Archive | July 2014

A Way to Reach the Fae World & Impressionist Paintings–Photography Style

green fae world

Okay, so some might look at this and say eegads, that’s something I would have deleted from my camera. But wait! This is a really important picture.

You see, it was a totally cool tunnel of trees. We even saw a deer eating alongside the road. I tried to get a shot of it, but too late.  This was in Scotland on the way to our bed and breakfast. Loved it.

But what happened was we were almost sucked into the fae world. It’s true. One minute, we were in the human world, the next, we would have been hurdling into either the seelie or unseelie planes of existence.

So you see, this is not what you might think it is.

It’s beautiful. It transcends our day-to-day world.

 

 

Creek behind the bed and breakfast (640x480) (2)So here is a creek behind our bed and breakfast. It was beautiful. Reminded me of a hobbit home.

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And the lovely rustic wall.

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And this is like an impressionist painting, photography style.

When I saw this, my first impression was it was really interesting, the fall colors, the birches bordering the creek, the way we get a glimpse beyond the foreground trees as to what’s beyond. I loved Scotland. It was awe-inspiring.

So see? Sometimes really clear shots are just boring. When something that’s not quite clear can be quite intriguing, don’t you think?

Okay, so I’ve been really busy setting up the Facebook party!

https://www.facebook.com/events/276934839159040/

Here’s our lineup of authors!

For lovers of everything historical, Celtic, Highland, Scottish, Romance, HEA, this is for you!

Some of the prizes I’ll be giving away are: A Highland teddy bear that I make, 2 The Viking’s Highland Lass T-shirts (Gunnolf had to be part of the party), Highland print books, Highland ebooks!

Special guests will be featured:

6:30 Victoria Roberts
7:00 Nancy Lee Badger
7:30 Vonda Sinclair
8:00 Màiri Norris
8:30 Eliza Knight
9:00 Mary Elizabeth Wine
9:30 Debra Dier
10:00 Brooklyn Ann & Amanda Forester
10:30 Dawn Marie Hamilton
Willa Blair will drop in if she can!

I’m at 26,000 words on Call of the Cougar, so making some good headway.

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I’m working on a navy bear for an order, and just got a blue bear order, not sure on that one. Still looking for fur.

And so, it’s time to get to work!!!

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If it hadn’t been for the hose in the picture, but hey, it tells a story too–hot, hot, hot, and I’m out having to water before we’re on water restrictions, but bunny, sparrow and dove all together at the feeding “trough.” Isn’t that cute?

Okay, really off to write!

Have a great Tuesday!

 

Back to writing!

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

www.terryspear.com

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Facebook Party July 18!

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Dunnottar Castle Ruins–a stairway to heaven, early 15th Century Tower House. These were the castle ruins where I envisioned A Highland Werewolf Wedding took place. Dunnottar, Scotland, United Kingdom

For lovers of everything historical, Celtic, Highland, Scottish, Romance, HEA, this is for you!

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Fall Colors in Scotland Reflected off a Loch

Some of the prizes I’ll be giving away are: A Highland teddy bear that I make, 2 The Viking’s Highland Lass T-shirts (Gunnolf had to be part of the party), Highland print books, Highland ebooks!

 

her highland hero print front quote3 1850
Her Highland Hero
Lady Isobel is a Norman laird’s daughter, living near the Scots border where her father, Lord Pembroke, is trying to keep the peace. But her mother was a Highlander and the man Isobel loves most of all is Laird Marcus McEwan, who has been bringing news of her mother’s people for years. But now Isobel’s father wishes her wed to an English nobleman, who will carry on his title. Isobel will wed no other man but her heart’s desire—and that is one braw Highlander from her mother’s homeland.
Laird Marcus McEwan has loved the feisty lass forever. For years, Marcus has tried to convince Lord Pembroke to allow him to wed his daughter. But the Norman lord will not allow it. Then ambushes and murders make it too dangerous for Marcus to reach a peaceful resolution.

Nothing goes as planned and keeping the lass for his own is fraught with danger, as they try to determine who was behind the killings. Isobel and Marcus will do everything in their power to ensure they are together as they have always vowed they would be.

 

Audiobook will be coming, and print is coming soon.

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Amazon

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Print

 

If you’d like to attend my first ever Facebook party, this one for Her Highland Hero, I’ll be here on July 18 from 6 PM to 11 PM, CST for anyone who wishes to attend! We’ll be having several guest authors also and they’re bringing goodies too! Hope you can come to the party. Kilts not required! https://www.facebook.com/events/276934839159040/

Special guests will be featured:

6:30 Victoria Roberts
7:00 Nancy Lee Badger
7:30 Vonda Sinclair
8:00
8:30 Eliza Knight
9:00 Mary Elizabeth Wine
9:30 Debra Dier
10:00
10:30 Dawn Marie Hamilton
Willa Blair will drop in if she can! More who are checking their schedules

This will be my first time at hosting a a Facebook Party. After this one, I’ll be doing one for A Hero of a Highland Wolf. Different genre, and I hope to get some shifters, I mean, shifter writers, to join me on that. 🙂

In the meantime, I’m working on Call of the Cougar, reached 15,000. Shooting for 20K by Sunday night. 🙂

Have a great Saturday!

 

Back to writing!

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

www.terryspear.com

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Dragonflies in Flight & the Dinner Out–the New Art of Conversation

2 dragonflies in flight dragonfly in flight (4)dragonfly in flight

When I water, the dragonflies come buzzing around. But even when I don’t, they do. They must be really smart, unlike birds, and know that when I’m out, I might just be getting ready to water. The birds can’t figure out that if I’m out there, I might be bringing them food or water. Maybe that’s where they come up with the term bird brain? It is hard, well, for me, to catch a dragonfly in flight. They fly very fast, but I had fun capturing these images!

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I took some more pictures of the sunflowers. I love them. They remind me of my dad who had planted them so many years ago and once they are gone, I won’t see them for another year. I particularly loved this one, stretching out.

 

And a picture is worth a million words, don’t you think?

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Dinner Out–The Art of Conversation

🙂

And yes, while this was going on…I took the picture. 🙂

Okay, I’m back to writing. I only reached 11,000. I was working on setting up a Facebook party for next week for Her Highland Hero Release with some other Highland romance authors. After that, I’ll be doing a Hero of a Highland Wolf one, so stay tuned! And I contracted a narrator who is actually Scottish to do the narration for Her Highland Hero, so excited about that. 🙂

Back to writing!

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

www.terryspear.com

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When I Get Stumped….

Tawny Emperor Butterfly

I ask my Facebook friends. I love it. It’s amazing how great everyone is at finding answers for you. I was busy writing, of course, and I actually am excited to stay that I reached 10,000 words on Call of the Cougar today, after revising a lot of it to go in a new direction, which I often do, but I came across the picture and shared it, wondering if it was a butterfly or a moth.

Some said a moth, had to be. Others thought it was a butterfly. I found one picture that was close, but another friend was like, “No, not quite the same.” So she kept searching, and I kept writing, and then she found it!!!

Well, I’m happy to say that this pretty little fellow is a Tawny Emperor Butterfly.  So thanks to Alicia Jespersen and all her research!

Now,  what’s interesting to note is that they fly really fast. You’ve seen slow moving butterflies, these don’t fly that slow. So I was just lucky to catch this one on the jasmine in various poses. Can’t find the other pictures of this one.

But also what was interesting and what cinched the deal for me was that they love rotting fruit. And so if you want to attract one of these to your habitat, when they normally stay away from inhabited areas, they will come. And that was it!

My pear trees were full of pears and they were dropping constantly and I was having a time keeping after them. So not only were the yellow jackets having a feast, and getting drunk on the fermenting pears, the butterflies were too. Only I didn’t realize that they were butterflies and not moths.

Tawny Emperor butterflies on pears3

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Back to writing. Going to two conferences practically on top of one another, so need to keep after it because otherwise, I’ll be busy. Oh, and the blog tour coming up for A Hero of a Highland Wolf. I swore I wasn’t going to go to as many conferences next year and am already booked for 4. The 5th one I might not do.

I need time to write, don’t you agree???

Terry

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

www.terryspear.com

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Hero of a Highland Wolf–4 Stars! RT Magazine & Goodreads Giveaway!

Everyone needs one, aye?

herohighlandwolf-300 (487x800)This is one of my favorite covers!

Highland hunk. Check

Wolf. Check

Kilt. Check

Highland background. Check

Wait, no castle. That’s okay. We have a Highland hunk. Check

But here’s for the great news!! It’s coming on August 7, and we have a ton of things going on. I’ve been told that we’ll have kilted Highlanders to show off on Facebook, prizes, I’ll be giving away one of my Highland bears that I make, all 4 of my Highland books to one Rafflecopter blog tour blitz winner, a Facebook party, we’ve got a Goodreads giveaway going on now…and more!

This is a red mohair bear, suede paws, one of a kind. Only made one small one like this. 🙂  I will give this away at the FB party.  $55 bear!

MacStewart Bear

Goodreads Giveaway

Romantic Times, 4 Star! HOT

When it comes to paranormal romance, readers can always depend on Spear to deliver. This 14th entry in the acclaimed Heart of the Wolf series will not lee down those rabid fans of the hairy guys who howl at the moon. Hero of a Highland Wolf is guaranteed to excite, tantalize and stimulate all of your senses. And there’s kilts! Jaime A. Geraldi

Happy reading!!!

Terry

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

www.terryspear.com

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Night Owl Romance Review of Cougar’s Mate!

Loved the review for Cougar’s Mate!

Cougar's Mate

Buy Now

Cougar’s Mate

Heart of the Cougar, #1

Cougar Mate is the first book in a brand new and exciting paranormal series from author Terry Spear. As usual, she did an outstanding job with this book. I just can’t get enough of her shifter novels, and this one was no different. This time around the author explores the cougar shifter world, and she made it every bit as exciting as her wolves and jaguars. It was a great read that I enjoyed. Spear easily pulled me into the story with her wonderful characters and vivid descriptions. I had a hard time putting this one down.

 

 

 

Happy reading!!!

Terry

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

www.terryspear.com

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Call of the Cougar! Fresh Fiction Review for Her Highland Hero!

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Lovely review at Fresh Fiction!

Her Highland Hero, June 2014
The Highlanders #6
by Terry Spear

Self Published
Featuring: Marcus McEwan; Lady Isobel
230 pages
ISBN: 1633110001
EAN: 9781633110007
Kindle: B00LENEGHU
e-Book
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Fresh Fiction Review

“Full of heart-stopping action, sexy good guys, and strong women!”

Her Highland Hero
Terry Spear

Reviewed by Miranda Owen
Posted July 6, 2014

There are certain components in HER HIGHLAND HERO that are staples of just about any book by Terry Spear — the good guys are sweet, sexy and can handle a sword; the heroine is no pushover; and the action adds interest and is exciting but it never overbalances the romance. I also love that Isobel and Marcus discuss the dangers they face and make decisions together. There are some things that Isobel is physically unable to do because she was never trained as a warrior, but neither is she immature or a hindrance on the journey to Marcus’s castle. He admires her determination and heartiness and doesn’t talk down to her or patronize her.

Along with the sizzling romance, HER HIGHLAND HERO is full of treachery, conspiracies, and tons of bad guys to choose from. It’s fun trying to guess who the masterminds are and how the puzzle pieces fit into place. It’s nice seeing familiar faces from past books acting as helpers in Marcus and Isobel’s journey. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for familiar characters like Gunnolf and new characters like Sir Travon, and the mysterious Dwyer.

HER HIGHLAND HERO is exactly the kind of highlander book fans have come to expect from Terry Spear — full of heart- stopping action, sexy good guys, and strong women. I look forward to reading more books in this series!

***

I set His Wild Highland Lass aside to read later and revise some more. It really is good to let a story go for a while. It’s not due out until Feb. So I have time on it.

So I was tossing ideas around in my head of how to start The Viking’s Highland Lass and Call of the Cougar. One of my beta readers said I probably wouldn’t want to release another Highland novel that soon, so work on Call of the Cougar. In actuality, I will have to stop whatever project I get stared on in a couple of weeks to go to a conference, come home for a week, and off to another conference, at which time I will have to work solely on A Silver Wolf Christmas for a November deadline. So no matter what I work on now, it’s not going to be finished right away. Wrote 2500 of Call of the Cougar yesterday, and will be working more on it today. But if I get stuck, I’ll go back to Viking. 🙂

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I saw a note from someone on a loop who asked, “Is releasing a book in August bad for sales?”

Actually, anytime in summer can be bad because families are vacationing and busy doing other stuff. On the other hand, when I wasn’t juggling little ones, I loved to read on a plane. Or when I was at a cabin or hotel at night, read a book.

The same can be said of August or September. Kids are going back to school, money is tight for buying school supplies, new clothes for the kids, and if you have teen books coming out then, kids are too busy with their studies to read. Although I have just as many adult readers for my teen books. Or…releases are bad in November or December because of the holidays and everyone is buying gifts. Hmmm, books maybe??? I always get books for my kids and kids-in-laws. They ask for them! Then I’ve heard January is the worst for sales because no one has any money. And yet, everyone has new ereaders and gift certificates!  And I’ve heard that sales can be really good. 🙂

What do I do? When the book is ready, I publish it. Whether it sells a lot this month or next month, or three months from now is irrelevant. I’m working on the next book. And when that one comes out, maybe IT will hit the right month. The point is we never really know. And we’re in this for the long term. So if you’re reading my books and are looking forward to the next one, don’t worry about me releasing in only certain months to optimize sales! 🙂

When it’s done, it’s yours.

It’s kind of like submitting to an agent. EVERYONE said, don’t submit during a holiday. No agent will read your work. I found submitting during the holidays, not right on Thanksgiving or Christmas, but the weeks before were great times to submit. You know why? No one else was because EVERYONE said… yep. So everyone else didn’t submit. And mine were seen to right away. 🙂

But every book is special. Every release is special. It might not be well loved this month, or it might even take a year for readers to finally take notice. 🙂 We just have to write the next book. Don’t you agree?

patrick4

Oh, and after showing off my Patriotic Patrick on Facebook, I had one order for him, and one for another bear! He is cute, isn’t he? He was featured in Teddy Bear Review Magazine some years back.

I had a question: Do I make the bear too? Not just the clothes?

Yes.

Here is a naked bear that I also made and naked bunnies too!

Bunniesmohair2Copy of Mason1

Happy reading!!!

Terry

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

www.terryspear.com

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Happy Independence Day!

As a Girl Scout Troop Leader, I was surprised when I my troop didn’t know the meaning of the 4th of July. So we did a study unit on what it was all about.

Then years later when my son was in college, taking a first year American history class, the teacher was mentioning Independence Day and one girl raised her hand and said, “Cool that it happened on a holiday.”

This was foooor real. Really. Truly. Real.

I would have felt sorry for her had I been there, except that it’s really sad. Really. Seriously. What are we teaching our kids anyway?

Okay, so it’s also really, really funny. Too.

Hey, I don’t need to make up stories. It’s all just…out there.

Fireworks

Back to writing! What? You think I’m off to celebrate??

I am, when I write. 🙂

Terry

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

www.terryspear.com

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Life is Like a Rose

It’s born.
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It spreads its sepals, awakening to the world.
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It spreads its petals to experience more of its surroundings.

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It welcomes the sun and the rain and the fauna with open petals.

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It is life.

Back to the novella! At 20,000 and nearly done! Have to figure out the end!

Have a super great 4th!

Terry

“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”

www.terryspear.com

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New Cover Reveals!!!

Kissing the Highlander final

First, I love this cover by Vonda Sinclair! And His Wild Highland Lass is the novella I’m working on for it. The anthology is a set of 5 prequels to stories we already have out.

I had a breakthrough on my story this afternoon. Not breakdown. But breakthrough. 🙂

And so I’m hoping to finish writing it in the next couple of days. Or by the weekend. It’s at 18,000, shooting for 23,000.

This anthology will be out in Feb.

Then, I’m working with a couple of other talented authors and this is the beautiful cover that was created by Heather Newbury Almendarez.

These are Greek God contemporary comedy romances. It should be out about July 9.

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Can you say beautiful? I mean about the cover!!!

And a couple of reviews. Loved the reviews and had to share!!!

This one was for The Highlander audiobook!

Refreshing and fun to read!
5 stars By Nicole Laverdure “Mirabelle” July 2, 2014