Goddess Of Wolves And Bears—Terry Spear

Latte Art  http://www.oddee.com 

My guest is Terry Spear. I freely admit I love her books and the hours of entertainment she has provided through them. Terry has a day job, writes—if you visited her website you’ll see she writes a variety of stories, not just wolves. She’s a pretty busy lady. We all have things we do to unwind. Hobbies. Terry talks about hers—making teddy bears and not just any teddy bear, but Celtic clan bears.

See? Terry isn’t just your average goddess of the wolves, but also of bears. 

Years ago I was making quilts, cloth dolls, embroidering pictures, hooking rugs, you name it. My folks had begun a business of creating unique doll carriages and other doll furniture for collectors and taking them to shows all across the country. They were really successful and bought a number of dolls to display sitting on their furniture at the shows. But that meant wrapping up all these dolls and keeping them safe, and lugging them all over when they had to be just as careful with their doll carriages.

So my dad asked me to create an old fashioned teddy bear and they’d take them to the shows. And I began to take them to teddy bear shows at the same time. They won best of show at a Fort Lauderdale doll and teddy bear show, best dressed bears, and most unique bear for a pirate peg-legged bear. Three were featured in separate issues of Teddy Bear Review Magazine, one was featured in Texas Monthly Magazine and others in Texas Co-op Monthly and the MacNeill in the MacNeill Galley. They’ve been showcased in several newspapers also. And Spectral Visions showed them in The International Teddy Bear Connection film.

So the business was born! With the advent of the Internet, I was excited to create a webpage and showcase the bears for the whole world to see. And then with paypal, I was able to take payments online! Besides the baby birth bears paws that are embroidered with a child’s first name and the birth date on the other foot, one of my goals was to create the beloved Celtic Clan Bears. I periodically add more clan plaids to my collection to create a bonnet and sash for the bear, and then embroider the clan name on the bear’s paws.

The bears have found homes all over the States and Canada, and as far away as Switzerland, China, Kazakhstan, France, and Australia!

Over the years, I’ve had a lot of fun with comments about the bears. At one show, I had a broken finger in a splint as I tried to embroider bear paws that had been bought at the site. A man said, “I see your bears bite.”

A lady commented, “You’re poking them with the needle, and I can see why you got bitten.”

Now, the man reminded me of my dad, and so I figured that a man would have said such a thing.

The woman reminded me of me. LOL I didn’t expect a woman to say anything of the sort.

Oh, and the way I had broken my finger? I had a black standard poodle, and a white one, both on leash, both leashes in my right hand, and both dogs dashed in the opposite direction, the leashes wrapping around the finger and yanking, hard.

So the bear story was fine. Yes, the bears don’t like being poked with a sharp needle and sometimes they bite.

Over the years I’ve also had a number of comments: “You make the whole bear?”

I smile. “Yep. From scratch.”

“Do you buy the head from somewhere else?”

I pause and think of a shop that sells only bear heads. “Nope. I make the bears from scratch.”

When I made my first bears, my dad looked them over and said, “You didn’t make these.”

I gave him one of my looks, head tilted to the side, lips pursed, raised eyebrows.

“Did you?” he asked.

And then he wanted to take them to the Dallas Trade Mart to sell with their carriages, and then the doll and bear shows, and I became the bear lady.

Although one of my fans calls me a wolf goddess.

So how have my bears helped with writing? They’re like characters in furry form. Each is an individual, and like with writing, I love to take a break and do something different.

• Do you have a hobby that you love to do?

You can find out more information about my teddy bears here: http://terryspear.tripod.com/celticbears/

A SEAL IN WOLF’S CLOTHING  BY TERRY SPEAR – IN STORES MARCH 2012

Her instincts tell her he's dangerous...

While her overprotective brother's away, Meara Greymere's planning to play—and it wouldn't hurt to find herself a mate in the process. The last thing she needs is one of his SEAL buddies spoiling her fun, even if the guy is the hottest one she's ever seen...

His powers of persuasion are impossible to resist...

Finn Emerson is a battle-hardened Navy SEAL and alpha wolf. He's a little overqualified for baby-sitting, but feisty Meara is attracting trouble like a magnet...

As the only responsible alpha male in the vicinity, Finn is going to have to protect this intriguing woman from a horde of questionable men, and definitely from himself...

Experience the sensual, action-packed, critically acclaimed world of Terry Spear, author of a Publisher's Weekly Best Book of the Year…

Terry Spear has written a dozen paranormal romance novels and two medieval Highland historical romances. An award-winning author, Terry’s Heart of the Wolf was named a Publishers Weekly’s Best Book of the Year in 2008. A retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, Terry Spear is a librarian by day and spends every spare moment writing paranormal romance as well as historical and true life stories for both teen and adult audiences. Spear lives in Crawford, Texas, where she is working on new paranormal romances! For more information, please visit her website http://www.terryspear.com/.

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Having Fun With Cheryl Brooks

My guest is para romance author, Cheryl Brooks. I had the opportunity to meet Cheryl at RT, I love her sense of humor and that twinkle in her eye, like she knows a secret.

The secret is, or at least one of them, is her ability to write an enthralling fantasy set in a galaxy far away, peopled by hot Zetithian males and a cast of engrossing characters. I have a tendency to quickly zip through Cheryl's books because they're rather hard to set aside. :-) The heroes are hot and the sex even hotter. 

Another reason for the twinkle in her eye is Cheryl's Erotic Blog, but I warn you now, it's not rated PG-13 by any stretch of the imagination.   

Hi Sia!



Thanks so much for having me here on Over Coffee again. It was wonderful to finally meet you at the RT Booklover’s Convention, too!


For today’s blog, you asked me two very tough questions:

• What do you do for fun aside from writing? Does writing get in the way of this other hobby?

The answer is that I have very little time to do anything fun, though we did have a blast at RT, didn’t we? Working full time as a critical care nurse and trying to keep up with my writing career has me sitting at a desk most of the time—so much, in fact, that my legs have been swollen for the past six months or so. I’ve tried all sorts of things—diuretics, support hose, limiting salt, and giving up tea entirely (which I was told would cause this problem, though I’d never heard of such a thing!), but nothing seemed to help.


Then on the Fourth of July, I took the day off and spent the entire day doing what I wanted to do. I was outside crawling around in the dirt, cleaning the weeds out of my rose beds and harvesting my garlic and then making it into braids—and my legs were still swollen. After grilling steaks out on the deck, to kill some time until it was dark enough for fireworks, I decided to watch a movie. I pulled my VHS tape of Cannery Row (yes, it really is a tape and is every bit of twenty years old) off the shelf and sat down in my recliner to watch it. Lo and behold, after two hours of sitting with my feet up, the swelling was gone. The simplest cure for swollen legs worked, I just hadn’t ever gotten around to trying it! The best part is, I can drink tea again!


Okay, so to recap, for fun, I cook, garden, drink tea, play guitar (which I haven’t touched in months), watch the occasional movie, and have three very large pasture pets that I visit twice a day to feed and clean up after. I have a riding lesson once a week, but my own horses haven’t been ridden in two or three years. Plus, I have two sons and a husband, who, fortunately, look after themselves most of the time and help out with the horses, the laundry, the cleaning, and the mowing. And yes, the writing gets in the way of all of this. In addition to the actual writing, editing, and proofreading, I’ve got a blog (sometimes two or three) going up every day—I even blog when I’m on vacation—plus there are emails to respond to, and promotional periods are very hectic. I’m also a member of the Indiana chapter of RWA, and the monthly meetings are a two hour drive from where I live, but even though it takes up almost an entire day, it’s worth it to be around other writers and learn more about the craft.


I love writing, and at one time, it was my hobby. Nothing can compare with the joy of creating strange new worlds, weird aliens, and, of course, my fabulously sexy Zetithian heroes. So, if I’m too busy to have fun, I guess we can blame it on The Cat Star Chronicles!

• What about you? What gets in the way of your fun?

HERO (available in stores now)
The Cat Star Chronicles #6

He is the sexiest, most irksome man she’s ever encountered...

Micayla is the last Zetithian female left in the universe. She doesn’t know what’s normal for her species, but she knows when she sees Trag that all she wants to do is bite him…

He has searched all over the galaxy for a woman like her…

Trag has sworn he’ll never marry unless he can find a Zetithian female. But now that he’s finally found Micayla, she may be more of a challenge than even he’s able to take on...

Excerpt (Click on the excerpt tab below the book picture)

BUY: Amazon.com Barnes & Noble, Borders, Chapters.Indigo.ca

Two copies will be awarded to to commenters on today's blog. If you're interested in being considered for winning the book, please send me an email siamckye@gmail.com with Hero Drawing in the subject line. I will announce it here and send you an email.

~*~*~*~*~

Cheryl Brooks is an Intensive Care Unit nurse by night and a romance writer by day. Previous books in The Cat Star Chronicles series include Slave, Warrior, Rogue, Outcast and Fugitive. She is a member of the RWA and lives with her husband and sons in Indiana. For more information, please visit http://cherylbrooksonline.com/.