Burden On #Sale Until Sunday 99cents

In the depths of the Louisiana swamps, clans of bear shifters roam freely. Hawke Turnclaw, the Alpha over all of his kind, is drowning in the legacy left to him by the Alpha before him, his own father. When he goes on a rescue mission to save a rogue Black bear from the clutches of a Grizzly clan, he finds more than just a Black bear, he finds his mate.

Echo has always been told she's an anomaly, a fluke. She's the only bear of her kind and that makes her a hindrance to her clan. She's tried to run away, but they keep her tethered through guilt and a shock collar around her neck.

And then someone shows up claiming he's her mate.

Now belonging to a new clan, will she ever be able to understand that she's so much more than just a burden?

AMAZON   IBOOKS 

#ControlYourBubble

My new mantra, documentary love, and ghosts.

I must be having some 36-year old mid thirties crisis.

Either that or I'm *whispers* growing the hell up. 

Shhh...don't tell anyone. 

 I've discovered that I’m one of those people. There’s something truly self-destructive inside of me. She’s like a Gremlin. Just a few drops of water and some cookies and Her Gnarly Highness comes out to play. She doesn’t take no for an answer. She doesn’t play nice.

And she hates me. She wants to chew on my guts, hates me.

She’ll take any opportunity she can get to prove it.

I have to keep her at bay. Otherwise there’s a month’s long war of attrition and I always lose.

I always lose IF I let her out.

I could say it’s because of the mother who reminded me of how easily she could’ve aborted me or how I brought a halt to her life—and her dreams. Her seething voice still takes my breath away in the middle of the cold night every once in a while. Which is why she and I lost our battle to keep some kind of relationship a long time ago.

I guess we could all blame our idiosyncracies on a lot of things.

Blaming it on someone or something doesn’t make it go away.

And let’s face it, I’m almost forty years old. Blaming Mommy Dearest doesn’t quite hold the same fury it once did.

I’m simply one of ‘those’ people. The emotions and attitudes of others doesn’t just affect me, they sink down into my core and my soul sops it up by the gallon. Music drags me up or down on its whim. TV shows and movies trap me in their snares and sometimes it takes me days to recover.

It affects everything I do. My work progress. My attitude. My sleep. Everything.

Call me senstive. Call me what you will. Just don't call me complacent.

But I’m going to change that—the only way I know how.

I’m going to control my bubble.

Wait—what in the hell does that mean?

She’s going to spout some hippie shit. I can just feel it in my soy sandals.

What I mean is, take control of your environment. Claim it. Make your time use intentional-always.

Here’s what it means to me: Know your tribe. Recognize what inspires you. Cling to pure artistry. Harbor truth. Emit love. Do away with the remains. Be purposeful in your time usage. (It is finite whether we would face the fact or not) #ControlYourBubble

This is just the cusp of what it means for me. Since my mind is a virtual emotional sponge, I have to take control of the forces around me. I have to make sure that my music is upbeat most of the time (except when I’m writing something to the contrary). I only watch TV shows and movies that won’t completely wreck my day (or at least watch them at night). I have to control my time on social media and get a handle on scrolling. Scrolling is a deal-breaker for me.

Note: This is totally a work in progress and I still fail more than succeed.

There’s a lot more, but I’m not willing to divulge them all yet.

I started this process about two weeks ago. It’s working. Like a bag of gris-gris, it’s protecting me from all the negative influences in my life.

(Gris-gris is a Cajun/Creole term. It’s a bag of protecting herbs and items that some people, who practice voodoo, wear around their necks. I don’t, but I use the term loosely)

The miracle is—it’s working.

I’m back to me.

I’m writing faster. I’m happier. I’m exercising. I’m not eating out of displaced havoc or absorbing other people’s truths.

I live by my own truth.

There's still days where the Gremlin gets out, but I try to microwave the hell out of her when she does. 

For now, she's still cute and cuddly-but mostly silent.

How about you? Do you control your bubble? Or are you one of those people who can brush those things off?

Someone tell me I’m not alone here.

---

What I’m listening to: 30 Seconds To Mars (writing shifting scenes), The Doors (for the unadulterated chill) and The Ramones (for the rebel in me). On the side, I’m introducing my kids (or re-introducing) to the 80’s music. Middle Stooge loves it. The others, not so much. Also, I've got a BeHappy playlist on Spotify that I'm consistently updating. Totally open for suggestions. 

What I’m watching: Artifact (the 30 Seconds To Mars documentary / Netflix), The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness (Documentary about the creator of Howl’s Moving Castle / Netflix), Tracks (Netflix). I can’t help it. I’m a documentary geek. With Vikings and TWD finished for the season, I revert back to Netflix.

What I’m reading: I’m re-reading Friction by Jamie Magee (awesome book). I’ve restarted the White Aura series by Felicia Tatum. New on my TBR is a book about urban homesteading (get out your soy sandals again)

My last newsletter revealed the cover for His Haunted Heart and the first chapter. I hope you loved it and it’s now LIVE!! Buy links are at the bottom. 

Still writing. Still reading. Still hopelessly in love with all things breakfast.

Lila

AMAZON

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Forced Autonomy Spotlight

“From start to finish Forced Autonomy had me at the edge of my seat. The unique story line is unlike anything I've ever read. It's absolutely gripping and thought provoking.” A.M. Hargrove, Author of Edge of Disaster and Exquisite Betrayal

"Lila Felix has knocked it out of the park with this completely unique and original dystopian series. I'm hooked and cannot wait for the next one." Sawyer Bennett, USA Today Bestselling Author of Off Sides and Off Limits

“My one and only issue with this spellbinding story is that I didn't want it to end. Law stole my heart!” Jamie Magee, Author of the Insight Series

The United States has collapsed. Those citizens who are left are in one of two classes. One: Citizens who have undergone forced lobotomies, as mandated by the United Nations. Two: Those who fight against their tyranny.

Petra Kingsley falls under both classes. She falls in line with the drones, pretending her procedure worked. Four years she’s existed among their ranks, hiding in plain sight, being worked to the bone and starved almost to death.

Lawson is a bounty hunter of sorts. His target isn’t the guilty, it’s those who are lost in the folds of a broken society.

When he spots Petra working in the masses, he stops at nothing to help her escape.

But he has no idea who exactly he’s helping—and who will now be hunting them both?

Amazon:

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

Phase 4

Phase 5 Coming Soon

Anguish Series Spotlight

Title: UNTIL SHE WALKED IN (Formally known as AnguiSH) 

Until she walked in, Breaker James floated around in a prison of his own making, crippled by agoraphobia.

Until she walked in, he itched for something more.

Until she walked in, his world was in limbo.

A simple note pinned to a corkboard will lead Ash right to Breaker’s solitary world and she will learn that there’s more to love than holding on tight.

Sometimes it means you have to let go.

AMAZON  GOODREADS

Breaker James isn’t the boy who is imprisoned in his home anymore. He’s not the guy who is afraid to leave the house. He doesn’t need Ash twenty four hours a day anymore.

Hell, he might not need her anymore at all.

He’s a heart breaker, pure and simple.

Love is easy when you’re secluded from the world within four walls.

Ash now has to learn how to let Breaker love her—without being his crutch.

AMAZON  B&N  GOODREADS

Bayou Bear Chronicles Series Spotlight

In the depths of the Louisiana swamps, clans of bear shifters roam freely. Hawke Turnclaw, the Alpha over all of his kind, is drowning in the legacy left to him by the Alpha before him, his own father. When he goes on a rescue mission to save a rogue Black bear from the clutches of a Grizzly clan, he finds more than just a Black bear, he finds his mate.

Echo has always been told she's an anomaly, a fluke. She's the only bear of her kind and that makes her a hindrance to her clan. She's tried to run away, but they keep her tethered through guilt and a shock collar around her neck.

And then someone shows up claiming he's her mate.

Now belonging to a new clan, will she ever be able to understand that she's so much more than just a burden?

AMAZON  GOODREADS  IBOOKS  B&N

Determined to be the best Beta he can, Rev has made sure to keep his distance from Martha, the female he knows to be his mate. He’s not sure he even knows how to be a decent mate to her.

All that changes when the Alpha and the Coeur conspire to make sure that Martha and Rev both face what they’ve known to be true for so long.

One look is all it takes, but there is so much more to being a mated couple than facing the claim.

Martha is not ready to give up anything in her life, not even to make room for him.

Rev is ready, but only as long as his female bends her life to fit into his.

Pushing and pulling, each one will have to decide which is more important—the life they’ve built, or the one they could have together.

AMAZON  GOODEADS  IBOOKS  B&N

The Thing About Hospitals...

I've talked about the subject some on social media, but I thought I'd go into more detail here. 

My husband was in an accident on April 29th and it turned our world upside down and spit it out sideways. 

Apparently, cutting down trees for neighbors can lead to a broken back and as of the time of this post, fifteen days in the hospital. That's what happens when you are catapulted thirty feet in the air by a tree who doesn't' appreciate being cut with a chainsaw.

I'm so grateful for the staff at this hospital for getting my husband better and teaching him to walk with a broken back and a pinched sciatica. 

That being said, I hate hospitals.

I hate the uncomfortable beds that you are supposed to get rested and healed on. I hate the showers that never really get hot. I hate the food that is supposed to nourish you back to health, but really ask your spouse to run to various food places all day. I hate the thermostat that either makes the place icy or hellish. 

I do love the hospital ice. It's kind of like Sonic. 

I'm writing this from a couch that squeaks because it's covered with the stuff that you throw over furniture when you want to paint. It folds into a couch that is an inch too short for the lollipop guild to sleep on. 

The thing is--this place is where I got stronger. I learned that physically, I am strong enough to hold my husband up while he learns to use a walker. Mentally, I am strong enough to gut up when there isn't time for crying or giving up. Emotionally, I can control my tears even when I don't have to. And more than that--I can write here, while nothing is convenient and none of the conditions are perfect. 

I've always been one of those 'get ready' people. In order to write, I thought I had to have the right music, the right desk, and the right coffee. Crackers and various snacks, along with my favorite lip balm and pens and journals had to be lined up on my desk. 

Maybe I've learned that all that isn't necessary. I'm writing on this mouse of a couch with no headphone and a honey bun that has spent its life petrifying in a vending machine for God only knows how long. 

I have a miniscule styrofoam cup of coffee next to me with powdered creamer and the pink stuff sprinkled in it.

But I'm writing. 

And it's lovely. 

I've put the links for His Haunted Heart at the bottom of this newsletter. It's my first historical, even though, in my mind it's a southern gothic semi-paranormal romance. 

I'm calling it historical.

Next newsletter, I'm going to be talking about controlling your bubble and what that means, especially now, to me. 

Still here. Still writing with nasty coffee. Still enamored with hospital ice.

Lila

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Forged In Fire Series Spotlight

Can two hearts be forged into one?

Cami Montgomery stole a car and smashed it into the front of a building in upscale Beverly Hills after a lousy date with the epitome of sleaze balls. The worst part, her parents are following through on threats after this latest plea for attention. Banished from her L.A. paradise and plunged into the Appalachian Mountains with her industrious aunt and uncle, Cami is about to find out how precious life really is.

Stockton Wright has been thrust into a hard life. He sacrifices everything to give his family and community what they need. He’s exhausted from life and work—and he’s only twenty four. What he needs is some change, and some sunshine. Even he will agree to that. He just doesn’t expect to find it in a stuck up, pompous, entitled Californian.

Cami bursts into Stockton’s life like wildfire, consuming all his thoughts and tangling him in her web. What starts out as a contentious rivalry evolves into a desire neither of them expected. When hammer meets metal, will they crack under pressure or be forged as one?

Cami and Stockton might just end up being exactly what the other one needs, but first their love will have to be drawn out in fire.

AMAZON   GOODREADS

Tate Halloway lives life to the fullest. She had a rough childhood and a rougher adolescence. Now that she’s away at school and on her own for the first time in her life, nothing can hold her back from making the most out of every single day. Well, just that one thing. But she refuses to think about it. And why would she, when life is so much more fun when you’re living it, experiencing every little thing.

When she bumps into Bridger Wright, a childhood friend that was both a bully and a serious crush, she starts to see that not everyone thinks like her. She’s always had a thing for Bridger, but the guy she catches up with is a far cry from the little boy that used to put toads down her dress and pull her ponytails. She knows there’s more to Bridger than this sulking, disconnected version of him and she’s bound and determined to pull it out of him.

Bridger Wright has been spurned in love more than once. He always seems to trust the wrong girls and end up with a broken heart. He’s tired of it. And he has resolved himself to a life without love. He believes he’s better off, if only he could convince Tate too. Tate bursts into Bridger’s life like sunlight through clouds. She’s vivacious, energetic and adventurous. But she’s not without secrets. Just as Bridger starts to open up to her demanding presence and the feelings he can’t seem to deny, his trust is broken again.

Bridger and Tate are forced to face each other and the pain of their past. Neither wants to face their demons and deal with their hurt, but neither can deny the depth of their feelings for each other.

Their brazing love will take work and sacrifice. Both are capable of giving to each other. Both will have to decide whether or not it’s worth it.

AMAZON  GOODREADS