Maggie Wells-Margaret Ethridge
Love Without Limits
I’m ill. The dog ate my homework. There was flood. Fire. Famine.
Only one of the above is true. I’ll leave you to your conjecture.
I’ll also share this fabulous promo shot for Inamorata.
Come on. Tell me you don’t want to spend a little quality closet time with Frank DeLuca….
October in Arkansas means it’s State Fair time. We go each year as a family, and we always have a blast. This year we saw:
Bunnies!
And bears!
And weird women!
Oh my!
But the star of the show for the Ethridge family is always the delightful array of deep fried foods available for consumption:
For me, the biggest hit was the deep fried pecan pie. Even better than a funnel cake. Yum!
Do you have an annual outing with your family?
What tops your hit parade for deep fried goodness?
Come on, dish!
After eleven years of marriage, I finally I have a room of my own! Okay, so I’m not allowed to sleep up here, but I can concoct naughty stories to my heart’s content. It’s still a work in progress, but here’s where I’m at today. I’ll post updated pics as I get things arranged more to my liking.
In the meantime, I’m on the road for the day job this week. Do me a favor? Tell a friend (or seventeen) about one (or five) of my books?
Thanks. I knew I could count on you! See you next week!
The Diamond State Romance Authors and friends have contributed their time and talents to compiling two collections of short stories geared to benefit the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Northwest Arkansas. Turpentine Creek was one of the first big cat refuges in the country.
Many of their residents come to the refuge through owners and black market dealers who find they can no longer handle their exotic pets. The Jackson family has dedicated their lives to caring for these magnificent creatures, and in turn, we are dedicated to supporting their efforts.
Wild at Heart Volumes I and II are available now. (Pssst! My story is Young Adult and found in Volume II) All proceeds from the sale of these collections go directly to Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge. The next time you are prowling for something to read, please consider downloading them. Thank you!
Stories Included in this volume are:
Spirit of the Tiger by Elle James
Archer Falls by Lauren Smith
A Boy, A Girl, A Tiger by Cynthia D’Alba
The Wedding Crasher by Lindy Dierks
Beached by Dustin Stevens
Sunlight and Solace by Gina Wilkins
Saving Angel by Lynda Frazier
Buck by M. Marie
True Instinct by Vanessa North
Storm Haven by Charlene Roberts
Saving Akira by Candace Sams
Stories in this collection include:
Freedom by Connie Wilkins
Teens Gone Wild by Margaret Ethridge
Home by Midnight by Brinda Berry
Cats Rule by Aileen Fish
Refugee by Lori Freeland
The Girl and the Puma by Jayne Grey
Heart’s Solace by Tara Fox Hall
Vision Quest by Karis Walsh
The Bully in the Piney Woods by Delilah Devlin
Fierce Wild by Megan Mitcham
Salvaje by Anna Meadows
You remember the old saying about the cobbler’s children having no shoes? Well….
I was so busy writng blog posts and answering interview questions that I forgot to write a post for my own blog. How nutty is that?
All is well. I’m crazy busy, both with the day job and the writing. I’ll be traveling quite a bit in coming months. Also trying to meet some deadlines. I plan to take a deep breath somewhere around April.
I think.
Want to know where you can find me this month? Look for me here:
Thursday, October 4, 2012 Everybody Needs A Little Romance >> I’m a regular now! Visit me there the first Thursday of each month!
Friday, October 5, 2012 Diamond State Romance Authors Blog >> I post the first Friday of every month!
Thursday, October 18, 2012 Karen Stivali’s Blog >> Guest posting! Stop by to score my recipe for Chicken Chili!
Tuesday, October 30, 2012 Sharon Buchbinder’s Blog >> Interview and thoughts about my latest ghostly read, Inamorata!
Oh! And if you like your reading a bit on the steamy side, don’t forget to check out my very close personal friend, Maggie Wells. She has a new short story out this month, a series of sizzling hot novellas coming in 2013, and a slew of smokin’ hot short stories on the horizon. You can get a taste of the delicious things to come by scrolling through her Six Sentence Sunday tidbits!
So….yeah. Other than that, I’ll be around.
I’m here. I’m always here.
Even if I’m not wearing shoes.
Today is the first day of school for most of the kids in my area. It’s also the first first-day we don’t have one heading off to school. Aside from the weird feeling that we’re forgetting something, this non-first-day is hitting us where it hurts – in the supply drawer.
No one ever thinks about the toll this milestone takes on a parent. For the first time in our married lives, my husband and I may not have a glue stick on hand. There’s not on single sheet of lined notebook paper to be had, or a spare spiral laying around. All we have are a few torn-open packages of pens. You know, the cheap ones that even the kids refused to use.
I went to see Duran Duran in concert this past weekend (awesome!). Copule that experience with the fact that nearly every store aisle is lined with Trapper Keepers and the nostalgia is nearly overwhelming. I remember the hours I spent drawing the D/fallingD emblem on every notebook, folder, and bookcover I had. I’m pretty sure I signed some of that artwork as ‘Mrs. Nigel John Taylor’ too.
I love supplies. I was the parent with the list and the cart and the hungry gleam in her eye. And yes, I stooped low enough to use school supply shopping as a beard for my Post-It note jones. Okay, I confess. The kids never had them on their lists, but they came in such pretty colors….
*deep breath*
Now I have no Post-Its either, and I’m afraid I can’t go on like this. I’m going to have to head for the nearest Office Depot.
Is it just me? Does anyone else yearn for pencil cap erasers? Is there anything better than a dual-prong folder that has yet to be doodled upon? Do you still get a little misty-eyed when you think back to your first ziplock-closure pencil bag? It’s okay. You can tell me. It’s not like I have anything to write it on, and even if I did, these stupid cheap pens never work….
I’m late… Gee, I hope I’m not pregnant….
Kidding! Seriously, honey, it was a joke. Drop the defibrilator.
I was feeling a tad under the weather yesterday. By ‘a tad’ I mean I felt like poopy. Still kind of do, but better than yesterday, so onward I trudge!
Spent the weekend in a hot house. Our ancient a/c unit died and now Fodder and I are selling organs and limbs on the black market to figure out how to pay for a new system. Seems like these things pile up, don’t they? We knew this day would come, but since there’s never a good time to tackle these projects, we put them off and put them off.
‘Add it to the list’ is a well-worn phrase in our household. How about yours?
I thought I’d share some of the things that have been on our list for the past…oh, ten years, give or take. Then you can share some of yours and maybe I’ll feel a little better knowing we’re not alone. If you don’t have a list, do me a favor and make one up. Okay? Thanks.
1) Replace heat and air system.
2) Scrap non-insulated, non-weather-resistant windows with some without condensation trapped within the panes.
3) Tear out hideous master bath with pink ceramic tile and gold carpet flooring.
4) Swap out faux-butcher-block countertops for something that doesn’t scream 1988.
5) Rip ancient, stained gold-toned carpet throughout the house.
Yeah, so… One down….
On a happier note, be sure to visit my GoodReads page starting tomorrow (8/15/12) to register to win a print copy of Inamorata!
Giveaway ends September 15, 2012.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
Been crazy busy lately. That’s no excuse for neglecting you, but it’s the only reason I have. I would have asked my mom to write me a note, but then she would want to be privy to the secrets I plan to expose. I guess I’ll just have to forge one. Not that I ever did that… Or mastered her signature….
Ahem. Sorry. Here we go…
Please excuse Margaret’s absence from her blog she has been:
1) Taking up three spaces on the TMP Bestseller list for 8/5/12! Okay, so you may only see two titles with my name on them.
*cough* Don’t tell my mother. *cough*
You’ll have to use your super-detective skills to figure out the third one. For those of you who know my naughty alter-ego…shh!
2) Her inner vixen has busted loose and taken over the works! Almost all of the stories I’ve written so far will be published under that other name, but there are a few Margaret works in the pipeline. I have two of six new Jack and Ellie stories completed for 2013’s Long Distance Love collection written, and the plot bunnies for Containment—the third piece in the Contentment/Commitment trilogy—are running rampant in my head. NaNoWriMo is coming up in a couple of months, so I’m trying to get other things out of the way so I can focus my thirty days and nights of literary abandon on Containment.
3) But with her Evil Twin in control, some big things have been happening. Wow things. Check it out!
› Her story, Portrait of Passion, was chosen to be a part of TMPs Passionate Exhibitions anthology coming in October 2012!
› She has a new series of steaming hot novellas coming soon. Very soon! Turquoise Morning Press will begin releasing the Hot Nights in St. Blaise series in late 2012-2013. These sexy stories all center on the men and women of St. Blaise, Missouri, a blip-on-the-map town where the release of the hospital’s new fundraising calendar sets the nights aflame.
› There may be a sexy fireman short story under submission for a Cleis Press anthology.
› And last, but certainly a big squee, a contract is coming from another publisher for SIX short stories to be included in the Love Letters Anthologies! This is a project she has been working on with fellow erotic romance authors Ginny Glass, Emily Cale, and Christina Thacher.
Whew. Have you figured out who she is yet? Want a hint? Her name may or may not be pretty derivative of my own. Take a look at the TMP Top 15 again. I’ll wait here.
4) Okay, enough about me… or her… us. Whatever. Let’s talk about other things. Did you see that my friend, Evelyn Jules’ first short story released? Blind Faith is now available all over the place. If you want a quick shot of smuff (fluffy smut, for those who aren’t in the know) do not miss this sexy read!
5) Oh! And I’m going to be a grandma. Yes, you are right. I am too young and hot to be a grandma, but what are you going to do? These kids… Squeeeeee!
Okay, that’s all the news that’s fit to line the bunny cage. How about you? Any big things, wow things going on in your life? Little things that just make you smile are just as good. It’s your turn to share!
Psst. My buddy, Jennifer Johnson, is here today, and I believe she’s been spending too much time staring into her belly button. Be nice. Nod, smile, back away from the crazy lady, and be sure to leave a comment so she won’t come after you.
****
Words.
I have a love hate relationship with words. Words are a lot like the tasty morsel in the Kong toy. Me? I’m the dog who spends fourteen hours trying to manipulate that morsel out of the tortuous plastic device. People who know me well, and even not so well, except for my transparent intolerance for sloppy word use on Facebook realize nothing sets me off more than the taunt with an overused or misused word or phrase.
Some of these may include but are certainly not limited to: literally, uber, nemesis, opaque, or random.
So, I guess word misuse is my torment. My pleasure is the rich hues found in the definition of a word. I like to Google words my eighth grade teacher taught me to see what images I find. This is probably my best friend’s fault because she had this running joke about someone’s picture being in the dictionary next to [place your favorite insulting adjective here]. It only took me a couple of times looking up ‘gullible’ or ‘idiotic’ before I figured out what she was doing.
But I digress.
I’m amazed at the variety the Internet ascribes to any particular word. Take for instance,
Kerfluffle. It’s such a happy word. Somewhat whimsical in its triple *f* composition, and the hint of one definition by its first syllable which is then turned on its ear by the last two syllables. Can anyone be depressed when pronouncing it? Can anyone’s paradigm not be shifted by the orderliness of its disorderly definition?
And yet what a plethora of pictures appear with the search engine.
Such as:
or
Or
That guy made a great Ming, did he not? I wasn’t too enamored with Flash, but this guy rocked in a creepy evil villain sort of way.
And he’s who Google says looks like *kerfluffle*. Ming and pie and some chicks in a bedroom Man, you gotta love the Internet in its ability to search and assign meaning to anything because somebody blogged about it and found a pretty or provocative picture.
And there were many other pictures as well. Kentucky Fried Chicken. Beans. Badger. Paddle, and of course the requisite cute cat picture with the misspelled words. I mean, honestly, haven’t we beaten the dead horse enough with this cheezburger cat nonsense? What is wrong with people?
What does it mean anyway? And that whole texting the dog thing. It’s funny and all, but dogs have paws. They couldn’t possibly manipulate a phone to send texts.
My dog has no sense of anything except his enjoyment in eating, peeing, and sniffing. That’s his life. My kids try to make him look at pictures in books, watch TV, and even listen to me over the telephone when I was gone recently on a business trip. The dog doesn’t enjoy any of these things. He runs away from the children when they walk in the room. Though he’s a pretty good dog as far as dogs go, he has bitten them on more than one occasion because he’s tired of all the crap they put him through. In fact, tonight each kid had part of the dog in their hands pulling him like he was a slinky as they argued over whose bed he was going to sleep in.
It was, I believe, quite a kerfluffle.
****
Jennifer Johnson needs more time to navel gaze. She writes contemporary romance and has written five full length novels with three publishers. She has also had short stories published in four anthologies from Turquoise Morning Press. Her book, Rescuing Riley, the sequel to Rescue Me, will be released in October of this year from Turquoise Morning.
Find out more about her at
Website: http://booksbyjenniferjohnson.com
Blog: http://jennfrancesca.blogspot.com/
Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002BMJ58I
I’m off to Dallas on business today. Just a quick trip there and back in one day. I’ll be traveling more for my day job in the coming months, so I’m trying to adjust to the idea. People may not know this about me, but I’m actually a bit of a hermit. I like being home. I love my bed. I spend hours of quality time in my chair each night. I’m also a little fond of that guy who lives here with me.
It’s not that I hate travel. I used to love it. I still would if airline travel wasn’t such a ginormous pain anymore. I’m just too restless to deal with the hurry-up-and-wait aspect of it all. That, and I find that as security measures tighten, people tend to play fast and loose with the old manners.
My problem is, I’m not one who enjoys the journey. As I’ve mentioned before, I am terribly goal oriented. I want to be where I’m going and then when I’m done there, I want to be home right away. Oh, and I don’t have a whole lot of patience with flight times over 3 hours, either. Being a mid-westerner, that means I’m screwed if I want to go beyond U.S. borders.
I know that short of developing Genie skills or the sudden availability of transporters, I am going to have to learn to suck it up and learn to kill some time. It isn’t that I don’t have toys to play with. Tomorrow, I will be hauling a laptop, a Kindle Fire, and an iPod Touch with me. And I will still be tapping my foot and checking the clock.
How about you? Do you like to fly the barely civil skies? How far would you stray? What’s your favorite part of being away? The best bit about coming home?