10 November 2012

Hermit Week 2012

I've not posted this week because I've been holed up on the Isle of Palms for my annual Hermit Week writing vacation. I love it.

I brought my puppy with me this week because she's a bit young to leave at the pet hotel for the full week, and Abbey decided she wants to be a beach dog. Forever. I fully expect her to run away from home in a few months and make her way back down here.



23 October 2012

Abbey says....

Next time my human walks through Spain, she better take me with her.

I also like this photo. I bark at it every time it comes up on the TV's screen saver. I don't know why the bull doesn't run from me, but it doesn't.









































I am Abbey,  an opinionated Westie (is there another kind?) I will offer my opinion on books, photos, etc., whenever I get a chance, but Keena Kincaid doesn't leaves her computer unattended very often. She says her life is on it and forbids me to chew on it.

20 October 2012

Con pan y vino tinto





I just returned from walking the Camino de Santiago. It's funny. You'd think with hours and hours to do nothing but think, I'd have all kinds of blogs ready to post.

Alas, my thoughts were vaporous, revealing, concealing and oddly insubstantial. I'll post later, but for now I'm just going to share some photos.

The picture on the right was taken by my new friend, Chris. The photo below is one of the more creative yellow arrows that mark the path. It was high on a cafe's wall. I also found yellow arrows painted on rocks, in the roads, and on trees, guardrails and random signs. They could be hard to find.


And of course the Cathedral of Santiago.



18 May 2012

Memoirs of love, loss and life

Madeline Sharples is today's guest on Friday Five… Three... One. She's here to talk about her memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On: A Mother's Memoir of Living with her Son's Bipolar Disorder and Surviving His Suicide, was released by Lucky Press last year. 


FIVE FUN FACTS:
  • Favorite beverage: Red zinfandel wine from Amador County, CA
  • One habit you just can’t break: Eating peanut butter for breakfast
  • Do you sing in the shower: No
  • Do you dream in color: Yes
  • TV shows on DVR? The Good Wife, Project Runway, Mad Men, 60 Minutes, Downton Abbey, Harry’s Law
THREE QUESTIONS
  • What is your reoccurring dream? None recur, but they are all weird
  • Shoes or purses? Both although I call myself the bag lady. My closet shelves are lined with them.
  • Favorite ways to spend a rainy day? Going to the movies, working out, reading a book, writing a poem, napping
ONE SENTENCE
Using these four words, write a sentence: Madam. Whore. Baby. Canada.
Canada’s most renown Madam refuses to rehire her most highly paid and sought after whore after she had that damn baby because her once gorgeous and round breasts now hang down past her navel. 

YOUR TURN:


Leaving the Hall Light On is about living after loss. It's about finding peace and balance and various ways the author, Madeline Sharples, brought herself together after feeling so helpless and out of control during her son Paul's seven-year struggle with bipolar disorder and after his suicide in September 1999.
 Sharples explains: "I write about the steps I took in living with the loss of my son, including making use of diversions to help ease my grief.”


Leaving the Hall Light On is also about the milestones she met toward living a full life without him: packing and giving away his clothes, demolishing and redoing the scene of his death, cataloging and packing away all his records and books, copying all of his original music compositions onto CDs, digitizing all of the family photos, and gutting his room and turning it into her office and sanctuary with a bay window that looks out toward a lush garden and a bubbling water fountain.





My memoir has been said to be a tribute to life. One reader said: "After reading this honest memoir the reader will be impressed by the strength and life-affirming perspective of a mother who found her way to healing and peace."

Find me:
  • http://madeline40.blogspot.com/
  • @madeline40
  • http://www.MadelineSharples.com
  • http://www.redroom.com/member/madeline40
  • http://www.naturallysavvy.com/savvy-over-60
  • http://www.psychalive.org/index.php?s=madeline+sharples&image.x=13&image.y=5
  • http://www.independentauthornetwork.com/madeline-sharples.html
  • http://www.facebook.com/pages/Madeline-Sharples/145268628820134?ref=mf


Friday Five...Three...One... is a chance for guest bloggers to share a bit about themselves in a fun format of Five Facts, Three Questions and One Sentence. If you'd like to be a guest on Friday Five, Three, One drop me an email. Put 'Friday Five' in the subject line.

11 May 2012

Today's guest hopped The Pond to be here



Paula Martin had some early publishing success with short stories and four contemporary romance novels in the 60’s and 70’s, but then had a break from writing while she brought up a young family and also pursued her career as a history teacher for 25 years. 

Now's she's back to writing fiction. Her latest book from Whiskey Creek Press, Fragrance of Violets, is set in the Lake District--one of my favorite places on earth.

Paula, take it away...



FIVE FUN FACTS:
  • Favorite beverage:  Diet Coke (or Pepsi) or even (cheap!) supermarket diet cola.
  • One habit you just can’t break: Only one? Okay, why do I always check the back door is locked before I go out (through the front door) when I KNOW it is?
  • Do you sing in the shower: No way, I can’t sing to save my life.
  • Do you dream in color: Yes, vividly at times. Doesn’t everyone?
  • TV shows on DVR: Very rarely, unless there’s something special I want to see. The last one I recorded was the Christmas special of Downton Abbey, as I was away over Christmas.


THREE QUESTIONS
  • What is your reoccurring dream? I’m late, usually for getting to the airport or train station. I have about 5 minutes to get there, and am running round the house trying to pack my bags, but I can’t find what I need. When I was producing musical theatre shows, this dream converted itself into a similar panic-type situation with me running around backstage trying to find everyone’s costumes or, in some cases, one of the actors who should have been onstage. I wake up exhausted after these dreams!
  • Shoes or purses? Neither. I have one all-purpose purse (or handbag as we call them in the UK) and use it everywhere. I hate having to get a new bag, because I’ve become so used to where everything is in my old bag. I feel the same about shoes.
  • Favorite ways to spend a rainy day? Since we have so many of them in the UK, they tend to be like any other day!




ONE SENTENCE
Using these four words, write a sentence: Point.Hostage. Key West. Bonus.
Easy-peasy, all Mikey had to do was point the gun at the rich guy’s kid, take him as a hostage to Key West and pick up the million dollar bonus Fat Sam had promised him once he delivered the kid.

YOUR TURN
My recent release is ‘Fragrance of Violets’, set mainly in England’s beautiful Lake District. The title comes from a quote by Mark Twain: Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it, and it’s a story of two people who need to forgive each other and also deal with other issues in their lives.

Abbey Seton distrusts men, especially Jack Tremayne who destroyed their friendship when they were teenagers. Ten years later, they meet again. Can they put the past behind them?
Abbey has to forgive not only Jack, but also her father who deserted his family when she was young. Jack holds himself responsible for his fiancée’s death. He’s also hiding another secret which threatens the fragile resumption of his relationship with Abbey.
Will Abbey ever forgive him when she finds out the truth?







My previous novel was ‘His Leading Lady’, set in London’s theatre world:
Jess Harper decides to pose as her twin sister, Lora, who has disappeared. Attraction sparks between her and theatre director Kyle Drummond, but is he treating her as a substitute for Lora – in real life as well as in the show?







Find me: 
Buy links:
  • 'His Leading Lady' and 'Fragrance of Violets' available from www.whiskeycreekpress.com and also from Amazon, Fictionwise and Bookstrand.

Friday Five...Three...One... is a chance for guest bloggers to share a bit about themselves in a fun format of Five Facts, Three Questions and One Sentence. If you'd like to be a guest on Friday Five, Three, One drop me an email. Put 'Friday Five' in the subject line.

27 April 2012

Friday Five: A habit she just can't break

Happy Friday! I'm at Chicago North's Spring Fling where I'll be speaking tomorrow. I scheduled the post to automatically be live at 6 a.m.--so let's hope it worked!

Today's guest is Eternal Press author Carrie Lynn Barker, whose books are named after books of the bible, but not necessary in the right order.

Carrie, take it away…



FIVE FUN FACTS:
  1. Favorite beverage:  Brandy sidecars.  Wish I had one right now! 
  2. One habit you just can’t break:  Hmm, can’t think of anything.  I have a habit of breaking habits then making new ones only to break those and so on… does that count?
  3. Do you sing in the shower:  Never sing in the shower.  If you heard me sing, you’d know why.
  4. Do you dream in color:  Yes, very much so.  Everything is way too vivid in my dreams.  I explain below…
  5. TV shows on DVR?  Don’t own a DVR.  I know… LAME!  If I had one I probably would never use it because I’d be too lazy to figure out how.

THREE QUESTIONS
  1. What is your reoccurring dream?  Same dream every day… The alarm wakes me up, I get up, I take a shower, get dressed, fix hair, etc, etc, then I wake up for real and repeat.  Every day. Seriously, it’s the most annoying thing.  Vivid enough to make me believe that it’s reality. 
  2. Shoes or purses?  I’d say I have an equal number of both but I love shoes more than purses. 
  3. Favorite ways to spend a rainy day?  Writing, writing, writing, when I’m not actually working.  That and sitting and watching the rain!

ONE SENTENCE
  1. Using these four words, write a sentence: Boring. Intelligent. Paddling. Shoot.  

“You are so boring and intelligent that I want to shoot myself sometimes,” he said as we were paddling up river.

YOUR TURN:
Feel free to give us a teaser about your book and information where to find you online.  

This is an excerpt from my latest release, Genesis.  The first volume in the series, Revelations, was also published by Eternal Press. 
There were two women and one man. I had only known their kind once before in my life. I was… I guess the word is overjoyed at having found them. 
The man was big, muscular but not too much, and had close cropped black hair. His eyes were golden brown, much darker than Jonas’s yellow ones, but still holding the same mystery. His face was a chiseled, utter perfection. Had he been another being I would have recommended modeling to him and his friends. 
The women were just as beautiful and perfect. The taller one looked much like the man, who I knew to be her brother. She had long, flowing raven black hair that reached to her waist. Her eyes were the same deep gold color. Her features were striking, enough to make any man stop in his tracks.
The other woman, the one who thought of herself as their sister but technically was not, had shorter hair, blonde and soft. She was obviously the strong one, more of a leader than even the man was. She was plain, though still lovely, but I knew she was the wild one. Her eyes, when they finally locked on mine and noticed me watching them, were sky blue, bright and powerful. They reminded me a little of Starch’s.
Her name was Ripley, and she recognized me in an instant. Much to my surprise–or is it dismay? –she practically worshipped me. She spoke of me as often as she could, made it her mission in life to seek out the woman who started the revolution.
Well, I found her, and she wasn’t going to let me leave her sights until she got a proper introduction. Though I had no idea what she was thinking when the word ‘revolution’ went through her head. I am about the furthest thing from a revolutionary I can think of.

Find me: 

Buy links:


Friday Five...Three...One... is a chance for guest bloggers to share a bit about themselves in a fun format of Five Facts, Three Questions and One Sentence. If you'd like to be a guest on Friday Five, Three, One drop me an email. Put 'Friday Five' in the subject line.

20 April 2012

Baby, baby on Friday Five

Elysa Hendricks is taking time out of her busy schedule to swing my Friday Five and share with us her obsession with frozen margaritas. Wait, do I have that right, Elysa?




FIVE FUN FACTS:
  1. Favorite beverage: Raspberry Tea or a frozen Margarita
  2. One habit you just can’t break: Habits? I don't have habits. I have obsessions. And I refuse to break any of them.
  3. Do you sing in the shower: Nope. I only sing in the car along with the radio when I'm alone. Otherwise everyone asks me to stop or else they'll jump out of the car.
  4. Do you dream in color: Definitely Technicolor.
  5. TV shows on DVR? Yep. I have no idea what shows are on what channels or what times. Hubby records EVERYTHING and we watch it later. Right now we have shows recorded that were on the air for seven years and have been cancelled that we haven't even begun watching.

THREE QUESTIONS
  1. What is your reoccurring dream? Opening an unexpected door in a new house and finding a secret room or rooms that I hadn't realized were there when we bought the house.
  2. Shoes or purses? Neither. Shoes are lovely, but with my bad feet there aren't many I can wear. Forget any kind of heel. I rarely switch purses, too much trouble, so I only have a couple. One for each season.  I use them until they wear out then complain that I can't find the exact same one again. I'm a creature of habit, so if I put something in my purse in a different spot than I'm used to I can't find it.
  3. Favorite ways to spend a rainy day? Snuggling with my hubby watching movies or reading.

ONE SENTENCE
Using these four words, write a sentence: Christmas. Whiskey. Scotch. Gray.
After Mrs. Claus ran off with Rudolph one gray Christmas Eve, Santa gave up making toys and took to drinking liberal amounts of whiskey and scotch.




YOUR TURN:

Feel free to give us a teaser about your book and information where to find you online.

THE BABY RACE
Race Reed doesn’t want a wife, but to save his ranch he needs a baby. To gain custody of her stepsister, Claire Jensen needs a husband, but she wants love. Wants and needs are bound to clash when they run The Baby Race.
Race Reed reserves his love and attention for the abused horses he cares for on his ranch. Because his mother changed husbands as often as she changed clothes, doesn’t believe in wedded bliss. Now to save his ranch he needs the money his paternal grandmother is offering as a marriage incentive. The bizarre contest she’s set up between him and his two cousins to produce her first great-grandchild is another matter. His only option – cheat in The Baby Race.
Claire Jensen wants two things out of life, home and family. During her younger years she never questioned her father’s nomadic lifestyle as he hunted for treasure, but as she grew older she longed to put down roots. When her father remarried and gave Claire a stepmother and baby stepsister, she’d thought her prayers were answered. Instead, she took over the parental role to her stepsister as her father and stepmother continued to search the world for treasure. In every way that matters, the six-year-old is Claire’s daughter. When Claire’s father and stepmother are killed on their latest quest for treasure, without a steady job, husband or home, Claire is about to lose custody of her young stepsister. Her only option – run the The Baby Race.

Find me:
  • http://www.elysahendricks.com
  • https://www.facebook.com/pages/Elysa-Hendricks-Author/137316289643103


Amazon Buy Link: http://tinyurl.com/thebabyrace



Friday Five...Three...One... is a chance for guest bloggers to share a bit about themselves in a fun format of Five Facts, Three Questions and One Sentence. If you'd like to be a guest on Friday Five, Three, One drop me an email. Put 'Friday Five' in the subject line.

13 April 2012

Today's Friday Five makes a splash

Today's guest is Judi Fennell, author of the wet and wild mermaid tales, In Over Her Head, Wild Blue Under and Catch of a Lifetime. She's here to spill her secrets and tell us about her Bottle Magic series.




Judi, take it away:


FIVE FUN FACTS:
  • Favorite beverage: champagne 
  • One habit you just can’t break: twirling a pencil like a baton (I was a majorette all through junior high, high school, and twirled sabres for in indoor color guard in college)
  • Do you sing in the shower: I try to anyway... 
  • Do you dream in color: Absolutely. Just like Eden, my genie in I Dream of Genies, I have a thing for color. For instance, I never wear black to funerals; I wear colors as a celebration of life. My friends (whose parents are "of an age" where they are passing on) look for the brightness on those awful days
  • TV shows on DVR? Here's where I admit to my reality TV show addiction: all the Real Housewives shows, Bethenney Ever After, Celebrity Apprentice, Survivor, Amazing Race
THREE QUESTIONS
  • What is your reoccurring dream? To make the NYT list
  • Shoes or purses? I love my purple purse and my teal one, but I have waaaaaaaaaaay more shoes
  • Favorite ways to spend a rainy day? reading and writing. Yeah, boring that way. But give me a comfy blanket, a glass of champagne and my iPad and I'm a happy camper. 

ONE SENTENCE
Using these four words, write a sentence: Marine. Avenue. Travelers. Less

With the only avenue for preventing Human travelers from discovering their kingdom of Atlantis being their advance force, the number of recruits was less than Valerie would have liked, though it did reflect their motto: The few, The proud, The marine-dwellers.


YOUR TURN:

Feel free to give us a teaser about your new book and information where to find you online.

While the one-sentence exercise was written about my Mer series (specifically referencing Valerie, the heroine of Wild Blue Under), my next book, out in August 2012, is the third installment of my Bottled Magic series about genies, entitled Magic Gone Wild. Here's an excerpt you can't yet find anywhere, not even on my website: www.JudiFennell.com.

Zane Harrison stared at the woman on the other end of the scimitar and tried to remember exactly how he’d come to have a sword pointed at his chest.
     “Holy smokes!” The woman sucked in a breath, clamped a hand over her mouth, and dropped the sword.
     Right on top of him.
     The pommel conked him on the head and the blade spun around, almost taking off his nose.
     Zane leapt to his feet and grabbed the sword in one movement, the hours spent in football training drills thankfully having real-world application, although he’d never imagined that would be to defend his life during a trip back to his ancestral home in the middle of nowhere. 
     Then he got a good look at the woman. A more unlikely assassin he’d never seen. Hand-to-hand combat was not the ideal way to handle this situation; hand-to-mouth was. Or rather, mouth-to-mouth. 
     The woman was gorgeous. Movie-star gorgeous. Playmate gorgeous. Even in a fencer’s outfit—which was about as asexual as you could get—the woman was absolutely stunning with curves straight out of his most vivid erotic fantasy, eyes the shimmering silvery-gray color of the sky before a storm that promised every bit as much of a wild ride, and hair the color of a mink that Zane wanted to sink his fingers into and never let go.
     “Ungaro,” she muttered. “Not en garde.” She shook her head, mumbled something else, then looked up at him. “Good day, um…?”
     Zane would hate to see what she called a bad day if a good one was ending up on the wrong end of a sword. “Who are you, and what the hell is this?” He shook the sword.
     She licked her lips—more centerfold fodder. They were plump and pink and now wet.
     Hmmm, maybe it was a good day.
     “I’m Vana, and that’s a scimitar.” Her expression was crestfallen and her sigh heartbroken. “I couldn’t even manage a rapier.”
     Which made about as much sense as anything else.
###
(c) Judi Fennell


And just to keep my life interesting (because, yeah, who needs free time?), I have an anthology available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords will be distributing to the other e-outlets, under the pen name J.A. Fenn. Off The Beaten Path, A Terrifying Tales Anthology is a short collection of three psychological thriller/horror stories that bear only one similarity to my romantic comedies: there's a twist in them.

06 April 2012

Today's blog is magical

I've known Ann Marcela for six years now (maybe longer) and I am thrilled to have her as a guest on my blog today. She's talking about her book binging habit and her Magic series, which is wrapping up with two book, Unexpected Magic and Legendary Magic.


Ann, take it away in Five... Three... One...


FIVE FUN FACTS
  • Favorite beverage:  A really good red wine
  • One habit you just can’t break:  Buying books.
  • Do you sing in the shower:  No
  • Do you dream in color:  Yes
  • TV shows on DVR?  None. We’re probably the last people with no DVR.  If I miss a show, I watch it on my computer.
THREE QUESTIONS
  • What is your reoccurring dream? Trying to get somewhere.
  • Shoes or purses?  Comfortable clothes.
  • Favorite ways to spend a rainy day?  Reading or napping
ONE SENTENCE
Using these four words, write a sentence: Advertisement. No. Grab. Red.

When certain advertisements come on, I see red, grab the remote, hit the mute button, and feel absolutely no regret about it.

YOUR TURN:

The last two books in The Magic Series are out as e-books on Kindle, Nook, and other sites, including Smashwords and All Romance eBooks.

The Blurbs
Unexpected Magic:  Magic practitioners and their soul mates always live happily ever after. But what if a mate dies young? What happens when two who lost their mates come together, and they’re both Swords who can destroy evil magic items? And they develop a new way to generate magic energy? And a deranged, jealous Sword uses an evil item against them? Unexpected magic, indeed!

Legendary Magic:  Once the Wielder of the Pinnacle of Heaven waged war against the Manipulator of the Depths of Hell and sent the Depths into the abyss. The Depths has risen again, but the Wielder must learn how to use his weapon. To help him comes the most powerful Sword ever born, who also happens to be his soul mate, but with a secret that may keep them apart at the worst time--when the battle is upon them.

Where to find Ann:



Friday Five...Three...One... is a chance for guest bloggers to share a bit about themselves in a fun format of Five Facts, Three Questions and One Sentence. If you'd like to be a guest on Friday Five, Three, One drop me an email. Put 'Friday Five' in the subject line.

09 March 2012

Friday Five with one of RWA's most visible member


Welcome to Friday Five…
Three…
One

Today RWA's 2011 Service Reward Winner is our guest on Friday Five.

An Ohio native, Amy Atwell has lived all across the country and now resides on a barrier island in Florida with her husband and two Russian Blues. She worked in professional theater for 15 years before turning from the stage to the page to write fiction. When not writing, Amy runs the WritingGIAM online community for goal-oriented writers and has recently launched the Author E.M.S. online resource library, which is she's going to tell us more about.


FIVE FUN FACTS:
  1. Favorite beverage:  Hot tea at breakfast. I brew a blend of English Breakfast and Earl Grey.
  2. One habit you just can’t break:  Being organize.
  3.  Do you sing in the shower:  Yes, doesn’t everyone? In fact, if someone invented soap shaped like a microphone—I’m just saying’…
  4.  Do you dream in color:  Yes, and everyone should try it.
  5.  TV shows on DVR? No, but occasionally On Demand.


THREE QUESTIONS
  1. What is your reoccurring dream? I have a weird, eerie one. It’s night on a large farm. There’s an old Victorian era farmhouse and a barn and huge oak trees. It’s dark and the moonlight is silvery blue. I often see the setting from above, as if I’m floating or flying like an owl. Or I’m carefully picking my way through the buildings and around the woods. I’m never scared, just curious. I’m alone. And I can’t help wondering if I’m recalling some previous life in this dream.
  2. Shoes or purses?  Shoes. Hands (or feet) down. I rarely carry a purse. If it doesn’t fit into my pockets, I really don’t need it.
  3. Favorite ways to spend a rainy day? I love the sound of rain, so I usually come to a complete stop. Curl up with a book or a cat (or both), or just lie on my back, listen to the rain and let myself think

ONE SENTENCE
Using these four words, write a sentence: Set up. Hostage. Burn. Golf.
Realizing she’d been set up and was now hostage to a blind date with the golf pro, she whispered to her matchmaking friend, “You will burn in hell for this.”
  
YOUR TURN:
Feel free to give us a teaser about your new book, the new website and information where to find you online.

Thanks, Keena!  I’m always happy to talk about my latest endeavors. While I have two digital books available, LYING EYES from Carina Press and my self-published historical AMBERSLEY (which made the Top 100 on both Kindle and Nook), my latest project has been a nonfiction venture. A big venture.

I just launched a website called Author E.M.S. (Entrepreneur.Management.Solutions). At its heart, Author EMS is designed to be a one-stop resource center for all questions relating to the business of being an author. I think of it as a giant online library with a growing collection of useful tips, short answers, how-to instructions and links to other web resources.

Our library has information about Business Basics, Promotion, Facebook, Amazon, Self-Publishing, Websites & Blogging and more. We have public pages and a blog that are freely available to everyone and a Members’ Area accessible to members who pay an annual fee. I’m thrilled that our introductory fee is just $36. That equals just $3 per month for all the resources.

We’ve also got a cool, searchable database of online book reviewers. There are over 500 reviewers profiled, and authors can search by genre and format to find the reviewers best suited for a specific book release. You can also search for reviewers that offer author interview or advertising on their site.

And we offer forums, where author discussions can be segmented by topic. Now you can follow only the topics that interest you. And it’s all very searchable. Our site is also a no-advertising zone. Like any library, it’s all about the information, not about a lot of glitz.

So, whether you’re unpublished, a debut author, a technophobe, an indie author, or an established author trying to master the online world, we hope you’ll check out the site and see what it might offer you.

Find Amy online:




Friday Five...Three...One... is a chance for guest bloggers to share a bit about themselves in a fun format of Five Facts, Three Questions and One Sentence. If you'd like to be a guest on Friday Five, Three, One drop me an email. Put 'Friday Five' in the subject line.

02 March 2012

Friday Five: 9 billion and counting


Friday Five…
Three…
One

This week's guest is women's fiction author Victoria Marshal, who is here to talk about her new book, Bookended by Beauty Queens. But she also dishes about her addictions to coffee, knuckle cracking and DVRs.

Victoria, the blog is yours...


FIVE FUN FACTS:
  1. Favorite beverage: Venti Starbuck’s Caramel Macchiato. I am addicted to them. 9-billion calories and all.
  2. One habit you just can’t break: Cracking my knuckles. It’s so disgusting, but I do it unconsciously.
  3. Do you sing in the shower: No, it’s the only chance I have for quiet anymore, so I don’t want to wreck it with my off-key singing.
  4. Do you dream in color: Absolutely! Loads and loads of bright, vivid colors.
  5. TV shows on DVR? Yep, I don’t have time for commercials anymore.  I zip through them save myself 20 minutes here and there.

THREE QUESTIONS
  1. What is your reoccurring dream? I don’t really remember my dreams. Except those pee dreams that wake me up.
  2. Shoes or purses? BOTH! My closet looks like I’m running an accessories store. They are the only things I can buy and know they will always fit just right. And they never make me look fat (unless your person is too small, but that’s just a theory).
  3. Favorite ways to spend a rainy day? Reading. That’s so lame for a writer to say, but it’s been that way since I was a kid. I love cold rainy days curled up on my couch with a book.

ONE SENTENCE
Using these four words, write a sentence: Damage. Over. Spider Monkey. Torching.

John stepped over the damage and saw the Spider Monkey torching the room.


YOUR TURN:
Feel free to give us a teaser about your new book and information where to find you online.



Angie Palmer likes her life just the way it is–private. She has no desire to entangle herself in complex friendships, and her relationship with her two beauty queen sisters is safely distant. 

Unfortunately, life doesn’t always go as planned.

When disaster strikes her grandmother, Angie takes her into her home. A life with Grandma comes a world full of changes, and new friends, including Val, a drag queen with hopes of being the next US-Gay Beauty Pageant winner. Angie is determined to keep Val at a distance. Val has an instinct for knowing what is in Angie heart.. 

Just as Angie gets comfortable with Grandma living with her, a budding friendship with Val, and a new romantic interest, everything takes an unexpected turn.

Val becomes the victim of a violent crime and ends up in a coma. Angie begins a struggle against Val’s family who wants to remove their son from life support.

Suddenly her private life becomes very public, and her world becomes a media circus. Angie is caught in a clash between religious beliefs and gay rights. 

Her life and Val’s are threatened by religious extremists, and her relationship is strained, as her life spirals out of control around her.

Through many twists and turns, Angie discovers a new appreciation for family, friends, and love.

In the end, Angie learns that a life filled with people to care about is never too crowded.

Find Victoria at:
  • http://www.victoriamarshal.com/
  • http://www.facebook.com/pages/Victoria-Marshal/158538437540547
  • https://twitter.com/#!/VMarshalWriter

Friday Five...Three...One... is a chance for guest bloggers to share a bit about themselves in a fun format of Five Facts, Three Questions and One Sentence. If you'd like to be a guest on Friday Five, Three, One drop me an email. Put 'Friday Five' in the subject line.



17 February 2012

Friday Five with...me!



I'm celebrating a new book, so I decided to put myself through the Friday Five routine. Here goes ...

Hi, I'm Keena Kincaid, creator of the Friday Five blog and author of Something Special, the last book in The Wild Rose Press' Class of '85 series. I typically write historicals with paranormal elements, but I went a little crazy in 2010 and wrote two contemporary novellas.

Something More and Something Special were the results. 

Now...here are some well-known (and little known) facts about me.

FIVE FUN FACTS:
  • Favorite beverage: Coffee. Black. Sugarless. Strong. I could live without it, but why?
  • One habit you just can’t break: Hot baths. Showers use less water and energy, but I love my long, hot, soaking baths.
  • Do you sing in the shower: I sing nowhere--and no one wants me to.
  • Do you dream in color: Vivid color. Sometimes when I wake up, I'm not sure which "life" I'm waking to.
  • TV shows on DVR? The Walking Dead. I love a good zombie show.

THREE QUESTIONS
  • What is your recurring dream? I used to have a dream where I had to run over a field (avoiding by pit bulls) through an abandoned office building (avoiding men with guns), and out the front door to steal a Jeep (avoiding ruts and cliffs). I died in my dream numerous times before I figured out how to do it.
  • Shoes or purses? The quest for the perfect handbag continues.
  • Favorite ways to spend a rainy day? Nesting on the couch, reading a good book and watching bad movies on TV.

ONE SENTENCE
Using these four words, write a sentence: One. Hope. Frank. Jimmy (supplied by my nephew who is playing Just Dance on the Wii).
Frank and Jimmy had one day to decide which one would travel to Lego World and which one would stay home and marry Hope.

MY TURN:

Jane Grey, a risk analyst at NASA, returns to Summerville to close her uncle's estate. The lone survivor of a domestic murder, she hopes the trip will allow her to finally be at peace with her childhood. But past is prologue in small towns, and someone in Summerville is ready to kill again to get his hands on her inheritance.

Police detective Andy Morgan is a man with a mission: Find the evidence that will put Summerville’s corrupt, drug-addicted chief of police behind bars. 

When Jane turns to him for help, their shared past collides with the present, risking his investigation and their lives.

As sparks and bullets fly, Jane is unable to see beyond her scarred past to a future with Andy, but he knows they will have something special—if he lives long enough to convince her to risk her heart.


An excerpt:


She tried to dispel the tension between them with a laugh, but almost choked instead. Her body still hummed with a need to touch and be touched. Andy didn’t laugh either. He circled her wrist with his fingers. Heat darkened his eyes, and it wasn’t just lust; she knew what that looked like in a man’s eyes. The want in his suggested he thought her something special.

Misgivings gathered in her chest. She was special, all right; a special case that should be left alone. “I really shouldn’t have come here. I just needed... needed...”


“A friend?”
She sucked in a shaky breath. She had no idea what she wanted to say or should say. Ten years of college, three Ph.D.s and she was speechless. Pathetic.




Me online:
  • https://www.facebook.com/pages/Keena-Kincaid/183583406047?ref=tn_tnmn
  • @keenakincaid
  • http://keenakincaid.com

Friday Five...Three...One... is a chance for guest bloggers to share a bit about themselves in a fun format of Five Facts, Three Questions and One Sentence. If you'd like to be a guest on Friday Five, Three, One drop me an email and put Friday Five in the subject line.

10 February 2012

Friday Five with Kendra James

It's almost Valentine's Day - doesn't seem possible does it? Does anyone have an V-Day traditions that they'd like to share. 


Today's guest on Friday Five is Kendra James, who is talking about her book When Hearts Collide from Soulmate Publishing.




FIVE FUN FACTS
  1. Favorite beverage:  Green tea latte with soy milk from Starbucks
  2. One habit you just can’t break: Buying books.
  3. Do you sing in the shower:  Of course. I love Chris de Burg, especially Lady in Red, but last summer I got hooked on John Denver.
  4. Do you dream in color:  Yes. Too bad I couldn’t remember them long enough to write them down.
  5. TV shows on DVR: I love to write mystery so I like the drama channels, Criminal Minds, NCIS, especially NCIS Los Angeles. Gifted Man and Revenge are great new shows. But if the figure skating is on, I have to watch that.


THREE QUESTIONS


  1. What is your reoccurring dream? Winning the lottery and taking a limousine to Toronto to pick up my winnings. Oops, that’s a fantasy. I do keep trying to dream it, or my books being on the best seller list.
  2. Shoes or purses? I usually stick to one purse in the season but I have lots of shoes, especially sandals. Here in London, Ontario, we get a lot of snow. It’s snowing as I write this. But once the snow is gone, I am in sandals until it comes back the next year. I do have one pair of black leather boots that are like slippers and those are the ones my feet now (although I have had them more years than I want to count).
  3. Favorite ways to spend a rainy day? Curled up with a good book, my computer on my lap, and a large mug of hot chocolate beside me.





ONE SENTENCE


    Using these four words, write a sentence: Mini. Woo-hoo. Douglas. Resort.

    "Mini woo-hoo, I got a chachinger on my book, When Hearts Collide, on Amazon and might invite my nephew Douglas and niece Laura to go to a resort with me."


    YOUR TURN:
    Feel free to give us a teaser about your new book and information where to find you online.



    WHEN HEARTS COLLIDE
     

    Molly Tanner, unjustly suspended from her nursing position, is choosing flight over fight. Driving along a lonely, twisting highway, Molly misses a deer, but the oncoming car is not so lucky. She rushes to aid the injured motorist. Slumped over the steering wheel, he is not moving but Molly hears the cry of a child coming from the backseat.  
    Smelling gas and afraid of the car exploding, Molly pulls the driver and child to safety. Semi-conscious, Pearce beseeches her to pretend to be his wife so his daughter won’t go into foster care again. Remembering her own life in the system, she agrees. But while caring for Gracie, and her father, she finds she’s in danger of losing her heart to both of them. 
                     
    "...A captivating tale, When Hearts Collide, will keep you entertained from start to finish. Endearing characters, you won't forget and a solid plot, with a few unexpected twists to keep you guessing, rounds out this sensual story of love, trust and new beginnings..."

    -- Barbara Babbage

    Finding Kendra:



    • www.kendrajames.net 
     

    Friday Five...Three...One... is a chance for guest bloggers to share a bit about themselves in a fun format of Five Facts, Three Questions and One Sentence. If you'd like to be a guest on Friday Five, Three, One drop me an email. Put 'Friday Five' in the subject line.