UPDATE: The winner is…Beth!
*~*~*

October

1. I wrote zero words! Zero! I didn’t even revise anything I’ve written, although I have a book coming out soon that needs it!
2. I completed 3 editing projects for other authors in October.
3. Still, with so little productivity, I feel like I climbed mountains.

Health-related:

1. I underwent my third round of chemo and noted how I felt during the days after so I could try to figure out how to work around the chemo schedule. The fatigue continues to be the worst part. My 4th round, which was to start on the 28th, was canceled due to my extremely low platelet count. The chemo-induced anemia is kicking my butt. The aches only last a few days. My white blood count takes a beating, too, but the shots they give me after chemo bring it up quickly. They are going to adjust one of the medicines they give me to try to address the platelet issue.
2. I’m maintaining my 20 pounds weight loss.
3. I’m losing muscle tone. I know I need to add some sort of exercise to my schedule on days when I can get around, but I’ve just been so tired I tend to sleep a lot.
4. I had a CT scan with contrast yesterday. The “shadow” they previously saw on my spine is gone. The nodule on my liver is gone. They see reduction in the thickness of my omentum and the sizes of the tumors in my ovaries and uterus. I won’t know any numbers until next Monday. But progress! 🙂

Happiness-related: 

1. The family has been wonderful, doing takeout and watching movies nearly weekly, so we have family “events” to share.
2. I didn’t paint a thing this month. No drive at all. It’s like the writing—anything that requires imagination takes too much energy.

November

   

1. To revise, format, and upload The Demon Lord’s Cloak for its release on November 12th.
2. To complete Ignition, the fourth book in the Delta Fire series during November’s NaNoWriMo.
3. To complete 4 editing projects in November!
4. To write at least 1/4 of Built Like Mack during NaNoWriMo.
5. My writing goals may be pie-in-the-sky goals, given I have two bouts of chemo sceduled for the month, but I have to shoot for something.

For health related, I plan:

1. To go through two more rounds of chemo, which when I look at my calendar seems overwhelming, but I’ll get through it.
2. To continue to watch what I eat and hope I can manage to drop a few more pounds.
3. To up my physical activities so that I don’t lose any more muscle. Maybe I’ll give myself stairstep goals or walk the driveway to the gate and back goals—on days when I’m not sick as a dog.

For happiness-related, I plan: 

1. To fiddle in my art room!
2. Attend the local art guild’s Potluck Dinner.
3. To spend time with the family—movies, meals, and flea market adventures! I’m not overly ambitious.
4. Enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas decorating with the family!

Contest

Comment on anything you’ve read in this post. Tell me what you’re doing to make yourself happier and healthier, or tell me what you plan to read in November…

Like I said, comment on anything for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

I’m offering two stories: a short story and a short novel. You can get both if you like! Just click on the covers to get your copies!
This offer ends November 1st!

 

The days are getting shorter, and the air has a distinct bite. Trees are losing their leaves as the wind whistles through their branches. Pumpkins are appearing on porch steps with carved faces and flickering lights. Houses are decorated with orange and purple lights that highlight life-size ghosts, zombies, and ghouls of every kind. It’s a spooky, beautiful time of year.

Samhain is just around the corner. On this day, it is said the veil between our world and that of spirit is the thinnest. The nights are long, and the days are short, giving us plenty of time to ponder if such things are real or imaginary.

Traditionally, Samhain is the celebration of the final harvest. It heralded the beginning of the darker times to come. Bonfires flared to drive back the dark. Turnips were carved and lit with candles to drive away evil spirits. (The Halloween jack-o-lantern has its roots there.) In some cultures, people donned masks in an attempt to appease the gods. (You can easily see where the idea of trick-or-treating came from.)

Kids will wear costumes, masks, and makeup and run door-to-door with the familiar refrain of trick-or-treat gathering candy, bars, bags of chips, and other treats to delight them. Adults will dress up in their sexy and scary best and party until the wee hours of the morning. Young and old alike will join in the fun and celebration.

It’s a great time of year for spooky movies. I admit, I don’t go for the scary ones with blood and gore. Some of my favorites are: The Lost Boys, Ghostbusters, The Underworld series, The Crow, Dracula Untold, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

It’s also the perfect time to indulge in a paranormal romance. Vampires, ghosts, and werewolves, oh my! There’s something for everyone in this genre. I have so much fun writing paranormal romances because you can step outside ordinary life and discover something extraordinary.

However you celebrate this time of year, I wish you a safe, Happy Halloween and Happy Samhain!

If you’re looking for some seasonal books, you might check out some of these:

WEREWOLVES:

Salvation Pack Series: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0753H2PLQ/

Lone Wolf Legacy Series:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTKCDR77/

Legacy Series: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075V11M7Q/

VARIOUS SHIFTERS:

Forgotten Brotherhood: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B086BT7QJL/

Hades’ Carnival: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0742KNX25

VAMPIRES:

Dalakis Passion Series: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074CHP42S/

MAGIC:

Spells, Secrets & Seductions: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FK8Q19K/

About the Author

N.J. Walters is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who has always been a voracious reader, and now she spends her days writing novels of her own. Vampires, werewolves, dragons, assassins, time-travelers, seductive handymen, and next-door neighbors with smoldering good looks—all vie for her attention. It’s a tough life, but someone’s got to live it.

Visit her at:
Website: https://www.njwalters.com
Blog: https://www.njwalters.blogspot.com
Newsletter Sign Up: https://eepurl.com/gdblg5
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/N.J.WaltersAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/njwaltersauthor
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/NJWalters
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/njwalters
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/n-j-walters

UPDATE: The winner is…Jennifer Beyer!
*~*~*

Come up with the correct question to this Jeopardy answer: In 1928, she was appointed chairwoman by Herbert Hoover to head a committee charged with fact finding on the issue of Negro housing. Correct question: Who is Nannie Helen Burroughs? Nannie Helen Burroughs lived when the Republican party was still the Grand Old Party of Lincoln and when being a Black republican wasn’t an oxymoron.

Nannie was born on May 2, 1879, in Orange, Virginia, to freeborn parents. Their enslaved father used his carpentry skills to buy his freedom. Nannie’s father was a minister and her mother a cook. They instilled in her the core value of uplifting the race in everything she did. It’s no surprise that she chose, “We specialize in the wholly impossible” for the motto of the school she would establish.

Active in her denomination, Nannie served as bookkeeper and secretary of the Foreign Mission Board of the National Baptist Convention. In 1900, her speech, “How the Sisters Are Hindered From Helping,” led to the founding of the Women’s Convention in 1900. She served as president until 1913 and continued working with them until 1947.

While studying at Eckstein-Norton University in Louisville, Kentucky, she created a club for women which provided bookkeeping, sewing, cooking, and typing classes in the evening. Societal opposition to educating women beyond being homemakers only inflamed Nannie’s activism. In 1909 at age twenty-six, she opened the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington D.C. The school provided classes in shoe repair, barbering, and gardening in addition to domestic science and secretarial skills. In 1918, a Seattle magazine article showed the school also offered millinery classes and agricultural training. To graduate, everyone had to take the course Nannie created on the contributions of African Americans to history.

She worked for suffrage with my September 2024 D.D. blogpost subject Mary Church Terrell and advocated for the unionization of domestic workers. Nannie’s work with the National Association of Colored Women led to the founding of the National Association of Wage Earners.

She never married and worked tirelessly on her causes. But don’t picture her as a workaholic activist. In the 1920s, Nannie wrote two popular one-act plays for church groups, which continued to be produced through the decades. Her comedic satire The Slabtown District Convention enjoyed a revival in 2001.

A biography of Nannie was included in the children’s book Women Builders in 1931. The work was illustrated by my D.D. October 2023 and February 2024 post subject, Hallie Q. Brown.

Nannie died in 1961. Three years after her death, her school was renamed for her. Trades Hall, its original building, was designated a national historic landmark in 1991. A prolific writer and editor, the Library of Congress holds 110,000 of her papers in its Manuscript Division.

Once again, the dedication and determination of women like Nannie Helen Burroughs leaves me awestruck. For a chance at a $10 Amazon gift card, share your impression of Nannie and women like her in the comments.

Her Heavenly Phantom
by Michal Scott

Forced into a marriage of convenience neither wants, a mild-mannered banker with an intriguing secret discovers his reluctant bride has a secret, too.

Excerpt from “Her Heavenly Phantom” inside Secret Identities…

The carriage driver’s whoa brought him back to the present. Twelve noon and the sun shone brightly. Too brightly for noon on Good Friday. At that hour the sky had begun to darken and the veil of the temple had ripped in twain as Jesus died for our sins on a cross between two thieves.

Harold stepped to the sidewalk and offered his hand to Emily. She took it without a word then preceded him up the steps to their new home.

“I’ll be late at the bank, preparing for my trip to Philadelphia,” he said. “You weren’t expecting me for dinner, were you?”

“No.” She pulled off her gloves and laid them beside her hat on the hall table. “Will you want something upon your return?”

“Don’t bother. I won’t be hungry.”

“Very well. I’ll leave a note for cook with tomorrow’s menus.” She went up the stairs. Her bustleless walking skirt outlined a shapely rear. She swayed with each step as if in time to some erotic metronome. Harold blenched and concealed his cock’s sudden twitch behind his top hat.

“I’ll make sure to leave a door open,” she said. “So, you’ll know which bedroom is yours.”

That suited him fine. He’d want no witness to him losing himself in the rapture induced by his lady of the balcony.

Buylinks:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DBJ47ND6/
B&N https://shorturl.at/B0NLA
KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/secret-identities-8

UPDATE: The winner is…Amy Fendley!
*~*~*

Halloween is fast approaching!

I have such vivid memories of Halloween night when I lived on military bases as a kid. We carried pillowcases and hit every house in enlisted housing, running from one to the next, and when we finished, our parents would load us up and take us to officer housing (where they had the best candy!), and we’d hit every house there as well. We’d come back with months’ worth of candy and then sit and trade for our favorite kinds.

For me, it was Tootsie Rolls.

I live in a rural area now, so we don’t get Trick or Treaters here, and I do miss the kids showing up at the door to get their treats. Our kids dress up and hit the major parties at the churches and on Main Street. I used to go with them, but I’ll wait at home for them to come back (yes, even the 15-year-old will find a party she can go to). When they come home, they always search their buckets for my favorite candy to share.

I’d love to hear about your memories of Halloween. And for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me your favorite Halloween candy! Enjoy the puzzle! 

Hello Delilah, and Happy (Almost) Halloween!

Thanks for conjuring me onto your fabulous blog—I’m absolutely thrilled to be here, broomstick and all. What’s better for Halloween than a witchy tale? I’ve got one for you, and it’s bubbling up with magic, mayhem, and a 100-year-old curse threatening the universe (because, of course, the universe is at stake, right?).

Before these witches can even think about saving the world, they’ve got to make it through the trials of Cauldron Academy—where you don’t just attend classes; you fight for the right to lead! Only after they’re chosen will they each embark on their own quests, piecing together clues to the final, universe-saving battle. No pressure, right?

Now, I know what you’re thinking: ‘Aren’t you the sexy ménage author?’ Why yes, I am! But this story has been brewing in my cauldron of ideas for a long time, and I just couldn’t resist sharing it with the world.

The first book is out and FREE everywhere (shoutout to Amazon for that price match magic—come on, Bezos), and book two, Enchanted Deadlines, hits the shelves today!

Is this series as steamy as my usual ménage stories? Well, no… But what it lacks in steamy threesomes, it makes up for in spellbinding adventures and kickass witches. So whether you’re here for the tricks, treats, or just a good story to sink your teeth into, I’ve got you covered.

And now, a little sweet Halloween candy from Enchanted Deadlines just for you…

*~*~*

The bell over the door tinkled, and she heard her grandmother call out, “Daisy, dear, I’m here.”

Yanking her hand away, she pulled out of his grasp. “Sorry, but I have to get these to Grandmother Astor.”

“Oh, my sweet Daisy, come back and let me sip from your nectar,” he said, thrusting his hips in her direction. “We will move the universe with our mating.”

She all but ran out of the kitchen and hurried to the counter.

“Grandmother, thank Merlin, you’re here,” she said, her voice sounding out of breath, her heart racing as she hurried away from the big alien.

“What’s wrong? Is it the pastries?”

“No, my spells. Something is wrong. I can’t read his mind. Then I cast a spell on him, and it didn’t work. That’s never happened to me before.”

No man had ever been immune to her magic until now, which made her uneasy. Before, she could just cast a spell on a man whose attention she didn’t want, and the problem was gone. But Misna was not affected.

Her magic didn’t work on him. Except the flippin pastries.

“What are you talking about?” Her grandmother asked in surprise. “I leave you alone for less than an hour and come back to find you all upset and flustered. What’s going on?”

The door to the kitchen swung open, and Misna strolled out completely naked as the day he was brought forth into his world. The man looked like perfection, with his muscled thighs, manhood erect as he strolled determinedly towards Daisy.

“This…”

Her grandmother busted out laughing.

Daisy’s eyes widened as she realized he was coming for her, and she knew his intent. “What am I going to do? He’s immune to my spells and he ate one of the pastries? Now he wants to…wants to…”

“Honey, from the looks of that alien, I think his big Johnson is more than you can handle at this time. How long does the pastry potion last?”

“At least three to four hours. You try a spell on the guy,” Daisy said as he gripped her hand and raised it to his lips.

He pulled her against him.

“Do you want my help or not?”

Of course, she wanted her grandmother’s help. Right now, she’d even take the town ogre’s help.

“Yes,” she yelped as Misna pulled her mouth to his, his lips covering hers, consuming her.

The world ceased to exist as his mouth devoured her. Time seemed to stop, and her arms wound their way around his neck as he moaned deep in his throat.

What was happening to her? Never before had she experienced this kind of kiss. Her heart was pounding in her chest, and warmth seemed to infuse her from the tips of her toes to the top of her head.

She wanted this big alien. She wanted to shed her clothes and join with him.

The tinkle of the bell above the door had her pushing back, she quickly turned away from Misna, glancing to where Astor had been standing.

She was gone. She’d left her.

How embarrassing to be so thoroughly kissed in front of her grandmother.

Quickly, she glanced down at his man parts and laughed. Grandmother’s spell didn’t reverse the pastry potion but had put him in a male chastity belt. The poor man still had a hard-on, but he couldn’t get to her even if he wanted to.

Now, she had to entertain a lovesick alien until the pastry spell wore off.

Grab Your Copy to See How Daisy Fights Off The Alien

Since you read to the end, post your favorite Halloween candy and you could win book one, Cauldron Academy, and book two, Enchanted Deadlines.

Time is Running Out

Daisy Le Deux faces a daunting deadline: she must find her true love within weeks, but no one catches her eye. Fresh out of Cauldron Academy, Daisy is tasked with saving the world, though she has no idea how or from what. The pressure is mounting as time runs out for both her and the planet.

Enter Crazod Krazolz, an alien from Tilnora, who arrives on Earth in search of a powerful witch from the Le Deux coven. His kingdom is trapped under a sleeping spell, and only Daisy’s magic can break it. But convincing the charming and hesitant Daisy to join him is a race against time.

Will her magic break the spell that holds his kingdom hostage? And will she return in time to save earth?

About Lacey Davis

Lacey Davis is a pseudonym for a USA Today bestselling author who wanted to try her hand at writing sexy romance. With these novels, I hope to write sizzling romances that will leave you grabbing a fan to cool yourself off.

If you like hunky bad boy heroes who like to be in charge and strong pretty women who are willing to risk it all, then look no further. These sexy reads will get you in the mood. Come experience strong women who will tame these bad boys and leave them wanting more.

website: www.laceydavisauthor.com
newsletter: https://www.subscribepage.com/laceydavis_author
Bookbub: bookbub.com/authors/lacey-davis
Goodreads: goodreads.com/author/show/7985938.Lacey_Davis?from_search=true&from_srp=true
Amazon Author Central: amazon.com/Lacey-Davis/e/B08KRGK49Y/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1
Facebook: facebook.com/LaceyDavisromancewriter

I’m just popping in to share this image. This is my life now. My two geriatric cats have declared war. The sounds are worse than the deep growls of hellhounds, especially at three in the morning. Tessa has decided I’ve betrayed her and struts around with her tail twitching. Pumpkin is much smaller than Tessa, but her growl is terrifying. If I sit with Pumpkin on my lap, Tessa sits at the foot of the chair, glaring up at us, and both cats hiss back and forth at each other. I have to carry Pumpkin to the water and feed bowls—and the cat box—because Tessa tries to block her. When they do battle, the sounds are something I wish I could record because you wouldn’t believe how fierce these two old cats sound!

How long will this last?!!!! Seriously, any advice will be appreciated. And no, neither will be rehomed. Period.