Scattered Thoughts, Random Musings

It's the last day of Black History Month and though this is late in coming, I didn't forget! I mentioned earlier in the month that would be featuring the fascinating black characters of the Old West and I have delivered: my top 5 rugged black cowhands, rodeo riders, pioneers, and businessmen of the Wild West. In my last post, I featured my top 5 women of the West  so if you missed that be sure to check it out! In the meantime, here is just a brief list of black frontiersmen of the Old West... Enjoy! 1. Bill Pickett (1870-1932): Born to Black Cherokees in the Midwest, Pickett was a cowhand who invented "bulldogging," one of the 8 rodeo sports performed and credited to an individual. In 1971, he was the first African American  to be voted into Oklahoma City's Cowboy Hall of Fame. 2. George Bonga (1802-1880): A fur trapper, trader, and negotiator from Minnesota, Bonga was of African American and Indian descent and was made legend for his ...

Welcome to the Cold Nights, Hot Reads blog hop! Join me and several authors and bloggers as we feature some of our steamy excerpts, offer lot prizes, and bring you some good old-fashioned, sexy fun! Enjoy. ;) **New Release** B IS FOR BEDPOST a short erotic romance  Amazon Barnes & Noble All Romance eBooks Newly engaged couple Athena Lewis and David Carrone are off to celebrate the best way they know how—in bed someplace far from the glittering lights of Las Vegas. They arrive on a private island where pleasure, fun, and relaxation await—or so they believe. When they are invited to the island’s most exclusive club, they soon discover that the “Mansion” is no ordinary nightclub. Luckily, David and Tena are no ordinary couple. Looking to add more excitement to their relationship, they take the opportunity to explore their secret desires. But a night of passionate exploration brings back painful memories from Tena’s past and pushes them apart. Afraid to let h...

Amazon Barnes & Noble All Romance eBooks Welcome to another Sexy Saturday! Today's Valentine's Day and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take part. Today I'm featuring my upcoming release, B IS FOR BEDPOST , which will be released next week. It's a short erotic romance featuring my favorite couple, David and Tena, from  HIS BEDPOST QUEEN . This story first started off as a project to be part of an anthology but when that project fell through, I decided to release it on it's own, which made for a nice segue to their full-length sequel coming this fall. In this short, the story literally starts off where their last story ended and follows them on their vacation far from Las Vegas. If you haven't already read their story in  HIS BEDPOST QUEEN —what are you waiting for?!? ;) In the meantime, enjoy the sneak peek!  ♥ ~~~ Without warning, Davie grabbed her towel and pulled her over him. She braced herself against his chest, but was in no...

Last year, I featured some of my favorite poets and poetry in honor of Black History Month. This year, I want to continue that with black men and women of the Old West. As I prepare to write my historical western romance, I am in awe of the many black men and women who were just influential in the Western Expansion--those who had built a life for themselves out in the west and Midwest, but who are sadly very rarely mentioned in the history books or Hollywood. So each week this month, in honor of the 1860's set western romance I'm working on (which will be part of a historical romance anthology with authors Alyssa Cole, Piper Hughley, and Kianna Alexander) I will be featuring some of the fascinating stories I've discovered during my research. This week I want to feature the top 5 "badass" black women of the Old West: 1. Cathay Williams aka "William Cathay" (1842-1892), born to a slave woman in Missouri, served as a Buffalo Solider during the Ci...

Happy Hump Day! I'm excited to welcome friend and fellow author Alyssa Cole on my blog today as she shares with us what the hardest part of being a writer entails, why tears bring her joy, and what thinks of critique groups. She's also offering a cool giveaway to one lucky commenter in celebration of her new release, RADIO SILENCE. Be sure to check it out! Okay, I've hogged the mic enough... ;) If you couldn’t be an author, what would your ideal career be? Hm, it can’t involve writing at all?? I’m not sure…a wealthy restaurateur, perhaps, because then I’d get to eat delicious food all the time, in addition to being wealthy.   Or the inventor of strange, but useful enough to be lucrative, inventions that are sold via infomercial. Or a professional Ikea furniture assembly person. I’m pretty good at that. Which TV show(s) can you absolutely not miss every week? Sleepy Hollow! Even though season 2 is dragging, I still have hope for the show. It has...

Happy February! I can't believe we have already gone through January and so far we've survived a blizzard and I've gotten news that called for a Happy Dance: Romance Writers of America has accepted our workshop proposal for the RWA15 National conference this July, which I will be hosting with author friends, Alyssa Cole, K.M. Jackson, and Falguni Kothari! This month, I hope to do some more happy dancing as I continue working on my new and upcoming projects and if all goes according to plan, I should have a special treat out later this month. In addition, I'll be continuing my weekly segment of " Remembering Black History " in honor of the Secret Project I'm currently working on. (Hint: it involves a train, a black mail order bride, an ex-confederate solider, and the wild west!) But instead of poetry, as I featured last year, I will be posting some fun facts of black frontiersmen and women of the old west--something that has been sadly lim...