Hap­py Inde­pen­dence Day, USA! I hope you all have some plans to get out and enjoy your free­dom. (Did you know it’s per­fect­ly legal to go top­less in most states?) So have fun.

Work in Progress News ~ Work­ing on my fire­fight­er sto­ry. This one is due mid August, so I real­ly need to get my poop in a group. I still don’t have a title.

Favorite Song of the Week ~ Sor­ry, no real video. Some­one tweet­ed a link to this song, wish I could remem­ber who so I could cred­it them.

Back­list Review ~ From For a Price, reviewed by The Romance Stu­dio:

This was an easy and enjoy­able read. Mau­reen is stuck between devel­op­ing a rela­tion­ship with a too good to be true guy and hold­ing to the plan that can save her moth­er. While the char­ac­ters are not com­plex you find your­self root­ing for Mau­reen to throw the auc­tion to the wind and run off with Nicholas…The love scenes are hot and find you wish­ing they would keep going. Absolute­ly a fun and quick read!

Tweet of the Week ~ 

WEDDING CEREMONY TIP: Some­thing old, some­thing new, some­thing bor­rowed, some­thing blue; some­thing fleek, one canoe, some risot­to, déjà vu.

— Pants (@onedumbshark) June 26, 2015

Indus­try News ~ Since I last post­ed, Ama­zon has changed the rules for their sub­scrip­tion ser­vice. They’ll now pay by the page rather than per bor­row. This makes a lot of sense to me, and will reward those authors who write good beefy page-turn­ers. Ama­zon’s move is much bet­ter than Scrib­d’s move. Scrib­d’s sub­scrip­tion ser­vice was los­ing mon­ey, appar­ent­ly they did­n’t real­ize how vora­cious romance read­ers can be. So rather than look­ing for oth­er ways to stay afloat–and there are oth­er ways if one stops to ponder–Scribd just delet­ed 90% of books labeled romance from its ser­vice. That did­n’t go over well at all. I went ahead and delet­ed my remain­ing books from Scribd, sor­ry for any inconvenience.

What I’m read­ing ~ Angel, by Johan­na Lind­sey. A nice his­tor­i­cal western:

Hop­ing to cool off a twen­ty-five-year-old feud between two neigh­bor­ing fam­i­lies, Cassie Stu­art only suc­ceeds in pour­ing kerosene on the flames. Both sides have warned her to get out of Texas pronto…or they will burn her father’s ranch to the ground. What Cassie needs is a peace­mak­er but she ends up with a wid­ow-mak­er instead.

He is called Angel , a rugged­ly hand­some hired gun with eyes as black as sin. Unwant­ed and unwel­comed by his ungrate­ful employ­er, he would just as soon leave Cassie to fend for her­self. But a stub­born sense of duty , and a desire to taste the sweet­ness of her kiss steels Angel’s resolve to make Cassie want him, come hell or high water…and for more than his gun alone.

Today’s Tear­jerk­er ~ This is in Finnish, but you don’t need to under­stand the words.

Book Snip­pet ~ From For a Price:

“When should I pick you up?”

Few peo­ple knew her cell phone num­ber, even few­er had hint­ed at a night out. She knew exact­ly who was on the oth­er end of the phone, but she couldn’t let him know that. She also need­ed some time to steady her rac­ing heart.

“Who’s this?” She tried not to let her smile come through her voice. There was a long pause on the oth­er end.

“Did you agree to more than one date tonight?”

“Well, I can’t be sure.” She lay back onto her bed, throw­ing her free arm over her head. “Is this the sev­en­ty-five year old gymnast?”

“Guess again.” She heard his smile.

“Are you the man who’s been breath­ing heavy in my ear every Fri­day since I got to Vegas?”

“I’m the man who’s going to make you a very wealthy woman.”

Mau­reen bolt­ed upright. What did he mean by that? Did he know who she was? Her heart beat loud­ly, its pres­sure pound­ed in her eardrums. Aside from the fact that she didn’t want this man to know about her upcom­ing pros­ti­tu­tion stint, she won­dered if he intend­ed to make the final bid.

“What do you mean?” Her voice sound­ed as thin as tis­sue paper.

“Your invest­ment strat­e­gy, or did you find your­self anoth­er advisor?”

She released a pent up breath, and tried to clear her mind. “Oh, well I’ve got one final inter­view before I make my decision.”

 

All right, folks. That’s it for me. I’m off to a fam­i­ly bar­be­cue. then to watch the fire­works! Stay safe out there.