2024 was such a big, eventful year for me, but we’re not going to dwell on the big, black cloud that descended at the very end of July. Instead, I want to remind you of the stories I put out into the world in 2024. Sixteen stories (with wonderful covers provided by my talented sister, Elle James!). Some of them were refurbished stories I republished. Some were brand-new stories I wrote. For the first half of the year, I chugged along, happy with the way the stories flowed from me. There were exciting new bounty hunter stories and fun adventures that featured my Dead Horse townspeople, even a sexy ex-military protector book. I persevered through my treatments to put together another Boys Behaving Badly anthology. So many words and adventures. I hope 2025 will be as filled with achievement.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, let me know whether any of these stories interest you and what you might like to see more of in 2025!

January 2024

Unbound by the Amazon

A pair of Army soldiers travels back in time to retrieve a powerful ancient artifact of alien origin from the queen of the Amazons…

Army Lieutenant Farideh Kalani expected her time-traveling assignment to ancient Scythia to retrieve an ancient artifact would be difficult, but gaining the trust of Amazon warriors and their legendary ruler, Queen Hippolyta, is easy compared to being partnered with Sergeant First Class Caleb MacAvoy. The soldier is too smug and sexy for her peace of mind. Posing as a warrior seeking a place among the royal guard and her devoted personal servant, the pair succumb to their attraction just as they discover another seeks the treasure they’ve sworn to find.

Read More/Order

February 2024

Malcolm
Montana Bounty Hunters: Dead Horse, MT, Book 10

Two fiercely independent bounty hunters must fight their attraction while learning to trust each other as they work together to bring in a dangerous skip.

Former SEAL Malcolm Winslow was looking for a change. He’s been bounty hunting on his own since leaving the teams and has missed the camaraderie of fellow warriors, so he accepts a job with the Montana Bounty Hunters. His first hunt takes a turn when the MBH team discovers that another lone hunter has found their target first. Not wanting to infringe, they stand by just in case their competition needs help.

Darleen Crockett has things well in hand. Sure, she’s alone, without a weapon (because where would she hide it in her skimpy outfit?), and the skip she’s determined to take down is one mean MF, but Darleen likes to ride that dangerous edge between victory and disaster. She’s an admitted adrenaline junkie.

When her skip attacks, she has things well in hand but is suddenly rescued by a rugged, tattooed man who makes her heart pitter-patter. What’s up with that? She’s quickly recruited by Malcolm’s agency and finds herself on the biggest hunt of her career. Denying her attraction to her temporary new partner isn’t possible when they spend so many hours alone, but what she doesn’t expect is finding something more with the equally footloose and independent Malcolm. Things get thorny between them when Malcolm can’t seem to get past the fact she’s a woman to trust that she can handle herself.

When the agency prepares to track an old adversary preparing to flee justice, Malcolm and Darleen are quickly folded into the team heading to Lander, Wyoming, to find their dangerous skip.

Read More/Order

March 2024

What Happens in Bozeman
We Are Dead Horse, Book 3

What happens in Bozeman stays in Bozeman…unless it’s a cowboy!

Stranded in Bozeman, Montana, for the night while snowplows clear a mountain pass, Kelly Willis decides to throw caution to the wind. After being jilted by her college sweetheart, she’s determined to have one no-holds-barred night, her way of seeking revenge against a lifetime of conformity, before she settles down in a new town to live a very circumspect life as an elementary school teacher. She chooses another stranded motorist, propositioning him with the offer of a no-strings, no-names night of pleasure.

No one is more shocked than rancher Ryan Mobley when he appears at his daughter’s parent-teacher meeting to discover the angel he’d made love to is his daughter’s new teacher. Now that she’s here, he’s going to do everything he can to convince her they have a real connection, something they can build a lifetime on.

While she wrangles the class bully and he tries to figure out who’s rustling his cattle, the two of them grow closer with the help of a classroom full of mini matchmakers.

Read More/Order

April 2024

Tyson’s Mission
Brotherhood Protectors: Team Eagle

A former Navy SEAL is tapped to provide security for a team of archeologists working to uncover Mayan ruins deep in a Mexican jungle that a local drug cartel is targeting.

After surviving a catastrophic helicopter accident, former Navy SEAL Tyson Quigley is taking well to his new life with the Brotherhood Protectors in the Yellowstone, Montana, office. Life’s looking up. He’s working with old teammates and feeling stronger and more himself every day.

Then he gets a call from his university professor brother, who is worried about a colleague working on an archeological dig in southern Mexico. The team has had problems with thefts of equipment and supplies. Now, one of the dig team members has been kidnapped and held for ransom, but they quickly figure out the finger they were sent in the package demanding payment is from an already dead person. Now, they have no idea whether their team member is alive or dead and worry that the attacks on the site aren’t over. After a quick conference with his Brotherhood Protector teammates, Ty heads down to Mexico to pose as his brother’s friend’s boyfriend to provide her protection for the remainder of the dig.

Cara Woodward doesn’t need a babysitter. Sure, things have gotten scary since a team member was abducted, but she thinks having a bodyguard is overkill. Their sponsors are pulling the plug on the excavation due to the kidnapping, so they’re working furiously to close the site for the season. Tyson’s everywhere she is, and it’s getting on her nerves. His looming presence is distracting, to say the least. He’s too handsome, too intense.

As the dig team continues documenting their work before they pack up and leave, they suffer a series of attacks—this time, too close to Cara for Ty’s comfort. He’s locking her down, with no daylight between them for the duration.

Read More/Order

May 2024

Five Ways ‘Til Sunday
Delta Heat, Book 1

A Memphis cop bent on marrying an unconventional woman turns to his friends to tick every sexy item off her bucket list to get her to “yes”…

The more Marti Kowalski tries to convince Memphis PD Officer Jackson Teague she’s not the right woman for him, the more he wants to marry her. It’s crazy, and he won’t listen to reason. Of course, she’s tempted, but there are things she wants to experience before she ties the knot. All sorts of kinky things that involve knots—just not the marital kind. And she’s written them down.

When Jackson finds out what’s on Marti’s mind, he knows just what to do. He calls on his brothers in blue, four men he trusts with his life. Between the five of them, he’s sure they can check off each and every item on Marti’s bucket list in one wild, wicked weekend.

Of course, Marti has to agree to follow through, and he has to decide if he can bear to share her.

Read More/Order

Fournicopia
Delta Heat, Book 2

Forget the sugar. Send her the spice.

Gus Taggert knows a setup when he sees one. The doughnut shop his police officer buddies have sent him to, Cornucopia, is too frilly, too pink. Then the woman behind the counter serves up a mini-lesson in submission that leaves him ready and willing to obey her order to see her tonight at La Forge BDSM club.

The large, burly cop is exactly the kind of alpha guy that newly minted Domme Aislinn Darby has been dying to tie up and spank. Yet after she puts him through his paces, she finds herself eager to let him take control—something she’s never before enjoyed with a man.

Determined to find out once and for all if she has what it takes to control a scene, she orders him up for one more go. Only this time, she intends to ensure he remembers who’s in charge. She’s even willing to offer a little bribe: accept her dictates, and his reward is her—any way he wants her.

Except when it’s time for payback, it comes with several twists she never sees coming.

Read More/Order

A Perfect Trifecta
Delta Heat, Book 3

When Craig Eason plays switch in front of an audience at La Forge BDSM club as a favor for a friend, it’s supposed to be a one-time thing. But the cop catches the attention of an enigmatic, powerful Dom watching from across the room—a man who may be the one to help Craig test the boundaries of his own sexuality.

Firefighter Aiden Byrne has strong S&M desires he keeps firmly in check. His sub, Jennifer, thinks she likes it rough, but he’s never been able to let go the way he longs to with her. When a defiant stare from a handsome man on the La Forge stage causes Aiden’s most dangerous need to ignite, he wonders if he’s found someone he can truly let go with.

Jennifer is on board, as long as she can be an active participant—but none of them is prepared for the scene that will shake them all to the core and change everything.

Read More/Order

June 2024

Twice the Bang
Delta Heat, Book 4

Beau wants Pansy for his own. After a BDSM party thrown by his friends to celebrate their new throuple status, Beau decides it’s time to stake his claim. He’s been taking it slow with the sexy sub, but when he sees he’s not the only one vying for her attention, he realizes a long seduction was a mistake. A handsome fireman has caught his woman’s eye.

Billy may be new to the lifestyle, and a submissive like Pansy is probably out of his league, but he’ll do whatever it takes to have her, even if he has to share her with a cop whose confidence contrasts with Billy’s inexperience.

Pansy’s stuck between a rock and a hard place—or rather, stuck between a smoking-hot firefighter with ice-blue eyes and a dark, mysterious cop who can give her goose bumps with just a look.

Of course, she could refuse to decide between them and let both pursue her and, perhaps, if she’s very lucky, they’ll play dirty.

Read More/Order

Once is Never Enough
Delta Heat, Book 5

Mondo Acevedo is a legendary Dom and Master at the La Forge club. He’s helped his Memphis PD friends navigate the BDSM world and find the women of their dreams. Now, the vice cop and Dom is the last single man standing. But Mondo’s waiting for the right woman, one strong enough to match his dark passions, and he’s sure a timid grade school teacher definitely won’t make the shortlist.

Sunny Boudreau is content with her somewhat vanilla life, But when a trio of lovers moves in next door, she’s drawn to them and their group of friends, especially a certain tall, dark, and dangerous Dom.

Mondo tries to warn Sonny off, but her first taste of the club only whets her appetite and ignites her desire to prove she’s exactly the woman Mondo needs.

Read More/Order

July 2024

Burning Up Memphis
Delta Fire, Book 1

When firefighter John Cooper accepts an invitation to go to Club LaForge with his friends, he didn’t expect the sights and sounds of the BDSM club to have such an effect on him. Far from being turned off, he’s surprised to find himself thinking this lifestyle might just be what he needs—especially if Moira, his luscious guide for the evening, is willing to teach him everything he wants to know.

Moira Blessing is an experienced BDSM trainer, and she senses that Coop is not only a Dom in the making, but he could also be the man she’s looking for—someone to be her lover and her Dom. But Coop’s best friend just died on the job, and he’s not interested in anything serious right now. Good thing Moira thinks going slow can be sexy when done right…

Read More/Order

Hotter With a Pole
Delta Fire, Book 2

Noah Turner hopes buying the classic ’68 Camaro from a fellow firefighter’s widow will ease some of the grief weighing down his heart. When a noise under the hood sends him looking for a mechanic, he finds so much more. Big and burly Hoyt grabs Noah’s attention right off, and not just because of his bad-boy biker looks and ice-blue eyes. The fact Hoyt is a Dom and a member of Club LaForge certainly interests Noah.

Hoyt Freeman never thought he’d feel that rush with a man again after his partner died, but his body certainly reacts to meeting Noah. LaForge seems like the perfect place to meet and work off some energy and explore this sudden flood of desire. The heat between them starts to burn through their emotional barriers, whether the men are ready to make a deeper connection or not.

Read More/Order

Cyrus
Montana Bounty Hunters: West Yellowstone, MT, Book 1

The first new hire of the Montana Bounty Hunters: West Yellowstone, MT, isn’t much of a team player and isn’t sure he’s ready to stick around until he meets a pretty park ranger as independent and stubborn as he is.

Former Army Ranger Cyrus Walsh signs on with the competition when he sees the handwriting on the wall. The Montana Bounty Hunters are moving into his territory, and he can either join them or move on. So, he’ll give them a try but soon discovers he doesn’t mind so much riding with a new partner or working within the confines of an agency that respects their hunters’ strengths.

While chasing a skip in the nearby national park, he and his new partner encounter the skip and a park ranger, facing down a grizzly bear. The park ranger’s actions save the day, and he finds himself intrigued by the woman, who under normal circumstances, he’d never give a second glance. It’s not like he’s looking for a relationship; he’s not an easy man to be around. But her understated beauty and fiercely independent nature draw him closer, and he finds himself, reluctantly, asking her out.

Milly Bauer knows she’s not in the same league as the burly, handsome bounty hunter, but she’s eager to let things play out between them. There’s something she wants from him, experiences she’s denied herself. Something tells her Cyrus is just the man to provide what’s been lacking in her life, if only for a while.

While they get to know each other and find themselves inextricably drawn closer, their dangerous jobs make them wonder whether they can share a future together.

Read More/Order

Secret Identities
Boys Behaving Badly, Book 8

Inside Secret Identities: A Boys Behaving Badly Anthology, you’ll find stories by some of the hottest romance writers out there for readers who crave mysterious, enigmatic men and women who may not be who they claim to be. Perhaps they’re the new next-door neighbor with a secret mission, an alien from a far-away galaxy looking for his fated mate, or a spy trying to catch a foreign agent. Whatever their secrets, intrigue and passion follow…

Read More/Order

August 2024

Rapid Entry
Delta Fire, Book 3

Firefighter Gage Eastwood doesn’t hesitate to race into his neighbor’s apartment to put out the fire there. Of course, some hesitation might have given him the time to realize he was buck naked. He’s a professional, so he can overlook the fact she’s in her underwear, but after a nosy neighbor snaps some pictures of them, the fire and his naked heroics go viral.

Shy Viviana Moore is a bestselling romance author. She might write about kink, but she’s never done anything kinky. So when her hotter-than-hot savior invites her out to his sex club, La Forge, she doesn’t admit at first to her lack of actual kinky experience. Soon, she has more than enough material for a whole new series as well as some hands-on experience of her own, and Gage is wondering if she’d let him be her muse…permanently.

Read More/Order

September 2024

Once Upon a Legend

When budding dime novelist Prudence Vogel travels west to meet legendary lawman Jake White Eagle, she discovers he really is the tall, handsome hero of her novel. Flustered and out of her element, Prudence is determined to shadow the handsome sheriff to lend authenticity to her next story.

While Jake certainly finds Prudence attractive, her constant presence is distracting. When things she has written seem to be coming true, he decides to get closer to see whether she’s part of a criminal enterprise he’s been trying to uncover.

Read More/Order

November 2024

The Demon Lord’s Cloak

After awakening in a castle, bound and at the mercy of her captor, Voletta has every reason to fear the mysterious man holding her in his arms. Instead, his brooding presence intrigues her, and his hard body excites her. However attracted she is, she must escape before he discovers her dark secret…but then she learns he has one of his own.

Read More/Order

When I pastored in Brooklyn, visiting members at the Susan Smith McKinney Rehabilitation Center and Nursing Home was a regular part of my week. I never gave much thought to the woman for whom the care center was named. This month, I make up for that oversight.

Susan Smith McKinney Steward was born in the black Brooklyn town of Weeksville in 1847. Her father was a prosperous pig farmer and fierce abolitionist. Her eldest sister, Sarah J. Garnet, who I blogged about in December 2023, became the first African American female public school principal in New York City.

In 1870, Susan graduated valedictorian from medical school and became the first African American woman doctor in New York State and only the third African American female doctor in the country. From 1870 to 1895, she practiced medicine in Brooklyn serving patients of all races. She co-founded the Brooklyn Women’s Homeopathic Hospital and Dispensary. She served at as well as helped establish other hospitals for African Americans and the aged. She continued her medical education, becoming the only woman in the 1887-1888 post-graduate class at Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn. She focused on homeopathic medicine and gained a reputation for her work treating malnourished children. She was elected into the New York Homeopathic Medical Society in 1896.

In 1871, she married Reverend William G. McKinney and had two children. Four years after his death, she married Theophilus Gould Steward, chaplain of the 25th U.S. Colored Infantry. She continued to practice wherever he was stationed. In 1898, Wilberforce University hired Dr. Steward as a resident physician. She taught health and nutrition there until her death in 1918.

No surprise Susan had talents that extended beyond medicine. Early on, she was organist and choir director at two prominent black Brooklyn churches, Siloam Presbyterian and Bridge Street AME. In politics, she was active in the Equal Suffrage League of Brooklyn, and as a member of the Women’s Loyal Union, she lobbied Congress from 1894-1895 to investigate lynching. In social reform, she served as president of her local chapter of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. In the 1880s, she published two papers, one on a pregnant woman’s incorrect diagnosis and the next on childhood diseases. In 1911, at the Universal Race Congress in London, she presented a paper on famous African American women, and in 1914, she gave a speech to the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs on the history of women in medicine from Biblical times to 1914.

Dr. Susan McKinney Steward died aged 71 in Ohio on March 7, 1918. Her body was returned to Brooklyn and buried in the famous Green-Wood Cemetery. Hallie Quinn Brown, the subject of my February 2024 and October 2023 D.D. blogposts, delivered the eulogy.

Writing this blogpost has taken me back to the streets of Brooklyn where I, like she, served as a community leader. I hope I left a legacy of work as impactful as hers. For a chance at a $10 Amazon gift card leave a comment about Susan or another woman you’ve found inspiring.

“The Patience of Unanswered Prayer” by Michal Scott
from Cowboys

Kidnapped and destined to be another victim of Reconstruction-era violence, a feisty shop owner is rescued by a trail boss whose dark secret might save them both

Excerpt:

The sounds of horse hooves clopping, drunken laughter, and saloon music had faded long ago. Only chirruping crickets, croaking bullfrogs, and Sheriff Radcliffe’s lies penetrated Eleanor’s covering. Where were they taking her?

The wagon wheels creaked with every rut they hit. Eleanor wheezed, desperate for fresh air. Nausea roiled at the base of her throat. Would she die choking on her own vomit? Fear squeezed her chest as yes flitted through her mind like a lightning bug.

The wagon lurched to the right. Her nausea intensified.

“Mind how you go there, boy. We don’t want to be accused of mistreating the prisoner.”

Being arrested on false charges didn’t count as mistreatment? How about being abducted by ones sworn to uphold the law? Eleanor’s agony mirrored that of Christ’s on the cross.

My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?

She moaned, her spirit smothered by despair. The pressure at the small of her back eased only to be followed by a sharp jab to her spine.

“Shut up, damn you,” Radcliffe snapped. “Your days of troubling me will soon be over.”

“What was that you said, Sheriff?”

“Thank God this trouble’ll soon be over. We’ll have delivered her safe and sound to the county seat tomorrow.”

“Safe and sound,” Deputy Jim Flyte said. “Thank the good Lord.”

His tone, full of innocence and ignorance, penetrated Eleanor’s cloth prison and killed all hope that he’d be of any help. She stifled a groan lest her tormentor kicked her again. Flyte was too young to know that safe and sound to Sheriff Hobart Radcliffe meant only one thing: Eleanor’s death.

Buylink:
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3zfDpo2

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

Come up with the correct question to this Jeopardy answer: In 1928, she was appointed chairwoman by Herbert Hoover to head a committee charged with fact finding on the issue of Negro housing. Correct question: Who is Nannie Helen Burroughs? Nannie Helen Burroughs lived when the Republican party was still the Grand Old Party of Lincoln and when being a Black republican wasn’t an oxymoron.

Nannie was born on May 2, 1879, in Orange, Virginia, to freeborn parents. Their enslaved father used his carpentry skills to buy his freedom. Nannie’s father was a minister and her mother a cook. They instilled in her the core value of uplifting the race in everything she did. It’s no surprise that she chose, “We specialize in the wholly impossible” for the motto of the school she would establish.

Active in her denomination, Nannie served as bookkeeper and secretary of the Foreign Mission Board of the National Baptist Convention. In 1900, her speech, “How the Sisters Are Hindered From Helping,” led to the founding of the Women’s Convention in 1900. She served as president until 1913 and continued working with them until 1947.

While studying at Eckstein-Norton University in Louisville, Kentucky, she created a club for women which provided bookkeeping, sewing, cooking, and typing classes in the evening. Societal opposition to educating women beyond being homemakers only inflamed Nannie’s activism. In 1909 at age twenty-six, she opened the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington D.C. The school provided classes in shoe repair, barbering, and gardening in addition to domestic science and secretarial skills. In 1918, a Seattle magazine article showed the school also offered millinery classes and agricultural training. To graduate, everyone had to take the course Nannie created on the contributions of African Americans to history.

She worked for suffrage with my September 2024 D.D. blogpost subject Mary Church Terrell and advocated for the unionization of domestic workers. Nannie’s work with the National Association of Colored Women led to the founding of the National Association of Wage Earners.

She never married and worked tirelessly on her causes. But don’t picture her as a workaholic activist. In the 1920s, Nannie wrote two popular one-act plays for church groups, which continued to be produced through the decades. Her comedic satire The Slabtown District Convention enjoyed a revival in 2001.

A biography of Nannie was included in the children’s book Women Builders in 1931. The work was illustrated by my D.D. October 2023 and February 2024 post subject, Hallie Q. Brown.

Nannie died in 1961. Three years after her death, her school was renamed for her. Trades Hall, its original building, was designated a national historic landmark in 1991. A prolific writer and editor, the Library of Congress holds 110,000 of her papers in its Manuscript Division.

Once again, the dedication and determination of women like Nannie Helen Burroughs leaves me awestruck. For a chance at a $10 Amazon gift card, share your impression of Nannie and women like her in the comments.

Her Heavenly Phantom
by Michal Scott

Forced into a marriage of convenience neither wants, a mild-mannered banker with an intriguing secret discovers his reluctant bride has a secret, too.

Excerpt from “Her Heavenly Phantom” inside Secret Identities…

The carriage driver’s whoa brought him back to the present. Twelve noon and the sun shone brightly. Too brightly for noon on Good Friday. At that hour the sky had begun to darken and the veil of the temple had ripped in twain as Jesus died for our sins on a cross between two thieves.

Harold stepped to the sidewalk and offered his hand to Emily. She took it without a word then preceded him up the steps to their new home.

“I’ll be late at the bank, preparing for my trip to Philadelphia,” he said. “You weren’t expecting me for dinner, were you?”

“No.” She pulled off her gloves and laid them beside her hat on the hall table. “Will you want something upon your return?”

“Don’t bother. I won’t be hungry.”

“Very well. I’ll leave a note for cook with tomorrow’s menus.” She went up the stairs. Her bustleless walking skirt outlined a shapely rear. She swayed with each step as if in time to some erotic metronome. Harold blenched and concealed his cock’s sudden twitch behind his top hat.

“I’ll make sure to leave a door open,” she said. “So, you’ll know which bedroom is yours.”

That suited him fine. He’d want no witness to him losing himself in the rapture induced by his lady of the balcony.

Buylinks:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DBJ47ND6/
B&N https://shorturl.at/B0NLA
KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/secret-identities-8

UPDATE: The winner is…Paula J McGhee!
*~*~*

UPDATE: The winner is…Amy Fendley!
*~*~*

Born in 1815, Harriet Ann Jacobs started life as a slave in Edenton, North Carolina but died an author, school founder, “contraband” advocate, and women’s rights champion in Washington D.C. Her autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, chronicles the brutality she endured as an enslaved woman, but also demonstrates her resiliency, thanks to her family connections.

Harriet belonged to a tavern owner’s daughter who disregarded societal rules and taught six-year-old Harriet to read and write. Unfortunately, when the woman died, Harriet’s ownership transferred to John/James Norcom’s family, where Norcom sexually abused her. She began a relationship with a white lawyer named Samuel Sawyer who fathered her son Joseph and her daughter Louisa Matilda. Despite this relationship, Norcom kept sexually harassing Harriet. She ran away in 1835 and hid in her grandmother’s crawl space until she could escape to Philadelphia in 1842.

From there, she moved to New York and worked as a nanny for writer Nathaniel Parker Willis’ family. To thwart Norcom’s attempts to recapture her, the Willises sent Harriet to Massachusetts multiple times where her brother John lived and was an abolitionist.

After traveling to England with Willis and his child, Harriet lived in Rochester NY with abolitionist activist Amy Post, thanks to her brother’s connections with Frederick Douglass. She visited the Willis family back in New York City and agreed to work for them again. Since she was still a fugitive, they purchased her freedom in 1852.

Her brother and Post encouraged her to write down her life story, but Harriet refused.  However, a defense of slavery written by the wife of President John Tyler, finally broke down Harriet’s resistance. She responded to Julia Tyler’s lies that slaves were happy and well-treated with “Letter From A Fugitive Slave.” She sent the testimonial to the New York Daily Tribune, which published it on June 21, 1853. You can read the text here: https://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/support16.html.

This letter served as the springboard for Harriet writing her autobiography.

She tried three times to find a publisher for her work here in the US and in England. After the third attempt failed, she was able to buy the plates and had the book printed herself under the pen name Linda Brent in 1861.

During the Civil War in occupied Alexandria, Harriet did relief work with contrabands—slaves who had escaped and found shelter with Union troops. She traveled north and to England several times to promote and raise financial support for this work. In January 1864, Harriet opened the Jacobs School with her daughter to teach the formerly enslaved to read and write. After Sherman’s marches, they took the Jacobs School to Georgia as well. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln and post-reconstruction violence by the Ku Klux Klan forced them to relocate North. They opened boarding houses, first in Cambridge, Massachusetts, then in Washington D.C.

She died on March 7, 1897, and is buried in Cambridge’s Mount Auburn Cemetery.

In 2004, Jean Fagan Yellin published a biography entitled Harriet Jacobs: A Life. Yellin also started the Harriet Jacobs Papers Project. which collected nearly one thousand documents written by, to and about Harriet, her brother John, and her daughter Louisa. Through her research which began in the 1980s, Yellin has used documents from various historical societies and archives to successfully defend Harriet’s work as an autobiography, not a work of fiction as some academics had claimed.

Today in the US people are still trying to whitewash the history of slavery, but slave narratives written by men and women like Harriet keep setting the record straight.

For a chance at a $10 Amazon Gift card share in the comments any thoughts this post may have raised for you.

One Breath Away
by Michal Scott

Sentenced to hang for a crime she didn’t commit, former slave Mary Hamilton was exonerated at literally the last gasp. She returns to Safe Haven, broken and resigned to live alone. She’s never been courted, cuddled or spooned, and now no man could want her, not when sexual satisfaction comes only with the thought of asphyxiation. But then the handsome stranger who saved her shows up, stealing her breath from across the room and promising so much more.

Excerpt:

Tonight, all she cared about was the pleasure she hoped to enjoy again.

Spectral fingers of steam wafted from the water, inviting her own fingers to play between her thighs. The hope of completed self-pleasure shivered agreeably along every nerve.

She closed her eyes and massaged her nether lips, tentatively then confidently. The slow coil of arousal spread from her gut to her core. Her body swooned as desire ebbed and flowed in each vaginal contraction. First her chest tightened, then her belly and finally her groin. She gasped, caught in the grip of longing.

Now. I’ll do it now.

She thumbed her clitoris. Already throbbing with eagerness, the nubbin responded immediately.

Her back arched. Her throat tensed as bliss hardened into a clawing climax. She reached for the release beckoning to her from the edges of consciousness…then fell suddenly, frighteningly onto a piercing stake of pain straight out of hell.

Buylink: https://amzn.to/2u5XQYY

UPDATE: The winner is…Mary McCoy!
*~*~*

It never ceases to amaze me how the African American women of the 19^th century did not allow societal limitations to keep them from pursuing and obtaining their dreams. Josephine Silone Yates is another of them. Born in 1859 in New York on Long Island in Suffolk County, by the time Josephine Silone Yates died in 1912 she had been a professor, a writer, a public speaker, an activist, and the first African American woman to head a college science department. Many of the works written on her life focus not only on her work as a pioneering African American female chemist but also as an advocate for early care and education for young African American children.

She attended several schools in her youth and didn’t allow the fact that she was often the only African American student keep her from excelling. At a young age, Josephine showed an aptitude for physiology and physics. By the time she attended the Rogers High School in Newport, Rhode Island, her science teacher was so impressed that he allowed her to do chemistry labs. She graduated from Rogers in 1877 as her class’s valedictorian. Her teachers urged her to go on to university, but she chose the path of teaching instead. In 1879, she graduated from the Rhode Island State Normal School and became the first African American certified to teach in that state’s public schools.

She moved to Jefferson Missouri to teach at Lincoln University either in 1879 or 1881, depending on your sources. There she taught chemistry, botany, drawing, elocution, and English literature. She was promoted to the head of Lincoln’s natural Sciences department in 1886, making her the first African American woman to head a college science department. This also made her the first African American woman to be a full professor at any college or university in the United States. All the while she was teaching, she wrote newspaper and magazine articles under the penname R.K. Potter. By 1900, she was publishing poetry, too.

When she married William Ward Yates in 1889, she resigned from her university position, moved to Kansas City with her husband, and had two children. While he served as a principal there, she blossomed as an activist. Like many African American women of her time, she became active in the African American Women’s Club movement. She helped found the Women’s League of Kansas City in 1893. When the League joined the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), Josephine served in various offices from 1897 to 1901. She promoted the establishment of kindergartens and day nurseries through the NACW to help prepare African American children for a post-emancipation society where they would not be taught to be subservient second-class citizens.

Lincoln University asked Josephine to return in 1902 to head their English and history department. She did this until 1908 when she offered to resign because of ill health. Her resignation was refused, so she remained as an advisor to women until 1910. She continued championing education and advancement for African American women, helping to found the first African American Young Women’s Christian Association in Kansas City a year before she died.

Looking back on women like Josephine I am inspired by how their drive stems from wanting as many people as possible to benefit from their accomplishments. I hope someday the same can be said of me.

For a chance at a $10 Amazon gift card, share your thoughts in the comments.

Better To Marry Than To Burn by Michal Scott

Wife Wanted: Marital relations as necessary. Love not required nor sought…

A bridal lottery seems the height of foolishness to ex-slave Caesar King, but his refusal to participate in the town council’s scheme places him in a bind. He has to get married to avoid paying a high residence fine or leave the Texas territory. After losing his wife in childbirth, Caesar isn’t ready for romance. A woman looking for a fresh start without any emotional strings is what he needs.

Queen Esther Payne, a freeborn black from Philadelphia, has been threatened by her family for her forward-thinking, independent ways. Her family insists she marry. Her escape comes in the form of an ad. If she must marry, it will be on her terms. But her first meeting with the sinfully hot farmer proves an exciting tussle of wills that stirs her physically, intellectually, and emotionally.

In the battle of sexual one-upmanship that ensues, both Caesar and Queen discover surrender can be as fulfilling as triumph.

Excerpt:

Queen Esther Payne arrived at noon on September fourteenth and proved to be a paragon indeed.

Caesar gawked at the copper-toned Amazon who emerged from the stagecoach like royalty descending from a throne.

Queen. Her name definitely suited. Only Cleopatra could have fit better. Maybe Sheba.

The afternoon sunlight crowned her with rays of gold. Kinky black ringlets covered her head, declaring she had a Nubian pride befitting the woman he’d want to wed. She used her bonnet to fan away dirt dusted up by the stagecoach’s departure. Her twisting and turning revealed an hourglass waist above curvaceous hips.

At his approach, her eyebrow curved over a gaze brimming with criticism. “Caesar King?”

He removed his hat and extended his hand in greeting. “At your service, Queen.”

She donned her hat and examined him with that regal air. “Miss Payne, if you please. You may call me Queen after the nuptials.” She finished tying her hat’s long ribbons beneath her chin. “Although, even then, I’d prefer Mrs. King.”

“You don’t say?” He chuckled, taking her measure from head to foot. “Well, Miss Payne it is…for now.”

She filled her face with a frown. “I don’t appreciate being examined like some newly purchased cow, Mr. King.”

He pulled back. Amusement wrestled with annoyance. “I’m making sure you measure up, Miss Payne.”

“Pray, to what criteria?” She shoved her valise against his chest. Caesar grunted, surprised but pleased by her strength.

She crossed her arms, causing her lovely bosom to swell. “I doubt there’s a standard for marriages of convenience.”

He inhaled against the pull of desire throbbing in his privates. “The same criteria as you, I suspect—my own self-worth and what I deserve.” He dropped the bag at her feet. “So, by that token, I don’t appreciate being treated like some fetch-and- carry boy.”

She lowered her gaze. But for the set of her jaw, he’d have taken the gesture for an apology.

He leaned forward and whispered, “If you ask me nicely, I’d gladly carry your bag.”

“A gentleman wouldn’t need to be asked.” Her tone dripped with disdain. “A gentleman would simply take it.”

“I do many things, Miss Payne.” He pushed up the brim of his hat and grinned, fired up by the hazel flame sparking in her eyes. “Pretending to be a gentleman doesn’t number among them.”

Buylink: https://amzn.to/2KTaGPH

UPDATE: The winner is…Diane Sallans!
*~*~*

The phrase “fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree” describes Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin perfectly.

Born Josephine St. Pierre in 1842 in Boston, her middle-class parents sent her to integrated schools in Charlestown, Salem, and New York rather than accept the segregation imposed by Boston’s school system. No wonder she lived a life predisposed to fighting injustice on her own as well as on the behalf of others.

She married George Lewis Ruffin in 1858. A pioneer in his own right, the first African American to graduate from Harvard Law School and the one of the first African American judges in a Northern state. They lived in England for six months then returned and helped recruit volunteers for African American Civil War regiments like the Massachusetts 54^th.  He died in 1886.

A member of the New England Women’s Press Association, Ruffin wrote for the Courant, a weekly paper for African Americans. She founded the Women’s Era, the first newspaper published by and for African American women. She and her daughter, Florida, published this illustrated monthly for seven years.

Her fight for women’s suffrage showed she understood the concept of intersectionality. She is quoted as saying, “We are justified in believing that the success of this movement for equality of the sexes means progress toward equality of the races.” Ruffin served as president of the West End League of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association.

She was the first African American member of the New England Women’s Club. In 1893, she founded The Woman’s Era club for African American women. Living up to its motto, “Make the World Better,” their activities promoted and fundraised for self-help activities to “uplift the race.” Ruffin believed a national organization for African American women’s clubs was needed and organized a conference in Boston to that end. Women from ten to fourteen states attended. They formed the National Federation of Afro-Am Women. This in turn merged with the Colored Women’s League, forming the National Association of Colored Women.

In 1900 at the meeting of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Southern women on the credentials committee opposed her representing both white and African American clubs.  They would only accept her credentials for the white clubs. She refused and was excluded from the meeting. The incident was nationally covered by the press.

Ruffin continued her fight for racial equality, and in 1910, became a founding member of the Boston NAACP. She died in 1924. In 1995, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. A bronze bust of Ruffin is one of six famous Massachusetts women which stand in the Massachusetts State House.

Once again, the accomplishments of women like Josephine awe and inspire me to do all I can with the opportunities I have. For a chance at a $10 Amazon gift card, leave a comment on Josephine and other women who have inspired you.

Better To Marry Than To Burn

Freed Man seeking woman to partner in marriage for at least two years in the black township of Douglass, Texas. Must be willing and able to help establish a legacy. Marital relations as necessary. Love neither required nor sought.

Excerpt:

She sidled up to him, cupped his erection and fondled his balls.

“Ready for bed or ready to bed me?”

He moaned, placed his hand atop hers and increased the pressure. Already hard, he hadn’t imagined he could get any harder.

“Is that beautiful brass bed new?”

He gulped. “Ye—yes. Bought it—bought it for the honeymoon.”

“I’m ready to be bedded now,” she whispered. “Or is that something we must negotiate?”

All thoughts of dinner vanished.

“No,” he rasped, leaning forward, as hungry for her lips as he was to be inside her.

“Good.” She stepped back, out of reach. “But, let’s be clear…” She bent over, so her butt protruded toward him.

She massaged each buttock so her crack parted invitingly.

“Tonight, it’s the Greek way or no way.”

He blinked, stunned by this demand to be taken anally. His master had had books filled with drawings, depicting naked Greeks wrestling. Those pen and ink depictions flashed before him now. Arms constrained by arms, legs entwined with legs, butts and groins enmeshed in snug contortions.

He’d love to take Queen that way, experience first- hand the erotic intimacy etched in the men’s struggle-laden features.

He took one step toward her then stopped. No. One day, he would…but not tonight. Not their first time. Their first time would be the nose-to-nose, chest-to-breast, cock-to-vagina coupling he’d hungered five years for.

buy link: https://amzn.to/2KTaGPH