It’s been eight months since my last post, and while I occasionally show up online, you’ve probably figured out by now I’ve pretty much retreated from blogging. That doesn’t mean I’ve retreated from writing, hence my newest release, book two of my Shallow Draw Series. Hopefully, I’ve still got a fan or two interested in checking out my latest venture into the Old West of the early 1870s. There’s plenty of mystery and suspense this time around, along with a smidgen of romance. If you enjoy books about characters who get second chances at making things right, I think you’ll like The Gilded Thespian Show.
BOOK BLURB:
Renowned actress Wisteria Westlake has performed on the grandest stages, but nothing prepares her for Shallow Draw, a place she hoped never to see. Not while Asher Cade, the rancher she once promised to marry, calls it home.
When The Gilded Thespian Show’s owner lies about the reason for their stay in the dust-choked little town, his deception prompts vicious arguments and hostile feelings. As tensions rise among the troupe, a local hothead causes trouble and a mysterious stranger sparks fears of violence. Then the unthinkable happens—one of Wisteria’s companions is brutally attacked and left for dead.
Asher Cade has tried to forget Wisteria. The best way to guard against further pain is to avoid her altogether, but suddenly she needs protecting. To keep her safe, Asher must find a killer. Before he’s finished, his hunt will unearth secrets from Wisteria’s past and expose deep wounds within The Gilded Thespian Show.
Because in Shallow Draw, some stories don’t end when the curtain falls.
I hope everyone is doing well. Life certainly throws changes at us as we age. I’m keeping busy with many interests, but reading and writing remains foremost among them.
Although my blogging days have faded into the rearview, I do release a regular monthly newsletter sharing whatever I happen to be involved in that month and showcasing new releases by my author friends. If you’d like to keep up with me, I’d love to have you subscribe! Just click the link below!
Hey, if you’re reading this, I owe you a big THANK YOU! It’s been over a year since I’ve posted anything on my blog, so if I’m still on your radar, I appreciate YOU!
Retirement has been good to me and has kept me busy. I’ve been doing a lot of volunteering with my church, and spending other days enjoying the freedom retirement brings. That includes day trips, shopping, movies, house projects, and meeting up with friends. Surprisingly, I have done very little writing—at least that was true for the first fourteen months or so.
Then the itch struck.
Not in a way I would have expected. Characters from an old trunk novel popped into my head one day and refused to depart. It took a week of them clamoring for attention before I finally hauled out my old book and tried to refamiliarize myself with the plot. Part of the story was in hardcopy and parts piecemealed on my computer. In other words—a major mess.
Plus, the writing was terrible. UGH! POV shifts pinging all over the place, telling instead of showing, flat dialogue, and inane descriptions. I consoled myself with the knowledge I’d written the thing (then called Storm Front) in the 1990s. It needed a MASSIVE overhaul, but the characters were insistent, and at least I had a springboard from which to work. I ended up rewriting the thing from scratch and changing chunks of the plot along the way. Finally, with the help of my two critique partners, I wrangled it into shape.
Note the word “wrangle?”
The genre might surprise you. Back in the ‘90s, I wrote a lot of westerns. Most were short stories, but Storm Front was a full-length novel. First up, the story needed a title change, hence The Diamond Jack was born.
The book is part family drama and part clean romance. Yeah, I know—different from my usual cryptids and mysteries. I’ll be writing more mysteries in the future (I’m currently sitting on one that’s over halfway done, and another that’s fully complete), but for now, my western story needed to be told.
The Diamond Jack is up for pre-order if you’re interested. I’m not doing any promo on the book, just an announcement here, in my newsletter, and a Book Bub Pre-Order Alert. I’ve lost the motivation for promotion, but I haven’t lost the desire to write.
It would be nice to get back to the days of one release a year. Autumn is almost here, which is when I tend to write more. There are stories in my head that still need to be told. In the meantime, if westerns spark your fancy, this is the blurb for The Diamond Jack.
An older woman. A younger man. A secret entwining numerous lives…
Leah Holt never planned on starting over at the age of thirty-three, but when a marriage of convenience ends in widowhood, she accepts her brother’s invitation to move west and assumes the position of schoolteacher in the small town of Shallow Draw.
Shey Lafferty, son of the area’s wealthiest rancher, is still adjusting to his pa’s marriage to a much younger woman when he encounters Leah—eight years his elder. Used to frivolous affairs, he finds himself drawn to the comelyEasterner. After a shady drifter accosts her, his desire to protect and care for her intensifies and he makes her safety his mission.
Monk Sunday’s attack on Leah is an unfortunate coincidence. His arrival in Shallow Draw is not. The lout has mysterious ties to Shey’s new stepmother and her young son—ties that draw Shey into a dangerous game of vengeance and retribution. Only by unearthing a secret buried decades earlier can Shey hope to overcome Sunday’s treachery and save those he loves—including the charmingschoolteacher who has stolen his heart.
Thanks again, if you’re reading this. Even more if you’re interested in the book. The Diamond Jack is exclusive to Amazon.
Since I’ve been AWOL for so long, I’ve closed comments. A big hug and blessings to all! May the muse gift you with many ideas and words if you’re a writer—and happy reading, as always!
Hello, and happy Thursday! Today, I am delighted to share a new release from friend and Story Empire colleague Harmony Kent. In addition to being a first-rate novelist, Harmony is also a gifted author of poetry. She’s here with her latest release, Sorrowful Soul, volume three of her Soul Poetry series. I’ve read all three volumes and highly recommend them. Look for my 5-Star review at the end of this post.
About the Book:
If we’re lucky, we meet twilight at the front door and old age creeps in on the night breeze.
Even if we make it to our twilight years, the more we age, the more loss we must endure as part of the cycle of life. Many of these poems lament death, but they also relate to broken relationships, severed friendships, and the loss of youth. This book of grief poetry is as much about saying goodbye and working through loss as it is about death and love split asunder.
This heartfelt collection provides company and compassion through the devastating journey of loss and shows us we do not travel this lonely road alone. Within these pages we share shock, numbness and denial, catapult into anger, bargaining, depression, loneliness, and guilt, and—eventually—make the seismic shift into testing the possibility of a new normal and finding acceptance.
Here’s a little bit I’d love to share about my latest book of poetry, Sorrowful Soul. Full of freestyle poems, which provide company and compassion through the devastating journey of grief and loss and onward, this heartfelt collection shows us we do not travel this lonely road alone.
Since Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s excellent book on the stages of grief, we now have an established set of seven stages to the grieving process. Although these stages are non-linear and can be revisited at any time, it’s helpful to have a rough idea of what we might expect during this difficult period of transition. The third stage is commonly known as Guilt.
Here’s an extract from the opening lines of a poem about blame …
From Part 3: Guilt
(From Broken Blossom)
All petals wilt
When torn
From the soil
Too much guilt
Can’t be borne
Like water and oil
Atop the stagnant silt
Of blame and scorn
If you’ve ever felt trapped beneath the crushing weight guilt and remorse, how did you work your way through? Chat with me in the comments. I hope you enjoyed this poetic excerpt and would love to know what you think. Thanks for reading 😊
AUTHOR BIO: Harmony Kent spent 13 years in a Zen Buddhist monastery, where she faced her demons and overcame devastating low self-esteem and found freedom. After a life-changing injury, Harmony returned to the world at the tender age of 40, and her life as a writer began.
Harmony is an award winning multi-genre author, and her publications include:
The Battle for Brisingamen (Fantasy Fiction) AIA approved
The Glade (Mystery/Thriller) AIA Approved/BRAG Medallion Honouree/New Apple Literary Awards Official Selection Honours 2015
Polish Your Prose: Essential Editing Tips for Authors (Writing/Editing) New Apple Literary Awards Top Medallist Honours 2015
As well as being an avid reader and writer, Harmony also offers reviews and supports her fellow authors. Harmony is always on the lookout for talent and excellence, and will freely promote any authors or books who she feels have these attributes.
If you’re not already intrigued by this heartfelt book, I offer my five-star review of this as further recommendation:
In book three of the Soul Poetry series, author Harmony Kent tackles a challenging subject—grief. I’ll be the first to admit that some of the passages are difficult to read, but each and every one resonates with heart. Often that heart is shattered, struggling to heal, always laid bare. The author divided her free verse selections into various stages we experience when confronting loss and grief:
Shock and Disbelief Denial Guilt Anger and Bargaining Depression, Loneliness and Reflection Working Through Acceptance
This allows the reader to peruse the emotion that speaks loudest to them at a particular moment. Each section had specific poems that stood out for me. I was drawn to The Lie of the Night, The Waiting Place, Circles, Triggers, Night Train, Christmas Cheer, and Seasons.
But I have to make special mention of No Words (under Anger and Bargaining) and Winter of Discontent (under Depression, Loneliness, and Reflection). The imagery and the flow in the latter is particularly stunning as evidenced by this short glimpse:
But, perhaps, in embracing the abyss, I’ll find you where the molten sun blurs the horizon of night and day I’ll tear that unforgiving veil asunder.
I recommend all three volumes in the Soul Poetry series for a journey through life, loss, and healing.
Thank you for visiting today. I hope you’ll take a moment to congratulate Harmony and drop a comment below. After you’re through, don’t forget to grab your own copy of Sorrowful Soul. Just follow this link . . .
Thank you to all the wonderful bloggers who hosted me and Staci Troilo during our blog tour for The Haunting of Chatham Hollow. I know I can speak for both of us when I say we had a blast making the rounds. If you missed any of the posts and would like to check them out, these links will get you to your destination:
Thank you also to everyone who visited and commented. We hope you enjoyed following the tour and meeting our characters. It was so much fun introducing them.
Finally, thank you to everyone who purchased a copy of Chatham, and to those of you who have posted reviews. We’re thrilled by the positive reviews and are delighted you enjoyed our story.
With our utmost appreciation and gratitude—thank you, all!
Happy Thursday! It’s the next-to-last day of The Haunting of Chatham Hollow blog tour for this week (you can find Staci and me at Sally Cronin’s fabulous blog on Saturday). Thank you to everyone who has stuck with the tour, left comments, and shared your thoughts. Staci and I both appreciate your awesome support!
For my final stop, I’ll be visiting D. L. Finn, a wonderful friend and Story Empire colleague with a perpetually sunny disposition and a whimsical outlook on life. I love that she has never lost her magical sense of childhood, an outlook reflected in her writing. She’s a diverse author with a collection that spans novels to short stories, poetry, and children’s books.
Her most recent release, A Voice in the Silence is both suspenseful and highly imaginative. I loved the characters—including the four-legged ones! You can find all of Denise’s releases on her Amazon Author Page.
When you’ve finished browsing, I hope you’ll join me on her blog where I’ll be introducing my final character, and lead protagonist, Victor Rowe. By this point—if you’ve been following along on the tour—you’ve heard a lot about him!
Comments are closed on this post, but I hope you’ll join me THERE.
Happy Hump Day! Thanks for joining Staci Troilo and me as we wind down our tour for The Haunting of Chatham Hollow. After today, only one two stops remain, but Staci and I have saved two highly intriguing characters for last.
Staci is visiting John W. Howell, a highly supportive blogger, friend, and Story Empire colleague. John is a wonderful storyteller with a body of work that ranges from action thrillers—the John Cannon series—to paranormal suspense as evident in Eternal Road. I recommend them all and am eagerly awaiting the follow-up to Eternal Road. To browse John’s collection of novels, visit his Amazon Author Page.
After you’ve had a look-see, be sure to pop over to John’s blog where Staci will be introducing Rebekah Fetzinger, head of the Chamber of Commerce in Chatham Hollow. This is one lady you don’t want to miss—and should be very careful to cross paths with!
Comments are closed on this post, but you can join in the fun HERE.
Happy Thursday! Today is the last stop this week for The Haunting of Chatham Hollow blog tour. Today, I’d like to introduce you to a particularly chameleon-like character. If you’ve been following the tour, you’ve heard the name Benedict Fletcher creep up more than once.
Today, Benedict makes an appearance at Craig Boyack’s blog.
Craig is one of my oldest online friends. Story Empire initially grew from Craig and I discussing Halloween promo for our book releases way back in the day. We roped Staci Troilo and Harmony Kent into the discussion, and the rest, as they say, is history!
Craig keeps things imaginative and lively at SE, as well as in his work. He’s known for a vivid imagination with genres that cross speculative fiction, cyberpunk, science-fiction, fantasy and all things odd. He’s the author of the ongoing Lizzie and the Hat Series but you can discover all his work on his Amazon Author Page. Take some time and browse his release. I guarantee they’re colorful and entertaining (my favorite is Grinders).
When you’re through browsing, join me at Craig’s place, where my shifty spiritualist, Benedict Fletcher sits down to chat with another medium. Comments are closed on this post, but I hope to see you THERE.
Hello, friends, and thank you for joining me on the short blog tour Staci Troilo and I are rolling out for our co-authored release, The Haunting of Chatham Hollow. We’ve been taking turns introducing various characters, and today I’m up!
I’ll be visiting Story Empire colleague and friend, Gwen Plano. I am so thankful to know Gwen, one of the kindest and most respectful people you’re likely to meet online. In addition to being a sweetheart of a person, she’s also a talented author of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.
I’ve been swept away by both her memoir (written as Gwendolyn M. Plano) and her fictional series, the latest entry being The Culmination which I found particularly strong. The entire series can be found on her Amazon Author Page.
After you’ve had a look-see at Gwen’s titles, hop over and join us on her blog where I’ll be introducing the second set of sisters who factor into my 1888 timeline in The Haunting of Chatham Hollow.
Comments are closed on this post, but I hope to see you THERE.
It’s day four of The Haunting of Chatham Hollow book tour! Thank you for visiting with me and Staci during our short tour for our co-authored release. We’re highly chuffed (“chuffed” in honor of our Brit friend, Harmony Kent) about this book and excited that Harmony is hosting today.
Harmony is a brilliant multi-genre author, with a wonderful sense of humor. She’s also one of the founding members of Story Empire. Her most recent release, Life & Soul: Book 2 in the Soul Poetry Series is an exquisite and reflective collection that I highly recommend.
I’ve read numerous releases by Harmony, all of which you can find on her Amazon Author Page. Be sure to browse her many titles which span the gamut from fiction and non-fiction, to short stories, poetry, and novels. When you’re through, be sure to visit Staci and Harmony as Staci introduces her female protagonist Greer Faraday, editor of the Chatham Hollow Chronicle.
Comments are closed on this post, but you can join in the fun HERE.
Happy Monday! It’s a new week which promises to be a busy one for the short tour Staci Troilo and I are unrolling for our new release, The Haunting of Chatham Hollow.
Today, I’m visiting Story Empire colleague and amazingly talented author, Beem Weeks. If you’re unfamiliar with Beem’s work, I suggest correcting that oversight post-haste. Beem is a literary story-teller who excels at character voice and narrative. Whether writing short fiction or novel length, he’s guaranteed to keep you flipping pages. Having read all his short story collections, and his novel, Jazz Baby, I can easily vouch for that!
You can find all of Beem’s work on his Amazon Author Page. After you’ve had a good browse, hop over to join us on Beem’s blog, where I’ll be introducing a pair of sisters who don’t always see eye to eye.
Comments are closed on this post, but I hope to see you THERE.
From the Pen of Mae Clair 