Discover. . .: On Inspiration for Muse Monday by Maggie Blackbird

Monday, January 20, 2025

On Inspiration for Muse Monday by Maggie Blackbird

MUSE MONDAY

I'm happy to tell you the regular columns are back on Discover... Guest bloggers will visit three times a month with Muse Monday, Wicked Wednesday, and Fearless Friday. To open the year, Maggie Blackbird has a great Muse Monday post.

Winnipeg is my muse. Winnipeg, Manitoba that is. Although I live in Northwestern Ontario, Winnipeg is a mere 4 ½ hours from where I reside. I know. To some, that seems far. But when you live in the middle of nowhere, driving 4 ½ hours is nothing. I’ve lived in Winnipeg. I’ve gone on business trips to Winnipeg. And pleasure trips, starting when I was a wee girl. My parents always took us to the city for hockey games and other fun activities. Even rock concerts since I’m a music lover. So it was only natural that I chose Winnipeg to set my story in, along with having a Métis hero, since Winnipeg is where the Métis people were birthed.

Note to readers: Yes, I had to look it up... Métis are people of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry, and one of the three recognized Aboriginal peoples of Canada.

Blurb:

Two sexy work rivals each want the prestigious promotion, but neither expects to want each other.

Driven and determined, Celeste Fisher won’t let anything stop her from anchoring the nightly news. She’s sacrificed a personal life, a love life, and left her Ojibway community to make it in the city. And if that means stomping all over her too handsome and too competitive rival to nail the position, so be it.

Casual dating and one-night stands are all Reed Dumont can spare while building what he covets most—his career. He’s not about to lose out to Celeste, no matter if he can’t keep his eyes off her sexy legs and admiring her just as sexy brain, because sitting in the broadcasting chair is another step up the ladder to thumb his nose at his poor Métis upbringing.

A crisis in a First Nations community sends the adversaries out on the road to cover the story. Snowed in at the hotel, rivals become humans, unable to deny their true private desires. But upon returning to the city, the new lovers face the biggest hurdle that could cost them their budding relationship when one gets the promotion and the other is left holding… frustration. Now they must decide what is worth fighting for: love or career.

Available at: https://books2read.com/u/bokKg9

Excerpt:

If Celeste kissed him back, that was it, she’d never be able to face Reed at the office again. And maybe this was all a ploy—a way to humiliate her so he could get the promotion. But lust crawled all over her insides, begging to taste his lips, even though he had stuck his tongue down the throats of every woman in Winnipeg. To worsen the situation, the little voice was saying this wasn’t a game to him or a ploy—he truly wanted to kiss her.

But why her? It didn’t make sense.

As quickly as his lips had brushed her mouth, giving her a sample of his ripe softness, they just as rapidly vanished. His nose was against her tip, and he stared back.

Author Bio: An Ojibway from Northwestern Ontario, Maggie resides in the country with her husband and their fur babies, two beautiful Alaskan Malamutes. When she’s not writing, she can be found pulling weeds in the flower beds, mowing the huge lawn, walking the Mals deep in the bush, teeing up a ball at the golf course, fishing in the boat for walleye, or sitting on the deck at her sister’s house, making more wonderful memories with the people she loves most.