Of Ink and Quille

Heat Wave IN PRINT-Big Contest! Midsummer Night's Steam stories are now available in paperback from Samhain or Amazon to enjoy at the beach. The stories are bundled in several anthologies including HEAT WAVE which features three of the Erotic Muses authors. To celebrate the release, the HEAT WAVE authors are having a contest. The prize is a tote bag with summer items: suntan lotion, a beach towel, a baseball cap, sunglasses and a margarita glass. All you have to do to enter is stop by EROTIC MUSES blog every day this week (May 26-30) and learn about these great stories! Leave a comment Tuesday through Friday for a chance to win. To clarify: YOU MUST LEAVE A COMMENT ALL FOUR DAYS-TUESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY IN ORDER TO BE ELIGIBLE. The winner will be announced the following Friday, June 6, giving latecomers a chance to enter. If you don't find out about the contest until the second week, that's okay...go back to the previous week's posts and drop a comment. This week each of ...

Do you remember the thrill you got the first time you picked up a pen? The butterflies in your gut, the dry mouth, sweaty palms? Remember the tremble in your fingers as you stared at the page before you? If you've answered yes to any of these questions than you're on the right track. Regardless of whether you've written a year or ten years, if you're dedicated to your craft but don't feel any emotions when you begin to right something is wrong. I've been writing for years, and I still get butterflies every time I start a new project. Does that mean that I'm a green-horn with no skill? Does that mean it takes me weeks to come up with a plot that's believable? No. Not even a novice is like that. It simply means that writing is for me as much of a rush as bungee jumping for the next guy/gal. I was talking to a friend of mine recently who asked a lot of questions and it got me to thinking. What does it mean to be a novice? How do we as writers develop our sk...

With the recent blog I did on Deadly Vixens it got me to thinking of how the writing environment is so crucial to us. For each person there are little things that they need to write successfully. Some write better in natural light, others can write by a candlelight, still others require silence, myself - I prefer music in the background and the clutter of my life about me. My office is by no way spotless. I have stacks of binders, folders, papers all about me. My printer is hidden by papers and notes. My computer desk has barely enough room for a cup of coffee. Not to mention the clutter of the floor but its got a comfort about it that I crave. I don't write so well with pen and paper simply because it takes too long and my thoughts like to flow as fast as I can type. Still if I get an idea I generally go with it, be it writing on a scrap of paper or a binder, or even the back of a receipt. Each person has a special way of doing things. We like to think that a writer's skills a...

I just wanted to share this with everyone. I was fortunately enough to be a guest blogger on Deadly Vixens this week. Here's the link to take you to the interview: http://deadlyvixens.blogspot.com/ Feel free to comment or ask questions and I'll try to answer them as best I can!

As people we always assume that we have an identity. Our name is who we are but its so much more than that. Anyone who writes can relate to this. Many author’s use a pen name or their initials. That identity is part of us, its another shade of our colors. However, for many people they don’t see that. With any good thing there are bad points. For example, I’ve written fan fiction for years to go with my own original works. I’ve gotten good, bad, and indifferent reviews. I’ve also gotten a couple that were beyond bad, they were scary. But I didn’t take them personally. Why? Because the person that wrote the story, the identity that created that plot line wasn’t me. Wasn’t who I am in my core. My pen name got the review, the flame, the stripped down to nothing blast of fury from an irate reader. Did it hurt, darn right it did. That pen name is still a part of me, but I didn’t let it affect me to the point where I gave up everything. I stopped writing in that genre for a month, posted thin...

For many writers we create worlds within our minds that we turn into fiction. Fan fiction or not our brains build on bits of fact and our experiences. I know a lot of people through several forums who research a great deal for their stories and in the end they have this fantastic fiction story and piles of notes from books, experts and others in the 'know' as it were. So what do you do with them? I said in an earlier column about taking your notes and putting them into a non-fiction paper. This is sorta of an expansion of that idea. While I was reading an interview Kissa Starling did on her blog, I got to know a bit about a new publishing company that's attached to an older, larger one. This interview and editor peeked my interest so I did a bit of digging around and found that Jupiter Gardens Press has several imprints. Now Jupiter Gardens is a an alternative spirituality Fiction/nonfiction publisher. However they do have several other genres that their imprints publish. P...

He was my greatest love, never to be labeled a gentleman A magnificent creature the likes I never thought, Could exist to us mortal souls. How wrong I was, he was alive, he loved, he hated. Above all he ran, for his spirit was ever free. Like a man driven, A shadow chased by demons, Like a breath of wind a chestnut devil on a cloud. He was my inspiration my reason for living Now alas I am alone Like so many times Yet I do not grieve, for he lives in my heart, in the wind on my face. He still races under me his hooves pounding the turf My inspiration, my hopes, I still hold them close For he has given them to me, That great Thoroughbred, Man O' War. Patricia Bates 01/03/96