The Dog Days of Summer are Here ~ and the World of 1984!

The first day of the Summer Solstice 2013 began June 21^st, and the sweltering sun and heat came in with a roar. At least here in the U.S., the Dog Days of Summer have hit us. And hard. We’ve had a few named hurricanes, and more are predicted. The crazy weather started with the devastating storms raving parts of Oklahoma. We’ve only just begun. Wasn’t that a name of a song by The Carpenters? Good grief, I’m dating myself.

In a couple of days, for those who do recognize and celebrate the day, is the Fourth of July—Independence Day—and here in Central Florida, we’ll be hot, humid and more possible thunder bumpers. Not sure how that will play out for the fireworks events happening around the area, but hopefully everyone, everywhere will be able to enjoy them. Exercising our patriotic spirit once a year is good, not to get political here, but with what I’ve seen the last year is frightening. I don’t know if I would have noticed what was happening with our rights as U.S. citizens if not for the interaction I’ve been involved with since starting my writing career. Trademark infringement issues, something all of here on this blog are quite familiar with, was an issue last year. Amazon doing wonky things with their new algorithms making it difficult to search for erotic/a romance as a category, and most recently in the past few weeks Facebook has decided to take down pages where there is questionable degradation toward women. 

In theory, the action sounds like a good thing, but they are targeting many and one which is BDSM groups and even author pages. Whether you like the sub-genre or not this isn’t that different from the PayPal fiasco last year. We, as authors, have enough to deal with on a daily basis and to continually be bombarded with one more avenue by which we try and connect with readers, we have to make sure we’re not offending women? We are women, at least the majority who visit this blog, and I’m frustrated yet again. These things side-track me. All I want and love to do is just create sexy stories. I swear, I’m about to say forget all the social networking, keep my nose glued to my laptop and forget about everything else around me. I may not make any money, but I won’t be stressed anymore about the BS going on.

Oh, and Blogger has also changed their terms of service as of June 30.

Please be advised that on June 30th 2013, we will be updating our Content Policy to strictly prohibit the monetization of Adult content on Blogger. After June 30th 2013, we will be enforcing this policy and will remove blogs which are adult in nature and are displaying advertisements to adult websites.

If your adult blog currently has advertisements which are adult in nature, you should remove them as soon as possible as to avoid any potential Terms of Service violation and/or content removals.

I’m don’t have links on my blog to adult sites (I read the notice like Adult Toy Shops, Porn, etc.), but what if this eventually is interpreted as even the books we write and the on-line retailers one can purchase our books?

This is getting to be scary stuff.

What are your thoughts? Am I being paranoid? Are you concerned too? Should we just ignore what’s happening? Is this 1984 but coming a little later than George Orwell wrote about?

Okay, my monthly rant is over. If you want to find me on social places other than my personal blog, here are the links (if I haven't been banned or I gave up and took the pages down).

Website: http://cynthiaarsuaga.weebly.com
Publisher Page: http://store.secretcravingspublishing.com/index.php?main_page=products_all&filter_author=1&zenid=7ea916acb5075615d6f30b6f25e77c3e
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CynthiaArsuaga?ref=tn_tnmn
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#%21/CynthiaArsuaga
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4715026-cynthia-arsuaga
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/cynthiaarsuaga/
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/cynthia-arsuaga/30/101/49b
Vampire Book Realm: http://www.vampirebookrealm.com/cynthia-arsuaga.html
Amazon Author Central: https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/profile?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0 

Go out and enjoy the fireworks!!!

Cynthia Arsuaga

Erotic Romance Author

http://romanticwordsbycynthia.blogspot.com

SHORT AND SWEET

Sorry for this different post for today.

I’ve been sick for over two weeks now, and my mind is a bit fuzzy. And since I feel like death warmed over, highlighting my recent release about vampires and zombies seems appropriate. So, I’ll make it short and sweet and give you all a sneak peak of A Vampire’s Bite of Flesh, Episode 3 of The Misadventures of Dick Grewcock.

BLURB:

Dick Grewcock is a vampire working full-time as a computer consultant for Vampires ‘R Us. He had everything he wanted—a pretty girlfriend and a great job—or so he thought. A hurricane blows through town a week before the Fourth of July making a real mess, including riling the sugar craving mush-brain humans. Operation Zombie Takedown begins at Fang Shui, the local vampire bar, to get the infestation under control. Dick’s existence was about to change—again.

Noelle St. Nicholas is Dick’s girlfriend, but four months ago she met with an unfortunate accident and ended up in a cryopreservation chamber at a high security laboratory. She’s revived and Dick isn’t sure she’ll forgive him for what he did.

Dick battles zombies with fireworks exploding and learns what it means to be the vampire he was meant to be, but at what price to losing what’s left of his humanity?

EXCERPT:

Dick blinked a few times, adjusting his eyes to the brighter light and to gain his bearings. The stench of sweat and cigarette smoke filled his nostrils and every breath he took burned his lungs. God, he knew having the planning meeting here would be a mistake. Why not the VRU offices? At least they were private and smoke-free. But, no, that would have been too easy. Vlad insisted on checking out his latest acquisition, and as he put it, the bar was a good place to keep an eye on others in his coven. Killing two birds, yada, yada, yada.

Dancers scantily-clad in G-strings and sequined pasties climbed, turned and twisted on the brass poles bolted on the five mini-stages scattered around the room. Gyrating couples, males, females and others—Dick couldn’t tell what they were—writhed in a sea of limbs, music, and flashing multi-colored lights. He glanced around, disoriented from the pounding in his head. Where the heck was the bar? And where was his partner?

Urgh! A partner. Another vamp. A pain in the ass vamp cohort his sire insisted on him having until the zombie infestation was exterminated. Dealing with the punk vampire was another reason for his headache. Why did I have to find that ad in the Yellow Pages?

It took him several minutes, but he finally saw his target—a vacant place to sit and have a strong drink. He forced his way through the oversexed crowd of sweaty skin, strong perfume, and the tables with seated customers, advancing slowly to the bar on the far right side of the nightclub. He strode quickly toward his objective, an empty stool at the end of a long, curved bar. On the other side of the sleek wood counter, a man stopped restocking bottles of Vlad’s popular blood soda and stared in Dick’s direction.

Halfway on his trek to the bar, a woman slammed into him. Obviously drunk or high on something, he instinctively sensed she was human, not vampire. He pushed past her, cursing under his breath. What the hell was the world coming to? Vampires, zombies, and what would come next? Werewolves and the Easter Bunny?

Dick reaffirmed his reasons as to why he hated coming to Fang Shui. The dildos that worked there were no different than the types he dealt with when human. Nothing ever changes. Not even the predictable weather.

The first week of July in Florida brought the bitch heat of summer in full swing. Ninety degree days and seventies at night made for sticky situations when hunting for the zombies on the loose. Hurricane Chucky blustered through the Orlando area only a week ago. Eighty-five mile an hour winds along with spotty tornados ripped roofs off houses, damaged parts of the international airport, and the amusement parks suffered enough to keep them closed after seven days. Not that any of those problems affected him directly, but it did make for interesting news to take his mind off Noelle.

Buck Rogers’ Spaceship! Stop thinking of her.

Despite how he didn’t want to be at the meeting, safety at the bar was a welcome relief compared to the chaos he passed on the drive over. Traffic lights were still out at some of the secondary intersections, and people didn’t adhere to the rules of the road. Long lines at gas stations didn’t make sense, either, when the power didn’t work. Did all common sense get blown away with the storm? Was I that dense as a human?

Shaking his head as he grabbed the edge of the wooden barstool to stake claim to the valued real estate, he hauled himself up onto one of the last remaining seats. The place looked like the entire population of vampires and wannabe human groupies had decided to join in the rowdy behavior at the same time. A lot of residences had been damaged, as well as night haunts of the blood-kind. Hurricane Chucky wreaked havoc on the area in more ways than one. The scare of the zombies must be driving them here. What’s with the public display of sex? That’s a new one for this place.

Blooding and sex always seemed to go hand-in-hand in this new life he led, but Dick hadn’t seen such an overwhelming sense of laissez faire toward revealing what he considered a private matter. Was Vlad aware of this? Granted, he’d only been a vampire since last October. Halloween exactly, which was more like November first, but he’d seen a lot of action in those eight to nine months. Maybe this is a special event night at Fang Shui, like Karaoke Night. No, Stormin’ Chucky Sex Night!

He laughed to himself with the thought. With a wave of his hand, he caught the bartender’s attention. He’d frequented the vamp haunt four or five times in the last two months. Ted had been tending bar every time.

“What’ll it be tonight, Dick?” The young, hip-looking vampire bartender asked. The man wiped a towel along the varnished wood bar top waiting for an answer.

Why couldn’t I have looked like him as a human?

“VieSang, cherry.” The nasty stuff was his favorite among the flavors available. Since turning last Halloween, he’d supplemented his need for blood with the weird concoction. The blood-laced carbonated drink came in ten varieties, and he’d tried them all. Some he couldn’t get past his lips, let alone down his gut. The tart one had the most tolerable taste.

“For a change?”

The sarcastic tone wasn’t lost on Dick. “What can I say? I like popping cherries with my blood.” Not really, but better than nothing. As one of the many creations in Vlad’s business empire, the ten flavors of the nasty tasting drink acted as a change of pace for whole blood. Cherry at least was more palatable than the peppermint-flavored one he made at Christmas-time.

BUY LINK:  http://store.secretcravingspublishing.com/index.php?main_page=book_info&cPath=36&products_id=617

CYNTHIA ARSUAGA

Erotic Romance Author

http://romanticwordsbycynthia.blogspot.com

FOURTH OF JULY ~ A LONG WEEKEND OF CELEBRATION

FOURTH OF JULY ~

A LONG WEEKEND OF CELEBRATION!

What are your plans for this weekend celebrating our country’s independence? Are you taking the time off from reading or writing? Getting together with family and friends and enjoy a picnic, barbeque, fireworks?

Here are a few facts about Independence Day in the U.S.A. you can use as trivia and for fun to test friends and family:

1. On July the 4th, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress. Thereafter, the 13 colonies embarked on the road to freedom as a sovereign nation.

2. Independence Day is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, concerts, baseball games, family reunions, political speeches and ceremonies, and various other public and private events celebrating the history, government, and traditions of the United States.

3. The Declaration of Independence is more than just a piece of paper. It is a symbol of our country's independence and commitment to certain ideas. A symbol is something that stands for something else. Most people can look at a certain little "swoosh" and know that it stands for "Nike." Well, the signers of the Declaration of Independence wanted the citizens of the United States to have a document that spelled out what was important to our leaders and citizens. They wanted us to be able to look at the Declaration of Independence and immediately think of the goals we should always be working for, and about the people who have fought so hard to make these ideas possible. The people who signed the Declaration risked being hanged for treason by the leaders in Great Britain. They had to be very brave to sign something that would be considered a crime! So every time we look at the Declaration of Independence, we should think about all of the effort and ideas that went into the document, and about the courage it took for these people to stand up for what they knew was right -- independence!

4. The word ‘patriotism’ comes from the Latin patria, which means ‘homeland’ or ‘fatherland.’

5. The 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence did not sign at the same time, nor did they sign on July 4, 1776. The official event occurred on August 2, 1776, when 50 men signed it. The names of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were withheld from the public for more than six months to protect the signers. If independence had not been achieved, the treasonable act of the signers would have, by law, resulted in their deaths. Thomas McKean was the last to sign in January, 1777.

6. Oh how we’ve grown: In 1776, about 2.5 million people lived in the newly independent United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2011, 311.7 million Americans will celebrate Independence Day.

7. Congress debated and revised the Declaration, finally approving it on July 4. A day earlier, John Adams had written to his wife Abigail. "The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more."

8. Betsy Ross, according to legend, sewed the first American flag in May or June 1776, as commissioned by the Congressional Committee. June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress, looking to promote national pride and unity, adopted the national flag. “Resolved: that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”

9. Independence Day was first celebrated in Philadelphia on July 8, 1776. The Liberty Bell sounded from the tower of Independence Hall on July 8, 1776, summoning citizens to gather for the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence by Colonel John Nixon.

10. The origin of Uncle Sam probably began in 1812, when Samuel Wilson was a meat packer who provided meat to the US Army. The meat shipments were stamped with the initials, U.S. Someone joked that the initials stood for “Uncle Sam”. This joke eventually led to the idea of Uncle Sam symbolizing the United States government.

11. Thirty places nationwide with “liberty” in their name. Liberty, Missouri (26,232) boasts the highest population of the 30 at 26,232. Iowa has more of these places than any other state at four: Libertyville, New Liberty, North Liberty and West Liberty.

Eleven places have “independence” in their name. The most populous of these is Independence, Missouri, with 113,288 residents.

Five places adopted the name “freedom.” Freedom, California, with 6,000 residents, has the largest population among these.

There is one place named “patriot” — Patriot, Indiana, with a population of 202.

And what could be more fitting than spending the day in a place called “America”? There are five such places in the country, with the most populous being American Fork, Utah, with 21,941 residents.

12. Although not a signer of the Declaration of Independence, James Monroe, the Fifth President of the United States, died on July 4, 1831. Calvin Coolidge, the Thirtieth President, was born on July 4, 1872, and thus was the only President to be born on Independence Day.

13. Independence Day is a national holiday marked by patriotic displays. Similar to other summer-themed events, Independence Day celebrations often take place outdoors. While the Fourth is celebrated across the country, historic cities like Boston and Philadelphia draw huge crowds to their festivities. In Boston, the USS John F. Kennedy often sails into the harbor, while the Boston Pops Orchestra holds a televised concert on the banks of the Charles River, featuring American music and ending with the 1812 Overture. Philadelphia holds its celebrations at Independence Hall, where historic scenes are reenacted and the Declaration of Independence is read. Other interesting parties include the American Indian rodeo and three-day Pow-Wow in Flagstaff, Arizona, and the Lititz, Pennsylvania, candle festival, where hundreds of candles are floated in water and a "Queen of Candles" is chosen.

Hope you enjoy these Thirteen Tidbits. There were more but I kept it intentionally to thirteen for the original states. Sorry, couldn't help it!

If you’re an American, or not, how do you celebrate the Fourth of July? I’ll be celebrating my husband’s birthday (it’s Sunday, the 3^rd) and having a cookout on Monday. Share your thoughts; I’d love to hear them.

Oh, one last thing, let's remember our brave patriots of today, like our forefathers before us, and take a moment to remember all our men and women in uniform and their families who serve our great country today.

Be safe!