Creativity doesn't tickle

Creativity is making something from nothing.  It usually demands a piece of your soul.
While that sounds incredibly Gothic and horrifying, it's true.
Creativity hurts.

I always grieve when I hear of creative people who have passed whether by their own hand or deed or something else.  Because I understand the depth of emotion that must've taken them to that dark place.  Creative souls are often tortured souls.  Being able to create opens the pressure release valve a bit so we can breathe.

G-Eazy.  "Vengeance on My Mind"
You think I’m ever giving up? For Pete’s sake, I doubt it
I’m in my element tonight and you can’t take me out it
And I said, f**k a comfort zone and started breaking out it
This music’s keeping me alive, I swear I ache without it

Have you ever interrupted someone who is creating?  I will literally bare my teeth like a feral dog. There's not much worse than to be doing what you need to be doing only to be stopped before you are finished.  Tread lightly.  Creativity requires the release.

With the passing of singers and artists and actors by their own hands, I grieve especially for them.  I do for car accidents and other ways of leaving this earth, but a part of my soul aches when it's a creative person we've lost.

The latest to leave this earth was Chester Bennington.  I never met the fellow, but he and his bandmates would keep my company on my two-hour a day commute to work and back. When I found out that he had taken his own life, it cut deeply.  From the outside looking in, he had everything that anyone could ever have wanted.  But from the inside looking out, he was drowning.  

Please love your creative people.  Let them create when the need arises.  But especially check in to see how they're really feeling, and if they perhaps need something more from you.  There's a price for creativity.  There's a price for catharsis.  There's a price for exorcising demons in public.  
Love us even when we're unlovable.
Always writing*

The Portrait

What would it be like to enter a cursed portrait and find an appealing man who's been a hermit for years? A selfish choice years ago has haunted Dylan and his family. He's waiting for the one person to break the curse he's been under, but years of hopelessness have made him bitter. Sophie promises to help the gorgeous loner any way she can. But will she end up giving more than she bargained for? Neither of them realize there are forces at work that will stop at nothing to make sure Dylan isn't happy. At any cost.

The Portrait
Always writing*

Have you ever...?

I'm a curious sort.  I like to know things.  Sometimes the things are nonsensical and only for my curiosity sake.  Sometimes the things are educational, and I can pull them into conversation later.  I simply like to KNOW things.

One of the funniest parts of writing books with sex scenes, both sweet and explicit, is the question, "Have you ever...?"
Readers want to know if I've done some of the things written in my books.
The short answer?  Yes. No.  I've wanted to.  More than once.

What I've done or haven't doesn't really have any bearing on the reader, in my opinion.  It's not MY story you're reading.  It's the characters.  And while I do concede to it being a part of me, I'll not be telling which part:  fiction or no.

I will share that research is hella fun.

I'm not sure why the sexual component is such a fascinating one.  I don't know if readers want to compare notes, start a club, or report me to Kinks Anonymous. ( Is there such a place?)

Sometimes I think people, in general, want to know what's "normal".  But guess what?  What's normal for one may not be for the other.  Or maybe they simply want a peek into someone else's sex life. Readers are a bit voyeuristic by nature.

So.
Have I ever...?
Possibly.
lmao

Always writing*

Captivation giveaway

I love books.  They are some of the purest magic.
I read everything I could get my hands on growing up.  And, even now, they are my favorite form of escapism, either reading or writing.

Here's my question:

Name one or two of your favorite books as a child.

The prize will be an autographed paperback of Captivation, the first book in the Rivers Sisters series.
A little bit about the book:

Spencer Drake needs a model, and Colleen Rivers applies for the job. She’s near the end of her career, but this campaign, for Captivation perfume, calls to her. 
Except Spencer is no ordinary man. And Colleen is no ordinary woman.
They’re both hiding who they are, but Colleen stands to lose more than a job if the truth spills out. Colleen is part of a family of witches that has been hidden from the world for centuries. Spencer’s family tracks and records magic. The consequences are severe for unregistered beings.
Her family’s biggest secret becomes his only mission. 
A man used to getting what he wants rarely fights fair. But a woman with her world on the line never will.
****
The contest will end at midnight, Friday, July 7, 2017.  I will announce the winner Saturday, July 8, 2017 both on Facebook and this blog.  One entry per person.  

I've always been partial to fantasy and adventure.  I loved A Wrinkle in Time.  Mrs. Piggle Wiggle series.  The entire Oz series.  Pippi Longstocking.

Good luck!
Always writing*