UPDATE: The winner is…Courtney Kinder!
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It’s Saturday, so of course, I have a puzzle for you! The picture you’ll reveal after solving the puzzle is my summertime ideal—where I’d love to be, what I’d love to be doing.

Solve the puzzle and share whether this is something you’d love as well or share what your ideal summer activity would be for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card! Have fun!

UPDATE: The winners are…Colleen, bn100, Debra Guyette, and ButtonsMom2003!
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Check out the series here!

I’m working on finishing the next Montana Bounty Hunters: Dead Horse, MT, book now, so I thought I’d post a little reminder of the stories that precede Gabriel’s in case you haven’t read them yet!

Readers enjoy the interplay between my ex-military hunters, love the strong heroines, the action, the sexiness, the action-packed scenes. Oh, and the humor! If you haven’t given my bounty hunters a try, now’s the time!

For a chance to win your choice of one of the books in this series, tell me what you love to see in an action-packed story!

And don’t forget, Gabriel is coming July 26th! Preorder your copy here: Gabriel

I had a very busy day—none of it writing-related. I do have a bit of a life outside of writing. I’m a member of a local artists’ organization, and I’m getting more involved with the running of the organization. So, today, I attended a board meeting (I just joined it!). I have a list of To Do items from that meeting. Plus, tonight, I attended another art-related event, a planning meeting for the Arkadelphia Arts Festival which will be happening in September, and for which I will be participating again as an artist selling paintings! Woot!

So, no time for a fun post. Instead, I’ll leave you with a reminder of what contests are still open. Enter while you can!

1. Michal Scott: Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley — An Extraordinary Life In Her Own Words (Contest) — This ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
2. June into July (“Wish I was this cool” Puzzle-Contest — and More!) — Win an Amazon gift card!
3. Teabags, a metaphor for…? (Contest–2 Winners!) — Win a FREE book!
4. Happy International Kissing Day! (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…bn100!
*~*~*

Don’t you just love these holidays you’ve never heard of? For me, they’re a chance to make darn near every day special!

So, today’s International Kissing Day! And yes, it’s really a thing! And it should be celebrated. I love all kinds of kisses. A quick buss on the cheek. A French kiss! Kissing a baby’s toes. Butterfly kisses! The 8-year-old’s favorite goodnight kiss was a butterfly kiss that made her giggle because it tickled. She’s outgrown them now, and I miss them.

Kissing can be an intimate sign of love or even an act of submission—think about kissing Don Corleone’s ring in the movie The Godfather. Or a sign of respect and reverence for Catholics kissing the pope’s papal ring—the Fisherman’s ring.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me something about a kiss. Maybe describe the first time your loved one kissed you. Or tell me who you’ll kiss today to celebrate the holiday. Or, tell me your favorite movie kiss! 

UPDATE: The winners are…miki and Debra Guyette!
*~*~*

I’m supposed to be writing my next book, but all I can think about are teabags. Yes, teabags… (and not the nasty, sexy kind—mind out of the gutter, please!)…

I’m thinking of switching from coffee to tea for a couple of weeks to build up a stash of used teabags. Why? you might ask. Well, you can dry them, take them apart, discard the used tea leaves, then flatten the empty bags and use them to paint on. Why do that? I don’t know. I have tons of paper and canvases, but when I go to Pinterest, I fall down the teabag-rabbit-hole. Check this link out and see what I mean: teabag art.

Aren’t they just gorgeous?!

I’m sure this sudden obsession has nothing to do with teabags. Although I am going to start collecting them and will likely be painting on them soon. It’s really about the fact I should be writing. I have a book due very, very soon. With pre-orders! I can’t fail.

So, while I close out my Pinterest page that I’m quickly filling with examples of lovely, grungy teabag art, why don’t you think of ways to help me keep my mind focused on the work!

Give me some constructive or funny ideas for how I can keep my focus on the task at hand (the book)! Comment here and you’ll be entered to win a copy of a downloadable book of your choice from my backlist! I’ll pick two winners!

UPDATE: The winner is…Margaret!
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Let’s just get started on my recap! I have a bunch of s**t to do today! ‘Kay? 🙂

June

Here’s what I managed to accomplish…

Work-related:

1. I completed writing and published Victoria’s Six—which I hated while I was writing it but love, love, love now! It’s funny how that works.
2. I completed 4 editing projects for other authors in June!
3. The bad news? I cancelled the release of Wild Thing. I simply could not squeeze in another book in June. My goal now is to push the book toward the end of the year, releasing it in November or December.

Health-related:

1. I have not climbed back aboard the Weight Watchers wagon. However, I maintained 25 pounds of my loss since January. Motivation is lagging…
2. As for physical activity, the pool is finally sparkling clear and warm! I’m swimming at least once a day, usually twice. The little ones don’t have to do more than show up at my door with a quivering bottom lip to talk me into joining them.

Happiness-related: 

1. After the #100DayChallenge ended in May, so did my artistic ambition. I puttered but painted very, very little. I’m embarrassed to share the “best” of what I produced, but here it goes…

July

Come hell or high water…

For work-related, I plan:

1. To complete and publish my next bounty hunter book, Gabriel!
2. To revise and compile the Danger Zone trilogy into a single bundle and get it ready for publishing!
3. To begin work on my next Brotherhood Protectors romantic suspense story.
4. To complete 3 editing projects in July!

For health related, I plan:

1. To restart Weight Watchers (count those points!) and hope to lose at least 5 pounds, remembering: Slow is good!
2. To swim at least one time a day!
3. To begin some low-impact aerobics. Maybe, I’ll do more housework, too. Gah.

For happiness-related, I plan: 

1. To participate in an online #fodderchallenge beginning July 5!
2. To produce at least two finished pieces of art every week!
3. To blog about art (on my Emerald Casket site) just to keep myself honest! (No one actually has to read it!)

Contest

Solve the puzzle then comment on anything you’ve read in this post, share something you plan to do in July, or just tell me what you plan to read…

Like I said, comment on anything for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

Open Contests

1. Scavenger Hunt! (Contest) — This one ends on Monday! Win an Amazon gift card!
2. The Weekend–Batman-style! (Contest) — This one also ends Monday! Win an Amazon gift card!
3. Saturday Puzzle-Contest! Plus, More Open Contests! — Win an Amazon gift card!
4. Michal Scott: Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley — An Extraordinary Life In Her Own Words (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…flchen1!
*~*~*

As a writer, I’m fascinated by women who use their agency to tell their own stories or stories others need to hear. This is particularly true of formerly enslaved women like Ida B. Wells Barnett, Harriet Jacobs, and Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley. I’d like to share today about Elizabeth.

In 1818, Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley was born into slavery in Virginia. The family that owned her allowed her to learn to read and write. She also learned sewing, the skill that eventually set her up in her own business. While still enslaved, her owners moved her to Missouri in 1846 where she used her sewing talent to raise money for her owners. It was here that she first caught Mary Todd Lincoln’s attention.

Elizabeth’s owners agreed to set her and her son free if she could raise $1,200. By 1855 with the help of vigilance committees, she was able to raise the money.  She used her skills as a seamstress to pay back these loans. In 1860, she moved to Washington D.C. and built a dressmaking business thanks to referrals from Varina Davis, the wife of Jefferson Davis. One of Elizabeth’s patrons ordered a dress from her for the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln. This patron recommended her as a dressmaker to Mary Todd Lincoln. The rest as they say is history.

She was an integral part of the Lincoln household and recounts her life with them as part of her memoir, Behind the Scenes: Or Thirty Years A Slave and Four in the White House. However, the work was not as well-received as the narratives of other former slaves. Her recounting was seen as a breach of trust between her and Mary Lincoln. The book had poor sales, and she lost customers because of the controversy it created. The White House Historical Association has a fuller account of her life as a slave and her time in the White House on their website:

https://www.whitehousehistory.org/from-slavery-to-the-white-house-the-extraordinary-life-of-elizabeth-keckly

She did not let the book’s reception get her down. She defended what she did and continued to help others by teaching other Black women how to sew and founding two organizations to aid other Blacks:  the Contraband Relief Association, a relief organization for Blacks freed by Northern troops and had come to Washington D.C. as “contraband of war,” and the National Home for Destitute Colored Women and Children. In 1892 she moved to Ohio to accept the position as head of the Department of Sewing and Domestic Science Arts at Wilberforce University. It is believed she suffered a stroke and returned from there to Washington D.C. where she died in the hospital she helped found. She was eighty-nine years old.

I love learning about women like Elizabeth Keckley, women who used their abilities to make life better for themselves and others. Her life is a witness to perseverance and encourages me to press on at a time when parts of our society seem hell-bent on stripping women of their rights. Share a story of your own about persistence in the comments for a chance at a $10 Amazon gift card.

One Breath Away

Sentenced to hand 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. Never having been courted, cuddled or spooned, Mary now fears any kind of physical intimacy when arousal forces her to relive the asphyxiation of her hanging. 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 a relationship with Mary 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.

Then just as Eban begins to win Mary’s trust, an enemy from the past threatens to keep them one breath away from love…

An excerpt from One Breath Away…

Home at last, she’d see if meeting Eban meant this night would be good.

Since her ordeal, her sex rivaled the Chihuahuan Desert in dryness. Yet Eban’s gaze had summoned the fragrant flow that even now moistened her core. Could it be her body had finally healed? She swayed, dizzy with expectation.

The squeak of the indoor pump provided no distraction from the lingering tingle where Eban’s fingers had rested against her spine, where his lips had kissed her hand. She focused on her task to temper her excitement.

Fill the bucket. Lift the bucket. Carry the bucket. Empty the bucket. Fill the bucket. Lift the bucket. Carry the bucket. Empty the bucket.

The pans she filled slowly simmered then steamed on her small, pot-bellied stove.

Her heart seized as she fingered the simple gingham curtains covering Harvest Home’s windows. Harvest Home’s humble kitchen contrasted sharply with the trappings that had graced Mary’s Manor, her Weston restaurant expansion.

She’d looked up the word manor and decided her place would imitate that kind of luxury as much as possible. Brocaded drapes and white, linen tablecloths had dressed up the Manor’s supper room. Slipcovers made from the same linen covered the cushioned chairs. White, bone china and delicate silverware completed the picture of elegant dining she hoped to draw.

A Franklin stove, indoor pump, double sink, polished counter tops and spacious storage cupboards made the Manor’s kitchen a dream made true. Nothing lacked for the grand opening. Picturing couples enjoying themselves in her simple but elegant setting had become her favorite pastime.

Then Judah Little and his lies thwarted her plans. Thwarted. A good word. A true word.

“But not for long,” she whispered. “That dream will come true just as this dream might come true tonight.”

Buylink: https://amzn.to/2u5XQYY