Truth or Consequences

I'm excited to reveal the cover for Truth or Consequences, a romantic thriller. Soul Mate Publishing has slated a tentative release in May.

Danielle Herring is happy with her life in Texas just the way it is – easy, relaxed, and simplistic; however, conflicting worlds collide and heinous transgressions are committed when she’s whisked to New Mexico and into a world she doesn’t understand. If she had realized the impact of her beloved Grandma Mae’s last words, her life may have been easier. Danielle may have been prepared to face the daunting skeletons. The ones locked deep in the recesses of a dark and looming closet where treachery lurks in the shadows of her family tree.

While searching for answers to the secrets of her past, she unknowingly makes the skeletons dance and is thrust into the arms of two men she knows little about. Drake Del Bosque and Stephen Briggs are everything her grandmother tried to protect her from. Drake is dark and foreboding. Stephen is abrupt and brash. Who should she trust?

Danielle may have been kept in the dark, but she is not blind to the meaning of love and family. She is caught in a formidable love triangle that will test her courage and resolve. Some deep-seeded secrets and desires are buried so deep in the soil that bringing them to the surface requires Truth or Consequences.

“The Fair-Haired Maiden”

Where the water meets the rocky shore

Of Orkney Bluff next to the ruins,

There lies rubble of selkie lore

Where slept great Men, Faye, and Druins

Upon the shore in wait;

There I’ve hid my skin of fate,

Under a distant rock

And it shall never talk.

My fair-haired maiden, come away with me!

To the watery depths of the succulent sea

With a selkie, embraced arm in arm

Your seven salty tears will bless our union and keep you from any harm.

Where moonlight dances upon the waves

Our reflections gently glisten in glee,

And into the night my heart craves

The deep blue depths of the sea,

Eyes of deep seeded coals

Entwined bodies, entwined souls

Onward in joyous jubilee;

Bodies moving rhythmically

Descending the depths of the night,

While fleeing the humanly world in fright

My eyes are anxious to see.

My fair-haired maiden, come away with me!

To the watery depths of the succulent sea

With a selkie, embraced arm in arm

Your seven salty tears will bless our union and keep you from any harm.

Where the words of men whisper

In an ancient Orcadian dialect,

The frightful lore doeth stir

Leaving men to suspect,

Those selkie men shed their skins

And walk confidently upon the land

Luring both woman and maiden

To commit an unspeakable sin

Leaving a scar upon heart and hand

-Perpetuating the fear of men.

My fair-haired maiden, come away with me!

To the watery depths of the succulent sea

With a selkie, embraced arm in arm

Your seven salty tears will bless our union and keep you from any harm.

Reborn into the depths of lore,

The fair-haired maiden comes:

Nevermore to stand upon a human floor

Upon her parent’s heart it grievously strums

For, she is now lost to the deep blue sea

Never to rejoin her bloody kin

With the selkie folk forever she’ll be

-Never again to live among men.

The fair-haired maiden, she comes with me!

To the watery depths of the succulent sea

With a selkie, embraced arm in arm

Your seven salty tears will bless our union and keep you from any harm.