Uncategorized Archive

New Cool Color Swatch App!

Posted July 6, 2017 By Linda

Color Swatch

I’m so excited to congratulate Brad Kratky on the release of his new app, Color Swatch! It’s available for iOS and bonus – it’s free! I love using it to take pictures of stuff and storing and organizing the colours. Then by swiping left on the colour bar, the colour can be edited or shared. Brilliant!!

Brad, what inspired you to make Color Swatch? Last summer I wanted to make a small open source project. Open source projects are free software source code developers contribute to the community. I made a tool called “BradColorPicker” which can be used to choose and adjust colours. Any iOS (iPhone) developer can add this colour picker to their project!

After making that, I thought it would be cool to build on the project a little. I hadn’t worked with realtime video, so I also wanted to incorporate that into the app. So I combined the two – I wrote a small program, which identifies colours from video, then BradColorPicker can be used to adjust it!

I love that you took a project you had worked on and built onto it – and learned something in the process! What was the coolest thing you learned making this app? It was fun integrating my own open source project into the app, and I learned about performing efficient computations on streamed video to produce realtime results.

I have no idea what that means but it sounds amazing. 😀 What unique features does it have? There seemed to be a lot of colour pickers from still images, so the most unique feature is that it chooses colour from streamed video! I’m not really sure if it’s truly unique, I just did it for fun.

Fun and useful! Brad, congratulations on this project, getting it up on iTunes, and creating something cool and easy to use!

If you’d like to try out Color Swatch, check it out HERE.

Filed in Uncategorized | Tagged: app, Brad Kratky, Color Swatch

Sneak Peek Perfectly Skeptical

Posted July 2, 2017 By Linda

Perfectly Skeptical excerpt ~

She stopped in her tracks and squealed, almost bumping into a man standing on her porch. He put out his hand to steady her.

“Oh my god, you scared me,” she said, taking a deep breath.

Laughing blue eyes looked back at her. “Sorry about that. I was just about to knock, but you beat me to it.” His eyes swept the length of her. “I was sent to see how you’re doing.”

Brianna stiffened. “I’m fine. Why?” She hadn’t advertised she was going away. Her parents and Maisy were the only ones who knew where she was.

“You haven’t been out and about.”

Who’s keeping tabs? And who would send this dark-haired, all muscle, all-male hunk with the relaxed island smile and disarming blue eyes? Not her parents, that’s for sure. Maisy? It was entirely possible. Maisy’s reach was surprisingly long.

Don’t live a little. Live a lot. Maisy, you’re a cheeky devil, sending a male escort. He looked at her with a patient smile, waiting for her to catch up. Something about a tropical paradise and his sexy bod made her consider.

About Perfectly Skeptical (Perfectly Series novella) ~

Dr. Brianna Scott looked forward to sleeping away her staycation, until a lucky windfall meant an upgrade to palm trees, an ocean view . . . and the sexy Dr. Matt Gaelen. She’ll play and have fun, but can a holiday fling really turn into a soul mate for life? Doubtful.

Matt has no radar for sniffing out gold-diggers and protecting his heart. Until now. Brianna is more turned off than turned on by his wealth. What are his chances of getting her to overlook it? Dubious at best.

Improbable and uncertain, iffy and unlikely – the typical path to love.

Perfectly Skeptical . . . love when you least expect it.

Perfectly Skeptical is one of 25 brand new and exclusive sexy reads from NY Times, USA Today, and International bestselling authors in the Tropical Tryst Boxed Set. Perfect for romance lovers of all kinds, it offers up passionate and enticing tales, set in hot and tropical settings. Pre-order now for only 99 cents and be ready to escape to the tropics on Aug. 1st! Amazon | Barnes and Noble

Check out more Book Hooks!

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Happy Canada Day!

Posted July 1, 2017 By Linda

Happy Canada Day! 150 awesome years! Canadians have invented some cool things (like insulin) and raised some pretty awesome people (like Terry Fox – I actually met him and shook his hand!). The best thing about living in Canada is that we have peace and democracy. We have a lot to celebrate!

Filed in Uncategorized

#AuthorLove for Tina Gayle

Posted June 29, 2017 By Linda

Let’s give some #AuthorLove to Tina Gayle and her romantic suspense Tainted Rose.

And visit Tina Gayle’s blog for a sneak peek at Perfectly Skeptical, a Perfectly Series novella in the Tropical Tryst Boxed Set. It’s HERE

Meet Tina Gayle ~ Her first romantic novel published in 2008, Tina Gayle has written over thirty romantic books under two different pseudonyms. Her novels span several different genres from contemporary to fantasy and sweet to erotic. She enjoys the challenge of drawing a reader into a story and having them travel down the same road as her hero and heroine. Married thirty years, she enjoys spending time with her husband on the golf course. Find out more about Tina on her website – www.tinagayle.net

Tainted Rose

Maybelline Beasley enjoys her life in the Silver Leaf 55+ community until her neighbor is murdered. With all eyes point at her as the prime suspect, she struggles with her fear of cops and her attraction to Detective Billy Bob Cooter. Can he save her from the real murderer who’s looking for an escape goat? Or will her second change at love come to an end by a killer’s gun?

Excerpt:

“You have reached the 911 operator for Sitwell. What’s your emergency?” The calm voice appeared pleasant enough, but Maybelline wasn’t sure how long it would stay that way.

“I believe my neighbor is in trouble. She likes to hang out on top of her roof and meditate.” An unmovable lump formed in her throat. Swallowing her emotions, she started again. “But, she’s, uh, not moving and lying slightly off kilter as if something is wrong.”

“Could she have fallen asleep?” The operator suggested.

“No, I tried…” She stopped mid-sentence as she realized the woman might have a point. After all, Rose could be a little deaf. To test the theory, Maybelline searched for a way to make noise. “Wait, a second.”

She leaned into the car, set her hand in the middle of the steering wheel, and laid on her horn. The blast echoed around her, and she turned to glance up at her neighbor.

Rose didn’t move.

The certainty of an adverse outcome resonated through Maybelline’s body. The heaviness of grief robbed her of strength. She sagged against the car’s doorframe for support and lifted her cellphone back to her ear.

“Madam, madam, you don’t need to blow the horn. That might frighten her, and she could fall off the roof.” The operator sounded irritated by the interruption.

“But how else could I tell if she was asleep?” Maybelline didn’t understand the woman’s problem.

“Why don’t I just send someone out to check on your friend?”

“That would be helpful, thanks.” Maybelline lowered the phone knowing the 911 operator would want to keep her on the line, but she had no intentions of doing any such thing. She had gone through the whole rigmarole the last time and had no plans to do it again.

“Miss, I need…”

Maybelline hit the disconnect button and stuffed her cell in the pocket of her jeans.

Read the 1st chapter of all of Tina’s books at www.tinagayle.com

Tina loves to connect with readers: Blog | Twitter | Goodreads | Facebook

Show Tina some #AuthorLove by voting for Tainted Rose on Kindle Scout. Anyone who votes will receive a free e-copy if her book is chosen for publication! Check it out here – https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/SUFRUEVLX1R9

Filed in Uncategorized | Tagged: #AuthorLove, romantic susupense, Tainted Rose, Tina Gayle

#AuthorLove for Mia Jo Celeste

Posted June 29, 2017 By Linda

Let’s give some #AuthorLove to Mia Jo Celeste and her #romance Other Than.

And visit Mia’s blog for a sneak peek at Perfectly Skeptical, a Perfectly Series novella in the Tropical Tryst Boxed Set. It’s HERE

Meet the author ~ Mia Jo Celeste comes from a family of writers and English teachers, so it was no surprise when she chose to pursue both careers. She grew up watching horror movies and reading romances. To her, the two genres go together like salty and sweet in kettle corn.

Mia’s tip for writers ~

Even good writers get stuck sometimes. If that happens to you, I’ve got a quick cure. One that I first read about in Elizabeth’s Lyon’s Manuscript Makeover—riff writing. What’s riff writing? It’s where you take a problem spot in your writing and just like a jazz musician you give yourself permission to depart from the scripted notes or text and create something new. You go off in a spontaneous solo. By that, I mean you brainstorm as you write for ten minutes or so. What you put on paper, may work with your scene-in-progress, lead to another idea or possibly simply be tossed out.

When I write these riffs, I give myself permission to produce junk. If you’ve read A. Lamott’s Bird By Bird, you’ll know what I mean. What you produce is similar to her mistake-filled/ rotten first draft. My writing might be really bad—it might even stink, but that’s okay. It’s the solution-spark or beginning of an idea I’m looking for.

And speaking of solutions, I like to follow a piece of advice taken from one of Shirley Jump’s online classes. She says that your first idea may not be as creative as your third or fourth idea. So, when you get to those spots where you’re not sure what should or could happen next, consider brainstorming three or more possibilities and then writing a riff, an experimental five or ten-minute word exercise for each possibility. Chances are one of your riffs will outshine the others.

When I was writing Other Than I used riffs to nail the Maiden’s voice. The Maiden is the central villain and she’s able to speak telepathically to any of the undead on Lowell Island, which is the setting. She’s in the heroine’s head throughout the story and I wanted her voice to be compelling, convincing and as creepy as possible. Hopefully, you’ll see what I mean. Check out an excerpt HERE

Buy links: Wild Rose Press | Amazon | Kobo | iTunes

Mia Jo Celeste loves to connect with readers: Facebook | Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon Author Page

Share the love for #romance authors – support them by reading their books, spreading the word, and writing reviews! It means a lot to us 😀

Filed in Uncategorized | Tagged: #AuthorLove, Linda O'Connor, Mia Jo Celeste, Other Than, Perfectly series

Celebrate with Earrings!

Posted June 27, 2017 By Linda

Here are the earrings I’ll be giving away to my newsletter subscribers to celebrate the release of Perfectly Skeptical in the Tropical Tryst Boxed set!

If you’d like a chance to win, let’s etalk. 😀

You can pre-order Tropical Tryst for only 99cents (that’s 99cents Canadian too!)

Filed in Uncategorized

Summer Sizzling Reads Party

Posted June 22, 2017 By Linda

Join the fun with The Romance Reviews Summer Sizzling Reads Party! Perfectly Skeptical is showcased today – June 22. Answer the multiple choice question for a chance to win a pair of adorable starfish earrings! It’s the easiest multiple choice question you’ll ever have to do 😀 It’s HERE

Filed in Uncategorized

#AuthorLove for Ruth A. Casie

Posted June 20, 2017 By Linda

Let’s give some #AuthorLove to Ruth A. Casie and her #romance Happily Ever After.

And visit Ruth A. Casie’s blog for a sneak peek at Perfectly Skeptical, a Perfectly Series novella in the Tropical Tryst Boxed Set. It’s HERE

Meet the author ~ RUTH A. CASIE is a USA Today bestselling author of historical swashbuckling action-adventure time-travel romance about strong women and the men who deserve them, endearing flaws and all. Ruth also writes contemporary romance with enough action to keep you turning pages. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, three empty bedrooms and a growing number of incomplete counted cross-stitch projects. Before she found her voice, she was a speech therapist (pun intended), client liaison for a corrugated manufacturer, and international bank product and marketing manager vice president, but her favorite job is the one she’s doing now—writing romance. She hopes her stories become your favorite adventures.

Happily Ever After

From a fall from literary stardom to becoming the heroine in her own romance story, Beth Holmes has turned around her career and her love life. She owes it all to one very special person.

Jarred Watson has loved Beth since he read her first novel and suspected the heroine was the embodiment of the author. But the road to romance was fraught with pitfalls. He almost lost everything because of a conniving agent and a little white lie that got out of hand. At the eleventh hour, with honesty and hard work, their book sales are off the charts and a movie deal is in negotiations.

Interfering families and changed plans take their toll. Will they go their separate ways or will Holmes and Watson continue their literary collaboration and personal partnership in order to find their own happily ever after?

Excerpt:

“I don’t know why I let the town council talk me into co-chairing the July Fourth celebration.” Her biting tone wasn’t meant to deceive him. She was very aware why she agreed. The offer at Christmas played to her wounded ego.

“They convinced you Beth Alexander would draw more people than last year’s co-chair. Even Jean agreed.”

“Yeah, easy for Jean to say. She’s my agent with no idea what it takes to run an event like this. More to the point, she’s not in Havenport herding cats. So why am I doing this?”

“Because you love it. You whip up people with your passion. That’s how you convinced me to do the book signing with you at the fair tomorrow.”

“If I remember correctly, I ‘whipped you up with my passion’ quite nicely before you left. You didn’t complain.” Images of their last night together flashed in her mind. They’d spent the day at the beach.

He wore his diving brief, which left nothing to the imagination. His broad shoulders, well-defined abs, and trim waist were romance-cover worthy. Dark wavy hair set off hazel eyes, which held a look of warmth and desire. Their lovemaking was more than heart-stopping strokes and touches. Much more. She leaned her forehead against the cool glass of the porch window to counter the heat threatening to burn her to a crisp.

“You still there, or did I hit a dead zone?”

“I’m here. Lost in the vision of ‘whipping you up.’” She stepped to the side table, breaking the conjured spell, and took a long drink of lemonade. The tartness quenched her thirst, but didn’t satisfy her other craving. That had to wait until Jarred got home.

“Yeah, me, too.” His voice rumbled with a soft, teasing laugh that he usually combined with a smart-ass Bruce Willis smirk.

She needed to get her mind on something else. She was so past mooning over him like a love-struck teenager. Her inner teen giggled. No, she was definitely a love-struck thirtysomething.

Purchase Links: Amazon/Kindle | iBook | Kobo

Ruth loves to connect with readers ~

Personal Blog: https://www.ruthacasie.blogspot.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/RuthACasie

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/RuthACasie/

Amazon: https://amzn.to/13GwuQ1

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/ruth-a-casie

Share the love for #romance authors – support them by reading their books, spreading the word, and writing reviews! It means a lot to us 😀

Filed in Uncategorized | Tagged: #AuthorLove, Happily Ever After, Linda O'Connor, Perfectly series, romance, Ruth A. Casie

#AuthorLove for Christa Maurice

Posted June 19, 2017 By Linda

Let’s give some #AuthorLove to Christa Maurice for her new release Tender is the Night.

And head on over to Christa Maurice’s blog for a sneak peek of Perfectly Skeptical, a Perfectly Series novella in the Tropical Tryst Boxed Set. It’s HERE

Meet the author ~ Christa Maurice spends a lot of time lost in imagination. When not writing, she loves to travel and has spent several years living overseas. She spent four years living in Abu Dhabi where the temperature was always hot, the sunrise and sunset were pretty stable year ‘round and she could go weeks without speaking to a man who wasn’t selling her groceries. You know that happens to a woman living in what amounts to a harem situation? She spends a lot of time talking about shoes and thinking about men. Which brings us right back to being lost in imagination…

Tender is the Night ~

Love is a long journey.

Lisa Benedict needed a date for a bar mitzvah, but when the escort she hired arrives he’s not just good looking, he’s also kind, gentle, and protective. He makes her feel sexy again and she wants to keep him around. But she doesn’t know that the terrible abuse Gale suffered at the hands of one of the Hollywood elite keeps him from being able to trust her no matter how much he wants to.

Gale loved being with Lisa and her sons, but when she put a contract in front of him, he thought she wanted to enslave him as another woman had threatened to. He fled. Months later, with some therapy behind him, he wants to try again. Will she be willing to take him back after the way he stormed out?
And if she does, can he trust her to not reject him when she learns the truth?

Excerpt:

“Help me, Gale Wallace. You’re my only hope.”

Gale grinned. “I love that movie.” Too bad they couldn’t stay in tonight and watch it. They could cuddle on the couch, eat popcorn, and repeat their favorite lines. He swallowed. He should not be thinking of his client as a person. It would make the whole date more difficult. But it was impossible not to, especially when she was treating him as an equal.

“Me, too. See, we already have something in common.” She set aside her glass.

“We met at the Starbucks near where you work.”

“Yes, and we ended up chatting.” She patted his knee again.

“About Star Wars.”

She laughed and it was full of joy. “Of course we did. After coffee, we decided to have lunch. My ex had the boys last weekend, so we went to Brandywine on Saturday.”

“And you asked me to come with you this weekend.”

“Perfect. I did kind of invite you last Saturday.” She stroked his arm and then yanked her hand away. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to manhandle you.”

“Actually, to sell it, you will want to.” Not entirely true, but Gale was enjoying being touched by her.

“Oh good.” She rested her hand on his forearm again. “I should probably know what you do. I suppose you want to be an actor. You’re good-looking enough.”

“I tell people that I’m a model, but I do want to get into acting. What do you do?”

“I work for ABN in development picking which shows are green lit for production.”

“That sounds important.”

She shrugged. “I guess it would be if I had any power at all.”

If he leaned in right now to kiss her, what would she do? Kiss back? Slap him? Too soon to tell.

Purchase links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | GooglePlay | iTunes | Kobo

Christa loves to connect with readers ~

Website: christamaurice.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristaMauriceWriter?ref=hl

Twitter: @ChristaMaurice

Mailing list: https://eepurl.com/4VZuD

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/christa-maurice

Share the love for #romance authors – support them by reading their books, spreading the word, and writing reviews! It means a lot to us 😀

Filed in Uncategorized | Tagged: #AuthorLove, Christa Maurice, Linda O'Connor, Perfectly series, romance, Tender is the Night

The Romance Reviews Summer Sizzling Reads

Posted June 18, 2017 By Linda

Tropical Tryst is featured today (Sunday June 18) on The Romance Reviews Summer Sizzling Reads party! Join the fun for a chance to win a beautiful Tropical Tryst necklace! It’s HERE

And check back in on Thursday June 22 for a chance to win a pair of Tropical Tryst earrings when Perfectly Skeptical will be featured. 😀

Filed in Uncategorized