Hi. Hello. Bonjour. Ciao. :)

Hello everyone. :) Naomi here. I am happy to now be apart of this wonderful blog. Honoria very kindly asked me to join her here and I happily accepted. I thought I would make my first post one to tell you all a little about myself and my writing style.

I am currently an unpublished author working on my first manuscript. My interests fair along the same lines as Honoria. Paranormal Romance. I also like Historical Romance. My current manuscript is a paranormal romance about a Vampire and his human mate. I have had the most fun writing it. I've always loved to read, but it wasn't until early last year that I decided to try and write my own story. I've always felt like I have a lot to say. I worked on it for awhile and then stopped. I felt like my writing was wrong and I got stuck on a part I thought would be easy to be move through. No such luck.

This January, spring semester of college started and I managed to get into the worst history class I've ever been in. I love the subject, not the teacher. I would rather poke my eye with a needle repeatedly, then go to his class. (Not a pleasant feeling.)

Fate wasn't as cruel as I thought though. I ended up sitting next to a girl I went to high school with. I'd known her since I was in first grade, but we'd never really been close. We ran in different circles throughout high school. We started talking and found that not only do we have the same graduation gown, but we both have an infinite love for reading and writing paranormal romance. It is because of her that I began writing my manuscript again. She helped me push through my writers block and onto bigger and better things.

I'm sure you're wondering who this inspiring person is, so I'll end the suspense...

It's none other then the wonderful Honoria Ravena.
Suprised? ha ha, I know you didn't see that one coming. :)

I thought I would also attach an excerpt from my current unnamed, unedited manuscript to give everyone a taste of what I'm all about.

Krispin could feel his heart beating in every inch of his body. Rage intermingled with intense fury coursed through his veins.

He found her, his mate, but she wasn’t snuggled away in some comfortable apartment. She was being attacked by some low life gang, their intentions clear and no where near honorable. When he came around the corner of the alley and saw the scene that was about to play out, he lost all control. It had been a very long time since that had happened to him.

He didn’t even think twice about killing them, in fact once he had ripped each head from its body, he still didn’t feel satisfaction. He continued to tear each one limb for limb. Right in front of her eyes. It was not something that he wanted or planned to do. Once he finished destroying them he approached her in the corner of the alley. He knew what he must look like, but he didn’t care. She was his and he was going to have her one way or another.

She was beautiful, even in the mix of chaos and horror, he could see that she was perfect. Her slim tanned hands were holding up the shredded remains of her delicate dress, seeing this made him want to kill them all over again. They had already begun to violate her.

She was small, no taller than 5’1 with a naturally tan skin, she appeared to be Indian, or at least part. Her bright blue eyes shown in the night like sparkling crystals against her darker complexion and yet her lips were light pink, plump and perfect. Her black hair flowed down her back in luscious curls.

She was bleeding and sweating he could see it mingling together as it tricked down her chest. He had a great desire to lean forward and lick it away. He knew she would taste exquisite. He needed to touch her. Her small body trembled with fear, but he was so enraged, he could find no words to comfort her. If he could only touch her, he could show her with his hands that everything would be okay. As he reached his hand out to caress her pinkened cheek, her blue eyes shot even wider with fear and she collapsed into his arms.

As he caught her, something within his madness was screaming at him, though he couldn’t hear what it was saying. He shook his head trying to end the noise within. He looked down at her again, her beautiful body clearing the madness ever so slightly and it hit him.

She had been in a dark alley, captured by a bunch of grungy men, she had been defenseless, alone and most of all, human.

Picking a Pen Name

In honor of my partner in crime picking a pen name I've decided to explain how I came up with mine. Also a lot of people like my pen name, and I'm asked about it a lot.

One of my main concerns was that I wanted it to be pretty. I also wanted it to stick out. I wanted people to think "That's a pretty name." or "How the heck do you pronounce that?" So maybe they'd be more likely to remember it.

While my real name Miranda Elizabeth is a beautiful name, but 'Miranda' is fairly common, as is 'Elizabeth', and so is my last name.

Since I love Gilmore Girls, and love the name Lorelai, I thought about that. Then I saw a lot of pen names that were either the same, or similar so I decided not to use it. I still love the name, and if I have a daughter that will probably be her name, but its just too wide spread for my pen name.

While I wanted it to be unique, I didn't want it to be so far out there that it sounded like something out of science fiction, or a preservative in a Twinkie.

I also wanted my pen name to be mysterious and sexy, without being stripper sounding ( please welcome our guest blogger, Trixie McBimbo), and I needed it to be flexible enough that if I decided to branch out of the romance genre, it would still fit.

I first heard Honoria on M.A.S.H. and I thought it was gorgeous. I'd never heard it anywhere else. Ravena comes from my favorite character in the YA paranormal, Shattered Mirror by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes (I'm still in love with Nikolas). This is the novel that inspired me to write when I was twelve. I still re-read it if I have writer's block. So Ravena seemed like a fitting tribute to it.

Now, after all this thought, I still wasn't sure if I wanted a pen name. I mean, wasn't the whole point to see MY name on the cover? But the first time I saw it on the cover of Fear of Darkness I knew it was perfect (which is a damned good thing considering it was already on the cover). I get the same perfect feeling every time I look at one of my covers. I think I've made the right choice.

Bored

I'm bored with this blog, and I haven't posted in ages so I've decided to change it up... A lot. Joining me will be my new partner in crime. An unpublished author, but an up and coming star in my not so humble and incredibly biased opinion. She hasn't picked a pen name, so she's just My Partner In Crime for now.

We'll be doing blog posts, the occasional interview or guest poster, and possibly book reviews.

I'll be changing the title of the blog, as well as the look, so when you hear cursing, and things being thrown, that's just me trying to do website stuff. Though I actually designed a decent looking website header without any pain, or even swearing, so maybe I won't kill anything while redesigning this blog.

Testing a signature:

13 Favorite Desserts

1. 1. Chocolate covered cherries - My mother only makes these once a year at Christmas, and they are SOOO good. All my friends wait for them. I've suggested she start an online business selling them, but she says no.

2. Cheesecake pie - Check out my website, and download a free Red Rose author cookbook to get the recipe. This is the best thing ever, and unlike regular cheesecake it requires no baking, and very little prep-time: http://honoriaravena.com/free-reads

3. Lemon Meringue pie

4. Russian Tea Cakes - These have a lot of different names, but they're round cookies, with pecans in them, and they're covered in powdered sugar.

5. Peanut butter cookies

6. Coconut cream pie

7. Banana cream pie with a coconut crust

8. Pumpkin pie - Wow, a lot of pies make the list.

9. Oatmeal cookies

10. Sugar cookies - A classic. The only thing I don't like now is mom won't let me put frosting and sprinkles on them anymore. When I was little she let me decorate them, but not now. She says frosting is gross. *Sigh* Lol, and now I'm feeling inspired. I'm going to make sugar cookies with frosting some time soon.

11. Rice pudding

12. Eggnog cookies - another Christmas favorite. Basically sugar cookies with eggnog.

13. Chocolate chip cookies - another classic.

Gees, looking through mother's recipe book to do this Thursday 13 has made me even hungrier than I was. We're having turkey for dinner, and so that's all I've smelled for the last 3 hours. That's the terrible thing about turkey dinners. They smell good as soon as you sauté the onions and celery.

Maybe one day I'll put some of these recipes up on my website.

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Why Do I Write by Angela Kay Austin

I still have my very first pink and white diary. I don’t remember what age I was when I got it, but I remember the feeling. I can’t explain it in any other way than to say…relief.

I don’t know if that makes since, so, let me try to explain.

Like so many other African-Americans born in the seventies. I was bused from my urban neighborhood to attend school in neighborhoods that were different from mine in every way: economically, racially, and at times culturally. And, even though you were in such foreign surroundings, no one told you how to ‘fit in’. So, I didn’t. Don’t worry; I had friends, but not many. It’s weird how that also affected my life in my neighborhood. I didn’t get to hang out in the lunchroom with the kids from my neighborhood because we weren’t in the same place. It’s kind of like going to work every day for years with the same people, and then you change jobs. How do those ‘work’ friendships fair? Well, it was the same for me. So, books became my best friends. Back then, Reading is Fundamental was incredibly strong in schools. One day, I came across Judy Blume’s, Are You There God It’s Me, Margaret? Could I have picked a more appropriate book? Aside from a crazy connection with Margaret, I connected with Judy Blume. I wanted to write!

I took that little pink and white diary, and I wrote everything I could. I didn’t know what to do with it, but I wrote. In my mom’s magazines, I saw stuff about contests and short stories. So, I entered. Nothing happened. So, I asked her for my own magazines. I entered their contests. Nothing happened. Over the past twenty years, I’ve written and submitted. February 11th, 2010, my first novella—Love’s Chance—will be released by Red Rose Publishing.

So, when I say relief, I don’t know how else to explain finding your calling. Even if Love’s Chance wasn’t being released, I’d still be writing and submitting. No matter what, I’d still write: poetry, women’s fiction, romance, and more.

So, it’s funny, as I type this, the other half of my brain is working on a scene from a manuscript I’m working on. I can’t turn it off. No, not voices in my head…well, maybe a few. I don’t think I could stop writing even if I were forced. Writing allows me to cry, laugh, explore, share, and so much more. Free therapy, who could ask for more!


Bio: I am an author of contemporary romance novels. My books feature strong African-American women whose love can not be bound by race, bank accounts, age, religion or gender.

Additionally, I write for www.eHOW.com, and www.Examiner.com/dc. My first novella, Love’s Chance, will be released in 2010 by Red Rose Publishing.

Website


Book blurb: To pay back her parents and prevent the loss of their family business, Sinclair Mosley leaves her family and friends behind. Pennsylvania doesn’t welcome her with open arms, but Chance O’Malley does. At the risk of losing everything that brought her to Pennsylvania, including her family’s restaurant, Sinclair must decide if she’s willing to take a chance on love.