Let’s hope that the Puzzle Police don’t shut down my puzzle tonight for inappropriate content!

I blew off work today. This puzzle depicts how I felt about it. Enjoy!

The winners are…commenters #1-6!
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Hey there! It’s Tuesday morning. Some of you are heading to your polling places. I voted yesterday and wore my “I Voted” sticker proudly for the entire day and evening. Other news on the homefront—the soon-to-be 16-year-old male passed his written driving test. I don’t know whether to shout “Yay!” or shudder. 🙂 He still has problems with turns (too wide or too short). We took the fam out to Pizza Hut last night to celebrate.

We don’t need big excuses for celebrations. We love a family party. Some of my favorite annual parties are the pool parties, the Ugly Christmas Sweater party, the New Year’s Eve party (complete with sparkling grape juice), the Sharknado movie night party…alas, that one won’t be coming around again, so we’ll have to find another B-movie event to celebrate.

This picture was from an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party a couple of years back (taken in the 15-year-old’s bedroom with her fairy lights in the background). You can’t really see it, but my sweater has Jack Skellington skulls from The Nightmare Before Christmas all over it.

We love to make finger foods for celebratory dinners—a table filled with meatballs, cheeses, cut fruit and veggies, hummus and crackers, etc. We gorge while we play a movie or dance to music. The kids love it. They invite friends to our weird event nights, and then those kids keep in touch because they want to come for the next one! My dd was gifted with a Raclette, so any night we decide to cook the dinner at the table using it is a party!

So, for a chance to win a free short story (I’ll choose 2 winners!), tell me what sort of celebrations you all like to have. Do you make big deals out of small things or fun things?

 

Open Contests!

1. Reina Torres: Jesse releases today! (Contest & Excerpt) — This one ends tomorrow night! Win a free download of JESSE!
2. All Kinds of Wrong… (Puzzle & a Contest) — This also ends tomorrow night! Win an Amazon gift card!
3. Do you love this cover? (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
4. Answer one question! (Contest) — Win a free download!

UPDATE: The winner is…flchen1!
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I’m being a little lazy about my blog today! What with voting, running errands (dropping off donations, UPS, the post office, lunch out with my dd and SIL), my head is filled with more chores. So, I’ll ask a question. You’ll answer. The winner (selected randomly!) will have her or his choice of a download of one of my recent releases. So, here’s the question…

If you could only have one aroma in your nose for the rest of your life, what would it be?

I gave you a hint in the pic of what my choice would be. What’s your favorite scent?

UPDATE: The winner is…Jennifer Beyer!
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Ready for a new Montana Bounty Hunter agency? It’s already up on pre-order here: Cage. After Brian’s story released (Didn’t get your copy? Order it here: Brian), the agency at Bear Lodge is pretty full up of hunters and their women. I figure that with their success (catching lots of bad guys, the reality show), Fetch Winter, the guy who owns the business, can afford to open another satellite agency. This one will still be in Western Montana, but farther south, close to Yellowstone.  This guy, Cage, is one of Fetch’s new hires, and I’m thinking that some of the hunters from Bear Lodge are going to have to show him the ropes, so you aren’t seeing the last of Reaper and his crew just yet. 🙂

Want to know what Cage’s story is all about? Me, too. I’ve only got this, so far: A former SEAL and MMA fighter, and now, newly minted bounty hunter, has to hunt down his first skip…his ex-wife!

Liberty Ireland gave me the idea of calling the new Montana Town “Dead Horse” — Thank you, Liberty! Now, I’m seeing all kinds of ways of using it. For instance, the local high school football team’s motto will be: “Can’t beat a Dead Horse!”

I have three books to plow through before I write this one, so plenty of time to make notes for fun things to happen to my guy and his underground fight promoter ex-wife. Offer up some ideas, make them as crazy as you like, and you’ll be entered to win a $5 Amazon gift card. Have fun with it. Have them hunting aliens! Just let your imaginations go!

Also, here’s what’s coming next. Two are already available for pre-order. Just click on the covers!

One Hot Night is Book #1 in my New Orleans Nights series. And the plan is to have it to you by March 31st!

Lawless is Book #5 in my Cowboys on the Edge series. I don’t have it up for pre-order just yet, but that’s going to happen soon. The plan is to have it out by April 28th!

And Hot SEAL, Decoy Bride is part of the SEALs in Paradise series. It releases May 19th!

Cage’s story? I’m shooting for late June!

So, the 15-year-old’s very pretty boyfriend sent her a video to watch that brought her to tears. Okay, so 15-year-olds shouldn’t be taking themselves so seriously, but the kid has great taste in music. Had to share…

I haven’t heard of this guy before, but I’ll be paying attention now.

Open Contests

And just a reminder, there are some still prizes out there, waiting to be claimed!

1. The eyes have it… (Puzzle & Contest) — This contest ends tomorrow night! Win an Amazon gift card!
2. Put your thinking hats on… (Contest) — This one also ends tomorrow night! And again, win an Amazon card!
3. Reina Torres: Jesse releases today! (Contest & Excerpt) — Win a copy of a very sexy book!
4. All Kinds of Wrong… (Puzzle & a Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!

 

So, the move update… My dd and her family are living here now! We still have some rooms where there are a few boxes left to tackle. We still have pictures we have to find places to hang. My office/art room smashup still has to be sorted and seems to get worse every day when my dd says, “Should I donate this?” and I say, “But I can do something with that!” So, natch the item joins the piles to be sorted in my space. She shudders when she comes down here. I shrug and tell her, “I’ll get to organizing when I finish this set of edits…this book…” Yeah, it’s going to take me years.

Besides the people now crammed inside this house–8!— (Okay, so not crammed, we actually have enough rooms everyone has their own bedroom!), we also started with my mom’s 4 dogs and my dd’s 6 dogs, her 4 cats, her guinea pig, and our 2 horses… We’re a truly big, blended family now. And here’s proof!

I hesitated posting this pic because the fence is bent—the horse likes to lean over it to get at the grass in the yard—and the tarp over the woodpile is shredded from a recent storm, plus our pretty horse Brandy looks bedraggled from the rain, but Malek and Brandy met at this moment, and there wasn’t a war. So, yay!

Malek’s pretty smart though. He tolerates other dogs, cats and guineas, and humans who are part of the fam. Now, horses. We’re making great progress.

My quiet life is no longer that. It’s noisy, chaotic, filled with loud voices (it’s an Irish/Scottish/German/Mexican family, so lots of vigorous…uh, debating). And I love it. If it was quiet here, I’d dwell on the losses over the past couple of years. However, I know my father built this house for his family. It’s still in the family, serving its purpose. He’d be happy that we’re happy living here. My role has changed from daughter to matriarch (although I’m happy that my daughter likes to run things). She leaves me to putter in my hoarder’s craftroom-office, makes most of our meals, runs kids to their appointments. I’m here for backup when she’s over-committed. It works.

As well, we have room for extended family to visit. Same as my mother did, we shift kids to bunk together to open up a room, use sofabeds. We expect lots of guests come summer because, hey—pool! Can’t wait to get that sucker cleaned up and ready for the season. This year, I’ll have plenty of help.

UPDATE: The winner is…Laura LeCapelain!
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Thanks to everyone who got their copy of Brian!  I’ve been busy since the release, trying to find art for the new series, Montana Bounty Hunter — Something, MT. Still haven’t hit upon the name of the town yet, but it will come. I’m also looking for handsome men to be on the covers. That’s been a chore (Haha!), looking through all the pictures on the photo sites. I do however think I have my first hero’s name: Cage.

He’s a big, burly guy. I don’t know his “story” yet, but that tends to come to me once I have a title and a cover, because then I put it up on my screen and just imagine what sorts of trouble he will face.

I’m not sure about titling just yet. Did you like having their names as the titles? Reaper, Dagger, Cochise, Hook, Wolf, Animal, Quincy, and Brian… Using just their names was so dang easy. Do you want me to continue that or give the titles some word or phrase that serves as the theme of the story, like Fallout or Hunter’s Destiny? Or do you want their name with a word or phrase like Cage’s Destiny (not a title I want, just an example) or the heroine’s name, like Sarah’s Destiny? You tell me because I could use some help deciding. If you leave a comment with your idea, you’ll be entered to win a $10 Amazon gift card! And, if you have an idea for a title… Go for it! I’m in brainstorming mode, so your suggestion might strike an idea for me. Have fun with it!

So, while I was doing searches under “Hot Males”, “Handsome Men”, and “Muscled Torsos”, I came across this picture I couldn’t resist downloading because I know it will make you laugh. It’s all kind of wrong for a romance cover…