Category Archives: Military

Welcome, Ann Gimple!

Presenting…

 

GenTech Rebellion Series

~Book 1 – Winning Glory~

 

Being a genetiWinningGlory-FJM_Mid_Res_1000x1500cally altered human without a name grew old, so Glory named herself. Surrounded by a maze of unpleasant alternatives, she makes a bold choice and ends up a fugitive in the midst of a Minnesota winter. Once she’s on the run, she discovers how unprepared she is for life outside her protected compound.

CIA agent, Roy Kincaid, devoted his career to hunting super humans who staged a rebellion seven years before. He’s not making much headway, so he goes deep undercover. One blustery night, a striking woman staggers into the café where he’s catching a late meal. Part waif, part runway model, the half-frozen woman arrows straight into his heart.

Glory’s flat out of alternatives, but death in the storm might be preferable to telling the tall stranger looming over her anything. Sensing Roy is dangerous, she pushes into his head seeking clues and discovers he hunts those like her. Maybe she can fool him, just for tonight. Get a hot meal and dry motel room out of the deal. If she’s lucky, he’ll never find out she’s on the run from the same group he’s targeted for death.

The thing she didn’t count on was falling in love.

 

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~Book 2 – Honor Bound~

 

fb9d5fbe645e7b1ea0365dd320aa1b16Honor takes a huge chance and flees her compound one wintry night. A genetically altered woman, she has no memories from before her kin staged a rebellion seven years before. Because of her enhanced physiology, she finds a home working for the CIA alongside four other women just like her. There are still plenty of rules, but they’re different, and she’s figuring out how to blend in.

Milton Reins burns through women and marriages. After the third one implodes, he swears off hunting for a replacement. Running the CIA is a more than fulltime job. There’s no time for anything else in his life, which is fine until Honor comes along. Training in the gym throws their bodies together and makes him remember the feel of a woman in his arms. Milton aches for her, but she’s a freak—the CIA term for test tube humans designed by scientists.

Honor wants Milton with every bone in her body, but it’s a terrible idea, especially after she delves into his head and sees his ambivalence toward her kind. Need drives them together, but their differences create roadblocks every step of the way. Fueled by anger and fear, she shuts him out. So what if the sex was great, she’s done.

Or is she?

 

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~Book 3 – Claiming Charity~

 

Claiming CharityEbookFinal-FJM_Mid_Res_1000x1500Charity’s luck never ran strong because her original configuration was unstable. Her handlers designed experiments to fix the problem, but only made it worse. Sick to death of living under their thumb, she jumps at a chance to escape her compound. She’s no sooner settled in as a CIA special operative—a role where she can put her augmented mind and body to use—when her wobbly genetics escalate.

Tony’s a freak—a genetically altered human waging war against the government. He snaps up an offer of amnesty, walking away from his role as a genetic researcher to work for the CIA. When Charity collapses in a severe seizure, he labors to save her life, but nothing’s working. In a last ditch effort, he joins his mind to hers and discovers he wants her more than he’s ever wanted anything. Only problem is she hates every single male freak for how they treated women in the compounds.

Charity recovers from her medical crisis, but all she can think about is Tony. Furious, determined to never let anyone like him near her, she blocks him from her mind, but he seeps back in anyway. Loving someone like Tony is a huge risk, a gamble that could throw her already precarious genes into a tailspin.

Knowing all that, why the hell is she considering it?

 

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~About The Author~

 

011_1Ann Gimpel is a mountaineer at heart. Recently retired from a long career as a psychologist, she remembers many hours at her desk where her body may have been stuck inside four walls, but her soul was planning yet one more trip to the backcountry. Around the turn of the last century (that would be 2000, not 1900!), she managed to finagle moving to the Eastern Sierra, a mecca for those in love with the mountains. It was during long backcountry treks that Ann’s writing evolved. Unlike some who see the backcountry as an excuse to drag friends and relatives along, Ann prefers solitude. Stories always ran around in her head on those journeys, sometimes as a hedge against abject terror when challenging conditions made her fear for her life, sometimes for company. Eventually, she returned from a trip and sat down at the computer. Three months later, a five hundred page novel emerged. Oh, it wasn’t very good, but it was a beginning. And, she learned a lot between writing that novel and its sequel.

Around that time, a friend of hers suggested she try her hand at short stories. It didn’t take long before that first story found its way into print and they’ve been accepted pretty regularly since then. One of Ann’s passions has always been ecology, so her tales often have a green twist.

In addition to writing, Ann enjoys wilderness photography. She lugs pounds of camera equipment in her backpack to distant locales every year. A standing joke is that over ten percent of her pack weight is camera gear which means someone else has to carry the food! That someone is her husband. They’ve shared a life together for a very long time. Children, grandchildren and three wolf hybrids round out their family.

 

~Where To Find Ann~

Website

Blogspot

Amazon

Facebook

Twitter

 

 

Welcome To The Family, Jo Grafford!

 

Charlene A. Wilson brick cropped
Charlene A. Wilson, Hostess

In November 2010, Highlighted Author was born. It grew quickly, many great authors having to wait nearly a year to be featured. By March 2011, it was clear the little blog spot just didn’t offer what was needed. In June 2011, we moved into our very own domain, HighlightedAuthor.com.

Highlighted Author has featured Best Selling authors from around the world, from Veterans’ Memorials to Paranormal Romance, Children’s Literature to Self Help Finance, and Poetry, with weekly Features filled with audio/video trailer and clips, beautiful cover art, and intriguing excerpts. This year, Highlighted Author had the honor of being voted 4th in the P&E Readers’ Poll for Best Promotional Firm, Site, or Resource . Rarely has a week gone by that a new author hasn’t been introduced for you to add to your Favorites list.

Three years after its inception, Highlighted Author added a special interest segment. In March 2013, Highlighted Author Special Interest was born. And just like its parent partner, this unique area, reserved for New Releases, Book Tours, and Giveaways, has boomed. Now, yet one year later, March 2014 brings us to another milestone. With the growth and love shown us by authors and readers alike, I’ve seen the need to add to the family. I’m so proud to introduce to you my new Co-Hostess, Jo Grafford.

Jo Grafford
Jo Grafford, Co-Hostess

As an mega reader of all genres, I am excited to join Charlene as Co-Hostess. It’s a privilege (and a whole lot of fun) to be a part of introducing you to new and established authors here on Highlighted Author. Charlene has done an amazing job of developing and growing this blog. I look forward to helping her continue to bring you the hottest promotions and newest releases of our diverse and growing lineup of authors.

Our regular features are booked out till June already, but please keep them coming. I have no will power to resist a good book and frequently stay up past my bedtime reading titles rich in period history, talented successful women and their strong alpha males, Native Americans, and an occasional creature from the otherworld – dragons, vampires, or time travelers.

From St. Louis, Missouri, I move a lot with my soldier husband. We’ve lived in the Midwest, the deep South, and now reside in Bavaria. Along the way, I’ve served as a banker, college finance instructor, and high school business teacher and am an active member in the Romance Writers of America and From the Heart Romance Writers RWA Chapter.

I write historical and paranormal romance. My current project is the Lost Colony Series, published by Astraea Press. It’s based on one of the world’s most intriguing unsolved mysteries, a missing persons report of epic proporations.

For excerpts, character lists, contests, newsletters, and more – visit the world of Jo Grafford at:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Google+

A cursed island, chilling betrayal, and unexpected encounter with love...
A cursed island, chilling betrayal, and unexpected encounter with love…

BREAKING TIES, first book in the Lost Colony Series is available at:

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Smashwords | iBooks | Astraea Press 

BREAKING TIES Book Trailer

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Welcome Sharon Hamilton

Join me in welcoming Sharon Hamilton to Highlighted Author.

 

Smiling Sharon in Red

Sharon Hamilton is the New York Times and USA/Today best selling author of the SEAL Brotherhood series, romantic suspense with Navy SEAL heroes. Her fourth book is SEAL The Deal, and has been released this month.

She writes in beautiful Sonoma County, California, in the heart of the wine country. This is her first novel that takes place almost entirely in her Northern California community. When she is not writing, she is working her organic vegetable and flower garden, getting vera vera dirty, or wandering local Farmer’s Markets trading or looking for Heirloom seeds.

 

 

 

 

SEAL The Deal

Blurb

 

Special Operator Nick Dunn gets the call he has been dreading since before his last deployment. His sister is in her final stages of cancer.  Nick only vaguely remembers Devon Brandeburg, his sister’s best friend, but boy has she grown up.

Devon has created a small financial fortune through her success in real estate. Her career is her main focus, but a closely guarded secret is her total lack of experience with men.

What starts as a deathbed promise turns out to be a hot affair neither one expected. Nick becomes Devon’s teacher in her journey to womanhood. As she comes alive in his arms, the student brings the teacher something he’s never allowed himself to want, and now knows he needs.

 

 Book Trailer

 

Excerpt

SealtheDeal200x300Devon Brandeburg didn’t see Sophie’s car, but did find a God-awful yellow, totally obnoxious Hummer she’d need a stepladder to mount, parked at an angle and taking up half the parking lot. She knew right away it belonged to Sophie’s full-of-himself SEAL brother, Nick. He’d driven up five years ago, right after he made it through the BUD/S program. He’d been so puffed up with hubris he pushed all the air out of the room when he entered.

The worst thing about the guy, as Devon remembered, was that he automatically thought any girl would fall down on her knees and beg him to do the nasty with her. Devon had been so bold as to ask him one time about suicides increasing in the military. She was going to do an English paper on the subject. His answer was, “Not the SEALs. Hell, why would we deprive the ladies of some fun? We’re God’s gift to the female population.”

He’d given her that big, goofy smile, overly confident and irritating as heck. In SonomaCounty she never ran across such bravado and in-your-face braggadocio.

It had turned her stomach. She’d rolled her eyes then, and when she’d looked back at him he had the nerve to wink!

But later, she’d had a hard time forgetting the sight of his hard body and muscular arms, easily twice the size of anyone else’s she knew. And yes, she did dream about him that night. That really pissed her off.

All that had happened when she was twenty and completely inexperienced.  Hell, she was still a virgin at twenty-five, a secret she guarded with her life. The one time she’d extended her heart to someone she thought perhaps she could love, she was hurt so badly, she never let anyone get close again. She poured herself into her work as a means to forget the whole experience.

No, sexual confidence wasn’t something she’d had a chance to develop, but she’d make damned sure, if Sophie forced her to talk to him about his sister’s estate, Mr. Nicholas Dunn would never learn that little factoid.

She’d become a successful realtor and made enough to support herself with a decent lifestyle. She’d mentored under Sophie originally, until Sophie gave up her career in real estate to go into the nursery business. Devon became the professional realtor, while Sophie got her hands dirty tending to a failing business. They remained best friends.

Devon parked her Lexus a safe distance away from the rock-spraying beast of a vehicle Nick was probably driving, and secretly hoped he’d not be there.

Her luck wasn’t that good.

He still sucked all the air out of the room. He was standing at Sophie’s little sink washing dishes. And he was singing, rocking his hips from side to side. Was that the song from Flashdance?

I’m a maniac—“

She couldn’t resist breaking in.

“Well, look at you…so domestic.” She crossed her arms, tilted her head and enjoyed surprising the heck out of this normally self-composed brute. He to slammed the water faucet shut with his fist and dried his hands. Then he slowly perused the length of her body, leaving no part unexplored. His emerald green eyes were blazing.

Still the same cocky son of a bitch. Devon knew he didn’t care if he got caught ogling her, so confident was he that a rejection wasn’t anywhere in his future. He was all the kinds of maleness she’d been running from.

He leaned his butt against the tiled countertop. Then he threw down the towel and mirrored Devon’s stance with crossed arms. “Been awhile, Dev.”

“Devon.”

“Right. Still don’t like me, do you?”

“You’re a good judge of character,” she answered. “I’ll give you that.”

“You’re just as scrappy as Sophie told me you’d be.” He smiled as if his approval mattered to her.

“I’ll just leave you to your work, then.”

“Oh, the dishes are done. I was going to sweep the floor and then wash all the windows. But you go ahead and do all that computer stuff you realtors do. Way beyond me.”

Devon found that comment funny, despite an internal backdrop of curiosity and fear. Attempting to focus on her work, she sat down at the plank tabletop, stacked the listing folders to the side and opened up her computer. She crossed her legs and ran her fingers through the hair at the back of her scalp, took a deep breath and logged on to the Internet to begin a property search. But Nick’s presence still loomed large enough to make her catch her breath.

The soft sweeping sound of Sophie’s broom against the cool concrete floor began to distract her. Didn’t help much that she could see Nick wrestling the handle with nearly enough force to break it. His forearms were as big as her thighs, for goodness’ sake. His shoulders moved with sinewy grace underneath smooth tanned skin. His mop of blond hair went in all directions. He tickled her ankles as he reached the broom under the table and swept the area around her.

“Does that bother you?” he asked. He’d stopped, leaning his chin on the end of the broomstick.

“As in, were you trying to?” Why were men so obvious?

“Nope. It was an honest question.” The sparkle in his eyes made him out to be a liar. His animal magnetism was bringing up those butterflies again. She needed to get back to the cold hard facts, and the numbers. Things she was asked to do for poor Sophie. This was all about Sophie, after all.

“You want some coffee, Devon?” he asked.

He wasn’t going to leave her alone, was he? “Wow. You clean the dishes, sweep the floor, and you make coffee? The Navy must have trained you well. What did they do, get some of the senior wives to come in and give you pointers?” She wondered where that comment came from.

“I don’t need any pointers.”

In spite of herself, she blushed. Damn. That sticky feeling of not being in control and him standing there, looking all confident and smug sent her pulse racing. She attempted to get back to her computer when…

Just then he fired up the coffee grinder, making her jump in her seat.  She began to smell the glorious scent of freshly brewing coffee and her mouth watered.

When she looked up, he had his back to her. A variety of Celtic crosses and symbols poked up above the collar of his T-shirt. She could see discoloration from beneath the white cotton fabric, hinting at tats on his shoulders and lower, in places she forced her eyes not to search. One long stream of tats like footprints of a three-legged toad was inked on his right inside forearm.

It was impossible to ignore the enormous V of his upper torso leading to the small waist, his deltoids and lats so tight they looked like they’d hurt. She began to wonder what they would feel like—

He caught her staring when he stole a quick glance over his shoulder before crossing the room with two mugs of the hot black coffee. Placing one next to her computer, he took a seat right across from her like she was his entertainment.

“I dare you to say there’s a better cup of coffee anywhere.” His deep green eyes were almost iridescent. His smooth tanned face and full lips did cause her to blush. She quickly grabbed the mug, sipping the steamy liquid. She was going to try to ignore him by finding something of interest on the screen.

But then Nick slurped his coffee. She could feel his eyes still focused on her.

Devon didn’t care how long he stared. She wasn’t going to return the gaze. Didn’t the guy have any shame? Or, was this little cat and mouse game a way to process the pain he must be feeling over Sophie’s illness. Either way, it was making her feel like she was spinning out of control.

She frowned, consulted her yellow-lined tablet and kept tapping on the keys. Her red nail polish matched her red suit, but now she wished she’d worn black.

One of her heels fell off and plopped to the ground because her legs were crossed. She briefly looked up at him, only to see the wiggle of his eyebrows, and the unspoken offer to crawl under the table and place the patent leather pump back on her foot. That would mean he’d have to touch her calf as he adjusted the shoe. He’d hold her ankle with both his dinner plate hands, and his fingers—

Feeling very much like an insect pinned in a collection box, she inhaled loudly, stuffed her foot into her errant shoe, and picked up the pace of her typing.

He continued to watch her, occasionally piercing the quiet with his sips.

The room was beginning to heat up. The late fall weather pattern was growing hot, which meant some long, sweaty nights with crickets chirping madly, since Sophie’s house didn’t have air conditioning. Neither did the nursery. She sighed, blowing air up to her bangs.

“You should have worn something sleeveless.”

“A fashionista as well?” She was wondering when he’d take the hint and stop trying to distract her.

“I just notice you’re looking rather hot today, Devon.”

No way was she going to look at him. He had her really bothered now. But then she did look up, and damn, he was fine.  She fell into the crease at the right side of his mouth, the huskiness in his voice that made her ears buzz. She had to get him to stop.

“So you sit there and make an obnoxious ass of yourself while you watch me work? You think that’s some kind of fun?” Did he hear the waver in her voice?

“I enjoy watching beautiful women.”

It was getting hotter in the room. “Really? Women who don’t know you? Women who don’t care in the slightest anything about you? Sounds like a rather pathetic way to spend a few minutes.”

“Not from over here.” She could tell he was enjoying laying it on thick, and she was powerless to stop him. She had to act now or she’d be completely lost.

Devon shot up to her feet. “Enough! Nick. Go outside. Make yourself useful. I’m sure there are some weeds to pull or some walkways to rake.”

He shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He took his mug and swaggered outside into the afternoon sunlight. She found herself still gasping for air at the sight of him making his way lazily across the parking lot.

Devon’s heart rate was thumping wildly. A bead of sweat trickled down between her breasts.

Whatever it was she’d dreamed about five years ago was still there. Lurking. Waiting to pounce.

 

Get your copy of SEAL The Deal at Amazon  

 

Want more Sharon? Here’s where you can find her:

Sharon’s Blog | Sharon’s Website | Facebook | Twitter