Adriana Kraft

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#Review: 1066 Turned Upside Down #HistoricalFiction #Midieval #BattleofHastings @AnnieWHistory @HelenHollick

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On my side of the pond, the history lessons I grew up with were woefully inadequate when it came to England. My college Western Civ history began with the Renaissance, as though nothing that came before either was known or would have mattered. I knew nothing about the Norman Conquest or the tribes and kingdoms that had preceded it across the British Isles.

I’ve been filling this gap in the last few years with marvelous history and historical fiction by, among others, Annie Whitehead and Helen Hollick. Annie Whitehead’s Alvar the Kingmaker, suspenseful and rich with cultural details, brings us up to the accession of Æthelred the Unready (978-1016). And Æthelred’s second wife, Queen Emma (984-1052), comes alive in Helen Hollick’s engaging The Forever Queen. It is Emma’s son, Edward the Confessor, whose lack of offspring sets the stage for the Norman invasion of 1066 – and it is Emma’s grand nephew, William the Conqueror, who ultimately won the Battle of Hastings, now being turned upside down in fiction.

So I was intrigued a while back as I scrolled through my morning Triberr posts to discover the title 1066 Turned Upside Down, then further thrilled to realize I was familiar with some of its authors. It takes a special talent to make history come alive, and the nine authors who’ve contributed to this work have succeeded marvelously.

The book is organized chronologically and examines nine turning points in the autumn of 1066, any one of which could easily have led to a different outcome. Each chapter creates a compelling narrative of that different outcome and its consequences.

The stories make great reading, and I was struck that they would be an excellent resource for middle school or high school students to soak up the history that hangs by a thread. But they are also delightful reading at any age. The players were already familiar to me though my earlier reading, and I was entertained and intrigued to explore their actions and motivations at each twist of the story.

Amazon Buy Link:

https://amazon.com/1066-Turned-Upside-Down-Alternative-ebook/dp/B01I1V7G42/

With a forward by C. C. Humphreys, the book brings us stories by the following authors:

Joanna Courtney

Helen Hollick

Annie Whitehead

Anna Belfrage

Alison Morton

Carol McGrath

Eliza Redgold

G.K. Holloway

Richard Dee

HEA for Everyone #LGBTQ+ #Romance #Giveaway #IndieAuthor #LoveTriangle

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Below, I’m publishing a blog post that was originally scheduled at author Tina Donahue’s Sweet ‘n Sexy Divas blog for this morning. We’re running into some Blogger-related difficulties, so the post isn’t up yet, and I’m running it here so loyal readers can enter the Rafflecopter.

Without further ado, here’s the original post.

Sweet ‘n Sexy Divas Blog Post

Good morning! I’m half of the writing duo Adriana Kraft, and I’ll be with you on the 15th of every month for the coming year. Tina Donahue has invited me to expand the LBGTQ+ offerings here at Sweet ‘n Sexy Divas.

Most of the erotic romance my husband and I co-author features either bisexual women or lesbian women. We write these pairings for two main reasons. As parents of a gay son and grandparents of a non-binary adult, we believe that love is love, and any gender pairing deserves happiness in love. We also write these pairings for their eroticism. Erotic romance readers (of whatever gender) are seeking fantasies that expand their horizons and amp up the voltage of arousal.

In particular, just as women have been flocking to stories of hot male bodies in gay romances, men often fantasize about being with two women, or seeing two women together. Since my husband and I write as a married cisgender couple, we like to write stories that might appeal to both halves of other couples like us.

There are a wide range of LBGTQ+ pairings and combinations that we do not currently write, so some months I’ll be featuring other authors whose works I’ve read and liked. This will bring us gay male romance (by both female and male authors) and transgendered romance, among others. The “Q+” designation includes a great variety of orientations and combinations that don’t necessarily have much in common other than that they depart from what so long was considered “normal.” Through the range of books and issues we showcase each month, we hope to contribute to normalizing love across the entire spectrum of the LGBTQ+ rainbow.

Be sure to stop by in a month, on November 15th, when we’ll hear from multi-award-winning author Rick R. Reed. He’ll share with us about his latest release, The Impossible Childhood of My Desires.

This month I’m highlighting one of our own favorites. The Reunion, released in 2014, was the winner of that year’s Bi Writers Association Book Award for Bisexual Erotic Fiction. Across the LGBTQ+ books we’ve written, we explore many of the possible Happily Ever Afters sought by bisexual women. For some, happiness is a monogamous relationship with one partner, of either gender. Others find partners with whom they can have an open relationship, often called ethical consensual non-monogamy. Committed polyamory is a third option, and it’s the one featured in The Reunion.

Be sure to scroll to the Rafflecopter contest at the end of this post and enter for your chance to win a copy of The Reunion!

BUY LINK

https://www.amazon.com/Reunion-Adriana-Kraft-ebook/dp/B00F30CTLK

Always free to read at Kindle Unlimited

BLURB

A dark and brooding bad boy,

his petite Latina lover,

and his unattainable former high school crush ~

a sizzling, combustible threesome.

Dark and brooding, Adam Granger was always the bad boy out of reach—but now he’s in Sarah Atkinson’s bed, the morning after their twentieth high school reunion. When Adam beats a retreat to his Pacific Palisades estate, former good girl Sarah throws caution to the wind and pursues him.

Petite copper-skinned Maria Ramirez greets Sarah at Adam’s front door. The former exotic dancer doesn’t challenge Sarah’s assumption she’s the maid—how long will it take the dark-haired beauty to figure out Maria is Adam’s live-in lover? Better yet, how long before Maria can entice her into their bed?

Determined not to rock his hard-won lifestyle, Adam resolves to push Sarah past her sexual limits so she’ll leave. When she stays, he watches helplessly as the two women fall in love with each other. Will they shut him out? And, if they let him in, what must he sacrifice?

EXCERPT

Maria opened Adam’s office door quietly and entered, bringing him a second cup of coffee. She placed it on his desk. “Are you okay?”

Heaving his shoulders and avoiding direct eye contact, he nodded. “Sure, why not?”

“I could think of a few reasons.”

His gaze settled on hers.

She witnessed pain before he was able to hide it.

“How was she?”

“Succulent.” Maria wasn’t going to lie. “You know, like when you take the first bite of lobster soaked in butter. It is so scrumptious you’re not sure you dare take a second bite for fear it will disappoint. That’s Sarah.”

A flash of emotion flickered across Adam’s face before he muttered, “I know. But you took a chance and went back for more. So will you take her from me?”

Startled, Maria chose her words carefully. “You’ve done little to hold onto her, if that’s what you want.”

“I took her slow,” he said, defensively.

“Right. Even then you threw it back in her face by leaving her bed.” 

ABOUT ADRIANA KRAFT

Adriana Kraft is the pen name for a married pair of retired professors writing erotic romance together. We like to think we’ve broken the mold for staid, fusty academics, and we hope lots of former profs are enjoying life as much as we are.

Having lived in many states across the Midwest, we now make our home in southern Arizona, where we enjoy hiking, golf, and travel, especially to the many Arizona Native American historical sites.

Together we have published more than fifty romance novels and novellas to outstanding reviews. We love hearing from readers at [email protected], and here is our website:

When It’s Time to Heat Things Up https://adrianakraft.com

STALKER LINKS:

Blog: https://adrianakraft.com/blog

Newsletter: free download of our erotic romance novella Cherry Tune-Up for signing up.

Twitter https://twitter.com/AdrianaKraft

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adriana.kraft.5

FaceBook Fan Page https://www.facebook.com/AdrianaKraftAuthor

Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/author/adrianakraft

GoodReads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1578571.Adriana_Kraft

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/kraftadriana/

BookBub https://www.bookbub.com/authors/adriana-kraft

Extasy Books Page https://www.extasybooks.com/adriana-kraft

a Rafflecopter giveaway

On My #Bookshelf: Lilac Girls, by Martha Hall Kelly #WWII #TrueStory #HistoricalNovel #Review

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I was a very young teenager when my mother took me to see the documentary movie Mein Kampf. I’ve never been able to erase those visuals, black and white photographs of concentration camp victims. That was my mother’s point: We must never forget.

Perhaps for that reason, though I choose to read a lot of history and historical novels, I’m never thrilled to encounter Nazi horror up close on the pages I’m reading. I don’t wish to experience it again.

I picked up Lilac Girls on the recommendation of a good friend.

I made it through the early segments – the invasion of Poland, Caroline Ferriday’s work with refugees in New York City, the early violence against Jews in Germany. I set the book down when the narrative placed the German female doctor – Herta Oberheuser – in Ravensbrück. I didn’t want to go there.

When I told my friend, she said to keep reading, that it would be worth it.

And it was. Through the horror, in spite of the appalling devastation and loss, this is a story about redemption. And it is a true story, fleshed out with the author’s narrative of the main characters’ internal thoughts and reactions.

Through tracing the actions (and probable thoughts) of real characters New York socialite Caroline Ferriday and Herta Oberheuser, then weaving them with the narrative of the fictional polish teenager Kasia Kuzmerick, the author plunges us into the horror of the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp for Women.

Fast forward the narrative to the mid-fifties, after the war is over. I was unaware this story was real until I began to read about the role of Norman Cousins, editor of The Saturday Review. My family subscribed to that magazine, and through my early adulthood, I did, as well.

At that point I set down the book again and began chasing links online – yes, true story, impacted by people I “knew,” though not personally. Caroline Ferriday enlisted the help of Norman Cousins and his platform to raise funds to bring thirty five of the Ravensbrück survivors to the US for whatever corrective surgery was possible. In so doing, she was continuing a family legacy of political and charitable activism. Since the publication of Lilac Girls, author Martha Hall Kelly has released two additional books, chronicling the role of Caroline Ferriday’s ancestors during WWI (Lost Roses) and the Civil War (Sunflower Sisters). I highly recommend all three books.

“It’s wick!” An Old Favorite #childhoodmemories #Booklover #Reader #BookAddict

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“There’s lots o’ dead wood as ought to be cut out,” Dickon said. “An’ there’s a lot o’ old wood, but it made some new last year. This here’s a new bit,” and he touched a shoot which looked brownish green instead of hard, dry gray.

Mary touched it herself in an eager, reverent way. “That one?” she said. “Is that one quite alive?”

Dickon curved his wide smiling mouth. “It’s as wick as you or me.”

Okay, confession time – do you ever, when you’re pruning and unintentionally clip off a branch that’s green, say “Oh! That one’s wick!”

I was trimming back our Oleander so it wouldn’t brush against the house when we get strong monsoon winds. There were several live branches I intended to cut back, but then when I was cleaning up its final shape, I accidentally cut a branch that had a bloom on it. And there came the words, unbidden, from my childhood.

The Secret Garden. I’ve no idea how old I was when I first read it, but it’s still vivid to me. I wanted to run wild in those Yorkshire moors, I wanted to be any of those three children, and most especially, I yearned to have my own “bit of earth” to garden.

That final wish, my mother in her wisdom granted, to my younger sister and me. A plot of downhill slope, in the corner behind the shed and beside the chicken yard, maybe thirty feet by sixty. She let us fill it with seedlings from anyplace we could find them. We created a path, lined it with boxwood seedlings, planted iris when Mother broke up the corms from her flower beds in the fall, planted a mimosa seedling, and even found a paper mulberry sapling by the old corncrib that we transplanted partway down the slope. Later there were daylilies and a rose arbor.

Fast forward three or four decades, and my youngest son, aged about 11 at the time, was cast in the role of the invalid Colin in our local community theater’s production of The Secret Garden. Proud moment. Clearly the garden (no longer quite so secret) is still with me.

What childhood books have enchanted you long into adulthood? Curious minds want to know.

HookUps ~ First Swinging date for a mid-life couple! #Sale #TBT #Backlist #MFRWAuthor @extasybooks

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…so life happens, and I missed TBT yesterday, but meanwhile, with our car in the shop so long, I got to drive a hot fire-engine red Mustang for a couple days!

Better late than never, here’s our Throw Back Thursday post for a backlist book:

Swinging Games: Hookups

Do you ever fantasize about what it might be like to be in the swing lifestyle? We think lots of couples have this fantasy without ever taking the plunge and getting involved, and that’s part of why we’ve written an entire series about it. Swinging Games, with fifteen novellas, is the story of an empty-nest couple who get curious and decide to try it out. The series is a safe way for wanna-be’s to dip their toes in and find out more. A great way to feed those fantasies, even if they never lead any further!

We’ve visited several swing clubs and talked with lots of swingers, and they tell us our series is spot-on accurate about some of the best of what the lifestyle has to offer. Hook Ups is our fictional couple’s first date in the lifestyle – the first time they have a sexual adventure with another couple. We should add that first “dates” don’t always lead to play – often couples who’ve decided to meet plan a “meet and greet” first, to figure out if they’ll really want to get up close and personal. Fortunately for our couple, the answer this time is yes.

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Friends with benefits – a brand new world opens up for Jen and Brett Andrews in the enticing but unpredictable world of swinging. Will Pam and Rick be all they’ve hoped for? Will Tom and Linda disappear after chatting them up? What about Carl and Alice? Fantasies and new hookups fuel the fire of lust and excitement, but what will happen to their marriage?

EXCERPT

Trying to keep the obvious lust from his eyes, Brett nodded and smiled at Linda, who was eyeing him boldly over her wineglass. She sipped her wine and shuddered slightly as the liquid slid over her palate. Brett’s breathing tightened when she chuckled softly and set the glass down on the table.

“We’re glad you agreed to meet us on rather short notice.” Linda’s white teeth glistened and her dark eyes snapped. “Sometimes good things can come from cancellations.”

“That was lucky for us,” Brett said. “I can’t even recall the names of the couple that bailed on us. Pictures don’t do you guys justice.” He knew that must sound like a hackneyed line, but he meant every word. Even attired modestly in a blue blouse and black slacks, Linda projected that confident sexy air that never ceased to arouse him. She glowed a mixture of eroticism and exoticism that was nearly spellbinding.

He reached down and briefly squeezed his wife’s fingers, which had been doing a tap dance on his inner thigh—their sign that this was a couple with whom she wanted to play. Stifling a chuckle, he blew a kiss at her. They hadn’t even been served yet. Sometimes Jen could be quick with her judgments, but then there’d been little doubt since their first contact on the swing site that they’d want to play with the couple from Louisville. It still wasn’t clear if the chocolate-skinned female and her tanned husband would want to play with them, but Brett sure hoped so.

BUY LINKS

On Sale at Extasy Books

$2.40 https://www.extasybooks.com/hook-ups

It’s easy to download Extasy books to your Kindle. “Send to Kindle” instructions are at the top of the page at the Extasy Facebook Reader Group, Book Carousel. While you’re there, we’d love to have you join us—theme days, author events, games, prizes, plus a chance to get to know all the wonderful Extasy authors.

Other Retail Outlets

$4.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003XREY9A

$5.99 https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/hookups

8,000? 10,000? How much is enough, and why? #StayFit #Motivation #JustKeepWalking #CountingSteps #MFRWAuthor

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I know many of you – reader and author friends alike – are struggling with health issues and doing your best to stay healthy. I used to blog regularly about health-related issues and how to stay motivated. I never made a conscious decision to quit blogging about it, but life happened. New health challenges arose and I wasn’t as happy with what I was doing – or with the results, for that matter.

In 2015 I got diagnosed with blood glucose problems, leading to a makeover of our eating habits and even more pressure to keep up aerobic exercise. When that wasn’t sufficient and the threat of needing medications loomed, I took yet another class and learned about the role of strength training in managing blood glucose. Strong muscles pull the sugar out of the blood, even more effectively than an aerobic walk. I’m on it. Half an hour, two or three days a week. Most weeks. I’m not perfect…

Sometime around then I dropped back from 10,000 steps a day to 8,000, re-set my Fitbit goal, and was pretty satisfied with how that made me feel. In case you didn’t know, aerobic exercise, among other things, rewards our brains with dopamine and helps combat depression. I like how that feels.

Mr. Kraft is always on the lookout for news articles I might miss that could be helpful. Last week he sent me one whose headline I would probably never chase – it starts out PEOPLE WHO DO THIS ONE THING EVERY DAY… Those lead-ins always annoy me. But because he’d sent it, I kept reading. The rest of the headline reads, pretty much, HAVE HALF THE DEMENTIA RISK OF THE REST OF US.

He definitely had my attention. Both my mother and her father spent their last years lost to us in full blown dementia. If there’s anything I can reasonably do to prevent that future, I will. Major motivation.

The article actually reports scientific research that shows how the risk for dementia decreases with the increase in step count. Here’s the LINK, for those who’d like more detail. Benefits start to show up at about 3800 daily steps, reducing risk by 25%. Getting to 9800 steps daily reduces the risk by 50%. People who walk 30 minutes of those 10K daily steps at a brisk pace (about 110-112 steps a minute) reduce their risk even further, to 62%. So I timed myself for four minutes, and I’m a tad over that. Well and good. Lets do this!

Today is my father’s birthday. He lived to be 101, and he walked extra steps and climbed extra stairs whenever he could, until he became wheelchair bound toward the end. I think he’d be pleased with what I’m doing, and I’m pleased to be posting this and remembering him on his birthday.