Maeve Greyson's Blog, page 19

Follow the link below for posts about the many ways animals save us.
Animals always know. All we must do is listen...
I'm so grateful for the animals in my life. I'd be lost without them. Maeve Greyson

Magic surrounds us. All we must do is open our hearts to receive it. My daughter has a keen eye for just such magic. I hope you enjoy these pictures she took one evening at her home.

What modern day convenience or necessity would you miss most if you suddenly found yourself plopped smack dab in the middle of the past? I’m talking way back. Like over six hundred years ago?
I’m not sure what I’d miss the most. Probably toothpaste and my electric toothbrush. I’m a bit OCD when it comes to smooth, clean teeth and replacing the stale after-taste of my last meal with minty fresh breath.
What about you? What would you miss the most? Read on to find out Trish’s picks.
~Trish Sullivan from A HIGHLANDER IN HER PAST:
Deodorant. Tampons. Toothpaste. Steaming hot showers. Grape soda. And ice cream. What she wouldn’t give for a humongous bowl of tongue-tingling butter pecan ice cream. Which item did she miss the most from the future? Hard to say. Probably a three-way tie between tampons, the shower, and ice cream. Leaning forward on the window ledge, she gave herself to the velvety blackness of the starless sky. She caught her breath, a sudden feeling of claustrophobia wrapped around her and squeezed. The black of the night reached out like an endless, suffocating blanket. Strange how dark the night seemed when there wasn’t any sort of manmade lighting piercing through its folds.
Sometimes even soul mates need a push in the right direction, especially when that direction crosses centuries.
How bad could one little spell be?
Trish Sullivan, archeologist and favorite aunt to the MacKay children never thought she'd regret those words until Ramsay, eldest MacKay lad hurls them back to the 1400's with a botched transportation spell. Now she and Ramsay must find a way back before accidently altering the past and unknowingly changing the future. That is, if Trish can survive the first trip across time without losing her life...or her heart.
What harm could come from a little soul-binding?
Proving his Highland honor alive and well, Maxwell Sullivan agrees to bind his soul to Trish's in order to save her life. But Highland honor isn't much help when Maxwell loses his heart to the sassy woman headed back to the future.
Amazon Buy Link

I was thinking about our trip to Scotland. *sigh* I guess you could say I'm homesick for the Highlands. So, I uploaded a new photo album on my Facebook profile entitled "Let's Return to Scotland".  You might have seen these pictures before. But then again, maybe not. Here's the link and a wee taste of the view if you'd like to wander through my memories over on Facebook. Maeve Greyson Facebook Profile  

A Highlander in Her Past is FREE for a limited time!!
Yep. You heard right. Click on the link below the cover to head on over to Amazon and download your free copy today! Amazon Download Link

Sometimes even soul mates need a push in the right direction, especially when that direction crosses centuries. How bad could one little spell be? Trish Sullivan, archeologist and favorite aunt to the MacKay children never thought she'd regret those words until Ramsay, eldest MacKay lad hurls them back to the 1400's with a botched transportation spell. Now she and Ramsay must find a way back before accidently altering the past and unknowingly changing the future. That is, if Trish can survive the first trip across time without losing her life...or her heart. What harm could come from a little soul-binding? Proving his Highland honor alive and well, Maxwell Sullivan agrees to bind his soul to Trish's in order to save her life. But Highland honor isn't much help when Maxwell loses his heart to the sassy woman headed back to the future.
And that's not the only deal I've got for you!
The Highlander's Fury is ON SALE FOR .99 CENTS (Regular Price is $4.99)! Find it at these retailers:Amazon Link Barnes & Noble Link ARe Link
Bookstrand Link
The Highlander's Fury from The Wild Rose Press - A satisfying blend of saucy sensuality and heartrending sincerity. RT Book Reviews, 4 StarsAs the immortal Fury of Vengeance, Ciara thinks herself immune to that strange human weakness known as love.
Chieftain Faolan MacKay thinks life will finally be bearable once he’s banned the practicing of magic from his clan, selected a wife to ignore, and finally silenced his advisors.
Turns out they’re both wrong. The ultimate powers have other plans for this stubborn pair.
Hurry and take advantage of this sale while it lasts and don't forget to share this opportunity with anyone who might enjoy these reads!!

I'm so grateful that I live deep in the woods. Enjoy a few pictures of the beauty that greeted me this morning.  
      
          

I couldn't resist sharing some pictures of my family's annual cookie and craft day. Sharing a day of love, laughter and a few mishaps is the best Christmas present I get every year. May you all be as blessed as I am.  Ah come on. Don't leave. We'll let you play too! Of course we're being NICE! They assigned me the green dough.  They didn't tell me I'd be stained green  until it wore off. I'm not stupid. I know about green food coloring. Ok. It's loaded. Is the safety off? Look. All you do is click it like this. No. That's not how it works. Here. Let me do it. I've got this. Watch! There. I fixed it again. Now, watch this! I don't think anything is coming out. It's easier to use a cookie cutter, Mom. We'll let mom fool with the cookie shooter. We'll do ours this way. Hmm...now which one do I want to decorate? Ok. I've got all the ribbon and glue ready. Are y'all gonna make some ornaments or not? Mine is gonna be great. Sometimes you have to approach these crafts at just the right angle. The Master Dragon Goddess at work. Her creation. Sir Christmasticus Hollymund Joyten

May you all enjoy good health, bubbling laughter and the joy of being loved!!

Don't bury me 'neath
The cold dark ground
Imprisoned in a box.
Release me with
A roaring blaze.
Burn through my earthly locks.
Then climb atop
The highest cliff.
Turn and face the sea.
Close your eyes.
Feel the kiss of the wind.
Know that it is me. 
Stories come to me in bits of dialogue. My hero sensed his fate and scribbled this last request to the one he held dear. But if my hero dies, the story ends. Or does it? Maybe death is just the beginning…

  Please join me in welcoming the very talented Andrea Downing. She’s discussing a very powerful subject.


THE POWER OF WORDS
I just returned home from two conferences, back to back, where I finally met a great many fellow authors with whom I had only previously corresponded.  In some cases, they had been nothing more than the words in an email, since looking at every author's FB page or web site proved too time consuming. Yet friendships had been made via the power of 
; unlike potential lovers, it never proved necessary to see a person's appearance in order to like them (not in the Facebook sense!) and want to continue corresponding with them.  Big, small, dark, light, no matter the size of their nose or ears, if a friendship had been made via the correspondence, it continued in person with a connection that could not be broken.  We know that words are powerful.  We know that words have swayed voters, manipulated nations and seduced the opposite sex or reduced them to tears. So why shouldn't words make good old-fashioned friendships that last?
Yet language is not an easy art to learn.  On the news tonight, there was a feature about a seven-year-old musical prodigy who rivals Mozart.  After listening to the interview I realized that we often hear of child geniuses who excel in music or paint like Da Vinci yet never do we hear—to my knowledge—of a child who writes like Shakespeare or is, at some tender age, the next Dickens, Austen or Twain.  My own daughter spat out, "Thank you Mommy and Daddy for the delicious Chinese meal" at the ripe old age of two yet never went on at five to write anything that rivaled a Bronte.  So what is it about the art of language that takes years to master?
Experience is the attribute that comes to mind.  Vocabulary is nothing more than learning the notes and their permutations but experience teaches us how to charm or how to hurt, how to dispute and argue, how to persuade or convert, how to lie, deny and invent.  Ah:  invent!  Experience goes hand in hand with IMAGINATION.

The experience of studying, learning, reading and life itself feeds our imagination so that we eventually can tell stories and write.  And whether it's an email that is telling some person whom you've never met the minutiae of your day in humorous detail, or laying out for the unknown reader the glories of an historical figure or a make-believe character, language and writing remain our main connection to each other.  Yes, even in this digital cyber age, we are still connecting via language.
While John Lennon once said, “When you're drowning you don't think, I would be incredibly pleased if someone would notice I'm drowning and come and rescue me. You just scream,”  I’d like to think that the man who wrote ‘Imagine’ and ‘Give Peace a Chance’ was highly aware of the power of words.  While his scream might be a reaction, it would be words that expressed what he felt about the possibility of drowning. Just as I felt the connection with my fellow authors whom I had never met, but it was words that finally connected us. 

Loveland
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: He watched as she sat on a stool and pulled first one boot, then the other off and kicked them aside, then she stood and put her leg on the stool to roll down her stockings one by one.
He marveled at her wantonness, her lack of propriety. “Alex, stop,” he said, laying his hand on hers. “Stop. You know…”
But he was lost; she took his face in her hands and pulled him to her, kissing him so any resistance he had had was now shattered. His heart was beating faster at the sweetness of her mouth, the softness of her tongue, the lack of air as they sought each other. His hands moved over her feeling the outline of her body, knowing its curves, its gentleness, its yielding. “Are you sure?” he asked at last.
“I want you so much, Jesse, I want you so much, I’m not waiting three years. And if…if anything happens, so what? We’ll get married, that’ll be it.”
“Yes, but Alex, you can’t…I mean it’d be a shotgun wedding, it’s not how—”
“Shh.” She put her finger to his mouth and then turned for him to unhook her gown. He ran his hands gently down her exposed back, feeling each scar, then kissed her neck.
“You have nothing on under...”
“It’s how the gown is made. Monsieur Worth builds the undergarments into the gown.” Her voice was at barely a whisper, a tremor showing her nerves. She turned and still held the gown up to her, then, looking at Jesse, let it drop to the floor.
Andrea Downing emigrated to the UK from New York in order to do her Masters Degree.  She ended up marrying, raising a beautiful daughter and staying for longer than she cares to admit.  Teaching, editing a poetry magazine and a short stint in Nigeria filled those years until in 2008 she returned to NYC.  She now divides her time between the city and the shore and often trades the canyons of New York for the open spaces of the west—and writes incessantly.
Discover more about Andrea here:Website: http://andreadowning.com 
Buy Links:Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Loveland-Andrea-Downing/dp/1612173233/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1351207900&sr=8-2&keywords=Loveland The Wild Rose Press: http://www.thewildrosepress.com/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=991&zenid=9fe97cb6910525d484db39eb204cdebf

Halloween is creeping up on us. So beware. The Halloween holiday is a perfect time to celebrate my latest release, “Dead Mix.” My writing does not usually trend toward the dark side. In fact, I’ve had three short stories about angels (A Choir of Angels, Follow an Angel and The Stand-in Bridegroom) published by TWB Press http://www.twbpress.com/achoirofangels.htmland my publisher calls me the Angel Whisperer. He even created a special Angel Whisperer video for me, which you can view on his site. So what’s happened? Am I disillusioned? Depressed? Focused on death? Not really. A little devilishness has surfaced from my subconscious. And I kind of like it. Spooky…


In my new e-short story, Dead Mix, http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Mix-ebook/dp/B008P4LFI4, the devil goes down to Georgia. Roswell, Georgia, and more specifically, The Lion’s Den music store. Enter at your own risk. The proprietor there, Devlin Burns, specializes in mixing music to die for...on CDs that are guaranteed to knock you dead by the final note. As the citizens of Roswell go missing, one man, Daniel Craig, ventures into town on the hunt for lost souls, a search that will change his life, forever.
In romance, a HEA ending is required and Dead Mix is no exception. The hero and heroine do get their happy ending. I wouldn’t have it any other way. But the road to (well you know) is not paved with good intentions and the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know. By that I mean you don’t really know who you’re dealing with in Dead Mix, a higher power or a bottom feeder. But don’t worry. Dead Mix has my trademark humor, surprise ending, and yes, a happy ending, after all.  I hope you’ll give Dead Mix a spin.
On a recent trip to Colorado, I was definitely in devil-mode, staying up all night, dreaming up my next short story, “The Files That Death Forgot,” which has not yet been published. I already have an angel trilogy—and bad things come in threes—so I feel sure I will complete my Angels & Demons cycle with a third dark short story.
In “Under the Moon Gate,” my latest novel, a romantic thriller set in modern day and WW II Bermuda, which will be released from The Wild Rose Press in spring of 2013, one of my central characters wrestles with his very dark side and has to decide if he’ll give up his mission for love.
What about you? Does your dark side come out when you write?  Or only when the moon is full?
Georgia Author Marilyn Baron, a public relations consultant in Atlanta, writes humorous women’s fiction, humorous paranormal short stories and romantic suspense. Marilyn’s short stories “A Choir of Angels,” “Follow an Angel,” “The Stand-in Bridegroom,” and “Dead Mix,” can be found at TWB Press at http://www.twbpress.com/deadmix.html.
Her women’s fiction, The Edger, coauthored with her sister, Sharon Goldman, is available at http://www.amazon.com/The-Edger-ebook/dp/B006Y3P12Y. Barnes & Noble and Smashwords links at http://www.petitfoursandhottamales.com/marilyn-baron/. RT Book Reviews gave The Edger a 4/12-star rating in their September 2012 issue.  The Edger also received first place in the Suspense Romance category of the 2010 Ignite the Flame Contest, sponsored by the Central Ohio Fiction Writers chapter of Romance Writers of America. Her next book, “Under the Moon Gate,” a romantic thriller set in contemporary and WW II Bermuda, will be released from The Wild Rose Press in spring 2013.
Find her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Marilyn-Baron/286807714666748and follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MarilynBaron.
She blogs at Petit Fours and Hot Tamales at www.petitfoursandhottamales.com.
Her novel Sixth Sense finaled in the Georgia Romance Writers 2012 Unpublished Maggie Award for Excellence in the Paranormal/Fantasy Romance category. Marilyn is a member of Georgia Romance Writers, Romance Writers of America and Marketing For Romance Writers.