Bell Bridge Books

NOT FOR EVERYONE!

by Susan Kearney

What’s an author to do when she loves to write stories that some readers won’t even try?  It’s a dilemma because writers need to pay their bills like everyone else, so we want to be popular with readers. At the same time, my taste has always been a bit outside the norm.  Okay, if I’m honest, my taste is far from the norm.  And when I wrote my first futuristic romance, the Rystani series, the books were way, way out there.  Readers either loved or hated them.  But I learned that many readers simply heard the word futuristic and thought–it’s not for me.  The reasons were varied and  interesting for not even giving the books a try.  Some thought it would be too techie, too weird, too hard to understand or simply didn’t think they could relate.  So I set out to write a book that would ease non-readers of futuristic romance into the genre.  Lunar Heat was that story and  I set the book mostly on Earth.  I made sure to make one character an earth woman.  Okay, I gave her a man from another world to love and a mission that tests her morally, emotionally and physically.  And the romance had to be steamy.  So I finished the book and you’d think an author’s work would be done, right?  Wrong.

The next step was working on a cover.  Lucky for me I got to pick the cover models, was there for the shoot and had a lot of say in the cover art.  I wanted romance and a mood that would be inviting to romance readers.  The cover was so important because I wanted to depict romance, because that’s what the story is.  It’s romance that just happens to be set in the near future.  And if there’s a side trip to the moon, please don’t let that throw you.  It’s fun.  And I promise…the science is underwhelming.  So if you’ve never read a futuristic, I urge you to give this book a try.  Perhaps you’ll fall in love with a new genre and even want to read the sequel Solar Heat.  Um, got to admit, I when a bit further out into the galaxy on that one.  🙂

     Pick up LUNAR HEAT for just $1.99 through December! 

And make sure you pick up the sequel – SOLAR HEAT! 

An Attitude of Gratitude

by Sparkle Abbey

We recently had an opportunity to chat with some readers about family traditions. Our biggest take-away from those conversations was, it’s all about attitude. So many talked about how, though they love family traditions, things were going to be different this year. For some, they’d become empty-nesters, for others they’d lost someone dear, and for still others, there were new additions to their families.

We’ve both had our share of life changes this past year and the stories these readers shared reminded us that whether a happy change or a sad one, change requires adjustments. And the main thing you have to adjust is your attitude.

There is joy in remembering times past and in making new memories.

There is joy in carrying on traditions, but perhaps adapting them to include new family members.

There is joy in beginning new traditions—maybe enjoying a quiet dinner, catching a movie, or taking a drive to see the holiday lights.

Or maybe your quiet get-together has become a rollicking feast with new little ones, or new in-laws, or outlaws. There can be joy in that change too.

As 2015 comes to a close and we reflect on all the changes (both good and bad) we’ve experienced this year, we hope to remember the stories that were shared.

And we hope we remember to find the joy.

Sparkle Abbey is the pseudonym of mystery authors Mary Lee Woods and Anita Carter. They write a national bestselling pet themed mystery series set in Laguna Beach. The first book in the series Desperate Housedogs, an Amazon Mystery Series bestseller and Barnes & Noble Nook #1 bestseller, was followed by Get Fluffy, Kitty Kitty Bang Bang, Yip/Tuck, Fifty Shades of Greyhound, and The Girl with the Dachshund Tattoo. Downton Tabby is the latest installment in the series. Up next is Raiders of the Lost Bark. www.SparkleAbbey.com

Downton Tabby is currently a

Kindle Daily Deal at $1.99

www.amazon.com/ B00VVOYB86

Val Shapiro’s 10 tips for living as a part succubus (lust demon)

 by Parker Blue

1. Never tell full humans about the demon part of you—unless you want to be treated like a monster.

2. Find the closest Demon Underground to meet other demons. They’ll understand what you’re going through and help keep you sane.

3. Don’t use your powers too much or they’ll become addictive. Unless you want to go around hoovering up lustful energy from every guy you meet. And don’t let men get too close—they can’t control their urges around you.

4. On the other hand, don’t suppress your demon side too much or it could burst free at the worst possible time, like when you’re with a guy you really, really want to impress.

5. Find a healthy, safe way to express your lust . . . like slaying vampires.

6. Remember, not all vampires are evil. Some are even rather sexy. Slay the bad ones. Leave the members of the New Blood Movement alone.

7. Don’t date full humans. They don’t understand your need for sucking up lustful energy and it’s too easy to drain them by accident. It’s not a good idea to leave mindless husks in your wake.

8. Never forget that while you can force men to do whatever you want, women are immune to your powers. Well, your lustful ones anyway. You can still use your strength and speed against them. Unless they’re female vampires. Then use male vampires against them.

9. Don’t cash your V-card too early—unless you want to lose your powers.

10. Find a hellhound to partner with. They can be a pain, but they’re great at watching your back and providing a furry shoulder to cuddle with when you need it.

BITE ME is free to buy til January! Pick it up quick!

And don’t forget to finish off the rest of the Demon Underground Series! Just click the links below! 

Exclusive excerpt from Book 10 of The Vampires in America Series! Read it below and click the cover to preview! 

It’s too dangerous for you to stay here…”

Natalie’s unease at what he was saying overrode her irritation at his tendency to give orders. “Dangerous? Do you really think—?”

“That Anthony would hurt you?” Christian studied her for a moment, as if trying to decide if he should tell her the truth, as if wondering whether she could handle it.

“Tell me the truth,” she demanded.

His lips tightened briefly, and he said, “Yes.”

“But he’s never done anything like that before.”

“And he’d probably regret it. But in the final analysis, only one person matters to Anthony, and that’s Anthony. I don’t believe for a minute that he plans to retire quietly to New Orleans. He has a game in play that will maximize his own power and wealth after the succession. We just don’t know what it is yet. But whatever it is, I’ve spoiled it for him, and he’ll do what it takes to get rid of me. He wants you for

himself—”

She opened her mouth to protest, but he continued.

“—I can see it in the way he looks at you. He covets you, as if you’re already his. He may even have convinced himself he loves you, or that you love him. But if he gets angry enough, he’ll hurt you. Either to claim you for himself, or to get to me.” He stepped closer in the confined space, cupping her cheek in his big hand. “You matter to me. Anthony knows that.”

Natalie looked up at him, unable to stop herself from leaning in until her breasts nearly touched him. Her chest felt constricted, her heart too big for the space, pounding in her ears until it was all she could hear. Christian tightened the fingers of his other hand around her hip, pulling her in until there was no space between them, and the tips of her breasts scraped the thick muscles of his chest. His gaze traveled over her face, lingering on her lips, and she knew he was going to kiss her.

When his mouth met hers, her lips were already open in welcome. She expected to be ravished, but was enticed instead, his lips caressing hers with delicate, sliding kisses, his tongue quick and teasing, until she went up on her toes, and pressed her mouth to his to demand more. She felt his smile against her lips, felt him shift the angle of her head as he sank deeper into her, as his tongue swept forcefully into her mouth, stroking, tasting. Natalie wrapped her arms around his neck with a pleasured sigh. She couldn’t remember wanting anyone the way she did Christian. She was hungry for him. Every inch of her longed for him, from the ache between her thighs to the swell of her breasts, and everything above and below.

But he was being so careful with her. As if she were something fragile, as if he had to hold himself back. She wasn’t terribly experienced. Hell, she’d never experienced a man like Christian. But she wasn’t going to break, either. And she didn’t want him to hold back.

She boldly closed her teeth over his lower lip, stopping just short of drawing blood, shivering as his growled response rolled down her throat, trembling deep between her thighs, and knotting her nipples into hard peaks. His arm tightened around her back as he jerked her even closer.

“Careful, ma chére, or you’ll get what you ask for.”

“Good,” she whispered fiercely.

About the author: 

D.B. Reynolds is the RT Award-winning author of the Vampires in America series of paranormal romance, and an Emmy-nominated television sound editor. She lives with her husband of many years in a flammable canyon near Los Angeles, and when she’s not writing her own books, she can usually be found reading someone else’s. Visit her blog at www.dbreynolds.com for details on all of her books, for free stories and more.

Persephone Tells All—Fear, Power, and Life With Hades

by Kaitlin Bevis

If you want to know a culture’s fears, study their stories. Fears resonate. They keep us talking, keep us telling the story, because as long as it’s a story, it’s happening to someone else. There’s a reason the Persephone myth is one of the five major myths taught to school children everywhere. There’s a reason echoes of this myth keep popping up in modern culture, sometimes as overtly as my retellings, and other times as subtle as Beauty and the Beast. We tell the same story over and over and over again because it scares us. Something about that myth leaves people feeling unsettled. There’s a wrongness to it that demands to be fixed. So throughout time, we’ve told it again and again, hoping that maybe this time, we’d get it right.

What is it about the Persephone myth that resonates so much with us? On its surface, the answer is simple. Persephone is, at its heart, the story of a mother searching for her daughter. As a mother, I can literally not even imagine the depths of the fear of not knowing where my daughter is, or worse, knowing exactly what horrible place she’s been taken to, but not being able to save her. There is nothing I wouldn’t do to keep her save, and goddess help anyone who gets in my way.

But there’s more than that. There has to be, because as a mom, I get the universal fear behind the myth, but I was fascinated with it long before I became a mother. The most common audience for the Persephone myth aren’t parents, but children. Specifically children on the cusp of adulthood. Teenagers. And I know why.

The myth is incomplete. In the original telling, we know all about Demeter’s fears and motives. We trace her steps through history as she scours the globe looking for her daughter. We glimpse the politics of Olympus enough to understand Zeus’ motives for allowing Hades to take Persephone and the drastic events that had to take place before he relented and returned the missing girl. We’re there for Hades catching a glimpse of Persephone for the first time, and we get his rationale and his motives for why he took her. We even get motives from nymphs and primordial deities with such minor roles that they get written out of most versions of the myth. Literally the only voice missing from the Persephone myth is Persephone’s.

Persephone was silenced, but the impact of her abduction is apparent. Her mythology begins with her as an innocent, carefree, happy girl picking flowers and ends with her role as the Iron Queen, a major force to be reckoned with mythologically speaking. Her name even changes. She has the ultimate coming of age story and she doesn’t even get to tell it.

We’re not just afraid of losing our children, we’re afraid of losing ourselves and our voices. And that fear repeats itself over and over and over again in Greek mythology. Ovid wrote an entire book about transformation in Greek mythology. Cassandra gained an awesome power, only to lose her voice and go insane. We pay the ferryman two coins to take us across the river because the potential of being thrown in Tartarus is less frightening than the thought of being stuck on the wrong side of the river, alone and ignored. Orpheus was featured just as prominently in Greek mythology as Hercules and literally the only superpower he had was the ability to make people listen.

I wanted to tell Persephone’s story. I wanted to get into her head and understand her transformation into the Iron Queen. I changed details here and there and I modernized the story, but I did my best to stay true to the spirit of the myth. One of the ways I did that was through the book titles. In the myth, Persephone was defined by her titles.

Book one, Persephone, is about her transformation from an ordinary girl named Kora, to Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld. It’s the story of her abduction. Her time in the Underworld changes her, but her story doesn’t end there.

I called the second one Daughter of the Earth and Sky because in the myth, Persephone’s value was placed in her role to other people. She was Demeter’s daughter, Zeus’ daughter and pawn, and Hades’ wife. The second book in the trilogy is all about Persephone trying, and failing, to balance all of her roles and the expectations that come with them without losing herself in the process. She starts the book clinging to the remnants of her old life and trying to make them fit into what she thinks her new life should be. She’s so afraid of who she might be becoming that she loses sight of who she is.

In the myths, it wasn’t until she came into her own as The Iron Queen that Persephone was referred to as a person in her own right instead of an object. Book three Persephone is a force to be reckoned with. Writing that, reaching that point with her character, was an incredible awarding experience that settled the sense of wrongness hearing the myth had left me with. I can only hope reading it does the same thing.

Pick up the first two books of The Daughters of Zeus series today!

And make sure you grab THE IRON QUEEN

available for pre order!

Get into the holiday spirit with this yummy recipe

from Skye Taylor’s novel – TRUSTING WILL (The third

in The Camerons of Tide’s Way)

Blueberry & white chocolate Scones – from Sandy Cameron’s Kitchen

2 cups flour                              4 TBSP butter melted or veg oil

1 tsp salt                                   2 eggs

1/3 cup sugar                           ½ cup cream or milk

4 tsp baking powder                 1 cup frozen  blueberries (or raspberries​)

½ cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°

Stir all dry ingredients together, then add butter, eggs, cream or milk and mix well.

Fold in berries and chocolate bits.

Spoon onto baking sheet lined with foil and sprayed with Pam. Sprinkle tops with a little white sugar if desired. Bake for 20 minutes until bottoms of scones are lightly browned and top springs back with pressed with finger.  Eat still warm from oven or cool.

Go grab FALLING FOR ZOEY and LOVING  MEG today!

And make sure you grab TRUSTING WILL – coming soon! 

TIKI ROAD TRIPS AND FLAMING COCKTAILS

by Jill Marie Landis

According to Wikipedia (and we all know how reliable Wikipedia is!) the tortured artist is both a stock character and a real-life stereotype. Artists who suffer for their work often succumb to self-mutilation, a high rate of suicide, hours of therapy and/or gallons of Ben and Jerry’s.

I wouldn’t exactly describe myself as a tortured artist, but I will go to just about any length in the name of research. When I wrote western historical romances, I rode horses and rounded up cattle. I watered down pigs. I’ve visited so many historical sites and museums that my husband now punches the car accelerator as we approach any building or rock that might be sporting an historical marker.

Since I began writing The Tiki Goddess Mystery Series for Belle Books, I’ve gone overboard doing research. I’ve devoted countless hours to paging through Pintrest, pinning photos with the subject heading “Tiki.”  I’ve shopped eBay for tiki mugs to add to my collection. I’ve spent many a night in the local watering hole here on Kauai writing notes on cocktail napkins and taste testing umbrella drinks. An author’s life is one of sacrifice. Believe me, I’ll go to any length to get things right on the page.

So, in the name of research, I’ve visited Tiki Bars on Kauai and on every other Hawaiian Island. When we’re on the mainland (you know it as the continental US), I refer to my handy dandy “Tiki Road Trip, A Guide to Tiki Culture in North America” by James Teitelbaum. I’ve been in tiki bars in some of the most unlikely, out of the way places in the world and lived to tell about it.

I’ll have to admit my husband and our dinner guests were surprised on evening when I walked into the kitchen armed with a long handled gas lighter and a fire extinquisher. I explained I’d decided to create a recipe to include in TOO HOT FOUR HULA, Book 4, the latest of the Tiki Goddess Mysteries and I needed assistance.

I handed my friend and fellow author, Stella Cameron, a fire extinguisher. As I recall, I said something like, “Stand back Stella, and if I blow myself up, use that thing!”

Stella laughed until I started lining up the ingredients which included chocolate candy kisses and three kinds of liquor, one of which was a bottle of 151 Proof rum, the liquor most mixologists recommended for igniting a flaming cocktail.

That night “The Flaming Manic Monkey” cocktail was born. The drink was inspired by a scene in TOO HOT FOR HULA when Uncle Louie relates a trek to the Amazon in search of the legendary Amethyst Monkey Skull.

Thankfully, Stella didn’t have to use the extinguisher after all because we later noticed that warranty on the thing expired ten years ago!

Do stop by and visit me at www.thetikigoddess.com and sign up for my newsletter and read other fun blogs.

Don’t forget to grab Jill Marie Landis’s newest release

– TOO HOT FOUR HULA –

out today!!

Just click the link above!

And make sure you grab the other fabulous books in the Tiki Goddess Series! Just click the links below!

BE CAREFUL WITH THE LITTLE DETAILS

by Melissa Ford

The first thing you need to know is that I don’t know a lot about television.  I watch whatever my husband puts on at night, and if he doesn’t turn on the television, then it wouldn’t occur to me to choose something myself.  One time my husband went to Berlin for ten days. When he returned and clicked on the television, it was still set to ESPN which he was watching before he left.  He looked at me and said, “you either missed me so much that you watched sports… or you didn’t turn on the television for a week and a half.”  Ding, ding, ding!  We have a winner.

The second thing you need to know is that when we were making Bermuda shorts in our Home Ec class in eighth grade, I didn’t align the front and the back properly so the fabric pattern went in two different directions.  I had hand-stitched my shorts together because I couldn’t get a hang of the sewing machine, and the fabric puckered strangely between the holes in the seam.

I know nothing about television and nothing about sewing.  So why did I make one character in Apart at the Seams a writer for a comedy news show, and the other a finisher for a clothing designer?

It was sort of by accident.  Noah and Arianna were supposed to be minor characters, meant to help hold up the plotline, but they were thrust into the spotlight when we decided to tell the same story over two books from two very different points of view.  If these two characters were a television writer and a finisher in Measure of Love, then they needed to have the same jobs when the story flipped over and was told from their point of view in Apart at the Seams.

The moral of this story is to be careful with even the little, throwaway details.

I was lucky in that a bunch of kind people in New York jumped in to teach me their craft so I could create a believable television writer and finisher.  Jill Katz at the Daily Show brought me to the set and taught me what goes into crafting a half hour comedy show from script to performance.  She didn’t even roll her eyes when I meekly asked her what the man working the camera was called.

And Brenda Mikel, the Atelier Director at Narciso Rodriguez, spent hours walking me through the process of designing clothing. It’s thanks to her that Arianna attaches sequins before the pattern is cut rather than after as she did in the first draft of the book.  There was no question too basic that Brenda didn’t take time out of her busy schedule to answer thoughtfully.

I’m grateful for all the people who stepped in to help bring veracity to the characters and storyline.  Though next time, I’m going to stick with what I know and make my character a women’s fiction writer, working out of her house.  Then again… it was pretty cool to see the Daily Show in action…

Make sure you grab Melissa Ford’s new release

– APART AT THE SEAMS-

out on June 14!!

Just click the link above!

And don’t forget to grab the first two books in this series – LIFE FROM SCRATCH and MEASURE OF LOVE!

Just click the links below!

We are RE-VAMPING the entire Vampires in America series! 

 RAPHAEL, SOPHIA, ADEN, JABRIL, and RAJMUND have all been given new covers…..

And now DUNCAN – Book 5 in the Vampires in America series is being revealed!

   Just click the links and you’ll be taken to Amazon where you can get this entire series with the new covers! Don’t wait! 

This series by D.B. Reynolds is just too good to miss out on!

BONKERS IN BOCA

by Miriam Auerbach

Boca Raton, Florida, has been hailed as the Beverly Hills of the East Coast.  Now, to me, that’s a claim that cries out for corroboration.  So let’s see – what are the commonalities between Beverly Hills and Boca?  Opulent mansions and beautiful shopping areas?  Check.  Young blonde women precariously balancing a size sixteen stack atop a size two tuchus?  Check.  But frankly, I think they’ve got it backwards – it should be Beverly Hills that aspires to be the Boca of the West Coast.  After all, we’ve got some home-grown beauts that they can’t shake a stick at.  Namely, we’ve got Boca Babes.  What is a Boca Babe?  Here are some clues:

• If you live in a house the size of a jumbo jet hangar, then you are likely a Boca Babe.
• If Neiman Marcus is #1 on your cell phone speed dial, you might be a Boca Babe.
• If you’ve had diamond studs soldered into your earlobes, you could be a Boca Babe.
• If your dog owns more clothing and toys that some people’s children, you just might be a Boca Babe.
• If the only thing you know how to make for dinner is reservations, you are probably a Boca Babe.
• And if you are all these things but you’ve hit the big 4-0, then you’re no longer a Boca Babe – you’re now a Botox Babe.

My series protagonist, Harriet Horowitz, is an ex-Boca Babe.  Why an ex?  Here’s the thing: a rich husband, no matter how revolting, is the price of admission to the Boca Babe Club.  Harriet’s husband was indeed revolting.  He abused her for ten years.  Finally she’d had enough.  One day when her husband raised his fists at her one last time, she told him, in the words of movie anti-hero Dirty Harry, “Go ahead – make my day.” He obliged, and she shot him through the heart – with his (now hers) .44 Magnum.

Harriet’s act was ruled justifiable homicide, and she embarked on a new identity – Dirty Harriet – and new life.  She sold everything, bought a Harley, and moved to a desolate cabin in the Everglades.  She swapped swank for swamp, indulgence for independence.

Harriet embarked on a new career as well: she opened up her own private eye agency, ScamBusters.  And business is booming.  Boca’s got a slew of scams.  Investment scams, insurance scams, immigration scams – you name it, we’ve got it.

So Harriet is doing just fine as a ScamBuster.  But occasionally, murder intrudes.  In my third Dirty Harriet mystery, DEAD IN BOCA, a prominent Boca developer hires Harriet to find the con artist who stole his elderly mother’s heart and identity.  It’s just another routine case for ScamBusters – that is, until Harriet’s client is murdered when he’s buried by a bulldozer at one of his construction sites.  The dead man’s new bride asks Harriet to continue the search for the con man, who just may – or may not – be the killer.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get back to my work in progress.  But first, I’ve got to head to the salon to get twelve subtle shades of highlights put in my hair.  After all, this is Boca – we’ve all got to keep up appearances.

 Make sure you grab Miriam’s newest release, DEAD IN BOCA, the third in the Dirty Harriet Mystery Series OUT NOW!!!

And don’t forget to grab the first two in this awesome series!!