Reminder--Last Day to Enter (And Musical Bonus)

REMINDER: LAST DAY TO ENTER

My giveaway announcements have moved to SUNDAYS until the end of college football season (don’t even ask), so guest what? An extra day to win!

First, though, I want to start a new feature called DJ’S PLAYLIST. Music plays a big part in my writing—I don’t listen to it while I write (gotta have the sounds of silence for that), but I listen to it constantly when I’m not writing. Earbuds firmly clamped in ears while I’m at the dayjob, blaring from the speakers in Samwise, my XTerra, as I drive.  I wake up in the morning, with music playing in my head like a personal soundtrack—do other people do this?

So here’s my first entry. My musical taste is eclectic—I like just about everything except pure jazz—but mostly for the past four years I’ve been listening to music that keeps me firmly entrenched in South Louisiana, where my books are set. Today, we have “Give My Heart,” a ballad by Zachary Richard (pronounced Ree-shard), a Cajun songwriter and artist and environmental activist whose voice has a sweetness that’s just amazing. I also love the inflections in his voice that are a dead giveaway that he speaks both French and "South Louisiana" fluently..

This song speaks to me because of the story it tells—a love story on a barrier island off the coast of Louisiana during a hurricane, maybe someplace like Grand Terre back when pirate Jean Lafitte had his empire. Especially this verse: “The storm passed on the island on its way to New Orleans, and it flattened all the shanties of the gypsies and the thieves. I saw the red flag flying, that meant for us to leave. But Marie LeJeune from Delacroix was too far to be retrieved.” Sigh. Hope you  enjoy it.

NOW, there’s still time to enter this week’s contests if you haven't already. Just keep scrolling down, or hit the links—well, don’t hit them. That might hurt. Just click on them.

Enter to win:

To win a new release of your choice in this week’s HUGE  Reader’s Choice contest, click HERE.

To win a copy of The Highest Frontier, a sci fi from Joan Slonczewski, click HERE.

To win Stephanie Draven’s new paranormal romance, Dark Sins and Desert Sands, click HERE.

To win a copy of Blake Charlton’s great new fantasy novel Spellbound, click HERE.

Contests enter at midnight tonight (central daylight time in the U.S.) and are international. Now, start scrolling, clicking, commenting!