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. http://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 – http://amzn.to/2cNH56I
Mailing list – http://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/

UPDATE: The winner is…Karla L!

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I’m sharing lots of yummy covers today! Can’t help myself. I’ve reached story #9 in my Uncharted SEALs series! And for those of you who think they have to read a series in order, you really don’t have to for these stories. Yes, you’ll see recurring characters throughout the series, but you won’t be lost!

Hard SEAL to Love is the latest! It releases on TUESDAY! Pre-order your copy now! I’ve included an excerpt for you to enjoy. I loved writing this story. The heroine is a disabled vet! Read on!

Like the art? Love the bit of Mac’s thoughts as he’s making love to Kylie? Me, too. 🙂

Interested in the rest of the series? You can peruse the stories by clicking on the covers below. And no, I won’t be boxing up this series. Some are part of other Kindle Worlds, so if you want to read the series, you really have to buy the separate books. Or maybe, today, you’ll win one story of your choice…

Comment for a chance to win one of my already released Uncharted SEALs stories!

A Hard SEAL To Love

The bigger they are, the harder they fall… 

Former SEAL, “Big Mac” McLane, is sure he earned all kinds of bad karma somewhere when his next mission with Charter Group is to guard the “Love Boat” and a pretty program director. Okay, so the cruise line is sponsoring a special cruise for wounded soldiers and their significant others—a great cause. Mac doesn’t doesn’t know a thing about spending time with “good” women, but Kylie Hammond is full of surprises. After the initial shock of meeting her, he feels like he has two left feet whenever she’s around. So he’ll do his job, keep it strictly business, fade into the background whenever she’s around, but Kylie seems to have other ideas…

Kylie knows the muscle-bound SEAL isn’t exactly gung-ho for his new assignment, and she isn’t exactly the “princess” he expected, but she can’t be more pleased. The big man’s the yummiest thing she’s ever seen, and coaxing blushes and glares from him becomes her favorite sport. Then someone aboard the ship is killed. The thing her charity most feared—a terrorist attack at sea—appears to be underway. Now, she has to trust Mac and his team to keep her wounded soldiers safe.

Pre-order your copy here!

An Excerpt…

Mac and Kylie are in their stateroom aboard the cruise ship…

Kylie stood at the desk and shuffled through the mountain of papers and ship’s flyers. Her hand paused on one of the shore excursion brochures. He knew damn well she’d been warned against leaving the ship. “Not happening,” he said, keeping his voice even.

Her head jerked upward. She aimed a hot glare his way. “Not your decision.”

“It is if I can’t guarantee your safety. Figure out something else to do—something that doesn’t require you ever leaving the ship.”

Her chest rose and lowered beneath the green-and-black jungle print. “Maybe I should choose something that doesn’t require I ever leave this room. That would suit you just fine, wouldn’t it?”

He bit his tongue rather than respond and assumed a neutral expression.

“I have a job to do,” she said, fisting one hand on a hip.

“The cruise line’s doing it for you. They provide the activities, the schedules, and the meals. All you have to do is decide what you want, Kylie.”

He’d said it. Well, not it, precisely, but he’d put the thing they’d been building up to out there. She could either shut him down or accept that this was inevitable. A gift of proximity and mutual attraction. Male and female imperatives. Why the hell was he dressing it up as anything but what it really was? The need to fuck. Hard. Often. Now.

Mac swallowed as he held still, unblinking, watching her mouth firming into a narrow line. Goddamn, I overstepped. But I won’t apologize. She’d started this by stripping off her leg and daring him with her large hurt eyes to look away. Mac didn’t know if she hesitated because she’d just realized she’d been sending out vibes but had now changed her mind, or if she was scared.

He guessed he’d have to be the one to make the first move. To show her how badly he wanted to be buried inside her sweet body. He dropped his hands, pulled up the hem of his shirt, and began to unbuckle his belt.

“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

Bet you didn’t know that Valentine’s Day got its start in the Roman Empire with some public BDSM. That’s right. The feast of Lupercalia involved women lining up along the streets so men could run along and whip them with strips of animal hide (preferably goat or dog).

The ritual was supposed to increase female fertility and there’s actually no telling how far back in history this tradition might have started. A lottery followed the whipping with women’s names drawn from a jar by young men. Thus matched, the couple had sex for the rest of the three-day festival (Feb 13-15). (More on Lupercalia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupercalia

The name Valentine got connected with this sex orgy during the third century when Emperor Claudius II executed a priest named Valentine for secretly continuing to marry couples despite the emperor’s command that marriages must cease. Married men didn’t want to join the army and leave their families behind and Claudius needed more soldiers. The bludgeoning and beheading of Valentine occurred on February 14.

A little over the top on the BDSM there, Claudius.

Fast forward through a few more machinations of church and state to the Middle Ages when Chaucer and Shakespeare took up this old legend and made it more romantic. Lovers in those times crafted handmade paper cards to exchange as tokens of love. By 1913, the tradition had become so popular that Hallmark Cards of Kansas City, Missouri started mass producing Valentine cards and commercial marketing took over.

In case you haven’t noticed, Valentine’s Day has become a major event on social calendars around the world. Sales reached nearly $18 BILLION last year and will likely continue to rise as everything from cards to chocolates to flowers to jewels makes the day a business success. And woe to the lover who fails to participate!

A little basic BDSM Roman style is my gift to you this Valentine’s Day. Use this 50% off coupon code DZ42S for the first of my two-book story of Caerwin, a young Celtic lass captured by a Roman tribune and taught to appreciate his, um, discipline. Don’t wait—coupon expires on the 14^th.

Here’s the link:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/611102

Want to wow all your friends with more about Valentine’s Day history? Check out:
http://www.npr.org/2011/02/14/133693152/the-dark-origins-of-valentines-day
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/st-valentine-beheaded

Want some fun ideas about homemade gifts, probably nicer than what lovers were doing in the Middle Ages? Check out heart-shaped foods at:
http://tiphero.com/30-valentines-day-treats/.

Or how about cute homemade gifts?
https://www.buzzfeed.com/pippa/40-diy-valentines-day-gifts-theyll-actually-want-5ocb?utm_term=.qqakWOK4Aj#.mnJ3nerMab

Or here:
http://www.woohome.com/diy-2/25-easy-diy-valentines-day-gift-and-card-ideas

Most of all, love YOU this Valentine’s Day with a special treat,
maybe a nice sexy book?

Thank you for hosting me again, Delilah.  I always enjoy stopping by your blog. Today, I have a confession for your readers.

I cannot stand silence.

Silence has weight. A crushing pressure that I cannot think through. I need something with a cadence or beat that I can tune out, otherwise, I focus on every creak, drip, or thump my house makes. Whether I’m working or reading, I need something in the background my brain can ignore.

Despite being of the MTV generation, I didn’t see a lot of music videos growing up.  My family didn’t have cable and until I was in high school we only had 1 TV in the house controlled by my dad. I listened to the radio with advertising spots every ten minutes or played cassette tapes.

Fortunately, I had an awesome friend who made me artist playlists and themed compilations.

In college, I discovered New Age music.  I preferred to work to synthesized ambient and space music over nature sounds. But sometimes I’d go to sleep to a thunderstorm.  Other times I’d listen to instrumental soundtracks. The first year of college, all I listened to was the Terminator 2: Judgement Day soundtrack.

When I read, I usually have the TV on.  I’m a bit of a TV junkie about drama shows like NCIS and Once Upon a Time. On the weekend, I’ll watch baseball or NASCAR. (Don’t judge, I have two car crazy boys in the house) Just something to have on while I do other things.

Before I start writing a story, one of my first tasks is to complete a playlist. I try to select 20 to 25 songs but it varies depending on the story.  I mix classical, new age, soundtrack and pop music based on what I think will fit the story. Sometimes I have specific songs for characters and sometimes the music reminds me of the emotion I want to convey.

This is the playlist for my latest novella, Tethered, which releases Tuesday, February 14, 2017.

You can listen to the playlist here:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvG3phTNj4isHUMtgOSs6AFUaIpq8ooVn

I only played The Vengeful One when I channeled my villain. According to my software, I played Radioactive the most. My story takes place in the fall between September and October which explains why a few of the songs have September in the title.

I think of my heroine, Evelyn whenever Something Wild plays. She is a Peregrine falcon shifter who is also an Aquarius. Being in the air, flying, is what she longs for. Riding the currents, living life is her calling.

Are you a Silence person or a background noise person?

Zodiac Shifters: Tethered

Releases Feb. 14, 2017

For over one hundred years, Evelyn Brooks experienced the world through her photography. Now her creativity has deserted her and a stalker drove her from her home. Looking for a new sanctuary, she moved to North Carolina. Exploring the skies of her new home, a bolt of magic knocks her falcon form from the air.

Park ranger Lawke Morgan’s already bad day got worse when his ex-wife dropped off their 13 year old daughter and left for a vacation in London. Dealing with his daughter is nothing compared to discovering magic and shapeshifters exist when a Peregrine falcon he rescued transforms before his eyes. Then his daughter is kidnapped by an Aztec priest after Evelyn.

In exchange for one of Evelyn’s early pictures, located in the small town of Willows Haven, the priest will free Lawke’s daughter. He will do anything to get his daughter back, even break the law. But magic has a way of entangling people together whether they want to be or not. To rescue his daughter, they must confront blood sacrifices, ancient gods and their own inability to trust.

Can a woman used to the freedom of the skies embrace love with a man firmly rooted on the ground?

Excerpt

Evelyn Brooks raced across a purple-tinged sky. Behind her, lightning and thunder clashed within baleful clouds. Her wings dipped in a strong crosswind and plunged her toward the earth. Muscling through the gale, she climbed into a less turbulent current. She’d never make Raleigh before getting soaked, despite the speed her Peregrine form achieved.

A ferocious roar drowned out the whistle of the wind. The upward flap of her wings faltered, and her blood chilled. Turning into a different current, she glimpsed the silhouette of an enormous beast against the storm’s clouds.

Below her, the treetops of a deciduous forest with red-kissed leaves due to an early frost stood sentry. She took shelter within the branches of an oak tree.

The whoosh of wings induced Evelyn to shrink against the tree trunk and dig her talons into the bark as the limbs swayed. A strong crosswind contorted the tree further. Another roar challenged the incoming storm’s might and silenced the nighttime creatures.

Twisting her head, she glanced through the foliage into the cloud-filled sky. A dark shadow moved against the dark gray backdrop. Gigantic wings lifted a massive creature high into the sky.

Hunted until extinct, dragons had been stripped of their scales and blood, their magic forever lost to the supernatural communities. For eons they’d guarded and sheltered those seeking wisdom or healing until humans, who couldn’t control their desires, rampaged across the earth and destroyed all the sanctuaries.

Apparently, the purge hadn’t destroyed them all, and the approaching storm had disturbed this one’s slumber.

Moving to the East Coast was supposed to keep Evelyn safe. Free her of the disturbing sense that someone watched her. Maybe stimulate her creativity and spark a burst of artistry. Instead, she was denied the escape of flight and forced to hide.

Buy Links
Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/Tethered-Shifters-Paranormal-Romance-Aquarius-ebook/dp/B01NH9KZT9/
Kobo – https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/tethered-17

Author Links
Website: http://BethCaudill.net/
Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/fs6SU
Pinterest:  http://pinterest.com/bethcaudill13/
Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/beth_caudill/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorBethCaudill
Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/bethcaudill

UPDATE: The winner is…Mary Preston!

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Tell me a story!

I bought this little brainstorming tool years ago at some writers’ conference. I’ve used it only twice—here! “Story Cubes” is (that looks wrong, but I promise it’s not) a brainstorming game. You roll the dice and whatever pictures appear face up are the ones you use to riff off a story.

Here’s the roll…

Do any of these symbols tell you anything? You can pick some or use all of them. Tell me a story, or even just a glimmer of an idea, for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!