Brenda Corey Dunne's Blog, page 7

Blog Tour: The Fall of Our Secrets

Today I'd like to welcome Tracy Gardner Beno to the blog! Tracy has just released her novel The Fall of our Secrets, an adult mystery with romance, relationships and some serious emotion. The book follows childhood friends as they are reunited and rekindle their friendship as adults, eventually unravelling secrets and dealing with what is revealed.

Tracy agreed to a quick interview, so here goes:


Hi Tracy, thanks for visiting the blog! So, I'm curious...What caused you to first discover you wanted to be a writer?
I’ve been writing since I was a kid. I started with song lyrics to short tunes I’d come up with on my guitar or piano. Sometime around the age of 13, I began writing short stories and poems. I loved English class throughout school, always felt like the weird kid because I’d get excited about book reports and creative writing assignments. In spite of that, I never entertained the idea of being a writer. My parents were both teachers, and my mom is a practical woman. She loves to write and has such an engaging voice, but she raised her two daughters to seek career paths that would allow us to easily support ourselves. After working for years as a Registered Nurse, and having my second child, I sat down at the computer one day and just started typing. The words poured out of me. I had an idea for a story about two friends, and I found once I had the first few paragraphs down, I couldn’t stop thinking about the characters. I’ve since completed two more novels. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to nurture my love of words, my addiction to writing. I know I will be writing long into my life, it’s something I just can’t resist.
I know that feeling....Could you name at least one person who is or was influential in the writing of THE FALL OF OUR SECRETS and in what way?
This is a tough question, but I like it! There were a few influential people. When I was little, I had a childhood friend who moved away, and in an age before texting, facetime, snapchat, etc, we lost touch. I loved her and her family, and I Nothing like a good friend to help you along! What is coming up next for you in your writing career?
I have two stories in progress. One is a follow up to the coming of age novel I recently finished. The coming of age story explores nineteen year old Danni’s struggles after losing her twin, falling in love with the wrong man and finally finding the right one. The sequel is exciting for me, as I became so attached to Danni and her BFF Tommie and can’t wait to accompany them for “what happens next.”The other book is a contemporary women’s fiction about a mother and her teenage daughter who are forced to start new lives in the stark beauty of Alaska, each discovering lost pieces of themselves they hadn’t realized were missing.

Thank you so much, Tracy for visiting. And good luck with your book!
Intrigued? You can buy Tracy's book here! And here's a little more about Tracy...
Tracy Gardner Beno is a Metro Detroit native who has lived in and around small, rural communities like those described in The Fall of Our Secrets. Her stories draw readers in with recognizable characters and real emotion, seasoned with intrigue and a dash of humor. She loves spending time with her husband and two children, reading, writing, and catching her favorite bands in concert as often as possible. She works as a Registered Nurse in her day job and when she's not writing novels she contributes short stories and articles to Verite Magazine where she's a staff writer.
You can find out even more about Tracy on her website: http://www.tracygardnerbeno.com.Or on Facebook or Twitter!

Brenda.

Military Monday: From Here

Those of you who follow my Facebook posts will have seen the small issue I had with a comment made on my blog last week. (You can find it HERE--scroll to the bottom and click on comments). The comment itself seems harmless enough, and perhaps the commenter, whoever he/she is, didn't fully read my blog post before stating his or her own opinion.

I believe all military spouses are entitled to their opinion and as such, this commenter is entitled to her (or his) own thoughts. I do thank her because she has spurred some lively discussion (and a huge outpouring of support...thank you everyone!) and has caused me to ask some interesting introspective questions.

"...if you aren't from the area (you aren't)...you probably shouldn't be making comments like this if you want to make friends"--Anonymous

Wow.

Just, wow.

Here's the deal. I grew up in small town New Brunswick. Graduated from high school at 16, and haven't lived in my home town since. Not counting inter-city moves on the same posting, I have lived in 16 different places in three different countries since that time. The longest I have lived in one home is three years.

So where am I from?

If I were to move back to my home town (where, incidentally, I still own property), would I feel at home? Would people there say I was from there? Or would they look at me and say I was a foreigner? The truth of the matter is, other than friends I've kept in touch with throughout the years, there are many who wouldn't recognize me. And the town, though the same in some ways, is different in others. I'm sure the wonderful people there still consider me a native, but is that what I think of as home?

Home is a fleeting thought for most military spouses.

It's even worse for military kids. My kids have been with us on all of those moves, so where do they say they are from? One of my children actually thinks of home as 'Grammie and Grampie's place'...where she has never lived.

In reality, we, as military spouses, have willingly given up our roots for the service of our country by choosing to follow our service members wherever they go. Very few military families end up living in their home towns. They live where they are sent, for short periods of time, and then they pack up and move again. As such we are 'from' where we live.

I'll repeat that.

I am from HERE.

I live here. I pay taxes here. My family is here. My furniture, my kids' schools, my job, my grocery store, my pharmacy, my dog, my cat...are all here. In an election, I would vote here .

My home is here.

So I am entitled to an opinion about here. As is every military spouse that lives in this town.

We are here because our spouses have chosen to wear a uniform and stand up for the beliefs that this country, this province and this town hold dear. In a crisis, our spouses would be the first to stand up for here . They would put their lives on the line for every last one of the residents of this place, regardless of where they were born. As would I. It is our civic responsibility--especially as parents--to take part in local educational debates. Our taxes support these schools and we have a right to be involved in their administration.

I even have friends here. Genuine people. Some of whom grew up right here. Do they agree with every one of my thoughts? I don't know. Probably not. But they are my friends because they like me because of who I am, not because they agree or disagree with my opinions. As far as I know, the best way to have a friend is to be one, and those who know me will be aware of my loyalty to my friends. If I were from somewhere else, why would it matter? True friendship has no borders.

Where am I from? Here. And I'm proud to say it.


Brenda

SPLINTERS Blog Tour and Giveaway

Please welcome Fiona and Matt, as they celebrate the new release of their co-written YA horror novel: Splinters! We've seen Fiona here before as she released Confessions of the Very First Zombie Slayer (That I Know Of) earlier this year, and both Matt and Fiona are agent and publisher mates of mine.
As Fiona hosted me for my Dependent blog tour, asking me about my fears...I thought turnaround was fair play and stuck her with the following questions:
What frightens each of you and why? And where do you feel safe?
Here's Fiona's response:
The flashiest and most obvious answer to what frightens me is G-force. I have severe barophobia, the fear of changes in gravity. I have issues with things like amusement park rides, elevators, airplanes, anything that makes it feel like gravity isn’t working the way it should.
Why? Am I afraid of death or injury by falling? Am I afraid of being literally crushed to death by gravity? No, nothing so pseudo-rational. I’m afraid of the fall, not the landing.
F.J.R. TitchenellSo… what? So I have an irrational phobia that’s a pain when I go to Disneyland. I got a pretty cool horror short story out of it once, if I do say so myself, but that’s about all the material a fear of gravity has to offer, a short story. On its own it doesn’t seem all that meaningful.
It wasn’t until my early twenties that I started to figure out that, hand in hand with my less dramatic fears of failure, wasted time, anesthesia, riptides, and excess calories, my barophobia was a symptom of my fundamental fear of losing control.
So, having figured out the root of the problem, I’m all better now? Um… no. I can’t switch off being a control freak any more than I could stop loving books. It’s who and what I am, and I accept the problems with the advantages (hey, I do have killerwillpower). I’ve been able to work on some things, learned to stress a bit less, and I’d dare say I’ve kicked my tendencies toward disordered eating, but the barophobia remains, too irrationally ingrained to be removed by rational thought.
What awareness of my issues does allow me to do (other than share them honestly with blog readers), is understand a large part of what frightens people. There are many more people with fears like mine, if to different degrees and with different manifestations. As a horror author, I’ve found that a large part of frightening people is figuring out exactly how much of the illusion of control to give them (or their surrogate main characters), and when to take it away.
Like giving the rebel teens of Prospero homemade flamethrowers and Tasers to fend off the superpowered monsters who run their town.
Where do I feel safe? Other than with my amazingly patient, compassionate and understanding husband at my side, my coziest safezone is with my fingers on the keyboard. As well as making me a better horror writer, my fears are part of what make me a writer in the first place. As every control freak hates to hear, the one thing we can hope to control is ourselves, our own thoughts and reactions to the world. What better way to stave off the fear of powerlessness than by getting to purge, organize, analyze and understand my own thoughts, and then reshape and use them to make something positive and new, into the best story I can tell?
Thanks Fiona! And here's what Matt had to say about his fears:
I could go into a full list of rational, adult fears and why each of them gets to me (failure, loss of a loved one, etc.), but we all know that’s not what you want to hear. We all have those rational fears, and they’re not much more fun to read about than they are to actually have. No, if you’re reading this, Matt Carteryou want to hear about our crazy, irrational fears that make us seem more like little kids than responsible adult authors.
So, let’s bring the crazy.
The biggest one for me has always been Chucky. Yeah, the killer doll. The fictional one (though truth be told I don’t know of any real killer dolls, which is probably a really good thing). When I was three I caught a good chunk of the original Child’s Play on TV, and, well, in my impressionable young mind that was afraid of pretty much everything, I got a little warped. Flash forward two decades, me in my mid-20’s, a huge fan of horror and all things creepy, and still Chucky gave me the willies. I could stand the most hardcore horror, and the briefest image of him still gave me the sweats and a faster heartbeat.
I’m better now. One day I made myself sit down and watch the movie and now it’s one of my favorites, but damn if I still don’t get that kneejerk reaction sometimes when I see him.
You see, I’ve always had an active imagination that’s always gone past the realm of rational, understanding thought. Even when I know something is fake, that it’s all just smoke and mirrors, I have a hard time not letting it get to me if it just manages to tickle my scary bone. Perfect example? The first time I saw Cabin Fever, I didn’t drink tap water for three days. I knew it was safe, that it wasn’t infected with some strain of flesh eating bacteria that would rot my flesh off the bones, but damn it if it didn’t make me pause anyway.
I was 18 at the time, for what it’s worth.

I’m a lot better, and a lot more cynical right now, so these sorts of things haven’t been an issue for a while, but I gotta say, sometimes it feels good to let these irrational fears in, since they do have their own way of helping the rational fears feel just a little bit smaller.


Thanks Fiona and Matt! Matt, I'm glad you got over the tap water thing...not easy surviving without, well...water. It's rather essential. Hope to have you back again!
You can find more about this quirky pair on their respective websites...
You can find F.J.R. Titchenell online here:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FjrTitchenell
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FJR_Titchenell
Website: http://fjrtitchenell.weebly.com/
You can find Matt Carter online here:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattcarterauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MCarterAuthor
Website: http://mattcarterauthor.weebly.com/
And more about Splinters here: Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Splinters-Prospero-Chronicles-Matt-Carter/dp/1939967392B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/splinters-matt-carter/1118877645?ean=9781939967398Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20860637-splinters
And now, if you'd like to win a copy of Splinters, click on the giveaway below. Good luck!
Brenda

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Life lessons from my parents

My mom and dad.Today, September 25th, 2014 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the day my parents walked down the aisle together.

Fifty years is a long time.

Half of a century.

And it is indeed something to celebrate. An accomplishment not often heard about in today's day and age. And though circumstance has dictated that we should be on two different coasts today, they are both very, very much on my mind and in my heart.

I've wracked my brains for some 'thing' to give them that would show them how much I love them. How much I appreciate them. How much they have meant to me. How proud I am of them and how they have shaped my life.

But how do you put a value on such feelings? How do you properly honour the people who gave you life and breath, put you on the right road and supported you even when it was they who needed support?

You don't.

And so here I sit at my laptop. Wishing I could be somewhere else and yet trying to share with the world how I feel. How do you put the appreciation for fifty years together into words?

I can only try.

When I was about 4, while my dad was out at work, my mom taught me how to read. My dad encouraged it when he came home. I'm pretty sure they thought I was from another planet because my desire for books was insatiable. I ate books. And I could not WAIT to get to school. I don't think they realized it at the time, but those first picture books were the makings of a career. Of a passion. Of a love that would last a lifetime.

Around the same time, my dad taught me how to fish. And hunt. And work a garden. And I learned to appreciate growing things and the earth around us. My mom taught me to bake by baking. And how to sew by sewing. How the work doesn't go away on it's own. I learned to make hay when the sun shines and to appreciate the rain when it comes.
I learned how much hard work goes into feeding a family. How sometimes you can put hours and hours of work into a project and have it fail, but you can't stop trying.

My mom taught me to appreciate the quiet times. To be still. To look beyond the moment and to have faith. She taught me that sometimes I have to stick up for myself--but that doesn't mean I have to be mean or vicious. You can be strong without being hard. Strength comes in many forms.

My father, a true handyman, taught me that I can repair just about anything with the right tools.

Together they fostered my independence from day one. They didn't coddle me (although my older siblings would disagree), and they didn't spend every waking hour entertaining me. They had work to do, and they did it. I played by myself. I found things to do. I read. I went outside. I climbed trees and I made leaf sailboats. I played with toy cars in the dirt and I ate apples right off of the tree. In letting me explore, they encouraged my imagination. Sure, times were different then, but I think in doing so, the taught me one of the basic rules of parenting. Kids learn by doing. They need to explore their environments and make mistakes to grow. I made lots of mistakes. But I learned. Sometimes I made the same mistake over and over again. But sooner or later I did it right.

Lastly, having watched my parents from day one, they taught me that the best things in life are not free. Love comes with a price. Hard work, long hours, sacrifice, and heartache are the currency of love and marital success. Forgiveness sometimes comes at heavy cost. No marriage is perfect. Often we hurt those we love most, and we have to dig deep to ask forgiveness. And sometimes things are too broken to be fixed, but you can't know that unless you first try to put it back together.

No matter how happy it looks on the outside, there are always issues. But getting through those issues together, humbling yourself, recognizing your differences and accepting them, brings huge rewards. My parents have taught me that. They find happiness in each other's company. They understand they are two distinct individuals and they have spent fifty years discovering how two parts can become one whole.

I am so incredibly proud to call them my parents.

I am here today as a testament to their love and dedication to one another.

And so, Edna and David Corey, I thank you for all that you have done for me. And I wish you many, many more years of happiness together.

Happy anniversary,

Brenda

Military Monday: A weekend of Heroes.

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to participate with my husband in a ceremony
Hanging with a hero-Stocky and I
before our flight in the Cessnacommemorating the great Second World War air battle known as the Battle of Britain. Being an ex-Air Force officer and and an RCAF wife, this ceremony is an important one, as it represents the first commitment of the RCAF to combat in WW II. I was part of a contingent which travelled north to Port Hardy--a small community on the northeastern shore of Vancouver Island to participate in the ceremony there. It was a wonderful weekend of fun, camaraderie, sight-seeing and seafood, paired with some serious moments of reflection. The local Air Force Association Squadron welcomed us with open arms, and much fun was had by all. I even had the opportunity to take a flight in a Cessna aircraft over the Queen Charlotte Strait at low enough altitude to see breaching humpback whales and several pods of orcas.

One of the members of our contingent was (and is) a real live Air Force hero. And even better, he was accompanied by his wife of 63 years...who I also think deserves the title of hero for her many years of service to our country behind the scenes.

James Francis "Stocky" Edwards , CM, DFC & Bar, DFM, CD (born June 5, 1921 – ) may not have fought in the Battle of Britain, but he joined the fighting soon afterward, and is one Canada's few remaining WW II flying aces. "Toni", born Alice Antonio, also has a military history, having worn the uniform in the '40s, working in both Communications and the nursing field. 

Young and dapper Stocky EdwardsAlthough I've only known them for a short time, Stocky and Toni Edwards have made a HUGE impression on me. Humble, kind, selfless and warm-hearted, they are the very essence of the perfect military couple. Seriously. They have been through it all. Postings far from home, long separations and deployments--they lived all of this before I was even a twinkle in my parents eyes.

Toni Edwards in her military days
(From elinorflorence.com).But these two are so obviously in love, that they have persevered through all of their difficulties and are still living life to the fullest. They are so positive, so happy to be together that I can't help but think, I want what they have. They are true role models for today's military couples, having recognized the military lifestyle for what it was and embraced it--and they continue to embrace it as supporters to 19 Wing Comox and the RCAF. More than 60 years after their marriage, they attend as many of the local events as they can, arriving together and leaving arm in arm.


I'm so fortunate to have the opportunity to spend time with this lovely couple. They are true heroes.

You can find out more about the Battle of Britain on Wikipedia here, and about Stocky and Toni Edwards here and here.

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Want to talk about the life of a 'dependent'? Do you cringe at the very mention of the word (as I occasionally do...part of why my book is so titled...)? Join me TOMORROW for a twitter chat at 12:00 PST, using #dependent to join in! Hope to hear from you!

Brenda

Military Monday: Life...interrupted.

As you know, our summer has been a bit messy, with all of the moving and upheaval and chaos that goes with it. Although you never get used to that sort of insanity, you learn to deal with it. You expect a month or two of boxes and hiccups and new issues, and this summer is no exception.
As our moves typically occur in the summertime, we usually fumble through the months of July and August...knowing that in September we'll really be able to get organized. 
Because in September, the kids go back to school. Schedules are finalized, kids head off to their classes with backpacks full of shiny new school supplies... off to fill their heads with knowledge, meet new friends and settle in for the next few years. Parents are refreshed, energized, and people like me finally have the time to dig into those last few boxes and get their household administration under control. Time to sort out our careers, organize our days and make plans. Right? 
Wrong.
Waiting for the doors to open.In the province of British Columbia (where we live), teachers are on strike. It's a messy, political, deep-rooted battle between the BC Teachers Federation and Governmental beings, and as an outsider moving in, I refuse to take sides and support either entity. When two sides can't sit down with an experienced negotiator and work it out, they lose my respect. I am already sick of the media ads and tweets that say (either directly or indirectly) 'Our side is better because we're willing to negotiate and the other side isn't, so you should support us!' Baloney. Horse poop. It all makes me grumpy. Especially when the people who the sides are fighting about--teachers and kids--just want to get back to school. 
Anyway I digress. 
The schools here are closed, and my kids are still home. Those hallowed first days of school where I can sip my coffee and organize my life are yet to happen. There are signs that the two sides are getting closer, but I'm not holding my breath.
I'll be fine. And my kids will be fine as well. But the first day of school is a milestone all families look forward to. And it has become blatantly clear how much we, as a military family, depend on that milestone to ease the sting of a posting. 
Because school isn't just about books. It's about life. 

Life for military families with kids on a new post starts on the first day of school. It's the real beginning. Until that day, the move isn't finished. Just like the pile of boxes in the corner, school holds so many possibilities and so many unknowns. It's a big stressor for military kids because there are so many unanswered questions. Will I like my teacher? Will I be able to play the trombone in band? Will I make the soccer team? Will I be behind or ahead in Math? Will I have too much homework? Will the kids on the bus be mean or nice? Will they tease me because I'm new? Did I get the course selections I asked for? Will I have enough time to get between classes? Are there good books in the library? 
And the most important question for kids... Will I meet a new best friend?
It's always been a given that the kids would head back to school at the end of the summer, and when they were bored and missing their old friends we could bring up the possibility of new friends just on the other side of the school doors. Our kids are old enough to understand. They know that somewhere in the throng of shiny new faces is a potential kindred spirit. So they are looking forward (even if they won't admit it) to the first day. But it feels like we are on hold. Like life is interrupted. Unfinished. 
And this year we have a new question to add to our list of unknowns. When will it start?
I guess we will just have to wait and see. 

Military Monday: Meet C. R. Asay!

Heart of Annihilation Blog Tour and Interview
Today I'm fortunate to feature a new writing friend as she launches her debut novel: HEART OF ANNIHILATION. Congrats! Ms. Asay is a former Utah National Guard who has turned her focus toward motherhood and writing. A little about her: C.R. Asay
Bio: C. R. Asay joined the Utah National Guard at the age of seventeen. After spending time in the 625th Military Police Corp she transferred to the 19th Special Forces group as a counterintelligence agent. She retired from the military after marrying her best friend and graduating from college so that she could embark on the most exciting adventure of all; being a mom.

The short story version of her first novel, Heart of Annihilation, earned an honorable mention from the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future contest. C. R. Asay currently resides in West Jordan, Utah, with her husband, four children, and a dog. There is always a dog.

* * *
B: Welcome Christauna! Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from?
C: Heber City, Utah. Nothin’ quite like growin’ up in a small town.
B: Tell us about your connection to the military...
C: I joined the Utah National Guard when I was 17. I did my basic training between my junior and senior year of high school and then completed my training after graduation. I remember one guy from my graduating class checking the back of my truck for an M-16 when he heard I’d joined… Still makes me snicker.
I was an in a Military Police EPW (enemy prisoners of war) unit for a while until we were disbanded. After that I joined the 19thSpecial Forces group as a counterintelligence agent. I was with this unit until I got out a few years later right after my first child was born.

B: Sounds busy. How has your military background influenced the writing of Heart of Annihilation?
C: My military background is the breath of life behind this work. Heart of Annihilation is a work of fiction, but with a very realistic and accurate military setting.
B: When did you start writing? What led you to writing a full length novel?
C: Writing has always been a part of my life, but it wasn’t until my husband decided to write a novel that I fell in love with the whole process of an actual full-length novel. There is just such detail and scope that goes into a novel that it creates an entire world for readers to explore. I was hooked the second I imagined the world that became Heart of Annihilation.

B: I can certainly understand that feeling! Can you describe the process from first words to finished product?
C: I have no process. Someday I hope to have a process, but for now every time I sit down to write I do it differently. I’m usually a pantser, as in I write by the seat of my pants. Whatever comes into my head makes it onto paper and then I revise heavily in the aftermath. Sometimes I’ll write for weeks at a frantic pace, desperate to get the words out. Other times I’ll go for weeks without writing a single new word. I work well under a deadline, so even if the muses aren’t with me, I can usually pound out anything I need to if a deadline is looming over my head.
B: On a scale of zero (nearly impossible) to ten (a dream come true) how would you rate your publishing experiences so far?
C: That’s a tough one. A 7. I love everything about my book. Its very existence seems miraculous to me. I love my publisher and how much work they have put into this book to make it the work of art that it is. I only rate my experience lower because the road here was so incredibly rocky. There were many times, from conception of the book to holding it in my hands, that I wanted to throw in the towel on the whole industry. Heart of Annihilation was shelved several times, and sometimes thrown violently across the room, but the story and the characters were so compelling to me that I would inevitably pull it out, dust it off, revise, revise, revise and try to find it a new home.
B: Any tips on balancing family life with a writing career?
C: Family first, always. My family is so supportive of my publishing efforts. They are truly my biggest fans from my husband, teenager on down to my 1st grader. And I believe they are this way because I have always put them first. That being said they are happy to give me a wide berth if I’m having one of those crazy writer moments because they know I’ll always come back, happier than before. This year will be a mile stone for me because my youngest will be in 1st grade, giving me ample time during the day to make writing and publishing a career and giving them my full attention when school is out, rather than cramming in writing here and there, wherever I could fit it in.
B: Do you have any other writing projects on the go at present?
C: I’m working on the sequel to Heart of Annihilation with a tentative release in Summer 2015. I also have an anthology piece coming out on Veterans Day of this year. It is to support the TADSAW (Train a Dog, Save a Warrior) foundation. It’s a collection of fictional stories about working dogs and their connection to their human partners. It’s a fantastic collection. Grab a tissue before you read it.
B: Will do. What is your advice for new authors?
C: The publishing industry is a hard one to navigate. Do the work to learn the craft. Don’t settle for anything less than your best effort and then up your game. Never stop learning and growing. As true with life as it is with writing.
B: Awesome. Cats or Dogs?
C: Dogs. Cats make me sneeze and I love dogs. Always dogs.
B: And the question we’ve all been waiting for…Coffee or Tea?
C: Haha. I’m a Mormon-y type, so hot chocolate. Dr. Pepper if my day is really going wrong.
B: Chocolate is always a good choice! Thanks so much Christauna! And best of luck with your new book!
* * *
More about Heart of Annihilation...

When U.S. Army Specialist Kris Rose catches members of her unit stealing ammunition to kill aliens, she is forced to defend herself with a freakish electrical charge shooting from her fingertips.Shaken by her newly found power and hunted by vigilantes from her unit, Rose is forced away from her structured, military world and into a fight for her life.With the aid of her battle buddy, Corporal Thurmond, Rose sets out to learn more about the aliens under attack. In the process, she discovers her bizarre connection to a devastating threat to Earth--an alternate dimensional weapon called the Heart of Annihilation, lost somewhere on Earth.From a chuteless free-fall from 20,000 feet, to deadly bullet wounds and the unforgiving Sonoron Desert, Kris Rose enters a world where aliens are real. And she might be one of them.

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You can find more about Christauna here: http://www.crasay.com
Don't forget to find her on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Goodreads!

Brenda

Military Monday: Posting Phase Eight: The Insanity.

Not one, not two, but FIVE trucks
just outside of our house...So I was all happily writing away at my lovely posting phases and making everything sound all organized and perfect when...BOOM. It happened. The INSANITY. Pre-pack day, pack day, load day, clean day, drive away day and suddenly I'm on the other side of the country, launching my book, shaking my head and wondering what the heck happened.


Rory the horse. Not happy with his can on wheels.This is what it is to have a military move. Insanity. No amount of planning can prepare you for the weeks of chaos and restaurant meals and unexpected car repairs. No one can give you a list that gets you ready to put everything you own on someone else's truck (or in our case, three trucks...) and watch it drive away. And no magic number of previous moves can prepare you for that next move...because just when you think you've seen it all, something else gets thrown in to shake things up a bit.  Like having your books arrive but no shelving units. Or the lovely metal-scraping sound that appeared as we hauled our horse trailer (with horse) over some of the steepest roads in the country.

Drive thru ice-cream place in rural Ontario,
Rory was a hit.This was our first time moving with a horse, and it added a whole new meaning to drive-thru restaurants and Bed and Breakfast lodging. 'Is hay included in the price?'--and-- 'Indoor or outdoor paddocks?' were not questions we previously had encountered when booking a move. And you think your toddler doesn't want to get in the car? Try loading a thousand pound horse that's got a bruise on his behind and is leaving his new-found best friends. Can you blame him for not wanting to walk into a non-air-conditioned can on wheels?


Bed, Bale and Breakfast in Kenaston,
SaskatchewanAdd 5000km of driving, several hair-raising turns with unthinkable cliffs on the other side, a state-of-emergency due to flooding, tornado warnings, seriously bad mosquitos (Manitoba really does have the worlds biggest mosquitos), all with three tall teens in the back seat of a pick up truck. And don't forget a hike up a mountain creek, a gondola ride to the top of a Mountain, some wonderful meals, some okay meals, some truly scary pit-stops and then end with a ferry ride...that brings us to the other side of a truly massive continent...where our house was not quite ready for us.

Hoodoos in DrumhellerA few more hotel nights, unload day (x3), unpack day (x1), a clothes dryer fire, a sewage back up in the basement (which was full of boxes), more hotel days, DEPENDENT's book launch, several formal military events (including my husband's Change of Command ceremony) and many other crazy moments that I won't mention here, and you get a brief taste of the past month.

Insanity.

And would I have it any other way?

Not a chance!

Am I crazy? Quite possibly.

But in amongst those mad moments were some truly wonderful family adventures. We stood at the top of a mountain. We went as far west as the kids have EVER been. We saw dinosaur bones, a live moose, the Terry Fox Memorial, and real hoo doos. We mets some amazing people with open arms and kind hearts. We giggled. And laughed, and joked and explored. We learned that generosity lives not in big bank accounts but in small gestures of friendship. And we did it together.


Sulfur Mountain in Banff Move in day... We're here! Dipping my feet in the Pacific. 


 What's insane is how well it all went. It's insane that we are here, that we drove that far with five people in a pickup truck towing a horse, and we're still talking to one another. It's insane that our travel costs were covered by the military--not all of them, but most. And it's so insane that we live here...in this beautiful town on this beautiful island. Yes, we've still got boxes artfully hidden under tablecloths and crammed in corners, and yes I'm sick of disorganization, mess and chaos...but we made it.

Together.

And that is what it's all about.


Brenda

More posting phases: Seven (look for more at the bottom of the link!)

Launch Party!

Dependent has released to amazing reviews and I want to celebrate! I'll be at Chapters in Victoria, BC tomorrow to do so! There will be books for purchase and I'll have my pen at the ready.

Come out and say hello! Would love to meet you!

DETAILS:
Book Launch and SigningatChapters
1212 Douglas St.Victoria, BC
from 12-2pm

To see the official invitation: GO HERE.

Can't make it?  You can still purchase DEPENDENT at fine bookstores around the globe. Check out the links to the left to purchase online!
Brenda

Almost Time

DEPENDENT RELEASES IN TWO DAYS.

TWO.

JUST TWO.



Have you put it on your Goodreads to-read list yet?

Pre-ordered your copy? (<---Links to the left)

Booked LAUNCH DAY (AUG 2nd at Chapters Victoria,BC on Douglas 12-2) off so you can come?

Checked out all of the amazing Blog tour posts?

Can't wait!

Brenda