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Later this week, on the 7th, I’ll be over at Cindy Jacks’s blog talking about love.  It’s February, so people tend to wanna talk about those tender emotions.  I write about them all the time because my books and stories always have a happy ending.  I’m the kind of person who has to have a HEA (happily ever after.) Or some sort of happy ending at any rate. I don’t want to read about the angst without having it all work itself out, handing the hero and heroine a reward.

In real life, things don’t always work out that way. In my life, the angst has always outweighed the HEA. I think some of us are meant to have to struggle. Very little in my life has come easy, ergo I learned to appreciate the hard won victories.  Things mean more to me if I have to work for it. I tend to hang on to people as long as I can, try to work out issues, try to give them what they need and want, try to keep and nurture the love I have. But sometimes, no matter how hard you work, love still slips away. I’ve lost a lot of people in my life so I prize the ones I have right now. I know that our hearts seem to be the regenerative type, and if we lose someone today, later on we’ll find someone else to love. Still, I’d rather not have go through that again. I just want this HEA to work itself out NOW.

Someone I’ve known and loved since I was 17 years old (I’m not sure I should tell you how many years that is… but it’s more than thirty LOL) did a nice thing this week. He told the readers of his blog about me and sent them here. I think most of his audience are mommy bloggers, which I’m so not. After all, Motley (Nikki) is twenty now and I don’t think she ever called me Mommy anyway. *wink*

Anyway, David told people about me in a little post that exposes some of the framework upon which my heart sits. It felt strangely timely to read his words about my past and feel the connection to my present. You should click THIS and hop on over to see what he said. He was probably my first real love, first real lover, odd as that may seem since he’s decidedly gay. But back then we were just kids, beginning to work our way out of the teens, learning about emotions and sex and a host of other stuff we just really had no clue about. The piece of my heart that David owns is just one of those things about love that we can’t exactly quantify. It just IS.

I must need a sweet, sexy Marcus today. Something to make my old heart pound.  I used to think about my Bar characters a lot more than I do now and thinking about my signature character Alexandria and her mate Alaric always meant that I had that image of Marcus in my head. I miss Lex so I think maybe I need to a write a post about her. After all, she lets me use her name on my books, the least I could do is visit her once in awhile, eh? So here’s my Marcus for today, all sexy and smokey-eyed.

Don’t forget to come by Cindy’s on February 7th to see what I have to say about that thing called Love.  Also, don’t forget that Marty and I have a new release filled with spooky stories. You can pick up Weirdly 3 at Wild Child Publishing.

One last thing… go give my pal Tess some love. Her book Latin Rhythm is scheduled for release on the 4th but the buy link is live NOW. Her cover is probably the best cover I’ve ever done.

Wishing you all a very wonderful Monday!

I love this guy. He is always there with a kind word. He’s the most supportive of friends. He’s smart and funny and makes you wish he wasn’t married. *wink* Now, he has something happening that he’s always longed for… to be a published fiction author. Marty’s first fiction release is due out January 26!

Last year, I inherited at project at Wild Child Publishing.  An editor left and the project fell to me in terms of finding authors and stories for it.  I wasn’t quite sure how to go about that. After all, I don’t usually hang with authors who write horror.

Weirdly III is an invite only anthology of horror stories. It’s full of twisted paranormal stories in the Twilight Zone genre. Finding freaky stuff to suit the book was just… freaky.

It became a labor of love, however, as I grew to enjoy the creepy stories that landed one by one in my Inbox. As I went along, counting word counts with an eye toward having 70K so the book would have a shot at coming out in print eventually, it dawned on me that I knew writers outside of the world of romance and erotic romance.

So I sent Marty an email and asked him if he was interested. And he was. Now, months after this book suffered many a set back, it’s ready for publication and there is Marty’s name on the cover. Oh, my name’s there too, but I’m not nearly as excited about that as I am to see Marty there!

I really loved Marty’s twisted story about a singer who wishes he could be in more than one place at one time. It was exciting and creepy at the same time and Marty did a great job learning how to write for a publisher. (No head hopping! *wink*)

On January 26, take a run over to Banal Leakage and congratulate Marty on his release day. Then head on over to Wild Child Publishing and buy yourself a copy of Weirdly III. You will not be sorry you did!

It’s a Tuesday Tune for the holidays. I love Soundgarden so this has been one of my fave Christmas songs ever since I first heard it.

Last night was a special Jester Show featuring Dave2 of Blogography. They talked about a lot of interesting stuff from iPhone apps and politics to touching up supermodels and cruise ships.  Iron-Fist (Vahid) called in as did Snackiepoo (Hilly) and me. My very short convo with them at the end of the show was about Throbbing Vampire Cock, my favorite Davetoon of all time.

If you didn’t get a chance to listen in to the show live, check out the podcast above. Fans of Ride the Lightning will get to hear the real Vahid and Dave speak! Yes, they both sound incredibly sexy as does Jester who has the best laugh in the world.  Jester Shows are never to be missed. They are so much fun!

Have a great Tuesday!

Yanno how things never end up as you planned? Yeah, well, the Ride the Lightning video I made falls right into that category. No Alice in Chains music after all. I ended up with a brand new Breaking Benjamin song. The funny thing is I still couldn’t make up my mind on the song even after I’d firmly decided on the band. So Nikki and I listened to three different tunes. Every time I heard one I’d think, “THAT’s the one!” Then I narrowed it down to two songs. I was pretty sure I wanted Without You but then I listened to Dear Agony again. But Nikki was sure. Without You.

So I finished the video and uploaded it wondering if I’d chosen right. The next morning I found myself unconsciously humming the song as I thought about the next scene I needed to write. Funny how things work out. It was the perfect song after all! It worked out like a plan within a plan although sorta random at the same time.

I’ll get back to Ride the Lightning in a minute cause I have a cute story to tell about it. But first I need to let you all know that Fire Season was nominated for a Rainbow Award. At the moment, they are taking votes from the public so that they can narrow down the nominees to a set of finalists that a panel of judges will chose a winner from. If you read and liked Fire Season, I very much appreciate your vote. I’d tell those of you who just want to support me to vote, but that feels sorta unethical for me say.

Anyway, the voting isn’t all that easy either unless you’re used to Live Journal polls. Here’s how you can vote for Fire Season in the Rainbow Awards:

Click this link to be taken to the poll. http://www.livejournal.com/poll/?id=1471994

Once there, you must sign in with either a Live Journal, Google ID or Open ID in the upper right corner. After you’ve signed in, on the left hand side click Fill Out Poll and you will get the voting page. Each category has multiple groups. You may vote for only ONE book in each group.

If you do not have any of those IDs to log in with you can leave a comment at this link with the name of the book you are voting for. Scroll to the bottom of the category and click on Leave A Comment.  http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/822605.html

I’m also guest blogging over at Naughty n’ Nice where I talk about being a Flash in the Pan! LOL You won’t want to miss me being all self-critical. *wink* I have lots of stuff coming in the next two weeks from interviews to blog posts to video features and contests. One of the things you can check out daily for one of my videos or books is The Romance Studio’s 13 Days of Halloween.

So, Ride the Lightning. First thing I have to say is that if it goes to print I’m sending autographed copies to Dave and Vahid. Vahid, of course, is my black dragon hero. Although, he’s a little tarnished at first. Dave, on the other hand, is blazingly hero-ish as the heroine’s best friend. Vahid Delrey is an arrogant black dragon who doesn’t really want Emily as his mate. She’s cold and haughty and not at all what he thinks will suit him. It’s not until he finds her in a BDSM club, hanging from her wrists, beaten bloody by an inexperienced Dom that he discovers her secrets and begins to feel chivalrous. So Vahid has issues. *sigh* (Yes, I know the story is sorta plans within plannish too.)

Dave Forrester, on the other hand, is a Magia (a wizard) who has been Emily’s best friend for years. As the owner of Far From Heaven (a BDSM club) he watches over Emily and tries to keep her from going too far off the deep end.

The funny thing about using bits of real people in a book is that I get it, but new readers don’t. Carol, a sweetheart of a woman on my Tales Yahoo group, didn’t realize that there was a REAL Vahid. So I showed her a photo from my Flickr account. Oh dear. She positively DROOLED over the real Vahid. Not that he’s not droolworthy. It’s just that she had a “Oh, oh, oh! OMG He’s REAL!” moment and it amused me. LOL Vahid already knew he was gonna star in this book but I hope Dave doesn’t get pissed that my character looks like him and has a thing for Liz Hurley… Wonder if he knows anything about whips?

Okay, time for a Marcus and then I need to haul myself off to work!

Ahh, so beautifully pensive. If you like Marcus click on this one and download it. It’s a large file. I’m off now, so have a great Monday!

In IT news… the damn board still isn’t moved. I keep getting errors. I need the SQL database god to come and snap his fingers and make it all magically move to where it’s supposed to go. I’m paying hosting on a site that isn’t up because I can’t move the damn thing. I may have to pay someone to do this. You’re wondering what this has to do with my title, aren’t ya? I’m trying to move an OLD message board to a NEW domain and hosting company. But the fucker isn’t cooperating. Or I’m just not smart enough to do this.

Moving on to other more pleasant subjects… My eyes are old. Officially that is. Yes, the doc gave me NEW reading glasses. Normally, the OLD part woulda depressed me. However, I was just happy to see clearly again and stop suffering from extreme exhaustion and major headaches. Anything within reach of my arms is a little out of focus for me now. Over the counter glasses from Walgreens helped, but I started feeling sick all the time especially the more I wore them. Turns out one eye is worse than the other so my prescription glasses address that and the lenses are different not the same. I worked all weekend on edits and Ride the Lightning and wow! What a difference!

On a side note about Ride the Lightning, there’s a character named Dave in this book. He’s a Dom who runs a BDSM club called Far From Heaven. He’s also Magia, one of the magical community in the Darkworld, so basically… he’s a wizard. He bears a superficial resemblance to my favorite Dave, but has no monkey sidekick. Maybe I should change that. I mean, every wizard has a familiar right? The book is starting to pick up speed and Vahid is now determined to save his self-destructive mate Emily. I’ll have to post a snippet when I’m a little deeper into the story.

Something happened recently and I didn’t blog about it in part because I usually don’t delve into my past a whole lot here. Anyway, more than twenty years ago, when I was pregnant with Motley, someone showed me what it means to truly be a friend. Kim Williams is ten years younger than me, but the woman has a heart of gold. I spent my pregnancy sick, broke, depressed, upset, freaked out, and just about any other emotion you could name. I literally had nothing. And I was so sick I ended up in the hospital the last six weeks of my pregnancy. It was one of the worst times of my life. I thought I was gonna die.

Through it all Kim was there. She took me to the doctor. She organized all her friends and my friends and took donations. She had the guys paint the used crib my roommate found at a yard sale. I mean, it was amazing. It went far beyond her making me eat and nagging me to take my vitamins. Just remembering what she did brings tears to my eyes. I felt so incredibly alone during that period and she made a major effort to show me that I wasn’t. There are very few people from my past that I love and admire more than Kim.

Sadly, we lost touch over the years. Mostly since I came to Southern California and more so when I moved to Orange County. My life with Rott has had a lot of ups and downs. Dealing with it on a daily basis didn’t leave much left over for anything else. A couple weeks ago Kim’s high school had a reunion. Somehow, and I sorta forget how, I had an old friend of hers on my Facebook. At the reunion, friends talked Kim into getting on Facebook and that is how we found each other again. I saw the notice of the reunion photos on her friend’s account and went to look at the photos. And there she was. Looking a lot like her mom these days but still with the long beautiful blonde hair and big eyes I remembered.

I don’t think I can find the words to say what it meant to me to find her again. I’m a sucky ass correspondent. I don’t write. I don’t call. Hell, lately since Rott’s been home, I don’t even Twitter and I miss it a lot but there are just not enough hours in the day at the moment. Something I’m hoping to rectify soon so I can have a better balance with things and have some time to enjoy chatting with friends and blogging more about the weird shit in my life.

At any rate, I’m a bonehead about keeping in touch with people I care about especially when I’m under pressure. I missed Karl’s birthday. Haven’t called Hilly like I promised. Keep forgetting to send Dave his prize… but I’m trying to make a more conscious effort to not let friendships – old and new – fall by the wayside. Finding Kim again is an important milestone. I really can’t afford to lose more people in my life. If you want to see the woman who singlehandedly kept me together and made it possible for Motley to be here today, you’ll find her on my Facebook. Kim Williams-Potts. One of my oldest, and even though I might not show it putz that I am, dearest, dearest friends.

So now for some Marcus. I need some this Monday. It’s month end at work and payroll so I’ve got tons of work to do and while I love my job, I hate being in the pressure cooker. I really need a Marcus to ease the stress.

That goofy little smile makes me laugh. Laughter is good for the soul I hear. So all of you have a chuckle at the expense of Marcus’ goofy smile and make your soul feel better. Have a great Monday!

So the heat in SoCal is killing me. I’ve had a non-stop headache for days as the oppressive heat and lack of central air just fuck with my body royally. It’s really gotten to the point where it’s painful and I just wanna lay in the bathtub and sob. Weather.com says it will start cooling today. Thus far, it doesn’t feel like it. It’s 7 am and it feels like all the other days in this heat wave. And my head is already pounding.

Moving on to a more pleasant topic, Fire Season hit #3 on All Romance eBooks top ten list of bestsellers. I’m shocked and flattered. I’m also afraid to go look at the chart this morning because the 1 and 2 books are so flaming hot I’m pretty sure I won’t be bypassing either of them. Since I’m fairly certain I’ve hit the ceiling, the only place left to go is down… which will be, well, deflating. However, I did get a really awesome email from a friend I’ve known for several years, since before I decided to sub my writing to a publisher. Here’s what it said:

A friend of mine started raving to me about a new author she had discovered.

It was you!

She is in the process of devouring your books. She LURVES the Dragons. LOL

I was able to say, oh yes. I have heard of her.

Sair

You can’t imagine how that email made me feel. Thank you for sharing that with me, Sair.

So, here’s my Monday Marcus. I had a little discussion over the weekend with some other authors about who be on our list to do if we could do anyone guilt-free. My list was woefully short! I think the top five spots were all Marcus! (Like you all didn’t know that. LOL) Anyway, here’s a sexy one. It’s a repeat, but I love it. It’s my favorite. All sexy in a bed… oh, baby.

No time for more pics but maybe I’ll post some female hotties on Humpday. Gotta keep my straight male pals happy. Have a great Monday!

I feel all speshul when I get an email from Dave2. It’s even better when I arrive at his blog and discover that I’ve been the inspiration for a cock that sucks you. (You gotta love that line.) I was all kinds of amused and delighted. I love Dave’s toons and this one totally made me laugh out loud. Usually, I don’t laugh at cock. Too busy describing it, I guess. Or trying to get some.

So, seriously people, you gotta read Dave’s blog post. For one, it describes the origin of TVC. For another, you get to see a TVC. It’s not only an amusing story, it’s a look into Dave’s head and how he comes up with a great toon. Who doesn’t wanna know what’s behind the genius?

After you read Dave’s post, you have to see the actual cartoon. TVC is a bad guy. You have to find out if he wins the day or not. What happens to the TVC will make you grin. Who doesn’t want to grin on a Tuesday? So run over here to read the full TVC toon.

I’m off to work in a minute and later I have to work on TPC (throbbing phoenix cock) so I’m gonna leave you with a Tuesday Tune. I haven’t done one in for-effing-evah. Here’s some Motley Crue to start the day!

Have a great Tuesday!