The Blackbird Anthology is Live!

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When a group of lonely shifters came together during their service with the Royal marines, they never imagined the strong pack that would develop between them.  Channeling their special operative training, they built a security firm with two alpha wolves at the head of a motley crew of shifters not known for playing well-together.

They’ve lived their lives as outcasts from their own individual species of shifters choosing to form a family with each other instead.  Until Now.  Follow the Blackbird pack as they fall victim to love one by one.

Can they guard their own hearts?


Find the Blackbird Anthology exclusively on Amazon for $2.99. starting September 30th until Mid-October when it will return to the regular price of $4.99.

Additionally, I’m hosting a giveaway as part of the Anthology blog tour.  You can enter the giveaway here:  Rafflecopter


An excerpt: 

     ‘No!’

      Shooting off the bed with a shuddering gasp, Ronan ran a shaking hand across his sweaty brow.  He glanced to his left to find Lorcan still soundly sleeping—thankfully. Ruddy nightmares. After all these years, it seemed the horrors of the last incident in Afghanistan might never completely fade away.

He reached down to rub the scarred tissue at the end of what remained of his leg.  Lorcan grumbled incoherently at the jostling and rolled over on his side.  The hare shifter would be angry in the morning if he discovered his mate had suffered in the night without waking him.

Too bleeding bad.

Nothing angered Ronan more than being treated like he was broken.  The damn blast had done nothing more than temporarily steal his ability to function.  With his state-of-the-art prosthetic, he’d believed himself to be as close to what he’d been in the past as ever.

Everyone else in his life didn’t seem as convinced, Lorcan being the rare exception.

“Leg bothering you?” Lorcan leaned up on his elbow with a mixture of weariness and concern mingling in his eyes. “Another nightmare?”

They both suffered them after the living hell Afghanistan had been.  The dreams had lessened over the years. Ronan wondered if they’d ever completely rid themselves of the lingering memories.

Lorcan’s warm hand moved over to cover Ronan’s.  Twisting around on the bed, Ronan leaned over his shifter until their lips met.  He’d always found his mate’s lips to be remarkably full and soft, given nothing else about the man could even be considered soft.

Lorcan traced Ronan’s bottom lip with his tongue and reached up to catch him by the back of the neck to hold him close. “I’m on top this time.”

“No, you’re not.” Ronan’s brogue tended to deepen and roll seductively when he was half-asleep and in the mood. He blocked Lorcan’s attempt to roll them over and caught the shifter’s arms in strong, calloused hands. “Easy there, fuzzy britches, you’re not going anywhere, got that straight?”

So Long, Farewell…

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I wrapped up Lorcan just recently–the first draft in any case.  As the last of the Blackbird series, it was bittersweet to finish his story.  It felt like saying goodbye to an old friend.

Granted, I also feel a bit like an over-dramatic twit.

Our stories are our babies.  We nurture them until they go off into the world to hopefully be loved and not torn apart.  Then we curl up in a corner to ugly cry for a while into a pint of ice cream.

Or is that just me?

Did I mention the slight tendency toward being overly dramatic of late?

How do you feel when you end a book or series (as an author or as a reader)?

The Tiger by the Tail

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But who is the tiger?

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind professionally and personally.  I’ve felt more like the tail than anything less.  Not in control of myself, my writing or my surroundings.  Not quite wirter’s block, yet I can’t really say the words were flowing freely.

The writing part of my problem all boiled down to one thing.

Honesty.

It’s important in relationships and even more so in one’s relationship with one’s muse to be honest.  I’ve found a good question to ask myself is: ‘Am I telling the right story?’  and ‘Am I telling the story from the right perspective?’  The answers after some serious thinking over Lorcan’s story has to be a definite ‘no.’

A painful realization given the amount I’d already written.  I took several weeks off from Lorcan to finish writing a short story that I submitted to Hot Tree Publishing for a holiday anthology. (wish me luck).  And now I’ve come back to the Blackbird series only to realize it needs a complete overhaul.

The outline I had was tossed in the rubbish.  I ate a fair amount of chocolate, mourned the loss of the outline and the chocolate, and now I’m back in the writing chair.  I know where I want the story and the series to go, I just have to put it on paper.

For my fellow authors, do you ever find it as painful as I do to delete words/chapters and start over?? It’s like ripping a band-aid off.

 

Christmas in July!

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The Blackbird Series:

Welcome to the Blackbird Security Firm.

Several years ago, a group of lonely shifters came together during their service with the Royal Marines to create a strong, intimidating unit of special operatives.  Now outside of the military, the pack has reformed as a security firm dedicated to rescuing those in danger.

They’ve lived their lives as outcasts from their own individual species of shifters choosing to form a family with each other instead.

Until Now.

Follow the Blackbird pack as they fall victim to love one by one.

Can they guard their own hearts?

The Sale

 Ivy – 99c: http://authl.it/2i9

Natasha—99c: http://ow.ly/Av5lu

Masquerade—Free!: http://smarturl.it/f0yyjc

Twelve Days—Free!: http://authl.it/2hl

Alicia—99c: http://authl.it/2xx

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Excerpt

“Such a naughty, teasing kitten.” Josh resisted the temptation to allow his hands to drift from her hips to grip her arse firmly.  He sensed Alicia wasn’t quite ready for anything other than a little lark to lift the oppressive sadness which lingered under the surface. “Going to play tour guide for me since the others have swanned off to entertain the whinging bint?”

“Sure.” Alicia eased into a pair of heels no one should’ve been able to walk in and smirked over at him. “Done looking at my arse?”

“Not a bloody chance.” Josh trailed behind her, making sure the balcony doors were locked and the cameras working before securing the front door to the suite. “You can never get enough of a beautiful piece of art.”

“Art?” Alicia’s laugh was like a sweet melody which resonated deeply in his soul and his groin.  Her gaze flitted down his front to the bulge in his trousers. “Honestly? How do you men walk around with it swinging out of control?”

“Who says it’s out of control?” Josh guided her down the stairs toward the lobby.

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Author Bio

Dahlia Donovan started out working in the insurance world. After ten years, she morphed her love of investigating accidents and studying people into writing about them. She’s a bit of a hermit and despises being in front of a camera. Her life wouldn’t be complete without her husband and her massive collection of books and video games.

Her first novel Ivy started out as a crazy dream which she turned into an adventurous and suspenseful paranormal romance.  It was followed up by Natasha, Masquerade, Twelve Days and now Alicia.  A fourth main novel in the series, Lorcan, is due out late 2015

Readers can find Under Fire, a free short story available to all her newsletter subscribers. See her website for more details.

Author Links:

Website:  https://dahliadonovan.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dahliadonovan

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DahliaDonovan

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8184061.Dahlia_Donovan

Newsletter sign up: http://eepurl.com/Q0n0X

I’m also giving away a $15.00 Amazon Giftcard!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Alicia is Live!

ON SALE FOR 99C FOR TWO WEEKS ONLY

Author: Dahlia Donovan

Book: Alicia

Series: Blackbird Series #5 (Can be read as a standalone)
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Cover Designer: Louisa at LM Creations
Editor: Hot Tree Editing 

 

Born into a Moroccan family both wealthy and well-connected, Alicia has wanted for nothing her entire life. Choosing to abandon her family business for fashion, she has built her own business and lives off the fruits of her own labour. Her traditionalist mother has longed for her to settle down with a good man.
Alicia has never wanted a good man until Josh Withers. Tired of meaningless flings, Alicia has found someone who challenges her in all the right ways. So what if he occasionally turns himself into panther?
No one’s perfect.
Now in a fight for her life as enemies from both her family’s past and her best friend Ivy’s recent nightmares come hunting for her. Alicia can only hope Josh’s military background and shifter strength will keep them safe.

Friendships.

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Romance and suspense might be the core themes to the Blackbird series, but in all honesty, friendship is likely more at the center of the stories.

The pack itself started out with friendship and family being born out of military duty.  Josh and Darren, who feature in Alicia and Natasha respectively, grew up together in Manchester.  They had each other and not much else.  They joined the military to keep themselves out of trouble.

The two alphas of the pack were also long time friends.  Their fathers were friends.  Their grandfathers were friends.   It was almost a given the two men would become close as well.  Though I imagine had their families lived, they would’ve have anticipated how close the alphas would become.

While slightly standoffish, owing mostly to her having Asperger’s Syndrome, Elaine considers the wankers in the pack her friends.  She’s recently developed a relationship with both Natasha & Ivy.   She tends to treasure friendships more than others.  It’s something that I believe will come into play more when I get around to writing her story.

How important are the friends in your life?

 

Blackbird Advice: Tea

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I thought I’d ask a very important and critical question to the pack this morning.

What’s makes the perfect cuppa tea?

Elaine: Not having the bloody wankers here make it.

Josh: Oi!  I make good tea.

Elaine: You make a bloody mess.

Josh: It’s part of the process.

Elaine: For what? A ten year old?

Josh: Can I smother her with a pillow?

Steve: No.

Josh: Poncy bastard.

Steve: What was that? Were you volunteering for the night shift for the next six months?

Lorcan: He was.

Can we get to the question? What makes a perfect cup of tea?

Elaine: Chocolate digestives.

Darren: What the bloody hell does that have to do with tea?

Elaine: Everything.

Gareth: The perfect cup of tea requires someone else making it.

Steve: Lazy wolf.

Gareth: And who made the last six cups of tea you drank?

Steve: I have better things to do than answer silly questions.

Gareth: That’s what I thought.

This still hasn’t answered my question.

Lorcan:  The perfect cup of tea requires  quality tea, water boiled in a kettle, and a decent amount of time for the tea to stew.

Darren: Ponce.

Lorcan: And how do you make your tea?

Darren: I retract my statement.

Elaine:  Idiotic wankers.

I believe that’s all we’re going to get out of them today without breaking chairs.

If you have  question for the pack, be sure to shoot me an email.