The world can wait

We're all going on a summer holiday... First proper break in years. The parentals, me, hubby and four teenagers are off to Scotland. Driving... Stopping overnight in Carlise on the way up and Gateshead on the way back down. Anyway I will be off the grid and Netless for two weeks. I have a couple of posts scheduled so just cos I'm posting on here - posts automatically go to FB - doesn't mean I'm around. Not til Aug 17th The Bridge of Earn - taken from where we'll be staying again J, R and C back in 2004. Not sure what R did to C but must have been bad lol Where we always stay. Brilliant place. Can't recommend it enough. (this is our 5th time so must be good) Yes, tartan fabric does come from tartan sheep. Here's proof.

Today sees the release of Found in the Woods by LoRee Peery, book 4 in the Frivolities series. How did you come up with your premise? Is there a story behind your book? How did the story evolve? When I was writing Moselle’s Insurance , the first in the Frivolities series, a writer friend said, “I love the ex-wife.” I tucked that away, picturing Beth as going through a metamorphosis, wild child to Christian woman who seeks to deal with abuse and fear. I took a few notes and found pictures for collage while I wrote Geneva and Lanae’s stories. A wolf calendar was on a wall in my kitchen, drawing me to wonder more about that magnificent creature each time I passed. Somehow I knew my next story would be set in the woods. When the time was right, we brainstormed at writer’s retreats. Along the way, Aiden Holt came to be the hero who detested wolves. Threads and more threads intertwined when Beth wondered what in the world she was going to do with the rest of her life. Meeting a lit...

Sunday 15th July, the one dry day in weeks, which was just as well, as hubby, 2/3 kids and me set off on a 90 mile trip to the coast (yes that's one way mileage) to visit Hayling Island RNLI station for research purposes. Armed with a notebook and camera and a list of questions 10 miles long, I needed lots of information for Sunday's Child.  The hero of that novel, Cal Trant, works on a lifeboat. The D.A.L - deputy lifeboat authority - Graham Raines MBE spent three hours answering all my questions. Despite what the TV adverts claim - the AA is NOT the 4th emergency service. That's the coastguard . Not many people know that you can call the coastguard as well as police, fire and ambulance by dialling 999. I did -- and not just because it was a question on Pointless a few months back!  Hayling Island is an inshore lifeboat station and protects a vast portion of shoreline along with Chichester Harbour. these guys all have full time jobs and carry a page...

Blurb : Army wife and homeschooling mom, Jeanine Talbott finds herself in an impossible situation—she would rather ignore her husband’s transfer orders and stay put.  So she lets James pick out the new house and move their goods while she slowly wraps up the life she’s come to love.  As she pulls up to their new residence, she discovers her darling bought a charming fixer-upper with rather unexpected neighbors—a Civil War graveyard full of them. As the family, including kids Justin and Josie, gets settled in Gentle Springs, strange noises come from the cemetery.  Then, James goes TDY (temporary duty assignment) to California.  While he’s gone, their dog, Jelly, escapes the yard and finds a fresh body in the cemetery.  Suddenly, the Talbotts have two mysteries on their hands: who killed the treasure hunter, and what secret was he trying to unearth at the tomb of town hero, Captain Cooperton? Review : Unputdownable is the best way to descr...

How did you come up with your premise? Is there a story behind your book? How did the story evolve? One evening I was mulling over a story I’ve heard used as a sermon illustration. The anecdote is about a man who goes to Heaven. He is being shown around by an angel when he notices a large warehouse filled with unopened gifts. He asks the angel what all of the presents are. The angel answers: “Those are all of the blessings God wants to give but haven’t been asked for or haven’t been granted due to lack of obedience.” As I went to bed still thinking about this story, God “downloaded” the outline for THE BLESSING SEER into my mind. I had to jump up and write it down. The next morning I began to read scriptures about blessings and study Bible commentaries. For those who are not familiar with this story, would you please give us the blurb? When God sends Addy a special messenger who challenges her to step from her comfort zone, she isn’t sure she’s up to the job. She feels ...

So as I'm doing the final set of edits on Thursday's Child...  any one want a sneaky look at page 77? Yep, thought you might. hot off the press blurb: Thursday's Child chases the whole... Broken...with bits missing. That's how Niamh, senior prosecutor for the CPS, feels when she wakes in hospital severely injured with no knowledge what happened--for the past eight years. A tall man in a firefighters uniform claims he's her husband. While he's everything she's ever dreamed of in a man and more, she doesn't know the him. And if he was so important why can't she remember? Was there something so terrible, so painful in her marriage, her mind has suppressed it?   First on the scene at a horrific accident, Jared Harkin is devastated to find his wife one of the injured. He's already lost a child, can he live through this? Niamh survives the crash, but awakens with eight years missing and no memories of their life together. Determined to help ...

Ok since I'm now 6 chapters into Sunday's Child, the cast has been sorted a while. I'm just not very good at posting on here. The short story - bad pun, sorry, - is that Everyone who commented is in the book somewhere :) Either the name you picked or in another way. And I'm off to a lifeboat station this weekend, hopefully, to see a boat, talk to some crew and take loads of pictures. All in the name of research of course. But hey... Men In Uniform.... Maybe hubby needs to bring his lab coat home one evening, then I'd have my very own man in uniform in the house. :D

Blurb: Cottonwood, Iowa 1875 Lydia Walcott is on the run. With a broken arm and a wounded spirit she is escaping the hands of her cruel brother and the marriage he has arranged. She's running to the unknown, praying God will lead her steps. Seeking shelter from an ice storm in a livery stable, Lydia goes to sleep hoping that in this small town of Cottonwood, Iowa she’ll find a job, a place to live, friends, and a future. Dr. Sterling Graham, having just delivered a baby, rides back to town over ice covered roads. He's confident and secure in the knowledge that he is loved and respected by the people of the Cottonwood. Exhausted from the long night, he decides to sleep on the cot in the livery. Sterling’s reputation and career, along with Lydia’s hope for a new life, are put in jeopardy when gossips spread the news that, "Doc spent the night in the stable with a woman." The story grows as ‘facts’ are added. Without money to travel on west, Lydia feels trapp...

Blurb: Anne Stanborough, a well known mystery writer, inherits her maiden aunt's book store, Perfect on Paper. The lawyer handling her aunt's estate is none other than the handsome Jake Harrison, but despite his attraction to the beautiful author, his painful divorce has made him wary of a marriage between two driven professionals. Anne can't let go of the career she's worked her entire life towards, and he isn't willing to make a second mistake in marriage. It looks like they should call the whole thing off until Anne discovers that her late maiden aunt might not have been so "maiden" after all… A love story from the past tugs this couple back together again, but will it be enough to prove that a love founded in God really can overcome anything? Review : Every so often an author comes along whose work I’m not familiar with. This is the first I’ve read from Ms. Froese and it about blew my socks off. (Well if I’d been wearing socks it would h...

Today we have guest author Linda Rondeau, talking a little about her new release America II: The Reformation and answering other questions I threw at her :) Hi Linda,   How did you come up with your premise? Is there a story behind your book? How did the story evolve? I have a career in Social Work that spanned nearly three decades. I saw sociological trends that troubled me. If these trends continued and if the world faced another dark age, what would be the logical outcome? War, pestilence. Then the world would want unite as one. Since religion is currently viewed as outmoded, a future world might very well blame religion as the causal factor for all the unpleasantness. Hence, America II: The Reformation came into being. For those who are not familiar with this story, would you please give us the blurb? Following unprecedented climatic changes, resultant pestilence and war brought the world into chaos. Eventually, each nation surrendered its sover...