Howl at the Moon

From the time I saw my first werewolf movie I wanted to be swept away with a sexy werewolf. LOL.

In paranormal romance werewolves have all the wonderful qualities. Sexy intriguing, tortured and oh so dangerous. Growl. There is just something about a hero or heroine if you will who howls at a moon and mates for life. It brings out the primitive part of your psyche. Imagine finding that one who is only for you and being with them forever. Of course the time to convince that other person of your being for each other is what makes the story.

From that first meeting, all the in between to that final I love you is what brings it all together. Werewolves brings a lot to the in between. They are deadly when protecting those they love. Relentless in going after what they want. A werewolf in search of making the one for them theirs is unpredictable and intriguing.

There are many explorations of the werewolf. In variety of books written about them they are portrayed to be either born, under a curse or bitten by a werewolf then turned. No matter which type of werewolf they bring a reaction. A reaction of wanting to get into their minds.

There is a hierarchy with wolves in a pack. Many authors have explored the Alpha wolf, the one who is the strongest and leader or higher ranking in pack. The Beta wolf is often described as being second in the chain of command. The Omega wolf is one or more wolves, male or female, that occupy the lowest position in the pack hierarchy. There is so much about werewolves to explore. So many great books on various werewolves.

In writing no matter what genre you hear the terms Alpha or Beta thrown around when describing the hero of a book. Of course there tends to be more Alpha’s. Those strong take charge men. I remember a while back readers were also talking about wanting to read more Beta’s. Not as take charge as the Alpha but they have there own ways. LOL. It all goes back to going after what you want.

So share with me some werewolf books you have read.

* * * * *

Taige Crenshaw has been enthralled with the written word from time she picked up her first book. It wasn’t long before she started to make up her own tales of romance. With novels set in today, in alternate dimensions, or in the future she writes with adventure, fun sassy heroine’s, and sexy hero’s. Always hard at work creating new and exciting places Taige can be found curled up with a hot novel with exciting characters when she is not creating her own. Join her in the fun, frolic, interesting people and far reaches of the world in her novels. You can find out more about Taige at her website: http://www.taigecrenshaw.com or blog: http://www.taigecrenshaw.com/blog.

Hello!

Usually I pop in this time every month and share some lore from my heritage. Unfortunately life has been pretty hectic and I’ve fallen way behind. This month I’m only going to drop in long enough to say hello and wish y’all well! I’ve been living with my grandmother for the last 5 weeks. She’s had a terrible accident and broke her arm. The injury has required 24 hour care and while the family has taken a rotating schedule on that care, I’m the one living there from Sunday until Friday. It’s made writing, sleeping, family time, etc very hard to come by.

I miss everyone here and I look forward to life being back on the normal swing of things so I can come back and share more tales, lore and legends.

I have recieved tons of emails offering get well messages, prayers of support and kind words of encouragement to get us through this and all I can say is THANK YOU EVERYONE! The words don’t feel like enough to convey how truly grateful I am. My readers, fellow authors and other friends are amazing! THE BEST EVER!

Thanks also for the patience during this time of upheaval.

See y’all soon!

Blessings!

Donica C

Percy Jackson: When a Book Ruins a Movie

Did you see The Lightning Thief? Did you like it? Was it good? I actually saw the movie and, being an opinionated person, I usually have pretty strong feelings about movies I’ve seen, but with this one, I have no idea whether I liked it or not. I don’t know whether to recommend it. I was too distracted. You see, I’d read the book. And I felt like I just kept getting whalloped upside the head with the differences until I couldn’t focus on what the movie was, because I was too busy being startled by what it wasn’t.

Review-Spartacus: Blood and Sand

I have a new favorite show.  I admit to squealing at the sex, giggling in awe at the f-bombs dropped every ten seconds or so, and gaping in unabashed admiration at some of the most perfect man-flesh I have ever seen on the screen.

Did I mention the full frontal nudity? OMG, beautiful, simply beautiful!!

Spartacus: Blood and Sand is an hour of perversion in all its Roman glory every Friday and Sunday night on Starz. Awesome in its scope of political intrigue, vain and jaded aristocracy and the slaves who bow to their every whim and command, the show aims to present the Roman empire in a historically and accurate manner, digging the dredges of the past to give us a dark and dirty view of the underside of that powerful civilization.

And it succeeds. Blood and Sand lives up to its name.

It takes the Spartacus legend in an entirely different direction, although those of you familiar with the Kirk Douglas movie will recognize some of the names and characters. It stars John Hannah (of  Mummy fame) as Batiatus, the owner of a gladiator training school who buys and trains Spartacus for the games. His wife is played by Lucy Lawless who excels as the scheming Lucretia.

Spartacus is played by Andy Whitfield who, along with Manu Bennett as a rival gladiator Crixus, make up some of the best eye-candy on TV today. Check it out, and see for yourself, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Spartacus: Blood and Sand Official Trailer

Ghost Hunting–The Ghost Box

Technology changes, at roughly a thousand miles a second, and even more so in the field of Paranormal Investigation. 

What is the latest cool new thing?  The Ghost Box. 

This is basically a small, battery powered radio that has been modified to continuously scan through the radio channels, and ghosts can speak directly into the radio, and it will come through the static for “live communication.” 

Sounds really strange, right?

Well, it is. But it’s also a very old idea. Even Thomas Edison supposedly attempted to work on such a device that allowed communication between the living and the deceased.  (Though the Thomas Edison Historical Site has no record of any such machine.) 

EVP’s (electric voice phenomenon) are recordings of spirit voices that are not detectable by humans, but can be heard when recorded and played back. However, a Ghost Box is the idea that if you listen between the static on the scanning device, you can actually hear words. 

You won’t get straight-up dialog like “Hi there, Tammy, this is your Aunt Mildred, the secret money is hidden under the third plank in your mom’s room.”  But you get single word or a few words in short succession. 

And I say this from experience.

You see, my paranormal investigating husband bought and modified a radio to make a Ghost Box.  And we tried it out.

I must admit, at first, I had a hard time hearing anything, and I was about ready to throw in the towel a few times, but then it got clearer and louder. 

Single words came through. But not just any words.  I asked specific questions about a book I’m working on. 

“What is the book Candice is working on?”

“Shift.”  “Time.”  “History.”  “Classic.” 

And this is accurate—I’m working on a time-shift story, a lot based on classic history.  This got me excited, and hopeful that this really was something pretty cool.

Another question we asked:

“Who is the heroine’s love interest?”  (Now, I wrote this, knowing that she had one, possibly two men—Jake and David. Jake being the main love interest, and David being a secondary, later in the story arc.)

The Ghost Box responded almost immediately.  “Ryan. David. Jake.” 

I stared at my husband “Ryan?”

“Do you even have a ‘Ryan’ in your story?” my husband asks. 

I nodded. “He’s the best friend, the one that always gets shafted by women.”  This of course made my hands shake, because at one point, when I started this story about a year ago (Okay, I’ve started and restarted it repeatedly… I’m on attempt 5 now, I think, lol), Ryan was supposed to be a conflict for Jake and Sara.  He got rather randy toward Sara in a few scenes. And at the time, I kinda blew it off as funny, but didn’t think anything would happen with it—after all, this was Ryan. Not either of my heroes. 

Some could argue that these are common names.  Which they are.  But for me, anyway, it was something, since they all were named in succession.  And others could argue that we were hearing things in the noise, the same way you see a shadow out of the corner of your eye, and it’s really nothing. Or that women, with their hormones, project things.

All of it is possible.

Nonetheless, it was a very exciting experience.

And to make sure it wasn’t hormones on my part, we’ll have to test again in a week. 

I can’t wait. 

Candice Gilmer writes paranormal romance and contemporary romance for Samhain and Lyrical Press. Her website contains lots of excerpts including from her Immortal Knights Templar Series, Moonlight and Shadows, now available from Lyrical Press. And she’s just starting to figure out Word Press, so bare with her…

Movie Review: District 9

Title: District 9
Sub-genre(s): Sci-fi/aliens, thriller, fantasy
Current available format(s): DVD and Blu-ray
Length: Approx. 1 hrs. 52 min.
Movie rating: R
Review rating: B

When a spaceship has a mechanical breakdown and hovers over Johannesburg, South Africa, Earth’s Multi-National United (MNU) government troops enter the craft and discover hordes of bedraggled aliens. Over the next twenty-plus years, the space invaders are held in a segregated, slum-like refugee area of the city and treated as outcasts while their advanced technology and mysterious weapons are exploited.

Sort of a spoiler warning: During a raid of the extraterrestrials’ homes for eviction purposes, an MNU member discovers a cylinder containing alien biotechnology fluids and is accidentally infected with the substance. The evolving mutant agent becomes the target of the government’s hunt forcing him to turn rogue and align with the aliens. A cool, shocking ending lays the groundwork for a sequel.

Initially, I didn’t like this movie and found myself fidgeting and longing to press the remote’s stop button. The first approximately one-fourth was presented in interview style (news clips of Johannesburg residents discussing the agent’s situation and their city’s predicament). While I didn’t care for this filming technique, it served to set up the backstory of what happened to the agent before and after his infection. But as the story unraveled and the plot thickened with the flashback getting underway, as well as the implementation of great special effects, the movie grew on me. All in all, I give this one a solid B.  It’s a terrific rental if you’re in the mood for sci-fi and aliens.

Titania’s special note: Watch for the use of “Prawns” as a derogatory term for the aliens, segregation, exploitation, discrimination and forced poverty, as well as the elitism of Earth’s population toward the aliens. In addition to making you wonder what we really would do if we were invaded by extraterrestrials, this movie also contains thought-provoking, underlying themes that mimic some of our current society’s disturbing behaviors toward one another…

Titania Ladley is an erotic romance author multi-published with Ellora’s Cave, Samhain, and Red Sage Publishing in a wide array of genres including paranormal, sci-fi, fantasy and historical. Please visit Titania at her website, join her newsletter for contests in each issue, stop by her blog, friend her on Myspace and Goodreads, and follow her on Twitter for updates and contest announcements.