Winter Blogfest: Deanna Wadsworth

This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win one ecopy of my first holiday erotic romance, SECRET SANTA.

A Cookie Recipe and a Giveaway!

December is such a hectic time of year for me. As a professional hair stylist and nail tech, my day job is twice the workload as usual. So I don’t do the whole Christmas cookie extravaganza. I don’t even get as fancy cookie making as Daniel and Clay do in my latest book WELCOME HOME, SOLDIER. Thanksgiving is more my jam, I host it every year and pick up a lot of stragglers who don’t have family plans. I leave Christmas to the friends with kids.

But one thing I always do is make is my great-grandmother’s Scotch shortbread. Have you ever had shortbread? It’s kind of like a snowball but creamier. Probably because of the powdered sugar. I’m not much of a baker so I won’t pretend to know the science of why these cookies melt in your mouth, but they do. And this recipe is crazy easy! So from my home to yours, here is the recipe:

Scotch Shortbread

  1. Cream 1 cup butter and ¾ cup powdered sugar until light and fluffy
  2. Stir in 2 ½ cup flour
  3. Press into 8×8 pan
  4. Bake 300 for 25-30 min
  5. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and cut warm

I hope you try this recipe. Perhaps my family’s shortbread can become a holiday tradition for your family too. Enjoy this excerpt from WELCOME HOME, SOLDIER, one of the thirty holiday romances in the Dreamspinner Holiday Advent collection.

WELCOME HOME, SOLDIER

Clay and Daniel fell in love as enlisted men during Desert Shield, but Don’t Ask Don’t Tell meant they had to keep it secret. After Clay’s convoy was ambushed, PTSD changed him, and their relationship ended in a horrible fight on Christmas Eve.

Twenty-five years later, they’ve reconnected on Facebook, and Clay finds out Daniel will be alone on Christmas Eve. Impulsively, he sets out for Daniel’s hometown of Gilead, Ohio—where Daniel is now the mayor—to surprise him with a visit. But a blizzard strikes and Clay wrecks his car. All hope of seeing Daniel is lost—until a mysterious old man named Nick offers Clay a ride. The weight of past wounds and the scars of war might make their reunion awkward, but Clay is willing to take the risk to win back his lost love. Despite a lifetime of disappointing holidays, Clay hopes that this soldier is finally coming home for Christmas

EXCERPT

“Want some coffee?” Daniel said to avoid blurting, Damn the years treated you well!

“Sure, I’m freezing.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t know about the storm. It’s been all over the news.”

Clay grinned. “You know me. I never think things through first.”

He chuckled. “Since you’re here for the evening, do you want to help me make cookies? It’s sort of a cliché Christmas thing to do, but….”

“Sure.” The grin splitting Clay’s face was electric, and Daniel’s belly fluttered.

Daniel had not forgotten Clay’s toothy grin and those dimples. Back during Desert Shield, the dusting of a youthful beard had hidden his dimples, much to Daniel’s chagrin. But now Clay was clean-shaven, his cheeks a little pink from the elements. The long lean line of his throat, his solid Adam’s apple that bobbed when he talked—all exposed for Daniel’s viewing pleasure. He’d always had a thing for Clay’s neck. Weird, but he couldn’t help it. Clay had stayed in great shape too, unlike the twenty pounds Daniel needed to lose.

Making cookies isn’t helping that! And you were probably going to eat them all yourself!

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And here Clay was, looking like some sort of body-building Daddy.

Once Daniel got Clay a mug of coffee to warm up, he busied himself placing the fresh cookies on a cooling rack.

“What? No cutouts?” Clay said, startling Daniel with how close he stood.

He hadn’t realized Clay had come up beside him. Swallowing hard, he glanced over his shoulder and up. Clay was bigger, wider than he used to be. And damn, the gray hair looked good on him.

Daniel managed to sound calm, though Clay’s nearness made his heart race and his skin warm. “Nah, a cookie’s a cookie.”

“But it’s Christmas, Danny. Shouldn’t we make Santa or candy-cane cookies?”

“I just wanted cookies.” Call me Danny again, please! “No need for theatrics.”

“Theatrics? C’mon, you gotta have cookie cutters around here somewhere.” The hopeful glint in his expression tugged at Daniel’s heart.

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Come on, Danny.”

And then, just like old times, Clay took over, tossing Daniel’s practical plan out the window and making everything more complicated.

But definitely more fun.

With a mismatched collection of cookie cutters, and Clay armed with the rolling pin and leaving a flour mess all over the counters and floor—which George happily licked up—soon they had a tray of hearts, moons, and trees ready to go into the oven. Clay insisted Daniel add food coloring to the frosting, one bowl of green and another of red, which turned out pink. Though he didn’t think it necessary, it was impossible to say no to Clay.

Especially with those dimples and that sexy throat, and the way Clay called him Danny with his now-rougher voice.

You’re hopeless!

Thanks for hosting me and if you share a comment (or better yet a cookie recipe of your own) then you will be entered to win my first Christmas story: SECRET SANTA—Just who was it that came down Adam’s chimney? Find out in this superhot holiday story!

Clay and Daniel fell in love as enlisted men during Desert Shield, but Don’t Ask Don’t Tell meant they had to keep it secret. After Clay’s convoy was ambushed, PTSD changed him, and their relationship ended in a horrible fight on Christmas Eve.
Twenty-five years later, they’ve reconnected on Facebook, and Clay finds out Daniel will be alone on Christmas Eve. Impulsively, he sets out for Daniel’s hometown of Gilead, Ohio—where Daniel is now the mayor—to surprise him with a visit. But a blizzard strikes and Clay wrecks his car. All hope of seeing Daniel is lost—until a mysterious old man named Nick offers Clay a ride. The weight of past wounds and the scars of war might make their reunion awkward, but Clay is willing to take the risk to win back his lost love. Despite a lifetime of disappointing holidays, Clay hopes that this soldier is finally coming home for Christmas.

About the Author: Deanna Wadsworth might be a bestselling erotica author, but she leads a pretty vanilla life in Ohio with her wonderful husband and a couple adorable cocker spaniels. She has been spinning tales and penning stories since childhood, and her first erotic novella was published in 2010. She has served multiple board positions at her local RWA chapter and is the current President-elect 2017 for Rainbow Romance Writers of America. When she isn’t writing books or brainstorming with friends, you can find her making people gorgeous in a beauty salon. She loves music and dancing, and can often be seen hanging out on the sandbar in the muddy Maumee River or chilling with her hubby and a cocktail in their basement bar. In between all that fun, Deanna cherishes the quiet times when she can let her wildly active imagination have the full run of her mind. Her fascination with people and the interworkings of their relationships have always inspired her to write romance with spice and love without boundaries.

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Buy the book at Dreamspinner Press.

Winter Blogfest: Ravon Silvius

This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win a digital copy of The Storm Lords.

Christmas Without Snow 

Ravon Silvius here, author of The Storm Lords. You may have heard of it as that fantasy M/M romance that revolves around the weather. So today I want to talk about the weather a little bit, and how it can set a mood—even if it doesn’t quite seem to fit the mood at first glance.

I love Christmas time, but where I grew up, it was a little different from what you see on TV.  The iconic image of a Merry Christmas is a blanket of snow over everything, with a warm fire burning in the hearth and gifts piled under a pine tree. Check out most Christmas logos—chances are, they’ll have snow or a wintery theme. I distinctly remember an old cartoon where the child character was very worried that Christmas wouldn’t happen without snow. The episode resolved with a magical snowstorm that made it a white Christmas.

But it doesn’t snow where I grew up. In Northern California, we were lucky if it even rained. And there are plenty of places where the weather is far from Christmasy—I spent a week before Christmas last year in Mexico. The hotel had a huge Christmas tree in the lobby, but outside it was 80 degrees and there were cacti everywhere. People don’t ordinarily think of Christmas time as being good for a beach vacation, but it was certainly enjoyable!

In my writing, I love using the weather to set a scene and enhance the mood. It’s a fairly common thing for writers to do—after all, nothing makes a spooky scene spookier like a thunderstorm, and a nice soft blanket of snow makes everything feel cozy when two characters are intimate.  But sometimes, like a desert Christmas, it can be fun to have a setting not quite match the mood. The contrast can somehow, paradoxically, make things even more intense. A scary storm can make a few grabbed moments of intimacy feel even sweeter. Maybe there’s a nice layer of snow, but the angry conflict between two characters is hot enough to melt it. Having the setting not fit with the action can enhance the scene and make people pay close attention to what the character are doing and thinking.

Think of it this way—a family is opening gifts in a nice warm house and a roaring fire is offset nicely by snow falling outside the windows. It’s a picturesque scene that you’d find on a hallmark card. But what if outside the windows there was a bright sunny day, and the people inside opening gifts were wearing swimsuits after just getting back from the pool? That was my Christmas as a child. Its still a nice, happy family setting. But its unusual, and that can tell a story by itself and make readers take notice.
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The heat took everything from Rowen: his parents, his voice when the local cure for heatstroke poisoned him, and the trust of his fellow villagers, who branded him a water thief. It would have claimed his life when he was deemed unworthy of precious resources and left in the sun to die, had not a strange man named Kristoff ridden in on the wind and told Rowen he had power.

Rowen works hard to become a Storm Lord, one of a secret magical group that brings storms to break the heat waves overtaking their world. But Rowen is starting his training at a disadvantage since he cannot speak and is much older than the other novices. The desire to please Kristoff inspires him to persevere even more than the threat of being sent back to his village to die should he fail. Still, he cannot gather rain, and when his abilities manifest, they are unlike anything known to the Storm Lords. Unless Kristoff can help him control his deadly powers, the entire world will be in danger.

Kristoff might be among the mightiest of the Storm Lords, but he’s never been a mentor before. For a chance to be with Rowen, he’s willing to risk everything.

About the Author: Ravon Silvius lives in a tiny apartment with two tiny cats in a tiny town in the United States. Despite the cramped living quarters, Ravon enjoys coming up with big ideas for novels, with some plots coming from Ravon’s findings as a neuroscience researcher and others coming purely from Ravon’s imagination.

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Winter Blogfest: Megan Morgan

This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card.

The Life of a Christmas Tree

What’s the best part about Christmas? The Christmas tree, of course! Many of us put one of these up in our homes. We enjoy decorating it, lighting it up, and stuffing presents underneath it. And, for households with a cat, we cross our fingers that our furry friend at least gives it 24 hours before their first attempt to climb it or knock all the bulbs off it.

I love putting up the Christmas tree. On the day I put it up, my son and I spend hours decorating it, playing Christmas music, and having some real family time. However, I’m rather pragmatic about my tree. I know a lot of people who put up their Christmas tree very early, people who put it up on Thanksgiving, and of course, people who leave it up well into January. While I like having a Christmas tree around, I feel like putting it up too early and leaving it up too long will just oversaturate the joy of it for me. I prefer to keep my Christmas tree around for a shorter time, so it feels more special.

I never put my tree up until it’s actually December. I figure that’s good enough, especially since the stores are already shoving Christmas down my throat as soon as Halloween is over. If I want Christmas before or after my allotted Christmas tree time, I only need to take a walk through town, as Christmas isn’t hard to come by in public as soon as November begins, and then sticks around well past Christmas, into the New Year. But inside my house, I only want Christmas in December! To me, it doesn’t “feel” like Christmas until December rolls around.

Am I being a Scrooge? Not at all. I love Christmas! I love decorating for it and I love having a tree up. I just don’t want to overdo it for myself and end up resenting it. As I said, having it around for a shorter time makes it feel more special to me. Just like summer—since I unfortunately live in a part of the world where summer is short and fleeting, and all the more precious for it, we get it in small doses and have to enjoy it heartily. If I lived in a place where summer lasts for ages, I’d probably be longing for winter. If Christmas lasted for months, I’d get tired of it.

Of course, I don’t mind when I go to visit friends and they already have their tree up by Thanksgiving. To each their own, and I’ll enjoy all your trees, lights, and decorations, whenever and for however long you choose to keep them up! It’s a joyous season and we should take the time to celebrate, especially with sparkles and lights. But if you’re already feeling like there’s too much Christmas being heaped on you as soon as the turkey is eaten, stop over at my place. ?

How about you? When do you put your tree up? When do you take it down? Do you like having a Christmas tree around for a nice long while, or would you rather have a short engagement with it? No matter how long your celebration, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!


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Witches and Lycans and hillbillies, oh my!

Lorena Mills is a witch, but she’s not very good with potions and incantations. Working for a government agency that puts down dangerous uprisings of supernatural creatures, she does much more paperwork than spell casting. When her less-than-magical job lands her in the small Appalachian town of Blue Ditch, Kentucky, in the shadow of Black Mountain, her life starts to get a whole lot wilder.

In the forests surrounding the town, Wolvites—twisted, bestial creatures who hunt and kill humans—are posing a threat. When handsome, charming, and altogether reckless local Deacon Kelley insists on taking matters into his own hands, Lorena has more than monsters to worry about. He won’t stay out of her way, and he won’t take no for an answer.

Deacon is a Lycan–in modern terms, the non-shifting descendants of werewolves–and he and his family have protected Blue Ditch for generations. But now, something too sinister to be controlled by their efforts alone is stirring, and the Wolvites are far more vicious than they’ve ever been. Will Lorena be able to stop the threat and uncover the deadly secrets surrounding it before it’s too late?

To keep the town, and Deacon, safe, she’ll have to—and she’s really starting to like this town.

About the Author: Megan Morgan is an award-winning paranormal and contemporary romance author from Cleveland, Ohio. She also writes urban fantasy. A mild-mannered bartender by day and purveyor of things that go bump in the night, she’s trying to turn writing into her day job, so she can be on the other side of the bar for a change. She lives on the often-wintry shores of Lake Erie with her spoiled cat and adult son, both of whom shed too much.

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Winter Blogfest: Clare London

This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win a free download in the format of your choice of any of my Christmas-themed books. All the choices can be seen at www.clarelondon.com/all-books/if-you-like-christmas/.

This Xmas 2017

This year I’ve been revisiting that perennial question: What do I want for Christmas?

Isn’t it always, what do *I* want? We really are driven towards being selfish, demanding and materialistic, even if our better self fights against it all the way.

Christmas is a special time for children, and despite all the marketing aimed cynically toward them, I think my two sons are very compassionate and tolerant of the wider issues in life. And that’s considering they’re young men and their minds rarely step beyond beer, FIFA, South Park re-runs, the latest guitar, boxing, and pizza.

 

We were all sick with the flu last year – I can’t remember us ever being that bad. Son#1 survived the best—partly because he escaped to the pub, he SAID it was to protect himself from the Contamination Zone—but Son#2 felt pretty bad. Both boys have been very healthy through their lives apart from the usual scrapes and occasional broken bones.

So this has all made me think more carefully. And made me rethink MY Christmas list.  Maybe I can wait for that diamond ring / new laptop / pair of Jimmy Choo’s / personal whippy ice cream maker that have all been on the list since I was a teenager LOL.

For example, I’d want…

  • Good health, for me, my family, and my friends.
  • Son#1 to continue playing guitar and singing, bringing pleasure to so many, and to find the job of his dreams.
  • Son#2 to succeed in his career, and hold on to his inspiring enthusiasm and liveliness.
  • Hubby to continue to enjoy teaching, despite the crippling administrative burden that teachers have to cope with nowadays.
  • My house to continue to stand steady, despite looking internally like a small thermonuclear device went off in a few of the rooms.
  • (am I allowed a small personal wish?! LOL) More time to write, and plenty of cheeky, sexy ideas to share.

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And for us all?

  • To continue to laugh, to love music and books and art, to over-eat all the good things, to talk, to argue, to be distracted by new and interesting topics, to leap to the defence of intolerance, to worry we never do everything properly enough, to forget to say ‘no’ when someone needs a hand…

All the things that make us HUMAN!!!

Do you have any alternative wishes you’d like to put on the list?!

The Peppermint Schnapps Predicament by Clare London

Frankie Faraday is a promising young salesperson at Mason’s Emporium. Bill Mason is his boss, the son of the store’s founder, and the object of Frankie’s long-suffering, deeply devoted crush. Bill is steady and sober; Frankie is frivolous and flaky. Or so they seem to each other, until the night of the annual inventory, when they’re trapped together in the Seasonal Gifts storeroom, with nothing but candy and peppermint schnapps to sustain them until they’re rescued. And then the real truths—and something definitely more intimate—emerge!

About the Author: Clare London took her pen name from the city where she lives, loves, and writes. A lone, brave female in a frenetic, testosterone-fuelled family home, she juggles her writing with her other day job as an accountant.
She’s written in many genres and across many settings, with award-winning novels and short stories published both online and in print. She says she likes variety in her writing while friends say she’s just fickle, but as long as both theories spawn good fiction, she’s happy. Most of her work features male/male romance and drama with a healthy serving of physical passion, as she enjoys both reading and writing about strong, sympathetic, and sexy characters.
Clare currently has several novels sulking at that tricky chapter three stage and plenty of other projects in mind… she just has to find out where she left them in that frenetic, testosterone-fuelled family home.
Clare loves to hear from readers, and you can contact her at her website and all over social media.

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Winter Blogfest: Jianne Carlo

This post is part of Long and Short’s Review Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win 3 copies of Sinner.

Christmas 2017

I love Christmas. It’s my favorite time of year.

While other families have traditions that date back generations, my family is too young, too geographically widespread, and too culturally diverse for a single set of regulated activities surrounding the holiday.

My mom’s the daughter of first-generation Portuguese immigrants to Guyana, and my dad was the product of a Portuguese gold mine owner and his Indian indentured servant (his mistress – he legalized his sons – we know nothing about any daughters he may have had).

So I’m 3/4 Portuguese and 1/4 Indian. I met & married my Dutch-born Canadian husband in college. We have 3 sons. They check off most boxes re ethnicity.

My 3 brothers are pretty much in the same situation with their wives; one red-headed Irish female, one Columbian, and one of French origin. You should see our family pictures. We look like a UN section.

The only tradition we have is one inherited from my grandfather.

We make a dish called Garlic Pork. Basically cubes of pork are marinated in a mixture of garlic, thyme, vinegar, and pepper for four days. The pork is removed from the mixture, washed, dried, and then steamed. On Christmas morning, the cubes are deep-fried, and served for breakfast with toast. The chaser, so you don’t repeat the garlic, is a screwdriver, heavy on the vodka. This sounds gross, but it is absolutely delish. My mouth’s watering just thinking about it. Email me if you’re interested in the recipe.

In the summer of 2008, Loose-Id put out a call for books based on Christmas songs. I started going through my list of favorite seasonal tunes and could not for the life of me get past ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas.’

You know that thing where a jingle sticks in your head and will not go away no matter what you do… It drove me batty. And *light bulb moment*, a partridge in a pear tree became a paratrooper in a pear tree. Snap your fingers and The Hades Squad series was born!

A Paratrooper in a Pear Tree, now re-released as Sinner, starts with Linc Chapman, opera singer and SEAL, landing unconscious in a pear tree. His soon-to-be wife, Destiny Driven (her real name) is an editor sent to ‘sex up’ a reluctant author’s work. When Linc, aka Sinner, awakens, he discovers Destiny’s hoard of sex toys and vintage 70s porn DVDs.

It’s all uphill from there.

I think though, that I love the ending the best.

Excerpt – Sinner:

~~~

Performance rehearsals devoured most of the five days before the wedding. Never in his life had Linc ever been anxious before a concert, but his nerves sparked that week every time he sang his bass solo for Handel’s Messiah. Lincoln was singing for one woman and one woman alone. This performance was more than a concert—it was the foundation the remainder of his life would rest on. It had to be perfect.

His wedding day dawned gray and overcast. Moisture hung in the air. He wanted to howl at the heavens. How dare they mar his perfect day?

English ivy, the variegated leaves glistening silver in the flickering candles nestled into each pew’s entrance, trailed the burnished mahogany back of each bench. Irish ivy boasting shining dark emerald leaves and clusters of electric blue berries decorated the gray and white altar.

Not a pin dropped during Linc’s solo.

His gaze roved the audience as he sang.

No Destiny.

The conductor caught his searching glance and rolled his eyes left to the vestibule. Only Destiny’s face was visible, her black eyes brimmed moisture, a lone tear snaking down her cheek. She smiled, the gesture dreamy, enchanted. As he sang the last note, he bowed in her direction.
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The “Hallelujah” chorus, low and hypnotic, bounced from wall to wall and up to the cathedral’s high, domed ceiling.

Destiny, escorted by Lincoln’s father, began the traditional bridal walk.

~~~

To enter a contest to win a free copy of Sinner either Follow Me on BookBub or Sign Up for My Newsletter (it should read—my very infrequent newsletter—I am such a slacker):

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The winners (3) will be announced January 3, 2018 here.

www.jiannecarlo.com

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Have a great Christmas season, stay safe on the road, and don’t let your credit cards go overboard in the malls (it’s proven, it’s the plastic’s  fault not yours).

Cheers,

Jianne Carlo

Follow Me on Amazon

 

Navy SEAL Sinner’s trapped in a blizzard with Destiny, a woman traveling with porn DVDs, whips, and cuffs. When the electricity fails, there’s only one way to stay hot.

Navy SEAL Sinner is no choir boy. Deployed to fight an out-of-control brush fire in Alaska, Sinner is the last smoke jumper to exit the plane. Sinner veers off course, his chute fails, his reserve opens, and he’s knocked unconscious when he lands in a pear tree. Sinner awakens in a cabin to the sight of a woman with the face of a Madonna and the body of a stripper tending to him.

Destiny is in Alaska, armed with whips, cuffs, and copies of “classic”—who knew?—porn movies, to “sex up” former bestselling author Nadine Roland’s latest manuscript. It’s make or break it time for Destiny, career wise. The last thing she needs is a car that won’t start, a fricking blizzard, and a SEAL named Sinner who thinks she’s into BDSM because of her “toys.”

Sinner doesn’t believe Destiny is a book editor, not for a second. He knows they’re trapped in the cabin for at least two days. When the lights go out, Sinner knows exactly how he’s going to stay warm.

About the Author: Award winning author, Jianne Carlo’s motto is simple: Alpha Me Please.
While strong heroines, exotic locations, and cultural differences are her forte, she goes weak in the knees for bad boys, warriors, and alphas. Send her a man with an attitude and she’ll find the right woman to tame him.

Jianne loves hot and spicy food, stomach-plunging park rides, and is kept on her toes by her Viking husband of thirty-five years, and three, handsome grown sons. Jianne’s a Zumba addict who loves to cook. Her favorite possession is her ‘Robo-stove. There’s nothing she likes more than hearing from readers.

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Winter Blogfest: Sean Michael

This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win an ebook copy of Daddy Needs a Date.

Winter Wonderland

I do love winter. Once Halloween is over, I’m ready for snow and lots of it. By November the trees have lost all their leaves and there are far fewer sunny days. The snow brightens everything up and dresses the trees up in their winter finery. While I love all the greenery in the summer, I love a winter view even more. It’s stunningly beautiful.

There’s also a hush that comes with a snowstorm, as if the snow itself is blanketing the world, not just with a blanket that you can see, but one that dulls all the other outside sounds. You can walk out in a snowstorm and all the falling snow makes no sound as it falls and hits the ground. It’s just quiet. When you go walking in freshly fallen snow, and you can hear the crunch of the white stuff under your boots, but while it’s falling, there’s nothing. It’s like magic.

It’s not just the snow, though, I also love the colder weather. I love coming in from the cold and taking off the layers, slowly warming up from the cold. Hot chocolate doesn’t taste nearly as good any other time of the year. It’s best enjoyed on a cold day – the colder it is the better the hot chocolate tastes. Even holding the hot mug feels good. There is more sun in the winter than in fall, the days often bright and sharp, the sky never so blue as it is on a deeply cold day.

I kind of hibernate in the summer. The hot days play with my mind and I don’t get nearly as much done as I do in the winter. The snow comes and with it my creativity awakens again for the season. I usually get far more done in winter than I do in summer.

Finally, there’s Christmas and the New Year. Christmas is one of my favorite holidays – with the coloured lights and all the decorations. Buying and wrapping gifts, making cookies and cooking for family. I even love the feeling on Christmas Day once all the eating and gifting is over, that sense of relaxation and ease now that everything is done.

As for the new year – I totally appreciate being able to reset, to wipe the slate clean and start over again. That feeling usually doesn’t last very long, but that’s okay, because where I live, there’s still at least three more months of winter to revel in.

So give me my winter wonderland and I am happy down to the bone.
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smut fixes everything.

With four girls, single dad Ryan Withers has his hands too full to look for romance. He’s not complaining—he loves his daughter and the three nieces he adopted when their parents died, and he would do anything for them. He’s caught off-guard when his mother and daughter conspire to play matchmaker.

Alex Bernot works in disaster relief, his job taking him all over the world for extended periods of time, helping others. He’s staying with his aunt while he’s home, and she sets him up on a blind date. Finding a special someone isn’t really on his mind, but he goes to make his aunt happy.
Ryan and Alex enjoy each other’s company more than either of them expected, and they soon make a second date.

Their lives are complicated, though, in very different ways, and soon family needs and their jobs conspire to pull them apart. They’ll need to figure out how to work through the things keeping them apart, but first they’ll have to decide if they even want to….

About the Author: Best-selling author Sean Michael is a maple leaf–loving Canadian who spends hours hiding out in used book stores. With far more ideas than time, Sean keeps several documents open at all times. From romance to fantasy, paranormal and sci-fi, Sean is limited only by the need for sleep—and the periodic Beaver Tail.

Sean fantasizes about one day retiring on a secluded island populated entirely by horseshoe crabs after inventing a brain-to-computer dictation system. Until then, Sean will continue to write the old-fashioned way.

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Winter Blogfest: Charli Coty

This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win an ebook copy of Toy Run, plus a backlist book of the winner’s choice (from either of my pen names).

Holiday Traditions

Hello and Happy Holidays! Thanks to everyone at Long and Short Reviews for having me!

Today I’m going to talk about a holiday tradition that’s near and dear to my heart: toy drives. For my whole adult life I’ve participated in holiday toy drives, whether they were through an office or a bike run, and have bought just about every kind of toy. When I was younger (and had a young child) I donated blocks and stuffed animals, and as I got older those gifts changed to basketballs, footballs, and board games. I’m sure many of you reading this have given toys too, whether directly to your local firehouse or children’s hospital, or maybe you dropped them into a donation box at Target.

And I’d like to thank you on behalf of all of the children who had a gift on Christmas morning because of you.

You see, when I was a child, my sister and I received donated toys on more than one Christmas. Those years were difficult in many ways, and the whole family felt the shame of having our Christmas gifts delivered by a charity truck. But through all that, I was grateful. Grateful that people I didn’t even know cared enough to make our holiday brighter. Later, I was grateful to be in a position to give that gift to someone else in need. I’ve worked hard through the years, and have always been proud to be able to put a board game in the barrel or give a fancy box set of books to a child in the hospital over the holidays.

I’d love to fill the comments on this post with links to your local toy drives or the toy list you’re planning on buying to donate this year. Let’s make sure every kid has a gift, no matter what holiday they celebrate! Even a $5 gift is better than none at all. I’ve had a difficult year, but plan to shop Cyber Monday for a few cool, geeky toys to make a child’s holiday special!

One random commenter on this post will get a copy of my biker holiday Romance, Toy Run, and a backlist book of their choice (either under my Charli Coty pen name, or Charley Descoteaux).

Thank you for reading and Happy Holidays!

Here’s a teaser from the opening of Toy Run, to get you in the mood!

It was a terrible idea, riding north. For the same five hundred miles I could be in Vegas or San Diego—but terrible ideas were sort of my specialty. Besides, if it all went to hell, I’d just keep moving. Another specialty.

I backed up to the curb, killed the engine, and sat leaning against my pack. Hours early, again. It’s not easy to arrive fashionably late when you have nowhere else to be. I flipped the helmet visor up, and glare from the fog and mist made me want to flip it back down. It was dark when I left Ashland two hundred and fifty miles ago. I missed full dark, but by then the only dark to be found was somewhere over the Pacific. As it was, I could almost see the reflection of the floodlight bouncing off my helmet. Being black didn’t help that thing. Being wet probably didn’t either, but that was what I got for riding into Oregon in December.

A growl in my stomach kicked the rest of me into gear. A moment later my two-ton helmet sat where my ass had been, and I headed toward the truck-stop diner, leathers creaking like my knees would be by the end of the day if it didn’t warm up. Birds know what they’re doing, flying south for the winter.

Every head turned when the bells hanging on the front door slapped against the glass. The smell of toast and coffee and the warm air were welcoming enough. They watched me every step of the way, the redheaded stepchild coming in after curfew. They were half right.

I nodded to the man sitting beside the only empty stool at the counter and shrugged my jacket off before easing onto it. The stool on the end—things were looking up already. He nodded back and extended his hand.

“Ed Gonzalez.”

We shook.

This stems from their innate abilities to regenerate, re-grow, and repair any tissue or cell type within your body. canadian viagra pills Fatty foods are difficult to digest those that contain insoluble best price viagra fats. It has sildenafil 50mg been found out through various research studies that problem of erectile dysfunction occurs due to bad eating habits. cipla generic viagra With a car, comes its timely maintenance. “Ian Bowen.”

I grabbed a menu from the holder in front of me, but my stomach had gone from rumbling to shivering. In the space of one handshake, eating became less important than getting out from under his gaze. It usually took a lot more than a pair of dark eyes for me to give up my full name, but those weren’t just any eyes. So brown they were almost black, and full of the promise of rough sex.

Or an ass kicking. Hard to tell. Knowing things like that was not a specialty of mine.

“You here for the run?”

“That’s right.” I crooked my thumb toward the parking lot and couldn’t help smiling. “One of my bags is full of toys.”

“You come in on that blue Shovel?”

“That’s right.” My smile and friendly voice stuck around with some effort. He’d been in a position to see me park her, but I could think of worse ways to spend breakfast than making conversation with Ed Gonzalez. “And you?”

“Green Knuck.”

He nodded toward the other end of the row of bikes parked outside the diner. A green bike. Ed Gonzalez must be younger than he looked, or maybe just not superstitious. Couldn’t pay me to sit on a green bike, let alone buy one. Granddad’s oldest brother and childhood idol had fought in World War II, and Granddad passed all his superstitions down to me.

The Knucklehead sported a two-tone olive-drab paint job and a pyramid of Nerf balls lashed to the rack behind a brown solo saddle seat that could’ve been the original. Late 1930s was my guess. A young gal with Heather on her name tag poured coffee and took my order. Ed didn’t turn away.

“You from around here?” I asked him. “I just got in and am going to need a friendly motel.”

He nodded thoughtfully. The noise level in the diner had been growing steadily higher as more bikes arrived. He bent his head toward me, and I had to lean against the counter to get my arms away from my body before I started to sweat.

Former physical therapist and reluctant loner Ian Bowen has spent the three years since his grandfather’s death searching for a man to inspire him to park his Harley—without much hope of finding him. Terrible ideas are one of Ian’s specialties so when he shows up for a Toy Run in Oregon and finds ice instead of rain, he’s not surprised. Ian meets Ed Gonzalez, another loner with a pile of toys lashed to his bike, and a few beers at the end-of-the-run party turn into an invitation to Ed’s for homebrew. Instead of a hot hookup, the unseasonable cold renders Ed immobile with pain. Before Ed can get to his meds, Ian massages Ed’s pain away, allowing him a restful night’s sleep and creating intimacy neither wants to lose. Ian thinks two men have to follow certain rules to be together, but Ed’s prepared to show him how wrong he is.

About the Author: Charli misspent a large chunk of her youth on the back of a Harley, meeting people and having adventures that sometimes pop up in her fiction. She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area during a drought, and found her true home in the soggy Pacific Northwest. Charley has survived earthquakes, tornadoes, and floods, but couldn’t make it through one day without stories.

Charli Coty is a pseudonym of the author known as Charley Descoteaux.

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Winter Blogfest: Xenia Melzer

This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of A Dom and His Writer (ebook).

My Favorite Christmas Food

We probably all have it – that special food that brings back fond childhood memories and immediately gets us into the mood for Christmas. I have to admit, now that I have children of my own, one in elementary school, one in kindergarten, the Christmas season has lost a great deal of its appeal. There’s just too many events that require me to bake like a maniac, to brew punch, to find small presents for the school advent calendar (not more than three Euros and gender neutral, because the presents are raffled), to make nice little arrangements with lots of gold and glitter and candles, and festivities I have to attend with the children. Don’t get me wrong, my children love it and I do my best to create fond memories for them, just like my grandmother and mother did for me and my sister, but once you’re in charge of making the season jolly, it gets less jolly for yourself.

Apart from trying to keep the stress out of the Christmas season as much as possible, I also have one sure-fire method to get myself in the mood. My Christmas food are Vanillekipferl. That’s a kind of cookie mainly found in Bavaria and Austria, and my whole family loves them. Before I start baking, I put on Frank Sinatra’s Christmas album, and when he starts singing “Adeste Fidelis”, I can feel the spirit of Christmas deep inside.

To make a batch of Vanillekipferl, you need:

250 g flour (wheat or spelt, not too dark)

2 packages of vanilla sugar (preferably with the dark dots in it)

75 g powdered sugar

a dash of salt

100 g grounded almonds or hazelnuts (my family prefers hazelnuts, the traditional recipe asks for almonds; your choice ?)

200 g butter (the real deal, sorry, Christmas is NOT the time to watch your waist line…)

2 vanilla beans

100 g sugar

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Take the dough out and make noodles as thick as your finger, then cut them every five centimeters/slightly less than two inches and form little half-moons. Put them on cookie sheets with baking paper and put it in the oven for about 12 minutes.

Meanwhile, open the vanilla beans and mix the content with the sugar (if you can get your hands on sugar that’s already mixed with those delicious black dots, go for it!) in a flat bowl.

Take the Vanillekipferl out of the oven and start rolling them in the sugar while they’re still hot.

Put them in a cookie jar and wait a few days, then enjoy!

 

Life is perfect for Richard and Dean. Richard is a wealthy and successful businessman who also owns a BDSM club, and Dean is a bestselling author and sub to Richard. They’re young, happy, and in love. The future is bright….

Until tragedy strikes and an accident claims Dean’s beloved sister. Dean also finds himself the guardian of a three-month-old infant, and soon he’s trading in his leather fetish gear for diapers and drool bibs. But little Emily is all that remains of his family, so how can he abandon her?

It’s not what Richard signed up for. As much as he tries to be supportive, he never wanted kids and misses having his partner to himself. Suddenly the life he imagined for them is gone, and he’s not sure their relationship can survive the upheaval. But fate isn’t through with Dean, and when misfortune strikes again, will he be able to turn to the man he loves? A final crisis will determine if they can pull together as a family or they must face facts and part ways.

About the Author: Xenia Melzer was born and raised in a small village in the South of Bavaria. As one of nature’s true chocoholics, she’s always in search of the perfect chocolate experience. So far, she’s had about a dozen truly remarkable ones. Despite having been in close proximity to the mountains all her life, she has never understood why so many people think snow sports are fun. There are neither chocolate nor horses involved and it’s cold by definition, so where’s the sense? She does not like beer either and has never been to the Oktoberfest – no quality chocolate there.

Even though her mind is preoccupied with various stories most of the time, Xenia has managed to get through school and university with surprisingly good grades. Right after school she met her one true love who showed her that reality is capable of producing some truly amazing love stories itself.
While she was having her two children, she started writing down the most persistent stories in her head as a way of relieving mommy-related stress symptoms. As it turned out, the stress-relief has now become a source of the same, albeit a positive one.

When she’s not writing, she teaches English at school, enjoys riding and running, spending time with her kids, and dancing with her husband. If you want to contact her, please visit either her website or write her an email: info@xeniamelzer.com.

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Winter Blogfest: Wendi Zwaduk

This post is part of Long and Short’s Review Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win a handcuff necklace made by the author along with autographed swag.

A New Tradition for Christmas 

I’ve talked in the past about my family’s traditions for Christmas. We take supplies to the pet shelters, donate toys to the toy drives and food to the shelter, but last year, we decided to make a new tradition in addition to those.

Ohio is home to the Christmas Story house. Yes, the actual house used in the movie. It’s been restored and fixed so it looks like it did in the movie. To help raise money for the restoration and because it’s fun to run, they’ve organized a 5k run called…the Christmas Story House 5k/10k Run. I know, real original name, but it’s fun. Every year a few actors from the movie show up, a big crowd shows up to run and most everyone dresses up as their favorite characters from the movie. Leg lamps, thieves, pink bunny suits… you name it. They will come.

Photo credit: Korona Lacasse (Run, Santa…RUN!) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

So we’ve decided to do this run. I’ll admit. I’m not a runner. Not a chance. My knees are still shot from when I danced in school. But I’m going to do this. Yep. I’m going to. We’ll donate money to the house, but mostly it’ll be sweating together, dressing up in silly costumes and the fun of being a family.

Do you have a tradition your family does? Something that brings the family together? Maybe something that’s silly? Something serious? Maybe there’s a tradition you’d like to enact. What is it? I’d love to know.
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She’s always known who she wanted. Now she’s needs to find the strength to make him see they’re more than a mistake.

Molly Neff creates promotional art for companies with confidence and her working partner is sex on legs. Austin Dean is sexy, smart and everything she’s wanted in a man since the moment they met. They’ve slept together a couple of times, but things haven’t worked out between them. When another woman enters the picture, can Molly convince Austin they belong together or will the relationship end up scrapped for a better idea?

As much as he likes working with Molly, Austin wants more out of life than creating advertising campaigns for others. He wants to be the star. Molly has always been his good luck charm—with her brains and charm, she helps him make his dream come true. But his starring role comes with complications. He’s always sort of known he loved Molly, but another woman wants his attention. Will he choose Molly and a simple life with her or the bright lights of fame?

About the Author: Wendi Zwaduk is a multi-published, award-winning author of more than one-hundred short stories and novels. She’s been writing since 2008 and published since 2009. Her stories range from the contemporary and paranormal to BDSM and LGBTQ themes. No matter what the length, her works are always hot, but with a lot of heart. She enjoys giving her characters a second chance at love, no matter what the form. She’s been the runner up in the Kink Category at Love Romances Café as well as nominated at the LRC for best contemporary, best ménage and best anthology. Her books have made it to the bestseller lists on Amazon.com and the former AllRomance Ebooks. She also writes under the name of Megan Slayer.

When she’s not writing, she spends time with her husband and son as well as three dogs and three cats. She enjoys art, music and racing, but football is her sport of choice.

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Menage in Paradise by Anya Summers – Spotlight and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Anya will be awarding a $15 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Ian has wanted Olivia from the moment they first met. They shared a torrid one-night-stand in Scotland a year prior and never spoke of it again. Now they are business partners, and Ian has plans to woo Olivia back into his bed permanently.

Eric Thomas is a drummer from the superstar rock band, The Harbingers. When he meets Olivia, he knows there’s something different about her. He wants her – and not just for the night.

But when the two Doms cause a stir with their antics on Pleasure Island as they each attempt to win Olivia, they will be forced to contemplate another means of attaining their prize. Can they convince Olivia to experience the fantasy of a ménage with them? And will what happens on Pleasure Island stay that way?

Publisher’s Note: While this steamy ménage is part of the bestselling Pleasure Island series, it can be read and enjoyed on its own.

Read an excerpt:

One mistake. One teensy error in judgement had changed everything.

The deed that she was trying fervently to forget never should have happened in the first place. But it had. Choices had consequences, even drunken choices. And since Olivia didn’t own a time machine, nothing could change that fact. Once they’d tangled in the sheets together, their friendship evolved—and not for the better.

It didn’t matter that it had been without a doubt the hottest night of her life, or that she’d not known how hot his fires burned. Their lovemaking had scorched the very fabric of her soul. Ian was normally so staid and stoic, which made the night all the more memorable and the walls erected between them since all the more daunting.

The man infuriated her. He’d hurt her—or her heart, anyway. That had been the most unexpected thing, considering Olivia didn’t do feelings and tended to skedaddle once emotions came into play. In her life, love had been used as a weapon. The scars she bore on her soul attested to how insidious the barbs and arrows of emotions could be.

So Ian didn’t want her help. Big surprise there. The difficult man snarled at her for even offering him aid.

Silly. Stupid even of her to try and offer assistance after the past year. Their relationship could be defined as stilted, forced, and foreign, even. Like they were two strangers attempting to divine the other’s moods. Wary beasts wondering when the next loaded barb would pierce their heart.

Regret weighed her down as she ascended the stairs—holding on to the rail as the vessel dipped and swayed—into the blinding sunlight. Slipping her sunglasses into place, shielding her gaze, needing to hide the ache in her chest, she ignored the rest of the passengers as she traipsed across the boat deck. Olivia wasn’t in the mood to be social. There would be enough of that forced on her over the next two weeks, where every moment she would have to pretend she wasn’t hemorrhaging internally from wounds no one saw.

The next two weeks would make or break them.

About the Author: Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Anya grew up listening to Cardinals baseball and reading anything she could get her hands on. She remembers her mother saying if only she would read the right type of books instead binging her way through the romance aisles at the bookstore, she’d have been a doctor. While Anya never did get that doctorate, she graduated cum laude from the University of Missouri-St. Louis with an M.A. in History.

Anya is a bestselling and award-winning author published in multiple fiction genres. She also writes urban fantasy and paranormal romance under the name Maggie Mae Gallagher. A total geek at her core, when she is not writing, she adores attending the latest comic con or spending time with her family. She currently lives in the Midwest with her two furry felines.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon Author Page | Bookbub

Don’t miss these exciting titles by Anya Summers and Blushing Books!

Dungeon Fantasy Club Series

Her Highland Master, Book 1
To Master and Defend, Book 2
Two Doms for Kara, Book 3
His Driven Domme, Book 4
Her Country Master, Book 5
Love Me, Master Me, Book 6
Submit To Me, Book 7
Her Wired Dom, Book 8

Pleasure Island Series

Her Master & Commander, Book 1
Her Music Masters, Book 2
Their Shy Submissive, Book 3
Her Undercover Doms, Book 4
Her Lawful Master, Book 5
Her Rockstar Dom, Book 6
Duets & Dominance, Book 7
Ménage In Paradise, Book 8
Her Rodeo Masters, Book 9

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