Mandy Lou Dowson's Blog: Mandy Lou's Para-emporium!

I have a dark romance coming out on May 4th. Perhaps you've heard of it? Perhaps not.
It's called Retribution and it follows the view point of three people.

Braxton Alexander - He's been imprisoned for the rape and murder of his girlfriend since he was eighteen, but now he's free.

Brycen Cole - Since Braxton's threat at the sentencing, he's known the madman would come after him upon release.

Gemma Woods - She's been Brycen's faithful and loving girlfriend for years, but although their relationship started out all flowers and hearts, now it's more often than not demands and ramifications.

These three people are entwined upon the path of Retribution.
But who will walk away and who will crawl?

Does this sound like something that might interest you?
Retribution

As you all know -- or maybe you're just finding me, which is cool too! -- I write Paranormal Romance, and some parts of it can get a bit dark and a bit gritty, and I absolutely love writing the stories of all my imaginary friends. I can't wait to get Donovan's story out to you all -- the Beta Babes (my she-wolves) are going ga-ga for it, and tell me it's a hundred times as good as the previous one.
You might even know that I've been working on a secret project this past week. I literally woke up on Saturday morning with my mind FULL of this story, and had to start it right away. I didn't even get off my bed all day, because I was too embroiled with my story. I think -- well I hope! -- that you're all going to enjoy this new story, which has turned into another series, just as much as the Moon Bound series. It's not Paranormal Romance. This is contemporary, and taboo, and beautiful. I heart my new characters so much. I'm about four chapters from The End, which is a new record for me, personally -- the characters are basically writing this story themselves, using me as a conduit.
All will be revealed soon, so keep your eyes peeled...
In the meantime, I've lowered the price of the first in the Moon Bound series, Bound by Fate, to 99c, at least for the duration of October and all the take-overs I have planned, so now is the time to pick up a copy on the books page. ;)

...You've made a horrible mistake.

Today I gave my eldest daughter my lovely, antique pine bedstead, because she was too old for a single bed, really, at fourteen, and because I had gotten a new king sized divan bed.
Oh, what a horrible mistake I have made! The mattress is too soft -- it's like a damn water-bed -- and there's wheels, WHEELS on the base. I have a wooden floor in my bedroom. Wheels do NOT work on a bed base when you have a wooden floor. Next time I get down to something more than sleeping, I'll be lucky if the fucking thing doesn't end up in the hallway!
Besides the fact that the mattress is too soft, and the stupid base has wheels, I realized that all my carefully selected bed sets will no longer fit. Damn. Some of them cost me an absolutely disgusting amount of cash.
Add to that fact that the underneath of my bed has long been a haven for forgotten shoes, bags, hats, the rare odd sock, and a couple of spiders...pandemonium. Himself made me pack up all my shoes, of course, no matter how many spiders were scampering around under there. Three bags later, he's trying to put them on top of the wardrobe and they all topple out, hitting him on the head one by one as they tumble to the floor, reminiscent of those old Disney cartoons where bowling-balls or something equally ridiculous falls on the character from above. HAHA! I held my laughter as long as I could, but eventually had to let rip.
Speaking of rips, I was still wandering around in a light pair of silk pajama bottoms, and whilst bent over, sticking my nose under the bed...yes, you guessed it -- they split. So, now I'm down one pair of silk pj's, a lot of bed covers and an antique pine frame. Lovely. I should have just stayed in the old bed, crying about a need to write -- "Why won't you just leave me alone!?" -- and I might have avoided all of this.

I went with my fellow Thespians in Naas Musical Society to the professional production of Blood Brothers last night. First time seeing the show. My God it was fantastic! We met up early, for pre-show drinks. As you do, right? And I held on as long as I could, but you know that by the interval I was literally wiggling in my seat with the need to pee. So, the lights came up and Mandy was GONE! There was a queue a mile long for the ladies, and seeing as we were up a stairs, with no elevator in sight, my friend and I decided to take advantage of the disabled bathroom.

The relief. Oh, the relief. Upon finishing our business, we opened the door to see the queue for the ladies longer than before, and as we were slinking away, heard one of the women waiting whisper to her friend, "there were TWO girls in there."

Imagine their shock if they'd known my friend was gay, haha.

I've been working on a secret project the past couple of days, and the story just seems to be rolling from my mind to the laptop with very little interference. GREAT! I'm 32 thousand words in already, and can't wait to unveil it all to my fans.
It's going to be something in a similar genre, but not a paranormal romance. It's a little bit taboo. A little bit hot. It's one of those secret guilty pleasures, you know?
*excited squee*

So, today my partner asked me to design him some new business cards. Being only too glad of a distraction (I am the ultimate procrastinator sometimes!), I immediately said I would.

Cue a world of rue and regret. The actual design took mere moments, and once I had a new card all ready to be printed, I had to set up the printer.

I had conveniently forgotten where the printer had been relegated to - the cobweb-decorated corner of my bedroom, groaning under the weight of some of the clothes I will deny owning when it comes time to pick something to wear.

After dumping those ceremoniously to the floor, hiding several cushions from my bed and articles I will have to root for later, I fished out the lonely little deskjet, dusted him (it's definitely a him, for reasons which WILL become clear later) off and then had the mother of all scavenger hunts for the usb connection. Eventually I found it, wrapped up and shoved into a cupboard I use for storing DVDs I don't have time to watch any more.

After setting it all up, I realized the ink was depleted. Curse you, cartridge. So, I scared up some ink and injected it. This was starting to take longer than I had originally thought, and while I was after some form of distraction for a while, you CAN have too much of a good thing.

Now, sporting a large black inkblot on my boob and with the sour taste of it in my mouth after inadvertently sucking some from my thumb, I set to work.

The printer would not print. Vexing! I spent about an hour figging about with it, trying to clean the heads, printing blank test page after blank test page, pulling my hair and screeching like a banshee in frustration when all I got was a big, fat, nothing. Enlisting the help of my author group, I was advised to re-install all the drivers, since the printer downright refused to run any such head-cleaning acts. How rude. Three times, I downloaded and re-installed those cursed drivers and each time the printer told me there was something wrong with my toolbox (I've never had complaints in that department before!) and directed me to a webpage where I was tossed out on my ass as if a drunkard in a hotel. Restricted Access, it told me. I didn't realize my printer was connected to the damn Pentagon!

Finally, resorting to madness, I removed the cartridge once more, wrapped my lips around it and blew until ink started to drip from the underneath. There. I'd given my cartridge a bj and cleaned its head all in one fell swoop. Or one act of fellatio, so to speak.

Now, of course, the business cards are just sitting in the corner, no doubt oozing with good intentions, but will most likely have gathered a coating of dust before they're used.

And here I am, STILL procrastinating, writing a blog when I should be writing a book! Oh, my word. Will I never learn?

As the title suggests, the price of Bound by Fate has been slashed by me, over 50% off, just for this weekend.

Get it while it's hot, folks!

I also have the trailer for Bound by Revenge, book #2 in the Moon Bound series to show you all soon :D

Aaargh it's SPIDERGATE here! There I was, sitting on my nice new swivel-chair, writing...as I do. And then from across the room I see him. A huge mofo of a spider, looking like he was heading out for a pleasure stroll. He was so casual, he was the Sean Connery of arachnids.
If he'd had the shoes he could have done the Highland Jig across the floor and he wouldn't have freaked me out any more than his lumbering, long-legged gait.
I screeched, like a cat thrown into a lake, and grabbed my four year old daughter's shoe, fearing the spider would confiscate it and actually hit me back, I approached him shaking with trepidation. He paused and gave me a "fuck you lookin' at?" expression. I could count each beady little eye on his shiny, black head. They all reflected myself, my own two eyes like saucers, hair almost standing on end. I looked crazed. I WAS crazed.
Screaming like a banshee, I took swift aim and battered that spider bastard to death. Squealing once again when a leg detached and stuck to the shoe like a scene from a horror movie.
He looks so much better smooshed on the floor. It's going to take me some time to work up the courage to remove his sticky, slimy gooiness from my laminate. And like a car-crash, I can't stop LOOKING at him. My mind is playing tricks on me. He appears to be moving every so often, as if he's gonna jump up and say, "gotcha!" and then go for my jugular or something.
I need a drink dammit. Why don't I have any alcohol when I need it!?
Excuse me while I just crawl out of my damn skin for a moment. Ugh. Spiders have it in for me, I swear. I've been naming them recently. I had Norman. Then I had Bates. I think I'll call this one Cathy.
*shudders*

I've been burning the wick at both ends, I'm afraid. I have gotten a tonne of work done, three chapters in the past few days, and am ahead of myself in terms of finishing my first draft of Bound by Revenge. I have a schedule set whereby I want to be finished the first draft by Oct 13th. In the following two months I want to get all my edits and Beta Reading rounds done. I am only 6-7 chapters from the end. But I'm feeling the strain when I go to bed at night and can't sleep 'cos my characters just won't shut up their incessant nattering.

Roll on 7am every morning when I have to get up, and not be some sort of swamp monster because the children already fear me enough in the mornings (I've never been a morning person). This morning, in particular, was a nasty one. Imagine the biggest caffeine freak you know, with no coffee, less patience and a headache to boot! That doesn't even come close to me this morning.

My four year old has just started school, and she got in trouble for not replacing a toy (she's FOUR!) on her second day. Since then, she's been excluded from "golden time" which is a set period of time where they can "free-play". Instead, her name has been written into a rain cloud. A freaking rain cloud, people! In case she didn't feel bad enough, I suppose?!

So this morning, dragon-lady (yours truly) bearded the beast in her den (the teacher in the classroom) and went through her for a short-cut. I told her in no uncertain terms that there is a difference between discipline and punishment and she was just punishing the child and enjoying it. Not on. Soooo not on.

Needless to say I watched that battleaxe take my child's name from her rain cloud before I left. She might have deserved a little bit of a reprimand, and even exclusion from this period of free-play for a day. But it's been three days now and all the teacher is succeeding in doing is coaching jealousy and sewing the seeds of resentment.

I had a bar of chocolate on the way home. It cheered me up. But I'm supposed to be on a diet.

So to conclude, I hate early mornings, and chocolate. That's all folks. :D

I'm being hijacked by the muse again today. So far I've written nearly two entire chapters. That's normally the goal I set myself per week, but I guess the story is just flowing really well right now.
No doubt sooner or later I'll run into another challenge and be stuck touring the Writer's Block for a while.

I'm taking the inspiration while it's hot!

Well, I had my release party on FB for Bound by Fate on Friday evening. It went swimmingly (lol, I love that expression, it's so quaint!).
There was great participation from my guests, and the games were so much fun. I would highly recommend my promoter *Totally Talented Promotions* on FB. She's a sweetie and her SWAG is divine. I've decided to order some so that I can do my own little give-aways when the mood strikes!
So far, sales have been steady, and anyone who's been in contact to say they're reading the book have also said they love it. Those who reached out to me to say they've finished had nothing but good things to say and can't wait for the second in the series. Truthfully, neither can I. I'm really enjoying the writing process of the second book, even more than the first; the character I'm working with is completely different to Beth (the MC in the first book) and as such it feels like a brand new book, as opposed to one in a series -- everything is shiny and fresh!
As usual, the characters are being stubborn and deciding their own fate, which I suppose is a good thing, it shows they have cohones! haha
I've taken the last few days off (after an epic 13 hour writing sprint, in which I was roughly muse-used-and-abused, to my delight), but I intend to get to the story tonight, after taking some time out today to enjoy a lazy Sunday with my family.
We're going to be taking a trip to Donadea Forest here in Ireland, and I can't wait to get some beautiful snaps of the castle and grounds. If you're on FB, do send me a friend request :)