SOMETHING AWESOME IS COMING!

Sisters can be pretty awesome sometimes. My sister, Dona, got into a FB Book Launch event. She sent me a link and though nothing was given up front about the books, the event was a blast! Forty-Five Fabulous authors with a Sooper Sekrit announcement to make at the end of the evening.

The Book Launch was for a Fifty-Book series! Yes, you heard me 50! As in a book set in each of the 50 states. Here's the promo they sent to Romantic Times

Be a part of an unprecedented event as forty-five authors come together to bring you a new series of epic proportions. On fifty consecutive days beginning November 19, 2015, a romance will be published featuring a mail order bride, one set in each of the fifty states. The books will be released in the order they were admitted to the union. The stories all take place in 1890, when a factory fire in the East burns to the ground, leaving these women unemployed. Share the experiences of these women as they seek love and new lives across the United States. 

And here is a portion of what they sent to USA Today that gives you a bit of the premise:

The year is 1890, and the initial premise, with a prequel written by USA Today best-selling author, Kirsten Osbourne, is that these girls all work together in the Mill town of Lawrence, MA in a sweat shop environment where they are all seamstresses. A fire that levels the building and business puts the girls all out of work and without many options. In Beckham, MA, there is a match-maker, Elizabeth, that plants the idea with the girls of becoming mail-order brides. Each girl moves to a different state as a mail-order bride, and eventually finds love.

If you follow my blog you know that Jayson's Range is a mail-order bride book so this series had my full attention right away. 

The concept is to release one book a day through January 7th. 

Beginning on Wednesday November 4th, I will post a link to the Prequel by Kirsten Osbourne. 

Since I don't want to flood you with just guest appearances, I will be hosting one of the authors each Wednesday until we've completed the series. So while some of them will have been out for awhile, you can still get to know the author and any new things they have in the works. 

I hope you'll sign up for reminders or just plan to stop by each Wednesday so you don't miss any part of this exciting new venture and meet some talented authors.

Blessings!

Angela

GUEST AUTHOR- Marilyn Baxter

I am pleased to have Marilyn Baxter as my guest today. Marilyn and I met when she searched for other 'finalists' in the "What's In A Name?" competition through Boroughs Publishing Group almost a year ago. I am blessed by her initiative. 

Marilyn's novella, BETTER AS A MEMORY releases TODAY! And she's here to celebrate with us. 

Welcome, Marilyn!

1. Better As A Memory is due out today with Boroughs Publishing as a result of a contest your novella was a finalist in last summer. We were to be inspired by a song title. What about this song inspired the story?
The story was originally titled Seduction with Style, and it was going nowhere.  I was stuck.  Then a friend who writes for Harlequin Desire (a big shout-out to Kristi Gold!) was helping me brainstorm and she uttered the magic words, “Have you ever listened to ‘Better as a Memory’ by Kenny Chesney?”  I had not, but I’ve listened to it repeatedly since then and that’s when the story began to really move forward.  The line “I’m better as a memory than as your man” nagged at me until I realized it was the motivation for the heroe’s actions when he and the heroine were in college together. Then later he comes to understand the mistakes he made are better as a memory than something keeping the two of them apart.

2. What do you hope your readers take from Better As A Memory?
This is a reunion romance about second chances and happily ever after.  I hope readers will see the healing power of love whether it be romantic, familial or platonic love. Love does conquer all.

3.  I know you love tea and enjoyed the availability of quality tea on your trip. What types of tea do you enjoy and do they change with your mood or just ‘this sounds good’?
Black teas are my favorite, and for the last year or so, I’ve been drinking a brand called Builder’s Tea. I can’t buy it in my town but it’s available at a store where my son lives.  So when I visit him I usually buy several boxes. I like it because it brews in 20 seconds, and that’s often all the time I have, especially when I’m trying to get up and at ’em in the morning. But I also like English Breakfast and Irish Breakfast teas and I found some Welsh tea in a shop recently that’s good as well. When I was in London last fall I bought and shipped home a lot of tea. And I mean a LOT! It had names like Jubilee (in honor of Queen Elizabeth’s 60 years on the throne) and Afternoon Blend (great for an afternoon tea party). And I bought a spice blend that was terrific on cold wintry nights.

I’m not so sure my tea choices change with my mood, but I sure do buy some because “this sounds good!”

4. What is the best advice you have ever received about the publishing journey and how have the words of wisdom helped you?
A very wise women (cough Roxanne St.Claire cough) once told me to forget about the rules while writing the first draft because that can suck the joy right out of writing.  That’s what had happened to me.  When I first started writing, I had no idea about rules.  I had no clue about POV or GMC or any other letters of the alphabet except the ones spelling the words of my story.  Then I began to go to workshops and read books on the craft of writing, and I became so bogged down with trying to follow all those rules that the story almost became an afterthought.  By following my friend’s advice and just writing through the first draft, I could concentrate on my characters and getting the bones of the story on paper.  Once that was done I could go back and make sure I’d followed the rules.

5. You made a trip across the pond last fall. Having read your interview at Paula Millhouse’s blog, was your new project inspired on your visit? 
Absolutely!  And in case anyone didn’t see the interview at Paula’s blog, here’s what the new project is about.

A pregnant American woman walks into a Dublin pub looking for the man with whom she had a fling several months before.  After that?  Not sure yet.  The idea is still percolating.

And it’s still percolating.  LOL!  I have another idea about a woman who inherits her grandmother’s home in Ireland and the handyman who helps her fix it up to sell.  There’s a matchmaking neighbor who’s afraid the cottage will be torn down to make way for some sort of ghastly newfangled house, too.

I fell in love with Ireland, especially the town of Killarney, which is where the second idea is set.  I’d love to visit again, but at least I can visit vicariously with writing.  And it gives me a good reason to look at my photos again and again and again.

6. Will you share a bit from BETTER THAN A MEMORY with us?
Sure!

BLURB: 
Looking at her potential client, Atlanta image consultant Victoria Sharpe is convinced the job will be a cross between What Not to Wear and Man vs. Wild. She’d love to turn down the offer, but refusing it—not to mention the referrals it could generate—just might break the bank. Yet, agreeing to make over this man’s image might also break her heart. Again. 


Max Brown will tolerate anything to gain access to his trust fund. Returning to work in the family business, even submitting to his mother’s demands to trade his comfortable flannel for Armani is worthwhile if he can get the money necessary to start a camp for at-risk boys. But then he sees he’ll be working with Victoria Sharpe, his college girlfriend, the one who got away. Or, really, the one he left. The impression he makes here will be the most important of his life, and the person most as risk is himself.

EXCERPT:
“You certainly are set for the next trip through the Donner Pass,” she said. One corner of her mouth turned up ever so slightly.

“Come along with me and I promise I won’t eat you up,” he replied without thinking of the double meaning his words might have. “I’ll protect you.” He grunted and pounded his fists against his chest.

“If you think you’re getting out of our shopping trip by sweet talking me, think again, wild man.”

“Sweet talking? Me?” The easy banter between them felt good. It felt right. Just like it had before he’d decided he couldn’t live in Tripp’s shadow anymore. “That wasn’t sweet talk, but I can turn it on if you like.”

I could turn you on, too, just like you’ve done to me. The rogue thought sped through his mind.

Just then, Victoria knelt, and when she rose, his underwear hung from her index finger. 
“I see you weren’t joking about black silk boxers.” She swung them back and forth like a red cape in front of a bull.


He grabbed her hand to still it and took the garment from her. “Sweetheart, I never joke about anything black or silk.”

Thank you for joining us today, Marilyn and good luck with sales for this wonderful story!

You can find Marilyn Baxter:

Website: MarilynBaxter

FB: https://www.facebook.com/marilyn.baxter.372

Twitter: https://twitter.com/marilyn_baxter

BETTER THAN A MEMORY

Boroughs Publishing 

Amazon

 as well as her previously released

TEA FOR TWO 

Boroughs Publishing 

                                            Amazon

GUEST AUTHOR - Lisa Medley

 Today I want to introduce you to a talented new author. Lisa Medley is a member of Ozarks Romance Authors, of which I am also a member. I've had the pleasure of beta reading not one but two of the books in her Reaper series debuting with Harlequin E this week.

Lisa Medley writes reapers. The grim kind. Her urban fantasy romance, Reap & Repent is available now in a Harlequin E Box Set with three other Harlequin debut authors. A lover of beasties of all sorts, she has a farm full of them in her SW MO home including:  one child, one husband, two dogs, two cats, a dozen hens, thousands of Italian bees and a guinea pig. Not so in love with the guinea pig. She can do ten pushups IN A ROW and may or may not have a complete zombie apocalypse bug-out bag in her trunk at all times. Just. In. Case.

Reaper Rules: The Basics 

How will you know if you meet a reaper? Two ways. One you’re dead already and it will become obvious rather quickly or two…you’ll never know. Reapers blend into the background. You may have already crossed paths with one. If you did, and you’re reading this now (which means you are NOT dead) you’ll never remember him.

You’ve probably heard the stories of the “mysterious angel” who showed up at the scene of an accident, lifted the car off a child, pulled a driver to safety, saved a drowning person, _____________ (fill in the blank), and then disappeared. No one got a description. No one took a photo. No one remembers clearly what the helpful stranger actually looked like. 

There’s a good chance, they met a reaper on his way to or from collecting a soul. 

There are two rules of survival as a reaper: 

1. Keep your energy.

2. Keep your head.

Everything else is survivable but it also means that even reapers are not immortal. They can live for a long time but usually flame out after a couple of centuries. Ferrying the dead is a soul-sucking job (pun intended). 

Reaping is a full-time proposition with a human population over seven billion. And that does not even count all of the other creatures with souls that need reapers. Yeah, there are reapers for every creature with a soul. And they all meet in one place. Purgatory. 

While they might not get along topside, Purgatory is supernatural Switzerland. Forced détente. Conflict will get you smited, lickety-split. 

And no one enjoys a smiting.

Want to know more? Reap & Repent, from Harlequin E, is now available at all ebook retailers.

   

Reap & Repent Blurb:

Deacon Walker is a burned out loner, whose two hundred years as a reaper have left him empty inside. But when he meets Ruth Scott, a gorgeous shut-in with unusual gifts, he’s forced to set his career complacency aside to train her for a destiny she never knew existed. Soon the two will face the ultimate test: a battle against demons determined to destroy humanity, one soul at a time

Excerpt from Reap & Repent:

Prologue

What does a guy have to do around here to get some service? Deacon Walker marveled as he glared at the undulating queue of grotesque reapers in front of him.  

For all that’s holy, move the hell along already. 

It had been a long week, and it wasn’t over yet. He needed to make at least one more pass through the hospital circuit before he could call it a day. He could already feel the tug of a freshly departed soul. Again. People were dropping like flies lately.

He massaged his brow, trying to soothe his exhausted patience as the line inched forward at a snail’s pace.

He was worn thin. Over the past few weeks, three demon soul poachers had popped up in his fair city of Meridian like poisonous mushrooms after a hard rain. While it wasn’t unheard of for one to slip out from Hell every now and then, three was a nightmare. 

BUY LINKS: Reap & Repent is available March 3, 2014 in a Harlequin E Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance Box Set with the works of three other amazing new Harlequin authors! Reap & Repent will be available for single-title release June 2, 2014.

AMAZON

B&N 

Follow Me: 

Website: Lisa-Medley.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisamedleyauthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lisamedley

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/medley3/

PROJECT UPDATE

Sorry to say I do not have anything new today unless you want to know my art studio is finally shaping up or peek in on the day job that keeps me busy... http://kellyscountry.blogspot.com

However, I do want to give you a heads up for tomorrow just in case this latest winter storm takes my power and I can't remind you.

You WILL want to be here tomorrow to meet my friend Lisa Medley. She is releasing the first book in her Reaper trilogy with Harlequin E. I've read the first 2 books in the series. WOWSERS! I'm not a reaper kind of gal but loved these and felt privileged to be a Beta for her.

So come back tomorrow. In the mean time, please be safe and stay warm
Angela!

AMANDA BERRY - Guest Author

My guest today is the amazingly talented Amanda Berry. My friendship with Amanda is case in point of how small the world really is - thanks to the internet. We first met on YIM as sprinting partners. As we talked we found out she and my husband grew up in the same small town. She was my rock and confident when my daughter's world fell apart... offering advice and a meet-up if I needed it. Oh yes.. and discovering we seem to crave chocolate when there isn't a bite to be found in the house anywhere!

I was ecstatic when Amanda sold her first book, L.A. Cinderella. It was her Nano book that first year we met. If you've not read it, you might want to add it to your cart when you pick up her new release... Father By Choice. Two different books that show her writing ability. 

Thanks for stopping by to meet... Amanda Berry!


You’re readers have waited three years for a new book from you. Father By Choice is nothing like L.A. Cinderella. Why veer from your first book?

L.A. Cinderella was more of a fantasy. A true Cinderella story. Father By Choice is more of a dramatic family story. I love the fantasy aspect of L.A. Cinderella, but family drama is something I have firsthand experience with ;) I grew up in a small town as well, so it speaks more to what I grew up with.

It sounds as if Amber may have captured Brady Ward’s heart. What is it with little girls and their daddy’s? And did you draw on a bit of personal experience for their relationship?

I think all little girls have their daddy wrapped around their finger. My own daughter is in awe of her father and while she won’t do something if I ask, if daddy asks she’s all over it. I think what makes their relationship more intense is that Maggie didn’t have that same experience with her father and it’s what she always wanted from her father.

You have a great premise for Father By Choice. What makes this story unique compared to similar plots?

The premise of the secret baby has been done over and over. What makes mine a little different is that Brady goes out of the country shortly after and leaves on bad terms with his brother. When his brother finds out about Maggie’s pregnancy, he “takes care of it” by sending money every month. Maggie is left believing that Brady is no better than her own father, which is easy for her to believe.

You and your family have moved in the past year. Is your awesome new location sparking future stories?

I’m surrounded by Live Oaks dripping with Spanish Moss, mosquitoes  the size of small birds, and palmetto bugs (a nice way to say cockroaches with wings). I love my new office and am trying to get back into a regular schedule for writing. No easy feat having moved for the first time in ten years from our house and we’had lived in St. Louis for twenty years. It’s a lot to adapt to, but we are coming up on a year of being here in August. There are stories hiding in the cedars out where we live and I’m sure that it will inspire many books in the future.

What do you hope your readers come away with after reading your books?

I hope that they come away fulfilled and happy with the book. I love when I read a romance and come away feeling filled with that love shared between the hero and heroine. 

Here's an excerpt from Father By Choice:

"I heard about your mom." Sam rubbed the back of his neck. His nervousness was starting to make her worry. What if something had happened to Brady? "I'm real sorry to hear she passed."

"It was the end of a long battle," Maggie said automatically. Even though it had been a different cancer that had taken Mrs. Ward, Maggie knew that in this respect Sam and she had something in common. Her gut clenched momentarily.

They stood there awkwardly for a moment. He looked around as if he wanted to be anywhere but here. The feeling was mutual. "I really need to.. " She gestured to the screen door.

He hesitantly stepped on the first step. Apparently, he wasn't going to leave until he'd had his say. "Would you mind if I came in? I need to talk to you."

She stared him down, trying to determine whether she was willing to listen to anything a Ward had to say. But he seemed open and sincere.

She shrugged and opened the screen door. "Is everyone okay?"

"Yeah. Fine as far as I know." Sam followed her into the small living room. Out of habit, she gestured to one of the worn recliners. Her furniture may be worn but it was clean and paid for.

"Would you like something to drink?" Manners won out over the burn of anger. Why now? After eight years of silence, why was Sam here? Was he coming to tell her that Brady was through sending money? She'd have to put in more hours as secretary at the furniture store if that were the case.

"No, thanks." He sat on the edge of the chair, leaned his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands. Then he sat upright and half stood. He gestured to the chair opposite. "This would be easier if you sat."

Her stomach knotted. She moved toward the chair but didn't sit. What would be easier?

"I've done some stupid things in the past, Maggie." Sam seemed to think she was in the mood for confessions.

"I'm sure you have, but I have work to do—"

"Sit down, Maggie Brown." His stern expression had her lowering to the edge of the seat. Obviously remembering where he was, he added, "Please."

"You have a lot of nerve—"

"Yes, I do." Sam ran a shaking hand through his shaggy hair. "You have no idea how much nerve I have." She crossed her arms over her chest and waited. "I've done some really stupid things—"

"You said that part already."

He looked up to the ceiling before returning his gaze to her. His eyes softened. "I know Amber is Brady's." She flushed and started to rise.

"But Brady doesn't."

About Amanda Berry:
After an exciting life as a CPA, Amanda Berry returned to writing when her husband swept the family off to England to live for a year. Now she's hooked, and since returning to the states spends her writing days concocting spicy contemporary romances while her cats try in vain to pry her hands off the keyboard. Her Marlene award-winning contemporary romance, L.A. Cinderella, debuted from Silhouette Special Edition in June 2010. One thing she requires of all her books is a happily ever after. Amanda grew up in the Midwest, but recently moved to the Southeast with her husband and two children. For more information, please visit www.amanda-berry.com.

You'll find Father By Choice where all your favorite romances are sold including this direct link:  Amazon.com