Guest Blogger, Stephanie Draven

Please join me in welcoming author Stephanie Draven as the special guest blogger here today at Thoughts in Progress as she makes a stop on her virtual blog tour.

Stephanie’s debut novel is POISONED KISSES. She stopped by today to talk about ….well I’ll let her tell you, you might be surprised.

Hi all! You probably think I'm here to talk about my debut novel--a dark Greek myth-inspired paranormal romance with Harlequin's Nocturne. After all, it's my first book. What's more, I think I'm dying of anticipation to see it on book shelves. However, ever since I scored my first contract, I've been a writing machine. I eat, drink, and sleep books. Which is why I want to talk about my guilty pleasure! TV shows.

Like books, a television show tells a story, but it is a story more easily shared. My mother always told me that the tube would rot my brain, and maybe she's right, but I thought I'd list a few of my favorites:

Supernatural. When it comes to dark, twisted, paranormal pleasures, you can't beat this show. Clever writing and fantastic acting have carried a brilliant storyline that has spanned five seasons. Demons, angels, and monsters of every variety are a constant, but it's really a story about two brothers and their love for one another. It doesn't hurt that there's lots of eye-candy. I might be more of a Dean girl than a Sam girl, but they each have a special place in my heart. Ultimately, what made me fall in love with this show is the guts it has. It tackles the hard issues and goes where you wouldn't predict!

The Tudors. Okay, so I know what happened with King Henry VIII and his wives. I've read a bunch of books about the Tudor court and you probably have done the same. And yet, they remain fascinating. Especially when brought into super-sexy focus in Showtime's series. I love the costume and pageantry, even when the history is a little off. I don't mind that Jonathan

Rhys-Meyers is a skinny King Henry. Somehow, in spite of his crazy coked-up eyes, the whole show works.

Big Bang Theory. So this sit-com might be the worst-acted show on TV, but I don't care, because the writing is hilarious. The show is centered on two physicists, their geeky friends, and the pretty girl who lives across the hall. The main draw for me is Sheldon, a self-absorbed brilliant uber-nerd whose Obsessive Compulsive behavior is out of control! Still, I love him. What does that say about me?

General Hospital. This daytime drama is my guiltiest pleasure of all because I've been watching it since I was about ten years old. It was the one show that all my grandmothers watched, and even all these years later, I still chat to my Nana about her "stories." This particular soap opera has had some classic moments and some brave storylines and innovative writing, but it also has the power to enrage its fans by masquerading as a low-rent version of the Sopranos. There's been more than a few moments when I've told myself that I'll never watch it again...but then the next day, I get sucked in again.

So what are your guilty TV pleasures?

Stephanie, thanks so much for blogging here today. I must admit I was hooked on General Hospital for quite awhile but I haven’t watched it in about a year. Time to check it again. Now I’m hooked on Castle and Bones, among others.

Now a little background on Stephanie. She is currently a denizen of Baltimore, that city of ravens and purple night skies. She lives there with her favorite nocturnal creatures–three scheming cats and a deliciously wicked husband. And when she is not busy with dark domestic rituals, she writes her books. Stephanie has always been a storyteller. In elementary school, she channeled Scheherazade, weaving a series of stories to charm children into sitting with her each day at the lunch table. When she was a little older, Stephanie scared all the girls at her sleepovers with ghost stories.

She should have known she was born to hold an audience in her thrall, but Stephanie resisted her writerly urges and graduated from college with a B.A. in Government. Then she went to Law School, where she learned how to convincingly tell the tallest tales of all!

A longtime lover of ancient lore, Stephanie enjoys re-imagining myths for the modern age. She doesn’t believe that true love is ever simple or without struggle so her work tends to explore the sacred within the profane, the light under the loss and the virtue hidden in vice. She counts it amongst her greatest pleasures when, from her books, her readers learn something new about the world or about themselves. Stephanie also writes historical fiction as Stephanie Dray and has a series of forthcoming novels from Berkley Books featuring Cleopatra’s daughter. For more, check out her website at http://www.stephaniedraven.com

Here is a listing of her blog tour:
    Sept. 14 -- A Journey of Books
    Sept. 15 -- My Book Addiction and More!
    Sept. 16 -- Cheeky Reads
    Sept. 17 -- Access Romance
    Sept. 17 -- Romance Junkies
    Sept. 18 -- Cherry Mischievous
    Sept. 19 -- Cheryl's Book Nook
    Sept. 20 -- Dear Author
    Sept. 21 -- Falling Off The Shelf
    Sept. 23 -- Book Junkie
    Sept. 24 -- The Eclectic Book Lover
    Sept. 27 -- Paranormal Romance Blog
    Sept. 28 -- My Overstuffed Bookshelf
    Sept. 29 -- Bitten By Books
    Sept. 30 -- Found Not Lost
    Oct. 1 -- Romance Divas
    Oct. 2 -- Beck's Book Picks
    Oct. 4 -- Patricia's Vampire Notes
    Oct. 5 -- Anna's Book Blog
    Oct. 6 -- Dirty Sexy Books
    Oct. 6 -- Drey's Library
    Oct. 7 -- Readaholic
    Oct. 7 -- Vauxhall Vixens
    Oct. 8 -- Book Wenches
    Oct. 12 -- Long and Short Reviews
    Oct. 13 -- Drey's Library   
    Oct. 13 -- Coffee Time Romance &  More
    Oct. 16 -- Pink Heart Society
    Oct. 17 -- Romancing The Page
    Oct. 23 -- My Reading Room
    Oct. 27 -- Drey's Library