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! 

UPDATE: The winner is…Terra Oenning!
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Yes, it’s a THING! And it’s the only kind of shopping I love! Hunting for treasure—what’s not to love? See my hauls from old “treasure” hunts!

The old-fashioned jewelry is perfect for mixed media projects (like pulls for tops of painted boxes!). See the letter holder? All it needs is a pretty coat of paint to update it and voila! The tin can be cut up for jewelry projects, too! The pretty bottle in the center is a large vintage hand-painted snuff bottle (which I collect!). It’s topless, but for a buck, I couldn’t resist!

My dd collects vintage Pyrex! I collect mid-century George Briard pieces (the gold tray). The trivet at the bottom of the photo will be great for pressing impressions in clay and paint! And I collect vintage vanity powder jars (see the swan?). And again, a tin to cut into jewelry dangles!

Lots of craft-worthy stuff here, too! Things to press, paint, glue!

Yeah, I know. Most of y’all would look at my hauls like they’re a bunch of junk, but there’s joy in DISCOVERY!

Help me celebrate National Thrift Shop Day by telling me about your favorite thrift or garage sale finds for a chance to win a download of a book from my backlist of stories!

UPDATE: The winner is…Katherine Anderson!
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My dd complained when making this little meme for me. She said there are too many covers. “It’s crowded.” Like that’s a bad thing. 🤷

My problem is…and I don’t consider it a problem…is that I don’t want to leave Dead Horse, MT. I don’t want to leave behind my team or the townspeople. I did that with the Bear Lodge hunters, but also found ways to bring them into this series, because I don’t want to let go. I’ll have to admit, I’ve never had so much fun writing a series. So much so, that I’m trying to figure out ways to stay in Dead Horse, MT, even after I’ve completely filled the agency with hunters. Proof? Hard Knox will be a spin-off, featuring the townsfolk!

And it’s not like I had the Dead Horse hunters’ stories planned out ahead of time. No master plan. I just wrote, and as characters popped up, I had my next hero. Not so with the next stories I’ll be writing, Mica and Jackson. With those two, I’m starting with just these images. I don’t know how they’ll meet and join my merry band of bounty hunters. Not yet, anyway.

You haven’t read all the Dead Horse, MT, stories? Give one a try:
Montana Bounty Hunters: Dead Horse, MT
Have you pre-ordered Mica and Jackson? If not, click on the covers to do so!

Contest

Have fun with this! Wrong answers, even very wrong answers, count!

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me what you think Mica and Jackson should be about. Who are they? What sort of adventures should they have?

UPDATE: The winner is…Karen LeBeau!
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To win a digital copy of SEAL Undercover, just leave a comment below. I will announce the winner tomorrow. Hope to see a lot of you!

A SEAL is a SEAL is a SEAL. I have been writing about SEALs for years, both single titles and as a series.  They are the U. S. Navy’s primary special operations force and a component of the Naval Special Warfare Command. Among the SEALs’ main functions are conducting small-unit special operation missions in maritime, jungle, urban, arctic, mountainous, and desert environments. SEALs are typically ordered to capture or eliminate high level targets, or to gather intelligence behind enemy lines.

My first SEAL book was Coyote Heat and took place in Key West where my hero was trying to take a vacation and, in the midst of a heated clinch, got called away on a mission. I’ve written about a SEAL who met the love of his life at a masquerade ball (Bedroom Eyes) and then, of course, there are all my books in my Protecting series for Susan Stoker. Not to mention my Heroes Rising series for Elle James’ Brotherhood Protectors World.

And there are more to come!

But today I want to tell you about Silver SEAL Max DiSalvo.

SEAL Undercover

For Max DiSalvo, life after SEALs leaves a lot to be desired. He was a Frogman his entire life until a bullet in the hip tossed him into retirement. Never married, he’s now back in his hometown of Sunset Harbor, Maine, running a small commercial fishing business and wondering if he’ll find that one special person to share the rest of his life with. When Silas “Crash” Branson, assistant director of Homeland Security, shows up with a proposition, he’s only too happy to jump on it.

Regan Shaw, a SEAL widow, is a top Intelligence Operations Specialist with DHS. She has uncovered a situation that could threaten the very foundation of America. A secret cabal of uber wealthy people—five men and one woman—could be plotting to gain control of the United States. They’ve gone from smuggling drugs for cartels to smuggling high value terrorists. And word has come down that a high-level member of the government is clearing the way with them for everything.

DHS has figured out a way to get someone into an upcoming meeting, and the person they tap is Max. Regan, who has all the information on this operation, will go with him as his wife. But the best laid plans and all that. When Max’s cover is blown and Regan is kidnapped, he must find a way to stop the coming disaster and rescue the woman he’s fallen in love with.

You can learn more about the book here:  https://desireeholt.com/books/seal-undercover/

Don’t forget to comment. And in case you aren’t today’s winner, I hope you will still let your fingers do the walking and take Max home with you.

UPDATE: The winner is…Diane Sallans!
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It’s Saturday! And there’s no rest for the weary! I finished one editing project yesterday, and now I have a couple of editing projects to begin TODAY! And neither will be short. I hope to start writing on my own book by this time next week. How’s your Saturday?

Psst! Be sure to check out the 8 CONTESTS below that you can still enter!

Puzzle-Contest

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell us if you have kids heading back to school! And if you do, tell us whether you’re ready for them to be gone or wishing the summer was longer!

Open Contests & Giveaways

1. “Will you. Won’t you. Will you. Won’t you…” (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win a FREE book!
2. Saturday Puzzle-Contest! — Win an Amazon gift card!
3. Diana Cosby: Nature’s Beauty – Summer Along the Shore! (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win a SIGNED book!
4. Natasha Moore: Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner (Contest) — Win a FREE book!
5. Flashback: Lawless (Contest–2 Winners!) — Win a FREE book!
6. A Memory Puzzle! (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
7. Gabbi Grey: When an Angsty Author Tries to Go Rom-Com (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
8. FREE READ! What a Wolf Wants — EVERYONE, pick up your copy!

I was approached about contributing to a charity anthology and I wracked my brain for a gay romance story.  A friend had suggested Page Against the Machine as a potential name for a bookstore.  Another friend suggested The Owl’s Nest, and since the randomizer chose that, I was happy to go with it.

Great. I had a name for the bookstore in my fictional town of Mission City, British Columbia.  With Page Against the Machine, I had a title.  I already knew one character who worked at the bookstore — a free-spirited sensitive named Sunshine who was forever getting into everyone’s business.  I figured her boss would be more of a traditionalist.  Who better than a guy whose parents once owned the store and that he’d inherited?  More back and forth with different friends and I had Dickens.

Now, knowing this was a novella, I wanted a quick meet-cute and a deep dive into the relationship.  How about a motorcycle mechanic who sets up shop next to the bookstore?  Suddenly, Bookstore Dude’s quiet is disturbed by hot Motorcycle Dude.  So that made them enemies, right? Eventually, I realized I was writing an enemy-to-lovers book that had hate sex in the fourth chapter.

Of course, this being a Gabbi Grey story, I had to throw in some emotional wounds — especially for Spike the Motorcycle Dude.  And I’m not sure if this is a true rom-com, but it’s as close as I’ve come thus far in my short writing career.

Naturally, I hope you’ll snag a copy.  In the meantime, share with me your favorite enemy-to-lovers story or a good rom-com I should check out.  $5 Amazon GC to a random commenter.

Page Against the Machine Synopsis

Dickens

My tranquility is shattered when a motorcycle repair shop moves in next to my bookstore. All I want is peace and quiet. What I get is gunning engines and eighties rock music. One of us has got to go, and since I was here first, it’s the hot mechanic.

Spike

I chose Mission City to set up shop because of the weekend-enthusiast riders. I’ve dreamed of owning my own shop for years, and no one is going to run me out of town. Least of all the adorable geek Bookstore Dude.

This 25k gay romance novella is a true instalove, enemies to lovers, opposites attract story with a cuddly cat named Aristotle. The story first appeared in the anthology Love Is All, Volume 5.

Links:
Amazon US:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B8BW6W8H
Amazon CA:  https://www.amazon.ca/Page-Against-Machine-Mission-Romance-ebook/dp/B0B8BW6W8H/
Add it to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61866363-page-against-the-machine

About the Author

USA Today Bestselling author Gabbi Grey lives in beautiful British Columbia where her fur baby chin-poo keeps her safe from the nasty neighborhood squirrels. Working for the government by day, she spends her early mornings writing contemporary, gay, sweet, and dark erotic BDSM romances. While she firmly believes in happy endings, she also believes in making her characters suffer before finding their true love. She also writes m/f romances as Gabbi Black and Gabbi Powell.

Website: https://gabbigrey.com/
Newsletter sign-up:  https://sendfox.com/gabbigrey

UPDATE: The winner is…Alison Rush!
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I’m trying out another game for you to play. It’s super easy to play. Just click on a block, and then match a picture or description from another block! All pics are of animals. So enjoy!

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, play the memory search and let me know what you think of the game! How does this memory search compare to the word search and crossword puzzles I posted in the past couple of weeks?