June 2019

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Sunday, June 30, 2019

WeWriWa: Home is Where the Heart Is . . . RISE BY MOONLIGHT


What pulls you into a romance and holds your emotions hostage until the very last page? The heart of the matter is the chemistry between the hero and heroine. And that reaction between Max Savoie and Charlotte Caissie has been a combustible mix of banter, simmer and sizzle since book one in my “By Moonlight” series. While my publisher was reluctant to take on a series with a continuing main couple within the paranormal romance genre, Max and Cee Cee quickly won them . . . and readers over with scenes like this one from my W.I.P. RISE BY MOONLIGHT.

He sensed her before gates opened onto the long drive leading to their gracefully crumbling plantation house. Her essence teased up his nose, stirring his awareness like a smooth stone dropping into a still, deep pond as ripples of warmth and desire spread outward in eager little shivers. 

She was home, and everything calmed in his complicated world. 

He waited, still as the heavy antique furnishings, a tall indistinguishable shape teased out by flames from the low parlor fire as the front door opened, relaxing at the brisk staccato of stilettos on marble tiles. Her silhouette hurried by, then the tap of heels paused, backtracking until she framed the doorway the way she did his life, with her strength, proud stature and shrewd intuition, a smile flashing with her welcoming, “Hi.” 

His reply rumbled, a rough caress, “Welcome home, sha, and how was your day?” Simple domestic comments steeped in an intimacy that relaxed the taut line of her shoulders. 

“Same ole, same ole.” She entered the room with her long, confident stride, crossing to him as an end rather than a means to the rest of that day. Her fingertips brushed over the bristle of evening stumble on his cheek on their way to cup the back of his dark head, drawing him down to her for a slow, reassuring exchange as vital to both their lives as oxygen.

Sigh . . . Something to come home to, indeed! It’s good to know these two can still bring on the heat 14 books later.

This weekend, I’m away from home in the middle of a five-day writing vacation, taking up residence in a hotel suite with my new laptop and few distractions other than the pool and hot tub, exercise room, breakfast buffet and planned visits with my grandguy. My goal – to get back to the business of writing as my business (at least until I go back to work on Friday).


Business goes on, even if I’m on a break. So, I’m excited to announce a S-A-L-E (something I took advantage of last weekend while out of state shopping, sunning and relaxing with former co-workers at our annual summer escape. You can see from the above picture there was a bit of work accomplished even with the distraction of a fantastic view!). But back to the SALE! 


MIDNIGHT MASQUERADE from my “Touched by Midnight” vampire romance series will be priced at just $.99 (!) from July 1 to 15! I’ll be sharing from its pages for the next two WWW posts. I’d almost forgotten how much I enjoyed Nick and Rae. If you haven’t met them, this is a great opportunity to sink your teeth into the series!

Happy Writing Weekend fellow Warriors, and for those who celebrate it, have a safe and patriotic 4th of July!!


Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly hop for everyone who loves to write! Share an 8 to 10 sentence snippet of your writing on Sunday. Visit other participants on the list and read, critique, and comment on their 8sunday posts.

Spread the word, share the love, warriors - Hashtag #8sunday.

Sunday, June 16, 2019

WeWriWa: I’m Your Boogeyman . . . RISE BY MOONLIGHT


(Caution: R-Rated Hero) Some guys ya just don’t wanna mess with. Max Savoie, the dark hero of my “By Moonlight” shapeshifter series is that guy. Like my movie fav, John Wick, he just wants to be left alone to live his life with the woman he loves in the home he’s rebuilt. But when provoked, the legend he’s made his bones upon will rise again. And that’s a real worry for the poor schmo in this excerpt from my W.I.P. RISE BY MOONLIGHT . . .


Fear of the NOPD came nowhere close to the threat of New Orleans’ notorious former Mob henchman. Savoie’s name was whispered with the same awed terror as the boogeyman. He’d been the cold, soul-devouring darkness at the back of Jimmy Legere’s empire. The whisper of ill-fated doom, he’d answered to Jimmy’s call alone . . . until a tough as nails detective claimed his heart and his allegiance. 

Savoie had taken over Legere’s legacy, turning it from criminality into a powerful business entity. Now, he walked, bold as you please, into society soirees with the same unruffled aplomb he’d once maintained wading in blood and retribution.

Max Savoie was someone no one with a brain or a prayer for a future messed with.

Pomerelli had both.

Very quietly, Leo asked, “What do you want from me?”

How do you let go of a hero whose complexity and cool factor just keeps growing (ummmm John Wick IV . . .)? That’s been my problem while wrapping up my series with this 15th(!) book. You just can’t take the darkness out of a tortured soul . . . except when it comes to a good woman who can turn that Boogeyman into her Boogie Man. (Caution: ‘70s fashion)


Enjoy the (K.C. and the) Sunshine and party on, fellow Warriors!


Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly hop for everyone who loves to write! Share an 8 to 10 sentence snippet of your writing on Sunday. Visit other participants on the list and read, critique, and comment on their 8sunday posts.


Spread the word, share the love, warriors - Hashtag #8sunday.

Sunday, June 09, 2019

WeWriWa: Truth AND Consequences . . . RISE BY MOONLIGHT and the “By Moonlight” Series


Every hero needs a heroine who is his match. One who can hold her own, takes no prisoners (except in this excerpt!) and complements his weaknesses with her strengths. With a hero like Max Savoie, the enigmatic leader of the New Orleans shapeshifter clan who runs the now legitimate business empire of his former mobster boss, it takes someone like Detective Charlotte Caissie, in this introductory except from my W.I.P. RISE BY MOONLIGHT.

As detectives Caissie and Babineau exchanged glances, she took the lead with a brusque, “You’ll wear a wire.” 

Leo Pomarelli hedged at her offer, arguing, “They’ll kill me!” 

“Not if you’re smart, and you look like a smart boy.” 

He studied the undercover cop as she pulled off the scarf shadowing strongly cut cafĂ© au lait features, taking in the aggressive bristle of black hair and hard dark eyes, his own narrowing as thoughts leapt beyond his own precarious situation to prompt a mutter of, “I seen you before.” 

“In my job, I meet the best kind of folks.” 

“No,” he mused, head tipping slightly, “not on the streets.” Then, realization struck like a fatal slug from her service pistol as he gulped, “On TV with Max Savoie.” 

Babineau arched a brow at his partner to allow, “You are a photogenic pair, Detective,” before smiling slightly at the rapidly paling criminal to take advantage of his rightful alarm. “And just how you think Max Savoie’ll react to hearin’ you made rough with his wife—his pregnant wife. Were I you, I’d stop worrying about your bosses and consider what he’ll do to you.”

Balancing lives and careers that are polar (and often ethical) opposites, the main couple in my “By Moonlight” series has had a lot to overcome as they’ve worked their way through emotional and biological baggage, and RISE BY MOONLIGHT is their final chance to get things right. But the road to Book 15 was as filled with as many potholes as Michigan streets in the spring. Good thing they have me for emergency road service that went into effect waaaay back in Book 2, CHASED BY MOONLIGHT!


Looking forward to seeing what you’ve been up to while I’m off the grid at a critique group weekend, where we’re reading each other’s chapters and hopefully writing some more of our own. Hope yours is as productive, fellow Warriors!!


Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly hop for everyone who loves to write! Share an 8 to 10 sentence snippet of your writing on Sunday. Visit other participants on the list and read, critique, and comment on their 8sunday posts.

Spread the word, share the love, warriors - Hashtag #8sunday.

Wednesday, June 05, 2019

IWSG: It’s a Mystery to Me!


Our Insecure Writer's Support Group June 5 question is: Of all the genres you read and write, which is your favorite to write in and why?

After over 30 years in the biz as a published author and almost as many before as an avid reader, there are few genres I don’t devour. Some, I come back to over and over again, not so much because of the genre, as far as reading or writing, but for one specific novel element I can’t resist: Suspense. I love the tease and challenge of a good puzzle (which is why I snatch up the page of the newspaper with the crosswords and word searches). I can’t resist a mystery to solve, be it character motivation or an actual crime of greed or passion. I thrive on expecting the unexpected. Having devoured all the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew, Agatha Christie, Edgar Allan Poe, and Alistair MacLean stories as a teen, it’s no surprise my favorite books are by Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Sandra Brown, Nora Roberts/J. D. Robb, Daphne du Maurier, Ira Levine, and Lisa Gardner. And for that reason, all the books I write have some degree of suspense in them. It may not be the driving force of the plot, but unknowns and surprises always weave through my pages and torment the characters to keep the reader engaged, and on their toes wondering who done it and why. Sometimes, I don’t know myself until I reach the final chapter!

My WIP is the concluding episode in my “By Moonlight” 15-book dark shapeshifter series. What links them all together, beside the main couple, are unsolved questions in the over-arcing plot line that begin practically on page one of book one. Good thing I learned to knit as a child so I can pull all those secrets and truths together into a (hopefully!) satisfying pattern. Here’s a tease:


What I look for? Heart-wrenching, heart-wringing, heart-pounding reads that end just short of heart-stopping. Yeah. That’s what I like, and if I can similarly torture my reader, my job is happily done.

But that doesn’t make me a bad person . . .

How about you? What’s makes your WIP something you can’t wait to get back to?



Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time.The awesome co-hosts for the June 5th posting of the IWSG will be Diane Burton, Kim Lajevardi, Sylvia Ney, Sarah Foster, Jennifer Hawes, and Madeline Mora-Summonte!

Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

Twitter hashtag is #IWSG

Sunday, June 02, 2019

WeWriWa: Be Careful What You Wish For . . . RISE BY MOONLIGHT

Growing up, everyone wants to fit in, to feel like they belong. Being part of a peer group shapes growth and identity. But in the case of Max Savoie, the hero in my “By Moonlight” shapeshifter series, that’s never been the case. He’s never belonged anywhere, isolated and in hiding with his secretive mother, forbidden to live the life of a normal child . . . because his mother’s biggest secret is . . . they’re not normal, as Max recalls in this continued excerpt from W.I.P. RISE BY MOONLIGHT, my concluding book to this series.

“Max, bad dreams can’t harm you.” 

As much as he’d loved her, then and now, he never quite believed that assurance. Bad things existed beyond the rusty gate that had imprisoned his youthful curiosity within their overgrown yard . . . he knew because he was one of them. A child of the unnatural world, all he’d ever wanted was to find his place within it, but his mother hid that knowledge from him, just as she’d kept the outside away for as long as she could. 

“Mama, what’s wrong with me?” that small voice sobbed. 

“They just don’t understand, so they fear you, and that’s why you must be careful to never let them see the truth.” 

“What truth, Mama?” he’d pleaded. 

Low and soft, Max repeated, “What truth, Mama?” 

She brushed a kiss across the top of the child’s flushed brow then slowly straightened, turning toward Max Savoie, a surreal voyeur from the future she’d never see, her gaze swimming in tears of liquid silver before flaring bright, then hot . . . then red. 

“Max,” she crooned, “you’re just like me.”
Is he ready to hear that truth? Are you truly ever ready for something that will change your life for better or much worse? After fourteen books, he still doesn’t know that answer, but it’s a journey he . . . and the reader . . . will never regret taking!


Start at the beginning with MASKED BY MOONLIGHT and work your way through the series. By then RISE BY MOONLIGHT will be ready and waiting with those answers. More to come next week . . .

I’m still aglow after a wonderful looong holiday weekend watching the sun come up from my patio glider with a cup of coffee and my cat, surrounded by the colorful pallet of my patio container garden, shopping (my bi-yearly sojourn to the mall), and enjoying my awesome birthday gift to me – Hamilton from the sixth row!! Did I say AWESOME?


Welcome to June, fellow Warriors! Write on!



Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly hop for everyone who loves to write! Share an 8 to 10 sentence snippet of your writing on Sunday. Visit other participants on the list and read, critique, and comment on their 8sunday posts.


Spread the word, share the love, warriors - Hashtag #8sunday.