I’m running around, grabbing more art off the walls to throw up in my tent at the Arkadelphia Festival of the Arts. Everything went well yesterday despite the heat (a high of 88 degrees!), and today’s supposed to hit a scorching 97 degrees! Gah. I drank so much water yesterday and was limp in my seat for the afternoon, but I sold some art! Whee!
So, quickly, here’s the Saturday contest! I’ll be back at my desk tomorrow, catching up contest winners, trying to get a handle on my workload for the following week. I’m just a little bit stressed about how I’m going to catch up!
For a chance to win your choice of download from among my backlist of books, solve the puzzle then share what your favorite hot beverage is. Have fun!
Life is constantly changing. Today things are great, then you get a phone call, and your world is turned upside down. Lately, my life has been a rollercoaster ride and I’m just trying to hang on. I have days when I feel totally overwhelmed and all I want is to hide under the covers. But I get up. I dress. I push through. I know so many of you understand moments like that. Someone once told me that when you’re feeling down, smile. Even if you don’t feel it deep inside. Eventually, your brain catches up and your mood improves, and life seems a tiny bit less daunting. Does that work? I don’t know, but I think we all have ways of dealing with stress or grief. If a latte makes your day less crappy, then get the latte. If you feel like binge-watching your favorite Netflix series because it takes your mind off your troubles, then put on the cozy sweats and grab the popcorn. The bottom line is this: life is too short to deny yourself a little innocent pleasure.
This is part of the plot of my latest story. Alice Layne discovers her beloved grandmother has been murdered. As if that’s not awful enough, the killer sets his sight on her. Her entire world is turned upside down and she finds herself delving into her grandmother’s past to get to the truth. Not a fun task. After all, no one wants to dig up their loved one’s dirty little secrets, right?
Writing this book has brought out so many emotions in me. Alice is strong and determined but dodging a knife-wielding maniac is a new kind of terrifying. It has made me think of my own grandmother. I lost her when I was young, but I still remember how awesome she was. How special she made me feel. I remember chowing down on her delicious homemade chicken and dumplings while she taught me how to play pyramid solitaire. Now that I’m a grandmother, I work very hard on building those kinds of sweet memories with my adorable grandson.
More about My Pretty Butterfly: Dangerous Entanglements Collection—Releasing December 6th! Authors in this collection include Nicole Morgan, Krista Ames, Amber Daulton, Karen Cino, Stacy-Deanne, and Amy Stephens
A helpful stranger or a deadly trap?
When Alice Layne doesn’t receive her daily phone call from her grandmother, she knows something is off. Finding her murdered on the kitchen floor, a butcher knife sticking out of her back, is horrifying enough. The note promising to do the same to her if she doesn’t give the psychopath a mysterious necklace is the icing on the cake. Before she can even get a chance to call the police Christian Jackson, her grandmother’s mysterious next-door neighbor swoops in and offers to help. Alice is tempted to rely on the big, brooding man, but is Christian a white knight or the sinister puppet master pulling the strings?
Christian learned early in life never to trust anyone. Love is for fools. That mantra has kept him alive. Until Maude Layne came into his world. She’d taken one look at his dirty, starving, ten-year-old self and given him a job at her corner grocery store. He’d known kindness and respect for the first time in his life. And now he’s making it his mission to avenge her death. He hadn’t counted on the beautiful Alice showing up and putting herself square in the crosshairs of the murderer. Ensuring her safety might just prove to be the easy part. Keeping his hands off her? Now that’s damned challenging.
Bestselling author Anne Rainey, “wastes no time getting right to the erotic heart” (Publishers Weekly). She is published by Kensington and Entangled Publishing. Her books have won numerous awards and have been translated into Italian and German. In addition, Anne has dipped her toes into self-publishing with her exciting paranormal series: The Zenarians. Anne is from the Midwest and has had a variety of odd careers, including sales associate, nail technician, chiropractic assistant, and restaurant hostess. Her love of books has opened her up to a thrilling career as a romance author. Her stories are filled with passion, love, and the sometimes-exasperating bonds of family.
The resiliency shown by African-American women born into slavery who then press on and flourish once free never ceases to amaze. This time my admiration goes to Josephine Napoleon Leary.
Josephine was born into slavery in Williamston, NC around 1856, but was emancipated when she was nine. She married Archer Leary in 1873, moved to Edenton, N.C. and opened a barbershop. Without formal education, she taught herself about real estate and by 1881 owned six properties. Unfortunately, these properties were destroyed by fire in 1893. While others quit, Josephine rebuilt three of them in one building in 1894, which bears her name. You can see the building and a picture of Josephine here:
Josephine contracted cancer, forcing her to sell properties to pay for her medical care. She died in 1923. Native North Carolinian author Kianna Alexander learned about Josephine on twitter. In the preface to Carolina Built (it’s FREE in KU!), her 2022 fictionalized account of Josephine’s life, Alexander shares her amazement that she never heard of a businesswoman as accomplished as Josephine. At the time of her death, her estate was valued at $8,825, over $10 million in today’s dollars.
Her business papers are kept in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University. These papers, other primary sources and a forty-seven-page booklet, The Life and Legacy of Josephine Napoleon Leary, 1856-1923, written by North Carolinian historian Dorothy Spruill Redford aided Alexander in writing her novel.
Knowing she had a right to a better life, Josephine Napoleon Leary is just one of hundreds of former slaves that didn’t let oppression or deprivation keep them from achieving their dreams. They had the will, and they made a way.
For a chance at a $10 Amazon gift card, share a dream of yours or a dream of someone you know that came true because where there’s a will there’s a way.
One Breath Away by Michal Scott
Sentenced to hang for a crime she didn’t commit, former slave Mary Hamilton was exonerated at literally the last gasp. She returns to Safe Haven, broken and resigned to live alone. Never having been courted, cuddled or spooned, Mary now fears any kind of physical intimacy when arousal forces her to relive the asphyxiation of her hanging. But then the handsome stranger who saved her shows up, stealing her breath from across the room and promising so much more.
Wealthy freeborn-Black Eban Thurman followed Mary to Safe Haven, believing a relationship with Mary was foretold by the stars. He must marry her to reclaim his family farm. But first he must help her heal, and to do that means revealing his own predilection for edgier sex.
Then just as Eban begins to win Mary’s trust, an enemy from the past threatens to keep them one breath away from love…
Excerpt from One Breath Away…
Eban grinned. “My shoe fits too.”
Life at sea had placed the philosopher’s shoe on him. He hadn’t the maturity or the patience for reflection before then. If he had, he wouldn’t have leased the family homestead to his cousin for get-out-of-town money. The lease would terminate provided he paid Judah back with interest within three years. Judah had smiled then, certain Eban wouldn’t be able to. Eban smiled now. He’d amassed enough to repay Judah three times over. Rescuing kidnapped expatriates proved an extravagantly lucrative sideline to being a sailor. In his wanderings, he’d barely spent one-tenth of his fortune. No, money didn’t pose a problem. The second part of the agreement did.
He shouldn’t have agreed to the marriage stipulation, but Judah wouldn’t return the land to a bachelor. At the time marrying hadn’t entered Eban’s mind. Without Nora, he had no desire to leave a legacy anyway. And after sampling women of many races, Eban accepted he’d never marry. Then the stars changed his mind.
He glanced at them now. They shimmered as they had the night of that fateful watch. According to the first mate who swore by astrology, he’d perceived a special celestial alignment for Eban. The stars foretold a coupling resulting from a rescue in which Eban would meet his wife. Having found Mary, Eban knew that prophecy would be fulfilled.
Hey, word-puzzle enthusiasts, are you ready for another word search?
This week’s theme is favorite romance subgenres. I think I’ve written something in every subgenre listed here, except sports. I love to read in every one of them though. And no, I don’t have everything listed. I can see a glaring omission—science fiction (one of my favorites to write!). But I did have to keep it to ten answers, so…
Solve the puzzle then tell me your favorite subgenres for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!
When I worked in the corporate world, I underwent all kinds of efficiency training. To-Do lists are supposed to be small, with the most important things at the top to tackle first. However, life doesn’t work that way.
Some things have to happen first before you can get to the highest priority things. Plus, once you finish something that requires a brain cell, you need something that requires less of the gray matter to follow in order to rest your feeble aging brain, right?
I’ve already failed to follow the order of my list that I made last night. I started at #1 because as soon as I’m up, I make kids’ lunches so that they can get out the door to school. But #2 felt like too much exercise before my first two cups of coffee, and I didn’t yet know what I was going to blog about, and #4 requires too many clicks, so I skipped to #5. Now that I finished #5, I’m trying to get back to the “proper” order of my list, and I’m doing good with this blog, right? That list was top of my mind, so I’m typing word-vomit while I’m sort of complaining about the fact my list is too long and I want to blame that piece of paper, but it’s all my own dang fault for committing to too many things this week… And on, and on.
And now, I’m ready to turn the list over on my desktop and just do wtf I want to do. What’s the worst that can happen besides two clients having heart attacks because their edits are due and me missing a book deadline? I’m turning it over….slowly…I haven’t yet laid it down…
Yes, it’s a thing! (I’m always saying that when I find these weird holidays! 🙂 ) It is indeed International Talk Like a Pirate Day!
So, naturally, I’m running a contest. To enter, all you have to do is give me a sentence of “pirate talk” and you’ll be entered to win a $5 Amazon gift card!
Have fun!
And if you feel like really getting into the piratey mood, I have a book (of course, I have a book!)…
Psst! Be sure to check out yesterday’s post!
There are 8 open contests listed there that you can still enter to win!
I’m trying to keep focused on my work schedule, but it’s really hard!
I am participating in the Arkadelphia Festival of the Arts this coming Friday and Saturday! I’m super excited even though temperatures are expected to soar to 90 degrees!!! I’ll be in a tent, so in the shade, and I’ll have a cooler of water handy, but still…
If anyone happens to be in the area, be sure to stop in and say hi!
In the meantime, my lovely dd is helping me get ready. She’s been framing paintings and packing tubs with artwork. I’d be lost without her because she’s so dang organized.
I’m still finishing up some pieces for sale. Easy, fast-drying things, like this ceramic tile I used alcohol ink to paint. I have half a dozen tiles I can whip up pretty quickly and seal before the weekend.
My daughter started packaging some painted earrings I already had and decided I didn’t have enough of them. So, today, I’m painting some whimsical things like these pumpkin earrings. She’s finishing them for me (attaching O-rings and earring wires and packaging them) so all I have to do is paint. I’ll do some floral ones and abstract ones, seal them and be done!
I’ll be writing and editing all week and painting in my spare time. So, up to my eyeballs. As usual. Enjoy the rest of your weekend! ~DD
A helpful stranger or a deadly trap?
If anyone happens to be in the area, be sure to stop in and say hi!
