A Christmas Future

Dirk ran through the forest, his feet tromping heavily through the fallen leaves, small twigs cracked under his weight while sprigs of leaves smacked his face.The forest was the home of the Edelwiess Pirates, a teen resistance group protesting the Nazis. It didn't matter the protest was non violent, the man pursuing him would end the chase with a bullet if he had to.
A shadowed object appeard before him. Sliding on the fallen leaves, Dirk skidded to a halt, weapon drawn.
"I see you require my aid," Saje declared, ignoring Dirk's weapon. His grayish wings came to rest against his back.
Dirk held his luger steady, this wasn't the man who was chasing him."Aid? yes I am trying to apprehend a traitor. Did you see which way he went."
Dirk strained his eyes against the dark, there was a small gust of wind and a gentle flapping noise as a shadow seemed to fall behind the person. shadows playing tricks.
"I've been sent to rescue you from harm."
"you're going to keep me from harm?" Gregor smirked. "Harm from whom. The SS has no fear of this rabble" He could only assume the stranger meant the resistance. There was something different about the stranger, Gregor sensed an energy emanating from his presence. Something ancient. Why didn't he know?
"What are you?" Dirk asked. He no longer heard the menacing footsteps behind him. Had he eluded capture? Was the stranger one of the SS?
"A Woodland Fae. But nevermind that, I need to get you out of here." Saje knocked the gun away and grabbed onto Dirk's biceps so fast, the man had no time to react before he summoned his magic. The next second, they were back in 2009........
The strangers voice lulled him for a moment. woodland fae? He must have hit his head on a branch.
'What the?" Dirk was disarmed, before he could reach for the dagger, the stranger gripped his arm, in a merging of light and dark Dirk moved without moving. He whirled on the stranger."Where are we"
Saje spun the man around to face the scene before them. "Our future." His eyes misted as he looked at his unborn, unnamed children nestled upon Amanda's lap while she told them a bedtime story. Soft lamp light illuminated her dark hair as they all sat on a beige oversized chair. A lump rose in his throat at the beautiful sight.
"Our future? What is this?" Dirk asked, standing still, afraid to disrupt the peace he witnessed.
"My wife and my future family."
Dirk pulled away from his grip and surveyed the room around them. "What does this have to do with me?"
"You are part of their ancestry and my happiness."
"Oh."
Saje stepped beside him. "If you stay on the course you take, you will be killed prior to siring a child. The Nazi's will eventually have you murdered. I cannot allow that. Without your offspring, my wife will not exist in this time."
"The Nazi's will kill me? I am one of them." He was resistance. Even if Dirk fooled the Nazis into believing him loyal his father wasn't. The man hated all the Nazis stood for. Dirk watched the children for a moment. His gaze shifted to the mother, a silver necklace graced her pale skin, catching the light as she moved. Dirk recognized the edelwiess pendant. It looked like the medal given to his father years ago, it was a medal of honor made to resemble this token of pure love. Dirk reached for the medal in his pocket, his fingers curled around the silver medallion. He handed it to Saje."How? Who?" he studied the young woman again. his eyes misted.
Saje turned the medallion in his palm and fingered it's fine silver. He pocketed the treasure for Amanda later. "Hitler, because of your father's beliefs."
"Does my father get killed?" Dirk asked.
"Yes."
Dirk looked him in the eye. "I need to save him."
"And you?"
"Now that I am aware, I can protect myself and him from death." The resistance will continue the fight.
Could he trust him? Saje watched Amanda's face. He loved her so much. He looked at Dirk again. "I will bring you back to save your father, but I keep the medallion."
Dirk had to face facts. It was possible the Germans could win the war. self interest aside, he loved his father. His loyalty lost him his best friends, he couldn't lose his father too. All the talk of honor and glory could never replace the man who raised him. He had to try.
"Keep the medallion. Family honor comes first. I have no future without it."
Dirk slipped the medallion into the stranger's hand. He squinted his eyes before the image of the woman and children could fade. Events would pass into history but family was forever.


Deborah J Panger and my story, Saje, is coming in Spring of 2009, to the Scarlet Rose line.
Jennifer Childers is the author of Kindertransport, and this will be released in August 2009.
Both books are published through Wild Rose Press

Winter Solstice and the holidays

Winter Solstice is the longest night of the year, the time when the daylight hours are the shortest. This is a time of year for many different holidays traditions, including Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Yule, Saturnalia, and the Rural Dionysia. For even more traditions, read this page on Wikipedia.

I have two free reads, one that was released yesterday and another that will be coming soon, about vampires celebrating the Winter Solstice. It makes sense, right? Obviously in the paranormal universes where vampires can't go out during the day, they must seriously live it up on the longest night of the year! :D

You can access those stories here:
http://www.adriannebrennan.com/amor.html
http://www.adriannebrennan.com/ln.html

What holiday stories do you enjoy best? Are there any holiday stories released or about to be released which you're looking forward to reading? What is your take on holidays stories released within the speculative genres of fantasy, sci-fi, and paranormal?



Love & Magic,
-A

'Sharing' Books

I was reading a fellow author's blog and they were talking about file sharing sites that share, among other illegal copyrighted material, books.

There are people out there who will purchase and download an ebook and then go to some torrent or other kind of file sharing place and upload the book for others to download. For free. Meaning the author sees not a penny!

What's the difference between this and say buying a paper back book and giving it to a friend. That 'one' book that your giving has been paid for.

In the case of ebooks, they are downloaded, copy after copy with no payment besides the ONE payment paid for the first copy that was uploaded.

This author mentioned that she'd seen that her ebook had been downloaded three hundred times! That's 299 times that she was not paid for the book she wrote!

For some reason, people seem to think that writers are rich and can afford to have their books pirated. Hands up any of you writers who are rich off your book sales.

They see books that cost between 10-30 dollars for hardcovers or up to 6 dollars for ebooks. They hear about Nora Roberts signing multi million dollar books deals and think she can afford to have her books 'shared'. Guess what, a print book may cost you 10-30 dollars but the author may only see about 6% of that. Six. So yes Nora isn't pinching pennies but that's because she sells a LOT of books. That's the point. She has to SELL them. That means people have to PAY for them.

And you know what? Yeah, books are more expensive now than they were in the past and everyone's feeling the crunch of the economy but that's not even the point. The point is, it's wrong to steal.

For some reason, they thing because it's written and out there for the public, that it belongs to the public. No. The ONE physical copy is your property, but the content is the property of the author. That means you, the buyer, can own it, and you the buyer can RESELL that one copy on ebay or sites like that but you CANNOT put it up for the public to download for free.

It's wrong and guess what, you may love that author's books but that author won't be able to WRITE ANYMORE BOOKS if she isn't making any money from them because asshats are putting their books on filesharing sites to be downloaded illegally and publishers consider an author's salability before offering them a new contract.

Let me see if I can put this another way. Stealing from an author is like this, let's say you've just found out that you've just lost your job because your boss found someone who's willing to do it for free.

Does that bring it closer to you? Do you get it now?

So stop stealing from authors or guess what, that'll be the end of your favorite authors cause their publishers won't see them making any money and drop them.

So stop it.

And if you see any books up on those filesharing sites, report them.

We all love books, now let's make sure we can keep writers selling so we can continue to enjoy them.

Things that make me go hmmm...and awe....

My grandbabys' laughter...

My husband's kiss...

A call from the kids on some special day...or not...

Snuggling with a warm book on a cold night...

Snuggling with a warm husband on a cold night...

First snowflakes...

Seconds on dessert...

Third trip to the book store...

A fourth in bridge...

Great friends who know before you tell them...

A good surprise on a bad day...

Just to name a few.

Have a wonderful holiday season!!!

Minnette Meador

http://www.minnettemeador.com/

Starsight I

Starsight II

The Centurion & The Queen

The Edge of Honor

Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

Hey everyone, here's my intital post for Romance Writers In The Rough. My name is Nancy Da Silva and I write erotic fiction under the name E. Jamie. I'm currently published with Amira Press. I have two shorts 'To Love A Knight' and 'Forbidden' available as well as my recent release, an erotic novella with Amira Press called 'Redemption'


I'm known as the writer whose muse has no off switch. Seriously. I can look at anything and think up a plot on demand. My mind is always churning with ideas, characters, situations.

I could never do Yoga, trust me, I've tried. That whole 'quiet your mind' and 'let it go blank' thing? Not likely with me. I could look at a remote control and automatically think of a girl sitting on her couch crying as she's watching T.V and then that thread goes bigger and bigger until I figure out who she's crying on the couch while she's channel surfing.

I could look at something as mundane as a pencil and automatically I think of an old school with a few students and this one little girl is there with a slate on her lap and she's some kind of genuis or something cause she calls out the answer before the teacher finishes writing the question on the board and oooh look at that, she's psychic, but by her clothes and the school house I could tell this is turn of the century so this could be a very bad thing.

See?

And let's not even talk about dreams. I've had this male character in my head for weeks which is a rarity for me because I usually start my books with a female character but this man was in my head and wanted his story told...but I had no idea what his story was. So I waited and in that place of sleep before your completely awake, there he was, fully formed and letting me in on his story. His name is Jack Madison and the story will be a contemporary romance. Think Indecent Proposal meets Wuthering Heights. I have a couple of stories still in progress so it'll be a while before I can share Jack's story with you but I jotted the idea down so it'll be there when I'm ready.

That's the most important thing about ideas. You have to capture them in some tangible before because you WILL forget them.

I've never suffered from writer's block. I have what I call the opposite problem. Writer's Overload.

It's a good problem to have.

You can find out more about me and my work at my website www.ejamie.net

Have a great day all!

Welcome to Romance Writers in the Rough!

Hi! My name is Jenny Gilliam. I'm the author of 3 spicy, contemporary & 1 steamy romantic suspense novels with Amira Press & The Wild Rose Press. This is the official blog for my Yahoo! Writer's Group, Romance Writers in the Rough. We are a group of like-minded writers who share a love of reading and writing and romance. Please visit our site and join if you feel like this is a good fit for you. We are always looking for new faces. Below is a outline of what we are and our schedule:

"Brainchild of author Jenny Gilliam, Romance Writers in the Rough is a catch-all group that celebrates the joys and tears of writing. Come here to gripe, share great news, post chapters for critiques, find critiquing partners. Your posts can even be off-topic. Jenny created this group with the idea of having one group to provide everything--with little rules.

Here's our schedule:

Monday: PROMO Day; post your excerpts, contest info, reviews, etc.

Tuesday: Critique Day (One rule: For every chapter that is critted FOR you, you must CRIT the writer back in exchange.)

Wednesday: Anything Goes Day; Questions for other writers, post critiquing partner requests, good news to share, etc.--you get the picture. You may post promo items such as contest information, reviews, and other things.

Thursday: Anything Goes Day

Friday: Author Chat Days ~ If you are an author or publisher, please email me at: jenny@jennygilliam.com for details and scheduling.

Saturday: Critiquing Day (see above)

Sunday: PROMO


We'd love to see you on our loop!