The weather may be cooling ...

by Anna Sugden

... but September is a hot, hot, hot month here in the Bandits' Lair! (And I'm not talking about cute cabana boys, sexy Romans or yummy hockey hunks ... okay, we'll include them too LOL)

We have at least two exciting Bandita book launch parties (you know what fun they are!)and a fabulous line-up of special guests. Plus, an insider's view from the spectacular Dragon*Con.

Let's kick off then with two important dates for your diary: Lair Launch Party Dates!

Jump into your gondolas and hang onto your oars! We'll be having an extra rowdy party in the Lair on September 4th as Aunty Cindy celebrates the launch of her second romantic suspense, The Treasures of Venice. The Cabana boys will be dressed as gondoliers and there will be plenty of cyber-bubbly, treats, a treasure hunt, and plenty of real-life prizes! Don't miss the fun!


Then, on September 14th, we get to party to celebrate the release of another awesome Tawny Weber book, Feels Like the First Time! Go to her website http://www.tawnyweber.com/ to see her wonderful new trailer.


September is chock full of wonderful guests, some new to the Lair and several returning favourites.

On September 2nd, hilarious Regency writer Janet Mullany (http://www.janetmullany.com/) talks to Anna Campbell about her wonderful new release A Most Lamentable Comedy.



Get out your shape-shifting gear on September 3rd, because Pamela Palmer (www.pamelapalmer.net) is here to talk to Anna Campbell about her fabulous series The Feral Warriors. (pause to drool over that cover!)

On September 6th, another Lair favourite returns. Claudia Dain will be dishing on her latest sexy, lush and incredibly witty book, How to Dazzle a Duke. Check out the awesome book trailer on her website: http://www.claudiadain.com/.



Anna Campbell's great run of guests continues on September 7th, when she hosts fabulous Silhouette Desire author Bronwyn Jameson (http://www.bronwynjameson.com/) who will talk about her newest release The Magnate's Make-Believe Mistress.

On September 12th, debut author Leanna Renee Hieber's Strangely Beautiful Haunted London Blog Tour and Book Giveaway rolls into the Bandita's Lair!
(http://www.leannareneehieber.com/haunted-london-blog-tour-book-giveaway/) This celebrates the launch of her novel, The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker.


We welcome back another Lair favourite, MJ Fredrick on September 15th. She will be talking about her new release from Samhain, Beneath the Surface.


Join us on September 16th, as Harlequin SuperRomance author Kay Stockham discusses her latest book, Simon Says Mommy, in which a sexy surgeon plays doctor ... um, host to his newly adopted son's nanny. But, will her ex-husband ruin their happy-ever-after?


We'll have exciting coverage of Dragon*Con on September 19th, thanks to Trish, Nancy and Tanya Michaels - our reporters on the spot. Dragon*Con is a huge, multi-media popular culture convention in Atlanta that focuses on science fiction, fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music and film. It's held Labor Day weekend each year. You have to see it to believe it - and the gals have promised loads of pics!


September 21 Celia Bowers, a first time guest in the Bandit Lair, is here to tell us about her newest release Anything But Love a fantastic story about two opposites who have to merge their life styles to fit a love they never expected to find. She'll also give us a peek at what her alter ego, Kennedy Shaw has been up to!



We're thrilled to have the gorgeous and talented Kathryn Caskie in the lair on to talk about her October release, The Most Wicked of Sins on September 27.


(Pause to drool over another delicious ... cover!) To finish off this fabulous month, Jessa Slade joins us on September 30th to talk about her debut urban fantasy novel, Seduced by Shadows.


Don't forget you can always check out the latest Bandita releases on our sidebar. Click on any cover and you'll go straight to its page on Amazon, to buy!

Finally, Bandita contests for this month:

Anna Campbell is offering readers a chance to win Captive of Sin!

By the time this contest comes to a close, Captive of Sin will be available from a bookseller near you. To celebrate this portentous moment in the history of the world (or at least in the history of Anna Campbell), she’s giving away not one, not two, not three, but FOUR signed copies of the book to people who enter this contest.

This question is really easy. All you have to do is tell her the name of Gideon’s house and where in England it is situated. Just a hint – you might find the answer in the excerpt from Captive of Sin on her Books page: http://www.annacampbell.info/captivesin.html

Just email Anna on anna@annacampbell.info and she’ll draw at random from the correct responses. The contest closes 31st October, 2009. For more information, please check out Anna’s contest page: http://www.annacampbell.info/contest.html

Phew! Never a dull moment here in the Lair!

So, with a new school year upon us, a new season beginning and a new month launching, what plans do you have for something new or different this month? Is there something you meant to do last month that you'll complete? Are you starting a new course, class or activity?Source URL: http://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/2009/08/
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Dungeoneer RPG: Resource Management

A day or two ago, I mentioned that Thomas Denmark, over at his Dungeoneer blog, had posted a sneak peek of his Dungeoneer RPG game.



I notice that he's done it again! This card is a sneak peek from his new Dungeoneer RPG.


Using cards for resource management has intrigued me of late. One of the interesting things about the Dungeoneer card game system is that it uses cards to represent various quests that you may undertake and other in-game elements. This is an interesting way of tracking what your current adventure is all about.
The Dungeoneer RPG promises to use a similar card system to track your character, quests, and so on.
Source URL: http://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/2009/08/
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Remix, Remake, Remodel

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Playing the Witch in Magic Realm

I think more people would have played the witch character in Magic Realm if her character card had looked something like this.
She needs a black cat in the picture background, since one of her special abilities is possession of a familiar. For some reason they didn't include a chit for this, which I always found odd.
Source URL: http://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/2009/08/
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Types of Magic in Magic Realm

One of the 2E innovations that I welcomed was the Wizard specialists.


AD&D added the illusionist (at least I don't recall the illusionist being in OD&D) but it took 2E , published in 1989, to round out the specialist mages. Those other specialists included the necromancer, the evoker, the diviner, and so on.


In many ways, Avalon Hill beat TSR to the punch. Magic Realm was released in 1978, and 10 of its 16 characters have access to different kinds of magic.


There are 8 types of magic in Magic Realm:


I - white magic (divine), cast by the Pilgrim (read Cleric) and White Knight (nee Paladin)
II - grey magic (natural), cast by the Wizard and Druid
III - gold magic (faerie), cast by the Elf and Woodsgirl
IV - purple magic (elemental), cast by the Sorcerer
V - black magic (infernal), cast by the Witch and Witch King (read Warlock)
VI - conjurations
VII - good luck knacks
VIII - malicious tricks
The Magician has access to various types of magic, but he needs different magic items (which supplied him with the mana he needs) in order to come into his own.
I like the approach that Magic Realm uses, as it makes the mechanics for the clerics and the wizards the same, by making white magic just one of the several magic types.
In addition, each character has access to unique kinds of magic, (and is restricted from using others) which is very similar to the specialist approach in 2E.
Source URL: http://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/2009/08/
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TV for Writers

by Susan Sey

I avoid TV. It's not because I have anything against it, though. I don't. In fact, I love TV. I love it the way I love ice cream. The way I love Diet Coke. The way I love books.

I love TV quite a lot.

In fact, when TV lives up to its potential, I am powerless to stop myself. I am an addict, & this is why I avoid it. In real time, anyway. DVDS are another story.

When the Sopranos ended its run to such acclaim a few years ago I thought, "Okay, time to see what all the fuss was about." Blockbuster.com sent me the first season on DVD over the Fourth of July. By Labor Day my husband & I (he's as bad as I am) had pounded through all eight seasons. I'll leave you to do the math but the number of hours we spent parked in front of the TV during those few weeks is cringe-worthy. We were lucky nobody staged an intervention. Especially since it wasn't the first time we'd behaved in such a fashion.

Lost did it to us, too. That pilot episode when the plane first crashed? Yowza. And five, six seasons later, bad guy Ben just keeps the passive-aggressive fun coming. Good times.

I mourned when we finished the last DVD of Arrested Development. In addition to the razor-sharp humor (a character with sexual identity issues inadvertantly bills himself as an "analrapist" on his business cards, a combination analyst & therapist), it also provided me with my first opportunity in a number of years to remark upon how darn cute that Jason Bateman was.

The Office (the British original) introduced me to a brand of cringing comedy that was so excruciatingly honest I didn't know for a solid three DVDs if I liked it or not. Turns out I do. (The American version introduced me to John Krasinski, on whom I instantly developed a minor crush. I still like the British version better, though. Ricky Gervais is incredibly talented.)

And now we're addicted to a new one--The Wire, a cop show set in Baltimore's west side. The writing is again razor sharp & the dialogue rings incredibly true. But there was one episode in the first season--one scene actually--that sealed the deal for me. It's a scene in which Detective Jimmy McNulty & his partner Bunk revisit a crime scene to role play a murder. They say nothing but the f-word for about four solid minutes, each time with a different intonation & a different meaning. By the end of the scene they'd drawn a completely new conclusion about the crime & so had the audience--through nothing but about four minutes of the f-bomb.

I don't know if that's quality writing or acting, or maybe both, but I was totally sold. We watched Season One in five days.

We start Season Two tonight.

How about you? For your money, what's the best TV show on the air right now? Off the air? Who's telling the best story these days? I'd love to know because, at the rate we're eating up The Wire, we're going to need a new addiction one of these days pretty soon.Source URL: http://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/2009/08/
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Forgotten Hopes of the Foolish

"I can't do it by Tuesday," she says as if she has to search her brain for the words. Look, I don't want it on Tuesday. Next Thursday is fine. Seven fucking days. She looks at the disclosure paperwork that I have given her, then back at me. I look in her eyes and see children on bicycles. "I can't do it by today," says. I sigh. My patience rapidly eroding. I don't want it by today young lady. I want it by Thursday. I'm facing a court date and I need these medical documents. "You need them for all of your doctors?" Yes. "From 'when' to 'when.'" I point to it on the paper in her hand. From July 08 to Aug 09. She shakes her head. "I can't do this by today." I pat her narrow, bony shoulder. Get it done smartly.

This is going to be beautiful, my appearing to court without those documents because of an airhead. Life is good isn't it. I'm boiling down to one week. I've got to get something going here or Hobobob's ass is grass. I never really knew the point of that. What's wrong with grass. It's soft, beautiful, tranquil. Maybe I would like my ass being grass.

So life good is, isn't it? Well, I have more things to worry about. Yes...yes I do. You're probably sitting at home, before the television, enjoying a sitcom or two, with a glass of wine in your hand, or a beer, and you turn on your computer before going to bed, and here is this guy here that doesn't work, lives in a room, fighting the system daily just because he cannot find work, and you wonder: now what kind of problems could this guy have?

I don't know, when was the last time you woke up from a vivid dream puking in your mouth. Yeah, that's right, filling your mouth with a lumpy substance that feels like battery acid. I clamped my lips together just in time, causing my cheeks to take the force of the issue, swelling like the cheeks of a porn star with nuts in her mouth. I jumped up and fell into the wall. It seems that the room is rocking and lurching. I stagger to the door, my mouth now on fire, I yank open my door, stagger out into the hall and remember that I don't have a stitch of clothing on, not even socks. I whip around and catch my door before it closes and locks behind me and then get dressed with my pullover and keys, eschewing the sink full of my dishes. I could not eat off them after puking all over them.

I stagger down the hall, grab the doorknob of the bathroom on the right, only to find it locked. I whirl to the bathroom on the left. It was open. I don't lock the door behind me, I just walk in, lift up the toilet seat and hurl bile, liquidfied dinner and copious blood into the commode. The blood mixed in with my eaten dinner does not bother me. What bothers me is my burning throat and mouth. I rush back into the room and brush my teeth, then eat corn chips to scrub out the burning from my mouth. It works. No shit, it really works!

It's 6:30am. I'm not going back to sleep so why not make some coffee? I do. I make coffee and I pour myself a glass of water. I get behind my computer and begin to do what I love to do, write. Write baby. I want to die writing. I'm making a ton of typing errors that is really surprising. It's like I don't know where the keys are all of a sudden. Usually I have only to think of a word and my fingers will type it without much thought. Now, I'm fucking up royally. What's that about?
I raise my glass of water to my mouth and throw it's contents into my face.

After gasping and coughing I sit my glass down angrily. What in the world? I hold up my hands and there is nothing wrong with them and then....there! The right hand jerks and twitches, then falls still. Then the left hand does the same. Sonofabitch. Welcome to the world of tremors. I never even notice it really. Good thing for me that that glass of water wasn't a hot cup of coffee raised to my face. I would have been running down the hall, holding my face, cock and balls, where the coffee would have landed.

That's great. Now what is it? That's the thing about when you take too many drugs. You have to sort out the side effects. Is this the LUVOX saying a last goodbye, like with the fucking dreams that I'm still having, or is this the upping of my LYRICA? The reason why I asked for more LYRICA is that my body was already acclimated to it. Now is there going to be problems from it? Well, I have to say one thing, so far I still's got my MOJO.

Fuck all that! It's ALL about the MOJO. LUVOX can kiss my shiny black ass. I'll deal with the fucking stresses through therapy. That's what my psychiatrist tells me, that I'm not an Article 25, 28, 48, some shit. Which means that I'm so far gone that only medication can help me. Which means, if I don't come in, I'll be cut from therapy and have to go elsewhere. I wonder if you can strangle people to death with tremors?

I'm all over the place today. I am besieged by dizzy spells. Like a lightheadedness. As if my skull is full of helium. I can sit and swoon all day, and I do. I stay behind my computer, and stay. I work on my novel: TAKEN FOR DEAD. I IM my brother and ask if he can cover the SHOUT OUT for me and I'll cover on some other dates. He said it would be no problem. Super. I can stay home, off my feet and relax from staggering around all the way to the SHOUT OUT. I stay home in peace and work on my novel.

The problem is when all of my friends say good night, and I am sitting there typing away and the sun rises behind me. Holy Shit! It's daytime. It sneaks up on me just like that. I am tired, so I do climb into bed for a few winks only to wake up at 9:00. 9:00! I can go downstairs and get some breakfast.

I go downstairs. There is the guy with the amazingly large beer belly. He gets on the elevator with me. The old guy gets off. He's the one that lives right next to me. He gets drunk on Saturday evenings and shouts obscenities and racial epithets out of his window. Everyone ignores him. Must make him worse. There is the giggly woman that reminds me of Aunt Jemima in the elevator already. The three of us head down to the first floor, and into the cafeteria. We get on line. A thief walks in, on edge that he had just gotten past security and is in the cafeteria looking for something to steal. The Black Crows, a group of women who are loud and cliquish on my floor are there, standing on the edges of the tables, flapping their wings and cawing. He has to go through them just to look around. He changes his mind and returns to me, giving up, "Where's the coffee?" He asks me. I motion to the cafeteria window with my head. He goes to the condiments table, looks around for something to sell, then to a man standing next to him. "Where is the sugar?" He points to the cafeteria window. I get my breakfast and someone touches me on the shoulder. It's little Snow White, my case worker. Can I come sign some papers? I go into her office and sign papers. I speak to her about helping my social worker arrange for a vehicle to pick me up and take me to my appointments and if she could ring my room buzzer on the days that I have therapy. As for my Social Worker she said that she would call him.

But I change my mind from all that shit. Just the annoying buzzer and scrub the vehicle. I'll stick to the Way. That's probably the reason that I'm not crazy now. New York if filled with people and they make it my home.

Maybe that's why I'm not full out fucked in the head already.

HobobobSource URL: http://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/2009/08/
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