When do you find the time?

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My musical muse

Thruth be told...my muse loves music, but not just any music. There is a certain beat, a melody, a feel that my muse loves the most.

Evanescence, Gloria Estefan, Paramore, anything that has that flair of love, lovemaking or just sexiness to it. And lately, Rihanna has filled those shoes! Have you seen her new video? H.O.T! And let's not forget to mention Lady Gaga's, Born This Way...OMG! I have to limit Gaga's music to when I'm not writing because all I want to do is get up and shake my groove.

I crank the music to wall shaking levels and allow myself to be absorded into the "feel" of it. There is nothing sexier than listening to Gato Barbieri's, Europa playing in the background and finishing a kick ass romance scene or when Rihanna's S&M finishes playing and I've just banged out a sexy love/bondage scene! Yeah, baby! That's what some writers live for...at least, I do!

So, what turns your muse's head and gets him/her/its creative juices flowing?

Story Ideas

The one question I am always asked is if I use my personal experiences to write my books. The answer is sort-of. Let me explain.

A few days before Christmas, we found a hot water foundation leak in our home. I called several plumbers to make the repairs. Unfortunately, the holidays were upon us and I couldn't find anyone, except this one company to come out on such short notice. Needless to say, we all know how that can work out, but I had high hopes that all would turn out well. The plumber did come out and eventually, did make the necessary repairs while I sat back helplessly watching the reign of devastation that plagued my humble abode. Woohoo, right? Wrong. He took us to the cleaners!

So this is how it ties in...in my next installment of the Hightower Series, Tamara, the Matriach of the clan, gets an unexpected visit from a nasty little demon nicknamed... yes, you guessed it, the Plumber.

And much in the same way that our real plumber cut holes in our walls, jack hammered our floors and basically, tore our precious home apart before it could be put back together, Tamara's Demon Plumber will do the same with her soul while Izzy sits helplessly on the sidelines.

Now, I don't profess to know how other authors come up with ideas for their stories. It may be similiar or not, but I do know one thing. Authors have the innate ability to write about anything in their stories. So, keep in mind that its not a good idea to piss an author off, you just might end up as an undying brain eating zombie that gets killed multiple times before finding true death.

Speaking of...my next book, Carly Bright - Sex Games has a March 2011 release date.

See you next month...

Annie :0)

http://www.anniealvarez.net/
http://naughtylittlevamp.blogspot.com/
http://www.romancewiki.com/Annie_Alvarez

Happy New Year!

I’m excited to be one of the first bloggers to wish everyone a happy new year.

I, personally, couldn’t wait for the year to end. For all intended purposes, it went well. I published several more books (which was good for my pocketbook), made some great friends, and learned a thing or two about myself. I thought I was in the home stretch for finishing off the year with no major disasters.

Then it happened. I few simple words uttered by my partner and the year's nasty demons, which at first, seemed to bypass us, surfaced with a vengeance as 2010 bitch-slapped us back to reality.

”I think we have a problem.” Were the last famous words spoken before we found the nightmare of a hot water foundation leak in our living room.

Try convincing someone to take on such a large job only 4 days before Christmas. Yeah, good luck with that! Everyone wants to make sure they are home, snuggled close to family, not jack-hammering a crater in some strangers living room, and then mucking around in mud trying to find a leak the size of a pin hole.

Our insurance company has been awesome! Yes, I refer to the current present tense because the nightmare continues. It will be at least another 2-3 weeks before we get our little house back to normal. Well, as normal as can be.

We are getting new floors in the entry, hallway, living room and bedroom with new baseboards to go with it. The holes the plumber carved in our walls, for repairs, will be patched and our washroom, kitchen, living room, entry, and hallway walls will be painted, and yes, I was mumbling, row, row, row your boat gently down our hall, as the plumber tended to the foundation leak. Oh, the joys of owning your own home.

The truth is that even with everything that happened, I am grateful for what we have. You see, it's our tradition to volunteer at a soup kitchen every Christmas day and this year was no exception. How's the saying go..."neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night" - in our case, water, would keep us from our Christmas Soup Kitchen.

The funny thing about putting yourself out there is that you tend to forget your own problems and you start to see things from a different perspective. My anger quickly turned to gratefulness.

I'm grateful we have a home to worry about. I'm grateful we have the means to get things repaired or replaced. I'm grateful that SERVPRO of Dallas NWD, sent Nallen to our house for the water extraction. Kudos to Nallen, for without his sense of humor, I surely would have completely lost my mind. I'm grateful for the friends and family that I have in my life. I'm grateful for plumbers and homeowners insurance. I'm grateful 2010 finally came to a close and I'm grateful that my parents walked twenty miles to school, barefoot, in the snow, everyday, not that its ever snowed in Cuba, but...you get my point.

I have only one simple request of this new and upcoming year. "Please, dear G-d, don't let any of my lessons involve water. Amen."

Happy New Year and remember, keep it short, keep it sweet, and keep it real.

Annie :0)
http://www.anniealvarez.net/
http://naughtylittlevamp.blogspot.com/

Maine Coon Matriarch

Say hello to Shadow. Well, we actually call her Mama and she seems to like the title. She is our Maine Coon and Matriarch of the house. Mama keeps everyone is line, including us.

We found her about 13 years at a horse show, yes, really. A horse show. Go figure, huh? Stranger things have happened to us, believe me.

Taking her home was an adjustment. She's an extremely intelligent cat. She quickly learned how to hit the snooze button on our alarms, it seems that we were disturbing her beauty rest every morning.

She learned that pulling on the level doorhandles would open any door, hence, us scrabbling to change the handles back to the bland round handles, instead of the modern ones we once had.

She's a little older now, but still likes to torture us. She loves to knock over any glass filled with any liquid. If it's empty, she doesn't give it the time of day. She steals my pillow and the blankets in the middle of the night, literally.

And she's learned to stay away from us when we begin any remodeling projects. You see, when she was younger, we retiled the bathroom floor in our apartment. I thought it was the cutest thing that she sat with us the entire time, supervising, because that's what she's best at, supervising. After a little while, I guess she got bored and started heading out of the cramped little space. When she stood, so did a tile she had been sitting on. Apparently, she had made herself quite comfortable sitting on a self stick tile. She screamed, jumped, climbed the wall and took off with the tile in tow. When we finally caught her, we had to cut the tile free from her behind. And oh, what a terrible trim job we gave her. I don't think she's forgiven us for that.

But, she's a sweet heart. If your not feeling well, she knows and sticks to us like glue. God help either one of us if we moan or whine, because she's in our faces, touching us to make sure we're okay. Yes, we have had to lock her out of the bedroom during our private moments. She hasn't learned the difference in moans, yet. LOL

Truth is that lately, I haven't been feeling up to par. I have been somewhat disillusioned about my writing abilities as I'm sure many of you have experienced at one point or another and Mama knows it. She has been a constant source of affection, remember that tile she sat on? Well, she's stuck herself to me in the same way.

We have our dogs and we absolutely love them, but there's just something magical about a cat.

Until next month!

Annie :0)
http://www.anniealvarez.net/


  

Morrigan – The Great Dane

As promised from last month, I would like you all to meet Morrigan, our Great Dane. She’s our resident character and what a character she has, can’t you tell by the photo?

This huge girl, wasn’t always so big. When we rescued her, from a backyard breeder, she was in SERIOUS need of medical attention. Actually, none of us, including the Vet thought she would live. For a 6 month old puppy, she was the size of a 6 month old kitten. Yes, it’s hard to believe that her entire body fit in one hand! She was cute, but the truth is that she never should have been so small.

Morrigan was infested with worms, fleas and I know you can’t tell from this photo, but as a very young puppy, her left eye was punctured and left as is. I won’t described the details, believe me, you don’t want to know them. It was pretty gruesome and we, my partner and I, were pretty pissed! Needless to say, she is blind as a bat in that one eye.

After 7 rounds of MAJOR antibiotics and 5 rounds of de-wormer, we were finally able to get her stabilized. We all now believed she had a pretty good chance to survive, because she still wasn’t in the clear, yet. The infection from the eye injury had wrecked havoc on her poor little body.

Skipping forward several months and the fact that I believe we bought our Vet his new house…Morrigan is a happy and healthy galouf! Yes, I do call her our galouf. And no, it has nothing to do with the fact that she is blind in one eye. Believe me! She’ll be 3 years old and I swear, she’s a 120 lb freaking puppy and we have the broken furniture to prove it!

She’s one smart cookie, sometimes too smart for her own good! She’s loyal. She can be affectionate. She warns us before Jaque has a seizure. She loves our cats, although they aren’t always too sure about her. She’s sensitive, God forbid, we yell at her for anything, she gets her feelings hurt. And she doesn't like strangers. Not a bad combination.

We would have it any other way? No! All in all, she’s a great addition to the family.

Now, for a little shameless self promoting…

My newest book, Gaia’s Lust was released a couple of weeks ago. It is Book 5 of the Hightower Series and it’s got some hot, sexy scenes, involving hard candies. Yes, you read correctly. Hard candies.

You can read an excerpt on my webpage: http://www.anniealvarez.net/

Please note: This is intended for mature audiences only!

If you’ve read my series, no doubt you know about Zoe, the were-human. Next month, I’ll introduce the cat behind the character!


Thanks for having me here!
Annie Alvarez
http://www.anniealvarez.net/
http://naughtylittlevamp.blogspot.com/

This is Jaque

I know most authors don't invite you into their private lives but, I'm not like most authors out there, in case you haven't noticed. So, I've decided that over the several months, I'll introduce you to our kids, and yes, they are our kids.

I'd like to start with Jaque, our Yellow Lab. Jaque is the only animal that came to us...really.

One Saturday morning, a few years back, Jen and I were leaving the house to go run errands, like we typically do on a Saturday. I openned the garage door to find a big, very smelly and very dirty dog sitting on our front porch. We canvassed the neighborhood, trying to find his owner and came up blank. No one had ever seen or heard about him, and if they had, they weren't saying.

As it so happens, one of our neighbors offered to take this loveable, dirty, smelly walking dirt bag home with him. He said and I quote, "I'll take good care of him (I had no doubt about that) and I have a six foot fence, he can't get out."

Never having owned dogs before, I agreed and the two of them happily trotted down the street to Jaques new home. Situation resolved, we went on our way to run our errands.

A few hours later, we returned to find the Jaque comfortably sleeping on our front porch. We had heard that Labs are diggers and assumed that he got out of our neighbors yard. So, we gathered up Jaque and back he went to our neighbors house and his "new home".

Again, situation resolved, we ran out.
We were half way down our street, returning home, when our neighbor stopped us with bad news. Apparently, Jaque had run away again. Our neighbor had spent hours looking for the dog, with no luck. Maybe, the neighbor said, he knows where he belongs and went home.

I'll buy that. We pulled into the garage, unloaded the shopping bags, and Jen went out to water the plants. She wasn't out there more than a minute when she stuck her head back inside and told me to come out front and be quite. She pointed under the large Sage bush we have and there was Jaque, happily snoring away, waiting for us to return home.

We have tortured this poor dog in every way possible. We gave him a bath, took him to the vets, got his shots and had him chipped. We even had him neutered and to this day, he hasn't gotten out of our little three foot fence of which, he knows how to open the gate. As for the digging, yeah, he made trench diggers look like amateurs. No joke. Thankfully, he has grown out of his puppy stage. The digging, the chewing and the mischievious stuff has stopped. We don't lose shoes anymore and our cats love him.

Very recently, Jaque had 3 grand mal seizures. It scared the hell out of us and I'm still a little afraid to leave him alone. We've been working with our vet trying to figure out why he suddenly started having seizures. He'll start anti-seizure medication soon, just in case and I'll finally be able to get a good nights sleep again.

Truth is, we'll do whatever it takes to make sure he is happy and healthy.

I guess he knew where he belonged.

Sharing fantastic reviews

Literary Nymphs Reviewer Satyr Vael gave Lustful Torment a 5 Nymphs Review and added this: "There are many scenes that show a new side of Tamara--a softer side, if you can believe it. But the loves scenes… damn. The best lesbian scenes I’ve read! If you’ve enjoyed the Hightower books, do not miss this one!"

Read the full review for yourself: http://literarynymphsreviewsonly.blogspot.com/2010/06/lustful-torment.html?zx=9fa37132253f3e6d

Okay, I know that a lot of authors have received a knock-your-socks-off-review, at some point in their writing careers, and I just received my first.

In case you haven't heard it before, let me tell you that writing is not easy. Far from it- writing, to make the writing appear effortless is probably one of the most difficult things to do, but that's good. That's what makes a story fantastic and that's what we all try to do.

Take for instence, my friend Courtney Breazile. She writes what I call Paranormal Spicy Romance. Night Owl Reviews gave her a 4.75 Star Rating and a Top Pick for here recent story, Wet Glamour. Here's what they said, "This is a story that you will want to keep around to re-read again and again. I look forward to reading more of Ms. Breazile’s work."

Read the full review here:
http://www.nightowlreviews.com/nor/Reviews/Angibabi4-reviews-Wet-Glamour-by-Courtney-Breazile.aspx

Delora Daye shined with a 4 Star Review from Night Owl Reviews. "I really enjoyed Kathryn and Francois’ first interlude; it was a mouth watering presentation of eroticism. The sizzling hot spontaneity of the scene was exceptionally written."

Read the full review here:
http://www.nightowlromance.com/nor/Reviews/Delenn-reviews-Unscripted-by-Delora-Daye.aspx

Why do I share these with you? Because I am honored to be in the same class with some of the people I value as friends and cohorts. Congratulations everyone.

Hopefully, next month I can share some more good news.

Annie :0)
http://www.anniealvarez.net/

Surrounded by 2's

As I sit here writing this post, it dawned on me that I am surrounded by two's, or I will be soon enough.

On June 29, technically June 30, I will be surrounded by teeny boppers screaming Edward and Jacob's name. Yes, my common sense has left the building. I will be waiting in line to see the Eclipse movie at midnight. You see, my partner is a major Twi-head and I surprised her with midnight tickets, again this year. I am excited though, last year I got the chance to talk with several young ones and they confirmed that yes, teenagers are a rare breed indeed. I only hope I wasn't that loopey when I was that age.

Then 2 days later, my blog will post on RBRU! Great blog, BTW! Thanks Marianne for putting it all together. :)

Then 2 days later, we celebrate the fourth of July. This fourth is actually quite special. After 13 years of us being together, this is the 2nd year that my partners family has personally invited me to a family gathering. Ha! There's the 2 again. I wonder if I should buy 2 lotto tickets?

Okay numerology experts...what gives with the 2? I thought things came in 3's?

Have a fun and safe fourth everyone!

Annie :0)

http://www.anniealvarez.net/
http://naughtylittlevamp.blogspot.com/

A little Shamless Promotion!

Okay, maybe not so little.

Wait! Didn't I talk about POS (Promotion Overload Syndrome) last time? Yes! I did, but the truth is, I'm not as popular as some of the greats yet, so I gotta do what a writer does...promote.

Sessions was released last month and this story is especially important to me. No, it's not like that. Get your mind out the gutter! It's because this is the story that originally got me a contract. I know, pretty cool huh? And now my baby is out there for all the world to see. I'm so proud.

As the title implies, it is about therapy, but wait, don't knock it yet! I can just hear it now..."I all ready know the ending." Are you sure? This isn't your typical, girl has problems, girl goes to therapy and therapist fixes it with sex. Well, okay, part of it is any ways, but the story isn't at all what you think and that's what I love about it. I even mixed some B&D in it to help the characters along. Wasn't I sneaky?

If I did a good job with the story, you'll find yourself rooting one of the characters along, and hating the other only to find out that maybe you were wrong all along. Or maybe not, I don't want to give too much away.

Now, as some of you know, I am a lesbian erotica writer because...well, I'm a lesbian. Shhh...did I really just out myself? Krud! I gave it away, didn't I? Here's the thing, you're going to find f/f sex in every chapter, oops, session in the ebook. And its explicit. Oh, one more thing, you can read an explicit excerpt on my website: http://www.anniealvarez.net  (For mature audiences only, please.)

The other side of me is the Paranormal Erotic author and I've been working on The Hightower Series. A clan of sexy vampire ladies ready to steal your heart and other things if you let them.

Book 4, Lustful Torment is actually from Mistress Tamara's POV (Point Of View) and believe me, my vampires don't sparkle!

Oh, where do I begin? How about at the beginning? Book 1, For The Love Of Blood, introduces you to Tamara and Izzy. Remember, I am a lesbian erotica writer so you'll find a lot of f/f interactions in this series, too. It's also where you'll find the infamous "pearl scene". I'll let you read about that yourself. :)

I would say that it's a must read series, but that would be tooting my own horn, and I won't do that. Instead, I'll quote my cousin David. "Damn girl, even my wife thinks your girls are hot!

In honor of non-sparkly vampires, we're having a Naughty Little Vamp June Extravaganza, and I invite you all to participate in the festivites! Starting on the 1st of June, stop by and leave a comment and you could win a prize! http://naughtylittlevamp.blogspot.com/

See you next month!

POS sufferers unite!

I wanted to write something witty, sharp and meaningful and to quote my 12 year old nephew, "I got nothing."

For most normal people, having nothing is no big deal. For a writer, it's an automatic death sentence and I am sitting in the corridors awaiting my fate. No. I'm not suffering from the dreaded writer's block. I have named my affliction, POS - wait! It's not what you're thinking really!

POS stands for Promotions Overload Syndrome. Many authors are affecting by this crippling disease, just ask one.

Here's the dirty...we write, what we think is an awesome story. A publishing house accepts our manuscript and then we have to figure out how to promote our baby. Yes, publishing houses do promote, but let's get real for a minute...they can only do so much and no matter how much they do, we the creators of the story think it's never enough. We have to step in and get our name out there and rightfully so.

We must introduce ourselves to the world and let everyone know who we are and what we've written, and oh yeah, that they want to buy it. So, we start with the small Ning groups at first, then we incorporate the Yahoo Groups. By this time, we've got a Kazillion email addresses and passwords to remember, but that isn't enough! We squeeze in a blog of our own! Just in case, you know?

My problem is that I am so preoccupied with keeping up with the Jones that my Muse took a temporary vacation. I think she's in the Bahamas with the Smith's.

I have resolved to fix this and bring my Muse back. I am dwendling down the list I commit myself to. If you don't see me somewhere, it's not that I don't care, I promise. It's that I want my Muse back. Pronto!

I need to keep my readers happy and I can't do that with my Muse sipping Margaritas on a deserted Island, hiding from me. Statistics stated that the f/f genre, was not a favorable one and in spite of that, I have done pretty good. Not great, but good and I don't want to ruin it by streching myself so thin that I disappear.

I invite you all to get to know me, visit my website and my blog. You just might like something you read.

Here's are my words of wisdom, when the POS interferes with your writing, it's time to take the BS out back and put it to rest!

Annie :0)

http://www.anniealvarez.net/

Meet Annie Alvarez

Hello Everyone,
I'll be posting on the 2nd of the month and I wanted to introduce myself. I have several ebooks published with eXtasy Books. I'm currently working on the Hightower Series, a F/F vampire story and on a love story between a therapist and her client, soon to be released.

I've been preoccupied with the arrivalof my sister and her family. My 10 month old niece is the cutest baby, I've ever seen and smart. She already has everyone, including her parents wrapped around her finger. I'm extremely proud that she has the "Alvarez" gene in her.

My 11 year old nephew is adorable. I know. I know. If he hears me call him adorable, he'd have a cow! I won't tell, if you don't. LOL

The family is getting ready to depart tomorrow, April 2nd and I am sad to see them go, but I know that all good things must come to an end. My hopes are that I can convince them to move to Texas.

My nephew keeps saying, "people are nice here." I hope that's incentive. LOL
In the meantime, I haven't written a single letter or vowel. I am feeling deprived from my daily routine of writing, checking emails, and posting. *sigh*

I'm excited to be here and I can'T wait wait to share with you next month.

Cheers,
Annie

http://www.anniealvarez.net/
http://naughtylittlevamp.blogspot.com/