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Archive for the 'Contests!' Category
Sunday, April 11th, 2021
UPDATE: The winner is…Kandi Kandelas!
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I hope. I’m still writing it! I’ve been making progress, but I know I’m cutting it close. Have you already pre-ordered the next Hot SEAL, Holiday Edition story? It’s filled with tears and laughter. It’s possible to have both, I promise.
You can read a short snippet from the story and find all the buy links here!
It’s Sunday, and as happens all too often for me, it’s another workday. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the fact that I’m constantly chasing my tail with writing and editing. I’m of a “certain age” now and think more about what I might be missing out on with my family. Does that mean I plan to quit doing either? No, but I’m lucky that I have options. I already have two retirement incomes (one is very small—but every little bit helps!), and I’m eligible for Social Security. I can afford to take it a little easier, but I still have all these stories I want to write. I don’t need to earn so much money now. My priorities are shifting.
I plan to enjoy the summer with the kids. The pool will be my daily highlight. We plan for early morning walks along park trails. There will be flea market hunting—although our dear governor has removed the mask mandate, so those excursions will require extra planning, like trying to arrive before the unmasked hoards are out and about. I’ve had both injections, but we have little ones, including one who’s a two-time cancer patient who has another tumor we’re worried about. I wish people would be more considerate of others. Wearing a mask isn’t a big-ass deal when you consider the risks to the vulnerable. *sigh*
I want more time to play with my paint and beads and yarn. I want to create things for my family and friends. I am more than just a writer. I want the kids to remember me for being more than the weird relative who writes all day in her office. They’re such a joy. Did I ever mention that they give me toys to display in my office? They love to collect things for me. Once, they talked their mom into weekly runs to McDonald’s to collect all the How to Train your Dragon dragons that came in the kid’s meals. Yeah, I have every one of them. They didn’t care about keeping them for themselves because they knew I’d love them.
Okay, I’m rambling. These are the things I’ve been thinking about though. Maybe I’m just a bit aggravated with myself because of the self-inflicted time crunch I’m under.
Anyway, for a chance to win a FREE book from my backlist of books, let me know whether you’ve given much thought to your golden years and what you’d like to do!
Tagged: contemporary romance, excerpt, military romance, SEAL
Posted in About books..., Contests!, Real Life | 7 People Said | Link
Last 5 people who had something to say: Kandi Candelas - Debra Guyette - Cheryl - Jennifer Beyer - Damaris Schuler -
Saturday, April 10th, 2021
UPDATE: The winner is…Margaret!
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Puzzle contest
For a chance to win a FREE book from my backlist, solve the puzzle and tell me what you’re reading this weekend!
Tagged: game, jigsaw, puzzle
Posted in Contests! | 13 People Said | Link
Last 5 people who had something to say: Jennifer Beyer - Alison Hutfelter - Margaret - Tamye Whitener - Delilah -
Friday, April 9th, 2021
UPDATE: The winner of the gift card is…Lisa C!
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I love this photo. I’m not sure how I’ll use it just yet. So, I thought I’d put it out there…
Tell me a story about the woman. Doesn’t have to be long or very good. Have fun with it! Comment for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!
More Open Contests
Enter to win!
- Cowboy Puzzle Contest — Ends soon! Win a FREE book!
- Ella Quinn: The Most Eligible Viscount in London (Contest) — Win a FREE book!
- Flashback: Cochise (Contest–3 Winners! Plus an Excerpt!) — Win a FREE book!
- Michal Scott: My Most Favorite Wonder Tale of All (Contest & Sexy Excerpt) — Win an Amazon gift card!
Posted in Contests! | 9 People Said | Link
Last 5 people who had something to say: Mary Preston - Jennifer Beyer - Debra Guyette - flchen1 - Delilah -
Wednesday, April 7th, 2021
UPDATE: The winner is…Colleen C!
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I love the word “wonder.” The second I read it I see me, with my eyes wide-open radiating awe, my mouth rounded in an O of surprise, my mind bright with amazement. Songs like “God of Wonders” and “Wonderful Wonderful” make my heart sing. So imagine my delight when I started the research for this post on my favorite fairytale and learned that another description for fairytale is “wonder tale.”
The term “fairytale” is derived from the French conte de fées, i.e., short stories that contain all manner of nonhuman characters, not just fairies, and wonderment. I date my love for fairy/wonder tales back to my NYC public school days. In September during the first week of class, you received your subject books, one of which was a reader. You wrote your name and class on a bookplate then dug in for a year’s worth of reading. These books were broken up into three or four sections. I can’t remember what they were, but the final section always contained illustrated fairy tales. It is from those school readers that I first read about Rumpelstiltskin, the Shoemaker and the Elves, Puss in Boots, and the Three Billy Goats Gruff. I particularly loved the ones with talking animals. My favorite of all is The Bremen Town Musicians, a story that appeared in Grimms’ Fairy Tales in 1819.
Briefly, it’s about a donkey, dog, cat, and rooster, all who have become old and of no use to their different owners. They set out to find the freedom they deserve as musicians in Bremen. They come upon a cottage in which thieves are counting their booty. The animals scare them off and enjoy the food left behind. When the robbers send one of their band to retake the cottage, the animals vanquish him. He hurries back with tales of a monster from which he barely escaped with his life. No longer troubled by humans, the animals settle down in the cottage to the life of freedom and plenty they deserve. Although the animals never made it to Bremen, the town has a famous statue erected in their honor. Take a look at the statue here: https://www.bremen.eu/tourism/attractions/bremen-town-musicians.
I think about the little girl I was, who enjoyed reading over and over about these animals’ exploits. As an adult, I can see how each animal determining their own destiny and supporting one another would appeal to an urban kid growing up in the turbulent and heady days of the Civil Rights movement. How could the spunk of the Bremen Town Musicians not inspire me when I was seeing on television or overhearing adults talking about African-American people working together and not allowing others to determine their worth? I even see the Kwanzaa principles of kujichagulia (self-determination) and ujimaa (collective work and responsibility) at work in the story which adds another level of enjoyment to my favorite “wonder tale.”
So how about you? Do you have a favorite fairy/wonder tale? Share its title in the comments for a chance at a $10 Amazon gift card.
Better To Marry Than To Burn
Freed Man seeking woman to partner in marriage for at least two years in the black township of Douglass, Texas. Must be willing and able to help establish a legacy. Marital relations as necessary. Love neither required nor sought.
Excerpt from Better to Marry than to Burn…
She sidled up to him, cupped his erection and fondled his balls.
“Ready for bed or ready to bed me?”
He moaned, placed his hand atop hers and increased the pressure. Already hard, he hadn’t imagined he could get any harder.
“Is that beautiful brass bed new?”
He gulped. “Ye—yes. Bought it—bought it for the honeymoon.”
“I’m ready to be bedded now,” she whispered. “Or is that something we must negotiate?”
All thoughts of dinner vanished.
“No,” he rasped, leaning forward, as hungry for her lips as he was to be inside her.
“Good.” She stepped back, out of reach. “But, let’s be clear…” She bent over, so her butt protruded toward him. She massaged each buttock so her crack parted invitingly. “Tonight it’s the Greek way or no way.”
He blinked, stunned by this demand to be taken anally. His master had had books filled with drawings, depicting naked Greeks wrestling. Those pen and ink depictions flashed before him now. Arms constrained by arms, legs entwined with legs, butts and groins enmeshed in snug contortions. He’d love to take Queen that way, experience first-hand the erotic intimacy etched in the men’s struggle-laden features.
He took one step toward her then stopped. No. One day, he would…but not tonight. Not their first time. Their first time would be the nose-to-nose, chest-to-breast, cock-to-vagina coupling he’d hungered five years for.
Buy link: https://amzn.to/2KTaGPH
Website: www.michalscott.webs.com
Twitter: @mscottauthor1
Tagged: excerpt, fairytale, Guest Blogger, historical romance
Posted in Contests!, General | 13 People Said | Link
Last 5 people who had something to say: bn100 - Debra Guyette - flchen1 - Anna Taylor Sweringen - Delilah -
Tuesday, April 6th, 2021
UPDATE: The winners are…Jennifer Beyer, Ann Ivey, and Arlene Miklovic!
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The Montana Bounty Hunters series located in Bear Lodge is complete. I am three books into the spinoff series, Montana Bounty Hunters: Dead Horse, MT. I loved writing the original series, and I can’t wait to immerse myself in writing many more of these heavy-duty, gritty guys in the near future. Have you seen the cover for Chase, which will release in June? Yeah. Some of the guys you love from the original series will continue to pop up here and there in Dead Horse—after all, they all work for Fetch Winter. Someday, he’ll get his happy-ever-after, too!
Cochise
MONTANA BOUNTY HUNTERS: Authentic Men… Real Adventures…
Former Army sniper, Cochise Mercier, left Denver SWAT under a cloud of controversy, which was why he ended up back home in Montana, and where he heard about the Montana Bounty Hunters. The “cloud” didn’t seem to bother his new boss, so he’s “all in” and finding he enjoys hunting down fugitives for bounties, encumbered by fewer rules.
Sammy McCallister is a by-the-book sheriff’s deputy, who has a beef with bounty hunters. Forced to stand by with her gun in her holster, while hunters take down scumbags, she’s particularly irked by the new guy in town. Cochise, with his long black hair and thousand-yard-stare makes her uncomfortable, itchy in ways she’s never felt before. When she finds herself needing his help late one night, the reason for her irritation becomes all too clear. She wants him. But first, they have to make it out of the mountains alive…
Contest
Are you all caught up reading the Montana Bounty Hunters?
For a chance to win a download of one of the stories you may have missed
(I’ll pick three winners!), tell me this:
Are you ready for more sexy bounty hunters?
Here are all the Bear Lodge Montana Bounty Hunters!
MONTANA BOUNTY HUNTERS
Authentic Men… Real Adventures…
Reaper: https://amzn.to/2NztLpv
Dagger: https://amzn.to/2zo6Dav
Reaper’s Ride: https://amzn.to/2KKkisI
Cochise: https://amzn.to/2zq4avV
Hook: https://amzn.to/2UrpyYh
Wolf: https://amzn.to/2yUTjr5
Animal: https://amzn.to/2H4Roob
Big Sky Wedding: https://amzn.to/33GprwK
Quincy: https://amzn.to/2QlleM8
Brian: https://amzn.to/2ZV8m2G
Excerpt from Cochise
Cochise Mercier, the new hire at Montana Bounty Hunters, took a deep breath to force his heart to slow its pace. A trick he’d learned as an Army sniper to make sure a jerking breath didn’t mess up a shot. The trick worked in most situations when he needed his mind to slow and for his focus to home in on a target or a situation. Clearing his mind meant he was able to take in more of what was happening around him and enabled him to discard the things that weren’t important—like the way the wind beat a tree branch against the side of the house, a steady thump that sounded almost like clomping footsteps. Instead, he concentrated on the way the light, beaming through the tall arched windows at the front of the house, flickered whenever his target paced left or right, telling him where their mark was. An important fact, because in minutes, he’d have to breach the oak front door and be ready to take him down—with his weapon or his body, depending on whether Randy Pinter was armed. A fact Cochise would have to ascertain in a split second.
“Can’t see any movement in the back rooms,” came Jamie Burke’s voice through his earpiece. “I think he’s alone.”
He still wasn’t used to hearing a woman’s voice on the comms. He’d never had a female as part of any of his missions on the ground with the Army, and Denver’s SWAT had, at the time, been all male. That voice interrupted his calm. His instinct was to protect women and children, but she was a part of this team—and his boss—so again, he drew a deep breath, pushed aside his concern, and concentrated on his target. Pinter was pacing in front of the window to the right of the front door.
“Girlfriend’s car isn’t in the garage,” came Sky Reynold’s deep voice. “Must have gone for takeout. I’m moving around to the front.”
“Deputies just arrived,” Lacey Jones’s too perky voice sounded. “I’ll go brief them about what’s about to go down. Make sure they know we have the owner’s permission to be here.”
Cochise could hear the excitement in her higher pitch. Thank God, she was back at the road with the vehicles. The thought of her cotton-candy sweetness being anywhere near Pinter made him shudder. The girl might have qualified with her weapon and might be doing well with her self-defense classes, but she had no real experience going head-on with bad dudes. He didn’t want to be around the first time she was truly tested.
“You call it, Cochise,” Jamie said.
With his heart as slow as when he slept, he felt the familiar ice-water chill flow over him. “Ready,” he whispered and then stepped away from the bushes beside the porch. “Moving toward the door… On three. One…two…three.” Read the rest of this entry »
Tagged: alpha males, bounty hunter, contemporary romance, excerpt, Montana Bounty Hunters
Posted in About books..., Contests! | 11 People Said | Link
Last 5 people who had something to say: Debbie Caswell - bn100 - Cheryl - Debra Guyette - Delilah -
Monday, April 5th, 2021
Posted in Contests! | Someone Said | Link
Last 5 people who had something to say: Kandi Candelas -
Saturday, April 3rd, 2021
UPDATE: The winner is…Debra Guyette!
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Thank you to Delilah for inviting me to be on her blog!
I’m Ella Quinn, and I write light-hearted Regencies. My latest release is The Most Eligible Viscount in London, book 2 of The Lords of London. I’m also an Army veteran stationed in Germany with my husband who’s trying to recover from his second retirement. He’s going to have to figure it out within the next 18 months. I’m ready to get back to my boat. We also have a Great Dane who has been on the boat and loves meeting people in marinas and a cat who has not yet been on the boat.
Contest
For a chance to win a FREE download tell me whether retiring on a boat is your idea of heaven too!
The Most Eligible Viscount in London
In bestselling author Ella Quinn’s intriguing new Regency trilogy, a dashing suitor must decide if love and marriage are mutually exclusive…
Viscount Gavin Turley is convinced that love matches cause nothing but trouble. Still, after months of courting, he’s fallen for Miss Georgie Featherton. He’s passionate about her, in fact. But words of love are not an indulgence he will allow himself. When he presents Georgie with his marriage proposal, he will lead with his head—not his heart. His qualifications as a husband are excellent, after all. What could go wrong?
No sooner does Gavin kneel on one knee than Georgie’s heart goes aflutter with joy. Finally, the proposal she longed for had arrived. Yet Gavin seemed to be listing his credentials for a business partnership, not a romantic union. Without a declaration of love, Georgie can only reject his offer—unless the ladies of the ton, and Georgie’s grandmama, have anything to do with it. For sometimes it takes a wiser eye to see the love behind a guarded heart—and a clever scheme to bring it out of hiding…
The Most Eligible Viscount in London Buy Links:
Amazon https://amzn.to/31RKPid
Amazon CA https://amzn.to/2O1Qkby
B&N https://bit.ly/31TpWTN
BAM https://bit.ly/38iarJh
Google https://bit.ly/31PIvsj
Kobo https://bit.ly/30SYQ00
The Bookshop https://bit.ly/2O1QYpu
Tagged: Guest Blogger, historical romance, regency romance
Posted in Contests!, General | 7 People Said | Link
Last 5 people who had something to say: Raydeen Graffam - bn100 - Debra Guyette - Courtney Kinder - Delilah -
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