I’m an author. There, I said it, not whispered, not ducking my head. I can’t help the flame in my cheeks. I’d happily sit back in a hole and type away at my keyboard, typing the words until they see the light of day, never seeing another soul.

One of the hardest parts? Talking about it. Putting myself out there. I don’t do it for me. I do it for my books, for my characters. They wanted their story to be told. Sometimes too many crowd my head and if I talk about it, I see that look come into people’s eyes.

Really, I’m sane. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! So, about those stories.

I’ve an affinity for dragons. They fascinate me. The myths and legends, the exotic pets, I’ve read and researched anything I can get my hands on. Yes, I own almost every Dragonology book printed. Fascinating to follow the adventures written there.

I can’t help but believe that they were real. Too many tales weave throughout history. They disappeared somehow. Okay, I see that look in your eye! Just think about it. I have.

It all comes out in my writing. Dragons and the apocalypse, my other obsession.

My series starts with the world dying, missiles exploding, disease spreading and dragons waking. You don’t see all that though. I get right into the nitty gritty of my dragons and their hunt for their fated mate. I just needed the rest to get my mind in the correct place. Starting the background for my dragons to live.

The result? Stealing Hope. Stealing Hope is an erotic paranormal romance-book one in A Dragon’s Fated Heart series.

The apocalypse has come and gone.
Those who survived learned to adapt.
Dragons awaken to once again reign over the skies.

Upon eruption of a volcano, Ari awakens to a changed world, and a knowing that his dragon’s mate is near. He saves her twice—once as a dragon, and again as a man—and wins her confidence.

Hope cried out, moaning, “just change me with pleasure?”

Hope is restless and unfulfilled until she meets Ari, the man of her fantasies. The sensual tension between them heightens with every touch. When their passion explodes, Hope gets pulled into the dragon’s mating ritual…and into a world of erotic sensation she never dreamed existed but now cannot live without. The dragon binds his mate to him with a ritual that shows Hope her true nature in this humorous erotic romance.

Links:
https://www.amazon.com/Stealing-Hope-Beverly-Ovalle-ebook/dp/B018IW60BE/
https://www.amazon.de/Stealing-Hope-English-Beverly-Ovalle-ebook/dp/B018IW60BE/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stealing-Hope-Beverly-Ovalle-ebook/dp/B018IW60BE/
https://www.amazon.ca/Stealing-Hope-Beverly-Ovalle-ebook/dp/B018IW60BE/

About the Author

Beverly Ovalle dabbled with writing on and off for years when her best friend finally dared her to submit a story to a writing contest. Beverly decided she had nothing to lose and since she’d always wanted to be an author sent it in and agonized for months waiting to hear back. Contract in hand she has never looked back.

Beverly has been obsessed with dragons and romance since she was a young girl, collecting dragon books and reading everything she could find on them even down to the care of real life dragons. She’s always been slightly panicked that the world as we know it will end, so has prepped for it, haunting survivalist pages and prepper projects she felt she needed in the event SHTF.

An avid fan of all romance, Beverly’s goal is to share her love of the written word and write the hot and erotic romances that she enjoys. She writes what she loves to read and it was only a matter of time before her obsessions crept into her writing for her to share. She hopes you enjoy her tales as much as she loves writing them.

A Navy Veteran, Beverly has traveled around the world and the United States enabling her to bring her settings to life, meeting and marrying her husband of twenty five years along the way for her own romance. Reading romances since the fourth grade she’s followed as the genre changed and spread into the vast cornucopia of romance offered today.

Contact Links:

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/BeverlyOvalleAuthor
Tsu: https://www.tsu.co/BeverlyO
Website: www.beverlyovalle.com
Blog: www.beverlyovalle.net
Blog:  https://beverlyovalleromance.blogspot.com/
Tumblr:  https://ovalleba.tumblr.com/
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ovalleba
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FatedDragons
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Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+BeverlyOvalle0211/posts
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/SSLYblog
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Blog:  https://SSLYblog.wordpress.com

Once upon a time, there was a farmer.  This farmer was very busy, because he’d been rude to his wife and she left him to fend for himself in the wilds of the wilderness, with only his little farm to keep at bay the darkness of the big, wide world around him.  Working all day didn’t help, because when he stopped work at night he still had many tasks undone.

One night, a bird flew by looking for his mate and he saw the farmer toiling in the barnyard.  He flew up to the top of the barn to watch for a while, because maybe the farmer missed some hayseeds as he raked up the bedding for the horses and fed the pigs.

After watching for a long time, the bird took pity on the man as he went from one task to the next.  He knew the farmer must be hungry, and so he went hunting for worms in the soft loam by the creek.  Just before dawn, he found it – a fat worm, just waiting to become the bird’s breakfast.  The bird caught it in his beak and flapped his way back to the farmer.  The man sat on a hay bale, watching the sun come up, and the bird arrived.  Just as he set the worm down for the man, the man let a handful of corn fall for the bird in thanks.

About this time, a lady bird saw the action of the bird and her heart swelled for she knew this would be her mate.  She flew up and alighted on the edge of the fence, watching the bird and the man.  The bird took one look at her and made a decision.  Rather than gorging on the good, sweet corn, he hopped back so she could have it.  She ate her fill and the bird – well, the bird, he got his worm.

And that’s why they say “the early bird gets his worm.”  It’s all because the farmer was rude to his wife.

—

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”
– E.E. Cummings

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Releasing March 14^th!
Tiara Giveaway!

SEVEN NIGHTS OF SIN

One night, one tryst can change everything…

Seven Sensuous stories by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Sabrina York, with bestselling and award-winning authors Maggi Andersen, Lynne Conolly, Eliza Lloyd, Suzi Love, Hildie McQueen, and Victoria Vane. Enter a world of passion and mystery where dashing heroes and dauntless heroines come together in a scorching conflagration that will will tip your world on its end.

LUSCIOUS by Sabrina York
Revenge…or redemption? Which will he choose?

ONE SCANDALOUS NIGHT by Maggi Andersen
Can one night with a rake be enough for a lifetime?

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW by Victoria Vane
 She found heaven in the devil’s arms.

UNDER A SILVER MOON by Hildie Mcqueen
The shadows of the past fall over a man and a woman attempting to start anew.

MY DEAR MR. FORRESTER by Eliza Lloyd
He can’t resist a woman in trouble. Will he ever learn?

WHAT HE WANTS by Lynne Connolly
Love hides in unexpected places…

PLEASURE HOUSE BALL by Suzi Love
Love revealed at a courtesan’s ball.

Preorder Now:

AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Nights-Sin-Bestselling-Historical-ebook/dp/B019EP2X06
iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1063152528
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/seven-nights-of-sin-victoria-vane/1123048506?ean=2940152666427
Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/seven-nights-of-sin-2

LUSCIOUS by SABRINA YORK

When Deveny Hargrove rescues a waif in a rainstorm in the middle of nowhere, he has no idea that she represents his long-awaited chance at vengeance. When she offers him her virginity—in an attempt to escape an unwanted society marriage—he has to agree. To his surprise, very little of his motivation stems from punishing her brother.

The fact is, Matilda Paddington represents his chance at revenge…or redemption…but his choice could destroy them both.

Read an excerpt

What Providence. That this man—one who, other than the beard, was perfectly acceptable for her purposes, and damn handsome to boot—should stop and pick her up?

Clearly God in heaven above was on her side.

“You do realize this is something that cannot be undone?”

She had the sense he was asking the question purely because his moral code required it. “I do.”

“You are quite young…to be making a decision that will change everything.”

“Everything?” she asked. “Do you really believe that one act changes who a person is? At their core?”

He stared at her as though stunned to hear such words from a lady’s lips. But then he said, “I certainly hope not.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Last Two People on Earth…

That phrase—“I wouldn’t (insert verb here) with you if you were the last (insert gender/sexual orientation here) on Earth!”—we’ve all shouted or thought that in frustration to someone at some point in our lives, haven’t we?

But…what if it were true?

What if that wasn’t just a line? What if you and another person actually were isolated, alone, the only two people left on the planet after a cataclysmic event? And what if you were standing there, on a lonely freeway with (randomly choosing here…) a battle-hardened Marine Sniper, and this man thinks you and he might possibly be the last two people alive on earth?

What then?

I read Stephen King’s book, The Stand, ages ago and I loved that story. I mean I loved it. I took it out and petted it. I read the book twice and watched the miniseries a few times too. What really got to me about that post apoc plague story was my fear over the scope of the disaster, the trauma over the death of most of humanity—and the echoing, hollow emptiness surrounding the meeting of two people trying to start the world over again. This somehow made their joining, their romance, more poignant and more intense. That idea has stuck in my mind ever since.

Stephen King, not being a romance writer, had very little romance in The Stand. *sniff* It was small and yes, unsatisfying in its tininess. To me, this was the book’s only flaw. The romance lover in me yearned for more. MORE ROMANCE, PLEASE! Then I thought, wait, why can’t I have more? And hence the Catastrophe series was born…

Die For You is a post-apocalyptic romance where two people have survived a world-wide viral outbreak with a 99% mortality rate. This is the story of two people who are very different, yet fall in love due to forced proximity and shared goals.

That’s the key here, two people meeting who would normally have never met.

I love these types of stories. Add road romance to the forced proximity, and I’m in romance heaven.

 What about you? Which type of forced proximity is your favorite?

Kindle | Google | BN | Kobo | ARe

Love, in a hopeless place.

Catastrophe Series, Book 1

Two months after a virus took out civilization, Rachel Donnelly is the last living soul in California, as far as she can tell. Until she runs into a Marine sniper, battle-hardened but alive and healthy.

Adam Sanchez would love nothing more than a slamming session of I-can’t-believe-we’re-alive post-apocalyptic sex in the back of his Hummer. But Rachel’s fragility, inexperience—and much younger age—hold him back from exposing her to his raw, aggressive sexuality. If anything, Rachel needs protection. Especially from himself.

As they band together with other survivors to battle feral animals, violent ex-cons, and motorcycle clubs jockeying for power, Rachel grows stronger in mind, body, and spirit—strong enough to give the dangerously sexy Marine what they both crave.

The power of their passion rocks Adam’s world, bringing him to his knees—which, he discovers too late, is the worst possible place to be when danger springs from the shadows.

Warning: Contains a sexy Marine, a tattooed ex-con, a girl who blossoms into a sexually assured young woman, laughter despite the pain, m/f/m ménage, hope, love, and more bad language and violence than are strictly necessary.

Excerpt

Rachel had a clear view of the Hummer from her driver’s side window. She watched with eyes wide as the door swung open. First one buff-colored boot hit the pavement, then a second, and a dark head rose above. The door shut and her jaw dropped.

“Shit, he’s huge,” she said.

A soldier. He wore army camouflage pants. A black T-shirt crossed his wide shoulders and covered the tops of his massive arms. He looked Hispanic with dark tanned skin and buzzed brown hair. She couldn’t see his eyes through black sunglasses. But one thing she could clearly see–he had enough firepower strapped to him and in his hands to take out a small army.

Rachel had been raised to trust and respect soldiers. Instinct told her to fling her door open and run into this man’s arms. She watched him plug a clip of ammo into his handgun and hold it up with both hands, finger on the trigger. She bit her lip, shook her head and clicked the automatic lock for all four doors. Nope. Safer to hide in the car.

He looked right at her. Uh, oh. She slumped in her seat.

A moment later, he tapped his knuckles on her window. “Ma’am? Can you hear me? Come out, it’s safe.”

Terror kept her glued to her seat. “Safe. Yeah, right,” she snorted, gripping her gun.

He brought his face level with hers and yanked off his glasses. She blinked. Her breath caught in her throat. Wow, he was handsome. No, gorgeous–gorgeous like Benjamin Bratt. And he had a wicked scar that carved down the right side of his face, which in reality, only made him more handsome, an edgy I’m-about-to-ravage-you kind of way. Coffee-brown eyes and full lips curved into a tight smile. “Ma’am? Are you okay? Are you sick? Roll down your window, please. We need to talk.”

Polite too.

“I’m not talking to you,” she muttered. “I don’t care how cute you are.”

“What?” he said. “I can’t hear you.”

His deep voice sounded soothing and trustworthy. A siren song.

She examined his face again, searching for the answer to her most burning question. Was this man a gentle giant, or trouble on two legs? Either way, ignoring him wouldn’t prevent him from shooting her in the head through the car window. Rachel decided to negotiate.

She lowered the glass an inch. “I’m not sick.”

“Good,” he sighed.

“I have a gun.”

“So do I.” He smiled. “Several.”

Her nostrils flared. She straightened her shoulders. “I’m not getting out. I’m leaving. Okay, pretty boy? You go on back to your car, and I’ll stay in mine and I’ll drive out and we’ll go our separate ways. No harm done.”

The big, scary guy frowned. “That’s not a good idea. You could get hurt on your own.”

“And I could get hurt with you. Thanks, but no thanks.”

Author Bio:

Michele Mills teaches High School English to unruly teenagers and enjoys cooking for her husband and two sons. Die For You, her new post-apocalyptic romance with Samhain releases May 2016. You can find her pretending to be professional on Twitter and Facebook.

There are so many ways to build moments that become memories. It can be something fleeting like just a brief interaction or something that occurs over time. Those moments become memories that I built. Those fond or maybe not so fond things I remember.  This is what happened the end of last year. I had great moments that became memories I will think of often.

I went on vacation. The longest one I’ve taken in years. The vacation was also different because it included two trips during the time frame. I had an enjoyable time on both.

The first part of my vacation, I traveled with my family. Over the years, I’ve become very close to a friend, who along with her siblings, have become family to me. We took a seven-day cruise to Hawaii. It was wonderful. The sights of Hawaii are something I will never forget. The food was great, especially the fruit. But it’s the camaraderie and fun I had with my family-by-choice that made this trip what it was. It wouldn’t have been as wonderful without them there with me. So I added more memories I will cherish for the rest of my life.

The second part of my trip I went home. No matter where I live now I will always call where I was originally born—home. I went to spend the holidays with my family by blood. Whenever I fly into St. Thomas (where I was born and raised), I get a little teary-eyed. As I mentioned, it was coming home. As I landed, I was irritated from the bad plane ride, but still eager and excited to see my family. This trip was special because it was the first time in a long time I was home for Christmas.  I yelled that, too. 🙂 I love being home for the holidays. There’s nothing like Christmas at home. I had such an awesome time, and again made some memories that will last me the rest of my life.

I’ve talked many times about moments and memories and appreciating them. That trip was chock full of moments, which are now memories, that I took time to enjoy. There are many moments you have in life that will add to your memories.  Live and enjoy each and everyone.

* * * * *

Taige Crenshaw has been enthralled with the written word from time she picked up her first book.  It wasn’t long before she started to make up her own tales of romance. With  interracial and multicultural novels set in today, in alternate dimensions, or in the future she writes with adventure, fun sassy heroine’s, and sexy hero’s. Always hard at work creating new and exciting places Taige can be found curled up with a hot novel with exciting characters when she is not creating her own. Join her in the fun, frolic, interesting people and far reaches of the world in her novels.

You can find out more about Taige at her website: https://www.taigecrenshaw.com or blog: https://www.taigecrenshaw.com/blog. Also find her on facebook at her page

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Taige-Crenshaw/110652119026620 and facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/CrenshawCafe/. Or twitter: @ https://twitter.com/TaigeCrenshaw.

Taken By You – When friends learn that sometimes desire doesn’t care about friendships or partnerships and passion can’t be controlled, who will be the first to succumb to being taken?

All Romance Ebook: Buy Taken by You https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-takenbyyou-1949518-149.html

Amazon: Buy Taken by You – https://amzn.to/1Q1qzeN

You may have heard a version of the old saying, “You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family.” Depending how we look at it, we can find more than one meaning behind the saying.

More than a dozen years ago, my husband and I moved twenty-five hundred miles away from home to a place where we knew absolutely no one. This was a first for me, because even after we were married and moved from our hometown, we lived within a forty-five minute drive of both our families.

After we relocated across the country, I was grateful for the chance to make new friends and really don’t know what I would have done without them in my life. Over time, some of these friends have become just as close as family to us.

That’s the good part about choosing friends that become like family: family can be where you find it—which is the theme of many of my stories.

In one of my books, A Rancher’s Pride, the hero discovers he’s the daddy of a deaf five-year-old girl he has never known about. With the help of the heroine, he learns to communicate with and love his little girl. In another book, Rancher at Risk, the hero has lost his wife and young child in an accident and is now in danger of losing his job and his self-respect. During his story he has to accept a possibility he has always rejected—that he’s capable of finding a new love and creating another family.

On the other hand, there can be another, less happy angle to the saying above…the part about not being able to choose your family. Some of my books address that, too. They would have to, wouldn’t they? Because if family’s where you find it, that includes the family you were born into. As Dorothy says in The Wizard of Oz, “There’s no place like home.”

This is true for the three granddaughters in my current series, The Hitching Post Hotel. It’s also true…though a little frustrating…for the heroine of Family Matters, Kerry MacBride, who comes from a large and somewhat eccentric Irish family. She often wishes she could give up her family—at least temporarily. Here’s a little clue as to why she feels that way:

Kerry knew better than to risk a run-in with a police officer. But Uncle Bren? And Gran? Much as she loved them both, it wouldn’t surprise her to find either of them in trouble.

She burst through the doorway into the game room, skidded to a halt on the polished tile floor, and confronted chaos.

The room overflowed with people, all yelling at once. The loudest roar came from a dark-haired man tall enough to dwarf Uncle Bren’s near-six-foot frame. The man, slim but muscular in a pearl-gray suit, looked ready to split the jacket’s seams with his wide-armed gestures.

Thank goodness, Gran stood safely out of his reach. But Uncle Bren, hemmed in by the crowd, faced the brunt of the stranger’s anger.

Even without her years of artistic training, Kerry would have seen something wrong with this picture.

“Excuse me,” she said, using her project-to-the-back-of-the-classroom tone. “What do you think you’re doing?”  The question drowned out every voice in the room. The shouting subsided and every head turned her way.

As she moved forward, people parted, allowing her to pass.

The man now faced Kerry, his eyes dark with anger. She caught her breath at the fury in his expression but didn’t break stride until she’d reached him.

Looking up–way up–she met his gaze. “What’s going on here?”

After a long, tense silence, he answered, his tone level. “We’re holding a meeting.”

She widened her eyes. “It sounded to me more like having an argument.”

Behind him, Uncle Bren stood unmoving but nodded in confirmation. Trust him to let her pick up the problem and run with it.

*~*~*

Family is where you find it. That could mean bonding with your brother, a distant cousin, your BFF, or a person who’s nearly a stranger to you at this moment.

I’m giving away an autographed print copy of Family Matters to one reader. (US mailing addresses only, please). To get your name in the hat, tell us about a friend you consider as close as family. If that doesn’t apply to you, tell us a quality you look for in a friend.

Leave your comment by Friday, and a winner’s name will be posted in the comments over the weekend.

About the Author

Barbara White Daille lives with her husband in the sunny Southwest. Though they love the warm winters and the lizards in their front yard, they haven’t gotten used to the scorpions in the bathroom.

The latest book in Barbara’s The Hitching Post Hotel series is The Lawman’s Christmas Proposal. The next book, Cowboy in Charge, debuts in July 2016, with other books to follow. Her first book, The Sheriff’s Son, has just been reissued in both larger print and a new e-book version, available exclusively from Harlequin. The original version is also still available at most major e-tailers, including Amazon.

Find Barbara online:
Website  https://www.barbarawhitedaille.com
Newsletter  https://www.barbarawhitedaille.com/newsletter
Twitter  https://twitter.com/BarbaraWDaille
Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/barbarawhitedaille

Find Family Matters online:
https://amzn.com/B0041KLD7E

Thanks for having me as a guest, Delilah.

I’d like to introduce my upcoming release, currently on pre-order, Book 5 in the Beachcomber Investigations romantic detective series, BEACHCOMBER TROUBLE.

The series follows volatile partners Dane Blaise and Shana George as they take on cases that always seem to turn into missions. They also take on each other, battling their irrepressible attraction as they try to maintain their puzzling relationship.

Neither Dane nor Shana are sure why they stay together, but they can’t seem to get along, they can’t seem to squelch their desire and they can’t ever seem to tear them selves away from their commitment to have each other’s back.

Beachcomber Trouble

Out of the blue, ex-special ops legend Dane Blaise receives a CIA coded message for Trouble. It’s a call to help an old associate of his—Oscar. Dane had no idea his partner, ex-Scotland Yard detective, Shana George knew Oscar too. Even though Dane suspects Oscar’s CIA handler, Floyd Parker, is not to be trusted, Dane answers the call.

Dane didn’t know that Shana answered the call too–and that the trap was set and the trouble was about to go from bad to the worst possible trouble of all.

Get your copy here!

About USA Today Bestselling Author Stephanie Queen

A romantic at heart and a writer by nature, Stephanie Queen has the enthusiastic soul of a cheerleader. So of course she loves creating stories where the good guys always win. Although she’s lost count of all the jobs she had before she settled on being a Novelist, her favorite was selling cookies as a Keebler Elf. She is a graduate of UConn (go Huskies!) and Harvard U and lives in New Hampshire with her family, her cat, Kitty, and her (real or imagined?) chauffeur, Myren.

Links:
StephanieQueen.com
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