Yes, we are not ones to encourage holding it in on this day of loving expression, mwuahaha! Three new erotic titles for you to savor.

First, by our new author CH Scarlett, the paranormal fantasy epic

BOUND BY BLOOD: the Awakening

Here be vampires, shifters, and divinities whose fates just may be intertwined with our own, and whose loves move worlds...

Next, the latest saga in Chris Newman's Noah Ravenswood series,

Get Into the Spirit, Baby!

Noah and his colleague Dr. Sarah Bookings are called on to thwart a murderous entity infesting a pornographic film shoot, and end up saving the world. Hey, somebody had to do it!

Lastly, may we present

 My Dark Roasted Valentine

Our latest introductory anthology leans more to M/M, just as the Xmas collection featured more M/F. The contents?

Anniversary Special by new author Kyle Jordan (M/M)

Heartseeds by Helgaleena, yes moi (M/F)

Gourmet Etude by Angelia Sparrow (M/M)

With Love, Casanova by Jesse Fox (M/M)

All will warm your heart.

This just in:  Christopher Newman is having his book trailer for

Those Dangerous Times

featured at Long and Short Reviews for a week!

> Dear Christopher,
>
> Your book trailer is scheduled for:
>
> Tuesday, February 17
> Wednesday, February 25
> Thursday, March 5
> Monday, March 9
> Tuesday, March 17
> Friday, March 27
> Wednesday, April 1
>
> Thanks!
> Judy and Marianne
>http://www.longandshortreviews.com

> Reviewing romantic fiction one "Happy Ever After" at a time!

Note that his week is spread from February to April, mwuahah. Many chances to catch it, and there is an accompanying quiz to win a prize.

I also wish to report that Dark Roast Press got its first review from Joyfully Reviewed! It was for  Darkness Falls. They loved this sweet tale and wanted to read more. We hope it means many more Joyfully Reviewed looks at our titles.

Keep it sweet, Valentines!  

I am now no longer a mere editor but also a copyrighted publishable author, oh rapture...

http://www.darkroastpress.com

THE RULES (for this game of tag):
1) LINK TO THE PERSON WHO TAGGED YOU.
2) POST THE RULES ON YOUR BLOG.
3) WRITE SIX RANDOM THINGS ABOUT YOURSELF.
4) TAG SIX PEOPLE AT THE END OF YOUR POST AND LINK TO THEM.
5) LET EACH PERSON KNOW THEY ARE TAGGED AND LEAVE A COMMENT ON THEIR BLOG.
6) LET THE TAGGER KNOW WHEN YOUR ENTRY IS UP.
7) DON’T BREAK THE CHAIN (not actually a rule).

Note that it's a pyramid scheme, which can be circumvented somewhat by tagging people who have already been tagged, thereby annoying them and possibly getting them to 'unlink'. Would I do that? Mwahaha, I would.  But only if Jodi and I both know them!

Ye random thing list:

1.  My head is pretty cubical, for a human head.

2.  Since every work of art is in some sense a self portrait, I tend to be honest and draw myself a lot. Yes, the Hutt is me. Quit asking what I 'really' look like.

3. I really enjoy using leftovers creatively. And recycling.

4. Even though the Healing Line is prominently posted on my signatures and websites, I am very rarely called.

5. I have never not needed glasses. This was finally discovered and corrected when I was six. Even in my dreams I think I need them.

6. I am determined to do without my glasses in my dreams and I shall succeed.

Tagging:

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=116375849&blogID=454827703  Shrews
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=31387423&blogID=465534714 Louisifer
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=186301421&blogID=465294472 Anastasia
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=273058336&blogID=465470407 Magdalena
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=23745055&blogID=464689062 Roxanne
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=272892746&blogID=465050486 Lissa
 
So, it is done, with only one third duplication.  Let us see what the result is of this social experiment.  At least you are in no danger of catching my cold.

http://www.darkroastpress.com/darkroastxmas.php

A DARK ROASTED CHRISTMAS

is here at last, just in time for your e-book cravings to be fulfilled!

Four heart-warming stories to light up your season.

Winter Wild by Jesse Fox

A Leg Up On Christmas by Christopher Newman

One Gift At A Time by Angelia Sparrow

Light Of Winter by HS Kinn

We Have

New Holiday titles!! And lots of jolly GLBT!
http://www.darkroastpress.com





How the Grinch Stole Marriage
by Mary Ann Horton, Lisa and Bill Koontz

(with apologies to Dr. Seuss.)

Every Gay down in Gayville liked Gay Marriage a lot......
But the Grinch, who lived just east of Gayville, did NOT!!

The Grinch hated happy Gays! The whole Marriage season!
Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason.
It could be his head wasn't screwed on just right.
It could be, perhaps, his Florsheims were too tight.
But I think the most likely reason of all was
His heart and brain were two sizes too small.

"And they're buying their tuxes!" he snarled with a sneer,
"Tomorrow's the first Gay Wedding! It's practically here!"
Then he growled, with his Grinch fingers nervously drumming,
"I MUST find some way to stop Gay Marriage from coming!"

For, tomorrow, he knew... All the Gay girls and boys
would wake bright and early. They'd rush for their vows!
And then! Oh, the Joys! Oh, the Joys!

And THEN they'd do something he liked least of all!
Every Gay down in Gayville the tall and the small,
would stand close together, all happy and blissing.
They'd stand hand-in-hand. And the Gays would start kissing!

"I MUST stop Gay Marriage from coming! ...But HOW?"

Then he got an idea! An awful idea!
THE GRINCH GOT A WONDERFUL, AWFUL IDEA!

"I know what to do!" The Grinch laughed in his throat.
And he went to his closet, grabbed his sheet and his hood.
And he chuckled, and clucked, with a great Grinchy word!
"With this beard and this cross, I look just like our Lord!"

"All I need is a Scripture..." The Grinch looked around.
But, true Scripture is scarce, there was none to be found.
Did that stop the old Grinch...? No! The Grinch simply said,
"With no Scripture on Marriage, I'll fake one instead!"
"It's one man and one woman," the Grinch falsely said.

Then he broke in the courthouse. A rather tight pinch.
But, if Georgie could do it, then so could the Grinch.
The little Gay benefits hung in a row.
"These bennies," he grinned, "are the first things to go!"

Then he slithered and slunk, with a smile most uncanny,
around the whole room, and he took every benny!
Health care for partners! Doctors for kiddies!
Tax rights! Adoptions! Pensions and Wills!
And he stuffed them in bags. Then the Grinch, with a chill,
Stuffed all the bags, one by one, in his bill.

Then he slunk to the kitchen, and stole Wedding Cake.
He cleaned out that icebox and made it look straight.
He took the Gay-bar keys! He took the Gay Flag.
Why, that Grinch even took their last Gay birdseed bag!

"And NOW!" grinned the Grinch, "I will pocket their Rings."
And the Grinch grabbed the Rings, and he started to shove
when he heard a small sound like the coo of a dove.
He turned around fast, and off flew his hood.
Little Lisa-Bi Gay behind him sadly stood.
The Grinch had been caught by small Lisa-Bi.
She stared at the Grinch and said, "My, oh, my, why?"
"Why are you taking our Wedding Rings? WHY?"

But, you know, that old Grinch was so smart and so slick
He thought up a lie, and he thought it up quick!
"Why, my sweet little tot," the fake Shepherd sneered,
"The judges are evil, the other states weird."
"I'll fix the rings there and I'll bring them back here."

It was quarter past dawn... All the Gays, still a-bed,
all the Gays still a-snooze when he packed up and fled.
"Pooh-Pooh to the Gays!" he was grinch-ish-ly humming.
"They're finding out now no Gay Marriage is coming!"
"Their mouths will hang open a minute or two
then the Gays down in Gayville will all cry Boo-Hoo!"

He stared down at Gayville! The Grinch popped his eyes!
Then he shook! What he saw was a shocking surprise!
Every Gay down in Gayville, the tall and the small,
was kissing! Without any bennies at all!
He HADN'T stopped Marriage from coming! IT CAME!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!

And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so?"
"It came without lawyers, no papers to sort!"
"It came without licenses, came without courts!"
And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!

"Maybe Marriage," he thought, "doesn't come from the court.
Maybe Marriage...perhaps... comes right from the heart.
Maybe Marriage comes from all the words the Gays say.
Words like Husband, like Wedding, and Spouse who is Gay."
And what happened then...? Well...in Gayville they say
that the Grinch's small brain grew three sizes that day!

And the Gays had their Weddings. They promised for life.
They swore to be faithful, to Wife and her Wife.
The Husbands were happy, to each other they vowed
To be Out and be Honest, be Gay and be Proud.
They told all their neighbors and friends of their Spouse,
They told of their Marriage and sharing their house.
They said "We got Married." They shouted it loud.
Their marital status was "Married and Proud."

And the minute his heart didn't feel quite so tight,
He whizzed with his load through the bright morning light.
And he brought back the rings, cake and Gay birdseed bags!
And he... ...HE HIMSELF... hung the Gay Rainbow Flag!
...
The Lord looked down, at the proud and the tall,
and said "These are my children, and I love them all."
The moral of this story is that we don't need a piece of paper and the approval of the state to get married. We can just get married. Instead of having a committment ceremony, we can have a wedding. Instead of partners, we can have husbands and wives. Instead of calling our relationship a Domestic Partnership or a Civil Union, we can call it a Marriage. Whether any government recognizes it is separate from what we call it. It's a free country and we can call ourselves what we like.

In 5 or 10 or 20 years, with plenty of visible same-sex married couples, the world won't see us as strange or scary, we're just the married couple down the street that happens to be gay. Eventually, the legal recognization of our marriages will follow.

If we allow ourselves to voluntarily sit in the back of the bus, we'll never make any progress. Rosa Parks had to sit in the front of the bus to make a difference. We must as well.

Copyright (c) 2004 by Mary Ann Horton. Permission granted to copy in whole, with attribution. This is a parody of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."
If you liked this poem, you might also like my friend Rachel's followup poem Gay Marriage Ban.

Helgaleena wishes you a happy Season of Light ....

              News of the Helgaleena

First of all, NaNoWriMo kicked my big Hutt butt. I also was deadly ill and couldn't type for a week, but no whining! On the 29th I had input 37 thousand words and realized that it would be impossible to get in the entire fifty thousand by official deadline. About ten more pages of raw notes in longhand of The Incredible Heidi Wasabi remain to be turned into legible prose. Such is life. And priorities were the birthday of my offspring and chivvying the new Dark Roast Xmas anthology toward publishing before said holiday actually passes.

Well, the offspring has had his home-made Black Forest torte and left gift wrap strewn about the halls, lending an Advent feeling to the home front. And as a gift to me from serendipity, Piers Anthony was one of the Na No 'pep talk' essayists. The whole longer version of the essay is available at his newsletter. http://www.hipiers.com/newsletter.html  

This is the shorter one mailed to us lucky aspiring novelists:

Dear Writer,

You're a fool. You know that, don't you? Because only a fool would try a stunt as crazy as this. You want to write a 50,000 word novel in one month?! Do you have sawdust in your skull? When there are so many other more useful things you could be doing, like cleaning up the house and yard, taking a correspondence course in Chinese, or contributing your time and effort to a charitable cause? Whatever is possessing you?

Consider the first card of the Tarot deck, titled The Fool. There's this young man traipsing along with a small dog at his heel, toting a bag of his worldly goods on the end of his wooden staff, carrying a flower in his other hand, gazing raptly at the sky—and about to step off a cliff, because he isn't watching his feet. A fool indeed. Does this feel familiar? It should. You're doing much the same thing. What made you ever think you could bat out a bad book like that, let alone write anything readable?

So are you going to give up this folly and focus on reality before you step off the cliff? No? Are you sure? Even though you know you are about to confirm the suspicion of your dubious relatives, several acquaintances, and fewer friends that you never are going to amount to anything more than a dank hill of beans? That you're too damned oink-headed to rise to the level of the very lowest rung of common sense?

Sigh. You're a lost soul. So there's no help for it but to join the lowly company of the other aspect of The Fool. Because the fact is, that Fool is a Dreamer, and it is Dreamers who ultimately make life worthwhile for the unimaginative rest of us. Dreamers consider the wider universe. Dreamers build cathedrals, shape fine sculptures, and yes, generate literature. Dreamers are the artists who provide our rapacious species with some faint evidence of nobility.

So maybe you won't be a successful novelist, or even a good one. At least you are trying. T hat, would you believe, puts you in a rarefied one percent of our kind. Maybe less than that. You aspire to something better than the normal rat race. You may not accomplish much, but it's the attitude that counts. As with mutations: 99% of them are bad and don't survive, but the 1% that are better are responsible for the evolution of species to a more fit state. You know the odds are against you, but who knows? If you don't try, you'll never be sure whether you might, just maybe, possibly, have done it. So you do have to make the effort, or be forever condemned in your own bleary eyes.

Actually, 50,000 words isn't hard. You can write "Damn!" 50,000 times. Oh, you want a readable story! That will be more of a challenge. But you know, it can be done. In my heyday, before my wife's health declined and I took over meals and chores, I routinely wrote 3,000 words a day, taking two days a week off to answer fan mail, and 60,000 words a month was par. Now I try for 1,500 and hope for 2,000. That will do it. If you write that much each day, minimum, and go over some days, you will have your quota in the month. On the 10th of the month of August, 2008, I started writing my Xanth novel Knot Gneiss, about the challenge of a boulder that turns out to be not stone but a huge petrified knot of reverse wood that terrifies anyone who approaches it. Petrified = terrified, get it? And by the 30th I had 35,000 words. That's the same pace. If I can do it in my doddering old age—I'm 74—you can do it in your relative youth.

Of course you need ideas. You can garner them from anywhere. I noticed that our daily newspaper comes in a plastic bag that is knotted. The knot's too tight to undo without a lot of effort, so I just rip it open to get at the goodies inside. It's a nuisance; I wish they'd leave it loose. But I thought, maybe there's this cute delivery girl who has a crush on me, and she ties a love -knot to let me know. Not that at my age I'd know what to do with a real live girl, but it's still a fun fantasy. Okay, there's an idea. I could use it in my fiction. Maybe even in a Pep Talk. The mundane world has provided me with an opening. It will do the same for you, if you're alert.

Here's a secret: fictive text doesn't necessary flow easily. Most of the time it's more like cutting a highway through a mountain. You just have to keep working with your pick, chipping away at the rock, making slow progress. It may not be pretty at first. Prettiness doesn't come until later, at the polishing stage, which is outside your month. You just have to get it done by brute force if necessary. So maybe your ongoing story isn't very original. That's okay, for this. Just get it done. Originality can be more in the eye of the reader than in any objective assessment.

You can make it from a standing start, even from a foolish daydream when you should have been paying attention to the Pep Talk. You will want to try for a bit more quality, of course, and maybe a spot of realism. Garner an Idea, assemble some Characters, find a suitable place to start, and turn them loose in your imagination. Now go home and start your engines!
Piers


I found out from that selfsame newsletter that Piers is aware of many important things going on in the world, such as immigrant issues and sex slavery, so check out the link if you please. He also is gracing the Myspace friend of us at Dark Roast, Cobblestone Press, with promotional blurbs and a novella. Damn, I wish he wasn't married…

Speaking of immigrant issues, do click on this link, below, to an awareness outreach by Free Range Studios about Bush's network of
Guantanamo-style detention centers Within This Country.
As I have a loved one wrongfully convicted and clogging up the state prison system which would be better filled with murderous drunk drivers, it distresses this Druid rather a lot that people caught on the wrong side of an artificial line called 'the border' are put into prison indefinitely for merely existing, and paid for no doubt by the taxes they didn't refund to me this year.

www.homelandgitmo.com

It's framed as a game. So there Myspace gameplayers, try this one for some reality checks!

Chris Newman's UPRISING was reviewed by Scott Kennemore's zombie blog.

scottkennemore.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/uprising

He pulled no punches and was highly personal in his likes and dislikes but the upshot is, he called it 'a nice surprise'.

Adrianne Brennan's Blood of the Dark Moon, as it deserves, is getting all sorts of acclaim, and I wish it were one of ours at Dark Roast. At least I knew it way back when and got to help its growth toward publication. http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=96802282&blogID=453435254

 http://www.darkroastpress.com

Technorati Profile

Yeah, I am listed at Technorati now, just like the utterly cool EllaRegina.

  Here is why she is so cool.

Fave me.

Yes chickies, Hutts get off in a very similar way, believe me. The opinions expressed in this column are mine alone and in no way reflect the kinks or appetites of other members or clients of Dark Roast Press. Too bad, mwuahaha.

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