It's Wednesday and I'm in OZ

Truly, it feels as if I have awoken in another place and another time. The sunlight shinging off those clear blue Florida skies looks different. You feel different walking through the lobby of the now crowded hotel. There is chatter and shrieks of delight as old friends meet. The smell of pages being turned is everywhere, in the pools, in the resturants, even along the Boardwalk of a Disney venue. Its wild.

We had breakfast today and all around us people were discussing book ideas, trying to come up with titles to submit to their agents or editors, practing their pitches they would give as the week wears on. Its an amazing place. You feel a bit overwhelmed by all the creativity.

I'd hoped to put up pictures but my lap top doesn't have the port for my camera card. So there will be picture posting when I return from Over the Rainbow. For anyone doubting, let me be the first to tell you that the magic of Disney is alive and well. Those who I've met or seen include Laura Robb and Allysa Day. I hope to meet Debbie Macomber before the week is done.

Until I can get to the computer... have fun.

On the road again....

Oh my gosh, five thirty came bright and early this a.m as we packed the mini cooper and headed out for beautiful downtown Orlando and Walt Disney World for RWA 2010. I can't believe I'm actually getting to go. It is the trip of a life time.

We headed down the road with our navigator plugged to the windsheild and zoomed along through North Carolina, South Caroline, Georgia, and into Florida. The scenery was gorgeous. My roommate for the soiree and I plotted books the whole way. We had an awesome time.

I must say that turning down and entering Disney land resorts was a welcome sight after ten hours on the road. Our room is beautiful. We have been treated like queens returning to the Magic Castle. I can't say Princesses because, well, let's face it I'm a bit long in tooth. LOL.

Well tomorrow will be time to scope out the hotel and learn the layout before we spend Tuesday going to the magical world of Mr. Harry Potter, a true dream. So have fun all and night night from the Magic Kingdom...

Questions and Answers with Victoria Gray

Thanks so much for having me on your blog, Nancy. It’s a pleasure.

1. We've been looking at Destiny this week. Will there be a sequel?

Destiny’s sequel, Angel in My Arms, is the story of a ring of beautiful female spies operating out of Richmond during the Civil War. I enjoyed creating Jack’s partner, Steve, so much, I had to give him his own book. Steve is very different from Jack, with a more lighthearted, Owen Wilson persona, but he shares Jack’s fundamental values of conviction, courage, and honor. Angel in My Arms is due to be released in November.


2. Are there other genres you'd like to write?
Yes – I have multiple personalities as a writer! I’ve completed a historical romantic suspense set during 1896, the Gilded Age of New York, and I’ m putting the finishing touches on a contemporary romantic comedy. I also have a plot idea brewing for a historical paranormal.


3. Where can the public find you ?
I have a website, VictoriaGrayRomance, at www.victoriagrayromance.com . I’m also on Facebook and Twitter (VictoriaGray115). I’ll be at the Romance Writer’s of America conference next week…look for my Twitter updates.

4. Can you give us a hint about your next project.
I’m now writing the third book in the Destiny trilogy. Against All Odds features characters introduced in Angel in My Arms. In this story, a dashing Confederate office falsely accused of being a traitor tangles with a gang of vicious gun runners to save the beautiful Northern spy he loves.

Wow, what great projects you've got going. I wish you much success with your projects. Please come back with each release, we'll be waiting!

Don't you just love a bad boy????

If you love those bigger than life, rugged hero's, look no further than Major Jack Travis in Victoria Gray's Destiny. Check out her blurb below and be sure to run over and get your copy in print and as an ebook. http://www.thewildrosepress.com/destiny-paperback-p-4023.html


Emma Davenport was going to be a bride, and no one was going to stop her, not even an outlaw. Bound for a forbidden marriage, her scheme shatters when she is abducted and spirited away to a remote hideout. Any proper young woman would be frightened out of her wits, but she challenges her daring, seductive captor at every turn.

Major Jack Travis was used to the battlefield, not stealing spoiled, sheltered women from trains, but his orders have come from one of the most powerful men in Washington. The by-the-book soldier never doubted his ability to carry out orders until he laid eyes on Emma. His captive is intelligent, headstrong, beautiful – and forbidden. He risks his neck to protect her from the treacherous rake she’d planned to marry. But how can he protect her from himself?

Read an excerpt here:

He traced the curve of her cheek with his finger. “Miss Davenport, do all the men in the novels you read wind up scarred or crippled or alone?”

She pressed her lips together, struggling to ignore the sensation of his touch. “That would seem to be the case.”

His fingertip made tiny circles over her earlobe. “Why do you enjoy reading about tortured men?”

Emma never knew her ears would be so sensitive to a man’s caress. She licked her lips and twisted away from him. “The characters are brooding and romantic. They suffer for love.”

His arm snaked around her waist, dragging Emma against his unyielding male body. “Shouldn’t love bring pleasure, Miss Davenport?”

“You shouldn’t…we shouldn’t do this,” she gasped, struggling to keep her wits about her as his heat and touch threatened to overwhelm her senses.

“Answer my question, and I’ll leave you alone with your tortured hero. Shouldn’t love bring pleasure?”

The note of desire in his husky rasp shredded her meager defenses. “I don’t know,” she whispered, feeling her voice catch in her throat.

“I think you do,” Jack persisted, moving his lips to caress her lobe as his finger had moments earlier. “Shouldn’t love bring pleasure, Emma?”

He spoke her name as a seductive caress against her nape. His mouth burned a trail along the thin line of flesh exposed above her high collar. “Answer me, darlin’. Or should I try to convince you that I’m right?”

She shook her head. “You don’t need to convince me,” she murmured. “Love should bring pleasure.”

He smiled, his mouth curving wickedly as honey-brown eyes raked over her. “You don’t sound completely certain, Emma. I do need to convince you.”

Introducing Victoria Gray.

A fantastic new historical writer has come to my attention. Meet Victoria Gray. Ms. Gray hails from the south and spends much of her time reading and in pursuit of the elusive novel. She began with paper and pencil, then migrated to typewriter, and thanks to this century as progressed to the computer.

When Ms. Gray is not writing, she has a variety of other wonderful activities that keeps her fit and active. She can be found cycling or walking the beaches of the east coast with her hero, her husband.

Ms. Gray is a a member of Romance Writers of America, Hearts through History Romance Writers, and Kiss of Death Romance Writers. You may find her books at The Wild Rose Press.

Her novel Destiny is set in post Civil War America. With such a divine cover and great premise I'm sure it will be a hit. Join us this week as we welcome Victoria Gray to Romancing the Blog.


Check out the to buy link below for information on ordering this in ebook or print.
http://www.thewildrosepress.com/victoria-gray-m-719.html

More with Paty Jager

Paty has written a series of Petticoat books. These great reads can be found at The Wild Rose Press.




http://www.thewildrosepress.com/outlaw-in-petticoats-p-807.html?zenid=c9f8a093c9e63a10ff44d52f3e3c1d16
OUTLAW IN PETTICOATS
Maeve Loman has had her heart crushed before; she isn't about to have it happen again. When she takes Zeke Halsey up on his offer to help her discover the truth about her father, she's sure she can control her traitorous body and not fall for the man's considerable charms.
Zeke Halsey has wanted Maeve Loman since he first set eyes on the prickly schoolteacher. Even as she thwarts his advances, he sees the desire burning in her eyes. He knows she feels abandoned and uses bravado to keep people at arm’s length. Offering to help her find her father, he hopes to prove he’s not going anywhere.





http://www.thewildrosepress.com/miner-in-petticoats-paperback-p-3478.html?zenid=c9f8a093c9e63a10ff44d52f3e3c1d16
MINER IN PETTICOATS
Shouldering the burdens of his family and the mining community, Ethan Halsey devotes himself to providing for his brothers' growing families.
However, Aileen Miller, a widow, also looking out for her family’s interests, refuses to part with the land he needs. As they battle- one to push his dream to reality and the other to prove no man will hurt her again- their lives become enmeshed and their hearts collide.






http://www.thewildrosepress.com/marshal-in-petticoats-paperback-p-3015.html?zenid=c9f8a093c9e63a10ff44d52f3e3c1d16
MARSHAL IN PETTICOATS
Darcy Duncan is an accident looking to happen. So it is no surprise to her when she shoots a bank robber while buying mining supplies. She wonders at the town asking her to be marshal. However, being a resourceful, resilient young woman, she takes the job with every intention of giving it an honest try. But falling for the handsome enemy, is one accident too many.
Gil Halsey is asked to bring his boss' errant son back to the ranch. He follows the man and his band of bumbling robbers to a small mining town. A corrupt local official runs the town and has pinned a marshal's badge on an accident-prone young woman. Gil believes the two are working together, until the marshal blunders into a bank robbery and is kidnapped. While saving the marshal, he reunites with his estranged family and stumbles into love.




http://www.thewildrosepress.com/gambling-on-an-angel-paperback-p-3014.html?zenid=c9f8a093c9e63a10ff44d52f3e3c1d16
Saloon owner Bas Slocum has never let anyone close. His lonely childhood and scrapes with the law has hardened his heart. Until he meets an angel wearing a Temperance ribbon. Now he must hide the very thing that was his salvation or lose his angel.
Letha Harrison suffered beatings from her alcoholic father and a forced separation from her brother. As she and her younger sister try to survive in a lawless town, she finds the first man she trusts.




Where is Paty today??

My hero Clay Halsey from Doctor in Petticoats is being interviewed tat
Naughty Little Vixen today
http://naughtylittlevamp.blogspot.com/?zx=8610184bfbea3d71

And 2009 Golden Heart finalist Autumn Jordan is visiting my blog and
talking about her new release Evil's Witness.
http://www.patyjager.blogspot.com

Welcome Paty Jager!

Happy 4th of July!!

My current release Doctor in Petticoats has a scene set during a Fourth of July celebration. The heroine's father is a judge, and her sister is in love with an up and coming state representative. In fact you can read how the sister catches her representative in my free read, Fireworks and Fancies, at The Wild Rose Press. http://www.thewildrosepress.com/fireworks-and-fancies-p-3624.html

In Doctor in Petticoats the hero is sent to a blind school to learn how to navigate in the world as a blind person. While there he meets a young man who is the instructor for the broom making class. In order to understand how the blind were taught to make brooms, I had to learn the process as it would have been done in the 1800's.

Broomcorn is actually a species of sorghum. The broom bristles are the stiff tasseled branches of the plant. The plants grow 2-8 feet tall and grows best in hot arid climates. The plane is harvested, dried and the seeds removed. The seed are edible, starchy and high in carbohydrates. They are used in cereals and animal feed.

When humans first started using broomcorn as a broom, they just harvested the plant, dried it, and started sweeping. By the 1800's they started lashing the broomcorn together to make a better sweeping surface and even using just the branches lashed to wooden handles.

The Shakers evolved the broom making process and were the first to use wire to secure the broomcorn to the handle rather than tying or weaving it with string. They also developed a treadle machine to wind the broomcorn around the handle and secure it tightly.

For my story I have blind students learning to make brooms by hand. I used Foxfire #3 book to learn the process that was passed down for generations in North Carolina.

The seeds are combed out of the tassel. The tassels are placed in water to soak and make them pliable. Two nails or wooden pegs are placed in one end of the handle to prevent the stalks from slipping off after they are tied in place. A rope is tossed over a rafter. It needs to be long enough for a loop at the bottom for the broom maker's foot and that is 4-6 inches from the ground. The rope is wrapped once around the broom near the point where it will be tied. When the person steps down with their foot, it tightens the string on the broomcorn. When it seems tight, they take a five to six foot length of heavy-duty cotton string threaded through a carpet needle and weave it through and around the broomcorn, securing it to the handle.

I enjoyed learning about this process for my books and I hope you enjoy this excerpt from Doctor in Petticoats.

Blurb for Doctor in Petticoats
After a life-altering accident and a failed relationship, Dr. Rachel Tarkiel gave up on love and settled for a life healing others as the physician at a School for the Blind. She's happy in her vocation--until handsome Clay Halsey shows up and inspires her to want more.

Blinded by a person he considered a friend, Clay curses his circumstances and his limitations. Intriguing Dr. Tarkiel shows him no pity, though. To her, he's as much a man as he ever was.

Can these two wounded souls conquer outside obstacles, as well as their own internal fears, and find love?

Excerpt
“I’m going to look in your other eye now.” She, again, placed a hand on his face and opened the eyelids, stilling her fluttering heart as she pressed close. His clean-shaven face had a couple small nicks on the edges of his angular cheeks. The spice of his shave soap lingered on his skin.

She resisted the urge to run her cheek against his. The heat of his face under her palm and his breath moving wisps of wayward hair caused her to close her eyes and pretend for a few seconds he could be her husband. A man who loved her and wouldn’t be threatened by her occupation or sickened by her hideous scar.

His breathing quickened. A hand settled on her waist, slid around to her back, and drew her forward. Her hand, holding the lens, dropped to his shoulder, and she opened her eyes. This behavior on both their parts was unconscionable, but her constricted throat wouldn’t allow her to utter the rebuke.

Clay sensed the moment the doctor slid from professional to aroused woman. The hand on his cheek caressed rather than held, her breathing quickened, and her scent invaded his senses like a warm summer rain.

Blog Tour Contest

Don't forget to follow my fifteen blog/twelve day tour. Leave a comment and follow me to all the blogs on my tour and you could win an autographed copy of my June release, Doctor in Petticoats, a B&N gift card, and a summer tote filled with goodies. To find out all the places I'll be go to my blog- http://www.patyjager.blogspot.com to find the list.

Website: http://www.patyjager.net
Blog: http://www.patyjager.blogspot.com
Buy: http://www.thewildrosepress.com

Giving in to Charity

From Dark Diva's Reviews Giving in to Charity by Nancy O'Berry from Red Rose Publishing

Deb’s Review:
Nancy O'Berry has captured my heart with her Sweetbrier Academy Series I have read the first two books which include Hope and Faith's stories and I am so happy that Charity finally has a story of her own in Giving in to Charity. As I read along, I seem to lose myself into the time frame in which these stories take place—the formal gowns, society gatherings, and the intrigue that Nancy O'Berry creates

Giving in to Charity is a delightfully sensual story about love, mystery and greed. A man will do anything for the silver running through the mines in Virginia City, and for the love of a good woman, no matter her past.

Nancy O'Berry is magnificently delicious! Come and visit Sweetbrier Academy, then you will know what it is like to relive the past.

From You Gotta Read Reviews
Roberta http://yougottareadreviews.blogspot.com/
Not only is this book fast paced with beautiful description and intriguing dialogue, it has several twists and turns that will have you reading as fast as possible. The two main characters, Tobias and Charity, are truly amazing individuals to overcome the demons they have deep inside them. Through the book, you see each of them grow individually as well as together. Some of the secondary characters will either have you laughing at them or wanting to kill them yourself. Some of the issues discussed in this book are still relevant today. The one most prevalent in this book and in today's society is racism. I was humbled at how the author dealt with this situation and did so with grace and dignity. I want to thank the author, Nancy O'Berry, for a beautiful and entertaining love story. I'm looking forward to reading the other two books in this series as well as her future releases.

Read an excerpt here...

His strong arms slid beneath her knees and pressured enough that they gave way. Charity clung to Tobias, and he lifted her and cradled her next to his chest as he walked across the room and, as gentle as he would a newborn, placed her in his bed. The light from the fire reflected on the plains of his skin. The strength of his jaw, the well-toned body, made him appear like some golden Greek god. Charity pulled her arms above her head to grasp the metal spirals of the wrought iron, easing her body away from the edge so that he might join her.
The mattress tilted. The springs gave a sigh, and he stretched alongside her. His hands plucked her dark nipples, making them pebble. Tobias’ head dipped, and she knew his lips found the desired morsel. His mouth suckled until she moaned and writhed beneath him. His hand moved along her side, and he grasped the second tip, arousing it in the same manner.
“Tobias,” she groaned, arching against his touch.
Reluctantly, he let go. His lips kissed the sacred valley between the two, and his knees pushed her thighs apart. “This afternoon you begged to taste, tonight I shall dine.”
Charity’s eyes widened. Tobias’ tongue burned a path from her breast, around her navel, and lower. A stroke across, and her legs grew weak. He drew her bud up and teased till her hips rose from the sheet. His arms slid beneath her legs lifting her, parting her nether lips to taste the sweet wine she had been hiding. Cupid’s sweet sweat layered her body while his kisses plundered her core. Breathing became a chore, and she gasped for air, colors swirling above her. Her heat tightened like a spring ready to snap, and he drew away.
“Yes, Charity, I want to hear your name upon my lips,” he commanded, his fingers keeping up the sweet torture.
“Tobias,” she panted.
He chuckled, and Charity took a quick intake of breath. He ran his finger across her bud. Twisting her hands into the excess of the sheets, she cried out.
Before she had a chance to recover, the touch of his member nudged her entrance. Like hot molten steel, he eased in inch by incredible inch. She held her breath, feeling his magnificent stallion riding to her rescue to help her find her release. Slowly he pumped in and out, her body clenching and holding with all its might. His chest slick, her breasts tangled in the thatch, the exquisite tension building.
“Look at me,” he called to her. She resisted the urge to close her eyes. “Look at me.”
Charity opened her eyes and looked into the darkness of his pupils. The thump of her heart beat with the pulse of his motion. Her body clenched tight then went boneless. His name burst from her lips, and she soared into the sky. She heard her name echoing from his lips while the darkness surrounded them, cocooning them from their fall.
Unhurried, her breath returned. Soft, slow intakes soothed the scorch of her lungs. Her hands slid across Tobias’ limp body, spread across to cover hers, and she held him. Charity’s heart twisted. She was in love.
He moved to lie beside her, his hands pulling her body to his to spoon. She said nothing. Lying in the cradle of his arms, she closed her eyes and let his hands cover her breast. Her body became chilled, and he shifted only enough to bring the blankets over them.
“Charity,” he whispered.
A soft smile graced her face.
“Stay with me tonight…don’t leave?” he asked, pressing his lips to her shoulder.
“No,” she murmured. “I will not leave you.” She wiggled back to find his flesh to her flesh even as a tear found its course down her cheek and onto the pillowcase. She would lie. She would tell him anything to savor this moment in his arms. She would become that woman again if it meant one more night in his bed, in his arms. Closing her eyes, holding on tight, she drifted to sleep.