The Ancillary Muse

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Weekend Writing Warriors (HIS) (RO) #8sunday

It's Sunday and time for the Weekend Writing Warriors . Participants post 8-10 sentences from a writing project, either published or unpublished.

For today, I'm sharing a bit from book 2 in my award-winning, Victorian polyamorous adventure series ~ Loving Leonardo - The Quest

First my 10 with details after~

I wished I could simply lose myself in loving. But I didn’t have a means to close my mind to the ticker tape thoughts that ran endlessly.

Thomas had always been my connection to the world that lay beyond titles and privilege — an enviable salt of the earth who might go where he wished and do as he pleased. Through his connections to other servants, he knew the rough side of London. Anything I’d learned about the city’s seedier side I’d learned from him. If he didn’t know, he’d know someone who knew someone who did. But Thom was gone. I had no such connections and I felt as helpless and vulnerable as a quail chick without a wing to hide under.

A madman was out there in a dark corner, an insidious spider weaving his web and waiting for the day I’d innocently stumble into it. Bruno wished to hurt me and how I saw it, he had several ways in which to do this.

Blurb~
With Leonardo da Vinci’s book of love poems and sketches safe in their possession, lovers Nicolas, Ellie, and Luca discover the book harbors a secret – carefully disguised declarations of love from Leonardo to his long-time lover Salai. The trio begins a quest to follow the book’s clues to other hidden messages of love tucked into well-known da Vinci masterpieces now scattered across Europe. Their quest is cut short however, when a tragic turn of events reveals a terrible truth – Conte Bruno lives and is bent upon revenge.

Setting the Stage~
The rough seas of the English Channel have calmed and now Ellie and Luca join Nicolas in London. A lot has happened since he left them in Paris.

>>۞۞۞<<

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Saturday, October 24, 2015

@MySexySaturday #MySexySaturday #Saturday7 #MSSAuthors #MSS111

It's My Sexy Saturday! Participating authors post 7 paragraphs, 7 sentences, or 7 words. For me it's 7 sentences from the steamy side of my imagination-- Loving Leonardo - The Quest (Book 2 in my award-winning, Victorian polyamorous romance-- the ongoing Loving Leonardo series.)

The Blurb:
Art Historian Nicolas Halstead never could have imagined a book Leonardo da Vinci created for his lover Salai existed, let alone lead to subtle declarations of love worked into da Vinci masterpieces. Nor did he ever picture himself a married man in a polyamorous relationship.
Happy and content, lovers Nicolas, Ellie, and Luca embark on a quest to learn all they can about the greatest mind of the Renaissance. But their world takes a devastating and deadly turn that sends Nicolas into the seedy deviant underworld of Victorian London. It soon becomes clear that Conte Acario Bruno lives, and the madman wants far more than Leonardo’s book. He wants Nicolas dead and Luca for himself.

My seven:
When I’d drained him fully, she came to us and lay between-- the nymph had her own arousal to see to. For the remaining hour, Luca and I lost ourselves in her secret places. When she writhed, we loved her in tandem. It wasn’t long before her climax blazed into being. Unbelievably, when her first crescendo ended, she called for another. It took Herculean effort on our part. The Goddess was insatiable in her amusements.

>>۞<<۞>>۞<<

"...a very sexy, smart, and scintillating read."
~Coffee Time Romance

Buy on Amazon

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞
TWO NEW RELEASES!

Just 99¢ by the authors from Romance Books '4' Us, including Heart of Stone by Madeline Archer (that's me!)

Last chance to WIN OUR ENTICE ME CONTEST♥♥♥

In honor of the first anthology by the Authors of Romance Books '4' Us, we're running an additional October contest. Prizes include a $100 Amazon Gift Card and a terrific "super power" Romance Reader or Romance Author t-shirt. If you're into romances, the t-shirt will make you smile.
Three ways to enter!

The Changeling -- Another new novel by my alter ego Madeline Archer
Buy on Amazon

۞>>Weekend Happenings<<۞

My Main Blog
Saturday's Ramblings & Fun Day Sunday
http://calliopeswritingtablet.com/

**NEW**
Sunday's Six of the Best
Madeline Archer's blog

http://madelinearcher.blogspot.com/

My Sexy Saturday
http://theancillarymuse.blogspot.com/

Sunday's Six of the Best
Rose Anderson's blog
http://calliopesotherwritingtablet.blogspot.com/

The Weekend Writing Warriors

http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

Sunday Peek
(open promo opportunity for you!)
http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Rose Anderson writes intimate love stories.
Find them all wherever books are sold.
Sample the scorchers for free!

>>۞<<۞>>۞<<

Subscribe to Calliope's Writing Tablet
for a Wide World of Interesting Topics
http://calliopeswritingtablet.com/

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updates, excerpts, & more!

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Sunday, October 18, 2015

Weekend Writing Warriors #8sunday (HIS)(RO)(LGBT)

It's Sunday and time for the Weekend Writing Warriors. Participants post 8-10 sentences from a writing project, either published or unpublished. Today it's a bit from the steamy side of my imagination-- Loving Leonardo - the Quest -- (Book 2 in my award-winning, Victorian polyamorous romance-- the ongoing Loving Leonardo series.)

First my 8, then details after~

The area bustled with shipping business during the day and

business of another sort at night. The Bishop’s Moke sat at the end of a rather ratty street where fishmongers dumped their cleanings on the cobblestone for the dogs, cats, and vermin. I steeled myself to the street urchins picking through the stinking refuse for their own meal. Rome wasn’t the only city with the capacity to bring me low. Ahead the sound of St Mary-le-Bow’s church bells rang the eighth hour. A moment later, a cloying flower-over-fish odor enveloped me. In an instant, I was accosted by a prostitute. “Cor you are a ‘andsome one, what say you and I slip ‘round back and wet that wick o’ yours, eh dearie?”
I attempted to take her arms from me, for in the gaslight I could clearly see that the rough-looking paint on her lips did little to hide the sores of syphilis. My bile rose.

Behind the scenes for the snippet above:

Luca has gone missing and Conte Bruno would like nothing better than to find him. In the scene above, Nicolas, dressed in a working man's attire and going by a tip, searches the society’s hedges on London's Fleet Street.

>>۞<<۞>>۞<<

"...a very sexy, smart, and scintillating read."
~Coffee Time Romance

Buy on Amazon

Save $$ -- Get books 1 & 2 in the Leonardo Chronicles!

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞
Just 99¢! By the authors from Romance Books '4' Us

HOW to WIN OUR ENTICE ME CONTEST♥♥♥

In honor of the first anthology by the Authors of Romance Books '4' Us, we're running an additional October contest. Prizes include a $100 Amazon Gift Card and a terrific "super power" Romance Reader or Romance Author t-shirt. If you're into romances, the t-shirt will make you smile.
Three ways to enter!

۞>>Weekend Happenings<<۞

My Main Blog
Saturday's Ramblings & Fun Day Sunday
http://calliopeswritingtablet.com/

**NEW**
Sunday's Six of the Best
Madeline Archer's blog

http://madelinearcher.blogspot.com/

Sunday's Six of the Best
Rose Anderson other blog
http://calliopesotherwritingtablet.blogspot.com/

The Weekend Writing Warriors

http://theancillarymuse.blogspot.com/

Sunday 7
(open promo opportunity for you!)
http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Rose Anderson writes award-winning intimate love stories.
Find them all wherever books are sold.
Sample the scorchers for free!

>>۞<<۞>>۞<<

Subscribe to Calliope's Writing Tablet
for a Wide World of Interesting Topics
http://calliopeswritingtablet.com/

Subscribe to Madeline Archer's blog for
updates, excerpts, & more!

http://madelinearcher.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Welcome Facebook followers!

Hello Facebook followers! Normally I would have sent you to Madeline Archer's blog, but I'm doing the MFRW Book Hooks there today. When you're finished with our Entice Me event, I invite you to go see the rest of my blogs. It's a very busy hump day!

Madeline is my new pen name. While Rose Anderson writes the intimate side of award-winning romance and will continue to do so, Madeline writes the other flavors of fiction. It might be a sweeter love story, an otherworldly walk in the twilight zone, or something dark...

Today it's a bit from the sweeter side of my imagination...

HEART of STONE Part of the Entice Me anthology
A multi-author collection for 99¢ ! Buy on Amazon

Blurb~ The story opens with the notorious witch hunts in 17th Century Salem, Massachusetts.

As formal education for women lacks substance in 1904, Neila Flannigan leaves Ireland to attend Radcliffe women’s college in America. Shy and introverted, Neila passes her lonesome hours sketching the Harvard grounds and sending drawings home to her father. A chance encounter with a kind and elderly Irish woman inspires her to sketch a statue in an old, unused building. Desperately lonely, Neila ends up sharing her thoughts and feelings with a man carved in stone. Some days it feels like he listens.

♥♥♥Heart of Stone~

    From the moment Finola woke that morning, her skin felt prickly. It was noticeable when she set her dough to rise and it grew stronger as the day went on. The prickling sensation often appeared when something was amiss. As a result, apprehension shadowed her steps all day. As did Martin. The packrat sensed trouble too. He dogged her heels instead of questing for trinkets, as a packrat was wont to do.
   A glimmer of black and white flashed overhead, catching the corner of her eye. She glanced at the wooded path. The piebald raven always arrived ahead of Abigayle. Seeing no one, Finola returned to skimming scum off the brining pork. Finished, she topped the barrel lid with heavy stones to keep vermin out, particularly the marauding raccoons that wore masks like highwaymen and thieved with the best of them.
   Wiping her hands on her apron, she turned back to the trailhead and waited. Her daughter’s family lived on the adjacent lands, in the clearing below the wooded hillside. It should not take this long for Abigayle to venture here. The bird returned and widely circled three more times before disappearing beyond the trees. Finding his behavior both anxious and agitated, Finola frowned and murmured,      “Where are ye, girl?”
   Turning to the packrat sitting atop the pork barrel, she told her familiar, “I’m feelin’ uneasy, Martin. Abigayle should have come by now.” Her chin jerked skyward, she mumbled, “And will you look at him? Something is amiss.”
   Martin nodded.
   The raven had been her daughter’s constant companion from the day the child found the featherless chick thrown from the nest. Not every witch was chosen by a familiar spirit but witches in her bloodline often were. Familiar spirits were the channel that connected all of nature, their power drawn from the essence of both God and Goddess. If a witch had a familiar as a companion, that same channel made the witch’s magic stronger.
   A pang of sadness followed that memory. The chick came to Abigayle the day Auld Agnes and her familiar, a bandy cat named Nicodemus, were put to death. Finola couldn’t help but remember—that terrible day was etched upon her heart. The circumstances that led to the crone’s death sentence were not her doing. Auld Agnes had midwifed a babe born with a terrible affliction to its face, with a malformation so severe that not even careful stitching could mend it. Aggrieved by the sight, the mother smothered the infant and then blamed the old woman, declaring the midwife’s devil’s witchcraft had caused both the deformity and the death.
   The gentle old crone had been wrongly accused and imprisoned; her fate fueled by prejudice and superstition. Of course Auld Agnes could not defend herself beyond the facts, so her silence was taken as admission of guilt. The court declared her a devil-worshiping witch. Auld Agnes was indeed a hereditary witch—a worker of the Auld Ways—but no devil worshiper. Devil’s work was never done among their kind.

5 Stars for The Changeling!
"Secrets abound as the story continues. I don’t want to retell the story here and this is already long enough. Suffice it to say this is a very well written, engaging, story with all sorts of deeper historical tidbits and storylines involving the characters, their family lines, and the townsfolk culture. Scenes are written vividly with date and culture appropriate dialogue that overall made this a delightful read right down the satisfying ending that ties all the pieces together."
~ A Reader

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

۞>>Hump Day Happenings<<۞

My newest ~The Changeling~ On Tour!
http://nicolemorganauthor.blogspot.com/

My newest ~Entice Me~ On Tour!
http://nickiday.blogspot.com/

Subscribe to my main blog.
You'll never know what you'll find.
http://calliopeswritingtablet.com/

Books Hooks

http://madelinearcher.blogspot.com/

Paranormal Love Wednesday
http://calliopesotherwritingtablet.blogspot.com/

Hump Day Blurb Share
(open promo opportunity for you!)
http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞
Madeline Archer writes the other flavors of romance
and fiction. Rose Anderson writes intimate love stories.
Find them all wherever books are sold.
Sample the scorchers for free!

>>۞<<>>۞<<

Subscribe to Madeline Archer's blog for
updates, excerpts, and more!

http://madelinearcher.blogspot.com/

Sunday, September 27, 2015

Weekend Writing Warriors (HIS) (FA) #8sunday

It's Sunday and time for the Weekend Writing Warriors.
Participants post 8-10 sentences from a writing project, either published or unpublished.

I have a *new* pen name and another direction for my creativity. While Rose Anderson writes the intimate side of award-winning romance and will continue to do so, Madeline Archer will write the other flavors of fiction. Madeline will keep my writing styles and genres separate and write everything Rose doesn't. It might be a sweeter love story, an otherworldly walk in the twilight zone, or something dark...

Today it's a bit from the sweeter side of my imagination ~

Heart of Stone. This story is part of Entice Me ~ a multi-author anthology by the authors from Romance Books '4' Us. Nine luscious love stories make up our 99¢ anthology.
(Watch for the pre-order!)

First my 10 with details after...

Wiping her hands on her apron, she turned back to the trailhead and waited. Her daughter’s family lived on the adjacent lands, in the clearing below the wooded hillside. It should not take this long for Abigayle to venture here. The bird returned and widely circled three more times before disappearing beyond the trees. Finding his behavior both anxious and agitated, Finola frowned and murmured,

“Where are ye, girl?”

Turning to the packrat sitting atop the pork barrel, she told her familiar, “I’m feelin’ uneasy, Martin. Abigayle should have come by now.” Her chin jerked skyward, she mumbled, “And will you look at him? Something is amiss.”

Martin nodded.

Blurb~
The story opens with the notorious witch hunts in 17th Century Salem, Massachusetts.

As formal education for women lacks substance in her own country, Neila Flannigan leaves Ireland in 1904 to attend Radcliffe women’s college America. Shy and introverted, Neila passes her lonesome hours sketching the Harvard grounds and sending drawings home to her father. A chance encounter with a kind and elderly Irish woman inspires her to sketch a statue in an old, unused building. Desperately lonely, Neila ends up sharing her thoughts and feelings with a man carved in stone. Some days it feels like he listens.

Setting the Stage~
In the scene above, the notion of foreboding dogging Finola Maguire's steps all day comes to fruition when a piebald raven swoops into view. He's not actually a raven but Nicodemus her daughter’s witch's familiar in bird form. The ancient eldrich spirit seems agitated...

>>۞۞۞<<
Subscribe to Madeline Archer's blog for

updates, excerpts, & more!

http://madelinearcher.blogspot.com/

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Weekend Writing Warriors #8sunday (RO) (FA)

It's Sunday and time for the Weekend Writing Warriors. Participants post 8-10 sentences from a writing project, either published or unpublished. Today it's a bit from the sweeter side of my imagination ~ The Changeling. Coming October 2015.

First my 10, followed by details~

Listening to the exchange, a niggling recollection stayed just out of Osgood’s reach. Awash with a sense of familiar and feeling unaccountably unsettled, he recorked the wine and left the butlery to join the women in their transaction. As he advanced down the hall, he got a good look at the peddler. She was old and crabbed and looked to be in advanced age. That old peddler has been here before. His brows drew downward as the elusive memory popped into his mind. Twenty years ago! Nearly twenty years had passed but she’d hadn’t aged a day, in fact, she looked exactly the same. As the woman turned to leave, he hurried down the corridor, shouting, “Stop madam! Stop right there!”

What just happened~ Osgood is decanting the sherry when he hears a voice that sounds disturbingly familiar. It turns out it belongs to that old woman who tried to kidnap young master Lenox as a boy. She hasn't aged a day, and for good reason. That person at the door is not an apple peddler nor is she an old woman.

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

#MFRWHooks The Witchy Wolf and the Wendigo

It's Wednesday and time for the Marketing for Romance Writers Books Hooks mini hop! (see linky list below) Participants post 6-8 sentences from their novel. Today I'm offering a bit from The Witchy Wolf and the Wendigo ~ (book 1 in the series - Ashkewheteasu)

Setting the Stage~
For 3000 years Ashkewheteasu held constant vigil at his wife's burial mound. Today he discovers the burial desecrated. What he's seeing is an archaeological inventory racing the clock to catalog the burial before the bulldozers come. There's an industrial park slated to be built there. Seeing his wife's bones comes as a shock.

My 8~

“Aiyanna my love, my heart. I have watched over you through time but I can watch no longer. Please forgive me, I have failed you….” His throat choked close. Swallowing hard, he whispered to the earth that half-covered his wife, “Again.”
Kneeling beside the dirt-encrusted bones, he pulled the cover away to expose them fully. The small bones of the baby he knew laid with its mother had dissolved in the acids of the soil. Gently digging through the loam between the exposed rib bones, his fingers found the bird stone, its cord long since returned to the earth. Holding it now, he remembered...