Stormy Weather with a Chance of a Hot Read

Rainy days are the perfect time to catch up on writing projects and curl up with a good book. We got more than we bargained for with Hurricane Irene. It has kept most of us in our homes this weekend and hopefully you're not experiencing difficulty with power outages, flooding or property damage. So stay safe, relax at home and put a dent in that TBR pile. It's also a good idea to stay inside so rescue workers don't have to risk their lives having to rescue sightseers who get injured by falling trees or swept away by flood waters. Our downtown area is expected to see the Delaware go several feet over flood stage. Stay safe.

While I'm stuck inside as  the hurricane passes through (yes, I still have power), I thought I'd bring a guest to the Passion Sense Blog. Author Tina Gallagher. She's a member of Pocono Lehigh Romance Writers and also an author with the with the Wild Rose Press. She just had another book released with them-- Misguided. And I hear it’s a steamy read.

-Tell us a little about the book and where did you get the idea to write this story.

In Misguided, after they have a vacation fling, a high school sex-ed guidance counselor and a single father are forced to face each other in real life.

Having been the honor roll student, good girl in high school, but also pregnant at sixteen, Cassie Finnerty knows what can happen if teens aren’t educated about safe sex.  Her job is to counsel the students, answer their questions, and hand out condoms when requested.

Jake Lucas is a divorced, single father raising his almost sixteen-year-old daughter.  When the contents of his daughter’s purse spill and condoms tumble out, he freaks out.  After interrogating her, he finds out she got the condoms at school, so he goes to confront the person who gave them to her—and gets the surprise of his life.

I got the idea to write this story after reading an online article on a small town that was outraged that the school district hired a sex-ed guidance counselor. My imagination went into overdrive and I started asking, “what if this happened?” and “what if that happened?” and Misguided was born.  At least the idea for it was…the actual book took about 9 months to write.  J

Misguided is available at www.thewildrosepress.com.

- What is your writing schedule like?

I work full-time and have two kids so I don’t really have a schedule.  I pretty much do it whenever I get the chance.  I try to grab snippets of time throughout the day to do something, but for the most part, most of my writing gets done between midnight and whenever I can’t keep my eyes open anymore.

- How did you get started writing novels?

When I was younger, my friend and I used to write what is now called fan fiction about our favorite soap opera couple.  After that, I started writing short stories and continued to do so into adulthood.  One day, I decided to start a novel, just to see if I could finish one.  Turns out, I could. 

- What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

Join a writers’ group and attend as many workshops and conferences as you can.  Surround yourself with people who know how to write and are willing to help you learn the craft. 

- Are you seat of the pants writer or plotter?

I tend to write by the seat of my pants.  I get a basic idea and do a haphazard outline the just sit and write. 

- If you could turn any of your books into a movie which book or series would it be?

I’ve had readers suggest that I should turn my first book, …And There Are Girls You Marry, into a television movie.  When I get a free minute, I may actually pursue the idea and learn how to write a script. 

- Are you a morning or night person?

I am definitely a nigh person.  If I didn’t have to be at work at 7:00am, I would stay up all night and write.

- What’s next?

Right now, I’m working on a book called, Pure Sex.  I got the idea for this one while watching Talk Sex with Sue Johanson.  My mind started spinning with “what ifs”.  What if the host of the show was a cute, 30-yr-old? What if she fell into the job just out of college?  How would that affect her life…especially her dating life?  In Pure Sex, I made the hero a minister just to add a little more conflict. 

I’m also collaborating on what will eventually be a series of books with my friend, Diane Sismour.  This is the first time either one of us have written a book with anyone so we’re just making it up as we’re going along.

- For fun. What is your favorite kind of chocolate or chocolate dessert? (I love chocolate covered cherries)

My friend, Diane Sismour, got me hooked on Lindt Chili Chocolate.  I absolutely love it.  It’s dark chocolate with a little red chili pepper to add a bit of a kick.

My website is:  www.tina-gallagher.com – links to my blog, twitter, and FB are on there. 

MISGUIDED by Tina Gallagher
Wild Rose Press
ISBN: 978-1601549204

Blurb:

After a vacation fling, a high school sex ed guidance counselor and a single father are forced to face each other in real life.

Having been the honor roll student, good girl in high school who got pregnant at sixteen, Cassie Finnerty knows what can happen if teens aren’t educated about safe sex. Her job is to counsel the students, answer their questions, and hand out condoms when requested.

Jake Lucas is a divorced, single father raising his almost sixteen-year-old daughter. When the contents of his daughter’s purse spill and condoms tumble out, he freaks out. After interrogating his daughter, he finds out she got the condoms at school, so he goes to confront the person who gave them to her and gets the surprise of his life.

Excerpt: She took it and he followed every stroke of the towel as she dried her voluptuous body.

Her movements were quick and efficient, but as she ran the soft terrycloth over her breasts, Luke had to look away before he embarrassed himself. Sporting a woody in swim trunks was not the way to win over a woman.

Whoa! Luke shook his head wondering where that thought had come from. Win her over? He just met her. And he’d learned his lesson a long time ago. No sex was casual…it always held some sort of repercussion. Whether it resulted in a broken heart, the morning after blues, or a child, it got you one way or another.

 Cassie wrapped the towel around her body and tucked the end in, securing the thick terrycloth around her chest. Although she was more covered than she had been a moment before, her breasts seemed to be on display, and Luke had always considered himself a breast man. She settled into the lounge chair beside his and surveyed the beach.

“Do you happen to know where Aly went?” she asked.

It took Luke a moment to shift his mind from her breasts to her question.

“She and Jay went snorkeling.” Her expression crumbled at his words. “She said she’d meet up with you for dinner.”

If the look on her face was anything to go by, she didn’t believe that any more than he did. He didn’t know this woman, didn’t want to get involved with her, so what devil prodded his next words was a mystery.

“So I guess it’s just you and me.”

Crystal Power

Research. Yes, a paranormal erotic romance author does research, lots of it. Recently, while working on my Demons in Exile series I had to do some more research on the properties of crystals. More specifically, how I can apply science, metaphysics and a little imagination to use crystals as a power source in Anartia, my alternative universe. I already use crystals in these stories for a power source but in the third book I needed to take it up a step.

The tentative title for the third book is Embrace the Damned. But as titles go, that can always change. The first book is Desert of the Damned and the second, Damned and Desired. For readers anxiously waiting for the third book, it’s almost completed (I have to torture my critique partners first) and yes, Dante is in it.

Crystals have been used since ancient times and can be found in folklore. Traditionally gemstones have been associated with the zodiac or the months of the year—birthstones. The great pyramids of Egypt are said to be built from cosmically charged cornerstone crystals. Theories about Atlantis mention the extensive use of crystals for dematerialization, teleportation, telekinesis, creating force fields and many other things.

Crystals and the New Age:

Crystal work much the same as lasers do. It takes scattered rays of energy and focuses the field in a single direction so tremendous force is generated. Crystals have the ability to amplify and absorb energies. Harnessing crystal energy is common in Metaphysics. Crystals are tools for the New Age practitioner. Crystals are used in healing, cleansing, during meditation, to absorb negative energies and entities and to align the body’s energy centers (chakras). Since crystals are thought to have a close affinity to earth, they are used to help ground people, or have a calming effect. Others not attuned to New Age beliefs may feel this is mind over matter or wishful thinking.

Crystals in Science and Technology:

Crystals have many scientific applications. They are used in acousto-optic devices, radio frequency drivers, optical scanners, wavelength filtering, lithium niobate wafers, optical circuit, etc. Quartz crystals resonators are used for precise frequency control. Crystals are used in watches, clocks, radios, computers and cellphones.


Optical Laser Crystal

Quartz crystals are extremely stable with time, temperature and other environmental changes. What better matter to use in my story for a miniature universe that travels through dimensions? Imagine the quartz crystal in your watch on mega steroids.

Lithium Niobate crystal discs-capable of remembering an applied electric field, also sound.

Parallel resonance can occur by adding load capacitance to the crystal in series, resulting in a positive frequency shift…ah, nevermind. One rule for research for novels: Don’t add too much detail.

So when you read Embrace the Damned in its final chapters, you might remember the research I did for my alternative universe.

In the New:

*On Cave Chaos, Ellora’s Cave talk radio, Jaid Black and Lisa Marie Gray had another wild and hot hour this week. http://newdissidentradio.com/cave_chaos.html Check out the archived August 15^th recording. Jaid Black and Susan Edwards plugs Damned and Desired and have a few nice words about my writing. Thank you ladies!! Great hour and talk about Psuedo – rape fantasies in fiction.

*If you like sexy demons and shapeshifters, Damned andDesired was up this week as a Value From the Vault for $.99

Do you wear crystal pendants? Do you think crystals have power or energy?

Doomsday Entertainment

Dystopian, Apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic fiction is the hot trend in movies, television and novels. The August Romance Writers Report had an interesting article on the subject too.

Dystopian societies usually show repressed social control systems where its people exist under various levels of passive or active coercion. Their lives are oppressed by those in charge.

Apocalyptic fiction has to do with the end of civilization due to catastrophe such as war, pandemic, alien invasion, asteroid-type collision, take over by artificial intelligence (computers), natural disaster, resource depletion, etc.

Post-apocalyptic fiction is set in a world after such a disaster.

(The City of Ember)

These types of Movies have been around for a long time though. Remember War of the Worlds, On the Beach, Mad Max Cherry 2000? There are lots more. More recent: The Road, Independence Day, Armageddon, 2012. Can you name any others, new or old ones?

On Television. I don’t watch much TV, so maybe you all can help me. But the RWR mentioned: The Walking Dead, Jeriko & Supernatural- the 4 Horseman storyline. I have watched a bit of Falling Skies. I think that fits into apocalyptic. Anyone watch the season finale and believe Tom (Noah Wyle) would really walk into the alien spacecraft? Like he’d trust the aliens not to call his son back anyway? And not put that harness on him? Comes under the TSTL category for me. But I still like the show.

Books. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, The Running Man by Richard Bachman aka Stephen King, The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau, Joss Ware-Envy Chronicles, Jessica Andersen-Nightkeeper series, Ellen Connor-Dark Age Dawning series, Jordan Summers-Dead World series.

Why? Why is doom and gloom, death and destruction, a world on the brink of collapse entertaining?

There might be several reasons. We like to root for the underdog. We want to see how everyday people, like us, survive when faced with insurmountable obstacles, against all odds. We admire courageous people. Maybe this type of entertainment gives us hope in a warped way. While we’re losing jobs, we see the economy getting worse not better, and watch our retirement saving dwindle to the size of a third-grader’s piggybank, we watch or read post-apocalyptic stories and suddenly our troubles don’t seem quite so bad.
If you’ve ever lived through a real disaster-- a natural one like a tornado, hurricane, flood or fire, or man-made—a war or act of terrorism, then you’ve experienced a mini-apocalypse.

People react differently in these situations when their everyday life gets turned upside down, thrown into a blender and pressed to liquefy. I’ve never been in a war but I have lived through Hurricane Andrew within the evacuation zone. I’ve seen the extreme good and bad in people—hospital personnel, police and firemen leave their families to work within evacuation zones for 35 plus hours without sleep to help patients and elderly people who had no place to go. Looting, fights at the gas stations when gas  wouldn’t pump (no power). I heard horrific stories (that never made the news) from police officers and National Guard.
We all saw the terrible disaster in Japan. Imagine this type of devastation world-wide. How would people react? That’s apocalypse.

Even in these horrors, or in the worse possible scenario—a world-wide catastrophe, I have faith in human nature. There will always be bad and evil in the world. But the instinct to survive, the desire for companionship and to love is too strong and universal for us not to overcome something this horrible. We watch these movies and read these books to remind ourselves that we’re a lot tougher than we think. What do you think?

Something Wicked is Coming This Way

I’m so thrilled that my story The Tattoo Witch was selected to be in the anthology SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, Volume One. Also included in Volume One are USA Today Bestselling author and founder of Ellora’s Cave Jaid Black, and other amazingly HOT EC authors Laurann Dohner, Mel Teshco, Desiree Holt and Eliza Knight. When I heard the call for stories for this anthology, I knew I had to come up with a story, and fast. I’m a huge fan of Ray Bradbury and SWTWC is one of my favorite books. Of course, Bradbury took that line from Shakespeare, but I always think of Bradbury first.

With the deadline for this anthology series just weeks away, I sat on my porch with a glass of wine, a notebook and dh. Dh helped me brainstormed some ideas. I ran through some of my favorite Bradbury stories, searching for inspiration, and I remembered The Illustrated Man. A man covered in tattoos and tormented by them. Hmmm, tattoos are a popular thing now. SWTWC is about an evil carnival. How could I make the two sexy and add an interesting twist? What if a witch gave out magical tattoos? These tattoos could make you more desirable, virile, sexually adventurous, grant any wish pertaining to a sexual nature. BUT these tattoos are dark magic and each one came with a curse. With each additional tattoo, the person’s love life got hotter and hotter, but the curses got nastier. Then where would it all end?

I have to also thank my friend Terri Prizzi who is awesome at brainstorming. She gave me some fabulous ideas for the nasty curses. Thanks Terri!!

This is the premise for The Tattoo Witch. Release date might be fall 2011. I'll keep you posted.

MORE GOOD NEWS

Emerald Dungeon, my novella from the 1-800-Dom-help series was selected to be in an anthology with three other authors from that series. The anthology title is: DIAL B FOR BONDAGE. Super Hot erotic authors included are: Delilah Devlin, Francesca Hawley, Samantha Cayto and me. Release date is expected around Romanticon 2011—end of September.

Two awesome anthologies coming up filled with tales by some of the best and hottest writers in the genre. I’m so excited to be included with them.