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Yeah… Who is she?

She is my alter ego, of sorts.

Sultonna Nadine was the name my parents were originally going to give me, until family insisted I be named after my grandmothers instead. (sigh)

Families, eh?

But part of me always wanted to be Sultonna.

For some reason, when I began writing, it never occurred to me to use a pen name. And after my series got started, I didn’t want to change halfway through. So when I began writing stand alone books, someone suggested I use Sultonna Nadine for those! And since they don’t fit conveniently into my series, and some of them are a bit out there, I decided to do just that.

Sultonna writes of things magical, in alternate realities, or if not magical, at least on far away worlds. Always with at least a hint of romance.

So far, she has published one book, but never fear. Another one should be out this year!

Where can you learn more?

Go over to SultonnaNadine.com. I’m still tweaking the site, so be patient.

If you haven’t read Master of the Fleet, there’s an excerpt in her new post.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for Mellie Miller’s books, go up to my links page or read an excerpt!\

Thanks for reading and remember,

Don’t Forget…

…to Share the Romance…

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After yesterday’s all day and all night rain, today is beautiful outside. Makes me wish I didn’t have so much to do inside, but the Lugnut and I can take a walk in a little while.

Still working away on Tiger’s Tempest in the Gambler’s Folly series. I have nearly 18,000 words down so far and, at the moment, a pretty good idea of where we’re going. Of course, with my characters, the route could change drastically. They are a headstrong bunch. But that’s what I get for writing about alpha male shifters I suppose.

If you could be a shifter, what would you be?

I always thought I would love to be a black leopard. They look so elegant, even if they do seem to have only two attitudes–calm, cool, and collected, or totally pissed off.

So far in my books, including those published and unpublished, I have leopards, panthers, wolves, bears, and now tigers.

What else would you like to see?

From Esperance, the next one in line is Ben of Blackstone’s Forge. As you might have guessed, Ben is a blacksmith. What makes him different is his family’s Talent for shaping iron.

No… That’s enough of a hint. You’ll have to read the book for the rest. But how about a tiny excerpt?

****

Excerpt:

If anyplace could be consider as hot as hell, it was a blacksmith’s forge in midsummer, Ben thought, as he strode to the well. Icy water filled his mug with a cheerful splash, after a couple quick strokes on the pump handle.

The first mugful went down in three healthy gulps. Pulling the folded kerchief from around his head, he rinsed the salt-encrusted cloth in another cold stream of water from the well.

The second mug of water brought a quick gasp as he poured it over his head, but it was refreshing after several hours of heating and hammering steel in the forge, where he worked with his father. Water flew in a circle of droplets as he shook the excess from his wavy brown hair, leaving it spiked in all directions.

Once more he filled the mug. Leaning his tall frame against the pump, he slowly sipped the cool liquid as his dreamy blue eyes scanned the street around the forge.

“Good morning, Ben,” he heard from a familiar voice.

Turning toward the voice, he raised his mug and gave a brief nod to the pretty young woman walking toward him. With her light brown, nearly blond hair, and warm brown eyes, she was a sight to give a man dreams.

“Don’t I rate more than a nod, Ben Blackstone?” she demanded. “You could at least smile.”

“Hardly seems worth the effort, Deborah, when all it will gain me is a snide remark or a new chastisement for some imagined affront.”

“You are the most irritating man I know,” she told him as he took another pull from the mug.

He had no response for her accusation and continued to enjoy the water before he had to go back into the hell known as Blackstone’s Forge. He loved the work, but summers could be downright miserable.

Deborah was still glaring at him, hands on her hips, head tipped to the side, and eyes flashing in anger.

“Did you need something, Deb, or are you just here to annoy me?”

“My name is Deborah, not Deb, and absolutely not Debbie. And yes, I do need something. I’ve got better things to do than make a special trip to annoy you.”

*****

Need something to fill the time until Ben of Blackstone’s Forge is published?

Go on over to Amazon and take a peek!

And as always,

Don’t Forget…

…to Share the Romance…

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Mother Nature, please make up your mind. This back and forth is making me crazy.

I don’t know what the weather in your part of the world is like, but we go from temperatures in the 70’s to temperatures in the 50’s overnight. And then the lows go from the 50’s to the 20’s.

Could someone please check on Nature’s medications? I think she needs a refill…

Sorry I haven’t been here in a bit. I’ve had surgery and have been trying to catch up on everything I had to let slide. But I’m back now! Watch out world!

As for what I’m working on, my editor has a new book in the Esperance series, and one from Sultonna Nadine which should both come out this year.

Ben of Blackstone’s Forge is another paranormal romance from Esperance. And as you might guess, Ben is a blacksmith. But the love of his life turned cold when he had to leave temporarily to finish his apprenticeship. Nobody knows why, but the woman he was sure he would marry will have nothing to do with him.

Or anyone else, apparently.

And his father is determined Ben should marry soon, going so far as to set a time limit on finding someone suitable. When Ben doesn’t meet his deadline, the man arranges a marriage for him–with the girl who shuns his attentions.

And from Sultonna Nadine?

Whiskey Jug Genie!

Martin runs an apothecary in London. Taking his holiday in the American Southeast, he comes across an old whiskey jug which would be ideal as part of the decor in his shop.

How could he know it housed a genie, who had been trapped for over 200 years? And that the only way to rid himself of his new guest is to remove a curse cast by a long dead witch?

Watch for these two books this year. I’ll keep you posted on release dates.

In the meantime, why don’t you catch up on the Esperance Series?

You can find all the links on my links page.

Or go to Amazon or Smashwords!

For Sultonna Nadine, check out Master of the Fleet, a story set in an alternate universe where magic is just a part of everyday life.

So whether you’re cozying up to the fire or opening the windows to catch a breeze, grab a nice cuppa, a good book, and sit for a spell.

And as always,

Don’t Forget…

…to Share the Romance…

Covers not necessarily final…

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Yes! Too Many Talents is now live and available for Kindle and at Smashwords! Book 4 of the Esperance Series, it continues where Book 2 finished, just after Jareth and Viviane get home from her brother’s trial.

After the incident at her brother’s trial, Viviane is even more certain she doesn’t want Talents. But resisting her training brings more trouble in the form of unintentional manifestations of Talents. And when she throws energy at her instructor in anger, she teleports away from the house in a panic at what could have happened.

With the whole house in an uproar, Jareth is finally able to find her and convince her to devote herself wholeheartedly to her training.

Meanwhile, in her home clan of Belfort, her nephew, Connell, is having difficulties of his own. First he had to leave his village, his family, and his friends to the clan center with his grandparents. There was just no way for him to keep up with his schoolwork and begin training his Talents.

But why does he need Talents? Will they really come in useful?

When his little admirer, Nellie, is assaulted and he uses his Talents to rescue her, he begins to get an idea of what it means to be Talented and a First Lord.

And when she is hurt again and he can’t go to her to help, his frustration and anger bring out another Talent for him to train.

Come with me to Esperance and join us in the ups and downs, the trials and triumphs, and everything else which makes this world unique.

Come to Esperance!

And as always,

Don’t Forget…

…to Share the Romance…

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Yes! I have the final edits for Too Many Talents. Now for a read through on my end and I can begin formatting it for ebook, paperback, and hardcover.

I’m not sure which bit I dislike the most–editing or formatting. But they are both right up there on my “do I gotta?” list.

So watch here for the release date. And if you want a little preview, go back and check out the post on Too Many Talents.

If you haven’t read the previous three books, go to Amazon and look for the Esperance Series.

Until later,

Don’t Forget…

…to Share the Romance…

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Yes, Too Many Talents should be out later this month. Book 4 from the Esperance Series, it continues where Viviane, First Lady left off. It picks up just after Jareth and Viviane return from her brother’s trial in Clan Belfort.

Viviane’s training has not progressed well since returning from her brother’s trial. Her instructor and husband feel it’s because she’s resisting training due to an unfortunate incident in the court. But the more she resists, the more often her Talents get out of hand, causing episodes almost every day.

What will it take for her to finally step up and be the multi-talented First Lady she was born to be?

Back in Clan Belfort, her nephew, Connell, struggles with the concept of Talents. Why should he need these weird abilities to rule the clan when the time comes? And why must he leave his old friends behind and move to his grandfather’s home to train? But when old friends, jealous of his change of status, decide to harm his little friend, Nellie, his abilities take over and save her from harm.

Maybe this is his turning point. And maybe he should talk with his Aunt Viviane.

Watch for Too Many Talents, Esperance Book 4

Now, how about an excerpt?

“Viviane, Duncan is worried about you and has me worried, too.”  

“Worried? Whatever for?” she asked.

“I know how you feel about your Talents, but hiding from them isn’t the answer. And neither is running away and pretending they don’t exist. Duncan and I feel the loss of control you are experiencing is coming from something besides the porting aspect of your Talents.”

“I don’t know what you mean, Jareth,” she answered sharply.

 “Yes, you do, Viviane. Since we’ve been home you’ve been resisting your Talents, and fighting them, especially during training. They will win in the end. In the meantime your control will get worse and worse, until it is manifesting more unpredictably, even when you’re not working with it. With the strengths you have, you will hurt someone, while trying to deny your heritage.”

“But Jareth…”

“Your Talents have to be trained,” he stated emphatically. “There is no escape from it. You have to let go of your fears and put your entire will into your training. It’s the only way to gain control before you do irreparable harm.”

“I don’t want these Talents, Jareth! I never have! Why won’t they go away and leave me alone?”

Now, from Connell in Clan Belfort.

At ten years old, he has been chosen to train as heir to the clan in Carl’s place, which requires him moving to his grandfather and first lord’s home, away from his friends, and for now, his family.

Why does he need Talents to rule the clan anyway? He doesn’t see the point in all this training and the headaches.

But when his old friends come down for the Gather, their jealousy makes them lash out in the one way they know will hurt Connell–by picking on his friend Nellie. As they restrain him and try to hurt her, his Talents come to the rescue, making him think about all those things he’d heard and now how they might apply in real life.

Here’s an excerpt from Belfort.

With a huge sigh, Connell took a deep breath, let it out, and dropped down into his mental working state. Focusing on the little box on the bench, he tried to reach out and nudge it to the end of the table. Instead of scooting to the end of the table, it rolled over twice and refused to budge another inch.

Coming back to his conscious level, he shrugged his shoulders in aggravation and looked up at Master Olivier.

“Well, at least you didn’t slam it into the wall. But why did you roll it instead of slide it?”

“I have no idea, sir.”

“Maybe we should work on something else for a while. Go get a drink of water, stretch out for a minute, and come back. We’ll work on your telepathy and see if we can narrow down your focus.”

By the end of the day’s session, Connell had a tremendous headache, and he was aggravated and frustrated with his progress. What was he missing? Master Olivier told him it would all come together soon, but what if it didn’t? His whole family and clan were counting on him, and he couldn’t even move a box from one end of the table to the other.

Watch for Too Many Talents! I’ll keep you posted!

To get the first three books in the series, go to Amazon or Smashwords!

And as always,

Don’t Forget…

…to Share the Romance…

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The three book series, Esperance, will soon be joined by a fourth book–Too Many Talents.

How about a little background?

The world I call Esperance was settled during a very disturbed time on Earth. People with a particular remote viewing ability sought new worlds to colonize, as it seemed Earth might not survive. On this new world, these individuals, called Seekers, also helped discover minerals for mining concerns, new food which could be used by the new settlers, and many other things.

As the colony would take time to become self-sufficient, Earth subsidized them with shipments of necessities they couldn’t manufacture yet. Machine parts, medicines and the like were at the top of the list.

Until the shipments stopped coming. The colony struggled to keep going until a mutated virus wiped out over half of the colony. Without the medicines from Earth, they were at the mercy of nature. Many skills were lost, machines broke down with no way to repair them, and the remaining settlers descended into chaos, each man for himself in a bid to survive.

After several decades of this confusion, a few among them developed Talents–psychic abilities such as telepathy, teleportation, telekinesis, and a host of others. Using these new abilities, they got together to impose the rule of law to save what was left of their world.

Dividing the world into clans, each named after one of the original talented men, the colony slowly began to revive. New Talents, which took the place of mechanism and medicines, began to emerge among the people. Some had abilities relating to wood and the forest. Others for various sorts of metal or stone. And those who could heal using energy became the new medical professionals among them, while the herbalists researched various plants to add to the mix. Some had very minor abilities, others became masters in their field.

Until we come down to the time of Jareth and Viviane, several hundred years after the end of the confusion.

Viviane has Talents she should never have developed. Though she has struggled for control, an unfortunate outburst of temper at her brother’s trial nearly takes a life. Now terrified of her abilities, she begins to resist her training, which only makes the outbursts of uncontrolled Talent more frequent. Jareth and her instructor struggle for a way to make her understand how important her training is, as her uncontrolled manifestations of Talent become a daily concern.

Follow her continuing story in Too Many Talents.

We are also introduced to her nephew, Connell.

When the original heir of Viviane’s home clan, Belfort, turns traitor, another heir must be found. He should be of the family line, and still able to access his Talents. The only one who fits the bill is Connell, her sister’s son.

Connell, who is only ten and a half, isn’t sure why he needs Talents to be a ruler. After all, what could go wrong which would require it? And why does he have to come live with his grandparents for this training? But when his friends from home come to the clan center for the Gather, he learns a lesson about jealousy, friendship, and Talent he won’t forget soon.

He also learns how helpful it is to keep control of his thoughts, when he accidentally finds himself in Jareth and Viviane’s study, unannounced and quite confused, after letting his temper get out of control.

Watch for Too Many Talents, coming soon!

Haven’t read the first books in the series?

Go to Amazon or Smashwords for your copies today!

And as always,

Don’t Forget…

…to Share the Romance…

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At least, that’s what the calendar says. Mother Nature is still trying to make up her mind. But at least the storms have stopped for this week, even if the temperatures are a bit chilly again.

If this is your first visit, let me introduce myself and my worlds.

I write paranormal fantasy romance.

What is that?

My worlds are fantasy worlds, on other planets, or alternate timelines of this one. Some contain elements of psychic abilities, like mental telepathy, telekinesis, and other Talents. This is the main theme in the Esperance Series.

Some are stories about shifters. The Gambler’s Folly Series has shifters of all sorts–leopards, panthers, wolves, bears. And more to come!

Some have characters with magical abilities. In Master of the Fleet, our MC, Richard, has command over the elements wind and water. Others can control earth, fire, wind or spirit. Most of these are published under my pen name, Sultonna Nadine.

The next magical book to come out will be Whisky Jug Genie. One of our characters dabbles in white magic. And of course, there is the genie, wielding his own form of magic.

And there is always an element of romance. Some spicier than others, granted, but romance of some sort. The shifter series is a little spicier than the Esperance series is, though it does have its moments.

Want to see a little more?

I have trailers up on Vimeo.

Or you can watch them on YouTube!

So, go check it out, find something you like, and settle back into another world.

And as always,

Don’t Forget…

…to Share the Romance…

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I mean, why is it so difficult to get people to review your book?

As an author, you get notified that you’ve sold a book, or several books. And you wait. And wait some more. But the reviews never come. Even if the one or two reviews you’ve manage to obtain are top rated reviews.

Why review?

It isn’t to give the author a good feeling about their book, even though that’s great.

When it comes to selling on Amazon and getting their help to promote your book, they go by the number of reviews you’ve received. It doesn’t matter whether they are one star reviews or five star. They only look at how many reviews you have.

Until you have at least 25 reviews for your book, you really don’t get recommended at all. After 25 reviews, your book starts showing up in the recommendations. You’ll see it in the “customers who liked this also liked…” area when you buy a book in a similar genre.

After 50 reviews, an author really starts gettine promoted on Amazon.

But until then, you’re pretty much sunk.

So, why is it difficult to get people to review a book? It isn’t hard to do. Takes maybe two minutes. But that two minutes meas a lot to an author, especially an indie author struggling to get a book into the public eye.

So, please, if you read a book, stop by Amazon and review it. It means so very much to those of us putting all that blood, sweat, and tears into writing them.

If you’re looking for something to read, check out my Mellie’s Romance page.

Or go to my Amazon Author Profile!

Wishing you a wonderful Wednesday!

And Don’t Forget…

…to Share the Romance…

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People often ask where I get the idea for a particular story and how I develop it. And that can vary from one to the next. Sometimes it will start with a dream or recurring dream. Sometimes a random “what if” thought.

One of my books started with a song and a “what if” moment.

One which is in the works was an idea my husband had.

Now, I have tried to outline and get all the bits worked out ahead of time, but it doesn’t work for me. My characters have minds of their own and take off on wild tangents, leaving me in the dust.

My characters talk to me, in their own unique ways and choose their own path.

If you are a “seat of the pants” writer, you probably know what I mean. If you aren’t…

Imagine you are conducting a musical ensemble. You have the music there in front of you. You know how you will guide these musicians to have the sound you want. It will be marvelous.

And then, all of a sudden, the whole ensemble decides to take Beethoven for a romp through Bourbon Street blues. Or Bach into death metal. You have completely lost control.

I’ll be writing along, thinking I know where I’m going, and all of a sudden they’re doing something else.

“What are you doing?” I ask. “I didn’t say you could go there.”

They just smile and shake their heads.

“Phfft… Right. We’re trying to tell our story here. Do try to keep up.”

Yeah. Sort of like that. With attitude.

I normally don’t have trouble getting my characters to talk to me. But I do have times when I wish they would shut up for a while.

Like at 2 am when I want to sleep and they want to write. They can be completely unreasonable. Especially when they gang up on me.

I’ll have characters from two different books, two different series, vying for my attention.

Would you take turns? Please?

And then there are the stories which want to be told right now. It doesn’t matter that I’m working on three other ones. I have to begin this one, too.

Case in point–the one under the working title Unwilling Soulmates. Would not leave me alone, so I promised that as soon as I finished Lady Calloway, I would at least begin on their story.

So I did. I chose names, got the opening scene in my head and began to write. But every time I tried to write his name, I tried to type something else and gave up for the day. Later, when I was drifting off to sleep, another bit of the scene came to mind, using a different name than the one I’d chosen.

It seems his name is Trevor, not Stewart, and he would like it changed.

So we now have Trevor and Theresa, tapping their toes impatiently and waiting for me to take up the story again.

That’s how my weekend is shaping up. What are your plans?

You can find my books on Amazon, Smashwords, or at any major bookseller. With two series and a stand alone, there is plenty to choose from.

Don’t forget to check out the podcast at Anchor.

And as always…

Don’t Forget…

…to Share the Romance…

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