SHIFTERS! by Cathryn Cade

I wish I could recall the first shifter romance I read. The idea, if not the story, left an indelible impression on me—all the lethal power and grace of a big predator, rolled into one being with a sexy man. I’ve since read and enjoyed many more.

I believe shifter romance is so popular because so much of our real lives are out of our control.

Partners hurt us, ignore us and leave us. They don’t want the children we crave, or refuse to accept their responsibility for assisting in their creation. They decide another, younger woman is more attractive.

Or they love us to pieces, but things happen that they can’t protect us from, even if they wanted to. The world is a frightening place, and we live it waiting for the next crisis to happen. Part of being human, of being a woman, is being a caregiver … and hoping we receive at least a little in return.

And real men aren’t perfect. Love my manly man so much, but he reads hunting magazines and watches football instead of binging on Netflix seasons with me … and he thinks I have too many shoes. I know, right? There is no such thing.

But if an alpha predator fixes on us—come to Papa! Suddenly we are a mate, desired above all other women with a force that borders on obsession. To protect us, he’ll take on multiple other scary beings, and kill if he must. He’ll provide his lair as our new home, surround us with his wealth, and of course desperately want the children we produce. He’ll go alpha-bossy on us, but only so he can give us what we really want and need. And yes, he hunts, but he doesn’t read magazines about it and leave them all over our cute living room.

Nice, if a girl can get it.

Which is why I love to read shifter romance, and why I began writing them.

I also love Halloween—you should see my collection of old-fashioned Halloween decor. So when I decided to write the Halloween romance that’s been rattling around in my head for a while, the hero is … what else? A shifter!

However, he’s not the big, apex predator kind of cat. He doesn’t need to be, not when he can zap opponents with a spell whenever he chooses. He’s a wizard—and since a big cat can’t be running around modern day Sunnyvale, Oregon, his alius magickus is a black tom cat.

Yes, here I delved into another facet of shifter-ness. We all cuddle up with our pets for comfort, reassurance and love. And we talk to them, at least I do. My golden retriever has heard many a tale of woe and aggravation.

Soooo … what if, when you confide in your newly adopted cat that you have a huge crush on your new neighbor, you’re actually talking to the sexy wizard himself? And how embarrassing will it be later, when you realize exactly what secret wishes you poured into his furry ears? Oops.

Touch Not the Cat; a Sexy Halloween Romance by Cathryn Cade.

It will take a Halloween intervention of the furriest kind to get this unlikely pair together.

Egan Warburton can have any woman he wants—so of course this eligible wizard will choose a witch to share his new home. But why can’t he keep his eyes off his pretty neighbor? She’s too innocent for the likes of him … although she does love cats, especially Warlock, his own alter-ego. In either form, he can’t seem to resist playing naughty tricks to get her attention.

Too bad she’s a mortal with no idea his magickal realm even exists.

Paige Turner is the first to admit she’s as vanilla as they come—youth librarian, good neighbor and kind to cats, even black ones. But in her dreams, she’s a femme fatale who’s not afraid to shake off her bonds of caution and go after what she really wants ... such as her mysterious new neighbor, who is suddenly starring in her most erotic fantasies.

Too bad he’s also the most obnoxious man she’s ever met.

Amazon.com http://amzn.to/1ZECXcJ

BN.com http://bit.ly/1hXdglK

Kobo.com  http://bit.ly/1OKJJdv

What’s your favorite shifter romance?

I love Cherise Sinclair’s Hour of the Lion & Winter of the Wolf, Rebecca Zanetti’s Consumed, Jennifer Ashley’s wonderful Shifters Unbound series.

How about a favorite Halloween read? If you need some delish new romance that’s spooky around the edges, join me in The Romance Zone @ Night Owl Reviews FREE Online Magazine.

Cathryn Cade

… red hot romance

Amazon best-selling author of sci fi romance & contemporary too

RT 4.5 Stars and Night Owl Reviews TOP PICK

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Magic in the Kitchen...and the Shower

By Linda Lovely

What’s magic if it’s not letting your imagination run free?

I tend to find hidden magic in two locations—the kitchen and the shower.

First, the kitchen. I choose to view cooking as a form of conjuring. How else would you describe the process of mixing flour, raw eggs, sugar, a pinch of salt, a teaspoon of vanilla, some baking soda, nuts and chocolate chips, subjecting it to high heat, and poof! you have melt-in-your-mouth white chocolate chip cookies? Now if that’s not magic, I don’t know what is. Plus I have an almost supernatural power to make the cookies disappear. All it takes is a little incantation: “Tom, the cookies are out of the oven.”

Okay, I eat my share, too.

While I’m kidding, I do feel there’s a certain magic in cooking. My relatives know I haven’t met many recipes that I don’t feel just might be better if I tinker while I’m doing the “bubble, bubble, boil and…” routine. Those white chocolate chip cookies I mentioned. Though I started with a recipe I was given, I’ve since added an extra egg, substituted nuts, changed the white/brown sugar ratio, and changed the cooking temperature and time. Most of the time I’m happy with the changes. If not, what magician doesn’t have the occasional mishap? I can concoct new magic next time.

So what’s with the shower? I have no explanation for why my shower (though it’s a great one) has magical properties. But that is where I solve 80 percent of my plot problems. Often I’ve gone to bed perplexed about how to get my heroine into or out of a jam. Then, while standing in the shower the next morning, solutions seem as plentiful as the hot water. Problems go down the drain.

The shower is also where characters tend to speak to me. On a given day, my heroine might whisper that she’d really like to plan a nice surprise for the villain on a mountain trail or arrange trouble at a golf course. No, I don’t actually hear voices. But the messages get through. And that’s magic, too. Characters become real, have weight and dimension. This makes writing magical.

I can’t imagine ever getting tired of cooking or writing. I sure hope you find magic in both, too.

   

GHOSTLY GOINGS-ON/PARANORMAL - MARGARET TANNER

PARANORMAL/GHOSTLY GOINGS-ON  –  MARGARET TANNER

 I don’t write paranormal or shape shifter novels, although I do envy those who can. Then I began thinking about it. Actually, in my historical romance novel, Daring Masquerade, which is set during the 1^st World War, there are two ghostly scenes.

Harry who is the heroine has a dream about her husband Ross who is fighting in France. Ross thinks he hears Harry calling him back from the brink of death.

                                                                ***

Ross did not see where the firing came from, but felt a thud, first in one leg then the other. As he sank to his knees, a bullet slammed into his chest. He toppled forward.  Soldiers ran over him. Boots pressing into his back forced him deeper into the mud.

This is the end. He would never see Harry again.

He regained consciousness. It was daylight. How long had he been lying out in no-man’s land? Groggily, he got to his hands and knees. Pain and exhaustion racked his body. Breathing was agony. The landscape see-sawed. Shell fire echoed in his ears.

What’s the use? All I have to do is close my eyes and sink back into the mud and oblivion.

Too tired to fight any more, he started slipping away. His body floated upward and the pain disappeared.

“Ross, don’t leave me. Fight Ross, fight for me.”

“Harry?” He opened his eyes but he was alone.  Only dead men, twisted and grotesque lay out here in no-man’s land with him.

 “Harry, help me. I don’t want to die out here, twelve thousand miles away from you,” he cried out.

His head spun like a top, every bone in his body screamed in agony. Gritting his teeth, he dragged himself up onto his knees and crawled back the way he had come that morning.

***

Harry woke up from a horrible nightmare. Ross called out to her. He must have died. Her nightgown was wet with perspiration and she shook from head to foot. He kept pleading with her to help him, but she couldn’t. Every time she reached out a hand to touch him, he would slip back into the mud, just out of reach.

Gilbert slept in the cradle beside her bed. She could hear him breathing and his face felt warm to her touch. She still breastfed him in the daytime, but now he slept through the night.

Lighting the bedside lamp and keeping it turned down so as not to awaken him, she stood staring down at him. How sweet he was. He had Ross’s grey eyes and a pretty rosebud mouth. His dark curls were shot with copper highlights.

Oh, God. She grabbed the rag doll and held it to her heart as she rocked backwards and forwards on the bed. Sleep proved impossible now. A glance at the clock on the dresser showed two-thirty in the morning. Slipping on a dressing gown and carrying the lamp, she wandered down to the kitchen, raked up the coals in the stove and set the kettle on to boil. How long would it take to hear anything from the authorities about Ross?

Tears filled her eyes, trickling uncontrollably down her cheeks. The love of her life gone, the two men who meant the world to her were lost, but she still had little Gilbert. God had at least been merciful in that respect.

Next morning Jack called her a fool. “It was a nightmare, a bloody nightmare, girlie.”

“No, it wasn’t. It seemed so real. Ross called out to me, I know he did.”

“Let’s say he did call out to you, it doesn’t mean he’s dead, for God’s sake.”

“He lay in mud, covered with blood. I tell you, Jack, I could see him as clearly as I see you. He held his hands out to me. I tried to help him, but he kept drifting away out of my reach.”

Daring Masquerade is published by Books We Love, and is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other outlets. At the moment, Books We Love is running a special deal, buy from their books shop, and you receive another e-book for free.

http://bookswelove.net/authors/tanner-margaret/

 

 

 

 

Magic. Short and Sweet.

by Vivienne Lorret

Happy October!

MAGIC.

I love the theme for this month. I believe there is true magic in every day, blessings both ordinary and extraordinary.

From waking up and being able to breathe (I recently had a cold and so I am extra-grateful for the magic of respiration)...

to finding a $20 bill in your purse when you need it most...

to having the perfect story idea/character/sentence fall into your mind when you least expect it.

And sometimes we are the conjurers of our own magic by doing what we love to do the most.



Wishing you magic and many blessings,

Viv

_{~USA TODAY bestselling author Vivienne Lorret loves romance novels, her pink laptop, her husband, and her two sons (not necessarily in that order ... but there are days). Transforming copious amounts of tea into words, she is an Avon Impulse author of works including: Tempting Mr. Weatherstone, The Wallflower Wedding Series, The Rakes of Fallow Hall Series, The Duke's Christmas Wish, and the Season's Original Series. For more on her upcoming novels, visit her at www.vivlorret.net}

The Mystery of Magic

The Mystery of Magic - Rosalie Redd

What is magic? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary magic is:

a)              The use of means (as charms or spells) believed to have supernatural power over natural forces

b)             An extraordinary power or influence seemingly from a supernatural source

c)              The art of producing illusions by sleight of hand

Magic inspires wonder, curiosity, and fascination with possibilities of life filled with something more, something magical. From man’s early days, the allure of supernatural powers has captured our imaginations. Every culture and civilization throughout history has stories and beliefs grounded in magic.

What draws us to the allure of the supernatural? What captures our imagination, makes us want to comprehend what we don’t understand? Our inquisitive nature as humans drives us to identify solutions to problems, think about how the world works, and our role in it. Magic gives us hope, faith, a belief that maybe there’s more than what we can see, hear, smell, touch, or taste.

Stories involving magic offer a glimpse into a particular culture’s views and customs. Over the centuries, the desire and need for these tales hasn’t abated. Books on the subject of magic abound online and on the shelves of brick and mortar chain stores. Some places even specialize in occult, new age, or alternative magic.

Even today, many fiction books include the use of magic. Specific genres such as science fiction, dystopian, fantasy, and paranormal all have an element of the supernatural. From mysterious and alien planets to time travel to otherworldly beings, the strange, weird and different call to us on a subconscious level. I believe we are drawn to mythical stories to escape and to understand a piece of ourselves as well as our world.

What do you think? Do you like magic? If so, why?

 

Author Bio

After finishing a rewarding career in finance and accounting, it was time for Rosalie Redd to put away the spreadsheets and take out the word processor. She writes Paranormal/Science Fiction Romance inspired by classics from the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres layered with a good, hot dose of romance.

She currently lives in Oregon, where rain is just another excuse to keep writing. When not at her computer, you can find her at Jazzercise, waterfall collecting in the Pacific Northwest, or relaxing with her husband and their pesky cat, Snookums.

Rosalie Redd

Discover Otherworldly love…

www.rosalieredd.com