UPDATE: The winner is…Eileen Airey!
*~*~*

It’s the first day of September! I checked the weather forecast. This week, if weather permits, will likely be the last week I can comfortably swim in my pool. Some years, I’ve been able to stick it out until mid-October, but with temperatures going down steadily (we’ll have a high of 68 degrees around the 10th!), I have to concede the battle.

I love the first of the month. My bank account is flush ( 🙂 ), and I have a lovely plan mapped out that doesn’t have any chicken-marked changes on it, yet. If you read yesterday’s blog, you know I have plenty to do, but I won’t let any negativity take me down today. It’s a bright, shiny new month!

To start your month right, how about a puzzle and a little game?

Puzzle-Contest

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me a story… Doesn’t have to be long or be any good. Just have fun!

Open Contests!

Enter while you still can!

1. #1 place I want to visit post-COVID! (Contest–2 winners!) — Win a FREE book!
2. Reina Torres: Some Help from a Friend (Contest) — Win a FREE book!
3. Flashback: Truly, Madly…Deadly (Contest–3 Winners, Plus Excerpt!) — Win a FREE book!
4. What a Week Update, Plus More! Also, Contests! — Win an Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Colleen C!
*~*~*

I know! A second puzzle inside a week. I really do make you work hard for your prizes!

I hope that in between playing games, you’ve been reading (*cough*), and hopefully, it’s my latest release, Cage! I can’t wait to hear whether you’re ready for more fun happenings in Dead Horse, Montana!

On to the puzzle! And be sure to check the list of open contests below!

Puzzle-Contest

Solve the puzzle—then tell me a story for a chance
to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

These offers are still open! Enter to win!!

1. Diana Cosby: Nature Through The Lens – A Creative Outlet (Contest) — Ends soon! Win a free book!
2. Cage is out! (Puzzle-Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Courtney Kinder!
*~*~*

My new book, BOOK #1 for the new spin-off series for the Montana Bounty Hunters, is here! The first book is important. It introduces you to the town and introduces the first hunters who will inhabit the Dead Horse office. From here, who knows where the series will go!

If you have a chance to read it, please consider leaving a review on your favorite website. Reviews really do help an author!

Get your copy here!
It’s FREE in KU!

Puzzle-Contest

I had fun naming businesses in my town of Dead Horse, Montana. The townsfolk went a little nuts with the “dead theme”. There’s the Dead Easy Saloon, the Dead Horse Walk-in (get it?) Diner, etc.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, either try to work on the “dead” theme to help me with some more groan-worthy “deadly” names, or if your well of wit is dry, tell me if you’ll be visiting Dead Horse, MT anytime soon!

UPDATE: The winner is…flchen1!
*~*~*

Just a quick note before we play!

Next Tuesday, I have a new release—the first in the Montana Bounty Hunters: Dead Horse, MT series! If you loved my hunters in Bear Lodge, with their intrepid/accident-prone warrior-leader Reaper, I think you’re going to love Cage, too! Be sure to pre-order your copy!

A former SEAL and MMA fighter, and now, newly minted bounty hunter, has to hunt down his first skip…his ex-wife.

Pre-order here!

Puzzle-Contest!

Solve the puzzle then tell me if your favorite hobby is anything like mine for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Elaine Mulder!
*~*~*

I checked the calendar this morning and had to do a double-take. We’re at July 31st! July 31st! Has this year flown by for you like it has me? Sure, it’s been a very strange year. One for the history books in so many ways. A year where we’re living from one disaster to another. Plus, we’re stuck at home.

I had to think back to my childhood where we stayed glued to the TV through JFK’s assassination, the moon landing, the Viet Nam war. (An aside, one of my most vivid memories was watching a reporter get shot and having a South Vietnamese medic wrapping his leg with a tourniquet—while he continued his report!) Now, we (maybe just I?) can watch news 24/7. I’m listening to the news while I’m typing this! It’s crazy. Not healthy, I’m sure, but I feel like I have to know the second when the zombie apocalypse starts! Because that’s next, right?

In the meantime, it’s the end of July. I did plenty of work this month but don’t yet have a new book to share. That happens in August.  Check out Cage, if you’re ready for another sexy bounty hunter. I did a s*$t-ton of editing for other folks. I painted my ass off. I spent a lot of pool time with the kids. So, I wasn’t lazy. I just wasn’t writing fast enough. I realize I’ve been using my family’s self-isolation as an excuse to…watch more movies with the family, participate in meal preparation, playing with the little ones, playing with a new hobby that provides me joy… Maybe that makes me a bad writer, but I’m not caring. 🙂

These contests are still open!

1. Susan Saxx: Nathan Unwrapped (Contest) — Win a FREE book!
2. Storytime — A Puzzle Contest — Win an Amazon gift card!
3. Gabbi Grey: Why gay romance? (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!

The Puzzle-Contest

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me the story that goes along with this picture! 

UPDATE: The winner is…Eileen Airey!
*~*~*

Does it feel as though the days are just blending together? I had to check the calendar to figure out what day of the week it was. There’s a sameness that’s just a bit numbing to my days now.

There are bright spots. The 7-year-old has decided that my bed is the softest, so she comes toodling in at bedtime with a smug smile. She knows I’ll flip back the covers and let her join me. Then we’ll lie side-by-side in the dark and talk about what’s happening with her favorite YouTube personality. The pool is another highlight. I mostly bob around on a noodle, enjoying the giant bathtub (the pool’s temp is right around 90 degrees!). It’s so relaxing if I stick to the side opposite of where the 7-year-old and 11-year-old are trying to drown each other in “sea battles.”

I have a book to finish and two sets of edits to work on. Plenty to keep me busy. And I’m trying to slowly get control over my craft room/office sprawl. So, yes, plenty to do.

The fall will look a lot like the summer, minus pool time. Our school district is offering an online option for students, so we’re opting for that. Gah!

The Puzzle-Contest

Enter these contests while you can!

1. Poll Results! And Tell Me a Story! (Contest–2 winners!) — Win a FREE cowboy book!
2. Susan Saxx: Nathan Unwrapped (Contest) — Win a FREE book!

UPDATE: The winner is…Lisa Carter!
*~*~*

I have three blogs to keep up with, so it’s not hard to imagine me forgetting to get around to this one today, right? So, I’m a little late—that doesn’t mean we can’t still have some fun.

Solve the puzzle, and then tell me what’s hiding inside it for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card! Go wild!