I think that will probably depend on how well I follow instructions from here on out. The dance thing, I mean.

You see, messages come in all forms and from many sources. In fact, depending on your belief system, you may even be convinced that you receive messages from beyond the veil between the worlds. And, sometimes those messages come along with a set of instructions that need following.

I suppose at this point you are wondering what messages from the great beyond have to do with the picture of Evil Kat’s shapely gams over here on the right. Well, to be honest, both everything and nothing. You see I’m not actually going to go on about being contacted by the dead. I am, however, going to go on about messages. In particular a message I received just the other day, and it just so happens that it has quite a bit to do with E Kay’s shoes.

In particular, her Mary Janes.

(BTW, I’d have put the whole picture up there, however if you have seen the revamped cover of Perfect Trust, for which this was one of many shots taken to create the final collage, you know things were far less pretty above the waist… Not gory or anything… You’ll just have to read the book if you don’t understand what I’m getting at… But, yeah, E K was one of the models… How cool is that?)

And, back to our regularly scheduled blog…

So, E K has several pairs of Mary Jane styled pumps. Dress up, work, leather, patent leather,  canvas, heels, flats, wedges, brown, black, and so on…

You get the idea.

I couldn’t begin to tell you about the fashion statement surrounding these, primarily because I have absolutely no fashion sense at all. I will pair stripes and plaids in a heartbeat, so I am definitely NOT the go-to guy where this sort of stuff is concerned. However, as shoes go these seem to work for the Evil One, and I am perfectly willing to admit that I think she looks pretty damn good in them. This latter fact may have something to do with one of those childhood memories, that being the little blonde-haired girl next door when I was growing up. We were all of about 7 and I was crushing on her pretty hard. Being the style of the 60’s she always wore frilly dresses and patent leather Mary Janes. They say you never forget your first love. Well, I wouldn’t call this playmate from my childhood a “love,” so I guess that old saying applies to crushes too.

So, there you go. Nothing sick or twisted, just Id, ego, and superego colliding to stir fond puppy love memories in my heart whenever I see the evil redhead in her Mary Janes.

Okay, enough with psychoanalyzing the Murv…

Now, the thing about E Kay’s shoes is that while most of them reside in her evil shoe closet, there are a few pairs that occupy strategic locations around the house – i.e. wherever she happened to take them off. Of course, her evilness is still more conscientious about her shoe placement than the O-spring. If you go stumbling through the dark in the middle of the night around our house, while traversing the living room you will trip over every pair of shoes the child owns. E K, however, does place hers pretty much out of the way. One such “out of the way” location where her feet become un-shod – and the aforementioned shods remain – is the general vicinity of her desk in our shared office.

And yes, Virginia (No, not you Doc… No, not the state either… I mean the metaphorical and collective Virginia) this is from whence I received a message. I just didn’t know it at the time. See below…

If you look closely at the left shoe you will notice a piece of paper lounged out on the insole as if it belongs there…

You see, the other day I rolled back from my desk on a mission to put something in the cabinets on the other side of the room. Since our office is relatively small our desks are against opposite walls. When I stood up to make the 4 steps to the cabinets I had to step around the shoes. When I looked down I noticed this bit of paper occupying the insole.

I didn’t really think much of it at first. Her shoes were sitting next to the paper recycling bin and since she is a shredding maniac I figured that in a frenzy of potential paper-mâché production the previous evening a scrap had escaped her evil clutches in a daring attempt at freedom. Unfortunately for the scrap, however, it plummeted into her shoe where it was overcome by odoriferous fumes and expired before it could get away.

Do NOT tell her I said that…

I continued about my task, tucking some papers into a cabinet, then returned to my desk. once again stepping around the pair of Mary Janes. This time, however, I noticed that there appeared to be writing upon the bit of paper. Again, I didn’t really think much of it until several seconds had passed and I was seated back at my desk. Some manner of subliminal trigger clicked, clanked, or whatever it is they do and I stopped everything I was doing. The image of the paper with the writing on it flashed through my gourd and I screwed up my face in thought as I wondered, “Did that really say what I think it said?”

Now I was curious. So, what else could I do? I rolled back, turned around in my chair, then leaned over to look at the scrap in the shoe (all while holding my nose, of course…) And, much to my surprise, it did in fact say what I thought it said.

“Leave Treat”

I’d heard “trick or treat” before, but never “leave treat,” although it definitely sounded like a pretty clear instruction to me. For a minute I started wondering if she was trying to get in touch with her Dutch roots and thought it was Christmas or something. But I came to my senses and remembered she is primarily Welsh and Irish, not Dutch.

Then for another brief moment I considered stuffing a banana into the shoe just to see what would happen when her evilness came home. However, since I wasn’t sure if that would spark some sort of Freudian dilemma or not, and I didn’t have any Vodka or Scotch miniatures on hand, I elected to simply laugh and snap a picture or two, because it was obvious to me at that juncture that this would be blog material.

Unfortunately, I get the impression that maybe I should have put some individually wrapped Dove chocolates in there or something.

Why?

Well, what you can’t see here is the knobby tread this pair of shoes has on the sole. The reason that is important is that I am now sporting a mirror image of it all over my face. All I know is that E K was doing a lot of unintelligible screaming while she was dancing on my head, but I did manage to catch a little snippet about her shoes being empty when she arrived home and when was I going to learn to follow instructions?

More to come…

Murv

Fans are wonderful. Really.

As I have said in the past, “anti-fans” , not so much. But, on this tour I have met some absolutely wonderful folks and even had the opportunity to visit with fans of the RGI series who are interesting, lovely, intelligent, funny, and an all around blast to hang with.

I have to say, however, that I was in for quite a surprise at our last stop on the tour, which was last night (5/31) at 13 Magickal Moons in Occoquan, VA. 13 Magickal Moons is a wonderful little store, nestled in an arts & antiques district near the waterfront. Owned and run by Samantha and Jen, a couple of lovely young ladies who go out of their way to make a visit to their store a memorable one. Workshops are always well attended and authors are treated like part of the family.

I first did 13 Moons last year and was accepted warmly by the patrons, even though they really had no idea who I was and many had not even heard of the Rowan Gant series. Many of them purchased books and quickly became fans and friends.

Now, since I know that many of them keep up with my travels I was actually prepared for the questions about the “Kicked Out Of Wendy’s” blog, and even when “Coldie” (another lovely lady) arrived with pink nail polish in hand. These are folks who joke around with you and make even a 12 hour workday seem like it goes by in half the time.

I just love these folks.

But, I have to say that I wasn’t expecting the twist we had yesterday. You see, Miranda showed up.

Okay, so she wasn’t actually Miranda. In reality she was a beautiful young lady named Suzanne (I do hope I spelled that correctly. My apologies to her if I didn’t)…at any rate, Suzanne is a fan of the RGI series, and an absolutely lovely gal. Last year we had an opportunity to visit at the store and she was great fun to talk with. This year was the same, however, Suzanne “got into character”. She arrived at 13 Magickal Moons decked out in her own version of Miranda’s dominatrix attire. This was a first for me. No fan has ever “dressed up” as one of my characters before, but let me tell you this young lady looked great.

After the signing and workshops we posed for a few playful pics, her playing up her Miranda attire and attitude while I played the part of her victim. (I should have known one of my characters would come back to bite me at some point!) At any rate, the folks who took the shots are supposed to send them to me and I will post them as soon as they arrive. (Note, we aren’t talking about any pornographic here, just some fun, joking around.)

Rumor has it that one of the fans who snapped a few pics last night will be putting them up on his myspace page, so they may be out there before I get my copies. So, if you happen across a picture of me laying on the floor with a gorgeous redhead in a black bustier, miniskirt and high heeled boots standing over me, it was not taken at the local BDSM club,

It was just a fan expressing herself.

BTW, Suzanne. Congrats! You win the “creative fan award” this go around! (GRIN) And thanks to you and everyone else at 13 Magickal Moons as well. Y’all truly capped off the tour with a bang!

More to come…

Murv

PS. Suzanne has promised an entirely new Miranda outfit for my next visit later this year. I must confess, I’m looking forward to it.