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Feb 18th A Warlock’s Secrets – Inspiration

Welcome to Sunday Snippets! Today we are talking about A WARLOCK’S SECRETS, the second book in award-winning A Demon’s Witch Series.

A Warlock’s Secrets wasn’t a planned part of A Demon’s Witch’ Series. It came to fruition after several readers and a couple of reviewers asked or assumed Tristian’s story was next in the series.

In truth, I’d never considered writing Tristian’s story. He was the Demon Overlord’s enforcer/assassin, for heaven’s sake. The hardest part of writing this book was wrapping my head around who Tristian really was and what he wanted out of life. He challenged me at every turn of the story. After delving into who he really is and what he wants, come to find out, he has a strong moral compass and A Warlock’s Secrets was born. He basically is the paranormal police for the Western Hemisphere. Enforcement is necessary to keep a balance between mortals and creatures which he learned young due to the death of his parents and having to raise his little sister.

When love comes his way he is fiercely protective and everything Hannah is looking for in a forever relationship. The one caveat is the relationship must be kept from her parents, for their protection. Join in the adventure and grab your copy today! Available worldwide at Amazon,Kobo, Barnes& Noble, itunes, and Walmart.com. If you’re in the United Kingdom, Amazon UK, or Australia, Amazon.AU. or Canada Amazon CA.

Often I’ve been asked why I write paranormal romance. Since I was old enough to read, I loved being swept away into a fantasy. Whether is was a trip to Mars, pretending I could wield magic with the characters in a book, or chasing a unicorn across the backyard only to find myself face to face with a vampire, my imagination ran wild with the written word. As I got older, if I didn’t like a part of the book or the way a story ended, I’d rewrite it. Oh what adventures Trixie Beldon and Nancy Drew had under my rewritten sections. LOL

Now I hope to encourage readers to leave your ordinary world behind for a few hours… be swept away into a magical romantic fantasy with a touch of mystery and suspense. It’s good for the soul and stress relieving to suspend reality for a while, whether you are reading or writing novels. <grin>

Click on the cover to read more or purchase!

A Little about A WARLOCK’S SECRETS – Years ago, a sacred ceremony at the Dragon’s Moon Coven turned deadly. Son of the high priestess, Tristian Shandie’s life changed forever. With a price on his head and revenge in his heart, he has no choice but to follow in his father’s footsteps to a profession shrouded in secrets. Now his skills as an enforcer for the Demon Overlord are second to none. But dangerous secrets he harbors are a liability he can no longer afford.

A chance meeting with a woman he finds irresistible flips Tristian’s world upside down. Hannah is a cyber security specialist with secrets of her own. Bad boys never appealed to her until Tristian, who changes everything. In his darkest hours, she is dragged into his magical world. If they survive, is she strong enough to heal his heart and tame the warlock? Or will their secrets destroy them?

A peek between the pages of A WARLOCK’S SECRETS:

Sitting behind the wheel, he combed his fingers through his damp dark blond hair in an attempt to look presentable. Aww to hell with it. He shoved the car door open, unfolded his six-foot-four inch frame from the vehicle, slammed the door and set the alarm.

Cheerful red checked curtains hung in the windows, funny he’d never noticed that before. Probably because it was usually dark when he stopped to grab a bite, which was either before sunrise or in the dead of the night. The late afternoon sunlight bounced off the glass door to the diner as he yanked it open. The aroma of fresh French fries, hamburgers, and homemade cherry pies wafted out into the cool spring air. He strode through the diner, slipped into a red vinyl booth in the far corner and stared out the window for several minutes. The sounds of food being prepared, dishes clinking together, and the ding of a bell when the cook called “order up” somehow took the edge off.

When the door opened again, a woman stomped inside. She had shoulder-length wavy, red hair, a sprinkling of freckles over her nose and the brightest blue eyes he’d ever seen. She was curvy in the right places, not like the skin and bones of women prevalent these days. He shook his head. How did men find those types attractive?

The wooden chair scraped across the tile floor as the woman jerked it out from under the table not far from Tristian’s booth. She plopped down on the red padded vinyl seat and shoved her wet hair out of her eyes, blew out a breath and leaned back in the chair. The woman stared into space for a beat then closed her eyes, shook her head slightly.

A waitress with a name tag that said Nan stopped by his table. “What’ll you have?”

“A cup of coffee.”

“Got fresh baked cherry pie that goes really good with a scoop of ice cream.” She tapped a pencil on the order pad she held in her hand.

“A cup of coffee.”

“Okaaay, but you don’t know what you’re missing.” She turned and flounced over to the table a red-haired woman occupied and laid her hand on the woman’s arm. “Didn’t go as well as you’d hoped?”

“You could say that. The big announcement was that the company is relocating to Colorado to be part of a National Cyber Intelligence Center being established in Colorado Springs. Shadow Hawk Cyber was one of the first companies tapped to be a part of it.” She slapped the menu down on the table.

Nan tilted her head slightly and peered at the woman questioningly. “You don’t want to move? I’ve heard Colorado is beautiful. Great skiing, hiking, biking, you name it Colorado’s got it.” She paused for a couple beats, tapping her pencil to her lips. “Except the ocean. It’s land locked. Suppose it has mountain lakes.”

The red-headed woman huffed out a breath. “Relocation isn’t the problem. I’m an Irish citizen and getting a top-secret security clearance is impossible. Without it, I can’t work for the company. Well, that’s not exactly true. The owner of the company said I needed to apply for a Limited Access Authorization. Supposedly, I would have no trouble getting that since my expertise is needed.”

“So… why not apply?”

“I looked into it. Seems it’s harder to get than my boss thinks. LAAs are granted in rare circumstances where the non-US citizen possesses a unique or unusual skill or expertise that is urgently needed. Can’t get higher than Secret clearance. I’m the only one in the company that has a — certain skill set. But since other companies are also clamoring to be part of the NCIC, you can bet they’ll have people with my skill set and are US citizens.”

“Gee… that’s too bad. But you’re not just going to give up, are you?”

“Tonight — I don’t know. On a positive note, the move won’t be complete for eighteen to twenty-four months. Boss says I can fly under the radar until that time.”

“What about becoming a citizen? You plan to stay in the states. Right?”

“I hope so. But I don’t want to give up my Irish citizenship, either.” She sighed.

Tristian clinked the empty coffee cup against the saucer and stared at the waitress.

Nan patted the woman’s arm and frowned, then jerked her head in Tristian’s direction. “I’ll be right back.” She rushed behind the lunch counter, whisked the coffee pot from the warmer so quickly the scalding coffee nearly sloshed over the rim. Nan paused, let the liquid settle and walked to Tristian’s table, filled his cup. “Sorry about that.”

He nodded and gave her an obligatory smile.

Several customers entered the diner talking loudly and laughing. They settled into seats on the opposite side of the room. Tristian was glad they didn’t invade his area, as he contemplated doing something he’d never done before. He slid out of the booth and ambled over to the red-headed woman’s table. “Rough day, huh?”

She glanced up at him warily. “You could say that.”

“I understand. Had one of those myself.” He pulled out a chair and glanced over at her. “Mind if I join you?”

She shrugged, “Suit yourself.” and motioned absently to the chair he leaned on.

He offered his hand. “I’m Tristian.”

She hesitated for a beat, then clasped his hand lightly. “Hannah.”

“Nice to meet you, Hannah.” He eased into the chair. “Overheard you’re from Ireland. Been here long?”

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Thank you for joining me for a little peek into A WARLOCK’S SECRETS and my inspiration to write it. Next week another adventure awaits, don’t miss it.

Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged A Demo's Witch Series, A Warlock's Secrets, Paranormal Romance/Mystery, Shapeshifters, Tena Stetler, Washington DC, Witches by Tena Stetler with comments disabled.

Feb 11th Charm Me – On Sale #99cents – Sunday Snippet

Yippee!! #SundaySnippet presents Charm Me, an award winning #fantasy. A fun and flirty Candy Hearts Romance on sale for 99cents just in time for Valentine’s Day! Can a ski trip turn romantic in Divide, Colorado? Can Valentine Magic bring them together forever?

Pull up a chair, grab a drink of your choice from the cooler, a Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter cookie from the plate, and let’s find out a little about Charm Me. Go ahead you, know you want to download a copy and join the #magical #fantasy, #adventure today! You’ll be so glad you did.

What is Charm Me all about?

Summer Dawn Rylie’s an extraordinary elemental witch whose troubled past haunts her. She’s created a calm life for herself teaching yoga and keeping people at a distance. Her life takes a one eighty-degree turn when she enrolls in a women’s weapons class and meets ruggedly handsome Devlin Sawyer.

Devlin, a former Navy Seal, has sworn off women after two long-term failed relationships, but there is no denying his attraction to Summer. She intrigues him like no other woman ever has. Despite her attempts to ignore him, Summer is drawn to Devlin. His magic signature is strong, but he’s no warlock. Will Valentine’s Day magic find them a future together?

Sneak peek between the pages of Charm Me!

Getting to her feet, she brushed the dust from her black yoga pants, tugged at the bottom of her bright orange tunic, and flipped the light switch on. A soft glow of florescent lighting flooded the large room, soothing Summer’s nerves. Guess she would never be the same carefree individual she was before the incident. Oh, shake it off. You’re safe and it’s time to get on with life. “Come on Pip, let’s get this place open.”

A massive stone fireplace towered in the corner. She picked up an arm full of wood and flung it in the general direction. Logs landed in the fire pit and neatly arranged themselves in a tepee shape. With a magic flick of her finger toward the hearth, flames raced up the aspen logs. “That’s better.”

She raised her arms, about to send the yoga mats back to their proper place when the heavy wooden front door creaked open. Piper rushed toward the door, teeth bared and a growl rumbled in her throat. Summer whirled around and yelped as Devlin ambled into the room, black hair tousled and glistening with melting snowflakes. His nonchalance at the dog’s approach surprised her as he slowed to a stop. Piper sniffed around him, backed up a few inches, then stood at alert in front of Devlin.

“You scared the bejeebers out of me.” Summer held her hand to her chest as her heart thundered.

“What are you doing here?”

“Call your guard dog off and I’ll tell you.” The corners of Devlin’s mouth curved up into a smile, a faint light twinkled in the depths of his dark eyes.

“Piper, leave it…come.” The dog gave Devlin a last sideways glance, trotted back to Summer and sat at her side.

Pssst… While you’re here, don’t forget to check out my paranormal romance/mysteries click here.

Thanks for stopping by, see you next week for another Sunday Snippet!

Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged Charm Me, Colorado, fantasy, magic, Paranormal Romance/Mystery, Shapeshifters, Sunday Snippet, Tena Stetler, Witches by Tena Stetler with 2 comments.

Feb 6th Was Saint Valentine’s Day Started by the Candy Companies?

It’s February, the month of love. Right? Valentines Day and all that fun stuff. The answer to my question is a resounding NO. The history of Valentine’s Day actually finds its roots in ancient Rome and Victorian England, and it’s not as rosy as you might want to believe.

The Catholic church has records of at least three different martyrs named Valentine or Valentinus. One of them, a priest in third-century Rome, defied the emperor Claudius when he decided to outlaw marriage for young men. Valentine continued performing marriage ceremonies for the lovers in secret, and Claudius had him killed for it when he found out.

Another Valentine supposedly helped Christians escape from prison, and was also martyred for it. Yet another one is said to have sent the first “Valentine” letter from prison, allegedly to the jailor’s daughter. Legend has it, he signed the note, “from your Valentine,” a greeting we still use today.

Whichever saint the holiday memorializes, we generally agree he was kind, heroic and most importantly, very much pro-love.

Another thought, historians believe that Valentine’s Day commemorates the death of St. Valentine on February 14, others believe that the holiday actually has its origins in a Pagan fertility festival called “Lupercalia,” which was celebrated on February 15 in ancient Rome. Dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, and Roman founders Romulus and Remus

Now lets turn to today Valentine’s Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, Australia and the United States, although it’s most common in the U.K. and the U.S. Americans likely began exchanging handmade cards in the early 1700s. But it was the 1840’s when Esther A. Howland really changed the game. She began selling the first mass-produced cards in the country. Known as the “Mother of the Valentine,” she created elaborate pieces of art that had real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as “scrap.”

Now how about Cupid? According to Time, the figure can actually be traced all the way back to 700 B.C., to the Greek god of love named Eros, who was actually a handsome, immortal man with the intimidating power to make people fall in love.

Now about the flowers, giving red roses may be an obvious romantic gesture today, but it wasn’t until the late 17th century that giving flowers became a popular custom.

The practice can be traced back to when King Charles II of Sweden learned the “language of flowers” — which pairs different flowers with specific meanings — on a trip to Persia, and subsequently introduced the tradition to Europe.

A whopping 250 million roses are grown in preparation for Valentine’s Day each year. Whew, that’s a lot of roses!

While a red rose has traditionally symbolized love, many other colors like deep pink, purple or white, which symbolize happiness, royalty and sympathy respectively, may be given on the holiday too. Personally, I love the bright yellow universally known as symbols of friendship or the deep purple used for symbolizing love at first sight. Yep is was love at first sight between my hubby and I.

Also, people spend millions of dollars on gifts for their pets. I slowly raise my hand. I just purchased a shredder toy for my parrot, and a squeaky toy for my dog. So I’m among the American households spent an estimated $751.3 million on gifts for their pets on Valentine’s Day. WOW!

The most popular gift of all, Candy. The first heart-shaped box of chocolates was introduced in 1861 created by Richard Cadbury. Today, more than 36 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolates are sold each year. That’s 58 million pounds of chocolate!

Did you know that conversational hearts got their start as medical lozenges? Strangely, the story of conversation hearts began in 1847 when a Boston pharmacist named Oliver Chase invented a machine that simplified the way medical lozenges are made. The result was America’s first candy-making machine, because the pharmacist soon started shifting his focus from making lozenges to candy instead!

In 1866, Daniel Chase, brother of Oliver, devised a way to press words onto the candy lozenges, using a felt roller pad moistened with vegetable coloring (usually red). These conversational candies were not heart-shaped until 1902.

The candy lozenges became what we know today as Necco wafers. After acquisition of Stark Candy Company in 1990, Necco claims to produce about 100,000 pounds of Sweethearts every day, ramping up mid-September to meet the demand for product on Valentines Day. It produces approximately 8 billion candy hearts each year popular for other events as well such as weddings. That’s a lot of candy hearts. Myself, I like the sweet-tart candy hearts.

Well, there you have it’s just like love, complex yet so simple — Happy Valentine’s Day.

Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog, My Say What Blog and tagged Candy hearts, Chocolate Hearts, Romance, Valentine's Day Facts by Tena Stetler with comments disabled.

Feb 4th Security Force of Two – Sunday Snippet

Celebrate 2024, with a Sunday Snippet – Hold onto your hats SECURITY FORCE OF TWO burst onto the scene with 5-Star reviews and awards! First book in my new Mountain Town Mysteries Series. A riveting #paranormal #romance, #mystery, you’re going to love!

A former CIA agent and a Special Forces vet return to their small hometown for different reasons none of which includes involvement in an investigation of the new police chief’s murder.

Breaking news!! Security Force of Two has been nominated for the Paranormal Romance Guild’s Reviewer’s Choice Awards. Voting is open for the PRG Reviewers’ Choice 2023 Awards!I’d be honored if you would vote for my novel, Security Force of Two, in the category ROMANCE/PARANORMAL/FANTASY/ANGELS & GHOSTS/PSYCHICS Here’s link to vote: buff.ly/48StirA Your vote is very much appreciated!

A little about Security Force of Two:

Miacoh Zane, a Special Forces veteran, returns to Aspen Ridge, Colorado a small town nestled in the Rocky Mountains, to settle his beloved grandmother’s estate. But the town holds painful memories and family secrets he wants to leave behind for good.

Candle Bearclaw, a gifted computer analyst/programmer with talents she’s buried when recruited out of college by the CIA. After fifteen years, she abruptly resigns her position with the agency. She returns to her sleepy hometown only to discover her childhood crush has also returned and a violent crime has been committed.

Due to their covert operations experience, Candle and Miacoh are thrown together to assist Homeland Security, FBI, and her father, former chief of police, with a murder investigation. As they search for the perpetrators, will their secrets be revealed as the investigation takes an unusual twist that could blow the case wide open.

An exciting new peek between the pages of Security Force of Two:

When she drove up the circle driveway, a chill shot up her spine, then a strange feeling came over her, almost like someone was watching. Reaching under the seat of her SUV, she pulled out her handgun, checked the weapon to make sure it was loaded, chambered a round, and tucked it in the back waistband of her jeans, covering it with her shirt and jacket. She backed out then drove the entire driveway more slowly, checking the perimeter. Nothing. The cell phone hadn’t chirped to alert her of a breach, but she checked her outside surveillance cameras, then the ones inside her home anyway. Again nothing. She shrugged off the feeling and stepped out of her SUV. Gun drawn, she flicked off the safety and turned on the laser. It didn’t hurt to be safe rather than sorry.

Peeking in the window, she saw the alarm keypad was still set and secure. Then she walked around the house, entered through the back door, closed and relocked it, deactivated the alarm. Nothing was out of place. Part of her wished she’d brought Terrabyte along. Though still young, the pups tracking ability was well-developed. Terra would know if someone were in or around the cabin since they left. Back to the wall, she moved carefully through each room, nothing. When she was sure the house was clear, she sat down at the computer, laying the gun next to it. Warning windows were popped up everywhere on the screen. Someone had tried to hack into her system but hadn’t gotten very far. Closing out the windows one at a time until she found a message planted just under the first layer of security. That is what must have set off the warnings. Her throat went dry as she read the message. “Poking around where you don’t belong is dangerous business. Carl’s death was unfortunate but an accident. Leave it be or pay the consequences.”

Fingers posed over the keyboard. She started to X out of the message but stopped. If this was a disintegrating message, she would have no proof it ever existed. Taking out her cell phone, she took a picture of the screen. The handle on the front door jiggled. She grabbed her gun and jumped up, making her way to the front bay window.

About the Author:

Tena Stetler is an internationally best-selling author of award winning paranormal tales. Some call her crazy others creative. She deals with the voices in her head by writing them down and creating a fantasy world and characters you won’t soon forget. Her books tell tales of magical kick-ass women and mystical alpha males that dare to love them. Travel, adventure, magic, and a bit of mystery flourish in her books along with a few companion animals to round out the tales.

Colorado is home; shared with her husband of many moons, a brilliant Chow Chow, a spoiled parrot and a fifty-year-old box turtle. When she’s not writing, her time is spent kayaking, camping, hiking, biking or just relaxing in the great Colorado outdoors.

Pssst… While you’re here, don’t forget to check out my paranormal romance/mysteries click here.