Muse Author L.J. Holmes Speaks

Before I begin, I want to take this opportunity to thank my generous hostess, Delilah K. Stephans, for inviting me to guest on her blog.

When I asked Delilah what she wanted me to talk or write about here, she said whatever I want. Giving a writer with an inner muse as quirky as mine free reign is a dangerous thing---So, my daughter, Best Selling Author Kat Holmes, stepped in to direct the inner me.

"Talk," she said, "about what motivated me to write the stories I either already have up for sale, Santa is a Lady, or those about to be released, Forever With You, on February 1st, The Pendulum Swings, on March 1st, Twilight Comes on May 1st, and In From The Cold, June 1st. (I know...a daunting process-)

The easiest place for me to begin, is the one thing you are all going to realize right off the bat

...EVERY one of my stunning covers have been created by my hostess, Delilah K. Stephans, who just happens to be the absolute best artistic genius in all of the Milky Way Galaxy.

There is something else that each of these books have in common...they have elements of the life I have lived and are, therefore, semi-autobiographical...that is not always a good thing, since I seem to be rather hung up on having too many of my heroines share my biggest character flaw---a little girl voice that would make Minnie Mouse

envious while everyone else clamors for one of those huge conical amplifiers my Great Aunt Agatha plastered

against hers whenever I was around.

Now that you know one of my darkest secrets, I guess I should tell you about my books, how they came into being, and which parts come from Lin's

(L.J Holmes) pre-authorship.

Santa Is A Lady is my debut at Muse It Up Publishing...and well, everywhere else too. (Yep, I'm a bonified Newbie.)

I hadn't intended for my first ever release to be a Holiday themed story, but all other themes were closed. Not being into a Valentine Theme, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Arbor day, (how DOES one write a Holiday theme about a tree?), or even Halloween and Thanksgiving...I was left with only one celebratory day...

Christmas.

I had no idea where to go with it, but then, as if somebody on Cloud Nine

decided to hand me a gift, our local news announced a "professional" Santa had just been arrested...five full days before Christmas.

Back when I was working my way through college, I worked store security at one of the big retailers

for a year. I got to see what Christmas means to "Business".

What, I found myself wondering, would a small business owner do if her Santa was arrested five days before Christmas? How would she go about replacing Santa when all the graduates of Santa University, and yes, such a place does exist, were working elsewhere? Who would she trust? Who could she badger into donning the jolly elf's red suit?

Her best friend, of course...but what if said best friend had MY Minnie Voice?

Santa is a Lady flowed like water over smoothly rounded stones in a creek-bed, and was released to some pretty amazing, at least to me, reviews by really spectacular renowned literary voices.

Santa is a Lady is available at Muse Publishing's BOOKSTORE.

I'm a person with an awful lot to say, so I have continued submitting to Muse Publishing and now have books that fall in both their Mainstream Wing and their Muse It Hot,

as in scorching the flames right off the nanobytes side.

My second release Forever With You, is a short story about a young woman on a quest...getting her custom designed cabin built in record breaking time.

Can Keith Patterson, the owner of Patterson Construction Coryne hired have the skills to meet her deadline...and damn it all...does he have to look like a center-fold magnet?

Forever With You will be available from Muse It Hot on February 1st and it has a surprise ending you won't see coming...I promise you that.

What motivated me to write Forever With You? I love the mountains and have a secret fantasy to one day have enough money to actually build my dream cabin in the middle of nowhere, from the ground up.

I love history...especially ancient history. I also love the possibilities of Time Travel...These loves inspired me to write

The Pendulum Swings to be released from Muse It Hot on March 1st.

What would happen if an ancient Roman slave wakes up in a modern day hospital, in the body of someone else with no memory of who she is or was? And how would you survive it in a body that everyone , your husband, your staff, all who knows its real owner loathes? How do you cope? Is it a temporary leap in time, or are you stuck forever.

I especially loved writing this story and adored the seductive fireplace that was interviewed at the following link: CLICK HERE At the very least, it'll make you smile.

On May 1st my Muse It Up release, things get darker with Twilight Comes.

This story is based on events that took place in a neighboring town. When senseless tragedy strikes people we thought we knew, we can't help but try to decipher a rhyme and reason. Twilight Comes, another short story, is my attempt to understand and rationalize what is unimaginable. The story will stay with you long after the last word has faded from your screen. I know this because I am still haunted by the events all these years later.

And now we come to my June 1st release. In From The Cold is a cougar story that made me laugh while I was writing it...and cry too.

Mari Donovan is fifty and very happy in her disdain for anyone cursed with the "Y" chromosome. She has spent twelve contented years creating her mountain haven. Her only neighbor is in his nineties and not even an overdose of Viagra is going to make him stoke Mari's inner fires...but then he has the obscene rudeness to up and die...leaving all his worldly goods to Mari, with one exception...she must sell the curmudgeon's cabin directly across the graveled road from her.

She's determined it will not be sold to any male not intimately courting the Grim Reaper.

But Fate has other plans.

He's 35, deliciously built, and too annoying by half whether chopping wood shirtless, or daring to sneak off to HER lake and swim in the suit nobody should be blessed with upon their birthday.

No longer is her libido sleeping, and God does that tick her off! Only one thing for it...she's gonna have to jump his bones, do the deed, get him out of her system and slip back into her pre-bone-humping contentment.

Best laid plans ALWAYS bite you!

That's it so far. All the stories that I have covers for from Muse's Cover Art Goddess and my generous hostess, Delilah K. Stephans.

Reviews of my first book Santa Is A Lady are available at my Horn Tooting Blog

I can also be reached via e-mail
Spatzdkat1212@yahoo.com

Thanks Delilah for your covers...museum quality every one, and for this opportunity to do my Yakky Doodle imitation here as your most appreciative blog.

Mick and Musie entertain Emily Pikkasso!

Mick looks over a Musie who is sitting very sedately at a table: Luv? You're acting strange. Why?

Musie: Because of our guest today.

Mick *raises an eyebrow*: I know our guest is Emily Pikkasso, so why are you so... sedate?

Musie: Because she also edited me! I can't be flitting around like usual.

Mick *goes and opens door for Emily*: Nice to meet you Emily, the lump in the chair is Musie. *whispers* She's nervous about you being here.

Emily: Hello Mick, nice to meet you. Nice to see you again Musie. Thanks for inviting me to come and visit with you today, I’ve been looking forward to it.

Musie *almost vibrating*: I can't do it! I can't sit still this long! Thank you so much for editing Ghostly Passions! You made it so much better.

Mick: Luv, we're here to talk about Emily's book - not you. Tell us about The Oak King's Daughter.

Emily: You’re welcome Musie, I really enjoyed working with you on Ghostly Passions and I love the cover that Delilah created for it. I think it really did it justice.


Ahh, The Oak King’s Daughter…. Well, the premise of the story is roughly based on the old legend about the Oak King and the Holly King and how they each rule 6 months of the year. The Holly King rules the winter months and the Oak King the summer months. That is kind of misleading of course, because their reigns really begin and end at the solstices. From the Summer Solstice to the Winter Solstice the Holly King rules because the sun reaches its greatest strength at Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year and slowly diminishes until Winter Solstice. The Oak King defeats the Holly King at Winter Solstice and from that point on the sun strengthens and the days grow slowly longer.
For my purposes, the story takes place at Mabon, which is the autumn equinox, half way between the solstices. Dara is the Oak King’s daughter and she is yearning for some excitement. She is a young woman and has the desires of one, she feels stifled by her father’s control and rebels against marrying someone her father has picked out for her. It is her duty as his daughter to make a marriage which will help the Oak Kingdom prosper.


Instead, Dara falls for the mysterious new court mage, Tinne. The old mage passed away in the spring and his replacement is young and handsome. She allows him to woo her, unbeknownst to her father. At the Mabon Feast she runs away with her love, hoping for freedom and love in the Tinne’s arms.


However, there is a bit of twist to the story, Dara doesn’t know Tinne as well as she thinks she does. He is much more than what he allows the world to see and harbors a secret of his own.

Mick: That sounds interesting. Do you have an excerpt we can read?

Emily: Of course.


Mabon was Dara’s very favorite feast. The autumn colors were so well matched to her own coloring, she couldn’t help looking anything but breathtaking. The red and gold streaks heralding autumn’s approach glimmered in her dark green hair. Not that looking amazing will do me any good, I won’t get within ten feet of Tinne if Father has anything to say about it, she reflected.

Her father adamantly ordered she couldn’t be seen with anyone he hadn’t approved of first. Dara snorted in disgust. She could certainly manage to choose her own dancing partners, and if dancing led to other things, well Dairmuid didn’t need to know everything. She knew the behaviour childish, but she always used her father’s given name when he annoyed her.

The frown on her face softened as she remembered the first time she laid eyes on her
father’s new mage. Old Willowbark had died in the spring, and the new mage arrived at
Lughnassa. Dara’s heart jumped at the memory of Tinne when he first entered the Oak King’s court. The sunlight streamed through the open door behind him and set his hair and clothes ablaze.

“And set my heart ablaze as well,” Dara murmured.
Dara wrenched her thoughts back to her present dilemma. Somehow, she must find a way to give the herd of prospective husbands the slip. She drummed her long fingers on her knee as she considered her options. Dairmuid was far too formidable for Dara to risk out right defying him, and besides, she really did want to please him. Except his choices were so boring; none of them made her blood race like Tinne did just by walking into the room. Her face flushed with excitement, and a brilliant smile appeared on Dara’s lips as the perfect solution to her problem crossed the green lawn below her, disappearing in the shadow of the tree.

Dara slid down the tree and through the door hidden in the oak’s trunk. Racing down the
stairs as fast as she could, Dara slid to a halt outside her chambers. No need to alert anyone to her excitement if her handmaiden, Ruis had company when she entered. Dara never knew when Dairmuid would choose to visit her, and tonight he would be certain to seek her out to nudge her in the direction of his choice for son-in-law.

Mick: That does sound good. So tell me about your muse?

Emily: My muse is quite capricious at times, she’ll wake me up in the middle of the night and nag me until I get up and write whatever it is she is all het up about. She is also very magical and takes me places I would never think of on my own.

Musie: And now he'll ask I have a few questions about writing in general. What do you like most and least about writing?

Emily: I don’t know, that’s hard. I kind of love it all. But I guess if I had to choose what like the least it would be the tiny fine tunings of the edits at the end. I love to write and just let my fingers fly trying to keep up with my Muse and the twists and turns of the plot. After you’ve edited the manuscript like a thousand times it can get pretty tedious. I just keep the goal in mind; how wonderful and shiny it will be when all the edits are done.

Mick: What inspired you to write? Or was it something that you just always had in you?

Emily: I don’t think I know how not to write, I’ve been composing stories and poems in my head as long as I can remember.

Musie: Are you a plotter or do you just let the story unfold?

Emily: Actually, both. I had to do a lot of research for some books and so that requires plotting, how to fit the information into the storyline without seeming to be doing that. But once my Muse gets the bit in her teeth the story just unfolds and I run along behind holding onto the ribbons of her apron.

Mick: Where can people find you on the web?

My website is http://www.emilypikkassoauthor.ca/ and I have an author’s page on the MuseItHot! Publishing site.

Musie: Do you have another book coming out? I seem to remember Delilah saying we were going to do another cover for you.

Emily: Why yes I do, Musie. Thanks for asking. I have the March 2012 spot in the Lacey’s Lamp series which MuseItHot! Publishing is releasing in 2012. There will be twelve stories, one a month, each with some of the same basic components but each author has interpreted them in their own inimical style. It will be fun.


I am also working on a bit of a sequel to The Oak King’s Daughter, all my beta readers have urged me to continue the story. They want to know what happens next. So do I.

Mick: It's been a pleasure, Emily. Hopefully you can stop by and visit with us again.


Emily: Thank you Mick, and you too Musie. I hope to see more of your work in the near future, Musie.
It has been a pleasure visiting with you today. Thanks again.

Mick and Musie visit with Kat Holmes

Musie pours hot water into one carafe and coffee into the other while Mick piles a plate with pastries and cookies.

Mick: There luv, all set up for our first guest. Delilah was so scattered yesterday I forgot who was coming today.

Muse *smiling at him*: Kat Holmes. She's a friend and also had a release yesterday. Remind me to ask her about it.

Mick: What if I remember?

Musie: That works. *knock sounds on the door* She's here!

Mick opens the door: Hello. You must be Kat. I'm Mick and the flighty brunette is Musie.

Kat: Pleased to meet you both. Thanks for having me today and Happy New Year.

Mick *leads you to a table*: Happy New Year to you as well. Would you care for coffee or tea? Help yourself to the sweets as well.

Kat: Tea thanks. Mmm I love cookies.

Musie: Congratulations on your release yesterday. I know Delilah was thrilled to share yesterday with all her friends at MuseitUp Publishing. *Giggles* And I'll tell you every muse in Imaginaria is wishing you success. A publishing house named after us is a big deal around here.

Kat: Yes. You must have poked at Lea Schizas in her sleep to get her think of the name for her publishing house.:-)

Mick: What is your release The Lighthouse about?

Kat: It’s a romantic mystery that takes place on a little island off the coast of Maine called Star Island. The island itself is completely fictional. I made it up because it fit my story. Rachel Westmont inherits a lighthouse from her recently deceased aunt. It comes at a very opportune moment for Rachel who is newly divorced and eager to start her life over again.

But upon arriving, odd things begin happening. Books fly off shelves, cold chills fill the room and someone even breaks into her home. Rachel overlooks these things thanks largely to the attentions of handsome local sheriff Craig Lewis. But when someone attempts to kill her, she is forced to look more closely at her aunt’s death. Was it an accident like everyone thinks…or something more sinister? And is her aunt truly haunting her?

Musie: Ooh sounds good. Where did you ever get the idea? What's your muse like?

Kat: I have always been fascinated by lighthouses ever since I was a child. They have a rich history steeped in romance, mystery and murder. So, when I decided to write a story about a lighthouse, the idea of a romance mixed with a murder mystery and ghostly hauntings just seemed perfect. The idea for the story itself came about Christmas of 2009. I was putting out Christmas decorations and my mother gave me these little statuettes of lighthouses decked out for the holidays. One look and the idea came to me.

As for my MuseJ…she’s a demanding mistress. Many a time she will wake me in the middle of the night with an idea or dreams about where to go with a story and I’ll have no choice. I have to get up then and there and write it. But she helps me make my stories so much better. Some of the best scenes I’ve ever written came to me in the form of dreams.

Mick: One question at a time luv. Forgive her she has the muse equivalent of ADHD.

Kat: LOL

Musie: I know Delilah and I did two covers for you. When does your next book release?

Kat: Frozen releases April 2011 and I am so excited. It’s the first in a series and the cover is amazing. It’s so stark and haunting. The series itself is called Artica Lights and if you look closely at the cover, you’ll see the lights hidden within the snowfall. I’m starting book 2 in the series as we speak. Oh, and you and Delilah have done 3 covers for me thus far. Don’t forget Working Under Covers with Aphrodite on it. That one is the first in another series called Gods At Work and comes out in June of 2011.

Musie: How could I forget that one? Secret, I'd actually gotten Delilah to buy those images months before we got the cover form.

Mick: If you don't mind answering a few questions about writing. What do you like most?

Kat: I love seeing a story come to life on the page. Characters that I create take on a life of their own and I feel like I know them as well as family.

Mick: And least?

Kat: Writing the dreaded synopsis. No fun.

Musie: That's what Delilah says too. How much time do you spend with your muse? Oh I mean writing?

Kat: LOL I’m attached at the hip so to speak with my Muse. But when I’m working on a book I do a chapter every day. I prefer to work in the mornings when I’m fresh. I’ll have breakfast then work until I’m done. I edit that chapter the next day before writing the next chapter.

Mick: One last question before you have to go. Where can folks find you on the web?

Kat: Well I am several places. My books can be found at http://www.museithotpublishing.com/
My website is http://www.authorkatholmes.webs.com/
My blog is http://katluvr130.blogspot.com/
And I have a blogtalk radio show at www.blogtalkradio.com/katholmes1212

Musie: Forgive the male muse. *laughs at the glare Mick gives her* Do you have an excerpt for The Lighthouse?

Kat: Absolutely. Here’s a brief excerpt. Hope you like it.

Rachel was approaching a rather steep turn in the road that would take her down to Main Street when she heard a car behind her revving its engine. Looking in her rearview mirror, Rachel got a brief glimpse of a dark SUV just as it rammed into her bumper.

Rachel frantically tried to hold the wheel steady as she screamed and hit the brakes. The car behind her sped up again and rammed her bumper even harder. Rachel was heading for the edge of the cliff. Turning her wheel hard to the right, the car slid and turned.

Rachel put all of her weight onto the brake pedal as she tried to stop her momentum. The car smashed into the metal railing by the driver’s side door and Rachel heard metal scraping upon metal. Fortunately for Rachel, the railing held as the SUV drove off without stopping.

Rachel just sat there shaking, her heart thundering and tears running down her face. She didn’t know how much time passed. She didn’t really care. Rachel felt nauseous. Someone had just tried to kill her. Oh she could pass the first hit off as an accident, especially had the driver stopped and gotten out to check on her afterwards. But the driver had proceeded to hit her a second time and then speed off.

Musie: That sounds so interesting! Thank you for coming. We really enjoyed it and hope you stop by again.

Kat: Thank you so much. I had a lot of fun.

There's always something

About a release date. The exitement, the worry no one will buy it, the thrill of that first review. Yeah I'm feeling all of that even with the stress I'm under this weekend. But January 1, 2011 looks to be a really great day. Or at least I hope so.

Why great? Well it's the release date for my newest release - Ghostly Passions from MuseitHot Publishing. I fell in love with Devlin Ruark when he first screamed “Release me, wench!” I didn't even know his name at that point. Then decided to name him after two of my favorite romance heroes.

The other reason it's great is it will be the first time my release date for a solo written book will coincide with my writing buddy Antonia Tiranth's release from the sister house MuseitUp Publishing of her Kellan's Dragons.

But it gets even better! I'm also releasing with other friends - Kat Holmes has a release that day from MuseitHot - The Lighthouse. From the lovely Emily Pikkasso -The Oak King's Daughter - which I won my first ever cover award for. Then there's Ginger Simpson, Frank Scully, Patricia Harrington, and Heather Haven's releases that day. All from the same house and wonderful authors that trusted me with their covers!

See it's really going to be a great day! So January 1st check out the releases and pick up one or two or all of them.

And though she hates it - Thanks Lea Schizas for letting Tir (Antonia Tiranth) and I share this first.

How do you decide what to write?

I've heard "write what you know" many times. But what do I really know about Vampires and Demons? About Time Travelers? Honestly, I only know what I've read from other authors.

Let's take Vampires. I am a total fangirl of them and will read almost every book, see every movie and give every TV series a try. I got the idea to write one but really needed to make mine unique. So I took my favorite Vampire books (Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress series, Kerrilyn Sparks Love at Stake series, Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark, Lynsay Sands Argenaux series, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Chelesa Quinn Yarbro's St. Germain series) and made a list of the advantages and disadvantages of each. I looked through that list and decided what made sense to me. Then jumbled them all up, put my own twist on them and wrote The Envoy (Available now from Lyrical Press).

Ghost? Well there's more freedom there because there are so many types of Ghost. I watched Ghost Hunters one day they had a marathon. This lovely paranormal researcher and a sexy ghost started taking shape in my head. From that came Ghostly Passions (releasing June 1, 2011 from MuseitHot Publishinhg)

And then I took on Death. While most books whoever is Death is male. But one author, W. Somerset Maugham, wrote a short story "Appointmentin Samarra" in which Death was a beautiful woman. It stuck with me. So I start thinking after rereading Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series. Oh I didn't want to try to touch that one but the idea of the different incarnations having a physical presence? Oh yeah, I liked that idea. Which led to my current WIP! I'm still not sure of the title but the two in the running are My Lady Death and Death and the Detective. In which I also mix in my love of Romantic Suspense novels. I just need to finish it.

So if you want to write - then write. The ideas are all around let your brain mix the ideas around and you'll be surprised what comes.

Meet a sexy Ghost

Today I'm turning the blog over to Devlin Ruark the hero of Ghostly Passions.

Good day. As the lovely author said I am Devlin Ruark and proud of what has happened since my death.

There are advantages to being a ghost. Aye, I've seen things I ne'er dreamed possible. The rise of technology, like this internet. Tis truly a marvel to know instantly what friends in distant cities, even across the vastness of the oceans are thinking or doing. The freedoms enjoyed by all. And most of all I have enjoyed the changes in women's fashions.

Aye, for a man still young it is a true pleasure to see the young lasses visit the beaches. First in dresses down to their ankles then move to what they wear now. Mere bits of fabric and lace that barely cover their bodies.

Which brings me to the disadvantages. While I would love to follow them along the beach I am trapped in my home. Ne'er to step a transparent foot past the threshold. For 230 years it has been so. But if that were the only disadvantage I would be happy. Nay, and forgive me dear ladies for speaking of something that should be private in your presence, the worst of it is to be unable to feel any sensation in the part of me that makes me a man. Aye, tis my deepest shame that in being a ghost I have become unable to rise to any occassion.

But enough about my sm.. deficency. There is another difficulty in being a ghost. The damned Paranormal Researchers as they call themselves. Always trying to prove I am here or worst yet drive me from my home! I'll not stand for it. If the God Almighty saw fit to leave me here until he comes again then no man or woman will part me from my home.

That is part of the problem, there is a new one coming here soon. Heard her speaking to the upstart that thinks he owns my property. I did not see this woman, but she did have a pleasing voice. She will be here in June. I wish the lovely author who told our tale would tell me what to expect.

"Not on your ghostly life!"

See? Not a word. I fear what is coming. She has titled my story Ghostly Passions so that must be good - correct?

New Cover!

I have to take a minute to show off my beautiful cover for my June 1st Release from MuseitHot Publishing. Isn't it Gorgeous!

Devlin Ruark has been trapped in the same house for 230 years. He's faced a British hangman, numerous paranormal researchers, but he doesn't know what to do with the newest researcher.

Determined to prove that ghost do exist, Druscilla Hutchinson has returned to the house where she saw her first ghost. With the Electromagnetic Particle Scanner she developed she hopes to give a ghost a more substantial form.

When the EMP Scanner produces an unusual side effect, Devlin and Druscilla have to decide whether to talk or take advantage of the situation.


I have to admit I love this sexy brash hero and logical heroine. I hope you readers do to. I'll have excerpts later.

New Contract!

Can't believe I forgot to blog about this!

Over a year ago I started a little piece of erotica fluff ... a Paranormal Investigator and a Ghost. I finally finished it and sent it off to MuseitUp Publishing. It was accepted and has a June release date with their MuseitHot line

MuseitUp Publishing is a new ePublisher BUT the owner Lea Schizas has been around the ePublishing industry as long as I have been publishing. She's smart, savy and has probably forgotten more about marketing a book than I'll ever learn. She's so smart in addition to giving me a contract - my sixth! - she also offered me a job as the cover artist for both houses!

Now since I'm the only CA there, don't worry I love being the only one, I need to put my nose back into Photoshop and knock out a few mockups today. In addition to going and getting new glasses!

I redid my office minus the UFHT (Ugly ____ Hot Tub) that took up 2/3 of the room. I'll post pictures once it's all set up and the moving mess is cleaned up.