I decided to do a different kind of puzzle for a change. Hope you enjoy it!

For a chance to win a download from among the stories hidden in this puzzle, tell me which cover appeals most to you!

I love my Montana Bounty Hunters. I’ve said it before, but I try hard to make each of them individual rather than cookie-cutter characters with different names. I also love to dream up unique takedowns for your reading pleasure and to showcase who these men are. One of my favorite characters is Brian, an amputee who has fought back from feeling useless at the beginning of the series to being an integral part of the bounty hunters’ team and a warrior again. I did a ton of research to get him right. Hope you’ve enjoyed his story.

Brian

MONTANA BOUNTY HUNTERS: Authentic Men… Real Adventures…

The haunted gaze of one wounded warrior sparks a challenge in a physical therapist who’s determined to help him regain what he’s lost whether he wants her help or not…

Physical Therapist, Raydeen Pickering, has seen her fill of stubborn veterans, some too angry to get on with their lives, some still living in hell in their minds, and then some unwilling to let their broken bodies hold them back. She hasn’t figured out which Brian Cobb is yet. The first time she met the handsome, wounded warrior, he was wary and defensive, his gaze always sliding toward the door, looking for as a quick escape from the Soldiers’ Sanctuary meetings.

Even now, there’s something about the ex-Army MP, now bounty hunter wrangler, that sets him apart from the other men she’s helped mend. There’s something more–not just the haunted look in his eyes or the stubborn set of his chin. The way he looks at her when he thinks her attention is elsewhere gives her hope that she’ll reach him, and that he’ll let her help him regain more of what he’s lost.

First though, he has to figure out he’s in love with the wrong woman. The one he needs is right here, and if she has to do the chasing, so be it, because those looks he gives her have rekindled a fire she thought was lost forever…

Contest

Are you all caught up reading the original Montana Bounty Hunters series?

For a chance to win a download of one of the stories you may have missed
(I’ll pick three winners!), tell me this:
What profession other than bounty hunters would you like to see my heroines involved with in my Montana Bounty Hunters—Yellowstone branch stories?

Here are all the Bear Lodge Montana Bounty Hunters! Yes, it’s an old meme, but do you really care?

MONTANA BOUNTY HUNTERS: Bear Lodge, MT
Authentic Men… Real Adventures…
Reaper: https://amzn.to/2NztLpv
Dagger: https://amzn.to/2zo6Dav
Reaper’s Ride: https://amzn.to/2KKkisI
Cochise: https://amzn.to/2zq4avV
Hook: https://amzn.to/2UrpyYh
Wolf: https://amzn.to/2yUTjr5
Animal: https://amzn.to/2H4Roob
Big Sky Wedding: https://amzn.to/33GprwK
Quincy: https://amzn.to/2QlleM8
Brian: https://amzn.to/2ZV8m2G

Excerpt from Brian:

Sweat trickled down the sides of Brian Cobb’s face. His helmet felt heavy on his head, his pack dragged on his shoulders, and his boots were so hot he was walking in pools of water. The transport vehicles his squad had been promised hadn’t arrived, so they were hoofing it back to camp with half a dozen prisoners chained in a line. Still, their plight was better than the infantry platoon’s they’d left a click back. Once they’d given the ISIS fighters into Military Police custody, they’d headed back to continue their sweep for insurgents hiding inside the village with the unpronounceable name.

“Hey, Corncob,” Private First Class Benny Sanders said as he walked beside him.

“You know I hate that nickname, Sanders,” Brian muttered.

“Yeah, I do,” he said, his smile stretching across his dark face. Benny jerked his chin toward the slender figure striding ahead of the chained prisoners, her dog Tessa walking, unleashed by her side. “I see how you look at her. Are you and she…?” Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE: The winner is…Kerry Pruett!
*~*~*

Ready for a puzzle? Let’s exercise that gray matter! I thought it might be fun to remind you there’s a series out there (if you haven’t already read it) for you to binge—the original Montana Bounty Hunters! I wrote a character in a book for Elle James’s Brotherhood Protectors series with a heroine who was a bounty hunter, and I loved writing it so much, and loved her bounty hunting partner Reaper so much, I wrote an entire series. It happens that way sometimes. 🙂

Solve the puzzle, then for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me whether you’ve read any of the original stories, and if you have, which was your favorite?  

UPDATE: The winner is…ELF!
*~*~*

Before I get into July’s accomplishments/August’s future plans, I want to take a moment to say thank you to my readers! I woke up to see this today:

It’s the ranking for my latest anthology, Secret Identities: A Boys Behaving Badly Anthology! I could not be more thrilled for the authors inside this collection! I wish I was one of them, but I had to reject the two stories I worked on because they just didn’t make the cut. Not sure why, or maybe I do, but I’ll explain more below.

Anyway, congrats to TEAM SECRET IDENTITIES! And if you haven’t gotten your copy, hit the link above. It’s only $0.99, and there’s something for everyone’s taste in this volume. Did I mention it starts with a big bang thanks to my sister Elle James’s terrific Brotherhood Protectors-related story!?

July

1. I published the first book in my Delta Fire series: Burning Up Memphis.
2. I revised and published the second Delta Fire book, Hotter with a Pole.
3. I revised and uploaded the third Delta Fire book, Rapid Entry, which will release on August 6th! (Have you pre-ordered your copy?!)
4. I finished work on Cyrus and published it on July 23rd!
5. I finished editing all the stories inside Secret Identities: A Boys Behaving Badly Anthology, and it was published on July 30th!
6. I completed 2 editing projects for other authors in July!

Health-related:

1. After all my annual scans, bloodwork, etc., that happened in June and July, I thought I was good to go. Full steam ahead. Enjoy the summer, write like mad. However, around mid-month, problems I had been thinking were minor (gas, indigestion, whatever), I started having some real abdominal pain. I thought gallbladder, then maybe appendix. So, I was sent in for a CT scan from my lungs down to my pubic bone. They found something, and statistically, the thing they found derives from metastatic cancer—but it could be inflammation due to infection, so I’m holding out for that, because hey, all that bloodwork and all those scans didn’t find tumors anywhere. Make it make sense. Not panicking, trying to keep busy so I don’t think about it too much. I’d appreciate any thoughts/wishes/prayers.
2. I paid attention to what I put in my mouth and lost 8.5 pounds this month!

Happiness-related: 

1. July was filled again with family activities. We’ve had movie nights at home and special meals where everyone participated in the food prep.
2. The pool is finally clear and beautiful. Whether I feel like it or not, I swim at least once a day.
3. Art kind of fell by the wayside this month. I have nothing wonderful to share with you. I’ll try better in August!

August

1. To publish Book #3 in the Delta Fire series, Rapid Entry on August 6th!
2. To delay the publication of Built Like Mack. I’m not writing much now, and I have a lot to write on this story. I will push off the publication date as far as I can into September. Sorry, I know some of you were looking forward to reading the next We Are Dead Horse story soon.
3. To complete Ignition, the fourth book in the Delta Fire series. I only have two or three chapters left.  If I can, I’ll have a September release.
4. To complete 3 or 4 editing projects in August!

For health related, I plan:

1. To get an answer regarding my stomach issues and then move forward.
2. To schedule the last of the health-related appointments I need to wrap up: Eye exam and dental exam.

For happiness-related, I plan: 

1. To fiddle in my art room!
2. To spend time with the family—movies, flea market adventures, and pool—before school starts and everything gets complicated!

Contest

Comment on anything you’ve read in this post. Tell me what you’re doing to make yourself happier and healthier, or tell me what you plan to read in August…

Like I said, comment on anything for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Roxie A Jones!
*~*~*

I just began my third Montana Bounty Hunter series, this time set in West Yellowstone, Montana. When I started I had no idea how much fun they would be to write. But I’ve already filled up two offices in Bear Lodge and Dead Horse, so, I either needed to move out of state or find another Montana town I wanted to “visit.”

Thank you, by the way, to everyone who picked up their copy of Cyrus!

I have a process I go through before I start a book. First, I need a name. Then, I need a picture to go with that name. The name and the picture inform me about who the person I’m about to write is. The name, Cyrus Walsh, seemed a little old-fashioned like he could’ve been a gunslinger in the Wild, Wild West, and the photo I found with his narrow-eyed squint told me that was how he looked out at the world, with a hint of suspicion and need to figure out who he was facing. If you’ve read the story, you know how much Milly, the woman who captures him, loves that narrow-eyed glare.

Now, the problem is finding more hunters to people the office in West Yellowstone. Take a look at the previous two series cast of characters…

Bear Lodge, MT

Dead Horse, MT

Contest

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, suggest some names for bounty hunters so I can begin my process of figuring out will fill my cast of characters in West Yellowstone!

Word Seach Puzzle

And I added a puzzle because we need one of those right about now, right? Enjoy!

If you’ve enjoyed my bounty hunters in the past, I can guarantee you’ll love Cyrus. It is action-packed and features two characters you will fall in love with. You can “meet” Cyrus in the opening scene of the book here: Cyrus Excerpt. He’s grumpy, likes his space, and thinks he doesn’t really need anybody—until he meets Milly. He thinks she’s not his type but is quickly intrigued because she surprises him at every turn. All I can say is they were fun to write, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Anyway, the book is out! I hope you get your copy! This is the start of a new series! — Oh! And it’s currently FREE in Kindle Unlimited!

Cyrus

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.

Order your copy here!

Meet Milly…

The hunters have apprehended their skip, but he suffered some injuries while running away from them in the woods in Yellowstone park where our heroine is a park ranger. I just love her. She’s not your usual heroine and because she’s unexpected the hero can’t help but notice her…

Milly Bauer followed the two burly bounty hunters back to the trailhead as they carried Tate Smith between them. They made it look easy, although both men were coated in sweat by the time they arrived back at their vehicle. When she mentioned loading Tate into her Tahoe, she’d gotten another of the bigger guy’s scowls. He acted like she was trying to horn in on his takedown. She didn’t give a rat’s ass who got the credit. However, they were operating inside the park, so it was her duty to make sure rules were followed.

Once at the clinic, the nicer one followed Tate Smith to the imaging center to get X-rays of his right foot and shoulder. It looked like he had indeed broken his ankle and several smaller bones in his foot, as well as dislocated his shoulder.

“They’ll be a while,” she warned the bigger guy. “I’m Milly Bauer, by the way,” she said, holding out her hand and hoping he’d give her a name because “nicer guy” and “bigger guy” would likely blurt from her mouth if she didn’t have a proper name to assign the two hunters.

She guessed his eyes remained permanently narrowed—maybe it was genetic—because his eyes didn’t widen when he reached slowly to shake her hand.

“Cyrus Walsh.”

“And your friend?”

“Mike Meakin. He’s a police officer with the West Yellowstone PD.”

“So, he’s got a real job when he’s not hanging with bounty hunters?” She meant it as a joke, but the chilly look he gave her said he didn’t appreciate her humor. She held up her hands. “Didn’t mean to offend.”

He grunted and turned in his seat to stare down the hallway where his friend had disappeared. “You don’t have to wait around with us. We’ve got this handled.”

“My boss wants me to stick with you and escort you out of the park after your prisoner is fixed up. He really doesn’t like bounty hunters.”

Again, he grunted, and she found she rather liked the rude sound. Most men weren’t as honest about their disinterest in her.

“So, have you ever faced a grizzly before?” she asked.

“Have you?” he asked, his head swiveling toward her.

She unclipped her can of bear spray from her utility belt. “Nope, but I did come prepared.” She sniffed the fingers that had held down the nozzle when she’d sprayed. “Can’t believe soap and water worked so well.”

“I was curious why you didn’t go straight for your gun,” he said.

“I didn’t want to kill the bear if I didn’t need to.”

“He was charging you and Tate.”

“I was in his territory.”

He rolled his eyes.

“I’d have pulled my Sig,” she said, patting the weapon in her holster, “but that was a grizzly, and if I’d shot him, I might have only pissed him off. Who says I’d have had a chance to take a second shot.”

His jaw rotated, and then he clamped it tight.

“Seeing as you’re so gun-ho,” she said, wincing at her own pun, “why’d you decide to make noise and charge the bear instead of shooting?”

“I wasn’t close enough to be in any danger.” His mouth curved into a slight smirking smile.

She narrowed her eyes. “But I was.”

He shrugged. “You looked like you had things handled with your can of bear piss.”

Was he trying to piss her off? “It’s not bear piss; bear repellent is made of hot peppers, capsaicin to be specific.” She laughed and shook her head. “Are you always such an asshole?”

He sighed and wiped a hand over his face. “I’m not good with people.”

“No kidding.” Still, she grinned—and noted that his gaze dropped to her mouth before darting back up to her eyes.

His scowl deepened, his eyebrows drawing together.

Milly rather liked earning those frowny faces. At least he wasn’t ignoring her.

He cleared his throat. “Seeing as how Mike’s going to be a bit, you want to get some coffee?”

She hid her surprise and shrugged. “We can get fast food, or there’s Wylie’s Canteen in Lake Lodge. We can get coffee and some sandwiches there if you like. Maybe bring something back for your friend and Tate, too…?”

Cyrus rose to his feet. “I’ll text him and see if he needs to visit the facilities before I leave.”

He pulled his phone from his pocket and quickly typed a message. “He says he’s good. He’ll eat anything but hates mayo.”

“I’ll drive since I know where we’re going. The canteen, right?” At his nod, she pulled her keys from her pocket. “It’s not far.”

The short drive was made in silence. The cafeteria wasn’t too busy, so they quickly queued up their trays and pushed them along the rail. Such a domestic thing to do, and she knew they looked absurd—her in her uniform, standing beside a big brute of a handsome man. Everyone was craning their necks to watch as they plucked pre-made sandwiches from refrigerated displays, adding chips and drinks before sliding their stacked trays toward the register.

“I got this,” Cyrus said.

“I’ll get my own food.”

“Already have my wallet out.”

She raised both eyebrows and slowly nodded because she figured he was determined to win. “I appreciate it. Thank you. Do you want to eat here or back at the clinic waiting room?”

He glanced at his phone. “They’re still waiting on imaging. Let’s eat here.”

They took seats at a small table overlooking the parking lot and began unwrapping and opening their food and drinks.

“You live in the park?” he asked.

She was surprised he was making an effort at polite conversation. She lifted a crisp potato chip. “I don’t. Actually, I live in West Yellowstone. I was born and raised there.” She chomped on the chip while he gave her another hard-to-read frown.

“Well, hell,” he said under his breath.

She laughed, although she knew she should’ve felt insulted by his lack of enthusiasm for what she’d shared. “Thought you’d never bump into me again, didn’t you?”

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

If you’ve visited this blog lately, you know that there’s something fun happening over at another website I run, Delilah’s Collections. It only gets active for a few months a year, but when it does, it’s very, very busy! We’re running a campaign now through the release of our latest collection, Secret Identities: A Boys Behaving Badly Anthology on July 30th. It’s a fun way to get to know the authors who’ve written stories for the anthology—maybe you already know them, maybe you don’t! But did I mention there will be multiple opportunities to win prizes or pick up some freebies?

Now back to those images… They represent the current posts from the authors who are eager to meet you!

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, let me know whether you’ve been over to the Collections website to “meet” our new authors!

A reminder about what’s releasing tomorrow!!

Pre-order your copy now!