January is always a month of reflection for me. Ringing in the New Year means looking back at the ones past and finding the meaning in what has led me to the place I currently reside in. Or...how my jangled thought processes came together to form the projects I am currently working on. It amazes me how everything seems to come full circle. So, I am going to send out a little piece of my glittery, disco ball brain from ten years ago. I reviewed an old poetry journal of mine and dusted a couple from the vault. The series I've written, Four Doors and a Dungeon, tells the tale of a lonely god and the people *be them mythological or human* that travel through his life. These two poems were, unknowingly, the precursers for these books. It's so strange how life flows like this. Strange and wonderful.

"Solitary Reply"
Nature has brought to me this timeless madness that I so comfort.
With sharp pains in every breath
I rise to seek my future.
Secrets have broken the bird and left the cage
For the spectacle beneath the tired suede of this old skin.
And yet I continue
To travel through my universe in solace.
With each passing of the sparrow
I rotate twice as fast
Gripping the wings of Athena to grant me strength
To compliment this weary shield.
I have come to my senses for guidance and hope.
Birth of the new star inspires me once more.
Twinkle she does
Just as she promised as I seek my reflection
In her wise wisdom of sorts.
I need not seek the darkness about the candle
But the candle itself.
Clever girl cascading with the leaves
Hiding in the eaves and seeing the resting ones
Out of their stone facade.
We move you know?
The slightest step to leave the heaviest of footprints.
They will tell me.
The plan was conceived even before Eve
And after Adam secured the garden.
How far do I travel now?
As far as my imagination will allow is the solitary reply.

"No title"
Evil enchantress, bells for charms
Slender coil for arms
Indeed we have come round again.
This time to begin
Just as Apollo's sky ends
And the doors at Delphi slumber.
Sleep sweet angel with the elves
Creeping in the canopy shelves of the withering pines.
Always divine creating the needles entwined
Over the path to the one it led
Whose solitary voice spoke to the dead.
As the creatures gathered for the festival
Of incense, wine and trickery.
Gypsy Queen lend me your hand
For here we stand among the ancient ones.
May we call out the winds so as
The ones in flight may find their twilight
Here to us in this realm of peace?
Grace for us as the flesh
Will cease and the answers
Have been written in the dew-tinted buds among the trees.

That's right...I went a searchin' and found a great treasure indeed! The bounty goes by the name of Alisha Rai, an author for Samhain Publishing. My goal was to search for novellas and novels that had a common theme...voluptuous full-figured gals and the muscular, sexy men who adore them. Boy, did I hit a jackpot! Ms. Rai's first title is Cabin Fever. An insecure recluse who happens upon a wounded hottie on her front porch makes for a steamy romance and even steamier love scenes. I loved how the heroine finds her self-worth and inner goddess through the eyes of a man who loves her not only for her wonderful knitting ability *gotta read the book*, but for her smarts and sensuality as well. So, after getting all hot and bothered by the first book I just had to purchase title number two, Glutton for Pleasure. In Glutton, the beautiful full-figured Indian chef finds her inner bad girl with two hunky twins. What could be better than a good guy/bad guy sandwich? How about a little dash of humor and a whole lotta self confidence tossed in there. This book just made me feel good at the end. I love menage books where the three end up in a happy, healthy relationship. Oh, if life could be so scarlet! Ms. Rai's latest release will be with Samhain in February of 2010 titled Veiled Desire. I can't wait to see what she has in store for the month of romance. I bet this one is going to heat up my Valentine's Day. Check out Alisha Rai with Samhain Publishing and let her sultry words, sexy full-figured heroines and hunky heroes heat up yours. Have a great holiday!

 Step right up is right! Let me tell you what I do. I am a full time mother, wife, nurse and overall manager of disasters in my house. Why on this beautiful green Earth would I want to have to pay to have my books stacked on a shelf? The slush pile, the standared rejection letters, the "please re-write and re-send" are the standards writers go through to make the "big break" into authorship. It's the same game in nursing. A new nurse cuts her teeth on the night shift and earns her stripes in "the suck", as the Marines call it. A great manuscript doesn't mean it is going to sell to the mass audiences and I understand that publishing is ultimately a business, but when did money override talent? Harlequin Horizons is a new company that offers the slush pile and rejected writers a chance at selling their wares to the mass market. I understand the concept, but where are the police? Who is going to be the critiquer to faithfully deem the work as worthy of a shelf? Let's be honest...just because a writer can put words onto paper doesn't mean it's a work of great fiction. As an Erotic Romance writer I understand that we are the red-headed step children, but there is still prestige in having an editor look at your work and say, "That's it! Your voice shines and I love this book. Let me sign you!" Writers write for the enjoyment of the written word, while authors write not only for the enjoyment, but for the paycheck as well. Harlequin is the largest name in Romance fiction. They have prided themselves on being a difficult house to crack into and have released quality work. Now, anyone can be a Harlequin writer if the dollar signs shine on your self-pubbed work. A work that cost the writer thousands of dollars to change their title to author. Harlequin can now be labeled a vanity press and if the writer doesn't have the money to play the game, well..."Welcome to the suck!"