Bri Clark's Blog, page 27

You guys remember that post about how I wear many hats? Yeah that one. Oh you don't know well it's here if you are interested. Anyways taking that into context I will be speaking tomorrow at a community event called Ignite Boise. I'm not talking about writing as I am talking about personal experiences and hardships that happened in my life in a funny way. The event is full or artists, authors, agents, readers and the community. Needless to say that afterward at the after parties are going to be a great way to network. Let's face it when any author starts out they start from their home base and work their way out. So with that said one of the things I did with my presentation was include my twitter handle at the bottom of every slide for my PowerPoint. Most people have twitter on their phones and all my blog and facebook stuff link to twitter and my blog has my book page on it as well. The ring of network is complete. So have any of you ever done community networking? If so what were they?

Also: If you are unable to come to hear me speak you can follow along live online at  http://igniteboise.com/

So it's Tuesday and I really like updating on Tuesdays and so I thought I would put myself out there and let everyone know I am trying HCG. I know several people...I won't name names that did HCG and kept it off. Better yet they did it a year ago and have kept it off. Now with the boot camp I lost about 5lbs, a ton of inches, gained the motivation to get up 5 days a week and workout. However, I need help with my eating habits. On top of that I have a thyroid issue working against me. Instead of going into a whole bunch of crap about my thyroid I'll just say it's huge and malfunctions most of the time. So the HCG diet advertises that it helps stabilize a thyroid as well.

Taking all these things into account I tried HCG back at a very stressful time in my life. I did good the first week and lost 3 lbs. After that the crap hit the fan and food was my bff and I loved it and stroked it and called it George. Ahem back to the rant ... My husband on the other hand kept it up and lost like 20 lbs. Did I mention I hate him sometimes.

Here I am on Day one of my new HCG diet and hopefully I will be held accountable. I will post every Tuesdsay. But the short bursts of rants will be on my twitter and facebook. If you'd like to follow click the badges to the right. I friend everyone and follow back. HCG and Bri...friend of foe?

If you want to see what I've been up to this weekend then go check out my guest post over at http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/2011/04/intitial-impressions-and-gut-wrenching.html?showComment=1303139593778#c3814692217885574595

Disclaimer: I don't smoke and that is not the picture I sent. He is the only other man who can ruffle my feathers right up there with my brother and husband.

So today was a lesson early on for me. I woke up to the realization that the Spirit was trying to tell me last night to plug in my lappy so I would realize that I forgot my laptop cord at the lovely VineArts Open Studio that I attend sometimes with my daughter. (To find out more about them click the name.)
Needless to say I didn't heed that prompting and so this morning when I got up and found that my precious lappy was not only dead but I had no cord to charge it with a small panic attack occurred.

Now most people would say just go buy one or just go get it from where ever you left it. Here's the problem. I made a covenant when I joined my church not to purchase things on Sunday unless absolutely necessary. Kind of like the ox in the mire saying. Meaning that back in the days of pioneers that if an ox got stuck in the mud on Sunday you didn't just leave it there to die cause it's Sunday but then if you could live without it until the next day hold off.

Then there is the respect I have for the friends that are the only ones that can get me into the center. They have worship in the morning then they are having a wonderful event afterwards at the same time my worship service is. Then they are pretty much off all week to celebrate the resurrection of Christ because Easter is next Sunday. So many factors to respect and keep. Like I said panic attack. I work from my laptop.

So anyway long story short I contacted my friends and one was able to help me out without being too put out (I think) then another gave me a laptop cord on a temp basis. Lesson Learned from all this I feel bad that I never took the time to ask in prayer what to do but inside me I was screaming for help and my prayers were answered and like so often they are in the form of friends.

Dimitri, also known as the Earl of Corvindale, should be delighted that the headstrong Maia Woodmore is getting married. His mortal ward and houseguest has annoyed—and bewitched—the Dracule nobleman too long, and denying his animal cravings grows more excruciating by the day.
Miss Woodmore's family has a rather…complicated history with the immortals and she herself possesses a keen sensibility far beyond mere women's intuition. Marriage will give her safety, respectability and everything else a proper young lady could wish for. Everything, that is, except passion.
In the looming battle between Dracule factions, all pretenses will shatter as Maia and Dimitri come together in an unholy union of danger, desperation and fiercest desire. 

Disclaimer: These vampires don't sparkles but they are a load of fun and this is a sensual romance.



I'm so excited to find out The Vampire Dimitri is part of a series with The Vampire Narcise and The Vampire Voss included in the Dracuia Series. Dimitri is the epitome of the brooding self loathing vampire. Having made a pact with the devil to save his love he is transformed into the Dracule. Losing her love and being cursed in the process hardens a man...makes him self destruct. But destruction would be a release for the curse of immortality that Dimitri faces. That is until the prim miss of Maia Woodmore invades his life.

Maia Woodmore is of gypsy lineage and having almost ruined her reputation in polite society once she is determine never to chance it again. The matriarch holding her young sisters and wandering brother's family together after the death of their parents has forced her to be the proper mistress she must.

When Chas her brother disappears and leaves her and her sister Angelica in the care of the Earl of Corvindale she is livid. Her fiance' is missing and so is her brother and all the Earl cares about is domineering her and her sister into seclusion. Tempers flare and will is tried as The Earl of Corvindale meets his match in the smoldering proper heat of Maia Woodmore.

The world of the Dracule is one I could stay in. Colleen Gleason has successfully created a world that is familiar yet unlike any other vampire series. I am so looking forward to finding out more about the Dracule as this is a series. 

I'd like to welcome Elle Newmark with an insightful and heartfelt post of her experiences riding in New Dehli. Welcome Elle.


Driving in Delhi
My driver wove us through Delhi's traffic with his usual calm expertise, avoiding rickshaws and bony sacred cows and suicidal dogs. Whenever we stopped at a red light, sad women came up to the car, holding limp, unconscious babies; they tapped on the windows as if they barely had the strength to lift their arms, and mimed putting imaginary food into their mouths. The babies flopped on their arms looked dead, and I was later told they are in fact drugged so as not to bother their mothers while they are working. The women's bleak faces could rip your heart out, and if you hand them a 100-rupee note (two dollars) they run like hell, veils flying, before you can change your mind. If you don't give them anything, they might pound the window angrily, their faces morphing in an instant from pathetic to furious. Sometimes they whine, "You are riiiiich. I am poooor." You will always feel like a heel around these women.At one stoplight, a filthy, skin-and-bones child tapped on my window, hopping up and down to bring his pitiful face into view. At the same time, an old leper with fingers grown together so that he had paws rather than hands, tapped on the opposite window with thick yellow fingernails. Shocked by the double onslaught of misery, the light turned green before I could react.I groaned as we drove away, but my driver said that as soon as the light turns green they lose the mournful look and laugh like hell if you gave them money or call you vile names if you didn't. But does that matter? They're human beings, grasping for survival. Does it matter whether their situation is slightly less dire than they make out? One was a child. The other was a leper.

But other places, other wars. Martin and Evie find themselves stranded in a colonial bungalow in the Himalayas due to violence surrounding the partition of India between Hindus and Muslims. In that house, hidden behind a brick wall, Evie discovers a packet of old letters, which tell a strange and compelling story of love and war involving two young Englishwomen who lived in the same house in 1857. 
Drawn to their story, Evie embarks on a mission to piece together her Victorian mystery. Her search leads her through the bazaars and temples of India as well as the dying society of the British Raj. Along the way, Martin's dark secret is exposed, unleashing a new wedge between Evie and him. As India struggles toward Independence, Evie struggles to save her marriage, pursuing her Victorian ghosts for answers.
Bursting with lavish detail and vivid imagery of Calcutta and beyond, The Sandalwood Tree is a powerful story about betrayal, forgiveness, fate, and love. 


The Sandelwood Tree buy link.

Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your experiences. They are sad but true. I think that people lose the core of their mortality sometimes and become desensitized.

So on this edition of Writer Wednesday we will discuss (really I'm just gonna rant) that authors that want to make money, build a platform, or be successful in this industry have to do more than WRITE.
Here is a list of some of the things I do for this industry.

Disclaimer: I also am a mother, wife, friend, smartypantsdiva, sister, basically if it's female and sassy I've tried it or I'm doing it.






I'm an author first and foremost. With two digital shorts out Caffe' Seduzione and Familial Witch already out and getting amazing reviews I now have the wonderful opportunity to follow those stories up with sequels in novel form. I've also contributed to an anthology with some other wonderful women entitled Blood Bound. I'm in the edit's of my novel Glazier that releases at the end of May.I'm an editor. Any author no matter the publishing method or if they are not yet will spend more time editing than writing. There's a great quote and I'm sorry I don't know who said it but here it is "There's no great writer only great rewriters."I'm a social marketer. I handle not only my own linkedin, twitter and facebook accounts I contribute to the twitter and facebook accounts of Astraea Press one of my publishers.I am a blogger. I write and manage my own blog as well as one of my publishers Astraea Press.I am a book reviewer. I review books, interview and feature authors and novels on my blog. And because I just love hats I am now a reviewer for Romancing the Book as well.Finally I am a supporter of other authors. I help my fellow Astraea Press authors and people those that I now on facebook and twitter. It's so much more than being an author. So those are my hats...what else do you do?

So this is my last week of bootcamp. Thank you baby Jesus. How am I doing health wise...fabulous. I look at my body and I'm proud. I feel good and I look great. At boot camp there is a couple of things I learned that I want to share. Some myths if you will that I want to set straight.

 Jesse the trainer is no where near Major Payne. He's more like major perfect. He has the balance of encouragement, correction and support that I didn't think existed. You need to work out for at least an hours a day 5 days a week to lose weight. 3 days is just maintenance. It's not just about exercise it's diet too.If you don't focus on the numbers and more on how you feel you accomplish more. I can not work out when I am exhausted. Sleep, sleep, sleep is very important to maintain energy levels and mood stability. I'm a lazy, emotional eater which means that if I don't prepare it before hand or have a plan I will eat whatever is convenient. So I must plan and not purchase the bad stuff.There is no way  I could ever do this for a substantial amount of time. Maybe when I am in much better shape. I do plan on doing another camp with Jesse in September. That one will be out doors. So we shall see what that's like probably something like this ...
 

I have this friend and they needed a house and the people that owned the house needed the house sold. But before the owners could purchase a home where they moved out of state they needed to have tenants in the house that hadn't sold yet. A deal was struck and things progressed forward. Conditions were set that the house would show after an allotted amount of time. If if didn't sale in that time then a longer agreement would come to pass and the tenants would stay.


To say that this set of friends has dueling interests would be putting it mildly. But what the common goal is in this relationship was a desire for the other's family to succeed. For example...the Real Estate agent the owners used previously had a family he wanted to show the house to. The deal was the house would not be marketed for 6 months while the tenants were in there. They struggled with even asking the tenants. Finally they decided to let them decide. The tenants agreed to show it. They asked for time to make it presentable because they wanted to put the best face forward on the beautiful home. While in every legality they had the right to refuse. But they didn't.

The owners were very grateful and assured them they had not solicited the showing and that if it did sale they would take care of the family. The tenants knew that they could not only trust in their landlords/friends they could trust in the repercussions of unselfish acts of kindness. Call it karma, call it blessings or call it fate the trust between the two friends is what will outlast brick and mortar, wood and drywall.

Vail the Unwanted is a pure-blooded vampire. But raised by Faery, he has neither home nor peace, and when his aid is sought in the recovery of a priceless diamond gown, his price is information. Specifically the whereabouts of his accursed father. His goal is revenge, and the supernaturally sexy Lyric, the icy blond vampiress with whom he must work, is a distraction he can't afford.Outwardly as cold as the diamond dress in which she was kidnapped, Lyric has her own secrets. Desperate to break free from her criminal family, she aligns herself with the brooding Vail. Together they seek justice while each secretly works for freedom and a fresh start. For Lyric that means holding herself apart, even from the smoldering blue-eyed Vail. For Vail, it means a battle to the death for revenge—and for a temptress he can't deny.



Forever Vampire by Michele Hauf was so wonderful I read it in one day.  More than the amazing story and dynamic characters the fact that I wanted to so badly read it and it kept falling from my grasp only added to my happiness when I finally was able to download it. An ARC from netgalley was how I obtained the compelling story...however being a Kindle user caused a few problems.Thankfully Netgalley promptly fixed them and my Kindle is on fire.

Disclaimer: This vampire does sparkle and this is a sensual romance.

Vail is an amazing character. Bad boy with a desire to good, a misguided upbringing and a willingness to accomplish his own desires no matter the cost make Vail a fabulous vampire with an identity crisis. Throw in the tantalizing Lyric and you get two vampires with similar familial challenges and identity problems. Lyric is lovely, a hopeless romantic known as the "Ice Queen" and a vampire who dreams of one day joining the circus. Everything about this book was enthralling and enjoyable. The plot moved with a rhythm that is uniquely Michelle Hauf. Forever Vampire releases April 21st and can be preordered through Amazon.