Parris Afton Bonds's Blog, page 5
January 8, 2018
THE CIRCLES OF LIFE
In the early 1970's, our family lived in Mexico City. A beautiful 16-year-old girl came to live with and help us, as I had just begun my writing career. Isabela was like my daughter, and we both cried when my family returned to the States. Forty-five years later, she and her family arranged for me to return to Mexico and celebrate the New Year with them. How sweet is life with its unexpected twists and turns and adventurous detours – and how sweet is the .99 deal on January 21st for THE MAIDENHEAD, with all its twists and turns and adventurous detours!
"The Virginia Company of London seeks one hundred willing maids for marriage to bachelor planters of James Cittie Colony. Maids must be young, handsome, and honestly educated."
Having read this promising broadside, Modesty Brown flees from arrest in London for the safety of married bliss in the New World. At 26, she might not be young, nor handsome, and most certainly not honest. But educated she is ~ educated enough to start her own 17th century dating service/matchmaking for the other young girls who have signed on and taken the voyage aboard the Maidenhead to contract out as brides in Jamestown.
However, upon her arrival in Jamestown, the saucy wench is accused of witchcraft by a ruthless nobleman – and it’s either burn at the stake or do her own matchmaking for herself quickly.
She contracts to wed Mad Dog Jones. His name says it all. Further, he abhors the thought of being saddled with a wife. Yet their passion for one another cannot be denied by night. And by day each is determined to be rid of the other . . . even if it means for Mad Dog gambling off the indentured contract of his wife, Modesty; even if it means for Modesty killing off her master, Mad Dog.
November 24, 2017
MY GIFT TO YOU THIS CHRISTMAS
A CHRISTMAS STORY UNLIKE ANY YOU HAVE EVER READ !
Did you know Christmas was outlawed in the American Colonies?
(Dec. 15th only)
November 3, 2017
THANKSGIVING DELIRIUM ~ FREE
THE THREE T'S
THANKSGIVING ~ TURKEY ~ AND TIME OFF (for reading)
November 24th only
What could be better? DEEP PURPLE ~ FREE, that's what!
As a child, a young girl with coltish legs and dusky skin, I spent many anxious hours prowling the low desert and the craggy foothills of southeastern Arizona's Huachuca Mountains— anxious hours not just because I was trespassing on the forbidden Cristo Rey land grant but also because I was searching among the rocks and cactus-stubbled dunes for the Ghost Lady, hoping and praying I could get a glimpse of her and at the same time scared to death that I really would.
Some say she haunted that area of Cristo Rey because she was a tormented wraith looking for the lover denied her in life. And others say she rode the area, its barren deserts and rock-clad mountains and lush, grassy valleys, because her soul was condemned to wander Cristo Rey until the fifty thousand acres—and the Stronghold—were at last returned to her heirs.
Of course, I preferred to believe the latter . . . perhaps because at that young age my childish mind could not conceive of a love so great that it would transcend time and space. I had yet to taste of love’s binding passion. But in all likelihood I chose to believe that version of the tale because even then I knew, like my Ghost Lady, my soul would know no peace until I possessed what rightfully belonged to me . . . Cristo Rey.
October 26, 2017
THE DRUMS ARE POUNDING
AND SO WILL YOUR HEART
IN THIS TIMELESS ROMANCE
Turning conventional wisdom on its head, Washington socialite Alessandra O'Quinn and Indian shaman Manuel Mondragon, defy time and space and politics and families to come together in the sweeping canvas of the 1920's outpost of Taos, New Mexico. But can they defy Destiny to stay together?
.99 CENTS
October 29th only
July 29, 2017
LABOR DAY LEISURE READING ~ FREE
Get ready to lay back this Labor Day on your pool mat or your porch hammock or just your comfy couch
and escape for FREE to another place, another time.
Free on August 25th ~ Grab it Here
Australia was the land of the Aborigines’ Dream Time. For Amber Briscoll, exiled there as a convict, Australia was her nightmare. But she vowed to survive for one reason only ~ revenge against the man who had sealed her fate . . . even as her body continued to yearn for his touch.
For Amaris Wilmot, Australia was her Dream Time. And an ex-convict named Sin was her nightmare ~ because she loved him and couldn’t have him.
Fall in love with Australian history on a grand scale ~ from the mind-boggling Outback to the heart-ravaging passions of Amber, Amaris, and Annie ~ and Miles, Sin, and Ryan.
July 15, 2017
CELEBRATING MY BIRTHDAY WITH A FREEBIE
AT FIRST SIGHT
July 21st Only
New Sweden, American colonies ~
Five years before, in 1649, the heads of Lady Evangeline Bradshaw’s father and brother rolled on Cromwell’s chopping block, along with those of King Charles’s and others. Not waiting to see if her head was next, she fled England with the family’s remaining gold and silver crowns, putting a vast ocean between herself and peril.
Even here, in this remotest place on earth one could imagine, Evangeline still does not feel safe. And especially not now, this Christmas Eve, when she opens her Virgin Queen Tavern’s door to admit the midnight traveler Nathan Sutcliff, who is most devilishly handsome ~ and most determined to carry out Cromwell’s order.
June 6, 2017
FREEBIE ~ FREEBIE ~ FREEBIE
JUST IN TIME FOR YOUR FOURTH OF JULY HOLIDAY READING
THE CAPTIVE
6/29 ONLY
The mighty Kincairns, once a powerful Highland clan, are now rebels out to destroy the conquering British invaders. Ranald Kincairn, chieftain of the rebels, swears to take his vengeance by stealing his ruthless foe's virgin bride. But his captive swears to take her own vengeance by making his heart her own captive.
June 4, 2017
GET READY TO CELEBRATE THE FOURTH OF JULY
THE CALLING OF THE CLAN
In Colonial America, when loyalties divided friends and family ~
From somewhere among the colony of North Carolina’s Gaelic gentry, twenty-five-year-old backwoodsman Jacob Dare is determined to find a young woman to recreate the home that his father’s Dare Castle must have been. She would have to be well bred, well read, and gifted with the ability to turn the primitive into the palatial. If she Is favorable to look upon and sweetly dispositioned, that would be even better. That she could ever come to love him is irrelevant.
The Lady Catriona Kilcairn is desperately seeking to save her familial colonial home from 1776’s bloodthirsty insurrectionists, demanding she take the American Oath of Allegiance. Marriage with the backwoods oaf Jacob Dare is her only immediate option, and a most objectionable one, given that her love and loyalty belong to the Sassenach of her youth, the aristocratic Barrett Fairfax.
May 8, 2017
NO, YOU ARE NOT DREAMING!
To thank my readers ~
DREAM TIME
An Australian Saga
.99 cents 5/15 only
Australia was the land of the Aborigines’ Dream Time. For Amber Briscoll, exiled there as a convict, Australia was her nightmare. But she vowed to survive for one reason only ~ revenge against the man who had sealed her fate . . . even as her body continued to yearn for his touch.
For Amaris Wilmot, Australia was her Dream Time. And an ex-convict named Sin was her nightmare ~ because she loved him and couldn’t have him.
Fall in love with Australian history on a grand scale ~ from the mind-boggling Outback to the heart-ravaging passions of Amber, Amaris, and Annie ~ and Miles, Sin, and Ryan.
March 8, 2017
NO APRIL FOOLING ~ A DOUBLE HEADER
AT FIRST SIGHT
(A PRE-ORDER NOVELLA)
&
THE CALLING OF THE CLAN
EACH IS ONLY IS ONLY .99 CENTS 3/30
Get Your Steal-of-a-Deal Here Now
(Regularly $5.27)
From somewhere among the colony of North Carolina’s Gaelic gentry, twenty-five-year-old backwoodsman Jacob Dare is determined to find a young woman to recreate the home that his father’s Dare Castle must have been. She would have to be well bred, well read, and gifted with the ability to turn the primitive into the palatial. If she Is favorable to look upon and sweetly dispositioned, that would be even better. That she could ever come to love him is irrelevant.
The Lady Catriona Kilcairn is desperately seeking to save her familial colonial home from 1776’s bloodthirsty insurrectionists, demanding she take the American Oath of Allegiance. Marriage with the backwoods oaf Jacob Dare is her only immediate option, and a most objectionable one, given that her love and loyalty belong to the Sassenach of her youth, the aristocratic Barrett Fairfax.
Yet, as the famous Scotsman Sir Walter Scott warned, “Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive!”
Christmas, 1654 – New Sweden
Five years before, the heads of Lady Evangeline Bradshaw’s father and brother rolled on Cromwell’s chopping block, along with those of King Charles’s and others. Not waiting to see if her head was next, she fled England with the family’s remaining gold and silver crowns, putting a vast ocean between herself and peril.
Even here, in this remotest place on earth one could imagine, Evangeline still does not feel safe. And especially not now, this Christmas Eve, when she opens her Virgin Queen Tavern’s door to admit the midnight traveler Nathan Sutcliff, who is most devilishly handsome ~ and most determined to carry out Cromwell’s order.
