UPDATE: The winner is…Mary McCoy!
*~*~*

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle and tell me a story! Doesn’t have to be long or even good—just have fun!

The happiest of all lives is a busy solitude.” ~ Voltaire

At least, that is what this shut-in/hermit writer believes. And then I laugh. I may live in the country, but the only time I have solitude is in the early, early morning before everyone else is awake.

So, tell me how you feel about that quote! 🙂

Open Contests & Giveaways

1. Blathering a Bit & Open Contests! (New Contest, too!) — Ends tomorrow! Win an Amazon gift card!
2. Brenda Whiteside: Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll (Contest) — Win a FREE book!
3. Another FREE Love in Lockdown story! Plus, all the open CONTESTS! — Download your FREE story!!
4. A New Puzzle-Contest! Have Fun! — Win an Amazon gift card!
5. Roxanne D. Howard: Type Dirty to Me (Giveaway) — Win an Amazon gift card!

When hot actor Brem Lockwood enters her life, Madelyn has a choice—stay safe with an online fling or risk her heart for a chance at real love.

Divorcee Madelyn Stacilli has baggage deeper than the Grand Canyon, and her move to New Haven to start a new life is the perfect change she needs. When vicious gossip stunts her plans to open her own business, she can’t confide in anyone around her. But online, beneath the blanket of anonymity, she can let loose and find comfort with the mysterious Easton216. Their natural, open relationship is a breath of fresh air.

When British A-list actor Bremond Lockwood rents the house beside her to escape an intense media spotlight and malicious past, he charges headlong into her life. Madelyn grows torn between her steady, emotional online connection and a fiery affair with a Hollywood star. Brem’s intense passion ignites the embers of her sexuality from a long slumber, making her burn hotter than the sun.

Should she stay safe with her online love or risk her heart with the man in front of her? The road to recovery just got a whole lot more complicated.

Reader advisory: This book contains a scene of public sex and a scene of kidnapping. There is mention of gaslighting, alcoholism, emotional abuse, animal cruelty, and attempted murder.

Add to Goodreads

Amazon * B&N * Kobo * Totally Bound Publishing * First For Romance

Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!

$25 Amazon gift card & Paperback

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The winner is…Jeannine Hess!
*~*~*

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card,
solve the puzzle then tell me who they are!

Here’s the latest entry in our series of FREE short stories aimed at telling the story about how love can still happen in these days of isolation!

The latest offering is from Ava Cuvay entitled “Noob at Love“! And yes, the hero is a nerdy gamer, but the language and energy, and sheer relief he experiences when he finds the girl who’s perfect for him in every way is a joy. So, download this short story now!

Noob at Love

Here’s what it’s all about…

Quarantine should be life as usual for Kyle, an online gamer homebody. But the constant presence and noise of his apartment neighbors is hell for the introvert. He turns to his favorite gamer pal, SassyKat, for consolation in the form of zombie kill-counts and good-natured teasing. Then, a fire alarm changes their relationship for good.

Get your FREE copy here!

So far, four short stories have been published.
Click on the covers to get your copies!

Open Contests & Giveaways

These won’t last long!

1. Reina Torres: WEDNESDAYS (Contest) — Ends soon! Win a FREE story!
2. Puzzle-Contest–and many prizes to win!! — Ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
3. Michal Scott: Return to the Thrilling Days of Yesteryear (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
4. Blathering a Bit & Open Contests! (New Contest, too!) — Win an Amazon gift card! AND get a FREE book!
5. Brenda Whiteside: Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll (Contest) — Win a FREE story!

UPDATE: The winner is…bn100!
*~*~*

The 1960s were turbulent and passionate and colorful. Since the first time I put pen to paper, about thirteen years ago, I’ve wanted to write a story set in those vibrant days. But until recently, every time I tried, my efforts seemed weak and whimsical at best. And then I visited a town I’d all but forgotten about.

In the Black Hills of central Arizona (yes, I said Arizona), Jerome hangs on the side of a mountain as it has since the mining days of the 1800s. Once known as the wickedest town in the west, Jerome all but died out in the 1950s. The population dipped to under 100 people. Then the hippies discovered the abandoned homes and buildings and settled in to create a ghost town full of art and wine. No new buildings are allowed within the city limits unless they are constructed on existing foundations and must resemble the surrounding buildings. Jerome looks much like it did in the 1920s.

Me in a haunted hotel in Jerome

I love this place. Jerome became my fictional Joshua. The inspiration came alive for me, and The MacKenzie Chronicles resulted.

In the pages of the first book, Secrets of the Ravine, I was able to tell a 1960s story of those early hippie settlers that has an impact on the mystery that unfolds in today’s world. Each of the three books will tell the story of one of the MacKenzie siblings whose parents met in the 60s hippie heyday, stayed in Joshua, and raised Magpie Muse MacKenzie, Harlan Muse MacKenzie, and Elidor Muse MacKenzie. Dad Frank Harlan MacKenzie is an artist of metal and wood. Mom Susie Muse is a mystic, empath, aura reader, with all of the wonderful mind-expanding fascinations of the 60s. Their children have inherited both artistic abilities and mystical talents in varying degrees. Those gifts will help them solve murder and mystery in each book.

Do you believe in intuition? Empathic vibrations? How about clairsentience (“clear feeling,” describes someone who receives intuitive or psychic information through their tactile sense and emotions)? I do and have had some real-life experiences. Care to share yours with us? Please do. We’d love to hear.

Contest

I’d like to invite you to read the first chapter of Secrets of the Ravine. Find it on my web site here: https://brendawhiteside.com/secrets-chapter-one.

Give me a one or two-sentence review right here, and I’ll enter you in a drawing to receive an eBook. No matter what you think, you have a chance to win. Let’s leave it open for a week, and I’ll draw a winner on October 5th out of those who comment about the first chapter.

Secrets of the Ravine

When a ringer for her long-dead love walks into her life the same day skeletal remains are found at the edge of town, Magpie MacKenzie can’t ignore what the universe is telling her…solve the mystery, or become the next victim.

Lawyer Zack Peartree’s life is orderly and entanglement-free until he visits purportedly haunted Joshua, Arizona, and meets free-wheeling shopkeeper Magpie. Despite experiencing troubling visions and odd moments of déjà vu, Zack’s instantly drawn to Magpie and to the unsolved murder which troubles her so.

Using clues from her father’s past and Zack’s déjà vu moments, Magpie and Zack race to solve the mystery, avoid a murderous fate, and to discover their future…together.

BUY LINKS:
https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Ravine-MacKenzie-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B08GPRFJBT/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secrets-Ravine-MacKenzie-Chronicles-Whiteside-ebook/dp/B08GPRFJBT/

About the Author

Brenda Whiteside is the author of suspenseful, action-adventure stories with a touch of romance. Mostly. After living in six states and two countries—so far—she and her husband have decided they are gypsies at heart, splitting their time between Central Arizona and the RV life. They share their home with a rescue dog named Amigo. While FDW is fishing, Brenda writes.

Visit Brenda at https://www.brendawhiteside.com
Or on FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/BrendaWhitesideAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/brendawhitesid2
She blogs and has guests: https://brendawhiteside.blogspot.com/
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003V15WF8
Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3972045.Brenda_Whiteside
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/brenda-whiteside
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brendawhitesideauthor/

UPDATE: The winner is…Mary Preston!
*~*~*

Open Contests and Giveaways!

Before I start blathering, be sure to check out these contests & giveaways!

1. 1. Get your FREE Love in Lockdown stories! — Get FREE stories!
   2. Reina Torres: WEDNESDAYS (Contest) — Ends soon!! Win a FREE book!
   3. Diana Cosby: Update – Diana Cosby’s Romance Reader’s Build A Habitat For Humanity House (Contest) — Ends soon!! Win a mug & a tote!
   4. Puzzle-Contest–and many prizes to win!! — Win an Amazon gift card!
   5. Michal Scott: Return to the Thrilling Days of Yesteryear (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!

Blathering

Blathering’s a great word, don’t you think? I remember reading it often when I read Regencies.

So… I’m still typing one-handed. Probably will for the next month. I’m back to editing. I’ll try some speaking into my phone and sending myself messages to get some of my own pages written. My back’s much better. I’m standing straight again, instead of bent over. Lovely progress.

The weather has cooled too much to swim, so I’m not quite as resentful of my predicament as I could be. Silver linings!

I really need a haircut. I think I’ll ask the 16-year-old to watch some YouTubes… I’ve been letting the gray grow out. Well, I have silvery streaks, which I like. I wish the rest would turn quickly. I’ll be fashionable then.

The fam is pretty tight and adjusted to life in lockdown. Online schooling is challenging with four kids who need help and monitoring. The local high school football team is quarantined for positive tests, so our kids are ahead of the game. I can’t imagine having schools open and close and open and close without administrators deciding it just makes better sense to transition everyone. Less liability and constant jiggering for them.

We do takeout a couple of times a week, pick up groceries in front of the local grocery store, and do all our other shopping online. We have special “events”. Tonight, the older kids are having a friend over for a “star party” outside, and then they’ll light a fire in the fire pit and relax. The fire pit was an early lockdown project!

So, that’s what’s happening with the Devlin fam. What have you all been up to? Comment for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!