#PreOrder #GuestPost - "Middle Ageish" by Shirley Goldberg

How Much of Middle Ageish is True?

Many thanks to Amber Daulton for hosting me on her lovely blog.

I’m a newbie author, so squeaky new my book isn’t even out yet. Ten more days to go. August 26 is the release date.

So why a book about a woman who starts over, moves from Paris, France to New Haven, CT, goes back to school, and online dates?

My friends asked the same question. Since the book’s heroine, Sunny Chanel, is online dating, they sneak in a few questions when we’re enjoying a virtual happy hour. “How much is autobiographical?” “Was that a true story about the 300-pound man Sunny dated?” “Did you really go on six meets in one week?”

Sure, there’s a bit of me in Middle Ageish, but making fiction, and turning experience into a belly laugh is much more fun than humans should have. And I’m having the time of my life, pumping my checkered past for “copy” as Nora Ephron (or was it her mother?) calls everything that’s story material. From a trip to Walmart where an old guy mistakes your shopping cart for his (Subtract twenty years and turn that into a Meet Cute scene?) to an online meet with a guy who’s got the sort of beard that catches in his zipper, my mind clicks and grinds, always on the chase for a story.

And, yes, I used to hide my pocket journal in my overlarge (for a date) handbag and scribble notes in the ladies’ room midway through a date. Isn’t that why someone invented that cliché, the devil’s in the details? I sat through dozens of first-meets where guys talked about themselves for forty-five minutes straight and never asked me any questions, or somehow thought I’d be googly-eyed with mirth at their date-from-hell stories.

So when I wrote about Sunny sneaking off to the restroom to jot down thoughts during her dates, well, yes, I did do that. Sometimes, I’d even call a friend for advice. From the toilet, I’m admitting it. Let’s call him Peter, and say he’s got world-class experience in the dating department. He’s real and he’s on my website.

And I still have that little packed-with-memories journal. 

Shirley Goldberg
Middle Ageish/Romantic Women’s Fiction

Middle Ageish Blurb

Sunny Chanel's marriage is circling the drain when her husband marks his colonoscopy on the calendar and ignores their anniversary. With divorce papers instead of roses on the horizon, she says "au revoir" Paris and croissants, and "hello" cheap New Haven apartment and ramen noodles.
Encouraged by her friends, Sunny jumps into online dating, twenty-three years and twenty pounds after her last date. To her surprise she discovers dating might require a helmet, and occasionally armor to protect her heart, but after years of being ignored, her adventurous side craves fun and conversation. She's middle-aged not dead. Then suddenly, on the way to reinventing herself, life takes a left turn when the one man she can't forget calls with an unexpected request. 

Excerpt from Middle Ageish

I slouched at my computer and peered at the screen. The letsclick.com dating site was becoming my best friend. 

The first email in the lineup was from Luke. Soulmate Guy, I called him, because he was the first who’d talked about the soulmate thing—even though there were 7,000 other guys online clamoring for a soulmate.

Cute, too, with Jeff Bridges hair. Jeff still had hair, didn’t he?

A popcorn sound startled me––newbie dater that I was––and a cartoon bubble appeared on the screen with Luke’s image. Would you like to chat with Luke?

Well, that was a dumb question. I hit the yes button. Yes, yes I would. Chat was the site’s version of texting and this was my first time.

—Luke: Hey, got a few minutes? This messaging is friendlier than old school emails. How goes it? Back from vacation. Went to the island. So different there in the winter. Beautiful in a different way. Just came home from doing a little bar dancing. I stayed about an hour. Every once in a while, I do that on a tense night. This was my tense night.

—Sunny: Tense, shmense. What’s wrong?

—Luke: One of those old girlfriend things. We have a lot in common—biking, riding, skiing, and some total madness thrown in, but she doesn’t give me space. It’s complicated.

— Sunny: What’s with the old girlfriend thing? If you’ll be so kind as to be my dating mentor, I have a question. Dating mentor, is it wise to redate old girl/boy friends?

—Luke: Absolutely not, are you nuts? My prob is I don’t like being alone. I like sharing things with someone.

—Sunny: So what is it you look for in a woman? Really, I’m not fooling around here.

—Luke: I know you’re not. I’m taking your question seriously. Well, I’m past craving the 30 year olds with zero body fat and total flawless skin. That is a truly good thing since I’m 54 and they wouldn’t want me anyhow. But our bodies are important, the only one we have, so I can’t pretend I don’t care about the shape a woman is in. I like smiles, legs, arms, necks. You get the picture. Oh, can’t forget that erotic zone called the mind. That’s most of it.

—Sunny: Wow!

—Luke: I can’t stand it anymore. I’m signing off here so I can call you. Give me your phone number. Please. Now—

PreOrder Middle Ageish at your favorite bookstore
Available on August 26, 2020 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08DHHGVSD
Apple: https://tinyurl.com/y37cbc5u
Barnes and Noble: https://tinyurl.com/yyuwpq6o

About the Author 

Shirley Goldberg is a writer, novelist, and former ESL and French teacher who’s lived in Paris, Crete, and Casablanca. She writes about men and women of a certain age starting over. Her website http://midagedating.com offers a humorous look into dating in mid life, and her friends like to guess which stories are true. Middle Ageish is her first book in the series Starting Over. Her character believes you should never leave home without your sense of humor and Shirley agrees.

MY SOCIALS:

https://twitter.com/mylifeasadate
https://www.facebook.com/midagedating
https://www.instagram.com/shirleygoldbergauthor/

Visit my website for another excerpt from the book and grab a copy of Happy Hour, a short story about an online meet and a misunderstanding. https://midagedating.com/

#GuestPost by Linda Nightingale

Something Writing Related: The Hallowed (and Harrowed) Pig Path to Publication

You know those people who were published the day they began marketing the book. Success was just as immediate. These lucky souls are the envy of the writing community…and a rarity.

Not I. The road to publication was a long, harrowed journey into the farther reaches of the universe. I should have been put into crypto freeze and launched by NASA. It took me forever!

I started writing in 1992. I was only two years old, mind you. I don’t want to drop any clues about my age. My first book was The Vampyre Effect, and it grew to over 1,000 pages because I loved the hero and followed him everywhere:- parties, performances, and would have followed him to the bathroom, but my vampires don’t use the ‘facilities’. The book evolved over the years, the first ever-evolving chapter winning a contest or two. Along the way, this mammoth masterpiece became Sinners’ Opera, which was finally chopped in two and published by Double Dragon Publishing. (In 2019, my rights reverted to me, and the book was re-released by The Wild Rose Press).

But my first book wasn’t my first to be released.

During this time, I bred, trained, and showed the magnificent Andalusian horse. Breed magazines published various of my articles, but my real love was fiction. A friend who was a new author with The Wild Rose Press urged me to submit a romance to them. Problem. There was only one romance in my stable of books, and it wasn’t complete—was never meant to be finished.

I found two naked parts of a short story in my computer. Like Victor Frankenstein, I sewed them together. Voila, a romance to submit.

So, my first fiction publication was Black Swan in 2009. I scraped my courage and ego off the floor (lots of rejections will do that) and sent it to an editor I’d met at a convention in San Antonio. When Callie Lynn Wolfe at The Wild Rose Press accepted Black Swan, I danced, then broke open a bottle of champagne with my recent ex, and he danced, too. (Maybe, he wasn’t such a bad ex after all.)

At the time, The Wild Rose Press accepted only romance. After Black Swan, a vampire short story by the way, I was again at a loss with my dark fantasies. Another author friend in Nebraska of all places told me Double Dragon Publishing in Canada was open for submissions. I sent a book I thought would never, ever get published to DDP. In 2 weeks, they actually sent me a contract for Gemini Rising. GR’s theme, though it’s explained at the end, is taboo to most publishers; controversial at best. DDP published the book in 2012. My first published novel! YAY! I was on my way. Move over (insert name of famous author here.)

Back to the future.

Eight books later, Callie is still my editor, and my latest release, Life for Sale, is dedicated to her for all her help and guidance over the years. Life for Sale is the second book in the Tomorrow’s Angels series. Love For Sale is the beginning of March and Christian’s tale.

Love For Sale began life as a short story and won first place from the Houston Writers Guild in that category. One day, I happened upon it in my computer, poured a glass of wine (it was after five somewhere) and began to write. Love For Sale wasn’t the easiest novel I’ve ever written, perhaps because I thought of it as a short story. After almost a year of nitpicking, I turned it into a novel, sent it to Callie, and it was published in 2015. Love is available at: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00XCZ6EVY?pf_rd_r=RMGMHRY09DG32M35H8RQ&pf_rd_p=edaba0ee-c2fe-4124-9f5d-b31d6b1bfbee and is on sale on Amazon for only 99-cents!

In the series Tomorrow’s Angels, Christian is a sentient android, indistinguishable from human—an intelligent being with emotions. March, his owner, saw a small ad in a women’s journal advertising “love for sale”. When she flew to England to Mayfair Electronics, she found her dream man, and at an extremely high price in terms of dollars-and-cents, made him hers. However, her past and his future soon endanger their happiness—indeed their lives.

March and Christian return in Life for Sale, the second in the series, available for preorder on Amazon.

~*~

Publication? My advice to new writers? When discouragement breathes down your neck, shiver. Prescription:- Promptly remember you love writing—just how much you adore that hero or heroine. Instead of letting a rejection stop you dead in your tracks, write for yourself again. The road may be harrowing but think of all the adventures you and your characters can have and kiss your Muse. You are a writer. You love your craft. Write. Persevere. Success? You’re more successful than (insert name of famous author here.)

Amber, thanks oodles for allowing me to guest on your lovely blog.

Title:        Life for Sale

Genre:        Sci-fi Romance

Publisher:    The Wild Rose Press

ISBN:     
978-1-5092-3215-4 Paperback
978-1-5092-3216-1 Digital 

Length:    262 pages

Release Date:    August 24, 2020

Tagline:    A sentient, humanlike android and his owner race to stop an insane robot before someone else dies

Keywords:    Sci-fi Romance, murder mysteries, romantic suspense, fantasy Romance, contemporary romance, New Releases, The Wild Rose Press, sentient androids, robots, humanlike androids, Linda Nightingale, Life for Sale, Love for Sale, book series, Love For Sale sequel, Tomorrow’s Angels series.

BLURB:

Mayfair Electronics has created life.

But four of their Special Editions—sentient androids indistinguishable from human—have escaped. Rebel, Christian Aguillard and his owner, March, are on the run, but they have a bigger problem than his creator's plan to destroy him. They've discovered that one of the renegades has suffered a dangerous malfunction, threatening them with more than just exposure.

Trapped on a cruise ship in the middle of the Atlantic, March and Christian must stop the insane robot before someone else dies. All the evidence points to March being the killer's next victim.

EXCERPT:

“Why are you here? To spout more nonsense?” Spitting mad, Monica reared up in her enemy’s face.

“Not at all.” March’s hand flashed, almost too rapidly for Monica to see, and came down hard below her nose in a Judo-like attack.

Shocked and in pain, she stumbled back, switching modes as she pushed off the bed. “That’s it, whore. You’re a dead woman.”

“I don’t think so,” her rival gritted out, hands braced on her hips, her expression as cold and hard as her mediocre brown eyes. She shook her head. “Look, Monica, I know you’re aware of your actions. I’m going to give you a chance. You must deactivate until we can safely transport you to Dr. Cross for testing. Surely, you know something is wrong.”

“As they say in the films, you and whose army?” She squared her shoulders, preparing to strike without notice. “I didn’t do anything to that bloody dog. I didn’t do anything to you, fool.”

“You didn’t mention Anne.” The other woman seized Monica’s arm. “What did you do to Anne?”

Claws out, Monica lunged. March darted beneath her guard, stabbing at a spot beneath her left earlobe. Monica shoved her back. “Looking for my off switch, fool? It’s well hidden, like where Ms. Goodie Two Shoes wouldn’t even think about going.”

Her insane human rival stood at the locked door, her stance as much as saying to leave Monica would have to get past her. No prob. She stalked toward her rival, murder in her eyes. March didn’t move. When Monica threw a punch at her eye, she moved by the gods.

The American bitch lurched back, crossing her arms across her face, anticipating Monica’s next attack. Forearm struck forearm. A human bone should break, but March stood her ground, her limb intact. She recovered too quickly, dealing Monica a hard blow beneath her cheekbone, barely missing her eye, slamming her back against the wall.

“I don’t know what you are, March Morgan,” she sneered. “But it’s not going to save your butt.”

“No, but I am.” Looking like an avenging angel, Christian—in a Houston t-shirt and khaki shorts, his long hair disheveled—had somehow appeared behind March without either of them hearing.

PEOPLE ARE SAYING:

Linda Nightingale’s Life for Sale takes the characters from Love for Sale and sets them on a dangerous adventure for these androids posing as human. After fleeing at the end of the first book, they are trying to hide from the watchful eye of Mayfair, but decide a reunion is in order. One of the four, however, is suffering a murderous malfunction. The resulting story is not so much a murder mystery as it is a study of a chaotic mind, albeit lab created, yet eerily human in its madness. Nightingale has seamlessly made the unbelievable believable for the reader with a totally unexpected, but thoroughly satisfying ending to this duet. Imaginative premise, well developed characters and an insight into a mind gone wrong make this a great read…S. Hutchinson

BUY LINK

Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08D2Z5XLC
More to come! 

 Interested in More? Check out book one in the Tomorrow's Angels series:

 

Mayfair Electronics has created life.

In Love for Sale, the high-tech electronics company, in black and white, offers “love for sale”. Mayfair has engineered sentient androids indistinguishable from humans. March Morgan flies to England and meets the man she has been searching for her entire life. Christian requires no programming to love March at first sight, but her past and his future soon threaten their happiness—and their lives.

Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00XCZ6EVY

 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

After 14 years in Texas, Linda returned home to her roots in the South Carolina red clay. She has eight published novels, four of which are available from Audible.com in audio. For many years, she bred, trained and showed the magnificent Andalusian horses. So, she’s seen a lot of this country from the windshield of a truck pulling a horse trailer. She’s won several writing awards, including the Georgia Romance Writers’ Magnolia Award for Excellence, the Raven Award, and the SARA Merritt. In real life, she was a legal assistant.

LINKS:

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/LNightingale

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

Web Site:  http://www.lindanightingale.com – Visit and look around. There’s a free continuing vampire story.

Blog:  https://lindanightingale.wordpress.com/ - Lots of interesting guests & prizes

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4839311.Linda_Nightingale

Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/lbnightingale1/

Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Linda-Nightingale/e/B005OSOJ0U

Book Bub:  https://www.bookbub.com/profile/linda-nightingale

#GuestPost from Sydney Winward

Authors Who Have Influenced My Writing

I first started writing more seriously when I was fifteen years old, when I decided that this was what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a writer! As a fifteen year old, I idolized Christopher Paolini and taped quotes from him all over my walls. Here are a few of them:

“Books are my friends, my companions. They make me laugh and cry and find meaning in life.”

“If I spent my time worrying about what other people would think of my work, I would be too self-conscious to write.”

“I think I learned most from editing, both editing myself and having someone else edit me. It's not always easy to have someone criticize your work, your baby. But if you can swallow your ego, you can really learn from the editing.”

“If you want to be a professional writer then you need to write consistently. Inspiration strikes about once every blue moon which, for me, is once every two and a half to three months, which is when I'll get really and truly inspired about something.”

Other authors who have influenced my writing:

-Brandon Sanderson with his incredible world building.
-Sarah J. Maas with her talent for getting her fans to really care about and obsess over her characters.
-Sarah Eden with her depth of characters. She can get me to love a character so much that I’ll actually cry when something awful happens to them.

Here’s a little bit about my new release, Bloodbond, the second book in the Bloodborn Series, which can be read as a standalone.

Blurb:

Zachariah Degore spent ten years locked under ground as a feral vampire. Now he has to redefine what it means to be healthy and whole. With his human life behind him, he starts anew in the vampire city of Ichor Knell with the vampire shah as his kin. He must prove he is worthy of his place in this new world.

Laurel Covaci is vampire elite, she would never court a feral vampire. After two hundred years she has yet to find a mate who meets with her satisfaction. She hides the pain of past hurt and abandonment behind a cold façade. Zach is confident that Laurel is the vampire for him, but can he break through her icy walls and convince her he's the mate she's been waiting for?

Book Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvqlfMc19Is

Buy Links: Amazon ~ Barnes and Noble ~ Applebooks 

Excerpt:

She stared at him. And stared. Until it became uncomfortable.

So he stood and started to pack up his things, but she glared at him and pointed to his seat.

“Sit.” He did. Who could disobey a tone like that? “You can’t kill?” she asked incredulously. “You only recently came out of being feral, correct?” He nodded. “And you can’t kill? Human blood doesn’t send you into a rage. You refused to drink from the goblet at the service.”

“Have you been spying on me?”

She ignored his comment, and her mouth puckered slightly as if in deep concentration. He couldn’t help but stare. He’d never seen her do it before. Another endearing quality he added to the lengthy list of what made Laurel Covaci absolutely perfect.

“I have searched high and low, but I simply cannot find any answers to this particular conundrum,” she finally said. Heat rose to his ears. She’d been thinking about him?

He grinned. “Well, well, Lady Covaci. I didn’t realize I was filling up your thoughts.”

She blushed prettily, and he almost expected her to get up from the table and leave, regretting she even sat down in the first place. But she stayed put. In fact, she stared right back as if challenging him. He enjoyed the eye contact. Her eyes were so blue. So beautiful. They took him back to green fields of his childhood, of staring back at the blue sky as clouds lazily drifted past.

About the Author:

Sydney Winward was born with an artistic brain and a love of discovery for new talents. From drawing to sewing to music, she has loved to explore every opportunity that comes her way. At a young age, Sydney discovered her love of writing, and she hasn’t been able to stop writing since. Her active imagination and artistic mind take her away to different worlds and time periods, making every new story a fantastic adventure. When she is not writing (or fawning over animals in the neighborhood) she spends time with her husband and children at home in Utah.

Social Media Links:

Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Goodreads ~ Amazon Author Page ~ Instagram

#GuestPost - "Mail Order Beatrice" by Caroline Clemmons

Writing In A Multi-Author Project (MAP)

The past few years I have found writing in multi-author projects entertaining and successful. I’m referring to independently published works and not those like, for instance, Harlequin. In the event you’re not familiar with how a MAP functions, I’ll explain.

The MAP creator comes up with the premise which may or may not involve the location. For instance, each of the Matchmaker’s Ball series takes place in Creede, Colorado. On the other hand, the Pinkerton Matchmaker Series has the couple marrying in Denver, Colorado, but may then involve any location (usually west of the Mississippi). One of my favorite of those I’ve written this year, STUART, Bachelors and Babies Series, involves a bachelor who somehow becomes in charge of a baby under two. My latest two releases, MAIL-ORDER VICTORIA and MAIL-ORDER BEATRICE, are part of the Widows, Brides, and Secret Babies series. Both involve a baby that is a surprise to the groom when he meets his bride’s train or stage. (Victoria’s groom had surprises for her, too.)

The length is also a variable set by the series organizer. They may be as short as a 20,000 word story or as long as a 55,000 book. Occasionally one might see a longer MAP, but those are rare.

If readers like the premise, hopefully they will want to read the entire series. If they do, an author can gain new fans. All authors want more of those!

Truthfully, creating a book to someone else’s specifications is a little more difficult. I find the most difficult are the Pinkerton Matchmaker Series books because they involve (1) a mystery and (2) it takes place somewhere new and/or involves a new skill that involves research. I love research but tend to fall down rabbit holes when I start studying a subject—i.e. time drain.

The ease or difficulty can be as simple as how well the creator has planned and explained the parameters. If she constantly makes changes or additions, authors can waste a lot of writing time redoing an outline or even a manuscript. Experienced creators know to have this all set in guidelines BEFORE anyone starts writing.

Now you know all the things to appreciate the next time you read a multi-author project title. I hope this helps authors decide whether or not to join a multi-author project. 

MAIL-ORDER BEATRICE

Widows, Brides, and Secret Babies Series book 10

by

Caroline Clemmons

Historical western romance, sweet

ABOUT THE BOOK

Beatrice “Attie” Kendall has to escape from home with her six-week-old son. With the limited financial help of her kind brother, she goes to Atlanta where she consults a matchmaker. After the hard life Attie’s been dealt for her twenty years, she’ll finally have a good home with nice people and a friend nearby. In fact, her husband and their home seem too good to be true. Does she dare trust that her life has really changed?

Tate Merritt isn’t ready to get married but he gives in to his grandfather’s coercing. Grandpa raised him and Tate tries to please the older man. Tate doesn’t know what to think about this mail-order bride. She isn’t at all the wife he imagined—plus, she showed up with a baby! The child’s a cute little thing but Tate isn’t sure how he feels about her surprising him. How can he trust a woman whose story keeps changing?

Life presents obstacles to further complicate Attie and Tate’s marriage. They’ll have to work together to solve their problems and protect their family. Can they trust one another enough to make this marriage work?

Universal Amazon Link https://mybook.to/Attie

Amazon Link https://www.amazon.com/Beatrice-Widows-Brides-Secret-Babies-ebook/dp/B08711J8TJ/

ENJOY AN EXCERPT OF THEIR FIRST MEETING

Here’s an excerpt of when they meet:

Tate’s misgivings grew as the stage came closer. By the time the vehicle stopped in front of them, he was ready to turn tail and run for home. He’d given his word, though, and he never broke his word. That meant he’d stand here and look halfway pleased his bride had arrived—if she had.

First person off the stage was a pretty brunette. She turned back and took a basket from inside the stage and held it while a beautiful blonde stepped out. The blonde took the basket and hugged the brunette.

Reg walked up to the brunette. “You must be Hannah. I’m Reggie.” They walked off to where his parents stood.

Grandpa nudged him. “Son, are you nailed to the boardwalk?”

He came out of his reverie and walked to the blonde. She was a pretty woman and had a real sweet expression on her face.

“I’m Tate Merritt. Are you Beatrice Bishop?”

“I am. My friends call me Attie, but whichever you please is fine.”

“Shall I take the basket?”

“If you don’t mind.” She handed it to him and removed the cloth she had covering the basket.

He glanced at the contents then stared. “It… It’s a baby. I didn’t know you were bringing a baby. Is this kid yours?”

Her chin came up. “His name is Wade. I’m a widow, you see, and Wade is my son.”

Grandpa had strolled over and peered at the basket’s contents. “Well, I’ll be if that isn’t a cute little sprout. Wade you say? Looks like a fine boy.”

Her face radiated such joy her beauty increased. “He is a very good boy. I’m fortunate to have him.”

She looked at Tate. “I didn’t have a chance to let you know I was bringing him but the matchmaker said from what your minister wrote that she was sure you’d not mind. Your preacher mentioned what a kind and loving family yours was.”

Grandpa stood there grinning like a fool which certainly was no help.

“You’re here so I suppose we’ll manage. We’re due at the church now. I’ll load your luggage if you’ll show me which is yours.”

Grandpa reached for the basket. “I’ll take charge of my great-grandson.”

Muttering under his breath, Tate escorted his used bride to the pile of luggage the stage driver had set on the boardwalk.

Attie reached for a carpetbag. “This and that small trunk there. The brown one.”

“That’s all?”

“It is.” She raised her chin again—defiantly, he thought, but he supposed it could have been the difference in their height.

He gauged her size and judged her to be about six or seven inches over five feet. Her eyes were the brightest blue he’d ever seen. In addition to being wrinkled from the trip, her dress was plain and frayed at the cuffs and the hem.

Reg and his father loaded a large trunk and valise onto their wagon.

Reg laughed. “Funny our mail-order brides being friends, isn’t it? Guess you’re going to the church next so we’ll see you there.”

“You know Mr. Spencer?” His used bride touched his arm and appeared excited. “Why, that’s wonderful. Hannah and I are good friends. I hope we can visit them sometimes.”

He hefted her trunk and a heavy carpetbag. “Sure I know him. Guess I know about everyone in this county and the next. There aren’t that many of us.”

She kept step with him. “I get the feeling you’re not happy about the baby and me being a widow instead of never wed. I can understand that but I hope you won’t send me back.”

He stopped and looked at her. “Attie, I’m not sending you back. I can’t help being a little upset because I didn’t know you had a baby or that you were a widow.”

He started walking again. “I had this picture in my head. Give me a little time to get my mind changed around to the real you.”

ABOUT CAROLINE CLEMMONS

 
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 two rescued indoor cats and dog as well as providing nourishment for outdoor critters.

The books she creates in her pink cave have made her a bestselling author and won 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. Find her on her blog, website, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and Pinterest.

Join her and other readers at Caroline’s Cuties, a Facebook readers group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/277082053015947/ for special excerpts, exchanging ideas, contests, giveaways, recipes, and talking to like-minded people about books and other fun things.

Click on her Amazon Author Page for a complete list of her books and follow her there.

Follow her on BookBub.

To stay up-to-date with her releases and contests, subscribe to Caroline’s newsletter here and receive a FREE novella of HAPPY IS THE BRIDE, a humorous historical wedding disaster that ends happily—but you knew it would, didn’t you?

#GuestPost - 5 things about "Vanilla with a Twist" by Peggy Jaeger

A note from Peggy Jaeger...

My newest novella, VANILLA WITH A TWIST, is part of the One Scoop or Two summer series from the Wild Rose Press. All the books in the series have a few commonalities: all revolve around ice cream in some form, all are summer settings, and all are under 35,000 words.

5 things special to my book, in addition to the above requirements, are:

• It’s set in the fictional seacoast town of Beacher’s Cove, New Hampshire. New Hampshire only boasts about 17 miles of oceanfront, and I didn’t want to set the story in a town that’s real because I wanted to be able to manipulate the area, stores, and boardwalk to make it my own creation.
• The heroine, Tandy Blakemore, is the owner of VANILLA WITH A TWIST, a boardwalk ice cream parlor. Tandy grew up on the family’s dairy farm and learned to make fresh ice cream from her grandmother, using the milk and cream from the farm’s cows.
• I gave Tandy very geographic-specific phrases to use when she’s upset or frustrated. Since this is a sweet romance, Tandy couldn’t swear. When she needs to explode, she uses phrases like Jeezeumcrow and Chips on a cracker to express her frustration and displeasure, instead of more colorful and bawdy language.
• It’s a sweet romance about 2 people who weren’t looking for the other but found them, anyway. I love a story where the hero and heroine don’t think anything needs to change in their lives, and then they meet someone and come to the realization that this person is exactly what’s missing from them living their best life! Love that.
• The effects of a teenaged mother who lives in a small town are explored. Tandy was a 16 year old when she got pregnant. The father was an 18 year old itinerant worker who never even knew he’d impregnated her. Living in such an insular, small community where everyone knows everyone else’s business was hard on Tandy. But she survived the scandal and became a well respected business owner in her hometown.

By Peggy Jaeger

Release date 5.20.2020

Format: ebook only

Sweet Romance

Contemporary romance

Smalltown romance

Blurb

Tandy Blakemore spends her days running her New England ice cream parlor, single-parenting her teenage son, and trying to keep her head above financial water. No easy feat when the shop's machinery is aging and her son is thinking about college. Tandy hasn't had a day off in a decade and wonders if she'll ever be able to live a worry-free life.

Engineer Deacon Withers is on an enforced vacation in the tiny seaside town of Beacher's Cove. Overworked, stressed, and lonely, he walks into Tandy's shop for a midday ice cream cone and gets embroiled in helping her fix a broken piece of equipment.

Can the budding friendship that follows lead to something everlasting?

Buy Links

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0868XXYQC

Nook https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/vanilla-with-a-twist-peggy-jaeger/1136710329?ean=2940162687870

Applebooks https://books.apple.com/us/book/vanilla-with-a-twist/id1505095515

Excerpt 

“Nope. Proprietary is my middle name.”


He laughed. “Mine’s Basil.”


She tilted her head. “Your initials are D.B.W, like in dubyuh?”


His wince was as charming as his smile. “I know, pretty awful, right? In school, I was called D.B., which is even worse.”

“What do you like to be called? Deacon? Deke?”

“Deacon’s fine. Is Tandy short for anything?”

“Nope. It’s actually a mistake.”


“How so?”

“The nurse at the hospital who filled out my birth forms had a bit of a hearing problem.” She rolled her eyes at the story her brothers loved teasing her with.

“My mother wanted to name me Sandra after her own mother, and then call me Sandy to distinguish the two of us. The nurse heard it as ‘Tandy’ and recorded it as such. My father found it hysterical, so the name stuck. It’s kind of unusual, so...” She lifted a hand in a there- you-go gesture.

He flicked her a lopsided grin again. “It is, but lovely, too.”

Heat flew up her neck and sprinted to her cheeks.

“One of my partners says he doesn’t care what you call him, but don’t ever call him late for lunch.” He shook his head and forked in a chunk of his lobster. When, a half second later, he sat back and closed his eyes, a tiny moan blowing through his lips, she knew he was having a moment.

“Good God, this is even better than advertised.”

“Yup,” she said.
Deacon opened his eyes again and focused on her face.


“This is another of those recipes Ricky refuses to share,” she told him.


“That’s too bad, because this”—he lifted his filled fork—“is something I’d love to reproduce when I’m back home.”

“Where’s home? I don’t mean to be nosy, but you sound like you’re from the East Coast, only...not.”

“You’re not being nosy. We’re sitting, enjoying a meal, and getting to know one another.” He took a sip from his own water bottle as his gaze held hers. “I grew up in Rhode Island, but for the past fifteen years, I’ve lived in New York. Manhattan.”

“I’ve never been.”

“To the city?”

She shrugged and popped in another knot. “To New York.”

His eyebrows rose again.

“I’m the poster child for small-town girl. Born, bred, lives, and will die here. I’ve only been out of New Hampshire once, in middle school, for an all-states band contest.”

“Where’d you go?”


“Boston.”


One corner of his mouth twitched. “Not exactly international travel.”


“Nope. Took a school bus. Competed. Lost. Came home. Didn’t even have time for any sightseeing.”

“Now, that’s a shame. Boston’s a great town. I have an off-site office there, and I usually go up once a week on business.”


“What do you do? If I had to guess, I’d think something in”—she tilted her head again as she regarded him—“finance. You look...I don’t know.” A quick lift of her shoulder and then she said, “Successful.”

His laugh was swift, open, and free, and she felt it all the way to her toes.

“You make it sound like a curse.”

“I don’t mean to, sorry. It’s been...a while since I’ve been able to sit and chat. Running the shop is a twenty-four-seven life in the summer months, and it doesn’t give me time for other things. Like making small talk.” She glanced out at the water.

He was quiet for a moment, studying her, while she tried to hide the heat slipping up her neck again from her confession by dipping her chin.

“I can understand that. My business occupies my life twenty-four-seven, too.”

“And yet you’re here, on vacation, so you’re able to take some time away from it.”

This time his laugh held a darker, strained note.

He shook his head and dropped his gaze to the water bottle in his hands. “This isn’t exactly a vacation,” he told her. “Not in the true sense.”

“A vacation’s a vacation in my book.”

“In mine, too. Usually. But I didn’t plan to take these three weeks away. I was, well, the best word is coerced.”

Author Bio

Peggy Jaeger is a contemporary romance writer who writes Romantic Comedies about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them. If she can make you cry on one page and bring you out of tears rolling with laughter the next, she’s done her job as a writer!

Family and food play huge roles in Peggy’s stories because she believes there is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving, she brings all topics of daily life into her stories: life, death, sibling rivalry, illness and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents she longed for sisters, brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their way. Through her books, she’s created the families she wanted as that lonely child.

When she’s not writing Peggy is usually painting, crafting, scrapbooking or decoupaging old steamer trunks she finds at rummage stores and garage sales.

A lifelong and avid romance reader and writer, Peggy is a member of RWA and her local New Hampshire RWA Chapter.

As a lifelong diarist, she caught the blogging bug early on, and you can visit her at peggyjaeger.com where she blogs daily about life, writing, and stuff that makes her go "What??!"

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