Does this work? I'm trying... yes don't say it, I know, very trying...

 This is a sort of a test and a plea. Not for anything other than how does it read and what can you do when you see it?

 Sounds a bit weird?

It does to me, but I've been having problems posting on here, and getting it up for people to see...

So if you can see this...

please let me know... and what you can see

love Raven xx

Great Guest Tuesday with Megan Slayer and 10 things

What ten things? Read on to find out... 

10 Things You Should Know about Colt and Ashley from Christmas in Cedarwood! 

10. Ashley is a single father. 

 9. Colt runs the diner in Cedarwood. 

8. Colt and Ashley met when Colt overheard Ashley say the words “You’re gonna put that whole thing in your mouth?” 

 

7. Wyatt is Ashley’s biological son, fathered with his friend Danica. 

6. Colt was injured in an attempted robbery, yet he refused to close his diner. 

5. Ashley is an art teacher. 

4. Colt is a workaholic. 

3. Ashley and Colt have a secret love of kink and have a D/s relationship. 

2. Christmas is Ashley’s favorite time of year. 

1. Ashley loves old movies and named their dogs after the famous Hollywood couple, Liz and Dick (Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton).

Cedarwood Pride book 12

Contemporary LGBTQ Romance From Pride Publishing M/M, Anal Sex, Masturbation 

Two men, one kid and the frayed nerves that come with the holidays…can they make it through to Christmas without a blow-up? 

 Colt Harrison knew when he met Ashley Willis that he’d found the one man for him. 

He loves Ashley’s son, Wyatt, as if he were his own son. But the stress of living together, compounded with buying a home and adopting pets has worn him down…not to mention the aggravation that comes with the diner he owns. He wants to make Christmas special for his family, but how can they have a great holiday when Colt’s never home? 

Ashley’s got a two-week vacation from his job at the elementary school teaching art. All he wants is time with Colt and Wyatt. He loves Colt, but not the long hours spent at the diner, especially around the holidays. Can he be honest about what he wants from Colt and keep the man he loves? 

Anything is possible if they embrace the magic of Christmas. Available from: 

https://www.firstforromance.com/book/christmas-in-cedarwood https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KHNZTD6/ https://books2read.com/u/3n88O9 https://books.apple.com/us/book/christmas-in-cedarwood/id1534375839?mt=11&id=1534375839&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/christmas-in-cedarwood-megan-slayer/1127595482 https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/christmas-in-cedarwood-1

More about Megan Slayer! 

Megan Slayer, aka Wendi Zwaduk, is a multi-published, award-winning author of more than one-hundred short stories and novels. She’s been writing since 2008 and published since 2009. Her stories range from the contemporary and paranormal to LGBTQ and white hot themes. No matter what the length, her works are always hot, but with a lot of heart. She enjoys giving her characters a second chance at love, no matter what the form. She’s been nominated at the LRC for Best Author, Best Contemporary, Best Ménage, Best BDSM and Best Anthology. Her books have made it to the bestseller lists on Amazon.com. When she’s not writing, Megan spends time with her husband and son as well as three dogs and three cats. She enjoys art, music and racing, but football is her sport of choice. She’s an active member of the Friends of the Keystone-LaGrange Public library. Find out more about Megan and Wendi at: http://wendizwaduk.com/indexMegan.htm Sign up for the newsletter here: http://ymlp.com/xgjmjumygmgj Website, Blog, Fan Page, Amazon Author Page, Bookbub, Instagram, Goodreads, and Twitter

A Week in the Life...Of Raven-Katy-Kera....Welcome to this new year

Welcome to this new year...

Hello 2021

Happy New Year, everyone. Let's hope it gets better eh?

Wonder what I'll be nattering about as the year goes by? 

For a start, for the first time in I don't know how many years, The lovely hubby and I didn't stop up for 'the bells'. Whether it's because after 30-odd years we're now south of the border, on our own, we'd been up early to shop and walk, or just thought, sod it lets go and get some sleep, it will still be 2021 when we get up, whatever we do, I have no idea. Nevertheless, bed  and sleep it was and we woke up to 2021.

The weather this week has been a bit different, and unusual for us. Friends 'up north' are reporting snow and big minus figures in temp. Even relatives not more tan 50 or 60 miles away have the fluffy white stuff. 

Not us, and it's a novelty. 

Mind you we've had ice—oh boy have we had ice. I got twenty yards down the road and turned back the other day. Not much of a walk.

But then we've had this... cold, windy, and chasing the cobwebs away...

and this. 

High noon in Hornsea (East Riding of Yorkshire) 

And back to ice again...

Still no snow here though we are threatened with it. The benefits of living near the coast.

Also a change after 30-odd years.

We've upped sticks. Moved near the English coast. Having a house built, and living in a rental for now. And of course lots of things that would have been useful are in storage. Lots of things that we don't really need are here with us. I've got a bikini, a summer dress and a pair of ballet flats here but not my big overlarge cashmere sweater, tatty suede Uggs or fake fur, really warm, look like a cossack hat. 

Wishful thinking or 'oh hell, get stuff packed and throw the first things I find into a suitcase'?

Probably the latter. We did move in a rush. We went from let's renovate, start painting, put the house on the market next year maybe, to having sold, bought a house (or a house in the making) to finding somewhere to rent and moving in around three months. Which also meant multiple trips to the skip, and a mega downsizing. 

Traumatic. I mean those rat-eared slippers, which I don't ever wear are practically heirlooms! And who doesn't have five copies of the same book?

However, we did it, and I must say how good it is to have toasty warm rooms throughout.

I'm writing, and enjoying it. Perhaps the lack of me time whilst we got ready to move makes me appreciate it all the more? 

Whatever, I have a book out for the first four months of the year, which is fabulous. Well, it will be if people like them.

Jan—

no date  or cover as yet, watch this space—Kera Faire The Rescuer. A Death Isle Story. (Evernight Publishing)

Feb— 

9th A little Bit Cupid box set (For one night only)

and preorder Love by the Stroke of Midnight (The Island series)

and 23rd preorder The Daisy Chain

(all Totally Bound)

March—

23rd Love by The Stroke of Midnight

April—

6th The Daisy Chain

Good eh? I'm really pleased.

Better get cracking on with some stories for the rest of the year...

along with moving house, finding out we've three times as much furniture as we have room for—

deciding how to plan a garden—

planning what goes where in my new study—

Mind you we're only at the walls up, roof on, plastering being done stage so far, but I can dream. 

And enjoy this next chapter.

Speak to you all soon,

love Raven-Katy-Kera xxx

ah ok, Raven will do, you all know they are all me ...

Stay safe and take care xxx

The Gluten Free author's guide to yummy home cooking (as long as you keep your eyes shut)

I think it is, anyway.

Hi all, yes, I know long time no chat. It's been weird hasn't it, not going out socially distancing and so no nice places to chat about.

Actually I have to to chat about The Grove in Aukland, and Ma's Food, fish and fries in Napier, and Erik's in Queenstown and Wanaka, New Zealand. 

Yes, just before we all battened down the hatches we were in New Zealand, on the most amazing holiday. We got home two weeks before we began the stay at home. Those gluten free places were absolutely spot on. In fact Erik's only sells gluten free so you can imagine how brilliant that was...

Plus Voegel's g-f bread, as good as Warburton's and that's saying something.

Now, home in Scotland with eating out a fond memory, and my local Coop absolutely pulling the stops out (for the size of our village it's brilliant and the staff are great) and stocking as much as they possibly can, I can get all the basics needed but there are somethings I can't. Of course they are the things I really want (Schar Rich Tea/Marie biscuits and Nairns oat and fruit biscuit breaks, M&S Butter chicken curry and sausage rolls, Genius fruit loaf) However that means a 20 mile journey, and let's face it, they aren't exactly essential.

So I'm baking. Adapting recipes from Gluten full to gluten free, Making my own self raising flour (as I can only get plain gluten free flour here) and getting a lot of satisfaction out of it (and probably a lot of inches on the hips...)

The lovely hubby is of course taste testing. He did say why did I keep baking...I replied he didn't have to eat it... His reply was a sort of a 'you what?' look.

There's been a lot of hmmm is this better, or that, or... 
some failures, (first lot of pastry, no idea what went wrong, except it wasn't my usual flour) some not as good as others but in the main I've got it down to three favourite recipes, easy to make, and oh so easy to eat...

I'm not a pretty baker, but if you close your eyes as you eat the stuff...you can't see that can you?

Digestives (which I put currants into for the lovely hubby) this lot was a bit uneven, I have got better, just don't think to take a picture

Scones (and yes, my local Coop does have clotted cream...) and I make them small on purpose.

Banana Bread, which seems to be a lockdown staple in oh so many households.

I wanted to be able to add Maid of Honour buns in here—but the pastry still isn't up to scratch, must try harder.

The recipes for the Banana Bread and Digestives are both from a cookery book called Whitworth's Spice of Life, circa early fifties, that is stained lost its cover, and one of my most prized possessions. The recipes are all in pounds and ounces of course, and cooker temperature in Fahrenheit, but as I like using lbs and oz, and can translate heat to my Aga, that's fine by me. All I've done is substituted gluten free flour.

The Scone recipe is one I've fiddled with, because by trial and error we decided we wanted less salt than the recipe says. (also double the amount of xanthan gum as mine is shall we say somewhat aged...)

This week I'll be making my g-f batter for fish (flour and sparkling water), and I'm trying to make sultana cookies that are chewy not crunchy. No luck so far, but I will try again.

I'd love to try bread but...can you use yeast ten years out of date????

(Guess who mucked out the baking cupboard?)

Hopefully soon I'll be able to chat about places... until then, stay safe and happy eating,

love Raven xx

Leah-day-Saturday. A chance to catch up with Leah Bronsen and her latest great story, Shade Addiction

Hi all, 

I think this is just the thing to give your spirits a lift.

The lovely, and talented Leah Bronsen has a new book out... 

Ex-boxer Mike Logan struggles to put a brutal past behind and make ends meet as a bus driver. When a young runaway settles for an all-night ride, he seizes the chance to do a good deed—get her home safely. But first, they’ll drive around and talk.

What he doesn’t anticipate is that this broken night angel is also a sexy little minx needing a lot more…and not just the gentle kind.

**This is an expanded edition of the story previously featured in the anthology Passion, Pleasure, Pain in 2019**

#Dark #Erotic #Romance

Available from

Amazon.com / Amazon.uk / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / iBooks / Smashwords

Universal buy link

Put the book on your to-read shelf on Goodreads

 

 

Excerpt

She gives me a long, languorous look. I think I know what it means: She’s interested by my wild side. Dark attracts dark. She believes she’s found the same kind of fallen angel as she is, a soul mate.

Wrong, kiddo. What you need is someone good, not broken like me.

She reaches over the table to pat my chest. “So hard. Jesus. You definitely work out.”

Her touch sends electric sparks to my groin. My cock pulses. I push her hand away. “Don’t do that.”

“Why?”

“It’s inappropriate.”

“Why?”

I sigh. “I’m thirty-two, you’re what?”

“Nineteen.”

“Nineteen, that’s very young. I could easily be accused of taking advantage of you. Did you see how the waitress treated me?”

She crosses her arms underneath her boobs. “But I’m an adult, and I have boyfriends.”

“You have boyfriends.”

“Yeah.”

“Like, many?”

“Yeah.” She holds my gaze.

I don’t know why I had to make a deal of that.

She continues, “So, it’s not like I’d let anybody touch me if I didn’t want them to.”

“Well, I don’t want you to touch me. Let’s go.”

About the author

Lea Bronsen likes her reads hot, fast, and edgy, and strives to give her own stories the same intensity. After a deep dive on the unforgiving world of gangsters with her debut novel Wild Hearted, she divides her writing time between romantic suspenses, dark erotic romances, and crime thrillers.

Meet Lea Bronsen on

Website / Blog / Facebook / Twitter / BookBub / Instagram / Goodreads / Amazon

Happy reading,

Love Raven xx

Thoughts on clothes costs and those damned magazine features about so called affordable fashion...

My soap box is getting a lot of use at the moment. Am I getting stroppier in my old age, or am I just feeling vocal about things that annoy me? Probably a bit of both, to be honest.

I reckon I'm in one of those, you've got to be kidding me, why on earth am I wasting my time with this magazine/article/programme moods.

About what? 

Clothes. Accessories...And what some so called fashion writers call affordable, everyday wear. 

Only £420...$573...€350...or whatever. For an everyday item of clothing. Or a bag...pair of shoes... Yes well...

Am I the only one who think's thats not quite in their everyday affordable range? Who reads the articles and has to suppress the urge to throw said article across the room. Who would love an article where everyday is actually more of a let's go to the high street and chainstore and find something we can wear and not worry about getting curry, ink or whatever on it or ripping it? Because if it's fashionable now, it won't be next year.

Good quality items you can wear for years different. I've a few things in my wardrobe like that. Not all expensive either. One of my most worn and loved dresses was a sale bargain in a well know high street store. 
It cost me the princely sum of £1 around 10 years ago and is still going strong.

(No, it's not our house—I wish.) 

My favourite, everyday top was full price, around £7 years ago and is still worn a lot. Not going out, for a meal or whatever any more, but still very wearable.  I have trousers, jeans, skirts etc that still fit, still look good and weren't pricey. I hauled a pair of trousers out the other day. Lovely hubby did the 'hmm are they new stuff?' I giggled. I bought them at least 12 years ago, and they get hauled out every year.

I'll hold my hand up, I do have a few, more expensive items. The dress I bought to wear as mother of the bride...(Probably never to be worn again) A designer outlet handbag (that was from my lovely hubby, and only gets used when it isn't going to rain) A big midi length warm puffa-type coat...(worth every penny when several years ago we went to Iceland)...

I might not be typical, in that I work from home, and my everyday wear tends to be jeans or hippy skirts, flip flops in summer, trainers in winter, and whatever top I grab out of the wardrobe. Which is full of clothes...most of which are high street, and sale bargains.

What do you think? Do you like reading about stuff you'll never wear or afford, or just sometimes would you like an article that you can relate to?

Happy shopping,

love Raven xx

Dear British Airways, long haul, Gluten Free doesn't mean Bland and boring., and inedible.

Nor does it mean, vegan, vegetarian, low calorie, or any other special diet people follow.
Yes, of course people who can't eat gluten may also have to follow another diet, but, gluten free means exactly that. No more no less.
No wheat, barley, rye and in some cases (like me) oats. Change those round and you get no... BROW...
Easy eh?

You see British Airways, the thing is...I'd love to say BA-GF is Blooming Awesome-Great Food.

Sadly I can't. To me it's Blooming Awful-Grotty Food. 

Unless it's the London to Glasgow route and back. The food is excellent, some of the best GF airline food I've had. So you can do it...

Gluten Free does not have to be bland. There is more to a gf meal than overcooked flavourless chicken, soggy rice, overcooked and tasteless veg and wait for it...lettuce, lettuce, melon, melon, melon...

If other airlines can produce good tasty gf food, why can't you?

(Thank goodness for fizz)

Jet 2... excellent breakfast, lovely roast chicken dinner. 

Qantas...some of the best lamb chops I've ever tasted... A gorgeous tomato and bean soup...

Cathay Dragon...congee...Nice fruit...

I've eaten well on Virgin, KLM, Qatar...

Why, oh why, are you so lacking here? 

Recently we flew home from Hong Kong. 

The first course arrived. Salmon. Okay, it had no taste and came with enough lettuce for three meals, but still. Ohh, I thought things are looking up. I was soon disabused of that idea.

In the main, the choice of food put together on the plate was to be polite, interesting to say the least. In fact at one point the purser and I had a good laugh (it was that or cry) as we tried to decide what the lump of some white stuff was. To be rude, it looked like something the cat had sicked up. I think (though I can't be sure) it was egg white scrambled egg...It tasted of cardboard. This was served with soggy carrots, the inevitable soggy spinach and tasteless boiled potatoes. Why oh why? (sadly no photo as I didn't have my phone handy)

As an aside, how come potatoes for breakfast but not for dinner (you guess, the tasteless chicken came with spinach and soggy rice. There was a lot of lettuce as well.

The bread rolls... best to draw a veil over them. (at least they aren't stale rice cakes, but they were still inedible.)

And...mega moan, why do you not have a choice of gluten free meals to preorder in business or first?

We've paid the same price as other passengers in those seats. They get a choice. We get take it or leave it, and have no idea what we will be eating. 

Plus, it seems to me you're onto a good thing when whatever class you're in, you get the same gluten free meal. The other passengers don't, so why do we? And, to say, well, gf needs to be produced separately, is no good reason. Produce two options, say we need to preorder...

I doubt you'll read this, let alone answer, but I feel better getting it off my chest.

We're flying with you later in the year. Do you need a consultant on what is a cheap, easy and tasty gluten free meal? If so, I'm your woman.

And just to finish off, hows this for a pud?