Rionna Morgan's Blog

Give It Away!

Happy Spring Everyone!

To celebrate Spring and tax season--not that we normally celebrate tax season--but, I'm going to give away all the prizes from 2012 that were not claimed by their winners.  All the items will go to ONE lucky winner!

Here's a List:

Win a Piece of Montana - 1 Item
The Sweet Treat Chocolate & $10.00 Gift Card from Amazon or Barnes & Noble
Small Basket of Made in Montana items: teas, coffees etc...


To enter to win, just visit the Rafflecopter.

Good Luck!

Thank you for stopping by.  I can't wait to Give It Away!

All the Best,
Rionna


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From the Mist

In the mist she saw him and her heart broke. She blinked against her tears and swore at her foolishness.

The green of the Irish landscape stretched before her yet again. She was tied to here. She was tied to the dirt beneath her feet, the dew on the grasses and even the pearled rays of sun that struggled to light this day.

Her heart, yes, could wander the paths he walked, but her body was caged here.

There were some who didn't agree, some who thought she could have gone, should have gone with him. But tradition, family, the land, this place were all the blasted reasons she gave for staying and she clung to them plainly out of spite some days.

Today was not that day. Today she looked across the fields and saw him. She'd curse herself and cry and vow that never again would she let her mind play these tricks. But, then she'd revel in the picture set before her.

She's smile as he'd wink and hold out a butterfly like a magic secret.

Or she'd feel the thrill of being led by his hand to that treasured spot on a rainy evening to see he'd gathered a picnic and built a cozy fire to warm away the chill.

The images would flit and fade and mix with the memories of her mind. But today he was a vivid vision. Today he walked in through the edge of the mists and stood in her door. And her heart splintered.

Why she wondered. She hadn't seen him in ages--the war, his adventures, his need to get away had stolen him from her. All she had were these mad grasps at memories, and she couldn't tell anymore if they were real or imagined.

Tears slipped down her cheeks as she reached to the man. A sob caught in her throat as the man reached, pulling her to him.

She opened her mouth, she wanted to speak, to say she would go with him and that she regretted everyday that she hadn't.

"Darlin' now don't be saying anything. From the moment I stepped away from you, I've dreamed of kissing you again. It's taken me thirty years and a million miles, but I've come back to do just that."



1st Grand Prize: A $100 Amazon or B&N Gift Card2nd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack that contains paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, cover flats, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more!
Be sure to leave a comment to be entered to win!
More Hopping! Click Here!!


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Who's Your Heartbreaker?

Oh boy! What a memory I have for you...

When I was all of about 17, I fell in love with this boy, a cowboy no less. He was a handsome devil. Tall, sweet talking...sweet smiling. My young heart just fell right at his boot covered feet.

I thought we were doing great. Out dancing on Friday nights. Rodeos on Sunday...I was a barrel racer, and he was a bareback rider. What a pair we made; I thought. When February rolled around, I thought I'd do something clever for him. I knew he'd do something sweet for me. He was just that kind of guy.

So I wrote a little poem professing my undying love and carved the short verse on the bottom of a great big Hershey bar. I was so excited all day, so anxious to give him that wonderful, teenage-girl gift.

That night he stopped by. Up to the house he came, a dozen red roses in his hand and a little bear. He said nothing at all, just handed me the roses and the silly little animal and walked away. I smiled like a love sick fool because on each of the roses there was note tied up with ribbon. And a big note on the bear.

Well, I'm not going to go over what each note said, but I will summarize it for you. Basically, he said he wanted to break up with me. He didn't think he could go with a girl who won more money than him in the rodeos and that he really felt I was too short for him.

Ha!  I cut up those roses so fast and ripped the head off of that bear and dumped the whole deal in the trash.

Then I sat down and ate HIS Hershey bar!

What a laugh I have now. That chocolate was really good!

Do you have a heartbreaker in your memory? I'd love to hear about it!

In honor of this Valentine's Day Misery, I'm giving away some sweet Montana chocolate and a $10.00 gift card to Amazon OR Barnes & Noble.

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Be sure to leave a comment with your e-mail to be entered in the GRAND prize drawing!!  It's amazing!!


1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet2nd Grand Prize: A $100 Amazon or B&N Gift Card3rd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack that contains paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, cover flats, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more!
Want More Hops? Click Here: Heartbreaker Hops!

Romance Madness Hop

For this blog hop I want to showcase a few of my favorite authors!  And because I can't choose which book to giveaway, I'm giving away a $10.00 gift card to Amazon OR Barnes & Noble!  So you can pick and choose from these amazing romance writers!~  I've included a few review tidbits to help you choose! Just click on the Rafflecopter to enter my giveaway!

Pam B. Morris's Smitten Image

I was completely caught off guard by the magic within the magic of this story. Pam B. Morris is talented and understands completely how the written word, when done correctly, can take you to places that dreams are made of.


Danica Winters's The Nymph's Labyrinth


This story has something for everyone, mythology, history, danger, romance, and an exotic setting.





Casey Dawes's California Wine

A handsome Italian gentlemen ... a single businesswoman focused on running her boutique ... an Italian vacation ... a charming California coastal town ... wineries. There are plenty of things to like in this book.

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Oh and be sure to click on the picture below to be taken to the next hop!!

Happy Hopping! Happy Winning!!


All the Best,
Rionna

Happy Endings

I believe in happy endings. I believe in the power of love and that this power can and does last beyond the grave. There is a spirit that lingers after a loved one has passed that we feel in our hearts. It may be a brush of air or a ray of sunlight on a shadowed path. But it is there and it gives comfort.

My husband was recently in a terrible accident. And I thought as I stood beside his hospital bed, holding our 10 month old daughter in my arms, while our other children huddled near me with fear beginning to edge across their faces, that the spirit of his life would be all we would have left. That we would remember his smile in flashes of memories. That his arms holding us would be the fleeting brush of a breeze. That his love for me would shine through the darkness to light my path. And I was afraid.

Soon, though, he opened his eyes. When he smiled up at us, our happy ending began.


In honor of happy endings everywhere, I've giving away one of my favorite happy ending stories and a $10.00 gift card to Amazon or Barnes & Noble.  See below to enter!  May your day be filled with romance and mystery!

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Do you have a happy ending?

Ring in the New Year

I can remember a time when 2013 seemed decades away. Now it is upon us, and I couldn't be more excited.  So many wonderful things going on!  As the New Year comes, it is always fun to look back on old memories.  One of my favorite New Year memories is a lovely, romantic one.

December 31st, years ago beneath the soft light of falling snow, close to the hour of midnight, the love of my life knelt before me, asking if I would spend the rest of my life with him.  He promised so many things that evening  ...to share in the laughter of our children, dance with me in our kitchen and make me smile everyday.

He does all of that and more.

'Le Gra Go Deo'  - With Love Forever, my dear husband.


In honor of romance, I'm sharing a few of my favorite books with you.  Check below to enter to win!

Be sure to leave a comment with your e-mail to be entered in the GRAND prize drawing!!

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May you have a blessed New Year!  I'd love to hear one of your memories of years gone by.


May the sun shine, all day long,everything go right, and nothing wrong.May those you love bring love back to you,and may all the wishes you wish come true!
All the Best,Rionna

Drop on by these other Blog Hop Sites for more chances to win!

Blessed Yule

The winter solstice is a joyous time in the Morgan house.  We fill our home with light and laughter.  The candles we burn are red and white, symbolizing the power and courage of love, purity and hope for the coming year. We have a Yule candle that we burn each year, connecting the old with the new, the past with the future.

Each year we have a traditional Celtic meal.

Family2012 Yule Menu

Capons in Wine Sauce
Green Beans & Almonds with Herb Butter
(Mint, Garlic & Parsley Butter)
Colcannon
Caraway Rye Bread

Black Velvet
(Guinness & Champagne)

Chocolate Mousse Yule Log

One of the favorite things we do is our Yule Wish Tradition.

Dance in the Nutcracker again. Everyone in the family has their own tree ornament.  After dinner and dessert, we write our wishes for the new year and attach them to our ornament.
Learn to play the guitar
and be a mermaid...she's 6.

When the evening is over and it's time to sleep into the new day, we each blow out a candle and make a new secret wish to carry in our hearts for the new year.  With my candle, with my wish, I thought of you:  all the wonderful new friends I've met this year.  May your days be filled with joy, may your heart be light and may all the worries of the past fade into nothingness. 
Blessed be you and yours.Blessed Yule, my friends.Rionna

Winter in Montana!

It's wintertime in Montana!  To celebrate, I'm participating in two Blog Hops...each with awesome prizes!!  I'm giving away a few awesome prizes myself.  Look below to see!
Other Sites for this Blog Hop!
One of my favorite Montana winter memories happened last year.  My three daughters were off from school.  It had snowed so much the night before!  In the morning  the whole world looked like it had been sprinkled with magic dust.  We made snowmen and snow angels and went sledding down our tall hills. Hot chocolate and warm cinnamon rolls were just the thing to come in to.  So much snow.  So many giggles. I loved that day!

Other Sites for this Blog Hop!
1st Grand Prize:A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet2nd Grand Prize: A $200 Amazon or B&N Gift Card3rd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack: paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, cover flats, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more!




Be sure to leave a comment with your e-mail address to be entered to win!


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A Christmas in Montana Memory

I am very pleased to introduce the Win a Piece of Montana--November WINNER!  Actually, I've invited her to share a bit about herself.  I am so excited to share her with you.  

Website for Tara ChevresttWhen Ms. Morgan kindly offered me a spot on her blog, there really was no contest as to what I was going to talk about. It came to me almost immediately. Montana. More specifically, Christmas in Montana.

We all have that one Christmas that sticks in our memory as the best Christmas ever, the one we compare all Chrimstasses to and it seems they just don’t compare.

Mine was when I was eight or nine (sometime in the 90s. That’s all you’re getting from me on that.) and my parents saved and scraped and pinched and counted pennies so we could afford for my mother and I to make a trip to Montana to see her family. These trips are expensive as only one major airline *still, to this day* flies to that wonderous state. (That means they can literally get away with charging an arm, a leg, and whatever other body part they want.) We lived in Oklahoma, a long ways away.

This trip, due to airline hubs and flight plans, required us to fly from Oklahoma to Texas, Texas to Salt Lake City, and then Salt Lake City to Butte, MT, where my grandparents would meet us and drive half an hour to Deer Lodge. This was a whole day of traveling. But it was worth it just to see my wonderful family. We only made this trip once every...maybe four years.

And sometimes, there were delays, icy roads, etc. This is Montana we’re talking about, in December.

Well, the Christmas I was eight, we made this trip, and ALL my cousins were there! This was super unusual as they lived in Oregon at the time. This would be the last time all my cousins, all five of us, were together for Christmas. It hasn’t happened since.

My grandmother made fudge, cinnamon rolls, dinner was so full of people, it was like playing musical chairs! There was homemade bread, beef jerky and deer sausage. It was a time full of love and joy and fun. It was what Christmas should be about: NOT toys, not money. I was so content that holiday, I didn’t need much else.

And we went sledding!! My first and only time ever! And snowmobiling too!

And that was truly the holiday that no holiday since has been able to top. I remember sobbing my heart out as our plane went down the Butte runway for takeoff and I left those glorious snow-covered mountains behind to go back to flat, boring Oklahoma. But it wasn’t just a loss of scenery, but a loss of the loving family that surrounded me. It would be a while before I saw them again.

Well, ending this on a happier note, in honor of THIS Christmas, I’m giving away a kindle ebook of my Christmas story, Operation: Enduring Santa.

One lucky commenter will walk away with this book at the end of the day. Just share with me, please, what has been YOUR best Christmas ever and what made it so?

Thank you, Ms. Morgan, and Happy Holidays to all!


Blurb:

USAF fighter pilot Janet Kerrigan is not having a good Christmas. It's bad enough she is stationed in Balad Air Base, Iraq and away from her three-year-old son, but to make matters worse, she has to spend her Christmas day on Combat Air Patrol.

A friend and fellow pilot tells her to make new Christmas memories, and much to Janet's surprise, she does, though not the kind of memories she expects. While flying her F-16 Fighting Falcon in the Iraqi skies, Janet is faced with a difficult choice: follow orders and have the glory or ruin her Air Force career to save Christmas for boys and girls everywhere.

If you wish to know more about me, come check out my Facebook Page!

Win a Piece of Montana - December Giveaway!

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Big Sky, MontanaAll across this great state of mine there are craftsmen and women who carve their livelihoods from their imaginations. They do this to illustrate the love they have for the state they live in, and the pride they have for the people who are their neighbors. I would like to share some of that pride with you.
Thank you for sharing the beautiful Montana with me.  And Good Luck!!