I’ve cut, rewritten, cut again, revised, swapped and so on entire sections of this novel, but one thing that keeps tripping me up is the ending. I haven’t been able to get the ending to come to me. The one ending I had, I scrapped. So I began a second ending. It fizzled and I scrapped it.

No amount of brainstorming would bring me the answer on how to finish up these last two to four chapters.

I’ve talked about RUBY with my AWH puppies. I’ve tossed ideas and discussions around with my beta readers.

Still nothing would come to me.

But today, as I laid down to rest and brainstorm some more on the ending of this erotic paranormal romance, I closed my eyes and KA-BAM!

It hit me. The entire ending totally intact.

Was the problem due to some of the things I mentioned on the AWH Blog? I really don’t know. Whatever the problem, it’s behind me now, and RUBY will be finished very soon, printed, and mailed off to my agent.

Thank God. Not only is the character Ruby difficult and unique in the book, she was creating havoc in the real world too!

All I have to say is this: 2010 is a year to watch out for Ruby, whose magic has already left a fictional world. Hmm…maybe that means I have some magic in me too.

What’s next? A couple novellas to finish in a series, a couple stand-alone novellas that are in progress, and a slight break before I begin the next erotic paranormal romance novel.

Oh, one more thing. Avoid Writers Hell is now a workshop (think classroom), and AWH Chatters is its sister group, a place to promote your work, chat with others, and commune with fellow writers.

There are only a few print copies left of Conspiracy of Angels, and since Christmas is right around the corner, these last copies are on sale!

Something I want to point out is that this book is NOT an inspirational romance. It’s part of the reason the re-release will have a new cover. Think skeletons in the closets of a small town. Think unrequited love. Think love overcomes all and unexpected sex scenes.

This book also deals with the paranormal in the mystical manner. It’s not what people expect, that’s for sure.

Buy Link

I’ve retired my Zinnia Hope pen name, and am delighted to announce that this novel will be re-released with a new vah-vah-voom cover, my agented byline, a new title, and a bonus story about Lizzy and Daniel included at the end, which takes place several months after their marriage.

This novel has earned several spectacular reviews. Here are the links to a few of them.

Five out of Five hearts

Five 5-star reviews at Amazon.com

Glowing Review at Romance at Heart.com

4 out of 5 angels at Fallen Angels Reviews.com.

This book is lovely with rich, vibrant color cover. It makes an excellent Christmas gift too. And if you’ve read Conspiracy of Angels and would like to blurb it for me, send me a short one or two sentence blurb and include your name and website. Nothing like free advertising for your site!

Watch my newsletter for more information on upcoming titles!

Buy Link

Newsletter: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bickbrownZHnewsletter

Got a few li’l cheer-me-ups over the weekend.

Take a look at the #1 book on this publisher’s page of All Romance eBooks: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/category0.html?sortBy=bestSelling&searchBy=publisher&qString=Freya’s%20Bower (if the link doesn’t work copy and paste it into your browser search engine)

It’s a free read now but I don’t care, lol. It means readers are downloading it, so since it’s the prequel to the Daughters of Trinity Series, we’ll see what happens.

I also got one hell of a review for my last release. Click on Dark Diva’s Review graphic. It’ll take you straight to the review. http://faithbicknellbrown.com/books/atasteofecstasy A 5 rating AND a Recommended Read!

I discovered that Bedevilled is #2 today at fictionwise’s Freya’s Bower page too.

Oh, and Conspiracy of Angels got this: http://theromancestudio.com/reviews/reviews/conspiracyangelshope.htm

After the last 8 months of one crummy thing after another hitting me or my family, these li’l tidbits helped raise my spirits, so I just wanted to share.

I’ll blog again soon!

I have four under my roof who are mine, and two older stepsons. The other day I vacuumed the kitchen-well, I tried to vacuum it. I purchased a new sweeper last year that cost about $200. After about a month, I began having trouble with it. Actually, I have horrible luck with sweepers; it seems that I’m always blowing up the motors or the belts keep breaking. So, we picked up an old Kirby at a yard sale as a backup.

Every time I tried to use the new vacuum I’d always end up getting the Kirby out, the old reliable dinosaur. Sometimes the new sweeper would work, but most of the time it blew dust everywhere making me cuss and choke at the same time.

Back to the kitchen…I’m vacuuming and dust blows out everywhere. Muttering expletives under my breath, I pulled the hose lose for the millionth time. I turned the sweeper upside down and looked for hairballs, wads of paper, etc., that my kids are notorious for sucking up when they sweep.

I yanked a monstrous dust bunny from the opening by the spindle, turned the sweeper on, and even more dust flew out.

Furious, I performed the same checks again.

Then I spotted it. A wad of debris was wedged against the hole that deposits the dirt into the hepifilter (sp?) thingamajig. I found a Phillips screwdriver, disconnected the hose, and pulled about 8 inches of compacted dust and hair out of it.

But something kept sliding back and forth in the tube.

Upending it, I dumped a Hotwheels car out onto the floor.

“Hey,” my four year old yelled. “I’ve been looking for that car forever!”

Yeah. Lots of story fodder for my stories.

So, I put the sweeper tube back on, screwed the screws down tight, turned it on-the motor squealed and blew up.

Which was followed by the handle breaking in two.

Thank God for the Kirby!

Maybe I’ll buy an Oreck or one of those Dyson Ball vacuums with my next royalty check, lol.

I laughed so hard with Trinity and Jade that my belly muscles were sore two days later. And the cool thing about the convention was that I finally got to put faces to the names that I see online.

Trinity and moi.

The amount of raffle baskets, bags, and other lovely methods of putting together prizes for a giveaway boggled my  mind. Now I’m one of those folks that never wins anything, so when I won a li’l door prize AND a beautiful wooden birdcage crammed with lovely and shiny books, I was ecstatic (although Trinity and Jade couldn’t restrain themselves and had to delve into the books, shame-shame, girls! LOL!)

This is Trin’s donated basket. Isn’t it pretty? And it’s the only one I saw that had something unique like the doll.

A view of the ballroom.

Lovely  Alyce, aspiring m/m author and publishing reporter. She’s a cool lady. (you can see my table nametag too on the right)

Author Blake Deveraux enjoying a fruit martini as he talks publishing, writing, and life with us.

The birdcage basket with books that I won. (See that cord behind it? I know I put it in my suitcase when I left, but I’ll be darned if I can find it now. Dell.com here I come…sigh)

View from our Marriott room.

One of the games at the Luau sponsored by Author’s Island.

I attended a couple of presentations. Also I offered some editor appointments; as a result I met some lovely aspiring authors.

This title is GRAPHIC and involves not only het but also:

m/m

mild f/f

Interracial content

Time travel, history, and sci-fi.

Also includes two volumes in one.

Slip on over to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bickbrownZHnewsletter, sign up, then download the free e-book from the FILES section. (title will be placed on my Cool Stuff page of my website as a free download at a later date.)

Faith a.k.a. Zinnia

www.faithbicknellbrown.com

Here I am at an age where I look back on the smoking ruins I’ve left in my wake, the black smoke curling around memories both good and bad; whereas, others who know me insist that my past is a learning curve, that I have so many who rely upon me, look up to me, and consider me mentor and friend.

I’ve thought a lot about my past. I’m a hick in the middle of the Appalachian foothills, I use a wringer washer and I make green tomato jelly and other strange concoctions. I maintained a 3.8 GPA at one of the toughest colleges in the U.S. but had to leave my education unfinished. Now I always have more kids around me than sense, and I feel that I can relate to David, who, upon seeing Goliath step out to kill him thought, “Oh, crap! If that size 54 sandal steps on me I’m a grease mark in the sand!”

My oldest daughter saw this contest and insisted that I enter it. “Mom, you gotta do this! Do it for you,” she said.

Sometimes teenagers know what buttons to push. In this case, she pushed me to do something for myself. Even if I win the ring or one of the other prizes, I know I’d share it with my daughter.

I run a writing/publishing group called Avoid Writers’ Hell and posted a writing challenge there based on a picture. Maximum word count was 250. First place gets her choice of my Avoid Writers’ Hell books or one of my other titles if she already owns them. Second place will have her short featured in my next author newsletter with links to her sites/work.

Here are the top two entries. Minor editing has been done to the entries only for punctuation and missing or extra words.

Untitled

by Nix Winters

Word count 250

That day lingers. Right before the tears that’s when you never crossed. My fingers feel the silken rope, how it slides under younger fingers, how the cord tingled across my skin with the promise of your hand in mine. Handfasted, handfasting, just one more hour, then our hands will clasp, holding love between us. My elder sister will wrap this cord around us, speaking words that now, that I’ve waited so long to hear, and yet, they float away now, ashes in the night air.

It’s tattered now, our cord. Blacks become grays. Whites become gray and I in the middle, fingers bent and silken cords feel no greater to me than fish scale or the melting candle of time. I am not gray. I am there, waiting, the incense of our promise to be swirls into the waiting air. That I smell as keen as if the incense pot had not really burned to empty, the dawn not come with cruel truth.

Maybe…. my life has been gray. My heart sat there, but my body walked through days and nights. It’s been so long since I spoke to you, my love, but maybe, I feel colors returning. This night, it is brighter with stars than I remember and someone else’s incense burns for a love just starting.

“Mara.”

Your voice is the sparkling gold of the stars, red of sunrise, green of spring. You’ll never be gray.

“Mara, come with me.”

….

“Hey! The Old Woman is dead!”

Runner-Up

 Unforgiving Love 
 by Mary Paul

      245 Words 

The night was growing darker as Tamika stared tumultuously across the driveway leading to the back door of Kierra’s house.

      She lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply, trying to ease the tension and hurt that lingered deep within her soul. Within the next twenty minutes, her most immediate problem will have expired. Tamika butted out the remainder of her cigarette and placed it back in the box so not to leave any evidence behind.

      Tamika took a deep breath as she glanced around one last time. She couldn’t afford to be seen going into the house.

      “I’m surprised to see you,” Kierra said as she closed the door.

      “We need to talk about last night,” Tamika responded coldly as she made her way to the kitchen table.

      “I was just going to change into my night shirt. Pour yourself a glass of wine if you’d like while I change.”

      Tamika spotted a full glass of wine on the kitchen counter. Tears glistened in her eyes as she eased the vile from her pocket and watched the last droplets of poison trickle into the glass. Slowly, she walked toward the open window. Panic rose in her throat as she heard the sound of the glass against the counter top.

      “I’m sorry, I can’t talk right now.” She took a deep, ragged breath as hot tears trickled down her cheeks.

      “So long my love,” Tamika whispered once she was outside.

I do, however, have some good news. One of my new titles debuted today. If you like humor with heat, and unusual life circumstances with spice, please take a moment to check out the following.

A TASTE OF ECSTASY
Zinnia Hope

Erotic Romance: Contemporary
ISBN: 978-1-60435-303-7
Cover Artist: Emily
Editor: Marguerite L. Lemons
Word Count: 22,320
Release Date: March 12, 2009

Humor with heat, are you up to it?

From a romance with Jack Frost to a star-lit rooftop to sex with an Elvis impersonator, A Touch of Ecstasy sizzles with hot sex, romance, happy endings, and even some unexpected humor.

LINK: http://redrosepublishing.com/bookstore/product_info.php?products_id=420

How about a brief excerpt? And yes, I’ve written for UK editors, so here’s a bit of British flavor from the collection. I hope you enjoy it.

Can owning a bed-and-breakfast become a double entendre? Oh, yes, in more ways than one…

Cuppa Romp

          Managing a B&B alone in Brighton had been hard. My husband died two years ago, and I had been so lonely that everything about life looked grey.

My life changed the morning Simon signed his name on the registry, took his key, and offered me an erotic smile that nearly ignited my knickers. I stood looking at him like a dumb cow, my mouth hanging open. I watched him ascend the staircase, admiring his firm bum. I have always loved a man with big rough hands and broad shoulders, and his arse looked great in his suede trousers!

“Mum, your gob is hanging open,” Lillian said.

          Heat singed my cheeks. “No one could ever replace your father.”

“Who said anything about replacing Dad? You need a good shag.”

          “He’s at least ten years younger than I am!”

“Who cares as long as he can make you come?” Lillian retorted.

“No young stud is going to want sex with a forty-year-old widow with a bum that you could park a lorry under.”

          “Mum, you’re an attractive woman,” Lillian said.  “You have big boobs and a bum that matches. You look positively voluptuous.”

I had been forlorn and celibate since Toby became sick, but I wasn’t about to fuck the first man who caught my eye!

          Lillian retrieved her wallet and coat. “I’m off to do a bit of shopping,” she announced as she stepped out the front door.

          I watched her go, a small pang of jealousy skewering my gut. I once looked like Lillian when I was her age. Her long chestnut hair, green eyes, and hourglass figure kept the men flocking around her. A knot of guilt settled in my belly. It was wrong to feel envious of my own daughter. Glancing down at the large bosoms straining against my dress front, I smoothed my hands over my too-wide womanly hips. A young man wouldn’t want a widow with too many miles on her body.

The following morning, I stood in the kitchen cleaning up the breakfast debris. The door opened softly behind me.

“G’morning, bird,” a male voice said. “Is there something left for breakfast? P’raps a few bangers?”

          Turning, my heart stuttered. Simon looked wonderfully handsome in dark trousers and a jumper that matched the deep green of his eyes. He favored me with a wide, endearing smile that made my legs wobble as if someone had replaced my knees with lemon curd. Even so, a bit of anger flashed through me. Not so much at Simon as myself. I wasn’t a young girl any more. Guests were not permitted in the kitchen; a sign was even posted on the door. Most of all, I was angry at how I had let a young man, a good ten years my junior, rattle me sexually. I could almost see chemistry sparks flying off my body. Did Simon sense the effect he had upon me?

          “I’m sorry, luv. Did I frighten you?”

          Yes, he did frighten me. Not in the sense that I felt danger, but in how he made butterflies explode within me and how I couldn’t breathe when our gazes met. Again, my brain stopped functioning, and words refused to come out of my mouth.

          Simon leaned close, looking over my shoulder. He smelled like fresh linen and musk, making my senses spin.

          “I could use a cuppa,” he said close to my ear.

          Those five words, spoken so softly fluttered upon my nape like a gentle wren. A fiery sensation swept through my body, and when I looked up at him, his mouth met mine. A small surprised exhalation escaped me, and standing rigidly as he explored my mouth, I wondered if my heart would explode, every nerve ending in my body going hugger-mugger.

          Raising his head, he whispered, “There now, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

          I honestly don’t know what came over me. The next thing I knew, I grabbed him, pulling him toward me.

LINK: http://redrosepublishing.com/bookstore/product_info.php?products_id=420