alisonebruce

I hate smokers who use the world as their ashtray. My mother used to carry around a portable ashtray and put her butts there when she was out and about. I hated that she smoked, but I respected her for her consideration of others.

Three books that changed my life...

The 13th is Magic - a children's book that has stayed with me over the years
Demon Hunters - the last book of mine that my sister read and edited before she died
Under A Texas Star - my first published novel

Good evening. Joining us tonight are Gareth and Cedric, natural enemies here under a truce to speak you, faithful listeners.

Gentlemen, your story can be read in Rowena Through the Wall, but it's told from the lady's point of view. We'd like to get your perspective on events. For instance, what was you first impression of Rowena?

Gareth:
A goddess from the other-worlds – that is what I thought when I walked through the wall to gaze upon her for the first time.  She had been in my dreams for weeks…planted there by the Dreamweaver wizard.  I traveled through time to find her.  I would walk through hell to keep her.

Cedric (laughing harshly):
I saw her too late!  In the chapel, where my worthless brother wed her, not minutes before.  She should have been mine!  I was the eldest.  No matter – she is mine, in all ways now.  A bonny wench, but oh, so much more.  My Valkyrie!  Riding like a man across the fields, facing down the brigands in the glen…a fitting bride for this disciple of Lucifer.

So, you see her as your bride, though she's married to your brother.  Gareth, are your intentions, pardon the cliché, honorable?

Gareth:
She is my love and my dear wife.  I need to protect her by bringing her north with me, to the rugged lands where I am Lord and have firm allies.  She is everything to me, my lady, my love, my wife.

So Rowena has three husbands?

Cedric:
Rowena is my mate before my Lord Lucifer, and she carries my unborn child. Hear me well! I will kill any man who comes between us.  Know it to be true; I’ve killed two already, with my own hands: my worthless brother, and the King himself.  More trash is nothing to me.  Lucifer feeds my black power, and it grows daily.  Stay well away, and leave me with my mate.

(Sound of steel being drawn)

On that note, listeners, we'll have a word from our sponsor.

When Rowena falls through her classroom wall and lands in an alternate world, she doesn't count on being kidnapped - not once, but twice, dammit - and the stakes get higher as the men get hotter. Good thing she has the ability to go back through the wall.  Or does she?
 
"A hot, hilarious romantic fantasy that enthrals you from the first line.  If you enjoy Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, you'll adore Rowena and her riotous romps in an alternate world..."
Midwest Book Review

Available on Amazon.com

Check out Melodie's guest blog on have laptop - will travel

I've been thinking of my dream cast for Under A Texas Star whenever I've been doing dishes - or putting off doing dishes. This is what I've got so far.

Marly Landers - Bonnie Wright (played Ginny in HP movies)
Marly has to be young, slender and able to pull off masquerading as a boy. I think Bonnie could do that.

Jase Strachan - Josh Holloway won me over with his scruffy look.

Jezebel - the proprietor of the Oasis - Catherine Zeta Jones... she won't mind becoming a redhead, will she?

Senora Consuela de Vegas - den mother at the Oasis - Penelope Cruz

Fred - Jezebel's right hand - Liam Neeson (a girl can dream can't she?)

Enough for now.

My good friend Melodie Campbell, author of Rowena Through the Wall, is running a contest on her blog Funny Girl Melodie. She asks, "What's Through Your Wall?"

When she first told me about this, I laughed. "Which wall? I have so many!"

My longest running (and still incomplete) novel began as a distraction from the grossest job I have ever held - cleaning up, the morning after the night before, at an Elk's Club community centre. While washing a hundred plus dirty ashtrays, I went off world to brave hardship, danger - even torture - to save the universe. Anything was better than washing ashtrays.

At university, my roommate and I regularly escaped into a world of angels, demons and pop-culture heroes - from A-Team to X-Men. It was a great place to go when essay deadlines and shoe-string budgeting got us down.

Under A Texas Star got it's start as an escape from the pain and boredom of a hospital stay. My mystery heroes, Carmedy and Garrett were beyond the wall of the comic book store I worked in.

When my sister was bed-bound and my life revolved around taking care of her in her last year, she helped me escape back into my stories - this time with the goal of writing a publishable novel. I wrote, she edited and both of us were transported away from catheter tubes and ostomy bags to a contemporary fantasy world with vampires, hell hounds and demons... oh my.

Some people like to escape into their past... not so much for me. I have many happy memories to balance the sad, bad and just plain stressful and I wouldn't want to change anything that might mean I wouldn't have my two beautiful children. On the other hand, I have indulged in the occasional fantasy about kicking a certain boyfriend in the gluteus maximus a week or two before we actually broke up. That wouldn't change much, would it?

Welcome to Nighthawk Talk Radio. Joining me tonight is our intern du jour, Cherie du Bois. Our guest is Marly Landers, of Under A Texas Star. You’ve been travelling with Texas Ranger Jase Strachan and, from all reports, been a significant aid in his investigations. What are your career goals?

Cherie: I want to host a reality series - something that combines my two loves: extreme fashion and natural skin care.

I meant our guest, Cherie.
Marly, do you see yourself continuing with the Texas Rangers?

Marly: I’d like to be a special investigator with the Texas Rangers. Not sure if I’ll get away with it when they find out I’m not a man. One thing I know for sure, I’m not going back to Aunt Adele!

Cherie: I know you're disguised as a boy, but what do you do to keep a healthy glow on the trail, without burning your cheeks, your nose, your forehead?

Marly: I’ve got a hat.

Cherie, Marly doesn’t exactly have access beauty products, you know. Respectable women didn’t wear makeup - boys certainly didn’t.

Cherie: Not so! They had face creams and tonics that they either made or bought. Medicine shows would sell ointments to fill out wrinkles or remove freckles.

Marly: I kinda like my freckles but Miss Cherie is right. My aunt didn’t hold with vanity but she washed her face with sour milk once a week to keep her complexion healthy. She always wore a hat to keep the sun off her face and used rose water when she bathed. When I turned sixteen, she gave me a bottle of lavender water because she said that was better for young skin and the stronger smell would keep me fresh.

Cherie: Did she pinch your cheeks or show you how to put lamp black on your eyes?

Marly: I’ve seen how other girls do it, but that would have been too wanton for Aunt Adele.

Yes, well... How do your skills match against your average Texas Ranger?

Marly: So far the only Texas Ranger I ever met was Jase. I’m a greenhorn compared to him - especially in the saddle. I’m a good shot, though. Aunt Adele taught me to shoot with a rifle and Jase taught me how to shoot a revolver.

Are you a quick draw.

Marly: Not yet, but I will be.

Cherie: Do you get saddle sore? Or do you optimize all those hours on horseback to tighten your glutes and abdominals?

Marly: My what and my what?

(Quickly) Where do you see yourself in five years?

Marly: With Jase, doing what we’re doing now... and maybe a bit different. I see us sticking to frontier law enforcement - drifting from one small town to another. But maybe we’ll settle some place. Maybe I’ll even go back and visit Aunt Adele.


Under A Texas Star is now available in paperback at
Amazon.com and on sale in eBook format at Amazon.com
and Smashwords. (See Summer Sizzlers Sale)

(Thanks to Sherry Isaac and Melodie Campbell for help with the questions.)