A Job I Wouldn't Be Good At

 When this topic from Long and Short Reviews came up, a story from my past immediately came into my head.

When I was a kid, I went to my primary school summer fair and encountered a stall which claimed to tell your future using numerology. I got a printout with various predictions on it, most of which I can't remember, but one was "With a sharp and technical mind like yours, you would do well in a career like engineering."

Right.

While it's nice to be told you have a sharp and technical mind, even as a child I knew this was absolute nonsense. While I got a double A* in my GCSE Science, that was primarily by sheer determination and my chemistry and biology scores dragging my physics score up. Physics and maths, which are the sorts of subjects you need for engineering, are definitely not my strong subjects, and while I'm good at using a computer I'm certainly not technical. I would be utterly terrible at engineering.

It's probably just as well I can't remember the rest of the predictions, because if that one is anything to go by they weren't worth remembering. I think it did suggest I would get married in my thirties - I was 27, so they got that wrong as well.

So what job wouldn't you be good at?

Share one interesting fact you know

 I really had to think about this topic from Long and Short Reviews, because while I know quite a few useless facts, how many of them are interesting is open to question. For instance, the fact that First Lady Dolley Madison's favourite ice cream flavour was oyster is one that has stood me in good stead at quizzes, but isn't likely to do much more than raise an eyebrow at any other time. (I know a lot of junk about US presidents and First Ladies, and none of it will ever do me any good unless I get accepted to go on Pointless.)

One that did come to mind recently, though, was when I was discussing the Brontes with a friend. I've always been a great fan of Anne Bronte and we were talking about visiting her grave in Scarborough, where she is buried apart from her family as she died while on a trip there. My friend's comment was "It's a shame she's not buried in Haworth near that curate she was so in love with."

Oh yes, the story of Anne Bronte being in love with William Weightman, which was a huge part of the Bronte canon for years.

My friend was utterly amazed when I told her that Anne was not, in fact, in love with Weightman. There is no evidence whatsoever that she was - the only thing it's based on is a throwaway comment from Charlotte about Weightman eyeing Anne up in church and Anne ignoring him, which doesn't seem unreasonable in the circumstances. I had thought that this had been disproved some time ago, but apparently it's still a thing.

So there we are - it's not a thing. Anne Bronte was not in love with her father's curate.

So what interesting facts do you know?

Making It Hard review tour starts today!

 Today my review tour for "Making It Hard" begins - all the stops are below:

July 13: The Avid Reader
July 13: The Faerie Review
July 20: Country Mamas With Kids
July 20: Lynn's Romance Enthusiasm
July 27: D.S. Dehel
July 27: The Reading Addict
August 3: Maggie Blackbird
August 3: Iron Canuck Reviews & More

Enter to win a $10 Amazon gift card, and happy reading!

Release day!

 It's Release Day for "When I Look In The Mirror"!

When hairdresser Tatum Fox takes part in a séance at a party, her only thought is of the attractive man sitting beside her, the mysterious Zack, who appears in her dreams that night and who she hopes to see again. However, when she begins to experience paranormal activity and finds herself confronted by an unnerving client at work, she discovers that the séance summoned a demon – and Zack may be the only person who can free her of him.

Zack reveals himself to be an angel, and shows Tatum that she also has the power to battle supernatural creatures – a power that is increased through sex with him. Their connection soon strengthens, but is Tatum strong enough to defeat the demon with Zack by her side – and can there be a future with an angel, or is their passion doomed to end?

Books 2 Read: https://books2read.com/u/bOPO7W

Amazon US:  https://tinyurl.com/28sjjkcr

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/When-Look-Mirror-Tanith-Davenport-ebook/dp/B0C9XNDJ6K/ref=sr_1_66?qid=1689075452&refinements=p_n_date%3A367747031&rnid=367744031&s=digital-text&sr=1-66

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/when-i-look-in-the-mirror-2

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1417354

I hope you enjoy it!

How I stay cool during heatwaves - and new pre-order

 Ugh. This topic from Long and Short Reviews is definitely appropriate at the moment. 

I live in the UK, so most houses don't have proper aircon like they do in the States, and we're simply not prepared for this sort of ridiculous weather. It's not too bad today admittedly, but I've been spending my days dressed as little as possible while I watch my two cats melt into the carpet. So how do we try to stay cool in this sort of weather?

I open all the windows and doors to try and get a draught through the house.

I drink as many cold, iced drinks as I can.

And, at night, we have a ChillMax box which we can put ice in to create a wave of cold air across the bed. It's not perfect, but it helps.

I also tend to avoid certain posts on social media, because whenever we have a heatwave in the UK certain people in hotter areas will go "Pfft! That's sweater weather for me!" That's nice, I'm roasting.

And while I'm here, I have a new book on pre-order.

When hairdresser Tatum Fox takes part in a séance at a party, her only thought is of the attractive man sitting beside her, the mysterious Zack, who appears in her dreams that night and who she hopes to see again. However, when she begins to experience paranormal activity and finds herself confronted by an unnerving client at work, she discovers that the séance summoned a demon – and Zack may be the only person who can free her of him.

Zack reveals himself to be an angel, and shows Tatum that she also has the power to battle supernatural creatures – a power that is increased through sex with him. Their connection soon strengthens, but is Tatum strong enough to defeat the demon with Zack by her side – and can there be a future with an angel, or is their passion doomed to end?

Books 2 Read: https://books2read.com/u/bOPO7W

Amazon US:  https://tinyurl.com/28sjjkcr

So how do you stay cool during heatwaves?

Things I like and dislike about the romance genre - and NEW RELEASE!

 Since I write erotic romance, this topic from Long and Short Reviews was an interesting one. I was never a reader of romance until I began to write it, primarily because I grew up in the era of the too-stupid-to-live heroine, which frankly put me off. I'm very glad that these days we're getting strong, intelligent heroines who are capable of living their lives without constantly having to be rescued by men.

My favourite element of romance is, of course, the happy ending. Unless you're reading Nicholas Sparks, happy endings are a given with romance and - in spite of the fact that I also enjoy horror, which is famous for having nasty endings - I do love it when a love story ends happily. I read quite a lot of fanfiction in the past where they tried to subvert expectations by throwing in an unexpected sad ending, and it always led me to refuse to read any more of that person's stories.

There are, however, two things I hate about the genre. One is "tears before bedtime", which is unfortunately necessary to keep the plot going, but I always hate it when the hero and heroine are parted by something that could have easily been resolved if they talked to each other. I usually try to twist things by having a different type of conflict point, such as in "Photograph" where my heroine got shot right after fighting with her sister. 

The other is a trope that I always avoid in my writing, which probably has a name but I'll call it "How dare you be a virgin!" I've seen this pop up in a lot of books, where the tough guy hero has sex with the virginal heroine and is utterly shocked and horrified to discover he's deflowered her. How dare she not tell him this first! Now she's going to have Expectations! Ugh! As a result, my heroines are never virgins and my heroes never ask these sorts of questions as it simply isn't important how many people she's slept with.

And while I'm here, I can't resist announcing my new release, "Making It Hard".

He wants her. She wants him – but she’s going to make it hard for him.

Vlogger Angel Metzler likes to create content on her two favourite things – rock music and classic cars. So when lead guitarist Judah Kallam approaches her at a car show and asks her to do some promotion work for him, she accepts – and when she notices someone filming them as he’s flirting with her, she kisses him, hoping this will result in good publicity.

Judah tells her he plans to quit his band Vegas Dreams to go solo and is happy to get any publicity he can by any means necessary. Irresistibly drawn to him, Angel agrees to make public appearances with him, but knows it will go no further – she has made a private vow never to date musicians, having been let down by too many in the past.

But when the press attention grows too much to handle, Angel and Judah are thrown closer together and the heat growing between them tempts Angel to break her vow – but will Judah still be interested when the promotion is done, or is she just a groupie to him?

 

Books 2 Read: https://books2read.com/u/3LjDQ1

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Making-Hard-Rock-My-World-ebook/dp/B0C2ZPPM3M/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2OKPIPKD3H2SZ&keywords=tanith+davenport&qid=1685260801&sprefix=%2Caps%2C47&sr=8-1

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Making-Hard-Rock-My-World-ebook/dp/B0C2ZPPM3M/ref=sr_1_17?crid=3OJ2KOG5XE5UA&keywords=tanith+davenport&qid=1685260829&sprefix=%2Caps%2C162&sr=8-17

So what do you like and dislike about the romance genre?

Older books more people should read

 While I liked the sound of this topic from Long and Short Reviews, I did twitch a little at the word "older". I'm constantly being reminded that now that I'm past forty I'm considered "older" myself, so I'm dreading seeing books listed that I don't think are old at all.

The ones I'm going to list, in any event, are the "Ring of Bright Water" trilogy by Gavin Maxwell, and "Gavin Maxwell: A Life" by Douglas Botting.

I discovered these in my teens, reading the biography first and then moving on to Maxwell's books. Gavin Maxwell was a complicated man and I certainly didn't agree with everything he did during his lifetime, but he cared deeply for animals and was an amazing writer. 

So which older books do you think more people should read?