UPDATE: The winner is…Sandy Pennese!
*~*~*

August

Work-related:

1. I began work on Book #2 of We Are Dead Horse, MT — Hard Knox!
2. I completed 4 editing projects for other authors in August.

Health-related:

1. I’ve been swimming almost every day. Sometimes, twice a day.
2. Through medicines and some diet tweaking, I’ve managed to keep my blood pressure down to 130-150. There’s been an occasional spike, but it’s so much better.
3. My appointment with my heart doctor went so well I don’t have to see him again for 6 months!

Happiness-related: 

1. I helped get the kids ready for the school year, including the 19-year-old who began college this month! In fact, she made the Pom Squad!
2. I have been working on and making more great progress organizing my art room, getting ready for the next push for art shows and reopening my Etsy store. I have accumulated the supplies I need to begin painting in encaustic wax.
3. I finished the Inchie Challenge! These are tiny 2×2-inch paintings. Here are a few examples…

September

 

For work-related, I plan:

1. To complete writing Hard Knox, the next in my We Are Dead Horse, MT series which releases on September 12th!
2. To release my short story from Silver Soldiers—“Ripples”—in a special giveaway the first weekend of September!
3. To complete (taking a deep breath) 6 editing projects in September! I’ll be a complete zombie by the end of the month!

For health related, I plan:

1. To swim at least once a day—as long as the pool remains warm enough!
2. To restart counting points for my Weight Watchers diet and hopefully shed at least 5 pounds, remembering, as always: Slow is good!
3. To continue to reduce salt, processed food, and incorporate foods good for blood pressure (spinach, broccoli, bananas).
4. To begin walking and counting my steps (once the weather cools).
5. To do more housework because my art room isn’t finished! Cleaning is exercise, too.

For happiness-related, I plan: 

1. To spend quality time with the family—movie nights, swim-time, making fun meals together!
2. To visit my sister in North Arkansas for a “writers’ retreat.”
3. To work on art and jewelry-making to get ready for the Art Festival in October!

Contest

Comment on anything you’ve read in this post. Tell me what you’re doing to make yourself happier and healthier. Tell me what you plan to read in September…
Like I said, comment on anything for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Steph!
*~*~*

On September 12th, the next book in my new We Are Dead Horse, MT, series, Hard Knox, releases! So, I thought it was time for you to meet my main characters. I’ve included a snippet below for you! In the opening, we’re treated to a bit of Carleen Crossley’s mindset. She’s a woman on a mission to capture the one man she can’t have: Knox Ramsey. Carleen has no inhibitions or shame when it comes to her pursuit, much to the town’s enjoyment.

If you’ve read the books in the Montana Bounty Hunters: Dead Horse, MT, you’ve seen Carleen in some of the later stories in the series. Plus, she appears in Book #1 of the new series, Cold Hard Cash. Let’s just say, Carleen knows how to make an impression.

Meet Carleen…

Knox Ramsey was a man most folks in Dead Horse, Montana, shied away from. His tall, burly frame was imposing enough. Add the dark eyebrows that seemed perpetually lowered over his nearly black, piercing eyes and his huge, meaty fists, and he made most folks shiver with dread whenever his gaze swung their way.

However, Carleen Crossley wasn’t “most folks.” When she looked at Knox, she shivered the same as anyone, but for a very different reason. To her, Knox was The One.

She’d known it since she was a teenager, working after school to earn money for her cheerleading outfits. Knox hadn’t been the one to hire her—his mother, Dorothea Ramsey, had for no other reason than to annoy her son. Plus, she’d placed Carleen in the front office, doing little tasks that didn’t really need doing in a rough and tumble place like the Ride or Die Body and Repair Shop—like filing (who needed paperwork unless you wanted the grease-grimed fingerprints for a forensics audit), janitorial work (again, years’ worth of engine oil and grease couldn’t be wiped away with a little or a lot of degreasers), and making coffee (she had never mastered making the sludge Knox thought of as an actual beverage).

Even when she’d been sixteen, she’d recognized his appeal by the way her ovaries cramped in his presence. As she’d grown older, she’d noted other “proof,” like how her nipples beaded hard and her cheeks and groin got hot just being in his presence. She could feel him the moment he came into her vicinity. The air hummed with electricity. Her sex gave her warning, too, instantly softening and getting wet. When she turned and met that black gaze, her heart would stutter and then pound. Whatever she was doing, whatever thought was flitting through her mind, ground to a halt as she took him in. Looking at him was like downing a shot of whiskey—bracing and exhilarating.

Knox, with his deadly glare and biker’s windswept hair, was a bad boy through and through. And she had a mighty thirst for the biggest, baddest boy in Dead Horse, Montana.

Too bad the man didn’t feel the same way about her. After years of flaunting her body and seeking ways to slide up against him to tempt him, he still managed to deflect her affections.

Not that Carleen was ready to give up…

*~*~*

If you haven’t already pre-ordered your copy—here’s the link: Hard Knox

Contest

For a chance to win your choice of story in the Montana Bounty Hunters series or a copy of Cold Hard Cash, let me know if you’ve read any of the stories, and if you have, which was your favorite?

I struggled for a few months at the end of last year and the beginning of 2023. I wasn’t feeling well, broke a hand. Wasn’t motivated. I missed a couple of releases. One, I’m not sure I’ll ever write. The other, Hard Knox, felt…off. I wasn’t ready to write it because it wasn’t where I needed to start my We Are Dead Horse, MT series. So, I took the hit for Hard Knox and moved on to Mica, which I loved writing. I was back with my bounty hunters in my comfort zone. Only then was I ready to tackle Cold Hard Cash, which became the first book in the new series centered around the “townies.” In Cash’s story, you see plenty of Knox and Carleen who are the stars of Hard Knox. I hope you’ll be ready for them because it’s going to be HAWT! It’s out on pre-order now! AGAIN.

Remember, I have the next bounty hunter book, Jackson, coming out in July! I’m writing that story as we speak, and you know what you get with the hunters—lots of action, humor, and sexiness!

A few days ago, I was also given back the rights to a novella that had appeared in the Men in Uniform anthology, published by Entangled a few years ago. My sister, Elle James, put together a new cover for the book, and now, it’s up for pre-order. If you love Navy SEALs, this story is for you. There’s some military complex criming going on, perpetrated by the heroine’s billionaire ex-fiancé, who’s building some high-tech armor for the battlefield—but you’ll need to read the story to see how it all goes down.

Coming June 27th!

Pre-order your copy now!

Coming July 11th!

Pre-order now!

Coming September 12th!

Pre-order Now!

Just me, cheering because my book is out!

Get your ebook copy here!
Get your print copy here!
Read an excerpt here!

UPDATE: The winner is…Jennifer Beyer!
*~*~*

Today’s graduation day for LaLa, so I’m squeezing in a blog and then going silent for the rest of the day!

As you probably know, I have the first book in my We Are Dead Horse series releasing on Tuesday. I’m so eager for you to meet Cash and Lila, and see what shenanigans the townsfolk get up to. If you’ve read my latest bounty hunter stories, you know the town is full of eccentric characters.

One plug for my book, and then on to the puzzle!

Pre-order your copy of COLD HARD CASH now!

The wealthiest man in Dead Horse, MT, decides it’s time to acquire a wife and gives his eminently efficient personal assistant the task of finding the perfect candidate…

The wealthiest man in Dead Horse, MT, Cash Whitaker, decides it’s time to find a wife before he begins his campaign for mayor. He figures having the right wife will increase his likability as a candidate. Becoming the mayor is important because the office will give him the power to protect his town by cleaning out the bounty hunters, who aren’t “Dead Horse” and have put his town on the map for all the wrong reasons.

Being a busy man and knowing his particular skill set doesn’t lend itself to the task, he decides to give the responsibility of finding a wife to his highly efficient personal assistant. He’ll let her put together a list of suitable candidates for him to sort through to find the woman who will help him on the path to his ultimate goal of becoming the governor of Montana.

Lila Hanson is spitting mad that her boss wants her to find him a wife. The single mom has spent two years becoming his ultimate asset, only to have him completely overlook her as the perfect candidate. When she turns to her girl squad to vent, they suggest a plan to open the clueless man’s eyes to what’s right in front of him.

However, a tragic incident throws both their plans into chaos and brings a new intimacy neither can ignore. Now, they have to work together to save an orphaned child.

Pre-order here!
FREE in KU!!
Read the opening here!

Contest

Solve the puzzle! It’s a gorgeous landscape, like one you might see if you lived in Dead Horse! Then tell me whether you’ve read my bounty hunters and/or are eager to start this new series for a chance to win a $5 Amazon GC!