L.J. Holmes

L.J. Holmes
In her many Guises.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

LJ HOLMES PRESENTS MORE STATELY MANSIONS

Forty years. That's a long time but that's how long I have been with the Merchants Guild.

This is the Merchants Guild. Pretty impressive wouldn't you say?
I was nineteen when I first signed up with the Merchants Guild. And in that time I pretty much dedicated everything I am to the Guild. Funny how that happens. You don't start out deciding to shove everything else aside, but one day you just wake up and realize, life has passed you by and except for the bars on your shoulder, or the citations framed on your walls, you really have nothing much to show for all the years you've been sucking in air. I'm fifty-nine...middle age and have no family of my own, and truth be told, gave up my one and only real dream long ago to become what I am today...a mediocre company man. Looking back down the corridors of time, I can't help ache for the dream I once held close to my boyish heart. Too late, it was just too late to lament what could never be now...time was catching up...besides I'm where I was always meant to be, where I'd worked my forty-nine year old ass to be...Captain Temple about to lead another mission...
...with a dedicated crew of twelve young, explorers on the expedition to K22 an exotic tropical planet, hoping to create a great new market for the Guild.
The planet is incredibly beautiful...but why are the beautiful cities empty? That is my mystery, and this is how we all got here.

Part of Temple's crew is the xenobiologist, Jerry Caldwell, an expert on alien lifeforms. He's young, enthusiastic, and reminds Temple of all that he once was, and somehow lost along the way.
Also among the crew, the gorgeous Diana. At twenty-two, Temple finds he desires her in ways he has not desired anyone in a very long time. Does she only represent his lost youth, or more? Was he envious because she was obviously Caldwell's lover, while he was still alone, being the good company man he had not questioned until now?
He really had no time to contemplate the vagaries of the choices he'd made, or ones he might still make because the planet's secrets had to be solved. Why were the cities empty? He had to solve this mystery if this planet was ever going to turn a profit for the Guild and that had to come first, didn't it?

More Stately Mansions, by John B. Rosenman, with a subtly descriptive cover (look for the clues cleverly blended into the scenery) by Muse It Up Publishing's Cover Art Goddess Delilah K. Stephans, will be released with the spine tingling secrets alive and waiting for Captain Temple and his crew on March 1, 2011.
Until then you can follow JOHN'S WEBSITE.
Muse It Up Publishing has many wonderful things coming up for readers and authors alike beginning with Lea Schizas'...
...award winning...care for all things connected with the literary world...

...like the OCTOBER 1ST LAUNCH of MUSE IT UP PUBLISHING, her premier e-publishing company. There will be surprises and all kinds of special things in store for the readers...so please, please please, do not miss out...check the MUSE IT UP WEBSITE often!. But Lea is not a sit-on-her-laurels, kind of person. Most people would have their hands so busy with launching a new e-publishing house, they would would not also be hosting the yearly event that has won her awards and accolades at the very same time, but Lea is unlike MOST other publishers because she is amazingly DEDICATED....
...and still hosting her FREE MUSE ONLINE WRITERS CONFERENCE ALSO in October, October 11-17, 2010


October will give way to the equally spectacular NOVEMBER early release. Why am I saying early? Well, here's a hint to what at dynamo Lea and her partner, Litsa Kamateros are...the ORIGINAL launch date was supposed to have been DECEMBER 1ST, 2010, but these two women are so dedicated and work so hard to make the e-world a spirited place for readers and authors, they worked round the clock to bring the excitement forward not just one, but TWO whole months forward. SO come along and join in the revolution.


Tuesday, August 3, 2010

LJ HOLMES PRESENTS WRITTEN IN STONE

I'm getting married. Yep, I'm getting married. So why is it the minute you announce you're getting married all the relatives on all sides, yours and his, make a pilgrimage into their dusty old attics and draw out their old wedding gowns from the moth balls and expect you to fall all over yourself in excitement about maybe wearing their old relic as your Once-in-a-lifetime special gown?

Okay...some of them are not terrible, terrible...
This was Great Grandma Watterstone's when she came over from the Old Country, to marry Great Grandfather Hall back in like the late 1800's. It's not baaaaddd, but it's just not me!
Great Aunt Agnes' gown...now I'm no critic, most the time, but I'd have to get some serious electric shock treatment before I'd agree to having all of society see my picture splashed across every newspaper in the civilized world wearing her starchy old suit of armor...

I don't LOATHE my Dad's sister's gown. Aunt Leticia, Letty to me, is the only cool, down to earth member of either of my parents families, but I know the hell it would cause if I agreed to wear Aunt Letty's, especially since I absolutely won't...

... even consider Mommy's ice princess gown. Maybe if I was getting married in Antartica to a penguin I might consider it, but truth is, I think I am deathly allergic to velvet.

For punishment...not choosing her gown made Mommy-kins a tad ticked, she decided we needed to go to the only bridal shop in the tri-state area that specializes in GOLD wedding gowns...and if that isn't bad enough,


she's also decided I'm going to be the next Princess Di or something equally ridiculous. This crown is what she thinks I should wear on my poor head. Can you imagine carrying that much weight around? I'll have a migraine before my first margarita! I want simple. Mom wants "wedding of the century" at the very least.

Okay, this crown is not AS bad, but still...Did I mention that I'M getting married and I want SIMPLE? I want to have my hair down, not screwed up into some doo that will deprive me of about a third of my hair follicles and be pulled so tight, I'll look Oriental. Don't laugh. Most of my friends end up looking like they should have been married wearing kimonos because their hair is wound so tight.




Arguing for all we are worth, MOM begins the horrendous parade of DESIGNER hell.

Mom calls this creation "Blush". I call it "pink", and I am NOT getting married in gold, nor am I getting married in pink!

HOLY CRAP! Wanna see a wardrobe malfunction? No way I am choosing this gown with my boobs!

Okay...not bad. A definite, maybe.


Can you say, Over the top? God, I'll sweat off twenty pounds before I get to the altar.



Finally! Here I am Cassandra Hall, in MY gown. Mom's not terribly crazy about it, but I like it. It's simple, high enough not to have me flashing the girls during the vows...wouldn't THAT make for the wedding of the century headline, and it doesn't weigh as much as a Mack truck...


...and it goes with the veil, the equally simple veil I have chosen. Finally, everything is perfect.



I can see you all are frowning, and I agree NOW. I shoulda called the whole damned thing off when I saw what my fiancé, the very socially correct scion, but somewhat less than...uhm...mature fiancé selected for my bridal garter. I know men can be childish at times and we have to make allowances for that, but on your wedding day?

Star Wars! Still, he's gorgeous, and together we are THEE couple of this century. I mean, how can I not forgive him choosing a Star Wars garter belt? It coulda been worse. He might have chosen Sponge Bob in Square Pants. THAT I think I would have put my foot down against, but this? When he looks like....


...this?





All was going swimmingly. We were counting down to "W" day. I had the tickets and receipts for our honeymoon in my luggage. I DID mention my fiancé's sporadic maturity levels didn't I? When out of the blue, five freaking days before the wedding that Star Wars loving Prick ups and breaks our engagement! The wedding of, not the century, but the Millennium has to be cancelled! What's a jilted bride to do?


Every thing's paid for, by the little Prick...

...to The Shaftesbury Premier London Notting Hill. I can stay here and listen to everyone say how sorry they are to my face, while gossiping about me behind my back, or I can just go on my honeymoon alone. I've already endured the worst life can toss at me. It's the least I should do to make the Prick pay for doing this to me, right? Who knows it might turn out to be a rip-roaring adventure.

Written In Stone by Viviane Brentanos, Cover Art by Delilah K. Stephans, and the Muse It Hot Publishing House arrives on February 1, 2011 with the answers Cassandra thinks she is looking for and a world that will change her forever.





Learn more about Viviane and her other available books by following her to her WEBSITE and/ E-MAIL her at viv4daz@yahoo.com



You can also check her out and all the many other talented authors available through Muse It Hot Publishing by

clicking HERE




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...with award winning author, and editor; now also PUBLISHER Lea Schizas...


...whose love for the readers challenges us to only write our very best.