Dahlia DeWinters - Author

Quirky Heroines, Happy Endings

Happy Birthday, Mocha Memoirs Press!

SaleBanner2014Happy Birthday to Us and U.S. too!

If you’ve been a part of Mocha Memoirs for the last four years, you know that July is our BIRTHDAY Month! Not only is this the month of the United States’ birth, but also ours.

Mocha Memoirs Press began in 2001, but reopened our doors in July 2010 with the hope of spotlighting fantastic fiction in the genres of science fiction, horror, fantasy, and romance. Each year we do something fun for our birthday, and this year will be no different.

Since we’re giving gifts, it’s Christmas in July! What’s in our holiday sack?

Gift #1-New fiction! Four new titles will launch our TOIL, TROUBLE, AND TEMPTATION line.

Gift #2- MMP GIFT bag. It will include the following:

  1. A sample of our books (both horror anthologies, a science fiction title, two erotic romance titles, and a fantasy title).

  2. A MMP tee-shirt.

  3. A MMP journal to write down your own inspiring ideas.

  4. Starbucks® coffee

  5. Other surprise goodies.

  6. All will be contained in a MMP cloth bag.

(You have to sign up for the MMP Newsletter to enter. More details to follow on our blog and our Facebook group).

Gift #3-Black Friday sale in the summer-All Christmas and holiday stories are .99!

Gift #4-Sizzling Deals for HOT summer nights-All erotic romance titles are $2.99 or LESS!

Gift #5-Select science fiction, fantasy, and horror titles are $1.00 or 0.99.

$.99  or $1 Horror, SF, and Fantasy titles:

Drink My Soul by Rie Sheridan Rose

Descent into Madness by Michael LaRocca

Still Another Day by Janet Eckford

Dragon’s Champion by Wynelda Ann Deaver

Huntress by Siobhan Kinkade

The Soul Cages by Nicole Givens Kurtz

Recipe for Love

I’m going to do something a little different for today’s recipe day. Love and food.  Food and love.

How about Harry Connick Jr.’s Recipe for Love?

“A little bit of me and a whole lot of you
Add a dash of starlight and a dozen roses, too
Then let it rise for a hundred years or two
And that’s the recipe for making love…”

“A little birdie told me you can’t make it by yourself…”

We like things sweet around here so

“Pour some sugar on me
Ooh, in the name of love
Pour some sugar on me
C’mon, fire me up
Pour your sugar on me
Oh, I can’t get enough”

And finally, what’s love without that juicy fruit?

Cherry blossom kiss  is what you givin’ 
Makes my body rock keeps me sizzlin’ 
Do what you will I don’t care 
I’ll be your lollipop 
You can lick me everywhere 

What’s your favorite food/love song?  Leave it in the comments!

Dahlia

Music Monday – Inspiration for Loving Among the Dead

Picture-of-Music-Notes-300x300As most authors do, I have a playlist of songs I work with when I’m writing. It’s the playlist I think embodies the story, the characters and the mood of a certain scene.  I have all that set out before me, at my fingertips so I can access it at the press of a button.

However, there are those songs that occurs to you after the story’s done, edited and published.  That song which pops up out of almost nowhere and declares itself an official sponsor of your story.

It continues to amaze me how much music can not only soothe the savage beast but also bare one’s soul.

Judith Graham holds her own in her zombie-proofed fortress that was once her childhood home.  Through the foresight of her survivalist parents, she’s set for at least a year, but overwhelming loneliness and crushing boredom drives her out into the deserted, yet still dangerous streets of her neighborhood.  She crosses paths with another traveler, Sky Beckett, who has decided to take the dangerous journey South to find out if his family is still alive in Tennessee.

A reluctant Jude allows him to stay at her home.  Determined to remain a “Lonely Stranger”  …..

When I walk, stay behind
Don’t get close to me
‘Cause it’s sure to end in tears
So just let me be
— Eric Clapton

she doesn’t want to get close to anyone because anything could happen, at anytime.  Sky takes more of a moderate, if not almost optomistic  view of post-apocalyptic life, wherein you keep trying until you can’t try anyone.  He struggles to get her to see the facts as they stand and staying in her house is only going to get more dangerous, no matter what fortification she thinks she has.

He also sees that Jude is perhaps not as strong as she thinks she is.

Who’s gonna tell you when
It’s too late?
Who’s gonna tell you things
Aren’t so great?

You can’t go on
Thinkin’ nothing’s wrong,
Who’s gonna drive you home
Tonight?

****

Just by chance, those songs rolled up on my playlist (while I was cleaning no less)   and I was struck at how apt they are and I had to share.

Thanks for reading!

1Love

Dahlia

Haven’t read Jude and Sky’s story?  Check out “Loving Among the Dead” at the following outlets

All Romance E Books

Loose Id

About Friday the 13th

unluckyThings I learned about Friday the 13th.

Yes.  Today is the fourteenth, I well realize that.  However, hindsight is 20/20 and here are seven things about the lucky or unlucky date.

 

1.  A Friday the 13th occurs at least once each year.

2.  Fear of the number 13 is known as triskaidekaphobia, while fear of Friday the 13th is known as paraskavedekatriaphobia.

3.  President Franklin D. Roosevelt was a victim of  triskaidekaphobia: According to The Huffington Post, he refused to travel on the 13th day of any month and would not host a dinner party with 13 guests.

4.  According to Time Magazine,  the stock market mini-crash of Friday, Oct. 13, 1989 was the second largest drop of the Dow history.

5. In the 1950s, the Columbiana, a group of Italian Columbus experts, concluded upon careful study of his ships’ logs and notes, that Columbus actually landed on the Western Hemisphere on October 13, 1492. The date was deliberately changed to October 12, to avoid the shadow of such an evil omen.

6.  Thirteen is said to be the most essentially female number — the average number of menstrual cycles in a year. It is also the approximate number  of annual cycles of the moon. Thirteen is the number of blood, fertility, and lunar potency. 13 is the lucky number of the Great Goddess.

7.  And speaking of the Great Goddess, I was married on Friday the 13th and this marks my 13th year of marriage.  Now if that isn’t lucky,  I don’t know what is!

 

 

What's your Favorite Bond Theme? Free For All Fridays

BondTuxI was going over my Google Playlists and I found one that I created a long time ago  with the James Bond themes.  Back in the day, I would never miss Bond movies on the television.  Being a woman of a certain age, my favorite Bond was Sean Connery, next George Lazenby (even though he only appeared in one Bond film) and I tolerated Roger Moore.  By the time the franchise worked its way around to Timothy Dalton (yuk!) and Pierce Brosnan, I had lost interest.  Thought my interest was somewhat  revived with the new Bond, Daniel Craig, my heart still belonged to Sean.

Never mind the movies, though, what about the songs?  The iconic songs that told you that a cool movie was about to start?  Many of these songs were sung by the hot artists at the time and were almost always chart worthy.

For this blog post, let’s take a look at my top five favorite Bond themes, starting with number five. As always, I’ll add some tidbit of trivia!

 

Number 5

Die Another Day – Madonna

I can’t even tell you which Bond was in this movie, but the song is hot.

 

Number 4 

Skyfall – Adele

Her dramatic rendition of this theme recalls the old days of Shirley Bassey.  While I did not see the movie, Adele does a wonderful job with this song and it won the Oscar!

 

Number 3

For Your Eyes Only – Sheena Easton

Sheena is the only singer to appear in the opening credits of a Bond movie singing the theme song.

 

Number 2

Nobody Does it Better – Carly Simon

When it comes to Bond, we all know what the “it” is.

 

Number 1

Goldfinger – Shirley Bassey

Aww, you knew it.  Of all the Bond themes, Dame Shirley Bassey does it the best.  She has also recorded the most Bond themes.

From Wikipedia:   Bassey did initially have issues with the climactic final note which necessitated her slipping behind a studio partition between takes to remove her brassiere. Bassey would recall of the final note: “I was holding it and holding it. I was looking at John [Barry] and I was going blue in the face and he’s going, hold it just one more second. When it finished, I nearly passed out.”

Bad for her, but good for us.