paranormal romance. I think I would use blend Christianity with my imagination to create the following mythology. (The picture is by selfmade1 and is for sale at Deviantart.com)

It is written that God created man and woman, and placed them in a beautiful garden.  This first couple was perfect in all ways.  They were also innocent, sin did not exist.  They wanted for nothing, until the day an angel took the body of a serpent in order to tempt the first couple to break the only commandment that God had given them.

He had told them not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and bad but at the serpents urging Eve did so anyway. Adam, unable to bear life without his woman followed his wife’s example and ate from the tree too.  Instantly God knew what was done and cast the couple from the only home they had ever known, exposing them to a brutal world.

Satan, the serpent, and his fellow fallen angels were cast out of heaven to the desolate world below: the same hard world where man was cast.  The fallen angels were transformed into carnivorous men who were dependent on blood to live: the original vampire.  God knew that without protection his greatest creations would become extinct. With that thought in mind he created creatures with the ability to transform into animal form but he also tempered the creatures with mans better qualities, compassion and love.

The were-creatures could be any of the animal predators, but more than that they could co-exist with the humans while protecting them.

Because God is loving he created a means of redemption for the fallen angels.  These vampires could become mortal or human if they found their true life partner and made amends for their traitorous actions.  The bond between Fallen and mortal would make the need for blood disappear.

In the meanwhile, were-creatures live amongst the humans, co-habitating with them and protecting them from the soulless vampires that walk the earth.  Sadly humans feared that which was different and killed any were-creature they found. Those left untouched, became fearful, pessimistic and indifferent to humanity. They did as they were commanded, but learned to hide their differences from those who would hunt them.

Genevieve pulled Lancelot into the corner and smashed her body into his. Her arms grasped the lapels of his shirt as she battled her tongue with his. “Wait. Someone might see us,” Lancelot said.

The couple pushed open the nearest door, found themselves in the women’s restroom and were greeted with the smell of the last entrant’s poop. It was as effective as a bucket of cold water being dumped on the couple and the mood was broken. The two separated and went back to work totally grossed out.

Can you imagine the horror of bathroom sex with parfum de pupu in the air? Anyways, I have a couple of workplace bathroom pet peeves and wondered about y’all. I can’t stand it when there are three stalls and people go in the middle stall, forcing me to pee next to them.

My other pet peeve is people taking a dump in the toilet and leaving floaties. Ewww gross!! I know this is different from my normal posts, but I’m just saying, “Check the toilet before leaving the bathroom.”

Can you believe that another week is over? It seems like this week flew by. My Nalini Singh Caressed by Ice came yesterday and I spent the day reading it. It’s a great book. I’ll be posting my review next week. I’ve been adding several books to my Books Read page and linking to the reviews that I posted for Romance Designs, so check it out!

I did buy Anya Bast’s latest release and I’ll be reading it this weekend. I’ve got two books from Cerridwen Press that I’m reading, Lady Iona’s Rebellion and Eye Witness. Those reviews will be linked to from the Books Read page. I haven’t been surfing like I normally do so I feel a little out of touch. Are there any contests being ran? Any book pimping you want to do? Feel free to post in today’s comments.

On to personal drama, well it’s not drama. My oldest is in summer school this year. I discovered that I could sign her up for enrichment classes for $15 (one benefit to being poor). She’s taking “Cooking up a Book”. The class reads a book then they make some kind of food to connect to the story. For example, they read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie then baked cookies. My daughter acted like she’d never seen cookies made before. She said, “Mom, the cookies were tiny before we put them in the oven, but when they came out they were bigger than my hand.”

They made pigs in a blanket the next day. Yesterday they made playdough and baked bread. She was highly upset that they ran out of time before she got to eat the bread. The whole way home she complained that she was starving. It was kinda funny seeing as how the girl was only at school for 3 hours and had ate as soon as she got there.

What are your kids doing this summer? Any major plans? Does your school district offer summer school? Today is dump day, lay it all out.

Chapter Book Submissions Call

Freya’s Bower is starting a new line of chapter books. These are a series of three, or more, installments of an ongoing story. Each “chapter” must be 5000-6000 words in length. They will be released monthly. The story can be any heat rating, any genre, and can even incorporate any of our series (Goddess Freya, Valkyrie, T.R.O.U.B.L.E., Angels and Demons) Due to the length, they will not be given ISBN’s and will have one cover for all installments with the exception of a minor change to distinguish each installment from the others. (i.e. Title one: The Southern Sting: Chapter One, title two: The Southern Sting: Chapter Two, and so on.)

To submit, include the first chapter in the body of the email text with “CHAPTER BOOKS” in the subject line. Also include a one-paragraph synopsis of the following installments planned for the story. Send your submissions to: submitATfreyasbowerDOTcom .

If you have questions email Faith at editorfaithATsbcglobalDOTnet or Marci at mbaunATfreyasbowerDOTcom.

Please read our guidelines for formatting and any questions you might have before submitting.

Freya’s Bower.com Celebrates Its One-Year Anniversary

To celebrate our one-year anniversary on March 5, 2007, we’re having a call for submissions and offering a nice advance against royalties for the top two manuscripts that fit the following categories.

For general submissions, we’re looking for sweet and/or tangy erotic romance manuscripts of category length (30,001-45,000 words) and longer of any genre. See our guidelines for regular submissions and how we rate sweet and tangy: http://www.freyasbower.com/content/view/12/31/

For our T.R.O.U.B.L.E. line, we’re looking for sweet to beyond sizzling ratings for category length and longer only.

Out of the accepted manuscripts, two will be chosen to receive a publishing contract, a print version of the manuscript six months from eBook release date, and a nice advance against first royalties, which will be discussed upon signing the contract. One winning manuscript will be chosen from the sweet and/or tangy submissions and one will be chosen for our T.R.O.U.B.L.E. line. Second place manuscripts for each of these two categories will receive a smaller advance, but the print option will depend solely on eBook sales.

Other outstanding manuscripts will receive a publishing contract with Freya’s Bower.

T.R.O.U.B.L.E. Guidelines:

(For male or female protagonists)

She’s gorgeous and causes chaos wherever she goes. Perhaps she’s a klutz, a walking disaster. Maybe she has the worst luck imaginable.

For males: He’s dangerous. The bad boy you can’t help but love. Maybe he’s a chick magnet, or maybe he’s the guy flipping burgers at the local diner. Catastrophe and mayhem seem to follow him around.

Use your imagination for the trouble theme. Any ethnicity, any genre welcome.

Protagonists can also be characters such as Valkyries (for our Valkyrie series), werewolves, vampires, wallflowers, etc.

Category length and longer. (30,001-45,000 words.)

Ratings can be from sweet to beyond sizzling for the TROUBLE line, but we are very open to sweet submissions right now.

First person submissions must be well written.

Please read our guidelines http://www.freyasbower.com/content/view/12/31/ for formatting and any questions you might have before submitting.

ATTN: We have also opened an Angels and Demons category. If the angel or demon fits the TROUBLE theme or the sweet and/or tangy rating, these novels are eligible for the top novel decisions.

Final words: Submissions may be semi-rough drafts, but please don’t send something to us that you obviously have not checked over at least once. The key is semi-rough. Send the entire manuscript attached as an MS Word file to submit@freyasbower.com with the word TROUBLE or SWEET/TANGY in the subject line.

Deadline for this call is February 20, 2007. If you have questions email Faith at editorfaith@sbcglobal.net or Marci at mbaun@freyasbower.com

I’m going to add pages to my blog. I plan on adding a short story and a page for books read. I want to create an easier way to read old reviews of novels and short stories. I’m going to play with different backgrounds and look into creating a private website. I want to learn all I can about what the internet has to offer. I want to join writing groups and meet more people. Do you have plans for this year? How about suggestions for me? I’d love to hear from you.

Before I bought my laptop I had a hard time writing on paper. I’m impatient, and it irritated me because my mind would work faster than my hand. After four months with the computer and no manuscripts appeared, it appeared I was just lazy. I took a writing class which  allowed me to realize the many stories in me. To bad the stories were all sad.

The stories all had the hero dying and the heroine grieving. I felt wonderful though. It was like a huge burden had been removed from my shoulders. The feeling was intense as the grief I’d been wrapping around me for years fell away. I kept beginning stories and not finishing them. Then, as many of you know, I entered Nano.

I didn’t accomplish what I wanted to, but I did get a short story (very short) written. Now I’ve started something new. This time I’m writing it in a notebook first. I’ve brainstormed and have ideas for four ideas for four different books. I had thought about writing the stories separate before having them converge at different points in one book. Right now it’s  a toss up. I have little more than my concept written and the first few pages about one of the women in the story.

The good part is that I haven’t read any books about my idea. It’s set in the future so I have a whole new world to build. I’m excited. I feel like accomplishing this. I know that I can do it if I give it the proper time. What better time than now? I’m not pressed for time. In another week the girls will be back in school and I’ll have time to get my butt into gear without interruption. What are you working on?

I decided to browse erotic writing on the web this weekend. I found two sites that offered two very different sides to erotic fiction. The first site was The Erotic Woman. It was well designed and offered tasteful erotica (pictures/fiction/poetry). The other site was Literotica.

Literotica site states that it is an erotic site, but it was porn. Many of the stories featured bad cut/paste jobs, change in voice from 3rd to 1st, and were just not erotica. The site was cheesy, but it made me confident in myself.

I know that I can write better than many of the stories I read. I’m not trying to be full of myself but the writings I read were bad. B-A-D. So, now I’m writing short erotica. I guess we’ll see how it goes.

On a side note I decided to look up the worth of my blog. I thought the most it could be worth was $5. Here’s what it gave me. I’m going to recheck this in March and see if it changes at all.

My blog is worth

$7,903.56.
How much is your blog worth?

What kind of reader are you? Do you read every book that a particular author publishes? Do you only read romance novels? Do you only read science fiction? Do you mix up your reading material so that you have a wide variety? What would it take for you to drop an author off of your must read list?

I’m a selfish reader. I read what I want, when I want. It is all about me. If I’m not feeling a particular story, it’s not getting read. Reading is a release for me. It’s an escape into another world. I’m not willing to let anybody interfere with my “me time” and that includes the author.

I choose where I want to go when it comes to my reading selection. Maybe I should write a choose your own romance novel.

I’m very disappointed in myself. I’m not going to win nano this year. I have a million excuses but I just took on too much this month. I’m in countdown to graduating with my BA in English. I need to decide if I’m going for my Masters. I had a test in all five of my classes, papers in three, and my online portfolio all due this month. I have two kids who take up most of my day. I’m also beginning to search for possible jobs.

Like I said, I’m full of excuses. I didn’t accomplish half of what I wanted to but I’m going to continue with the writing project I started with Nano. Hopefully, given a little more time I’ll complete this project. I’m not upset about failing Nano; I’m just slightly disappointed that I wasn’t able to juggle a little bit better.