Happy Halloween

Sunday, October 31, 2010
Happy Halloween!

Click HERE for a fun Halloween eCard I had forwarded to me through email.

Hope you have a great holiday. Don't eat too much candy!!


~**Now for some Halloween Humor**~


You know you are too old to Trick or Treat when:

10. You get winded from knocking on the door.

9. You have to have another kid chew the candy for you.

8. You ask for high fiber candy only.

7. When someone drops a candy bar in your bag, you lose your balance and fall over.

6. People say: 'Great Boris Karloff Mask, And you're not wearing a mask.

5. When the door opens you yell, 'Trick or...' And can't remember the rest.

4. By the end of the night, you have a bag full of restraining orders.

3. You have to carefully choose a costume that won't dislodge your hairpiece.

2. You're the only Power Ranger in the neighborhood with a walker.

And the number one reason Seniors should not go

Trick Or Treating...

1. You keep having to go home to pee.


End the week with ALISON HENDERSON

Friday, October 29, 2010
Jared was the first to speak. "I'm not sorry."

She remained silent.

"This doesn't change anything," he said.

Lisa pulled back and looked up, shaking her head. "It changes everything."

"No, it doesn't. The feelings were there before, and they'll still be there whether we act on them or not."

She didn't try to deny it. "But we can’t, and it will be so much harder now."

"That's true. Now you know how much I want you, and I know you want me, too. I don’t know where this is going, but we have to find out.”

“I don’t want to find out.” But a small voice inside denied the words. Part of her had to know.

“I think you do, and I know I do. I'm not going to offer to leave, even though it might make some things easier, not unless you can convince me you really want me to go." He cupped her face in both hands and searched her eyes. "Do you?"

Lisa knew she should say yes and remove the unbearable temptation of his presence, but she couldn't bring herself to speak the lie. She shook her head. "No."

Jared's lips moved in a tiny smile, then his serious expression returned. "I can't tell you I'll never kiss you again, or touch you, or that I won't want to get even closer to you, but I promise I won't press you for anything you don't want to give. I'd never do anything to hurt you. You know that, don't you?"

She nodded.

"Good. Now it's time for you to get some sleep." He led her to the bed and tucked her in, his hands lingering as he smoothed the quilt across her. Then he leaned over her, his expression rigid and deadly serious. "I want you to know leaving you tonight is the hardest thing I've ever had to do. But I want more from you than one night in your bed."
********************
You just read an excerpt from:
Harvest of Dreams
by
Alison Henderson
The Wild Rose Press
********************

Today, we’re here with published author, Alison Henderson.

Linda Kage: Hi, Alison. Tell us a little about you and what you write please.

Alison: I’m a Midwestern girl through and through—born in Kansas City and currently living in Minnesota—although I ventured off to New York for college. Unlike many writers, I didn’t know I wanted to write until I took an extended leave from work when my daughter was born. I started writing when she was three (she’s now in graduate school!) and kept at it after I went back to work. My first three books were Western historicals before I decided to try my hand at romantic suspense. I currently write under my own name, although that may change if/when I have books out in multiple sub-genres.

Kage: What happened to the first book you ever wrote?


Alison: I might still have a copy of the manuscript somewhere, but it will never see the light of day. Writing it was a wonderful learning experience, but it wasn’t publishable eighteen years ago, and it isn’t publishable today. I wanted to see if I could actually write a book and was thrilled to find out I could. At that point, I didn’t know what I didn’t know, and that gave me the freedom to make every mistake possible while discovering how much I loved the creative process.

Kage:What’s your back list and coming soon bookshelf look like?


Alison: At this point, I don’t have a back list; Harvest of Dreams is my first published book, released October 22nd by The Wild Rose Press. A sequel that follows two of the secondary characters is currently in editing.

Kage: YAY on your first release!! Congrats. So, let's talk about Harvest of Dreams then. So, spill all the juicy stuff. What's it about?


Alison: Harvest of Dreams is what I like to call a Midwestern. It’s set in a small town in northwest Missouri just after the end of the Civil War. My heroine is a young widow who has lost every important man in her life to violence and is determined to protect her newborn son at any cost. She has no reason to trust the stranger with the six-gun, no matter which side of the law he’s on.

The hero, a security agent for the stagecoach, has been on his own since he was twelve. Against his better judgment, he finds himself tempted by the possibility of something he’s never had—a family of his own. Just as their hearts begin to soften, an act of ultimate violence threatens to rip them apart.


********************BLURB********************
HARVEST OF DREAMS
by
Alison Henderson
Alone on her farm in the middle of a blizzard, young widow Lisa McAllister labors to give birth to her first child. Help arrives in the form of a stranger with a six-gun. Lisa has no reason to trust this man who makes a living by violence, even if he is on the right side of the law. Men and their guns have already claimed the lives of her father, brother, and husband, and she’s determined to protect her son at any cost.

Jared Tanner, a security agent for the stagecoach, has been on his own since he was twelve. With Lisa and her baby, he’s finally found something worth fighting for – a family of his own. But a fresh wave of violence threatens to tear them apart. Can their new love survive?
*********************************************

Kage: Wow, that sounds pretty amazing. I can't remember how long it's been since read a good old western historical romance. What would the story be rated if it were a movie?



Alison: It would have to be an “R”. My father keeps telling me how anxious he is to read the book, but I hope he’ll be content just to look at the cover with my name on it..


Kage: Personally, I love a good romance with explicit scenes, but yeah, I cringe every time my mom reads on of my stories. Anywho...If you HAD to fit this story into a cliché, which one would it be?



Alison: That’s a tough one, but I guess this book has elements of a Bodyguard story. My hero is a born protector—that’s the essence of his character.


Kage: Okay, now that we have a general idea which class to fit Harvest of Dreams under, what makes this book so unique from every other Whitney Houston/Kevin Costner book out there?



Alison: I based the heroine’s farmhouse on an actual 1840’s brick farmhouse just outside the real town of Weston, MO. It was for sale at the time I was researching this story, and my husband and I made arrangements to tour it with a realtor. The house hadn’t been lived in for years and was barely modernized. I literally felt I had stepped back in time. I could see my heroine struggling to give birth in the big second floor bedroom heated only by a small fireplace and hear my hero’s heavy boot steps on the old boards as he ran up the stairs.



Kage: That would be so cool to actually visit a part of your story. What was the easiest part to write?



Alison: Definitely the dialogue. I love to write dialogue, and the balance in my books tilts that way. Dialogue brings the characters to life.


Kage: What do you like most about the main character(s) and what do you like least? Did you learn anything from them?



Alison: I empathized with my heroine and fell in love with my hero, but I think I had the most fun writing the secondary characters: the heroine’s wise and loving mother, her fiery-tempered best friend, and the reluctant outlaw who’s got his eye on the judge’s daughter.


Kage: Alison, Thank you so much for stopping by today and gracing us with your presence. I enjoyed your interview and am really excited about Harvest of Dreams. Before we go, is there anything else you’d like to say to wrap things up?



Alison: Harvest of Dreams may have a historical setting, but its theme is timeless. It’s about finding the courage to take risks and conquer your fears in order to get what you really want in life.

Now that Alison has totally made us want to buy her book, she was kind enough to provide us with a a buy link to Harvest of Dreams: Paperback , Ebook

If you're still curious about Alison, here's another place to find her on the web: Her Website

Thank you so much for stopping by and entertaining us today, Alison. Congratulations on your first release. Ohhh, debut novels are so exciting.

Paper Snackers and Contest Finalists

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

My husband and I have created a play space for our eight-and-a-half-month-old. Hubby calls it her cage, though there aren’t any bars trapping her anywhere. Mostly it’s an open space in our living room, barricaded off with furniture, pillows, an ottoman and an upside-down laundry basket.

I don’t know how long the basket’s going to last before she learns to crawl over it. She likes to take toys and and throw them onto the other side and then try to retrieve them. Often times, I’ll find her her with her belly flat on the basket bottom and her legs kicking out in the air as her little fingers are stretching as far as she can reach out the other side toward a lonely toy. (Okay, confession time: since finishing this post, she's learned to crawl OVER the laundry basket, so alas, that's no longer a security gate)

Yeah, she’s a busy thing. But she can play okay by herself as long as she can see someone else around. I’ll sit on the floor, prop my back against the couch, and read while she’s at her toy box, tossing everything over her shoulder. Occasionally, she’ll crawl over to me and try to eat my book. When she realizes I won’t let her have it, she’ll make a go for my bookmark next. I don’t think I own one un-wrinkled, un-chewed bookmark any longer.

I’ve yet to figure out how a mother of young children finds time to write. I usually sneak in a couple lines while she’s at the baby-sitter’s. But at home, it’s a catastrophe to even try.

I’ll take her into the library, slash, office, slash, computer room. The walls are lined with bookshelves and it’s like baby-disaster-making heaven to her. She can have every book cleared off the shelves and littered on the floor around her in five seconds flat. And when I let her sit on my lap at the desk, she usually ends up grabbing the mouse or keyboard and either erasing some majorly awesome line I just wrote, or sending my emails into folders that take me days to find again.

It’s impossible to become engrossed in a good scene. If I focus too fully on the story, my fingers flying over the keys as the muse begins to flow, I don’t notice her until she starts gagging. Then I rush over to her and try to yank the corner of paper missing from one of my wet, slobbery books out of her mouth.

Some of the time, I’m too late and she’s managed to swallow the paper down. Then I sit back in shock, thinking, “Oh no. I’m an awful mom. I just let my kid eat paper.” But it digests through—at least, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen dissolved paper in her diaper—and life goes on. I probably don’t even want to know how much paper she’s eaten without my knowledge.

I caught her in my notebooks once, trying to eat the post-it note off one of my story ideas. I managed to save that paper from digestion but not from complete mutilation (into the trash that post-it went). And when I began to lecture, “now, you can’t just go eating Mom’s notebooks. I’m going to put that stuff in a story someday,” she merely grinned at me, utterly clueless to what I was saying and then pulled up on my pant leg, demanding to be held. She just has to be one of those totally adorable babies too, one of those big-blue-eyed beauties that just melts your heart whenever she smiles. You can’t stay mad at her.

I love my baby girl to pieces. She’s the delight of my life, my pride and joy. But honestly, this writer-mom stuff isn’t as easy as some people make it look.

*******************


Speaking of writer Mom! I just found out my young adult romance story, The Stillburrow Crush (which was released the same month my baby was born!!), is a finalist in the 2011 EPIC's eBook Award Contest!! Yay. Super excited. (EPIC stands for Electronically Published Internet Coalition, by the way) I find out in March whether The Stillburrow Crush wins anything.

So fingers crossed!!!!

Start the Week with Luanna Nau

Monday, October 25, 2010
The noise in the ballroom was deafening. Screams, whistles and laughter blended into a palpable force.

Angie slid into her seat. “What’s the bid up to?”

“Someone named Missy bid four—” The rest of her words were drowned out by the MC.

“Going once, going twice…”

Angie’s gut churned. Only four hundred? Darren was worth tons more, even if he was from the wrong side of the bay. Her heart pounded and a trickle of sweat crawled across her chest. Like in the minutes spent waiting for the pregnancy test to turn blue. Or not.

Without wasting another second worrying about the consequences, Angie stood, raised her paddle and shouted, “Five.”

Utter silence cloaked the room, except for a few gasps. The loudest of which came from Jill.

“What the hell are you doing?” She grabbed Angie’s arm and pulled her off her feet.

“You told me to get a man. In fact, you told me to buy the firefighter. So I bid.” There was no way on God’s green earth she would allow Darren to fall into Missy’s talons. The viper had been the bane of her existence all through high school.

She risked a glance in Darren’s direction. He shook hands with a couple of the other bachelors, who should have been looking smug at out-pricing him, but instead they looked a little peeved.

“Are you crazy—five thousand dollars? You don’t even know this guy. No one knows this guy.”

“Thousand? No, it was five—” Coffee and booze churned in her stomach.

“Sold!” The gavel rapped, Missy glared, and Angie had bought herself a man.

Oh cripes, what have I done?

Slumping in her chair, Angie rubbed at the pain blossoming behind her right eyebrow and struggled to breathe. Damn, she wasn’t hyperventilating, was she?

She took a final gulp of cold coffee before trailing behind Jill as they approached the group of men, and the women who had bought their services. Jill sashayed to her bachelor and soon led him away to a private corner where they could get to know each other. Angie couldn’t help but think Jill and her new beau would get along like hippos in mud. Jill’s love of adventure guaranteed they’d have fun. And they’d look good doing it. From their identically highlighted hair to their designer duds they could be on the cover of one of the tabloids as the newest power couple. Jill had admitted to liking fancy wrapping. Angie was more concerned with what was inside the package.

Angie squared her shoulders, tugged again at her sequined hem, and advanced toward her purchase. He slouched against a pillar with his hands in his pockets, scanning the crowd, a slight grin on his handsome face. His eyes crinkled slightly at the corners, and his white teeth set off the last of his summer tan. A downright yummy package.

She held out her hand. “Hi, I’m Angie Davis. I don’t know if you remember me but—”

“Yeah, I do now.” His emerald gaze traveled from her head to her toes, leaving her with the distinct impression he didn’t like what he saw. He ignored her outstretched hand. She dropped it to her side, fighting the urge to shuffle and fidget.

Only she could spend five thousand dollars to get rejected.

A wave of embarrassment heated her skin and she wiped again at her damp brow. She had to get out of there before she did something else stupid. She cleared the discomfort from her throat. “For this date, since you don’t have anything planned, I thought—”

He aimed for the lobby bar. “I need a drink.”

**************************
You just read an excerpt from:
Where There's Heat
by
Grace Hood
The Wild Rose Press
**************************


Today we're honoring Luanna Nau, writing as Grace Hood.


Linda Kage: Tell us a little about you and what you write please.

Luanna: Well, let's see. I was born and raised in Nova Scotia. After spending a year in London working as a nanny, I returned to college and promptly fell in love with a professor. We've been married 25 years (woot!). We traveled around the States for several years and are now settled in Maine. We have a freshman in college and a high school junior. We also have two cats, a budgie, one surviving gold fish, and six hens.

I've been writing for about five years and have completed six manuscripts. I'm all over the map as far as genres go – contemporary, romantic suspense, paranormal, erotic romance. I'm tempted to try an historical romance and may use NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, 50K words in one month) to experiment.

My pen name is Grace Hood (maternal grandmother + paternal great great grandfather).


Kage: What happened to the first book you ever wrote?


Luanna: The first book I ever wrote is called "Second Chances", about a woman who runs home to repair her life. Like that hasn't been written before, right? It's loaded with back story, head-hopping, and conversations that go nowhere. It resides on my hard drive, where it will stay.

Kage:What’s your backlist and coming soon bookshelf look like?


Luanna: My backlist…well, I don't have one yet. My current release is my first. And let me tell you, seeing my cover is still a thrill.

Kage: Alright then, tell us a little about about your current release.


Luanna: My first book, "Where There's Heat" was released from The Wild Rose Press on July 21st. It's the story of Angie, a pastry chef, who has to go back to her small home town to take care of the family business. While there, she runs into her high school crush, buys him at a bachelor auction, and then tries to get back to her real life.
This story was fun to write because it was the hero who fell in love first, and the heroine was dragged kicking and screaming into the relationship.


********************BLURB********************
Where There's Heat
by
Grace Hood
Darren Kelley loves his town, his job as a volunteer firefighter, and working at a shelter for abandoned horses. He couldn't imagine living anywhere else. Until the cute girl from high school returns to town, all grown up.

Angie Davis is a pastry chef working at a popular restaurant in Boston. When her mother runs off with her latest toy boy, Angie rushes back to her small hometown in Maine to rescue the family pasta factory. Not content to return to the boonies, she decides to sell the business, fast, and get back to her real life. But before she can escape, she meets up with the man of her high school fantasies, and questions whether she needs the bright lights and big city to be happy.

*********************************************

Kage: What would the story be rated if it were a movie?


Luanna: "Where There's Heat" is rated X, for explicit sex scenes..

Kage: If you HAD to fit this story into a cliché, which one would it be?


Luanna: Oh my heavens, all this time I've been avoiding clichés, LOL. My book is a "going home" story.

Kage:Okay, now that we have a general idea which class to fit Where There's Heat under, what makes this book so unique from every other book out there?


Luanna: This story went through many revisions, with quite a few character changes along the way. But the one thing that never changed was my vision of the hero, Darren. Oh, and he's based on a fellow from my own high school days.

Kage:What was the easiest part to write?


Luanna: The easiest part to write was the dialogue. I always find dialogue fun. Quite often my fingers can't keep up with my character's chatter.

Kage:What do you like most about the main character(s) and what do you like least? Did you learn anything from them?


Luanna: Hm…let me see. Angie is a lady after my own heart – we both love to bake. Everything from fancy and complicated multi-layered tortes to chocolate chip cookies.

Kage:Luanna, Thank you so much for stopping by today and gracing us with your presence. Before we go, is there anything else you’d like to say to wrap things up?


Luanna: Thank you so much for inviting me for a visit. I had a blast!


Now that Luanna has totally made us want to buy her book, she was kind enough to provide us with a a buy link to Where There's Heat: at The Wild Rose Press

If you're still curious about Grace Hood, here is her website: http://luannanau.com/

Delinquent Daddy - ON SALE TODAY!!

Friday, October 22, 2010
TO WIN FREE STUFF: PLEASE CHECK OUT MY CONTESTS PAGE.

Ellie paced to the kitchen and wilted into a chair. She shook so hard, her fingers jerked uncontrollably as she covered her mouth.

Cassidy was the only person she had left. That little girl was her life, her only family, her very soul. Ellie would be nothing if Cassie left her. And to have Cassie so mad at her...someone might as well stab her in the stomach and drag the knife across her abdomen.

It felt like she’d just sat in the chair when Boston strode back down the hall. Ellie popped to her feet. He paused when he saw her.

“Thanks a lot,” she growled.

He frowned, clearly confused. “What?” he asked. His expression added, What’d I do?

“That’s the second time today you’ve played the good guy, and I had to star as the wicked witch.”

His body went taut as he tightly answered, “Hey, it’s not my fault you fill the role so—” But he broke off before he could finish the insult.

Blowing out a breath, he ran a hand through his hair and glanced down the hall, quietly saying, “Look. I’m going to leave that form here.” He nodded toward the custody arrangement. “And let you think about what would work best for you.”

“I don’t have to think about it,” Ellie hissed just as quietly. “You can’t have her every weekend.” God, she didn’t want him to have Cassie at all.

He sighed, long and low. “Then what do you suggest?”

Never was the immediate response Ellie wanted to give. She didn’t want to part with her daughter, even for one day each decade.

But she licked her lips and diplomatically answered, “I could settle for one weekend a month.”

“One weekend a month?” he sputtered. Then he instantly calmed and glanced down the hall as if to make sure Cassie hadn’t heard him. Turning back, he whispered harshly, “Fine then. One weekend a month. And for the first nine years I’ve lost with her, you owe me two hundred and thirty-six days. I’ll just take those now on the other weekends I’m not scheduled to have her.”

“Well, then you owe me sixty thousand dollars for ten years of child support,” Ellie shot back.

That caused him to pause. Tilting his head thoughtfully, he murmured, “Hmm. I calculated a hundred and twenty grand. But...” He shrugged. “Do you want that in one lump sum or monthly payments?”

She glared at him for calling her bluff. “I don’t want your money. I want my daughter every weekend.”

“You’re already getting her during the week. Two out of seven days sounds pretty freaking practical to me. You still have the majority.”

“Look, Law Boy, I can’t be away from my daughter that often. It’s just not possible.”

“Well, then thank God this isn’t about you. And don’t call me Law Boy anymore. You only did it because you thought it annoyed me, but all it ever did was turn me on.”

Ellie gasped and took a surprised step back. Unconsciously her gaze went to his crotch. She was utterly bowled over to find his pants stretched tight over a huge bulge.

Boston gritted his teeth, turning so she couldn’t see the proof of his attraction. “But guess what,” he growled. “That part of my anatomy doesn’t make the ultimate decisions in my life anymore. I don’t care what my dick wants. I don’t even care if you’re willing...I’m not interested. I’m still pissed at you. And I want Cassie every weekend. Personally, I think that’s being more than fair. It’s not like I’m asking for full or even evenly split custody.”

“Well, it’s impossible,” Ellie answered. “And I’m not just thinking about myself. Cassidy’s life is here. Her friends are here. She has activities and ball games on weekends.”

“And I have a car. I know how to drive. If she has somewhere to be, I can take her just as easily as you could.”

“Oh, come on. You’re not going to want come all the way back to Lawrence for a—”

“Right about now, I’d go to Italy to get her a pizza,” he boomed, advancing until he’d neatly trapped her in a corner.

Ellie gritted her teeth and only had to glance at his face to see just how true his words were. He would do anything for Cassie, which made her jealous. There’d never been a point he would’ve done anything for her.

Instantly upset because he’d never loved her how she’d always wanted him to and even more pissed because he’d caused her to experience such a petty feeling as jealousy, she had this irrational urge to slap at him until he bled.

Unaware of just how close he came to bodily harm, Boston blew out a breath and spiked his hands through his hair. “Don’t fight me on this, Ellie,” he said, restraining his temper and once again talking in a hushed voice. “You don’t want to take it to court.”

Her face drained of color. “Once a month,” she repeated firmly.

He was silent, studying the way her hands shook. She couldn’t hide her bubbling, erratic emotions at all, and she hated that.

“Every week or we take it to a judge,” he reiterated.

Trapped between him and the counter and needing more space, Ellie jerked by, turning her back to him as she moved. But the space was so narrow, she grazed him, making him suck in a breath.

He leapt backward as if she’d just struck him with lightning. She frowned and was about to ask him what his problem was when she remembered the bulge. Lips parting, she lifted her face.

Boston ground his teeth and spun away from her. Shoving his hands through his hair yet again, he groaned to himself, “I need to get out of here.”




********************
You just read an excerpt from:
DELINQUENT DADDY
by
Linda Kage
The Wild Rose Press
You can also go HERE for another excerpt!
********************


Yes, you read correctly. That author is ME. Surprise! My story, DELINQUENT DADDY, is out and available to read in both ebook and print TODAY!!!

Here is what it's about:

********************BLURB********************
It's not every day you learn you have a nine-year-old daughter.

Boston Kincaid and Ellie Trenton have a bad past. After dating for two semesters in college, they experience a rough break, and Ellie miscarries Boston’s child…or so she tells him. Ten years later, a nine-year-old girl seeks Boston, wanting to get to know her father. Though Boston returns to Ellie’s life merely for his daughter’s sake, he realizes he never quite got over that long ago romance.

Boston and Ellie’s decade apart melts away, and that magical chemistry between them flares back to life. But trust doesn’t come easily, and old wounds never healed properly.

Can Boston and Ellie learn to forgive and forget so they can experience the love they never shared, or will child custody battles keep them apart forever? *********************************************


I decided not to have a countdown this time around; they don't seem to go over too well. But I am running another contest to win free copies of Delinquent Daddy and How to Resist Prince Charming, since they both came out this month.

Then next month, I'll run another contest to win ebook copies of Hot Commodity. Delinquent Daddy is actually the second book to its companion story, Hot Commodity (releasing from Champagne Books). So, in February, I'll have, yes, ONE MORE CONTEST, to give away both books together!

But if you'd like a little something-something without having to enter a crummy-ol contest, email me at Linda (at) LindaKage (dot) com, with Delinquent Daddy in the subject line and your name in the body with a snail-mail mailing address, and I'll send you a bunch of swag for my books (postcards, bookmarks, pamphlets with excerpts, and such).

If you don't want to wait for Hot Commodity first, it's okay to get started on Delinquent Daddy now; that's perfectly fine by me, and it won't give away any of the good stuff in its companion story.

Here are a couple of places you can find a copy:

Print : The Wild Rose Press, Amazon.
eBook : The Wild Rose Press.

Thank you for your patience as I blathered on about my new book!!



How to Handle a Pirate

Wednesday, October 20, 2010
I've done it again. I've signed up to be a guest blogger at yet another site. Today, I'm at:
(a blog for Champagne Books authors)
talking about pirates...yes, that kind of pirate too!
So if you need a little advice on how to deal with people illegally posting your story online, feel free to hop over and say hello!

Start the week with JIM WOODS

Monday, October 18, 2010

Today, we’re here with published author, Jim Woods.
Linda Kage: Tell us a little about you and what you write please.

JMW:I’ve written a lot of different things from missile maintenance--I can remove an atomic warhead from its host rocket without blowing me and others up-- to (fictional) political assassination. I’ve written some 400 articles for most of the guns and hunting magazines, and the first couple was bylined formally as James M. Woods. But the shooting magazine fraternity is a good old boy network, so I became Jim Woods in my byline, and have continued to use it for all my work, fiction and nonfiction. I write novels set in South Africa, making use of my first-hand knowledge of the country, and I write short fiction. A preponderance of my fiction plays on gunplay, so I eliminate people from time to time.


Kage: What happened to the first book you ever wrote?


JMW:It was a writing tutorial, Two Dozen Lessons From an Editor, from the family-owned McKenna Publishing Group. When the Pater-publisher retired, his son retired several titles in their catalog, mine among them. My book was directed to paper print and I’m revising it currently to acknowledge e-books, and it will be released by a new publisher.

Kage:What’s your backlist and coming soon bookshelf look like?


JMW:Coming soon, in the spring of 2011, is my next release from Champagne Books, a collection of short fiction, Cabbages and Kings. It’s getting some special marketing treatment in that two of the novella-length stories that will remain within the collection are being broken out as independent e-books. The full collection will be released in e-book and print according to the standard Champagne Books plan. My recent books from Champagne are Gunshot Echoes, Assassination Safari and Parting Shot. My in-work novel, set in South Africa, is Gemstone.

Kage:So, what story are we going to talk about today?




********************BLURB********************
Gunshot Echoes
by
Jim Woods
Murder for hire, drug smuggling, serial murders, and revenge killings are just some of the themes in this six story anthology of conspiracy and murder.

"The Outlander" is an American businessman in South Africa, who becomes involved in a murder-for-hire that leads him into the shadowy worlds of conspiracy, betrayal, and cover up killings.

A "Mexican Holiday" unravels into international kidnapping and drug smuggling terror.

In "Hambone Calls the Tune," the new detective on the force is faced with investigation of small-town serial murders.

"The Clay Pigeon" relates the investigation of the shooting death of an international sportsman.

"Hobby House" is a publishing company in trouble that has nothing to do with the price of paper or print.

"A Murder for the Book" is a design for the perfect murder, devised by the greatest murder mystery writer of all time. Just ask him.
*********************************************

JMW:Until my new collection is available from Champagne, I’ll direct current promo efforts to Gunshot Echoes (2008). The main story, “The Outlander,” is a short novel of murder for hire set in South Africa. The complementary stories all work in the theme of characters being killed by firearms. Did I mention that I eliminate people?

Kage: Couple times. Which makes me wonder, what would the story be rated if it were a movie?


JMW:It’s adult-themed with judiciously placed adult words, but not “dirty;” Just not a kid’s book. It would make PG-13..

Kage:If you HAD to fit this story into a cliché, which one would it go


JMW:The Outlander is hardly cliché, but since a woman is involved and offering herself as inducement for robbery and murder, and her accomplice is a man who winds up among the crocodiles, I’d say, “Beauty and the Beast.”

Kage:Okay, now that we have a general idea which class to fit this story under, what makes this book so unique from every other book out there?


JMW: There are no heroes as such. My primary character makes a deal with the she-devil to kill off her imagined rival. Along the way he kills twice more to cover up the first, and in the end, after he gets away with it all and forces her to take the fall, her friends take revenge on him. Sunday school stuff.

Kage:What was the easiest part to write?


JMW:I suppose it was the plot details; I know the milieu, and I had real people in mind for my character traits. The dialogue was interesting because of the various languages and dialects in use in South Africa.

Kage:What do you like most about the main character(s) and what do you like least? Did you learn anything from them?


JMW: My two primary characters, he and she, tried to outdo one another in their manipulations. And I learned, the best things in life are free, and also come at a price.

Kage:Jim, Thank you so much for stopping by today and gracing us with your presence. Before we go, is there anything else you’d like to say to wrap things up?


JMW:My novel, Assassination Safari from Champagne Books, makes use of my South Africa knowledge and experiences, as a traveler, student of history and as a hunter. My main character in that novel is a Texan, and he is an equal opportunity killer. His “marks” are an Englishman, an African and father-and-son Afrikaners, but he stops short of murdering his friend, a Spaniard who succumbs with out my “hero’s” help.

Now that Jim has totally made us want to buy his book, he was kind enough to provide us with a a buy link to Gunshot Echoes (2008): Print Version, eBook

If you're still curious about Jim, here are other places to find him on the web: His Website , Champagne Books

Thank you so much for visiting, Jim. It's been a pleasure to meet you!

End the week with ASHLEY J. BARNARD

Friday, October 15, 2010
“Do you mind if we start over?”

“Not at all,” she said and took his hand.

“Hullo. I’m Jared.”

“Glad to meet you. I’m Tarika.”

They shook hands, laughing, and she caught sight of the inside of his wrist. The remnant of his self-inflicted wound, though over a year old, still bore a raw and purplish countenance around the raised and striking white line of the scar, and there was absolutely no doubt as to the nature of it. His breath catching in his throat, he tried to pull his hand out of her grasp but her fingers tightened around his and refused to let go. With the fingers of her free hand, she lightly traced the scar all the way up his forearm. The touch was so incredibly intimate Jared felt as though she had undressed him.

“Why did you do this?” she said, her eyes riveted to the scar.

“I . . .”

She looked up and met his gaze, and he saw that her eyes were glazed over. As many seconds of palpable silence passed, Jared tried several times unsuccessfully to pull away from her.

Finally she spoke, and her voice sounded distant and utterly different. “You don’t know who you are. There is something inside you that . . . you are hiding from yourself and others . . . something you find terrible –”

Politeness be damned, he started to yank his hand out of hers, only to have her fingers tighten so forcefully he started to squirm. A distant voice in his head, oblivious to the circumstances, said, Those are a fencer’s hands, no doubt about it.

“You’re afraid of it, you don’t understand it, you fear it will consume you –”

Using his free hand as leverage, he finally managed to pull his hand from her grip and put both hands on her shoulders, shaking her, furious.

“Stop!”
********************
You just read an excerpt from:
SHADOW FOX
by
Ashley J. Barnard
http://www.champagnebooks.com/
********************

Today, we’re here with published author, Ashley J. Barnard.

Linda Kage: Tell us a little about you and what you write please.

Ashley: I write fantasy, historical fiction, and a little mainstream fiction.



Kage: What happened to the first book you ever wrote?



Ashley: The first book I ever wrote is also the first one published - Shadow Fox. It went through many drafts in the 12 years it took me to get it published.


Kage:What’s your pubishing history look like?



Ashley: My first and only published novel just released this week: Shadow Fox, which is a fantasy. Its two sequels, Fox Rising and Night of the Fox, will be releasing in April 2011 and September 2011 respectively.


Kage: So, so tell us about Shadow Fox.



Ashley: Shadow Fox released on October 4th with Champagne Books. It's a dark fantasy about a man who is abandoned in our world and must find his way home to his own world. When a woman hires him to teach her swordplay, he discovers they share a link to his home, and as he is trying to unravel the mystery, they fall in love.


********************BLURB********************
SHADOW FOX
by
ASHLEY BARNARD
Jared Bruin doesn’t know who he is. He remembers nothing of his early childhood before the age of seven when he was abandoned in a park in St. Louis, left in an unfamiliar world that terrified him. He knows only that he is driven to learn everything he can about swordplay and sixteenth-century combat.

Almost twenty years later, as he is battling a heroin addiction, suicidal tendencies and a violent affliction he doesn't understand, he is hired to teach swordplay to an enigmatic woman with secrets of her own, who somehow provides a link to his past.

Then a missing journal arrives that provides many answers to Jared’s past, and in it another world is revealed, one of a Goddess, prophecies, elves, a devastating love triangle, and a war in desperate need of a hero.

*********************************************

Kage: What would the story be rated if it were a movie?



Ashley: All three of the books in this series are rated R, especially the two sequels..


Kage: If you HAD to fit this story into a cliché, which one would it be?



Ashley: Oh, boy. It's a few I guess -- forbidden love, save-the-world, battling one's own dark nature while trying to do all these things, ala Batman.


Kage:Okay, now that we have a general idea which class to fit Shadow Fox under, what makes this book so unique from every other book out there?



Ashley: I can't speak for every story, since I haven't read them, but I haven't read any other fantasy novels that deal with sexual dysfunction as a main theme. My hero is a victim of childhood abuse and has to battle perpetuating the abuse...most of the time he doesn't succeed.



Kage:What was the easiest part to write?



Ashley: Dialogue is always the easiest component for me. I try to hear as much of it as I can in my head -- I'm always mouthing it as I write it -- to make sure it sounds authentic. I, at least, think it is for the most part. I love building tension with dialogue, and that's always when I'm writing at my fastest -- and, in my opinion, my best.


Kage:What do you like most about the main character(s) and what do you like least? Did you learn anything from them?



Ashley: I love my "hero" Jared for all of his flaws. I'm very drawn to characters who are always sabotaging themselves, and Jared is constantly doing this, even when he's fully aware of it. I love how he throws himself into his vices with such gusto. What I don't like about him is how he's always crying "victim" to vindicate himself from his actions. It's taught me to be very aware of my own behavior, to never blame my actions on my circumstances. I'm a firm believer in taking responsibility, and I do think Jared learns this eventually, albeit when it's too late. I love my heroine Tarika's light spirit; she always maintains a high vibration and sensibile outlook. I don't like her cliched aspects -- beautiful, and talented at anything she tries.



Kage:Ashley, Thank you so much for stopping by today and gracing us with your presence. Before we go, is there anything else you’d like to say to wrap things up?



Ashley:No, just to thank you for having me! It's been a blast experiencing my first book release. I think people will find the book suspenseful and intriguing. It's definitely not your typical fantasy novel.


Now that Ashley has totally made us want to buy her book, she was kind enough to provide us with a a buy link to Shadow Fox: Champagne Books

If you're still curious about Ashley, here are other places to find her on the web:

Website: http://www.ashleyjbarnard.com/
Blog: http://wckdwriter.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/wickedwriter7
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/wckdwriter
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/wckdwriter
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9467316-shadow-fox
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A31OQP9P1Q5GRE/ref=cm_psrch_profile
Publisher’s Author Page: http://champagnebooks.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=239

HOW TO RESIST PRINCE CHARMING

Thursday, October 14, 2010
To resist the perfect man, please follow these simple rules:

Step 1: Never make eye contact.
Step 2: Never smile at him.
Step 3: Never agree to anything he suggests.

Or better yet, just do what Lenna Davenport did, and give in to temptation, sparking a whole tangle of passion, forbidden romance, mounting secrets and deceit. She meets the guy for her at her father’s company Christmas party. Problem is he happens to be her dad’s new boss—a boss her father hates.

But what Daddy doesn’t know…

Braxton Farris takes over Farris Industries out of family obligation and expects his new employees might resent his youth and inexperience. What he doesn’t expect is the level of contempt Tom Davenport carries for him. Nor does he count on falling for Tom’s daughter.
***************************


Guess what I found out last night??? My fifth book I sold is actually going to be my third book released. In fact, it's coming out TOMORROW!!!! I know, holy cow, right? I was shocked and excited and totally unprepared.

So here's a quickie update.

I have a book for sale (in ebook only) at
WHISPERS PUBLISHING tomorrow.

I have a contest running until the end of October for people to win free copies of another story, but now I'm upping the chances of winning by also giving away a copy of HOW TO RESIST PRINCE CHARMING. Here's the link for entering:
http://www.lindakage.com/contests.html.

If you're not really a contest person but you do like free stuff, then you're in luck. If you email me at linda(at)LindaKage(dot)com with your name and a snail mail address in which to reach you, I'll send you a bunch of Linda Kage swag (postcards, bookmarks, excerpts, etc.)

And now for some sneak peeks at HOW TO RESIST PRINCE CHARMING:


EXCERPT

“I’ll walk you to your door.”

Lenna wasn’t about to say no.

As soon as they exited the car, the cabbie put the engine into gear and drove off. Braxton whirled back and frowned after the departing automobile.

“Where the hell is he going?”

Lenna covered her mouth with her hand to hide one of the giggles she thought she’d drained from her system at the club, but it blurted out between her fingers.

Braxton turned toward her. He pointed after the departing cab. “That was my ride.”

Lenna nodded. “I know.” She kept in a smile as she said it, but a moment later, she laughed outright.

Finally, Braxton shook his head and joined her with his own chuckle.

“Come on up,” she offered, holding her hand toward him. “You can call another cab from my room.”

He paused, looking uncertain. “I did leave my cell phone charging in my car.” Finally, he took her fingers. The warmth of his touch spread up her arm.

Lenna nearly whimpered with want.

Mr. Perfect was proving to be a lot more damn wonderful than she’d originally figured. He wasn’t so debonair and polished that he intimidated her with his wealth and status, but he had these slight little flaws bringing him down to earth and making him practical. He could tell the corniest jokes and was clumsier than one would think. He’d tripped at least twice on the dance floor tonight only to laugh at himself and say he’d meant to do that.

Then, when Lenna discovered a chip in the corner of one of his top teeth, confirming he wasn’t faultless, he’d touched the dental flaw with the tip of his tongue, making her stomach quiver in response. Chuckling, he explained its origin.

His sister had punched him in the face when he was thirteen because he’d murdered one of her dolls, hanging it by the neck from the stairwell of their house. His parents had decided not to repair the chip so he’d always remember not to underestimate the roundhouse of a ticked off sibling. And he’d never gotten around to fixing it since he’d moved out onto his own.

Smiling over that story, Lenna tried to block out how warm his body was behind hers as he followed her to her room. When she stumbled on a step, he caught her waist to steady her. If he wanted her, he could have her, right then and right there on the stairs of her apartment building.

There was a distant voice in the back of her brain, telling her to stop this insanity. She should send him back down to the entrance and tell him she’d call the cab for him. But she didn’t want to. She wanted one last moment alone with him. So, she paused at her door and tugged her room key from her front pocket without scooting him off.

The back of her neck tingled with awareness. Knowing he was right behind her, watching her, she fumbled with the lock. She couldn’t get past the fact he was about to enter her apartment.

“Did I tell you how incredible you look tonight?”

His voice spiked through her, making bumps lift along the back of her neck, and her nipples to perk to attention. The insides of her thighs tingled and her skin turned so sensitive, even the brush of her panties against her core made her shiver. She lifted her face.

His glazed eyes looked soulful as he curled his hand and pressed the fist against his chest. “I think I die a little every time I look at you.”

Lenna’s key slid from her hand and dropped to the floor at their feet.

Braxton looked down at it for a second and then lifted his eyes. “The first time,” he went on, “at the Christmas party, when I looked up and saw you in the doorway...” He paused and sucked in a breath as if he were reliving that very moment all over again. “I couldn’t breathe. I haven’t been able to breathe right ever since.”

Lips parting, Lenna shook her head to deny his words. “You shouldn’t be telling me this.”

Braxton let out a lopsided smile. “I know. God, how I know.” Lifting his hands, he cupped his head and stared at her, fighting some kind of inner battle. “Your dad would freak if he could hear me right now. He’d probably kill me.”

Hands dropping limply to his sides, he gave her a pleading look. “I didn’t want to say anything. I didn’t want you to know. But, I guess I’m kind of hoping we’re both so drunk, we won’t remember this tomorrow. So, I’m just going to keep making a fool of myself.”

He took a cautious step closer. “Lenna...” he whispered. “Since the first moment I laid eyes on you, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.”

Wrapping her arms around her waist, she swallowed and stared at the ground. “I keep thinking about you too,” she confessed, blowing her resist-and-evade program all to hell.

She heard him move toward her, cautiously creeping closer, until she could see his pant legs from the corner of her lowered eyes.

Lenna raised her gaze to find him inches away. Her heart beat madly against the base of her throat.

“It might only be because you’re forbidden,” he admitted. “Or maybe it’s because you’re so pretty. But I want to know you.” He lifted his hand and grasped a stray piece of her hair fluttering away from the rest of her blonde locks.

He rubbed it between his fingers. “I want to know everything about you.”

From that point on, she was a goner. “What...” She paused to lick her lips. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything,” he repeated. “I want to know your favorite color. Your favorite food. Musical group. I want to know what your first word was? When you started walking? What you wore on your first day of school. Who was your first boyfriend? When was your first kiss? And more than anything, I want to know how you taste.”

Lenna swayed closer.

He lifted his face, his eyes searching, pleading. She focused on his mouth and found herself licking her lips again. He dipped his head but stopped himself at the last moment. His eyes rose to hers, his gaze seeking approval. “Lenna?”

God, would he just kiss her already? She was dying here. She wanted his mouth on hers. Now.

But she didn’t want to be the one to initiate it. She wanted him to do it. She wanted to be able to blame him in the morning when she realized what a mistake this moment had been.

He wouldn’t, though. Not without her full consent, her total cooperation, and her equal amount of participation. And, oh Lord, she was going to give it. She closed her eyes, her body straining forward.

His fingers dropped the piece of hair he’d been toying with and moved gently to the side of her throat, where they slid softly and oh-so slowly into her hair. Lenna’s head fell back. She let out a soul-relieving sigh.

“Kiss me,” she commanded.

He shook his head and swallowed. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop.”

“Do it anyway.”

He hissed out a breath and caved.


Who's afraid of the number TWELVE?

Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Not I!

But if you'd like to hear what does scare me, I'm guest blogging today (yes, because it's the twelfth and I guest blog on the twelfth of every month!) at...

HERE, Climbing Roses of the Wild Rose Press

and

HERE, Romance Books R Us

You don't have to go both places, though, because I was lazy and pasted the same exact post on each blog site.

But seriously, I'd love for you to stop by one blog or the other and let me know if...YOU LIKE FEAR.

See you there.

Start the week with Denise Gwen

Monday, October 11, 2010
“How is it a pretty girl like you is dining alone?”

Mirabelle looked up into a pair of bright green eyes with a wince. Oh, Lord, now she’d have to make polite chit-chat for the second time today. Only this time, she also had to deal with the sudden tumble of her belly and the way her pulse quickened beneath his grass-green gaze. Not what she’d prepared for at all.

He grinned. “That’s quite a line, isn’t it?”

Stumbling to recover, she nodded. “Yes, indeed, it is.”

Low and resonating, his chuckle thrummed through her, soothing down her nerves. Unable to resist the beckoning of his warm smile, she gave in to a light laugh, and a little of the tension hovering in the air dissipated.

“I don’t recall if I introduced myself to you in the taxicab, but I’m Kevin Porter.” He reached across the table to shake her hand.

With some difficulty due to the crutches she’d propped up against the right side of the table, she extended her hand. “Mirabelle Levange.”

Clumsily, he half-grabbed her fingers and squeezed them. Poor man. A successful businessman, as he no doubt was, he must have been expecting a full-palmed handshake. Instead, here she sat, twit of the world, offering him a limp, flaccid hand. Thoroughly shameful. Didn’t people judge others by the firmness and quality of their handshakes? Didn’t it mean something awful, terrible even, when a person couldn’t give another human being a full-bodied handshake? A flush crept into her cheeks. Good grief, could this get any worse?

********************
You just read an excerpt from:
Judge Not
by
Denise Gwen
http://www.thewildrosepress.com/
********************

Today, we’re here with published author, Denise Gwen.
Linda Kage: Tell us a little about you and what you write please.

Denise Gwen:At one point, I thought I was a young adult novelist, but now I’m not so sure. I do have one YA out, through The Wild Rose Press, a novel called House of Wacks. This novel is published under the pen name of Denise Gwen. The novel that came out recently, Judge Not, again through The Wild Rose Press, is in a genre that appears to suit me much better, the genre of contemporary romance. I also write erotica! My first erotica, Fantasy Daze, was published by Liquid Silver Books under my pen name of Gwen Williams, on October 1, 2007.


Kage: What happened to the first book you ever wrote?


Denise Gwen:II wrote my first book, The Old Homeplace, during my three years of torture and horror known as law school. It ended up running over a thousand pages long!!!! I wrote and re-wrote and re-edited and re-wrote it, until I finally gave up on the poor thing. It sits on a shelf in the upstairs hallway, collecting dust. I was heartbroken when I finally set it aside. I thought it was my great American novel. It incorporated elements of Stephen King, H.P. Lovecraft and Shirley Jackson. My mother mentioned it to me a few a months ago, wondering if I’d thought of revisiting it. I kind of did, with a YA novel I have written and am attempting to secure an agent for, a story called The Well.

Kage:What’s your backlist and coming soon bookshelf look like?


Denise Gwen:My backlist includes House of Wacks, Judge Not (pen name Denise Gwen), and under my erotica pen name, Gwen Williams, my backlist includes Fantasy Daze, Rose Red and Black Bear (eredsage.com), and a soon to be released, Snow White and Bluebeard.

Kage:So, what story are we going to talk about today?


Denise Gwen:Judge Not, which was released by The Wild Rose Press
on September 17, 2010. It is a contemporary romance novel under the Champagne Rose line. It’s a story about an insecure young lawyer(!) and a soon-to-be-appointed federal judge and their relationship. It’s terribly romantic, in my opinion.

********************BLURB********************
JUDGE NOT
by
Denise Gwen

Mirabelle Levange, a recent law school grad, is dreading the holidays. It will mark the first Christmas without her parents. Then she's involved in a caraccident and breaks her leg. Can her life get any worse?

Then she meets Kevin Porter, a man with his own secret sorrows. A handsome lawyer just starting as a federal judge. He offers Mirabelle a job as his law clerk.

As Mirabelle and Kevin get to know one another, their secrets spill out, and they learn how important it is not to judge. But will it be enough to sustain their love, and make a life together?

*********************************************

Kage: What would the story be rated if it were a movie?


Denise Gwen:Depending on how raw it got, it might have an R rating if they went all the way with the sex scenes. If they toned it down a tick, it might pass a PG-13..

Kage:If you HAD to fit this story into a cliché, which one would it go


Denise Gwen: Love always finds a way!

Kage:Okay, now that we have a general idea which class to fit this story under, what makes this book so unique from every other book outthere?


Denise Gwen: I wrote something near to my heart and something that is a little bit controversial. I wrote a story about a heroine struggling with depression. In earlier drafts, she’d actually attempted suicide, but wiser writer friends suggested that I steer away from that course and make the heroine just depressed, something that every woman and writer can relate to! And the heroine actually enters into therapy following a stay at a sanatorium. On her way home from the sanatorium, her taxi is involved in an accident and she sustains a broken leg. She is taken back to the hospital and the broken leg is set. On her way home from that hospital stay, she meets the hero. She conceals her condition from the hero, and that becomes the conflict of the story. Does she reveal to him that she has mental health issues? And what will he think of her when he finds out?

Kage:What was the easiest part to write?


Denise Gwen:Dialogue, I’d say. I also write plays and dialogue comes easily to me.

Kage:What do you like most about the main character(s) and what do you like least? Did you learn anything from them?


Denise Gwen:I love my characters. I liked the idea of a man who looks as if he’s got everything going for him in his life, partner in a high-powered law firm, more money than he can spend, etc., but with a surfeit of emotional availability. I liked the idea of my heroine being the one person he meets who helps—and kind of forces—him to open up to intimacy. I loved my characters. There wasn’t anything about them that I didn’t like.

Kage:Denise, Thank you so much for stopping by today and gracing us with your presence. Before we go, is there anything else you’d like to say to wrap things up?

Denise Gwen:I sent this story to Tori Spence and I crossed my fingers. I knew it might be a tricky sell, a heroine suffering from depression, but Tori accepted it and became my editor. God bless her, I’m so grateful.

Now that Denise has totally made us want to buy her book, she was kind enough to provide us with a a buy link to Judge Not: eBook

If you're still curious about Denise, here are other places to find her on the web:

The main page for The Wild Rose Press: http://www.thewildrosepress.com/
Denise Gwen website: http://www.denisegwen.com/
Gwen Williams website: http://www.gwenwilliams.net/
First erotica novel at red sage publishing: http://www.eredsage.com/store/Fairy_Tale_and_Mythology.html
Erotica novel at liquid silver books: http://www.king-cart.com/cgi-bin/cart.cgi?store=linda018&category=Gwen+Williams
My YA free read, How to Get a Date to the Prom: http://twrpclimbingrose.blogspot.com/

Thank you so much for visit, Denise, It's been a pleasure to meet you!

End the week with RIE McGAHA

Friday, October 8, 2010
“Only two weeks till finals.” Delaney said.

“Only two weeks till graduation.” Bailey chimed in.

“Only two weeks till vacation.” Alley grinned.

“Only two weeks till we have to find a job.” Clancey frowned. The other three looked at her and nodded, then each grabbed a pillow and attacked their sister. Amid the screaming and giggling the knock on the door went unnoticed.
The old woman stood just inside the door quietly observing the scene with a smile on her lips.

She was glad the girls were having fun as young girls should, she mused. The days, and weeks, and months ahead would have few carefree or fun moments.

“Who are you?” Bailey suddenly stopped swinging the pillow in her hand as she became aware of the stranger in the room. Where noise and laughter had once filled the room, a pin could now be heard if it were to fall upon carpeting. The four sisters looked at one another with apprehension, yet there was no real fear of the little old woman.

“Yes, who are you?” Delaney asked.

“How did you get in here? I know I locked the door,” Alley said and peered at the woman.

“You’re trespassing,” Clancey declared for the sake of having something to say.

The old woman stood perfectly still, yet her small gray eyes moved back and forth as she looked at each of the sisters. The intent look on her face made the sisters more nervous than the old woman’s presence. For long moments no one else said a word. Alley sat on the edge of her bed and the other three sat with her.

Finally the old woman spoke. “I am old,” she began. “I have used my magic for centuries to watch over Rowan’s descendents, to keep them safe, to protect the past and the future. And soon the future must be decided by the four of you.”

The sisters looked at one another, then at the old woman, and back at each other. They shook their heads. “We don’t know who you are or why you’re in our room,” Alley said, “but you need to leave before we call campus security.”

“The choice is yours of course,” the old woman said. “I will be glad to have it out of my hands. I am too old for this now. You, however, are young and healthy and able to endure what will come. Choose to come with me, choose to do what is in your blood to do, choose the right path and the future is yours. Choose wrong and the future ceases to exist. Not only for you, but for all of us.”

“The future is ours,” Bailey laughed. “We graduate in two weeks.”

“That future is an apparition,” the old woman told her with the wave of one gnarled hand. “That future will cease to exist when the alignment is complete. I have waited centuries for the four of you. Now choose.”

“Okay, okay,” Delaney shook her head. “We choose, now leave.”

“You choose to come with me?”

“Sure,” Clancey said and walked to the door. She grasped the handle. “We’ll go with you.”

“All four of you agree?”

The sisters mumbled their agreement and nodded. Clancey turned the knob to open the door.

They would agree to go with her to the door, anything to get the crazy old woman out of their room. The knob turned, Clancey pulled, and white light filled the room. The sisters didn’t even have time to scream before everything began to spin crazily out of control. They were in a vacuum, a whirlwind out of control. Trying to reach each other, they were pulled apart before their hands could touch.

The feeling of flying, falling, and spinning filled their heads. It was difficult to tell what was going on with the sound of rushing wind filling their ears. The sound of a sonic boom echoed somewhere in the distance. A sonic boom? Impossible. They would have to be traveling faster than the speed of sound for that to happen. Lightning clashed, thunder boomed. The sisters tried to scream but had no voice. Then just as suddenly as it had begun, it was over. Darkness, silence and stillness surrounded the sisters.



********************
You just read an excerpt from:
A Winter's Night
by
Rie McGaha
Untreed Reads
********************


Today, we’re here with published author, Rie McGaha.

Linda Kage: Hi Rie! Tell us a little about you and what genre you write please.

Rie McGaha: That's a funny question because I write paranormal, romance, western, historical, contemporary, suspense, time travel, fantasy and sometimes it winds up all in the same story! I don't really pay attention to genre lines and wind up crossing them all the time but I think that's what makes my stories unique. As for me, I'm a wife, mom of 12 and Nana of 29. I live a quiet life in the beautiful Kiamichi Mountains of SE Oklahoma. My husband and I love to take off on our motorcycle and just ride. Sometimes we head out with a particular destination and sometimes we just go wherever the road leads.


Kage: And here, I thought my mom (mother of 8, grandma of 21) had a big family! But I digress. Back to all these different genres you write. What happened to the first you ever wrote?


Rie McGaha: The first book I ever wrote was when I was in the 8th grade. It was a western about a woman from Boston who goes west to teach school in the wild, Wild West and falls in love with the town sheriff. I have no idea what happened to it, but I wish I had kept it.

Kage: What’s your backlist and coming soon bookshelf look like?



Rie McGaha: Most of my backlist falls in to the erotic category with various and multiple sub-genres. I have about a dozen published works with several more coming between now and spring of 2011. My most recent releases include:


- COMES AN OUTLAW, a historical western that is one of my faves from Silver Publishing; and


- CLOSURE, a contemporary suspense set in Albuquerque, NM from Champagne Books. CLOSURE was so much fun to write because it's about a serial killer and to be sure the killings could really happen the way I wrote them, I made my husband my "victim"!


Kage: I bet the hubby just loved that!! But CLOSURE isn't the book we're going to talk about today. Let's move along to...A WINTER'S NIGHT.


Rie McGaha: I have recently released A WINTER'S NIGHT with Untreed Reads that turned out to be a real blessing. In June our house burned down and the publisher is giving me 100% of the royalties from now until Dec. 31, 2010 to help replace some of the things we lost in the fire. This is a paranormal short story that is available at http://www.untreedreads.com/?page_id=1806 and the cool thing is that readers can purchase A WINTER'S NIGHT, email proof of purchase to me at and get my book GHOSTS OF VALENTINES PAST courtesy Noble Romance Publishing absolutely free!


********************BLURB********************
A WINTER'S NIGHT
by
Rie McGaha

Four sisters discover that they are born into a line of women with powers to control the Elements. Plucked from their normal college lives and thrust into a battle to save the Earth, can they defeat the evil Montatre?




(The publisher is donating 100% of the royalties of this work through December 31st to the author, who lost everything she owned in a fire in June)

**********

GHOSTS OF VALENTINES PAST
by
Rie McGaha

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. That’s Twyla’s philosophy ever since she found a pair of thongs in her fiancé’s car the day before their wedding. Now it’s Valentine’s Day and her roommate is all about the hearts and chocolates, but Twyla isn’t going for it. That is, until a few ghosts drop in to show her the error of her ways.

*********************************************


Kage: What would the story be rated if it were a movie?


Rie McGaha: Both of these books are definitely G-rated, but A WINTER'S NIGHT is my first non-romance story..

Kage: If you HAD to fit A WINTER's NIGHT into a cliché, which one would it be?


Rie McGaha:Well, if you insist that I absolutely have to, then A WINTER'S NIGHT could be categorized as a paranormal save the world, I suppose.

Kage:Okay, now that we have a general idea which class to fit A WINTER's Night under, what makes this book so unique from every other book out there?


Rie McGaha: Like I said, this is the first story I've written that isn't a romance, and it's also the first one I've written that I actually will allow my teen grandkids to read!

Kage: What was the easiest part to write?


Rie McGaha: The prologue was the easiest part to write and after it was written, the story sat idly by for quite a while because I didn't know where it was going to go after that. Then one day I began writing the first chapter and when I read it back I just knew it was the beginning of the rest of the story.

Kage: What do you like most about the characters and what do you like least? Did you learn anything from them?


Rie McGaha: I always like the older characters in my stories and I usually write at least one character that is a little bit me, or a little bit what I would like to be. In this case, the old crone is my fave. I like to imagine that I have become a little wiser and a little more patient in my old age.

Kage:Rie, Thank you so much for stopping by today and gracing us with your presence. Before we go, is there anything else you’d like to say to wrap things up?


Rie McGaha:Please drop by my website for free reads, excerpts, and contest information. Right now everyone who buys a copy of A WINTER'S NIGHT is entered to win every book from my backlist. And thank you so much for having me, it's been a real pleasure



Now that Rie has totally made us want to buy A WINTER's NIGHT and win her backlist--PLUS help her out with her fire-loss, she was kind enough to provide us with a a buy link :

Amazon : A Winter's Night
Untreed Reads : A Winter's Night


If you're still curious about Rie, here are other places to find her on the web:



-Website: http://www.riemcgaha.com/
- Blog: http://sizzlingreleases.blogspot.com/
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RieMcGaha
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/Rie_McGaha
- MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/RieMcGaha
- Publisher’s Author Page: http://www.untreedreads.com/?page_id=1806target=
- Noble Romance Publishing: http://www.nobleromance.com/BrowseListing.aspx?author=8
- Untreed Reads: http://www.untreedreads.com/?page_id=1806
- Manic Readers: http://manicreaders.com/riemcgaha/
- Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/rie%20mcgaha
- BikerOrNot: http://www.bikerornot.com/natenrie