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Review: Golden

Don’t forget the HautTotes giveaway!

Ashia of The Romance Reviews gives Golden 5 stars!

Within 70-odd pages, Joely Sue Burkhart penned a powerful and captivating story of love and pain set in an Emperor’s court…Tension–sexual and otherwise–pervaded almost every page in the book. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. Though the Emperor succumbed to Jin’s charms early on in the book, the tension of Jin’s situation at the palace, being the lowliest concubine, ratcheted up with every assassination attempt.

More than a romance, it is the story of a woman’s journey to serve the lord of her heart and to claim a place by his side, no matter the cost.

Thank you so much, Ashia!

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Golden Release Giveaway

Celebrating Golden’s release from Carina Press tomorrow, I’m giving away this gorgeous tote from HautTotes (edited to note:  the size will be the larger full-size tote not the mini)!

To Enter:  comment on this post and tell me your favorite Asian movie.  Red Cliff?  Curse of the Golden Flower?  Legend of the Black Scorpion?  Or simply throw your name in the hat.  Anyone on the planet can enter — I’ll ship internationally.  I do not retain your name or address after the giveaway is over.

Optional:  for more chances to win, review or rate Golden on any online site (Amazon, GoodReads, your blog, etc.) and send me the link.  Each link will gain another entry in the giveaway.

This giveaway will remain open until midnight (CST) Sept. 10th.  If I’m unable to contact the winner after 48 hours, I’ll pick another name.

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Middle Monster Becomes a Mama

Last weekend, Middle Monster found a huge gorgeous moth in the back yard with damaged wings.  I’m pretty sure it was this Polyphemus Moth — freaking big enough to creep her out when it hopped around.  But she couldn’t leave the poor thing outside to get eaten, so she scooped it up in a plastic bowl (at least it wasn’t my good Tupperware this time). 

She put lots of grass and flowers and leaves in the bowl, determined to “feed” and “water” it.  The next morning, she came in and told me the butterfly was “pooping” in the bowl.

Ummm, do butterflies poop?  Anyway, this moth was not pooping.  In fact, it was laying eggs.  Absolutely thrilled, Middle started moving the tiny eggs into another plastic container for safe keeping.  Before Mama Moth died, she laid at least 20 or so eggs, and I’m pretty sure Middle found each and every one of them.

We had a somber burial for the poor damaged moth.

All this week, Middle rushed home from school to check her eggs.  Now I had no idea if the things would actually hatch or not, especially with all her handling and moving.  I also had no idea how long they’d actually take to hatch.  But when she came screaming into the house tonight after school, I knew the miracle had happened.

Middle Monster is now the proud mama of three tiny little caterpillars.  They’re about 1 cm long.  She immediately went racing about the yard gathering every green leaf she could find (it’s been very dry and hot this summer, so not as easy as you’d think) to “feed” her babies.

If they all hatch, I’m going to encourage her to release most of them.  I have no idea if we can feed and grow a caterpillar into a moth, but she’s determined to try!  What a nice little science experiment, too.

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Review: Golden

Another review for Golden, this one from The Romanceaholic.  While the overall rating reflects her unease with certain elements of the historical era itself, she still has some wonderful things to say about the story:

Richly detailed, vivid, and incredibly erotic, they absolutely stole my breath. And combined with the various intrigues and political machinations of the various members of the royal court, this story was incredibly gripping and kept me glued to the pages from the first page right through the last. …..  It was beautifully well-written, incredibly interesting, and frankly pretty danged hot.

Thanks for giving the Emperor and Jin a shot!

Golden will be available from Carina Press next week!

 

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Review: Golden

A Buckeye Girl Reads says:

Golden is one of those rare novellas that is powerful from start to finish and leaves you thinking about it long after you’ve finished reading it. … I loved that this book didn’t sugar coat anything. I had this novella read in about an hour-it was just that good. I’m still not sure how to describe how powerful this read was for me, and I’m still wondering why it affected me the way it did.

Read her whole review here.  I’ll be on her blog later this week answering some questions and commenters will have a chance to win an early copy of Golden!

Thank you so much, Buckeye Girl!

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RBW Week 8

Romance Biggest Winner

I’m still up nearly 2 pounds from my low weight, although I am heading back in the right direction this week with a .24% loss. 

It’s incredibly frustrating.  In the past, this kind of “unfair” gain would have derailed me.  If I’m dieting and following my plan, I “deserve” a loss.  Right?

Wrong.  Well, yeah, sure, I’d love a loss.  But a woman’s body can be just as fickle as the scale.  I’m eating the right things and making good choices, but there’s more I could be doing.  I need to return to my exercise program.  Excuses, like getting the monsters back to school, making up some time during the day for work (because I have to pick Princess up everyday since we don’t have bus service this year) instead of working out, Revision Xibalba instead of working out…

I have to make exercise a priority or it won’t happen.  So that is my number one goal this week:  return to exercise in some shape or form.  Find the time, plan the time, and do it.

I can’t allow lack of progress on the scale to derail me.  Someone said on the WW forums the other day:  Just because you trip on one step doesn’t mean you throw yourself headlong down the stairs.  I’m only going to succeed long term if I learn how to deal with these scale droughts.  It’s just a number.  A meaningless number.  If I’m eating healthy and moving my body, then I just have to be patient.

A new food I’ve eaten this week is a quick and easy sort of “peach crumble” that’s really healthy.  Peaches are in full season here and readily available.  I dice up a nice peach or two (if they’re small) in a bowl (no need to peel unless you don’t like the skin), sprinkle with a little Splenda and cinnamon (or nutmeg), and microwave for about 60 seconds.  If I need to get a healthy oil in to meet the WW guidelines, I add a little coconut oil to the warm fruit.  Then I sprinkle old-fashioned oats on top (1/4 c = 2 pts), stir, and optionally heat a few more seconds.   It’s not quite as decadent as real peach crumble but it’s very good, warm and sweet and fruity.

Aside:  WW doesn’t really count coconut oil for the healthy guideline – the oil should be pourable.  But coconut oil is my go-to miracle cure for all sorts of things.  It’s anti-microbal and anti-viral!  (When I got a painful split in the corner of my mouth, I tried everything to heal it and it just got worse and worse.  Started putting coconut oil on it twice a day and it healed in a few days.)  Plus it tastes great and is very, very satisfying.  I decided to count it for myself as a healthy oil but I only use it at most once a day.  Really more like 2-3 times a week.

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Good News Monday

Revision Xibalba for THE BLOODGATE WARRIOR is DONE!!

I struggled to find time over the weekend to write the one new scene with a family dinner and then laundry and errands yesterday.  Plus a few things still nagged at me that weren’t quite right, so I did another read-thru and tweaked a few plot elements.  Finally, I made my way to the next-to-last scene that I needed to add, but it was 10:30 p.m. last night.  With monsters going to school and the Evil Day Job, I just couldn’t stay up.

So I got up Dark & Early this morning and finished that new scene.  I only needed a couple of hundred words to finish it, and then smoothed that last scene to make sense. 

Whew, I’m exhausted yet very happy with how this story came out.  It’s a nice meaty (almost) 42K smoldering romp steeped in Maya mythology and Guatemalan history, including a pyramid sacrifice hot enough to hopefully sear off a few eyebrows.

I already contacted a few people who expressed interest in beta reading this story, but if you’re interested and didn’t get an email from me this morning, drop me a note.

Do you have any good news to share today?

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Revision Xibalba

No Friday Snippet or zombies this week — I’ve been deep in Revision Xibalba, otherwise known as Revision Hell.

Okay, not hell, not really.  Because it’s not been as bad as I feared, not at all.  Of course I’m just now getting to the last 26 pages where I think I need the most work, but the rest was pretty good. 

I don’t want to jinx myself but I really love this story.  There are parts that I have no memory of writing, and I’m shocked, surprised, and thrilled that I wrote it, because it’s so good.  Then I think, wait a minute, I’m not supposed to think that.  Am I?

But it is.  There’s just something sparkling and intense about these characters.  Maybe it’s the first person narrative.  Maybe it’s Tecun Uman the great national hero himself.  But the way this story came together is magical. 

And the humor.  *chuckles*  It’s not blatant slapstick sort of humor, but there are several nods to some of my favorite things, including a joke at my expense.  Remember some of The Bloodgate Guardian discussions I had with Alissa about Ruin?

Ruin?  Honestly, that was the jaguar guy’s name?  I looked up at Tecun’s face, but he didn’t seem perturbed by such a strange name.  I suppose that was easier to pronounce than Itzpapalotl.

“Or Kukulkan,” he whispered silently in my head.  “One of his true names is Xbalanque.”

Okay, then, Ruin it was.

 
(Yes, both Ruin and Jaid make a brief appearance as the Gatekeepers of Chi’Ch’ul.)

Natalie (the heroine’s best friend) came out way more interesting than I expected too. So interesting that I can’t leave her hanging like I am in this first draft. Fixing her story thread will be one of the harder threads I need to resolve in these last few pages, but very important.  She deserves better than what I originally gave her.

And the sex.  *wipes brow*  Whew.  I joked to Raelyn the other day that one scene just went on and on and eventually I’d gotten tired in the first draft and simply left the scene because I didn’t know if they were ever going to finish.

Much different than The Bloodgate Guardian, I know.  Ruin and Jaid just weren’t going to get together any quicker, no matter how much I wanted them to.  They had a completely different story to tell.  However, Cassie and Tecun were burning up the page before I even started the first draft.  The Maya elements and research are still there, but whoa is this a sexy story!

Now, I’ve reached the pyramid scene, the culmination of everything that’s happened between Cassie and Tecun up to this point.  This is the scene that generated the ENTIRE story.  Everything came from the sacrifice at the top of El Castillo.

Um, literally.  *winks*

Let’s hope I can pull it off.

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Cross Stitch SAL Update

Okay, so this was supposed to be a “Wed WIP” but Wed got away from me.  I forgot that I had to actually…you know…TAKE PICTURES to make this post.  Then I couldn’t find the iron.

So here’s the 35-ct Mermaid Blue linen and light blue mystery mini spool from HDF:

It’s hard to tell in these photos, but there’s a lovely mix of soft blue and even a hint of light green in the silk thread.  (Pictures were taken on my iPhone.)

To make sure the dark material wouldn’t drive me nuts, I decided to try a small Ink Circles freebie:

Here’s Part 1 of the Mystery SAL completed!

 

And here’s a wider shot so you can see more of the fabric. I decided not to try and finish all the border yet to avoid making mistakes that I’ll have to frog later.