New Kindle World Release by Donna Michaels

Hi, it's Donna Michaels and I'm excited to have another cowboy release in my Harland County series, but this time he's a Sable Hunter Hell Yeah Kindle World crossover!

It was such an honor to be asked by Sable to participate in her Kindle World and to be one of the launch authors! Creating another branch of my McCall tree to mingle with her McCoys was the icing on the cake! Her Hell Yeah Cowboy hit #1 in Western Kindle last week and currently sits at #3, plus it's at #2 in Western Kindle Worlds. :-) Thank you all for making it a best seller! And big hugs to those who've left reviews! <3

Years ago, he unknowingly rescued his soulmate, now she’s back in Texas and about to save his guarded heart.

Cover photo by Cover Me Photography with Orestis Papapetrou

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01K5YZJE2

Blurb:

Unlike his twin, Texas National Guardsman Sgt. Logan McCall would rather march barefoot and blindfolded through a cow pasture than date the same woman twice. After an active duty injury during a flood washed away his promising sports career and engagement years ago, Logan guards his heart more than his life until, fresh from deployment, he runs into a friend of the McCoys…literally. Hill Country’s newest resident is hotter than the wing sauce soaking into his shirt.

Mission on.

Graphic designer and carrier of misfortune, Chloe Davis is a danger to herself and those around her, so entertaining thoughts for the sexy cowboy wearing her hot sauce should be a no-no…not a hell yeah—especially considering he’s the guardsman linked to a horrible instance in her past. But when he turns out to be one of her clients, she can no more avoid him than the attraction sizzling between them. Chloe’s back in Texas determined to make a fresh start, and she succeeds in business but fails to resist the handsome soldier’s relentless pursuit.

But when he discovers her past, will he trust his heart or lose her forever?

Excerpt

“I’d like to know what kind of read you were getting from my brother that was so interesting, Cady.”

Ah, hell.

Logan swallowed his drink along with a few curses. He’d rather not know.

Her calm, steady, perceptive gaze settled over him again. “Today’s the day.”

Super. Whatever. He wasn’t biting. Just raised his glass and enjoyed another mouthful of beer. The ale was ice cold with just the right amount of malted barley and hint of bitter. Damn, it was good to be back in the states.

“The day for what?” Lincoln frowned. “What’s going to happen to Logan today?”

“With any luck, I’ll finally make it to my ranch. That’s what.” It was all he wanted. All he’d wanted for fucking months now.

“He’s going to meet up with his soulmate again,” she replied as if he hadn’t spoken.

It took a full twenty seconds before any of that sunk into Logan’s head. The word soulmate bounced around a few times, barely leaving room for the again part. He had a soulmate? Well, shit. That wasn’t good. Not the reading he expected. Or wanted to hear.

Besides, if he had a soulmate, and they’d supposedly already met, wouldn’t he have remembered her?

It didn’t matter.

No way was he going to touch that topic, especially since his family had a history with soulmates. His cousin Cole McCall reunited with his soulmate Jordan after over a decade apart. The two had been through hell but were now married and living a happily-ever-after they deserved down by the gulf in Harland County. The couple had this crazy connection you didn’t need your eyes to see. 

Weird shit.

Not something Logan wanted or ever pursued for himself since his failed engagement back when he gave a damn about relationships. Now he stuck with casual hookups. Nothing serious. It was cleaner. Easier. Safer. Believing in someone, trusting someone, only to have them crush you wasn’t worth the risk. He’d learned the hard way. Didn’t need to be beat over the head with it. Casual or not at all was his motto. The last thing he wanted was a soulmate.

The thing was, he believed in Cady and her abilities. So he did what any man in his position would do. He topped off his beer and enjoyed another healthy pull.

“Did you say soulmate?” Lincoln blinked at Cady, and when she nodded, his brother turned a shit-eating grin his way. “This I’ve got to see.”

Joseph smiled. “Me, too.”

Logan laughed. “Hate to disappoint you all, but look around.” He made a sweeping motion with his hand. “The place is practically empty, and the only woman here is Cady. Not a soulmate in sight.”

“She has big brown eyes that are going to melt that guarded heart of yours, Logan McCall,” Cady remarked leaning closer. “She’s near. Can’t you feel it?”

Feel it? What he was feeling was agitated. On edge. Restless. He had for some time now. But today he could add aggravated to that list. Cady’s dark, direct, Creole gaze, and the guys’ amused ones weren’t helping. Logan set his glass down and rose to his feet. “What I feel is the need to use the bathroom. Excuse me.”

The more distance he put between himself and the two chuckleheads at the table, the better he felt. And Logan was sure, once he was home, the weird restlessness—like he had unfinished business—would disappear. Hell, he just got off deployment. It was common to come back with baggage. This shit was normal. He’d deal with it.

What wasn’t normal was for him to run away. He didn’t really need to use the bathroom, but the urge to leave the table had been too strong to ignore. Cady knew. He could see it in her eyes and slight tug to her lips, but bless her, she didn’t call him out on it, just let him go without a word. Not only had his buddy married a smart, beautiful woman, she was sweet, too.

Going on the assumption the john was in the same place as before, Logan rounded the bar and—smacked into someone rushing down the corridor, all soft and curvy.

And hot?

He felt the heat right through his T-shirt. It scorched.

Inhaling on impact, he reached out to steady the distinctly feminine form, his mind registering a light, flowery scent, mixed with the mouthwatering aroma of…chicken wings?

“I’m so sorry. Are you okay? Did I burn you?” Her breathless voice had a sweet huskiness that spread awareness all the way down his spine.

What the hell?

He shook his head to clear it. “I’m fine,” he replied, staring at the mass of wavy brown hair obscuring the woman’s face as she tried to brush off the sauce that leaked onto him from the Styrofoam container she cradled in one hand.

“I’ve ruined your shirt.” She continued to try to clean him up but only made it worse. A second later, her palm stilled on his chest, and she drew her lower lip between her teeth.

“I’m fine,” he repeated, silently willing her to look at him.

With the initial shock of the collision wearing off, he realized the merit of the situation. Pressed against him was a soft, warm woman with an abundance of curves his body immediately wanted to get to know better. A little taller than average, she brushed his bottom lip with the top of her head, her riot of hair sticking to the chin he hadn’t shaved in two days. Logan wondered how their other body parts lined up, but most important, he wondered…what color eyes she had.

***********************

You can find all the books in Sable's Kindle World right here:

Sable Hunter's Hell Yeah Kindle World

Thanks for reading,

~Donna

www.donnamichaelsauthor.com

I'm on Vacation! by Alison Henderson

PO&O and OG

No, I haven't jetted off to some exotic foreign locale. I'm still here in beautiful, smoky Carmel. But this week is very special for me every year. I take a week off from writing to enjoy the company of my Precious One and Only (henceforth to be known as PO&O). Every August, our daughter comes from Chicago to enjoy the famous Classic Car Week festivities that take place in venues across the Monterey Peninsula. 

Mostly, she enjoys these events with OG. I'm not as much of a car buff, and this gives them lots of great father/daughter bonding time. However, as you read this, PO&O and I are on our annual ladies-only pilgrimage to the Gilroy Outlet Mall. It's one of the most highly-anticipated days of the year, when we load into my little red Fiat 500 and drive an hour northeast to the aromatic hamlet of Gilroy, California - the Garlic Capital of America. We shop 'til we drop (Mom pays) and eat our only lunch of the year at In 'N Out Burger. Most importantly, we get six hours of uninterrupted conversation. It's heaven.

Little Car Show

The rest of the days, PO&O and OG choose one car event per day - either an auction preview, a driving event, or a car show. I usually go with them to a couple of the free events. Two of my favorites are the Little Car Show in Pacific Grove, which features only micro cars, and the Concours on the Avenue in Carmel-by-the-Sea. You'll never see as many exotic, frightfully expensive vehicles lined up together anywhere else.  

Even if I don't attend many events, Car Week has it's own special vibe. Automotive enthusiasts come from all over the world, and many bring (or drive) their own fancy cars. Red Ferraris are so commonplace on the roads that they become almost boring after the first few days. Last year while driving to the grocery store, I passed a string of Lambourghinis in every possible color driving toward me in the opposite direction. Every major foreign luxury brand has some sort of special gathering.

This year, I wonder how much effect the huge fire in Big Sur will have on the crowds. The smoke is still quite thick in the mornings, and most of the auction venues park the cars outside during the previews. I'm not sure I'd want my million dollar car exposed to the corrosive effects of all that smoke. But whatever happens, PO&O, OG, and I will have a blast. We always do!

Alison
www.alisonhenderson.com

New Release by Christine DePetrillo

If you've ever visited Boston, you know how the busy streets sound, you know the hustle and bustle of city folks, you've ridden The "T," and every now and then, you get the feeling that our founding fathers are walking with you. It's a great city, full of history and life.

Until a fiction author gets a hold of it as I did in my newest release due out on August 25th. SAFE, Book One in The Shielded Series, is set in a ruined Boston, year 2025. Here's a description of the Boston that exists in the not-too-distant future:

Foster rubbed his eyes, certain they were bloodshot, not only from the pepperblast but simply from being in the city. Running through dilapidated Boston took its toll on the body. The stink of trash and decaying carcasses—animal and human—made breathing difficult. Summer temperatures didn’t help. Everything smelled as if it’d been marinated in sour milk then roasted on sun-scorched asphalt. The uneven pavement was tricky to navigate and hell on the feet. Something sharp had jabbed his heel through his black combat boots as he’d run through the city, and now his sock felt wet. He didn’t dare stop to heal what was probably a deep gash.

Have to keep moving.

He picked his way along the alley, staying close to the building at his right. Fortunately the brick façade was continuous and offered good cover. Red bits of brick flaked off as his fingers trailed along the stone, sounding like rain pattering on the street. He’d loved the brownstone buildings in this part of the city where he’d lived before the Anarch attack. They’d been so cozy, nestled next to one another along the narrow streets, old-fashioned iron lampposts lighting the way for nighttime walkers on summer evenings. Boston had been such a historic city, filled with the sights and symbols of America’s fight for freedom.

Now it was no more than a wasteland.

Rubble and litter ruined the landscape. The sound of cars bringing people here and there no longer filled the day and night hours like a steady, healthy heartbeat. Instead an eerie quiet—an odd absence of city noise—hung over the skeletons of broken buildings. Business no longer thrived here. Social activity no longer thrived here. 

Nothing thrived here.

Do you want to visit this Boston? Are you a little freaked? I hope so. This series is sci-fi romance with a contemporary feel. You'll forget it's 2025. You'll forget this is just fiction. SAFE will be followed up with PROTECTED and finally, SECURE. Don't worry. There are still happily ever afters in all of them despite the destruction. They are just earned in a grittier, harder world and with riskier actions on the characters' parts. 

Cover Art by Wicked Smart Designs

I hope you'll give SAFE a try. It's available for PRE-ORDER right now at all the usual spots. For more information, visit my website.

Also...

In celebration of SAFE being up for pre-order, I'm giving away one $50 Amazon Gift Card. Just go to my author FB page to find the entry options. One winner will be randomly selected on August 27.

Do you think about how things might be different in the future? I do. I always wish for the Star Trek version with Star Fleet Academy, but know it probably won't go down that way. A shame, really. 

Toodles, 

Chris

www.christinedepetrillo.weebly.com 

The Maple Leaf Series, Books One to Six, available now. More Than Pancakes, Book One, is always FREE in ebook!

SAFE, Book One in The Shielded Series, pre-order today!   

One writer's process

Every writer has a method or process for starting a new project. I've been embroiled in a multi-book series for my last few projects, working on books 5 and 7 of that series, so I haven't launched anything New for a while -- new characters, locations, etc.

I decided to take a break before starting books 7, 8, and 9. I need to step back from the characters so I can come back and re-read everything written so far with a fresh eye. I figured I would take the rest of the year away from that series and dig in and write another mystery and maybe after that write another time travel book. That should fill out the remaining months of the year then next year, in January, I'd get back to my series with a fresh perspective.

I've written dozens of mystery books and a handful of TT books, so I know the drill. Or so I thought ... when I sat down to work on a mystery, I knew I wanted to do another "Remembered Classics" similar to Twistered and Dogged (coming out later this year). So which book to settle on? I was thinking about Beauty and the Beast; maybe Jekyll and Hyde. Maybe ...

It took me a week of bouncing from idea to idea then I decided on Jane Eyre (which is really just Beauty and the Beast in a different setting, but I diverge). I starting jotting ideas for names, settings, plot lines...there's the crazy wife in the attic, the stoic girl thrown in with a brooding employer, a young child... Then there was the Jamaican angle ...

It took me about two or three days to hash out who my characters were and what the plot might entail. I still don't have a good visual picture of my main characters (I need to web surf a bit for that) and I'll need to get locations, house plans, details about this and that, but I think I am almost ready to put fingers to keyboard and start writing.

It took me 2 weeks to come up with this project. And it was 2 LONG weeks. I am always working on a manuscript, so this felt like ... boredom to me. I really enjoy sitting down and working. I fussed around with the garden, I got caught up on some household chores, and I read a book, picked up another one and put it down, and wasted way too much time on a few online games.

I enjoy writing too much to be away from it for long, I guess. I hope by Sunday I'll have the characters firmly in my head and then I can start writing. The plot will work itself out as I go, I know, but I need those character voices talking to me before I can launch into it.

So that's my process--flail about for a bit with stream of consciousness kind of work then settle into it. If it proceeds like my other books, this will take me about 3 months to write. That means I probably won't have time to work on that Time Travel book this year, but that's okay. I can work on it next year, after I write book 7 in my series. Because there's always another book to write ....

Our World By the Numbers by Vonnie Davis

I've shared my plight with you in previous posts. An editor who wanted me to dummy down my writing for the millennials. Is it that I don't know my market or she doesn't? Stick with me ladies, there's more to my tale.

Perhaps too much attention is being paid to the numbers. Publishers want books that are overnight best sellers. You know, the ones that hit the USA Today Best Seller list the first week after they're released. Dream on, I tell myself. I'm lucky if I break the top one-hundred on Amazon.

I'll never be a best seller out of the gate or after a long stroll. My books take awhile to build a following. But eventually, they do. I just got a gift card in the email for a restaurant from a reader who says she's read my books several times. I cried. My sales might not be fabulous, but my readers are. My publisher, however, wants instant success, a mercurial rise to the top of the ratings. With me, that's not happening.

For example, take my Black Eagle Ops series. Based on pre-orders of just over 120 for book one, my publisher had decided the series wouldn't do well. Book two had already been turned in, so they told me they wouldn't want book three unless they were surprised by sales. Shortly after that, I got an email from my editor that over 500 reviewers/readers had requested book one, HER SURVIVOR, on NetGalley and wasn't that awesome? I'd have close to 500 reviews. I just scoffed. What world does she live in? These people were looking for a free read, what reviews they do post are super low and downright nasty. My book released with 26 reviews. Where were the other 474? Sales have been poor and have just topped a thousand copies (would they be higher if 500 copies hadn't been given away on NetGalley?). Whatever. In my publisher's eyes, this series is a failure.

I need a book to fulfill my three-book contract. As I told you before, our flight home from granddaughter's wedding provided me with a story idea. I submitted it to the publisher. I was told to keep the plot thin. I did.

I was told to keep my humor down. I tried.

I was told to submit every chapter to my editor so she could see I was keeping on track. I bristled. Oh, ladies, I was mad as hades! I'm not some errant child to be constantly checked on.

After I'd sent in my sixth chapter, my editor called me. She and her superior didn't think I could write this book per their guidelines. What I'd written in her superior's words was "a parody of every erotic book out there with a hero that was a hoot!" NOW, I was in bitch mode. My jaws ached from keeping them closed. I wanted to voice my opinion so much, I'd kicked off my flip-flops, ready to do battle.

She continued, "We're doing you a dis-service by making you write in a different way. Your humor is your voice. But your humor doesn't work well in contemporaries where readers expect reality." I thought of my Wild Heat series with another publisher that's doing fairly well, even with my off-the-wall sense of humor...and kept my big mouth shut.

"We'd like you to write more bear shifters. We checked your numbers and were shocked. You've sold over twenty thousand of each book in the series. Your sales are slow, but steady. You've got a following there. Besides, in paranormal romance you don't have rules to follow. Your humor fits that sub-genre."

I was thrilled! I could keep Effie alive, my readers' favorite character. I'd always planned for Highlanders Beloved to be a longer series. I had my heroes already in place. My ear may have been pressed to the phone, but my mind was racing ahead with plotting and planning.

"This will be a spin-off, you can use the romantic couple you'd set up in book three of the original series, but place them in another location. You won't be able to use Effie," my editor continued. I could hear the hissing of air escaping my red balloon of excitement. "I know how you love to create secondary characters, but keep the plot focused on the heroine and hero. Okay?" More hissing of air. "Oh, and no magical elements. Only bear shifters." Empty, floppy balloon fluttered to the floor.

I submitted my vision for the series and four paragraphs about each book as requested. It was approved, although the titles were changed. So, I'm working on chapter one of SHIFTERS OF SONAS ISLE: Kendric. Now Kendric was a police detective in the original series and will be a law enforcement officer in this series, as well--a sheriff. So, knowing I can't use Effie or many side characters...hehehe....well an idea occurred. A sheriff needs a deputy. Right? Right! Enter Arlo Rogers, the Highland version of Barney Fife. Have I got a lot planned for this American character with an eye for any sway of a skirt.

If you'd like to read how my humor doesn't work in contemporary romance, FOR THE LOVE OF A FIREMAN is only 99cents. http://a.co/0qAhfNn 

Summertime…and the Living is…Busy by Margo Hoornstra

Vacations and travel hit all-time highs during the summer months, supposedly a period to relax and enjoy. Once you get where you’re going, of course. I’m not a fan of expressways. I will go out of my way to find a back road to where ever it is I need to be. In fact, my drive to work takes me from one rural community to another where I get to watch the crops grow green and flourish, see wildlife roaming in the morning, and enjoy sunrises unobstructed by tall buildings or smog.

We live in what they call rural America, far from the hustle and bustle of city crowds and traffic. Though I was born and raised in the big city, this type of living suits me just fine. With our house at the end of a dead end road, we have a farmer’s field on one side of us and peaceful neighbors on the other. Small town living at its finest and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Except when the powers that be at City Hall decide to sponsor county fair like events on any given summer week-end complete with carnival rides set up in the school parking lots and adjacent city park and flea market booths lined up on either side of Main Street. (And, yes, the major thoroughfare in town is officially dubbed Main Street.) They claim these events are to bring in commerce to the businesses in the community. Let's see, that would be two bars, a party store, pizzeria and dentist office. It’s a week-end we always try to be somewhere else for a couple of days. Anything to avoid the mad house where usually civilized people park on private lawns and drop debris and such for the locals to pick up while they walk around as if they owned the place. (And don’t tell the city fathers, but, as I understand, when all is said and done the city usually has more debt to pay than revenue in the coffers.)

According to a number of yard signs that have popped up recently, this next week-end the lake and wooded area where my husband and I have logged so many pleasant and peaceful miles walking will be the site of a full blown circus.

The good news is these assaults on our peace and tranquility are few and far between. For now anyway. If any of that changes for the worse, we can always move.

I left the big city once, if it comes to that, I can do it again.

My days to blog here are the 11th and 23rd and I'm an author of, what else, contemporary romance. For more about me and my stories, please visit my WEBSITE

Word Infiltration by Rolynn Anderson

What's the step you dread most in editing your manuscript?

Easy answer for me: eliminating repetitive words.  I call it word infiltration, a virus of words I tend to repeat, and shouldn't.

Let's take the word 'so,'...or should I say, you take that word because I don't want it anymore.  This word has quickly become today's 'like,' used by the younger folk to begin every ding-dang sentence.    'So' is a pregnant word, meant to show, especially when vocalized slowly, that a great deal of research, reflection and general hard work went into whatever statement follows 'so.'

Example: So, I wrote my 100K novel in twenty-four hours on an iPhone.

I found 40 extraneous 'so's when I edited Cézanne's Ghost.
I reduced 256  of 'that' to 170.
'Hand' I used 209 times.  Now, 134.
'Smile' down to 71 from 87/.
'Head' was 218 in my last novel.  Heading down to 141.

I used to have a problem with 'pull'.  I was happy to report only 60 this time.  Yanked 20 out of the text.
'Just' is under control.  Just.

I'm wary of: still, looked, shook.

Tell me, what other words do you winnow out (or replace) in your stories?  I may be missing one, or two, or three.  And do you hate this editing step, like I do?

Six Suspense Novels Spiked with Romance

http://www.rolynnanderson.com

http://www.amazon.com/author/rolynnanderson