Please Welcome My Guest

Please welcome my guest, Historical Romance Author Donna Dalton.

Donna lives in central Virginia with her husband, two sons, and a grandson. An avid reader of historical romances, Donna uses the rich history of the “Old Dominion” State for many of her story settings. She enjoys reading stories where characters overcome life’s challenges, where family is everything, and the power of love helps them succeed. You can visit her at www.donndalton.net or on Facebook at DonnaDaltonbooks.

Tell us something about yourself both writing and not writing related.

I started writing at a young age, probably the same time I learned to read. I remember creating a children’s book about vegetables that had arms and legs and could walk and talk. I even illustrated it. Maybe I should dig it out of my mother’s treasure chest. It could be a best seller <grin>. Along that same vein, I love to garden. I have flower and herb beds tucked in every possible spot in my yard. Digging in the soil is very relaxing for me and is a great cure for writer’s block.

I might have to ask for advice on how you keep squirrels and rabbits out of your garden. Do you have a writing routine?  Where do you usually do your writing?

I do my best writing early in the morning. My brain seems to be the most cooperative after a good night’s sleep, a hot cup of tea, and a healthy breakfast. I write at a desk in a dining room that I converted into an office. I can look out the window at my beautiful flower beds.

Why do you write in the genre/sub-genre that you do?  Any plans in the future to write in a different one?

I have always loved reading historical romances, so it’s no wonder I find that genre the most interesting to write. I have written a couple of contemporary stories, but I always go back to the historicals. With my latest book, I have woven in some paranormal elements. That was fun and I will probably continue writing stories along that line. I do have a historical fiction percolating in the back of my head. So many ideas, so little time.

I agree. I have more ideas than I can keep up with. How do you stay motivated when writer’s block hits or your muse won’t cooperate?

When writer’s block hits or I have an uncooperative muse, I go out into my flower gardens and dig. Getting my hands busy seems to get my brain in gear. I can’t count the number of times an idea emerged while my hands were deep in dirt.

What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever done in the name of research?

Ha. Not so strange to me, but it was awkward for my husband (no, not that, lol). I needed to know the placement of my hero’s hands while he was picking the heroine off the floor (she had taken a tumble on a buckled rug runner). Hubby was helpful, but I guess I weighed more than he thought. We both ended up on the floor, laughing at each other.

What’s the best writing advice you were ever given?

The best writing advice I have received was from my favorite historical author and friend, Joanna Bourne. She said the best way to improve your writing is to just keep at it. Write, write, write. Sage words from a sage woman.

Definitely good advice. What do you like to do in your leisure time?

In my leisure time, I enjoy working in my yard, talking long walks, and spending time with my wonderful grandson.

Tell us about your current release in a couple of sentences.

Magic In Her Eyes is a western historical that has paranormal elements. It is loosely based on the movie Father Goose with Cary Grant. I loved the interactions between the gruff military man, the tight-laced guardian, and a handful of mischievous match-makers. It was fun to write and I hope fun for my readers.

I love that movie. Can you tell us a little about your next project?

I am currently working on book two of The Gifted series. Moira Devlin was rescued from fanatical townsfolk at the end of book one. Five years later, Moira has been asked to take over as healer when the town physician dies unexpectedly. Moira realizes it is time to venture out into the world and trust people again. Unfortunately, she hits a roadblock when the handsome Dr. Anson Locke arrives to take over the practice. He considers her potions nothing more than deadly snake oils. When folks start coming into the office, complaining of unexplainable sicknesses, the two must work together to discover what is making everyone ill.

Sounds interesting. Anything else you’d like to share?

I enjoy stories about characters overcoming life’s challenges, the importance of family, and the power of love helping them to succeed. I try to incorporate these elements in my own stories.

 

Blurb: 

Meredith Talbot has a secret. In fact, she has nine secrets – her own and those of the eight orphans at Seaton House, a home for children. Each of them has a special talent that if exposed would get them labeled as witches. It is her responsibility to protect the children and their secrets and keep them safe from persecution. Marauding Indians force them into a nearby fort where their safety is threatened by fanatical townspeople and a captivating army officer who try to unmask the children's extraordinary abilities. 

Lieutenant Preston Booth has one goal – to serve and protect his country. The military is the only life he has ever known. It’s the only life he wants. When a child is abducted and Preston goes after the culprit, Meredith has a vision of what will happen to him. 

Does she risk everything by exposing her gift? Or keep her secret and risk losing him forever?

Excerpt: 

“Do you also have an aversion to being touched?”

Meredith looked up and met his taunting gaze. It was a challenge she couldn’t ignore. She hefted her chin. “Not if I have given permission to be touched.”

One corner of his mouth twitched. Surely that wasn’t a smile. From what she’d seen, the most his lips could manage were frowns.

He held out his hand. “May I help you into the wagon, Miss Talbot? In the name of expediency?”

Straw rustled behind her. One child hummed. Another thrummed on the wagon boards. The children were getting restless. She could contain herself long enough to be lifted onto the wagon.

     “Very well. I give my permission.”    
     His hands curled around her waist. Heat seeped through her blouse and branded her skin. Her stomach started doing odd little summersaults like the ones she’d seen Chinese acrobats perform at a local fair. So much for containing herself.    
     His grip tightened, and he lifted her up and onto the wagon bed as if she weighed no more than a rag doll. His hands lingered a moment before he released her. Gray-brown eyes fused with hers. A strange connection churned between them like the rush crowding the air before a storm. 

Buy Link: 

Amazon: http://a.co/5gfhseU

 

 

What I'm Reading Wednesday

This week's review is Addie and the Gunslinger by Celia Yeary.

Blurb:  Ex-gunslinger Jude Morgan lands in jail in a far-flung West Texas town. On the fourth day, the sheriff ushers in a beautiful woman dressed in men’s pants and toting her own six-shooter. Adriana Jones claims he is her worthless husband who married her, but never came home.

The young woman makes a bargain with Jude in front of the sheriff. Jude is to come home where he belongs, and she will have him released. Once they’re alone, she explains his job is to pose as her husband to thwart the marriage advances of her neighbor, wealthy rancher Horace Caruthers. The older man wants her ranch to join with his; the Pecos River runs through her property.

To seal the bargain, Jude wants a kiss. During the next few weeks, however, Jude and Addie learn that the kiss meant more than they intended. Then, when Addie's life is in danger, will Jude rescue his Addie? Or will Addie save herself and her gunslinger?

Review:  Please note this is a novella with approximately 78 pages. I point this out because some readers buy a book and don't realize that it's of short length and then give a terrible review because it wasn't a full-length novel.

As I mentioned above this is a novella so the reader should expect things to develop between the hero and heroine pretty rapidly as was the case here. However, I never felt like I got to know Jude or Addie other than in the most superficial way. There are things I wished the author had explained - Why does Addie call her father by his given name, Caleb? Why does Jude, who was was brought up by a violent father who killed one of his sons, decide to become a gunslinger and perpetuate more violence?

There were other things in the story that seemed inconsistent to me as well. One of the bigger ones was the neighboring rancher, Caruthers, threatening to kill Addie's father and/or blowing up part of the river that runs through Addie's family's ranch to divert the water to his own land.Throughout most of the story he comes across as someone who will do anything to get what he wants but as soon as Jude goes and sees him, he's more than willing to sit down with Caleb and work out a way for both ranches to have the water usage they need. It seems as if a simple conversation between Caleb and Caruthers would have solved the issue without any need for Jude at all.

There were also some other things that bothered me. For example in one place, the writer states Jude socked Sonny in his right jaw and then he hits Sonny in his other jaw. You only have one jaw.

Overall it's not a bad way to spend a couple of hours, but I wish the writer had fleshed out the characters more.

Rating:  3 Stars

What I'm Reading Wednesday

The week's review is Asking For Trouble by Jannine Gallant.

Blurb: Daycare owner, Miranda O'Neill, isn't looking for a miracle. But that's what it'll take to convince Cole Matheson the American Dream isn't a trap designed to suck the life out of him. She wants a house with a white picket fence. He wants adventure. She yearns for babies of her own. He's perfectly content claiming his aging hound as his only dependent. The one thing they agree on--they can't keep their hands off each other.

Six months ago, they'd admitted love wasn't enough and parted ways. But when Cole finds himself in charge of his nephew for the ten longest days of his life, only one person can save him.

Will Miranda put aside her heartache to jump into the fray? Can Cole find any redeeming qualities in a demon in a diaper? Either way, both know they're just asking for trouble.

Review:  Please note this is a novella with approximately 110 pages. I point this out because some readers buy a book and don't realize that it's of short length and then give a terrible review because it wasn't a full-length novel.

I felt like I knew Miranda right from the start. It's rare that I can identify with a character within the first few paragraphs. Miranda makes the right decision though it feels like the wrong one - she broke up with the man she loves because she wants children and he doesn't. Knowing a couple in my personal life who went ahead and married then made each other miserable, the push/pull between Miranda's need for a child and her love for Cole was completely believable. I found her to be brave and strong, strong enough to know that while Cole is the love of her life, by denying her longing for a child she'd grow to resent him eventually.

I have to admit, at first I wasn't sure I liked Cole. Some of the remarks he made about kids choking the life out a man and such bothered me. As I continued to read, I grew to know him better. While he loved Miranda, he lived a pick up and go lifestyle that he was worried a child would change. Having lived a lifestyle where that was the norm, I could understand his concern. As he spent more time with his nephew, Jackson, he became more comfortable being around him and caring for him. Cole went from a man who knew nothing about caring for a child and had no desire to learn to a man who kept a level head, administered the necessary aid, and got the baby to the hospital all without a panicked moment.

The best part of Asking For Trouble is not the ending but the journey Miranda and Cole take the reader on. It's at times funny, maddening, and heartwarming. Reading this novella is great way to spend a winter afternoon.

Rating:  5 Stars

Please Welcome My Guest

Please welcome my guest, Romance Author Devon McKay.  Today we're spotlighting her new release Cowboy On The Run. Cowboy on the Run is a Contemporary Western about first loves, lost love and secrets to big too hide. It’s about life in a small town and family.

 Now a little about Devon: 

   Devon lives on a farm in Ohio with her very supportive and patient husband, not so patient teenage son, two dogs, three cats, horde of long horned steers, flock of chickens, and a trio of pygmy goats. When she’s not rising with the sun to take care of the daily chores, she’s settling down with a good book or in her writing den typing fast and furiously on her laptop and writing her next novel.

Blurb:

Running from a torrential past, Nate Walker had never planned on returning to a town where the only good thing had been a brunette-haired beauty with more compassion than he deserved. Finding himself on a ranch for boys facing the same issues not only taught him how to be a man, it taught him that there was more to life than running away. However, coming back for what he left behind was going to be anything other than easy.

            Nate always did know how to make an entrance once again turning Jessie Calhoun’s routine life upside down. Unfortunately, he’d also had the same impact when he left her mending a broken heart in a cloud of dust and taillights. But this time would be different. No longer a gullible, naïve girl, she’d be a fool to fall under his spell again. Especially now that she had more at stake – two very important reasons.

Excerpt:

Nate Walker pushed his bike to extremes, hitting eighty before the surge of adrenaline he’d been striving for flushed through his veins, scratching the surface of the itch, the need to run.

            Not this time, he told himself, now nearing close to ninety. The reckless speed made him feel more in control, despite the two reasons driving him back to the small town he never wanted to step foot in again. Both affecting him in a no-win, gut wrenching way.

            He toyed with the idea of turning his bike around and heading back the direction he came from – or anywhere else. Although the thought was enticing, it wasn’t a choice anymore. His demons would still chase him, biting at his heels every inch of the way.

            No, after all these years, it was time to face them. Besides, he was tired of running even if the outcome did seem rather bleak. Scowling, he pushed the bike further, taking a sharp corner at a life threatening angle, testing his mortality.

            A morbid satisfaction burned through him as he felt the pavement skin the side of his leather boot. The feeling lasted only a split second before his dilemma returned full force and his thoughts became more demanding than before.

            Of the two reasons, he knew which one would be more challenging, yet was certain neither would be easy – the funeral of a man who conjured up memories of a life better left forgotten, or the woman who haunted his every waking moment and would never forgive him for what he did to her.

            Nate revved the throttle before shifting down a gear, determined to take on the more difficult of the choices first.

            Time to dance with the devil.

You can contact Devon at any of the links below: 

https://devonmckay.weebly.com

https://facebook.com/DevonMcKay2014

dev.mckay@yahoo.com

devonmckay2014@gmail.com

and can be followed on twitter under Devon McKay

You can pick up at copy of Devon's new book at Amazon:

Cowboy On The Run 

Please Welcome My Guest...

Please welcome my guest, Romance Author Andrea Downing. Andrea has spent most of her life in the UK where she received an M.A. from the University of Keele in Staffordshire.  She married and raised a beautiful daughter and  stayed on in England to teach and write, living in the Derbyshire Peak District, the English Lake District and the Chiltern Hills before finally moving into London. During this time, family vacations were often on guest ranches in the American West, where she and her daughter have clocked up some 17 ranches to date. In addition, she has traveled widely throughout Europe, South America, and Africa, living briefly in Nigeria. In 2008 she returned to the city of her birth, NYC, but frequently exchanges the canyons of city streets for the wide open spaces of the West.  Her love of horses, ranches, rodeo and just about anything else western is reflected in her writing.  Loveland, a western historical romance published by The Wild Rose Press, is her first book.  She is a member of Romance Writers of America and Women Writing the West.

 

Tell us something about yourself both writing and not writing related.   

Wow, Katherine you go straight for the jugular here!  First let me say, thanks so much for having me here today.  I'm delighted to be with you.  I'm sitting at my desk in my NYC apt. which is where I love to get most of my writing done, and wondering whatever happened to my flying pig? In 2008 I moved from London to the USA, no doubt losing said pig in transit.  I wanted to be near my daughter who had decided to stay on after coming to the US for university.  Now she lives in Colombia, and I write books that take place out west.  Go figure…

It's strange how things work out, isn't it? Do you have a writing routine?  Where do you usually do your writing?   

I wish I did have a writing routine but sadly I don't, not because I'm disorganized but because my life is so haphazard at the moment.  I live between my apt. and a house I own so I have two different writing spaces.  In the apt. I have a study which doubles as the guest room, and at the house I'm spread all over the dining table.  That's a pain since it all has to be cleared when I have guests to dinner but it's either that or redecorating the house.  Actually, I should think about doing that!

I write at the dining room table too. I have to clean up every night for dinner.  I agree it can be a pain. Why do you write in the genre/sub-genre that you do?  Any plans in the future to write in a different one?

I have to admit I never actually set out to write Romance, it just happened.  I like happy endings and these are the stories I dream up.  My settings are always western—so far—but I have written both historical and contemporary.  I'm considering a Civil War story so that will be quite a change for me when I get to it!

How do you stay motivated when writer’s block hits or your muse won’t cooperate?

My muse is extremely naughty and didn't cooperate for a good many years.  I wrote my first novel at about age 27 and the next one not until I was in my 40s!  Now I seem to be on a roll.  Getting old seems to have helped; you realize you don't have anything to lose so just go on and dish it out.   For me, it's always been fear that caused writer's block.  I could procrastinate endlessly; I always had an excuse for not writing.  Eat chocolate and get past that.

Good advice. Eating chocolate always makes things look better. What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever done in the name of research?

Not sure really.  I could say that it was eating in fast food joints that practically killed me with their salt and fat contents, but I don't think that was what you mean.  I guess going to the Pawnee National Grassland was sort of strange, at least strange to my NY friends.  They all asked, 'you have to actually SEE the grass to write about it?'  Well…duh…yeah.

Of course, we writers understand perfectly that you needed to actually see the grass to write about it. :o) What do you like to do in your leisure time?   

Reading, riding and travel.  I can't sit still, have to always have a book with me.  And any vacation time I'm out of here somewhere, usually West and definitely to ride.

Tell us about your current release in a couple of sentences.

Set against the background of the British cattle companies in 1880s Colorado, Loveland is about the love Lady Alexandra Calthorpe has for top ranch hand, Jesse Makepeace, fighting against her desire to be independent of men.

Can you tell us a little about your next project?   

I've just signed a contract with The Wild Rose Press for my story, Lawless Love, another western historical romance.  The hero is named for an actual cowboy I met last summer on a working cattle ranch in Nevada, but that's about as far as the similarities go.  Well, except that they are both good men!

Anything else you’d like to share?   

Certainly not my chocolate… 

Can't say I blame you.  :o)

Blurb: 

When Lady Alexandra Calthorpe returns to the Loveland, Colorado, ranch owned by her father, the Duke, she has little idea of how the experience will alter her future. Headstrong and willful, Alex tries to overcome a disastrous marriage in England and be free of the strictures of Victorian society --and become independent of men. That is, until Jesse Makepeace saunters back into her life...

Hot-tempered and hot-blooded cowpuncher Jesse Makepeace can’t seem to accept that the child he once knew is now the ravishing yet determined woman before him. Fighting rustlers proves a whole lot easier than fighting Alex when he’s got to keep more than his temper under control.

Arguments abound as Alex pursues her career as an artist and Jesse faces the prejudice of the English social order. The question is, will Loveland live up to its name?

Excerpt:

As the round-up wound down, the Reps took their stock back to their outfits, and soon the men were back at headquarters or at the camps. Alex knew word had more or less got out and found the punchers were gentler now around her, had a sort of quiet respect for her, and she hated it. She tried to bully them a bit to show them she was still the same girl, jolly them into joshing with her as they had before. It was slow work. At the same time, she yearned to see Jesse, to speak with him, to try to get life back to the way it was before the argument at the corral, and before he saw the scars. The opportunity didn’t present itself. She would see him from a distance some days, riding with the herd, sitting his horse with that peculiar grace he had, throwing his lariat out with an ease that reminded her of people on a dock waving their hankies in farewell. Hoping to just be near him, she slid into one of the corrals one evening to practice her roping.

The light was failing and the birds were settling with their evening calls. Somewhere in the pasture a horse nickered. She sensed Jesse was there, watching, but she never turned as he stood at the fence. She heard him climb over and ease up behind her. He took the coiled rope from her in his left hand and slid his right hand over hers on the swing end, almost forcing her backward into his arms. She thought of paintings and statues she had seen, imagining his naked arms now, how the muscles would form them into long oblique curves, how he probably had soft downy fair hair on his forearms, how his muscle would slightly bulge as he bent his arm. His voice was soft in her ear, and she could feel his breath on her neck like a whispered secret.

“Gentle-like, right to left, right to left to widen the noose, keep your eye on the post—are you watchin’ where we’re goin’?” He made the throw and pulled in the rope to tighten the noose.

Alex stood there, his hand still entwined with hers and, for a moment, she wished they could stand like that forever. Then she took her hand away and faced him. For a second he rested his chin on the top of her head, then straightened again and went to get the noose off the post while coiling in the rope. She looked up at him in the fading light and saw nothing but kindness in his face, simplicity and gentleness that was most inviting. A smile spread across her face as he handed her the coiled rope and sauntered away, turning once to look back at her before he opened the gate. Emptiness filled her like a poisoned vapor seeking every corner of her being, and she stood with the rope in her hand listening to the ring of his spurs as his footsteps retreated.

Buy Links: 

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Loveland-Andrea-Downing/dp/1612173233/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1358117100&sr=8-2&keywords=Loveland

The Wild Rose Press: http://www.thewildrosepress.com/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=991&zenid=cd3e384d35ae9a84573a67b183afd60d-- 

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/loveland-andrea-downing/1112486451?ean=2940014874021  

You can find out more about Andrea and her wonderful books on her website - http://andreadowning.com, her facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/writerAndreaDowning, and on Twitter at @andidowning

Thanks again for having me here today, Katherine.  It's been great fun!

Please Welcome My Guest...

Please welcome my guest, Sara Walter Ellwood. Sara is an award winning author whose novel Gambling On A Secret was named by bestselling author Carolyn Brown in the Happy Ever After Blog on USA Today as one of her favorite romances of 2012. Although Sara has long ago left the farm for the glamour of the big town, she draws on her experiences growing up on a small hobby farm in West Central Pennsylvania to write her stories. She’s been married to her college sweetheart for nearly 20 years, and they have two teenagers and one very spoiled rescue cat named Penny. She longs to visit the places she writes about and jokes she’s a cowgirl at heart stuck in Pennsylvania suburbia.  She also writes paranormal romantic suspense under the pen name Cera duBois. 

The Colton Gamblers

 Just who are the Colton Gamblers? In Gambling On A Secret we meet Charli Monroe and Dylan Quinn. Charli is new to town, but she’s a gambler as much as Dylan.

Forest County gets its name from the oak forests that covered the land along the creeks running through it, but the majority of the land is grassland. In 1865, three disillusioned first cousins—Cole Cartwright, Elijah Blackwell and Dylan Ferguson— return from the battlefields of the defeated South to find their home in East Texas a shambles. Determined to make a new start, they head west. In the cowboy town of Dallas, Texas, they decide to pool the few silver dollars they have between them and enter into a poker game. With their gamble, they win 125,000 acres—the whole of Forest County.

Taking the grassland in the southern part of the county, the cousins build three ranches—The CW which belongs to the Cartwrights, The Blackewell Ranch, and the Fergusons build Oak Springs. On these 90,000 acres of land, the cousins build an empire.

Cole Cartwright’s love for order creates the first town, known originally as Cole’s Town and eventually shortened to Colton. He also becomes the first county judge. Still today his descendents follow his example of becoming lawyers, the mayor and sheriff.

Elijah Blackwell’s need for adventure sends him to explore the wilds of West Texas, and he becomes an Indian fighter. Through him, Indian blood is introduced into the family and his descendents are still a bit on the wild side and are fighters.

Dylan Fergusons’s love of invention and mind for business helps all three of them create an empire in cattle. His descendents still have his love for the land and dream of being simple ranchers though many of them lost their way.

Even though over the next century and a half, the clans continue to build on the fortune began in cattle, when oil is discovered on Oak Springs Ranch and Blackwell Ranch, things change as they get greedy and erode their family bond.

The Colton Gamblers series tells the stories of the eighth generation gambling on love and bringing back the bond of family…

  Blurb:

When Charli bets everything on a secret, will she find the deck stacked against her?

Former runaway-turned heiress Charli Monroe is hiding her sordid past and planning a future in Colton, Texas. Attending the local college for a degree in social work, she intends to raise cattle on her newly purchased ranch, which she plans to open as a home for troubled teens. Only a few glitches—the Victorian mansion is crumbling, the barn needs a roof, and her oilman neighbor wants more than friendship. When she meets Dylan Quinn, Charli is willing to take a chance on the town drunk to help her rebuild the rundown ranch.

Dylan has his demons, too. The former Special Forces commander can’t get past his ex-wife’s betrayal and the botched mission that left him with much more than a bad limp. Certain the greedy oilman next door to Charli wants much more than just her heart, Dylan’s even willing to stop drinking in order to protect her.

When things get dangerous and secrets of the past are revealed, is he only looking out for his new employer, or is she the new start he so desperately needs?

CONTENT WARNING: Details abuse of a minor, drug abuse, alcoholism, swearing, spicy sex, murder.

COVER QUOTE: “Full of intrigue, tangled pasts, and raw emotions, this one is guaranteed to keep you turning pages from start to finish and then wishing for one more chapter!”
Carolyn Brown, New York Times bestselling author of Just a Cowboy and His Baby.

Ms. Brown also named Gambling On A Secret as one of her favorite romance reads in 2012 in the Happy Ever After Blog on USA Today.

Excerpt:

“Ferguson, what are you doing here?” Dylan barked.

Leon ambled toward them on the stone path. “I’m saving a young maiden from torment. What are you doing here, playing the part of the devil?”

“I’m Miss Monroe’s new manager.” The deadly edge of his voice matched the flintiness of his eyes. “If there’s anyone to save the young maiden from, it’s you.”

“Mr. Quinn, please.” She turned to Leon. “Leon, is there something I can do for you?”

He smiled, showing off perfect white teeth in a face handsome enough to belong to an actor. “I was just passing by on my way home and decided to stop. How are the boys working out?”

Dylan’s stance widened and his hands flexed at his slides. “What boys?”

“Charli and I have entered into a business arrangement.”

She lost the battle with the urge to wrap her arms around herself. As much as she appreciated Leon’s kindness, respected him, and was even a little attracted to him, something about him didn’t sit right with her. He represented her peers in the community. According to Mrs. Pratt, besides the Cartwrights, she and Leon were undoubtedly the wealthiest residents in the county. No one in Colton could learn about her past. It would ruin her, and Leon, no doubt, had the means to dig up the dirt.

“Really?” Dylan stepped closer to her in a protective manner. Whiskey tainted his breath as the warmth of the exhalations tickled her cheek. “What kind of business arrangement?”

She could protect herself. Dylan Quinn wasn’t any safer than Leon Ferguson. Stepping away from him, she forced her arms to her sides. “Mr. Quinn, I can handle this.”

She faced Leon. “I’m amazed by how much the men got done since starting on Monday. The foreman told me last evening they’d be reseeding another fifty acres for hay this morning. And they have the corrals fixed and started on the fencing in the north pasture.”

“Good, good.” He glanced at Dylan. “I’ll be going, unless you need a more reliable exterminator. I couldn’t help but overhear about your snake infestation. I can give you the name of the company that has gotten rid of the snakes in our lakes over on Oak Springs for years.”

Although he presented the perfect solution, she didn’t the like way Leon had looked at Dylan as he said the word exterminator. “No, Mr. Quinn is quite capable of getting rid of the snake.”

“Oh, I’m sure he is.” Leon tipped his hat. “Let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you, Charli.” Dylan’s jaw tightened as his uncle glanced at him. “It’s good to see you up among the living again.”

Leon headed back to his Porsche. With no pretense of lowering his voice, Dylan said, “Now, there’s a snake no one wants in their garden.”

Upon hearing the jibe, Leon’s shoulders jerked in mid-stride.

Rattled by Leon’s attention and the snake fiasco, she turned on Dylan. “You aren’t off the hook. I want those snakes gone.”

“We’ll see.”

“I hate snakes.” She shuddered and put her hands on her hips. “Maybe I should have asked him who the exterminator is.”

Buy Links:

Lyrical Press: http://www.lyricalpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_25&products_id=574

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Gambling-Secret-Colter-Gamblers-ebook/dp/B00AVLL4XA/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1357261386&sr=1-1

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/gambling-on-a-secret-sara-walter-ellwood/1114062294?ean=2940016153667

BookStrand: http://www.bookstrand.com/gambling-on-a-secret

Author links:

Website: http://www.sarawalterellwood.com

Blog: http://www.sarawalterellwood.com/blog/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sarawalterellwood.ceradubois/

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sara_w_ellwood

Giveaway:

**PLEASE LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR THE GIVEAWAY**

~One poster from every stop will win a Gambling On A Secret ebook

~One commenter from each stop will win a piece of custom jewelry.

(The winners of these two prizes will be announced the day after the tour stop.)

I also have 2 Grand Prizes!

~First Grand Prize is a SWAG PACK, including a signed copy of Carolyn Brown’s Just a Cowboy and His Baby. Also included is a copy of D’Ann Lindun’s Shot Through the Heart, a pen, a notebook, a horse themed mini calendar, a patriotic themed day planner, and more all tucked away in a reusable tote bag at the end of my blog tour. (Books for swag pack were purchased and are given away with authors’ permission.)

~Second Grand Prize is a $10 Gift Card to either Amazon or Barnes and Noble. If you follow the tour and comment as often as possible, you increase your chances of winning!

(The winners of the Swag Pack and Gift Card will be announced on March 1, 2013.)

(Swag Pack is only eligible for US residents to win. The jewelry and gift card are eligible to US and Canada residents only. The ebook is eligible to anyone, unless prohibited by law.)