#this is why you should figure out your bg before you pen your characters :')

[wibblewomble]

Reunion :)

Scanned ver under the cut

[thesassybooskter]

FLIGHT OF THE WHITE WOLF by Terry Spear: Excerpt & Giveaway

AVAILABLE TODAY/ SOURCEBOOKS CASABLANCA

Stranded in the wilderness, these warring hearts will be forced to work together—or die together.

 Gavin Summerfield—an arctic wolf shifter with a fear of flying—has to fly into the vast lakeland wilderness of northern Minnesota to track down his suspect—where his ability to shift will come in very handy. Imagine his chagrin when his pilot turns out to be the woman who tasered him last time they saw each other. Things are off to a rocky start…again.

Arctic wolf shifter Amelia White isn’t entirely displeased to see Gavin again, but priorities shift when their plane is sabotaged and goes down in the middle of nowhere. As their attraction grows, Amelia hopes Gavin doesn’t discover the secret she’s been keeping…she knows he could never forgive her…

  Buy Online: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo

Add to Goodreads

    Excerpt

 As a wolf, Gavin wouldn’t feel the cold like he did as a human. But he couldn’t remove his clothes right now and shift. Besides, as soon as he was in the raft, he had every intention of taking over the paddling so Amelia could strip and shift to warm up.

At least in the dry packs, he had clothes they could wear, two single sleeping bags—in case one got wet—a tent, a tarp, and food, to keep them going until someone came and picked up Amelia. He still had a mission and he wasn’t giving it up for anything. He was damn glad he’d rescued his canoe. He looked back at the plane that could no longer be seen. It could still be just below the surface, but with the roughness of the waves and the darkness of the day, it was impossible for him to tell.

“Gavin, you’ve got to be freezing.”

“The storm’s coming in fast and furious. You know how they are. It isn’t safe out here with the lightning closing in on us. We need to take cover.” He was stuttering a bit from the cold. “How do you feel? Are you sure you’re okay?” She was cut up and bruised. But as long as she wasn’t badly injured, she’d heal quickly with their enhanced, wolf healing genetics.

“I’m good. What about you? You look a little banged up.” Amelia finally reached him and tossed him a rope.

He tied his canoe to the raft and then figured it would be just as difficult to climb from the canoe into the raft as it would be to jump into the water, and use the ladder to climb into the raft. As much as he hated to get into the cold lake again, he opted for showing off his agility skills—which, as cold as he was, were poorly lacking. “Nothing that won’t heal up soon. Besides, I’m roughing it.”

With an arm and leg over the raft, the rest of his body in the canoe, he struggled to make it into the raft as she steadied the canoe.

Once he collapsed in the bottom of the raft, he said, “Go ahead and take off your clothes and shift.”

“No. You’ve been in the water for far too long. You need to shift first.”

He was going to argue, that at the water’s temperature between 68 and 70 degrees, they could last twelve hours if they’d been floating in the lake all that time, but she picked up the paddle again and headed toward shore.

“All right. For a few minutes, and then I’ll take over.” He began to remove his clothes, but he was having so much trouble untying his boots, she set the paddle down, and began to help him. They finished untying them, and she pulled them off. She tugged off his socks, and then helped him out of his life vest.

Her fingers were numb too, and she was having trouble with his zipper. She finally managed to unzip his cargo pants, while he removed his T-shirt. He tugged off his cargo pants. “This life vest won’t fit right on a wolf,” she said.

“I can swim without it if I need to.” He pulled off his boxers. He wasn’t planning on being a wolf for very long. Off in the distance, streaks of lightning struck the ground and thunder boomed only a mile away. “We need to take cover from the thunderstorm. Maybe I should just skip shifting.”

“One of us needs to be a wolf. We can switch off after a while.”

He wanted her to warm up and he’d paddle the rest of the way in. Between the cold-water shock to their systems, the terror of experiencing the plane crash, helping to pull Winston into the raft, and all the paddling she’d already done, she had to be exhausted. He was naked now, and calling on the shift, feeling the heat suffuse every cell in his body, warming him like a nice hot bath deep inside. And then he was a wolf, his thick, double coat of fur able to deflect the water.

“I’m glad you rescued your canoe, but not happy with the way you could have drowned yourself.”

He had to try, but he realized she was right and he hadn’t wanted her to be struggling with this on her own either.

She began to paddle again. “I have to say you’re beautiful, as a wolf.”

He moved toward her, licked her cheek, and settled next to her to share his heat, his head resting on her lap.

“Now, that’s nice.”

He woofed in agreement. He still didn’t like that she was so cold, but he was glad he could help her out in any way that he could. He hoped she didn’t believe she had to save the day now that the plane had crashed. He looked down at his wolf nails and the raft, hoping he didn’t puncture the rubber. He trimmed his nails regularly so that when he was a wolf, they wouldn’t be too long. He glanced at Winston. His were nice and trimmed too. He was sitting up, ears perked, nose sniffing at the wind. He seemed to be happy with the boat excursion now, out in the wilderness, smelling all the interesting scents. Gavin imagined he’d never been out here before and everything would be new to him.

Rain began to fall on them and Gavin wished that it would have held off a bit. It wouldn’t reach his skin, but he needed to shift and take over. Then he had an idea. His raingear was in one of the bags. He could shift, dress in dry clothes, and put the raingear on and then Amelia could shift into her wolf. Why hadn’t he thought of that before he shifted and it began to rain? He was certain hypothermia had messed with his thought processes.

She’d been paddling for some time before he finally shifted. “I’ll take us the rest of the way in now. You need to wear your wolf coat and warm up.”

“All right.” She kept paddling while he dug out some of his clothes.

“Good thing you have raingear.”

“Yeah, but I sure wished I’d thought of it earlier. Rain jacket too, for lighter rains, but you need to just shift and get warm.”

“I will, as soon as you’re dressed. We’re drifting back out because the winds have shifted, so I’m fighting against the wind to keep us going in the right direction.”

“Do you see the cliffs? Where there’s a rock ledge for shelter?” He pulled on some board shorts, at least they would dry out fast and were meant for the water, no shoes, a T-shirt, and the rain jacket and pants, just to keep him warmer in the chilly breeze.

“Yeah. It should give us some protection from the elements.”

“Agreed. Okay, I’ll take over. Go ahead and strip.”

Shivering from the cold, she let out her breath. “I bet you say that to all the women you see.”

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

  About Terry Spear

USA Today Bestseller, TERRY SPEAR writes urban fantasy and Highland medieval romance: hot wolves, jaguar shifters, medieval Highlanders and lots more. She also pens young adult paranormal romance. She has over fifty paranormal books to her name, earned Publisher’s Weekly Best Books of the Year, and has been featured in The International Wolf Magazine, Woman’s World and BGS Book Review Magazine. She creates award-winning teddy bears in the heart of Texas and gardens. She retired from USAR after rappelling, mountain climbing, learning water survival, qualifying with a number of firearms, survived the obstacle courses, leadership reaction courses and confidences courses – and knows if she can do it, her characters can overcome any obstacle she puts in their path.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

FLIGHT OF THE WHITE WOLF by Terry Spear: Excerpt & Giveaway was originally published on The Sassy Bookster

[type2diabetestreatments-blog]

Chatting with Novelist + Diabetes Auction Queen Brenda Novak

New Post has been published on https://type2diabetestreatment.net/diabetes-mellitus/chatting-with-novelist-diabetes-auction-queen-brenda-novak/

Chatting with Novelist + Diabetes Auction Queen Brenda Novak

Brenda Novak is best known to the world as a New York Times best-selling author of historical and contemporary romance novels. But to the diabetes community, she's famous for being the founder of Brenda Novak's Annual Auction for the Cure of Diabetes, which has raised more than $1 million for diabetes research. It's not just a one-shot (pardon the pun!) deal. The auction takes place over not just one evening, or even one day — but the entire month of May! The proceeds of the auction benefit the Diabetes Research Institute (DRI) in Miami.

Brenda's motivation for organizing her enormous online auction (featuring more than 2,000 items) is her son, Thad, now 15, who was diagnosed ten years ago with type 1 diabetes.

Brenda lives with her family in Sacramento, CA, where she is actually a mom of five! Busy lady! She took some time out of her schedule to chat with us about how she got started and her advice to moms of other teens with diabetes (plus, find out where diabetes makes an appearance in her collection of books!).

DM) Brenda, can you start by sharing what exactly inspired you to start an online auction for diabetes?

BN) I wanted to do something for my son who was diagnosed at age 5. Diabetes is something that we're so anesthetized to because of the media and because so many people have it. It's become so commonplace in a way. People think they know a lot about it, but they don't know much. People just think that those with diabetes live normal lives everyday. I had that attitude. It wasn't a focal point for me until my son was diagnosed and I learned how hard it is and the tragic side effects. I was a young mom, just starting my career. I didn't have a lot of resources and I wasn't sure what to do. My husband said, 'There will be a time and a place for this later in life.' But I couldn't let it rest. Every day, I was just agitated about what I could do with so few resources.

I went to an elementary school silent auction, but it didn't get the turnout that they wanted. I remember thinking that this was hard, trying to get hundreds of people at one location, under one roof, for a limited time. There was a chance they'd have plans or couldn't participate. By that time, I'd built enough of my readership that I felt I could do something online.

So you decided to build your own online platform?

eBay was starting to get hot, but the 'mommy generation' hadn't really embraced it, so it was kind of a new concept. I thought maybe I should do it on eBay, but I'm glad I went my own way. I can keep the community and shoppers coming back every year. I tried doing it on my website and enlisted help from people I know in the publishing industry, and readers and writers to came together in a community effort to raise some money.

You started raising huge amounts of money right away. Did you have some big-name donors?

The online auction is not your usual fundraiser, like JDRF galas where you sell tables to huge corporations. We don't have huge donors. We have authors and readers, and cumulatively it turns out to be a big event. I'm really grateful to all the people who have joined with me.

The first year, we raised $35,000 and at the time that sounded huge. I kept growing it and trying to get it bigger and bigger. The next year we almost doubled, and the next year we almost doubled that. Then the recession hit, so we haven't grown quite as exponentially lately, but we've continued to grow at a time when other fundraisers aren't growing or are even shrinking by 30 or 40 percent.

Why did you choose to give the proceeds to the DRI?

I love JDRF and I like the ADA as well, but they're big and they've been around for a long time. I felt they had grown complacent. For me, it isn't about educating, it's about solving the problems so we don't have to educate. The people at the DRI are so passionate and focused. I just got so much more of a sense that at the DRI, they are as hungry for a cure as I am.

I felt so encouraged about the work they are doing and how close they seemed to be. It seemed the best choice for me. I wanted to be sure that I was very responsible for those dollars and know that the dollars are going directly toward a cure.

How much of the money goes to DRI?

All the proceeds. The overhead is quite low. I don't get paid, and we only have the one part-time assistant. Most of the promotion work is donated. The magazines all donate ads, so we don't pay for that. The overhead is very small.

How do you get donors involved?

It's easier now that we have a donor base to go back to, which is something we have worked on growing. But we also target new people each year. We send a solicitation letter, and the recipients figure out who you are and that you're worthwhile. I want to make sure donors understand that this is a reliable event, that it will grow, and that we will do what we say we're going do with the money.

You build credibility and you work with the same people year after year, and that makes it easier for them to contribute the next year.

Do you run the auction all on your own?

This is the first year that I have one part-time assistant. Before, I was not a big believer in volunteers. Self-interest motivates people, and you can't always rely on people you're not paying. However, I've had two volunteers come on to help me and they have selflessly given hours of their time. I almost didn't do the auction this year because I was overwhelmed with work, but they said, 'We can do it, we can do it! We'll help!' So that's what we're doing.

What are some of your favorite items in the auction this time around?

There are a lot of things! I'm a big fan of The Voice, so the CeeLo Green tickets in Vegas look great. My agent reps him so that's how we got the tickets. There's a Celine Dion meet-and-greet, too. I think she's classy and one of the best singers on the planet. Also, some of the volunteers like an attorney who's donated the time for building a Living Will.

There are almost 2,000 items, and they're so varied -- everything from homemade items to trips and stays. My son Thad has been putting a business plan together for a pen business, so he's been showing me samples, and he donated one of the pens to the auction. My sister donated a homemade witch and my daughter Alexa does pottery.

If you're a writer, there are lots of publishing-related auction items that you won't find anywhere else, like the chance to get in front of the decision-makers at publishing companies for a response within 24 hours, rather than the usual time of a year or more it can take to hear back!

Of course, I don't participate because I don't want people to think that I'm talking up my own auction and then walking away with the prizes!

Is your son involved with running the auction?

He's still in school so he doesn't do a ton of work. He comes home everyday and hears our daily totals. He does a lot of the shipping. Most donors ship direct, which makes the job much easier. But there are still several days of shipping work. He helps package everything up.

Why did you choose to do the auction every year in May?

It was for Mother's Day, and it was the month that he was diagnosed. It just felt natural. If it were in December, I might have thought twice because we would've been competing with Christmas. I think Spring is a good time for fundraising. So practically and sentimentally-speaking, this is a good month!

You're also author of quite a few best-selling books. Have you ever written a book with a diabetic character?

I did! It's called Every Waking Moment, about a woman who is living with an abusive man. She has a 5-year old boy with diabetes and she has to get his meds, and that makes it easier to track her. This book was written shortly after Thad was diagnosed, and so it reflects the anxiety that a mother feels in dealing with a child with diabetes. I got a lot of reader feedback. Lots of people have no idea about managing diabetes, and tend to blame type 1 on lifestyle being out of whack. Or they know only about type 2 diabetes.

Speaking of raising a child with diabetes, what advice do you have for other D-moms?

I think that's a tough question. I get asked that a lot. I feel bad because doing fundraising doesn't make me an expert with management. I think that I took too much of the diabetes management on myself. Now that Thad's older and I can't do that as much, getting him to take care of himself the way I could is a struggle. I think the hand-off is going smoother now, but it could definitely be better.

What I needed to do was engage him and make him responsible, but instead I added it to my list and managed his blood sugar for him. I did that for years. I just felt I had to take it on myself. And as a mother, you're so protective of your child, so if you can do something for your child, you think it makes it easier. But I think that was a mistake. I needed to make him more responsible for himself sooner.

Thad's never been hospitalized, but he sees the worry in my eyes. It's important to stay more positive, and when your child tests and sees higher BGs, to say something like, 'At least you know' or 'Now you can adjust.' Don't be negative, don't drill them. A mother's naturally critical because of the worry, but I don't necessarily think it's the smartest way.

Thank you for that perspective, Brenda, and a very happy belated Mother's Day to you! Thanks also for all the hard work you've done on behalf of PWDs everywhere. And to our Readers: don't forget to participate in the auction, which is open until May 31!

Disclaimer: Content created by the Diabetes Mine team. For more details click here.

Disclaimer

This content is created for Diabetes Mine, a consumer health blog focused on the diabetes community. The content is not medically reviewed and doesn't adhere to Healthline's editorial guidelines. For more information about Healthline's partnership with Diabetes Mine, please click here.

Type 2 Diabetes Treatment Type 2 Diabetes Diet Diabetes Destroyer Reviews Original Article