Showing posts with label Dreams Of The Past. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dreams Of The Past. Show all posts

Thursday, March 26, 2026

Touch Her And Die by Laura Hunsaker

 I was talking to my friend the other day, and we were talking about Alphaholes. I don't know how many of you were around for this, but in the mid-2000s the favorite type of hero was the Alphahole. He was an asshole, but he was an Alpha Male. While that term has been completely changed since then, what it meant was that he was a strong leader, who was maybe a bit bossy, didn't always explain, and sometimes he was an asshole, but he was always someone who took care of those under his protection. 

After that hero had his time, we saw so many more cinnamon roll heroes, and golden retriever heroes. But as the trends move quickly, sometimes they cycle. We saw the rises of the anti-hero, the morally gray hero, the touch her and die hero...

I think it's the same but with a new name.

I love a good morally gray anti-hero.

I realize that that's kind of an oxymoron, but I hope you all know what I mean. I'll use superheroes for my analogy lol

I think heroes like Superman, who are good, but also do things for the greater good, are the kind who would sacrifice for the world, for the greater good. Even if that meant sacrificing his love. He may never love again, but he knows he did the right thing. Heroes like Batman are married to their vengeance. But heroes like Iron Man who play by their own rules and have the power to make their own rules,  would maybe be more fitting. He would save his woman at the risk of his own self, as would all of the superheroes. They are always willing to put themselves on the line, but where he differs, is that he would burn the world down to save his love. 

That's what some of us want. Not in real life, because really, how many of these tropes/trends/heroes just wouldn't be something we'd want in real life. But knowing someone loves you so much he would let the world burn for you, is a heady feeling. My next hero is going to be one of those darker morally gray heroes and I'm so excited to write him. Especially since I'm writing a Golden Retriever hero at the moment for Echoes of the Past.

So now I turn it over to you. What type of trope or hero do you prefer? Do you love the Touch Her And Die trope? Do you prefer a cinnamon roll hero? Tell me in the comments!

And if you want the happily ever after to never end, check out my short story set in the Fatal Instincts world, Dreams of the Future. It's a wedding bonus story for Kate and Kyle from Dark Past.


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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. How can she pull off the wedding of their dreams when the flowers are delivered to the wrong location, the groom is missing, and the lovely sunny day has become a sweltering hot mess? There’s a lot to do, and so little time to do it. 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 get back to the church…

Dash Helms is in the small town of Chester, California for his friend Kyle’s wedding. This should be a happy event, yet It seems everything is going haywire. A caravan of wedding guests breaks down on their way to the venue, one of the groomsmen misses his flight, and the wedding has to be moved inside. Yet 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. While the striking brunette walking down the aisle ahead of him wants nothing to do with him, even she can’t deny the sparks that fly between them.

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?

Monday, August 26, 2024

Small Progress Is Still Progress by Laura Hunsaker

 I work in school for my day job, and we are going into our third week back. One of my coworkers asked me if I had gotten any writing done over the break (I get 4 weeks off during the summer). I did, but I didn't feel like it was all that much. Normally I get much more done. But lemme tell ya, my kids are living their best lives and I'm their ride. We were so busy.

But my coworker told me that I was a writing machine. My reply was that oh I'm definitely not. Two books a year is not a writing machine. I know authors who do 6 or more per year! It's wild how many words they can get done in a day! 

Why couldn't I have just said thank you and left it at that? 

It really changed the way I think about how I write though. I mean, I wrote two books in one year! That's fantastic! I may not get a book a month out, but I'm okay with that. I like what I do, and I'm proud of what I write.

So I hereby declare that if you wrote any words, you are a writing machine! And that's amazing! I'll shake my internet pom poms for you!

Right now I'm working on three projects:

1. The short story DREAMS OF THE FUTURE that is done, but in edits 

2. A Kenzie MacLir paranormal romance I'm co-writing 

3. The next book in the Fatal Instincts series that follows DREAMS OF THE FUTURE. It's getting good ;)

I think when I finish DREAMS I'm going to toast to all of us fellow "writing machines" and I'm going to remember that small progress is still progress.


Coming Soon...

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 to the venue, 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?




 

Thursday, January 26, 2023

In Case of a Rainy Day by Laura Hunsaker

 You know those gloomy days where it's rainy cold, and all you can think is, "I want to be home by my fireplace with a good book and a cup of hot cocoa?" Well, lately I've had some days like that. My state is getting some gloomy days, lately, and with California being hit again, I have a feeling I'm about to have some more. I wanted to break out my "in case of emergency" book. My, "rainy day" book, if you will.

Am I the only one who has these?

I've had a few over the years, and one thing they have in common is that they are typically by one of my favorite authors, they are usually intense and emotional, and they usually are towards the end of the series. I recall having a Karen Marie Moning Fever book, an Ilona Andrews Kate Daniels book, and even a Sarah MacLean book.

A week ago, Ilona Andrews released a new book, and I'm about halfway through it and I stopped. I don't want it to end. If I finish the book, that means it's over. The series is over, the book is over, and I won't get to live in that world anymore. Which is all so silly, since it's not like the book ceases to exist once I've finished it. Re-reads are a thing! But tell that to my brain!

I wanted nothing more last week than to sit in my favorite spot and read my book, and yet since I didn't get the chance, with you know, work, and kids, and life interfering and all, my goal today was to finish the book. But if it doesn't happen, I'm okay with that since I'm basically procrastinating my book. However, I have another rainy day book as a backup in case I tear through this one too quickly and need another amazing book I'm sure to love.

So how about you? Am I the only one who does this? Or do you have a "break glass in case of emergency" book you're saving for a rainy day. A day you can devote all your time and energy to and not have to worry about life interrupting?

If you need one, feel free to pick up Dreams of the Past, one of my shorter novellas with nothing but guaranteed happily ever afters! 



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…

Sunday, June 26, 2022

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

click here: Amazon | Kobo | Barnes & Noble | Google Play | Smashwords | Goodreads



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.

Saturday, March 26, 2022

Talk Wordy To Me by Laura Hunsaker

I'm in a book group on Facebook where it's "everything books." All genres, all questions, all formats, and especially photos of book hauls. Every now and then someone complains about people buying books and how they should use the library. It usually winds up with lots of wild popcorn-worthy comments. 

One thing that got me thinking though, is that I do go to the library. Often. I take my younger kiddos, and my eldest takes herself. We utilize the crafts they do, the classes they offer, the story time, the challenges, the read-alongs...literally anything the library offers, we are there for. Recently my youngest checked out a pre-loaded kindle. It was pretty amazing.

I've also noticed (about myself) that certain books, I prefer to own. Certain books I like to borrow. Often we borrow a book at the library and like it so much, we purchase it. So I like to think that as much as I support my local library, they also support us. We read so much in my house.  I couldn't afford my book habit if it weren't for the library. 

My library even has a few of my books listed in the local author section, which I find so incredibly cool. I've had book signings, given talks, and even met some amazing authors through my library.

So what about you? I realize not all places have the kind of access I do to an amazing and supportive library system, but if you do, do you utilize it? What's your library like? Are you far from one? Do you prefer to own the book, or are you like me, where you'r sort of a mixed bag? 


At least it's not drugs, right? 
-me about my book habit.




Here I am at the last book signing my library with some copies of my paperbacks. My library is pretty awesome!




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.