Snippet Saturday October 27, 2018

Snippet Saturday, October 27, 2018

How is it October already? Anyone else feel like the year has flown past them? 

Nothing says Christmas like being snuggled up with two hot-blooded bear shifters on the island of Shifter Falls, Maine.

In my next book, we're expanding the Shifter Universe I created in Silver Fells, North Carolina.I'm taking you north to the small island of Shifter Falls, Maine to meet bear twins Keefer and Keller Paxton.

Bernadette "Bean" Adams is a down-on-her-luck waitress working at the Moose Cafe where she meets the Paxton brothers. There's an instant attraction but December hasn't been kind to Bean and she has other things on her mind.

Chapter One

Bean
“I can’t believe the brothers sat in your section again tonight,” Rae whispered to her co-worker Bernadette “Bean” Adams. Around them the patrons of the Moose Café ate and chattered, giving them a few minutes to talk.

Bean only shrugged. She’d been living in Shifter Falls, Maine for the last few months and had never seen the twins before. Then seemingly out of nowhere, they’d arrived at the diner two nights ago.
“They’re good tippers,” Bean said with a shrug. She grabbed the pot of coffee and made her rounds. She was a woman on her own and almost entirely dependent on tips. She didn’t have time to gossip with Rae.

Christmas was only a few days away, and the warble of Brenda Lee’s classic song played on the radio. Tinsel garland decorated each pane window and the lights blinked on a five-foot-tall Christmas tree in one corner.

Bean didn’t want to think about how alone she was this year or the empty, rumbling sound of her belly when she tried to sleep at night. She didn’t want to think about the cold shelter she’s procured or the assembly of people living there with her.

“How’s your dinner, Sir?” she asked with a big, bright smile as she approached the two men in her section. Tall, broad-shouldered, with shaggy brown hair and beards, they were the very embodiment of what she always pictured a lumberjack to be.

The one man chuckled. “We’re just construction workers. No need to sir us. We work for a living.”
Bean blushed in response to his flirtatious tone and the admiration in his eyes.

“I’m Keefer Paxton, and this is my brother Keller.” Keefer was a big man. Bean suspected he, like most of the residents on the small island in the northern reaches of Maine, was a shifter. Potentially bear, she thought with a little nod. It certainly fit with the construction worker job.

“I’m Bernadette, but most people call me Bean,” Bean explained with a self-deprecating smile. She gave a little wave at the two men and wanted to roll her eyes at her own silliness.

“Bean. I like it. It suits you,” Keller said. His voice was rich. Redolent with suppressed power that triggered a warm melting within Bean’s core that had nothing to do with the temperature and everything to do with the man.

She smiled up through her bangs, caught in the special moment of awareness in meeting someone new. Exciting. She wanted to draw this moment out, like savoring a hard candy.
“You from around here, Bean?” Keefer asked. Bean’s gaze was pulled to the other brother. For a moment, she was lost in the heady stare of his brown eyes. She blinked and shook her head, pulling herself out of his spell.

“Only since the spring,” Bean said. Keefer nodded, a lock of hair slipping down over his forehead. Before she could control herself, she reached out and smoothed it away. Keefer’s mouth parted slightly, and she heard someone – herself? Gasp.

Fiery warmth spread up from her chest and flooded Bean’s cheeks. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me,” she said, stepping back from the table.

A confident grin played around Keefer’s mouth as he reached for her, but she was already too far away. “I didn’t mind,” he assured her.

“Still. I am so sorry.” Embarrassment clogged her throat as she pulled away from them. “I need to. Go.” She turned on the heel of her sneakers and made a beeline back behind the counter.

<<<>>>

Working with my fantastic editors now so, the book should be ready in time for Thanksgiving. Will have a cover reveal next Saturday so stay tuned!

<<>>

Current Series

Saturday Snippet, News, and last weekend at fan pricing!

Hey everyone!

Such a week it's been in the writing cave. I finished my next book "Fighting for her Bear" which will give a soft intro into the Bear Knuckle Brawlers series.. I had this whole thing planned. Release Fighting in November and then my Christmas book in December.

I got Fighting off to my editors and took a well-deserved break. And then had a mild panic attack. I needed to do my Christmas book for November to allow folks to you know - READ IT.

So, in a finger-waving flurry of activity, I spent all week focused and writing "A Gift for her Bears." Luckily, i had it all outlined so it went up pretty fast. This is unedited and raw but i think that's fun, too. Gives readers a bit of inside baseball on the writing process.

Then, we got news that our Kickstarter for Wenebojo kicked off!!

Wenebojo is the Ojibwa storyteller and a mild trickster. Think of coyote or Anastasi. Our Wenebojo is a storytelling streaming service. We've had great feedback from a variety of people. Autism, PTSD, ESL. There are so many applications and we'd be so grateful and love it if you joined us on the ground floor and watched us grow.

My stories will be there as well. So, settle down and enjoy this little snippet as we get ready to meet Been, Keefer, and Keller in the tiny island of Shifter Falls, Maine as they celebrate Christmas.

"A Gift for her Bears" by Summer Donnelly

Chapter One

Bean
“I can’t believe the brothers sat in your section again tonight,” Rae whispered to her co-worker Bernadette Adams.
Bean only shrugged. She’d been living in Shifter Falls, Maine for the last few months and had never seen the twins before. Then seemingly out of nowhere, they’d arrived at the diner two nights ago.
“They’re good tippers,” Bean said with a shrug. She grabbed the pot of coffee and made her rounds. She was a woman on her own and almost entirely dependent on tips. She didn’t have time to gossip with Rae.
Christmas was only a few days away and the warble of Brenda Lee’s classic song played on the radio. Tinsel garland decorated each pane window and the lights blinked on a five foot tall Christmas tree in one corner.
“How’s your dinner, Sir?” she asked with a big, bright smile as she approached the two men in her section. Tall, broad-shouldered, with shaggy brown hair and beards, they were the very embodiment of what she always pictured a lumberjack to be.
The one man chuckled. “You go around calling big bulky construction workers sir?”
Bean blushed in response to his flirtatious tone and the admiration in his eyes.
“I’m Keefer Paxton and this is my brother Keller.”  Keefer was a big man. Bean suspected he, like most of the residents on the small island in the northern reaches of Maine, was a shifter. Potentially bear, she thought with a little nod. It certainly fit with the construction worker job.
“I’m Bernadette but most people call me Bean,” Bean explained with a self-deprecating smile. She gave a little wave at the two men and wanted to roll her eyes at her own silliness. 
“Bean. I like it. It suits you,” Keller said. His voice was rich. Redolent with suppressed power that triggered a warm melting within Bean’s core that had nothing to do with the temperature and everything to do with the man.
She smiled up through her bangs, caught in the special moment of awareness in meeting someone new. Exciting. She wanted to draw this moment out, like savoring a hard candy.
“You from around here, Bean?” Keefer asked. Bean’s gaze was pulled to the other brother. For a moment, she was lost in the heady stare of his brown eyes. She blinked and shook her head, pulling herself out of his spell.
“Only since the spring,” Bean said. Keefer nodded, a lock of hair slipping down over his forehead. Before she could control herself, she reached out and smoothed it away. Keefer’s mouth parted slightly and she heard someone – herself? Gasp.
Fiery warmth spread up from her chest and flooded Bean’s cheeks. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me,” she said, stepping back from the table.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Also, this is the last weekend to get Claiming her Leopard at the intro, fan pricing of 99c

New Evolution in Storytelling!!

The Next Evolution in Storytelling - Streaming Service

Wenebojo combines audio, visual, and text to create a truly immersive storytelling experience for all.

It's all about the stories.

We can read a book either in print or digital format, or, more rarely, listen to the audio version. And for most stories, that’s about it.

Sadly, for a growing number, that isn’t enough. How many of us have elderly parents who would happily immerse themselves in a tale but can no longer make out the words?

Or a child who is blind, deaf, or autistic? The language of stories is universal, yet so many of our most vulnerable feel left out and alone, unable to easily access the wonder and magic of a well-told tale.

For the rest of us, how many would love to escape into a magical world, but are held back by the day-to-day needs of an indifferent life?

Do you fit into that category? Does someone you know?

Well, now there’s another option. It makes use of forty years of research combined with the best of technology to make stories accessible to the widest audience possible.

It’s new.

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Wenebojo. Storytelling reimagined. And it’s about time!




To learn more, please click the link below for our Kickstarter

Wenebojo

A Thanksgiving Romance and upcoming projects

Upcoming projects and a snippet.

I always try to include a new snippet for you to enjoy. With the holidays right around the corner, you'll love what's coming next!

I have a shifter story coming out in an upcoming Thanksgiving Anthology. It will help introduce a take on my universe. Same town, lots of the same faces and stories but this one will concentrate on the BKB - the Bear Knuckle Brawlers. They're an MMA style bear shifter cage fighting group of men and the women who love them. I'm planning the first book in January and i'm super excited!! Hope you are, too.

There is also a connected story for a Christmas and New Year's anthology where we visit our shifters in 1968. These are poignant, emotional stories but I think you'll love them. (When the author cries writing them, that's a good sign!)

We may also visit Maine. What could be more Cozy Christmas than our heroine tucked between two loyal, loving bear shifters with a roaring fire in the background? Sign me up!

Silver Fells' own Sheriff Kyle Winters who strongly dislikes shifters will also have a few stories. Stay tuned as i explore what he has to say. We meet him in a short story called Betting on her Bear, but I'll give you the details on that when the anthology is ready.

So, lots planned and thank you all so much for taking this journey with me! Your support means the world! I don't always send out newsletters but i do update my blog weekly. If you want to keep updated on the latest happenings in Silver Fells, Harper's Mill, or Apple Blossom (or any of my future stories) follow me here!

xoxo

Summer



Snippet:

Cloudy with a Chance of a Thanksgiving Romance

by Summer Donnelly

 “Stop! Thief!”

Twenty-eight-year-old bear shifter Tank Walker looked up in time to see a young kid, no more than thirteen, dart between customers on the streets of Silver Fells, North Carolina.

Tank hadn’t been in the small town long enough to determine if there was a criminal element but found it hard to believe anyone would be moved to theft in the idyllic village teeming with shifters.
“It’s that O’Shea brat again. I wish his sister would either get him in juvie or control him.”
It wasn’t that long ago that would have been him the shopkeepers were talking about, he thought. Whoever the O’Shea kid was, Tank felt an instant kinship.

Oh, no, not that Walker kid again. 

Hide the merchandise, Buddy, it’s the Walker kid again. 

Be home before dark, Angie. The Walker boy is out on parole.

Tank sniffed out the kid and followed at a sedate pace. Running would only set the boy in a panic. Eventually, he’d get tired, rest. And that’s when Tank would pounce.

He wouldn’t hurt the kid. Just scare him a little bit. Make sure he returned whatever bit of merchandise he’d stolen. It was the Monday before Thanksgiving. Maybe the kid was out doing a little early Christmas shopping, five finger discount style.

Tank didn’t consider himself a knight in shining armor or anything. His record was too dirty to ever be that. But, he was good with his hands.

Maybe a little too good. Tank smirked thinking of the things he’d stolen in his youth. The turn styles he’d jumped. The pockets he’d picked.

It wasn’t until Tank had tried to pick the pocket of a bear shifter—an honest to God bear shifter!—that Tank had been scared straight.

And don't forget, Claiming her Leopard releases on Monday!!

Snippet Saturday and a pre-order!!

October 6, 2018

TL;DR Pre-order now to save! Goes live 10/15/18!! Link at the bottom!


As a daughter, granddaughter, and sister of veterans, military men and women (and their sacrifices and families' sacrifices) have a special place in my heart.

My dad is a Vietnam veteran. I was their "welcome home" baby. Mom told me they "tried for three years to have me." Thanks, Mom, that's what every kid wants to think about. Their parents "trying" for three years.

Mom used to say Dad came back different. Not the man she fell in love with. He had a drinking problem for a few years. Nightmares. My dad told me sometimes he wished he had died over there.

Both of their stories break my heart.

Claiming her Leopard is a love story inspired by and dedicated to my parents. Because sometimes, happily ever afters feel a mile away.

xoxo

Summer

<<<>>>

Chapter One


Nick
The man within the leopard came to life. Not with a slow opening of a flower or the gradual warming of spring but all at once. Like the pop of opening a can of beer, he went from sleepy and dozing within his leopard form to high alert and near panic.
Memories cascaded into him like colors of the dawn. The Drill Instructors who once pushed him through their paces. Their job was to break them down in order to create fighters. To build warriors. Killers. In his mind, his hands clenched. Like a muscle memory over fifty years old, he remembered firing his military issued rifle until the barrel turned white and burned his hands.
Meeting Dottie on leave with one of his buddies. Nick’s parents in Pennsylvania were out of town, so the two men drove through the night and into the next day for a three-day leave in Maine.
There had been a dance. At a high school, maybe? The VFW hall? It was so long ago, he couldn’t remember. But there she’d been with her long straight hair and her mini-skirt.
She’d been so young. Nick snorted, surprised to hear a strangled sound coming from his leopard’s throat. He’d been in leopard form more than his human body for the last few years.
Like a shield, Nick’s mind didn’t want to think about why he preferred being in his leopard form. Some memories were best buried.
Instead, his mind returned to the girl who would become his wife. She was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen. They’d both been young. Babies, really, but their love made them invincible. He’d proposed almost immediately and got her to a local judge as she’d said yes.
He hadn’t wanted to give her the opportunity to change her mind. But more than that, he’d read the contract for undergoing the DNA splicing operation. Wives were definitely not an option.
But Nick had always been a beg for forgiveness over asking for permission kind of man. Their under-the-radar marriage happened only days before he’d signed the paperwork to become spliced. What else could the military do but accept it?
More memories. This time, it was the unforgettable pain of recovering from the surgery which changed his life forever. The agony he’d felt as his muscles and tendons moved with his first shift. During his time at the Lusty Leopard, Nick had talked to later generations of shifters. The doctors and scientists had improved their methods and training. It didn’t hurt as much anymore, he’d been told.
Once the man allowed the memories to course through, they turned into rapid-fire snapshots of his life. His buddies in the unit he was assigned to, relying on his leopard’s senses to determine friend from foe in a country nine thousand miles away from home.
There were the smells, too, of course. With his enhanced sense of smell, he could still remember the way cordite hung in the air after a firefight. The pungent odor of rice paddy mud. The mud in Vietnam smelled foul. Ancient. The iron smell of blood as it clung to your skin, stuck and drying. No, those memories were always nearby.
Other memories. Laughing with his buddies as they were clearing brush to create a camp. A peculiar word he and his fellow grunts used. Buddies but never friends.
There’s an unwritten rule in war. Don’t get close to men who are going to die. Friends were too intimate. Too close.
And in a jungle so far away from home, Nick Lowell had learned to put distance between himself and the men surrounding him.
<<<>>>

Ready to read the rest?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HT63RSM