The Botticelli Affair by Traci L. Slatton

The Botticelli Affair

By

Traci L. Slatton

Back Cover:  "She's a high-spirited woman with a sordid past, trying to go straight. Enter gorgeous John Bolingbroke, a half-vampire with special powers and news of her beloved missing father. From New York through Paris, Amsterdam, and Rome, while fleeing ruthless vampires, Laila searches desperately for her father and a lost Botticelli painting that holds a coveted secret."

When I was asked if I wanted to read The Botticelli Affair by Traci Slatton, I jumped at the chance because it had all the things I enjoy in a story - vampires, art history and romance.  The story was interesting and highly entertaining -  all the makings of a B movie with the cheesy dialogue and non stop acting.  Laila is definitely a high spirited young woman and shouted, cried, chirped, panted, whispered and raced across the pages. I've never seen so many exclamation marks in one story before.  It was a good cozy paranormal mystery with all the elements for a great one. I just couldn't take it seriously.  If you are looking for a good beach read, check it out. 

Thank you to Leyane of FSB Associates for providing me with a courtesy copy of the book and Traci Slatton for writing such an entertaining story.

Row80 Mid Week Check in -- Eating my words

I lied.  

I swore up, down, right, left and till almost blue in the face I wasn't going to do it again.

But then....I saw her

Yes, it's just a wig mannequin, but that hair, that face, those cheek bones just yelled at me to tell a story.    Tough, leather jacket, smart spoken. Then a name came to me - Jersey Lee. So I gave in and spent yesterday looking at pictures, coming up with names, finding the guy, thinking of a story.  Couldn't stand the thought of not doing it.   I'm free this year...no classes to distract.     I just love the idea of locking up my pesky internal editor and just letting it flow.  So......  Yes!  I'm doing NaNoWriMo again. I'm not going to kill myself to win by stressing about the numbers and adding filler.  Just going to go with it and see what happens.  If I win, great. If I don't.  At least I'll have the beginnings of another interesting story.  My handle is mytwoblessings if you want to add me as a writing buddy on the site.

Need help prepping for NaNoWriMO:

Check out mystery author Alexandra Sokoloff's series of Nano prep posts

 Larry Brooks of Story Fix and his 31 Empowering Posts in 31 days

In the meantime I'm going to continue on editing Eyes in the Ashes and all the stuff I mentioned earlier.  Which is going well by the way. I'll recap on Sunday. 

See how everybody else is doing here.

A to Z title Challenge: L is for Lawless through Out of time

Mini reviews of the books I've read for the A to Z Title Challenge

In L is for Lawless Sue Grafton put her favorite PI Kinsey Milhone through the ringer.  Her landlord asks her for a simple favor - to help his neighbor find the evidence proving his grandfather served in the military so he can be buried with honors.  Sounds easy except Kinsey finds herself flying cross country following a young pregnant woman who took something from the neighbors home.  A fun adventure considering takes place during the 1980's before the advent of internet and cell phones.



Murder in the Marais is Cara Black's debut novel  and the first in a series of now 11 books following the exploits of Private investigator Aimee Leduc in Paris, France.   I discovered Aimee is a feisty chick who jumps into situations fearlessly, throws herself body (literally) and soul into her investigations. Sound like another private eye we know (hint - see above book) *grin*   She isn't afraid of a few bruises and once she's on somebody's trail, doesn't let go.   I was amazed at this character's tenacity. I was exhausted just reading the story.  Paris is more than just the setting, it is also a living breathing character that helps bring the story to life.  

 First time author read for me of Kristin Hannah's Night Road and it was an emotional read.  When young Lexi Baill moves to Port George, Washington, she soon becomes fast friends with Mia and her twin brother and is absorbed into the family.  One night they go to a party and get very drunk.  Unfortunately they decide to not call their mom and drive home thinking it's only a mile or so - what could happen?  Beautifully written and gut wrenching at times, but well worth the read. 

Alton Gansky's Out of Time is one of his J.D. Stanton mysteries.  J.D. takes 5 troubled teenagers of military families out on a week long cruise in hopes of turning their lives around.  They get a lot more than they bargained for when a mysterious storm takes out all the electronics on board.  Then a pre wwII battleship appears out of the fog - with no one on board.  A ghost ship.  Then more weird things start happening.

Sunday Salon: What a character!

Captain Jack Sparrow

My mind has been on characters lately especially since my son is on a Pirates of the Caribbean kick and we've been watching the first three movies over and over again.   Thankfully the movies are interesting so the repetition lends itself to studying the characters, noticing different things each time.  Makes me wish I could draw faces better because I get a picture in my mind's eye of what my characters should look like and makes me want to see them since I'm a very visual person.  Their looks gives me insight into their character.  KWIM.  Which is why love the internet and all the wonderful professional model and talent agency sites out there.  Have always been able to find a picture to match the idea I have in my mind's eye of the character.  I found my Layla and Paul.

Aren't they cute.  Now I can start working on their profiles.  Plus, a couple years back I downloaded Holly Lisle's Create a Character Clinic but never did anything with it. Guess I needed a couple more writing years under my belt to make use of it.  I printed it all off yesterday, put it in a binder and will be working on the course for this round.   One of my goals at the start of the year was to take a writing course of some sort.   Now I'm ready for it.   I also excited because K.M. Weiland's just launched her latest book Outlining your Novel and it arrived UPS on Friday.  I love her blog - she always has something wise to share.

As far as my goals last week I failed. I was overly ambitious in thinking I could complete character sheets for 4 characters.  Lots of distractions.  I started the Novel Bible but need to get a bit more organized.  My brain had been totally wrapped up in my last WIP and finishing the first draft.  Guess I needed a break to refocus my brain on Eyes in the Ashes.  So my goals this week are 

1)  complete character study on Layla

2)  Start Section one of Character Clinic 

3)  Read Chapter one of Outlining Your Novel

4)  Organize Novel Bible

5)  DYI MFA - Work on reading list 

6)  Treadmill workout - one hour a day 4 times a week

7)  Visit and comment on at least 5 rowers every day  - We have lots of newbies this round so lets give them alot of encouragement. 

Speaking of which, ROW80 has a group on Facebook and the twitter hashtag is #row80.  Check out how everyone else is doing and what their goals are for this week.

If there's a book you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.  ~Toni Morrison

Anno Dracula by Kim Newman

Anno Dracula

By 

Kim Newman

Back cover: "It is 1888 and Queen Victoria has remarried, taking as her new consort the Wallachian Prince infamously known as Count Dracula.  His polluted bloodline spreads through London as its citizens increasingly choose to become vampires.  In the grim backstreets of Whitechapel, a killer known as 'Silver Knife' is cutting down vampire girls.  The eternally young vampire Genevieve Diedudonne and Charles Beauregard of the Diogenes Club are drawn together as they both hunt the sadistic killer, bringing them ever closer to England's most bloodthirsty ruler yet."

My father in law called the other day and has recently gotten a kindle.  He is enjoying reading the classics and loves to discuss what he is reading with me.  The last time he called he asked what I was reading.  I explained I was reading a vampire novel in which Count Dracula has married Queen Victoria and taken over England.  It has made being a vampire fashionable and there are many characters who have turned or been brought back as vampires such as  Jack the ripper, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Professor Moriarty, Henry Jekyll, and Dr. Moreau to name a few.  Complete silence on the other end of the phone.  Certainly wasn't what he expected to hear.   *grin*

If you like vampire stories you'll like this one.There are many characters both fictional and historical who have been brought to life in the story as noted above.  It is quite fashionable to host a salon and have a vampire as the guest of honor.  Young female vampire prostitutes are being murdered by someone emulating Jack the Ripper.  Has someone unearthed the ripper and brought him back as a vampire....   Anno Dracula is a suspense story full of horror, politics, romance, deception and intrigue.  Kim Newman has quite an vivid imagination and put it to good use in this story.  There is a 2nd story called The Bloody Red Baron in which Newman imagines if Dracula had fought for the Kaiser during WW2.  Will be adding it to my wishlist.

Pages:  560

Publisher:  Titan Books

Reprint Edition May 2011 

Source: Personal copy 

Row80 Round 4 Check in #1 - contemplating

I haven't accomplished much in the past two days.  I got a bit distracted online while checking out the goals for the other participants. I didn't get very far because you never quite know when you check out someone's blog where it is going to take you.  As I came to the end of my studies for my Bachelor degree earlier in the year, thoughts of going on for my Master's degree rolled through my brain.  Did I want to go on to get a Master's in Liberal Arts, Literature or perhaps creative writing. Which lead to researching MFA's and discovering there are a lot of folks who have strong feelings about them - pro and con.  Just today I came across an excellent post by Eric Wyatt - To MFA or not and  asks the question:  “What do you want to do with the degree?".  Contemplating the answer.

Which lead to thinking about perhaps just dipping my toes in the water and taking some online creative writing courses before committing to a Master's program. Plus why couldn't I just come up with my own private creative writing program like an MFA without the major expense.  But where would I begin?  So, a couple days back with the start of Round 4 of Row80, I dropped in on Gabi who has decided to join in the fun.  Synchronicity.  She just started DYI MFA - Do it yourself Degree in Creative Writing.   *sigh*   The first two steps take stock of where you are starting from and put together your reading list.That I can do. I love the blogosphere!

Round 4 is off to a rockin start - check out the party here.

Round 4 of A Round of Words in 80 Days

It's October already and only 15 more weeks left to the year and the last round of A Round of Words in 80 Days is beginning.  I finished the first draft of Red Thief during the last round which I'm quite happy about.   I'm going to let it rest while I get back into another story I started last year.  A bit too long to let it sit and fester on the shelf, leaving my poor characters in a state of limbo.  This round is going to be all about world building, getting to know my characters better, outlining the story and as Lazette Gifford suggests in  rewriting the beast look at the big problems first before getting into the minutia of the story.  I've decided not to do NaNoWriMo this year, even though I have a Detective by the name of Donovan knocking about in my head asking me to tell his story.  Don't know where he came from - he just sort of popped into my head, wandering down a dark, dank, hallway looking for a murderer.  Hmm!

My goal for this week will be to set up and start a Novel Bible for Eyes in the Ashes.  I want to complete characters sheets for Layla and Paul who turned out to play bigger parts in the story than expected.  I'll be working on their back story as well as getting into more detail with my main characters Isabella and Gregory.   After reading Natalie Whipple's Pros and Cons of Character sheets, I decided not to be overly ambitious and will stick with the 4 characters this week, hoping to complete one per day.

Check out how all the new and returning rowers and give them some encouragement.

Plus we going to have a party, virtually that is on twitter on October 5th.  There's going to be all kinds of things going on:

On October 5th, the #ROW80 hashtag is going to light up like the stage at a teen rock concert. There’s going to a be a 24-hour celebration for:

• All the participants who just finished Round 3 of ROW80.
• Anyone who plans to post their goals and dive into Round 4.
• The amazing people who supported the ROW80 writers throughout the year (y’all REALLY deserve a drink!)

Party Details:

• Theme: “Rock the Row”
  However you want to work that in is great. I leave it to your outrageously creative imagination!
• Date: October 5th, 12:01 AM to 11:59 PM ET in the U.S.
  This also happens to be the first day of check-in so there should be a ton of ROW80 fun happening around the blogosphere.
• Party will be held at the #ROW80 hashtag.
  Fire up your Tweet Deck or HootSuite and let’s get jiggy with it.
• Photo Competition:
  You can start now…we won’t tell. Start digging for or taking photos that reflect the theme. We’ll do our best to gather them and decide on the best to spotlight in a post at the ROW80 blog. Once the readers vote, the 1st place winner gets a copy of Kait Nolan’s latest book, Red, in e-book format!! (And maybe some others–updates coming)
  
• Friendly Blog Competition
  We will also post a mash-up of favorite ROCK THE ROW posts at the Row80 blog.