WeWriWa: Bad to the Bone . . . RISE BY MOONLIGHT

If you’ve read the previous “By Moonlight” books, you’ve met the baddest of the bad guys . . . and SURPRISE, it’s a woman. Genevieve Savorie has been searching for her nephew Max since her pregnant sister ran away with the man she’d been promised for her mate . . . not to shelter the poor orphaned boy, but to control his inheritance of tremendous power. When she sweeps down from Chicago to New Orleans like a bitterly cold Nor’easter, it’s not to embrace him, it’s to destroy all he hopes to build within his mutinous clan. Meet Aunt Gen . . .

Evil whispered in his ear, “Hello, Michael. Friends again?”

He turned to face the lovely creature he’d once admired, back when having a soul was a deficit and cold cunning, the highest aspiration.

“You use that word as if you know what it means.”

“I’ve no use for things that get in the way of what I want or what our people need. Have you remembered what those things are or have you called me here for a different reason, one that would allow you to live beyond our reunion.”

She was so beautiful it was difficult to believe such evil thrived beneath that glamorous surface. Tall, fashionably garbed, flawlessly pale, dark in hair and soul, a lovely surface covering the blackest ichor, her resemblance to her sister went only skin-deep. She craved power the way poor Marie, had sought love, with an unquestioning fervor that brought about her destruction - a fate Genevieve would share if her nephew had his way.

In that moment, Father Michael Furness decided he would not fall with her.

Enjoy a little rockin’ anthem to those who play by their own rules . . . but ultimately lose by them.


I’m at a four-day Writing Retreat hopefully cranking out chapters toward the end of my “By Moonlight” series . . . a bittersweet ambition. How’s your weekend going, 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.

WeWriWa: Dreams v Desires – RISE BY MOONLIGHT

The one thing I like the most about the returning heroine in my “By Moonlight” series is her self-sufficient determination. But strength can sometimes become its own weakness as Cee Cee discovers in this excerpt from my W.I.P.

Troubled by her restless demons, Cee Cee relied upon the heat and security radiating from the male beside her. It had never been her habit to depend upon anyone for strength, let alone a man once thought to be both mobster and monster, but Max Savoie had quickly become a habit impossible to break. Not that she wanted to, never that! But after a lifetime of caring only for herself with a determined, excluding selfishness, sometimes she had to remind herself to let him in, to trust him to trust her. 

Like now. 

She had no defensible reasons for hiding her agenda from her mate. If anyone could be counted on to support her choices, she need look no farther than the figure beside her. She knew that. But knowing and blindly believing were sometimes difficult to justify when standing at a crossroads of divergent paths, one that led to dreams and the other to desires. Difficult scales to balance upon an uncertain fulcrum.

In my opinion, the strongest and most admirable people recognize and admit their own flaws and by that, seek to improve. On the flipside, the best villains never do. They can’t accept the same imperfections in their own character that they demonize in others. Greed becomes ambition. Exploitation of the powerless is justified as for their own good or their protection. Cruelty is cloaked as teaching character. It’s hard to admit mistakes and much easier to blame them on others. It’s easier to take the credit than to share it with those deserving of it. Dreams and desires are there for the taking, regardless of who it hurts. And therein lies the line between hero and bad guy, a line that can be danced upon but never crossed. I’ll be looking for a good sneak peek of my villain to share next week.

Hoping to get more chapters in this weekend leading up to a four-day Write In near Lake Michigan starting on Thursday. Let the words roll!

Happy Weekend, 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.

WeWriWa: Making Up – RISE BY MOONLIGHT

The best part of disagreeing with someone you love is making up afterwards – even if you still don’t agree. ‘Don’t ever go to bed angry’ is good advice that’s kept my main characters together through 15 books, and today’s excerpt from RISE BY MOONLIGHT is no exception. 

“You look refreshed,” he murmured, smile neutral. 

“You look . . . Savoie, you are the hardest damned person to read sometimes, hell, make that most of the time,” she corrected, crossing to where he stood by their open balcony doors. The cool night breeze did tempting things beneath the thin T-shirt molded to her lush frame, the way her fingertips did along his shirtfront as she stepped up close. It wasn’t in her nature to hide from a problem, but she was a master at circumventing them with her sighed request of, “Could you just hold me?” 

“I can do that, Detective.” 

His big hands soothed along the tough line of her, one going high to press flat between the always capable shoulders, the other slipping low to rest at the tempting dip of her spine. She melted against him, all supple muscle and heat and, with a jolt, he realized, vulnerability. 

Head tucking beneath his chin now that she was barefoot, she sighed, “I don’t like it when we argue.” 

“Nor do I, sha.” 

Discussion tabled for the night, but not forever.

A calm before the storm of truth and consequences to come? Perhaps, but I’ll let them enjoy it . . . at least until next week. 

I’m taking part in the Midnight Reader Appreciation Day event on the Midnight Garden Reader Group Facebook page on Friday, September 20th as one of over 130 authors posting giveaways throughout the day. Stop over to join the group so you can get in on the fun, meet new authors, and have a chance to win some great stuff! Everybody loves free stuff! 

Had a great time last weekend with my critique group, plotting, writing, relaxing with Rocketman and homemade caramel corn (thank you, Steve!), and just plain absorbing creative energy from one another. The encouragement of like-minded folk is essential in our solitary career path. And that’s what we find here each Sunday with our fellow Warriors. If I haven’t said it enough, THANK YOU for your uplifting words and for sharing slices of your writing journey each week – a path none of us travel alone.

Enjoy the Weekend and 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.

WeWriWa: It’s a Grrrrrl Thing – RISE BY MOONLIGHT

Relationships are hard. Especially when you put two strong, determined and, frankly, dangerously different individuals together. The main couple from my “By Moonlight” shapeshifter series are equally matched for their courage and commitment to what they believe in. Bring a baby-onboard into the hormonal mix and those protective instinctive roar to life. Today’s excerpt from my W.I.P., RISE BY MOONLIGHT is just the tip of the iceberg they’ll have to chip through.

It wasn’t that he felt in any way superior to his mate. Charlotte Caissie had proven herself tough and capable and far above the gender card she was trying to force upon his argument. He didn’t fear for her because if he’d learned anything, it was that the females of either species were equal if not more skilled in handling trying circumstances. Like the others who’d mated and stood by his small cluster of friends, she was smart and tough and unbelievably fierce when what she loved was threatened.

Max feared for her, not because she was weaker, but because she was his. Just, as she would ferociously claim he was hers. Two parts of the same whole now that they were a bonded pair. 

But those two parts would soon become a trio.

Neither of them had ever had any kind of normal family life growing up amid danger and deception, but their child, he vowed every time he glanced at that ever-increasing midsection, would be different—fiercely loved, protected, spared from the isolating fear that had shaped both parents. And Max would do absolutely anything to see that dream to fruition. 

Poor Max is going to have a rough time keeping this “little woman” safe – especially when her job as an NO detective puts her in the line of fire. Even the best intentions tend to fuel the fire with a woman as fiercely independent as Cee Cee who has spent her entire career proving herself as an equal. Just don’t say girl like it’s a bad thing.


I’m spending this weekend with my grrrrl friends, the fabulous critique partners who’ve had my back for almost twenty years, hosting both at home and at the job (my new bosses let me use our office conference room to host a Saturday write in! Now that’s an employment perk!), and at month’s end, I’m heading to Lake Michigan for a four-day writers’ getaway. I’ve got a quarter of this first draft left to conquer and am determined to make it so! Wish me luck.

Since pages need a proper setting to come to fruition, check out this month’s Insecure Writers Support Group post reflecting on my dream place(s) to write.

Happy Fall and Happy Writing, 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.

IWSG: Water, Water, Everywhere

Our Insecure Writers Support Group question for September is “If you could pick one place in the world to sit and write your next story, where would it be and why?” For me, a Michigan native defined by the Great Lakes, that’s anywhere there’s water.

There’s something about a water mass that calms, revitalizes and energizes my creative soul. There’s a rhythm, a tranquil power to it that hypnotizes with each wave and ripple. The sound is soothing and almost musical. Plant me at an open window where I can see, smell and listen to its song and words flow.

I can’t pick just one special place, though Gun Lake, Michigan comes to mind first since our annual Mid-Michigan Romance Writers of America Retreat from Harsh Reality meets on the water’s edge. I sneak away from the activities to plant myself in a quiet space with a window open and WIP magic occurs.

Other favorites spots are where my critique group has gathered around our Mitten, from a bluff overlooking Lake Huron in Ontario to the shore of Lake Michigan complete with lighthouse (top two photos), and the yearly getaway with a group of my former co-workers at a lake cottage turned lake mansion on Lake James, Indiana. An obscenely early riser, I can always find a stolen hour and an extra chapter as nature wakes and the sunrise spills across the water.

Even when my laptop wasn’t at hand, my imagination was swept away during an Ixtapa, Mexico vacation where the salty Pacific (and Coronas with lime on a sunny terrace between pool and ocean with strangers turned friends helping me plot ways to do murder ala the hang gliders soaring above our bay) gave way to the back drop for one of my romantic suspenses.

Perhaps my favorite escape of the imagination was cruising the Caribbean, getting up before daybreak to sit out on the balcony each morning, writing by the light of my screen to the sound of the ocean until distracted by an amazing sunrise. Salt, surf, serenity . . . aaaaah!

It doesn’t have to be an ocean or a Great Lake. Even a stream running behind our Riverside Retreat in Marshall, Michigan fulfilled my muse as mist rose from it each morning.

Sooooo, where is your Paradise, fellow IWSGers? I can’t wait to find out!

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group

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 September 4th posting of the IWSG will be Gwen Gardner, Doreen McGettigan, Tyrean Martinson, Chemist Ken, and Cathrina Constantiner!

Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

Twitter hashtag is #IWSG