Elite Metal, Elite Ghosts and Elite Elements are 3 HUGE labors of love a group of my favorite people and I have put together over the last three years. It’s a shared world of three groups of military men and women brought back from the “dead” to catch a wolf. Red Wolf. Revenge against the baddest of the bad is what drives them, and to take back the lives he stole from each of them.

Elite Elements will be the final book in this epic trilogy. This is the story of the men and women who saved Elite Metal on the snow covered ground in Moscow. These are the men and women from around the world who don’t exist and pulled Elite Ghosts into the shadows with them. These are the soldiers who gave up everything to take down a wolf. And in this book…everything you thought you knew reaches the point of no return.

Elite Elements will be on 2.21.2017. I. Can’t. Fucking. Wait.

AMAZON – https://goo.gl/M2qHyX
Amazon Print – https://goo.gl/FUqsdX
B&N – https://goo.gl/9BbvoB
KOBO – https://goo.gl/AKxh71
Smashwords – https://goo.gl/11yq7v
iBooks – https://goo.gl/T5TQo7
CreateSpace – https://goo.gl/U3ChJ1

Youtube link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_shWpKGkrW8

Book Three in the Elite Warriors Series

For most of their lives they’ve lived in the shadows, pulled from every nation and background, united by one common cause—an all-consuming hatred of Red Wolf. The unquenchable desire to rid the world of his very existence fuels them, drives them.

These men and women pulled the fallen Elite from the snow-covered wreckage of Operation Phoenix years ago. To some they’re called saviors. To others they’re called traitors.

As Red Wolf’s power grows, the end game they’ve sacrificed everything for may destroy them all. Or just maybe they’ll finally find the peace they’ve been hunting for.

Revenge is their salvation but is there enough humanity left inside them to save?

A new end. A new beginning. Elite Elements.

Giveaway

In honor of the above awesomeness I’m going to have a HUGE giveaway! Three print books and lots and lots of other swag and kinky goodies! Plus a mug and tea and a pretty WIP bag to hold it all!

**GIVEAWAY – US ONLY** – Look at all the awesomeness you could win!! So tell me if you’ve ever read any of the Elite Warrior stories!! And if you have – what you’re most looking forward to in Elements!!

I’ll pick a winner on Monday the 20^th!! Good Luck!! PS –It’s always great to leave your email address in your comment so I can contact you! Hate not being able to give winners their goodies!!

Decadently Yours,
Jennifer Kacey

About the Author

Jennifer Kacey is a writer, mother, and business owner living with her miniman in Texas. She sings in the shower, plays piano in her dreams, and has to have a different color of nail polish every week. The best advice she’s ever been given? Find the real you and never settle for anything less.

Website – Newsletter – The Decadent Divas– Amazon Page
Facebook – Facebook Author Page – Twitter – Goodreads – Pinterest

UPDATE: The winner is…Diana Tidlund!

* * * * *

I grew up in a magical realm where winter never comes, we find dollars on the seashore, stars in the water and mermaids in warm springs. Yes, of course, that place is Florida. The dollars are shells, the stars are fish and the mermaids are in Weeki Wachee. A state park that started out as a privately-owned tourist attraction in the 1940’s, it features natural springs that remain 74 degrees all year long.

Local kids could take swimming lessons there. Every morning for an enchanted two weeks in the summer, I waited beside Highway 19 for the repurposed school bus that transported me an hour away to Weeki Wachee. I wore my bathing suit underneath my shorts and carried my towel and a little cash for a snack.

When we arrived at the Springs, we entered the section roped off for lessons and set our bags and towels down on the white sand. Shivering, we tiptoed into the chilly water an inch at a time. I will never forget the first day when I put my face in the water and blew bubbles, then mastered floating on my back. By the end of the week, I was dog-paddling and within a summer or two, jumping off the high dive.

Along with my swimming ability, I developed a fascination with mermaids. I watched the Weeki Wachee sirens perform their show countless times over the years and never lost my admiration for their athletic skill and graceful movements. As a teen, I wanted desperately to become one of them. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be.

I practically lived in the water all summer, and I gained a healthy respect for it. Many times, when we played in the Atlantic at New Smyrna or Daytona Beach, powerful waves snatched me and rolled me over and over until they spit me out on the sand, wheezing and sputtering salt water. Every year undertow or rip currents pulled a few people out to sea. Water has power and it can be marvelous or terrifying, or both.

When I decided to write my novel, Water Dreams, I chose mermaids for the primary paranormal feature. I wanted a different take on the myth and so I created the Nerei, a race of shapeshifting mermaids and mermen, whose form on land is indistinguishable from humans. They want one thing above all else: freedom from water. Until they achieve that, they must immerse themselves frequently to restore their bodies.

The heroine of my story is Nik, a young woman from Tarpon Springs, Florida, who is terrified of water. She doesn’t know how or why she fears it so much, but she won’t have anything to do with it, including going near the ocean or pools.

The Nerei contact Nik and tell her they believe she holds the solution to their problem because she shares their DNA and can stay away from water. She doesn’t believe them and refuses to have anything to do with them.

Bas is a young merman tasked with obtaining Nik’s cooperation. He doesn’t like humans much but he is fascinated with Nik. He can’t give up on convincing her to help the Nerei and he wants to keep seeing her. However, his people forbid relationships between their kinds and breaking the law is punishable by death.

Water Dreams is the story of how Nik and Bas bridge the gulf between them. It is also the story of how Nik resolves her water phobia. She experiences dreams about water throughout the book. They start as paralyzing nightmares and progress during the story, becoming less frightening as she grows stronger, giving her hints and clues about how to work out her problems. Eventually, she gains control of the dreams, as she conquers her fear of water and overcomes the dilemmas presented by the Nerei.

Water Dreams

Here is an excerpt from Water Dreams:

She waded in, appreciating the satiny water on her skin, enveloping her naked body from her waist down, a velvety embrace. She looked at the stars glowing above her, and the full moon lighting the sky, making a shining path on the cenote. She listened to the tree branches soughing in the breeze, the Whippoorwills calling. There was a sense of timelessness about the moment that made her feel like a twig in a river. She created a tiny ripple in the stream as it passed along. The cenote and the woods were there long before she arrived, and would endure long after she was gone.

Nik dove into the water, gasping at the cold. She swam several hard strokes until the blood sang in her veins, warming her inside out, then turned over onto her back and floated.

When she heard splashing behind her, Nik gasped, imagining an eerie creature shared the depths of this pond with her. However, Nik saw a familiar shape and realized Bas was swimming with her. He was in his Nerei form. His massive tail slapped the water, arcing radiant drops over Nik’s head and into her face. She spluttered, going under for a minute before surfacing behind him. She didn’t have a tail to splash Bas, but she surprised him, and dashed him with a handful of water to the face. They played for a little while, chasing one another and laughing.

Bas had a huge advantage. Because he swam so much faster, she couldn’t get away from him. Bas caught her, held her close to him, and looked into her eyes. In the moonlight, Nik could see Bas well. He smiled at her. He circled her waist with one arm. He used his other hand to stroke Nik’s hair. Bas’ chest pinned Nik’s naked torso against him and she wrapped her legs around his waist. Both hot and cold swept over her at the same instant, a tsunami of sensations she had never imagined, much less experienced. She feared she might pass out. Bas didn’t say a word, but he lowered his mouth to Nik’s and kissed her, first softly and then hard. Nik kissed him back, her head spinning.

Get your copy here!

Contest

And now for the contest. For a chance to win a $5.00 Amazon gift card, please comment on this blog with something about mermaids. It doesn’t matter what it is, just share. I’ll put the names of everyone who comments in a list and draw one at random. I will announce the winner in a couple of days and will need that person’s email address to send the gift card. It’s just a token to say thank you for reading my blog, but you can get one or two eBooks, if you use it wisely.

About the Author

Katherine started making up stories in grade school and always intended to write novels someday but she put off creating fiction while she raised her family and worked as a clinical social worker at four different Veterans Affairs Medical Centers around the country. Although devastated to learn that her first career choice—mermaid, was not realistic, Katherine found helping veterans and their families fulfilling. She lives with her husband in Homosassa, Florida and Falling Waters, West Virginia. Water Dreams, Katherine’s debut novel, is a paranormal romance set in Tarpon Springs, Florida and is the first book in the Love’s Siren Song series. It is available in print or e-book from Foundations, LLC, Amazon, and other retail sites.

Please visit me at:
Website: https://katherineeddingersmits.weebly.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KatherineSmits
Twitter: https://twitter.com/katherinesmits

I’m an author who likes to travel down two or three genres, probably on my way to a fourth where I can perhaps combine them all. Maybe this sounds confusing, but hear me out a bit.

I’ve written 16 Navy SEAL romances and several novellas. But I started off as a paranormal writer and wasn’t sure I could do military romance. I gave it a try and found I could do it, and not only that, I really enjoyed doing it. It became a calling for me, especially since I’m a Blue Star Mom of a former Navy SEAL.

I love those guys and everything they embody. But there are some things that even a Navy SEAL can’t do. He can’t walk through walls or spread some beautiful black wings and soar through the sky. He can’t spread dust and make erotic mixtures that do crazy things to a human body. He doesn’t have to live in the shadows or hide his identity as, say, my vampires or guardians, or my hybrid vampire-turned-guardian-turned-dark-angel Gideon in my last book.

I loved the fantasy of this book, with a cast of characters I’d like to revisit. I have a fun secondary character, the Clockmaker, a sort of toymaker in a macabre Santa’s Workshop somewhere between the Underworld and the human world. He fixes “bots” in a makeshift “hospital” guarded by a mechanical cat named Tabby, a perch of blue mechanical parakeets and a swarm of mechanical gnat bots. He removes wings off guardian angels and uses spare Underworld things like red leathery bat wings to create new Doll warrior bots he creates.

Well, my Gideon needs this strange creature’s help to get to his Happily Ever After. I decided I didn’t want him there 100%, so I’ve called this one Book 1 of the Chronicles of Gideon.

This was a refreshing departure to my Romantic Suspense SEALs. It was like having my desert first. The steak last.

Enjoy a little snippet from the audio book we just finished producing. You’ll hear the character of Manfred, the Clockmaker, through the talented voice of my world-class narrator, JD Hart.

Gideon
Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2j391ZP
Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2jgGP3p
Amazon AU: https://amzn.to/2jIjJWO
Amazon CA: https://amzn.to/2iKoG1P
Amazon FR: https://amzn.to/2jIuwjJ
Amazon DE: https://amzn.to/2kb5z1h
Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/2iTD1Er
iBooks: https://apple.co/2kbbF1o
Kobo: https://bit.ly/2jVHisx

My apologies again for the SNAFU. If you pre-ordered the book, but only received the 9-page pre-order shell, you should be able to access the corrected version now! If not, send me a copy of your receipt for purchase to delilah@delilahdevlin.com, and I’ll send you the corrected story! ~DD

Is there any romantic memory more special than your first kiss?  I think not.  Even Ally McBeal recalled her and Billy’s first, soft smooch over and over and over.  And did Kevin Arnold ever forget Winnie’s kiss? No. Never.

Each time I recall mine, a smile blooms on my lips.

My first kiss happened in my family’s barn. The barn had been in my family for five generations.  It was old and leaned slightly. Closing my eyes, I feel the cool air against my warm skin- the barn is built into the hillside. I can see the wood planks, turned gray from time and wear, just a few feet above my head. Bridles and lead ropes hang from pegs hammered into road milled posts nicked over years. Large rocks make up the foundation walls. My sorrel gelding is in his stall watching me, and dust mites float in the sunlight pouring in the door behind the boy who had chased me inside.

     I can still smell a mixture of summer sun, feed and manure. I hear the munching of hay as the cattle fed and the sound of my horse’s neigh and snort. There is a dip from the nozzle near the shaft to the silo. I also hear the whispered alto voice of the boy with the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen, as he declared his affection for me. His gorgeous cobalt eyes were magnified behind glasses: dark framed like Clark Kent’s. Eric was my hero and always would be. I’d love him until the end of time.

    My heart thumped against my breast, knowing Eric really liked me while my toes wiggled in my boots as if telling to run because if my dad found out about the kiss that was about to happen he would kill the boy and ground me for a month.  My spine stiffened and my step was defiant as I cut the distance between Eric and myself, committed to take my chances.  Looking up at me, because he was about two inches shorter, Eric’s eyes widened before closing as his lips met mine. For a brief few seconds, we entered an unknown world, a world we knew we’d entered again, in due time.

“Will you go to the movies with me on Saturday night? I can meet you there,” he said in a rush.

I simply nodded, afraid my voice would crack.

Are you smiling, remembering your first taste of love?

Bringing back those emotional filled memories to my readers, is what I love to do.  Carrie and Luke are my heroine and hero in my Valentine’s Day romance, PERFECT HEARTS. They were two teenagers who shared a first kiss and then had a wedge and life driven between. Years later, they find themselves together again. However, this time there are more than one kiss, the kisses are more passionate, and their convictions to each other are strong enough to last forever.

In the comment section below, tell me about your first kiss, or is there a fictional kiss scene you remember?

I hope you will take a peek at PERFECT HEARTS available exclusively on Amazon at the moment, follow me there please, and that you’ll consider joining my newsletter at www.autumnjordon.com where I have monthly contests and offer free short reads from time to time.

I wish you the most romantic of Valentine’s Day adventures.  WINK

~Autumn

 About the Author

Autumn Jordon is an award-winning author of contemporary romance and romantic suspense/thrillers recognized by Romance Writers of America as a Golden Heart Finalist and Golden Leaf Winner. And as Kindle Book Reviewers ‘Best Indie Romance Author’ finalist.  Writing sweet and humorous for her Perfect Love Series and writing steamy and chilling for her U.S. Marshal Undercover suspense novels comes naturally to Autumn. Her characters are unique and realistic. Her stories filled with trouble and love. And yon can keep abreast of the trouble she and her characters create by joining her newsletter at www.autumnjordon.com.

I happen to be what some people refer to as a “woman of a certain age”—maybe that’s supposed to sound better than “middle aged” or “mature”. Certainly sounds better than “old”! But inside I don’t feel much different than I did thirty years ago. And while I like writing romances with characters in their twenties and thirties, right now I’m writing some love stories where the heroines are closer to my own age.

Women in their forties, fifties, and beyond are vibrant, passionate women who need love as much as a twenty-year-old. But there are very few romances with characters over forty. I want to show the romance reading community that love can happen at any age. I’ve been warned not to make my characters too old, however. That no one wants to read about them.

I don’t believe that!

Older women are often treated as though we are invisible. Apparently, we’ve had our time and aren’t interesting anymore. We’re treated as if we have nothing left to offer to society. Almost no one markets to older women. But love can happen at ANY age! And I don’t know about you, but I have more discretionary income to spend on things like, say…books!…than I did when I was in my twenties and raising my children.

Many lovers of romance have been reading them for decades and while they certainly can enjoy and appreciate a romance with characters in the early part of their lives, sometimes it’s fun to slip into the skin of a character more like themselves.

Think Meryl Streep, Rene Russo, Julianne Moore, Sandra Bullock or Helen Mirren (I could go on and on!). Vibrant, passionate women, not at all invisible. Women who’ve had wide experiences and histories that lend themselves well to the conflicts inherent in romances. And look at the silver foxes we have for inspiration for our heroes (Mark Harmon, Sam Elliott, George Clooney, Gerard Butler, and Jeffery Dean Morgan – I could go on and on!) Who wouldn’t want to cuddle up with one of them?

Love can happen at any age, and to suggest that it’s not possible, or that older people aren’t worthy of having their love stories told, well, it makes me not only angry, but incredibly sad too.

So, apparently this post on older characters in romance novels has turned into a commentary on ageism. I think it’s an important topic and I encourage you to not only learn more about it, but think about the way we perpetuate it. Here’s an interesting article on ageism to get you started. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/amancay-tapia/ageism-or-the-last-accept_b_8186304.html

So even though I’ve been told no one wants to read about older characters, I’m writing a series of “mature romances.”  And I’ve discovered the market for them is out there, in fact, there’s a FB group – Seasoned Romance – that supports, discusses, and advocates for older characters in romances.  Check it out and join if you’re interested in fighting ageism in romance.

And of course, not only older women can love these stories. Readers of all ages who simply want a good romance can enjoy them too. My silver foxes are sexy contractors and volunteer firemen, and believe it or not, people over forty also have…gasp…sex! And they have sex in my series too.

The first two books in my Silver Fox Romance series, CHOOSE ME and RESCUE ME, are available now. The third, LUCKY ME, will be out as part of a multi-author anthology, HOT SILVER NIGHTS, releasing on February 28th.

I hope you’ll want to check out some “seasoned” romances and see what they’re all about. I’m excited to be writing them. I hope you’ll look forward to reading them too.

Remember, love can happen at ANY age!

Natasha
www.natashamoore.com
Buy link for Choose Me – https://amzn.to/2cNH56I
Mailing list – https://eepurl.com/hnwRk
FB author page – https://www.facebook.com/natashamooreauthor/
FB Seasoned Romance group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/958318970951705/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/natashamoore
Pinterest – https://www.pinterest.com/natashamoore144/

“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?” (The Shadow, Radio program from 1930’s)

Whether we write or read fiction, the underlying story almost always offers some kind of insight into the human heart. I think this is why we write and why we read.

Most people reading this blog are, I hunch, avid readers choosing romance first and other genres next. The promise of love transforming our lives allows hope into the deepest corners of our hearts. That promise is seductive (pun intended).

More good news. Romance can flourish in any world: dystopian, historical, contemporary, futuristic. Love can spring up between paranormal creatures and humans, between male and female, male and male, female and female.

As a former romance author, I have to admit that since I’ve gone to the dark side—writing psychological thrillers—I read far less romance these days. I still love the genre. When I need a little lightness, I often read my own romantic suspense novels for a laugh. Several scenes make me laugh out loud. Laughs in my dark, psychological thrillers come few and far between.

So why would anyone switch from writing books based on hope and write novels dealing with topics based on despair?

The best answer I can give is I don’t know. I can give several reasons:

• reading dark comic books as a very young kind,
• being traumatized by scary fairy tales,
• listening to The Shadow and other equally terrifying radio programs,
• crawling under school desks when missile-alert sirens went off,
• visiting an aunt and uncle who swore the earth would split open and the devil would lay claim to my soul if I was bad.

Honestly, though, none of these reasons separately or together touches the essence of my obsession about the darkness in the human heart.

I think, like most writers, I write the stories that won’t let me sleep. The stories that niggle at the back of my brain for months—maybe years—before I sit at my keyboard and tap in the first word. The stories that challenge me from the perspective of craft:

• Can I write characters who often have no redeemable qualities?
• Can I tell the story without resorting to melodrama and hyperbole?
• Can I hook readers by revealing some universal idea they can relate to?
• Can I find a worthy hero/ine to confront the antagonist?
• Can I avoid clichés?
• Can I tell a story that doesn’t end with HEA, but ends satisfactorily?
• Many more points lurk in my subconscious.

A couple of weeks ago, I took out the draft of my contemporary romance about a burned-out CEO who quits her job, moves to a boat to write the great American novel, and meets a knight in shining armor living on Camelot, the next slip over.

No kidding. He’s The Real Deal. He also happens to be something of a misfit—the title of my thriller series—and he’s a fun antidote to the darkness.

The Lost Days: The Misfit

Excerpt from The Lost Days, Book 2 in The MisFit Series

The sun’s eerie summer glow disoriented me as much as the headache hammering my skull. Or maybe my confusion came from the man seated next to me, his foot placed at the top of Dimitri’s spine. I gritted my teeth. Dimitri lay crumpled face down in the space behind the driver’s seat. His legs were folded under him like a penitent waiting for absolution.

The man in the front seat turned and flashed a mouthful of piano-white teeth. His piercing blue eyes glittered. I stared. Without the baseball cap, his copper-colored hair glowed in the golden evening light.

He laughed as if I’d said something funny. “For a boy who killed his mother three months ago, you have a face that borders on transparent.”

“You-you’re not American.”

“And you’re not Finnish—despite your mother.”

Involuntarily, I snorted.

Nostrils flaring, he cuffed my right temple with his knuckles. “I already know what you think of your mother.”

My ears rang. Involuntarily, my fingers flexed and twitched as if I’d been electrocuted. I wanted to hit him. Smash his face. Kick his Finnish teeth down his throat.

“We are going to see,” he said, “just how tough you are.”

A B Plum simply loves to write. Being a public librarian and a teacher of adolescent boys, she gleaned enough ideas for novels until she’s a hundred. Developing high-tech marketing materials provided an opportunity to hone her fiction skills and fuel that dark side. She now lives off the fast lane in Silicon Valley.

The Lost Days, Book 2 of The MisFit Series is about an eleven-year-old boy on the path to becoming a psychopath. Grab your FREE copy on my website.

A B Plum . . . writes chilling psychological thrillers.
The MisFit Series -The Early Years, Book 1 – The Lost Years, Book 2
Website: www.abplum.com

https://www.facebook.com/ABPlumwriter/
Email: ab@abplum.com
amazon.com/author/abplum