Aim for the Crotch

I did something a couple of weeks ago that I normally don’t do. I’m generally a calm, peaceful individual. I don’t care too much for violence. Yes, I occasionally kill someone in my books. But I think anyone who has read me knows that the people I whack deserved it. So the point I’m trying to make is I usually don’t pick up a gun and shoot something for the fun of it.

Well, until now.

I still remember the weight of that Glock in my hand. It was heavier than I thought it would be. Loading it wasn’t easy either. My hands were sweating and I broke a nail. That ticked me off royally. I was told to aim low. I think someone called it the crotch-shot aim, because when you shoot your reflexes jerks the gun up and that way you’ll probably still hit your target. Personally, I think aiming at the crotch is a great idea. Might even be a way to avoid pulling the trigger.

I was also told that to aim properly, I needed to find out which of my eyes is my dominant one. The way you do this is to focus on something then close your eyes and open one, close it and open the other, and go back and forth like that for a while, and see with eye the “focus itemed” didn’t shift. The non-shifting eye is your dominant eye.

By the way, I’m a lefty. Most people are rightys. I’ve been telling people my brain is mis-wired—now I got the proof. Anyway, so there I was…Gun in hand, broken nail, crotch-aim on, blinking like a crazy woman, and worried about how my brain was skewed. But I wasn’t backing down.

They told me to never put my finger on the trigger until I was ready to shoot. But I was ready.

I won’t lie to you. I was nervous. Shooting things shouldn’t be taken too lightly. A little bit of sweat rolled down my brow. Okay, it was more than a little bit. I had enough sweat pooled in my cleavage to drown a medium-sized rat. But I think anyone who saw me still knew I meant business. They weren’t about to get between me and my target—even if I didn’t aim at their crotch.

When the gun fired, it was loud—even with the ear muffs on. I jumped, my heart started running around my chest like a bird trying to escape a fireplace. I squinted at my intended victim, which was the paper bulls-eye, to see if I’d hit pay dirt. I had. Dag-blast it. I was pretty good. Yup, I went to the shooting range, with my Northwest Houston RWA Chapter (waving to all you gun-toting writers out there) and got me some hands-on experience at shooting things. This is gonna come in handy with my books. You know you’ll be reading about the crotch-shot aim in my books and when you do, you’ll know where that little bit of research came from.

Oh, I brought home my target too. Showed my hubby and my son. I told them all about it. The dominate eye, the broken nail, and the crotch-shot aim. And I then I reminded them that I was on a deadline and didn’t like to be disturbed.

Oh, notice those lower shots down there at the bottom of my target? Well, I was aiming at the crotch and actually got it. Yay me!!

And now…I just want to remind everyone that today is the day my baby hits the streets. I’m talking about my book, Born at Midnight, Book 1 of my new YA paranormal series Shadow Falls, written under my pseudonym C.C. Hunter. I’ve always said that an author’s books are like her children. We put our hearts and souls into trying to shape them into something that can stand on their own two feet, or stand up on a bookshelf. And always somewhere in the process of trying to mold them, they drive us crazy. They talk back to us. They go on tangents. They make us feel as if we’re crazy. We threaten to give up on them, and at times we wish we could. We’re so ready to send them out into the world, and then we worry ourselves sick when they do go out into the big ol’ world. We cry over them. Ahh, but we love them. And we want other people to love them, too. And here’s hoping you do love my baby.

Born at Midnight is a book I’m extremely proud of. It has my humor, and it has my unusual characters, and it has a lot of heart. It also has a few vampires, shapeshifters, witches, werewolves, and few faes.

As some of you know, I always run contests when I have a book release and this one is no exception. I’m giving away a Kindle. That’s right. A Kindle. Oh, and there’s six other prizes. Three copies of Born at Midnight and three copies of an ARC of the second book in the series, Awake at Dawn, that will be delivered as soon as the ARC is available.

Also if you are in the Houston area, please stop by my launch party at Katy Budget Books on April 1st from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. For more information, you can go here – Launch Party.

To enter my contest to win a Kindle, all you have to do is go to read the post on my C.C. Hunter blog called “Tweet my Book and Win a Kindle” and click on the “Tweet and Enter to Win” button. It’s that easy. And today is the last day to enter. So don’t waste any time. Go do your clicking now. And if you ever get a chance to go to the gun range, just remember, aim for the crotch.

CC, signing off. Gonna go think about shooting something else.