I know that during the pandemic and stay-at-home orders and such, most people have developed fantastic new hobbies, discovered talents they never knew they had, blah, blah, blah. (Me totally jealous) I’ve started working on a degree, so I have no time for anything new between that, work, and writing.
But Spring has come to shine down on me anyway.
Spring is here, and I am so excited. The first bloom of flowers is out. Honestly, I don’t know if they have sprung up or someone had planted them. I don’t have a green thumb at all. I have tried to grow plants, but they all die on me.
Now, you would think that a woman, whose mother had a menagerie of green plants and flowers all through the house when growing up, said woman (me) would know how to at least keep a succulent alive. Sadly, no. In 48-hours, I killed a succulent given to me for Mother’s Day two years ago. It should have been a hint when my daughter started laughing when the event greeter handed it to me with happy day wishes.
When the greeter offered with cheer, “It is almost impossible to kill this plant.”
My daughter answered, “Not for my mom.”
“Oh, ye of little faith.” I shook my head at my daughter as we walked out. Only to hold my head in shame two days later when it was withered, brown, and dead in its little mason jar.
Am I the only one who can’t grow flowers and lush green plants? Please, someone, tell me I am not alone. LOL.
Since I can’t seem to get my green thumb on, I do many clicks with my phone camera when I see flowers around me. It doesn’t matter if I’m at work, or walking in the park, or if they are the plants growing at my neighbor’s house. I wish I knew what the plants were, but I’m not generally concerned about the type only if it is pretty or interesting. Like the picture below that is a cabbage-like-looking plant or flower. I walked by them again a few days ago, and now they look completed different; there’s no pink, not so pretty after they finished blooming, so no new picture.
If you happen to be a ‘blooming beauty’ and know the name of any of these flowers/plants, let me drop me a line. 😊
Claiming Caroline by Yasmine Hyde
Grover Town Discipline Series
Book # 6
Destitute after her father’s death, Caroline Douglas finds herself in a bind when the sleazy, rich business owner wants her father’s debt in full. He won’t take ‘no’ or ‘I owe you’ for an answer. She finds herself dragged to the Harlot and the Hero, forced to work off her payment. When she thinks things can’t get worse, they do. To save her reputation, she finds herself saying ‘I do’ to a sexy, overbearing cowboy. Tired of following the rules of men, Caroline decides to push back. Especially against her sexy, all-consuming husband who’s too quick with his discipline techniques.
Garrett Rand, a dairy farm owner, and brother to the local sheriff, has spent the last six months requesting the hand of one ‘crofters’ daughter. Blocked at every turn, he starts to give up on ever having her, only to discover she’s in the brothel on the outskirts of Grover Town. Willing to stop at nothing to finally claim the beauty as his wife, in his bed, he makes a deal to get her out of the clutches of one of the richest men in town. However, marrying her is one thing; keeping Caroline out of trouble is another. He’ll just have to keep her over his knee until she learns. When danger strikes the area and threatens the safety of his wife, he will do what’s needed to protect her.
Drawing ONE winner from those who comment on my Spring Is On Its Way post on Delilah’s blog between 1 April 2021 – 5 April 2021. The winner will get a signed book, candle, and $10 Amazon GC.
March was… It’s hard to describe. Crazy busy, super annoying. Big happy wins and crotchety pain-in-ass (literally) setbacks.
On the health front… I started the month still recovering from a busted tailbone, but by the third week, I sat comfortably (with a donut, still). My hand (last September’s fall) is still wonky and I met with the ortho guy who said the continued tightness and swelling are all normal, and if I keep doing my hand exercises, I should, someday, be able to curl my fist again and open a damn jar. Good news on the medical front? I had my second COVID shot and my dd had her first! Now, we have the 16 and 17-year-olds scheduled, too. We’re slowly getting there, but still masking and distancing, and will continue to do so until they have vaccines for the little ones.
On the work front… I finished writing Hardmanand published it! Woot! Thanks to everyone who read it and left a review. Reviews are so appreciated! I also completed 5 editing projects, two of which were loooonnng. They kicked my ass, but they are out the door! I got the rights back to some old books I published through some traditional houses a while ago, so I added them to my work schedule because they need a refurb, and one set of stories needs a readthrough because I want to write more in the series. To say the least, I’m super stoked.
On the art front… I am still slogging through the #100daychallenge, although I’m about ten days behind. Here are some of my favorites so far…
April
I completed my April calendar yesterday, and it already needs some fixes. I think April is going to be that kind of month—one where I have to be fluid and roll to evade the bombs and sinkholes. The big thing in April is that I have to write a book and publish it. Yeah, I haven’t written page one, but I generally do best when I’m running on adrenaline, and a hard deadline gooses me into creativity.
That book is Hot SEAL, In His Memory, and it’s going to be a hard one for me to write because it deals with the loss of a friend and a husband. If you haven’t pre-ordered your copy…
As for editing gigs, I presently have two scheduled, but I had that many scheduled for March as well, and look what happened! So, I’m hoping I’ll have the first couple of weeks pretty free to dive into my new story.
On the homefront, I’ve begun work to get the green scum out of the pool. That’s always a weeks-long thing. I can’t wait to swim!!!!! And my dd is putting in a garden. We’re hoping it does well and that we have a summer full of lettuce, cucumbers, strawberries, blueberries, peppers, and more! I love admiring the “fruits” of her labor, but diggin’ in dirt is not my thing. I’ll maintain the pool, thank you very much.
And I plan to catch up on the art challenge, too. I’m getting better at it, I think. But the purpose is to connect with my creative center. Writing has become a job in my mind. I need to find that spark again.
So, I’d love to hear whether you had big wins in March and plans for April! Chime in for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!
Psst! Check out yesterday’s post.
I haven’t closed out all of those open contests! Enter now!!
I’m just poking my head in the door. Lots on my plate (what does that mean, anyway?) to do today. I need to make words (write-write-write, or at least come up with a page–I’d be happy with one!), edit a boatload of pages, and do some organizing in my bathroom cabinets. Gah. I hate housework. Did I mention I convinced the 12-year-old to be my housekeeper by offering her a monthly “salary”? Yeah, we’ll see how long that lasts, but for now, it’s awesome!
Anyway, I’m sharing a puzzle. Hope you love it. The subject is mice because, with the recent cold spell we had, at least one mouse took up residence in our house. We set those humane capture-and-release traps. Nada. Then we went for the old-fashioned snap-traps. And ta-da! I hope he was the only one. The cats (all five!) were too fat and lazy to catch him. 🙁
Puzzle Contest
For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me a mouse story. Pet, pest? How did you rid yourself of them?
It’s Saturday, and I have some ground to cover this weekend to catch up on my schedule! Why did I fall behind? It’s kind of a mash of post-COVID-shot-malaise (there was a bit of fatigue associated with the shot, nothing big), plus the post-book-release-exhale (which is a real thing for me, folks!), but it’s time to step it up because I have a new book to whiz through this month, plus several editing projects. It never ends, and weekends aren’t weekends when you’re self-employed!
So, today, I will be editing and starting the new story. As well, I’m behind on the #100daychallenge, which is an art challenge I take on every year to get my creative juices going. I’ve been posting my paintings online, which is nerve-wracking because some of them look rushed and slapped together, but some of them…? I really like this one. I think it will earn a frame. 🙂
And I still have to promo Hardman, which is my latest release if you didn’t already know. It’s a fun, action-packed story with two very deserving-of-each-other characters. The story was a joy to write because my heroine is a “prickly pear” of a woman. Only Hardman can see her soft inner self, which is as it should be when he’s her perfect match…
Is your weekend book boyfriend Pierce Hardman?
Remember, the book is out there now!
Click on cover to get your copy now!
Today’s Contest
For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me what your weekend looks like!
Sometimes, outrage motivates you. Sometimes, pleasant surprise. My African-American women photo collection started because, out of thirty-six history cards of famous African-Americans, only six were women. My discovery of classical composer Florence Price was a pleasant surprise.
I was a classical music fan from a young age. My mother had a five-record collection of Strauss waltzes that I probably wore out on our old hi-fi. Then playing pieces like the Poet and Peasant’s Overture on clarinet in junior high school seeded a love for classical music deep in my heart. I learned all I could about European composers like Debussy and Stravinsky and Vaughn Williams. As I got older I developed a love for the classical works of American composers like Aaron Copeland and Leonard Bernstein. Now, thanks to my year-long quest, first for quotes on democracy, then music and songs to keep hope alive through 2020 and now into 2021, my musical horizons have broadened yet again. Swimming in the pool of African-American classical music and jazz composers during Black History month, I discovered African-American female composers.
I’ve been swept up away by the classical works of Margaret Bonds, Zenobia Powell Perry, and Undine Smith Moore. I learned of modern works by present-day women like Valerie Coleman, Valerie Capers, Pamela Z, and Hannah Kendall. I’ve been floating along in the wonder of expanded knowledge about women musicians with whom I was already familiar, women like Hazel Scott and Eva Jessye.
Learning about the life and work of Florence Price has been one of the pleasant surprises of 2021. On my favorite classical radio station alone I’ve been introduced to no fewer than seventeen of this amazing woman’s work. Her titles range from the predictable, Sonata in E Minor, Symphony No. 1 in E Minor to the poetic, Memory Mist, Moon Bridge, On Quiet Lake to the whimsical, Goblin and the Mosquito. I’d always known about the seminal event of Eleanor Roosevelt enabling Marian Anderson to sing at the Lincoln Memorial after the Daughters of the Revolution wouldn’t let her sing at Constitution Hall. But I only learned this year that Anderson closed her recital with Price’s My Soul’s Been Anchored in de Lord.
Born in 1887, Florence came from a family of firsts. Her father was Little Rock, Arkansas’s first black dentist. She had her first piano recital at the age of four and at age eleven wrote her first musical composition. At fourteen she went to study at the New England Conservatory for three years. By 1927 she had divorced an abusive husband and moved to Chicago where her work found support from the music director of the Chicago Symphony. In 1932 she won first prize in the Wannamaker music contest. She became the first African American woman to have her work performed by a major American symphony when on June 15th, 1933 the Chicago Symphony performed her Symphony No. 1 in E minor. As a kid when I was learning about Stravinsky and Copland and Bernstein, I should also have been learning about Florence Price. But better late than never.
I’m always moved when I learn of women who achieved as Florence did, even though they didn’t receive all the accolades they deserved in their lifetime. So for a chance to win a $10 Amazon gift card, share in the comments the name of an unsung woman you feel the world should know more about.
Better To Marry Than To Burn
Wife Wanted: Marital relations as necessary. Love not required nor sought…
A bridal lottery seems the height of foolishness to ex-slave Caesar King, but his refusal to participate in the town council’s scheme places him in a bind. He has to get married to avoid paying a high residence fine or leave the Texas territory. After losing his wife in childbirth, Caesar isn’t ready for romance. A woman looking for a fresh start without any emotional strings is what he needs.
Queen Esther Payne, a freeborn black from Philadelphia, has been threatened by her family for her forward-thinking, independent ways. Her family insists she marry. Her escape comes in the form of an ad. If she must marry, it will be on her terms. But her first meeting with the sinfully hot farmer proves an exciting tussle of wills that stirs her physically, intellectually, and emotionally.
In the battle of sexual one-upmanship that ensues, both Caesar and Queen discover surrender can be as fulfilling as triumph.
Excerpt from Better to Marry than to Burn…
Caesar looked at Queen. His eyes glistened with unshed tears. She swallowed hard, unnerved by the sight. Her lips trembled.
Reverend Warren smiled. “Caesar, you may kiss your bride.”
Kiss? Queen flinched. There’d be no kissing in this marriage. She’d promised to be his wife for two years with sex provided at agreed upon intervals. At the end of two years that requirement would end, and she’d be free to live as she chose. She could go anywhere she pleased, especially with the respectability of missus before her name and Caesar’s promised severance. No. This coupling made them business partners. Business partners did not kiss.
She extended her hand to seal their arrangement. He returned the handshake, but instead of releasing her, his too rough fingers imprisoned hers and pulled her to him. With his other hand, he captured the back of her head and secured her mouth to his.
A squeal of surprise parted her lips. His thick tongue swept into the shelter of her mouth. The assault ambushed her with pleasure and vanquished her resistance.
Her hands rose, as if of their own volition, and pressed against his chest. The firm muscle beneath his shirt coaxed her hands to linger, to explore— however discreetly—the muscle beneath her palms and fingertips.
Caesar broke off the kiss.
The embrace didn’t last more than a few seconds, but Queen swayed, robbed of reason and resentment.
Psst! Remember, I have a new release! Get your copy now! Just click on the pic:
I’m feeling pretty lackadaisical today. That’s a great word by the way. I’m “lack”-ing ambitions, would rather pick “daisi”-es than just about anything. Might have to do with the fact I’m still feeling woozy-headed and tired after COVID shot #2. (Yay!) Or it might be the typical day-after-new-release malaise. That’s a real thing. Ask an author. Or maybe just take my word for it. Anyway, I found the perfect picture for the puzzle to describe just how un-ambitious I am today. Hope it makes you laugh.
For a chance to win a FREE download of your choice from my backlist of books (it’s ginormous!), tell me whether this resembles you, too. Also, what other synonyms for lazy can you offer?
I’m headed back to the Little Rock VA for my SECOND COVID SHOT! My dd and I are making a day of it. We’ve already picked out our favorite restaurant to hit—the Taj Mahal—but only if there are seats in the outdoor dining area! We’re also hitting the Indian grocer when we’re done to stock up on so many lovely things (spicy pickle, chutney, naan bread, curry, etc.). We’ll make a big deal out of the trip to get me the vax because that’s what we do. Everything can be an event or an adventure.
Are you adventurous at heart? You don’t have to jump out of airplanes. You can make big deals out of little things for fun. Let me know some of your ideas for a chance to win a FREE book, a download of your choice from my backlist!
