Saturday, March 23, 2019

Hot News from Nancy Lee Badger


Hot news! I sat down, while helping Mom in Florida, and redesigned my website. It’s a one-stop place to see all my book titles and learn a little bit about me. Please check it out 

I just returned from spending 6 weeks in Florida. Dad passed away February 2nd and Mom was ill. She is much better, and I am back in Raleigh, NC with dear hubby and my muse, Blaze.



I kept writing while I was away...with my laptop on my lap while sitting in the hospital, or when Mom napped. Edits for Heaven-sent Highlander are complete and the book comes out in less than a month.


An outline and the first 10 chapters of my next book, Heaven-sent Flame, are complete and I will stay busy the next few months creating adventures for my characters.



I came up with several plot ideas and a bunch of scenarios, so I will get back to my writing. Thanks for following me!

Nancy Lee


Friday, March 22, 2019

Nancy Lee Badger Presents Author Helen Henderson


I invited author Helen Henderson to share her brand new book Tell us all about it, Helen!

Nancy, thanks for letting me stop by. My March 2019 release, WINDMASTER LEGEND is a fantasy romance. What history and time may conceal sometimes refuses to stay lost in memory. Windmaster Legend reveals the story behind the legend of the star-crossed lovers, Iol of the House of Cszabo and Pelra of the House of Pirri. Their legend first appeared in Windmaster, Book One of the romance fantasy series, the Windmaster Novels published by BWL Publishing. WINDMASTER LEGEND can be read as a stand-alone and is available in ebook and paperback formats.

Blurb:
Fate conspired to keep Iol and Pelra apart. Friendship is allowed between members of competing trading houses, but nothing more. He loves the sea and wants his own ship. She hates the deep blue and has worked too hard to allow her dreams to be sidetracked by the lure of magic. Despite a beautiful woman on his arm every night, Leod wanted the one he couldn’t have—Pelra. His kin on the ruling council did more than put him on the fast track to his own ship. It provided him the power to fulfill his desires, or to ruin those who refused him.

Exiled to distant posts, given impossible challenges, and subject to Leod’s machinations, Iol and Pelra only have the hope of a future together to sustain them. But can their love survive the accusation of witchcraft?

Excerpt:
Moonbeams danced on blond curls surrounding a bent head. The woman lifted her head and tightened her grasp on the instrument cases across her lap.
The sight of her red lips excited Leod. There were few female bards, but he had heard whispers of their ability to satiate a man. Finally, a prize worthy of the chase.
Loud strumming from the courtyard warned the current tune was about to end. If he wanted to get closer, he had to move before the music ended.
But what of the servant? Worry hissed.
Warmth at the memory of the satisfaction in the other man’s expression rose up Leod’s neck. He stared at the woman who once again contemplated the skies overhead. Had he lost the prize before the chase even begun?

“No, that is unacceptable,” he breathed. “I’ll find out who that servant was and destroy him. And if the bard graced him with her favors, then she will be next.” Again, he evaluated the features now cast in moonlight. But until then, she’ll provide a distraction not even council members enjoy.
His decision made, he slipped from the shadows into the light of a lantern hanging from a tree limb. “My lady, I am Leod, a seated member of the ruling council of the House of Pirri.” He rose from his best court bow. “At your service.”
Surprise stopped his hand in mid-gesture of offering her the glass of wine. The “come hither” smile that normally resulted from his introduction was missing. Instead, there was just silence and a raised eyebrow. He’d heard the bards could strip a man to the bone with a glance or single word. But he’d never believed it. Until now.
“The best wine in Stratven for the most beautiful woman.”
Assurance filled him. That line had never failed to win over a woman. This one might be a bard, but she was still a woman. However, instead of an encouraging smile, her response was a chilled, “No, thank you.”
He shifted to the approach that had bedded him many a fair maiden. “Then may I have the honor of this dance? A man only has the opportunity once in his life to have such a beautiful companion, let alone one bard-trained.”
The slight tightening of her lips gave Leod little insight into what he had said wrong. Still, he held the smile that had won over so many women.
His target still didn’t submit. Instead, she gave a slight shake of her head. “I appreciate the compliment. However, I am quite content where I am. Maybe you should return to the dance.” Her head-to-toe scan of him added to the fire building under Leod’s skin. “There should be someone there suitable for you.”

Buy Links:





About Helen Henderson:
Although the author of several local histories and numerous articles on the topics of American and military history, antiques and collectibles, Henderson’s first love is fiction. Her work in the museum and history fields enables a special insight into creating fantasy worlds. The descendent of a coal-miner's daughter and an aviation flight engineer, her writing reflects the contrasts of her heritage as well as that of her Gemini sign. Her stories cross genres from historical westerns to science fiction and fantasy. In the world of romantic fantasy, she is the author of the Dragshi Chronicles and The Windmaster Novels. In her books, she invites you to join her on travels through the stars, or among fantasy worlds of the imagination. Connect with her here:



Friday, March 15, 2019

Nancy Lee Badger Presents Author Erika Hoffman


Erika Hoffman is a fellow member of the Triangle Association of Freelancers, here in Raleigh, North Carolina, and I invited her to share her latest novel with y'all.

Thanks for having me, Nancy Lee. Why Mama is a mystery novel released February 27th by Library Partners Press.

Book Blurb: 

Why Mama emits a gothic southern, nostalgic aura.  The story revolves around Fancy, a fifteen- year-old figuring out who killed her parents in 1974.  Three narrators tell the mystery.  One is Fancy, an upper-class teen who becomes orphaned on a summer day with gusting hurricane winds. Forced to live with her 19-year-old sister Eve and sis’s lecherous husband in a duplex way off the wrong side of the tracks, Fancy begins her quest.  The mission is clear: to discover the identity of her parents’ killers despite the sheriff’s ruling it was a murder/suicide and despite doubts expressed by many townsfolk regarding her sanity. People—Fancy assumes are allies— betray her. Others, viewed as enemies, help. Another narrator is her sister Eve, whose judgment isn’t sound and who’s subject to panic attacks. Fancy’s best friend Judy is the most objective reporter of the murder and ensuing action.  During it all, Fancy follows leads provided by an albino doe whose soulful eyes remind her of her mother and make the teen question the idea of reincarnation. Because of her mother’s strong Christian faith, Fancy believes her mother could never have committed the crimes she’s accused of. Fancy has many questions she’d like to ask her deceased mama, but the main question is: “Why? Why did this happen to us?”


Excerpt from Why, Mama
Chapter 1
Day of Murder Saturday, 3:35 p.m.

Judy

    I banged on Fancy’s backdoor. No answer. Dang! Had she gone to the pool without me? 
    “Fancy? Fancy?” I yelled through the screen door while vulture-like flies buzzed around me. I heard the TV droning inside. A dog barked somewhere inside the Fulcher house, behind a closed door, muted. I pounded the door. I edged the door slightly open. 
    “Mrs. Fulcher? Fancy? It’s me, Judy.” Was that a gasp? “Someone in here?” I inquired again. I felt I should enter, but I knew that her dad owned a massive gun collection, and I didn’t want to be mistaken for an intruder. Half in, half out, I shouted, “Fancy? Mrs. Fulcher, ah, Mr. Fulcher? I’m coming in. Anyone here?” 
    Was that a moan? I opened the door and saw the Corningware dish on the floor, its contents, uncooked—spiraled in all directions and the oven on. I took a deep breath. The mixer was out. A bag of pecans, a bottle of Karo syrup, and a stick of butter, melting, rested on the counter.
Fancy often carried her mom’s famed pecan pie to Girl Scout pot lucks or youth group get-togethers. Was Mrs. Fulcher about to make one? 
    “Hello!” I hollered into the kitchen. I listened for a response and heard Buster whining from inside the house, somewhere. As I stepped over the mess and proceeded to the den, I heard a loud exhale.  In the faux leather Lazy Boy slumped over was Fancy’s dad. Blood dripped from his head onto his shirt. 
    Sprawled out nearby was Mrs. Fulcher with a gun barely touching her fingertips. I froze. I knew I should check for a pulse, prop up her head, clear the airway, talk to her, but I forgot all the lessons I’d learned for a merit badge and stood inert—unable to budge. My eyes widened as I spied the phone on the knick-knack strewn end table near the Lazy Boy; I reached across him for it. 
    When I did, Mr. Fulcher’s chair fell backwards, and I tumbled onto his lap, looking upward into his glazed-over eyes. I screamed a scream which ten minutes earlier I wouldn’t have thought my voice box capable of. How much time passed before I dialed 911, I wasn’t sure. 
    “I want to re-re-report a death, maybe two. Not sure.”
    “Calm down. Who is this?” the operator asked. 
    Before I replied, a door squeaked open, footsteps echoed through the kitchen, and there in the doorway to the den stood my friend, wide-eyed, wild-eyed, dripping wet and petrified.

Buy Links:

Amazon        Amazon UK

Amazon CA       




More about the Author
Mostly, Erika pens inspirational, non-fiction essays that appear in anthologies such as Chicken Soup for the Soul or in regional magazines like Sasee of Myrtle Beach. She’s had her advice on writing humor published in The Writer in addition to her essays on the craft published in the online Funds for Writers Magazine and on thewritersdigest website.   

Monthly, she composes a column on the subject of writing for a section called The Writers’ Table in the ezine Page & Spine. A compilation of these essays and others form her book called Erika’s Take on Writing. Also, she teaches a course for Olli at Duke University on composing the personal essay. Although her niche frequently is the non-fiction narrative, she’s crafted fictional stories, featured in Deadly Ink Anthologies, Tough Lit. Magazines, and Page & Spine. A book of her published essays on travel will be completed this year: Erika’s Take on Travel.

Besides her other writing projects, she’s planning on more mysteries being a part of her future! Erika taught public high school for ten years and raised four children. Her degrees are from Duke University. She resides with her husband in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
She is a member of NC Writers Network, Triangle Association of Freelancers, and Carteret Writers.  Connect with Erika here: Erikavhoffman.weebly.com

Friday, March 8, 2019

Nancy Lee Badger Presents Author Nancy Holland



I invited author Nancy Holland to stop by and share her latest book release with my readers. Take it away, Nancy!

Thanks! Felyn’s Curse, book two of the Witch King trilogy, will be released March 5 by Tule Publishing.


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Book Blurb:

Can love and sacrifice conquer a curse?

When Felyn was a young, defenseless witch, she was cursed to live as a shape shifter—a deadly panther. She might have been rescued and raised by a noble and powerful leader, but she lives in fear she will hurt those she loves in her animal form so each full moon she hides deep in the forest. But how can she refuse her adoptive father’s plea for an arranged marriage with a new ally? After all, it’s temporary and in name only…

Varz agrees to an arranged marriage reluctantly because he needs the military and diplomatic alliance. He has secrets and a growing power struggle back home. He's relieved he need only marry the young witch for a year until he meets his bride. Felyn is beautiful and intelligent and not easy to ignore, but Varz is a man of his word. His vow to leave his bride untouched will be the hardest one he has had to keep.

Excerpt:

Felyn woke to the cheerful sounds of a camp on the move toward home. She stretched and sat up just as Varz came into the tent with two bowls of warm breakfast gruel.
Suddenly hungry, she stood and took one, then settled, a little awkwardly, on the ornate chair next to the one Varz sat in.
“How can I help prepare for the journey?” she asked to break the silence.
“You can’t. You must stay in the tent,” he said casually.
“What? Why?”
“You must appear to my men to now be my woman in every way.”
“I know little of such things,” she admitted with a frown, “but I do not see how that would make me incapable of work.”
“Not incapable,” he replied with a small laugh, “but too tired from a sleepless night and too content to wish to work.”
“Ah.” She remembered such mornings between Thalgor and Erwyn. “And you would be indulgent enough to let me sleep, even in the midst of all the preparations.”
“I am a very indulgent man, under the proper conditions,” he said with a look she could not read.
“Which do not apply here,” she reminded him primly.
He sighed and stood, taking their empty bowls. “Sleep, woman,” he told her, not unkindly.
And, strangely, she did sleep. Perhaps because she had slept so little the night she went into the woods.
By noon the light was so strong, even in the tent, that she could sleep no more. With a yawn, she dressed, threw all the pillows in a single pile, then went in search of Varz and food.
But when she stepped from the tent, she found half the circle gone, people, tents and oxen.
She was alone with Varz and his warriors.
She nearly collapsed from the shock and grief, but rage won out in the end.
She found both Varz and food where he ate a lunch of mutton stew by the cooking fire. She took the bowl the cook gave her and threw it at her new man, hitting him square in the chest.


Buy Links:



Author Bio:

Nancy Holland recently began to live her dream as a full-time writer. Her heroes and heroines want to make the world a better place, struggle to change their lives, and learn to trust each other. After studying books by people from other times and places, she loves to explore foreign cities where she can touch the reality behind their words. Connect with her here:




Friday, March 1, 2019

Nancy Lee Badger Presents Author M. E. Henderson

I met M. E. Henderson here in Raleigh, North Carolina at a TAF meeting. Marvis and I attended these once a month dinner-optional-but-we-love-to-eat meetings of an organization we both enjoy. The Triangle Association of Freelancers helped me in many ways, and I invited Marvis to share her new book with my readers. Take it away, M. E.!

Nine Lives is my debut novel, writing as M. E. Henderson. This self-published novel was released on Kindle version in October 2018 and the Paperback in November 2018. The story is about the reasons behind a college football player’s decision to stay his senior year or enter the NFL draft after his junior year. His mother understood that football was big business in college and professional sports. Her goal was to keep him grounded.

Book Blurb

“For those that do not know, college football is big business. I am Hunter Eugene Terry, Jr. and I have something that big business wants: Me!” The NFL wanted him too! Should he enter the NFL draft or stay for his senior year of college? If only that decision was the usual football player’s dream of fame. He was different. His near-death experiences and his loved ones dying around him weighed deeply on his mind as he contemplated what to do about his future. In the meantime, while his mother wanted him to finish his senior year in college, his uncle was already counting Hunter’s future earnings. Whom could he trust with his football career on the line?


EXCERPT

“You had no right!” I screamed on the phone.
“Calm down, Sis,” Michael replied.
“Do not, I repeat, do not call my son again!”
“What’s wrong with talking to my nephew about his future?”
I did not answer. When the silence went beyond awkward, Michael broke it. He mumbled, “You weren’t like this before, Liz.”
“When I thought you had my child’s best interest at heart, I did not mind you talking to him. Your greed is talking, and I will not allow it. I am warning you! Stay away from my child!”
Michael angrily retorted, “Well, he ain’t a child anymore. He is twenty years old and he can make his own decisions. So, he doesn’t need to hide behind mommy’s dress anymore. If he wants to…”
Elizabeth hit the End Call button on her phone. She was too angry to sit, so she stalked around her bedroom. Her mind was racing, “Should I call Hunter? No, I promised myself I would not interfere. I promised not to interfere. Well, that was before everyone started to interfere. I told Hunter it was his choice. I told him I would support whatever decision he makes.
With all these people giving him their opinion, I know his decision can’t be easy.”
She could not take it! She decided she would send him a text. She began searching for her phone. She was so furious with her brother until she threw the phone on the bed, however it must have bounced off the bed and onto the floor. As she bent down to look under the bed, she prayed,
“Lord, please do not let the phone screen be cracked. That is the last thing I need to happen.” She almost cheered when she retrieved the phone from under the bed. Thankfully it was not cracked.
She went to the chair and took a deep breath.  
Elizabeth texted her twenty- year-old son, Hunter, a message, “You will do the right thing.”
Before she could hit the send button, her phone chimed. Hunter had replied, “I hope so.”
Elizabeth knew what she had to do. She dropped to her knees and began to pray. The Lord had heard her cries before. Hunter had been through so much in the last four years. She prayed for the Lord to give her son the discernment to do the right thing. 


BUY LINKS:

Amazon    




More about the Author
Marvis’ college degrees did not prepare me for the biggest challenges of my life. In 2002, she was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. It robbed her of the life she planned. Before she became disabled, she served as a branch manager of Employment Security Commission and served in several leadership roles in her community and church.

She admitted, “By 2014, I did not have the energy to take my child to school. In less than six months, he would be entering college. I knew I had to change my lifestyle. Gluten, yeast, and caffeine free were not enough! I unsuccessfully tried water therapy, yoga, and the gym. I finally started urban soul line dancing classes. It worked!”

Because of the change in lifestyle, she is living dreams and creating new opportunities. One of those dreams was writing. She published her first novel, Nine Lives in 2018. She created new opportunities as the Coordinator of Fun and CEO of M. E. Henderson, Inc. She uses urban line dance to throw parties, participate in health awareness activities, and teach classes at Covenant Presbyterian, Holton Career, and Creedmoor Elementary.  She also speaks to audiences about creating positive lifestyles for people with chronic illnesses. She is also the founder and Vice-Chairperson of Lift Every Voice Institute, a 501©3 organization that provides academic and social enrichment opportunities to students and their families. In 2018, she received the ACHI Public Service Award. In addition, while her son graduated from college in May 2018, she started working toward another dream and became a doctoral student in April 2018.

Connect with her here: 

WEBSITE     FACEBOOK     TWITTER