Friday Friends - The Man in the Blue Flowered Shorts @pagehalffull

Susan Lodge has stopped by to answer a few questions about her new release, The Man in the Blue Flowered Shorts, a contemporary romantic comedy.

How do you decide the title of your book? Does it involve a lot of head scratching, pen chewing, and staring out of the window, waiting for a lightning bolt of inspiration? Or a laborious search for a snappy phrase that will encompass the spirit of the story and grab the attention of the e- book browsers?

That is how it was choosing the title for my first publication—but with the second it was easy. The Man in the Blue Flowered Shorts walked past me one day and wham! There was my book title and the seeds of a story all gained from a few moments of idle observation. I live on the coast and am quite used to holidaymakers ambling about in strange summery outfits, but this man cranked my literary detective into action. Who was this person who looked so on edge in his holiday clothes?

I never knew the real answer, as I only saw him once, but he had sparked my imagination with all sorts of questions.

He appeared to not want to be on holiday and he didn't seem to like his wardrobe, so who do you think advised him to wear socks with sandals?

I haven't a clue but would like to point out that I have nothing against men in sandals or shorts, especially of the blue flowered variety. But it’s that accessory thing. Shorts and sandals are fine—but worn with socks! The combination should be outlawed.

I know, especially here in the UK, the sandal wearing season is quite brief—in fact turning out be nonexistent this year due to the miserable weather. And that relinquishing the socks can result in strap chaffing to soft white toes and heels which have been cocooned for most of the year. But that is no excuse for socks with sandals, is it? After all, you can purchase those nice discreet clear plasters to protect those vulnerable parts of your feet.

I now feel this blog is getting a little shallow because we all know that clothes shouldn’t really matter and it’s the person inside that counts. And, to be honest, looking out on this freezing cold English July day, I might just get out those thigh high woolen socks I got for Christmas. Although I wouldn’t wear them with sandals—but then, I am not a man!

But however he was dressed, I will always be grateful to the intriguing man in the blue flowered shorts. He provided me with, not only a title to my latest romance, but the trigger for a sequel, The Man in the Buff Breeches. Then I might follow it with The Man in the ...well, I’m looking around right now for an inspiration!

Lyn enjoys reading romance novels, especially when she can combine it with relaxing in the Caribbean sunshine. But when a mysterious stranger joins the cruise ship, fiction and fact become dangerously confused.

When Lyn Redford’s sandal hurtles across the deck of the cruise ship, it makes her first introduction to Henry Matasie rather hostile. It wasn’t just that the man was seriously grumpy; he was a walking wardrobe disaster. Do you really need to wear woolen socks with your shorts in the Caribbean heat?

Following an embarrassing encounter in the cocktail bar with Henry, Lyn and her travelling companion Shona try to find out the reason for his strange behaviour. Later, when Lyn accidentally reads his e-mail, she is convinced the man in the blue flowered shorts is deadly dangerous.

When Henry swaps his awful holiday clothes for a dress suit to attend the gala dinner the transformation sets Lyn’s pulse racing. But she is convinced he still hides a guilty secret and she is intent on discovering what it is.

To read an excerpt from The Man in the Blue Flowered Shorts please click HERE.

Susan Lodge’s first publication was a story for a UK national woman’s magazine. Heady with this breakthrough, she went on to write her first novel Only a Hero Will Do. She loves writing contemporary and historical romance, usually with a large dose of humour. After working in several cities including London and Bristol, she moved down to the Hampshire coast to raise her family.

Once asked the most important piece of advice she had been given in pursuit of publication, Susan answered -
The only difference between the unpublished writer and the published writer is the fact that the published writer didn't give up.

Catch up with Susan on her website and blog. Stay connected on Facebook and Twitter.

Charmed by @CateMasters #CoverReveal @DecadentPub #paranormalromance

Charmed

The Vitruvian Man, book 2

By Cate Masters

Dark fantasy/paranormal romance

Coming Aug. 30, 2013

Decadent Publishing

www.decadentpublishing.com

Blurb

Brought together by accident, bound by fate—and magic.  Love works its charm over Bruno DiCesare and Melina Weaver during his transformation from beast to man. But love likewise blinds them to the secrets each holds. Bruno thinks his secret will devastate Melina. Melina’s afraid Bruno will hate her for what she’s become. Neither guess the greatest danger lurks outside their door – and will force them to decide between love and life itself.

Excerpt

Wow, so fast. Melina held Bruno’s hand until his grasp went slack. The treatment seemed to take effect almost as soon as he’d swallowed it. He shouldn’t react immediately; his body should be able to handle it better by this time. Unless Eldie increased the dosage?

Suspicion drew her gaze to the bottle. Of course she couldn’t tell by sight, and she had no idea what ingredients the sorceress had used in the other preparations. She shouldn’t have agreed to it so readily, nor trusted Eldie so blindly. In any other situation, she’d have asked to review the complete specifications.

She stroked Bruno’s arm. I wanted him cured for me as much as for himself. If her selfishness harmed him in any way, she’d carry that guilt forever. Try to make it up to him forever.

For now, she’d have to occupy her mind with something else or drive herself insane. His deep breaths meant he’d sleep for at least a day.

A hushed sigh sounded from the other room.

“Eldie?” Back so soon?

No answer came except for a slight rustle. She crept to the curtain. “Who’s here?”

Even as she asked, she sensed a presence unlike any she’d encountered before. Everything remained as she’d left it, the lamp glowing in the center of the table, laptop beside the scattered books. Lucky the sorceress hadn’t seen them. Luck, or something more.

She returned to the volume she’d left open. A page rippled, lifted straight up and fell over. Another muffled sigh escaped. Melina. The whisper so slight, it was barely audible. Yet without a doubt, she heard her name.

She traced a finger down the spine. It quivered beneath her touch like the plucked string of a guitar. With a gasp, she jerked her hand back.

Uncertain she hadn’t imagined it, she repeated the move and got the same result.

How? She pulled the chair close to the table and examined the pages. Nothing out of the ordinary, except perhaps how finely executed the handwritten entries appeared, each letter as perfect as the last. Almost like they’d been printed to fool the eye of a curious reader. An Italian reader. If only these were in English.

The longer she studied the text, the clearer it became. The letters blurred, shimmered, then shifted, rearranging themselves into… English. She didn’t need to enter the words into the translator site on her laptop, she understood every sentence.

She ran her fingers lightly over the page. The letters shifted again, scattering at her touch, as if she’d disturbed the surface of a pond.

“What the…” It changed back to Italian, the letters appearing to float. She swirled a fingertip across the surface, and the words formed a swarm, like a school of fish following bait. Like fish, they seemed to nibble at the tip of her finger. Impossible, but it tickled.

Fascinating. But this silliness got her nowhere. She’d never learn anything if this kept up. “Stop.”

The scripted words froze in a jumbled, nonsensical order.

She hovered her hand above the passage, and the letters stretched up off the page in tall columns to meet it. The pull of the connection reached inside her skin, as if it had been magnetized.

This is crazy. But obviously it’s not. It’s happening. It’s real.

Cate Masters has made beautiful central Pennsylvania her home, but she’ll always be a Jersey girl at heart. When not spending time with her dear hubby, she can be found in her lair, concocting a magical brew of contemporary, historical, and fantasy/paranormal stories with her cat Chairman Maiow and dog Lily as company. Look for her at http://catemasters.blogspot.com and in strange nooks and far-flung corners of the web.

Cate loves to hear from readers! Email her at: cate.masters@gmail.com

Catch up to Cate

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Tuesday Toolbox - The Care and Creation of a Time Travel Series by @sharonledwith

Today's Tuesday Toolbox is a guest post by Sharon Ledwith. Thank you Sharon!

The Care and Creation of a Time Travel Series
by Sharon Ledwith

My journey to publication started in the mid-90s. One evening while I was reading, I thought how simple the structure and dialogue was in this particular novel. You can write, you can do this, a voice urged inside my head. Let me tell you, I almost fell off my chair. But those words rang true for me. So, I decided to act on this truth, and took a writing course—Writing your Novel—where I met a great couple of like-minded would-be writer gals. Together we started a writing support group, and I wrote my first novel—a paranormal romance. This manuscript caught the eye of an agent, but I was hardly ready, and I see that now. What I needed to do was to hone my craft and get better and better with the process of writing. And that takes making many mistakes at the expense of your ego. In other words: lots of rejection, rejection, rejection! Ouch!

Then one night, during my writer’s group, one of my friends said something that floored me. She mentioned that I hit my twelve-year-old character’s voice bang on. So, this got me to thinking—how hard would it be to write a young adult novel? It was a stupid question. Of course it was hard! After thinking about what my friend had said to me, I decided I’d challenge myself and write not just a novel—but a series—that would appeal to my son, who at the time was the target age of my audience. Since I’ve always loved the time travel genre, it was a no-brainer for me.

The idea for The Last Timekeepers and the Arch of Atlantis came to me in a dream I had around 1998. In this dream, I saw seven arches, and there were seven people (five kids, two adults) with crystals in their hands, walking up to these arches. It definitely had an Indiana Jones feel to it. I wanted to create a book series for adolescents that had a different slant to the time travel genre. I love history. I also love myths and legends. There’s a few time travel series out there, but nothing that has roots leading back to Atlantis—at least what I know about or have read. Since there’s no concrete evidence that Atlantis did exist, then that left the door wide open to possibilities. I had to do a lot of digging into the legend of Atlantis, reading many books—especially Edgar Cayce’s psychic readings—and surfing the internet, until I had a fixed idea on how to present this in story form, and into a series of books.

The whole idea of the series is based on not changing our past, because it’s been written—a huge challenge for my time traveling characters who must keep time safe from an evil Atlantean force released back into the world. In the first book of the series, The Last Timekeepers and the Arch of Atlantis, the Timekeepers time travel to Nottingham, England in 1214 where they must find an adolescent Robin Hood and his band of merry teens before history is turned upside-down.

FYI—originally I had called the series The Timeliners, because their prime directive was to keep time in line. Then, it became The Timekeepers, and finally The Last Timekeepers, as the series became more evolved and developed.

It took 15 years of writing in the trenches—querying publishers and agents, writing more books, getting rejected again and again—before I finally signed a publishing contract with Musa Publishing for The Last Timekeepers series. And after all this time there was still one catch—I had to rewrite the entire manuscript in the point of view of only one of the characters. Originally, I had written the series with each kid having their own chapter throughout the book. My newly assigned editor Kathy Teel found this confusing and suggested I write the first book in only one of the character’s voices, starting with Amanda Sault. That way, the next book would feature another character’s point of view. However daunting a task this sounds, it was sage advice, and made the book stronger and fresher.

Now a year has passed, and under the tutelage of another fine editor by the name of Tricia Schwaab, the prequel of my series Legend of the Timekeepers is set to make its debut this August 30th. So get your time portals ready and put on your Babel necklaces! It’s going to be another thrilling, crazy ride into the past!

If you haven’t already checked out my young adult time travel read, The Last Timekeepers and the Arch of Atlantis, here’s the blurb…

When 13-year-old Amanda Sault and her annoying classmates are caught in a food fight at school, they're given a choice: suspension or yard duty. The decision is a no-brainer. Their two-week crash course in landscaping leads to the discovery of a weathered stone arch in the overgrown back yard. The arch isn't a forgotten lawn ornament but an ancient time portal from the lost continent of Atlantis.

Chosen by an Atlantean Magus to be Timekeepers--legendary time travelers sworn to keep history safe from the evil Belial--Amanda and her classmates are sent on an adventure of a lifetime. Can they find the young Robin Hood and his merry band of teens? If they don't, then history itself may be turned upside down.

To read an excerpt of The Last Timekeepers and the Arch of Atlantis, please click HERE.

Check out The Last Timekeepers series Facebook Page.

BUY LINKS
Musa Publishing
Amazon Link
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

Sharon Ledwith is the author of the middle-grade/YA time travel series, The Last Timekeepers, available through Musa Publishing. When not writing, researching, or revising, she enjoys reading, yoga, kayaking, time with family and friends, and single malt scotch. Sharon lives in the wilds of Muskoka in Central Ontario, Canada, with her hubby, a water-logged yellow Labrador and moody calico cat.

Learn more about Sharon Ledwith on her website and blog. Stay connected on Facebook and Twitter.

#MondayMunchies - Barbecued Chicken #recipe from @MarciBoudreaux

Barbecued Chicken
by Marci Boudreaux

Though summer is closely associated with barbeque pits and charred bits of meat, there is another way to get great tasting BBQ Chicken or pork…without risking the loss of facial hair.

This year will be known (at least in my family) as the year I discovered the glorious wonders of a slow cooker. Yes, my friends, I no longer stand over a hot stove (or pit) for hours cooking for my starving family. Our home cooked meals are now done slowly, with minimal effort from me.

And this recipe is one of my personal favorites!

Marci’s BBQ Chicken
4-6 uncooked boneless chicken breasts (or small pork roast)
1 bottle of your favorite bbq sauce (Hey, this still counts as homemade!)
¼ cup white vinegar
1tsp. red pepper flakes
¼ cup brown sugar
1tsp. minced garlic
½ small onion diced

Mix bbq sauce, vinegar, pepper flakes, brown sugar, garlic and small onion in medium sized bowl. Place meat in slow cooker. Pour bbq sauce mixture over meat. Cook on low for 4-6 hours.

Done!

Seriously?? YES! And it is delicious!

I shred mine and put it on a bun with coleslaw, but my kids eat it straight up with a side of baked beans

This is a great way to have summer flavor without adding to the summer heat. And it’s so easy!

Here's a little from Unforgettable You, my latest contemporary romance, for your reading pleasure while you sit back with a glass of chilled wine and wait for that terrific chicken to slow cook.

Is their love strong enough to survive their real lives?

Desperate to keep her ailing mother-in-law Doreen in the family home, Carrie Gable agrees to board a few of Hollywood’s elite actors. Despite her resentment of their demands, she can’t stop her attraction to actor Will Walker.

Will, out to save his failing career, agrees to a project that bores him. The more time he spends with his egotistical co-stars, the more drawn he is to their hostess. Long nights talking with Carrie make him realize he wants a simpler life, but his ties to L.A. refuse to let him go.

The temptation to regain stardom pulls Will in one direction while the obligation to family tugs Carrie in another. Against all odds, the couple struggles for a solution to save their new found happiness.

To read an excerpt from Unforgettable You, please click HERE.

Check out the trailer for Unforgettable You HERE.

Learn more about Marci Boudreaux on her website. Stay connected on Facebook and Twitter.

Friday Friends - The Demon's Mate by @samcheever

Book 1: Royals of Sheoldris by Sam Cheever

What if real love began in the pages of a paranormal novel? And what if that love leapt off those pages, and into an avid reader’s arms?

Terra fell in love with Jacobin when he was the hero in a sexy paranormal novel, but when he showed up at her door she thought she was losing her mind. Imagine how she felt to learn her fate had been scribed onto magic pages and could just as easily be erased. Would she be willing to give up everything, just to hold onto a love she never dreamed she’d have?

~~*~~

They left her alone for hours. At some point someone brought her a meal of fruit and cheeses with a dark, sweet wine but other than that she saw nobody except the two big men wearing diapers who guarded her door.

Finally, the woman who’d put her there returned, bringing the two big men into Terra’s rooms with her. And she was demanding that Terra take a bath. With all three of them in the room. Terra of course refused.

“If you do not cooperate, I’ll have the eunuchs carry you to the bath and hold you in the water as they bathe you.”

Terra glared at the demoness she’d learned was called Gemma. “I’m not going to polish myself up like a piece of fruit for that bully.”

Gemma nodded at the two men standing behind her. They stepped forward and grasped Terra’s arms, and she shrieked in outrage.

“Leave us!”

The two eunuchs and Gemma bowed low, stepping away from Terra. “Sire. We were just trying to do as you asked.” Gemma slid Terra a look of such hatred she wondered if the woman would murder her in her sleep.

“It seems my mate needs to learn some manners. I’m the one who must handle that little chore.”

Terra gave an outraged chirp. “I need to learn manners? Me? I didn’t drag you from your house and your… planet to a strange place and turn you into a prisoner.”

The demon king glared at his three servants until they left and then turned to her, his densely muscled arms crossed over his chest. Despite her anger, Terra couldn’t help noticing how hot he looked in the tight leather pants and sheer shirt that was open to the waist, showing a perfect, golden-brown chest. “You wouldn’t be treated as a prisoner if you didn’t act like a fool.”

She gave another outraged chirp and advanced on him, her hands clenched into fists. “I’m just trying to retain some kind of freedom --”

“Freedom? By chaining yourself to a low-level demon like the lowliest concubine?”

“How the hell am I supposed to know? I don’t know anything about this stupid place. They offered to help me, and I was grateful for their help. Once I got past the gate --”

Jacobin stepped closer, lowering his angry face to hers. “Once you got past the gate he would have locked you up and tried to ransom you to me. All the while enjoying your lush body for his own pleasure.”

Terra’s mouth slammed shut on an angry retort as his words sank in. “You’re lying.”

He lowered his head until his lips hovered over hers, his hot breath sweet against her face. “You know that I am not.”

Unfortunately she realized, far too late, that he was probably right. In her desperation and ignorance she’d almost put herself in greater danger. At least there, in the castle, she was under the=king’s protection. But Terra was too angry to back down. “It wouldn’t be any worse than being kept prisoner here.”

His big hands came out and grasped her arms, pulling her to her toes as he stepped closer. Terra bit her lip against a wave of lust as his heat and hardness pressed against her. “Then you shouldn’t mind that I stopped you, mate.” Without warning, he gave her a gentle shove, and she fell backward into the huge, sand-bottomed pool.

She came up sputtering with outrage, her hands skimming water out =of her eyes. “You ass! Now you’re trying to drown me?”

Toeing off his soft boots, the king reached to tug the shirt off his broad chest. “It appears I will need to bathe you like a babe, since you refuse to do it yourself.”

Book info and more…

Hot Summer Heroes Blog Hop - #TeamZane or #TeamWyatt - Vote for the Hottest!

What could be better than a hot hero for a hot summer day? How about two hot heroes!

Read the blurbs below and let me know whether you think Zane or Wyatt makes the hottest summer hero. I'll pick one random winner and send them their choice of Zane's Art OR Wyatt's Guilt in their preferred e-reader format.

Zane's Art
A high school art teacher must choose between her students and the artist she never stopped loving.

High school art teacher Julianne Truman's last chance to save her beloved art department from budget cuts is to sell the old sketches that her former boyfriend—and now famous artist—Zane DeMonde drew for her. But is she prepared to let go of his artwork and the last traces of him in her life?

Desperate to save his artistic reputation from the exposure of his early works, Zane returns to the home town he wanted to forget. He accuses Julianne of profiting from his success and demands she take his art off the market and cancel the auction.

Their high school attraction flares back to life, forcing Julianne to choose between the students who count on her and the man she never stopped loving.

Wyatt's Guilt
Nicole trusted Wyatt with her heart once. She won’t make the same mistake twice.

Nicole DeMonde’s car breaks down the moment she returns to her hometown for her brother’s wedding. The cop who stops to help her is none other than local hottie Wyatt Truman, who slept with her then dumped her when they were teens. She has no choice but to accept his help. However, she knows better than to trust him with her heart twice.

Wyatt is determined to earn Nicole’s forgiveness and make amends for his callous past. Once he lays eyes on her, he can’t help wanting a lot more than forgiveness, despite his intention never to hurt her again.

Just as Wyatt starts thinking his best intentions are of the forever variety, Nicole decides to work Wyatt out of her system with a one night stand. Can either of them make peace with the past in a single weekend, let alone survive with their hearts intact?

Zane or Wyatt??? Leave a comment with your pick! Don't forget to leave your e-mail address so I have a way to contact you.

#TuesdayTeaser - Room service from the sexy investigator next door in #WiccanHaus Psychic Lies

“It’s Armando,” he called. “I’m sorry if I offended you earlier. Listen, I feel really bad that you didn’t get to finish your dinner, so I had the staff box it up for you. It’s still warm, and I’ll feel better if I know you ate it before it turned cold.”

Complete silence. He felt like a fool.

“I’ll set it outside your door. Please eat, Fiona. I’m worried about you.”

To his surprise, the door swung open, and Fiona stood in front of him, her gray eyes wary. “Why would you worry about me?”

“Because you look like you need a friend.”

“I don’t have any friends.” She took the box, her fingers brushing his as she spoke.

I don’t have any friends—truth.

Someone needed to erase the shadows from her eyes and show her she wasn’t alone. He wanted to be that person…until he had to return to his Syndicate duties. “Now you do.”

Her tentative smile blossomed, twisting his stomach into a woozy knot.

Buy Links:
Musa Publishing
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
All Romance eBooks
Bookstrand
Smashwords
Diesel
Kobo
iTunes

Psychic Lies

Fiona must keep her ability to read minds during sex a secret from those determined to exploit her, especially a sexy truth-finding investigator who needs her psychic power to save his job.

Fiona has spent her life hiding her sexual mind-reading power at the risk of being exploited by the government. Instead, she pretends to have lifebond vetting powers like the rest of her family. When her fake power results in the death of an innocent woman, her life of lies unravels and she retreats to the Wiccan Haus.

Armando is the head of the Department of Truth-Finding for the Syndicate. To prove his unit’s worth to the government, he follows Fiona to the Wiccan Haus to expose her as an infiltrator of an enemy faction. The truth about Fiona is even more valuable to his people and his career.

Fiona uses her power to seduce Armando and stop his plans to betray her. But nothing is strong enough to keep her from falling in love with this man whose power threatens to destroy her. Now she must trust him, not only with her life and her psychic lies, but also her heart.