Christmas Countdown Blitz

Award-winning author, wife, mother, grandmother, Harry Potter geek, Army veteran, karate black belt, and online gamer girl.

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 "Recently widowed Rae Cavanaugh just survived the worst birthday of her life. She and her two young children must now face a holiday season filled with so many reminders of what they've lost. But when a coworker who’s raising his young nephew moves next door, Rae discovers that the support of a good friend, and the gift of a child, can bring back some of the joy of the season. 

**A Novelette**"

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Top Ten List:

Fun Facts About Me
* Navy brat
* Army veteran
* Started school in South Korea
* Have sailed the Pacific (lots of it) three times and the bit between the West Coast and Hawaii two more times
* Survived a Typhoon that hit us dead on in the Philippines
* Karate black belt (started the year I turned 50)
* Ran municipal elections for over 20 years
* Was a moderator on the Leaky Cauldron's forum The Leaky Lounge for 5 years
* Mother to 6 kids (birthed 5 of them)
* Grandmother to 10 1/2

To view our blog schedule and follow along with this tour visit our   Official Event page Part 2 

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Christmas Countdown Blitz - Day 13

Award-winning author, wife, mother, grandmother, Harry Potter geek, Army veteran, karate black belt, and online gamer girl.

   
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Recently widowed Rae Cavanaugh just survived the worst birthday of her life. She and her two young children must now face a holiday season filled with so many reminders of what they've lost. 

But when a coworker who’s raising his young nephew moves next door, Rae discovers that the support of a good friend, and the gift of a child, can bring back some of the joy of the season.

**A Novelette**

~ Universal Amazon Link ~ 
  

Q&A With the Author:

1.  Describe yourself in 50 words or less.

I'm a person who loves to see the good in people and firmly believes the world should be a better place because someone has lived.

2. What do you love most in the world?

Outside of religion, my family.

3. What inspired you to become an Author?

I've always had stories running through my head since I was a little girl. I didn't try putting any of them on paper--for real anyway--until my family was raised.

4. What is your favorite Winter / Holiday tradition?

Doing things together with the kids when they were young. We'd decorate the house (a lot) one week, and the tree the next week. We'd spend time baking goodies and then taking them around to friends and neighbors while caroling to them. We also used to pick a family in need (of love as well as stuff) and do the Twelve Days of Christmas as a ding-dong-ditch.

5. What is your trick for getting past writer's block? And what advice do you have for other authors who are struggling to tell their story?

Work on something else for a while. Or, if I'm pressed for time, it can be fun to write something where the characters do something ridiculous that you'd never include in the story. It can be funny and lighten things up and free the muse.

6. Now that we've gotten to know each other, tell me a story. It can be long or short. From your childhood or last week. Funny, sad, or somewhere in between. Just make sure it's yours. What's your story?

This book, The Gift of a Child, is very much a part of me. While it's only inspired by real events, I really did:

1. Lose my first husband when I was 26

2. Have 2 young children to raise

3. Experience a dismal birthday that just happened to fall on the 2-month anniversary of my husband's death have a son who did what Preston did.

There are hints of a possible romance in this story, and there will be a full-length novel to follow. I'm working on it right now, as a matter of fact. The romance is totally fiction. For me, that happened a few years later.

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Monster Mash Countdown Blitz - Day Two

Award-winning author, wife, mother, grandmother, Harry Potter geek, Army veteran, karate black belt, and online gamer girl.

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A Savage Ghost

Lia Savage reluctantly puts her dream of opening a dessert boutique on hold to help her dad remodel a castle he’s inherited in Washington State. Soon, a specter targets her younger sister.

Lia enlists the help of strapping Coop Montgomery, the head gardener and her former crush. As they search together for a way to rid the castle of its ghost, the romance she used to dream about with Coop kindles. 

But Lia’s gentle giant means to stay in Washington while she’s determined to return to California. She must find the courage to face both the ghost and her future.

With Coop. Or without him.

Waves of Deceit

Twenty-six-year-old Shelby Nash wants to break free of her controlling, billionaire father. With the completion of one more project for his company, she can branch out on her own. However, her ex-boyfriend’s been appointed as the new lead architect. She has to find a way to protect her heart from him while avoiding whoever’s making anonymous threats.

Wade Masters did a poor job handling the news about the identity of his girlfriend’s father. Shelby walked out of his life without another word. Finally, four years later, Wade has a chance to win her back. As long as whoever’s targeted her doesn’t get her first.

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Snippet From A Savage Ghost:

She tried to ignore Wade beside her. He wore her favorite cologne, the one she had first introduced him to. During the meeting, she’d managed to ignore it, but now ... It brought back so many memories. She’d liked the fragrance well enough at the mall, but when he’d put it on, he’d brought his own something to the smell.

Her pulse quickened at the memory. Irritated, she tried to analyze her reaction to the smell, thinking of the science behind it, of the molecules of the fragrance responding to a person’s skin and hormones, the complex mixture of all those chemicals—water, fat, acids, sugars, salts, proteins ...

What she really wanted was to snuggle against his neck and breathe him in.

Shelby leaned away from him, as far as she could, and rested her cheek in her palm. Didn’t she hate him? Hadn’t she told herself that over and over again for years? He’d rejected her because of who her father was. Like she had any control over that. It was absolutely ridiculous to still respond to him in this way. It made her feel weak, a simpleton who let hormones control her. She wouldn’t do it.

From the side, she sensed movement from him, and a whiff of his cologne hit her again. Was he doing that on purpose? She straightened, prepared to say something. He sat with his laptop open, earbuds already in his ears. He glanced at her and pulled out a bud.

“Sorry, is that blowing on you?” Wade reached up, shifted the air vent a little, and returned the earbud. He leaned over his computer, like he’d already forgotten her.

Shelby pulled the dagger from her heart. All these years she’d grieved the death of their love, vilified him, and agonized over what they might have had. Apparently, he hadn’t even given her a second thought.

To view our blog schedule and follow along with this tour visit our Official Event page 

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Valentine Countdown Blitz Day Four

Award-winning author, wife, mother, grandmother, Harry Potter geek, Army veteran, karate black belt, and online gamer girl.

Connect with the Author here: 

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A Savage Ghost
Lia Savage reluctantly puts her dream of opening a dessert boutique on hold to help her dad remodel a castle he’s inherited in Washington State. Soon, a specter targets her younger sister.

Lia enlists the help of strapping Coop Montgomery, the head gardener and her former crush. As they search together for a way to rid the castle of its ghost, the romance she used to dream about with Coop kindles.

But Lia’s gentle giant means to stay in Washington while she’s determined to return to California. She must find the courage to face both the ghost and her future.

With Coop. Or without him.

Waves of Deceit
Twenty-six-year-old Shelby Nash wants to break free of her controlling, billionaire father. With the completion of one more project for his company, she can branch out on her own. However, her ex-boyfriend’s been appointed as the new lead architect. She has to find a way to protect her heart from him while avoiding whoever’s making anonymous threats.

Wade Masters did a poor job handling the news about the identity of his girlfriend’s father. Shelby walked out of his life without another word. Finally, four years later, Wade has a chance to win her back. As long as whoever’s targeted her doesn’t get her first.

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Q & A with the Author:

Tell us about things you enjoy — what you do for fun or personal satisfaction besides writing?

As I mentioned, I have ten grandchildren and enjoy spending time with them. I look forward to having a "Grandma" day each month, once we move into our new home. I also love to play online video games. My current favorite is League of Legends. I've found that while traditional sports (baseball, football, etc.) bore me stupid, I <3 watching esports and would love to go to the League of Legends finals some day.

When did you first realize you were an author?

When I knew I wanted to keep doing this.

Have you done anything writing-related, but besides actually writing your books, that seemed to get a lot of positive response? 

I'm on the board of directors for iWriteNetwork, an organization focused on education for writers. I've learned a lot myself but have also enjoyed sharing some of the things I've learned with others.

Something that encouraged you?

When people tell me one of my books made them cry. I wouldn't normally call myself a mean person, but it feels so good to know that I've managed, through my story, to connect with a reader so powerfully through emotion. I'm all about emotion.

What is the thing you struggle with the most while writing? And how do you defeat it?

I wish I was a faster writer. I'm better than I was at the beginning, but I wish I could get the stories in my mind out faster in a form that's ready for publication. It's still a bit of a torturous process for me as I try to shape and mold my tales.

What is the “message” of your writing? (For example, is your purpose to encourage old-fashioned values, encourage romance, or do you have different purposes in different books?)

That people are good. and that the world is full of love and compassion.

What are your thoughts/feelings on ebook vs. print book?

I love my ebooks and I love my paperbooks, but I adore audiobooks. I appreciate, especially now that we're packing up our house in preparation for a move, how little space the digital books take. I also have limited time to actually sit down and read. That's one of the reasons I love audiobooks so much. I can read (listen) while I'm in the shower or shopping or cleaning the house. In 2016, I read 106 books, most of the audiobooks.

How many books do you have out?  Are you planning a specific number altogether, either in this series or separately?

·  There's the Safe Harbors series (most of the  stories have a different main character)

o A Change of Plans #1 (Lyn North is the main character)

o Hope's Watch #1.5 (her best friend Elle Reinhardt's story)

o Torn Canvas #2 (about Lyn's friend Jori Virtanen)

o A Season of Change #2.5 (Jori's story continues a bit and introduces the story of Lyn's brother Marc)

o Works in Progress

§ Swing Vote #3 (Marc North)

§ Safe Harbors #3.5 (Lyn's brother-in-law Ethan Walters--a novella that will pull the Second Chances 101 characters into the Safe Harbors series. 

§ Safe Harbors #4 (Kate Armstrong)

§ It could grow beyond that, depending upon time.

·  Second Chances 101 is book #5 in the Ripple Effect Romance Novella series.

·  Teapots & Treachery--an romantic suspense anthology, which includes A Savage Ghost and Waves of Deceit

Are your characters/stories/scenes, etc. based on anything in real life?

My characters are not necessary based on real people but rather on things that might have happened to me, people I've known, or things I've read about. For example, in A Change of Plans, I may not have actually been outside during a tropical storm, but I lived in the Philippines for two years growing up, and we were hit dead on by a Typhoon. 

What are your future projects?

As I mentioned above, I have several stories planned for the Safe Harbors series. I'm also editing my Orthedale duology portal fantasy series. My other project is with three other authors--a Victorian Time Travel four-book series. 

To view our blog schedule and follow along with this tour visit our Official Event page 

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