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Sneak preview from What’s Left of Her
What kind of mother walks away from her family? This is the question many readers asked after finishing Pieces of You, Book One of The Betrayed Trilogy. They wanted to know the real story behind the disappearance of Evie Burnes. What’s Left of Her offers an intimate glimpse into Evie Burnes’s life before her disappearance—and after. Here’s a sneak peak from What’s Left of Her… (coming this month!) It has been fifty-two hours and they still haven’t found her. Detective Olnowski came to the house yesterday morning and filled...
read moreExcerpt from Secrets of You
In Secrets of You, a man faces an impossible situation—marry the woman he loves and risk exposing her past, or break things off and keep her secrets safe. Here’s an excerpt from Secrets of You: Arianna unscrewed the cap on the whiskey bottle and poured two fingers in her glass. She sipped slowly, let the whiskey burn her throat, spiral to her belly in a ball of fire. Not that different from the way Ash’s note had scorched her heart ten minutes ago. She eyed the note in front of her, plain white stationery, delivered by the local courier. No...
read moreA Family Affair extras
Several years ago, I read an article about a man who’d kept a secret family for years without anyone’s knowledge. I was fascinated that someone could and would actually do this. That one small article lived in my subconscious for years, emerging occasionally as I considered how a person might achieve this, the effects on the primary family as well as the other family, the pain, the grief, the anger, the emotional, financial, and psychological entanglements between the two, and the ultimate question; which was the real family? I became so...
read moreAuthors Giving Back February Bash
People who know me will tell you I’m more comfortable chatting to a room filled with 100 strangers than hosting a contest of any sort. But how could I turn down the opportunity to partner with a group of savvy, creative writers who know more about hosting, blogs and all things having to do with contests than I ever would? I couldn’t, so I joined in. Maybe I’ll learn a few things from them and fly solo on the contest circuit one day, but for someone who still hasn’t mastered the touch screen or how to properly tag someone on facebook, probably...
read moreThat Second Chance Series
Late one night I was having a Facebook conversation with fellow author, Ruth Cardello -a brilliant and wise woman whose brain never rests! We were discussing themes and author branding. She asked what I wrote about….that was easy. I write about second chances- in life and in love. THEN she asked what I was doing to ‘brand’ that…Ummm…huh? Ruth is a straight shooter and I admire that – she gave me some great advice and basically told me to think about what MY vision was and then go with it…..and...
read moreJust. Shut. It. Down.
I think for the next several weeks, I will not read blogs, interviews, articles, or engage in conversations that tell me what I have to do in regard to my writing career. Actually, the writing and publishing world are starting to feel like reality TV. There’s the constant barrage that sounds something like the following: You must do this to… If you don’t do this, you will never… You should always… Rule #1 says… Rule #17 says… Those are the rules… Only a few people are… Don’t...
read morePass. Rejection. No thanks. A bigger plan.
I thought about PULLING HOME for almost thirteen years before I got it right. I remember pitching the idea to an editor in Kentucky at my very first writer’s conference. She loved the idea. Too bad the story was only in my head, where it stayed for years as I wrote other books. I would start and stop PULLING HOME again and again. I eventually finished one version, sent it to an editor who loved the story, loved the writing and said it actually gave her goosebumps when she read it. Sadly, she couldn’t garner enough in house support to make an...
read moreThat is my story and I am sticking to it!
For years, when someone asked me what I wrote, I fidgeted, cleared my throat, and forced out the words, “I write romance and women’s fiction.” You can imagine the comments, the raised eyebrows, the little smirks that made me want to say, “No, wait! I write stories like Joyce Carol Oates…and Margaret Atwood.” That certainly would have squelched the look. Problem was, that’s not what I wrote. More importantly, that’s not what I wanted to write. If you are going to write a book, you had better darn well want to hang around with those people and...
read moreTrenches, Teenagers, and Older Parents
I wrote NOT YOUR EVERYDAY HOUSEWIFE from the trenches. If you’ve been there, you’ll know what I’m talking about….does the word teenager make you shudder? My husband and I blended our families, his two, my three. At one point, we had four teenagers in the house. Four of them were girls. Can you say estrogen? There were a few years with three in college at the same time. My husband could give lessons on filling out FAFSA forms. With the blended family, came the exes. Some play nice, some are like my ex-husband. Ahem. Enough said. Mix in the...
read moreComing Very Soon – THE WAY THEY WERE
He hasn’t spoken her name in fourteen years. She keeps a journal hidden in the back of her closet and permits herself to write about him once a year—on the anniversary of the first and only time they made love. They promised to love one another forever, but tragedy tore them apart. Now, destiny may just bring them back together. THE WAY THEY WERE is a story of love, forgiveness, and second chances. At eighteen, Rourke Flannigan and Kate Redmond dreamed of sharing the rest of their lives together until a family tragedy tore them apart. Kate...
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