Time for a Nature Hike!

So what do you see on a nature trail? 

My son actually worked on one of the trails here for his Eagle Scout project. Cub Scouts and other Boy Scouts work on them too. It's a wonderful gift to area residents.

Here are some wildflowers just beginning to open up.

 Bridges across creeks, very slippery though. We had thunderstorms that morning and I slipped coming and going on this particular bridge. I looked for trolls, didn't see any. And no billy goats. So I think they must have chased off the trolls and moved on to the next troll-infested woodland bridge.

A creek way, way, way down below.

Junipers dripping with rainwater.  It poured more later that day. I managed to visit the arboretum in between storms.

 And a lovely Tea Hut. I imagined Alice in Wonderland sipping tea with the Mad Hatter.

I found the ladybug on the trail also. You really have to keep your eyes open to capture the beauty of nature. I walked under the juniper dripping with water and thought how cool. You won't see that very often as our hot dry summers heat up. So I went back and got a picture.

Have you ever wondered what the male ladybug thinks of being called a LADY bug? She has water droplets on her back, also from the earlier storm. 

Did you enjoy your nature hike? 

I'm here today at Romancing the Book!

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy IS reality."
www.terryspear.com

Adding Ornamentation in the Garden

 Shelley, werewolf botanist, went with me to Carleen Bright Arboretum to check out the spring plantings. She was not looking for a werewolf cure. Love the arbor.

 Here is a maid pouring water into the basin.

 A little girl in a flower garden with her own handful of flowers.

 And a squirrel in the birdbath.

And no, this beautiful mermaid statue is not at the Arboretum. My dad loved her. My mom said no. I thought she was lovely. So she came home with us. When their friends would come over, dad would take them to see his mermaid. Mom would cover her up. (She didn't act embarrassed when she saw the naked male statues in Greece, but maybe that was because she didn't have them in HER yard. :))

The fig leaves from the fig trees growing next to her nearly cover her up when they're growing fast in the summer. When my dad died, my mother tried to have an auction group pick her up and sell her off. But dad had cemented her in really well. She is home for good. :)

 Do you have statues, water fountains or birdbaths in your garden?




Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy IS reality."
www.terryspear.com

Water, Water Everywhere!

 Loved the lily pond and the focal point--the beautiful flower.

 And here, the pansies were covered in raindrops.

And so were the roses.

Now we're having 95 degrees and higher. Hot!!! Hope we continue to get rain at least once a week. I'll be doing a LOT of watering to keep my new plants alive this summer. Hopefully they'll take hold and then next year, they'll be doing all right on their own for the most part!

Have a lovely day! It's going to be hot here!!!
I'm looking forward to fall. :)

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy IS reality."
www.terryspear.com

Can You Tell This Arboretum Is in Texas?

Texas style stones! :) And I love the flowers. Down below is a creek...a LONG ways down below.
I love water, so any time I find it, either natural or man-made, I gravitate toward it. 

 I love to hear the sound of water trickling into pots, over rocks, down a stream...don't you?

 I signed another narrator, this one for Lady Caroline and the Egotistical Earl!

I'm just waiting for the narrator of Highland Rake to audition for Taming the Wild Highlander. She's finished with the other book and it should be ready in about a month. :)

The Deadly Fae is in production also. Too much fun picking great actor voices to narrate the stories!

Have a super great wonderful Friday!

Terry
www.terryspear.com

Bugs--Come with Springtime!

 Do you see the way the flowers look half eaten? That's probably due to the bug on the leaf. It's a bug eat flower world out there.

Except when it comes to the ladybug below. She's eating the bugs. So in her case, it's a bug eat bug world. :)  I had visited the Carleen Bright Arboretum yesterday between thunderstorms and everything had been thoroughly rained on.

Note, even the ladybug has water droplets on her back!

Good bug? Bad bug?

I'm excited to get this review for Winning the Highlander's Heart:

Winning the Highlander’s Heart by Terry Spear
Publisher: Vinspire, Inc.
Genre: Historical
Length: Full Length (322 pgs)
Heat Level: Spicy
Rating: 5 stars
Reviewed by Xeranthemum

Winning the Highlander’s Heart embraces all the best parts of storytelling that I’ve come to associate with the talented Ms. Spear. She has created characters that I enjoy getting to know, a story that has merit and grabs the attention, and a happy ever after that satisfies the romantic inside me. When Anice and Malcolm get together it’s steamy good and very well written. Overall, this book is very entertaining. What a great way to spend an afternoon – with a good book that delivers what a romance reader wants. I had fun.

I just approved the audio book version of Highland Rake and am listening to auditions for Taming the Wild Highlander. I loved the narrator's voice and I'm still "hearing" the Scottish burr as I work on Jaguar Hunt. LOL

I'm also looking for a narrator for Lady Caroline and the Egotistical Earl.

Today I'm at Manga Cafe for another giveaway!!!

Have a super Thursday! How did it get here so quickly???

I hope you're having a great week. I hear from friends all over that it's heating up everywhere!

Hot in the jungle too...

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy IS reality."
www.terryspear.com

Reflections...

After the rainstorm, I was capturing reflections in the water--the clouds, the cypress tree, and the house. I really had planned just to take pictures of the plants with water droplets on them. But when I was returning to the house, I saw it in a double image in the water and thought how cool!

 In the picture above, water collected after the rainstorm on all the plants. This is a burford holly.

In the picture below, I was fascinated with seeing the water droplets on top of the water droplet on a rose. :)  Or is it bubbles of air in the water droplet?

Have I been doing too much writing???

Back to Jaguar Hunt! I actually wrote the end scene yesterday, though I need to write several pages leading up to the end scene now. :)

Welcome to our Virtual tour stop of Terry Spear's A Highland Wolf Wedding brought to you by Sourcebooks.

And I'm here today: Book Lovin' Mamas! With a giveaway!

I'm also still downloading narrated chapters of Highland Rake. My internet is so slow, I have to shut down everything, FB, emails, blogs, etc, can't have anything running in the background. Even so, it takes me half an hour to an hour or longer to download a chapter. But when I'm all done, I can okay the production, and it'll be off to the reviewers!

Have a super great Tuesday!

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy IS reality."
www.terryspear.com

Purple Verbena Wildflowers

 I love purple flowers and here are some growing next to the oats in the field.

It's Monday and that means I'm at Star Crossed Lovers today! So that's one good thing about a Monday!! I'll be giving away another copy of A Howl for a Highlander!

I'm also still working on Jaguar Hunt. 74,500 and counting!

I'm listening to the audiobook for Highland Rake. Love the narrator's accent for the Highlanders. My slow Internet is causing me trouble as it takes about 45 minutes to download a chapter at a time, and that's with NOTHING else running at the same time. So driving me crazy. :)  Once I approve the chapters, then it has to be approved by ACX and that takes another month or so, and then it's ready for sale. So excited about that.

Highland Rake, Book 3

Coming November 2012

Dougald MacNeill takes Lady Alana Cameron to his laird brother James's Craigly Castle when he finds her roaming the heather on the MacNeill lands. But who has sent her there and why? Her uncle, laird of the Cameron clan, and warring with the MacNeill for years, has made a marriage arrangement with another clan and now that is even at stake.

Having witnessed her father's death, and even believing he had returned her home when all along he had been dead, Alana discovers she has the gift, or curse, of seeing the newly departed and sometimes those who should have long ago passed over. Her own deceased brother continues to plague her, the rake, and now another, who is very much of the flesh, Dougald MacNeill, has her thinking marrying a rake might just have its benefits. Dougald's sister, who is one fiesty ghost, has offered to help Alana keep Dougald in line if he thinks of even straying.

But who sent Alana on a fool's errand in the first place to remove her from the Cameron's lands and set her squarely in Dougald's care, and who really killed her father and her brother, and what has it all to do with Alana? Will she and Dougald learn the truth before it is too late?

Kobo
B&N
ARe Books
Smashwords

I just finished two more guest blogs and have two interviews I still don't have the questions to.

And I think that's all I'm doing!!!

Next up on the newsletter is Eye of the Panther, a futuristic world that isn't anything like the shifters I write today. This one was for a contest submission about 10 years ago about a coffee shop bookstore combo and the future of books. This was before ereaders. Maybe I wrote it even longer ago. Can't remember. But when I wrote it, I imagined a world without books and yet this woman on another planet has a coffee shop and bookstore. After submitting the short story, I received a curt response that it was by invitation only. So why did the person advertise it all over the Internet without the caveat that it was by invitation only?

I had fallen in love with the characters and so I kept writing on it until it was a full length novel about a world in danger and a fighter pilot from another planet who could save them from the conquest of another off-worlder species. She is a panther shifter, and her brother is a dragon shifter. What can I say? It's a futuristic story and on other planets, their worlds are different. But it was my first shifter story that I wrote. :) So it needs a lot of work. I will be publishing it in the future.

I also have a recorder and recorded the storm that we had the other day--heavy rains, thunder, birds chirping. So if I can figure out how to share it, I will. :) 

That's it! Have a super Monday!!!

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy IS reality."
www.terryspear.com