Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Spotlight on Victoria Smith and Sheltered

Congratulations to Victoria Smith on yesterday's release of Sheltered!

Taking care of the lost and scruffy Great Dane should be no problem for veterinarian assistant Izzy Burnett. That is until he turns out to be a shifter stuck in his animal form and on the run from a deranged kidnapper. Now trouble is dogging their every step. You’ll love Sheltered, a delightful, paranormal romance from author Victoria Smith. 

Izzy Burnett would rather hang out with animals than humans any day. Animals never judge you because of a few extra pounds, or because you refuse the lifestyle your mother believes you should live. 

Drugged and lost after escaping a deranged kidnapper, Dane Masters is stuck as his alternate self—a Great Dane. 

When Izzy rescues and cares for his bedraggled dog body, he finds comfort in her arms and realizes she's his predestined mate. All he has to do is convince Izzy—but first he has to save her. 

Content Notes: Sweet, Paranormal, Shifters, Other Weres, BBW, Contemporary 

Thursday, February 20, 2014

The Birds Are Back!

I'm not a birder—though I've been birding, and I have a birding book with dates marked when I first saw certain species, but that's from decades ago—but I might as well be, with my levels of excitement about the birds that are in my back yard.

I didn't really notice, during this long, dark winter of a true winter, that there weren't any. The birds that typically hang around all year—sparrows, cardinals, a few robins—have been completely absent. I realized a few weeks ago that we didn't have swarms of starlings, which typically show up in January. Nor have there been juncos (again, that are usually hopping around outside my window in January) or finches or wrens.

About a week ago there was a pair of wrens in my rose bush, and that same day I heard something singing. Tuesday I saw a robin. And TODAY! It sounds like freaking spring out there! I literally dusted off my binoculars to see what was in my tree. We spotted a cardinal family (a male, female, and young male) and a blue jay, but I also saw a chickadee and then completely lost my head over a bluebird.

An actual, real, bright-blue-with-a-red-breast bluebird.

I haven't seen any of those for so many years I can't even tell you. I want to say decades. It's unbelievable how much joy I feel right now, with these guys hanging around. We had freezing rain yesterday (with yet ANOTHER day off school) and half my conversations with people are about the devastating economic impact the weather is taking on certain industries. It's still only mid-February. We have a minimum of six weeks when we could get more snow, more ice. We all keep talking about the two feet of snow we got in April sometime in the mid '90s.

But the birds are back. The end is near. And the weight has lifted.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

So, This Winter Thing...

The bunnies had a meeting under the tree.
Raise your hand if you're cold.

Raise your hand if you're in the path of this "Nor'easter" charging up the East Coast right now.

Raise your hand if you are so friggin' tired of talking about snow and cold.

I know, I know, we're all talking about the weather nonstop. But WHAT THE HELL ELSE IS THERE TO TALK ABOUT?!

Obviously, there's better stuff to talk about. There's Michael Sam. There's every Olympic athlete with a heartwarming story. There's Greg Grunberg on Girl on Guy with Aisha Tyler (an old ep, but football season is over so I'm branching out into other podcasts—and Misha Collins is the new interview!). And there are sad, tragic, unhappy things to talk about, too.

But many of us in certain regions of the U.S. have nothing else impacting our day-to-day lives as much as the friggin' weather.

I love snow. I love the seasons. Normally, by the end of them, the extremes of winter and summer serve as the reasons I love fall and spring so much. But this year? I'm finally on board with all the complainers. SO DONE with 6-degree mornings and winter weather warnings and bars across the top of my TV shows flashing the latest closings and delays.

At least February is moving along at a brisk pace.

Now that I'm 43, I'm getting a better understanding of aging, too. It's not solely about the body changing. I mean, of course, part of it is, and will be more and more as those numbers change. But a hell of a lot of it is about being done.

I'm still perfectly capable of driving in the snow. I'm not afraid of it. It doesn't hurt (beyond the normal out-of-shape-ness of it) to shovel the driveway or clean off my car. I'm just tired of it. And it's not just because it happens every week. It's because I've been dealing with it for 20+ years. It's cumulative!

So while I don't think I'm going to lose my appreciation of spring and fall enough to move away from winter, I can definitely understand a little better the people who do.

Monday, February 03, 2014

Release Day Tasty Book Blast for TEXAS FANDANGO by Cynthia D'Alba

Texas Fandango
Texas Montgomery Mavericks
By: Cynthia D’Alba
Samhain Publishing


Blurb
KC Montgomery was eleven when she met the love of her life. Of course, seventeen-year-old Drake Gentry didn’t know she existed, but that didn’t stop her girlish fantasies from growing and changing over the years.

Now, after enjoying a front-row seat to his breakup with his latest girlfriend, she’s been handed an all-grown-up fantasy come true—two weeks at the Sand Castle Resort. With him.

Drake most definitely noticed KC a long time ago, but the timing’s never been right. Now that he’s facing a lonely vacation that was supposed to be for two, it seems only natural to accept KC’s offer to fill in. And as far as her terms go… No strings. No expectations. No holds barred. Drake is no fool—he’s all over it.

But once they’re back in Texas there are invisible strings still hanging between them. Strings labeled attraction, affection…even love. And the more they try to untangle the knots, the tighter they’re bound together.

Warning: Beware of sunburns, whirlpool sex and sand in delicate places.

Buy Links
Amazon | B&N |iTunes 


Author Info
Cynthia D’Alba started writing on a challenge from her husband in 2006 and discovered having imaginary sex with lots of hunky men was fun. Her first book, Texas Two Step, released in 2012 to outstanding reviews and was a Samhain Publishing best seller. The second book in the Texas Montgomery Mavericks series, Texas Tango, was released by Samhain Publishing in November 2013. Texas Fandango, a novella in the Texas Montgomery Series releases TODAY by Samhain Publishing. Cynthia is currently at work on book 3 of the Texas Montgomery Mavericks series (Texas Twist).

She has stories in two anthologies released last year…Smoking Hot Firemen ("Something’s Burning") and the Mammoth Book of Medical Romance ("Wake Me When It’s Over"). She’ll have a story in Cowboy Heat ("Back Stage Pass") coming in 2014.  

Cynthia holds a bachelor's degree in nursing, a master's degree in business administration, a master's degree in curriculum and instruction, and a doctorate in higher education administration. She loves to chat online with friends and fans. You can find her most days at www.cynthiadalba.com  or www.everybodyneedsalittleromance.com.

Author Links

a Rafflecopter giveaway