The winner of Alpha vs. Alpha (or one of my back list books – readers choice) is Quilt Lady. I’ve sent you an email. When I hear from you, I’ll send you an electronic copy.  Thanks so much for commenting!

Hi all,

This is Francesca Hawley and I’m thrilled to announce that on December 21, I will have a new release available from Ellora’s Cave Publishing. My new book is titled Leader of the Pack. It will be my first new book in over a year. It’s a follow-up to Alpha vs. Alpha, but both can stand alone.

I’ve written many stories with male pack leaders, but in Protect and Defend, I indicated that females could be pack leaders. It just wasn’t typical. So in the back of my mind, I considered the idea of a female pack leader. How would that work? Especially if her True Mate was an alpha male? That’s where Leader of the Pack came from and I’m really happy with how it turned out.

Yohana is a kickass female who knows how to leader her pack and is willing to make sacrifices. Per (pronounced like the fruit – pear) is a healer who cares for people, but he’s also an alpha male. He loves Yohana’s strength, yet there’s conflict between them as they work out who holds the top position at any given time. I had fun reintroducing Predator-Match.com to my shapeshifter world as both Yohana and Per utilize the services of the matchmaking agency to find a Mate. I loved including Serena in this story, too. It was fun to revisit her and her relationship with Damien – if only briefly.

Here’s the blurb:

Surgeon Dr. Per Goldwolf needs a mate to make partner in a prestigious practice. Predator-Match.com—a matchmaking service for shapeshifters—not only finds him a mate, they match him with his True Mate. Yohana’s long legs and fair flesh make him lick his lips and her scent makes him rock-hard.

New packleader Yohana Whitewolf’s life goal is to follow in her sire’s pawprints and lead her pack. Leadership demands sacrifices. To calm her people, Yohana needs a mate. But finding an Alpha male who won’t take over is a tall order. Yohana doesn’t want the complication of a True Mate, but Per is a sexy, intelligent Alpha male and she wants to shred his clothes every time she touches him.

Everything should be perfect—except she’s a packleader, and the Whitewolf pack is nervous.

Read the excerpt – visit the Ellora’s Cave web site. Here’s the link…

* * * * *

To start new readers off right, I’d like to run a contest. If you comment today or tomorrow, you win an electronic copy of Alpha vs. Alpha for your reading pleasure. If you already own AvA, you can choose one of the other books from my backlist. I’ll announce the winners on Wednesday!

Greetings! I have the winner of our September and October gift cards:  Anna Dyson and Liz Pederson, respectively.

Anna, please contact Fleeta Cunningham at fgcunningham@yahoo.com to collect your prize.

And Liz, you can contact Tiffany Green via jtgreen@verizon.net to collect yours!

Thank you to everyone who commented, keep an eye out for next month’s winner!

Our Summer Solstice Bash has come to an end, and the final winner in this year is Debra G! She won the Western Basket full of cowboys — congratulations!

All the Moonlighters would like to thank everyone who commented in June, liked us on Facebook or followed our Twitter page. We look forward to hearing from everyone in the future — don‘t forget about our monthly gift card drawings.

Meanwhile, we’ll be contacting our winners so that we can their baskets sent out to them. Woot!

Thank you all again!

Happy July!
The Authors by Moonlight

The fourth winner in the Summer Solstice Bash is Kathy L. Wheeler! She wins the Vintage Basket. Congratulations!

The last prize in the Summer Solstice Giveaway is the Western Basket, featuring cowboy heroes from the past and present, along with plenty of extras. Contributing authors include Pam Crooks, Connie Crow, Anna Kathryn Lanier; and Moonlighters Sherry James, Patricia Rasey, Linda LaRoque and Debra St. John. There are some other goodies included as well. If your heroes have always been cowboys, you’ll love this prize.

We’ll announce the winner of the Western Basket on July 1, 2012, and as stated in our rules, everyone who left a comment, liked our Facebook page or followed us on Twitter during this month and who has not already won a basket is still eligible for this final drawing. Each comment from our readers is entered, up to three per person per post, so keep sharing your thoughts.

Thank you to everyone participating! We love hearing from you.

I do love summer. It’s such a wonderful, carefree time. Even moreso because I don’t work in the summer. I can stay up late, sleep in. Most days I don’t have anywhere to be at any given time. It’s a great time to accomplish all of those projects I’ve been putting off for months. It’s also perfect for taking a convertible ride to no where, just to feel the wind in my hair and the sun on my face.

Even though it’s been hot, hot, hot here in the Midwest, I’ve tried to spend as much time outside as possible. A fairly major outdoor project I finished last week was to spruce up an area in our yard that’s been sadly neglected. We call it the ‘park area’ because it has a couple of benches in it. In recent years it’s grown a plethora of wildflowers…okay, weeds…but I wanted to give it a bit more definition and purpose. I added some edging, moved some ground cover around, added fresh ground cover, and created a designated fire pit area. I have to say, I think it turned out nicely!

With my trusty lap top, I’ve also been able to accomplish a lot of writing tasks and still soak up lots of the outdoors. I’ve spent lots of time out on my front porch and the back patio working on revisions and rewrites on a mss. It’s just about ready to go. I have a few more things I need to tweek before sending it back to my editor. Hopefully that will happen this week before I head off on vacation.

Vacations. Another thing I love about summer. Even though it’s my off time, it’s my hubby’s busy time of year, so he doesn’t like to take a lot of time off, but we manage to squeeze in a few little gettaways. This week we head off to Ozark, Missouri for a long weekend with friends. The first weekend in July we’re heading to Pontiac, Illinois with our parents to enjoy some Route 66 nostalgia. At the beginning of August we’ll be in Springfield, Illinois checking out some Abraham Lincoln sites.

Summer nights are the best. The brutal heat of the day has faded, but warmth lingers. My hubby and I spend a lot of time in our front porch rockers listening to music, the buzz of the cicadas, and watching twilight descend on the neighborhood. At some point this summer we’re going to crawl out of our bedroom window and lay on the porch roof to look at the stars.

So how about you? How do you celebrate summer?

And don’t forget, if you leave a comment, you’ll be entered in the drawing to win the final basket for our Summer Solstice Bash. This one has a Western theme and includes a copy of my debut book This Time for Always.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

Forgive my lateness posting today…we have a couple of major home improvement projects we’re getting ready for and I got distracted. But I have the winner of ABM’s Paranormal Basket: Congratulations, Shadow!!

Only a couple more weeks before we send out ALL the prizes, but in the meantime, we have two more baskets of books and fun items to give away.

The next prize up is our Vintage Basket, featuring books and goodies to remind you of the days of Bogie, Elvis and Mad Men! Check out the doll elegantly dressed by our own Fleeta Cunningham. (Fleeta is one of the authors represented in the Vintage Basket as well — cool!)

Leave comments to enter — up to three per person per post will be eligible. A lot of you are getting extra chances to win by liking our Facebook page and/or following Authors by Moonlight on Twitter. We’re so glad to see you there!

Check out our Contest page for complete rules, and keep leaving those comments. We’re always glad to hear from you.

Cheers!

Ann

With this summer’s theme being the Summer Solstice, I decided to share some of my research for my two time travel books in the series The Turquoise Legacy being given away in the Paranormal Gift Basket. Book two is set in Chaco Canyon which is a prime example of how the solstice calendar was used in past civilizations.  Since the time period for the paranormal basket runs through June 18th, get your comments in TODAY!

Interestingly enough, my husband and I had visited Santa Fe and Madrid, New Mexico and been on part of the Turquoise Trail, though unfortunately we did not visit the Carrillo Mines where the Anasazi of Chaco Canyon obtained most of their turquoise back around 1000 AD. Chaco Canyon was a center of trade and prosperous during their time trading turquoise for items not available to them in the canyon. Remains of parrots, macaws, seashells and other artifacts indicate traders came from far distances to barter with the Anasazi.

The Anasazi occupied Chaco Canyon between 850 AD and 1100 AD. No one knows exactly where they went or what happened to them. There are several theories surrounding the mystery. The one I prefer to believe is they migrated to live with other Pueblo tribes.

Chaco Canyon is a mysterious place and covers a vast amount of space. It includes ten buildings, some of which are believed to have been five stories high. “Pueblo Bonito also the center of an elaborate solar calendar:  all of the buildings are either part of the solar calendar that traces the 18.5-year lunar cycle.”

A large rock structure, Fajada Butte, is seen as you enter the canyon.

There archaeologist discovered a sun calendar that has been named “The Anasazi Dagger.” “Concentric circles carved in the rock, with slabs of rock placed in just such a way that would make the light passing through turn into a dagger which, when it hit the circles would reveal the solstices and equinoxes.”

It is now believed that the entire Chaco Canyon, the way that its buildings were placed, the directions of the roads, etc. indicate they were aligned so as to line up with the arc of the sun and moon on important dates of the year.

Though Pueblo Bonito is the most impressive structure, my story revolves around Una Vida as it is nearer the visitor’s center and the setting was perfect for the scenes I created back in 1000 AD.

Cliff drawings behind Una Vida

Me halfway up the cliff behind Una Vida.

If you’ve not visited Chaco Canyon, stop by if you’re in the neighborhood. Be prepared for a rough ride on the way in to the park and if I remember correctly it’s twenty miles of unpaved road. Take a picnic lunch because they do not sell food other than snack items in the visitor’s center. They do have a camp grounds, but the only other lodging is Grants, New Mexico. We stayed at a B&B in Thoreau called Zuni Mountain Lodge. I don’t know if they’re still in operation or not. We were there in 2007.  You can read a little about it on my December 7, 2007 post on Linda LaRoque’s Musings.

Here is a teaser for Flames on the Sky, book two of the Turquoise Legacy.

The Anasazi whispered of this evil and of the

woman who could defeat it.

Fire, sky, and stone must unite to fulfill an ancient prophecy.

Madison Evans inherits a turquoise locket, travels to New Mexico, and discovers the stone dates back to the Chacoan Anasazi. When she’s attacked, parks ranger Lonan Stone, of Chacoan ancestry, fears Madison’s turquoise is a missing twin of the revered Fallen Skystone, an egg size piece of turquoise on display in Albuquerque. The mystical stone is missing two slivers – one’s in Madison’s necklace, the others whereabouts unknown, but if united by evil they can destroy.

Madison and Lonan are part of a 1000 year old prophecy to save Chaco Canyon. Thrust back in time, they meet a witch, solve a murder, fall in love, and imprison a 1000 year old evil spirit. Their mission complete, can these two people from different cultures blend their lives as the prophecy predicted?

References:

http://www.garygordonproductions.com/chaco2.html

http://www.angelfire.com/indie/anna_jones1/sundagger.html – photo of sundagger.

http://www.jqjacobs.net/southwest/chaco.html – photo of Fajada Butte, Pueblo Bonito, and photo 2 of sundagger.

Links of interest:

http://www.nps.gov/chcu/planyourvisit/directions.htm

http://www.exploratorium.edu/chaco/HTML/canyon.html – this site has interactive videos showing solstice patterns and lighting changes in the canyon.

Thank you for stopping by today. Hope you’ll leave a comment for an extra entry for the basket.

Linda

www.lindalaroque.com

Get me on a boat and I’m in heaven.  I’ve always loved the water.  I love to swim, I love to fish, I love the sea.  So when I had the chance to take another cruise this year, I leaped in with both feet!  Never mind the cost.  Never mind I couldn’t be away that long.  Never mind all the yummy goodies threatening my waist line.  I had to go.  And what a time it was!

As you can tell, I hardly enjoyed myself at all…

And, of course, I didn’t get into all this trouble alone.

You may even recognize my frequent cruising companion, Fleeta.

Although vertigo nearly had me stuck on top of that blasted Mayan ruin for all eternity, I’m so glad I went.  Life’s too short to regret the things you didn’t do.

In fact, I’m ready to go back right now.

How about you?  Ever been on a cruise?  Loved it?  Hated it (how is that possible?)

Don’t forget to leave a comment for a chance to win one of our HUGE gift baskets!

~Tiffany

www.tiffanygreen.net

Loretta Wheeler wins our Historical Romance Basket! We’ll mail out her books and goodies at months end, along with the other baskets, but it’s worth the wait. Congratulations, Loretta!

Thank you to everyone else who commented, liked us and/or  followed us so far this month. You are still eligible for the Paranormal, Vintage and Western Baskets. A week from today we’re announcing winners of our Paranormal Basket, featuring books by ABM’s own Linda LaRoque, Beth Caudil, Francesca Hawley and Lindsay Below, along with several other writers in the paranormal/fantasy genre!  Other goodies come with each basket, including dolls in original outfits by Fleeta Cunningham.

Leave comments to enter — up to three per person per post will be eligible — and get some extra chances to win by liking our Facebook page and/or following Authors by Moonlight on Twitter.

Check out our Contest page for complete rules, and visit us often! We’re always glad to see you.

Happy commenting!

Ann