So, the 15-year-old’s very pretty boyfriend sent her a video to watch that brought her to tears. Okay, so 15-year-olds shouldn’t be taking themselves so seriously, but the kid has great taste in music. Had to share…
I haven’t heard of this guy before, but I’ll be paying attention now.
Open Contests
And just a reminder, there are some still prizes out there, waiting to be claimed!
Thanks to everyone who got their copy of Brian! I’ve been busy since the release, trying to find art for the new series, Montana Bounty Hunter — Something, MT. Still haven’t hit upon the name of the town yet, but it will come. I’m also looking for handsome men to be on the covers. That’s been a chore (Haha!), looking through all the pictures on the photo sites. I do however think I have my first hero’s name: Cage.
He’s a big, burly guy. I don’t know his “story” yet, but that tends to come to me once I have a title and a cover, because then I put it up on my screen and just imagine what sorts of trouble he will face.
I’m not sure about titling just yet. Did you like having their names as the titles? Reaper, Dagger, Cochise, Hook, Wolf, Animal, Quincy, and Brian… Using just their names was so dang easy. Do you want me to continue that or give the titles some word or phrase that serves as the theme of the story, like Fallout or Hunter’s Destiny? Or do you want their name with a word or phrase like Cage’s Destiny (not a title I want, just an example) or the heroine’s name, like Sarah’s Destiny? You tell me because I could use some help deciding. If you leave a comment with your idea, you’ll be entered to win a $10 Amazon gift card! And, if you have an idea for a title… Go for it! I’m in brainstorming mode, so your suggestion might strike an idea for me. Have fun with it!
So, while I was doing searches under “Hot Males”, “Handsome Men”, and “Muscled Torsos”, I came across this picture I couldn’t resist downloading because I know it will make you laugh. It’s all kind of wrong for a romance cover…
It’s release day!! Yes, my story, Brian released yesterday—but not because I was trying to get out ahead of everybody else. I was simply calendar-challenged when I selected my date. I thought I’d chosen a Tuesday. Which is really kind of stupid, because KDP gives you a little calendar to look at when you choose your date, but I had the 24th in my brain, so the 24th it would be.
Anyways, lots of great books to celebrate today: Mine (ahem, Brian), my sister Elle Jame’s (SEAL’s Vow), and the one I’m featuring here today, written by my friend and fab author, Reina Torres!
From Fab Friend & Author Reina Torres
Part of the challenge of setting a Romance in the early 1970s was giving it a different feel from the modern-day. The book didn’t qualify as a “historical” in the book sense, but since I was setting it back almost fifty years in the past, there were certain things that brought me back into the early 70s: Clothes and Music.
Clothes were fun: terrycloth, corduroy, denims—and all the fun that went along with those fabrics.
Music was a little more of a challenge…
I was born in 1973, and my mother has often told me that I sang before I spoke. I’m guessing she means in complete phrases or sentences, but she just repeats the same stories over and over. My mom and dad both worked for the United States Postal Service, so I think you can safely say that I’m a Postal Child. 🙂
My dad worked the day shift, and my mom worked the graveyard shift. So when my dad headed off in the morning to go to work, he’d put me in the passenger seat (remember, it’s the 70s), laid back and wrapped up in my favorite blanket. He’d put the radio on for the drive into downtown Honolulu, heading straight to the post office where my mother worked. She’d get in the driver’s seat, and my dad would climb in the back, and we’d drop him off at work before my mom turned toward home.
I’d doze the way there and back, singing to the radio the entire time to songs like this one…
When I started writing Jesse, I did a little brainstorming on the earliest songs I could remember, and then came the reality check while going through the songs and checking to see which ones were in the right time period and which came after 1973-1974. With a couple of “oops” choices, I actually managed to put together a list of songs that helped take me back in time.
Much like Richard Collier in the movie Somewhere in Time, surrounding myself with the music of the era helped take me back in time for the book. So, I hope you’ll enjoy a little trip back in time to see how Jesse Sutton and Etta Bradford met and fell in love.
The rest of the series will be the stories of their children as they continue The Suttons – An American Legacy.
The instant he said it, he tensed, expecting to feel her hand across his cheek.
When she didn’t, he gave her a curious look, doubling down on his stupidity, and a moment later he wished that she had cracked him across his jaw. It would have been better than the way her expression crumbled as she took a step back, breaking the hold he had on her hand, and her shoulders sagged.
He was an ass. That was clear.
What he needed to do was apologize.
Quickly.
But all the words he needed to say were stuck somewhere in the back of his mind along with the sense that should have helped him keep his mouth shut in the first place.
“I’ve been kissed before!”
What?
That wasn’t what he asked.
Not by a long shot.
But, then again, her answer was just as telling.
He wasn’t just an ass. He let his mouth get way ahead of his brain. A fucking stampede ahead of the stage.
“I’m not talking about the playground, Etta. I’m talking about a kiss.” His voice had dipped dangerously low, vibrating through him like a tuning fork and making him just as hard.
He took a step closer.
Etta countered by taking a step back. They danced that way across the sidewalk until he knew he had her exactly where he wanted her.
Against the wall.
She knew it too. Her palms flattened against the wall at her sides and her shoulders pushed back. She raised her gaze up to meet his as if she was trying to tell him that she wasn’t nervous, but he saw the way her breathing shallowed, her skin flushed, and her lips parted as he moved even closer.
And he continued until the toes of his boots were almost nudging the tips of her shoes. He raked his gaze up over her feet, the hem of her dress, over the tantalizing rise and fall of her breasts and back up along the flushed skin of her chest, neck, and face.
He lifted a hand and gently touched her cheek. “First,” he smiled at her, “one, or both people, have to move their nose out of the way. So, we’ll go with both here.” He put the tiniest bit of pressure on her cheek and tilted her head a little bit. “Next, we’ll keep teeth out of it, unless you want to bite a lip… that could be fun.”
She swallowed and he swore he could hear the soft sound echoing off the thick concrete walls. “Is that all?”
“All?”
Etta nodded, but he didn’t see the motion, he could only feel it against his fingertips. “The rules?”
The corner of his mouth lifted and he leaned in closer, bracing his free hand on the wall just above her shoulder. “Those aren’t rules, Etta. Just a few things to make it easier.”
“Easier?” She echoed the word with a tight, breathy voice. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t,” he sighed and trailed the hand against her cheek into her hair, enjoying the feeling of it against his skin, “but I’m going to show you.”
She blinked up at him. “Okay.”
If she didn’t stop looking at him like a sacrificial lamb, he was going to lose his mind.
“There’s a time and place for hard kisses, sweetheart.”
Etta nodded as if she was making a note in her head. So beautiful and if he was any judge, innocent in so many ways.
“But tonight,” he moved closer until his lips were close enough to hers to feel the heat of her skin, “we’re going to start with gentle.”
“Gentle…” her lips were so damn close and he could hear the curious plea in her tone, “okay.”
He couldn’t wait another moment. He touched his lips to hers and felt her tense. He waited until her body eased into the sensation before he moved away.
Her eyes fluttered open. And she looked into his eyes as her brow pinched ever so slightly.
He smiled at the curious question he saw in her eyes. “What is it, Etta?”
She swayed closer. “Was that… all?”
“You want more?”
She opened her lips to answer and he swept in to kiss her again. Press in closer until he could feel the way her lips pressed back against his. Plump. Plush. Made for this. Made for him.
Contest
Pick your favorite song from my list above, and I’ll select a random person to win a download of Jesse!
Tomorrow’s the day! Brian releases into the world sometime after midnight, and I hope you’re ready. I love the story, and I think you will, too. But that’s not why I’m here right now.
I’m nine stories into my Montana Bounty Hunters series, and I think I’m done with the boys and girls in Bear Lodge, Montana. Psst! I’ll tell you a secret. Bear Lodge, MT is not a real place. In my mind, it’s tucked in the northwest corner of Montana, but with easy access to the Canadian border, Glacier National Park, the Kootenai Forest, Flathead Lake, etc. When I started the series, the guy who ran MBH, silver fox Fetch Winter, was looking to expand his business in Kalispell and put partners Jamie and Reaper in charge of the new satellite agency.
So, now I have a couple of ways I can go to continue the series because I love my bounty hunters and I’m not ready to give up writing about their crazy, extreme lives. I’m thinking you’re not ready either. So, this is what I need help with…because I’m busy starting a new book in a new series, and I don’t want to think too hard! 🙂
For a chance to win a $10 Amazon gift card, help me decide my course.
#1 Does Fetch want to open a new satellite office, with some so far unknown new manager, somewhere else in Montana or does he want to move his office from Kalispell? I don’t want to write in Kalispell because I’d just as soon build my own little town in my mind rather than have to write about places in Kalispell that I’ve never visited.
#2 This town, that’s not Kalispell, what should I name it? Have fun with this one! Just put some ideas forth and let’s see where they go!
If I get enough cool ideas, I might run a poll to see which name readers love the most.
In the meantime, below are all the yummy covers from the stories that are in my Montana Bounty Hunters series. If you’ve missed a story, the links are below! And here’s me hoping you already have Brian on pre-order, waiting for it to download something after midnight…
Book #9 in my Montana Bounty Hunters saga isn’t actually Book #9 in Brian’s story.
Brian first appeared in Big Sky SEAL, which was Book #10 in my Uncharted SEALs series. I made the heroine of that book a bounty hunter and liked writing about her bounty hunter partner, Reaper, and her wounded vet best friend, Brian, so much, I decided to write another series, so Montana Bounty Hunters was born! Brian also appeared in Big Sky Wedding, which lives in the MBH world, but isn’t actually a “numbered” book in the series, so readers have seen quite a lot of Brian over the past couple of years.
I dragged my feet writing his story. His required more research than the other stories. Plus, I had to think of ways to make my wounded guy “heroic”. Yes, he was a veteran who lost his legs in the desert—he’s already a hero—but I wanted to give him a chance to grow and to learn that losing your legs doesn’t make you less. Brian had to get his chance to grow and shine. And I think I accomplished that. As well, I wanted to depict his daily struggles, dealing with his disability, without making the story maudlin, if you know what I mean.
Deeply angsty stories aren’t something I write because that’s not who I am. The thought of going into depression while I read or write a deeply angsty book gives me hives. When I’m “forced” to watch a deeply angsty movie, I tend to yell at the screen—“Get over yourself!” I do know lots of people enjoy that kind of read, but I really do have to wonder why they need to “live” in that misery for however long the story takes to reach THE END. 🙂
So, back to Brian. I think it’s a moving book. But it’s also action-filled, sexy as hell, and funny. Getting all these things to happen inside a book about a wounded vet who hasn’t resolved all his issues wasn’t easy, but once I had the story in my head, I swear I wrote it in like eight days. It was just all there.
Finding the art to make the right cover, however, took forever. I needed the right guy to portray this description I wrote in the blurb of the book: There’s something more—not just the haunted look in his eyes or the stubborn set of his chin. The way he looks at her when he thinks her attention is elsewhere gives her hope that she’ll reach him, and that he’ll let her help him regain more of what he’s lost.
Brian yearns for more, although he denies it. I needed a guy who could portray that yearning without looking like a wimpy wuss. And I needed a picture that could be adapted so that I didn’t display his legs because, from below the knee, he has none. Not yet, anyway.
Solve the puzzle. Enjoy it!
And if you haven’t already pre-ordered the book, do so now! It drops on Monday!
Solve the puzzle, then tell me whether you’re one of those who loves a deeply depressing, angsty kind of book or are you more like me, impatient with them, for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!
Hello all and many thanks for Delilah for having me on her blog.
February is the month of love…and Valentine’s Day, and chocolate!
Did you know there’s a stimulant in chocolate called Theobromine (spell and/or say that twice) a bitter alkaloid found in cocoa and chocolate that affects the central nervous system to release endorphins for pleasure? Incidentally, it’s also the ‘cousin’ to my other favorite stimulant: caffeine. A match made in stimulant heaven.
Sign me up!
In the quaint town of Havenport Rhode Island, the fictional backdrop of my stories, there’s a shop and bakery called Led Zeppoli. In almost all of my stories, I mention the bakery’s famous chocolate croissants and exotic blends of coffee. Caffeine fuels my creative genius…well maybe not genius, but it certainly helps me come up with ideas and stay awake.
Led Zeppoli is a play on words between a certain famous four-member English rock group from the sixties and another decadent treat: the Italian zeppole. Ah yes, the zeppole, a fried dough cookie covered in massive amounts of powdered sugar.
Have you ever tried one? No? Well then get to getting because they are heaven in a greasy bag.
Where I grew up in Staten Island, NY was a popular pizza place called Pizza Town, which was located in walking distance from my high school. Besides the best pizza on the planet, Pizza Town sold zeppole and man, oh, man were they delicious. When you opened the white paper bag the powdered sugar puffed a white cloud of sweet goodness into your face.
Many days after school, I would “hang out” with friends at Pizza Town. It’s where I groused about homework and boys, prom dates, and how much Aquanet we put in our hair. Yes, it was the eighties after all. And it’s where I had many conversations with my high school crush who was tragically unaware of my deep-rooted feelings for him. Incidentally, we are still friends but sadly, the old building that was Pizza Town was torn down years ago.
Good memories, indeed.
What makes you get up and go? Coffee? Tea? Soda? All three have caffeine and I find the older I get the more I need something to help me start my day.
One lucky commenter will be chosen at random
and win a $10 Dunkin gift card.
Rescuing the Ranger
Now onto my latest release: The hero and heroine in my latest story, Rescuing the Ranger are Gabe Preston and Francesca Montefiore. Francesca grew up in Little Italy, NYC and now lives in Havenport and owns the florist shop. She loves the small town, which reminds her of the old neighborhood she left behind. When she volunteers her time to help write letters to the troops, she finds an unexpected connection to Havenport and one sexy, former Army Ranger, Gabe who’s in for a visit. And, when her past comes back to haunt her, Gabe comes to the rescue.
Here’s an excerpt to whet your appetite…
God, she hated making him feel any kind of stress. As much as this connection of theirs felt like a million bucks from the first correspondence, in her heart she knew it would cost him. Getting close to anyone again was dangerous. For him and for her.
How Pete had found her was anyone’s guess.
“Look, Gabe. You said it yourself, you’re decompressing after those tours of duty and I…” She stopped, shaking her head, wanting to warn him away. “I’ll destroy you.”
Her voice broke from exhaustion and worry and…damn it, caring and concern for him stuck in her throat. “My past will eventually annihilate this friendship we’ve built with our letters. It’s best if you don’t get mixed up in it, believe me. That’s one of the reasons I never sent you the email. You don’t deserve it.”
She felt compelled to warn him. Hell, he’d survived war as a Ranger, and she wasn’t about to be the person to bring him harm, not when Adele needed him.
His eyes widened before he let out a cynical laugh.
“You? Destroy me?” He crowded her, pushing her back and against the bedpost. His hands wound around her waist, but she couldn’t look up at him, so she fixated on the perfect vee between his pecks. “That’s not possible. My bike helmet weighs more than you.”
“Not physically,” she whispered. “Here, and here.” Frankie finally glanced up and traced his creased temple with her index finger before flattening her palm on his shirt above his heart. God, he was so solid. It would be easy to lean in and borrow his strength. “I know you went through something traumatic back in Afghanistan. I can tell. Those puckers on your hands feel like burns.” At her words, his face paled. “And, you don’t need more strife.”
He closed his eyes for a second and his jaw locked. “You’re so fucking sweet-natured.” He caressed the side of her cheek. She wanted to melt into his touch.
“Don’t you worry about me, and this isn’t just a friendship. You feel it. Don’t deny it. We’re good together, baby. And believe me, you can’t destroy me. Truth is—you kinda saved me.”
Get your copy of Rescuing the Ranger on Amazon. Available in Kindle Unlimited, too: https://amzn.to/2RstmrF
Have a fantastic February filled with love and lots of chocolate and coffee!
I enjoy my walks and love the incredible inspiration from nature. And, I never know what amazing things I’m going to see.
As I travel along the beach, marsh, or through the woods, the beauty of nature relaxes me and refills my muse.
An amateur photographer, in addition to the fun challenge of seeing what nature photos I can take, I’m honored to share them with my readers on my Facebook Romance Author page.
In addition to seeing the beautiful birds that live in my area, it’s exciting seeing birds that are migrating through.
Inspired by my walks, when I sit down to write, I do so with the beauty of nature, of the scents, sights, and sounds vivid in my mind, memories that at times are woven into my stories.
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 in 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, The Oath Trilogy, and the first four book of The Forbidden Series, she’s now working on book #5, Forbidden Realm, of the five-book series, which will be released April 14, 2020.
Diana looks forward to the years of writing ahead and meeting the amazing people who will share this journey.
Contest
***ONE winner will be drawn from everyone who posts on my guest blog visit about, ‘Inspiration From Nature,’ on Delilah’s blog between 14th February 2020 – 23rd February 2020. The winner will receive a signed copy of His Woman, book #2 in the bestselling MacGruder Brothers Series.
February is the month of love…and Valentine’s Day, and chocolate!
