New Year's Eve Moons!

Dunno what he looks like from the front, but the back is damn near perfect.

 




Or should that be purrfect?

Either way, have fun tonight, stay safe, and get ready for another interesting year!

Sunday's Hunk of the Day!

Looks sort of sad and lonely, doesn't he?

Your mission for the day is to cheer him up! Good luck!    

Of course, if he's unhappy because he wanted to do a bit of sunbathing on the deck, there's no hope for him here. Unless he wants to build a snowman.

Saturday's Hunk of the Day!

I wasn't sure how well this picture would fit on the blog, but his legs sort of extend into the sidebar, which is kinda cool.

The old template would've just cut him off at the knees.  

Friday Fun!

I'm blogging on Casablanca Authors today. I wrote all of this week's posts on Christmas night because I figured what with the predictions for Winter Storm Euclid, we'd be snowed in without power for at least a week.

So, for your Friday Fun, imagine being snowed in with this dude. 

Think of the fun you can have warming him up!

Oh, yeah. And today is my birthday. I think I'd like the buns...

At least they look warm!

Thursday Thoughts

Here's a little something to warm you up!



























Dunno whether he'll have any skin left on his feet when he reaches his destination--though they are kinda dirty. I only know he couldn't possibly be doing this in Indiana today.

His YD would shrivel up to nothing.

BRRR!!!!

Whopping Weasel Wednesday!

Here's a little something to keep in mind while you're out buying wrapping paper and bows for next year.  And yes, I'm guessing this one is fake.

But just imagine how much ribbon it would take to tie it up!

Merry Christmas!

May all your dreams come true!

Monday Moons!

It's Christmas Eve! Better get your shopping done and take a shower before Santa arrives!

Sunday's Hunk of the Day!

"Hmm... Do you suppose she'd like one of these for Christmas? I could tie a bow around it..."

Only two shopping days left until Christmas!

Saturday's Hunk of the Day!

And if you've been VERY good, Santa will bring you one of these!

Not sure it would fit in your stocking, though. Maybe in a nice, big blanket under the tree.

Only three shopping days left until Christmas!

Friday Fun!

So... *sticking my head out cautiously* did the world end while we were sleeping? Doesn't look like it. It does, however, look like the first day of winter. It's certainly cold enough. Guess this version of the story was true after all.

And just in case you've put off your Christmas shopping until now because you didn't figure it was worth the effort, here's a gift idea for the hunk on your list who would rather go shirtless!
















I think this guy might have been the model for that tie.

Or maybe it was this fellow... Not sure.

 



Lock 'n load! Only 4 shopping days left until Christmas!!!!

Thursday Thoughts

I see from the hit counter that the CBEB is approaching 400,000 page views. Now, I realize that most of those hits are for the naked men rather than anything I might write or publish, but it's still pretty cool and it is a form of advertising. The fact that my Facebook ad is increasing the number of likes on my author page is evidence that paid advertising, which is something I've always shied away from, also has an effect. Just wish I had some idea of how well it influences sales.

Our Sourcebooks publicist just sent me another review of Wildcat. This one will run in the Jan 1 issue of Booklist. I'll probably get fussed at for posting it now, but like I said, I need all the advertising I can get. Besides, how many of you commenters and lurkers ever read Booklist???? I mean, I've never even seen a copy of it myself. But what do I know?

Wildcat.

Brooks, Cheryl (Author)

Feb 2013. 384 p. Sourcebooks/Casablanca, paperback, $7.99. (9781402251719).

Sara Shield, a horse breeder on Terra Minor, has no use for men, even though Zetithian males have an impressive array of characteristics making them the most coveted sexual partners in the galaxy. When the expensive stud she had shipped in from Earth disappears, rumors fly that her neighbor Jerden, one of the few survivors of a genocide, has been seen riding a magnificent stallion. Terra Minor was designated the new Zetithian homeland following the destruction of their home planet. Jerden, who attracts animals of all kinds, tries to return Danuban, but the horse has his own ideas. When Jerden falls ill, Danuban manages to bring him to Sara’s house. Sara and Jerden, both being stalked by suitors, decide to pretend to be dating. Brooks gives Jerden and Sara over two hundred pages to become real, believable, and important to the reader before their relationship evolves into a highly erotic sexual one. Although this is the ninth book in the Cat Star Chronicles, it stands firmly on its own merits.

— Diana Tixier Herald

That being said, here's the naked man. You'll notice his dick also stands firmly on its own merits!

Whopping Weasel Wednesday!

I might get fussed at for posting this since it's in the current issue of RT Book Reviews, but I feel I'm justified. So here it is:

WILDCAT
by Cheryl Brooks

Genre: Paranormal/Urban Fantasy, Futuristic
Sensuality: SCORCHER

RT Rating: 4 Stars

The ninth in Brooks’ Cat Star Chronicles is pure alien/human romance. The slow burn between horse breeder Sara and former brothel star Jerden is delicious, and when they finally realize they may need each other to heal, the consummation of their relationship is scorching hot. An added delight is the mystery of who wants to harm Sara’s prize stallion. All combined, they add up to a book that keeps you turning pages in a series that’s far from going stale.

Sara Shield settles on the frontier planet of Terra Minor to escape her past and start her horse-breeding ranch. Meeting Zetithian Jerden Morokovitz is not in her plans, and yet here he is. But Jerden is broken: The murder of his former lover left him nearly insane from grief. When he finds himself inexplicably attracted to Sara, he vows to heal her like she has healed him. Unfortunately, more than one person would like to see them kept apart. (SOURCEBOOKS, Feb., 384 pp., $7.99)

Reviewed By: Cyndy Aleo

This is the first of my books to be reviewed by RT since Warrior, so, needless to say, I'm very pleased to see a review of Wildcat!

LOL! Today's whopper looks a little wild too!

Tasty Tuesday Chicken Noodle Casserole!

Diva Donna sent me this recipe not long ago. I haven't made it yet, but it's on the menu for tonight. It looks just plain good!

My hubs bought a ton of cans of chicken from Costco. So I decided to put  some to good use.  I always use the large wide noodles. Because that's the way I like them. *Winks* 

Tasty Chicken Noodle Casserole (Paula Deen)

Ingredients
2 cups cooked or canned chicken 4 cups egg noodles, cooked and drained (approximately 2 cups uncooked)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup milk
3 cups cheddar cheese, grated
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9 x13 inch baking dish. In a large, tall-sided saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.  Add the onion, sauté until near translucent. Stirring frequently, add garlic and red pepper flakes, cook for two minutes more. Stir in the flour and cook until the flour is absorbed. Slowly add the milk and 2 cups of cheese. Reserve 1 cup of cheese for casserole topping. Once the cheese is melted add salt and pepper to taste. Combine chicken, sour cream and noodles into cheese mixture. Stir until the noodles are coated with mixture. Pour mixture into a prepared baking dish.  Top with remaining cheese. Bake the casserole for 30 minutes, or until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbling. Remove from oven and let cool slightly before serving.

LOL! Nothing soft about his noodle!

Monday Moons!

Ain't he cute?

Only eight more shopping days until Christmas!

Sunday's Hunk of the Day!

Purrrfect!

There are no words...

Friday Fun!

I got my Christmas cards done yesterday, then spent almost $300 on the truck because another mouse was nesting in it and chewing on the transmission sensor cables. The guys at the Honda dealer ran over the mouse (accidentally) and fixed the cables. The last time we had that problem (the cables are coated with a type of plastic made from peanut oil, which mice absolutely love), we got an engine sensor alert. And, of course, through it all, the truck ran just fine. According to the sensor, the transmission temperature was 21 degrees below zero. It's been chilly lately, but not that cold!

However, watching the Geminid meteor shower last night felt almost that cold. I sat out for about twenty minutes and saw one, but it was actually in Cetus. Gemini wasn't up yet, so I came back inside for a cup of hot chocolate (with marshmallows) and went back out later. Peaches thought it was fabulous that I was sitting outside with her, but she quickly lost interest and went off on an expedition of her own. 

Gemini was rising, but there are a bunch of trees in the way. So I went back inside, drank the remainder of the hot chocolate, considered making banana bread out of a couple of spotty bananas, but abandoned that idea because I was full of hot chocolate. I went back to my computer to kill another forty-five minutes or so writing about Kim and Onca and, incidentally, this blog post and a few Facebook posts and Tweets.

Speaking of Facebook and Twitter, I took out a Facebook ad to get more likes for my Author Page. Setting up the ad itself took almost as much time as the Christmas cards did. According to my IRWA buddy, Alethea Romig, I need to take out an ad on Goodreads, too. I will admit to not getting on the Goodreads site very much. I've only posted a couple of reviews there, and one of them was Fugitive, but I felt like it was more of a reader than a writer-oriented site. Guess I was wrong about that. We midlist authors are supposed to spend a couple of hours a day on promotion. Here sits the world's worst self-promoter, trying to get people to like my author page and subsequently (hopefully!) buy more of my books. This is stuff I REALLY don't like to do, but I guess I have to.

I received the list of blog sites for Wildcat's "Nine Lives" blog tour from our Sourcebooks publicist a few days ago. Not sure how that's going to pan out. She wants the last stop to be here on the CBEB. I feel like I'd be preaching to the choir if I did that. I mean, I blog here every day, and do the occasional contest already. Still undecided about that. What are your thoughts?

At 9:00, I went back out to check on the meteors. After twenty minutes, I'd seen seven or eight of the little buggers, and my teeth were chattering so hard I'm surprised I didn't break one of them. So I came back inside, kept my coat on while I brewed up a cup of tea, and returned to my computer--where it's warm and cozy, and the air smells like chocolate mint from the candle I bought yesterday, which has been lit pretty much all day and went hunk hunting to warm myself up a little.

He doesn't look the least bit cold, does he?

Therefore, he wouldn't need one of these for Christmas. 

Thursday Thoughts... on Christmas shopping and Pluto

I went Christmas shopping yesterday. This was the first time in years I've actually driven myself to the Bedford Walmart and JC Penney stores with the intent of buying presents. I used to always stop off on my way home from work and pick up a few things at a time. This year, obviously, things are different.
While I was in Penney's I called my son Mike at Purdue and asked him what size he wore.
He didn't know for sure but guessed he wore an extra large.
"In everything?" I asked. "Shirts and pants?"
"I guess so," he replied. "I don't need any socks or underwear."
"Yeah, well, I was looking at shirts and pajama bottoms."
"XL, I think. Not sure."
I could understand that--almost. I mean, he has been losing weight, but surely he's been wearing something in the interim. Finally coming to grips with the utter futility of having called him at all, I opted not to pursue the matter any further. "Still coming home on Friday?"
"That's the plan."
"Okay. See you then." I switched off my phone and glanced at an elderly woman who was standing nearby. She'd been checking out the same rack of shirts I was perusing, and had clearly been paying attention to the conversation. "My, that was helpful," I said.
She gave me that commiserating smile shared by those who have been there and done that many times. "I know exactly what you mean."
So, I bought two shirts and a pair of flannel pajama pants. If they don't fit, he'll have to lose more weight. If they're too big, well... wouldn't it be nice to have a problem like that?

On another thoughtful note, I stumbled across this horoscope prediction for (Capricorn) 2012 on the My Yahoo site, and I was a little freaked out by how close it came to describing my life.

The confusion of 2011 is about to lift as clarity returns in 2012. You've no doubt been through a series of powerful metamorphoses since 2008, when Pluto took possession of your stars for the long haul. You're not even a quarter of the way through the 18-year shedding process that Pluto requires ... and yet you're not the same person you were just a few years ago by any stretch of the imagination. In some ways, you can expect this year to be a long, dramatic pause. You'll be questioning many aspects of your existence, especially your professional life. 

Let's see now... Slave was published in 2008, and over the past year, I've fretted and dithered about the changes at the hospital, with the result that I gradually weaned myself from my nursing career until finally calling it quits in August to become a full time writer. My husband would call this confirmational bias, but I see it as proof that none of this is my fault. PLUTO is the one causing all this upheaval.

Damn thing isn't even a planet anymore, and it's still wreaking havoc on the lives of Capricorns everywhere. I guess it hasn't heard about the downgrade of its status.

Apparently he hasn't heard the news, either.

The Next Big Thing!

I was supposed to get other authors to give me links to their next big thing, but I kinda slacked off on that. My friend Lacy Thorn tagged me, so here' my take on the Next Big Thing...      

What is the working title of your next book?

The Cat Star Chronicles #10: Rascal

Where did the idea come from for the book?

The hero, Onca, made a brief appearance in a previous installment of the series (Virgin), and plays a larger role in Cat Star 9, Wildcat, which releases in February 2013. My critique partner Sandy James and I both agreed he needed his own book. Having made his fortune by selling himself in the Zetithian Palace brothel for the past ten years, Onca has finally decided to retire. To complement his somewhat jaded attitude, I gave him Kim, a much younger heroine who is streetwise, but inexperienced in matters of the heart.

What genre does your book fall under?

The back of the book only says Romance, but I think of them as futuristic sci-fi erotic

romances, which is a lot to put on a cover!

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I can see Dakota Fanning as Kim and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Onca—but with much longer hair, fangs, cat-like eyes, and pointed ears.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

A former male prostitute rescues a homeless young woman and becomes enmeshed in her crusade to liberate other girls captured for use as sex slaves. 

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

This book will be published by Sourcebooks Casablanca and has a projected release date of February 2014.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I’m still not finished with it. I started writing it in May or June of 2012, and I’m currently at about 74,000 words, aiming for 90,000 words by the end of December.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

The book I had in mind when I came up with the idea for Rascal is These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer. Yeah. I know. Taking a Regency plot and making it into a futuristic sci-fi story sounds crazy, but it only goes to show that romance is, indeed, timeless.

Who or What inspired you to write this book?

Onca inspired me. He’s such a rascal…

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

The story has romance, action, and another hot Zetithian hero. The heroine is streetwise, but with an air of innocence, and the cast of secondary characters will make you giggle.

And now for another big thing....

Tasty Tuesday Sloppy Joes!

Had to delve into my files for this one that Donna sent me in January 2011. No clue as to why I haven't used it before, but I'm glad it was there ready for me to post. Thanks, Donna!

This recipe is a favorite of  the kids. It came from my Mom. When I bring it for potlucks and football parties.. It's a big hit.  Al ot of kids big and old don't like Green peppers. So this  one fits them better.  It's fine for a Private party too with your favorite hunkster. I decided  to add a little wine and Miguel's Buns. What's Sloppy Joes without great BUNS  Enjoy!!

TASTY NEAT SLOPPY JOES(Serves 8)

Ingredients

• 2 pounds lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed tomato soup
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 8 hamburger buns

Directions

1. Place ground beef in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook until evenly browned, stirring to crumble. I like to use a potato masher to even out the lumps. Add onion and celery, cover the pan, and cook until tender and transparent, about 5 minutes. Drain off any grease.
2. Stir the tomato soup (undiluted), ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce into the beef mixture. Season with salt and garlic powder. Heat to a simmer over low heat, and cook until thoroughly heated, stirring frequently to prevent it from burning on the bottom.
3. Spoon the hot beef mixture onto buns, which may be toasted first, and serve.

Deck the Balls!

It's times like these when I'm glad I have lots of pics to post instead of writing 300 words or so. I did the Christmas decorating yesterday, along with washing the algae off the steps to the second story of the garage after my DH slipped and fell while carrying down the boxes of ornaments. Honestly, I think my back hurts worse than his does!

I'm thinking this guy needs to have a red ribbon tied around those balls. 

Ah, the things we do to celebrate the season...

Sunday's Hunk of the Day!

Only 16 shopping days until Christmas! What do you want in your stocking?

Enjoy your Sunday!

Saturday's Hunk of the Day!

Heading north to the IRWA Christmas party today! Can't wait to see everyone!

Now...tell me, which way is north?

Okay, thanks!

Friday Fun!

Suzy sent me this a few days ago. Several of them had me giggling.
Had to share.


































How about this one?

"His dick curved upward, hard and strong, like something you'd hang your winter coat on."

Thursday Thoughts

The events of the past week have made me appreciate my eyesight more than ever before. The idea that I could lose it in such a spontaneous manner never occurred to me. I can see fine now, but on Sunday, I was feeling a bit nervous. Perhaps spending sixteen hours a day in front of my computer isn't such a good idea after all. Yes, I get a lot of writing done, but at what cost? While writing a chapter a day may not have had anything to do with flashing lights and floaters and vitreous detachments, it's probably still not good for my eyes.

Unfortunately, I use my eyes to do most things. For example, I've never been one to lie in a recliner and listen to music on headphones. Perhaps I should try that--although my son has had ear problems, most of which can be traced back to wearing headphones while he sits at a computer.

I suppose we all do things that will catch up with us eventually, whether we see them as health hazards or not. Maybe we just need to relax and go with the flow.

If you get the chance, hop on over to the Quillery to discover how several authors (myself included) overcome writer's block!

Whopping Weasel Wednesday!

My left eye is still dilated from my visit to the optometrist to figure out why I was having extra floaters and light flashes in my eye. Turns out it was a vitreous detachment, which is a fairly common condition in older myopic women. Who knew? Anyway, I had to find a really big dick for today's post, or I wouldn't be able to see it.

Not really. Just a good excuse.






























 







Gives a whole new meaning to "You'll put your eye out!" doesn't it?

Tasty Tuesday Shrimp Scampi!

Sam wanted me to make some shrimp scampi like what he always gets at Red Lobster, so I looked up a few recipes and came up with this. The Red Lobster version is obviously baked, but this was so easy, I'm surprised I'd never tried it before. It disappeared too fast to get a picture, so I had to go picture hunting. This looks about the same as mine did. Prettier plate, though.

Shrimp Scampi

Ingredients

1 lb tail-off medium uncooked shrimp (thawed)
1/4 cup butter
2 tbsp olive oil
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp dried parsley
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup white wine (I used chardonnay) 

Directions

Add olive oil and butter to skillet over medium high heat. When butter is melted, add garlic and cook a minute or two until garlic is fragrant, but not browned. Add the wine, lemon juice, and parsley and cook until reduced by about half. Add the shrimp and saute until pink. Serve and watch it disappear!

Then get this guy to take you fishing for more shrimp!