Bone Frogs Are Back In Town!

Sharon Hamilton here. It's been awhile, and I miss you guys!

The Bone Frog logo is sacred to SEALs because it signifies SEALs passed. A good tattoo artist won't do a Bone Frog tat on someone unless they know for sure they are either in the community, or have lost someone close to them, usually a brother, father, son, etc.

I've twisted this a bit to mean "older guys".  I started using the term Bone Frog when I had my Bachelor SEALs series back in 2017 and 2018. Since they were mostly guys who had failed marriages, and were failing in other ways as well. They had money problems, suffered from lack of quality women in their lives and had questionable lifestyles. I called their little "support group" which met at one of the local Coronado pubs, "Bonefrog Brotherhood."

Only guys who were divorced, or getting divorced or on their multiple wives got to join. Of course, there were those who thought they might wind up there and came along for the support! A SEAL always has to be planning for his next move, right?

I've just released the third book in my Bone Frog Brotherhood series, SEALed Forever. It traces the story of a former SEAL, who, at forty, re-qualifies a second time for another enlistment. He's already been a medic for the first ten years, but after ten years of being out, he wants back into the Brotherhood. Over the series he meets his plus-sized heroine, Brandy (Tucker is a big man with a gentle heart), and together they fall in love, get married and now deal with his first re-tread deployment to Northwest Africa, Nigeria, to be exact.

With the backdrop of the old Slave Coast history, which almost becomes a dangerous character in my book, the men go on a mission to look for a sex trafficking and gun-running ring. The mission will continue in Book 4, due out in June, in SEAL's Rescue.

We're working on the audio now, but the digital book, and print versions are both out now. You can preorder SEAL's Rescue.

Author Events, Book Signings, Cruises Oh My!

Hi there! Sharon Hamilton, here.

Just came back from a fantastic cruise with several great authors like Angie Fox, Heather Graham, Marina Adair, Karen Rose, Darynda Jones, Tonya Kappes, Tina DiSalvo and many others. We toured the Western Caribbean, along with nearly 100 readers. It was, in short, fantastic.

Now, let me first give a huge disclaimer. These events don't pay for themselves. Just like book signings, I never sell enough books to pay for all my fees, especially when you add in the cost of travel and event costs/swag. BUT this last cruise gave me the opportunity for 5 days to have a nice dinner with a table full of readers and other authors. These are people who worship books! They are my kind of people.

We played games during two structured "game mornings" while out to sea, and hung out in the coffee houses and lounges at various times during the event. Some authors did a scavenger hunt. Others played Head's Up and Reverse Charades, and we did a clue-like "WhoDoneIt". During the time author angels passed out book bucks so the readers could participate in a huge auction the afternoon before we left the ship.

I think treating readers to special events is a worthy cause. It is a form of giving back to all those ladies who love and help promote our books. And I got some good one-on-one that you don't get with a regular book signing, plus got to talk to authors I myself stalk.

During the cruise one new reader to me read 3 of my books. Everywhere I saw her on the ship she was reading MY BOOK! Nothing says thank you more than that...

We do a lot of things for promotion. We do cross-promotion, pay for thousands of dollars of ads and worry about who we are reaching, chasing new shiny things and windmills sometimes to excess. I like the idea of coming to the readers (within reason), when we can afford to.

I know those ladies will remember it for life, and most are itching to do another one. It's something that doesn't give a monetary return, but sometimes the return we receive in our hearts is even better.

That's me through and through.

Loving My Bone Frogs

Launching May 1

By Sharon Hamilton

I've gotten a lot of feedback that readers love older guys (silver-haired guys, guys not in their 20's). And the girls that are not Barbie Dolls.

When I first started out writing my SEAL Brotherhood Series some 7 years ago, I used to write a novella, and then follow it up with a full length novel later on. It helped to flesh out the couple beforehand, and then have them progress in a later book. I really got the chemistry right that way.

I took a detour for several years, starting new series in my larger SEAL Brotherhood Series, creating the Band of Bachelors, Bad Boys of SEAL Team 3, and Nashville SEAL, Fredo Series and the True Navy Blue series. This way I got to incorporate all the other secondary characters. But all my books are mostly on SEAL Team 3, active duty guys.

This is the first time I've written an older SEAL who wants to re-join his comrades. And this actually happens on SEAL Teams, too. I spent part of my Monday with my buddy Mike, who owns a tattoo parlour in San Diego, down the range from Coronado, and who ran 10 years with the Teams in Vietnam, then did a stint with bikers and followed that up with another 10 years as a SEAL all over again.

My character in the May 1 release has followed a similar path, without the bikers in the middle. I explored his character and the chemistry with him and his lady, Brandy, a plus-sized gal with long mahogany hair. Just so happens Tucker loves big-busted and big booty. Brandy has never had a serious relationship. Tucker, plain and simple, who at first looks like Shrek to Brandy, blooms under his touch.

I love stories like that. Sort of a Beauty and the Beast, except Belle is a plus-sized gal, and the Beast stays big and doesn't morph into a handsome prince. He always was the handsome prince.

Order Here

I wrote New Year's SEAL Dream in early January as a novella, introducing these two people. It didn't take long before I knew I'd be loving the full book I'm launching May l: SEALed At The Altar.

We all age and worry about being vital as we age. But something else happens as we run around caring for families, taking kids to soccer practice and ballet, while we're paying bills and looking for houses, or gardening. Perhaps we get worn down a little bit? We get tired as we age. That's only natural.

But for an adrenaline-junkie male, taking a break from the Teams, can be a very difficult experience. I've talked to former SEALs who readily admit they miss the Band of Brothers backing them up, jumping out of airplanes and doing things others cannot do. My hero has stayed fit and is in peak physical condition at 39 years of age. But he's never had a family. He's been damaged by a wife who left him for another Team Guy. That happens too, on the Teams.

I was gratified by the response to my two other releases this year, both with older heroes. What about you? Do you love older, silver-haired heroes?

And what do you think of my new tattoo? Next visit to FSG on Coronado I'm going to enhance it with hearts and flowers to give her a little glam. She has to compete with the hippy frog on my other shoulder, and that's just not fair!

Writing Older SEALs: Silver SEALs, the Bone Frog Brotherhood

Hi there! This is Sharon Hamilton.

Many of you know that I have a son who was a Navy SEAL for ten years, and a lot of my inspiration in writing SEAL stories came from the process I watched him go through. He left our home a boy and the Navy returned him a man.

I've wondered where he got the character it takes to become one of the country's elite warriors, since in his class at BUD/S they started with 192 and wound up graduating only 12 originals. His comment to me was, "I just wouldn't ring that freakin' bell."

Not knowing how things would go, I decided to write a SEAL Romance in 2011, and published it in 2012. Now, some 23 books later, it has become a brand that I enjoy. But change works on all of us. I saw him once as a single man with dedication, and now he has grown to a married father of 3. He is no longer as young as he was, and after numerous jumps and mishaps they all go through, decided it was time to take on another role, that of father and husband.

Not all the men who are in the SEAL Brotherhood make that decision. And, there are some that continue to serve, well into their 30's and 40's. But the numbers dwindle the older they get. Afterall, there are only so many jumps at midnight a body can take. Even the best-trained athletes have accidents.

So I've decided to include in my staple of books the older SEALs, the ones who come back to the Brotherhood after years out, or who consider stopping, or who consider what it takes to continue on. I also wanted to explore some of my secondary characters that are now older too. So, voila! I'm doing the Bone Frog Brotherhood, the guys who are not froglettes, or tadpoles, but are very experienced, often just as strong, but the guys everyone holds their breath for when they do things -- much like we watch an older quarterback and wonder, "Does he have one more season in him?"

My new release, today, SEAL My Love, is about an older SEAL who attaches to my SEAL Team 3 (Kyle's team), from the east coast, after a painful divorce. He joins the boys on a holiday first, and meets the older sister of one of my SEAL wives, Gretchen. Gretchen had an appearance in SEAL of My Heart when her younger sister fell in love with a young SEAL on a plane from San Francisco to Portland. So, this is Gretchen and Trace's story. Finding love the second time around, and having it be just as good, even better than the young love. Hope you enjoy my new release, and the new venture, writing Silver SEALs and Bone Frogs. Oh yes, there will be still the regular Brotherhood guys too, but this was important to add to the brand.

Bone Frog Novella #1

WRITING SHORT, WRITING WITH OTHER AUTHORS

BY SHARON HAMILTON

We are always looking for new ways to reach our readers. I've been doing a couple of new things this year. I enjoyed the boxed sets and anthologies I have been in. Went back to thinking I should just write in my cave and forget everything else, and now I'm out socializing and working with other authors again.

http://amzn.to/2m5gmYA

Our newest venture was doing a promotional set (20 authors, all heat levels) with a branded theme, selling for .99 each, set to lead up to the RT Convention in Atlanta. So, our theme was that we had to have something that took place in Atlanta. I wanted to write a SEAL story, so chose a place I actually knew a little about, the Georgia Aquarium, and had the Hero and Heroine meet there. Then they hooked up at Dante's bar, which also used to be an Atlanta hot spot, owned by a former Navy SEAL Dante Stephenson. The place was torn down some years ago, but I found some neat pictures of the interior. Yes, that's a real pirate ship in the middle of the bar.

I never met Dante, but I read enough about him and his Vietnam-era service, that I knew I'd love spending time with him. I made up everything, of course, just like I always do, including the bar area name: The Plank.

http://amzn.to/2m5gmYA

The plan is to release a new book every day from April 10 to the RT convention on May 5th. At the convention, there will be a regular country faire, complete with Georgia-themed items that won't get them bounced from the hotel. I cannot attend, at the last minute, but I'm supporting the group anyhow financially, and I did send 400 pieces of peach-section-scented soaps. If any of you go to RT, save me a bag. It will have only cost me $500. LOL.

http://amzn.to/2m5gmYA

In March, I wrote a novella in The Trident Legacy, a paranormal SEAL medic who just happens to be the halfling son of Poseidon, and he's immortal. His coupling with a human woman is dangerous for him. I plan on writing a full book with his story later in the summer, I enjoyed him so much! Working with veteran Medeival writer Kathryn LeVeque, was a real treat. It was her attempt to bring in some contemporary readers, and my attempt to connect to some of her historical readers, and I think we succeeded.

http://amzn.to/2lf8uVK

I also am writing in a group called Sleeper SEALs with 10 other authors. We'll be releasing 2 new books every month, the first to come in August. Mine is due to publish 10-31-17. Not quite sure why they gave me the scary time, but that's the way it goes. That premise is these SEALs are called back into service by the President himself, to take care of some national threat. These will all be full length novels. Mine is only available on preorder at iBooks, but will be available on Amazon and other places in August when we begin promoting them.

http://apple.co/2lI9a89

I also elected to take Nashville SEAL: Jameson, and put him into an anthology with some other authors, and give him a KU run. It's a cross-promotional idea that I've not tried before.

I'm also writing another novella called Paradise, which will be an older SEAL-turned-stockbroker. Just started that one and I already am in love with this guy who will get the wanderlust of his life!

Yesterday was my launch for the Magnolias & Moonlight series, so I apologize for being late. But the excuse was good, right?

What do you like to see as far as author collaborations? Or, as an author, which ones did you like doing the best?