Moonday’s Heroic Hunk in History: Prince Paris of Troy

Prince Paris of Troy was a common figure in Greek mythology. He is first seen when a seer predicted that he would bring about the ruin of Troy. Unable to kill the newborn prince, his parents gave him to a herdsman to expose in the country. legend has it that he was suckled by a bear until the herdsman returned and discovered that he was alive. He kept the child and raised him as a herdsman. When he grew up, he was recognized by the god Ares for his honesty in judging a bull fight. Later, when Eris, the goddess of discord, threw a golden apple labeled “for the fairest” into a wedding celebration of the Greek gods, Paris was asked to judge between three goddesses. Since the goddesses were all beautiful, he agreed to accept a bribe for his judgment. Hera offered him ownership of Europe. Athena offered him warrior skills and wisdom. Aphrodite offered him the most beautiful woman. That happened to be Queen Helen of Sparta who was already married to King Menelaus. After some encouragement from Aphrodite, Helen ran off with Paris to Troy with Menelaus and all of the Greek kings and heroes in pursuit. What happened is a story for next week.

The Attic red figure vase at Antikenmuseen in Berlin, Germany dates from the 5th century BC. Hermes (with the winged cap) leads the three goddesses Aphrodite (the figure in the middle), Athene and Hera to Paris for his judgement. The prize is a golden apple for the fairest. The Trojan prince sits in the doorway holding a royal staff and lyre. Before him stands Hermes, holding a kerykeion (herald’s wand) and wearing a chlamys (traveler’s cloak) and winged cap. Of the three goddesses, Aphrodite is veiled, and holds a winged Eros (god of love) and myrtle wreath in her hands; Athene holds a spear and helm; Hera is crowned and bears a miniature lion and royal lotus-tipped staff. Paris is about to make a judgment that will fulfill the prophecy made at his birth.

My First Erotic Romance: “Her Teddy Bare”

Her Teddy Bare, my first erotic romance, is out today. It’s one of Champagne’s Carnal Passions Quick Reads – part of the Aphrodite’s Island series. I knew it was hot (light BDSM with a chuckle), but I almost fell out of my chair when I saw those FOUR flames. Here’s the cover and blurb. Click the cover below or HERE to read the excerpt or buy ($.99).

After dumping her unfaithful fiancé, Diana Harper accepts an invitation “to attend a private even t at Miss A’s island retreat to experience your most secret dreams and fondest fantasies.” Miss A gives “Teddy” to Diana as an “attendant.” Despite his best efforts, Teddy isn’t a submissive and the skimpy gold thong is ridiculous on a man his size. Although she’s not a domme, Diana plays his game to see where it leads. When Teddy offers her profound passion, the best sex ever, and the prospect of love, will she take a chance on another broken heart?
Theodore Bareston will do whatever it takes to win Diana’s love, even though “whatever” includes wearing a thong and posing nude in chains when Diana’s interest in her art revives. As the sexual tension builds and passions explode, Teddy is determined to convince Diana that he is the only man for her.

Teddy loves to cook and the recipe for the omelette  he cooks  for his Mistress Di is at my blog site, http://ritabay.com/ .  I’m also participating in the Four Seduced Muses’ Caliente Blog Hop. Loads of valuable swag from the Seduced Muses,  more at every one of the 99 participating sites. I’m giving away copies of my books. Stop by my website, register, then jump from there.  Next week, a series.  Rita

Moonday’s Heroic Hunk: Isacc Asimov

While completing an interview recently, I was asked a question about favorite authors. I hadn’t thought of Isaac Asimov (1920 – 1992) in years. I had read and reread his scifi novels often but had moved on to history and nonfiction. Not just as a writer, but as a teacher, lecturer, and humanist, Isaac Asimov was a real hero. He was one of the most prolific writers of all time. He wrote or edited more than 500 books. Asimov was a master of hard science fiction. One of my all-time favorite series and Asimov’s most famous work is the Foundation Series, with the Galactic Empire series, and the Robot series. Together, the novels created an amazing comprehensive scifi story. If you’re a fan of scifi and haven’t read Asimov, you’re in for a treat. Also, today I’m blogging about creating new worlds at a new scifi/fantasy group blog with a half-dozen scifi/fantasy authors at Worlds of the Imagination (http://worldsoftheimagination.wordpress.com/). Check out my previous blogs on the new SyFy series, Defiance. Next week, An Island Hero. Rita Bay

Moonday’s Heroic Hunk in History: Lorenzo de’ Medici

Moonday’s Heroic Hunk in History is Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici (1463 – 1503) who was an Italian banker and politician. He belonged to the junior branch of the House of Medici of Florence. When his father died he was placed under the guardianship of Lorenzo the Magnificent, who was the ruler of Florence. His father had tried to protect him and his brother from the senior branch but Lorenzo forced them to make loans to him, which beggared the younger branch, and later only repaid half.

The younger Lorenzo received a great education and was a fellow student and friend of explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci. Lorenzo grew up to be a poet and supporter of the arts with liberal views. In 1482 at 19 years old, Lorenzo was married to Semiramide Appiano whose family was a valuable commercial and political connection. Lorenzo the Magnificent may have commissioned Botticelli’s Allegory of Spring for the wedding with the younger Lorenzo as Mercury and Simiramide as the central Grace who is looking at Mercury or as Flora. He’s on the far left reaching up to pick an orange, a symbol of the Medici family.

He served as an ambassador to Paris but got into trouble with his older cousin and was removed from the roles of citizens of Florence eligible for public office until the older Lorenzo died in 1492. Shortly after his death, his son was overthrown and the Republic of Florence came into being. Lorenzo and his brother were prominent in the administration. He protected Botticelli, Michelangelo, Filippino Lippi, and Bartoloemo Scala from Savonarola’s destruction of the arts and artists. He refused to become the ruler of Florence when Savonarola himself was burned at the stake. His descendants in the younger branch of the Medici family became the ruler of Florence.

Check out my new group blog – Worlds of the Imagination, a group of fantasy/scifi writers  – where I’m writing about the new scifi program, Defiance.

Moonday’s Heroic Hunk in History: Timothy Berners-Lee

Today’s Heroic Hunk in History is Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee (1955 – ). Sir Timothy, or “TimBL” as he’s known to his friends, is a British computer scientist who invented the World Wide Web. In 1989 he proposed an information management system between computers. By the end of the year he had managed communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client and server over the Internet. He the director of the World Wide Web Consortium which oversees continued development of the Web. He was honored at the London Olympic Stadium as the “Inventor of the World Wide Web.” Did someone forget to invite Al Gore?

Why Sir Timothy? Today at The Writers Vineyard, an authors’ blog for authors about writing and publishing, I posted the first installment on a series about the web, webpages, and blogging. In 350 words, “Websites & Blogs – Oh My!! Part 1: Web Vocabulary and Basics” summarizes the alphabet soup that confronts the author who wants to build/maintain a webpage. By understanding the basics of how the web works, an author can make informed decisions about their personal needs for their web presence. Next month, we’ll build on today to look at web hosts, domain names, and decisions about both. Check it out at http://thewritersvineyard.com/ . Until next Monday, Rita Bay

Release Day for The Aegis

SO excited that today is release day for The Aegis, a vampires vs Light Warriors paranormal romance, from Champagne Books. Check out the cover by Petra. Click the cover to read a blurb or buy.

Melinda Kildare, antiquarian and rare book dealer extraordinaire, returns to her shop after an estate sale with a massive, sealed barrel. Too late, she discovers that the Aegis medallion that traps her head-first in the bottom of the barrel is the bait used by a family of vampires to capture and enslave women of power.

Light Warrior Damian Sinclair who has battled the Dark Ones for centuries answers Melinda’s call—the Call of a lifemate. While protecting her from the Dark Ones who pursue her relentlessly, he introduces her to passion, love, and her heritage as a Shield Bearer of the Light.

Will they find happiness as they unite to fight the Dark Ones or fall victims to the Dark forces ranged against them?

“The Aegis” Champagne Books, April, 2013
“Her Teddy Bare” Champagne’s Carnal Passions, May, 2013
“Search & Rescue” Secret Cravings, July, 2013
“Finding Eve” Champagne Books, September, 2013
“Into the Lyons’ Den” Champagne Books, 2012
“His Obsession” Siren BookStrand, 2012
“His Desire” Siren BookStrand, 2012

Moonday’s Heroic Hunk in History: Lord Byron

George Gordon Byron (1788 – 1824) known as “Lord Byron.” was the 6^th Baron Byron. He is considered one of Britain’s greatest, if most notorious, poets. He was famous for his poems Don Juan and Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. He also wrote the “She Walks in Beauty.”

Lord Byron’s childhood was difficult. He suffered from a “club foot,” perhaps as a result of polio, that kept him from making friends or participating in some activities, though he did box in later life. His father committed suicide leaving him heir to an uncle’s barony. His heiress mother, bankrupted and abused by his alcoholic father, barely provided for his needs until sliding into alcoholism herself before her death in 1811.

Lord Byron was a Regency bad boy. He embarked on a series of affairs with married women, was rumored to have had an incestuous relationship and a child with his half-sister, and suspected of homosexuality. Lady Caroline Lamb, one of his cast-off mistresses who pursued him to the point of embarrassing her family, said Byron was “Mad, bad, and dangerous to know.” Byron’s activities forced him to seek exile in Europe where he continued his profligate lifestyle, notably with his friend, the poet Percy Shelley. Eventually, Byron fought in the Greek War of Independence where he succumbed to a fever when he was 35 years old.

BTW, Check out my blog at The Writers Vineyard (http://thewritersvineyard.com/) on the new anthology, Shared Whispers, that contains my story, Nimue’s Daughter. Also, Rita Bay’s Blog (http://ritabay.com) is featuring Martin Luther King this week as you’ve never see him.   Rita Bay

Sometimes Life Gets in the Way

I haven’t posted since the first week in June but sometimes life gets in the way. My writing career was interrupted by a death in the family, a rat bastard burglarizing and trashing my mama’s house, and the difficult decision to make permanent a joining of households – all while living for the last month in an internet dead zone.

Everything should be back to normal in the next few weeks but I couldn’t wait to catch everyone up on everything. My debut Regency Historical Romance His Obsession, Book 1 of the Montclair Chronicles, was released in April by Siren BookStrand. It was on the Mainstream bestseller list for two months. I was recently notified that His Obsession received a 5-Cup Review from Coffee Time Romance AND was awarded Reviewer Cherokee’s “Coffee Time Reviewer’s Recommend”  Award for the month. His Desire, Book 2 of the Montclair Chronicles, was released the end of May and is on the BookStrand Mainstream bestseller list.

Into the Lyon’s Den, a paranormal shapeshifter novella, is scheduled for release by Champagne Books in August. Champagne also contracted to publish The Aegis in April, 2013. The Aegis is the first novella in Light Warrior series in which a race of immortal Light Warriors and their shield-bearing lifemates defends mankind from the evil vampires who happen to be their kin.

Today I’m blogging at The Writer’s Vineyard about “A Window into the Paranormal World” which suggests elements of world building for paranormal stories. Check it out at http://thewritersvineyard.com/ . Next week, my first Paranormal Hunk in History. Rita Bay

Moonday’s Literary Heroic Hunk: Tariq the Tuareg

Meet Tariq the Tuareg (or the Gorgeous or the Mysterious) the harem master who saved, Emmy, the heroine in my debut historical novel HIS OBSESSION, from sale in the slave markets of Bou Regreg.  Or at least the pic of how I pictured him.

The Tuareg are a nomadic Berber people who inhabit the Saharan regions of North Africa. Tuareg is an Arabic term meaning abandoned by God. The Tuareg who consider themselves white (though some are very dark) call themselves Imohag, the free men. Since ancient times the Tuareg used the trade routes to transport salt and spices, and slaves.

The men are known for wearing a dark blue veil that covers their head, neck, and face which they begin wearing when they are young adults. (Notice the blue dye faded onto Tariq’s face.) They’re called the Blue Men of  the Sahara or Men of the Veil. Unlike most north African tribes, they are matrilineal. The origin of the nomadic Tuareg , where they came from or when they arrived in the Sahara is unknown. That is until I remembered where I had seen that distinctive facial structure.

Check out a pic of  Tuareg men against the death mask paintings of 2,000-year-old mummies (and a reconstruction from a skull) from the Fayyum Oasis in Hawara in an ancient Egypt cemetery.

 

The mummies are believed to be descendents of the elite Greek soldiers who helped Alexander the Great conquer Egypt in the 3rd century BC, then served Ptolemy, the first Greek pharaoh.  

See more pics and read excerpt of  Tariq and Emmy’s first meeting at ritabay.com. Next week, the Anatomy of a Cover and a Request for Reader Critiques.  Rita Bay

Moonday Heroic Hunks: The Harem & Orientalism

This month I’m celebrating the publication of my debut novel, HIS OBSESSION, from Siren BookStrand (http://www.bookstrand.com/his-obsession). The novel relates the adventures of Emeliese Alexander, a student at an elite Parisian finishing school, who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the pirate Republic of Bou Regreg (Rabat which is in what is now Morocco was the capital.) Devastated by Robert Montclair’s betrayal and doomed to live in a pirate’s harem, she created a life for herself and her unborn child, until her rescue. 

 The paintings of Rudolph Ernst were an inspiration for the descriptions of the harem where Emmy lived.  Ernst was a prominent painter in the Orientalist School of the 19th century which portrayed the rich, foreign, and somewhat salacious culture of the Ottoman Empire and North Africa. Unlike most artists, Ernst – a Vienna native who lived in Paris – traveled extensively in the area and painted from personal observations. Many of his paintings were portraits of real inhabitants of the area. It is doubtful that Ernst would have been allowed into the harems that he painted. This painting, the Favorite with the subtitle of Girl and Man, depicts a master with a concubine/slave. The man is painted much taller and in a superior, powerful stance unlike the girl who is smaller, younger and submissive. This month at ritabay.com features the Barbary pirates, their victims, their homes and harems. Today, there’s another Ernst painting in addition to the one featured here.  Next week, more Orientalist paintings, Rita Bay