Reviewers Needed

#reviews #romance #gargoyles

Hey, all! This might not be the place to invite my fans to read and review my new release, but screw it. If any of you have read my bio on my website you already know I’m not much on rules. So, here we are. My new book Lover In Stone, a paranormal romance, was officially released on Amazon and I need reviews for it. I’m offering a free read in exchange for a review. It sounds like I’m bribing folks for five stars, but again, those who know me won’t hesitate to share their honest opinions. Because that’s what I want: Honesty. Short and sweet, too. Click how many stars you think it deserves and call it good. If you want to wax on about why you loved, liked, or hated it, go ahead. It’s up to you. Just bear in mind my writing is graphic. If you’re squeamish, you’ve been warned.
To get started, you can email me. I’m going to need to know who and where this free read is going to. Otherwise, nothing will happen. So, get in touch if you’re interested. I’m at scdane@yahoo.com.
I’m looking forward to hearing from you.
Here’s a blurb to whet your appetites:
To the world they are the Grotesques—hideous chimeras and gargoyles. But before they are locked in their stone prisons, they are Kynd——magnificent beings condemned to prowl the nightmares of every realm.
Their tortures will doom them.
The love of a Chosen One could save them.

Merrick has become a beast. Angelia has been chosen to save him. Will their fragile love survive the Hell the chimera is chained to?

~S.C. Dane

Bear With Me

Please #bear with me! It’s been a while since I posted anything, but this is my first day off from the ranch in a while and every other free minute I’ve had has been taken up with writing my latest novel. It’s the third book in my Darkest Kynd series, and it features my #chimera character, Urick, who is part grizzly bear.

Compliments of Kuchera at Dreamstime Photos.

Not only has ranching and writing kept me busy, but I’ve got a new release slated for June 28, 2016. It’s the first book in my Darkest Kynd series, titled Lover In Stone, and I’m wicked excited about sharing it with the public.
There’s a lot of work involved in a new book release, but somehow I’m managing to juggle everything. Besides, hanging out with Uri the Bear Chimera is fun!

~S.C. Dane

Aging in Dog Years

#dogs #aging #MFRWauthor

The “Portrait Torture” paid off. I came out of the photo session looking only half bad. For those like me who aren’t photogenic, this was a miracle in itself. It’s one of the reasons I’ve always chosen an avatar as my author image (aside from the ass-shitting fear that grips me every time a camera is pointed in my direction).
For those who aren’t familiar with my S.C. Dane media profile, my dog Sally is my public “face,” and has been for several years. Only I hadn’t realized how much time has passed until I compared the photo I used for my author avatar with the photo the professional photographer took of SalGal.
Yes, Sally went with me to my photo shoot. She has traveled from Maine to Wyoming with me and everywhere in-between, why would I leave her home? (Dog people will understand) The fact that she’s an Irish Wolfhound cross who weighs in at a slim 115 pounds doesn’t keep her out of places. It usually means she gets served: people move around her as if she’s another person.
So, I wasn’t too surprised when the camera lens angled for her.
It wasn’t until I got the pictures back that I realized how she’s aged. The face I’ve used as my own is aging in…dog years, damn it.

SalGal

SalGal is nine, and for a big dog–an Irish Wolfhound cross, at that–she’s doing great. But the photograph reminded me I’m on borrowed Sal time.

I imagine when she slips from my life I’ll be as inconsolable as Will Farrell in the movie “Anchorman” when his dog Baxter got punted over the bridge. Nothing coherent is going to come out of

The “real” face of S.C. Dane

my mouth. Friends know this. Sally isn’t just my dog, I’m her human. We’re a team. She’s not my baby, but my friend. She doesn’t even wear a collar. The only time I attach a leash to her is when there’s the danger she’s going to get run over when we’re walking around traffic. It’s to keep her safe, and I never, ever pull on it. Why? It’s degrading to her, and I don’t do to her what I wouldn’t want done to me. Plain and simple. Sal is a woman who knows who she is and doesn’t apologize for it, and she has taught me much about that.
She’s my sidekick, my wing-man. She’s got my back, like I have hers. The Dynamic Duo forever. Then I saw the new picture and compared it to the old, and I realize that one day I’m going to have to let her go.

But not just yet. She’s still the pain in my ass, opinionated, and strong-willed woman I grew to love nine years ago. She’s still traveling with me, meeting new faces, making new friends. Reaching out–in the way she taught me how to do. So thanks, SalGal, you’ve handed me another lesson, and I think my readers are happier for it.

And a giant Thank You to Leah Yetter Photographer. A fellow award-winning artist and earth-roamer who ultimately planted her feet in Wyoming, where SalGal and I have had the honor to meet up with her. My cowgirl hat is tipped, Leah, thank you.

~S.C. Dane

Portrait Torture

#portrait #phobia #hermit #MFRWauthor #MRWauthor
Hi Folks!
My latest short-blog entry is one I’m anxious to share, kind of like a support group, where you tell your story and others commiserate. I know I’m not alone in this “portrait torture.” Authors are reclusive by nature. We have to be. Stealing large chunks of alone-time is the only way we’re going to draft a novel.
And what happens when all you have to do is shuffle from your bed to the coffee pot to the computer? You do it without a thought to your outward appearance. In fact, when a story hijacks your brain and the “real” world ceases to exist, the only body you have is your fingers, flicking away on the keyboard.
Face? What writer has a face? There’s just a hole where you pour coffee into your bloodstream.
Then my publisher tells me I need to use an actual photograph of myself this time. No more hiding behind an avatar, no more biographies where I leave my readers imagining what I look like. Readers want to KNOW what I look like. I have no clue why. My face isn’t writing my stories, my brain is, and who wants to look at that squishy thing?

Torture tools of the trade.

Well, I sucked it up and hired a photographer. Someone who makes a living forcing people into unnatural stances topped off with a grimace.

Okay, that’s just my opinion about how things went down. My photographer was a real trooper. She was a Picasso trying to paint with crayons, but she managed with a real smile on her face.
An eon, an epoch, and a dead dinosaur later, we were finished. I was alive. So was she, but just barely. I wasn’t an easy subject to work with. Not that I was a diva, but hell, my face does not do public.
At any rate, when my next novel, Love In Stone comes out May/June 2016, my mug will be on the back cover. Go check it out, if only to make that torture session worth it!

~S.C. Dane

Crossed-eyes

#editing #romance #new release
When blogging, I’m supposed to say something witty and/or engaging. Not right now, I can’t. I just finished doing final edits on my May/June release of “Lover In Stone” and my brain is fuh-ried. Not that the book needed a shit-ton of rework, it’s just that I’ve read the manuscript now a total of 1,000,000 and one times. Gotta get it perfect for my readers, you know.

Sneak peek at the cover:

~S. C. Dane

Short Blogging

#ranching #writing #monsters and sex

Click for pic:

Life on the ranch… https://t.co/PUzLsLSbZ4

— S.C. Dane (@scdanelove) March 25, 2016

Love to write, but I’m not going to come up with formal essays every week. Ain’t happening. I’d rather put that brain power into my latest WIP (Work in Progress). I’ve only got so many hours in a day and so many brain cells to burn out. Not to mention, working on a ranch, I’ve only got so many inclinations to sit in front of my computer rather than sit astride a four-legged beastie. Better to use that ass-in-a-chair-time wisely.
Such as on my latest novel, or touching base with readers.
So, I’m going short.
Today, calves are coming left, right, and sideways. There’s barely time to deal with them, let alone write some structure-perfect essay. Used my ACT (ass chair time) adding apps and such to my Facebook author page, so now it’s off to the corrals…

S.C. Dane

NOTHING CRAZIER…

#endoftheworld #weird

Nothing crazier than a shithouse rat…or is there?

I got this in the mail the other day. At first, the linked words didn’t make sense. I had to read it a couple of times, wondering if maybe Joe Jesus missed the typos.

By the third round, the message finally dawned. As did the realization that there are indeed things in this world loonier than rodents who like to hang out in outdoor bathrooms.

I mean, come on:

But then, I got thinking: What if these folks know something I don’t. Eventually, the sari wearing dude on the sidewalk proclaiming the End is Near! is going to be right. Kind of the way a broken watch is right twice a day.

Therefore, I’ll forego judgment. Granted, I’m gonna laugh my ass off, but I won’t judge. It takes all kinds of people to make our world go round. And if this planet decides to blow, we now know who will be getting the last laugh.

~S.C. Dane