Fall Vibes Only by Laura Hunsaker

 Today at work we changed out the Thanksgiving/Fall decorations for Winter/Holiday decorations, and I have to admit, it made me sad. Even my neighbors have put their decorations up earlier this year.

I don't think I'm ready for winter yet! In fact where I am, we've barely had our autumn, let alone winter weather. So I decided to keep up my fall decorations. At least for the next few days.

It made me wonder why I love fall so much when I'm really a summer girl at heart. I really think it's less that I love fall (although pumpkin spice everything is my jam), and more that I love the break in weather, and the last slow days before the crazy busyness of the holiday season starts. I'm enjoying the nice weather, I'm enjoying not having to be everything everywhere all at once. I'm enjoying the last of this year. I'm not quite ready for the end of the year yet. 

So for now, today, it's still fall for me, and my desk. At least until Fall becomes Fall-la-la-la time.

What is your view? Are you ready for the Winter holidays? Or are you dragging your feet and in denial like I am?

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Kate Landry is soon to be Kate Donovan, if only the groom would show up.


Maid of honor Cara Nguyen wants everything to go smoothly for her best friend's wedding, yet almost immediately, the wedding turns into a fiasco. Kate and Kyle deserve to have the wedding of their dreams, and Cara wants to make it happen. It’s hard to do when the flowers are delivered to the wrong location, the groom is missing, and the lovely sunny day has become a sweltering hot mess. She definitely doesn’t have time to get distracted by a sexy groomsman in a kilt.


Kyle Donovan is ready to marry the love of his life, but first he has to help some stranded guests…


Dash Helms is in the small town of Chester, California for his friend Kyle’s wedding, when he is immediately tasked to help. A caravan of wedding guests break down on their way, one of the groomsmen misses his flight, and the beautiful maid of honor is the only thing he can concentrate on. When Dash is asked to step in at the last minute as a replacement groomsman, of course he says yes. But the striking brunette he’s walking down the aisle wants nothing to do with him.


With everything seeming to go wrong, what can go right?


In this wedding short story written for Kate and Kyle from Dark Past, the cast of the Fatal Instincts series comes together to celebrate their friends. With everyone in the same place at once, and romance in the air, can this small town handle them?

Look For the Magic by Laura Hunsaker

 In my free short story Amethyst Heat I wrote in a magical ring from the heroine’s aunt Gilly. She doesn't know that it's magic, of course. Not until something big happens. This ring sends our heroine back through time. When people ask writers how they get their ideas, which we do hear often, that's something that doesn't always have an easy answer. But with this story, I do have an easy answer!

I based the idea off of a ring my own aunt gave me when I was a child. While mine definitely hasn’t sent me through time, it does have a bit of its own magic.

See this ring?

My aunt gave it to me when I was seven. She passed away the next year, so while it was already special, that made it even more so. I wore this ring every day until I was ten when I lost it in the summer camp rec center pool. I searched so much for that ring, I had friends helping, camp counselors, and we didn't even catch a hint of the ring. In a crazy twist of fate, I found it 3 months later in the pool drain (that we'd already searched months ago!) when I was diving for (ha) rings.

I called it my lucky ring and wore it for years, even as beat up as it was from the pool filter incident, until I lost it on a choir trip in high school. We were going up to Utah for a couple of days, and I found it on the bus ride back. It was on the seat. I did not sit in the same seat as I had before. Seriously. Lucky ring, guys. So by this point I put it in my jewelry box so I wouldn’t lose it.

Amethyst Heat was the first thing I wrote (2009) and it's very super short, but even though my ring isn't an amethyst, it was the inspiration for the story.

Around 2016, the magic was still working, because I let my youngest wear it. She was three, and I never saw it again...until about two years later! My youngest found it on the ground in my room. We vacuum daily in my household. Daily. How is this ring just chilling on the ground for two years?! It’s once more in my jewelry box for safekeeping. Lucky ring is lucky.

Amethyst Heat is a very short story, about seven pages long, if that. And it's free!

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While out riding, Meg McMurray finds herself on unfamiliar lands. Gone are the long expanses of Oklahoma prairie, and in front of her are the wild Scottish Highlands. How did she come to be there, and did Aunt Gilly's amethyst ring have anything to do with it?

A sweet romance set in the Highlands of Scotland.

Free Book! Highland Eclipse by Laura Hunsaker

I hope my American friends enjoyed their Thanksgiving! We've had a day to recover, and with all the time spent with my family these past couple of weeks, I've realized I'm incredibly grateful to them for being in my life, and to all of you! Yes you all! You all have touched my life in some small way and I appreciate it a lot. I know that while Thanksgiving is an American holiday, one thing seems to be creeping it's way to a universal day: Black Friday. 

Some of my favorite German youtubers will be speaking fully in German and then bam. The phrase in English: Black Friday. This cracked me up and first, but after thinking I guess it makes sense. So I double checked some other non-English speaking youtubers, and yep, same thing. The term Black Friday but used in English. Since this seems to be a world-wide event now, I set one of my books for free this week. It will continue on until Cyber Monday for you all, so I hope you know that while Black Friday is slowly becoming universal, one thing always has been: gratitude. I am grateful for all you readers, writers, friends...and hopefully you can all have an enjoyable weekend and relax with a good book.

HIGHLAND ECLIPSE

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A member of an elite Time Ops team called the Eclipse Agents, Declan Wallace’s job is to jump through time. He maintains order in the timeline, he hunts down those who would time jump for their own purposes. But sometimes Fate intervenes.

After a lifetime of living with illness, Lady Fiona McClure is proving to herself that she is finally healthy in an attempt to swim across the loch. If she makes it, maybe then her overprotective father won’t treat her as a child anymore. When she is snatched and dragged ashore by a man who thought she was drowning, her heart races for reasons that have nothing to do with the swim and everything to do with the man standing before her.

With a mission to finish, Declan can’t allow distractions, and Lady Fiona is definitely a distraction. But he’s discovering that living for the next mission isn’t as exciting as it used to be. Staying in the past is forbidden, but Fiona McClure is his destiny.

Free Book! And Other Things That Spark Joy

It has been a week! I needed some distractions, and wound up rearranging my library (I have four shelves, don't judge me that I call it my library!). I wound up finding some books I had forgotten that I own! So basically I spent the week re-reading some old favorites. 

I rearranged my books in my room, and the keepers shelf in my "library," even added some new ones to the keeper shelves. I know that this may not sound like fun for everyone, but sitting on the floor amongst a pile of all my books and reading was seriously the highlight of my week. 

It made me realize that this week I need more joy, more time to read old favorites, and find some new favorites. And I'm probably not the only one who feels that way.

So, here's your next new favorite ;) My short story Dreams of the Past. I made it a free for a 24 hour promotion, but I'm leaving my book free for the rest of the week, just because we all need something happy right now.

DREAMS OF THE PAST

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Dreams of the Past

She needs rest, he needs relaxation…


Jenny Travers wants a fresh start. Leaving the nightmares of her past behind her, she heads to Last Chance Beach. Renting the Sea Glass Cottage sounds peaceful and relaxing, which is exactly what she needs.


What she doesn’t need is a man.


Lieutenant Commander Scott Gordon was injured by an IED on his last mission, and while his leg has healed, it’ll never be strong enough to stay on his SEAL team. Renting the Sea Glass Cottage sounds like the perfect place to figure out how he’s going to handle his new normal.


He never expected to find a woman in his bed.


A mix-up at the rental agency means Jenny and Scott are both renting the small cottage. Sharing a space with a stranger should be hard, yet they both feel more at peace than they have in months.


Will their summer romance last, or is the magic of Sea Glass Cottage all they’ll have…


*This short story was previously published in the Last Chance Beach: Summer's End box set. It has an updated cover, some new content, and is available at all ebook retailers instead of just through Amazon's Kindle Unlimited.