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Barbara Karmazin’s Huntress is set mostly in Puerto Rico’s Cabo Rojo circa 2032. Sonia Rodriguez , a web designer, seeks a little recuperation after a big project. During her participation in a renaissance battle, Sonia learns that her loving yet distant father, who used the construction of a security empire to cope with the murder of her mother over 15 years ago, has met his own demise at the hands of a more natural but relentless killer  -  cancer.

As a stipulation to becoming the wealthy heiress of her father’s fortune and retain control of his business, Sonia must remain at his estate in Cabo Rojo for one year. Upset about the arrangement only because she would have rather stayed at her father’s estate while he was alive, Sonia has no idea the task her father has in store for her from beyond the grave. Sonia doesn’t get too far into her daily count-down to freedom before encountering occurrences of blood-thirsty animals called chupacabras and a machete wielding man dressed in black. Despite her father’s high tech security creations and sensing what she witnessed is beyond the reach of the local authorities, Sonia is uneasy in her new home.

The reason for her father’s arrangement becomes all too clear when Sonia comes face to face with the blood-lust animal assassin in her kitchen. Rulagh Lugràànrown a reptile-like man with scales and dark skin from Epsilon Eridani is on a ten-year mission to eradicate Puerto Rico of wayward lost pets with a lust for blood and gore. With spaceships and technology ahead of Sonia’s time plus nosey Navy Seals and the corrupt local police, she joins forces with Rulagh in and out of bed to accomplish his task.

Karmazin does such an excellent job of painting Rulagh’s culture and customs that the reader almost feels this race of aliens could exist. Despite the raw language used to describe genitalia and Rulagh’s sexual emissions, the reader really gets a sense of how Sonia and Rulagh’s relationship develops despite their many differences. Sonia may not be fully ready to embrace all of Rulagh’s customs, but she adopts his language and his way of dress in order to get closer to him and win over his people to assist her in succeeding in their mission. Karmazin creates a strong woman in Sonia, one not afraid of men, beast or great sex. Because I didn’t feel a strong pull into the story until chapter two, this novel earns 4 out of 5 Sable Seals.

Publisher: Liquid Silver Books

Set along a country road called Jericho in south Georgia , author Icy Snow Blackstone tells the story of blooming interracial love between Lindsey Conyers and Dr. Logan Redhawk in the 1970’s against the backdrop of racial and sexual intolerance and the post Vietnam War era.

Dr. Redhawk, who is serving his obstetric residency at the town hospital, finds himself quite taken by Lindsey Conyers when he treats her after a car accident. His infatuation begins a friendship between them yet, he never hides his deeper intentions. Despite warnings from his roommate, a fellow doctor in residence, and the cool hate-filled reception he encounters when he picks up Lindsey for their first date, the couple’s relationship continued to grow out in the open.

Unlike Lindsey and her beau, the rest of the community has plenty to hide and protect. Lindsey’s oldest brother Wade, no longer able to enjoy newly-wedded bliss with his new bride Marcella, begins secret psychiatric sessions to overcome romantic feelings for war buddy who died protecting him during the war. Assuming her new groom is being unfaithful Marcella lures her brother-in-law into a torrid affair all the while the Conyers family patriarch blackmails a naïve employee’s daughter into satisfying the urges to which is his wife will no longer succumb.  Rage, hatred and sexual frustration come to a head when patriarch Hamp Conyers arrives at Dr. Redhawk’s residence to physically persuade him to stay away from his daughter. When lusts and secrets begin to consume all involved, everything comes to light but not before one brother fatally wounds another.

Blackstone’s talent stirs the reader into caring for the Conyers brothers despite their faults and causes you question their struggle between being tempted and doing what’s right. One moment the reader things Wade is too good to be true and just want you think you’ve spotted his true nature, you discover he was being true to himself all along.

While the romance between Lindsey and Logan was sweet, I found myself much more interested in the subplot of Wade, his brother and his wife. Certainly, that storyline was more titillating, but I was anxious to see how the scenario would resolve itself, especially as more players were added to the mix. Blackstone did an excellent job of showing how love, sex, secrets and hate could damage an old-fashioned southern town and its principle citizens.  For that Jericho Road earns five Sable Seals.

Publisher: Lyrical Press

In Sylvia Hubbard’s Stone’s Revenge, the long-standing hatred William Stone has for the Davenport prosecutor, Ramsey McPherson is only equaled by the forbidden love he has for his crippled daughter Abigail. Hubbard weaves a complex story with family secrets, heartache, ongoing deception and pure evil. In fact, the thirst for revenge that both McPherson and Stone share is so strong; it’s hard to believe that Stone could ever truly love the offspring of a man he loathes so much.

Very early on in the novel you quickly root for William as he fights to beat several false accusations of rape and murder hurled at him not only by the town’s people but by his own family members as well. Due to the transgressions of his forefathers, he is the ultimate underdog despite his good looks and an intellect too strong to be denied. However, when his love for Abigail turns to hatred over her failure to remember a childhood promise, you come to feel betrayed by Stone. He becomes the evil, menacing character everyone already assumes he is. Despite his attempts to rape and terrorize the focus of his revenge, his victim falls in love with him and his original feelings for Abigail are rekindled.  It’s hard to accept that seething hatred could turn into a fiery love affair.

All of this was too much for me as a reader to believe and I quickly found myself more interested in the competition between McPherson and Stone’s defense attorney, David Reichard, and less interested in Abigail and her sick love affair with her “misunderstood” raging lover.  It was that competition that kept me reading, however, once it was resolved with forty pages left in the book, I no longer cared who was framing Stone. By the end of the novel, I was expected to believe that the thick hatred Hubbard successfully exhibited between Stone and McPherson could be diluted into a playful hostility between the two men that would just make family-get-togethers at the McPhersons’ an entertaining affair.

I appreciate Hubbard’s ability to make emotions feel so real, however it is that talent for conveying emotion that makes it so hard to believe when these deep emotions quickly shift to the opposite end of the spectrum. I find some of the scenarios she paints too soap-operaesque and unlikely to believe. With that, I give Stone’s Revenge 3 out of 5 Sable Seals.

Ms. Lena Horne was a beautiful sight to see delivering a melody like no other. May you rest in peace.

The mixing of races is not just a social construction within the human race. We’re not just talking about mixed breeds of cats and dogs. While it is not referred to as an interracial relationship when a polar bear and a grizzly mate, the reasons it happens can be similar to mating among the races- proximity and biology.

Check out the link from Yahoo, which briefly examines the unique and beautiful result of cross-breeding within the animal kingdom:

Six Amazing Hybrid Animals

courtesy of the vanilla guerilla

One of the exciting things about being a writer is the fact that you never know where your next story will come from. We’ve discussed repeated about how much I love magazines. Well I was reading Success magazine tonight and came across a story about TheKnot.com.

Being single, I generally skip over wedding related articles, but since I recently wrote 19 pages of wedding content for a bridal shop in Colorado, I am a little less adverse to reading on the topic. (At the moment anyway!)

This article wasn’t about getting married. The company The Knot and it’s website was being featured in the January’s Success monthly column called “From the Corner Office”.

I’ve been to TheKnot.com before, when a former co-worker was showing me a dress she was considering for her wedding. What I didn’t know about this website before reading this article was the fact that it was started as a result of a multicultural need. The owners, Carley Roney and David Liu were having trouble finding information geared toward their needs. They are an interracial couple and the bridal resources on the market were not geared toward this demographic.

What was even more interesting was the fact that the bridal resources available played to the stereotype that only women were interesting in wedding resources. Liu, being an active groom, was a shining example of another member of a demographic not being served in the wedding industry.

The Knot.com is now more than an online wedding resource. According to Success, it garners 100 million page views a month and earned nearly $104 million dollars in 2008.

Liu and Roney have continued to serve the under-served cultural niche. This niche includes resources for same-sex couples, newlyweds, expecting parents, blended families, and other wedding situations that include real people living real lives. Pregnant brides, divorced parents and second marriages are all topics that require attention that many traditional wedding resources pretend don’t exist.

TheKnot.com has found a way to be success by fulfilling a need and providing resources to our ever-changing relationship culture.

I’m always filled with a little sadness and nostalgia when something or someone from the culture of my childhood slips away. I felt that way about Michael Jackson and I felt that way when I found out  that Asbury Park, New Jersey closed down their amusement park.

The most recent event that brought on these feelings is the death of Theodore “Teddy” Pendergrass. I was a little girl and I can remember my father and my grandfather playing some of his best songs. Songs such as “Turn Off the Lights“, “Love TKO“, and “Close the Door“.

However, a few years ago, I discovered what would become my most favorite Teddy Pendergrass song of all time, when Nelly remade “Come, Go With Me”. Nelly’s version was called “My Place“. When I found out it was a remake of Teddy’s song, I had to hear the original.  I ended up liking Teddy’s original best and the song reconnected me to the singer’s talent. Something I hadn’t thought about since I was a child.

In tribute to the passing of a great sensual balladeer, here’s “Come, Go With Me.”

Thank you Teddy Pendergrass for your tremendous contribute to R&B Soul! May you rest in peace!

The idea of a culture that over-indulges is not a new concept, but it recently dawned on me the numerous ways excess exhibits itself. We are use to the idea of excess in terms of addiction. For example, addictive behaviors are associated with excessive behavior in one area or another such as excessive eating, drinking or drugs. However, think about the
other areas where we do something to excess. What brought this topic about for me has to do with my music habits.

One of my freelance gigs requires that I write in an office setting. So, in order to block out the office chatter, I listen to music through ear buds while I work. Here’s where my excess comes into play. I listen to Internet radio (Shout out to all my Slacker Radio Fans) which allows me to create my own channels with my favorite artists. (I promise this
isn’t a plug). While all the artists I am listening to are my favorites, I like some songs better than others. So of course, when a favorite song comes on, I jeopardize my hearing by bumping the volume louder in my ear buds. When a less enjoyable song comes on, I dial down the volume to a more sensible level. The same thing happens in my car. I listen to mix CDs and crank up my most favorite songs.

This exemplifies just how far excess reaches. Why does it seem like I enjoy my favorite songs more when they are cranked up to eardrum vibrating decibels? It’s not the same as those drivers who roll down the window and pump up the sound system to share their favorite tunes with everyone who’s in earshot on the street. It’s my own little world, where only my favorite songs are my soundtrack and my only focus is my writing. It also funny how I find office chatter distracting but the vocals to these songs never seem to disrupt my concentration or my creative process.

Unlike food or drink that allows us to get those feel-good endorphins every time we eat or drink it, no matter how much I crank up that song it’s still going to last the same amount of time based on the recording time. Nevertheless, I crank it up, tap my feet and bounce my head as I work.

Next time you think about your excesses, think about all the ways you over-indulge that have nothing to do with the traditional targets of over-consumption. You just may discover something about your own
individual or personal work culture you’ve never thought about.

I’ve mentioned before that I am a little magazine obsessed. I love books too, but there is just something about a good magazine that I just love. When I want to get a quick info fix filled with interesting insights, pictures, and stats, a magazine really satisfies. ( Yes, like a Snickers bar).

The subject of this post was spurred by a small magazine filler from this month’s issue of Women’s Health magazine. The filler is entitled, “Pretty Words” reminds us that words are not just words.

According to the article which sites a study in the journal Psychological Science where study participants were hooked up to a machine to measure the activity of the facial muscles we use when we smile or frown. The participants facial reactions were recorded when they were asked to read a series of emotion verbs such as frown, cry, laugh etc. The result was that happy verbs caused a response in the subjects’ smile muscles while the sad ones activated the frown muscles’ response.

As writers and those who love to read already know, language does physically resonate with us and it makes an impression on how we feel, according to the study’s coauthor G. Sermin, Ph.D., of Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

As I think of the ways that we use words to elicit a response or to provoke action in others, for example, greeting cards, research studies, wedding invitations, letters of complaint, and too many other forms of word communication that too many to mention, it definitely weakens the idea that words are harmless. Words can console and they can also start arguments and even wars. It’s our words and our thoughts that lead to our positive or negative actions.

Words trigger memories and they lend to a variety of interpretations and connotations. How words are used and interpreted go far beyond the words meaning. Our own culture and environment also play a role. Put in this context, words do indeed become very powerful.

The next time you speak or write, know the power of your words.

After the Storm, a Gay, Interracial Erotic short story, is about a rich hotelier’s son, Ethan Conrad, who is make the most of his new life in Indiana after being forced to run the hotel there after his involvement in a same-sex affair his father viewed as a family sex scandal.

Ethan falls head over heels in lust over Marcus, the manly carpenter he hired to construct his art room. Thanks to the wisdom of his Italian housekeeper, Ethan discovers that his desires may not be one-sided, however, there is deep pain holding Marcus back.

While I didn’t care for Ethan’s controlling and relentless pursuit of Marcus, in the short space of 42 pages, Steele shows us how sometimes we need an outside push in order to resume living our lives after a tragedy. Steele also shows how vulnerability can often turn superficial lust into something much more meaningful. Once Marcus acknowledges his desires, the love scenes between Marcus and Ethan are as tender as they are steamy.

I give Jaxx Steele’s After the Storm four out of five Sable Seals.

Publisher: Red Rose Publishing

Genre: Interracial Gay Erotica

Page Length: 42 pages