UPDATE: The winners are…commenters 1-11!
*~*~*

Besides my series, I have written some very sexy standalone stories, too! I forget about them because I’m so busy trying to keep up with series, but I shouldn’t. In fact, when I get back to writing after my surgery, I should look at my workplan because I deserve to write something completely fun and one-off!

If you haven’t read the books below, now’s your time to peruse, and I’m including an excerpt from one of them so you can sample some of the fun. Several of them are menage stories, so if that’s your thing, be sure to check them out!

Contest

For a chance to win your choice of one of the books below,
tell me your weekend plans!

  

  

  

Click on any cover to learn more about the story!

Excerpt from Fun with Dick and Jane…

Tuesday

They were going at it again, and he was gonna get arrested. Which would be pretty damn embarrassing, considering he was cop.

Like clockwork, the couple across the alleyway started banging the minute his car pulled into the garage.

The street along the back of the parallel rows of one-story houses wasn’t much of a buffer. Driveways spoked off the narrow, paved road. Only twenty feet separated his garage from the bedroom window across the way.

Last night, he’d loosened the garage light bulb to make sure it didn’t give him away when the door slid up. Tonight, he flicked his car’s overhead lamp switch off so that the light wouldn’t beam the moment he exited. Carefully, he closed his car door, pushing it with his hip to muffle the click as it locked, walked around to the back then sat with his butt against the trunk to watch the show.

They had to know anyone walking by could see every damn thing—every drop of sweat, every short curl of pale blonde hair. She faced the window, clutching the bottom windowsill, her breasts bouncing every time Boyfriend slammed her ass.

God, her tits were Grade-A prime. Cherry nipples, topping creamy mounds.

Her blue eyes closed, her mouth rounded, and he knew when she came because she always wore the same expression—her cheeks growing rosy, her eyebrows drawing together tightly and the corners of her mouth curving like the cat that licked the cream.

And if the wind hadn’t been whistling through the alley, he would have heard the whimper she gave when Boyfriend milked the last little contraction of her orgasm.

Fuck. He needed his own woman. Maybe she had a twin. Because he sure as shit wouldn’t be satisfied with anyone who wasn’t her, Jayne Peabody—Jayne Hotbody as he’d begun to call her. He’d had her plates run so he’d have a name to assign the woman who’d played a starring role in all his fantasies this past couple of weeks.

They’d finished, and Boyfriend was pulling her into his arms, wrapping them around her belly and cupping those beautiful breasts as she snuggled against his chest.

It was time to leave. The show was over for the night.

Then her eyes opened, and Garret Masters could have sworn she looked right at him. He cussed softly, straightened and raised his arm, pulling down the garage door and shutting off the sight of her mouth stretching into a wide grin.

UPDATE: The winner is…Laurie Gydesen!
*~*~*

I know. Two holidays, two days in a row, but yesterday’s Hitchcock day was something I could get behind—but so is Jewel Day! It’s a day to celebrate all that sparkles!

I love jewels. Actually, my love of jewels is based on my lifelong love of rocks/geology. When I was a kid, I kept notebooks of little “book reports” I wrote about things like plate tectonics, volcanoes, geysers, earthquakes, and how rocks were formed naturally. This was when I was in grade school. I collected shoeboxes of rocks: agates, crystals, Apache tears, round river rocks, raw topaz, raw turquoise, fossils, and so many more. I once had a rock tumbler, but I didn’t like seeing my babies ground into smaller bits, so I continued leaving them in their rough, raw form.

When I got old enough, and had enough money to do so, I stared buying jewelry with gemstones I love. My first piece was a pretty Aquamarine ring with the stones forming a flower. Now, I have several rings with lovely topaz, sapphire, garnet, ruby, ametrine, amethyst, etc. I’ve gifted my daughter and the 20-year-old with some of my pieces because, as you know, I can’t take it with me.

Anyway, all this to say, I love sparklies. I also love stones that aren’t as precious—jade, aventurine, pretty agates, amber and the like. Rocks are endlessly fascinating to me. It’s why I love making jewelry, using semi-precious beads.

My favorite jewel is a red ruby. My mother, after she passed, left me a gorgeous, gaudy, huge ruby ring, along with a couple of diamond rings I treasure. I also love pearls, which aren’t exactly stones but are somehow considered jewels. It’s my birthstone, being a June baby.

So, my question to you is, for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card is, what’s your favorite jewel or your birthstone? Do you have a piece you treasure?

UPDATE: The winner is…Diane Sallans!
*~*~*

Another obscure holiday to celebrate! I’m a huge fan of Alfred Hitchcock’s films. My favorites among his long list are in the puzzle. The first one I ever saw was The Birds when I was just a child, and it’s remained my favorite over the years. Tippi Hedren was so elegant and beautiful. Rod Taylor was a ruggedly handsome man. The story had a slow-building dread that holds up to this day.

Just the other night, I re-watched North by Northwest with Cary Grant. I loved this movie because he didn’t start out as a hero. He was handsome, loved the ladies, and didn’t take life very seriously, but circumstances, and a mysterious woman, had him stepping up. It was so much fun to watch!

My second favorite has to be Rear Window. The way it was filmed was so unique—the drama unfolding before the Jimmy Stewart’s eyes as he’s laid up with a cast. The tension again was a slow, steady build.

Hitchcock is one of two directors whose films I adore–the other being Christopher Nolan. I haven’t watched every Hitchcock film—there are so many! He had a TV show too, and I remember an episode where police were trying to find a woman’s missing husband, and she served them a lovely dinner with a very tasty meat… Yeah, that one stuck in my mind.

Anyway, today’s a day to celebrate a remarkable director, who never earned an Oscar, despite his huge, wonderful catalog of films. Maybe pick a Hitchcock movie and watch it tonight. I haven’t watched The Birds in a few years. I’m overdue.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me what your favorite Hitchcock movie is! Enjoy the puzzle!

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

I strive every day to find happiness. It can be little or big things. Given what I’ve been facing (my cancer journey), it sometimes is hard. But I don’t allow myself to wallow in sadness or negativity. I make a choice every day when I wake up to find happiness.

For me, I find happiness in little, everyday things. I love a good meal. I’ve been on a quest since last August to find pasta recipes that appeal to me so that I can experiment with making them at home. I’m not much of a cook, and I know my daughter doesn’t have time to do it for me, but the search and the process of trying out these recipes has given me joy. Recently, I watched an Italian chef make Cacio e Pepe, so I thought, that looks yummy and easy. Are the ingredients available locally? I couldn’t find the special, fat spaghettoni you need (he said the fatter surface of the noodles makes the sauce cling better), so I ordered a package from Amazon. The special sheep cheese, Pecorino, wasn’t at my local Walmart, so again, I went back on the internet to get it.

When everything arrived, I made it for myself because my daughter and her girls don’t like a wide variety of cheeses and have a strange dislike for goat and sheep cheeses. I toasted the peppercorns on a pan, grated the cheese, saved the pasta water to help the process of making the pasta creamy. The result was…underwhelming. I know it must have been me or substandard ingredients. However, the quest was the point, not the result. It would’ve been nice to have found a new pasta I could love, but hey, I did the thing.

The same goes for my #the100dayproject challenge that I decided to undertake. Every time I gather the day’s supplies to complete a project, I enjoy the process of making those choices. I love sitting in the quiet and putting pen or paint to paper. It’s soothing, and I feel pride when I complete the thing, even if it’s not quite as beautiful as I’d envisioned.

My daughter has a love for scented candles, in particular Bath & Bodyworks candles, and she hits every sale. It’s not just that she likes her home to smell good—she loves the quest to find a lovely candle. She loves the special candleholders and lids and collects those. I have lovely candles all over my desk because she shares her discoveries and finds joy in doing so.

I love, love, love sharing my love of film with the 16-year-old. We have similar taste. Right now, we’re watching True Detective: Night Country, and we’re watching one episode at a time rather than bingeing it because we’re savoring the journey together. We’ll finish before my surgery at the end of the month.

I’ve been feeling nostalgic for the TV shows I loved when I was a kid. Of course, I’ve been on a couple-year journey to watch every Star Trek series. I finished and plan to make another pass through it all this summer, in chronological order, just for the pure pleasure. I’ve been watching The Time Tunnel and Lost in Space.

So, that’s how I deliberately seek happiness. Every day I find it without looking for it, too. Sharing laughter with the family, enjoying the purr in my ear of the cat who likes to drape herself over my shoulder while I watch TV—so many unplanned moments, but I savor them.

So, for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me what brings you happiness.

Report Card

Last week…

1. I completed one author’s edits! Yay!
2. I’ve continued some light exercises.
3. I’ve been painting every day as part of #the100dayproject—and I’m liking my latest efforts.

This next week…

1. I will have one author’s edits to begin work on. I’d like to get halfway through it.
2. I’ll send out a notice to authors to see who might like to blog on my website, April through June—since I plan to still be here!
3. I’ll return my attention to Ignition, because I really, really want to finish it before April 1st!
4. I have administrative things to do this week to “get my affairs in order” before surgery.
5. I’ll continue working on #the100dayproject.

Update

This month, I’m busy trying to get ready for my surgery that’s happening on April 1st. I have lots of little things to handle before the big day—making sure my daughter knows where my important papers are, making sure she knows who to contact should something go wrong, leaving breadcrumbs for her to find her way through my computer and files. I’ve had this computer for a number of years, and it has little idiosyncrasies that might drive a person who isn’t familiar with it crazy.

I’ve had interesting conversations with the girls—who gets my bedroom, office, and craft room when I’m gone. The 16-year-old has dibs, and she’s said my bedroom will remain the same because she loves all my “junk,” and the office will become her gaming room, AND she won’t let her mom ditch all my craft and art supplies in the art room because she wants to putter in there with all those “treasures.” We laughed about it. And we all talk often about what happens when I’m gone. Getting them used to the idea helps with the grief. We had a long time taking care of grandma, my father, and my mother to get used to the idea of their passing. It helped to talk about a future without them. Yes, their deaths were still devastating, but the sting was somewhat muted because we’d prepared ourselves emotionally. NOT THAT I DON’T FULLY EXPECT TO MAKE IT THROUGH MY SURGERY! I do! Still…

Can I bitch about a little thing and not seem silly? My hair is beginning to grow back in—and my, oh my is it ever gray (well, more silver than gray). And, it’s growing faster at the bottom than the top of my head, which looks very weird. I joke that I look like Ludwig Von Drake. I’ll still be in hats through the summer!

Now that I’m just doing immunotherapy infusions, the chemo-devastation has subsided. My foot neuropathy is still there as is my slightly blurred vision, but I can make it through the day without taking a nap, although I do shut down working in the early afternoon and head to my recliner to watch some TV. I’m still building stamina—which will take another big hit after the 1st.  I’m so not looking forward to the recovery, but I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure the 16-year-old doesn’t get her mitts on my art supplies just yet. 🙂

UPDATE: The winner is…Dana Zamora!
*~*~*

Hello Delilah!  Thank you for inviting me here today to discuss my newest release, Flying Hearts.  The short story was initially part of the Well Played sports anthology that came out last year. When I first signed up, I planned to write about gay archers. An enemies-to-lovers story.  Only, as I plotted the tale in my mind, I had lots of questions. I discovered a close friend did archery for fun and we had a video call (she’s in Argentina). Turned out my plot was a dud.  She gave me something possible to work with, but it was completely implausible.

So I quietly backed out of the anthology and focused on the twelve other projects I had going.

I needed a cover for another story I was going to write and an artist I knew posted a premade cover that I had to grab.  Plot Whisperer helped me with that one and I was thrilled.

I realized, though, that I had bought another cover from this artist several years ago and hadn’t gotten it changed (piece of advice for writers buying premade covers – always get your name on it and a working title right away – unfortunately, things can happen to cover designers, and you might get stuck with a pretty cover you can’t get fixed. This sucks. Trust me, it happened to me, and I have 13 unusable covers…).

Knowing I needed to act, I asked Plot Whisperer to help me come up with a title. Just so I’d be protected.  She asked me why the woman had wet hair. She wanted to know about the guy’s tattoo. And on it went.

Eventually, she plotted the whole damn story for me.  And we added a BDSM twist so I could write the story under Gabbi Black (my BDSM penname).  Next thing I knew, I had my acrobat MMF BDSM sports romance.

Who knew?!?!?!?

So that’s the story of how Flying Hearts came to be. Initially, we thought gymnasts and Tumbling Hearts, but having a ropes guy and BDSM? Perfect fit.  So I have Nick the rigger as well as Kaden and Yasmine, the acrobatic team.

Throw in some super steamy sex scenes and I had my erotic sports story to go with the hockey, baseball, and football romances. I submitted it only a couple of days late to the anthology people (I warned them it was coming).  I didn’t let people down after all.

Wait ‘til you see what I’m doing later this year in the sports arena!  Ah, for another day.

Thanks, Delilah, for hosting me!  I would love to give away a copy of Flying Hearts. Just comment and let me know – what’s your favorite sports to watch?  Are you an Olympics every four years or is there something you never miss? For me, that was figure skating.  Not so much these days, though.  Anyway, random will choose a winner. Good luck!

Flying Hearts

Yasmine

I’ve trusted Kaden with my life on the trapeze since we were fourteen, and with my heart since we became lovers at eighteen. People give us odd looks when we say we’re in an open relationship, but I’ve never been concerned about Kaden’s other partners. But then Nick lands in my life, and suddenly Kaden’s not the only man I can see.

Kaden

I’ve had a super partner in Yasmine—both on and off the trap. I assumed she was happy with our open relationship. She’s got her studies, and I have my…temporary bed partners. All is going well until a domineering rigger arrives. Suddenly, everything changes.

Nick

As a professional rigger, I know rope. I’ve worked in the entertainment industry for almost fifteen years, keeping people safe in front of audiences and in private. Rope is not just my profession, it’s my pleasure. Yasmine intrigues me, and when Kaden tries to interfere between her and me, it’s going to be a competition to see who comes out on top.

Note: Flying Hearts is a 15k steamy BDSM short story about a couple who didn’t know they needed more, and the man who’s tying them in knots. The story previously appeared in the anthology Well Played.

Links:
Universal Link: https://books2read.com/FlyingHearts
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Flying-Hearts-Erotic-Short-Story-ebook/dp/B0DXW14RNL
Add it to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/228204301-flying-hearts

About Gabbi Black

Even though Gabbi Black is a firm believer in happy endings, she makes her characters work for it in every romance she writes, no matter what the genre. From contemporary to BDSM, they are penned early in the morning in her home in beautiful British Columbia while her trusty ChinPoo dog keeps her company. She also writes gay romances as Gabbi Grey and small-town romances as Gabbi Powell.

UPDATE: The winner is…Mary Preston!
*~*~*

I have a guest scheduled for tomorrow, so I’m cramming the contest list in with today’s puzzle post. I thought that for today’s post we might head down memory lane again.

In this age of digital photos, it’s gotten so convenient to store photos on a cloud. I know that, personally, it’s only a rare photo that I bother to have printed to put into a frame. And my old photo albums? I gave them to my daughter for her to sort through them for anything she cares to keep.

I do miss holding an actual camera in my hand, knowing I had only so many shots on a roll of film. I had to work hard to get everything right so I didn’t waste the shot. Then I had to wait until the photos were developed to know whether I’d been successful or had accidently overexposed the film. I took photographs of places all over Europe. Some looked like postcards they were so good. My prized possession was an old Minolta, which I loved, and traveled with it slung over my shoulder. After many moves, I no longer have the negatives of those old pictures, so a lost photo is forever gone.

My daughter inherited our family’s photos as well, of all those relatives we never met. She had to go to family online to figure out how they fit into the family tree. My mother kept boxes of photos that my dd is still sorting through.

So, I wonder if anyone misses the old albums or shoeboxes of photos. Do you still own an analog/non-digital camera? Do you still use it? Or does it gather dust like my collection of old cameras that lives at the top of a shelf? Answer for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card! Enjoy the puzzle!

Open Contests

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

1. Anna Taylor Sweringen/Michal Scott: Gertrude Bustill Mossell, a Multi-faceted African-American Woman (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
2. Story Cubes — Tell me a story (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
3. Tell a Fairy Tale Day (Giveaway) — This offer ends tomorrow night! Get your FREE story!
4. February into March (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
5. Saturday Puzzle-Contest: On this day…Yellowstone National Park! — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
6. Learn What Your Name Means Day (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
7. Word Search: First Signs of Spring (Contest) — Win a FREE book!
8. Flashback: Baby, It’s You (Contest–2 Winners!) — Win a FREE book!