How about an appetizer before REVENGE? We have books to giveaway!

I have so much news! First, there are only 31 more days until the release of REVENGE!!! I absolutely cannot wait! Since we have our final Street Team Interview t[image error]oday, I’m saving the first sneak peek at REVENGE until next Friday. But don’t worry, you’ll get two chapters instead of one! So I decided to give you a little surprise today! To tide you over until REVENGE is released, I have two very special releases to tell you about! First, I am pleased to announce that I have a brand new romantic suspense available! Be sure to check out BONE DEEP! I love this story and I’m hoping it will serve as a killer appetizer for the coming main course, REVENGE! Next up is a huge July special with seven bestselling authors, five full length novels and two bonus novellas for only $.99 all month long during July. Be sure to grab a copy of the box set DANGEROUS DESIRES starting July 2!

Now, let’s meet DeeAnn Garner Kline! Remember, you have to comment to have a chance to win. FIVE commenters will receive a digital copy of BONE DEEP!

 

Deb: Tell us about you.

DeeAnn: I am 51 years old (age doesn’t bother me), married, have three amazing daughters that I love so much and 4 grandchildren that are the [image error]light of my life and a dachshund that I adore. My youngest daughter had a dog before she moved out and I got attached and she didn’t take it with her. She joked and told me I needed to get a dog for myself because she felt too guilty taking her own dog because she knew how much I loved hers. Now her dog comes to visit and our dogs play together.

My parents had me when they were in their 40’s. My oldest sibling, Jerry, was 22 years old when I was born (his oldest son is only 10 months younger than me and we were best friends growing up); I have a sister, Phyllis, who is 20 years older than me (I was jealous of her son who is 5 years younger than me because I didn’t want to share her); a sister, Gwen, who is 18 years older than me; and a brother, Richard “Dicky”, who is 11 years older than me. Dicky wanted my parents to name me after him so my first name is Vicki even though I’ve never used that name. Because DeeAnn is spelled with a capital D and a capital A, I had to drop my first name when I got my learner’s permit.  They wanted to use Vicki Dee or Vicki Ann and I kept telling them that wasn’t my name. They probably decided to let me use the name I was telling them so I’d leave.

One of my favorite stories to share is when my brother-in-law to be, Wendell, asked my sister, Phyllis out on a date. She said he called and asked her out and she told him she had to go to the hospital to visit her mom. Wendell asked what was wrong and she told him her mother had just had a baby. Wendell thought, “yeah, right” so he volunteered to take her to the hospital. He didn’t know some of the humorous (he may not think so) memories I would be giving them. My father paid my sister’s car payment for her if she’d stay home a couple of weeks and help my mom after giving birth to me. She says she fed me my first bottles and rocked me.  We have a very close relationship and always have. That’s why I was so jealous when she had a baby. Rowdy is their oldest son’s name. Wendell tells the story of us (Wendell, Phyllis, Rowdy, my mom and me) driving up to their house in Ashville when they lived there. I was being a tad bratty and didn’t want Rowdy to sit with me in the back seat (way before seat belts were used) so he laid down in the floor board. I kept dropping my hand down and touching him (I was aggravating him) so Phyllis told Rowdy to get in the front seat with the three adults (bench seat).  I was upset so I crawled in the front too.  Wendell said his next car was going to have a steering wheel in the back seat. I slept with a baby pillow until I was 14. I’d gone to stay with Wendell and Phyllis before Rowdy was born in Asheville. I’d forgotten my pillow and I cried and cried. My dad who had never driven out of state, and it was probably the only time he did, drove and met Wendell half-way to give him my pillow. Aren’t daddies the best? My pillow is still talked about to this day. I could tell so many more stories involving my oldest sister and her husband. I love them so very much and Wendell has always been a big brother to me. I miss my oldest brother very much as well as my parents. I didn’t have them the quantity of years most people have their parents and siblings but the quality of my home life was so wonderful that I feel very blessed. I wish they’d lived just a bit longer so my younger two girls would have more memories to hold dear. Gwen was the sister that always took me to my dentist appointments in downtown Atlanta because my mom didn’t drive that far. We lived in the “boondocks” as some of my friends called it. I stayed at her house often and babysat her daughter while I was in high school. Now that she is retired, she, Phyllis and I spend a lot of time together. Phyllis makes me laugh so hard, I have to use my inhaler because I’ll start wheezing (asthma). Dicky and I have always been super close. He was the only sibling I remember living at home. He picked on me so much and made me cry that his girlfriend, Dianne (wife now) would tell him to quit. He tells me now he feels bad. I told him that if he quit picking on me I’d be worried. A funny story about him is when I’d have friends spend the night (I had a play house with army bunk beds in it) Dicky (who lived in the house below my parents) would sneak up and beat on the side of the playhouse to scare us. I have always been and always will be a chicken! One night he said he heard something outside and went out on his back porch and yelled “DeeAnn, is that you outside”. He realized it wasn’t me (which I can’t believe he’d think I’d walk down the road in the dark). It was a bobcat. He went back inside. One of the sweetest things he has ever done for me is when I had my youngest child while I lived in Augusta (2.5 hours from here). I had labor pains on December 22nd (I was due on the 21st) and my brother drove to stay with my other two daughters while I was in the hospital. My labor pains went away but they induced me on the 23rd. I had to be induced with all my children and I was excited I’d actually had labor pains. While he was staying at the house the electric heat pump went out. He said he thought we had the coldest house ever. He and the girls stayed together in front of the fire to stay warm. It was a cold house and we had to use a wood-burning stove to supplement the heat but I can’t imagine how cold they were with no heat. He has a heart of gold.

Except for when I lived in Augusta for 8 years, I have lived in the same county I grew up in. I attended Suwanee Elementary School which had kindergarten through 7th grade. While I was in the 7th grade a middle school was built that 3 elementary schools fed their 6-8th graders into. We got to name the mascot; it wasn’t the one I chose though. When my three oldest siblings attended school, Suwanee Elementary was “Suwanee School”. All twelve grades went there. My sisters were the first group to attend the high school when it opened. I attended a very small high school, North Gwinnett, and everyone knew everyone. My teachers still recognize me when they see them. I loved my teachers and loved school. I was a cheerleader so life was good!  I was captain for two years and one of the coaches called me “Captain D”. I was a very petite girl back in high school (wish I still was) and I got the nickname of “PeeWee”. One of my teachers always calls me PeeWee when he sees me today. I am still friends with so many of the people I went to school with.  I knew one of my best friends, Renee, before we went to kindergarten. We went to church together. Everyone went to church together. We had the Baptist Church and the Methodist Church. Most of us went to the Baptist Church. People thought we were twins when we were little. If you saw one, you saw the other. Renee’s parents were teachers; her mother taught at the elementary school and was our PE teacher and her dad taught at the high school. He was the best Algebra teacher ever. He didn’t care how many times he went over the material and explained it to you. He wanted you to actually understand how you were getting to the answers you were writing down. I had a wonderful childhood and never knew some people didn’t. I was very naïve and I’m still gullible. I realized when I was a teenager that if I lied, I’d get caught. My children have always said you can read my face so easily. My sister told my mom when I was a teenager that if my mom wanted to know something to just ask me; but be prepared for the answer. Growing up in a small town where everyone knew everyone, my mom would have received a phone call about something before I even knew anything was going on. She’d tell me a little birdie told her. I really didn’t like that birdie. I always disliked the phrase “because I told you so”. I didn’t use it with my children; I actually explained why they got in trouble or why I wouldn’t let them do something. There was one time my mom said she’d heard I went into someone’s house. I laughed so hard (she probably didn’t appreciate me laughing) because I hadn’t even pulled in their driveway. I took a boy I’d grown up with, went to church with and mother knew his parents well, home one day from high school. He told me to pull into one of my girlfriend’s drive across the street because it would be too dangerous for me to pull out of his driveway and turn left onto the road. There was a really bad hill there. I told her the birdie was wrong this time. (I was a tad sassy when I was younger).

I took almost every business course you could take in high school. I loved typing and still do. I graduated and found a secretarial job quickly. I had signed up with a temporary agency that had visited our school and they placed me. A few of my high school friends got jobs there as well. Most everyone that graduated around the time I did got married out of high school; it’s just what we did. I had my oldest daughter when I was 20. I was a child with a child. Thank goodness for my oldest sister. She was always there with great advice and wisdom. I’d listen to her and not always to my mom. You know that period most girls go through where we don’t think our parents know very much? We learn later how much they did know and we should have listened better. After my second child was born, I went part-time where I’d been working (different company) and eventually quit. I started cleaning houses because I made more money and the hours/days were much more flexible. When I was pregnant with my third child was when my children’s dad (we aren’t married any longer) was transferred to Augusta. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. I was so close to my family and especially my parents (I realized how much they knew). Fortunately, I actually loved living in Augusta and it was hard when I moved back here after my divorce. I’d lost both of my parents and my husband had lost his great-grandmother whom he was very close to. Not a good time in our lives and I didn’t have the skills and I don’t think he did either to handle that much stress. I had such great friends, a wonderful church family and my kids were in such good schools; all kids were so respectful of everyone. When we moved back here it was a cultural shock for my girls. They still talk about hearing some of the words children were saying and looked at the teacher thinking they were going to get in trouble. At least they tell me now how appreciative they are that I didn’t let them talk that way. They remember soap! I had been a realtor/site manager in Augusta. It was a cultural shock for me too. I wasn’t used to how other realtors would stab you in the back or how the customers would treat you. I decided I had to do something different.

Only after a couple of months of moving back, my oldest daughter became very ill. She had always been my healthy daughter so when she said she was sick I knew she was. For months I was taking her to doctors and local specialists and all they could tell me is that she had inflammation. She had nodules over her eyes the size of golf balls. She had biopsies; inflammation. She was a Rheumatologist and Pulmonologist and neither one of them knew what was wrong. She ran a fever every day and lost 20 pounds over the next 5 months. She was in so much pain breathing she couldn’t walk up the stairs any longer. I was very scared. I took her to the emergency room on New Years and they did a needle biopsy of her lung; inflammation. After that I made an appointment at Emory to see a Pulmonologist. The one we had been seeing told me after the needle biopsy that he didn’t see anything wrong with her; she was a normal 15 year old. I knew better. We saw the Emory Pulmonologist on a Monday and he did a PFT which I learned is a standard test. The other doctor never did that. She only had 39% lung capacity. He put her in the hospital Wednesday, they performed an open lung biopsy on Thursday and she started chemo on Friday. She was diagnosed with a very rare disease called Wegener’s Granulomatosis (a rare autoimmune disease) and had pleurisy. I can’t tell you how scared I was. I’d prayed before we moved about whether I should move back home because my ex-husband had remarried and moved back here. It was hard to be single and raise three young children. I was so glad I’d listened to God because sometimes it’s hard when it’s not the answer we want. I don’t know what I would have done without my sister Phyllis. My two younger girls stayed with her often and she took them to school. My oldest daughter had to go to the doctor often and stay over the weekends for her IV chemo. My sister helped me financially because I couldn’t work. I would have been absent more than be able to work. I had to help Christie get caught up in school because she couldn’t attend class. I’d pick up her lessons every week and take them back. She is such a strong person and very smart. She did not get behind even though she was out of school for months. I’m so proud of her and my other daughters too. She will always have a 50/50 chance of flare-ups and has had several. She has been fortunate that she goes to the doctor as soon as she starts having pain in her lungs (she recognizes the symptoms). Since she started trying to have children (she is a high-risk pregnancy) she has been able to put the Wegener’s back in remission with only Prednisone and no chemo. There was a chance she wouldn’t be able to have children. She said that if God wanted her to have children she would and if He didn’t, she wouldn’t.

Getting back to working, my oldest daughter was at the mall one day (after she was a lot better) and grabbed an application from Waldenbooks and told me I should apply. I have always loved books and reading. When I was in elementary school, I looked forward to the Friday’s they sent book order forms home to order books. I’m thankful my mother always encouraged me to read. I have always devoured books. I started part-time as a Bookseller, was promoted to Sr. Bookseller, Asst. Manager and then Manager. I’d always heard that if you found a job you loved, you’d never work another day in your life. I loved my job! Books! Talking to others about books! Meeting authors!! What was there not to like?

I remarried 11 years ago next month and haven’t worked for many years. When my oldest daughter had her first son I watched him full-time until she decided she didn’t want to be at work and miss any firsts. She was here at my house when he started crawling the first time and when he pulled up. I’m glad she was with him and didn’t miss it. She was home when he started walking and now running. He turns 5 next month. Now she has 3 children and cleans houses once a week and sometimes substitute teaches. I love watching my grandchildren. When my middle daughter had her son I watched him full-time for two years until I had hand surgery. She put him in daycare and realized he was ready for the socialization and kept him there. I wasn’t able to watch any of the children for about 6 months. It was amazing how wearing a cast for 6 weeks can weaken your hand and arm muscles so quickly.

I have to admit that it was very sad for me to have my daughters grow up and move out. I was never one of those parents who couldn’t wait until their kids grew up and moved out. I’d told my youngest that she could never move out and she’d have to stay with me forever. I still miss them but this is the way it is supposed to be. They grew up to be responsible, dependable and very loving adults. At least they don’t live too far away and I get to visit with them lots.

Deb : What does your reading library look like? 

DeeAnn: After the show Hoarders started all my daughters said I should be on the show because I have so many books. Can you believe they actually said I was a book hoarder? We tried to sell our house many years ago but that’s when the economy started declining. We wanted to downsize after all the kids were gone. The home values dropped so much we couldn’t even get our home appraised for what we still owed on it. I’d boxed up all my books I’d read and they are boxed according to author. I have a Debra Webb box that became so full I had to start another. Other authors have more than one box too. The boxes are stacked up very neatly (lots of stacks) and I can always find a book if I want to reread it. I had boxed up all my non-fiction books and typed up a list that is stored on my computer of what each box contains. I have OCD and my daughters have inherited it. I see a bit of it in the grandkids too. They are always thanking me for it. I still have some of my old books from when I was in elementary school and I ordered them from the school. I kept all my daughter’s books and now they are glad because they took them for their children. Deep down I think they think it is neat their children have their old books.

De b : What real life villain do you consider the most memorable?

DeeAnn: Hitler. He did the most despicable, inhumane things to people. I’d call him a monster instead of a villain. I can’t even watch movies based on events (fictional or nonfictional) because it disturbs me so much. I watched Sophie’s Choice one time and cried and cried. I can’t imagine the physical and mental anguish all the victims went through.

Deb : What aspect of a mystery or suspense novel keeps you reading in the genre?

DeeAnn: I love trying to figure out who did it. It’s interesting to get to know the characters and how they interact with each other or don’t. Sometimes, you can figure out who the bad guy is and sometimes you are surprised. I love series. To read about a character(s) and see them develop and change over the series is very interesting.

Deb : What do you like best about the Faces of Evil series? Who would you like to see play the roles of the characters in a TV series or movie?

DeeAnn: I found it interesting watching how Jess and Dan are trying to figure out how their relationship is going to work. I think that most everyone always remembers their high school sweetheart and it is special. So to go back and try to start a relationship that was over and not over would be hard. They work together and have to keep their work and personal lives separate and that is difficult at times. They both are capable on their own but worry about the other. Again, I love series and watching the characters develop.

I can picture Patrick Dempsey as Dan and maybe Keanu Reeves as Wesley, Jess’s ex. Natalie Portman as Jess. Mario Lopez or Matthew Fox as Harper. Katie Sackhoff as Lori. Anne Hathaway as Lily. Bradley Cooper as Blake. Charlize Theron as Dan’s ex-wife. Emma Watson or Bella Thorne as Dan’s step-daughter. Candice Bergen as Dan’s mother and William Devane as Dan’s dad.

Deb: Tell us about a great book you’ve read.

DeeAnn: I love the Bible. Every time I reread it I learn something I missed the last time I’d read it. Most people love the New Testament the best but I love the Old Testament except Leviticus (too many animal sacrifices). We have a relationship with God through God the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost; accepting Christ as our Lord and Savior. People in the Old Testament actually had Him dwelling with them and spoke with Him. They literally saw His glory and saw so many miracles performed in front of them and for them.

Deb : What book or movie from your childhood still haunts you?

DeeAnn: Psycho and the Exorcist. I was afraid to take showers when I was alone. Psycho scared me so bad. It took many years to get over it. I’m so glad our shower doesn’t have a shower curtain or I’d probably still be showering and peeping around the curtain every once in a while. The Exorcist still disturbs me because it is based on a true story. I don’t know what was true and what was embellished but I can’t imagine how freaky that was for the child, the family and the priests. It is sad and eerie that people died while making the movie and Linda Blair had to have therapy because the part disturbed her emotionally.

Deb : If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?

DeeAnn: Hawaii or Ireland. I love the beach and can’t imagine a more beautiful, tropical place than Hawaii. Ireland looks so lush in pictures and the people seem so down-to-earth and real. I like simple and it seems like people live a quiet, simple life there. I guess I could be wrong. I’ve read many fictional books about Ireland and watched several movies filmed there. Ireland seems to have a pull on me. I have some Irish in me so maybe that’s what it is. I’d want my sister to go with me because she knows our entire family’s genealogy off the top of her head. Even though she is 20 years older her memory is better than mine. In the Girl Scout troop I led one of the girl’s family is from Ireland. I loved hearing her parents talk and was friends with them. They had a huge Irish Wolf Hound named Guinness. The dog was gentle but I wouldn’t get out of my car until someone came out. Just standing next to my car on 4 legs he was taller than my window.

Deb : Tell us about your pets (now or past).

DeeAnn: Growing up in the country we always had animals. We had dogs, cats, cows, pigs, chickens and I even had a pony. My first dog’s name was Pooky and I don’t remember if he was a mix dog. He was just my dog. My brother Dicky had a dog named Stardust and I don’t remember what type of dog Stardust was. One of the times we were up in Asheville visiting my sister someone stole our two dogs. That was very sad and hard. We had a Collie named Lassie, we had German Shepherds and I can only remember the name of one of them; Susie. I’d had a dog named Champ that my best friend’s dad (Renee’s dad) ran over accidentally. Like I mentioned people thought we were twins when we were younger and everyone thought Champ believed I was in the car and chased it. Renee’s dad was so upset over hitting it. She told me recently that he still talks about it and how it still bothers him. I had a poodle named BoBo that I got when I was in high school. I loved that dog so much. It was the first indoor dog I’d ever had. She got old and had cancer. We had to have her put to sleep. The vet had told us that she must really love us to be hanging on like she was. She couldn’t walk any longer. She’d bark and we knew to carry her outside to use the bathroom. It was very pitiful. I got another poodle and named him Bandit. Bandit was not like BoBo. He wanted to chew on everything and hated being inside. When I’d go visit my parents he just ran around all the time. I gave him to my dad and my dad loved that dog. Bandit followed my dad everywhere. He rode with my dad and went into the fields where dad planted vegetables. Someone stole him too. My dad was so sad. We offered to get him another dog and he said he didn’t want to go through that again. We bought my oldest daughter a dog when she was little. He didn’t last very long; he was destructive also. He wanted to roll in mud when he was outside and he’d run along the side of our house and wipe the mud on it. I can still picture that in my head and that was over 25 years ago. My husband had to clean and repaint the wood because it was stained by the Georgia red clay. He got a bird, a parrot, we had for a while. I can’t remember why but we sold him. Maybe it was because we were moving to Augusta. We got the girls ducks when we lived in Augusta because we had a pond behind our house that our property touched. Huge barn owls came and took them. The girls had hamsters and bunnies. Later, we rescued a cat that was abused and when we moved she came with us. Then 2 cats took up at our house. They were our neighbor’s cats but because the girls would love on them, they decided they liked our house more. The two different neighbors told the girls to keep the cats. One was Taylor and we called her Tootie. She acted like a dog. She’d run and greet you when you drove up. I’d bend down to pet her and she’d jump up on my back and get on my shoulder to rub her head on my head. The other cat was Jacob; someone stole him. We drove around and spotted him one day and he was in another neighborhood. By the time we turned around we couldn’t see him. We drove over there many times and never saw him again. I mentioned earlier that my youngest daughter had a dachshund, Augie, and I decided to get one for myself. We have Remy now and we are so glad we adopted him. He is the sweetest dog. I’d told the person fostering him that I had to make sure he got along with Augie and the grandchildren. He is so gentle with the kids and they love him and Augie too. My middle daughter had a cat she named Millie (Moo) and she still has her at her house. Moo is around 10 years old. My grandson Aiden loves his cat. I can’t believe the cat will lie still and let Aiden lay down on her. My daughter said if she gets tired of it she’ll just get up and move. She doesn’t try to bite him or claw him with her back claws.

Deb : Tell us about the best day of your life so far.

DeeAnn: I don’t know if I can pinpoint a certain day as being better than another.  I’d say having my daughters were probably the best three days of my life and when my grandchildren were born.

Thank you so much for sharing your life with us today, DeeAnn! Y’all leave comments! I have five copies of BONE DEEP to give away!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Deb