Music Monday - Cassidy Haley

Cassidy Haley started out as a designer and founder of the company Skin.Graf - described as "raw underground fashion and sleek high-end couture". Celebrities such as Adam Lambert, David Cook and Fergie were amongst the fans of the line. He sold his half in 2009 to go into music.


He's quirky, flamboyant, sexy and has a unique voice. His music became more known when his friend, Adam Lambert, tweeted about Cassidy's new music video. I like his sound, the edgy creativity in his videos, his independent spirit and how he doesn't shy away from being openly gay in his videos. Oh and he's really easy on the eyes, too. Have a peek.

First some eye candy - yeah I know it's about the music
but he's so beautiful and he wears guyliner (so shoot me)

New Contract, excerpt & tattoo problems

<-- That right there is a tattoo I really want - maybe with some background added in. I've always loved wolves and it sort of resembles my dog's face that I lost last year. 


And in other tattoo news, I'm looking to turn my simple Red Hot Chili Peppers logo tattoo into a mandala tattoo. Basically a mandala can have certain symbolism behind it, there are celtic, chakra, etc. or it can just be things woven together that represent parts of a person. I want to work outward from my Peppers tattoo, maybe fill in the middle with another layer of the logo. My problem is I cannot draw or design to save my life and I'm hoping someone might be willing to offer me some assistance. I know I have some artistic friends out there. Thoughts? Anyhow - on to the next part of the blog.


I'm thrilled to say that my shifter/witch/gypsy/etc paranormal series - at least the first book - has been accepted for publication by MLR Press. I've been working hard on Lucius' Bite and it's my longest story to date (not counting that 90k one I started three years ago and haven't been back to :P). 


I spent last week re-reading it, revising it, editing it until I never wanted to see the characters again - Lucius who? But it paid off and now I've already gotten through the first set of edits so it's on its way. I fall in love fast with my characters and both the MCs drove me freaking crazy at different times during different scenes but I love them so hard. I don't have a publication date yet, of course, but hopefully in time for GRL. 


AND it will be in print too. That kind of makes me squee inside -even though people don't buy a lot of print anymore, especially m/m - it's more about having my name on a cover of something I can hold in my hand. :)  And speaking of covers, I may be having a friend do one but it's still too early to tell. I'll keep you posted.


Now here's an excerpt: (it's a more humorous one but the story is still a mix of angst with some light-heartedness once and a while) Hope you like.

Music Monday - Apocalyptica

Apocalyptica is a Finnish band formed in 1993 when four classically trained cellists gathered to play Metallica covers at Sibelius Academy. Since then Apocalyptica (I really love their name) with its three members --Eicca Toppinen, Paavo Lotjonen, Perttu Kivilaakso and Mikko Siren (Jesus - try spelling those even while you're looking at them) --have sold over four million albums. Their music has been called everything from classical to neo-classical metal to thrash metal and even symphonic metal. I just call it and them very unique.

The first time I heard of the band was in fanfiction of all places and I immediately checked them out. The combination of hard-rocking music, beautiful long-haired (you gotta admit they're pretty hot) and kick-ass cellos suits me just fine. I love that they have guest-vocalists that fit perfectly into the dynamics of the band, that their videos are freaky awesome, that they wear guy-liner, and basically, I just think the whole band and their music is cool as hell. Check them out. 
(they're coming to the University here but I don't wanna go alone - any takers?)

Six sentence Sunday & Nick Adams

Happy Sunday - I'm a little late I know. I thought I'd give this Six Sentence Sunday thing a shot. So I thought it was appropriate to give you a couple of "sixes" from Lazy Sundays - my free read for Love Is Always Write, plus some pretties for a Sunday afternoon.


*****

Lazy Sundays 1

Watching someone sleep had to rate very high on the stalker scale. It didn't matter if the bedroom belonged to the person doing the watching or that said person was not sneaking around or hiding while they were doing the deed. No, none of that was the issue at all for Scott Weston. It was more the fact he did it every single time Devon stayed over. Since that number was up in the high twenty-something range, stalking had to be involved.

It wasn't like he purposely woke up early to stare at the beautiful, tattooed man who had by some serious stroke of luck become his lover. 

*****

Lazy Sundays 2

He was awoken only a few hours later by a strong hand wrapped around his cock and Devon’s beer-laden breath brushing over his lips. Scott pushed him away, checking to see if Devon was indeed awake before shoving him to his back and straddling his body. He was horny as hell and going by the hardness pressing against his cock, Devon was ready, willing, and able.

Devon grabbed for his dick again, but Scott batted his hand way, circling his fingers around Devon's wrist and hoisting Devon’s right arm above his head. He kneed Devon’s legs apart, and then situated himself between them, pressing down on top of Devon, their groins flush and bodies already squirming with desire. Devon groaned and lifted his head to capture Scott’s mouth and Scott obliged with a hard crush of his lips, sending Devon’s head back into the pillow.

*****

I talked about Priscilla Queen of the Desert in my last post. Fabulous show, talented actors and just the best time ever. 

Nick Adams plays the fun-loving Felicia, and he stole the entire show, at least for me. He had this smile that just lit up everything around him and talk about talented - he danced, sang and joked his way into my heart. Here's some pics of the show and of course Nick. (ahem, lots)

Happy Sunday.

And my favorite one.

Wow, an actual update

I must repeat "Wow". It's been just over a month since I was here and I'm not sure I actually remember how to blog now at all. But I'll give it a try.

My New York trip went well, if not more than a little annoying on crutches. Even taxis are frustrating with crutches - they want you in and out as fast as possible and some of those backseats have zilch in the way of legroom. I have to give huge kudos to my bff Piper Vaughn for putting up with having to haul me around New York and for being an awesome roomie. :)

I was worried about the whole airport situation - having to haul my *ahem* huge bag around with me but ended up being carted in a wheelchair through the entire airport both times. It was embarrassing but necessary I guess. The weather was good and the hotels we stayed in were both good, too - each having its own pluses and minuses. We did some sightseeing on the top of a Hop On Hop Off bus - after being shuffled to the very front of the line because *ahem* I was the Chosen one. Lol. The bad part of the bus was the guide and his annoying little earbud commentary but I won't get into that. We walked a fair bit that day too and I have to say I was a trooper considering it was hot and my right leg was screaming at me to just stop and sit down.

Some highlights - the Rainbow Book Fair was interesting though the table Piper and I were in charge of (for Less Than Three Press) was not in the section where we got the m/m traffic. We still talked to a few people, sold a few books and got to meet some of the other authors. Amy Lane is a sweetheart and gives great hugs and squees. Christopher Koehler is taller than the damn Empire State Building - well, okay, he's just really tall. Gosh, it's been so long I can't remember who else was there. Damon Suede did the manly thing and packed all of our boxes to the curb then became Superman when he jumped in front of a taxi and told him exactly what he had to do.

That's one thing Piper and I were not so good at in New York, hailing taxis... and knowing where we were. Lol. Also, got to meet K. Piet who is an absolute sweetheart. Also present but I'd met before were: Rowan Speedwell, J.P. Barnaby, Ellis Carrington, Rachel Haimowitz, J.M. Snyder (never met before actually) and I know I'm missing a bunch.


Central Park Carriage Ride We had the cutest Irishman show us around Central Park on his lovely horse and carriage. I could have listened to his accent all night and when he took out his cropped and whipped the bad taxi-cab - let's just say parts of my body came to attention. Lol. Just ask Piper.

Broadway! We saw the most fabulous show EVER! If you go to New York and want drama, comedy, fabulous dancing, singing, smiling, and hot men in dresses doing all those things, you have to go to

PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT.

It was so damn good and interactive and funny and sad and anything else you want in a show. 1/4 the way through I just wanted to go again. The stand-out for me was the multi-talently and totally gorgeous Nick Adams. He will have his post soon. He sang, he danced, he had perfect comedic timing, his smile could launch a thousand ships and he was so ripped and hot I wanted to stick bills in his pants. Hot damn.

Finally meeting a friend in person. One of the most exciting highlights for me was meeting someone I'd become close to online, someone who has nothing to do with my writer side, just my friend side. I was nervous as all hell - crutched my way up God knows how many metal stairs just to want to turn around and go right back down again because my nerves were screaming at me. I didn't and it went well. He was everything I thought he was and more.

I got to spend my last day with him, crutching around Soho and I don't know where else. He showed me his fave stores and I bought a few things for my kids including this adorable freeze-dried bat for my baby boy. It seriously is. They all had different looks on their faces so we had to pick one out. This one looks a little diabolical and we liked his face. :)

Overall it was a very good trip and I was exhausted when I got home. Don't let anyone tell you that crutches are easy to walk around New York with, they're a total pain in the ass. My knee continued to get worse again when I was gone, too much use obviously.

Yesterday I got a steroid shot in the anserine bursa of my knee. Holy mother of something, it hurt like hell. My mom gets cortisone shots in her knee for arthritis but they put them right in the joint. With a bursa shot they have to find the exact spot where the pain is the worst so it took a lot of freaking pain to even get to the part where they put the needle in. It swelled up even more last night but today it's settled down a little. I'm trying to keep positive that it will help and I'll be able to take a chainsaw to those crutches soon but even the doctor wasn't all that sure if it would work. I need to be walking at least semi-normally by the beginning of June for the Northern European cruise the hubby and I are taking. *keeps fingers crossed*

Writing After what seemed like forever of revising and editing and reading through it again and again and again and humming and hahing and being nervous, I finally finished and sent Lucius' Bite off to be considered for publication. I procrastinated so long on doing it and now that it's gone, I feel like a weight has lifted. I really love the story and there are already sequels floating around in my head. I also finished a story for the Love Is Always Write challenge on GoodReads. It's called Lazy Sundays and I think it's pretty sweet. The pic I was given for inspiration is posted on the right side of this blog.

My next project is to get my Father's Day story finished by May 1, as well as my lawyer story that is drowning in dust. And wouldn't you know it, Less Than Three posted an anthology call for - are you ready - ROCKSTARS! My favourite subject. I have to get these other two finished first though, plus I have Glitter Fox 2, and Home on the Ranch 2  sitting on the back-burner steaming away.

In other news, I started a Tumblr. It's mostly hot shirtless men, gay couples kissing and snuggling, and more hot men so if anyone's interested in that kind of thing, here's the link.

K-lee Klein Tumblr

I'd also love any feedback you want to give me. Is there anything I used to post on my blog you'd like to see more of? Do you like author interviews or WIP postings? Do my music posts interest you? I'm just looking for ideas to improve what I'm doing. Thanks guys. Have a good weekend.



I'll leave you with a pic of my favourite Survivor character this season. Say hi to Jay Byars. He already got booted off - I don't know what those people were thinking. I wouldn't kick him off the island for anything in the world.  :)