Sandra Cox's Blog, page 258

SBB: Spring's Surprise

BLURB: Jack Tanner is the soon-to-be new partner at Chester & Dorsey Development Firm. Jack’s love life has been on the back burner for years as he’s built a successful career. But the moment he meets Sara, he takes a hard look at his life and his priorities.
Sara steps out of her comfort zone and spends an unforgettable weekend with Jack. She’s never felt so carefree. Until she realizes too late that three days can change everything.EXCERPT: “So, were you surprised?”
“I don’t think surprised is the right word. I was speechless. What did he tell Nick?”
“Not much. Just that you had called and the two of you were talking again. He didn’t give any details. He was in his car, on the way to the airport. He wasn’t sure if you would be mad or glad to see him this morning, but he said he had to take a chance.” Beth paused. “So I guess you were glad?”
“Yeah. When we talked last night, I told him all of the reasons why this wouldn’t work and, of course, he had an answer for every one of them. I finally wore down and told him that I’d try.”
“And . . . how do you feel today?”
“Is it possible to be terrified and excited at the same time?” Her hands shook as they held the phone to her ear. Her eyes were beginning to burn again. “I don’t know what to do.”
“There’s nothing to do. Just enjoy spending time with him. Give it a few weeks to settle in and see if you still feel the same. I know you care about him or you wouldn’t have been so upset when you left here two weeks ago and you wouldn’t be stringing him along with your pitiful text messages.”
“That’s the problem. I think I care too much.”
“Don’t you think he’s just as afraid? But he’s not going to let fear stop him. You shouldn’t either. You’re a stronger person than that. Nothing worth having is easy, Sara. Give him a chance and some honest time.” AUTHOR Bio and Links: My husband and I live in the suburbs of Nashville, Tennessee with our eighteen-year-old son and three dogs. When I’m not working or writing, I can be found with family and friends. I love to bake in the winter, grill in the summer, and on occasion, I sneak away from everyone and curl up with a good book.
I hope you enjoy my stories. Each one touches on modern day issues, fears, and challenges that women face every day. And each one illustrates that love is within reach if you let down those walls and allow your heart to open. Our lives and experiences are so much more meaningful when we have someone to share them with.
http://www.cynthiagail.com/http://amzn.to/14s5pRx
Cynthia will award one $25 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter and a $15 Starbucks GC to another randomly drawn commenter. The tour dates can be found here:  http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/05/book-blast-springs-surprise-by-cynthia.html

Weak In The Knees

Doesn't this picture just make you go weak in the knees? grin. The brownie bites are my current inducement to go to Applebee's. If you haven't tried them they're awesome. Just the right size and only a dollar.
I've also discovered lettuce wedges.
A lettuce wedge and iced tea, followed by a brownie bite and coffee. Ah...It's a perfect summer meal.

VBT: Ennara and the Fallen Druid and SBB:The Esposito Series

BLURB: Eleven year-old Ennara Gaern has a serious grudge against the dragon on her right hand. Born with a caul—a mask that foretold magical powers—she was immediately inked with the fiendish, fire-breathing tattoo that forces her to study boring texts, cover her hand continuously, and worst of all, keeps her from visiting the beautiful capital city, Dordonne. But her quiet life changes when one night she is attacked by a shadowy demon.Tork, an old friend and wizard, is enlisted to help. But when he arrives, he informs Ennara’s parents that she is her world’s only hope of finding the legendary Sword of Gisilfrid, which is needed to destroy the curse that is creating the demons. Ennara doesn’t want to leave on the dangerous quest, but when she learns the curse threatens her world, she reluctantly agrees.Ennara and the wizard begin a perilous journey to the Sunken City, pitting them against dangerous oceans and pirates intent on claiming Ennara’s magic as their own. With only her friends at her side, including the intelligent, aquatic cat Smoos, Ennara must defeat monsters guarding the sword and servants of the Fallen Druid. When her world is covered in darkness, will she know how to dispel the curse?Excerpt“Is it true she is….” Gevin blushed. “I mean, you are… magic?”Ennara fumbled the wand as she turned it in her fingers. She scooped it off the floor. Her stomach knotted and her cheeks burned. “Oh, um, I guess.” She nervously twirled the wand again, this time accidentally tapping the case of trinkets. A lavender light shimmered across the panes, and behind them the objects began to twitch. “Eeep!” Ennara jumped as the severed hand crawled toward her and tapped on the glass. A long finger uncurled and poked the case open. The appendage leapt from the shelf to the chest, then the floor, and scurried to the door.Smoos crouched on the lower bunk, wiggled her haunches, and pounced on the hand. She shook it back and forth in the air. It grabbed the cat’s snout and flicked her hard on the nose. She dropped the hand and snorted, rubbing her muzzle with her paw. The hand scampered away and hid behind the girl’s legs.“You seem to have a penchant for necromancy, young lady.” Tork flicked his curvy black wand at the case. “Merta perape.”The hand and other charms returned to their lifeless state.Smoos, the Marine Cat [image error] Early on while drafting Ennara and the Fallen DruidI started looking at online catalogs of monsters from Dungeons and Dragons that might fit with the environment where most of the story took place: the ocean. I compiled a long list of strange creatures in my notes, and happened upon the marine cat (shown here). In D&D lore, marine cats are slightly larger than a housecat and behave in every way similar to your average feline. They protect the ship by sounding the alarm when intruders come aboard or by batting the earrings of a sleeping watchman, breathe water, and can magically pass through locked or barricaded cabins. I kept the cat in my notes and as I wrote, I wondered how she might fit in to the story. Ennara and her friends secured a voyage to the Sunken City with Captain Anaru, a merchant shipper who was an avid collector of magical trinkets for safe voyages. In the world of Lan, the seas were especially dangerous. The world was made up of islands and oceans with huge tidal waves and storms.  A rare species of marine cat seemed like an ideal pet for Anaru. She could protect the ship and his merchandise.As I wrote more scenes with Smoos, it became apparent how active and important she was to the story. Smoos transformed from the lucky cat described by Dungeons and Dragons. She became an equal member of the team, yet kept her cat-like individuality. Highly intelligent, she understood every situation Ennara found herself in, and in some cases had her own ideas about how they should be remedied. Extremely loyal, brave, and strong, she saved the group more than once. Smoos became larger, too. From being slightly larger than a housecat, she grew to the size of a full-grown lion. She looked less like a kitty and more like a panther. She gained powerful muscles and sharp claws with which she could fight and pull large objects.As a marine cat, she also gained a couple traits that distinguished her further from regular cats. She became able to speak with marine mammals, using that ability to convince porpoises to help the stranded group to the shores of Creagh Island. Her long tail grew thick and her paws webbed, helping her to swim powerfully and quickly. With her ability to breathe under water, she was no longer a simple cat with a luck charm.Soon after being introduced to the story, Smoos quickly became a critical ally. She brought strength, wit, comfort, and comedy to many scenes. Smoos started out as one of Captain Anaru’s many luck charms and ended up a major character of the novel. And isn’t that just like a cat?AUTHOR Bio and Links:Like many writers, I have a full life in which I juggle many duties and joys. I love to cook, garden, and play with my twins. As a mother to toddlers, I write whenever I am not helping them navigate their day--which typically means in the early mornings and early afternoons when they sleep, and sometimes when Grandma comes to visit.

I was twenty-two when writing became a passion of mine. I've been doing it in one form or another ever since. But it took me a very long time to follow my heart's desire to tell stories.
For years, I simply journaled. I delved into writing articles for newsletters and grant proposals. I settled into technical writing, often finding myself a one-person writing, editing, design, app development, and publication team. I learned the basics of journalism, and finally, when on maternity leave with my twins, I turned to writing fiction.
I am grateful for every reader I have. Writing can be a solitary pursuit, but it can also be a dialog, a meeting of the minds. I invite you to connect with me:Twitter:  https://twitter.com/AngelaMyronFacebook:  https://www.facebook.com/myron.angela...  http://www.angelamyron.com/Join my street team! Email me at myronangela@gmail.com to subscribe to my newsletters.http://amzn.com/B00DD89L24http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ennara-and-the-fallen-druid-angela-myron/1115601148?ean=2940016708782&itm=1&usri=2940016708782https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/324640
Angela will be awarding to a randomly drawn commenter during each week on the tour, a wall calendar print from http://www.cafepress.com/ennaraswag(Items can be exchanged for other equal or lesser value items from Ennara Swag on Cafepress.), and will award a t-shirt from http://www.cafepress.com/ennaraswag to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour (US ONLY).Link:  http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/YjBjNzEyODRkZWJlNzg4ODMzZTk0OWVhZDQwMzM2OjE=/The tour dates can be found here:    http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/05/virtual-book-tour-ennara-and-fallen.html Angela will be awarding to a randomly drawn commenter during each week on the tour, a wall calendar print from http://www.cafepress.com/ennaraswag(Items can be exchanged for other equal or lesser value items from Ennara Swag on Cafepress.), and will award a t-shirt from http://www.cafepress.com/ennaraswag to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour (US ONLY).The tour dates can be found here:    http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/05/virtual-book-tour-ennara-and-fallen.html



BLURB: The Esposito Series Box Set:
Now you can own the first three books in the sassy and suspenseful Vinnie Esposito Series by J.M. Griffin!
By day, Lavinia (Vinnie) Esposito is a criminal justice instructor at a college in Rhode Island. By night Vinnie is an amateur sleuth, solving murders while trying to avoid getting yelled at by her Italian father, her hunky protective boyfriend Marcus Richmond, and her sexy upstairs tenant, the mysterious Aaron Grant.For Love of Livvy (Book 1)Vinnie investigates the death of her beloved aunt, and a mysterious box is left on her doorstep.Dirty Trouble (Book 2)Someone is stalking Vinnie and that’s just the beginning of her troubles.Dead Wrong (Book 3)Vinnie is out to save her brother from being framed after a valuable painting is stolen. It was so quiet, the town ghostly in its seemingly deserted state. Sundays were always lazy days in Scituate, once church was over. With a glance up and down the street of the small historic Rhode Island village, neat colonial homes stretched along the sides of the road in both directions. No one came into view.
On the doorstep, a package addressed to my recently deceased Aunt Livvy sat wrapped in brown paper. Again, I gawked up and down the street, but only empty sidewalks and barren roadway appeared in the waning light. The idea of a jaunt along the main drag entered my mind. I figured it would be senseless since the street was visible for about two hundred yards in either direction. Whoever had left the package was gone, long gone.
An eternity passed, or so it seemed, while my gaze locked onto the square, little box. Reluctant to touch it, I decided to call the local fire company to come take a gander. Call me paranoid, but as a criminal justice instructor, a recent audit of a class on bomb components remained fresh in my mind.
J.M. lives in rural New England with her husband and two very mysterious catsFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/JM-Griffin/246751368685078Website: http://www.JMGriffin.netTwitter: mycozymysteryBlog: http://mycozymysteries.blogspot.comBuy Link:http://www.lachesispublishing.com/proddetail.asp?prod=EspositoBoxSet1-3EJ.M. will be awarding Tea and Chip Nuts to three randomly drawn commenters (US/CANADA ONLY) during this tour and her Reviews Tour.  The tour dates can be found here:  http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/06/virtual-super-book-blast-tour-esposito.html 

The Mangrove Coast Quote-isms

It's Monday. I trust your weekend was filled with fun and frolic or if not lots of rest and relaxation.
I spent part of mine reading another Randy Wayne White novel. Per usual several  insightful--and some just plain funny--quote-isms caught my eye.

"The awareness of individuality is implicit in the face of anyone, who as a child, is forced to stand apart from the crowd. The reason doesn't matter.  It might be because of skin color, problems at home, clothing that doesn't come up to the expectation of peers, perceived differences in social worth, acne...or one wayward, lonely eye."(Referring to a lazy eye)

"A right-hander's curveball spins in the same direction and with the approximate same degree of inclination as the Earth."

"A little known but potentially useful fact: When children wander away from their parents while on a beach, they almost always go in a direction that puts the sun at their back.
Same with aging runners."

"Love can be extremely painful."
"No shit, Sherlock."

"In baseball"..."the good feelings don't last long enough, and when you screw up, they last way too long..."The same with life."

"Oxygen and assholes--the two most common elements on earth."
~*~I also worked in the garden. Here's some pics.

Weekend and The Difference Between Dog and Cat Trust

Men of Foxwick and Hard-Boiled Eggs

Men of Foxwick by Cherie Reich is now available! This fantasy short story collection features five men from the Kingdom of Foxwick.
A blind teen seeks a place in the kingdom. A dragon seer journeys to Wintermill to spy on the queen. A sword master’s worst fear comes true when he fails to protect the royal family. A king falls in love with an herb witch, but will she feel the same way? A hunter will rise to the challenge to hunt down a man-eating monster.
For more information about Men of Foxwick, please visit Cherie Reich’s blog. Also, Cherie has a special announcement for her email newsletter subscribers. Click here to sign up for her updates and receive a coupon for a free copy of Women of Foxwick. ***  Okay, so the H.H. and I go to lunch at one of the restaurant chain's that's known for its home-style cooking. I order a salad and a hard-boiled egg. I specifically did not ask for the egg on the salad because the last time I did, they did strange things to it. Seriously. So my salad comes but no egg. I ask the waitress for the egg and she comes back with a hard-boiled egg cut in half and the yolk removed.  I know its healthier to just eat the white but I want my yolk. So I reiterate that I would like a hard-boiled egg. The next time she comes back it's with deviled eggs. Really? How hard can this be? But at this point I've given up and say that's fine. I eat my salad and have almost finished when another waitress shows up. Yup, you guessed it, she'd brought my hard-boiled eggs.  The moral of this story...if you want to 'have it your way' better go to Burger King.

Six Thousand Without Power

last week in our county alone. I was at work when the storms went through. The building I work in is  sturdy, but when the winds hit their peak the outside doors were being blown open and slammed shut. By the time I was ready to go home, the worst was over. A block from the college a huge old tree had been uprooted and was blocking the sidewalk and leaning against a fence. I got to my lane and a tree was leaning over the road into the power lines. See pic. Needless to say, no one on my road had power.
I woke up in the middle of the night to the dog barking and flashing strobe lights. I immediately think, yay the power company's here to repair the lines. I look out the window, still seeing flashing lights, but they aren't coming from outside. I look out the other window, same thing. Since I'm barely awake and having problems keeping my eyes open I do this a couple of times before I realize its my computer warning me my battery is running low. sigh.
The next morning we stop by the power company to report the downed tree. After taking the information, the weary clerk tells me she worked thirteen hours the day before and was back in at eight o'clock. They called in help from surrounding counties. That afternoon we regained power.

SBB: Fatal Exposure

[image error] BLURB:“You promise to answer my questions?”
“I said I would.”
He tossed her backpack onto the pile of papers and pulled out the handcuff key. He reached for her wrists and unlocked the cuffs, trying to ignore the alluring fragrance of her skin and hair. Then he stepped back, his impatience mounting as he waited for her to do her part.
But she took her time, righting the chair, taking off her peacoat and draping it over her bag. At last she turned to face him, and for the first time, he got a close look at her in the light. She was even more attractive than he’d expected with her wary green eyes and delicately winged brows, that long tumble of auburn hair. Her mouth was evocative and full, her high, sculpted cheekbones tinged with pink. A smattering of freckles dusted her small nose.
[image error] He raked his gaze down the rest of her—over her small, high breasts and slender waist, slim hips clad in low-slung jeans—and his heart began to thud. She looked amazingly like the computerized image, but softer, far sexier. More vulnerable.
Vulnerable? He stifled a snort. He wouldn’t make that mistake again.
He returned his gaze to hers. And without warning, a sense of awareness arrowed between them, a deep tug of sexual attraction that caught him unprepared. His belly went taut, a rush of adrenaline accelerating his pulse.
He bit back hard on a curse. Wrong time. Wrong place. Definitely the wrong woman, considering she was a potential suspect in his brother’s death. And her reaction didn’t help—her eyes going wide and dark, her breath catching on a quiet gasp, impacting him even more.
“I need a drink,” she muttered, spinning around.
That made two of them.AUTHOR Bio and Links: A former RITA® and Daphne finalist, Gail Barrett has received the Book Buyer’s Best Award, the Holt Medallion, the Booksellers Best, The National Readers’ Choice Award, and numerous other awards.  She lives with her husband in Western Maryland.  Readers can contact her through her website: www.gailbarrett.com.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gail.barrett.961#!/gail.barrett.961
Links to buy the book:Amazon Paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Fatal-Exposure-Harlequin-Romantic-Suspense/dp/0373278276/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369410068&sr=8-1&keywords=gail barrett fatal exposureKindle: http://www.amazon.com/Fatal-Exposure-Buried-Secrets-ebook/dp/B00BAT1Q0S/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369410068&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=gail barrett fatal exposure
Barnes and Noble paperback and Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fatal-exposure-gail-barrett/1113942081?ean=9780373278275
Gail will be awarding a $25 Amazon / BN (or other bookstore of the winner's choice) GC to one randomly drawn commenter during this tour and her other Book Blast on June 21st.
The tour dates can be found here:  http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/05/book-blast-fatal-exposure-by-gail.html

VBT: The Rules of Dreaming

Years ago I imagined a story about a patient in a mental hospital who sits down at the piano in the patient lounge and flawlessly plays a difficult piece of classical music.  Although this usually requires years of instruction and practice, the patient’s psychiatrist discovers that he has no musical training or experience.  So the question I started with is:  Where did this music come from?  Where does any music come from?  Does music come to you as a kind of inspired madness, or does it come from outside the human mind?Then I saw the Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger film, The Tales of Hoffmann, which was made in 1951.  Powell and Pressburger were British directors who also made The Red Shoes and The Thief of Baghdad.  If you haven’t seen their movie of The Tales of Hoffmann, it’s definitely worth renting.  The DVD contains a fascinating commentary by Martin Scorsese, who was strongly influenced by the cinematography.  My interest in the film and the opera led to a study of E.T.A. Hoffmann, a 19-century she was rehearsing—Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann—begins to take over the lives of her two schizophrenic children, the doctors who treat them and everyone else who crosses their paths, until all are enmeshed in a world of deception and delusion, of madness and ultimately of evil and death.  Onto this shadowy stage steps Nicole P., a graduate student who discovers that she too has been assigned a role in the drama. What strange destiny is being worked out in their lives?
EXCERPT: Late last summer, after less than two months at the Palmer Institute, I witnessed an extraordinary performance.  One of my patients, Hunter Morgan (that was not his real name), sat down at the piano in the patient lounge and started playing like a virtuoso.  Hunter was a twenty-one year old schizophrenic who had lived in the Institute for the past seven years, and as far as anyone could remember he’d never touched the piano before.  The piece he played was classical music—that was about all I could tell—and it sounded fiendishly difficult, a whirlwind of chords and notes strung together in a jarring rhythm that seemed the perfect analog of a mind spinning out of control.  He continued playing for about ten minutes and then suddenly stopped in the middle of an intense climactic passage.  Without acknowledging his audience—which consisted of his sister Antonia, his nurse Mrs. Paterson, a few other patients and myself—he stood up from the piano and ran out of the room.
Since I was new at the Institute, the impact of this performance was lost on me at first.  I assumed that Hunter had been studying the piano from an early age.  It wasn’t until later that afternoon, when I reviewed Hunter’s chart and questioned Mrs. Paterson specifically about the piano playing, that I realized how uncanny this incident really was.
“You mean he’s never played the piano before?” AUTHOR INFORMATION:Bruce Hartman has been a bookseller, pianist, songwriter and attorney.  He lives with his wife in Philadelphia.  His previous novel, Perfectly Healthy Man Drops Dead, was published by Salvo Press in 2008.    Bruce will be awarding a fifty dollar Amazon or BN gift card to a randomly drawn commenter.
 








The tour dates can be found here:  http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/04/virtual-book-tour-rules-of-dreaming-by.html

Have a Great Weekend