Help Australia Relief Efforts by Reading

I've always wanted to fly. Or to be able to do magic, or at least some of the cool moves from the Matrix movies. I didn't really want to be a superhero (too much pressure), just maybe have the ability to do a little...more.

Who knew that as a writer—and a reader—I could do more by just writing a story, or buying a book. It turns out, you can too. When people bring all their amazing talents together, fabulous things can happen. 

A Little Help From My Friends

My publisher (The Wild Rose Press) has authors all over the world, including authors from Australia. So when Australian author, Stephen B. King reached out about help for recovery efforts with the worst wildfires Australia has seen in decades, people volunteered in droves:

• Over 40 authors offered stories
• Countless others planned to promote
• Editors, and cover artists stepped up
• The Wild Rose Press volunteered all the time and effort involved in creating a 3 book anthology

The Wild Fires of Australia 

If you're not familiar with what's happening in Australia, here's a snippet from someone who's there: 

"Recent rains have helped enormously, still there are fires, but not to the same extent as there were, and the focus now is more on recovery and rebuilding. To that end there are advertising campaigns now to stop what’s called the second wave disaster and that is people staying away from tourist areas and business who rely on travelers and visitors to survive. Most of our tourist destinations are unaffected, yet people think the whole country is gone, which of course isn’t true. The problem of course is that if people stop visiting, businesses will go broke, making the overall recovery much harder. With the rains, re-growth has already begun and some burnt out areas have grasses and shrubs recovering already.

Then of course there is the wildlife, and those organizations such as the RSPCA, and others are doing remarkable work rescuing animals and rehousing them. A lot of our native trees are Eucalyptus, and with millions of trees gone, Koalas only eat those leaves, so regrowth and resettlement is going on in huge numbers to save a cuddly species from extinctions in the wild. Kangaroos will bounce back, and in time, the feeling is most other animals will to, but the key words are – in time. In a lot of cases we hope the burnt trees themselves will regrow as they have evolved to grow after bushfires. I’m told with heavy rains in recent days some are showing green growth, which is encouraging."   – Wild Rose Press Author Stephen King

Preorder Book One of the Anthology Now

The Anthologies are grouped by genre— and my story, Detective Paws and Lip Gloss (a cozy mystery flash fiction story I was thrilled to find a home for) is in Book #1. 

Book #1: A collection of Short Stories in Mainstream Fiction,

Women’s Fiction, Thrillers, and Mystery

Order Book One Now from The Wild Rose Press

• A Solicitous Wife by Madeleine McDonald
• No One Knew by Larry Farmer
• Pinochle by Brenda Whiteside
• The Tuesday Night Meeting by Peggy Jaeger
• 911, What’s Your Emergency? by D. V. Stone
• Tall Tales by Laura Strickland
• Fare Gain by Alexandra Christle
• The Note by Stephen B. King
• Three Ghosts by Julie Howard
• Detective Paws and Lip Gloss by Maureen L. Bonatch
• The Ring by Margaret Ann Spence
• Portrait of a Gunfighter by Hywela Lyn
• Six Hours or So by Lisa Wilkes
• Prussic Acid by Melody DeBlois
• 
  

Blurb: Detective Paws and Lip Gloss by Maureen L. Bonatch

Catherine, with her basset hound, moves out of her father’s home, to prove she has what it takes to be a cop. 

But when two menacing women inadvertently share their killer secret, Catherine wonders if she can solve the mystery or end up being nothing more than a `Fraidy Cat.

Book #2 of the Anthology 

Book #2: A collection of Romance, Young Adult, and Women’s Fiction Short Stories

Order Book 2 Now From The Wild Rose Press

• Che Gelida Manina by M. S. Spencer
• Recipes for Love by Carol Henry
• Waiting for Caleb by Gini Rifkin
• Wings of Fire by Jana Richards
• A Lark by Gabbi Grey
• Apple Crisp by Terry Graham
• Goody Twoshoes by Mark Love
• The Number by Barbara Bettis
• Deadly Homecoming by Peggy Chambers
• An Egg-Cellent Witness by Marilyn Barr
• Season of Withered Corn by Judy Ann Davis
• Beneath the Pines by Debby Grahl
• Christopher Reisner by Linda Griffin
• Unexpected Love: Chase Allen by Anna Lores
• The Cowboy and the Lady by Jean Adams
• The Heart Necklace by Amanda Uhl
• The Relaxation Response by Darcy Lundeen
• Dancing Through Tears by Jeny Heckman

Book #3 Information Coming Soon

Like We Need a Reason to Read

Every single state in Australia is suffering major fires, many hopelessly out of control. Estimates of how many and how big vary, but one source says 17.9 million acres of Australia have burned in one of the country’s worst fire seasons on record. Another report says that well over one billion native animals and birds have lost their lives…one billion.

Please help and show Australia some love by purchasing one or more of these anthologies. ALL proceeds will be donated to organizations aiding the victims of this horrific event and assist those still battling the flames. Your generosity is greatly appreciated.

Order now at The Wild Rose Press.

I may not have the Matrix moves down yet, and maybe I never will, but I can live many lives, and explore new worlds many times over by reading.

P.S. You CAN order these books through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or other online book retailers, but this reduces the funds going to the Red Cross. 

Author Bio: Maureen Bonatch grew up in small town Pennsylvania and her love of the four seasons—hockey, biking, sweat pants and hibernation—keeps her there. While immersed in writing or reading paranormal romance and fantasy, she survives on caffeine, wine, music, and laughter. A feisty Shih Tzu keeps her in line. Find Maureen on her website, Facebook & Twitter Be the first to know about Maureen’s book sales and new releases by following her on BookBub, Amazon and/or signing up for her newsletter

LIFE IS WHAT HAPPENS when you’re making other plans...

Normally I’m a fairly organized person. Since early last week I’ve been doing my darndest to keep “all the things” in the air. By Friday, though, I hit a wall. I was trying to assemble a post about faery portals and the magical use of water in particular, and it just would NOT come together.

I think it's because I need to write about water of another sort... 

"It started in low ... then it started to grow!"

Earlier this month, an unusual storm floated in from the Pacific, and simply parked over eastern Washington. Days of continuous rain annoyed the humans and irritated the chickens, but it would go away eventually, right? Not exactly. The real problem turned out to be the warm temperatures. Usually while we were getting rain, the Blue Mountains west of us would be getting snow. They weren’t. It rained there too, and a whole lotta snow melted.

On February 7th, a little trickle of water appeared at the edge of our front yard. Within an hour, our house was an island as a full-fledged river poured into our property on three sides, and exited via the fourth. We were incredibly thankful for the little bit of elevation that allowed the fast-moving water to part just enough to go around the house without coming in … because it was very apparent that we weren’t going anywhere. The roads and bridges leading out of our neighborhood were closed in all directions. The levees that had been built up over the years to reliably contain spring runoff and other highwater events had been breached.

One of the entry points of the river was behind the coop!

The speed of the flood shocked us. Our chickens had been caught off guard as well. They didn’t make it back to their coop before it, too, was an island. The flock ended up camped on our back deck, where they complained loudly every time they caught a glimpse of us. I had no way of telling them that we couldn't fix it!

Hubs and I watched out the windows as strange things traveled rapidly through our property: broken bales of straw, tires, fluorescent highway cones, and even a fifty-gallon drum and some railroad ties. (Our two dogs bravely barked at every one of them through the glass!) We have a chain link fence surrounding the place, so how such sizable items were getting in was a mystery.

Despite our island status, there were lots of things to be thankful for. The house stayed dry. The power stayed on. We had a camp stove, fuel, lanterns, batteries, and an emergency radio, all things we’d learned to keep on hand when we lived in Alaska. We had groceries plus enough prescriptions etc. to last us several days. The hardest part was going to bed the first night of the flood, not knowing if the water would get even higher when we weren’t looking. Needless to say, we stayed up late, didn’t sleep much and kept getting up to check.

Finally the rain stopped. The water slowed. Brave selfless people worked to restore or sandbag the levees. I ventured outside and took a couple of videos of our property. They're on my Facebook page, and these are the links (fingers crossed they work!)

Our front yard: 
https://www.facebook.com/Dani.Harper.Author/videos/3010733385603692/ 

Our back yard:

https://www.facebook.com/Dani.Harper.Author/videos/3010725365604494/ 

The floodwaters receded faster than I expected. I wasn't expecting the alien landscape left behind. Everything is monotone brown due to a thick layer of mud. Swaths of gravel carried by the river now stand like glacial moraines. The rock from the side road that runs behind the chicken yard is now piled up under the chicken coop. Murky craters mark the places where the water hit the hardest. 

Meanwhile, every inch of chain link that the water passed through is now thickly woven with matted straw. In a few places, 2x4 boards are speared right through the fence, apparently for artistic effect. The ceramic gnome colony was decimated, with many individuals swept away to parts unknown. And I have a feeling that a lot of our perennial flowers will be coming up in very strange places this year…. 

Overall, though, WE'RE OKAY, and we're so very grateful for that. Save for the loss of one of our old white hens (R.I.P. Salty), our issues are largely cosmetic. It'll take us a long time to put everything to rights, but it's doable.

Eventually the waters began to recede...

BTW, we did finally learn the secret of how the extra-large debris “magically” passed through the chain link:  the river had simply chewed out the ground beneath the fencing and forcibly shoved the objects under! Some things remained piled up on our lawn. Others flowed into the front yard and left through the back yard, again forced underneath a fence to be left scattered over the properties behind us.

There’s even a soggy recliner sitting upright in the middle of a nearby field. That muddy chair reminds me every day to be thankful. We have neighbors a couple streets over who were not as fortunate as us, whose homes are full of water and mud, or pushed from their foundations. Some people in nearby communities had to be evacuated, others rescued from rooftops. It could so easily have been us.

It’s been said that every experience a writer has is material for a future story. So I’m sure the 2020 Flood will eventually turn up in one of my novels in some form or another. But the thing I want to write about most is not the disaster itself. 

Turns out the water wasn't nearly as powerful as sheer human resilience and compassion in action. Watching a community come together and spring into action to help others has been both a lesson and a privilege. Still, we were surprised when an army of volunteers came to OUR property today with shovels, equipment and gravel! The driveway had been left in muddy shambles, gouged and rearranged by the flood, but these wonderful strangers worked their magic to restore it. It restored our hearts too, in a world that has been far too divided of late.

These are things worth writing about.

:)  Sincerely, Dani Harper

YOUR TURN - I know that many of you have experienced floods, fires and other natural disasters, especially in recent years. How did you feel? How did you cope? What advice do you have for others?

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HERE BE NEWS for February 17, 2020

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Monday, February 10 - 
"HERE BE NEWS" - All the latest from the fantasy romance authors at Here Be Magic. Includes links to an interview on Amazing Stories, plus a 99-cent ebook sale.

Wednesday, February 12 -
“HAVENPORT RELEASE DAY BLITZ” -  Five authors released five new standalone books today, each set in Havenport, RI. “Heart of the Matter” by Ruth A. Casie is one of them. According to Ruth, this fictional town contains romance, suspense, time travel and secrets shared!

Thursday, February 13 -
WHEN IT'S TIME FOR "NETFLIX AND CHILL” – Sometimes watching a thriller or a fantasy can be a great source of creative inspiration as well as entertainment. Looking for suggestions? Author Deborah A Bailey shares her latest must-watch list on Here Be Magic.  

Friday, February 14 -
"FAVORITE MOVIES for VALENTINE'S DAY" - The authors at Here Be Magic have gotten together to share some of our favorite romantic movies. And we hope you'll tell us yours too!

RETURN TO NEVERWYLDE

The Rim of the World, Book 7

Sci-fi Romance
by Linda Mooney

Things have been quiet on Neverwylde, but everyone has been busy. With a new group of research scientists sent to spend the next six months on the planet, their goal is to learn and document as much as possible to classify the alien world as a 2A planet. But things never go as planned on this still wild and unknown galactic anomaly.

Dox has a one-track mind, but that’s normal for his kind. Being an isotope baby, he was specifically created to be highly intelligent, often found working on inventions, and rarely speaking beyond a couple words. But he’s also fiercely loyal and protective, as well as sweet and innocent, with zero experience when it comes to women. They never even crossed his mind, until now.

Xeno-archaeologist Dr. True Brown can’t wait to get her feet on Neverwylde soil. Having researched everything there is to know of the planet so far, she’s somewhat starstruck when meeting the original crew, but no amount of research could prepare her for the reality of the world, or the feelings the quirky, quiet, innocent tinkerer invokes. She didn’t plan on romance while on this mission, but then again, she didn’t anticipate her fellow scientists turning on them either.

Politics and greed are getting in the way of science and discovery, and may push everyone off the planet for good, wiping out all of their hard work. With months turning into days, the crew scrambles to protect a world filled with endless precious resources and intelligent life.

Once again the greatest enemies may not be the deadly creatures on the planet, but some of their own.

Warning! Contains a borrowed uniform, lessons on love, lost luggage, a purple cavern, a mosaic map, relevant theories, alien watchdogs, low-frequency sound, and a fight to protect others as well as those who are beloved.

Excerpt and Buy link

HEART OF THE MATTER
(Havenport Romance)
by Ruth A. Casie

Digging into the past can be murder. 

Addison Moore, a well-known psychiatrist, is having difficulty coming to terms with the death of her grandmother, Cookie. The woman was everything to her after her parents died in a plane crash over Lockerbie, Scotland. Little did Addy know, an old picture tucked away in the family bible of Cookie with a handsome stranger would lead her to a discovery for which she is little prepared. 

Ethan Taylor is an art historian. He’s lived with his Great Uncle Ben for a long time and would do anything for him. He never anticipated Ben’s dying wish would introduce him to his biggest sacrifice. Neither Addy nor Ethan are prepared for the lengths at which their families went through to keep Cookie and Ben apart. 

As they put the pieces together, they uncover a decade’s old unsolved murder implicating Cookie and Ben. Will Addy and Ethan’s blossoming love be able to stand the strain of finding the truth? Will they be able to get to the heart of the matter?

Grab your copy on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B083VZCF8J

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FAVORITE MOVIES for VALENTINE'S DAY - by the authors at Here Be Magic

We all have them. Those movies we LOVE HARD no matter what the critics, our kids, or our significant others may think about them. These films touch us, lift us, make us smile or make us cry - and sometimes, all of the above!

You don't have to wait for Valentine's Day to watch a romantic movie. But hey, February 14th IS on a Friday this year, so why not break out the popcorn (and maybe the kleenex), kick back and enjoy?

PS - Be sure to leave a comment and tell us YOUR favorites! 
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LINDA -"Somewhere in Time - So romantic. So damn sad. Fantastic musical score. And I cry every damn time! It was also the very first VCR tape I ever bought. Cost me $89.95 way back when!" 

~ Linda Mooney  lindamooney.com
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PG - "One of my all time favorite romantic movies--not a romance, exactly, but very romantic, nonetheless--is Truly, Madly, Deeply, starring Juliet Stevenson and the incomparable Alan Rickman. It's a love story, it's a ghost story, it's a romantic comedy. It's got humor and tears and rodent infestations and ghosts and serenades...and did I mention Alan Rickman?" 
~ PG Forte www.PGForte.com

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DANI - "An oldie-but-goodie that didn't get the attention I thought it deserved at the time: French Kiss with Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline. A romantic comedy that never fails to make me smile. And yes, I sing "La Vie En Rose" for a week afterwards!"

~ Dani Harper www.daniharper.com 

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NICOLE - "My favourite romantic movie is The Princess Bride. I've rewatched it many times. It has so many great scenes and quotable lines. 'As you wish,' will always melt my heart." 
~ Nicole Luiken www.nicoleluiken.com
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MAUREEN - "This may seem a little odd - but not so much if you consider that I love paranormal and fantasy - but one of my favorite romantic movies is Bram Stoker's 1992 Dracula.

"It's sort of a beauty and the beast concept and shows how love can expand time.  Plus each time I watch it I'm not sure if I'm rooting for Keanu or Dracula to gain the love of the heroine." 
~ Maureen L. Bonatch  www.maureenbonatch.com  

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VERONICA - “Ever After with Drew Barrymore and Dougray Scot (1998). I love Cinderella stories and this is my favorite version. I enjoy the way it begins, with an elderly Royal schooling the Brothers Grimm on the correct details of their fairy tale. I enjoy the glass slippers, made by Ferragamo. I love the idea of Leonardo Da Vinci as the ‘fairy godperson’. But most of all I love the fearless Drew Barrymore character, always determined to do the right thing, no matter what the cost to herself. The prince was appropriately handsome and dashing but she’s the heart of the story.


"This is a movie where I always want more – more of the stepsister Jacqueline who was actually pretty decent and her romance with the captain of the guards. More about Leonardo Da Vinci. More of the practical Queen. More scenes between Danielle and Prince Henry…well, you get the idea. Just give me ALL the outtakes and I’ll be quiet and content. I’ve written two Cinderella stories myself, one set in my fantasy world and one set in ancient Egypt and I won’t be surprised if I revisit the trope again!" 
~ Veronica Scott  veronicascott.wordpress.com

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Don't forget to leave us a comment and tell us YOUR favorites! 

When it's Time for "Netflix and Chill"

There are times when I like nothing better than getting lost in a new movie or series. Not only is it a break away from working in my day job (or on a story idea) but it's also relaxing as well.

Then again, I've lost count of how many times I was hoping to not think about my WIP for a while, and ended up with an idea. Sometimes that thing you're stuck on can come to you when you're trying to figure out a twist in a thriller. Or, when you're hoping the lovers will finally get back together before the end credits roll.

So, it's not really procrastinating, it's stimulating your creativity (at least that's how it's worked for me)! Here are some of the series in my Netflix queue at the moment:

Troy – Fall of a City 

Entertaining re-telling of the epic without being boring or predictable (because, if you’re familiar with the Iliad or the Odyssey, you know how it ends). Surprisingly modern with inclusive casting and new twists on the characters. The settings and costumes give the series a sometimes scruffy (and real) feeling.

The Stranger 

I'd first heard about this series on Twitter, then it popped up when I logged into Netflix (the video auto-play can be a good thing at times, it seems). Based on a book by, Harlan Coben, it twists and turns and reveals a bit here and there about the characters. Starting off with a husband's seemingly perfect life being shattered when a stranger tells him a secret about his wife, events spiral from then on.

I love stories with twists, and this one kept me up past midnight on a Sunday night. (Let's just say I did a lot of yawning on Monday.)

The Ghost Bride 

A paranormal about a girl who has been asked to be the bride of a recently deceased, heir to a fortune. It even has a "meet cute" between her and a heavenly guard, along with some dramatic and amusing moments. Ultimately, she'll have to help solve the mystery of who killed the heir, and there are quite a few suspects. I'm halfway through this one, and I'm anxious to see how it unfolds.

The Witcher 

I haven't started this one yet, but I've seen several interesting scenes on Twitter featuring Henry Cavill (one of the cast) without his shirt. So, I'm going to be sure to get to this one ASAP.

Luna Nera 

Just finished this after binge watching last weekend. It has everything – witches in 17th century Italy, a chosen one, and a mysterious organization that wants access to their magic. Lots of action, including witches who carry swords and free other women wrongly accused of witchcraft.

So far, I don't know if Netflix is giving this a second season, but I certainly hope so. The first season wraps up a major storyline, while leaving the door open for some other developments.

 I Am Dragon 

Not a Netflix movie, but if you have Amazon Prime, it was (for a time) available to members without the rental charge. Based on a Russian tale, this one has a dragon shifter, a very adventurous heroine and nice special effects. They don't have a "meet cute," but I was certainly rooting for them to get their HEA.

 Have any favorites that you've been watching lately?