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Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Star-crossed lovers, were-shifters, and a murderous ex-boyfriend - oh my

Hey all - Tina Donahue here.

For those of you familiar with my romances, you know I try out numerous genres. So far, I've pubbed in contemporary, historical, romantic suspense, menage (and more!), paranormal, romantic comedy, and sci-fi.

And now, I'm pleased to report that my first were-shifters romance is here. 

Pleasure Me, Black Hills Wolves series, is available for preorder and ready to read April 22.

Had a blast writing Wylder and Starr's story. I'd like to thank fellow author and friend Katalina Leon for recommending me for the gig. Check out Kat's great romances here.



Blurb:

There's no place like home...especially for a wolf who shouldn't have run away

Wylder Aaron always knew Starr Joseph was his mate, but the time wasn’t right for them. To escape his hopeless feelings for her, he fled Los Lobos and joined the military, not even saying goodbye.

Starr wanted nothing more in life than Wylder. When he left, she fled too. Her sultry beauty made her an instant success as the new look for a major cosmetics firm. However, fame is fleeting. At twenty-six, she’s old news and forgotten. Worse, loneliness led her into the arms of another were-shifter with a jealous streak. During his last rage, he slashed the side of her face, promising to kill her the next time she tried to flee.

She did anyway, returning to the safety and anonymity of Los Lobos…straight into Wylder’s arms.



Excerpt:

Starr sagged into him, lost in his heat and strength. Bad move for someone who claimed to want peace and solitude, but she couldn’t help herself. She had needed to taste him for twelve years, dreamed of his stubble rasping her cheeks, his tongue deep within her mouth, possessing her.
He eased her closer, his grip steel, unwilling to let her go. He drove his fingers into her hair and cupped her skull, keeping her still in order to plunder her mouth.
A whimper rose to the base of her throat, the sound muffled by his tongue and the blood pounding in her ears. Never had she been as alive, her body molded to his, fitting perfectly. God, she wanted to drown in his effortless masculinity, laze in his kindness.
Whatever she wanted, he’d said.
This, for now. Later, who knew?
He’d hurt her beyond words years before. She understood he hadn’t meant to. However, the pain had lingered and grown, leaving her unsure about men. She’d never had a father to teach her how guys thought or behaved, only Wylder. He’d been her instructor without realizing he was even playing the role. She came to expect every guy to be like him, running from her as he had, leaving her uncertain and lonely.
Kade had been different, his intensity a comfort rather than setting off alarms. What a fool she’d been. No more. She had to take things slow no matter what her heart and body wanted.
Wylder ran his thumb over her throat, pulling a new moan from her. Forgetting control, she sucked his tongue deeper, not yet content, wanting to be a part of his heart, blood, and soul. Would she ever have enough?
She’d followed him to his job, this store, and Gee’s, hoping to get some relief from her endless craving rather than whetting her appetite for more. At least Wylder hadn’t laughed at her foolish stalking. If he had, she would have died even more inside. Instead, he’d made himself available, almost too visible as he’d never had in the past.
Because he was a changed man, she a changed woman, things could work out.
In time.
She pulled her mouth free again, her lips stinging from the force of their kiss.
“Uh-uh, we’re not through.” He brought her right back, practically devouring her, the same as she did with him, her leg wrapped around his, arms wreathed over his shoulders, the noises they made sloppy, joyous, uncontrolled.
“Ah, guys?”
She froze. He didn’t, grunting and groaning. With her palm on his chest, she pushed him back, freeing herself. Quickly, she smoothed her hair on the left side.
A friend of her mom glanced past her to him and gestured to the candy rack. “I just need the gumdrops and I’ll be on my way.”
Wylder pulled every pack off the metal pole and handed them to her.
She smiled wanly. “Thanks.”
“Welcome.” He snaked his arm around Starr’s waist again.
She elbowed his gut.
His breath puffed out. He dropped his arm. “What was that for?”
“Enough of the kissing. All right?”
“Hell no.” He crowded her.
She stood her ground and lifted her chin. Her days of being a pushover for any man were history.
His shoulders drooped. He gave her one of those don’t-be-mad-at-me smiles guys used at one time or another to get their way.
She wasn’t moved.
He sobered. “You want to go outside?”
“No.”
“Where?”
“Home.”
“Whose?”
“Mine.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Your mom’s there, right?” He scratched his neck. “Won’t she mind if we, uh, you know….”
He didn’t need to draw her a picture. “No, she won’t mind, because we aren’t going to.”
His shoulders slumped again. “You mean today, right?”
Hell, he was asking her as though she knew. “I wanted to kiss you. That’s all.”
“Wait.” He held up his hand, grew thoughtful, and stared. “Since you have kissed me, you don’t want to anymore, ever? Was I that bad?”
Her legs were still wobbly, her insides and brain reduced to mush. She was still using all her will to retain her dignity. If she hadn’t, she would have dropped to the floor, drooling like the unhinged. “Seriously, you need to ask?”
His cheeks reddened. “Only with you.”
Because she mattered or because she hadn’t given him two thumbs up? “I have to go.”
He grabbed her wrist. “Why? We can have a beer, take a walk, talk.”
Not with her tangled thoughts, they couldn’t. They’d end up in his room, humping away. Gee’s patrons would hear every whap of the bed against the floor and wall. She was already tense whenever the pack members spotted her, not knowing what they might say. Adding more gossip wouldn’t help. Once her and Wylder’s kiss in here zipped through the town’s supersonic grapevine, everyone would be looking at her as though she had three heads instead of two, like they were currently doing.
She yanked her arm away. “Bye.” She fled the building and raced past the vehicles in the lot, reaching the road.
“Starr Joseph, stop, I mean it!”
She jerked at Wylder’s shout and turned.
He was yards away, sunlight glancing off his silky hair, the rays glinting in his light eyes. His eyebrows and stubble were nearly black, his skin rich and fragrant, the scent drifting toward her with the breeze.
She bit back a wanton moan.
He pointed his finger at her. “You’re my mate, understand? Sooner or later—and I predict much, much sooner—we are getting together. Believe it.”




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Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Help Me Celebrate National "Go For Broke" Day!

Did you know that the phrase "Go for broke" is derived from the Hawaiian pidgin phrase used by crap shooters risking it all on one roll of the dice? The phrase also happens to be the motto of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team of the United States Army and the reason this day is celebrated. Comprised of
mainly American soldiers of Japanese descent these men were fighting for a country that had interred many of them in detention camps. I can only imagine what kind of courage and determination that took. 

"Go for broke" was the unit's motto and from what I could determine, that was exactly what they did. On April 5, 1945 the unit's first Medal of Honor recipient, Private First Class Sadao Munemori was killed in action near Seravezza, Italy. He sacrificed his life to save two men and clear a path for his company's advance when they were pinned down by enemy fire near Seravezza. The battle continued until April 14 and the 442nd fought so valiantly that they received the Presidential Unit Citation for outstanding accomplishments in combat. According to the research I was able to track down, this was one of eight they would be awarded.

The accolades didn't stop there. According to the National Calendar Days website there were also 21 Medals of Honor, 52 Distinguished Service Crosses, 1 Distinguished Service Medal, 560 Silver Stars, 22 Legion of Merit Medals, 15 Soldier's Medals, 4,000 Bronze Stars and 9,486 Purple Hearts awarded.

Not too shabby for a unit that came about in no small part because of lobbying from significant supporters of the Japanese-American community and the efforts of the Varsity Victory volunteers in Hawaii, who for years provided volunteer labor for the US Army. Early in 1943 the War Department called for volunteers for a segregated unit. About 1,500 Japanese-Americans came from the mainland, most from internment camps and 10,000 volunteers from Hawaii.

While there seemed to be some friction from both sets of volunteers, the one thing both the mainland and Hawaiian recruits struggled with was the racism that was so pervasive in the Deep South where they were sent to train. Horrified by what they saw, their frequent outbursts and intervention on behalf of the African-American community soon reached the point where their officers had to reprimand and warn them that they couldn't end Jim Crow on their own. I give them points for trying.

These brave men were and still are a shining example of the America we were all taught to revere. I don't mind admitting that I shed a few tears while reading about this team. I can't help but marvel that in the face of so much adversity, they were still determined to do the right thing.Their heroic feats are too numerous to give adequate accolades in this post meant to celebrate their actions on this day in 1945. If you'd like to know more about the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, here's a website that I think might interest you:

Go For Broke National Education:



Personally, I plan on going for broke the entire year and anytime I falter, I'm going to remember these guys. I'm writing in new genres, attending a conference in May and hopefully reinventing a career that seems to have faltered along the way. It seems like a small thing compared to what I've written about today but in the end, it's all about believing in what you're doing.    


I've asked you to help me celebrate "Go For Broke" Day and while I don't have a story about the 442nd, last year, as part of the Romance Books '4' Us, Entice Me anthology, I contributed a paranormal romance with a WWII setting. Leave a comment today and let me know what you'll be doing that follows the "Go for broke" theme and at the end of the day, I'll choose someone to win a copy of the Entice Me anthology.

I'll Be Seeing You
By Paris Brandon
Copyright 2015

Blurb:


Jack Howland, part of an elite group of OSS special agents can’t resist the pull of the moon or widowed USO hostess, Lulu Lane. After the war, while chasing a Nazi war criminal, their paths cross again. Will the truth about what Jack is send Lulu screaming into the night or back into his arms?
Heat Rating: 2 chili peppers

Excerpt:

I’ll Be Seeing You by Paris Brandon (PG)

May 1944

There were girls in soft summer dresses, all pink and flowery, smiling and perfumed. None of them would have turned down the handsome lieutenant. Why ask her?
She placed a hand on his solid chest. “Did somebody put you up to this? Did you lose a bet or something?”
He loosened his grip and took a deep breath right before he slid her left hand to his shoulder. When his fingers brushed over the third finger of her right hand, and detected the evidence she was a widow, he uttered a harsh, whispered word that might have been a vehement curse in another language.
“Or something,” he said very clearly, his breath warm against her ear. “Have you ever felt like you’ve lost your mind?”
“Daily. What’s that got to do with you asking me to dance?”
“What’s your name?”
“Lulu Lane. What comes after Lieutenant?” she asked, trying not to get lost in the sensation of being moved around the floor by a handsome man while people stared.
“Jack. Jack Howland,” he snapped, but then he snugged her tighter to his chest and his hand drifted over her back as if he were soothing a wound.
“Asking me to dance doesn’t seem to be making you very happy. Why did you?”
He looked as if he were losing an argument only he knew about.
“I leave in two days. I shouldn’t have spoken to you, let alone asked you to dance, because no matter what I say, it’s not going to come out right.”
“It’s not going to come out at all if you keep talking in riddles.”
He looked surprised for a moment and she was gratified that she could at least break through his maddening, mysterious behavior. “I’ve got forty-eight hours left on a three-day pass and I want to spend it with you. Clear enough for you?”
It took a few moments for what he’d said to sink in, and even then she had trouble believing him. This had to be some kind of a joke.
“You’re smart, Howland; I’ll give you that. You picked out the only wallflower in the bunch—”
“I don’t want to scare you, Lulu, but you don’t fool me. I’m glad nobody else has sense enough to see past the glasses and sensible shoes. You’re an open book for the lucky somebody willing to peel back the cover.
“I’m not looking for romance. I’m looking for forty-eight hours with someone who looked back at me the same way I was looking at them.”



Until Next Month,
Happy Reading!
Paris Brandon
 










Monday, April 4, 2016

Every Shade of Green in the Crayon Box by Rose Anderson

I was just outside with the dog in our usual morning routine and found the sun hidden behind a smooth cloudy sky. I love this defused light. The details of nature pop without bright sunlight and shadows. It's like you're seeing the world through polarized lenses. The new green this morning could literally steal your breath, the visual statement, an exclamation really, is that bold. I was going to sit down with my coffee and write about my yard in the spring. Then I remembered I already did that a few years ago. For today, I've updated and polished it. I hope you enjoy. 

As the story goes, when God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, he revealed his true name. From the moment of man's first inkling of the vast miracle of his own existence, he's tried to put a name to it.  A name is not merely an arbitrary designation or a random combination of sounds. The name conveys the nature and essence of the thing it's been given to. It represents the history and reputation of the thing. But a name by itself just isn't enough somehow. Moses may have been privy to the Name, but everyone else added the adjectives – all-seeing, loving, vengeful, benevolent, and almighty are just a few.

In school, we were taught to avoid overusing flowery language because too many adjectives and adverbs can ruin the reading experience. Well sure, I can see that. When the writer expounds for the sake of expounding, the reader's brain has trouble making sense of it all.
Victorian writer and shameless expounder, George Bulwer-Lytton, left a few memorable tidbits behind. Example: This well-known opener – It was a dark and stormy night...

Funny how no one ever mentions the rest:
It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets, for it is in London that our scene lies, rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

A century later Ernest Hemingway might have taken a stab at it like so:
After dark a storm came, and sometimes in the wind there was a noise on the rooftops. You could see the streetlamps struggling to stay lit.

A half century more and Cormac McCarthy might have a go:
Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before. Like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world. The blackness he woke to on those nights was sightless and impenetrable. A blackness to hurt your ears with listening. No sound but the wind in the bare and blackened trees.

My mind has this ability to add and extrapolate. In Bulwer-Lytton’s description I can feel the wind but also see scraggly city trees bending from the force. Backlit by the flames of flickering light, I see the slanted rain streaks on the street lamps’ glass panels and see shop shingles flapping like wooden flags. Over all that, I can imagine a dirty, sooty, 1830’s London with poor and ragged souls chilled to their marrow and hovering in doorways. Cloaked and sodden, they turn their backs to the cold and heavy rain.

In Hemmingway’s version I see an overall mild storm with the occasional gust that wants to extinguish the lamps. My mind doesn’t care to fill in or extrapolate here.

Even without the rain and gust-dimmed lights, in McCarthy’s few lines I see desolation. Again, the words are so tight, the image so compact, my imagination says “Enough. I see it.”

I’m ok with all three but I'm sure you can guess the writing my imagination prefers – George Bulwer-Lytton’s.

As a romance writer, I find adjectives and adverbs to be life’s jumbo box of crayons. You know, the super-sized box with the built-in sharpener on the back. These modifiers express feelings both physical and emotional. They give a reference point to interpret with. They describe and evoke. But most of all, they lend a tangible quality to the names of things. They color our world. My mind needs adjectives because I see and hear and feel the colors, textures, sounds, and beauty of life. I need them because I have feelings and one size does not fit all. Spring is the perfect time to go for the jumbo box!


Of all the spring colors, I have to say green stands head and shoulders above the rest. This isn’t a generic monotone color. Oh no, far more descriptors are needed here. The range and scope of spring green needs as many as language and imagination allow. In spring, one must spell Green with a capital G.

If I gave an April tour of spring green in my yard, this is what I’d see:
The newly budded weeping willow tree whips will have filled with running sap and turned a yellowish-green. They’re also nubby with unsheathed catkins, each of which has the slightest reddish tinge. Hosta lily spikes of numerous varieties jut up from the ground in clumps and are mostly white-tipped emerald or jade. Lacy bleeding hearts will appear and their stems are a plump hunter green shot with dark crimson edges. Vibrant yellow daffodils have thick kelly-green spikes. (I must add another adjective here – succulent.) Spring cedar growth is dark, almost a shade of olive, but where the squirrels have been stealing bark for their nests, I’ll see the yellow-gold cambium layer exposed in strips that run in long lengths up the trunks. After all these years the trees seem to take this vernal pillaging in stride.

The oak flowers in their spring emergence are not quite as yellow as the willow. The small bit of umber and brick red interspersed throughout tend to play a trick on the eye unless you purposely look for the green. Any spring rain will darken the bur oak’s corky bark. Each tree would be riddled light and dark with damp and dry places. Spring rains will also waken the pubescent moss and lacy-edged lichen of sea green that innocently grow all over the trunks and wait patiently for summer’s leafy shade. After 200 years, I do believe the oaks could care less.

By far, the most green comes from the lawn. As my house is surrounded by rolling fields, the lawn stretches as far as the eye can see. In a matter of weeks, I'll look out on a dew-kissed morning and imagine I’m in Ireland because the whole of it will be dressed in emerald green. It will stay that way until yellow dandelions take over. Then the mature grass gets so tall it goes to seed and bends under its burden. That changes the color dramatically – more of a silver green. The crabgrass and fescue are darker and thicker, more of a teal green. The small clovers and tiny weeds have their own variations on the theme. Slender blades, newly sliced through the topsoil are the faintest and purest of all the greens in my backyard. Describing the green of my lawn is a hard one because all the many shades collectively defy description. There just aren’t enough words for the job.

George Bulwer-Lytton could have run with this. Cormac McCarthy could certainly describe the emotion of the colors here. I think it might be lost on Hemingway. Or maybe he'd just keep it to himself.


>>۞<<

Rose Anderson is an award-winning author and dilettante who loves great conversation and delights in discovering interesting things to weave into stories. Rose also writes across genres under the pen name Madeline Archer. She lives with her family and small menagerie amid oak groves and prairie in the rolling glacial hills of the upper Midwest.

Stop by my blog for interesting topics all month long.
Find my links page and free reads too!
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Find Madeline's sweet to spooky stories and Rose's scorching novels in ebook and paperback on Amazon, Barnes&Noble,
and elsewhere.





Saturday, April 2, 2016

Sometimes life gets in the way of life...

Hi everyone!   
Sorry to be late for posting today.  I know everyone has those moments where life kind of takes over, throwing the best plans out of balance.  The last 2 weeks has been that way for me.   I'm still trying to smile though.  Don't look too closer though,  after sleeping in the car I look pretty rough lol.


So at this very moment hubby and I are driving across Minnesota getting closer to Fargo North Dakota, officially on our spring break vacation traveling through the west..  It didn't start very good though.


Two weeks ago my step mom of 29 years took a terrible fall, breaking her hip.   After surgery to remove a blood clot on her brain,  she remained unresponsive, on a ventilator with very little brain activity.   She passed away peacefully on Monday the 28th.  The last two days have been a mess of emotions but she is in a better place and we have a life time of memories and my dad is in good spirits. 

So...deep breathe and on to spring break! 
All 4 of our kids are on their own adventures so we are alone on our road trip and so excited to see everything the great outdoors has to offer in the west!  Our end goal for the day is Livingston, Montana, one of the states I am thrilled to visit! 

*   *   *   *   *
Again,  sorry for the delay but thanks for stopping by.   Feel free to offer suggestions on places you think we shouldn't miss on our trip. 

*   *   *   *   *
Great special at Bridging the Gap Promotions going on now! 



FREE to unlimited Kindle
Or 99 pennies otherwise!

http://www.amazon.com/Cowboy-Mine-Kathleen-Ball-ebook/dp/B016QYF6PM/ref=sr_1_1_twi_kin_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459617388&sr=8-1&keywords=Cowboy%2C+mine

Friday, April 1, 2016

Being a part of something Sinfully Sexy with @AuthorNicMorgan #RB4U #99cents



Welcome to Romance Books 4 Us everyone. I'm your tour guide for the day, Nicole Morgan and as some of you may have noticed I drop by with a new post on the first of every month and either ramble like a fool or amaze you with my intellect. LOL. Okay, yes that last one was a stretch, but...I've got you smiling now, don't I? Now that you're good and loosened up, go ahead and kick your shoes off, sit back, relax and enjoy!

Hi everyone! Last month I told you about the anthology that was yet to be released. Today I'd like to share with you why I became a part of this awesome collection.

When I first heard of this anthology I was naturally excited by the sheer talent that was going to go into such a project. The authors involved are all immensely creative and have a real knack for spinning a sexy story. Having the theme be BDSM was all the more reason to intrigue me further. Always having loved the genre for some reading pleasure, and having dabbled in it in my book Intimate Confessions, I was curious to challenge myself and see how much farther I could step outside of my comfort zone and leave the ‘vanilla’ behind. And while I may not have written a perfectly decadent devil’s food chocolate BDSM story, I am pleased to say that I did find a little bit of a combination between the vanilla and the chocolate. Besides, what’s better than one flavor, but two? *winks* 



Dominant Persuasions - including the novela, Surrender Her Inhibitions by: Nicole Morgan

Three years ago Sophia Hunt was on the tail end of a bad break up and in a vulnerable and confused state of mind when she crossed paths with the sexy and seductive J.T. Mastrantonio.
Stuck in a rut and no longer satisfied with his successful life, J.T. finds an unfamiliar ache when the scared girl who ran out on him years earlier walks back into his life.
Though time is not their side, Sophia is faced with the realization that her biggest fears and greatest temptations are one in the same. And only J.T. will be the one who can get Sophia to surrender to her inhibitions. 


Here is a little nibble from Surrender Her Inhibitions...

Sweat dripped down his chest from lack of control. He looked down at the top of her head as she seemed to nuzzle up against him. Her precious movements of needing to be close to him were almost more than he could take. 

ORDER TODAY
Only 99 cents 



That's all for me this months, guys and gals. 
I'll see you here next month,
Same bat time...Same bat channel.
Find all of my other books on any of these fine retailers: 


Nicole's Administrative Services


Nicole Morgan is an author of erotic romance novels, which more often than not have a suspenseful back story. Erotic romance mixed with good old-fashioned whodunit. While she's written everything from contemporary to paranormal her leading men will more than likely be wearing a uniform of some kind. From military to police officers, she has a love for writing about those who protect and serve. From her very first novel about Navy SEALs to her more recent releases you will be sure to find a few twists and turns you were not expecting.


She also had a recurring monthly column in Book & Trailer Showcase's eMagazine, is a proud member of the Romance Books 4 Us Gold Authors, as well as Sweet and Sexy Divas. 

Find out more about Nicole and her books by visiting her website, blog, Google + Page, Twitter, Facebook and her Yahoo Group, Nicole’s Think Tank.

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