Rogue's Angels Presents: Love in Bloom by Rosemary Indra

Title: Love in Bloom

Author: Rosemary Indra

Email: indrascloset@msn.com

Genre: Romance/Fantasy/Paranormal

Excerpt Heat Level: 1

Book Heat Level: 2

Buy at: www.roguephoenixpress.com

Buy at Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Love-Bloom-Rosemary-Indra-ebook/dp/B00DTT8I9O/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385061899&sr=1-1&keywords=Love+in+Bloom+by+Rosemary+Indrq

Buy at Barnes & Noble:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love-in-bloom-rosemary-indra/1115966810?ean=2940148160854

When childhood friends reunite it takes two fairies and a matchmaking daughter to help them admit their true love for each other.

EXCERPT

Mattie Harrison sat up in bed when two golden lights floated down beside her. The shimmering lights from her fairies caused excitement to bubble within Mattie in anticipation of their visit. For as long as she could remember, the two fairies were her constant companions. Tonight she had something important to ask them.

Cara sat cross-legged on Mattie's pillow. Kendra adjusted her green dress several times before she too sat down. Mattie looked down at her small friends then crossed her legs in front of her mimicking the way they sat.

Every so often Kendra's wings fluttered. Mattie knew she preferred playing than sitting still but tonight Mattie needed someone to talk to. Like always, Cara listened quietly as Mattie described her day and her plans for tomorrow.

When the fairies stood, their transparent wings flapped as they started to take flight. "Can you stay a little longer?" Mattie asked quickly.

Cara gracefully bowed her head and moved closer to the little girl. "What's troubling you tonight lass?"

A smile touched Mattie's lips at the sound of the fairy's soft voice. Cara had brown hair similar to her own. She always had suggestions and Mattie felt calm after talking to her.

They'd visit every evening when she went to bed to say goodnight. Mattie had asked her father for a nightlight not because she was afraid of the dark but so she could see the fairies easier without scaring them with the bright overhead light.

"My dad is very lonely." Mattie knew what she wanted but all of a sudden she didn't know what to say. She looked at her friends. "Can you help me find a wife for him?"

"Mattie it's bedtime. Quiet down," her father's voice carried down the hallway. "Tell your friends to go home."

Cara tapped her index finger against her lips and looked thoughtful.

"He doesn't believe in fairies," Kendra whispered. "That might be hard. He doesn't have faith in us."

"We haven't even started and you're already negative." Cara put her hands on her hips then glanced at Mattie, "You have to remember a non-believer doesn't like interference."

Feeling disheartened Mattie's lower lip started to tremble. She'd given this a lot of thought. After much consideration, Mattie knew she'd needed help to find a wife for her dad.

"We'll see what we can do." Kendra looked at Mattie her expression softened. "We'll help you."

Both fairies nodded. Now she'd have assistance in her quest. Satisfied, Mattie relaxed against her pillows.

When her father opened her bedroom door, light from the hallway flooded in casting elongated shadows across the room. The fairies instant disappearance didn't trouble Mattie. She knew as soon as her dad left the room they would return.

Her father stood beside her bed looking down at her. With dark circles under his eyes he appeared worried and concerned. He leaned down and pulled the blankets up to her chin.

"Dad, everything will work out." Mattie kissed his cheek. "Night."

"Goodnight sweetie. No more talking. You need some sleep. We're going to see grandma tomorrow."

After her father left the room, Mattie sat up in bed. She glanced at her friends who once again sat beside her on the pillow. Mattie raised her hands and wiggled her fingers in front of her. "Do you have any fairy dust to sprinkle on him?"

Rogue's Angels Present Living the Legacy by Genie Gabriel

Living the Legacy

Genie Gabriel

Excerpt Heat Level: 1

Book Heat Level: 1

Buy at: www.roguephoenixpress.com

Buy at Amazon

An early childhood of dodging fists and anger has left sniper Collin O'Shea always vigilant for danger. So he is totally unprepared for how quickly the innocent sweetness of Beth Boulanger claims his heart. Their whirlwind marriage is shaken when the harsh reality of Collin's job collides with Beth's sheltered upbringing. Will they survive the unknown dangers that stalk them and threaten their unborn child?

EXCERPT

When the day of their symphony outing arrived, Beth's nerves were stretched as taut as the strings on her cello. She fussed over her hair and wished she had learned more tricks for applying make-up. Unfortunately, it was too late now to learn what most females learned as teenagers.

At least she still had the subtly flattering formal dress she had worn when performing with the college symphony. It fit as easily as the memories that swept over her when she stepped into the auditorium where the symphony was performing.

She breathed in the smell of wood and resin, barely noticeable to a casual concert-goer. However, the memory of the slightly sticky feel of the resin she sparingly swept down the strings of her cello bow when she played tingled in her fingertips.

In the years she had been pursuing a business that could support the need for a house and healthy food in her refrigerator, Beth's time with her cello dwindled. Now she only occasionally brushed the dust gently from its strings and sat down with her once-constant companion.

This night unleashed the emotions making music once roused in her.

At a time when Beth desperately wanted to impress her handsome escort with her sophistication, she often found tears welling in her eyes as the orchestra played pieces she remembered well.

Rather than seem embarrassed by her behavior, Collin simply smiled and covered her hand with his.

After the performance, Collin cupped her elbow and steered her backstage to meet the members of the orchestra. Delighted, Beth was soon caught up in the world she had reveled in during her high school and college years.

When the principle cellist invited them to celebrate the performance with coffee and dessert at a local restaurant, Beth couldn't think of a more fitting highlight to their evening. With Collin as her escort, the evening had been perfect.

...

Collin watched the glow in Beth's eyes as she talked to members of the orchestra. The delicate lavender color of her formal gown and the diamond clips in the upswept curls of her hair enhanced her physical beauty. However, it was the love of music sparkling in her conversation that really captured Collin's attention.

Why had she neglected music? he wondered. Surely she could carve out time for something she so clearly loved in addition to running a restaurant.

Well, he would make sure their time together included the orchestra she enjoyed so much. And he did intend to spend time with Beth, Collin realized. Though this was their first actual date, it seemed he had known her forever.

Inwardly, Collin took a step back. Such fanciful thoughts for a man whose life was devoted to a job requiring deadly focus and split second decision-making.

The vibration of the cell phone in his pocket clearly reminded Collin of that job. Caller ID showed this interruption was a serious one.

He excused himself and went to the lobby to take the call. His team leader offered few details but to report ASAP.

Collin returned to the table and apologized to Beth. "Something's come up and I need to go."

He paused and frowned, irritated a call-out was pulling him away from the most pleasant evening he had enjoyed in recent memory. "I'm so sorry."

The sparkle in Beth's eyes turned to worry. "Is everything alright?"

If everything was alright, the SWAT team wouldn't be activated. But Collin couldn't say that. He couldn't destroy Beth's innocent concern. "One of the drawbacks of my job is being on call 24/7."

"Oh." Beth rose to her feet.

The scent of her flowery shampoo filled Collin's senses and sizzled through his body. She stood close enough he would only have to take a step forward to fold her in his arms. To protect her from the angry and distraught and plainly malevolent people he met every day on his job.

"Do you mind driving my truck back to Halo after I stop at the station? I won't have time to make the trip"

Doubtful hesitation crinkled across Beth's face. "If you don't mind."

"I mind leaving you without a proper escort home."

Collin drove quickly to the station and pulled into a parking spot. Then he cupped Beth's face between his hands and kissed her gently. As the seconds ticked away, his cell phone vibrated again.

He had to leave. He allowed one more moment of regret, then said goodnight, and strode inside to confront whatever emergency was once again claiming his life.

Irritation swirled through Collin as he entered the station. Beth was the first woman who had captured his attention for a very long time, and he had to cut short their date for a call-out. This had better be good.

A mass of organized chaos greeted Collin.

"About time you showed up, O'Shea." His team leader frowned. "We've got a town blowing up. We're sending all the manpower we can spare."

"What town?" Collin shrugged into his camouflage jacket.

"Halo."

Collin froze as a crystal clear image of Beth lodged in his mind. She was driving straight into a disaster.

WRITING THE BEGINNING AFTER THE END

POSTED BY: GENIE GABRIEL

www.GenieGabriel.com

Available March 2015

In most of my writing projects, there comes a point of, "Why did I think I could to this?"

This hit especially strong with the prequel to my Halo Legacy series, Why Did Bernie Have to Die? This will be a March 2015 release. 

All started out well. I knew the characters--I had already written nine books with them. I knew what had to happen in this book from the foundation I laid before writing the series. 

Then came the big "buts." 

--But I've never killed off a main character before. However, this was a prequel to the series and Bernie was dead when the rest of the (already published) series began.

--But I don't like leaving hanging, unresolved threads of the plot in a book. Another however--these threads aren't completely resolved until the last book of the (already published) series. 

I wrote the prequel anyway, trying to comfort myself that the rest of the books are already available if someone wants to know right now how the mystery is solved and the answer to the question, Why Did Bernie Have to Die?

Here's a sneak peak excerpt from the prequel to the Halo Legacy series.

***

Bernie's heartbeat stuttered as his old pickup topped the gentle rise of land that marked the boundary of his grandparents' farm. The burned out remains of the old house slammed memories as hard as a fist into his gut as he braked to a stop.

The flames licked greedily up the brick chimney, consuming the tinder dry wood siding, and lighting up the night sky. Bernie bellowed in helpless rage, dunking himself in the water trough used for livestock before plunging into the flames and toward the bedroom his grandparents had shared since their marriage decades earlier. 

Fury fueled his strength as he cradled his grandmother in his arms and carried her outside, then returned for his grandfather. He laid them side by side on the cool, damp grass, searching frantically for a pulse. But he knew it was futile. They were already dead. 

Tallie laid her hand over Bernie's whitened knuckles. Through the sheen of his tears, he saw the mirror of his sadness in her eyes. He turned his hand over and clasped hers tightly.

Together, they would rebuild. A house. A family. A legacy this town would never forget. 

***

I LIKE MY ROMANCE WITH MYSTERY

POSTED BY: GENIE GABRIEL

www.GenieGabriel.com

Many thanks to Allana Angel for setting the theme of "firsts" on Thursday, which I am shamelessly carrying through the weekend. 

My first book, The Rock Star, was pretty thoroughly a romance. Some mystery/suspense/action crept into my second book, The Bodyguard. Humor showed up strongly in The Leader of the Band.

I should have recognized the signs--I like to write and read cross-genre books. As I mentioned yesterday, humor featured front and center in Chasing Rainbows, the first book of the Aunt Maddie's Castle series, and continues in the other books of that series.

In addition to romance, Picture Perfect Legacy introduced a strong mystery element that continued throughout all nine books of my Halo Legacy series. Pieces of the mystery are resolved in each book, but there's also an overarching mystery that is not resolved until book nine of the series. There's also a lot of action/adventure in this series. 

I hope you enjoy this excerpt from Picture Perfect Legacy.  

***

Don't take my baby. Please don't take my baby. The woman's plea whispered in the steady swish, swish of the wipers. Her image wavered among the falling flakes of snow, horror streaking in anguished tears down her face. 

Marly O'Shea shivered and forced her attention back to the narrow, twisting road grudgingly carved out of the side of the mountain. 

The heater of her Jeep Wrangler valiantly battled the fingers of icy air creeping through the gaps in a canvas top that seemed to shrink each summer while it lay bundled in Marly's garage. She much preferred the heated summer breezes that tangled her over-curly hair in wild abandon to the frigid winds laying icy sheets of moisture in the dips and shadows of the road she now traveled. 

A gust of angry wind blasted around a curve, rattling the canvas top of the Jeep. The flurries of snow grew heavier, layering the road in a relentless white. Marly shifted into a lower gear and concentrated on what she could see of the road illuminated by her headlights. 

Until she realized the headlights careening through the darkness weren't hers. They bore down on her, like a missile seeking its target. 

Adrenaline spurted through Marly's veins. She leaned on the horn and steered the Jeep as far to the side of the road as possible without sliding off the edge. 

Brighter and brighter, the lights obliterated the darkness until Marly thought they would explode. Then, as suddenly as they appeared, the lights jerked away, bouncing down the road behind her and quickly disappearing. 

The tires of the Jeep hit gravel, then slushy mud. Frantically down-shifting, Marly eased to a stop and sat frozen. Nothing dared intrude on the deafening silence of the night but the roar of a creek echoing in a canyon far below. 

Another brilliant light flashed on, and Marly jerked her arm up to shield her eyes. A sharp rap on her door sent her grabbing for the purse that had slid onto the floor. Reaching inside, her fingers wrapped around the taser her overprotective brothers presented to her as a moving-away-from-home gift. 

Cradling the weapon on her lap, Marly turned to confront the man standing beside her Jeep. A halo of light silhouetted the man's bushy hair and beard, but his features remained obscured in shadows. 

"Are you hurt?" His voice flowed like melted honey, its comforting tones at odds with his unkempt appearance. 

Slowly, Marly shook her head. "No." 

"We need to get you off this curve before another car comes through. I'm going to hook my winch to your vehicle and pull you back onto the road." 

He disappeared into the curtain of light, leaving Marly with only the impression of broad shoulders encased in black leather. 

Her heart raced. It was the near accident, she told herself. 

Soon, metal clunked against metal as the man hooked a cable to the underside of her vehicle. After a moment's token resistance, the Jeep moved back onto the solid surface of the road. 

A sigh of relief flowed through Marly's body, brought up short by the sudden reappearance of the man beside her vehicle. Many times her brothers scolded her for being too trusting. Narrow hips and long legs snugly encased in worn blue jeans could belong to a serial killer as easily as a white knight. 

"Step out while I check your vehicle for damage." A jagged scar over the man's right eyebrow gleamed as he reached for her door handle. 

Every murder mystery she read as a teenager gave the bad guy a scar. She wasn't taking any chances. Adrenaline pumped through Marly's body once again as she leveled the taser at the man's chest. "Stop right there." 

Irritation briefly crinkled the man's brow. "The undercarriage of your vehicle might be damaged." 

"Step away from the vehicle." Marly juggled the taser in one hand while using the other to crank the key in the ignition. The Jeep sputtered to life, rocketing relief through Marly's veins. The man quick-stepped backward as she shoved the vehicle into gear and stomped on the gas, leaving her mystery rescuer--or would-be attacker--standing with the snow falling on the dark velvet of his tousled hair. 

***

HUMOR REALLY IS GOOD MEDICINE

Posted by: Genie Gabriel

www.GenieGabriel.com

Digital formats only 99 cents from Rogue Phoenix Press

Also available in print from Amazon.com

I wrote my first romantic comedy after the break-up of a long-time romantic relationship. I had been wallowing in self-pity and angst and a bunch of other negative emotions for a while and, quite frankly, didn't want to be that way any more. I wanted to laugh again!

So I started writing a story. I thought up a bunch of eccentric characters and dropped them into zany misadventures. I wrote until my laughter returned. Then I tucked the story away. Its mission in my life had been accomplished. 

Until my publisher wanted to put together a Valentine's Day anthology. She had read part of this story and suggested using it. I thought why not. It shouldn't be hard to polish up this story. 

The laugh was again on me. My skill at writing had grown a lot since I drafted that story, so I had some major recrafting to do--as well as cutting it from 60,000 words to 30,000 words to fit the anthology format. 

At last the story was reworked and polished, and became Chasing Rainbows, first published in A Valentine's Anthology from Rogue Phoenix Press. Since then, this book has been released on its own and became the first in a series of books featuring eccentric artist Aunt Maddie and Uncle Horace, her absent-minded inventor husband. 

Here's how it all started...

Chapter One 

Ka-boom! The blast shattered the settling peace of dusk as Marissa Madison pulled into the circular drive. Rissa threw open the car door and sprinted toward the gray stone house. 

"Please, no blood this time," she whispered as her feet hit the rough-hewn steps leading up to the broad double doors. 

A bespectacled man stepped through the doorway amid a confetti shower of envelopes and leaflets. His silvery hair stood in startled spikes around a balding pate as if it too had been a victim of the explosion. 

"Too much torque in the mail conveyor," he muttered with a frown. 

"Please turn it off, Uncle Horace!" 

"Right." The old man disappeared back into the house. Within moments, the clanking stopped and silence fell over the rolling hills once again. 

Just another normal day, Rissa thought, as she surveyed the day's mail scattered in gay abandon across the landscape. 

It's Check In Day at the Rogue's Angels blog: We are inviting you to share an excerpt from your first published novel.

It's Check In Day.

Time to pay the piper! How did you do? How much did you write? Did words explode on your WIP?

This is the Rogue's Angels weekly check-in. Every Thursday we encourage the Angels and visitors to let us know how their writing is going.

How well are you doing?

Had problems this week? That's ok. Just sit down this coming week and write. Whatever you do, don't let difficulties from the week before get in your way this week.

Every word is one word closer to the finished product.

Still working on Sweet Talkin' Sugar. Finished the rough draft and now I'm on edits.

How was your week?

Please feel free to share, seven words, seven sentences or seven paragraphs in the comment section.

Dakota's Bride was first published by Kensington. I received the rights for this book a few years ago and it is now published with Rogue Phoenix Press. This was my first published novel and it changed my life.

Excerpt from Dakota's Bride:

She touched her top lip with the tip of her tongue. Her satin-covered breasts brushed across his arm as she set her glass on the table. When the piano started up again, she turned to look, her breasts swaying evocatively and her skirts rising higher to give him a glimpse of slim legs and beautiful thighs. With the slight movement the silver bells around her wrist sang magically.

She was a born tease, just like every other white woman. She meant to tempt him, wanted his money and whatever else she could gain from him. It seemed she could hold her liquor as well as any man.

Then she smiled at him, all pretense gone.

Dakota had no way to explain the rapid exhilaration of his heart or the tightening of his most private parts. Everything about the woman appealed to him. Her eyes held him spellbound and suggested an intimacy he could only guess at. Her body was curved and soft. When she sat down, the bodice of her dress was stretched and pulled against her lovely nipples that had tightened into hard little buds.

"Join me. You'll bring me luck." He didn't give her time to accept or reject the invitation. He settled her on his lap, one hand resting on her waist, his fingers splayed upward, hoping for forbidden fruit, knowing that before this night ended, he would taste what she so casually offered. He felt the weight of her breasts against the back of his hand.

He tapped his cards on the table.

She poured another drink for herself and seemed fasci­nated to watch the gambling, following every move with a slight tilt to her head.