Missed Busses, Lost Earrings & Time Well Spent

It was going to be a great morning. I had turned my alarm off, I could see that the temperature outside was already a balmy 49F and I was just in a comfy, happy place. I could sleep in for an hour or two and then begin my day. Yeah. You guys know where this is heading, right?

The rapid knocking began at my bedroom door. Sierra, my oldest had missed her bus. She takes CNA classes in the morning so giving her a Friday off from school just isn’t an option. So I drug myself out of bed.

As I got dressed I realized two things. First, it was raining outside, which explained why my pain level was so high. Having a spinal cord injury, multiple herniated disks putting pressure on my spinal cord, makes me very sensitive to the weather.

Today is going to be a rough one.

My second realization was that I had lost an earring somewhere yesterday. Yeah, big deal, but this annoys me when it was part of a set of spikes that I had to order specifically online because I couldn’t find what I wanted around here. I now only have three spikes, one looped spike and a double loop.

And an empty hole.

This is where your empathy should really be kicking in.

As I walked out into the house I realized that I hadn’t let my dogs out before I went to bed. Sure enough, Anika, my black lab and best friend had peed all over the conservatory. My oldest cleaned that up as I finished getting ready.

That’s one of my biggest frustration about my injury. Everything has to be so slow and precise now. I can’t just throw something on and go. The wrong move or a rapid turn can ruin me for days.

So my kid and I were finally ready to leave. We stepped outside into wind and rain so heavy that I found myself looking around for a Deadliest Catch camera crew.

Ever since my accident a few weeks ago, where my car slid off of a slick curve, my anxiety is beyond belief just getting behind the wheel. The weather today was a nice touch.

But Sierra and I drove on, laughing and talking about new things and old times. The kind of conversation we don’t seem to have a lot of anymore.

My kid missing the bus is going to cause me to hurt a lot more today. I’m glad it happened.

A little bit of teeth is a good thing

Not your typical werewolf story…expect blood to run hot.

The crackle of twigs snapping underfoot and the smell of fresh pine needles high in the Ozarks gives veterinarian Hannah Edmonds the peace she so desperately needs after a messy divorce.

Everything about her mountain vacation changes for her when she stumbles upon a beautiful, and severely wounded, black wolf.  Hannah nurses the predator back to health, giving him the care and personal attention she’s well-known for in her practice.

The fact that he heals far faster than any animal she’s ever seen before is nothing compared to the shock of being face-to-face with a mysterious man named Vaughn – the wolf no longer in sight.

Vaughn Richards knows more about Hannah than he’s willing to tell her.  He’ll force her to unleash her true nature when Hannah discovers a secret that could change everything between them.

NOTE: Contains explicit sexual language and situations.  This book is intended for mature audiences.  Do not read this story if these things offend you.

‘All The Better To’ is available at:

All The Better To:

All The Better To:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/All-The-Better-To-little-ebook/dp/B00E6R6GJW

Barnes & Noble Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/all-the-better-to-christopher-southers/1118671952?ean=2940045700436

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/406292

Traditional Marriage, A History Lesson & The Brave New World

And my state has been drug, fighting and screaming into the 21st century. This, only four months after we fortuitously failed to elect a governor who spoke of making ALL forms of sodomy a crime. (That treat you gave him being such a good boyfriend / husband? It theoretically could have landed both of you in jail.) If you listen carefully you can already hear the conservatives screaming about how this will lead to a rise in pedophilia and people marrying their pets. You know, just like when the arrest of a Virginia couple for breaking Commonwealth law ended up going all the way to the Supreme Court, resulting in a ruling allowing interracial marriage across the country. Remember the huge increase in human - feline marriage applications after that? No? That’s because it didn't happen. Those proclaiming that they're trying to 'protect the sanctity' of traditional marriage need to sit down with their third wife and look it up. Grab your closest Bible. If you marry someone outside of your own faith you are not in a 'traditional marriage'. Virgin girls are supposed to be taken as spoils of war and submit sexually to their new 'owners'. Nope, not military policy anymore. If a woman is raped she is to marry her rapist, but to be fair, the rapist must pay the girl's father fifty sheckels, estimated to be about $12.50, for the loss of his ‘property’. Don’t forget the polygamy, the kings with hundreds of concubines and my personal favorite, the part where a widow without a son was required to marry her brother in law and, of course, submit to him sexually. Many of my religious friends will tell me that those laws ‘don’t count’, how everything changed when Jesus showed up on the scene. Jesus had something to say about those old laws that he allegedly got rid of. "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest part or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place." (Matthew 5:17 NAB) So there are two ways of looking at this. Either there has never really been a true ‘traditional marriage’, or we, as people, have been changing it all along, as our society expands and evolves and we learn to respect other people, cultures and genders. I’m married to a woman because I’m straight. It’s my second marriage. Along with myself and their mother, my children are lucky enough to have a stepmother and a step-fiance’ who love them like crazy. I also have friends who are gay and  bi. Some of them would love to get married. Would that hurt or destroy my marriage? Actually it would strengthen it. Why? Because it would bring more love into this world. Look around you. What do you see? Darkness, sadness, hate. And we’re trying to deny people a way to strengthen the bonds of their love? There are many ‘traditional’ things that are antiquated and whose time is long past. Slavery, abuse of people by those in power, killing in the name of God. Love is a message that has been spoken, taught and preached throughout recorded history. Instead of fighting over love, instead of fighting about those who love, it’s time to simply allow people to love. All men, all people, were created equal. Let’s simply accept that and move on.

The 'Buy Me' Button, Mom & Why I Do What I Do

I just had an incredible moment of ‘Duh!’. My amazing site mistress who has done so much for me, including set up wickeddreamsemporium.com which I have given so little attention to that I should be beaten, has installed a ‘Buy The Books’ button up top here on the Emporium! Now you can click and go directly to Amazon, iTunes, the Sony store, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble or Kobo and get your fix of Christopher Southers.

In my defense, the list DOES update slowly, so not all of my books (‘Fallen Angels’ for example) are listed and some of my newer works (again ‘Angels’ is a perfect example) haven’t made their way to every location, but if you want it, it’s out there. Amazon has everything and Smashwords has almost everything else in my catalog in any format for any reader including your phone or computer.

The only thing I haven’t published on Smashwords is ‘A Taste of Joy’, the posthumous collection of my mother’s poetry. I managed to type it up and get it out on Amazon on Mother’s Day last year, but my intention is to republish it the way it should be, with photos of her life, scans of the original documents, many of which were in her own handwriting.

I want to do her justice, but right now I just can’t handle it. It’s been two weeks since the anniversary of her suicide. But it’s there, her tribute. It and everything else. I love you guys. Thank you for stepping into my world, for reading the things that I’ve written, for sharing a piece of my world that in some cases was so very intimate that I would have tears running down my face as I typed the words. Much of what I wrote was for myself. But you guys make it worthwhile.

Truths

Jesus: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Muhammad: “Kindness is a mark of faith, and whoever is not kind has no faith.”

The Buddha: “Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant with the weak and wrong. Sometime in your life, you will have been all of these.”