Spring is here, which means warmer weather and longer days. It also means the spring movies are here!

I love going to the movies. There’s something special about sitting in a theatre in the dark and watching a movie on the big screen. It’s something I do often and by myself. I’m a big fan of the matinee.

There are so many great movies I’m looking forward to, but here are 5 that top my list for spring.

1. Mulan—March 27. This is Disney’s latest animation to live-action movie. It looks incredible.
2. No Time to Die—April 10. James Bond is always exciting and a fun ride. I love Daniel Craig as Bond, but I’m curious to see where they’re taking the franchise next.
3. Black Widow—May 1. It’s about time Natasha Romanov of Avenger’s fame had her own movie. This should be a kickass good time.
4. Fast and Furious 9—May 22. It’s some of the best action you’re going to find.
5. Wonder Woman 1984—June. After Mulan and Black Widow, here is another kickass female heroine. I loved the original Wonder Woman movie with Gal Gadot and can’t wait for this one.

   

And they’re just the beginning. The summer blockbuster season is inching closer. So, grab your popcorn and a drink and join me.

What movies are you looking forward to this spring?

And if books are more your style—but why not do both—then check out Fury Unleashed, the first book in my Forgotten Brotherhood series, just released!

Fury Unleashed
Forgotten Brotherhood, Book One

Maccus Fury, a fallen angel, is trying hard to keep his sanity. Seems being an assassin might be catching up with him. Now, Heaven, or Hell, has sent a beautiful assassin to kill him. Lovely. She’s pretending to seduce him, and he’s okay with that. She’s smart and snarky—but she has no idea what she’s walked into. And he’s more than peeved that they only sent one person. They’re going to need an army if they want him dead.

Morrigan Quill is one of Hell’s bounty hunters. She sold her soul to keep her sister safe, and now she’s working off her contract by catching bad guys and dragging them back to hell. When Lucifer makes her a new offer—that’s definitely too good to be true—she can’t say no. All she has to do is kill a powerful and crazy-hot fallen angel, who will totally kick her ass in battle.

Good thing he won’t see what’s coming next.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084M1NQ88
Entangled: https://entangledpublishing.com/fury-unleashed.html
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fury-unleashed-n-j-walters/1136398720
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/fury-unleashed-1
iBooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/fury-unleashed/id1498471438

About the Author

N.J. Walters is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who has always been a voracious reader, and now she spends her days writing novels of her own. Vampires, werewolves, dragons, time-travelers, seductive handymen, and next-door neighbors with smoldering good looks—all vie for her attention. It’s a tough life, but someone’s got to live it.

Visit her at:
Website: http://www.njwalters.com
Blog: http://www.njwalters.blogspot.com
Newsletter Sign Up: http://eepurl.com/gdblg5
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/N.J.WaltersAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/njwaltersauthor
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/NJWalters
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/njwalters
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/n-j-walters

My name is Stacy McKitrick. I write paranormal romances, normally with locales I have visited. I love Pittsburgh, so I set My Sunny Vampire there. I live in Dayton, so it only seemed natural to set Bite Me, I’m Yours here. I’ve been to Atlanta many times for Dragon Con (a sci-fi/fantasy convention held during Labor Day weekend every year), but it wasn’t until I actually visited the Atlanta Underground that I realized that’s where my vampire headquarters is located, and I show that in Blind Temptation. And while Biting the Curse is set between Cleveland and Detroit, two cities I have visited also, I ran into problems with my newest book: Finding the Perfect Mate.

I was all set to have my vampire couple go to Russia, do their job, then return. Problem was, that would have been a super short story. And I just couldn’t have that! But I’ve never been to Russia. Had no idea what it’s like there. Luckily, I have a friend who did know something about the country and told me enough where I could conduct my own research.

Like dashcams. Almost every car in Russia has one. I thought it was because they were required. Nope. It’s more like for insurance. Without a dashcam, some person ready to scam you can walk into your car and claim you hit them. And apparently, that happens a lot! When I was doing my research, I found that I could view a lot of these dashcam videos online. I thought, Great! Now I can see what the landscape looks like. And I was able to do that after I got over the horror of actually watching these videos.

Warning: if you’re the squeamish type, I suggest you do not view them. I swear, you’re looking at someone’s death during some of these car crashes. Very horrific!

So my book, which was supposed to just have a little bit of Russia in it, ended up being 90% in the country. Did I get it all right? Maybe not, but I concentrated on the Russian Vampires. Since they don’t exist, I pretty much could make up their world there. If you’re interested in how well I portrayed Russia, why don’t you read Finding the Perfect Mate? It’s currently on pre-order at a reduced price of $2.99. Release day is April 1 and the price will increase to $4.99 shortly after that.

So … Have you ever been to Russia? Do you like to travel? I love traveling and one day I do hope to visit Russia. Maybe on a cruise. I do love cruising!

Finding the Perfect Mate

Finding the Perfect Mate just got way more complicated.

When Perry pledges abstinence until he meets a Perfect Mate—a rare mortal perfect for a vampire—he doesn’t expect to be tested. Especially by another vampire. But Mandy smells like heaven. Has a sexy British accent. And is the smartest person he’s met. She’s just so … perfect. If he holds on to his fantasy, will he lose his chance at love?

Finding the perfect vampire was never on her radar.

Mandy hasn’t seen her father in 500 years but when he goes missing she drops everything and heads for the States, only to discover the Russian vampires kidnapped him. She insists on being involved in his rescue and suggests she and Perry—who’s sexy as sin and makes her laugh—infiltrate as lovers. As they pretend, she realizes he’s just so … perfect. But she’s got a secret that will mean her death. Can she trust him not to turn her over to the authorities or does she keep mum and let him go?

Vendors you can purchase Finding the Perfect Mate:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081TM9KC1
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/finding-the-perfect-mate-stacy-mckitrick/1135043124?ean=2940163189878
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/finding-the-perfect-mate
Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/finding-the-perfect-mate/id1488836101

You can check out all my books on my website: http://stacymckitrick.com.

If you sign up for my newsletter (http://eepurl.com/bCN0Oz), I’ll send you a free copy of “Savannah’s Destiny,” a short story I wrote that combines my Ghostly Encounters and Bitten by Love series. I’m doing it all manually (meaning I send out the link once I get the notification I have a new subscriber), so if you don’t hear from me after signing up, you can contact me directly at stacy @ stacymckitrick . com (without the spaces, of course). You can unsubscribe at any time—no hard feelings.

Last summer, the owner of the first publishing house I joined, Liquid Silver Publishing, died. I hated hearing the news because she was a wonderful person to work with. With Liquid Silver, I’d sold, gosh, maybe twelve books and several novellas/short stories in anthologies. It was a good company to work for because they were fair, honest, and they paid on time. With her death came the problem of what to do with the books they still had on the docket. I recently received rights back for all of them. I also received rights back for the one non-erotic book I’ve written, Burning Bridges, written as Anne Krist. What to do, what to do…

I’ve only recently explored the adventure of self-publishing. It’s exciting and scary all at once. Exciting, because I am more in control of my own fate—responsible for quality and timeliness and marketing. Scary, because I am more in control of my own fate—responsible for quality and timeliness and marketing. It seems everything is a double-edged sword. What if I take charge of my own destiny (fun) and screw everything up (scary)?

With Burning Bridges, the book of my heart, I was happy to take the risk because I love the book so much. Reading through to edit and make necessary changes was actually a pleasure. Hubby designed a new cover that I (surprisingly, because I loved the first cover) like better than the first. Uploading the book went off without a hitch. So far, so good.

But when it came to marketing, I was kind of stuck. Do I market the book as new or revised? Should I even mention that it was out before? Anyone looking at the website—or even Amazon, since they can’t/won’t tell their marketplace vendors to remove images and offerings of older versions—will recognize the difference in cover art. And the book already has reviews. Do I use the old reviews in marketing the updated book? None of these questions had I considered before jumping into republishing. (To answer, I decided to use the old reviews in marketing, I noted that the book is republished on the copyright page of the book but don’t make a big deal of it in ads, and I use only the new graphic in messages and marketing.)

Since Burning Bridges, I’ve republished two other books, both written as Dee, and both paranormal: Passionate Destiny and Your Desire. They also have new covers (I think hubby outdid himself!) and have been updated slightly with re-reading/editing. I have about seven or eight more to go if I am to match the books I had on Liquid Silver’s site. It’s a daunting task! As I am repubbing, I’m putting books on Kindle Unlimited. If you are member of KU, I hope you will check them out.

So, is republishing books a PITA or fun? It’s a mix. If I had gone to one of my other publishers—assuming one of them would have accepted the books—it would have been so much easier. They would have taken care of cover art and editing, and I would have had help in marketing. But so far, I kind of like the idea of taking the reins of control for my work. I have found formatting for paperback is a bit of a pain but nothing that can’t be dealt with. The fun comes from reading my own work again. I don’t usually read a book of mine once it’s published. After reading Burning Bridges, Passionate Destiny and Your Desire, I kinda sit and say, “Did I really write that? It’s pretty darn good.” That’s the most fun part! I hope folks will take notice of my marketing and agree!

Burning Bridges: mybook.to/BurningBridges
Letters delivered decades late send shock waves through Sara Richards’s world. Nothing is the same, especially her memories of Paul, a man to whom she’d given her heart years before. Now, sharing her secrets and mending her mistakes of the past means putting her life back together while crossing burning bridges. It will be the hardest thing Sara’s ever done.

Passionate Destiny: https://tinyurl.com/sxy5sfh
When Margaret Amis-Hollings inherits an old house in Virginia, she never suspects she’d be sharing it with a very loving ghost. Or that her interest would be divided between her spirit lover and the very live man who’s renovating the place. Suddenly her life is intertwined with a soldier from a previous century and with his descendant, Aaron, who has a secret concerning her home. Is it coincidence or the power of a past love that makes Aaron want to share her life, as well as her destiny?

Your Desire: https://tinyurl.com/whkqtjf
Your Desire. A mysterious shop appears in town for one reason: to bring the spice of passion and the thrill of love to one special person. Magic is in more than the item purchased—it’s in the heart of the buyer, often hidden, usually surprising. And after enchantment takes hold? The store fades from sight and memory, only to reappear somewhere else. Maybe in your town….
 
 
 

About Dee S. Knight

A few years ago, Dee S. Knight began writing, making getting up in the morning fun. During the day, her characters killed people, fell in love, became drunk with power, or sober with responsibility. And they had sex, lots of sex.

After a while, Dee split her personality into thirds. She writes as Anne Krist for sweeter romances, and Jenna Stewart for ménage and shifter stories. All three of her personas are found on the Nomad Authors website (www.nomadauthors.com). Fortunately, Dee’s high school sweetheart is the love of her life and husband to all three ladies! Once a month, look for Dee’s Charity Sunday blog posts, where your comment can support a selected charity.

Author links:
Website: https://nomadauthors.com
Blog: http://nomadauthors.com/blog
Twitter: http://twitter.com/DeeSKnight
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DeeSKnight2018
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/265222.Dee_S_Knight
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B079BGZNDN
Newsletter: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/h8t2y6
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/dee-s-knight-0500749

I’m not a big fan of winter. Never have been, which is odd considering I live in a place that gets more than its fair share of cold and snow. Winter starts early and stays late. The first snowfall was in November, and the past few weeks we’ve been buried in snow. Fans of outdoor winter sports are thrilled. Me, not so much.

So how does a glamorous writer stay warm while working? Layers, lots and lots of layers. I wear leggings (sometimes two pairs) and a long-sleeved shirt. (I favor turtlenecks.) Over that, I’ll put on a man’s oversized flannel shirt that falls past my thighs. Next comes the blanket, which I wrap around my waist like a sarong when I’m sitting in my chair writing but just throw over my legs when I’m on the couch reading. And let’s not forget the fingerless gloves. An absolute must this time of year. I cut quite a sexy figure.

But there are good things about being snowbound. It’s a great opportunity to watch movies or stream a new series on Netflix—Witcher was amazing! And, of course, it’s the perfect time to pour up a hot tea or hot chocolate (I’m not a coffee drinker, but to each their own) and pull out a good book.

It’s also a great time to launch a new series. And I have a paranormal one coming in March—Forgotten Brotherhood. Fury Unleashed is book one. This is one group of badass, paranormal assassins.

Fury Unleashed
Forgotten Brotherhood, Book One

Maccus Fury, a fallen angel, is trying hard to keep his sanity. Seems being an assassin might be catching up with him. Now, Heaven, or Hell, has sent a beautiful assassin to kill him. Lovely. She’s pretending to seduce him, and he’s okay with that. She’s smart and snarky—but she has no idea what she’s walked into. And he’s more than peeved that they only sent one person. They’re going to need an army if they want him dead.

Morrigan Quill is one of Hell’s bounty hunters. She sold her soul to keep her sister safe, and now she’s working off her contract by catching bad guys and dragging them back to hell. When Lucifer makes her a new offer—that’s definitely too good to be true—she can’t say no. All she has to do is kill a powerful and crazy-hot fallen angel, who will totally kick her ass in battle.

Good thing he won’t see what’s coming next.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084M1NQ88
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fury-unleashed-n-j-walters/1136398720
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/fury-unleashed-1
iBooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/fury-unleashed/id1498471438

About the Author

N.J. Walters is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who has always been a voracious reader, and now she spends her days writing novels of her own. Vampires, werewolves, dragons, time-travelers, seductive handymen, and next-door neighbors with smoldering good looks—all vie for her attention. It’s a tough life, but someone’s got to live it.

Visit me at:
Website: http://www.njwalters.com
Blog: http://www.njwalters.blogspot.com
Newsletter Sign Up: http://eepurl.com/gdblg5
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/N.J.WaltersAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/njwaltersauthor
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/NJWalters
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/njwalters
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/n-j-walters

UPDATE: The winner is…Booklady!
*~*~*

Announcements…

…or a better description: Reminders!

Still on Sale!

Enter the Danger Zone! $0.99 Sale! — This price on this super-fun story will only last another week!

Open Contests!

1. What’s still happenin’ & looking forward to a new week! (Contest) — This contest will end Sunday night! Win an Amazon gift card!
2. Mutiny’s Bounty: Puzzle & a Contest — Win an Amazon gift card!

Puzzle/Contest

For a chance to win your choice of story from among my Night Fall or Beaux Rêve Coven series (both paranormal with shifters!), solve the puzzle then tell me your favorite flavor of shifter! 

First, let me say how happy I am to be releasing this novel, Where the Howl Are You?

It was just published as the final book in the Be Careful What You Summon series. The first book, Vampire Vintage, came out a while ago, but the second and third books were long overdue. It was hard to get to my Indies when I had traditional contracts with deadlines, then first, second, and, sometimes, third edits, plus marketing, etc., demanding my time.

Anyway, I rewrote and rereleased Vampire Vintage first. Tiger’s Night Out, book 2, was released a year ago—January 2019. And now, finally, with the release of Where the Howl Are You?, the series is complete!

Pushing forty, Ronda Calhoun did a summoning spell with her single friends to find immortal mates, figuring they might appreciate women with a little more maturity and experience. For all the others, it worked! So why isn’t her immortal showing up?

Private investigator Nate Smith didn’t know what he had back when he and Ronda dated in High School. Now he knows she’s the one he wants to spend his long life with. Arranging to run into her isn’t a problem, but confessing he’s a werewolf could ruin everything!

Get your copy: 
http://books2read.com/WhereTheHowlAreYou

But this article is about how readers helped me with all of this…

First of all, book 1, Vampire Vintage, needed a new professional cover. It was previously published by Ellora’s Cave and I had to update it. Amanda Walker did an awesome job, and even made bookmarks to go with it. (Email ash@ashlynchase.com if you want a couple! I’d be happy to send them. 🙂 )

One of my readers loved the first book so much, she became, not only a fan, but a friend. Knowing she was hoping for the other women’s stories to be told spurred me on.

Book 2 needed a cr*pload of editing, beta reading, and proofreading. Half the book took place in India, so certain words and phrases were checked with a West Bengal local. Most importantly I needed encouragement. My beta reader provided that with an enthusiastic, “It’s ready! Publish it!” So I had the cover made by the fabulous Syneca Featherstone of Original Syn and after a professional proofreading, that’s just what I did.

On to book 3. It had been previously published looong ago by another epublisher under a different title. I dusted it off, rewrote it completely and figured the five or ten people who bought the original version probably wouldn’t remember it anyway.

Then I needed a new title. I ran a few past my street team and one of my long-time members came up with a suggestion I hadn’t even thought of! Where the Howl Are You? was the PERFECT title, since our heroine, Ronda, had to wait so long to have her HEA, too.

Part of the fun (at least for me) is getting feedback from readers. A reader taking the time to express their thoughts in a review or word-of-mouth social media post is awesome! I take the good with the bad, and sometimes I’m able to improve a book if it gets a “second time around” publishing opportunity. Like Death by Delilah—a novella from my Ellora’s Cave days. There was a scene that awoke a reader’s “Ick factor.” That sometimes happens with erotica. The novella itself garnered a lot of contest wins and nominations, so when I had the opportunity to rewrite it, I changed that scene. It’s now part of an anthology with two other related novellas called Immortally Yours.

Sometimes, I get that feedback well before reviews. My proofreader Dianne Donovan is fabulous at catching every last pesky typo…and she doesn’t hesitate to give me her honest opinion of the book itself. I’m delighted to tell you she loved this one! However, I just got a “meh” advance review from a reader who didn’t like how the hero never shifted. That was one of the things that tickled me. He was so afraid he’d scare her off, he disappeared rather than let her see him shift. That didn’t mean he didn’t keep an eye on her. Wolves are by nature very protective of their chosen mates. And when she found out what he was, she didn’t get all girly and scared…she was more like; ”Why the hell didn’t you say so?” She had been waiting for her immortal for two years!

So, those are some of the examples right off the top of my head. I can’t tell you how grateful I am for all the support, encouragement, and honesty of my readers. Have you ever wanted to write to an author about their book? What’s stopping you?

Christmas 2019 is over, and the New Year is finally here. 2020! A clean slate just ready for my  plans and plots. I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions anymore. I used to make them, but I found that by the end of January they were already a distant memory. Now, I just try to make general goals for the year and hope I can stick to them.

My goals this year are fairly simple. I want to keep a consistent release schedule for my books.  I have two ongoing series, my Terras Five Cyborgs and my Northern Rockies Werewolves. Although both are romance, one is a sci-fi series and the other is a paranormal. My hope is that by alternating between the two, I will be able to keep both fresh and not start to recycle the same plot with different characters in each successive story. I find my muse gets bored and stale if I just stick to one universe. (I’m sure a psychologist would love to explore that idea!)

Click on picture to pre-order!

On a personal front, I want to continue to spend as much time as I can with my grandkids while they are still willing to be seen in public with me. I have a day planned to see the latest Star Wars movie with the oldest four (ages five through thirteen) this weekend. We’ll go to the afternoon show, get pizza for dinner and then they can have a sleep over. I love going to the movies with a group of kids. They aren’t embarrassed to show their enthusiasm for their favorite characters!

As five of  my grandkids live within a fifteen minutes of my home, and one of them goes to high school a mere three blocks from me, I have an revolving door policy that means they are always welcome to drop in, be it for few minutes to grab a glass of water or to stay overnight and make popcorn and watch a movie on Netflix or Disney plus. I cherish these times, and hope they always feel welcome to drop into my home unannounced. Being a grandmother is one of the best things that ever happened to me!

I am also determined to be more active. Since my day job is a desk job, and writing is also very much a sit still kind of activity, I have to find hobbies that make me move (unfortunately reading isn’t active either!) This fall I entered Merlin the Wonder Dog in an advanced agility course, and it turns out he loves it! Santa brought him a set of weave poles for Christmas so now we can practice at home. Come spring, I’m considering letting him compete in the local agility competitions.

Lexi is much younger, really just a pup (maybe a year old?) so I am working on basics with her. So far she has mastered not looking terrified all the time, and sitting on command. I spent a lot of time getting her not to cringe and crawl when anyone looked at her so I hesitate to teach her ‘down’. Right now we are working on leash manners. As in, walking while on leash as opposed to dropping to the ground and playing dead.

So that’s it for my plans for 2020! Here’s hoping it’s a wonderful year for all of us,

Happy Reading!

Anne Kane