The missing section

Hi all!

As you know Ursa Minors was released yesterday. As you may not know, there was a section missing! (Trust me, no one is more upset about this than me.) I have updated the manuscript so any downloads as of this morning should be correct (how do you know if your version is correct? If there is a drop cap in the first word of a new chapter, you have the correct version.


If your copy is drop capless and you don’t want to wait a week for amazon to update your copy (I have the request out it might take longer than a week I’m so so soooo sorry). I have included the missing section here.


There isn’t any major plot spoilers but it’s a nice character moment for Trinity that I’d hate for y’all to miss out on.
I’m going to add a few irrelevant images so there isn’t any accidental spoilers in RSS feeds then the missing section will be right below it.

I’d like to than Julie again for bringing this to my attention yesterday. And apologize from the absolute bottom of my heart that this major error slipped through. I’m so embarrassed that I missed this, I try to improve with each new release and I just dropped the ball here.

If your version looks like this, you have the version with the missing section and my deepest apologies!

If your version looks like this, you have the version with the missing section and my deepest apologies!

If you have the drop cap, you have the version with the inclusion below and you shouldn’t miss a beat.

If you have the drop cap, you have the version with the inclusion below and you shouldn’t miss a beat.

Here is the missing section:

I didn’t know what to think. I needed help on all of that, but I wasn’t sure if I was prepared to accept help from them.

“I’m doing what I can with what I have. My cubs are cared for, and we’re making it work.”

“Oh honey, we’ve been young parents too, we know what it’s like trying to balance working and a family. You don’t have a pack to rely on. What are you –“

I held up a hand to stop my mother from continuing her speech, “Money is tight. But I have a plan.”

My dad raised an eyebrow. He didn’t say anything but the careful way he tore a hunk of bacon before devouring it told me all I needed to know. His doubt stung.

“What’s your plan, dear?”

I sat up straighter, “I’m going to save up money and purchase a plot of land at the Bearden.”

Mom nodded, “With your job as…”

“We don’t have much, Trinity, but we can offer you something,” dad said, putting down his bacon and pulling out a his wallet.

“I don’t want your money. I’ve been given enough charity for the time being.”

“You’re a mother now, Trinity, you need to put your pups er cubs first. Set aside your pride and take the help we’re offering.”

“It’s not pride keeping me from taking your money. It’s what you expect from me for it. I can’t just waltz you into the cubs lives like a ready made parent-approved home life. The cubs have already lost too many people for that. I can’t risk you – “

“You were the one who ran out on us Trinity.” She said, reaching to grasp my hand, I pulled away. It would be too easy to accept mom’s warm embrace. To have her pet my hair and tell me everything was going to be alright.

It was going to be alright.

I had the cubs. The RSC helped as best they could. I had Evan.

I had Evan. He was more than just a helpful friend or absent parent to the cubs. I bet if I asked him to spend more time helping out with the cubs he’d jump at the chance. In fact, he’d practically begged for more cub responsibilities.

“I’m the cubs guardian but they don’t think of me as their mother,” Mads in particular, “Give me time to get them used to the new normal and we’ll bring you into their lives. Okay?”

Mom smiled; it was a small one. Clearly, she hadn’t gotten what she wanted, but it was more than I’d been prepared to offer when I entered the Bunk and Galley.

“I think we’ll take the offer of the pack in Grand Portage. You have our number, let us know when you’re ready.”

I ate the rest of the meal with my parents in awkward silence. We’d become strangers yet they were so familiar to me. I’d long since lost their respect as the perfect Beta Princess, as they had lost my respect as my perfect parents.

“When did it all get so complicated?” I asked my donut.

Dad rubbed my back, “It’s just part of growing up.”

 

Evan had the cubs as ready as he could get them when I returned to the cabin. Dinny was racing around with no shirt, crying at Penny who was wearing a shirt that wasn’t hers. Odi was under the table eating something I wasn’t sure was food, and Mads was nowhere to be seen.

“How’d it go?” I asked Evan.

The poor grizzly’s ears and neck were bright red, “I swear they were behaving like perfect angels until five minutes ago. It’s like they heard your car coming down the drive.”

I patted him on the back, “They’re all still breathing and I don’t see any blood. I say you did a pretty good job.”

He seemed a little relieved at that, “I have a few hours before I need to be at the Tooth and Claw, if it’s okay with you, I’m going to take Odi and put all the camping gear away.”

“He’s all yours.”

Summer Fun Reader Scavenger Hunt

Summer contest season is upon us!
I am so excited that Tooth and Claw is a part of the Night Owl Romance Summer Fun Scavenger hunt this year.

From June 23rd-July 7th, Night Owl Romance is hosing a contest for a new kindle, redbubble gift cards, and amazon giftcards!

Learn more here:

https://www.nightowlreviews.com/v5/Blog/Articles/Summer-Fun-2020-by-Night-Owl-Romance

To enter for your chance to win click here: nightowlromance.com/win

Music of Kootenai

I love music. 

I love listening to it.

I pretend that I can make it. 

I enjoy singing in the shower and terrifying the neighbors with my failed attempt to hit the high-notes. 

Music and books to hand in hand for me. As a kid, I’d sit in far away corners with a pile of books and my discman, hiding away in my own world while my family spent the day competing and coaching at swim meets. The music blocked out the sounds of chaos around me and transported me to the Magic Treehouse, Hogwarts, and Narnia. 

Music continues to transport me. But now it’s to my own worlds. I have Spotify playlists for everything, and I want to share them. 

Most of the early writing of Tooth and Claw came in snippets of scenes with no real characters or plot. The life and times of Aster Lee Fields were strewn about in my Stories>Paranormal>Urban Fantasy>Werewolves>Shifters folders in my gdrive. 

Side note: I might have to do a blog post about the ridiculousness that is my google drive subfolder system. 

I had a snippet of a scene of a wolf staring at another wolf before biting its leg off. I had another snippet of an exile, a mating ceremony, and a kidnapping. None of them really came together until Barns Courtney’s Glitter and Gold came over on a different playlist’s radio. 

I was obsessed. 

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I listened to the song three or four times before going to the album and listening to it three or four times. Then I had a meeting, because hello day job. While pretending to be interested in a meeting that could have been an email, the driving bass beat and soulful songs blended in my head, and Tooth and Claw was born. 

Rapidly I started a new playlist based on songs that fit the bluesy soulful, driving rhythm beat. 

After I published Tooth and Claw in September, I continued to listen to the Kootenai playlist radio at work, because hello, total bangers but the songs were mellow enough I didn’t end up bursting into song (which had been a problem in the past. Sorry again to my former coworkers). 

Jennifer’s arc in Ghost Eyes can be 100% linked to the emotional connection I felt listening to Rhonda Vincent’s cover of Jolene by Dolly Parton. It was such a key part to how I viewed Jen’s emotional arc, I even kept in the scene where she listens to the song. 

In a previous post I linked the Ghost Eyes Roadtrip playlist, which I listened to when writing most of Jen’s scenes in Ghost Eyes. 

Now to the song that inspired me to walk down memory lane of the Kootenai playlist. 

Back in October 2019, I was tap tapping away at Ghost Eyes and I needed to actually write Jackson’s mate. I had every intention of making her a side character at best. 

Then I heard Brandi Carlile’s Raise Hell. The song starts out fast-paced and (I’ll be honest I didn’t hear the lyrics the first verse the first time I listened to it.) Then the song took a sudden down strum. Better men have hit their knees. A back beat. And bigger men have died

I started the song over right then. And again, I missed 99% of the first lyrics; I got more this time. 

Photo Credit: Aaron Burden @aaronburden

Photo Credit: Aaron Burden @aaronburden

You have a mind to keep me quiet

And although you can try,

Better men have hit their knees

And bigger men have died

Again and again I repeated the song, hearing a little more of the lyrics each time. 

KP logo.png

My mind pieced together a montage of a fighter in constant battles. Images of her standing in front of a sink looking at herself in the mirror fought with cuts of the battle. Flashes of her staring down her opponent. Bigger, better men, men who want to keep her quiet. Flashes back to the sink, each time there are more scars, but her eyes hold the determination. 

I needed to discover this woman. It’s a burst of creative inspiration I’d never had before and haven’t had since. I wrote most of Fallen Lorde while finishing Ghost Eyes. From Raise Hell came my personal favorite book in the Kootenai Pack series so far. 

There are so many other songs on the Kootenai playlist that I adore. But the ones mentioned here were the sparks for me. So thank you Barns Courtney, Rhonda Vincent (and Dolly Parton), but a big special thank you to Brandi Carlile. I couldn’t have done it without y’alls kick ass music. 



 Photo credit Aaron Burden @aaronburden