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Yes, I do appreciate all of you. Sometimes I get wrapped up in things and forget to say it or show it, but I FEEL it. Yesterday, at the horse racing sim, we were informed that one of our friends had died earlier this month from brain cancer. We hadn’t heard from him in awhile because of his illness and his nephew who gave us updates, took his death hard and didn’t let us know right away. John Chapman, Nawbo or Naws to the sim gang, was an amazing friend who was my partner in the Stupor Stable. I miss him, but I know that he lives on in the memories - little pieces of him - that I, and the others, carry in our hearts.

Nawbo’s passing reminds me that I should thank all of you for YOU. For coming here or reading me in your feed readers. For commenting - showing that you care by the words you leave here when I’m excited or sad or sick. And all your tweets are important to me, from Dave’s chiding about TVC to Gooster’s Good morning, sunshine. Thank you to all of you who sent comments on Twitter about Nawbo’s death. Every tweet was important to me.

I do have some news for you about my writing. I received a second contract from a different publisher for my story Silver Lining. SL is an intensely personal story for me. I cried writing it that’s how deep it goes. Silver Lining will be released in July by Midnight Showcase Fiction. My sequel will be read by my publisher this week and I’m hoping she likes it as much as Shifting Winds. This series is quickly becoming a focus for me. I’ve started working out plot twists for Fire Season, which is book 3. Vahid, the enigmatic black dragon, shows up a little more in this book because a lot of it is tied up with the Antaeus family’s business where he’s a VP. I have a feeling he’s going to be one of those secondary characters that the readers want to have his own story. We’ll see how that goes though… Number 3 isn’t even written yet.

I wish every one of you a very happy Thanksgiving, and much love and laughter. Thank you for YOU. You all make my life so much brighter.

Not the band, although I like them. No, I have food poisoning and I have to say that the first 24 hours of it is just brutal. The second 24 hours is just miserable by comparison. So I feel better, but rather like I have a massive hangover. I’ve never had a hangover (alcohol just never affected me like that), but from what other people say a hangover feels like… that would be me. Massive headache. Massive nausea. Add to that a case of ‘I wish the bathroom was about 6 feet closer to my bed’.

I’m seriously unhappy. I had a lot of plans for my Sunday that included The Bar and blogs. Flushed right down the toilet literally now. And the worst part of being on the back end of this thing is that I’m starting to get hungry now, but the nausea is a wicked little demon that won’t allow me any food, even the bland stuff. Luckily, it is allowing me to eat Ben & Jerry’s Creme Brulee ice cream.

So no one guessed that Corey in my excerpt last week was none other than Gooster! Of course, Gooster knew. Shame on the rest of you for not remembering that his real name is Corey! The book that Corey is in was sent to my publisher last week. Hot Water features Karl with a K in the beginning of the story, a couple of scenes with Corey, and a scene at the end with Vahid, the black dragon. In the next book in this series, Vahid appears again. In the fourth book in the series, Corey is back.

Since you’ve already had a taste of Karl with a K and Corey the smartass executive assistant, I thought I’d give you a Marcus and then a little taste of Vahid. This is a nice Marcus photo, but I really don’t think those shorts are camouflaging anything. *snicker*

Here’s a taste of Vahid from Hot Water, the sequel to Shifting Winds. The reason Vahid is sorta laughing is because Eden’s boyfriend has already been there and punched her brother Sean. Now Eden’s arrived to do the same.

The last time Eden had walked down this corridor was the day she’d left Antaeus International’s payroll. The last person she’d seen that day was Vahid Delrey. There was an odd bit of irony in the fact that the first person she saw today was Vahid.

“Eden!” The black dragon’s voice was still smooth and smoky like a fine whiskey. “I never thought I’d see you in this building again. How are you?”

Slapping a polite smile on her face, Eden turned to greet her former lover. “I’m good, Vahid. How are you? Still keeping things together for Sean?”

Vahid nodded his dark head. He was the same height as Eden, with impossibly wide shoulders and thickly muscled arms. His eyes were ink dark and mesmerizing. He had the most disconcerting habit of focusing intently on a person when he was speaking to them. Women adored it. Men found it intimidating. Eden didn’t have either problem. However, Vahid was her brother’s right hand. His favored Vice President. If he asked questions, he had some kind of ulterior motive, which usually involved telling Sean everything.

“I’m glad Sean is keeping you busy. Do you happen to know if he’s in today?” she asked, her polite smile becoming an inquiring one.

Vahid grinned. “Oh, he’s here. It’s been a busy morning,” he said, his expression amused.

“Really?” Already Eden’s brain had shifted gears away from Vahid, which really wasn’t polite because the man was nicer than nice. When she’d broken up with him, he’d taken it with equanimity, as he did most things. She’d wondered then, as she did now, where all his extreme emotions were hidden.

“It was nice to see you again, Vahid. Take care of yourself,” she murmured, heading down the corridor to Sean’s office.

“It was great to see you too, Eden.”

She could have sworn there was laughter in Vahid’s reply, but she couldn’t imagine what was funny so she dismissed it, reaching for the handle of Sean’s door.

Hope you enjoyed the excerpt and the Marcus! I’m headed off to the bathroom now. It’s time for my next offering to the porcelain god. Hope you have a better Monday than me!

Gah! I have to go to work. I’ve been out of time for days! I’m one chapter away from finishing the sequel to the novella I sold. This story is longer than the first one and more involved. It does feature a scene with Karl the snarky elf in the beginning. He shows up briefly once more, and then there’s a scene with Corey, the hero’s executive assistant. Just like Karl, who is a little like our own Secondhand Karl, Corey is someone you know. See if you can guess who? First person to answer correctly in comments will win… something. I dunno what yet cause I gotta run to work!

There was more blah blah blah business patter as they walked him to the elevator. As soon as the doors closed, Colin growled and yanked his tie loose. He was done with this crap. Every meeting Marius had set up was the same. He took out his phone and hit the speed dial for his assistant Corey.

“Bossman! How’s the Big Apple?” Corey was an engaging young man who was beyond efficient if a little irreverent in his demeanor.

“These meetings suck, Corey. They’re all the same. Get me out of the rest of them,” Colin growled.

Corey chortled with amusement. “You met someone. You just wanna spend the next three days fucking!”

Colin rolled his eyes. “Corey, what man doesn’t wanna spend his days and nights fucking?”

“I don’t,” Corey said loftily.

“That’s because you don’t have a boyfriend right now,” Colin laughed.

“Just because I’m unattached doesn’t mean I couldn’t fuck for three days and nights if I wanted to. I’m just not a slutty boy,” his assistant sniffed.

Colin grinned. Corey was a fairly masculine man. When he put on the over the top, feminine stereotypical gay man act, it was amusing. “Fine. Your moral self needs to pick up the phone and cancel the rest of the appointments Marius made for me. I’m off to be a slutty boy,” he said cheerfully.

“Who did you meet?’ Corey’s voice lowered to a conspiratorial tone. “I won’t tell the Big Fang that you’re spending the rest of your time in New York fucking some woman. It is a woman, isn’t it?”

Colin shook his head, stifling his laughter as the elevator door opened and he stepped out. “Corey, when have you ever known me to fuck a man?”

His assistant’s laugh was rich with amusement. “Never. But there’s always a first time!”

“No first times for me. It’s a woman. A beautiful strong willed black dragon woman,” he confided as he headed for the taxi stand.

“Ooooh!” Colin could just see Corey’s eyes opening wide. “What is it with you Granvilles lately? First your sister goes all googly eyed for a dragon and now you.”

Colin got in a waiting cab and gave the driver the name of his hotel. “I’m not googly eyed, Corey. I’m just horny.”

“You say to-may-toe and I say to-mah-toe.”

Colin grinned at his assistant’s cheekiness. “We’ll see. So far, she hasn’t called me back and that is not a good sign.”

“She’ll call,” Corey said confidently.

“You sound like you’re ready to take bets on this.”

Corey made a rude sound that Colin took for a raspberry. “Bossman, you have a big dick. All the girlies want to call you back. And all the slutty boys wish you’d call.”

As Colin burst out laughing, Corey told him, “You just have a good time burning your candle at both ends. Corey will relieve you of the boring meetings. See you in three days, Bossman!”

Okay, here’s a Marcus! Don’t drool too much. Heh.

Happy Monday!

Better late than never, eh? I had a problem with my eye yesterday so I didn’t get Humpday Hotties up on time. By the time I could see out of the eye, I needed to go to work. Basically, I have a condition where my eyeball swells. It’s related to my asthma. To make the swelling go down, I have to use steriod drops. They suck. The condition is painful. And it recurs. Probably was brought on by stress yesterday.

Anyway, I have a cold glass of moo juice and hot chocolate chip cookies and some hotties I didn’t get to post yesterday. First up is the beautiful Rafael Verga, the bisexual brother to last week’s hotness. Click HERE to see what Rafe shares equally with the sexes.

For those who like ladies, I have my favorite female, Kelly Monaco, whom you can view nekkid HERE.

Yowza! This was so hot it was too much for a Wednesday. (I said it before Gooster Twittered it. Hee hee.) Tomorrow is Commando Friday so please visit the Commando in Chief, Dave from Blogography, as well as his most excellent Second in Commando, Gooster of Just a Dude Talking About Life. I still have some contest info coming and uh… I think my publisher may take more of my dragon series. Woo hoo! And one last thing, the story I’m working on now features Karl with a K, the snarky elf, and Vahid, the black dragon. You too could be a support character if you think you’re worthy!

Happy Thursday!

Have I said before that I hate the mall? I must have. I REALLY hate the mall. Anyway, Motley needed new jeans so guess where I was yesterday? Heh heh. Barnes and Noble! Motley was across the street at the mall.

At any rate, going shopping screws up my day. I don’t get done the things I’d thought I’d accomplish over the weekend and I just really really dislike it. The bookstore wasn’t too godawful bad and for once, no one was in the romance section until right before I left, so I was alone with the books. That was probably a good thing because I’m sure I looked like a total freaking moron staring at the shelf where the V’s would be. There were no V’s, by the way. If I end up in print, I would be the only V. So when this one lone woman showed up to browse the section, I so wanted to grab her and show here where my book would be if it were in print. Yeah, I’m losing it just a tad I think.

I ended up using the gift card I won from the Colordado Vixens blog (thanks ladies!) and I spent about $7. Then I started looking at the prices of crap in the Starbucks cafe. Holy shit! I about passed out. One teeny tiny red velvet cupcake, the equivalent of 1 bite, was $2.95. Man, that made my head spin. I could make those suckers full size cupcakes and sell em on the curb outside the store for a buck apiece and make a killing…

Sorry I didn’t get back to you all with my Friday pimping. The things I was gonna pimp got all goobered up. For one, I don’t know what Motley’s hours are now… cept for Sunday and Monday nights at 11 pm Pacific time to 1 am. She did all kinds of other shifts last week. Apparently, she and her boobs are very popular. The other thing I’m gonna pimp is called Bloody Kissmas and it’s a giveaway in December on My Space. I think I’ll wait until the end of the week to start pimping it. I just hate Christmas crap too early. My part of the giveaway is a vampire shirt. I’ll get into it all later. There’s pics and banners and a video (not one of my videos)… stuff yanno.

So now it’s time for Marcus and then I gotta get outta this towel and head to work. Here’s my luscious Monday man…

This is a repeat Marcus, not because I don’t have any photos I haven’t posted, but because this is my favorite photo of him and I’m in the mood for it.! Have a great Monday!

Elections are over. Whew. Yes, I voted. No, not for the first time either. I’ve picked a winner before. More than once. Our new prez said he was an unlikely candidate… well, today I bring you likely candidates… for licking. Let’s all celebrate, shall we?

First up, a Brazilian popsicle… Alex Verga.

Then, some American ice cream… Laura Prepon.

And finally, the sorbet that is… DJ Stikki Nikki from Outlaw Radio…

Aka… my own Motley.

I’ll be back on Friday with some pimping and news about a GREAT giveaway on MySpace where YOU have the chance to win not just a fanged t-shirt from me, but candles with vampire bites, and other vampire related cool gifts. (Sorry, no TVC are shown or given away, unless you win one of the books.) If you get the chance, stop by Outlaw Radio and show Stikki Nikki some love. She’ll blow kisses to you on cam and play your song request to show you how grateful she is that you stopped by.

Happy Humpday Hotness!

I’m running a little late this morning, but I can’t miss putting up Marcus. As a muse, Marcus has been superb! Gotta love the man’s yummyness.

The only new news I have to report is that my novella Shifting Winds will probably be out in e-Book format in March from Pink Petal Books. The sequel is about 1/3 done now. I’m hoping to have it finished by the 15th. One of the things that’s been helping me is a little writing group called Word Wars. For those of you who write or are doing NaNo, you might want to consider joining us. It’s just a conference in Yahoo Instant Messenger where we put 30 minutes on the clock and just write. At the end of the 30 minutes we do a word count and cheer each other on. Sometimes, we share a few excerpts to get the juices flowing. If anyone is interested in joining in on Word Wars, hit me up on Yahoo when you see my Word Wars busy message. I’m knacwinterheart.

I gotta keep this short, as it’s almost time to leave for work. Before I go though, I did want to let you know that Motley is now DJ-ing for Outlaw Radio at fubar.com under the name Sticky Nikki. If you get a chance sign up for fubar and check out her show. She’s on Monday and Tuesday nights at 11 pm Pacific time, and Thursday and Friday from 11 am - 1 pm Pacific time. (I think I got those times right.) She had her first show last night and starts out her set with Nikki by the Low Millions. She also has the webcam on so you can watch her eat popsicles. Believe me, the crowd loves it!

Okay, here’s Marcus then I gotta jet outta here!

That’s so nice it makes me long for the days of holey jeans again! Have a great Monday everyone!