The Armchair Traveller

For the last...three or four years, the closest thing I've come to a vacation has been the trips I take to conferences. Don't get me wrong, I adore going to conferences and meeting writers and readers. It's fun and it gets me away from the house. (which is always good)

Since I had shoulder surgery three weeks ago though, the only things I've seen have been the doctor's office, the physical therapist's office and my house. Oh and television. I've been watching a lot of television and reading a lot. And napping. Napping has been happening a lot as well. And as I watch those shows about far off destinations, of uncluttered beaches, of sparkling blue seas, all I can think of is some place cool and quiet.

I dream of snow, of not melting into a heap of skin and bones the minute I step outside my door. Hello summer. I hate you so much. It reminds me of the year I worked on the riverboat cruise. It was July and we were in Wisconsin. I walked four miles with another boat worker. We were both from south Louisiana and were completely stunned at how cool the weather was. We didn't sweat. We didn't have to stop frequently and rehydrate. We marched and walked and it was fabulous.

So where would I like to be right now? Someplace where the temperature is roughly around 70 degrees at the most. Cooler would be even better. Especially if I have to stay in this bloody sling. I've had the a/c in my house on 65 and a fan on me for three weeks. Can we say I'm hot? Because I am and not in the "Omg, did you see how sexy D looks with her bandana, no make-up and pjs on?" because that'd be a total lie.

Hope everyone has a great Friday! Enjoy this song from Depeche Mode because I don't have pictures to dazzle you with.

I'm rambling, but you have to understand this is the first time I've blogged in three weeks. And I'm quite possibly still tripping on painkillers. Oh! I also have a book coming out next week. Woot-woot! The third book in the Cajun Heat series comes out July 3. Is it a coincidence that it's being released the same day as The Lone Ranger? I think not. I think they planned it because they knew Primal Flavor was coming out and Disney wanted to cash in on my release day. *snort*

Anyway, here's a little bit about Colette and Zach's story: 

Book three in the Cajun Heat series.

Being a human in a parish filled with shifters, Colette Robicheaux has learned to be tough as nails. A hunter with the kind of lethal skills that make most men nervous, all it takes is a single hot look from Zachary Trahan to make her melt into a puddle of goo. And this tiger shifter doesn’t fight fair, using his hot body and his many skills in the kitchen to melt her panties. But there’s a danger in the swamps that threatens to tear them apart, an evil that could turn this hunter into prey.

When chef Zachary Trahan took a break from work to hunt, the last thing he expected to find was his mate. A human huntress with a hot temper, a quick trigger finger and the kind of body destined to keep him up at night, Colette makes his tiger purr. He’ll have to fight his stubborn mate, her impossible family and the threat hiding in the swamps before he can finally claim her for his own.

My Feet Are In the Sand, But My Heart Is In the Woods!

This month’s theme is, “If you could travel anywhere, where would it be?”, so it’s ironic that I’m writing this blog post while on vacation! Though, not to knock this vacation…it’s not my dream one. :) I’m on a family vacation—and I mean extended family—to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. It’s a great spot for the kids—I’m watching my son fly a kite on the beach as I type this and my daughter is playing in the sand. I certainly can’t complain! But it’s just not my DREAM vacation. Here are some polaroids from my trip:

So what would my dream vacation be? (I realize that’s not exactly the question, but I’ve got vacation on the brain…) A cruise comes to mind because with cruises you can visit a few different places without packing and unpacking—your “hotel” travels with you. But I’m the mom of two crazy-active, fearless kids who don’t listen well, and I’d be terrified they’d fall off the side of the boat. Actually, that makes for an easy decision—my dream vacation would definitely involve leaving my kids with someone I really trust, who would come to my house to watch them while we were gone!

Since I’m not much of a bask-in-the-sun person, but I do prefer a slow-paced vacation, I’d like to travel somewhere I could rent a beautiful cottage in the woods, preferably on a pond or lake (no motors allowed!).  There must be tree-lined paths on which to ride a bike into town to the bakery, a local eatery, or a pub.  I want there to be lots of time for writing and relaxing with my husband. The weather would need to be *just* chilly enough for a sweater at all times, and there’d have to be a porch swing with pillows and a fireplace.

Know anywhere like that? Let me know in the comments! I want to make reservations for my next vacation!

In closing, here is a picture of me on the beach in my bikini!!

I *swear* I'm in my bikini! Sorry, my selfies aren't usually aimed well. ;)

Kisses in all the right places,

Piper Trace

Let's go!

This post is a tough one for me. I love to travel, and to have to choose one place or even one area is pretty much impossible for me. I want to see everything, I want to do everything, I want to experience the world.

I mean, I could choose a place like this and be pretty happy for a while.

 

Image courtesy of samuiblue at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

But then I might want to switch things up and go hide out in the cold snowy mountains somewhere.

Image courtesy of Evgeni Dinev at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

There are so many places I would like to visit. I would love to spend a year sailing around the world. I could spend a summer climbing mountains or months on a road trip around the United States. I just can't get enough.

Yes, I know I have a problem. I think I may have been a gypsy in another life...

Sky Robinson

 

~Add a little sexy to your day~

  

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RELEASE DAY: Fondled and Gobbled Back For More

Ring that gong... we've got another release!

Fondled and Gobbled: Back For More is available today through Ellora's Cave

A bakery owner gets much more than she expected from her discount android’s determination to serve her. A lovelorn stalker does whatever it takes to have the muscle man of her dreams. Two alien warriors experience the inconveniences and pleasures of being forced into human bodies. A woman has always known she was destined to join the paranormal world of shifters, and tonight all of her dreams—or nightmares—come true.

If you’re looking for the perfect romance with the perfect hero and heroine, this isn’t it! This is a series of spoofs, parodies, just-for-fun lighthearted take-offs. It’s for all us longtime, hard-core romance readers who can laugh at the clichés, purple prose and “suspend your disbelief” plot devices that haunt our beloved favorite genre.

Oh... and there are more of this hilarious books. Check out the first two Fondled and Gobbled books...

 The perfect man—with the imperfect cock and oral skills. The Dom who isn’t a dom, and the man who proves it to him. The alien with dessert-flavored semen and three cocks. The older man (a kajillionaire with a penthouse in Seattle…) who has limitless ability to come all night with his naïve little virgin. A woman on a diet who craves a feast of meat and finds herself five Broadshaft Brothers who can deliver.

Ellora's Cave
Amazon

The virgin whose carefully planned hymen removal doesn’t work out the way romance novels told her it would. A busty broad doing what she can to get over her penis anxiety—assisted by a cadre of male strippers. A not-so-bright (and not so “big”) alien who comes to claim his life-mate, and the Earth girl who wants to be claimed at all costs. A cursed, mute shapeshifter who needs to pop his cherry with his unsuspecting fated mate…

Ellora's Cave
Amazon




 AND... we have two more coming out this summer!

Some Like it Hot... And I'm One of Them

If I could be anywhere, I’d be somewhere tropical...

Right.

Now.

I’d have a nice place—not fancy, just nice and cozy—and I’d have it set up as a writer’s retreat. It would be a spot where authors, whether published or unpublished, could come for peace and quiet, the chance to rejuvenate and create. The view might be like this:

Or like this:

But for me, if it were somewhere about five or six o’clock (somewhere) it just might look like this:

You’ll all be welcome when I get it going, okay?

And if you enjoy some tropical heat, check out my oldie but goodie, Night of the Cereus, which is set in steamy South Florida and has a HOT Latino hero. 

Blurb:

On the night the Cereus blooms, temptation paints a picture impossible to resist.

Artist’s model Melanie Fletcher likes to keep life simple, and painter Marcus Alejandro practically oozes complications. And sex appeal.

Posing for him, surrounded by the seductive scent of the night-blooming Cereus, Melanie’s self-imposed rules of a lifetime are slowly being undermined. She begins to wonder—would it really hurt to give in to her lust, just this once?

Initially drawn to the dichotomy between Melanie’s reserved exterior and hidden passion, Marcus soon discovers the more he gets from her, the more he wants. Her delicious body isn’t enough. He needs to know her intimately, both inside and out, but getting her to trust him is harder than he ever imagined.

How much can he ask for before she walks away?

Taking YOU on a Road Trip!

I'd go anywhere my car could take me. I love road trips. LOVE THEM. I'm like a dog that way, sticking my head out of the window, ears flapping and tongue hanging out. WOOT!

There are so many more places I want to drive to, but really I would repeat the road trip me and the family took last year. We drove through the US from SW Ontario to Alberta and Canada on the way back ...after doing a lot of traveling in Alberta.

The trip also made me fall head over heels in love with South Dakota, Wyoming & Montana.

Here are some highlights of my trip. First stop, Chicago, Illinois (I'm sorry Indiana, all the shots of you were at a rest station, but you were pretty). I always wanted to go to Chicago and DUDES how cool that your El Train runs down the middle of the highway!!! I didn't know this and we were muay excited. However, traffic sucked. Even on a Saturday before Noon.

Next up crossing the Mississippi at the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin. At first, you're tricked and you see this tiny estuary thing and then BOOM around the corner is this massive river. Okay, I'm impressed.

Ma and Pa Ingall's homestead De Smet, South Dakota. Life long dream and a very, very emotional moment. Also, fell in love with South Dakota.

South Dakota again. Rapid City & Keystone to be precise and Mount Rushmore. As a Canadian I did feel "odd" because these guys aren't my forefathers, but it was really impressive. I didn't realize what a windy hill you have to drive up to get to it. The people there are super friendly, even to foreigners like us and you pay $11.00 to get in and it's good for a year. SWEET! There is so much to do around here. Next time we go we're going to Deadwood and Custer.

Everyone should ride the Highway 212 from Rapid City into Montana. Gorgeous stretch of highway and hardly anyone around. This is Wyoming. I love it's vastness. How open it was. Just gorgeous.

Montana changes. This is Broadus, Montana in Powder River Country. We're still on Highway 212 and just fresh out of Wyoming, but when you head North from Billings towards Great Falls, the temp dropped and we were in a totally different world. Right around Broadus and Billings is where Custer met his last stand at Little Big Horn.

Just north of Great Falls and heading North to Alberta. See what I mean, now lush and green.

Alberta does it too. Has so many different eco systems and changes. This the badlands in Canada. Drumheller, Alberta which has an amazing Dinosaur museum. These are natural wonders known as Hoo Doos. You can hike up all in and around them. Super cool.

This is just outside of Edmonton and is far, far north of where I live in SW Ontario. So far north that this picture was taken at 10 p.m. on Canada Day (July 1). This is my BIL's farm. Very prairie around here. And those little schmucks are my kids. Their clocks were very out of whack at this point.

Drive 4 hrs west from Edmonton and you hit this. Jasper National Park and the Rockies.

After driving across the Canadian Prairies and visiting my cousin in Winnipeg we came back to Ontario. Northern Ontario and the Great Lake which feeds down into all the others. Lake Superior at Thunder Bay. That's Sleeping Giant.

I'd show you my last picture of the trip, but it was at the Science North Museum in Sudbury, Ontario and it was a picture of a fart machine. (I said Dart gun not a fart gun)

I kid you not. I ended the pictures of our trip with a fart button. *head smack*

I hope you enjoyed the road trip. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Three weeks on the road was worth it!

You can find more about Amy at her website. Or follow her on Twitter.

Her newest release PRIVATE RELEASE was set in Winnipeg, Manitoba which she got to see first hand on her epic road trip.

Wild Horses

I just got back from where I've always wanted to go. Wyoming. West. Wild Horses. Cowboy land. So as a visual treat, here are some of my pics. As they say, a picture says 1000 words.

Cattle drive when the wild horsees turned up - see below pic

Descent from Breakfast Hill with Cowboy Tom - he is 76

Green grass of Wyoming with a Brown Crane in the distance

Cowboy Tucker driving off a herd of wild horses.

Cowboy's Tucker and Brent as we went bushwacking

Two Bald Eagle babies

Cowboy Tom on his Mustang

My cabin for the week on the Little Laramie River

One of many water crossings

The Best 23 Hrs of My Life...Part 2

If given an all expense paid vacation to anywhere, I wouldn't hesitate before screaming EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND!!!

In 2007, I had the awesome chance to go to the UK with my BFF. Talk about a dream come true.  I've always been an Anglophile and if you asked me I would tell you I was British at heart but the 23 hours we spent in Edinburgh were the most fun I've ever had in my life.

We were there in August, in time for a slew of Edinburgh Festivals which made views like this common place:

Everyone was cheerful, the accents were amazing (it's pronounced Ed-n-Burr-ah btw), and you'd be walking along and see something like this: 

I'm one woman. How am I supposed to resist kilts AND whisky at the same time?  To be truthful I did avoid both, but I could tell you a story about a sexy Aussie, several pints of cider and the Pub Crawl of Epicness.....

But before you think it was all hotties and booze, there was also beautiful buildings and natural beauty. Yep, that's right, me, the girl who avoids outside because that's where the Civil War happened. I LOVED how green everything was. 

It was the first time I had Indian food, the first time I had a vacation fling (but not the Edinburgh Experience), the first time I found inflatable sheep for sale in a vending machine for sex purposes. ;)

We only got to spend about 23 hours there, and it's my dream to one day make it back and spend several.  Definitely with my bestie along, gallons of cider entirely optional, but encouraged.

Sasha

If I could go anywhere

On Earth...

 

I'm an avid traveler. I love it! I even love packing clothes for a trip!

 

I'll go just about anywhere with the promise of fun, good people, good drinks, good times and warm weather.

 

It's imperative that I take at least one major vacation a year. I prefer two with about five minor vacations, but I'll try not to appear greedy in the vacation department in this blog and leave it at one.

 

Pft... Who am I kidding?

 

I'm going to be greedy (bwa ha ha ha).

 

I want to go somewhere with plenty of this...



 

 



 

 

 

and this...

 



So I can do this plenty of this...

Or maybe enjoy a view like this...

Now, if by chance I had to leave Earth and travel to another planet, I'd prefer for it to be very hospitable to my likes. My fictional world of Sonis which I created for my Loving Dangerously series is scorching hot with one large ocean.

 

So far, its not a place where I would opt to take my vacay. But with time I plan to build it to a thriving attraction of fun and sun.

 

I can't do anything about the heat (Sonis has two suns), but I have plans for the Singha Ocean in the near future. No waterparks or anything like that, but a place for rest relaxation would be top on my list. Maybe a nice lodge where a couple could watch a storm rage on and how it affects the alien sky...

 

My plot bunny is rearing its pretty little head so I must say ado!

 

Dangerously Yours the steamy sequel to Dangerously Mine is available now!

 

Available from Ellora's Cave
Available on Kindle
Available from ARe



If I could go anywhere...

it would be Europe. For about a month. Without my child.

I love my child, but the thought of carting her all over Europe makes hives break out.

So where in Europe would I go?

A port that's now a monument, The Netherlands
Photo by Bert CC-BY-2.0, Creative Commons license

Many people only go to The Netherlands to see Amsterdam, but there's so much more to this little country than legal prostitution and cannabis coffee shops. Obviously there are tons of windmills, as The Netherlands is known for those, but as you can see from the photo above there's also gorgeous old buildings and lots of flat lands if you're a cyclist like I am.

Bavaria in Germany
Photo by Berthold Werner, Public domain, Creative Commons license

Like every country there are several different areas of Germany. The Rhone district boasts lots of vineyards on steep hills angling away from the Rhone River. There's a cool little island town that's filled with buildings from medieval times and a huge BMW factory in Stuttgart, among other things.

Alsace region of France
Photo by JLPC CC-BY-SA-3.0 Creative Commons license

The Alsace region of France would probably be a personal favorite considering some of my favorite wines are Sauvignon Blancs, which this area does better than anywhere else in the world. Of course, there's also the French Riveria, Paris...

Cool castle in Denmark
Photo by Malene Thyssen  CC-BY-SA-2.5 Creative Commons license

There's way more to Denmark than Copenhagen, though that looks like a pretty cool city. For instance, the original Legoland is in Denmark (which is the corporate HQ for Lego), and within Denmark is the world-famous Tivoli Gardens if you insist on not branching out past the city limits.

Prague, Czech Republic
Digr at wts wikivoyage CC-BY-3.0 Creative Commons license

There are some very cool hot springs in the Czech Republic. I've always wanted to visit one of these. There's also a walled city that dates back to the 14th century. And, like much of Europe, there are some cool castles.

Brussels, Belgium
Photo by Marc Ryckaert, Creative Commons License

Did you know that Brussels is the capital of the European Union? Pretty cool. In Bruges some ancient buildings have been preserved, which is something I'm always interested in.

"Big Ben" in London - Westminster Palace
Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0 (Creative Commons license)

How can you not want to go to London, and all of Great Britain, for that matter? I'd love to see the house that stood in for Pemberley in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, if nothing else.

And that's just the beginning. See why I'd need so long?