First of all, a huge thank you to the lovely Delilah Devlin for hosting me here today. It is a privilege to guest blog on a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author’s site!! The opportunity is very much appreciated.

So my topic today is…If you could go anywhere, where would you go?

In his song, Rocky Mountain High, John Denver sings about coming home to a place he’d never been before.  I recently felt that way while doing research for my Red Masks series now available through Ellora’s Cave.  The series is set in Charleston South Carolina, and after doing a ton research into the city I became fascinated with the place.

Row upon row of historic houses line The Battery, a beautiful promenade that was originally built as a defensive seawall and named after an artillery battery that was set up there during the Civil War. This part of town also holds the White Point Garden that was so named because of the sun-bleached oyster shells once found along the shore.

Charleston also has its own French Quarter, which is still located within the original walled city and boasts cobblestoned streets and gas lit alleyways. This is where the inspiration came for making Manette and Thibaut Brisson the owners of the notorious Gaston Plantation and its private Red Masks Club, and giving them their French-American heritage.

There are several plantations near the city with immaculately kept gardens and moss covered trees. And I have heard there may be ghosts haunting several of the sites—war-torn lovers who wait eternally to be reunited and the spirits of slaves who haunt the grounds of their former owners in search of freedom…or revenge.

Charleston is an international travel destination that has been named one of the top cities to visit in the United States, so where better to set a series of books whose characters come from all different parts of the world? Zayne Saladar in Master of Silk hails from the Middle-East, and his belly-dancing wife—Isabella Seda—has Spanish ancestry, while both Sakura and Ian Hideo Shoji of Binding Cherry Blossoms are of Japanese descent.

After looking at picture after picture of the beautiful city and reading the descriptions of its historic districts and sultry sea breezes, I am completely enamored of the place, although I have never once set foot in the town. To remedy that, hubby and are planning a trip to Charleston in September so I can stroll down the streets I have written about and hear the water crash along the shore.

What about you? Anywhere in the world you have read, seen or heard about that makes you ready to plan your next vacation? Are you addicted to a certain place on the Travel Channel, or catch every episode of House Hunting where that particular city is featured? Stop by and let me know. I will be giving away a couple of copies of Roar of Thunder, the most recent release of my Red Masks series, along with some lovely red costume masks and pretty red mask bracelets.

Roar of Thunder

Book 5 in the Red Masks series

After a disastrous tour of duty in Afghanistan, wounded veteran Thibaut Brisson returns home as half-owner of the Red Mask BDSM club. But a severe case of PTSD leaves the Dominant surly, sleepless and sexually impotent.

After long months of nightmares, Ty finally allows himself to submit to the beautiful Domina Grace Heathcastle, hoping a session beneath her whip will allow him to release his pent-up fury. But he makes it clear he will not submit to her forever.

Once a submissive herself, Grace switched sides after a bad relationship left her injured. She knows Ty needs someone strong enough to break through his resistance, but she finds herself doubting her dominance—especially after a night of submissive pleasure in his arms.

Who will eventually win the war when Dominant and Domina battle for position?

Reader Advisory: This story has graphic sexual language and scenes—no closed bedroom doors (or other rooms) here!

A Romantica® contemporary erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave

For buy links, excerpts, and my other books:  www.GiaDawn.com

Thanks so very much!!  Gia Dawn

When I’m working in my office I generally have the television on.  It’s a rather bad habit I started as a teenager.  I’m not really watching it’s simply background noise.  The other day I happened to notice The Thirteenth Warrior was on.  It’s an interesting movie based on the book Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton.  It stars Antonio Banderas as an Arab assisting a company of Norseman in stopping an ancient evil plaguing a Norse village.  In one scene the warriors go out in search of the enemy and Banderas’ character asks “Have we anything resembling a plan?”  I’d like to put that saying on my phone and computer as an audio reminder to make a daily plan.

Like most people, I have a very busy life.  I have a full-time day job, a family, a large garden, pets, children, grandchildren, and writing deadlines.  The only way I can keep it together and meet all my obligations is to plan.

I plan out my meals a week in advance.  This way I know when to take out the frozen meat or when to do any other preparation that the meal requires.  It also helps when I go to the store.  I know what we are eating and I’ve checked my cupboards before I leave so I only buy what I need and don’t waste time or money.

For my garden, I begin planning in the fall.  This way I know what I’m going to grow next year so I can order all my seeds ahead of time.  Since I do most of my own starter plants I can set up a schedule for planting the seeds so I have seedlings ready to go into the ground as soon as the weather permits.

When I work on a story I do the same thing and start with a plan.  I make character sheets for my main and secondary characters, an outline of what the story is about, and a list of any research I need to do.  I find I can write much faster this way and don’t end up running off on a tangent.

Like I said, I try to plan.  It doesn’t always work, but when things go wrong I have some sort of structure so the wheels don’t completely come off the wagon.

Do you try to make a plan?

Augustina Van Hoven
Proving Love is Strange
THE KISS OF A ROSE – Now available
www.augustinavanhoven.com
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Augustina-Van-Hoven-Author/336028986575129
Twitter:  @augustinavhoven

A DISTANT PAST

In 1882, Rose Van Buren loved the wrong man and paid for it with her life. Now, more than a century later, the angel Gabriel has granted her another shot at living. In exchange, she must convince a smart, handsome, up-and-coming lawyer to set aside his lofty ambitions.

A FUTURE PRESENT

Stephen Winship is headed straight for the governor’s chair. He has a brilliant career, solid allies, and a seemingly perfect girlfriend. But night after night he finds himself dreaming of a heavenly beauty, a luminous but long-dead girl. Like some altered Ghost of Christmas Past, she shows him her own tragic tale in order to “save him.” And he’s beginning to see Rose is risking her heart as much as baring her soul. Yet falling for her will cost him everything—and open him up to a happiness he never imagined.

The second book in the series, THE THORN OF A ROSE, is coming out this fall

Hi, Readers!  We’ll be chatting today about one of my favorite subjects:  romance.  I’m betting at least a few of you will be able to relate.

Sometimes I think we read romance to fall in love with *love*.  Know what I mean?

When we’ve had a hard day, a spat with our partner, a tough time with the kids, or added stress at the day job, escaping into a story can be just the thing we need.  Watching the hero and heroine deal with life’s troubles, large or small, gives us hope we can overcome our problems, too.  And seeing them work their way to a happy ever after reinforces the power of love.

Sometimes, I think we also read romance to fall in love with the *hero*.  At least, I know I do!

For me, that usually means a cowboy because, hey, what’s not to like about a down-to-earth, rugged rancher in form-fitting jeans?  LOL  But if you’re not that into cowboys, feel free to substitute the hunk hero of your choice.

Whether the guy’s a cowboy or cop, doctor, baseball player, or rich playboy, he’ll be easy to love if he’s an all-star kisser who turns us inside-out with one long, soulful glance from his smoldering eyes.

Easy for *us* to love, that is.  The heroine…not so much.

The heroine can’t just give in and fall for our hero.  She’s got to face the fire because *we* need to be kept guessing.  And, like us, she’s got to solve those large and small life problems before she arrives at her happy ending…before she seals the deal with a kiss from her [insert hero of your choice].  : )

~~

Here’s a quick peek at the hero and heroine from A Rancher of Her Own, which releases next week. Pete and Jane haven’t spoken to each other in years, but their mutual antagonism flares to life the first time they meet again:

“That was my first full-time job,” he told her. “I was trying to make an impression.”

“Oh, you did that, all right. I’m glad you didn’t say ‘a good impression,’ because you didn’t come close to one. I don’t like men—people—who think they can order others around. And you definitely had a case of that back then.”

“I was in charge of the horses—”

“Under my grandpa’s direction.”

“—and watching out for them was part of my job.”

“He’s given you another job now, too, so he tells me.”

“Yeah. Playing nursemaid.”

“Thanks, old man,” she shot back, “but I don’t need that kind of help. An assistant is more like it. What’s the matter? Is the job beneath you?” She shrugged. “If you don’t like the idea, I won’t have a problem getting someone else.”

He’d bet she wouldn’t. As long as she managed to keep that smart yet sexy mouth of hers shut, any of his boys would be happy to assist her. He wouldn’t.

But turning down his boss’s order wasn’t an option.

~~
I’m happy to chat.

Also, I’m giving away an autographed print copy of one of my available backlist titles (US mailing addresses only, please).  To get your name in the hat, tell us:  when you read romance, what type of conflict do you like best and why? 

You have till Friday!  Winner’s name will be posted this weekend.

~~

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.

Barbara’s new series, The Hitching Post Hotel, features a matchmaking grandpa determined to see his three granddaughters wed. The series began in April 2015 with The Cowboy’s Little Surprise and continues with A Rancher of Her Own in July and The Lawman’s Christmas Proposal in December.

Find Barbara at the following locations:

Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Newsletter ~ Blog ~ Amazon ~ Harlequin ~ Goodreads

A Rancher of Her Own

A REASON TO STAY

Ranch manager Pete Brannigan has no interest in playing tour guide to a city slicker like Jane Garland. But spending a few days with the headstrong photographer is a small price to pay for everything her grandfather has given the single dad. Though Pete’s drawn to Jane’s sharp wit and striking beauty, he won’t hurt his young children by falling for another woman who puts her career before family.

Jane’s seen the world through her camera…and used it to shield her emotions. With Pete, she can finally let her guard down. If only he could do the same. Despite their powerful bond, Pete still can’t trust Jane with his kids or his heart. But if he keeps pushing her away, he may ruin any chance their relationship has to develop.

Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Books-A-Million ~ Harlequin ~ IndieBound ~ Kobo

It’s Written In The Stars

Have you ever heard that line? Or, how about one of these…

Star-crossed lovers

Born under an unlucky star

Thank your lucky stars

As authors, we create stories around these themes every day.

Everyone has heard of astrology, but often people equate it with a sun sign column in a magazine or newspaper, or on a website. We ask, ‘what’s your sign?’ at a party as a social icebreaker even though we don’t know much about what it means to have your Sun in Leo or Libra.

This sun sign type of astrology is the tip of a vast iceberg. There are countless forms of astrology, many of which originated in ancient Eurasia, India, China and Egypt. In the western world, Tropical Astrology is the system most commonly used nowadays.

Long ago, astronomy and astrology were considered two aspects of one sacred science, the study of stars and planets, and their effects on humanity and earthly events. Johannes Kepler, Benjamin Franklin, and Aristotle are just a few famous names. It is rarely mentioned that they were astrologers. In more recent times, J.P. Morgan had a personal astrologer, as did Nancy and Ronald Reagan.

Along came the dark ages, and suddenly astrology was treated as unworthy of being considered a science. It was relegated to the questionable category of fortune-telling and was discouraged by many in both church and government.

Astrology empowers us. It is a science built on symmetry, geometry and precision. It is a snapshot in time of where the planets and fixed stars were at the time and place we were born. It helps us understand our personal cycles. Just think of the power at our fingertips from just knowing our strengths and weaknesses by knowing our cycles. We can know when to tap into our cycles of good fortune and when it’s best to lie low during times of turbulence.

Each planet has a cycle for one full revolution around the sun. Take Saturn, for instance. It takes 29 ½ years for Saturn to circle the sun. So, when a person is 29 or 30 years old, one Saturn cycle is complete. Saturn represents responsibility, discipline, and learning life lessons. We evaluate our lives at this time. If the decisions we have made are working well, it can be a smooth transition to the next thirty year cycle. If we are no longer in synch with our choices, this is the time we will change course. This cycle breaks down further into quarters; we are affected by Saturn every 7 years. Might this be tied in with the common saying, “seven year itch”?

I’m currently writing a fantasy paranormal romance where the heroine uses astrology to solve the dilemma she is in. I have recently outlined a line of mysteries where astrology features as a major tool for solving murders.

In my novella, The Sheikh’s Spy, there is a beautiful scene where Arabella and Adnan gaze at a beautiful fixed star constellation from an isolated desert landscape.

Have you ever had your astrology charted drawn up and interpreted by an astrologer? Do you have a sun-sign story to share with us?

GEMMA JULIANA is a multi-published author who lives in an enchanted cottage in north Texas with her handsome hero, teen son and a comical dog. She loves making new friends and hearing from readers. Exotic coffee and chocolate fuel her creativity. You can buy Gemma’s books on Amazon.

You can visit Gemma’s website https://www.gemmajuliana.com and follow @Gemma_Juliana on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gemma_juliana

Connect with Gemma

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Where do I get my ideas? The voices tell me.

Okay, so now you think I’m insane, but honestly, there are three ways a story starts to gel for me. It can be setting, like the fictional town of South Cove where my tourist trap mysteries are set. I visited a small tourist town on the coast and fell in love with a house for sale. The house kept me thinking about the area, and Guidebook to Murder started to form after that.

Another way I get ideas is from a situation. What would happen if? In the tourist trap series, my situational question is what would happen to a Type A personality who after spending a week on vacation, decides to chuck it all and open a coffee shop.

But the final place I get ideas from is the voices. Once I’ve got an idea in mind, the voices start to populate my new imaginary world. Jill needs a BFF, and Amy Newman walks on the page, all surfer girl with a nerdy brain. Jill’s got a lot on her plate, so she asks her Aunt Jackie to come and help with the coffee shop/bookstore for a week or two. First day running the joint, and her aunt hires Toby Killion, the hot, hunky part time police detective. And it goes on and on.

I love meeting the new characters, finding out who they are, and where they fit into the story. The thing I don’t like is naming them. I like characters with ‘s’ names. Sarah, Sally, Seth, Shauna. I also apparently really like the name Derek as a secondary character since I had a guy by that name in two different series. I went through a ‘j’ stage – Jill, James, Jesse, Jake. But I think I’ve broken my same name habit. Or at least I hope.

Don’t get me wrong, I kind of plot. I do bullet points of each of the chapters and then work my way through the story as I write. However, most times, I don’t have the points in the right chapter. The characters have taken over the story.

I had one story where I had a love scene in the wrong place. My characters when right up to the edge, then balked. Kind of like a horse with a jump and the rider, me, gets thrown off. When I dusted off my jeans, I asked what the heck just happened, and my heroine said, “I’m not ready yet.”

So my hot love scene got moved and the hero stole a good night kiss instead.

Some writers don’t agree with the voices argument. They swear they are in total control of their creative process. I think the girls in the attic are keeping them from seeing the true magic.

Now it’s time for you to chime in. Do you believe in the voices? Or as a reader do you really not care where the stories come from, as long as they keep coming?

Lynn

Dressed to Kill

Jill Gardner—owner of Coffee, Books, and More in the tucked-away town of South Cove, California—is not particularly thrilled to be portraying a twenties flapper for the dinner theater murder mystery. Though it is for charity…
Of course everyone is expecting a “dead” body at the dress rehearsal…but this one isn’t acting! It turns out the main suspect is the late actor’s conniving girlfriend Sherry…who also happens to be the ex-wife of Jill’s main squeeze. Sherry is definitely a master manipulator…but is she a killer? Jill may discover the truth only when the curtain comes up on the final act…and by then, it may be far too late.

“Murder, dirty politics, pirate lore, and a hot police detective: Guidebook to Murder has it all! A cozy lover’s dream come true.” –Susan McBride, author of The Debutante Dropout Mysteries

Buy at: Amazon | Nook

About the Author
New York Times and USA Today best-selling author, Lynn Cahoon is an Idaho native. If you’d visit the town where she grew up, you’d understand why her mysteries and romance novels focus around the depth and experience of small town life. Currently, she’s living in a small historic town on the banks of the Mississippi river where her imagination tends to wander. She lives with her husband and two fur babies.

Links –
Goodreads –https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5857424.Lynn_Cahoon
Twitter – https://twitter.com/LynnCahoon
Facebook –https://www.facebook.com/LynnCahoonAuthor
website – https://lynncahoon.com/
Amazon author page – https://www.amazon.com/Lynn-Cahoon/e/B0082PWOAO/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1

My husband said today that he didn’t see the importance of history. Excuse him, he’s an engineer. This was an immediate red flag for me, a lover of history and writer of Highlander stories set in the 1300’s. His statement was somewhat ironic given we were in Sicily driving up the side of a smoking Mount Etna to see the land his people owned. What was fascinating about tracing his family’s history was how the actions of one person, in this case, his grandfather, changed the family history of so many future generations.

In the 1920’s my husband’s grandfather, Salvatore, wooed his sweetheart by singing love songs to her under her veranda. She was from a wealthy landowning family and his family was poor. According to my mother-in-law this was not a good match. What hadn’t come out in the telling was that he was a handsome young man with a sweet face who’d gone out of his way to woo a woman. I’d always heard how difficult he was and many other negative things, so I’d never understood why she had married him. But history is more than memory or the recount of a story by  one family member. Going to Sicily, meeting other family members, seeing family photos brings so much more to the picture. What I saw in this picture was the handsome face that has features  so like other family members, men I love.This is the type of research we need to do as writers to understand what really was there in the past. It’s not enough to go to one source. We have to trace the routes and read every source we can uncover.

Sicily is an island struggling through a recession. It’s poor and tired and in serious need of a good paint job. If my husband’s grandfather hadn’t decided to go to Australia, a place far from anything in 1936, the whole history of my husband’s family would have been different. His young family of wife and three children joined him in Australia, selling up most of the land they owned in Sicily under Etna’s steaming volcano.

They’re a family of wealthy professionals enjoying a terrific existence in Australia. For my husband who spent the day exploring his family’s history, it struck him that the family black sheep, the one that wooed the heiress and left her for years when he went to settle in Australia was in fact the family salvation. He’d changed the existence of future generations for the better.

I very gently led him back to his previous statement of the unimportance of history in his eyes. He has a better appreciation for my passion for history as he comes to know his own.

Is there anything in your family history that has changed your life for the worse or better?

*~*~*~*

Cathleen Ross is passionate about history and is the writer of Highlander, Highlander in her Bed and In Her Wild Highlander’s Bed. Highlander is FREE.

Dying is easy. Comedy is difficult.

Does this saying have the ring of truth? Hell yeah! But I haven’t died (yet), so it’s subjective.

I dabble in humor writing the way a minimalist dips their brush into paint. As a rule, less is more. A smattering works, but a heavy hand can overwhelm the artistic aesthetic.

My humor articles appear on my blog, The Snarkology, at infrequent intervals. Imagine Erma Bombeck Uncensored. (Yes, I talk about SEX.)

I try to bring The Funny to all of my books, but the potential for humor being lost in translation is vast. For instance, my current Work in Progress is an erotic space opera called Viking Love Slave.

The logline sums it up:  Viking gods getting it on with nubile love slaves… In Space.

The story contains a lot of lighthearted elements, but I’m discovering those must be presented thoughtfully or I risk my true intention (getting laughs) of being lost in translation. This has been especially evident as the book entered its first developmental editing round. I’m working with a new editor who has identified a purposefully humorous scene as being too melodramatic.

One of the hardest things an author does in the pursuit of good storytelling is balancing their editor’s advice against gut instinct.  Writers have big egos so accepting guidance can be difficult.  This creates conflict, which is great between protagonists and their counterparts. Maybe not so much in a professional relationship that depends upon cooperation for productivity.

Allow me to divert into a cautionary tale to illustrate…

I have an editor-friend who is a reformed Langolier. (She has pointy teeth but only eats kittens on Thursdays.) When we talk, she sometimes brings up a problematic author at her job that consistently reduces the editorial staff to ripping their hair out at the roots. We shall call this special needs author “Debby Diva” for the sake of discretion.

Debby Diva has “a voice” which is utterly unique to her. She is a special snowflake in the literary blizzard. It doesn’t matter whether her editor says her prose sucks or can’t be understood. Obviously, it’s on the reader to invest the time and effort to decipher Debby’s intent. If they fail, they aren’t trying hard enough.

I don’t want to be Debby Diva, and neither do you.

So what am I to say to my VLS editor when I don’t agree with her assessment? Yes, the prose is purple but it’s deliberately purple. And no, the entire story isn’t written in that style, because that would be too much. The joke is only funny to a point, and then you’ve taken it too far.

My best defense, perhaps, is the Are Readers Laughing? Test. The assessment pivots upon whether I can show the scene to a reader and get a good laugh. A giggle allows me to justify the style to my editor as genuinely humorous. A groan sends me back to the drawing board.

So you tell me. Does the scene below make you giggle or groan?

I’ll provide a free ebook copy of any title from my backlist to a randomly chosen commenter. (Excluding the Alphas Gone Wild box set.)

Viking Love Slave

The day she planned to kill a man, she wore an underbust corset that lifted her full breasts so high her nipples threatened to burst from the neckline of her servant’s frock. Prior to assuming her assassin’s duties, she spent hours bathing, polishing, and preparing every square inch of her body in anticipation of her first murder, as nervous as a bride on her wedding night. Even having been warned not to do anything to attract undo attention, Tierwyn couldn’t stand the thought that she wouldn’t look spectacular.

Better to risk arrest and execution.

Hefting a platinum tray of raw oysters, Tierwyn edged closer to the table. King Methedon of Alfheim dined with his guests at a long, rectangular table that ran through the center of the grand room. Prime Minister Seniormost Fussi Pantaloons sat to the king’s left. Crown Prince Thor of the Asgard Star Empire occupied the place of honor to the king’s right, and to Thor’s right was his advisor, Loki.

Word of the Asgard space fleet’s arrival had spread like quicksilver through the capitol. Nobles bedecked in jewels and finery filled the great hall to capacity. They represented the wealthiest and most prestigious members of the peerage.

Nervous tremors ran through her slender frame as she lowered the platter, aiming for an empty area between the visiting dignitaries. As she extended her arms, black-haired Loki tilted his head toward her. He bestowed a flirtatious wink and a smile upon the elf maiden, followed by a sharp pinch upon her posterior.

“Oh!” An indignant cry escaped her startled lips. Tierwyn fumbled and the tray of shellfish tilted perilously toward the royal lap.

“I’ll take those before you wind up wearing them.” Loki smoothly reached across Thor and removed the tray before the oysters completed their journey. In the process of helping, Loki’s elbow just happened to collide with Tierwyn’s hip, destroying what remained of her balance.

“Oh no!” Flapping her arms, Tierwyn tilted off-balance so her face descended toward the Crown Prince’s crotch. Gasping in shock, her eyes widened and her breath exploded from her lungs in a gust as she caught her first glimpse of the epic protuberance. His skin-taut stretchy pants appeared prepared to burst.

Great Gonads! The crown jewels must be enormous! Could the Asgard prince be wearing an insert? Sweet Goddess, she quivered with ecstatic giddiness, torn between curiosity and terror of the truth.

Swooning eagerly toward her dire fate, Tierwyn uttered a groan of disappointment when strong hands caught her at the last moment. Her thighs quivered in primal reaction to the powerful fingers encircling her upper limbs. Sighing, she gazed with longing and disappointment after the destiny denied her. To her great sorrow, his bulge receded from proximity with her face as he lifted her.

*~*~*~*

Viking Love Slave will be released in Spring 2016. To receive notification of Melissa Snark’s new releases, subscribe to her newsletter at: https://www.melissasnark.com/mailing-list/  You’ll receive a free ebook just for joining.

Author Bio:

Author Melissa Snark lives in the San Francisco bay area with her husband, three children, and a glaring of litigious felines. She reads and writes fantasy and romance, and is published with The Wild Rose Press & Nordic Lights Press. She is a coffeeoholic, chocoholic, and a serious geek girl. Her Loki’s Wolves series stems from her fascination with wolves and mythology.

• She blogs about books and writing on https://www.thesnarkology.com/.
  Visit her website at https://www.melissasnark.com/.
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