Blogging A to Z

P question (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have a meme to fulfill, a challenge issued by a Sisterhood of the Traveling Pens comrade, Emaginette.

The idea is to answer the sender’s 11 questions, then come up with your own 11 questions and pass them along to 11 bloggers. They in turn answer your questions and link back to your site when done.

Here are the QUESTIONS Emaginette has issued forth to her eleven victims:

1. Favorite celebrity. What about them do you like best?

Toughie since I like so many, but let’s go with Tina Fey. I like her because in many respects, I am Liz Lemon, her character from 30 Rock.

2. Favorite animal, real or not. Why?

I love the kittehs. They are independent but sweet and cuddly too.

3. Favorite type of weather or climate. What do you do when it you are in your element?

I enjoy a good thunderstorm. I don’t feel guilty for being at my computer writing when the weather’s bad and the sound and light show adds a little spice. We don’t get much thunder and lightning in the Pacific northwest, though, not like we got in New Mexico where I used to live.

4. If you could live the life of anyone in a book, who would you choose and why?

This is a double-edged sword. All good characters undergo serious conflict in the course of the story, so anyone I pick will have either had an unhappy life or lived through some pretty rough times. For the sheer grandeur in scope of her story and the power of her love affair, I’d have to chose Claire Fraser from the Outlander series.

5. Who was the first character you fell in love with?

Mary Stewart wrote a book back in 1976 called Touch Not The Cat. I adored the heroine’s childhood friend, Rob Granger, in that book. I had just discovered gothic romances back then (in utero) and had been devouring works by Ms. Stewart (including her Merlin books), Victoria Holt and Phyllis Whitney.

6. What is you favorite food? Any special ingredient to make it taste just right?

I love really good New Mexican food, but my favorite is blue corn sour cream chicken enchiladas with green chile sauce. Yummy! Of course I love almost all sweets but I’m on Weight Watchers so I’m not going there. Chiles (red or green, depending on preference) are de rigeur in New Mexican cuisine. Sadie’s Restaurant in Albuquerque makes a killer guaco chicken taco that when paired with a huge margarita on the rocks, is a culinary orgasm.

7. Of all the stories you’ve ever read, watched or heard, which five did you like best?

I’m gonna cheat a little bit and make one choice Aesop’s Fables–I adored those stories as a kid. To that, I’d add: Jane Eyre, Pride & Prejudice, The Three Musketeers, and Outlander.

8. If you were to jump into your car right now, where would you go? And why?

Probably to Barnes & Noble. They have a Starbucks and I love to get a nonfat latte and peruse the books and dream.

9. Is there a moment in your life that you would change? How would it turn out this time?

Hard to say. All of a life’s puzzle pieces are so intricately linked through chains of cause and effect. Change one and what else might suffer? I could say, for example, that I wished I’d let cute boy A know I liked him back in high school. But if I had, what of the Silverback and the two boys we have today? Would I have had a career? Would I have become a writer? It’s so random that I’d have to say the stakes are too high to gamble losing something more precious than what I would gain.

10. If you were given a large sum to donate to any cause you wanted, where would it go?

Probably to cancer research, breast cancer specifically. My mother is a three time breast cancer survivor and she had two siblings and an aunt also die from cancer.

11. Did you find this fun? Would you do it again?

The questions were very thought-provoking and made me reminisce about my life, so I’d have to say yes, I enjoyed it! I don’t like tagging other people though so I’m going to cheat on that part as you’ll see as you read farther.

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So my 11 questions are:

1. The men get asked “boxers or briefs”? The ladies answer panties or thong? (you aren’t limited to those two choices however)

2. Dark chocolate, milk chocolate or white chocolate?

3. Olympics YAY or Olympics NAY? Explain why for either answer.

4. If you could have been born and raised in a completely different country than your own, which one would it be and why?

5. What’s the scariest book you’ve ever read? Why?

6. If you could be an Olympic athlete, what sport would you excel at?

7. Would you rather be critically acclaimed or a pop culture phenom?

8. What superhero power would you choose for yourself?

9. Tell me a word or grouping of words that makes you cringe and why?

10. If you were were forced to give up one of your senses for a million dollars, which would you choose and why? (sight, sound, touch, smell, taste)

11. Name three things on your bucket list.

Now, for the last part of the meme…

The first eleven people to read this post are tagged! Ha! Told you I’d cheat.

Thank you, Emaginette!

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Please be sure to visit more A to Z Blog Challenge participants today! Here’s where you can find their names and link to their blogs. The topics are endless.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

I have a three-pronged post today, all having to do with my recently released novel, The P.U.R.E.

First up is P for “purged” backstory.

This is a deleted scene from The P.U.R.E. It’s referenced in the final product (now available for sale at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble) but this is the scene as originally written nearly three years ago (unedited). By way of setup, heroine Gayle is a brand new employee at a public accounting firm. Unassigned staff are fair game for being tapped to run menial errands for the firm’s partners. Such is Gayle’s lot in this backstory that was ultimately cut.

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After circling around Oak Cliff, a not so charming part of town, I stopped for directions at a 7-11 and asked the surly clerk in a bulletproof cashier’s cage for directions. She looked at me like I had two heads but gave me good enough directions to get me to the cleaners within the hour. I was pretty sure she didn’t get too many white girls in Brooks Brothers’ suits in that particular store. I bought a bag of Cheetos and a Diet Coke while I was there because I hadn’t had any lunch yet.

Of course, Turner hadn’t given me enough money to pay the full amount and I didn’t have my checkbook so I had to leave and go find an ATM to get some cash and then return and fork over $5 of my own money. My precious cargo was an evening gown, a very beautiful one, in a size 0. Only in my dreams.

I had better luck finding the Turner’s home. I buzzed the guard at the gated community to let me in at almost 2:30 PM. Another fifteen minutes elapsed before I eventually located and turned into the Turner’s cul-de-sac. I passed a large black Mercedes that pulled out of their driveway right before I pulled in. I couldn’t see the driver because of the tinted windows but I hoped it wasn’t Mrs. Turner leaving before I could drop off her dress.

A petite blonde woman in her 30’s answered the door, talking on her cell phone. She took the dress from me and then shut the door in my face. I took that as my no nonsense cue to return to the office, mission accomplished.

“Wait a minute! You! Stop!” I turned to see Mrs. Turner walk toward my car, dress in hand.

“Yes?” I replied smiling, naively expecting a “thank you”.

“What took you so long?”

“I got lost. I’m sorry. I just moved here and don’t know my way around Dallas very well yet.”

She shook the dress in her hands and said, “This dress is soiled. Did you take it out of the bag?”

“No, ma’am. I came straight here. It’s been hanging in my back seat since I left the cleaners.

“Look at this! There are orange smudges on the hem.” She shoved the dress under my nose.

Dear God, please tell me I didn’t get Cheetos dust on this woman’s dress. I looked where she pointed her French manicured fingernail and there were indeed two faint parallel streaks of orange near the hem.

I curled my orange stained fingers into my palms to hide them. I began to apologize and offered to have it re-cleaned but she cut me off.

“Ack, what kind of morons are they hiring at ABC these days? You can’t even do something as simple as pick up and deliver a dress?” She caught a glimpse of something over my shoulder and paused for a second. Whatever she saw, it made her change tacks because she wrapped up her tongue lashing with, “For God’s sake! Just go! I can’t deal with this kind of nonsense now!

I climbed inside my little Honda and drove away in disgrace. I hoped I still had a job when I got back to the office, assuming I found it before quitting time.

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Second, you should know that P is also for “Pragya”…

author of the Reviewing Shelf blog. Pragya was kind enough to interview me and is holding a raffle for a free e-copy of my book, The P.U.R.E. The giveaway runs until April 25th so head over to Reviewing Shelf to read and enter.

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Third, P is for Publishing-mate…

The very talented Avery Flynn, author of Temptation Creek and Seduction Creek, is featuring me in her “Welcome Wednesdays” blog series today. Avery and I have both published stories/novels/novellas with Evernight Publishing, though my work with them has been under a different pen name. Send me an email via my contact form if you wanna know more about my upcoming May novella with Evernight, including my super seekrit erotic romance pen name and the name of my forthcoming May 11th release, another workplace romance. 😉

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Now, enough about me. Please be sure to visit more A to Z Blog Challenge participants today! Here’s where you can find their names and link to their blogs. The topics are endless.