I’ve been entertaining myself by actually doing things I’m supposed to do – like the laundry. And dishes. And grading papers.

Can I have my internet back now?

I’m late, I’m late…

Oh, well. I seem to be late a lot recently. I’m doing way too much running around on too narrow a schedule. It wouldn’t be so difficult if there was more flex in the schedule – but for now, it’s pretty tight.

But. I am getting stuff done. The storage unit is cleared out and swept, so that’s dealt with. the first wave of stuff from the storage unit has been dealt with and I’m in the middle of dealing with the second wave. I’m managing to keep up with the laundry and dishes – mostly. The more stuff I get rid of the easier it becomes. After this wave of donations, I should have enough room to assemble the nursery furniture and take pictures so I can put it up on Craigslist. After that, I’ll start packing up boxes and containers in preparation for moving the piano. The piano is being loaded into a Smartbox along with other stuff and going into climate controlled storage for the duration. Sadly, some of that stuff will be books. Lots of books. I’ve discovered (God bless the internet) that my piano weighs around 500 pounds, so I know how much other stuff I can shove into the box.

After the piano and the first Smartbox full of stuff are out of the house, along with all the stuff we’re getting rid of in the first real purge, I’ll feel more like I can get a handle on starting to sort out what we’re keeping and what we’re getting rid of in the house.

In the meantime, though, I’m feeling more than a little overwhelmed. Does anyone have any house gnomes they want to lend out?

Okay, so I get asked with some regularity where I get story ideas (the answer is everywhere – TV, radio, dreams, conversations, books, news stories, whatever).

The other day, though, someone asked me and I was cranky. Really cranky. It was after noon, I’d been up since 7am and hadn’t eaten anything. Not eating makes me cranky. Anyway, so they asked and I looked at them and said, totally straight-faced, “The Idea Fairy. She leaves Plot Bunnies by my bed at night. I wish she’d stop, because the cats hate plot bunnies. I have a hard time keeping the plot bunnies from being eaten.”

Well. Hm. The woman stared at me as if I’d escaped from a mental institution (and, really, who can blame her?). But it made me think. What if there WAS an idea fairy? Would there be different idea fairies for different areas of interest? A physics idea fairy and a music idea fairy? A plot idea fairy and a mechanical engineering fairy? Would they have conventions? Who would plan them? The party theme idea fairy? Thus was born a complete and full-fledged plot bunny. I have no idea what to do with these idea fairies. But they seem pretty cool, so I think I’ll keep them. Assuming the cats don’t eat them.

Fall has arrived and I was caught unprepared. It’s been so hot here up until this week that the sudden cold caught me unawares. We still have all the summer sleeveless shirts and shorts out. I had to go digging for my daughter’s long sleeved shirts and jeans and a light jacket for her to wear. Yesterday morning I mounted a hunt for one of my fleece pull-overs so I could take Munchkin out to the bus stop without shivering.

It isn’t that I mind fall – I don’t. Okay, not much. I must confess that I really despise being cold. I can handle heat. Even triple digit heat. I can’t deal with cold. The temp drops below 40 and I don’t want to go anywhere. I want to stay inside with hot chocolate, warm socks and myriad blankets. I’ve never been one for playing in the snow – that just gets you cold and wet. I like LOOKING at the snow. It’s pretty and gives me all kinds of excuses to read and write. But out in it? Ugh.

In any case, the cooler weather kicked me into gear with some projects getting the house ready to put on the market. I bought a dozen azaleas that will go in this week. I’ll follow this with a good mulching of the front beds, a final cut of the lawn, and a heavy shearing of the hollies (the hollies in front of the master bedroom are more than 20 feet tall now. I think we can safely say they need some serious pruning). Once all of that is done, I can concentrate on other things. Like finding some burly men to help me move the piano. Since I can’t do it and GN/DH certainly can’t do it alone.

I wonder if there are rules about bribing my students to do it….

In any case, here’s hoping that whatever your fall projects, you complete them with ease and mastery. Good luck!

so a little background. GN/DH got a new job (hooray!) and we’ll (eventually) be moving up to where the new job is (DC area). In the meantime, GN is up there during the week and home only weekends. I’m teaching 3 different classes for 3 different colleges. One of those classes is (depending on which campus I have to go to that day) either 1.5 or 2.5 hours away. I’m running herd on Munchkin, getting ready for a move, and generally losing my mind.

This week, I’m divvying stuff up to get rid of it. Two weeks ago a friend helped me (more or less) empty our storage unit, which was packed to the gills with baby stuff from Munchkin. So now it’s all in my living room. and dining room.

The first stuff went to the church consignment sale. a stroller, a backpack, a couple of higher end toys. The next round is going to a women’s shelter. Swing, baby gates, bed rails, training potties. This means I had to clean the stuff and get it ready to go.

I also sorted through clothes and pulled the 18 mo, 2t, 3t stuff aside for a neighbor with a toddler.

Craigslist will be seeing the crib, bassinet, changing table, glider, and a few other non-baby things.

After that – it’s all getting donated. I want this stuff out of my house so bad I can taste it. I’m about ready to donate everything but our clothes, the computers and the kitchen gadgets and say to hell with it. Hell, we can even donate some of the computers. (You have no idea how many computers in this house. I’m pretty sure we qualify as a medium sized business.)

What about you? What moving prep stuff made you crazy? (Because I KNOW Inez has moving stories that will make your hair stand on end.)

BLOODSONG, Book Two Eden Bradley’s Midnight Playground series, is out today from Samhain Publishing! You can find it at MBaM, Amazon, and other retail outlets!

An ancient vampire, an ancient grief…a love that makes his blood sing…

Midnight Playground, Book 2

London, 2069

Aleron is ancient, powerful, immortal…a vampire who idles away his time playing at his favorite haunt, Midnight Playground. His favorite toys: beautiful young men. His game: BDSM, experiencing through the minds of his partners the sensations he can no longer quite feel himself.
The one thing he has vowed to avoid at all costs is love, especially for a woman. In a hundred years he has never been tempted to break that vow—until a lovely mortal woman enters his dungeon to watch him play. And his blood hums the ancient song of long-forgotten desire.

Raised in the Indian slums of London, exotic dancer Meeraj enters Midnight Playground a woman with nothing left to lose, numb to all but the most extreme forms of stimulation. As she watches Aleron’s blood play, she knows only his razor-sharp skills will satisfy. And she catches an odd mental glimpse of the grief that shadows his heart.
From their first touch, they are caught up in a whirlwind of exquisite agony that releases their emotions from the weight of the past. Exposing them to risks they’ve both fought to avoid. Love…and loss.

***
Visit the Smutketeers blog for contests running all week long to celebrate the release of BLOODSONG!

So Inez and I were talking the other day – SHUT UP! We talk! – and I was whining about being woefully uncreative and not having ideas for a blog for this week. Jokingly, Inez suggested I do a post on sex toys. Well, I did a T-13 on my other blog on sex toys, so I didn’t really want to repeat myself, but I do loooove the idea of sex toys. So what to do?

Well, I thought I might mention a few stories FEATURING sex toys. Yeah. Now you wanna know, don’t you? You’re all…oooooohhhh…. tell me more, Elise!

Fine. I’ll tell you more.

One of my very favorite stories featuring a VARIETY of toys employed for a laundry list of purposes is Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel series. Okay, maybe it’s not a single book, but really it is one story. Now, I have to warn you that these stories involve some very, very edgy stuff, and the toys are correspondingly… terrifying. Blades for blood play, clamps and hard edged pain toys, a truly terrifying dildo in the third book of the series. And yet…. I love this series. But certainly not for the faint of heart.

The Switch by Diane Whiteside. Now, I’ll be honest here. I pretty much hate everything else I’ve ever read by Whiteside. But this book… wow. Again, many toys – whips and crops and nipple clamps, oh my! But the story is lovely, and the toys are more integral to it than most.

Mallory Rush’s Love Play features some of the most beautiful scenes with sex toys. The hero (at least partially Chinese in heritage) uses traditional Chinese brushes, feathers, and a number of other tactile things as sex toys.

The anthologies Captivated and Fascinated both have multiple stories featuring toys. Bertrice Small uses dildos and various furniture to good effect, while Thea Devine uses nipple adornment and modified chastity belts.

I’ve read quite a few contemporaries which mention vibes or dildos, and a few that actually feature them. Harlequin Blaze has a tendency to use them fairly frequently.

How about you? Any good reads with toys?