Winter Blues got you down? Tired of watching all those streaming series on TV that never seem to end? Need a few happy endings along with some spicy suspense to heat up your life? Good News! If you haven’t had a chance to read them yet, all of the books in my DeLuca Family Romantic Suspense series are available for download from Amazon.com along with freefall. Click on EXPLORE MY BOOKS or click HERE to go directly to Amazon. Happy Reading!
Just in case you missed it, freefall, my Wisconsin/Door County romantic suspense-mystery novel is now available in eBook at Amazon.com with its brand new cover!
“Everett held her tightly, aware of the violent beating of his heart. He felt as if he was falling—freefalling through 15,000 feet—without a parachute. It was exciting, thrilling—and deadly. He’d brought Kate up here to protect her, to keep her out of trouble. He’d told himself he owed that much to Keith. Now all he wanted to do was take her down into the cabin and ravage her ’til dawn…”
Freak accident or attempted murder? Kate needs answers to her brother’s plane crash, but her quest to unravel the mystery throws her into the turbulent wake of suave pilot/mechanic Everett Larsen. His penetrating gray gaze ignites in her a passion as powerful as a jet stream, but it also sparks a memory…
Drawn to Milwaukee by Keith’s cryptic message, Larsen is unprepared for the assault of emotion he feels when he sees Kate–after his wife’s death, he is afraid to love again. But when Kate insists on helping out at her brother’s aircraft repair shop and gets too close to the truth, he is even more afraid to lose her.
I’ve been very busy getting the books formatted and up again on Amazon.com. The process included designing new covers. I’m happy to reveal them now. To purchase the e-books direct from Amazon, just click on the pics! (Be sure to check out their great reviews while you’re there!)
Introducing heartbeats new cover! It’s been quite the learning curve formatting my books and designing new covers so I can get them back up on Amazon and available for readers. But yes, we have success! heartbeats is now up and available for purchase! And I just uploaded ICE blue and TRUE blue, DeLuca Family 1 and 2, along with freefall. All three should be available for purchase in the next day or so. Although I don’t have covers for those yet, I wanted to make the books available for readers of heartbeats who want to read the next books. I’ll be adding covers next week. heartbeats, available now at Amazon.com!
Sadly, my publishing company, MusaPublishing.com has closed its virtual doors, giving its authors only eight days notice before doing so. It has been a nice run with Musa getting my books out, but I am now left to scramble to make my novels available again to my readers. However, although Musa is gone, I am still writing and am very excited about this next phase of my career–self-publishing my current and new novels and making them available in both e-book and printed versions. This will take me a little time to set up. I will be posting information on how to get my books just as soon as I get them up and running. Thanks for stopping by. In the meantime, you can still check out the reviews on the review tab at the top of the page!
And, if you drop me an email through my contact link, I will let you know personally as soon as my novels are up and running again. Thanks for stopping by.
Until, hopefully, the near future,
Respectfully yours,
Susan Rae
“Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents!”
That’s the opening line from which famous novel?
(As the holidays approach, I am wishing you all a very merry Christmas and reposting this from the MusaPublishing Blog. Enjoy your time with family and friends this holiday season!)
If you guessed, Little Woman, you are correct. It’s also the opening line of the play, spoken by the feisty Jo–the role I was thrilled to perform in my school’s eighth-grade presentation of Little Women. Even then, I have to admit, it was probably a bit of typecasting as I was already showing an interest in novel writing.
And yes, it would seem Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without any presents, especially for children. As for Jo and her sisters, they were lamenting the fact that their father was off fighting in a war and the family had no money for presents. At first, they begin to contemplate spending their own hard-earned money on presents for themselves, until they realize that self-sacrifice, giving to others, is actually more satisfying, and that spending Christmas in the company of family and friends is more valuable than any present they could receive.
As we grow older, we too realize that Christmas is much more about giving than receiving, and very much more about being able to spend the holidays in the company of family and friends. But along with all that family gathering, we also have our traditions: some handed down from generation to generation, some new traditions which we start as our families grow and become more spread out. With Christmas almost here, I thought it would be fun to talk about family holiday traditions.
So what is your “Christmas won’t be Christmas without ______!”
In our home, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without Grandma’s Christmas Jell-O, or a huge platter of the family recipe lasagna, or the Swedish glögg which my husband starts on the stove the morning of our gathering. The spices waft through the house as the children arrive with their own kids in tow. I suppose one might think Jell-O, lasagna, and glögg is a strange combination, but it is actually a blend of old family traditions. My husband is of Italian/English descent, thus the lasagna; I am of Swedish descent and my husband adopted the making of the glögg; and as for the Jell-O, when my children were small, my brothers and sisters and all their children would gather at my parents’ home on Christmas Eve and no matter what the dinner’s main course was, we always had our Christmas Jell-O. I guess that couldn’t be more Midwestern American.
Now the children have moved further away and have their own small children so understandably they want to be at their own homes for Christmas Eve and for Santa on Christmas day. That’s something I completely understand, so although our get-together may not always be on Christmas Day, we still gather the day or the weekend after Christmas and it is great fun. We have a quick snack, let the children open their presents, and then the adults spend the rest of the day relaxing and enjoying each other’s company while the children play with their gifts and their cousins, and at some point, of course, we have our Christmas dinner.
Another tradition which we have started recently, as our children live further away, is that when the kids are here for Thanksgiving, they help take out our Christmas decorations, we put up the tree, and the grandchildren put the ornaments on the tree. I’ve learned to love that just as much as our Christmas celebration. So you see, the more things change, the more things say the same.
So I ask again, what are some of your family’s traditions? How would you complete the line, “Christmas won’t be Christmas without _______!”
If you’d like the recipe for Grandma’s Christmas Jell-O, a fun go-together with any meal, CLICK HERE.
Thank you for spending this time with me. Again, have a very Merry Christmas and Joyous Holiday Season.
Holiday Traditions–Grandma’s Christmas Jell-O
As the holidays approach, it’s time to think about our celebrations and family traditions. Many of our traditions center around food. One dish that Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without in our family is Grandma’s Christmas Jell-O. No matter what the main entrée, when we get together we always have to have the Jell-O. Although easy, this recipe does take time to prepare as it is a total of 12 layers. Allow at least six hours for the entire prep. (Hint: put dish in the refrigerator at least one hour ahead of time to speed up the set of the first layer.)
Sorry, I haven’t made it yet, so I don’t have a picture, but the recipe should be easy to follow! I’ll post a pic when I get one. 🙂
As we prepare for the holidays, I’m wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas!
Grandma’s Christmas Jell-O
Use a 13 x 9 Pyrex dish Read more…
And we have a winner: Mary Roya. Congratulations!
This hop was fun. Thanks to all of you for stopping by my site. I’m pleased to say that ICE blue is getting some great reviews! Click HERE to see what critics are saying about my latest sizzling suspense!
Happy Reading! Susan
This Hop is hosted by author Kallysten and book blog Riverina Romantics. Read more…
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Guest blog posts and interviews with Susan Rae, excerpts and reviews of ICE blue, and Giveaways! Click on one of the links below to follow along and see what the reviewers are saying about ICE blue.
I hope you all had a great Easter. Now, after all that family time, you might want to indulge in a little pleasure reading. Here’s a tease from my new release. Enjoy! And, if you leave a comment at the end of this post, you’ll be automatically entered into my contest running through Friday, April 5th to win an ICE blue mug AND a free e-B00k of heartbeats or freefall. Your choice! Both received excellent reviews.
Buy Links: Musa Publishing Amazon.com Barnes&Noble Nook
EXCERPT: ICE blue by Susan Rae
“More wine?”
She’d finished her glass and set it down on the table.
“No, thank you. It’s getting late and I have to be up early. I’m taking on an extra shift tomorrow.” She slid her chair back. He stood and came around the table to help her.
“I’ll drive you home. Then I’ll grab a cab and come back and retrieve my own car.”
“Really, that’s not necessary.”
“But, given the wine we drank…as a matter of fact, maybe we both should take a cab.”
She tested her bearings as she rose. She knew her limits and she was definitely not drunk. If she was, she wouldn’t think twice about calling a cab. She’d seen far too often the results of drinking and driving.
“Trust me, I’m fine.” She met his gaze straight on.
“All right,” he said at last, “but I’m taking a rain check.”
Her pulse throbbed in her neck at the look in his eyes. It was a challenge. Where did they go from here? Read more…
It’s ICE blue’s release day. Before I get down to business, I just want to say, in celebration, I’m giving away another ICE blue coffee mug! Leave a comment at the end of this post and you will automatically be entered into the drawing. If you’re a writer, please tell us about your most insistent character, the one that wouldn’t let go of you until you wrote their story. If you’re a wanna be author, tell us about the character that keeps nagging you to get to it. Or readers, please tell us about your favorite character from your favorite author. You have until Friday, April 5th to enter. Good Luck! For more info on ICE Blue, including the first chapter please click here.
Perfect for curling up with your coffee and your e-reader!
BUY LINKS: MUSA Publishing Amazon.com
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Now, about those insistent characters… I think it’s safe to say all of us authors have them. It’s the red haired girl with the freckles who crosses the street and suddenly we’re developing a whole story around her in our head, or the pregnant checker at the grocery store who looks definitely frazzled, or, for romantic suspense writers, the guy in the airport who looks sophisticated and sexy all at the same time, and looks like he’s on a mission. Or it can be the character who starts to take form when we read a newspaper article and it sparks a story idea and we try to think of the character or characters who will bring the story to life.
Yes, the author can have many characters inhabiting her head at one time. In most circles, we would be considered not quite right if we told people about them. But in writer’s circles… Let me just say, I did a program at the local library recently for young adults and I asked them if they were authors. Most weren’t sure, but I explained that indeed they were all authors because they had already written a book for the young authors program that all students from their school participated in. One girl in particular took it even further, though, telling me she had a couple of ideas for some other stories, that the characters were in her head and she just needed to figure out where she was going with them and get them down on paper. I looked at her and smiled. Yes, that is an author. I welcomed her into the fold and told her that as an author, I totally understood. Read more…
I am thrilled to announce the March 29th release of my new novel, DeLuca Family 2– ICE blue. Only fourteen days away, it is now available for preorder direct from my e-publisher, Musa Publishing. In honor of the occasion, I am giving away an ICE blue coffee mug. Leave a comment at the end of this post and you will be automatically entered into the drawing! You have until ICE blue’s release date to enter. MUSA BUY LINK
So, what’s the story behind ICE blue you ask? Before the TV series Blue Bloods, there was my novel, heartbeats, a romantic suspense tale involving The DeLucas, a Chicago Cop Family. Before Chicago Fire, there were one-hundred and fifty pages of heartbeats’ sequel, ICE blue (working title, The Fire Within.) I had the idea for ICE blue when heartbeats came out originally in paperback. So why so long before its release? All I can say is that sometimes when life (and death) happens, the writing doesn’t come so easily.
Before heartbeats’ release and barely seven months after my father passed away from cancer, my mother was diagnosed with invasive bladder cancer. Through multiple surgeries, including a triple heart bypass, chemo and radiation treatments, I was her primary caregiver and support person. During that time I would try to work on the manuscript, but eventually, as she became sicker, it grew more difficult to concentrate on the writing. Having already lost one parent, I knew that spending time with her was more important than sitting at my computer writing, especially when it became apparent that she would eventually succumb to the disease. Read more…
I can’t believe it’s February already. It seems like we just celebrated Christmas!
My time shrink probably has a lot to do with spending so much time in my office getting ICE blue all pretty and ready for release. The last few months have been very hectic in the writing cave. Okay, I admit, it wasn’t all work and no play. There was Christmas, and the birth of our new family member, and that vacation to Disney World. And now, all this February snow to clear away! Granted, it’s only been a few inches at a time, but every day?
What more apt time, though, to introduce the cover of my new novel. Here it is!
All set for a March 29th Release. You met the DeLuca Family in heartbeats. Now get to know them even better in ICE blue.
The action starts quick in this spicy suspense story. Here’s a taste to get you started. Preorders will be available in March. Until then, while the ice falls outside, stay cozy indoors!
EXCERPT
A rush of adrenalin shot through Angela as she approached the accordioned car where a cop stood, adamantly motioning her over.
“What’ve we got?” she asked the officer. Another man, not a cop or rescue personnel, she presumed, as he wore no uniform jacket—hell, he wasn’t wearing a jacket at all—stood beside the officer, his back to her. His head and arms disappeared into the opening where the driver’s window should be. Blood, bright red and vibrant against the white snow, trickled from beneath the door at the man’s feet…
She touched the shoulder of the man leaning through the window.
“Hey, it’s okay, we’ll take it from here.”
The guy didn’t seem to hear her. More rescue vehicles were arriving on scene, sirens blaring.
She called more loudly. “Hey, I said we’ve got it!”
Finally he turned and gave her a quick assessment. She could swear she saw a touch of amusement in those blue-green eyes he flashed at her.
“Listen, lady, if I ease up on this,” he said smoothly, “this guy’ll bleed out.” Turning his back to her, he said to the driver, “Hang in there, buddy. I’ve got you covered…
Angela squeezed her arm in beside the man-in-the-window’s shoulder and pressed her fingers against the driver’s throat. He was tachy. His skin cold and clammy. Read more…
On this Christmas Eve, 2012, I think back over the year and what an exciting and busy time it has been. heartbeats was released by Musa Publishing in e-book in April, and freefall in June. What a crazy time of learning about promotion and blogging and how to keep writing while also doing the promotion and spending time with family and friends. It has been a while since I posted on this blog (okay, three months :-)), but I have been very busy. We had a new baby born into the family in October, little Elyse Ann–naturally, she is adorable ( I’m her Grandma, but she really is very cute!); a family Orlando vacation in November complete with visits to Disney World and Sea World; and somehow, I managed to sit myself down in the chair and finish writing ICEblue. Whew!
And that is what is so difficult about writing. I truly enjoy thinking up the stories and getting to know my characters, but family time is so precious that it is sometimes hard to force myself to sit my butt in the chair and get the work done when I Read more…
The Ndulgent Blog Hop is over, and we have a winner–Yvette!
Thanks to all of you for participating. For those who didn’t win a free copy of Freefall or Heartbeats, both are available at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and all other major e-book retailers!
To read more about Freefall and Heartbeats, and to get the links, please check out My Books page.
I hope you enjoyed the Hop!
Happy reading,
Susan Rae
Now Available! Book Three in the DeLuca Family Series
DeLuca Family 2
DeLuca Family 1
Susan Rae, Romantic Suspense Author 