going over proofs with the world's tiniest comb

yep just this small. I have been going over the proofs of Blood Betrayal with a micro fine toothed comb. it is very intense. I can only do so much before my brain explodes and I start to miss things. but I'm almost done! I'm so excited. the layout is so beautiful. when I got the proof and opened it, I almost cried. it was like giving birth and seeing your baby for the first time. the best thing is I have an inkling of when my release will be. I can't say yet but I will let you know when I can. I plan on doing some amazing giveaways!

have a spooktacular Halloween!

have wonderful day! hope it's full of treats and no tricks. and definitely no rocks!

sexy viking vampire tuesday

so there I was goofing off when I discovered I missed Vladimir Putin's birthday

I'm doing a bonus post today because while not doing my homework and surfing the internet, I discovered that my favorite Russian had a birthday. yes, good ol' Vlad had a birthday on October 7th. He's 60. I didn't know that until I stumbled upon this nugget of info. I also discovered that 1 in 5 Russian women would marry him. ahh the lure of a badass translates to any country or language. Happy Birthday Vladimir Putin. sorry I was late wishing it.

happy Vladurday!

sexy viking vampire tuesday

happy Vladurday!

sexy viking vampire tuesday

so why aren't there flame throwers in zombie stories?

the above picture is how suspected zombies are dealt with on Spongebob Squarepants. I'm trying to develop a fondness for zombies. now I have posted about how zombies make me very nervous and post apocalyptic stories push some paranoid button in my psyche. so I am watching the Walking Dead marathon on AMC. I've already had a few issues. one of the main issues is why does no one ever have a flame thrower for a weapon? I am pretty certain that nothing survives fire. my boyfriend, who is a zombie enthusiast and author of zombie fiction informed my novice self that a flamethrower was not a good weapon and that a burning zombie chasing you would be a terrifying problem. now, from what I know from anatomy and physiology and 16 years as a nurse, I think that fire is slowing anything down, even a zombie. reality is being a buzzkill for me watching this.
as an author, I ask readers to suspend their sense of disbelief when they start reading my stories. it's part of a trust between a reader and an author. however I guess I'm not going to be able to do that with the zombies. probably because they scare something in me that I can't let go of my always planning on how I would deal with something like that. it doesn't happen with vampires or werewolves. I guess I like those paranormal creatures too much.

happy Vladurday!

sexy viking vampire tuesday

Prague, Heydrich and me

so here I am in front of one of the fireplaces in the now abandoned villa of Reinhard Heydrich when he was the Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia. this stop was just one of the many astounding and emotional places we visited on the tour I took of the sites associated with the assassination of Heydrich in July and August. it was a big deal to be allowed into this house as it is now in private hands on the site of some sort of industrial complex. one doesn't simply waltz into industrial areas in the Czech republic, even now that communism is over.
anyway, I've been wanting to write about my trip over there because the tour for me had many purposes. one, it fed the hungry history nerd in me. I got to see places that the average person doesn't see. and I saw places that I only had seen in books. especially the books I had been reading in my research for my second and third installations in my series The Primigenio Tales. the main purpose the tour served was to help me to come to terms with writing about such an evil person who was real. I have been driving myself nuts with guilt and other mixed emotions while writing him as a main character. I've had to create a vampire version of a reviled person from history but also someone who was known as "papa" to his children. oddly enough I felt a great deal of worry about how his descendants would feel about me choosing to use him as a fictional character. would they think I was just using him to make a buck? and would people vilify me for taking someone who was so notorious and making him into a complex and sometimes even likable character? all that remains to be seen but seeing the places he lived and touching things he was part of helped me come to terms with him and his place in my books' universe. also seeing the horrific things he was part of helped remind me of what he dedicated his life to.

anyway, my trip to Prague was epic and I will never forget it. I hate to post such a downer of a post but I had been meaning to do this. I'll be back with my usual goofiness this week.

happy Vladurday!

sexy viking vampire tueday

happy October!!!

woo hoo! it's the first day of October! and it starts the countdown to my favorite holiday...Halloween. I just love October. I love pumpkins and mums and corn mazes. they all make me think of when I was a kid and the homemade decorations we would make at school. yes  this was before Halloween was forbidden at school and any celebration related to it was named the fall festival. but I digress. usually my mind shifts to a more gothic and dark frame and my creativity seems to just FLOW during October. and lately I need this because my creativity has been locked up tight.
so hopefully, as the weather cools and the leaves turn, I'll feel the spirit of fall and Halloween.