Summer is here! It’s time to get out there and enjoy every second of it. Here’s my foolproof plan for enjoying a summer’s day at home.

Step #1

Get an adult beverage. Wine is always an excellent choice but here’s one that’s been a family favorite for years. Mix it up, put it in the freezer, and it’s a cool, refreshing drink whenever you want one.

Summer Slush

Ingredients:
1 – 12 oz can of frozen orange juice
1 – 12 oz can of frozen lemonade
¾ cup of sugar
5 cups of water
2 cups of vodka

In large freezer proof container, mix in order given and freeze.

Serve ½ glass of slush with 7 up or ginger ale.

Step #2

Snacks. There should always be snacks. Unlike winter, when I admit to going heavy on the sweets, this time of year I crave the fresh fruits of summer—apricots, cherries, watermelon, grapes. These are not always easy to get where I live. Some cheese and crackers, maybe some hummus. For dessert—because there should always be dessert—some excellent dark chocolate. These backyard picnic-style snack foods are also a great way to avoid having to cook.

Step #3

A good book. Reading is the way I relax and let go of all my worries. I live in an apartment, so I love to take my book out on my balcony, relax in my lawn chair, and enjoy a refreshing beverage—iced tea or something with a little more zip. (See Step #1)

And if you’re looking for something to read, you might want to check out the Secret Identities: A Boys Behaving Badly Anthology. The great thing about an anthology is the stories are shorter and you can sample a variety of authors—perfect for a relaxing afternoon in the sun

Inside Secret Identities: A Boys Behaving Badly Anthology, you’ll find stories by some of the hottest romance writers out there for readers who crave mysterious, enigmatic men and women who may not be who they claim to be. Perhaps they’re the new next-door neighbor with a secret mission, an alien from a far-away galaxy looking for his fated mate, or a spy trying to catch a foreign agent. Whatever their secrets, intrigue and passion follow…

My contribution is “Perfect Stranger” – An undercover DEA agent must keep his identity secret from the woman he’s falling for, a woman he’s also investigating.

Coming July 30^th. Preorder your copy today.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D5SQ4P2P/
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/secret-identities-delilah-devlin/1145674531
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/secret-identities-8

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, assassins, 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

UPDATE: The winner is…Deb Brown!
*~*~*

What indeed? If you’ve visited this blog during the past couple of weeks, you know that there’s something fun happening over at another website I run, Delilah’s Collections. It only gets active for a few months a year, but when it does, it’s like a firehose of activities!

We’re running a little campaign now through the release of our latest collection, Secret Identities: A Boys Behaving Badly Anthology, which will drop on July 30th. It’s a fun getting to know the authors activity, filled with interesting tidbits about them and multiple opportunities to win prizes or pick up some freebies.

Now back to those images… They represent the first four posts from the authors who are eager to meet you!

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, let me know whether you’ve been over to the Collections website to “meet” our new authors!

UPDATE: The winner is…Katherine Anderson!
*~*~*

Before we get to the puzzle, I’d like to say a word about something that’s starting on Monday and will continue through the release of Secret Identities: A Boys Behaving Badly Anthology on July 30th! There are 14 authors who have contributed stories to the book, and I can’t wait for you to meet them all! To introduce them, we’ll be starting a “Getting to Know [insert author name]” campaign, where you’ll learn fun things about these authors and compete for prizes! So, if you don’t want to miss any of the fun, be sure to head to the website and subscribe to get the posts sent to your email inbox. Here’s where you can go to sign up: Delilah’s Collections. We’ll see you there next week!

Saturday Puzzle-Contest

Orange you glad you stopped by? Sorry for the cringey pun! I couldn’t help myself. When I think of summer, I remember my summers spent in Florida, the roadside orange stands that weren’t far from my house, and driving past the fragrant orange groves. The scent of oranges is my favorite of all things. (Maybe I shouldn’t post these things before breakfast!)

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle, and then tell me what your favorite fruit-scent is + tell me whether you’re planning to join us next week on the Collections site!

UPDATE: The winner is…Pamela Reveal!
*~*~*

If you didn’t already know, the next Boys Behaving Badly Anthology will release on July 30th! It’s filled with intriguing stories. So, I thought it would be fun to use the themes for the stories inside this upcoming volume for our puzzle today. And if you haven’t pre-ordered your copy, remember, it’s only $0.99 for 14 sexy stories you won’t want to miss! Here’s the link:  Secret Identities

In the meantime, here’s a little contest! For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle, then tell me which of the themes intrigues you most!

UPDATE: The winner is…BN!
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Hello Delilah!  Thank you for letting me visit today.  I’m here to share another charity anthology (big surprise), but this is not like my other ones.  Deity Bound: A God and Goddesses Paranormal Anthology is about, well, gods and goddesses.  Norse, Greek, Indian…gay, straight, lesbian…we’ve got it all!  And proceeds for Breast Cancer Research, no less.

When I signed up, I had no idea what I was going to write.  Often, I don’t.  Another writer was contemplating doing a Native American god, so I knocked the Canadian version off my list.  I have an Aussie friend and I asked about their Aboriginal gods.  My friend, though, had a different idea.  She asked me for a trait that could be either a negative or a positive.  I was like…?  Uh, stubbornness.  I related it back to myself.  I’m stubborn in that I never give up with my writing.  Okay, sounds great—I never abandon a story—I finish everything.  Except, sometimes, there are projects that should be abandoned.  They’re not working.  They’re taking up too much brain space for little or no reward.  While I was contemplating this, she took to Googling.

Enter Pertinacia—the goddess of, essentially, stubbornness.  Daughter of Nix, Granddaughter of Chaos, sister to Chronos and a bunch of other gods.  Nix really got around (good for her!).  Anyway, my Aussie friend and I (I call her the plot whisperer) came up with a story set in North Vancouver, Canada, and involved Pertinacia being knocked out of time by Chronos and sent to a park on Earth in 2024.

From there, I flew with writing my story.  I had Dani, a woman who’d just had her heart broken by her long-term girlfriend.  I had Pertinacia the demigoddess.  And, for fun, Pertinacia’s family came to visit.  I didn’t know it at the time, but this was the closest to a rom-com that I’d ever written.  My beta readers and editor love it.  I’m hoping readers will as well.  All that from stubbornness.  Who knew!?!?

As a gift, I’d like to give one commenter a $5 Amazon Gift Card.  Is there a God or Goddess whose story you’d like to see?  Or a favorite movie?  I saw Hercules as a child and Medusa still gives me nightmares.  Comment and you might randomly win!  Thanks again, Delilah!

Deity Bound

Eternity breaks the smallest souls, but a god will never be ruined…except perhaps by the one who holds their heart.

The one who can rip at their soul or soothe it because it was always theirs.

But after an eternity alone, can a god give back the love given them, or wreak havoc upon a mortal’s soul?

Read the best USA Today best-selling and award-winning romance authors in a spicy gods and goddesses collection for charity curated by The New Romance Cafe, with all proceeds going to the fight against Multiple Sclerosis.

Authors:
Chele MacCabe
Francis Black
Lily Kindall
V.V. Strange
Katey Tattrie
Niki Brazen
TL Hamilton
Emmy Dee
Cecelia Conway
Jane Poller
Kataya Moon
Alexa Santi
Nicole Sondelle
Cameron J Quinn
Serafina Jax
Michaela Brent
Mikayla Rand
Tati B. Alvarez
Raven Hush
Kathleen Ryder
Niki Trento
Sonja Flowers
Ariel Dawn
Kathia Iblis
Christine Ashworth
Annee Jones
Gabbi Grey
Glori Medina

The anthology will only be available for a limited time.

 

Links:
Universal Link: https://books2read.com/TNRC2024DeityBound
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Deity-Bound-Goddesses-Paranormal-Collection-ebook/dp/B0C7NXZWCP
Add it to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/176294379-deity-bound

Deity Bound features my story, My Fair Goddess.

In the ominous light of the coming storm, the disheveled petite woman I rescued seemed helpless and in need of protection. Big miscalculation. Tina’s a demigoddess—a pint-sized powerhouse stranded in the twenty-first century—but far from a damsel in distress. Still, first impressions linger, and I can’t be in awe of someone I taught to use a toaster and to make microwave popcorn. I’m falling hard for her when her grandfather, the god of chaos, demands her return. Can our love and courage stand up to the old gods, or will we lose each other to an ancient land and powers I can barely understand?

About Gabbi Grey

USA Today Bestselling author Gabbi Grey lives in beautiful British Columbia where her fur baby chin-poo keeps her safe from the nasty neighborhood squirrels. Working for the government by day, she spends her early mornings writing contemporary, gay, sweet, and dark erotic BDSM romances. While she firmly believes in happy endings, she also believes in making her characters suffer before finding their true love. She also writes m/f romances as Gabbi Black and Gabbi Powell.

Although the concept of motherhood has, in times past, been fairly narrow—and binary—I believe in a more expansive definition.  We can have “mothers” in our lives who didn’t give birth to us.  Aunties or grandmothers who raised us, foster parents who took care of us, or trans moms who might’ve had a different role as we grew up.

This new anthology of drabbles is a celebration of motherhood in all its many forms.  Of moms in their many forms.  Some stories will make you laugh, some will make you cry (yes, even me), and some will make you reflect on how we all view motherhood.

What’s a drabble? It’s a form of microfiction.  100 words.  Exactly 100 words.  No easy feat – trust me on that.  I love this project so much that I submitted stories under three different pen names.  I’ve had three maternal figures in my life: the woman who gave birth to me, the woman who adopted me, and the woman who guided me into mature adulthood.  My birth mom, my adopted mom, and my step-mom.  All hold pivotal roles in my life.  All mean the world to me.

So from funny anecdotes to touching moments to poetry, there’s something in here for everyone.  And the book has been published in paperback and hardcover – so it’s the perfect gift for the mother in your life – whomever that person is. (Or for yourself, to enjoy the reflections of all kinds of motherhood…)

Flowers for You

One hundred perfect words. A thousand heartfelt emotions.

For Mother’s Day and all year-round, we at the Romance Café are shouting about this collection of perfect, bite-sized celebrations of moms, mums, mas, mothers and other caring figures in your life.

These 100-word stories celebrate the many different ways that carers show their love, from the everyday acts of kindness to the sacrifices they make for their children.

Warning: may cause a sniffle or three.

Authors:
Gabbi Powell
Gabbi Black
Trinity Wood
Kaje Harper
Tami Winbush
L Mad Hildebrandt
Hannah McKee
Lisa Gwizdala-Cody
Alexa Santi
Cara north
Sonja Flowers
Michelle Mars
Tori Fields
Rhianon Ruby
Elaine Reed
Danika Bloom
A. Boss
Niki Brazen
DL Gallie
Mila Chase
Debra Deasey
Susan Horsnell USAT Bestselling Author
Jeanna Louise Skinner
Cecelia Conway
Suki McMinn
Annee Jones
Gabbi Grey
J.E. Feldman
Kathleen Ryder
Sarah Stein
Angela Kady
MacKade
Heather Osborne
Harper Michaels
Sofia Aves
Bonnie Poirier
Ryleigh Sloan
Niki Trento
Yolanda Olson
Sera Taíno
Kat Long
Katherine Moore
Melissa Kendall
LoLo Paige
Aurelia Foxx
Krithika
Vanesa L. Perillo
G.R. LeBlanc
Jade Glas
Brianna Malotke
Tori Fields

Links:
Universal Link: https://books2read.com/TNRC2024FlowersForYou
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Flowers-You-Drabbles-Microfiction-Collection-ebook/dp/B0CH3GBY4K
Add it to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/198359414-flowers-for-you

About the Author

USA Today Bestselling author Gabbi Grey lives in beautiful British Columbia where her fur baby chin-poo keeps her safe from the nasty neighborhood squirrels. Working for the government by day, she spends her early mornings writing contemporary, gay, sweet, and dark erotic BDSM romances. While she firmly believes in happy endings, she also believes in making her characters suffer before finding their true love. She also writes m/f romances as Gabbi Black and Gabbi Powell.