Category Archives: .99 cent box sets

Coffee to Improve my Health!

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Drinking 2 to 3 cups of coffee daily, including ground, instant, or decaffeinated coffee, is associated with significant reductions in cardiovascular disease and mortality, compared with avoiding coffee, a new analysis of the prospective UK Biobank suggests.

Ground and instant coffee, but interestingly, not decaffeinated coffee intake was also associated with reduced risk of new-onset arrhythmia, including atrial fibrillation. “Daily coffee intake should not be discouraged by physicians but rather considered part of a healthy diet,” Kistler said.

“This study supports that coffee is safe and even potentially beneficial, which is consistent with most of the prior evidence,” Carl Lavie, MD, who wasn’t involved in the study, told theheart.org | Medscape Cardiology.

“We do not prescribe coffee to patients, but for the majority who like coffee, they can be encouraged — it is fine to take a few cups daily,” said Lavie, with the Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Significant reductions in the risk of incident coronary heart disease were associated with habitual coffee intake of up to 5 cups/day. Coffee consumption at all levels was associated with significant reduction in the risk of congestive cardiac failure and ischemic stroke. The lowest risks were observed in those who consumed 2 to 3 cups/day.

“Coffee consumption is associated with cardiovascular benefits and should not empirically be discontinued in those with underlying heart rhythm disorders or cardiovascular disease,” Kistler told theheart.org | Medscape Cardiology

“Caffeine has also a role in weight loss through inhibition of gut fatty acid absorption and increase in basal metabolic rate. Furthermore, coffee has been associated with a significantly lower incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus,” Kistler added.

So enjoy your coffee while reading a new book, or better a box of new books.

No love can ever be as special as your first.
What if you could have the chance at a new beginning with your first love?
Find true love and your happy ever after in the pages of these SIX BRAND NEW, full-length steamy stories from New York Times and USA Today Bestselling, Award-Winning Authors.

TWO HEARTS REUNITED by Tamara Ferguson, USA Today bestselling author. When Lieutenant Eric O’Neill returns to Crystal Rock for a family reunion, he’s shocked to run into none other than Anya Weldon, the only woman he’s ever loved. Learning that her life’s been filled with tragedy, he’s determined to win her back—even if it means assisting with her search for her sister, who she believes was abducted by human traffickers ten years earlier.

BACK TO ME by Natalie Ann, USA Today bestselling author: Cooper Winslow accepted that his first secret love in college was lost to him forever and moved on with his life. Years later, fate brings them together and now he wonders if he is going to lose her again with all the family drama he’s lived with for years.

SWEET SUCCESS by Suzanne Jenkins, USA Today bestselling author: Carly and Jake love each other, but have goals that will place them at opposite ends of the country. When their dreams fall through, will love still be an option?

YOUR DANGEROUS KISS by Alicia Street, USA Today bestselling author: Rafe March considers his career on the big screen a fluke that he isn’t sure he ever wanted. With magazine cover good looks, a near genius IQ and a wealthy family, his options in life are plenty. Too bad the only thing he ever really wanted was Lucinda.

WE’RE ALL WINNERS by Mona Risk, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author: Scheming people and secrets separated them. With help from her toddler and his German shepherd, love may bring them together again.

THE REGAL ROSE by Susanne Matthews, International bestselling author: She’s a princess in distress; he’s her knight in shining armor. Can he rescue her one more time?

Choosing a Series Title by Nancy Radke

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Sometimes a title can make or break a book or a series. It used to be that the book cover was the deciding factor, but in our digital age the title is usually the first thing to catch a reader’s attention.

There are several books that I wouldn’t have read based on the title alone. Then there are titles that intrigue the searcher to go beyond the title and open the selection long enough to view the cover and maybe read the first chapter.

Getting Readers Excited

The same holds true for a collections of titles, but amplified. Readers will read the first book in an anthology, then go back and read all the books in that series if they like it. Because of this, series titles receive a lot of thought.

When the ladies of Authors’ Billboard choose a series title, such as our highly popular The Unforgettables, it is done with much deliberation by the authors in that series. This title keeps the series going while letting each collection in that series have a distinct theme. Unforgettable Danger will contain a different collection of books than Unforgettable Passion or Unforgettable Christmas Dreams.

Series Titles are Important

A title can reflect (and limit) the nature of the content. The title of our popular cozy mystery series, Diehard Dames, was researched to come up with just the right amount of humor plus have a light-hearted feel to it. Then each book in the series had the titles light enough to show that they were “cozy” mysteries. My books, Any Dog Can Follow a Trail of Blood, and Any Dog Can Find a Missing Child would naturally have less blood and danger in them than my thriller, Trouble Never Knocks.

Today, Friday, March 10th, I have my book Closed Doors on sale for 99 cents. This book is available as a free read to Kindle Unlimited members.

Closed Doors

 

Do Aphrodisiacs Work? By Taylor Lee

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Being the confirmed sensualist that I am, I’m a true believer in the power of food to affect our moods and desires.  That said, I loved this terrific article by Diana Herrington (@DancinginLife) on the power of aphrodisiacs to affect our love life. Do aphrodisiacs really work? Can you change your mood with food chemistry? Here are famous foods and activities known for love, the science behind them, and tasty recipes to share with your sweetie.

  1. Honey
  • Honey is a great source of boron, the mineral that helps the body metabolize estrogen, the female sex hormone.
  • Studies show that boron may also increase testosterone, the hormone responsible for promoting sex drive in both men and women.
  • Medieval hopefuls drank mead, a fermented honey drink, to promote sexual desire.
  • Ancient Persian couples drank mead every day for a month (known as the “honey month”–a.k.a. “honeymoon”) after they married to prepare for a successful family life.

Tip: Start the morning with Honey Syrup on pancakes or waffles.

Chocolate

  1. Chocolate

“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” ~Charles M. Schulz

  • Chocolate contains phenylethylamine, which mimics the brain chemistry of a person in love. It also promotes serotonin production. Together they give you a hormone rush that feels like the rush of love or love making.
  • There are other foods that may contain more of these ingredients (like cheese) but who cares? Chocolate tastes so good!
  • The problem with chocolate is that you risk a sugar crash, putting a damper on your “happily ever after.”

Tip: Create Homemade Walnut Dark Chocolate, a healthy choice since it has no refined sugar unhealthy oils, or preservatives!

Almonds

  1. Almonds
  • Through history, almonds were regarded as fertility symbols.
  • The aroma of almond supposedly arouses passion in females–or so thought the poets and scribes.
  • Almonds provide high doses of vitamin E, magnesium and even fiber.

Tip: Share some Almond Milk that you made yourself with love.

Beets

  1. Beets
  • One of the first known uses of beets was by the ancient Romans, who used them medicinally as an aphrodisiac.
  • Beets contain high levels of nitrates which increase blood flow by expanding blood vessels walls. Increased blood flow to the genital areas is one of the mechanisms Viagra and other pharmaceuticals create their effects.
  • Beets also contain high amounts of boron, which is directly related to the production of human sex hormones.
  • Beets have a host of other health benefits.

Garlic

  1. Garlic
  • Garlic is full of allicin, another ingredient that will also increase blood flow.
  • In eastern traditions monks and priests are not allowed to eat garlic (or onions) because they are particularly stimulating.
  • Garlic has a host of other health benefits, many of which boost your immune system.
  • The obvious trouble with this food is that unless your partner is also a garlic eater, they might not like your smell!

bicyclists

  1. Exercise
  • Exercise doesn’t sound romantic unless it’s a “moonlit walk on the beach.”  But it turns out, exercise is so good for the body, that it triggers romantic moods, as well.
  • During vigorous activity, endorphins–the ”feel good” chemicals–are released. They can feel like a rush of love.
  • Exercise increases blood flow to the whole body and thus like beets and garlic, can increase moods and desire.
  • Exercise and building muscle mass also usually increases testosterone levels.

Tip: Take a walk together. What better way to deepen your love then while connecting with nature.

Licorice

  1. Licorice (Truly one of my TRUE addictions!  I eat it every day😊)
  • In ancient China, people used licorice to enhance love and lust.
  • The smell appears to be particularly stimulating.
  • Alan R. Hirsch, MD, neurological director of the Tip: Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, conducted a study that looked at how different smells stimulated sexual arousal. He found that the smell of black licorice increased the blood flow to the genital area by 13 percent.

Ginseng

  1. Ginseng
  • Asian ginseng is an adaptogen, or a substance that helps keep proper hormone balance in your body.
  • Ginseng, helps moderate the harmful effects of stress, enhances your energy and stamina and may improve your sexual function.
  • Caution: Because ginseng has an estrogen-like effect, pregnant or breastfeeding women should not take it. Although ginseng is not a kitchen food in the west, it is so well known and universally used that I have included it.

Basil

  1. Sweet Basil
  • Sweet basil herb is known across cultures to naturally increase sex drive and fertility by fostering a feeling of total relaxation in the body and muscles while increasing circulation.
  • In Italy, it is a symbol of love.
  • The scent of basil was said to drive men wild–so much so that women would dust their breasts with dried and powdered basil.

Is it all in your head? Well…yes. Each of these foods and activities can affect your chemistry but the effects are often subtle. If we are cued for love though, even a boost of energy from carbs could be perceived as an emotion or an attractive force. The body then enhances that effect since it can manufacture any number of its own mood enhancing brain and body hormones.

“Money is a powerful aphrodisiac. But flowers work almost as well.” ~Lazarus Long

This is why western science officially states that there are no effective aphrodisiacs. Scientists are looking for something as powerful and immediate as steroids or Viagra. But why would we want to use those strong drugs when we could simply have fun eating real food that will enhance our health? An attractive happy body and mind comes from a healthy body and mind.

****

I can’t say it better.  Let’s eat real food for love of our self and our loved one. And to feed all of our senses, check out my latest book:

The Unstoppable Detective Brooks: Prequel: A Christmas Reunion Kindle Edition

Trust me. Detective Piper Brooks and District Attorney Ethan Matthews more than feed all of our senses. Buckle Up and prepare to be wowed! These are two sexy dudes!

And while you are feeding your senses and your passions grab the latest box set from me and my ABB  author friends:

Unforgettable Devotion: Passion and Pain (The Unforgettables Book 29) Kindle Edition

February

Dedication, support, and loyalty are qualities we all look for in our relationships. When we add love into the mix, then we’ve hit the jackpot.  My book in the collection TARA: The Trouble Sisters Saga.

She’s a brash newspaper editor and declared environmental activist. He’s an arrogant land developer. A broken elevator forces them to confront each other not as diehard adversaries but as a man and a woman.

 

About Heart Disease Risks

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Heart Disease Risks You’ve Probably Never Heard About
By Alan Reisinger, MD

If you’re trying to protect your heart, you probably already know the things you should do: Eat a healthy diet, get plenty of exercise, manage your weight, minimize stress and make sure you’re seeing your doctor regularly.

But there are other things that can put you at risk for heart disease that you may not even be aware of. Some of them are really unusual (such as living near noisy roads) while others (like crinkled ear lobes) can help identify people at risk earlier than cholesterol tests or blood pressure screenings.

Oral Health

If you were a patient in my practice, chances are you’d know about this connection. For years I’ve preached the gospel that poor oral health and heart disease are linked. While research hasn’t completely explained what’s going on, it’s clear that inflammation in your gums (periodontal disease) can influence the development of atherosclerosis, the buildup of plaque along the walls of your arteries. People with gum disease have a 49 percent chance of having a heart attack. The good news: This is one risk factor you can control by working with your dentist and your primary care doctor.

Sleep 

Not getting enough sleep – less than seven hours a night – creates a host of heart-related risks that you may not be aware of. For example, lack of sleep can impact your blood pressure, put you at risk for type 2 diabetes and encourage unhealthy weight gain.

More severe sleep issues, like sleep apnea and insomnia, can both increase your risk and be an early indicator of heart disease. Sleep apnea happens when your air flow stops while sleeping. This causes stress hormones to be released, contributing to hypertension, stroke and heart disease risk. Insomnia can increase stress, lower your motivation to move and exercise and lead to poor food choices — all of which contribute to heart disease. If you’re not sleeping well, talk to your primary care physician.

Extreme Weather

If you live where lots of snow falls, you’ve probably heard about people having heart attacks while shoveling snow. Heavy snowfall, in fact, is associated with 16 percent greater odds of men being admitted to the hospital with a heart attack, and a 34 percent increase in the chance of men dying from a heart attack. But it’s not just snow. According to a new study published in the journal Circulation, there are more cardiovascular deaths on extreme cold and hot days. It’s a good reminder not to overexert yourself when the weather is bad.

Grip Strength

Remember those old arcade games where you test your grip by squeezing a set of bars? A high grip strength set off bells and lights and made you the envy of others … okay, that didn’t happen for me either.

But there is a connection between your grip strength and cardiovascular risk. Lower grip strengths are associated with heart disease and deaths from the disease. In fact, grip strength is “a stronger predictor of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality than systolic blood pressure,” according to a 2015 study in The Lancet.

Wrinkles, Creases and Hairline

Since 1973, we’ve known about a little quirk in anatomy: People with a diagonal earlobe crease, called Frank’s sign after the doctor who first observed it, are at higher risk of heart disease. People with this crease (called DELC) include the famous such as George W. Bush and Stephen Spielberg. Despite this correlation which includes cerebral vascular events like ischemic stroke, Frank’s sign is not typically used by doctors to measure heart disease risk because there are better tests and screenings to determine risk.

Similar research has linked wrinkly foreheads to a higher risk of heart disease. Could doctors one day diagnose heart disease with a quick glance? Maybe. Similarly, a few years ago researchers in India discovered that male-pattern baldness is associated with a five-fold increase in heart disease risk — greater than obesity — for men under the age of 40.

Your Height

Like creases in your ears and wrinkles in your forehead, you can’t do anything about your height. But unfortunately, it too can increase your risk for heart disease. Researchers have linked genetically related shorter stature with higher blood pressure levels, higher levels of LDL cholesterol (the so-called bad cholesterol) and diabetes. The study authors suggested that some of the genes that cause shorter height may also increase cholesterol levels.

Giving Birth to a Premature Baby

Women who give birth to their first child before 37 weeks of gestation have a 40 percent greater risk of heart disease later in life than women who delivered at full term. For women who gave birth before 32 weeks, the risk doubles verses women who delivered at full term. Another study found that women who give birth to four or more children in their lifetime also have a higher risk of atrial fibrillation compared to women with no pregnancies. 

The Flu

Sadly, influenza can do more than make us miserable for a week: The flu may induce a heart attack. In a five-year-old study, researchers linked incidents of flu to acute heart attacks. Severe respiratory illnesses like the flu put undue stress on our heart, which researchers speculate lead to the higher risk. If you’ve got a severe case of the flu, make sure your primary care doctor knows, especially if you are already at risk for heart disease.

Where You Live

Where you live can also play a role in your cardiovascular risk. Although much of America is in the grips of an obesity epidemic, which increases our risk of heart disease, people who live in the South and the Midwest are particularly at high risk of cardiovascular-related death because of the generally poor cardiovascular health in those regions. This is well known (in fact, part of the South is now referred to as the “stroke belt”) and there are multiple studies demonstrating it.

What’s lesser known is that things like altitude (the higher you live the lower your risk of metabolic syndrome) and latitude (the further you live from the equator, the greater your risk for heart disease). In the case of the former, people who lived at higher altitudes have fewer incidents of metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions that include being overweight and having high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol or excess body fat. Metabolic syndrome raises your risk for heart disease. 

Researchers have been looking at latitude as a factor since the 1970s. Much of the research has speculated that sunlight (increased levels of sunlight lower cholesterol levels), which affect vitamin D levels, may impact our heart disease risk. There was a difference in both blood pressure and cholesterol levels between people living near the equator (BP and cholesterol were lower) and those living farther from it (higher BP and cholesterol levels).

What do these more obscure risk factors mean? Some of them are significant. If you have periodontal disease, talk to your doctor and your dentist. If you’ve had high-risk pregnancies or severe flu, make sure your doctor knows these things. But if you’ve got creased ears, wrinkles on your forehead, male-pattern baldness or live close to the north pole, I wouldn’t worry too much (unless you need to shovel 50 inches of snow from the driveway). 

Worry more if you have other classic risk factors for heart disease like abnormal cholesterol levels, diabetes, hypertension or you’re overweight, sedentary or smoke. These are risks you should work on with your doctor, because mitigating these risks are going to lower your risk for heart disease more than smooth ear lobes.

A good advice (from me, not from an MD): to relax and avoid heart problems, read a good novel by the ABB authors, or even better a box of novels.

IRRESISTIBLE NEW BEGINNINGS WITH A FIRST LOVE


No love can ever be as special as your first.
What if you could have the chance at a new beginning with your first love?

Find true love and your happy ever after in the pages of these SIX BRAND NEW, full-length steamy stories from New York Times and USA Today Bestselling, Award-Winning Authors.

Unforgettable Devotion: Passion and Pain

One can be smitten by a person
but Unforgettable Devotion leaves us truly breathless, satisfied…
and complete.
Dedication, support, and loyalty are qualities we all look for in our relationships. When we add love into the mix, then we’ve hit the jackpot.
But finding love is not easy as we’ll see with these NINE tales of intrigue, suspense, and adventure our wonderful New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Authors have created.
Whether the Pain and discomfort are caused by terrorists, criminals, the deranged, or inhospitable environments, these heroes and heroines discover that what is most important is having people nearby to trust. When Passion develops, too, the Devotion is Unforgettable.

LAST CHANCE PLANS, Love Plans Series, book 10

At twenty, Rick Lambert ran away from the US to escape the accusations hurled at him. Fifteen years later, he returns to settle in Fort Lauderdale. His mother agrees to live with him and take care of his two sons who have been raised by nannies and boarding schools.
Flight attendant, Madison Howell loves nothing more than her job. During a flight from Dubai to Miami, she meets the authoritative businessman and his mother. The sweet old lady befriends her, and Rick doesn’t hide his attraction. When his children come home, Madison finds herself entangled with the Lamberts way too often. As she helps the young boys adapt to their new life, she falls in love with their gorgeous father, but she’s not sure she really knows Rick, her charming lover. A loving son and dedicated father but also a womanizer and tough businessman with a hidden past.
When people from long-ago cross his path, secrets are revealed, threatening to ruin their romance. Now mature and powerful, Rick confronts his enemies to clear his name, but will it cost him the woman he loves?