UPDATE: The winner is Jane!
*~*~*

Next Monday is going to be a big day for folks in my area. Schools will be closed. Everyone I know is planning a party. My sister and brother are driving down to enjoy the view from my other brother’s yard across the road. I bought the glasses and the T-shirt!

Of course, I’m talking about the GREAT SOLAR ECLIPSE. Which we may or may not be able to observe. The weather forecast changes daily. We can only hope that the stars align, along with the sun and the moon, so we can observe it all happen. Otherwise, we’ll get to enjoy total darkness during a thunderstorm. Woohoo.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me whether you will be a lucky person to be in a place to observe the phenomenon—and do you have party plans?

UPDATE: The winner is…Stacy Hartley!
*~*~*

I’ve had tons of fun writing stories within Elle James’s Brotherhood Protectors world. At the moment, I’m working on wrapping up my next entry, Tyson’s Mission, which will be released on the 23rd of this month! Have you pre-ordered your copy?

And since I’m buried in writing the story, which is taking me away from a lot of fun stuff like family time, painting, and bingeing Andromeda, I thought today would be fun to reacquaint you with the stories I’ve written within that HUGE series of books—at least the ones I’ve written. Today, I’m highlighting the one that released just last October. I’m not even sure where the idea came from to write a story about a team of scientists dealing with a murder in their midst atop an ice floe in the Artic Ocean, but someone had to do it, right?

Gunn’s Mission

After surviving a catastrophic helicopter accident that left him scarred and unable to continue serving on the Teams, former Navy SEAL Gunnar “Gunn” Nielson is settling into life as a Brotherhood Protector in the Yellowstone, Montana, office.

When a request from the U.S. government arrives for a protection detail for someone with extensive cold-weather experience, Gunn, born and raised in Minnesota, is tapped for the job. He soon discovers that he will be the lone protector for a group of scientists working at a research facility on a floating island in the Arctic Ocean.

After discovering that one of her team members was murdered, Facility Chief Maddie Russo is grateful for Gunn’s expertise. Thinking the murder might have been committed by someone trying to interfere with a military-sponsored study, she and Gunn have to keep her team safe as the work continues.

Maddie and Gunn grow closer as the weather turns colder and the threats to the facility and its inhabitants continue.

Read an excerpt and order a copy here!

All the Brotherhood Protectors stories I’ve written, so far…

Click on the covers to learn more about them!

 

Contest

For a chance to win one of the stories shown above, tell me whether you’ve read any of these, and what settings/worlds you prefer!

UPDATE: The winner is…Ellen!
*~*~*

This morning, in the rush to get kids ready for school, the 15-year-old came to me in a panic because today is picture day and she needed a shirt ironed. It hit me (yeah, sometimes, I’m kind of slow) that I’m the only person in the house who knows how to iron clothes.

It gets worse. My daughter doesn’t buy clothing that has to be ironed. If she sees something she likes, a shirt, for example, she won’t buy it if she thinks she can’t wash and dry and then immediately hang it to avoid ironing it.

I remember being ten and being given a huge garbage bag filled with clothing, sheets (even T-shirts) that had been sprayed with water and rolled into tight balls, which I would take out one at a time and iron. I hated ironing, but the skill came in handy when I was in the Army, because at the time, you had to iron your fatigues or pay to have them laundered for you.

Today, there’s not a person in our 6-person household, other than me, who knows that to create steam you have to add water to the hole on the top of the iron. I feel like a failure as a mother and grandmother. It’s a survival skill just like learning to cook, which thankfully, the kids have learned to do.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me whether you have an ironing board and iron that you use. Or is there another “lost art” that today’s generation has forgotten?

Open Contests

1. Happy World Storytelling Day! (Contest) — Last day to enter! Win an Amazon gift card!
2. What makes you happy? (Contest) — Last day to enter! Win a FREE book!
3. A Reminder for Your Weekend Enjoyment! (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
4. Saturday Puzzle-Contest: Animals in a Boat — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
5. Anna Taylor Sweringen/Michal Scott: Josephine Silone Yates – Another Undaunted Pioneer (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
6. Word Search: Colors of Paint (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
7. Easter Stories (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
8. Saturday Puzzle-Contest: What I’m bingeing now… — Win an Amazon gift card!
9. Happy Easter & March Into April (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Jackie Wisherd!
*~*~*

Before I get started with the end of month rundown,
Happy Easter to all who celebrate!

March

Work-related:

1. I completed work on What Happens in Bozeman (Book #3 of We Are Dead Horse, MT) and published it!
2. I began work on Tyson’s Mission, my next Brotherhood Protectors book!
3. I continued to read short stories for inclusion in my upcoming Secret Identities: A Boys Behaving Badly Anthology.
4. I completed 3 editing projects for other authors in March.

Health-related:

1. I haven’t done well taking care of myself this month. I ate too many salty, fatty foods and didn’t monitor my blood pressure!
2. My sleep suffered this month, likely because of diet and lack of exercise.
3. The only good thing I did was drinking one cup of Turmeric tea a day.

Happiness-related: 

1. I continued working on the #the100dayproject art challenge.
2. Here are some examples of art projects I completed in March.

April

 

1. To complete writing Tyson’s Mission, my next Brotherhood Protectors, book, which releases on April 23rd!
2. To complete 4 editing projects in March!
3. To finish reading and selecting stories from among the submissions for the upcoming collection—Secret Identities: A Boys Behaving Badly Anthology!

For health related, I plan:

1. To start back on my Weight Watchers diet, because it’s time to get serious! I HAVE to get back in the saddle!
2. To reduce salt and processed food, and incorporate foods good for blood pressure (spinach, broccoli, bananas) and my liver (apple cider vinegar, flax seeds, sunflower seeds).
3. To begin daily workouts using my recumbent bike and some chair yoga exercises.
4. To take my BP every day and log it!

For happiness-related, I plan: 

1. To continue #the100daychallenge where I’ll be painting something every single day!
2. To spend time with extended family during the ECLIPSE!

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 April…

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

UPDATE: The winner is…Jean White!
*~*~*

I’m late posting today because I’m not managing my time well.

I’ve been…distracted. After finishing up work on What Happens in Bozeman, my brain decided it wanted a rest from creating. I’m fighting it. I’ve already started the next story, and I will keep to schedule, but I’ve been dragging my feet.

What I really, really, really want to do is spend a week bingeing some fun Sci-Fi. I’m a Star Trek girl. However, while I’m waiting for new episodes of Discovery, Lower Decks, and Strange New Worlds to drop, I’ve been searching for another fix. I began Seaquest—which, by the way, is dreadful—and only have two episodes left to suffer through. Why did I continue watching when it’s so bad? Because I started it, and I hate not finishing what I start, whether it makes sense or not. A personality flaw, I know.

Last night, I googled “shows to watch if you love Star Trek, and Andromeda popped up in the list of many, many shows I’ve already streamed. Yes, Kevin Sorbo is the main character, but I will overlook that annoyance because it’s a Gene Roddenberry (Star Trek‘s creator!) project—and there are five seasons to gorge on! I was in bed when I reviewed the list. Then I googled “how to stream” and discovered it was FREE on Amazon Prime, so I clicked the link and watched on my phone (which I NEVER do). I didn’t go to sleep until I’d watched the first three episodes, which kept me up into the wee hours of the morning. It’s decent. It certainly caught my attention, and it’s different enough from Star Trek, and yet alike, that I’m definitely not bored.

But it does mean I’m dragging ass today when I have a mile-long list of things to accomplish today. So, onto my first priority—this blog. 🙂

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me whether you’ve watched Andromeda. Or tell me another Sci-Fi show (not Star Trek, not Farscape, not Firefly/Serenity, not Seaquest, not Star Wars) that I ought to check out after I binge my through Andromeda. Have a great Saturday and enjoy the puzzle!

UPDATE: The winner is…Pamela!
*~*~*

Yes, I know. Easter is on Sunday. However, Sunday’s post will be respectful…

So, I wanted to tell a story about something that happened one Easter morning to the Devlin family. Several years ago, when the kids were smaller and my daughter’s family lived across the road, I rushed over in the early morning to help set out the baskets. All went well. The kids woke up and were thrilled with their gifts and candy. Then they headed outside to play while the adults enjoyed coffee. A few minutes later, the youngest child ran back inside, sobbing.

“The Easter Bunny died. He’s dead!”

We all rushed out to see what she was talking about. The long driveway leading to their house was gravel and dirt (we live in the country!). So, when it rained, whereever the gravel wasn’t thick, small mudholes would form. The boy-child was standing beside one of the small muddy potholes with a stick, dragging something from a mudhole. It was a dead rabbit—a large dead rabbit—so covered in mud it looked like a giant chocolate-covered bunny. Yes, of all the days for it to happen, a bunny had croaked and fallen into a pothole on Easter morning!

We had to assure them all it wasn’t the real Easter Bunny and that the “real” one would be back next year.

That’s my Easter story. It’s famous in our family. My daughter and son have another from their childhood, but that’s for another time…

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me an Easter story or tell me what your family’s practice is/was, if you celebrate Easter.

UPDATE: The winner is…Kerry Jo!
*~*~*

Sometimes, I struggle for themes for puzzles. Today, I didn’t have to look far for an idea. I have three bottles of ink sitting on my desktop with the most interesting color names: Chicken Coop (which is a rusty color), Robin’s Egg (the teal blue), and Parrotfish Twinkle (the green). I experimented with those three inks last night to produce the bookmark above.

I had those ridiculously named colors then opened a palette I put together myself with some of my favorite Daniel Smith watercolors (all D.S., except for the ochre and the pale green) to come up with the rest of the colors for the puzzle. They’re ones I’ve been using the most often lately.

So, for the contest… For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle, then tell me what fancy-named colors you love. (Okay, so I don’t care if it’s a fancy name or not.)