AN IMAGINATION FIRED BY MYTHICAL WORLDS

Early morning coffee

When I was a kid I loved stories set around myths. I don’t know how many books I've read in my lifetime on various pantheons of gods and goddesses. I loved the worlds set around them. Magic and lore. 

I've always loved Boris Vallejo's work.

My imagination was always fired by stories of mythical animals and things like the mythical world of fairies and elves of the Celtic lore. I collected pictures or checked books out of the library and drew or painted some of the pictures or pictures based on what I read from my imagination from these stories.

Much of my artwork, through my teen years, involved women warriors with various magical creatures, some not from this world but from portals opening into alternate worlds. I made up a lot of stories about such worlds. To me finding and taming a magical creature always held a special appeal. Hagrit (from Harry Potter) and I are kindred spirits. Probably because I had a close affinity to animals to begin with and just imagine one with magic or telepathy (which all my imagined creatures had). Lol!

Dragons have always held special place in my heart. I love them. I have a dragon mascot sitting on my computer in my office. I have posters too. I’m afraid I was highly incensed with the perception of dragons being something that brave knights killed. 

Uh, no. 

To me dragons were majestic and honorable. It wasn't until I was well into adulthood that a friend, who was involved with astrology and in the process of learning all about the Chinese end of things, told me I was a dragon. 

Hmm, okay, makes sense.

I was visiting my brother over the weekend and I talk about stories I think of or ideas—very normal for me because I always told the *little kids* stories as we grew up. They were my captive audience. They cheered ohh and aahhed and begged for more.

My brother reminded me of a series of stories I made up and told to them about shifters like wolves and cougars, cats with magical powers, and my mighty dragon warriors. You know, I’d forgotten much of it until he reminded me of one his favorite stories. My other two brothers were there and reminded me of my stories of Merlin, King Arthur and the round table and the very unique knights.

Women warriors also figured prominently in these tales. It was fun listening to them recount various stories I told.

My son was all round eyed. He told them of the stories I’d tell him when he was three onward about Lobo the wolf. Lobo was the protector of Jake in all the stories and adventures. Of course, my son found all sorts of trouble and hairy situations to get into when he was little and I wished I had a Lobo to watch over him. Lobo was loosely based on my own half Husky/wolf, Micah. But unlike Micah, Lobo was telepathic. Jake shared with them a "really cool" story idea I had been talking about to him the past few months and this time he added elements to the story. Will I write it? I’m in the process of another one right now, but I do have this one and the world outlined, so yes, I probably will soon.

• Don't you love imagination? So what fires your imagination?

 

Luis Royo is another favorite of mine and of course it's a woman warrior.

ONE NIGHT ONLY—WHAT'S YOUR WISH?

My guest is Caridad Piñeiro. She's a romance author but still quite the eclectic writer in subject matter. Everything from vampires, super strength heroes, a touch of  sci-fi, and suspense. All with a strong heartbeat of romance and engaging stories. 

Her topic is a newer area of writing, erotic romance, and how create a good story to hang a hot romance to. Erotic romance is more than sex scenes. There has to be an engaging story. Something that touches fantasies—and haven't we all had them? That moment we wish we could have acted on?

When I was first approached about participating in the ONE NIGHT ONLY anthology, I really wasn't sure what to write about.

The theme was one special night, just one, and I went over idea after idea in my head until the story came to me in a blast of memories.

There I was back at my alma mater, Villanova, and there were the ROTC men and women in their dress uniforms at a formal.  They all looked so beautiful and amazing and I knew then that my hero had to be a just graduated Marine who will soon be leaving.

I wanted to shake things up a little so I decided that the heroine had to be someone that the hero, Jase Hart, might consider off limits.  Who might that be?  His best friend’s slightly older sister, Nickie de Salvo.

I had so much fun getting them together and giving them a very special and sexy night on the day of a graduation party of Jase and Nickie’s brother Tommy.  I won’t say more, only that the story is emotional and sexy.

It’s also been awesome working with my fellow anthology members, Stephanie Julian, Raven Morris and Willow James!  They've all had such great ideas about the theme for the stories and for all the fun memes and teasers we've been sharing for the anthology.

I hope you’ll take a moment to check out our anthology and the four naughty novellas that are sure to have you snuggling beneath the covers to finish the book in one sitting!

• If you had to write, or live, a story about one special night or day, what would you choose? It doesn't have to be erotic or even romance.

Would you choose sitting on a mountain as the sun goes down? A night in Vegas, a show on Broadway, a jungle safari? Ballooning at sunrise? Snorkling? An adventure on the USS Enterprise?  

The Genie is present what is your wish?

                                                                                                                          

BUY: AMAZON, B&N, ALL ROMANCE

He has just one night to prove to her that anything is possible . . .

Jason Hart, Jase to his friends, has just graduated college and earned his commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Marine Corps. It's the night of the graduation party and she'll be there. His best friend's slightly older sister, Nickie. Nickie is the only woman he's really wanted for a long time. He has just one night to make it happen.

She has just one night before the man of her dreams leaves, maybe forever, but can she find the courage to take a chance . . .

Nicole de Salvo has been in love - and lust - for her little brother's best friend for years. For years she's watched from afar and done nothing about her attraction for Jason Hart only now their time together is almost at an end. On their last night together will she find the courage to do something about her feelings, or will she live with regret for the rest of her life?

                                                                                                                           



Caridad Pineiro is the NY Times and USA Today bestselling author of paranormal romance and romantic suspense. Caridad is a Jersey Girl who just wants to write, travel, and spend more time with family and friends. Caridad is the author of over 40 novels/novellas. You can find Caridad: Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, Website

MONDAY'S MUSINGS--SINGING UP THE SUN

One of my favorite things to of a morning is sit outside with a cup of coffee and watch my world brighten as the sun rises. It centers me and fills me with peace and contentment. I can face my day much better fortified by morning sun and birdsong. 

Granted, sometimes the sun is rising before I do, but most mornings I watch the ribbons of sunlight embrace my world to the accompaniment of hundreds of birds. My flying flowers. They sing up the sun, you know. You hear the liquid warble of the Red Wing Blackbirds, the raucous cry of the crows, the inquisitive queedle-queedle of Blue Jays calling out, and the piercing call of various hawks looking for breakfast. I have a front row seat. There's nothing like watching a hawk drop like stone in the field across the way and the magnificent play of wings as they back swing stretching their talons out to grab their breakfast--mostly mice, unwary squirrels on the ground, and the occasional rabbit. We have a series of tall hills surrounding that field and if you look closely you can see their nest high up in one the oaks, pines, or even woven in a bare lightening struck tree.

In the yard I have several feeders. You'll hear the soft coo of the doves long before they fly in to eat. Proper little puffs of gray wandering under the feeders picking up sunflower seeds and chortling to each other. Bright flashes of yellow finches and those of softer yellow green of the females, a few pairs of rosy finches. Lots of Cardinals. I have a few large red headed woodpeckers that feed early morning and again in the afternoon. They eat sunflower seeds but I also put out peanuts for them and the Jays. Since the spring has been very cool I've kept the suet out for all. It seems they all have their assigned feeding times.

Blue Jay nest & eggs. wiki commons

When the Blue Jays decide to descend on the feeders everyone else leaves. Blue Jays don't like to share. They love oak trees, acorns are one their favorite foods (or at my house, cat food and dog food), and although they usually choose pines and cedar for nests, I discovered I have a pair nesting in the big oak out front. I spotted the tell tale signs of sticks, twigs, and this pair also grabbed strips of bright blue and yellow from our dog food bags to weave in. I've watched the male bring food to his mate sitting on the nest. Today, they both are flying to the nest and feeding the babies that just hatched. 

I love Mockingbirds and we have two very fine musicians on either end of the yard. One is nesting near my bedroom window and I love to listen to him sing throughout the day.

There's a lot of work ongoing at the McKye domicile. I sometimes wonder if we'll
ever catch up. We've been doing quite a bit of clearing of tree brush from the three trees we had to cut down. The pile was much larger than this before Dan went to work on it. We've also cleared a lot of deadwood piles from the tornado downed trees.

I've also been planting tomatoes and other veggies as well as flowers. My Iris and roses are going to be blooming together--which is rare. Rosebuds should be opening in the next couple of days. My cats seem to love the mulch and so it often looks like I'm planting cats as well. I love the look of the mulch, too, but I'm going to have to move some of it and lay down a black weed mat fit them around the existing plants to keep some of the persistent weeds from growing through the mulch.  Sigh...that's another job.







I've been doing a little bit of planting everyday. Going easy on the shoulder and on my work breaks I get outside in the sun and plant something. I'm like a sunflower soaking up the sunlight.






So what have you been doing this spring? Planting? Or just enjoying the sun?

                         

Winners of Carolyn Brown's e-books Liza :The Blue-Ribbon Jalapeno Society, and  Tina: The Red Hot Chili Cook-Off. Send me your email and I'll forward it to Carolyn who will gift you from Amazon.