Given is Available Now!!!

Be sure to go out and get a few dozen copies for the ones you love. After all, it is Valentine’s Day and Black History Month! Given is my first historical, my first paranormal and my first collaborative effort with another author. I’m thrilled and honored that Loose Id has chosen to feature it in their Black History Month tribute.

Buy Given Today!!!

Contest! Contest! Contest!

Hello peeps! To celebrate the February 9th  release (That’s tomorrow, or for you insomniacs, midnight TONIGHT! ) of our new book, Given, at www.loose-id.com Lisa G. Riley and I have come up with a contest! Anyone 18 and older may enter.  The contest will be open from midnight February 9th until midnight February 28th, and all you have to do to possibly win is:

1.) Name two sets of main characters from any of our books. So that’s eight chatacters total: four of Lisa’s, four of mine.

2.) Purchase Given and send your answer with proof of purchase to contsts4bklvrs09@aol.com.

Here’s what you could win:  three books from each of our backlists (six books total) and a $20 gift certificate from amazon.com.  One winner will get her/his  choice of books, and that includes any of our books: Rock Star, Try a LittleTenderness, Pussy Cat Death Squad, Morning Star, or Santa Baby or from Lisa, At Last, Caught Up in the Rapture,Wicked Delights, Big Spankable A**es, Bound to Ecstasy, Honey Flava or Simply Wicked. Once again, the winner will have her/his choice of any three books from each of us. (Note, all my books except Rock Star will be e-books.)

Check out my website here:http://roslynholcomb.wordpress.com/ And Lisa’s here: www.lisagriley.com

One winner will be randomly selected and notified on March 1st.  Good luck to all!

The Tooth Fairy

I  think I’ve mentioned before that the Luke had to have two of his baby teeth pulled yesterday. The new ones were coming in, and the baby teeth wouldn’t come out. It was an amazingly painless exercise, he played video the whole time and didn’t even notice she’d pulled them. (No, I wasn’t present for this. They don’t allow mamas in the treatment room. I can’t imagine why.) The doctor was immensely accommodating and put his teeth in a little keepsake chest. The receptionist recommended that I get some Sacajawea gold dollars for the Tooth Fairy to leave.

So now, who do you think forgot to play Tooth Fairy last night? Yep, I woke up at 3:00 this morning, screaming at Whit that we forgot to get the teeth. The Luke is a notoriously light sleeper so I sent Whit forth to make the exchange. Amazingly he pulled it off. So all this got me to thinking, where the hell did this whole Tooth Fairy business originate? Well, there are ancient traditions and rituals about teeth, especially given that it was believed that witches could work spells with bits of your body parts. (I remember my mama combing my hair, and then burning the shed hair that was left in the comb.) But the Tooth Fairy as we know it has only been around since 1900, and really wasn’t codified until nearly halfway through the 20th century! Isn’t that interesting?

I think it’s even more fascinating though that there are stem cells in baby teeth, so even though I didn’t save his umbilical cord, we might be able to use them someday if, God forbid, he developed some disease for which stem cells would be useful. I think it’s ironic that ancients feared witches working “magic” with their teeth and hair and these days they actually can.

Oh, and I still want The Rock to come to my house to play Tooth Fairy. I’ve got three Sacajawea dollars left.

Keith Washington: Kissing You

I just want to know why we don’t have music like this anymore?

Interracial? Monoracial? What’s Your Flavor?

I’m trying to get a bead on reader preferences within the African-American romance genre. The poll is anonymous, but don’t hesitate to add comments as you like. You can post anonymously as well.

And here’s a second poll.

What’s In a Name?

Last night I was working on Gabriel’s Redemption. Sometimes a character’s name comes to me out of the blue, but sometimes I have work at it. Initially the female lead was named Sabrina, but I didn’t much care for it, so I changed it to Rhiannon, one of my fave Fleetwood Mac songs. And since there’s always been speculation that the song is about a witch (It’s not Rhiannon was a Welsh queen) it seemed apt for someone who was almost burned as a witch when she was a mere lass. As I wrote the name though, it began to remind me too much of the singer Rihanna. I still liked the name, but decided to change the spelling. This led to thirty minutes of this:

Rhyanon? Rhianon? Rheanon? Rianon? Rhyannon? Rheaonnon? Rheaon? Reanon? Rhyanon? Riannon?

And so on and so forth. Obsessive compulsive much? I had finally picked one, then misspelled it Ryannon, and it is, of course, perfect. As I’ve said many times before, it does what it does. Now if only I could remember that.

2010: I Gotta Work It

After actually meeting my goals of having four books out last year, I thought I’d go for six this year, with two of them already being written. Imagine my surprise when that slavedriver I partnered myself up with reminded me of three other projects I’d forgotten. So, instead of writing four books this year, I might be writing as many as eight. Two of those books are already half-written, but that still leaves me with a lot to do.

I’m already working on Gabriel’s Redemption and that’s going quite well. After that, I’ll probably work on Taken a bit. That story is a sequel to Given, which comes out next week. Then Let’s Do It Again. I can’t project any further into the future than that, though Lisa wants her project to be finished by September. I think that’s reasonable, and after that I’ll start on Dark Star. The little bit of pretty at top is Galen Gering, he’s my male inspiration for Nate in Dark Star.

G.A. Aiken: Dragon Actually

Yesterday I went on a bookstore crawl to Barnes & Noble in the Forum. That place is pretty much the only thing that makes my Babylonian Exile to Atlanta even remotely bearable. I was thrilled to see that they had Shelly Laurenston’s entire backlist, but as I’d already read all of those I was a bit bummed. I’d heard about her Dragon books, but really, not being a fantasy fan I wasn’t much interested. However, since I didn’t find anything else I wanted to read, I decided to get them anyway. Man, am I so glad that I did. This book is phenomenal. And it has my official favorite line from a romance novel:

Annwyl readied herself. The queen may be honest but Annwyl still didn’t take anything she said at face value. “Gift” could leave her covered in blood and eyeless.

Damn, and I thought my family put the fun in dysfunctional.

Daniel Henney

No particular reason, him’s just gorgeous and a friend mentioned him tonight. Yum-O!

Eucerin: More Good Stuff

Here’s something else those of you who are still in possession of your eggs have to look forward to. Perimenopause will drive your skin insane. Suddenly I’ve had a return of my old friend eczema. Something I haven’t had since I was a child, is dying hard with a vengeance. I can’t use anything with perfume in it. Period. Yes, I’ve let to let go of my beloved Amazing Grace body wash, and I love that stuff like damn and whoa. Suddenly Eucerin is my best friend. This oil body wash is unbelievable. For one thing, it’s unscented, which is a must with eczema. More importantly, it leaves my skin supple and moisturized. Normally when I jump out of the shower I have to run to slather on lotion before my skin dries out and starts itching. This stops that in its tracks. Seriously good stuff.

This is so good I carry it in my purse. Yes, I carry this big 14 ounce tube with me everywhere I go. I never know when I’ll start itching, and I can slather this on wherever I am. It doesn’t leave me all greasy and oily, but it takes care of the itch. And y’all know I absolutely CANNOT stand to itch.

I only wish the wash came in a bigger bottle and the cream came in a smaller one, but other than that, I’m officially good to go.