UPDATE: The winner is…Becky!
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I don’t know about you, but when the weather turns cold, the Devlin house prefers heavier, heat-you-up-from-the-inside kinds of meals. I listed some of our favorites in the word search below.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me which of these dishes you love, too, plus give some suggestions for dishes you love on a cold winter’s evening that you think we ought to try!

I had this little story sitting in a file for the longest time. It was part of a series of novelettes written for Harlequin’s Nocturne Bites. I got the rights back, so I sat it in a folder for when I had time to revise it to make it a standalone story. I finally found the time! It’s just 16,000 words, so equal to three of my short stories. Currently, it’s FREE in Kindle Unlimited, and sometime today, the price will be reduced to only $0.99 for a few days because I’d love for you to read it. It’s a sexy time-travel. For those of you who loved Xena and Wonder Woman, here’s a tale for you!

Unbound by the Amazon

A pair of Army soldiers travels back in time to retrieve a powerful ancient artifact of alien origin from the queen of the Amazons…

Army Lieutenant Farideh Kalani expected her time-traveling assignment to ancient Scythia to retrieve an ancient artifact would be difficult, but gaining the trust of Amazon warriors and their legendary ruler, Queen Hippolyta, is easy compared to being partnered with Sergeant First Class Caleb MacAvoy. The soldier is too smug and sexy for her peace of mind. Posing as a warrior seeking a place among the royal guard and her devoted personal servant, the pair succumb to their attraction just as they discover another seeks the treasure they’ve sworn to find.

Get your copy here!

Open Contests

1. Gabbi Grey: When One Story is Not Enough (Contest) — This is the last day to enter! Win an Amazon gift card!
2. Word Search: Favorite Pets (Contest) — This is the last day to enter! Win an Amazon gift card!
3. Cover Reveal — Anyone like ancient Scythia? Plus, books you can pre-order now! (Contest) — This is the last day to enter! Win a FREE book!
4. Saturday Puzzle Contest — Random Bohemian Pirate Couple — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
5. Gabbi Grey: Sometimes Letting Go is Really Hard (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
6. Let’s have some fun! Tell me a story… (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
7. Memory Game — Match the Covers! (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
8. Anna Taylor Sweringen/Michal Scott: Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin – Pioneering Publisher, Suffragist and Women’s Club Founder (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
9. Saturday Puzzle-Contest: What world is inside your fantasy book? — Win an Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Mary Preston!
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It’s Saturday! I’m so ready for the week to be done! On Monday, we had one last “snow day” for the kids before the weather changed and the rains came. It rained long and hard for two days—long enough for us to discover our roof leaks. Long enough, we had roofers come out to give us estimates to fix the leak. Yay. Grrr…

Well, we do seem to move from one crisis to the next, but we are resilient! This too shall pass…until the next crisis.

In the meantime, I chose a fantasy image to make me happy. Solve the puzzle, then tell me what world you’d find inside your fantasy book for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card! Have fun!

UPDATE: The winner is…Diane Sallans!
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The phrase “fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree” describes Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin perfectly.

Born Josephine St. Pierre in 1842 in Boston, her middle-class parents sent her to integrated schools in Charlestown, Salem, and New York rather than accept the segregation imposed by Boston’s school system. No wonder she lived a life predisposed to fighting injustice on her own as well as on the behalf of others.

She married George Lewis Ruffin in 1858. A pioneer in his own right, the first African American to graduate from Harvard Law School and the one of the first African American judges in a Northern state. They lived in England for six months then returned and helped recruit volunteers for African American Civil War regiments like the Massachusetts 54^th.  He died in 1886.

A member of the New England Women’s Press Association, Ruffin wrote for the Courant, a weekly paper for African Americans. She founded the Women’s Era, the first newspaper published by and for African American women. She and her daughter, Florida, published this illustrated monthly for seven years.

Her fight for women’s suffrage showed she understood the concept of intersectionality. She is quoted as saying, “We are justified in believing that the success of this movement for equality of the sexes means progress toward equality of the races.” Ruffin served as president of the West End League of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association.

She was the first African American member of the New England Women’s Club. In 1893, she founded The Woman’s Era club for African American women. Living up to its motto, “Make the World Better,” their activities promoted and fundraised for self-help activities to “uplift the race.” Ruffin believed a national organization for African American women’s clubs was needed and organized a conference in Boston to that end. Women from ten to fourteen states attended. They formed the National Federation of Afro-Am Women. This in turn merged with the Colored Women’s League, forming the National Association of Colored Women.

In 1900 at the meeting of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Southern women on the credentials committee opposed her representing both white and African American clubs.  They would only accept her credentials for the white clubs. She refused and was excluded from the meeting. The incident was nationally covered by the press.

Ruffin continued her fight for racial equality, and in 1910, became a founding member of the Boston NAACP. She died in 1924. In 1995, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. A bronze bust of Ruffin is one of six famous Massachusetts women which stand in the Massachusetts State House.

Once again, the accomplishments of women like Josephine awe and inspire me to do all I can with the opportunities I have. For a chance at a $10 Amazon gift card, leave a comment on Josephine and other women who have inspired you.

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:

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

So, for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve this puzzle, then let me know whether you enjoyed it as much as the Saturday jigsaw puzzles or the word searches. I’m trying to switch it up a bit! Plus, this time around, I get to not-so-subtly remind you about some recent releases!

Sorry for all the space left beneath the puzzle.
The puzzle generator does that—not me!

UPDATE: The winner is…Christine!
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Usually for these “tell me a story” contests, I choose a fantasy/romantic image. This picture tickled my funny bone.  I could only imagine the rotten things she’d had to overcome that day for him to walk into the kitchen and say, “Hey, what’s for dinner?”

So, in the spirit of fun, tell me what he said to earn this reaction from her for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Roxie Jones!
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Most Saturdays, I have no idea what image I’m going to choose for the puzzle when I sit down to craft my blog. I go to my favorite photo site and take a look. The photos they suggested today, based on my recent searches, produced a feed called “Bohemian Pirate Couple.” Interesting, I said. So, I went with it.

I hope you love the puzzle. Solve it, then tell me what kind of story it inspires in you for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!