News & Networking
It's been a busy week as usual. Of Dragons was released by Red Rose last Thursday, and it's been full on ever since. I have to admit I've learned a fair bit about promotion this week, and networking with other authors and author sites. Some of the romance sites, like Simply Romance Reviews , are extremely generous with both their time and their space. I finished the first round of edits on Gray Beginnings, and will be hastily contriving a suitable blurb. The edits for GlassWorks should be in the Inbox shortly, too. In a few minutes I'll be posting on Tales of the Trade. My blog post is due there today.
WIP & Other Things: Only a thousand words added this week to my "Nocturne Bites" effort, but I did submit a blurb for Art & Soul to the open call at Nocturne. This is a quick in effort, with decisions being made by April 16th. I love these mini subs and competitions because they spur me on either to try new genres or venues or to finish what I began months ago. The Nocturne "call" only lasts until the 8th, I believe, so it's time for a quick decision if you're a paranormal pennist.
A new, and quite exciting, Yahoo loop opened this week called "Paranormal Monday". Enthusiasm by authors, with excerpts being greeted enthusiastically by readers.
Oh, wrote an interesting poem this week entitled, "Fragile". I'm in the finals for the Poetry.com Editors' Choice competition, and to qualify, I needed another poem. It was the second poem for the week—the first being the one for Gray Beginnings. I was waxing poetic all over the place, LOL!
Authors of Note: 
Today's Author of Note/Publishing-Promotional Guru of Note is Yvonne Eve Walus .
Yvonne introduces us to her best-selling, Interview With the Dragon .
Echelon Press
July 2007
ISBN:1-59080-574-7
Blurb:
Humans have feared dragons since the beginning of time. When a journalist visits a dragon imprisoned for theft, she’s in for a surprise. This dragon is well spoken, has a slightly different take on the human behaviour, and feels that dragons have been persecuted long enough.
And, of course, an excerpt:
"Rise and shine," shouts the guard. "Just don't try any magic tricks!"
An old taunt, but I flash my teeth in an obligatory smile. If I don't cooperate, I don't get to shower. I need to rid my scales of the prison smell. I know it won't take long before the disinfecting stench of phenol settles in my pores again. But until then, I can feel clean. Clean and free.
Breakfast comes an hour later and it's porridge. It's always porridge. I hate routine when it came to meals. There are humans out there who actually choose to eat the same cereal their whole adult life. The mind boggles.
BUY LINK
Teasers (interesting facts that might stir a story some day soon): Those shiny and reflective fish which so draw our eyes, and frequently take a starring role in our aquariums? A new study has determined that the unique shape of the skin's guanine crystals is what provides that intense reflectivity. This is an anti-predator camouflage response, for fish which swim near the water's surface. There's no point denying that these are flashy fish! I went to the zoo last weekend, and in the penguin enclosure, where wee penguins were swooping after their food, it was the food—flashy fish—which kept catching my eye! It should have been birds that fly underwater, instead! For more information, visit http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080114100008.htm.
Save Your World: Free rice (learn new words and donate rice as you do it! Always a favorite!) http://www.freerice.com/index.php
Excerpts: From In Trysts
by Melody Knight (me!)
Peri caught a glimpse of her then—the eyes wide and dilated—the sweat glistening on her skin.
Drug sweat. Peri had seen the signs before, when she’d visited the women’s shelter. Grace was on something, but she was also scared. Methamphetamine-induced bravado wasn’t doing it for her this time. It was making her reactions jagged, irregular, faster...but it wasn’t doing a damn thing for her fear.
Peri held her tongue. Grace had shoved her aside, and was tearing at the necklace, her breaths coming in little panting moans. When it wouldn’t come, she jabbed at the neck, hacking and slicing, trying to yank it free. Grace was beginning to rage, stabbing and chopping the dried tissues out of the way. She was grunting with exertion, and Peri could hear the crack and snap of breaking bone.
Beyond reason...beyond any rational hope.
And there were no words Peri could utter which would change what was about to happen.
As Grace’s arm slammed down in a blow which severed Hannah’s head, Peri ran. She tore down the row, past Horatio Hastings, panting, terrified, out of pace, out of control, in blind panic. Grace was behind her, and then, above her. She was racing across the ledger stones...
...to cut me off. To cut me down. Peri screamed, and lurched for the sunny gap between the doors.
Something slammed, hard into the middle of her back and Peri went down. The knife...oh, God...don’t let it be the knife. My baby!
Overhead, the world exploded. Again and again and again.
The ground wobbled, with the weight of Grace’s descent, and Peri opened her eyes...
