Santa Reading Kindle Papyrus

Secrets and Charms is live at all the usual retailers. It's the second book of the "Secrets" series but not truly a sequel. Charms tells the story of Olly, who was a supporting character in Secrets and Ink. However, to those who enjoyed Ink, Charms delivers a similar package: humor, romance, smexy times, and a dash of mystery. Plus a highly fictionalized take on the movie business.

Writing this story I had a good time making up fictional movie titles for various genres from slasher flick to Oscar-bait. But my favorite is Olly's beloved gay porn flick from above. I put real research into this. No, I don't mean watching gay porn! Not this time, anyway. What I mean is, that I had to use math (!) to figure out when the movie was produced, then look up the popular mainstream movies of the time to come up with a spoof title. (The research probably ended with me either watching gay porn or youtube videos of cute animals. I don't remember, but that's how most of my researches end.)

The next Secrets book, Secrets and Bow Ties, is scheduled to come out in May. In it we'll find out more about the "plot" of Dildo Menace, and Brian Rockwell's anatomy.

Double Cover Reveal

The cover of Secrets and Ink was designed by the talented Angie Waters. The book will be out in December, most likely. The hapless protagonist of this novella has a shady past and a few secrets. Unfortunately, his memory is hazy on some of the details, and that gets him into no end of trouble. It's a good thing he has a hunky cop looking after him.

Meanwhile, my old book, Hanging Loose got a new cover and is also available in print. Hanging Loose is a laid-back summer read with little angst and few quirky characters.

Wednesday Word: Vamp

Theda Bara, the original Vamp

vamp 2 informalnouna woman who uses sexual attraction to exploit men.verb [ trans. ]1 blatantly set out to attract : she had not vamped him like some wicked Jezebel.2 (in fiction) turn (someone) into a vampire.DERIVATIVESvampish adjectivevampishly adverbvampy adjectiveORIGIN early 20th cent.: abbreviation of vampire .

A perfect proof that by the silent movie era the popular image of vampires was something sexy and sinful--a far cry from their origin as ruddy faced fiends. Vampires are zombies are the two sides of the same coin. They are both represent the dead coming back for the still living, but while zombies are shuffling, mindless monsters, who want to eat your brain, vampires are seducers who want to drink your blood. Hm, what does it say about the human psyche?