Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Blog Hop Winners!



Thank you to everyone who participated in the Sultry Summer Nights: Ignite Your Passions blog hop! 

I hope you had fun! I did!






Congratulations go out to
Jennifer Lowery, 
J. Barrett 
and 
Temperance. 

You each have won a free digital copy of IN IT TO WIN IT.
Check your email for the deets on how to download it.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Six Sentence Sunday (8/28)

Today's Six Sentences come from my Contemporary Romance
In It To Win It
currently available on Kindle, Nook, other ebook



Closing her eyes and sucking in a deep breath, she reminded herself that Grayson Pierce and his opinions no longer mattered. That hell called high school had been fifteen years ago. But she’d be damned if those scars didn’t take eons to heal.
“…and a home run by Pierce brings in three! Rockets win by two.”
Cheers and applause erupted, nearly shaking the walls of the stadium. The enthusiasm was enough to make Jane want to vomit.





***

Morgan can be reached on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads
and of course MorganKearns.com

For more Six Sentence Sunday click here

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Sweet Saturday Samples (8/27)

Today's Sweet Saturday Samples features 
a deletable taste of my Contemporary Romance
In It To Win It
currently available on Kindle, Nook, other ebook

***

Grayson finally made his way to stand before her. Those shoulders of his were even broader than she remembered—his body more toned with a wider chest, a narrower waist and more powerful thighs. The boy she’d known had become a delicious man. His dark hair was in a sweaty disarray, his cap having been removed, a dark curl rested against the tanned skin of his forehead.
 He was sporting a goatee these days, trimmed close to his face, probably to hide the thin scar that she’d given him junior year. It was only fair; heaven knew that she wore enough scars from him. Hers were emotional—and still raw.
His heated gaze slowly roamed from her pink-painted toes to her face. Those perfect lips of his formed a smirk and her knees nearly gave out.
He stuck out his hand. “Hi. Grayson Pierce.”
Wow!
Of all the reactions he could have had to seeing her after so many years that was by far the last one Jane would have expected. It hurt—an honest to goodness dagger to the heart—that there was no recognition in his dark brown eyes.
She glanced down at his hand, but didn’t take it. She forced herself to make eye contact as she said, “Jane Alexander, KHB, can I get a comment on the win?”
His grin widened and he shouted, jabbing his fists into the air, “Rockets—all the way to the Series!” He winked at her. “And you can quote me on that.”

*** 
Join Morgan on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

For more Sweet Saturday Samples click here 

Monday, August 22, 2011

Sultry Summer Nights: Ignite Your Passions Blog Hop (August 22-29)

SULTRY SUMMER NIGHTS: 
IGNITE YOUR PASSIONS BLOG HOP (AUGUST 22-29) 
First things first: The Rules...
1) HAVE FUN!!!

2) INVITE ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS!!! SPREAD THE WORD!!!

3) THIS TOUR STARTS: Monday, August 22, (Arizona Time)  THIS TOUR ENDS: Monday, August 29, at Midnight (Arizona Time) Winners will be drawn and posted August 30th! ***

4) MEET AND MINGLE WITH ALL THE AUTHORS! EXPERIENCE A NEW PARTY DESTINATION AT EVERY STOP! PARTICIPATE IN EVERY BLOG CONTEST AND BE ENTERED FOR CHANCES TO WIN MULTIPLE PRIZES! EVERY BLOG VISITED IS ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO WIN!!

5) PARTICIPATION AT ALL BLOGS IS RECOMMENDED, BUT NOT REQUIRED. REMEMBER, THE MORE BLOGS YOU HOP, THE BETTER YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING PRIZES. EVERY AUTHOR IS WAITING TO MEET AND INTERACT WITH YOU, SO PLEASE BE SURE TO SHOW EVERY AUTHOR SOME LOVE!

6) DID I MENTION TO HAVE FUN? WHOO! HOO!! HERE WE GOOOOOOOOOOOO!

***Authors have full discretion to choose an alternate winner in the event any winner fails to claim their prize(s) within 72 hours of their name being posted or after notification of win, whichever comes first.  Anyone who participates in this blog hop tour is subject to these rules***

 Now to the FUN stuff...

There is nothing more sultry than an 
Arizona Monsoon.
 
The term monsoon comes from the Arabic word mawsim, which means "season". So to call the monsoons "the monsoon season" is completely redundant. 

In North America, our monsoon starts in late June and can go until mid September. Yes, we're still expecting storms for a couple more weeks.

The greatest thing about a monsoon storm is the swiftness with which the temperature drops, the humidity rises, and the lightning strikes.


Back when I was working at the local television station, 
every summer evening we prepared for 
the possibility of an upcoming storm. 
The chopper was always sent into the air. 
Usually the pilot navigated the skyline over to the East Valley 
where a dust storm would pop up 
and move through the entire metro Phoenix area.  
This photo was taken in 2003 over Ahwatukee, Arizona

Reporters, photographers, and live trucks 
were sent out in various directions, 
all in search of the crazy weather 
that always accompanied the storms. 

My job kept me back at the station 
where we watched the incoming footage, 
editing the best stuff to share with the people at home. 
For the most part we stayed dry, 
but more than once the weather knocked out our power. 
Back-up generators did not operate air-conditioning, 
which meant we were dry, but we were hot!  
(and not in a sexy kinda way ;)

One particular storm stands out in my memory. 
An insane wind blew through the small town 
of Surprise, Arizona, taking with it the roof of a school. 
Some thought it might have been a tornado, but it was ultimately determined that it was only a microburst

The "simple explanation" offered on Wikipedia for microburst is:
In the case of a wet microburst, the atmosphere is warm and humid in the lower levels and dry aloft. As a result, when thunderstorms develop, heavy rain is produced but some of the rain evaporates in the drier air aloft. As a result the air aloft is cooled thereby causing it to sink and spread out rapidly as it hits the ground. The result can be both strong damaging winds and heavy rainfall occurring in the same area. Wet downbursts can be identified visually by such features as a shelf cloud, while on radar they sometimes produce bow echoes. In the case of a dry microburst, the atmosphere is warm but dry in the lower levels and moist aloft. Thus when showers and thunderstorms develop, most of the rain evaporates before reaching the ground.
My terminology is:
"Holy crap! The wind was so strong, it ripped the roof off a school!" 

Working the monsoons in a newsroom 
also taught me the term "Haboob". 
Yes, it's a funny term. 
Yes, it made us all laugh. 
Well, all of us except for the overly serious meteorologist
(Don't even think of calling him a weatherman!) 

Haboobs are really cool. 
One second the sky is blue. 
The next ... it's a rolling brown cloud. 
Basically the wind gets kicked up. A downdraft picks up dust and 
debris from the ground and whips it into the air.
The cycle continues until it appears to be a wall of yuck 
moving in an all-consuming wave.

A few weeks ago a huge Haboob 
struck the east side of the Phoenix metro area. 
This picture was taken by Pictowrit.

In the newsroom, during a storm 
we would carefully label each tape 
coming in so that the morning crew 
could find the footage they were looking for. 

A couple years later took me to the morning show
and that was even harder, if you ask me. 
(Besides getting up before the butt crack of dawn!)
Yes, we usually always had the a/c back on. 
And yes, all the tapes were carefully logged and labeled, 
but we also had the aftermath video to contend with.


On the morning show our crews reported 
from the scene of where a power pole had snapped 
and hundreds (or thousands) were without power. 
Or where a tree had fallen into a house. 
Or where a storm drain had gotten plugged 
and flooded an entire neighborhood.

I love the Arizona Moonsoon storms. 
Their majestic power is truly something to behold! 

We get a glimpse of meteorologist Molly Mae Milligan 
in the KHB newsroom in IN IT TO WIN IT.  
Molly's happily-ever-after is still to come,
but you can meet Grayson Pierce and Jane Alexander today.

Back Cover Text:
Strike One

The girl once known as ‘Plain Jane’ Alexander is now the woman who makes men stop and take notice of her long legs and voluptuous feminine curves. Fifteen years ago she drove away from her small town determined to never look back … and to hate Grayson Pierce forever.

Strike Two      

Grayson Pierce is a baseball playing, fast car driving, loose woman dating, expensive liquor drinking jerk. He’s also the guy that ripped Jane’s heart out and beat it with a meat cleaver in front of their entire high school.

Strike Three

When fate—and an offer for an exclusive interview—bring Jane home, she finds that some things aren’t as they appear. And Grayson proves that he is In It To Win It; her trust, her heart, and a World Series title.   



I am Morgan Kearns; former journalist, current author. 
Fade to Black, In It to Win It, and 
The Seduction of Damian (The Gossip of Mysterious Lane #1) 
are my available titles. 



***

to enter my Sultry CONTEST:
1) Follow Morgan's Musings
2) Become a friend on Facebook or join my Fanpage
3) Join me on Twitter, follow my tweets
4) Become a fan on Goodreads
5) Make sure to comment here with your email address, so I can contact you if you're the winner! 
my Passionate PRIZES:
Three lucky winners will receive a digital copy of In It To Win It.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you had a good time!

Happy Reading!

Keep hopping on the BLOG HOP


Sunday, August 21, 2011

Six Sentence Sunday (8/21)

This week's Six Sentence Sunday comes from my 
Contemporary Romance
Fade to Black
currently available on Kindle, Nook, other e-book



“Head to head, huh, honey?” Clayton looked her up and down in a way that made Rich’s blood boil. “There’s more to reporting than a pretty face and big boobs.”
       
        Rich took a step toward him, only to have Nate’s hand grab onto his bicep. Nate’s voice was low, right next to Rich’s ear. “Easy, Casanova, punching him out would be rewarding, until Dale canned your ass.”





Join me on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads
and of course MorganKearns.com.


Saturday, August 20, 2011

Sweet Saturday Samples (8/20)

For my Sweet Saturday Sample this week, 
I'm offering a morsel of my newest contemporary romance 
IN IT TO WIN IT

 
Take one saucy sportscaster, add baseball’s notorious bad-boy, 
throw in fifteen years of frenzied feelings  
& an exclusive interview with strings attached 
... and you get a reunion that’s sure to get knocked out of the park.

  
***

She really shouldn’t.

She knew she shouldn’t call Grayson.
More to the point, she knew she shouldn’t want to call Grayson. But she did. And as she dialed the number he’d provided, her heart thumped wildly in her chest and her fingers shook. She ended up having to dial the number three times before she got all ten digits punched in the correct order.
“’Lo?”
“Grayson?” she asked, suddenly afraid he’d given her the wrong number. Wouldn’t that be a great joke?
“Jane!”
Nope, she had the right number.
“I’m so glad you called.”
“Thank you for the flowers.” Her voice sounded distant, and she was grateful to pull off the nonchalance—even if she was shaking like she’d been dumped out of a blender’s frappe cycle.
“Tulips are still your favorite, right?”
Suddenly she couldn’t breathe. Her chest felt tight and her eyes stung. He’d remembered her favorite flower. That was so sweet. So very, very sweet.
“Jane, you still there?”
“Yeah. I’m here.”
Her thoughts tumbled around in her head and she couldn’t manage to hold on to one for longer than a moment before another swooped in and assaulted her. Grayson made no sense; one moment he was flirty and handsome and remembering her favorite flower, the next he was aloof and almost cruel.
“I can’t do this.” She’d meant to only think the words and didn’t realize she’d spoken them until he responded.
“Can’t do what?”
Crap. She was glad when that word stayed in her head.
“This.” Her hand waved between her and the thin air where she imagined he’d be standing if this conversation were happening in person. “Grayson, I appreciate the flowers. They’re very pretty. But I need you to stop contacting me.”
“Why?” He sounded genuinely confused and that infuriated her.
    Why? Come on, Grayson. This back and forth is giving me whiplash. I can’t do it anymore. Okay? My heart can’t do it anymore.” 

*** 
Morgan Kearns can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, 
and of course, MorganKearns.com
For more Sweet Saturday Samples click here

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Six Sentence Sunday (8/14)

Today's six sentences come from my Contemporary Romance
Fade to Black
currently available via Kindle, Nook, other e-book




“Well, what’s our story?”

“Hundred-year-old woman with nine cats,” Kate groaned, already feeling defeated.

“When we’re done, it’ll be so good, they’ll want to lead with it.”

Kate wished she could be as confident as her photographer. She raised an eyebrow. “Not even you’re that good, Rich.”






Morgan can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads 
and of course, MorganKearns.com

Need more of Six Sentence Sunday? 
click here