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finger at me and problem solved and have your death on my conscience no thanks look as i said before i m not asking for state secrets i just want to know why you stopped him from putting a bullet in my brain tell me and i ll be out of your life forever again marina reiterated in her mind that she owed him nothing i have to go my guardian will be wondering where i ve gone she jumped down and brushed off her backside moving past him his fingertips skimmed across her arm and her skin tingled excerpt from joylene nowell butler kiss of the assassin ibooks kiss of the assassin by joylene nowell butler publisher the wild rose press inc march 23 2022 paperback 424 pages asin b09p7t1zrs language english file size 1138 kb text to speech enabled screen reader supported meet the author joylene nowell butler joylene butler lives with her husband in the tiny village of cluculz lake in central b c she is the author of three suspense novels and a contributor to one anthology for more on joylene and her writing visit her website and blog as well as connect with her on goodreads facebook twitter and amazon free book everyone who comments on this post by the end of the day on wednesday april 6th will be entered into a random drawing for one free ebook epub mobi or pdf posted in author promos tagged book release excerpt joylene nowell butler kiss of the assassin mc book tours suspense the wild rose press 12 comments august 5 2020 by lori l maclaughlin iwsg and a to z challenge my bucket list past present and future f is for flying today s the day for the insecure writer s support group iwsg where on the first wednesday of every month writers get together to share their insecurities and offer encouragement the iwsg was created by alex j cavanaugh and you can learn all about it and sign up for it here i don t really have any new insecurities right now so i will go to the iwsg question for this month have you ever written a piece that became a form or even a genre you hadn t planned on writing in or do you choose a form genre in advance well i ve tried to write short stories but they always seem to turn into novels i write in the fantasy genre because that s what i love most to read and fantasy novels tend to be long and sprawling so maybe that s why i ve never been good at short stories my characters refuse to be bridled now on to the a to z challenge i m taking the long way around with a to z this year my plan is to post every couple of weeks so i will have time to visit other blogs in between and still have time to write f is for flying one thing i had always wanted to do was learn to fly i wanted to soar on the wind currents like the hawks circling over the meadows and forests where i grew up i remember watching them when i was a kid and thinking how peaceful it must be up there high above all the chaos and commotion below there were two small airports within a couple of hours from where i lived that gave glider rides gliders have no engines and are towed up into the sky and then released to ride the thermals and updrafts with the only sound being the whoosh of the air over the wings taking off with the tow plane i ve been on rides at both places and they were fantastic the best part was when the pilot let me take the stick and fly the glider myself pure joy this link has some basic info about gliders and a couple of really short videos showing take off and landing for anyone interested in learning more https www boldmethod com blog article 2015 02 your guide to glider flying gliders are the best but i also wanted to try my hand at a single engine plane another airport closer to me gave flying lessons in a cessna 152 the lessons incorporated both ground school and in the air learning over the course of several months i delved into flight guides aeronautical charts navigation weather prediction radiospeak and the rules of the air cessna 152 controls for both the student pilot and the instructor as a part timer fitting the lessons in around my job it took me about a year to finish the course on my first solo flight i was so nervous but everything went fine i took off flew around the practice area near the airport then landed without a hitch after that i got to do solo cross country flights to regional towns and cities those were a lot of fun the scariest part of learning to fly is spin practice otherwise known as learning how to get out of a spin if you accidentally put yourself in one you have to intentionally put the plane into a spin pull the stick back to lift the nose of the plane until it stalls then floor the rudder and over the plane goes straight down in a corkscrew rushing toward the ground the first thing you do is not panic image by ciarán ó muirgheasa from pixabay i did manage to successfully pull the plane out the dive but i did not enjoy it however i was glad to know how to not crash the plane i earned my private pilot s license in 1984 i flew locally for a while after that and gave rides to family and friends who dared to get in the plane with me but it s an expensive hobby plane rental and fuel are not cheap so eventually i moved on to other things i m so glad though that i went for it and realized my dream of flying now when i see those hawks soaring on high i smile because i ve been up there with them i know the peace and freedom of the open sky i ll never forget it and now for the writing update june and july were a wash as far as my wip trouble times three goes just too many things going on but they were important things that needed to be done life and family take priority always we ll see what next month brings anyone else have any bucket list items beginning with f lori l maclaughlin and writing reading and the pursuit of dreams 2020 all rights reserved posted in a to z challenge 2020 iwsg tagged alex j cavanaugh book bucket list flying gliders iwsg lori l maclaughlin trouble series trouble times three writing 19 comments june 3 2020 by lori l maclaughlin iwsg and a to z challenge my bucket list past present and future e is for england edinburgh and easter island today s the day for the insecure writer s support group iwsg where on the first wednesday of every month writers get together to share their insecurities and offer encouragement the iwsg was created by alex j cavanaugh and you can learn all about it and sign up for it here my insecurities this month revolve around the use of social media there are so many social channels out there how do you know which is the best to use to connect with potential readers and what is the best way to find those readers i have accounts on facebook twitter and pinterest and i recently started an instagram account i m also on goodreads and of course wordpress and my book trailers are on youtube i find twitter overwhelming so my blog posts are linked to it but i haven t done much else with it finding the time to keep up with social media is also a challenge i d love to know what social media channels other writers use most effectively and how they organize their social media time the iwsg question for this month do you have any secrets that readers would never know from your work i couldn t think of anything to reply to this so i ll be interested to read how everyone else answers this question now on to the a to z challenge i m taking the long way around with a to z this year my plan is to post every couple of weeks so i will have time to visit other blogs in between and still have time to write e is for england edinburgh and easter island england on that same 1995 trip to scotland i wrote about for a to z a we also visited england my dad s side of the family hails from northhamptonshire we flew into london stayed there for a couple of days then rented a car and drove around the countryside i had made a list of places i wanted to visit and we hit as many as we could we saw the usual tourist sites in london big ben the houses of parliament trafalgar square the tower bridge and buckingham palace and the tower of london both from the outside big ben and the houses of parliament london buckingham palace london white tower of london where royalty was imprisoned before execution rumored to have many ghosts tower bridge london we had to ride the double decker bus me 25 years ago doing the tourist thing i have to admit though that as lovely as those places were i was more interested in the castles and ruins outside of the london area the cathedrals were pretty spectacular too penshurst place and gardens near tonbridge kent hever castle kent postcard i couldn t get the whole thing in one photo bodiam castle ruins east sussex arundel castle west sussex arundel castle library postcard my favorite room in the castle pevensey castle ruins east sussex salisbury cathedral salisbury restoration in progress tintagel castle ruins cornwall steeped in the legend of king arthur warwick castle warwickshire one of my dad s ancestors came from sulgrave a small town in northamptonshire interestingly sulgrave manor built in 1539 photo is the ancestral home of george washington first president of the united states unfortunately we drove through the area on a sunday and the manor house was closed to the public edinburgh we visited edinburgh capital city of scotland in 1995 as well we spent quite a bit of time at edinburgh castle taking in figuratively the honours of scotland and touring the scottish national war memorial united services museum st margaret s chapel the royal scots museum and the prisons of war so much history in one of the oldest fortifications in europe edinburgh castle edinburgh scotland one of those misty moody days interesting fact the honours of scotland are the oldest crown jewels in britain during wwii the crown of scotland was hidden for safekeeping by burying it in a medieval latrine closet for information on the storied history of the castle and more interesting facts click here easter island ancient monoliths have always intrigued me who built them what was their purpose easter island one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world is home to one of the world s great mysteries the massive stone heads called moai moai on easter island photo credit http www goodfreephotos com the moai were carved from volcanic rock by the polynesians who settled on easter island sometime between 800 ad and 1200 ad the island also known by its polynesian name of rapa nui lies over 2 000 miles west of chile in the south pacific ocean it s mainly made up of three extinct volcanoes and along with surrounding small islets it forms the summit of a 6 600 foot tall underwater mountain part of the sala y gomez ridge a pacific undersea mountain range rapa nui was given the name easter island by dutch explorers who first landed there on easter sunday in 1722 moai easter island photo credit antoinese http www goodfreephotos com one theory is that the stone statues were built to honor the settlers ancestors there are nearly 900 monoliths and almost all of them stand with their backs to the sea looking inward toward the villages as if watching over the people only a very few face the ocean those that do also overlook a village one possible suggestion is that the statues facing the sea were placed there to help others find the island moai easter island photo credit jaboczw http www goodfreephotos com the statues averaged 13 feet tall and weighed 14 tons with the tallest being closer to 40 feet and over 80 tons between the late 1700s and mid 1800s all of the statues on the island were toppled either by civil war between the islanders conflicts with european explorers or earthquakes according to various theories many have since been restored maybe someday i ll see the statues for myself and contemplate their existence like those ancient explorers did and now for the writing update between vehicle problems and life in general i only added maybe another 100 words to my wip trouble times three since my last a to z post still that s a little progress miniscule as it is anyone else have any bucket list items beginning with e lori l maclaughlin and writing reading and the pursuit of dreams 2020 all rights reserved posted in a to z challenge 2020 tagged a to z challenge 2020 alex j cavanaugh book bucket list castle ruins castles easter island edinburgh england iwsg london lori l maclaughlin trouble series trouble times three writing 22 comments may 21 2020 by lori l maclaughlin a to z challenge 2020 my bucket list past present and future d is for disneyworld i m taking the long way around with a to z this year my plan is to post every couple of weeks so i will have time to visit other blogs in between and still have time to write next up in the a to z challenge d is for disneyworld one thing i had always wanted to do was take my kids to disneyworld i grew up on disney movies both the live action and the animated classics even as an adult i still love them one of my all time favorite movies is disney s animated beauty and the beast in april 2012 we took an extended school spring break vacation and hit the road to disneyworld we drove from our home in vermont to orlando fl over the course of four days on the way down we stopped at grounds for sculpture an amazing outdoor sculpture park museum and arboretum in hamilton new jersey some of the sculptures scattered over the 42 acre park were incredibly detailed and lifelike contact by seward johnson eye of the beholder by seward johnson were you invited by seward johnson based on the painting the luncheon of the boating party by renoir others were more abstract but just as interesting henry moore in a sheep meadow by red grooms at disneyworld we stayed at the coronado springs resort it had a lovely swimming pool which we enjoyed very much mayan ruins themed lost city of cibola pool at coronado springs my daughter was a huge fan of the disney princesses so we visited as many as we could find a conversation with snow white the rides were a blast well all but one no one will ever get me on everest again after zipping around at high speed forward and backward and over stomach lurching drops in the pitch dark it was all i could do not to lose my lunch the kids liked it though the dreaded everest ride one of my favorite spots at disneyworld was the lego store in the marketplace right in front of the store stands a towering jaw dropping lego brick version of the black dragon maleficent from sleeping beauty blasting fire at lego prince phillip i have always loved building with legos and i love dragons particularly that one all i could do was stand there and say wow that is so cool lego dragon from sleeping beauty in the disney marketplace after we left disneyworld we went to the real legoland in winter haven fl about 45 minutes south of disney talk about mind boggling creations i can t imagine how much fun it must have been to build all those skyscrapers and landmarks and animals and dinosaurs and people a fantastic collection of lego masterpieces though i have to say that ...