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It’s Holiday Extravaganza time! Today we are spotlighting Noelle by Emily Mims and we have a wonderful holiday feature for you today! Don’t forget to enter the giveaway!

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ABOUT THE BOOK

Noelle
The Smoky Blue Series Book 10
Emily Mims
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Boroughs Publishing
Date of Publication: Nov. 20, 2018
Word Count: Approx. 74,000
Cover Artist: Boroughs Art Department

Tagline: Ike and Cassie love each other. But her daughter stands between them.

Book Description:

He’s found the wife who’d run from him five years ago. But it will take a Christmas miracle to keep her in his life.

A terrified Cassie Jeffries fled Tennessee to protect her newborn daughter from her father’s wrath, abandoning her young husband in the process. Ike has tracked her down-not because he wants her any longer, but at the behest of her dying grandmother. Her love for Ike is still strong. He still loves her, too-but wants no part of her daughter Noelle.

Ike is beyond shocked to learn that the child he thought was his is in fact the child of his wife’s rape. He still loves Cassie, but every time he looks at Noelle he’s reminded of his own failure to protect the woman he loves. And Cassie is adamant. She will have no part of a man who can’t love her daughter. But danger lurks for Cassie’s child. Will Ike be able to protect Noelle from the threat that seeks to destroy everything his wife holds dear?

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Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43162216-noelle

Riffle - https://www.rifflebooks.com/books/1030680

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AVAILABLE in ebook

Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/Emily-Mims/e/B00FQQ247K/

Boroughs Pub - http://boroughspublishinggroup.com/books/noelle

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A Christmas Tradition of Making Music

Music is an important part of just about everyone’s Christmas, whether it’s Christmas carols at the church Christmas program, a rerun of Bing Crosby singing in ‘White Christmas’, or the incessant Muzak playing at the malls. As a singer and musician, Christmas music is an especially important part of my Christmas. I have been making music for the holidays since I was a teenager playing the organ in a little Baptist church, and it continues to be an important part of my Christmas celebration every year.

I have made Christmas music just about everywhere. In that small church, at the school where I taught for many years, in the televised choir of a large suburban congregation, in the back of a truck on a Christmas caroling hayride, on a barge floating down the San Antonio River with the Boy Scouts, for church senior groups, in the dining rooms and halls of nursing homes. I’ve made Christmas music in every one of those places. My opportunities to make Christmas music grew exponentially when I learned to play the dulcimer and ukulele and joined The San Antonio Riverpickers, a mountain music band that features dulcimers and old-time Appalachian tunes, and Ukulele Ladies and Gents, which plays all kinds of music including lots of island songs. With these two groups, I have expanded my holiday repertoire beyond the usual Christmas carols and radio and movie songs. I also find myself playing in venues that are an adventure in themselves.

Riverpickers does a lot of street festivals around the holidays, most notably Christmas in Comfort and Dickens on Main in Boerne. We mix in a few Christmas numbers but play mostly mountain tunes, as very few carols sound all that good on a dulcimer. Our audience seems to enjoy the old mountain tunes as much as they do the carols. Playing for a street festival can get interesting in terms of weather, however. After all, we are playing outdoors. We’ve played with the sun shining in our eyes on a stage facing a setting sun, and under chilly cloud cover with rain threatening. We’ve played in the hot-this is Texas and it can still be hot in December. We’ve played in the cold. Really cold. Our record cold-weather performance was an hour-long set in Boerne a few years back. The sun had gone down, it was twenty-nine degrees and the wind was blowing. It was so cold the instruments all had to be retuned, not a problem unless you play a hammered dulcimer with forty-plus strings. (My fingers burned for a solid hour afterwards.) We promised ourselves afterwards we’d never again play below forty degrees, but I honestly don’t think it would stop us. Street festivals are just too much fun to pass up.

The ukulele group is just the opposite. We stay inside where it’s nice and warm and play Hawaiian Christmas music, complete with hula dancers and red and green Aloha shirts. And we sing them in Hawaiian! Of course, we do other Christmas songs also. The ukulele group plays many different places, including churches and libraries and a lot of nursing homes. Although we play for someone or something every month, the holidays tend to be our busy season. So far, we have one performance scheduled right before Thanksgiving and four during December. And that’s so far. There may be more.

Making all the performances can get hectic in an already jam-packed season. Occasionally we must skip a party or another event to play and sing. But making music, especially Christmas music, deeply enriches our holiday. I cannot imagine Christmas without it.

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“Yeah, it’s easy to love those blue-eyed blonds, isn’t it?” Wade gibed. “Those dark ones, man. They’re a lot harder to love.”

Ike felt his temper spike and tamped it down. “It would be hard to love any child who looks like the man who raped my wife,” he replied softly. “It wouldn’t matter if they were white, black, or purple with stripes down their back.” More was on the tip of his tongue but he bit it back. He already sounded enough like an ass.

Wade gave him a go-to-hell look and glanced to one side. Cassie stood there, her face pale and her expression one of horror. Ike felt himself cringe. She’d heard every word.

He started to say something but clamped his mouth shut. He couldn’t defend a statement like that and he knew it. But it had been the unvarnished truth. Noelle was a visible reminder of Cassie’s violation. He didn’t know how to get around that.

Cassie disappeared into the house. It was time to make his case one more time and then get the hell out of here. Ike nodded to Wade, thanked Angie for her hospitality and followed Cassie inside, where he found her in the kitchen by herself. “You leaving now?” she asked as she transferred leftover vegetable sticks into a plastic bag.

“Not until you agree to come see Granny Mae.”

“Then you better wash your clothes and buy another tube of toothpaste. I’m not going to let you pressure me into a decision that’s not in Noelle’s best interests.”

“Damn it, Cassie, what about Granny Mae? Your grandmother’s dying. The only thing she wants before she goes is to see you and Noelle. Are you really going to deny her dying wish?”

“That’s right. Play the guilt card.” Cassie snapped the bag shut and practically threw it in the refrigerator. “I told you last night. Granny Mae is a woman of the holler. She’s not going to want to see Noelle. And even if she did, what part of ‘Hugh Siler will kill her’ did I not communicate fully to you?” She turned to Ike, her eyes blazing. “I’m not the sweet, gullible girl you knew before. The one who could be persuaded or guilted into doing just about anything you wanted me to. So don’t try that crap with me. No way in hell am I giving you any kind of answer today.

Don’t ask again.”

“All right. All right. Calm down. No answer today. I get that.” He paused. “But I will say it again. Granny Mae will want to see you both. Your daughter will be in no danger from your father. So please, Cassie. Will you at least think about coming? Will you do that much? You could come for a few days, maybe a week after ‘Wizard of Oz’ finishes its run. Please, Cassie? For Granny Mae? Please?”

“I will think about it but no promises.”

“Thank you. I’ll need your contact information and would like you to have mine.”

They exchanged phones and entered the necessary information. “I guess I’ll be going,” he said as she handed him back his phone.

“One more thing.”

“What’s that?”

Cassie hesitated. “Never mind.”

“No, say whatever’s on your mind.”

“Noelle. She’s not responsible for the circumstances of her conception. She’s a beautiful, wonderful child. Everyone who knows her loves her.”

“I’m sure she is and I’m sure they do. I’m not proud of my feelings toward her, Cassie. Just so you know.”

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TOUR GIVEAWAY!

Digital copy of Noelle and a $10 Amazon gift card from Emily Mims

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/ba112ffc1823/

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Author of thirty-six romance novels, Emily Mims combined her writing career with a career in public education until leaving the classroom to write full time. The mother of two sons and six grandsons, she and her husband Charles live in central Texas but frequently visit grandchildren in Tennessee and Georgia. For relaxation she plays the piano, organ, dulcimer, and ukulele. She says, “I love to write romances because I believe in them. Romance happened to me and it can happen to any woman-if she’ll just let it.”

Website Address: www.emilymims.com

Twitter Address: @EmilyMimsAuthor

Instagram Address: mims_emily

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EmilyMimsAuthor

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Thanks for visiting! Hope you enjoyed the Holiday Extravaganza & found a new gift for your stocking!

https://www.silverdaggertours.com/

ABOUT THE BOOK

Amethyst
The Smoky Blues Book 9
by Emily Mims
Genre: Contemporary Romance

CAN’T GET HER…

Deke Gregory has a type – petite, feminine, pliable. His ex-wife was his ideal, but she wasn’t his, obviously. Faced with the realities of joint custody and a family “village” raising his son, Deke sets out to find a woman who ticks all his boxes and thinks he walks on water. Enter Doctor Taylor De Witt: tall, strong, willful, opinionated, and too busy to be bothered with soothing his rough edges. Imagine his surprise when he falls for her – hard.

OUT OF HIS HEART

Taylor De Witt knew she would be a heart surgeon since college. Now a single mother with a schedule that requires roller blades, she has little time for her family, never mind a social life. When she meets Deke Gregory she thinks he’s a Neanderthal – yummy, but from a different era. Little does she know what their mutual attraction will bring, including examining her life to include an everlasting love.

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Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41856454-amethyst

Riffle - https://www.rifflebooks.com/books/1029959

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Amethyst is the 9th book in The Smokey Blues series

Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/series/202614-the-smokey-blues

1 Mist
2 Smoke
3 Evergreen
4 Indigo
5 Emerald
6 Mistletoe
7 Violet
8 Ruby
9 Amethyst

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Amethyst is AVAILABLE in print or ebook

Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Amethyst-Smoky-Blues-Book-9-ebook/dp/B07HB9P32P

iBooks - https://itunes.apple.com/mt/book/amethyst/id1436351344?mt=11

B&N - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/amethyst-emily-mims/1129540511?ean=9781727282412

Kobo - https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/amethyst-20

Smashwords - https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/895388

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EXCERPT 3

Deke found Charlie sitting by himself staring at his phone. The boy took one look at the dress and shoes and his shoulders sagged. “Brian’s in a bad way, isn’t he?”

Deke sank down beside him. “Yeah, he is. But your mom said she can fix him.” “She probably can. But sometimes…” He trailed off.
Deke choked back his terror. Charlie spoke the truth. There were no guarantees. “I know that. But let’s think positive. If anybody can fix Brian, it’s your mom. She’s the best. Okay, buddy?” “Okay.” Charlie nodded.

Deke looked down at the shoes. “Will your mother have to operate barefooted?”

“Nah, she keeps a change of clothes and tennis shoes in her locker.”
“Speaking of clothes, you need to call your grandmother to come get you and the dress.”

“I already did when I saw them hand the dress to the lady at the desk. Grandma’s pissed.” “Is she?”

Too damn bad.

“You better believe it. She said Mom’s letting Kelly down and that Kelly won’t ever speak to Mom again.”

“It couldn’t be helped. Don’t they know how sick Brian is?”
Charlie looked at him shrewdly. “That doesn’t always matter if you’re the one she’s letting down.”

Deke winced. At that moment Beatrice Gentry, dressed in a mother-of-the-bride outfit almost as gaudy as Taylor’s, blasted through the emergency room doors practically vibrating with fury. She looked around the waiting room, finally zeroing in on Charlie and Deke sitting beside him. She marched up to them and yanked the dress and shoes out of Deke’s arms. “Come on, Charlie, we’ve got to get moving. Damn your mother’s hide, anyway,” she snarled as Charlie stood up. “One damned day we asked for. One damned day she needed to have someone cover for her. One damned day for her little sister. Do we get it? Nooo, she’s buried in an OR and Kelly’s down her maid of honor. She’ll be lucky if your aunt ever speaks to her again.”

Deke rose to his feet, barely able to leash his ire. “Mrs. Gentry, that’s enough. I’m sorry about the wedding. But Brian’s in a bad way this morning and she’s in there trying to save him.
That’s more important than a wedding, I don’t care how disappointed her sister is.” Beatrice eyed him like a turd on her shoe. “Tough shit. We asked her for one day.”
“Damn it, don’t you understand?” Deke trembled with fury. He was almost yelling and didn’t care. “It’s Brian in there. The wedding’s not that important. That’s my son. She’s trying to save the boy I love.”

“I understand all too well.” Beatrice lowered her voice and looked at him with contempt. “It’s okay for her to miss Kelly’s wedding to save your kid, but when she missed your shindig to save Gina Harker’s life, she was all wrong and you broke up with her for it. That nameless, faceless single mother of three teenagers that Taylor stayed behind to help that afternoon is my best friend’s daughter. Taylor saved her life. Did you give a damn about that? No, you didn’t. You came out and said so. You told her you didn’t care who it was, that you were tired of never coming first. You decided you didn’t matter to her and you kicked her to the curb.”

Beatrice stopped and took a breath. “Yes, I’m angry and I’m disappointed. But Kelly and I will forgive her, which is more than you were willing to do.” She looked him up and down.

“How does it feel now that the shoe’s on the other foot?” Like crap. It felt like crap.

Deke stumbled backward as Beatrice’s tirade sunk in. Taylor had made the same decision the afternoon she was supposed to fly to Washington that she had today. She’d opted to stay behind and save a life. She’d chosen to do the best thing she could for her patient.

She’d chosen to put her patient first.

And he’d broken up with her for it. And yet today, it was perfectly well and good for her to do the same thing, because today it was his child whose life was in danger. And she’d asked him that very thing standing in his living room with tears in her eyes.

Yeah, he was a real shit.

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Hello again, romance readers! This Stormy Vixen and I am so excited to have Emily Mims join us as she tells us how to create a believable villain.

Emily, welcome and thanks so much for joining us and sharing your insight on such a spectacular subject.

Creating a Believable Villain

Moriarty. Iago. Lex Luther. Hannibal Lecter. The Wicked Witch of the West. Just the sound of their names brings the thought of evil to mind. These are some of the more memorable of the numerous villains, or ‘bad guys’ if you will, created by skilled authors to pit against the heroes or ‘good guys’ of the story. Villains appear in many different literary genres, from political thrillers to science fiction to mystery to romantic suspense to serious literary work. They can be supposed friend or former friend turned enemy, an ideological opponent, a thug or a psychopath with a bone to pick. They can be a lone wolf or the tip of a much bigger iceberg.

They can be thieving or murderous or diabolical. Their ire can be personal or they can hate what the hero stands for. They can be out to destroy the hero personally, financially, or by destroying what our hero loves most. They all have one thing in common-they are up to no good. But they are a necessary foil to the goodness of our heroes and heroines, and a carefully crafted, well-written villain can be just as memorable as the hero or heroine they are created to challenge.

Back in the early days of my career I wasn’t overly worried about creating a good villain. Most of my books were straight romances, and while there was the occasional rotten apple I was not creating true villains in that genre. Even the books with a slightly suspenseful theme did not have a villain as such. But when I decided I wanted to add the elements of danger and suspense into my stories I had to sit down and think about what made an effective villain in literature and how to bring that villain to life. And then I had to figure out how to bring that character into the story in such a way that neither the hero, heroine, or reader knows until the end who their nemesis is nor why they are doing the things they do. This takes some careful plotting-no flying by the seat of one’s pants-and occasionally it takes going back into the story and adding hints and clues that were not included in the first draft.

So what makes a villain in a romantic suspense novel believable? I try to make sure that my villain first and foremost is a villain, not a hero who does bad things or antiheroes such as the Corleones in the Godfather series. My villains have to be doing something evil, something that is going to bring harm to my protagonists or others in the story and they are not to be admired for it. However, it is very important that the villain have a reason for doing what they do. Sometimes having them a thug or a greedy titan is enough, especially if our hero or heroine gets in the villain’s way, but it is infinitely better if the villain has a specific bone to pick with his or her victims. That issue might seem unreasonable to everyone but the villain, but it has to be reasonable to him or her. And it is never enough, at least in a suspense novel, just to declare the villain psychopathic or ‘crazy’. There has to be a reason the villain is what he is and doing what he does.

So what else do I include when I craft the bad guy of the piece? My villains are all smart-scary smart in some cases, and I make sure that they would have the skills to carry out whatever crimes they commit in the course of the story. In an early version of ‘Solomon’s Choice’ my villain Cissy was a vindictive but weak alcoholic dependent on someone else to carry out her nefarious plans. After it was pointed out to me that Cissy as I had portrayed her could not have carried out the crimes she is guilty of I turned her into a cunning, manipulative loner who by guile got others to do her bidding. I make sure the villain has the skill set to carry out the crimes they are perpetrating. (I would not, for example, have a mild-mannered chemistry teacher shooting someone from a hundred yards away or strangling them with her bare hands, but I could and did have her poisoning people with chemicals from her stock room.) A careful matching of character to skill set not only makes the story and the villain more believable but also provides valuable clues to the good guys trying to track them down.

Should a villain have a conscience? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. My villains in ‘Solomon’s Choice’ and ‘Daughter of Valor’ did not. They loved and they grieved and in their minds that made their heinous behavior acceptable. My villains in ‘Never and Always’, on the other hand, do have consciences. They know that they are hurting innocent people and even come out and say that to one another, but make the decision to go ahead and deliberately do things to innocent people in order to destroy the woman they hate. Either scenario works, depending on the context of the story, and in the hands of the right author it’s great fun to watch a villain with a conscience destroyed by his own actions.

A strong hero and heroine deserve an interesting, believable, bad guy, a villain worth besting in the end, and I always do my best to make sure that they get one.

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$10 Amazon

Follow the tour HERE for exclusive excerpts, guest posts and a giveaway!

https://www.silverdaggertours.com/sdsxx-tours/amethyst-book-tour-and-giveaway

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Author of eighteen romance novels under the pseudonym 'Emily Elliott', Emily Mims combined her writing career with a career in public education until leaving the classroom to write full time. 'Solomon's Choice' is her first romantic suspense and the first novel she has published under her own name. The mother of two sons, she and her husband Charles split their time between Central Texas and eastern Tennessee. For relaxation she plays the piano, organ, dulcimer, and ukulele. She says, "I love to write romances because I believe in them. Romance happened to me and it can happen to any woman-if she'll just let it."

Website - http://www.emilymims.com/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/EmilyMimsAuthor

Twitter - https://twitter.com/emilymimsauthor

Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Emily-Mims/e/B00FQQ247K

Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7336670.Emily_Mims

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