While 2020 and 2021 haven’t been great years in a lot of ways, they HAVE been excellent ways to fill your electronic readers with top quality reading material, and this latest box set from the Authors’ Billboard is no exception. As always, I’m immensely proud to be featured in this box set.
NINE incredible tales of Love – from Sweet to Spicy – for your reading pleasure.
What does a small town second chance romance have in common with an Iraqi warzone? How about a millionaire poker player and a police officer with a surprise baby on the way? A cowboy and a doctor? Or even a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer and an isolated mansion in Maine? Discover the answers and fall for the men and women willing to face any obstacle and sacrifice whatever it takes for the ones they love. These are the UNFORGETTABLE LOVERS you want and need in your own life. Created by New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Authors for devoted romance readers.
Mimi Barbour – Don’t Be Cruel (NEW!): Audra’s cousin gives up Johnny and also wants to give up his baby, but Audra won’t let her. She uses blackmail…and she wins.
Stacy Eaton – Riley – Loving a Young (NEW!): After being Lovers for years, can these two move on to something
more?
Natalie Ann – Passionate Vision: A chance meeting in the woods between a young woman with incredible powers she hasn’t learned to control and a man with a strings-attached inheritance he’s reluctant to accept discover they may be able to help each other.
Leanne Banks – Her Forever Man: Can a Manhattan heiress find love and purpose with a rugged rancher and his two children?
Mona Risk – One Mistake: Getting involved with the strong-headed and too generous reporter involves more complications than the bright doctor had ever faced in the OR. But what wouldn’t he do to save the love of his life and her baby?
Rebecca York – From the Darkness: Bree comes to Ravenscrest to find out if Troy, the man she loved and lost seven years ago, is dead or alive. But nothing is as it seems at the isolated mansion on the Maine coast.
Susanne Matthews – Hello Again: Can Charley lift a millennia old curse and find joy and love again?
Taylor Lee – Against the Odds: Passion Meets Politics: A political hotshot desperate for campaign cash, Gia insists she just wants his money. Until she meets him.
Traci Hall – Crimson Gold: In 1881, two newcomers to the wild west goldmining scene meet. He assumes she’s the new entertainment in town, she thinks he’s rude and arrogant and…intriguing. Their unconventional partnership puts each of them in danger as they fight to protect the ones they love.
Release Day for a special box set from the amazing authors at the ABB!
FIVE stories of passion and excitement, all the result of THE GOLDEN LEGACY.
The legacy of a pirate treasure is either a curse or a blessing depending on if it’s used for good or evil.
Early in the 1700s, a modest merchant ship sailing the Caribbean is attacked by pirates. Although smaller, The Golden Fleece bested the brigands’ craft loaded with a treasure trove of gold and jewels. The last words of a dying pirate claimed the Incas had cursed anyone who misused the treasure but anyone who used it for good would be blessed. The greedy merchant captain was killed during the battle, but his 18-year-old daughter survived. Mindful of the curse and to thank God for their salvation, she asked the crew members to split the treasure equally. They made a binding pledge to keep only twenty percent for their own use and give ten percent to help others. With the rest, each was to buy something of great value that could be given to their descendants. The curse, though, would be passed onto anyone who broke the oath and used the gains selfishly. Love survives despite the trauma of pirates, kidnappings, and murder; villains and slave uprisings, lies and deceptions. Travel from the eighteenth to twenty-first century and find what perils and pleasure await in this box set collection of romance stories based on the purloined pirates’ treasure of THE GOLDEN LEGACY from USA Today and NY Times Bestselling Authors.
THE PRISONER RETURNS by Nancy Radke: His love for her means more than his inheritance. He’s willing to lose it all to save the woman he loves. The Golden Legacy inheritance is expected to make Keely a very rich woman. Hired by her father as a bodyguard, Tripp Richards finds himself the new target as he tries to keep her alive. To complicate matters, an old man appears who claims to be her real father. Which man is really Keely’s father and who is trying to kill her?
Historical
TWIST OF FATE by Susanne Matthews: Can a cursed treasure unite two lonely outcasts?
Overton Stafford, shunned by his family because of a birthmark on his face, made a life for himself as Second Mate on The Golden Fleece. In a battle with pirates, Overton loses his left arm, ending his career. Knowing he will be a wealthy man makes the pain easier to bear, especially when he discovers he can repay a moral debt and help an old friend. When he meets Anna, Overton realizes he wants more from her than a financial partnership.
Anneliese Van Stubel lost her sight at nine as a result of Smallpox. Now eighteen, a ward of the crown because of the Danish Age of Majority law, she lives in limbo, uncertain what will happen to her. When Overton approaches her with the proposition to help her rebuild the plantation, she’s excited with the idea of returning to her home. But her joy fades when her caregiver makes it plain that he has a different future in mind for her, one that will profit him.
Set in a time when brutality against women and slaves was the norm, Overton seeks to change things as he falls in love with the girl who has lost so much.
RACE FOR THE GOLD by Rebecca York: Can they stay alive and out of harm’s way long enough for her to enjoy her inheritance? Matthew Connor has three big problems. As his horse farm fell on hard times in Depression-era Maryland, his wife left him for another man, abandoning their five-year-old daughter, Jenny. Now he suspects someone is trying to sabotage his business. When Hannah Henry snatches Jenny from the path of a speeding car, Matt is sure fate has intervened and hires Hannah as the girl’s nanny. As he watches them bond, he falls for the young woman who is giving his daughter a renewed sense of security. Yet he’s reluctant to risk his heart again. When Hannah comes into money from the Golden Legacy, she tries to find a way to banish his financial worries without wounding the pride of the man she loves. But will the saboteur succeed before Matt realizes that Hannah’s heart is the only treasure that matters.
DANGEROUS INHERITANCE by Nancy Radke: Great wealth can bring great problems – including kidnapping and murder – and may make it harder to protect the woman you love. Kent Peters meets a woman who seems ideal to him. She says she’s engaged, but Kent discovers the fellow is no good. How do you prove this to someone you just met? And what happens when the guy reacts violently to having his fiancée taken away from him? The Golden Legacy has blessed Kent with riches, but they may be of no use when trying to win over a girl who is loyal, even if her loyalty is misplaced.
THE PRICE OF LOVE by Katy Walters: Two couples find love as they deal with murderous family members and a mysterious time portal while trying to stay alive long enough to enjoy a generous inheritance.
So, past or present, this reality or the next. The Golden Legacy has something for everyone! At only 99 cents USD or free to read in Kindle Unlimited, this box set will bring you hours of reading pleasure!
Welcome to this week’s Tuesday Tales, the weekly blog post where a small, select group of authors share their works in progress with you. I’m continuing with The White Dahlia. This week our scenes are 400 words long and written to the prompt, GLASS.
A cappuccino-skinned waitress, wearing short-shorts and a tank top with Sluggo’s emblazoned across her chest, stepped over to the table.
“Hi, Beth. Didn’t expect to see you so early. The weather getting to you?”
She eyed Al up and down as if he were a Delmonico steak in a butcher shop.
Beth bit back her laugh. The poor girl was almost drooling, not that she didn’t have reason to. The man was yummy.
“Isn’t it getting to everyone? Hopefully, it’ll break soon. My work hours have changed. This is my new partner, Al Foster.” She turned to him. “Nancy’s parents own the place, and before you say anything, they opened it the year before she was born. Calling her Nancy was an excellent marketing ploy. You know, like the old comic book, Nancy and Sluggo? They have prints and stuff on the walls inside.”
“I don’t mind the name,” Nancy added, leaning in, giving Al a better look at her wares. “It’s a great way to break the ice, and it beats Lavinia, my middle name.”
“Pleased to meet you, Nancy Lavinia, both lovely names.”
“Hell, with the way you say it, it doesn’t sound bad at all.”
Beth smothered a groan. Had the girl batted her eyelashes?
Al reached for Beth’s hand. She looked up and read the “rescue me” look in his eyes.
Nancy must’ve gotten his message. She backed up.
He grinned. “What’s cold and on tap?”
She smiled wistfully. “We’ve got the usual as well as a couple of microbrews. It depends on your taste.” Turning to Beth, she asked, “The usual for you?”
“Yeah. You know me, I’m not the adventurous kind.”
“Bring two of whatever she’s having,” Al said.
“Two Magic Hat specials it is.”
Al watched the waitress walk away. “Thanks for the rescue. She seems nice enough, but I felt like the blue plate special. Please tell me I didn’t just order a Shirley Temple?”
Beth bit her lip, fighting not to laugh.
“No, you didn’t. It’s a seasonal wheat beer from a microbrewery.”
The “woe is me” look on his face had her dissolving into giggles.
“You’ll enjoy it; you’ll see.”
She really liked Al Foster. Hopefully, that wouldn’t be a problem.
Over burgers, fries, and two glasses of beer each, they made small talk, purposely avoiding discussing the case. It only took one person with big ears to embroider stories, and after Jack’s article, the last thing they needed was more publicity.
That’s it. Stay safe and don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales
Last week, I posted this picture taken by my sister of a robin searching for bugs for an early spring meal. Cornwall Ontario doesn’t see robins during the winter. We have blue-jays, cardinals, woodpeckers, chickadees, juncos, sparrows, and large swarms of black birds that can make a bare tree look as if it’s full of leaves. We have pigeons and sometimes turkeys, too, but never robins, so when the robins come back, it’s always cause for celebration.
This morning, I saw cowbirds and robins feeding on the newly exposed grass. With the sun there must be tons of juicy bugs to eat.
Have you ever wondered how the birds know when to come back? I(t isn’t as if they do it at exactly the same time every year. Last year, the snow and cold lasted well into April. This year, maybe out of pity for us, Mother Nature provided us with a reasonably mild winter. Even in January, we had temperatures in the high teens, twenties, thirties, even forties. Last week, we actually had a day when the mercury hit 60 degrees.
The only problem for me was the incredible dampness that went with Mother Nature’s milder days, and the regular, seemingly endless days without sunshine. Of course, that’s probably because for the last three years, I have spent ten -to fourteen days basking in the Caribbean sun, but not this year!
Thanks to COVID 19, there was no fun in the sun this year. So how did we change things up? We brought back the Sunday afternoon drive. We stayed in our area and traveled the lesser known back roads, admiring houses, farms, trees, and whatever else we could see. We stared in amazement at fishing shacks on the frozen river. We marvelled at children skating and sliding, but we did not stop where there were people. If we did stop, it was in an isolated region for a stretch. But now, that may change.
Spring arrives officially on Saturday, March 20th. The long range forecast is for fifty-two degrees, a light breeze, and 12 hours of pure sunlight. That’s how you really know spring is here. The days are longer! So, since we still can’t go anywhere or do anything, we need to find creative ways to pass the time.
I’m going to start by looking for the birds and the flowers. My crocuses are up, those hardy little purple blooms another sign of spring.
And once the temperatures climb. I will sit outside and read. Looking for something to read? Check out my website. https://mhsusannematthews.ca/ You’ll find all of my books listed there. I’m hard at work on The White Dahlia from which I showcase scenes each week. I’m also working on The next book in my Cocktails For You series, Make Mine a Manhattan. The end of April is the deadline for The While Dahlia.
But now, the sun is shining, it’s 40 degrees and I’m going to sit out in the sun. Enjoy!
Welcome to this week’s Tuesday Tales, the weekly blog where a select group of authors share their works in progress with you. This week, we have a picture prompt and our scenes are limited to 300 words. Here is the picture I chose:
I’m continuing with The White Dahlia, Book Four of The Harvester Files
Luke perked up at the sound of burgers. He stood, stretched, and wrapped himself around her legs.
“He’s probably starving to death again. Let me feed him first, and then I’ll take you to this little place off the beaten path. It’s really popular with the locals, and the burgers and cheese fries are to die for. I’m an emotional eater, and as stressed and upset as I am right now, I could probably eat a horse.”
“Does that place serve cold beer? It’s Saturday, we aren’t officially on duty, and I could sure use one.” He closed the laptop but made no move to put it away.
“It does, but while we may be walking there, you have to drive home afterwards, lieutenant. I refuse to contribute to your delinquency.”
“Not a problem. I put the Mustang to bed and took a cab here. But seriously, day drinking usually does me in and as tired as I am, any more than two would probably lay me out cold. Unless you’re offering your sofa for the night, I’ll behave. Besides, if Maddy or your FBI buddy call, it may be a longer day than either of us planned on.”
The image of his six-foot-four frame all pretzeled onto her love seat—they didn’t have a couch—had her giggling.
“Sorry, you’re out of luck. We’ve only got the love seat, and that’s Luke’s place.” She stopped as ‘but I’ve got room in my bed’ flashed through her mind. “Come on. It’s a twenty minute walk from here. On the way back, we need to stop at the grocery store for cat food.”
After giving Luke a snack, she grabbed her purse, locked the door, and led the way back downstairs. Until she spoke to Chad, there wasn’t a lot more she could tell Al.
That’s it. Stay safe and don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales
Well, I’m back at it and this year, in this time of COVID 19 and Coronavirus, I’ve chosen to find and try interesting cocktails. Not only that, but I’ve already started writing a new series of romantic comedy novels all based on a particular cocktail. So, for this year’s block challenge, I will feature A to Z the cocktail titles for my new books and how to make the signature cocktails they have been named after. So far, I have 4 books completed and 22 to go. Nothing like setting a goal!
So join me here from April 1 to April 30, 2021 for the A to Z Challenge 2021.
Where has the time gone? This Sunday the clocks will jump ahead for another year. Days will be longer with more light. The snow will melt and we’ll start thinking about another spring and summer in the shadow of COVID 19. At this time last year, the dreaded virus was just making an appearance. Now, the darn thing just won’t go away.
This week’s Tuesday tales are all based on the word BUG and are each a maximum of 400 words long. I’m continuing with The White Dahlia
Beth nodded. “Depending on when Rachel gave birth, there may be enough fetal DNA in her blood and brain to determine who the father is. It won’t do us much good until we make an arrest, but once we do, we may be able to match it. They’ll be no way he can get away with it.”
If Mitch’s suspicions were correct, and she hoped against hope they weren’t, they might have a partial match even sooner than that. She needed to tell Al as much as she could, but before they went off half-cocked, they needed to verify a few things and dig deeper into Rebecca.
“Son of a bitch.” Al ran his hand through his hair. “It might be the break we need, but what do we do? Bug a judge and order DNA tests on everyone working at the hospitals?”
“I doubt we could get a court order for that based on what we have,” she answered, in control once more. “Before we talk to anyone else, we need to find out Rebecca’s blood type. You said you had a cousin’s number? Do you think you can call her now?”
“Sure, but I wanted to go through the file first. I know we don’t have much, but…”
“We can always call back.”
Al nodded and brought up his contacts, punched in the number, and waited for the phone to ring. He put the call on speaker.
“Hello, you’ve reached Maddy. I’m out. You know the drill. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.” The voice message ended and a mechanical voice replaced it. “At the tone, please leave a message or a callback number.” A buzz filled the air.
“This message is for Madeleine Winston. This is Lieutenant Al Foster from NYPD’s Missing Persons’ department. It’s imperative that I speak to you as soon as possible. You can reach me at this number. It’s my cellphone. Call at any time, day or night.” He ended the call.
Beth shook her head. “Well, if you wanted to scare her, that should do the trick.”
“As long as it gets her to call back quickly, I don’t care.” He smiled. “Right now, it’s after one, and I haven’t eaten since the take out last night. I’m in the mood for a burger and a beer. Any chance we can find someplace like that?”
That’s it. Stay safe and don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales
Looking for a laugh or two? Then check out Buck’s Fizz the third book in the Cocktails for You series. Meet Jewel Jessica Wellington, AKA Jess Wells, the newest member of an all-girl honky tonk band named Suzy and the Silvertones. But Jess isn’t your typical country singer. Not only is she the only daughter of a New York City billionaire on the run from her family and the marriage her father has arranged for her, she’s a respected soprano with the Metropolitan Opera.
Check out the blurb:
You can run, but you can’t hide! In order to escape an arranged marriage to a rude, insufferable man, Jewel Wellington leaves home and The Met to hide with a honky tonk band on a Southern promotional tour. As Jess Wells, she and the other Silvertones step into The Squawking Tomcat, a bar on the outskirts of Alice, Texas, expecting to have a three-week gig. The problem is, the bar’s owner, Lance Corcoran, isn’t expecting an all-girl band.Frustrated at this sudden reverse of fortune, Jess makes a deal with the bar’s owner—pick any song by any artist, and let her prove she and the Silvertones can do it. What she doesn’t expect is to realize that the bar’s crusty cowboy owner is none other the surfer she spent one steamy night on the beach with eight years ago, one she left without saying goodbye.Will Lance recognize her? And if he does, will it cost them the gig?
The Cocktails for You series is a set of books written as first person romantic comedy novels, each one focusing on a cocktail for its title. I’m not a lush, but I enjoyed going out for drinks with friends, cruises, dinners in fancy restaurants, all things stolen from us by the Coronavirus COVID 19 exactly a year ago. These books are shorter than my usual novels, upbeat, and easy to read, but they still offer the quality writing I’ve always promised you.
Cover by Melinda De Ross
The first book in the series debuted in the ABB’s box set, Summer Shorts.Tequila Sunrise, with more scenes and details than the original short story, is set in Mexico, and the places mentioned are all the spots I visited and loved on my last vacation, thanks to the virus. Sun, sand, and mind-blowing kisses! Kelly Winters, an up and coming recreational facilities designer for Dreamscapes, is thrilled to be part of a Think Tank Conway Enterprises is putting together—so thrilled in fact that she agrees, despite the fact she hates flying. Liam Conway, the heir apparent to Conway Enterprises, can’t believe his luck when he spots his Kellyanne in the airport and discovers she’ll be his seatmate on the flight to Mexico City. He was sure they’d connected that day ten years ago, and not just because she’d literally left him in stitches. He searched for her for weeks afterwards, but it was as if she’d vanished into thin air. Kelly is stunned to see Liam after all these years. Discovering that not only is he participating in the same Think Tank she is, but he’s also her boss leads to more than she bargained for. Can a ten-year-old attraction blossom again, or will their positions keep them apart?
Cover by Melinda De Ross
The second book in the series originated as What Dottie Wants in the ABB’s Dear Santa box set.As I did with the previous book, I expanded the story, adding more than ten thousand words to it and retitling it,Champagne Cocktail . Do you believe in Christmas magic? When life gave Ronnie Daniels lemons, instead of lemonade, the single mother learned to make Lemon Drops. This Christmas, times are tougher than ever, and Ronnie’s number one priority is making the holiday as normal as possible for her five-year-old daughter. All Dottie wants from Santa is a Famous American Ballerina doll. The problem is not only are they expensive, but they’re impossible to find. After another failed attempt to secure one of the dolls, in her frustration, Ronnie sends a scathing letter to the company, Thomas Toys. As the doll’s manufacturer, one advertising a product they don’t have on hand and can’t deliver before Christmas, it’s their fault that her daughter’s dreams won’t come true. When the company’s new CEO comes into the bar to apologize for the mishap and try to make amends, Ronnie refuses to listen to him, not just because of Dottie, but they have a complicated history. Determined to fix this, Wyatt won’t back down, and before long the doll isn’t the only thing Dottie and Ronnie want for Christmas.
The third book, Buck’s Fizz, appears as a short story in the ABB’s New Year’s Eve Shorts box set. Like it’s predecessors, the story got a major overhaul and is now double the original length. I based her experiences on some of mine, so to those of you ‘born in the saddle’ remember, there are a lot of us tenderfoots out there. The bonus writing this was the opportunities it gave me to listen to songs from the greatest female country singers. Here’s a new scene from the book to whet your whistle:
Looking out the partially open window into the darkness, seeing nothing but the reflection of my face thanks to the light from Elise’s electronic reader, I sighed. Who knew life could chew you up and spit you out this way? If I hadn’t hit rock bottom, I couldn’t be too far away.
Up until six months ago, my life had been tolerable, not perfect by any means, at least not as long as my father held a death grip on the purse strings, including my trust fund, which had forced me to live at home. Okay, maybe I could’ve given up some of the perks, but to go from a Manhattan condo to a dive in a neighborhood where the rats were the size of cats was still too big a leap for this poor little rich girl. So sue me!
I’d been one show away from my professional goal, a coveted main role at the Met—that was until my father decided it was time for me to get married, and put all that “singing nonsense” as he called it behind me. There were just two problems with his plan: not only did I not want to give up my singing career, I wasn’t in love. How could I even consider marriage if that vital component wasn’t in the equation?
All I wanted was to be in charge of my own life, make my own choices, and if I made mistakes, so be it. I would own up to them and move on. In the twenty-first century, despite the fact that I was female, that shouldn’t be so hard, and yet…
As the only child of wealthy parents who’d given me pretty much everything I’d ever wanted, I’d had friends, fame, and the job of my dreams. I was almost thirty, but that was still young. I would find my true love in time, and then, the rest of it, marriage and children, would fall into place—or so I’d believed. Unfortunately for me, my father had a different idea. I’d danced at his expense for years; now, it was time to stop being emotional and pay the band.
Emotional? Me? I was the most rational person in either our penthouse condo, our home on Cape Cod, or the mansion in the Florida Keys. I might work in theater, but I wasn’t prone to theatrics, nor did I believe in all the hocus pocus my mother had indulged in for the last thirty years in an effort to deal with the tedium of her life. Not having to work was both a blessing and a curse, and with my father a workaholic, rarely home until late at night, she’d immersed herself in all kinds of New Age thinking, dragging me along as long as she could.
She’d done it all—palmistry, tealeaf reading, visited mediums to connect with the spirits of her past, flooded the condo and the vacation houses with positive energy crystals, had tried Reiki, yoga, and meditation, and most recently was looking into her soul group or family, with a shaman named Bob, helping her prepare for her next reincarnation. Good karma, bad karma. I’d needed her support. Couldn’t she at least wait until this life was over to prepare for the next one?
My father tended to ignore her idiosyncrasies; after all in his world, a happy wife meant a happy life, and if she was off doing God alone knew what, it didn’t matter as long as she entertained his business associates and smiled on cue. But a daughter? That was a different matter altogether, and the reason I was in this van, where the air conditioner had committed suicide yesterday, my long, recently dyed, mouse-brown hair plastered to the back of my neck, driving at night through the desert, on my way to Nowhere, Texas.
Life at home had resembled walking across a mine field. I never knew exactly what might set my father off, and as far as my mother went, she was invisible, preferring to stay out of it. At first, the arguments had been minor, almost trivial, but at the end, they’d become major battles, especially after Montgomery Reginald Harris had been added to the mix. I’d never been one for confrontation, but if I didn’t stand up for myself, who would?
Monte, as he liked to be called, had pockets lined with gold, not that my family needed more money. Sadly, to the rich, the only thing that truly mattered was getting richer. I’d never seen my father as a greedy, covetous man, but then, until this year, I’d probably never seen him for the man he really was. When I did, it broke my heart.
With his nose job, hair plugs, capped teeth, and brooding good looks, Monte considered himself God’s gift to women. In reality, the poster boy for Plastic Surgery R Us was an ass with an overblown, sickening sense of entitlement. He never asked for anything—he demanded it. The first and last time we’d officially gone on a date had been at the end of July, the weekend of my cousin Tara’s wedding. He’d thrown a snit fit when the serving girl had dared allow the condensation on the outside of the water jug to drip onto the sleeve of his shiny, new jacket.
I’d been mortified, hoping against hope that no one would realize we were together. Unfortunately, he and my father had been in cahoots, and Monte had chosen to publicly stake his claim, latching onto my waist, openly proclaiming me his property. I’d struggled momentarily, but then, seeing the paparazzi and the glare in my father’s eyes, afraid His Majesty King Monte would make an even bigger scene, I’d stopped.
Monte had smirked, leaned down, and kissed me, the experience not unlike smooching with a dog that constantly drooled. I’d stepped back and excused myself, running to the ladies’ room to wash my face. What I should’ve done was knee him in the balls before walking away. That would’ve been a Pulitzer prize winning picture for the Society page.
The following morning, I’d tried to reason with my father, but to no avail. After that argument, I realized I wouldn’t get any help from either of my parents and afraid my father would drag me kicking and screaming down the aisle, I stood my ground—and made plans to escape.
Faced with the choice between obeying a man I no longer recognized or respected and saving my future, I did the only thing I could do. I took a leave of absence from The Met, giving up my role as Annina in La Traviata, packed my overnight bag, emptied my savings account, and bought an Amtrak ticket. I had no intention of marrying a man I despised simply because my father approved of him, and it made good business sense. If he wanted to set Mom aside and marry good old Monte himself, let him. I would make my own way in the world, without his precious money, and to hell with anyone who tried to stop me.
As the van ate up the highway miles, that sense of disconnect that had eaten at me this last year seemed stronger than ever. I felt like Toby Tyler, the boy who’d run away from home after an argument with his aunt and uncle, and had joined the circus. But this wasn’t a movie, andI hadn’t joined the circus, even if at times it felt that way.
Perform, sleep, drive, perform. I was singing backup and playing gopher for a honky tonk, all-girl band, just about as far away from the Metropolitan Opera as I could get. For the most part, the girls were great, and if they made me feel like an outsider, well … I was.
Buck’s Fizz is available exclusively from any Amazon retailer for only 99 cents USD, or is free to read in Kindle Unlimited.
Welcome to March. Spring is less than three weeks away, something to look forward to. So far 2021 hasn’t been a whole lot better than 2020, although I have had my first shot of the vaccine, something to celebrate. We’re currently out of lockdown, so barring a major disaster, we may be able to celebrate St Patrick’s Day–masked and socially distanced of course.
March 3 question – Everyone has a favorite genre or genres to write. But what about your reading preferences? Do you read widely or only within the genre(s) you create stories for? What motivates your reading choice?
To be honest, my time for reading has been severely restricted since I used to read on holidays. Now that travel is off the table, I’m either writing or editing, but when I did read for the fun of it, I opted for books in the genres I write–suspense, romance, historical, thrillers, paranormal. I do enjoy time travel books, sci-fi novels, detective stories, and books that will make me laugh, but I’m not fond of slasher books and those dealing with black magic and demon possession. I also avoid books where the central focus is sex. At my age, if I’m going to take the time to read, I want a good, solid story with a plot, not just one sex scene after another. I’m old. So sue me! You can find out what others think here. https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html
Welcome to the first week of March. Has much changed in your world? I’m pleased to say I got my first COVID 19 vaccine. It doesn’t change my life in any way yet, but once enough of us are vaccinated, maybe things will get back to normal–or as normal as they can be.
Welcome to this week’s Tuesday Tales. This week, our scenes include the word BLUE and are 400 words long. Please take the time to comment. i love hearing from my readers as do all of the other authors. I’m continuing with The White Dahlia. Enjoy!
Beth sat at the table, tears dribbling down her cheeks, staring into the cold dark liquid, unable to bring herself to do anything else. They were back. She was sure of it.
“How did the call to Mitch go?” She jumped, his voice startling her out of her trance.
“I got some answers—answers I didn’t want,” she admitted, her voice husky. “What about you?” She forced her fear away, grabbing at the professionalism she prized. “I’ve contacted a friend at the FBI who may be able to help. I had to leave a message, but hopefully he’ll call back soon. Was Ted helpful?”
“Definitely. I believe we may have another couple of links between Rachel and Sylvia.”
“Go on.” She listened rapt as Al shared the details of his conversation with Ted Harrison, adding more and more pieces to the puzzle. It was amazing what one could learn if they asked the right questions.
“So we need to know where all the karaoke bars are in Manhattan. As well, since all of her medical data would’ve been archived at the hospital and records are centralized, that may be where the perp searches for them. Maybe he works for Blue Cross Blue Shield or some other insurance company agency. We’ll need to track down that cold vaccine study, too, but one thing is certain, if Rachel delivered a child, it had to be within the last year.”
“That fits with what Mitch has said,” she admitted, knowing she was going to have to share more with Al than she’d planned. “She’s running a test for fetal microchimerism.”
“Fetal what?”
“Fetal Microchimerism. Essentially, low levels of fetal cells make their way into the mother’s blood stream through the umbilical cord and end up in her blood and tissues during the pregnancy. Fetal DNA can be detected in the mother’s blood as early as five weeks after conception. There’s evidence the doctors refer to as ‘pregnancy brain’ which indicates that male DNA left in the mother’s blood after delivery can be found in her brain throughout her lifetime. We used a test like that to determine the paternity of the children in the first Harvester case, the one involving the kidnappings.”
“You’re kidding me. You mean to say part of me is still kicking around inside my mother’s head? That sounds more like something from science fiction than science.”
That’s it. Stay safe and don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales
Living the Dream 