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Blue Ice
Diane Taylor is at a crossroads when a job in Homer, Alaska catapults her life in a new direction. Taking up where her friend Meagan Turner left off, she tries to separate fact from fiction as she struggles to fulfill the mystical quest she is given. She joins forces with Mark Freeman, but someone else has a different plan for her future. Has she come this far in her search for happiness only to find what she wants the most has been cruelly ripped from her grasp?
358 pages, Paperback
First published December 29, 2013
About the author
J. Michael Herron
9 books8 followersI was born James Michael Herron but have always gone by Mike. While writing my first book, Black Diamonds, a love story set in Alaska, I decided on J. Michael Herron as a pen name.
As I've said to a number of people since I published my first book, no one was more surprised than I was when I ended up writing a love story.
My reading taste in novels has always been pretty eclectic, When I was young I read all the horse and dog stories, then gravitated to what passed for sci-fi (Tom Swift series) for kids. I've read serious sci-fi, mysteries, fantasy, spy thrillers, love stories, and other genres over the years. I'm not a big Western reader although I've enjoyed some of them. I have similar feelings about horror stories. I particularly enjoy good character development like I find in contemporary books by Nelson DeMille and Pat Conroy. In romance novels I enjoy Nicholas Sparks and Nora Roberts, among others.
I've always wanted to write a novel and assumed it would be a thriller or mystery a la Tom Clancy or Robert Ludlum. In fact I seriously started one back in 1996 entitled The Message. It was all about an email that reached an unintended recipient and set off a chain of events. Despite a number of attempts I could never complete it even though I got pretty far along in it.
In 2012 I decided I needed to actually sit down and write a book if I was ever to cross that off of my bucket list. I ended up writing a modern day love story that incorporates legend and mythology. That book was Black Diamonds and it was published in January 2013. I was excited that I managed to complete it and mapped out a trilogy called Colors of Alaska in which it is the first book.
In October 2012 while sitting on the back deck of our home in the North Georgia Mountains I took a picture of a glass of wine in which the trees and their fall colors were reflected. In December, on a local winery tour, I met a couple who were turning their grandparent's and parent's dreams of a winery into reality. That became the inspiration for Appalachian Gold which I completed and published in April 2013.
I like to walk for exercise and have a regular route I take from our home that can range from 3.4 to 5 miles depending on how much time I have available and how I feel that day. While I was walking recently I finally figured out why I ended up writing love stories. It is the same reason my reading of thrillers and spy novels has diminished.
In a nutshell it is because I am so tired of the negativity that exists in our world today. Every time I turn on the TV news or pick up a newspaper or even check into current events on the Internet I feel bombarded with what I consider to be negative news. In politics neither party seems interested in solving our country's problems and instead focus on belittling those with differing beliefs. Rather than biting the bullet and balancing the budget they keep plunging us further and further into debt by mortgaging our children's and grandchildren's future. Corporate America CEOs are focused on, and rewarded for, maximizing short term gains rather than building a long-term business that includes valuing employees even those are the people who actually make the money for them. On TV and in movies viewers, both adults and children alike, are constantly exposed to violence of staggering proportions whether its in a comic strip or the latest reality series. The difference between the haves and the have-nots continues to grow. Everyone wants to get rich quick but few are willing to put in the effort and time to make it happen.
I guess I just decided I didn't want to continue the cycle by writing books where
As I've said to a number of people since I published my first book, no one was more surprised than I was when I ended up writing a love story.
My reading taste in novels has always been pretty eclectic, When I was young I read all the horse and dog stories, then gravitated to what passed for sci-fi (Tom Swift series) for kids. I've read serious sci-fi, mysteries, fantasy, spy thrillers, love stories, and other genres over the years. I'm not a big Western reader although I've enjoyed some of them. I have similar feelings about horror stories. I particularly enjoy good character development like I find in contemporary books by Nelson DeMille and Pat Conroy. In romance novels I enjoy Nicholas Sparks and Nora Roberts, among others.
I've always wanted to write a novel and assumed it would be a thriller or mystery a la Tom Clancy or Robert Ludlum. In fact I seriously started one back in 1996 entitled The Message. It was all about an email that reached an unintended recipient and set off a chain of events. Despite a number of attempts I could never complete it even though I got pretty far along in it.
In 2012 I decided I needed to actually sit down and write a book if I was ever to cross that off of my bucket list. I ended up writing a modern day love story that incorporates legend and mythology. That book was Black Diamonds and it was published in January 2013. I was excited that I managed to complete it and mapped out a trilogy called Colors of Alaska in which it is the first book.
In October 2012 while sitting on the back deck of our home in the North Georgia Mountains I took a picture of a glass of wine in which the trees and their fall colors were reflected. In December, on a local winery tour, I met a couple who were turning their grandparent's and parent's dreams of a winery into reality. That became the inspiration for Appalachian Gold which I completed and published in April 2013.
I like to walk for exercise and have a regular route I take from our home that can range from 3.4 to 5 miles depending on how much time I have available and how I feel that day. While I was walking recently I finally figured out why I ended up writing love stories. It is the same reason my reading of thrillers and spy novels has diminished.
In a nutshell it is because I am so tired of the negativity that exists in our world today. Every time I turn on the TV news or pick up a newspaper or even check into current events on the Internet I feel bombarded with what I consider to be negative news. In politics neither party seems interested in solving our country's problems and instead focus on belittling those with differing beliefs. Rather than biting the bullet and balancing the budget they keep plunging us further and further into debt by mortgaging our children's and grandchildren's future. Corporate America CEOs are focused on, and rewarded for, maximizing short term gains rather than building a long-term business that includes valuing employees even those are the people who actually make the money for them. On TV and in movies viewers, both adults and children alike, are constantly exposed to violence of staggering proportions whether its in a comic strip or the latest reality series. The difference between the haves and the have-nots continues to grow. Everyone wants to get rich quick but few are willing to put in the effort and time to make it happen.
I guess I just decided I didn't want to continue the cycle by writing books where
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