Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Guest Blogger Miranda Baker - I Want a Tattoo

I want a tattoo. I do. I really do. For years, I’ve admired other peoples’ tattoos. I give the characters in my books tattoos. Last summer, I even stopped a complete stranger at Fantasy Island and asked her where she got her gorgeous tattoo! I’m old enough not to regret doing it, my husband is all for it and I don’t care what my parents will say anymore.

But I don’t know what to get.

I’m a words girl. My voice chatters in my head 24/7 but I rarely think in pictures. Heck, I rarely SEE pictures in my head. Back in my days as a cake decorator, I’d get an order and I would fight the urge to write words all over the cake. You want Dora? Fine! Swiper, no swiping! Vamanos! Do YOU hear something? Of course, that desire probably had something to do with the fact that it takes about thirty colors to do a Dora cake, and I didn’t want to mix that many bags of buttercream. Eventually word cakes became popular for weddings and celebrations, but they never gave those orders to me because my handwriting is truly horrid. But I digress.

I could easily choose words to tattoo on my body. Joy. Balance. Strength. Inspiration. Love. But coming up with pictures for those things is more difficult for me. Considering I’m a pastry chef, I suppose I could have a great big scale tattooed on my back—for balance—but that isn’t quite what I have in mind. I’m not a yin-yang girl, either. I’m hoping an idea will come to me in a huge burst of energy that will carry me through the process. After all, last week I had no idea what I wanted my new kitchen floor to look like, and right now I’m sitting on it. Is waiting for tattoo inspiration another form of trust the process?

I hate trusting the process. I like instant gratification, and so many things in my life are about enjoying the journey. That’s my answer, I guess. I need a big ole road right down the center of my back…or perhaps winding around my body. The character in my latest release, Hook Up, Book 3 of the Come Again series, has a hot pink orchid tattoo on her shoulder. Orchids symbolize rebirth, new beginnings, love, maturity—a perfect tattoo for a woman who rebuilt her life after a one-night stand in college left her with empathic powers. It was easy to pick a tattoo for Crystal. Alas, my own body is another story. What about you? Do you have a tattoo…or tattoos? Do you want one? If so, what do you want? Leave a comment and I’ll put your name in the drawing for a Hook Up Survival Kit!

The Hook Up Kit includes:
Orchid temporary tattoo (just like Crystal’s!)
Mini Magic 8-ball (to check the auspices for a hook up)
E-copy of Bottoms Up, the first book in the Come Again series (because I can’t actually hook you up, but I can offer you a few hours of reading pleasure. If you already have it, you can re-gift it!)
Two STUDDED condoms (Safety first! In Hook Up, Ryan buys condoms at Come Again and discovers there is more to life than ribbed.)
Romance Trading Cards for Bottoms Up and SoloPlay (because I love e-books, but I do miss actual book covers!)

Hook Up Blurb:

A blast from the past can be hell on the heart.

“Spend the night with me, Crystal.”

One college hook-up with Ryan Anderson ripped Crystal LaRusso’s emotions wide open and hot-wired her to the world around her. After gaining control of her new abilities, she rebuilt her life and started a business as a sensual psychic. She’s bold, fearless and, admittedly, a little freaky. Black leather, exotic makeup and a reputation for only dating women keeps the world at a necessary distance—distance she can’t maintain when Ryan reappears in her life.

Ryan has spent the last ten years wondering what went wrong between them, and now that she’s back in his life, Crystal has a lot of explaining to do. The chemistry is just as potent as it was ten years ago, so why does she keep running away? One night won’t be enough to satisfy Ryan’s need for her, but it might take the edge off. At the very least, he can ask her why she broke his heart—and this time he’s not leaving without an answer.

Product Warnings

This book contains an unforgettable one-night stand, a heroine with a taste for beautiful women, a quest that begins in a sex shop and ends in a sex club, and enough mind-blowing psychic sex to change one lucky man’s life forever.

A Hook Up excerpt can be found here:

http://store.samhainpublishing.com/hook-up-p-7041.html?osCsid=f62df445555dd310a6fc0561847ff7f2

and Hook Up can be purchased wherever naughty books are sold!

About Miranda Baker

It makes me chuckle to think about all the romantic short stories I wrote in my rather too literary creative writing classes in college. If only one of my professors had steered me toward popular fiction! On the other hand, if I had discovered my calling back then, I wouldn’t have gone to culinary school, I wouldn’t have met my husband, we wouldn’t have had three children and I wouldn’t have turned to erotic romance to get my mojo back during all this hair-raising kid raising. To learn more about me, please visit:

My den of iniquity: http://www.mirandabaker.com

My home away from home: https://www.facebook.com/MirandaBakerfans

Or my favorite hangout: https://twitter.com/Miranda_Baker

Don’t forget to comment below to enter the giveaway! Thanks so much to the Naughty Nine for letting me visit their site today, and thank YOU for stopping by. Let’s talk tattoos!

13 comments:

Selena Robins said...

Sounds like a good book, Miranda. Congrats.

As for tattoos, I don't want any because I hate needles, and with my luck they'd probably spell something wrong. :)

Anonymous said...

I have two tattoos. I got them at the same time. One is a ankle bracelet of morning glories and the other is a butterfly. I got them for my birthday and after I got my second round with chemo done. You can see a pic here:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151123021128304&set=a.433157788303.206428.506558303&type=3&theater

amysmith98@gmail.com

Fedora said...

No tattoos for me! I don't love any art so strongly that I want it permanently on me, and I can't get past the idea that it will be subject to the "ravages of time" ;p I do enjoy reading about them and have seen some that are truly works of art!

Congrats on Hook Up, Miranda! Woot!

f dot chen at comcast dot net

Anne said...

I have none, my sister has about 9 and says they're addicting. I find some of them hideous like the large red and black aries sign on her calf and some like her celtic knots with flowers are quite pretty. I can't think of anything that moves me or sums me up that I would want permanently.

acm05atjuno.com

Miranda Baker said...

Selena, thanks for mentioning that. I am a stickler for spelling and would have a cow if an artist misspelled a word on my body! LOL!

Amy, I can't get to your picture! Would you be willing to friend me on FB, so I can take a peek? https://www.facebook.com/authorMirandaBaker
Congratulations on finishing chemo...again. That deserves two tattoos!

Flchen, "ravages of time" is such a delicate way to put it. That's why I waited this long. The ravages have begun. *shrug* Why not add to it? And thanks for the congrats! Crystal at last!

Miranda Baker said...

Anne, your sister is an Aries, huh? That's me! But I have your problem - nothing moves me quite enough...

PG Forte said...

Hi, Miranda. Welcome to the Naughty Nine. And thanks for bringing up such a fun topic. I love tattoos and can vouch for the fact that they are indeed very addictive. I have six, currently, and that's in addition to the full sleeve I'm working on. I figure the ravages are gonna happen one way or the other. One of my more recent tats was the cute little "N-cubed" tattoo I got to celebrate the NNNN.

kelly said...

Of course I was thinking about PG Forte when I read this! Welcome to the NNN Miranda and my don't you have an interesting career background!

I am sans tattoos myself. My daughter has 3 - a tiny music note on the inside of one wrist, a small treble/bass clef on her ankle and on the other wrist she has WORDS: Roses of life. It's from a poem that her grandpa carried around in his wallet after he lost both arms in WW II, which inspired him to stay strong, and she put that quote rhere in his memory. It is nice when it's something meaningful.

Miranda Baker said...

Thanks for the welcome, guys! And the tattoo stories. Lovely! :-)

June M. said...

I don't have any tattoos but I love them! I never could decide what to get but now I have an idea (I would love either a shamrock or a sunflower in memory of my grandfather). However, I have to take blood thinners due to a history of clots and I figure that the extra bleeding would mess up the design.
My 18 year old niece already has two, one across the top of her back an then stars behind her ear. They are pretty, but I am afraid she will regret them when she gets older. The bad part is, she is wanting more already!!!
June
manning_J2004 at yahoo dot com

kog said...

I'm in the same boat. I want a tattoo, but have no idea what to get. I haven't come up with anything compelling enough to permanently put on my body.

I'm so looking forward to Crystal's story. I really enjoyed Bottoms Up and SoloPlay.

Miranda Baker said...

June, I love the sunflower idea! Shamrocks are cool, too, but I've decorated too many Shamrocks cut-out cookies to really love them. I thought perhaps chicory flowers would be nice. They remind me of my mom.

Kog, thanks for reading the Come Again series! :-) Hmm...let me know if you come up with any tattoo ideas. We'll wait for inspiration together!

Miranda Baker said...

flchen1 is the Lucky Hook Up Kit winner! E-mail going out shortly. Thanks to everyone for stopping by to talk tattoos!