Today, I’m participating in an Anniversary Scavenger Hunt sponsored by Long and Short Reviews.
Follow these instructions…You could win a $100 Amazon/B&N gift card.
1. Visit the website here.
2. Read the blurb for No More Secrets.
3. Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway.
4. Scroll down and answer the question about No More Secrets.
Good luck!
I’m happy to welcome author, Anna Katmore. Today, Anna shares her new release, Seventeen Butterflies.
Blurb
The embarrassment of being the only “un-kissed” girl in senior high is something Sandy Cardington refuses to accept. The first kiss project is her foolproof plan to finally get rid of the status at her birthday party while her parents are out of town.
With several kissable boys on her guest list, this should be a walk in the park. But she didn’t reckon on her older brother returning from college days before her 17th birthday, putting a spoke in her plans. To make matters even more complicated, he has a friend in tow, and the cute hockey player stirs unexpected butterflies in her stomach every time their paths cross.
While Sandy moves heaven and earth to make her party and project come true, she doesn’t know that Thane Griffyn is making his own plans to teach her the real meaning of a first kiss.
Excerpt
“You know what?” I follow him around the kitchen island with my breakfast and take a seat beside him. “Since you’re going to live here for the next few days, I guess it’s okay that you feel at home. So when you’re hungry, just come down and grab whatever you want.”
His black eyebrows knit in my direction. “Without asking?”
I bite the corner of one toast. “Mm-hmm.”
“Really? You mean everything?”
“Yes, I mean everything,” I assure him, laughing now while I chew. “Except my Oreos. If you want to live, don’t touch them.” This is a warning he should take very seriously. I’m addicted to the cookies.
As his gaze drops to my body and rises within a millisecond, I roll my eyes because I realize I ran right into that one. To his credit, he holds back his gamy smirk ninety percent. “Got it. Can eat everything. No Oreos.” Leaving his mug on the counter, he slides from the stool and gets the sugar bowl from where I pointed him. After he comes back, standing beside me now instead of taking a seat again, and adds a careful spoonful of sugar to his brew, he reaches over and snags the untouched second slice of toast from my plate.
My eyes widen in sharp protest. “Hey!”
“What? You said everything.” With a shower of mischief in his star-blue eyes, he arches his brows once as he takes a bite from the toast. Then he leans in really close, keeping our gazes locked with his intense stare, and adds in a drawl that makes shivers zoom down my body, “Be thankful that I didn’t eat the Milky Way.”
Author Bio and Links
I’ve been a storyteller all my life, building bridges into different worlds. Already in kindergarten, I’ve seen the most fantastical things and wanted to share them with everyone. My teacher called me a liar back then. Today, I call it the first real flash of my spiritual gift and the cornerstone of my writing career.
When I got older, I’ve had many visions of a perfect career, while writing has always been more of a hobby and kind of a therapy for me when the longing for more magic in this world once again caught up with me in a crushing way. When my first book was finished, I couldn’t even imagine sharing one of my stories with others, ever. In fact, I only got used to the idea while I wrote my second book and learned in a very miraculous way where the many stories in this world really come from.
It’s funny how, at that point, everyone told me I can’t possibly make a living with writing. They even warned me not to quit my job. But after my debut novella PLAY WITH ME came out and sales skyrocketed within the first week, I knew I could do anything I wanted if only I never stopped dreaming.
That’s also part of what I teach my students in writing and spiritual workshops today. Always dream big! If your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough.
Some personal stuff:
“I’m writing stories because I can’t breathe without.”
Disney is my attitude to life, and if I could I’d save the world from itself. My Patronus is a wolf, my wand the broken twig of an apple tree, 13 ¾ inches with a unicorn hair core. I can’t deny that on some days, I prefer my book characters over real people, but there’s not a single day going by where I wouldn’t try to find magic in reality. And when I’m alone, I love to listen to the many stories of the wind in a mystic mid-summer night.
So you see, I’m lucky enough to live in an enchanting world of my own. It’s peaceful there and full of magical things, fairies and wonders. You’re welcome to follow me there – if you’re ready to open up your mind and leave everything you learned about reality behind. But beware, if you dare to step through this door, you may never want to leave again…
Website | Facebook (German) | Facebook (English) | Buy Link (Amazon and Kindle Unlimited)
Giveaway
Anna Katmore will be awarding her entire GROVER BEACH PLAYERS series as ebooks, or alternatively any of her own novels in ebook format the winner likes, to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Find out more here.
Follow Anna on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.
I’m happy to welcome Wild Rose Press author Linda Griffin. Today, Linda shares her favorite books and new release, Love, Death, and the Art of Cooking.
Here’s Linda!
Thank you for having me, Joanne! I don’t know what these choices say about me and my work, but here are my 10 Favorite Books:
1. Fun with Dick and Jane by William S. Gray. That might sound like a joke, but I dedicated The Rebound Effect to “Dick and Jane, who first ignited my passion for the printed word.” It represents the miracle of learning to read, and I read it out loud to everyone in the house, including two captive kittens, one under each arm, and then I read it backward! As soon as I figured out somebody had to create those words, I knew I wanted to be a “book maker” when I grew up.
2. Half Magic by Edward Eager. I read this so many times as a child that I can still recite the first several pages. Four children acquire a magic coin that gives them half of anything they wish for, with adventurous and humorous results.
3. Karen by Marie Killilea. Marie was a founder of the Cerebral Palsy Association, and Karen was her daughter. I first read it when I was too young to understand all the words—I remember that decade and articulation threw me—but Karen was my hero. I’ve read it many times since and know the ending by heart. Karen’s story is cited in my story “All the Bells and Whistles,” published in Toasted Cheese in June 2021.
4. Ever After by Elswyth Thane. It’s part of her Williamsburg series, but was my particular favorite. The hero, Bracken Murray, was my ideal man through high school and college. He’s a journalist and his work takes him to many places, including up San Juan Hill in 1898. He’s also in love with young Dinah Campion, and the course of true love never did run smooth. There are probably traces of him in all of my books’ leading men.
5. Five Smooth Stones by Ann Fairbairn. This was my favorite when I was in college, an interracial love story set during the Civil Rights Movement of the sixties. It “raised my consciousness” as we called it then, and maybe it influenced my own interracial romance, Guilty Knowledge, although they’re very different.
6. A History of God by Karen Armstrong. The focus is on the three major monotheistic religions, but the book delves into other religions as well, and traces the development of man’s ideas about God as they changed over the centuries. Armstrong is uniquely qualified as a religious scholar, and she’s written a beautiful book.
7. A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard. I think this book gave me PTSD the first time I read it, but I keep going back to it. It’s raw and messy and harrowing, but her strength and courage shine through. Reading it led me to similar memoirs, such as Hope by Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus and 3,096 Days by Natasha Kampusch, and to the writing of several captivity stories of my own. One of them, “Rumpelstiltskin,” was published in Eclectica, April/May 2018.
8. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain. If everyone, introverts and extroverts alike, would read this, we would all understand ourselves and each other much better. Cain examines every aspect of the subject in fascinating detail, including how we can accommodate our differences at work and in relationships.
9. A Call to Action by Jimmy Carter. Not a political text at all, but a carefully researched and insightful work about the treatment of women all over the world. He points out how entitled white males of every religion have distorted sacred texts in order to oppress women, and how costly the denial of women’s rights is to the world.
10. Hunger by Roxane Gay. A searingly honest memoir by a talented writer who struggles with a traumatic past and fat shaming. I’ve loved everything I’ve ever read by her, but this one can give you a whole new perspective.
Blurb
She wants to be friends. And he wants so much more.
Software engineer Reid Lucas loves to cook and has a history of falling in love with married women. When he leaves his complicated past in Chicago for a job in California, he runs into trouble and must call a virtual stranger to bail him out of jail. Alyssa Knight, a tough street cop waiting for a church annulment from her passive-aggressive husband, is the roommate of the woman Reid calls for help, and she reluctantly provides bail for Reid. He falls for her immediately, and cooking for her is an act of love. She just wants to be friends, but they keep ending up in bed together. When his boss is murdered, Reid is a suspect—or is he the intended target?
Excerpt
Alyssa gave him a smile that suggested she wasn’t fooled. She was knowing and affectionate and so pretty he couldn’t resist her. He put a hand on her knee and leaned in to kiss her. Her mouth was soft and willing, and he put down the coffee cup and took her face in both hands.
After a long, intense interval of suspended time, she pulled away and rested her forehead against his. “Oh, Reid,” she said—half disapproval, half sighing acquiescence. He stroked her breast, and her breathing quickened, and he slid a hand over her nylon-clad knee and under her skirt to find bare thigh. “Don’t,” she said.
He paused but didn’t withdraw his hand. “Is that no?” he asked.
She sighed. “Not yet,” she said, but she was warning him too, not to go too far, beyond the point of no return. Only it was hard to know where that was.
Author Bio and Links
I was born and raised in San Diego, California, and although I love to travel, I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. I retired as fiction librarian for the San Diego Public Library to spend more time on my writing and have had stories of every length and various genres published in numerous journals. Love, Death, and the Art of Cooking is my fourth romantic suspense novel from The Wild Rose Press, after Guilty Knowledge (2020), The Rebound Effect (2019), and Seventeen Days (2018). In addition to the three Rs—reading, writing, and research, I enjoy Scrabble, movies, and visiting museums and art galleries.
You can find me here:
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Buy Links
And some of Reid’s recipes can be found here.
It is never too late to explore creativity and launch second, third, and fourth acts in life. Here are three strategies that have helped me on my writing journey:
Listen to the God (or Goddess) nudges in your life.
If we choose to stay open, we will receive messages from the universe. And I’m not referring only to angels, butterflies, and other winged messengers. There are clues in our lives that point to what will bring us joy.
Continue reading on the Soul Mate Authors blog.
On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.
Tuseet Jha shares the following wisdom on the Tiny Buddha blog:
In that moment when we are facing or going through a lot of changes, we have the opportunity to recognize and get excited about the progress we can make, but instead, we often choose fear.
When we focus on the excitement of progress, change feels a lot less scary and we feel inspired to take action. Because like survival, curiosity is one of our greatest instincts. We get energized when we imagine fun new possibilities and focus on what we can control to create them instead of worrying about what’s out of our hands.
Next time you’re faced with a change you didn’t choose, instead of asking…
Why me?
What did I do to deserve this?
Why now? I am not ready for this…
Ask yourself:
How is this pushing me to progress?
What new experiences and opportunities will this bring?
What can I do to be ready for this?
It’s all a matter of perspective. Viktor Frankl, the famous Holocaust survivor understood this better than anybody else. In his book, he writes:
“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
Source: Tiny Buddha Blog
I’m happy to welcome author Claire Kohler. Today, Claire shares her new release, The Secret of Drulea Cottage.
Blurb
Briony Fairborn, a midwife in eighteenth-century Scotland, comes from a family shrouded in scandal. Left with only one friend after her mother’s death, she has little hope of gaining any others, let alone finding a husband. Instead, Briony tries to live a quiet life and avoid her neighbors’ ridicule as much as possible.
But things in Everton take a drastic turn when a storm brings foreigners to the village docks.
On the night Santiago Mendes arrives, he comes with a broken ship, a broken leg, and a broken spirit that Briony finds herself profoundly drawn to. Her scarred heart slowly starts to open, and although Briony suspects he may be hiding something, she cannot help but dream of the possibility of love.
That is, until another stranger appears in town, intent on repaying a childhood debt. A dangerously handsome stranger who shows Briony that she’s even more different than she could have imagined. And that her past is far darker than she realized.
Magic, romance, and political intrigue collide as the secrets surrounding one Scottish woman begin to unravel. Secrets that she may not be ready to face.
Excerpt
Screams drew Briony from her state of shock. They pierced the darkness as terribly as the lightning hitting the ground.
Except ’tis na just hitting the ground anymore! She gasped at the sight of flames rising from the town below. Her neighbors were flying through the streets in a panic, and Briony could see why: the tailor shop and the McGuffs’ house were alight!
Fergus! Briony forgot about Niall and charged down the hill with nary a care for her own well-being. All she could focus on was the thought of the little boy potentially trapped and scared. She reached the burning house and stepped inside. “Hello! Fergus?! Is anyone in here?”
Most of the fire was above her, hungrily swallowing the thatched roof. The smoke was so thick within the confined space that Briony struggled to breathe. Only a few licks of flame had reached the floor, and they were quickly spreading toward the McGuffs’ table.
“H-Here!” came a voice. Whoever it belonged to was too hoarse to identify. Briony covered her mouth with her hand and made her way forward, edging around the blazing table.
Briony hastened into the back bedroom, her eyes flicking between the open window and two beds before landing on their target: Penelope McGuff. The woman was on the ground, facedown. The rest of the family was nowhere in sight.
“Mistress McGuff!” Briony dropped to her knees and grabbed the woman’s hand, but Penelope didn’t stir.
CRASH!
Author Bio and Links
Claire Kohler grew up in Mooresville, NC, as the eldest of four daughters. Her love of stories began at an early age, and as a child, she could often be found borrowing way too many books from the library and scribbling away in a journal.
In 2016, Claire became a full-time middle school English teacher in a public school. In her second year of teaching, she also taught social studies. After becoming pregnant in 2018, Claire decided to shift careers and become an online ESL teacher so that she could also take care of her newborn at home.
She now lives in Statesville, NC, with her husband, two children, and three cats. She is also an active member of Christ Community Church Mooresville, where she often serves as a Bible study and small group leader.
Claire plans to continue creating exciting historical fantasy novels and potentially branching out into other genres as well.
Giveaway
Claire Kohler will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Find out more here.
Follow Claire on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.
Any other “13” facts to share…
On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.
In his informative guide, Damn Fine Story, New York Times best-selling author Chuck Wendig shares 50 storytelling tips in the Appendix. Here are ten excellent tips about character development:
1. Characters are not role models, and stories are not lectures.
2. We care about characters we understand, so it’s your job to make us understand your characters.
3. Characters must earn their victories.
4. Characters also earn their failures and losses.
5. If your characters are getting in the way of your plot, good. Let them. They are the plot. They are the subject, so let the tale unfold in their wake, not in their absence.
6. Likeability is less important a factor in your characters than relatability. It’s not about wanting to sit down and have a beer with them; it’s about being able to live with them for the breadth of a whole novel. Forget liking them, but do remember that we have to live with them. If all else fails: Just make them interesting.
7. Characters must make mistakes. But they cannot only make mistakes. They must have triumphs, too. A story isn’t an endless array of failure and disaster—we must have some sense of success to understand why success must, above all else (and against all odds), not be lost. Further, characters who only make mistakes become intolerable to us. We start to actively root for their failure if we cannot see in them the potential for success.
8. The best villains are the ones we adore despite how much we hate and fear them. We should adore them, and we should understand them.
9. Characters don’t know what the plot is. So don’t ever expect them to follow it. We can feel when characters are forced from their own program because authors are overwriting them with the Plot Program. It feels gross. Characters only know what they want and what they’re willing to do or lose to get it.
10. Characters are more interesting when they are smart and capable instead of dumb and pliable.
Source: Damn Fine Story pp. 218-225.
This is a day for bibliophiles (and wannabe bibliophiles) to find their favorite reading places, a good book, and time to read the day away.
*Bibliophile – A person who collects or loves books.
Here are ten ways to celebrate:
1. Visit your local library and browse through the latest bestsellers and beloved classics. Take some time to check out the bulletin boards and pick up any pamphlets. Libraries have become hubs of activity, offering everything from author readings to craft sessions to technology workshops.
2. Support your local indie bookstore. Introduce yourself to the owner and connect with fellow bibliophiles.
3. Celebrate your favorite authors. You can follow them on Twitter, join their Facebook group, or snap pictures of their latest releases for Instagram.
4. Spend the day with an audiobook. You can purchase your own through Audible or borrow one from the local library.
5. Start a blog, booktube channel, or bookstagram.
6. Organize your bookshelves. As you tidy up, cull those books that no longer speak to you. You can “gift” them to friends, donate them to a Little Free Library in your area, or drop them off at a second-hand store.
7. Write a review. A few sentences on Amazon or Goodreads will suffice. Share what you loved, what you didn’t love, and what inspired you.
8. Invest in an eReader. Physical books take up a lot of space and aren’t too convenient when traveling. Also, ebooks are often half the price of a physical novel.
9. Participate in a virtual event. During the pandemic, authors and publishers organized online interviews, panels, and in-depth discussions. Visit your favorite author’s website for more details.
10. Use #NationalBookLoversDay to spread the news on social media. Here are four quotations you can share:
“When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.”
Maya Angelou
“Some books leave us free and some books make us free.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries.” Anne Herbert
“There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all.” Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
