Goodbye, Mr. Rickman

Jillian Chantal

I love Alan Rickman, as most of you know. I am heartbroken today at the news of his death. Here’s a video I love. RIP, dear man.

View original post

Release Day!! If Witches Were Horses

New release from SFCATTY. Check it out!

Ramblings of a Writer

It’s here, it’s here! Check it out. Book Two of the Witch-in-Training series, If Witches Were Horses, is available now.

BUY LINK

Blurb:

The week of Thanksgiving is usually dull. Unless you’re Cali French, that is. When her parents leave her home alone after dropping a bombshell about her family, she sets out on a quest to find out the real truth about her past even though her parents have forbidden her to leave the house in their absence. The witch-in-training faces many obstacles on her journey. Some terrifying, some that would be amusing if not so dangerous, and some downright wicked. Accompanied by her best friend, a giant named Myron and her guardian angel, Alastair, Cali fights to find what she thinks she was denied. Her magic skills will be called into service again as Cali’s trip turns out to be the stuff of nightmares.

View original post

The Struggling Author

That would be me, Paula Hardin and many others out there in the writing world. I’ve learned so much since I started. When I look back at my first book that I ever wrote it’s a painful thing. Once I entered it in a contest and a judge told me, I should hire a ghostwriter to write my stories. I have to admit, I cried and afterwards couldn’t write for months. Not to mention hurt and also furious. How dare someone tell me to hire someone else to write my stories. I can look back now and realize at the time she may have been right. I didn’t know what I was doing. I thought I did, but I know now that I still don’t know everything, but I’m learning my way.

I’m not the best at blogging, I have twitter, Instagram, and Facebook and I even have google+, and Pinterest. I’m in the process of recovering my first book’s cover so I can do a relaunch. In September4th through the 6th I’ll be going to the Writers for New Orleans and I’ll actually have a table at the book signing. This December at the Geekonomicon 2015 Convention in Biloxi, MS I’m going to have a table and there working out the details but I might also be on a panel or two. I’ll keep you posted.

Here is my link to: Forever Lost, and The Unforeseen Rescue, which is in ebook and paperbacks.

Visiting Dawn’s Reading Nook Today

Today I’m visiting Dawn’s Reading Nook, Dawn Roberto’s home away from Love Romance Café. SEARCH & RESCUE my contemporary military romance that takes place in my hometown of Mobile, AL and the deserts of eastern Afghanistan is featured there.

For Army Ranger Captain Taylor Jackson and college coed Lexie Carter, it’s love at first sight. Young Lexie’s non-traditional family, however, isn’t exactly pleased with her choice of a military officer a decade her senior. Her middle-aged guardians, former Green Berets, know quite a bit about the problems of military service. Lexie’s guardians were in the Army and gay when gays were discharged with little recourse. My special feature at the Reading Nook today is “A Very Short History of Gays in the Military.” There’s also a blurb and excerpt. Check out my post at Dawn’s HERE.

I’m pleased to announce that Secret Cravings has contracted Todd and Ely’s story, a nontraditional Christmas story–ELY’S EPIPHANY.

SEARCH & RESCUE is available from Secret Cravings Publishing. Click HERE to read excerpt/buy.

July Next Big Thing Blog Hop

Thank you to Celia Breslin for tagging me in to the Next Big Thing Blog Hop. Check out her gorgeous website HERE  featuring original artwork in the header and her new release Haven, my current read. Here are my questions and answers about my new contemporary military romance, Search & Rescue, for the blog hop.
 
 
1: What is the working title of your book(s)?

Search & Rescue

2: Where did the idea come from for the book?

The story just popped in my head demanding to be written while I was in the middle of NaNoWri Mo. Never did finish that story.

3: What genre does your book come under?

Search & Rescue is a contemporary military romance.

4: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

The hero is an almost-thirty, battle hardened Army Ranger – maybe Chris Hemsworth from the Avengers.  The heroine – Kirsten Dunst. I’m not very good with this.

5: What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

After escaping captivity in Afghanistan, Army Ranger Captain Taylor Jackson carries out a frantic search and rescue for his missing fiancée, Lexie Carter.

6: Is your book self-published, published by an independent publisher, or represented by an agency?

Search & Rescue was recently published by Secret Cravings Publishing.

7: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Less than two weeks. Didn’t need to do any plotting, they story was already there.

8: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

None that I know of, but it’s not my usual genre.

 

9: Who or what inspired you to write this book?

 

The characters just popped up and I HAD to write the story. I was a nurse in the Army Reserve and was familiar with Army protocols. I set the story in my hometown – Mobile, AL – so there wasn’t a lot of research there.

 

10: What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

 

The heroine, Lexie Carter, is a wealthy orphan – a college coed – raised by two former Green Berets who are gay which creates some interesting situations between Taylor and the guardians. 

 

I’d like to write a freebie quickie about the aftermath of Search & Rescue and maybe a short on the guardians – they are just too much fun to let go and they certainly have a story to tell.  

 

You can read an excerpt or buy Search & Rescue at Secret Cravings Publishing or Amazon.

 

Now I’m tagging Champagne author Graeme Brown with his edgy paranormal, The Pact HERE.  

 

Rita Bay Rita Bay’s Webpage & Blog

Release Day for Search & Rescue!

Today I’m celebrating the RELEASE DAY for SEARCH & RESCUE, my first contemporary military romance. Search & Rescue is my first novella published by Secret Cravings Publishing. I used my experiences as a military dependent and a nurse in the U. S. Army Reserve to write the story. Here’s the blurb:

Not every search ends with a rescue. One look at Captain Taylor Jackson at a college Career Day and wealthy coed Lexie Carter knew he was The One.  In six months they’re engaged and the wedding set for after graduation. When Taylor was reported killed in action in Afghanistan two months before their wedding, Lexie was devastated, her hopes for a family of her own crushed.  Can she survive a future without Taylor or will she succumb to her grief?

Army Ranger Taylor Jackson falls hard for young Lexie Carter. He introduces her to passion and she teaches him to love. While on a mission in Afghanistan, he is captured by insurgents. When Taylor finally escapes and returns home on what should have been their wedding day, Lexie has disappeared under suspicious circumstances. Can he find her in time to rescue her from her fate?

Search & Rescue is an erotic military romance that is rated four flames by the publisher because of the subject matter – language, wartime violence, and sex. There’s a bit of humor, also, because Lexie’s guardians (two former Green Berets) aren’t exactly happy when she brings Taylor home. Read an excerpt or buy HERE or click the cover.   Rita Bay

Release Day for The Aegis

SO excited that today is release day for The Aegis, a vampires vs Light Warriors paranormal romance, from Champagne Books. Check out the cover by Petra. Click the cover to read a blurb or buy.

Melinda Kildare, antiquarian and rare book dealer extraordinaire, returns to her shop after an estate sale with a massive, sealed barrel. Too late, she discovers that the Aegis medallion that traps her head-first in the bottom of the barrel is the bait used by a family of vampires to capture and enslave women of power.

Light Warrior Damian Sinclair who has battled the Dark Ones for centuries answers Melinda’s call—the Call of a lifemate. While protecting her from the Dark Ones who pursue her relentlessly, he introduces her to passion, love, and her heritage as a Shield Bearer of the Light.

Will they find happiness as they unite to fight the Dark Ones or fall victims to the Dark forces ranged against them?

“The Aegis” Champagne Books, April, 2013
“Her Teddy Bare” Champagne’s Carnal Passions, May, 2013
“Search & Rescue” Secret Cravings, July, 2013
“Finding Eve” Champagne Books, September, 2013
“Into the Lyons’ Den” Champagne Books, 2012
“His Obsession” Siren BookStrand, 2012
“His Desire” Siren BookStrand, 2012

New Book

Hello everyone. Its been awhile. Today lets talk about if we like or dont like famous historical characters in our books. I currently have to books I am writing.  One is a western erotic romance and i am about a quarter done with it. The second book I am writing is a light paranormal.

The paranormal has two iconic heros in it that battled two thousand years ago and now are ready to battle again. But this time the old bad guy is the hero and the good guy is devious and evil!

Who are my characters? None other than Achilles and Hector! I love their stories and well even though the film version of Troy is not exactly correct its still fun to watch.

So how do you feel about famous real life heros being fictional characters in a book? And who would you like to see in a book?

Happy Tuesday folks!
Sayde

Moonday’s Heroic Hunk: The King is Found

Headline news resulted in this week’s Heroic Hunk being put aside to herald the announcement of the certain identification of the remains of Richard III, the Yorkist King of England. Richard and his Yorkist relatives had warred with the Tudor family for the throne of England. Richard’s oldest brother Edward had reigned as Edward IV. When Edward died young, he left two young sons with Richard as Lord Protector. Richard convinced his sister-in-law Elizabeth Woodville to allow the children to leave sanctuary and travel to London to be crowned king.  The oldest son who should have reigned as Edward V and  his younger brother traveled to the Tower of London and were never seen again. Many suspect the children were murdered at Richard’s order, insuring his own succession to the throne.  The discovery of the remains of two young children buried in the Tower tend to support their theory. Richard became King but reigned for only two years while defending his Crown. He was killed at Bosworth Field in 1485 when he was 32 years old.. His body was mutilated and put on display before being interred in Leicester. Henry Tudor, the victor of Bosworth, reigned as Henry VII who was succeeded by Henry VIII who was in turn succeeded by his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. The victors write the history and the plays, so Richard has been portrayed as a poor king who valued only power.

Last year, a skeleton was discovered in a parking lot. The fact that it had numerous battle wounds and a spinal curvature seen in scoliosis convinced the excavators that they had stumbled on the body of Richard III.  TODAY, after extensive testing—DNA, soil analysis, and dental tests—researchers announced that the skeleton was that of Richard III. They announced that the skull had a mortal battlefield wound from a sharp blade. Contemporary sources relate that Richard was fighting valiantly when a blow to his skull pushed his helmet into his skull. The skeleton’s skull had that exact wound at the base of his skull.  The final proof offered was DNA evidence from Michael Ibsen, a direct descendent of Richard’s niece, Anne St Leger. The remains will be interred in the nearby Leicester Cathedral in 2014. A comprehensive TV special is in the making. Check out the earliest portrait of Richard III from the early 1500s and a pic of the skeleton Check out the curvature of the spine of the skeleton. Next week, back on schedule.  Rita Bay

Happy Holidays to All!!

Merry Christmas!!  Rita Bay