UPDATE: The winners are…Debra Guyette, Flchen, and Cindy!
*~*~*

I was a little stressed last week. And it was all my fault.

You see, I have a new dragon shifter book releasing on April 19^th, which means I’m smack in the middle of the last-minute prepwork for it. Final edits, formatting, ARCs, and uploading the final-final-final version to the online retail sites, etc.

But as of the submission of this blog post, I don’t have a final-final-final version of my book. Because I made a rash (inspired?) decision that upended an important aspect of my current book, and all the books in this series: new covers.

I know it might seem weird to rebrand and recover a series before that series is finished. Or even before the second book is published. But the first book, What a Dragon Wants, was originally intended to be a one-off standalone novella. This story is rife with the concept of opposites interconnected to create a whole: a Viking man and a Chinese woman, a white dragon and a black dragon, storms and fire, yin and yang… So the cover was designed to help convey this.

However, right before I published What a Dragon Wants, I made the impulsive decision to turn it into the first book of a series. After all, the hero had three hawt dragon shifter older brothers who absolutely HAD to have their stories written, and who was I to deny them their happily-ever-afters? The Star of the North Dragon series was born as almost an afterthought.

Does that mean the cover concept for my first book works for an entire series? No, it doesn’t. Not without a lot of unnecessary struggle and mediocre results, no matter how talented my amazing cover artist is. So, when I reached out for the cover to What a Dragon Needs, I was made the impulsive suggestion we re-do it all. And I don’t regret it for a second, because my amazing cover artist can work magic.

I’d be lying if I said I gave her plenty of time. It’s my own fault this last week was so stressful. I wanted something to show for this blog. I wanted to send out ARCs with the actual cover and not a place-holder. I need to upload the final-final-final file. Letting brash, ooh-shiny-object author decisions divert me from my vaguely-outlined publishing plan does a number on the stress levels. Ultimately, my books (and readers) benefit from these decisions. My nails will grow back and the new gray hairs will blend with the established grays. But maybe, just maybe, I can learn from this and better plan my work and work my plan. Think further in advance what my book offerings will be. Better outline my—

Oh, what if I wrote mermaid series?!

Contest

For a chance at a Kindle version of my What a Dragon Needs dragon shifter book, tell me of a time when your plans got hijacked by another (better?) plan.

Or Pre-Order via your favorite online retailer: https://books2read.com/b/49VxAk

What a Dragon Needs

Dragon Council Emissary Lucia Bengtsson visits Minnesota’s clan to discover how they thwarted a recent invasion by a long-prophesized World Destroyer. What she finds is a family that welcomes her with an unquestioning warmth she’s never experienced among her own clan members, who have always judged her by the diminutive size of her Light Dragon. Only the sexy yet antagonistic Ivar Drekison offers her support even as he keeps her at arm’s-length. Arms she desperately wants wrapped around her.

Third-born son of the Star of the North clan, Ivar Drekison’s attitude is as sharp and cold as his Metal Dragon’s claws. When gorgeous yet standoffish Lucia arrives to interrogate his family on their battle strategies, he senses an underhanded betrayal brewing. While everyone else adores Lucia and her gentle manners, Ivar clashes with her in an attempt to force the truth behind her visit. In doing so, he must also battle his own overwhelming attraction to her.

What a Dragon Needs Excerpt…

Ivar stood in one fluid motion and headed toward the sliding screen door, his face set in what must be his resting expression of bored disdain. He stepped close enough Lucia warmed from the heat radiating off his body. Or was that her own temperature rising?

“I’m just gonna squeeze right past ya there.” He murmured as his arm brushed against hers, even though there was plenty of room to pass.

If he’d cut her with a knife, she wouldn’t have been more surprised, and she barely halted the instinctive flinch at his voluntary contact. Unfortunately, she couldn’t stifle the soft gasp that passed her lips. She flicked a glanced at his face. Still bored disdain, but with a devious lift to one side of his mouth and a glint of humor in his eyes. Before she could discern his reaction or apologize for hers, he had stepped past.

“Ivar, grab Miss Bengtsson something to drink while you’re in there.” Arkyn called out as he helped Ulrik heap the grilled meats on serving plates.

Ivar’s snort of contempt rumbled in his throat. “I suppose next you’ll ask me to put her food in her mouth and chew it for her.”

Lucia whirled around as the others yelled a chorus of afront from his comment. She opened her mouth to say something that would put him in his place, to wipe that arrogant expression off his face. But what? If she were Lin, she would likely have an arsenal of biting retorts. But she wasn’t Lin. She was the emissary from the Dragon Council, and had to behave in a manner that would reflect well on all of them, her father included. A snappy comeback was out of the question, even if she had one.

So she dipped her head in a show of honor and forced her voice not to tremble. “That would be unnecessary, as I do not have a hot box.”

His smile turned fiendish, like a dragon with a wounded prey. Why the—Helvete! She’d mixed up her English words and said the wrong one. So much for reflecting well on the Council. She grappled with how to correct her verbal blunder and repair any damage, but Ivar’s gaze heated like a furnace and raked her form again, searing the words in her throat.

“Well, Miss Dragon Council Emissary. If you ever do find yourself with a hot box, we can revisit who will put what in whose mouth.” He took a long swig of his beer as if parched. The heat in his eyes cooled as his normal demeanor returned. “In the meantime, we’ve welcomed you into our home. Make yourself comfortable.”

He flicked the empty bottle in a nearby trash can as he crossed the threshold into the house, tossing over his shoulder as he disappeared from view. “That’s English for get your own beer.”

UPDATE: The winner is…Sandra Marlow!
*~*~*

It’s weird, but I thought of myself as a writer when I began writing. “Author” was a title I gave myself when I published my first book. It was easy for me to claim those sobriquets.

Calling myself an artist doesn’t feel as easy or comfortable. And yet, I’ve sold many pieces to people who actually wanted to hang them on their walls. To me, it’s thrilling, but maybe it has to do with my mother whose birthday fell two days ago—and no, I’m not blaming her. She was a wonderful mother. It has more to do with my own confidence.  Now, she was an artist. She could paint very realistic oil paintings and did lovely watercolors and sketches. I pattered about with jewelry making when she was alive, but my art consisted of more crafty endeavors—using stamps and inks on things like tiles and dominoes. It wasn’t until she was in need of 24/7 care here at home, and my daughter and I were providing that care with assistance from nurses who stopped in a couple of times a week, that I began painting and doodling.

She never saw my work, and I know she would’ve encouraged me, but she wouldn’t have taken my efforts seriously because I don’t care about realism or learning “the basics” of color mixing and perspective, etc. Still, it almost felt like the passing of the baton when she left. Suddenly, I found my next passion (the first was writing!). I haven’t looked back, but I’ve certainly grown restless, wanting more time to do what excites me most.

Yes, I have a “day job.” Being an author is work. Editing is more work. They pay the bills, but one day, I would love to spend at least as much time painting as I do writing and editing. Of late, when my local art guild has exhibits, I volunteer to man the center to keep the doors open for the public, because, guess what? I can paint all damn day. Having time as opposed to having minutes here and there makes a huge difference.

Take for example what I accomplished this week:

These are pretty but quick. I can do them very, very easily. They take about 20 minutes each, mostly because of drying time.

And then there’s this, which I accomplished while I sat waiting for “the public” to walk through the doors. This took time, and I’m thrilled with the “depth” I managed with watercolor paints. I used 4 different colors on those yellow flower petals to get that 3-D effect. I was in the zone when I stroked that brush again and again, trying not to let the colors “muddy” up. And the leaves? Don’t they have texture? Can’t you almost feel them?

That doesn’t mean that if I have time I want to do more realistic or well-defined pieces all the time. I also worked on this:

I did the watercolor work at the art center but used my acrylic paint pens to finish up the doodle work last night and this morning. It took easily as much time to complete this as the flowers above. It’s not perfect, and I can see balance issues and so many things I would do differently if I attempt another. Still, painting this brought me joy.

So, yes, I’m carving out time to devote to painting. Time I could be writing. Sorry.

My question to you for a chance to win one of the hand-painted bookmarks above is, what is your passion? Have you found it?

UPDATE: The winner is…Cindy!
*~*~*

I’m not much of a gardener. Neither is my daughter. I do better with house plants or plants in containers. We did buy some butterfly weed and salvia for the butterflies and bees this year—plus, some other hanging container plants (again, for butterflies and hummingbirds), the names of which I don’t know. They’re pretty. My mother planted all kinds of bulbs, and they surprise us every year with a variety of daffodils, lilies, etc. As well, we have flowering bushes like japonica and forsythia, which have already bloomed and gone.

We love the wildflowers that grow every year in our yard and pasture and along the road in front of our property. We have tons of gorgeous crimson clover, plus some purple and yellow wildflowers (my SIL says they are weeds!) we haven’t identified. We mow around them until they go to seed so we have more next year.

I thought favorite flowers would be a fun theme for today’s word search. I finished the puzzle and realized I didn’t include my favorite—sunflowers!

Anyway, for a chance to win your choice of a download of any of my downloadable books, tell me what garden flowers you love!

Real quick, before I share my pics and have you entering contests here, I want to tell you about a couple of contests going on right now over on my Delilah’s Collections website. There are two at the moment, and more coming soon. Just follow the links then come back here!
Link One. Link Two.

I shared some pictures of our newest farm animals a little while ago and couldn’t resist sharing some more recent photos. These first three are of our bunny, Oreo, getting some playtime with the teenage chickens.

Here, he looks a little nervous.

But he settled down and ignored them.

Here, he seemed to get over his fear and his curiosity got the better of him.

Chicken tending is a family affair. The 9-year-old didn’t mind the rooster perching on her leg.

And meet our latest addition, Duckster.

Duckster came to us via my step-grandson’s college fraternity. The pledges had to get farm fowl and take care of them for a week. After that? I shudder to think if J hadn’t known we’d take their baby chicks, guineas, and ducks. The duck is getting along fine in the hen house.

Open Contests & Giveaways!

1. Gabbi Powell: Turning rejection into triumph! (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
2. Puzzle-Contest! New babies down on the farm! — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
3. Another collection… Quotes? (Contest) — Win a FREE book!
4. Gabbi Powell: When Characters Make Demands of Their Own (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
5. March Into April (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
6. Saturday Puzzle-Contest — Win an Amazon gift card!
7. Gabbi Powell: Why give something away for free? (Contest & FREE Book!) — Win an Amazon gift card and claim your FREE book!
8. Dahlia T. Drake: The Genesis of CRIMSON MORTE and My New PNR Series! (FREE Book!) — Claim your FREE book!

As a kid I was obsessed with Greek Mythology. Now, I love mythology and fairy tale retellings. I get excited about a good twist on an old idea. And in my opinion, if it’s good enough for Neil Gaiman, it’s good enough for me. He loves mythology and always includes three witch sisters in his books.

When I sat down to write my current series, also about three witch sisters, I didn’t know where it was going. I just wrote a scene about a witch with the gift of compulsion getting caught in a bank robbery and then wrote a connected scene and kept going until I had a whole book. That bank robbery scene is nowhere near the book anymore, but it will be a bonus for subscribers, so it hasn’t gone to waste.

By the third book, it turned quite steamy and I knew I had to write a steamy prequel to introduce my series to the right readers. So, I started to think about my urban fantasy, Red Riding Hood retelling that had been banging around in my head for years.

So it was the Christmas holidays, the kids were off school, and I was supposed to be NOT writing. But after a few days, my brain revolted, obsessing about this new Red idea. Once I figured out how to tie it into my series and make it a prequel, I was hooked.

I just had to tire my kids out in the morning, so I could have a clear afternoon to write.

Crimson Morte was inspired by a certain, popular music video about a rich boy-crazy girl. She looks like a spoiled, promiscuous, party girl, but she’s secretly a very dangerous blood mage, headed out to the woods to confront her mother’s murderer after ten years of preparation. But the hot wolf shifter she bar-tends with shows up threatening blackmail if she doesn’t let him tag along.

There’s a lot of tension, a lot of chemistry and, of course, some spice to go with that basket of goodies. Readers so far have fallen in love with them and want to read their series, which is percolating. They’re spicy side characters in my upcoming series, already. One more book to write, and then I’ll start releasing them. Follow me to find out when.

Blazing Hearts of Justice is free here [ https://dl.bookfunnel.com/4m2nicy1km ] when you sign up for updates from me.
Visit my website: www.dahliatdrake.com
Or www.facebook.com/dahliatdrake
Or www.instagram.com/authordahliatdrake

Why give something away for free?

A reader recently posed that question.  And it’s absolutely valid.  I’ll try to explain my logic – which should not be extrapolated out to other authors as they have their own marketing strategies.

I’ve written a series.  I didn’t intend to.  I had a few book ideas swimming around in my mind for years.  I’d write a couple of chapters for this book, add a scene to another, come up with some random idea for a third.  Nothing ever gelled.  I moved around in that nebulous space for fifteen years.  Then, ten years ago, I decided the time was right to take writing seriously.  I started writing a book, wrangled a secondary character who wanted their story told first, finished a book…then came up with something completely different and wrote that book.

Then, after I sent that one off to a publisher, I kept writing.  Best piece of advice I ever got as a writer: write the next book.  So I did. Then I picked up some of those half-written manuscripts and dusted them off – and actually finished several!  And then I sat down and put all those ideas floating around in my head on paper.  I had exactly fifty stories I wanted to tell.  50 books to write.  And since they were all set in the same small town, I decided to make them into a series.

The publisher rejected my book, but by then I’d written 21 full or partial other books in the series.  I’d gotten a hang for it and had created a world with people who were absolutely real to me.  And I’d created more secondary characters who also wanted books – my series bible was up to almost 75 stories.

Knowing I’d never find a publisher for 75 stories, I decided to self-publish.  I hired an editor (a critical step) and then I set about learning everything I could about self-publishing.  I attended conferences, workshops, met writers who would become mentors, and generally absorbed stuff for years.  Meanwhile, under a different penname, I wrote gay romances set in that world, using characters I’d created.

Finally, this year, I was ready to launch the first few books.  Now, starting a new penname means no one knows me.  The advice given by most gurus is to create a newsletter.  One way to get people to sign up for your newsletter is to give them a book.  Some authors do short stories, or some kind of special content.  I’d written another book for a publisher they’d rejected.  A perfectly good story that required a good edit.  Once I did that, I had a 65k word book that I’d written for fun.  Now, I paid to edit it and get a professional cover, but I didn’t have a lot invested in the book.  I was happy to put it out as a prequel to the series and ask, gently, for people to sign up for my newsletter in exchange for a copy of the book.  People can always unsubscribe, of course, but I try to give them a reason to stick around.  My hope is they’ll read that book.  And pick up the next book in the series.

Today, though, I’m giving away book 1 of the series on Amazon.  Now, I love this book as much as all the others.  Although it’s book 1, I only wrote it last year.  I’ve had time to settle into my small town and had an idea of a series arc I want to create.  A reason for readers to keep coming back.  I also hoped to pull in some of the readers of my gay romance books, so I had a few cameos with favorite characters.  I’m giving away that book today in the hopes readers will pick it up, read it, love it, and want more.  It’s a risk, for sure.  With thousands and thousands of free books out there, what are the odds I’m going to find the right reader at the right time? That they’ll fall in love with my book and be so intrigued by the secondary character that they can’t wait to read her story? (That character was always quite mysterious and although her book was written first, I realized I needed a bigger lead in.)

I hope that explains how I’m trying to launch my new penname.  Delilah’s been great about letting me share the journey with you and I appreciate you hanging in there as I show you how the sausage gets made (or how you launch a new penname/series in 2023…)

To celebrate, I’m giving away not just the free book, but a $5 Amazon gift card.  Let me know – what is your thought of free books?  Do you think they have less value?  Or do they give you the opportunity to try a new author you might not otherwise?  Drop a comment and a random winner will win the GC.

Love in Cedar Valley Series

What’s better than love in the beautiful Cedar Valley in British Columbia, Canada? Find small town romances with a touch of angst, a bit of heat, and a lot of heart…

Each novel is a standalone, but they are best read in order:

The Luminosity of Loriana Harper (A small town interracial romance)
The Making of Marnie Jones (A small town enemies-to-lovers romance)
The Redemption of Remy St. Claire (A small town single-father fake-marriage romance)

The Luminosity of Loriana Harper
FREE READ!

Loriana Harper is the head librarian of the Mission City Public Library. She considers herself a matchmaker in this little town in British Columbia—especially for her employees. When a gorgeous technician arrives to update their computers, she can’t help musing about who might be his perfect match. Except, the more time she spends with Mitch, the more she wants him for herself.

Mitch Alexander left in disgrace from a good job in California. He’s come to this small town to make a new start where no one knows him. Although he has no plans to get involved with anyone, he’s drawn to the nosy, vivacious librarian who makes him smile. The local matchmaker might go overboard, but she has good intentions. Except he’s not in the market for any match, unless it’s with her.

When Mitch’s past catches up with him, and the police come calling, he has to decide if he’ll stay with Loriana or leave to save her from the taint of being associated with him. Loriana’s not ready to let her new man go without a fight—but maybe this is a match that wasn’t meant to be.

The Luminosity of Loriana Harper is an older-woman age-gap interracial romance with a touch of angst and a large cat named Plato. The book is the first in the Love in Cedar Valley series set in a small town in British Columbia, Canada.

UBL: https://books2read.com/Loriana
Amazon US:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BVL3X4JZ
Add it to GoodReads:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/122872288-the-luminosity-of-loriana-harper

About the Author

Gabbi Powell has been a lover of romance since she first put pen to paper in the eighth grade to write her first romance.  She writes her novels while living in Beautiful British Columbia with her trusty ChinPoo dog a as companion.  She also writes gay romances as Gabbi Grey and contemporary dark erotic BDSM novels as Gabbi Black.

Personal links:
Website:   https://gabbipowell.com/
Newsletter sign-up: https://sendfox.com/gabbipowell
Bookbub:  https://www.bookbub.com/profile/3142441314
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/authorgabbipowell/
Facebook (personal): https://www.facebook.com/gabbi.powell.9/
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/powell_gabbi
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Gabbi-Powell/e/B08T8NTQNY
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21065056.Gabbi_Powell

UPDATE: The winner is…Sara D!
*~*~*

Solve the puzzle, then tell me a little story for the chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card! What would you wish for?