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…

The forecast is for thunderstorms and rain throughout the day. We’ve been up early, preparing.

My dd and SIL fed and thoroughly walked dogs. We’re all charging devices.

I’m trying to get as much work crammed into the time we have left as possible. If you don’t live in a rural area where you don’t have buried power lines, you haven’t “enjoyed” the kinds of outages we experience when trees topple over lines (and we are a heavily forested area!). Some outages can last days, and we have a nice generator to keep the fridge cool and charge up our phones. However, running computers is a luxury. There’s no internet except for what we can get when we walk far out into the yard to get some bars. We have a propane grill and a charcoal smoker, so we can cook food. We won’t go hungry.

Hopefully, we’ll only go down for a few hours or a day.

Longer becomes a problem because we all like warm showers! The girls will be screaming about not being able to use their blow dryers getting ready for school, but that’s the trade-off for living in the country. Wide open spaces, trees, wildlife—goats—vs. “power insecurity”. We’re okay with that. I’ll charge up my laptop and keep it open so dropbox continues to update. I’ll pull out my paints and use daylight and then candlelight to play. My dd and her kids will pull out board games. It’s all good.

What about you? Do you suffer power insecurity from time to time?

Have you ever given your significant other a second chance? This is Chloe Morgan’s dilemma. She’s fed up with Ward Reyes. He’s a part-time boyfriend and she wants more. She wants dates. She wants a guy to wake up to on a lazy Sunday morning. Ward isn’t that guy. So, when she dumps him, Ward sits up and takes notice. He isn’t willing to simply walk away from the best thing that’s ever happened to him. Not without a fight.

Last Chance to Call You Mine: Dirty Addiction

Obsessions come in all flavors…

Chloe Morgan is weak. At least she is when it comes to Ward Reyes. She can turn down donuts like a wrestler during training, but when her on-again-off-again boyfriend blows into town looking for a booty call she goes down like a sinking ship. Only a drastic action can get her to move on with her life and away from the silver-eyed devil. Was it wrong to send him a break-up text? Definitely, but her choices are limited considering she’s an addict. But what if Ward is the only man that can give her what she so badly desires?

“We’re through.” Ward read the text a dozen times and still can’t believe it. But the proof is there in black and white. His sweet Chloe is giving him the boot. At first, it’d been the blazing heat between them that captivated Ward. It was Chloe’s giving nature and sarcastic wit that kept him coming back for more. Unfortunately his life is a mess, thanks to his brother’s gambling habit. Ward has spent the better part of his life cleaning up Malcolm’s messes. He’s tried to keep the ugliness of it all from touching Chloe. Now, she’s threatening to walk away and Ward isn’t about to let her go without a fight.

Will Chloe give him one more chance? Read the excerpt from Dirty Addiction and find out!
Universal Purchase link for My Perfect Pleasure Anthology:
https://books2read.com/u/mZQqql

Excerpt:

Ward closed the distance between them and wrapped an arm around her middle, tugging her up close. “I’m not walking away without a fight. I care about you. And I know you care about me.”

One brow lifted as she stared up at him. “I’ll get over it.”

“No, you and I belong together,” he explained. “I fucked up, I admit that, but I’m going to fix it. I promise you.”

She bit her lower lip and looked away. “It’s too late for that, Ward.”

“It’s never too late, baby,” he murmured, aching to kiss her senseless.

The doorbell rang and Chloe let out a heavy sigh. “That’ll be Lauren.”

He let her pull out of his arms, but Ward wasn’t through. “I’ll go, but I’m coming back tomorrow. You and I have unfinished business.”

She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “If you come back, then you’d better be ready to share everything with me,” she warned. “Everything, Ward. No more half-measures. It’s all or nothing.”

He watched her, knowing it was now or never. “I hope you’re ready for that.” And he hoped the truth wouldn’t send her running in the opposite direction…

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

1. Flashback: Lawless (Contest–2 Winners!) — This one ends soon! Win a FREE book!
2. A Memory Puzzle! (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
3. Gabbi Grey: When an Angsty Author Tries to Go Rom-Com (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
4. Saturday Puzzle-Contest! — Win an Amazon gift card!
5. My favorite series! (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
6. Happy National Thrift Shop Day! (Contest) — Win a FREE book!
7. Romance Trope Word Search! (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!

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?