UPDATE: The winner is…Diane Sallans!
*~*~*

U.S. Thanksgiving is just days away! One last grocery shop tomorrow, and then we’ll be spending the week with the kids, hunkered down for the cold and getting ready for the big feast on Thursday. This year, it’ll just be us. We’re still observing COVID protocols to keep the seven inside this house safe. We’ll miss visiting with family, but it is what it is. And truthfully, we’re looking forward to the downtime—playing board games in the evenings and watching movies together. I cleared my calendar of work so I can enjoy the time, although I might work on some jewelry and art projects, maybe make some potholders, too, to get ready for the crafts show my daughter and I are participating in early December. We’re not nearly ready. However, this kind of rush is the kind I enjoy when I get to create something with my hands, beads, and paint.

But onto the contest! I’m wondering two things. Solve the puzzle, because it’s fun! Then tell me, are you enjoying an expanded family gathering this year? Are you traveling to get there? Answer for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Buttonsmom2003!
*~*~*

©Diana Cosby 2021

Each season brings something special in nature to inspire the muse, with my favorite season, fall.  The beautiful golds, reds, oranges, and browns of the falling leaves swirl to the ground, exposing on some trees, berries, which birds, like these cedar waxwings, love.

Fall colors make a gorgeous backdrop to wildlife and birds such as this Cooper’s Hawk.

Deer are foraging for food as they prepare for the winter, with their coats growing thick to stand up against the cold.

With the cooler weather, smaller birds, like this chipping sparrow, flip over leaves and jump through the bushes looking for berries or seeds.

Once the limbs are barren, it’s easier to see smaller birds like this brown creeper.

At the marsh, the birds, like this cormorant, are migrating though.  The crisp air will soon give way to cooler temperatures and the arrival of winter.  Take care, and wishing you a wonderful holiday season.

Contest

ONE winner will be drawn from everyone who posts on my guest blog post about, ‘Nature’s Beauty – Inspiration For The Muse!’ on Delilah’s blog between 19 November 2021– 28 November 2021, and will win a tote bag.

About Diana Cosby

A retired Navy Chief, Diana Cosby is an international bestselling author of Scottish medieval romantic suspense. Books in her award-winning MacGruder Brothers series have been translated into five languages. Diana has spoken at the Library of Congress, Lady Jane’s Salon in NYC, and appeared in Woman’s Day, on USA Today’s romance blog, “Happy Ever After,” MSN.com, Atlantic County Women Magazine, and Texoma Living Magazine.

After her career in the Navy, Diana dove into her passion – writing romance novels. With 34 moves behind her, she was anxious to create characters who reflected the amazing cultures and people she’s met throughout the world. After the release of the bestselling MacGruder Brothers series and The Oath Trilogy, she released the bestselling The Forbidden Series.

Diana looks forward to the years of writing ahead and meeting the amazing people who will share this journey.

Diana Cosby, International Best-Selling Author
www.dianacosby.com
The Oath Trilogy
MacGruder Brother Series
The Forbidden Series

Social Media
Website:  https://www.dianacosby.com/
Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/978803.Diana_Cosby
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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Diana-Cosby-Romance-Author-150109024636/?ref=ts

Ideas for this story rolled around in my head for years before I started trying to write it. I am one of those who learned to hide under my schoolroom desk in case of an atomic bomb attack, so yeah, that kind of gives away my age group. When I met the right guy and we wanted to start a family, we still had that idea of an imminent attack. So we grew our own food and stored salt and prepared in a hundred other ways to ensure our survival when doomsday arrived.

I’m happy to say that the Cold War ended, and we’ve (hopefully) moved away from someone’s finger hovering over the red button that would start a nuclear war. But that threat remains, as well as many other newer threats, and not all of them caused by a political adversary. Nature has a whole bundle of tricks up her sleeve as well.

What happens if/when the power goes out, not for an hour or a day, but for weeks—or longer? What happens if our cars don’t work? I wanted to explore these ideas—and somehow make it a romance.

There’s nothing new about a massive earthquake in the Los Angeles area, but every time that story is told, there’s an annoying focus on the adventure aspect of it, people dying, sirens wailing, etc. I wanted to create a romance forced by circumstance. I also wanted to delve deep into what it would mean to do away with conveniences like electricity and transportation. I tossed it all in and stirred.

Refuge in His Arms is the result, and I’m proud to say it’s a compelling story with circumstances based fully in scientific facts. It’s also rich with the sensual connections between two people who had to come a long way together, figuratively and literally.

Right now, the book is FREE in Kindle Unlimited. Take advantage of this countdown deal to grab your copy for as low as 99 cents. The deal runs from November 24 through November 30, and if you know about countdown deals, you know that the 99 cent price won’t last long.

Refuge in His Arms

Strangers meet in a cataclysmic crisis and despite their prickly acquaintance, circumstances force them to cooperate. Not what Mackenzie expected or ever wanted. Not what David could have ever imagined, and yet here they are fleeing Los Angeles together. Bad turns to worse as a geomagnetic storm wipes out the power grid and stops the car, leaving them stranded in Flagstaff.

In this journey in search of food and shelter with her faithful German Shepherd Captain by her side, Mackenzie Kilpatrick denies her attraction to this man. He’s forced himself on her, an opportunist who only needs what she has. He might be the most gorgeous man she’s ever seen, and he might have hidden talents, but she’s totally not interested. Is she?

Tumbling down from his rock star success, David Evans thought he’d found bottom. But this is worse, dependent for his very survival on an angry woman who barely tolerates him. He’s hanging on, trying to do right, but how can he ever meet her impossible standards? He just wants to hold her, wrap his arms around her and ease her pain.

Is there a place for them to find safety?

Get your copy!

Excerpt from Refuge in His Arms…

They spent the rest of the morning gathering wood from a few vacant areas surrounding the shopping center, piling it on either side of the spot Mackenzie deemed best for a fire. David settled into his assigned role as helper, convinced that if he expressed his concerns or ideas, she’d send him away. Did that make him a weakling? The way he saw it, he didn’t have much choice. Every time he caught her looking at him, she was frowning like he was so much excess baggage.

Maybe that was her default attitude, all hostile and wound up tight. He’d like to unwind her, button by button until her delectable body stretched out before him like a feast of epicurean proportions. He already knew she’d taste delicious, those long legs spread open to reveal the soft pink folds of her intimate womanhood. Damn. Why did his mind conjure up such fantasies when his rational mind knew there wasn’t a chance in hell of making it reality? He shifted the load of dead brush in his arms in order to adjust the pressure on the front of his jeans.

The place she designated for the fire sat halfway between two small trees in the median near her car. No chance of fire spreading from there. Plus it was near enough to the car they didn’t have to shuttle supplies very far. He spent an hour gathering rocks to create a decent boundary for the fire.

Memories flashed, times he’d visited his grandparents’ farm when he was little, a rundown place somewhere in Kentucky. His granddad took him fishing at the pond, and he’d proudly come home with a catfish. Step by step, Granddad showed him how to gut and fillet that fish with a knife that had been sharpened so many times the blade was razor thin. They’d built a fire in an outdoor fire pit. The fish sizzled in a big iron skillet as the flames twisted and curled, orange and red, his granddad squatting beside him. Even without words, they shared something important, watching that fire. That fish tasted better than anything he’d ever put in his mouth.

He loved those people. They didn’t live in a fancy house. His mom smiled there and in some of his earliest memories, his dad had helped Grandpa out in the barn, working on an old car. They had a garden, chickens, and a hog with a bunch of little piglets running around. If he was there now, he’d figure it out. Do things. But he was in fucking Arizona in the middle of a parking lot, his future entirely too dependent on a woman who apparently wished he’d disappear. If this woman needed to keep him at arm’s length, he’d do it just to survive. If he pushed his luck with this crazy attraction he felt, he would end up alone.

He sighed and stood up to squint at the sky. “About noon.”

She glanced at her watch and looked at him with a strange expression. “Noon.”

Whatever that meant, he didn’t try to figure out. After her comment about a husband, as if she didn’t still have a husband—well, he had an idea that the man had died and she had shut down. Not something he could ask about. He watched her out of the corner of his eye, sorry for what she must have suffered, still suffered, this woman with the sad luminous eyes.

They knocked then waited at the side door of the supermarket. Sun beat down, baking the top of his head and searing his shoulders through the shirt. A black t-shirt was definitely not the ideal garment for standing in full August sunlight even if it was threadbare. His skin prickled as sweat rolled down his sides.

They knocked twice again.

“Do you think there’s someone in there?” he said finally.

She looked up at him. Streaks of amber and black shot through her brown irises. How had he not noticed the thick fringe of long dark lashes or the expressive narrow eyebrows, one of which now cocked as she glared at him.

“Did you have an appointment somewhere?” she asked.

He exhaled. “Christ, you’re hard to deal with.”

“No one is forcing you to be here.”

“Yeah, someone is. You. You think I could walk away from you, leave you here with your dog and your stuff and no one to help you?”

“You mean, walk away from your only resource? Someone who has food and water and a safe place to sleep?”

He wanted to punch something. His fist opened and closed. Was she right? Was it all about him? “That’s not why I want to be here.”

“Bullshit.” She knocked again, slamming the side of her fist against the metal door.

“Not bullshit,” he said, straightening his shoulders as anger rose up his spine. He’d just about had it with her insults. “You may think you’ve got it all figured out, but you need me, and lady, if you don’t know that, then part of your brain isn’t working. You’ve needed me since you got stuck between that lamp post and the fence.”

Her eyes blazed as she rested her fists on her hips. “I could have handled that on my own. You were looking for a way out of there.”

“I didn’t have to choose between trying to salvage every fucking thing I own and going along to help you.”

“No, you absolutely did not.”

“Or leave behind every professional contact, every hope for a future.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “You probably didn’t have any hope of a future or you wouldn’t have been so quick about leaving.”

Her words hit him like a fist to bone. He sucked in air, momentarily speechless. This was what he couldn’t do, and here he was, standing in the boiling sun in a sparring match with the only person who could help him. A real bitch. Maybe he should walk away. He could find another way.

“Fuck you,” he said harshly. “You know nothing about me. I’m trying to be nice.”

The slightest flash of concern crossed her face. Or maybe he imagined it. How bad did he need her, really? There were a thousand other women he could charm in this town alone.

“Just pointing out the facts,” she said. “Sorry if you don’t want to hear it.”

She folded her arms across her chest and turned to face the door. Her shoulders looked almost fragile under that thin shirt, reminding him of a wounded animal that would bite you before it would let you help it. He wanted to grasp those shoulders, pull her back against his chest, and whisper comforting words in her ears, stroke her hair until she calmed and relaxed.

Which was fucking ridiculous, because she’d just find a way to throw that back in his face, accuse him of trying to manipulate her or some other selfish motive. He could read the anger in her frame, right down to the tense angle of her lovely neck.

*~*~*

PLEASE HELP! This book needs reviews. Load up your friends for a holiday read-fest and knock this one out of the park! And, as ever, a big THANK YOU from Liz!

B, the cyborg hero of B Free, my latest release, believes he is the last of his kind.

The big male isn’t alone. He isn’t isolated. B has friends, is part of a team, reports to a leader he respects.

But he knows of no other beings like him anywhere in the universe. He is the sole remaining B Model. No one else has his (very) long history, his challenges, his gifts. The other cyborgs don’t resemble him. He is unique, often stared at, and he doesn’t feel truly understood.

I think many of us have felt that way at some point in our lives.

In my previous life (grins), when I was a business babe, I’d sometimes be the only woman in rooms filled with hundreds of men. I was the center of attention in those situations and, being a private person, an extreme introvert, I really don’t like that. Men would approach me simply because I was a woman. They’d watch me. It made me uneasy.

I would watch the doors at the beginning of the event and long for another female-facing person to enter the room. When one did, stars, it was like a mini celebration in my soul. Our gazes would meet. We’d exchange grins.

Both of us would be visibly relieved. We weren’t the only ones. There was someone like us at the event, someone who understood what we were dealing with, who had the same challenges we did.

That feeling is why B, the hero of B Free, continues to monitor communications. He scans messages for any mentions of B Models, of warriors like him. If there’s a reference to his kind, he flies, sometimes halfway across the universe, to investigate the situation.

All of those searches have ended in disappointment.

Thus far.

Have you ever been in a situation where you were the only one of ‘your kind’?

B Free

B is the last remaining B Model cyborg. All of his brethren, the beings he trained with, fought with, cared deeply for, have perished.

Or so he believes.

When he intercepts a communication mentioning the existence of one of his kind, he has to investigate its source. The message could be a trap set by his enemies. He’ll take that risk if it secures him the companionship he requires to be fully functional.

What he finds is a daring brown-eyed female who activates all his systems. She proudly proclaims she’s a researcher, brandishing that information like a weapon before her. He wants to kiss the sass off her beautiful face, protect her from the dangers around them, claim her forever.

Quinn is on a quest to locate the mechanics of an early-version cyborg. She believes the information captured within that frame will give her valuable insights into the past.

When her mission goes zombie-like beings levels of wrong, she comes face-to-face with a living, breathing B Model. He has big hands, a primitive countenance, and stern hard lips crafted for kissing.

She doesn’t trust him. And she doesn’t have time to indulge her desires.

Their shared enemies are chasing them, would kill to get their precious specimens back. One minor mistake could reduce B and Quinn to a mere line in the databases of history.

B Free is a STANDALONE Cyborg SciFi Romance set in a dark, gritty, sometimes-violent universe.

It features the sole surviving B Model cyborg warrior, a courageous researcher seeking to uncover the past, and an unplanned visit to a settlement ruled by an extremely scary all-knowing, all-powerful being.

B Free is the fourth of five core stories in the Rebel Cyborgs Series.

Book 1: Containing Malice
Book 2: Under Strain
Book 3: Baring Grudge
Book 4: B Free
Book 5: Seizing Power

Buy Today:

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B097CJJ6B7
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B097CJJ6B7
Amazon AUS: https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B097CJJ6B7
Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/b-free/id1572709749
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/b-free-cynthia-sax/1139701466
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/b-free
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1089821

About Cynthia Sax

USA Today bestselling author Cynthia Sax writes steamy Cyborg, Alien and Contemporary Romances. Her stories have been featured on TV, in Star Magazine, and numerous top ten lists.

Sign up for her dirty-joke-filled monthly newsletter and visit her on the web at www.CynthiaSax.com
Newsletter:   https://cynthiasax.com/newsletter/
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/cynthiasax/
Twitter:  @CynthiaSax
Blog:  https://tasteofcyn.com/

If you love dark, uber-sexy stories, you should give this one a try! It’s a full-length novel and is FREE, for now, in Kindle Unlimited! It was previously published—a long time ago—so if you missed it back then, now’s the time to dive into the creatures of Ardeal! Very soon, I’ll be putting the pre-order up for the next book in the series, Dark Seduction, plus there are short stories related to the series you’ll be able to peruse!

Dark Legacy

Read an excerpt| Order your copy now!

UPDATE: The winner is…Debra Guyette!
*~*~*

I have a full-length novel coming out tonight after midnight! Dark Legacy is a story I wrote back in 2005-2006. I recently got my rights back to the story, so I re-edited it and gave it a brand new dark cover! And now,  it’s ready for release—tonight! If you have a Kindle Unlimited account, you can read it for FREE! A print version is already available!

If you love a dark, erotic paranormal, you might want to give this one a go. Just be warned—it’s very sexy and might have some triggering sex some might want to avoid. I love this story. I indulged my love of ancient mythology creating this world. I loved writing the entire series, and if you like it well enough, I might write more…

Here’s what it’s all about…

Dark Legacy

How could everything have changed for Natalie Lambert so radically, so quickly?

Escaping from a tragic past, the virginal beauty arrives in New Orleans and falls victim to a series of strange, unearthly attacks. Now, for the first time in her life, Natalie aches with sexual desire. Confused, frightened, out of control, she struggles desperately to understand a world that is transforming around her. But soon, she will be powerful and magnificent in ways she could never have imagined…

A ruggedly handsome Cajun policeman, Detective Rene Broussard has come to rescue Natalie in her time of greatest need. And when he inexplicably wakes in bed beside her—both burning with a lust impossible to deny—he doesn’t care that a dark and vengeful enemy has brought them to this moment. All that matters is the irresistible curve of her body, the heat of her passion…and the forbidden pleasures the night promises.

With one sharp, sensuous, biting kiss, he will be hers for life…and beyond.

Warning: This book includes triggering scenes of questionable consent and FFM scenes.

Pre-order your copy here!

Excerpt from Dark Legacy…

Natalie couldn’t sleep.

Not because she was afraid. For the first time in weeks, her stalker was the least of her worries.

Instead, her present danger lay in her own body’s betrayal.

Heat simmered beneath the surface of her skin—a flush of warmth that spread across her chest and belly. The air around her felt close and heavy despite the fan circling above the bed.

Her heart beat too quickly. Her breasts grew heavy. Her nipples peaked against the thin silk of her nightgown. Then blood rushed to the juncture of her thighs, plumping her slick folds.

She might be inexperienced, but Natalie recognized the signs of desire.

The cause of her misery paced restlessly around the house. The creaking hinges of the doors he checked and rechecked gave away his unrest. The muffled thud of footsteps as he walked around the living room below, and the slap of his bare feet on the wooden steps when he came up to patrol the hall pinpointed his location.

He passed outside her bedroom now, his shadow darkening the space beneath the door. Natalie ached to call out to him. Was Rene exercising extreme caution or suffering like she was?

Reaching beyond the moment, Natalie wondered, why him? Why now?

An instinct—some kernel of inborn knowledge—told her this new hunger was related to the current moon cycle. Just as the changes to her body began with the first sliver of pale light from the new moon, her need unfurled like a heron’s wings with the coming full moon.

This past month, she’d been steadily shedding the baby fat that plagued her adolescence although her appetite, especially for blood-enriched meats, had increased. Her first period ever had come and gone. Then sensual awareness dominated her waking and sleeping thoughts.

For days, she’d dreamed of an anonymous lover in her bed. The things he’d done to her had left her breathless and blushing. If she managed to sleep tonight, she knew she’d find Rene’s face, his jaw taut with desire, his shoulders bunched as he hovered above her, supplanting the hazy man of her dreams.

Why him? Although handsome, he wasn’t the first good-looking man she’d ever encountered. However, from the moment he’d pulled her from the park bench into his arms, her body had recognized his claim. He’d held her close, his thickly muscled torso sheltering her from further harm. His strength and distinctive scent, a spicy heated musk, had imprinted on her mind. If she closed her eyes, she was there once more, draped across his lap in the backseat of the sedan, awakening to desire for the first time.

Everything else—the horror of the attacks, the pain of her many little wounds—had faded away. She’d felt only his hard, muscled thighs beneath her bottom and the steely embrace that had crushed the air from her lungs while he’d struggled for control.

She wanted to know those sensations again—and so much more.

Frustration humming inside her, she tossed back the bedcovers and padded to the French doors, flinging them open. She stepped into a wind that whipped her hair away from her face and the nightgown tight against her body. Infrequent drops of rain pelted her uplifted cheeks, cooling her skin.

A click sounded from the door further down the balcony. Clad only in jeans, Rene stepped out.

He was pure temptation, from brawny chest to bare toes.

“You shouldn’t be out here,” he said, his voice a grumpy, sexy rumble. “You set off the silent alarm.”

With her heart thudding in her chest, she turned away. “I couldn’t sleep.”

“Well, how ’bout not sleepin’ inside?”

His growling irritation made her smile. She felt the same way—bitchy, edgy, wonderfully horny.

She noted the tight set of his jaw, the rapid rise and fall of his chest, and felt an overwhelming urge to seduce him. And why shouldn’t she?

The way she figured it, her days were numbered. The menace dogging her steps would eventually catch up. Why not grab for all the joy she could find in what was left of her life?

She leaned back against the balustrade on her elbows, making sure the silky gown pulled tightly across her breasts.

His gaze lowered, lingering for a moment on her beaded nipples. “Cold?” he asked, his voice a graveled, yet silky slide.

“Not really.” She decided to make sure he wouldn’t misinterpret the invitation. She sauntered toward him, stopping inches away from his rigid body. This close, she breathed in his musky male scent. The breadth of his solid chest and his height overwhelmed her, made her feel small, vulnerable—and intensely feminine.

He sucked in a deep breath. “Look, chère, whatever you’re thinkin’—it’s not gonna happen.”

She cast him a challenging stare. “Because I’m not what you want?”

He shook his head. “Damn, you’ve got to know that’s not it,” he said, his voice raw. “This just isn’t the right time.”

She met his gaze, hoping she didn’t look too needy, but wanting him to know she could be his—if he’d just reach out. “What if there never is a right time?”

His hands fisted at his sides. “I’m not lettin’ anything happen to you.”

She lifted her chin. “You can guarantee that?”

He glanced beyond her to the midnight sky and stayed silent.

Stubborn man. He thought he could withstand this chemistry of hormones and waxing moonlight by sheer will. “Tell you what,” she said. “How about a kiss? And I’ll let it drop. It’ll be enough, I swear.” At his suspicious glare, she added, “Just a kiss.”

He blew out a deep breath and rubbed the back of his neck. “Will you come inside then?”

“Yes,” she said quickly. She’d promise anything just to draw him nearer. If he felt even a fraction of her need, he wouldn’t be able to resist for long.

The muscles in his throat rippled, and he nodded. “All right. A kiss.”

Contest

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me whether you love paranormal stories, and if so, what is your favorite paranormal creature!

Open Contests

1. What will you serve? (Contest) — Last day to enter! Win an Amazon gift card!
2. Michal Scott: Where Imagination Meets Fact (Contest & Excerpt) — Last day to enter! Win an Amazon gift card!
3. IN ONE PICTURE: DELILAH DEVLIN’S “HUNK OF BURNING LOVE” (CONTEST) — Last day to enter! Win an Amazon gift card!
4. Tell me a story… (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
5. Next Boys Behaving Badly (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
6. What would you do? (Puzzle Contest) — Win a FREE book!