Taste of Kiwi: Blog of Author Shelley Munro

I’m taking part in the Sinful Sirens Giveaway hop, which takes place from 15 – 20 May. This hop is hosted by Under the Covers and Guilty Pleasures.

While I was pondering a topic for today’s post I received redo covers for my Talking Dog series. A sign! The perfect thing for my post today. A cover reveal.

And so, without further ado, here are the new, updated covers for the three books in my Talking Dogs series…

TALKING DOGS, ALIENS AND PURPLE PEOPLE EATERS

Janaya is a bodyguard on a mission. She must protect her Aunt Hinekiri from mercenaries and then return to Dalcon in time to take her captain’s exam.

A simple assignment for an officer of her caliber—except nothing goes as planned. Their spaceship crash lands on Earth. No spare parts available. Big problem.

Janaya is stuck on a tiny outpost called New Zealand. She’s going to stuff up her promotion chances. And because she neglected to have her travel inoculations in her urgent hurry to protect her aunt, Janaya has bonded with an Earthman.

Police officer Luke Morgan seeks a quiet life. No press. No nosy reporters. No women. Just lots of fishing and fresh country air.

Luke doesn’t count on meeting a pair of aliens and a talking dog and participating in a shootout with purple-suited aliens. Nor does he expect the surge of lust he feels for Janaya. Suddenly a routine callout turns into a big problem that Luke suspects might only be the tip of the iceberg.

Purchase from Amazon

NEVER SEND A DOG TO DO A WOMAN’S JOB

Sex. Lily Morgan hasn’t had any since her husband ran off with his boyfriend. But where will she find a man willing to overlook chronic clumsiness, dimpled thighs and cellulite?

Sex. Prince Alexandre Bellangere has too much. Sex, that is. Being treated as a sex object is becoming a pain in the ass.

Heck, he’s more than just a pretty face and muscular body. Alex has brains and ambition. But Dalcon princes are expected to have sex, mate and breed royal undergrowns.

Determined to change his life, he sneaks from the palace and the planet disguised as plain Alex Bell.

Sex. Lily Morgan takes one look at the golden stranger and starts thinking “what if?”

Alex Bell takes one look at the curvy travel agent and reconsiders his stand on sex. Maybe.

Sex. Lily’s family is not happy about her mating with an alien they know nothing about. They decide to leave Killer, the talking dog, to keep an eye on the situation.

Take one chubby travel agent and an alien Dalconian prince in disguise, add in sex, laughter, endless possibilities. Combine and shake vigorously. Result…a true-blue love.

Purchase from Amazon

ROMANTIC INTERLUDE

New Zealand cop Richard Morgan is settled and perhaps a tad boring. Maybe he’s a little lonely since his wife died, but there’s no need to change a lifestyle that works for him. Small-town life suits him perfectly.

Intrepid alien explorer Hinekiri walks through life alone, eager to explore uncharted worlds and try new experiences. She’s arrived on Earth to fulfill her ambition to witness the wildebeest migration in Africa . Unfortunately, she has Torgon mercenaries hot on her trail, eager to steal her valuable galaxy charts, and a niece who wants to spoil her fun.

From the minute Richard unwittingly finds himself in bed with the beautiful alien temptress it’s hard to catch his breath. Suddenly he’s lusting after Hinekiri and discovering they’re very compatible indeed! Richard’s flying in spaceships, talking to dogs and fighting Torgon mercenaries in his spare time.

Purchase from Amazon

So what do you think of the new look covers? And an extra discussion question – a form of informal research – I used to read a lot of erotic romance, but while I still like a hot read, I also enjoy young adult stories with no sex at all. What side of the pendulum do your reading tastes fall? Have your tastes changed?

GIVEAWAY – I’m giving away a $10 Amazon voucher to one randomly drawn commenter. Fill in the rafflecopter and leave a comment. Good luck!

To visit other bloggers taking part in the blog hop follow this link

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A smile. An encouraging word. A thoughtful gesture. Each day people interact with us, help, and make our day a bit brighter and full. This is especially true in the Writing Community. 

Take a second to think about writers you know, like the critique partner who works with you to improve your manuscript. The writing friend who listens, supports and keeps you strong when times are tough. The author who generously offers council, advice and inspiration when asked.

So many people take the time to make us feel special, don’t they? They comment on our blogs, re-tweet our posts, chat with us on forums and wish us Happy Birthday on Facebook.

To commemorate the release of their book The Emotion Thesaurus, Becca and Angela at The Bookshelf Muse are hosting a TITANIC Random Act Of Kindness BLITZ. And because I think KINDNESS is contagious, I’m participating too!

I am randomly picking Savannah Chase, who is amazingly supportive of her fellow writers and always offers encouraging words when she hops around the Internet each day. I figure that as an author, Savannah, you are also a keen reader so  for my RAOK gift, I’m offering to give you the download of your choice from my backlist.

I really appreciate Savannah, who blogs at Savannah Chase. If you have a minute, please stop in and tell her how awesome she is!

Do you know someone special that you’d like to randomly acknowledge? Don’t be shy–come join us and celebrate! Send them an email, give them a shout out, or show your appreciation in another way. Kindness makes the world go round. :)

Becca and Angela have a special RAOK gift waiting for you as well, so hop on over to The Bookshelf Muse to pick it up.

Have you ever participated in or been the recipient of a Random Act Of Kindness?  Let me know in the comments! You never know what might happen…

The Pushkar camel fair takes place once a year in November. We visited Pushkar just as the people were starting to arrive with their camels. They say around 200,000 people view the 50,000 camels and cattle on sale, and most of the buying and selling takes place before the official start of the fair. The top photo shows camels as far as the eye could see. I can only imagine the sight once all the people and camels arrive!

My guest today is Mary Martinez. Mary lives in Magna, a little town west of Salt Lake City, Utah. Together with her husband, she has six grown children, and five wonderful grandsons and 2 beautiful granddaughters.

Mary and her husband love to travel, especially to the Caribbean for relaxing and Italy for the wine. With the experience from the exotic places she has visited, she is able to fill her books with colorful descriptions of cities, painting a colorful backdrop for her characters.

Mary and her husband are avid college football fans. They have season tickets to the UTES, University of Utah Football and they tailgate every game. They love tailgating so much, that they were married at a tailgating in 1999.

Mary is a member of the Romance Writers of America and several sister chapters. She has published several articles for her local Utah RWA newsletter. They have appeared in several other chapters’ newsletters. Welcome, Mary!

I’ll hand you over to Mary.

Thanks for inviting me to The Taste of Kiwi. When I first heard I would be a guest here, of course I thought, Kiwifruit. However, I understand a kiwi is a bird from New Zealand. A place I’d very much like to visit someday. However, because the first thing I thought was eat, today I’m going to post about another favorite of mine, food.

I love to experiment with recipes, I don’t mean take someone’s recipe and change it. What I do is decide to make something and figure out what I think goes in it. This can turn out great and other times terrible.

One time I decided to make some creamy baked potatoes for a dinner at my friend’s house. She didn’t tell me that they’d have another couple there. I don’t mind experimenting on Bill and Toni, but someone I hardly know? As luck would have it, they turned out wonderful. Except the pepper, I put too much black pepper in it. And everyone was complimenting me on them while gulping down water and tears streamed down their faces, they were real troupers. Except Bill, he told me exactly what I did wrong and I will never live that down. Every time I try something new, “You held off on the pepper, right Mary?”

Now I only try new things on my husband. Poor guy, but I’m a lot better and only once in a while now do I have something flop.

I love to post recipes on my blog, and I only do the ones that turn out so you don’t have to worry. So drop by my garden some time.

Because I love playing with food, and as you read on an earlier blog, I love my wine, my books have a lot of dinner scenes. Or my characters relax with a glass of wine, and it’s usually my most recent discovery of a new wine.

I try to bring my characters and my stories alive by writing things that my readers can envision themselves doing. Such as having a fun picnic, or a nice intimate dinner, after all my characters are real people.

What do your favorite authors do to make you place them on your automatic buy list?

CONTEST: Bewitching Tours will be doing something called the Rafflecopter. It keeps track of everyone who follows me on Twitter or ‘like’s my Facebook page, follows my blog, or anyone who subscribes to my newsletter will all have entries for the drawing that will take place at the end of the tour on June 4^th. There will be four winners and they will have their choice of a download or print book of any of my books.

Thank you for having me here today, I am really enjoying my virtual book tour, I hope everyone else is also.

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Blurb for Disappear:

After two years undercover as an FBI agent to infiltrate a crime organization and discover the identity of a hit man, Tyler Beckett’s cover is blown. Tyler’s new assignment is to protect the only witness who can identify the mysterious killer. If only he didn’t find her so attractive. Each day it becomes harder to keep his objective, especially since he knows the interest is mutual.

Keira Cavanaugh is the only witness to a hit ordered by a crime boss.  The safe house is compromised and the same hit man shoots Tyler. Fearing Tyler is dead, Keira plans revenge on the crime organization. She must fake her own suicide in order to survive.

When Tyler discovers what Keira plans, he realizes he must stop her before he loses her for good.

Trailer for The Beckett Series 

Purchase Disappear from Amazon

Find Mary online:

Web Site http://www.marymartinez.com

Blog http://marysbooksblogger.blogspot.com/

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mary-Martinez/169373246496620

or http://www.facebook.com/mlmartinez33

Twitter @marylmartinez

Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1646623.Mary_Martinez

Today I’m talking animals. If you’re a regular blog visitor you probably already know I have a soft spot for animals. Some people enjoy sports featuring animals.

Thirteen Sports Involving Animals

1. Polo – champagne, picnics and stomping in the divots during half time.

2. Bronco busting – cowboys!

3. Falconry – an old sport still practiced today in some countries.

4. Cockfighting – common during earlier centuries. Not my idea of sport!

5. Dogsled racing – I always think of Alaska in combination with dogsled racing.

6. Carriage driving – Prince Phillip is keen on this sport.

7. Pigeon racing – they have a way better sense of direction than me!

8. Dressage – very technical and graceful. Hours of training involved.

9. Camel racing – I’m thinking I wouldn’t want to be a jockey.

10. Show jumping – can be very tense to watch when the horse raps a rail. Will it fall?

11. Bull riding – my favorite rodeo event to watch. He-haw!

12. Bullfighting – I prefer the bullfights where the animals aren’t harmed.

13. Greyhound racing – not a sport I enjoy.

Have you participated in any of the above sports? Do you enjoy watching any of the above? Is there another animal related sport that you enjoy?

Today I’m playing hooky and going on a wine tasting tour on Waiheke Island. The island is a short ferry ride from Auckland city. Here are a few photos from a day trip my husband and I did around this time last year.

Waiheke has a slightly warmer climate than Auckland and is excellent for grape growing. I’ve never tried Waiheke wines before, so I’m looking forward to my tour. Have a fun day – I intend to!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

~ Grab your current read

~ Open to a random page

~ Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

~ BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

~ Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Last night I finished reading the third book of Vicky Dreiling’s Regency series. I’ve devoured these three books by this new-to-me author. The dialogue is fun and the humor reminds me of Julia Quinn’s books.

They go in this order:

1. How to Marry a Duke – a sort of reality Bachelor show set in Regency times.

2. How to Seduce a Scoundrel – brother’s best friend isn’t being very cooperative.

3. How to Ravish a Rake – a forced marriage after a Regency miss is found in a compromising situation with a rake.

My teaser comes from the second book How To Seduce a Scoundrel, which was my favorite. It’s a little longer than usual, but it made me laugh.

Ramsey cleared his throat. “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and—“

Lord Morley, who was passed out on the sofa, broke wind. His lady kicked him in the shin. He jerked up, looking round wild-eyed. “What? What?”

Hawk’s shoulders shook, knowing the next verse would trip up Ramsey.

Ramsey’s jaw worked, but he stubbornly continued reading. “Rough winds do shake…” His face heated as he paused.

page 82, How to Seduce a Scoundrel

SCOUNDRELS, RAKES, AND ROGUES BEWARE . . .

Lady Julianne Gatewick is in a pickle. It started when her brother’s best friend—for whom she’s long nursed a secret tendre—agreed to act as her guardian for the Season, only to seduce her with a risqué waltz.

But when the music stopped and the expectant ton waited for the Earl of Hawkfield to claim her as his own, he made his disinterest clear. Rather than succumb to humiliation, Julianne does what any recently discarded, wickedly witty young miss would do. She secretly pens a lady’s guide to enticing unrepentant rakes . . . and it becomes the hottest scandal in London.

Every honorable rake knows that friends’ sisters are forbidden. But suddenly Julianne has a spark of mischief in her eyes that Hawk can’t resist. Try as he might to push her away, he spends his days listening for her laughter and his nights dreaming of her kisses. He’s always avoided innocents and their marriage-minded mothers, but has the man least likely to wed finally met his match?

What are you reading this week?

SUPER MOON

Most of you will have heard about the recent super moon – a full moon that’s larger than normal because the moon is closer to Earth. Hubby and I were disappointed when we checked it out last night. The moon looked pretty, but not much larger than normal. The photos didn’t come out that well but you’ll get the idea. Bella, our puppy, came along to see what the fuss was about. (Click on the photos to get a larger version)

STARTING OVER

One of our local television stations is currently advertising for applicants for a new reality-type show. They want people who are interested in starting a new job/career.

I wondered what I could do if I started over. I would definitely start writing a lot sooner than I did, and I think I’d like to be a travel agent or something that relates to the tourism industry.

If you were starting over, what career choice would you make?

The Statue of Liberty, New York, USA plus me!

Hubby and I during an elephant ride in Phuket, Thailand.