Friday's Twitter Swag Bag Goody

Starting Tuesday, August 28 until Saturday, September 1, I will be giving away a swag bag of goodies and each day I'll add another neat prize. To enter, all you have to do is go to my Twitter feed Twitter.com/Cass_Curtis and either follow me, or send me a direct message and tell me the names of my two heroes in Soul of The Sea, the third ebook in my Shifting Tides series.


The first prize in the swag bag was a dolphin love button pin, a cool accessory for any dolphin lover. Wednesday's daily prize was a cute rhinestone dolphin necklace. Thursday's goody was a pack of mermaid nail art tattoos, and today I'm adding a $10 egift card good for either Amazon Kindle or B&N's Nook! Check it out:

More cool stuff will be added each day, so stop back by tomorrow and see what I'm adding to my swag bag o' goodies! 

Contest ends Sat. , Sept. 1, 2012 at midnight. Good Luck!
Must be 18+ to enter. The odds of winning depend upon the number of participants. Contest void where prohibited by law. I strive to make my prize winners happy! However, as with all my contests, it is the participant’s responsibility to check the blog to see if their name is announced as a winner, and/or to respond to winning notification emails in order to claim your prize.

Thursday's Twitter Swag Bag Addition

Starting Tuesday, August 28 until Saturday, September 1, I will be giving away a swag bag of goodies and each day I'll add another neat prize. To enter, all you have to do is go to my Twitter feed Twitter.com/Cass_Curtis and either follow me, or send me a direct message and tell me the names of my two heroes in Soul of The Sea, the third ebook in my Shifting Tides series.

The first prize in the swag bag was a dolphin love button pin, a cool accessory for any dolphin lover. Wednesday's daily prize was a cute rhinestone dolphin necklace. And today I'm adding neat mermaid art nail tattoos! Check it out:

More cool stuff will be added each day, so stop back by tomorrow and see what I'm adding to my swag bag o' goodies! 

Contest ends Sat. , Sept. 1, 2012 at midnight. Good Luck!
Must be 18+ to enter. The odds of winning depend upon the number of participants. Contest void where prohibited by law. I strive to make my prize winners happy! However, as with all my contests, it is the participant’s responsibility to check the blog to see if their name is announced as a winner, and/or to respond to winning notification emails in order to claim your prize.

Wednesday's Twitter Swag Bag Prize

Each day I'm adding a prize to the swag bag o' goodies that one lucky winner will get. Today's prize is the cute dolphin necklace pictured below:

To enter, simply go to Twitter.com/Cass_Curtis and either send me a direct message telling me the names of the heroes in my third Shifting Tides ebook, Soul of The Sea,  if you don't follow me then click on follow and you're entered. Contest ends midnight, Saturday, Sept. 1, 2012. Good Luck!

Must be 18+ to enter. The odds of winning depend upon the number of participants. Contest void where prohibited by law. I strive to make my prize winners happy! However, as with all my contests, it is the participant’s responsibility to check the blog to see if their name is announced as a winner, and/or to respond to winning notification emails in order to claim your prize.

Cassie's Twitter Contest

Starting Tuesday, August 28 until Saturday, September 1, I will be giving away a swag bag of goodies and each day I'll add another neat prize. To enter, all you have to do is go to my Twitter feed Twitter.com/Cass_Curtis and either follow me, or send me a direct message and tell me the names of my two heroes in Soul of The Sea, the third ebook in my Shifting Tides series.

The first prize in the swag bag is a Dolphin love button pin, a cool accessory for any dolphin lover. Check back tomorrow for the Wednesday daily prize being added to the swag bag one lucky winner will get. Contest ends Sat. , Sept. 1, 2012 at midnight. Good Luck!

Must be 18+ to enter. The odds of winning depend upon the number of participants. Contest void where prohibited by law. I strive to make my prize winners happy! However, as with all my contests, it is the participant’s responsibility to check the blog to see if their name is announced as a winner, and/or to respond to winning notification emails in order to claim your prize.

A Pirate Ball and Who Can It Be Now?

The Pirate Ball at Morgan Straights, August 17, 2012.

Shiver ye Timbers! Ahoy! and other pirate speak was heard at the Pirate Ball in Morgan Straights on Friday. Also some foot tapping music as pirates, tavern wenches, gypsies, and even a saucy incognito mermaid, danced a reel and spun their partners about. I arrived late on the scene, but was still welcomed heartily and nudged into some virtual dancing. The place was packed with avatars getting their groove on, and I even spied a skeleton pirate enjoying his grog. lol

The red haired gypsy wench in foreground is really mermaid Cassie in disguise.

As the ball ended, I waved goodbye and teleported to the Friday night dance at Awen, where the theme was Who Can It Be Now? Bring your alt to dance. Alt in SL speak means your alternate avatar. Everybody has one, including me. How else am I supposed to envision my hero character? Yes, my alt is a dude. It's sort of the ultimate female fantasy, to remake a man, or build one from scratch, perfect him how you want him, without all those bad habits and idiosyncrasies that drive us women crazy. lol.

I never realized how cool it would be to try and guess who was really who and I think we all had a blast trying. The music was an amazing eclectic mix using play on words and lyrics or titles to fit the theme of gender bending and androgynous fun. From the bluesy contralto of Carolyn Wonderland's Dust My Broom to the late great Roy Orbison's She's A Mystery Girl, then jumping into For Today I Am A Woman by Anthony & The Johnsons, The English Beat's Mirror in The Bathroom, Berlin's Masquerade, John Jorgenson's Man of Mystery, rounding the corner into The Black Crowe's I Ain't Hiding, and of course, mustn't forget the rock classic from Aerosmith; Dude Looks Like  A Lady. I haven't had that much fun online since the time I wandered into a gay strip club that used to be a shoe store and was made an honorary hag. :-)  

As the night ended, I went back to my little merhome under the sea and did some edits on a story I wrote a few years back. I'm telling you, I was GREEN. I've learned so much more in the years since I got published. I hope to finish the edits in the coming weeks. Ya''ll know that the word edit is a four letter word, and let me tell ya, there is a reason for that, whew! lol. Until next time, this is Cass signing out.

Mermaid Cameo Winner Announced!

The winner of the mermaid cameo pin is: Mary! 

Congrats, Mary! I hope you like it. 

My SL contest winners were:

Tabby L.

Lilia A.

Jacquelene G.

Bobby T.

Cheryl C.

Diana P.

Netera L.

Anna M.

Aullere O.

Tess A.

Jilly K.

Chici K.

Jewel G.

Skya M.

Annie D. 

 Please check your messages and inventory for the prize awards. 

Congrats to all and thanks for sticking with me and joining my new group.

Moving and Grand Opening Contests

 

These last couple of days, I've been rushing around, picking up prim and searching for a new home in SL. I figured it was too good to be true, having a home in SL for over two years when change is the constant norm. 

The first four months I was in SL, I hunted for an underwater home. It made sense to me since I had a series of selkie, mermaid, and dolphin shapeshifter romances just released, plus mermaids are typically friendly.  

Me in my office inside the old villa. I do admit I miss that house. It was gorgeous.

Since I was having no luck on the underwater search for a merhome, I settled on a lovely Lake Como styled villa where I stayed for several months before privacy (and other issues) caused me to renew my search for a little place under the sea.

While scouting for mermaid hangouts that might like to hear me read from my new books, I saw that there was a nightclub for mermaids having a ballroom tails night (yep, only in SL, lol) and the women there were very friendly and we chatted long into the wee hours. (Remember, SL is like one big graphically cool 3D chatroom). 

I think it was about a month or two later that I learned the ladies I met were all living in the same sim, Tokara, and invited me to join them there—under the sea! I got myself moved into my first merhouse, and happily said buh-bye to the sim where I'd been renting the villa.

I learned there was also a mall in the adjacent sim owned by the same wonderful owner of the residential sim where I now lived, and quickly grabbed a spot where I could give away freebies and set up book readings and tarot readings and of course, posters of all my published ebooks. Those were good days. Eventually, the Tokara mall closed and I had to pull my prim and relocate my bookshop. However, my merhome under the sea remained...yet all things must come to an end. 

The Tiki Bar at Trilla's Treasure Estates. Trilla's house is in the background.

You wouldn't think you could get so attached to a virtual place, but having had to delete the MMC website, SL, Twitter, and finally the last bastion, the MMC blog, these last couple of months—and now my merhome away from home...it's been sad. All my friends there have scattered and although I hope we stay in touch, I know how life is, both in RL and SL.

Linden Labs charges an exorbitant amount of money to own a homestead sim, hell—any sim at all, which is why my idea of having my own Mermaid Isle based on my books was soon snuffed out when I learned it costs more than a car payment PER MONTH to own an island SIM. That's insane!

Even a "homestead" sim costs over $100USD a month to maintain. Unreal is right!

Anyway, the friend who owned the sim couldn't keep up the pace with the constant tier dues and such to Linden Labs, the creator of Second Life. So the sim closed for good today. 

While I'm a bit sad though, I'm also happy to say I did find a new place and the merhome I recently had custom built by Serafin Galli fits perfect into the underwater area there. I hope to hold (by invitation only) readings from my books and also tarot reading parties at my new place.

This weekend is the official grand opening of my new group in SL, Cassandra's Story Hour and to celebrate,  I'm giving away a bunch of SL gift card goodies. To enter, all you have to do is be a member of my new SL group. Go to this link to join: http://world.secondlife.com/group/8c4d6d12-a0e9-26e5-3b28-5f2fabe543a3

There will be drawings throughout Saturday and Sunday, so join up, the contest ends Sunday night at 10pm edt, August 12, 2012. There is no cost to join my SL group, but you do have to have an SL account. The gift cards are for stores located in SL and are virtual items with only Linden value.

Not into SL? You can still win a prize and here's how: leave a comment on this blog post and tell me who is your favorite Olympic athlete from the London 2012 Summer Games, and you'll be entered to win the mermaid cameo pin pictured below. 

 

Contest ends, Sunday, August 12, 2012 at midnight and the winner will be announced next week. You must have a valid email address and be over 18 years of age to enter. Void where prohibited. Odds of winning are subject to the number of entries. Good Luck!

The Character Grill

Sometimes you have to play rough with your characters. You can’t be squeamish. You have to make them talk. And when they won’t, you have to teach them a lesson. Poke them. Prod them. Spank them. Whew. Getting hot in here, LOL.

But seriously, as a fiction writer you cannot afford to let your characters give you the silent treatment.
When they do, you have to sit them down in the hot seat, put a spotlight on them, and grill them.

I created a form I fill out for each character. Every line must be filled out on the form before I can proceed. They know that as well and sometimes fight me on each and every line. But I have techniques I am not afraid to use in order to get the answers I seek. It goes well beyond rank and serial number.

I will employ whatever means necessary to make them talk, and I am not above using Rod Stewart’s Maggie May or Leo Sayer’s You Make Me Feel Like Dancing at high decibels over and over and over.  ::grins and winces::

When I am done with them, earworms will be the least of their problems. The hero of my current wip is refusing to talk, to explain his motivations. He was shy at first, but he seemed to open up under the threat of my “writing” crop.

My form looks just like one you’d see at a doctor’s office, except it goes into more details of a…shall we say…private nature. ::wink::

No excuses. Everyone must fill out the form. Even secondary characters with only a brief walk-in part.

For other writers: Do you grill or interrogate your characters? What do you use to intimidate them into speaking?

For readers: Do you like to see authors run their characters through a virtual wringer?

*note* Once I figure out how to upload the character form into a clickable download for people, I'll try to post the link here as an update. If the internet should happen to break, it wasn't me. I hope. lol

The Unicorn Ring Quandry

Last night, my dh and I celebrated his birthday at Texas Roadhouse, him chowing down on a huge rib basket and me giving in to my inner carnivore with a sirloin steak. The meal was delicious and the service was good. I loved it when they came back to the table and all clapped and sang Happy Birthday to dh. lol.

Usually he's focused on the meal in front of him and not me, but one of my rings caught his eye and I told him to guess what it was, since the design is very fluid and almost Art Nouveau.  Most people don't realize it's not abstract, but an actual image.

Every time I wear this silver ring, I get compliments. Once I explain to people that it's a horse, they all think it's really neat.  Well, dh guessed it was a unicorn. I told him, nope, it's a horse. He disagreed and said, "I see the horn. It's a unicorn."  Granted my eye-sight isn't what it used to be, but I know it's a horse since it was sold to me as a horse ring.

I figured that was the end of it, but this morning, I'm checking my inbox and see the photo pictured above. Dammit, I hate it when he's right. The thing is a bloody unicorn.  The real question I have now is, why are my fingers so damn shiny? lol

Cassandra's Story Hour

Open Enrollment—Join Now!

Cassandra's Story Hour is a group for all the readers and fans of real life romantic comedy and erotic romance author Cassandra Curtis. 

Learn about Cassandra's upcoming new releases, SL and RL events, and information about contests held on her blog, When Midnight Comes.

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Link to this page: http://world.secondlife.com/group/8c4d6d12-a0e9-26e5-3b28-5f2fabe543a3

Music Mashups

Last night I popped into SL to pay on rentals and to ask for a little technical SL advice from my good friend, Bookstacks co-owner Kghia G.  Since the Friday night dance was underway on Awen, I stuck around for the music. 

DJ Walt was there spinning virtual tunes, his selections always fun. It amazes me how often I find myself liking most if not all of what he plays. I say amazed, because I'm not really into the music scene these days, but I love hearing 'new to me' songs that make me tap my foot or want to dance, and Walt seems to play a lot of music that soon become my iPod favorites.

Last night, DJ Walt played some great dance stuff, plus a bunch of mashups I'd never heard before. Being traditionally rooted in classic rock, you'd think I wouldn't like song mixing mashups, but for once, I enjoyed them and I think it's because of the song mixes he played. Mashups like: Brat - I Am The Mashup (The Beatles vs. The Beatles), Brat - So What'cha Want? A Whole Lotta Love! (Led Zeppelin vs Beastie Boys), and Loo & Placido - Skrillex Rock (Skrillex vs. Daft Punk vs. Queen vs. House Of Pain).

Since I've been fleshing out an idea for another story, I threw on my Blondie tube top and white leggin' pants  and went totally retro except for my virtual hair, which I left as is. Back in the day, I would have worked the big hair, and I am embarrassed to say I probably used more AquaNet than the bands Cinderella and Poison combined. lol. 

Once I have my story bones down, I'll probably have a contest here on the blog, celebrating everything 80's, with some cool 80's themed door prizes, so remember to check back for that. In the meanwhile, ya'll rock out with your bad selves. :D

Do Not Push the Red Button!

People always do the exact opposite of what you tell them. Why is that?

I tell my hubby to please not do the dishes. He does them anyway. And since he crams them in the dishwasher in a hap-hazard fashion, it will be interesting to see how many I have left that didn’t break in the wash cycle. Also how many actually got clean. To his way of thinking, I should be grateful he even offers to do the dishes, since a lot of guys don't lift a finger around the house. Maybe I would if I didn't have to rewash them or buy new glassware and bowls after he's finished helping. But I digress...

The pathological craziness starts early in life. My great-niece is a cute example.

She’s a bit older now, but when she was four, she learned when her parents said no, it meant okay go ahead. LOL. My sister (the grandma) would tell her no, and the kiddo smiles and was (and still is) so adorable. She'd wander into the kitchen and grab whatever she wanted, despite the "no". Then again, my oldest sis does things very similar, so maybe it's genetic?

I’ve tried reverse psychology and it’s a hit or miss. Sometimes it works, but often they know what I’m up to and will say, “You’re not using reverse psychology on me, are you?”

“Why of course not. I want you to press the shiny red button.”

It worries me. Because across this world of ours are all sorts of red buttons that say do not press. In fact, I can’t sleep for thinking of it.

Just like all those keep off the grass signs. Does anyone really honor it? No. I’ve seen people sprint across the grass, smoosh it underfoot.

Why are so many of us contrary creatures?

Makes me wonder if a heroine with a really contrary nature would make readers laugh or just irritated?

Or perhaps she’d fall into the dreaded TSTL (To Stupid To Live) category.

What do you think?

Wait a minute. While I've been "talking" you didn't—? Tell me you did not push the button! Yikes!