Kendra Leigh Castle

Archive for the ‘Music’ Category

Hey everyone!  So Renegade Angel officially releases on September 1 (though it’s available on Amazon already…I think it’ll just be on actual shelves on the 1st), so you know what that means…Blog tour!!  Lots of book-related rambling by me, lots of books to give away.  I’ll post all of the dates I have booked on Monday, but I’ll be kicking things off with my launch party on the 1st with the lovely Terra at Yankee Romance Reviewers.

I can’t believe that the book is finally coming out!  Just like I can’t believe that a month from now I will have turned in the manuscript for Dark Awakening, which I’m still writing away on.  It’s turning my brain to mush.  Still, I think it’s going to turn out really well.  I’m not going to get much of a break, but that’s fine.  I do plan on vegetating for at least a week and completely ignoring the computer!

Hope you all had a good week.  My two older kids went back to school, and I think we’re all happier for it!  I’m just busy.  Busy, busy, busy, and thinking longingly of the day when it will slow down, just a little.  The month before deadline always kind of sucks.  It wouldn’t suck quite as much if I were a faster writer, but as Popeye says, I am what I am!

Sorry for the short, late post.  My brain is full of vampire cats and their allies and enemies, and there’s not room for much else right now!  Pretty sure my husband misses me being somewhat lucid.  Oh well, the brains usually come back pretty quickly   Here’s a song to send you into your weekend…I’m loving this one right now.  You’ll probably have to click through to Youtube to watch, though…freaking Vevo. *eyeroll*

I’ve been listening to a lot of new stuff lately as I wend my way through this story…you never know what will inspire you, after all!  So I thought I’d share some of the stuff I found.  Oh, and I do have a BIT of news…forgive me if you’ve already read it on my facebook, but hey, it’s my blog and I’ll be redundant if I want to  

First off, I spoke to my lovely editor at Nocturne, and I’ve got the thumbs up on my proposal to do a werewolf story for my next book with them, which has a lot of potential to be spun off into a series.  More on THAT to come, but I can tell you that for sure the book currently titled UNDER A WICKED MOON (which is totally subject to change) is a go!  This is the first of what I hope will be a bunch of stories about a werewolf pack in rural Northern PA called the Blackpaw.  I can already tell I’m going to enjoy writing Mia and Jenner’s story!  He’s all big and wolfish and YUMMY.

Secondly, it somehow escaped me, but it looks like RENEGADE ANGEL pulled a 4.5 star review in Romantic Times!  YAY!  One of these days, I’ll remember to subscribe so I actually find out about these things in a timely manner.

Anyway, without further adieu, here are a few things that are keeping my brain busy and my feet tapping lately.  A couple of them you’ll have to click through to Youtube to listen to (stupid content restrictions…thanks a lot, record companies), but it’s worth it. Have a great weekend!

And last but certainly not least, I LOVE this song, even though it gets stuck in my head a lot!

Hi everyone!  Sorry for the short post…I’m back in Charlotte to visit my sister and baby nephew while they’re here from California, and today we’re doing a party for my boys and baby Aiden…all of them are August birthdays, and it’s nice to celebrate with family.  So I’m not dressed yet, but I have managed to throw a cake in the over.  I’m getting there!  Hope you all had a good week.  I’ll be driving home on Sunday, and I’ll be back with something more substantial on Monday.  In the meantime, here’s this week’s picture of Chewie, who’ll be coming home a week from today!  And a song I’ve been enjoying as well   Happy Friday, everyone!!Â

Not much to report this week, I’m afraid.  I’m neck-deep in vampires (which I suppose is appropriate), and that’s pretty mcuh going to be my life for the next month and a half!  The Countdown to Chewie continues…we’ll be picking him up two weeks from today   And I got a lovely review for Renegade Angel from Terra over at Yankee Romance Reviewers, which is also where I’ll be having my launch day party.  It was a blurry week, not helped by the fact that some random dude thought my cell number was the number for a taxi service and started calling a about 4 am a couple of nights ago!  I spent yesterday in a sleep-deprived haze.  I did turn the phone off, but I’m not a very heavy sleeper, and if you wake me up at that hour, it takes me FOREVER to get back to sleep.  I finally drifted back off about 6, but had to get up at 7, so that was almost pointless.  Naturally, the husband was out of town for the Night of the Creepy Phone Calls.  I’m still dragging some today.  This is why I rarely go bar-hopping anymore…it takes me a week to recover!  Dude, I’m getting old.

That’s about it here…yes, boring as hell, I know!  I’m busy wishing I was at RWA National in Orlando with Marie and the Cat Master, though I wouldn’t be getting any work done.  It sounds so FUN!  But it’s in NYC next year, and I WILL be there.  Cheryl even managed to find a cute guy to take a picture of!  Not that I had any doubts she’d manage it  

I’ve been listening to a lot of music this week, so I’ll leave you for the weekend with some stuff that’s been getting my mental wheels turning as I write my way through a vampire club called Mabon, where all manner of debauchery is the norm and my poor heroine is trying really, REALLY hard not to stare (and failing, naturally).  As usual, I’ve managed to write a conflicted secondary character who I’m already a little bit in love with.  Guess he’ll need his own book one day!  Enjoy the tunes, and your weekend.

I will admit to kind of loving Jared Leto.  So pretty.  So attractive in guyliner.  He really ought to consider being a vampire

Happy Friday, everyone!  Another end to another busy week.  It’s still hotter than hell here, but it did rain ONCE for a little while this week.  Ugh.  But it’s all good, because the hubby and I are blowing town this weekend for his buddy’s wedding in Annapolis, in which Brian is serving as best man.  I won’t know a soul but the groom, but I’m sure I’ll manage.  I’ve been accused in the past of being…chatty…while under the influence.  Okay, actually, my mouth runs all the time, it’s just worse when I’m drinking.  Just call me Fun Kendra.  So I’ve got my party dress, my toes are painted metallic easter egg purple, and I’m ready to gooooo!  Watch, I’ll have one drink and fall asleep.  I think the real Fun Kendra retired after college.  Still, I love Annapolis.  Reminds me of back when Brian and I were dating.  and we got engaged there, on a bench by the water   Yes, I know.  Awwwwww

So I got a lotta writing done this week, and re-read Nora Roberts’ Heaven and Earth for the book club I’m hosting next week.  Forgot just how much I enjoyed that one, but I do love me some classic Nora.  Also, I am terrified of what I will make for food for this book club event.  Ack, entertainment anxiety!  

Anyway, you all enjoy your weekend.  A lot of you saw the latest in the puppy saga on my Facebook, but if you didn’t, not only are we getting a brown Newfie puppy, but the people who had the brown pick of the current litter had to back out, so instead of waiting until the end of September we’re getting Baby Chewie in just a month!  Different parents than I showed you, but mama is brown and daddy is black and they’re both gorgeous.  And Chewie…well, he’s a big boy already in comparison to his siblings, but he was born first out of the nine puppies, and the breeder said he likes to EAT.  You can tell.  He’s a chubber.

Here’s some party music to head into the weekend with.  Have a great one!

It’s the longest day of the year, and fittingly, also my birthday   I have hit the big 3-3 today, horrors.  Doesn’t feel much different than any number I’ve hit for the last few years, but I’m starting to think I’d like to put more birthdays on hold for a little bit!  Oh well, better than the alternative, right?   I spent my weekend working with Monster Dog, who is still determined to teethe on the world, and getting my hair did, which was fun.  I have bangs for the first time since a rather unfortunate haircut I had back in the sixth grade, which then became an unfortunate incident with a poodle perm.  There are pictures.  No, you can’t see them.

Anyway, to celebrate the passage of spring into summer, and also to celebrate the wonder that is ME, heh heh, I invited some of my favorite menfolk over to par-tay.   Feel free to get your groove on.

So whaddaya say, ladies?  Break out the bubbly, put on some thematically-appropriate cheezy euro-pop from back when I was out at the clubs every weekend, and let’s have some fun!

Happy Monday, everyone…such as Monday is, anyway   Hope everyone had a good one!  I spent mine cleaning my house, reading the most excellent short free read Sin Eater by Evangeline Anderson (and if you haven’t read it, hie thee over to Ellora’s Cave and get you some, because seriously, there is nothing quite as refreshing as an afternoon quickie…uh, figuratively speaking…mostly), and doing some writing.  Yeah, reading well-written erotic romance once again made me want to try and write it, but this time I actually have a story going!  I’m just trying to figure out whether my hero and heroine should start the getting busy on the chair or, erm, with the manacles he has attached to the wall.  All of my choices should be so diverting

So I know a lot of you are familiar with the Ellora’s Cave authors…who else should I try reading over there?  They have a whole section of free “Naughty Nooners” too, but there are so many I don’t know where to start.  I love me some free reads.

Not much other writing news to share.  I should start hearing something about my vampire story pretty soon, possibly even by the end of next week.  So keep your digits crossed for me!  I’m also hoping to get my cover for Renegade Angel soon.  I really can’t wait to see!  The covers for Nocturnes are always so pretty, and they’ve got kind of a revamp of the line’s look going on as well. 

This is my kids’ last week of school…I’m hoping they don’t immediately start trying to kill one another, but my chances on that are slim.  The older two are like Pugsley and Wednesday Addams.  Anyway, that’s about all I’ve got today.  Got a vet appointment a little later, and hoping to do some more work on Kendra’s Erotic Romance Project too, once I figure out the chair-or-manacle dilemma.  Here’s a little song to send you off into the great wild week…have a good one, ladies!

Morning, ladies!  I have to head out to drop the kids at school, then pick up the cat’s heart pills at Target (wow, when did my life become such a whirlwind of excitement?), and I really don’t have a single interesting thing I can think of to talk about.  SO, in lieu of that, here’s a song I’ve had stuck in my head for like three days.  In a good way, because it’s a pretty cool song…got sort of a funky, almost neo-disco vibe going on.  It’s from ’07, but somehow I missed it back then.  Probably because I was living in the desert, cut off from civilization, LOL.  Seriously, though, Fallon Nevada had zero good radio stations, so it’s no wonder.  Anyhoo, the video is sort of weird, but the dancing guy is interestingly hot.  Enjoy the moment of groove, feel free to boogie in your chairs.  Have a great Thursday!

Stupidity, thy name is Kendra.

I’m a little tired today (okay, a lot) because, as a celebration of my triumph in completing 39 pages of brand spankin’ new story and sending them off to my agent to read, I stayed up until 1:30 this morning parked on my butt in front of the PS3.  The glory of all the darkspawn I slayed has not really retained its glow in the morning’s harsh light.  I did have a lot of fun, but I look like something the cat has been chewing on.  Thoughtfully.  Thoroughly.  For an extended period of time.  And I feel about as special.

The good news is that I don’t have to get out of the car this morning for drop-offs, because it’s an off day for Jack, so there is every chance that I’ll be slinking off to school in my flannel pants.  I still have too much shame to wear them when I have to get out, but I’ve gotten a lot more lenient with myself this year otherwise.  After that, I’m going to curl up with the heating pad on my back, because (I had forgotten this, or tried to, because usually the words don’t come out so fast as they have with this new story) I get involved in my work and slowly curl into the Writer’s Hunch, which inevitably leads to back and shoulder ouchies.  I don’t think it should be possible to get injuries from butt sitting.  Seriously.  How is this fair?

Oh well, at least I’ve gotten Bane and Lyra off to a good start.  Yep, those are their names.  He is, as you might guess, not from around here.  And he has markings on his skin that look like tattoos.  And he’s a dragon.  *drool*  She has Fae blood and doesn’t know it.  Working title is A Fire in the Blood.  I’m going to just keep writing on it and hope it sells, because I’m a little in love with it right now!  Of course, I need to start the dreaded synopsis today.  ::headdesk::

Before too long I think I’ll have a cover for RENEGADE ANGEL to show you all!  Spoke to my editor yesterday, and she seemed to think there was going to be a cover meeting on the book in the next week or so.  She seemed to think it might end up being one of the covers where it’s just the supernaturally gorgeous guy staring out, looking hawt.  I would definitely like that!

No other writing-related news today.  The vamp proposal I did, which I envisioned as part of a series called Vampire Dynasties, is definitely still in the pipeline and very much alive.   And this new thing is going off ASAP, because my editor, as it turns out, is going on maternity leave quite soon!  Seems like I plod along, then scramble furiously, then go back to plodding.  Ah, writing:-)  

So I’m going to go drag myself upstairs now and do something about the hair.  And I know I’m probably going to play some today too, because I built a rogue, and as it happens, she’s a lot more fun than my warrior chick.  Picks locks, backstabs (literally), quick on her feet.  Totally different style of fighting and playing.  And I love that it’s a story you have to actively participate in!  But then, I had a vast collection of Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid, so I’m not surprised this is appealing.  I like to have breaks from making my own stories and just messing around in someone else’s sometimes.

Anyway, I will leave you with a song I’ve been playing a lot since I found it, because it’s really beautiful and I love the words.  Yeah, I hit iTunes yesterday and bought a bunch of random songs…my shopping cart was full of everything from Lady Gaga to Florence + the Machine.  I had Bad Romance stuck in my head for 24 hours straight.  BUT, this song is by One Republic, who I love because Ryan Tedder, the singer, is incredibly talented.  He’s been writing hit songs for other people for quite a while now (still does), but I love when he sings his own stuff.  Such a pretty voice, and he likes arrangements with strings, something I also love.  This song, Secrets, is about how difficult it is to keep writing good songs, and the soul baring required to make that connection.  And it’s gorgeous!  Enjoy the song, and your day.

Uh-oh.  It looks like Mother Nature is headed to kick Southern Maryland’s butt into the season as we speak, so this should be interesting.  Possibly I shouldn’t have stated the fact that I miss the snow this time of year OUT LOUD?  Being a Northern girl, not much fazes me in the winter weather department, but they really don’t have the equipment to deal with it down here.  My parents live in Charlotte, where they may possibly get a teeny bit of snow, and the place is in an ecstasy of panic.  Which is funny, as long as you don’t have to get out on the roads with those panicking!  I did some driving in a surprise dump of snow we got here last year, and the other drivers freaked me out enough that I think I’m going to stay put in my house once the snow flies.  Normally I would say “if,” since even here the mere possibility of snow gets things in a semi-uproar, but the storm is looking pretty definite at this point.  They changed it to a warning from a watch last night, and it’s supposed to start falling tonight.  We got a hard freeze as a prelude, and ohhhh, I do not want to go out in it this morning.  COLD!

Sorry I’ve been a little slow in the comments section this week.  I’ve been doing a lot of running around with last minute stuff.  I’m really hoping I get at least a few days to kick back and remember that Christmas is here!  At this rate it will have blown by by the time I get to be still!  I know some of you have wintry weather, and some of you get to be fairly warm, but in either case, hope you have a comfy weekend with at least a little relaxing.  And hey, since we were talking about Glambert and his decorative entrails, I am putting up one of the songs I would rather they’d released off his new album.  I’m really not nuts about “Whaddaya Want From Me”.  Here ya go, a pretty song to go with the softly darkening skies full of impending snow.  Have a lovely weekend, everyone!