10 Random Pictures That Make Me Want To Write Something.

Not even sure where I found these images.

This Week I Am...

I'm still sick and feeling like utter crap, but I feel healthier today than I did yesterday if that makes sense. Until I'm completely better I will probably be hit and miss here on my blog and for that I truly apologise. In between bouts of trying not to cough up a lung or two, I thought I'd play catch up and let you know what's going on. The list isn't very long, but it's basically what I've been up to for the last coupe of weeks.

So here goes:

1: Still in talks with Lily V from Wayward Ink Press about The Gaean Prophecies 1: Admetus Gaea.

2: Still getting stuff together to submit to Fireborn Publishing... Hoping to hear back from them soon.

3: Still working on the secret project (yes the one where I don't know if it's secret or not) for MLRPress.

4: Trying to track down all my hand written notes on my different stories and put them into the right folders.

5: Still in talks with Bronwyn Heeley about The Hunted.

Also:

6: Been working on A Moon-Runner Story: Carlo's Christmas Wish (Expanding for re release).

7: Been working on The Diamond Rose 1: Undiscovered Hearts.

8: Been working on Masters Of Time 1: Shadows On The Heart (Expanding for re release).

9: Been working on Out Of The Zone 1: Hidden In Plain Sight.

10: Been working on The Lines Of Marsden 3: You Make Me Die In Pieces.

SENTINELS OF VARNUSE 1: When The Walls Come Tumbling Down #21

#21.

Dawn was fast approaching and Brayden feared what was coming their way. He knew Tondran was a man with an evil so pure in his heart that he would allow nothing and no one stand in his way to get what he wanted. It had taken him since the day he’d first been kidnapped to this very moment to work out why Tondran seemed so familiar to him.

“Father?” Brayden patted his father’s face gently. “Father, I need to ask you something important.”

His father’s eyes slowly opened as he blinked up at him. Brayden could tell his father was filled with sorrow and pain. “Father, is Tondran, Ormand’s father?”

“Yes,” His father rasped out. “Ormand is Tondran’s son.”

Brayden nodded. His thoughts scrambled as he tried to make sense of everything—it seems the apple truly didn’t fall far from the tree. Now so many of the things Ormand had done to him throughout the years was beginning to make some kind of sense. “Father, did…” his words trailed off as the cell door opened and their guard Josep stepped in.

“It would seem fate is smiling down upon you today. Tondran has been called away and he has postponed the king’s death until his return. I’ll let nothing happen to you between now and then.” He bowed in Brayden’s direction.

“Do you know when he’ll be back?” Brayden asked. He tried to put as much bravery into his words as possible, even though his insides quaked. He needed to know exactly how much time he had to figure out a plan of escape for both him and his father.

“At this stage Tondran’s return is undetermined.” A smile appeared on Josep’s face. “It seems there’s a small group of people in town asking questions about you. Tondran has personally gone out to see if it’s true. Once he knows for sure he will be back.”

“Quin!” Brayden blurted out. Both excitement and fear flooded him as he thought of his husband being so close. How he’d missed the man.

Josep nodded, “It seems you were right all along—your husband really did come for you. Not that it matters much because from what I’ve heard in the tunnels word is he’s greatly outnumbered.”

“Tondran is setting a trap, isn’t he?” Brayden gently stroked his father’s arm. He needed some sort of touch stone to keep him sane. Brayden knew he needed to get word to Quin, but how? “Quinlan needs to be warned.”

“Yes, at least that’s what I’ve heard. And yes, the King needs to know what he’s walking into.” Josep walked over and knelt beside Brayden and his father as he spoke. Handing him a piece of paper and a pen he continued. “I may not succeed in getting to him, but I need you to write something on here for King Quinlan so he knows I’ve come to him in regards to you. If I could take the two of you out of here with me I would, but this place is still too well guarded. I’m leaving someone I trust to keep you safe while I’m gone. His name is Lucas… he’s my… he’ll look after you, I promise.”

Brayden grabbed the paper and pen and hastily scribbled a note to his husband. He poured out all his love and fear in those few short paragraphs, and then he wrote the one thing to let Quinlan know it was from him. Folding the paper he handed it back to Josep.

“Go in peace. May the fates keep you safe upon your journey.” Brayden squeezed Josep’s hand and watched him leave. Hopefully Quinlan wouldn’t kill the man on sight—hopefully his husband would take the time listen to what Josep had to say.

**~*~**

“I’m telling you they know we’re coming,” Talon threw his hands in the air as he ranted. “Somehow they know where we are. We have to get out of here—not leave, just move somewhere else. Somewhere they won’t expect us to be.”

Quinlan was frustrated as hell at this turn of events. He was so close to getting Brayden back, and this little set back was beginning to piss him off. Quinlan knew Brayden was somewhere in this town. For the pure fact his double heart beat was almost now completely in sync. He’d never even truly noticed he’d had two heart beats until after Brayden was taken from him. Strangely he liked knowing the out of sync beat meant something had happened to Brayden. The truth was it was like his early warning signal, and if he reacted fast enough he could stop events from happening before Brayden was forced from the castle again.

“Where do you think we should go? I agree to move as long as you all remember one thing. I’m not going home until my husband is once more safe in my arms. I won’t leave here without Brayden.” Quinlan growled at the eleven men and one woman that surrounded him. They all needed to know his thoughts because no one was going to change his mind.

“No one expects you to Quin,” Ingrid clamped a hand on his shoulder. “None of us want to leave without the return of our loved ones.”

The movement of her fingers against his collar bone were subtle but Quin knew exactly what she was saying. Someone was watching them. The sentinels with them also had their eyes glued to Ingrid’s fingers and the message they told. With very little movement everyone went on alert. Hands slowly reaching for weapons as they listened for what was out there.

**~*~**

Josep stood further back in the shadows and watched the group of people standing just a few feet away from him. He knew somewhere else in the dark he had three other people watching this group, and they all were in the same situation he was in—under Tondran’s thumb, with no means of escape. That was until Brayden had come into their lives. Each of these three men present here, and the few who remained on alert helping Lucas keep Brayden safe had sworn on their lives to serve the old ones. Since King Thayer had been captured they had been activated, and now it was their now sworn duty to help this group rescue the two men being held captive.

Taking a deep breath he stepped out of the shadows and spoke.

“I have a message for King Quinlan,” he held his hands out in front of him and slowly turned showing he wore no weapons. “Consort Brayden has written a note, so you can see I tell no lies.” He took a step towards them. “The note is in my breast pocket. If one of you could come and get it I would be grateful. I don’t wish to make any sudden moves that might cause me to end up dead.”

**~*~**

Quinlan strode over and relieved the man of his note, opening it he began to read.

My love, if you are reading this now you know I’m still alive and that the babe is okay. I cannot say the same for my Father. He’s been beaten to within an inch of his life. The man that gives you this note is called Josep MacLean… he’s a good man who has been kind to me. He’s come to tell you of a trap being set for you my love. It turns out Tondran who is the father of Ormand, has decided he’s going to be my new mate. Father says you cannot allow this to happen. If you die then I do as well. So stay safe my love, because I need you still. Both the babe and I need you in our lives.

I felt Xavier kick again today. I know our son is also fighting to get back to you. I hate it here. I want to come home to you and our sons. Please let Josep help you. I think when we leave this place we may have a few more people going with us than who you came with.

I love you so much… your husband… Bray.

With that one mention of his unborn son’s name relief flooded him when Quinlan knew for certain Josep was telling the truth.

“Take me to my husband.”

Books That Have Inspired Me To Be A Writer

David Eddings wrote one of the best characters I have ever read: Sparhawk. I've always wanted to be able to write someone who was so fricken awesome. I must admit this series is a constant re read for me (actually I love all of David's work). I loved how intricate the world was and how well it all seemed to seamlessly fit together. Hell, I even loved his badguy/girl characters. there was just something morally right about Sparhawk, even when he had to do something not quite legit he did it in a way that showed deep down the man was still the real thing...A man of honour...A man of worth.

In this book: Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley... I saw that women characters can be strong. Scarlett truly redeemed herself in this book in my eyes. Don't get me wrong I still love Margaret Mitchell's: Gone With The Wind (it will forever be a classic read). I just didn't really like Scarlet that much in Margaret's book. I loved how she went back to the homeland and became the head of the whole O'Hara family without even realising what she had done...If you haven't read it then I suggest you do... the book was way better than the mini series.

Paul Zindel's: The Pigman is one of the first authors I read where I actually wanted to sit there and read the book from the beginning when I had finished it. I read this book in high school and even though I wasn't that crash hot in English (lets face it I still suck at punctuation) I just loved this story. My favourite scene is where the two teenagers involved cook the dinner. To be honest I don't even think it was my class who was reading it. I think it was my nieces as my class was doing Shakespeare.

Diana Gabaldon's: Outlander series... sucked me in from the very first page. Seven books in with a spin off into the life of Lord John and I was hooked. I loved Jamie Fraser from the get-go. Then the other characters started becoming real to me... Murtagh, Young Ian, Fergus, Jenny and so forth. This is a writer who made me want to go and explore all the places mentioned in her books. I have a list of things I need to see when I finally get to Scotland. I loved the way the characters all were special in their own ways and could have happily read many spin offs about each and every one of them.

Dean Koontz is one of the best horror writers for me. I can honestly say this man made me afraid of the dark (it's funny how I can read a scary book, but I can't bring myself to watch a scary movie). There are so many great books by this man that I can't name them all. I'm slowly rebuilding up my collection of his. If I can have an addiction to reading then in my teenage years Dean was mine. I must admit I would have love to have been able to write a character like Odd Thomas. I just loved the way Odd's mind worked.

In this series The Morganville Vampires by Rachel Caine... I was fascinated by the ruling/protection system they had in place. Mind you I was drawn to the weird characters:- Mernin is one of my favourites... I loved the fact that he was so smart he was crazy... or maybe that was just the sickness effecting him. I also thought it was great how even the good guys could come off as a little less than perfect. To me that alone gave this series another depth. The fact that the secondary character's were jus as important as the main ones was an added bonus as well.

Beautiful According To Me ~ 6 Character Inspirational Pictures

Jonathan Rhys Meyers will always be one of the most beautiful people to me... Whenever I see a picture of him or see him on TV/Internet I immediately want to start writing on the next instalment of The Lines Of Marsden. He is, who when I first saw him knew right off the bat he was both my Michael and my Benj Marsden.

Weirdly he is also my Ray Connelly from The Connelly Chronicles.

I have no clue who this guy is, but when I was looking for character imagery for The Gaean Prophecies... this is how I pictured Lord Jondalar Arandad he is one of the main characters and Rules over Meadow Run/ Gustave Castle... he is one of the leaders of the Elven Kind.

A friend sent me this picture of these two models and they soon became my twins Jordan & Jaxx Adams who belong in Pack Matters but also make cameos in both Watson Falls & Sons Of Evenmore.

This guy is who inspired my character Chase Williams from Lancaster's Way 2: A Different Way Of Seeing. There's just something about him that called to me. I had this picture picked out before I even had Riley & Noah picked out for the first book.

Saw this guy somewhere and he became my character Linc O'Hare from the series Experimentals... he's one of my main characters in book 2: Running Into Zero Tolerance. At the moment he's on hold until I can get two other projects from under my belt.

I saw this face ( It was the eyes that sucked me in) and instantly knew I had found my Carlo Bruenelli  from A Moon-Runner Story: Carlo's Christmas Wish (originally titled A Moon-Runner Christmas). But am currently expanding for re release.

I'm Sick & Other News...

4 days I have been away due to this stupid flu kicking my arse... I wish I could stop coughing long enough to breathe without it hurting.

I hate being sick, but who doesn't? I hate taking the medication that I need to make me better. I tell you my mouth is sore from sucking on soothers and throat numbing lozenges. I swear to God if I never see another tissue again it will be too soon.

My brain feels like it's been dislodged from all the sneezing, and at one stage my family thought I'd broken my ribs, but lucky for me it was just pulled muscles from coughing. Hurts like hell though.

But onto OTHER NEWS Okay, I have no clue what the other news is so I'm going to ramble for a while... after 4 days away I had 2000 emails waiting for me to go through... and out of that 2000 I probably only needed about 20 or so.

OMG!!! it is so windy here that the door of my hubs shed blew open and buckled a fraction, so I can't close the damn thing (it's fricken huge - so tall). The next door neighbour helped me finally push it closed and try and wedge it shut. Emily has to come home from work and try and ratchet/tie it shut...  In the end after Em and I tied it shut we had to park one of the work trucks in front of it as I don't think I tie job is gonna hold.

That in essence is my drama filled day... now I'm off to do some writing on my super secret project for MLR (yeah, the one that I don't know if this is a secret or not).  I will give you more details when I find out what's the go... just give me a week or so to get over my flu.

Right Now & Coming Up...

Well that damn irritating cough seems to be well on its way to turning into the flu... I feel like crap, and we all know that when I feel this way I have a tendency to ramble... a lot.

But on the upside... we also know that being sick is when I'll get a bunch of new story ideas.

Right now... I'm working on: A Moon-Runner Story: Carlo's Christmas Wish. Which I have to admit that even though it basically follows the same story line as the original (A Moon-Runner Christmas) there are some big changes and a whole lot of added wordage happening. I'm also working on The Diamond Rose 1: Undiscovered Hearts... Hoping to have both finished over the next couple of weeks.

Co-authoring... Bronwyn Heeley and I are still hashing out the basis of The Hunted... we are having weekly meetings until we are satisfied that we both know what the hell is going on. As soon as we have something concrete we may let you in on what's happening.

Also in talks with some fellow MLR authors about a new secret project. Well at least I think it's a secret. I'll let you know more on that one when I'm able. I won't really talk about it until I get the go ahead.