Yes, I'm Still Here

Even smooth roads curve
Morning rushes into night
Hear the bright silence



Had the urge to write Haiku. Decided to share.
Enjoy a wonderful weekend~

Tessie
http://www.tessiebradford.com/
amazon.com/author/tessiebradford

Meet, Gwen Knight's Bad Boy Alphas!

Even bad boys need a little love…

Blurb

She is his one desire… 

Werewolf Skylar Callahan turned her back on everything she held dear in search of a career. Now a public advocate for her own kind, her political ambitions have shot her straight to the top. But amidst the glitz and glamor lurks a dark presence, one who is obsessed with claiming Skylar as his own. To survive, she must rely on Wyatt Turner—a sexy, albeit lethal, alpha who insists everything be done his way.

He is the only one who can love her… 

Wyatt is always looking to stir up trouble, and Skylar is trouble with a capital T. Not only has his wolf chosen her as his intended mate, but she also comes with her very own stalker. Consumed by his need to protect her, Wyatt doesn't care that she’s determined to keep him at arm’s length. It’s his job to keep her safe, which means getting close to the stubborn she-wolf…just the way he wants it.

Excerpt:

For the first time since they’d met that night, she had the height advantage. Lording it over him, she pressed forward until the two were near touching. “I’ll remind you again that you are not my alpha.”

Deep and dark, his growl lifted the hairs on the back of her neck.

“And that this is my house, Wyatt.” The height advantage bolstered her courage. She leaned forward and tapped him on the nose, swallowing at the sudden flash of desire in his eyes. “You can come with me if you want, but—”

She never got the rest of the invitation out. The last thing she’d expected was for the man to pin her against the wall and knock her shoes off with a soul-searing kiss.

Stunned, Sky’s mouth fell open, and Wyatt took full advantage. She sucked in a breath the moment his tongue caressed hers, the hard press of his lips curling her toes. Magic slammed into her as he plundered her mouth. Goodness, the man could kiss. Strong arms curved around her waist and braced her against the wall as he deepened the angle.

Mate…her wolf gave a long, earthy howl, pacing anxiously as the magic swelled between them. Sky melted into his embrace, stricken by the strength of the connection between them. No matter how much she loathed the man, her wolf had an entirely different opinion.

Wyatt broke from the kiss and stared down at her, annoyance tapering his gaze as he snarled, “Shit.”

Shit, indeed.

Review

Bam! Gwen Knight slam dunks with her third book! After my extreme enjoyment of her first two books, I've followed this author's career closely, and I'm happy to report that this latest offering is the best yet.

Wyatt and Sky are dynamic characters with clashing personalities - yet they make it work, and without changing who they are or what they stand for. Bad boys can love, too! And they can still be “bad boys”. The art with which Ms. Knight accomplishes this is just awesome.

Book Links

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1y5kOdA

Smashwords: http://bit.ly/1CgxRoZ

About Gwen

Gwen started writing at a young age when the monsters became interesting rather than scary. From werewolves and vampires to elves and magical realms, she enjoys writing in all genres, so long as a little love can be sprinkled in. Gwen lives in Northern British Columbia with her husband, cat, and two collies who love to play in the snow.

Contact

Website: www.gwenknight.ca

Twitter: www.twitter.com/GwenKnightx

Facebook: www.facebook.com/GwenKnightx

Does your research devour you? The Thing That Never Dies rises again! By Cerise!

Research is always that little, idly-bitty project you do that becomes The Thing That Would Not Die...or (as hubby calls it), the Hanging of the Draperies, or The Tidbit That Makes Your Readers Love You.

The Thing TWND is the challenge that many novice writers face when they have researched their topic until the end of time and logic.  When you know absolutely nothing about what you wish to write, The Thing comes out to play. He can then inhale you like The Alien he is, and keep you absorbed in a subject way beyond his usefulness or place in the play.

And as that famous Elizabethan once said, the play's the thing. Really....it is.

I've been known to work in company with The Thing. This is especially possible with the ease of access to the internet. Pinterest, Wikis and Word Tracers, maps and historical sites of all kinds beckon and beguile. A girl could develop a cold.

Capturing all that good stuff (or so you think in the moment) becomes yards of bookmarks on your computer screen, lots of notes and pretty pix. Oh, God. What a mess. I have to constantly warn myself, "Five minute warning! Dive! Dive! Or you disintegrate." Actually, what happens is I forget why I went in the first place. Sigh. Lost in minutiae.

The Thing TWND gives you far far more than you should ever want. For this book. And lures you like fine champagne to the basis for another novel. (Dear god, let me finish this one!) He tells you how to dress for breakfast in 1820 as opposed to 1810, what climate was like in 1868 or how the crops grew. (Do I need this? Hmm. Well, yes, actually. Might provide that smidgen of verisimilitude, you know.) He tells how to kill people without a trace. How many fought at the Battle of Waterloo, and only an estimate, sadly, of how many died both civilian and military in La Grande Guerre.

Ultimately The Thing must be wrestled to the ground (or you escape him because the dog has not peed since dawn or hubby needs his dinner—and you, by George, need a damn drink!) The Thing is what you learn to do to find specific information. You read like a undergraduate fool for love about your general subject matter and then you go find the specifics.

Specifics may include:

•               an interview of an expert. (Do visit him so you can leave when you want. Do not take a friend with a similar project. Do take a tape recorder and notes. Do list him in your Acknowledgements.)

•               a visit to the library. (Do take coins in case you have to make photocopies. Do not copy the Encyclopedia. Reserve the books you need ahead of your visit.)

a visit to a specialist museum. (Do work with the subject matter librarian or archivist. Do tell him what you want and why. Be specific. Saves him time and you heartache. Take your camera.)

•               visit to the country or locale where you have set your novel. (Do research before going. Plan day trips which are less expensive than formal tours. Talk to the museum directors, etc. even if by email before hand. And yes, do ENJOY every minute of this one! Take Significant Other, too.)

•      Afterward the temptation to Hang the Draperies may afflict you. This is a disease. Treat it as such. This comes upon you when you are so marvelously imbued with delights about your infusion of Knowledge that you are certain no one else knows and, by Jove, they should. 

•       

•      You become a missionary, a barn-burner, in short, a royal pain. This condition occurs in the virulent onset of the disease. Fortunately as you recognize that your various audiences are Bored To Tears, you back off. (Or they no longer do lunch with you, talk on phone, invite you to speak to their group.)

•       

Sign posts in the town of Varennes near the Argonne
where lie 17,000 American Doughboys and nurses
who died in World War One.

•      But you are still so tempted to write all that stuff into your novel that your tight little 50K mystery becomes the War and Peace of the Kill-Em genre. How to cut the Draperies? A fine editor will quickly tell you if you are pumping her full of extraneous junk.  Hire one. For your genre. Hire her by  mid-book if you suspect you are hanging too many draperies per chapter. It will be the best money you ever spent.

•       

•      

The church on the opposite corner wherein Louis XVI and his wife and children
took refuge when they fled the mob in the Paris Terror.

Finally, after years of OD-ing on all these delightful yummy kernels of truth, you realize that to use all you know, realistically, might never occur. Or needs to. That the little tickle that readers get from your books may often have to do with one bright pop of fact. One solid hunk of meat that you threw them in the midst of building character, tension, plot twist or viable denouement.

•      So here with my pix of my most recent Paris trip, I give you a few kernels from some of my travels (which I lovingly call research, baby, for the IRS, too, donchaknow.)

•       

•      Here's one for you: The town of Varennes in eastern France is a peaceful place where American Doughboys walked through on their way to the Argonne. They passed the church where Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette and their two children had fled for sanctuary against the Terror. The townspeople discovered them there, told the revolutionaries who came and carted them back to Paris. There they killed all of them. A plaque stands there to commemorate the sad event. We ate across the street and those there were thrilled to have Americans who took the time and energy to visit and learn about their town. (The lunch was divine, too.)

The plaque outside the church.

Dena Garson "Your Wild Heart" Black Hills Wolves book 14

Your Wild Heart (part of the Black Hills Wolves series)

By Dena Garson

Blurb:

Wildlife biologist, Isabelle Acker, meets sexy park ranger, Wyatt Powell. His Wolf sits up and takes notice of her, but when he learns why she came to the park, he becomes wary of her intentions. After all, as far as the general population knows, there are no wolves in the Black Hills.

Ordered by his Alpha to keep an eye on the smoking-hot biologist, Wyatt finds it difficult to keep his hands to himself. He wants to possess her, to share everything about his life, but that might endanger the Tao Pack. But the attraction proves too great and, unable to deny his Wolf, he takes her with a passion he didn’t know he possessed.

However, their sexual bliss is short-lived, and on the night of the full moon, more than one secret is revealed. When all is said and done, they must each decide—is what they have between them true love or just hot sex?

YouTube book trailer:  http://youtu.be/jnHJqD0Y1kg

Check out the entire Black Hills Wolves Series on Facebook at:  https://www.facebook/BlackHillsWolvesSeries/

Buy Links  

Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Your-Heart-Black-Hills-Wolves-ebook/dp/B00UKLM7C8/
B&N:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1121707026?ean=2940151320276
Apple iBooks:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/your-wild-heart/id976843890?mt=11
Kobo:  https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/your-wild-heart
Google Books: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Dena_Garson_Your_Wild_Heart?id=LosyBwAAQBAJ
ARE - https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-yourwildheart-1777491-149.html

Excerpt:

From the shadows of the surrounding foliage, Wyatt Powell watched the slip of a woman move about her campsite with ease. The business card she had left with the girls at the ranger office read, Dr. Isabelle Acker, Wildlife Biologist. It seemed, she was used to camping outdoors.

But even if she had been camping for over five years, it was damn foolish of her to be out here alone.

Normally, he wouldn’t have paid much attention, but when he’d overheard the girls saying she was well known for her study of wolves, he’d been compelled to investigate.

Everyone knew there were no wolves in the Black Hills.

For generations, his pack had cultivated that belief. And in truth, there were no wolves. At least not what one would call a “normal” wolf. Wolf shifters were a whole other matter.

So, what brought Dr. Acker here?

She’d set up her camp in a secluded spot, well away from the established sites. Perhaps she wanted privacy. But for what?

The longer he watched, the more fascinated he became by her. It wasn’t because she seemed at ease in the outdoors. Nor was it just a physical attraction. Sure, she was pretty for a human but not in a remarkable way. She was an average height with an athlete’s build. Her plain brown hair had been pulled into a simple ponytail, but it did glitter a bit when she stepped into patches of sunlight.

Yet something about her had captured his interest. Both man and beast wanted to learn more.

He was about to retreat into the woods when he saw her gather a towel and a few bathing items and head to the nearby stream. His conscience argued he should leave and allow her some privacy, but the bulge behind his zipper insisted on following her. Part of him wanted to know how much of a nature lover she was.

Like a deer, she picked her way over the rocks until she found a spot next to the river. Before sitting, she slowly turned her head in both directions scanning the area.

Wyatt had been taught by his Sioux grandfather the value of patience when tracking prey. Or a foe. Despite his base attraction, he had yet to determine which she might be.

GIVEAWAY:

I’m celebrating the release of Your Wild Heart by giving away stuff! Between April 10-13 you can get into the drawings by following this link to Rafflecopter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

AUTHOR INFO:

Dena Garson is a Process Redesign Specialist by day and a writer and jewelry designer by night. She is raising two rowdy boys who play lots of sports which forces her to spend way too much time on the practice field and/or sidelines. Thankfully she has a loyal and loving Labrador Retriever to listen when she complains and a spoiled cat who reminds her daily she is merely a servant.

Website - http://www.denagarson.com/

Blog - http://denagarson.net/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/dena.garson.7

Twitter - https://twitter.com/DenaGarson

Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/dgarson

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/DenaGarson

Google+ - https://plus.google.com/+DenaGarson/

Pinterest – http://www.pinterest.com/denagarson7

Flint is on pre-order for only 99¢

Flint

Fran Lee

Copyright April 1, 2015

Coming April 15th from Amazon. Pre order by clicking on the title above...

NOTE: Erotic content and naughty words abound.

Blurb:

Flint Calderon was a hard working, hard-bodied, hard headed Texan who'd had to grow up fast. He'd been alone for a long time. He'd kept his grand daddy's sprawling ranch intact in spite of hardships and loss...some said he was as hard as his name.

He didn't take anything he hadn't worked damned hard for. He had his own set of personal guidelines that left no room for cruelty or deceit. He kept his friends close, and his loyalty was a thing of legend in Calder County, Texas.

He went by three simple rules: Keep your word no matter what, pay your debts before buyin' more, and protect those weaker than yourself.

Lily was running from her own personal hell, only to jump from the frying pan into the fire. But the man who'd caught her sneaking into his motel room to get out of the rain was nothing like the bastard she was running from. Even being pinned on that motel bed under a pissed-off cowboy was a damn sight better than being dragged back to the man who'd murdered her mom and made her own life a living hell for so long. If only the hot cowboy wasn't naked as a jaybird...

How could he turn her over to the law? The woman he'd caught was just a rain-soaked, freezing, starving, badly battered little hellcat with nowhere to go and nothin' much to lose. And whoever had beat the hell out of her deserved no mercy...

Review:

Flint – Fran Lee – 5 Stars
Flint is a man dedicated to his ranch and Lily is a woman with nowhere to go. Thrown together by a rash decision, Flint sees a woman in need of protection and Lily only wants to get out of the state and away from the horrors of her life.

Flint is a wonderful man, plain and simple. He takes care of what he possesses and he wants Lily. There is something about her. All Lily sees in her future is fear. One glimpse at what Flint has to offer and she is torn. She knows he is a dream come true, but she doesn’t want to drag him into her nightmare.

My Review:

There is no way that was not a novel. It had it all. I loved every word about Flint and Lily. The story had depth, romance, hot sex, and action. Very well rounded and extremely fulfilling. AMAZING!!

Eva Gordon "Alpha Wolf's Pet" series

Alpha Wolf’s Pet, Hidden Book 1

Published: Aug. 17, 2014

Words: 45,900

136 pages

ISBN: 9781311690692

Mia’s testimony against Russian mobsters forced her to enter the witness protection program. She is relocated to a quaint cottage in Wolf Woods, near Mt. Rainier, far from everyone and everything she loved and cared for. All is calm, until she meets Dominic, the gorgeous ruggedly handsome owner of the mysterious Wolfe Estate. He is all alpha male, domineering, and controlling. The last thing she needs is to get involved with a sexy control freak.

Alpha werewolf, Dominic Wolfe, is the packs’enforcer. When an attractive young woman moves into a cottage near his territory; his senses are heightened to obsessive proportions. A human pet to meet his desires.

Dominic is determined to unveil Mia’s real identity while keeping his own securely hidden. Haunted by the howls and shrieks coming from Dominic’s estate, Mia wonders if she can really trust the enigmatic man she suspects of wanting a dominant-submissive relationship. A man who brings out her darker desires. Will hidden danger keep them from gratifying their burning passion?

Buy Links: Amazon US  Amazon UK  Barnes and Noble (Nook) Smashwords All Romance Apple  And now on Audible  and on Audible UK

Alpha Wolf’s Pet, Kept, Book 2

Published: Nov. 14, 2014

Words: 47,840

171 Pages

ISBN: 9781311245137

In the sequel to Alpha Wolf’s Pet, Hidden, Mia has two choices: remain hidden, frightened by the Russian mob determined to murder her, or become a sworn member and under the protection of Dominic’s werewolf pack.  Being Dominic's human lover is pleasurable while taxing. She wants more than he can give: commitment. Except werewolves never marry humans. Carnal desires aside, will she accept her low status within the pack in order to share what little time she has with Dominic until he takes a werewolf mate?

Dominic is torn. If he gives Mia beta status, his pack will mutiny. If he doesn’t, she’ll leave. Her stubborn independent nature will turn his world of strict pack rules upside down and he’ll be scorned as pack enforcer. He loves her, but his pack rules will never allow him to claim a human as his mate. Worse, he’s drawn to Mia's addictive blood. Was one taste too much?

Despite breaking the witness protection rules and looming danger, Mia is determined to visit her ailing grandmother. Can Dominic protect her from the mob, as well as from his kind?  As their passion reaches a fevered pitch, will circumstances crush their happiness?

Buy links:

Amazon US    Amazon UK      Nook     Smashwords  Apple Kobo

Alpha Wolf’s Pet, Hunted, 3

Publication Date: March 6, 2015

180 pages

52,034 words

In the sequel to Book 2, Alpha Wolf’s Pet, Kept, the trilogy concludes with Alpha Wolf’s Pet, Hunted.

Living with werewolves is a lesson in Mia's fragility, and stretching the limits of their antiquated pack protocol wears on everybody's nerves. Nonetheless, Mia is an official member of their pack, and Dominic's lover. Satisfied with their romantic and sexy exclusive arrangement, Mia is devastated when Chandra, Dominic's fiancée, arrives during his absence.

Dominic is worried. Is his love for Mia really his addiction to her blood? Will she eventually become his blood mistress and belong to her, commanding his body and soul? Before he can resolve the issue, the Russian Chess Piece mob strikes his territory. Faced with the king's command to mate his werewolf fiancée, and the mob, he has no time to explain before Mia does what she does best. She runs.

Danger looms for Mia and all werewolf kind as secrets are revealed about the mob pursuing her. But most disturbing of all, is the Lycan Intelligence Agency’s sudden interest in Mia’s DNA. Will new revelations destroy their love and crush their future?

Smashwords   Amazon Nook Kobo

All Romance Ebooks

Entire series: All Romance E books Entire Series.

Author Note:

The book ends Dominic and Mia’s story, but we will learn more about other characters in books in the offshoot series, Team Greywolf. Starting with Slade, Book 1 Summer 2015.

Find out more about future books in Eva Gordon’s Alpha Wolf’s Pet series and her other paranormal, fantasy and steampunk books at www.ravenauthor.com

Other Books by Eva Gordon open quick hyperlink to Amazon

Coming April 2015: The Stone of the Tenth Realm