Ramblings By Rhianna

I like the fall

Administrator — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 21:42:44 +0000

I like the fall. It’s not that I am getting older and feel as if I have reached the fall cycle in my own life. No, I’ve always loved the fall, the colors, the smell and the brisk temperatures outside that require a sweatshirt or sweater.

We have a little time until it’s officially fall, but the temperatures at night are dropping into the fifties and the morning is damp and cool. The oppressive heat of summer begins to fade as fresh air now carries different allergens upon its breeze. Love it, can’t say enough about it. *sneeze*

I’ve a crush on October, one of the coolest months. S(H)e wears browns, oranges and muted purple in a coat that covers the countryside. S(H)e tricks you into thinking its going to stay warm, then teases with nights in the thirties. And at the end of the month, you celebrate all that is other-worldly, a day that the veil between what is normal and gentle collides with all that is paranormal and needy. And it’s so cool that we celebrate it. I love it so much that the story in Shaking Off the Dust takes place during the month of October. You see how I express my adoration.

It’s still a few weeks until then. I’m impatient to see the leaves in a riot of color. Every kind of chocolate is now available in small bite sized pieces, small enough to indulge, but not over indulge. (Assuming I had that kind of will power.) The costumes for Halloween are out for view and never in my size. Oh well, I am just the gal that answers the door and hands out the good stuff.

The fall includes all of the best holidays too! I can give thanks before I get my Christmas list or presents. Cool and freaky sales happen every weekend from November till Christmas. Seriously, what’s not to like about fall? This fall is an even bigger celebration, because my first ever published book comes out in Print the end of November, so it’s a double thank you to the universe. I set up a book signing with my local Barnes and Nobles this week, so it’s all kinds of firsts. I believe that I will be creating my own special holiday and hope it becomes an annual event. I will call it the dreams to fruition day.

What day is that for each of you? Tell me about your most adored month or day.
Rhianna

Kathy Russell Passed This Way

Administrator — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 03:38:05 +0000

Every once in a while something happens that causes you to pause a moment and see where you are, how you are and what you are. That happened this week. One of the girls at work didn’t show up on Monday, and after many worried phone calls the police were sent to her home and discovered she had died over the weekend sometime.

It stops you in your tracks and makes you ask…” what is the purpose of it all”. What is our purpose in it all?
That personal theory that I’ve held on to says, there is no reason in death, only purpose in life. How does it fare when it takes on the reflection of someone else’s lifetime? I only know her from the stand point of where Kathy’s life intersected with mine. She was strong and fierce and like all of us, a pain in the ass sometimes. She was a presence to contend with, one who was felt when ever she was around. She made me laugh and often had insightful comments to share. She wanted better things from her life and was not quite satisfied. Like every one else I know, she was frustrated with how things were and impatient for how things should be. And in those ways she was very much like me.

So, what is the meaning or purpose? In her role as an ER nurse she saved many lives and lessened the mark of pain or injury for thousands of individuals over the years, was one of those people someone who will change the world? Did she create someone from her body that has ensured her immortality though her daughters? Was her presence as part of her family, job or friendships enough to make our world somewhat better? Was there something she said or did that has become the place mark of her presence on this world?

Yes.

Kathy Russell passed this way. She shared her talents, her sense of humor, her skills as a nurse, her love as a mother, daughter, sister and friend. Her life may seem to be lost in the communal energy of what makes us grow as people, but it does not diminish what she contributed. I wish I had known her better, but I do know that I am a better person for knowing Kathy.

Rhianna Samuels

Take a look at my new book trailer!!

Administrator — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 00:52:05 +0000

I love it! Of course, I’m prejudice. Also on my webpage!

Rhianna

weather it’s a tooth ache or hurricane, when it rains… it pours

Administrator — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 01:24:08 +0000

I thought I’d just tell you a bit about my last week. I’ve been mostly whining about a tooth ache that is still hanging on. It’s an infected crown, the dentist barely took a look, x rayed and declared it was infected. So I left shortly after with a script for an antibiotic and pain meds.

What I discovered is that Advil/Ibuprofen in high doses is better for a tooth ache than prescription pain meds. In fact it is the only thing that helps. Still, after nearly seven days, it shouldn’t continue to keep me awake and make me feel like sticking a knife in my hand to take my mind off my face. I see my dentist again tomorrow.
Okay, that subject is over, on to the next…;)

As you may have heard there was a hurricane passing through the gulf coast this weekend. My brother and his family live in a suburb of New Orleans. He is a veterinarian and by the weekend 187 animals had been dropped off “for the HOLIDAYS.” So he and his fellow Vets and staff stayed at the Animal Hospital for the duration again. They stayed there for Katrina.

Now, don’t feel too sorry for them. The Hospital is not that old and was built with hurricanes in mind. They have a generator running when the electricity goes off. (I think it was pretty terrible after Katrina though). But he’s already been to check out the house that had to be rebuilt after Katrina and said not even a broken glass occurred to the family home and the electricity is working. He’s a good man, he is stubborn, but he cares about many things. Like most men, he doesn’t talk about what he cares about. He just does what he knows is right.

They learned so much from the last hurricane; how to be prepared, mostly to just get the hell out of the area. His wife went to visit family in Alabama, his son went to stay with his mom in northern Louisiana and his daughter went to Austin to hang with some friends. He’s good to animals, good to his family and a decent scrabble player. What else can you say about the guy? I generally claim to know him when he’s around.

So, all in all it’s been a good week. My brother and his family are fine. I’ll get over my tooth ache, soon I hope and then the sun will shine on the gulf coast and maybe here in Indiana too.

Rhianna

I am so weird-ed out!

Administrator — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 00:17:17 +0000

I know I should never repeat myself on more than one group or blog, but this week has been a little frightening in that …holy shit …way.

If you have read my book, Shaking Off the Dust, then you already know that the character Tom Mecurio enters the story after he is killed in a plane crash as it takes off from Madrid airport. He and over 150 people are killed in that crash. Now in my story it is a terrorist bombing, but it was a scene that played out in my head and at times in my dreams.

I was a little freaked out this week when the news of the plane crash in Madrid was released. It was this eerie sense of déjà vu. It almost seemed as if the timeline was also accurate. The timeline of the book takes place in October and the plane crash was a month or so before.

One of the other authors at the SamhainCafe asked that I don’t write in any other disasters in my books, but maybe I could cure the common cold. I laughed…sort of.

Has your life taken a too real turn form your imagination?

Rhianna

Going for the Gold

Administrator — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 00:03:36 +0000

I’ve not watched the Olympics every minute of the day or night, but I have checked into the games I enjoy, which is normally just the gymnastics. I’m usually more in tuned with the winter Olympics. But, I am a sucker for the man who just keeps going because he has a goal set in front of him.

Phelping my way through my daily life is not exactly how I roll. *Snort* I have a fire in my belly, though it’s usually from the mild salsa that helps cut the too salty chips. I have things to accomplish, but on a less spectacular level than in front of the world. I ask myself, what if I was offered a million dollar bonus from Nike to win seven gold medals, would I bust my ass to do it. A sad thought came to me, “depends entirely on if I think it might be fun.”

What is Phelping? Concentration, having a nifty I-Pod and busting every world record in your field of expertise.

When they have the award for the best Rhianna Samuels, I’m there.
Rhianna

S’up!

Administrator — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:28:05 +0000

I just got my hair done and that always seems to perk me up. For a matter of hours, my hair is fixed in the style the hair stylist wants it to be. It is a great cut, she went a half shade darker on the brown (mardi gras) and then highlighted.

Last year about this time I decided I was starting to look my age and decided I would go from the dark blond that I had used for over a decade to something closer to my natural color. That would be predominantly gray, but also a mousy brown. It was a harder change on my coworkers than on me. I don’t look in the mirror very often and they had to see it constant.

I was given many opinions, some not so kind, but I persevered and stayed dark. This year I made up my mind that I would do more to pamper myself and having my hair color done by an expert is one of the greater luxuries in the female favorite things.

I got my galleys in for Shaking Off the Dust. That is exciting and sort of sad. I am reading it and man I like it. *grin*

I am writing steady every chance I get. I hope you all had a great week. I am posting at the Samhain blog on Saturday am and Shades of Suspense blog on Monday morning. I read one book last week. I need it to rest my mind. It was Patricia Biggs, newest Wolf Cry. It’s not one of the Mercedes series (which I adore), but a spin off to that world. I liked the characters, but it wasn’t as engaging as the Mercedes books. She is a good writer though.

Rhianna

Ten Things I’ve thought about in the last week

Administrator — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 02:01:50 +0000

While we are awake, ideas and thoughts come every few seconds, or in my case, every few minutes. (I’m either slow or lazy, I’m going with the last option.) I thought it would be fun to each share some of those thoughts.

1. I was watching the History Channel last night about the history of tattooing. One of the segments was a tour of a Japanese medical school where they had the skin of a Yakasu, the tattoos covered his entire body. They peeled off his skin.

~I thought,

Yuck, they peeled his skin off like a chicken!

What a beautiful tattoo. It flowed from one design to another.

My niece will love this and it just might change her mind about becoming a tattoo artist one day.

2. I watched Stargate Atlantis on Friday and thought.

Damn, that Ronin is smoking hot.

3. I reread Georgette Heyer - Faro’s Daughter

~I need to read this again just before I start back on my historical

OMG, this is so funny

I wish she was still writing

4. I wrote on my novella

~This isn’t strong enough, I need to rewrite this scene.

I love Channon’s character ~ Sigh

There really isn’t a HEA, but there is a resolution and three storylines that will continue. I have introduced an unfulfilled simmering romance that will continue in the series. Do I have too many characters whose first name begins with an A. I don’t want to change any of them, don’t make me.

5. ~ I wonder what my balance is on my this credit card?

6. ~That doughnut was so not worth it.

7. I went to the new HBO site for True Blood the series based on Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse vampire series.

~ I want to blow a poster size of that ad in the comic book.

~the Tru Blood commercial is a treat and I love the ending…suck it up.

I hope it is a good series and does the books justice.

8. I was paging through the Sunday ads and thought.

~ these are the ugliest styles of clothing I’ve seen since 1970.

9. ~Do I really need to launder my uniforms. Yes.

10. ~What good are school equipment sales if they don’t have a decent note book that I like to write on. I hate the current cloths.

You noticed there were no earth shattering, conscious changing thoughts during the week. And Sadly those were the high points. It’s your turn to give your top ten thoughts for the last week.

Rhianna

Administrator — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 03:42:20 +0000

I am hoping the you tube video embeds correctly.

In the fours hour period after I had my niece take these picutures, I already made changes. I’ll do an update when the second room is done. The window are getting wood shutters tomorrow. And I found a great male female statue for the love and marriage area. Don’t blink, cause it’s always changing.

The up side is that I came up with an idea for another book. It was such a great idea, that my niece was writing down the idea while I was driving. I love that when it happens.

This weekend is for the movies again. I’m planning to see Hell Boy II. I know the Dark Night, but I want to laugh, so I chose the fun one.

As for the Novella, I’m on a exciting part and I’m having a good time writing. It’s trying hard to be a novel, but i’m fighting it down.

Rhianna

http://romanticsuspense.blogspot.com/

Administrator — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 03:20:57 +0000

I’m blogging every other monday at the above blog. Take a peek and speak.

I’m posting two blogs- why not

Administrator — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 02:31:37 +0000

I read a book this last week. Yes, I should have been writing, but as it happened the electricity was off for hours of daylight and it gave me the opportunity to finish a book I’d started the week before. Normally, if I love a book I will read it in one sitting, but I am at an age and state of insanity, that everyone thinks that my extra time should be spent on their particular projects. So reading has taken a back seat to work, family and writing. (You noticed that writing and work were separate things.)

The author is one I have read quite a bit. She writes paranormal and her first few books were with a small press, then she went to one of the New York houses. I always liked her books because she had a great mythology and there was some substance to her plotlines. Not in this book.

The story was focused on the romance from chapter two on and I think what turned me off was that her male voice sounded more like a love struck female than a tough as nails shifter. He wanted her from the instant he saw her. He was a hard on walking from the first kiss and his inner voice did not come across as a strong male, where as her heroine was quite funny and southern sassy.

Everyone brings their own perspective to what they read and the things that make a story good. I will admit, that I have no problem with a hero’s voice expressing his desire for a woman, but I like there to be some interactions between the characters before this begins. I like plot and subplot beyond the two character romance. The reader goes in knowing that hero and heroine will consummate their longing for each other. And don’t get me wrong, I like a man who is determined he’s going to get the girl. I just don’t want him sounding like a girl when he does it, then have every secondary character supposedly afraid of him, because he’s all macho.

Of course, I’ve always said my favorite males are the laconic types, who don’t say much, but show you what they are all male. Oh, but I love an alpha male with a mouth too. I look for authenticity in the characters. What about you, have you stopped reading a book or author because the male just didn’t seem authentic?

Who are some of your favorite male characters and what made them stick out in your mind?

Rhianna Samuels

What I did last week

I had along holiday weekend. My first thought was to write and spend some time with my family. My MY SPACE web mistress, who also happens to be my fifteen year old niece came to hang with me and my artist sister decided this would be the perfect weekend for her to paint two rooms in exactly the colors I wanted. Sounds all good, right?

Because, I’m a lazy slug at heart, the logistics of all this escaped me.

I drove down to Kentucky and picked up my niece. Don’t be too impressed, the Kentucky border is only ten miles from here and my sister lives only 45 minutes away. Still, I drove there to pick out the colors I wanted and pick up my fun girl. I went with two colors to start out with – sage and haystack- in a low fumes paint.

I wrote on my novella, and we watched as many gory movies as possible. The gore was to the point I was over saturated and forced her to comedy so that I wouldn’t have night mares. On Friday, I thought I’d help by stripping wall paper border off in my room. I used a cool clothes steamer from sharper image which was collecting dust in the shed. It worked, but only to a point. It got so hot that it not only took off the wallpaper, it also took of the plaster wall behind it, which eventually became a caulking nightmare. So with only one wall stripped and my sisters cheery, “finish taking down the border”, I made a run to Lowes to see what they had for the job.

I found a spray bottle, orange in color that guaranteed safe removal. You simply spray until saturated, let sit for 2-10 minutes and remove. Repeat as necessary. It worked amazingly well. What they fail to mention is that it smells like mildew and stay up your nose for days. Though I managed to get the smell out of the room with a fan, it stayed in my nose hairs for a longer period.

Did I mention, I fell off the ladder twice (I kept missing the last step off), I managed to jab the metal spatula device into the palm of my hand actually draw blood with that mildewing crap on it and I was channeling the wicked witch of the west by the time I finished. (No comments about my warted nose.)

Having coaxed my cohort in movies to move some furniture out of the room and clearing some wall space, I was ready for my sisters arrival the next day to do the actual painting. Don’t give me that look, she has her first degree in painting. Seriously! My niece, her daughter, was then informed-after the furniture moving-that she’d have to sleep on the couch, since my room was now mildew stinky and I was taking the guest room. She seemed at peace with that, especially after I handed her the digital remote to the 65 inch tv in the family room.

My sister arrived early. My room looked fabulous, one wall in pale sage green, one in a pale yellow and the other two in Twine, it’s a white with a hint of gray in it. I was pleased and ready to stop. I realized how much trouble and mess it encompassed and did not want to do the other room until I’d had a chance to decide where I was putting everything. But other people made a unilateral decision and from that point on I was channeling a hell hound.

By the time my sister left, I had to apologize for the bitch that took over my mouth and complained about every thing. But, please tell me you would unplug the computer and printers before her moved them around. The key board and printers were hanging by a thread and thrown on the bed. (Don’t get me started again.)

I closed the door the to that room and did not reenter it until this weekend. You can see where my time got spent.

Don’t fret, I did write ten pages of nothing but sex scenes during my frustration. I have to admit the front end of the novella is a lot of sex. The action comes in the back end of the book. Was that a double entendre? You’ll have to read it someday to find out. *grin*

Rhianna – Bitch from hell ~ (AKA -The Hell Hound)

Coming out to play

Administrator — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 03:39:58 +0000

Okay, it is a testament to how pathetic my life is that I’m sitting here watching the history channel do a two hour program on dragons. I consider it research, because I have a dragon theme that will run a thread through my urban fantasy series. it is a reminder that there is a long period in which most writers who write paranormal must build the mythology.

In Shaking off the Dust, I built a ghost mythology, certain rules that applied in order for them to become real to the reader. If you consider the more popular vampire and werewolf novels that are selling like a pancake breakfasts, they have a unique way to explain the creatures who inhabit their world. There are so many Vampire books out there that it is hard to come up with a different twist.

I have been working on the basics of this series for a couple of years now. The mythology is substantial. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I haven’t created languages for the different peoples of my Outsiders’ series. Wouldn’t that be cool though?

I do know several of the characters and their history so well that they have become very familiar. When writing they’ll say things that make them unique and me laugh. I’ll think…”Oh that’s perfect for Lucien” or “only Alistair would say something like that.” The reason it’s taken me so long to get the novels done is because they all want me to tell their story first. I have to take time to structure each novel in a way that they are true to the world and yet not give away too much. Some days it feels as though I started out with a 500 piece puzzle that multiplied to three times that amount and I forgot my glasses. Okay, I’m may be exaggerating a tiny bit. J

I do love to hear what readers want to read. What kind of story just does it for you? Are you reading paranormal, or historical or contemporary? Do you want something light and funny or serious? If I were to write the perfect book for you what would it have in it?

No, I’m not going to write a book to order. My imagination is very much my own and what I want to write is personal. I like formula stories, but I would want to find my own unique twist on it. Then again, I’m not above wanting something that I write to be what you, the reader, want to read.

As for this blog…ugh. My characters’ keep calling and asking me to come out to play. So, if there is a topic you would like me to write a few choice words and my opinion on, let me know. I love hearing back from you guys.

Rhianna