Meet Sean O'Connell--Bull Rider

Now's the fun begins: 

We get to announce the winners of Evernight’s Book Boyfriend Blog Hop! 

 

 

The winner of my custom necklace is Meghan S. Congratulations Meghan!

I decided to choose a second place winner for a custom Sugarwater Ranch key chain and the lucky winner is Shadow.

Evernight’s Kindle Paperwhite winner: Skye K. Congrats! 

Carlene Love Flores‘ LUCKY MASON from Sidewalk Flower was voted Evernight’s favorite BOOK BOYFRIEND!

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Thank you to everyone who took the time to visit my blog and commented on the Book Boyfriend post. I am honored to see how many awesome readers stopped in. Also, thanks to all who followed me on Facebook and Twitter. I'll be talking to you.

 

Don't forget to look for Sugarwater Ranch available April 26th on Amazon, Evernight Publishing and ARe.

Book Boyfriends...

They can be strong and sexy, dark and dangerous, rebellious and reckless or cute and quirky. We love to fall in love with these irresistible heroes and Evernight Publishing has them all!

The authors of Evernight invite you to a Speed Date challenge. Their cowboys, Doms, detectives, millionaires, royalty, vampires, soldiers, shifters, even steam-powered heroes are waiting to meet you on each author website. 50 heroes in 7 days! Are you up for the challenge?

Pull up a chair and get to know every single one. I’d love to introduce you to my hero...

  Sean O'Connell 

Sean was raised in a rodeo family in the small ranching community of Dalhart, Oregon. He's spent the last ten years doing just what he wants, following the rodeo trail, riding bulls and partying with his friends. If you ask Sean, he'd tell you there is no better feeling than climbing on a hard bucking bull.

 




For the first time in years, he's landed back in Dalhart, in the middle of the winter, forced to take a job on a local ranch. And the funny thing is, he kind of likes it.
   


 

The blond, green-eyed cowboy loves a good party almost as much as riding bulls. His only problem is that partying has gotten in the way of his bull riding and now he's got to figure out how to get back on track.

Here's an excerpt from Sugarwater Ranch, a contemporary rodeo romance,  which will be released on April 26th and available at Amazon, All Romance, Evernight Publishing, and Bookstrand.

“What about your family?” Catherine asked. “I know Frannie, and I knew of your mother. You come from nice people.”

“Nice people, that’s my family,” Sean muttered, “all but me.”

She glanced over to him. “You’re nice people. You just hide it well.” The giggle burst out of her.

Sean had never heard her giggle. She didn’t seem like the giggling type of woman. Then he realized what she’d said.

“I hide it well? And I suppose you can see right through me to the warm chocolaty core?”

She giggled again then laughed outright. And laughter looked very good on Catherine Silvera.

“Chocolaty core. Good description. I just need to lick through the hard sugar shell.”

Oh hell, the mental image just about blew him out of his boots. 

What’s up for grabs?

• One lucky hopper will win a KINDLE PAPERWHITE eREADER sponsored by Evernight Publishing.
• Every book blogger/reviewer site is giving away one free eBook from Evernight (winner’s choice of any eBook from Evernight Publishing’s website).
• Plus, each author offers their own unique prize! So visit each blog hop stop for a host of fabulous prizes to win.
  
  

  How do you enter to win? 

Leave me a comment with the answer to my question below (don’t forget your e-mail address!) for a chance to win the grand prize of a Kindle Paperwhite. Also, I'll randomly draw a winner from among those who leave a comment along with your email address for a hand-made necklace with a quote that fits Sugarwater Ranch.

 Do you think Sean will stay in Dalhart or 

will he hit the rodeo trail at the first sign of spring?

 Click here to continue hopping!

Keep hopping to the next author or blogger. After you’ve met each hero click here to vote for your favorite book boyfriend. You’ll earn an extra grand prize entry!

Will the Nook Survive?

I spent several hours on Friday setting up my old Nook for my mother to use. She’s always been a voracious reader and just recently decided she wanted to try an e-reader. She’s like me in that sometimes technology eludes her, so she didn’t want to buy a new one, only to find out she couldn’t remember how to operate it. I had the Nook, my first e-reader, in a drawer, so we started an account at Barnes and Noble and downloaded eight mysteries for ninety-nine cents each. She was thrilled, and as I left her house Saturday at noon, she was happily immersed in one of her new books.
Today as I was reading an online blog, this article jumped out at me. It states Barnes and Noble’s revenue for the third quarter decreased by 8.8 % over the same period last year. While their nearly 700 brick & mortar stores and 600 college book stores saw a decrease in sales, the biggest losses came from their Nook digital division. Nook revenue was down by around 26% from the same time last year because of low holiday season sales.
Even with the low device sales, their digital content sales increased 6.8%. The loss comes at a time when there is a boom in sales for other tablets and e-readers. The company says it has a plan to significantly reduce Nook’s expenses.
“In terms of the Nook Media business, we’ve taken significant actions to begin to right size our cost structure in the Nook segment, while also taking a large markdown on Nook devices in order to enhance our ability to achieve our estimated sales plans in subsequent quarters,” said William Lynch, Barnes & Noble CEO in a statement. Okay, I’ve read this quote several times and still don’t know what “right size” means.
The same article states that Barnes & Noble stock rose 12% on the news that the company’s chairman and largest shareholder Len Riggio was interested in buying the bookseller’s chain of nearly 700 U.S. retail stores and taking them private.
What does this all mean? You guess is as good as mine. As a Kindle owner, I was surprised at the limited number of free and cheap books on B&N.com as compared to Amazon. Personally, I hope Barnes & Noble and Nook get their act together and continue to be viable players in the e-book market. There’s nothing like entering a Barnes & Noble store and browsing books. And as much as I love Amazon, but I’d hate to see them become the only choice.
All I know is that at this point, if Mom decides to buy a new e-reader, I’ll steer her toward the Kindle. Barnes & Noble’s future is too shaky to bet her e-reader on.
How many of you use a Nook? What do you think of Barnes & Nobles’ chances of recovering from this setback?

Who’s Your Bookish Boyfriend?

The famous, or is it infamous, Julia Rachel Barrett tagged me with this meme. Thanks, I think.

When I read the title of the post, the first man I thought of is Jamie Fraser from Outlander. He's not the type I'd pick for this article, but then, he's Jamie. Enough said.

So here's how this works according to Julia:  We all have our favorite book boyfriends and now you have the chance to create one just for yourself and your fantasies! How do you play? Fill out the quiz bellow, post a picture of sexy man and tag five (5) other book addicts to do the same. Don’t forget to pop over to their blogs and let them know they have been tagged! Once tagged… you have to do the same, answer the questions and keep it rolling! But don’t forget the picture of the sexy man!

Here are the questions.

Hair color and style:  Dark brown and needing a haircut.

Eye color and facial features:  Light blue eyes and a strong jaw. Not too pretty. Handsome in a rugged way.

Height and body type:  Five feet ten inches or so.  I'm short, and if he's too tall, I get a crick in the neck from looking up. I love muscular shoulders but not the overblown muscle man type. Lean and fit is perfect.

Visible age:  My husband’s age – whatever it happens to be at the time. I agree with Julia on this.

Bangability?  Kinky?  Bi?  Etc?:  What? No, No, No. He has to be all mine, all the time.

Interests:  Rodeo, Team Roping, Barrel Racing, Reading my work, being outside.

Human or Alien or Shifter?:  Human all the way.

Paranormal skills: Being able to fly when the cows are out to round them up. Have super strength when I need to rehang a gate.

Natural habitat:  The great outdoors.  On the farm or in the mountains. Living as far from others as we could get.

Special skills:  Like superman skills? Able to communicate with horses and dogs and me on occasion, Able to talk me off the ceiling.
                                                      
                                                                        

 Here's the picture.



I tag…Amberly Smith, Jennifer Kellie, Renea Mason and Nicky Pentilla.