First Books and Dyslexia

Elle Fowler (a YouTube beauty guru for those of you who don't watch her videos) talked about her favorite childhood book in a recent post and, well this sparked an idea for a blog post, so I'm just gonna roll with it, cause I don't blog enough.

I didn't read a lot in my early childhood, so almost every book I enjoyed sticks out in my mind. I have dyslexia, so getting me to read was always a struggle. I'm over it now (with the exception of lowercase b's and d's. If they're in a word, okay, but on their own? I really can't tell which is which) but back then I was a very picky reader, and had to be forced to do any reading. I'm kinda really surprised I ever learned how.

As I said, every book sticks out in my mind, and as I look back on them, they all have something in common. They ALL had a paranormal element. I guess that's always been my thing. I know I liked everything paranormal even before I could read. Like Buffy. Which I think started when i was six.

The first books I ever read were scary short stories. I read them over and over again, because they were short, and could hold my attention.

The first Harry Potter book came out when I was in 4th grade...Well I think it did, that's when our teacher started reading it to us anyway. And while I liked the teacher reading it to us, the prospect of reading a book that thick was a little too much for me, so I didn't start reading them until a few years later.

The first books that change my WORLD were the Everworld series by K.A. Applegate. My mom bought it for me to take to camp in 5th grade, because we had to have an hour of rest/reading time a day. Ugh. I dreaded that. They were taking something that was supposed to be fun, and they were putting an hour long torture session in it every day. I could have napped, but I've never been capable of that either. No matter how tired I am. So it was either stare into space for an hour, or read that blasted book. So, grudgingly, I picked up the book. It was the 11th on in the series, so I was more than a little confused. But even with that confusion, the world was absolutely riveting.

As soon as I got home, I begged for the first book in the series. Well, actually, I sincerely doubt I had to beg, considering my mom was probably desperate for me to read something. I finished the whole series before the 12th and final book had even come out. This was the first time I had to drum my fingers, and wait (not so) patiently, for the release of the next book in a series. I hate the way it ended by the way (well...if I remember right. It's been a while).

After that I moved onto the Fingerprints series by Melinda Metz. After that I pretty much read every book with paranormal elements I could get my hands on. Eventually I stumbled into Shattered Mirror by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, which made me a writer, and then a friend's mom loaned me my first romance ever. But those are separate stories for another time. I'm pretty sure I've told everyone about Atwater-Rhodes anyway.

Okay, peoples. I'm done typing. Hope you enjoyed my long pointless post. I guess it kinda does have a point. I guess it tells parents not to give up if your kid is dyslexic. Just keep gun forcing them to read books from different genres, and hopefully they'll stumble into something they can't live without.

Ooh, ooh. I can add a little promo at the end:

Running from an abusive husband, Natalya encounters more than she can handle…especially when she becomes a vampire’s target. Buy Fear of Darkness here.

Fear of Darkness rerelease

Fear of Darkness is out today!

Buy it here

Read the first two chaperes here.

Blurb:

As a Watcher of the King’s Guard, Vahe Patten hunts rogue vampires, ones who break their vampire laws. When dead bodies are left for the human authorities to find, their secret is out, and Vahe takes on the mission by seeking the next victim before the killer does—only to find her blood tasted sweeter than any he’s ever had.

Natalya Woods just wants to avoid her abusive husband and live a normal life, but the small town of Haven has been anything but safe. When she’s attacked in the streets, literally, by the man of her dreams, she finds herself kidnapped and putting her weapon skills to use—surprisingly not on her husband. Attraction and desire throws Natalya and Vahe in a bind as they work together to fight the killer, but will Natalya overcome her distrust of men and allow herself to take the risk to love?

Excerpt:

"Need a hand, Natalya?"

I spun around but before I could even get a word out, I was pressed against the wall with a hand over my mouth. I realized I’d forgotten my gun. I hadn’t thought to put a different one in my other purse, and I should have. Vahe was the least of my problems. Okay, so maybe not the least—a vampire was a big problem, especially if he was the murderer. It was also unbelievable.

"I’m going to take my hand away, and if you scream, I’ll snap your neck. Understand?" I nodded. "Good."

Vahe brushed the scarf away from my neck to reveal his marks. He ran his fingers lightly over my throat. I flinched when he touched the bite. Even with such a light touch, it was painful.

He leaned his face toward me, moved his palm, and then he was kissing me. I hesitated before I gave in to him. The kiss was soft, like he didn’t want to scare me off. So at odds with the threat he’d just spoken. My tongue brushed his fangs, and I broke contact.

He slid his mouth to my throat, and I stood there dazed for a second before I jerked back. I would have slammed my head on the wall, but his hand was between the bricks and me. He tangled his fingers in my hair. His tongue flicked out across the bite mark, and then his mouth clamped down. He sucked hard, making the tiny holes bleed.

I gasped in pain and pushed at his chest. He moaned against my throat and sucked harder. His erection pressed against my stomach. He gave my throat one last sweep with his tongue before he drew back. His eyes were unfocused and his breathing labored. I was glad we were in the middle of the street and not somewhere private. I don’t think anything would have kept him from fucking my brains out, and nothing could stop him from draining my blood.

He cleared his throat. "God, your blood is almost addictive." He shook himself. "Come on. I’ll help you with all this food. I’m surprised you eat so much. You look so thin."

I narrowed my eyes at him and didn’t respond. Seriously, idle chitchat? With a vampire and possibly a murderer. He picked up the food and carried it easily down the street, expecting me to follow.

I raked a shaking hand through my hair. Did I really have any choice but to go with him? It seemed like a bad idea. Before Hollywood had gotten a hold of them, vampires had been considered evil. He’d attacked me. But wouldn’t he have killed me already if he’d planned on it? I followed him before he found a way to make me. I watched my feet as I walked. My heart pounded as I tried to think of a good way to get away from him.

He didn’t struggle to carry the food, but maybe it would take him a few seconds to realize I was gone, drop it, and chase after me. Maybe a few vital seconds were all I needed. I doubted it.

I was starving and wanted to cry at the thought of leaving my food, but I wasn’t willing to go wherever he was leading me.

He stopped abruptly and looked over his shoulder. He arched an eyebrow. "Go ahead. Try running for it. You won’t make it three feet."

Pizza Recipe

Okay, so I know for people who have read this blog, this post will be pretty random. But for those of you who have been asking for my pizza recipe, this is it. Making your own pizza is nice because you can control salt content. And if you eat a lot of boxed pizzas, well this has no preservatives, or whatever other little yuckies the manufacturer might slide in there.

Pizza Crust

2 1/4 c. bread flour
2 1/4 t. active dry yeast
2 T. olive oil
1 t. salt
1 T. white sugar
1 t. Italian seasoning
3 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. onion powder
1 c. warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

Combine sugar, yeast and warm water in bowl. Rest for 5 minutes.
Combine flour, salt, and spices, in a large bowl. Mix in olive oil and yeast water. Let dough rest 5 minutes. Flour your hands and level surface. Knead dough until it's no longer sticky before rolling it out with a rolling pin. Transfer to a lightly sprayed pizza pan and spread it out. Poke holes in the crust with a fork. Bake crust for 15 minutes at 450 degrees. Top as desired. Bake for 15 minutes. Cool 5 minutes before cutting. Cheese: italian blend cheeses, mozz cheese.

This recipe also makes good breadsticks.


Pizza Sauce #1 (Tomato)

1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
2 t. oregano
2 t. basil
1/2 t. onion powder
1 t. ground paprika
2-3 large cloves garlic (fine chop)
1 t. sugar

Directions
In a medium bowl, Mix together tomato sauce and tomato paste until smooth. Stir in other ingredients

Suggested toppings with this sauce: Pepperoni, onions, bell peppers, Canadian bacon, or anything else your little heart desires. My favorite is pepperoni and onions.


Pizza Sauce #2 (Alfredo)

3 tablespoons salted butter
8 fluid ounces heavy whipping cream (you can cut it with milk if you don't have enough cream)
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg yolk
2 cloves crushed/finely chopped garlic
salt to taste (keep in mind that there is salt in the butter, so you really should taste the sauce before you add more)

Directions

1. Beat egg yolk in a separate bowl

2. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and heavy cream, stirring constantly. Stir in nutmeg, and grated Parmesan cheese. Stir constantly until melted.

3. Add about ¼ cup hot heavy cream/cheese mixture slowly to egg yolk, stirring constantly, and then gradually stir egg yolk mixture into the rest of the sauce. Simmer over medium low heat for 3 to 5 minutes. Garnish with additional grated Parmesan cheese and salt, if desired.

Suggested toppings with this sauce: Spinach, Canadian bacon, grilled or baked chicken, artichokes.

Note: This sauce isn't just for pizza. If you want to try it over pasta, feel free.

New Blog

Hey. It's Naomi. :) I just thought I'd post that I've actually started my own blog now. Honoria guided me through the scary blogger and now I finally feel brave enough to branch out on my own. I've actually been planning to start my own for some time. I've always wanted my own website, though I'm not going to actually pay for one until I have writing contract. I have deemed myself unworthy of my very own dotcom until then. For now I have my own blogger, which I am very excited about.
I'm sure you are feeling very skeptical about my blogging abilities since I seem to be quite the procrastinator when it comes to posting, but I truly am going to try and keep up with both blogs.
If you get the chance please come by and check me out at http://www.NaomiHunter.blogspot.com
Oh and don't forget to check out Honoria's new and improved http://www.honoriaravena.com!

A Little Bit of Everything...

Oh, I’m such a dork! I almost forgot to add this! I decided to put it at the beginning because its big happy news: I got two new contracts this week. It’s been on twitter, but who knows if anyone who reads this blog (does anyone read this blog?) follows me on twitter. Breathless Press will be re-releasing Fear of Darkness, and releasing another book called The Devil’s Trap. I can wait (but am also dreading) edits. You know how it is. Fun, but lots of work, especially with the lengths of these particular books. And the fact that Fear of Darkness was the second story I ever finished, so its bound to have problems galore!

Okay so today I’m going to be pretty random. I’m going to talk about my day, and the stuff I bought so its like a haul video, without the video part because I have no camera. I’ll also do a writing update. There’s not much to tell, but I’ll tell everyone anyway.

I got my haircut today so I have bangs and more layers now. The woman who cut my hair was really nice. I love Regis, they always do a great job. A pretty good rule is to never get your hair cut at a place with “cuts” in the title. I’ve never been happy with a SuperCuts hair cut. It just never works out.

I also toured the Macy’s and Dillards makeup sections just to see what they have. It was fun. I always enjoy looking at the makeup. And then I saw something that terrified me…There were these kids at the mall for a field trip. They looked like middle school age I guess. They were wearing these big furry hats. They covered their whole heads. Almost like…I don’t know, anime hair I guess? There were like three of them…Seriously, is that in style now, because BOY does it look really really stupid. I had to keep myself from staring open mouthed in horror.

Anyway. Away from that topic. Far away. As far as I can get. .

So I bought quite a few beauty products today, and really shouldn’t have because now I have $30 left to my name. I’m supposed to get paid soon though . Hopefully its before Urban Decay goes on sale at Hautelook.

Okay, at the salon I got It’s a 10 Miracle Leave In Product. It’s a leave in conditioner that’s supposed to:



Repair damaged hair
Add shine
Detangle
Control Frizz
Protect hair color (which I don’t need because I don’t color my hair, but whatever)
Prevent split ends
Stop breakage
Create Silkiness
Enhance natural body
And has a heat protector

If its not the best thing I’ve ever tried I won’t get it again, because my tiny four ounce bottle was $17.79. But my hairdresser said it was their best seller. I can test it and see what I think.

Next I got Maybelline Falsies mascara. I accidentally got the washable one…I don’t know what my problem is! I need to look closer when I buy things. Hopefully it doesn’t do anything weird and melty. Why do they even make mascara that’s not waterproof? Blair Fowler says Falsies is the best, so I figured I’d try it out. Maybelline makes good products anyway. I have their Lash Stiletto right now.

I also go the Physicians Formula Happy Booster Blush, and the Cashmere Ultra Smoothing Bronzer in Light because I’m pale as hell. The brushes they come with are totally crap (especially that blush brush! I’ve never seen such a useless brush) but I have my own brush so its no big. Any of these cosmetics you can find at Ulta.com or probably most drugstores so I won’t include linkage.



And I didn’t get this today, but it’s become my most favorite product EVER. It’s the BH Cosmetics 120 Eyeshadow Palette in 1st edition. Every color under the sun. Any makeup look you want to do, you can pretty much do with this. It’s my baby, and I’ve been raving about it for a while now on Twitter.



Now on to what I should be talking about on this blog: Writing.

Lately in my writing I’m really trying to focus on internal conflicts and making them more concrete. I’m also trying to focus on the characters and their emotions. Now I have to be honest, lately I’ve gotten REALLY lazy with doing character charts and all the other groundwork I should do before starting to write a novel. And so I was wondering why I just wasn’t feeling these characters in the ménage I’m working on. Well, duh, I’ve done no character charts.

Since I’m focusing on internal conflicts and emotions I decided to dig even deeper with that, so I took a list of character questions from Leigh Michaels’ On Writing Romance and I’ve been doing that and I think its really helping, because I’ve been brainstorming some pretty good ideas that make the characters more alive in my head.

Another thing that helped today was this Lindsay’s Ramblings post on quirks. You might want to check it out of you want more insight into creating in depth characters.

So before I let you go, I want to ask, does anyone care if I tell you about the beauty products I’m buying? Should I do that somewhere else and reserve this blog strictly for writing related stuff? I feel like I have so little to talk about that I’d really just like to throw everything at one blog and see which writers I can drive insane with my cosmetics talks.

Also, does anyone out there have any questions they'd like to ask about writing or the acquisitions process? I am a published writer and an Acquisitions Manager so if you have questions, I'd like to try and help. It also might give me something to blog about so Naomi and I aren't just posting every six months.