Connie Keenan's Blog, page 2

Thanks & Congrats & Update!

Thank you to all who entered my Goodreads Giveaway! And congratulations to the readers who won 1 of 3 paperback copies! Those books are on their way to you now as we speak.

One more note: STEALING THUNDER, the sweet romantic novella written as Consuelo Vazquez, is now available from Amazon. A lighthearted read for you to enjoy between longer works.

http://www.amazon.com/Stealing-Thunde...

Upcoming Consuelo Vazquez Book

Cover reveal (on my blog) for my upcoming book, written as Consuelo Vazquez! Please note this will be an under 30K romance novella, something you can enjoy in between longer works. And more books/novellas to come under this pen name.

http://conniekeenanwriter.blogspot.co...

My New Goodreads Giveaway

I'm giving away 3 paperback copies of my newest Christian novel, CRYSTAL WAVES! You can now enter my Goodreads Giveaway to win. Deadline is January 25, 2015. Good luck & Happy Reading!

Excerpt from CRYSTAL WAVES

Here's a little taste of my newest Christian novel, CRYSTAL WAVES:

On the walk home from church, Lee seemed a bit distracted. He wasn’t talking much, staring down at the sidewalk or ahead of him pensively. At first, Katie tried to engage him in conversation—asking how he liked the pastor’s message, and wasn’t the Stiles’ new baby cute? Sensing he wasn’t feeling talkative, she respected that and walked quietly beside him.

The Crystal Waves Diner was open on Sundays only until one in the afternoon, but her bosses had given her alternate Sundays off. Sundays were quiet, anyway, with locals mostly eating in, and Catholics traditionally not eating until after Mass anyway.

On Sundays when she had to work, which some people had to do, she would come home afterwards and have her devotional. On Sundays like that one, when she was able to attend church, she would come home afterwards and help Jessica fix a Sunday Special Lunch.

That was what they called it, the roommates: The Sunday Special. It wasn’t a lot, really, and it wasn’t fancy, because no one had much money for extravagance. On the other hand, it was fun. The girls had tried their hand at making chicken with broccoli and fried rice one Sunday; on another, they whipped up some tacos. That particular day they were fixing macaroni salad, coleslaw and cheesy steak sandwiches on hard rolls. The boys always appreciated the girls’ efforts, and sometimes they’d taken the kitchen over themselves to try their own hand at creating the Sunday Special.

“Katie, you mind telling me who that guy was back there?”

She had been chopping celery for the macaroni salad when Lee returned to the kitchen. Jessi was at work frying the steaks on the stove, two that she’d gotten at a good price at the A & P and would be slicing up for the sandwiches. Lee had changed back into his denim shorts and Seaside Heights T-shirt. He was quenching his thirst with a bottled cream soda.

“That guy back in church?” she asked, suddenly careful with her words.

“Hmmm. A guy in church?” Jessi tossed a sly glance at Lee. “Jealous?”

“Jealous? No. Just wanna know who he was.” Lee faced Katie. “And why you were arguing with him behind the church?”

Gabe walked in on the conversation. He helped himself to a potato chip from the bowl on the table. “Katie was arguing with somebody? I don’t believe it. He’s gotta be some bad dude to give you a hard time, babe.”

“Yeah, I’d say he’s a bad dude. That’s accurate.” Katie sighed. “He was nobody, Lee. Just a very rude guy who wandered in.”

“Wandered in?” Lee chuckled. “Not too many people ‘wander’ around in suits. I heard what he said about Pastor DePalma. Guy’s got some gutter mouth.”

Jessica gasped. “He cursed out the pastor?”

“Not to his face,” Katie said, though anxious to change the subject. “He’s too much of a coward for that.”

“Yeah, he’s a coward, all right. He was backing up, trying to get away…from you,” Lee pointed out.

“Well, he should. I’m a lot stronger than he is. See?” Playfully, she raised her arm and bent it at the elbow, flexing a nonexistent muscle.

“Yes, I saw that. Don’t go doing that, Katie. He was a lot bigger than you. I thought I was gonna have to deck him.”

“Oh, how sweet!” Jessi giggled, telling Katie, “You see? Chivalry is alive and well, and living at the Jersey shore!”

Lee didn’t appear in the mood for jesting. He drew closer to Katie. “He was…weird.”

“Among other things, yes. He’s evil.”

“Now, now, Katie. Nobody’s really evil. That’s a hard word,” Gabe corrected her. “Some people are just misunderstood.”

“Not him. Believe me. He’s malevolent.”
Katie hoped to leave it at that, but Gabe was amused.

“Ahhhh. Malevolent,” he repeated. “Now there’s a million-dollar word!”

About the only one taking her seriously was Lee, who stared at her. “He was evil, you’re right. He gave me the creeps. He was like…like a…”

“Like a demon?”

Katie paused from chopping the celery to watch Jessi, who’d made the suggestion.

“I guess. I’ve never really seen a demon before,” Lee admitted. “Thank God.”

“Demons can’t go to church. Can they?”
Gabe was being serious now. “Don’t they disintegrate into dust if they so much as step through the church door?”

“Maybe they can go into a church. It’s just a building. A manmade building. What’s inside—that’s what’s holy.” That answer had come from Lee. “I would think they could go in.”

Jessi shrugged. “But why would they want to go into a church?”

“To cause trouble.” Lee looked from her to Katie. “This one tried to. He was really ticked off at Pastor. At what the man was saying. And he didn’t like me too much, either.”

Katie knew that Lee was waiting for her reaction. For her to say something. Anything. She was grateful for the mild interlude, when Gabe grabbed another chip and Jessica moved the bowl.

“You are not filling up on those before lunch,” she admonished, “with how hard me and Katie are working on this meal.”

“Aw, babe, I can eat the whole bag and still eat what you girls are making,” Gabe assured her.

Lee pressed in closer. “So…you’re not going to tell me what happened?”

“You saw what happened, Lee. He just—I got into it with him.” Katie was struggling, wishing he would drop it. “I shouldn’t have, but I did. He was just—not a nice person.”

“What did the minister say that got the guy so hot under the collar?” Gabe asked.
Lee replied, “He was talking about the things that have been happening here. How this old pastor—the man who was there before Pastor DePalma—had prayed for God to do a work here.”

Jessica’s eyes opened wide. “Really? How long ago was that?”

“Like during World War I.”

“Really?” Gabe also sounded intrigued. “Why would that guy have gotten upset over that?”

“Beats me.” Lee looked like he was about to say something else.

Instead, he scowled at Katie and headed out of the bungalow, mumbling something about grabbing a smoke before lunch.

“He’s mad at you,” Jessi whispered.

“Yes. I don’t know why.”

“Don’t take it to heart. Guys are weird sometimes.”

“Yeah, and you girls are so easy to figure out.” Gabe was being sarcastic, laughing when Jessi gave his arm a pinch.

“I’ll be right back,” Katie said, excusing herself.

People could be so confusing sometimes. Male and females, Katie had found. She was mildly distressed because she cared for Lee. She’d always cared for him, and now there he was, upset with her.

Outside, she found him seated on one of those rickety, fold-up chairs, slapping at the bottom of his cigarette pack. She didn’t know what that was for, but she’d seen both Lee and Gabe do that.

“Don’t be mad at me, Lee,” she said, not masking her hurt.

He gave an exasperated sigh. “I’m not mad at you, Katie.”

“Yes, you are.”

“I’m not. I’m just—I really care about you. I feel sometimes like I know you forever.”

She took the seat beside him and rested her head on his shoulder. “I feel like that, too. It would hurt me so much if one day you didn’t like me anymore.”

He must have liked the way she said that, because he finally chuckled. Then he draped an arm around her.

“You don’t have to worry about that. That’s not going to happen.” He didn’t feel as tense or upset now. “Sometimes I just get frustrated. “I feel like you don’t trust me—”

“Oh, Lee. I trust you to the ends of the earth.” She tossed her hand in the air with theatric flair. “I would trust you with my very life!”

He laughed again. “And I trust you. It’s just—every now and then, I get the feeling that you’re hiding something. Like you have some secret that you’re keeping from me. It’s okay, you know. It’s okay if you have something that you’d rather not tell anybody. Everybody has something that maybe they’re embarrassed about or that they want to keep to themselves. I respect that.

“But I want to feel like you can trust me. Like you would tell me if you decided you wanted to. Because, if you are hiding something, Katie, it wouldn’t change anything. It wouldn’t change who you are in my eyes. You would still be my—our Katie. To me.”

She licked her lips and looked up at him.
“If I was to reveal a secret, it would be to you,” she said. “No one else. Just you. But I—I’d better get inside and help Jessi.”

He was going to kiss her. She could feel it, though she’d never been kissed before. She was afraid of the kiss, afraid even more of hurting him.

“Katie, wait—one second.”

She’d only made it as far as the door. “Uh-huh?”

“If I was to tell anybody my secrets—not that I have any, really; my life’s an open book—but I’d tell you. You’re the only one I’d tell.”

Then he blew her a kiss. From that spot in his chair, an unlit cigarette between his fingers, a sweet but sad smile on his face. Katie pretended to catch the kiss, smiling as she pretended to hold it to her own lips.

“Come on in when you’re done,” she told him. “Lunch is going to be great.”

“Can’t wait.”

Back to normal. Things were back to normal.

Sort of.

New Release--and Fun Facts!

CRYSTAL WAVES, my Christian novel about mysterious goings-on at a Jersey shore town in the summer of 1972, is now available on Amazon!

And for some fun facts about this book, visit my blog at http://conniekeenanwriter.blogspot.com.

Cover Reveal CRYSTAL WAVES

Not a lot of info yet on my upcoming novel, but you will find its cover on my blog today. Plus, if you scroll down a little, you'll get my review for the new LEFT BEHIND movie, my thoughts on sleeping and creativity, plus some sweet things to say about...CHOCOLATE!

So grab a cup of coffee or tea and head on over...

http://conniekeenanwriter.blogspot.com

ONE SWEET DAY Excerpt

That early morning, the clock on Quinn Schroener’s night stand read 3:00 on the dot. Sometimes it read 2:48 or 2:52, most times it read exactly 3:00.

He didn’t wake up often, but when he did, it was as if someone had literally awakened him. Some nights he awoke afraid, though he didn’t understand why. Others, he woke up peacefully.

Pastor Fender had told him that three in the morning was the end of the third watch of prayer and the beginning of the fourth watch. Since then, whenever he awoke he would say a prayer. Nothing big or fancy. He would just talk to Jesus as calmly as he would to his parents or friends. In a short while, he would fall back asleep.

There was something different about that night. He was excited—not fearful, like in the past, but excited. Like something out of the ordinary was about to happen.

That’s silly, the thought after switching on the lamp on his nightstand.
His bedroom looked exactly as it had before he’d gone to bed only hours earlier. Payton Mulligan had lamented that Quinn’s room was cool, probably because it was a little bigger than his own. Quinn kept it neat—or tried to, anyway. His ever-growing library of current books were kept in the small bookcase beside his desk and chair. On the top shelf of his desk was his collection of action figures, mostly his G.I. Joes, Batman, Spiderman, and Superman.

His other treasures, like his music cassettes, his Walkman, his aquarium with tropical fish, and his toy chest, were all on the opposite side of the desk and window. It was a boy’s room through and through, made even more evident by the Little League baseball trophies he’d gotten and pictures of horses he’d drawn, which his parents had framed for him.

Quinn jumped, reacting to the sudden movement of Sam rising on all fours and growling at the window.

Animals can tell when something’s up, his dad, who knew animals better than anybody Quinn knew, often said.

“What’s up, Sammy?” Quinn asked.

A moment passed, and then another. Then an odd noise broke the silence. What was that?

Quinn glanced to his left. The table on which the ten-gallon aquarium sat was shaking. Ever so slightly, but it was shaking.

His bed was shaking. Quinn sat up fully, kicking off the covers and holding onto the headboard. Instead of barking, Sam leapt onto the bed beside him, yelping.

“Dad! Mom!” He’d tried to shout out for them, but the words had come out in a terrified whisper.

An earthquake. That was an earthquake.
But earthquakes didn’t happen in North Carolina. Did they?

No. They’d studied that in school. Earthquakes happened in other places, like California and Japan and the Middle East.
Earthquakes in divers places. Jesus had said that.

This wasn’t like any other earthquake, either. This was somehow worse. It wasn’t stopping.

“It’s not stopping,” Quinn uttered under his breath.

Where were his parents? Why hadn’t they come to get him? They had to feel the house shaking violently like that. Come to think of it, why wasn’t it falling apart?
That was what happened during earthquakes. He’d seen pictures of the aftermath on the news, how buildings would be reduced to rubble, how people would lose their homes.

Go to the window. Now.

“What if I fall?” he asked.

Yet the moment his feet hit the floor, the earthquake stopped. Dressed in his pajamas, he pushed open the curtains, a breath caught in his throat, and looked out to an awesome sight.

It was daytime. But how?

Quinn swallowed. The sun, burning in the sky like a giant golden ball, was turning black. He could see the moon, too, except the moon had turned red, as red as blood.
And the stars were falling. Thousands of stars, millions, falling to the earth at once.

What was happening?

Quinn watched, motionless, almost frozen in place. The mountains in the distance looked to be melting back into the earth. Above them, the sky was opening. Opening as if it were one of those long curtains on a stage. Quinn’s heart was beating fast. He had to remind himself to breathe.
None of this is really happening. That thought came to him, bringing with it comfort.



And for another excerpt from this book, my January 2014, drop by my blog: http://conniekeenanwriter.blogspot.com .

Book Excerpt

Here's a short, little teaser from my new release, DISTANT FIRE. There's a longer one waiting for you on my blog at http://conniekeenanwriter.blogspot.com

“I listened to ‘If’ the other day. It’s on one of my ’70s CDs.”

A woman had once told him that men weren’t particularly skilled when it came to reading between the lines, but right then, it wasn’t true. He understood what Linda was leaving unsaid. Keeping his eyes on the road as he pulled out of the building development and onto the road, he told her, “I love that song. But it haunted me for a long time.”

“Me, too. I still, to this day, can’t hear it without thinking of you, Drew.”

Glancing at her, he saw her hand and took it with his right hand, continuing to steer with his left. She gave him a cute roll of her eyes before reaching for the radio switch with her free hand.

“Let’s see how these speakers have held up since high school!” she exclaimed.

“New speakers. Those I did replace.”

“Show off!” After a chuckle, she asked, “How many places did you live since we last met, my—Drew?”

My Drew? She’d meant to say something else but stopped herself.

Subconsciously, he squeezed her hand.
“Just that. Nebraska. Florida. Here. I almost went to California, too, but Lana and Rose talked me out of it. They’d hated it when I lived in Nebraska. We hardly got to see each other, and you know we’ve always been close as a family. I thought I just wanted to travel and see the country. The truth was, I didn’t have any roots.”

“That’s what I felt like, too, for a while,” she agreed. “Like I had no roots, either.”

“But you did. You had roots. Besides the Lord, you had your daughter. And you were a great mom, Linda. That kid turned out as good as she did because of you.”

Because it doesn’t sound like her dad was involved at all in her life. Drew casually left that unsaid; it didn’t need saying. It fact, Linda rarely, if ever, brought up her ex-husband’s name. That was fine by him.

He would have been involved in Valerie’s life. Even taking on the role of her stepdad, he would have been involved. Drew had thought about it that week, how he would have gotten a piano for her to replace the one her biological father had given to his son from his second marriage, despite the fact that Linda, when they were married, had him purchase it for the purpose of having Valerie learn to play it. Drew would have saved up or spent a few years paying off a piano that would have belonged to that little girl.

Together, they would have taken vacations to the Jersey shore each summer as a family. He would have coached her Little League games, like he’d done for his niece when she was little. He would have taken Linda and Valerie, and any children he and Linda would have had afterwards, hiking in the autumn and to cut down a Christmas tree when December rolled around each year.
But none of those things had happened, and Valerie was now a young woman. Those were joys and precious times that would never happen now.

“Thank you, baby. That means a lot to me,” she said softly.

Once more he glanced at her. They had come to a traffic light, so he’d slowed the car to a stop.

Baby, not honey. “Honey” could have been applied to her daughter or a coworker or another female friend. “Honey” was a term of endearment, as well, but “baby”?

That was a whole other word, one that carried an intimacy he hadn’t shared with anyone in a long time.

My New Release

Very happy to announce (geez, I'm always happy to announce this! It really never gets old, no matter how many books you write and publish) that DISTANT FIRE, Book 2 of my new series, is out. This is Linda Cuthbertson's story--her romance, her love story. If you've read UNCONDITIONAL, Book 1, then you know Linda is Valerie's mom, who has found love with a long forgotten love who has come back into her life. For something a little different, here's an inspirational romance with a mature couple over 40.

Actually, you know what? Let's make this easy--here's the teaser:

Linda Cuthbertson doesn't pay much attention when she hears the news that her church has just hired a new music director. That is, until she comes face to face--again--with Drew Lingerfelt. Years, miles and life itself have come between Linda and the man she has always thought of as her first love. Having married and divorced the father of her child, she's made a life for herself with only her daughter, her work, and her faith in God.

But now Drew is back...and so are her feelings for him. He also realizes that he has never totally forgotten about Linda. Has The Lord brought him to the town of Hathaway solely for the purpose of using his musical talent at True Vine Gospel...or is God giving them a second chance to find happiness in each other's arms?

Get yours on Amazon! http://www.amazon.com/Distant-Fire-Jo...

Joyful Noise Book 2 & New Mainstream

No, I'm not forgetting Book 3 of the Joyful Noise Series! Book 2 is still in the editing/polishing stage, but for the first time ever I'm already also working on the first draft of a new Christian mainstream novel. Thing is, I've always been a work-on-one-thing-at-a-time author, so editing one while getting to work on a new one is new for me. The mainstream book has a whole other, intriguing back story to it, and I'll be sharing that with readers very shortly.

For now, just to let you know, I'm still hoping for a July 31 release date for DISTANT FIRE, Book 2 of the Joyful Noise Series, but if it's a day or two late, I'll be sure to post it here. Book 3 is still on the way, probably to be published before the mainstream, but I'm just going with the muse on this one! More news to follow.