Shelly Alexander's Blog

She can’t let him discover…Immortal Vikings are among us.

Book 2 of the Viking Warrior Series

Astrid Irisdotter is a Valkyrie, a fierce warrior fighting to protect humanity from the evil god Loki and his brutal minions. She’s on an urgent mission for her queen when everything goes hideously sideways. Undercover agent Luke Holden arrives on the scene just in time to save her life—and put his own on the line. Luke may have saved her, but that doesn’t mean Astrid can trust him. Tempers flare as they hide secret upon secret from each other, but Astrid’s inner warrior knows what it wants…and it will not take no for an answer.

 

 

About The Author:

2016 double RITA finalist Asa Maria Bradley grew up in Sweden surrounded by archaeology and history steeped in Norse mythology, which inspired the immortal Vikings and Valkyries in her paranormal romances. She arrived in the U.S. as a high school exchange student and quickly became addicted to ranch dressing and cop shows. Asa currently resides on a lake deep in the pine forests of the Pacific Northwest with a British husband and a rescue dog of indeterminate breed. She graduated from the Inland Northwest Center for Writers program at Eastern Washington University with an MFA in creative writing and also holds an MS in Medical Physics from University of Colorado. Visit her at www.AsaMariaBradley.com, or follow her on Twitter @AsaMariaBradley.

 

 

Available for preorder now:

Click HERE to order from Amazon

Click HERE to order from Barnes & Noble

Author, Tamra Baumann is teaming up with other authors to join the fight against breast cancer. A donation will be made to help find a cure from these authors. So put on your boxing gloves, and join the fight!  Click here to add your support: http://bit.ly/1qEOLit

 

With all the fun activities available in Red River, it’s hard to find time to do nothing at all. Here’s a suggestion: visit the Red River Public Library and check out a book or two.

If you’re visiting in the summer, find a comfy chair on the porch or under a tree. Bring a cold class of iced tea with you and enjoy the gentle mountain breeze while you get lost in a cozy mystery or heart-warming romance.

Red River Public Library

If you’re visiting in the winter, curl up in front of the fire with a cup of coffee or hot chocolate. Snuggle into a soft quilt while your pulse thunders along with a bestselling thriller or one of the classics.

On page 259 of It’s In His Heart, Ella and her friends drive all the way into Santa Fe to pick up a new release. Not necessary in real life when you’ve got a wonderful library at your fingertips. What type of novel can you picture yourself reading while lounging in a hammock under a ponderosa pine? In front of a roaring fire while curled up in a blanket?

Break out your hiking boots or mountain bike, pack a lunch, and take the two mile trail up to Middle Fork Lake. Sitting at the base of both Wheeler Peak and Walters Peak, Middle Fork is a high mountain lake at over 10,000 feet elevation that’s cool year round.

Autumn Aspens around Red River

It’s beautiful any time of year, but especially in the fall when the Aspens have turned to gold.

On page 288 of It’s In His Heart, the first signs of autumn are appearing. Where is your favorite fall vacation spot?

 

Photograph Courtesy of Mountain Mist Photography.

ABOUT THE DARKEST LIE

  “The mother I knew would never do those things.

But maybe I never knew her after all.”

Clothes, jokes, coded messages…Cecilia Brooks and her mom shared everything. At least, CeCe thought they did. Six months ago, her mom killed herself after accusations of having sex with a student, and CeCe’s been the subject of whispers and taunts ever since. Now, at the start of her high school senior year, between dealing with her grieving, distracted father, and the social nightmare that has become her life, CeCe just wants to fly under the radar. Instead, she’s volunteering at the school’s crisis hotline—the same place her mother worked.

As she counsels troubled strangers, CeCe’s lingering suspicions about her mom’s death surface. With the help of Sam, a new student and newspaper intern, she starts to piece together fragmented clues that point to a twisted secret at the heart of her community. Soon, finding the truth isn’t just a matter of restoring her mother’s reputation, it’s about saving lives—including CeCe’s own…

 THE DARKEST LIE: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

 

ABOUT PINTIP DUNN:

Pintip Dunn graduated from Harvard University, magna cum laude, with an A.B. in English Literature and Language. She received her J.D. at Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the YALE LAW JOURNAL. She also published an article in the YALE LAW JOURNAL, entitled, “How Judges Overrule: Speech Act Theory and the Doctrine of Stare Decisis,”

Pintip is represented by literary agent Beth Miller of Writers House. She is a 2012 RWA Golden Heart® finalist and a 2014 double-finalist. She is a member of Romance Writers of America, Washington Romance Writers, YARWA, and The Golden Network.

She lives with her husband and children in Maryland. You can learn more about Pintip and her books at www.pintipdunn.com.

Author Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

 

TWO GIVEAWAYS!!

1 – Prize pack including the following 5 books!

 

 

 

 

Forget Tomorrow by Pintip Dunn

Six Months Later by Natalie Richards

Find Me by Romily Bernard

From Where I Watch You by Shannon Grogan

Lies I Told by Michelle Zink

 Click HERE to enter

 

2 – Goodreads Giveaway for THE DARKEST LIE!

 Click HERE to enter 

First in a gripping paranormal romantic suspense duo by a Golden Heart finalist debut author whose clinical work gives her chilling insights…

Cursed with a terrible gift

Criminal investigator Xander Stone doesn’t have to question you—he can hear your thoughts. Scarred by lightning, burdened with a power that gives him no peace, Xander struggles to maintain his sanity against the voice that haunts him day and night—the voice of a woman begging him to save her.

That threatens to engulf them…

Isleen Walker has long since given up hope of escape from the nightmare of captivity and torture that is draining her life, her mind, and her soul. Except…there is the man in her feverish dreams, the strangely beautiful man who beckons her to freedom and wholeness. And when he comes, if he comes, it will take all their combined fury and faith to overcome a madman bent on fulfilling a deadly prophecy.

 

 

 

About Abbie Roads:

Abbie Roads is a mental health counselor known for her blunt, honest style of therapy. By night she writes dark, emotional novels, always giving her characters the happy ending she wishes for all her clients. Her novels have finaled in RWA contests including the Golden Heart. Race the Darkness is the first book in the Fatal Dreams series of dark, gritty romantic suspense with a psychological twist.

Dear Readers,

I wrote Race the Darkness from start to finish three different times, with three different story lines, and with three different titles! The only thing that ever remained the same between the versions was Xander and Isleen. I believed in them and the story they wanted to tell. I hope you love reading about their tragedies and triumphs as much as I enjoyed writing them… All three times! And isn’t the cover amazing, beautiful, gorgeous? I cried the first time I saw it! It made all the hard work to get this book to you worth it!

Abbie Roads

 

An excerpt from  Race the Darkness : 

No fucking way was he going to die running. He stopped, turned and faced the truck barreling toward them. The tires ate up the ground at an indecent rate. He clutched Isleen tighter to his chest. For her sake, he wanted it to be a quick death. No more lingering. No more pain.

  That thought infuriated him. None of this was right. They shouldn’t be on the verge of death. Again.

  The truck kept coming—twenty-five feet.

 Everything slowed, happened as if through the quicksand of time. A white dandelion floaty meandered on the breeze directly between them and the truck. His heart no longer ran a staccato rhythm. Duh…duhm. Pause. Duh…duhm. Pause.

  His life didn’t flash before his eyes. The future did. Isleen’s future. In an ethereal dream beyond time, her skin was gilded by firelight, her eyes void of sadness and fear, her body whole and healthy. She smiled, an expression so full of warmth and tenderness and undiluted joy that it plunked itself down inside his heart and wouldn’t leave.

  He ached to create that kind of smile on her face, but their lives were over and it all could’ve gone so differently if he’d only listened to her, believed in her, found her years before now.

 

Race the Darkness will be available on October 4th. 

Amazon: http://amzn.to/22nGnVk

B&N: http://bit.ly/1pwghOK

BAM: http://bit.ly/1RmOgoN

**Sign up for Abbie Roads NEWSLETTER for exclusive content and giveaways!**

You can find Abbie Roads here:

WEBSITE

FACEBOOK

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TWITTER

From Red River With Love – 

Like many of Red River’s year-round residents and frequent vacationers that are lured away from the soaring temperatures and humid climates of Texas and Oklahoma, Katy Pierce found her way to the mountains of northern New Mexico to vacation with her grandmother. She worked at her grandmother’s lodge every summer, returning to her home in Texas each school year. After graduating from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, Katy moved to Red River permanently because she couldn’t shake its beauty and the charm of small town life.

Me with Katy Pierce – Calhoun Real Estate

Katy spent 23 years serving as Red River’s postmaster. What she loved most about the job was being able to interact with local residents on a daily basis, share their troubles, and celebrate their victories. When she retired from the U.S. Postal Service, Katy earned her real estate license and went to work right across Main Street for Calhoun Real Estate.

Now Katy spends her days selling many of Red River’s premier vacation homes where she can share her love of Red River with prospective new part-time residents. She’s lived out her very own romance, meeting her husband right here in Red River where they raised a family together.

Red River Post Office on Main Street

On page 249 of It’s In His Heart, Ella’s scandalous secret is getting dangerously close to being revealed when the local post master hands Ella a package from Wanton Publishing. Did you ever have a friend that kept a juicy secret from you? How did you finally discover the truth?

 

 

I wish I could say  my favorite (and usual) place to read and write was on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean, but that would be more fantasy than reality.

 

Truth is, I have an office that is both functional and cozy. Nothing fancy. Just comfortable with everything around me that I need and love — books, an efficient work station, a comfortable chaise lounger, a bed for my puppies, and lots and lots of Post-It Notes in every color.

 

My work station is the most important for writing. I’m the most productive when I have the tools that make writing both comfortable and creative at my fingertips. A large screen desktop computer, an ergonomic chair, Margie Lawson’s Immersion Rolodex, story notes on my work in progress, and Alexandra Sokoloff’s book and story board are just a few of those tools.

 

 

Next is my reading area. Really, I can read anywhere, but my office accommodates not only an efficient writing environment, but also a comfy reading area with bookshelves filled with my favorite authors and a chaise lounger. I often escape to my study when the Y-chromosomes in my household are watching sports.

 

 

 

Of course, I can’t leave out the importance of having my canine companions with me for company during the long hours of isolation when I’m in my writing cave. I’d go bonkers without my furry friends and the love they provide. Anyone who reads my books knows how important my doggies are to me, because I include a dog in every book that’s more of a character instead of just a prop.

 

 

 

So now that I’ve shared my favorite reading and writing spot, tell us about yours.

Be sure to check out more on favorite places to read and write by these fabulous romance authors:

Romantic Suspense Authors:

Carol Post

Novels With Romantic Elements Authors:

Jean Willett

Contemporary Romance Authors:

Patricia Oliveras

Tamra Baumann

Romantic Suspense Authors:

Sharon Wray

Inspirational Romance:

Kristen Ethridge

 

 

Winter is no less fun than summer in Red River. Besides the soaring snow-capped peaks, the thick base of snow on the ski runs, the annual Mardi Gras celebration, or the annual ice sculpture stroll and photo contest, Red River is brimming with activities and adventures during the long winter months.

And when you’re not outside enjoying the winter wonderland landscape that’s blanketed

‘The Throne’ ice sculpture in Brandenburg Park, Red River

in fresh white powder, curl up in front of a fire or grab a cup of hot cider at any of the restaurants, cafes, or bars and watch the snow fall.

On page 68 of It’s In His Heart, Ella remembers her first visit to Red River where she enjoys the fire. In the winter, what do you like to do most in front of a fire?

 

I’m so excited to participate in my first Writer Wednesday blog with so many other fantastic romance authors. With Valentine’s Day a few days away, the topic this month is our PERFECT DATE. Sounds yummy already, doesn’t it?

First, I’d be picked up in a limo wearing a full-length evening gown where I’d be served champagne and strawberries during the drive to a dance at the Waldorff…

Oh wait…this isn’t one of my fiction stories. This is supposed to be for real…

Uh-hum.

I actually would like to be picked up, but either my husband’s truck or my SUV will do – spit shined and smelling like cinnamon and vanilla. And of course there would be flowers…lots of flowers. With a ribbon. And a sweet, sexy note attached. And yes, I’d dress up a little, but in something more practical than a floor length gown. Maybe a cute miniskirt and a pair of boots with a fashionable scarf tied around my neck. We’d have something light to eat, and then hit a quaint jazz bar where a brass quintet played live music. We’d sit in a dark corner in the back of the club for privacy so we could enjoy the music over a drink or two, talk, and maybe steal a smooch when no one was watching.

That sounds like a dream date to me. What about you?

Be sure to check out more on romantic dates this month by these fabulous romance authors:

Contemporary Romance Writers:

Tamra Baumann
Priscilla Oliveras

Paranormal Romance Writers:

Kay Hudson

Romantic Suspense Writers:

Sharon Wray

Novels with Romantic Elements:

Jean Willett

Faith-based & Sweet Romance:

K.D. Fleming
Wendy LaCapra