My sister, Elle James, has a new release! She’s in Portugal at the moment, so I’m posting this without her intro. If she remembers she should send me pictures, I’ll update this post. In the meantime, you have plenty of eye candy to enjoy with Montana Rescue! ~DD

Navy SEAL teams with a sexy CIA Assassin to smoke out a terrorist in the Crazy Mountains of Montana

Plagued by survivor’s guilt and a bad knee, SEAL Mad Dog Maddox left the Navy and buried himself in a mountain cabin in Colorado where the only creatures he hunts now are those he puts on his table. Slowly going out of his mind with boredom, he’s on the verge of throwing himself off a cliff when an old friend, his former commander gives him a reason to live. His mission: Team with special CIA operative and assassin to reveal a terrorist on home soil.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2j9yVNX
iBooks: https://bit.ly/BP8MontRescueiTunes
B&N: https://bit.ly/bp8MontRescueNook
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/montana-rescue
Googleplay: https://bit.ly/BPMRGPLAY
Print: https://amzn.to/2AuDBlX
Audio coming soon!!

Can you tell I’m jumping up and down? No? Well, if my foot wasn’t sore, I would be! My baby is out in the world today, and I can’t wait until you read it! After you do (see that note of positivity?), I would love to hear what you think! And if you have time, consider leaving a review. Other readers will depend on what you say to make a decision about buying my book. Your opinion matters. Okay, enough from me. Enjoy a peek inside Reaper, and don’t forget to enter the contest!

Former Marine, Reaper Stenberg is a bounty hunter, running his own satellite agency of Montana Bounty Hunters, along with his partner, Jamie Burke. As a general rule, Reaper doesn’t like working with a partner, especially female partners. When chasing a bail-jumper, he prefers to keep his head down and follow the leads. He doesn’t like the “chatter” that usually accompanies working with a woman.

However, partnering with Jamie has taught him a few things. There are women who can focus on the job at hand without letting silly distractions get in the way of his concentration. Jamie is one of those rare creatures who doesn’t gossip, doesn’t get into his business, and can actually be useful when shit goes sideways and they have to get physical. Over the months since their boss, Fetch Winter, put them together, Reaper has come to admire the woman’s grit and ingenuity.

And then Jamie up and gets busy planning her wedding…

See what happens when Reaper has to deal with a ride-along author, Carly Wyatt, who—when shit goes sideways—proves his first female partner’s grit and ingenuity aren’t just lucky happenstance, and who challenges Reaper’s strict relationship rules.

Get your copy here!

Contest

Win an Amazon gift card! Because I believe in the power of things said out loud, I’d love for you to say something out loud—or at least in the comments below—about how you feel readers will embrace my bounty hunters! And because I’m already looking for more Montana Bounty Hunter character names, I want you to take a turn naming them! I already have Reaper, Dagger, and Fetch. They always have macho nicknames that mean they’re either big and badass or there’s no escaping them. So, give it a try and maybe you’ll win!

Read an Excerpt!

As a general rule, Reaper Stenberg didn’t like working with a partner, especially female partners. When chasing a target, he preferred to keep his head down and follow the leads. He didn’t like the “chatter” that usually accompanied being paired with a woman.

However, partnering with Jamie Burke had taught him a few things. Women existed who could focus on the job at hand without letting silly distractions get in the way of his concentration. Jamie was one of those rare creatures who didn’t gossip, didn’t mess in his business, and could actually be useful when shit went sideways and they had to get physical. Her methods for subduing a target weren’t ones he’d ever employ, but she knew how to compensate for her smaller frame and lesser strength. Over the months since their boss, Fetch Winter, had put them together, Reaper came to admire the woman’s grit and ingenuity.

Case in point was their present predicament.

No, this time she hadn’t tripped bail jumper, Mark Rebos, with a Jackie Chan move, and no, she hadn’t gripped his balls and twisted so hard he begged for mercy. This time—while she’d run all out—she locked a cuff on her right wrist, jumped onto his back, and snagged his right with the other cuff. Now, they faced each other, squinting in the rain and ankle-deep in mud, and Rebos couldn’t swing without dragging her closer.

The big man looked ready to explode. His pockmarked face was red, and his eyes bugged. Although Rebos was six inches taller than Jamie, and outweighed her by about eighty pounds, Reaper’s money was in Jamie. Read the rest of this entry »

Thank you, Delilah, for inviting me as a guest on your blog today. It’s so exciting to be back. I’ve missed all this fun stuff while life whipped me this way and that. They say trouble builds character, and maybe that’s true. One thing is for sure, humanity’s ups and downs, endless bouts of chaos and periods of unimaginable calm will keep you from becoming too complacent. It will give you a grateful heart—an outcome worth every fallen tear.

How fitting my topic is in the wake of all that has been gained, and lost, and gained again. Nothing is inevitable, and it’s never too late for wounds to heal. Life can be better on the other side of trouble! Trust me, I know.

I guess you could say, I’m a romantic at heart. Maybe it’s the way I was raised, by parents who stuck together through thick and thin, some seventy-plus years. It’s no secret, everyone is not so fortunate, as maybe they married the wrong person. It’s not so easy to prevent getting it wrong when we’re young, and maybe not all that bright. After all, there’s a lot of life’s lessons yet to be learned. I’ve been lucky, and I know that. We celebrated our thirty-third anniversary last month. As we grow older, I see things in him I never paid much attention to, and I love him more than the day we said, “I do.”

To me, there’s not much that’s more heartbreaking than to see two people who love one another, break up, especially when children are involved. It’s just— sad. For some reason, it thrills me when I hear of someone reuniting after they’ve suffered a divorce. Recently, one of our friends reunited with his former spouse even after she’d remarried and that relationship failed. I like the idea of people who made an impulsive decision to divorce their true love, having the opportunity to rectify their mistake. So thus, the inspiration for my latest story, Worth the Risk.

Forced to reconnect with her ex-husband in order to find their missing son, Stephanie and Devin Clark discover though their lives had grown dreary and cold, the flame never died, and before they know what’s happened, the fire of their passion is more combustible than ever, and life is anything but mundane.

Get your copy here!

Military romance has been, and will always be close to my heart. Up until now I’ve primarily written Marines, my affection for them is well documented in nearly 30 books including the Always a Marine series, Lone Star Leathernecks, and of course, When Danger Bites, the first book of Bravo Team WOLF—marrying my love of Marines to my love of Shifters.

When Susan Stoker invited me to come and play in her Special Forces: Operation Alpha Kindle World, I didn’t hesitate to say yes! What did give me pause was writing a SEAL, I’d written Marines, but SEALs are different. I wanted to be accurate, and I wanted to be entertaining—but most of all I wanted to be honest.

Operation Research

I’ve met SEALs in the past, but there are only so many questions you can ask. Instead, I relied on observation. It’s easy to forget these men are some of the toughest men around, not because they hide it—but because they are usually very comfortable in their own skin. They know what they are capable of and they don’t need to prove it to anyone.

Their training is brutal, and it’s not just about physical capability but mental discipline. Their service is often classified or top secret, and they are always training, or prepping, or on a mission. It’s rather humbling to realize that they need downtime after a mission because days of being on and focused and pumped with adrenaline requires decompression time before they can come back to the civilian world.

Admiring the fortitude required for all of the above is only the first step to getting a grip on the character.

What About Movies and Television?

Why not watch television shows or movies featuring special operations? We can do that, and I have, but entertainment always takes a certain amount of dramatic license just like I do in my books. FYI, currently I enjoy The Brave of all the latest offerings on television. Liking it doesn’t mean I can rely on those shows to do my research for me.

So you interview who you can, ask questions and recognize that you can’t always get all the answers, but you might get hypotheticals. Then you respect the work they do and focus on your character—I’m not going to write about every minute of his training or every hour of his missions, but I can take the long view and see how all of these will inform the character’s development.

SEAL, Now and Forever?

Mickey is a SEAL, that is very much a part of his identity, but he’s no longer active duty. In the Marines, once a Marine, always a Marine. For SEALs? They’re always SEALs, it’s something they earn, they become, and retirement or not, the experience is theirs forever.

The best part of a writing SEALs? What makes them dangerous isn’t their weapons or their combat skills—it’s what it took to make them SEALs in the first place—their mental discipline and strength of character. Those elements are amazing to combine into a character I create.

What is your favorite part of a SEAL? Real or fictional?

Securing Arizona

James “Mickey” MacBride retired from the teams with a solid record of mission accomplished. Now at odds and ends, he accepts the request of his retired Petty Officer grandfather. They want to gather the children of the USS Arizona—the descendants of the 355 survivors—for a special event. No problem, how hard can finding one woman named Arizona Kensington be?

Ari King has been on the run for over a year. No matter where she goes, her stalker finds her. She’s changed her name, her hair color, and even gave up the job she loved. When Mickey walks into the restaurant and asks for her by the name she surrendered, she takes his order then leaves via the back door, running for her life. Only she can’t shake him.

Securing Arizona was supposed to be a favor, but Mickey soon discovers it’s the mission of his life, and the men after her will have to go through this SEAL to get her.

Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/2heiufp

One of the joys of reading is escaping to places you’ve been or always dreamed of going. One of those places that should be on everyone’s bucket list is Venice, Italy. The city is magical! The canals, the alleyways, the people and Carnival are amazing and take you back to another time.

I chose Venice for Ronin’s Return because I so loved the city. Hotel Eden is a place where we stayed, and I described it just like it was when I went there. I’ve included a picture of my daughter standing beneath the sign at Hotel Eden. The picture of Venice on the cover is one I took while there. I loved the colorful buildings and the reflections of the buildings in the water. I hope you enjoy visiting Venice, even if only in the story.

RONIN’S RETURN

Amazon | Kobo | Nook | GooglePlay | IBooks | Print

Navy SEAL helps Italian heiress evade bounty hunters set on collecting the price on her head, while navigating the canals of Venice.

Navy SEAL, Ronin Magnus, has his first real vacation since his visit to Italy two years ago when he met the woman who continues to haunt his every day and night dreams. His mission: Find Isabella and prove to himself two years of fantasizing has blown her image and attributes way out of proportion. In order to move on, he has to get her out of his system.

Isabella Pisano, daughter of the multi-millionaire Pisano family of Venice had spent the past two years trying to forget a handsome Navy SEAL who’d turned her views on love upside down. Not satisfied to be just the daughter of a wealthy man, she had set out to make a difference in the lives of the women being raped, tortured and sold into slavery in the ISIS raids in Syria. Disguised as the gun-toting Angel of Mercy, she entered Syria and helped hundreds of women and children escape ISIS brutality. When ISIS puts a price on her head, she returns to Venice, resumes her life as Isabella and prays her alter ego and the bounty on her head doesn’t follow her

Unfortunately, their reunion is beset by killers who’ve discovered Isabella’s secret.

Chased through the streets and canals of Venice, Ronin and Isabella must elude their enemies or die. But they cannot escape the burgeoning love, threatening to consume them.

Earlier this summer I attended an outdoor professional rodeo. I haven’t watched one in years. I used to go to rodeos all the time, and I’d forgotten how much fun they are. Sitting in the stands on a sunny afternoon watching handsome men in tight Wrangler jeans, flashy shirts, chaps, cowboy hats and high heeled boots punishing their well-toned bodies on top of wild, bucking broncs and two thousand pound, angry Brahma bulls is pretty thrilling. Their skills, stamina and courage are awe- inspiring. The excitement in the stands is intoxicating.

Along with clouds of dust, the overpowering smells of manure, beer, fried onions, and cotton candy hang in the air. I love everything about rodeo…the sleek animals with their gleaming coats, the rodeo clown’s corny jokes, the bravery of the pick up men and bullfighters, the country-western music blaring over the loud speakers, and the heart-attack-inducing food. (Who doesn’t love good old southern barbeque? Or deep fried Oreos?)

I don’t know why I stopped going to the rodeo, but I do know I’m going to go to another one. Soon. Who knows, I may even become a buckle bunny.

Bitter Legacy

Sharla-Jean Bromley returns to her hometown after a seventeen-year absence with vengeance in her heart. From the very beginning, her plans go awry when she meets devastatingly handsome Josh Morgan, the man to whom her father left half of his multi-million dollar lumber mill.

Josh, suspicious of Sharla-Jean’s reasons for returning to town after such a long absence, vows to keep control of the company he feels is rightfully his. She is equally determined to prove she can run her father’s mill, even though it means working side-by-side with Josh, a man whose very presence evokes an attraction that is increasingly difficult for her to ignore. In the process, they must overcome a villain who’s determined to destroy both the lumber mill and their lives.

Will Sharla-Jean succeed and heal the anguish that has long filled her soul? Wills he and Josh find the passion of a lifetime?

Excerpt:

Sharla-Jean Bromley had wanted only two things in life—a red dress and her father’s death. She’d waited years. Hell, she’d prayed for this moment. Why then, wasn’t this a celebration? Why was a ball of acid churning through her stomach? Taking a deep breath, she climbed out of the taxi and smoothed the skirt of her figure-hugging, red, silk dress over her hips.

The crowd of somber mourners stood in clusters on the sweeping steps outside the old stone church under the late-October, overcast sky. The damp air was ripe with the familiar sweet-sour smell of freshly cut Douglas fir. Over the hill behind the church, steam trailed in white plumes from the two lumber-drying kilns at the mill. A wind gusted, marshaling scattered piles of gold and red leaves into the gutter.

Goose bumps riddled her arms, and she fought back a shiver as she strode forward, knees quaking, jostling through the crowd on the wide sidewalk.

A collective gasp filled the air, and her name swept over the mourners in a rising crescendo. “It’s her! Sharla-Jean. Big Jim’s daughter.”

Buy Links:
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZVR5LJ/
Barnes and Noble https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bitter-legacy-c-b-clark/1126254341?ean=2940157509132
Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/bitter-legacy-4
The Wild Rose Press https://catalog.thewildrosepress.com/all-titles/5061-bitter-legacy.html
iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/bitter-legacy/id1231855938?mt=11

Social Media Links:
Blog https://cbclarkauthor.wordpress.com
Twitter https://twitter.com/cbclarkauthor 
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/cbclarkauthor/
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15029617.C_B_Clark
Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/C.-B.-Clark/e/B01BK61TQG/

About the Author

Broken Trust is C.B. Clark’s fourth romantic suspense novel published by The Wild Rose Press. My Brother’s Sins and Cherished Secrets were released in 2016, and Bitter Legacy in 2017. C.B. has always loved reading, especially romances, but it wasn’t until she lost her voice for a year that she considered writing her own romantic suspense stories. She grew up in Canada’s Northwest Territories and Yukon. Graduating with a degree in Anthropology and Archaeology, she has worked as an archaeologist and an educator. She enjoys hiking, canoeing, and snowshoeing with her husband and dog near her home in the wilderness of central British Columbia.

The Old West is full of true stories of bandits, shootouts, and lost treasures. Many people attempt to divide historical figures into heroes and villains, lawman and outlaws. In reality, most people are more complex than that, and few famous people from the Old West led blameless lives.

Wyatt Earp is often regarded as a heroic lawman. However, he spent only six years in law enforcement. He also worked as a gambler, buffalo hunter, stagecoach guard, and Teamster, among other jobs. He was arrested for stealing a horse, but he escaped from jail.

Like many famous Western figures, Wyatt Earp wound up in the famous town of Tombstone, Arizona. Wyatt Earp and Ike Clanton allied to find a group of cowboys who had robbed a stagecoach, but the alliance fell apart—possibly because the Clantons were involved in the robberies. This led to the famous shootout at the OK Corral and the deaths of Billy Clanton and the two McLaury brothers, known cattle rustlers. Soon after, Wyatt’s brother Virgil was seriously wounded in a shooting, and their brother Morgan was killed in a shootout. The attackers were unknown, but Wyatt and his gang killed several suspects. He fled town to avoid prosecution.

Many movies have been made featuring Wyatt Earp, most of them romanticizing his life. The truth is more complex.

A Deadly Killer

Curly Bill Brosius, on the other hand, was pure outlaw and a close friend of the Clantons. He was supposedly a crack shot who could hit running jackrabbits and shoot out candle flames without breaking the candles. His idea of a practical joke was to make a preacher dance during a sermon by shooting at his feet. He forced Mexicans at a community dance to take off their clothes and dance naked. He killed at least one man in a robbery, escaped from prison, and led a gang of rustlers in Arizona Territory.

In 1880, in Tombstone, Curly Bill killed popular Marshal Fred White. The Marshal was trying to take Bill’s gun and it went off, hitting White in the groin. Wyatt Earp then knocked Bill unconscious with his gun. White said he didn’t think Curly Bill was trying to kill him, but he died from his wound the next day. Curly Bill was also implicated in some revenge killings and at least one death during a bar fight. He was implicated in the murder of Morgan Earp, but without proof he wasn’t charged.

Violence in the Desert

Curly Bill also might have been involved in the Skeleton Canyon Massacre. Here history and legend get muddled. Some people claim that Mexican bandits looted Monterrey, Mexico, and escaped across the border with a treasure worth $75,000, or $2 million, or $8 million. Others claim there is no evidence of such a heist in Monterrey, and that it’s doubtful such a treasure ever existed in the first place.

Regardless, violence came to Skeleton Canyon, a shallow canyon in southeastern Arizona, not far from the Mexico border. An American gang ambushed a group of Mexicans—possibly the bandits, or else merely vaqueros (cowboys). One story says Curly Bill’s gang shot the Mexicans out of their saddles, which caused their mules to stampede. The bandits then shot the mules to keep them from running away with the treasure, but with the mules dead, the men had no way to transport the loot. Two men from the gang, Zwing Hunt and Billy Grounds, hid the treasure somewhere in the canyon. When they were killed, the location of the hidden treasure was lost.

Curly Bill had been wounded six weeks before the Skeleton Canyon Massacre and was supposedly still recovering. Was he involved or not? Was the violence over a treasure that would be worth millions today, or merely over some cattle? The debates continue, and some people still hunt for the treasure.

What is most likely true, but is still challenged by some people, is that Wyatt Earp killed Curly Bill in a shootout in 1882. Bill was in his thirties, which considering his lifestyle was a surprisingly long life.

Unsolved Mysteries took a look at the Skeleton Canyon Treasure.

Tombstone is now a popular place for tourists to visit.

History (and Legend) As Inspiration

My adventure novel, The Skeleton Canyon Treasure, was inspired by the legendary treasure. In the novel, set today, Camie and Ryan are hunting for Ryan’s uncle, who disappeared while hunting for the historical treasure. The clues take Camie, Ryan, and the feisty cat Tiger on a trail through the Southwest. Their quest takes them to historic sites such as Tombstone and eventually into the remote canyon, where danger awaits.

“The Skeleton Canyon Treasure is a light, breezy action/adventure/romance that’s perfect for summer reading.”

If you love suspense and romance, try this gripping adventure!

The Mad Monk’s Treasure is the first of the Southwest Treasure Hunters novels. The Dead Man’s Treasure is book 2 and The Skeleton Canyon Treasure is book 3. Each novel stands alone and is complete, with no cliffhangers. This series mixes action and adventure with light romance. The stories explore the Southwest, especially New Mexico.

The Mad Monk’s Treasure, “Smart romance with an ‘Indiana Jones’ feel,” is currently free at all e-book retailers.

What is your favorite historical era to read about or explore? Does visiting the real location today help you picture the past?

About the Author

Kris Bock lives in New Mexico, where she enjoys hiking, rock climbing, and watching the sunset from her patio. Her home office looks out on nature, complete with distracting wildlife such as roadrunners and foxes. Her BFA in photography is used mainly to show Facebook friends how lovely the Southwest is.

Kris writes novels of suspense and romance with outdoor adventures and Southwestern landscapes. Whispers in the Dark features archaeology and intrigue among ancient Southwest ruins. What We Found is a mystery with strong romantic elements about a young woman who finds a murder victim in the woods. In Counterfeits, stolen Rembrandt paintings bring danger to a small New Mexico town.

Fans of Mary Stewart, Barbara Michaels, and Terry Odell will want to check out Kris Bock’s romantic adventures. “Counterfeits is the kind of romantic suspense novel I have enjoyed since I first read Mary Stewart’s Moonspinners.” 5 Stars – Roberta at Sensuous Reviews blog

Read excerpts at www.krisbock.com or visit her Amazon page. Sign up for the Kris Bock newsletter for announcements of new books, sales, and more.