Lena Nelson Dooley's Blog, page 165
January 17, 2016
WINNERS!!!!!!
BJM (SC) is the winner of
Sweet Freedom a la Mode
by Jennifer Slattery.
Beth S (IL) is the winner of Friends and Enemies by Terri Wangard.
Abigail (NC) is the winner of Peace by Kathy Taylor.
Marilyn (IL) is the winner of The Wedding Chapel by Rachel Hauck.
Sandy (TX) is the winner of Calico Spy by Margaret Brownley.
Kathy (MO) is the winner of When Lyric Met Limerick by Dawn V Cahill.
If you won a book and you like it, please consider giving the author the courtesy of writing a review on Goodreads, Amazon.com, Christianbooks.com, Barnes and Noble, or other Internet sites.
Also, tell your friends about the book ... and this blog. Thank you.
Congratulations, everyone. If you won a print book, send me your mailing address:
Click the Contact Me link at the top of the blog, and send me an Email.
If you won an ebook, just let me know what email address it should be sent to.
When you contact me, please give the title and author of the book you won, so I won't have to look it up.
Remember, you have 4 weeks to claim your book.
Beth S (IL) is the winner of Friends and Enemies by Terri Wangard.
Abigail (NC) is the winner of Peace by Kathy Taylor.
Marilyn (IL) is the winner of The Wedding Chapel by Rachel Hauck.
Sandy (TX) is the winner of Calico Spy by Margaret Brownley.
Kathy (MO) is the winner of When Lyric Met Limerick by Dawn V Cahill.
If you won a book and you like it, please consider giving the author the courtesy of writing a review on Goodreads, Amazon.com, Christianbooks.com, Barnes and Noble, or other Internet sites.
Also, tell your friends about the book ... and this blog. Thank you.
Congratulations, everyone. If you won a print book, send me your mailing address:
Click the Contact Me link at the top of the blog, and send me an Email.
If you won an ebook, just let me know what email address it should be sent to.
When you contact me, please give the title and author of the book you won, so I won't have to look it up.
Remember, you have 4 weeks to claim your book.
January 16, 2016
RESET OUR GENERATION VIRTUAL PRAYER MEETING
I found out about something exciting that is going on. I wanted to share it with you.
January 15, 2016
MERMAID MOON - Colleen Coble - One Free Book, Plus Much More
Welcome back, Colleen. Do you have a favorite genre to write? If so, what is it?All my books are romantic suspense. I grew up on Nancy Drew books and still read mystery and suspense almost exclusively. If you didn’t live in the part of the country where you do, where would you live?We love Hawaii! Kauai is our favorite island. If it weren’t so far from our beloved granddaughter and our kids, we would move there in a heartbeat.
James and I want to go to Hawaiisometime. I hope it is soon. What foreign country would you like to visit and why?I’d like to visit Australiaand New Zealandsomeday. Those are both on my bucket list. I love reading books set there.
I’m like you. I fell in love with Australia and New Zealandbefore other people did. I’ve read all of Lucy Walker’s books set back in the mid-1900s. I had to search used bookstores to find them. And I’ve read every book set in either place that I ran across. Describe what you think would be the most romantic vacation you could take.There’s nothing better than sitting by the sea. So any island vacation or a cruise would be wonderful.
I didn’t go near any sea or ocean until the 1990s, and I love sitting on the beach enjoying the sound. James and I even sat on the beach at Manzanillo, Mexico, way past midnight. Where would you like to set a story that you haven’t done yet?Someday I’d like to do an international setting, maybe Australia or Finland. I’ve been to Finland once. My best friend in high school was a Finnish foreign exchange student, and we hosted her daughter as an exchange student.
We had a Finnish exchange student. A boy. Since I’m half Scandinavian, I’d love to go there. What is the main theme of this novel?I wanted to explore how guilt and shame can hit us at our deepest core. Sometimes the hardest person to forgive is ourselves.
Tell us about the story.Remorse and confusion has kept single mom Mallory Davis from her hometown of sleepy Down East, Maine, for the last 15 years. When her father mysteriously dies, though, she’s forced to return. Her relationship with her father had been tense since she left, but she was the one he called in his final moments. His last words echo in her heart: “Find . . . mother.” Yet her mother has been dead for fifteen years. What could he have possibly meant?Mallory comes to believe her father was murdered, and her childhood sweetheart, Down East game warden Kevin O’Connor, confirms her suspicions. Mallory trampled Kevin’s heart when she left without a word all those years ago, and he is wary of helping Mallory in her search. Everything changes when Mallory begins receiving threats on her life and the life of her teenage daughter, Haylie. As their search intensifies, they find a tangled web of mystery and deceit whose sticky threads reach deep into Mallory’s past. As answers begin to fall into place, Mallory realizes her search is about much more than finding her father’s killer; it’s about the hope of finding herself again — and maybe even another chance at love. She just has to stay alive long enough to put the pieces together.
Please give us the first page of the book.The Silver Pelican jewelry store in Bangor, Maine, was Mallory Davis’s final stop, and she put on a bright smile. The place smelled of money—expensive perfume from the last customer and the rich scent of new carpet. Every other jewelry shop in town had only been willing to take her pieces on consignment, but she needed the cash now. She’d been a bit hesitant to come here because this was the most expensive store in town, and she was sure the owner would take one look at her suit, stylish ten years ago, and send her packing.
The sun glittered on her twenty pieces of sea-glass jewelry spread across the top of the glass display case. The presentation under it sparkled with diamonds and sapphires on black velvet.
Mallory nudged her favorite bracelet with one finger. “This one is white gold instead of the usual sterling silver. I mixed pink tourmaline with darker pink sea glass to create the piece.”
The owner, in his forties with a paunch and bald head, picked up the bracelet and looked it over. “Very nice craftsmanship, Mrs. Davis. The quality is exceptional. The pink and green moon from the tourmaline is quite unique. And I really like the mermaid on it. How much do you want for these?”
She tipped up her chin and forced a confidence that was at odds with the fluttery sensation in her stomach. “I need five hundred dollars for it. I have five of them ready here in my briefcase. And did you see these earrings?” She pointed out another offering. “The tourmaline makes them so distinctively Maine. These are two hundred dollars.”
He nodded. “My customers are always asking for quality tourmaline pieces, and I find it hard to keep up with the demand when they want jewelry created in Maine.” He pursed his flat lips. “I’ll take everything you have here, plus all the mermaid-moon bracelets. Write me up an invoice, and I’ll give you a check right now. I think I can take most everything you make off your hands.”
Hiding her elation, she took a surreptitious glance at her watch. Haylie would be out of school in half an hour. “Of course.” She pulled the jewelry pieces out of her case along with an invoice pad.
She wanted to do a fist pump in the air. Her mortgage was a week late, but she could pay it electronically as soon as the check cleared.
The back of her neck prickled, and she resisted the urge to turn around. For the past week she’d had the uneasy feeling that someone was watching her, but try as she might to convince herself it was from the stress of her finances, she swung her head around to look. And saw nothing out of the ordinary. She always felt that way when under periods of great stress, and nothing was more stressful than knowing she and Haylie would be out on the street if she didn’t turn things around.
How can readers find you on the Internet?My website is www.colleencoble.com, and I love to hear from readers!Facebook(colleencoblebooks)Twitter (@colleencoble)
To move forward past a life of shame and confusion, Mallory Davis must go back to Mermaid Point to find out who murdered her father in Colleen Coble's new book, Mermaid Moon. As answers begin to fall into place, Mallory realizes her search is about more than finding her father’s killer—it is also about finding herself again . . . and possibly about healing what was broken so long ago with Kevin. She just has to stay alive long enough to put all the pieces together.
Celebrate the release of Mermaid Moon with Colleen and a mystery e-reader prize pack giveaway!
One grand prize winner will receive:
A copy of Mermaid MoonA Kindle FireA mermaid necklaceA pair of mermaid earringsEnter today by clicking the icon below. But hurry! The giveaway ends on February 1st. The winner will be announced February 2nd on the Litfuse blog .
Thank you, Colleen, for sharing this new book with us. I've been a faithful fan of yours for many years, and many of my blog readers also love your books. I have new readers who haven't heard about you, and I'm thrilled to introduce them to you and your books.
Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog. - AmazonMermaid Moon (A Sunset Cove Novel Book 2) - Kindle
Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book on this blog. You must follow these instructions to be in the drawing. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)
Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.
The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.
If you’re reading this on Goodreads, Google+, Feedblitz, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link:Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com
January 14, 2016
DOUBLE HEADER - Clarice G James - One Free Book
Dear Readers, today we’re visiting with another debut novelist. Be sure and give her a warm welcome.
Bio: Clarice G. James loves to read and write smart, fun, relatable contemporary and historical women’s fiction. After many years of writing and editing for business and ministry, she now enjoys the freedom that writing fiction allows her. Clarice has been a follower of Jesus Christ for over 35 years. She and her husband David live in Southern New Hampshire. Together they have five married children and ten grandchildren. Double Header is her first published novel. It was one of three winners in the 2014 Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild Operation First Novel contest.
Welcome, Clarice. Tell us how much of yourself you write into your characters. In my first book (Party of One, pre-published), my main character was a widow struggling with loneliness and finding purpose in life. Much of this story was based on my life at the time. In my second book,
Double Header
, the main character has control issues and a critical nature when it comes to the Christian faith. Sorry to say, that was me, too, before I became a believer. In my current novel (in progress), Manhattan Grace, the legalist in me shows up. [Wow. Don’t I have any good qualities?]
What is the quirkiest thing you have ever done? It was important for one of my female characters to have a signature perfume. However, after researching in major department stores, all I came away with was a headache. So while in the food store one day, I stalked a woman who smelled like I wanted my character to smell. I caught up with her in the parking lot. She was gracious enough to tell me the name of her perfume—but didn’t give me hers.
A lot of perfumes give me headaches, but I like wearing fragrance, so I stay with only those I know won’t cause me pain. When did you first discover that you were a writer? Initially, it was a favorite assignment in high school. Later, when I got a positive reaction from friends and family for the little things I wrote, I decided it was something I could do and enjoy.
Tell us the range of the kinds of books you enjoy reading. The non-fiction books on my shelves include biblical studies, devotionals, Christian living, business and marketing, reference books, and how-to books on writing. As for fiction, I prefer contemporary women’s or historical fiction. I love humor and a thread of romance in my stories. However, I don’t usually go to the romance novel section.
My last three novels, and my next one, are more historical women’s fiction, instead of straight romance, but they are often shelved with the romance novels. How do you keep your sanity in our run, run, run world? Spending time in God’s Word helps me walk slowly through my days. And if I get a little frantic, my husband helps me understand and accept my limits and not compare myself with others.
How do you choose your characters’ names? I look at each character’s age, gender, ethnic background, personality type, and check the meaning of names. It’s important for the character’s name to “sound right” to me. I’ve been guilty of changing a name in the middle of writing the book because it just didn’t seem to fit. If a name sounds interesting to me, I save it in my Names Slush file.
What is the accomplishment that you are most proud of?Seriously, I’m proud that my children’s spouses don’t mind me being around and that my grandchildren like me—even the older ones. It makes me think I must have done something to be proud of, but I’m not sure what it is.
If you were an animal, which one would you be, and why? Whatever animal is friendly, clumsy, yet harmless. A basset hound sounds about right.
What is your favorite food? Ice cream, specifically coffee ice cream.
Mine is Blue Bell’s Chocolate Covered Cherries ice cream, but they only make for the holiday season and not every year. I’m in ice cream heaven when they do. What is the problem with writing that was your greatest roadblock, and how did you overcome it? I found it difficult to apply all the rules in the how-to-write books while I was creating my story. Finally, I just decided to write and see if it worked. Now if something isn’t working, I can tell without reading a book about it. No offense to those who’ve written these books; some of us just learn in a different way. Even if it’s the hard way. J
I like to read writing books to see what I can learn from them, but I don’t read one when I’m writing a novel. I’m another one who learns a different way. Please tell us about the featured book.
Casey Gallagher credits a carefully crafted game plan for her wins: her solid marriage to Sam; her lucrative marketing career in Boston; and her popular sports column
, Double Header
, which she writes with her brother, Griffin. When Casey discovers that her late father, the one man she idolized, had an affair which produced a son even he didn't know about, she’s determined to identify this walking threat to her father’s memory before he can do any harm. When Casey attempts to fit the changes that life throws at her into her idealistic plan, she’s challenged by the dialogue running in her head. Is it her conscience or her imagination? Or is it the voice of the God she’s not sure she believes in?
Please give us the first page of the book.I met my half brother the week I turned thirty. I knew it was him; he was wearing my late father’s boots.
Six months earlier, my younger brother Griffinand I were escaping the cold for four full days of sun and research in Ft. Myers, Florida. With our SUV’s engine running outside Terminal C at Logan International in Boston, my husband Sam jumped out to help Griffin and me with our luggage. “Listen up, Casey—” he started.
“I know, be vigilant.” I took my bag from him. “Wish you were coming with us.”
“To watch you work? No way. Besides, when we go away,” Sam said loud enough for Griffinto hear, “it will be alone.”
“Cramp your style, do I, Lieutenant Gallagher?” Griffin faked a body check on Sam. “This coming from a guy who spends all his nights with cops and robbers.”
I pushed on the car’s lift gate to make sure it was latched. “Stop yakking, you two, before we get a ticket.”
The biting winds nipped at my resolve to leave my wool coat behind, but I held fast, thinking back on the heat of southwest Florida. Sam, my cop in shining armor, finished his condensed version of his “hyper-vigilance” speech, kissed me good-bye, and drove away.
How can readers find you on the Internet? Website Facebook LinkedIn Twitter GoodReads Pinterest
Thank you, Clarice, for sharing this interesting book with us. I know my blog followers will be eager to read it.
Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.Double Header
- paperback
Double Header - Kindle
Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. You must follow these instructions to be in the drawing. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)
Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.
The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.
If you’re reading this on Goodreads, Google+, Feedblitz, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link:
Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com
Bio: Clarice G. James loves to read and write smart, fun, relatable contemporary and historical women’s fiction. After many years of writing and editing for business and ministry, she now enjoys the freedom that writing fiction allows her. Clarice has been a follower of Jesus Christ for over 35 years. She and her husband David live in Southern New Hampshire. Together they have five married children and ten grandchildren. Double Header is her first published novel. It was one of three winners in the 2014 Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild Operation First Novel contest.
Welcome, Clarice. Tell us how much of yourself you write into your characters. In my first book (Party of One, pre-published), my main character was a widow struggling with loneliness and finding purpose in life. Much of this story was based on my life at the time. In my second book,
Double Header
, the main character has control issues and a critical nature when it comes to the Christian faith. Sorry to say, that was me, too, before I became a believer. In my current novel (in progress), Manhattan Grace, the legalist in me shows up. [Wow. Don’t I have any good qualities?] What is the quirkiest thing you have ever done? It was important for one of my female characters to have a signature perfume. However, after researching in major department stores, all I came away with was a headache. So while in the food store one day, I stalked a woman who smelled like I wanted my character to smell. I caught up with her in the parking lot. She was gracious enough to tell me the name of her perfume—but didn’t give me hers.
A lot of perfumes give me headaches, but I like wearing fragrance, so I stay with only those I know won’t cause me pain. When did you first discover that you were a writer? Initially, it was a favorite assignment in high school. Later, when I got a positive reaction from friends and family for the little things I wrote, I decided it was something I could do and enjoy.
Tell us the range of the kinds of books you enjoy reading. The non-fiction books on my shelves include biblical studies, devotionals, Christian living, business and marketing, reference books, and how-to books on writing. As for fiction, I prefer contemporary women’s or historical fiction. I love humor and a thread of romance in my stories. However, I don’t usually go to the romance novel section.
My last three novels, and my next one, are more historical women’s fiction, instead of straight romance, but they are often shelved with the romance novels. How do you keep your sanity in our run, run, run world? Spending time in God’s Word helps me walk slowly through my days. And if I get a little frantic, my husband helps me understand and accept my limits and not compare myself with others.
How do you choose your characters’ names? I look at each character’s age, gender, ethnic background, personality type, and check the meaning of names. It’s important for the character’s name to “sound right” to me. I’ve been guilty of changing a name in the middle of writing the book because it just didn’t seem to fit. If a name sounds interesting to me, I save it in my Names Slush file.
What is the accomplishment that you are most proud of?Seriously, I’m proud that my children’s spouses don’t mind me being around and that my grandchildren like me—even the older ones. It makes me think I must have done something to be proud of, but I’m not sure what it is.
If you were an animal, which one would you be, and why? Whatever animal is friendly, clumsy, yet harmless. A basset hound sounds about right.
What is your favorite food? Ice cream, specifically coffee ice cream.
Mine is Blue Bell’s Chocolate Covered Cherries ice cream, but they only make for the holiday season and not every year. I’m in ice cream heaven when they do. What is the problem with writing that was your greatest roadblock, and how did you overcome it? I found it difficult to apply all the rules in the how-to-write books while I was creating my story. Finally, I just decided to write and see if it worked. Now if something isn’t working, I can tell without reading a book about it. No offense to those who’ve written these books; some of us just learn in a different way. Even if it’s the hard way. J
I like to read writing books to see what I can learn from them, but I don’t read one when I’m writing a novel. I’m another one who learns a different way. Please tell us about the featured book.
Casey Gallagher credits a carefully crafted game plan for her wins: her solid marriage to Sam; her lucrative marketing career in Boston; and her popular sports column
, Double Header
, which she writes with her brother, Griffin. When Casey discovers that her late father, the one man she idolized, had an affair which produced a son even he didn't know about, she’s determined to identify this walking threat to her father’s memory before he can do any harm. When Casey attempts to fit the changes that life throws at her into her idealistic plan, she’s challenged by the dialogue running in her head. Is it her conscience or her imagination? Or is it the voice of the God she’s not sure she believes in?Please give us the first page of the book.I met my half brother the week I turned thirty. I knew it was him; he was wearing my late father’s boots.
Six months earlier, my younger brother Griffinand I were escaping the cold for four full days of sun and research in Ft. Myers, Florida. With our SUV’s engine running outside Terminal C at Logan International in Boston, my husband Sam jumped out to help Griffin and me with our luggage. “Listen up, Casey—” he started.
“I know, be vigilant.” I took my bag from him. “Wish you were coming with us.”
“To watch you work? No way. Besides, when we go away,” Sam said loud enough for Griffinto hear, “it will be alone.”
“Cramp your style, do I, Lieutenant Gallagher?” Griffin faked a body check on Sam. “This coming from a guy who spends all his nights with cops and robbers.”
I pushed on the car’s lift gate to make sure it was latched. “Stop yakking, you two, before we get a ticket.”
The biting winds nipped at my resolve to leave my wool coat behind, but I held fast, thinking back on the heat of southwest Florida. Sam, my cop in shining armor, finished his condensed version of his “hyper-vigilance” speech, kissed me good-bye, and drove away.
How can readers find you on the Internet? Website Facebook LinkedIn Twitter GoodReads Pinterest
Thank you, Clarice, for sharing this interesting book with us. I know my blog followers will be eager to read it.
Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.Double Header
- paperbackDouble Header - Kindle
Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. You must follow these instructions to be in the drawing. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)
Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.
The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.
If you’re reading this on Goodreads, Google+, Feedblitz, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link:
Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com
January 13, 2016
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE ZODIAC KILLER? - Kathie Fitzpatrick - One Free Book
Welcome back, Kathie. It's been a long time since you were here.
What would you like our readers to know about you personally?
I have been a professional level writer since my high school days. My English teachers did submissions of my creative writing and short stories to contests in which I wound up winning awards but then I was challenged with: “It must be plagiarism because this is too good to have been written by a high school student,” they would say. Of course they were wrong about that! It seemed like I was always writing. I loved to write poetry in my teen years and young adult life. With poetry one can condense important thoughts or a great story into a very short form. I loved that! I also tried my hand with combining artwork and stories. I had been an Advanced Art student in High School, as well. Some of my teachers put my art work in exhibits, and I did participate in art exhibits later as an adult as well. I had set a strong foundation for creativity as a youth for my later professions.
In my adult life, this led to a long stretch of time working in journalism in the news media and as a Television Producer and writer with a large television network in Northern California. My then husband, John FitzPatrick, was also a Producer and Technical Director, and we often worked together. (He was deceased in 2008) Our lives and careers were very demanding, and we finally made a decision as parents of young children to change our lifestyles. Since 1990, I have lived in Washington State. Like many Californians, our family moved to the Pacific Northwest to cash out on a house, change professions, and live a more relaxed family lifestyle. I’m not sure I can say the ”more relaxed family lifestyle” lasted beyond the first few years, as I was met with dramatic life circumstances that led me to write other works based on those stories.
In 1997, I helped form the dramatic faith based Young Lion’s Youth Ministry Program, a youth detention ministry still in operation today. In 2001 I released a work that was taken from my inspired messages that I prayed earnestly for God to reveal to me each and every week as I faced girls, and teen felon boys, often charged with violence and even murder! He came through. After four years, I put together a compilation of work taken from my actual messages, and letters and poems taken down from the teens themselves entitled Extreme Teen Rescue. The work is taken largely from my personal notes and experiences and is used by many others who seek to achieve dynamic ministry presentation in the youth detention setting. See www.younglions.org
Many people around the USA, and some foreign countries, use Extreme Teen Rescue, the Young Lion’s Youth Ministry Manual, as a primer for their work with these challenging youth. This in itself will one day be a book and/or screenplay called Rumblings. Although, not finished, I chose the title because gangs rumble, and so do the powers of hell when that many kids are missing! The challenging part is choosing which stories to tell, and then weaving a plot with a beginning middle and an end, when the real story is so on-going!
In 2001, I lost my 18 year old daughter, the youngest teen firefighter who perished in the infamous and historic Thirtymile Fire. This was a huge catastrophic event and was very widely covered on all the major news stations in the USAand around the world. The unnecessary loss of four very bright and talented young firefighters, Karen lee FitzPatrick, 18, Jessica Johnson 19, Devin Weaver, 21, and Tom Craven, 30 was a heartbreak to our nation and the entire firefighting community in the USA and even made waves internationally! The controversy of risking the young people too greatly instead of just leaving the fire early, became a huge national controversy that ultimately changed and improved the whole safety structure and accountability of the U.S. Forest service which had been unchanged and unchallenged over the past 100 years.
The book I wrote concerning this was entitled, Angel Promises…Remembering the Youngest Firefighter, which came out through Wine Press Publishing Co. in 2007. Currently the title is available through Deep River Books. The book reveals many of Karen’s first person writings, her journey toward a deep walk with God, my thoughts as her mother, Karen’s teen poems and my teen and young adult poems. There were many supernatural stories before, during and after the fire which are included. God definitely was not sleeping that day. It was Karen Lee’s “appointed time.” She prophetically knew it, “but it was okay.” The reader finds out this amazing insight regarding a time clock she had inside her spirit, and how this fact was revealed to me through another Christian woman who did not even know us! The Lord had prophetically revealed it to her, and she contacted me shortly after Karen’s death! God is amazing! Karen was also one of the primary characters in John Norman Maclean’s book, The Thirtymile Fire, which also did its debut in 2007. We did some events together in bookstores and with various radio programs.
Tell us about your family.My Mom Ruby is currently almost 94. Her side of the family has a past deeply rooted in the development of early America. “Ruby Lee Garrison,” was related to the very colorful Isaac Garrison clan. In early American days Isaac Garrison rode with Daniel Boone helping to chart the wilderness regions, and was first cousin to the third U.S. President Thomas Jefferson. The family came over from Scotland in the 1600’s. The Garrison’s had migrated there from Francewhere they were related to the French Huguenots who were banner wavers of the faith during and after the reformation. Due to persecution, they were forced to flee to other countries.
Eventually the Garrisons migrated to early Americain the late 1600’s. During the generations that followed it seemed that many of the Garrisons were strong Christians and even Pastors, due to these strong family foundations of Christian faith!
My Mom, Ruby has been a strong Christian woman who spent a lifetime encouraging her children and the entire extended family to live for God.
My dad, Henry Horacek, passed away in 2002 at the age of 88 years old. He was born in America, but his Mom (Kathryn Cobler) was from Prague and his father Frank Horacek was from Vienna Austria. There was a link to the famous Austrian royal family, The Hapsburgs. It was a time in history when Lenin was in power in Russia, and the Straus waltz was becoming popular in the royal Palaces and dance halls of Vienna. I can picture my grandmother and grandfather dancing, and whirling to the graceful waltzes played by the Viennese orchestras.
My grandfather, Frank (Fran-ti-cek,) rode with the famous Austrian Riding academy who became world famous for training the Lipizzaner dancing horses. His older brother Frank Jr. was a small child when the Russian Bolshevik Revolution began, and eventually became a threat to their family in Austria. Frank was at the riding academy when he saw the Russian soldiers approaching. Some of the other men tried to escape into the woods by riding their horses and jumping the fences, racing off into the thicket. The Revolutionary soldiers shot both the men and their horses dead. Frank slipped quietly away, and was able to collect his pregnant wife (pregnant with my Dad, Henry) and some family belongings in their suitcases, and leave the country by ship to America. This meant walking away from a big house in Vienna, but at least they had their lives!
Settling into a lowly migrant and much less ideal situation in Chicago, the family eventually became owners of a local gas station. Younger sister, Helen, was born during these years. The boys grew up helping with the family business after school. This led to good work ethic among the children as they grew up that lasted all of them a lifetime!
Although my dad, Henry went to college at AC Berkley and graduated with a degree in B.S. Chemistry, he did not pursue that avenue of work. About the time he married my mother in 1945, he decided to become a Realtor! His first sale brought him $2,000. This was a great deal of money back then, and inspired him to stay in Real estate for the long term. I still remember me growing up seeing my dad work as both a Realtor and Broker of a small Real Estate company in Northern California where we lived for many years. As a young woman I didn’t think I wanted to work in Real Estate. It was far more interesting to pursue music, and singing in programs and being on tour with Christian concert groups. Later, it was television producing that was more interesting! Little did I realize at the time, my day to work in Real estate would come years down the road when I was married and moved with my family to Washington State. As I left the world of TV Producing I went eventually went into a new profession in 1994….it turned out to be Real Estate! I’ve been a Realtor-CRS for 21 years now! The writing of screenplays and other creative works has become a strong companion interest. Though, I can’t say I write for fun. There is always a strong cause behind what and why I write, and a very important reason to tell the story!
Do you have any other books in the works right now?Not officially. I am currently exploring the possibility with an Amazon Kindle consultant of converting my illustrated children’s book, The Wish, into a Kindle version. It is currently available in a soft cover print version on Amazon. Search under The Wish FitzPatrick, if interested.
What kinds of hobbies and activities do you enjoy?I enjoy Power walking around the neighborhood, exploring new healthy recipes, enjoying movies at home with my young adult daughter, Jaina. I’m working on promoting a movie treatment of my latest book, Whatever Happened to the Zodiac Killer? based on our true encounter with him back in 1978, and the unfolding events after that. See the video trailer for the book at: https://youtu.be/91V4xnYPAIM
Why did you write the featured book?In Mid October 1978, myself and my husband, John FitzPatrick found ourselves in some unusual circumstances that led us face to face with the infamous Zodiac Killer. The dramatic Zodiac had just written the San Francisco newspapers threatening that he “would strike and kill this weekend,” the killer warned. He appeared right on time. It was late Sunday night.
After a late night church service in the City, and a dinner--we ran into him late night San Francisco in three locations in the space of twenty minutes stalking couples obviously with the intent to kill. He was absolutely terrified to be discovered! We wound up in a high speed chase after him that ultimately led to his sudden disappearance forever after that night! The unfolding facts around that night over the following years, and the clincher--how he actually died, make up the story. Much like the evil men in the Old Testament, God had everything to do with bringing down that demonic killer! We just got to be a part of it, and lived to tell the story. The story was concealed from the masses and from the media for public safety reasons, as the reader will soon discover all the reasons for this as they delve into our story. How it was handled after that became the disappointing part! No wonder the crime is still considered to be officially unsolved to this day. The opportunity for him to be positively identified was unfortunately passed over way back then. It would be hard to pull the pieces together today. If old records really could be recovered, it might still be remotely possible.
I wrote the book, and told the story almost four decades later because there is so much misinformation about the Zodiac Killer, that I wanted to tell our experience which I believe points to the truth about how he actually ended. He is dead as a result of becoming so extremely terrified of being discovered, and rushing frantically from the scene that night. He did not just see us, but I believe he saw terrifying warring angels standing behind us! He was so convinced that he was exposed, and would be picked up by the police that he had mocked for years—that he made a dark decision to end his life. The exact details did not emerge until some 10 years later after a decade of silence. Everything about the Zodiac Killer, his letters, his actions his killings…suddenly stopped…literally flatlined after that night. I believe it was God who led us to the missing pieces of the puzzle! The story is true, but we created a fictional ending based on those newly discovered facts and projected the characters into it. So the book is that unusual genre called “Based on a true story,” but it is in fact is almost entirely really true.
What do you want the reader to take away from this book?Several things…some factual and some spiritual.This is a true story and a real encounter with one of the most infamous serial killers ever known! Our story is genuine, and is different from many of the other stories about him in that we actually saw him, and know the face very well. Everybody else is just guessing. It’s really a dark spiritual matter that has spread like a dark deadly cloud across our entire globe! Jesus is the only answer!
God ultimately helps those who are his beloved triumph over evil!
Is there anything you’d like to tell my readers about your or your book?This story really happened. In the book I pull back the veil and take dramatic license describing demonic and angelic activity according the kinds of descriptions people have given who have seen them, and from the Word of God. The scene at the church in Chapter three, “Preparing for the Chase,” happened exactly as I describe it. Many scenes are described exactly as they happened throughout the book including our encounter with the man who we believe was the Zodiac Killer, and the chase that quickly occurred after that. The ending was created from the new evidence that we gathered from the grandson of the deceased Zodiac detective some ten years later, and we projected the characters into it. So this book is that unusual genre we that call, “Based on a true story.”
Where on the internet can the readers find you?On amazon.com by the book title, and on my author’s web page: www.kathiefitzpatrickauthorsfellowship.comweb page referring to the screenplay:http://www.whateverhappenedtothezodiackiller.com/
Thank you, Kathie, for sharing this book with us.
Readers, leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. You must follow these instructions to be in the drawing. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)
Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.
The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.
If you’re reading this on Goodreads, Google+, Feedblitz, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link:
Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com
What would you like our readers to know about you personally?I have been a professional level writer since my high school days. My English teachers did submissions of my creative writing and short stories to contests in which I wound up winning awards but then I was challenged with: “It must be plagiarism because this is too good to have been written by a high school student,” they would say. Of course they were wrong about that! It seemed like I was always writing. I loved to write poetry in my teen years and young adult life. With poetry one can condense important thoughts or a great story into a very short form. I loved that! I also tried my hand with combining artwork and stories. I had been an Advanced Art student in High School, as well. Some of my teachers put my art work in exhibits, and I did participate in art exhibits later as an adult as well. I had set a strong foundation for creativity as a youth for my later professions.
In my adult life, this led to a long stretch of time working in journalism in the news media and as a Television Producer and writer with a large television network in Northern California. My then husband, John FitzPatrick, was also a Producer and Technical Director, and we often worked together. (He was deceased in 2008) Our lives and careers were very demanding, and we finally made a decision as parents of young children to change our lifestyles. Since 1990, I have lived in Washington State. Like many Californians, our family moved to the Pacific Northwest to cash out on a house, change professions, and live a more relaxed family lifestyle. I’m not sure I can say the ”more relaxed family lifestyle” lasted beyond the first few years, as I was met with dramatic life circumstances that led me to write other works based on those stories.
In 1997, I helped form the dramatic faith based Young Lion’s Youth Ministry Program, a youth detention ministry still in operation today. In 2001 I released a work that was taken from my inspired messages that I prayed earnestly for God to reveal to me each and every week as I faced girls, and teen felon boys, often charged with violence and even murder! He came through. After four years, I put together a compilation of work taken from my actual messages, and letters and poems taken down from the teens themselves entitled Extreme Teen Rescue. The work is taken largely from my personal notes and experiences and is used by many others who seek to achieve dynamic ministry presentation in the youth detention setting. See www.younglions.org
Many people around the USA, and some foreign countries, use Extreme Teen Rescue, the Young Lion’s Youth Ministry Manual, as a primer for their work with these challenging youth. This in itself will one day be a book and/or screenplay called Rumblings. Although, not finished, I chose the title because gangs rumble, and so do the powers of hell when that many kids are missing! The challenging part is choosing which stories to tell, and then weaving a plot with a beginning middle and an end, when the real story is so on-going!
In 2001, I lost my 18 year old daughter, the youngest teen firefighter who perished in the infamous and historic Thirtymile Fire. This was a huge catastrophic event and was very widely covered on all the major news stations in the USAand around the world. The unnecessary loss of four very bright and talented young firefighters, Karen lee FitzPatrick, 18, Jessica Johnson 19, Devin Weaver, 21, and Tom Craven, 30 was a heartbreak to our nation and the entire firefighting community in the USA and even made waves internationally! The controversy of risking the young people too greatly instead of just leaving the fire early, became a huge national controversy that ultimately changed and improved the whole safety structure and accountability of the U.S. Forest service which had been unchanged and unchallenged over the past 100 years.
The book I wrote concerning this was entitled, Angel Promises…Remembering the Youngest Firefighter, which came out through Wine Press Publishing Co. in 2007. Currently the title is available through Deep River Books. The book reveals many of Karen’s first person writings, her journey toward a deep walk with God, my thoughts as her mother, Karen’s teen poems and my teen and young adult poems. There were many supernatural stories before, during and after the fire which are included. God definitely was not sleeping that day. It was Karen Lee’s “appointed time.” She prophetically knew it, “but it was okay.” The reader finds out this amazing insight regarding a time clock she had inside her spirit, and how this fact was revealed to me through another Christian woman who did not even know us! The Lord had prophetically revealed it to her, and she contacted me shortly after Karen’s death! God is amazing! Karen was also one of the primary characters in John Norman Maclean’s book, The Thirtymile Fire, which also did its debut in 2007. We did some events together in bookstores and with various radio programs.
Tell us about your family.My Mom Ruby is currently almost 94. Her side of the family has a past deeply rooted in the development of early America. “Ruby Lee Garrison,” was related to the very colorful Isaac Garrison clan. In early American days Isaac Garrison rode with Daniel Boone helping to chart the wilderness regions, and was first cousin to the third U.S. President Thomas Jefferson. The family came over from Scotland in the 1600’s. The Garrison’s had migrated there from Francewhere they were related to the French Huguenots who were banner wavers of the faith during and after the reformation. Due to persecution, they were forced to flee to other countries.
Eventually the Garrisons migrated to early Americain the late 1600’s. During the generations that followed it seemed that many of the Garrisons were strong Christians and even Pastors, due to these strong family foundations of Christian faith!
My Mom, Ruby has been a strong Christian woman who spent a lifetime encouraging her children and the entire extended family to live for God.
My dad, Henry Horacek, passed away in 2002 at the age of 88 years old. He was born in America, but his Mom (Kathryn Cobler) was from Prague and his father Frank Horacek was from Vienna Austria. There was a link to the famous Austrian royal family, The Hapsburgs. It was a time in history when Lenin was in power in Russia, and the Straus waltz was becoming popular in the royal Palaces and dance halls of Vienna. I can picture my grandmother and grandfather dancing, and whirling to the graceful waltzes played by the Viennese orchestras.
My grandfather, Frank (Fran-ti-cek,) rode with the famous Austrian Riding academy who became world famous for training the Lipizzaner dancing horses. His older brother Frank Jr. was a small child when the Russian Bolshevik Revolution began, and eventually became a threat to their family in Austria. Frank was at the riding academy when he saw the Russian soldiers approaching. Some of the other men tried to escape into the woods by riding their horses and jumping the fences, racing off into the thicket. The Revolutionary soldiers shot both the men and their horses dead. Frank slipped quietly away, and was able to collect his pregnant wife (pregnant with my Dad, Henry) and some family belongings in their suitcases, and leave the country by ship to America. This meant walking away from a big house in Vienna, but at least they had their lives!
Settling into a lowly migrant and much less ideal situation in Chicago, the family eventually became owners of a local gas station. Younger sister, Helen, was born during these years. The boys grew up helping with the family business after school. This led to good work ethic among the children as they grew up that lasted all of them a lifetime!
Although my dad, Henry went to college at AC Berkley and graduated with a degree in B.S. Chemistry, he did not pursue that avenue of work. About the time he married my mother in 1945, he decided to become a Realtor! His first sale brought him $2,000. This was a great deal of money back then, and inspired him to stay in Real estate for the long term. I still remember me growing up seeing my dad work as both a Realtor and Broker of a small Real Estate company in Northern California where we lived for many years. As a young woman I didn’t think I wanted to work in Real Estate. It was far more interesting to pursue music, and singing in programs and being on tour with Christian concert groups. Later, it was television producing that was more interesting! Little did I realize at the time, my day to work in Real estate would come years down the road when I was married and moved with my family to Washington State. As I left the world of TV Producing I went eventually went into a new profession in 1994….it turned out to be Real Estate! I’ve been a Realtor-CRS for 21 years now! The writing of screenplays and other creative works has become a strong companion interest. Though, I can’t say I write for fun. There is always a strong cause behind what and why I write, and a very important reason to tell the story!
Do you have any other books in the works right now?Not officially. I am currently exploring the possibility with an Amazon Kindle consultant of converting my illustrated children’s book, The Wish, into a Kindle version. It is currently available in a soft cover print version on Amazon. Search under The Wish FitzPatrick, if interested.
What kinds of hobbies and activities do you enjoy?I enjoy Power walking around the neighborhood, exploring new healthy recipes, enjoying movies at home with my young adult daughter, Jaina. I’m working on promoting a movie treatment of my latest book, Whatever Happened to the Zodiac Killer? based on our true encounter with him back in 1978, and the unfolding events after that. See the video trailer for the book at: https://youtu.be/91V4xnYPAIM
Why did you write the featured book?In Mid October 1978, myself and my husband, John FitzPatrick found ourselves in some unusual circumstances that led us face to face with the infamous Zodiac Killer. The dramatic Zodiac had just written the San Francisco newspapers threatening that he “would strike and kill this weekend,” the killer warned. He appeared right on time. It was late Sunday night.After a late night church service in the City, and a dinner--we ran into him late night San Francisco in three locations in the space of twenty minutes stalking couples obviously with the intent to kill. He was absolutely terrified to be discovered! We wound up in a high speed chase after him that ultimately led to his sudden disappearance forever after that night! The unfolding facts around that night over the following years, and the clincher--how he actually died, make up the story. Much like the evil men in the Old Testament, God had everything to do with bringing down that demonic killer! We just got to be a part of it, and lived to tell the story. The story was concealed from the masses and from the media for public safety reasons, as the reader will soon discover all the reasons for this as they delve into our story. How it was handled after that became the disappointing part! No wonder the crime is still considered to be officially unsolved to this day. The opportunity for him to be positively identified was unfortunately passed over way back then. It would be hard to pull the pieces together today. If old records really could be recovered, it might still be remotely possible.
I wrote the book, and told the story almost four decades later because there is so much misinformation about the Zodiac Killer, that I wanted to tell our experience which I believe points to the truth about how he actually ended. He is dead as a result of becoming so extremely terrified of being discovered, and rushing frantically from the scene that night. He did not just see us, but I believe he saw terrifying warring angels standing behind us! He was so convinced that he was exposed, and would be picked up by the police that he had mocked for years—that he made a dark decision to end his life. The exact details did not emerge until some 10 years later after a decade of silence. Everything about the Zodiac Killer, his letters, his actions his killings…suddenly stopped…literally flatlined after that night. I believe it was God who led us to the missing pieces of the puzzle! The story is true, but we created a fictional ending based on those newly discovered facts and projected the characters into it. So the book is that unusual genre called “Based on a true story,” but it is in fact is almost entirely really true.
What do you want the reader to take away from this book?Several things…some factual and some spiritual.This is a true story and a real encounter with one of the most infamous serial killers ever known! Our story is genuine, and is different from many of the other stories about him in that we actually saw him, and know the face very well. Everybody else is just guessing. It’s really a dark spiritual matter that has spread like a dark deadly cloud across our entire globe! Jesus is the only answer!
God ultimately helps those who are his beloved triumph over evil!
Is there anything you’d like to tell my readers about your or your book?This story really happened. In the book I pull back the veil and take dramatic license describing demonic and angelic activity according the kinds of descriptions people have given who have seen them, and from the Word of God. The scene at the church in Chapter three, “Preparing for the Chase,” happened exactly as I describe it. Many scenes are described exactly as they happened throughout the book including our encounter with the man who we believe was the Zodiac Killer, and the chase that quickly occurred after that. The ending was created from the new evidence that we gathered from the grandson of the deceased Zodiac detective some ten years later, and we projected the characters into it. So this book is that unusual genre we that call, “Based on a true story.”
Where on the internet can the readers find you?On amazon.com by the book title, and on my author’s web page: www.kathiefitzpatrickauthorsfellowship.comweb page referring to the screenplay:http://www.whateverhappenedtothezodiackiller.com/
Thank you, Kathie, for sharing this book with us.
Readers, leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. You must follow these instructions to be in the drawing. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)
Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.
The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.
If you’re reading this on Goodreads, Google+, Feedblitz, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link:
Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com
January 12, 2016
HAND-ME-DOWN PRINCESS - Carol Moncado - One Free Book
Dear Readers, when I first saw the cover of this book, I contacted Carol and asked her to be on the blog. I read the book, and I loved it. I’m really into royalty novels, contemporary, historical, or like a fairy tale. This one is unique, with so many different plot lines and intrigues and a marriage of convenience romance. The characters are multi-dimensional and really drew me right into the story. I can hardly wait to read the next book in the series.
Welcome, Carol. I know my readers will enjoy chatting with you in the comments.Lena – thank you so much for having me today! I appreciate the invitation!
Tell us how much of yourself you write into your characters.I think pretty much every character has a little bit of me. Some characters have more than others, of course. Dorrie, in Finding Mr. Write, has a lot of me in her – a writer struggling with whether or not she’s good enough to make it in this industry and everything else that goes along with that, along with struggling with feelings of self-worth. Others, like Jessabelle Keller in Hand-Me-Down Princess , deal with some of the same issues but with a different perspective. While Dorrie’s issues are universal, Jessabelle’s come more from the place of finding worth in our identity as a child of the King – the One True King.
What is the quirkiest thing you have ever done?Um … I’m really not that quirky ;). We moved into our first house on Friday the 13th … on Elm Street. Put the offer on our second house on 06/06/06. Good thing we’re not superstitious! :D I talk to myself sometimes, but I think that’s pretty endemic of writers in general.
When did you first discover that you were a writer?I’ve been telling stories most of my life. I wrote some of them down in junior high. I started writing for fun off and on starting in 2001 and got serious about writing for publication during NaNoWriMo 2009.
Tell us the range of the kinds of books you enjoy reading.I read a fairly wide spectrum, though not as wide as some. Most of what I read is romance – contemporary or historical – but I also read some romantic suspense, suspense, historical, occasionally speculative fiction. Almost everything is Christian, but not always. There are a few secular authors I enjoy sometimes – Grisham, Clancy, etc.
How do you keep your sanity in our run, run, run world?Spending time with God is always a big one – Reading my Bible, time in church, etc. Spending time just being with family and friends is huge, too. Plus reading. Reading a good book is a great way to just kind of be for a little while!
How do you choose your characters’ names?There are lots of different ways. Sometimes, it’s a character named after a friend who helps with research questions (Jason the Paramedic comes to mind!) or because my favorite Panera manager insisted I needed to name a character after him (Travis Harders gets his story this summer!) or because it’s an oblique reference to a popular TV show (Duke Alexander and his twin brother Christopher (Winning the Queen’s Heart) have the initials A and C because of the assorted references to Saved by the Bell in that book – and AC Slater). Other times it’s me telling a friend (or my street team) that I need a name and picking one I like (or sometimes … one I don’t hate and hope it grows on me – it usually does! ;)).
I had the owner of Chan’s Mongolian Grill ask me to name a character after him. Tony Chan is in both Mary’s Blessing and Catherine’s Pursuit in my McKenna’s Daughters series. What is the accomplishment that you are most proud of?Two things immediately come to mind. One is my kids. I’m incredibly proud of all four of them. From their swim team accomplishments to my 14-year-old’s tenor saxophone, my 12-year-old’s compassion, my 10-year-old’s determination in the face of her academic challenges and her horsemanship skills, and my 8-year-old’s ability to make a friend wherever he goes. Plus – my husband and I have been married nearly 19 years. I’m pretty proud of that ;).
The other is stepping out in faith a little over a year ago. I started my own publishing company, CANDID Publications, and “went indie” rather than continuing to pursue traditional publication for the time being. While I’m not going to be on any “top 100 indie earners” lists, it’s gone far better than I could have anticipated, and I’m loving (almost ;)) every minute of it!
I’m a hybrid author, both traditionally published and Indie. I’m planning to do more than one Indie this year. If you were an animal, which one would you be, and why?I asked a friend of mine what she thought. She said “horse?” I came back with “sloth” (because naps!). She laughed hysterically and pointed out that tigers nap all the time, too ;). I kind of like that. So a tiger – because I can nap regularly but can be fierce when it’s called for. Come to think of it, my 5 lb Shorkie fits that bill, too. The tiger would be scarier though!
What is your favorite food?Andy’s Frozen Custard, peanut butter cup concrete or Peanut Butter M&Ms.Real food? Spaghetti and three cheese tortellini with orange sauce and shredded Colby Jack on top. That real food sounds yummy. I might have to try it.
What is the problem with writing that was your greatest roadblock, and how did you overcome it?One thing I struggle with regularly when it comes to writing is focus. Treating it like a real jobbecause it is. When I wasn’t publishing my own books, I had no real deadline and could be less diligent. Now that I’m publishing and have deadlines (real ones, even if self-imposed), I’m having to learn how to treat it more like an actual job than a hobby. That means I don’t answer the phone every time someone calls if I’m working. Or that I can say no to people who want me to do stuff “since you just sit at home all day” because this is a real, paying job for me now. It also means less time binge watching Dr. Who, NCIS, or Big Bang Theory ;).
Tell us about the featured book.
Hand-Me-Down Princess
started with the title. Why would a princess feel like a hand-me-down, like clothes? What circumstances would lead to that? Plus I’d been watching Married at First Sight and wondered how I could work in a meeting at the altar. Without spoilers, it turned into something I didn’t expect – exploring how important it is to find our identity in Christ, as a joint heir, a child of the One True King, and not in our earthly roles (child of an earthly king, wife of a prince, author, teacher, speaker, parent, spouse, etc.). More than one person ends up needing to come to terms with that – and to be honest, I often do, too.
Eventually everyone will have to. Please give us the first page of the book.Nothing like being a hand-me-down Princess.
The words mocked Jessabelle over and over as she stared at her reflection in the mirror.
Hand-me-down.
Passed over.
Rejected.
Unwanted.
In less than an hour she would become Princess Jessabelle of Mevendia, wife of Prince Malachi, second in line for the throne. Not because he wanted to marry her, but because Crown Prince William had rejected her.
Twice.
Prince Malachi only upheld his family’s end of the marriage contract because her father had saved King Antonio’s life when they were teens.
Under no circumstances would Prince Malachi ever have chosen plain, mousy Jessabelle on his own. It was probably just as well the Crown Prince refused to marry her. She wouldn’t have wanted to be queen. Every little girl dreamed of being a princess, right? Most girls wouldn’t be sitting in a bedroom in a house provided for her family by the groom wondering if she could climb out the window. Would anyone notice? Guards had been posted on the grounds to protect the future princess, but she doubted anyone cared enough to sneak in and try to get pictures of her or kidnap her. No one even knew who she was. Would any of them care if she snuck out? Would anyone even realize it was her if it weren’t for the wedding gown?
How can readers find you on the Internet?
I’m on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AuthorCarolMoncado- “follow” over there! You’ll get public posts (most everything) but not questions about whether there’s school tomorrow ;). My website is www.carolmoncado.com – and my newsletter signup can be found at www.carolmoncado.com/newsletter- right now Protecting the Prince, a novella that’s book 2.5 in the Brides of Belles Montagnes series, is free for subscribers! Newsletter subscribers also get special notices on sales, including special preorder pricing! I also blog once a month or so at www.inspyromance.com :D.
Thank you, Carol, for sharing this book with my blog readers. I know they'll love it as much as I did.
Readers, here’s a link to the book. By using it when you order, you help support this blog.Hand-Me-Down Princess: Contemporary Christian Romance (The Brides of Belles Montagnes Book 1)
Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. You must follow these instructions to be in the drawing. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)
Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.
The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.
If you’re reading this on Goodreads, Google+, Feedblitz, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link:
Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com
Welcome, Carol. I know my readers will enjoy chatting with you in the comments.Lena – thank you so much for having me today! I appreciate the invitation!Tell us how much of yourself you write into your characters.I think pretty much every character has a little bit of me. Some characters have more than others, of course. Dorrie, in Finding Mr. Write, has a lot of me in her – a writer struggling with whether or not she’s good enough to make it in this industry and everything else that goes along with that, along with struggling with feelings of self-worth. Others, like Jessabelle Keller in Hand-Me-Down Princess , deal with some of the same issues but with a different perspective. While Dorrie’s issues are universal, Jessabelle’s come more from the place of finding worth in our identity as a child of the King – the One True King.
What is the quirkiest thing you have ever done?Um … I’m really not that quirky ;). We moved into our first house on Friday the 13th … on Elm Street. Put the offer on our second house on 06/06/06. Good thing we’re not superstitious! :D I talk to myself sometimes, but I think that’s pretty endemic of writers in general.
When did you first discover that you were a writer?I’ve been telling stories most of my life. I wrote some of them down in junior high. I started writing for fun off and on starting in 2001 and got serious about writing for publication during NaNoWriMo 2009.
Tell us the range of the kinds of books you enjoy reading.I read a fairly wide spectrum, though not as wide as some. Most of what I read is romance – contemporary or historical – but I also read some romantic suspense, suspense, historical, occasionally speculative fiction. Almost everything is Christian, but not always. There are a few secular authors I enjoy sometimes – Grisham, Clancy, etc.
How do you keep your sanity in our run, run, run world?Spending time with God is always a big one – Reading my Bible, time in church, etc. Spending time just being with family and friends is huge, too. Plus reading. Reading a good book is a great way to just kind of be for a little while!
How do you choose your characters’ names?There are lots of different ways. Sometimes, it’s a character named after a friend who helps with research questions (Jason the Paramedic comes to mind!) or because my favorite Panera manager insisted I needed to name a character after him (Travis Harders gets his story this summer!) or because it’s an oblique reference to a popular TV show (Duke Alexander and his twin brother Christopher (Winning the Queen’s Heart) have the initials A and C because of the assorted references to Saved by the Bell in that book – and AC Slater). Other times it’s me telling a friend (or my street team) that I need a name and picking one I like (or sometimes … one I don’t hate and hope it grows on me – it usually does! ;)).
I had the owner of Chan’s Mongolian Grill ask me to name a character after him. Tony Chan is in both Mary’s Blessing and Catherine’s Pursuit in my McKenna’s Daughters series. What is the accomplishment that you are most proud of?Two things immediately come to mind. One is my kids. I’m incredibly proud of all four of them. From their swim team accomplishments to my 14-year-old’s tenor saxophone, my 12-year-old’s compassion, my 10-year-old’s determination in the face of her academic challenges and her horsemanship skills, and my 8-year-old’s ability to make a friend wherever he goes. Plus – my husband and I have been married nearly 19 years. I’m pretty proud of that ;).
The other is stepping out in faith a little over a year ago. I started my own publishing company, CANDID Publications, and “went indie” rather than continuing to pursue traditional publication for the time being. While I’m not going to be on any “top 100 indie earners” lists, it’s gone far better than I could have anticipated, and I’m loving (almost ;)) every minute of it!
I’m a hybrid author, both traditionally published and Indie. I’m planning to do more than one Indie this year. If you were an animal, which one would you be, and why?I asked a friend of mine what she thought. She said “horse?” I came back with “sloth” (because naps!). She laughed hysterically and pointed out that tigers nap all the time, too ;). I kind of like that. So a tiger – because I can nap regularly but can be fierce when it’s called for. Come to think of it, my 5 lb Shorkie fits that bill, too. The tiger would be scarier though!
What is your favorite food?Andy’s Frozen Custard, peanut butter cup concrete or Peanut Butter M&Ms.Real food? Spaghetti and three cheese tortellini with orange sauce and shredded Colby Jack on top. That real food sounds yummy. I might have to try it.
What is the problem with writing that was your greatest roadblock, and how did you overcome it?One thing I struggle with regularly when it comes to writing is focus. Treating it like a real jobbecause it is. When I wasn’t publishing my own books, I had no real deadline and could be less diligent. Now that I’m publishing and have deadlines (real ones, even if self-imposed), I’m having to learn how to treat it more like an actual job than a hobby. That means I don’t answer the phone every time someone calls if I’m working. Or that I can say no to people who want me to do stuff “since you just sit at home all day” because this is a real, paying job for me now. It also means less time binge watching Dr. Who, NCIS, or Big Bang Theory ;).
Tell us about the featured book.
Hand-Me-Down Princess
started with the title. Why would a princess feel like a hand-me-down, like clothes? What circumstances would lead to that? Plus I’d been watching Married at First Sight and wondered how I could work in a meeting at the altar. Without spoilers, it turned into something I didn’t expect – exploring how important it is to find our identity in Christ, as a joint heir, a child of the One True King, and not in our earthly roles (child of an earthly king, wife of a prince, author, teacher, speaker, parent, spouse, etc.). More than one person ends up needing to come to terms with that – and to be honest, I often do, too.Eventually everyone will have to. Please give us the first page of the book.Nothing like being a hand-me-down Princess.
The words mocked Jessabelle over and over as she stared at her reflection in the mirror.
Hand-me-down.
Passed over.
Rejected.
Unwanted.
In less than an hour she would become Princess Jessabelle of Mevendia, wife of Prince Malachi, second in line for the throne. Not because he wanted to marry her, but because Crown Prince William had rejected her.
Twice.
Prince Malachi only upheld his family’s end of the marriage contract because her father had saved King Antonio’s life when they were teens.
Under no circumstances would Prince Malachi ever have chosen plain, mousy Jessabelle on his own. It was probably just as well the Crown Prince refused to marry her. She wouldn’t have wanted to be queen. Every little girl dreamed of being a princess, right? Most girls wouldn’t be sitting in a bedroom in a house provided for her family by the groom wondering if she could climb out the window. Would anyone notice? Guards had been posted on the grounds to protect the future princess, but she doubted anyone cared enough to sneak in and try to get pictures of her or kidnap her. No one even knew who she was. Would any of them care if she snuck out? Would anyone even realize it was her if it weren’t for the wedding gown?
How can readers find you on the Internet?
I’m on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AuthorCarolMoncado- “follow” over there! You’ll get public posts (most everything) but not questions about whether there’s school tomorrow ;). My website is www.carolmoncado.com – and my newsletter signup can be found at www.carolmoncado.com/newsletter- right now Protecting the Prince, a novella that’s book 2.5 in the Brides of Belles Montagnes series, is free for subscribers! Newsletter subscribers also get special notices on sales, including special preorder pricing! I also blog once a month or so at www.inspyromance.com :D.
Thank you, Carol, for sharing this book with my blog readers. I know they'll love it as much as I did.
Readers, here’s a link to the book. By using it when you order, you help support this blog.Hand-Me-Down Princess: Contemporary Christian Romance (The Brides of Belles Montagnes Book 1)
Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. You must follow these instructions to be in the drawing. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)
Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.
The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.
If you’re reading this on Goodreads, Google+, Feedblitz, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link:
Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com
January 11, 2016
CANDLE LOVE - MaryAnn Diorio - One Free Book
Welcome back, MaryAnn. What has drawn you to writing for children?My love for children and my love of words naturally combined and resulted in three picture books and one chapter book so far.
What is the quirkiest thing you have ever done?
I would say running out of gas just as I entered the 17-mile-long Chesapeake-Bay-Bridge Tunnel. Thank the Lord the bridge police saved the day by bringing me enough gas to complete my drive across the bridge and get to a gas station.
When did you first discover you were a writer?
I first sensed God's call to write when I was 30 years old. One day, I began to have a strong desire to write. The desire kept increasing. I went to the Lord and said, "Lord, if this desire is of You, please increase it. If not, please take it away because it is getting unbearable." The Lord increased the desire and then confirmed it by allowing one of my poems to be published in the prestigious magazine, The Saturday Evening Post. I had no idea what I was doing in submitting my poem to a slick magazine that was so difficult to crack (as I later learned). So when the poem was accepted, I knew without doubt that it was God's way of confirming His call on my life to write.
Tell us the range of the kinds of books you enjoy reading.
I read widely in multiple genres. I read contemporary fiction, the classics of literature, books on theology, philosophy, quantum physics, the end times, children's books, politics and culture, etc. I also read books and articles on writing fiction. I am always reading and devouring books and articles. I think it is very important for a writer of fiction to understand the culture in which her stories are set. To me, culture means not only historical setting but the mindset prevalent in that historical setting. By far, however, my favorite book to read is the Bible. I spend a good deal of time reading God's Word. It is different from every other book in that it is alive.
What other books have you written, whether published or not?
I have written and published three children's picture books: WHO IS JESUS?, TOBY TOO SMALL, and CANDLE LOVE; one chapter book: DO ANGELS RIDE PONIES?; two novellas for adults: A CHRISTMAS HOMECOMING and SURRENDER TO LOVE; and a full-length novel: THE MADONNA OF PISANO. This latter is the first in my trilogy titled THE ITALIAN CHRONICLES. I have also written several non-fiction books: YOU WERE MADE FOR GREATNESS!; A STUDENT'S GUIDE TO NATHANIAL HAWTHORNE, A STUDENT'S GUIDE TO HERMAN MELVILLE, and A STUDENT'S GUIDE TO MARK TWAIN.
How do you keep your sanity in our run, run, run world?
I keep an ongoing conversation with Jesus. In other words, I practice the presence of God. In so doing, my mind is always fixed on Him and, as Isaiah 26: 3 promises, keeping our minds fixed on Christ results in perfect peace.
What is the accomplishment that you are most proud of, besides family?
Recently completing my first full-length novel, THE MADONNA OF PISANO. This book is the first in my trilogy The Italian Chronicles.
If you were an animal, which one would you be, and why?
The dog is my favorite animal because of its loyalty. My strongest quality is loyalty. What is your favorite food?
I love vegetables of all kinds, especially green vegetables sautéed in olive oil and garlic. Sometimes I add Italian bread crumbs for extra flavor. :)
Is it hard to break into the children’s market? Yes. The children's market is one of the most difficult markets to crack because the competition is very keen. Many children's authors, however, including yours truly, are now venturing into indie-publishing with much success.
What advice would you give to an author wanting to do that?
If God has called you to write for children, then you must write for children. Learn all you can. Write the best book you can. Study the market. Submit (or self-publish). In either case, pray, pray, pray for God's direction. He will show you the way to get your book out there where it can bless little children and those who read to them.
What would you like to tell us about the featured book?
CANDLE LOVE is a story about sibling rivalry. It is targeted to children who are expecting a new little brother or sister or who already have a new sibling in the family. The story was based on my own experience as a mother.
How can readers find you on the Internet? I am always happy to hear from readers. They can reach me via the following venues:
Website: www.maryanndiorio.com
Blog (Matters of the Heart): http://www.networkedblogs.com/blog/maryanndiorioblog
Amazon Author Central: http://www.amazon.com/author/maryanndiorio
Facebook: http://www.Facebook.com/DrMaryAnnDiorio
Twitter: http://Twitter.com/@DrMaryAnnDiorio
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6592603
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=45380421
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/drmaryanndiorio/
Google+: http://plus.google.com/u/0/+DrMaryAnnDiorio
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/drmaryanndiorio/
Thank you, MaryAnn, for sharing this book with us. I love the cover.
Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.
Candle Love
- AmazonCANDLE LOVE
- KindleLeave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. You must follow these instructions to be in the drawing. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)
Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.
The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.
If you’re reading this on Goodreads, Google+, Feedblitz, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link:
Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com
January 10, 2016
WINNERS!!!
Angela (KY) is the winner of
Where She Belongs
by Johnnie Alexander.
Lourdes (NY) is the winner of Win, Love, or Draw by Crystal Barnes .
Kari T (MN) is the winner of Rescuing Finley by Dan Walsh.
If you won a book and you like it, please consider giving the author the courtesy of writing a review on Goodreads, Amazon.com, Christianbooks.com, Barnes and Noble, or other Internet sites.
Also, tell your friends about the book ... and this blog. Thank you.
Congratulations, everyone. If you won a print book, send me your mailing address:
Click the Contact Me link at the top of the blog, and send me an Email.
If you won an ebook, just let me know what email address it should be sent to.
When you contact me, please give the title and author of the book you won, so I won't have to look it up.
Remember, you have 4 weeks to claim your book.
Lourdes (NY) is the winner of Win, Love, or Draw by Crystal Barnes .
Kari T (MN) is the winner of Rescuing Finley by Dan Walsh.
If you won a book and you like it, please consider giving the author the courtesy of writing a review on Goodreads, Amazon.com, Christianbooks.com, Barnes and Noble, or other Internet sites.
Also, tell your friends about the book ... and this blog. Thank you.
Congratulations, everyone. If you won a print book, send me your mailing address:
Click the Contact Me link at the top of the blog, and send me an Email.
If you won an ebook, just let me know what email address it should be sent to.
When you contact me, please give the title and author of the book you won, so I won't have to look it up.
Remember, you have 4 weeks to claim your book.
January 9, 2016
WHEN LYRIC MET LIMERICK - Dawn V Cahill - One Free Ebook
Dear Readers, we are hosting a debut novella author today. Be sure and make her feel welcome.
Welcome, Dawn. Tell us how much of yourself you write into your characters.I think all my characters have a little of me, but sometimes they emulate other loved ones in my life. Howard, the main character in my Kindle story, When Lyric Met Limerick (only $.99 on Amazon!) has traits in common with my sons but is still his own unique person.
What is the quirkiest thing you have ever done?While completing my master’s degree, my team and I did a financial presentation while role-playing as Disney characters. It was a big hit, and we got an A+!
When did you first discover that you were a writer?I was an early reader, and even at 5 years old, I wondered if I could ever write a story as good as the ones I read on my own.
Tell us the range of the kinds of books you enjoy reading.I love books with surprise endings, the kind of ending you don’t expect, which can span any genre, but particularly dominates the thriller/suspense genre. My favorite genre is psychological thrillers which actually teach me something about life or myself.
How do you keep your sanity in our run, run, run world?Simplify, simplify, simplify. I know my limits and will rarely take on something that I know will add stress to my life. And now that my nest is empty, that’s much easier!
How do you choose your characters’ names?Sometimes, the character has to have a certain name in order to fit the plot. Other times, I’ll randomly search names in books and keep looking until I find one that fits.
What is the accomplishment that you are most proud of?This is actually a tie among 3 things: acquiring my master’s degree in 2011 (inured me to hard-core writing), choreographing a church musical for people who’d never danced in their life, and it turned out surprisingly well; finishing my first two complete novels in as many years.
If you were an animal, which one would you be, and why?I’ve been asked this question before, and I have to be honest: I would not want to be an animal. I wouldn’t have experienced all the joys of life that I have.
Good answer. What is your favorite food?Do beverages count? It would have to be my morning frappuccino. J
What is the problem with writing that was your greatest roadblock, and how did you overcome it?I started out with all the rookie mistakes you can think of: stilted dialog, filler scenes, telling/not showing, lots of adverbs, and purple prose. I’m still overcoming these quirks, but I’ve learned to recognize them from contest judges’ feedback, critique groups, and writers’ conferences.
Tell us about the featured book.It’s a quick read … just 37 pages. Originally the opening to my upcoming release, Sapphire Secrets, it tells of a fortuitous meeting that launches a series of events culminating in … oh wait, I don’t want to spoil the ending for you. Just stay tuned for my debut novel launching this month!
Please give us the first page of the book.May 1983From the moment Howard McCreary spotted the Stevie Nicks lookalike, song lyrics materialized in his head.
She’s a white cobra lady—
She sat across the vast marketplace, frowning at something in front of her.
Slitherin’ in my brain—
He tried to resist her draw, but an unseen force drove him on. He was going over there to see what she found so all-fired compelling.
He gestured to his friend, Nils Nelsson, who squinted in her direction.
Hissing to me softly—
“Where you going now?” Nils protested. “I think we ought to get out of here before that dude catches up to you.”
Drivin’ me insane—
Howard glanced behind him as they meandered among chattering browsers at Seattle’s Pike’s Place Market, past booths filled with rainbows of jewelry, colorful heaps of handmade clothing, walls of handcrafted knickknacks. A bushy-bearded guy in suspenders tooted his flute next to a man hawking rugs.
No sign of the shopkeeper whose one remaining Jimi Hendrix tee was tucked securely under Howard’s jacket. His feet pivoted toward his prey. Nils followed with agitated steps. Beyond the westward windows, the sun hid behind a blanket of industrial gray clouds. The pristine Olympic Mountains sliced through the horizon like sails.
How can readers find you on the Internet?http://dawnvcahill.com, or, to download my e-book, go to:http://www.amazon.com/When-Lyric-Limerick-Dawn-Cahill-ebook/dp/B015DJU5AW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1442461464&sr=8-1&keywords=when+lyric+met+limerick
Readers, leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the Ebook. You must follow these instructions to be in the drawing. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)
Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.
The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.
If you’re reading this on Goodreads, Google+, Feedblitz, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link:
Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com
Welcome, Dawn. Tell us how much of yourself you write into your characters.I think all my characters have a little of me, but sometimes they emulate other loved ones in my life. Howard, the main character in my Kindle story, When Lyric Met Limerick (only $.99 on Amazon!) has traits in common with my sons but is still his own unique person.
What is the quirkiest thing you have ever done?While completing my master’s degree, my team and I did a financial presentation while role-playing as Disney characters. It was a big hit, and we got an A+!
When did you first discover that you were a writer?I was an early reader, and even at 5 years old, I wondered if I could ever write a story as good as the ones I read on my own.
Tell us the range of the kinds of books you enjoy reading.I love books with surprise endings, the kind of ending you don’t expect, which can span any genre, but particularly dominates the thriller/suspense genre. My favorite genre is psychological thrillers which actually teach me something about life or myself.
How do you keep your sanity in our run, run, run world?Simplify, simplify, simplify. I know my limits and will rarely take on something that I know will add stress to my life. And now that my nest is empty, that’s much easier!
How do you choose your characters’ names?Sometimes, the character has to have a certain name in order to fit the plot. Other times, I’ll randomly search names in books and keep looking until I find one that fits.
What is the accomplishment that you are most proud of?This is actually a tie among 3 things: acquiring my master’s degree in 2011 (inured me to hard-core writing), choreographing a church musical for people who’d never danced in their life, and it turned out surprisingly well; finishing my first two complete novels in as many years.
If you were an animal, which one would you be, and why?I’ve been asked this question before, and I have to be honest: I would not want to be an animal. I wouldn’t have experienced all the joys of life that I have.
Good answer. What is your favorite food?Do beverages count? It would have to be my morning frappuccino. J
What is the problem with writing that was your greatest roadblock, and how did you overcome it?I started out with all the rookie mistakes you can think of: stilted dialog, filler scenes, telling/not showing, lots of adverbs, and purple prose. I’m still overcoming these quirks, but I’ve learned to recognize them from contest judges’ feedback, critique groups, and writers’ conferences.
Tell us about the featured book.It’s a quick read … just 37 pages. Originally the opening to my upcoming release, Sapphire Secrets, it tells of a fortuitous meeting that launches a series of events culminating in … oh wait, I don’t want to spoil the ending for you. Just stay tuned for my debut novel launching this month!Please give us the first page of the book.May 1983From the moment Howard McCreary spotted the Stevie Nicks lookalike, song lyrics materialized in his head.
She’s a white cobra lady—
She sat across the vast marketplace, frowning at something in front of her.
Slitherin’ in my brain—
He tried to resist her draw, but an unseen force drove him on. He was going over there to see what she found so all-fired compelling.
He gestured to his friend, Nils Nelsson, who squinted in her direction.
Hissing to me softly—
“Where you going now?” Nils protested. “I think we ought to get out of here before that dude catches up to you.”
Drivin’ me insane—
Howard glanced behind him as they meandered among chattering browsers at Seattle’s Pike’s Place Market, past booths filled with rainbows of jewelry, colorful heaps of handmade clothing, walls of handcrafted knickknacks. A bushy-bearded guy in suspenders tooted his flute next to a man hawking rugs.
No sign of the shopkeeper whose one remaining Jimi Hendrix tee was tucked securely under Howard’s jacket. His feet pivoted toward his prey. Nils followed with agitated steps. Beyond the westward windows, the sun hid behind a blanket of industrial gray clouds. The pristine Olympic Mountains sliced through the horizon like sails.
How can readers find you on the Internet?http://dawnvcahill.com, or, to download my e-book, go to:http://www.amazon.com/When-Lyric-Limerick-Dawn-Cahill-ebook/dp/B015DJU5AW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1442461464&sr=8-1&keywords=when+lyric+met+limerick
Readers, leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the Ebook. You must follow these instructions to be in the drawing. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)
Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.
The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.
If you’re reading this on Goodreads, Google+, Feedblitz, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link:
Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com
January 8, 2016
More Love and Laughter from Margaret Brownley - One Free Book
Dear Readers, I’ve loved Margaret Brownley books since I read the first one. And this Undercover Ladies series is one of my favorites.
He never met a Pinkerton detective he liked;She never met a man so stubborn. –Calico Spy
Welcome back, Margaret. How did this book come about?Hi Lena, thank you for letting me visit.
Calico Spy
is the third book in my Undercover Ladies series. Katie Madison is a Pinkerton detective working undercover as a Harvey girl. Someone is killing off the waitresses and Katie hopes to find the killer before the killer finds her—or before she burns down the restaurant trying.
Tell us about the book’s cover and what makes it unique.I think this is my favorite cover of the series. The scene takes place at the Harvey House where my heroine is working undercover to solve the Harvey girl murders. If you look closely you can see the train out the window. Train passengers had only a half hour to eat. To accommodate them, Fred Harvey invented “fast food” service. The cup in the heroine’s hand plays an important role in the story.
Please explain and differentiate between what’s fact and fiction in the book.All the information about Fred Harvey and his restaurants is factual. Also factual is the information about Pinkerton detectives. Many people don’t realize that Allan had an entire department of female detectives. He hired his first one in 1856 and quickly saw the advantage. Women could go where men could not and were able to befriend the unsuspecting wives of outlaws.
How much research did you have to do for this book?Before starting the Undercover series I read sixteen of Allan Pinkerton’s books to learn how crimes were solved before fingerprints, DNA, and cameras were available. For Calico Spy I read every book written on Fred Harvey and the Harveygirls. I also took a trip to Barstow, California to the old Harvey house there. It’s now a Chamber of Commerce and museum but is still intact. I used it as a model for my book.
What are some of the most interesting things you found about this subject that youweren’t able to use in the story?I’ve come to believe that Fred Harvey is one of the unsung heroes of the west. His restaurants put thousands of young women to work in respectable jobs. More than five thousand women who traveled west to work at his restaurants also found husbands. I think that gives him the world record for matchmaking.
What inspired and surprised you while you were writing the book?I never plan or plot a book in advance so I’m always surprised at how a book turns out. The thing that surprised me most in this book is the hero’s story and how his faith was tested.
What do you hope the reader takes away from the story?My main goal in writing any story is to entertain the reader. I also love making people laugh, so you’ll always find humor in my stories. The hero’s struggles certainly made me think about my own faith and what I would do in his shoes. I wouldn’t be surprised if readers have similar thoughts.
What is the next project you’re working on?I just finished the second book in my new Match Made in Texas series. The first book, Left at the Altar will be released in November followed by To Win A Sheriff’s Heart.
I’ll be looking forward to those books, too. Be sure to schedule them on my blog. What do you do when you have to get away from the story for a while?I usually call up my grandchildren to see if any of them can play.
Please give us the first page of the book.Calico, Kansas1880Katie Madison tied the black satin ribbon at her neckline and frowned. The lopsided bow wouldn’t do. She yanked the ribbon loose and tried again. Today she was all thumbs and everything that could go wrong, did. Already she’d broken a shoelace, snagged a stocking, and torn the hem of her dress. Just as she finished tying the bow for the third time the bedroom door flew open and her roommate’s brunette head popped inside. “Katie! Hurry or you’ll be late.” “I’m trying, I’m trying.” Mary-Lou’s green eyes narrowed and her southern drawl grew more pronounced. “Pickens has a burr in his saddle. Said if you don’t hurry he’ll have your head!” Katie’s stomach knotted. She was already in trouble with the restaurant manager. “I’ll be there in a minute.” “A minute might be too late.” The door slammed shut, and Mary-Lou’s footsteps echoed down the hall as she yelled for the other Harvey girls to hurry. “Y’all better hurry now, you hear?” Katie whirled about for one last look in the mirror and hardly recognized the image reflected back. The black dress with its high-collar, starched white apron, black shoes and stockings made her look more like a nun than one of Pinkerton’s most successful female detectives. Even her unruly red hair had been forced to conform to Fred Harvey’s strict regulations. Parted in the middle, it was pulled back in a knot and fashioned with the mandatory net. The rigid hairdo did nothing for her, appearance-wise. All it did was make her eyes look too big and her freckles stand out like brown polka dots. Wrinkling her nose, she turned away from the mirror. It’s a good thing she’d chosen to be a detective as she had neither the looks nor housekeeping skills needed for landing a husband.
How can readers find you on the Internet?My website: www. margaret-brownley.com Facebook:https://business.facebook.com/MargaretBrownleyAuthor/timeline/?business_id=1570988766476777Twitter: https://twitter.com/margaretbrownly
Thank you for letting me share my story!
Now here’s a question for your blog readers: If you were an undercover detective, what would be your disguise and where would you like to work?
Thank you, Margaret for sharing this new book with us. It's always a pleasure to have you on the blog.
Readers, here’s a link to the book. By using it when you order, you help support this blog.
Calico Spy (Undercover Ladies Book 3) - Amazon
Leave a comment answering Margaret's question for a chance to win a free copy of the book. You must follow these instructions to be in the drawing. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)
Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.
The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.
If you’re reading this on Goodreads, Google+, Feedblitz, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link:
Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com
He never met a Pinkerton detective he liked;She never met a man so stubborn. –Calico Spy
Welcome back, Margaret. How did this book come about?Hi Lena, thank you for letting me visit.
Calico Spy
is the third book in my Undercover Ladies series. Katie Madison is a Pinkerton detective working undercover as a Harvey girl. Someone is killing off the waitresses and Katie hopes to find the killer before the killer finds her—or before she burns down the restaurant trying.Tell us about the book’s cover and what makes it unique.I think this is my favorite cover of the series. The scene takes place at the Harvey House where my heroine is working undercover to solve the Harvey girl murders. If you look closely you can see the train out the window. Train passengers had only a half hour to eat. To accommodate them, Fred Harvey invented “fast food” service. The cup in the heroine’s hand plays an important role in the story.
Please explain and differentiate between what’s fact and fiction in the book.All the information about Fred Harvey and his restaurants is factual. Also factual is the information about Pinkerton detectives. Many people don’t realize that Allan had an entire department of female detectives. He hired his first one in 1856 and quickly saw the advantage. Women could go where men could not and were able to befriend the unsuspecting wives of outlaws.
How much research did you have to do for this book?Before starting the Undercover series I read sixteen of Allan Pinkerton’s books to learn how crimes were solved before fingerprints, DNA, and cameras were available. For Calico Spy I read every book written on Fred Harvey and the Harveygirls. I also took a trip to Barstow, California to the old Harvey house there. It’s now a Chamber of Commerce and museum but is still intact. I used it as a model for my book.
What are some of the most interesting things you found about this subject that youweren’t able to use in the story?I’ve come to believe that Fred Harvey is one of the unsung heroes of the west. His restaurants put thousands of young women to work in respectable jobs. More than five thousand women who traveled west to work at his restaurants also found husbands. I think that gives him the world record for matchmaking.
What inspired and surprised you while you were writing the book?I never plan or plot a book in advance so I’m always surprised at how a book turns out. The thing that surprised me most in this book is the hero’s story and how his faith was tested.
What do you hope the reader takes away from the story?My main goal in writing any story is to entertain the reader. I also love making people laugh, so you’ll always find humor in my stories. The hero’s struggles certainly made me think about my own faith and what I would do in his shoes. I wouldn’t be surprised if readers have similar thoughts.
What is the next project you’re working on?I just finished the second book in my new Match Made in Texas series. The first book, Left at the Altar will be released in November followed by To Win A Sheriff’s Heart.
I’ll be looking forward to those books, too. Be sure to schedule them on my blog. What do you do when you have to get away from the story for a while?I usually call up my grandchildren to see if any of them can play.
Please give us the first page of the book.Calico, Kansas1880Katie Madison tied the black satin ribbon at her neckline and frowned. The lopsided bow wouldn’t do. She yanked the ribbon loose and tried again. Today she was all thumbs and everything that could go wrong, did. Already she’d broken a shoelace, snagged a stocking, and torn the hem of her dress. Just as she finished tying the bow for the third time the bedroom door flew open and her roommate’s brunette head popped inside. “Katie! Hurry or you’ll be late.” “I’m trying, I’m trying.” Mary-Lou’s green eyes narrowed and her southern drawl grew more pronounced. “Pickens has a burr in his saddle. Said if you don’t hurry he’ll have your head!” Katie’s stomach knotted. She was already in trouble with the restaurant manager. “I’ll be there in a minute.” “A minute might be too late.” The door slammed shut, and Mary-Lou’s footsteps echoed down the hall as she yelled for the other Harvey girls to hurry. “Y’all better hurry now, you hear?” Katie whirled about for one last look in the mirror and hardly recognized the image reflected back. The black dress with its high-collar, starched white apron, black shoes and stockings made her look more like a nun than one of Pinkerton’s most successful female detectives. Even her unruly red hair had been forced to conform to Fred Harvey’s strict regulations. Parted in the middle, it was pulled back in a knot and fashioned with the mandatory net. The rigid hairdo did nothing for her, appearance-wise. All it did was make her eyes look too big and her freckles stand out like brown polka dots. Wrinkling her nose, she turned away from the mirror. It’s a good thing she’d chosen to be a detective as she had neither the looks nor housekeeping skills needed for landing a husband.How can readers find you on the Internet?My website: www. margaret-brownley.com Facebook:https://business.facebook.com/MargaretBrownleyAuthor/timeline/?business_id=1570988766476777Twitter: https://twitter.com/margaretbrownly
Thank you for letting me share my story!
Now here’s a question for your blog readers: If you were an undercover detective, what would be your disguise and where would you like to work?
Thank you, Margaret for sharing this new book with us. It's always a pleasure to have you on the blog.
Readers, here’s a link to the book. By using it when you order, you help support this blog.
Calico Spy (Undercover Ladies Book 3) - Amazon
Leave a comment answering Margaret's question for a chance to win a free copy of the book. You must follow these instructions to be in the drawing. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)
Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.
The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.
If you’re reading this on Goodreads, Google+, Feedblitz, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link:
Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com
