Great Summer Reads 2019 Part 1: Countdown Blitz & Giveaway Day 4: Featuring Author Caroline Clemmons-Monk's Bride

Through a crazy twist of fate, Caroline Clemmons was not born on a Texas ranch. To compensate for this illogical error, she writes about handsome cowboys, feisty ranch women, and scheming villains in a tiny office her family calls her pink cave. She and her Hero live in North Central Texas cowboy country where they ride herd on their three rescued indoor cats as well as providing nourishment outdoors for squirrels, birds, four feral cats, a fox, a raccoon, and two possums. 

The books she creates in her pink cave have made her an Amazon bestselling author and won several awards. She writes sweet to sensual romances about the West, both historical and contemporary as well as time travel and mystery. Her series include the Kincaids, McClintocks, Stone Mountain Texas, Bride Brigade, Texas Time Travel, Texas Caprock Tales, Pearson Grove, and Loving A Rancher as well as numerous single titles and contributions to multi-author sets. When she’s not writing, she loves spending time with her family, reading her friends’ books, lunching with friends, browsing antique malls, checking Facebook, and taking the occasional nap.

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A destitute widow; a reformed con man; the danger that links them…

Betsie Galloway Hirsch has escaped Memphis with her son. Her gambling husband tricked the wrong people and they’re demanding Betsie pay his debts—or else. She’s come to Kincaid Springs to stay with her mother and seek a safe place for her son. Being so far from her former home, she feels secure. That is, until danger confronts her.

After 34 years alone, Michael “Monk” Magonagle is falling in love with Betsie and is fond of her son. Monk is certain she is not free of the men her late husband cheated. Although he is not a violent man by nature, Monk is willing to fight for Betsie’s safety. He and the men of the Kincaid family prepare to meet the enemy.

How can Betsie and Liam be protected from the approaching danger? Will she and Monk be able to forge a love that endures or will one of them be silenced forever? What toll will the enemy exact? 

  
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Q&A With the Author:

1.  What do you like to do when you're not writing?
Most of my waking time is spent writing. When I’m not writing, I read, spend time with my husband who I call Hero, lunch with friends, browse antique malls with my daughter, and may even take a nap.

2. What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I need two things that help my muse: Cherry Dr Pepper and chocolate, usually M&Ms. Not healthy, but they truly do help me.

3. Do you have any suggestions to help budding authors become better writers? If so, what are they?
My most important suggestion is that you absolutely do NOT let anyone discourage you! Grow a thick skin so you can take criticism of your work without losing faith in yourself. Hone your craft. Find a good critique group of same genre authors who are skillful enough that their critique of your work is credible. Read and, if you particularly enjoy a book, go back and analyze why. Be disciplined and keep writing.

4. Where do you get information and ideas for your books?
In my office I have numerous research books I can use as reference. In addition, I use online sources while keeping in mind not to have blind faith in what I read online.

Ideas pop into my head all the time—I can’t stop them. I love that this happens. I used to worry that I would run out of ideas but now I see that I’d have to live to be at least two hundred to write all the story ideas I have now. If someone is having difficulty capturing and idea, look through non-fiction books available for an idea.

5. What do you think makes a good story?

A hero and heroine who make you care what happens to them and an ending that leaves you with a smile. 

6. Tell us about your favorite summer vacation? Or what do you like to do in the summer?

I’m not a summer person and get sick from the heat. I stay inside and write in the summer. My favorite summer vacation was a guided tour to Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England at the end of summer one year. If I could go to only one of those, I’d choose Ireland.

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Great Summer Reads 2019 Part 1: Countdown Blitz & Giveaway Day 3: Featuring Author Robyn Echols-Virginia's Vocation

My name is Robyn Echols. Zina Abbott is the pen I use for my historical novels. I’m a member of Women Writing the West and Western Writers of America. I currently live with my husband in California’s central valley near the “Gateway to Yosemite.”

I love to read, quilt, work with digital images on my photo editing program, and work on my own family history.

I am a blogger. In addition to my own blog, I blog for several group blogs including the Sweet Americana Sweethearts blog, which I started and administer.

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Will Virginia’s chosen vocation fill the empty spaces in her heart?

It is 1858. With both parents dead, Virginia Atwell lives with her older brother, Jefferson, and his family in Booneville, Missouri. Under the pseudonym, V. A. Wellington, she secretly has been submitting articles to a well-respected investigative journal about controversial topics. To her dismay, she learns her family plans to buy new farmland in the wilds of central Kansas Territory, making it almost impossible for her to continue her clandestine article submissions. More importantly, Virginia is terrified of the prospect of living so close to hostile Indian tribes and dying by their hands because they resent white Americans moving onto their traditional buffalo hunting grounds.

Virginia persuades her brothers to give her a share of their parents’ inheritance so she may attend one of the few colleges in Ohio that accepts female students. There, she finds Avery Wilson, one of her professors and fellow boarder at Bettina Calloway’s boarding house, resentful of female students, conceited and annoying, especially after his criticism and resentment directed towards the author, V. A. Wellington, whose articles are published while his submissions are rejected.

Virginia’s publisher insists V. A. Wellington meet with him in person in St. Louis to discuss a new assignment. When her landlady insists she cannot travel alone, Avery, curious about Virginia’s secretive meeting and unable to resist his growing attraction to the irritating but brilliant student, offers to escort her.

Once the editor discovers his star contributor is a woman, he refuses to send her to write about conditions on the Kaw reservation and the proposed treaty the government intends to impose on the natives. Hoping to favorably impress the editor, Avery offers to pose as Virginia’s fiancé in order to accompany and protect her on her assignment. Her heart goes out to the Kaw, but what can fill the empty spaces of her heart?

Virginia’s Vocation is also part of the author’s Atwell Kin series

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Q&A With the Author:

1.  What do you like to do when you're not writing?

I enjoy reading (that is a given), quilting, and touring, especially in the mountains.

2. What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I track my word counts completed each writing day, and I try to reach a goal of 2,000 to 3,000 words per day when I can fit in a whole day devoted to writing. When I really need to buckle down and finish a novel, I move my laptop to the loveseat in my bedroom and work in there.

3. Do you have any suggestions to help budding authors become better writers? If so, what are they?

First, you need to find a writing set-up that works for you. You do not need an entire room for an office, unless you have the extra room and that is your thing. I sit on a couch or loveseat and prop a laptop on my knees to write. I keep my physical research books and notes organized by writing project in baskets I buy at JoAnn’s. When I am not using them, they are on a bookcase or credenza. When I am using them, they are on the couch next to me. I use T.V. trays for extra “desk” surface. Will that work for everyone? No. Find what works for you.

Second, give yourself permission to devote time to writing. Your writing is just as valuable, if not as profitable, as salaried work. It is okay with God to develop the talents He gave you, even if it means you sometimes need to occasionally say “no” to others (especially outside the family) who make demands on your time.

4. Where do you get information and ideas for your books?

Sometimes my story ideas are prompted by the theme of a book series for which I am writing. Sometimes my research exposes me to new information that gets my mind working. Sometimes I’ll visit a historical locality or read something and think, “Hey, I could turn that into an interesting story.” I get the nugget of an idea, chart/calendar things out, and then the characters in my story tell me how the plot is going to progress no matter what I originally had in mind.

5. What do you think makes a good story?

Besides a good plot, characters and setting, I want the story to include some decent ACTION. Every story needs real and believable CONFLICT. He loved me yesterday—oh no, today he doesn’t, so what can I say or do so tomorrow he loves me again? No, no. To me, that is not action or meaningful conflict. Even a romance reader like me who knows the story will have a “happily ever after” ending, wants to have the hero and heroine get into some kind of trouble—often at the hands of others—that leaves me asking, “How are they going to get out of that mess?”

6. Tell us about your favorite summer vacation? Or what do you like to do in the summer?

For several summers, hubby and I have toured the Western states with an RV. A couple of years we took some adult children and grandchildren. The grandkids quickly learned if they vacation with grandma, they visit historical sites, museums, and book stores. I also like to work in some book events or author conventions. 

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

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Great Summer Reads 2019 Part 1: Countdown Blitz & Giveaway Day 2: Featuring Author Fiona Ingram-Chronicles of the Stone

I am a children’s author, but up until a few years ago, I was a journalist and editor. Something rather unexpected sparked my new career as an author—a family trip to Egypt with my mother and two young nephews. We had a great time and I thought I’d write them a short story as a different kind of souvenir…. Well, one book and a planned book series later, I had changed careers. I have now published Book 3 (The Temple of the Crystal Timekeeper) in my MG adventure series Chronicles of the Stone, with many awards for the first book, The Secret of the Sacred Scarab, and a few for Book 2, The Search for the Stone of Excalibur, and one already for Book 3! I also teach online novel writing for aspiring authors and I find that very satisfying. Relaxation time finds me enjoying something creative or artistic, music, books, theatre or ballet. I love doing research for my book series. I love animals and have written two animal rescue stories. I have two adorable (naughty) little dogs called Chloe and Pumpkin, and a beautiful black cat called Bertie.

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 A 5000-year-old mystery comes to life when a scruffy peddler gives Adam and Justin Sinclair an old Egyptian scarab on their very first day in Egypt. Only when the evil Dr. Faisal Khalid shows a particular interest in the cousins and their scarab, do the boys realise they are in terrible danger. 

Justin and Adam embark upon the adventure of a lifetime, taking them down the Nile and across the harsh desert in their search for the legendary tomb of the Scarab King, an ancient Egyptian ruler. They are plunged into a whirlpool of hazardous and mysterious events when Dr. Khalid kidnaps them.  With just their wits, courage, and each other, the boys manage to survive … only to find that the end of one journey is the beginning of another! 

 This is a must-read for Middle Graders keen on action, adventure, and Arthurian stories! 

Cousins Adam and Justin Sinclair are hot on the trail of the second Stone of Power, one of seven ancient stones lost centuries ago. This stone might be embedded in the hilt of a newly discovered sword that archeologists believe belonged to King Arthur: Excalibur. 

However, their long-standing enemy, Dr. Khalid, is following them as they travel to Scotland to investigate an old castle. Little do they know there is another deadly force, the Eaters of Poison, who have their own mission to complete. Time is running out as the confluence of the planets draws closer. Can Justin and Adam find the second Stone of Power and survive? 

A plane crash! Lost in the Mexican jungle! Will Adam, Justin, and Kim survive long enough to find the Third Stone of Power?

With only a young boy, Tukum, as their guide, the kids make their way through the dense and dangerous jungle to find the lost city of stone gods, where the Stone of Power might be located. River rafting on a crocodile-infested river and evading predators are just part of this hazardous task.

Of course, their old adversary Dr. Khalid is close behind as the kids press on. But he is not the worst of their problems. This time Adam will clash with a terrible enemy who adopts the persona of an evil Aztec god, Tezcatlipoca, and is keen to revive the ancient tradition of human sacrifice.  Will they emerge alive from the jungle? Will Dr. Khalid find the third Stone of Power before they do?

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~ Book 3 Universal Link ~

   

Q&A With the Author:

1.     What is your favorite book that is not yours?

That’s such a hard question that I can’t answer it. I have a number of favourites in a variety of genres. I keep rereading them. That worries me a bit… I am busy rereading an old favourite by Michael Crichton, titled Prey.

2.     Do you write in multiple genres? Which genre is your favorite to write?

I  have a lot of fun writing Regency romances (historical) under a pseudonym, Arabella Sheraton. Arabella is not just a pseudonym; she has emerged as her own personality (also a bit worrying) and is a very prolific writer (8 books!) – more so than ordinary old me. She has had umpteen interviews and I am obliged to do all her marketing. Arabella’s books are a lot of fun – romantic romps, lots of witty repartee and many extraordinary capers that heroes and heroines of yesteryear are involved with.

3.     When did you write your first book and how young were you?

Apart from writing nonsense poetry for family members and short stories when I was a kid, my first real book was The Secret of the Sacred Scarab and how I wish I had started it years earlier ... but my nephews wouldn’t have been born and they wouldn’t have been there to inspire me.

4.     If you could meet any author, past or present, who would it be and why?

Terry Pratchett, the author of The Discworld series. I have read them all, many times, and his creativity never ceases to inspire and amaze me. Plus, his subtle dry wit is also hilarious. He was a great observer of human behavior. I was devastated when he passed away. The world has lost a great writer.

5.     How long does it take you to write a book, and what was your fastest book to write?

My first book/s (including Arabella’s) took a couple of years. Now I am better at organizing my research and writing so a Middle Grade adventure takes about 18 months, with research and editing etc., and a Regency romance takes about 8 months. My fastest MG book was my most recent one The Temple of the Crystal Timekeeper. My fastest Regency romance was Married at Midnight.

6.     What is your favorite thing to do in the summertime?

I I like to enjoy the sunshine, the good weather, the feeling of being relaxed, sitting on the patio with something cold and delicious to drink, and a book, of course!

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

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Great Summer Reads 2019 Part 1: Countdown Blitz Day 1: Featuring Author Emily-Jane Hills Orford -Mrs. Murray's Hidden Treasure

An avid gardener, artist, musician and writer, Emily-Jane Hills Orford has fond memories and lots of stories that evolved from a childhood growing up in a haunted Victorian mansion. Told she had a ‘vivid imagination’, the author used this talent to create stories in her head to pass tedious hours while sick, waiting in a doctor’s office, listening to a teacher drone on about something she already knew, or enduring the long, stuffy family car rides. The author lived her stories in her head, allowing her imagination to lead her into a different world, one of her own making. 

As the author grew up, these stories, imaginings and fantasies took to the written form and, over the years, she developed a reputation for telling a good story. Emily-Jane can now boast that she is an award-winning author of several books, including Mrs. Murray’s Ghost (Telltale Publishing 2018), Queen Mary’s Daughter (Clean Reads 2018), Gerlinda (CFA 2016) which received an Honorable Mention in the 2016 Readers’ Favorite Book Awards, To Be a Duke (CFA 2014) which was named Finalist and Silver Medalist in the 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Awards and received an Honorable Mention in the 2015 Readers’ Favorite Book Awards and several other books. A retired teacher of music and creative writing, she writes about the extra-ordinary in life and the fantasies of dreams combined with memories. 

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There is a hidden treasure in the grand old mansion on Piccadilly Street, in a place called London, but not the real London of English fame. There’s also a lot of mystery and a murder that’s been unsolved for decades. But it’s the treasure that captures Mary’s interest.

Mary lives in this house along with her family, her Brownie friends and a ghost. When the ghost reveals her secret about the hidden treasure, there’s no stopping Mary, her Brownie friends, or her enemies to searching for this treasure. 

Why the intrigue? Apparently there’s a little bit of magic connected with this treasure. And so the adventure begins. 

Who will find the treasure first?

  
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Q&A With the Author:

1.  What do you like to do when you're not writing?

I love my garden. I keep expanding it and moving things around. My garden is what helps me endure the long, cold winter months. Knowing that spring will eventually come is my winter survival tactic. I also paint (collage acryllics), do needleart, compose, play the piano, and, of course, read.

2. What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I have to work on my current writing project every day, preferably in the morning. I just have to write; it defines who I am.

3. Do you have any suggestions to help budding authors become better writers? If so, what are they?

Keep writing. Don't get discouraged when you receive rejection letters (we all do). Network with other creative people.

4. Where do you get information and ideas for your books?

Everywhere. My grandmother always told me I had a vivid imagination, so I guess that helps. My dog and our daily walks help, too.

5. What do you think makes a good story?

The idea, the theme, but also the craft of weaving everything together, like a fine piece of tapestry.

6. Tell us about your favorite summer vacation? Or what do you like to do in the summer?

My favorite summer vacation was the year my husband and I traveled across the country. We were newly weds and my husband was starting a new job on the west coast. Once our household belongings were packed and shipped ahead of us, we took our time, exploring on the way. We visited Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Jasper, Banff and finally reached our destination, Victoria, British Columbia, where we lived for five years and enjoyed many fun trips on Vancouver Island as well as the British Columbia mainland.

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

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High Sierra By Adrienne Quintana: Official Book Tour & Giveaway

When Jasmine Fuentes finds herself thousands of miles from home, forced to hike around in the wilderness of California with a bunch of juvenile delinquents, she’s convinced she doesn’t belong. 

Forage for food, build shelter, make fire—Jasmine sets out to learn what she needs to do to ace the program so she can go home and salvage her summer vacation. But the more she tries to prove she doesn’t need wilderness therapy, the more desperate her situation becomes. Confronted with life and death, she comes face to face with her past and her imperfections. Will Jasmine ask for help before it’s too late? 

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Adrienne Quintana is the author of Eruption as well as several children's books. When she isn't writing, Adrienne enjoys running, hiking, and matchmaking (Are you single? She probably knows someone perfect for you.) 

She lives in Arizona with her husband and four children, who give her love, support, and plenty of good material for Instagram.   

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2.

“You do, don’t you?” she accused when I took too long to answer.

“I mean, you make it sound like one of the deadly sins or something.”

She was serious, wiping her face with the sleeve of her t-shirt. “It kind of says a lot about a person.”

Unbelievable. Here we were, sharing a Hallmark Hall of Fame moment, and now she was going to unfriend me because I had a weakness for faded denim with perfectly placed rips.

“I’m not trying to hurt your feelings,” she continued, “but Abercrombie is kind of the epitome of capitalist materialism.”

I shrugged. “I don’t see how it’s worse than any other store in the mall.”

“Hmm,” Michaela said. “You wouldn’t.”

3.

“Nobody’s going to force you to hike today, Noah. In fact, we’re not going to force you to do anything. It’s your decision. You can stay here as long as you want, but the tents are going on ahead.” She touched his back. “If we stay here, we’ll be on our own. And it’ll get pretty cold tonight.”

He squeezed his eyes even tighter then opened them. They looked more sunken than they had before his nap. I was no doctor, but Quasimodo obviously was in no condition to hike. He needed to be tucked in a soft bed where he could sleep for three or four weeks to get rid of those bags under his eyes.

“We still have a ways to go today, but we can take it at your pace, just like earlier. We’ll stop when you need to stop.” His eyes clouded over and he closed them, rolling away from Backwoods Barbie. I swallowed a lump in my throat. This was so humiliating for all of us.

She stayed there with her hand on his back. By now, everyone had gathered around Abercrombie, but we were all watching Quasimodo. I don’t know about everyone else, but I was mentally willing him to stand up. Every minute he stayed lying there was another minute I would have to hold it. He needed to realize that this wasn’t all just about him.

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

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