Dark Dreams

Dark Dreams Be warned, this is wordy with a lot of fun links to click on. In September of 2013, I released a reader-driven novella, The 13th Floor (DD Novella #1), in September 2016 I released, The Otherside (DD Novella #2), and then wrote nothing in the series for a long time. Technically, looking at the dates the next one should be due out by September 2019. But I won’t make anyone wait that long. It’s been long enough. After publishing those stories, I received positive feedback from a small group of new readers. They gave great reviews, but still I wasn’t feeling that I could take it where it needed to be, so I shelved it. It’s been bugging me ever since. It’s a paranormal series, but not ordinary by any means. Which made it fun to write and hopefully to read. I wanted to get it going again in 2017, but I wasn’t feeling it then either. The problem? It was reader-driven. When requesting which of the two possible ways it could end, the feedback was 50/50. So, what’s an author to do? I proceeded to write the third book with the ending I wanted, and in doing so a third option presented itself. I introduced that option and well...it became a three-way tie. During that time, I put things on hold to figure it all out, and I also tried to get involved with a few different venues that would allow me to publish the series for better publicity, but none of those worked out. They wanted something new and fresh, and the beginning of my story had already been published. Early 2018 I got sick with an intestinal infection that messed me up for many months, physically and mentally. I didn’t write anything new, but edited a couple things, and read almost all my books to find some typos and minor errors – so I fixed those up, but that’s all I was capable of. I still have chronic pain which I assume was from the illness, but after seeing a bajillion doctors and specialists and having just as many tests, I gave up when no one was finding anything. It was more stressful to keep going to the doctors, and as most of you know – stress is bad. By allowing myself time away from the medical field, I’ve been able to get stronger mentally, and physically (been hitting the gym with hubby – that’s a story in itself – maybe next month’s newsletter will have that tale). In July 2018 I went to the SaSS Author Event in Norfolk, VA – that was a HUGE part of my wellbeing going in a more positive direction, and I started writing again as a result. Not a whole lot, but it was better than nothing. As 2018 progressed so did I. I’m not 100% where I was back in 2017, but I’m so much more myself than I have been, which makes me happy, I missed me! Anyway, as for that damn series that’s haunted me for years. When I made a conscious effort to sit down and finish it, I couldn’t. My characters were holding me back, I was holding me back, and it had been so long since the last book was published that no one was asking for it. No pressure = no motivation. One night I was complaining to my husband about the ending and how I couldn’t decide what to do, or who my main character, Luciana should end up with: Ethan the vampire, Nick the shifter, or the Lee the human. Hubby said, why not write all three endings. I was about to laugh it off and dismiss what he’d said, but then I started percolating on the idea. I was going to write them all and the one I liked best I’d publish. But the one I liked might not be the one you liked… Writing all three was a great idea since I couldn’t write it without each having their happy ending. Or I could’ve just killed them all off and left her alone, but that wouldn’t have pleased me, and would’ve pissed off a bunch of readers, and in my new plan I might be pissing people off too. Time will tell. Book #3, Time of Decision will be out soon, keep an eye on my social media for dates. I’m at the mercy of my editor, but I plan to have it out by March or sooner if I can. Book 3 will end in a cliffhanger, maybe? I’m not a fan of cliffhangers, but it all depends on you if there is one! ***Take the POLL to help me decide how to publish the endings.*** *** Catch up on books 1 & 2 before 3 comes out!  1. The 13th Floor 2. The Otherside 3. Time of Decision (add to your TBR).

Giveaway & Fun Things: ***WORD SEARCH - Time how long it takes you to find all the words, and let me know in the Dark Dreams Facebook Group - where there may be a random drawing, dependent on the number of entries (I'll go easy since this is a new group). ***My GIVEAWAY this month is for the first book in the Dark Dreams series, The 13th Floor. Two lucky winners will receive a copy. Good Luck! Click HERE! Thanks for stopping by! ~Laci <3

Strong and Silent - Now Available!

#military #romance

Bonds of blood are strong...

Kelli loves men in uniform, and it isn’t unusual for her to hook up with members of her brother’s Navy SEAL team. When her brother finds out, their relationship is strained, but when he‘s injured on a mission, she drops everything and goes to him. Then she starts seeing his longtime best friend in a new way and the attraction may be mutual. Will that destroy her already strained relationship with her brother?
...but so are the bonds of love.

Todd is a SEAL through and through, but grown-up Kelli has caught his eye. Too bad she’s the sister of his teammate and best friend. When her brother Mike is injured, Todd is there to help them both through it, and what began as interest, sparks into something more. His life isn’t easy, though, and his career is his life. Will he lose the best thing he’s ever known because he can’t let go of the job?

Love is the mission that may end up costing them the most.

Add to your Goodreads TBR list:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42196464-strong-and-silent

Available on Amazon for $2.99 the new release price, it will go up to $3.99 after. Also available on Smashwords. Will be on other retailers sites shortly, keep an eye on my social media for links!

Guest post by Author Jess Hunter

Today at Laci's Place, I have JESS HUNTER – Author of FOR A HERO who apparently has met the girl of his dreams! Comment below for a chance of any one of Sable & Jess Hunter's ebooks - your choice.
This is an open letter to the girl who is his inspiration……..

"I hope you're happy."

You’re probably not going to read this, but I need to get it out. You’ve done something for me that I haven’t had in a long time. I feel inspired. You’ve made a manly, stoic, serious man like me feel feelings, and now I sit at a computer letting emotion-filled words spill out of my heart.
I met you online a few weeks ago. You caught my eye and I didn’t know what to expect when I arranged our first meeting. Coldly, I even kind of saw nothing happening in the beginning. I certainly wasn’t expecting what happened when I saw you for the first time. You’ve made for yourself a home in my thoughts. I’ve expressed a concern to my closest friends about you and the little sickness you’ve given me. Guys who play the game and peek behind the curtain of social dynamics call this sickness “one-itis” and it is feared across the world. It’s the dreadful, deathly end of a bachelor, either from marriage or heartbreak. Either way, it’s not good.
I pulled my best friend aside and we had a chat. He is also, unfortunately, succumbing to a similar ailment. We keep trying to coach each other back into reason and ration and rhyme and right and rule but we both announce our awareness of our sad states and then knowingly sink back into them. What’s wrong with us?
He has a little crush. He, like me, plays the game and wants to experience as many relationships as he can. He found someone at a party and has since been exhibiting very un-manly like behavior towards her. He texts her a lot. He asks her friends about her feelings toward him. He even performed the unforgivable “white knight” on her. Hopefully she was too drunk to remember really well…
I gave him this advice. “Easy, Bro. Your perception of her will color your behavior and direct the relationship. You have to detach from her emotionally and escalate things physically. She is like a cat. Your disinterest and authority will bring her closer to you.”
He nods. He knows I’m right. But before we can part, he directs the advice back to me. He knows also that I am doing the same stupid bullshit that he is. I respond. “No, Dude. This one is different.”
“How so?”
“Shit. I don’t know.”
But I do know. I just didn’t want to sound like a sissy to my friend.
After he left, I don’t know what he said to her. But judging by the way his messages to me have been filled with little emoticons, I have to assume that he has not followed my advice. That is a problem, because lives are made best when built around systems of rationality, causation and responsibility. The most unforgivable action is unreasonable behavior and I have stopped many relationships very early to avoid someone who may act unreasonably around me.
My brother (adopted) once said something very wise to me that I fought externally but felt the depth of truth behind. He said, “Jess, when you find THAT girl, you will think differently. You won’t care about your reasons or your contingencies or your plans. You will look back and find that you are behaving just as unreasonably as she is, and then you’ll know.”
Dammit, Woman. Today, I behaved stupidly unreasonable. And it’s all your fault. I don’t know how you did it. It was somewhere in your smile, hidden behind your character, flowing from your heart, and shapelier than those million dollar legs. Even though I see it, I can’t say it. It is an unknowable, intangible thing in you.
Maybe it’s your goodness. You are a much better person than me, or Sable for that matter. You have principles and ethics and passions that most people only pretend to have. Maybe it’s your purity. You are secluded from the world by your goodness and your brilliance and the world hasn’t gotten to know you yet. Maybe it’s your mind, your wonderful brain that can see truths and yet, magically adhere to ethereal standards. Are you for real? I’m going to be red-hot if you are pretending.
Regardless, you pissed me off today. You did something that, had you been ANY OTHER WOMAN, would have made me immediately cut you out of my life to prevent the pain that you would cause me. But I couldn’t. When you gave me your reason, (as women are wont to do, rationalization and all that) despite all the red flags going off in my head, I believed you. I trusted you. I had faith in you. And now, I wait. Our deadline ticks away, and I am at the mercy of fate, or destiny, or you, or God or whomever is going to decide how this maelstrom ends.
You pissed me off today, and I didn’t care. You made me want to fight for you. I am so mad at you, but when you text me, my face lights up like Christmas.
I needed to get this off my chest. I needed to express this unfamiliar feeling I am having. Maybe this is lust, maybe it is infatuation, maybe it is respect, maybe it is fury, maybe it is early onset Alzheimer’s disease.
All I know for sure is that I am trusting you. I am going out on a limb for you. My heart is in your hands, and when that moment comes, if it happens how my little Disney-taught prince mind wants it to happen, it will all have been worth it.
But dammit, Woman.
Anyway, I do need to thank you. You’ve got my mind on romance. You are showing me feelings that I have been trying to write in books for a while now. I need this. I need to want to express emotion like this. I need to want to write about falling in love and how incredible and unreasonable and stupid it is.
Because of you, you little brat, I will be writing words from the heart this week. I hope you’re happy.

I’ll See you Saturday
Jess

Here’s an excerpt from FOR A HERO
And the buylink: Amazon

David’s hands held on to her as if he’d never let her go. He created an unbreakable bond between them. So perfect was his connection to her that their breaths escaped simultaneously.
They slept for a while, content to just be in each other’s arms.
Slowly, Jenna awoke, looking up and around. There she lay, in his fortress, where only his most trusted and loved ones enter.
It was December 23rd. Even though Santa hadn’t left yet, this was the best present she could have asked for. 
“Jenna.”
“Yes?”
“This isn’t the most perfect time, but I am feeling it right now. If I don’t let it out and tell you, I am going to burst.” David sat up; the radical change in body position mirrored his tone in magnitude.
Jenna rose to meet him in response. “What is it?”
“You have shown me that I don’t have to keep my walls up. You have shown me that I don’t need to keep searching for something else. If my mom and dad were alive, I am positive they would love you. They would be so proud of me if I brought you home.”
David’s voice caught a bit. Jenna’s eyes misted. “Thank you, David.”
“I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” He looked at her with sincere, hooded, fervent eyes. He took her hands in his and held them tightly against his chest, like he needed them there to breathe. “I want to marry you.”
Jenna gasped. The air stopped coming in and she didn’t even realize it. This was it. It could be the happiest day of her life, or the day she walked away from the best thing that had ever happened to her. Either way, the dreaded choice, that hung over her head like a macabre guillotine, had finally reached her waiting neck.
Jenna looked at him. She couldn’t deny it any longer. She loved him. With every piece of her heart, she loved him. They could work out the rest, right? She could talk to him about his job and his life; she could ensure that things would work out. She could be selfish just this once.
She opened her mouth, she was mostly sure that a strong ‘yes’ would come assertively out. However, David continued before she could say it.
“Say yes, and I will resign as the Fire Chief first thing. We can get a home together. We can start a farm in south Austin. We’ll have kids and raise corgi puppies together. It will be magical.”
Damn! He had to go and do it. He had to. Life can be a cruel bitch. The ‘yes’ came out, not as a word, but as a pathetic croak. Jenna shut her mouth, terrified of what to say. She couldn’t take him away from the city, away from his calling. Even if he hadn’t strolled into her life, and filled her heart with love and desire, she would still have understood how important and wonderful he was, just like the rest of Austin did.
But did she have the strength to say no? Could she deny herself the one thing she wanted most in the whole world?
Her hesitation was more obvious than she hoped it would be. David could see her trepidation written all over her beautiful face. Fear and dismay clutched his heart, squeezing it like a vise, and with an other-worldly effort, he pushed the panic aside and showed her none of it. His voice was as placid as a frozen river. “Don’t answer.” He couldn’t bear to hear anything but yes, he wasn’t ready. Damn him for not preparing for it. “Take your time to think about it.”
David got out of bed. He tried not to pace. He just stood and looked into nothing. After a moment, he spoke again. “I want you to be sure. It’s a big choice, so please think carefully.”
The clock was ticking on his resolve. Weakness could rupture at any moment. He had to get away. He started to put his clothes on quickly. “If you say yes, I will take you to get the ring tomorrow. If not, we will decide what to do after.” He went to the door and opened it before she had a chance to say anything. “Make yourself at home here. Unfortunately, I have to go to the Fire Hall for some business. I lo-” he stopped himself, closing his eyes in pain, he said one simple word.  “Bye.”
He was gone. Jenna lay in bed, still ravished from their love-making, alone and terrified. What had she done? She curled up in a fetal position and wept.

David had to get away. Had he stayed just a few moments longer, he would have embraced her and let this tsunami of emotion out that had been building for weeks. He decided to pour himself into his work for the evening. He must find whoever was behind this terrible game he was being forced to play.
He rushed to the Hall. With all the tricks he knew, he focused on the task at hand. He put everything aside. Blaine’s call at his mother’s was concerned but not informative. His friend took the news that Hank had handed him the envelope with a salty distrust. Although David defended him to a fault, Blaine’s final words hit him hard.
“Watch out.”
David sat behind the desk, in complete darkness. The lights of the city sliced through the room, tearing into the slits of the window blinds. He watched out, indeed. He watched out for himself. He watched out for his mother and for Jenna. They were as safe as he could make them. Blaine said ‘watch out’ as if David wouldn’t think to do that.
His heart pumped focus and presence into his mind. Would Jenna even want to be his to protect? Nobody knew where David’s loft was; they had never seen it or been in. Jenna was safe there, as long as she stayed.
No, David. Don’t think about the proposal. Focus. Solve the riddle.
He watched out.
The thought lingered. He wondered who out there could be watching out for him.

Jenna closed her eyes. Then she opened them. No. He was still gone. This wasn’t a horrible dream. It was a depressing, horrifying reality.
What was wrong with her? Why couldn’t she say yes? Oh yeah. Because he would be quitting his job and leaving the city in need, for her. Her mind reeled.
She fell down to the bed and buried her face in his firm, luxurious pillow. It offered next to no comfort to her. She began to cry.
Jenna realized she needed to talk to someone, if only she knew of a person who would listen and help her. She grabbed her phone and filtered through the contacts.
Not Maggie, she was in Dallas. Not Miranda, she wouldn’t understand. Not Ben, that’s a joke.
Then she found someone. The presence of her name in her phone number log was a refreshing reminder. David’s mom. She had given her comfort once before. She knew David better than anyone.
Jenna’s sniffles raised a hopeful pitch. She dressed quickly, got on the bus, and made the call.

Answers didn’t come to him in the night, only more questions, more worries, more fears. Some of David’s resolve began to grow again; his solitude healed his spirit, he began to recuperate slowly. The tension in his back was incredible; his flexed lumbar muscles pushed the back of the chair to an unnatural angle. He made fists with his hands and squeezed. He tunneled his thoughts, he focused his mind. David detached and hardened himself. He was ready. He finally felt it. He was ready for whatever it was. Bring it on.
As if his thoughts summoned it, the phone started to ring.
“Hello?”
Blaine answered. “I figured you’d be up. You sound worried.”
“Have you found anything?”
“Yes, but your worry sounds heavier than just anticipation. What happened?”
Blaine’s perceptiveness never ceased to amaze him. “I don’t know if I am more nervous about what you discovered or Jenna. I proposed to her tonight, she didn’t have an answer right away, so I gave her some time to think about it.”
Blaine responded with his normal amount of supportive sarcasm.  “What? You just met her a week and a half ago. What do you think this is a Sable Hunter novel?”

THANKS FOR READING!!!!
JESS


Where to find Jess online:
GoodReads
Facebook

Thanks for stopping by Jess, it was great to have you! Hope you come by again, and have fun Saturday ;)