Debra Doggett with her new Wild Rose Press release…
Blurb:
Rose DeSalvo has had better days. Not many but a few. Especially since she left her cheating husband Eddie behind. But Eddie has turned up again to wreck havoc in her life. This time, though, he’s buried among her prize roses. Rose knows she’s got to find out who killed Eddie and get him back to the scene of the crime before she can be accused of his murder. That’s the reason she suddenly finds herself with a dangerously hot necromancer, a zombie ex-husband and a wild assortment of people who seem to know far more about her than she does about them. If she could only get them to tell her what she needs to know before she runs out of time, she just might uncover not only Eddie’s murderer but her own destiny.
Excerpt:
There was something about the etched design in the faded cowhide, sort of a scripted “E” all fancied up, that looked all too familiar.
“Hey, those are Eddie’s boots. Whoa!” With the aid of the side of the house, Leon got to his feet and peered at me with bloodshot eyes.
“What?” I kicked at the dirt with my slipper, trying to push enough of it aside to get a better view.
“You bumped him off.”
“What are you babbling about?” Ishined the light around the edge of the hole Leon had dug. They really did look like Eddie’s boots. Please, please, please, don’t let the rest of him be in them.
“You bumped Eddie off, didn’t you?”
Leon staggered against me, giving me a good whiff of his breath. I wondered if you could get drunk from secondhand alcohol. Right now I could really use a stiff drink. I gripped his arm to keep him still. His wavering combined with his breath nauseated me. He peered into my eyes then looked back down at the ground.
“I mean, you always said you wanted to but I never really thought you would.” His voice held the kind of awe he usually reserved for major sports events and winners of monster truck rallies. It was the most respect he’d ever given my work.
I shook my head and hissed at him. “I did not bump Eddie off. You don’t know this is Eddie. It could be a total stranger.”
“You bumped off a total stranger?” The awe factor faltered a bit, replaced by a note of fear.
Are there any tricks or habits you use when creating a story?
I start with scenes that come to me. As they come I collect them and when I feel I have enough to do a rough outline I will make one. Then I work on creating more scenes. It’s the scenes that let me know the characters and how they behave.
What book have you read that you wish you would have written?
It’s called Let’s Pretend This Never Happened and it’s by Jenny Lawson. It’s sort of a memoir and it’s hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time. It’s not so much that I wish I had written that particular book as I would love to reach the point where I can be that honest in my writing.
Do you have another occupation, other than writer? If so, what is it and how do you like it?
I teach pre-school and most days it’s a lot of fun. Some days I’m crying with the kids, lol.
What do you dislike that most people wouldn’t understand?
The Wizard of Oz. I bet I’ve watched that movie fifty times because my mom loved it. I can’t stand it to this day.
What’s the main thing that you could get rid of in your life that would give you more writing time?
The need for another job to pay the bills. I would love to simply wander and write all day.
What genre have you never written that you’d like to write?
Straight historical fiction. I’d love to have the time to research a story like that and write it.
What is your favorite…
Movie: any with Russell Crowe in it
Music: Celtic music
Place you’ve visited:Avsbury, England
Place you’d like to visit:China
TV show from childhood: Gilligan’s Island
TV show from adulthood:Outlander
Food:omelets
Sports team:I wouldn’t even know any to pick
Which do you prefer: Board games/card games or television?: board games
Thank you for joining me today, Debra! Gilligan’s Island was one of my favorite childhood shows too. 🙂
And now, Deb would like to ask readers a question…
What is it that makes a story stay in your head (and your heart)?
Debra Doggett bio
I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. Being a writer is more than something I do. It is the way I see the world, the way I process it. I believe in the power of stories. They make us smile, make us think and give us untold moments of enjoyment. My stories come from the landscape around me and the worlds I build in my head. I am proud to be a storyteller, and I hope my work leaves you both satisfied and entertained.
Girl Code blurb: Four best friends struggle with decisions that affect their lives, their hearts, and their futures. As sisters, they embrace the Girl Code. HOPE Josephine “Joey” Lockhart escapes her past, herself and her home town of Pearl, Ohio to Florida after high school. Years later, she meets a man that refuses to let her hide behind her camera lens and encourages her out of her shell. Will he be the one to push her to feel for the first time? LIVE After seven years in drug hell, detoxing Juliette “Juls” Carrington returns to her hometown Pearl to attend her grandmother’s burial. Once more rejected by her family, she has a swim in a pond nearby when a mysterious camper, an ex-drunk, coaxes her to come to his hut in the woods. Together they must fight their inner demons for a chance to love…and live. FAITH Selena Bodine escaped into the United States Air Force to leave behind a painful past and the one man who she refused to let herself love. Years later, an urgent call from her father brings her back to Pearl, Ohio and face to face with the man she still loves. But will the secret that Cullen is investigating her threaten their second chance? PERSISTENCE Laydi Michaels has been running away from her past and bad memories for years. Finding herself wasn’t an easy task, but she’s managed to finally get to a point to where she wants to be. Only to wake up married to her boss….who fired her the night before. Wrapped in a case that puts her life in danger, and dealing with a grave situation back home in Pearl, Laydi figures out she wasn’t close to finding herself, and now, she’s risked everything.
FAITH EXCERPT:
She closed her eyes and sucked in the indescribable ache hitting her ribs with a force of a jagged knife. Not only did she walk away from him, she crossed a line with her sisters. What must they think of her? “Thank you for the beer.” She set her bottle on the table and rose. He moved, blocking her path. “No,” he snapped. “You’re not walking away again.” She recoiled, gazed into the blue eyes she loved, and couldn’t stop the quiver in her chin. “I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you.” He brought her wrist up between them, and set her hand on his chest. “There’s nothing to be sorry for.” His words filled with such affection, such determination, tingles raced over her skin. “This is messed up,” she whispered, yet didn’t remove her hand. She couldn’t leave his comfort. Curling and uncurling her fingers, she spread her hand further to touch more of him. “I feel things that scare me. Remember things I didn’t know I did.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “We’ll take it slow,” he said and tucked his chin until her gaze settled on his. “Okay?” She nodded, and he pressed his mouth to hers in a feather-soft caress filled with gentleness and longing. His hand stayed against her lower back and the curve of her butt. Through her yoga pants, heat radiated from his fingers. She prayed he’d move them lower. As if he’d read her thoughts, he cupped a butt cheek and squeezed. His lips and tongue moved over hers like a fine-oiled machine, as if they’d kissed a hundred times. She snuggled into him further, melted into the contour of his body, his hard plains aligning with her perfectly. But she had to go. She needed time, distance, air. “I can’t.” A low growl vibrated from him. She placed a kiss on his neck and laid her head against him, absorbing his comfort and warmth. “The paper I gave you,” she said slowly, unsure exactly how she would proceed in bringing up what she’d done and the reason for it. “The sketch?” He lifted a brow, confusion and something else she couldn’t name stretching across his features, and placed a hand on his pocket. Her heart leapt so hard, she feared it would jump out of her chest, which made the raw emotions she faced harder. “It may look like lines, a drawing, but it’s more. It reveals what I want most from life.” The pain of sharing something so deep, so personal with someone was difficult, yet with him, it felt right. “Research it. At the time, I couldn’t give any more,” she whispered next to his ear and kissed his cheek. Forcing a smile, she moved past him, down the steps, and headed home.
Author bios and contacts:
Cait Jarrod
“I write what I love to read – Romantic Suspense/Mystery- I love writing and creating the meet-cue (the point where the hero and heroine meet) to the blossoming of the romance. Add a suspenseful plot or a good mystery to the equation and the perfect book is born to curl up to and lose yourself in, taking you away from reality, troubles.”
As a child, I entertained myself for hours playing pretend, but not with dolls and such. I created stories and pictured them in my mind, sometimes even acted them out, my well preserved secret until now. I spent years after leaving school trying to figure out my niche. Not being a literary enthusiast, I never thought my childhood pastime would lead in this direction.
In life, one door closes and another opens, so I’m told. This was true for me. I lost my mother, my best friend, to cancer. After a year without her, I picked up her favorite hobby…reading. After one book, a romantic suspense, I was hooked. In the past, I’d fall asleep after a few minutes of reading. Now, books rank up there with a good red wine. It didn’t take long for my childhood muse to come back in adult version urging me to put the scenes in my head on paper.
I hope I have provided you with the escape similar to the ones I conjured in childhood and rediscovered as an adult, and I hope you enjoy reading my books as much as I have loved creating them.
Cait’s debut novel, Kidnapped Hearts won awards in the categories of Best Happily Ever After and Best Suspense. Cait lives in Virginia with her husband and three daughters.
D.C. Stone “I write romantic suspense because I can connect with it, and love the thrill of kicking ass and being sexy while you’re at it.”
D.C. Stone is an e-book author and full-time fraud investigator when she isn’t diving into the world of Fiction. After serving eight years of service with the United States Air Force, she went on to transition into the world of Financial Crimes and became a lead investigator for many years. When she isn’t trying to solve a new puzzle in the world of fraud, she is engulfed with coffee, her laptop, and all those crazy characters in her head. She is a member of the Romance Writers of America, New Jersey Romance Writers, Kiss of Death, and the Liberty State Fiction Writers. Come stop by on Facebook, Twitter or her website and say hello!
Jessica Jayne “My writing interests vary much like my reading interests. Though I mainly write romance type novels with a spicy twist, I have lived what some might call a suspenseful life. As a survivor of stalking and sexual assault, I learned the ins and outs of the legal system pretty quickly. It helped to precipitate my interest in getting my law degree… that and the fact that I grew up around attorneys. So adding suspense to my writing is no big surprise to me or anyone that knows me.”
I am a born and raised small town Ohio girl, who moved to the Sunshine State after graduating from college. I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English because I could not imagine doing anything else but reading and writing. It is such a pleasure to be able to share all the stories in my head!
In the journey of life, I got my law degree (and license) and also became a wife and a mother of three children. So, life is always an adventure.
I love to read and write… obviously! I’m a huge sports fan, especially college football and the Ohio State Buckeyes! Go Steelers! Go Rays! Go Lightning! I LOVE to travel… LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to travel. And I love sharing my love to travel with my children. Did I say I love to travel? I love to drink coffee in the morning and tea at night! I love a good glass of wine, especially if it comes from a bottle made by the FOOLS wine club… yep, I’m a founding member of that crazy group! 🙂 I love hanging out with my family and my friends! Music makes me happy. I’m a mix between country girl andcity chic. But I love nothing more than putting on my jean shorts, tank top, cowboy boots and hat and watching Tim McGraw or Eric Church belt it out! I’m a sucker for a cowboy hat! 🙂
Favorite quote: “If nothing ever changed, there would be no butterflies.”
Lea Bronsen “I love how well-chosen words can make your heart beat a little faster.”
Lea Bronsen likes her reads fast, hot, and edgy, and strives to give her own stories the same intensity. After venturing into dirty inner-city crime drama with her debut novel Wild Hearted, she divides her writing time between psychological thriller, romantic suspense, and erotic contemporary romance.
She is signed with Evernight Publishing, Decadent Publishing, and Insatiable Press.
Welcome today’s spotlight author, Katherine McDermott with her new release, a romantic suspense novel…HIDING.
LOVE the cover!
Blurb:
Teresa Worthington escapes her abusive boyfriend, Alex, and flees to Paris to pursue a dream career in art. Alone and wary of men, she gradually makes friends and explores her new home. She is distraught to learn that Alex is still stalking her but is determined to create the life she has always wanted. Handsome, compassionate, and brave, Serge Gervais, a young Frenchman, slowly wins her trust. He shows her the sights of France and promises to protect her from Alex. Teresa finds herself falling in love for the first time until the unspeakable happens. Alex tracks her down and forces her into the catacombs beneath the city. Will Serge find Teresa in time to prevent Alex’s vengeance?
A fun tidbit about the book from Katherine…
The heroine Teresa Worthington is a mural artist, a hobby that I also pursue. I had the greatest time creating the Beach Room at my house for my grandkids. It has the ocean, a palm tree, sand castle, seagulls, and leaping dolphins. The bedspread on the small bed is even a beach towel.
Katherine’s Favorite Line:
Alex illuminated the crypt with his light, and Teresa tried to interpret what she saw: uneven walls, a doorway surrounded by orbs, a floor littered with dried reeds. No, they weren’t reeds, they were bones. And the orbs were skulls! The Catacombs!
Hello and welcome! I’m so glad you’re all here! It’s my birthday weekend-oh, no, not sharing the number, lol—but, I will share my birthday gifts with you! For 3 days only, July 17-19, you can download Murphy’s Law for FREE from Amazon!!! Woot!
Happy Reading,
Jennifer
(Click on the cover to be taken to Amazon, where you can download the book for free!)
Murphy’s Law
Romantic Suspense
He lost his family. She gave them back to him.
Blurb:
Home is the last place Jon Murphy can go. After being held captive in Azbakastan, he returns to the States only to find he can’t face his mom and sisters with what he did while he was a prisoner, so he retreats to the mountains.
Widow Sara Sheldon has made a lifetime of mistakes and is now running scared from her husband’s powerful family, who are determined to take her daughter away from her. When her little girl goes missing in the Rockies, Sara enlists the only help she can find: a gruff recluse with tracking skills to admire and a body to covet.
A storm strands Sara and her daughter at Murphy’s cabin, leaving her no choice but to hope her in-laws don’t catch up while she plans where to run next. Murphy resents the invasion of his privacy, but can’t seem to keep his mind–or his hands–off Sara. How can she stand to look at him, with all his scars? He’s not nearly as honorable as she might think…only enough to make sure she’s safe, and then he’ll go back to being alone, the way he should be.
Content Warning: Sexual content
**Murphy’s Law: Previously published by Lyrical Press in 2013**
***Murphy’s Law was a 2006 Golden Heart Finalist***
Murphy sat at the kitchen table, half in the shadows created by the soft light glowing above the stove. A bottle of amber liquid sat on the table in front of him, an empty glass in his hand. His hair was tousled from sleep and to Sara’s dismay, he was naked to the waist. Her gaze landed on his muscled shoulders and trailed across his tanned chest. So much for getting him out of her mind. Now she had the real thing to dream about. Looking at the dark hairs that veed down his chest and disappeared behind the table, she decided he had been right. He was a dangerous man.
She tore her eyes away from temptation and looked at the granite lines of his face. Beneath the hardness of his expression, something haunting lingered. Drawn, she circled the table until she stood at the opposite end.
Murphy met her eyes with coldness that should have sent her running for the safety of her room, but she remained standing in place. He wanted to chase her away. This time she wasn’t running.
“Mind if I join you?” she asked on her way to the cupboard to grab a glass and return to stand over Murphy’s shoulder. She reached for the bottle. The muscles in his shoulders flexed when she leaned over him.
Murphy’s hand snaked out and wrapped around hers, preventing her from pouring a drink.
“I mind,” he growled.
“Well, get over it. I need a drink.”
Scowling, he let go of her hand and allowed her to pour a glass for herself. She refilled his glass next and set the bottle on the table. Then she moved to the chair beside him and sat before lifting her glass in a silent toast.
“Cheers.” She brought the glass to her lips. His eyes on her as she drained the glass made her fight the urge to cough as the fiery liquid burned its way down her throat. Seconds later she felt the familiar warming sensation as it numbed her insides. Her eyes filled with tears. She blinked them away as she reached for the bottle.
Murphy held it away from her. “What are you doing?”
“Having a drink. I’m not in the mood for warm milk tonight.”
His eyes darkened and narrowed. “You don’t strike me as the drinking type.”
She wasn’t, but tonight it sounded good. Maybe it would soothe away her problems and make her forget how screwed-upher life was. Talking about Kent earlier had brought back painful memories. She didn’t want to feel that misery anymore tonight.
“Maybe you don’t know my type,” she said.
Murphy studied her closely for a moment before rubbing a weary hand over his face. “Go back to bed, Sara. Sleep it off.”
“I don’t want to sleep it off. I’m tired of thinking about it.”
Maybe it was the whisky, or the sight of Murphy’s naked chest, or the part of her that had been dormant for six years coming back to life. More than anything she wanted to discover it with Murphy, her strong, scarred hero.
She rose to her feet. Murphy watched warily as she stepped in front of him and positioned herself between him and the table. He leaned back in his chair and sent her a thunderous look.
“You and I are alike in many ways, Murphy,” she said softly. “We both have lost pieces of ourselves we can’t ever get back and it has forced us into a life of loneliness and solitude. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being alone.”
Murphy pinned her with a hard glare. “I’m not what you want. Go back to your room before I do something we’ll both regret in the morning.”
His harshly spoken words sent little electrical shocks through her body.
“I’m tired of people telling me what I want,” she said.
Author Bio:
NY Times & USA Today bestselling author, Jennifer Lowery grew up reading romance novels in the back of her math book and on the bus to school, and never wanted to be anything but a writer. Her summers were spent sitting at the kitchen table with her sisters spinning tales of romance and intrigue and always with a tall glass of ice tea at their side.
Today, Jennifer is living that dream and she couldn’t be happier to share her passion with her readers. She loves everything there is about romance. Her stories feature alpha heroes who meet their match with strong, independent heroines. She believes that happily ever after is only the beginning of her stories. And the road to that happy ending is paved with action, adventure, and romance. As her characters find out when they face danger, overcome fears, and are forced to look deep within themselves to discover love.
Jennifer lives in Michigan with her husband and two children. When she isn’t writing she enjoys reading and spending time with her family.
This is what people are saying about Murphy’s Law:
I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Cindy Gerard, Tara Janzen, or Cherry Adair series. Each of these writers have the same flavor with a secret ingredient in their stories as does Jennifer Lowery. Great story! – hmhibbit, Open Book Society on Murphy’s Law
Please help me welcome my guest, Francis H. Powell:
Flight of destiny is a collection of short stories about misfortune. They are characterized by unexpected final twists, that come at the end of each tale. They are dark and surreal tales, set around the world, at different time periods. They show a world in which anything can happen. It is hard to determine reality and what is going on a disturbed mind. People’s conceptions about morality are turned upside down. A good person can be transformed by an unexpected event into a bad person and then back again to their former state. The high and mighty often deliver flawed arguments, those considered wicked make good representations of themselves. Revenge is often a subject explored.
And now, Francis is going to share a little about himself…
Where did you get the idea for Flight of Destiny?
The title flight of Destiny, seemed to go really well, with the theme running through my short stories, which often revolve around fate and misfortune.
Are there any tricks or habits you use when creating a story?
For me, it is fundamental that the first sentence in each story, starts dramatically and grabs the reader’s attention, for example my story Bugeyes begins with… Bug-eyes was due a life of toil. Seed begins with Captain Spender’s wife was ovulating. Cast from Hell begins with There it was: I was to be banished from hell. The ends have to have a dramatic twist, with events leading up to this.
What’s your favorite book of all time and why? What’s your favorite childhood book?
A book that has stayed with me since childhood is Kiss Kiss by Roald Dahl, it’s a book of short stories and has been a great influence on my book Flight of Destiny.
What do you want readers to come away with after they read Flight of Destiny?
I hope they will have been entertained, hooked on the stories right up to the last sentence.
What genre have you never written that you’d like to write?
Perhaps a historical novel.
If you were stranded on a deserted island and you could have 3 (inanimate) objects, what would they be?
A computer with wifi connection…(sorry that’s a bit sad)
A piano (I could spend my time teaching myself to play)
An enormous sketch book so I could draw and paint…
Your favorite…
Movie One flew over the cuckoo’s nest
MusicBitter sweet symphony by the Verve
Place you’ve visitedCornwall
Place you’d like to visitBali
TV show from childhoodDoctor Who
TV show from adulthoodMad Men
FoodThai
Sports teamChelsea FC
BIO
What better way to put all my angst into short stories. Born in a commuter belt city called Reading, like many a middle or upper class child of such times I was shunted off to an all-male boarding school aged eight, away from my parents for up to twelve weeks at a time, until I was 17. While at my first Art college, I met a writer called Rupert Thomson, who was in the process of writing his first book “Dreams of leaving”. His personality and wit resonated, long losing contact with him. Later I lived in Austria, in 1999 I moved to Paris. During my time in Paris I met Alan Clark, who had a literary magazine called Rat Mort (dead rat). I began contributing and got hooked on writing short stories. My book Flight of Destiny is a result of this obsession. I also write poetry.
Author Alicia Dean 