I’ve always been interested in puffins. I think it’s because they’re so cute with their bright bills. I have seen puffins in the wild during our trips to Britain, but I haven’t had a close encounter so they’re still on my list of things to see one day.
Thirteen Facts About Puffins
1. Puffins spend most of their time at sea, only returning to land to breed during spring.
2. Puffins are known for their distinctive black and white coloring and their bright orange beak. The beak is actually gray while they’re at sea and turns orange when it’s time to return to land. They’re the cutest thing.
3. Puffins are strong swimmers and can dive to 200 feet. They don’t stay underwater for long.
4. Puffins eat small fish e.g. herrings.
5. On land, they live in colonies.
6. Birds usually mate for life.
7. The females lay a single egg.
8. The parents take turns feeding the chick
9. Over 60% of the puffins are in Iceland.
10. They supplement their meals by drinking seawater.
11. Puffins choose a partner when they’re around 3 – 5 years old.
12. When a couple reunite they knock their bills together. This is called billing.
13. The puffins nest in burrows and return to the same one each year.
Source: National Geographic http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/atlantic-puffin/
To help celebrate the release of Forbidden, Christina Phillips’s debut Roman/Druid Ancient Historical Romance from Berkley Heat, she’s holding a launch party with lots of amazing authors and fabulous giveaways! In addition, Christina’s giving away a signed copy of Forbidden to one lucky person who helps spread the love. All you have to do is mention the party (you can copy and paste this blurb), being held from 1st to 6th September at http://christinaphillips.blogspot.com. You can Tweet about it, blog, Facebook, MySpace or anything! And then drop her an email at ChristinapPh @ gmail dot com (no spaces) to let her know. Please put Forbidden Launch Party (or something similar) in the subject line. The winner will be drawn for that on Monday 6th September.
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!
My teaser today comes from another historical romance, one I’ve just started reading called The Sergeant’s Lady by Susanna Fraser.
“He’s dead?”
“Of course he is. Hard to survive a knife to the throat, ain’t it?”
Highborn Anna Arrington has been “following the drum,” obeying the wishes of her cold, controlling cavalry officer husband. When he dies, all she wants is to leave life with Wellington’s army in Spain behind her and go home to her family’s castle in Scotland.
Sergeant Will Atkins ran away from home to join the army in a fit of boyish enthusiasm. He is a natural born soldier, popular with officers and men alike, uncommonly brave and chivalrous, and educated and well-read despite his common birth.
As Anna journeys home with a convoy of wounded soldiers, she forms an unlikely friendship with Will. When the convoy is ambushed and their fellow soldiers captured, they become fugitives—together. The attraction between them is strong—but even if they can escape the threat of death at the hands of the French, is love strong enough to bridge the gap between a viscount’s daughter and an innkeeper’s son?
My special guest today is fellow Ellora’s Cave author, Eve Cassidy. Eve has a new release this week, her debut release with EC, called Southern Comfort and she’s talking about favorite hangouts.
One of my favorite things in real life, television, movies or books is discovering a cool new place where people like to hang out. Not necessarily a place you go to party (although it can be) but generally the feel good place you and your friends always seem to congregate and eventually you get to know people who work there and frequent there on a first name basis. It becomes your home away from home for you and your friends.
That’s exactly the kind of place my upcoming ebook with Ellora’s Cave is all about. Southern Comfort is a bar and is loosely based on “the” bar me and my friends used to hang out at many years ago when I was an active duty marine stationed at an air base in North Carolina.
It was just outside the front gate so it offered easy access for everyone but it was still off base so it didn’t carry all the same rules an on base bar did. Honestly the place was a bit of a dump but it was a good size with multiple rooms stuffed with couches, tables, a dance floor, 2 bars and a good number of pool tables. I considered myself quite the player back then so I played a lot of pool there. But more importantly, all my friends were there.
Practically any day of the week, I could show up and there’d be a crowd of people I knew well and hung out with. Those were some good times and great memories.
It was that atmosphere that inspired me to write Southern Comfort and actually I am writing more stories around the same concept of a bar outside every front gate that caters to the boys of service.
Now a days my friend hangout is a French Bakery Café that is located in my city’s arts district about 20 minutes from home. Besides delicious food, decadent desserts and free wi fi, they are the only place open 24/7 365 days a year. The perfect writer hangout. When deadlines loom, you’ll find me there writing late into the night. Although some days you have to fight to get a table. It’s beloved by the entire city.
Whenever I meet someone who hasn’t been there I am more than eager to take them there for the quirky décor and an unbelievable salted caramel brownie. No wonder the place is so popular.
So what about you? Do you or did you have a favorite friend hangout? I’d love to hear about it.
Here is the blurb for Southern Comfort:
Two guys. A girl. One incredible game of pool…
Scarlett wants to escape, even if it’s just for a little while. So she heads to Southern Comfort where she’ll find a certain Marine she can’t keep her mind off of and he won’t be alone.
Michael spies the uptight woman of his dreams the minute she fights through the crowd. Sexy as sin, he can’t take his eyes off her while she flirts over some liquid courage. When she finally heads his way, it’s time to find out if she can live up to her end of the fantasy.
Red-hot chemistry may call the shots, but once you take the double hit… The game is on.
I took this photo at the Sydney Easter Show earlier this year. This alpaca had a long conversation with me. I’m not sure what he was saying, but he was certainly cute with his tufty ears.
The theme for this week is holidays. Since I love travel quite a few of my characters take holidays. This week I’ve chosen an excerpt from my story in the Ellora’s Cave Cavemen anthology, Summer Lovin’. My heroine, who lives in New Zealand, goes over to Australia for a holiday and finds much more than she expected.
Dreams of the Oasis III: Summer Lovin’ by Shelley Munro
“Sophie Walker? Is that you?”
The dark haired hunk grinned before grabbing me in a bear hug, right in the middle of the Burleigh Bowls Club.
Who was this Cutey Pie? My mind screamed questions even as I cozied up and savored the experience. I mean, what was not to enjoy? He possessed lots of muscles and was downright hunky with his tanned face and sexy grin. Pity we were in the middle of the Bowls Club. My heart kick-started into a racy beat, while I inhaled deeply to counteract the effect. He smelled wonderful—of ginger and exotic spices, all wrapped up with the tang of the sea.
Tall, dark and cute grasped my upper arms and pulled away before dropping a chaste kiss on my cheek.
Aw, call that a kiss, my inner siren taunted. Rev it up and lay one on me. For once I didn’t care if I ended up being the floorshow. Like a kid in a candy store, I wanted to touch and taste. I wanted it all.
“Sophie, what are you doing here on the Gold Coast?”
I stared and still came up blank. The petite redhead who stood at his side didn’t look too happy. If I was in her shoes I’d have felt exactly the same way. Possessive. Heck, in her place I would have bared my teeth and warned me off.
“I used to go out with Sophie’s daughter,” Cutey Pie said.
Redhead’s frown smoothed out like magic.
I groaned inwardly. Well, that sure put me in my place. Cutey’s name popped into my mind. Isaac Shepherd. I’d liked him back when Susan was going out with him. Since my daughter was notorious for being late, I’d spent a lot of time chatting with Isaac. We had a lot in common. It had taken me a long time to forgive Susan for letting him get away.
“Susan is married now,” I said.
Isaac’s brown eyes glowed, making me intensely aware of my body and the way my clothes fit. The word desperate came to mind. I hadn’t kissed a man for a long time let alone got down and dirty. My hormones were protesting the lack of action. For a moment there, they’d thought they’d got lucky. Disappointment was a bitch.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, his husky voice strumming across my senses in a very delicious way.
“I’ve come over on a RSA trip, with a group of golfers. Ostensibly to keep an eye on my father, but he doesn’t really need it.”
“What’s the RSA?” Redhead asked in her Aussie twang.
“Returned Services Association,” Isaac answered.
“Hey, Sophie!” It was my Uncle James, my father’s partner in crime. “There’s a dance on here tonight. Fred and I are gonna grab us a granny!”
I did a mental eye roll. “You can’t say that.” After all, I wasn’t exactly a spring chicken. My fortieth birthday was practically staring me in the eye, so I felt I should offer up a defense for the dozens of more mature women in the club. “It’s not P.C.”
“Aw, Sophie. Don’t start,” my father said. “Look at those women over there. If it walks like a duck…”
Scowling, I glanced in the direction Pop indicated. Three elderly women were giggling like young girls. I shrugged. I didn’t intend to act the stern chaperon. Pop and Uncle James could get up to all the shenanigans they wanted.
“We must meet for a drink,” Isaac said, sending a wave of flattered satisfaction through me. Bigheaded of me I know, but the redhead’s scowls made me want to cheer. Score one for the visiting team.
“Why don’t you come back for the dance?” Uncle James said.
One look at Redhead popped my bubble of optimism. Isaac wouldn’t be here tonight.
Isaac glanced at Redhead too. “Maybe.” His voice was noncommittal. “We have to go.” His brown eyes caught my gaze, and for a long moment, we stared at each other. “It’s been great seeing you, Sophie.”
And damned if he didn’t grab me and kiss me right on the lips. It was brief. Intense. And left my knees knocking. I stared after him in bemusement, my trembling fingers rising up to touch tingling lips.
A soft whistle from Pop jerked me from daydream land. “You’ve made a conquest there, Sophie.”
“I’m old enough to be his mother,” I protested, and inside, I railed at the fact. Sometimes, life plain sucked.
Uncle James looked me up and down. “You don’t look your age. You don’t look old enough to be that boy’s mother. You’re fit, you don’t look like one of those god-awful beanpole models, and you have your own teeth. Always check the teeth,” my uncle ended sagely.
“I’m not a damned horse!”
“No, you’re a woman, Sophie,” Pop said. “That’s all any of us simple men want. A luscious handful of woman to cuddle up to at night.”
He winked at Uncle James, and they both discreetly checked out the three giggling women over in the corner.
“Ooh, not while I’m looking,” I said in a firm tone, although secretly, I was flattered, my confidence boosted. A bit of life in the old broad yet, I thought. I licked my lips and imagined I could taste Isaac. Damn, I didn’t think I’d shower for a week.
Purchase Dreams of Oasis III from Ellora’s Cave in either print or e-format. Also available at Amazon in print or e-format.
To read more excerpts follow the Snippet Saturday trail below:
My special guest today is fellow author, Taige Crenshaw. Today Taige is talking about series and serials. I love reading books in a series. I like entering a world I’m familiar with – it’s like meeting old friends. Over to Taige…
I’ve been reading a lot lately and I love series/serials so I have been rereading my favs. I’ve written on my own blog about my love of series and serials. What they are and how I feel about them. Almost monthly there are so many books coming that are part of a series/serial.
First here are my definitions of them both:
Series ~ Taige Crenshaw Definition:
Novels that has a related story theme but each one is complete in and of itself.
Serial ~ Taige Crenshaw Definition:
Novels that feature/follows the same main character/s yet are still a fresh story each time.
No matter which way you slice it I find whether it is a serial or series I enjoy writing stories like this. It gives me room to stretch my mind, push my characters to give me more and wallow in there adventure even more. Although I enjoy these stories I don’t usually start writing with the intention of it being a series/serial sometimes it just happens to evolve that way.
I write what I love to read and I’m one of those readers that wondered what is next for such and such main character. Or what happened to this sub – character that I liked in this or that novel. I go hunting to find more and when I find it I feel like I’ve struck READER’S GOLD. I jump up and down and shout in glee. LOL.
I’ve been known to search for years to get that book to complete a series/serial I was reading. Hey I’m a dedicated reader and I want the complete set of my series/serial.
For instance I remember many years ago I picked up an author that I hadn’t tried before. The novel was great and imagine my glee that I struck reader gold and it was a series. I went back and bought all of their novels except one which was sold out. I searched and searched for years for this one book and couldn’t find a copy. Not even a used one. I even contacted the author to find out if the story was going to be re-printed. To my dismay it wasn’t at that time. Amazon even had over 200 people waiting for a copy of this book when I checked. I stopped checking the numbers after I saw the amount of people. No one was selling. A few years after looking I finally struck reader gold in 2005 when the book was reprinted and I was able to finish my collection. I know me and over 199 other people very happy.
Can you imagine so many readers looking for an author. Searching for that Reader’s Gold. That is what I want my novels to be to my current and future readers ~ Reader’s Gold. No I don’t want you the reader to wait a long time for my books but I want you to be so drawn into the worlds that I create you can’t wait to see what happens next.
This is what Reader’s Gold is all about. As my thoughts of Reader’s Gold evolved I thought of all the author’s who have some wonderful series/serials that I feel are Reader’s Gold. They line my bookshelf’s (online and print) and I go looking for them when they are released.
I’m sure most of you have a little Reader’s Gold on your bookshelf so come on and share. Give me some new Reader’s Gold to find.
CONTEST: Share your Reader Gold with me and Shelley will pick a winner who can choose one pdf download of any book from my e-book backlist.
Taige Crenshaw is a multi-published author with books available at Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Liquid Silver Books, Loose Id, and Total-E-Bound. Taige has been enthralled with the written word from time she picked up her first book. It wasn’t long before she started to make up her own tales of romance. With novels set in today, in alternate dimensions, or in the future she writes with adventure, fun sassy heroine’s, and sexy hero’s. Always hard at work creating new and exciting places Taige can be found curled up with a hot novel with exciting characters when she is not creating her own. Join her in the fun, frolic, interesting people and far reaches of the world in her novels. You can find out more about Taige at her website: http://www.taigecrenshaw.com or blog: http://www.taigecrenshaw.com/blog.
Wilde Seduction – What happens when a woman who doesn’t know how to relax meets a man whose lust for life will change her and make all her deepest desires come to life?
I’ve been in a real historical mood lately, both in my reading and my research. It’s good to be writing another historical romance. My favored time period is the Eighteenth century—pre-Regency in the 1700s, and if it has a gothic tone that’s even better.
For my TT this week I thought I’d give you terms or words you might come across while reading a historical romance or a historical fiction novel. These words are Nineteenth century words and my source is the book What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew by Daniel Pool
Thirteen Words in Usage During the Nineteenth Century
1. Trap – a small light carriage with springs
2. Turnkey – a jailer
3. Weeds – mourning garments, the word “weed” meaning simply clothes
4. Vinaigrette – a little box made of silver containing vinegar and having holes in the top. A vinaigrette was used to revive ladies who had fainted.
5. Washballs – little round balls of soap used for washing or shaving
6. Wafer – a small round made of flour and gum or a similar substances, which was dampened and placed on a letter to seal it.
7. Turtle – turtles were eaten and were a popular dish, so popular it spawned lots of imitation foods called “mock turtle”. Turtle was a staple at official banquets.
8. Tosspot – someone who drank a lot
9. Note of hand – a promissory note
10. Negus – Colonel Francis Negus cooked this drink, which consisted of sugar mixed with water and a wine such as sherry or port. It was a popular drink at balls and dances.
11. Mute – a person hired to come to a funeral and mourn
12. Season – the London social season, in which the fashionable high life of the nobility dominated the city. Although families returned from their country houses to London in February, the real season—of balls, parties, sporting events like Ascot and so on—ran only from May through July.
13. Sennight – a contraction of “seven night” meaning a week.
Are you familiar with these terms? Do you like historical romances? Do you like historical fiction? Do you have an recommendations?
As you can see today – it’s an M & M takeover. I’d like to welcome Mandy Roth and Michelle Pillow!
Big thanks to Shelley Munro for letting us come here and play today! We’ll get started with our first Q&A.
Who Are You Again?
Q: What do you think put you on the map as far as romance readers are concerned?
Michelle: Dragon Lords. I still get a lot of emails for those, mostly wanting to know when they’ll be in print again. (We at The Raven Books are working on it, promise). It was my futuristic series that turned into a huge endeavor with spin off series and continuations. So far the series include: Dragon Lords, Lords of the Var, Galaxy Playmates, Space Lords and Zhang Dynasty. I’m in the process of putting a second edition of all of them out in ebook and print before writing more books in the series.
After Dragon Lords, I had Tribes of the Vampire, a dark fantasy romance. That brought in a whole new crop of readers and from there things just exploded. I have the best readers in the world. They let me hope from genre to genre and happily (for the most part, lol) follow along.
Mandy: My first series/book, Daughter of Darkness. Gwen and her crew of men paved the way for me with romance readers. I have to say that it was bittersweet when I wrapped up that trilogy. It was like saying goodbye to a part of myself. I do have plans to revisit the world again and readers still seem very interested in reading more about the characters. I still have a hard time saying goodbye to characters. I’m sure every author falls in love with their characters. If they don’t, I’m not sure they should be writing the book. If you don’t like them, how the heck do you expect a reader to? LOL
I think we should start a riot to get more Dragon Lords from Michelle? Who is with me? We’re going to need pitchforks, lanterns, a man to walk upfront spitting chewing tobacco as he yells about her being a witch and tainted by… oh, wait, wrong riot. Flashback. Sorry. Right then, Dragon Lords. More please.
Michelle:*arching brow* More Dragon Lords? How about we talk when I get King Kerrigan’s story. The ruler of the underworld needs a Queen. And if she HAPPENED to be named Michelle, that’s not my fault.
Mandy: Ignore her everyone. Really. Ignore her. *snicker*
Thanks for letting us hang here, Shelley Munro! Everyone, remember that to be entered in the contest at the end of the tour, you need to comment on the posts. You can enter as much as you like.
Join us tomorrow when we visit Cathryn Wade where we answer the question The Story of Us?
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!
My teaser is from One Dance with a Duke by Tessa Dare. I’ve just finished reading this book and recommend it highly. The characterization was excellent!
“Forgive me, Your Grace. Are you suggesting a woman is some sort of. . .piece of fruit to you? One squeeze, and you know if she’s ripe?”
A handsome and reclusive horse breeder, Spencer Dumarque, the fourth Duke of Morland, is a member of the exclusive Stud Club, an organization so select it has only ten members — yet membership is attainable to anyone with luck. And Spencer has plenty of it, along with an obsession with a prize horse, a dark secret, and, now, a reputation as the dashing “Duke of Midnight.” Each evening he selects one lady for a breathtaking midnight waltz. But none of the women catch his interest, and nobody ever bests the duke — until Lady Amelia d’Orsay tries her luck.
In a moment of desperation, the unconventional beauty claims the duke’s dance and unwittingly steals his heart. When Amelia demands that Spencer forgive her scapegrace brother’s debts, she never imagines that her game of wits and words will lead to breathless passion and a steamy proposal. Still, Spencer is a man of mystery, perhaps connected to the shocking murder of the Stud Club’s founder. Will Amelia lose her heart in this reckless wager or win everlasting love?
, 
by Susanna Fraser.
Dreams of the Oasis III: Summer Lovin’ by Shelley Munro
by Daniel Pool
by Tessa Dare. I’ve just finished reading this book and recommend it highly. The characterization was excellent!
