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Wednesday, April 4th, 2018
Dear Readers and Friends,
The third story in my new Montana Bounty Hunters series is here! They’re coming fast and furious now. This month, I’ll be writing the fourth story in this series, Cochise! Be sure to check out the cover below—it’s beyond smokin’!
Reaper’s Ride is a crossover story with my sister’s Kindle World, Brotherhood Protectors, and features Carly and Reaper from the first story in the series, but you’ll get plenty of Dagger and Lacey, too. It’s hot and the takedowns are fun! I hope you love it!
If you have time, tell a friend about this story and, maybe, write a review. Readers trust other readers to let them know whether they should take a chance on a their next book boyfriend. If you love the stories, let someone know. And thanks!
Enjoy! ~DD
Reaper’s Ride

Reaper’s Rider
Montana Bounty Hunters, #3
Badass Montana bounty hunter, Reaper Stenberg, is a take-ALL-prisoners kind of guy and goes balls-to-the-wall for every capture. Until he’s injured. The last thing he wants to admit is any vulnerability. And he doesn’t want to hear about it from his wife and partner, Carly. So, with a bum shoulder, he jumps headlong into the next job, working with teammates, Dagger and Lacey, to take down a dangerous arsonist. Soon, he wonders if he’s taken on more than he can chew, but it might be too late to admit he needs a little help…
Get your copy here!
Reaper
Montana Bounty Hunters, Book #1
Former Marine, Reaper Stenberg is a bounty hunter, running his own satellite agency of Montana Bounty Hunters, along with his partner, Jamie Burke. As a general rule, Reaper doesn’t like working with a partner, especially female partners. When chasing a bail-jumper, he prefers to keep his head down and follow the leads. He doesn’t like the “chatter” that usually accompanies working with a woman.
However, partnering with Jamie has taught him a few things. There are women who can focus on the job at hand without letting silly distractions get in the way of his concentration. Jamie is one of those rare creatures who doesn’t gossip, doesn’t get into his business, and can actually be useful when shit goes sideways and they have to get physical. Over the months since their boss, Fetch Winter, put them together, Reaper has come to admire the woman’s grit and ingenuity.
And then Jamie up and gets busy planning her wedding…
See what happens when Reaper has to deal with a ride-along author, Carly Wyatt, who–when shit goes sideways–proves his first female partner’s grit and ingenuity aren’t just lucky happenstance, and who challenges Reaper’s strict relationship rules.
Get your copy here!
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Dagger
Montana Bounty Hunters, #2
Former Army Ranger, Daniel “Dagger” Renfrew, has been a lot of things—an Army Ranger, a Seattle beat cop, a PI, and now, a bounty hunter, which, so far, suits him just fine. In his job, he doesn’t look for easy takedowns. He likes lying in mud or snow with his binoculars trained on a window, hoping for a glimpse of the dirtbag whose mugshot he carries in his hip pocket. If they’re badasses—all the better. Dagger prefers when assholes try to run, because then he has an excuse to mix it up, get physical, and blow off steam in an all-out brawl—when the situation warrants, of course. One morning when he’s working his side gig, repossessing cars, he discovers the car he’s taking belongs to his old high school sweetheart, and there’s nothing like sweet revenge…
Lacey Jones is furious when she finds a very large, scary dude trying to steal her car. It’s the last straw. She’s lost her job and is about to lose her apartment, so there’s no way in hell she’s letting him take her damn car! When she discovers its Dagger, her old beau, she jumps into the car with him. When she learns how he makes a living, she’s curious…and then determined to become a bounty hunter herself. How hard can it be?
Get your copy here!
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Cochise
Montana Bounty Hunters, Book #4
Coming in May
Former Army sniper, Cochise Mercier, left Denver SWAT under a cloud of controversy, which was why he ended up back home in Montana, and where he heard about the Montana Bounty Hunters. The “cloud” didn’t seem to bother his new boss, so he’s “all in” and finding he enjoys hunting down fugitives for bounties, encumbered by fewer rules.
Sammy McCallister is a by-the-book sheriff’s deputy, who has a beef with bounty hunters. Forced to stand by with her gun in her holster, while hunters take down scumbags, she’s particularly irked by the new guy in town. Cochise, with his long black hair and thousand-yard-stare makes her uncomfortable, itchy in ways she’s never felt before. When she finds herself needing his help late one night, the reason for her irritation becomes all too clear. She wants him. But first, they have to make it out of the mountains alive…
Pre-order your copy here!
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Last 5 people who had something to say: ronnie c -
Wednesday, April 4th, 2018

It was 1995 or so, and I had made my home on the west coast of Florida with my husband and three kids. We’d been living there for about ten years, and the cost of living along with the cost of raising three kids was pinching a bit . . . plus, property values were up. Some very good friends of ours had recently sold their Florida farm for fat cash and moved up into Alabama, near Birmingham. They bragged about the low cost of living, property, et al. We drove up to visit and toyed with the idea of relocating there as well.
Yes, property was cheap. We went around with a real estate agent who showed us vacant land for hundreds of dollars an acre instead of thousands. He also said he had a very nice, antebellum home that was in some need of repair . . . it had been empty a long time. It was within our price range. We visited the home.
Wow. The tour of that day, apparently, branded my memory. I’d never been inside a plantation-style home, and this was laid out like a mini-Tara. Much smaller, but complete with soaring ceiling heights, a curved stairway, and upper and lower front porch galleries. It was, yes, in need of some TLC. Some updating. Maybe more than a little.
As I walked through that house I had the feeling I was being watched. Like we weren’t alone. The hair at the base of my neck prickled and gooseflesh puckered my skin, even though it was a very hot, summer day. I kept getting the unsettling feeling that there was something—or someone—just beyond my line of vision. But when I turned, there was no one there.
We didn’t move to Alabama. Jobs were hard to come by, and no matter how cheap the land was, anything we could afford—including the antebellum home—was in the middle of nowhere. We remained in Florida for nearly another decade.
Fast forward to 2017. I had long ago forgotten the tour of the antebellum home in Alabama. We had eventually moved—three times, from Florida to Texas to North Carolina, and ultimately landed in Massachusetts. But from somewhere in the depths of my memory, the Alabama memory resurfaced one night in a dream. Complete with the ghost of a Confederate soldier pounding on the front door.
Civil Hearts was born.
Civil Hearts

He’s a sexy Southern gentleman—with epilepsy. She’s a widow scarred from her late husband’s brain cancer. Her new home, an abandoned antebellum mansion, is haunted by a Confederate soldier—and she’s a Yankee.
A widow with no family, web designer Liv Larson yearns for big change. After all, she can work from anywhere, right? Why not throw a dart at the map? She heads out of the big city for the rural South and falls in love as soon as she arrives—with the Belle Bride, an abandoned antebellum mansion.
Heath Barrow loves his country life, managing his antiques store in sleepy Camellia. But he’s lonely, and his condition—epilepsy—makes life uncertain. It’s already cost him a marriage. A new medication and the new girl in town have his heart hopeful again.
Sparks fly between Heath and Liv. But his first seizure sends Liv into a tailspin. Its mimics those her husband suffered before he died . . .
To make matters worse, Liv discovers she’s not living alone. Her challenge? Dealing with a Confederate soldier, one who clearly resents his Yankee roommate—even though he’s been dead for over a hundred and fifty years.
Buy Link: https://amzn.to/2GPU5er
Book Trailer: https://youtu.be/skHJRlU5fOQ
About the Author
Strong Women, Starting Over
~Redefining Romance~
Claire is a multi-published, award winning author of five titles in the genres of contemporary romance, supernatural suspense, and women’s fiction. She also writes Author Resource guide books, and presents seminars on writing craft and marketing.
Her supernatural suspense, Hearts Unloched, won the 2016 New York Book Festival, and was a finalist in the 2017 RONE Awards. Also in 2017, her women’s fiction, The Phoenix Syndrome, was a finalist in the National Reader’s Choice Awards, and her contemporary romance, A Taming Season, was a Literary Award of Merit finalist in the HOLT Medallion Awards. Her latest release, Spirits of the Heart, was a finalist in the 2017 “I Heart Indie Awards.”
Creating cross-genre fiction she calls “supernatural suspense,” Claire loves exploring the paranormal and the unexplained, and holds a certificate in Parapsychology from the Rhine Research Center of Duke University.
A New York native, Claire has lived in five of the United States and held a variety of jobs, from waitress to bridal designer to research technician—but loves being an author best. She and her happily-ever-after hero, her husband of 39 years, now live in central Massachusetts.
Website: https://www.clairegem.com
Tagged: ghost, Guest Blogger, paranormal Posted in General | Comments Off on Claire Gem: Antebellum Dreams | Link
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2018
The last book in the Triplehorn Brand trilogy is here! All three brothers are reunited with the women they could never forget. A Long, Hot Summer, to me, is the sweetest and sexiest of the bunch, and you get a very satisfying glance at the other brothers’ happy-ever-afters….
As for what’s happening in my neck of the woods… I’ve been writing! And I’m preparing for a trip to Hawaii! I’ll be heading there with a group of author friends for a creative recharge! Hawaii’s somewhere I’ve never been, but have always had it on my bucket list, so I’m super-excited. We’ll be staying on the island of Oahu, so any of you who have been, do you have suggestions for where I should go?
Hope you love Tommy Triplehorn’s story! Enjoy! ~DD
A Long, Hot Summer

A Long Hot Summer
The Triplehorn Brand, Book #3
When two lonely hearts collide, age becomes just a number…
Sarah Colby’s marriage was over long ago, but she’s never shed the scars her abusive husband left behind. One shameful indiscretion, an affair with a younger man one long-ago summer, haunts her.
Tommy Triplehorn is happy his brothers have settled down and started families of their own, but he’s feeling a little smothered by all that domesticity. Carousing and drinking no longer provide him any thrills, and he thinks he knows the reason why. He’s waited long enough for Sarah Colby to get over being ashamed of their past. He’s old enough to know what he wants, and he wants her.
Get your copy here!
Did you miss the first two Triplehorns?
Click on the covers to learn more!
Contest
For a chance to win one of the first two Triplehorn books, OR one of the Lone Star Lovers books, answer me this:
What is your favorite second-chance love story, movie or book?
Tagged: cowboys, erotic romance, Lone Star Lovers, Texas, Triplehorn Brand Posted in About books..., Contests!, New Release | 3 People Said | Link
Last 5 people who had something to say: Colleen C. - Tamara Kasyan - Jen B. -
Monday, April 2nd, 2018
Just as I began writing my urban fantasy novel, How the Vortex Changed My Life, I had the challenge of writing a character who doesn’t speak. At least, not in English, nor any human speech. He uses sounds like a cat’s meow or a horn blasting to communicate. I named him “Larry.” I was worried that I wouldn’t do a good job on him. I told myself not to worry, he was just a secondary character. This novel was my heroine, Cat’s, story.
The novel grew into more than a story about Cat growing strong while facing the apocalypse. She learned that having good friends to stop it proved invaluable. Of course, one of them happened to be Larry. Larry who decided he would not be cannon fodder, or forgettable.
Larry found his voice, or should I say, his sounds, in this novel. My critique groups and beta readers liked Larry. The little demon, shaped like an eyeball that was the size of a standard poodle, had dug his way into readers’ hearts, and in mine. He proved to be a hero, too, demon or not. Secondary character or not, I knew he had to be on the cover, at Cat’s side, as he deserved it.
It makes me think of other books I’ve written over the years, where a secondary character develops a personality that people remember as much as the main character’s. I write paranormal romance under a pseudonym, Sapphire Phelan, and have a sequel, A Familiar Tangle With Hell, to an erotic urban fantasy, Being Familiar With a Witch. There is a demonic being in it, who looks like a white bunny with a fluffy tail, named “Fluffy.” He developed his own personality in the storyline. He possessed me to write him, the same as Larry did later. Demons with a heart of gold.
There are many books over the years we’ve all read where a secondary character has grabbed the reader’s heart. Sometimes this character isn’t always a good person, like Gollum in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Sometimes, he/she is the comedy relief. Other times, he/she is brave and loyal. This person/animal/creature can be anything. Like Batman’s Robin, Sherlock Holmes’ Dr. Watson, and William Crawley’s Mr. Carson who are the assistant or companion. Other secondary characters are the foil, the roadblock, and of course, the antagonist.
A secondary character must have an individual purpose for being in your story. All of them have a common purpose, to help move the story forward in interest-grabbing ways. A secondary character cannot become so prominent that he or she competes with the main character for the reader’s attention and concern. A secondary character who doesn’t flow naturally in the story should always be avoided.
Still, a secondary character, who is interesting, can eventually, in future books, become a major character. It just works out that way.
Pamela K. Kinney
Journey to worlds of fantasy, beyond the stars, and into the vortex of terror with the written word of Pamela K. Kinney.
PamelaKKinney.com| Blog | Facebook
How the Vortex Changed My Life

Cat Viggolone just can’t get a break. She’d gotten married, but that ended when the husband left her for his younger secretary. She’d wanted children. That flew out the window along with the cheating husband. There’s the career, but working a window at the Virginia DMV can’t really be classified as a great career choice. At thirty-three, her life had become positively dull.
Then the vortex opened.
Sucked up into a corridor just outside of Hell, she meets Connor, a werewolf, and Larry, a demon that looks like a blue-eyed eyeball. They escape back to earth, only to find that the vortex has opened up in downtown Richmond. The town is going to hell, literally. Besides a grayness seeping out and turning all living things into zombies, monsters and demons are invading Cat’s world.
Will Cat and her new friends (including an angel named George) be able to stop the vortex before it claims the entire planet?
Cat’s life is definitely no longer humdrum and ordinary.
Get your copy here!
Excerpt from How the Vortex Changed My Life:
Connor and I arrived at some stone steps. We clattered up them and into the Richmond Public Library. After we stepped into the foyer and passed the circulation desk we looked around, unsure of where to go. I saw a room to the left of us, pointed at it, and we slipped inside. Rows and rows of books in shelves lined the area like soldiers marching behind each other. A portly man in khaki pants, white shirt, and a blue, flowered tie sat behind a desk. He looked up and smiled.
“Can I be of assistance?” His smile faltered as he stared past me.
He’s seen Larry. This won’t be good.
He stood, his forehead wrinkling. “That’s pretty life like. What is it? A balloon? I can’t see any string attached to it.”
Deciding not to beat around the bush, I blurted, “He’s not a balloon. He’s an eyeball—actually, he’s a demon.”
The man said, “Are you trying to say that whatever it is, is alive?”
“Kinda. I guess demons are sort of alive.”
The librarian walked over to us and poked at Larry. Larry didn’t like it and started that weird bleating noise he could make and bumped against the man. He bumped him so hard, he almost knocked the librarian over. The man managed to stay on his feet, and took a couple of steps back as he wiped the finger on his pants as if Larry had given him cooties.
Connor grabbed the librarian by the same finger and squeezed hard. The man cried out.
Connor let go. “Larry doesn’t like people poking at him.” He glared. “It’s rude. Besides, how would you like it if I poked at you?” Connor proceeded to do just that.
The librarian stumbled back. “Okay, okay. But what is that thing? The lady called it a demon, but demons aren’t real. Right?”
Connor snorted. “That thing is a demon like the lady said and if it wasn’t for him, I’d been dead within hours after I got trapped in Hell.” Larry bumped against Connor and made another noise I never heard before, like a cat’s purr. “I find Larry is a lot more ‘human’ than you humans are.”
“Well, you look as human as the rest of us,” said the librarian with a snotty attitude, “and that eye beastie definitely doesn’t.” He narrowed his eyes. “This library is for humans only. I mean, non-human things can’t get a library card issued to them.” He saw Connor give him a glowering look and inched away. “Well, I’m pretty sure that’s the rules.”
I spoke up. “We’re not here to borrow a book.” I snuck a look at the front entrance. “We needed a place to hide in. You see, a monster is after us. A very big monster. And there are others outside like it and Larry here. A vortex opened not far from here and downtown Richmond is turning gray and I don’t mean Confederate gray either. Richmond’s new address is now a part of the Hell dimension. The whole world is doomed. And I don’t think it really matters whether Larry can be issued a library card, or what species can use this library.”
The librarian’s mouth opened and shut in shock, his eyes bulging and looking like tennis balls. He sputtered, “You’re nuts.” He cut a glance at Larry who hovered closer to him. “I think you guys are pulling something on me. That thing has got to be fake.”
I grabbed him by his ugly tie. “Look, Hell is taking over Richmond, and soon, Virginia, not long after, the U.S., and from there, maybe the world. So, get over it. Larry is not fake. He’s a demon, plain and simple, but maybe you can’t comprehend it. I know I couldn’t at first. That means no more people checking out books, no more Christmas, cute fluffy kittens, no more anything good and right for humankind. Just demons, Hell, and the end of life as we know it.”
Find How the Vortex Changed My Life at AMAZON in both print and Kindle and at BarnesandNoble.com in print only.
About the Author
Pamela K. Kinney gave up long ago trying not to listen to the voices in her head and has written bestselling horror, fantasy, science fiction, poetry, and nonfiction ghost books ever since. Three of her nonfiction ghost books garnered Library of Virginia nominations. Her horror short story, “Bottled Spirits,” was runner up for the 2013 WSFA Small Press Award and is considered one of the seven best genre short fiction for that year.
She also writes under the pseudonym, Sapphire Phelan, for erotic and regular paranormal romance. Her erotic urban fantasy, ‘Being Familiar with a Witch’ won the 2013 Prism awarded by the Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal chapter of Romance Writers of America. Discover more about Sapphire at SapphirePhelan.com.
Pamela and her husband live with one crazy black cat. Along with writing, Pamela has acted onstage and film, does paranormal investigations for Paranormal World Seekers for AVA Productions, and is a member of Horror Writers Association and Virginia Writers Club.
Tagged: action-adventure, urban fantasy Posted in General | Comments Off on Pamela K. Kinney: How the Vortex Changed My Life | Link
Sunday, April 1st, 2018
Tagged: jigsaw Posted in General | 5 People Said | Link
Last 5 people who had something to say: Angela Fisher - Jo Ann White - Ronnie C. - ButtonsMom2003 - Shirley Long -
Saturday, March 31st, 2018
Can you believe this is the last day of March?!
This has truly been Hell Month for me. Too much on my plate meant too little sleep and too much stress. Here’s the rundown.
- I had to prepare for then attend a conference in Nashville—A Weekend with the Authors—which was fun. But I’ve become such a homebody/hermit it’s tough for me to move out of my routine to do something like that these days.
- My dear daughter left two days after I returned from conference to go help her dad with his business for 17 days! As we speak, she still has a week to go, but I’ve been “mom” since she left, staying at her house to make sure kids get to school, animals don’t die, and the house stays clean.
- I’ve been editing my little fingers off: first, my story A Long, Hot Summer, then 4 more paid gigs—2 of which were long. I’m wrapping up the last two today, so I start the new month without any leftovers.
- I finished writing the last three chapters of Dagger, just in time for it’s release. Whew!
- I wrote a story for my sister’s Kindle World, The Brotherhood Protectors. I finished up Reaper’s Ride this morning!
- And then there were the releases I had to promote. Take a look in case you missed them!
March Releases

The Triplehorn Brand, Book #1
A teller implicated in a bank robbery seeks sanctuary from small-town sweetheart she left behind–who happens to be the new sheriff in town…
A lifetime ago, Zuri Prescott kicked the dirt off her boots and fled her small-time, small town, but lived to regret choosing a glam city life over her high school sweetheart. When she’s framed for a bank robbery, she flees to her home town, seeking refuge with her old flame while she figures out her next steps–only to discover he’s the last man she can confide in.
Sheriff Colt Triplehorn knows trouble when he sees it, especially when it’s one familiar naked trespasser, caught between an angry bull and her underwear. Sure she’s up to her usual no good, he grants her sanctuary at his ranch where he can keep an eye on her while he purges her from his system once and for all. When he realizes she’s involved with a robbery, he has to make a career-compromising choice between following the letter of the law and his heart…
Get your copy here!

Montana Bounty Hunters, Book #2
Former Army Ranger, Daniel “Dagger” Renfrew, has been a lot of things—an Army Ranger, a Seattle beat cop, a PI, and now, a bounty hunter, which, so far, suits him just fine. In his job, he doesn’t look for easy takedowns. He likes lying in mud or snow with his binoculars trained on a window, hoping for a glimpse of the dirtbag whose mugshot he carries in his hip pocket. If they’re badasses—all the better. Dagger prefers when assholes try to run, because then he has an excuse to mix it up, get physical, and blow off steam in an all-out brawl—when the situation warrants, of course. One morning when he’s working his side gig, repossessing cars, he discovers the car he’s taking belongs to his old high school sweetheart, and there’s nothing like sweet revenge…
Lacey Jones is furious when she finds a very large, scary dude trying to steal her car. It’s the last straw. She’s lost her job and is about to lose her apartment, so there’s no way in hell she’s letting him take her damn car! When she discovers its Dagger, her old beau, she jumps into the car with him. When she learns how he makes a living, she’s curious…and then determined to become a bounty hunter herself. How hard can it be?
Get your copy here!

The Triplehorn Brand, Book #2
Some things never change. And some things change everything…
Gabe Triplehorn can think of no better getaway from his heavy responsibilities at the ranch than to go back to a time and place where he didn’t have a care in the world. When there was just a campground, a river, and a girl. When he gets to Red Hawk Landing, the campground and the river are still there. He just never expected the girl would still be there, too. Only now she runs the place.
Lena Twohig can think of no better place to raise her young son than the family-owned campground that holds so many memories. Especially, the romance with Gabe that lit up one long-ago summer like a wild electrical storm. Now he’s back with a ranch-hardened body she knows she shouldn’t want so badly.
No amount of lies, or the years that have passed, can tame this tidal wave of passion.
Get your copy here!
Want to see what April’s bringing?
My life won’t be slowing down one bit!
- I’ll be spending the first week at my dd’s still.
- I’m going on a 10-day writers’ retreat in HAWAII!!!!!
- I have a book to finish, a short story to write, and hopefully, I’ll get most of the next Montana Bounty Hunter story written at that retreat too!
- Sound like enough? Ha! I have an editing gig to wrap up before I leave on my trip.
- And I have these releases to promote. Hope you decide to read them both. One is up for pre-order, the other you’ll have to wait to download on release day!
Click on A Long, Hot Summer to pre-order!
Contest
For a chance to win one of my MARCH releases, answer me this:
Do you have big Spring plans for April? Any trips planned for the year?
Tagged: bounty hunter, contemporary romance, cowboys, Montana Bounty Hunters, Triplehorn Brand Posted in About books..., Contests!, Real Life | 9 People Said | Link
Last 5 people who had something to say: Tamara Kasyan - Fedora - Jo Ann White - ButtonsMom2003 - Ronda Barnes -
Friday, March 30th, 2018
I want to start by thanking Delilah for letting me come hang out here with you all today. She’s always very gracious about sharing her space, and that’s something I admire.
So, setting the mood… For a party, for a date, for a story, for romance. It’s a pretty important thing for all kinds of reasons—you don’t want the fun, happy party you’ve planned for your toddler to dissolve into the shrieks of a dozen kids when the clown you hired is too scary, right?—but in a romance novel, setting the mood can mean different things.
What sort of mood would you expect for a sweet romance? Light, not too complicated, still romantic, but nothing extreme, right?
What about romantic suspense? Generally, I would think darker, lots of tension in all situations, romantic and otherwise. Though I will say I like some lighter moments even in those sorts of stories, too. Too much non-stop tension isn’t good for reader or characters, is it?
Paranormal? One of the reasons I like those so much is they can be any mood, any tone, depending on the story. Like them dark? Plenty of choices. Lighter? Lots of those, too.
One of my favorite authors for setting the mood is not even a romance writer, but Stephen King does it so well, drawing a reader into his characters’ stories and making them feel every bit of fear they’re feeling, setting the mood so when the character is sure the monster is about to jump out at them, you feel it, too, then feel the rush of relief when it turns out not to be the monster (yet!) but just a dog or someone innocuous. I think Gerald’s Game is fantastic for that—when that book came out, my mother-in-law started reading it, but didn’t get very far, because she was too afraid, so she handed it off to me without even finishing the book. It scared me, too, and I loved every page of it.
But romance writers do it every bit as well, setting the mood for their stories, the right tone to pull readers in to meet the characters and want to know more, to have to know more. Plus we get to set the mood for other things, like falling in love, like a heroine having her heart broken to bits when it seems the romance really can’t work out. If we’re doing it right, we’re right there with them when we’re writing, the way we hope readers will be when they get their hands on our stories—appalled when one of the characters does something awkward or stupid, perhaps changing our minds about a character we were afraid couldn’t be redeemed, and most especially feeling the emotion when our characters are falling in love.
We know it isn’t supposed to be easy for them. In fact, we try very hard to make it as difficult as we can for them to get to that happy ending. But we want them to get there, so we give them the opportunity to have little moments that help them not give up, to make them want to keep fighting whatever foe they have so they can live happily ever after. Sometimes getting the mood right is easy, but sometimes it’s really hard, and the characters don’t want to cooperate—“What? You want me to fight with John? Well, I don’t want to fight. I want to step back and get some ice cream.”
For me, a good soundtrack helps with getting the mood right, but not always. Right now, I’m trying to figure out the songs that will work best to put me in the right frame of mind for the story. Plenty of good songs for a fight, so many romantic songs to sway the mind into the proper mood.
I’d like to know how you get into the right mood for your ‘story’, whether it’s household chores, or a date with your S.O. Is it music? It is a scent? Is it a piece of clothing? What can you count on to change your mood when you need to? I have a paperback copy of Hunting Medusa to give away, so everyone who comments will get their name entered into a drawing via RandomResult.com My thanks again to Delilah for letting me come and play here again.
About the Author
Elizabeth Andrews has been a book lover since she was old enough to read. She read her copies of Little Women and the Little House series so many times, the books fell apart. As an adult, her book habit continues. She has a room overflowing with her literary collection right now, and still more spreading into other rooms. Almost as long as she’s been reading great stories, she’s been attempting to write her own. Thanks to a fifth grade teacher who started the class on creative writing, Elizabeth went from writing creative sentences to short stories and eventually full-length novels. Her father saved her poor, callused fingers from permanent damage when he brought home a used typewriter for her.
Elizabeth found her mother’s stash of romance novels as a teenager, and-though she loves horror- romance became her very favorite genre, making writing romances a natural progression. There are more than just a few manuscripts, however, tucked away in a filing cabinet that will never see the light of day.
Along with her enormous book stash, Elizabeth lives with her husband of more than twenty years. When she’s not at work or buried in books or writing, there is a garden outside full of herbs, flowers and vegetables that requires occasional attention.
Hunting Medusa

The Medusa Trilogy, Book 1
When Kallan Tassos tracks down the current Medusa, he expects to find a monster. Instead he finds a wary, beautiful woman, shielded by a complicated web of spells that foils his plans for a quick kill and retrieval of her protective amulet.
Andrea Rosakis expects the handsome Harvester to go for the kill. Instead, his attempt to take the amulet imprinted on her skin without harming her takes her completely by surprise. And ends with the two of them in a magical bind—together. But Kallan isn’t the only Harvester on Andi’s trail…
Excerpt:
Andi couldn’t shake the feeling something was wrong. She’d worked into the night after the vacuum salesman’s appearance, until she couldn’t see straight to continue with her beading. Then she’d sunk into the bubble bath long enough to be nearly asleep. Today, she’d repeated everything but the bubble bath. Plus she’d driven into town to ship the big order she’d finished early.
Now she sat in the dark beside the front window, watching the forest. Waiting. Trying to convince herself nothing was coming. No one.
When the phone rang, she jumped about two feet in the air, barely keeping in a shriek. She shut her eyes and took a deep breath, forcing herself to laugh weakly as she picked up the receiver. “Hello, Aunt Lydia.” She didn’t need caller I.D. to know when one of her cousins or aunts was on the phone.
“I didn’t mean to startle you, my dear,” came the quavering voice. “I just wanted to touch base with you. It’s been ages since I’ve seen you.”
Her slightly psychic great-aunt must have spoken to Andi’s mother. “I know. I’ve been busy working.” She thought of the small stack of boxed beaded bracelets sitting on her desk upstairs for another customer whose order wasn’t even due for a month and a half. Read the rest of this entry »
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