I
am so honored and excited to announce that my paperback copy of Nova Swoons
2026 – an anthology by Nova Scotia romance authors about Nova Scotians –
arrived today.
It
has 13 Nova Scotian romance authors featured, including myself, and my friend
Cathryn Fox, who is a best selling romance author known for her sports
romances.
The
excerpt from Stricken (Feathered Tartan 1) is on Page 6, and is two pages long.
It’s an interaction between Marti and Ewan not long before their reconciliation,
and shows the sexual tension building between them, and their bond growing
again.
If
you live in Nova Scotia, you can get a paperback copy for the price of
shipping.
If
you want to purchase a copy of Stricken (Feathered Tartan 1), you can find it
at your favorite store via Books2Read: https://books2read.com/b/3n8Qr9
Many
thanks to Andy Verboom, the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS), Association
of Romance Writers of Atlantic Canada for their hard work and creating this
amazing anthology, and Tina at Extasy Books for allowing me to submit an
excerpt from Stricken in the debut edition of Nova Swoons.
Set in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Stricken is the second chance romance for Ewan Campbell and Marti Marlowe.
Cover art by Syneca Featherstone.
Stricken
(Feathered Tartan 1)
Love deserves a
second chance.
Ewan
Campbell once thought he had it all – he was a rising star in the real estate
field, popular with his peers, and engaged to his employer’s cousin, the shy
and quiet little Marti Marlowe.
A
heartbeat later, he was alone—shattered, confused and suicidal. Why had Marti
walked away from him?
Years
later, in another place and a new chapter of Ewan's life, fate brings them face
to face again.
They
start building a friendship, but Ewan wants more. He wants Marti as his wife,
while she seems to prefer their current status as friends.
Can
he convince her that taking another chance at their failed future will be the
start of the best part of their lives?
Have
an amazing weekend everyone!
I leave you with another love song… “After All” by
Cher and Peter Cetera. It reminds me a lot of Ewan and Marti, and how they
found their way back to each other after so long being apart. Enjoy!
Before I drop the
update, I want to express my deepest love and sympathy for all affected by the
mass shooting at a junior high school in Tumbler
Ridge, British Columbia earlier this week.
I want to stress that
the focus should be on the victims – those who were in the school at the
time, their families and the community in general – nothing else. Those kids, their teachers and anyone else in
that area will probably need a lot of counseling, probably for the rest of their
lives, due to this tragic incident.
I will also stress
that my areas are not platforms for debating, promoting hate,
political stances or anything controversial in nature. Anyone who drops hate on
this blog’s comments or anywhere else, and tries to use my areas as
soapboxes or anything else that is not related to the victims and expressing
sadness over the shooting will be immediately ejected and if possible, blocked. I
have no tolerance for hate toward my fellow LGBT+ community members, and less
tolerance for any hate toward my trans siblings. I also will not tolerate anyone
mentioning the name of the shooter. It is disrespectful to the victims, their
families, the survivors and the community in general. Thank you.
Here’s some
information about Tumbler Ridge and the second largest school shooting in
Canadian history.
Trivia: The
largest mass shooting ever in Canadian history happened between April 18 &
19, 2020, here in Portapique, Nova Scotia, with a total of 22 innocent lives
lost.
Nova Swoons
Anthology
It
is with great honor and excitement that I announce that the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia has
released its first romance anthology featuring Nova Scotian romance authors…
And an excerpt from one of my books is in it!
Nova Swoons came
to my attention when another Nova Scotian romance author and friend of mine
shared it in Facebook. I was intrigued and wanted to participate if they would
accept something from a little known author. I didn’t want to include part of a
story that’s not protected by a publisher or my own productions company as an
Indie work, so I debated which book to feature, from either Decadent
Publishing, or Extasy Books.
I
got permission from Extasy Books to share a short excerpt from one of my books
published with them. It wasn’t an easy choice, considering I have six books out
with them, and all of them have gotten high reviews. In the end I chose the one
story that stands out for me, as its writer.
I
chose a short excerpt from Chapter 7 of Stricken
(Feathered Tartan 1). This shows an interaction between the two main
characters, Ewan and Marti, and how they’re starting to reconnect even though
they’re not back together at this point in the story.
Nova Swoons is
free to download in PDF form, or in print for cost of shipping in Canada. (I am
not sure if they ship outside of Canada, but the digital version is available
no matter where you are).
It
is such a thrill to be a part of this amazing anthology! Thank you so much to
the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia for featuring Stricken in it, and thank
you so much to Tina at Extasy Books for allowing me to submit an excerpt from
my debut novel to the collection!
Featured Authors (all are from Nova Scotia, Canada):
Things
are slow going writing wise. I’ve been knocked flat due to various health
concerns. Although my glucose is almost back to normal range (thank you
insulin!), my iron stores have bottomed out, and I think at this point, I may
be anemic. Joy oh bliss.
Since
the iron supplements didn’t do anything other than make me feel icky, it’s been
decided that I’m going to get at least one iron infusion – via I.V. Fun, eh?
Not! It’s not as invasive as a blood transfusion, but still not as easy to deal
with as something like my occipital nerve injections (more on that later!). I’m
going in to Dartmouth next week for round one, and I have to get my blood
checked 6 weeks after that to see how things are progressing. If the levels are
still low, I’m going in for another one. Yay – not!!! I can’t drive afterwards
due to it being a bit hard on the system, so that will be fun, me walking
around Princess Auto afterwards and other spots, half out of my tree thanks to
being wonky from the infusion. Another round of fun…. Good grief.
Hopefully
all improves with this one infusion. I hate being even a little out of my faculties,
even for a few hours. The colonoscopy I had in November had me driven bonkers.
I was out for about an hour for it, and slept for almost an hour afterwards,
not really remembering much even after the sedation wore off. I didn’t sleep
the afternoon away but wasn’t fully “with it” either. Ugh! (I’m cancer free, by
the way, and asked for one – one of my best pals, my “adopted big bro” Glen
passed due to colon cancer in July 2025, and I miss him horribly).
Nerve block news: I have
a new doctor for the occipital nerve blocks. He’s from the United States and
knows his stuff. No offense to my previous doc for this, but Dr. F has light
years on what Dr. J could help me with.
I
first started seeing Dr. F in September at the Victoria General Hospital in
Halifax, after a long waiting time to get into any pain clinics that specialize
in nerve damage and nerve pain, notably neuralgias which are in the nerves
around the head and neck. After a long chat with him to get my history and what
meds didn’t work for me (99.9% of the meds on the market will or gave me
horrible side effects), we decided that I would get multiple blocks all over my
head, parts of my face where he could zap the trigeminal nerve, and a lot of
the branches of the occipital nerves (greater and lesser) and other nerves
around my skull. Heck he even gave me a few injections where the occipital
nerves exit the spine at C2 in my neck.
It
was the most relief I had had from the occipital neuralgia pain I’ve ever had.
I get 10 to 20 injections every six to seven weeks, and since the amount of
xylocaine I’m getting covers most of my scalp, the pain relief lasts much
longer. I’m able to function for those six weeks without a lot of pain, and
without that damn occipital migraine I used to get at the back of the skull. It
hurts like mother-effing hell but it’s worth being able to function.
I’m
also taking a new to me medication for the trigeminal neuralgia. It’s called Lamotrigine, and it’s the least invasive
medication Dr. F could find that wasn’t related to the carbamazepine/tegretol,
gabapentin or anything else that would produce wonky side effects. So far, the
worst I’m experiencing – 4 weeks into the regime – is a dry mouth. Although it’s
annoying, I am still in charge of my faculties and happy to say that even with
the damn iron deficiency, I’m as alert and snarky as ever. I don’t have a drop
in the pain levels but it does take a while to build up in the system, so it
could start working in a few months. As long as I don’t experience anything
like I did even after 3 days on the gabapentin, I’ll be happy. If I get on
something that messes with my brain and makes me loopy doopy, I’ll stop taking
it. I’d rather be in agony and be alert than be in pain and wonky as hell.
Writing
Thorns of the Rose is
still under production although I think I have surpassed the halfway point, and
hopefully I’ll see the light at the end of the draft one tunnel later this year
or early next year. I’m still planning to publish it sometime in 2028, either
via a trad house, or my own production company.
His Reasons to
Fight
is still on the back burner until I figure out if it’ll be an Indie book or
not.
Amethyst Rose
Productions
I
finally got around to settling on a permanent name for my design business,
which I hope to get registered with the province or federally sometime soon.
Maybe when we get the car paid off?
Amethyst Rose
Productions was soft launched last year, with the creation of a
book cover for L Higginson – The Eater of
Suffering. Its official launch was in January 2026, and I designed the logo
myself. It’s a purple wild rose, done in metallic acrylics on a piece of wood
that I scanned into the computer. All hand drawn and painted. No generative AI
shit used. (Generative AI is garbage – it wrecks the environment and steals
work by other creatives, I hate it!)
The
cover for The Eater of Suffering was
painted in acrylics on canvas board, scanned into the computer, cleaned up and
had its lettering and leaves added in Affinity Photo V2 (the paid version, not
the free one that Canva owns). Take a gander at this. It’s my best work yet!
I
read it, and it’s an amazing story. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes suspense
and psychological thrillers. I had to get a copy of it to support L’s writing,
especially since she commissioned me to do her cover.
I’ve
also been doing a lot of painting and drawing/doodling to improve my drawing
skills. In fact, I drew my own caricature on paper using colored pencils for
fun, and a lot of other things. No, I’m not comfy showing them here because
they stink, and honestly, there are several people out there who will download
my work without permission which is a copyright violation. Plus it will be “scraped”
for generative AI purposes and no way am I allowing that. (I haven’t figured
out how to use Nightshade yet, so I may have to switch to another format for
glazing/poisoning the work).
That’s
what’s been happening in my world.
To
wrap things up, here’s an oldie but a goodie… “Love Song” by Tesla.
Anyone
who has known me since childhood knows I’ve always been a creative type. I’ve
always loved music and singing even though I can’t play an instrument to save
my life (I can read music though) or sing for the life of me, the writing has
always come naturally for me once I realized I loved it and my Grade 4 teacher
at Petite Riviere Elementary School,
Mrs. Hache, told me I had a knack for spinning a tale.
Another
thing I loved doing was drawing. I was drawing since I was about six or seven
years old, and always seemed to draw something to go with any of the short
stories I wrote for my teachers, notably from about grade 2 and up through
elementary school. I can still see one story about my longtime pal Cindy and me
going to a Bryan Adams concert hanging on Mrs. Hache’s bulletin board in her
classroom, she loved it so much, and there was a picture I drew of me and Cindy
included with it.
Unfortunately,
I gave it up after a while. I got so many hateful and downright mean comments
about it that when I got in with the rougher crowd (think the ones who smoked,
didn’t do their school work and more) in junior high that I gave it up. It
seemed that only the geeky kids took stuff like art class in the higher grades,
and some told me I didn’t have what it takes to be an artist. That upset me
because my great uncle Howard (Shankle) was a well-known woodlands painter in
Canada and parts of the United States, and he was one of the few people who
encouraged me – along with my mom and some of my teachers – to keep up with the
art, they thought I had a lot of potential. So I set aside my pencils and pens,
and started focusing more on the writing.
All
of you know how the writing turned out… My debut novel, Stricken (which is now the first book of The Feathered Tartan series!),
came out in March 2017, and I am seeing my seventh book, Could Have Been (Feathered Tartan 4), published by Extasy Books
later this spring… Two of my published books, Away to Me and Honestly
(Feathered Tartan 3), have received the Extasy Books’ Editor’s Choice Seal
of Excellence, meaning they are among the
cream of the crop when it comes to Extasy’s expansive top of the line
stories… which is saying something considering we have tons of talented authors
with amazing books published via Extasy!
Recently,
I realized that in order to expand my itty bitty art business, I’d better get
on the ball and start making ultra-unique items, like drawings and more, all
created by me. On paper. Not AI generated (I don’t like it, anyone who knows me
knows why!) and I do not want to use stock photos or anything else generated by
another human. I want to be able to create one of a kind drawings and paintings
with my own hands, for book cover art, and even unique pieces for
prints, and more – think selling stuff on art sites as a designer.
My
ultimate goal is to be able to draw my own characters like Ewan, Dana and
Joshua Campbell (for example), so my readers and others can see them as I do…
One of my author and art pals is in the middle of creating a webtoon for their
debut novel, a science fiction/dystopian story, and it’s so cool seeing their characters
as they see them.
I’d
love to be able to do that, but it won’t be for a long, long time.
For
one, I have to learn a few techniques. There’s more to drawing than just lines.
You have to learn things like shading, blending colors, and more. It’s
overwhelming at first, but I’m slowly getting used to holding a pencil
different ways, and looking at objects and people to see the shapes in them,
plus shading and different shades of colors, etc.
I
recently purchased a large art pencil set from Amazon. It includes various
pencils in varying hardness for drawing, outlining, shading and more; metallic
and regular color pencils; charcoal in white, black and green with various
hardness and softness; erasers, two pads (one for watercolors, one for plain
sketching); and the most coolest of all – watercolor pencils which you draw
with, then activate with water. It’s so awesome!
My new art pencil set... SO PRETTY!!!
I’ve
played with shading and drawing with the regular pencils, and recently did a
drawing using the black and green charcoals. Today is a fun day, I’m playing with
the watercolor pencils. They are so much fun to use! I love it.
I’m
not confident or good enough to share my work yet. It’s been ages since I last
picked up a drawing pencil or paint, and I’m so rusty that I’m creaking loudly…
Worse than a squeaky wheel.
It
does feel great to be doing it again after so long. I find it relaxing, and it’s
so nice to be able to see how much I’m improving even after a few tries at
something. I still have light years to go but I’m willing to walk that
distance.
Having
a few great friends and art mentors cheering me on is a huge help too. I can’t
thank them enough for their love and support!
I
am so happy right now. I’m expanding my horizons back to what they were when I
was a child. I’m writing, doing art on the computer as a graphics designer, and
on my own with pencils and paper.
Life
is so beautiful! I love this!
Have
a fantastic weekend everyone! I leave you with a new single from Godsmack, who
are one of my favorite bands. I can’t thank my longtime friend Lorrie L for
introducing them to me. I love Godsmack! Here’s the video for Truth.
It’s been a wild few weeks for me. Honestly is now in its final stages of
being proofed for publication, and I’ve been going insane promoting it with
posters including a countdown, making promos for it, organizing another takeover
bash in V.J.’s VIP Lounge, and even setting up a few more takeovers around
Facebook to help promote it even more.
We are six days away from it hitting the shelves at Extasy Books, and although I’m really
excited to have another release with them, I’m also a bit nervous. Honestly is my first venture into the
LGBTAQ+ romance realm, and although I was told I handled the topics featured in
it with sensitivity and respect, I’m hoping those in the LGBTAQ+ community
think I handled things the right way. People have told me they were happy to
see me representing pansexuality, bisexuality and people who were assigned the
wrong gender at birth – in Avery’s case, assigned female when in reality, he’s
a guy – so hopefully it goes over well with others out there, ones who are just
finding my work. Fingers crossed that people like it, and they fall in love
with Avery and Dana.
This story was not an easy one to write, but at the
same time, I am glad I wrote it. I’m hoping this book will help open the door
to have trans, non-binary, genderfluid and two spirited people as leading
characters in more mainstream romance novels, and others out there will see at
least a few of the problems they face with acceptance and such for just being
themselves.
As Dana’s cousin Ewan says in Honestly, “It’s not a crime
to be yourself, no matter what others think.”
I just wish the misguided and misinformed people out
there would see that instead of insisting everyone be in some neat little boxes
the misguided ones have in their minds…
Thanks to the staff at Extasy Books for featuring it
this time! I am so tickled and honored to be featured this week!
I’m hosting a release day party and birthday takeover
bash in my group, V.J.’s VIP Lounge
on August 19, 2022 from 10 AM to 10 PM Eastern Time. Honestly is coming out on my birthday this year, and I’m beyond
excited. It’s a double celebration, so I plan on living it up and having a
blast with a lot of my friends, new and old, and hopefully some readers that
day.
Everyone is welcome to come in
and join in the fun. My group is for authors and readers!
I will also be doing a Meet the
Author in Book Carousel on August 22, 2022, and I will be featuring Honestly, as well as my other books
published by Extasy Books.
To join in the fun, you can join
Book Carousel here:
Upcoming takeovers in Book
Carousel include Maggie Blackbird on August 15, 2022 and Kat Blackthorne on
September 19th.
As for my other work, I’m almost
finished the preliminary work on Feathered Tartan 4, which is a short story and
it is the first part of a duology within the series. It features Joshua
Campbell (Dana and Ewan’s cousin) who is dealing with a lot of issues. He meets
fiery redhead Lauren at a tropical resort, and one thing leads to another…
Warning: Feathered Tartan 4 will
not be a romance so to speak. It will not have a happy ever after or even a
happy for now. It will wrap up in Feathered Tartan 5, which I hope to write
immediately after Book 4 is drafted, so I can keep things rolling smoothly and
submit the two stories within a month of each other, IF I can do it. If not, I’ll
just have to hold back on submitting Book 4 until Book 5 is ready.
I’m so ready for Honestly to hit the shelves. It was over
3 years in the making, and I’m so happy everyone is finally going to see how
amazing Dana and Avery are. I love them dearly, and I hope all of you love them
as much as I do.
Don’t forget to check out Maggie
Blackbird’s hot new release, His Proposition, available now from Extasy Books!
Have an amazing weekend everyone!
My favorite band, Disturbed, recently released a new track, Hey You, from their
upcoming album that will be out later this year. I love it! I hope you enjoy it
as much as I do… Check it out!
One question that
has been asked several times ever since it came out that Avery D’Eon, the
leading man from Honestly, is a trans
man is…
“Why did you make Avery
trans?”
This is a question
I’ve asked myself several times over the course of the last 3 years, ever since
I came up with the idea to continue with the Feathered Tartan series, and
include Dana Campbell – Ewan Campbell’s cousin – as a lead in one of the books.
I’ve known since
the time I was writing the first ever draft of what eventually became Stricken that Dana wasn’t straight. I
thought at first she was bisexual or a lesbian, but that didn’t fit her
character. She’s outspoken, flirtatious, fun, and loves people for who they
are.
After sitting down
and thinking about her more, I realized she was pansexual.
As defined by Google:
pan·sex·u·al
/panˈsekSH(əw)əl/
adjective
1.not limited in sexual choice with regard to biological sex,
gender, or gender identity.
noun
1.a pansexual person.
Once I realized
that Dana wanted her own story written, I realized she needed an extremely
special person, someone who understood her sexuality and loved her sultry side,
but was enough to temper her outrageousness and over the top sense of humor.
That’s when I
started thinking along the lines of another LGBTAIQ+ person for her. I had
considered someone who had intersex qualities, but nixed it. I don’t know a lot
about intersex qualities to do everyone justice. I was scared it would turn out
highly crass. Maybe in the future, when I am more knowledgeable.
Finally, I started
thinking that a trans man would fit the bill for Dana’s love interest. Someone
who was kind, gentle, and didn’t mind taking a backseat to their vivacious
partner in life. However, he would have faced hatred, fear, and bigotry from
people in his former life for not being a cis person. He would move from one
part of the province to another, to be in a place where he could be himself
without prejudice.
For a while, I was
thinking that Avery could still be waiting to get his bottom surgeries done,
but after talking about it with some of my author pals, I realized it was best
for him and his interests, as well as my readers’ interests, that he have the
full operation – so he was able to stand up while at a urinal, and so he could penetrate
a woman or a man’s anus if he wanted to. For this story, it worked perfectly,
although do not be surprised if in the future, I write about someone who is
preop, or doesn’t want the affirming surgeries for their real gender. It does
happen, as mentioned in the book, but it just seemed more appropriate for Avery
and Dana.
Avery is bisexual, meaning he is attracted to men and women
sexually.
It was after Hubby
suggested that this story happen in one of our favorite towns, Annapolis Royal
on the Bay of Fundy – highest tides in the world! – that I decided Avery was
going to be Acadian, the French Canadians who live along the Fundy coast, and
in parts of New Brunswick.
His last name, D’Eon, is in loving memory of our
friend Vicki D’Eon, who was Marnie’s favorite caretaker at the shelter and who
became a dear friend of mine. She passed in 2020, and I miss her horribly.
Dana is Siksika, which is the First Nation in
southern Alberta. It’s a part of the Niitsítapi nation. Siksika means “Blackfoot”, it’s
taken from sik (black) and ika (foot) with an s connecting the two. She’s the youngest of the Campbell grandchildren,
and considers her cousins Ewan and Joshua to be more like brothers. I go more
into their relationship in Honestly –
Dana is staying with Ewan, Marti and their son at their summer home in
Annapolis Royal while Ewan helps set up a branch of Hutchinson-Campbell
Real Estate in that area. Let’s just say there’s a lot of stuff
flying around, from insults to inside jokes, and a few things even landing in
the pool…
Honestly was
written over a three year period. I had started it in 2019, but got distracted
with other stories, from getting Away to
Me and Under Your Scars ready for
Extasy Books, then Sweet Child of Mine
being written in 2020, and set on the back burner again with Eternity’s Gamble in 2021.
After Eternity’s
Gamble was finished, I promised myself I would finish Dana’s and Avery’s story,
come hell or high water.
I finally did it
in April of 2022, three years after I typed the first line of it. I sent it to
my beta reader K. Logan and my author pal JA LaFrance for a critique. It was
submitted to Extasy Books on May 28, 2022, and I got the contract for it on May
29th. The contract was signed the same day.
It’s now in edits
with my good friend and fellow Extasy Books author, Jon. He said he’ll have it
back to me sometime soon, possibly as early as next week. No sign of the cover
yet, but it takes time to create and perfect a cover. I know whatever Martine
or Angie sends me will be so pretty and be perfect for this book.
Many thanks to…
Cameron Allie
Dawn (DS) Dehel
Maggie Blackbird
Julie JA LaFrance
Krista Logan
Tina Haveman
Jay Austin
Jon Bradbury
I’m in between books at the moment… Track season is
still happening! My son made second place in the Districts for Shotput, then 3rd
in the Regionals and now is off to Stellarton for the Provincials on June 3rd.
I hope to start the first part of Joshua Campbell’s story – Could Have Been (working title) – once
things settle down. I’d like to have it come out around the holidays, it’s set
in December!
Have a great weekend everyone… Tonight I leave you
with the song that inspired the name of my upcoming book. HONESTLY by Stryper.
