Wednesday, August 31st, 2022
UPDATE: The winner is…flchen1!
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Lovely picture, right? But what if he’s not the groom?
For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me a story about these two!
Archive for the 'Contests!' Category
Tuesday, August 30th, 2022
UPDATE: The winners are…Debby and Laura!
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I love doing flashback highlights! It’s not only a reminder to you but also to me of the many stories I’ve written. Did you know before I wrote bounty hunters that I had this entire series of SEAL-hero stories? Read an excerpt from the second “Uncharted” book!
Enjoy! ~DD
Click on the covers to learn more about these stories!
Contest
Win your choice of one of my Uncharted SEALs stories! There will be 2 winners! All you have to do to enter is answer me this…
What author’s older series have your recently discovered and devoured? Spread some love!
Her Next Breath
Ex-SEAL Jackson Keller’s first mission with the Charter Group’s spec ops unit is a bust. Instead of capturing a drug lord in his Mexican compound, he finds a beautiful, naked woman. But she may have information they need to nail the narco-terrorist, so he takes her, sealing his fate. She’s his to watch, his to “manage” until the op’s done.
Suri McAnally’s made some mistakes—mainly trusting her college roomie who just so happens to be the son of one of Mexico’s most dangerous drug lords. If Jackson can save her, she’ll do whatever he says, mirror his moves, and try to keep her insta-lust under control. Her next breath depends on it.
Excerpt from Her Next Breath…
When Suri awoke, it was to discover she was resting inside the curve of Jackson’s arm, her thigh draped over his, her head on his chest. She didn’t know who’d moved the blanket. Maybe they’d both naturally gravitated together. She hated to think she might have been the one to cross the line demarking their personal space.
Partly because she didn’t want to wake him, and partly because it was a new experience lying inside a man’s embrace, she held her breath and remained perfectly still. She breathed in his scent, which was a sagey musk combined with the remaining odor of the paint he’d worn on his face. His skin was smooth, warm, tanned and cloaked a hard, very muscular frame. Her fingertips tingled, and she very nearly gave into the temptation to run one tip over his hard abs. Instead, she curled her hand into a fist.
Last night when she’d seen him fully for the first time—without the paint, his body nearly nude—she’d felt her knees wobble. He was devastatingly handsome, not in a pretty-boy way. He was too manly, too large, all hard angles and lovely bulges, with short, nearly dark-brown hair and those cloudy gray eyes. Even the stubble on his chin made her thighs clench.
Suri hoped she didn’t sleep beside him for many more nights or she’d grow accustomed to his physique. Any man she met after this little adventure would pale in comparison.
Her glance traveled downward to the sheet barely covering his hips. Maybe it was the fold of the sheets, but the fabric was tented.
“Playing possum?”
She raised her head and met his gaze, blushing because she’d been caught staring at his sex.
“Didn’t want to disturb you.”
“You’re breathing, aren’t you?” he muttered in a graveled tone.
She frowned, not understanding, and then pushed away from his body although she instantly regretted the loss of his warmth. When she’d first awoken, she’d felt sheltered, safe—and not just from Diego and his henchmen. She’d felt…cherished.
Ridiculous, she knew. And slightly pathetic. Was she really so needy for human connection that she was romanticizing over Jackson?
But in the morning light, his face wasn’t quite so hard-bitten. Scruffy, dark bristles covered his chin and jaw; his gaze rested on her rather than spearing her.
His glance cut away, and he looked at his watch. “Chow’s nearly over. We should dress.”
“I’m starved.”
The corners of his mouth twitched.
His first smile?
And then his features grew remote again, his mouth firmed. “Get dressed. I need to check in with Teague.”
Aware his gaze followed her still, she rose and stretched her arms high, and then headed to her pillow case.
“You do that on purpose, don’t you?”
She aimed a grin over her shoulder. “Why, whatever do you mean?”
His gaze narrowed, but a one-sided smile curved.
Feeling as though she’d accomplished something noteworthy, she entered the bathroom, closing the door against the temptation that was Jackson Keller.
Saturday, August 27th, 2022
UPDATE: The winner is…Carol G!
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I’m late posting today because a friend messaged my dd to tell us there was a garage sale we could not miss this morning! The woman was selling vintage Pyrex dishes, which my daughter collects. My SIL was game to drive us there and patiently waited while we picked through her junk to find hidden treasures! We came away with so many pieces of Pyrex my daughter doesn’t have room to display them! It’s a great problem for an addict to have. I worked my way down one end of the table, snagging items I knew she’d want, and when we met in the middle we were both thrilled at all our finds.
Then I went through the rest of the tables looking for strange and wonderful treasures, which are what I collect—not that most of my treasures are worth anything, but I’m always looking for the thing that makes me happy.
The item I came away with cost an entire dollar! You have to solve the puzzle to see the tarnished brass (tarnish just means it has been around a while, like me). We looked on eBay to see what similar things go for. The ones we found were promotional type items produced in the 50s. Mine was sold at Knott’s Berry Farm—Ghost Town, California—I have no idea when. The top part flips to change numbers. The screws on the sides change other settings. Now, you have to see what the little treasure is, right? It’s found its forever-home on my desk. 🙂
Puzzle-Contest
Share one garage sale/junk shop find that makes you smile for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!
Thursday, August 25th, 2022
UPDATE: The winner is…Beverly!
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It’s another Play Date for all you “word nerds”!
Solve the puzzle then tell me your favorite types of romance book heroes for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!
Monday, August 22nd, 2022
UPDATE: The winner is…miki!
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The last line of “The Star-Spangled Banner” has always struck me as the greatest irony of the entire song. “Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, o’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.” So many people in this country have that flag waving over them yet they are not free to be their authentic selves because of the -isms running rampant throughout US history. Jews who chose to change their names, gays who chose to remain in the closet, people of color who chose to pass for white. These subterfuges many times were taken not because of shame for their identity but because of lack of opportunity and/or safety. Such is the story of Belle da Costa Greene.
Belle was born Belle Marian Greener in Washington D.C. to an African American family, which numbered among the Black elite of the late 1800s. Her father, Richard T. Greener, was the first African American to graduate from Harvard. Although light enough to pass for white, he never did. Despite the horrific dismantling of Reconstruction and its immediate impact on their family’s situation in South Carolina, Greener lived his life as a vocal advocate for equal rights for his race. His wife however came to a different conclusion: passing for white would enable her family to have the opportunities and safety they deserved. They moved to New York and lived as whites. This choice however led to her parents’ separation.
Belle’s father’s love of illustrated manuscripts instilled a love for the written word in her. She trained as a librarian and was working at Princeton University’s library where she caught the eye of Junius Morgan, J.P. Morgan’s nephew. This led to the opportunity of a lifetime, and in 1905, she became the librarian/curator for J.P. Morgan’s library. She helped him amass a collection that became world famous and envied by museums around the world. Quite an accomplishment in the days before suffrage was achieved and career women were looked at with suspicion.
She retired from the Morgan Library in 1948, one year before her death. By then, she had enabled Morgan’s dream to come true: to make his library available as a resource to the public. I was glad once again to learn of another heroic Black woman, both from The Personal Librarian, a fictionalized account of her life and the biography, An Illuminated Life: Belle Da Costa Greene’s Journey from Prejudice to Privilege. However, I felt sad society wouldn’t have allowed her to accomplish all she had if she’d claimed her true heritage. I was also moved by the emotional costs Belle paid for choosing to live while hiding in plain sight. Her choice showed a woman could still be brave even if the land in which she lived wouldn’t let her be free.
For a chance at a $10 Amazon gift card, share the name of someone you admire who may have had to change their name or hide some part of who they were to succeed.
One Breath Away
Sentenced to hang for a crime she didn’t commit, former slave Mary Hamilton was exonerated at literally the last gasp. She returns to Safe Haven, broken and resigned to live alone. She’s never been courted, cuddled or spooned, and now no man could want her, not when sexual satisfaction comes only with the thought of asphyxiation. But then the handsome stranger who saved her shows up, stealing her breath from across the room and promising so much more.
Wealthy, freeborn-Black, Eban Thurman followed Mary to Safe Haven, believing the mysteriously exotic woman was foretold by the stars. He must marry her to reclaim his family farm. But first he must help her heal, and to do that means revealing his own predilection for edgier sex.
Hope ignites along with lust until the past threatens to keep them one breath away from love…
Excerpt from One Breath Away…
In 1872 Texas who took note of a black woman who ain’t been asked to wed?
Yet Eban’s perusal said not only did he take note, but he liked what he saw.
“Ooo, Mother Hawthorne,” Felicity Parker teased. The sandy-haired, light-skinned beauty smiled as only a twenty-something-no-longer-a- virgin woman like her could. “Your nephew’s a- lookin’ Mountain’s way.” She eyed Mary from head to toe. “Does he like his berries big, black, and buxom?”
“Could be. Ya know what they say…” Widow Clemma Hawthorne’s smile grew into a grin. She sat on Mary’s right and whispered to Felicity on Mary’s left. “The darker the berry, the sweeter the juice.”
The mischief rife in Clemma’s tone shone in her gaze as she waggled her eyebrows at Mary.
Felicity looked Eban up and down with approval.
“If he likes ’em dark, I’ll be glad to blacken up for him. Lord knows I’s tired of beddin’ po’ boys. Whoo chile…” She fanned herself and grinned. “I was in line behind him when he made his deposit at the Savin’ and Loan. His gold rushed across that counter like freedmen hurryin’ to claim their forty acres and a mule.” She turned and nudged Mary. “You juicy enough for that rich he-man, Blackberry?”
Friday, August 19th, 2022
Tons of work on my plate today, plus we meet the 18-year-old’s boyfriend today. Woot! So, no time to chat. Y’all have a great FRIDAY! I’ll have a guest here tomorrow!
Open Contests
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Flashback: Lawless (Contest–2 Winners!) — This one ends soon! Win a FREE book!
- A Memory Puzzle! (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
- Gabbi Grey: When an Angsty Author Tries to Go Rom-Com (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
- Saturday Puzzle-Contest! — Win an Amazon gift card!
- My favorite series! (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
- Happy National Thrift Shop Day! (Contest) — Win a FREE book!
- Romance Trope Word Search! (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
Thursday, August 18th, 2022
UPDATE: The winner is…K. Campos!
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Have fun finding some popular romance tropes!
Tell me your favorite romance trope (it doesn’t have to be one of these on the list!) for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!
And if you have ideas for themes for further word searches, share them!
