Da-dah, da-da-da-da… Is the song in your head now? You can thank me.
We’re excited here. Three of the kids are back in school today. We’ll see how long that lasts! Thankfully, our school enacted a mask mandate. For now, the house is quiet, and I’m hoping I’ll have more “me” time to do all the things I need to do…like write a dang book by the end of the month, edit four projects, and make some art.
I’m one of the “artists” (cough, gag) who will be showing in town in October at the art festival. Still don’t know how they selected me. I mean, we have some seriously good artists in this area. I hope to fill up my 10×10 space inside my tent with pieces people might like to hang in their house (I’d be thrilled to appear in someone’s bathroom!).
I have some older pieces I can use, but I’m trying to produce more. It’s been very slow-going. Like, only two new pieces so far. Want to take a look?
I made this one last night. I love it. Yeah, it’s all beige-y, but it works for me. It’s a water-doodle (watercolor and pen).
This one was done with soft pastel sticks.I had so much fun with it. Working with pastels makes me feel like a kid in kindergarten making a big mess.
Anyway, this is what I’ll be doing in the evenings after I finish work for the next two months.
Do y’all have any big projects in the works? Answer for a chance to win a hand-painted postcard from me. 🙂
I love writing stories, and taking photos of nature is how I refill my muse. Nature’s beauty is inspiring.
I enjoy the gorgeous flowers of summer, which are a beautiful backdrop for photos of butterflies.
Each day when I head out on my morning walks, I never know what animals or birds I’m going to see.
With dragonflies gliding through the gentle wind currents or resting on dried sticks, they seem to be soaking up the summer sun.
At the pond, the newborn chicks have hatched and are flying about, with a myriad of flowers swaying in the breeze along the shore.
It’s always a treat to see the red-eared slider turtles. I usually find them basking on logs in the sun, enjoying the summer day. Take care, and enjoy the rest of your summer.
Contest
ONE winner will be drawn from everyone who posts on my guest blog post about, ‘Nature ‒ Muse Inspiration!’ on Delilah’s blog between 15 August 2021– 22 August 2021, and will win a signed copy of His Woman.
About the Author
A retired Navy Chief, Diana Cosby is an international bestselling author of Scottish medieval romantic suspense. Books in her award-winning MacGruder Brothersseries have been translated into five languages. Diana has spoken at the Library of Congress, Lady Jane’s Salon in NYC, and appeared in Woman’s Day, on USA Today’s romance blog, “Happy Ever After,” MSN.com, Atlantic County Women Magazine, and Texoma Living Magazine.
After her career in the Navy, Diana dove into her passion – writing romance novels. With 34 moves behind her, she was anxious to create characters who reflected the amazing cultures and people she’s met throughout the world. After the release of the bestselling MacGruder Brothersseries and The Oath Trilogy, she released the bestselling The Forbidden Series.
Diana looks forward to the years of writing ahead and meeting the amazing people who will share this journey.
Nothing gets my engines revving as a romance reader like a super determined (and often grim) hero chasing his wily passionate female through obstacle-strewn terrain.
There are twists and turns, near misses, danger, and the thrill of the hunt. The more she evades him, the more frustrated he becomes and the hotter the capture scene will be. We know once he finally places his hands on her, his hands will be ALL over her. (Fans my face.)
Delilah Devlin crafts this emotional buildup extremely well in Cage, her first Montana Bounty Hunters story. Cage, her hero, is hunting Elaine, his ex-wife. And she gives him a great and wonderfully steamy chase.
Taelyn, the heroine of Baring Grudge, my brand new cyborg romance release, makes Grudge, the cyborg hero, pursue her also. Their game of predator and prey spans the entire universe.
She wants him. Badly. And she senses he wants her with the same fervor. His brilliant blue eyes glow when he looks at her. His body reacts to her proximity.
But she also believes he plans to deliver her to the Humanoid Alliance, the baddies, a cruel and harsh organization she has been stealing from and tormenting in other ways. Those beings, if they find Taelyn, will torture and kill her.
There will be repercussions for being caught.
That is part of the thrill of reading about these hunts. They have consequences.
We realize it won’t be all gentle touches and soft words when the hero finally secures the heroine. The sexy times will be explosive (especially in the case of bomb-loving Grudge) and rough. She will be punished in some way.
There will be repercussions for the hero also. And conflict. She is his heroine yet he has a duty to fulfill. Will he choose love or honor?
What is your favorite romance that features a chase or a hunt between the love interests? What prompted that chase?
Baring Grudge
No one in the universe is more determined
than a cyborg warrior tracking his female.
Grudge, a C Model cyborg, has been assigned a mission – safeguard a Humanoid Alliance space station for his kind. Honor was once all he had, and he is determined to fulfill his duty.
That resolve is tested when a tiny human female enters the space station and sets the prettiest little explosives the warrior has ever seen. She is Grudge’s genetic match, the one being manufactured for him. He wants to touch her, kiss her, claim her in all ways, but first he has to stop her from blasting him into the next galaxy.
Taelyn has a self-appointed mission—to destroy every battle robot the Humanoid Alliance has ever manufactured. A huge gray-skinned, blue-eyed cyborg warrior with mismatched arms won’t prevent her from achieving her goal. She’ll escape him, leaving destruction in her wake.
Before she departs, she’ll experience one toe-curling moment of hatred-edged passion with her handsome foe. She’ll show him how skilled with detonations she truly is. He will have his universe rocked.
Then she’ll disappear.
Her cyborg, however, has no intention of ever letting her go.
Baring Grudge is a STANDALONE Cyborg SciFi Romance set in a dark, gritty, sometimes-violent universe.
It features a determined, damaged warrior, an equally resolute human female, and an explosive game of predator and prey played across galaxies.
USA Today bestselling author Cynthia Sax writes steamy Cyborg, Alien and Contemporary Romances. Her stories have been featured on TV, in Star Magazine, and numerous top ten lists.
Sign up for her dirty-joke-filled monthly newsletter and visit her on the web at www.CynthiaSax.com.
Finally! I won’t go into what’s going on with Amazon and me, but Sleeping With The Enemy is finally out! If you previously had it on pre-order, that pre-order was cancelled (again, not going into what happened—Grrr!).
It is a SHORT STORY, and just an introductory taste of the Dark Realm world. It is FREE, and will remain so, in Kindle Unlimited and only $0.99 if you’re not a subscriber! Be warned: It’s a PARANORMAL EROTIC ROMANCE! Hope you enjoy it!
A lone rogue vampire mingles among his hunters in a blood bar, undetected…until a beautiful woman snares his attention. Suddenly, he’s running, leading her on a chase until she corners him, stake dangling from her slender fingertips. Now he has a couple of choices: play it sexy or safe?
So, it’s time to shed some pounds!!!! Not because I want to be slim. I don’t. I’ve done that, and it’s too much work to maintain. I just want to feel better, less sluggish. Simple as that. I figure 30 pounds ought to do it.
I loaded the Weight Watchers app on my iPhone. I filled the fridge with healthy, nutritious snacks like celery, hummus, cottage cheese, eggs… There are sardines and crackers in the cabinet. I like snacking, so I try not to sabotage myself with chips and nuts (Gawd, I love nuts!). I’m a salt person, not a sweetaholic. My dd already cooks nutritious dinners, so I just have to navigate every other meal throughout the day. I’ll count the points!
What I have to do is up my activity. Yeah, I love the pool, but I like to float. I can do some lunges, some kicks holding onto the pool noodle…all that…no problem, but I figure if I add music to my housecleaning/organizing, I’ll be more apt to dance while I do it. You know, something fun instead of the old treadmill.
So far, I have “Walk This Way” by Run DMC and Aerosmith, “Happy” by Ferell, and “Wild Things” by the Troggs. So, help me fill out my playlist to get my a$$ in gear to work up a bit of sweat.
I love Heavy Metal, Classic Rock, and some Pop. Suggest away for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, and if you have suggestions for low-impact exercises, feed those to me, too!
I am addicted to heroes because, to me, they are, well, heroic! The person who puts themselves in harm’s way to save another is the iconic hero. For me, it goes even further, with much admiration for the military Special Forces – SEALs, Green Berets, Delta Force, Force Recon Marine, Army Rangers (forgive me if I inadvertently omitted something). I know that’s the reason they are all my heroes and have given rise to my series THE PROTECTORS in Susan Stoker’s Special Forces World.
My most recent one, PROTECTING SUSAN, is dedicated to, well, Susan Stoker, a woman who is strong, smart, and compassionate, just like my heroine, Susan Stryker. It all began with PROTECTING MADDIE, which was originally written as a stand-alone. If you haven’t dived into the series yet, here’s a brief rundown to, I hope, whet your appetite.
PROTECTING MADDIE
When Maddie Winslow talked a student out of his gun in her classroom, she never figured it would set off a chain of events that put her life in grave danger, and the lives of her parents. She needs a protector desperately. Hunter “Hawkeye” St. John, a Delta Force team member, is on medical leave recuperating in Tampa and chafing for some action. When he and Maddie meet, the sparks flying between them sizzle the air. But if Hawkeye wants to move forward with Maddie he first has to keep her safe and then eliminate the bad guys.
PROTECTING CASSIE
Sam Alvarez is newly discharged from the SEALs with a bad injury to his left arm that ended his career. The tiny isolated cabin in Maine former SEAL John “Tex” Keenan found for him gives him an escape from people. Physical therapist Cassie Malone by accident she discovered her boyfriend one of Boston’s drug kingpins. Now she’s hiding out in tiny Castile and scared he’ll find her. When Fate throws Cassie and Sam together, neither of them counted on or expected the hot, hot attraction blazing between them. When drug smugglers show up and put everyone in danger, including Cassie, it’s up to Sam to use his skills to take them down and save the woman he’s come to love.
PROTECTING AMY
Amy Ressler was a vivacious, outgoing person until the murder of her family sent her into hiding with a growing case of agoraphobia. Quinn McCoy had been part of the Teams for eighteen years and suddenly an injury left him with no place to go, except to visit his friends Melody and Tex Keenan. Where they introduce him online to KitCat, Amy in her online disguise, a terrified woman who needs a bodyguard. When Matthew Baker escapes from jail the hunt is on, led by the US Marshals. But with Amy helpless in her self-imposed prison, Quinn accepts the job as her personal bodyguard, and they discover that what starts online can explode n the bedroom. As long as he can keep her alive.
PROTECTING ARIZONA
She’d never see him again so she could indulge every need and desire she had with this hot, sexy, intense, troubled man. Now DEA task force she’s on prepares to take down dangerous drug kingpin Luca Vasquez. Then a personal tragedy causes her to leave the task force to find her missing niece. A disastrous mission ended Clint “Razor” DaCosta’s career with the SEALs. Dreams of raw sex with a passionate redhead are the only things that keep the nightmares at bay. No one is more shocked than Razor and Arizona when he answers her call for help. They must to put aside their memories of their scorching sex to find her niece and avenge her sister’s murder. And hope they both don’t get killed in the takedown.
PROTECTING TERRA
When Terra Oenning and Griffin Dunne were paired in a Department of Homeland Security Op, neither of them expected the heat that exploded between them like the cabin they were surveilling. When the trail on the op takes them to Maine, even the icy tempt isn’t enough to cool them down. Still, the assignment comes first. Terrorists, computer hackers, and the Croatian Mafia are combining to destroy the United States and Terra and Griff must focus on destroying them. But when it goes awry and Terra is caught in the crosshairs, it will be up to Griffin to rescue her, a wake-up call for both of them that maybe, just maybe, what they have between them is real.
PROTECTING SUSAN
For Susan Stryker, the chance to start a new life with a new name, halfway across the country from her abusive ex, was like a miracle. But she can’t forget Levi Hawke, the troubled former SEAL she met on that journey. Two years later she’s about to spend two weeks on a farm where she will teach self defense skills to abused women. Tex Keegan, who helped her create her new life, insists she take a bodyguard with her, despite her objections. When Levi Hawke shows up, all those buried emotions come raging to the surface. Then all hell breaks loose, from both the past and present. For Levi this is a must-succeed mission, to save the woman he admits he loves. For Susan, it’s a chance to finally bury the past.
So, imagine a world without COVID, or with COVID conquered… Is there a place you’ve yearned to travel? Whether it’s somewhere you’ve been and wish to visit again, or some dream-location you’ve promised yourself that one day you’ll go there… Imagine that day is tomorrow.
For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle then share where that dream journey would lead you!
