Victim or Villain?

I'm talking about vampire press, of course. Is the poor, misunderstood vampire a hero, struggling to rise above his base nature (let's face it, drinking the blood of anything, much less a human, isn't really at the top of Miss Manners' cultural graces list. You want to argue it's civilized, go right ahead.)? Or is he--as classically portrayed--a villain, intent on seducing every maiden (and probably a few men) in his path, draining her (his) life force until she (he) is nothing but an empty, lifeless shell? Or worse, a new recruit to the hordes of blood-sucking fiends?

And how was he created? Did he willingly participate in his own debauchery? Was he cursed? (I don't know if there are any vampire curses in the world of books. Lori Handeland has a couple of werewolf curses that work really well, but I'm not sure about any vampires being cursed into being.) Was it accidental? Open yourself up to the moment and, bammm, ouch?

As I've said before, I don't understand the appeal of the vampire. I like them as villains. Maybe they're more appealing as heroes if you don't think too hard about what they're doing. Terri Garey pointed out the other day, commenting on my guest post at Writers at Play, that perhaps the bite is symbolic of other penetration...fair enough. I have no problem with people using their mouths, tongues, teeth, to create pleasure. So maybe if you don't think about the fact that they're draining blood in the process....

So maybe I can get the seduction part. But heroic?

"So, Mr. Overbite, what do you really want out of life?"

"Well, Ms. Lovely Neck You've Got There, my primary ambition is using my superhuman strength to save ordinary humans from the packs of demons roaming the planet."

"Very noble, Mr. O. And how do you respond to the charges that your real motives are less than pure? You know, the whole 'I vont to sahck yor bluhd' stereotype?"

"I want only what's best for everyone, Ms. L. By the way, would you like to join me for dinner and a drink?"


Note: one of my all-time favorite books: Bloodsucking Fiends, by Christopher Moore. You want darkly funny portrayal of all things evil, go check out Moore's early works. Skip the recent stuff, go straight to Practical Demonkeeping, Bloodsucking Fiends, and The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove. Okay, don't skip it, just don't start there. He's best experienced from the very beginning.

Guest Blogger: Tracy Jones -- Tyler's Trek

This post is a little (okay, a lot) off the usual track. But when the chance came up to spread the word about this event, I jumped at it. After all, I rationalized, I write romance--and sex--and frequently romance and sex leads to having babies. And this post is about one of my favorite babies--Tyler Jones. Tyler is my friend Tracy's absolutely adorable, and somewhat mischievous, 18-month-old son.

The rest of the story, I'll let Tracy tell you.

As many of you know, my son Tyler was born almost 3 months early last year, at 28 weeks gestation. He weighed only 2 pounds, 13 ounces and still had a lot of developing left to do. He spent a long 8 weeks in the NICU before being allowed to come home. Today, he is a happy, healthy toddler who keeps us on our toes constantly! I credit so much of his progress and well-being to the doctors and nurses at Winnie Palmer Hospital here in Orlando. We are lucky to live in this area so that Tyler stayed there. The hospital is amazing – it has the 4th largest NICU in the country and is capable of taking care of the sickest and tiniest patients there are. I've got living proof :)

On September 26th, I will be participating in the Miracle Miles run, along with numerous friends and family, to benefit the Winnie Palmer NICU where Tyler spent so much time. Please take a moment to visit our website, which describes Tyler’s NICU journey in video, pictures and words...and shows the miracle that the doctors and nurses at Winnie Palmer perform every day.

http://www.tylerstrek.webs.com/

I am collecting donations in support of Orlando Health's Miracle Miles event to benefit their NICU. Too many babies are born too early…and each one deserves the same chance in life that Tyler got. My fundraising goal is $10,000 – I really think I can reach that…every $1 helps! There is a guest book – be sure to stop in and show your support.

Corporate Sponsors – A minimum donation of $500 reserves a space on the team t-shirts for your logo. If you are interested, please forward me a high-res image along with any additional wording. Let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you all for your support over the past 18 months. It never fails to amaze me how many people Tyler has touched already in his lifetime - I hope he realizes one day how big that is!

Tracy

Vampires, Mummies and the Holy Ghost

Today is "lack of personal responsibility day." I am holding Terri Garey completely responsible for the fact that Jimmy Buffett's "Vampires, Mummies and the Holy Ghost" is running through my head. (I guess I should be glad it isn't "It's a Small World," hmm?) Terri writes these fabulously funny paranormals featuring Nikki Styx, the world's hippest medium, and she invited me to do a guest spot over at Writers at Play today (the post should be up any time)...and asked me this loaded question: vampires, werewolves, or ghosts?

Check out the blog for my answer, if you haven't guessed it already.

Also, I'm holding the weather man (out of the kindness of my heart, I won't give his name) responsible for my "what happened to common sense" mood. Really, do I need to know it will be 91 in my little corner of the city, and just 90 in that corner over there?

And it's Monday. Looks like it's going to be an interesting week...

Friday Fiction

I do read. Not as much as I used to, and not as widely as I'd like, but I do get a few books in here and there. Usually a blend of fiction and non-fiction, favorite authors and "I really ought to try."

I write, as you know, erotic romance and what I've decided to call "paranormal romantic suspense" (I'm sure someone else has already called it that, but what the heck, so I'm a little slow.). I thought about calling it "literary paranormal horror romantic suspense" but I thought that was probably overkill, and besides, I'm not sure it's really very horror-filled or literary. So the few pages that are will just have to be ignored by the commercial-fiction majority.

Paranormal, though. Hm. The problem with paranormal, as I remember every time I judge a contest, is that it really covers a lot of ground. Trying to read one popular author this past week, I remember that some of it is really familiar ground, and I still don't know why some of it sells. Vampires, for example. I will freely admit to enjoying JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood books, once my CP bludgeoned me into reading them. Truly, though, it's because I thought they were interesting characters and had a lot of chemistry, as well as some deviations from the typical "I vant to suck your blohd" schtick. The one I tried to read this week, not so much. Two chapters in, I gave up and put it on the stack to return to the library.

The story I'm working on right now--Dreamwalk--and the one that's more or less plotted out--Resurrection--don't have vampires, or werewolves, or any of the more typical paranormal elements. What they have are smart, talented people who accept that what you see isn't necessarily what you get in the world around you. Which is pretty much how I look at life. But then, how do I push them? If my heroine (in Dreamwalk, she's a ghost hunter) finds the unexpected to be, well, expected, how do I turn her world upside down?

Hot and Hotter

It's 80 degrees already. It's 6:20 a.m. and it's 80 damned degrees. I know there are places on earth for which this is normal, but Orlando isn't one of them. It's hot.

But I digress.

Here's what's really hot. Dara Edmondson, author of hot contemporary women's fiction like Compromising Positions and Falling Star (her recent Wild Rose Press Titles) and Captured (Red Sage), will be joining me next Saturday on Jose Miranda's Yo Soy Latino radio show. This one-hour 'magazine' show has been host to me twice before, and it's always a lot of fun. Jose has a really relaxed attitude, and he--and his crew--LOVE romance and romance novelists.

Dara and I are both giving away books, in case you needed another reason to listen.

Here's the where and when: Saturday, June 27, noon(ish) - 1(ish), WEUS 810 (a.m.). If you aren't in the Orlando area, listen to us on the web at the Yo Soy Latino website. There's a "listen" button on the top left. Note: in case you're concerned about the name, Jose's show is generally directed to a Hispanic audience, however the show is in English...and always about something interesting.

Updates

A few quick updates: First, I cancelled my website, www.laradien.com. I wasn't making the use of it that I should have been to justify continuing to pay for it. Hopefully before my registration expires in December I'll be able to bring it back up. For now, though, it's kaput.

Second, I have a title, finally, for my latest contracted story. We switched settings to Ireland, and the new title is Emerald Ecstasy. So now we start the editing process.

I have a new deal with my critique partner. She's promised to beat me over the head with a stiletto (the shoe, not the knife) if I don't meet my weekly writing goals. This is especially important because I'm going to try to keep working on Dreamwalk while I'm doing revisions and edits to Emerald.

Back to it...I have work to do before I hit the hay! Yes, it's nice to say I get up at five to go to the gym, but I pay for those bragging rights...

Dreaming, Doing, and Deadlines

First...woohoo! It's been just about 3 weeks since my last post...I'm getting better. I think. Actually, I have several things to write about, so if the clock gods will work with me, I may get back to a productive schedule.

Which brings me to today's topic.

I am deadline oriented. I've known for years (decades, really) that I work better under the pressure of a clock. There are times this is good, because I don't crumble under pressure--I step up and do what needs to be done, even if it is someone else's emergency, and I do it reasonably well.

On the other hand, I don't do as well taking the long-term view of things. It may be a side-effect of my type A personality, where I'm so focused on the urgency of whatever I'm doing at the moment, that I don't have time to attend to longer-term patterns.

I have plenty of goals, short and long term (let's call them dreams, shall we? Just so my title makes sense), but I'm better at taking aim at shorter-term goals and working on them. Hard for me to map out my entire career, for example, easier to look at today's writing goal.

So in the "doing," I have a bit more trouble. Procrastination, some people call it. Easily distracted, I've been told (an ex-boyfriend of mine used to actually laugh at me--kindly, he really thought it was funny--about my "hobby of the week," because I throw myself into things, and if it's the wrong thing for me, *poof* something replaces it a week later, and I'm stuck with, well, stuff. Beads, yarn, books on various topics, etc. But I digress.). I've been working on the same big areas of my life for, oh, 20 years or so, without much progress.

Then I got a deadline. Okay, not really a deadline--let's call it more of a cosmic ultimatum. I have to dial my type A personality down to a type B and make some drastic changes. It's a health issue, but my immmediate realization was that it isn't a medical issue, it's a lifestyle issue. I move too fast, too hard, too crazily, and my body is protesting. Vigorously.

To bring myself back to healthy, I have to slow down. Figure out what's important and do only that. Stop grousing about how I don't have enough time to do everything, and recognize that, duh, no, I don't. No one does.

A few months ago, I was looking at a garden--herbs, flowers. prayer flags, a fountain--stunned by the beauty and peace of it, and wondering why I shy away from tranquility. Now I have to learn to make friends with it, revel in the depths of it. Calm down those firing nerves and bring my focus back to center.

My to do list has gotten a lot shorter recently. Writing. Yoga. Cooking healthy food. Going to the gym. Writing more. Journalling, clearing up the past. Volunteering...only not so much. Meditating...only not so little.

Nothing like a kick in the ass from the Universe to get your priorities in order. I've dreamed, I've done...now I'm doing more with less. Never mind the deadlines.