This one’s for you Gretchen!

You probably know him better as Strongfellow Hawke from Airwolf. That was such a great show! I remember falling in love with him when I was a kid when JMV was in a Disney movie titled The World’s Greatest Athlete. For some reason, I remember JMV running against a bunch of athletes from Villanova, my alma mater.
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Our friends at Romance Novel TV have given the Nocturne authors a brand new forum! Drop by and read about all the exciting Nocturne releases and chat with us about what’s happening. You can click here to visit the forum!

And so tired. Two conferences in one week was a lot to handle! I’ll be posting more pictures tonight, so check back tomorrow.

Exciting news is that Part 2 of my interview is up at Romance Novel Television. You can also click on this link in case you can’t see the video below.

Here’s the scoop for where I will be for sure during the RT convention:

Please come by! I’m so excited about the prospect of meeting all of you who are attending. Also, if you’d like to get together for coffee, lunch, etc., please let me know so we can try to plan something in advance.

Also, take a moment to drop by some of the blogs where I’ll be visiting to celebrate the release of BLOOD CALLS in a few days (actually, it’s hit the shelves already at a number of bookstores!)

Here’s where you can blog with me:

Marta Acosta’s Myspace: www.myspace\martaacosta
The Biting Edge (also courtesy of Marta):
http://biting-edge.blogspot.com/2007/04/biting-edge-welcomes-caridad-pineiro.html

April 26th: Join me at the Midnight Moon Cafe (where we’ll have some special prizes for you!)
http://midnightmooncafe.blogspot.com/index.html

With the release of BLOOD CALLS nearly here, I’ll be visiting a number of blogs to talk about the new novel in THE CALLING series as well as writing in general.

The first interview is up at The Dark Phantom . Please drop by!

There’s something wickedly interesting about wounded heroes. You know they’ve either been bad or have had something bad happen to them which makes them all that much more intriguing. Will they stay good or become bad again? Can they be trusted? So many more questions and things that you can do with them.

BLOOD CALLS is definitely all about wounded heroes. Diego Rivera was a Spanish Lord before his wife betrayed him to the Spanish Inquisition because he had been selfish and unfaithful. Ramono Escobar has had a hard life, including a stint in juvenile detention when she got mixed up with the wrong crowd after the death of her father and her mother’s illness.
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No, you are not going crazy. There were posts the last two days only the server migration that I thought was over wasn’t and they’ve disappeared into the ether of cyberspace.

These things happen, so I’m going to try and recreate the posts today and tomorrow.

Wicked Wednesday was all about DESIRE CALLS, the free novella that’s up at eharlequin.com right now (you can click here to start the read!)
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Yes, we are going to be talking about Wicked Sexy today so for those of you under 17 or who are possibly not interested in a walk along the edgier side of life, READ NO FURTHER.

As for the rest of you . . .
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Thanks to Nisha for pointing out the similarity between Diego on the cover of BLOOD CALLS (actually model Alex Valente) and Cuban-American cutie Eddie Cibrian — this Monday’s Guilty Pleasure!

What do you think?
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It’s one of those lazy, but not lazy Sundays. I’ve already been up since six, working on some revisions. I need to get going on creating promos for RT — fun ones, I hope. For those of you attending RT, make sure to get to the goody table so you can be one of the contestants in my on location RT contests. The grand prize winner will get a COMPLETE collection of all of THE CALLING Novels and all of my CHICAS novels, plus MORE THAN A MISSION.

What else is up with me? Here goes, but tell me what’s up with you on a typical Sunday?
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To get a sneak peek at the next three which will be out in 2008,
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Wicked is vampire bites. Wicked is exploring 50 Ways to Please Your Lover. Wicked is research that takes you beneath the covers. Wicked is food that entices the senses and enhances your pleasure.

What do you think is wicked?
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Okay I have a confession to make. I’ve been a Bond fan since I was a young child. I read all the Ian Fleming novels and watched every movie — even the awful Timothy Dalton ones and dare I say, some of the really really awful Pierce Brosnan ones. (I forgive the latter since I fell in love with Brosnan in The Manions of America and of course, Remington Steele.)

I loved the suspense and spy stuff, but I think in the back of my head, I was hoping Bond would stop being a dog and find true love.

Anyway, when I heard they were looking for new Bond, I thought — tough shoes to fill. But dare I say this new Bond is . . . amazing. Absolutely hot and perfect for the role. What do you think?
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This blog is for Fantasyfan and everyone else who voted and left a comment on the poll about what to do with Diana and Ryder. That poll is still open and remember, if you suggest something unique that I use, I’ll dedicate a book to you.

So, what follows is a discussion on writing a series and some SPOILERS for THE CALLING vampire novels!

So if you don’t want to know more or have anything spoiled, READ NO FURTHER.

For the rest of you — here goes:
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Hi, this is Caridad’s editor at Harlequin/Silhouette, Stacy Boyd. I’ll be the guest blogger all week. A few days ago, Caridad kindly sent me a list of questions for my first post (I was terribly worried I wouldn’t be able to think of anything to write about) and maybe I’ll end up writing about the daily life of a romance editor or trends in the marketplace. But today, as I was re-reading some proposals from the next books in The Calling series, I remembered just what it was about that first book, Darkness Calls, that pulled me in.
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A lot of you have been asking if THE CALLING series continues past the books that are out  — DEATH CALLS and DEVOTION CALLS –  and the answer is YES!

In April, you can read the DESIRE CALLS novella for free up at eharlequin.com.  I will let you know when the first chapter of it goes up.  They are putting up one chapter at a time.

In May, BLOOD CALLS will be released.  BLOOD CALLS features Diego, the Spanish Lord turned vampire, that you have met in earlier books.  The heroine, Ramona Escobar, is a painter who unwittingly becomes involved in an art fraud.  A sneak peek at one of their first encounters follows this blog!

In addition — cross your fingers — the proposal for another 3 books is sitting on my editor’s desk.

So here’s a question for you if you’ve read the earlier books:  What secondary characters would you like to come back as main characters in their own book?

Excerpt from BLOOD CALLS, May 2007, Silhouette Nocture

     As he had two days earlier, he stood before her paintings, admiring them.  Appreciating the sweep of her brush as it almost made love to the figures she had placed on the canvas.  The movement of the brush strokes so alive, that he found himself laying his fingertips against the image on the canvas as if to prove to himself that it wasn’t real.

     Ramona wondered what he was doing as he stood there, scrutinizing her artwork once more.

     When he picked up his hand and touched the canvas, she had to go see what had drawn him.  Feeling stronger thanks to the rest in the cab and the tea that had provided a boost to her flagging energy, she set the mug on the table and joined him.

     He brushed his fingertips along the line of the woman’s hip in the painting.  Slowly moved his hand upward along the slender sweep of her waist and within her, she imagined the motion of his hand against her body.  Imagined how it would be for him to touch her the way he caressed the woman in the canvas — the woman she had imagined herself to be, lost in the throes of a lover’s embrace.

     As he shifted his hand upward, over the shadow beneath the woman’s breast, she felt his energy beside her.  Sensed his growing desire and her own.

     When he looked at her, his ice blue eyes blazed with fire.  “Did you feel this way as you painted?”

     She had felt that way and more, she wanted to say, but couldn’t confess that with each stroke of the brush, she had imagined it was them together.

     “No,” she said, but he faced her and laying a hand at her waist, said “Liar.”

     He bent from his larger height, but she was already meeting him halfway, wanting to experience him if only for this one moment.  A moment that had sprung from nowhere but was not to be missed.

     His lips were a bit cold, but wonderfully soft on hers.  Exploring as he sampled the edges of her lips with his and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her close.

     The body she had admired from afar was much like she had imagined.  Big.  Strong.  Hard.

     He was so hard beneath her hands as she grabbed hold of his shoulders.  Hard against the flatness of her belly as he swept his arm beneath her buttocks and tightened his embrace.

     She moaned at the thought of that hardness within her.  Of his big body urging her downward into the giving softness of the bed that was just at the other side of the loft.

     The sound of her need and the press of her small body jolted Diego from the enjoyment of her response.

     As right as it felt — as she felt in his arms — this was so wrong, he thought and slowly eased away from her.

Let me preface this with, I’m far from any kind of expert on Santeria. My exposure to it is because as a Cuban, santeria was something that everyone knew about. Even my parents and grandparents, devout Catholics that they were, would do things that I later recognized as being tied to Santeria beliefs.

What kinds of things? Well, the first thing you saw in my house was the statue of the Virgencita de la Caridad.

Who’s that? you might ask. Caridad del Cobre was an apparition of the Virgin Mary in Cobre bay. Our Lady of Caridad (or Charity) is also the Patron Saint of Cuba and my patron saint.

Anyway, on special days, the parents and grandparents would leave sweets or bring flowers to the Virgencita, much like you see Ricardo doing in DEVOTION CALLS as a way to honor the beliefs of those people who think he is a santero. I think those actions were a natural blending of their Christian beliefs with those of the Afro-Cuban santeria religion that was practiced in Cuba.

What’s a santero? It’s someone who is a priest in the Santeria religion. Santeros learn their practices orally from another santero.

What’s Santeria? As I said, I’m no expert. I researched the subject for the book and included what I could from my personal experiences in visiting an occasional botanica in NY, NJ or Miami. We sometimes went to get a statue or medal of La Virgencita Caridad for a new baby or home as the Virgencita was always with us.

What’s a botanica? It’s a place where you can acquire religious objects and other things, including what you may need to practice Santeria.

For a little more on this, including some links to other sites that explain Santeria, you can visit the Ricardo’s Botanica page at the new site we are developing.

Before I get to characters of the heart, just a few quick things.
1. I gained back a pound as you can see from the progress meter on the right hand side of the blog. Must be all that muscle I’m building on the treadmill and bike since I’ve been a good girl.
2. Speaking of good, check out the Entenmann’s Little Bites Fudge Brownies. A bag is 100 calories of delicious chocolatey goodness — but you’ve got to stop at just one bag because they are so good!
3. If you want to subscribe to the blog, just click on one of the buttons at the bottom right of the blog and you can add the blog to your personalized browser page. It works great.

Finally, 4. Thanks for your comments. I don’t normally reply on the blog itself as I like to reply to each person personally and if they want, continue the conversation. If you’d rather that I did it on the blog, please let me know.

Okay, characters of the heart. Diana Reyes and Ryder Latimer (DARKNESS CALLS, DEATH CALLS). Definitely special to me. Tori , Sylvia and Virginia from the Chicas books. Also sharing a place there. Your heart can never be too crowded with people you love.

Yes, I called them people because when you’ve been involved with them for so long, they almost become real which is why it’s so hard to think about letting them go . . . eventually.

Ryder is special because he represents so many different things. Eternal love. Strength. Honor. Caring. He was always a special character from the moment he came to life in my head.

Diana has many of the same traits, but she’s wounded and troubled. I wanted to find a way to make her whole and hence THE CALLING was created because even though each story is about different characters, in my mind, each story also takes Diana a step closer to becoming whole.

If you want to see how I originally pictured Diana and Ryder, you can click here for a sneak peek at some scenes that were either deleted or changed in DARKNESS CALLS. Once you visit there, you can also check out a slightly more intense scene that was changed in DEATH CALLS.

Much as Diana and Ryder represent the darkest aspects in my heart, Tori, Sylvia and Virginia are the light. The yin and yang of me.

Why Tori? Deep dark secret time here . . . She’s the one who is most like me in real life. Responsible. Dependable. Demanding of herself, but with a good heart and lots of buried passion (I luckily can release that passion through my writing!)

Sylvia and Virginia! I am so excited that their story will be coming out in September of this year. The tentative title for the book is SOUTH BEACH CHICAS CATCH THEIR MAN, but this book is so much more than a story about two women finally finding love. It’s a story about a headstrong and temptestuous daughter, Sylvia, who has a successful and sexy mom, Virginia.

The relationship between mother and daughter is special and it’s very similar to the relationship I had with my mom and which I know I’ve created with my daughter.

I also wanted to show that women in their forties are still sensual and desirable, especially since 40 is the new 20!

Do you have any characters you’ve fallen in love like that? (And it’s okay if they’re not in one of my books!) Let us know who and why?

Do you believe in life energies and otherworldly things? In alternative treatments for illnesses?

I don’t know what made me choose such topics for DEVOTION CALLS, or maybe I do. When my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer (and a big KEEP IT UP for all of you who had New Year’s resolutions to quit smoking), we followed all the regular avenues for treatment.

Since then I’ve asked myself, were there others to try . . .

So, Life Energies? Are there such things?

In DEVOTION CALLS, Ricardo Fernandez has learned to augment the gift he was born with — the gift to heal or kill — by using certain meditation techniques. Research showed me what kinds of things people said they experienced in such states and from there, Ricardo’s experiences were born.

Alternative Treatments?

Much like I must have felt, Sara Martinez is willing to try anything to save her mother and so she visits Ricardo and relies on his powers.

So do they work? What do you think?

I know this — I do believe that prayer and meditation can accomplish things if the will is strong enough. If love is present. If you have read DEVOTION CALLS, you know what I’m talking about. If you know the scene to which I’m referring, let me know what you thought.

So, I guess I’m warning you all that there could be spoilers in the comments to this post, but they will not ruin the mystery in the story involving the chupacabra. They will, however, maybe give you something to think about.

As for the procrastination and all your comments to JUST DO IT! Okay, I am (and have been) hard at work on multiple sets of revisions. Right now I’m deep into the last of them which I hope to have ready within a week or two.

But even I need a little break and so while watching HOUSE last night (yes, I do watch TV and work at the same time), I took some of your suggestions and fixed the trailer I had done. Here’s the new one:

First, here’s the answer the “Who’s the Hunk” question: Benjamin Bratt was the model for Ricardo Fernandez in DEVOTION CALLS.

He appeared in THE GREAT RAID, a WWII story about an Army Ranger raid to save American POWs in a Japanese camp. BB was also on LAW AND ORDER for several years and more recently, in the cancelled E-RING on NBC. I loved that show and boy could BB fill out that uniform nicely.

Congrats to Cathy for guessing the right answer!

The villain in DEVOTION CALLS is a chupacabra and many of you have asked what is a chupacabra?

Chupacabra (or chupacabras) means “goat sucker” in Spanish.

According to the legend (which is actually not all that old), the goat sucker kills animals by draining them of blood, much like a vampire. Sightings of the chupacabras have supposedly occurred throughout the Americas.

One theory as to the origin of the chupacabra is that it’s an alien pet that escaped. Another is that it’s either an alien genetics experiment that got loose or a human genetics experiment.

The chupacabra is described as being anywhere from 4 to 6 feet tall when upright, with green/gray scales, It has quills along its head and neck, possibly a long tail and clawed fingers. In addition, it has large glassy eyes that can be reddish in color.

I’ve given the chupacabra in DEVOTION CALLS a Beauty and the Beast twist as the demon was once human, but slowly became a chupacabra after being bitten by one. The bite occurred because the human lacked any compassion for a poor tinker. The tinker entices the man to look inside a box at something very special and the man gets bitten.

Remember, all of you who comment are eligible to win the tin of Hershey’s kisses.

Also, if you would like to subscribe to the blog, check out the various buttons at the bottom right of the blog. You can add this blog to your Google or Yahoo home page, or any of the other pages shown. Just click on the button!

To those who dropped by the chat last night, thanks! I hope all those who won books enjoy them!

If there’s anything you’d like me to discuss on the blog, please drop me a line and let me know.

I always try to picture someone in my mind when I create the characters for the books. I definitely had one Hollywood Hunk in my mind when I dreamed about Ricardo Fernandez, the psychic healer from DEVOTION CALLS.

For today’s blog comments, can you guess who it is?

Here’s some clues:

He’s done at least one big screen movie in the past year — a WWII epic.
He was a regular on various shows on NBC.
He’s Latino and his sexiness grew on me slowly.

For a little bit more information on Ricardo and Sara, the hero and heroine in DEVOTION CALLS, I’m giving you a sneak peek at THE CALLING site that is under construction! Just click on these names (and no that’s not the hunk in the picture. I can’t use his photo on the site. The photo though could be one way that people see Ricardo)

Remember, all of you who comment are eligible to win the tin of Hershey’s kisses.

Also, if you would like to subscribe to the blog, check out the various buttons at the bottom right of the blog. You can add this blog to your Google or Yahoo home page, or any of the other pages shown. Just click on the button!

To those who dropped by the chat last night, thanks! I hope all those who won books enjoy them!

I’ll post the answer to Who is the Hunk tomorrow morning!