On Being a Grandparent...




Everyone said it would be the best thing in the world.

And it is!

Off to write. My weeks are taken up with cuddling with grandbaby, walking her when she's fussy, taking her on buggy walks with her mama, and taking pictures, while trying to get my word count in.

You see--this is the culmination of romance!

Have a great one!

Terry
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
Connect with Terry Spear:
Website: http://www.terryspear.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear
Wilde & Woolly Bears http://www.celticbears

England's Smallest Castle is for Sale. Interested?

I saw this ad recently, and had to share it with you:

Britain’s smallest castle is up for grabs, and it could be yours!

Molly’s Lodge, a Grade II listed castle, sits on a 0.61-acre plot of land near the village of Long Compton in Warwickshire. Originally a gatehouse for the Weston Park Estate on the northern edge of the Cotswolds, Molly’s Lodge was built by the famous British architect, Edward Blore, in the 1830s. The very same guy who was in charge of restoring Lambeth Palace and extending Buckingham Palace for Queen Victoria.

Inside, it’s a fully functioning home, with one bedroom, a bathroom, living room, decorative spiral staircase and dining room complete with mullion windows and cast iron Victorian fireplace.

For those seriously interested, it costs £550,000 ($680,515 in American dollars). Have you been saving your pennies? 
 
Molly's Lodge

Pond and grounds
Courtyard
Kitchen
Living room
Bedroom

For those dreaming of living the quaint English lifestyle (or for more information) go here: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-43398093.html

Until next month!
Leigh


Earth Day...so?

I used to plant tons of trees, when I had a lot of acreage–I love forests. But I was so disappointed to learn the people who bought my home in Oklahoma clearcut most of the trees. Beautiful pines, helped to stop erosion on the hillside, and they provided homes for birds, beauty, solitude. There’s no prettier sound than wind blowing through a forest and hearing the rustle of branches or pine needles.
We have old forest in and around our neighborhood. Most new home developments, they just clearcut the trees, leaving barren land. But here, I have several old pines. And behind me, one of my neighbors has beautiful oaks. He wants to cut them down. Why? Because they drop leaves and twigs and he has to pick them up. Really? He has to cut the grass too!  Maybe he should dig it up?

In Texas heat, shade trees are at a premium. They’re beautiful. You see them towering a hundred feet above the homes. Why would you want to cut them down??? I had to have one of the pine trees taken down because it had died, but that’s the only reason to do so, or if the roots are getting into the foundation.

But with such a small lot, which I’m thankful for in that it’s much easier to water and maintain, I’m restricted to small shrubs and flowers and such for the most part. Though….I’d like to get some more crepe myrtles, they’re like small trees.

I have planted all of the flowers here, the zinnias from seeds which should turn into flowers soon, the marigolds and daylilies and Mexican heather, the dianthus, and much more. Many will come back next year as they’re perennials. Many will reseed and return even if they’re annuals. I started last year with the daylilies and a few salvia and coneflowers, and the builders had planted coreopsis and snapdragons. So each year, the flowerbeds should be even more beautiful. Oh, and sunflowers.


They’re coming up from the seeds dropped by the birds, but I love seeing them in the garden as they remind me of my father who used to plant them.


What I love about the flowers, besides the color and vibrancy, is that the honeybees, bumblebees, hummingbirds and butterflies love them.


So think about Earth Day, and if you can, plant something to give back to nature.

Have a lovely day!

Terry
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
Connect with Terry Spear:
Website: http://www.terryspear.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear
Wilde & Woolly Bears http://www.celticbears

Enter to Win 35 + Books & Kindle Fire!

I have a book in this amazing contest giveaway for 35+ Marriage of Convenience Historical Romances PLUS a Brand New Kindle Fire! My contribution is My Wild Highlander.




Click here to enter!

I also have exciting news about Highlander Unbroken. It is a Write Touch Readers' Award Finalist! :)



And the audiobook has been released at Audible, Amazon and iTunes! Here is a 5 minute sample.



Thank you!!
Vonda
www.vondasinclair.com

Happy Easter!

Hopping down the bunny trail, AFTER I get another nap!

Have a great one! :)

Terry
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
Connect with Terry Spear:
Website: http://www.terryspear.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear
Wilde & Woolly Bears http://www.celticbears.com

GUEST BLOGGER: Alexandra Christian

Spy thriller romance author Alexandra Christian is our special guest today. Welcome Alexandra!

Thank you! A little about me...

I never liked romance novels. My mother was crazy for them, though. As long as I can remember, my mother had hundreds of them piled on the nightstand that she went through like candy. Historicals, contemporaries, cowboys, ghost stories-- you name it, she probably read it. Even more hilarious was that some of them were quite scandalous. Or so I thought as a young teenager. I loved the romantic parts. The love story between the main characters was always something that I sought in every book I read, but my mother’s bodice rippers were lacking the adventure that I craved from things like my beloved Stephen King and Anne Rice novels.

When I was in college, I started writing the kinds of stories that I wanted to read. While I loved my beloved horror novels and paranormal thrillers, I was missing the love story. Not sickly sweet love stories or anything, but the connection between the characters.

Remember that movie from the '80s, Romancing the Stone? Yeah, that to me is the perfect romance. Two people thrown together to defeat some dangerous foe and falling in love in the process. The hero and heroine get equal time to be badass. They work as a partnership rather than the girl always being saved by the swashbuckling guy with the codpiece. So when I got ready to write NAKED, I plotted out the adventure first and let the romance develop naturally. I want my readers to get pulled into this grand adventure with them instead of just reading from one hot steamy scene to the next. I’ve always described myself as an author who writes romance novels for people who hate romance novels.

I’m also a huge fan of James Bond and spy movies and/or books. Even the “realistic” ones like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (or any John LeCarre for that matter). Gadgets, super-technology, double-crossing, betrayal, secrets-- how can you NOT love a good spy thriller? So I knew that I wanted to incorporate that world into my series. As the series goes on, you’ll learn more about Cage St. John and B.E.A.S.T., the spy organization that he works for. And at the center of it all, I promise you’ll find a smoldering love story.

BLURB:
NAKED by Alexandra Christian
Following a brutal act of vengeance, MI:6 agent Macijah St. John is left grieving for his slaughtered family and agrees to participate in a secret government experiment that gives him a magnificent and terrible power.  Now he’s a mercenary spy that solves problems for the right price.  His latest job puts him in the path of the greatest catastrophe yet—a librarian.
Phoebe Addison’s life is a disaster. Crippling debt, a non-existent social life, and being the town librarian is hardly the glamorous existence she’d always dreamed of. But when her sister Jessica, an interplanetary archeologist, gets herself involved with a psychotic billionaire bent on world domination, Phoe is about to get more excitement than she bargained for.


BUY LINKS:
Check your favorite retailer, or go direct to the publisher Boroughs Publishing: http://boroughspublishinggroup.com/books/naked

Bio:
Alexandra Christian is an author of mostly romance with a speculative slant. Her love of Stephen King and sweet tea has flavored her fiction with a Southern Gothic sensibility that reeks of Spanish moss and deep fried eccentricity. As one-half of the writing team at Little Red Hen Romance, she’s committed to bringing exciting stories and sapiosexual love monkeys to intelligent readers everywhere. Lexx also likes to keep her fingers in lots of different pies having written everything from sci-fi and horror to Sherlock Holmes adventures. Her alter-ego, A.C. Thompson, is also the editor of the highly successful Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series of anthologies. 
A self-proclaimed “Southern Belle from Hell,” Lexx is a native South Carolinian who lives with an epileptic wiener dog and her husband, author Tally Johnson. Her long-term aspirations are to one day be a best-selling authoress and part-time pinup girl. She’s a member of Romance Writers of America and Broad Universe—an organization that supports female authors of speculative fiction.




Guest Interview: Cynthia Owens


Please welcome our special guest today, Cynthia Owens!



I believe I was destined to be interested in history. One of my distant ancestors, Thomas Aubert, reportedly sailed up the St. Lawrence River to discover Canada some 26 years before Jacques Cartier’s 1534 voyage. Another relative was a 17thCentury “King’s Girl,” one of a group of young unmarried girls sent to New France (now the province of  Quebec) as brides for the habitants (settlers) there.

My passion for reading made me long to write books like the ones I enjoyed, and I tried penning sequels to my favorite Nancy Drew mysteries. Later, fancying myself a female version of Andrew Lloyd Weber, I drafted a musical set in Paris during WWII.

A former journalist and lifelong Celtophile, I enjoyed a previous career as a reporter/editor for a small chain of community newspapers before returning to my first love, romantic fiction. My stories usually include an Irish setting, hero or heroine, and sometimes all three.

I’m the author of The Claddagh Series, historical romances set in Ireland and beyond, and The Wild Geese Series, in which five Irish heroes return from the American Civil War to find love and adventure.

I’m a member of the Romance Writers of America, Hearts Through History Romance Writers, and Celtic Hearts Romance Writers. A lifelong resident of Montreal, Canada, I still live there with my own Celtic hero and our two teenaged children.
 

Thanks so much for having me today! I’m very excited to talk about Wishes of the Heart, Book Seven of the Claddagh Series! 

Q: Thank you for joining us! Please tell us about your book.
A:  Wishes of the Heart is very special to me, because it’s allowed me to write about—and introduce my readers to—the second generation of the O’Brien family of Ballycashel. The hero, Tom O’Brien, is the second son of Rory O’Brien, hero of my first novel, In Sunshine or in Shadow. He knows he’ll never be the true heir to the estate, but he’s worked side-by-side with his father since he was a lad, when his rebel brother, Sean, fled to America just ahead of the British soldiers. He loves Ballycashel, and he’s determined to make sure the estate can keep its tenants…much to the dismay of his father, who resists Tom’s even the idea of change.
Tom’s heroine is Neave Devereux, a wise woman suspected of witchcraft. She’s spent most of her life scorned by the village folk. Alone in her cottage, she yearns for acceptance, friendship…and love.
As storm clouds gather over the village of Ballycashel, Tom and Neave must come together to fight superstitions and old enemies.
Q: Sounds great! What inspired this story?
A: Wishes of the Heart is my “Cinderella-with-an-Irish-twist” story. Tom O’Brien is a wonderful prince charming, swooping in to rescue Neave from the angry village folk on several occasions. And while Neave gets to go to Tom’s sister’s coming-of-age ball, she flees before it’s over, leaving behind not a glass slipper, but a Galway shawl.
Q: Wow! What a wonderful twist. Why did you choose your setting and why was it perfect for your book?
A:  The story is set in the west of Ireland, a place full of mist and magic, legend and superstition. And of course, like all of nineteenth-Century Ireland, it was rife with political intrigue. It was only natural that my village folk would fear a woman they called cailleach (witch). And there’s no place more eerie and mysterious than Ireland, where ghosts may linger in the misty woods. In fact, there is a ghost in this story, who shows himself only to Neave. It had to happen in Ireland!
Q: I love the supernatural element. Did you choose the title of your book and if so how did you do it?
A: I chose the title of the book, and it was a natural for me. I don’t remember how many times I watched Disney’s Cinderella with my daughter as she was growing up, and the song A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes stuck with me. Maybe because, like most writers, I’m a bit of a dreamer myself. When I decided to write this “Cinderella-with-an-Irish-twist” story, the song came back to me, and I just twisted it around a bit.
Q: Please tell us about your favorite character in the book.
A: Well, they’re all my favorites in their own unique ways, but I think I love Neave best. Her deep desire to be accepted by the village folk always tugged at my heart. Yet she’s strong, too, and determined not to allow the village folk to destroy her. She holds her head up against their cruel taunts.
Q: Which element of this story was the hardest for you?
A: I think it had to be Neave’s isolation, her desperate longing for friends. I was painfully shy as a child, and a rather solitary one. I spent most of my time at the library, and I had a very hard time making friends. So I could very easily identify with Neave’s loneliness. Fun Fact About Me: I was 30 years old when I came down with chicken pox (caught it from my niece). Up till then I hadn’t realized I’d never had the chicken pox before, and when I did get it, my husband, with his twisted sense of humor, said I must have been at the library when all the other kids got it. He was probably right!
Q: LOL But that must have been tough getting chicken pox at that age. What inspires you? What motivates you?
A: Ireland inspires me, always Ireland, everything Ireland! Her music, her myths and legends, and of course, her history. And her people. The friendliest people anywhere, a people who have suffered and survived, if not in their own homeland, then all across the globe. The breathtaking landscape, the mists that flow soft against the soft ground, the sea that crashes against her majestic cliffs. There are so many stories to be told, and I want to tell all of them. That’s my motivation!
Q: That is very inspiring. Please tell us about your other books.
A: The Claddagh Series, historical romances set in Ireland and beyond
     The Wild Geese Series, the Irish heroes return!
Q: What’s next for you?
A: I have a few projects I’m currently working on. The Carousel is Kieran Donnelly’s story and Book 6 of the Wild Geese Series. I’m also writing three novellas for a single-author anthology of Christmas stories.

🌟🌟🌟

Wishes of the Heart is available at:

Thank you again for being our guest today, Cynthia! Everyone, please visit Cynthia online:

He's Back!!!

Paolo Mancini is back! After Samhain Publishing closed its doors, all my titles with them became unavailable and I will slowly be re-releasing them all myself. The first project was to get new covers for the 5 Paolo's Playhouse stories, then get them formatted and back out into the world. I may have mentioned that I took a big leap and designed my own covers for the first time. After a lot of trial and error, I really like the way they turned out. If you didn't get a chance to read these sexy, emotional stories the first time around, you should give them a try!

Paolo’s Playhouse. A new playground for consenting adults. Playrooms for every interest or desire. Bring your own plaything or we can provide one for you. We’ll help your fantasies come to life.


           Amazon   Other vendors


                                                                  Amazon   Other vendors


                                                               Amazon   Other vendors


                                                                Amazon   Other vendors


       Amazon   Other vendors

The first four are short, perfect to read just before bed. I wrote #5, Playing For Real, which is longer, after readers asked for more with Paolo and Julianne. If you haven't read them, I hope you'd like to give them a try. If you have read them, please consider leaving a review at your favorite spot. They mean so much.

While I'm working on a new project, I'll be getting the rest of my backlist ready to upload. I'll keep you informed here, but if you want to get a notification in your inbox, you can sign up for my mailing list here

Natasha



Between a Wolf and a Hard Place is out!!

betweenwolfhardplace_select
BETWEEN A WOLF AND A HARD PLACE by Terry Spear (4 stars) RT Reviews! Yay!!
The newest addition to the Silver Town Wolf series is dark, sexy and replete with a haunting spin. Readers will get a kick out of the author’s vivid imagination. This steamy tale of love intermingles perfectly with the more thrilling moments, and can easily be read as a stand-alone.
Ellie MacTire and her sisters own the Silver Town hotel. In addition to being a wolf-shifter, Ellie also has the ability to communicate with the dead. She has an inkling that Alpha werewolf Brett Silver has something up his sleeve when he donates a family heirloom to the hotel. He’s had his eyes and heart set on Ellie, and nothing will stand in his way until she’s his. Unfortunately, there are some creepy things occurring around town. Can Ellie keep her family and the town safe? And will she be able to keep her composure around Brett in order to find out who’s behind the mysterious happenings? (SOURCEBOOKS, Apr., 352 pp., $7.99)
Wooing a she-wolf isn’t as easy as it looks in this bold paranormal romance from USA Today bestseller Terry Spear
In Silver Town, the secrets run deep…
Alpha werewolf Brett Silver has an ulterior motive when he donates a prized family heirloom to the Silver Town hotel. Ellie MacTire owns the place with her sisters, and he’s out to get her attention.
Ellie is even more special than Brett knows. She’s a wolf-shifter with a unique ability to commune with the dead. Ellie has been ostracized, so she protects herself and those she loves by revealing nothing—not even when strange and dangerous things begin to happen in Silver Town. And especially not to the devastatingly handsome and generous wolf who’s determined to win her over…
“A master storyteller.” —RT Book Reviews for Alpha Wolf Need Not Apply, 4 Stars
Silver Town Wolf Series:
Destiny of the Wolf (Book 1)
Wolf Fever (Book 2)
Dreaming of the Wolf (Book 3)
Silence of the Wolf (Book 4)
A Silver Wolf Christmas (Book 5)
Alpha Wolf Need Not Apply (Book 6)
Between a Wolf and a Hard Place (Book 7)
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Another Silver Wolf Novel!
April 4, 2017

Perils of Cooking Healthy

Who here is a foodie? I'm not. But I am interested in eating healthy food, despite the fact that I prefer the other kind. lol

I have a banana bread recipe from my mother-in-law, who is an excellent cook. I've been making it for years, and the family loves it. But - it has a lot of sugar and butter in it, plus white flour. I looked around for something 'healthier'.

I found an oatmeal-based recipe which I quite like. But no one else does. So now, when I want to make banana bread, I need to make two batches, based on two totally different recipes. Here's a photo, with the guilty culprit alongside.

Today was baking day. I had four overripe bananas, two for each loaf. My recipe is done in a food processor. Her recipe calls for creaming the sugar and butter together (ugh), beating the egg, sifting the flour with the spices, etc. Most importantly, hers calls for sour milk. So I have to take the milk out early in the day. It so happened I didn't get to the bread yesterday, so I put the milk in the fridge for overnight and took it out again today.

So, I had my sour milk, right? It goes in at the end and you have to alternate the milk with the flour mixture. It's a fair bit of work as compared with mine of just throwing everything in a bowl and hitting the switch. (Who do you think is the better cook?)

I got to work. Assembling, measuring, cleaning. All told, it took me a full two hours to make both recipes. Put them in the oven. Whew. My husband was looking forward to his banana bread.

Discovered I had left the sour milk out of MIL's recipe. Whoops. After babysitting that darn bowl of milk for two days, I had managed to forget all about it. I had too much going on. Dishes and implements and ingredients everywhere. What to do? The loaf had been in the oven ten minutes already. Hubby was so disappointed, which made me sad, as I only do the extra work for him. The kids don't really care about the banana bread.

This is why I don't like to cook. Too much effort and too many things go wrong.

But I will say, when it was all done, he cut off a big piece and ate it with good cheer, pronouncing it 'not bad'. Now look at the photo. Can you guess which is the 'healthy' bread and which the 'unhealthy'?

I do have a daughter who's an avid baker, and I used her as the model for my heroine in Love Charm for Carlotta. Carlotta runs a bakery in Martha's Vineyard. She doesn't believe in love charms. But when the bad boy hockey player from her past re-appears in her life, something wild and wonderful is fighting with her common sense.


Love Charm for Carlotta


No April Fool's!!

My grandbaby was due today, but she came at 1:58 yesterday morning, so not an April Fool’s Day baby after all.





And their corgis are happy to have an added member of the pack! They’re curious, just like wolves that are excited about the new pups added to the pack.

What with deadlines, turned in Flight, and working on proofing SEAL Wolf Undercover, new release on Tuesday with Between a Wolf and a Hard Place, and trying to keep up with the word count on The Bounty Hunter Gets Her Wolf, and helping out the kids and baby—and being up all night with them yesterday–it’s a juggle!

But all worth it!

Do you find yourself juggling your life too?

Hope all your juggling pays off too! Have a great one!

Terry
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
Connect with Terry Spear:
Website: http://www.terryspear.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/421434.Terry_Spear
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerrySpearParanormalRomantics
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerrySpear
Wilde & Woolly Bears http://www.celticbears.com