Groundhog Day Relived

I’m a southeastern Pennsylvania resident. What this means is I’ve lived through some brutal winters. Okay, not as bad as upstate New York, maybe not as bad as Alaska, Canada or those Arctic places – but it gets damn cold. I simply abhor, detest, loathe, and despise this time of year. Has nothing to do with less light and everything to do with cold. Below 70 degrees I get pretty miserable. I sleep in flannels practically all year and my heat is on eight months from early September to late May, occasionally June when a chilly night crops up.

Sigh. Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow. I read that since 1988 he correctly predicted 14 times, incorrectly 15 times. Therefore, I have a 50/50 chance of warming up a little bit. Also, I remember from past years that Groundhog Day was derived from an old European celebration of Candlemas. This is the midway point between winter solstice and spring equinox. Nice weather on Candlemas meant a bad second half of winter. You can see a short video about groundhogs and read more about Punxsutawney Phil.

TMI? Probably but, trust me, there’s a reason I wanted to talk about Groundhog Day which occurs on February 2^nd every year.

In California I lived about a thirty-minute ride from Big Bear and Arrowhead. It’s where I went if I needed to cool off (seldom) in the dead heat of summer as the high desert could get up to 105-115 degrees. Ahh, the joy of dry heat. No fleas or ticks on my kittehs! I loved it; hence, the setting for most of my stories especially my big, bloody vampyre cats. Should I ever hit it big—back to the southwest for me!! Looking at Arizona this time as it’s where one sister’s daughter lives and she wants to move there to be near her granddaughter. We’ll be great company for each other in rocking chairs.

Here’s where Groundhog Day ties in. Sort of like the movie, books I’m about to talk about have been around once and, like the movie—they’re turning up again. As I talked about the setting for many of my books, wanted to preview two being readied for re-release. One, Ace of Spades, took place in an unexpected venue. It’s a contemporary romance set on the east coast in Atlantic City, a place I lived for little over a year. Aldan ‘Ace’ Spade is a wealthy gambler who owns a gentlemen’s club near a casino in AC and he falls for his hostess, Rosemary Carino who doesn’t reveal she’s an ex topless dancer.

The next one will be Hard Case. Case Tangara is a white lion shifter infected with vampyre blood who owns a club in the high desert of California that features rooms for voyeurs and, well, whatever else Case wants to get up to with Tres Moran, his green-haired snow leopard shifter. They're getting a thorough look over by a few of my readers and will be coming back real soon.

I loved the covers for both books and, with the blessing of the awesome Syneca Featherstone, I’m keeping them.

So, keep your eyes and ears open. Both will be available soon via Amazon’s KU program.

Growl and roar – it’s okay to let the beast out. – J. Hali Steele