15. August 2010 by admin.

           The water foamed and splashed as if more than one creature fought beneath the surface. Brianna stared through the sea spray, wiping her face with a tattered bit of fabric. She stared toward whatever swam beneath the surface. The sun glinted on something very odd. Emerald-green scales and a long, barbed tail curled just under the surface before the water clouded with a crimson hue.

“Is that blood?” Nia whispered.

“Aye. I think something has come to our aid.”

“I hope the beasties are no’ fighting over who gets to eat us.”

Brianna laughed aloud. The sound startled both her and her friend. “Nay, I am no’ crazed. Fear does strange things to a person. I, too, hope we survive this adventure.”

“Adventure?” Nia shook her head, pointing to a large piece of floating debris, and said, “Look.”

“Tis probably a piece of decking. Mayhap we can raise our feet above the water and look less appetizing to the beasties.”

“Good idea. Swim for it,” Nia cried.

Brianna led the way. Numb fingers clutched the jagged plank. Pain seared up her arms as the wood scraped away skin and dripped blood into the water. “Ye first,” Brianna insisted when she saw a shivering Nia’s pale skin. Brianna rejoiced when her companion reached the safety of the large planks.

“Now you,” Nia said.

“Move over a bit so I can—“

With a flurry of foam, she lost her grip.Water closed over Brianna’s head. She brushed against something scaly before it pulled her beneath the waves. Talons clasped her around her waist. Suddenly, she was above the ocean surface. Wind and water stung her eyes. She kicked and struggled against the vise-like grip holding her above the waves as she tried to understand her predicament. When she brushed damp locks of hair from her face, she stared at a horrifying reflection on the sea’s surface: a huge flying dragon with a small woman in its grip. Both her hands flew to the claws wrapped around her middle. Held fast, the flap of the beast’s great wings filled the sky with an eerie thump.The stench of blood intruded, filling her nose and making her gag. This beast had won the fight under the sea, but what happened to Nia? What happened to Gregor, Cook, and the rest of the party? Would any survivors know of her death at the hands of a dragon? Would anyone grieve her loss?

“Dear God,” she cried. “What about Draco?” The beast trembled at her words. It glided toward land. She recognized the steep cliffs of Staffa and the beach where she gathered driftwood. She spied the waterfall where Ranald met his death. Clenched between the murderous talons of a dragon, she made plans to run as soon as they landed.

“Draco! Help me!” He promised he would come to her aid should she call, but he could not hear her from this distance. The man owned no weapons and no armor. Landing with a gentle bump on solid ground, the golden talons retracted. Now free, Brianna hiked up her skirts and blindly jumped over rocks and roots as she flew into the bushes. Low-lying brambles scratched her naked calves. She survived worse than this when a rope had tangled around her leg and pulled her under the sea.

“I nearly drowned. A sea beast wanted to eat me for supper, now a dragon has stolen me away to this island. What else could happen?” Out of breath, she glanced back at her attacker from the relative safety of jutting rocks and prickly groundcover. Nothing. No dragon.Silence filled the air until a high-pitched squeal made her jump. A huge boar, bigger than any the hunters had brought down during their stay on Staffa, pawed the ground a few paces from her hiding spot.

“Nice piggy,” Brianna whispered. Great. I can turn and run back toward the dragon or be gored by an irate pig.

“Go up.”

Who said that? No matter. Turning, Brianna slipped a bare foot into a low crack in the nearest rock formation. Pushing upward, she climbed. Apparently enraged by her escape attempt, the animal’s squeals turned to angry snorts. The rock shook when he collided head-on with its base. “Go ahead. Knock yourself silly.” The boar backed up and struck again. The boar’s irrational mood and raw strength left Brianna’s bloody fingers grasping for a better hold, but she held. She nearly lost her footing when he attacked a third time. Clinging to loosened soil, which covered the jagged boulder, she also worried about the dragon. Has it let me go, or does it plan to scoop me from my perch once I reach the top?

“Brianna?”

Shocked senseless, her grip loosened. She fell. The scrawny branches of a gorse bush, growing from a crack in one side of her stone perch, scratched her cheek and snatched at her hair. She screamed until she stopped with a thud.A warm, male hand swept tangles from her face. The coarse skin of a masculine thumb swept blood from her painful cheek as she collapsed, with a sigh, into Draco’s chest.

“Ye do no’ fly. Do ye?” he asked.

“I certainly do no’, ye beast. Draco!” She pushed far enough away to stare up from his arms. “Be careful! A wild boar is near! He almost pushed me off my perch.”

“I should no’ wonder since I accomplished the task with only my voice.”  

Hope you enjoyed this sneak peek at my Scottish historical paranormal available from Whispers Publishing. Buy link: http://bit.ly/93hRiM

You can also find it at All Romance E Books and at Amazon for Kindle. 

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25. June 2010 by admin.

TODAY IS THE DAY!

I am now a published author and I am thrilled to see my book listed on the main page of the Whispers Publishing website: www.whispershome.com. I am also pleased my article, SCOTTISH DRAGONS, was posted today on a blogsite I write articles for called HISTORY UNDRESSED. This site contains a wealth of information on everything historical and I hope you’ll read my article at http://historyundressed.blogspot.com.

I hope you’ll check out Whisper’s website, read an excerpt, and buy my Scottish historical paranormal. Here is the direct buy link:  http://bit.ly/93hRiM

Nancy

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14. June 2010 by admin.

I have my first two books coming out on June 25th. One is a full-length contemporary romance I wrote as Nancy Lennea for Red Rose Publishing…SECRET LOVE MATCH. The other is a novella length book, DRAGON’S CURSE from Whispers Publishing, that can be best described as a Scottish historical paranormal romance. I have kept busy lining up guest blogs and am writing guest articles and answering interview questions left and right. These promotions run through August and I have to juggle two books, two names, and two publishers.

Last Saturday I attended our monthly meeting of the Raleigh, NC based RWA chapter, Heart of Carolina romance Writers: www.heartofcarolina.org. The guest speaker, Claudia Dain, related a quote she’d heard. I have printed it out and have posted it over my desk as release day closes in: Warning-dates on the calendar are closer than they appear. 

Nancy Lee Badger w/a Nancy Lennea

SECRET LOVE MATCH June 25 from Red rose Publishing

DRAGON’S CURSE June 25 from Whispers Publishing

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9. June 2010 by admin.

BOOK BLURB

Sometimes a special gift and an unwanted curse cannot keep destined lovers apart.

Brianna Macleod has accompanied a shipload of her guardian’s friends to a remote island off the coast of Scotland. She eludes these Highland hunters to keep her innocence…and her gift of sight. Her attitude against falling for womanly desires changes when she nearly drowns. Saved by the talons of a terrifying winged beast, she awakens—naked—in a cave, beside an unusual man.

Cursed by a vengeful witch to transform into a dragon at inopportune times, Draco MacDonald hides on this deserted island to live alone: until he plucks a servant girl from certain death. Fueled by jealousy, and tempered by fear for her safety, he succumbs to an unfamiliar desire to mate.

Her kisses propel him to dare to make her his own.

Set in 1592 Scotland on the Scottish island of Staffa, the cursed hero battles a ghostly witch, a hunter set on rape, and his own growing desire for a young woman with premonitions of his death.

EXCERPT

     “She is gone.” Draco sat on a rocky outcropping and stared toward the main coast of Scotland. Storm clouds rose in the north while rain shrouded his island under low gray clouds.Within moments, icy droplets pinged on his scales and dripped off the leathery wings curved over his head. Smoke puffed from both nostrils as he remembered making love with Brianna.

     “Love? She could ne’er love a dragon,” he muttered.

    “Are ye a dragon or a man? All I see is a coward.”

     Draco launched himself toward the gray figure. Agatah swiped one boney arm to her side, and he plunged to the sea.He clawed his way to the surface and headed for shore with two paddles of his talon-clad limbs. A huge breaker pounced upon him and shoved him to the sandy bottom. He stayed submerged as he ran on open talons until he reached the shore.

     “I hate the water.”

     “I know this, ye dumb beast. ‘Tis why I tossed ye in.”

DRAGON’S CURSE

is a Scottish historical paranormal novella 

and will be available June 25, 2010

from Whispers Publishing   www.whispershome.com

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