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

I unplugged completely yesterday. I had to make a trip in the morning to the cancer center an hour away for a shot to boost my white cell count. I still felt sick as a dog, so the winding roads to get to Hot Springs just about killed me. When I got home, I went straight to bed and pretty much stayed there all day. I didn’t turn on my computer even once.

I’m still not feeling great, but I’ll try to get a few high priority tasks out of the way before I take a pain pill and sleep away the day. The pain is from the chemo, not the cancer. My feet are cramped with charley horses constantly. My legs have painful spasms. I have a headache, a slight fever… I could go on and on. And I think I just did. 🙂

My daughter decorated for Christmas early the last couple of days, so I did sit for a little while watching as she hustled around, setting up all her treasures. We have numerous trees, nutcrackers, gnomes, townscapes, etc. We like our Christmas decorations and try to stretch the season as much as we can. My dd and oldest granddaughter then watched a Hallmark Christmas movie. I tried to stick it with them but ended up heading back to bed a third of the way in. Hopefully, I’ll start feeling better soon. My next treatment is the Monday of Thanksgiving week. I’ll be completely miserable for the holiday.

Anyway, enough of the health (unhealth?) update. We have some Saturday fun to begin!

Saturday Puzzle-Contest — Thanksgiving Prep!

Now that the Christmas decorations are up, my daughter is turning her attention to the Thanksgiving feast. She has a very detailed plan, which includes her shopping list, the times she has to put certain foods on to cook, recipes for the dishes, etc. She even has a shelf in the pantry that she’s cleared to hold her ingredients. Her Uber-plan works. For the past three Thanksgivings, her meal has been superb.

For you U.S.-residents, do you go all-out for Thanksgiving? For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me about your Thanksgiving preparations. And if you’re not in the U.S., do you have a similar feast?

Are you still adjusting to the time shift? It’s lighter earlier, but that also means it gets darker earlier in the evening. Oh, let’s be real! By five o’clock, you have to turn on the lights. One of the benefits of chilly autumn evenings is the opportunity to curl up with a good book…or even better, a great series.

USA Today bestselling author Desiree Holt published close to 300 titles across multiple genres, including military romantic suspense, contemporary, western, sports, and paranormal romance. Her legacy includes the bestselling Phoenix Agency series.

If you haven’t escaped into this thrilling world of military heroes and the women they love, start with Color of Darkness, a free short story in the Phoenix Agency world.

The Phoenix Agency

They served their country in every branch of the military—army Delta Force, SEALs, air force, marines. They are pilots, snipers, medics—whatever the job calls for. And now as civilians they serve in other capacities, as private consultants training security for defense contractors, as black-ops combatants eradicating drug dealers, as trained operatives ferreting out traitors.

With the women in their lives, each of whom have a unique psychic ability, they are a force to be reckoned with. And now, risen from the ashes of war, they will commit to continue fighting the battle on all fronts. No challenge is too great, no situation to unimportant. They will come together to form a unit that gives new breath to their mission in life.

They are Phoenix.

Jungle Inferno
Extrasensory
Scent of Danger
Freeze Frame
Feel the Heat
Formula for Danger
Unexpected Risk
Color of Darkness
Phoenix Rises

Available on Amazon

UPDATE: The winner is…Cindy!
*~*~*

For my own health, I have to tune out, unplug, and turn away my gaze. I have to find ways to re-center myself. I’ve faced a lot since late summer. I’ve come to terms with my personal battle. I worry about the family I’ll leave behind, but I have to show them how to get through hard times and, more importantly, how to stay happy and together.

So, I put together my little list of things I am going to concentrate on for a while. For a chance to win your choice of a download of one of my stories, what would you add to this list?

For you U.S. citizens, today’s the day. Thankfully, some chose to vote early. Our family lives in a rural area, so our polling place is never too busy.

Yesterday was chemotherapy day, and yes, I feel like hell today. However, my family, at least all four voters, is going together to vote this morning. I’ll stay in bed until time to go, then drag my ass there.

I hope you all vote. For a grandmother of five granddaughters, there’s not been a more important election.

UPDATE: The winners are…Debra Guyette & Mary McCoy!
*~*~*

Hello, everyone! First, a huge thank you to Delilah for letting me join in the fun. I’ve been following this blog for a while and finally found my motivation to write about my experience.

When I set out to write my first novel almost a decade ago, I figured it would take all my efforts just to write a Regency romance that balanced the more erotic components I wanted with a full-fledged romantic arc.

However, my brain would not let me stop there. As a modern woman who’d had a thirty-year career in corporate America, I kept wanting the women to have more power.

So entered the idea of a secret school for young women that would teach them everything from household and money management to owning their own pleasure, and thus, the School of Enlightenment series was created.

But what Regency men would love these women? Imagining that they’d also need to be ahead of their time, I dove into Parliamentary laws and scientific developments. My contemporary perspective drove me to focus on those that impacted women, children, and the working class.

Here are a few significant events I mention in my books:

• Corn Laws – In an effort to combat imported grains competition to British farms, The Corn Laws were passed in 1814. These helped only the landowners of the farms, not the agricultural laborers, and caused more extreme poverty for the working class.
• Insolvent Debtors Act of 1813 – This was the first step in Poor Law reform, relieving the overcrowded prisons by releasing debtors if they could reach an agreement with their creditor regarding the distribution of present and future assets. There were further reforms proposed and a few passed, although greater reform did not come until the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, which standardized the treatment of debtors and the use of workhouses. Prior to that it had been up to the parishes throughout Britain and varied widely.
• Macadam roads – Principal routes were dirt until the first few years of the 19^th century when John McAdam’s innovative ‘paving’ was implemented. This was the precursor of what we consider ‘chip and seal’ and saved many horses and carriages from accidents due to poor road conditions in bad weather.
• Steam engines – Steam engines had begun development centuries ago, but in the early 19^th century they became more viable for commercial use – in factories, boats, and locomotives.
• Salamanca – The first commercial steam locomotive, which ran between Middleton and Leeds.
• Robert Owen – Welsh textile manufacturer who was a philanthropist and founder of utopian socialism and the co-operative movement. Even as a factory owner, he led reforms in working conditions, child labor, and life-long education. He was famous for the slogan, “eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest,” and helped get the Cotton Mills and Factories Act of 1819 passed.

After my school-focused series, I continued to search for ways to write women’s independence. In my most recent book, Charlotte’s Control, the widow Charlotte has a knack for investing and does not need to worry about money, but she hungers for the educational opportunities afforded to men in secondary school and university. Most classes were taught in Latin, so she wants to learn that. William, an Oxford student, helps teach her using ancient poets:

• Catullus – (full name Gaius Valerius Catullus Carmina) who wrote sexually explicit (for Roman times) poetry and was a contemporary of Virgil.
• Ovid – The Heroides (Epistulae Heroidum) and Ars amatoria.
• Homer – The Odyssey, both the Pope translation and the Chapman translation, as well as Keats’ poem about the latter.
• Chaucer – Canterbury Tales, from which I drew snippets particularly about the Squire, the Prioress, the Knight, the Reeve, and reference a debate between William and Charlotte over the Wife of Bath.

For giggles, I also created this as an older woman/younger man age gap romance with a bit of femdomme sprinkled in.

Charlotte’s Control

A young rake soon to inherit an impoverished estate…a lonely widow unable to produce an heir…a love they must forsake.

Widowed at thirty, Charlotte, Dowager Countess of Peterborough, finds herself on the lonely edge of Society, caught between the young chits vying for a husband and older matrons. In a moment of vulnerability, she meets a young rake who tempts her to forget propriety and reclaim her feminine powers of seduction…for a while. Their affair can only last until he marries a wealthy debutante who can give him what Charlotte cannot. An heir.

In his final year at Oxford, William Stanton, heir to the Earl of Harrington, is forced to manage the earldom for his drunken father and provide for his family. With the prospect of an advantageous marriage looming in his future, he yearns for the frivolity of his peers. But when he encounters a lovely widow, he’s drawn to her keen mind as much as he is to her beauty. She believes they are destined to part. To keep her, he must battle Fate, time, and the rules of Society that conspire against them.

Get your copy here!

Contest

To win your choice of one of my ebooks, tell me your favorite older woman / younger man romance or your favorite femdomme romance. (Also a sneaky way for me to find new fun books.) Giveaway will be open for one week from the date of posting.

For more about Maggie, visit:
Website: https://maggiesims.com
Newsletter signup for a free novella: https://maggiesims.com/newsletter-signup/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maggiesims.author/
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/maggie-sims
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4092694.Maggie_Sims
TikTok (sometimes): https://www.tiktok.com/@maggiesims.author

Report Card

Last week…

1. I worked on edits for one author.
2. I worked on revisions of The Demon Lord’s Cloak, which releases November 12th. Have you pre-ordered your copy? 
3. I worked on revisions of the first chapters of Ignition to help me get back into the story while cleaning up my nits.
4. I had a CT scan with contrast to see how chemo is working for me. I read the report and can see two cool findings. The “shadow” on my spine is gone, and the “bubble” on my liver is gone. I can’t tell much about the cancer in my ovaries, uterus, and omentum. The doctor will have to tell me all about that when I see him tomorrow.
5. I was able to work past noon every day—sometimes, even coming back to work a bit in the evenings. That extra week of recovery I got when they cancelled my treatment on Monday (due to my low platelet count) was a blessing.

This next week…

1. I’m back in the chemo chair on Monday for another round of infusions. I’ve put a few things on my work schedule for the week anyway. I’m stubborn like that.
2. I don’t care how crappy I feel the day after chemo, I’m voting on Tuesday!
3. I’ll be finishing edits for one author and beginning edits for two others this week. Not huge page count goals, but I need to chip away at them.
4. I’ll continue trying to work on editing the pages I’ve already written for Ignition and, hopefully, finishing a new chapter.
5. I’ll complete revisions of The Demon Lord’s Cloak and upload it to Amazon. 
6. I’m going to participate in NaNoWriMo this year, even knowing there’s no way in hell I can hit the 50,000 words in November goal. Whatever wordcount I achieve will be a victory.

Open Contests

Be sure to check out these posts and enter to win the prizes that are still up for grabs!

1. Lacey Davis: Enchanted Deadlines (Contest + Excerpt) — This one ends soon! Win two FREE books!
2. Saturday Puzzle-Contest: Trick or Treat! Favorite Halloween Treats! This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
3. Anna Taylor Sweringen/Michal Scott: Nannie Helen Burroughs – Specializing in the Wholly Impossible (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
4. October into November (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
5. Puzzle-Contest: Hello November! — And a Reminder! — Win an Amazon gift card!

He’s the best man I’ve ever known. He came from very humble beginnings, joined the Air Force to make a better life for himself, and sent money back to his parents to provide for them, even after he married my mother. He loved my mother, gave her a good life, and built the house I live in now with his own hands.  We lost him in 2019, and we miss him. And if I tend to write heroes who are quiet and stoic and brave, well, I had a great role model.

It’s his birthday today, and I’ll be thinking about him.