The Never-ending Story

Was there a beginning--
a time when that scratching,
papery scurrying wasn't?
A time before ideas
feeding in the shadows
were lured in with scattered crumbs
and incantations,
spun onto a page,
then shredded.

Ceramic clinking--
mortar and pestle
grinding frail symbols to dust.
Blended with sweat and tears,
forming the paste,
binding the thousand bones
that frame a tale.

Bubbling black broth
consumes:
one eye of critic,
six toads and a frog.
A pair of princes
and a rogue plot bunny
tossed in for spice.

Watching the plot thicken.
Chanting.
Stirring.
A mist rises,
glittering metaphors
clinging to bones like dew.

Alchemy
adds flesh,
breathes life into form.

Dragons are slain.
Damsels rescue princes.
Princes find the magic amulet.
Spells broken.
Kingdoms freed.
People rejoice.
The fire goes out.
The gate clangs shut.
The drawbridge drawn.
Tale Told.

Time to say goodbye.

No!
It needs a touch more something...
Hair of dragon?
Rose petals plucked by the light of a moonbow?

Was there a time when this tale wasn't?
Will there be an end?

This post was written in response to this week's Carry On Tuesday Prompt. Click here to see what others have written or to join the fun yourself.

Where is Big Door

There should be a Big Door Tool Bar at the bottom of this blog

Making Promotions Fun

I'm working on ways to do promotions that won't leave me feeling as unwelcome as a vacuum cleaner sales rep and won't send potential readers into hiding when I mention I'm an author with a book for sale. My plan is to build a game around my next book release. There will be mysteries to solve and adventures to take. Reading excerpts and watching trailers will be something readers engage in voluntarily and urge their friends to do. At least that's my hope.

I'm testing the various points tracking interfaces here at Nara's Nook and will launch the real contest the first week of September.

If you want to help me test the contest interface, sign in with your Facebook ID. (It's Okay. I don't get any of that info, nor would I use it to spam you.) When you interact on my blog in various ways you'll earn points. At the end of testing the tester with the highest point total wins my help in designing a game around a promotion they want to do. Let's make promotions something authors and readers can enjoy.

Blogging Tips for Beginners: A Web Browser for Busy Authors #writetip

Flock Browser - Flock Art

To be an author is to be a blogger. Not all writers are as enthusiastic about that new aspect of our profession as I am. I love geek stuff. I love playing with new ways to express myself, and I really love the possibilities blogging can bring to stories.

So why isn't every writer enthusiastic about blogging? I think the biggest barrier is a technological hurdle. So, that's the blogging issue I'm going to address first. You need more than a web browser to get this job done right. If you are trying to muddle along with Internet Explorer or Firefox, with no enhancements for blogging, you are wasting too much time trying to put your posts together. And that is one of the biggest complaints I hear: Blogging eats too much time.

While you can install add-ons that will improve the blogging experience with IE or Firefox, I'm not even going to waste your time trying to describe how. It's better to use the browser that was designed for blogging and all the social networking you do: Flock. All the tools you need are built in and they are fantastic.

I have been using Flock since the first release around 2005 and I started mainly to see how it functioned as a browser. Flock made a blog reader out of me and then a blogger. Here's a snip of a five-star review for Flock at CNET (snip made automatically by my Flock browser).

Flock is designed to streamline and emphasize how you interface with social networking sites, RSS and media feeds, and blogs. Because it's built on Firefox 3, its behavior will feel familiar and it supports most--but not all--Firefox extensions. And yes, the "awesome bar" is part of the latest version.

Flock Browser - Free software downloads and reviews - CNET Download.com
 

I know you're saying, but I'm not good at all this technical stuff. You don't have to be.  When you want to quote another blogger, you highlight the text and it's a right click away from appearing in your blog post properly attributed(see the quoted text above -- just a highlight and a click ). When you want to add an image to a blog post, it's a right click away. You can keep Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace open in the Flock sidebar and get your social networking done while you blog. Are you juggling half a dozen blogs and webmail accounts? Support for that is built in too.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be going over the basics of blogging for beginners and I'll explain how to implement these techniques with Flock. If you're already using a blogging tool, you're ahead of the game. If not, go download Flock. It's free.



Get ready to love your blogging.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Author Spotlight Kelly Jamieson

Here’s an excerpt from Kelly Jamieson's 2 Hot 2 Handle


Abby looked back and forth between them, at the sincerity and open desire on both their gorgeous faces. Despite her confession about her somewhat wild past, she’d never had a threesome with two men. She’d always been the third with another couple, a male and female couple, like the two times with Melina and Gavin. Two special people who’d so generously shared each other with her.

Eric and Jett were special, too.

She liked them both so much. Her feelings for Eric were growing to slightly scary proportions, and yet the attraction she felt for Jett smoldered below the surface.

She could have them both. Hot ménage-a-trois sex. No strings attached. Just like she wanted. Because they were already a couple.

A twinge of regret pinged inside her, but the lust heating her overrode it.

“I’m sure,” she said. She held out a hand to Jett, who moved closer and took her hand, lifted it to his mouth and kissed it. The gesture had her heart turning over in her chest.

She shifted in Eric’s embrace and looped her arm around Jett’s neck. She’d never kissed him. She wanted to kiss him. And yet…she hesitated, flicked a glance back at Eric.

He nodded, eyes burning hot.

She went on her toes and turned her mouth to Jett’s, and he met her in a scorching kiss, his mouth firm and warm and delicious. Her breath sighed out of her, her breasts rose and swelled, nipples aching.

Eric’s arms around her waist, Jett’s mouth on hers. Heat exploded in her, burning her up.

“This is crazy,” she whispered against Jett’s mouth, leaning her forehead against his. His chest rose and fell with his rapid breathing.

“Then we’re all crazy,” Jett said, voice dark and rough. “Abby you have no idea how much I’ve wanted you…”

Her tummy did a little flip. “Oh.”

“Tell me you want me, too.”

It was hard. It was so hard to let go of convention and all her traditional beliefs—that if she admitted her attraction to another man it was like cheating on Eric. Once again she turned to him, laid a hand on his cheek.

He covered her hand with his, moved it to his mouth and kissed her palm. His eyes met hers. “I want this,” he said in low, taut voice. “Truly, Abby. I love Jett.” Her heart fluttered. “I want this for him, and I want this for you. I want you to make each other happy. But make no mistake…I want you, too.”

Burning up.

Could she do this?

More Than That

This is who I am

A woman who never felt womanly
I wanted to be one of the girls.
I wanted to feel elegant, dainty.
I never found the key to their club.
I remained a goose among the swans.

I had one overwhelming feminine drive.
I wanted a child, motherhood.
The depth of longing as vast as the oceans.
Even my womb wouldn't recognize my womanhood.

He didn't care.
He loved me as I was.
He said you're more than that:
Not woman but female, 
Untamed, unchained.
More powerful than you know.
Turns out he was right.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox said,
"We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear."
I say: We fear our true selves most of all.
Your passion is your power.
Dare to be who you are.

~Marie 
Therian shapeshifter from The Tiger's Tale by Nara Malone


Don't you hate it when you turn the last page on a great story? I've always wished I could bring certain characters into the world. And while I don't have that kind of magic, technology makes it possible to bring them into a virtual world. Some people find the idea of characters blogging unnerving. Others embrace it. I use it as a tool to help me know them better. The above is not a passage from my book, but my character's response to this week's prompt from Carry on Tuesday. See what other bloggers contributed here.

Monday Poetry Train: My Editor

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpovey/ /CC BY 2.0

My Editor

1. The Letter

I don't know how long it had been there, hours perhaps. A subtle change in a browser tab: new mail - 1.

With one sentence I'm snatched from the world of forms that need filling and pages that need proofing -- penetrated, imprisoned in the woman I'd forgotten I was.

Another sentence binds me, the words like metal links drawn tight, cold steel pressed against warm skin. No give. No escape.

2. The Rewrite

He fills my empty spaces. He dips into the well, leaving his marks, bold strikes, corrections in my course. Our dialogue arcs through demands, pleas, moans, sighs.

He proofs me: exposing the places I try not to see, insisting I grow with the thrust and cut of his editing tools -- leather, steel, flesh, teeth. He strips me naked, parts my seams, exposing the essential prose of who I am.

3. Revised Copy

He leaves me trembling like pages in his hands, rewritten between the lines and margins. A framework in black and white -- now accented in purple, blue, and red.

Now he holds me, smooths my bent corners, eases sting with praise. He runs a finger over his favorite bits. I quiver in response, wriggle in the tight fist of his chains, knowing this was only round one.

Write me again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's been a long time since I wrote my last 3-6-9 poem. I have been focused on getting a novel accepted for publication and now that I have that goal behind me, I have time to enjoy writing some poetry as the year draws to a close. This is for the Monday Poetry Train. Visit other poets riding the train today.