One Lovely Blog Award!

I was so excited when two fabulous ladies awarded me with the "One Lovely Blog Award"! Thank you Hywela Lyn and Andrea at Chicks of Characterization!

Now it's my turn to pass along the award to three other deserving blogs!

Drum roll please.....

I'd like to award Mark Alders for his steamy, tantalizing blogs at http://markalders.livejournal.com!

Secondly, I'd like to award the Park Avenue Princess, Amy, for her awesome review blog at http://aparkavenueprincess.blogspot.com!

And last but not least, I'd like to award J.A. Saare for her very cool blog at Random Musings http://www.jasaare.blogspot.com!

Congrats, ladies and gent! Copy the award, post it on your blog and pass it on to three more deserving blogs. Make sure you announce it on your blog!

***Loud Round of Applause**

Happy Writing and Reading!
~Alisha

Reflections on Another Time!

I just finished writing a young adult novel set during The Ice Age. I had to research the people, the animals, the climate, etc. I started thinking about how much unnecessary crap we live with every single day. People can exist and thrive on very little. Hey, I should know. I'm a writer...ba boom teesh! But seriously, we can. If you think about it, it's rather sickening how much crap we have today. What do we really need? Well, let's go back in time to ponder this thought. We need a roof over our heads...sometimes...in the ice age...for sure. We need food. We need love. We don't NEED clothes, well, if it's cold we do but we won't die without them. Back in time, people used the entire animal. They even used the bones to make spears to kill more animals. They used the furs for warmth, the meat for food, the teeth and claws to decorate their bodies. They used long hairs to paint on their cave walls.

I know...I sound a little nutty today but I just returned from a camping trip and we camped primitive. And I do mean...PRIMITIVE. Tent camping, no electricity, a hike to the bathroom and we did it with our children. We had to build a fire to cook. We fished. We slept under the stars and listened to the lake waters lap on the shore. I realized how out of touch all of us are with our cell phones, laptops, ipods, television, radios, cars. Going back to nature sometimes can really open your eyes.

Ancient people died earlier too....sometimes. They were more vulnerable...sometimes. In some ways, they were stronger. To think they were born, lived, loved, made love and died all out in the open, all under the stars, under the blazing sun, near oceans and rivers and creeks and in caves....it's so simple and so real. For me, it puts everything into focus.

Now, I don't want to hang out with woolley mammoths or saber tooth tigers or anything but maybe a short trip out into the wild blue yonder will do us all some good and force us to see. I mean really see. Maybe for the first time, we can see a glimpse of what our ancestors saw. True beauty in life, in breath, in waking for the sunrise, in living for the day and loving for the moment.

~Enjoy Life!
Alisha

Contest in Honor of My Grandfather's Birthday!

July 19th is my grandfather's birthday. He passed away in 2001. I'd like to honor him by giving away an ebook of The Wooden Nickel. I wrote this book in honor of my grandparents and their love for one another.

Earl Clifford Pemberton was a hell of a man. He grew up during The Great Depression and was a paratrooper during WWII. I loved hearing stories of his childhood and of the war. And I loved his accent. He pronounced wash as wursh and bombs as bums. Creek was crick. He was the strongest man I knew and I miss him so much. Today I was straightening some things on my desk and I knocked his picture over by accident. It made me smile as I picked it up. I know he's watching out for me.

Leave me a comment about the memories you have with your grandparents and I'll enter you into a drawing for The Wooden Nickel.

Have a beautiful weekend!
~Alisha Paige

Warning Labels, Blending Genres and Story Building!

My first carnal romance, Voodoo Moon, was released this week as part of The Brood Series at New Concepts. I think I broke every rule when writing this book and now it comes with warming labels, which I LOVE! My mother would be so proud!

Here's the rating that appears in red next to the buy botton on New Concepts' website.
Rating: spicy/carnal/interracial/contemporary/historical--adult situations and language, graphic violence. Sexual situation with non-heroine.

Damn! This is not your grandma's romance novel. Actually I went over to my parents' house the other night and took my kids on a night stroll. I told my mother about my latest release and the warning label..okay, well it's a rating but it sounds like a READER BEWARE LABEL to me. When I told my mother about the rating, the only sound I heard was that of crickets chirping...well, okay, it was locusts in the trees...but still...I won't be giving her a copy of this one. She saw after my last release that my writing was taking a "darker" turn. I've always loved writing paranormals but now they border on romantic horror. Can the two even exist together? I think so. What blended genres do you enjoy reading?

I'm fascinated with ghosts too and Voodoo Moon contains the true story of Annie Palmer, owner of Rose Hall Plantation in Montego Bay, Jamaica. I've been to the plantation and believe me, it's pretty creepy. As legend goes, she killed several of her husbands and called many slaves to her room. She had them all killed as well. I used the premise of this legend to build Voodoo Moon while incorporating paranormal elements, magick and voodoo rituals. Have any of you used a true story or legend to build a story? I did this with Nocturnally Vexed as well when I incorporated Jack-the-Ripper into my paranormal romance. I'd love to hear about your story building techniques.

Here's the photos of Rose Hall Plantation from the front and back. Note the back high window where Annie stood every morning giving out orders to her slaves. The first picture is her grave. The slaves built an above ground tomb to ensure that her spirit would not walk the earth. I don't think it worked. There have been many sightings of The White Witch. Her room in particular is extra spooky. Her face has been seen in the bedroom mirror. You can google her name and find many ghost photos.





Happy Haunting and Happy Reading!
~Alisha