Archive for January, 2008

The day Death will be released

January 29, 2008

Hi! Fellow CP author, Becka, asked everyone to share their release dates. It’s taken me a bit, but I finally made it. ;)

My novella, DEATH, will be released September 5, 2008. It’s still a while away, but the excitement is already here.

Last week I completed the first round of edits for DEATH, and still loved the story as much as I did when I first wrote it. I’ve said it before, but there was just something about these characters and story that captivated me from the time the proposal details flooded into my head. It continued while I wrote the first draft and completed the revision.
So, it’s good to see that I’m still very excited to be sharing this tale with everyone soon.

Life Altering News

January 28, 2008

I know you’re all just waiting to hear what the doctor told me today… I’m sure you can only guess by the title of my post what I’m going to tell you. I do, indeed, have gestational diabetes. I’m so early in my pregnancy, though, my doctor thinks I might have had diabetes before I got pregnant. They usually don’t test you until you’re around 20 weeks, but considering my family history, they tested me early and caught it.

Both of my parents have it, and combined with the fact that I’m overweight, my chances of getting the real deal is 70%. That’s pretty high odds. I’m sure I have the real deal. However, even the doctor said it’s impossible to tell if this is the real thing or if it’s just gestational (meaning lasting only for as long as I’m pregnant) — until I have the baby. At 6 weeks post-pardum, they’ll do another 3 hour blood test to see if the levels have finally evened out. If not, I’m going to be stuck with it for the rest of my life.

Good news is (the silver lining, if you will) this forces me to eat healthier. To get more exercise. We’ve all been telling ourselves, “Yeah, yeah, we’ll stop eating out all the time, we’ll go for walks, we’ll get on that exercise bike…” But do we? It kind of dies off after a time. But this is something you’ve got to stick with for the long haul.

My doctor is optimistic, however, that we caught it so early in the pregnancy, since it can now be treated, and there will be less harm to the baby. I might have to be put on pills to control my sugars, we’ll discuss that on Wednesday when I go in for my next exam. I went to Rite Aid today to get my blood sugar tester device thingamajig and took my own blood sugar for the first time. So we’ll see how it plays out.

I see a dietitian on February 5th, so they’ll teach me more about eating healthy, good foods and good snacks, that kind of thing, and will also help me in making choices that will fit into our family and what we normally eat. So this is a blessing in disguise, really. Catching it early to help the baby, and having my family eat healthier and be healthier.

Just keep me in your prayers. I might need a little divine help with the old willpower. However, knowing it’s not just ME I’ve got to keep healthy here will be a big influence between choosing the apple or the chocy covered pretzels.

Thanks to everyone for the support, and I guess I’ll let you know 6 weeks after baby is born if this Big “D” goes away. My thoughts are – it won’t. Not when it runs in my family with both parents. But after having a good cry this afternoon, I’m surprisingly peaceful with this turn of events. I may get misty from time to time, but I know the Big “G”’s got His hand on me. If He brings me to it, He’ll bring me through it, right? :)

~~Becka
http://www.RebeccaGoings.com

Release Date for oracle card: Life

January 26, 2008

A.L.Debran here. I wrote the story for the Life Oracle card and it releases June 6, 2008. Here’s a blurb.

Veterinarian Melissa Price’s lonely vampire existence depends upon three things: sex, sustenance, and occasional companionship without personal involvement. Cowboy Jaxon Granger is a womanizing chauvinist who uses women for physical pleasure and shuns emotional commitment. When destiny brings Lissa and Jax together at Jax’s racehorse boarding facility, there’s no going back to their former self-defeating and emotionally isolating habits. With love growing and unresolved issues in their pasts demanding confrontation and resolution, each must come to terms with the hurts that run deep in their hearts.

Writing a contemporary vampire short story was a challenge for me considering my typical writing world has been the old west with cowboys and gunsliners with 40k-100k stories. I plan to try my hand at more short stories now that I have one under my belt. I have a new appreciation and respect for those who have short story writing down to a fine science.

Apparently Tree Beard in LOTR and I have something in common when it comes to telling stories. Tree Beard said, “It takes a long time to say anything in old entish, and we never say anything unless it is worth taking a long time to say. ” That’s me for sure. I like to take a long time to tell a story.

I’m proud to be part of the Cobblestone family of authors and especially excited to have contributed a story to the Vampire Oracle series.

Going to the Lab Tomorrow…

January 24, 2008

Yup, I’m going to the lab tomorrow at the hospital. Why? To have a 3 hour blood test. GACK!

You see, since I’m preggers and all, and since BOTH my parents have diabetes, the doc decided to give me a glucose test, to see if I have gestational diabetes. Well, my test came back slightly elevated, therefore they want me to waste an entire morning of my life in the lab to get sticked every hour on the hour to draw blood.

And not only that, I’ve gotta fast for 12 hours. Nothing to eat after 8pm this evening, and nothing to eat in the morning until after the test. From 8am to 11am, I’m going to be sitting in the lab’s waiting room with nothing but a book and the CNN channel. Happy happy joy joy.

Let’s hope I don’t have the “D word”. It’s scary enough to think my chances of getting diabetes in the first place is around 70%. Add on the fact I’m pregnant & overweight, and it could flare up. Good news is, I’ve never had it with any of my previous 4 children. Perhaps that will work in my favor.

I won’t get the test results back, probably until next week sometime (I’m seeing the doc on Wed. for another ultrasound – hopefully the baby won’t be camera shy this time around…), so I’ll keep you posted.

If I do have it, I’m going to cry into an entire box of Kleenex, wonder what the f*&k I can eat from now on, and pretty much freak out in general. Oh, and then I’m going to call both my parents and thank them from the bottom of my heart with as much sarcasm as I can muster.

Let’s hope there’s nothing going on.

**crossing fingers**toes**arms**legs**eyes…

~~Becka
http://www.RebeccaGoings.com

Congressman Cady…’Rebel’’s Villian

January 21, 2008

Each new character creates a certain visual that stays with you throughout the book…and forever after. In writing Once A Rebel, I’ve already shared that I had Josh Bernstein (pictured left) in mind as the hero’s template. (Sorry, Galen doesn’t really resemble anyone that I can think of.) As I penned the congressman, the whole time I could just see Ted Levine as the ambitious politician, Theodore Cady. Not sure why, but something about his voice and look captured and held my interest.

Below is a picture of Ted, for those who haven’t seen him before. He’s been in many movies and TV shows, but one of his most famous is probably Silence of the Lambs.

Once A Rebel is now available in paperback as well as e-book,
so pick your poison and get to reading!

Enjoy!

Until next time,

Angie

Once A Rebel by Angela Ashton

Becka’s Hottie of the Week – Classic

January 18, 2008

This week’s hottie came about by necessity. You see, DH and I are raising our children to be Uber Geeks (echo echo). They know all about Star Wars, Stargate (SG-1 *and* Atlantis), LoTR, Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Indiana Jones, Heroes, Lost, Red Dwarf, Spiderman, Superman, and many other movies and/or TV shows I forgot to mention.

But one faux pas stood out to us like a big-ass sore thumb just the other day. In fact, this thumb is *so* sore, you might say we’ve failed in our endeavor to make our children the geeks of our hearts. It almost made us tear up, the problem was SO major. Where had we gone wrong? How could we do this to our kids?

WHY DID MY 8 YEAR OLD HAVE NO CLUE WHO THE FRICK CAPTAIN KIRK WAS?!?

O.O

After DH peeled me off the floor (as soon as he awoke from fainting), we shook our heads and wondered how the OBVIOUS STAR TREK had somehow sneaked under our radar. I mean, holy crap. That’s like the Gospel of the Geeky. The Textbook of Dorks. The Holy Grail, the Mother Lode. Criminy!

In an effort to remedy the glaring, gaping hole in our geekhood (and to try and keep our Geek Cards from being revoked), we have acquired every single episode of Star Trek there is, from Old Gen to Next Gen to DS-9 to Voyager… Heck, I even think the craptastic “Enterprise” is in there as well, with Scott Bakula. There’s something like 760-some-odd episodes in ALL, and we’ve just recently started them. I think we’re literally on show #4. :P It will take a while, but by Gawd, we WILL educate our children in the Star Trek canon. A true geek cannot do otherwise. Besides, it’s not like there’s ANYTHING ELSE to watch on TV nowadays.

And so, in honor of watching the original Star Treks from the beginning, I have chosen the young William Shatner as this week’s hottie.


It’s funny, we’re not too many shows into our self-imposed geek-fest, and I’ve already gotta say, every episode (so far) has some scene with Kirk and either his shirt ripped or off entirely. LOL We’re going to try and see if it happens in every episode. Heheh… Can’t say I’m complaining. Mr. Shatner was a hunkaburninluv back in the day.

Heh, is it me, or is that picture a *mite* suggestive? “Hey baby, look at my huge particle accelorator…”

I’m still in shock the moment my kids asked, “Who’s Captain Kirk?” Gah, I thought we’d done a better job than that! I thought they’d seen the movies at least, the two best, the two we own, Wrath of Khan (II) and The Voyage Home (IV). Our kids recognized Mr. Sulu from his role in Heroes. :P Should have been the other way around, dammit!

*SIGH* Ah well. We Goings apologize to the Geeky Community at large for this EPIC snafu. We hope you vote to keep our Geek Cards intact, and perhaps this Hottie feature will go a little ways in swaying your decision. :P

Congratulations, William Shatner. You’re Becka’s Hottie of the Week – Classic!

~~Becka
http://www.RebeccaGoings.com

My Release Date!

January 17, 2008

The fabulous Deanna at Cobblestone has announced our release dates. Perhaps my fellow Vampire Oracle authors can shout out when our books will be available!

My book, TOMB, will be released on September 5th, 2008. It revolves around the story of Douglas McCarthy and Holly Cartwright, who both need to be freed of a tomb of their own making.

I had a LOT of fun writing this story and I hope you have just as much fun reading it. It wasn’t until after I was finished with it that I realized there were NO secondary characters. The entire story revolves around the romance of the hero and heroine, falling in love and finding out about each other.

I tried to put as much emotion as I could into this little story. Heck, it tugged on *my* heartstrings. :P So fellow VO authors… What’s your release date?

~~Becka
http://www.RebeccaGoings.com

Uneventful Ultrasound

January 16, 2008

Well, I went in for my ultrasound today, and the doc couldn’t get a good “look” at things with her little internal device. Therefore, she transfered me to the radiology department who has a much bigger machine.

To make a long story short, the baby seems only to be about 4-5 weeks old, impossible for me to feel any movement at this stage. What I’ve been feeling is most likely “gas” pressing up against the enlarged uterus. They couldn’t even get the baby to say “cheese” on the pics. All they could see was a gestational sac. Now, there was a light grayish “something” in there, so they don’t believe it’s an empty sac with nothing growing in it, so that’s good.

I’m to go back in two weeks’ time for another internal ultrasound when the baby is a mite bigger, and then they can get a good look at fetal heartbeat and actually measure the fetus to determine exact age. Right now, they’re guesstimating, since they couldn’t see the baby on the ultrasound.

Now, the interesting thing is that when the tech was doing the procedure, there were two dark areas in my uterus. In fact, in one picture she took, she typed some medical jargon with a question mark and two arrows pointing to both dark areas.

Of course, she was just a tech and couldn’t give me any real answers, as only the radiologist is “qualified” to read the ultrasounds. My doctor (nice lady btw) called me at about 5:20pm this evening (after hours, very cool) and told me all of the above. I thought it odd that the tech was taking so long with the procedure, but she assured me it was only because they couldn’t find my ovaries, and thus gave up trying to find them. I was freaking out a little bit wondering what was going on when the tech left the room to consult with the radiologist, but I was assured it was the issue of the hiding ovaries. Okay.

So I asked the doctor if the two dark spots meant two babies. She said it’s too early to tell at this point, since they couldn’t see much of anything beyond the sac. There’s definitely one in there, I saw it. The questionable one is the second, so we’ll see. Of course, I’m not skilled in the art of reading ultrasounds, so for all I know, it could have been anything. It’s not like I can make anything out on those pictures unless someone draws a diagram.

But the thing that gets me is the seemingly impossibility of my being able to feel movement. If the baby is so young, there is no way I could feel movement, since it really doesn’t move much until it’s nervous system is online and it has some muscle mass in later weeks. But even then it’s so small that chances of feeling it are slim. So am I just feeling gas? The doctor says yes. DH is skeptical that I’m feeling the baby. But it feels exactly the same, I’m telling you.

Imagine taking an inflated balloon and somehow putting your hand inside of it. Now, if you move your fingers against the inside of the balloon and pretend you could feel that inside of you, that’s what it feels like. Strange comparison, I know, but that’s about the best I can do for describing what fetal movement feels like. If you could feel what’s happening to that balloon and then run your fingers along the inside of it, that’s about it. Flutters, rolling, pushing, pressure.

For now, I guess I’ll just take everyone’s word for it and concede that it’s probably gas rolling about, pressing against the uterus. But it “feels” like everyone’s calling me a liar. It’s not movement. Couldn’t possibly be movement. Baby’s too small. You’re just feeling what you want to feel.

No one’s said that last sentence to me, but that’s the kind of feeling I get. It’s disappointing in a way, too, as I was starting to become connected to the baby’s “movements” and excited whenever I would feel that affirmation of life inside of me… only to find… it’s nothing more than air moving around, tricking me.

Last time I checked, gas didn’t feel like baby movement. I’ve NEVER mistaken being gassy with being pregnant before. And if my gas ever did feel like baby movement, it probably would have freaked me out on more than one occasion. Nine times out of ten, I deal with my gas with a Phazyme. LOL This isn’t the same kind of full or bloaty feeling you get. It’s “rolling”, “fluttering”, and sometimes, a slow, easy pressing. I don’t know, maybe it is just digestion. But I didn’t think I would be this disappointed to be proven wrong.

~~Becka
http://www.RebeccaGoings.com

A True Story

January 16, 2008

My heroine is loosely based on a real person. I’ve yet to write the article. I suppose I’ll do that during spring break when I have more time, but one of my mother’s dearest friends is the daughter of an orphan train rider. The woman did not have a pleasant time of it when she was adopted and had a very difficult childhood until she turned 18 and left to make her own way. Agnes was to be adopted by a family when she was 5 and rode the ship from New York to Texas, then boarded a train that would take her to this family. The trip took more than a month, but when she arrived, the couple decided they didn’t want her. She had to return to the local church rectory, only this time – alone, with no other orphans to keep her company.

Afterwards, she stayed at the rectory until she was at last spoken for. The couple who took her, did so to please the husband’s mother as it was she who was taken by the little girl. She spent her remaining childhood with rural folks that treated her more like an indentured servant than a beloved daughter.

I will write more about her life and how my character, Shauna, is loosely fashioned after Agnes when I have time to sit down and do the article justice.

ONCE

January 14, 2008

First of all, let me start this post by saying, “Wow.” Better yet, “Fookin’ Wow.” O.O

DH and I just got done watching a fan”fookin”tastic independent film. It’s title? “Once”. It is about a songwriter in Dublin, who sings his songs on the street for money. It’s there he meets the girl of his dreams who teaches him a lot about music, life, and love.

Now, you might say the movie by itself was fantastic. Which it was. But the soundtrack… Dear Gawd, the soundtrack was to DIE for. If you like gritty acoustic love songs with a little bit of piano thrown in, then THIS is your film, folks. Dayam. I haven’t had a film impact me like this in a very long time, if at all. I’m just amazed, not only by the storyline, but by the talents of the singers in the movie, who wrote and played all of the songs themselves.

Check out this link:

http://www.foxsearchlight.com/once/

There, you’ll hear the song most featured in the film, as well as the others in the film if you keep clicking through them. I believe it was the power of the music that made the movie leap off the screen for me. On Wikipedia.com, it says they made this movie for $160,000. That is AMAZING. For such a fantastic movie. Dang. I want to watch it again right now.

If you see this movie at the video store or on Netflix, do not hesitate to rent it. If you see it on the shelves at the store, BUY IT. Holy crap, you will NOT be sorry. I promise. Heck, I fookin’ promise!

This movie is easily now one of my very favorites in all the world. Please do me a favor and see it.

DH went online and immediately bought the soundtrack off of iTunes. I have no doubt we will be buying the DVD in the near future. I’m still in shock and awe. What a great, great flick. I wish more movies were so simple and touching. It’s called “Once”. Don’t miss it, whatever you do.

~~Becka
http://www.RebeccaGoings.com