Maria's Journal

Earth Day is just a few days away. Please see below a handful of things everyone can do to make the planet a greener world: 1. Swap light bulbs 2. Plant a tree 3. Curb junk mail 4. Drive the speed limit 5. Carry your own water bottle Here's a link to for other good ideas: http://www.earthday.org/takeaction/campaigns.html Until next time friends! Maria

I want to say thank you to my friend Leslie Jones for inviting me to participate in the My Writing Process Blog Tour. Leslie Jones writes military romantic suspense, please take a moment to check out her Blog Hop post here . About my writing, well I knew at a very early age that I wanted to be a writer. What’s even more interesting is that I knew at the age of ten that I’d be a romance writer. Consequently, I wrote my first short love story at the age of eleven and I’ve continued to write ever since. Now, onto a few more interesting tidbits about Maria Cox— What am I working on? Right now, I’m in between projects. My latest novelette, Jungle Fever was released through Secret Cravings Publishing on 2/5 and my novella Captive (V.2) is in the hands of the beta readers. Currently, I’m finishing a first draft of a ghostwriting assignment. How does my work differ from others of its genre? My work differs from others in my genre in that the characters in my stories are wi...

http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Phenomenal-Woman-by-Maya-Angelou Phenomenal Woman Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size But when I start to tell them, They think I'm telling lies. I say, It's in the reach of my arms, The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me. I walk into a room Just as cool as you please, And to a man, The fellows stand or Fall down on their knees. Then they swarm around me, A hive of honey bees. I say, It's the fire in my eyes, And the flash of my teeth, The swing in my waist, And the joy in my feet. I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me. Men themselves have wondered What they see in me. They try so much But they can't touch My inner mystery. When I try to show them, They say they still can't see...

In the spirit of love and passion and all those primitive traits that make humans tempting sexual creatures, comes my three-part series: Irresistible Body Parts. In this three-week series, I’d like to discuss the parts of our bodies that make us so attractive to the opposite sex.  Week Three: Eyes. ( Note : For those keeping track, yes, I missed my mark of posting this last week, lol ). Our eyes, they are one of the most expressive parts of bodies, they can convey happiness, warmth, love, anger, loss, and despair. Have you ever flipped through a novel and read about a particular seductress who makes men melt with her gaze? Or, have you heard women talking about a guy whose "bedroom eyes" are enough to make a girl weak in the knees? I think we all have. Maybe that's why in many ways this type of non-verbal communication is more powerful than spoken words. Take women’s eyes for example. When a woman looks at a man in a   certain   way, she has his undivid...

In the spirit of love and passion and all those primitive traits that make humans tempting sexual creatures, comes my three-part series: Irresistible Body Parts. In this three-week series, I’d like to discuss the parts of our bodies that make us so attractive to the opposite sex.  Week Two: Legs. In past decades studies conducted into physical attraction already showed that taller people were generally perceived as being more appealing to the opposite sex, but until now little was known about the effect a person's leg length had on the overall attractiveness. And as it turns out men are not alone in finding the ‘leggier’ form more attractive. Women also consider longer-legged men more physically appealing. Psychologists at the University of Wroclaw in Poland (in 2008) asked over 200 male and female volunteers to rank the attractiveness of men and women from a set of digitally altered images. The research revealed that people whose legs were 5% longer than average we...

In the spirit of love and passion and all those primitive traits that make humans tempting sexual creatures, comes my three-part series: Irresistible Body Parts. In this three-week series, I’d like to discuss the parts of our bodies that make us so attractive to the opposite sex. Week One: The Mouth. The lips have it! Research shows that men are drawn to a woman's mouth more than any other facial feature. In fact, the study showed that men considered women’s lips the most attractive part of her body particularly, if she’s wearing red lipstick (big surprise!). The study, which was carried out by scientists at Manchester University tracked the eye movements of fifty men as they were presented with images of different women. Scientists found that in the ten seconds after meeting a lady for the first time, the average male would spend more than half his time gazing at her mouth. If the lady applied lipstick, the male subject found it difficult to look away. A dash of pink ...

A blog is a great way to connect with your readers and an excellent way to reach a wider audience. If the content of your blog is interesting and updated frequently readers will subscribe to your blog, or at least you hope they will J We, as writers, need to realize that getting readers interested in what we have to say is important specially if we are to create a buzz about us as authors and even more so if we want to create a buzz about our books. So, all this sounds great, doesn’t it? But here’s the catch, no great outcome will come to pass unless you have the motivation and time required to commit to a blog. So, let me be honest here: Blogging is not for everyone. And, that’s okay. Let’s say, however, that you decided 2014 would be your year to start blogging, there are some important questions you need to ask yourself first. See below: Who is the blog for? Don't try to be all things to all people. It's best if you narrow your focus. If you’re like me, a ...