Just because it’s been out a while, doesn’t mean you won’t want it! And who doesn’t love Vikings…?

UPDATE: The winner is…Patricia Barraclough!
*~*~*

Diana Cosby ©2019

Liam and the Christmas Sheep

Gifts come in many shapes and sizes, but I believe the most precious ones are those delivered from the heart. It’s easy to get caught up in the mayhem of life, particularly during the hustle and bustle of the Holidays, but every day, there are people amidst the chaos who help you, who take time out of their busy lives to make a difference in yours. This year, why not return that gift?

This holiday season, as wrapped gifts exchange hands, I ask you to pause, reflect on those who’ve truly made a difference in your life, and if possible, find a special way to say thank you. This can be a simple gesture—something like a greeting card, a bouquet of flowers, or a heartfelt poem. Maybe you could bake someone their favorite cookies? Or, present them a coupon book filled with everyday chores, which they can tear out and give you to do on those trying days when they need a helping hand. The absolute best gift you can offer another person is one given from the heart. And when special-delivered, without any strings attached, it touches their own.

This Christmas, I’m making gift baskets filled with my favorite homemade things, such as macadamia-butterscotch chip cookies, shortbread, double chocolate-orange-pecan biscotti, Vermont maple syrup, and more. With each one, I’m sharing a part of myself with the other person.

What ideas can you think of? Remember—the more original and inventive, the more fun! I can’t wait to hear your ideas!

My gift to you, one of my favorite recipes:

SEATHAN MACGRUDER’S MACADAMIA BUTTERSCOTCH COOKIES

Ingredients:
1 tsp. salt                     1 tsp. baking powder               1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup sugar                   ⅞th cup peanut butter          12 oz. butterscotch chips
1 cup butter                  2 eggs                                  3 cups flour
1 tbsp. Amaretto or vanilla
1¼th cup chopped macadamia nuts
1⅛th cup firmly packed light brown sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°F.

In a large bowl mix butter, sugar, and brown sugar, then whip in the Amaretto (or vanilla) and peanut butter. Beat in eggs. Add baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Once mixed, add butterscotch chips and macadamia nuts. Mix in flour. Chill dough.

Bake:
Bake for 11 minutes, or until golden brown.

Cool and enjoy!

Author’s note:
An avid baker who enjoys creating new twists on recipes, Seathan MacGruder is the hero of His Conquest, the 3rd book in the best-selling MacGruder brothers’ Scottish medieval romantic suspense series. For more information about the MacGruder brothers, visit Diana’s website!

I sincerely wish everyone health, friendship and happiness this holiday season.

Contest

ONE winner will be drawn from everyone who posts on my guest blog post about, ‘Giving The Gift of Thanks,’ on Delilah’s blog between 1 December 2019 – 8 December 2019. The winner will receive one of Diana’s mugs and a tote.

Diana Cosby, International Best-Selling Author
https://www.dianacosby.com/
The Oath Trilogy
MacGruder Brother Series
Forbidden Series: Forbidden Legacy/Forbidden Knight/Forbidden Vow/Forbidden Alliance/ Forbidden Realm‒14th April 2020

UPDATE: The winner is…Fedora!
*~*~*

Now that I’ve survived the madness of drafting and editing my latest book release, I’ve moved into the promotion stage. I always try to incorporate my love of beading and crafting into my giveaways and promotions. This year, I’m working on easy-peasy stamped ornaments.

All you need are stamping tools (stamps, hammer, base to stamp on), flat washers, a permanent black marker (optional) & rubbing alcohol, and some thin ribbon. The washers I’m using are 0.5” (inside opening width) x 1” (width of the outside of the circle) Zinc-plated standard, flat washers.

I’m writing this assuming that you have a basic knowledge of stamping metal, but if not there are a ton of easy-to-follow tutorials on you tube.

All you need to do to make your ornaments is stamp a very short message around the circle of the washer. I like to leave a small gap at the “top” of the circle where the ribbon will wrapped, but that’s not necessary. In my example I stamped a few with “Let It Snow” and others with “Believe”. You may have to practice a bit to get the spacing just right.

Once you’ve finished stamping you can color over the letters with a black permanent marker to fill in the grooves you stamped to make the letters stand out. But be prepared to quickly wipe the surface with a paper towel or cotton ball dampened with the rubbing alcohol to get the excess marker off. I’ve found with these zinc washers if you let the marker dry, it’s much harder to get the excess black ink off. You can repeat the process if you take too much ink out of the grooves.

Now, you’re ready to add a length of ribbon to act as the ornament hanger. You can also add a bead or charm for extra decoration. You can also use a large jump ring instead of the ribbon if you would rather use the washer as a jewelry charm for a necklace, bracelet, or key ring.

Have fun with it!

Be sure to check out my new release, Christmas Royale! The links are still going live, but they will all eventually be available on the universal landing page: https://books2read.com/u/mla7Qq

Christmas Royale

Phoebe Ashdown cannot believe her luck. Only she could run into the cad who jilted one of her closest friends while attending a Christmas ball in a foreign country. Other than his false identity and the trail of broken hearts he scattered across London ballrooms, he is just the sort of gentleman she should marry. She wants to hold on to her loathing of him but there’s something dangerously appealing about him now and it’s not just the alias he uses.

The gentle folks of Genoa have been forced to turn a blind eye to the illegal activities going on beneath their noses for years. But as an undercover investigator for the Royal Intelligence Office, Vernon Wright cannot. His orders are clear: find the source of the slaves being funneled into London and report back. When he unexpectedly crosses paths with a former acquaintance, a woman he was secretly attracted to since her coming out, he must use all his powers of persuasion to keep her from blowing his cover.

After Phoebe’s sister goes missing, she is forced to turn to Vernon for help. Sparks fly as well as bullets as they search for her sister. They will have to rely on each other if they hope to make it back to England in time for Christmas.

GIVEAWAY

Leave a comment or question for me to be entered into a drawing for pair of handmade Christmas holly earrings (US residents only, please).

“America is now wholly given over to a damned mob of scribbling women, and I should have no chance of success while the public is occupied with their trash.”

Sounds like contemporary critics of the romance genre, doesn’t it? This little gem was penned by Nathaniel Hawthorne to his publisher in 1855 because his female contemporaries were reaping critical acclaim and outselling him.

I first heard this quote in a keynote speech this past October given by Maya Rodale. Intrigued, I wondered who was “Mr. Scarlet Letter” complaining about. This 2013 article gave me more than a clue:

https://www.bookslut.com/the_bombshell/2013_06_020173.php

Among this damned scribbling mob was the woman to whom Abraham Lincoln is supposed to have said, “So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.”

That’s right: Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Harriet Beecher Stowe? A writer of trash? Hardly.

Stowe had been writing for fifteen years before Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published in 1852. In addition to novels, she wrote non-fiction, poetry and a drama based on Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin has gotten a bad rap through the years, but think about how radical it was for a White woman in the 1850’s to have a Black slave representing Christ at a time when her society was debating whether or not African-Americans were even human. We don’t have to imagine the impact of seeing slaves depicted with dignity, loyalty, and willing to be self-sacrificing had in that era. Even Lincoln recognized the power of her novel. What I never imagined was the backlash it received. Her depiction of African-Americans as human beings was so despised there was a slew of anti-Uncle Tom novels written to offset her novel’s impact. Needless to say, they failed.

As I’ve learned more about Stowe’s religious views and social justice activities, I understand better why her novel hit the nerve it did when it did. She wrote from her heart about a cause she believed in, unlike Mr. worried-about-having-no-chance-of-success Hawthorne. I’m eager to read more of her works and more works about her because I want to be a scribbling woman like her.

Better to Marry Than to Burn

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:

WARNING! This is hot!!

With thanks to God, he pushed past her flimsy drawers to the moist welcome of her center. Her vaginal walls gripped his fingers with surprising force. No amount of twisting or turning wrenched them free. God, to have that grip surrounding his shaft.

He pulled back and studied her face. Eyes still closed, a sly smile bowed her perfect lips. She enjoyed this battling as much as he.

“Was I too brutal for your enjoyment, Mrs. King?”

Her eyelids rose with the slow grace of sunrise. A gleam as sly as her smile shone in her gaze. “You call that brutal, Mr. King?”

She unclenched her lower muscles, allowing his fingers momentary retreat. With great care, she grasped his hand then slid his fingers between her folds once more.

“Holy Christ, woman. What—?”

The gentle rubbing robbed him of his ability to think.

“Jesus, have mercy,” he wheezed.

She slid his fingers from her wet sex into his mouth. He moaned, lost in her delectable taste.

Without taking her gaze from his face, she raked her gloved hand down his chest, across his belly, to his groin. Anticipation tensed his muscles in the wake of her touch. He watched mesmerized as, with a practiced ease, she unbuttoned his fly, pushed past the fabric, sought, found and stroked his cock. Her woolen gloves imparted a delicious friction he couldn’t oppose, even if he’d wanted. Delight enlivened every muscle in his body, including his jaded heart.

Jesus. This couldn’t be more than arousal. Could it?

Her fingers squeezed and his body arched upward on the yes swelling his spirit with joy. He threw back his head, mouth open, ready to shout as he neared the point of release.

Then she let him go.

He doubled over, slain by the abandonment. His lungs constricted, bereft of air. Reason deserted him too.

She stood and smoothed down her skirts with the hand that had massaged his shaft more deftly than he ever had. Reseated, she grabbed the reins and snapped the leather against his horse’s rump.

“Get up there.”

The wagon jostled Caesar from side to side. Still unable to straighten up, he looked into eyes gleaming with triumph. Her lips curved in a regal smirk.

“Was I too brutal for your enjoyment, Mr. King?”

Buy links:
Wild Rose Press – https://www.thewildrosepress.com/books/better-to-marry-than-to-burn
Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/Better-Marry-than-Michal-Scott-ebook/dp/B07BK1JPKX/

UPDATE: The winner is…Debra Guyette!
*~*~*

Thank you, Delilah, for sharing your lovely blog with me today.

Recently, I have joined several multi-author projects. In case you’re unfamiliar with the term, that’s when several authors each write her or his book within the guidelines of the series organizer. Each book is a stand-alone but reading the entire series enhances the pleasure. I’ve enjoyed these MAPs and want to share two with you today.

Melody
Angel Creek Christmas Brides

MELODY, Angel Creek Christmas Brides book 7, released today! The series is set just after the Civil War when most of Charleston, South Carolina was in ruins and no marriageable young men were to be found. The year before—the fall after the war—five women answered an advertisement for mail-order brides to a small Montana town. That turned out well and many of the remaining bachelors prevailed upon the brides to recruit more Southern Belles to come to Angel Creek. Six more agree to travel there by train to St. Louis, then by riverboat up the Missouri River, then by stage to Angel Creek.

These young women knew each other from school before the war and have remained friends. Melody Fraser is twenty-two and fears remaining a spinster. In addition, she has threats against her fueled by vicious rumors. She is happy to escape Charleston’s destruction and peril for a chance at life in a place untouched by the war. The problem is, she might have stretched the truth a tiny bit.

Nicholas Walker is the new doctor in Angel Creek. He has big, big plans for his clinic and practice as the town grows. He is very efficient and expects to combine a skilled nurse with a wife. When he learns Melody has only nursed an elderly grandmother, he feels cheated.

They’re in for adventure and excitement. But, will the two grow fond of one another before Christmas or will they apply for an annulment?
The universal Amazon link is https://mybook.to/Melody.

Christmas Wishes: Wishes Do Come True

On Wednesday, November 13, a 15-author box set of all new stories releases for the amazing price of 99 cents! This limited-time box set titled Christmas Wishes: Wishes Do Come True is a mixture of historical and contemporary stories set in the small town of Hopeful, Colorado. There are three heat levels: from 1 chili pepper for sweet to 3 chili peppers for sensual. The table of contents gives the heat level of each story. So, there are several to please every reader! Preorder yours now at https://getbook.at/Hopeful.

Legend says the wishing well in the center of Hopeful makes wishes come true if the wish is made under a full moon. What could making a wish hurt?

Be careful what you wish for!

My story is the first one, Winter Wish. Serena Winters longs for a man who makes her feel loved. She yearns for her own home and children. Until a couple of months ago she had nursed her mother, who had consumption. She lives with her aunt and uncle above their mercantile store. In spite of what her aunt says about wishes being foolish, Serena wishes for a special man.

Brent Adams slips into town hoping no one saw him deliver the load he’d packed in on his mule. He has to wait in Hopeful until he receives funds from the bank. When he meets Serena, he longs to take her with him when he leaves town. But, what will she think when she learns his secrets?

Contest

I’ll give away an e-book of MELODY to one person who comments today and one e-book of CHRISTMAS WISHES to one person who comments.

©Diana Cosby 2019

It’s the holidays again, an emotion-filled time where it seems there are not enough hours in each day to fit everything in. In this busy time, I ask each of you to please consider one more stop on your crazy to do list, that of making a donation to a local food bank. Your donation can be a dollar, a can of food, whatever you can give is a gift to those working to rebuild their lives.

I volunteer for Habitat For Humanity, and something amazing happens when you allow a person a flicker of hope, that somehow, incredibly, even a stranger understands that at times life shoves us on an unplanned road.

Several years ago, in addition to my personal donation to my local food bank, I decided to start a Food Bank Challenge. Except, it wonderfully got out of hand. Amazingly, once I posted The Food Bank Challenge on my Facebook page and my Facebook reader page, people from across the U.S. began donating to their local food banks and sharing on my Food Bank Challenge post. Then, I read posts of donations from Canada. Holy cow, the Food Bank Challenge had gone international! And you know what, this is truly a blessing. In this venture, we all win. Gifts from the heart do that, they fill you, remind you there is good in the world, and that you can make a positive as profound difference in others’ lives.

Contest

How it works: Starting November 1st, when you donate to a local food bank or food drive, write beneath my International Food Bank Challenge post on my Facebook page, or, Facebook Author page, that you donated. ( https://www.facebook.com/Diana-Cosby-Romance-Author-150109024636/?ref=ts )

On December 3rd, 2019, ONE name will be drawn from all who posted that they donated to a food bank from both my Facebook page and Facebook Author pages that I received. The winner will receive a tote bag and a signed copy of His Woman.

I wish each of you a wonderful holiday season filled with friendship and laughter and blessings!

Diana Cosby, International Best-Selling Author
https://www.dianacosby.com/
The Oath Trilogy
MacGruder Brother Series
Forbidden Series: Forbidden Legacy/Forbidden Knight/Forbidden Vow/Forbidden Alliance/ Forbidden Realm‒14th April 2020

Thank you for inviting me to write a guest blog.

In 1915, my grandfather and his brother enlisted with the Australian Imperial Forces and set sail for what so many believed would be the adventure of a lifetime. Teach the Germans a lesson and be home by Christmas. For the next three years they were involved in horrific battles on the Western Front – Amiens, Fromelles and Villiers Bretonneux to name a few. Both came home but were never the same men again.

In 2015, I joined an Anzacs on the Western Front tour, visiting those battlefields. Looking at the lovely towns and villages it was hard to imagine the horrors of that war until our guide held up enlarged photos of blackened, treeless wastelands torn apart by shelling and littered with bodies of men and horses. Visiting the immaculately kept Commonwealth War Graves and memorials was humbling. Thousands of graves of young men who never came home. Particularly sad was the inscription on so many headstones – “Known Only to God”. I could only assume their bodies were unrecognizable and their identity discs destroyed or buried in the mud or blown elsewhere. When our guide told us the huge numbers of deaths in each battle, it brought home the utter waste of that war and how awful the task would have been identifying and recording deaths and injuries on their service records.

After the tour ended, I got to wondering if it was possible for a soldier to swap identity discs with another who had been killed in battle. In those days, war service records were hand-written with basic personal descriptions – name, date of birth, place of birth, marital status, nationality, religion, height, weight and colouring. Curiosity grew to a real need to know because I was sure it would have happened — a soldier suffering shock and wanting to escape or desperate to make a new life somewhere else. As a historical fiction author, I believe we must research the era of our story to provide an authentic as possible background. We can’t throw our characters headfirst into history and hope for the best. So, I contacted London’s Imperial War Museum and the Australian War Memorial in Canberra asking that question — were discs stolen or swapped. Both replied that it was possible, but the chance of discovery was very real and the penalties very harsh. Neither would confirm it did happen but that was good enough for me to begin my third book, The Proposition.

The Proposition

They met on the eve of battle. One enlisted to avoid prison, the other enlisted to avoid the money lenders. On the bloodied fields of France, Harry Connelly collapses beside the corpse of Andrew Conroy. It’s a risk, a hanging offence, but it’s his only hope for a future. Harry swaps identity discs. Now Andrew, he’s just another face in post war London until a letter arrives with a proposition, plunging him into a nightmare of murder, family jealousy and greed. To survive he must live this lie without a mistake, until Lacey, the truth and the consequences.

Excerpt

“Excuse me, call of nature.”

The niggling coil of unease had been growing and now, as Andrew watched the dining room door close behind Elliot, his instincts were jabbing at him. His host had been charming and hospitable. Last night, after a delicious dinner at Browns Hotel, they’d touched on their family connection, unsure of what to say without offending the other. Elliot had twirled his glass between his fingers. “My grandparents made a lot of money from the textile industry, my father sold seventy percent of those businesses and invested in other profitable enterprises. To put it simply, he was a very astute, successful businessman, but I’m afraid he was not a good husband and father. He cared little for us and it distresses me that he cared even less for you and your mother.”

Today, Elliot had proudly introduced him to his pride and joy, a dark grey Austin-20hp and they’d motored smoothly out of London and onto the soft Essex countryside. When they’d stopped at Thaxted’s Swan Inn for lunch, Elliot had commented, “Every spare acre in Essex has been growing vegetables, doing their bit for the war effort and rationing.” When they continued on to Saffron Walden, he’d pointed to his left, “Railway station, a branch line from Audley End. Made a big difference to this town.” They’d stopped briefly in High Street, then through the marketplace, bumping over cobblestones to a wider road and finally stopping at the entrance of a large Victorian house. He’d been shown to his room overlooking the rear of the house with its garden rows of vegetables.

Elliot had apologised again, business to attend to and please make himself at home. Not used to the substantial meals, he’d slept until five pm. At seven pm, he’d joined Elliot in the dining room where silver serving dishes containing roast beef, baked potatoes and green vegetables sat on spirit warmers. “Very informal this evening,” Elliot had said breezily. “I asked my daily help to prepare something easy for us, so please, help yourself.” The only time his host’s friendliness disappeared was when the daily help tapped on the door to tell him she’d answered the phone and left the message on the phone pad. Something was very wrong, or perhaps he was too jumpy from living on this tight rope of lies.

The door opened again. “Much more comfortable,” Elliot grinned. “More wine?”

“No thank you, I might not be able to climb the stairs, but I must thank you for another very pleasant evening.”

Elliot’s grin disappeared. “It’s time to discuss the business proposition which will give us both what we want.”

“I confess I was intrigued when I received your letter,” Andrew replied guardedly.

“You will perform a service and if that service is completed satisfactorily, I will pay you three hundred pounds and pay your outstanding debts.”

Andrew went perfectly still. “Perform a service?”

“You will impregnate the woman I married.”

About the Author

Jan Selbourne grew up in Melbourne, Australia. Her love of literature and history began as soon as she could hold a pen. Her career started in the dusty world of ledgers and accounting then a working holiday in the UK brought the history to life. Now retired, Jan can indulge her love of writing and travel. She has two children and lives near Maitland, New South Wales.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+proposition+jan+selbourne&crid=YVJ1Y7R6RH40&sprefix=the+proposition+jan%2Caps%2C521&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_19
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-proposition-jan-selbourne/1128928662?ean=9780228603283
https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=the+proposition+jan+selbourne
https://www.facebook.com/jan.selbourne
https://twitter.com/JanSelbourne
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jan-selbourne-2817b6140/
janselbourne@gmail.com