There's Magic in a Kiss!

Close your eyes and imagine the perfect kiss. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Got the picture set in your mind? Good. Believe it or not a kiss requires 34 facial muscles and 112 postural muscles. The facial muscles are a given but postural? I’m serious. 112 muscles that relate to your posture are also involved. Of all these 11 muscles the most important is the orbicularis oris muscle, which is used to pucker your very sensitive lips. It’s your kissing muscle. We’re not talking about French kissing where your tongue, also a muscle, is the primary player. I’ll save that for another blog.

Kissing has many health benefits. Affection in general has stress-reducing effects. Kissing in particular reduces stress which increases relationship satisfaction and lowers cholesterol. And it doesn’t stop there. Kissing can also encourage the release epinephrine and norepinephrine (adrenaline and noradrenaline) into the blood which will cause an adrenaline rush and increased cardiovascular activity. That’s why when you kiss that certain someone your heart races off. See, it’s magic.

There are also a lot of different types of kisses: 

• Romantic Kisses are an important expression of love and erotic emotions. This kiss is not only about lips touching lips. This kiss requires some intimacy.
• Affectionate Kisses express feelings closeness without the erotic element and symbolize loyalty, gratitude, compassion, sympathy, intense joy, and profound sorrow. 
• Ritual Kisses are formal, symbolic or indicate devotion, and respect. We see this type of kiss in the wedding ceremony when the bride and groom kiss. We also see this type of kiss when national leaders meet. 
• Kiss of Peace demonstrates deep spiritual devotion. It was used in the early Catholic Church and also in secular festivities. In the Middle Ages the kiss of peace sealed the agreement with enemies. Even knights kissed each other before they went into combat-a way of forgiving each other all their wrongs.   
• Kiss of Respect was reverent and has an ancient origin. This kiss represents a mark of fealty, humility and reverence. The kiss on the forehead considered a ‘kiss of homage’ showed utmost respect. 
• Kiss of Friendship is used in America and Europe as a greeting between friends. Once only between women, today it is not uncommon to see a man kiss in greeting.

Ancient cultures threw kisses to the sun and to the moon, as well as to the images of the gods. Persians were the first to kiss the hand. Here are some different kinds of kisses from various cultures. 

• In Ancient Rome and some modern Pagan beliefs, worshipers, when passing the statue or image of a god or goddess, will kiss their hand and wave it towards the deity. 
• The holy kiss or kiss of peace is a traditional part of most Christian liturgies, though often replaced with an embrace or handshake today in Western cultures. 
• In the gospels of Matthew and Mark, not Luke or John, Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss. This is the basis of the term "the kiss of Judas". 
• Catholics will kiss rosary beads as a part of prayer, or kiss their hand after making the sign of the cross. It is also common to kiss the wounds on a crucifix, or any other image of Christ's Passion. 
• Pope John Paul II would kiss the ground on arrival in a new country. 
• Visitors to the Pope traditionally kiss his foot. 
• Catholics traditionally kiss the ring of a cardinal or bishop.
• Catholics traditionally kiss the hand of a priest. 
• Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Christians often kiss the icons around the church on entering; they will also kiss the cross and/or the priest's hand in certain other customs in the Church, such as confession or receiving a blessing. 
• Hindus sometimes kiss the floor of a temple.
• Local lore in Ireland suggests that kissing the Blarney Stone will bring the gift of the gab.
• Jews will kiss the Western wall of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, and other religious articles during prayer such as the Torah, usually by touching their hand, prayer shawl, or prayer book to the Torah and then kissing it. Jewish law prohibits kissing members of the opposite sex, except for spouses and certain close relatives. 
• Muslims may kiss the Black Stone during Hajj-their pilgrimage to Mecca. 

This is all very nice but dare you tell me what type of kiss you really like best?

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm so excited. My story, Never Say Never releases today and is currently discounted until the end of the week.

Back Cover Copy:

Pam Dawes has always done what was expected by her high-society parents and friends. Look where that got her. Husband number two is quickly becoming a bad memory. She’s through with men. Never again.

Mikhail Ivanovich Stephanov, doesn’t care what happens to himself—revenge for his family is all that matters.

When a freak storm brings down communications, Pam’s the only one who can help the mysterious Russian who washes up on her dock. Sparks reignite when they realize they’d met years ago. Mik’s more than willing to put his vendetta aside, until Pam becomes the target of the Russian thugs that have infiltrated Havenport’s coast. He’d die to keep her safe.

They’d both sworn to never love again. Will they learn to never say never?

Buy Links:

Amazon: http://a.co/aBmCO7J

BN: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/never-say-never-ruth-a-casie/1127905869?ean=2940158609718

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/never-say-never-60

iBooks: 
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/never-say-never/id1342253452?mt=11

Here Be News

New Releases

Elf on the Beach

Roone Sorley is an elf on a mission. He has one year to live in the mortal world and experience everything it has to offer before deciding if he is going to return to the North Pole and immortality or stay and become human. Christmas in Australia is all sun, sand, and surf. For Kyle Morgan, that means lots of tourists wanting to learn how to surf, but he hates Christmas. This time of year always reminds him about the family he doesn’t have.

With the clock ticking and only days left, Roone plans on making the most of the heat and the beach and his hot surfing instructor. Beyond that he has no idea what he wants. However with a little magic, he might be able to give Kyle exactly what he needs.

Buy links:
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Terror Mansion Excerpt New Rebecca York Decorah Security Novella

Our new HERE BE MAGIC boxed set was released this week! Only 99 cents for eight special tales of magic. Here's an excerpt from New York Times and USA Today Best Seller Rebecca York's new novella Terror Mansion.

The story: His psychic abilities can save her life--if she will only trust him.

This wasn’t Wyatt Granger’s routine nightmare. Usually he had a clear vision of some unfortunate future event that he might or might not be able to alter.

Instead he saw a confusing swirl of murky images with shadowy figures appearing and disappearing, mostly at an old building near the dock in a seaside town. More confounding were the scenes in what looked like a house of horrors, filled with distorted mirrors, a laughing but menacing clown and places where the floor dropped out from under your feet, sending you to the depths of hell.

But always at the center of the whirlwind was a beautiful young woman with terror in her wide-set blue eyes and her blond hair in a tangle around her heart-shaped face.

When his own eyes blinked open, he lay with his heart pounding, fighting his way back to reality. But the here and now kept slithering away. What he saw instead was the woman’s face floating in his mind, the most indelible image from the nightmare.

“Who are you?” he whispered as he sat up and thrust aside the tangled bedsheets.

Although she wasn’t there to respond, he had no doubt that he was going to meet her soon, and the encounter was going to change his life.

A dramatic way to put it? Maybe, but he knew to the marrow of his bones that the dream had been about his own future—even when his prescient nightmares had never been personal before.

“Crap,” he whispered under his breath. He stood up, pressed his feet against the cold floor and walked naked to the window of his condo, where he stood clenching and unclenching his fists as he looked toward the glimmer of dawn on the horizon.

He ached to shake off the vivid confusion of the dream.

But instead of the bare tree trunks outside, he saw the woman’s face, pale and intense and beautiful.

“Who are you?” he asked again, but he heard only the throbbing of the blood in his veins.

He might not know her name, but he had to find her. He could have fought the feeling of urgency that threatened to choke off his breath, but the truth of the dream was burned into his soul, even when he had no way to cope with it on a logical level. All he knew was that he had to go to her. And then he had to take her in his arms and protect her—even when he knew she was going to mount a savage denial that she needed his aid.

Urgency and frustration had him stomping down the hall. In the bathroom, he took a quick shower. In too much of a hurry to shave, he pulled on jeans, a tee shirt and a leather jacket. Logically there was no way to even know where he was going. But he felt a compulsion to drive east, as though a psychic beacon was pulling him in the right direction, heading toward the waterfront that had flickered in and out of the nightmare.

His destination solidified in his mind when he’d crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to the Eastern Shore of Maryland. There were lots of waterfront towns in this part of the state, but he took the turn to St. Stephens, which had been a thriving port in colonial times. Now pleasure craft bobbed gently in the small harbor, and Main Street was lined with tourist shops and restaurants.

A welter of emotions grabbed him by the throat as he parked in a lot in the heart of the downtown area and strode toward the dock. Yet some part of him still feared the dream had all been a lie.

Relief jolted through him when he saw the shambling gray building from the nightmare. The feeling was nothing compared to what he felt when his gaze fell on the woman standing outside the barn-like door.

Buy the "Here Be Magic" boxed set now at

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