As a child growing up in England, I knew my grandmother’s husband Patrick as ‘grandpa’. But in the family albums I saw pictures of my mother and her sisters with mysterious American cousins, and over time I learnt that my real grandfather was someone else – someone my grandmother clearly didn’t want mentioned. There were no pictures of him in the albums, and my grandmother was happy to let people think that my mother and aunts were Patrick’s children. Yet once Patrick died, and my grandmother was approaching the end of her own life, she became more willing to talk to me about my real American grandfather, whose name she told me was Lawrence. He was an American captain and she had met him while working as a typist at the US Army headquarters in London during the war. Her eyes sparkled as she told me about the excitement she, like so many other young women, had felt at encountering Americans for the first time. After three long years of conflict, with most young, eligible British men off fighting abroad, the Yanks brought with them fun, romance, a ready supply of luxurious gifts such as nylon stockings and chocolate, and,…

On August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King, Jr stood in front of over 250,000 thousand marchers and delivered the famous “I Have a Dream” speech. He died long before I was born, but I can hear his voice in my head, the slow, careful delivery as if each word carried the weight of a million voices behind it. He spoke not only for himself, but for all those who dreamt of equality. His was one voice that contained the hopes, dreams, and fears of a nation. His words rang out loud and clear, so that fifty-one years later we can still feel the weight of his words on us, still share the same dream of equality, and still find a voice of our own to speak out against all forms of injustice and inequality. That’s why this week’s young adult recommendations are about one voice that can learn to speak for the millions who share a dream of a future where all people are equal. BECAUSE THEY MARCHED: THE PEOPLE’S CAMPAIGN FOR VOTING RIGHTS THAT CHANGED AMERICA by Russell Freedman BECAUSE THEY MARCHED “For the 50th anniversary of the 1965 march for voting right from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, Newberry…

I’m so excited to be able to talk about my newest book, OWN. Katsu and Evan are a really fun couple, mostly because of the sparks that fly between them. You see, this isn’t their first go-round. Evan is in a secret special ops unit, and Katsu is his boss’s daughter—and they had their first affair the summer before she left for college. Katsu will never forget the time they spent together: Doubts would carry her back to when she’d been too young to be anything but reckless. Head-over-heels reckless over Evan Sommers. Once they’d landed in bed, they’d hardly made it out for six weeks. Every night together, and every strange and quirky date they would end up on, had felt like a present. The thing is, young love isn’t like anything else in life. There’s something special about that first flush of emotion and connection that you feel with a person. When it comes with something special—like quirky dates—you feel like you don’t only have something special, you are something special. So what do quirky dates mean to Evan and Katsu? 1. Going to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (Katsu’s hometown) and pretending to be docents….

G’day everyone! Welcome to my PULLING LEATHER blog tour and a peek into the world of rodeo cowboys. (The official schedule can be found here.) This wouldn’t be a proper tour without some prezzies, of course, so read on for giveaway details. Thank you to Fresh Fiction for kicking off my new tour, and to all of you for hopping in the saddle to ride along!   * * *   From the Merriam-Webster dictionary: an·ti·he·ro : a main character in a book, play, movie, etc., who does not have the usual good qualities that are expected in a hero   When I first started PICKUP MEN, Scott Gillard wasn’t even an antihero, he was absolutely the villain and he was going to end up in jail, never to be heard from again. But you’ve all heard the saying about those who protest too much? As the story went on and I pondered where this series was going to go, Scott started popping up more often and I began to wonder… What if there was more to his story? What if his issues were deeper than just being an irredeemable asshole? Could I find a way to bring him around? Tough,…

Author: Bec McMaster Writes: The London Steampunk series, with my latest release FORGED BY DESIRE hitting shelves September 2nd, 2014 About: Thirty-something romance author seeks readers for kick-bustle steampunk/paranormal romance, with a friends-to-lovers theme, a hero who knows women through-and-through, some steamy sex-in-the-rain action, and a heroine who doesn’t need a man to save her… Looking for more than just a one-book fling, though I don’t require monogamy with my heroes – feel free to love them all What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: ▪ Their idea of the perfect date includes a Saturday night in with their e-reader/or paperback, a block of chocolate and perhaps a glass of wine… ▪  Dreams of a sexy HEA ▪ Falls easily in love with some devilish heroes who know what they want and aren’t afraid to go after it ▪ Likes dark, sensual stories with touches of saucy humor ▪ Doesn’t mind the odd bad-boy with a rakish sense of charm ▪ Enjoys a fast-paced, swash-buckling plot – think chases across rooftops, duels, explosions… ▪ Wants to BE that heroine who takes names, fights her own battles, and isn’t above signing up to a challenge of wits with their…

I grew up in Minnesota, which essentially means I grew up in the middle of a forest. Except for the evergreens, in the dead of winter we were surrounded by trees stripped bare by the previous autumn winds. Naked branches splayed dark against the chill-gray sky like so many spidery veins on an old man’s hand. Despite the starkness of winter, even as a child, I found an inherent beauty in the season. I still do. And when flocked with a thick layer of snow, winter trees carry a magical essence that takes my breath away. When I was a child, my mother once suggested that I might gain an interesting, non-judgmental perspective of life, and the world we live in, by imagining things this way: If an alien being landed on earth in northern Minnesota in freezing January, and having never seen a tree, would the being think this was the permanent landscape of the entire earth? Would this alien have the capacity to perceive a life that defies description hidden inside the bare branches? How would one convey to him or her (or it) that in just a few months, juicy green sprouts would burst forth? And those…

PRESENTS. . . A Cover Reveal for Black Rose by Kris Thompson Release Date: November 13 , 2014 Published by The Writers Coffee Shop “It’s better to die on your feet than beg on your knees.” Lillian Locke had the perfect life in Boulder, Colorado. She had the boyfriend of her dreams, a wonderful family, awesome friends, and a spot on the track team at a great college. There wasn’t anything life could throw at her that she couldn’t get through . . . until he found her. Lillian never could have imagined being abducted and chained up in the dark. Worse yet, being just one of many girls kidnapped and held captive by a madman. All she can do now is hope that she survives the brutality of their captor long enough to find a way to free herself and her new captive friends. When Richard Haines’ girlfriend goes missing, he makes it his personal mission to find the woman he loves and bring her home to the safety of their loved ones. Seeking the help of friends and family, Richard abandons everything except for his pursuit of Lillian. But when someone else close to Richard goes missing, and…

I was out running this morning trying to think of subjects to blog about when Bonnie Tyler came on my shuffle with “I Need a Hero.” I love the song and it made me smile and run faster (no mean feat as I am not a very good runner) so I thought I’d write a little about my take on what I need in a hero. According to Bonnie, a hero needs to be strong, fast, fresh from the fight, and larger than life. According to the dictionary “he’s a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.” I agree with both to a certain extent. I write romance, and so, by “hero” I mean the male protagonist in my stories. And because I write romance, my heroes have to be romantically appealing. They have to be someone I can imagine myself falling in love with, making love with, wanting to spend eternity with. And I have to somehow inspire the same reaction in my readers. That’s not always easy. The type of man we find attractive, swoon-worthy… heroic, is a very personal thing. My preference, in both reading and writing, (because I’m a…

Maggie LaCroix is here for the ZOMBIFIED blog tour to tell us about how and why her zombies are different than the usual kind of zombies. Welcome, Maggie! For ZOMBIFIED, it all started in a bar with a few girlfriends from work talking about Twilight and True Blood and what was so fascinating about vampires anyway? Sexy, yes. But kind of manipulative jerks. Not like the simple, honest zombie whose brain-eating intentions are clear. The zombie is a nice guy, really, if you get past the drooling, lumbering and brain eating… And yet, in the hierarchy of the undead, vampires get to be sexy jerks; zombies just decompose. This didn’t seem fair, we agreed, and went back to our Martinis. But I couldn’t get that inebriated conversation out of my head. What if we found a way to make zombies sexy? What if sexy zombies were the new vampires? For the next few days, I turned this puzzle inside my head. First, we’d have to find a way to stop their flesh from rotting and preserve their mental abilities. Only one thing could do the trick: Magic. My sexy zombies were people who had been killed and put under a…

In Texas, BBQ is a part of life. And it certainly is for the characters that reside in Hannington, the small Central Texas town where DECONSTRUCTING LILA is set. The best moments of life for some of the characters take place in an outdoor patio—mandatory for BBQ dining—and love altering discussions are had over a cold beer. So lemme take a minute to brief you on the background and importance of our BBQ. Ya know, just so y’all will be educated and stuff. So grab a schooner, pour a Shiner Bock and settle in. Texas BBQ is old. Like, really old. Some of the first joints to open in Texas were Elgin’s Southside Market in 1886 and Lockhart’s Kreuz Market in 1900. Both of which are still open today, in Elgin and Lockhart respectively. They represent the best of Texas BBQ traditions: brisket. Here in Texas, we don’t fuss over molasses sauces or vinegar based drizzles, or pulled pork or ribs even. It’s all about the brisket! Yes, it’s all about the beef. And the German meat market style that is uniquely Texas. How is that, you ask? German style BBQ in the Lone Star state? Well, it’s from the…