UPDATE: The winner is…Sharon Mitchell!
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©Diana Cosby 2021

In addition to reading, taking photographs of the wildlife is a way I refill my muse.  I look forward to summer and taking photos of flowers and newborn animals and birds.

One of my favorite things to see are the turtles.  Locally, I’ve seen diamondback terrapins, snapping turtles, and box turtles.

It’s wonderful seeing fawns with their mothers; truly, a special moment.

Hummingbirds are interesting to watch.  They’re extremely territorial, and I’ve seen them confront numerous birds, and even squirrels.

Dragonflies are beautiful, and they have such a wide assortment of colors.  So far, I’ve seen green, blue, yellow, orange, gold, brown, and red dragonflies.

One of my favorite flowers is the coneflower.  Not only is it beautiful to photograph, but coneflowers make a stunning backdrop in photographs for bees, hummingbirds, and the other wildlife they attract.  Enjoy your summer and the beauty of nature around you.

Contest

ONE winner will be drawn from everyone who posts on my guest blog post about, ‘Nature – The Beauty of Summer Refills My Muse!,’ on Delilah’s blog between 18 July 2021– 25 July 2021, and will win a signed copy of His Destiny.

About the Author

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 into 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 and The Oath Trilogy, she released the bestselling The Forbidden Series.

Diana looks forward to the years of writing ahead and meeting the amazing people who will share this journey.

Diana Cosby, International Best-Selling Author
www.dianacosby.com
The Oath Trilogy
MacGruder Brother Series
The Forbidden Series

UPDATE: The winner is…ButtonsMom2003!
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We don’t need no stinkin’ holiday to celebrate a Saturday, do we? 

The sky is overcast outside, so it looks like it won’t be a pool day for me. But I won’t let that get me down. I have a fun, sweet story to edit today, so I’ll lose myself inside it (but not so much I can’t catch the errors!).

I looked for a picture online that embodied happiness and joy and found this one. It reminded me of all the old photos I have stuck in a box that are fading and grubby. Some gems that could only bring a smile to my face because I remember the moment better than the photo can possibly display.

Let’s travel down memory road for a smile! For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me about one photo you have that always makes you smile! 

UPDATE: The winner is…Carol Cox!
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I don’t have a lot of time for reading. That is, reading for pleasure. I write, I edit-edit-edit other people’s books, but reading for pleasure? I have very limited time and usually reach for something I’ve already read that I KNOW I’ll enjoy.

However, I miss reading for pleasure, but I want to do so outside of my own genre. Maybe you can help. These are the kinds of books I’m considering reading. Give me a title in one of the genres you think I will love and you’ll be entered to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

• A quirky, funny, cozy mystery
• A small-town, funny romance
• A Sci-Fi adventure with romance or not
• A YA fantasy or paranormal story (no wolves or vampires)
• A police drama/thriller with a really menacing villain

UPDATE: The winner is…Jennifer Beyer!
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Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Cindy-Tanner/e/B0746RHQ9N

Lately, I have been giving thought to the concept of fear and how that drives my actions. I have been writing stories since elementary school, but it wasn’t until years later that I gave any thought to publishing anything. Even then, the fear of failing was enough to keep me happy writing for me, alone. It wasn’t until my dad passed away that I got the courage to self-publish because things I feared changed drastically with his death. Suddenly, no one enjoying my books wasn’t so scary. If I failed, I could try again. So, I did. I have made many mistakes along the way but have learned from them. I have found readers that love my voice and others that don’t. It’s okay. The sun still rises.

This past year, my definition of what I fear was challenged and changed again. My mother experienced a small electrical fire and came to live with us for several months. She hadn’t been home, and she had been incredibly lucky. Loved ones were lost during quarantine, the distance broke some relationships, and the farm I had grown up on was getting divided and sold. All of this during a pandemic that brings its own worries and frustrations.

Finding the silver lining when the bad news kept piling on wasn’t easy, but I realized how much I feared change. What have I learned? The sun is still going to rise and set whether or not I accept the changes happening around me. I spent a lot of time in the last eighteen months feeling helpless, frustrated, and powerless. Now I see change as a chance for something new, not just an end. There is a tremendous amount of power in accepting change and deciding how to receive it.

In my writing, I have been pushing boundaries. Ideas I had but thought I couldn’t write, I have been writing. Letting go of the expectations I was putting on myself and what I had to write. One of these stories will be part of the upcoming anthology Boys Behaving Badly: Cowboys.

Failure is an opportunity for growth. Change is an opportunity for something new. For the chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card comment and tell me a fear you have managed or would like to. 

UPDATE: The winner is…Cindy!
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So, day before yesterday, my dd and I went phone shopping. Mine and hers were several years old and beginning to glitch. Her phone case was cracked. Our top priority was picture quality because we use photos for everything—TikTok, FB, Pinterest, Etsy, etc. Although it was #2 for picture quality, all the other features of the phone were tops, so we purchased Apple phones. Good Lord, the price! Mine’s blue—just like the picture!

And of course, I was also looking for a new watch. All of my Citizen Eco-Drive watches (all four!) are kaput. So…

So, yeah, phone is in hand, an Apple watch is in the mail… Add that to my Mac Air, and I’m a convert. However, my main computer remains a hyped-up HP (it’s a gaming computer with super speed and storage, which I need). I don’t actually play games on it.

I didn’t port over my contacts or files to the new phone. I figured it was a great way to clean everything out. I spent a damn day adding apps, redoing passwords—because I couldn’t remember passwords. The 16-year-old is an old pro with iPhones, so she helped me figure out how to do “stuff”. I’m a slow learner, she says. 🙂

So, the question for you is, are you an Apple girl/boy? Is there some feature you love? Or just tell me what you love about your current phone/tech for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

Recently, I got the rights back to a short story Harlequin published back when Spice Briefs still existed. It was one of the first two stories released into that line. It’s sexy as hell, features a vampire hero and a heroine who’s not the average human herself, and it’s FREE in Kindle Unlimited—just $0.99 if you don’t have KU. I hope you give it a read, and if you can, leave a review!

Invite Me In (A Paranormal-Vampire Short Story)

On a sultry night in the French Quarter, alone in a room thick with desire, she is able to channel the wanton mating of the couple down the hall. Each kiss, each sensation is as real to her as if she were the one being ravished. Forgetting herself, she calls out to him, until he is at her door, in her bed, knowing fully what she wants…

Get your copy now!

UPDATE: The winner is…Melissa Caswell!
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For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle, then tell me where you are!