by Sarah | Aug 3, 2013 | Book Spotlight, Guest Authors, Writing
| [amazon_link id=”B00CWKHKTU” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Amazon[/amazon_link] | Bookstrand | SCP | ARe |
Blurb:
Being badly injured in a plane crash and feeling responsible for losing his fiancé keep Jordan Cooper from getting involved with another woman, but his best friend Caleb talks him into going on a blind date. He’s surprised that in a short time his feelings for Raina Abbott runs deep. Jordan wants more than just one night with her, but he has to convince her first.
Leaving an abusive ex and ending an unhealthy relationship with food still aren’t enough to help Raina Abbott overcome her feelings of insecurity, but her best friend Jayce convinces her that going on a blind date is the first step to boosting her self-confidence and feeling good about herself again. Jordan Cooper shows her that she’s beautiful, both inside and out, but can a date and one night of passion assure her that he’s really into her?
Excerpt:
“May I ask you a question, Raina?
“Sure.”
“I just wondered why you’re here with me.”
“Because you invited me to your room, remember?”
It was obvious she evaded his question. It was the first time Jordan noticed Raina wasn’t altogether comfortable. So why in the world is she here?
“You know what I mean. Why are you on this date?
“Why shouldn’t I?”
“You’re beautiful, charming and intelligent. I would think you’d have men lining up just to be with you.”
Raina laughed without humor. “The trouble is, the guys I know either don’t want to be romantically involved with a full figured woman or just pretend they do.”
“You’re telling me you’ve never been seriously involved with anyone? Never been in love?”
“What’s love anyway?” she asked mockingly, and then shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe it’s just the irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.”
“You think quoting Robert Frost is a satisfactory answer?” Jordan shook his head. “Be honest with me.”
Raina stopped swaying to the music and looked at him seriously. “Okay, you want to hear the truth? The truth is, I met a man who threw kindness my way, flowers, late night phone calls, the works. Within three months I moved in with him, much to the angst of my family. It didn’t dawn on me that he never took me anywhere, never invited his family or friends to our apartment, until I had invested so much time and effort in the relationship, I felt I shouldn’t leave him. He treated me like crap, insulted me, nothing I said or did met his approval. I became a chicken-shit, afraid of him, afraid of my freaking shadow, for god’s sake. I felt like such an idiot, because I didn’t even realize what I had become. Everyone noticed but me.”
*~*
Author Bio:
Roxy Wilson is a self-professed junkie whose excessive consumption of traditional and electronic books is legendary.
As a graduate with a degree in Education, she writes blogs which help readers to think critically about and appreciate poetry. In July, 2012, however, she decided to delve into the world of writing romance stories.
When she is not reading or writing, she spends her time cooking, listening to music and visiting the various islands of the Caribbean.
Follow me on:
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/roxy.wilson.737
Twitter – https://twitter.com/roxywilson17
My website/blog – https://roxywilson.wordpress.com/
Goodreads – http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7094458.Roxy_Wilson
by Sarah | Jul 30, 2013 | Books, Hump Day Hook, The Tribe, Writing
Another Hump Day Hook!
I’m diving back into The Tribe this week. I’ve started edits on Dark Territory, but in between I’m still working on The Tribe. The more I work on it again, the more I remember how much I love it.
Not going to give you much background on this one…just leaving it as is:
“No.” She whispered. “I’m trying to find you.”
A sniff at her neck was the only warning before he bit down hard.
Velli fought against the urge to cry out in pain.
You will destroy them. Selfish. He bit harder and flung her against a wall before he turned and raced away.
*~*
Hump Day Hook asks authors to post one paragraph of one of their stories, whether a WIP, one contracted, or already published. Please visit and comment on the participants – you might just stumble on the next great read for your library! To see more participants, click on the HDH banner below:
by Sarah | Jul 28, 2013 | Books, The Tribe, Tuesday Tales, Writing
The prompt this week is Bargain.
Everyone was so anxious to see where Velli was. This probably doesn’t answer any of the questions you wanted answered – and likely raises more. 😉
As always this is un-edited mostly, so forgive any errors:
“Drop her.” The voice she recognized as the boss’s rang through the air.
The goons took him literally and she hit the gravel hard. Each little stone forced its way into her flesh like thousands of hungry little birds. It was just pain, nothing near as bad as she’d lived through already.
“Wake.” The boss’s words carried the same buzz of magic that Bacey’s had earlier.
This time she let herself sneeze. She grunted as she pushed herself up on her hands. “Damn it, Bacey. You could have just asked nicely.”
“Bacey isn’t here.” The boss stayed in the shadows, while she’d been dropped in a circle of light. “It’s just you, me, and these two thugs, of course.”
“What is this? A bad gangster movie? What are you going to do next, beat answers out of me?” She got to her feet and brushed the dust off her jeans. “Magic wasn’t needed just because I was grumpy about being interrupted.”
“Magic was needed—and as for beating you up, let’s see how you respond to my questions first, shall we?” He circled around the edge of the light. One of his hands came into view and it was black as coal. A wave of power came at her, one that was old, ancient even.
Velli obliged him and stumbled back to her knees. With a grumble, she wiped the small stones from her palms. “Once again, unnecessary. You aren’t Shifter, what are you?”
“It doesn’t matter. You are. You also know the ancient.”
“You’ll have to be more specific. I’ve known a lot of really old farts in my time. No joke.” She got herself back to her feet. Last thing she’d do was kneel to this guy.
“You know who I mean.”
Despite her efforts to not react, her eye twitched. She forced her lips into what she hoped was a playful smirk to cover her nerves. “Nope, sorry. I told you, I know too many old farts.”
“The Healer.” He stopped in front of her again. “Kane.”
“Who?” She wondered how in hell he knew Kane, and how he knew she knew him. Another wave of magic whipped around her and she obligingly dropped to her knees again. Until she knew more what she was dealing with, she needed to play this right.
“You shouldn’t nap at work. You talk in your sleep. I know you know him. I know him too, have for some time, did you know that?” He started to circle her again. “I know all about your little Tribe. How they pitifully cling to the old ways. It will get them destroyed.”
She’d said the same thing to the Elders, but now she rebelled against it and leaped to her feet.
“Where is Kane?”
The interruption of her attempted irate protest caught her off-guard. She blinked and shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not.” As he began to circle her again, she pivoted to follow his path. She had no idea where Kane was, and for the first time that day she was glad. Last thing she needed him to know is she thought she had a way to reach him.
“What do you want? I’m in no mood to bargain. You’ll tell me what I want to know, or you will regret it.” He remained hidden deep in shadow, never allowing her to see his face.
“I want nothing.” She stopped turning, stopped fighting. Just then she was done playing the game. The exhaustion hit her harder than she’d ever expected and she dropped to her knees. “I can’t give you the answers you want. I don’t have them.”
“I don’t believe you.”
She kept her gaze focused on the hands folded in her lap. “I don’t know. I left. He might be there, he might be somewhere else entirely with his mate. I simply don’t know.”
“We’ll see about that.”
Before she could consider what he meant, a bright flash of blue light blinded her. A sharp pain burned from her eyeballs through her brain before the world went black.
*~*
Hope you enjoyed it! Click on the Tuesday Tales badge to see more excellent entries!!
*~*
by Sarah | Jul 25, 2013 | Book Spotlight, Guest Authors, Writing
| [amazon_link id=”B00DC9V258″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Amazon[/amazon_link] | B&N | ARe | Smashwords |
Alek Kairis is a man on a mission to keep those around him safe from the dangers of a lurking dirty cop. But, before he can protect everyone, Alek learns of a deep secret that could not just change his life, but change his ability to protect those around him.
Tess Michaels only wanted her brother’s safety; she did not realize that she too would be placed in danger. Yet, the danger that is following her is not the only threat she faces. When she learns the truth of who her son’s father is, not only will her life change, but so will her child’s.
Once the truth comes out, there is no going back for Alek or Tess. What’s worse is that their ever-growing attraction is a distraction that neither of them need. Can Tess and Alek work together, or will danger and secrets tear them apart forever?
by Sarah | Jul 24, 2013 | All About Family, All About Kennedy, All About Learning, All About Molly, All of Us
*This is a recycled post from a couple of years ago. I thought with school starting it would be a fun re-do for school lunches. All those [amazon_link id=”B00DE2PVTG” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]bento boxes[/amazon_link] out there makes this possible!
(L – top to bottom. Cheese cutouts, Peanut Butter w/ banana strips. R – top to bottom. Peanut butter w/ orange marmalade folds, PB & grape jelly rolls, Nutella rolls.
Even my teen will make his own version of this for himself. Molly, the pickiest eater of them all, cleans her plate when I make this kid-friendly sushi. Since it was requested on twitter…I thought I’d post how I make them. And it’s super simple…and to be honest I got the idea from Pinterest and ran with it.
*~*
First, the supplies. Bread (1 slice makes 4 mini-rolls), a [amazon_link id=”B0000VLY7C” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]rolling pin[/amazon_link] (pizza & pastry roller if you have one), whatever fillings/toppings you want.
Cut off the crust (I keep mine to feed the birds) and roll the bread flat, or cut into strips.
Get your toppings on your bread. For fun I used a mini cookie cutter to cut the banana for some of the strips, and for others I just cut it in half and length-wise. I used my leftovers for a bowl of cereal 😉
Roll them. I rolled some in spirals. I’ve read that you should roll these tight, but w/ the jelly I actually roll loose otherwise all of the jelly is squished out. For the orange marmalade I rolled in both sides and then folded to the middle (securing with a small strip of peanut butter between the two edges).
Last but not least for a little extra fun I used [amazon_link id=”B000U3NHD4″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]some little cutters[/amazon_link] I had lying around to cut out shapes in cheese (I nibbled on the scraps).
Usually I make less sushi and include some small strips of carrots for a well rounded meal. My kids totally scarf these down faster than you can blink.
Some other ideas I have yet to try, but plan to…
- Butter & cucumbers rolled
- Jam w/ sweetened whipped cream cheese strips or folds
- Herbed whipped cream cheese with cucumbers strips
- Carrot peel & herbed whipped cream cheese rolls
- Nutella and Strawberry strips or rolls
- Whipped cream cheese (sweetened) w/ blueberries
These do not take me a ton of time (Well, this one did but I was taking pics and making more than I usually do)…and the kids love them. They are SO worth a shot!! Try them!!
| [amazon_link id=”B00CWKHKTU” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Amazon[/amazon_link] | Bookstrand | SCP | ARe |
