Contest next month!

Watch this blog for details. I'll be giving away an electronic copy of one of my novellas in my new series, The Ancients!

Still busy writing the Nocturne that is slated for release next August. I really love how these characters have taken on a life of their own. Matt is very sexy, very handsome and very dangerous, more so than the average Draicon werewolf. He's courageous and loyal and would die for the woman he loves. And at this point in the book, he's ready to make that ultimate sacrifice, if necessary.

Next week I'll be offline and in Honduras for the day job. Have a wonderful week, everyone!

Photos from Honduras

A little about our journey there... this is the second most dangerous airport in the world to land, according to the History Channel's program, Most Extreme Airports. Tegucipgalpa, Honduras. One runway, surrounded by mountains, and a very short runway. To land, the pilot does a corkscrew, dips and suddenly drops. There had been a plane crash there just a few weeks before we arrived. It's an "interesting" landing...










This is a fruit stand we stopped at on the way back from San Lorenzo to Tegus. There's a certain type of mango that grows in that area that is very popular.



















This is a shop wall in Valle de Angeles, a tourist destination. We stopped there on the way back to Tegus, since we could not make it into the city. There was a teacher's strike in the city that turned violent. One person was killed. It was only later, when the military came in, that we were able to make it back to the hotel.

This is a happy dad with his son, who lives in one of the houses we built in Valle de Angeles. The people there love their new homes. The houses are built on the side of a mountain and the climate is cooler up there.

The restaurant where the team ate lunch. We seldom eat lunch while working in the field, as it takes up too much time. Our usual method is to get on the road around 7 - 7:30 and work through lunch. We bring snacks in the car and eat in the field. So lunch is a rare treat.

This is the boat we took to cross the Gulf of Fonseca to get to El Tigre island. The Gulf is surrounded by El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras.

Fishermen in the gulf.

El Tigre island, Amapala. Very pretty, and quite poor. Population of about 2,400, they see about 200 cases of malnutrition a month.

Honduras trip

Still in Honduras. It's been a successful trip, with good stories and very sad cases, like this child here, whose parents had a cup of rice in the house to eat for the week.

Yesterday we went to an island to see some cases and how we can get food there, as there is a high rate of malnutrition. It was a lovely boat ride across the Gulf of Fonseca, a bay shared with El Salvador and Nicaragua. The turquoise water sparkled, the sun beat down hot as a breeze from the Pacific rippled across the waters.

And on the island, I got sick. Oh boy. Not fun.

I'm a little better, taking it easy and not eating during the day just in case. Being sick on an island in the middle of nowhere when the only nearby bano is a latrine is not fun...

We also met this mother, who could not stop crying because her little girl, whom she is holding, is very malnourished and ill. She needs an operation to save her as she keeps losing weight, but she's been on a waiting list for free surgery from the state since she was born. In the meantime, she keeps getting thinner and thinner and her mother keeps crying and praying.

There were some uplifting moments as well, such as seeing Naomi again. We met her last year when she was 2 months old and in danger of starving to death. We got her enrolled in a nutritional program, got her milk and this is Naomi today, nice and chubby! I didn't even recognize her! It was quite gratifying to see her and her mom so happy.

All week we have been south in San Lorenzo and Choluteca. Today we headed back to Tegucigalpa to fly out tomorrow, but there was another strike by cab drivers and this one started turning violent. They were throwing rocks at cars.

Police advised people to avoid the area near our hotel.

So while the military was moving into place to quell the violence and open the roads, we spent part of the morning at Valle de Angels, which is a tourist spot. We did some shopping, had a lovely lunch (well, the rest of the team did!) of pizza. I took my slice of pizza, cut it up and fed one of the many stray dogs in town. I usually never do that, but today I just felt like it.

Now I am waiting for a ride by our guide's friend to the local church, where I am having a Mass said for my cousin, Margi. She was buried today and because of this trip, I didn't have a chance to attend the funeral. So I'm having a Mass said this afternoon for her. It was so sweet of our hostess, she made a few calls and the arrangements. It's a little comforting for me since I couldn't be at Margi's funeral Mass.

Flying back tomorrow, hopefully no more cab strikes and good weather and I'll be feeling better. Until then, adios!

Back from Honduras, packing for RWA

Home and getting ready to leave again for RWA. Exposed to dengue fever (big outbreak there) and TB, but I feel good and healthy! Just tired. Honduras was a tiring trip, spent each night in a different city.

I'm leaving Wednesday to drive to Orlando and I have a list of stuff to pack, things to bring, and stuff to do. It's a weird transition, going from a developing country and visiting poor villages to the fun and frantic pace of a national romance writers convention.

Here are some photos from Honduras. This photo is of a woman and her children standing before the "house" they lived in for more than 15 years. They couldn't afford anything else. We are building them a new concrete home. The entire community is so excited about getting houses.

"The donkey's hideaway" is the name of the community. Very nice people, they hold church services in each others' homes twice a week. We stopped to see their outdoor service held on the foundation of the house we are building for them. As I stood in the road, a herd of cows started coming toward me. Running fast.

"Stampede!" I had to get in front of the truck to avoid getting run over. By cows. Like I was an extra in a Wild West movie, lol.

This is a mother and her severely malnourished baby whom we are helping. The mom got a supply of formula and the baby is being enrolled in a nutrition program at the local hospital. Honduras has a lot of caring, committed people determined to help those who are poor.

My next post will probably be from RWA or just before I leave.

Immortal Wolf is a Maggie finalist!

My Nocturne, IMMORTAL WOLF, is a finalist in the paranormal category of the prestigious Maggie awards!

I'm thrilled at the news. This book was special to me, because I wanted to write Raphael's character after he appeared in ENEMY LOVER.

Ok, off to finish packing for my Honduras trip tomorrow. We're meeting with the president of a small, very resourceful and dynamic NGO about starting a new women's program to give indigent women a chance to become self-sufficient. This idea has been a dream of mine for two years, and I'm so happy it's finally coming full circle.

I'll try to post from the field if I have internet. Have a great week!

News

I've received word that COURAGE OF THE WOLF is officially approved for publication. Woot! This story is the first featuring my immortal Justice Guardians. Michael, a Phoenix, must convince Sabrina, a Draicon werewolf, to fight the demons that killed her family.

As soon as I hear of a publication date, I'll post it here and on my Facebook page. Here's the link to my FB page. I've been updating it on a regular basis with news of projects and information like links to the free online read I did for Harlequin, so FB is a good way to get news from me the fastest on current writing projects.

I'm also finishing a short story for my chapter, Florida Romance Writers, to raise money. Our brilliant former president, Kathleen Pickering, came up with a great idea that has some of us writing stories. More later on this as details emerge. My story is a werewolf/zombie short.

Short stories dovetail nicely into the workshop I'm helping Jennifer Ashley present July 29 at RWA. It's titled "Put on your shorts" and it runs from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Jennifer's a fantastic, talented and NY Times best-selling author who has all sorts of wonderful advice on writing shorts. I'll be presenting tips on emotional conflict for your characters.

All next week I will be in Honduras for the day job and after that, off to Orlando for RWA! Honduras promises to be very interesting. The region we're visiting on the second half of the trip is a remote, mountainous area that promises to be very very hot. Jungle-like. I am most excited about the women's development program we are finally going to launch. This has been a dream of mine for two years since I first came up with the idea, and it's wonderful to finally see it come full circle.

Contrasts

This is a crocodile head from the ruins in Honduras. His teeth are pretty good shape for being nearly 3,000 years old.

This is a church we visited last week in Honduras that is associated with the orphanage we are helping. The church is Greek Orthodox but the founders are of Arab descent, so the murals are written in Arabic. A Greek Orthodox church in a predominantly Catholic, Spanish-speaking country. How cool is that?

And this is the dancing Jaguar from the Jaguar Plaza. Love the grin. He looks like he's doing a 70's disco move a la John Travolta.

Here's a grandmother we met in Suyapa, a small village where we'll be building houses. I loved her careworn face. Behind her is the kitchen of the house. They cook with clay stoves.

And this is a little girl who received a pair of tennis shoes we gave out at a school in a very poor neighborhood. The past, the grandmother, and the present and future, the little girl.

Honduras

Honduras this week... we drove into Santa Rosa to look at a very nice housing project. The community has formed teams to build the houses and one person from each family must contribute. I met a woman who was laying cement on a wall of her home. She told me that the house is a dream come true. She was terrified that the Chagas insect would bite her or her family because she lived in a very poor mud and stick home where the insect likes to live.

Chagas is a horrible disease... this insect passes these deadly parasites on in their feces and bites a person on the face when they are sleeping. The victim gets infected when they scratch the bite. Treatment is only effective in the initial stages. Eventually the victim dies of cardiac failure.

We also saw a dead baby.

At another mud and stick home, a grandmother was holding a wake for her infant granddaughter, who had died the previous day. Only 26 weeks old. The mother had a c-section but the baby was too underdeveloped. The baby was in this tiny tiny white coffin, with plastic flowers surrounding her. the grandmother had a candle burning on the table for the baby because they are too poor to afford oil for the lamps.

The contrast was so striking...the pristine tiny white satin-lined coffin on this plastic table, the crude mud brick walls of the home and the dirt floor and the grandmother's sad sad face...
I think the hardest part of this trip was the visit to the HIV orphanage. All the children are HIV positive. They have a strong family bond among each other because almost all of them lost their parents to HIV. They are on drug therapy, thank God, but still.... Carlos told us on one visit, when a child was asked what he wanted, he replied, "I want to live longer."

Damn, what the hell do you say to a child who tells you that?

Going home today and I am so exhausted I can barely drag myself to pack. I wrote about 4 pages this week and they suck. I don't know how the hell I will finish this book. I'm working two jobs this year, at the day job and writing these books and this month with a trip to Haiti and now this Honduras trip.... I'm burnt out.

I feel like I almost don't even care anymore... and maybe it isn't worth writing romance. Even the day job... do I really make a difference? Does anyone really care? I work and work and work and I need a break, but I can't take one because I have two books due and I have a day job.

Some days I just wonder if it's really worth it, when I collapse into bed and all I can see are those kids in the HIV orphanage with their sad sad faces who just want to live.