Love a good spooky tale? This one’s coming October 2nd (never mind what Kindle says). And it’s the first of two, maybe more—if you like them. It’ll be completely up to you if I write more. So, let me know…
Sin’s Gift
When police officer Sinead O’Rourke returns to duty months after being shot in an incident that claimed her partner, she knows it’s not going to be easy. Despite being cleared of any negligence, her fellow officers still wonder whether she’s responsible for his death. One more problem is that everyone knows she claims to have seen his ghost. After months of rehabilitation and lying like hell about the fact she’s not seeing spooks anymore, Sin’s determined to get back into the saddle.
Jake doesn’t want to partner with Sin. Been there, done that—couldn’t keep his hands off her the first time around. She’s too much of a distraction, and her penchant for rushing into trouble scares the heck out of him. Despite wishing she’d quit her job, he’s still deeply attracted. When an armed robbery goes down and something happens that rattles Sin to the core, he’s right there—ready to cover her back and her sweet body.
The police substation didn’t sit at the end of the rainbow or anywhere near Kansas, but for some reason that stupid phrase ran like a mantra through Sinead O’Rourke’s head as she drew a deep breath and pushed through the double-doors leading into the station house. Once inside, she kept her gaze focused straight ahead, ignoring the way conversations died away as one by one the officers on duty noticed who’d entered their midst.
So, she’d been gone a while. No doubt San Antonio’s finest whispered she looked a little different than they remembered. A few even knew she’d gone nuts for a while. But their red-headed stepchild was back.
Fuck them, anyway.
Sin headed straight to the Lieutenant’s office and knocked on his door.
“Come in.”
Relieved to escape the thick atmosphere of the open floor, she knew she’d only traded one bleeding wound for another when the patrol shift lieutenant, Clayton Kalisek, glanced up and stiffened at the sight of her. “Glad to see you made it, O’Rourke.”
“Yeah, I finally got tired of sitting on my ass,” she said with more attitude than she felt. “Only so many Dr.Phil’s a body can stand.”
“Sit down for a second while we have a talk.”
She shut the door behind her and warily took the chair in front of his desk. Just as she remembered, his set expression didn’t give away a thing he was thinking. “What’s on your mind, Lieutenant? The doctors gave me a clean bill of health.”
His narrowed gaze landed on the scar on her cheek then locked with hers again. “If you’re not ready for this, just say so.”
Some things never changed. Lieutenant Kalisek still knew just where to stick his dull knife. “I’m fine,” she said, her tone curt since she wasn’t about to bother hiding her irritation.
“Sure, you are.” But he didn’t sound convinced. He leaned back in his chair and continued to stare. “I’m putting you with Chappa, again. I know you two have a history…”
Chappa. Shit. They had plenty of history, all right. Most of it bad. “Fine,” she bit out. “Have you broken the good news to him?”
Clay’s face tightened with a pained expression. “Told him yesterday.”
“Wish you’d waited until I was in the room,” she said, a mirthless grin sliding along her lips. “Bet he was loud.”
The lieutenant’s ice blue eyes narrowed. “He’s not going to cut you any slack.”
Her chin came up. “Don’t need any.”
His nod was curt. “Very well. Get out on the street.”
That was it? Feeling a little deflated, like she’d worried about nothing, she hesitated. “You’re not going to say anything about the psych eval?”
“Doc said you’re ready—that the meds and the time off did the trick.” His expression tightened. “Should I ask you if you’re still talking to ghosts?”
A lump burned the back of her throat as she caught sight of Danny standing just behind the Lieutenant’s shoulder. “No ghosts,” she lied, ignoring the grin splitting her late partner’s face.
She shot up off the chair and turned to open the door.
“Like I said, O’Rourke. Chappa’s not gonna cut you any slack.”
She nodded over her shoulder, not daring to look back.
Hi, Delilah. I’m happy to be with you today as we ease (hopefully) into fall.
Well, if I ever doubted Climate Change and Global Warming, which I never did, this summer proved that our Earth is going through some troubling times. The Rim of Fire in the Pacific is working overtime. The glaciers are melting at a shocking pace giving us an actual Northwest Passage. The super volcano at Yellowstone is starting to worry me. And here in Maine we had the summer from hell.
It started slow with a snowstorm in mid-April (the morning of my birthday on the 20th actually, what a birthday present), cold weather for our annual International Marathon in late June, and then finally in July the 80 degree temps set in and lasted for two months. Normally we get a couple of days of 80 degrees in late August early September, but this year was a scorcher. It was made worse by the fact that most homes and business in Downeast Maine don’t have air-conditioning. In fact, last night I was considering going out to my car and turning on the A/C and sleeping in the back seat!
I was so looking forward to a bumper crop of raspberries and blackberries. Spring was glorious with their blossoms. But it was so hot that most of the berries scorched on the vine. Just shriveled up like raisins.
The heat has been especially bad on our wildlife. I’ve seen no deer or moose, just some signs of coyotes and a bunny that has stayed with us visiting every morning and evening when the temps are a little cooler. I haven’t seen a single hummingbird and normally they are numerous. But a bird built a nest in the top of my propane tank and laid some eggs. One is still there, unhatched. I think it got too hot before the poor thing was ready.
But some good things came out of this strange weather. My yard turned into crispy weeds instead of lush rye grass, so a saving on my landscaping expenses. The bugs were scarce until just the last week or so because we had an almost rain-free season. Then last week the mosquitoes, and we have huge ones up here, realized that if they didn’t get busy and start biting, their summer would be wasted.
Now the weather is turning. Today the high is 63 degrees and I saw a flock of Canadian Geese beginning their yearly migration south this morning. And with the cooler temperatures, all my apples (I have many trees, wild ones) will be ripening. I’m madly searching for a recipe for crabapple jelly now. And I have several trees near my house with apples the size of cranberries. I wonder how I prepare those?
However, now that it’s autumn (almost) I’m anticipating my most productive time of the year. I’ve just received the edits from my editor for my next book, The Russian Phoenix, the prequel to the last book in my High Tide Suspense series, Precious Stone. It’s what I call a fictional memoir—the story of a young Russian girl, her turbulent life in the 20th century including the Romanov Jubilee year of 1913, and her life adapting to the changes that threaten to overcome her during the rest of the century. It will be published in just a few weeks.
I’ve also started research on my next series, Wolf Moon. I’m very excited about that. I get to use my bachelor’s degree in anthropology! The first book, and I don’t have a title yet, is about a Shoshone girl, Glory, from the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. The series begins in 1949 and each of the books in the series uses as the protagonist, one of the sons-daughters on the family tree of Glory Grey Wolf. There’s some mysticism, some politics, some adventure! Visit my Facebook page, www.facebook.com/AuthorMinEdwards where I’ll keep you up-to-date with my progress.
Have a perfect Autumn!
Min
Min’s Books
A gift of thanks to a young girl from the Tsar more than 100 years ago… and now the Russians want it back.
Collee McCullough, the owner of The Bakery in Stone Bay, Maine, has a perfect life until early one morning men in suits come calling. She has something someone dangerous wants. Something that her Russian great-grandmother Natasha took when she fled Russia in 1913. Too bad great-gran never told her family what she had or where she left it.
Jake Elsmore, visiting Stone Bay to sell his mother’s house, walks into The Bakery for a cup of Earl Grey tea, but gets more. There she is. A sprite in a flour-dusted apron, stepping out from behind a big burly policeman; a lovely, fiery-haired fairy toting a shotgun while two men are laying insensate on the floor of her shop. Looks like that tea will have to wait.
Russia: 1913. A time of celebration; a time of turmoil for Russia. But for Natasha it’s a time of horror.
Natasha, a young cousin of Alexandra Feodorovna Romanova, the Empress Consort of all the Russias, is eighteen and living a life she never dreamed. The year is 1913, the 300th Jubilee Year of the Romanov rule and it has been filled with fêtes, balls, and excitement.
But the night of the last ball of the season a burgeoning love affair goes horribly wrong and she’s kidnapped and whisked out of Russia. Her adventures change her life in ways she could never imagine and take her far from home. But her travails forge her into a strong, resourceful woman of the new century.
Look for this, coming soon!
*~*~*
About the Author
Min Edwards is the pen name of archaeologist, former bookstore owner, and eBook designer (A Thirsty Mind Book Design), Pam Headrick. She is a life-long Texas girl who on a whim decided to leave the heat of Central Texas and move to her property on the coast of Maine. What was she thinking? Now Lubec, the most eastern town in the USA is her home. She writes from a desk near her kitchen window in an almost 200-year-old farmhouse overlooking apple trees, mating pheasants, rabbits which turn from brown to white in the winter, and the occasional moose. Just down the road is her private beach which is unfortunately not sand but shingle… small stones which have been tumbled by the surf for eons. And they sing when the 30-foot tides of the area wash over them. Her muse and constant companion is Zach, a 12-year-old black German Shepherd who offers comedic relief when she needs it… like when one of her characters is not following orders or a plot has imploded and it looks like it’s time to start over.
Throughout history, The Lady, Goddess of the Lycan world, has gifted werewolf packs with humans who carry her mark. Theodora Morrissey’s plans to return to college for her graduate degree are ended when she is awakened by an otherworldly voice on a rarely used airstrip in Nebraska. Injured and disoriented, she has no idea the discoloration on her back has marked her as a Seer, and that she is now a possession—and the prisoner—of the Novus Pack of Lycans.
To the Novus pack, the word of their leader, their Laird, is the law. With compelling gray eyes and long dark hair, Raider Black rules his pack with intelligence and ruthlessness. To cement the security of his pack, Black has committed to mate another Packleader’s daughter. But he’s finding it impossible to fight his attraction to the pack’s alluring new Seer, claiming her as his own.
Sweet, fearless, and unintentionally funny, Theo upends Black’s world and pushes the boundaries of his rules. How far is Raider willing to go, and what will he sacrifice, to save both his pack and the human Seer who’s found a way not only into his bed, but his heart?
Series: Romancing the Seas Book 1 Genre: Contemporary Romance, Erotic Romance, Romantic Comedy, Holiday Romance Publisher: Boroughs Publishing Publication Date: September 11, 2018
When Piper’s job sends her undercover to spy on Jack – the beyond sexy hook-up she can’t stop thinking about – she is forced to decide if her job is more important than her happiness.
HAPPINESS HAS A PRICE
Captain Jack Spencer owns and runs a whale watching company, Ahoy, Matey. When his business takes off, a jealous rival wants him and his company gone. Jack has no idea the delectable Piper Goldhirsch is tasked with scuttling everything he’s worked for – he’s too caught up in their magnetic attraction and her web of lies.
Piper Goldhirsch, head reporter for the tabloid TV show Business Buster, is all work and no play. When she and the all too tempting Jack Spencer have a one-night stand that turns out to be the greatest sex of her life, she is haunted by the powerful magic between them. Sent undercover to expose his whale watching business, she is torn between her assignment and the first man she has ever wanted. With her happiness on the line, Piper has only one choice.
She lifted her bare foot. He held her ankle with more delicacy than she’d expected from such a big man. As he slid the flat back onto her foot, his thumb grazed the indent near her anklebone. She shivered at the sensation. This close, the ocean blue of his eyes shone with intensity as he watched her. What did he look like beneath the costume and makeup? She’d noticed his sexy, crooked smile and the roguish way the corner of his mouth lifted up, as if he knew something she didn’t. His fingers wrapped around the back of her ankle, then stopped. She met his hungry eyes and nudged her leg forward into his hand. His fingers slid up an inch further, moving in a slow, barely there caress.
“I realize it’s none of my business,” he said. “But earlier, out in the ballroom…I don’t know what your friends said or did to make you upset, but if I can help at all, I’d like to.”
“I’m okay. Just shaking something off.” She took a sip from the wine bottle as she watched him. She moved her foot closer to his chest urging his hand closer to her calf. His long fingers stroked her flesh.
She closed her eyes. “Mmm, that feels nice. Don’t worry about what they said. You got a name, pirate?”
“Jack.”
His tone was serious. She looked back down at him and smirked. Two could play that game.
“Oh, of course. You’re Captain Jack, and I’m Little Red Riding Hood. C’mere.” He stood and met her eye to eye. At five feet nine, she often had a vantage point in height in the workplace, which served her well when she wanted to be intimidating, but he had well over four inches on her, easy. His big, muscular frame towered over her. She took another sip of wine and walked her fingers up the buttons of his waistcoat. “Can I level with you, Captain Jack?”
“Yes.”
She pushed aside the question of why she felt so at ease with him when all she’d wanted was to be alone and smoothed her palm over his white pirate shirt, his strong pectoral muscles firm beneath her fingers. When she next spoke, her voice broke as she remembered why she’d sought solace in the first place; she’d gotten a man and his whole family deported.
“See, I’ve had a hell of a hard year. I’ve pushed myself and made magic happen in ways I didn’t think I’d ever be able to, but that magic comes at a price, and I’m not okay with it. Every single day, people want a piece of me. And on normal days, I can handle it. But right now, all I want to do, since you’re here,” she moved closer, her lips inches from his, “and I’m here, is to forget it all and make some magic of our own I can hold onto, even if it’s just this little moment.”
His chest rose and fell as he scanned her. Clarity and kindness were evident in his eyes beneath the desire, and she knew she could have a little fun with him. She noticed that his palms clenched the more she rubbed against him. She smirked, grabbed the lapels of his waistcoat, and crashed her lips onto his.
THE WOMAN WAS unreal. Her thick, pouty lips moved against his, and no sooner had she kissed him full on the mouth than he seized her around her wasp-sized waist and laid claim. She was the sexiest woman he’d ever seen, and her curves were soft and perfect in his hands. His tongue sought entrance to her mouth, and she met him eagerly. She tasted like strawberries and wine, and he groaned as his fingers slipped into her curls. It had been forever since he’d kissed a woman. She scored full check marks in every category, and then some.
Chances were she merely wanted a nice make-out session, but his body already demanded more. He wrapped his arms around her, spanned his hand against her back, and traveled down to the curve of her delectable ass. She shivered against him; the movement went straight to his hardened cock. He nipped her lower lip as he squeezed her bottom.
“Oh, you are one big firecracker, aren’t you? Tell me your name.”
She wrapped her ankle around the back of his calf as she hauled him in close. “No names,” she breathed.
He kissed her and moaned when she rubbed her core against him through their clothes. All right, he’d play along. For now. But he would take the lead.
About Roxanne D. Howard
Roxanne D. Howard writes sizzling erotic romance with Boroughs Publishing Group and The Wild Rose Press. She is a U.S. Army veteran, and a Columbia College alumni. She loves to read poetry, classical literature, and Stephen King. Also, she is an avid Star Wars fan, musical theater nut, and marine biology geek. Roxanne resides in the western U.S., and when she’s not writing, she enjoys spending quality time with her husband, children, and furry companions. Roxanne loves to hear from her readers, and encourages you to contact her via her website and social media.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, I have a real thing for men in uniform. When I get to add a bounty hunter into the mix, I’m in heaven! Today’s release combines both! Hope you enjoy S*X ON THE BEACH! ~DD
S*x on the Beach
In Cabo San Lucas, Navy SEAL Carson “Beach-boy” Walsh is ready to live the good life. After surviving fifteen deployments in ten years, he bailed on the SEALs, figuring this cat had run out of lives. The only danger he faces now is choking on an oyster or drowning in beer–and then he meets her.
Gina Tripp is the Calamity Jane of bounty hunters, enjoying an unexpected vacation. She’s the stand-in for an absent groom on her girlfriend’s honeymoon in Cabo when she meets a cute guy with a nothing but sex on the beach in mind. As her luck would have it, her best friend winds up kidnapped, and Gina’s embroiled in a dangerous rescue that deepens her attraction to Carson.
Just when she thinks she can settle in and enjoy a few days of sin, an opportunity to prove herself to her boss lands in her lap. Now, she has her sights set on scoring a huge bounty–an ex-pat skip, hiding out in Mexico. What follows is a wild ride that leaves her feeling pretty relieved she hijacked a Navy SEAL to help her with the job.
**S*x on the Beach is part of the Montana Bounty Hunter series. It is also in the SEALs in Paradise connected series. Each book can be read as standalone. They do not have cliff-hanger endings and do not have to be read in any particular order.**
Okay, I’m going to come right out and admit it. My confession/admission might get me in trouble with some erotica readers, but I have my big girl pants on and can take it.
There’s a popular among some people erotica genre that focuses on a submissive/dominant relationship that IMO takes a relationship to the extreme. I’m talking about daddy/baby scenarios. I admit I’ve only read a couple of them all the way through, but I’ve read enough blurbs to feel I understand how they’re structured. In essence (and correct me if I’m making this too simple) the dominant male insists that the female under his control act and is treated like a small child, complete with diapers and a crib. For reasons I don’t get, the women go along with the treatment. They might object in the beginning, but then it seems, something kicks into their brains and they decide to explore and even enjoy the situation. Often the so-called hero has staff or relatives that help raise the ‘child’. The whole house is set up to accommodate what doesn’t seem at all like playacting to me.
Okay, here’s where I jump on my soapbox. No way do I see any redeeming qualities in a man who treats a woman like that. I also don’t think much of a formally independent woman who goes along with such a demeaning show.
That said, to each their own. After all, I often write about capture situations. Note that I didn’t say the word fantasy since in my stories, the capture and its aftermath is the real deal and not some play situation the characters have agreed to. A shrink might say I need help. All I know is a lot of readers buy into those stories, and I’m here to thank them.
Wolf’s Storm
Forced together by a mountain snowstorm and their smashed cars, two loners are fated to spend a night together. Once the cabin door closes behind them, need takes over. They must have sex, only sex, not a relationship. But the nearby dark wolves have their own agenda.
Yes, I’m still writing like my hair’s on fire, but I had to pop in to post something! I think it’s been 3 or 4 years since I missed a blog date. Now, it’s a habit/compulsion. Since I don’t want to think too hard about anything except the story I have to finish this week, I’m going to let you exercise your brain matter! Here’s all you have to do to win your choice of one of my recent releases…
See the picture? I saw it on one of my frequent visits to the stock photo sites. I downloaded it with no particular purpose in mind. I’m thinking I want to do a series of shorter witchy stories. Something fun. But beyond that, I have no other ideas. So, I’m putting this pic out there for you to think about. You can offer a simple one-sentence idea or paint an entire paragraph of a story. Have fun with it. I won’t be judging your idea!!! Now, go!
