Adriana Kraft

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Will he strike again tonight? #SnippetSunday #SnipSun #WeekendWritingWarriors #RomanticSuspense #Sale #99cents #MFRWAuthors

by

Whose mask will crumble first—
the enigmatic professor of Celtic Studies,
the undercover cop masquerading as a co-ed,
or the campus stalker,
biding his time to strike again?

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday, the weekly hop for everyone who loves to write – and read!
Click on the graphics to travel to the other snippets.

                                        

It’s October – time for something scary! My romantic suspense novel The Unmasking is on sale for $0.99 for the entire month of October. The story opens on Samhain/Halloween and has a truly creepy villain. Today’s ten sentences follow last week’s – Nancy’s in the college lecture hall.

EXCERPT

Nancy scribbled more notes and then focused on the men in the room.

Was he in the lecture hall? Would he strike again, tonight? Or would the rapist stay in his hole, biding his time?

Professor Bayfield concluded his lecture. Nancy leaned back in her chair, flexed her cramped fingers and welcomed the assurance of the small service revolver pressing against her lower back.

Sergeant Nancy Appleby of the Stevens Point, Wisconsin police force had been on the Blackthorn campus for two weeks and had made no progress in identifying the rapist. She’d enrolled in two classes and moved into a small off-campus walk-up, attracting little attention.

Only two persons in Trillium, Minnesota knew her true identity, and why she was there: the president of the college, Joan Williams, who also happened to be Nancy’s favorite aunt; and Lucy Washington, an officer with the college police department. The president had sought outside help to solve a string of rapes because she believed that not only was the security of campus women at stake, so was the future of the college. On leave from her own department, Nancy registered for classes as Nancy Crane, assuming her grandmother’s maiden name.

Book Information

Title: The Unmasking
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Publisher: B&B Publishing
Length: 87,000 words, 375 pages
Tropes: Lady cop, Undercover Detective, college campus, small town
ASIN B00IDVB6KQ

BLURB

Is anthropology professor Matt Bayfield the Blackthorn College rapist, or a potential ally? Aloof and unapproachable, Matt has academic ambitions. He can’t escape Blackthorn College soon enough, and he doesn’t want any entanglements to slow down his exit.

Nancy Appleby would like nothing more than to solve the string of campus rape cases before Thanksgiving so she can go home. The last thing she wants is a relationship to complicate her life—but she’ll settle for a fling, especially when the sex sizzles.

The stalker has his own carefully crafted timetable, with a special date just for Nancy. Can Matt and Nancy force him out of his hidey-hole before it’s too late?

WHAT REVIEWERS ARE SAYING

5 Stars, Amazon reviewer Rochelle: “They got me! I didn’t figure it out!”

5 Stars, Amazon reviewer Wendy: “wonderfully told, suspenseful, erotic romance”

BUY LINK

On SALE for $0.00 throughout October

Available on Kindle Unlimited

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IDVB6KQ/

Will Natalie dare to make her move? #MFRWSteam #EroticRomance #LGBTQ

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Welcome to the MFRW Steam Hop,
where the authors of Marketing for Romance Writers
entice you with steamy excerpts from their erotic romance stories.

Scroll to the end for more of this week’s tempting excerpts.

For this month’s steam, I’m sharing from my forthcoming sapphic short story, Accidental Contact.

EXCERPT

Groggily, Natalie peeked at the red numerals on the hotel clock. Midnight—they’d only been in bed for an hour.

Her eyes blinked wide open. There was a hand on her breast. She wiggled her fingers. The hand was definitely not hers. She held her breath, taking stock of her situation.

Steady breathing warmed the back of her neck. She was in danger of becoming intoxicated with Bridgette’s scent. She squirmed her bottom only to discover something solid—Bridgette’s torso, curved around hers. Fortunately, they were about the same height.

Natalie couldn’t discern whether Bridgette was awake or if she was sleepwalking in bed. She rechecked the clock. It had taken her nearly five minutes to assess her situation, and she still wasn’t sure what was happening. Her breathing faltered. She did know her nipples were growing incredibly restless.

Shutting her eyelids, she withdrew into her body to concentrate on one particular nipple. The one Bridgette’s thumb lay within an inch of.

Careful not to move any other part of her body, Natalie placed her hand over Bridgette’s. Natalie tensed, but Bridgette didn’t jerk away. The breathing on the tiny hairs of her neck remained steady.

Cautiously, Natalie moved their hands lower until Bridgette’s fingers curled around her boob. Arching back her neck, Natalie encouraged those fingers to curl tighter around the silk fabric concealing her breast. Reflexively, she nestled her butt closer to Bridgette, and Bridgette’s body undulated slightly, responding to the accidental contact.

Natalie lay for long minutes not daring to move. She tried to calm raging emotions. Finally, she resorted to breathing in tandem with Bridgette. That worked. She relaxed a bit.

She became keenly aware of Bridgette’s breasts crushed against her back. She blinked—they must’ve been there all along. She’d been so needy about her own breasts she hadn’t even noticed Bridgette’s. Where was Bridgette’s other hand? Without turning to look, Natalie decided it must be somewhere on the pillow above her head.

The room had suddenly turned incredibly hot. Natalie smacked her lips. Taking great care not to disturb Bridgette’s side of the covers, she inched the blankets down nearly to her waist. The cooler air did nothing to quell the fire raging inside her.

BOOK INFORMATION

Accidental Contact, By Adriana Kraft
Release date: November 3, 2023
Genre: Erotic Romance
Length: Short Story
Pairing: FF
Tropes: Cougar Story, New York City, Snowbound, Just One Bed

 

BLURB

Natalie and the much younger Bridgette are real estate agents who’ve often traveled together for business seminars. Now they’re snowbound in New York City in a hotel room with only one bed. Will Natalie dare to make her move?

RELEASE DATE NOVEMBER 3, 2023

PRE-ORDER NOW AVAILABLE

Universal Book Link

https://books2read.com/u/47djkE

 

CLICK ON THE LINKS TO TRAVEL TO MORE STEAMY EXCERPTS

Who will be the next victim? #SnippetSunday #SnipSun #WeekendWritingWarriors #RomanticSuspense #Sale #99cents #MFRWAuthors

by

Whose mask will crumble first—
the enigmatic professor of Celtic Studies,
the undercover cop masquerading as a co-ed,
or the campus stalker,
biding his time to strike again?

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday, the weekly hop for everyone who loves to write – and read!
Click on the graphics to travel to the other snippets.

                                        

It’s October – time for something scary! My romantic suspense novel The Unmasking is on sale for $0.99 for the entire month of October. The story opens on Samhain/Halloween and has a truly creepy villain. Today’s ten sentences are the opening of chapter one…

EXCERPT

Who will be the next victim?

Nancy Appleby scanned the co-eds in the small lecture hall. Each could be his next prey. Each looked much younger than she remembered being as a full-time student. Each woman hung on Professor Bayfield’s well crafted words.

Was it the topic, Celtic Myths and Rituals, or was it the aloofness of the tall, dark-haired lecturer with the strong protruding chin that mesmerized? He did command attention. Although his tone was mild, Bayfield played with his audience like a polished actor. Clearly he was in control. Though he gestured but rarely, he moved like an athlete, comfortable in his body.

Book Information

Title: The Unmasking
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Publisher: B&B Publishing
Length: 87,000 words, 375 pages
Tropes: Lady cop, Undercover Detective, college campus, small town
ASIN B00IDVB6KQ

BLURB

Is anthropology professor Matt Bayfield the Blackthorn College rapist, or a potential ally? Aloof and unapproachable, Matt has academic ambitions. He can’t escape Blackthorn College soon enough, and he doesn’t want any entanglements to slow down his exit.

Nancy Appleby would like nothing more than to solve the string of campus rape cases before Thanksgiving so she can go home. The last thing she wants is a relationship to complicate her life—but she’ll settle for a fling, especially when the sex sizzles.

The stalker has his own carefully crafted timetable, with a special date just for Nancy. Can Matt and Nancy force him out of his hidey-hole before it’s too late?

WHAT REVIEWERS ARE SAYING

5 Stars, Amazon reviewer Rochelle: “They got me! I didn’t figure it out!”

5 Stars, Amazon reviewer Wendy: “wonderfully told, suspenseful, erotic romance”

BUY LINK

On SALE for $0.00 throughout October

Available on Kindle Unlimited

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IDVB6KQ/

“I can still turn heads at 59…” #EroticRomance #LGBTQ #LaterInLife #MFRWAuthors

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Picture this: The year is 2006. You’re a bisexual woman in your late fifties, and your only significant love relationship was with a woman who died of cancer four years ago. What does your future hold? What do you hope for?

I thought it was time to give Claire Johnson her moment to shine. She was interviewed last spring…

Interview

Name: Claire Johnson
Nickname: The one I sometimes hear whispered? The Ice Queen.
Age: 59
Gender: Female
Birthplace: Manhattan
Profession: Sex Educator? Marketing Expert? I co-direct a center whose goal is to help others of all ages, from all walks of life, safely discover and enjoy the many gifts of sexual pleasure in their lives. It was my first job after college, and I do whatever’s required to advance our purpose.

Please provide a physical description of yourself.

Thank you for asking – call me vain if you like, but I’m really proud of the fact that I can still turn heads at age 59. I’m a tall trim blonde, and yes, I do touch up my hair color a tad. I used to keep a severe short hairstyle, but I’ve let it grow out a bit. By now I can rely on my presence and my stature to intimidate when I need to. Did I mention trim? I work out and I watch what I eat.

What are your pronouns?

She/Her. That’s never wavered; I’m pleased there are more options now than when I was young, though.

What is your middle name?

I don’t have one.

Do you believe in love at first sight?

No. At least, it’s never happened to me. I’ve only ever had one love, and she left our Center eight years ago and cut off all contact. She died of cancer four years later, and I barely learned in time to get to her funeral. Our open relationship was complex but profound and deep, but I’d never say I fell in love with her at first sight. She was the one who pursued me.

What is your MBTI type?

Wow. It’s been a long time since I took that test, for some team building we were doing at the Center several years back. I remember getting pissed off at some of the questions – nothing in life is dichotomous, either/or, and I hated having to choose when neither was quite right. But I really can’t argue with the type that surfaced: ESTJ. I’m definitely an extrovert, which places me well to schmooze with potential donors and drum up funds for the Center. I’m extremely organized and analytical, quick to assess when something might be useful for Center goals and take advantage of it. No one would ever accuse me of being touchy-feely. It’s not that I don’t have emotions, but I learned long ago how to keep them under wraps so they wouldn’t interfere with my goals. And yes, quick to judge and make decisions…even if they’re wrong sometimes.

Do you enjoy dressing up or prefer to dress casually?

You truly want to know this? I’m most comfortable being fully nude, and I love the privacy of my Manhattan condo. Even so, I’ll often wear a silky coverup or lounge dress, especially during the winter. When I go out? Classic and stylish, however formal or casual. I can still rock a little black dress and love to circulate among our donors at fund raisers.

What color best describes you?

I’ve never thought about that. I wear a lot of blue, both pale and jewel toned. I think it sets off my blue eyes and blonde hair nicely, so yes, blue, but never a sad blue. Plus I suppose blue would go with Ice Queen. I might have left the impression I don’t like that nickname, but secretly, it’s something I’ve cultivated. Or perhaps not so secretly, by now.

Who is the one person who can convince you to do something you know you shouldn’t?

I used to think there wasn’t anyone. But ever since Melissa Hopkins (now Hopkins-Gage) joined our center, she qualifies. She’s a full three decades younger than I am, but what an effervescent bundle of energy! Very creative, and just as dedicated to our purpose as myself. I have to add that everything she talked me into turned out to be exactly what I needed, but every single time I was convinced otherwise. For example, she’s the one who convinced me to go back on camera for our videos on sex and aging. That changed my life—but I’m not allowed to give you spoilers!

If you could choose a theme song to play when you entered a scene, which one of the following would fit best:

LOL Been there, done that – in book one of this series, Smoldering Passion. The perfect song for me? I’m a child of the sixties: Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman.” Readers who missed book one might want to go back and catch that sexy scene. It’s another example of something Melissa persuaded me to do…

~

My thanks to Kayelle Allen at the Romance Lives Forever blog for these marvelous interview questions and her permission to re-blog the interview.

Ripening Passion by Adriana Kraft
Genre: Erotic Romance
Book heat level (based on movie ratings): R

BUY LINK

Universal Buy Link

https://books2read.com/u/4D82BP

Book Blurb:

Can Max melt the Ice Queen? Should he even try?

Claire Johnson’s dedication to sex—the cornerstone of her career—led her to help found the Center for Sexuality and Sex Practices. Now in her fifties, she knows the Center must keep pace with the rapidly growing Baby Boomer market, so she agrees to go back on camera for a series on sex and aging. But work with her nemesis?

Former English Professor Max Wilson has championed the cause of the Center ever since his now deceased wife sought the Center’s help to rekindle the nearly extinguished sexual flames of their relationship. He loves working on camera and welcomes the challenge to perform with the svelte but icy temptress.

Sparks fly immediately on and off camera. The jury is out on whether either Max or Claire can transform those sparks into a fire of sexual desire for their viewers—let alone for each other.

On Tour: The King’s Command, by Rosemary Hayes @HayesRosemary #BookReview #HistoricalFiction #Huguenots #LouisXIV #BlogTour #TheCoffeePotBookClub

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Book Information 

Book Title: The King’s Command: For God or Country
Author: Rosemary Hayes
Publication Date: July 3rd, 2023
Publisher: Sharpe Books
Page Length: 415
Genre: Historical Fiction

Blurb:

Sixteen-year-old Lidie Brunier has everything; looks, wealth, health and a charming suitor, but there are dark clouds on the horizon. Lidie and her family are committed Huguenots, and Louis XIV has sworn to stamp out this ‘false religion’ and make France a wholly Catholic country. Gradually Lidie’s comfortable life starts to disintegrate as Huguenots are stripped of all rights and the King sends his brutal soldiers into their homes to force them to become Catholics. Others around her break under pressure, but Lidie and her family refuse to convert. With spies everywhere and the ever-present threat of violence, they struggle on. Then a shocking betrayal forces Lidie’s hand and her only option is to try and flee the country, a decision that brings unimaginable hardship, terror and tragedy and changes her life forever.

“One of the very best historical novels I have ever read.” Sandra Robinson, Huguenot Ancestry Expert

Buy Links: 

This title is available to read with #KindleUnlimited.
Universal Link: https://books2read.com/u/bW6zGG
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CB4RH68S
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Kings-Command-God-Country-ebook/dp/B0CB4RH68S/
Amazon AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/Kings-Command-God-Country-ebook/dp/B0CB4RH68S/
Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/Kings-Command-God-Country-ebook/dp/B0CB4RH68S/

Review

Do you have French Huguenot ancestors? If so, have any stories come down to you about their experience – what they endured, why they chose the risk of leaving France, how they decided to come to the country where they eventually settled? My answer to the first question is yes, but the scant information that was passed down through family stories and recorded over a century ago turns out to contain many errors. I blogged about my own Huguenot history yesterday and hope you will take a peek at it: https://wp.me/p9O7pv-3sP

In The King’s Command, author Rosemary Hayes has brought us a thoroughly researched and detailed account of life for one Huguenot family in southwestern France. Her story opens in 1680, some five years before King Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes and required all protestants to convert to Catholicism: “One king, one country, one religion.” That the family are her direct ancestors and she has been able to visit the French town where they lived has added greatly to the richness and veracity of her fictionalized account.

I especially appreciated the author’s careful parsing of each step of the transition from respected freely worshipping tradesmen and professionals to a persecuted minority with no rights to property, profession, freedom of religion, or even life itself that took place in France over the decade of the 1680s and beyond.

The persecution and exodus were not a single event, although the crisis peaked in 1685. By opening her novel five years earlier, the author has succeeded in conveying  not only the gradual escalation of attacks and curtailment of rights that preceded the revocation, but also how news traveled, how families learned what was happening to others like them, how they first attempted to protect themselves and their assets, and how they began to consider whether to stay or flee. The peril and travails of her family in their escape is a story shared by thousands, many of whom did not make it.

The novel is well written, engaging, and rich with accurate historical detail. I found it easy to imagine my own ancestors, likely in a different region of France, gradually learning and observing those same changes and weighing their options as the depredations and dangers increased and came closer to home. A highly recommended read.  Adriana Kraft

About Rosemary Hayes:

Rosemary Hayes has written over fifty books for children and young adults. She writes  in different genres, from edgy teenage fiction (The Mark), historical fiction (The Blue Eyed Aborigine and Forgotten Footprints), middle grade fantasy (Loose Connections, The Stonekeeper’s Child and Break Out)  to chapter books for early readers and texts for picture books. Many of her books have won or been shortlisted for awards and several have been translated into different languages.

Rosemary has travelled widely but now lives in South Cambridgeshire. She has a background in publishing, having worked for Cambridge University Press before setting up her own company Anglia Young Books which she ran for some years. She has been a reader for a well-known authors’ advisory service and runs creative writing workshops for both children and adults.

Rosemary has recently turned her hand to adult fiction and her historical novel ‘The King’s Command’ is about the terror and tragedy suffered by the French Huguenots during the reign of Louis XIV.

Author Links:

Website: https://www.rosemaryhayes.co.uk

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HayesRosemary

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rosemary-Hayes/e/B00NAPAPZC

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/80106.Rosemary_Hayes

Tour Schedule Page:  https://thecoffeepotbookclub.blogspot.com/2023/08/blog-tour-the-kings-command-by-rosemary-hayes.html

Huguenot Ancestry and a New Historical Novel #HistoricalFiction #FrenchHuguenots #MyStory #MFRWAuthors @HayesRosemary

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Tomorrow, I will host and review The King’s Command by Rosemary Hayes, a lovely new historical fiction novel. Her story traces the experience of her French Protestant ancestors in the late 1600s, during the period of King Louis XIV’s persecution and his revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

Reading that story, which is backed by her careful historical research, filled in a host of details about what my own ancestors must have experienced in that same time period. I wanted to place my review in that context, but once I jumped down the genealogical rabbit hole, I gathered so much material that I decided to share my own story as a separate blog post. I hope you’ll come back tomorrow for the author’s post and my review.

I did not learn of my Huguenot ancestry until early adulthood, when my mother began looking into her genealogy and discovered that the original immigrant in her father’s line had fled persecution in France and arrived in the colony of Pennsylvania in 1752. Her source (in that era, before the internet) was a story that had been handed down through the family and published in a county “genealogical history” in 1898 – some five generations after the ancestor arrived.

The published account stated that her ancestor’s father had “suffered death for conscience’ sake” and the mother had fled to Switzerland with her three sons, who subsequently embarked for the colonies after their mother’s death. The brother who is my ancestor was well educated and quickly found work teaching in an academy.

In the middle 1700s, upon disembarking in Philadelphia, all immigrants on shipboard were required to come ashore, swear allegiance to King George II, and sign a document declaring their allegiance.  My husband and I were privileged to view a facsimile of the brothers’ three signatures on that declaration in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. many years ago, corroborating at least that component of the information that had come to us.

Not having studied history sufficiently by then to know any better, I naively assumed they’d fled France when the Edict of Nantes was revoked. But the dates don’t fit – the revocation was in 1685, and they didn’t arrive in Pennsylvania until nearly seventy years later.

More recent research on the internet shows that in the 1720s, when the three brothers were born, the family in fact lived in Hesse-Kassel, then a Calvinist region of Germany to which many Huguenots fled after the revocation. Genealogical resources have taken me no further back than the birth of their father, also born in that region of Germany.

The records do confirm that their father met an early death: he died in 1735 at age 34. I have the location of his death, but so far I’ve been unable to get behind the mystery of how he died. Was he fighting in a war? The war of Polish Succession (1733-35) involved the Rhineland, about 150 miles south of where he lived. Perhaps he was called up to serve in that war and campaigned in the siege of Phillipsburg. Did he die of natural causes? An accident? Since he lived in protestant Germany, it seems unlikely he himself died from religious persecution.

Where in France the family originated is also still a mystery to me. The protestant communities of France were largely concentrated in southern and western France. Many of those who settled in Hesse-Kassel and nearby regions of Germany were from regions near Lyon, in the eastern part of southern France. They typically came first through Switzerland, which was inundated with new refugees, and thence to the protestant regions of Germany.

What I now suspect is that elements of the story that was published in 1898 are true, but that they became conflated and condensed in time by the five generations that passed the story down. Quite possibly an original ancestor was killed in France at some time during the persecution and turmoil of the 1680s. If the family did in fact live in southeastern France, the survivors probably did flee first to Switzerland, and thence to the Calvinist communities in Hesse-Kassel, where it appears they and their descendants remained until the 1750s.

In summary, the stories that have come to me offer no detail of what my ancestors did for a living in France, what they experienced across the decade of the 1680s, what event precipitated their choice to leave (an act that was forbidden and punishable by imprisonment, enslavement, or death), and how they managed their escape into Germany. The book I will review tomorrow is a welcome window into what they may have gone through.

~ ~ ~ ~

For those of you who have Huguenot ancestors, whether or not they settled in Germany, I highly recommend this virtual museum:

https://museeprotestant.org/

You can select whether to access its resources in English, French, or German. It offers what it calls “tours” – collections of articles following specific topics, most of which also include historical photos and often maps (as below).

Some sample tour titles:

The Rise of Protestantism in France

The Huguenot Refugees

The Huguenot Refuge in England


Photo credit: MuseeProtestant.org