Can you imagine not being able to read? That would be like not breathing to me. Or not being able to drink coffee. Visit this fun auction and not only do you have the chance to win really cool items, you'll help support Literacy for Adults in Brevard (LAB), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to teach literacy skills to adults who can't read.

Need a critique of your manuscript? Book cover design? Business cards? Coffee? (you know you need coffee) Head over to 32 Auctions and bid now to win one of these great items. AND, you will have a warm, fuzzy feeling if you win because winning rocks!

​Wait, winning does rock, but you'll also feel great because you'll be supporting the Literacy for Adults in Brevard (LAB). Bid often, bid high, and good luck at the auction.
https://www.32auctions.com/STAR2018

Almost 100 books ON SALE in all genres, romance, sci-fi and fantasy, paranormal romance, historical romance, romantic suspense, mysteries, thrillers, and more. All books less than a buck!

Plus, check in daily for a chance to win Amazon gift cards or play instant ebook giveaways for one of 12 books being awarded to lucky winners each day!

Be sure to scroll down to Romantic Suspense and check out my book, Dangerous Liars. I think you'll like it!
 https://bookwrapt.com/99-99-book-fair/

Dangerous Liars

To get the position he craves, he'll break his vow to go straight. One more harmless con that won't hurt anyone. She'll do whatever it takes to reach her dreams. A little lying, a lot of stealing. But weaving a web of deceit demands a price, and they're both about to pay.
 
Jaxon has a mission. Retrieve a valuable emerald for an entry fee and join Maxime, the most prestigious club in the Secure States of America. No problem, if his ex-thief, super-hacker friend Riley can lower the shield around an island where the stone is hidden. And when he discovers a purple-eyed woman who can make herself invisible, he adjusts his plans to include her skills.

But Violet has plans of her own, and a guy who can knock down a shield will fit in nicely. To get her disfiguring scars repaired, she needs access to another island, so when opportunity knocks, she grabs it. Even if it means telling a few lies. Or stealing. Or putting herself in the crosshairs of a pissed-off drug dealer.

Working with Riley again on the other side of the law fires up cravings Jaxon thought he'd suppressed. While he struggles to escape the shadow of his notorious family and unlawful past, Violet faces old demons she'd rather keep buried. Focusing on their goals and keeping their agendas hidden, they travel from Maine to Florida, fighting each other, and a losing battle with lust and love.

​How would you like to win a pack of your favorite mysteries, thrillers, or suspense books on Amazon? If you’re among the four ebook prize pack winners, you could decide which books  you want from the millions on Amazon. Or, you could take home one of two Kindle Fire 7 tablets being given away as grand prizes! Even if you already have a Kindle Fire, an extra one is always nice (sometimes they break, or you want one at the office and yours is sitting at home on the nightstand), or you can use it as a gift.

http://bookwrapt.com/intrigue-giveaway/

Plus, 23 sponsoring authors have the perfect answer to the question, “what do I read next?” Shop the book fair for can’t-put-them-down books in the genre, all at 2.99 or less. Now, get ready for a summer of exciting reading!
 
http://bookwrapt.com/intrigue-book-fair/

Don’t you love to fall so deep into a book you lose track of real life, and stay up way past your bedtime, because you have to read just one more chapter? Or look up from the page and totally expect to see the scenery and characters you were reading about? As authors, that’s what we hope happens when you read our stories. One way we accomplish this is with compelling details and descriptions to hold your interest. How do we come up with those gripping pieces of information that make you late for work? Head over to Hidden Gems Books and read some of my methods. 

www.hiddengemsbooks.com/characterization-setting-details/


Excellent image courtesy of Pixabay

I recently received two marketing phone calls that left me feeling like I had a vat of slime dumped on me. Both of them were aggressive marketing, with misleading information given at the beginning, making me think the callers wanted to book an appointment with me, not sell me something. Blech! I hate these calls. Apparently, the EU really hates slimy marketing, because the General Data Protection Regulation becomes enforceable on May 25th. You can read more about it here on Wikipedia, or your favorite news source. 

No one wants to be tricked with marketing, like I felt I was with the two phone calls I got. That's not what marketing should be about. Marketing should be about us waving our hands in the air and going, "Look at this great thing. Let me tell you about it, because I love it." We should be proud of our Great Thing, and want others to enjoy it because we know it has value. But if at anytime we don't want to hear about another person's Great Thing anymore, we should be allowed to opt out of a mailing or call list.

And, if we don't give explicit permission, we shouldn't be put on that list in the first place, which is the good thing I see coming from the GDPR. No more sneaky boxes that are already checked, and you have to un-check when you enter a contest or buy something, or else you get tons of unwanted emails. Transparency, baby. Let's make that the keyword in the way we market. Now, if we can only enforce the Do Not Call List for our telephones...

                                                               ************

The winner of my Creative Cursing contest, picked with Random.org, is Katrina D. I got the best ideas from you guys! Some of the words and phrases cracked me up. Thanks, everyone, for entering.

​Dangerous Vengeance, book three in the Messed-Up Heroes series, is on Kindle Countdown for a limited time, which means it's on sale, so go grab it now. All of the books in the series can be read as stand-alone, so don't worry if you haven't read the first two yet. This series is my Great Thing and I'm proud of it. ;-)   But I promise to promote it with no slime involved.

amzn.to/2JjiOWP

If you want to join my mailing list for more fun contests, please go here:  ​https://www.naomibellina.com/about-me-contact.html

Slime picture courtesy of Pixabay

I have a heroine who cusses a lot, and I need some creative words and phrases for her to use. Do you have a favorite? I'd love to hear it. For details and to enter the contest, go to the Survey Monkey here:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FZT7N8F

Dangerous Vengeance is now on the Kindle Unlimited program at Amazon, so if you're a KU fan, pick up your copy today. 

Thanks so much for reading, and I look forward to hearing your answer at the Survey Monkey.

Is Daylight Saving Time kicking your butt? I'm walking around like a zombie this week. Coffee is helping, and I have faith it will get better. A great way to get the blood stirring is to read an exciting romantic suspense book. Join me and 39 other authors in this fun BookBub giveaway that's super easy to enter. If you don't belong to BookBub, sign up. You'll be notified when your favorite authors have a book released, and you can also find great deals and new authors. 

Here's the link to the Addicted to Suspense Giveaway:
​ https://addictedtosuspense.blogspot.com/p/enter-giveaway.html

​Enter today, and good luck to you!

Which is why when my honey says, "Let's see where this trail leads," I follow. We took a trip to the frozen North (Literally frozen. Those are icicles behind me.) and climbed hills. I look at a trail and say, "Wow, that looks pretty steep," and he's already headed up. I scamper along right behind, and I'm always glad I did. It's precarious at times, but we practice safe climbing and have never been hurt. The gorgeous views we've seen! 

This year, I vow to be braver and do things that scare me on a regular basis. Putting my book in Kindle Scout was kind of frightening. What if no one nominates me? What if I don't get picked? The answer to both questions is, "Life will go on." I'll never know unless I try, right? I'd love your nomination for Dangerous Vengeance in these last days. Thank you so much!
https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/10MLIVOZX9BLP

What do we love most about this time of year? Sure, there’s family, food, extra wine and gifts, but deeper down, this is a time of hope and faith. We believe there can be peace on Earth, and hope there might come a time when nations stop fighting. We have faith that scientists will persevere, and discover a cure for the diseases that take our loved ones.

Christmas celebrates Mary and Joseph having faith. They believed they had a mission; for Mary to be the mother of the Messiah. Hanukkah commemorates how the Jewish people had hope, reclaimed their temple, and witnessed a miracle there. And we have faith that every year, after Winter Solstice, the sun will shine longer each day and take us into spring.

In Thor: Ragnarok (slight spoiler alert), even after his hammer is destroyed, Thor still has faith he can save the people of Asgard. He even manages to convince a drunk and disillusioned Valkyrie to help him. This isn’t technically a holiday movie, but if you’re like me, watching super heroes save the world, or other worlds, creates a warm, fuzzy feeling, like drinking mulled wine on a cold winter night. Throw in Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston for more heat and surprising comedy, Cate Blanchett and Jeff Goldblum as crazy wicked bad guys, and Thor is the perfect movie for the holidays.

​My hope, aside from peace on Earth, a cure for cancer, and to wake up with super powers, is to get picked by Kindle Scout. Your nomination will help. Thank you so much, and Happy Holidays to you, however you celebrate!
https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/10MLIVOZX9BLP
 
Rockin' photo courtesy of Pixabay

I'm trying something new, Amazon's Kindle Scout. What is Kindle Scout? To quote: "Kindle Scout is reader-powered publishing for new, never-before-published books. It's a place where readers help decide if a book receives a publishing contract."

You, the reader, go to Amazon and look at the books currently in the program. You read an excerpt, check out the author info, and nominate books you want to see published. Easy-peasy. Your nomination will help Dangerous Vengeance get discovered by the Kindle Scout team, and really good news, if my book gets chosen and published, you receive a free copy. How cool is that?

Dangerous Vengeance is out there now and I would love to receive your nomination.
https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/10MLIVOZX9BLP

Please go to the Kindle Scout website and give me a vote.  I'll be ecstatic if I win, and you get to read my awesome book. Want a sneak peak? You can read the beginning of the book at the Kindle Scout website, and here's another exciting excerpt:

​                                        ********************************


So he sent a guy flying a few feet, no big deal. The dude wasn’t hurt, and no one else was either. Zoe was okay. He’d been taken by surprise and reacted, not overreacted. No one saw him; the situation was cool. And though he’d been close to losing it, he’d handled that asshole Becker without any trouble.

But the cameras picked up the event. Even if there wasn’t visible evidence of Grant doing anything, he’d be tied to the scene. Couldn’t let that happen too often, or someone would be sticking their nose in his business.

He’d have to practice control, have to learn to push the rage down. Maybe figure out how to get rid of the stupid force altogether. Or work out a way to use it for when he became a cop. A skill like that could be useful.

No. Real men didn’t need super power to operate. He’d come up with a way to control it.

For now, he was safe. Had to concentrate on finishing this assignment, that’s all. And to do that, he had to play nice with the weird woman he’d been assigned to work with, keep his head down and his mouth shut.

Easy enough. Grant pulled in a long breath. Go in the store, buy Zoe her soda and water, finish up the day. At least she wasn’t a wimp. Girl had guts, to keep going after getting plowed down and drugged. Blackout. Great. Just what the world needed. Another tool for the scum to use. Date rape, and probably for other applications.

He should insist Zoe have someone keep an eye on her the rest of the day, though he knew she’d blow off his concern.

Not my problem. I’ve got enough of my own.

When Grant returned with the drinks, Zoe had almost finished weeding. He ran the weed whacker around the area, and they bagged up the rest of the clippings. Zoe kept looking across the street, her eyebrows furrowed and lips pursed.

“Don’t suppose you saw a yard waste dumpster around here, did you?” Grant picked up one of the bags.

“Nope. Just throw those in my car. I have yard waste pickup at my house.” Zoe stood, stretched and pulled off her gloves.

“You should have someone keep an eye on you the rest of the day, make sure you’re okay.”

“Don’t tell me what I should do.” She took a drink from the water bottle and turned toward the music shop.

“Don’t be an idiot.” Grant picked up the bags and headed to her car. “You heard the paramedic. He said make sure someone’s around to monitor you.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She waved her hand.

“Pop your trunk.”

“Just put the bags in the back seat. Not like anything’s going to hurt that car. I’ll see you at our next meeting.”

“Yep, see you then.” Grant loaded the bags into her car, shut the door.

Zoe still stood, looking across the street.

“You okay driving with those bags in the back? Looks like your vision is obstructed.”

“I’ll be fine.” She tapped her foot.

“You’re going over to the shop, aren’t you?”

“Maybe. What’s it to you?”

Most everyone had cleared the scene. Grant saw a television truck and one cop car, which drove away as he watched. “Why are you sticking your nose in something that’s none of your business?”

“It is my business. I was involved in the robbery. I want to talk to the store owner, find out what the thief stole.”

“Don’t you think the owner might be upset right now?”

“Maybe I can help.”

“Why, did you see something you didn’t share with the nice police officer?”

“I didn’t actually see anything. I have a hunch and an idea.”

“Oh, a hunch. People love to hear about hunches. Why didn’t you tell the officer?”

“Because cops have the same pissy attitude as you. Women’s intuition doesn’t mean jack.”

“Maybe because it’s bullshit?”

“Screw you.” Zoe pivoted back to face him, eyes narrowed. “No one asked your opinion or permission. I’ll see you later.” She wheeled around and stomped across the street. The scent of sweat, now stronger than the honeysuckle, lingered behind.

Not my concern.

But a nudge of desire licked at him, a feeling he hadn’t entertained for some time. Purposely hadn’t entertained. He didn’t want a woman messing with his mind, or his body. Most of all, not his heart.

Not going to have it shattered again any time soon.