So, yesterday, I met with my oncologist. My daughter came with me because I’m still muzzy-headed and forget things. I’ve been extremely fatigued since my surgery, and I nap a lot. I was worried about the surgeon’s recommendation that I do another three rounds of chemo and how that would affect my summer and recovery. I’ll admit to being a little depressed at the idea.

My oncologist made a face when I mentioned what the other doctor said and shook his head. He said, you did amazingly well with the chemo, and the surgeon got all the diseased organs he could find. Yes, there was still microscopic evidence of disease in the parts he removed, but immunotherapy should help keep anything lingering in my body in check. He wants instead to give my body a chance to fully recover from the chemo and surgery. He’ll order scans in a month or two to make sure the cancer doesn’t come back, but we can do immunotherapy for a while, continue to scan, and if necessary, at a later date, reconsider more chemo. In the meantime, my job is to get healthy and feel well. I was enormously relieved. I will do whatever he tells me I should because we’ve already accomplished so much. I trust him.

At the end of our appointment, he asked, “Do you want to do an immunotherapy session today and get that knocked out? I won’t have to see you again for another month.” So, I sat in the chair for an hour with an IV running and did that. Usually, immunotherapy doesn’t affect how I feel all that much, but today, I feel nauseous and tired. I’m run down. I’ll pay attention to how I feel, rest when I need to, make myself putter to get myself moving, but yay—I won’t be losing my hair again. Right now, it’s super short and mostly silver. I look like Judy Dench. My dd has been working on getting the pool ready for me. If she gets it pretty and blue, I should be swimming by mid-May. That will be a huge boost to my happiness.

Anyway, that’s the report. At some point, I might talk about things that were helpful to me during this journey that might be helpful to others. But right now, I have work to do and naps to take. I’m just so happy and relieved that I have more time with my family and time to be me. In May, I hope to return to my art guild meetings. We’re having a decoupage mini-workshop in May, and I want to be well enough to attend and participate. In the meantime, I’ll edit and paint and poke my head in the door here to say hello.

Word Search

Summer is my favorite time of year, and yes, it all revolves around the pool. It gets hot as hell in Arkansas, but we enjoy our summers. We hit the pool, we barbecue, use the smoker and the blackstone beside the pool to cook wonderful meals. We have movie nights, including a few that we watch with an outdoor projector when the mosquitoes aren’t quite so bad. I love being outside to watch the chickens who escape their pen and peck around the yard. The goats and geese are fun to watch as well. We fill bird feeders and watch the variety that come to our property, along with the deer and foxes who come to our pond. Of course, there are trips to the flea markets. I can’t wait to have the kids home. Their noise—the music and laughter—really picks me up.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me what you look forward to this summer (or winter, if you’re down under!).

For me (and I do hear that kind of whiny, raised voice “for me” when I say those words), Monday’s are the first day of my week. My calendars and To Dos start with Mondays. However, my attitude towards them changes the deeper into the school year I go.

In the Fall, I feel refreshed getting up with the kids and seeing them out the door. Then, I feel virtuous as I head to my desk and begin work.

By this point in the school year, I’m eager for summer so I can ignore the week’s beginning and sleep until I damn well want to.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, where do you stand on Mondays? Have fun with this!

I drew another superhero from my Advent Calendar stash of Marvel superheroes to give me inspiration for the week. This time, it’s the IRON FIST!  He’s an honorable superhero. No gray areas. He derives his power from his chi, spiritual energies. He’s the world’s greatest martial artist and uses that iron fist as a weapon or for healing—and that’s how I’ll tie this cute little guy to my week. I have a meeting with my oncologist tomorrow, so I’ll go in with this guy in my pocket to talk about next steps. 🙂

Report Card

Last week…

1. 1. Did you notice I’m back to blogging every day? Yeah, that probably doesn’t mean much to you, but it means I’m putting my fingers on the keyboard and writing…something. It’s all good progress!
   2. I worked on one author’s edits.
   3. I issued an extension to authors interested in contributing to my next anthology, Burn.
   4. I had a blood draw in preparation for my appointment with my oncologist. My Cancer Antigen test results have improved again. A good sign. Not foolproof, but encouraging.
   5. I spent a lot of the week resting. I move slowly, but the incision from my surgery is healing nicely. I can get in and out of bed without straining anything. I wish I could move around as much as I sleep.
   6. I’ve been painting up a storm—usually in the middle of the night when insomnia hits for a couple of hours. Rather than fight it, I use the time to get paint on paper.

This next week…

1. I will complete one author’s edits and begin work on two more projects! I’m almost back to my previous editing pace.
2. I’ll meet with my oncologist on Monday to review my surgery results and plan what’s next for me. I want to get everything scheduled (chemo/immunotherapy) so I can plan my work accordingly.
3. I’ll continue trying to catch up to #thedayproject schedule. Surgery and recovery put me behind, but I’m really liking the push it gives me to produce.
4. I’m going to putter in the kitchen this week. I do love cooking pasta and making my own tuna salad. Plus, it will keep me on my feet.

Open Contests

Be sure to check out these posts and enter to win the prizes that are still up for grabs:

1. 1. Gabbi Grey: I Wanted Taylor Swift! (Contest) — Last day to enter! Win an Amazon gift card!
   2. Saturday Puzzle-Contest — Last day to enter! Win an Amazon gift card!
   3. Gabbi Grey: Trying Something a Little New… (Contest–Two Prizes!) — Win a FREE book plus an Amazon gift card!
   4. Memory Game: My Paintings (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
   5. Flashback: Her Next Breath (Contest — Two Winners!) — Win a FREE book, 2 winners!
   6. Saturday Puzzle-Contest: Wildflowers — Win an Amazon gift card!

No judging. This is a practice piece. I’m trying to learn to use my oil pastels, and this was one I did in the middle of the night last night when I couldn’t sleep with minimal lighting. I think it turned out pretty good considering I had no idea what I was doing! 🙂

Anyway, living in a rural area, Spring comes in waves. First the flowering bushes (forsythia, japonica) then the flowering trees (dogwood, red bud). Then the wildflowers pop up in the pasture and yard. My daughter and SIL have gotten into the habit of mowing around the areas they know will bloom with lovely wildflowers. Our favorite blooms are the crimson clover that come up in the ditch beside the road and the edges of the fenced-in yard. My SIL kind of rolls his eyes because he sees them all as weeds, but we try to keep the dandelions and wildflowers (his weeds) alive long enough the bees can get to them before they go to seed. We don’t worry about perfect grass or anything like that. Nature’s blooms are beautiful.

Anyway, that’s today’s puzzle theme—wildflowers. For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle, then tell me what kinds of natural wildflowers bloom in your area this time of the year. Do you treat them like weeds or adore them like my daughter and I do?

I love doing flashback highlights! It’s not only a reminder to you but also to me of the many stories I’ve written. Did you know before I wrote bounty hunters that I had this entire series of SEAL-hero stories? Read an excerpt from the second “Uncharted” book!

Enjoy! ~DD

   

   

   

Click on the covers to learn more about these stories!

Contest

Win your choice of one of my Uncharted SEALs stories! There will be 2 winners! All you have to do to enter is answer me this…

What author’s older series have your recently discovered and devoured? Spread some love!

Her Next Breath

Ex-SEAL Jackson Keller’s first mission with the Charter Group’s spec ops unit is a bust. Instead of capturing a drug lord in his Mexican compound, he finds a beautiful, naked woman. But she may have information they need to nail the narco-terrorist, so he takes her, sealing his fate. She’s his to watch, his to “manage” until the op’s done.

Suri McAnally’s made some mistakes—mainly trusting her college roomie who just so happens to be the son of one of Mexico’s most dangerous drug lords. If Jackson can save her, she’ll do whatever he says, mirror his moves, and try to keep her insta-lust under control. Her next breath depends on it.

Excerpt from Her Next Breath…

When Suri awoke, it was to discover she was resting inside the curve of Jackson’s arm, her thigh draped over his, her head on his chest. She didn’t know who’d moved the blanket. Maybe they’d both naturally gravitated together. She hated to think she might have been the one to cross the line demarking their personal space.

Partly because she didn’t want to wake him, and partly because it was a new experience lying inside a man’s embrace, she held her breath and remained perfectly still. She breathed in his scent, which was a sagey musk combined with the remaining odor of the paint he’d worn on his face. His skin was smooth, warm, tanned and cloaked a hard, very muscular frame. Her fingertips tingled, and she very nearly gave into the temptation to run one tip over his hard abs. Instead, she curled her hand into a fist.

Last night when she’d seen him fully for the first time—without the paint, his body nearly nude—she’d felt her knees wobble. He was devastatingly handsome, not in a pretty-boy way. He was too manly, too large, all hard angles and lovely bulges, with short, nearly dark-brown hair and those cloudy gray eyes. Even the stubble on his chin made her thighs clench.

Suri hoped she didn’t sleep beside him for many more nights or she’d grow accustomed to his physique. Any man she met after this little adventure would pale in comparison.

Her glance traveled downward to the sheet barely covering his hips. Maybe it was the fold of the sheets, but the fabric was tented.

“Playing possum?”

She raised her head and met his gaze, blushing because she’d been caught staring at his sex.

“Didn’t want to disturb you.”

“You’re breathing, aren’t you?” he muttered in a graveled tone.

She frowned, not understanding, and then pushed away from his body although she instantly regretted the loss of his warmth. When she’d first awoken, she’d felt sheltered, safe—and not just from Diego and his henchmen. She’d felt…cherished.

Ridiculous, she knew. And slightly pathetic. Was she really so needy for human connection that she was romanticizing over Jackson?

But in the morning light, his face wasn’t quite so hard-bitten. Scruffy, dark bristles covered his chin and jaw; his gaze rested on her rather than spearing her.

His glance cut away, and he looked at his watch. “Chow’s nearly over. We should dress.”

“I’m starved.”

The corners of his mouth twitched.

His first smile?

And then his features grew remote again, his mouth firmed. “Get dressed. I need to check in with Teague.”

Aware his gaze followed her still, she rose and stretched her arms high, and then headed to her pillow case.

“You do that on purpose, don’t you?”

She aimed a grin over her shoulder. “Why, whatever do you mean?”

His gaze narrowed, but a one-sided smile curved.

Feeling as though she’d accomplished something noteworthy, she entered the bathroom, closing the door against the temptation that was Jackson Keller.

I’m sharing my happy place in a puzzle with you today! I’ve been recovering at home, building up my stamina to sit at my desk to work, and painting again! I thought it might be fun to share some of those small paintings in today’s memory game. So, exercise that gray matter, solve the puzzle, then think about what you might want to share if you were putting together a memory puzzle. Comment for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

Hello, Delilah! Thank you for welcoming me here to share my new release! Archer’s Awakening is a short story in my Love in Mission City world.  I’m super excited about this short story (10k) because it’s a bit of a departure from what I’ve been writing.

In what way, you ask?  Well…firstly, it’s a love story in the Mission City series, which is small-town.  Yet the protagonist — Archer — is a big city divorce lawyer, and the setting is The Georgian Hotel in Vancouver, Canada (based on a real place, but not that place).  At least for the first two-thirds of the story, it’s not clear where the connection to Mission City is.  I trust my readers to hang in there until the reveal — because it comes.

This book is also steamy, but not in a traditional Gabbi Grey way. Curious? You’ll have to read because I don’t want to give any spoilers away.

I’m trying something new as I move forward in my Love in Mission City series — a small prequel short story before each big book.  The short stories are in no way necessary reading — but they offer a little snippet between big books to keep readers interested.  The first was Rayne Check.  That one was unintentional — I wrote it for a friend and to give away.  Then I wrote Rayne’s Return.  A reader can read that full-length book without the prequel — but having read the steamy short helps.

Which brought me to the next big book, Gideon’s Gratitude (coming in July).  I’ll share the genesis of that story later, but it’s been written for years.  I just needed to find the right spot for it.  After Rayne’s Return is perfect! Except…I couldn’t put anything in Rayne’s Return to help prepare readers for Gideon and Archer’s love story.

Hence, Archer’s Awakening.

Confused? Yeah, me too.  I’d plotted out the next four big books and, in the end, decided each needed a super short, super-hot prequel.

Unlike Rayne and Everett’s half-a-night stand in the prequel for their story, Archer and Gideon have to meet in chapter one of their book — it’s the ultimate meet cute.  So that left me with finding a way to whet reader’s appetites.  I truly hope I’ve managed.

Finally, Archer is bisexual.  That’s not a big deal in my fictional world — plenty of men and women are.  I know several in my own life, and I want to see their stories represented.  Archer’s coming out of what turned out to be a bad marriage. That stings because he’s a divorce lawyer — he can’t believe he’s become one of the people who couldn’t hold things together.

In an attempt to move forward, he’s going back to what is comfortable — he had a gay lover in college, and he’s willing to try again.  The trick for me as a writer? It has to be clear the guy Archer (sort of) hooks up with isn’t his happily ever after.  And readers can’t be disappointed the guy isn’t.  That’s threading a needle. I hope I’ve done it.

Anyway, that is my explanation about how Archer’s Awakening came to be.  I love the cover my designer made for me. (I’m thrilled with all the work she’s done for me.)  I hope readers enjoy this steamy short and that it makes them want Gideon’s Gratitude all the more!

As a thank you to your readers, Delilah, I want to give a copy of Archer’s Awakening and a $5 Amazon Gift Card to one commenter.  How likely are you to grab a short story if it’s connected to a series you love?  Do you enjoy these vignettes into the world or do you just want the next full-length novel.  Leave a comment and let me know!  Random will pick a winner.

Archer’s Awakening

Archer

I’ve spent the last fifteen years becoming the most sought-after divorce attorney in Vancouver. I use every hidden fact and every psychological trick to protect my clients and get the best settlements possible. I have a wait-list for my services a mile long.

Ironically, I didn’t see my own divorce coming. My wife cheated on me, and now I’m alone. As long as I’m rebuilding my life, this is the time to explore the bisexual side I’ve shelved since college. And hell yeah, I do like men, but the idea of one-night stands leaves me feeling empty. Might the right person still be out there for me? Should I go back to dating women?

I just don’t know.

Archer’s Awakening is a 10k steamy gay romance short story about a man on the precipice of a new life yet struggling to leave his old life behind.

Links:
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Archers-Awakening-Mission-Short-Story-ebook/dp/B0DZ3NQNY1
KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/archer-s-awakening
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/archers-awakening-gabbi-grey/1147281840
Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/archers-awakening/id6744618670
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Gabbi_Grey_Archer_s_Awakening?id=uYFVEQAAQBAJ&gl=US
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1747321
Universal Book Link: https://books2read.com/ArchersAwakening

About the Author

USA Today Bestselling author Gabbi Grey lives in beautiful British Columbia where her fur baby chin-poo keeps her safe from the nasty neighborhood squirrels. Working for the government by day, she spends her early mornings writing contemporary, gay, sweet, and dark erotic BDSM romances. While she firmly believes in happy endings, she also believes in making her characters suffer before finding their true love. She also writes m/f romances as Gabbi Black and Gabbi Powell.

Personal links:
Website: https://gabbigrey.com/
Newsletter sign-up: https://sendfox.com/gabbigrey
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorgabbigrey/
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/gabbi-grey
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15456297.Gabbi_Grey
Amazon Author Central: https://www.amazon.com/Gabbi-Grey/e/B07SJVFX1M
Audible Profile: https://www.audible.com/author/Gabbi-Grey/B07SJVFX1M
Facebook (page): https://www.facebook.com/AuthorGabbiGrey