I’m looking forward to this summer, to being outdoors enjoying the sunshine. Winter is long here, and summer is short. I plan to enjoy every minute of it.

I’ve shared this recipe before, but it’s worth sharing again. It’s a cool and refreshing adult beverage you can enjoy in your backyard on a hot summer afternoon. You can make it ahead and enjoy whenever you like.

Summer Slush

Ingredients:
1 – 12 oz can of frozen orange juice
1 – 12 oz can of frozen lemonade
¾ cup of sugar
5 cups of water
2 cups of vodka

In large freezer proof container, mix in order given and freeze.

Serve ½ glass of slush with 7 up or ginger ale.

Fun Things to Do

Now that you have your drink, here are some fun things you can do that don’t cost much.

1. Have a picnic. Eating outside is always preferable to eating indoors (as long as the mosquitos aren’t around). Treat yourself. Enjoy fresh fruit, cheese, crackers, fried chicken, pasta salad or whatever you desire. If it’s you and your honey, throw in a bottle of wine and make it a romantic evening. If it’s raining, spread a blanket and some pillows on the living room floor and make your fun indoors.
2. Try a new recipe one night a week. Get your family involved and all of you take turns choosing. They don’t have to be complex recipes—unless you’re so inclined. Keep it simple and fun. Fire up the grill if you have one.
3. Dessert night! I’m sure you’re seeing a theme here. Spend a day baking some tasty treats and enjoy. Or recreate a traditional English tea, complete with scones and cream.
4. Have a movie marathon day. Pick a movie series, load up on snacks, and watch them back to back. Lord of the Rings, Die Hard, Bourne Identity, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Mummy. There are plenty to choose from. Or have a theme movie day—Disney, horror, comedy. Or binge a series on Netflix.
5. Take a walk or a drive somewhere different. Doesn’t have to be far. We all tend to be creatures of habit and take the same routes or go to the same places.
6. Read a book. Take yourself out to the backyard, the balcony, the beach, or walk to a park and enjoy a few hours.
7. And if you’re looking for something to read, you might want to check out the Salvation Pack series. These smoking hot werewolves will certainly spice up your days…and your nights.

Salvation Pack

Each book in the Salvation Pack series is a standalone story that can be enjoyed out of order. Series Order:

Book #1 Wolf at the Door
Book #2 Wolf in her Bed
Book #3 Wolf on the Run
Book #4 Wolf from the Past
Book #5 Wolf on the Hunt
Book #6 Wolf on a Mission
Book #7 Wolf in his Heart
Book #8 Wolf in her Soul
Book #9 Wolf of her Own

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0753H2PLQ/

Have a safe and wonderful holiday.

About the Author

N.J. Walters is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who has always been a voracious reader, and now she spends her days writing novels of her own. Vampires, werewolves, dragons, assassins, time-travelers, seductive handymen, and next-door neighbors with smoldering good looks—all vie for her attention. It’s a tough life, but someone’s got to live it.

Visit N.J. at:
Website: http://www.njwalters.com
Blog: http://www.njwalters.blogspot.com
Newsletter Sign Up: http://eepurl.com/gdblg5
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/N.J.WaltersAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/njwaltersauthor
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/NJWalters
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/njwalters
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/n-j-walters

On June 22nd, CHASE releases! It’s book #4 in the Montana Bounty Hunters: Dead Horse, MT series—an offshoot of my Montana Bounty Hunters series. I’m still writing the story! Gah! I hate running it up to the wire, but I’ll get there. In the meantime, have you pre-ordered your copy? Read an excerpt below to get a hint of the fun I have in store for you!

Montana Bounty Hunters: Dead Horse, MT—CHASE

Pre-Order Now!

From the opening of Chase…

Chase Kudrow flipped down his visor to shut out the bright morning sun beaming through his windshield. He was parked on Main Street in Dead Horse, congratulating himself on his good sense in accepting the job with Montana Bounty Hunters’ Dead Horse office because he was here, hunting a skip, and not living out of his truck in bumfuck Colorado…or Wyoming…or Idaho. Sure, Cage Morgan, his new boss, had said they’d be looking for the richest bounties in a multi-state area when he’d offered him the job, but as luck would have it, today’s hunt was right in their own backyard.

Chase would never admit it to any of his new bounty hunter brothers, but he’d been ready to settle down and stop living out of a suitcase. He needed to put down roots and prove he could provide a stable home—to himself and to the caseworker handling his niece’s situation. No way in hell was he letting his blood relative, his little sister’s orphaned daughter, be raised by strangers.

The job offer had come at just the right moment. Although he’d feigned resistance to joining the hunters as part of their newly formed satellite agency, inside, he’d been jubilant. He’d hemmed and hawed for days, and he’d done his homework, reaching out to hunter friends in the Kalispell office to make sure this gig was legit, and that he could trust the people he’d be working with. The more he’d learned, the more certain he was that his accepting the job was meant to be.

Yes, there was a lot left to iron out. He had yet to find a house. Work had been pretty busy, but he’d be asking Cage for some time off to find a home and fill it with furniture and the things an eight-year-old might need or want, and for him to meet with local school officials to talk about what he’d need to get Mikayla enrolled. Then the hard work would begin to get Miss Tight-ass Bradshaw at Child and Family Services in Billings to sign off.

The last time she’d seen him, she’d shaken her head. “How do you think you can care for a little girl? You live like a gypsy, Mr. Kudrow. All your past mailing addresses have been forwarding services because you’re never in one place longer than a month. How are you going to be a father to Mikayla?”

He’d shifted in his chair, knowing his petition looked bad, but this was Audra’s girl. He hadn’t been there for her mother, hadn’t even had any idea how much trouble she’d been in. His mama, had she been alive, would have been so disappointed in him for his neglect while he’d been out living his life.

No more. He’d lived like a nomad since his days in the military. He’d liked seeing the world, but when he’d gotten fed up with the rigor and the rules he’d had to abide by in the Army, he’d left and found the one job ideally suited to his wandering ways. Even now, working from a home base in Dead Horse, bounty hunting allowed him to roam just far enough to keep from feeling that itch to pull up stakes and move, and it gave him the occasional adrenaline rush he craved. The targets were varied, and hunting them down never got boring. Except when he was on stakeouts, like this one.

Today’s target was Billy Calloway, one of the Calloway brothers who ran a junkyard east of town, who’d been busted with a shit-ton of stolen catalytic converters. He’d refused to give the DA the names of his suppliers so he was facing multiple charges for receiving stolen goods. Since he was a three-time offender, the judge had set his bail at $100,000—high for the crime, but Judge Hodges was setting an example for the other Calloways.

Then the dumbass skipped his court date…

Chase picked up the manila folder Fredericka “Fig” Newton, their office manager and tech guru, had prepared for all the hunters combing their hometown for this skip. Billy was a scrawny fucker, with greasy brown hair, a scruffy beard, and one eye that permanently looked down his nose. He’d be easy to spot.

The passenger door beside him opened, and Dylan “Preacher” Priestley, his new partner, climbed into the seat beside him holding a small pink box in his hand.

“Took your damn time,” Chase groused, not really concerned, but he and Preacher enjoyed that kind of relationship, always griping at each other but quick to jump into action when the situation called for it. Three weeks in, and Chase wondered how he’d ever gone it alone as a bounty hunter. Having a partner made things like boring-ass stakeouts kind of fun.

“They’re straight out of the oven,” Preacher said, opening the box to reveal two big donuts. Preacher’s hand hovered over them.

“Don’t even think about takin’ the one with the sprinkles,” Chase said, giving him a glare.

Preacher shrugged. “Sprinkles taste like chalky sugar anyway.” He plucked the pink glazed donut from the box and left the cream-colored one with sprinkles for Chase.

Chase plucked his from the box, took a bite, and groaned. “Don’t know how you aren’t fat.”

Preacher waggled his eyebrows. “She makes me work for them.”

“TMI, man,” Chase said, holding up a hand.

Preacher grinned. “Sorry it took so long. I had to taste wedding cakes when I was in there.”

Chase wrinkled his nose. “Way to kill my appetite, man. Weddings!” He gave a mock shudder.

Preacher chuckled. “Laura and Rhonda have this huge notebook. It takes up an entire table when they open it. It has polaroids of cakes and things to decorate the tables with, flower arrangements—”

Chase narrowed his eyes and looked out the windshield. “Rhonda’s in there?”

“Yeah, why?” Preacher shot him a sly sideways glance.

“Just wonderin’. Haven’t seen much of her lately. Her sister’s behind the counter at the Dem Bones Package Store every time I stop to buy beer.”

Preacher arched an eyebrow. “You crushing on Rhonda?”

Chase gave him a deadpan look. “I don’t crush on women. Just sayin’. She seems pretty busy with all that wedding shit.”

“She’s been a huge help to Laura. Says she loved planning her wedding more than she loved her ex-husband. Said it should have told her something.”

“Didn’t know she’s been married…”

“Yeah, for five years, until her husband up and left town with a massage therapist.”

“Must have been rubbing more than his back.”

Preacher shrugged. “Laura doesn’t talk much about him. Guess he left her the store and a pile of debt. She’s been digging herself out of that mess for years.”

Chase finished off his donut and followed it with a gargle of coffee straight from his thermos. When he screwed the lid back on, he glanced down the street. His attention was snagged by two men stepping out of Dead Center Guns & Pawn, both holding handguns and wearing camouflage masks pulled over their chins and noses. They were running toward a beat-up pickup parked alongside the curb.

“Think we got trouble,” he said to Preacher, tapping his ignition button and glancing up and down the street before punching the gas pedal and pulling out of his parking space.

“Damn.” Preacher hit the button on his radio. “Hey, Fig!”

“Yeah, Preacher. What’s up?”

“I think we’ve got a robbery in progress on Main Street. Saw two armed individuals coming out of the pawn shop. Call 9-1-1.”

“Roger, out.”

The tailpipe of the beat-up pickup belched smoke, and then the truck jumped the curb and careened down the street.

“We’re in pursuit,” Preacher said over his radio.

“You aren’t the cops,” Fig muttered back.

“We can tell them where these bastards land.”

Just for fun, and because I’m going to be writing like a demoness today, and this is something I have had on my mind lately, here’s a question for you to answer!

If you could add one business/store/restaurant to your home town, what would it be? Answer for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

For me, it would be a movie theater. We’re a town of approximately 11,000 people, with two colleges, and we don’t have one! It’s a travesty! Also, we just plain don’t have a lot to offer in the way of recreation unless it’s parks or the nearby lake. How about a skating rink or bowling alley?

UPDATE: The winner is…Jennifer Beyer!
*~*~*

Some years ago I read a book by Paula Giddings entitled When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America. The stories I read about women who made history from Ida B. Wells to Shirley Chisholm inspired me then and inspire me still. But the book had an unexpected outcome on me. At least unexpected by me, but I suspect not by the author.

Giddings’s title made me stop and think about where and when I enter history as well. School has trained us to think of history as something made by others, but you and I make history in small and large ways every day. As a minister, I have worked with at least a hundred churches and their ministers and lay people seeking how to share their faith and resources with their communities. As part of a community organizing group, I helped address issues of inequality in the communities in which I lived and worked.

As I look back on the last year and a half, I am filled with awe and pride by the creative ways neighbors have helped one another get through the tragedy of this pandemic. These acts of kindness—both random and intentional—will be included in books written about this time. Those who acted will be cited by name just as Giddings’s book names women like Anna Julia Cooper and Mary McLeod Bethune, who chose to challenge the racism and sexism of their day.

However, there are many more who will remain unnamed but whose acts will have touched hearts and minds and spirits, enabling everyone to be encouraged during this difficult time. The smile you share with a stranger from a distance or a phone call you make to someone who is homebound create ripples of goodness that touch the universe in many pay-it-forward ways we may never know. I wonder if this isn’t why history has always had my heart.

My initial idea for this post was to share unsung Black history events that took place in June, events that aren’t getting the attention June 19^th—Juneteenth—is getting. Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when in Galveston Bay, Texas, the Union army announced the official end of slavery to more than two hundred and fifty thousand enslaved people. There’s a move to make Juneteenth a national holiday but is anyone commemorating June 17, 1775 when Peter Salem and Salem Poor were commended for their service at the Battle of Bunker Hill? As I made my list of such lesser-known events for this post, I realized even Peter Salem and Salem Poor had their names recorded in a place where I could find them and their deeds. Inspired by the title of Giddings’ book, I switched gears and decided to make this post a place where you and I could share when and where we enter history. That way someday someone can come across this post and read about where and when you entered history.

So for a chance to win a $10 Amazon gift card, but more importantly to be remembered for posterity, share a moment in your life when you made an impact on the history we call everyday life. 

Haunted Serenade

All the women in Anora Madison’s family have lived as “Poor Butterflies”: women still longing for but deserted by the men they loved. Determined to be the first to escape a life of abandonment, Anora fled Harlem for Brooklyn, severing her ties with her mother, Angela, and with the man who broke her heart, Winston Emerson, the father of her child.

Six years later, she comes back to Harlem to make peace, but a malignant spirit manifests itself during the homecoming, targeting her mother, her aunt, Winston, and their little girl. Determined to stop the evil now trying to destroy all she loves, Anora must finally turn to Winston for help. But will their efforts be too little too late?

Buylink: https://amzn.to/3aXifyu

Excerpt from Haunted Serenade…

On September 15, 1963, the one-year anniversary of my aunt Diana’s death, four young girls in Birmingham, Alabama died when their church was bombed for its involvement in the Civil Rights movement.

My mother called that evening and inquired after my health and the health of my daughter Cammie—the granddaughter she vowed never to acknowledge. Fear, anger and sorrow sounded in her voice. Mine too. We mourned those girls, their families and the sister/aunt we both loved. In that spoken grief, I silently mourned what had died between my mother and me.

The following month she called again, this time inviting me to bring Cammie to dinner. Like some sulky child, I felt tempted to ask what took her so long. Instead, I swallowed my hurt and came home.

Cammie squeezed my fingers and stared at 13 141st Street with a wide-eyed wonder only six-year-olds possess.

“Wow. Grammie has a real house.”

I don’t know what excited her more: the prospect of meeting her maternal grandmother or visiting a real house. Single-family homes with front stoops, porches and backyards were things she saw only on television. We lived in a Brooklyn housing project with eight apartments to every floor and eight floors in every building.

All last night she ooo’d and ah’d over the photo of Number Thirteen my mother had sent her. Too wound up to sleep, her pudgy little body tossed and turned like a happy puppy on the double bed we shared. She shook me awake each time a new possibility occurred to her. Did her Grammie really own the whole house? Could she have a room of her own when she spent the night? Could she have a puppy there? No cats or dogs were allowed in the projects. How many staircases were inside the house? Did it have a doorbell she could ring?

The sound of her excitement cleaved my heart. She showed no signs of discontent with our life, yet the smile she wore as she slept told me my daughter had desires of which I was unaware.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/annamtaylorAuthor
Twitter: @Revannable
Amazon author page: https://amzn.to/355nKv0

UPDATE: The winner is…Rita!
*~*~*

Puzzle-Contest

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me what’s about to happen here! Have fun!

Ending Soon!

1. Cratered Weekend? (Puzzle-Contest) — Last day to enter! Win a FREE book!
2. FREE Read! See what happens when Beauty meets Beast! — Last day to claim your copy! Everyone gets a FREE book!
3. Tell Me a Story (Contest) — Win a $5 Amazon gift card!
4. Short Story Anthologies (Contest–3 Winners!) — Win a FREE book!

Sometimes, if you’re very, very lucky, you find your best friend. Someone who loves you warts and all. I was lucky enough to meet her 37 years ago. Although she started out as Daddy’s Girl, she’s become my partner in many crimes (just kidding, although I would help her hide the bodies!).

So, join me, if you want, in wishing her a very special day…

Happy Birthday, Kelly!

UPDATE: The winners are…Mechelle, Cheryl Bowers, and Ani!
*~*~*

I’m working away at a new collection of short stories from some very talented authors—sexy stories all centered around cowboys! In the meantime, because I love to share these books and introduce you to authors you might not know, I want to make sure you know where to find these books. All my anthologies are listed on my Collections website. They are full-sized books—none less than 60,000 words—and ALL of the ones we published ourselves are available for just $0.99! A STEAL. We want you to read them, so we’re making sure cost is not an impediment! Be sure to visit the site and peruse the available titles: Delilah’s Collections

Contest

Comment for a chance to win a download of one of the full-size books below. You can tell me whether you love short stories. Tell me what theme you’d like to see for the next one. Or just ramble about what you’ll be doing while you’re reading the sexy shorties in this collection (passing time in a dentist’s office, reading sexy stories to your significant other in bed at night, etc.). Just be sure to comment!

Here’s what you might win (click on the covers to learn more):

Open Contests & Giveaways

1. Cratered Weekend? (Puzzle-Contest) — Win a FREE book!
2. FREE Read! See what happens when Beauty meets Beast! — Everyone, get your FREE short story! (It’s a sexy one!)
3. Tell Me a Story (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!