A Good Saturday Morning!

After our thunderstorm yesterday, we had another one during the night. Some people had power outages, downed trees, and so forth around the area. We were lucky to experience none of those!

We got more rain, and that is a good thing. Grass looked greener, the corn in the field across from us seemed to have shot up a half a foot. We had a terrible drought going, and if we did not begin having good soaking rains, we would be in a terrrible mess. I can almost hear all the plants, birds and humans sigh a big sigh of relief.

So, I'm able to place pictures here. I'm so happy about that. So happy I'm going to share something I've been working on. It's not completed yet, but I'm working on this in paints. I'm thinking of using it as a cover for a self-published story, but not sure what as yet.

I've been messing around in "paints". I do hold a degree in art and sometimes I miss being able to "paint". Using paints is a bit difficult, but I'm one who likes a challenge and this offers one.

Having had these two weeks off, and getting a number of things done/accomplished I feel as though I've made good value of my time. I had my very first short story put up on Amazon. It's a vampire story about Rasputin, just in case you missed this, here it is again. Holy Devil is available as an ebook for .99 on Amazon (world wide) at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008DIZGX2

I don't look forward to going back to work next week, but hey, gotta bring in the money again. Besides, I'll make OT on the 4th, and that will be nice, but driving a bus during the busy times is rough.

Hope you have a great Saturday!

Up-Dates on my blogging problems

I've gone into my settings a dozen times trying to figure out how I can somehow get an image in here on a blog. I finally tried "old editor". If I can't post pictures in the new settings, this will have to do. I have no idea why it's able to work fine this way.

So, kiddies, it seems to be working now. I don't know about how it will work later on. I'm staying at Blogger, so no need to find me on another website. At least for now.

I hope to give a review of Lara Parker's Dark Shadows: The Salem Branch soon.

Frustrated

And so we have this new Interface on Blogger. Even before it went in I could not post any pictures. And now the Interface isn't very easy to work with. I can't even get the spell check to work, so, if you see something mispelled, well, that's the reason.

So, if I do any posts you'll have to forgive me for not being able to put any pictures up. This keeps up I may have to move away. I don't want to, but if I can't continue w/o problems then screw it!

Noo! I'm not going to up grade to Goggle Chrome. It would take too long, and after I did what guarantee will I have that things will work? I definitely don't like this at all. I hate this tiny window, and it covers up the options at the top you use for fonts and spell check and so on! I should not have to deal with this, nor should I have to up-grade to anything for it to work!

Blogger gets an F minus! They don't care that people complain, but I'm complaining. This is terrible, it's crap and I don't have to take it!

*sigh and deep breathing*

But I must report that I've had a very good 2 weeks off. I accomplished quite a bit, including getting a short story self-published. I got my flowers all in, and made a few smaller displays so that I can look out at them from my office window. Now, if only we could get some rain! It is crispy dry out here. No one has needed to mow (mow what?), for weeks now!

I think that I've also made new friend ships and have been asked to do guest posts--that I can do, and they can post my pics for me--haha!. I've got a couple coming up, and if I can I'll try and post the links. But they probably wont work, since nothing else is working for me.

So, if you don't see me posting much from here on, the reason is I can't use Blogger's interface. I don't know why anyone has to change anything. It doesn't work for me. So, I may have to get re-aquainted with my old blog on Word Press. I don't like that one much at all. But it may have to suffice for things I have to write about.

But in the meantime, if you can get along without my posting pictures inside my posts, then come on back, but be aware of my trouble.

Thanks to everyone for being wonderful and coming to check out my blog, and commenting once in a while!

Anyway, my Word Press blog site is http://loreleibell.wordpress.com/  (if this link doesn't work, I'm sorry. You can still get there, if you need to).

Teaser Tuesday ~ a page from Holy Devil

I'm definitely feeling lazy in my second week of vacation. But I did work in two new little flower/display gardens under the Colorado blue spruces yesterday and boy was I sore!

But today I thought I would share with all of you--and especially my Russian readers who are Rasputin fans, a page from my new short story that's out on Amazon (it is world wide,btw). This tidbit is merely a portion of the iceberg. The ending has quite a twist.

He sprinkled holy water over Anna who snarled at him. He made the sign of the cross over her. With that, she reared back and spat at him. Spittle hit him in the face and ran down his lips and beard. He immediately wiped the spittle with a sleeve. She grunted and laughed at him. Then she made noises like a pig. Obviously there was a very determined demon inside of her. His voice rose in one of his more powerful prayers, as it was in Latin. It usually worked, but the prayer may have to be repeated several times. Walking a clock-wise circle around the woman, he intoned his prayer. His voice thundered, determined to bring the devil out of her. His voice could be heard throughout the rest of the house, possibly outside, as well.

In the midst of prayer, he wet a finger in order to turn the page of the Gospel when the sound of voices out in the hall reached him. He had to ignore all while performing this exorcism, so continued to focus on his task.

Suddenly the door burst open and an excited looking older woman with a babushka over her head stood and took in the scene. The odor of dinner and the fresh outdoors were ushered in with her.

“What are you doing!” he protested.

“I have found him, Anna! I have found him! He is coming!” the woman announced in a rich, yet excited voice.

“Who is coming?” he asked the woman. “I demand you leave! Can't you see what is happening here?”

Ignoring him, she said to Anna, “The starets! The miracle-worker! He is here for you, my dear Anna!” She turned to look back down the hall.

Heavy boot heals tapped determinedly toward them.

“Oh, father, thank you! Thank you!” the older woman said to the tall, thin man who entered the room, and then backed out crossing herself.

The tall stranger stepped through the door wearing a kaftan over a mauve silk shirt, plush black trousers, and boots of the softest leather money could buy. Clearly the wandering wise-man—the holy starets—had traded poverty for a much richer life-style. Improvement of his social position while in the royal family's circle had endowed him with not only power but money from bribes to buy such things. He should be wearing a fur coat. The weather outside is bone-chilling. Perhaps the starets wasn't very far away.

“This is an outrage! What do you mean by this?” Father Sergei's eyes flashed when he got over his surprise. The red hair and beard and flushed face gave the impression that he might burst into flames at any moment. But his tirade was cut off by the man's watery blue eyes, fixed upon him in a stare that made Father Sergei's verve retreat. He swallowed whatever words had been inside him. This holy man's peasant features were unordinary—ugly, if truth be told—but his whole expression was concentrated in his blue eyes, which were at once penetrating and caressing. Then they became keen and piercing as if he could see to the very bottom of his soul.

Father Sergei took the starets in more properly. He had never met the man before, but rumors of him, and what he looked like, and what he did—especially what he believed in and preached—had been rampaging the countryside. He belonged to the Khysty sect. The very idea that one gained redemption through sin was the satanic lie itself! Weather-beaten face like that of a farmer in the harsh environments of the Siberian steppes, the wild brown beard, and the long brown, unkempt hair, carelessly parted—yes! This was he, the one they talked about endlessly. The one pampered, admired and worshiped by ladies from all classes of society from the highest ranking to the lowest of the low. The one who they say had experienced the miracle of the mysterious death after living a life of vagabondage for many years. His clothes were expensive because of the popularity and gain in his position in the court of the royals.

“Grigori Rasputin?” he muttered, his lower lip trembling with awe.

“Yes, little father, it is I. And I see you have cornered the market on frightening defenseless women in their bedrooms!” he said in a startling charismatic voice. His glance darted briefly to the Bible in his hand, but returned to pinion the Father's eyes once again. “Away with you and your scriptures! Can you not see real redemption is found by sinning first, and then repent! That is the only way we shall drive the evil from this one. The filth must be expelled, you hear, little father?” his voice thundered.

Rasputin's stare felt probing and disturbing at the same time. The room swam around him. Father Sergei's limbs seemed heavy as lead, even his eyelids became overwhelmed by sleep. He tried in vain to utter a sound or move, but could not. Before him he saw Rasputin's eyes. They shone with a phosphorescent glow; they seemed to become a fiery ring. His own eyes became heavier; his body leaned, almost falling over before he summoned the last remaining energy to resist. Father Sergei blinked. It was as though the power which held him so, had vanished.

©2012 Lorelei Bell

Holy Devil is up at Amazon now

As of this morning, my very first short story, "Holy Devil" is up on Amazon. I've had to go and adjust the price/royalties, so this will take another 12 hours before it is at a price of .99, instead of the $2.99. I don't expect anyone to buy a short story for that. So, by tomorrow the price should have been adjusted for something more affordable, and acceptable.

I want to thank John and Carole Gill who helped me with the whole thing.
I was unable to get my document to up load, as well as a picture to go in. So Carole enlisted her husband's knowledge in all of this, who also did my formatting for me. A round of cheers for my British friends!

I can't post pictures still at any of my posts, so this is really frustrating for me, but I'm adding my short story's cover to the side here, that way it will be up there for sure. Here is the link for any of you interested in it:  Holy-Devil-ebook

I will have to figure out how to do this on my own. It was very frustrating when nothing went right, but hey, I have a great friend in Carole Gill! Thanks hon, you're the best!

Gonna Take the Plunge

Hi all! Hope your Wednesday is treating you well. Hey! Hump day!

So, tomorrow I'm going to up-load a short story to Amazon. I'm nervous. I've looked through what I'm supposed to do. Sort of took notes on things so I won't panic when I get to that moment, but probably will!

The first and only time I self-published was my Spell of the Black Unicorn book (which is going to become an ebook, eventually and I'll put that out too!), and I paid a publisher to do that for me. However, I did have to format it myself. So, I'm glad I didn't throw out the book which has instructions on how to go about this!

My short story "The Holy Devil" is something like 5 pages long. It is a vampire story. It's star vampire? Rasputin. I sent it off to a publisher for anthology, but they didn't pick it up. I'd already had in mind to self-publish it myself if they didn't. So, I'm not very upset about them not picking it up. I hope to do a few more like this in the future. In fact, I may go on to do novellas, which are partially written. I hope it works out, any way.

Meanwhile my inability to post any pictures within a post still plagues my blog. I don't know if it will continue to do this, or if something is going on behind the all mighty Oz's (blogspot's ) curtains and maybe suddenly things will straighten out. Probably mad at me for not going with the updated interface. I'm fine with what I've got, don't need an update, thank you.

So, by about this weekend I hope to announce the publication of the short story, and put in a link for those of you who might be interested.

Teaser Tuesday ~ Dark Shadows: The Salem Branch by Lara Parker

Hello, my pretties. Well, since I cannot put up a picture of this book cover [or any picture] on my blog, I hope you will forgive me. However. I picked up this wonderful book Dark Shadows: The Salem Branch by Lara Parker. In case you are not familiar with the original Dark Shadows, or you've forgotten, Lara Parker played Angelique, the nasty witch, in that original show. She is now a writer. She has written two wonderful Dark Shadows books, with a third pending. I found this one at my local grocery store, and had to grab it, fearing I'd not find it again.

Laura's writing captures Barnabas, as well as all the characters of Dark Shadows with the precision of a surgeon with a laser. Her prose are to be not only admired, but envied. She's done a splendid job and I've chosen one paragraph on page 78 to share with you today on Teaser Tuesday.

Set-Up: We are with Barnabas, who has become mortal again thanks to Dr. Julia's "cure".

~ It had been many months since his cure, and still the light of day was for him a miracle to behold, the sun a golden orb, buttermilk skies with clouds as soft as clotted cream. The first sight of spring had tormented him with its beauty: flowering trees, new grass, and the silken air fractured into rainbows. He would often sit and stare at nothing else, only the air, and the prisms of light dancing within it. But during the height of summer, the unbearable heat of his cure drove him back into the coolness of his dark bedroom with curtains drawn, beneath the canopy of his bed, as though he were once more within the tomb. Now autumn had arrived with all its splendors, and its heartbreaking hues.~

Her second book: Angelique's Descent is also available, and there will be a third one, unless it too is already out. This first one was published originally in 2006.