Coins: Fun or a lot of Work

Good Morning Readers,

First let me say, Thank You, to Brenda for having me as her guest today. It’s always a pleasure to blog at her site. I have a fun subject for you this morning, one that is near and dear to my heart.

Have you ever felt passionate about something? I mean really passionate? Of course we love our kids and dear hubby, our parents, heck, our extended families, but outside that, do you have another passion?

For me it's coins!

I’ve been an avid coin collector for years, and as my eldest son says, once I start something, I go all out. I stumbled into collecting coins by accident by becoming acquainted with an elderly gentleman who had an extensive collection he was selling. At the time, coins meant very little to me and I never even considered the value of one.
I started out small for my first collection because I really had no clue what I was doing. And I started out collecting foreign coins. I was fascinated by the hundreds of different designs on the exotic, alien coins. Frankly, some were just plain beautiful. They still are, however, I quickly learned that if I was going to be a serious collector, I needed to collect coins that were minted in the good ole’ U.S. of A.

What really got me hooked was when a young woman from Poland whom I’d met online and discussed coins with volunteered to send me a couple of coins from her grandfather’s collection. Her words were, “He died and grandmother doesn’t need his coins.” I was both shocked and honored that she offered them to me and expecting a couple of tiny coins in the mail, didn’t think anything else about them until the day they arrived.

The two coins that arrived in my mailbox were huge and known as thalers, and were minted in Austria. I looked them over trying to figure out just when they were minted because the letters were a bit difficult to figure out. When I saw the dates on those two coins, my heart dropped to my knees. Both coins were over three hundred years old. I was stunned that this woman had parted with them and made them a gift to me. I still have them today and they mean more to me than any coin I have in any of my collections.

Over the years I’ve collected different sets and passed them on to my children and grandchildren. I hope someday that at least one of them will feel as passionate about coins as I do and begin their own collections.

Another thing I’m passionate about is books, especially a steamy romance. I hope you’ll enjoy the excerpt from my upcoming novel, WILD, book five and the conclusion of the Montana Men Series. This novel is unavailable until late 2012. The first four books in the series will be re-released in early 2012 by Secret Cravings Publishing. They’ll be longer, stronger, extended versions. Be sure to watch for them!


Wild



BLURB:

A wild gamble…uneven odds…an assassin’s bullet…

She’d do anything―The only witness to the first lady’s assassination, Jayla Ross is the next target. She flees to Montana to the one man she knows can keep her safe, and save the life of her unborn child―except, she’s the last person he’d ever agree to help…

He’d risk everything―Wild Remington spent five years in prison because of Ross’s lies, and now, with a bullet hole in her shoulder, she’s asking him for help―right in time to be trapped in the wilds of Montana in the middle of a blizzard…

Jayla and Wild―two people who have nothing left to lose and perhaps everything to gain…



EXCERPT:

Sliding off the horse, he approached her from the driver’s side. “Hey, in there, you okay, lady?” he shouted. “Are you hurt?”

Crack!

His hat sailed through the air landing a few feet away. The mare reared and whinnied, frightened by the sudden gunshot. The reins slid from his gloved hands. The mare bolted like she’d been stung by a bee. Wild dropped to the ground, belly-crawling until he reached cover behind a large rock. “Sonofabitch, if she didn’t want help, then why did she yell for it?”

Leaning against the boulder, he looked around quickly to make sure the mare hadn’t left the country in terror. Nope. She’d stopped a few feet away. The horse was well trained, better trained than the loco female with the loaded gun poked out the driver’s side window taking potshots at him.

He peeped around the corner of the boulder. Hell, he’d had reporters charge him like a herd of stampeding cattle, but he’d never had one try to gun him down before. “Damn, fool woman!” he muttered.

She waved the pistol around above the top of the driver’s door like it was some kind of flag. “I’ve got a gun,” she yelled.

“No shit,” Wild mumbled, and ducked back down. He snatched his cowboy hat off the ground, cursing―his favorite, the cream-colored straw one with the black and white beaded band and bits of ostrich feathers on the back. He eyed it with disgust. The demon woman had put a bullet hole through the crown. What a pissy-ass day this had turned out to be.

He jammed the hat back in place, his jaw tightening with anger. He might want to kill himself, but be damned if someone else was doing the job for him. “Are you crazy, lady?” he shouted. “Don’t shoot! I’m here to help you.”

“Wild? Is that you?”

Puzzled, he rose slowly to his feet, his arms up in surrender. “Well, now, that all depends,” he drawled. “Who the hell are you gunning for?” He didn’t recognize the voice or the car. Wild side-stepped, edging around so he could approach the car from the rear and stay out of her range, or at least make it difficult for her to line him up in her sights. He walked closer, close enough to eye the plates. U.S. Government. D.C.



Please leave a comment for a chance to win a free E-copy of Playing for Keeps, book four in the Montana Men series. I’ll drop your name in the cowboy hat and announce the winner tomorrow.

Until then,

Happy Reading!



11 comments:

  1. Brenda,
    TY so much for having me as your guest today.
    Hugs,
    Tabs

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brenda, thanks for offering us such an interesting author.

    Tabs, I love the cover for Wild! Can't wait to read the rest of it -- it's going to be a tough call whether he replaces Danger in my heart :D

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Bonnie,
    Thanks so much for dropping by. I love the cover for Wild, too. So glad you loved the excerpt and yes, ur right, it's going to be a tough call....lol...Tabs/Jaydyn

    ReplyDelete
  4. Whoa,darn it. I wish they would release this one sooner. I'm waiting with baited breath here. The original first ones were great reading. I'm eager to see how you expanded them.

    Coin collecting is a nice hobby. Something to occupy your mind between writing. A mental rest that we all need. Now, I guess I'll have to find a hobby. lol. How do you find the time?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Lorrie,
    Thanks for dropping by, so glad u love the MM series. I can't wait for them to be all back out on the market either and Wild. We all have to let our brain rest...lol. I take my moments and scan the Internet for coin sells, plus I a member of different organizations that handle sells as well. I'm always looking for old coins as well as new. You should start collecting. It's like having money in the bank...lol. Tabs

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Tabs. I am also a coin collector. I have been collecting since I was 13 years old, but wish I had those few special ones you have. We should exchange a bit of currency sometime:-)
    Love the excerpt. The writing is excellent. Very exciting. Glad to have you at Secret Cravings Publishing with me. Like old times :-) cheers

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Julie,
    Yes, it is and absolutely, we'll exchange coins. I love foreign currency too. Thanks for dropping by. Glad u loved the excerpt. I'm so excited about this book, can't wait for its release. Yes, it is like old times. Hugs...Tabs

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi All,
    Congrats goes to Julie! Her name was the one drawn from the cowboy's hat. Thanks to everyone who dropped by today...Tabs/Jaydyn

    ReplyDelete
  9. darn it, guess I should check my emails better! Can't wait for your new book to come out!!! AGAIN, like you hear from me constantly, gotta hear about the triplet! love ya...your local stalker :0)

    ReplyDelete