UPDATE: The winner is…BN!
*~*~*

Do pioneers think to themselves, “I want to be first” or does becoming a first happen because they choose not to accept limitations? I believe the latter was the case for Mary Jane Patterson.

Mary Jane was born enslaved September 12, 1840, in North Carolina. After her father gained his freedom, he took the family to Oberlin, Ohio, in the mid-1850s. There, Mary Jane completed preparatory coursework at Oberlin College in 1857. She then enrolled in their four-year program of classical studies for men instead of the two-year course of study for women. She was not the first African American woman to graduate from a college, but this made her the first African American woman documented to have received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1862. She graduated with high honors in 1862 and gave a graduation address on the Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi. Think of it. She does this while the Civil War is raging.

After graduation, she moved to Philadelphia and taught at Fanny Jackson Coppin’s Institute for Colored Youth. In 1869, she moved to Washington D.C. and taught at the Preparatory High School for Negroes. In 1871, she became their first colored principal and, except for one year when she served as assistant principal, held the position until 1884 when she resigned but continued to teach. During her tenure, the school grew from less than 50 to 172 students.

Like many African American women of her era, Mary Jane gave time and money to community organizations which focused on uplifting the race. Her involvement in women’s rights led her to help found the Colored Women’s League of Washington, D.C.

In Hallie Q. Brown’s Homespun Heroines and Other Women of Distinction published in 1926, Mary Jane is described as one who “blazed a trail that many have followed and will follow, ever choosing the highest and hardest courses and ever overcoming.” She died at the age of 54 on September 24, 1894.

So once again I wonder if pioneers consciously decide “I want to be the first” or do they have a natural determination that just makes it so? I’d love to hear what you think. For a chance at a $10 Amazon gift card share your response in the comments.

One Breath Away by Michal Scott

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.

Excerpt:

“Why, Miss Hamilton, I do believe you ‘re blushing.” His fingers held hers with a teasing yet possessive grip.

“I am not.” Her words shot out with a force she hadn’t intended. “I mean I don’t blush.”

“No?” A cheeky boyishness winked at her from eyes as dark as chocolate. He leaned down so his breath tickled her earlobe. “Not even if I kissed you behind your ear?”

She shrank back then stared up into the gaze showering her with attention. Her heart beat beneath her breast with a prisoner’s unease. An unease she knew well having once been a prisoner.

“You—you wouldn’t.”

His smile widened into a grin. “Only because I don’t want to embarrass you.”

The amusement in his voice coaxed forth a wet response that Mary clenched her vaginal muscles to stem. She swallowed repeatedly until she found her voice.

“You still haven’t answered me, sir. Of all the women here, why did you pick me?”

“Why not you?”

She blinked. Why not her? The answers swirled through her mind as easily as she and Eban swirled in this waltz.

Why not her?

Because she remained planted among the wallflowers by the time the musicians played the last song at every Safe Haven dance. Because she learned to hang back at the call of “Ladies’ Choice,” forewarned of rejection by the grimaces caused by her approach.

Because unlike desperate-for-a-man Felicity, Mary refused to dance on her back in some dark field just so she wouldn’t be a woman who ain’t been asked.

Ain’t been asked to court.

Ain’t been asked to spoon.

Ain’t been asked to the altar.

And never would be.

*~*~*

Buylink: https://amzn.to/2u5XQYY

UPDATE: The winner is…Eileen McCall!
*~*~*

Last night, we experienced heavy thunderstorms. I thought for sure we’d lose power at some point, but we were lucky. Today, it’s still stormy outside, and the forecast is for more rain and storms over the next few days.

So, the pool is not in my forecast.

It’s sad, but today and tomorrow, I’m taking a papermaking workshop. I’ll be in the art center, staying dry. And learning something new. I’ll take pictures. Like I need a new artistic skill, but you’re never too old to learn something new.

With a heavy workload this week, I fell off the wagon of producing a new piece of art every day. I’ve been writing on my new story and have tons of editing gigs. I finished up two of those the past couple of days, so I have a little breathing room. Not much. And the workshop cuts into my schedule, but hey, I jumped at the opportunity. So what if I have to put my real work on the back burner for a weekend. I’m ready to have fun. And again, since the pool isn’t an option…

So, that’s what my weekend looks like. For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle, then tell me what you have to look forward to this weekend!

UPDATE: The winner is…Dana Zamora!
*~*~*

Yesterday was the last day of school for our kids, here. The 10-year-old has already asked, “So, what are we doing today?” She thinks the summer is supposed to be filled with fun activities. It’s raining, and our pool still has a few more days to go before it’s clear and ready for swimming. She was disabused of the idea of swimming when the water is still cloudy when a water moccasin shimmied up from the cloudy depths the other day. No, we have to see the bottom of the pool, dear.

Today, I think, my daughter is leading her in some sort of art project. Last night, the kid reviewed my vast supply of yarn to find pretty bits for all the friendship bracelets she plans to make. We’re off to a start. Not going to say what kind. She’s going to make this exhausting. LOL

In the meantime, I’m wondering about your preferences for Summer Beach Reads. I came up with a list. For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me the title of a book you plan to read this summer, or the type of book you prefer to read pool or beachside.  

Where do ideas for books come from? That’s a question most authors are asked at one point or another. Truthfully, ideas come from anywhere and everywhere—TV, movies, magazines, nonfiction books, overheard snippets of conversations, dreams, or random thoughts. In the case of the Hades’ Carnival series, it started with an online quiz.

This was back in the days of the Yahoo Groups—long before Facebook and Instagram. Someone posted one of those fun quizzes—What carnival ride would you be? I took the quiz and wasn’t surprised when it came up as a carousel. I’m not very adventurous, but who says a carousel has to be tame? My mind started working. What if the animals on the carousel were really shapeshifting immortal warriors trapped in their animal forms? The idea for the series spun out from there and the HADES’S CARNIVAL was born.

Hades’ Carnival

Welcome to Hades’ Carnival, where a group of immortal shapeshifting warriors are imprisoned in their animal forms on a carousel.

Cursed by the very goddess they served—The Lady of the Beasts—in order to keep them out of Hell, now the warriors are being offered a chance at freedom and redemption. And it will take a very special woman to free each warrior.

Once free, they must stay alive for 24 hours if they want to save themselves from Hades once and for all.

SERIES: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0742KNX25

NIGHT OF THE TIGER

When graphic novel illustrator Aimee Horner visits a traveling carnival, she’s drawn to an abandoned carousel and its carved white tiger. One touch of her skin against the massive beast, and Aimee’s world is changed forever.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073TSB6Z8

MARK OF THE BEAR

Kellsie Morris knows her career as a Hollywood scream queen won’t last forever. Luckily, she’s just landed a big role in a movie about an immortal, shape-shifting warrior trapped in a carnival run by the Devil’s minions. When the carousel bear on set shifts into a flesh and bone bear of a man, Kellsie starts to question reality.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073TS79RK/

PRIDE OF THE LION

When Araminta Davidson is invited to participate in a readers’ appreciation weekend, she feels like she’s arrived as an author. But what starts out as a fun weekend quickly turns surreal and deadly when she accidentally releases a shape-shifting immortal warrior from a five-thousand-year-old curse.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073TSMST9/

HOWL OF THE WOLF

Artist and tarot reader Sabrina can’t resist buying and bringing home the old carousel wolf she finds in an antique shop. She never imagined the wooden animal could come to life in her living room and shift into a dark, sexy man.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073TSQ84M/

HEART OF THE SERPENT

After being trapped in his animal form for centuries by a curse, freedom is new and almost uncomfortable for shape-shifting warrior Mordecai. He knows Hades can’t get to him physically, but although he might try to deny it, he knows he has a weak spot—Jessica. Worried that Hades could hurt her to get to him, Mordecai’s tried to keep his distance, but there’s no stopping this kind of connection.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073TST8PT/

FLAME OF THE PHOENIX

Phoenix is afraid—a first for the immortal warrior. Beautiful, forthright Tilly Ledet fires his mind and body. She’s been helping Phoenix and his shape-shifting comrades in their battle against Hades, and now she is in danger and doesn’t think she needs his protection.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073TSF7KT/

LURE OF THE JAGUAR

With the ancient curse broken, the warriors serving the Lady of Beasts are free. Stavros, the only unmated warrior, retreats to the solitude of the Louisiana bayou, but he’s not alone there. The minute he sees the woman stalking wildlife with her camera, he realizes her for who she is—his mate.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073TS717B/

About the Author

N.J. Walters is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who has always been a voracious reader, and now she spends her days writing novels of her own. Vampires, werewolves, dragons, assassins, time-travelers, seductive handymen, and next-door neighbors with smoldering good looks—all vie for her attention. It’s a tough life, but someone’s got to live it.

Visit her at:
Website: https://www.njwalters.com
Blog: https://www.njwalters.blogspot.com
Newsletter Sign Up: https://eepurl.com/gdblg5
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/N.J.WaltersAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/njwaltersauthor
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/NJWalters
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/njwalters
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/n-j-walters

UPDATE: The winner is…BN!
*~*~*

Hello Delilah!  Thank you for letting me visit today.  I’m here to share another charity anthology (big surprise), but this is not like my other ones.  Deity Bound: A God and Goddesses Paranormal Anthology is about, well, gods and goddesses.  Norse, Greek, Indian…gay, straight, lesbian…we’ve got it all!  And proceeds for Breast Cancer Research, no less.

When I signed up, I had no idea what I was going to write.  Often, I don’t.  Another writer was contemplating doing a Native American god, so I knocked the Canadian version off my list.  I have an Aussie friend and I asked about their Aboriginal gods.  My friend, though, had a different idea.  She asked me for a trait that could be either a negative or a positive.  I was like…?  Uh, stubbornness.  I related it back to myself.  I’m stubborn in that I never give up with my writing.  Okay, sounds great—I never abandon a story—I finish everything.  Except, sometimes, there are projects that should be abandoned.  They’re not working.  They’re taking up too much brain space for little or no reward.  While I was contemplating this, she took to Googling.

Enter Pertinacia—the goddess of, essentially, stubbornness.  Daughter of Nix, Granddaughter of Chaos, sister to Chronos and a bunch of other gods.  Nix really got around (good for her!).  Anyway, my Aussie friend and I (I call her the plot whisperer) came up with a story set in North Vancouver, Canada, and involved Pertinacia being knocked out of time by Chronos and sent to a park on Earth in 2024.

From there, I flew with writing my story.  I had Dani, a woman who’d just had her heart broken by her long-term girlfriend.  I had Pertinacia the demigoddess.  And, for fun, Pertinacia’s family came to visit.  I didn’t know it at the time, but this was the closest to a rom-com that I’d ever written.  My beta readers and editor love it.  I’m hoping readers will as well.  All that from stubbornness.  Who knew!?!?

As a gift, I’d like to give one commenter a $5 Amazon Gift Card.  Is there a God or Goddess whose story you’d like to see?  Or a favorite movie?  I saw Hercules as a child and Medusa still gives me nightmares.  Comment and you might randomly win!  Thanks again, Delilah!

Deity Bound

Eternity breaks the smallest souls, but a god will never be ruined…except perhaps by the one who holds their heart.

The one who can rip at their soul or soothe it because it was always theirs.

But after an eternity alone, can a god give back the love given them, or wreak havoc upon a mortal’s soul?

Read the best USA Today best-selling and award-winning romance authors in a spicy gods and goddesses collection for charity curated by The New Romance Cafe, with all proceeds going to the fight against Multiple Sclerosis.

Authors:
Chele MacCabe
Francis Black
Lily Kindall
V.V. Strange
Katey Tattrie
Niki Brazen
TL Hamilton
Emmy Dee
Cecelia Conway
Jane Poller
Kataya Moon
Alexa Santi
Nicole Sondelle
Cameron J Quinn
Serafina Jax
Michaela Brent
Mikayla Rand
Tati B. Alvarez
Raven Hush
Kathleen Ryder
Niki Trento
Sonja Flowers
Ariel Dawn
Kathia Iblis
Christine Ashworth
Annee Jones
Gabbi Grey
Glori Medina

The anthology will only be available for a limited time.

 

Links:
Universal Link: https://books2read.com/TNRC2024DeityBound
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Deity-Bound-Goddesses-Paranormal-Collection-ebook/dp/B0C7NXZWCP
Add it to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/176294379-deity-bound

Deity Bound features my story, My Fair Goddess.

In the ominous light of the coming storm, the disheveled petite woman I rescued seemed helpless and in need of protection. Big miscalculation. Tina’s a demigoddess—a pint-sized powerhouse stranded in the twenty-first century—but far from a damsel in distress. Still, first impressions linger, and I can’t be in awe of someone I taught to use a toaster and to make microwave popcorn. I’m falling hard for her when her grandfather, the god of chaos, demands her return. Can our love and courage stand up to the old gods, or will we lose each other to an ancient land and powers I can barely understand?

About Gabbi Grey

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.

So, maybe I had too much fun with this series’ countdown titles. I wanted the countdown, but I also wanted some humor. If you love a sexy story that will also make you smile, well, I have the story for you. And it’s FREE in Kindle Unlimited! Follow the link to read the opening of the book—but be prepared to have your eyeballs scorched. It starts right in the “action.”

Order your copy now! | Read an excerpt!

Forget the sugar. Send her the spice.

Gus Taggert knows a setup when he sees one. The doughnut shop his police officer buddies have sent him to, Cornucopia, is too frilly, too pink. Then the woman behind the counter serves up a mini-lesson in submission that leaves him ready and willing to obey her order to see her tonight at La Forge BDSM club.

The large, burly cop is exactly the kind of alpha guy that newly minted Domme Aislinn Darby has been dying to tie up and spank. Yet after she puts him through his paces, she finds herself eager to let him take control—something she’s never before enjoyed with a man.

Determined to find out once and for all if she has what it takes to control a scene, she orders him up for one more go. Only this time, she intends to ensure he remembers who’s in charge. She’s even willing to offer a little bribe: accept her dictates, and his reward is her—any way he wants her.

Except when it’s time for payback, it comes with several twists she never sees coming.

Product Warnings: When a male sub decides to turn the tables on his pretty Domme, he calls for backup from his best friends. Contains scenes with m/m/f, m/f/m, f/f, spanking, restraints, and an orgy of pleasure no woman can resist.

Note: This book was previously published.

8 Seconds to Die

When veterinarian and amateur sleuth, Dr. Tullah Holliday reluctantly agrees to help a former high school bully, now ex-con on parole, and a breeder of rodeo bulls, who is being threatened by a drug syndicate, she finds herself in a world of corruption; especially when she digs up dirt on a dishonest sheriff and his deputy.

From a rattlesnake delivered in a giftwrapped box, to a vicious bull attack, as Tullah puts together the pieces of the case, a killer is preparing to strike again, and this time, it could send this nosy veterinarian to an early grave.

Excerpt from 8 Seconds to Die…

The silence that permeated the room had never sounded so loud. I finally said, “What happened then? Did you call the sheriff, or 9-1-1?”

Caleb poured another drink. It was halfway to his mouth when Caroline admonished, “That’s enough, Caleb.”

He racked a trembling hand over his face before downing the bourbon. He grimaced. “Yeah, sure, it’s just that I keep seeing Pop’s mangled body.” He heaved a deep sigh. “We rushed to the barn. Diablo had blood on both horns where he’d gored Pop. My ol’ man lay in a heap like a broken doll. I wanted to shoot the bull. I guess it was a good thing Rex and Baily stopped me. “We called Sheriff Coffey. He came with two deputies and the medical examiner, Reed Duckworth. Duckworth put Pop’s death at approximately two a.m. He said it appeared almost every bone in Pop’s body had been broken by the mauling.”

I had to ask, “Was there an investigation…did you request an autopsy?”

Both Caroline and Caleb gave me owlish looks. Caleb said, “Investigation…what was there to investigate? The bull broke out of his pen. He gored my father to death. End of story. And no, we didn’t request an autopsy. We knew how Pop had died. I don’t understand why you’re asking these questions, Tullah.”

Not satisfied with the shortened version of the answer, I persisted. “From the way you’ve reinforced the pens with metal bars, how did the bull get out? Was your father gored in the front or in the back? Wasn’t there a door or a ladder to the loft that he could’ve used to escape the attack? Was there any evidence of tampering with the latch on the gate of Diablo’s pen?”

Caroline and Caleb sat silent. Their silence cued me that there was more to the story. I waited. “Listen, you two, you’ve asked for my help. I’m getting a bit weary of the pranks and the evasiveness. What is it you’re either hiding or not telling me? Was Carl’s death an accident or murder?

“Does his death have anything to do with the threats you’ve received, and especially threats against your children? Have the perpetrators made demands for money or for something otherwise?”

*~*~*

8 Seconds to Die is book #5 in the Doc Holliday Mystery Series.

Books are available at:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Seconds-Die-Doc-Holliday-Mystery/dp/1509254919/
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/8-seconds-to-die-loretta-c-rogers/1145014706?ean=2940186042167
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/209767678-8-seconds-to-die

About the Author

Loretta C. Rogers is a fourth generation Floridian. She has rounded up cattle and participated in a couple of twenty-five-mile endurance trials with her mustang mare. She uses her life experiences to create stories. For example, rodeo is her favorite sport. Years ago, she and hubby were at a rodeo in Kissimmee, Florida. They were camping out and had to skedaddle when someone opened the gates to the bull pens. Thankfully, only their tent suffered. On the upside, Loretta got to meet Michael Landon, who played Little Joe Cartright on Bonanza. These and other past life experiences spurred the idea for “8 Seconds to Die,” a rodeo themed contemporary mystery that includes murder, drug syndicates, rattle snakes, and laced with a thread of paranormal.

Contact Loretta at:
https://www.facebook.com/loretta.rogers.3591/
https://www.lorettacrogers.blogspot.com/
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/loretta-c-rogers
https://www.amazon.com/stores/Loretta-C.-Rogers/author/B004948XP2
https://twitter.com/i/flow/login?redirect_after_login=%2FBooksbyLoretta
https://www.instagram.com/rogers.loretta2018/?hl=en