I have just returned from a wild weekend spent among hot kilted hunks and delicious Scottish food at the annual Loch Norman Highland Games. The games are held at the Rural Hill Historic Site in Huntersville, NC about 10 miles north of Charlotte. We met up with various friends we come across at the different games and we looked forward to great weather.

Last year, the rain and swirling clouds put a damper on the Saturday activities. My hubby and I stayed over sunday in order not to follow a path of destructive tornadoes forcasted to make their way toward our hometown. Sunday dawned clear, bright, and dry.

This year. Saturday was clear, bright, and hot and the crowds swelled by mid afternoon. We enjoyed the caber toss, the marching pipe bands, and the historic clan fights. The sheepdog demonstration was comical, and the historical village was the best I’ve ever experienced. (more about that later)

The United States offers dozens of Scottish Highland games in an effort to perpetuate the Scottish arts: dancing, piping, harps, etc. The colorfull tartans and country festival atmosphere should be tried at least once. You don’t have to be Scottish to enjoy.

Nancy

Member,

Clan MacBean of North America

Clan Gunn of North America

April 12 & 13 2012
mark the 151 year Anniversary of the start of the Civil war, which all began when Southern Secessionists fired on the Federally-held Fort Sumter.

The battle raged between the shore units and the battered fort that sat proudly in the middle of Charleston Harbor until the Federal General surrended to the Southern forces.

I am marking these 32 hours over at Amazon.

AMAZON BUY LINK- http://amzn.to/zgv30B

Jennifer Hudson Taylor, author of historical fiction set in Europe and the Carolinas, recently held a book-signing at the Cokesbury Christian Bookstore near my home. Since I met Jennifer a couple of years earlier at the Grandfather Mountain Scottish Highland Games, where I purchased her first novel, Highland Blessings, I thought I would see what she was up to now.

One thing I try to do is support authors in their endeavors to meet the public and promote their work. Jennifer had several new books, but I immediately snapped-up a copy of her latest Scottish historical, Highland Sanctuary. It was an amazing read and you can read my review on Amazon.

The book is available for download or as a beautiful large paperback and is available at several outlets including the Cokesbury newly reopened Christian Bookstore at North Market Square, 1669 N MARKET DR, Raleigh, NC
Phone: 919-872-8810 Toll Free Phone: 866-265-2665

Have a very lovely, peaceful Easter!

Nancy

I am thrilled to tears to hear that my Loch Ness romance, DRAGON IN THE MIST, not only finaled in the short story category of the SILKEN SANDS SELF-PUBLISHED STARS Contest…but it WON! I was even more surprised to get the photo of my prize from fellow-author Rashda Khan who graciously accepted the award for me at the Gulf Coast Romance Writers of America Chapter’s conference this past weekend.

Thanks, Rashda! (check out her website  HOT CURRIES & COLD BEER  )

My book was my first attempt to self-publish and I was happy to see a contest open only to self-published novels. How else can I get readers to see that my book is a fun-filled contemporary fantasy that happens to include the Loch Ness Monster and a present-day American geologist?

Intrigued? Check out the book blurb at

Amazon,
Barnes & Noble,
or Smashwords                           only $.99

Nancy

CHAPTER ONE

Charleston Harbor, South Carolina

December 1860

The men were on her in a heartbeat. They groped, pawed, and mumbled filthy words, expecting Dru Little to welcome their company. Blazes. Just my luck. A trio of smelly, drunken seamen had wandered down the alley behind the inn, moments after she’d stepped outside. How careless to lose awareness of her surroundings simply fetching a bag of flour. Even with her supernatural senses, she’d smelled liquor-tainted breath and soured uniforms too late to avoid the attack.

When a large meaty fist squeezed a breast, she hissed. The hand disappeared, but returned quickly. Her attention swung to another man who yanked the hem of her dress above her knees. She squirmed as she gathered strength to hold her nature at bay. Dru kicked until her booted foot met bone. A dark shape dropped to the dirt.

“Bitch.”

Dru smiled. Her tongue licked the tips of her lengthening fangs still hidden from her assailants. A third man stepped back, his eyes wide.

Maybe, not so hidden.

The sudden splitting of thin human skin tore a scream from her dry throat. The pain increased each time her talons escaped from beneath her human fingernails.

She grabbed the hand on her breast and squeezed. Its owner howled as the tips of her claws sunk into his flesh.

The satisfaction was short-lived. The man she’d kicked had jumped to his feet only to lunge at her with murder reflected in his lamp-lit eyes. Two filthy hands with calloused fingers encircled her neck before she could take a deep enough breath to summon a ball of flame. A suffocating near-silence, peppered with grunts, enveloped Dru as they pulled her to the ground.

How sad to die in human form. How inexcusable to not have torn the men to pieces before they’d gotten the best of her inner dragon. 

“Who goes there?” A deep voice split the night, and heavy footsteps grew close. A man raced toward them through the darkness. His blue uniform screamed authority. His outraged yell made her attackers pause. When he brandished what she assumed was a sword, the drunks scattered like rats.

Two tripped over each other, then scrambled to their feet, while the stranger’s weapon swooped and slashed. Oddly, Dru’s superior senses did not smell blood. The alley’s rancid odor made her sneeze, which garnered her savior’s attention.

Dru retracted her talons, sat up, and fussed with her hair. The bun she wore while working, required by her employer, had come undone during the drunkards’ attack. She had felt no fear.

I am a dragon.

The scoundrels should thank their lucky stars the soldier’s appearance halted her transformation, or they might have found themselves her late night snack.

When the tall shadow moved and crossed the dark alley to stop in front of her, she smelled the sea. Wild, fresh, and sexy. It enveloped him, a more pleasant smell than the stench of the alley and the three drunkards. He offered his hand.

The hand not holding the weapon. Dru accepted it, now that her fingers had returned to normal. Normal for her human persona, anyway.

The author (me!) inside the crumbling remains of Fort Sumter 

And I hope you want to read the rest!

Title:  SOUTHERN FRIED DRAGON

Author:  Nancy Lee Badger

Genre: Paranormal Historical

Length: 30,000 Word Novella

Amazon ASIN: B0074CX7SE

Buy Link: http://amzn.to/zgv30B

Nancy

SOUTHERN FRIED DRAGON has a dragon, a soldier, a half a dozen forts, southern hospitality, conflict, cannons, and more. But…above all, it is a ROMANCE.

BOOK BLURB:

Amid cannon fire, and the first terror of Civil war, love and trust will find a way.

Dru Little flew away from her home in a cave beneath a Scottish Island to end her lonely existence and find companionship across the sea. Her journey in late 1860 has led her to the modern American city of Charleston, South Carolina. Hiding her true self, she takes over the life of a serving girl and enjoys the hard life working in a tavern near the wharves. She has no idea that her life will turn upside down in a dark alley the moment a handsome soldier saves her life.

Lieutenant Shaw Stenhouse has his own worries. Southern secessionists are talking up a storm in Charleston. His fellow Federal soldiers are suddenly at risk from the community they are here to protect. The possibility of civil war takes a backseat when he saves a comely lass from drunken soldiers. A good deed and a stolen kiss put a smile on his face until the threat of war becomes a reality. Their instant attraction proves disastrous when Dru’s spots her former lover working for General Beauregard and the southern troops. As the clandestine group plan their attack on Fort Sumter, and Shaw’s soldiers, she takes to the sky.

Dru fights against the threat of detection, while she fears losing Shaw’s love. What will he do when he finds out that she is a powerful Scottish dragon Hell-bent on carrying him to safety? When Shaw discovers her inside the heavily guarded fortress, thoughts of espionage—and worse—catapult the two lovers into danger from many sides.

When her former lover, the mysterious Black Dragon, threatens Shaw, Dru must decide which is more important: protecting another of her kind, now nearly extinct, or protecting the human male, the man she has come to love.

Did you know that the Chinese have designated 2012 the YEAR OF THE DRAGON? How appropriate. DRAGON’S CURSE and DRAGON IN THE MIST started my foray into the historical paranormal, using Scottish dragons. If you love a happy ever ending filled with strife, conflict, and sexy situations between consenting adults, check them out!

DRAGON’S CURSE  http://amzn.to/y3Ipw0

DRAGON IN THE MIST  http://amzn.to/zgguKW

SOUTHERN FRIED DRAGON  http://amzn.to/zgv30B

January 25th marks the celebration of a birth that occurred 252 years ago. This person came into the world before America was its own country; before the regency and Victorian eras swept England; before my ancestors had any inkling how the world would turn out.

The dry facts go like this: Robert Burns was born in Alloway, Ayreshire, in Scotland, in a farmer’s cottage. Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect was his first published work. Burns’ poem To a Haggis, is recited across the world during the annual Burns Night celebrations every January. His tongue-in-cheek exaggeration of his love for this oatmeal, onions, heart and liver concoction boiled inside a sheep’s stomach has elevated the simple sausage to a national icon.

Still wondering what all the hoopla about a guy long dead is all about? Do the English host a party on Shakespeare’s birthday? Do the Americans honor Longfellow? Not to this extent. The world has celebrated this poet’s life since a few years after his death when a group of Burns’ friends got together to read his poems and drink a little Scotch Whisky.

But, why has this January celebration evolved to include over 200 countries, hosting over 3000 separate celebrations in the dreary month of January? A friend of mine, David Bruce, wrote “Robert Burns lived and worked during the time of the great Scottish Enlightenment, that period in the eighteenth century when Scotland produced more men of letters, more men of learning and more men of science than any other nation on earth.”

Some of us idolize the man for his poetry and songs. Today, he is remembered in Scotland where a beautiful museum has been erected, dedicated to Robert Burns. This modern facility is located in his birthplace of Alloway.

January is here, again, and I miss the annual Robert Burns Night held by the St. Andrews Society of New Hampshire. My husband and I are lifetime members of the organization and attended the festivities many years running, but we moved to North Carolina to be near family and so I can write fulltime. I miss those gatherings. Upwards of 200 people attended dressed in Scottish attire to enjoy music, Highland dancers, fine whisky, great food, and a story about Robert Burns. The evening ended with everyone joining hands to sing one of Robert Burns’ songs, a very familiar song…Auld Lang Syne.

Happy Birthday, Robert.
Nancy Lee Badger
www.nancyleebadger.com

About the author: Nancy loves chocolate-chip shortbread, wool plaids wrapped around the trim waist of a Scottish Highlander, the clang of dirks and broadswords, and the sound of bagpipes in the air. She and family volunteer at Highland Games while Nancy writes romantic stories with a light paranormal flavor. Whether its a time-traveling witch who meets the Highlander of her dreams, or a cursed dragon-shifter who hides from the beautiful seer on a lonely Scottish island, Nancy lives the dream. Nancy is a member of Romance Writers of America, Heart of Carolina Romance Writers, Sisters In Crime, Fantasy-Futuristic & Paranormal Romance Writers, and Celtic Heart Romance Writers. She lives and writes in North Carolina. DRAGON’S CURSE is available for download from www.WhispersHome.com and Amazon and NOOK.

This article was first posted by Nancy Lee Badger on 19 January, 2011 on The Celtic Rose Blog

Did you know that 2012 is LUCKY enough to celebrate not one, not two, but THREE Friday the 13ths? Three happen every few years, actually. The last was in 2009, and the next is 2015. 2012 is extra special because it is a year where something will not re-occur until 2040: three 13ths landing on a Friday during a leap year.

The number 13 and Friday, found mentioned in mythological, spiritual and religious tradition, means something different to me…and my mom. She delivered me, her first child, around 8 o’clock, at night, on Friday the 13^th in the dark and dreary month of November.

For many pagans, 13 is a lucky number, because it corresponds with the number of full moons each year, but I celebrate them as extra birthdays. Birthdays I do not need to count toward my age. The older you get, the more you will understand. Trust me.

Friday the 13th can feel special, say some people. (scientists, I hear) Supposedly, during a 400-year period, the 13th falls on a Friday more than any other day: 688 times.

Whatever you believe, know that I am embracing the day and using the vibrant energy to clean out my files in preparation for filing my taxes. I believe there is a much scarier date in America…April 15^th!

Nancy

Hogmanay…a strange word to this American writer.  “What did he say?” I said to a friend the first time I heard the word. Until recently, I mistakenly assumed it was the Celtic term for Christmas.

Nope! Hogmanay is a celebration of the new Year, as close to our ‘watching the ball drop’ festivities and the Rose Bowl Parade wrapped up in one lovely holiday.

So, I am taking a moment to wish you all a very HAPPY HOGMANAY and a very, very HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Nancy

I am a northerner by birth, as are they, and I now reside and write fulltime in North Carolina. Palm trees excite me! Enjoy!

And, have a very HAPPY HOLIDAY!

Nancy