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Ann Stokes is one of the premiere artists of gothic and fantasy. Her portfolio and pictures of tattoos may be found at http://www.annestokes.com/

In the fantasy realm I also love Michael Parkes http://www.michaelparkesgallery.com/ and Boris Vallego http://www.imaginistix.com/gallery_store.cfm . They have both inspired me with their drawings of powerful female figures. Toward the end of writing "The House on Black Lake" I began to move into elements of fantasy.  I find myself drawn to both  gothic symbols and fantasy as they expand how we view nature and humanity, and most importantly protray women, and their interaction with men and wild mammals in a manner that is supremely sensual, exotic and powerful.

Many readers of "The House on Black Lake" have expressed interest in taking a trip to Montreal and surrounding areas described in the novel. A good site to check out is http://www.funtouristattractions.com/a/st-joseph-s-oratory-montreal-canada/2353. Once you have arrived in the French Canadadian city it is possible to follow the blueprint of the book, and then seek out your own, never to be forgotten, adventure!

Trapeze artists Tany Hoover and Marek Kaszuba of Trapeze Pro in Sonoma are in rehearsal for a music video based on a scene from the novel. The piece titled "Dangerous Games" will integrate an intoxicating new song and music  by Peter Busboom along with special effects. Actor's  will recreate scene culminating in trapeze act. The rare combination of static and flying trapeze is a sensuous interpretive movement piece that illuminates the dangerous game of love.

Sundance Film Festival – New Frontier Exhibits- 2011

I attended the opening week-end of the Sundance film festival and found it to be an exhilarating creative experience. More information about the festival may be found at www.sundancefilmfestival.com.

Highlights of Visit to New Frontier, including being in attendence with Robert Redford onsite:

The New Frontier at the Miners Hospital on Park Avenue in Park City opens new doors of creativity. Artists in the venues explored narrative structure, three-dimensionality of the cinematic image, and innovations in transmedia storytelling.

Pandemic 1.0

Lance Weiler

“A mysterious virus begins to affect the adults in a small rural town, and the youth soon find themselves cut off from civilization, fighting for their lives. How fast is the virus spreading? It is confirmed – the virus has hit Park City. Pandemic unites film, mobile and online technologies, props, social gaming, and data visualization, enabling audiences to step into the shoes of the pandemic protagonists anytime during the day. Mission Control is the only way to learn where you stand in the face of the spreading pandemic.”

We were informed that 20 festival goers were given cell phones and told to transmit photographs and data, props were hidden in town that would diminish spread of pandemic, and twitter data was analyzed, all in the hope of curtailing the epidemic. We did not find a prop and were not handed phone during our stay, but enjoyed the experience and returned unharmed nevertheless.

RAW/WAR

Lynn Hershman Leeson

“Lynn Hershman Leeson employs transmedia storytelling to create a seminal history of the American Feminist Art Movement. Expanding the scope of her documentary !Women Art Revolution RAW/WAR is a live, user-generated, community-curated video archive that documents the achievements of women artists. RAW/WAR reconceives history as an ongoing project of collaborative authorship where participants enter an interactive environment to upload new material and use Wii powered virtual flashlights to illuminate invisible histories. RAW/WAR is created by Lynn Hershmanm Leeson in collaboration with Alexandra Chowaniec, Brian Chirls, and Gian Pablo Villamil.”

I downloaded my cinematic trailer and music videos to site to be archived in their library.

SPIN

Daniel Canogar, Spain

By transforming electronic detritus into stunning sculptural installations, Dabnikel Canogar’s work externalizes the hidden structures of media technologies and explores the short lifespan of the hardware that encrusts and defines our modern lifestyles. Spin projects the copied contents of discarded DVDs back onto their surface to reveal the moving images trapped within the discs. Hippocampus 2 is constructed from tangles of electric cable refuse. Light is projected on the sculpture in such a way that it seems to free the energy stored in the electronic waste, awakening in it memories of the past.

Both Multimedia sculptures were both beautiful and fascinating.  On each DVD were remnants of their story. Most chilling was a murderous clown.

MOONY

Takehisa Mashimo, Akio Kamiksato, and Satoshi Shibata, Japan

“The sublime and elegant work liberates the pixel entirely from its usual proscenium format and reshapes our encounter with the moving image by using steam as a screen and an interactive interface.”

If you plunge your hands into the steam quickly a virtual butterfly will fly away and disappear. If you hold your hand in the steam for a while, butterflies will flock around and play with you.

AFTER CHOSTCATCHING

Bill T. Jones, U.S.A. 3 D Video Installation

Bill T. Jones dances a series of original and haunting choreographic sequences accompanied by his own vocalizations as Open-Ended Group captures and portrays the movement using a customized technique. “After Ghost dancing” expands to in corporate 3-D technology.

GLOWING PATHFINDER BUGS

Squidsoup, UK

“Pixels become independent creatures that move through time and space. It uses projection to visualize virtual bugs that participants can interact with in a real sandpit. The bugs are aware of their surroundings and respond to the shapes in the world around them. Viewers can pick bugs up, dig holes, and create mounds that the bugs must react to. If the bugs are squashed, they die, but if they live, they evolve to become butterflies.”

I helped a few mate, squashed a few accidently, and helped a few turn into butterflies.

THE JOHNNY CASH PROJECT

“The project invites participants to create individual drawings that ware woven into a collective, animated music-video tribute to Johnny Cash, set to his song “Ain’t No Grave.”

ALL THAT IS SOLID MELTS INTO AIR

“All That Is Solid Melts into Air powerfully juxtaposes two documentary videos, which are projected on opposite sides of the room – one depicting a Nigerian guerrilla group battling the colonization of petroleum recourses on their land, and the other showing Chicago stock traders speculating on energy futures. The view, caught between the two videos, negotiates these two scenarios. As the films play, the stakes rise, and the intensity crescendos to an uproar.

This was an absolutely astonishing project. Extremely powerful! It was only shown eight times during festival but is a must see for everyone in the world.

THREE’S COMPANY – THE DRAMA

“Our prolonged and increasing exposure to dramatic entertainment shapes our imaginations, our aspirations, and the way we reference our memories and structure the time in our day. How does a television show have such an impact on our lives” In Three’s Company: The Drama, James Franco examines the classic TV show. Breaking out individual elements of narrative character, composition, and set design to reconstitute them and create an immersive experience of the story world through which we may consider how this definitive 1970s sitcom connects and organizes our memories.”

It would be my guess that James was included here due to his celebrity status. I sat in the parlor and watched an old episode of “Three’s Company” projected onto wall. James did voice over to portray all characters. Two guys sitting next to me thought it was quite funny, but I didn’t get it, and was not moved or transformed by experience in the way I was with other installations.

THEATER III + EDGAR

Avish Khebrehzadeh

“Avish Khebrehzadeh’s works integrate painting and video to evoke fairy tales and dreamscapes, which are often inspired by her own dreams and memories. In Theater III and Edgar”, three loosely linked vignettes unfold on a massive painting of a grand theater with a proscenium screen. The film tells the story of three men carrying a pregnant woman past a village into the desert, where they leave her. She then disappears down a hole with the man who has been digging it. In the last act, the drama transgresses many boundaries, including the very screen where it is being presented.

It was very intriguing to see video installed into a painting of a theater. I would have liked video to be more sophisticated. It may be the way of the future with film installed in paintings covering museum walls.

WE LIKE AMERICA AND AMERICA LIKES US (THE CORPSE)

The ambulance/hearse is a vehicle designed for emergency response and ceremonial lament. In this work, the vehicle’s chassis lies astride a fresh piece of asphalt – a corpse on clean sheets. Possessed with satirical humor and dark patriotism, “We like America and America Likes Us (The Corpse) becomes an allegory of American consciousness that embodies a great contradiction: a national character with a gift for survival despite its movement toward implosion.

Powerful!

A MACHINE TO SEE WITH

Blast Theory, UK

“To start your adventure, you arrive on a deserted street corner with your cell phone. Keep your eyes peeled for traps. Other people seem to be in on what’s going on. The phone rings, and your journey through the underbelly of the city begins. A Machine to See With mixes documentary storytelling, stolen thriller clichés, and the films of Jean-Luc Godard to create a 75 minute experience that invites you to play a part, take risks, engage in games, and make the ethical decisions we all, in the end confront.”

I did not choose to engage in this project. However, I was told that the decision you make tell you a lot about yourself. And in the end you will be required to commit a crime – will you follow your instructions? Well, that depends on your integrity, bravery and ability to decipher right or wrong within the context of a unique circumstance.

I did not see the following three screenings, but heard positive reviews.

DREAMING OF LUCID LIVING

Mkiwa Matreyek

MYTH AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Miwa Matreyek

ELEPHANT

Deke Weaver

HERE (THE STORY SLEEPS)

Braden King

A unique line of contemporary gothic jewelry was inspired by "The House on Black Lake" . The unique items were created by Bella Ciccarelli.

Readers have requested I offer  page number and a taste of grovel scene in "The House on Black Lake". The scene is near end of book, on page 226. It shouldn't be read by those who prefer to not know what's coming - go straight to Amazon link.

Excerpt from Chapter 29 - "The Struggle Before Dawn":

           “Will you remain still if I move off you,” I hear Ramey ask me. My eyelids flicker open to view him slide off and move to the edge of the blanket, where he lowers his head to his knees and covers his face with his hands. Woozy and light-headed, I lie still and wait for the dizziness to pass. A strange choking sound issues from him, and I open my eyes to a sight I would never have thought possible, not in a thousand lifetimes.

             Ramey Sandeley is crying.

          “Did you bring me to the lake to kill me?” I ask him in a hoarse whisper.

          “I’m sorry if I frightened or hurt you. Please forgive me; forgive me for everything. I never meant to harm you. I only wanted to stop you from leaving me", he says, and lifts his head to look at me through streams of tears.  “The first time I saw you was the first time I felt myself come alive. Your eyes pierced through mine like fucking razor blades and I saw in you all the wonders of the universe. I felt I’d found my mate, someone I could share all the crazy fantasies, ideas, and dreams. And in the darkness, every night, I wished you close to me, to stave off the monstrous evils that dogged me. It was you, only you . . .” 

          He wipes his tears with the back of his hand, takes a deep breath, and pushes himself up from the ground. His face contorts as he appears to struggle against an insurmountable force.   “Sacrifice means nothing unless you are willing to give up something you can’t live without. I brought you here for a purpose. But things have changed . . .”

TO VIEW CINEMATIC TRAILER FEATURING SCENES FROM THE HOUSE ON BLACK LAKE              GO TO HOME PAGE

It is a well guarded secret that  many women desire to see men grovel.  Even better is to see a strong man grovel, and even better a strong, handsome, sexy man groveling. Crying, on knees, begging, is best.  If he is wearing a knight' s clothing, gladiator get-up, wears fangs, or a kilt, all the better.

When I began writing The House on Black Lake it was clear that charismatic Ramey Sandeley, who had never heard the word "no", would have to fall hard, and grovel to have any hope of seducing Alexandra Brighton, who had left a controlling husband, and made a vow at a sacred shrine to be true to her manifest destiny.  I wanted him down on his knees, in tears, begging for forgiveness, like a little boy who has gotten in big trouble.

But I had created more of a challenge than I had imaged. There is nothing more sexy than a powerful man who gives over to his vulnerability. When seen raw, naked,and  stripped of the confines of power, men are such gorgeous creatures.

The problem is getting them there - especially the alpha variety.  Also, be careful what you wish for - he can use "the grovel" to take you straight to his goal. Is it true emotion, or merely a tool to maintain his control? It depends on the nature of the beast.

In the process of marketing my novel The House on Black Lake, I have spoken with women woman about their favorite grovel scenes in novels, and have enjoyed their comments in the romance forums. Following are the most commonly mentioned novels with grovel scenes.

1. Until You  Judith McNaught ( apparently she is the master of "the grovel")

2. Something Wonderful by Judith McNaught

3. Simply Love by Catherine Anderson

4. Sullivan's Woman by Nora Roberts

5. That Scandelous Evening by Christine Dodd

6. To the Ends of the Earth by Elizabeth Lowell

7. The Lover by Nicole Jordan

8. Heaven, Texas by Susan E. Phillips

9. If You Dare  by Kresley Cole

10. Truly, Madly Yours by Rachel Gibson

11. His Every Kiss  by Laura Lee Guhrke

12. Sinfully Sexy  by Linda Frances Lee

13. The Duke by  Gaelen Foley

14. The Wedding Survivor by Julia London

15. Loving Julia by Karen Robards

16. Duncan's Bride by Linda Howard

17. Splendid by Julia Quinn

18. Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell. Rhett butler is probably one of the most ideal male heroes every written, as he is decidedly alpha, yet his vulnerability is powerful when his heart is involved, and his grovel scene is very touching, indeed.

19. Wicked Angel by Julie London

20. The Dangerous Gentleman by Julie London

21. The Master of Seduction by Kinley MacGregor

22. Lady Gallant by  Suzanne Robertson

23. Coyote's Mate by Lora Leigh

24. Fire and Rain by Elizabeth Lowell

25. Fired Up - Book One of the Dreamlight Trilogy by Jayne Anne Drentz

House on Black Lake. He's beginning to losing his composure - but will he break and grovel?

THE HOUSE ON BLACK LAKE HAS BEEN ADAPTED TO SCREENPLAY. GO TO HOME PAGE TO VIEW PROVOCATIVE CINEMATIC TRAILER

In my travels promoting my novel, I have asked women what themes they most desire to read about in books.  Asterisks are placed next to topics touched upon in The House on Black Lake,  The list is in no particular order, latest topic first.

l. A broken heart.

2. Man uses woman for revenge, kidnapped, seduced, etc.

3. Good sex scenes, either explicit or implicit.

4. Heroine nearly dies, hero is terrified, realizes how much he loves her. Even better, is when hero is directly, or indirectly responsible for putting heroine in jeopardy.

5. Second chance ex-spouses.

6. Cheating hero.* This one is very popular. But, some want him to realize he loves his wife and family and wants them back.

7. Less than perfect heroes/heroines – scarred or disabled.

8. Rugged cowboy-types.

9. Hero helps deliver his baby.

10. Heroine saves or rescues hero from harm.

11. Bad Boys.

12. Pent up sexual frustration – repression.

13. Great grovel scenes – where rugged hero breaks down.* This is very popular!

14. Hero disappears and reappears years later.

15. Steamy AND emotional scenes between lovers.”

16. Romance – candlelit dinners, walks in the park. Etc.

17. Obsessed or deeply in lust.

18. Villain in love with heroine.

19. Dominant, alpha males.

20. Romance and thriller.

21. Widowed hero grieving over first wife.

22. Vampire and paranormal love.

23. Vikings!.

24. Smutty historical romance.

25. H/H in historical garb.

26. Men with long (preferably dark) flowing hair*.

27. Alpha female who isn’t borderline abusive*

28. Hero bribes heroine to be with him.

29. Heroine playing hard to get.*

30. Drunken sex.*

31. Bad boy falls for nice girl.*

32 Virginal or repressed heroine who falls apart at the touch of the RIGHT man.*

33. Forced mate scenario in paranormal.

34. Jealous bad boy.*

35. Ménage romance.*

36.Incest.*

37. Two men competing for woman.*

38. Forced sex where h/h have strong connection.*

39. Sheik books and big hunky H’s and the feisty heroine.

40. Bad boy who bosses H around until they fall in love.*

41. Spanking/forced sex scenes.*

42. Love triangles.*

43. Bisexual love.*

44. Older women/younger men.*

45. Rugged/outdoorsy men.*

46. Heroine enjoys sex.*

47. Haunted places/ghosts.*

48. Tattoos, piercings, branding, etc.*

49. Beauty and the beast themes.*

50. Time travel – men in kilts, on island, or anywhere ancient.*

THE HOUSE ON BLACK LAKE HAS BEEN ADAPTED TO SCREENPLAY. GO TO HOME PAGE TO VIEW PROVOCATIVE CINEMATIC TRAILER

 In the process of promoting my novel, I have spoken with many romance enthusiests and spent time researching forums devoted to the romance genre.  I have compled a list of the fifty most popular themes. Asterisks are placed next to topics touched upon in [amazon_link id="0982500203" target="_blank" container="" container_class="" ]The House on Black Lake[/amazon_link].

Book Clubs may want to use  list as  beginning of discussion, or have members write their own and create an extended list that can be forwarded along to community sites. Knowledgable readers may add title examples for each topic to create a resource for individuals to find books that appeal to them.  It is also helpful to the writers of romance novels to be aware of what their readers desire to experience. This is especially true if topics considered taboo are broached. Reading offers a great opportunity to release fear and repressed desires, and explore various aspects of ourselves and our life journey through the experiences of others.

 A number of the themes listed below, such as alpha males, dominant males, cheaters, and forced love are dealt with in my other blogs, including reading examples. I plan to add lists, and will soon make site open to readers suggessions, so please return for more information as it is gathered.

The list of popular themes in in no particular order.

l. A broken heart. The greatest reading choice for this seems to be "Stormfire.*

2. Man uses woman for revenge, kidnapped, seduced, etc. "Stormfire" again, this must be a great read.*

3. Good sex scenes, either explicit or implicit.*

4. Heroine nearly dies, hero is terrified, realizes how much he loves her. Even better, is when hero is directly, or indirectly responsible for putting heroine in jeopardy...*

5. Second chance ex-spouses.

6. Cheating hero.* This one is very popular. But, some want him to realize he loves his wife and family and wants them back.

7. Less than perfect heroes/heroines – scarred or disabled.

8. Rugged cowboy-types.*

9. Hero helps deliver his baby.

10. Heroine saves or rescues hero from harm.

11. Bad Boys.*

12. Pent up sexual frustration – repression.*

13. Great grovel scenes – where rugged hero breaks down.* This is very popular, and an ideal topic for discussion.

14. Hero disappears and reappears years later.

15. Steamy AND emotional scenes between lovers.”*

16. Romance – candlelit dinners, walks in the park. Etc.*

17. Obsessed or deeply in lust.*

18. Villain in love with heroine.*

19. Dominant, alpha males.*

20. Romance and thriller.*

21. Widowed hero grieving over first wife.

22. Vampire and paranormal love.

23. Vikings!.

24. Smutty historical romance.

25. H/H in historical garb.

26. Men with long (preferably dark) flowing hair*.

27. Alpha female who isn’t borderline abusive*

28. Hero bribes heroine to be with him.

29. Heroine playing hard to get.*

30. Drunken sex.*

31. Bad boy falls for nice girl.*

32 Virginal or repressed heroine who falls apart at the touch of the RIGHT man.*

33. Forced mate scenario in paranormal.

34. Jealous bad boy.*

35. Ménage romance.*

36. Incest.*

37. Two men competing for woman.*

38. Forced sex where h/h have strong connection.*

39. Sheik books and big hunky H’s and the feisty heroine.

40. Bad boy who bosses H around until they fall in love.*

41. Spanking/forced sex scenes.*

42. Love triangles.*

43. Bisexual love.*

44. Older women/younger men.*

45. Rugged/outdoorsy men.*

46. Heroine enjoys sex.*

47. Haunted places/ghosts.*

48. Tattoos, piercings, branding, etc.*

49. Beauty and the beast themes.*

50. Time travel – men in kilts, on island, or anywhere ancient.*

Well, that’s a beginning. The list says a lot about what women really want, and discussing these topics is a great exercise in female empowerment.

When Alexandra Brighton enters Black Lake she only knows what she has been taught by contemporary society. The lessons she learns in the underground teach her about her deeper desires and instincts. Some of the topics are a bit disturbing, but I believe all women desire to reconnect with baser animal instincts and enjoy the powerful union between the sexes.

Most of us love a good vampire tale.