Inside My Head

Okay, so it’s not actually a TV show. Which is good, because Ally does NOT want to be on TV. LOL. Romance Novel TV has TV, in that they do video interviews and such. In fact, it’s a pretty diverse and interesting place, you should check it out:
http://www.romancenovel.tv/

On Sunday 2/22 and Monday 2/23, the Romance Novel TV blog will be posting an interview with myself and seven other authors of gay romance: JL Langley, Josh Lanyon, Jet Mykles, K.A. Mitchell, Jamie Craig (who is actually TWO awesome authors!), Chris Owen, and LB Gregg (a.k.a. the loverly and delightful LisaBea of the Nose In A Book blog, http://lisabea.blogspot.com/). Our awesome interviewer, Marisa, asked us some wonderfully insightful questions, which we all had a blast answering in discussion format. We are all of us a bunch of motor-mouths evidently, which is why the six questions are being posted over two days *g*

An excerpt from my latest release, Where The Heart Is, will be posted in the “books” section of the Romance Novel TV website, and Marisa will be holding a drawing for a free download of the book. I believe all the other authors involved are also giving away copies of ebooks or even print books, so be sure to stop by for some awesome excerpts, a fascinating interview and a chance to win some great books!

Romance Novel TV blog:
http://www.romancenovel.tv/wordpress/rntv/marias-blog/

Where The Heart Is:
http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/where-the-heart-is
http://www.allyblue.com/WhereTheHeartIs.html

My Christmas-themed short story "Hard Candy" is available for FREE download from Samhain Publishing! It stars Matt and Chris from Love's Evolution, playing with chocolate *g*

Click here to download the book in PDF:
http://www.thesamhellion.com/ebooks/Blue_Hardcandy.pdf

Click here for a list of all Samhain's free ebooks:
http://www.thesamhellion.com/ebooks.htm

Keep reading for a blurb and a teeny snippet :D

Blurb: Matt’s a disaster in the kitchen. But a chef like Chris can make dessert out of anything. All it takes is a little chocolate and a lot of imagination.

 Excerpt:

The third time Matt scorched the chocolate, he threw the whole damn pot in the sink and swore he’d never try to cook again.

Just like the last two times, the vow only lasted long enough for him to remember why he’d decided to do this in the first place. With a sigh, he scraped the ruined chocolate sauce into the garbage disposal and opened the dessert section of Chris’s cookbook. Maybe he couldn’t make Chris’s favorite, but surely to God he could find something he was capable of cooking.

“Matt? What are you doing in there?”

Shit. Untying Chris’s apron from around his waist, Matt threw it aside. “Nothing, babe! Go back to sleep.”

No answer. Matt breathed a sigh of relief. Chris had been sick as a dog for the last week and half with a vicious strain of the flu. He’d barely been able to get out of bed. Matt had done okay at taking care of him, except when it came to cooking. He’d always been useless in the kitchen, but it had never bothered him until now. Preparing meals for a professional chef was pretty daunting, even if said chef couldn’t eat anything but soup and crackers.

Now that Chris was on the mend and getting his appetite back, Matt was bound and damned determined to make him the sweets he’d been craving ever since he first got sick. Matt figured it was the least he could do, since Chris had been forced to skip the baking he normally loved to do for Christmas.

The scuff of slippers on wood jolted Matt out of his thoughts. He whipped around just in time to see Chris shuffle through the archway from the living room, yawning and rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. His blue terrycloth robe hung open over his pajamas, a couple day’s worth of stubble shadowed his jaw and his black hair stuck up all over the place. Matt thought he looked adorable. 

“Hey, Chris.” Shoving the chocolate-coated saucepan deeper into the sink and thus out of sight, Matt jogged up to Chris and wrapped his arms around Chris’s shoulders. “What’re you doing out of bed?”

Chris arched one dark eyebrow. “I came down to see what all the noise was about.”

“Oh.” Matt winced. “Oops. Sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry about.” Chris slipped his hands under Matt’s Christmas sweater. His palms still felt too hot against Matt’s bare skin, even though his fever was way down today. “I’m feeling much better now. I fail to understand why you want me to stay in bed.”

Matt flashed his most evil grin, the one that always made Chris’s green eyes glaze with lust. “Same reason I want you in bed the rest of the time, babe.”

Laughing, Chris leaned forward and pecked Matt on the lips. “My darling, you are the horniest person I’ve ever known.”

“Yeah, other than you.” Matt returned the kiss, along with extra tongue. “Which is why you married me, I guess.”
Chris smiled, his eyes shining. “One of many reasons.”

Matt’s chest went tight. Every time he thought of his and Chris’s handfasting ceremony that past summer, he got choked up.

Sentimental, that’s me.

It didn’t bug him any. He’d never been one to deny what he felt. Luckily, Chris had always liked that about him.

... is Josh Lanyon. For keeping his head above the bullshit slung about by "She" Who Must Not Be Named and just being the class act he is. Josh, I aspire to your level of self-control.

**raises wine glass to Josh**

Visit Josh on the web, y'all:
http://www.joshlanyon.com/

I got this from my friend and crit partner Jade Buchanan. This is a wonderful, eloquent essay by author Kemble Scott about the history of repression in the name of the christian god and how it applies to Prop 8, which if passed on Tuesday would write discrimination against gays into the California consitution. I think the essay speaks for itself.

~*~*~*~*~


Prop 8 and God - A challenge to author Rick Warren

There's been a lot of talk about "God's will" and the upcoming vote on California's Proposition 8.

The latest to invoke God in trying to get the measure passed is Rick Warren, a televangelist and bestselling author.

I'm an author too, so Warren's words got my attention. They sent me on a mission to look for other times in history when arguments like this have been used.

Warren said, "This is not a political issue, it is a moral issue that God has spoken clearly about. There is no doubt where we should stand on this issue."

Warren is telling his followers to vote yes on 8, which would eliminate the current right of same sex couples to marry in California. Warren is joined by the Mormon Church, which has poured millions of dollars from out of state into an advertising campaign aimed at changing our law.

There's a great deal of historical precedent for passing laws to remove the marriage rights of minority groups. As you prepare to vote on Prop 8, I thought it would be interesting to share with you some past examples. Just as Warren has done, all of these past marriage bans claimed to be following God's will.

"Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."
--Judge Leon Bazile, Caroline County Virginia, 1959, in his ruling that sentenced Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter Loving to one year in prison for marrying in violation of segregation laws. Mildred was part African-American. Richard was white.

"It is my conviction that the fundamental trouble with the people of the United States is that they have gotten too far away from Almighty God."
--U.S. President Warren G. Harding. He signed into law The Cable Act of 1922, which revoked the citizenship of any American woman who married an Asian.

"Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord."
--Adolf Hitler on September 5, 1935 when he signed the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor, which prevented any subjects of Germany or related heritage from marrying Jews.

Ultimately, all of these acts of discrimination and hate were seen for what they really were. They no longer exist. But for a time they were the law of the land: Asians, African-Americans, women, and Jews restricted from marriage.

So as you enter the voting booth this Tuesday, ask yourself one simple question. Which side of history do you want to be on?

I urge you to vote NO on Proposition 8.


Kemble Scott
Author
California
http://www.kemblescott.com

Okay, fair warning here: this is a RANT. One which might be offensive to some. So if you think you might take my religious differences personally, you might not want to read further.
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Still here? Okay.

Here in NC, Democrat Kay Hagan and Republican Elizabeth Dole are fighting like high school redneck girls for the U.S. Senate seat. Both campaigns have run their share of the typical nasty ads telling me why The Opponent is evil incarnate but somehow never once telling me why I should vote for the ad-maker instead. Whatever. I learned to tune those out ages ago. But recently, Dole started running ads saying that Hagan took fundraising money from the Godless Americans PAC. That's when I started getting mad.

At first, I was happy. I'm an atheist. We are a marginalized group in this country. When I saw the ad, I thought, wow, a senatorial candidate who will stand up for my beliefs? A politician who isn't afraid to admit that we "godless Americans" aren't pond scum after all? Is this possible??? Sign me up! I couldn't really get angry at Dole & Co. because this sort of bigotry is exactly what I expect from them. It didn't surprise me a bit that she and her people were going "oh noes!!! Atheists, aaaarrrrggghhh!!!" as if "atheist" was the worst possible thing you could call someone. What pissed me off -- and hurt me, frankly -- was when Hagan responded with extreme indignity by saying "I am NOT an atheist! Do not call me that horrible name!" (not an exact quote, obviously, but that's the gist). She also says about the Godless Americans PAC (and this IS a direct quote) "I certainly don't support anything they stand for."

So in other words, she doesn't support separation of church and state? Because this is what the Godless Americans PAC stands for. It's bad enough that prejudice against atheists is one of the most widely accepted ones in the country. Having people in government so blatantly flouting the constitution and belittling a significant and growing portion of their constituency is just plain scary.

I'll still vote for Hagan, because Dole's values go completely against mine. But I'm disappointed, and hurt, and discourgaged. Not really surprised, which is sad. But yeah. Discouraged.

Anyone see V For Vendetta? Yeah, that's where we're headed if we're not careful...

An Inner Darkness, the fifth (and final?) book in my Bay City Paranormal Investigations series, is now available from Samhain Publishing!

BLURB:

All hell’s about to break loose. Literally.

After more than a year as a couple—and plenty of bumps along the road—Sam Raintree and Dr. Bo Broussard are finally settling into life together. Bo has come to terms with his sexuality, their business is thriving, and Sam has begun to accept his role as a step-parent of sorts to Bo’s sons, Sean and Adrian. The only real dark spot is Bo’s ex-wife, Janine.

When eleven-year-old Adrian begins exhibiting signs of psychokinesis—the same ability which allows Sam to manipulate interdimensional portals—the friction between Sam, Bo and Janine escalates. Sam and Bo have reason to believe Adrian’s raw, uncontrolled talent poses a danger to him and those around him. Janine, however, believes Sam and Bo are encouraging dangerous delusions on Adrian’s part. Common ground is nonexistent, anger and hard words ever-present.

Caught in the middle of the conflict and burdened with an ability he can’t yet control, Adrian is soon pushed beyond his limits. With Adrian’s mind—and the lives of everyone around him—hanging in the balance, Sam and Bo race against time to save both boys and keep an otherworldly horror from breaking free.

(Warning: This book contains graphic language, explicit male/male sex, family drama and scary monsters.)

Read an explicit excerpt on my website:
http://www.allyblue.com/AID.html

Read a clean excerpt and buy the book here:
http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/an-inner-darkness

And if you want to see Sam and Bo get kinky, check out my Halloween short story on the Fiction With Friction blog:
http://www.fictionwithfriction.com/2008/10/28/helluvaween-bos-halloween-treat/
Who knew Bo was so wonderfully depraved? LOL.

Not counting when I signed books at the '07 Romantic Times convention. That's a whole other ball of yarn right there, y'all.

No, this one will be my first signing in an actual bookstore! I'll be at the Columbia Place Mall Waldenbooks in Columbia, SC on November 8th from 12-2 to sign books and hopefully meet LOTS of people! I love meeting new people :D

I'll be there along with four of THE best romance authors out there: Shiloh Walker, J.C. Wilder, Samantha Kane and Beth Williamson. OMG I'm starstruck just thinking of it O_O
They were nice enough to let me join the signing they'd already set up so I am forever grateful for that.

Here's the address for the Waldenbooks:
324 Columbia Place Mall
7201 Two Notch Road
Columbia, SC 29223

Anyone in the area that day, please come on out! There will be a raffle with prizes!

Okay, I know I haven't posted here in a while, sorry :-( But I have a cover for my next book, Untamed Heart, and the excerpt's up on the Samhain website, and I am SO SO SO excited I can't stand it! This is, IMHO, about the best book I've written, and the cover is absolutely beautiful, and I just HAD to share :D
Blurb, cover art and excerpt here:
http://samhainpublishing.com/coming/untamed-heart
Isn't the cover gorgeous???? Anne Cain is the artist. As usual, she read my mind and gave me something absolutely breathtaking. I love you, Anne!!!!

Okay, I got this from Jet Mykles' Yahoo group. This is a perfect example of the type of humor I like. Corny as hell *g*

THE RECIPE

A man is showering up in a locker room with his buddy when he notices
his friend is very well endowed.

"Damn Bob, you're hung!" Jim exclaims.

"I wasn't always this impressive, I had to work for it."

"What do you mean?" Jim asked.

"Well, every day for the past two years I've spent an hour each night
rubbing it with butter. I know it sounds crazy but it actually made it
grow 4 inches! You should try it."

Jim agrees and the two say good bye.

A few months later the two are in the same locker room and Bob asks Jim
how his situation was.

Jim replied, "I did what you said, Bob, but I've actually gotten smaller!
I lost two inches already!"

"Did you do everything I told you? An hour each day with butter?"

"Well, I was out of butter, so I've been using Crisco."

Wait for it...



Wait....





"Crisco!!?" Bob exclaimed. "Damm it, Jim, Crisco is shortening !

MORAL: You gotta follow the recipe!!!


(from Ally: BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!)
**falls over laughing**

Mary Ann Williams! She is the grand prize winner in the Collector Tour contest! Congratulations, Mary Ann!
You've won a $10 gift certificate to Loose Id from me, and a whole slew of great prizes from the rest of the gang :D

And now, back to writing Teh Ghey Buttsecks...

Curse my inability to sleep past seven! Guh. Nothing's going on until 1 p.m. I will begin my Ghost Hunters fangirling at that point, with their first talk of the con. But until then, here I am with my coffee and cinnamon roll, having been up for almost two hours and taken a shower and everything, and everyone else is still asleep. But the people watching is already fantastic, and if I was smart I'd take advantage of the relative quiet to get some writing done. Now the question is, am I smart??? Noooo. I am watching the early-rising costumes go by and getting all sorts of story fodder, but not writing. Oh well. Maybe i'll get smart later on *g*

* You've ever tried to stick a fish of any sort in your ear. Goldfish crackers DO count.
* You always know where your towel is.
* You are deeply suspicious of small Italian restaurants.
* You've ever ordered a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster at a bar. If you ordered a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster at a bar and actually GOT one, the bartender is a bigger geek than you.
* You laugh hysterically every time you see the number 42.
* You come to the inevitable realization that Ford is The Smart One, no matter how hard he tries to be The Fun Drunk instead, and Zaphod is a man on the run from himself.
* You know there is such a thing as HGTTG slash fic not because someone told you, but because went looking for it and found it.

Guess what I'VE been reading :-B

Welcome to the lovely and history-steeped Mississippi Gulf Coast! The Collector 4: Eight Arms to Hold You (http://www.loose-id.net/detail.aspx?ID=376) takes place for the most part along this stretch of coastline and in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Katrina nearly destroyed this beautiful place, but it is making a comeback, thanks to some very determined inhabitants who never give up.

Here's some facts you might not know about Biloxi and the rest of the Mississippi coast (unless you live there, or nearby!):
* Biloxi and other towns are situated along the longest manmade beach in the world, 26 miles, bordering the Missisippi Sound.
* Mardi Gras is an official holiday all along the Gulf Coast.
* Eight different flags have flown over coastal Mississippi since the Europeans first invaded in the late 1600s: French, English, Spanish, Lone Star of the Republic of Florida, American, State of Mississippi's Magnolia Flag, Confederate, and the current Mississippi state flag.
* Barq's Root Bear was first bottled in Biloxi in 1898
* The shrimping season is opened every year by the annual Blessing of the Fleet in May. This is a very popular celebration along the Gulf Coast.
* At one time, Biloxi was the shrimping capital of the world. It still produces huge amounts of delicious Gulf shrimp every season.

Now, in order to win all the way-cool prizes the Collector series authors are offering, you need to put your thinking cap on *g* Here's the trivia question to answer for this stop in the tour:

What popular beverage was first bottled in Biloxi in 1898?

Email your answer to collectors.contest@inbox.com with Grand Tour Stop #2 in the subject line.

Your next stop in the tour: The Sights, Sounds, and Lure of India, setting for the last book in the Collector series, Laura Baumbach's The Lost Temple of Karttikeya. Visit her blog, http://sensualwriter.blogspot.com, starting Tuesday August 21st! And enjoy your tour :D

So I'm going to DragonCon this year, sitting on a one panel and spending the rest of the time engaging in stealth promo and fangirling on the Ghost Hunters. Who's going?

BTW, Oswald (my iBook) is being a bitch. I may have to smack him around.

I love David Cross. That is all.

I'm sitting in Greenberry's Cofee & Tea Company right now, enjoying a nice iced coffee and crumb cake (which I SWEAR I will exercise into submission when I get home! honest!). At the next table, there's these two guys -- and by "guys" I mean grown men, one thirty-something in a suit and one at least fifty in jeans and a polo shirt. They are having a business meeting, judging by the papers and manila folders and PDAs and stuff. So the older guy's cell rings, and he answers it, and he's talking. Fine, fine, whatever. Then he says to the oh-so-lucky person on the other end, "rock 'n' roll, dude!" TWICE. During what was clearly a BUSINESS call.

O_O

I about peed my pants trying not to laugh out loud, I swear.

Because I haven't posted here in soooooo long.
**spanks self**
Here's what's up:

- my latest Samhain novel, Fireflies, is the August pick for All Romance eBooks' new online book club! Yay! Check out their MySpace page for details:
http://www.myspace.com/allromanceebooks

- I'll be going to Dragon*Con this year, and sitting on a panel of published authors talking about making the leap from unpaid fanfic to published author. Sherrilyn Kenyon is one of the panelists O_O
http://tolkientrack.queencheetah.com/session_ProAuthors.htm
Grant, Jason and Steve will be there from Ghost Hunters! Am preparing list of totally geeky fangirl questions now...

- Forbidden Love, the new print journal of dark romance, has an all-manlove issue coming out soon. The title is Sacred Bands, referencing the Sacred Band of Thebes. My story is titled "Dragon's Kiss" and features black-and-white artwork by the Art Goddess Anne Cain. Check it out:
http://www.allyblue.com/DragonsKissPencils.html
WARNING for full frontal male nudity :D

- Twilight, book 3 of the Bay City Paranormal Investigations series, will be coming out in October:
http://samhainpublishing.com/coming/twilight
The 4th in the series, Closer, will be coming out in the spring of '08. A spin-off story starring everybody's favorite bisexual investigator, Dean Delapore, will be coming out sometime in 2009, after the main series arc is finished. Title of that book is Where The Heart Is and will tell the story of how Dean finds True Love :D

- right now, I am in the midst of writing the mother of all angst-fests, Untamed Heart, which is scheduled for release from Samhain in Feb. 2008. One of the main characters was inspired by Patrick Wolf, though he is in fact nothing like the Wolf-Boy *g*

Okay, that's the news for now. Stay tuned! And I really want to revive my LJ blog, so poke me if I let it slide too long!

... somebody out there makes cookie dough flavored TOOTHPASTE??
o_O
WTF??? Come on, I like cookie dough and all, but I do NOT want to brush my teeth with it.
Ew. Just, ew.

Man, I haven't updated this in a while, have I? Oops...

Anyway. In the last few months, I've been really really busy. Like tearing-my-hair-out busy. In the last six months, I've written three longish short stories and two complete novels. If that doesn't sound like much (and to some people I know, it really isn't LOL), keep in mind the Evil Day Job which takes up 40 hours of every week, the house, the hubby, the kidlets, and the fact that I'm not a particularly fast writer by nature and have no organization skills whatsoever. Plus I still try to keep up with my running and bathe now and then.

Good grief, I know I had a point....
*thinks*
Oh yes. The point was, I've been so swamped, I've neglected my unhealthy obsessions of late. Now, though I still have edits to do and deadlines to keep, I'm able to relax a bit more, which means I have to fill the extra few minutes a day somehow. Naturally, that "somehow" is my bit of obsession with Radiohead in general and Mr. Yorke in particular. Amnesiac is back on heavy rotation in my CD player AND my iPod while I wait for a NEW ALBUM from Radiohead...
*pokes them*
... and lately I've been skulking around the fanfic archive reading some of the new stuff. And WOW there's some talent in that group, I have to say.

The other day, I watched some videos from Coachella and started getting all misty. Man, that was fun. Coachella, Bonnaroo, those were some amazing days for me. I miss everyone from RD2, I wish I could see yours guys more often :-( I am looking forward to MLK weekend so much, you have NO IDEA!

Okay, well, THAT was rambling LOL Of course, what else is LJ for, huh? Yeah.

... is TOO FUCKING HARD!! Therefore, I am procrasturbating by watching Queer As Folk sex scene clips and reading Harry/Draco slash. Such is life.
**drinks some more rum**