I wonder if female writers of today realize how much they owe to female writers like George Elliot’s. I expect not as writing today for a woman is no big deal. If fluffier and pretty much anyone can do it and not a lot of people think for themselves any more. They're all too caught up worrying what everyone else thinks. There are no more ground breaking writers out there with a strong voice. There are just mimics.
Monday, 3 October 2011
A woman worth her salt...
I wonder if female writers of today realize how much they owe to female writers like George Elliot’s. I expect not as writing today for a woman is no big deal. If fluffier and pretty much anyone can do it and not a lot of people think for themselves any more. They're all too caught up worrying what everyone else thinks. There are no more ground breaking writers out there with a strong voice. There are just mimics.
Posted by Unknown at 7:12 pm 4 comments
Labels: Amarinda Jones, breaking down barriers, George Elliot, scandal, strong women, Writers
Tuesday, 11 December 2007
The power of women…
Psst...wanna win some great books to read over the holiday break? Yeah? Well keep reading and get your pen ready...
Job hunt day two - I got offered the word's most boring accounts job. Yes, I am well aware all jobs are boring but this one was so mind numbing that in the interview I alternated being pinching my leg to stay awake and contemplating whether to just say "Please shut up I can't take anymore." Anyway, I declined it. They were disappointed. I think I was the most exciting person they had met. Anyway, to me, there is no point jumping from one crap job to another where you know you won't stay. So as Scarlett O'Hara said - Tomorrow is another day. " Damn right Scarlett.
The new Australian Prime Minister is off overseas to do an international talk-fest and all the newspapers can talk about is that when Kevin is away, the deputy PM, a woman, will run the country. Shock, gasp, horror! How can Julia be in charge without having a penis? And to add
insult to injury the woman is not married! How can we allow an unmarried woman, who is not guided through life by a husband, run the country?? Oh puh-lease…get a grip. Women have been running the world for years – like this will be any different.
Look at Queen Elizabeth the first. She had control of Britain in a dangerous time when war and treachery was common place. Although men were around to advise her, that woman ran the whole show and – gasp – she was not married! Nor would she allow herself to be bullied into it because that’s what women did and still do. We are in the 21st Century, you think we would have worked out that you do not need a penis to be powerful.
Powerful influential women are everywhere from the mothers who raise children, to women who are in the armed forces, to women in business who run vast companies to the girls at school who know exactly what they plan to do with their lives before they leave school. One of the most powerful women in the world right now is Oprah, who is unmarried, but her words have great power that can influence millions. All this is done without a penis. Go figure…
So what is my point? If you are a woman reading this you know. A woman can run a country, a house, a pie drive, the vacuum cleaner, a car pool, hold down a job,or do anything she has to and still be a woman without either a man to help or guide her. Don’t get me wrong men are great but women are more than capable of dealing with anything in life. The following is an excellent example of how real life women cope. We all know them. North Atlantic Nights Author Emmie Graham shared this with me –
My sister Mary Ellen is the strongest woman I know. When her daughter was diagnosed with leukemia, at age 11, and given a 5% chance of survival, she said, "My child is not going to die." She proceeded to find the best doctors in the state of Texas and persuaded them to use her daughter as case study for stem cell transplant that was still experimental (8 years ago) They spent a year getting her daughter healthy enough for transplant, then went through transplant and then spent 100 days, just the 2 of them, in total isolation. During all of this, my sister would not allow anyone near her daughter or herself, if they did not believe that she was going to live. All naysayers were eliminated from their world. Today, her daughter is college student on full academic scholarship. The two of them are the closest mother and daughter team I have ever known. My niece feels like she can take on the world, because, thanks to her mother, she has already beat leukemia. My sister Mary Ellen is the strongest woman I know.
http://www.cerridwenpress.com/productpage.asp?ISBN=9781419909122
See? Strong women abound.
Will extra pressure be on the acting PM today because she is a woman? Yes. But hopefully one day those with the belief in the penis ruling all will snap out it and join the rest of us in the land of reality.
On www.kkirch.blogspot.com Kelly left us with an Emmeline who was in not mood to be trifled with…
Emmeline eyed him cross ways, using his same expression back on him. He wanted that? She shrugged. Who was she to judge? "Guarantee it."
"Here ya go, love." Wendell skipped forward with the peeler, grabbed her by the hand and tugged. "He's this way. C'mon then, before he leaves the docks!"
Keeping the mood alive I have gone with….
“Emmeline baby! Long time no see!” Jack threw his arms out towards her as she approached.
“Back off or I’ll take out the other eye.” She aimed her peeler at his face.
“Yeah, like botulism.” Emmeline looked around her. Sailors leered at her. She narrowed her eyes evilly at them. They scarpered. “So what’s going on here, Blinky?”
“I need your help with a small matter.”
“Uh huh.” Did she look like the caring, helpful sort?
“Well you know Mabel at The Gutted Frog Inn.” That she had dropped her peeler a fraction made Jack a little more confident. Emmeline was not a woman to piss around with. “Well Mabel has been sharing an interlude with a stranger who has a key.”
“Okay, so she’s shagging a guy with a key. Get to the point.”
“I need to get that key.”
“Why?” And what’s in it for me?
“It unlocks something that I need very badly.”
“What? A set of balls, Jack?”
Bitch. Cow. Shrew. That he needed her again galled him. “No Emmeline dear, there is an ancient parchment that is locked within the Gutted Frog statue at the inn.”
“And for some reason you can’t ask Mabel to get it for you.”
“She’s still a tad pissed I did not turn up for our wedding. But she likes you.” You’re both screaming harpies. “Be a dear and speak to Mabel about lifting the key.”
“Bilge breath, I have never been a ‘dear’ but for a seventy-five percent cut of the loot, I’ll tell you what I’ll do.”
Will our girl Emmeline get a cut of the profits? Find out on www.annycook.blogspot.com
12 Days of Romance – who has today’s clue? I could tell you but there would be no fun in that for you… read, search, find and enjoy.
Do you want to win some fantastic holiday reading? Of course you do. If so come celebrate the Twelve days of Romance with 12 authors from Ellora's Cave, Wild Rose Press, Total-E-Bound and Cerridwen Press. Each day beginning December 8th and running through December 19th one of the twelve authors will tell what their "True love gave to them" on either their blog or website.
Collect all twelve answers and e-mail them to anny@annycook.com with 12 days of Romance in the subject line to win some great books. There will be three lucky winners. The prizes –1st prize--6 books2nd prize--4 books3rd prize--2 booksAll books and prize winners will be drawn randomly
Anny Cook Winter Hearts
Sandra Cox Boji Stones
Bronwyn Green Ronan's Grail
Heather Hiestand Cards Never Lie
Barbara Huffert Deal of a Lifetime
Amarinda Jones Mad About Mirabelle
Kelly Kirch Time for Love
Cindy Spencer Pape Cowboy's Christmas Bride
Brynn Paulin Fallen
JacquƩline Roth Access Denied
KZ Snow Mrs. Claws
Lacey Thorn Earth Moves
All answers must be received no later than the stroke of midnight 21st December (Northern hemisphere time) or worlds collide and you don’t want to be responsible for that now do you?
www.freewebs.com/amarindajones/
Go ahead: Live with abandon. Be outrageous at any age. What are you saving your best self for?
Posted by Unknown at 6:26 pm 7 comments
Labels: Amarinda Jones, Anny Cook, Emmie Graham, Kelly Kirch, North Atlantic Nights, strong women
Monday, 22 October 2007
Monday, Monday
At the reception…
As plates of soup were served, Stella felt movement under the table. Her skirt was suddenly being tugged further up her leg. She looked at Kit Kincaid, who in turn looked back at her innocently. A horrible thought occurred to her. Oh God, he wouldn’t, would he? Stella’s mouth dropped as she felt his hand starting to burrow further under her skirt. Bloody hell! This could and should not be happening. Did the man have no sense of decorum at all?
“Stop it now!” Stella hissed softly at him, as she clutched her soup spoon in one hand and slid her other hand under the table to push his hands away from what she knew was his objective. Although she did not want to create a scene she would.
Kit’s hand slid up the bare flesh of Stella’s thigh seeking and finding the edge of her panties.
“Talk to me, princess,” Kit said sotto voiced, looking like he did not have a care in the world as his hand sought out the hidden, hot prize he knew awaited his touch.
Stella dropped her spoon and grabbed the table edge with one hand as she battled the other that was sliding into her panties.
“I don’t want to talk to you!” Stella returned in a furious whisper. “Stop it now!”
Kit slid his long fingers under the fabric and stroked the soft curls between her legs. He felt Stella tense and heard her strangled gasp. She was soft and wet to the touch. Perfect.
“Agree to meet me outside now and I’ll stop.” He continued to push his way on into the moist folds between her legs, seeking entrance to the core of her.
Oh, dear…what will Stella do?
It got explained to me today what my problem was. What’s that? Wasn’t I aware that I had a problem? Apparently not and I do so enjoy it when a man decides he needs to tell you what your problem is. Yes, of course, he’s an idiot because he has no idea of the bollicking he is about to receive when he finishes his dissertation on Amarinda Jones. Hey, I know I have faults. I can’t whistle. There are probably others but they are probably only trivial.
Anyway back to the man.
“You are very strong willed Amarinda. That’s intimidating.”
“An office full of men is intimidated by one woman?” I asked faking shock even thought I knew it was true – but let’s face it, we women are good at faking it when we have to.
“It’s like this Amarinda, when we make a decision and we expect everyone to follow it, not suggest how we can make the decision better or why you think the decision stinks.”
“If I can correct you, I believe I said the decision was crap.” (pardon the pun...read on)
“I know there is one of me to ten of you but unless you have a vagina, you are not using the female toilets.” When I mentioned the ‘v’ world several men fell silent. I suspect because it was the closest they were every going to get to one.
Deep sigh. “It would make things easier if we could all share.”
“And it would be fine if you all adhered to the same state of hygiene a woman adheres to but as you don’t I will consider this a health and safety issue and take it further.”
I won. Yes, I am a pushy bitch but they know they would be lost without me - my last sick day (Okay I wasn’t sick, I was writing) proved that when they all ran around like headless chooks. Sure, they could sack me and it would not bother me a whit. At the moment until something better comes along, that has the same writing in work time potential, I’ll stick it out as it suits my purposes.
So, you’ve noticed the pictures of strong women? No, I am sure they did not have to fight over access to the ladies loos but they are women that we should admire and aspire to be like. The quiet, confidence of Eleanor Roosevelt as she directed the US President, the guts and arrogance of Elizabeth the 1st as she held power over Britain in a dangerous time and where would Kermit be without Miss Piggy? In the swamp and he knows it.
I think too many women worry about what a man will think of them. Sure, lots of men won’t like you but they probably weren’t going to like you anyway. Besides, who wants a weak man?
Last Man Standing
Sequel to Swift of Heart
Present Day in the Dimension of Melotia
“I am not the father.”
The words were cold and harsh to hear and even harder to speak. But it was all Alex Navarro could say when he stopped dead in his tracks and he saw her. Amy Hart. The shock of seeing her so suddenly gripped him like a vice and squeezed at his heart. This was the woman who had haunted his dreams for the last six months. The woman no other could ever compare with in his heart and mind. The same woman, who now stood before him, momentarily flinching as if his words had stung her. But it was only for a moment, for as his eyes locked with hers he knew once again Amy Hart had raised her invisible shields against him allowing nothing to touch her emotionally.
Alex looked down again at swelling of her stomach. He was not sure which emotion gripped him the most—shock, delight or just plain anger at not knowing of her condition. Amy Hart was pregnant. She was standing before him looking so damn vulnerable and so incredibly beautiful that it made him feel so many things he had denied ever wanting to feel again. Love, longing and forever. The one word that came catapulting into his mind was ‘mine’. It had never been any different. Such was her effect on him. Alex Navarro wanted Amy Hart. Yet he could never have her. He knew he would be her downfall. He could not risk either the woman he loved or his child. Alex had to deny his heart.
What does Alex do? And more to the point what will Amy allow him to do?
Posted by Unknown at 7:09 pm 7 comments
Labels: Anny Cook, Kelly Kirch, Last Man Standing, strong women, Thief of Mine


