Not long ago, a Facebook post popped up on my timeline from an author asking other authors what they believed was their best talent in writing. Some replied, they were unsure. A few were very specific. I sat with fingers poised over the keyboard. Then I curled them to my hands, and my hands slunk away from the laptop like the Wicked Witch of the East under Dorothy’s house.

I needed to ponder the question before answering. Was I good at anything? The author’s doubt began to compress around throat. I shouldn’t even answer this. I had nothing to say.

In my other life, I’m a sports reporter, and I will say I’m good at my job. I’ve won awards and even had racing legend A.J. Foyt ask for more copies of a story I’d written about him.

Fiction writing, however, is a completely different animal—even the punctuation. All you need to do is ask my editors about my comma problem. On a side note, news stories are written in A.P. Style and punctuation is often at a minimum.

I can tell a story in fifteen hundred words or less, but readers are paying for and usually want more words for their investment.

What was so important about me answering this Facebook post? Well, by forcing myself to answer, I was giving myself a little legitimacy. So, I thought over the books I’ve released, and the ones I’m currently writing, and I began to form an opinion of what aspect of writing I believe I write well.

Male point of view.

I have a comma problem. I’m way too fond of adverbs. “Just” is my absolute favorite word of all, but I can get inside a man’s head.

More than a few times, I’ve read or judged a book where I finished the man’s side of the story and ended with my own “said no man ever.” On the flip side, I can tell usually tell when a male has written a female point of view.

I come by this talent honestly.

Because of the age difference between me and my sister, my playmates growing up were the four boys who lived next door who ranged in age from two years older than me to one year younger. Every minute of our free time was spent together.

I sat in the back of the bus and threatened to beat anyone up who made fun of Paul as he sat crying because Dena Bowman had broken up with him in the sixth grade. I went to high school girlfriends and told them they needed to stop trying to keep my boys next door from talking with me. I’d been around way before them; would be around way after them and had no interest in being my boys’ girlfriend as I had my own boyfriend.

In high school, I was still their shoulder to cry on when those girls moved to another guy.

I learned how boys see their parents’ marriage and how they dealt with the divorce.

As I began my career, I learned better ways to cuss and honed my inner smart ass skills. My husband says I have far surpassed his own skills.

In reality, I’ve learned men have their own vulnerabilities and insecurities, but they express them differently than women. Men express themselves in other manners than women in most things, and that’s not a bad thing, nor a wrong thing. It’s just dissimilar.

That’s not to say I don’t shake my head at times, but I understand the roots of the source.

I have great girlfriends, but I prefer to work with men. I’ve worked in a male dominated career my whole life, and I’m comfortable there.

Now, that I’m writing romance, I fully embrace my experience because my talent evolved from my situation.

I can write a male point of view and have discovered I enjoy writing my male characters more than my females. It’s like the girls are along for the ride, but the guys are more fun for me.

For me, the men are easy. The women are soooo hard. I’ll work on my women, but first I have this idea for a guy, and he’s so great.

I write both contemporary and erotic romance. I’m currently finishing the final book of the Love Strictly Test Trilogy, and Jordan’s Trials from the Wild Rose Press will be out in 2020.

Angel’s Collar: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DYZXR9C
Sabrina’s Seduction: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RLKRZ4Y
The Heart Series:
Captured Hearts: Only $.99 on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Captured-Hearts-Unimaginable-Choices-Undeniable-ebook/dp/B01N531PT4
Missing Hearts: https://www.amazon.com/Missing-Hearts-Heart-Book-2-ebook/dp/B07FYTH5G4
Stolen Hearts: https://www.amazon.com/Stolen-Hearts-Heart-Book-3-ebook/dp/B07RNM8R2W
Contact me at: www.annahague.com

On 9/11, I worked in a large insurance company in San Antonio, Texas. I passed by a break room and saw a large group of people standing beneath the televisions mounted on the wall, watching coverage of some disaster in New York. I was on my way to a meeting, but I paused. Everyone was quiet, whispering. I heard someone say, “I think a small plane crashed into one of the trade center buildings.” As I stood there realizing a tall skyscraper was on fire, another plane entered our view, and we all watched horrified as it crashed into the second tower.

Meeting forgotten, I stood, listening as news people tried to make sense of what we’d all witnessed. When the towers leaned and began to tumble down, I knew what had happened was intentional. That something profoundly ugly and cruel had just occurred.

Over the following days, like so many others, I couldn’t look away from the coverage—the people running away, gray and covered in dust, of people leaping from windows, of the stories of the first responders who’d been inside those buildings, trying to move people to safety, of the person who’d stayed with a wheelchair-bound friend in a stairwell… So many horrible/wonderful stories.

At the time, I was still in the National Guard. During my unit’s first weekend together after the attack, we reviewed what it meant. What we had to prepare for. Another war was coming.

Today, eighteen years later, I remember all of that like it was yesterday. It’s one of those days that remains forever emblazoned on my mind—like the days JFK, Martin Luther King, Jr., Bobby Kennedy, and John Lennon were assassinated—like the day I watched the moon landing, although my feelings while watching that miracle of technology and perseverance left me feeling light and hopeful for the future rather than somber and angry. They are all seminal moments, ones you remember what you were doing, and who you were with when you first heard…

I think of the first responders who arrived to search for survivors. Of the dogs with their booties, who suffered from finding so much death that men lay down in the rubble to give those dogs a joyful “win”. So many heroes who suffer to this day.

I remember. Do you want to share your memories?

UPDATE: The winner is…Joy Isley!
*~*~*

Ends September 14th!
Win a $10 Amazon gift card!

All you have to do to enter is send a private email to me at this address—delilah@delilahdevlin.com—with the answers to these questions, which can all be found on this website! Have fun!!!!

1.  What American city name is featured in the title of one of my recent releases?
2.  What 3 books are listed on my Books page, and have you read any of them?
3.  What woman’s name is repeated on two of my covers on my Standalone books page (under the Contemporary category)?
4.  How many stories have I published in my Night Fall series (on my Series books page)?
5.  What’s the title of my next release? (You can find it on my Upcoming/Coming Soon page!)

In the scientific community, there is some argument on whether time travel is possible. The hypothetical theory for it is called an Einstein-Rosen bridge, otherwise known as a wormhole. A wormhole is a short cut through the space-time continuum. It acts like a tunnel connecting two places in three-dimensional space, the present, and the past or future, with time as the forth-dimensional element.

The key aspect of a time travel novel, regardless of what time it takes place, is the fish out of water trope. Imagine, for a moment, that you suddenly found yourself in the 1800s. All the everyday things that you are used to haven’t been invented yet. How do you survive?

In 1876, Edison was still perfecting his telephone. The carbon arc lamp was the first practical electric light in use, but only in larger cities. Women’s clothing included a long line bodice and hemlines that reached the floor. Freedoms and socially acceptable behavior were different. Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch established the germ theory of disease in 1870 but it is not widely practiced. The first city to have a comprehensive sewer system was Chicago in 1885.

How does a woman who is used to having her independence and modern conveniences, cope in a world that doesn’t have cars, air travel, air conditioning, television, radio or even the right of women to vote?

The heroine in my latest time travel story has to make the decision to return to her own time or remain in the past with the man she loves knowing what she is giving up. Is love more important than indoor plumbing or owning your own business? The answers are in my Halloween novella, THE PORTRAIT, part of the Love through Time series. Coming September 17th.

The Portrait

They had only the ghost of a chance…

The first time Catherine went to the historic Hamilton House, she was looking for whatever haunted it. But what she found was even scarier: a portrait of a woman who looked exactly like her. But Catherine was not going to let a look-alike from another century—or a broken heart in the twenty-first—stop her. She would still put on the fund-raiser of the mayor’s dreams so she could realize her goal: a bed-and-breakfast of her own.

David gave it all he had, but couldn’t escape what felt like a life-sentence in his family’s 19th-century prison. He wanted to go West, build his own business, and find his own wife. But his parents stymied him at every turn, choosing both the woman he would marry and the career he would follow. It wasn’t until Catherine popped into his life—and into his arms—that he found hope again.

Buy Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X7ZBJ1Z?ref_=pe_3052080_276849420
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1133277052;jsessionid=AC391BDA1382DE947FC6F53223236637.prodny_store02-atgap17?ean=2940163568963
Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1478360582
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-portrait-39

Social Media Links:
https://augustinavanhoven.com
Twitter: @augustinavhoven
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Augustina-Van-Hoven-Author/336028986575129
Pinterest: Augustina Van Hoven, Author

UPDATE: The winner is…Michelle Oxrider!
*~*~*

©Diana Cosby 2019

When I craft characters, such as Sir Cailin MacHugh, hero of Forbidden Alliance, book #4 in the bestselling The Forbidden Series, I look for animals that can serve as their talisman, something the character believes holds magic powers to protect them, brings good luck, or is a sign of strength.

One of my favorite talismans for characters is a hawk. They’re intelligent, strong, and determined.

The hawk I’m showcasing today is the Cooper’s Hawk.

You can tell if the Cooper’s Hawk is a fledging or an adult by their eye color. Younger birds’ eyes are pale, whereas the older birds’ eyes will darken to a deep red.

Regardless of the type of hawk, whenever you see one on the ground, in a tree, or flying overhead, their regal air commands attention.

It’s obvious why nobles as rulers throughout the centuries have claimed the hawk as a symbol in their banners.

What do you find intriguing about hawks?

About Diana Cosby

A retired Navy Chief, Diana Cosby is an international bestselling author of Scottish medieval romantic suspense. Books in her award-winning MacGruder Brothers series have been translated in five languages. Diana has spoken at the Library of Congress, Lady Jane’s Salon in NYC, and appeared in Woman’s Day, on USA Today’s romance blog, “Happy Ever After,” MSN.com, Atlantic County Women Magazine, and Texoma Living Magazine.

After her career in the Navy, Diana dove into her passion – writing romance novels. With 34 moves behind her, she was anxious to create characters who reflected the amazing cultures and people she’s met throughout the world. After the release of the bestselling MacGruder Brothers series, The Oath Trilogy, and the first two book of The Forbidden Series, she’s now working on book #5, Forbidden Realm, of the five-book series, which will be released April 2020.

Contest

***ONE winner will be drawn from everyone who posts on my guest post about, ‘Hawks – Character Talisman,’ on Delilah’s blog between 8th September 2019 – 15th September 2019. The winner will receive one of Diana’s totes and Celtic earrings by Joy Boothby, J and T Jewelry and Designs.

Diana Cosby, International Best-Selling Author
www.dianacosby.com
The Oath Trilogy
MacGruder Brother Series
Forbidden Series: Forbidden Legacy/Forbidden Knight/Forbidden Vow/Forbidden Alliance‒Aug. 6th 2019/Forbidden Realm April 2020

Not much of a post today. My dd is over to help get the house ready for my mom. She had back surgery on Friday and is coming home today. We’re happy because all seems to have gone very well. She had crumbling discs, and the doctors went into her back and “roto-rooted” away the debris which had caused her pain for years.

After we finished getting things right for mom, we descended into the basement to the craft room where Kel worked on her Cricut, and I worked on some bracelets. Here are a few I finished:

Of course, as always happens when I make bracelets, I ended up giving some of them away. I made a lovely rosewood and lavender quartz bracelet as well as one just like the red one above to my dd. I gave the second red one to my aunt when she admired it. So, I’m ahead just two bracelets in my efforts to build inventory for my Etsy shop. At this rate, it will be a very long time before I can re-open. 🙂

So, now we just wait. Mom will be back soon. My sister, Elle James, stayed with her at the hospital throughout the ordeal. I had the fur-babies to take care of—five of them. I had to sleep in mom’s bed where they all join her at night, and she gets up to walk them two or three times a night. So, yes, I’ll be happy when everyone is home and mom is well! LOL

Ever wonder what motivates an author? What are her/his deepest drives and passions when writing a romance novel? For me…

As a writer, I just can’t resist creating erotic romances that dance on the fringes of paranormal subgenres. Or, I’ll explain it this way by using the famous “Star Trek” opening phrase—”To boldly go where no man has gone before”.

To update that phrase: Where no heroine or hero has gone before.

I blame this ‘fringes’ proclivity on my ‘vivid’ imagination, and my longtime fascination with ‘outside the box’ topics such as UFOs, mysticism, various psychic subjects, the face on Mars, the secret space program, and of course, the antediluvian civilizations like Atlantis.

Although, at this point in time, these topics are going mainstream, even if it is still a slow ‘drip-drip-drip’ revealing to the public. However, the ‘fringes’ are always. expanding.

I also love experimenting, the challenge of stepping beyond where I’ve been before as an author. For example, I wrote a ‘first person’ scifi erotic romance, in both the heroine and hero’s voice. Once I rework this short story into a longer and richer version, I intend to Indie publish—that is, if the cosmic Trickster quits pummeling me with a whole series of bigtime problems.

Yeah, this summer has been absolutely unbelievable. In fact, the worst summer of my life, even with the overall enjoyable mild temps.

The reason I explain my authorly nature is to explain one of my unique heroines. Keina is a winged filly shapeshifter from another dimension. Her hero is an ex-super soldier. Drev has survived the brutal rigors of the black-ops world, finally finding a home in Wolf Peak Territory.

Yes, Keina and Drev’s erotic love story is set in my ‘on the fringe’ fictional world of Wolf Peak Territory, Montana. Mostly through writing flash scenes, since 2011, I have been worldbuilding—growing and evolving—this ‘hidden from the outside world’ shapeshifter-supernatural community.

Or as they like to say, the Peak is home to shapeshifters of all types and stripes, to supernaturals of every imaginable and unimaginable kind. Humans are included, of course. Smiles.

The policy in the Peak: if you’re on the GOOD side, you’re welcome. If not, you could potentially be torn to shreds with claw and fang, beak and talon. At all times, the territorial boundaries are patrolled by the numerous Guardian teams. There is also dragon-shifter aerial surveillance, and since Keina has wings, she joins in.

Indeed, Wolf Peak Territory is very multicultural and also an advanced, highly complex society that works for All. Dante, the alpha wolf shifter leader, will accept nothing less.

In closing, another aspect I bring to my erotic romance novels is a visionary blueprint for a more loving, powerful, and creative society. As a teenager, given some challenging experiences, I made a decision to ‘help’ bring about a better world, one where dreams come true for everyone.

Over the years, I’ve done my best to fulfill that promise to myself. I won’t comment on the current state of our world. However, in my romance novels I get to ‘make dreams come true’ for my heroines and heroes in their fictional worlds.

So, if you like dancing on the paranormal fringes as a reader. If you want to take a leap into the romance unknown—and if you enjoy lots of action scenes…well, I hope you’ll consider Keina and Drev’s love story.

Oh, and since Thanksgiving Day is around the corner, well, WAITING FOR A FILLY GIRL takes place during the Turkey Day celebration in the Peak—yes, pumpkin pie and whipped cream erotically included.

~~~~~~

Waiting For a Filly Girl

A ShapeShifter Seduction Erotic Romance Novel

Ex super-soldier boy meets winged filly girl.
Will they live happily ever after?
In Wolf Peak territory anything is possible.

A passion that cannot be denied…
A woman banished from her realm…
A man who will fight for love no matter the cost…

Drev Zander, ex super-soldier, built a new life in Wolf Peak Territory. His traumatic past is fading. On the Guardian Team, he battles sinister enemies threatening the shapeshifter community. After a mysterious Pegasus ruins his T-day plans, Drev finds the woman he’s been waiting for.

Will she rule his heart?

Keina Svonj, winged horse shifter, is banished from her realm—the dastardly Prince has convinced the King. Flying above the Montana forest, Keina interferes with a hunter. She mind-melds with him, and realizing her mistake, makes amends. Passion explodes between them. Love follows.

Will Drev save her from a forced marriage?

~~~~~~

EXCERPT:

How was she going make this right? How?

Still shaking, she hovered and slowly reached for him with her wing. Gathering her courage, Keina caressed his square jaw with the tips of her feathers.

When she knew he felt the stroke of her wingtip, Keina spoke to his mind. Even if the hunter didn’t hear her message, his heart would know the apology coming from her heart.

So she hoped.

Somehow, some way, she’d find a way to make his Thanksgiving celebration a good one. For him, and his family.

With resolve now ruling her, Keina gradually backed away. Since she needed to know, she searched his mind for the precise location of his home.

Bingo-bango, in seconds she had it memorized and mapped. The solitary cabin sat on a long slope of ground, amid Lodgepole Pines, Spruce, and elder Aspen trees.

Keina ascended fast. That is, after a last look at the man’s handsome face. Mmm, yes yum, his hunk-sexy stubble did quivery things to her.

There just had to be a suitable turkey available somewhere. She’d check every shop. And since she had the Pegasus wings—Keina smiled to herself—it wouldn’t take long to reach her temporary home on Earth, and start the search.

Strongly flapping, Keina streaked through the sky toward Billings, Montana, where she’d rented a small apartment, and pretended to be human.

Excerpts & Buy Links: https://shapeshifterseduction.blogspot.com/p/chapter-three-blue-sky-blues-ive-got.html

~~~~~~

About the Author

Savanna Kougar lives on the tame prairie in the Midwest, and enjoys a quiet lifestyle with her pets, and the wild critters. She pens love stories because that’s her deepest heart. She writes in the futuristic/fantasy/paranormal *and shapeshifter* subgenres because that’s her fiercest passion. And, she writes erotic romance because she ferociously enjoys ripping the damn doors off.

Currently, Savanna Kougar has fourteen published ebooks, with six in print. She is a bestselling author at Siren-Bookstrand. She is currently writing a ShapeShifter Seduction novel set in her fictional world, Wolf Peak Territory. And has lots of WIPs waiting their turn to be finished.

You can find her at:
Savanna Kougar ~savannakougar.com~
ShapeShifter Seduction ~shapeshifterseduction.blogspot.com~
Title Magic ~titlemagic.blogspot.com~