A Gargoyle’s Might: Meet The Huntress

(These links go to either my own website or to the Supernaturals Wiki)

Book 2 in the Supernaturals Now series is A Gargoyle’s Might. This is Lincoln and Ivory’s book.

I have struggled with this book because Ivory is such a not-likeable character in the beginning. I really dislike her, and every time she seems to come up with a redeeming quality, she turns around and does something else particularly irritating.

That’s not the least of it, however. A lot of new players are stepping onto the board. Many of them are ancient, canny, unnerving creatures with few or no morals and vast powers. The primary one of these is The Huntress. She has forced her way forward by entering Tallis‘ territory at just the wrong time.

As you may know from My Love Under Cover, there’s a powerful, underground ring of drug lords dealing EnVygle to the rich. Just as tensions are at their highest between Tallis and Nerianne, and as Tallis nearly starts a war with the Ifrit Emperor, The Huntress arrives on the scene.

For all of her known history, The Huntress has been singularly neutral. She does not involve herself in any squabbles or fights between any of the other races. Despite this, she has been the most hunted creature, ever. Her power is so great that she is feared by every single race on Earth. Every creature from vampires and werewolves to goblins and wraiths fear her; not because she has done anything to any of them, but merely because she could destroy them all if she decided she wanted to.

For now, most of them are unaware that something even more dangerous brews in their midst. They are beginning the process of gathering together to combat any danger The Huntress may present. While they are distracted by her, another force plots dominion over all things.

The plot has certainly thickened in A Gargoyle’s Might.  Lincoln and Ivory are struggling to find common ground, completely oblivious to the danger that awaits them at every turn. Bless their hearts. 😀

PBP: Hegemony

When I thought about writing for the Pagan Blog Project this week, I thought of all kinds of words, but they just didn’t seem to fit where I’m at right now. I thought of harmony, hope, happiness (again), harps, and others I probably shouldn’t share.

Then I realized that this week I’ve been dealing with the concept of hegemonies in my writing and my personal life.

Dictionary.com’s second meaning for hegemony is what I wanted to address:

2. leadership; predominance

Lately, I’ve been considering; wondering what has hegemony in my life? Where do my priorities really lie? I’ve been re-reading the Tao this week, as it’s my primary spiritual inspiration. As a sort of eclectic pantheist, I guess, I believe in one Great Intelligence, which pictures itself in the world as a multitude of beings and intelligences, great, small, and in between.

The greatest and most powerful expression of that Great Divine Intelligence is Love.

When I rise in the morning and stare at the sun for a few seconds (when it’s not obscured), it is love that I feel. Reverence for this great ball of fire, the Seat of the Divine… and its unconditional love for all things.

I don’t remember who said it, I believe it was Eckhart Tolle in one of his books, but the sun looks down upon all with equal love. It shines upon the rich, the poor, the tall, the short, the fat, the thin, the young, the old… it shines its undying, unalterable love upon everyone.

The sun is the ultimate Hegemony of this world. For without the sun, all things would cease. No more plants. No more animals. No more you, no more me. Just a cold, barren ball of frozen rock, hurtling through space. It has ultimate predominance over everything.

Yet as the Tao reminds us… it does not interfere. It stands above us all. It is the source of all life… but like Love Itself, it holds no bias. It shines. It loves.

Like the sun, I desire Love to be my Hegemony. That sort of ultimate Hegemony wherein there is only Love shining forth, without compromise, without condition. I choose to let Love have predominance in my life. I choose to let Love lead my actions.

What has Hegemony in your life?

PBP: Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!

The letter for this week in the Pagan Blog Project is H.

What is the highest purpose in your life? I say that it is happiness. This sounds like a simple statement, but it isn’t. Not at all. Happiness is about so much more than simply a good feeling and wearing a smile.

I frequently tell my daughter to make choices based on what will make her feel happier. Would she be happier if she argued, cried, and refused to clean her room, and still had to clean it… or would she be happier if she just cleaned it up real quick and went on with her day?

Sure, you might say, that’s great for a kid. But what about the rest of us? We’re adults, we can’t live our life based on happiness. We have more important things to worry about! Like money. Or security. Stability. Paying the bills.

But my argument there is that same exact principle applies. Will you be happier if you go to work today and knuckle down and still have a house tomorrow? Or would you be happier skipping it today and being homeless tomorrow? What does each of these things offer us, ultimately? Money… which can lead to security… paying the bills… being comfortable.

Why would we rather feel secure? Why would we rather pay the bills? Because ultimately, these things lead to greater happiness than the alternative that we didn’t choose. The problem is that we live so much of our lives just going through the motions. Unconscious, unaware, uninterested.

I challenge you to make a new choice. Base your life instead upon actively thinking through your choices. Instead of thinking, “which will make me more money,” ask instead “which will make me happier in both the long and short term?” Because the reason you want money or security or health is so that you will be happy.

Choose happiness. Be happy. Experience happiness. It isn’t a destination, it’s not a place you can only arrive at after some undisclosed event or experience or point in time. Choose to be happy. More than that, make choices with the aware acceptance that you are making it to be happier.

Also understand this… you can not be truly happy when you know in your heart that you did wrong. Harming another to create happiness in yourself will backfire, because you will sabotage yourself. Subconsciously, we punish ourselves for our own wrongdoing–and we’re far more effective at it than anyone else is.

So choose happiness and remember that we are all together on this planet. We must live in harmony with each other as much as we can.

Happy day to you and yours.

Soul Sucker Review Post

Today, I am proud and excited to be hosting Soul Sucker, by Kate Pearce!

Soul Sucker

Kate Pearce

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Book Description:

Supernatural Branch of Law Enforcement empath Ella Walsh sucks memories from people’s heads. The job fills her mind with others’ nightmares and leaves her with little time for love, but if she doesn’t pair off with a mate of the government’s choosing soon, the psychic blowback will destroy her powers and her sanity.

The last time shapeshifting SBLE superstar Vadim Morosov worked with an empath, he got her killed and himself assigned to a desk. He worries about taking on another partner, but helping Ella track down an empath killer might be his only chance to save his career.

Naturally, the government decides to throw them together.

They resist at first, but they can’t deny the simmering heat between them. As the killer’s strikes grow closer to home, their bond gets tighter. And when the murderer finally traps Ella, her developing link with Vadim might be the only thing that can save her.

Excerpt:

“I think the question you should be asking yourself, Ms. Walsh, is why you feel so threatened by me.”

She screeched to a halt again. “Threatened, by you?”

“Yes. I think you’ve got used to getting your own way in that office, and you don’t like anyone else coming in and questioning anything you say.”

“And I think you’re talking out of your ass.”

“I don’t like incompetence, Ms. Walsh, and I don’t like working with empaths on the brink of a break- down. I’ll work with you because I have no choice, but I’ll be questioning everything that comes out of your mouth, double and triple checking it and, if necessary, taking my concerns to the very top to make sure I’m heard so I don’t get left holding the can when everything blows up.”

She stared into his eyes and for the first time in her life seriously contemplated drawing her weapon and shooting a fellow professional. But he’d probably like it if she did that, and she still had no way of knowing if he could actually be killed.

Instead, she gave him her best professional smile. “I’m glad you shared your concerns with me, Morosov. I appreciate your input and will consider each and every one of your points very carefully.”

Text Copyright © 2012 by Kate Pearce

Permission to reproduce text granted by Harlequin Books S.A. Cover art used by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises Limited. All rights reserved. ® and TM are trademarks owned by Harlequin Enterprises Limited or its affiliated companies, used under license.

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My Review of Soul Sucker by Kate Pearce

First, allow me to apologize for being late posting this. My 6 year old is sick, plus her diabetes decided to go berserk and since I’m so new to it, I had to sort that out first. But no more delay, let’s end the anticipation!

I really love paranormal romance. The first thing that caught me about Soul Sucker was the blurb. I guess that goes to show you that a blurb can really make all the difference in whether or not your book gets read!

As I started reading, I was initially put off a bit by the introductory stuff, but then again, I always am. The story already! That’s my impatient brain, not me. It’s not the same thing, right??

We got to the story, then, and all bets were off. The first thing that I noticed, although being put off by the initial scene being the post-one-night-stand morning, was the quality of the writing. Generally speaking, I can tell right off whether or not I’m going to be spending a story with my teeth in half-gritted position. In this case, I was able to relax into the story, without fear that I’d have to read past errors (which always catch my eye and make my reading stumble slightly).

I like our heroine and the fact that she’s not universally liked or desired, because, let’s face it, who is? She’s very down-to-Earth, and so far in the story, doesn’t run right into dangerous situations mindlessly. Romance novels are kind of like horror flicks that way on average.

I love how very unique the whole universe is. It is seamlessly drawn into a modern setting, and the characters, the abilities, and the general lore is unusual enough to be fascinating.

I’m also vindictive enough (or something) to love the twist on “mates” that Ms. Pearce employs here. It takes a special person to take the standard and heave it on its head, invert it, and skewer it. Ms. Pearce is definitely up to the job!

I like also the relationships amongst the characters. The interactions of the bosses, the coworkers, the neighbors. There’s a sense of greater community in the book, rather than everything being 1,000% about the central relationship.

And the fae web… I absolutely love, love, love it. It is a great plot device without being one at all. How’d she manage that? Inquiring minds want to know!

Anyway, I liked the ending a lot. It wasn’t predictable and the bad guy was a pleasant surprise. In this genre, predictability is a real problem. I enjoyed the book tremendously over all, and because it was very well-written and actually gasp proofread, I give it an extra star above the “engaging storyline” that I typically give 5 of 5 stars for.

So although there were a few things I didn’t like about the behavior of the heroine (and when you will ever agree with another person completely?), I really loved the book and I’m now a fan of Ms. Pearce.

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About Kate Pearce:

Award winning author, Kate Pearce was born into a large family of girls in England, and spent much of her childhood living very happily in a dream world. Despite being told that she really needed to ‘get with the program’, she graduated from the University College of Wales with an honors degree in history.

A move to the USA finally allowed her to fulfill her dreams and sit down and write her first romance novel. Kate is published by Signet Eclipse, Kensington Aphrodisia, Ellora’s Cave, Carina Press, Cleis Press and Virgin Black Lace/Cheek.

you can find her at:

http://www.katepearce.com

Twitter as Kate4queen

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kate-Pearces-Fan-Page/220636502580?fref=ts

Buy Links:

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/soul-sucker-kate-pearce/1114057557

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Soul-Sucker-ebook/dp/B00APEXMKG

Pagan Blog Project: G: GABCE

Friday’s Pagan Blog Project post.

So that’s just a series of letters, right? Well, I at, if you strip away everything beyond the utter basics, a pantheist. So my discussion today is The Great All-encompassing Being who Created Everything.

When I was a young child, I had multiple experiences during which I died. During some of these events, I had experiences that they call “Near Death Experience”. I don’t know why it’s called “near” death experience, since at least two of the times I was clinically dead with no brain activity, but I digress…

During these events, I walked with a being that I generally call “God”. This, however, isn’t really a good word, because it has more baggage than a fleet of fully-packed 747s.

So for this G day, I’m going to call it GABCE.

I walked with GABCE during these events. First, I would meet what you might call a guide, or a guardian, or an angel. This beautiful, loving Being would then take me ‘flying’ in the Universe, where I would, in essence, walk with GABCE.  I learned that this incredible, over-arching presence is in all things, through all things, and it is within this ultimate presence that we live and have our being.

As years have passed, I’ve come to understand that, within that GABCE presence, there are so many more spirits and beings. There are those who are here in service to us, who assist us, and are our “god/desses” in some cases.

I remember the amazing, loving being who would first greet me upon my body’s death, and a specific conversation that we once had. I asked it, point-blank, “What are you?”

The answer was cryptic, and dissatisfying to me as a child. It was, in essence, that it was whatever label I wanted to give it… and many more. Some label it an angel and stop there. But its purpose, it informed me, was to serve human beings. All of them serve human beings as we struggle in this life we’ve chosen (on a spiritual level, not a “The Secret” level).  That being human is a very hard work, a heavy spiritual labor unlike any other. Because of that, we need help, assistance, and support while we do it.

Each of these “beings” are part of the whole, like we are. That to try to say that this or that pantheon is The Right One is like saying that only people who live in given a small town in Russia are human beings. The rest are… well, wrong. Or are something else.  It’s illogical and unrealistic… and the same goes for trying to claim one deity real and others nonexistent.

The GABCE needs no name, because yes, there is only one of It. There is only one sky, so we’ve never named our sky, either… we don’t need to know one sky from another. We don’t need to know one GABCE from another because there’s only one.

But like the sky, we can often come to relate better to GABCE by seeing a part at a time and knowing that part thoroughly. We see one part of the sky at a time, because our vision is too limited and the sky too vast. This is why I have begun to get to know various deities on their own merits. Because they are both individuals, and part of the whole that is All That Is.

Their love is as real as the love of the GABCE. But sometimes, it can be easier to sense directly and relate to personally, as seeing part of the sky is more possible from our limited perspective, than seeing all of it is.

Good day to all. 🙂

Rest in Peace, Terminator…

This is a rather old article, but I’d never seen it before.

In a study, researchers found that, over generations, even robots develop altruism…

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/05/even-robots-can-be-heroes.html?ref=hp

 

Fascinating stuff, and interesting to think it’s possible in non-biological “intelligences”.

The Universe is stranger than we ever imagined!