In my office, I have a small, white filing cabinet. The lock on the cabinet has long since broken, and the cabinet itself…well, it’s seen better days.

And inside the cabinet–my past waits. Yes, my filing cabinet is home to the manuscripts I had to leave behind. The manuscripts that didn’t find homes in publishing houses, the manuscripts that I didn’t finish, the manuscripts that…wait.

The first full-length manuscript that I completed was a young adult horror story, Lord of the Dead. I wrote it when I was in college. Several of my friends were archaeology majors at the time, and I went with them to a dig. As you can probably guess, the sight of artifacts, of muddy college students and of giant holes inspired me. I feverisly wrote my story, convinced I was about to overtake R.L. Stine and Christoper Pike. I would be the new voice of teen horror.

Apparently, my voice wasn’t meant to be heard. For, eight years later, that manuscript…waits.

Maybe one day I’ll take it out again. Maybe one day I’ll polish it up and see if I can find it a better home. Until then, it’ll stay hidden in my cabinet…waiting.

I think most writers have a manuscript like Lord of the Dead somewhere (and, no, I’m not saying everyone’s got a YA story about a dangerous, all-powerful Aztec god!). But I don’t think I’m alone in having a “might have been” hiding space.

Today, I thought I’d do something different. I thought I’d tell the world (or whoever happens to read this blog) about the men in life.

No, there aren’t a lot of men. Just two. Nick and Jack.

Nick’s my husband of four years. He’s the dark-haired stud on the right. Nick is the genius behind my web design. Yep, I planned ahead. I married a web designer so I would never have to pay anyone to build my site! 🙂

Here are Nick’s hobbies (for you with inquiring minds out there): Scuba diving, fencing, and blogging.
His favorite writers are: Cynthia Eden (of course!) and Tolkien

Here are little Jack’s hobbies: cooing, pooing, and sleeping (although he does enjoy a good walk and a good read, too!)

Nick’s my muse. He’s supportive, good-looking, and he always has positive things to say about my story ideas. Heck, Nick is currently the only person who gets to see my WIPs. He checks to make sure my scenes are hot enough. Oh, yeah, it’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.

So…that’s them. My two men.

And in case you’re wondering…Nick and Jack are posing with Secrets, Volume 15 that features my story, Bite of the Wolf. As soon as the book hit the shelves, I had to take a picture because I was soooo excited to see my work in Books-a-Million.

I guess when you’re hot, you’re hot…and the general consensus seems to be that erotica is EXTREMELY hot right now.

The ladies at SmartBitches have posted about an erotica article that just appeared in USA Today. The article talks about how all the big name houses are starting their own erotica imprints. A few of the new lines are: Berkley’s Heat, Harelquin’s Spice, and Kensington’s Aphrodisia.

Yep, more erotica is coming to a store near you…very soon.

Okay…so the first romance book I ever read was The Asking Price by Dixie Browning. I think I was about 12 years old. I was strolling through the local K-Mart, bored, and the book’s cover caught my eye.

Now, before this, I’d stuck to horror books. Christopher Pike was a god to me back then. I was used to the weird, the scary, but I wasn’t so much used to the romance.

I liked Dixie’s book. Liked, not loved. There just seemed to be something…missing.

But I wasn’t about to give up on romances. I’d just discovered a new world, a nice, happily-ever-after world. So, I bought another romance, The Pirate by Jayne Ann Krentz. And you know what? I loved it! Absolutely loved it!

Yes, one of the reasons I loved it so much is because Jayne Ann Krentz is a freaking fabulous writer, but I got hooked on the book because…important drum roll…she let me into the hero’s head.

I LOVE knowing what the hero is thinking/feeling in a book. I get so frustarted when I read stories that only show the heroine’s POV. I feel like I am being jipped since, basically, I’m just getting half the story.

So…with The Pirate, I found what I’d missed in The Asking Price...a male POV. A nice rounding of the story. And today, whenever I buy books, I make dang sure I’m getting both sides of the story from the characters. I think the story’s richer this way, and I can sure as heck relate to the characters a whole lot more.

What do you think? Split POV? Or single? What’s your pleasure, hmmm?

Okay…every city seems to have one. And every person knows about it. What is “it” exactly? It’s a haunted road, a spot of terror, a place that folks swear is tainted by the supernatural.

Here in my area, our stretch of ghostly land is Kali-Oka Road. My husband used to live on Kali-Oka back when we were dating, and, honestly, there were more than a few nights when I drove home, heart pounding, fists clenched around the steering wheel.

First of all, let me tell you what Kali-Oka Road is like. It’s a long, winding stretch of road surrounded by a thick forest and a scattering of houses. Lighting on the road sucks, and dirt “roads” veer off of it every now and then. And near the end of Kali-Oka, there’s an old, rickety bridge…Cry Baby Bridge (but hold on, and I’ll tell you about that in a minute).

There are tons of stories about Kali Oka Road. Stories about mysterious lights that appear in the woods. (My mom swears she saw a floating light once.) Stories about ghostly figures who terrorize drivers (My aunt swears she saw the ghost of a slave once–actually, she says he jumped on the hood of her car. I don’t know if my aunt was drinking that night or what, but after twenty years, she still sticks to her story).

There’s an old plantation house and a cemetary right off Kali-Oka. People say you can hear voices out there, that you can see spirits. Personally, I never saw anything supernatural out there. And, believe me, I looked.

Cry Baby Bridge is the biggest “legend” that circulates about Kali-Oka. According to the tale, if you go to the bridge at midnight, you can hear a baby crying. Now, as far as what happened to the baby…well, I have no idea. There are a few stories to explain the crying. The most popular explanation is that a woman was running across the bridge one night. She slipped, and her baby fell below, disappearing forever beneath the bridge. (Pretty depressing story, huh?)

When I was younger, kids would go out to Kali-Oka and spray paint their names on the bridge to prove they weren’t scared. (I’m not saying I did this, and I’m not saying I didn’t…)

But anyway…the truth is that Kali-Oka is one seriously dangerous road. Dozens of people have died on that winding stretch of land. So maybe that’s why the gossip about it persists. Maybe that’s why folks around here think it’s haunted/cursed.

And as for me…well, like I said, I never saw anything unusual out there. Never saw any floating lights, never heard a baby cry…but you know what? Even though I didn’t see those things, I’m still dang glad that my husband and I live a good distance away from Kali-Oka. And I’m dang glad I don’t have a reason to drive down that dark road anymore. Because, you know…just in case…I don’t want to be anywhere near angry spirits.

Anybody else got a haunted road?