Announcing the Earrings Winner!!

The winner of the Chinook Wine and Sink Her Contest, a name drawn from the hat to win the pair of beautiful glass bead blueberry earrings is...

Drum Roll Please

Maybe we should look at those earrings again

Aren't they pretty? I bought them this past summer in the gift shop at Denali National Park. Locally made, they're glass beads strung on silver wire.

So, for the first prize

The Runner Up, Goodie Bag of Alaskan Gidgets

Maithe

And the winner of the awesome, gorgeous earrings and a Goodie Bag

Kensana Darnell!

Congratulations, Ladies!! Email me your snail mail addresses and I'll get those packages out to you this week!

Check back this December when I'll be giving away another pair of earrings to celebrate the print release of Frozen.

Contest Entries

This Blond Hottie comes to us from Savannah Chase, that wicked woman from Toronto. Nice one!

And another from the various entries...

And another, though Creed doesn't wear a kilt in this story. Who's to say he might not later?

It's the last day to get your entries in! Send me a hottie or some trivia about Alaska. Just keep it out of the current political arena. I see enough of it on the news lol!

Another Hottie

I just have to post this one. I should be writing and doing some critiquing, but this one always makes me smile.

Maithe's favorite hottie.

Ain't he cute?

Only a few days left, so get those entries in! I'm digging through my email to what to post next. I'm also gathering together the contents of two gift baskets. Don't forget about the drawing for our History Mystery starring Jean Baptiste Morgan! Hop over to The Morgan Diaries and cast your vote by Thursday.

Squeeeeeeee! RT Review

Romantic Times Magazine loves me!

In the December issue, my futuristic with paranormal and erotic elements, FROZEN, was reveiwed and while I can't yet access the site (I can't remember my login) for the actual review, I do know my rating...

4 Stars!

1-2-3-4 little shiny gold stars!

Squeeeeee!!!

Frozen will be available to order in paper on December 1, 2008. It is currently available in ebook format from Lyrical Press.

I'm so Behind...

A quickie three day trip to college visit will do that do a person. I can report that Fairbanks is getting very cold these days. Still balmy for them, but chilly for us who live on the coast.

On the way there, we saw this glorious sight, and I can tell you, in no way does my dinky little camera do justice to this landscape. The grandeur must be experienced to be believed. Still, the mountain should be recognizable. Tell me both names it is known by and get your name into the drawing for the grand prize to be awarded on Oct 29.

This gorgeous mountain wasn't the only sight of great beauty we saw. As we drove North into ever increasing chill and darkness, sunset comes earlier and earlier each day, on top of the perfectly clear skies, we saw the moonrise. One night past full, it was huge and bright. It kept us company, helping light the highway the rest of the way into Fairbanks.

Send in those blond haired hunks! And find me some unusualy trivia about Alaska... there's lots to know!

Contest Entries

Since my cable carrier decided to take a day off - something about 100 mile an hour winds Thursday night, go figure - I'm a little behind. So today we get both Trivia and Pics! A wonderful two-fer.

I tell ya, folks, Deidre wants those earrings! She sent in the trivia below and did a mighty fine job of it.

Question: When, from what country and for how much was Alaska purchased?
Answer: Russia in 1867 for under 2 cents an acre

Question: What is the state insect?
Answer: four spot skimmer dragonfly

Question: Where can you find more than half of the world's glaciers?
Answer: Alaska

Just some interesting facts:

If New York City had the same population density as Alaska, only 16 people would be living in Manhattan.

Alaska is less than 3 miles from Russia.

There are more than three million lakes in Alaska.

Now, to the pictures! That's what you all have been waiting for, right?
These are from Staci, and she did real good (read Texas drawl in there) finding us some hotties.

Don't you just love football season?

He may not be blond, but I'll taste wine with him any day. Anywhere. Man, those eyes, those lips, those arms... who cares what's in that glass? Hmm, he could do nicely for the hero of Cowboys Dream Too coming out next April...

Contest Entries: More Pics!

These come from Staci...

Um, yum... nice muscle definition??

Contest Entry: Alaska Trivia

This bit was sent in by Purrpurrkoshkamb:

In 1926 13-year-old Bennie Benson designed the state flag.

The Alaska Flag Story
On May 2, 1927, the Alaska Legislature officially adopted 13-year-old John Ben "Benny" Benson's Alaska flag -- "eight stars of gold on a field of blue." Benson had submitted his design in a 1926 American Legion contest for Alaska students.

The bill adopting the flag stipulated that Benson's design was selected "for its simplicity, its originality and its symbolism." The Legislature had the grace to incorporate much of Benson's poetic language into the bill, and this later became the basis for the stirring lyrics of the Alaska Flag song.

Benson was born at Chignik on Oct. 12, 1913, the son of an Aleut-Russian mother and a Swedish fisherman father. When Benson was 4, he and his younger brother and sister lost their mother to pneumonia. Benson was a student at the Jesse Lee Home in Seward at the time of the contest, which the American Legion held "in the public, private and Native schools of this Territory." According to the Alaska Blue Book's description of the story, Benson was prophetic in describing his design because he referred to the "future state of Alaska." He penciled these words along with his submission:

"The blue field is for the Alaska sky and the forget-me-not, an Alaska flower. The North Star is for the future state of Alaska, the most northerly of the Union. The dipper is for the Great Bear -- symbolizing strength."

The Legislature awarded Benson a watch and a $1000 scholarship, which he used for school in Seattle. He lived for many years in Kodiak, where he was an airplane mechanic. He died July 2, 1972.

Great bit of Trivia! Thanks for playing and your name is in the drawing for the fabulous pair of blueberry earrings!

As for pics of what you think Creed should look like, let me post a small excerpt from Chapter 1 of Chinook Wine and Sink Her

“Whoa there!”

Still clinging to the net, she felt the hard ground spank her bottom and not her back.

“Ooof!” The involuntary sound left her on a whoosh of air.

Strong hands held her under the armpits and dragged her backwards until only her feet and the long pole hung over the edge of the bank. Stunned, she didn’t have the presence of mind to protest, much less the time to tell him to keep his hands to himself, before the pole was jerked from her hands and the fish hauled out to lie on the bank beside her. In the next second she had eighty pounds of chocolate lab wiggling onto her lap.

“Manley, down!” She tried to push the eager lab off her.

All his attention was on her now and made the situation all the more awkward. She breathed a sigh of relief when he obeyed, lying at her side with his head across her thigh. “Good boy.”

“Nice catch,” the male voice said with a tone of amused appreciation.

“Yeah. Thanks.” Shifting uncomfortably, Linnet took stock of her situation. The stranger had made a good catch by not letting her fall into the river. Other than a bruised butt, she seemed relatively sound. Shaking her head to toss off her confusion, she looked at the man now crouching beside her as he gently worked to untangle the fish fighting for freedom.

“Thanks for ca-cat…ching me.” Her breath caught, making her stutter over the word as she stared into warm brown eyes only inches away. Hot coffee-colored eyes surrounded by thick dark lashes. The kind of lashes she wanted when dressing for a date.

Right, who was she kidding? It had been two years since a date had required clothing fancier than her current apparel. Two years since she’d had any kind of personal relations with a man. Two years since she’d even thought about wearing mascara, much less makeup of any kind. Wincing, she pushed that memory back into its deep, dark hiding place and used her hand to swish away a buzzing insect

“Um, yeah, thanks,” she muttered again and pulled her eyes away. Petting Manley to assure him she was fine gave her a moment to let her heart calm down.

“You okay?” Amusement still laced the warm voice and any cold she’d felt from the water or wet ground disappeared. Had she looked in a mirror and seen her face glow bright red she wouldn’t have been surprised. Funny, the blush seemed to cover her entire body if the all-over body heat was an indication. The only other explanation would be a hot-flash, but she was too young. “Would have been a nasty dunk if you’d fallen in. That silt is a pain to wash away. Not to mention to clean out of a weapon such as the one you have on your hip. Use it much?”

“Yeah, um, yes, I’m fine.” He was right. A swim in the Yukon could have resulted in her being dragged under and found somewhere out in the Bering Sea, if she’d ever been found at all, even with the life jacket she wore. Fallen trees and strong eddies were just some of the dangers lurking in the water. “I carry the weapon to scare off desperados and ravenous beasts.”

Nudging Manley aside, she placed her hands on the ground and pushed herself up. Let him wonder which category she placed him in. A strong hand gripped her arm and helped, doing most of the work of hauling her to her feet. “I just need to get this one’s statistics and put it back in.” The moment she was stable she stepped away, effectively shaking off the stranger’s hand as quickly as possible.

With supreme concentration, she crouched over the huge fish, using her feet to keep him from wiggling back into the water. Even though he appeared to be tiring, there was still plenty of power in his tail. Looked like his gills had been caught in the net. Probably the only reason she’d been able to pull him out at all. Nearly the size of a newborn beluga whale, she bet the damn thing would probably reach her shoulder if she stood it on its tail.

“I don’t want to leave him out of the water too long.” She hoped her explanation sufficed. Looking in the newcomer’s face again was just out of the question. There was work to be done and melting into a puddle at his feet wasn’t on her checklist.

“Let me help. He’s at least sixty-five, maybe even seventy-five pounds. Too bad you have to toss the mighty Chinook back. Good eatin’ there.” Large tanned hands expertly finished extracting the fish from the net.

Linnet passed him a handheld scale and he attached it to the monstrous mouth.

Protesting probably wouldn’t work, so she dug her tape measure from a pocket and stood when he did.

“Oh yeah, what a beauty,” the man crooned. “Seventy-six pounds. About twenty pounds under trophy weight, but still a mighty monster. The big kings like this don’t usually make it this far up river,” he added with a tone of respect.

Linnet stretched out her tape measure. Four feet, three inches. “The size of a small, skinny pre-teen.” It wasn’t easy to ignore how easily he handled the huge fish. Probably worked out often to have that kind of strength.

The man laughed and she snuck a peek at him. Eyes danced over sculpted cheeks dark with two day’s growth of beard. It would come in darker than his sun-streaked honey blond hair, which was long enough it touched the collar of his shirt in loose waves. “Where I come from, this is the size of a child about seven years old.”

Linnet felt her heart sink even as her eyes cut to his hands looking for a wedding band. No ring and no sign he’d ever worn one, but that didn’t mean anything. Besides, what did she care? She wasn’t out here to find a man, but rather to avoid men on the make in general. She stared at him again and noticed she had to look up. Not just aim her eyes up a little, but tilt her head as well. That was unusual. Must make him well over six feet. Six-four?

Concentrating on her job again, she quickly made her other measurements and jotted them down on her clipboard. Figures George hadn’t told her more about this mysterious friend of his. Probably never occurred to him to mention the man was a walking wet dream.

Good lord, where had that thought come from?

Plenty of clues in there!

Contest Entries

Today's Pic comes from Staci! Actually, two. I like them both and she's trying to get into heaven with her angel theme. Think it will work?

Contest Entries

These lovely offerings come from Deidre D.

First we have Viggo. Wow. Who can ever overlook Viggo?

And then there's Erik. Are those bedroom eyes or what?? Let me open up those uncomfortable looking clothes and see if we can't investigate this further...

I'll post more pics each day so you all can see what's coming in as we search for Creed, the hero of Chinook Wine and Sink Her!

Chinook Wine and Sink Her Contest - Clarification

I forgot to mention, that I will ship to Foreign addresses, so if you're overseas and want to play, then jump right on it!

After my first contest, I've learned to choose prizes small in size, but big on fun!

To read an excerpt, click on the link below. There's a link at the bottom that will take you to one.

http://lyricalpress.com/chinook_wine_and_sink_her.html

And if you've read the book, then you know there's a good description of Creed in chapter one!

Happy playing :)

Morgan

New Contract and Cover

Ain't it purdy?

Yup, a shiny new contract and a fab new cover for Halo in Her Pocket! I'm excited to be working with Cobblestone Press as they have some of my favorite authors in house.

I don't have the release date as of yet, but I'm patient. I'm sure it will come out at a good time and I'll be sure to let everyone know.

Morgan
http://morganqoreilly.com
http://themorgandiaries.blogspot.com

Morgan Needs a Dream

A Dream Man that is!

And I need all the help I can get, or so Jmo says. Before the hubby gets the wrong idea, let me start over.

To celebrate the release of Chinook, Wine and Sink Her, I want my hero, Creed, to jump to life before my very eyes and you can help make that dream come true.

For the next month, send me all the drool worthy photos you can of what you think Creed should look like and on Oct 29, I’ll pick the best hunk I can find and bestow untold riches on the one who makes me drool the most. Not the pic but the reader who sends it in, but I’m not averse to bestowing a little on the guy in the pic if he decides to show up on my door to collect a prize.

Oh, you want to know what the prize is? A fabulous pair of glass bead earrings that look like blueberries! They hang from silver wires and have the perfect purply-blue of wild Alaskan blueberries, just like the ones Linnet picks to make lots of yummy things for Creed. In addition, I have some cool stuff like a Moose Springsteen magnet and other Alaska goodies!

So get those entries coming and I’ll keep my bib handy.

Send them to: morgan AT morganqoreilly DOT com -OR-

Join the fun at The Morgan Diaries Chatters http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheMorganDiariesChatters/ and post the photos there!