Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The Magic of Being

One of my first tasks this morning was to answer several interview questions that had been sent to me and then I took some time to read an article on writing (what a surprise) and I found it interesting that a certain theme seemed to develop. The topic being the magic of life and creativity.

I have a friend who tells me she has no imagination. My mother tells me she doesn't dream. I don't believe that's true for either my friend or my mother. Answering the questions and reading the article reminded me that we are all born with magic but for many of us, somewhere along the line it's bleached out of our psyches as the world tries to civilize us. In learning responsibility and manners, right from wrong, good from bad, the magic we are born with is suffocated, its light snuffed from existence as an undesirable quality, and there are some of us who don't know how to revive it and flounder through life thinking Peter Pan is really just a rebellious, naughty boy who refused to become an adult. I think he might not have been so concerned about growing up if he could have kept his magic. He fought for what was important and in doing so paid a price. Adulthood.

We forget to nurture the very essence of our souls in search of acceptance, the ability to blend in and not stand out. We look for the nod from mom and dad that assures us we are growing into adulthood and will make a fine asset to the community. But what happened to the magic?

Do you ever hear the statement made about someone who has reached maturity. "Oh, she is so senile..." Would that be a true statement or has that person simply reclaimed her magic? I have to wonder.

There's a poem I'm particularly fond of called "Warning" by Jenny Joseph. It's included in a collection of poetry and essays about women in their later years.

"When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter...

...

"But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple..."


[An excerpt from "Warning" by Jenny Joseph, from the collection "When I am An Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple" (ISBN: 0-918949-16-5)]

I bought this book back in 1991, my twins were eleven and my daughter was thirteen. I decided not to wait. Through all my travels and moves across the country, it's a book I always kept close. The title has become a theme through my life, except I changed it a bit, I shortened it.

I shall wear purple...now, dammit! :-)

What a sad thing it can be if we wait too long to revive the magic we lost as a child.

Reclaim it now. It really is okay to keep that spirit of youth and imagination. Don't let it die.

Adrianna

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Vampyre Falls: Morganna's Sacrifice - NOW AVAILABLE

Title: Vampyre Falls: Morganna’s Sacrifice
Author: Adrianna Dane
Purchase Link: http://amberquill.com/AmberHeat/MorgannasSacrifice.html
Author URL: http://www.adriannadane.com
Publisher: Amber Quill Press/Amber Heat
ISBN: 978-1-60272-197-5
Publisher URL: http://www.amberheat.com
Cover Art by Trace Edward Zaber


SYNOPSIS:
Morganna Starlight, a faery doctor, and Keelan Moonhunter, a dark elf, were once passionate lovers separated by a goblin’s hatred and betrayal. That same hatred reunites them through another savage act, but there are painful memories that still haunt them both. One being that Keelan is now an elven vampire. Will Morganna sacrifice everything she has ever known to remain with her dark lover? Or will Keelan’s torturous past separate them forever?

Excerpt:

She’d gathered the stones earlier in the day. After carefully washing and oiling them with fragrant rosemary, she had placed them in a ring, end to end. She collected the forgotten limbs and discarded, vibrant orange and red leaves to build the fire from only those broad, sturdy oaks and tender, lean ash beneath which they had made searing love in times now past. Ah, the memory of his hands on her body beneath the starry silent nights still made her tingle. She could feel his long, tapered fingers as they traced arcs of infinity over her abdomen. She remembered how warm they felt when he cupped her breasts, the pads of his fingers brushing across her erect nipples driving her to peak after peak of passion, leaving his stamp upon her senses deeply embedded forever.

With the gnawing ache twisting inside, she now approached the ring of stones, the sun a descending vibrant red disc in the sky. She waved her hand beseechingly, chanted secret words of potent desire, and flame burst free from the heart of the circle. The heat of the crimson fire blanketed her with its fever as she called upon the elements of her remembered love to draw the recollected passion of images intimately around her. Tightly gripping the elongated silky smooth, gentian stone pendant—etched with his elven glyphs—she slipped to the ground, summoning his memory to bare itself to her.

Morganna downed the contents of the vial, licking the last drops from her lips, and felt the liquid slide down her throat, as she embraced the searing heat, feeling it spread through her.

“Keelan, come to me. Come to me. Come to me.” She waited, heard the crackle and snap of the hot fire. The pendant grew warm against her flesh and began to pulse, to become a living thing within the cup of her hand.
“Keelan, come to me. Come to me. Come to me.” She waited, heard the crackle and snap of the hot fire. The pendant grew warm against her flesh and began to pulse, to become a living thing within the cup of her hand.

“Yes. To me. To me. To me.”

“I am here, Morganna.”

Her eyes snapped open and she sighed as she saw him standing on the other side of the fire. Her beloved dark elf. The firelight undulated across his naked body, drenching him in flickering heat that pulled her to him. The fiery passion licked at her bare skin as she approached, at first with hesitant steps. And then her gaze dipped to follow the shadowy, wavering light embracing the blue stone pendant nestled against the golden sheen of his strong chest. She remembered how, when she lifted up on tiptoe, her head had once fit so perfectly in that very spot. How she would lick and kiss her way across the breadth to suck at his nipples, and slowly make her way down his body. He was sleek, yet tall for a dark elf, dwarfing her with his height. So unique even among his own kind.

She raced toward him and he caught and lifted her against his heart, his mouth blazing a fiery trail across her skin. Oh, how she had missed him.

She traced the crest of his pointed ear, then licked at the tender flesh. He shuddered beneath her touch. It was the same delicious response her mouth had always elicited from her lover. His hand brushed along her spine, cupped her rounded buttocks as he lifted her higher. She wound her legs around his waist and his stiff cock pressed between her lips, nudging at her wet entrance.

She skimmed her hands along his sharply defined, muscled arms, stroked his long, silky raven-black hair, drawing forth every inch of him, pulling deep from inside herself. She so wanted to savor this moment in his arms.

Winding her arms around his neck, she pressed against his warm, solid body. This time, she would not let him go. He dropped to his knees and she felt the heat of the red fire curled against them, roaring with life. Reaching down she embraced his thick shaft, remembering the breadth and measure of the elven tool and how it fit within her channel so snugly. So perfect.

“Put me inside you, Morganna.”

At her peripheral the scene started to waver and shimmer and a fist clutched at her heart. No. Not yet.


Read another excerpt from Morganna's Sacrifice at: http://www.adriannadane.com/morgannassacrifice.html

Find out more about Vampyre Falls at: http://www.vampyrefalls.com

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Body Parts by Adrianna Dane


Now Available from Loose Id
Cover Art by April Martinez
Genres: Gothic/Horror Paranormal
Length: Novel
Caution: Explicit adult content


Blurb:

Male virility unbound. Eternal lust designed by and for the pleasure of his makers and their thirst to discover the secret to eternal life.

Immortal Youth. All male. An incomparable Frankenstein creation without flaw. Parts melded by alchemy and science, infused and fed by sexual energies of lust and desire, wholly designed for pleasure. Who survives through the acts of pleasure in all its many seductive forms.

Yet a tortured soul who walks eternally alone, forever hungry, driven to hunt for his one, true, perfect mate. That one person who can accept who and what he is. Someone who doesn't see him as a monster, but a man who only wants to love and to no longer be alone. Someone he can trust.

Athan...they all wanted him...

Dr. Sheba Ransom...

My heart hammered loudly as I greedily studied the sheathed, inanimate body. As I slowly revealed the shrouded form, a shiver of anticipation raced along my spine because deep down I knew my desire to see this gorgeous creature animate once more was not fully clinical... From the journal of Dr. Sheba Ransom (March 1939)

Dr. Paul Cathcart...

Paul had been here for a month and during that time he'd grown accustomed to this big, mysterious man. He'd become addicted to the sex. Maybe he needed some distance to regain his perspective. Becoming emotionally attached to any of the men or women he fucked was not in his best interests. He'd learned that lesson a long time ago. His mother had been a great teacher.

People were meant to be used to get ahead and make life more comfortable. Use ‘em and lose ‘em was the motto he lived by, what his mother had taught him very well. But Athan was almost a creature of another world and his fucking was stupendous. Paul had never really thought of himself as gay, but with this man... Mmm, it was hard to think of being with anyone else, let alone a woman. He already felt the desire jolting through him, and they'd just fucked that morning.
- Present Day, Dr. Paul Cathcart of the Morgan Institute

Dr. Korrie Odell...

Suddenly it was as if someone else took over her body -- yet again. Arching, she smoothed hands down over her aching breasts, cupped the dampness of her mound as she watched the molten look in his eyes deepen. Reaching up, she worked the button free on the front of his worn denims, peeled the zip open, and shoved his pants down over his hips. He dropped forward, reached under her skirt, and with one quick yank ripped off her panties. Shoving her skirt and slip up, he pressed her slick thighs open, opening and baring her to him. His hot hand cupped her, and she gasped when she felt a finger slide through her juices. Pure primal heat engulfed her as she arched her hips up to meet him, like a plant rising from beneath the earth to reach for the life-giving sun... -Present Day, Dr. Korrie Odell

Yet no one would ever understand what he truly desired...

Athan...

No one knew what living hell was unless they walked in his shoes. And he was certain no one would want that pleasure.

God-play, and he was the result. Combine science, sex, and alchemy, and the good doctors had created him. He lived by pleasure, for pleasure, and because of pleasure. He was fed by sex, the anticipation of the hunt, the sex act, the energy of consummation, and the afterglow.

He was one of a kind, an experiment never to be repeated. One that could be turned monster or man. The Ransoms had wanted the man, but if anyone else found out the truth about him...the monster could be released if the wrong person learned his secrets. He couldn't take the chance, ...

No one was to be trusted, that was the one edict that had been ingrained into Athan by the Ransoms.

Trust no one....


Or did someone understand?

They all want something...

One wanted to give him life, to protect him, and teach him about passion...

One wanted to use him, to own him....or destroy him...

One wanted to love him ...

and one wanted simply to no longer remain alone...


In the Beginning...

In the 1940's the Doctors Ransom hid more from the outside world than anyone could ever have imagined, both in scientific research and in the intimacy of passion. Basing their taboo, scientific research on the controversial works of Dr. Frankenstein, and combining their own knowledge, Sheba and Cornelius Ransom created the perfect male specimen from body parts and mystic alchemy. He is one-of-a-kind and no one will ever discover the true depths of the experiment because in his creation, the doctors also designed the perfect guardian to secure the records containing the secrets of their miracle defined by pure lust. He is a man imprisoned by his roots.

More than sixty years later, Dr. Korrie Odell, a research scientist at the Morgan Institute, a woman betrayed and marked by her past, is in search of the answer to the riddle of immortality, one supposedly unlocked by Drs. Sheba and Cornelius Ransom. Dr. Paul Cathcart, Korrie's ex-lover, and the man who betrayed her, also thirsts for that knowledge and fights for plumb assignment using any method necessary to gain what he wants. A quirk of fate eventually lands Korrie the opportunity she's been waiting for and has her arriving at the Ransom estate to more thoroughly delve into the Ransoms' research. It is there that Korrie stumbles upon the Heathcliff-sexy and mysteriously elusive caretaker, known only by the name "Athan"...

Frankenstein may have created a monster, but the Ransoms sculpted a lover without boundaries, without limits, tied irrevocably to a tortured past. In his mind he is an unspeakable horror.

There are murderous forces and dark, sinister secrets churning on the horizon, ones that contain the power to destroy Korrie and Athan and quench the fiery passion that has only begun to unleash.

Read more about Athan and his lovers at
http://www.adriannadane.com/bodyparts.html

Purchase the book: http://www.loose-id.com/detail.aspx?ID=637

Friday, January 11, 2008

Creating Immortal Treasure

In 2006, Amber Heat released an erotic romance of mine titled Immortal Treasure. I've recently recorded a podcast of the first chapter of this story and published it today.

Creating Immortal Treasure happened through a series of events. I started out with the story premise of an archeologist/linguist who goes to Egypt on a dig. It was interesting that a series of programs regarding ancient Egypt were broadcast right around the time I was plotting this story. It was around November, just when the large discounts houses have those wonderful glossy gift books out and I purchased one of them on Ancient Egypt. Let me tell you, it's a really big book...and I love it.

Slowly the story began to emerge and change and grow as I watched and read more and more about the mysteries of Ancient Egypt.

I often find that if I go to sleep at night pondering a story, I awake with a scene in my head, or some image that relates to my work in progress (WIP). Thus was created the mythical city of Niveka, lost long ago through the anger of the God, Ra.

In a Google search, I discovered a listing of Egyptian names, breaking them down and providing meaning to the various roots of the names. And so Khafeelamtek, First Vizier and Caretaker of the Secrets of the King, and the other ancient, immortal characters were named in this story.

And here is where the lovely Dr. Cassandra Linsey enters the picture, a woman who is chosen to reveal the secrets of Niveka.

This is what I love about story creation and why my house (let alone my office) is filled with books, books, and more books, and pile after pile of paper. Researching and reading and making notes until suddenly a bolt of lightning hits and just around another corner some exciting new revelation is revealed to enhance and bring the story and characters to life.

I have to say, I didn't want Immortal Treasure to end, there's so much more to learn about my mythical city of Niveka and the people who lived there. This is the type of thing that brings so much excitement to story creation.

A little about Immortal Treasure.



"Destiny and immortality often demand a steep price. The sands of time are running out as a seductively attractive Vizier of ancient Egypt and a beautiful present day Egyptologist are surprised to discover a shared passion that explodes into more than the borders of time, or the gods, will allow."


Listen to the podcast of the first chapter at: http://adriannadane.podomatic.com/entry/2008-01-11T08_31_54-08_00

Purchase Link: http://www.amberquill.com/Amberheat/ImmortalTreasure.html

Read an excerpt: http://www.adriannadane.com/immortaltreasure.html

This story and the research is what led to Jewel of Niveka which is the story of a secondary character from Immortal Treasure, Sahrametatiri and the man who falls in love with her, Ben Solomon.

There's at least one more story to be told and if you read Immortal Treasure, I think you can guess whose story it will be.

Adrianna

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Taboo Ideas

Recently I purchased a set of Goddesses Knowledge cards. I wasn't exactly certain what I was going to do with them, but I have always been interested in the goddess figure and the various representations and archetypes through different cultures.

I shuffled the cards the other morning and chose one. It is interesting that it should have been "Eagle Woman." The Bird Woman Goddess is fearless, yet nuturing. She is in many respects a marriage of masculine and feminine.

The Bird Goddess goes far back into foundations of goddess mythology, one of the oldest archetypes of the goddess figure.


My time and thoughts this week have been focused on my upcoming new release, Body Parts, and the edits to another of my stories, An Acquired Taste. These are very different stories, but contain taboo elements. In particular, Body Parts doesn't follow the accepted rules of romance stories. I'm finding the more I write, the less I follow the traditional rules. It must be the rebel in me, or maybe it's just the way the story needs to be told.

Often when we read something, certain words or ideas pop out at us. These will visually be the words that touch on something important to us, that are meaningful and useful in our lives.

I read the narrative on the back of the Eagle Woman card and these are the words that spoke to me today, considering my state of mind.

"...linked with the masculine" "...vessel" [this word holds particular meaning in relation to Body Parts] "...ability to break out of millennia-old stereotypes and find a new definition..."

I didn't know what to expect when I pulled a card the other morning, but Eagle Woman certainly connected with some part of me. Or maybe I just reached out to claim what I felt was mine.

Certainly an interesting exercise for the morning. I guess I was looking for an answer, and I got it.

For more information on the cards, Goddesses Knowledge Cards are published by Pomegranate and can be purchased at Isis Books (www.isisbooks.com) or another online store of your preference.

Adrianna