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Sci-fi romance is the genre for our time
Welcome Lyndi’s Adventurous Friend JL Peridot!
When I tell people I write sci-fi romance, they mostly look at me confused. I’ve often wondered if it may have something to do with science fiction sometimes being thought of as a “boys’ genre”, where romance is a “girls’ genre”. These labels would be wildly inaccurate, of course, but stereotypes are stereotypes and they take a long time to change.
But I love a good love story in a sci-fi setting. For example, the simmering tension between Kelly Grayson (Adrianne Palicki) and Ed Mercer (Seth MacFarlane) in The Orville. That maybe-but-not-quite second chance romance opportunity adds a spicy and relatable flavour to the challenges faced when exploring the boundaries of technology and humanity.
The tragically satisfying love story in James S.A. Corey’s Leviathan Wakes, between Detective Miller and Julie Mao, comes to mind as well. It’s odd, sure, and not the usual romance by any stretch (whether you’d call it a “happily ever after” is questionable). But by the end of the book, I found it powerful enough to rival some of the best love stories I’ve ever read. Here we are in this otherworldly place in a time and universe we can’t quite fathom, and yet this universal, eternal experience of love still binds us to each other and makes us who we are.
Sometimes they ask, why sci-fi? If it’s a human story you’re telling, why is it necessary to put it in a science fiction world? But to me, that’s like asking why anyone should tell a story at all.
Science fiction stories are our stories. Phase-shifted, perhaps, and detailed a bit differently, but ours nonetheless. The modern world is full of technology and it’s changing all the time. To deny that we’re already living and falling in love within a sci-fi universe (of sorts) is to take for granted the journey mankind has been on since the dawn of time.
Whether in space, on a distant planet, or aboard an incomprehensibly decked-out spaceship, sci-fi love stories are my favourite way to explore our humanity within the context of a mysterious and evolving world.
About JL Peridot
JL Peridot writes futuristic love stories and more from a tiny apartment in present-day Western Australia. Her 2017 debut novel, Chasing Sisyphus, is an action-adventure romantic suspense about a bounty hunter with a heart and the cop who stole it from her.
Subscribe to JL’s mailing list for periodic updates, teasers, free reads and banter.
Website: http://jlperidot.com
Instagram: http://instagram.com/jlperidot
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jlperidot
Amazon: http://amazon.com/author/jlperidot
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17035853.J_L_Peridot
Thank you, Lyndi, for having me on your blog! ❤️
Chasing Sisyphus by JL Peridot
Bounty hunter Adria Yuan is hot on the trail of her final hit: a notorious hacker wanted by the city’s elite. With the reward, she can pay for her brother’s surgery and finally get out of Basilica City. Trouble is, her line of work’s not exactly legal, and she’s barely staying ahead of the cops who want her target, too.
Detective Rhys Carver may be a little unorthodox, but he’s a good cop. Born and bred in Basilica, he does his part to keep his city clean. As clean as it gets, at least. And with Adria suddenly in his sights, it’s going to take more than falling in love for him to let her go.
As the pair close in on their mark, they are unwittingly drawn into a high profile conspiracy that could thrust the whole of Basilica into chaos. Can Adria and Rhys set aside their differences, and their desires, to save the only home they know?
Check out Chasing Sisyphus, book one of the Basilica Conspiracy series.
Seeing beyond the now
A poisonous wave is spreading disease and discord across the eleven known universes. Seven special people, known as Keys, must strike the Lost Chord in order to restore the balance.
Among those Keys is Bee Warrick, an autistic teenager from Earth who has traveled between the realms for
years without realizing it. Can Bee help the Conductor find the other Keys before a bitter enemy strikes the wrong chord and shatters the universes?
As my own daughter with autism was the model for Bee, I am formly convinced that she sees beyond the edges of my reality. She often demonstrates extrasensory perception, and thinks outside the box much of the time. It’s quite a gift for my child, and also for Bee.
********
PAPERBACK [EAN 978-1-941278-81-9 | ISBN 1-941278-81-7] 6×9 library trim (200 pages) | Average Retail Price: $11.99 or less || Paperback at Amazon | Paperback at Amazon UK | Paperback at Barnes & Noble | Paperback at Barnes & Noble | Discount Paperback at Lulu |
HARDBACK [EAN 978-1-941278-80-2 | ISBN 1-941278-80-9] 6×9 library casebound (200 pages) | Average Retail Price: $19.99 or less || Hardback at Barnes & Noble | Discount Hardback at Lulu |
EBOOK [EAN 978-1-941278-82-6 | ISBN 1-941278-82-5] Available in EPUB and Amazon Kindle (70,000 words) | Average Retail Price: $4.99 or less || Amazon Kindle | Amazon Kindle UK | EPUB at Apple iBooks | EPUB at Barnes & Noble | EPUB at Kobo Books | EPUB and MOBI at Smashwords ||
EXCERPT:
Bee rubbed her fingers together in the sand, her eyes closed, feeling the sensation of the fine crystals against her skin, a ritual performed several times a day, especially before math.
After a few minutes, she felt calm again. With a deep breath, she tucked away the sand and took out her geometry book. She started the first problem, working with a yellow pencil. That was what she always used for math. Yellow was math. Science was blue.
Halfway through, her brother Reese barged into the room. The tall, broad-built boy plopped down on her bright pink bedspread and dropped his football helmet on the floor, where it rolled in a circle before coming to a stop.
Bee jumped and covered her ears to protect herself from the sound.
“Hey there little sped girl. I see Mom isn’t riding you about homework.” He glared at her. “Must be nice to be autistic.”
“I’m not stupid like you.” Bee knew Reese wasn’t supposed to call her names. Mom had told him often enough, but he never stopped so now she tossed names back at him.
She wasn’t sure what “autistic” was supposed to be. She had read about it in books. She was just what she was, not some word that started with A. Her favorite book was Songs of the Gorilla Nation, about a woman with autism who had learned to communicate with gorillas. “Stupid is as stupid does,” she said.
Reese twisted up his face at her. He had the same auburn hair as Bee, a color received from their father’s genes. She hardly remembered their father. He took Reese away every other weekend, but never took her. She no longer went to the window to look at him.
“Bzzzzzzz,” she said, annoyed and wishing Reese would leave.
“You know that’s so damn lame. Knock it off. People talk about you at school, sped.”
Bee knew that term was derogatory by the tone of Reese’s voice, but couldn’t understand why it was bad. ‘Special’ was something extra good, so ‘special education’ should be something really great, right?
See the book trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRTzaB5rUKo
https://www.linkytools.com/basic_linky_include.aspx?id=297779
Have you heard of the Montana Vortex?
I knew when I got the idea for THE ELF GUARDIAN that It would be set in the Bitterroot Mountains, like the others–but I wanted a unique twist. It came when I read about the Montana Vortex.
When paranormal investigator Chiara de Luna needs a boost to her sagging career, she makes a trip to northwestern Montana for new material. Little does she know that the real story she’ll find is much more outlandish than weirdly tilted trees and brooms standing up on their own.
Clan Elves of the Bitterroot (Book IV): The strong Earth energies that support the Clan Elves of the Bitterroot have gone awry for unknown reasons, and the powerful forces at work have not gone unnoticed by the outside world. When a paranormal investigator looking for a story to save her career is told a fantastic tale by the juvenile and disobedient elf prince Elliun, his young albino elf bodyguard Max must try to fix the mistake. Can Max get humans, mages, and elves working together in time to save the land before the energies spin out of control? Or is this the end of the elven world in the Bitterroot Mountains? [Urban Fantasy series from Dragonfly Publishing, Inc.]
Excerpt:
The phone line went dead before she could even say ‘goodbye.”
Not that she was going to say ‘goodbye.’ Anything but.
“Hunter, wait—”
The once-sweet name turning bitter on her tongue, the whispered words sighed through her lips, becoming sharp, cutting her.
No, that was her teeth, biting down hard enough to make her bleed.
She set the phone into the stand. Gone.
Her knees gave way and she landed, hard, in her office chair, banging her elbow on the edge of the polished black-and-chrome desk. The pain reverberated up and down her arm, but did nothing to cloak the agony raging inside her.
So close…
The news clippings across the surface of the desk seemed to mock her now. Paranormal Investigator Visits Alcatraz. DeLuna Solves Local Murder with Psychic Clues. Ghosts Give Up Secrets to Ohio Paranormal Expert. All her work, fifteen years of building a reputation as an investigator of the weird and unexplained—what would it mean if Hunter Nowles walked away from her?
And why was he leaving? Because that stupid exorcism had turned out to be a fake.
Okay, and the haunting of that old mansion in Pennsylvania had turned out to be a bust.
She chewed her lip. To be honest, she’d failed to either prove or debunk the last seven investigations she’d undertaken. Lucky number seven.
“The great Chiara DeLuna bites the big one,” she muttered, waiting for the rim shot that had to follow. It was a joke, right? She was a joke. The network seemed to think so. Davis had already sent a memo warning her they wouldn’t fund her program any longer if she couldn’t produce results. And now Hunter had decided she wasn’t worth his time, either.
Or maybe he was just afraid that her failures would taint his own growing stature in the paranormal investigation community. Their three years as lovers didn’t mean anything at all?
Her gaze was snagged by one of the news photos on the desk, herself smiling and shaking the beefy hand of some small-town police chief. See, that woman was Chiara DeLuna, “spooky” media star—the woman with the chic platinum blonde hair, the expensive wardrobe, and the ominous black sedan that seemed to part crowds when she arrived on a scene.
Not the woman who looked back at her from the mirror, dreary, bookish Bonny Lang from Euclid, Ohio whose most thrilling accomplishment before she’d hit the big time was surviving a wreck with a drunk driver, as a teenager. Her mother had been killed in the crash; Bonny had sold her first paranormal article based on a post-mortem conversation they had before her mother’s spirit faded.
Paperback at Amazon • Paperback at Barnes & Noble • Paperback at Lulu • Hardback at Barnes & Noble • Hardback at Lulu • eBook at Amazon Kindle • eBook at Apple • eBook at B&N Nook • eBook at Kobo • eBook at Smashwords
PAPERBACK [EAN 978-1-936381-51-7 | ISBN 1-936381-51-6] 5.5 x 8.5 trade trim or 6×9 library trim (184 pages) | Average Price: $12.99
HARDBACK [EAN 978-1-936381-50-0 | ISBN 1-936381-50-8] 6×9 casebound (184 pages) | Average Price: $21.99
EBOOK [EAN 978-1-936381-52-4 | ISBN 1-936381-52-4] EPUB and Kindle MOBI (58,000 words) | Average Price: $3.99
Quarantine yields creative outlet for Mass Bay instructor Dr. Ted Eaton
The quarantine times have given many of us the opportunity to try new things we may not have had time for, once upon a time. Author and college professor Edward Eaton, known to colleagues as “Dr. Ted,” has branched out from his regular classes by starting two series of YouTube videos, one on assorted writing topics, and the second on Haiku Reviews.
The idea was based on a suggestion from his provost at Mass Bay Community College, he says, but “they have taken on a life of their own.”
Eaton holds a PhD in Theatre History and Literature, and has worked extensively as a theatre director and fight choreographer, most recently for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Theatre Shakespeare Ensemble. He has been a theatre critic, and has a background in playwriting.
The videos on craft are not only directed to his students at the school, but they are for anyone, he says.
“If you are interested in Literature and film as a consumer, it might be nice to understand how the pieces are put together. If your interest in film is deeper or even professional, it might be nice to know that the ‘three-act’ structure is not the only one. So far I have mostly been playing with Aristotle–though there were two other videos that touch on related topics.”
Eaton said he plans to do several more videos on Aristotle, and then move on. “I want to share this information with people who have an interest in theatre and writing and want a good solid overview of the subjects.”
He specifically works through examples people will find it easy to relate to, such as Romeo and Juliet, Star Wars and more.
The Haiku Reviews came to be in specific reaction to other reviews he found online.
“I’ve gone on Youtube to look up movies to see what people think about them only to be stuck with 30 minutes (or more) of commentary. Sometimes it can be interesting, but usually I start yelling ‘Strunk and White!’ at the TV. ‘Get to the point and move on!’”
But it wasn’t just those. “When my kid was little, I would ask him about what he was reading or watching. He would go into such detail that I would get exhausted. At about the same time, I was asking students to write book reviews. Four-fifths of their papers would be synopses. So I started writing and sharing (with students and my boy) a synopsis of a book or a film in the form of a haiku.”
His format of three haikus that cover story, analysis, and judgment is different than others he’s seen. “(Those) reviews included a haiku and then commentary–like a comedian explaining his or her joke. I’m not going to explain my little haiku, unless the pictures I choose help.”
During his Covid-19 quarantine time, he’s also learned “how much fun it can be to play around with PowerPoint.” And he’s excited about the new creative ways he can reach out to readers.
“Absolutely. I had these ideas before. However, without the quarantine, I doubt I would have bothered to start my Youtube videos. Maybe I would have done the Haiku videos, but not for a while.”
His current Haiku videos include The Caine Mutiny, The Hobbit, Amadeus, the 
Magnificent Seven, and more.
Edward (Ted) Eaton has studied and taught at many schools in the States, China, Israel, Oman, and France. He is also an avid SCUBA diver and skier. He currently resides in Boston with his wife Silviya and son Christopher.
Publications include: Young adult series titles ROSI’S CASTLE • ROSI’S COMPANY • ROSI’S TIME, and drama titles ELIZABETH BATHORY • GIANTS FALL • HECTOR AND ACHILLES • Orpheus and Eurydice (2010), all from Dragonfly Publishing. See all at his Amazon author page.
For more information, check out and subscribe to his YouTube channel, or see Dr. Ted’s website: http://www.edwardeaton.com/Edward_Eaton/Welcome.html
Space opera FTW! #mfrwHooks
Probably my favorite subject to read or watch is space opera. For the uninitiated, there is 
not necessarily any singing–unless you’ve got Klingons in it–but it’s a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare, melodramatic adventure, interplanetary battles, chivalric romance, and risk-taking. (fromWikipedia)
Star Trek, Star Wars, The Expanse, Doctor Who, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Avatar and so many more fit into the category. My own humble contributions to the genre include the Horizon Crossover series and Triad, all available
from Dragonfly Publishing.
After five years of silence, the Arkosian space pirates are back to terrorize the sector where Trezanna Len fights to save her Solarii colony, a small group of Terran descendants settled on the planet Induna. To survive, the Solarii need assistance. And soon.
Trezanna could ask for help from the neighboring group called Dragonfleet, but its cruel leader Estrella Drake has been on a rampage to annex Solarii space. Estrella would never agree to an alliance with the Solarii. Or would she?
Excerpt:
When Trezanna had joined the Solarii, Luca Stregone was DragonFleet liaison to the group, back when both groups fought the oppression of the Arkosian pirates, who’d terrorized this sector of the galaxy for thirty years.
The Solarii had banded together on the small planet of Induna, brave individual souls who challenged the despots, gathering members as word of their alliance spread. DragonFleet, always a vicious bunch but even more so under the petulant, tumultuous leadership of Estrella Drake, had clung onto the coattails of the new group. Dissatisfied with the bounds of DragonFleet territory, she’d use any excuse to carve a larger section of the sector for herself, and just as happy to take some of what the Arkosians had, just for spite.
The two groups had fought and won as allies, ousting the pirates in a bloody victory. But the celebration and peace had been short-lived.
Without the constant gnawing of the pirates’ fangs in her side, Estrella instigated bickering within, causing a division in DragonFleet which ultimately spawned the Khimeyr. Luca took nearly two hundred of those unwilling to live under Estrella’s prima donna rule and moved them to Zeta, promising them a new colony, a place to enjoy the free life they had earned.
But apparently that peace had been denied.
“Something got him on a scouting mission seventeen months ago, an animal or…” Catava shrugged, her voice devoid of emotion. “He wasn’t the only one. Zeta Colony was never the paradise we’d hoped it would be. Many dreams died there.” The pain that crossed through the woman’s eyes was unmistakable.
TRIAD is available in ebook, paperback and hardback. at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, most other web sources, and can also be ordered through your local indie bookseller!
https://www.linkytools.com/basic_linky_include.aspx?id=296859
Would You Have Dared This Adventure?
A terrible result of the Civil War was that fighting took the lives of so many young men. Numbers given are that between 620,000 and 750,000 men died in the Civil War, by far the greatest toll of any war in American history. When most of the surviving single men moved west, this left no one for Eastern women to marry. If a woman wanted a husband and children, what was she to do? If a man wanted a wife and family, what was he to do?
This is why there are so many mail-order bride and proxy bride romances. Although mail-order and proxy brides existed before and after this era, they flourished in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
Here is where your challenge comes in: If you were single during this time, what would you have done?
In my ancestry and that of my husband, several women became little more than a live-in, unpaid maid. Would you have wanted to spend the rest of your life as “Aunt” whoever to someone else’s family? Or, would you have dared become a mail-order bride?
In the west the ratio was sometimes 1 woman (who might be married) to 14 men and more men to women near mines. If you wanted a wife and children, what would you do? Would you send for a bride sight-unseen?
Chris Enss’ book Hearts West discusses actual mail-order brides. Some are happy stories, some are frightening. Each is interesting.
Matrimonial agencies supposedly verified the character and intentions of the man and woman before the marriage was arranged. Also available were newspaper-like periodicals filled with ads placed by men who wanted a wife (no verification). If you’ve read some of these, you know they varied from so egotistical they’re comical to so brief no information is supplied.
Imagine yourself a woman traveling by train or—more likely—by stagecoach to meet a prospective groom. You could be single or widowed. More than likely you’d be nearly destitute. If the man you’re going to meet doesn’t suit, you have no funds to repay him for your travel fare and return home. Perhaps you have no home to which you can return. What if he’s a drunk or beats women or is a crook?
Imagine being a single man who longs for a wife and family and sends for a bride. What if she’s a shrew or slovenly and can’t cook or keep house? What if she’s a con artist who plans to remain only long enough to gain access to your savings?
Would you have dared enter a mail-order marriage?
About The Book
She has to protect her baby . . .
He is desperate for help . . .
Trouble preys on their livelihood . . .
Widow Victoria Bailey is desperate to prevent her in-laws from gaining custody of her eighteen-month-old daughter. If becoming a mail-order bride is her only option, she’ll take the risk. At least on a Texas ranch she’ll have quiet and peace. She doesn’t have time to let the groom know she’s bringing her daughter. Surely no man can object to one perfect little girl.
Widower Greg Hardy is desperate to get help with his home and his children. He needs to be pursuing whoever is rustling his cattle. A mail-order bride seems to be exactly what he needs but should he keep his children a secret? To insure he doesn’t scare off a prospective wife, he omits the fact that he has five children aged from eight months to twelve years old.
Their marriage starts with misunderstanding. They decide to work together to fight against a common foe. Will the fight take a toll on their fragile happiness?
Enjoy An Excerpt
Her head pounded as if a blacksmith hammered his anvil inside. She couldn’t continue in this state of fear. Instead, she had to do something without delay.
“Tell me the matchmaker’s address. I’m too desperate to turn down any chance to leave Atlanta with Regina safely in my care.”
“Fortunately, she lives only about a mile from us.” Diana rose and went to her writing desk. She opened a drawer and took out a sheet of paper.
Referring to a letter she’d removed from an envelope, Diana wrote on the paper then handed it to her. “Here’s the address. You won’t have any trouble finding her house.”
Victoria studied the writing. “I think I know where this is and I’ll go there now. There’s no time to waste. I expect my in-laws back to steal Regina no later than noon tomorrow.”
Diana hugged her briefly. “Godspeed, my friend. If you do leave, promise you’ll let me know your new address.”
“I will because I am leaving for somewhere, Diana. Thank you for your friendship.”
The soft breeze failed to soothe Victoria. She recognized the part of town in which the matchmaker lived. The homes were nicer than hers—though she thought of the house as hers, her in-laws actually owned her home. She found the correct house and was surprised a matchmaker lived there.
The red brick home was built in the Federal style with white columns in front. A small brass plate was attached to the fence pillar. The first line said Mercedes McCormick and the second line read Matches Made In Heaven.
That described what she needed. Her first marriage wasn’t made in heaven but perhaps the next one would be better. She pushed the perambulator up the walk and maneuvered it up the steps to the porch.
“Regina, here we go. I hope we’re not sorry.” She rang the bell.
About The Author
Through a crazy twist of fate, Caroline Clemmons was not born on a Texas ranch. To compensate for this illogical error, she writes about handsome cowboys, feisty ranch women, and scheming villains in a tiny office her family calls her pink cave. She and her Hero live in North Central Texas cowboy country where they ride herd on their two rescued indoor cats and dog as well as providing nourishment outdoors for other critters.
The books she creates in her pink cave have made her a bestselling author and won awards. She writes sweet to sensual romances about the West, both historical and contemporary as well as time travel and mystery. Her series include the Kincaids, McClintocks, Stone Mountain Texas, Bride Brigade, Texas Time Travel, Texas Caprock Tales, Pearson Grove, and Loving A Rancher as well as numerous single titles and contributions to multi-author sets. When she’s not writing, she loves spending time with her family, reading her friends’ books, lunching with friends, browsing antique malls, checking Facebook, and taking the occasional nap. Find her on her blog, website, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and Pinterest.
Join her and other readers at Caroline’s Cuties, a Facebook readers group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/277082053015947/ for special excerpts, exchanging ideas, contests, giveaways, recipes, and talking to like-minded people about books and other fun things.
Click on her Amazon Author Page for a complete list of her books and follow her there.
Follow her on BookBub.
To stay up-to-date with her releases and contests, subscribe to Caroline’s newsletter here and receive a FREE novella of HAPPY IS THE BRIDE, a humorous historical wedding disaster that ends happily—but you knew it would, didn’t you?
Title: MAIL-ORDER VICTORIA, Widows, Brides and Secret Babies book 7
Author: Caroline Clemmons
Genre: Historical western romance
Heat level: PG
Amazon Universal link: https://mybook.to/Victoria
Amazon US link: https://www.amazon.com/Victoria-Widows-Brides-Secret-Babies-ebook/dp/B086DFCDRB
Available in e-book, print, and enrolled in KU
World travels provide background for award-winning fantasy story
Welcome to Lyndi’s adventurous friend Helen C. Johannes!!
When I was in high school, I had a friend who’d never ridden an escalator, never traveled more than 50 miles from home. I couldn’t fathom a life so limited in experiences. Even at the tender age of 16, I’d crossed the United States from coast to coast by car, sailed the Atlantic from NYC to Germany and back, lived in a foreign country and five US states, attended 12 schools, and earned my driver’s license in two states. Most would say I’d already lived an adventure.
Well, I was a military brat, and that was normal. Travel and moving every couple of years was so ingrained that I carried on as an adult, eventually visiting most of the continental US states plus Alaska and Hawaii, and dipping my toes/fingers in both sides of the Atlantic and both sides of the Pacific, plus the Caribbean.
After all that traveling, that apparent rootlessness, it’s hardly a surprise my author tagline is Brave men, bold women—hearts in search of home. Or that my characters find themselves on cross-country journeys. Or, ultimately, that what each of them desires is a sense of belonging, be it to a place or a group of people.
My heroine in LORD OF DRUEMARWIN is on the ultimate journey, leaving behind her family, her culture, even her landscape for the sake of the man she loves. Here’s a snippet.
LORD OF DRUEMARWIN – PAGES FROM THE HEART Winner in Fantasy Romance, Crown of Tolem series
Tag line: In a world of lies and betrayal, can they trust each other?
Blurb:
Lady Raell can fight, ride, and argue politics as well as her brothers. Only being mistress of her father’s household keeps her in skirts. In Naed, the new Lord of Druemarwin, she has found devotion, a kindred spirit, and a marriage promise. But when a forgotten and unwanted betrothal comes to light, she has no choice but to run.
Amidst sweeping revolution, Naed must rally his people, fend off assassination attempts, and fight against claims he’s a traitor. Then he discovers everything about his lineage and family is a lie. And his beloved belongs to another.
With lives and a kingdom at stake, Raell and Naed must find a way to protect the innocent and save their love.
Excerpt:
“Raell, now is not the time—”
Aye, it wasn’t. They stood in torchlight on an open parapet while assassins stalked them, but this might be her only chance to reach him across that precipice he’d thrown up between them, to secure the future they were meant to share.
“Does my honor mean naught? When weighed with D’nalian honor, is mine lesser because ‘tis a woman’s honor? Or because ‘tis a Tolemak’s honor? Be honest and tell me that.”
The world had gone silent; Raell could hear nothing over the rush of blood in her ears, the terrible heavy beats of her heart while she waited, dizzy with fear, breathless with longing, for the man she loved to respond with a word, a look, even a blink. Even a shift of his gaze she’d take as a sign he’d at least heard, mayhap begun to consider—
“Yes, be honest, Lord Naed,” said a voice she’d heard but once, a voice that raised all the fine hairs on her body and made her innards contract into a cold, tight knot. “Tell us both how much honor means to a bastard who’s betrayed his countrymen and his blood.”
Author Bio:
Helen C. Johannes writes award-winning fantasy romance inspired by the fairy tales she grew up reading and the amazing historical places she’s visited in England, Ireland, Scotland and Germany. She writes tales of adventure and romance in fully realized worlds sprung from pure imagination and a lifelong interest in history, culture, and literature. Warriors on horseback, women who refuse to sit idly at home, and passion that cannot be denied or outrun—that’s what readers will find in her books.
Other books:
The Prince of Val-Feyridge, Crown of Tolem #1
Bloodstone
Buy Links:
Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lord-of-druemarwin-helen-c-johannes/1134375458?ean=2940160729602
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/lord-of-druemarwin
Walmart: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lord-of-Druemarwin-eBook-9781509228560/377758996
Wild Rose Press: https://www.thewildrosepress.com/books/lord-of-druemarwin-crown-of-tolem-book-2
Social Media
Blog: https://helencjohannes.blogspot.com/
Author Central: https://www.amazon.com/Helen-C-Johannes/e/B003JJDQWS/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4031965.Helen_C_Johannes
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/helen-c-johannes
Contact email: helen.c.johannes@gmail.com
Deadly secrets haunt this House
Lyndi welcomes her adventurous friend Julie Howard today, with her new release House of Seven Spirits! 
About the story:
Some secrets are deadly, and ghost-blogger Jillian Winchester and her photographer boyfriend discover it’s true when they set out to investigate an Australian family who disappeared without a trace in the 1880s.
An abandoned sheep station rumored to be haunted by the long-dead Kinsley family is one challenge. The other is the beautiful but deadly Outback.
As Jillian probes deeper into the mystery, one thing becomes clear: She might not make it out of this quest alive.
Excerpt:
“Don’t go up there,” Mason warned. “The wood’s apt to be rotted in places. The floor may not be safe.”
She glanced over her shoulder at him and hesitated. Her California beach home was eight thousand miles away—a fifteen-hour flight plus a day’s drive along bumpy bleak roads. She hadn’t come this far to only examine the structure’s exterior. Her work required total immersion.
She put a foot on the first step and tested it with her weight. Mason strode around the car and halted just below the porch with arms crossed. “Jillian.”
The last thing she needed was someone hovering, directing her on what she could and couldn’t do. When she worked, the “real” world faded in importance. His uneasy energy interrupted her focus. “I’m fine.”
The stair was solid, at least. Not even a creak greeted her as she advanced onto the veranda. He cleared his throat as she took another step, but said nothing.
Despite the heat, a sudden chill rippled up her bare arms, sending prickles all the way to her neck. For a split second, her world tilted and her senses were overwhelmed. The musty odor of freshly shorn sheep wool, clothes flapping on a line, young voices chattering, the sharp tang of blood. Just as quick, the images dissolved and all was still, dry and lifeless once more. She let go of a deep breath, and a feeling of exhilaration swept through her.
Someone’s here.
****
Bio:
Julie Howard is the author of the Wild Crime and Spirited Quest series. She is a former journalist and editor who has covered topics ranging from crime to cowboy poetry. Now she edits an online anthology, Potato Soup Journal.
Author Links:
Website: http://juliemhoward.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/juliemhowardauthor
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B07D6CS4NQ
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/julie-howard?list=author_books
Twitter: https://twitter.com/_JulieMHoward
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18116047.Julie_Howard
Buy Links:
Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/ubgz73p
iBooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/house-of-seven-spirits/id1497768327
Nook: https://bit.ly/39kJRgS
Will her fiction become our truth?
Today I’m sharing an excerpt from WINDMILLS, the first book in my post-apocalyptic trilogy THE COLOR OF FEAR. This piece gives us insight into Valery Paz, and a glimpse into her history.
***
Before she stepped over the threshold, Valery Paz patted her two front pockets. The left one held the book she was currently reading, a fantasy story about a modern-day barista and a glass slipper, the right a fully loaded pistol she wasn’t afraid to use.
Yep, Uncle Dave, you’d be proud of this little Latina. Self-defense: Never leave home without it.
Wary of the street after hearing about Kwan’s encounter with the gang, she set off at a swift pace, spurred on by the damp chill in the air, her well-worn sneakers making hardly a sound. Twenty blocks along Broadway, then a right turn, then up to the attic of a small house just past Jackson Square, and she’d be home. She could sit by her tiny window and look out over the bay near the Embarcadero.
If she was lucky, and the fog held off, she might catch a glimpse of the Golden Gate.
The bridge still seemed more like another fantasy to her than reality, even though she’d seen it in clear weather, swathed in fog, and in dozens of different states in between.
She hadn’t lived in the city before the Second Holocaust. Then, she’d been the nearest thing to a Valley Girl at Everett Alvarez High School in Salinas, about a hundred miles south of San Francisco, her daily language peppered with southern California slang. She’d been slated to graduate salutatorian of her class, bound for Stanford. The Second Holocaust ended the school year early.
Then it ended a lot of things early.
Her younger brother had died first, but in the twelve months afer the SH, she’d lost her mother and “Uncle” Dave too. Her parents had broken up years before, but her dad had always stopped in when his sales job brought him within shouting distance. It had been maybe a month before the SH when he stopped in before heading to southern California. She hadn’t seen him again.
She’d buried her mother and Dave, then packed a duffel bag with her dearest possessions and those her family had treasured as well. She had to go somewhere,
but where?
People came through town, heading to Colorado or New Mexico, and said San Francisco was at least providing some services to residents. Valery had some very
fond memories of the city by the bay, one visit in particular when she’d gone shopping with her mother as a young adolescent. They’d had warm sourdough bread and
shrimp cocktail from a cart on Fisherman’s Wharf and toured Chinatown, just the two of them. Her mother had bought her a new pair of shoes and a tiny cable car ornament
for their Christmas tree. A magical day.
That’s what made up her mind.
Xi San and Valery Paz
Six months now since she’d moved here, and she still sought real direction. When she was younger, she’d wanted to be a fashion model. She was tall enough, and when she only let herself eat lettuce—for a week or so—she could be skinny enough. It wasn’t like modeling scouts came through Salinas, though. And Mama wouldn’t take me to the city to try out. Not till I was eighteen.
She muttered, “Well. Now I’m eighteen, Mama. Look at me. Sneaking around the streets after dark like some matón.”
Kwan said the Enforcer had rescued her from the gang. A tendril of wistful thought wound itself around Valery’s heart. When will I have a white knight riding out to save me, huh?
Even as she wished for that person who might be waiting out there, somewhere, she shoved that idea aside.
That’s why I’m better off. I don’t need saving.
Besides, she didn’t intend to stay in San Francisco all her life.
She reached her house without incident and ran up the steps, scanning the street before she opened the door. Once she was safe inside, she triple-locked it and headed
upstairs to her room, locking the door to the attic as well. She tossed her pea jacket onto her bed, a mattress on the floor she’d dragged up the narrow steps, then lit several
candles. When everything was arranged to her liking, she rummaged through her “pantry,” a cardboard carton of cans and boxes of food she’d collected over the
last few weeks. One can called for her attention, and she took it out, cradling it in her hand. The brilliant orange of the mangoes on the Goya juice can reminded her of the
ambrosial juice awaiting her inside. She could almost taste the sweet tartness on her tongue.
She popped open the top and took a small sip, letting it roll around her mouth like the finest wine. Amazing.
She leaned down to glance out the window before settling in, disappointed that the cool, wet air had brought along a flood of fog that covered the waters of the bay. No bridge-gazing tonight. What else to do?
She plopped down on the worn blue beanbag chair she’d wrestled up the steps the first week she’d arrived. It was just like the one her brother Jimmy’d had, back in the
day. Before…
The loneliness was starting to get to her. She should leave. Comparing the number of survivors in the site of the SH attack, San Diego, and San Francisco, she could extrapolate
the differences between San Francisco and other parts of the country. The farther east you went, the better the chances there would be a healthier population.
Who knew? Maybe they still had fashion runway shows in New York City.
Si, chica, the models, they are very skinny this year…skin and bones…well, maybe bones without the skin…
A chill ran up her back, the black humor a little too close to truth.
help develop a cure. His only daughter, Lin Kwan, is left behind in Hong Kong with her aunt.
Victorian, With a Twist
Welcome to guest author Laura Strickland, here to talk about her new book, Cross Checking: A Buffalo Steampunk Adventure. Take it away, Laura!
The thing I hear most often when I attend Steampunk Festivals and other events promoting my books is, “What’s Steampunk?” It’s a fair question. Many readers aren’t familiar with the genre, and feel a bit intimidated by it. But as I’ve learned since starting this wild ride, penning my Buffalo Steampunk Adventures series, there’s no easy answer. Steampunk means something different to all those who love it.
For some of us, it’s all about the gadgets. Steampunk aficionados love to tinker. They build teapot racers, life-sized robots and fully-operational automatons. Others love the costuming, and the chance to transform into someone other than their every-day selves, to walk for even a few hours on the wild side. Goggles and helmets, brass-buttoned jackets and sweeping skirts…and stepping through the looking glass.
For me, it’s all about what-might-have-been. What if the glorious age of steam heralded 
by the Industrial Revolution had never been superseded by electricity and the internal combustion engine? What if the Victorian age hadn’t died but merely morphed into something bigger, grander—and more twisted?
If you’d like to imagine the Steampunk world, think Victorian, with a twist. Just a little bit darker (a la Jack the Ripper), a little bit weirder, and to those of us who appreciate the strange, that much more delightful.
The characters in my Buffalo Steampunk Adventures books are real—far from perfect, they have warts and fears, and disadvantages. The city’s real too—Victorian Buffalo, city (if not time) of my birth. Buffalo makes the perfect setting for Steampunk, industrial, gritty and yes, it has an edge.
Me, I love the edge. I love the twist. If you do too, come walk the brick streets of Steampunk Buffalo with me. You may never want to leave.
BUFFALO STEAMPUNK ADVENTURES Book Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aauK5ob3zI
Blurb for new release: Cross Checking: A Buffalo Steampunk Adventure
When Maddie MacGillicuddy loses her job, she’s desperate to find another. Though good jobs are available at the stables, only men are hired. A big, strapping girl, she becomes Matty in her brother’s clothing. Complications arise when a city magnate, assembling a tournament hockey team, admires Matty’s skating skills and recruits “him,” with real money and the city’s reputation on the line.
Huritt Gilbert is used to battling his way through life. At the stables, he routinely endures racial slurs, sometimes striking back. He’s never met a woman like Maddie and would do anything for her, including accept the dangerous position of goalie for her team. But when competition heats up, loyalties get twisted. Will Gilbert and Maddie play for glory, or love?
EXCERPT:
“Gilbert, you should see how good Maddie skates.”
“I’d like to,” Gilbert said in his dusky voice. The dark—which somehow matched that voice—seemed to close around them. It made the encounter feel more intimate than it should.
Maddie shivered. “I’d better get Roddy home. It’s getting colder.”
“Going to snow some more, too,” Gilbert offered, not taking his eyes from Maddie’s. “I can always tell.”
“Oh, yes?”
He wagged his dark head. Maddie had a sudden and completely inappropriate impulse to plunge her fingers through that black hair. But he still held her fingers captive.
He told her, “I get an instinct for certain things—sometimes I just know.”
“I see. And are you never wrong?”
He shrugged those wide shoulders. “Seldom enough.”
“Come on, Maddie,” Roddy demanded, completely immune to any undertones. “I’m hungry.”
“Yes, all right.”
She tugged at her fingers again; this time Gilbert let them go. Together, they climbed up over the bank and trudged to the foot of Ferry Street.
“Do you live far?” Gilbert asked. “Can I see you home?”
“Peach Street,” Maddie told him, wishing this somehow enchanting encounter had happened on any other day than the one during which she’d destroyed her life. “I think we’ll be all right.” She hoped so.
Gilbert nodded. “Maybe I’ll see you again on the ice.”
Later she wondered if he, with all his bright instincts, had uttered a prophecy.
buy links:
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cross-checking-laura-strickland/1136271198?ean=2940162971597
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/cross-checking-4
iTunes: https://books.apple.com/us/book/cross-checking/id1497766433
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/cross-checking-by-laura-strickland
Author bio:
Multi award-winning author Laura Strickland delights in time traveling to the past and searching out settings for her books, be they Historical Romance, Steampunk or something in between. Her first Scottish Historical hero, Devil Black, battled his way onto the publishing scene in 2013, and the author never looked back. Nor has she tapped the limits of her imagination. Venturing beyond Historical and Contemporary Romance, she created a new world with her ground-breaking Buffalo Steampunk Adventure series set in her native city, in Western New York. Married and the parent of one grown daughter, Laura has also been privileged to mother a number of very special rescue dogs, and is intensely interested in animal welfare. These days while she’s writing, you can always find her latest rescue, Lacy, nearby. Her love of dogs, and her lifelong interest in Celtic history, magic and music, are all reflected in her writing. Laura’s mantra is Lore, Legend, Love, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
Author Web site: www.laurastricklandbooks.com
Author Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000002632317
Author Amazon page: http://www.amazon.com/Laura-Strickland/e/B001KHSACW/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
Author Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/760146.Laura_Strickland
Author Twitter:
Laura Strickland Author @LauraSt05038951
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurastricklandauthor/
BookBub page: https://www.bookbub.com/search?search=Laura+Strickland
Lyndi Alexander's worlds of fancy 