It's been a couple of weeks, but my mom had surgery last month. There is always so much we think about, but it is hard to put it all into words how we really feel. I love and adore my mother. But, we are worlds apart in how we view the world. She has tongue cancer and this was her second surgery, so it could have changed her life completely by causing issues with speech and the ability to do something as simple as sitting down to a meal. The speech is slightly effected, but not to the point we can't understand every word. And the getting past milkshakes and soup is still ongoing. But, the margins are clear and her life goes on, with a large pot hole in the road. Did I say pot hole, you could take a mule ride the bottom...She is eighty-two.
My dad used to always say "such is life" He didn't speak french very well. I miss him everyday. It would have been his birthday on the third. You can blame that for my ramblings today.
The road we take is seldom without construction or a straight line. And sometimes it's the circle around the big cities or the stop light on a county road, but the view is seldom the same, unless of course, you're in Kansas. Before the gasoline crisis, I was young and loved to travel. I can tell you that driving through Oregon was one of the most spectacular drives I ever took. I went from the stark young mountains of Colorado, to the rich lush visages of the Bitter Roots. And yet, I live in a small southern Indiana town, so that I can be close to family.
I am always trying to tell stories in my writing that are essentially about hope and happiness, but there is always some fundamental roadblock that must be overcome along that journey. It is how I have always experienced life. Wanting, but always having to work hard for whatever has been achieved. The characters in The Replacement Lists have lived those kind of lives. They are a reflection of the road they have taken in life.
Takeshi and Hannah's love story unfolds in the first book, Shaking Off the Dust. She is has been somewhat beaten down by her life and yet she lives each day with humor, often at her own expense. She realized a while back that she was going to be single, until she meets Takeshi. Shimodo has achieved great things scholastically, but he has a very clinical view of life until her meets Hannah. She is the perfect research subject, but she is fully engaged in life. She soon makes him laugh and feel all those emotions he thought were beyond his experience.
Despite The Replacement Lists being an adult read, it is all about family. Taking responsibility for the safety of those you love. Creating extended families. The blending of families into a protective unit. I don't want to spoil any of the odd twists and turns of this book, but you will discover that love has a way of sneaking up on you, even when you are seeking to avenge the death of those you care about.
Kiss your mothers, fathers, husbands and wives and children goodnight and take a journey down a different path.
Rhianna
Friday, August 5, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
When you want to laze around
It's July and hot in southern Indiana. I have a dozen or so things I should be doing, but the body and mind are arguing over how much energy there is to spend on this day.
One of my close friends sent on a link to the dear author blog where Maya Banks is giving an open interview on what she is making as an author through digital and print. I have met her a few times and she is a lovely woman. She enjoys her fans and I find her conversation genuine, which is not always the case when you are talking with people who are trying to sell a book or real estate. The article is very interesting, here is the link. http://dearauthor.com/features/interviews/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-digital-publishing-but-were-afraid-to-ask-a-qa-with-maya-banks/
I am amazed at how prolific she is, putting out eight to ten books a year, she really does work hard for the money.
It is a hot day here. I haven't opened my window curtains, trying to keep the cool inside. My two cats are not with the game plan. One of them keeps going to the window and sticking her paws through the blinds trying to maintain an opening. They don't seem to find my company as tantalizing as the occasional bird or squirrel running past. I should be insulted, but instead I applaud their good taste.
I watched the new Torchwood on Starz this weekend. I love this show and fell in love with the characters through the BBC production, though they did manage to kill off the great majority of the characters through the years. I recommend it to any of you who are fans of science fiction and just fun and entertaining programing. I wish they had given us a two hour first show. Like a big chewy bite, instead of a small taste of what's to come. I am looking forward to the series being amazing.
I hope everyone is having a great day. My overhead fans are on and I took care of that disorder of the hair that includes creeping gray all along the roots. I hear it is a common disorder of woman of all ages. I hate to admit it does seem to take a decade off my appearance. Now, if it could only take off a few pounds.
I need to hear the washing machine clatter and the vacum pierce the sound barrier before the day is done. Hope your day is quiet.
I'd love to hear how everyone else is spending their day. It has got to be more interesting than mine. Though, I am writing and there is an hot tempered male who is demanding a lot of intimate attention from the heroine.
You see, I have to fan myself for more than the temperature outside.
Rhianna
One of my close friends sent on a link to the dear author blog where Maya Banks is giving an open interview on what she is making as an author through digital and print. I have met her a few times and she is a lovely woman. She enjoys her fans and I find her conversation genuine, which is not always the case when you are talking with people who are trying to sell a book or real estate. The article is very interesting, here is the link. http://dearauthor.com/features/interviews/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-digital-publishing-but-were-afraid-to-ask-a-qa-with-maya-banks/
I am amazed at how prolific she is, putting out eight to ten books a year, she really does work hard for the money.
It is a hot day here. I haven't opened my window curtains, trying to keep the cool inside. My two cats are not with the game plan. One of them keeps going to the window and sticking her paws through the blinds trying to maintain an opening. They don't seem to find my company as tantalizing as the occasional bird or squirrel running past. I should be insulted, but instead I applaud their good taste.
I watched the new Torchwood on Starz this weekend. I love this show and fell in love with the characters through the BBC production, though they did manage to kill off the great majority of the characters through the years. I recommend it to any of you who are fans of science fiction and just fun and entertaining programing. I wish they had given us a two hour first show. Like a big chewy bite, instead of a small taste of what's to come. I am looking forward to the series being amazing.
I hope everyone is having a great day. My overhead fans are on and I took care of that disorder of the hair that includes creeping gray all along the roots. I hear it is a common disorder of woman of all ages. I hate to admit it does seem to take a decade off my appearance. Now, if it could only take off a few pounds.
I need to hear the washing machine clatter and the vacum pierce the sound barrier before the day is done. Hope your day is quiet.
I'd love to hear how everyone else is spending their day. It has got to be more interesting than mine. Though, I am writing and there is an hot tempered male who is demanding a lot of intimate attention from the heroine.
You see, I have to fan myself for more than the temperature outside.
Rhianna
Monday, July 4, 2011
The Replacement Lists
It's out on Amazon! The sequel to Shaking Off the Dust is called The Replacement Lists and it's got a different point of view than the first. I think it allowed me to tell a bigger story this way.
This story begins nearly eight months after the end of the first book. Takeshi and Hannah are getting ready for their babies to come any time when people that they know are suddenly being murdered in professional hits. When they finally put two and three together it equals the names from their wedding replacement lists. It also means going on the run and into hiding.
Along the way, all of those men and women involved in the original capture of the infamous terrorist and drug lord Sanchez are targets. Their friends are coming from all over the world to help Takeshi and Hannah survive, including a friend from Takeshi's childhood, Yanna. She's the daughter of a dojo master and a Japanese policewoman, but once she hears the concern in his voice, she flies to their side.
The graphic and violent murders of two of their friends turns Dr. Dwight Santiago in to the hard as nails ex Delta boy he was in the service. Doctor or not, he plans to see the the Shimodos safe and the assassins pay. You'll see a side of him that you never glimpsed in the first book.
I hope you all enjoy this new book.
Rhianna Samuels
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Music
I’ve been enjoying some new music and it got me thinking about why we like certain music. I know that where and how we are raised has a huge impact on what we might choose. The choices are amazing. I do watch American Idol, but not until the auditions are over. I don’t want to hear the begging and crying, I want to hear the singers sing.
When I’m driving and want to just think or work on my books in my head, I will not always listen to music, but one of my favorite things to listen to is Enigma ~ Deep Forest. There are some Pigmy songs that totally transport me to the fantasy world I like to write.
Our favorite music is often generational. If you were in school during the eighties then you can really appreciate those artists. My brother and his wife are seven years younger than I am and they love YES. My brother in law, older has everything Bob Dylan ever recorded.
I like to think that my taste is eclectic. I love so many songs from the sixties, seventies and beyond. I buy new artist all the time. I will even listen to gangster rap, not often, but sometimes if there is something interesting musically in how it affects me. I’m the one who can spend a couple of hours at B&N listening to all the new CD’s trying to discover some one that catches my ear.
I also love the oldies, Ella and Miles and Chet Baker. Trumpet, pure and bluesy just turns me on…let me qualify that I don’t like too much percussion. Of the new guys, I’m huge on Chris Botti and Rick Braun. I also have a real thing for a lot of James Taylor songs. His voice is so smooth, he sings as if it is breathing to him, effortlessly. His song the secret of life…I will listen over and over to remember to enjoy the ride.
Rhianna
When I’m driving and want to just think or work on my books in my head, I will not always listen to music, but one of my favorite things to listen to is Enigma ~ Deep Forest. There are some Pigmy songs that totally transport me to the fantasy world I like to write.
Our favorite music is often generational. If you were in school during the eighties then you can really appreciate those artists. My brother and his wife are seven years younger than I am and they love YES. My brother in law, older has everything Bob Dylan ever recorded.
I like to think that my taste is eclectic. I love so many songs from the sixties, seventies and beyond. I buy new artist all the time. I will even listen to gangster rap, not often, but sometimes if there is something interesting musically in how it affects me. I’m the one who can spend a couple of hours at B&N listening to all the new CD’s trying to discover some one that catches my ear.
I also love the oldies, Ella and Miles and Chet Baker. Trumpet, pure and bluesy just turns me on…let me qualify that I don’t like too much percussion. Of the new guys, I’m huge on Chris Botti and Rick Braun. I also have a real thing for a lot of James Taylor songs. His voice is so smooth, he sings as if it is breathing to him, effortlessly. His song the secret of life…I will listen over and over to remember to enjoy the ride.
Rhianna
Monday, February 9, 2009
BLOG STORIES
As you may have noticed, I don’t blog with any real regularity. I am not good at coming up with fun stuff to wax philosophic or even wittily about, except as part of a conversation. I am a person that thrives in a lively debate or making snarky comments about inconsequential parts of life with friends or family to bounce against or sometimes to cross swords in a lively fencing of words and humor. I don’t claim to be the smartest wit, but I come close to the smartest ass in the group.
Witty repartee in the context of a story or characters ranting, well that’s another thing completely. I can character rant and snort with the best of them. I have been told that I am easily amused, and there are times it is undoubtedly true. I love the absurd, unless it brings someone to my emergency room. Okay, even then…like the kid who swallowed three quarters, cause he didn’t have pockets. Heck, we were pulling vibrators out of butts, long before ER or Grey’s Anatomy made us laugh over it. Of course, they weren’t as small as they are now. Or the old gentleman who put his hearing aid batteries in his ears instead of the hearing aid. I thought we were a society where bigger is better, right? No, now we are the sleek and skinny world of Apple and unhealthy thin super models. ( I love apple products, so keep me in mind when you start to give out IPODS or I- anything. )
I like to create characters that can appreciate the absurd as equally as they do ordinary beauties. The man who likes a crooked smile or mascara that runs. He’s the one whose lips quirk listening into other conversations at a café. Or she keeps spraining her ankles wearing heels.
You see, that is not what the good bloggers do. Very few of them tell character driven or action adventure or even paranormal suspense stories on a daily or even weekly basis. They review life, books or music from their own perspective, even if it is under the name anonymous, it is still from their own point of view.
My point? I am not a consistent blogger. I’ll just call them updates and while I catch up on my story telling in a novel way… (Couldn’t resist)… There may be weeks in between.
Rhianna Samuels
Witty repartee in the context of a story or characters ranting, well that’s another thing completely. I can character rant and snort with the best of them. I have been told that I am easily amused, and there are times it is undoubtedly true. I love the absurd, unless it brings someone to my emergency room. Okay, even then…like the kid who swallowed three quarters, cause he didn’t have pockets. Heck, we were pulling vibrators out of butts, long before ER or Grey’s Anatomy made us laugh over it. Of course, they weren’t as small as they are now. Or the old gentleman who put his hearing aid batteries in his ears instead of the hearing aid. I thought we were a society where bigger is better, right? No, now we are the sleek and skinny world of Apple and unhealthy thin super models. ( I love apple products, so keep me in mind when you start to give out IPODS or I- anything. )
I like to create characters that can appreciate the absurd as equally as they do ordinary beauties. The man who likes a crooked smile or mascara that runs. He’s the one whose lips quirk listening into other conversations at a café. Or she keeps spraining her ankles wearing heels.
You see, that is not what the good bloggers do. Very few of them tell character driven or action adventure or even paranormal suspense stories on a daily or even weekly basis. They review life, books or music from their own perspective, even if it is under the name anonymous, it is still from their own point of view.
My point? I am not a consistent blogger. I’ll just call them updates and while I catch up on my story telling in a novel way… (Couldn’t resist)… There may be weeks in between.
Rhianna Samuels
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
The trip and back
I was gone to a funeral for the weekend, the trip started on New Years Eve, which I don’t recommend as a traveling day. Mostly, because you can’t catch a deal on a decent hotel and it’s expensive to pay maximum price. None of the big hotels have a funeral price. Oh well.
It was a sad occasion to reunite with family. After the service was over, we met with some of our cousins. We were in a small east Texas town, that has turned into one of those historical villages, with antique stores and bed and breakfasts abounding.
My older brother arranged to have a cottage for everyone to get together and got me a room in a B&B. I ended up in a two room cottage, which at one time was the slave quarters, the bed was so high, I needed a trampoline to get up on the thing and they didn’t have a foot stool to help. I managed. My nephew shared the cottage for one night, he was in the room that had bloomers decorating the walls. I asked him what he thought of that… he answered…”They didn’t fit”… he’s sixteen.” He is very funny. There was a clawfoot tub behind a curtain in his room and the bathroom was built to look like an out house. The Christmas fairy had a Santa clause decorations seizure in his room and a gingerbread one in mine. It made the whole trip surreal.
One of my cousins is a very lovely woman, whose mother is a full blooded Comanche. I talked her into teaching me a couple of cuss words in the native tongue. It required some coaxing, because she is very sweet and kept giving me other words, until I asked specifically for the words I wanted. Another one of my cousins is from a little town about an hour from where we were. He’s the fire chief, battalion chief and arson investigator. I was asking him how often he had to investigate arson in his little town and he told me it was more often then you’d suspect.
Last story, I promise. The rented car I drove for the trip had a Magellan. I have never used a GPS before and I’m totally thrilled to have gotten it for the trip down, because I was alone and there were many turn offs and twist and turns and that lady gave me a heads up for all of them. On the down, I picked up my sisters suitcase, she lives about an hour south of me and she hitched a ride with my brother down and drove back with me. I plugged in my destination and don’t ya know that it took me home, but bypassed her town and I had to drive south again to take her fanny home before the trip was finally done.
I know that is sounds weird, but that kind of thing seems to happen regularly. It is Saturn in my planets…Muuahahahah!
Rhianna
PS good news. I won the NOR award for Romantic Suspense Fall 2008 and came in second for Paranormal Romance for Shaking Off the Dust. *happy dance*
It was a sad occasion to reunite with family. After the service was over, we met with some of our cousins. We were in a small east Texas town, that has turned into one of those historical villages, with antique stores and bed and breakfasts abounding.
My older brother arranged to have a cottage for everyone to get together and got me a room in a B&B. I ended up in a two room cottage, which at one time was the slave quarters, the bed was so high, I needed a trampoline to get up on the thing and they didn’t have a foot stool to help. I managed. My nephew shared the cottage for one night, he was in the room that had bloomers decorating the walls. I asked him what he thought of that… he answered…”They didn’t fit”… he’s sixteen.” He is very funny. There was a clawfoot tub behind a curtain in his room and the bathroom was built to look like an out house. The Christmas fairy had a Santa clause decorations seizure in his room and a gingerbread one in mine. It made the whole trip surreal.
One of my cousins is a very lovely woman, whose mother is a full blooded Comanche. I talked her into teaching me a couple of cuss words in the native tongue. It required some coaxing, because she is very sweet and kept giving me other words, until I asked specifically for the words I wanted. Another one of my cousins is from a little town about an hour from where we were. He’s the fire chief, battalion chief and arson investigator. I was asking him how often he had to investigate arson in his little town and he told me it was more often then you’d suspect.
Last story, I promise. The rented car I drove for the trip had a Magellan. I have never used a GPS before and I’m totally thrilled to have gotten it for the trip down, because I was alone and there were many turn offs and twist and turns and that lady gave me a heads up for all of them. On the down, I picked up my sisters suitcase, she lives about an hour south of me and she hitched a ride with my brother down and drove back with me. I plugged in my destination and don’t ya know that it took me home, but bypassed her town and I had to drive south again to take her fanny home before the trip was finally done.
I know that is sounds weird, but that kind of thing seems to happen regularly. It is Saturn in my planets…Muuahahahah!
Rhianna
PS good news. I won the NOR award for Romantic Suspense Fall 2008 and came in second for Paranormal Romance for Shaking Off the Dust. *happy dance*
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Christmas Eve
The family plans sort of fell through for the night. Instead of having someone to share the evening, I find myself alone and reflective. Sometimes that can be good, and sometimes it just gives me a headache. If I’m spending time thinking too hard, I always hope it’s on the current story I’m writing. That is not the case this evening.
It’s Christmas Eve, where are you in your life? There is a steep learning curve as we age. I’d like to think that it has made me an older, wiser woman to have traveled my own particular path through life. It was circuitous and an often tortuous journey at times, but it lead me to now. Here I am! Yea, I’m not impressed either. *delicate snort*
Aside from the usual complaints about being in debt and nothing of value to show for that, I am alright with where I am. Sure, I’d like to be living on the ocean front or on a large lake, river or mountain stream, but that is one of those dreams that you have and discover it’s great for a couple of weeks, but it’s hard to support the cost of exclusivity. Not that I’d turn you down if you offered me a condo for a month, all expenses paid in any of the above locations. My biggest issue is that I don’t have enough time to do all the important things in live.
I like equal parts work and relaxation, or what I like to call sleep. Yes, I include writing as working. It’s time consuming to craft the perfect sentence. Not that I’ve done that yet, but I keep trying and eventually it will turn up on a page. Most like by accident. I'm okay with that too.
At night, I lay down and start to plot my next scene and the next thing I know I’m turning off the alarm clock. The brilliant flashes seem to come while I’m driving back and forth to work or the grocery store. Why is that? It’s not like I will remember that great speech when I have a chance to write it down, and please don’t give me that sorry line about carrying around a digital recorder, because it’s not going to happen while I’m maneuvering through local traffic.
I have my moments though. I will start writing and it pours out of the pen or my fingertips to appear on paper. I will read it later and be amazed. It’s where I am in my life right now. I have a professional career in a field that I can always fall back on to support me but I want that time for something else. I hate having to give up sleeping time to write. Don’t you? My New Years resolutions is to organize my time better, and hope my thoughts will follow that behavior.
Another bit of good news. Shaking Off the Dust made the nominations for the CAPA awards at TRS. Samhain had a lot of nominations, which is always cool. I don’t know how any of these things get decided, but I thank everyone and anyone who enjoyed the book enough to consider it for nomination. Here’s the link.
http://theromancestudio.com/capa.php
Have an amazing Holiday. I’ll still be rambling on about some thing or other when they are over, so check back.
Rhianna
It’s Christmas Eve, where are you in your life? There is a steep learning curve as we age. I’d like to think that it has made me an older, wiser woman to have traveled my own particular path through life. It was circuitous and an often tortuous journey at times, but it lead me to now. Here I am! Yea, I’m not impressed either. *delicate snort*
Aside from the usual complaints about being in debt and nothing of value to show for that, I am alright with where I am. Sure, I’d like to be living on the ocean front or on a large lake, river or mountain stream, but that is one of those dreams that you have and discover it’s great for a couple of weeks, but it’s hard to support the cost of exclusivity. Not that I’d turn you down if you offered me a condo for a month, all expenses paid in any of the above locations. My biggest issue is that I don’t have enough time to do all the important things in live.
I like equal parts work and relaxation, or what I like to call sleep. Yes, I include writing as working. It’s time consuming to craft the perfect sentence. Not that I’ve done that yet, but I keep trying and eventually it will turn up on a page. Most like by accident. I'm okay with that too.
At night, I lay down and start to plot my next scene and the next thing I know I’m turning off the alarm clock. The brilliant flashes seem to come while I’m driving back and forth to work or the grocery store. Why is that? It’s not like I will remember that great speech when I have a chance to write it down, and please don’t give me that sorry line about carrying around a digital recorder, because it’s not going to happen while I’m maneuvering through local traffic.
I have my moments though. I will start writing and it pours out of the pen or my fingertips to appear on paper. I will read it later and be amazed. It’s where I am in my life right now. I have a professional career in a field that I can always fall back on to support me but I want that time for something else. I hate having to give up sleeping time to write. Don’t you? My New Years resolutions is to organize my time better, and hope my thoughts will follow that behavior.
Another bit of good news. Shaking Off the Dust made the nominations for the CAPA awards at TRS. Samhain had a lot of nominations, which is always cool. I don’t know how any of these things get decided, but I thank everyone and anyone who enjoyed the book enough to consider it for nomination. Here’s the link.
http://theromancestudio.com/capa.php
Have an amazing Holiday. I’ll still be rambling on about some thing or other when they are over, so check back.
Rhianna
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