All Hallow's Eve

All Hallow's Eve. The newest national holiday.

When I was young, so long ago, we had to walk to school in six foot of snow.... oh. Wrong story. That's my grandfather's story.

When I was young, Halloween was always celebrated with Trick or Treat on the Thursday before All Hallow's Eve. Back in those days, the neighborhood was a safe place for us kids. Parents worked together to everyone safe and in line. If we misbehaved, there was no escaping the consequences.

On Trick or Treat night, the parents turned us loose in one big pack. They did this for a singular reason and that was so these so-called adults could sneak out basement doors, hide in the bushes, and scare us kids witless. Those were the days my friends....

Rayne
www.rayneforrest.com
www.twitter.com/rayneforrest

A Hero's Bargain for this My Sexy Saturday

Welcome to another My Sexy Saturday! My Sexy Saturday is the weekly blog hop that brings you some of the best in romance fiction. 

Science fiction is my first love. When I was about nine or ten, I read Moon of Three Rings by Andre Norton. It was straight sci-fi and it opened the galaxy for me. I started out writing sci-fi only to discover it was difficult to get published, so I switched to contemporary.

Well, those days are over. Indie publishing rules and I'm going back to my roots. All I need is a thirty-hour day!

Here are seven sexy paragraphs from the sci-fi romance, A Hero's Bargain.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

She put her hands on her hips. “You are…you are…”

“What? Annoying? I know.” He grinned at her then crooked his finger at her. “Come here.”

She backed away, shaking her head. “No. I have things I must do while it’s daylight. You should rest. Take the bed. I’ll sleep on the pallet.”

“Remember our little deal, angel.” He let the blanket slip just a hair. Her eyes flicked down to his groin. She licked her lips. His cock twitched. He could have howled with glee at the response. She’d take the pallet his ass. Who was she trying to fool? Her curiosity about the stranger in her care consumed her.

Ryder tossed the blanket over the foot of her bed and let her get a good look at him as he worked his way beneath the covers. The bed was longer and softer than the pallet, and he stretched out. It was heavenly to suddenly be comfortable—and free of pain. 

He tucked the covers around his hips before he looked at her. She watched him, stared at him, actually. He met her gaze.

“I’ll rest, angel. I anticipate a long night.” 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A Hero's Bargain is available at Amazon. 

About A Hero's Bargain:

When a poker game turns ugly, erstwhile gambler Ryder Vaughan runs for his life. After crash landing his ship on an unknown world it looks like his life will be a short one - until the lovely healer, Saba Duer, finds him and saves him. Smitten, Saba has no qualms allowing Ryder to seduce her.

In Ryder, Saba sees the coming of a hero to save her people. The deadly errol that has terrorized the Ramalho Clan for so many years has been spotted on a course that will bring it to the village. Ryder has a weapon that could destroy the creature. She strikes a bargain with him to secure his help. Ryder’s not yet well and whole, but there is no choice. Saba has to let him go and face the truth – she’s sent him on a mission to die.   

But Ryder has a plan - and dying isn’t a part of it.

Rayne
http://rayneforrest.blogspot.com
www.rayneforrest.twitter.com

Rain on the Roof - A Blessing in Life

October 10, 2015

October marks two anniversaries at my house. The first pales in significance to the second. We’ve been together for twenty-one years. The second - my beloved has been cancer free for nine years.

Back in 2006, our situation was grim until his oncologist offered a Hail Mary drug. It worked. The tumor suddenly shrunk and the surgeon at Johns Hopkins agreed to take a chance on surgery. Times were bleak, but the rainbow was just ahead.

Eleven days after his surgery, I wrote the following blog. The feeling of appreciation of being alive and together has lasted over the years. We have been greatly blessed.

Rayne

PS. The same cat is still waking me up by tickling me with his whiskers.

~ ~ ~ ~ 

October 29, 2006

For these past many months I’ve suffered with insomnia. The inability to sleep, and rest, often has hidden causes. At least I knew what haunted me. My beloved’s battle with cancer has taken a toll on our life together and as individuals. The prolonged use of chemotherapy did its job and the tumor was finally removed. While his long-term prognosis is unclear, we at least have renewed hope. In a time when it seems politically incorrect to do so, my thanks and my praise remain thankfully given to God.

Now I have some breathing (or is it sleeping) room and the last three nights have been blissful. I’ve dropped like a rock before primetime and have barely been able to wake up twelve hours later. Until this morning.

This morning the brush of whiskers on my cheek and the sinking of not-so-tiny claws into my bosom got my attention at the ungodly hour of 4:13 a.m. I love my cat, honest I do, but his early morning demands were a bit much. He wanted to go outside and it was pouring rain. He was unhappy. He wasn’t getting his way with the universe, therefore his slaves needed to be awake and paying attention to him.

Wrong.

I threw him out in the rain. Tossed him right out the door. Call the ASPCA on me. Call PETA. Call a cat rescue. I don’t care. Better yet, you come and get him and let him put puncture wounds in your breast. And besides, he has a little cathouse under the eaves to go curl up in and stay dry. I stumbled back to bed and pulled the covers over my head. That’s when I realized my beloved was awake, too. “Do you know it’s raining?” he asked.

Why, no, dear. I had no idea. I missed the waterfall when I opened the back door and booted the cat out for a swim.

I rolled over and we snuggled up together as best a man with fifty staples tracing the outline of his right ribs can and we listened to the rain. Such a small thing, the sound of rain on the roof, but I don’t think we’ve heard it for two years.

I’ve often wondered why the sound of rain of the roof evokes such emotion in most people. Are we glad to be inside and dry? Do we share some ancient memory of times when our shelters were not quite so cozy? Perhaps. Whatever the reason, we simply enjoyed the moment, and of being alive and together. It was a moment of triumph.

Rayne Forrest
Bookshelf
twitter.com/rayneforrest

IWSG - It's Tough to be a Writer Today

The Insecure Writer's Support Grop

http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com

Being a writer today is challenging. It’s gotten so writing the story is the EASY part. These days you need to be your own proofreader, editor, cover artist, publisher and marketing specialist if you want to gain traction. If it sounds a bit daunting, that’s because it is.

The sad truth of it all is that in today’s publishing climate, you no longer have the luxury of simply writing the story and moving on to your next piece of inspiration. You have to take the time to learn how to edit, how to create a cover, and how to set up accounts at the various online booksellers and upload a finished product. You have to market your book yourself, which you’d be doing anyway even if you used a more traditional publisher.

When I started out, way back in 2003, self-publishing was still a taboo topic. One simply did not self publish. Hell, back when I started, epublishing wasn’t accepted. The “big girls” at the Romance Writers of America (RWA) did everything they could to stop the jagernaught only to discover they couldn’t. Digital publishers sprang up everywhere and only a few of those original companies survive today. But that survival is threatened by the indie writer.

I’ve benefited greatly by being published through a select few digital publishers. I learned how to edit, which is vitally important. I learned what I like for a cover (and sadly rarely got it).  We learn or we stagnate.  I had the bulk of my work with Whiskey Creek, but they sold to some company no one had ever heard of and tried to force everyone to sign on. Oh, no. So my books went down with the ship. Now I have the chance to see that it doesn’t happen again. Been there. Done that.

And I’m not alone.

Having had publishers 1) file bankruptcy, 2) disappear 3) sell the business, I can attest to the fact a reversion of rights clause isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on or the space it takes up on the monitor screen. Writing a coherent story with good characters and a decent plot takes a lot of time. That’s time not spent with spouses, children, family and friends. Getting screwed by a publisher isn’t any fun and that leads me to why it’s tough to be a writer today.

I’m not alone in seeing indie publishing as the only viable way to avoid getting screwed when it comes to publishing rights. It’s not that I WANTED to become my own editor, cover artist, publisher and market specialist, oh no! I want to write. I want to immerse myself in a world I’ve created and fly! But the good old days are over.

It’s tough to be a writer/proofreader/editor/cover artist/publisher/market specialist today. 

Rayne Forrest

www.rayneforrest.com

www.twitter.com/rayneforrest