A Nibble...

Got an email from an editor a couple of days ago. She loves the partial I sent her for a novella. It needed a minor change in the premise, and of course I have to finish it before she can make an offer, but...

Stay tuned.

The Greek's Virgin

The Greek's Virgin by Trish Morey



Seduced for revenge, taken for pleasure!

When Alexander Koutoufides seduced the young Saskia Prentice it was for revenge! Now she is back and Alex decides to finish what he started...for pleasure!
Saskia cannot forgive the sexy Greek who nearly stole her innocence, or forget the stormy passion they shared! She knows Alex wants her, his ruthless reputation confirms that he will have her.

The only uncertainty is...how long can she resist him?


The Reviews

4 Stars from RT - "Alex and Saskia are well-written characters and Morey does an excellent job of revealing the intense passion they share in both their arguments and their love scenes, making this story a pleasure from beginning to end." ~ Stephanie Schneider - Romantic Times Magazine

"Another superbly plotted romance from Trish Morey, THE GREEK'S VIRGIN will scorch your senses — it's so passionate. This novel is full of sensuality and angst, a heady mixture that really combines well to deliver a story one can't help but become enthralled by. THE GREEK'S VIRGIN sizzles with sensual heat and is definitely a must read!" ~ Leena Hyat - Author Sound Relations


Join Trish's mailing list to enter her latest contest and win a basket of downunder goodies. Simply email Trish at trish@trishmorey.com and you'll be sent all the details!

The Rest Falls Away

The Rest Falls Away
by Colleen Gleason

Beneath the glitter of dazzling 19th-century London Society lurks a bloodthirsty evil....

Vampires have always lived among them, quietly attacking unsuspecting debutantes and dandified lords as well as hackney drivers and Bond Street milliners. If not for the vampire slayers of the Gardella family, these immortal creatures would have long taken over the world.




In every generation, a Gardella is called to accept the family legacy, and this time, Victoria Gardella Grantworth is chosen, on the eve of her debut, to carry the stake.

But as she moves between the crush of ballrooms and dangerous, moonlit streets, Victoria's heart is torn between London's most eligible bachelor, the Marquess of Rockley, and her enigmatic ally, Sebastian Vioget.

And when she comes face to face with the most powerful vampire in history, Victoria must ultimately make the choice between duty and love.

What Others Are Saying...

"Sophisticated, sexy, surprising! With its vampire lore and Regency graces, this book grabs you and holds you tight till the very last page!"
--J R Ward, NYT best-selling author of Lover Awakened

"A promising, enthusiastic beginning to a new paranormal historical series, Gleason's major label debut follows the adventures of a conflicted young vampire hunter in Regency England...Gleason quickly establishes an alluring world all her own. Her Buffyesque lead (Gleason has acknowledged the inspiration) is similarly afflicted, but the change of setting makes an intriguing, witty and addictive twist."
--Publishers Weekly

The Rest Falls Away trailer

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Happy New Year

Most of the blog posts I've seen the last couple of days have been about making resolutions. I'm not doing that this year. I've set some goals--to complete the rewrite of Last Breath and write the sequel, and to find a new source of income--but that's pretty much it. Yes, I have habits I need to break, weight I need to lose, etc., but I find that if I make those into New Year's resolutions, then I feel like I've failed when I eat that first bite of chocolate or yield to temptation and buy that first Dr. Pepper, and I give up. So this year it's going to be more about daily discipline and less about all or nothing.

To that end, my goals include writing 3 pages per day, every day, or 90 pages per month. Hmmm, that doesn't sound like much. But hopefully I'll have days when I write a lot more, but no days where I write less. And I'm checking into franchises and other ways of earning an income way out in the boondocks where jobs are scarce and rarely pay more than $6 an hour.

I've already accomplished one goal I'd set: to write a will. I've put it off for years, but I decided it was time.

What are your goals for 2007?

Here's another list of things you probably didn't know about me (and probably didn't really want to know, either. :) . The things I've done are in bold

1. Used real snow to make/eat a snow cone -- Yes, and snow ice cream as well. It was my favorite thing about living in New York

2. Slept in you car while parked at the side of the road--and in truck stop parking lots

3. Didn't go to bed until 4 in the morning on New Year's Day --actually, I do this quite often when I'm writing.

4. Dyed an Easter egg, using all the colors available

5. Catch a scent on the air that reminded you of something from your childhood (graham crackers really cause a sense of deja vu. my grandmother's pantry always smelled like that)

6. Taken a picture of the sky because it was a remarkable shade of blue that day--or because the cloud formations were really cool, or there was a rainbow, or...

7. Caught a fish and cleaned it yourself, then cooked it for dinner

8. Wished you bought two pairs of your favorite shoes -- many times. One of these days I'll learn to just go ahead and buy two or three pairs

9. Made a list like this

10. Taken art lessons

11. Taken ballet lessons

12. Driven a really scary stretch of road--Cameron Pass in Colorado back in the 70's. Oh. My. God. Sheer Terror.

13. Read a book from cover to cover in one sitting -- Oh yeah. Several times

14. Written a letter to your Congressman

15. Changed political parties

16. Made a boat yourself, and sailed in it

17. Worn mismatched shoes by accident

18. Been so happy you wanted to burst into song

19. Watched Barney, as an adult, without becoming annoyed

20. Thought you could walk to Sesame Street

22. Came up with a new recipe

23. Snorkeled or dived a coral reef

24. Been in a shark cage

25. Been told that a character in a Nora Roberts book reminded a friend of you

26. Howled in the car with your kids

27. Loved someone so much your heart hurt--every single day

28. Painted a house--more times than I want to think about.

29. Painted a picture in the style of a famous painter

30. Seen the Mona Lisa

31. Seen the Hope Diamond

32. Been the president of the PTA

33. Sat on Santa's lap...as an adult

34. Lost your spouse

35. Driven a race car--I wanted to, but dh wouldn't let me touch his hobby stock car. :(

36. Eaten fried okra--Love it!

37. Climbed Mt. Everest

38. Seen Mt. Rushmore

39. Saved a baby bird that had fallen from its nest

40. Tried a food you always thought was gross and discovered you loved it -- asparagus, avacados, tuna cassarole

41. Been to Hawaii--spent 2 weeks there. Loved it, wanted to stay.

42. Been to Africa

42. Had an "old-time" picture taken with your family, your friends or alone -

43. Made good friends via the Internet -- Most of my friends are online ones

44. Met a movie star--several. Too many to list, actually. Plus a number of country singers. Got to spend about 20 minutes backstage with Garth Brooks about 14 years ago.

45. Seen the Queen of England in person

46. Indulged in a tinsel fight while decorating the Christmas tree

47. Attended a family reunion

48. Couldn't turn out the lights for the night after reading a Stephen King nove

49. Gone on a cruise

50. Can you remember where you where the day the Challenger exploded? -- Absolutely. I was leading chapel services for a small school. Then had to deal with the shocked kids afterward.

Pay it Forward

I know Christmas is the season of miracles, but today I got one that floored me. I've been fretting about how I was going to pay for groceries this week after shelling out our last $400 for a propane tank and propane. With the kids all coming home for Christmas, as well as my two young grandsons, I knew we had to have heat and hot water for showers. The dh and I can get along fine without the heat, but not the kids. They aren't used to living with the cold. But the youngest comes home today and she requires a special diet due to stomach troubles, so I needed to be able to buy things she can eat.

I've prayed and prayed the last few days. Stress made my stomach burn. Still, when I went to bed last night nothing had changed. It looked like I would be picking the youngest up at the airport and not able to buy her anything to eat on the way home.

I woke up this morning to an email from a friend, with a link to Paypal. There she had sent a Christmas gift, one that will let me buy food for the youngest plus enough to get the grownups through Christmas. And I know something else will come up by then to get us through, a concrete job or a house remodel or something.

And when we get back to having money coming in, I'll pay it forward by helping out someone else who's running short.

Thanks, friend. You know who you are. You'll always have a special place in my heart and prayers.

For everyone else, if you've been blessed this year, pay it forward and help someone else. Look at your own family, first. Do you have a brother or sister, nieces or nephews, who are struggling? What about your parents? Your kids? Even a $20 bill could buy them a tank of gas or a turkey or something to put in their kids' stockings. What about that struggling older couple down the street? Could they use a bag of groceries or a stack of firewood?

If you don't know anyone who needs help, check with your local nursing home. There are always old people or mentally handicapped people there who don't have visitors and might not get anything for Christmas. Take a bag of gifts and drop them off with a nurse for her to hand out. Pick an Angel from the Angel tree and go shopping. Read the ads on Craigslist in your area to see who is begging for toys for their kids and help them out.

There are so many ways to be a blessing. Just look around. While I haven't had much money this season, I have dug my change out to put in the buckets for Toys for Tots and Salvation Army. I've also been Freecycling like crazy--cleaning out no longer used clothing and things and passing them along--free--to whoever can make use of them. I've called people I haven't heard from in a while to check on them. I've been extra nice to the harried clerks in the stores, offering them a smile to help make their day a little brighter.

And you know what? I feel better every time I pay it forward just a little bit.

Merry Christmas!!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

Looking forward to a great Christmas this year. All four kids will be here, as well as our two grandsons. I had fun buying presents for everyone, did most of my shopping--stress-free--online, and I've finished decorating the tree and setting up the Christmas village on the buffet. I still have to hang the garland around the windows, wrap the stairway banister and the walkway rails with garland and lights, add the bows, and hang the mini-decorations along the banister. Then it's on to the outside. We're saving the outside for next week when temps are supposed to be back up in the 60's. (The pic is from last Christmas)

I have 2 things I'm making that have turned out to be much more work than I'd planned, so I hope I get them finished in time.

Now I just pray that the kids will get along while they're all here. :)

What do you have left to do before Christmas? Are you looking forward to the holidays, or dreading them? I have to admit, I'm looking forward to them more than usual and one of the reasons is that I'm getting a laptop for Christmas. Actually, I'm getting it next week. Dh finally decided to agree that I really, really need one, and that my writing has reached a point where publication is a real possibility, so he sees it as an investment in my future, not as a luxury. Yay!!

Oh, and did I mention that I'm going to be paying $30 a month for that laptop, probably for the next 5 years? LOL.

Update

Well, I got my Golden Heart entry finished and sent in on time...but. The danged file on the CD wouldn't open, so I've just finished printing out a hard copy and I'm on my way to the post office to send it to RWA.

Monday I start in on the revisions. I need to add about 100 pages to bring it up to Mainstream length, though it would work for Intrigue with just about another 5000 words added--words sorely needed to fill a couple of plot holes. So I might do that first. But I think this book has real potential and I don't want to sell it short. So I'll be doing the agent query thing over the next few weeks, too. There are a couple of big contests besides RWA that I want to enter it in as well.

It feels really good to know I can write a book in the midst of all kinds of chaos, while doing backbreaking, mind-numbing labor, and I can make (barely) a deadline no matter what. I'll never again be able to tell myself I don't have time to write. The time is always there. It's just a matter of how we use it.

I also entered a photo of my dog, Blue, in a photo contest. You can rate it at http://photocontest.shutterfly.com/action/photocontest/vote?entry=167948 We could use the prize money, and the dogs could use the dog house since they got kicked outside for peeing on my rug and ruining my hardwood floors. Well, okay, they sleep in the enclosed back porch, but still. :)

We finished the house renovation as well. Hopefully the dh's uncle will be able to sell it quickly now that it's been updated and repaired. It looks like a totally different house. I'm still impressed with what all the dh can do. The tile floor looks fantastic, the kitchen looks so much better with new countertops and a new wall. The patio looks so inviting, with half walls around it just the right height to sit on or to line with plants. The termite damage to the carport area is all gone and replaced with new wood. I even mowed the yard and put mulch in the flower beds.
So I have two reasons to celebrate. Book finished, house finished.

Oh, and one more celebration coming up tomorrow. Our 34th wedding anniversary.

Important Info Every Writer Should Read

Do you have a will? Does it address what happens to your books, your short stories, your works-in-progress, your unpublished manuscripts, poems, songs, etc.? If not, click the link above, download the .pdf file, and get it done!

Progress Update

Just need another 65 pages to get to the GH target length for this book, but it's looking like I'm going to have to settle for a little less. It's been a wild and exhausting 5 weeks, with many distractions and important things vying for my attention. But I want to enter, so I've spent many a late night/early morning working around the other things in my life. But I'm so excited about this book. It feels "right" you know? Like when you see that perfect guy and you suddenly know, without even being introduced, that he's "the one." That really happened to me when I first saw the dh. I knew he was the one I was going to marry. It never even occurred to me that he might be something other than what I saw--a good looking man with laughing blue eyes and an easy, little boy grin. We'll celebrate our 34th anniversary Dec. 7th.

And this book will sell. I know it will. But sending it off to the GH won't be the end. I need to expand it by another 30,000 words, expand and develop some scenes, add a subplot. That's my goal for December and maybe January (lots of other things that need to be done between now and Christmas.) But I'm going to go out on a limb and send out some agent queries when I get within 10,000 words of the end.

The remodeling job should be finished by the end of next week, so once that's behind me, it's full speed ahead on the writing. Can't wait!

What are you thankful for?

Too often we get caught up in our problems and woes and forget to give thanks for the good things in our lives. The last few months have been hard ones. Work has been slow and jobs few and far between, our oldest daughter is still battling the deep vein thrombosis problem caused by the birth control patch, one of our dogs was nearly killed by a pack of wild dogs, and my mother ended up in ICU with pneumococcal meningitis.

So what am I thankful for? The remodeling job that has provided a steady income for the last 4 weeks, that my daughter is still with us, as is the dog, and my mother improved rapidly once diagnosed and is now back home. I'm thankful I have four beautiful, smart, witty children, two beautiful and smart and loving grandsons, a husband who loves me--and who can do just about anything he sets his hand to--my four dogs who love so unconditionally, my friends who pick me up when I'm down, and most of all I'm thankful that God never gave up on me.

Happy Thanksgiving. Do a random act of kindness for someone you don't know this week, and don't tell anyone you did it.

Update on mom

Shortly after I posted about mom's car being repossessed, I got a call from my sister telling me that mom was in the hospital, in ICU. At first they thought she'd had a stroke, but it turned out she had meningitis. After 24 hours of touch and go, she's responding to the medication, can now say yes and no--but nothing else that makes any sense. She has pneumococal (sp?) meningitis, very dangerous, especially for the elderly. Started as an ear infection and progressed within a few hours to a life-threatening illness.

Hug your moms and check to see if she has a fever. If she does, take her to the doc!

Super Nitwits

My mother is 77 years old, living on social security and a small pension. She was one payment behind on her note to GMAC, with another soon to be due. As she was getting ready to leave for an overseas mission trip sponsored by her church, she called GMAC to explain the situation and tell them she was leaving a check with my sister (who she lives with) to be mailed when her social security check was auto-deposited to her bank account. GMAC assured her that was fine, and mom left on her missions trip thinking everything was taken care of.

She arrived back at my sister's house 10 days later to find that her car had been repossessed the day after she'd left.

There is more than one nitwit in this situation. By far the biggest is GMAC, who lied to an old lady and repossessed a car she'd faithfully made payments on for 2 years (in spite of the fact that she'd been totally taken advantage of by the car dealer and things were slipped into the contract that she'd specifically said she didn't want, like the extended warranty) and who used information she gave them (date of her trip) to sneak in like thieves to take the car away.

The second, and barely lesser nitwit, is my sister. Why didn't she just make the payment for our mother and let her repay her when she got home? The whole situation could have, and should have been avoided. I mean, geez, it's not like my mom never does anything for her. She sold her house and gave my sister $100,000 to finish building their new house. (bye-bye inheritance). Mom babysits my sister's grandkids so she doesn't have to. She helps out at the church my sister and her husband pastor, cooks, cleans. So my sister could have stepped out of her ingrained selfishness for once and helped out, don't you think?

Mom never even told me she was behind. I'd have sent her the money, even if it meant being temporarily behind on my own bills. I have no house note or car notes, so nothing would have been repossessed if I was late.

Now mom has to either come up with $13,000 to get her car back, pay the difference between the note and what they get for the car at auction (likely around $9000) and not get her car back, or she's going to have to declare bancruptcy. I can picture my dad up in heaven, pulling his hair out.

Someone should give GMAC a clue gun so they can shoot themselves. Which is better? Waiting a few days to get their payment, or now losing most of the money? Maybe being a little more humane would win them more customers at a time when Americans are lapping up foreign cars and turning their noses up at the Chevy gas hogs. Ya think?

Updates

Blue is much, much better, though his neck is swelling a bit again. Guess there's still some infection in there, so I'm starting him on another round of antibiotics and more rinsing with hydrogen peroxide (a risky proposition for the person applying the peroxide.) But he's back to playing Frisbee and barking at anything that moves.

As for writing, I'm on page 166 of the book I'm trying to finish in time to enter it in the GH. In spite of working 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, the last several weekends taken up by family or doggie responsibilities, I'm keeping to my 5 pages per day most days. I've crashed and burned a few nights and gone to bed without pages completed, but not too often. I've started taking my Alphasmart to work with me, writing 2 pages on the way there and another 2 on the way home. That way, at least, I only have to coax one page from my overtaxed brain.

And speaking of...I hear my bed calling.

More Nitwits and a Blue Update

More Nitwits: the people who base their political choices on a candidate's fiction writings. Come on, do we not realize there is a difference between fiction and reality? The stuff I write in my books is not necessarily something I would do in real life. That's why it's called fiction, people. In order to have a compelling story, you have to engage your characters in situations that are sometimes larger than life. Not to mention the fact that in today's market, it had better either have lots of sex, or be a Christian story, to get published at all. Let's make the choices based on who has the right vision for our country's future.

As for Blue, he's still better but the side of his neck is very swollen. I can't get him to the vet without tranquilizers, and I can't get the tranquilizers without taking him to the vet. I don't know what to do at this point. I'm giving him some Oxytetracycline I had here from when a calf had scours, so I'm hoping that will clear up the problem. I still can't let him outside, though, unless I'm with him. The dogs are all back. Yesterday they were attacking the neighbor's Shetland pony. The pony was kicking them, so I'm hoping at least one of the dogs got a good head kick.

Doesn't the stupid neighbor realize one of her little boys is very likely to be the next victim?

Blue update

Just a quick update. Blue is moving very slowly, holding his neck still, barely turning his head. Looks like the dogs went for his throat mostly. Going to the vet today for tranquilizers so I can take him in to be checked.

One good thing out of all of this is that the neighbor across the street has restrained his pit bull and is building a fence to keep him in. The neighbors next door seem to have gotten rid of most of the other dogs. Hopefully they took them to the pound. Since they have small children, I think possibly this incident might have prevented a worse tragedy in the future.

Control Your Dogs, People!

My dog Blue was attacked by a pack of dogs tonight, including a pit bull (On our own property). One on one, he could have whipped them, but there were 6 or 7 of them. He's hurt, neck torn, dripping blood but not gushing. He won't let me touch any part of him other than the top of his head. There are no vets open around here. He's finally settled down on a pillow next to my desk and he's moaning. It's tearing my heart out.

I'm shaking with fury at the neighbors who refuse to do anything about this pack of dogs that hang around their house. My dh told them that the next time one of their dogs puts just one paw on our property, it was dead. No more warnings. Dh is sitting with the shotgun at his side right now. I hate hurting animals, and so does the dh. But this bunch is running as a pack and now we've seen what they're capable of. The neighbors have three little boys. Is it going to take one of those children being maimed or killed before they wake up? I hope to God not.

I don't know what to do for Blue. If I had valium, I'd probably slip him one and try to see how badly he's injured. He's so touchy I don't know if I could even get him into the car and to the vet's office. He nearly attacked the dh just for moving his pillow. But dear God, I hate listening to him moan in pain.

And we have to work tomorrow. How can I go off and leave him? He'll have to stay in the house, because I can't leave him outside until those dogs are gone.

Somedays it just doesn't pay to get up

For Old Times' Sake

The dh and I went to the State Fair today for a trip down memory lane. Our second date 35 years ago was an all day and half the night trip to the fair. In 1971 we spent 15 hours at the fair, rode rides off and on all day, ate ourselves silly, played the Midway games, and made out beside the lake. All in all, we spent $100 that day.

Today it costs $13 per ticket just to get in, $10 to park, a hamburger/fries/coke costs $11. We didn't buy anything but lunch. No way were we going to spend $10 for a $2 box of salt water taffy or $4 for a 6 oz. beer. I missed out on the fried Oreos, fried Mac and cheese, cotton candy, etc. Good thing, since I'm still on a diet. But we had a great time looking at the cars (have you seen Saturn's new convertible? Gorgeous!), going through the Creative Arts building, watching the Frisbie dog show, and just walking around holding hands, being together.

I love my dh. He's a really good man. And he's a prince for taking me back down memory lane.

Nitwit of the Month!

I'm not a fan of politicians just on general principle. Just for example--Foley. There's a problem child if there ever was one.

But this guy, Fred Head (Oh, what I could do with that last name, but I'll refrain!), takes the cake for sheer stupidity and gall. He's running for Comptroller in Texas. His campaign is all about how he's such a good Christian family man, and how his opponent is a porn writer.

HUH???? Susan Combs wrote a book for Kismet Romance that was published in 2000. First off, Kismet didn't publish porn. Yeah, there was a love scene in there, but it was pretty damned tame compared to today's books. But Mr. High and Mighty has decided it's his place to judge (even though the Bible says judge not that ye be not judged) Susan Combs--publicly--for achieving something so many of us would love to achieve.

As if the above isn't enough to get Mr. Head (his mother really should have named him Richard) named as Nitwit of the Month, he has taken this stand in Texas--home of Romance Writers of America. Duh--what a NitWit.

Not only that, he copied pages (on a copier, poorly done at that) of Susan's book and posted them on his website. Go take a look. (click on the blog title) or go to the page at http://www.votefredhead.com/book.html I think that's a violation of copyright laws, isn't it?

Do we really want a nitwit like this controlling our money in Texas? I don't THINK so. I'm voting for Susan Combs.

(This is a personal opinion post and is not instigated by anyone other than myself.)

This is what it's all about...

Writing, I mean. A writer on one of my favorite groups posted an inspirational quote the other day that really hit home. It said : "Indian legend states that a story seeks a writer and if it finds her worthy, it will settle on her heart. The author's gift is to give that story life."

Can I just say "Wow!" My story is about a group of Native American warriors who have special gifts--powers--that help them fight against men who are trying to destroy this country and others. The story came, like many do, as I settled down to sleep. It came so strongly that I had to get up and turn the computer back on so I could get the basic idea down. Since then, it's gotten me up several more times when snatches of dialogue or a new scene started rolling through my mind.

I've written more the last 19 days than I have in the last six months. I know where this story is going, and I just wish I had more time in the day so I could get there faster.

And the muse isn't satisfied with giving me ideas for this story. I already have the basic story ideas down for another 4 books after this one.