Awards and a Fun Trip Planned!

On September 1st, I was super excited to hear that the third book in the Rise Again Warrior Series, Mission: Repair had won a GOLD award with the Readers’ Favorite Awards! The first book in the series, Mission: Believe, won a bronze in 2020, and the second book, Mission: Accept won a Gold in 2021.

Because of the pandemic, Readers’ Favorite couldn’t have their standard yearly award ceremony, but this year they are. I’ll be traveling down to Miami, Florida, to receive my award, not just for Mission: Repair, but all three books! Which is super exciting!

My husband will be joining me, as, at the end of this month, we are celebrating our 20th anniversary, and we aren’t doing anything special. We will take the time to enjoy the awards ceremony and two days together in Miami to celebrate it. We are both super excited to not only get away together but to be present for this award ceremony and visit the Miami Book Fair.

The Rise Again Warrior Series is very near and dear to my heart. It’s not just military fiction or romance, but in-depth emotional stories that share the brutalities of recovery after the war is over. These characters are all trying to find new places in society, dealing with demons daily as they attempt to find their way. The series is raw, realistic, and heartfelt, dealing with trauma injuries, PTSD, suicide, addiction, depression, and many other issues our current real-life warriors are battling to overcome.

This series is available on your favorite book retailer: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, Apple, and more!

A Wasted Day

For those who don’t know me, I’m pretty intense at times. Especially when I am focused and need to stay on track to complete my tasks. I’ll be the first to admit that the state of the world has kept me occupied more than I wish it would.

Luckily, the other day, I finally got my footing again and jumped back into work with both feet. Only to be brought to a standstill yesterday.

My day started out like any other, I worked on my marketing, answered my emails, dealt with my other business, and then I went back to my email to catch up on ones that didn’t need immediately attention. There was one from my website stating that UPDATES were done to my site and to check to make sure that it was working well. Okay, sounds simple enough, right?

Holy Batman!! My site was gone–crashed. Kaput! Well, crap! Okay, I’ve had this happen before, no biggie. Get on tech support, get it figured out. I got this.

Three hours later – three support people later – and I was learning that my website was HACKED. Not just screwed up from an UPDATED – but it has been hijacked and trashed! They tried to say it was my fault, say that I changed my permissions, that I caused the issue. Um–NO!!!

See, let’s jump back to April 21. I received this great email saying that they had my password. It was a really old password that could have gone to a bunch of different things that were of no importance–or so I thought. In this email, they said they had control of my computer, and my cameras. They also said they had a bunch of naughty videos that they would send to my contact list. Well, hard to do when my cameras are disabled and not connected to my computer, but whatever! I’m sure if there were videos, some people might have gotten a laugh or two.

At the end of the email – they were attempted to extort me for a 2000 bitcoin. Yeah, blocked the email and moved the email to a folder where I keep weird stuff (Can’t take the cop out of me).

So back to the story of being hacked, when I was finally able to restore databases (3 more hours later), I find that I need to go back all the way to April 20th – and BAM!!! There were 35 attempts to log into my website that day from an unknown spam IP address.

Needless to say, that after almost 8 hours of fussing with my website, I was done for the day and got absolutely nothing else done! I did, however, change every freaking password, added extra safety features.

Today is another day, and I am back to focusing on what I need to get done. Like preparing for my newest release, Mission: Accept that comes out on May 22nd.

Mission: Accept is the second story in the Rise Again Warrior series.

Dana Donahue might be Shane Logan’s cousin, but she’s nothing like him—she’s quite the opposite of him. Her thoughts focus on what money and people can do for her. She never approved of Shane joining the military and knows little about the world he has lived in for most of his life. All that will change when she has to ask him for a job after her father cuts her off.

Derek Stall lives on the streets by choice—not circumstance. Memories of what he did under order sometimes haunt him, other times give him the strength to move through one more day until he can finish the mission he started.

A chance meeting between Dana and Derek will lead to an unlikely friendship that might just save his life, but the drastic differences between them could be the dividing wedge that keeps them apart.

When Derek feels he has to leave Rise Again Warrior to complete his mission, he begins to realize that he could be leaving behind more than just a few friends. Could he be leaving behind the possibility of a healthy future before he finally accepts his past?

In honor of Veterans

I know that Veterans Day was a couple of days ago, but that doesn’t mean they can’t, and shouldn’t be honored every day of the year. You might not agree with the politics of war, and this isn’t about politics. In fact, I’m the last person to ever speak about that. This post is about the special men and women who sacrifice their lives, their families and their own futures for us.

In my family, we have had many military service members. From grandfathers to fathers, to cousins, to my former spouse, and to my son. Yep, my former spouse retired not too long ago from the Navy, and I remember well my years as a military spouse. It’s a hard job keeping your family going while your spouse is away. Now, my son is almost to his halfway mark in his military career, and like his father, he is a United States Sailor.

I have the most utmost respect for our service members. I always have, and it breaks my heart to hear the suicide statistics or see a veteran homeless on the street. It truly does.

That’s why I started writing a new series called RISE AGAIN WARRIOR. It’s not your normal macho military series when the special forces trained guy saves the day. No, this is about how our fierce service members are fairing after fighting in a war. It is a romance series, but it is so much more.

This series will be an intense and emotional journey through the lives of many service members, their families, and their friends. Focusing on the trials that they face after wartime is over, and they have returned home to a nation that sometimes seems to have forgotten what they were fighting for, and what all of these people sacrificed in the name of Honor & Duty.

The first book of the series, Mission: Believe, was released on November 10th, in honor of Veteran’s Day. The second book is slated to release in May 2020 for Memorial Day.

My hope with this series is to let those servicemen and women know that they are not forgotten but also to help those who don’t understand to do just that: To understand the sacrifices that were made for our Freedom.

It is an honor to write this series, and while I am always proud of the work that I accomplish as a writer, I am humbled by this story and the future of this series. I hope you will take the time to check it out.

Check out a few Review Quotes:

“Oh, 5 Stars is not near enough for this amazing story. Stacy Eaton made me forget I was reading a story and I felt like I knew each and every one of these characters personally!”

“This is an incredibly heart wrenching and passionate story. The writing, emotions, characters, events…..all of it was perfection! It deals with Military warriors, civilian warriors, love of family, devoted friends and a beautiful story of trust, and love. It shows us how we need to honor those who have served our country and respect those who are helping them when they return. Even the secondary characters were wonderful.”

“Ms. Eaton takes on a subject that most people overlook. The trials and turmoil that our wounded men and women face when they return home from war. “

“This is a different type of romance book – this book is not for the faint of heart – I love that the book focuses on a segment of the population not often highlighted – veterans wounded in action. The synopsis provided gives you the bare facts of the book – what it doesn’t give you is the raw emotions you will go through while reading the book – anger and sadness but you will cheer for these characters. It is the kind of book you cannot put down – you want to savor and slow down but you also want to know what happens. Then you will need to sit and process all you read or rush out to sign up as a volunteer and help change things.”

About Mission: Believe

Staff Sgt. Shane Logan is lucky to have come from a privileged family, and after losing both of his legs in the war, he now has the best prosthetics that money can buy. While he is trying to move forward with life, he struggles with the past and the way people react to him and his disability.

Dr. Lauren Falcone works tirelessly to help veterans deal with the trauma and pain of their deployments. Her unique virtual approach to therapy keeps her busy, and the assistance she provides to service members as they recover mentally helps her resolve her own anxieties.

When Shane meets Lauren at a fundraiser for his father’s organization, he wonders if there just might be a chance for him to get his dream off the ground and maybe find a normal life with someone who can look past his flaws and see the man he is inside.

Shane and Lauren are drawn to each other by their hope to make life easier for veterans, both physically and emotionally. Their goal is to build Shane’s dream organization, Rise Again Warrior, that will assist veterans to integrate more easily into society and have the opportunity to receive state-of-the-art technology and therapy.

Now, if they can only have faith in themselves, learn to deal with their own demons, and believe in each other, they might find a way to bring this dream to fruition.

Life and Fiction by Mona Risk

It all started ten years ago. In a different life, I was the director of the Analytical Division of an environmental company. I supervised a staff of chemists who perform analytical tests on drinking water and hazardous waste. My responsibilities also included working on various government contracts. A monotonous predictable life that suddenly changed when I won a Department of Defense contract to refurbish a military laboratory in Belarus.

During my fifteen trips to Minsk, capital of Belarus, I was well received by everyone, and worked with colonels and generals, chemists and engineers, and even journalists. I was invited by two colonels to their houses, met their wives and children, and appreciated their warm hospitality.

TO LOVE A HERO is my contribution to the Authors’ Billboard box LOVE ON FIRE. Through my novel, a fictional story about an American chemist and a Belarusian officer, I lived again my fantastic trips to Belarus. My story highlights the affability and warmth of the gorgeous and gallant Belarusian officers who sing, toast with vodka, and make a woman feel like a goddess.

 Book Description

The hero, Major General Sergei Fedorin, has pledged to cleanup his country of the nuclear pollution that killed his wife and threatens his nation with cancer. American aid allows him to start his mission by refurbishing an old military laboratory. The patriotic Sergei is a true hero in his country, an alpha man who protects millions of citizens, a controlled public figure, watched and scrutinized by everyone, admired and revered, but not allowed to live a personal life. He accepts it all because of his dedication to Belarus. BUT

When the lovely American chemist stumbles on the escalator of the airport straight into his arms, Sergei has more on his mind than nuclear pollution.

Raised in boarding schools, Cecile learned to fend for herself at an early age. She buried her loneliness under long hours of study and work. Now she’s determined to excel in her first international contract. So many people are watching over her shoulders, but no one will detract her from her mission. BUT

In Belarus, a Russian country dominated by male chauvinism and intrigues, Cecile finds much more chemistry than she bargains for, and in the arms of General Sergei, she learns that chemicals are not the only things that generate heat.

I had a lot of fun writing this book and I hope you will discover a new country and interesting culture while reading TO LOVE A HERO, the passionate story of Cecil and Sergei.

Some of my personal experiences are related in my book. I even included my fall on the broken escalator of the airport. I was rescued by my lab manager while my heroine (the smart woman) fell into the arms of a hero to die for, the handsome Major General Sergei who made her pulse race and stole her heart.

Sometimes passion takes you and there’s nothing you can do to resist it. That hot feeling overwhelms you until you can think of nothing else but him, want to do nothing else but make love.
Sometimes love sets you on fire until it consumes you.
Let these six novels of crazy hot love take you there, make you feel the heat of that passion, bring you that ecstatic joy.

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