Sixty-one Days has December, and Other Senior Moments

All right, it’s the 61^st day of December 2020. How’re all doing? Ha! Kidding, of course. <G>

I do have great news, though. My three-book Silverstar Mates series with the Intergalactic Dating Agency is available everywhere now! Ready to dive into stories featuring seasoned heroes and heroines? Experience hilarious-encounters-of-the-golden-kind that redefine “senior moments?” Then you must check out this series!

Above the Storm

Love can be as elusive as stardust.
After thirty-five years married to a controlling husband, Robyn Martin Donahue now has her freedom, friends, and a job she adores. And there’s still room in her heart for a special someone. Where in the galaxy can she find a man who will love and respect her, not try to rule her?

By law, a monarch cannot govern alone.
Recently widowed Kyzel Raptorclaw, the remaining sovereign of his clan, is on the hunt for a new mate. This time he wants more than just an ally; he wants love. But breaking with his peoples’ ancient mating tradition comes at a personal price—one his new mate may not accept.

Can Kyzel convince Robyn they are better together, or will their happily ever after crash and burn before it has a chance to soar?

BUY

~*~*~*~*~*~

Wing and a Prayer

Happily ever after didn’t work out.
After her divorce, Meryl Faulkner decides to embrace all the best life has to offer: family, friends, and
retirement. She never expected a sexy winged alien to divebomb into her quiet, orderly life. And he seems to think he’s her mate!

Deemed un-mateable from birth.
Years ago, Rol Raptorclaw came to terms with the solitary life society thrust upon him. Serving his monarchs keeps him too busy to be lonely—mostly. So how is it that one maddening human female has inserted herself into his unworthy heart?

Rol is determined to convince Meryl he is not a flight risk, but can he do so before the trade negotiations with Earth wrap up and he must return home?

BUY

 ~*~*~*~*~*~

Trial by Fire

True love only happens once in a lifetime, right?

Nixy Vogel waited a long time for wedded bliss, only to find herself widowed two years later. Working for the Silverstar Agency has helped ease her grief. So, why is the alien who’s trying to put them out of business stirring such a longing in her shuttered heart?

Waiting several lifetimes for “the one.”
The ancient mate-matching tradition of Kai Firewing’s clan could end unless the Silverstar Agency is exposed as a fraud. Simple enough to do…until his rival lights a fire in his heart as only the soul mate of an immortal phoenix can.

Will Nixy embrace her second chance before it—and Kai—goes up in flames?

BUY

~*~*~*~*~*~

Lots of new things are coming in the next year. If you’d like to receive exclusive advance notice of any deals and updates from me, please subscribe to my newsletter, Lea’s Letters from Space. With your subscription, you can get a free copy of my Prophecy companion story, Space Ranger—part of the original Pets in Space®, and no longer available on any platform.

Since there is no Feb. 30th, I'll see you all in March!

XOXO,

~Lea

Make the Most of Your Time

 By Maureen Bonatch

This year has been very different for most of us. I've worked remotely long before the pandemic began, so that aspect of my life hasn't changed, but with many other things cancelled and the daily schedule book full of not much of anything outside of the house many days begin to seem the same. 

As I look back over the past year it seems like it's one big blur of the same, but if I look a little closer I realize that it's not. My work schedule didn't change, but I still wanted to make use of the time that I had each day to push myself to learn some new things and revisit some old hobbies that I've neglected. To not let "2020 win".

How to Take Your Mind Off 2020

• Turn a Fail into a Win: Got any old hobbies that you've neglected? Books you've stacked up but felt like you never had time to read? Make the time to enjoy what you already have. I'm starting to learn to use Scrivener. I bought the writing tool a few years ago and each time I opened it I became overwhelmed and went back to my old standby of using word. I used National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWri) to try it out with the most basic features. I still have a lot to learn but I'm making some progress—and setting the word targets per writing session has improved my productivity. 
• Use What You Got: Before you go out and buy new stuff, check out what you already have. Maybe it's cleaning out your closet or watching some of those old movies you've collected. I revisited a writing course that I bought a few years ago and started but didn't finish. I'm still working through it but it's inspired me to make more time for learning.
• Learn Something New: Take your mind off your stress by focusing on learning something new such as a craft, or home project. I choose to learn more about self-publishing. I self-published my first short story (Till Death). This story started as my NaNoWri project in 2019 and I didn't finish that year. This psychological thriller was the perfect story to lift my mood this year.

 

                        Click Here to Get Your Copy While Till Death is On Sale now for .99cents

                 Till Death- and all the Friday the 13th stories are free to read on Kindle Unlimited

• Explore Something New: Expand upon a hobby you already have. Till Death is a psychological thriller, which is a new genre for me, but I've also started writing in a new genre- Witch Cozy Mystery. It's really very close to what I already write and a lot of fun! Stay tuned for a whole series coming out next year starting with Curses, Cats & Corpses! (P.S. I won NaNoWri this year with the third book in that series tentatively titled- Magic, Mimosas & Mistletoe) 

Conquer & Clean Up the "What Day Is It?" Conundrum:

My trick for helping to avoid the blurring of days is to have a schedule in the home specific to the day. It's a win-win because it keeps me grounded on the day of the week and I can get chores done little by little each day. Such as one day of the week I vacuum a certain floor, or mop, or clean the bathrooms on another day but maintain the same schedule each week. 

If all fails—bake some comfort food, like cookies!

If you're signed up for my newsletter, or follow my author Facebook page- you might be already baking up some goodies because you would've gotten this free cookbook already. My newsletter subscribers get all the details on sales, new releases and goodies like these first. Be sure to sign up so you don't miss anything all year long!

                                                 Click here to download your free copy

Happy Holidays and Here's to wrapping up 2020 with a few wins!

Author Bio: Maureen Bonatch grew up in small town Pennsylvania and her love of the four seasons—hockey, biking, sweat pants and hibernation—keeps her there. While immersed in writing or reading paranormal romance and fantasy, she survives on caffeine, wine, music, and laughter. A feisty Shih Tzu keeps her in line. 

Find Maureen on her website, Facebook & Twitter Be the first to know about Maureen’s book sales and new releases by following her on BookBub, Amazon and/or signing up for her newsletter

A Book Release, an Eye Surgery, and a Drawing

I tell ya what, it’s nice to be back with my PNRom peeps this month, and with a functioning eyeball. For those of you didn’t know, life dumped me unexpectedly (and rather rudely, I might add) into the ER for eye surgery...the night before my next series short-story released. Nothing Earth shattering, just a detached retina. 

Unfortunately, the doctor did not replace my failing eyeball with a bionic one, this time. I'm still working on him about that. Fortunately, Linda Nightingale kindly stepped up to fill my September blog slot, and for that I’m grateful.

This month my eye is better and I’m back to my usual shenanigans. Let’s start with the release I missed.

Space Ranger--the story of what really happened to Graig that brought him back to Simone--re-released on Sept. 24^th. This is a companion/fan-service story to my novel Prophecy. Companion, meaning while it can be read alone, it will flow smoother if read in sequence after Prophecy. Fan service, because so many readers wanted to know exactly what Alex did to help Graig see the light. Aaaand also because you all keep asking for more Alex and Gryf.

Oh, and "re-release"...well, this story was my contribution to the first ever Pets in Space anthology from a couple years ago.

Check it out:

Graig Roble, Matiran Senior Security Commander for the Guardian Fleet, is an expert weapons specialist and combat master. Protecting others is what he was born to do. So why has his focus wavered since returning to duty aboard the Atlantis? All he can think about is the enticingly brilliant human woman he walked away from.

Simone Campbell uses her experience as a botanist to help Terr recover from the devastating Anferthian invasion. Yet she can’t seem to immerse herself deep enough in her work to expunge the memory of one blue-skinned hunk-of-an-alien. What is it about Graig that keeps pulling her attention, and her heart, away from her job?

One thing’s for sure, their bond runs deeper than either of them realized—but can Graig convince Simone of this before he loses the best thing to ever happen to him?

(This is a revised edition and originally appeared in the first Pets in Space(R) anthology.)

There are two ways to get your copy of Space Ranger:

1) Subscribe to my newsletter and get a FREE complimentary copy**

2) Purchase it from your favorite online store

** If you already subscribe, go to your email and look at the September 2019’s version of Lea’s Letters from Space for the link to get your own copy.

In other news…

Tomorrow’s Halloween! What better way to celebrate than with a sexy vampire? And boy do I know the guy for you! Read on to find out how you could win a Kindle version of my vampire novel, Made for Her….

Racing against time to return a legendary dagger to the land of the Fae, Donnie McAllister must rely on a dangerously sexy vampire to navigate a world she never knew existed. If she doesn’t deliver, it’ll cost Donnie her life and leave the ancient weapon of untold power in the hands of her corrupt, venomous boss.

Mikhail Cherneski’s nemesis is after Donnie, the human woman whose blood calls to Mikhail like no other. When Mikhail comes face-to-face with his enemy, he must risk his immortal life or watch Donnie suffer the same fate as his family.

Another bewitching story from Magic, New Mexico

**THIS DRAWING HAS ENDED. THANK YOU!**

Here are the entry rules:

1) To win, you must have a Kindle/Kindle email address (no exceptions, sorry).

2) Winner will be drawn at noon PST November 6, 2019.

3) The author will contact winner via email; winner will have 24 hours to respond.

4) If winner does not respond in the requisite amount of time, or does not qualify, a new name will be drawn. 

5) With the winner’s consent, the author will post winner’s name in her November 30^th blog.

6) Your entry is your consent for the author to contact you, and your agreement with the author’s privacy policy.

Good luck, everyone, and have a safe and fun Halloween!

 ~Lea

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

USA Today Bestselling Author, Lea Kirk, loves to transport her readers to other worlds with her sci-fi romances. 

When she’s not busy writing about the blue and green aliens of her Prophecy series, or reading about dragons, she’s hanging out with her hubby, five kids (the nerd herd), and spoiled Dobie mix puppy.

She is currently working on a novella and the fourth book in her series.

How I Took a Chance with Not a Chance

By Maureen Bonatch

Hello, my name is Maureen and I’m a panster. Most writers will recognize the term that causes readers to frown and assume it’s just another indicator that writers can be a little unusual. 

Most stories I write by the seat of my pants, instead of the most sensible, logical way. You know by starting with a plot and a plan for the story in advance. 

Believe me, it surprises me as well, because I’m an organized logical person. I’ve tried to force myself to plan and plot the story first, but alas, so far, it’s like putting a square peg in a round hole.

 Although I’ve found out there are some good things that come from writing in this manner. I mean besides the whole roller-coaster ride that I get to enjoy along with the reader as I discover the characters and write the pages to find out what comes next. 

That’s Not the Story 

Not a Chance is book #2 in The Enchantlings series. Book #1, Destiny Calling, was named after one of the triplets in the story. My original intent was to write a trilogy with each book highlighting the story of one of the triplets. Well, that didn’t happen. Not because I changed my mind, but because my character did. Hope kind of insisted that she continue to be the one to tell the tale into book #2. That was fine. I still intended for the story to mainly focus on her brother, Chance. 

But when you write by the seat of your pants, you’re taking the chance that the story isn’t going to go in the direction you originally planned—and it didn’t. We took a whole detour into the woods and then some to create a whole different story line.

The Reader’s Benefit When Authors Take that Chance

By not being set on the story, it enabled me to really listen to some of the feedback from readers of Destiny Calling. The characters they liked, what they thought might happen, what they wanted to see happen next. Since the story wasn’t completely structured, I was able to implement some of the suggestions I thought would fit into the story well. Plus, when you write paranormal and fantasy, you can bend the rules a little sometimes. At least in my book, you can. 

So, I took multiple chances with Not a Chance in my efforts to make the story better and engage more with readers. Because as a reader myself, I fall in love with certain characters and they become like dear friends to me. 

I can’t wait to see what happens next in their life, and I usually have an idea of what I want to happen. It's so wonderful to see how the story comes to fruition.

Have You Ever Taken a Chance on a Story?

Author Bio: Maureen Bonatch grew up in small town Pennsylvania and her love of the four

seasons—hockey, biking, sweat pants and hibernation—keeps her there. While immersed in writing or reading paranormal romance and fantasy, she survives on caffeine, wine, music, and laughter. A feisty Shih Tzu keeps her in line. Find Maureen on her website, Facebook& Twitter

Be the first to know about Maureen’s book sales and new releases by following her on BookBub, Amazonand/or signing up for her newsletter

Milestones and Things to Come

This month’s post from me is short and sweet. Why? Because I’m neck deep in finishing the first draft of the third book in my Prophecy series, Collision. This, by the way, is the perfect way for me celebrate a certain milestone I reached two years ago on January 12^th. That was the day I achieved my life-long dream of becoming a published author with the release of my first novel, Prophecy, Book One of the Prophecy Series. 

It took over thirty years to write the darn thing. No joke. The premise of the story came to me in high school while day-dreaming during a class when I probably shouldn’t have been. (Okay, I know I shouldn’t have been.) I didn’t know back then that this would be the story that would launch my career. I was too lost in the little world budding in my head. All I wanted to do was find out what would happen to Alexis Bock, her brother Jason, and the blue-skinned alien captain whose original name I can’t remember.

Eventually, I put the story aside only to pick it up again nearly thirty years later after a fevered dream (my muse) told me that I must. (My muse likes to speak to me through dreams.) I searched high and low for my original hand-written notebooks containing the manuscript, but they seemed to have vanished. So, I started over, rebuilding this amazing world scene by scene. Ultimately, Alexis became Alexandra, Jason became Nick (Nicholaus. Yes, it’s spelled correctly for this story), and the alien captain became Gryf Helyg.

If you haven’t read Prophecy yet—or book two, Salvation (Nick’s story)—now would be a good time to start. The first draft of book three will be going to my editor by the end of February. So, it won’t be much longer until it’s also available!

Here’s more about Prophecy:

A nightmare of galactic proportions...

One normal day turns into horror when Earth is attacked. Now ER nurse Alexandra Bock is imprisoned aboard an alien slave ship with no way out. She deems all aliens untrustworthy, including the handsome blue-skinned Matiran captain who shares her cell.

A betrayal from within…

One night of treachery leaves Senior Captain Gryf Helyg a prisoner of his enemies. Because of him, Earth’s inhabitants face extinction and his home world is threatened. But his plans for escape are complicated by his inexplicable draw to the Earth woman imprisoned with him.

​
A chance to save both their peoples…

One ancient prophecy holds the key to free Alexandra and Gryf’s war-ravaged worlds. Can two wounded souls who have lost everything learn to trust and forgive in order to fulfill the prophecy, and find a love that will last for eternity?

Available on:

Amazon * B&N * iBooks *Kobo

Reminder: Only one more day to subscribe to my monthly newsletter and claim a FREE copy of my short story, All of Me. This offer expires at 11:59 p.m. PST January 31, 2018.

USA Today Bestselling Author, Lea Kirk, loves to transport her readers to other worlds with her science fiction romance. She's currently working on book three of her popular SFR Prophecy series. She lives in California with her wonderful hubby, their five kids (aka, the nerd herd), and her "baby", an adorable Dobie mix.