Avengers totally rocked! An adventure movie where the action rocked, but so did the characterization, the dialogue, the humor and the poignant moments. Favorite bit of dialogue, “Puny, god.”
Loved what they did with Black Widow played by Scarlett Johansson. Her fight scenes were every bit as good as any of the others, and that meant they were amazing. I don’t know if they had a better fight coordinator, or if Ms. Johansson had hit the gym, or they had a better fight double, but whatever they did this Black Widow was everything she should have been and more. It was so much better than her first appearance in Iron Man 2.
Only thing I missed was a gratuitous shot of Chris Hemsworth shirtless. But as Jon pointed out, no one had a gratuitous flesh shot, which was nice, even wonderful, it was all about the story, but still . . . loved that one scene in Thor. *grin*
Just in case someone hasn’t seen it, I’ll avoid spoilers, but there are a lot of great moments in the Avengers. It is definitely one to see on the big screen.
Now watching The Expendables with Jon, Trinity, and Chica, my sister. We saw the previews for The Expendables II and Chica had never seen the first one, so we’re watching the first movie to prep for the second. Besides, it’s Mother’s Day and I love this movie.
Trinity got me the complete Anne of Green Gables movie set for her gift, and was so excited that she’d gotten me exactly what I asked for that she couldn’t wait for me to watch it, so we watched it yesterday.
This morning I woke early my muse loud in my head. I did pages before breakfast letting everyone else sleep in, then the planned breakfast was had for brunch. Chica fixed Cinnamon Apple French Toast, which is a Cooking Light recipe. It’s become one of my new favorite breakfasts.
The idea that I wrote on today wasn’t the Merry book. An idea hit a few days back, that’s actually probably been trying to break through for a few weeks. One sign of that is that the Merry book has been going slower and slower. Usually when I have what I call an interrupting idea, or a pushy idea, I know what idea it is, what characters, some clue, but not this time. So when I uncaged my muse I had no idea what we’d be working on. Why did I interrupt the Merry book, because I’ve learned that if an idea is pushy enough it will actually act like a creative log jam. It can bring all work to a grinding halt. It’s best to give the idea at least a day. The problem comes when the first day of pages is ten, or more, then I know I’m in trouble. That’s how I got the books Micah, and Flirt. One interrupted a Merry book, and the other actually pushed ahead in the cue of a different Anita book. The short piece, “Can he Bake a Cherry Pie,” did that when it was ready to be written, too. I’d had the idea on my sticky wall of ideas for a few years, but when the story was ready to write it jumped ahead in line. Some stories, and books, just demand your attention. Sometimes you can bull through it, but I find that it works best to work with your ideas and your muse, not against them. I now have two chapters and some of a third of a completely different book. We’ll see if it writes as fast as the other three pushy ideas did. I love it when the writing flows like the proverbial water from the cleft rock.
I gave myself a day about a month ago and in one day had thirty pages of a totally different book. I put it away and went back to the Merry book, because the thirty pages took the edge off and cleared the log jam. This idea, not yet. Whatever magic point needs to be written, I haven’t found it yet. I’m beginning to worry that they’re all book ideas. I’ve had two books fighting for first place in line before, and I managed it, but three? I’ve never tried to juggle three before. It would be hard to make progress towards deadlines if my attention was that divided.
I was going to do more pages after the movies, but I’m thinking early bed sounds really good. I think that four hours of sleep last night is catching up with me.
So a lovely Mother’s Day winding to a close here. I hope that all the mothers out there had a great day full of things that made them happy, I know I did.

Why will they hate you? So many reasons, here are just a few.

They may hate you for the color of your skin, your sexual orientation, that you’re prettier than they are, that you’re uglier than they are, more popular, less popular, your religion, your lack of religion, that you’re more successful than they are, that you’re less successful than they are, that you are a better athlete than they will ever be, that you’re a worse athlete than they are now, that you dropped a ball, you caught a ball, you ran a touchdown, you fumbled a touchdown, that you write better than they ever will, that you have a happy family & they don’t, that your married & they want to be, that you’re single & they want to be, you have kids, you don’t have kids, you have a bigger house than they do, better job, no job, a lot of money, very little money, your grammar doesn’t meet their standards, you’re taller, shorter, too loud, too soft spoken, getting more sex than they are . . . The list goes on forever.

Don’t let the hatred get you down, or stop you from doing what you need to do, just do it, be yourself, & let them hate you. They will hate you no matter what you do, just don’t let that hatred, that envy, that jealousy, do anything, but let you know you are you, & since the only thing you can be is yourself, let them hate you. Let them eat their own hearts out with envy. Let them choke themselves on their feelings of inadequacy that they project on you. Let their jealousy blind them to their own highest truth. Let their self-loathing use you as a substitute for themselves. Let their fear narrow their world & destroy their own possibility of happiness. Know that hate breeds only bitterness & failure in the end. Do not hate them back, because then they own you. Don’t give them any power in your life. Don’t try to understand them, because if you are doing what you are most meant to do, following your greatest & best path in your life, you will have no time to hate, you will be too busy living.

“An Evening with Laurell K. Hamilton”
7:00 PM
Bridge Tap House & Wine Bar (sponsored by Left Bank Books)
1004 Locust
St. Louis, MO 63101

Visit http://www.left-bank.com/event/hamilton for more information and to purchase tickets for the event. The ticket package to the launch party is $30, admits two people to the event, and includes one signed copy of Kiss the Dead. Laurell will answer questions from the audience and after will greet readers and take photos.

Thursday, June 7—Seattle, WA

“An Evening with Laurell K. Hamilton”
7:30 PM
Town Hall Seattle (sponsored by University Book Store)
1119 8th Avenue (enter on Seneca)
Seattle, WA 98101

Visit https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/249984 for more information and to purchase tickets for the event. Admission for the event is $30 or $35 for a companion ticket. The individual ticket price includes entrance for 1 to the event and 1 signed copy of Kiss the Dead. The companion ticket price includes entrance for 2 to the event and 1 signed copy of Kiss the Dead. Laurell will answer questions from the audience and after will greet readers and take photos.

Saturday, June 9—Huntington Beach, CA

“An Evening with Laurell K. Hamilton”
7:00 PM
Barnes & Noble
7881 Edinger Avenue
Huntington Beach, CA 92647

Visit http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/event/76713 for more information about this event and about how to reserve a signed book/priority wristband. Reserved, pre-signed books with priority wristbands can be picked up the day of the event starting at 5:00 pm. General admission wristbands will be available the day of the event at 5:30 pm. Laurell will answer questions from the audience and after will greet readers and take photos.

Monday, June 11—San Diego, CA

“An Evening with Laurell K. Hamilton”
7:00 PM
The Carlsbad Library, Ruby G. Schulman Auditorium (sponsored by Mysterious Galaxy)
1775 Dove Lane
Carlsbad, CA 92011

Visit http://www.mystgalaxy.com/laurell-k-hamilton-carlsbad-library-0611 for more information and to purchase tickets for the event. The $35 admission ticket includes 1 signed copy of Kiss the Dead. Laurell will answer questions from the audience and after will greet readers and take photos.

Wednesday, June 13—Atlanta, GA

“An Evening with Laurell K. Hamilton”
7:00 PM
Barnes & Noble
2900 Peachtree Road NE
Atlanta, GA 30305

Visit http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/event/76714 for store location and directions. Pre-signed copies of Kiss the Dead will be available for purchase at the event. Laurell will answer questions from the audience and after will greet readers and take photos.

You can read it several ways, from Amazon there are free Kindle readers for a variety of platforms, from iPhone & iPad to Android or your computer or even via a web browser.

Barnes and Noble has free readers for the iPhone, iPad, Android or computer.

If you have an iPhone or iPad you have a third option, with iBooks.

Choose the app that works best for you, and enjoy!

So… we would like to announce that Maria Duepner from Davie FL is our April Contest winner. We contacted Maria and she chose “Circus of the Damned” as the Audio Book that she wanted. Congratulations, Maria.

As for the rest of Laurell’s fans, make sure that you are signed up as a subscriber and then be watching for the next contest email sometime in May for your next chance to win your choice of an LKH Audio Book.

“I finally let myself look at that face, and I felt like I had from almost the first moment I’d seen him, that he was simply one of the most beautiful men I’d ever seen. The black curls touched the edge of his face, as if bringing attention to the curve of his mouth, the line of his cheek, and those eyes. They always looked blue, but they were so dark. Midnight blue with their double edge of black eyelashes like dark lace to frame the deepest blue I’d ever seen in anyone’s eyes. His eyes were a blue like deep ocean water, where it runs cold and will eventually spill down into something warm and mysterious, where creatures the light has never seen live and thrive. Those gorgeous eyes looked at me, and there was love in them, but the second he saw me in the doorway, walking toward him, there was lust, desire, and just a heat that brought a blush to my face and an answering heat to my own eyes. Six years after we’d first started dating I was still a little amazed that this most lovely of men wanted me so badly. They talked about burning for each other, and we still did. I never seemed to get over the surprise of turning around and seeing him there. You’d think I’d get used to seeing such a beautiful man and knowing he was mine, but it never grew old, as if his beauty and the fact that he was mine, and I was his, would forever surprise me.”

But one day I was talking to my editor, Susan, on the phone, and I bemoaned the loss of the scene. She thought it was a fabulous scene, too, and regretted it’s loss. That was the point that she and I came up with the idea of doing the outtake as my first ever eSpecial. I thought great, and it’s already written, but like much in this whole e-experience that wasn’t quite correct. I had to write a new beginning for the scene, because it was taken out of the early middle of the book where the world, the characters, relationships, everything had already been explained, but suddenly the scene had to stand on it’s own without all the earlier pages. So, I did add a few paragraphs to introduce the world, Anita, and her relationship to Jean-Claude and Asher. Yep, try as I might in Kiss the Dead to give Jean-Claude and Anita their alone time, Asher was just not going to be left out. When things work well between the three of them it’s so worth it, when it doesn’t, well . . . it’s just a freaking disaster. So I did the extra bit up front so the scene would not be quite so naked to everyone who buys the eSpecial, and then it was done. Okay, except for the whole editing part when it came back from New York, but other than that it was done.

But one of the weird things about publishing of late is that e-books are still evolving in how they are handled, and before I’d ever seen Beauty back from New York, before I’d even signed the contract, and sent it back to them, I had people asking me about it on the internet. People were asking what Beauty was, and were thrilled it was coming out on April 24. Since my editor had told me that Beauty was scheduled for a month before Kiss the Dead came out on June 5, I was a little confused. I called her up and she double checked, and the actual date for Beauty is May 8, because the whole idea is that it comes out about a month ahead of the novel, that it’s an outtake for, so . . . No one at my publisher is sure where the first date of April 24 came from, but it is now corrected on line to its actual release date of May 8, so yay, for that!

So, Beauty is my first eSpecial. It’s the first outtake from any Anita Blake novel that I’ve allowed to be published. It’s a very hot, steamy, outtake with Jean-Claude, Anita, and Asher. It comes out May 8, as a sort of preview for Kiss the Dead which comes out June 5.

Links to preordering Beauty -

Amazon Kindle edition

Barnes & Noble nook edition

So… we would like to announce that Dana Kloeppel from O’Fallon, MO is our March Contest winner. We contacted Dana and she chose “Hit List” as the Audio Book that she wanted. Congratulations, Dana.

As for the rest of Laurell’s fans, be watching for the next contest email sometime in April for your next chance to win your choice of an LKH Audio Book.

So… we would like to announce that Amy Whitten from Hartford, IL is our February Contest winner. We contacted Amy and she chose “The Harlequin” as the Audio Book that she wanted. Congratulations, Amy.

As for the rest of Laurell’s fans, be watching for the next contest email sometime in March for your chance to win your choice of an LKH Audio Book.