Sunsets are like life. Some are easy to catch while others require a chase.
Saint Augustine, Fla
Duluth, Ga, I had to pull off a busy road into a parking lot and go up a hill to catch this view.
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What a color! Duluth, again!
More Saint Augustine! LOVELY!
On Tuesday, September 27th, Sweet Christmas Kisses will be available! 17 stand-alone Sweet Romance Christmas Novellas that will warm your heart…all for $.99!!
You can pre-order the set here:
Here’s the blurbs for all 17 stories. (mine is Candleglow and Mistletoe. ) 🙂
Ring in the holiday season with 17 all-new, stand-alone stories from New York Times, USA Today, national bestselling, and award-winning authors. Sweet Christmas Kisses 3 takes you around the globe from small-town USA, to London, England, and even to Africa. Don’t miss out on this sweet romance boxed set that’s sure to touch your heart, make you smile, and put you in the mood for Christmas.
On Christmas Eve by Mona Risk
She yanked him out of her heart years ago. But fate throws him in her path again and his tender gaze erases her loneliness. Can they forgive each other and create a new future?
Christmas Holly by Christine Bush
Can a lonely single father of five-year-old triplets find love on a South Carolina beach? It might just take a Christmas miracle!
Mistletoe and Sage by Lyn Cote
New deputy in town, a single mom, two wounded hearts with a puzzle to solve together—will love spark under the mistletoe?
A Merry Little Christmas by Denise Devine
Merry Connor and Anthony Lewis search for treasure and find true love.
The Christmas Gift by Raine English
When Riley Wayne receives a dog for Christmas, it’s not just the pup that makes her heart flutter, the rescue group’s handsome owner does too.
Untangling Christmas by Shanna Hatfield
Tricked into helping with Silverton’s Festival of Trees, electrician Mike Clarke battles faulty outlets, tangled lights, and a woman determined to share the spirit of the season.
A Christmas on Miracle Mountain by Ciara Knight
When it takes a miracle to heal a heart.
The Kampala Peppermint Twist by Milou Koenings
A twist of fate. An overbooked flight. Christmas in Africa will flip her life upside down.
The Road Not Taken by Magdalena Scott
Francie Standish Carrington has some tough decisions to make and a lot of questions about a past she thought she understood.
A London Christmas by Roxanne Rustand
When Catriona heads to London for Christmas to meet a guy she met online, he steals her purse and disappears, but will a handsome photographer in the pub end up being the man of her dreams?
Her Christmas Secret by Alicia Street
Desperate to help her sister’s family, Lila courts a cold-hearted investor for her handmade toys, but learns Christmas has a way of bringing surprises where they’re least expected.
Falling For You at Christmas by Kristin Wallace
One expectant mother. One gorgeous innkeeper. Three days that will change her life forever.
Second Chance Christmas by Merrillee Whren
A young boy helps his estranged parents find love again at Christmas.
Operation Christmas Eve Wedding by Cindy Flores Martinez
A maid of honor is swept up in the chaos of planning her best friend’s spur-of-the-moment Christmas Eve wedding.
Secret Wish by Victoria Pinder
Luke Morgan doesn’t believe in miracles, but this season Christmas brought him Caro Soliz, the family maid.
Candleglow and Mistletoe by Josie Riviera
A rising pianist and a pro stuntman winding down his career find love amid the glow of Christmas candles.
Couple by Christmas by Pat Simmons
Divorcee Derek Washington wants to reconcile with his ex-wife by Christmas. Although he’s got a plan, with the help of his six-year-old son, Derek only has two weeks.
Happy Reading!
Author Josie Riviera writes Historical, Inspirational, and Sweet Romances. She lives in the Charlotte, NC, area with her wonderfully supportive husband. They share their empty nest with an adorable Shih Tzu who constantly needs grooming and an old house forever needing renovations.
Subscribe to her newsletter on her website: josieriviera.wordpress.com and receive a free ebook sweet romance novella.
Today is a fun post because it’s National Wife Appreciation Day! (yes, really!) This day is celebrated on the third Sunday of September.
Husbands–take note! This is the day you can show your wives how much you really appreciate all the thoughtful things she does for you!
I can think of some examples of appreciation…a bouquet of flowers, candy (chocolate is good!), a lovely dinner you make at home, or, better yet, take her to her favorite restaurant.
It is believed that Wife Appreciation Day began with the idea of celebrating married women who didn’t have children.
So, men, what are you waiting for?🙂
Start cooking breakfast, and read up on how to give the best foot massages!
How are you celebrating National Wife Appreciation Day? I wasn’t planning on celebrating until I researched this post, which I will now show to my husband!🙂
Please comment below, and leave your email address. One lucky winner will be selected at random to receive my free ebook novella, A Snowy White Christmas.
Check back on Monday for the winner!
Author Josie Riviera writes Historical, Inspirational, and Sweet Romances. She lives in the Charlotte, NC, area with her wonderfully supportive husband of 40 years. They share their empty nest with an adorable Shih Tzu who constantly needs grooming and an old house forever needing renovations.
Subscribe to her newsletter for updates and a free ebook: josieriviera.wordpress.com
And, don’t forget to snag your pre-order copy of Sweet Christmas Kisses 3: A Bundle of 17 Wholesome Romances for only $.99! On sale September 27th!
I sent a collection of paranormal short stories to Class Act Books. They accepted, we’ve completed edits, and it will be released October 15, 2016, in time for Halloween, which is great since it has a ghost, a vampire, a fallen angel, and an alien. The title is Four by Moonlight, and I was allowed to make suggestions for the cover.
Since my son creates covers for CAB, he will be doing the cover for Four by Moonlight, using these graphics, with the wings overlaying the full moon and clouds. My name and the title are rather long, so he’ll have
White angel wings on black background.
his work cut out for him. The wings will be red-tipped on top. I envision white for the title and my name, but we’ll see.
I don’t take vacations that aren’t working vacations.
Over Labor Day Weekend I went to DragonCon in Atlanta, Ga. More than 60,000 people attend a con for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror fans.
A hostess?
The welcoming committee?
Cartoon characters join Star Wars characters and video game characters and television characters and more. They fill more than 5 hotels and form lines at the Americas Mart to shop. They mill around the streets of downtown Atlanta. I am part of the Writers Track, so I spend a lot of time there. However, I did ride elevators with interesting characters! I feared I would be supper! 
Room in the elevator?
In memory of the nearly 3,000 people who were killed in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, each year in the United States we observe Patriot Day and the National Day of Service and Remembrance.
On September 10, 2012, President Obama issued a proclamation. The day was renamed Patriot Day and the National Day of Service and Remembrance
On September 11th, the American flag is to be flown at half-staff at American homes, the White House, and all United States government buildings, whether abroad or at home. Also, Americans are asked to observe a moment of silence beginning at 8:46 A.M.(Eastern Daylight Time), because this is the time the first plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The president also strongly encourages Americans to volunteer for service opportunities that day.
Please share your thoughts and remembrances of that day by leaving a comment.
A Paranormal Romance
The idea of two complete strangers getting hitched has always intrigued me, for one simple reason—why would they do such a thing? Could such a relationship succeed? By successful relationship, I understand not only the longevity of the marriage…but is it possible for the participants to actually fall in love with each other in such a strange arrangement? Love is found in the most unexpected places.
A Convenient Marriage grew over a number of years. The basic story was simple—a divorcee with two children, an ex-husband being difficult over visitation, as well as a fiancée unable to commit. Holly’s friends suggested that she needed a new husband, placing an advert in the paper for one behind her back. Joshua was struck by a simple plan when he saw the ad and responded to it.
Why would Holly marry a man she’d never met, and why would Joshua respond to an ad for a husband, then actually propose to a woman he had never clapped eyes on? So, in came the dawdling fiancée, Nicole. Both Holly and Joshua were justified in not planning the marriage to be a real one, because they each had an agenda of their own, but Nicole was the injured party. For their plan to succeed, they had to marry—the real kind, down to that all-important piece of paper married—and they had to seem to be totally in love with each other. That it is all a scam, only they would know.
And here comes the ‘but’. Holly and Joshua’s plans go awry from the moment they meet on the steps of the chapel where their fake marriage is to take place, when both recognize the immediate attraction. Back at Joshua’s wine estate—yes, he is a rich landowner where Holly expected him to be a pauper—Holly meets Joshua’s mother, his brother and sister-in-law, and Nicole, the fiancée, who found out about Joshua’s duplicity in a room full of people. No one can blame Nicole for being a tad upset. Or can they? To add to Holly’s woes, she seems to have acquired a ‘ghost’ demanding she tell a story.
Amidst Nicole’s shenanigans, Joshua’s mother’s disapproval, Holly’s ex’s aggression, and the ghost following Holly around, will these two accomplish what they set out to do? Or will life get in the way?
Joshua’s and Holly’s journey through the uncharted seas of a blind marriage, where no rules apply, is a stormy one. Place your order here:
About the Author
Maggie Tideswell lives in Johannesburg—South Africa, with her husband, Gareth. She began writing when her kids were still very young, squeezing a few paragraphs at a time between the hectic schedule of raising three children, and working full time in the catering industry. She wrote many books before considering having them published. Now that the children have all made lives for themselves, there is more time for writing.
After much experimentation, Maggie writes passionate paranormal romance, of varying levels of heat. The paranormal, things that happen for which there are no logical explanations and ghosts are of particular interest to Maggie. What events in a person’s life would prevent that person from ‘resting’ after death? The ‘Old Religion’ is another special interest. And love, of course. Why do people fall in love? What keeps them together for a lifetime when so many relationships fail?
Maggie’s advice to aspirant novelists is two-fold. Never give up, and write every day. Writing is a craft that has to be honed with practice. And the only way to practice writing is by doing it. And a bonus, never stop reading your favorite genre. Reading it and writing it is the only training for a writer.
“Maggie Tideswell’s latest novel, A Convenient Marriage, will have you turning pages as her characters cope with a marriage of convenience, well-meaning but nosy friends, a meddling ghost, jealous exes, and more. My advice: Make room on your Keepers shelf for this story!” (Loree Lough, best-selling author of 107 award-winning books, including Harlequin Heartwarming’s “Those Marshall Boys” series.)
This new book, my third from The Wild Rose Press, is a collection of short works featuring Morgan D’Arcy, the hero in Sinners’ Opera, the book of my heart. In edits on Rhapsody, my editor asked for more about Isabeau. She is the heroine in Sinner’s Opera and a continuous thread through most of the stories. I wrote the following in answer to this request, but she then clarified and wanted it—since all of the stories are from Morgan’s first-person POV—from his viewpoint. But this is it as it was originally written. I had envisioned it originally as a Epilogue, titled Never Goodbye.
Excerpt: Never Goodbye
Isabeau, my Isabeau.
Isabeau with blonde-streaked brown hair and the most beautiful purple eyes. How could she forget me so quickly and return to that bastard? Dark-haired, dark-eyed John Payne—my complete opposite—was my sworn enemy. One day soon, he’d die.
The Grim Reaper—with fangs—would teach him that Isabeau was mine.
I’d been present at her birth, had chosen her to be my wife in that moment, and had watched over her as her guardian angel. She’d been the most exquisite blonde child.
I’d influenced her career choice and financed her education by grants through anonymous foundations. I’d even bought her a white Andalusian horse. These things I’d given her. She’d given me more than I’d ever dreamed. To this unknown bargain, Isabeau had brought beauty, grace, and a vast intelligence. As a geneticist, she could find a cure for the fatal gene of madness that all progeny of vampires and mortals suffered. She had the required vampire DNA, mine in fact, but she didn’t know about the flawed chromosome. It was tragedy that she’d driven me away before I could confess.
Isabeau had been born in Beaufort, South Carolina. Her parents were friends that I’d chosen carefully to breed my future bride. She’d attended the College of Charleston, one of the finest Ivy League universities, and returned to Charleston when LifeGen, a genetics firm, offered her a position.
I’d given her my heart, unconditionally, and she’d broken it. After she banished me from her life, she returned my letters, deleted my emails, and refused my phone calls. Why? She’d discovered how I shaped her life and accused me of manipulating her.
For the thousandth time, I lifted a phone to my ear to make a hopeless call. This time, I was in Charleston. She wouldn’t recognize the number as I was ringing her from my hotel room.
“Hello.” Her voice! Music to my ears.
For a moment, I couldn’t speak, then I took a deep breath, and plunged. “Isabeau, you must talk with me.”
“Morgan, I’ve made it perfectly clear that I never want to hear from you again.” Anger stained her voice a shade deeper.
I imagined her in her sunshine yellow kitchen, leaning against the granite counter, coffee brewing and filling the room with its rich scent. Isabeau was tall and beautiful with a captivating smile. At the moment, unfortunately, she’d be frowning.
God, how I missed her! She was my light—I her dark—two pieces of a soul.
“Please, don’t ring off.” I paced the confines of my hotel room. “I’m in Charleston. I want to see you.”
“I have a date,” she said coolly.
A vision of Isabeau dressed for a night out on the town blinded me. Was she wearing one of the lovely dresses I’d given her while we lived our idyll in my house on the Battery? The Rover House overlooked the ocean. She’d left her Orange Street home to come to me. For five short months, we’d lived in a dreamlike state of bliss…together at last.
“A date with that bastard John Payne.” My hand fisted at my side. I wanted to strike something or someone. Tonight, the Royal Pain would join his ancestors.
“It’s none of your business.”
“You’re carrying my child, Isabeau. That makes it my business.” I washed to a halt by the bed. “You love me.”
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Buy Link: Morgan D’Arcy: A Vampyre Rhapsody and at other online bookstores in print and ebook.
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/LNightingale – @Lnightingale
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LindaNightingaleAuthor
Web Site: http://www.lindanightingale.com – Visit and look around. There’s a free continuing vampire story.
Blog: https://lindanightingale.wordpress.com/ – Lots of interesting guests & prizes
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<strong>Labor Day </strong>falls on the first Monday in September and is a public U.S. holiday, honoring all the workers in this country and their contribution to society.
<strong>Labor Day</strong> is also considered the unofficial end of summer.😦
<strong>Labor Day</strong> is also considered the unofficial end of summer.😦
Many school districts begin the school year after Labor Day.
When the holiday was implemented into the U.S. calendar, a street parade followed by a festival honoring the workers was recommended. And, speeches by well-known public figures was also introduced a few years later.
For those of us interested in shopping(!), Labor Day’s Back to School sales have been compared to Black Friday by many retailers.
What are your plans for the Labor Day weekend? Mine will include a barbecue with family and friends, featuring the traditional menu of hot dogs, hamburgers, and fresh fruit…and maybe an apple pie for dessert.🙂
Please comment below, and leave your email address. One lucky winner will be selected at random to receive my free ebook novella, <em>I Love You More.</em>
Check back on Monday for the winner!
Author Josie Riviera writes Historical, Inspirational, and Sweet Romances. She lives in the Charlotte, NC, area with her wonderfully supportive husband of 40 years. They share their empty nest with an adorable Shih Tzu who constantly needs grooming and an old house forever needing renovations.
Subscribe to her newsletter for updates and a free ebook: josieriviera.wordpress.com
And, don’t forget to snag your pre-order copy of Sweet Christmas Kisses 3: A Bundle of 17 Wholesome Romances for only $.99!
Five different types of tea would have been available to Regency England: white, yellow, green, oolong, and black.
The most common and popular teas were green and black, much as these two types of tea are the most popular today. In the Regency era, tea was served hot, with sugar and milk.
In my Regency Inspirational romance, Seeking Patience, Lady Patience Blakwell would have enjoyed tea during the day and evening.
Tea was considered a safe drink in that era because it was boiled first because much of the drinking water in that period was contaminated.
Thomas Twining changed his coffee house into a tea shop in 1717. Then, Richard Twining, who was chairman of the tea dealers’ guild in 1784, persuaded the government to reduce the tea import tax. Once tea was more affordable, the middle classes were able to enjoy this cheap beverage.
Did you know? Tipping began as a response to ensuring proper service in the Tea Gardens of England. Small, locked wooden boxes were place throughout the Garden on tables. On each box was inscribed T.I.P.S., which meant “To Insure Prompt Service.” If a guest wanted to be certain that his tea arrived hot, he placed a coin into the box for the waiter. And thus, the custom of tipping servers was born.
Did you know? “Drinking tea” is a proper phrase. “Taking tea” is vulgar.
I love hot, green tea with no sugar and cream, just black, thank you.
How do you drink your tea?
Please leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of Seeking Patience, my Regency Inspirational Romance novel.
Author Josie Riviera writes Historical, Inspirational, and Sweet Romances. She lives in the Charlotte, NC, area with her wonderfully supportive husband of 40 years. They share their empty nest with an adorable Shih Tzu who constantly needs grooming and an old house forever needing renovations.
Sign up for her newsletter at
and receive a free ebook, Seeking Catherine.
“Bargained away to a brothel, she is beyond hope, beyond rescue…but not beyond the reach of the one man who can save her.”
