Submissive Dreams Review

I love it when I open my mail and get a present, especially when it's not even my birthday, Christmas, or Valentine's Day. But I sure got a good one today. It was this review by Victoria at Two Lips Reviews. Ms. Ladd sure knows how to kick the BDSM tension up a notch when these three engage in a delightful ménage. Submissive Dreams is easily one of the best BDSM stories I’ve read this year, full of lots of steamy sex and snappy dialogue.

Heat Level:	BDSM, menage, m/m
Rating:

Thanks Victoria! I'm so glad you liked Submissive Dreams. Aren't those chili peppers so adorable? The lips are pretty darned awesome, too. Especially FIVE of them. Woohoo! Can you tell I'm pumped? Just in case you can't, I am.

To read the whole review go to: http://www.twolipsreviews.com/content/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3614&Itemid=36 In the other news of my world, I've been a softball mom all weekend. Yes, ALL weekend, Friday, Saturday, and most of Sunday. My daughter was invited to play in the Rising Starz softball tournament where college scouts offer scholarships. As far as I know, she's not going to be offered one. Maybe next time. Or maybe the offers come after the weekend. She had fun and I got a LOT of writing done. I finished my MFM story due for TEB. And I got 3,000 + words into my next TEB story. I had enough energy Sunday since we got out early to whip my MFM into shape and send it off to my TEB editor. It was so nice sitting outside at the softball game (except for last night when 4 or 5 smokers sent me into an asthma attack), watching the girls play. The weather down here in South Florida is absolutely awesome and during the day we actually get hot. In the evening and early morning we only need a sweatshirt or jacket. As I mentioned above I did double duty and did the mom thing and the writing thing simultaneously. No guilt for once. Trying to be "Super Mom" can bring on a lot of guilt, not that I like that terrible title. I doubt I would've spent my long weekend off the day job at the softball games without this incentive, but it was really really nice. I did more writing than I probably would have if I had been elsewhere. The asthma attack surprised me. I've had a couple in my life, but that was the worst. I was infuriated that those people were smoking in a place where no smoking was allowed, right around kids, even when I was coughing and could hardly breathe. I don't care if people want to smoke in their cars or in their homes or their own yards as long as their smoke isn't drifting into my yard, into my face, but in a place with a lot of other people isn't cool. I almost had to leave my daughter's tournament because of it. Then my husband would have had to drive her back home - almost a 2 hour round trip because he was the umpire in charge of one of the fields and had planned to stay overnight as he had to start so early and do so much work. When I did get home, I had to take a breathing treatment on my son's breathing machine. The inhaler my husband let me borrow at the field only helped minutely. Okay. Rant done. You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

Release day! Submissive Dreams by Ashley Ladd & Interview with Office Politics author Katie Blu

TODAY! Monday, August 18th, one of my babies is being born into the world at Total-e-Bound.com. It's a BDSM novel primarily M/F but there are a couple of M/M and M/M/F scenes. In honor of my new release I'll be the chat guest this evening, Monday August 18th, on the Litergasm Chat Loop from 7 - 10 pm EDT. Please join me in playing games, having fun, and at least one lucky chatter will win one of my previous releases. (I was probably crazy to schedule a chat on the kids' first day back to school, but what the hell. I've bought all their clothes and supplies and the hubby has to be good for something, right? He can run out for any emergency last minute supplies. So now our schools are closed due to the tropical storm.) It's not only very sexy, but it's full of angst. I just love the hero. Doesn't his head look like a phallic symbol? God, I wish I looked like the heroine, my body, anyway. The cover gods have blessed me again. Thanks cover gods! Here's the first ever book trailer I made, and it's for Submissive Dreams. What do you think? It's also posted on You Tube. Also, my friend Katie Blue has a release today, too. In celebration for the release of "Office Politics" from Total-E-Bound today, I will draw a name from the commentors at both this blog and Kelly Kirch's blog for a free down-loadable copy. Don't miss out! Here's Katie's interview. Enjoy!

1) What is your favorite type of book to write and why? Taboo. I love taboo subjects. That's why you'll find a Preacher falling for a parishioner in Hot Under The Collar, an older woman and a younger man in Surprised by Desire, a love affair between step children (okay, they were never children with each other but you get the idea) in Beloved Brother, and now an office romance between a boss and his employee in Office Politics (newly released from Total-E-Bound as of today!)

2) Do you have a favorite setting of books to read? To write? Mostly moderate sized towns in the midwest United States. I like the idea of "regular" folks doing irregular things in suburbia.

3) What theme runs through your books? Have you identified it? If so, do you have an idea why this is so? The naughty and shocking. Erotica is new to me but started from a dare with two other writers and the probing of my editor at Ellora's Cave. I initially wrote Hot Under to shock her. She didn't blink. So I wrote Surprised and Office simultaneously. TEB picked up Office right away and EC took Surprised. I decided I was completely unable to shock editors that have pretty much seen it all. Beloved was just plain fun.

4) If you decided to stop writing, what other career would you pursue and why? If I stop writing, it's to pursue writing in another genre. Therefor I never stopped. I can't imagine life without a computer in my lap. Lemme try to visualize that again... Nope, can't do it.

5) If you could time travel, what period in time would you go to and why? A year ago. So I could undo some mistakes, but only for a short couple of days then I'd want to be right back here. There's no time like the present.

6) How do you celebrate the birth of a new book or when you get a new contract for a book? I used to carry dinner in. Then it was a few "Woo hoo"s. Now, truthfully, I sometimes forget one is coming out. I'm just so busy on that next project that I forget to slow down and enjoy the moment I've been working so hard to see happen.

7) What is your claim to fame, besides writing? I have spoken seven languages in my life and traveled the world several times over. That's pretty much it. Oh, and I'm not really an Aussie. That was something set up a year ago--one of those mistakes I made which I would correct. After all, you should write what you know and be proud of your identity. I wasn't and thought I should pretend to be a different nationality. It didn't work because ultimately I am always going to slip back into the me I am.

8) What is something you're nostalgic about? Why? My youth. Not because I'm heading toward middle-aged but because Mom and Dad took care of everything. I never had to think about bills, next meals, house payments. No, Mom and Dad took be around the world and I had a blast. I miss those days like crazy. It's like taking the feast away just as you settle in to enjoy it.

9) What piece of trivia would you like to share to give us insight into who Katie is? An American. A woman. A sensual being who believes sensuality is perfectly fine. A lover of romance.

10) Tell us about your favorite part of the writing/publishing process and why. The beginning of any project because the adrenaline is pumping and there is nothing like the excitement, the love affair, of crushing on your latest work.

Please let me know if there's anything else you'd like to add.

I have three outstanding works waiting for publication, one of which is to be an anthology piece with a few very talented writers at TEB. I love getting comments and feedback. If you're interested in the website, which admittedly isn't well kept up, visit at www.freewebs.com/KatieBlu.

Thank you for having me Ashley. This was a lot of fun and I'm honored to be a part of your blog.

Thanks again, Katie. I can't wait to read your book.

Ashley

OFFICE POLITICS by Katie Blu, Available Monday, August 18^th from www.Total-E-Bound.com

BLURB:

From fantasy to foreplay, can Betsy keep her perspective at the office when falling for her boss could cost her future? Betsy Pruitt is up for a promotion at a magazine which has never seen a female executive. Just because Maxwell Sumner, her office crush, is up for the same promotion does not mean she is willing to forfeit an opportunity to rise to the top. Max Sumner failed in his attempt to make a name for himself with his father's law firm. Given a second chance to succeed at the family owned magazine, he has moved from office lackey to business team manager under the careful training of the delectable Ms. Pruitt. Keeping business and pleasure separate seems obvious, but what happens to office politics when Max finds Betsy in the throes of orgasm...at his desk in an empty building? All bets are off and the fight for the corner office suddenly becomes more complicated.

"OFFICE POLITICS" EXCERPT:

“Oh man, how am I going to face him?” she whined at her reflection. If he smirked or winked, if he did anything but propose matrimony based on her lurid performance, she’d beg the floor to swallow her whole.

Like that would actually happen. Not hardly.

She grabbed her remote bullet vibrator and lubricant. With a deft application, she inserted the vibrator, feeling rather naughty and a bit like she was snubbing her nose at the pleasure Max had given her last night. With any luck she’d have a break room orgasm by lunch time and have forgotten all about him.

As a fortifier, Betsy pulled on a pair of low rise black slacks and a long-sleeved, fitted shirt. The staid pearl buttons marching up the front of the gauzy, white fabric to a respectable neckline made her feel properly covered. Her hair had gone wild on her, but she ignored the wide loops and pushed her glasses up her nose. “There. That looks smart, and there’s enough fabric to please a nun.”

Forty minutes later, sitting at her desk, her mind flashed to the night before. Max paced his office giving her not a glance of his attention. She dug through her purse, slicked on her lip balm and dropped her purse on the floor. Instantly a persistent whispering vibration filled her pelvis. Betsy clamped her legs together and a sudden rocketing climax slammed into her. She gripped the edge of her desk as pleasure consumed her. A low groan slipped from her throat, and her eyes shut of their own accord. “Oh God, not now,” she panted.

“Betsy? You okay?” her pod mate, Mona asked.

“In…a—” Betsy keened softly between pants, “mi-minu-te.”

“I’ll have whatever you’re on,” Mona breathed, picking up Betsy’s latte for a sniff.

Betsy opened her eyes to slits. Her gaze locked on Max as he turned around, phone to his ear, and cocked an eyebrow at her. The sexy secret orgasm pulsed another shiver through her, rippling her climax higher. Her lips parted as she tried to breathe deeply enough to accommodate her screaming lungs. Her pelvis rocked in minute tilts.

“Not over?” she grunted in quiet hysteria. Her pussy flooded as heat shot from her groin and sizzled along her nerve endings. She’d be eternally grateful she’d worn a thong today.

Max’s eyes narrowed on her, his gaze raking her body. He spoke briefly into his phone and hung up. His sure strides ate up the ground as he came towards her.

“Oh crap,” Betsy whispered. She fumbled for her purse, unsteady with her anxious search for the vibrator’s remote control. Her fingers curled around it triumphantly.

“No shit, Sherlock. I think he just saw your virtual orgasm. By the way,” Mona said hurriedly, “you’re going to have to teach me that trick.”

Betsy glanced at her. Was she crazy? They barely knew each other. What was it about watching someone come that broke down the personal boundaries between strangers? Suddenly the remote vibrator didn’t sound like such a stellar plan after all—for so many reasons. One of which was bearing down on her. How was she supposed to know it would go off without provocation?

“Ms. Pruitt, please join me in the conference room.” Maxwell Sumner’s sensual mouth was no more than a thin white line. His black eyes snapped and Betsy had the impression of a barely restrained bull. He grabbed her elbow. Her death grip on the remote notched the vibrations up in speed. Betsy gasped her pleasured alarm.

“Now?” At the rate she was going, she wasn’t sure walking with the vibrating monster inside would help her circumstances. In fact with the way he was looking at her and her sudden upright posture shifting the internal beast, Betsy had a sick moment of fear as her body began to quiver anew. “Oh hell, no. Not now. Please?”

“Immediately.” He yanked her elbow and brought her to her feet.

Blurb from Ashley's book released Monday August 18th at www.total-e-bound.com Stacey disguises herself to fool her ex-husband, the Internet king of porn, but he's not the only one who gets a shock. Stacey Cooke can't believe her eyes when she sees her ex-husband Brand on the Internet—and he's the new king of porn. She divorced him for being too boring in bed and out and so she's stunned. Much worse than stunned, she's jealous and it hurts. She wonders if she gave up on him too early. She can't stop peeking at her ex with all his film partners. When an ad pops up for a new partner to have sex with Brand on film, her friend Lilli persuades her to apply. Donning a mask, disguising her voice, Stacey decides to see if she's still in love with him. Excerpt from: Submissive Dreams

"You're not gonna fuckin' believe this." Lilli whistled long and loud while she shook her head. The late afternoon sunlight filtering through the grimy windows glinted off her multi-coloured hair streaked blonde and red through her auburn locks.

Accustomed to her friend's over-ebullience, Stacey Cooke gave an obligatory smile. However, she didn't blink an eye. "Uh huh."

"No, I mean it. This is fuckin' unbelievable! Sit down. This is wild."

With an arched brow, Stacey double checked her seating arrangement. "I am sitting. So what is it I won't believe?"

Reverently, Lilli placed her laptop atop Stacey's legs. "Look closely. Recognise anyone?"

Stacey gulped. Naked bodies writhed together, kissing, caressing, shagging their arses off… Women were tied up while men enjoyed their wicked way with them.

"Uh, why do you want me to look at this?" Despite herself, she couldn't stop staring at the huge hard cocks fucking the moist pussies. Nor could she keep from creaming her own panties.

"Come on. Don't you see it?" Lilli jumped up and down as if panicked. She jabbed a finger at the screen.

"Look at the man's face. Don't you recognise him?" Her friend's voice reverberated with frustration and excitement.

Stacey hadn't exactly been studying faces. Those muscles and cocks were mouth-watering scrumptious, and she squirmed on her chair.

Lilli tapped her pointy, chipped fingernail on a man's face

Stacey's eyes dilated on the face she knew so well. It went blurry before her eyes, and her heart skipped several beats. She couldn't breathe. It couldn't be. She had to be hallucinating. Or this was a trick. Was it April first?

"That's Brandon."

The caption under the bald-headed man proclaimed him to be 'Tyrannosaurus Rex', but it was unmistakably her ex-husband—on steroids. Or maybe some great graphic air brushing was in play. Still, she laboured in disbelief as she struggled for air. "Th-that couldn't be him. He'd never, ever…"

Gobsmacked, she couldn't finish the sentence.

Lilli leaned close enough to kiss the screen. "Dominate women? Tie them up? Shag them in public? Be a porn star?"

All of the above. Stacey couldn't help herself, she stole another look at the man's face. It certainly looked like Brand, but she couldn't wrap her mind around all this. Hell no! Her husband couldn't be fucking other women. Especially not so many other women—where everybody could see him. "They say everyone has a double…"

"If it was me, I'd be finding out for sure." Lilli waved a dismissive hand and paced before her.

The hurtful truth slapped her between the eyes, and she dragged in a deep breath.

"We're divorced. He can do whatever the hell he pleases." Even if it ached that he'd never done any of that with her, that he was doing it with so many other women, she'd get over it. Still, obsessed against her will, she scrolled through the pages, counting just how many partners he'd had. Holy! 'Rex' had fucked at least twenty women onscreen. The man was more machine than human.

She mumbled more to herself than to her friend as she rested her chin on her hand, her spirit draining. "Just how would I find out for sure?"

Lilli crossed back to her and gave her shoulder a commiserative squeeze. "Well, you could pick up the phone and just ask him."

"Lovely. You expect me to blurt out 'are you a porn star? Is that you shagging all those twits?' Like I'm really bloody going to do that."

Lilli confiscated the laptop and clicked on a few keys. Then she handed it back as she licked her lips. "Look, they're advertising for women who want to…participate."

"You're not suggesting…?" Stacey gaped at her friend. "Why would I want to? We're divorced with a capitol 'D'." Pain slashed at her nevertheless—a pain she didn't want and refused to name. "I mean, he never wanted me that way. Our sex was mind-numbing…"

She shut up when she realised she'd revealed more than she'd intended. Flames licked her cheeks. Lilli leaned over her, crimson heat flooding her cheeks. "You call that boring? If he wasn't your ex, I might be tempted…"

Available at: Total-e-Bound.com

You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, and Sandra Cox are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

TS Fay

Just a quick note. As of 9:07 AM EDT Sunday August 17th, TS Fay does not have my part of Florida in the middle of the cone. However, we are still firmly in the cone. My cousins "D&C" are now smack dab in the middle of the cone on the west side of Florida. However, according to the news article I just read at Local 6 Weather online, "It never becomes a hurricane and stays a tropical storm but as long as we (Ft. Lauderdale and South Florida) are on the right front quadrant of any moving storm or hurricane (it could be a problem)," Wilson said. "We are in what is called the ugly side of this. We need this to move farther out into the Gulf of Mexico or at a bit east." We have everything prepared except the boards or shutters for our house. Unfortunately, we couldn't afford shutters and even if we put off a bill to buy boards, hubby is no longer physically capable of putting them up and neither am I. So we might just be screwed. Since I can't do more for this, and the kids have everything prepared for school tomorrow if they go - DD#2 is hoping to get a hurricane day or two off school (We don't get snow days here, we get hurricane and tropical storm days) I'll work on promotion for my book coming out tomorrow "Submissive Dreams". The heroine, Stacey, is facing a much different type of storm. I see that Fay has already caused death and problems in Haiti and the Dominican Republic - two countries my day job helps. Thus I know we'll be extra busy providing even more help than usual to them and the phones will be extra busy this coming week and probably longer than that. If you're inclined to help the disaster victims, please check out this help organization: Food For The Poor. I'm sure they will be proactive in helping and also in posting the current news in the storm affected islands that are already ravaged by Third World woes. I can attest 96% of all donations goes directly to help the poor. Be sure to read my regular post for today beneath this one if you haven't already. In it I give tips to prepare for a hurricane and some hurricane stories as well as lighten up and give an excerpt to my new story. Here's a blurb about "Submissive Dreams" to whet your appetite. Stacey disguises herself to fool her ex-husband, the Internet king of porn, but he's not the only one who gets a shock. Stacey Cooke can't believe her eyes when she sees her ex-husband Brand on the Internet—and he's the new king of porn. She divorced him for being too boring in bed and out and so she's stunned. Much worse than stunned, she's jealous and it hurts. She wonders if she gave up on him too early. She can't stop peeking at her ex with all his film partners. When an ad pops up for a new partner to have sex with Brand on film, her friend Lilli persuades her to apply. Donning a mask, disguising her voice, Stacey decides to see if she's still in love with him. Don't forget my chat tomorrow night (Monday August 18th) on TEB's Litergasm chat group. Unless Fay knocks out my electric or makes us run for cover, I'll be there having fun. Also, check out "Office Politics" by my friend Katie Blu at Total-e-Bound.com tomorrow. It's also releasing and looks like a good one. Here's a little bit about it to whet your appetite. From fantasy to foreplay, can Betsy keep her perspective at the office when falling for her boss could cost her future? Betsy Pruitt is up for a promotion at a magazine which has never seen a female executive. Just because Maxwell Sumner, her office crush, is up for the same promotion does not mean she is willing to forfeit an opportunity to rise to the top. Max Sumner failed in his attempt to make a name for himself with his father's law firm. Given a second chance to succeed at the family owned magazine, he has moved from office lacky to business team manager under the careful training of the delectable Ms. Pruitt. Keeping business and pleasure separate seems obvious, but what happens to office politics when Max finds Betsy in the throes of orgasm...at his desk in an empty building? All bets are off and the fight for the corner office suddenly becomes more complicated. You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, and Sandra Cox are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

Tropical storm heading my way? And naming characters

.. href="/css/spellcheck.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet"> WARNING: This is a long blog today as I'm combining two posts. WHY am I doing that? Because I just learned a tropical storm is aimed at me. Fun fun fun. Oh the joys of living in South Florida. Again it looks as if a tropical storm is bearing down on us. DH and DD2 tell me we're right in the middle of the storm cone. Oh joy. I'm so thrilled. I'm not only a veteran of the USAF but of many hurricanes, the last being Wilma, a category 3 and the one that did the most damage to my family. I had forgotten that I saw a snippet on the news talking about another storm out in the Atlantic. So when I stopped at Sam's Club this afternoon I merely thought the mad rush was to buy lunch stuff for back to school next week. Still, it looked like a bit much even for that on some people's carts. I remembered halfway through getting a few things at Sam's that our membership might not be current (no one stopped me at the door going in) so I called hubby and he told me our membership had expired and it would be $100 to renew, $100 we don't have right now, so I left and headed to Wal-Mart. But it was in that conversation that he told me to get lots of water and canned Spaghettios in case we did get slammed with the storm. Spaghettios, huh? The hurricane supply of choice? So I ended spending more than twice as much as I had planned, getting stuff that could either store well in case of a hurricane or be eaten for school lunches and quick breakfasts. Like pop tarts, cereal bars, granola bars, fruit, peanut butter and jelly, crackers, and a couple things for the grill like potatoes and corn and hot dogs. Like I mentioned, we survived a lot of hurricanes, way more in Mississippi than in South Florida. It must be that hole in the ozone over the Gulf of Mexico sucking the hurricanes into that zone. Anyway, I have a good idea of what the family will eat and what they won't in the event we lose power and have to rough it. I feel like I'm practically an expert. This is after not only Wilma, but Elena (a cat 3 that hit Mississippi in 83), Andrew, Irene, Erin, Dan, Frederick, Bob, and a few others I don't even remember the names of. I have a morbid curiosity about the storms. I become glued to the news for the day before and several days after the storms, so much my kids beg me to change the station. I don't want anyone to be hurt or lose property, but I can't seem to turn it off or stop thinking about it. Thus I wrote one of my stories, Forbidden Fruit published by New Concepts Publishing, in which there's a cat 3 hurricane. I wrote it before Katrina hit and it was already set to be published if I recall correctly, before Katrina and Wilma hit that year. I've always heard write about what you know and I know hurricanes. Plus I've read several romances in which there's a hurricane or at least a tropical storm featured. But I got blasted by one reader for it, perhaps someone who'd been through Katrina? I'm not sure. Anyway, when I mentioned it to other writers, they thought readers were raw about the subject after such a horrendous event. It was purely bad timing on my part. But could I tell you stories about hurricanes, something this Ohio Buckeye never would have thought possible before I turned 19. The most notable one for me was Hurricane Bob. It was a teeny weeny cat 1 as hurricanes go, but it will live in infamy in my mind. I was an Airman in the US Air Force when Bob hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast and I was stationed at Keesler AFB in Biloxi. Since it was only a cat 1, the base was not shut down and as I was between classes at tech school, I was assigned other duties. That day I was assigned laundry detail. The night before I'd gone to a concert with my friends Mary and Shannon, a couple of real party animals and heavy drinkers. I was not a heavy drinker, but because I was really upset about my ex-boyfriend Bryan hooking up with my friend Gail, I tied on a real doozy. So I had the mother of all hang overs. Well, it was my only ever hang over. So I had to traverse the whipping winds and fierce rains of Bob while I had a monstrous hangover AND Skylab was falling to Earth that same exact day. I felt so horrible, I laid down in the middle of the laundry, not caring if I got caught and reprimanded. Luckily, I didn't get caught. I guess my superiors didn't want to brave the storm to check on laundry. Anyway, if you're facing your first hurricane, or if it's the first time you're taking one seriously (I learned to take them seriously after Elena slammed into us and we were without electricity for three weeks), here is a list of things you should do to prepare. Stock up on non-perishable food. Make sure it's food your family will eat. Don't assume that they will eat anything in an emergency. Some people would rather starve (and do) than eat something unpalatable. Don't forget to have sufficient food on hand for your animals. Water. This is the most essential item in your supplies. You'll need two gallons per day per person in your household. Plan on two weeks. Include your pets in your calculations. Batteries and sources of light, preferably no candles or fire-starting items. A lot of people have life-threatening fires after hurricanes because of candles and kerosene lamps. I found out the hard way and am lucky to live to warn others. Have enough batteries on hand for battery operated radios, TVs, flash lights, and lanterns. Also for alpha smarts, game boys, and other toys to keep you and the kids from getting too bored. A generator and plenty of gas to keep it running. You'll want to keep your refrigerator and freezers going. You might want to do some laundry. Ice. Fill your freezers and refrigerators and coolers with enough ice to keep your food cool for a few days if necessary even if you don't have a generator. Even tropical storms and cat 1 storms can knock out electricity for several days and weeks at a time. Again, I found out the hard way. Grills and enough gas, charcoal, and lighter fluid for your grills. Foil also so you can cook on your grills. NEVER EVER cook on your grills inside because a lot of people have died from carbon monoxide poisoning after storms, too. Paper supplies. Items like paper plates, plastic cups, disposable utensils, napkins, wet wipes, foil so you can cook on the grill, diapers if you have a baby, sanitary items for women, and toilet paper. Don't forget to have lots of trash bags available to dispose of your extra paper trash. Stock up on books to read, coloring books and crayons for the kids, and other old-fashioned games for everybody to play to pass the time. Decks of cards are cheap and excellent. For writers like me, lots of pens and paper, and batteries for your alpha smart. If your laundry's behind, catch up before the storm. You might not be able to wash them for several days or weeks after. Even if you find a working laundromat, they're real zoos with everybody fighting for washers and dryers. Be prepared to share and help less fortunate neighbors. Some people either don't stock up (lack of funds or disbelief there could be a problem) or their wares have been damaged by the storm, and need help. Check on shut ins, friends, neighbors, and relatives as safely as you can. Don't step in standing water after the storm. Be careful what you touch. Many people die after these storms because of electrocution. Also, there's a lot of bad bacteria in the standing water, and maybe even slithering, slimy snakes. Take pictures and inventory of your valuables, car, and house before the storm and store them in a safety deposit box or email the pics and files to a trusted person out of the storm area. You might need it for insurance purposes after. Make sure your animals have collars with name tags, addresses and phone numbers in case they get loose. If you can, board them in a safe shelter. Seek out safe shelter if your home is not strong enough. Consider vacating for cat 3 storms and higher. Definitely for cat 4 and 5 storms. However, leave early enough so you won't get caught in the tangle of traffic leaving your area. It's worse to get caught in your car in the storm than in your house. Hurricane Elena was a mixed up storm. It went from Biloxi, to South Florida, and then back to Biloxi where it finally made land fall. Several people from the air force base where we were stationed drove to South Florida to avoid the storm in Biloxi only to have to turn around and run from the storm again, only to be followed back up the coast. That's crazy. If you're going to run from the storm, get away from the coast. Go inland. Storms are unpredictable. Elena's not the only storm to waver off the predicted path. Irene jumped from Florida's west coast to us on the east coast giving us no warning. Thank God she was merely a cat 1 as we were still all at work and school that day. Jean went all over the frickin' place, in circles. Bring in any loose items from outside. They will probably become projectiles. That said, board up your windows if you don't have hurricane shutters. When Andrew hit, we had boarded up. Luckily as it ripped a huge avocado tree out of the ground and flung it at our sliding glass doors. We would have been in a mess of trouble had it broken that glass and let the storm inside our house. Fill up on all necessary medications. Do so early as possible as everybody will be doing so. Make plans to get disabled relatives and friends to safety. Have a back up plan in case you get stuck at work or on the road. In the case you're in a vital job that you can't get out of work early to secure your loved ones, make sure someone else is in place to do so. Before Hurricane Andrew, the manager of the Walgreens where I was trying to get my kids necessary meds, was freaking out because he needed to leave to get his elderly father to safety and yet, there were customers like me, that still needed his services. By the way, I was stuck waiting several hours at the pharmacy as my kids meds were regulated. It's not that I waited till the last second. If you're on low ground or near the beach, get to higher ground. Hurricane Camille had flood waters so high they went up to and over the second story of houses for about two miles inland. I'm not trying to scare any one but these storms can be very nasty critters. Just take rational precautions. Don't spend your life's savings preparing, either. Most storms fizzle out or move away to hit somebody else. But if you are a victim and you're without electricity (lights, TV, AC, and refrigeration) for a long time, and if the grocery stores and gas stations can't get stocked for several days or weeks and your town starts looking like a war zone, you'll be glad you're prepared and not wondering where you'll get your next meal or how you'll get to your job. (Oh! Fill up your car's gas tank well before a couple hours before the storm unless you just love to wait in long lines and pay exorbitant prices.) One last thing. Don't run outside in the eye of the storm, otherwise known as the calm. Hide in interior rooms without windows . By the way, if the storm hits me and knocks out my electricity, I'll be gone for awhile. I've pre-scheduled by blog posts on http://www.ashleyladd.blogspot.com for a couple weeks ahead. You'll see new posts there everyday from me for at least a week (2 or 3 if I find time to write that many blogs - I still have to finish a book trailer and send a requested manuscript and do laundry, etc.). Don't forget about my new release, "Submissive Dreams" a BDSM treat available at www.total-e-bound.com Here's my original blog post intended for today:I love names and naming. When I was expecting each of my five kids, I thought about their names throughout the entire pregnancy. Even when I had a favorite name picked out, I still kept looking just in case I found one I liked better. I didn't always, but I still enjoyed coming up with names. (The only exception was with DD2 because DH put her name on our tax records before she was born so I was just praying she really was a girl like the amniocentesis claimed and not a boy. I don't remember how or why he did that, but he really did.) I'm still like that with naming the characters in my stories. Often I start with one name and change it later - sometimes several times and sometimes while it's in official edits. Right now I have a story that I've not exactly contracted but I have handed in and was asked to add words to, that I'm considering changing the name. The heroine's name is now "Tiffany" which is a pretty name. However, it doesn't feel right for the character. I don't always give my characters my favorite names like I always thought I would. Rather, I often name the character what feels right for them. Sometimes, I hate to admit it but will anyway; the characters tell me what their name is. I thought I'd use the names "Colleen" and "Leslie" for two of my heroines long ago as I've always liked the names. However, they've never seemed right for any of my heroines. Yet, they're on the many name lists I've made. Yeah, I'm a list maker, not just about names, but just about everything. It helps me a lot in my day job to keep track of things. But for personal use, I like to come up with names. My kids and hubby think I'm nuts even though they know I'm an author. (They all know when my monthly royalties are due and often pounce on me for some of those $.) What I even find nuts, is that I have these lists of names I really like, but by the time I start a new story, either the character tells me their names, or I'm looking for something completely different I'd not thought of before because by now, I'm tired of the names on my list. Tiffany's hero is "Dax", a name that wasn't on any of my lists, a name I'd not thought of until I was watching a movie with Dax Shephard at the time I started this new story. "Oh," I thought. "There's a different, nice sounding name." So, I grabbed it without consulting my list. Since I originally wrote this post (I pre-scheduled it on my www.ashleyladd.blogspot.com blog for tomorrow), I read where another author considers the name "Tiffany" a "hooker's name" or a slut's name. She went further to say that she couldn't take seriously a character named "Tiffany" or any other hooker's name and would stop reading the book.I know people named "Tiffany" that aren't sluts or hookers. They're normal people. Still, this really makes me wonder if I should not use the name "Tiffany"? But then again, I don't know what different names turn off different people. I don't have a crystal ball. I'm' still happy with Dax as my hero's name, but I'm debating if I want to make "Tiffany" "Brittany" or "Leslie" (maybe I finally found a story for Leslie), or "Rachel". We'll see. I'll probably change it to something that's not any one of the names on this list or my list of favorite names knowing me. This Monday, August 18th, I have a novelette coming out by Total-E-Bound called "Submissive Dreams" (obviously a BDSM story). I finally found a home for two of my favorite names: Stacey and Brandon. Finally, the names seemed right for the characters. I wondered why I hadn't used "Brandon" a long time ago as I really like it. Actually, however, "Brandon" in this story usually goes by "Brand". He's just not a pure "Brandon", but oh well. For secondary characters in particular, I often check out the popular baby name lists for the year of their birth and choose one of them. For historicals, I've been known to check out genealogy sites for names used in the years my stories are set. Usually, I don't name characters because of their name's meaning. But I have on occasion. My heroine in "Wishcraft" published by total-e-bound.com is Felicia Heks. Felicia's a spell-casting wish. "Heks" not only sounds like "hex", but means "witch" in German. So in this case, I did just that.I suppose all writers have to think about names to some degree. However, there are people online who love names and who aren't writers or expectant parents, who just love them and have loops devoted to them. You'll want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, and Sandra Cox are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)