BUSY!
Posted by Staci Taylor on February 8, 2012 under Uncategorized | 
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A quick update from the offices of LazyDay: WE ARE BUSY! A new ecommerce website is coming soon! Stay tuned.
Our Guest – Liz Borino
Posted by Staci Taylor on January 18, 2012 under Author, Guest, Promotion, Uncategorized | Be the First to Comment
How to Write a Novel
Hello, everyone, Liz Borino here. On January 25, 2012, Gifts from the Past, the third in my Taylor Twins series hits online retailers everywhere. So, I thought, “Hey, I have three novels and a short story out. I must be an expert.” … Are you done laughing? No? I’ll wait. We good? Great.
I’m not an expert, but I do know what works for me, most of the time. Below is the step-by-step to my insanity…I mean my writing.
- Turn off Facebook/Twitter/email and your phone if it’s smarter than you.
- Find a ‘what/if’ question to start out and then answer it. For Expectations (the start of my series) the question was “What if two identical twins had to meet undesirable requirements to procure a very desirable sum of money?”
- Fight the urge to post your question on Facebook.
- Realize that you have to get more specific. No matter what question you decide upon to start your book, the answer will always vary depending on who answers it. What identical twins? Where did they come from? Where are they now? How old are they? What are their hopes, dreams, and struggles? Really get to know the main characters of your books. Get in their heads and then likely they’ll get in yours. This is where it gets really fun.
- Many authors turn to an outline of their plot at this point. These authors are calm, collected, and most of all, organized. I am none of those things. So, after talking to the characters for a while (the time varies, much like dating) I figure out where the story begins, some plot points in the middle, and usually the ending. Some of these things can change while writing. As you get to know your characters and story better some plot points no longer work. Example: the wealthy mother who practices attachment parenting is not going to consider an abortion if she gets pregnant again. No, she’s not.
- Get back on your social media site of choice and connect with other writers. They are valuable resources for mutual encouragement and eventual betas.
- Now, turn off your internet again and limit the use of social media to a specified time in a day. Otherwise you’ll get so caught up in getting and giving encouragement that you won’t get any writing done.
- Now…write. Take those characters and listen, let the outline guide you, but not bind you.
- Let it sit for at least a week, preferably a month if you can stand it. You need to create distance between you and your story to see that it is not in fact perfect. It won’t be. Trust me on this one.
10. Now, edit. The tiny things that don’t quite add up, they need to be fixed because readers are not as dumb as people treat them. You won’t do this just once either. Hopefully you go over it twice. Then, once you believe it can’t get any better, call upon those betas from social media to tell you that in fact it can be better. You may even need to pay an editor.
Here’s what I know for sure: Writing is hard, sweaty, and sometimes bloody work (don’t ask), but it’s worth it. The fact that you want to write a novel means that you feel you have something important to share with the world. A story can inspire the masses, or just one person. Either way, find a way to share it. Keep doing it, but before you can you must turn off social media.
Point Of It All – Now Available
Posted by Staci Taylor on January 11, 2012 under Author, Promotion | Be the First to Comment
Diana Kenyon is a beautiful, successful doctor with her own practice and her own life. But the occasional work she does for the DC-based Stanton Group thrusts her into the dark world of political refugees, kidnapping and torture. Her boss, and godfather, Jack Stanton, runs an organization that rehabilitates victims of political torture, giving them new faces, thanks to Dr. Kenyon, and new lives, thanks to The Stanton Group. When Jack thinks Diana might be at risk herself, he forces her to attend a seminar that will hopefully give her the skills she needs to keep herself safe.
As the company owner of VRS Securities, Valerio Rios knows his subject well, and his seminars are well-attended by top executives from top companies who do not want to pay huge ransoms for their executives’ safe return. Val has seen firsthand what these victims go through. When Diana turns up missing, Val is hired to find her and bring her home safely. But rescuing the beautiful doctor is not the end of Val’s work. Someone is after her, and Val is determined to keep the independent and strong-willed lady safe. As he tries to find out who is after her, and why a successful doctor was taken in the first place, lies, deceit and mistrust hinder his efforts. Val Rios is a no-nonsense man, and Diana Kenyon is stubborn, willful and independent. Sparks fly as Val grows more determined to see her safe, and in his bed where she belongs.
Alta Hensley Delivers Again
Posted by Staci Taylor on December 21, 2011 under Author, Promotion, Publishing | Read the First Comment
*The highly anticipated sequel to Traditional Love*
She can submit to the man. But can she submit to the love?
Being an erotica author, Coley could turn words into a lusty scene in seconds. She could write about sex, but was finding it difficult to write about love. She just couldn’t find the hero for her book…or in real life, for that matter. She needed to find the passion to write again. She needed to find passion…period.
With one kiss, Coley soon discovers that a long time friend may be the man she had always been looking for. Vance was strong, sexy, loving and extremely alpha. Coley also knew he lived a lifestyle of Domestic Discipline. He loved, he led and he spanked his women.
Had she found her real life hero? Could Coley surrender to his love? Could she truly submit to his Traditional Terms?
This book is a novella- 30,000 words.
Warning: This novella contains graphic sex and scenes with spanking.
Introducing Jade Cary
Posted by Staci Taylor on December 9, 2011 under Author, Guest, Promotion | 2 Comments to Read
Coming to The Point of it All
When I came to writing late in life, I came as a reluctant bearer of themes and characters that were missing for me in contemporary novels. I figured that if no one else was going to write this stuff, then I would. Some examples of my disappointment: Heroes fought the good fight, but never fell in love. Heroes chased the girl but never caught her because he was too damaged, or she was. Heroes had dead wives to avenge and dead children to mourn. They didn’t marry, they didn’t fight with their girlfriends, and they didn’t bat an eye when she became that dreaded character known in fiction as Too Stupid To Live—those people, usually women, who walk down the alley after dark, or venture into the woods to look for their dog, Cuddles, when they know the serial killer is lurking nearby (all the characters in all the Friday The 13th movies bear this distinction). I found myself on more than one occasion shouting at the page, ‘Spank her, for God’s sake! Where are your balls? Don’t you care about her?’
Wait, what? Spank her? Yeah. I mean, come on! She behaves like a shrew/tosses fists full of mud at him in a fit of temper/is TSTL. The hero sighs, says something like, ‘I have had ENOUGH!’ and he…well, you know the rest. In my soon-to-be-released novel, The Point of it All, I explore this issue as it pertains to two people who come together under extremely stressful and unusual circumstances. Valerio Rios is in the rescue business. He saves lives. He does not suffer fools or spoiled women. Diana Kenyon is in a situation as foreign to her as tentacles on a washboard, and she has had to survive by sheer wits and will. It is this battle of wills between her and Val that defines who these two people are as individuals, and who they will become as a couple in a committed, loving relationship. This is not a spanking novel. It is a novel that happens to contain the non-consensual (mostly) spanking of an adult female within the confines (eventually) of a loving, committed relationship. And there, dear readers, is the rub. How can striking a woman’s backside because a man thinks she needs it, be considered an act of love? Consider this, taken from an article posted on a fantastic web site called, aptly, Taken in Hand:
A woman’s desire for a naked over-the-knee spanking is twofold. Part of her wants to be wanted. She wants to belong to someone who really cares about her. Part of her wants to be disciplined, cleansed, and perhaps even healed. It is only at a level of getting beyond physical pain that spanking has any meaning. Otherwise, the exercise is a parlor game of make-believe of daddy’s naughty little girl getting her bottom smacked for being very bad.
This is quite a mind-fuck. In this day and age, where gender roles are as blurred as they can be, the idea that a woman actually craves this is ludicrous, right? But I get it. Do I live it? I learned early on to be careful what I wish for. I write fiction, and my stories feed into something very real for many people. I’m confident in few things, but this I am sure of. Here’s more from this article at Taken in Hand. http://www.takeninhand.com/node/290:
The man who truly loves a woman is not always easy on her. There is a passion within him that burns beyond lust.
…Although a woman may hate the idea that she needs a spanking, she will also often feel the need to be punished – wanting it to hurt and eventually despising a timid man – she seeks an experience that goes beyond being transformed from naughty to nice.
When I was in the middle of writing The Point of it All, I had to put it aside for a while. I hated it. I hated the direction these two people were taking me. I did not want to portray Val Rios as a domineering prig who swatted with puritanical impunity, and I did not want to weaken Diana Kenyon, or make her acceptance of this predilection of Val’s, feel forced simply because I wanted her to move in this direction to tell a story. I realized that it was Val who needed to change. He actually needed to earn the right to exercise this control over her, for lack of a better word. I also needed to show that in Diana’s acceptance of this, she was exercising her own power as a woman. In a way, she was meeting a need of her own in a way that the intellectual populace could find offensive. Yet, wasn’t the idea behind feminism about choice? I don’t think it was about Bella Abzug’s choice, or Gloria Steinem’s. It was about a woman’s choice, even if that choice wasn’t in line with the mainstream bra burners.
The journey was uncomfortable for me. The more the character of Val Rios set the pace, the more I fought him—kind of like Diana did on occasion. Of course, he wasn’t asking me along for the ride, he was asking Diana, right? Well, I cannot speak for other writers, but for me, the heroine is part me and part who I wish I was. The hero, of course, is who I’d be if I were a man. Simple, right? Yeah. You try it sometime. Talk about a mind fuck. Once I allowed Val to direct the second half of the story, I fell in love with it, and with him. He took me to a place I never dreamed I’d go. It was as much of a journey of discovery for me as it was for Val and Diana.
I adore these characters, and I am very proud of this story. I think it explores love in a very real way, with all of it’s complications and imperfections, all of the mistakes we lovers make, all the hurts we hurl at the ones we love, the apologies we make and the self-reflections we take, and the letting go—the letting go of our preconceived notions about love, the letting go of our egos so that we can love honestly, and the letting go of our ideas about what we want, and allow ourselves to ask for, and get what we need. And, the idea that perhaps true freedom lies in restraint is one to be explored and discussed. I hope you love Val and Diana as much as I do, and I invite you to enjoy The Point of it All, coming January 4, 2012.
Freestyle Love – Available November 30th!
Posted by Staci Taylor on November 29, 2011 under Author, Promotion | Be the First to Comment
When it comes to one-night stands, Malachi Bishop has “rules”. No pillow talk. No sleeping over. No planning a future hook-up. First names only. It’s just sex, not a prelude to love. But when Cole Malcolm, a smooth-talking management consultant, woos Malachi into bed, the rulebook is tossed out the window.
The one-time fling leaves Cole reeling: Malachi is his first real shot at happiness, his “forever” man, and he’s determined to show Malachi just how good they could be together. But Malachi doesn’t believe in happily-ever-after, and dodges Cole’s play for his heart. After all, Malachi is still mourning the loss of Taylor Blanchard, whom he hoped to love forever. Then there’s Zach Brennan, a handsome twenty-five-year-old and student at the college where Malachi teaches. Falling for Zach could destroy everything he’s worked for, but Malachi can’t help himself.
Caught by love and in its betrayal, it’s a later affair with a beautiful stranger that changes Malachi’s life most dramatically. Now Malachi must confront his present and his past that bring into question the larger fantasies of home and his place in the world.
Meet Marcus Lopes- Our Newest Author
Posted by Staci Taylor on November 21, 2011 under Author, Guest, Promotion, Uncategorized | Read the First Comment
It wasn’t that long ago, early September, when I received an e-mail from my good friend, Josée, from Ottawa (Ontario); I lived in Ottawa for over ten years before moving to Sherbrooke (Québec) in 2010. Included in Josée’s e-mail was a poem written by Charlie Chaplin on his 70th birthday. Perhaps you’ve heard of it, or have even read it: “As I Began to Love Myself.”
Reading the poem, my eyes moist, my throat constricting, I understood why Josée sent the poem to me. The poem speaks directly to me, in a way, telling my life story from the beginning: “As I began to love myself I found that anguish and emotional suffering are only warning signs that I was living against my own truth. Today, I know, this is ‘AUTHENTICITY’.”
Some say that we are born artists, that creativity is innate, in are genes. I think that’s true. As the story goes (according to my parents), I was picking out songs on the piano when I was three years old. At five, my first piano teacher told my parents that I had absolutely no musical talent and dropped me as a student. At six, my parents found another teacher who, unlike the first, realized that I played by ear and had to learn to read music. By the time I was twelve I was rearranging some of the traditional hymns sung in church, arrangements that had the young people clapping and dancing in the pews, and the church elders stiff, lips pursed and thoroughly unimpressed.
My piano studies dominated my youth, and that makes it difficult for me to pinpoint when exactly my passion for words erupted. But I remember scribbling down stories and poems, and hiding them so that no one would find them. And then, in my final year of high school, I entered my school’s writing contest, and won first place in the essay category and third place in the poetry category.
By this point I knew that I wanted to be a writer, even though it sounded like a crazy idea. But there was so much pressure, familial pressure, to pursue a more “stable” career. The stories in the media about so many celebrities being caught up in drugs and alcohol — and their lives completely shattered — had my mother convinced that I would end up the same way if I continued on in the arts. That was not the life she wanted for her son.
I went for a compromise: I applied to journalism school and was accepted. It didn’t take me long to figure out that that was not the type of writing that I wanted to do. After my second year of journalism studies, I decided to spend an academic year in Nice, France, where my life was turned completely in on itself. In France I was introduced to some great writers and thinkers: Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, Louis Aragon, André Gide, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jacques Derrida. It was the year of my awakening.
I returned to Canada, with the imprint of Sartre and others on my life, determined to be true to myself. To my parents’ disappointment, I switched out of journalism (for which I had a full scholarship) and into French Studies. Yet even then, when I should have been studying, researching term papers, preparing for exams, I was holed up in a quiet corner in the university library or at a coffee shop writing, and participating in open mic nights where I read my poetry. I took up painting again, which I had dabbled in during high school. Something bigger kept tugging at my heart, even though I still wasn’t ready to admit that I was living against my own truth.
In 1999, I moved to Ottawa, and over the course of my ten years there I worked in both the private and government sectors. But before heading into the office, I would get up early to write. I would spend my lunch hours writing. And before heading home in the evening, I would grab a coffee and write some more. You see, I was trapped in the nine-to-five world even though it brought me down, held me captive, because it was necessary — it put food on the table, shelter over my head. But when I made room for that something bigger tugging at my heart, accepted that writing was my heart’s true desire and gave myself over to it, I knew then that I had, after much messing about, finally began to love myself.
When I began to love myself, things shifted into place. My writing was accepted for publication in various national and international literary magazines, I exhibited my paintings in both solo and group shows, and in 2010 I made my debut as a singer-songwriter. And now, my first novel, Freestyle Love, is forthcoming by Lazy Day Publishing.
Yes, I have learned to love myself, husband my dreams — do the things that bring me joy: writing, painting and composing music. It is, at times, an uneasy balancing act, but I am focused on what matters most and, day by day, I keep on keeping on.
Freestyle Love will be available November 30th!
Book Trailer For Indulgence
Posted by Staci Taylor on October 19, 2011 under Book Trailer, Promotion | Be the First to Comment
Indulgence: Tales of the Cirque Romani is now available! Check out our new book trailer.
Indulgence: Tales of the Cirque Romani
Posted by Staci Taylor on October 10, 2011 under Cover Art, Promotion | Be the First to Comment
“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls…” the Master of Ceremonies echoes every night. These are the words that launch a night full of entertainment, magic, seduction, debauchery and desire.
Cirque Romani was a troupe like no other, a carnival full of true mysticism, power and dark seductive secrets. It travels from town to town, performing to an audience and consisting of a cast of creatures that folklore tales weave stories about.
Cirque Romani is a troupe full of magical, dark and fascinating people that choose to entrance others, rather than hide in the depths of the shadows.
We introduce to you…Indulgence: Tales of The Cirque Romani.
Let the show begin…
Me And The Ugly C – October 5th Release
Posted by Staci Taylor on September 28, 2011 under Author, Promotion | 2 Comments to Read
She never thought it would happen to her.
But it did.
At the age of thirty-five, Becky Dennington was diagnosed with non-invasive and invasive ductal carcinoma. Breast cancer. In an instant, her life changed all because of a single word she couldn’t even bring herself to say out loud. The ugly C word.
Share in the journey of one young woman’s fight against breast cancer, the sacrifices a family makes, the heartbreak cancer leaves in its path, and the joy found along the way.
100% of LazyDay Publishing proceeds will be donated to 18FORELife to help with those with Cancer. Please check out this wonderful organization. www.18forelife.com
