Martini Club 4 – The 1920s with @Alicia_Dean_

I’d like to present Alicia Dean and friends, sharing a fun new series, the Martini Club. But before we dive into their stories, the four ladies each want to share a fun fact:

Amanda McCabe: Sometimes I get asked what is your favorite snack food that inspires you when writing? A kinda weird question, but I am always happy to talk about junk food! I love Dove Salted Caramel Dark Chocolates. And ice cream sandwiches–even in winter. What about you??

Alicia Dean: I modeled my hero, Vince, after Robert Redford.

Kathy L Wheeler: My daughter asked how I choose names for my characters, and I know it will not come as a surprise to my cohorts, but I keep a spreadsheet. And I alphabetize it. This is so I don’t choose all names that begin with “A”. Because I did do that one time and the story was entered in a contest. Guess what her comment was?

Krysta Scott: I am responsible for TV shows being cancelled. It’s true. If I start watching a show when the pilot airs, it hangs in the balance. Some examples are Roswell, Nowhere Man and most recently Believe. I can’t explain it. If I’m really into a show, the network is sure to hate it.

Martini Club 4 – The 1920s

A few years ago, myself and three of my writer friends—Amanda McCabe, Kathy L Wheeler, and Krysta Scott—began meeting each Friday evening (unless something extremely important kept one of us away, and trust me, it had to be IMPORTANT) for Martinis and various other libations, at the Martini Lounge in Edmond, Oklahoma. In time, we came to dub our gathering the ‘Martini Club.’ We unwind, vent, chat about writing, laugh, and strengthen an already strong bond of friendship. It’s not only fun, it’s beneficial. As all writers know, no other friend besides a writer friend truly understands us. (We also have an honorary MC member, Cindy Sorenson. Although she is a writer, she declined to write one of the stories, but she has been invaluable as far as brainstorming and beta reading. So, what else could we do…we named a character after her in the series!)

During one of these gatherings, one of us, and I can’t remember who, made an offhand remark about writing stories centered around the Martini Club. The idea blossomed from there, and the ‘Martini Club 4’ series was born. We thought it would be fun to set our first MC4 stories in the 1920’s, but we intend to write more in other decades in the future. During the planning, plotting, and writing, we have had a few weekend retreats that were loads of fun, and some were even productive. What a joy to do something that I love so much—writing—with a group of ladies that I love so much!
Martini Club authorsLeft to Right: Krysta Scott, Amanda McCabe, Kathy L Wheeler, Alicia Dean

Without further ado, I’d like to present the four novellas in our Martini Club – The 1920’s series.

*** Release date is February 26, 2015 and the price at that time will be $2.99 each. If you pre-order, they are only 99 cents each! ***

Please check out and ‘like’ our Facebook page. The entire series can be found at Amazon.

MC1-RebelliousCover200x316Rebellious: Martini Club 4 Series – The 1920s

Amanda McCabe

Blurb: Can an aristocratic lady melt the cold heart of a Russian gangster?

Lady Jessica Hatton fled her high-society London debutante life for one of investigative journalism in New York—only to be relegated to the fashion pages. Searching for a juicy story leads her to Club 501, the city’s most glamorous speakeasy—and its handsome, mysterious owner, Frank Markov. But his past of war and revolution puts their hearts—and their lives—in danger…

Amazon buy link: http://amzn.com/B00RICWBC8
Contact info: http://ammandamccabe.com

cover of RuinedRuined: Martini Club 4 Series – The 1920s
Alicia Dean

Blurb: She vowed she’d be no man’s doxy, but fate had other plans…

After the Earl of Goodwin attempts to force himself on her, housemaid Eliza Gilbert flees England for New York, hoping to build a better life. But the land of opportunity proves as harsh as the London docks, and she finds herself in a situation more dreadful than the one she escaped.

Former boxer, Vince “The Fist” Taggart dreams of marrying, having a family, and living a quiet, peaceful life. But when a girl he’s known since childhood disappears, he heads to New York in search of her and meets Eliza, a woman with a less than honorable reputation. Inexplicably captivated, Vince can’t force himself to stay away, especially when he learns Eliza is the key to finding his missing friend.

Amazon buy link: http://amzn.com/B00RICLM2I
Website: http://aliciadean.com
Blog:http://aliciadean.com/alicias-blog/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008364070487
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Alicia_Dean_
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/aliciamdean/

cover of RecklessReckless: Martini Club 4 Series – The 1920s
Kathy L Wheeler

Blurb: Lady Margaret turned Lady Bootlegger…

Singer Margaret (Meggie) Montley needs money…fast. Her friend is in a dire situation with nowhere to turn. While Meggie is on the brink of stardom, it’s not soon enough to save her friend.

Harry Dempsey is out to avenge the deaths of his father and brother at the hands of a ruthless gangster. But trouble spirals out of control when Meggie Montley shows up the night he meets his nemesis to settle the score. Saving the impetuous woman from a crime lord might be easier than saving her from her own reckless behavior.

Amazon buy link: http://amzn.com/B00RICW0G0

Contact info: kathy@klwheeler.com
Website: http://kathylwheeler.com
Blog: http://kathylwheeler.blogspot.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/kathylwheeler
Twitter: http://twitter.com/kathylwheeler
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/kathylwheeler

cover of RunawayRunaway: Martini Club 4 Series – The 1920s
Krysta Scott

Blurb: Can she prove her innocence before more than her dreams are destroyed?

After escaping an arranged marriage, Lady Charlotte Leighton lands on a new shore, determined to realize her dream of opening her own bakery. But her plans are shattered when her former fiancé follows her to New York. Now, she finds herself in a fight for her freedom.

Haunted by a string of failures, Detective Felix Noble is determined to solve his latest case. But his efforts to find a murderer are jeopardized by a forbidden attraction to his number one suspect. While he’s certain Charlotte Leighton is keeping secrets, instinct tells him she’s not the murderess he first believed.

Amazon buy link: http://amzn.com/B00RIFHGPC

Leave a comment below, and don’t forget to enter Linda’s Rafflecopter for a chance to win a $10 Amazon gift card & 2015 Mouse Pad Calendar.

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They Called Her Liberty… #RockingRomance by @KimHeadlee

Author Kim Headlee is here with some thoughts on romance and a peek at her latest release, Liberty, a historical romance set in Roman Britain, a Rocking Romance.

KH-Liberty-400x600Liberty
by Kim Headlee
Historical Romance

SYNOPSIS
They hailed her “Liberty,” but she was free only to obey—or die.

Betrayed by her father and sold as payment of a Roman tax debt to fight in Londinium’s arena, gladiatrix-slave Rhyddes feels like a wild beast in a gilded cage. Celtic warrior blood flows in her veins, but Roman masters own her body. She clings to her vow that no man shall claim her soul, though Marcus Calpurnius Aquila, son of the Roman governor, makes her yearn for a love she believes impossible.

Groomed to follow in his father’s footsteps and trapped in a politically advantageous betrothal, Aquila prefers the purity of combat on the amphitheater sands to the sinister intrigues of imperial politics, and the raw power and athletic grace of the flame-haired Libertas to the adoring deference of Rome’s noblewomen.

When a plot to overthrow Caesar ensnares them as pawns in the dark design, Aquila must choose between the Celtic slave who has won his heart and the empire to which they both owe allegiance. Trusting no man and knowing the opposite of obedience is death, the only liberty offered to any slave, Rhyddes must embrace her arena name—and the love of a man willing to sacrifice everything to forge a future with her.

BUY LINKS

Amazon Kindle
USUK  – CAAUBRDEESFRINITJPMXNL
Other E-readers
NOOKINKTERAITUNESKOBOSCRIBDSMASHWORDS

EXCERPT

AS WITH surviving her treatment among the soldiers, Rhyddes found anger to be an excellent ally for masking her fear and embarrassment. To be forced to strip and parade naked in front of this leering crowd—if the gods cared at all about their people’s plight, they would inflict a plague on all Romans and their whelps unto the third generation.

Fixing her gaze on a point at the top of the far wall while she dwelled upon happier days helped her weather the humiliation.

A pair of hands cupped her breasts, sending tingles scurrying through her body. She shifted her gaze to stare into the most alluring hazel eyes she’d ever seen, set into a tanned, handsome face crowned with close-cropped, curly black hair: the face of a god.

A Roman god, to judge by the scarlet-bordered bed linens flapping about his tall, muscular frame.

But, Roman or no, he was making her feel like a pampered goddess with his warm caresses. She closed her eyes and parted her lips in a soft sigh. When his touch became more firm, she regarded him again, puzzled by the change.

His face seemed lost in concentration. He was kneading her flesh as dispassionately as a woman evaluating the ripeness of peaches!

She worked up a mouthful of spittle, imagining how it would look adorning that arrogant face. Deciding it would buy her more trouble than she could afford, she swallowed and steeled herself to the Roman’s touch. His haughty grin rekindled her anger, dousing other emotions he’d awakened.

What surprised her, though she strove to hide it, was how hard those other emotions fought for dominance.

KH-author300x447

Kim Headlee lives on a farm in southwestern Virginia with her family, cats, goats, and assorted wildlife. People and creatures come and go, but the cave and the 250-year-old house ruins—the latter having been occupied as recently as the mid-twentieth century—seem to be sticking around for a while yet.

Kim is a Seattle native (when she used to live in the Metro DC area, she loved telling people she was from “the other Washington”) and a direct descendent of twentieth-century Russian nobility. Her grandmother was a childhood friend of the doomed Grand Duchess Anastasia, and the romantic yet tragic story of how Lydia escaped Communist Russia with the aid of her American husband will most certainly one day fuel one of Kim’s novels. Another novel in the queue will involve her husband’s ancestor, the seventh-century proto-Viking king of the Swedish colony in Russia.

For the time being, however, Kim has plenty of work to do in creating her projected 8-book Arthurian series, The Dragon’s Dove Chronicles, and other novels under her new imprint, Pendragon Cove Press.

YouTube video interview: http://youtu.be/DV5iKrEIROk

FOLLOW KIM:

BLOG – http://kimiversonheadlee.blogspot.com/

NEWSLETTER: mailto:info@dawnflight.com?subject=Subscription_Request
TWITTER – https://twitter.com/KimHeadlee
GOOGLE+ – https://plus.google.com/+KimHeadlee
FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/KimIversonHeadlee
PINTEREST – http://www.pinterest.com/kimheadlee/
AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE – http://www.amazon.com/Kim-Headlee/e/B001KE2LK2
GOODREADS – http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/845537.Kim_Headlee
LINKEDIN – http://www.linkedin.com/in/kimheadlee/
YOUTUBE CHANNEL – http://www.youtube.com/user/gyanhumara

Here are Kim’s thoughts on romance.

1. What romantic event would you like to see this year?
I would love to go on an Arctic Circle cruise with my husband in the summer, and watch the auroras envelop the sky above us. It won’t happen this summer, though, LOL!

2. Name your favorite romantic tip
Calculate the number of DAYS since your wedding, first date, first kiss, first… whatever, and then surprise your partner with a night out on the town. It will utterly stump him or her as to what the special occasion is! I can’t take credit for this idea, however. My husband got it from a coworker, years ago, and surprised me on the 5000th day since our wedding anniversary.

3. What Rocking romance do you find intriguing?
Arthur and Guinevere, of course. Most romances don’t carry the power to shape the destiny of two nations, but theirs did–as portrayed in my series The Dragon’s Dove Chronicles (Dawnflight, Morning’s Journey, etc.).

4. What is your Rocking Romance flower?
I am quite partial to the Peace rose.

5. Plan one romantic evening what would you do?
Dinner at a great restaurant that doesn’t have any TVs! I’m not sure that would be my husband’s idea of a romantic evening, however… 😀

What’s your favorite romance tip or ideal romantic evening? Leave a comment below, and don’t forget to enter this month’s Rafflecopter for a chance to win a $10 Amazon gift card & 2015 Mouse Pad Calendar.

Linda / Lyndi

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