Aloha to Nancy Lee Badger, Dragons as Warriors, and SMOKE (Clan of Dragons Book 2)

Nancy Lee Badger joins us for a guest post ...

When I decided to write a series called Clan of Dragons, the time had come to take advantage of my son. He had served in Iraq, had attained the rank of Drill Sergeant, and had retired from service, but I told him many years ago that I wanted to use him as a cover model the next time I wrote a series that included dragons. The reason? The large dragon tattoo on his back. Since Eric travels all over the country as a cell tower inspector, getting him to visit on a sunny day, so I could photograph him outside on my deck, took some planning. 

The day came, and he brought his collection of swords and dirks, and I snapped over a dozen poses of him dressed in his dad’s Clan MacBean red and black kilt.. I purchased a photo of the foggy peaks on the Scottish island of Skye, where the series is based, and used Photoshop to ‘color’ the kilt to match the green kilt in my story, and added blond hair. The result became the cover of SMOKE, the second book in the series.

I am using other poses for the next book, SMOLDER, which transforms Eric into a warrior with long black hair. I am very proud of my son’s service to his country, and for helping his mom with this project.

A dragon beneath a full moon might howl, but would still breathe smoke.

Book Blurb for SMOKE, Clan of Dragons, Book #2

The green dragon tumbles off a craggy peak, and lands in a pile of snow. When someone walks on Wynn’s head, he jumps free, and accidentally slams a wolf against a tree. When the unconscious beast shifts into a naked female, explanations are in order. Wynn enjoys shifting into a wolf to run through the forest, but she is a stranger. When she wakens, he explains he and his two brothers mean her no harm. After she allows them to carry her injured body into a cave, his brother Evan’s mate, Vika, cares for her. Kera reveals she is hunting a human, who might be a pirate. Wary about the golden-haired shifter’s mission, Wynn fears for her safety, and his heart.

While tracking the human who murdered her lover, Kera awakens in deep snow to dragons staring at her. One looks as if he wants to eat her, and the other smells like smoke. With an injured hip, and no energy to shift back into her wolf, she allows a pretty human to care for her. The dragons take up her search, but the pirates enter the cave. Kera leads the pregnant human into the underground river. Only by fighting for their lives do they escape. While assisting a human lad in the village, a man recognizes her, and abducts her. Wynn shows up in human form, and they fight against the man who is the cause of her nightmares. Her wolf pack wants her back, but the dragon has stolen her heart. Will she stay in Wynn’s bed, return to her pack, or possibly die while killing her lover’s murderer? Either way, her life will forever change.

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Excerpt from SMOKE ...

The odor of the dragon’s breath overpowered the scent of pine and fresh-fallen snow. Kera ran a hand down her leg, and didn’t feel any blood, but the limb throbbed. When heavy footsteps grew closer, a momentary wish to dip her body into the nearest fairy pool disappeared. How foolish. The urge to escape beneath its cool, clear water, or feel the massaging action of a cascading waterfall, was not strong enough to forget her current predicament, or the wintry weather.

The dragon moved toward her as it circled the tree. Its long white fangs glistened, and its hot breath melted the snow at her feet. Kera searched the area for a weapon. Unfortunately, the snow around the tree was heavy, and had covered everything.

Gazing upward, she thought to grab a limb and climb to safety, but she stopped when an odd voice said, “I apologize.” Who spoke to her in the presence of a dragon? Curiosity would be her downfall someday, but she peered from behind the tree and saw the green dragon, and only the dragon.

“Did you…say something?”

I be speaking to a dragon? Did I hit me head as well?

“Aye, lass,” the dragon said. “I apologized. I did not mean to throw you so hard, but your wolf form surprised me. There be friends of mine nearby whom I wish to protect. I can…ahh…see you be not only a wolf.”

With her secret out, a weight lifted from her shoulders. “I, also, apologize. I hope I did not hurt you by walking on your head. I heard something fall from the mountain, then I smelled you and…I was too curious for me own good.”

“You have a lovely smile, but I see pain in your eyes. Be you injured?”

She nodded, then immediately wondered if admitting her vulnerability made her a target. While contemplating her next move, the dragon leaned closer and sniffed her hip.

“No blood. You should come with me.”

Before she could answer with a resounding nay, a roar shook the tree, and dumped snow from the branches above them, onto their heads.

Nancy Lee Badger loves chocolate-chip shortbread, wool plaids wrapped around the trim waist of a Scottish Highlander, the clang of broadswords, and the sound of bagpipes in the air. After growing up in Huntington, New York, and raising two handsome sons in New Hampshire, this former Army Mom moved to North Carolina where she writes full-time.

Nancy is a member of Romance Writers of America, Heart of Carolina Romance Writers, Fantasy-Futuristic & Paranormal Romance Writers, Triangle Association of Freelancers, and the Celtic Heart Romance Writers. Nancy and her family volunteer each fall at the New Hampshire Highland Games surrounded by…kilts!

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Thank you, Nancy, for your family's service!  Nancy is giving away a digital copy of SMOKE to one randomly selected commenter. To enter the giveaway,

1. Leave a comment about heights and/or tattoos .... would you climb a cell tower?  Do you have a tattoo?  That's a negative on both accounts for me!

2. Comments are open through Saturday, August 27, 10 pm in Baltimore.

3. I'll post the winner on Sunday, August 28.

Mahalo,

Kim in Baltimore

Aloha Spirit in Charm City

My favorite dragon is Nessie, often seen from Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness.

Aloha to Gina Danna and LOVE AND RECKONING

Tattoos

by Gina Danna

In today’s world, we see them all the time. They’re everywhere. No longer are they considered poor taste/foreign/military or for those types but instead, the majority of people I see have them. People tattoo their ankles, shoulders, biceps, legs, neck, back, stomach, even their fingers – as well as other unmentionable parts. Many people who wear them have more than one. It’s rather like an addiction. Get inked once and realize you want another design on another part of your body.

Tattoos go way far back in history, even to the time of Ancient Rome. In Love & Reckoning, it was the ‘inking’ on Ganius’ arm that drew Aurelia’s attention, one that never wavered. How did he get marked? Why?

Why do we do it today? Why carry symbols over our body and in many cases, have a need to show it?

Designs today cover a variety of styles – flowers, butterflies, floral designs, thorns, crosses, hearts, lightning bolts, animals to original requests. I have the gridiron to General Marmaduke’s flag on my ankle. He was a Confederate cavalryman, never beaten, in southern Missouri. It’s a quarter of the moon with an ‘M’ in the side and underneath is a teardrop and a cross below that. Unique to say the least.

Wearing a tattoo today is a personal expression. And it has changed the perception by people today, employers especially. There are some who still monitor what their employees wear in inking, such as the US military. Many WWII vets, Navy in particular, had an anchor insignia on their arms. That fits military regime as uniform sleeves covered these. Command really tries to keep their soldiers from tatting their face, ears, neck, hands and anywhere visible while in military uniform.

Now, all this is fascinating but tattoos should be thought of in a sobering moment. This is design that is literally on you for the rest of your life. Do you want to wear that design forever? Try to keep all scenarios in play – do you want it showing on the beach? In your wedding dress? And a basic rule should be a tattoo artist’s questioning who’s name is that you want inked in, because if its your significant other, what happens if you break up/divorce him? To have one marked on you, you must submit to the artist putting a needled ink gun to your flesh as he delves deep into your skin and injects a permanent die, taking up to a couple hours to complete the design. It is painful, excruciating even, depending on the spot. The one on my lower back hurt but I had to remain still or a jerk or swift move could ruin the figure I wanted.

Are tattoos new? No. They go back over the millennium. The Ancient World tattooed. Some tribes in the ‘New World’ utilized inking. And during the time of the Roman Empire, inking was available. Granted, it was not something a good Roman citizen did but more of a marking, ‘branding’ as it were, of what tribe you belonged to if you were Celt or Gaul or ‘East of the Rhine’, etc. And it was used on slaves, branding you to that house, that Roman, who owned you. Designs were unique yet simple – butterflies, sun motifs, etc.

But today, as stated, artists use a tattoo tool that looks like a gun and injector at the same time. Today we use sterilized needles, alcohol for cleaning and safe ink. Back then, the ink was of organic material but the method used to make the tattoo was more like an icepick that carried some of the ink as the point was tapped into the skin, deeper and deeper, by a hammer of sorts. Not sterilized because they had no idea about this. It was a long and tedious process to sit and have a pin prodded into your skin and leave you forever marked as a slave to the House of Caius.

Ganius’ marking of a sun-shaped design will open the world to a beaten, enslaved man who only wants is revenge. It is also the luring point for the Roman lady who owns him. This one branding will change his world, to the point of reckoning and to a woman he hates but can’t live without.

Welcome to Rome!

Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0

LOVE AND RECKONING

Rome 100 CE

Conquered, beaten, sentenced to die in the Colosseum, Ganius of Gaul escapes his execution only to find himself enslaved as a gladiator. His rise to champion ensures his life, but does nothing to lessen his desire for vengeance against the Roman soldiers who destroyed all he knew.

Locked into a repugnant betrothal, the beautiful Roman Aurelia turns to her brother’s champion gladiator for help. Promising him his freedom if he helps her escape, Aurelia soon discovers she wants not only Ganius’s help, but to capture his heart as he’s captured hers.

In love with his sworn enemy, Ganius realizes Aurelia is the key to his freedom. But to take her with him would risk both their lives, yet leaving her behind to be a pawn in her brother’s machinations is a wretched alternative. Ganius must choose - love of a Roman or freedom to make the Romans pay. This is a fight the champion gladiator might lose...

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Gina Danna has spent the better part of her life reading. History has been her love and she spent numerous hours devouring historical romance stories, dreaming of writing one of her own. Years later, after receiving undergraduate and graduate degrees in History, writing academic research papers and writing for museum programs and events, she finally found the time to write her own stories of historical romantic fiction.

Now, under the supervision of her three dogs and three cats, she writes amid a library of research books, with her only true break away is to spend time with her other life long dream – her Arabian horse – with him, her muse can play.

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